[ 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 801 through 850 of 1549.

MPEG stream: The Silver Lining
MPEG stream: The Ornament
MPEG stream: Endless Dope

Gold Panda's Lucky Shiner records was a unanimous store fave, and was probably one of thee best electronic records released last year. And unlike much of the dark droney electronic stuff we dig so much, Lucky Shiner was all playful and sunshiney, a dizzying deftly assembled sample heavy bliss out that slipped from propulsive and energetic to playful and funky, often in the same song, so it should come as no surprise that Gold Panda's mix for the esteemed DJ Kicks series follows a similarly playful path, opening up with a new GP track, the awesomely titled "An Iceberg Hurled Northward Through Clouds", which sounds like it could have come right off of Lucky Shiner, all stuttery beats and dreamy loops, truncated vocal samples and woozy sunshiney melodies, a little wistful, but warm and pretty much perfect, which leads right into the rest of the mix, featuring a handful of groups we love, but a whole bunch that were new to us, which is the ideal sort of mix, and it is a great mix, dancey and dreamy with a super laid back flow, more for sort of chilling out and wandering with headphones on than for the dancefloor. Some of our favorites: Closer Musik weaves a lush bit of house-y shuffle that's warm and washed out and super melodic, Jan Jelinek channels some Superfly funk through his fractured minimal filter and turns it into something more Raster-Noton, Matthewdavid unleashes some dense blissed out dubsteppy slo-mo kaleidoscopic funk, and Giuseppe Ielasi unfurls a thick warm crumblingly distorted swirl of Pop Ambient drift, there's more, but you get the drift. One of our favorite DJ Kicks for sure so far, and if you liked Lucky Shiner as much as us, then this one will probably hit the spot too!

MPEG stream: An Iceberg Hurled Northward Through Clouds
MPEG stream: Charisma Theme
MPEG stream: Uzi Mahmood
MPEG stream: Like You Mean It
MPEG stream: 2

All it took was about 30 seconds, and we knew this was probably gonna become out favorite new electronica record, heck, maybe just our favorite new record period. The best way we can think to describe Gold Panda is like a more lo-fi DIY version of The Field, if that makes any sense. Where The Field take samples, and loops and layers them, rendering them almost unrecognizable, and creating lush house-y soundscapes, Gold Panda does something quite similar, but without the goal of disguising the source or the samples, a vocal loop is chopped up and processed and woven into a stuttering melody, over a simple looped beat, and warm whirling melodies, that looped sample makes the whole thing sound so playful, and at least on the opener, "You", whose sample is the word 'you' chopped and looped, that melody ends up sounding strangely Indian, like some electro raga, although over the course of the track, the tone and timbre and pitch changes, so it slips from Oval like shimmer, to skittery faux Indian raga, to loping super melodic playful trip hop. And the whole record is like that, the construction of the tracks is obvious, the glitch and static and crackle and pop of the source records, are all part of the sound, the samples assembled to create rhythms, to fashion melodies, draped over whirring skeletal beats, woven into Philip Jeck like cracklescapes, gamelan like melodies are layered into a lush tangle of melodies and placed atop a sea of hiss and a spare stripped down beat, soft melodic swells are truncated and left to rise and fall, creating a woozy rhythm, the whole thing wrapped in playful chimes and clipped minimal beats, every track is playful and lovely and dreamy in its own way, not so dependent on the beat, as much as the arrangement of samples, which is inevitably perfect, and conjures up the perfect mood and atmosphere. There are some definitely oddballs, the two minutes of folky acoustic guitar on "Parents", that manages to be quite pretty and sweet on its own, and fit with the rest of the more sample heavy tracks pretty perfectly, there's also the buzzy sitar laced "India Lately", which does chop up Indian ragas, sitars and tablas, and weaves those parts into a gorgeously shoegazy stretch of pop ambience, and finally, the record finishes off by revisiting "You", this time with strings and chimes, and a less manic arrangement, instead opting for something much more subdued and dreamlike. So great! All this amazing electronica coming out lately, we can't get enough, but this one just might take the cake!

MPEG stream: You
MPEG stream: Vanilla Minus
MPEG stream: Snow & Taxis

Gold Panda's Lucky Shiner was one of our favorite electronic records from last year, so we were super psyched to discover this special Record Store Day remix 12", with four super distinctive and very different versions of one of the tracks from Lucky Shiner, by some pretty cool remixers. Star Slinger is up first, and douses the original in super thick buzzing dubsteppy bass, and thickens up the beats, everything distorted and intense and blurred and fantastically prismatic. Baths takes the opposite approach and stretch the original into something much more minimal and blissy, hushed and muted, lots of backwards smears, tinkling melodies, warm and warbled, a sort of housey almost pop ambient vibe, deep soft pulses, and haunting pianos, so so lovely. AQ faves, drone steppers Forest Swords totally reinvent the track as a glitched out sprawl of folky abstract minimalism, drifty and dreamy and so otherworldly. Halls takes the track EVEN further, and transforms it into a hazy, gauzy, softly glimmering stretch of abstract ambience. And finally, the original is tacked on the end in all its playful looped and sampled glory. SUPER LIMITED. This was a Record Store Day release, so stock is limited, and odds are once these are gone that'll be it.

Gold Panda's Lucky Shiner had to be one of our favorite electronic records of 2010, a looped and layered gem that played like a more lo-fi version of The Field, and had everyone here a little obsessed. After two years, we get our first taste of some new GP in the form of this limited two track 7", and A side "Mountain" immediately reminds us of why we love Gold Panda so much, a woozy shimmery backdrop, beneath a sort of world music groove, all wreathed in crackle, and laced with Morricone-esque guitar twang, the whole thing has a super Eastern, almost raga like vibe, swooping backwards melodies, some scattered handclaps, until the beat blossoms into something much more booming, and stuttery, a little footwork going on, and the song is transformed into a skittery heady slab of psychedelic electro pop! The B side, "Financial District", sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Lucky Shiner, with its warbly droning melodies and layered woozy atmosphere, and then the beat drops, all handclaps and tightly wound skitter, laced with some old school 808's, the track a groovy sun-dappled prismatic sonic shuffle, with a gorgeous psychedelic second half, all fractured electronics and soaring high end melodies. So good. Can't wait for the new full length!

Contemporary improvised 'free' jazz from this young-ish group. Recorded live in various venues throughout the midwest, the Gold Sparkle band take the wildest sounds of NY's downtown scene and imbue them with Ayler-ish free-bop glee. Reminds me of Sixties ESP jazz mixed with some of todays mainstays, David S. Ware, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Spy Vs. Spy. The first track is a killer, sputtering stuttering squealing structureless mayhem. Drums way up in the mix, melodies batted wildly back and forth. Nice. Once in a while the bottom seems to drop out, but they recover deftly and quickly. The record winds up with the almost half hour final track, a gorgeous funereal free jazz dirge, that builds and builds into a pounding orgiastic tribal workout. Pretty cool.

RealAudio clip: Zodiac Attack
RealAudio clip: Second City Fugue (Subject)

Slumberland are certainly making up for lost time. This iconic pop label seemed to disappear for a while there a few years back, but since they reemerged, a month hasn't gone by without a new record by some new band (or an old favorite), and if it was any other label, we might be wondering "where the heck do they find these bands" but this is Slumberland, whose track record for discovering bands is pretty much totally untouchable. SO thus we have Gold-Bears, the latest new band on Slumberland, and we're digging it big time. Big jangly, distortion drenched noise pop, the label mentions Boyracer (one of our all time favorite pop bands who for some reason have never made it onto the aQ list) and the Wedding Present, both of which definitely fit, as do some of the other Slumberland bands like Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Summer Cats, but hell, there are bits of Neutral Milk Hotel and other Elephant Six bands going on here and there. Gold-Bears' pop is rife with angelic female background vox, lots of 'la la la's and 'ooooooh's, horns and unlikely instrumentation, strange production, the sound slipping from murky punky and lo-fi, to big bombastic to jangly and shimmery, the record oozing hooks, none so much as the opener, a summer jam if there ever was one, plus it's called "Record Store", noisy, jangly, catchy as heck, super dynamic, crazy melodic, a total mixtape track for sure. And like all great records, Are You Falling In Love? is full of those sorts of tracks, the whole thing immediately catchy, but the sort of record where every song has the potential to be your favorite, and if you listen enough, they eventually all will be. So good.

MPEG stream: Record Store
MPEG stream: All Those Years
MPEG stream: So Natural

From the obi: "Two of the most creative composer/performers on the West Coast, Ben Goldberg (New Klezmer Trio) and John Schott (TJ Kirk) are joined by verstaile Brooklyn-based drummer Mike Sarin (Dave Douglas, Myra Medford) to create a delicate musical universe balancing space and movement with thoughts unimagined, feelings unfelt. These introspective pieces for guitar, clarinet and percussion touch upon Jewish life and philosophy in a manner both subtle and cruel."

Ben Goldberg on clarinet / bass clarinet with Trevor Dunn on bass and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums.

I just realised we have never listed any Pond records. Which is a crying shame as they are responsible for two of my favorite records EVER, having slowly mutated from a dirgy grungy (they were on Sub Pop after all) sludgy rock band, to a gorgeously lush and quirky pop band, making one of the greatest pop records ever, Rock Collection. That major label debut disappeared from the radar without even a blip, most likely resulting in the end of the band. We'll remedy the Pond situation on some later list, but for now, we can talk about the new album from Pond mainman Charlie Campbell, and his new band Goldcard, which is essentially Pond (it features one of the other two Pond guys) as well as Quasi frontman Sam Coomes and a bunch of other folks. This is gorgeously quirky, super catchy really really strange indie pop, but the strangeness in no way interferes with the pop-ness, in fact it only serves to make it sound miles more original than any of the other folks reaping greater rewards than the way more deserving Campbell and his Goldcard. Campbell has an unbelievable knack for interesting arrangements/instrumentation and unlikely melodies, so unlikely in fact, that they stick in your head like bubble gum on hot asphalt. Seriously. And the lyrics are absure and surreal, about bunnies and cars and random weirdness, but are somehow achingly perfect in capturing moods and emotions, without resorting to actually talking about them. A rare gift indeed. Goldcard almost sounds like a much more intimate, stripped down Pond record, with less emphasis on the rock, and more on arrangements, and moods and experimenting, which is a good thing. The record starts off with this weird shimmering guitar part (which was all over the last Pond record), that Campbell talks about in the liner notes, realising that he didn't in fact invent it but inadvertently stole it from the Flaming Lips. All the songs have extensive notes that only tangentially relate to the songs themselves and are really funny! Once again, when I'm faced with a record that I am digging SO MUCH and listening to non-stop, I feel like no matter what or how much I write I can't do it justice or explain just why it's so good. And it is SO GOOD! Fans of the Flaming Lips, Grandaddy, Pond obviously, Built To Spill, Quasi, Modest Mouse and all that plaintive, moody, catchy indie pop will be rewarded greatly and maybe have a new treasure trove of perfect mixtape material!

MPEG stream: 1
MPEG stream: We Only Doubt Which Theory We Will Be Proving First
MPEG stream: Rabbit
MPEG stream: Destroy And Recreate

A poem: Great chops like the ones that these guys possess Are plenty impressive, on this we'll attest... But when used to make music like this, we proclaim: "Funk groovin' on you ain't becoming. Abstain!" Unless you're baked outta your mind and/or like Phish... avoid! This is a mish mash of styles that sure sound as though they were having a great time playing and following their muse, but whether or not that translates into something that's as pleasurable to listen to, is highly debatable. Me thinks your ears deserve better. There're many other skilled players out there making music that won't give you aural indigestion.

RealAudio clip: Feel This Flow
RealAudio clip: Napenda Judy

Epic post/math-rock project's 2nd album. Fans of Don Caballero and Trans Am (who contribute guitarist Phil) take note.

Golden Birds have offered up not one but two fine releases for our indie rock lovin' ears (one on Paranoid Records and the other self-released). The band aligns itself well with the likes of early-mid period Wedding Present as well as Bright Eyes and Interpol (particular in the emotive vocal department). This is their energetic debut full length which expands on an earlier ep that the band released when they went by the name Carrier. You might recall that back in 2002 we carried Home Movies which was another of their self-released eps. They're quite a different sounding band these days, distancing themselves considerably from their more postrock-ish and atmospheric beginnings in favor of poppy punch. Note: one song is shared by both releases "Sioux Falls South Dakota".

MPEG stream: Things Don't Fall Apart
MPEG stream: Mirrors / Coyote / Thermometer / Lions

Golden Birds have offered up not one but two fine releases for our indie rock lovin' ears (one on Paranoid Records and the other self-released). The band aligns itself well with the likes of early-mid period Wedding Present as well as Bright Eyes and Interpol (particular in the emotive vocal department). This is a special cdep of acoustic numbers that the band self-released to coincide with a tour this past summer. Wistful, sensitive pop without drums, but with warm guitar strumming, pretty glockenspiel and some dreamy boy/girl vocals. Note: one song is shared by both releases "Sioux Falls".

MPEG stream: Cadmium
MPEG stream: Sioux Falls

Domestic release of the lp by Zurich tech house artist Stefan Altenburger aka Golden Boy. Originally issued by Ladomat in 2001, the folks at Emperor Norton repackaged the whole affair with new artwork by photographer Jules Spinatsch and two bonus cuts.

2nd album.

Golden Dawn were 1960's Texas brethren of Thirteenth Floor elevators, but their brand of psych garage involves a more British invasion type sound- like Aftermath era Stones or the Kinks. OK, like the Kinks if they smoked massive amounts of the "power plant" and were heavily into occult metaphysics. This is the only album they ever made, and it contains some pretty great poppy psych-garage gems. While not as heavy or whacked out as Texas contemporaries such as the Elevators or Red Krayola, Golden Dawn are badass and solid none the less, and well deserving of this handsome lp-styled cd reissue.

RealAudio clip: Starvation

Superior black metal with raspy vocal screams, buzzing guitar, symphonic masses of sound, and an undefinable weird vibe. Long an unknown, unsung masterpiece. Austrian black metal obscurity Golden Dawn originally released "The Art Of Dreaming" in 1996 on the now-defunct Dark Matter label and it was just about impossible to find even when it was in print. It's been a favorite of Andee and Allan ever since one of the guys in Weakling turned 'em on to it a few years back, and have always wanted to track down copies to share with AQ customers. Of course we were thrilled when out of the blue, Napalm reissued (& remastered) this disc, and also -- ohmigod -- released a brand-new second Golden Dawn album, which we'll review here next time. For now, though, just bow down to this one. It's just an incredible piece of idiosyncratic metallic dark art, with majestic medieval riffs, bizarre keyboard interludes, and schizoid changes (from techno-ish jams to Magmoid choruses to gothic folk). We'd compare it to Satyricon or Cradle Of Filth maybe, it's certainly that good, but unlike anything else exactly. Solid, original black metal. Anyway, now it's got a second chance to be recognized as a classic. This reissue's got so-so new artwork (definitely not up to the amazing art and design of the original digipak release, oh well -- I think they stole that cover art and had to change it), but the tracks are the same as the original, and is thus highly recommended. MPEG Download: "My Confession To War" [/audio/goldendawnmyconfession.mp3]

MPEG stream: My Confession To War

Local indie rock with a fondness for the extra stripped down, super lo-fi pop hooks that early Elephant 6 bands displayed (like Apples in Stereo and the Olivias).

RealAudio clip: Echo Park Anthem

Got just a few copies of this left, released for this year's Record Store Day, the first release by a group called Golden Gunn, a collaboration that's one part Steve Gunn, and one part Hiss Golden Messenger (featuring former members of the late great Court And Spark!), hence the name. And it sounds a lot like you might imagine, fusing HGM's Grateful Dead / Dylan style classic country folk with Steve Gunn's penchant for tripped out FX heavy psych. Check out the opener "Vysehrad" a lush, psych-folk sprawl that takes a groovy acoustic guitar riff, a simple skeletal beat, and then wreathes it in swirling synths, billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, woozy backwards swoops, then lacing in some spidery leads, a seriously dreamy, dark-psych jam that ends way too early even at 8+ minutes. Then there's "Dickie's Theme" which is slithery and soulfully bluesy, with some fuzzy bass, and sinewy minor key melodies, which leads right into "Let Me Shine (Deathhouse)" which finds HGM frontman MC Taylor doing his best Dylan crooning over a bed of snarly psychedelic blues. And so it goes, the sound shifting from dark psychedelia, to dreamy pastoral Appalachia, to drowsy drum machine driven folk flecked country dirgery, to lush seventies sounding Laurel Canyon classic rock, and right back again. Fans of either band will no doubt dig big time. And really anyone into folky psychedelia will want to check this out as well. Too bad they made it so limited. We wanted to get enough to write a m,ore extensive review and properly list it, but it's apparently out of print for now, and it seems these are very likely the last copies we'll have, until it gets repressed, if it ever does. So grab a copy before they're gone, in case these are truly the last ones...

MPEG stream: Vysehrad
MPEG stream: Dickie's Theme

It's always a little nerve wracking listening to a friend's record. Hoping that it's good so you don't have to hem and haw and eventually say something like "Wow...really interesting" or "Wow. Great guitar sound" or some other non-committal could-be-construed-as-saying-you-like-the-record sort of thing. So it's even more intense when it's someone's -first- record. But luckily, this time, there was no need to worry, 'cause this Golden Hotel record is a gorgeous, droney, space-y, drugged out psychedelic folk record. Golden Hotel is our customer Cayce (who has appeared in several of the AQ neighborhood films, he's the bearded fellow with the dog Cowboy) and his brother Sidney who is in AQ faves Torrez. And the Torrez connection definitely shows, with shimmery guitars and warm thick atmosphere, but the female vocals of Torrez are replaced with the brothers' rough but melodic warm warbly rasps and the sound is a little less lush and a bit more buzzing and immediate (plenty of instrument buzz, lip smacking, breathing). Warm swells of thick guitar wash over shimmering high end harmonics whirling quietly in the background as gently strummed acoustic guitar underpins delicate minor key melodies. Lots of stray sounds, varied instrumentation and production fuckery augment these ultimately simple folk songs, turning them into languid, stoned epics, with simple stumbling percussion, fuzzy far-away guitar, droning buzzing harmonies, pulsing underwater bass, and dreamy blissed out ambience. Definitely influenced by/reminiscent of Greg Weeks, Six Organs Of Admittance, Charalambides, Joshua, Songs:Ohia, Herman Dune, and other current practitioners of modern psych-folk. A great surprise and a fantastic record.

RealAudio clip: Summer, Silver Lake/The Trouble Behind Mr. Peterson's Eyes
RealAudio clip: Palisade
RealAudio clip: All My Girls Are Singing
RealAudio clip: Everything Dying Sings

The Golden Oaks are a dreamfolk duo consisting of Keith Wood (Hush Arbors) and Brad Rose (The North Sea, and Digitalis Records head honcho) who perfectly bridge the gap between soft focus free form Appalachian folk, and drifting droney abstract ambience. Falsetto vocals, delivered mantra-like, drift lazily over delicately finger picked steel string guitars, and thick swells of harmonium, strings are bowed and buzz warmly, everything wrapped in gauzy swaths of smokey reverb. Here and there, the druggy space rock meter gets pushed into the red, with streaks of fuzzy white hot feedback wrapped in layer after layer of undulating guitar fuzz, a dizzying otherworldly dreamdrone, an indistinct shadow of Spacemen 3 / Loop-ed space bliss, cast over a glistening expanse of crystalline Appalachia. Quite nice. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, already sold out at the label we have the last 20 copies....

MPEG stream: Blue Werewolf With Rainbow Eyes
MPEG stream: Seven Woods

Latest in a long line of records from Anton Fier, mastermind behind Golden Palominos (former member of Feelies, Pere Ubu, etc), who since 1981 has been making increasingly smoother and more conventional pop music. But this is about a hundred times better than what you're going to get on the radio, of course.The Palominos' apparent open door policy with regards to membership has meant that artists as diverse as Peter Blegvad, Bill Laswell, T-Bone Burnett, Bob Mould, & Richard Thompson have all appeared on the records. There are absolutely no liner notes on the album, so I'm mystified as to the personnel on this album, much less who the new vocalist is (Syd Straw, Lori Carson, PiL's John Lydon, Michael Stipe have all previously guested), and am also similarly mystified as to why there are two versions of a really old Golden Palominos track here -- "The Animal Speaks". Hmmm. Anyway, the pop songs are pretty luscious and beautiful; you may want to pick this up.

RealAudio clip: Angel of Death
RealAudio clip: The Animal Speaks (vocal:John Lydon)

It's been nearly two years since we first heard the Portland, OR duo, Golden Retriever. That first cd-r release was so uber-limited that they were gone before most people had the chance to even register it. Thankfully this follow-up on Root Strata is both on vinyl and has a larger pressing, but that doesn't mean it will be around forever, so don't wait too long. Light Cones sees the duo of Matt Carlson (one half of Bonus) and Jonthan Sielaff further expounding on their signature dynamic of modular synthesizer and bass clarinet interplay. Over two side long tracks, each about 20 minutes, the duo push the musical limitations of their essentially monophonic instruments into new forms and shapes. The beautiful ambient drift of their first release is present in long stretches, but they're buffered against darker passages of alien cathedral-ish organ swells, laserium like wave-forms, low-end whooshes and mechanoid insect-buzz swirls. The clarinet provides a clear reed tone in the mid-range that lyrically elevates the sound while keeping it just shy of a stratospheric etherealness, often descending pitches into an abyss of soft microtonal angularity. There is a sense of cosmic uplift to the work here that is not casually offered but comes only after thoughtful attentive listening through some deeply sonic twists and turns. Gorgeous stuff!

MPEG stream: Light Cones
MPEG stream: Observer

For their Thrill Jockey debut, the duo of Matt Carlson and Jonathan Sielaff make surprisingly rich long form electronic music using basic monophonic instrumentation of bass clarinet and analog modular synthesizers. We have been big fans of their Root Strata releases, especially their last long player, Light Cones, which took their dynamic interplay into all sorts of unexpected territory. But we couldn't help but wonder where they could go from there. Fortunately, upon first listen of Occupied With The Unspoken, we realized we didn't need to worry at all. Over the course of four tracks, the duo created extended recordings and carefully edited them into succinct passages focusing on melodic compositional interplay over free-form improvisation, allowing more ideas to come into play. This results in a more fully realized vison of cosmic uplift than in previous recordings. In fact, this may just be our favorite release from these guys so far!

MPEG stream: Serene Velocity
MPEG stream: Canopy

We won't go into too much detail with this as it's limited to a mere 100 copies and odds are will be sold out or nearly so by the time you're reading this. Golden Retriever is the duo of Matt Carlson, from Bonus, who we've raved about in the past, along with multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Sielaff, the two use synthesizer and bass clarinet to evoke images of some dystopian future, or the streets of some dying city, the synths buzz and rumble, whir and thrum, the clarinet soars and sings lyrically, subtly intertwined with the synth buzz, the two occasionally falling together perfectly, creating a thick swath of ominous sound. The clarinet flutter and flits, occasionally slipping into some abstract jazziness, other times offering counterpoint for the synths' low end melodic buzz, or unfurling long long Niblockian tones, which is when GR sound the best, when the synth and clarinet are locked into longform stretches of near static sound, tense and intense, minimal and mysterious. Gorgeous packaging, elaborately folded vellum sleeve, with the full color disc visible from within, and a small printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES.

MPEG stream: False Start
MPEG stream: Canonic Horizon

We first heard the Golden Ring on the amazing compilation Raks Raks Raks: 17 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60's Scene, and we knew we had to hear more, and just like that, a collection of 7"s and assorted tracks from the band that was one of the first and most important Iranian garage bands, mixing traditional Iranian music and instrumentation with Western pop of the time, like the Beatles, the results were mindblowing, totally ahead of their time, even know these songs sound incredible, catchy and groovy, but also totally psychedelic and mysterious. The band never recorded a proper album, which makes this collection all the more amazing, every track here rules, it's a wonder this wasn't reissued ages ago. This is head and shoulders above much of the stuff that gets touted as lost classics. The collection begins with "Tulip" that sounds like it could have been a Joe Meek production, in fact much of this record had us thinking it could have been a made up band masterminded by Meek, it's that far out, and that brilliant. "Tulip" adds swirling organ to twangy surf guitars, definitely offering a nod, intentional or otherwise to the Telstars, but it's track two where things get really good. "Beauty" begins with tinkling melodies, and Bollywood like vocals, the sound swirling and definitely psychedelic, very dynamic and groovy, but them in come soaring operatic female vocals, and did we mention the stop start breakdown complete with whistling, so good, so totally classic, but at the same time, so unlike any of the other vintage garage rock we've heard. And so it goes, much of the record is definitely very Middle Eastern sounding, almost like Iranian folk music given a garage makeover, the Beatles influence is definitely all over the place, as is plenty of whistling, and more of that swirly organ, the production is fantastic, lush, but definitely experimental, there's harmonica, giving those tracks a twangy Morricone vibe, there are dizzying organ driven rockers, the sound murky and washed out, the melodies tangled and weirdly atonal, there are some parts that sound very Bollywood, others just sound totally far out. "Sun Full Moon" is a favorite, the whole song warped and warbly, guitars bending and swerving, the harmonicas practically melting, it sounds like the pitch is constantly shifting, like a mistake in mastering, but the result is super tripped out and amazing. This whole collection is just fantastic, hard to work on the list cuz this is pretty much all we want to listen to. Totally recommended.

MPEG stream: Tulip
MPEG stream: Beauty
MPEG stream: Dancing Beauties
MPEG stream: Heads Or Tails

This super duper group stars Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, Run Westy Run singer Kraig Johnson, and The Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Marc Perlman. It's taken the gents eight long years to get another album together. You might recall their last one the casually patchy Weird Tales came out back in 1998. Another Fine Day is their third full length, a generous fifteen song serving of Golden Smog. It starts out as pretty much by the books country rock. That's all fine and dandy enough, but on the fifth song the band throws the listener a great curve ball. "Corvette" is an unexpectedly lightning bolt of power pop (uh, we just found out that it was originally written for an actual Corvette commercial... sigh.). The vocals for this one tune sound charmingly like Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard. We hit repeat on that one a bunch of times. It's a perfect mixtape tune. The follow-up ain't no slouch either. It's a gentle psych rock number reminiscent of Bowie and Bolan that starts out with a willowy instrumental intro. Nice! From there the album continues it's pleasingly varied path from the sweet pretty pop of "Cure For This" to the considerably grittier electric guitar riffin' of "Hurricane". Despite Golden Smog being a side project for many of its members, they've assembled a very dedicated, fleshed out, un-side project-y album. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Corvette
MPEG stream: Beautiful Mind

Record number two from these Midwestern dronelords, with some loose connection to black ambient soundscapers Locrian, even if it doesn't go much beyond playing together and living in the same city. That said, if you dug the Locrian record from a few lists back, odds are you'll dig this to. There's no black metal woven into the Golden Sores' sound, instead they offer up more of a spaced out krautdrone, ethereral, ephemeral, but somehow still dense and thick and HEAVY. Not sure what the instrumentation is, we'd like to think there are some guitars in there, but it hardly matters, it's what comes out of the speakers that matters, not what goes onto the tape. And what is coming out of our speakers right now is some gloriously heavy, throbbing, pulsating buzzing psychedelic dronemusick. The first track is just some totally divine spaced out new age kosmiche drone, the second is a wall of crumbling blown out distorted buzz, like taking the primordial ooze of Earth or Sunn, and hurling it into the heart of a dying star. The tracks shift after that from deep cavernous rumbles, to billowing clouds of blackened shimmer, to muted snarling buzzscapes, to glimmering outer space druggy drifts, and finally, to a gorgeously sprawling expanse of low end throb, crank the bass on your stereo and you'll have things vibrating right off your shelves, a sound so phsyical, after it's over, merely hearing music without actually feeling it, barely seems like enough. Definitive deep drone listening for sure, recommended for those of you who gravitate toward the heavier, spacier side of the low end spectrum, as previously explored by the likes of Expo 70, Locrian, Vulture Club, Fear Falls Burning, RST, To Blacken The Pages, Karl Bosmann, Pussygutt and the like.

MPEG stream: Double Gyres
MPEG stream: The Awful Rowing Toward God
MPEG stream: We'll Wield Fire

We reviewed a record by a drone combo called Number None a while back. We didn't know too much about it or them, but what we did know was that the sound those guys produced was totally up our alley. Definitely drone based, but all over the map, wrapping various drones around all sorts of varied sonic elements, somehow creating a more cohesive whole than would seem possible. So now we have the debut from this Chicago duo, called Golden Sores, which just so happens to feature one of the guys from Number None, and in the Golden Sores, the focus is much more defined, and the two craft an incredible collection of heavy buzzing dronemusic. Each track here a sprawling ever expanding black cloud of sound, from grinding low end rumbles, to effulgent sun dappled shimmer, some tracks take the murk of Sunn 0))) but spread it out and blur it into something more soothing and tranquil, others channel the urdrone rituals of Sunroof! through their own dirt smeared sonic filter. Some of the tracks slip into an almost late period Earth-like gospel Americana, but rendered in shades of grey and in smeared streaks of soft focus shimmer, and still others are swirling effects drenched expanses of outer space exploration. The closing track gets downright nasty, adding a layer of crumbling distortion to a drone that sound like it was assembled from chanted voices, the two elements wrestling against one another until finally finding stasis and allowing a lilting melody to surface amidst the grind and buzz. Totally gorgeous. If you like any of the above mentioned bands, or outfits like Tunnels, Svarte Greiner, Eternal Tapestry, Pussygutt, Half Makeshift, and other minimal cd-r dronelords, the Golden Sores will be your new favorite affliction. Beautiful packaging. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered...

MPEG stream: Arphaxad
MPEG stream: Gorgon Blues

Starring Mr. Christian Fennesz.

The last Fresh & Onlys full length was probably our favorite so far, but this SF garage pop combo don't seem to show any signs of letting up. Two new tracks, more of the same, big drums, jangly guitars, lush reverbed vocals, male and female, harmonies, hooks galore, total sweet sixties pop filtered through the more fuzzy blown out lo-if garage of today, few do it better, a little Kinks, a little Beatles, a lot of crunch and shimmer and shuffle and soar. Surfy, garage-y, hazy and washed out and summery and so goddamn catchy. Teamed up with the F&O's here are Golden Triangle, hyped as the next big thing, we weren't super into their recent full length, but these two tracks have us reconsidering our position. Fuzzy, crunchy riffs, sixties girl group vox, definitely fits perfectly alongside the current crop of 'Girls (Dum Dum, Vivian, etc.), but with way more of an eighties post-punk vibe, especially on the second track, with its chiming guitars, jungly tribal rhythm, two chord chug, and animal sounds. Cool!

One of our most anticipated releases for this year's Record Store Day was definitely this two song slab of heavy, seventies style, psychedelic space rock blissout from these former aQ Record Of The Weekers, fronted by Earthless axeman Isaiah Mitchell, along with Camilla Saufley-Mitchell from Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound and a couple other local rockers. And like on their self titled debut, the two tracks here find Golden Void channeling some serious classic psych rock sounds, swirling clouds of FX drenched guitar shreddery, draped over spidery reverby melodies, throbbing basslines, echo drenched vox, and stoned motorik rhythms that occasionally explode into wild flurries of chaotic bombast, heady and hypnotic, the A side here sounds like it could have been plucked right off their record proper, a little laid back, spaced out, druggy and drifty, slipping from hazy sun baked stoner rock to sixties/seventies style psychedelic jangle and back again, and of course the whole thing is teeming with killer guitarwork, crunch riffs, swirling atmosphere, and yeah, some kick ass soloing. The B side though is a whole 'nother story, the band seeming to ditch an semblance of song, in favor of total Hawkwind style endless space jam, from the get go, the band lock into a slow spiraling zoner spaceout, in fact, it fades in as if we're just joining a jam already in progress, and it plays out like that, the band filling up the whole side with one billowing cloud of bongsmoke psych shred freakout, the drums and bass locked into a woozy drift, while Mitchell basically unfurls a sky full of wild guitar tangle, the song smokes, but then smolders as it settles down into something broodier and more mellow and hypnotic, which is where it fades out, but we imagine the jam most likely went on way longer!! This was as we mentioned, a Record Store Day release, so it's super limited and now out of print, we ordered extras so aQ list readers would get a shot, and were lucky enought to get a bunch, but they're going fast, and once we run out, we won't be able to get more.

Another supergroup / side project from kick ass 7" label Valley King, after a Carlton Melton single and a Sweet Apple single, came the ruling Nothing Like You 7" from Spiders, a new Swedish outfit that includes members of Graveyard and Witchcraft, now we have Golden Void, another new band, this one made up of members of San Diego shredders Earthless and Bay Area psychedelic stoners Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, recorded right here in SF by Phil Manley (Trans Am, The Fucking Champs, etc.). Golden Void's sound is SO kick ass and SO hits the spot, totally heavy, hooky, groovy stoner rock, big riffs, lots of organ, soaring vocals, and yeah, of course some seriously shredding leads, totally catchy, a modern take on some mix of all your teenage faves, Kiss, Thin Lizzy, Skynrd, just totally rocking, laced with plenty of psychedelic swirl, and a distinctly laid back classic rock vibe. Also reminds us a LOT of aQ stoner rock faves Freedom Hawk, the A side of this here single, might be THEE rocking jam of the summer. And we're thinking that when these guys come out with a full length, we might just have us a new favorite record... LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Each cover beautifully silkscreened, hand numbered, and signed by the cover artist

We first heard Golden Void, via their debut single on local label Valley King, and were immediately blown away, so much so that we could pretty much only muster up a bunch of wild gushing to explain how much we loved it. It went like this: "Golden Void's sound is SO kick ass and SO hits the spot, totally heavy, hooky, groovy stoner rock, big riffs, lots of organ, soaring vocals, and yeah, of course some seriously shredding leads, totally catchy, a modern take on some mix of all your teenage faves, Kiss, Thin Lizzy, Skynrd, just totally rocking, laced with plenty of psychedelic swirl, and a distinctly laid back classic rock vibe. Also reminds us a LOT of aQ stoner rock faces Freedom Hawk, the A side of this here single, might be THEE rocking jam of the summer. And we're thinking that when these guys come out with a full length, we might just have us a new favorite record..." Well, we pretty much called it, cuz these guys DO have a new record, and it most absolutely IS our new favorite, in fact, we got a copy a while back, even though it only just came out, and it has to be one of THEE most played records in the store, by pretty much everyone here, and almost every time we played it, customers in the store had to find out what it was, and more often than not, ordered themselves a copy. So yeah, Golden Void is the new band from Earthless' Isaiah Mitchell, along with Camilla Saufley-Mitchell (his wife?) from Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, as well as few other locals, and they have come up with easily the best retro rock, heavy psych record of the year. In addition to the above mentioned outfits, we hear plenty of Captain Beyond, Ozzy era Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, even Witchcraft, the sound is heavy and hooky, the songs good enough to actually BE classic rock tunes, not just sounding like them, had this record come out in 1976, we'd be hearing this shit on classic rock radio non stop. Sun baked and blown out, more mellow than metallic, very California-esque in its vibe, a totally classic, vintage seventies sound, right down to the recording, and again, the songs. We can't tell you how many bands have the sound nailed but not the songs, but every track here is perfect, and impossibly catchy, the sort of songs you'll have stuck in your head forEVER. "Art Of Invading" starts things off, organ driven proto metal psychedelic radness, wild drumming, the vocals bathed in reverb, the sound stone-y and heavy, super dynamic, and it is Mitchell's band after all, so plenty of super melodic, wildly shredding leads. "Virtue" cranks things up a notch, and weirdly reminds us of the sort of sound that aQ faves Malachai were conjuring up in the studio, super heavy, riffy, laid back vox, and hooks galore, and the drumming, holy shit, crazy busy, but perfect for the song, which leads directly into "Jetsun Dolma", the slow groover of the record, the psychedelic ballad, that has a bit of an Allman Brothers vibe, laced with woozy swirls of washed out organ, and killer wah guitar. It's at this point that the record gets REALLY good. Even better than the first half. "Badlands" might be our most played song on the record, with its churning organ heavy groove, crazy catchy chorus, and killer proggy breakdown midsong. Then come the two tracks from the Valley King single, which along with "Badlands", are absolutely the perfect retro psych heavy rock one-two-three punch. "Shady Grove" is the band at their poppiest, and sort of Southern rockiest, such a goddamn great song, and the main melody, especially when Mitchell solos off of it, untouchable. And then there's "The Curve", which might be even poppier, but is also heavier, some of us hear Kiss like crazy, but a smarter, heavier, more psychedelic version of Kiss, more killer guitar harmonies, and probably the catchiest leads on the whole record. There's also the bluesy breakdown midsong, which is so seventies, Mitchell lacing it with all sorts of subtle guitar shreddery, and then the slow build back to the main riff, pretty much impossible to resist headbanging or air guitaring or BOTH. Finally, the record finishes off with "Atlantis", which might be the most psychedelic of the bunch, with its slithery main melody, and washed out vocals, the whole thing hazy and tripped out, but still heavy and groovy, slipping from the dense drum heavy verses, to the soaring swoonsome chorus, the two separated by a super cool angular guitar break. The second half of the track adds extra guitar shred, and a bit of sonic heft, before the music drops out, leaving just the vocals to fade out in a druggy haze. Holy shit. Even after maybe a hundred listens, we're still not tired of this. Anyone into any of the above mentioned outfits, as well as obviously Earthless, Assemble Head, Comets On Fire, etc. will definitely lose their shit over these guys, as will most folks into heavy, hooky retro rock heavy psych radness, which we're guessing is probably a whole lot of YOU.

MPEG stream: Shady Grove
MPEG stream: The Curve
MPEG stream: Art Of Invading
MPEG stream: Badlands

A very welcome return to form for Goldfrapp. Sometimes it's best to know what you do best and just take it to its highest level of excellence. And what Goldfrapp do best is create total modern day disco delights that flow with such ease and pleasure. We hadn't been too crazy about their last couple outings which found them trying to veer in a more folk and rock based sound, but Head First is making us fall in love with them all over again. Songs that take off high to the sky and float in clouds of smoke with such an infectious glow. The first time we played this in the store one of our customers nailed it, saying "It's like the best part of the '80s with better production." And for sure there is a very nice '80s feeling on Head First, with so many folks going back to the detached and cold side of '80s glory, it's really nice to hear the more colorful and pure fun side of '80s dance glory updated in such a wonderful way. Listening to Head First makes you feel like you are dancing in the ending credits of Fame, or amidst all sorts of beautiful people in a fantastical club with Xanadu being projected onto the sparkling dancefloor while Giorgio Moroder is on the decks, the confluence of all these sights and sounds sweeping you away. Welcome back Goldfrapp!

MPEG stream: Rocket
MPEG stream: I Wanna Life
MPEG stream: Dreaming

You know, it is really pitiful that because of the huge amount of press coverage Goldie's new album is going to receive (mainstream music critics not knowing or caring about the difference between a good and a bad record anyway), many folks who haven't heard Jungle yet are going to give this album one listen and dismiss the whole genre. We really TRIED to review this cd for you but found it impossible to get past the first track, "Mother", whose initial 26 minutes consist of (let's face it) wimpy monkish vocalizing over whooshy synthesized atmospherics. When the beats kick in after that interminable intro, they are so egregiously uncompelling and boring that we screamed in frustration. And the track is ONE HOUR LONG. And then the second disc begins with Goldie "rapping" only it's really really bad, so we're sorry but... AQ cannot recoommend this record. Well, actually, Roni Size fans might like it.

Another weird and wonderful release from the mysterious Tapeworm label. "What's so weird and wonderful and mysterious about someone remixing Fennesz?" you might be wondering? Well on Remiksz, Stefan Goldmann makes use of Fennesz' previous Tapeworm release, the collection of samples appropriately titled Szampler, which gathered up various source material used to create some of our favorite Fennesz records and then wove those raw samples into a surprisingly cohesive whole. With Remiksz, things get pretty meta, with Goldmann removing Fennesz' original samples, one by one, replacing them with samples of his own, recorded and created over the last decade, in the same sequence, eventually resulting in this, Remiksz, a sort-of remix record, which contains absolutely NO music by Fennesz. Instead, Goldmann has composed a record using Fennesz' Szampler as a template, or a framework: the track durations are all the same, all the arrangements, it's just the sounds that are utterly and completely different. We guess one could argue that it therefore does incorporate MUSIC (in the sense of organization/structure) "written" by Fennesz, but just not his SOUNDS. So Fennesz fans at first might be a bit puzzled, or disappointed, which definitely seems fair, but give it a chance, Goldmann has a fantastic arsenal of sounds and samples, many of them quite reminiscent of Fennesz himself, and like Szampler, Remiksz ends up being a deliriously varied barrage of tripped out psychedelic soundscapery, tendrils of buzzing guitar, dense staticky rumbles, orchestral bursts, little bits of melody, long shimmery drones, swirls of crackly haze, and blown out gauze, delicately drifting harmonics, dark ominous piano, cinematic strings, fields of celestial glitch and burnt black squelch, skittery fragmented rhythms, buried samples, cricket-like clicks, lots of reverb and washed out echo, warped and warbly tape experiments, primitive synths, a blurred and ever shifting short attention span sprawl of fractured lush loveliness and glitched out sampledelic sputter. Awesome. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!

We've been digging so hard on so much good techno lately. Even the techno averse among us (and some of you, too) have been won over by killer releases from Shed, Terrence Dixon and others. The latest comes in the form of 17:50, a new record from Berlin producer Stefan Goldmann (who we knew from cassette on The Tapeworm wherein he remixed Fennesz), which finds him ditching Western harmonies in favor of new pitch systems that create a whole slew of crazy sounds and exotic alien melodies, all melded to pulsing skitter and robotic grooves, and peppered with all sort of dirty, low fidelity sounds, giving these tracks a seriously raw vibe, and pushing it even further afield from standard techno, so much so, that even those of you who have continued to resist, might just find it impossible when faced with 17:50. The two track opening one two punch will seal the deal in a matter of minutes. The title track / intro sets things up, with a shuffling skitter, some machine like pulses, all hissy and brittle and lo-fi, quickly blossoming into a super distorted groove that's more experimental and melodic than techno, laced with weird buzzing melodies and clattery organic percussion. Which leads directly into the opening track proper, which introduces a strange melody that will be stuck in your head FOREVER, woozy and exotic, draped over a crazy groove, and dappled with all sorts of squelches and melodic curlicues. Eventually some thick rubbery bass swoops in, and only adds to the track's catchiness, the percussion from the opening track returns, and suddenly, it's some crazy psychedelic fractured robotic funk. The rest of the record follow suit, employing these alternative pitch systems to craft melodies that while definitely alien, are totally irresistible, especially when locked into Goldmann's serious techno grooves. Mix in lots of buzz and gristle, plenty texture and loads of layers, let the sounds bleed and ooze, distort and decay, and you end up with one of the coolest, weirdest techno records we've heard. And absolutely a new favorite. Most definitely giving the Shed and Dixon records a run for their money.

MPEG stream: 17:50
MPEG stream: Carrion Crow
MPEG stream: Rigid Chain
MPEG stream: Empty Suit

The one thing about The Tapeworm label, is that while you never know exactly what you're gonna get, you do know more than likely it's definitely something you want to hear, whether you realized it or not. One of two new tapes from The Tapeworm this time out, this one from Berlin electronic producer Stefan Goldmann, who also runs the Macro Recordings label, but don't be expecting any sort of beats or techno here, instead, it's a gorgeously dark record of solo guitar. Goldmann describes himself as a mediocre guitarist, but a versatile engineer, so for his Tapeworm contribution, he recorded a whole bunch of little guitar bits, softly struck harmonics, simply strummed chords, pizzicato notes, plenty of clicks and scrapes, even his barely audible breathing as he hunched over the guitar, and cut and chopped and spliced and diced the various elements into 5 tracks, two different versions. The result though is not some sort of rapidfire plunderphonic workout, instead, it's delicate, and sublime, lots of space and subtle melody, warm little chordal tangles drift over softly shimmering expanses of space, strange plucks and thumps are built into barely there rhythms, one track does coalesce into something almost propulsive, but somehow remains minimal and abstract, even what sound like mistakes, mis-hits, muted notes, get reworked into the slow shifting anti-folk, free jazz dark drift tapestry Goldmann creates. Each side contains the same program, but different versions, so using the reverse function on your tape deck, you can further loop and tangle and reassemble the original tracks into different arrangements. So cool. As always, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES...

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

SORRY. Ah, it's October '06 and we just realized that this Goldmund album somehow slipped by our review-writing radar last year. So... better late than never, we're writing about it now. This is the latest serene album from Goldmund also known as Keith Kenniff also known as Helios. Whereas the latter's most recent offering Eingya is an equally hushed post-rock beauty composed on guitars, keyboards and electronics, Corduroy Road's contemplative interludes are played almost solely on piano. Scant fleeting guitar strums add a barely-there percussive element sort of like a brush across a snaredrum. Ultra spartan and tenderly evocative. If you're looking for an album to instill utter calm (for yoga, massage therapy, bedtime?), look no further.

MPEG stream: Door Of Our Home
MPEG stream: The One Acre

Shhhhh. As quiet and unassuming as it is, this new Goldmund 7" triggered an aQ realization that we hadn't written about his last cd Corduroy Road that came out last year. Uh oh, shirking our duties! Ah well, a review for that fine release was promptly written (it's listed on our website). Anyways, Heart Of High Places features six more of his resonant, uncluttered piano compositions. Slow, delicate and dewy. This record is part of the great 7" series from Type Records that also includes aQ faves Paavoharju and Machinefabriek.

There's another Goldmund record! And so soon after his gem Two Point Discrimination. For those new to the man and the band, Goldmund is Keith Kenniff (aka Helios) and his brand of solo piano music excels in borrowing from twentieth century composers like Feldman, Cardew, and Glass, and infusing them with the charm of folk melodies from the 19th and early 20th century. Over his last 4 releases, he has done a remarkable job creating a truly singular voice with great economy. The effect can be nostalgic, though the compositions are too clever to be pigeonholed as such. Additionally, the recording quality is phenomenally detailed and closely mic'd. One of the great pleasures in Goldmund's past recordings and on this one too, is all of the rich and textural sounds from the piano. You can hear the friction of the keys, and hear the thump of the hammers on the strings. All of this keeps the sometimes sepia drenched content in a generally forward thinking mode; a sort of autumnal nostalgia for next winter, and in time, next Spring. Kenniff lives in Boston and it shows. The whole thing is very New England, and more than a bit puritan, with its stark yet warm aesthetic. Above all it is truly listenable and well conceived music that doesn't really demand your attention as much as it generously wraps itself around whatever you were already paying attention too, and infuses it with a bit of wistful beauty or bittersweet melancholy. Very much recommended for those of you who find yourselves staring out of windows� thinking.

MPEG stream: Finding It There
MPEG stream: Now

[ aquarius records catalogue — G ]