[ aquarius records catalogue

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Another must have for Maiden fans. The concert you've been watching on VHS for years, plus more stuff... History of Iron Maiden Pt. 2!

Well, ESSENTIAL Iron Maiden would be the first four or five albums... but this is a good start. We can quibble with a few track choices but if you personally are not at that stage yet in Maiden fandom they you do probably need this.

This dvd set is so cool, two AQ staffers wanted/needed to review it... Cup sez: This 2-dvd set is fantastic! The band really shows their love and respect for their legions of fans with such a super generous helping of rare Maiden treasures (and the price tag's pretty kind too). In particular, I found The Early Days documentary on this dvd to be sooo inspiring and impactful (and entertaining too... especially hearing Bruce Dickinson talking about wearing his "jimjams"!). For one thing, it has proven to amply refuel the fires of hardcore Maiden fans' Dickinson vs. Di'Anno frontman debate. That said it also resonates even if you're a non-Maiden fan, a not-yet-a-Maiden fan or simply not a metal fan at all, and you might discover (as I did) that you have newfound respect for Steve Harris and co. Awesome! When I (Allan) ordered this, I actually thought it was just one dvd, with a bunch of classic Iron Maiden live stuff on it that I probably had already seen on videotape but figured would be cool to have on DVD since I'm such a big Maiden fan. And I assumed a few AQ customers would think so too. But then when it showed up, I discovered that there's TWO discs, and the second one is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to anyone into Maiden, '80s nostalgia, or air guitar (I'll explain in a sec). On the first disc, you get three concert films: 1981's Live At The Rainbow with Di'Anno singing, plus 1982's Beast Over Hammersmith and 1983's Live In Dortmund both with Bruce on the mic. In just three years, quite an arc of triumph. Turns out some of this I had seen, but some of it is previously unavailable footage. So, that disc is cool in and of itself. And then there's Disc Two. As Cup alluded to above, there's a documentary, The Early Days (90 minutes) which is so in-depth it's insane, and quite entertaining, the documentarians talking to everyone and anyone who had anything to do with Maiden, telling the story of Maiden from the band's modest inception in the punky mid '70s through their world-conquering Number Of The Beast album and tour. But what really made me exclaim "Heavens to Eddie!" is the episode of an 1981 British TV entertainment/documentary programme called 20th Century Box that focused on the burgeoning New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) as exemplified by the young Iron Maiden and their legions of fans. This is where the air guitar comes in...well not just air guitar, cardboard guitar! Apparently it was quite a pastime of the punters who populated clubs like the Soundhouse (whose resident DJ, Neal Kay, provides some unintentionally hilarious interview moments, like talking about how he doesn't approve of the term "heavy metal" while wearing a t-shirt with those very words on it) to make their own cardboard guitars and bring 'em out for a night of competitive headbanging. We don't want to spoil it by telling you more... it's great though. If you like Heavy Metal Parking lot you'll love this. If that wasn't enough, true Maiden fans will then be utterly freaked out to see the amazing Live At The Ruskin, 45 minutes of live Maiden shot with a home video cam from the crowd at the show in a tiny club celebrating the release of their very first album. Wow. Incredible. Plus there's tons of extras: 5 promo videos, early TV appearances (Top Of The Pops!), photo and art galleries, etc. They really did a bang-up job with this DVD package. Basically, Maiden rules, early Maiden rules even more, and if you like Iron Maiden, you must get this!!

Proto-metal alert! Note the title - this slipcased reissue on Rise Above Relics contains music by "the original" Iron Maiden, an obscure early '70s outfit playing heavy, doomy, bluesy psych/prog rock, whose cool name was later borrowed by some folks who went on to become much more famous heavy metal giants. Interestingly, this original Iron Maiden, also from the UK, had a twin guitar thing going on too, sounding a lot like early Wishbone Ash on such songs as "Falling", being super epic and folky in the manner of that band. We first heard that track on a great proto-metal comp called Dower Rock Genocide, so now it's cool to hear some more from this band, this disc containing the two cuts from their sole 7" single circa 1970 plus a bunch of unreleased material meant for an album that was never finished. The disc's opening track "God Of Darkness" is an occult-oriented highlight, but later on they do go all barroom blues with a cover of "C.C. Rider", which kinda breaks the spell. The good stuff is worth it though, for heavy psych/prog freaks. While if we had to pick just one Iron Maiden it wouldn't be this one, there's nothing wrong with liking 'em both. Just like the grunge Nirvana and "the original" '60s psych Nirvana, eh?

MPEG stream: God Of Darkness
MPEG stream: Falling

After being out of print for the last year or two, all these classic Iron Maiden titles (and a few, later, not-so-classic ones) have been reissued domestically in remastered, repackaged (big booklets of photos, artwork & lyrics, slipcovers) and cd-rom enhanced (with videos!) form. We've got Iron Maiden, Killers (that's a metal must-have sez Allan), Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, & Powerslave (those are the good ones...well okay, maybe Seventh Son of A Seventh Son also). Anyway, it's time to get rid of your old scratchy vinyl or cassette copies and pick up some of these new cds. And is it just me, or did they somehow make the cover art look even better? The cd-rom stuff is really well done, too. Up the Irons!

Here 'tis, the long awaited (with our review longer awaited still, perhaps) fourth full-length opus from a veteran Maryland doom metal band who have finally gone a bit beyond the obvious Black Sabbath emulation that their name suggests. Ok, they still DO sound a lot like Black Sabbath: current vocalist Joe Donelley was frontman for a Sabbath tribute band (and looks a fair bit like Ozzy, in one of his more bloated phases), and of course guitarist Al Morris III is an accomplished riffmeister who's known as "the African-American Tony Iommi" not just 'cause he's a black man who plays an SG and wears fringed leather jackets. We've previously reviewed a reissue of this band's 1994 album The Passage, and if you liked that one, you'll probably like this, despite the, uh, passage of so many years since that one. The vocalist on that record had more of a Dio thing going on, though, but as we said the singer in their lineup these days is definitely an Ozzy disciple, without doing an outright impersonation all the time, so he's kinda in the mode of Wino. This new album definitely -sounds- good (and HEAVY), with nice thick, almost slick production, the guitars full and fuzzy. As doom goes, this is on the uptempo side, and it's darn catchy too! Too bad Ozzy didn't simply hire these guys to write/record his last few albums for him (including the vocals!), the title track here for instance would easily be a radio hit, if only it had Ozzy's name on it, far superior to whatever computer-generated product the Oz-man has crapped out lately. Ah well, Ozzy's not doin' it, so Iron Man has to, even without hope of hits. Sabbath/Ozzy fans open to a modern take on that trad sound, and heck grunge fans looking for something a bit more metal, should welcome the return of Iron Man.

MPEG stream: Curse The Ages (Curse Me)
MPEG stream: Blind-Sighted Forward Spiral
MPEG stream: Fallen Angel

This long-running Sabbath-derived doom band get another shot at fame and fortune, garnering a release on Rise Above, good for them! Unfortunately, their latest singer (one of many) is waaaaay too "chain wallet" for us to dig. Ok, there's moments that sound like Down, which we like, but Iron Man are supposed to sound like Sabbath, aren't they?

Maryland's Iron Man, as you might be able to guess from their name, started off as a Black Sabbath tribute band. And we bet they were a pretty good one! Guitarist Alfred Morris III is basically the African-American Tony Iommi, complete with facial hair, fringed leather jacket, and Gibson SG. Total Iommi-worship. We wouldn't be surprised if to find out he'd cut off the tips of a few of his fingers to be more like his hero. So, obviously, old school doom metal is the name of the game here, and this album, originally released in 1994, is a minor classic of the genre for fans of Sabbath (natch), The Obsessed, Trouble, Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus, Solitude Aeternus, etc. Aside from the fact that the band had black guys in it ("blacker than Black Sabbath" they were billed!), Iron Man didn't really get much notice back when their records came out in the early '90s. Now the metal scene is different, doom is a bit more popular, and at last maybe this band will finally get their due. Certainly it's cool that this album has been reissued, 'cause we always thought it was their best, with their best singer -- who doesn't try to sound like Ozzy. To man the mic on The Passage, Iommi-dude Alfred Morris III found his very own Ronnie James Dio, by the name of Dan Michalak. He's the rather beefy-looking fellow with feathered hair in the back cover band photo. No elf, he. But he sure sounds a lot like Dio, his muscular, melodic, dramatic delivery giving the heavier-than-thou Sabbatherian riffage of Iron Man an extra dose of that epic doom magic that should have been heard by more folks the first time around. We can thank Japan's Leafhound label for bringing this back (newly remastered), much like they've rescued some other out of print doom discs by Revelation and Blood Farmers that also originally appeared alongside Iron Man in the early nineties on Germany's Hellhound label (clearly a big inspiration for Leafhound). Today, Iron Man's still around, dooming on, with (another) different lineup... speaking of lineups, this album has got Gary Isom on drums, a stalwart of the now-legendary Maryland doom scene from whence Iron Man hail, having played in Unorthodox, Pentagram, and Spirit Caravan among others.

MPEG stream: The Fury
MPEG stream: Unjust Reform

First two records by these UK sludgelords, conveniently bundled together in this bargain priced two-for-one double jewel case slipcover'd box. Crushing shrieking slow motion psychedelic tarpit doom sludge filth, the British answer to the likes of Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Cavity, Grief, etc... which as you might imagine, means MASSIVE riffs, pummeling drum damage, sick throat-shredding vox, and tempos hovering right around glacial, or perhaps funereal, although the band do lock into some serious grooves, albeit seemingly in slow motion, and of course everything is doused in heaping doses of crumbing distortion and dense blackened grit. Killer! Features members, past and present, of Electric Wizard, Teeth Of The Lions Rule The Divine, Crippled Black Phoenix, Cerebral Fix, Acrimony and more...

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

SORRY. 10" records by both bands, now in the handy cd format. Japan's Church of Misery churn out the psychedelic serial-killer-fixated '70 styled Sabbath-dirge, while England's Iron Monkey play an Eyehategod-ish sort of ugly sludge metal (including a Corrosion of Conformity cover, from back when CoC were good). Thus, this disc is absurdly heavy indeed.

Get yer moshin' shoes on!! These dudes with the amusing '80s inspired name have unleashed their second full-length, now via Relapse, showing Iron Reagan not to be a one-off nostalgia-based side-project, but a serious (and seriously kickass) band in its own right. Featuring members of Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour, Iron Reagan play hardcore thrash punk metal, total crossover mayhem like back in the day when the Gipper was Prez, a la D.R.I. and S.O.D. and early Suicidal, with a dash of Slayer too. The lyrics/song titles are violent ("Eyeball Gore") and so is the ripping music... They've got the socio-political protest thing happening too ("In Greed We Trust"). A few more of the many song titles here: "Class Holes", "Your Kid's An Asshole", and of course, "Four More Years". It's what you'd hope for from a band named Iron Reagan, really - blasting drums, gang choruses, some widdly guitar shred, a few samples here and there, speeding by fast and furious, 24 tracks in under 32 minutes. Good times, kind of like the '80s were when you look back on 'em now, if you're that old. Spin this a few times, and you'll be itchin' to go out and vote for Mondale!!! Iron Mondale.

MPEG stream: Eyeball Gore
MPEG stream: Rat Shit
MPEG stream: Bill Of Fights

We weren't sure what to expect from this, a new band on Neurosis' Neurot label featuring the singer from, Southern sludge heavies Rwake, but we can tell you it sure wasn't this. A sort of brooding soulful classic rock? Twang flecked Southern hard rock? Brooding metallic singer songwriter moodiness. A little of all of those? The label namedrops Down, and Crowbar, which in theory sort of apply, but Iron Tongue are not nearly s heavy as either. At least much of the time. We're actually reminded quite a bit of the recent Neurot compilation of Townes Van Zandt covers, especially on the opener, Iron Tongue has the same sort of apocalyptic folk, wasted country rock vibe, the music laid back and lush, a big band, with whirring organs, even soulful female backup vocals, which was a surprise, and does actually sound kinda weird at first, or at least out of place, but once you're in the mindset of where these guys and gals are coming from, it totally fits. We also hear lots of Raging Slab, and aQ faves Antler, as well as one of our all time favorite singers, Mark Lanegan, Iron Tongue vocalist Chris Terry's whiskey soaked rasp the perfect foil for the group's slow burn heavy Southern rock. And it is heavy at times, in fact much of the record is spent rocking pretty hard, the band locking into extended jams, lead guitars shredding over smoldering grooves. And on tracks like "Witchery", the band get all bellowy and bellicose, the sound muscular and indeed a little bit sludgey, but then they'll slip right back into something more moody, like "7 Days", with its slippery slide guitar, and boy/girl vocal harmonies, again getting downright soulful, which might be a bit much for some metalheads, but hell, we're digging it, some seriously hooky hard and heavy southern rock, what's not to love?! Folks expecting Rwake style sludge will definitely be bummed, but fans of Raging Slab, Antler, Skynrd, and other Southern/stoner rockers, should definitely check this out!

MPEG stream: Ever After
MPEG stream: Witchery
MPEG stream: Moon Unit

This is not the first time we've heard from these Portuguese heavy metallers, but might be the best time! Either this band has gotten better over the years, or our ears have gotten more and more leathery (possibly both). This is their first release since the NWOBHM covers split 7" they did with Slough Feg back in 2005, and it's been worth the wait, that is if you're into epick swords and sorcery metal '80s style. Overlords Of Chaos is escapist metal manna to sate the bloodthirsty appetites of true metal warriors, the lyrics based on works of Robert E. Howard (just like their doomier brothers-in-arms The Gates Of Slumber). Underground, only-for-the-true stuff, very much in the vein of Ironsword's big heroes Manilla Road. So much so, that they actually got Manilla Road's Mark "The Shark" Shelton to sing backup on a few of the tracks here. Boy, the Ironsword dudes must have been excited about that! We're almost surprised that Shelton wasn't too busy signing each band member's entire Manilla Road collection to actually have time to get behind the microphone. Ironsword's regular vocalist also sounds a lot like Shelton, delivering these barbaric battle hymns in a manner both gruff and triumphant. That well matches the music, seriously pounding and powerful. We say seriously, and if you can't take these Conan-inspired tracks ("Wrath Of Crom", "Cimmeria", "Dark Shadows Of Stygia", etc.) in that spirit, well... either this isn't for you, or at least you'll get some laughs out of it! If the latter is the case, fine, but you'll be missing the gist of something that really means a lot to these guys... they're not doing this for laughs at all. R.E. Howard and Manilla Road speak to their hearts, and maybe Ironsword can speak to yours if you let them. All thirteen tracks here, from the uber-majestic opening sweep of "Death Of The Gods" to the glorious "Hyperborean Hordes" to the ripping "Fear The Night" to the semi-acoustic requiem of "The Pyre Of Kings" are Howardian headbangers par excellence. But it's the rockin' "Road Warriors" with its monomaniacal, repetitive riff break that starts at about the 3 minute mark that is the highlight for us, though. Suddenly they're Pharaoh Overlord, for about 45 seconds at least! Otherwise, it's all about good stuff like Cirith Ungol, Omen, Manowar, Sacred Steel, Doomsword, The Gates Of Slumber, and of course Manilla Road. There's another retro-'80s "true metal" album reviewed this list, the self-titled one by Portrait. Comparing the two, well, they're both gonna be cult items. But Ironsword seems to be the geekier gang, yet their music is heavier and rawer as well. If you had to choose between Portrait and Ironsword (we like 'em both), it's a basically a choice between Mercyful Fate and Manilla Road... and if you aren't into either of *those* bands, then we imagine that both Portrait and Ironsword would want no part of you anyway.

MPEG stream: Cimmeria
MPEG stream: Hyperborean Hordes
MPEG stream: Road Warriors

More true metal from the cult Miskatonic label run by Rich Walker of UK doom metal masters Solstice (R.I.P.). Ironsword hail from Portugal, and, well, are a little hard to recommend. As much as we admire the spirit of heavy metal that they share with such bands as labelmates Twisted Tower Dire, this just sounds terrible. Poverty-stricken production, a drum machine for a drummer, and gruff, heavily accented English vocal wailing: it's not a pretty picture. But, perhaps you'll find that they fall into that so-bad-its-good catagory (a personal judgement for everyone). Their songs ARE anthemic, as powerful as the production will let them be, tirelessly energetic (thanks to the drum machine, in part), and completely devoted to the cause of true metal. Good at least for a laugh at your next beer-n-metal bash. Doubtless they have a cult following somewhere. As the liner notes say: thanks to "Rich Walker (for being crazy enough to sign us)." So ask yourself, metalhead, are *you* crazy enough to buy this?

RealAudio clip: King Of All Kings

During recent months, the very first irr. app. (ext.) record had been popping up on eBay, going for incredibly high prices. It was assumed that this album was long out print given its original release back in 1997; those assumptions were quickly dispelled by simply getting in touch with the genius behind irr. app. (ext.) Matt Waldron, who replied, "Oh yes, I have a bunch of those! Do you think you can sell them?" There is certainly a charm to Mr. Waldron's mild-mannered self-deprication; OF COURSE we can sell these records. After all, Aquarius did host an exquisite show of Mr. Waldron's visual work, and we have sung the praises of his recent albums as well as his collaborations with Nurse With Wound. To top it all off, this is simply a fantastic album. irr. app. (ext.) operates in a realm where many have attempted to venture but only a few have succeeded in grafting the ideals of psychic automatism, Surrealist metonymy, and Dadaist absurdity onto the context of the contemporary sound sculpture. Nurse With Wound has long been the pinnacle of such an arena; and irr. app. (ext.) has slowly built a catalogue of recordings that demonstrate his own expertise in such matters. For his debut solo recording (which we believe came after the irr. app. (ext.) / Stilluppsteypa collaboration), Waldron constructs oblique shifting sounds from the internal workings of small mechanical devices, metallic scraping, shortwave radio static, and other unknown droning sources. These slowly build as disquieting ambience that abruptly halt and detour with cacophonous crashes, wild tape machinations, and unintelligible snatches of conversation. It's a brilliant beginning to what has developed into an exceptional career.

MPEG stream: object (a): kkkkkkkht
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When M.S. Waldron is not gallivanting around the world in the touring ensemble of Nurse With Wound, this Californian audio alchemist has occasionally staged his own luminous and deranged performances as irr. app. (ext.). Waldron has been able to generate a very consistent catalogue of recordings whilst living in his humble abode in the Santa Cruz foothills, but the number of live performances from irr. app. (ext.) have been erratic (if not ecstatic) to say the least. Despite the paucity of irr. app. (ext.) gigs, Waldron has been able to wrangle plenty of talented folk into his maddening collection of sounds, including longtime irr. app. (ext.) associate R.K. Faulhaber, Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton, aQ's own Jim Haynes, the Scharpen brothers (John and Greg), and a few others who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Or maybe wrong time and wrong place, depending upon how you look at it. An irr. app. (ext.) recording can be a curiosity of audio surrealism where a sense of dread or unease or comedy or beauty bleed through the cross pollination of many sounds within the digital workstation. However, the irr. app. (ext.) live performances are purposefully theatrical, full of bizarre props, instruments, costumes, films, and even culinary delicacies. Waldron and co. operate a series of contraptions that are always on the brink of falling apart, leaving the participants dangerously close to being stuck up on stage with a bunch of broken toys that don't do anything. Perhaps even more so than Nurse With Wound, irr. app. (ext.) seeks to recreate the absurdity of surrealist and dada theater from the early 20th century in a modern day context. Aspiring To An Empty Gesture Vol. 1 documents the handful of irr. app. (ext.) performances in recent years with one of Waldron's live contributions for Nurse With Wound thrown in for good measure. The irr. app. (ext.) live sound veers from creaky audio collage from found objects clacking away like an ill-tempered frog chorus with bursts of noise and squiggled gestures for comic relief; but Waldron throws in an oddly minimal prog freakout, tossing back to one of his other big influences alongside NWW, that being King Crimson. Hence, you'll find a very low-tech skronk of mutant basslines, analogue synth squiggle, and scraped percussion. The NWW track is stellar, in part thanks to the deft production grafted onto the sounds by Colin Potter. Waldron wraps up the collection with a version of The Residents proto-synth-punk 'hit' "Smelly Tongues." While just a cd-r, we've been told this might not be a limited production; but then again, it might be and could disappear at any time. As with all irr. app. (ext.) productions, this one comes highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Two Golden Microphones
MPEG stream: Serenade For Narcoleptic Grave Robbers
MPEG stream: Smelly Tongues

A couple of years ago, Aquarius enjoyed a brief moonlight gig as an art space (which we hope to make happen again someday), proposing the same curious aesthetic on the visual front as we continue to do on the musical. One of the more intriguing exhibitions we hosted was from an ambitious, if under-recognized artist by the name of Matthew Waldron. His meticulously eccentric drawings, paintings, and assemblages depicted mutated beings conducting psychic surgery upon each other with all sorts of psychosexual overtones. These provocative and compelling images held their own with the classic Surrealist works of Hans Bellmer and early Salvador Dali. At the same time, Waldron introduced us to the equally ambitious catalogue of sound constructions that he had been quietly making in the Santa Cruz mountains under the moniker irr. app. (ext.). These albums followed in the deconstructed / abstracted sound collage traditions of Nurse With Wound, The Hafler Trio, and HNAS, often times surpassing the quality of those which came before. Sadly, very few people had heard of irr. app. (ext.) because of Waldron's unfortunate round of luck with record labels and general low profile. Jump forward to the contemporary era, and things look entirely different. Today, you will find Waldron a mainstay in the Nurse With Wound performance entourage, being whisked away to play in all sorts of unlikely European festivals; and irr. app. (ext.) has consistently released albums that build upon the successes of those which we had heard before. So for us here at Aquarius, it's very satisfying to see an artist we once supported have their career take off... And that leads us to Cosmic Superimposition, the second in a proposed trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) of releases based upon the writings of Wilhelm Reich. Cosmic Superimposition was a book that Reich had written in 1951; and in that book, he argued how the superimposition of multiple energies is the common functioning principle throughout the natural world. It was through these ideas that Reich arrived at the ideas of Orgone, cloudbursting, etc. On the single 45-minute track that comprises Cosmis Superimposition, irr. app. (ext.) presents a revolving set of organic fluctuations that wax and wane in accordance with a well-tuned internal logic. Glassine ambient passages of processed environmental noise slide into the sustained harmonics of bowed metals which in turn couples with the off-kilter phase pattern of an exhaust fan whose motor is not quite properly aligned. All the while gurgles from streams, clatter from subterranean actions, singing bowl reverberations, and dark elliptical cycles of blackened electronics pock the stately progressions of Cosmic Superimposition's dronemusik foundation. As is stated in the liner notes, Waldron repurposed the source material from the first stage of the trilogy Ozeanische Gefuhle; but Cosmis Superimposition is hardly a replicant remix of the first. Rather, the ghosts, shadows, and ripples of his earlier album emerge in the fluid ambience of the second as bridge that points to Waldron's ambitious and highly successful undertaking. One of the best records of 2007, for sure.

MPEG stream: Extract 1
MPEG stream: Extract 2
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More audio absurdities and surrealist aktionism from irr. app. (ext.), this double disc set collects the recorded vagaries from the practice sessions leading up to a very rare live performance from irr. app. (ext.) in Portland back in 2012. Matthew Waldron - the man behind the curtain - has long been associated with the idiosyncratic practices of Nurse With Wound, both aesthetically and as a steady member of the Nurse touring brigade. Like Nurse With Wound performances, the irr. app. (ext.) gigs loosely splay themselves upon a basic outline with plenty of opportunities for detours and dead-ends. As such, Waldron couldn't decide which was the definitive variation of this body of work, so he included three rehearsals along with the live performance itself, leaving the task of sorting everything out up to his audience. We'll start by describing the conclusion of the set which was a naked discomforting rendition of Little Peggy March's "My Teenage Castle" a bubblegum pop hit from 1963, now given an arrangement of randomly struck bells, VHF radio interference, and field recordings of cows with Waldron crooning psychotically. He only allows for one version of this song amongst all of the variations, as he prefers the abstractions to wander hither and yon. A wise choice we must say. Some of the recurring themes involve a ritualist percussive groove, the eeriness of Tibetan horn harmonics, the warbliness from a vibrator-enhanced mouth organ, Waldron's knife-on-the-guitar splutteriness, and the sound poetry of hurled spittle and sloshed saliva. The variations of the pieces are considerable. While Waldron may lament this as a 'lack of consistency', we're happy to see it as peripatetic creativity at its finest.

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MPEG stream: Admonitum Tripartitus

Invocations of Surrealism have come to reflect a Frank Zappa or Dr. Bizarro form of 'weird,' with little understanding and even less appreciation for the truly revolutionary nature of the Surrealism that dominated avant-garde culture in the early 20th Century. Fortunately, a few sound artists have truly succeeded in manifesting the spirit of Surrealism in their work. The most obvious being Nurse With Wound in keeping true to the Surrealists bawdy appropriation of Victorian aesthetics in exploring unsettling horrors; and to a lesser extent, there's the Hafler Trio who took the intense interrogrations of Surrealism to a gnostic conclusion. Somewhere in between these two giants of sound art is the work of Irr.App.(ext). For the past eight or nine years, Irr.App.(ext) has been toiling in obscurity, and producing a body of work that easily rivals his more well known compatriots. Some of you may remember a stunning art exhibit here at Aquarius records back in the early spring of 2003 with all sorts of obtuse collages, exquisitely rendered nightmarish drawings, and shadow boxes loaded with peculiar juxtapostions and mixed messages. That was the work of Matt Waldron, who also happens to be the man behind the musical project Irr.App.(Ext) along with a couple of likeminded delinquents. Unfortunately, Matt has had a ridiculous spell of bad luck with labels folding before releasing his work, or not being able to find the funding, or just being jerks. His luck has finally changed with the release of Dust Pincher Appliances, which in turn reissues a very early 10" originally released on Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson's Something Weird label back in 1995. Waldron has extended the original recordings with those of a follow-up 10" which was never actually released. Though some eight years old, the recordings on Dust Pincher Appliances are still stunning. The album unfolds as an ever changing drama of Surreal events, evolving through time to reveal startling revelations, disquieting progressions, and atypical juxtapositions of sound. Eerie drones and atmospheres dominate the majority of the album, haunted by distant voices bathed in reverb or unrecognizable events that scurry malevolently like tiny monsters or robotic insects. Carnivalesque episodes often interrupt the proceedings with cackling sound effects, brash trumpet blurts, and toy piano discord. Dust Pincher Appliances is a marvelous album and should be the harbinger of a wonderful catalog that the world needs to embrace.

MPEG stream: A Distended Particular
MPEG stream: Wracking The Carcass For Residue

It has been a while since we've heard from the hermetic M.S. Waldron and his ignoble project irr. app. (ext.), and now he's released two cassettes through his Errata In Excelsis imprint, continuing his slippery alchemy of surreal collage, spiraling drone, and cracked intention. If that title looks a little familiar (as well as the cover), it is in fact an homage to the 1987 split album between AMM's Eddie Prevost and Organum, entitled Flayed / Crux which sported a bizarre mandala of Victorian-era clip art as cover art. But it's not just the title and the cover that Waldron is riffing upon, he's created two stellar 'covers' of those two lengthy tracks. The originals found Organum's David Jackman accompanying Prevost for "Flayed" with a signature acoustic drone from Jackman's bowed cymbal underlying a reverb-saturated, free-falling excursion around Prevost's drum kit. The irr. app. (ext.) reinvention in "Flux" is nearly flawless in keeping up with Prevost's polydactyl splutter and tempestuously rolling drum fills, while building an equally impressive simulacrum of Jackman's bowed cymbal thrumm of surging electrified friction. As good as both Prevost and Waldron's tracks are, the best work is reserved for the flipside. The original of "Crux" featured an all-star Organum line-up with Jackman surrounded by Andrew Chalk, Dinah Jane Rowe, and Steven Stapleton who's credited performing on "chair." Waldron does list the objects that went into the formation of his reinterpretation entitled "Crayfish" including the enigmatic use of a "chair" in the assembling of this rebirthing drone-construction. Was the chair particularly squeaky? Did Stapleton drag it around to create a muffled texture somewhere in the mix? Did he just sit down and get high? Those same questions can be asked of Waldron, in his use of the piece of furniture in this beautiful swarm of acoustic drones from sustained cymbal drones dappled with shortwave radio detunings and a ritualistic flute that hangs sadly above all the droning surfaces. Waldron's version rings true with the eerie, yet beautiful atmospheric construction that Organum mustered during the height of their career, with the notable differences found in Waldron's use of squishy textures and squeaks that dot the heavy-droning swarm. That said, both the original and this cover should be lauded alongside those magnificient pieces of holy minimalism by Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young, and Charlemange Palestine. Yeah, it is that good! As you know, tapes like this are usually limited, so don't wait around on this one!

MPEG stream: Flux
MPEG stream: Crayfish

Who is that "someone" who didn't want this album is not made known, but we have to wonder if he / she / it / they had any clue as to what irr. app. (ext.) was all about in the first place. We're delightfully baffled as the next when it comes to the sounds of irr. app. (ext.) and the overarching artforms from its principal, Matthew Waldron; but would be even more confused as to why anybody would commission something from Waldron and then reject it, as this album clearly falls well within his signature aesthetic of psychic turmoil, United Dairies assemblage, freeform radiophonic splutter, and primordial noise tumbling between the gaps of industrial bad trips and psychedelic wooliness. Of course, there are those albums from irr. app. (ext.) which could be considered more sensible than others - the Wilheim Reich trilogy comes to mind - and there are those which stretch against the boundaries of delirium and discomfort. I Made This For Someone Else lands in the latter category with Waldron collaging broken sounds, crippled song-fragments, and grotesquely inelegant fumblings into a portentous bombast that finds Waldron looking less to Steven Stapleton as the beacon of outre genius and more towards Igor Wakhevitch, himself a '70s prog-occultist who was a big influence on Nurse With Wound. Waldron willfully follows pretty much any and every idea that germinates within any given psychic landscape, crashing those ideas into one another, and crafting ugly hybrids that speak in completely foreign tongues. The cd-r editions from Errata In Excelsis tend towards editions of just about 100 copies, with many of them already out of print. We expect the same, here.

MPEG stream: Devonian Lungpower Anniversary Promenade
MPEG stream: Magnetospirillum Instigate A Non-Specific Mechanical Failure (Above Sea Level)
MPEG stream: Vindicated By The Mountain Beavers: A True Story

Performances from irr. app. (ext.) are rare spectacles, often sporting bizarre costumes and crumbling masks, staged rituals with mutated / mutilated stuffed animals, audio collages spiralling about found object mistreatment, outer-space / prog-tastic guitar explorations, ashen black takes on scatological humor, and a choice cover or two. Josephine & Elsewhere documents the results from three performances that irr. app. (ext.) foisted upon the Seattle public in 2009, at the request of Blue Sabbath Black Cheer (who have employed irr. app. (ext.) figurehead M.S. Waldron as a producer from time to time). What's quite unique about these recordings is that Waldron did not recruit from his reliable pool of California miscreants to assist in the performance, choosing to perform alone. In pairing everything down to a guitar, a ukulele, a drawerful of kitchen utensils, some effects pedals, and some backing tracks, Waldron has done quite well to achieve the same density of sonic eccentricities and surrealist intentions found on his ever impressive recorded output. Many of the irr. app. (ext.) live 'standards' are present including Waldron's Tuvan-throated vocalisations accompanied by the motorized purr of a vibrator rubbing against his bald head, Waldron's diabolical growls and squeals in duet with a miniature scrabblings (which here really resemble the guitar freakouts on the Nurse With Wound debut Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table), and his uncanny use of field recordings - notably a man screaming his head off in erratic bursts which doesn't seem to phase the incessant chatter of birds. Very odd. While Waldron focuses mostly upon the abstract and expressive through these atypical sonic juxtapositions, the one cover he presents is something to witness: a clippedy-clopping cover of the Aphrodite's Child tune "The Four Horsemen." Limited to 200 copies only!

MPEG stream: The Four Horsemen Of Natural Science
MPEG stream: Rogue Gluons Castigated By The Strong Nuclear Force
MPEG stream: O, Wistfully Cantillating Paraceratherium

Kreiselwelle is the conclusion to a superb trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) who used the words, philosophies, and eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich as the springboard into a realm of post-Surrealist, post-industrialist, post-drone arena of sound design. While a prominent European psychoanalyst, whose ideas could be seen as an occasional counterpoint to those of Freud, Reich may be best known for his parascientific research into Orgone energy, which he claimed was central and unifying force of life throughout the universe. Much of this latter research has been discredited and unfortunately shed a cloud of incredulity upon his psychoanalytic work. While Reich's claims of cloud-busting and orgone therapy offer particularly strong metaphors, M.S. Waldron - the principle architect to irr. app. (ext.) - has looked more to the psychological aspects of Reich's work. Kreiselwelle translates from the German as spiral wave or gyroscopic wave, and points to the similarities which Reich had noted in the structures of microscopic organisms, turbulent wave patterns, and spiral-arm galaxies. Through this trilogy (which also includes Ozeanische Gefuhle and Cosmic Superimposition), Waldron mirrors Reich's early cosmology through a compositional fluidity that alludes to contemporary drone fascination, constructed through overlapping collages, occluded field recordings, sustained tones from atypical instruments, and crosshatched synthetic noises. All three of these albums were sourced from the same set of field recordings, but each detours into its own particular wandering. Kreiselwelle begins with a very slow hypnotic strum across a detuned guitar with liquid tactility and a warped distance buzz filling in the gaps. Grand sweeps of slashing drones that could originate from an echoing chainsaw deep in the woods forms an unlikely crescendo with sympathetic tones, only to collapse into the softened white noise of cars passing by. Soon after, a rhythmic tapping of agitated electronics forms a motorik rhythm against the tapestry of audio fluidity, with all of the electro-shock bursts of a tesla coil. This in turn morphs into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. For fans of any of work of Nurse With Wound (after all Mr. Waldron is in the NWW touring ensemble!), H.N.A.S., and the more esoteric recordings of Organum; and certainly of note for those of you taken by Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Expo '70, Emeralds, or any of the darker, weirder, more fucked-up drone ensembles of recent days. Very highly recommended!

MPEG stream: excerpt 1
MPEG stream: excerpt 2
MPEG stream: excerpt 3

20 minutes of drowned sound and convulsive twitches from the audio madman M.S. Waldron, known here as irr. app. (ext.). Much of his work deals in particularly odd mutations of deranged thought and philosophical ramblings, transforming those ideas into tumbling collages of mangled field recordings, discomforting drone, and broken song. On past records, there had been invocations of psychic surgery gone wrong, there had been ruminations on the intellect of dust, there are the impossible covers of Organum material, and there was a trilogy expanding on the circular logic of Wilhelm Reich. Not surprising that soundcycle has somehow expanded even further with the addition of a fourth member. Here, Waldron delves into what he describes as 'avian technology'; and we don't think he's arranging symphonies for Bower Birds and their artisanal collections of bottlecaps and beetle shells; nor does this even seem to feature much in the way of recognizable bird song (although Waldron has been known to recite the onomatopoeic descriptions of bird songs in field guides in Kurt Schwitters Ursonate style). No, this seems far more chimerical in nature, with the monstrous results something akin to the baby in Eraserhead, making disturbing utterances amidst clattering wheezes from antique machines, ur-drones of a darkened psychedelic fashion, and a despondent atmosphere. Given his ongoing contributions to Nurse With Wound, Neognath In Machina isn't too far from Stapleton's wild universe of post-Surrealist sound; but Waldron's genetic re-engineering of sound, flesh, and feather is sublimely its own. Limited to 75 copies.

MPEG stream: Neognath In Machina

Matthew Waldron, the mad genius behind irr. app. (ext.), has toiled at his unwieldy craft of sonic surrealism for close to 20 years now. His work has long paralleled that of Nurse With Wound; and yes, Waldron has graced a number of Nurse recordings and live sessions. Unfortunately, he's often confused with fellow Nurse troubadour Andrew Liles, due to both of them shearing their scalps of any and all hair. That said, the NWW ethos is clearly defined by another mad genius, Steven Stapleton, who has a slightly different take on the art of sound obfuscation. Stapleton's avant-everything amalgams hedge towards the grotesque beauty from the universal themes of the id (sex, drugs, death, yup even rock 'n' roll), where Waldron's investigation into the uncanny has a wholly personal inflection of psychic failure and futility. Neognathae is the second EP that Waldron has produced for the East Bay cottage industry Petit Mal Music; and like the first, this album is dedicated to the pursuits of 'avian technology;' in other words, the 20 minute piece is entirely sourced from bird songs. Waldron once picked up a field guide to birds (if you must know, this was the reading material in the former bathroom of the Helen Scarsdale Agency) and turned the transcriptions of birdsongs into Kurt Schwitters-like, irritable blurts of dada sound poetry as a desperate impersonation of Dr. Doolittle. It was horrifying and it was hilarious. Even as Waldron uses the lyrical trills of various warblers, doves, finches, and thrushes on Neognathae Portentosus, his concoction is far removed from Messiaen's comparatively polite invocation of the birdsong in composition. Waldron twists and mutates the sounds of these birds into eerie blurs of silvery shimmer and the sonic equivalent of a fun-house mirror. At first, the piece lumbers and creaks with the clubfooted gait of a slumping golem. He builds and layers this malformed collage into a frenzied cacophony that would clearly provoke fear and dread in the Tippy Hedrons out there in the world. Whatever genetic bastard bird Waldron has created out of his black magic and devilry, it is a miserable creature. One that is not long for this world. Just 100 copies are around...

MPEG stream: Neognathae Portentosus (Parts 1-4)

If anyone has the ability to carry the post-Surrealist torch of Nurse With Wound, it would have to be Matt Waldron through his irr. app. (ext.) project. Like Nurse With Wound's eccentric genius Stapleton, Waldron would never qualify himself as a Surrealist, but it's a good jumping off point to describe their respective works. With Ozeanische Gefuhle, Waldron establishes irr. app. (ext.) establishes himself as one of the most gifted sound-sculptors whose work have passed through the doors of Aquarius. If you've ever picked up any drone / minimalist / ambient records or even just anything that Andee has poetically described as 'completely fucked', then you owe it yourself to pick up Ozeanische Gefuhle. This review could ramble on and on, but let's cut to the chase and state the obvious, this album is brilliant. Strangely enough, Ozeanische Gefuhle -- as great as it is -- almost disappeared into the ether, as it was slated for release a few years back on another label who just sat on it for years, much to the chagrin of Mr. Waldron. Fortunately, the good people at the Helen Scarsdale Agency rectified the situation and made sure this album got its due recognition. The title itself is an allusion to Wilhelm Reich, who used the term to describe the natural state of every healthy organism as connected to and engaged with the world around it. Such ideas in lesser hands would result in limp idylltronica with New Age sentimentality; but this is not the case for irr. app. (ext.), who solidly grounds this record upon a fundamental drone, which slinks its way through numerous field recordings and performative gestures. Waldron's masterpiece emerges as a tidal current of electronic sound, rumbling through blackened spaces and soaring with divine expressivity. As good if not better than anything by Nurse With Wound, Organum, :zoviet france:, Phill Niblock, and the Hafler Trio. Yeah, it's that good!

MPEG stream: Ozeanische Gefuhle (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Ozeanische Gefuhle (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: The Demiurge's Presumption

Slowly but surely, the mighty work of irr. app. (ext.) has been oozing out from the Santa Cruz mountains through various outlets such as Crouton, Helen Scarsdale, and Beta-Lactam. Perekluchenie was originally commissioned as part of a Beta-Lactam Ring subscription series (which if you were lucky enough to sign up would earn you a bonus picture disc with the LP) but the growing interest in irr. app. (ext.) warranted a regular pressing, thanks to such high-profile releases as the irr. app. (ext.) contribution to Nurse With Wound's Angry Eelectric Finger trilogy as well as the Salt Marie Celeste performances with Steven Stapleton himself! The relationship between irr. app. (ext.) and Nurse With Wound has gotten even more convoluted as Stapleton has joined irr. app. (ext.) in their last couple of performances. We should be quick to point out the irr. app. (ext.) and the genius behind the tongue-twisting project is far from a Nurse With Wound copyist. Hardly! While both projects draw inspiration from Surrealism and avant-garde composition, they both express strong divergent aesthetics that show how rich and open the field of Surrealist-tinged sound art can be. Qualified as "a pointless theatrical exercise in one act or less," Perekluchenie actually spans four lengthy pieces of audio madness. Waldron wanders through desolate strums across a prepared piano (or some other instrument that's equally heavy and reverberant) which gives way to ill-tempered birds, ominous windswept drones, and funereal bells. Waldron shatters the grim atmosphere with an unnerving passage for tactile squeakings and poltergeist driven furniture. Elsewhere, discordant horn bleats rupture the heavenly glow of elegaic tones and genuinely baffled exclamations erupt from a very young Django Stapleton. Waldron includes other vocal contributions from Lori Anne Anne Lori Chambers, Aquarius' former owner Windy Chien, and Diana Rogerson (aka Chrystal Belle Scrodd.) All in all, Perekluchenie is a truly wonderful album! We've been fans of Mr. Waldron for many years now, and he's yet to let us down.

MPEG stream: The 11-Year Backwards Sleepwalk, Part 1
MPEG stream: The 11-Year Backwards Sleepwalk, Part 5

One of the more sensible irr. app. (ext.) records to come across the counter of aQuarius; but this being an irr. app. (ext.) record, any qualification of 'sensible' needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Irr. app. (ext.) is the long-standing project for the Oregonian recluse M.S. Waldron, who does venture out from time to time as one of the touring minstrels in Nurse With Wound. His own work shares much of the NWW surreal tactics, queasy humor, and industrially girded psychedelia with tentacles and rhizomes that offer a parallel and equally visionary voice. The Jennies mentioned in the title refer to At Jennie Richie, a thoroughly enigmatic and anonymous project of equally obtuse sound designs. A couple years back, the exemplary label Black Horizons released what may or may not have been a collaborative album between irr. app. (ext.) and At Jennie Richie, including an art edition boxset with a piece of vinyl and two cassettes. We had these in briefly, and they disappeared in a snap with the cassettes being split releases of like-minded work. All of the irr. app. (ext.) material from those Black Horizons split cassettes is featured here alongside another split cassette published in 2013 on Dead Accents. Originally, Waldron had released these simply as digital versions, but there was enough of a demand for physical copies, that he capitulated... and here, we have it. The first of three lengthy track finds Waldron sitting behind the drum kit, tapping out a mid-tempo motorik rhythm as an unusually stable presence for a variety of unkempt guitar buzzes, raven choruses, and kaleidoscopically liquid FX-laden glossolalia. The suitably named "Foregone and Ungotten" laces satellite beacon chirps with ur-drone purr, seasickened currents of electrical feedback and a variety of arachnid prickly textures. Subaquatic percussive phrases accompany the slow ringing of a temple bell, whose ritual solemnity is undone by a parade of assorted crumbles, rakishly skewed horror-score design, and ignoble horn blarings. Not sure how many of these Waldron has printed up, but his cd-r editions do have a way of disappearing from the physical plane rather quickly.

MPEG stream: The Monsters Are Due On Alder Court
MPEG stream: Studio Backflow

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

SORRY. Not much point in belaboring the issue too much on this one. There's only 100 copies. Most of them are gone. But, FUCK, if this isn't the best Organum record ever made, even if it wasn't made by David Jackman. Instead, we have a brilliant homage to the turgid acoustic dronescaping and thoughtfully composed noise arrangements of David Jackman's best period of Organum (circa 1988 - 1994), produced by the less-than-sensible irr. app. (ext.) / Matt Waldron. Quite literally, this was the album of his dreams, as one night in 2011, Waldron was overcome by a vision of encountering Jackman at an indoor shopping mall in California, where he was selling a brand-spanking new Organum LP which featured a strange bear drawing on one side and an even stranger fox drawing on the other, with the rather explanatory "The Other Side Is Blank" as the title, pointing out that the lp was a one-sided lp. While we are not all that sure if such a strategy ever came up in Organum's back catalogue, he was known for releasing 7" singles with a mere minute and half of sound on both sides. In the five tracks (four on the one sided lp, and one very short cut on the one sided 7"), Waldron dutifully creates fantastic, industrial blurs of vibrating metal, acoustic rattlings, and infernal roars of very tactile noise all very much within the aesthetic of Jackman's Organum project. Pretty fucking brilliant and pretty fucking stupid at the same time. A perfect record for aQuarius! But grab one before they're gone for good...

MPEG stream: Harrow
MPEG stream: Rind

Potatoes. Leave it up to irr. app. (ext.) to shove some wires into a potato and get a whole album from the resultant audio mess. Well, maybe. We'll hazard a guess that M.S. Waldron (aka irr. app. (ext.)) ran with the idea of the perennial science-fair project in harnessing enough bioelectrical energy from a potato to power a small alarm clock. Many years ago, the British sound artist Michael Prime had hooked up biosensors to mushrooms, recording the erratic signals that strangely emanate from within a fungus; and Waldron's recording process could have something to do with this. Then again, he could have just made a big bowl of mashed potatoes and slopped around like Otto Muehl or Carolee Schneemann. Waldron's back catalogue features a considerable amount of irrational activities leading towards the poetics of audio surrealism. The name itself - irr. app. (ext.) - is a cumbersome shortening of irrational appendage extension, and plenty of other absurd ideas cohabitate with Waldron's knack for the oblique collage. Psychic surgery gone horribly wrong. Involuntary twitching of limbs from dead insects. The philosophical eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich wrapped up in circles upon circles. And now, potatoes. There's definitely a whole lot going on in Tuberpendicular, and the electrified potato salad concoction may only be a small portion of the album. Sharpened tones of biofeedback, squishy and clinical squiggles of indeterminate origin pock Waldron's cyclical sound design of percolating drones that transmit out of creaky old spaces. Really great, really convoluted collage based work that finds simpatico with Nurse With Wound, Michel Chion, and the weirder elements found throughout the history of electronic music. Limited to 200 copies.

MPEG stream: Tuber Receptor
MPEG stream: Ollottrilotlillittaialiattat
MPEG stream: Tuber Inducer

No idea what to make of that title. Plop it even into a Google translation tool, and you get some nonsense about a "valentine cormorant" surrounded by a bunch of gibberish as Google wants to make this word out to be Japanese. It looks Russian to us, not that the linguistic skills at aQuarius have any command of a language beyond our own brand of English polyglot. There is a curious and eerie aura of animistic, psychic mysticism that inhabits the whirling gears, locomotive rhythms, and deeply dilated industrial clamor that might have a passing resemblance with some of the esoteric offerings from the Russian postindustrial scene. M.S. Waldron (aka irr. app. (ext.)) has been a relative constant in the Nurse With Wound touring stable with a handful of appearances on the latter day Nurse recordings. And he did travel with Nurse on their first excursion into Russia, where we're pretty sure they played Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Much is a mystery and much is gibberish in the realm of irr. app. (ext.), so the meaningless of this title in conjunction with a tenuous aesthetic linkage to a project like Linija Mass or Vetrophonia might have absolutely nothing to with the album. At the same time, it could have everything to do with it. The album seems to be sourced from bowed metals whose slashing atonal frequencies are layered and collaged into interwoven networks of discordant textures. Waldron has worked extensively with these types of sounds, even creating a brilliant homage to the Organum / David Jackman sound with the irr. app. (ext.) album "The Other Side Is Blank". But here, slippery collage-techniques and audio layering hold a lugubrious psychedelic hue that encompasses Waldron's aquatic gurglings, walkie-talkie broadcasts, metallic glissandos, and mechanical rhythms. All of which could harken to the idiosyncrasies of everyday objects (as his live set-up could literally be any given junk drawer tumbled onto a table with contact microphones affixed randomly) or perhaps more romantically, emblematic field recordings made while he was visiting Russia a few years ago. Nonetheless, this is another great album from irr. app. (ext.); and this hand-fabricated edition runs just 200 copies.

MPEG stream: Ustrojenstvozagyvat 2
MPEG stream: Collapsible Spectra
MPEG stream: Ustrojenstvozagyvat 3

Here's another collaboration between the surrealistically minded irr. app. (ext.) and the enigmatic At Jennie Richie, as we were recently blown away by the cassette from those two projects. And that shouldn't be a big surprise, given that irr. app. (ext.)'s work has long been championed around these parts. Lest there be any confusion, this is *NOT* the same material as found on that cassette, nor is anything reprised from that cassette either (well, at least to our ears). In fact, the first side - "Night Wearing Feathers" - was originally a 3" cd-r from 2006; and as you could probably guess, that's long been out of print. This track begins with a squeak and sigh only to snap into simple skittered rhythms that succumb to a radiant drone build from and / or occluded by various mechanical vibrations that poke through the glassy mesmerism. It's not out of step from the brilliant trilogy of Wilhelm Reich related recordings irr. app. (ext.) embarked upon around that same time period (e.g. Ozeanische Gefuhle, Cosmic Superimposition, Kreiselwelle). The B side - "Sunshine Bus Rider" - was composed six years later in 2012 and is a far angrier, more gnarled composition, with a buzzing guitar (or maybe a detuned sitar?) slowly blooming at the onset like some of the more recent OM recordings with fucked collage noise, nervous slices of diabolical laughter, and clattering found objects all getting jostled around in the true spirit of Nurse With Wound's sonic Dada. Both tracks are mind-fuckers for sure, and we mean that as the highest of compliments! Limited to 234 copies.

MPEG stream: Night Wearing Feathers

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

SORRY. Ah ha! The deluxe edition of the Night Wearing Feathers collaboration between the surrealistically minded irr. app. (ext.) and the enigmatic At Jennie Richie. We previously listed the standard lp version, but this extremely limited box set edition (we have only THREE copies), in addition to the vinyl, also features the previously released but now out of print cassette Unknown Invertebrate Drama AND an entirely unreleased cassette as well, both gorgeously package in deluxe printed jackets. And to the best of our knowledge, none of the material on any of these three elements overlaps with anything else. Everything's housed in a beautiful box and includes two deluxe printed cardstock inserts, each one #'d and signed. We've not checked out the unreleased cassette (which looks to be a proper split between irr. app. (ext.) and At Jennie Richie, but probably only the members of those projects know for sure!), but here's what we said about the other two elements: The first side of the vinyl - "Night Wearing Feathers" - was originally a 3" cd-r from 2006; and as you could probably guess, that's long been out of print. This track begins with a squeak and sigh only to snap into simple skittered rhythms that succumb to a radiant drone build from and / or occluded by various mechanical vibrations that poke through the glassy mesmerism. It's not out of step from the brilliant trilogy of Wilhelm Reich related recordings irr. app. (ext.) embarked upon around that same time period (e.g. Ozeanische Gefuhle, Cosmic Superimposition, Kreiselwelle). The B side - "Sunshine Bus Rider" - was composed six years later in 2012 and is a far angrier, more gnarled composition, with a buzzing guitar (or maybe a detuned sitar?) slowly blooming at the onset like some of the more recent OM recordings with fucked collage noise, nervous slices of diabolical laughter, and clattering found objects all getting jostled around in the true spirit of Nurse With Wound's sonic Dada. On first half of the Unknown Invertebrate Drama cassette, At Jennie Richie's track is mysterious through and through with gray blasts of sound ebbing from silence only to blink out of existence in seconds. These are ghostly sounds, or rather these noises are treated in a ghostly way akin to the acoustic materialization that Francisco Lopez would offer forth about a decade ago. The motorized rumblings that massage themselves into a eerie cosmic purr open the second side and could be generated by no one except for irr. app. (ext.). Out of this introduction, Waldron sets up weirdly flanging, filtered tones that undulate above watery field recordings and nocturnal bumps in the night, concluding with a strange set of angular synth beacon pulses and gasped utterances. What we've heard are mind-fuckers for sure, and we mean that as the highest of compliments! The boxset is limited to 66 copies. We have only THREE!!

MPEG stream: Night Wearing Feathers

Technically this is a split release between At Jennie Richie and irr. app. (ext.) with each project contributing a 16-minute, side-long track to this limited cassette on Black Horizons; but it's also a strange collaborative project as well. M.S. Waldron - the mad scientist behind irr. app. (ext.) - has worked within At Jennie Richie in the past and may have contributed to the murky, post-DADA smeared noise here; and for the irr. app. (ext.) track, Waldron has recycled elements of At Jennie Richie's track from this tape into his own composition of swirling drones and psychic miasma. Got it? Nothing is ever easy for that Waldron fellow! At Jennie Richie's track is mysterious through and through with gray blasts of sound ebbing from silence only to blink out of existence in seconds. These are ghostly sounds, or rather these noises are treated in a ghostly way akin to the acoustic materialization that Francisco Lopez would offer forth about a decade ago. The motorized rumblings that massage themselves into a eerie cosmic purr open the second side and could be generated by no one except for irr. app. (ext.). Out of this introduction, Waldron sets up weirdly flanging, filtered tones that undulate above watery field recordings and nocturnal bumps in the night, concluding with a strange set of angular synth beacon pulses and gasped utterances. Packaged very handsomely as always by Black Horizons with a full color printing on metallic paper for both o-cards that nestle together with the cassette inside. There's only 66 copies of this one!

MPEG stream: Foregone And Ungotten

For those of you who have had the opportunity to witness the live reincarnation of Nurse With Wound over the past couple of years, there are two bald men making funny noises usually on either side of Steven Stapleton. One is Andrew Liles, who had run the table in terms of a release schedule in 2007 releasing 14 full albums of eccentric drones and abstracted collages, some of which were pretty darn good, but could maybe have used some editing. The other bald man is M.S. Waldron, whose slowly trickled releases are impeccable constructions of modern day Surrealism through audio sorcery, clearly not in any need of an editor whatsoever. Outside of NWW, he's been toiling away in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California under the unwieldy moniker irr. app. (ext.). This split release with Chicago's Panicsville has been in the works for many years now, finally seeing the light of day in early 2008. The irr. app. (ext.) half of the equation slowly spirals from one assemblage of discombobulated field recordings, agitated ether, and curious atmospherics into another set of equally malformed sounds, much like a black-acid kaleidoscope. Yes, it makes perfect sense that Stapleton would want Waldron to assist in Nurse performances, as he clearly has talent at taking weird noise making to a sublime level of abstraction. With a name like Panicsville, the expectations were of an obstinant noise project; but instead, this splatter of mechanoid gestures pocking sea-sick drones is a worthy companion to irr. app. (ext.)'s sidereal brilliance. So good in fact, that we may seek out further recordings. So good in fact, that you too should pick this thing up. Limited to 500 copies.

The collaboration continues between the surrealistically inclined irr. app. (ext.) and the blackened doomdronedirge horde Blue Sabbath Black Cheer. As on the previous pairings, Discordant Convergence slants towards the irr. app. (ext.) side of the sonic spectrum with M.S. Waldron (the man behind the curtain of that cryptic project) ripping apart much of the Blue Sabbath Black Cheer sound, leaving a rumble here, a heavy-ass riff there, but mostly tossing about head-scratching scribbles of vibration, ululations, and fuckery. But unlike the solo irr. app. (ext.) albums, there are some serious bad vibes going on here. Kreiselwelle or Cosmic Superimpositions are dark records for sure, but there's a dreaminess to them that is entirely done away with here. Waldron may be piloting this ship, but Blue Sabbath Black Cheer are in the engine room, dead set on their demonic invocations, whose negative energies can't help but infect everything around. A plodding bassline that could have been lifted straight off of Aluk Todolo's Finsternis opens the album amidst an unsettled chorus of gnarled textures, that sounds like somebody / something ripping apart flesh, sinews, tendons, and bone. Unhinged vocalizations, screeches, and screams dot the infernal atmospherics and flashes of atonal orchestrations with basslines surging sporadically through the mix. As the album unfolds, more acoustic chokings, grindings, and other misdemeanors caught on tape co-mingle with lumbering dirges of ritualized drone-doom, followed by plenty of bleak passages of horror-film synths, slashed metals, barked power-electronic vocals, and fucked-up transmissions from the center of the earth. It's all very unsettling, but it's all very highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Son Of The Morning
MPEG stream: Dire Consequences
MPEG stream: Last Tango

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SORRY. Five versions of new Mixmaster Morris track, including remixes by Amon Tobin, Fila Brazilia, and DJ Food.

It seems like a funny way to discover a band, but somehow we knew we had to hear this Dutch depressive black metal trio based entirely on their logo alone. It's incredible, a miniature forest of textured trees, almost cartoonish, like Christmas trees, with a complex tangle of roots and branches that somehow spells out Irrwisch. In a world full of black metal bands that all have the same basic logo, ooooh some upsidedown crosses, ooooh an iron cross, oooooh we're so kult no one can read our band name. So yeah, a gorgeous stylized foresty logo goes a long way. Thankfully, these guys make some pretty decent noise as well, a washed out murky grim buzz, that slips from primitive pound to woozy Burzumic lumber, plenty of haunting atmospherics as well, swoonsome synths, the sound of crashing waves, of wind through the branches, some dreamy folky drift, all clean guitar and the sound of rainfall, crickets, birdsong, as if the band were recording in the forest that spawned their logo. But for all that loveliness, these guys can definitely get raw and filthy and frenzied, exploding into furious blasts of relentless black buzz, pounding squalls of gnarled riffage, and the vocals, typically black metal for the most part, but they too come unhinged here and there, slipping into a harrowing howl, the band buried beneath a murky haze, which gives the proceedings a gorgeously blissed out vibe, even when they're spitting black gouts of buzz drenched heaviness.

MPEG stream: Vom Felsen
MPEG stream: Leer

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SORRY. 2nd album from our favorite Capt. Beefheart-meets-Jon-Spencer band, featuring Wooly Bugger editor Jeff Fuccillo.

Catherine Irwin is half of the beloved alt.country duo Freakwater... she's the dark haired modest beauty whose face crinkles up woefully when she harmonizes so prettily with Janet Bean (observed during one of our most memorable instores!) Anyway, this is her solo record and it's pretty good -- her low-key slightly grainy alto with its ever so slight kentucky accent is pretty irresistible but I will admit to really missing the incandescent harmonies she and Bean conjured up together -- this is what put Freakwater over the top. But this is still lovely, with covers of songs popularized by Elvis, Roger Miller, the Carter Family, etc., these being among the best tracks on the album. So, if you're new to the wonderful Freakwater, then I highly recommend you first start with their sublime Feels Like the Third Time record, but if you've got all those Freakwater records, well, then here's more to tickle yer ears.

RealAudio clip: Needle In A Haystack
RealAudio clip: Cry Our Little Eyes Out

A new batch of Awesome Vistas is always a cuse for celebration around here, so we're pretty thrilled to get not one, but TWO new AV jams, Flower Of Flesh And Blood, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this, the simple titled Is, which is the soundtrack music for an art exhibit by Chris Johanson, who also happens to be the Awesome Vistas head honcho. For this project, Johanson gathered up a whole mess of kick ass guests, including Sam Coomes (Quasi), Tom Greenwood (Jackie O Motherfucker), Sara Lund (Unwound), Emil Amos (Grails), Tara Jane O'Neil, Nick Bindeman (Acre) and more, to create a gorgeous abstract drift of folky percussion, soft wheezing drones, and looped mesmer. Two twenty minute side long tracks, the first begins with an awesome looped start stop figure, before expanding into something more free and folky and free jazzy, drums and flutes and acoustic guitars and cellos, eventually growing to a muted frenzy, like a free jazz / free folk / drum circle psych jam, think Avarus, No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Jackie O, but with a bit more of a chamber music vibe. Quite nice. The second track is much more folky and hippy, definitely reminding us of the Finnish forest folk, with tribal rhythms, hand drums, shakers and random percussion, fluttery flutes, detuned guitars and chanted vocals, total psychedelic spaced out Wicker Man folk that slowly sprawls and then dissipates. Gorgeous hand silkscreened sleeves with a photocopied insert, and yeah, probably limited too...

We love our dub hard and heavy and full of deep deep vibrations. Every few months it seems we're rediscovering an amazing dub record that had somehow slipped under the radar and are only now becoming total obsessions. That's precisely the case with this mind blowing full on dub joint by Gregory Isaacs recorded in Jamaica at King Tubby's studio in 1978. While Isaacs is usually most associated with and respected for his amazing singing skills, and for pioneering the whole lovers rock movement, Slum In Dub shows a completely different side of Isaacs' sound. This is a full on instrumental minded, way seductive dub record for sure. Very minimal singing, instead only small hints of Isaacs' voice which bleed into the mix occasionally, and one or two songs where the vocals appear a bit more pronounced, creating a truly singular dub exploration that stands as further evidence of just how on fire he was during this era, no matter what direction and style he experimented with. Smart as he was, he enlisted the legendary Prince Jammy to mix the album, giving it the timeless and intoxicating feel that we're totally addicted to now, thirty two years after its initial release. We could see modern day left-field dub lovers like Tussle, Excepter, Sun Araw, and the whole Dubstep scene freaking out about this record, or probably already listing it as an all-time favorite and major source of inspiration. Better late than never on this one, cuz as much as we can't believe we are just hearing this now, it almost doesn't matter considering how thrilled we are to have found a new favorite dub jam!

MPEG stream: Public Eyes
MPEG stream: Reform Institution
MPEG stream: Leaving

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SORRY.

"Lucky Cat" is yet another album from Isan, whose "Salle d'Isan" came out a couple of weeks ago. Not really ostensibly different from the preceding album, "Lucky Cat" continues down the path paved by Boards Of Canada, with pleasant if somewhat bittersweet IDM / electronica.

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SORRY. irwin

While the landscape of "dreamy" electronica has been quite flooded in the last several years there will always be those that rise above the flock in any crowded genre, and Isan are one of the few who do indeed float high above most of their peers. What makes Isan so special is the songs, using their laptops and keyboards to create airy melodies and lovely lucid washes of sound. While so many of their contemporaries have added forced vocals on top of their sounds, often big name guests, in order to break into the "next level" we're happy that Isan have kept it purely instrumental, as the songs they write feel totally complete as-is and allow us, as listeners, to bring more of our imagination to the songs. There are definite similarities to like minded and former label mates Mum, especially their first primarily instrumental debut, as well fleeting glimpses of Boards of Canada at their most blissed out, and perhaps like a less skeletal version of Colleen. We also keep thinking a lot about how Isan in many ways represent this generation's version of Durruti Column. Delicate instrumentals made with a graceful touch and an invitation to float freely.

MPEG stream: Roadrunner
MPEG stream: Corundum
MPEG stream: Ruined Feathers

It's not surprising to hear that a couple of Isan's tracks had been licensed for commercials here in the US. What marketing firm wouldn't kill to have some pleasant electronica that is simultaneously relaxing, happy, definitively European in origin, slightly obtuse, but totally catchy, and always leaving you wanting more? Isan specializes in wistful electronica melodies that hold more

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