[ 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 251 through 300 of 819.

Apparently this album hit the Billboard "New Age" charts! Not sure how or why, you wouldn't think that a collaboration between one of the Swans and a member of Godflesh would qualify as New Age (and it really isn't!). Downtempo electronica with some avant-garde elements, more like, with hints of doomic menace. If you're looking for the crushing metallic guitars of Godflesh, you won't quite find them, though many passages are deep and dark and spooky enough to remind us of Broadrick's current project Jesu. The deal with this perhaps inevitable collaboration (inevitable given Broadrick's obvious Swans fandom, and Jarboe's openness to collaborative ventures, witness her earlier disc with Neurosis), is that it's JB making mostly electronic backgrounds for Jarboe to do her thing vocally... operatic excesses, and mewlings and moanings... so obviously you've got to be into "her thing". Some are, some aren't. The ambient, layered and looped wailings of the opener, "Decay", should separate the two camps pretty clearly. Some will find Jarboe's vocals to be full of mystery and emotion, others, simply irritating (though it's only on "Tribal Limo" that we really got annoyed with her, the track featuring weird Diamanda Galas yodelling over junky Gang Gang Dance-ish beats). That said, for those into Jarboe, there's a lot to like here. And we can kind of see how, New Age or not, this could crack the charts on the strength some of the better cuts, like "Let Go" which sounds a lot like Portishead or Bjork, Jarboe effecting a babygirl voice under a blanket of crackley drone, accompanied by a spare snare thwack...

MPEG stream: Let Go
MPEG stream: Tribal Limo

One of two new releases from mysterious UK tape label The Tapeworm. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the blown out psych garage fuzz of the Van Patterson Quartet, and on past lists, The Tapeworm has unleashed limited releases from turntablist Philip Jeck, guitarist Stephen O'Malley, Simon Fisher Turner as well as a truly fascinating reading of works by Jean Baudrillard. This limited edition cassette seems to lean more toward the mood/vibe of the Baudrillard, as it is another all spoken word release, this one a series of 3 recorded interviews with film maker Derek Jarman, recorded in London between 1979 and 1980, originally research for a dissertation, these recordings have remained unheard and unreleased since then. The conversations are truly fascinating, and Jarman is friendly, affable, funny, discussing, film, sex, the US versus the UK, the underground verus commercial filmmaking, fashion, Malcolm McLaren, the Queen and her fake crown and more. The sound is warm and fuzzy, plenty of surrounding sounds, crackle and random bits of sonic detritus, as well as drop outs and other elements of old tape recordings, but it's all about Jarman and the interviewer, and their funny, relaxed conversations. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES. The cover art features an original drawing by Jarman, given to the interviewer (Richard Torry) as a gift.

Had this in stock for little while, should definitely list it, it's pretty great... It's released on Numero, but instead of the deep funk and soul they usually dig up, this dvd release is about the visuals - it's a collection of clever, brief, animated films from public television. You might have seen a few of 'em if you were a kid, watching Sesame Street in the '70s! Taking an avant garde approach that prefigured many techniques now familiar from MTV videos and advertising, filmmaker Jarnow made educational animations that were quite artistic as well. Beautiful, fascinating stuff. And even adults might learn (or re-learn) something about science and math from this. Plus, anyone with kids, this is perfect. There's a total of 45 short 16mm films in this collection, nicely presented in a slipcased package that comes with a large, 60 page book filled, as they say, with "essays and ephemera". The dvd extras include a documentary about Jarnow's creative process, as well as index and playlists. Super duper nice. You can look up Jarnow on YouTube to get a taste of this, but if you like what you see, you definitely would want the complete package.

Somewhere right now Thom Yorke is blushing, now that this 1973 soundtrack has been reissued. Well, that's our speculation anyway, 'cause the main theme sounds SO MUCH like a Radiohead song (which one, we haven't quite figured out. Not "Paranoid Android" but close.) At any rate, this was either a big inspiration to Radiohead or it's just a marvellous coincidence. You'll hear it for yourself we're sure. Thom certainly needs to hear this if he hasn't already (as we suspect). And it's not just the melody of this soundtrack's main leit motif, but the singing voice itself. A French female doing wordless ah ah ahs -- play it back to back with Radiohead and you'll swear it's Mr. Yorke's famous falsetto. But that's only part of the reason this soundtrack is so fascinating. It's also a very very early electronica effort by a young Jean-Michel Jarre, later in the '80s to become well-known as a New Age superstar famed for spectacular multi-media shows. In the seventies, though, his output could be considered credible electronica pioneering. 1977's Oxygene is a pretty cool album after all. But this was before even that, and it's way more extreme. Truly jarring electronic sound that's hard to reconcile with the idea of "background" music in film! And Les Granges Brulees was not, as far as we're aware, a horror or science fiction flick where such might make sense. As far as we can tell, this Jean Chapot directed movie was a mystery / romance (staring Alain Delon btw). Certainly the vocals are romantic, and much of the rest of Jarre's crankier-than-Kraftwerk electronics are suspenseful, a la Goblin. One track breaks the mood a little bit -- "Zig-zag" must be from a scene where the characters visit a circus or something, as it's got that Jean-Jacques Perrey zaniness to it. But most of this is interplay between the haunting theme and freaky electronic fx. A very cool, out of the blue reissue, forshadowing Kid A some thirty years ago!

MPEG stream: La Chanson Des Granges Brulees
MPEG stream: Une Morte Dans La Neige

It seems like ages since we've featured a new Fonal release, one of our favorite Finnish labels, and this one is quite beautiful. Jarse is the solo project of Jari Suominen, who is a member of those aQ faves, Shogun Kunitoki, as well as Kiila, both bands we have extensively reviewed in the past. The psychedelic sound of Jarse falls somewhere between Zomes and the mellower psych side of Dungen. Suominen builds his own instruments and uses a brand new, self-built synthesizer based on the schematics of the 'Sahkokvartetti', a machine which was used by the first electronic band in Finland, led by M.A. Numminen, back in 1968. It was this original synth that was used on Shogun Kunitoki's last album, Vinonaamakasio. Det Gar Runt Igen consists of four long tracks, but within each track Suominen packs a myriad of ideas - and space as well. Repeating and building synth loops coalesce into spacious structures of texture and rhythm, introducing soaring guitar maelstroms that funnel in on themselves before relaxing tension and bringing in soft-sung vocals and classical string and bell textures, all within a psychedelic shimmering skin. Lovely, hypnotic and majestic!

MPEG stream: Det Gar Runt Igen
MPEG stream: Kuulen Jo Kellot
MPEG stream: Kultainen Portti DD

Canadian '60s artifact, well actually it's from 1971 but sounds way more sixties boomer rock. From remote Thunder Bay, they were hippies with environmental concerns, hence this album's biggest claim to fame, the heavy protest rocker "Mr. Oil Man", all 12 minutes of it. They also do a "Mr. Business Man" for good measure. This digipak reissue includes 9 bonus tracks and a booklet of liner notes and sheet music! Though the booklet is for some reason on the outside of the digipak, not the best packaging concept in our opinion.

MPEG stream: Mr. Oil Man
MPEG stream: 20 Years

Limited to only 100 copies and long sold out, we realized we had a bunch of these and never actually reviewed them, so figured we'd get it on the list so at least a few of you free noise cd-r obsessives could get your grubby little paws on one of these. If you're quick that is! Jarvis is a fixture in the UK noiserock underground, and unlike his usual soundmaking, Tectonique Du Corps is more of a drone-y skittery percussive freejam, organic and a bit tripped out, very free, but rife with layers of buzz and strange rhythmic arrangements. We won't go into too much detail, since we have less than 10 copies, other than to say this is some pretty kick ass shit. Drums are haphazard and abstract, very free, almost like some free jazz drummer sitting in with a noise outfit, which as far as we know could be exactly what happened. While the drums stumble and lurch, streaks of feedback swirl above the fray, while beneath and within a thick fuzzy drone holds it all together, the second track is way more drifty and abstract, a meandering bassline beneath a layer of wheezing harmonies, super mesmerizing and strangely groovy, track three is some more buzzy drift, overlaid with gnarled little tangles of distorted guitar squiggle, everything drizzled with effects and creaking ambience, and finally, the disc finishes off with a 12 minute slab of almost jazzy freedronedrift, murky and muddy, but with a distinct groove and a propulsive krautjam buried beneath the whir and buzz, super druggy and tripped out. Killer stuff. Already out of print. We have just a handful so once these disappear, they will never reappear!

MPEG stream: Golden Lady
MPEG stream: Spectrum Hat'r

Brand new full length from one of our favorite new outfits, the strangely named Jasper TX, the work of one man, a Mr. Dag Rosenqvist, who as you might have presumed, is not, in fact from Texas. And actually, based on the music of Jasper TX, it's a bit difficult to even begin to guess where Mr. Rosenqvist hails from. One minute we're tempted to suggest some tiny village in the Alps, surrounded on all sides by snowy peaks and lush verdant forests. Moments later, we'd guess he was from the desert, existing amidst miles and miles of wide open space, the sky threatening to swallow the world whole. Another theory would be that Jasper TX comes from nowhere, or at least, nowhere we would recognize, an alternate universe perhaps, and alien land, somewhere different, dark, mysterious, separated from our world by a thin gauzy veil, so as we glimpse into that world we see and hear a reflection of our world, but one that is slightly skewed, obfuscated, fuzzy and blurry and indistinct. Which is precisely why we seem to love it so much. Like many of his sonic brethren, Rosenqvist takes simple bits of pop music, and pulls them apart, wrapping them in bits of crackle and hum, and setting them amidst soft warm melodies and dreamy shimmering soundscapes. A sort of abstract, spaced out ambient post rock might come close. But it's not really that simple to describe. It's effervescent, weightless, dreamlike, but at the same time, dark and heavy and intense. Each song a struggle between the two. A subtle tension that imbues the songs with emotion and urgency, even at their most blissed out and laid back. A Darkness, as the title implies, might just be a tad bit darker than past outings, although the first track might not immediately let on. it's a doleful warm summer afternoon drift of soft focus post rock guitar, all minor key and meandering melody, floating along a slow flow of strange static and buzzing hum. But after that, it's a slow descent into a darker place, thick washes of warm drone and whirling winds of hiss and buzz, looped vocal snippets, strange beeping and distant industrial grind, before breaking through the black sky in a burst of effulgent bliss, still minor key and miserable, but briefly unhindered by the black buzz of the preceding 8 minutes. The next track is a desert-y drift, like Godspeed covering Calexico, harmonicas and little bits of twang hover amidst a dense reverbed soundscape, like a blown out and stripped down Galaxie 500. Beyond that, the sound continues to darken, huge billowing clouds of low end rumble and metallic shimmer, muted FX drenched snatches of distant piano, peppered with strange scrapes and scratches, footsteps? Someone digging? All very mysterious and haunting. The record ends with the epic 20+ minute "Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost", a glistening slow motion drift, everything sparkling and glimmering, crystalline guitars smeared into long slow streaks of sound, melodies muted and blurred, gorgeous and ethereal, before transforming into a skipping crackly glitchscape, a whirring minimal drone hovers beneath a storm cloud of record crackle and a skipping record rhythm, before slowly blossoming into world of warm melody, a sonic expanse streaked with oranges and yellows, dark burnished reds, guitars flittering like little birds, just bits of melody against a stained glass sky. So lovely...

MPEG stream: Better Days To Come
MPEG stream: Destroy Detroit (The Sign Of Buildings Never Built)

Jasper TX, how we will miss you! An Index Of Failure marks the final installment for Jasper TX, although the man behind this dream-time drone-rock project will be continuing to record under his own name, that being Dag Rosenqvist... and hopefully, he'll be retaining the same moodscaping and slippery alternation between post-rock ambience (e.g. Stars Of The Lid, Labradford, Barn Owl, and perhaps a rhythmless Mogwai) and the electro-acoustic soundsculpting of a Tim Hecker or a Jonathan Coleclough. That said, the title is apt, given this is a collection of tracks that were originally commissioned for various compilations or were collaborations that never quite got off the ground with Rosenqvist completing the original material by himself. The sad chords on the first track sound like they could have come from a Rhodes organ that leads into a beautifully shimmering wash of guitar drone, and that resonant, echo-laden radiance continues on the second track, about which Rosenqvist quips that it was just recorded with voice and guitar, although the expansive blur and wash speaks to a much larger, if hushed orchestra of instruments quietly layering timbre on top of timbre. Piano and tape experiments get reworked through Rosenqvist's tricks and techniques, culminating in what is undoubtedly one of his finest moments - the grandiose, oceanic crescendo of desolate guitar chords, slow marching rhythms, and densely washed out blur of post-Nadja distortion on "Days Above The Tide." So beautiful! Handmade Birds printed up a few more of these than they normally do, with an edition of 500, all on winter grey-sky vinyl.

It's actually been a while since we've heard from Jasper TX, aka Dag Rosenqvist. For a brief spell, JTX was churning out releases like a Machinefabriek or Aidan Baker. And to be honest, we actually didn't mind, as we've loved pretty much everything Rosenqvist has released. In fact, the very first Jasper TX release, I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, still ranks as one of our favorite discs, and in some ways was sort of the first of this new breed of obfuscated blurred ambience we've come to love so much. Anyway, finally a brand new full length, one epic 51 minute track, split into 6 movements, and right out of the gate, we're smitten, deep dark swells, washed out barely there melodies, distant hiss, and a strange buried pulse, that seems to surface and then disappear, like some mysterious beasts heartbeat, growing louder as it reaches the surface, only to fade away as it disappears back into the depths. Long drawn out tones, shimmery reflective, before it slips into something MUCH more minimal, the second movement, a super low-end drift, barely audible through speakers but in headphones it's a powerful seismic rumble, rippled with strands of whispery static, and more buried barely audible rhythms. It's only on track three that the record takes on anything songlike, a loping lilting guitar, unspooling a dreamy laid back melody, a keyboard picking out a simple harmony over the top, all underpinned by a soft dronelike murmur. But the respite is brief, Black Sleep is indeed true to its title, narcotic and very dark, murky and mysterious, the record shifts into some abstract assemblage of thumps and bumps, before they fade out leaving a distant ominous whir, spread out like a slow moving black sonic sea, before shifting back again to song, the guitar returning, this time suspended amidst dense layers of static shimmer, low end rumbles, laced with bits of grit and glitch, of hiss and static, all very moody and intense, threatening to build to something climactic, but instead, shifting slowly forward, resolutely and mournfully. The final part, clocking in at nearly 20 minutes, begins with a cacophony of buzzing and scraped strings, a manic exploration of a piano's inside, still surrounded by shards of electronic glitch, the static and buzz creating accidental rhythms over a distant machine-like hum, before a melody surfaces, minor key and melancholy, the notes appearing one at a time as deep swells, the distant drones building in density and intensity, never quite exploding, but building to a muted murky chordal climax, majestic, but still subdued, before as all things drone must, it fades to silence. Definitely not the prettiest Jasper record (that honor still goes to I'll Be Long Gone) but certainly the darkest, and maybe the most mysterious sounding, a musical rendering of the Black Sleep, which to our ears can only be death, and as a soundtrack to slipping off our mortal coils, we'd be hard pressed to do much better than this.

MPEG stream: Black Sleep Part III
MPEG stream: Black Sleep Part IV

Latest disc from long time aQ fave Jasper TX (after 10 releases in 3 years, and those are just the ones we reviewed!), another lil' one, a 3" cd (not cd-r), six songs in just over 20 minutes, the first of which begins with a bang, almost knocked us out of our chairs, a super loud bit of metallic cacophony, which thankfully quickly gives way to something much more contemplative, but only a little less buzzy, a warm shimmering whir, that manages to be warm and meditative, but still a bit prickly and abrasive. The second track is much more song-y, a beautiful lilting arrangement for guitar, dark and folky, a bit Appalachian, before slipping into the third track, a gorgeous understated bit on ultra minimal drone, a subtle pulsing thrum, softly overlapping layers of low end, that seem to melt into one another. A bit of ultra high end shimmer, a whispery barely there upper register ur-drone, gives way to a spare bit of piano laced minimal ambience. The notes wreathed in reverb- and floating through dusty sun dappled expanses of hushed near-silence, which slips quietly into the closer, a beautifully bleary bit of spidery guitar, unfurling through soft clouds of reverb, a super spare slow core sprawl, that manages to be both lovely and hauntingly ominous. Another fantastic bit of abstract minimalism, and as some other reviewer opined, a pretty great way to spend 20 minutes. We of course concur, and thus say: RECOMMENDED!

MPEG stream: I'm Asleep On The Floor While Sunbeams Grace My Tired Head
MPEG stream: Gone, Away

Not sure if the title of this super limited cd-r has anything to do with the OTHER Jasper TX release elsewhere on this list, although we think it sort of must, c'mon, this is D + A, the other disc is called A Darkness, hmmm... Or maybe it's a play on "DNA"... Anyway, D + A follows a similar sonic path as A Darkness in that the sound of Jasper TX, for these releases at least, seems to be growing darker and more ominous, everything painted in deep blues and rich browns and of course lots and lots of black. The two lengthy tracks on D + A are ultra minimal, and surprisingly smooth and hi-fi. Part of what we loved about the other Jasper TX releases was the crumbling lo-fi aspect, the hiss and crackle and sonic imperfections wrapped around the glimmering glistening melodies inside. But Jasper TX do wear it well, this new smoother sound, and these tracks benefit, glowing darkly from within, shimmering and spreading out like barely there ripples on the surface of some massive body of oceanic sound. This is definitely the most minimal we've heard Jasper TX, and we're loving it... there's a lot of subtle overtones happening (a la Niblock) and the results are truly divine. Subtle for sure, but so so lovely. Ultra limited of course, already out of print as far as we know, we got about 30 copies but those will definitely be gone in a flash... Packaged in cool mini hand painted jackets in a plastic sleeve with a printed sticker.

MPEG stream: track 1
MPEG stream: track 2

Another gorgeous missive from former AQ record of the week recipient Jasper TX, aka Swedish sound sculptor Dag Rosenqvist. For more on the obfuscated beauty of Jasper TX, check the review of I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You elsewhere on the AQ site, where we wax rhapsodic about the fuzzy, blurry, shimmery pixelated dreamscapes Rosenqvist seems to be able to muster from thin air. For this brief two track blast, Rosenqvist ups the noise ante just a bit, but balances it with plenty of blurry beauty and dreamy ambience. The opener shifts from a creaking, nearly not there whisper, to a huge buzzing squall of crumbling distortion and keening high end shimmer, which quickly gives way to a super spacious near ambient minor key drift. The second track, clocking in at 15 minutes, spends its first two minutes rumbling at the edge of human perception, before a melody begins to emerge, the notes ringing out, hovering above the roiling near silent rumbles below, before beginning to swell, the notes ringing out longer, thick gauzy streaks of reverb wrapping themselves around the fragments of melody, wreathed in bits of glitch and crackle, glimmering and glistening, when, for just a brief moment, a guitar muscles its way through the murk, a single grinding chord smeared across the mournful drifting soundscape beneath, before disappearing completely, leaving the glistening notes and the crackling melodies to slowly fade away. Gorgeous. Packaged in a cool mini cardstock sleeve, with a printed sticker affixed to the plastic. LIMITED TO 75 COPIES!! We got about half, but those won't last long...

MPEG stream: Pt. I (excerpt)
MPEG stream: Pt. II (excerpt)

It's funny that after years of everybody striving for better sound quality, better recording equipment, higher fidelity, a sound closer and closer to pristine perfection, wax cylinder to 78 to lp to cassette to compact disc.... that we here at AQ tend to lean in the exact opposite direction. Sure that record's great, we'll think, but imagine if it was swathed in murky distortion, or drenched in a dense swirl of tape hiss! Record crackle? Yes, please. This constant quest for sonic perfection seems like a reflection of exactly what is wrong with society in general, a constant striving for some unattainable ideal, the march of progress, sacrificing character and feeling and emotion for faceless smooth 'perfection' in the process. But those imperfections are exactly what make things interesting and unique and totally unlike anything else. But as much as we love lesser than pristine sound quality, it's worth pointing out that when, for example, we hear a compilation of old blues 78's often cleaned up, obviously the scratches and pops and hiss were not at all intended, and thus realistically have no place in the music, at least from the musician's point of view, but as a byproduct of degradation and the passing of time and the fragility of primitive recordings, the sound of that decay becomes representative of the time passed, and the history within the music. So when we hear old 78's or long lost wax cylinder recordings, we don't want them cleaned up and digitally restored, the sound of the music wrapped in warm scratchiness and murky lo fidelity, gives the music a special kind of character, like the lines on our faces, or metal oxidizing into cool greens and blues. And I guess that's what appeals to us about the music of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker and William Basinski and the like. Musicians who create modern music, but who take that music and affect it in a way that makes it sound antique or otherworldly, damaged and decayed, sometimes by utilizing modern techniques, but just as often by employing old turntables and antiquated recording techniques, the music on its own is of course beautiful, but even more so with a rough patina of age and weariness, of whir and hiss, the musical equivalent of an old sepia tone photograph, edges all creased and folded, the images blurry and indistinct. It's more romantic, and way more mysterious. But it takes more than just slapping on some fuzz, or recording on a broken old reel to reel machine. There was a glut recently of electronica pop hybrids, where a band would sprinkle some bloops and bleeps over some generic strummy pop, and suddenly what was once a crappy pop band became some sort of experimental avant post pop group. Bullshit. Just like anything, it's more than the process, more than the technique, it's some ineffable combination that creates magic. Magic like Jasper TX. The work of one man, Dag Rosenqvist, and recorded at home in Sweden, Jasper TX sounds like so much more. A fuzzy travelogue, soft smeared images from lost lives and faded memories. A gentle lilting post rock, transmitted through time, picking up all sort of sonic detritus on the way, a message from another world, faded like an old postcard. A futuristic version of the unearthed 78. Imagine music nerds in 2066, discovering a mysterious compact disc, "rarely see those anymore...", unearthed in a trunk in some old abandoned house, marveling and the murky mystery of this record, and the beautifully fuzzy and foggy melodies, the droney timeless beauty. Jasper TX manages to evoke all sorts of feeling and emotions, some of the sounds, the methods, are clearly modern, but the whole record, every sound, every melody, is steeped in warm warbly mystery, even the title, I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, hints at the emotional disconnect, that faded photo, undelivered postcard, translated into music. Each track is a snapshot, a sonic glimpse into the past, or a future that was never meant to be, a melancholy soundtrack full of shadows and whispers, a slow shuffling shimmer, a loping lazy rhythm, drifting beneath a warm swirly wash of thick guitar fuzz and what sounds distinctly like the sound of surf crashing on the shore, a thick wash of My Bloody Valentine guitar and M83 buzzy shimmer over a lilting minor key guitar and delicate piano, long stretches of lustrous, sun dappled drones, over slow shifting chordal washes, and a creeping morose melodic crawl, soaring strings and gentle fingerpicked guitars, all muted and mumbled, as if heard from underwater, the light bending and wavering hypnotically, tinkling music box melodies drenched in reverb and broadcast from tin speakers hung from trees, the fog thick and the moonlight dull and grey, soft strummy guitars smeared into whisps of dreamlike whir, each track thick with sorrow, or regret, or hopelessness, not overt, but conveyed through the subtle soft light each track is cast in, warm overcast evening glow, the pale spill of the crescent moon, the diffuse flush of predawn light, glimmering and glistening soft and bittersweet. The heart of the record is the appropriately titled "My Heart Is Broken, I've Lost My Way", a nine minute slow build, warm wheezing layers of organ, over ambient clatter, mic sounds, footsteps, a weary, woozy wanderingly soft soundscape, gentle swells, each hovering and gliding dreamlike, an angelic theremin-like skree way in the background, while an alien melody is played out on top, crafted from glitched out crackling instrument buzz, an abrasive squelch, cutting in and out, easily the 'hardest' sounds on the record, like someone trying to get a message through from another dimension, a groaning distorted guitar, broadcast intermittently through the ether, creepy and strangely haunting. The record closes with the just as eerie "All Those Broken Birds Singing Winter Into Spring", a final look back, before fading into nothing, soft lilting guitar, over a whisper soft drift of minor key shimmer and minimally morose melody. So totally and absolutely perfect.

MPEG stream: Blown Out To Sea, I'm Never Coming Back
MPEG stream: Braille

For a while there it was a pretty even race, Machinefabriek versus Jasper TX. Both bands offering up releases after releases, super limited, 3"s, whatever, it just seemed like it would never stop, and we didn't want it to, everything we heard was fantastic. Then suddenly it seemed like Jasper TX dropped out of the race, leaving Machinefabriek to keep us sated with disc after disc of dreamy fuzzy blissed out sound. Well, if In A Cool Monsoon is why we were waiting to hear from Jasper TX, it was well worth the wait. And the wait ended up being even longer than planned, as this disc was recorded and released months and months back, but there was some problem with the mastering and the discs were trashed, and the record was remastered and now, finally, it's here, sounding just the way it was intended to. And it's divine, and more of what we love about Jasper TX. Not at all lo-fi or minimal, this is a lush, expansive song cycle, sounding like it was recorded and performed by a full band, guitars drums, strings, squalls of feedback, languid and long form stretches of moody cinematic instrumental slowcore, dreamy and spacious, laced with drones but not a drone record� The opening track is the first sign things have changed, a brief minute and a half chunk of super distorted crumbling electric guitar, chopped up bits of acoustic guitar, thick corrosive sonic swells, really pretty bur intense and noisy. But then the second track is just the opposite. A simple spare tribal drum line, a languorous bass line, chiming guitar harmonics, and a warm wheezing organ melody over the top. It sounds like Scenic or Low or Bjorn Olsson or something, meandering and wide open, subtly epic and cinematic. There are some drone tracks, but even those are rife with texture and melody, "Summer" is all layered organs, the layers shifting and beating against one another, all sorts of overtones drifting in and out of earshot, but one of the organs is always working through a sweet sad melody, while the others drone on in the background. "Waking Up" is one of the highlights, with it's delayed reverbed Spacemen 3 like guitar line, drifting in an expanse of soft space, the guitar joined by another, and then another, each offering a complimentary melody, the song is briefly interrupted by a thick swath of My Bloody Valentine style blissed out buzz, before slipping back into it's shimmering drift. The final track, "Falling From The Sky Like A Flock Of Burning Birds" is all smeared blurs of indistinct melody, tinkling chimes, soft swells of backwards guitar, distant whirs and drones, climaxing with a dense flurry of low end piano, epic and grandiose, before slowing down and darkly droning until the end, the chiming melodies, fading like the last light of the day.

MPEG stream: Still A Tiny Light
MPEG stream: Bending Spoons
MPEG stream: Summer

Here we go again, another spectacular mini-album from Jasper TX, aka Dag Rosenqvist. It's getting hard to keep up, but we're sure having fun trying. Each and every one a gorgeous little sonic gem. This time it's another 5 songs, stretched out over 20 minutes. Each track a miniature soundworld of resonant rumbles, creaking metallic streaks, long languorous stretches of slow shifting low end whir, huge speaker rattling bass swells, disembodied reverbed guitars, everything casting shadows of haunting buzz and smeared shimmer. The final track is maybe the loveliest, a fuzzed out, foggy melodic drift, barely visible through the dense sheets of druggy ambient swirl. So gorgeous. Another disc that could have gone on forever and ever and we wouldn't have minded one bit! AS with all these little treasures, incredible limited, so act fast...

MPEG stream: A Beacon To Lead Us There
MPEG stream: Through Dusk....and Falling Leaves

Music nerds are always fantasizing about the ultimate collaboration. And of course we're no different. We're always thinking about how cool it would be to have Necrofrost collaborating with some North American Frogs, or the Conet Project and the Thai Elephant Orchestra hooking up, or maybe Belle and Sebastien and Darkthrone... ok, maybe we're a little different. But the possibilities are endless... Even so, it never really even occurred to us to imagine two of our past record of the week honorees teaming up, but here it is! Jasper TX and Machinefabriek, each responsible for one of our favorite discs of 2006, and together, well, it's just as subtly beautiful as you might imagine. Slow chiming harmonics drift along slow warm swells of rich chordal hum, very dramatic and intense, building to a dense reverberant shimmer, barely there wintery whirs over distant steel string buzz and tiny bits of glitch like rain drops, gorgeous smears of cloudy ambient pop, drifting bell like guitars chime out over a slowly twisting bed of shuffling percussion and muted low end rumble, gauzy expanses of dreamlike reverb and insectoid buzz wrapped around mournful and melancholy bits of piano, lo-fi glitch and fuzz underpin, simple far away drumming, melodies materialize from the ether, but only just barely, huge swells of fuzzy guitar and deep resonant choral vocals, drift and swoon, like some otherworldly liturgical ceremony, all washed out and blurred into gloriously indistinct smears of spiritual sound, while in the distance, high end sparks flare and streak across the sky, like shooting stars. So lovely. Package in a beautifully designed oversized cardstock folder. We got these direct from the two bands, and we got the last copies from each, so we ended up with about 50 copies, which will not be around long...

MPEG stream: Frost
MPEG stream: Gras Som Bryts Och Gar Av
MPEG stream: Blasa Rok

Ah, Kompakt! The current kingdom of electronic music has produced another exceptional album from one of its citizens. There's not much to be said about Jatoma, as this Danish trio seems to be flaunting an air of mystery through a half-hearted attempt at anonymity. Regardless of their backstory, Jatoma are impressive magicians when it comes to their eccentric techno productions that recall the best of Four Tet, Matthew Herbert, and even Matmos from time to time. With an opening sequence of sparkling digitalia on "Little Houseboat" that teases at a precious melodic phrase in the same way that Oval captured our imaginations with his impeccable Diskont 94 album, Jatoma is clearly onto something quite special. This becomes obvious when they push through a jumble of electronic squiggles and clockwork clicks into the soft whump of a techno pulse and accompanying bass groove that fleshes out just the first number on the very impressive debut. References to Animal Collective have been offered in comparison to Jatoma, but their sound relies less on lithium-addled bubblegum electronica and more on a chimerical synthesis of Pop Ambient dreaminess and the tech-house dramatics of build-and-release. It's no wonder that Kompakt signed them! "Durian" and "Bou" are both curious anthems with their auto-tuned, chill-wave melodies and warbled acid motifs fused onto thumped deep-house rhythms and hi-hat swing. While there are distinct tracks which stand on their own as the singles amongst the album, Jatoma take the time to subvert the iPod listening experience with very short interludes, codas, and intros of transitional squelches and tuned melodies that bridge the moods and atmospheres of Jatoma's varied tracks. Yup, it's an album that works best when listening from beginning to end! Like many of the recent Kompakt releases, the vinyl comes the cd of the same material found within.

MPEG stream: Little Houseboat
MPEG stream: Bou
MPEG stream: Paper Lights
MPEG stream: Permafrost

We love it when something unexpected, unknown, and essentially totally off our radar shows up and then completely blows us away! Which is exactly what happened with this chunk of epic cosmic psychedelic space-out by French artist Etienne Jaumet. By the looks of his photo on the cover we first thought this was going to be some sort of smarty pants singer songwriter, Jarvis Cocker sort of thing, but talk about about how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover! Instead, Night Music is one of the most satisfying and fully realized analog synth driven discs we've heard in ages. Imagine Goblin and Kraftwerk gliding through cosmic space, as the record's opening 20+ minute track really does evoke some sort of interstellar autobahn, the listener whirling through the stars and sky, Night Music a deep rich and nuanced soundtrack for that late night cosmic excursion. We also think about some of our fave modern psych-space rockers, like try to imagine Expo 70 remixed by Jonas Reinhardt, or Arp channeling Franco Battiato or Subway stretched way out into a sonic stratosphere pioneered by Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze. Folks who dug the Altres record we listed last time should definitely dig this too. We'd also bet the Black Devil Disco folks and both Zombi and Zomby lovers will find loads to love on Night Music. Oddly enough when we starting doing some digging to find out more about Jaumet we discovered he was in a group called Zombie Zombie (not however, related to the above Zomby/i's). You can tell that Jaumet also has a deep love of cosmic free-jazz as he introduces subtle saxophone on parts of the record with perfectly understated results, bringing to mind Herbie Hancock's Sextant album for sure, and also Sun Ra as reimagined by Four Tet, particularly on that epic opener "For Falling Asleep" - the very next track sure says "wake up", though, bringing in more of a techno thump to the proceedings, but still staying wonderfully spaced out. Pretty much every time we play this in the store either a customer or one of us who works here asks if this is a reissue of some long lost kosmiche gem, maybe from Germany in the 1970s. In fact we found out that Jaumet based the sequencing of the record on many of those same amazing cosmic psych records from the '70s, where first side of the vinyl is one long track and the other side is filled with shorter tracks. Jaumet also has such an obvious understanding of composition, especially how to stretch tracks out without letting them overstay their welcome, and thus Night Music is just long enough to totally transport us to another dimension, yet focused enough to stay listenable and sonically complex the entire time. Something which only makes us love this record even more was the discovery that long time AQ favorite, '70s French folk-psychstress Emmanuelle Parrenin adds her voice as texture on a couple tracks (sounding very Yoko Ono, at times) as well as playing harp and hurdy gurdy. Furthermore, the mix was "directed and imagined" by none other than Carl Craig and you can totally tell, as the whole record flows with such a lush layered sound and driving pulse that is both immediately satisfying and utterly hypnotic!

MPEG stream: For Falling Asleep
MPEG stream: At The Crack Of Dawn
MPEG stream: Mental Vortex

Any record that starts with a solid 30 seconds of feedback is definitely gonna be good, and then when it explodes into a frenzy of melodic crusty metal, with super distorted howled vocals (and some competing black metal shrieks), spidery harmonized guitar melodies and thick swells of stonery sludge, it pretty much seals the deal. Which is precisely the case with Beasts Among Sheep, the latest from Philly's Javelina, named for a tusked swine that terrorizes the Southwest, killing small animals and destroying gardens, but this Javelina is something way more imposing and terrifying, a lurching, ultra distorted sludge metal juggernaut, that takes what could be a head spinning kitchen sink approach to their craft and instead fuses all sorts of disparate elements into something super heavy, groovy, melodic and rocking, definite references would include NOLA bands like Kylesa, Baroness, Down, Eyehategod, Crowbar, that same sort of swampy groovy and downtuned sludge, but the guitars are straight up NWOBHM, often busting out incredible harmonized leads right in the midst of a plodding tarpit sludge workout. And the vocals, flip from cookie monster growl to demonic shriek, giving the record a totally different vibe, the bass driving everything, especially when they slow it down and get all brooding and doomy, but shit, the riffs, some of the most kick ass riffing we've heard in ages. Fans of Mastodon and High On Fire will probably dig the shit out of this too, but it's away weirder and rawer and so much more catchy and fucked up and original as far as we're concerned. Be sure and stick around after the records' doomcrustprog blowout closer "Beware The Wrath Of The Patient Man", for the frenzied crust sludge secret track tucked away at the end. Absolutely essential heaviness for sure...

MPEG stream: You're Gonna Hate This
MPEG stream: A Little Paranoia Goes A Long Way
MPEG stream: Towers Of Silence

A debut album from a Swedish travelin' man that has totally won us over. Instrumental songs for a long daytime drive in the country. A beautiful pastoral ambiance that speaks of Javerling's time living in Glasgow and Ireland. You can almost see the wet green grass, the clouds floating in the blue sky, the birds soaring in soft circles. Imagine the instrumentation of Sufjan Stevens or if Colleen traded in her electronics and moved to the country. Erik Malmberg of Sagor and Swing makes guests on two of our favorite songs. So soothing and tender but never too sweet or syrupy. A musical world where nothing crazy or out of the ordinary happens but the sheer beauty of the surroundings totally and utterly sweeps you off your feet. So lovely!

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MPEG stream: Brandon Bay - Out To Steal!

When it comes to classic nineties indie rock, you pretty much had to love Jawbox. Along with Sunny Day Real Estate and Drive Like Jehu and Hum and a handful of others, that was the long drive mixtape unattainable crush soundtrack of our twenties, big muscular crunchy guitars, killer melodies, unforgettable hooks, big pounding drums, and songs that KILLED. In fact, speaking of songs that killed, Jawbox's "Savory" is probably one of those songs we've listened to about a million times. A minor hit, even had a video on MTV, but rightfully so, with its killer start stop riffing, awesome lyrics, amazing solo, it's definitely one of the best jams of the nineties, and thus it's saying a lot that most of the other tracks on For Your Own Special Sweetheart are nearly as good. It's definitely emo, but so much more, post punk, post rock, math rock, pop even, with super unique arrangements, seriously fierce chops, and above all SONGS, incredible unforgettable songs. Some folks here think Jawbox sounds like Steve Albini gone pop, with that throbbing bass and big dry drum sound, angular guitars, and anthemic choruses, but really, these guys (and gal) helped define a sound, and an era, and it still sounds fresh and amazing more than 15 years later. If you somehow missed out on this back in the day, do yourself a favor and pick this up, you don't know what you've been missing. Includes all of the B-sides from the "Savory" single, all of which are as good as anything on the record proper.

MPEG stream: Savory
MPEG stream: Breathe
MPEG stream: Chicago Piano
MPEG stream: 68 (Bonus Track)

Finally. MY favorite Jawbreaker record gets reissued. For years I've had a crappy cd-r copy because I was unwilling to spend $50 or $100 on Ebay for a copy. And I know, Unfun is the best Jawbreaker record. No need to email me and tell me how much Dear You sucks and that I'm a dumbshit. I'm well aware that Dear You, while being Jawbreaker's major label debut, also represented a stylistic shift that alienated most of their fans. Outside of Green Day, Jawbreaker were one of the most discussed punk rock sell outs. But hell, as far as 'sell out' records go, this is definitely one of the best. A lot of the raw energy of early Jawbreaker may have gotten a little lost in the shuffle. But not a bad sacrifice for the amazing songwriting and the killer production. Crunchy chugging riffs, Blake's throaty rasp, Adam and Chris's tight-as-fuck rhythm section, and just killer songs. Dear You owes way more to Nirvana and nineties indie/college rock than it does to crusty Gilman Street punk rock. By the time Dear You was recorded Jawbreaker were getting too old for that shit anyway. And you can definitely hear shades of Blake's future project Jets To Brazil in the poppy songsmithery and occasional indie jangle. Re-issued on Jawbreaker drummer Adam's Blackball label after years of legal wrangling with their former label Geffen. Includes bonus tracks and the video for their should-have-been-a-hit "Fireman".

MPEG stream: Save Your Generation
MPEG stream: I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both
MPEG stream: Fireman

The demise of this awesome punk pop group broke many hearts. And though you thought you'd heard everything that they recorded, thankfully there is more. A plethora of b-sides, compilation tracks, and unreleased songs from 1988-1995 collected together on this long-awaited cd released on Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler's Blackball Records. One thing's for certain, they sure did cover a heap of hits in their time: REM, U2, The Psychedelic Furs, The Misfits, and The Vapors. With super extensive liner notes from the tireless pen of Aaron Cometbus (whose Cometbus Omnibus book is also listed here!) as well as complete release info and cover art, not to mention comments from the band members themselves.

RealAudio clip: Equalized
RealAudio clip: Caroline
RealAudio clip: Gutless

There are those bands from your youth that you liked, some that you loved, and then those special few that managed strike a nerve, to get inside your psyche and speak right to you in a way that almost nothing else could. For many of us, Jawbreaker were that band! They were a group you would become obsessed with, get tattoos of their logo, memorize their lyrics, drive hundreds of miles just to see them if they didn't play in your hometown. Makes us feel old, but this is the 20th anniversary of their amazing debut, Unfun, which came out in 1990 and was the soundtrack to ours and so many others coming of age. Punchy, catchy, and fast yet filled with so much raw emotion and personal conviction. While they played a lot at places like Gilman Street and were associated with the now made-famous-by-Green-Day East Bay punk scene, there was something much more vital and real in Jawbreaker's music than in so many of their contemporaries. Their music was for people who loved the sweat, energy and passion of punk but also hated the rigid/forced and contrived politics and fashion that the music was so often aligned with. This was a new voice. While other bands were singing copycat tired played out songs about smashing the state, Jawbreaker were writing songs about real moments in life that we could all relate to. It was the soundtrack to the house party you felt awkward at, the first encounter with that person you had a crush on, the solitary moments when you found yourself walking aimlessly with a zine in your back pocket and duct tape holding your shoes together as you tried to figure out what was coming next in your life. Unfun was smart pop-punk, not the Warped Tour/Epitaph brand that would soon sweep over the nation. It was born from the influences of '80s bands like Husker Du, The Replacements and Rites Of Spring. They truly were going against the punk rock grain at the time which was ruled by very narrow minded scene politics and silly posturing. With lyrics like 'Sorry we're not hard enough to piss your parents off', they were actively distancing themselves while critiquing the clique/silly nature of the scene they were thrown into, yet they embodied so many of the real reasons why people fall in love with punk rock in the first place. While the sound was definitely quite different, their music had the same kind of integrity and passion as Fugazi. They meant every single note, every single word. And for sure the words are such a big part of Jawbreaker's legacy. Front man Blake Schwarzenback was like the J.D. Salinger of the '90s punk/indie rock generation. He had an insight and ability to really nail so many truths about interpersonal relationships, daily life, and constant struggles with the mundane, as well as crises of spirit, of love and loss. Yet the music never let the lyrics overpower, as the band was such a triumphant and kick ass and tightly connected unit. Putting this on all these years later, not only do a flood of emotions and memories hit us, but it still sounds so fucking good and relevant! Since Jawbreaker were so true to their own vision (even if it meant that the punk police of the time thought they were too soft or didn't have the right haircuts) they were able to create a music with so much true soul and such an undying spirit that it still holds up so strongly to this day. An absolute all time classic and favorite! This remastered reissue also includes some bonus tracks from the Whack & Bite ep, which are great too, but it hardly matters, as the record is pretty much perfect as it is.

MPEG stream: Want
MPEG stream: Softcore
MPEG stream: Busy
MPEG stream: Lawn

Before the word 'prurient' became affixed to a trendsetting contemporary musician with a great haircut and an even better taste in noise, electronics, and metal, this particular word could accurately describe much of the transgressive electronics of industrial culture. It was easy to find an unhealthy obsession with deviant sexuality throughout the late '70s and early '80s, often contextualized as an escape from the mechanisms of social control; and the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, and Whitehouse all titilated their audiences with the notions of sexual perversion anywhere along the spectrum from critical detachment to full-on engagement. The outspoken Stefan Jaworzyn has been privy to such sociopathic aesthetics, including a couple of stints joining William Bennett as a member of Whitehouse as well as being a founding member of Skullflower. Drained Of Connotation marks some of the very earliest recordings for Jaworzyn, dating back to 1982, well before he was part of either of those projects. These were created with just a Korg MS10 and Dr. Rhythm drum machine - two staples of the DIY / industrial / noise community - and it's easy to draw parallels to Maurizio Bianchi, Nocturnal Emissions, and Konstruktivist. A suitable sleaziness emanates from Stefan Jaworzyn's track "Sinister Eroticism In Oslo" which lashes lazer-beam synth oscillations to a slinky, yet cheap drum pattern. Yes, prurient is the right adjective in describing the track, which Jaworzyn so aptly titled. He's always been a man of choice words, and the track "Psychoanalytically Speaking, You're Fucked" is sardonically perfect. The cluster bombs of synth-noise above the sampled kettledrum loops on that track are pretty damn awesome too. Throughout the whole record, Jaworzyn articulates a brain-scrambled sense of desperation through these rough sketches of noise-laden synths that belies the cocksure swagger of his outsized personality. Limited to 700 copies, and likely not long for this world...

MPEG stream: Sinister Eroticism In Oslo
MPEG stream: Pillars Of Excitement
MPEG stream: Psychoanalytically Speaking, You're Fucked

The ever quotable Stefan Jaworzyn, maybe most famous for his membership in Skullflower in the early days, has returned with his first batch of newly recorded material in almost twenty years. When Jaworzyn began the production process of reissuing those first three Skullflower records along with a fourth disc of singles, he rediscovered the joy of tinkering around with electronics. Digital, analog, virtual - our man Jaworzyn doesn't give a fuck, as long as it sounds good. His own words carry considerable gravitas, so we'll let Jaworzyn pick up the story from here: "Once I'd done a bit of recording I thought, 'This sounds pretty twisted, I might as well release it - what's the worst that could happen? People don't like it and say I'm a cunt? What else is new.'" Nope, we don't think that about you, Stefan; and we're actually quite fond of this twenty minute EP. "Make A Joyful Noise" is an aptly named track with its almost jaunty locomotive rhythms and relatively warm (dare we say inviting?) flares from the fizzing electronic melodies that still crack with considerable distortion, but in way that's more akin to the Tim Heckers of the world as opposed to the um, well, Skullflowers. Still twisted in that way that is still quite Jaworzynian. "Bilharzia" is a hot-wired chunk of cascading, modular synth squiggling that resembles the sharp plonk, plunk, and plink of fractured shards of ice spilling down from the inside of a collapsing Arctic cave. An automaton, steamrolling rhythm and blank-stare drone suspension puncture all of the frigid, percolating electronics. Altogether it comes off like some fucked-up hybrid of Bernard Parmegiani and the classic Broken Flag aesthetic. Limited? Yeah, probably.

MPEG stream: Bilharzia

Eaten Away By Shadows collects a bunch of archival material from Stefan Jaworzyn (once a member of Skullflower, Ascension and other industrial/noise outfits) produced from 1982-83 with some of this material making its way onto compilations and onto a single released by Fusetron sometime in the early '90s. In the equally delightful liner notes to this album, Jaworzyn gleefully extols the virtues of bashing microphones with pieces of metal, and at least on one instance, an axe! The results of these Neubauten-esque excursions are most obvious on the junk-yard clamor of the only untitled piece from this collection. Throughout the clang and bash, Jaworzyn set forth a marching drum machine and distorto-muffled bass riffs whose structured sonic latticework seemed to be standard scum-fuck procedure for early Skullflower, Throbbing Gristle, SPK, etc. A good chunk of the album follows this strategy, with some surprisingly graceful moments, especially on the spacious "M.O.R" which could be some Soft Moon demo track with its eerily spectral guitars hung upon primitive drum machine rhythms. But the latter half of the album gets nasty. Really nasty, through gnarled feedback demolition and unhinged free noise explosions. Such volatility, noted on the very Susan Lawly sounding "Second Orgasm" or the two "Guitar" tracks which made their way onto the above mentioned Fusetron single, all share a transcendent self-immolation with the likes of Merzbow and even Keiji Haino that's far more primordial than any of the stylized ultra-violence of Whitehouse or Sutcliffe Jugend. Fuck! And perhaps you're wondering why it's only on cd? And not vinyl? Well Jaworzyn has very strong feelings about cds and vinyl, as he does about most things, so in his own, creatively combative words, here's a recent missive he sent out about a 12" series he's planning, the recent Skullflower reissues, his intense feelings about vinyl, and more: "Almost every sales site/label/distro seems to be concentrating on vinyl. I don't get it. It's stupidly expensive to produce (and buy - especially considering international postage costs); there doesn't seem to be any way to break even on runs of 300 or less unless you sell most of 'em full price yourself; pressings are regularly horrible (coloured/gimmick vinyl etc is an abomination, 'super-heavy' vinyl a joke); 99% of vinyl is mastered from digital sources anyway so don't give me that drivel about 'analogue sound'... Oh, I could go on and on... So the 12" series is going to lose me quite a lot. But if I sell a relatively small number of CDs I'll break even much faster, can put out another release sooner and I don't feel like a spaz having spunked over a grand on a record no one wants...AND CDs SOUND BETTER. Yes, I said it. CDs sound better. Oh, so you've got a mono UK original Piper at the Gates of Dawn, have you? Sold your kids to Estonian sex-traffickers for it, eh? How droll. Well I have it on CD and IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN THE VINYL. I mean it, man. OK, here's another. Form Destroyer. The LP version is horrible. The cut was rubbish, the pressing was rubbish (the master tapes were fine). The new CD sounds better than any other version. No, your vinyl version is not much cooler, it's simply unlistenable. (Xaman sounds fine on vinyl as it was mastered from the � wait, what, no � DIGITAL MASTER!) What is this crap always polluting discogs: 'when's the vinyl coming out?' I'll tell you when the vinyl's coming out: 'Fuck right off time' is when the vinyl's coming out. But no, let's pay �20.00 for an LP, which probably doesn't include a download (mp3s are digital smegma), so where do you get your 'listening copy'? You pay ALMOST THE SAME PRICE AS A CD for some shitty flacs, or a quid less for the mpfucking3s. What, are we slobbering slack-jawed mongoloids? Why on bog's green earth would anyone pay around a tenner for flacs? So they can make their own CD? Duh. Oh, flacs are just dandy if you've got a 250GB shitpad that plays them. And they're so convenient to load onto your portable device, eh? Right, just kill me now." Oh yeah, and to end with a delightfully apt Jaworzyn quip, also from the liner notes: "we don't want to hear any moaning about the fact it's in a jewel case, not a repulsive digipak!" Amen, brother.

MPEG stream: M.O.R.
MPEG stream: Untitled
MPEG stream: Second Orgasm
MPEG stream: Guitars II

Making up for lost time, the infamous Stefan Jaworzyn, he of Ascension, Skullflower and the legendary Shock label, returns with yet ANOTHER new record, the sixth in the last year? Almost like an industrial/noise Robert Pollard, Jaworzyn continues to churn out the hits, and by hits, we mean willfully difficult electronica, this time around, wild squall of synth misfires, and analog noise, set to rambunctious rhythms, reminding us a bit of Cut Hands, but trading in the African obsession for analog synth / primitive drum machine nerdery, and it suits him, the first track here, the awesomely titled "Biorigged", is all relentless rhythms, wreathed in bleeps and bloops, cascades of glitch and squelch, noisy and chaotic, but also super groovy and a little bit funky, we can definitely imagine some sort of Cut Hands / Jaworzyn mash up in the future, some sort of demented full circle culmination of the Skullflower / Whitehouse collab we always hankered for (wait wasn't Jaworzyn in both? Whatever). That opener sets the bar pretty high, and while the rest of the record isn't always nearly as high energy, it is all pretty mesmerizing, "Festival Of Lies" is a murky pulsing churn, sounding like some weird Hospital Productions release, gristly and fuzzed out, the background noisiness gradually overwhelming the minimal beta, and fractured rhythm, while "Dawn Of A New Ice Age" is downright kosmische, blossoming into some tripped out softnoise new age, all swirls and swoops, maybe the prettiest thing we've heard from Jaworzyn EVER (that one's the download bonus track btw). It's on the B side where things get fierce, "Gland Collector" sounds almost like Jaworzyn doing his best John Carpenter, thrumming sinister synth pulses, implied rhythms blossom from weird synth-riffs, the sound almost metallic, a sonic helicopter rotor sends musical rotor wash out in heady waves, churning, roiling, pulsating, this makes all that other creepy soundtrack synth stuff folks have been flipping out for lately sound like Shadowfax. Finally, "Apocalypse" returns to the sound of the opener, sounding about as unapocalyptic as possible, unless the apocalypse was gonna take place in some strange alien danceclub, which who knows, it probably will, regardless, it's another twisted batch of avant / primitive analog electro, that KILLS. As always, with Trensmat releases, includes a download, the whole record along with the above mentioned bonus track!

MPEG stream: Biorigged
MPEG stream: Festival Of Lies
MPEG stream: Gland Collector

Fifth record in less than a year, from legendary noisenik Stefan Jaworzyn, former member of Skullflower, Whitehouse, Ascension, Descension and head honcho of the legendary Shock label. After a self imposed hiatus, Jaworzyn has released more in the last few months than he has in the last decade, including two reissue/retrospectives, and now THREE proper new releases, and they've all been pretty great, all focusing on some seriously twisted modular synth wrangling and obtuse rhythmic soundscapery. The A side here is actually quite dreamy, in its own fucked up way, a synthscape for sure, but don't be expecting any of that kosmische bollocks everyone and their mother seem to be making these days, no Jaworzyn is crafting something much more tweaked, a layered creation that fuses a backdrop of what sounds like synthesized rainfall or maybe crickets, to a burbling percolating psychedelic swirls, and some seriously caustic, percussive punctuation, the sound super dynamic, hushed one second, blown out, and ultra distorted the next, those percussive thunks, nearly flipping the needle off the record, while the background sounds are wild little tangles of squiggly electronics, blurred into constantly shifting textures. The flipside is like some alien transmission, being misinterpreted by an ancient computer, and being spat back out as a garbled squall of synthnoise. A bed of tense layered drones, pulses and undulates, gristly around the edges, laced with crackle and staticky hum, while over the top, clouds of melodic squiggles, and malfunctioning FX, swirl and flit wildly, the sonic equivalent to a jar of fireflies AND bees, shaken wildly, producing a seriously unstable reaction, a sonic cacophony, that ends up being surprisingly listenable, certainly maddening to the less iron eared, but for the rest of us, some seriously mesmerizing psychedelic synth trance out. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** It's possible that Abner Jay could have been completely overlooked and forgotten had his work not come to peoples' attention first with a collection on Subliminal Sounds and later with Mississippi, who issued the True Story Of... lp and the Terrible Comedy Blues 7" not too long ago. Mississippi is now back with another collection, featuring Jay on the cover looking poised and professional, a bit of a contrast from the wildman with a banjo, harmonica, and bass drum that we have familiarized ourselves with. Folk Song Stylist may at first seem to be a misleading title, because many of the songs here display an energized, '60s R&B approach, all driven forward by Jay's amazing, soulful vocals, which should certainly be enough to ensure his immortality in some circles. Lyrically, however, the songs focus on social injustices and personal struggle, namechecking Watts county, the state of employment, and the sub par state of housing as observed in Jay's native Georgia. Jay also finds time to offer his take on the classic Scottish ballad "Lord Randall", which he delivers with an amazing authenticity. Another welcome look into the incomparable style of this self proclaimed "Philosopher, Lecturer, Composer, Singer, and ONE MAN BAND".

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** The final set of songs from "folk song stylist", black minstrel showman and ramshackle one man blues band Abner Jay, as Mississippi continues to spread the word about this oft overlooked musical legend. The tracks here are Jay's last recordings, all previously unreleased, including a new version of an old AJ classic, the sound is dramatically different too (on all but one of the tracks), as the one man band set up has been mostly left behind in favor of something much simpler, just acoustic guitar, harmonica and voice. The results are stunning, and posits an alternate reality, in which Jay, instead of telling crazy stories and jokes between songs, and performing his one man band schtick, was in fact simply a bluesman, a singer songwriter, as these songs display an impossible depth, so dark and sorrowful, melancholy and emotional. "I Cried" is heartbreaking, Jay's voice fragile yet still powerful, the music so sweetly sad. "Too Poor To Live, Too Poor To Die" is a classic slice of old time blues. The Jay classic "Cocaine Blues" gets reinterpreted as a much darker, more personal acoustic ditty, and "Love Wheel" is a dark and mysterious blues ballad. Finally, on "My Middle Name Is The Blues" Jay revisits the one man band one more time, that thick ominous riffing, simple foot driven drums, wheezing harmonica, his voice intense and commanding and so so so soulful. A fantastic final missive from this legendary and unsung musical genius. Super thick tip on sleeves, inside are two commemorative photos as well as a big booklet with incredible liner notes.

MPEG stream: I Cried
MPEG stream: Love Wheel
MPEG stream: My Middle Name is the Blues

Leave it to Swedish reissue label Subliminal Sounds, who've already brought us Parson Sound and the Stomachmouths from their native land, to turn us on to someone this disc's liner notes somewhat bizarrely refer to as American's Toscanini! Black minstrel showman Abner Jay hailed from south Georgia, and was one of the last of the travelling minstrel musicians. Presumably he's dead now, though his habit of laying on his belly to drink water from the Swaunee River helped him to persevere for more than fifty years in a career as a one man band, banging out tunes on his six-string banjo, bass drum, harmonica and little else. On the evidence of this disc, Abner Jay was quite the entertainer. He tells some off-color groaners 'tween songs, but the humor in his show doesn't stop his most affecting songs from being truly morose and sad, and beautiful. He's got the blues alright (the "Cocaine Blues" to be precise). Indeed, one of his most moving songs is entitled "I'm So Depressed". Stick that alongside his risque jokes and more lighthearted fare, and you've got a manic-depressive masterpiece, not to mention a piece of close to forgotten history. It doesn't say anywhere exactly when these tracks were recorded, or from which of Jay's rare records they were compiled, but from the sounds of things, and Abner Jay's between-song patter, we'd guess this material dates from the late sixties or so. There's a song about Vietnam, anyway. Definitely a slice of Americana worthy of checking out, kudos to Subliminal Sounds for digging this up!

MPEG stream: I'm So Depressed
MPEG stream: Cocaine

NEW ON MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!! Yep, along with the full length lp collection also just released on Mississippi, there's this here 7", which features two versions of one of our favorite, and perhaps one of Jay's most popular tunes "I'm So Depressed". A slightly different version is also on the lp collection, and like that one, this version too is gorgeous, sad, and heartbreaking, but still wistful and amusing, the lyrics clever and heartfelt, Jay's voice silky and beautiful, the instrumentation spare and stripped down, but still impossibly lush. The flipside, features a different full band version of the same song, retitled "Depression", and credited to Koko Joe and The Jobhunters, and is way more raw and garage-y, sort of old school R+B, heavy on the reverb and the room sound, the rest of the band ramping it up a bit, there's even horns, but Jay is still the star of the show his voice and playing unmistakable! Packaged in a simple old school juke box style, hand silkscreened black and white sleeve.

NEW ON MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!! That's just for the folks who will buy anything and everything on Mississippi, and there are lots of them, and heck, pretty much everyone who works here is one too! But for those of you who need to know more, let's dig in a little shall we? We recently reviewed a compilation of Abner Jay tracks on Swedish reissue label Subliminal Sounds, so we might as well, revisit that review just for those of you who are new to the musical world of Abner Jay and his unique sound. Black minstrel showman Abner Jay hailed from south Georgia, and was one of the last of the travelling minstrel musicians. Presumably he's dead now, though his habit of laying on his belly to drink water from the Swaunee River helped him to persevere for more than fifty years in a career as a one man band, banging out tunes on his electric six-string banjo, bass drum, harmonica and little else. On the evidence of the music, Abner Jay was quite the entertainer. He tells some off-color groaners 'tween songs, but the humor in his show doesn't stop his most affecting songs from being truly morose and sad, and beautiful. He's got the blues all right (the "Cocaine Blues" to be precise). Indeed, one of his most moving songs is entitled "I'm So Depressed". Stick that alongside his risque jokes and more lighthearted fare, and you've got a manic-depressive masterpiece, not to mention a piece of close to forgotten history. For this Mississippi collection, much of the between song banter and the wild stories and jokes, have been excised, leaving the record mostly music, and allowing the music to truly shine, and shine it does, bluesy and folky and so so soulful. A deep angelic voice, a gorgeous croon, no matter how bizarre the lyrics, coming from the mouth of Abner Jay they sound like a lullaby. This collects a bunch of various tracks, most of them one man band numbers, but a few fleshed out with a full band, those numbers are surprisingly lush, total fifties style balladry, flecked with blues and folk, his electric banjo, sounding more like a subtly effected guitar, the guitar playing slipping from gentle and languid, to wild and tangly, the vocals from sing / speak story telling and lush crooning, the bass drum and highhat a steady beat, the harmonica rich and textured, but it's all about the voice, and the songs, some dark and haunting and mysterious, others melancholy and wistful, and still others wild and rambunctious. There is some overlap with the Subliminal Sounds cd, but there's enough stuff here you haven't heard that it's totally worth it, PLUS, it's on vinyl, AND, it's just about the most deluxe Mississippi Records release yet. It comes with a ton of inserts, a photo of Abner Jay, a reproduction of Jay's biography, written and signed by the man himself, a flyer / advert announcing a string of gigs in Florida, with plenty of info about the man and his recordings, and a transcript of all the various stories and jokes and intros that were cut from the actual record. WOW. As always, great job Mississippi, and if you haven't heard the music of Abner Jay, boy are you in for a treat!

Jeremy Jaw emerged as one of our favorite new voices last year. His debut ep Airwalker swept us off our feet and we've been in love with the dreamy boy from the city of angels ever since. There were also several 7"s and an there's an amazing instrumental soundtrack Dreamland that we hope to get our hands on soon. A Place Where We Could Go, though, is actually the first proper full length from Jeremy and it shows a very different side to his sound. While Airwalker reminded us of some lost early '80s gem from the Factory records vaults, the songs here have much more in common with the rebels and heartthrobs of an even more bygone era of the '50s and '60s. Jeremy's swooning voice and romantic vision has us thinking more of folks like Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and French pop singers Jacque Dutronc and Francoise Hardy. Much less rock and full band sounding then the Airwalker ep, this is way more in a singer songwriter style, which will no doubt also bring comparisons to Jonathan Richman. We love how Jeremy is so confident and brave in his unabashed romantic world view and it's so refreshing to hear a young male voice that's not whining for once! Still so young and at such an exciting creative moment, there are lots of new songs he played while he was in SF that we were so excited about that aren't even on this album and will be on upcoming 7"s (check out the great new Alpharhythms 7" on this list!) and the new album that he says is already just about finished. A Place Where We Could go is much more of a grower and a bit less immediate then his other outings and while we prefer when Jeremy rides more of a groove into his songs, this album is still quite a delight to listen to.

MPEG stream: Beautiful Rebel
MPEG stream: Escape to Aspen

[ aquarius records catalogue — J ]