[ 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 751 through 800 of 819.

Classic mid-sixties Nigerian High Life from one of the best. Orlando Julius not only worked with Hugh Masekela, Lamont Dozier, and the Crusaders but gave James Brown the inspiration for "I Feel Good" (supposedly, may not be true but it's believable). This album has never before been released outside of Africa. A foot stomping great collection of funky high life.

First cd issue of what is reportedly a highly sought after record of UK psychedelic rock. The singer's got a nice Skip Spence strain in his voice, and there's a lot of sitar on top of the more traditional instrumentation, and the winsome harmonies are

RealAudio clip: Jolly Mary
RealAudio clip: Hallo to Me

Another incredible jazz artifact rescued from the abyss by the fine folks at Porter, this one comes courtesy of the enigmatic Juma Sultan, and his ever shifting musical collective The Aboriginal Music Society, who over the course of the sixties and seventies recorded literally THOUSANDS of hours of music, the group's sound as constantly in flux as its lineup, the sound a dizzying mix of Afro / spiritual / free jazz, even soul and RnB, all of which is covered here, this handful of tracks handpicked by Sultan, chronicling the groups' expansive body of work, beginning with the near 21 minute "AMS", which manages to capture the free sonic spirit of the group in a single, track, beginning with a dense rhythmic workout, that definitely foreshadows groups like No Neck Blues Band, Avarus and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, before slipping into a woozy, bass and piano driven groove, the bass warped and warbly, the piano lush and melancholic, until in swoop some soulful horns, the vibe very laid back and groovy, before transforming once again into a serious post-bop final movement, the drums growing more chaotic and propulsive, the piano wild and loose, the sound growing more and more free with out losing any of its soul or melody. "Shake Your Money Maker" is all drums and percussion, fluttering flute and call and response vocals, a total drum and fife style jam, before slipping into the VERY funky "Darn My Socks", with some James Brown style vox, a funky-drummer beat, super raw and lo-fi, wah guitar and extra percussion adding to the songs fierce groove. The rest of the record is split between two, two-part jams, "Sundance And The Hand Clapping", which is darkly groovy, with whirring organs, dense flurries of piano, and a driving metronomic beat, the second part letting loose with lots of flute, draped over groovy percussion, while "She Made Me Feel Like Glory" unfurls as a seriously heady chunk of spiritual jazz, all droned out and Eastern, hazy and hypnotic, bells and percussion, over slow smoldering grooves, culminating in the second part / final track, which adds vocals, and slowly builds from spare call and response vocal driven soulful jazz, to something much more loose and abstract, a final sprawl of explosive and prismatic ur-drone raga jazz blissout. AWESOME.

MPEG stream: AMS
MPEG stream: Darn My Socks
MPEG stream: She Made Me Feel Like Glory (Part I)

A few years back, we became particularly obsessed with a Finnish (sort of) black metal group called Jumalhamara. Now, we know, aQ becoming obsessed with a band from Finland is hardly big news, but this was something else. As mentioned in our old review, a friend warned us off these guys, saying they were barely black metal and were way too wussy and jangly, but everything he said just made us want to hear it more. Besides, they were from Finland, they were called Jumalhamara AND they had a song called, "Discover The Pigtail", which ended up being as good as the title might lead you to believe. Probably better to just revisit what we said about that track last time: "Discover The Pigtail" begins with glistening harmonics, which are soon joined by some strange off kilter drumming, tangled riffing and howled vocals, and those harmonics never go away, so even as the band slithers and sprawls, spewing out a sort of buzzy blackness, the glistening shimmer totally shines through, diluting the heaviness, turning what might be something raw and heavy into something way more bizarre and trippy, at times it almost sounds like two records playing simultaneously, they drift in an out of sync, all very dizzying and gloriously tweaked." And listening to it again recently, we realized there were horns, and all sorts of other weirdness going on. Unfortunately, that record was only a 3 song ep, so it definitely left us wanting more. Here we are 3 years later, and the band finally deliver their first proper full length in close to 14 years of existence. And how does it stack up? Well on first listen, it doesn't sound nearly as weird, in fact it sounds way heavier, and more black metal, but it doesn't take long, in fact within a few minutes of the opening track's 10+ minutes, the song reveals itself as way more than black metal, subtly at first, the riffs atonal and sort of off kilter, that feeling of two records playing at once returns, everything a little warped and twisted, and then suddenly the song fracture, and the band gets super intense and aggro, the song lurching and starting and stopping, before launching right back into it. Buzzing blackly on the surface, but all around the main riff, other guitars are moaning and pealing, and adding that weird second melody / other record vibe. And then it just gets weirder and weirder, gnarled vocals, operatic female singing, the guitars getting more and more angular, the sound blurring and smearing and becoming more dronelike. Twisted for sure, but definitely some of the most original and warped black metal we've heard in ages. And don't worry (or maybe do!), it gets WAY weirder, and way less black. As the record unfurls, spidery blues guitars drift underneath groaned deep dramatic vocals, before being blasted by some crumbling crushing doom, only to blossom into some propulsive industrial flecked noise rock, laced with what again sound like horns. After that it's a sonic tug of war between a sort of swampy gothicky almost Woven Hand sort of vibe, and noise drenched back metal weirdness, doomy slithery guitars wrap around martial snares, splintering into shrieked noisy blackened chaos, only to settle down into some moody meandery reverb drenched slowcore blues, big buzzy guitars and almost Harvey Milk like crooning. The title track is a frenzied blast of black metal riffing howled vox, and some dense intricate mathy drumming, epic and majestic but never truly slipping into 'black metal' until the last minute, a frantic blast that leads directly into the album closer, a sprawling bit of epic weirdness, a relentless pounding cymbal crash keeps the tempo, guitars howl and grind and buzz, strange melodies tinkle and drift off, like someone playing bottles, the vocals alternatingly shrieked maniacally and bellowed defiantly, a frenzied stretch of blown out psychedelic noisedrone chaos, with super intense dramatic vocals that follow the guitars and the crashing cymbals to their final termination point. Somehow these guys have managed to make a record that's crazy fucked up and twisted, but with a sonic dementia that's just subtle enough, that some unsuspecting true grim warriors might just get suckered into listening to this chunk of blackened what the fuck genius. Gorgeous packaging too, matte finish digipak, with super striking artwork, and a booklet filled with lyrics, and weirdly old timey imagery.

MPEG stream: Ecstacy In Blood - A Ballad
MPEG stream: Storm Is Coming
MPEG stream: Haul

We've gotten to a really weird place in our music obsession, as evidenced by the fact that sometimes a recommendation against, is almost stronger than a recommendation FOR. Sounds weird but it's true. We have friends at other stores, who will tell us something is terrible, they hated it, but then will add "you might like it though." And the weird thing is, they're usually right (that we'll like it). We've developed such a taste for the bizarre, it's sometimes hard to tell if something is bad, or so fucked up it's genius. However, one of those friends recommended against buying this very record, very vehemently in fact. Hard to recall, but it was something along the lines of it not being very metal and being all jangly and wussy. Fair enough. But they are from Finland, and they do have a song called "Discover The Pigtail"! Those two pieces of critical info were enough to overrule our friend's warning, and we're so glad they were. This latest ep from Finnish black metal, psychedelic post rock horde Jumalhamara is AMAZING. Three songs, all on the long side, with a sound that is pretty difficult to pin down. It is easy to see why someone questing for serious black metal grimness might be disappointed. The record begins with the sound of children, laughing, playing, and what sounds like oinking pigs, a field recording of some village, until the band ROAR into action, pounding out a fierce blast of blackened buzz, grinding and intensely heavy, but it literally only lasts for about 10 seconds, then the band drifts off into some washed out hippy psych territory, all crooned reverbed vocals, lazy sun baked melodies, simple hand drums, slippery minimal bass, streaks of dubbed out distorted guitar, but for the most part, this is almost like some blackened Finnish Grateful Dead. Near the end there's even some fuzzy organ, the guitars get a bit heavier, the vocals moaning and chant-like, but it never really explodes, just gets thicker and more dense, while still seeming jammy and druggy. So awesome. Almost like a slightly heavier, way more fucked up black metal version of the recent Dead Man record. "Discover The Pigtail" begins with glistening harmonics, which are soon joined by some strange off kilter drumming, tangled riffing and howled vocals, the cool thing about this track is that those harmonics never go away, so even as the band slithers and sprawls, spewing out a sort of buzzy blackness, the glistening shimmer totally shines through, diluting the heaviness, turning what might be something raw and heavy into something way more bizarre and trippy, at times it almost sounds like two records playing simultaneously, they drift in an out of sync, all very dizzying and gloriously tweaked. The final track is the briefest of the bunch, and begins as a grinding gnarled and blackened doomic dirge, but not typically sludgy and murky, instead it's super dense and layered, the drums doing much more than pounding away, stumbling and skittering, beneath streaks of high end guitar, and chugging blown out riffage, the cymbals sizzling, the whole track recorded super hot and in the red, blasting and pounding and twisting until it fades out. Definitely not really black metal, more like some sort of twisted doom-ed post rock avant psych, but still plenty heavy and really fucking great!

MPEG stream: The Swing
MPEG stream: Discover The Pigtail

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

SORRY.

Veering drastically from their Slintishly Rodanic past, Anahata heads for Fugazi country, with new markedly off key vocals, and some pseudo-ethno percussion. Immersed in the insulated world of indie rock, where a pedigree is everything, and everyone is an ego stroking yesman, there is no one to tell JO44, that they are not breaking new ground, they are slowly becoming less and less unique, and that Doug Scharin is not Stewart Copeland. A lot of people I know like this record, but if June of 44 for you (like me) were merely one of many bands, trying desperately to fill the void left by the demise of Slint/Rodan/Bastro, then this record will surely disappoint. Oh yeah. their usually sublime packaging has been replaced by the bad-rock-band-collage normally reserved for bands like Foghat or UFO.

Taking up where The Anatomy of Sharks left off, Four Great Points is probably the best June of 44 yet. The singing and the songs are better, and toward the end of the record they wander further into (for them) unexplored territory, incorporating moog, samples, spoken word, and meandering soundscapes.

Following the Tortoise/The Ex collaboration, here's the newest installment in Konkurrent's "Fishtank" series. Recorded in February 1999 while on tour in Europe, here are six exclusive tracks of June of 44's unique jazz/post-rock experiments. The liner notes suggest that this is the "missing link" between their albums "Four Great Points" and "Anahata".

New three-song ep from these post-rockers®. Maybe more experimental and stretched-out than before, with the drummer Doug Scharin bringing in some dub concepts from his band Him.

New collection on this Dutch audiophile vinyl label of early eighties dub mixes by Junia Walker. Heavy rhythm tracks -- real drums, not electronic -- with LOTS of effects of the percussive variety run through excessive delay, occasional analogue synth blasts, train horns, etc. It's almost hard to say it, but there's too much effects-foolery going on here at times. None the less, it's a pretty decent record if you want some off the wall dubs.

While many have followed their lead, aping their electro fueled indie-pop, Junior Boys still have so much more class and sophistication than the wannabe masses that flood the scene with their watered down sounds these days. Begone Dull Care is the Junior Boys' third album and while their songs have always been slow burners, this album is probably the slowest yet, with a bit of patience required to fully appreciate, but if you stick with it, the rewards are pretty damn great! It's tricky to make an album of electro-pop that isn't totally initially catchy or in your face, but Junior Boys have proven that they understand so well how to create an overall mood and sound that can take a few listens before the impact is truly felt! Always the perfect soundtrack for late nights and coming down sessions, enticingly sleek and so richly smooth. While so much of electro-pop these days is about flashing fluorescent colors as bright and obnoxiously as possible, Junior Boys remind us all that it's possible to create something much more fluid and composed while still being able to move bodies with such ease.

MPEG stream: Work
MPEG stream: Hazel
MPEG stream: Bits & Pieces

We slipped this one in the cd player this morning, and started our day off right... with some 'get the blood flowing' remixes of Junior Boys' tracks. Hot Chip, Carl Craig, Kode 9, and Tensnake all take turns at flavoring the already infectious tracks from JB's latest album So This Is Goodbye ("In The Morning", "Like A Child", "Double Shadow" and "FM" respectively). But bringing Dead Horse to a cool down close sans beats is the cdep's highlight, Marsen Jules' remix of "FM" which opts for a lulling wash of hazy static and ethereal sighs. That cd-only track fits snugly (and snuggly!) between your Ovals and Panda Bears. Aaaah.

MPEG stream: Double Shadow (Kode 9 Remix)
MPEG stream: FM (Marsen Jules Remix)

Over the last few years there has been no shortage of '80s inspired bands, creating electronic infused pop with an indie sensibility. But well before this retro explosion of bands boldly proclaiming their love for the '80s, Junior Boys hit the scene at a time when indie pop was in such desperate need of something more sensual danceable, an indie pop sound that did more than just flirt with the dance floor. What's given the group lasting power is that they aren't just about tapping into an era, or sound, or giving you ironic winks about the keyboards they are playing or the outfits they are wearing. While many continue to nail the strictly aesthetic side of '80s electro-pop, Junior Boys are one of the only groups who truly capture the romantic and emotional side of this often cheapened landscape. There is so much soul and substance in the songs they create, and Jeremy Greenspan has one of the smoothest and most seductive voices of any singer around. It's All True continues their streak of great albums, filled with steaming movers, and sizzling slow burners. Imagine Aphex Twin getting a hold of George Michael and Boy George and helping them create their most understated and sexiest recordings ever. Or New Order reworking Japan's Gentleman Take Polaroids. As refreshing as Junior Boys were when they originally hit the scene, their continued earnestness and ability to craft songs that have an emotional weight to them is equally as refreshing in this moment in time when it all seems to be about irony and capturing just the surface of another moment in time. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Itchy Fingers
MPEG stream: Playtime
MPEG stream: Banana Ripple

You've gotta be a little wary when a band is being promoted by their record label as sounding like a current hip buzz band. Such is the case with the Junior Boys' newest album (the other band being Franz Ferdinand), and actually they're not really much like F.F. at all. Nor are they 'synth-pop' as we've also seen them tagged in other reviews. They're much more mellow, minimal electro / techno-based with gently stuttering beats and hushed spoken sung vocals (often very David Sylvian-ish). Serene and elegant.

MPEG stream: More Than Real
MPEG stream: Last Exit

Hailing from the cold climate of Ontario, Canada, Junior Boys are back with their second full length to add some warm sleek soul to the too often cold and icy dance floor. This is is how you always wished the Pet Shop Boys sounded. With his irresistibly smooth vocal stylings Jeremy Greenspan perfectly lays that laid back inviting voice atop synths, guitar, bass, drums and a laptop, creating a fully realized electronic pop sound. While so many others playing so called electro-pop are smothered in irony and look-at-us-we're-so-hip garb it's so refreshing to listen to the Junior Boys as they mean what they play and do it so so well. If you miss the magic of early Depeche Mode and Japan records this could be a welcome addition to your collection. The kind of sounds that you want to hear after a long night out, it not only keeps the beat on the dance floor, but when you finally get home, it slows things down and lets unwind as you take off your dance shoes and sink into some new romantic dreams. So nice!

MPEG stream: In The Morning
MPEG stream: So This Is Goodbye

Good ol' Honest Jon's. Always with the nice packaging for one and, as evinced by the wonderful Cedric Im Brooks reissue of a couple years ago, excellent choice in music. Super rootsy, super heavy reggae from the 70's. Recorded at the Black Ark, Joe Gibbs and King Tubby's with guesting from Fred Locks, Pablove Black, Zoot Sims and engineering talents from Joseph Robinson (who worked on Light Of Saba). Possible bummer: this is one of those vocal, version, vocal, version style anthologies, so if you're not into hearing the same rhythm doubled on every other track you might want to program your CD player to play all the even numbered tracks (for vocals) and all the odd numbered tracks (for the versions). Comes in a beautifully printed digipak with glossy black ink on matte red and white.

MPEG stream: Look Out For the Devil
MPEG stream: Cobre Version

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

SORRY.

Sirens is a new limited edition cd from this fine Bay Area foursome! Our first encounter with Junior Panthers was back in 2002... no, not really all that long ago! Their band name was fitting, collegiate and energetic. Their self-titled debut album was a bright sunbeam of buoyant pop. The next we heard from them was their Derelicts cdep in 2006, and it seemed they were still destined for jangly indie pop darling status. Now just two years later, they're a whole 'nother band... still very good, but very different. Think: a lot less bounce, and more beefed up rock. Ultra drenched in reverby guitar effects, Sirens is far more shoegazerly and spacily psychedelic than past recordings seemingly inspired by equal parts My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Jesus & Mary Chain, Swervedriver and Polvo. Cool.

MPEG stream: Another Side
MPEG stream: Solar Attraction

Sweet, sunny pop has the power to brighten a day! Those jangle'n'crunch guitars. Those mellow, uplifting vocal harmonies. Listening to this album sure stirred flashes of familiarity. While the Junior Panthers certainly brings to mind the beloved power pop beauty of Big Star or their disciples Velvet Crush, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, there was something else that rang even closer to home. It wasn't until the thirteenth song began that I knew for certain that I'd heard this band (or some other incarnation of them) before. The song in question is "Defy Your Radio" (there's two versions of it, the second radio edit version doesn't appear numerically on the cd player counter, but rest assured it's there) and you may recall our enthusiastic review of it when it appeared on SF band The Damsels' debut release a little over a year ago. Yes, that band has transformed into the Junior Panthers. That song was a stand-out on that cdep, and it's definitely a highlight here as well. As for the rest of the album, there's eleven more songs filled with energetic pop smarts. A solid 'debut'!

RealAudio clip: Defy Your Radio
RealAudio clip: California

It's been a very very long time, but the Bay Area's Junior Panthers have resurfaced with a new ep! With a new lineup, they've picked right up where they left off, dishing out their delicious indie pop nuggets. They stick with the basics, crunchy guitars, dreamy boy vocals and infectious hooks galore. What more could you ask for? Well, except for it to have been released during the summer months because it's ideal driving to the beach music. Hmmm, I guess it can just as easily warm and brighten an autumn or winter day now, can't it? Yes, indeedie!

MPEG stream: Pills
MPEG stream: Paranormal

MPEG stream: Simple Minds Do Simple Things

We've always been big fans of Jose Gonzalez's soft touch sensual guitar playing and breezy songwriting, but with the latest from his full band Junip we think we've been hit with the most impacting and satisfying album he's created yet. The record is brimming with an immediacy that matches the intimacy that Gonzalez always excels in bringing to his songs. But with Junip, there is much more of a driving vibe and a wider range of sound that makes for such a satisfying listening experience. We hear nice touches of Arthur Russell-like innerworld melodies and nuanced delicate and unique elements within each song that remind us of the first couple Pinback records. There are even some awesome and tasteful hints of prog-pop that we've been digging so much. This has everything you want in a really smart and emotional pop record, the playing is impeccable and draws you in from the get-go, and Gonzalez's warm and woozy voice becomes the icing on the cake, total seduction! Fans of The Sea & Cake, Pinback, Kings Of Convenience, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Arthur Russell, American Analog Set, make sure not to sleep on this, as this is becoming a major contender for one of our favorite records of the year!

MPEG stream: In Every Direction
MPEG stream: Sweet & Bitter
MPEG stream: Tide

We first heard Boston post metal heavies on a recent split with fellow post metallers Rosetta, and were surprised by just how UNmetal these guys were, they're still heavy, but more like Katatonia or 'Radiohead' era Cave In, bombastic and epic, majestic and yeah, heavy, but clean vocals, soaring and dramatic (right down to some hazy dreamy female backup vox), the songs proggy and sprawling, unfurling brooding dramatic slow build verses, that build to massive crushing choruses, but never getting fully metal, instead blossoming into some sort of epic doom pop, the sound is a bit mathy too, and weirdly enough, some of the tracks remind us of Three Mile Pilot, albeit a much more metallic version, but the phrasing and hypnotic rhythms definitely draw from the same sonic well. As we mentioned in the review of that split with Rosetta, we can definitely see that this stuff might be too poppy and wimpy for a lot of metalheads, in fact, these guys opened up for some metal show here recently, and were definitely not appreciated, but hell, get these guys on a tour with Katatonia or Opeth or Lifelover, and people would be losing their mind. And really, this stuff could and should be all over the radio, the songs are that good, the production massive, the sound incredible, just like Cave In, if there were any justice in the world, these guys would be huge. And honestly, we weren't totally sold on these guys, but after a handful of listens, we find ourselves a little bit obsessed, playing this record like crazy. So, recommended if you like your metal tempered with plenty of poppiness, or alternately if you can handle your pop music on the seriously heavy side. A new favorite for sure.

MPEG stream: Betray The Grave
MPEG stream: All Shall Float
MPEG stream: Dance On Blood

We've long been fans of progressive post metal combo Rosetta, every record is a super ambitious sprawling multi-part epic, that manages to do MORE than just cram a million parts into a twenty minute song. They are as adept at meaningful song construction as they are at shredding, and they manage to make their metal art crazy catchy to boot. Which is true here too, their half of this split cdep is a single ten minute track, but it's fantastic, opening with a long stretch of chiming guitars and muscly drumming, definitely post rock, then the bellowed vox come in, and the song begins to metallize, but they haven't really gotten into it yet, cuz a minute or so later, the song proper kicks in, and the already epic jam gets that much more epic and heavy and loud, the band unwinding a thick tangled chunk of psyche metal crush, slipping from mathy post rock to churning downtuned sludge and back again, before shedding the heavy and unfurling a moody, shuffling, shimmering post rock interlude, with chiming guitars and some killer intricate drumming, a slow build smolder as the band builds their way back up, eventually erupting into a wild proggy mathy freakout, some killer guitar playing intricate and a little bit shreddy over what is almost a continuous drum solo, the sound getting more and more blissy and blown out, until the final minute or two, a seriously dense and heavy as fuck stop/start chug fest, with more insane drumming. Holy shit do these guys slay. When we haven't listened to them for a while we tend to forget how incredible their records are. But we just listened to this one song about 4 times in a row. Never heard Junius before, but these Boston heavies definitely have their own take on the whole post metal thing, their take being a way more melodic one, with the vocalist front and center, his voice soaring and clear, which gives the music, no matter how heavy the sounds in the background, a much more commercial feel, definitely reminding us of Cave In during their Radiohead period, which is not a bad thing at all, in fact, after hundreds of records of screeching and howling and yowling and grunting, it's kind of excellent to hear seriously heavy music paired with real vocals. And while much of the music here is heavy, the band do stretch out into a sort of progged out shoegazey metallic pop, the sound epic and emotional, perhaps a bit to wimpy for a certain segment of metalheads, but we're digging it a lot, and this one song definitely has us wanting to hear more. Killer packaging too, a nice digipak, but with one of those 3" cds within a 5" cd, so the outer ring is clear plastic, with the printing on the top, done so that when you look at the underside of the disc, there's readable text underneath the disc art. So cool. Also includes a download coupon for extra exclusive songs!

MPEG stream: A Day Dark With Night
MPEG stream: TMA-3

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

SORRY. Ex-Bay-Areans and/or veterans of Zorn's West Coast Masada quartet -- Ben Goldberg, Kenny Wollesen and John Schott -- plus Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn on bass.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but we think Juno's soundtrack cd is like a really good mixtape from your closest pal! A variety of old and new faves that pushes all the right nostalgia buttons. It includes Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes", Belle & Sebastian's "Expectations" and "Piazza, New York Catcher", The Kinks' "A Well Respected Man", Buddy Holly's Dearest", Velvet Underground's "Sticking With You", Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You", Cat Power covering the 1959 tune "Sea Of Love" (previously covered by The Honeydrippers), Sonic Youth doing The Carpenters' "Superstar", and a bunch by former Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson... who must be pretty stoked that the star of the film suggested that her character would be a fan, thus leading to Dawson's inclusion on this soundtrack and a big boost to her career.

MPEG stream: Anyone Else But You
MPEG stream: Sticking With You

Two songs apiece from angular artrock punk bands Juno and Dismemberment Plan. Dismemberment Plan covers Jennifer Paige's "Crush," but the real gem on this EP is Juno's version of the DJ Shadow track "High Noon." How cool is it for a rock band (with relatively traditional instrumentation) to cover a song that is basically a turntablist collage of found sounds from super disparate sources?

RealAudio clip: High Noon
RealAudio clip: The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich

So lovely is the work of Juppala Kaapio! That said, we must sadly report that the Japanese / Swiss, husband-and-wife duo have stated that Alpen Ocean will be their final album under the guise of Juppala Kaapio. Another project is in the works, and they are planning to unveil whatever this may be sometime in 2014. Many of the drone-clad works we champion hedge their bets with the power of the darkside; but there are plenty of choice examples of rapturous, celestial tones and holy minimalism that seek to enlighten rather than darken the consumers' mind. Juppala Kaapio's small catalogue of lovingly crafted minimalism figures somewhere between the summer solstice nature jams of the Finnish freak-folk types and the twinkling harmonics of Terry Riley and LaMonte Young. As for Alpen Ocean, a brightly hued psychedelia of a sunburst and snowblind tableau is rendered through the wide-eyed sense of awe and wonder after calmly sipping a cup of psilocybin mushroom tea. Carole Kojo's delicate falsettos waver into a meditative chorale through tape loops and delay amidst the slow kaleidoscopic arrangements of chiming bells, bowed gongs, glassy electronics, and a few pastoral field recordings thrown in for good measure. It all comes together into bright, rapturous drones that Juppala Kaapio's Hitoshi Kojo describes as "overlaid harmonies of a murmuring of trees, howling skies, roarings of the ocean and the gradual transformation that are accompanied by melodies which may remind you of migratory birds travelling across the sky on a lost ancient continent, or the dream of sea animals that are in eternal slumber in a ridge of mountains." Limited to a mere 300 copies!

MPEG stream: Alpen Ocean
MPEG stream: Atlantic Alps

Faux-Finnish, droning freak-folk from a Japanese sound artist and a Swiss chanteuse! Juppala Kaapio is comprised of Hitoshi & Carole Kojo, whose lysergically bright-eyed concoctions draw from plenty of arcane and archaic folkloric traditions, and emerge as a beguiling, playful form of abstracted psychedelia. We've mentioned before that the name of the project is in fact Finnish, translating as Juppala Dwarf. What, who, or where Juppala is, we don't really know; but the aesthetic which the couple evoke is definitely akin to those adventurous Finns responsible for Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Islaja, and Kuupuu. Bells, flutes, hand percussion, cheap synths, violins, melodicas, vocal chants, and whatnot all go into the buzzing, wheezing thickets of sound that make up Juppala Kaapio's Animalia Corolla. With all of these instruments, the two create dense layerings of glistening textures and radiant drones that slip and slide around quite a bit, but always seem grounded in a fundamental harmonic tone that the two have plucked from the celestial spheres above. It's easy to situate these not only near those Finns, but also Taj Mahal Travellers at their most celebratory, LaMonte Young at his trippiest, and Fursaxa at her most narcotized. Really beautiful transcendent, modern-day ritualism! We have here the art edition of Animalia Corolla, packaged in a neatly stitched felt sleeve and a screen-printed o-card to house the cd itself. This version is in an edition of ONLY 88 copies. We'll probably not be able to restock this, but we should have the regular version shortly.

MPEG stream: Moosfluh
MPEG stream: Saturatus

A swarmingly beautiful, miasmic piece of psychedelic drone folk! Juppala Kaaplo is the husband & wife duo of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo, the latter of whom had released a number of spectacular drone-smear constructions under the moniker Spiracle. Minimalism is certainly a key component to the Juppala Kaaplo sound, but it's the kaleidoscopic trills that you'll get from Terry Riley rather than the steely suspension from Organum or Phill Niblock. Certainly, Spiracle's last affair - the daydreaming ambient record Ananta - was a much friendlier form of minimalism, but we were still not entirely expecting the shimmering, prism-shot psychedelia of this album. A hypnotizing mass immediately emerges from the lp with lengthy repetitions of Carole's vocal that is equal parts Liz Harris and Tara Burke, haunting the forest-dwelling drones from various bowed instruments that Hitoshi stacks into sinewy passages. Throughout, long breathy gasps of aerated noises push to the foreground alongside a revolving set of church organ trills and arpeggiations that faithfully play homage to Terry Riley's classic Rainbow In Curved Air. The second side is a slightly more somber affair with violin and piano gliding out of an aggregate drone from those two instruments. Like the A-side, it's a wonderful bliss-out number albeit sodden from a rainy night out in the Finnish wilderness. Limited to 450 copies and highly recommended!

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Yes, that is faux-fur sprouting from this cd by Juppala Kaapio! As we mentioned before, this duo has a Finnish name and shares a Finnish freak-folk ritualism, but neither participant is Finnish. They are in fact the husband / wife pairing of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo, who bring extended technique vocals, bleary instrumentation from smoke & mirror, and lots of liquid nirvana electronic processing to the source material. Where their earlier works had 'jammed nature' along the Jewelled Antler / RV Paintings / Kemiallyset Ystavat axis with a wistful crunchiness, Rewound Groves marries the golden-summer glow of high-latitude pagan liturgy and the rapturous blur of Andrew Chalk's contributions to Organum or even some of the Taj Mahal Travellers broadcasts to nowhere. The vocals from both Hitoshi and Carole wax and wane on the opening number "Sewing Through Twigs" amongst a richly patterned undulation of glistening drones from what might be bells, might be flutes, might be guitars, might be the sparkle of twilight stars. Watery textures and backmasked tape bridges these sounds with the :zoviet*france: like haze of "Mycophiles And Pebbles" with spectral loops and holy mesmerism sprawled throughout the soft-focus layering of sound. Probably the best thing that Juppala Kaapio has released to date; and given the artwork this is justifiably limited to 123 copies. Brilliant.

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Juppala Kaapio is a project with a Finnish name and Finnish credentials, but not a Finn amongst the lot. The parties responsible are the husband and wife duo of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo (the former Swiss and the latter Japanese by birth), but Hitoshi in particular has spent a fair amount of time in the Finnish hinterlands, and had made an appearance on the recent Kemialliset Ystavat album Ullakopalo. That said, Hitoshi has a small but impressive catalog of material recorded over the past decade under the moniker Spiracle. There, thick masses of texture piled on top of each other, creating thick drones with ghostly melodies flickering about, much like the archaic sounding recordings of Organum and the more compacted albums of Andrew Chalk. All of this culminated in the 2cd Ananta opus released back in 2009, and Hitoshi shifting his focus to the collaborative project Juppala Kaapio, whose name translates vaguely as the Juppala Dwarf. The two hint at the thickening drones of Spiracle, focusing more on a clattering, psychedelic ritualism that is more in keeping with all things Fonal - spluttering acoustic guitars, toy synths, Tony Conrad inspired viola drone, hand percussive tappings, prolonged flute tones, lots of bells, found forest objects, and vocalized mantras as if the personal soundtrack to a private ritual for wandering spirits who found themselves in a moss-covered cabin somewhere in the northern reaches of Finland basking in the midnight sun of an endless Arctic summer. Playful, fantastical, haunting, and thoroughly tripped out, Juppala Kaapio is highly recommended to any one keen on Jewelled Antler, Fursaxa, Taj-Mahal Travellers, Parson Sound, the freakiest end of the freak-folk spectrum, and of course the aforementioned Kemialliset Ystavat.

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

SORRY.

Last year Mr. Jurado presented his full band melancholic splendor on On My Way To Absence. This year for his seventh full length he takes a different, more stripped down but no less evocative approach. For much of the album it's simply his overcast voice and his guitar which drift in and out of fog-like, heavy atmospheric drones. Every so often there'll be a glint of piano. Man, no one does desolation like Damien Jurado! Totally haunting and heartbreaking from start to finish (don't miss the last track "Montessano").

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Damien Jurado has long labored a little to the left of the spotlight, quietly writing excruciatingly personal songs that are delivered with a poignant intensity few have matched. Think Springsteen's "Nebraska" -- yup, that's how good Jurado is. For example, the first song here, "Medication", is so heartrendingly sad yet so perfectly delivered that upon first listen both Andee and Windy burst into tears and had to go into Aquarius' back office to recover. Well... not really, but we were crying *inside*. Dusty songs, sunbaked by the side of the road or in the shade of a motel carport. So pretty.

RealAudio clip: Medication

Just a man and his guitar. This is a 5-song cdep of lo-fi live recordings of Damien Jurado. The liner notes specify that the tracks were recorded on salvaged 1/4" tape, but don't let the poor sound quality dissuade you. Mr. Jurado's quality songwriting shines through the muffled-ness. Super hushed and heartfelt.

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Wonderful! Damien Jurado works his magic once again. Although make no bones about it, Jurado is wholly his own man, on this album, both his songs and his performances bring to mind other top notch singer/songwriters past and present. Perhaps an indication of a broadening of his scope, the fourth song "Lion Tamer" is strongly reminiscent of Lou Barlow's slouchy introspection, while later in the album "Northbound" captures the brittle lilt and beauty of Nick Drake, and the very next one titled "Icicle" bristles with the sullen angst of Interpol. On the closer "A Jealous Heart Is A Heavy Heart" Jurado almost out-Palaces Will Oldham. So, what is the common thread that ties all of these artists together? The ability to absolutely nail the breadth of a man's despairing emotions from the precarious and fragile to the near-suffocating and burdensome. A lush, gorgeous downer.

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Singer songwriter Damien Jurado is also apparently an avid scourer of thrift stores for audio curiosities. This CD contains audio cassette letters to family members and loved ones as well as an answering machine reocording of a couple's harrowing conversations concerning their breakup, their child and the police. In one instance, a man confesses his intense and longing love for a woman - him: "I just realized why I haven't been able to sleep at night, it's because I miss you so much." Her: "...that's nice." Brutal. A must for fans of Lucas And Friends, One of One and other found tape oddities. Comes with five handsomely printed postcards.

The first song on this album is instantly 'classic' singer songwriter stuff, so lovely that we were knocked over with surprise. Damien Jurado's beautiful second album is a dark and dreamy folk record with pop sensibilities, as opposed to his first record which was basically a pop record, his delicate warm voice perfectly complementing the sparse simple arrangements. Definitely for fans of Nick Drake, Dylan, Nanci Griffith, etc. One of Windy's current favorites.

I've always compared the amazing Damien Jurado with Red House Painters because he shares the same sadcore, downtrodden, introspective style and quiet certitude. But upon listening to his new album it strikes me that comparisons to Cat Power might also be in order here, as his voice reminds me of Chan Marshall's in its huskiness, a sort of restrained moan. And his unhurried, lots-going-on-but-you-cant-hear-it songwriting and delivery style are also similar to Ms Marshall. This album is so pretty and clear and sad that every time we play it instore, someone or two, or three, buys it. Give it a listen! MPEG Download: "Bad Dreams" [/audio/juradobaddreams.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Bad Dreams" [/audio/juradobaddreams.m3u]

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Man, does this guy never disappoint? Damien Jurado has released three solo albums of sad, downtrodden rock songs delivered often on acoustic guitar, his plaintive voice throaty and intense. I've compared those solo albums to Springsteen's Nebraska before,

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[ aquarius records catalogue — J ]