[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 751 through 800 of 1106.

The Outside is the second full length from this Hungarian black metal duo, who initially kick things off with some pretty fierce, but ultimately straight forward black buzz. It's a sound we seem to never tire of, so a wall of furious fast picked guitars, and furious blastbeats like this definitely still pushes all our BM buttons, but there's a lot more going on here than straight black buzz. In fact that opening salvo barely lasts two minutes before the sound splinters into a weird doomy crawl, with some sick, raspy vokills, before launching into a churning midtempo, almost post rocky sounding lope, fuzzed out bass, spare driving drumming, the guitars offering up little bits of melodic filigree here and there, but ultimately the band lock into some seriously tranced out mesmer, before finally returning to another stretch of epic buzzing blackness. The rest of the record delivers a series of buzzing epics, heavy on the creeping atmosphere, the core still being a raw blasting black metal, but with much of the group's time spent locked into downtuned dirges, and doomy lumbers, the guitars spiraling into woozy tangled harmonies, clouds of chiming harmonics over the motorik rhythms, at times sounding like some blackened strain of hypnorock (check out "Drowning"), and when the the black metal does kick in, it's fierce and majestic, soaring and utterly epic, sometimes, though, the band drops out, and those tell tale buzzing guitars begin to build momentum, but then instead of bursting into blasting blackness, the drums emerge as a doomy slow-mo pound, creating a weird sort of blackbuzz/doomdirge hybrid. And so it goes, the sound shifting from blackened churn, to furious buzzing frenzy, from surprisingly minimal melodic blackened gloomrock (a la Khold), to raw black buzz and back again. Super striking, black and white, digipak style packaging too.

MPEG stream: There Was No Place To Hide
MPEG stream: The Initial State
MPEG stream: Drowning
MPEG stream: Completion
MPEG stream: The Outside

Some of you may be aware of Russian artists Komar and Melamid's art experiment where they polled people from all over the world, asking them about art, their favorite colors, least favorite colors, their favorite subject matter, their favorite subject matter, And if you're a regular listener to public radio's "This American Life" you'll know (via a recent feature on that show) that these crazy guys have now applied that same idea to music (oh no!) -- and came up with the 'most wanted' song and the 'most unwanted' song as voted on by you, the American public. The results included: Most liked instrument: guitar, piano, cello Most unliked instrument: bagpipes, accordian, tuba Most wanted singing style: rock, blues/R&B, opera Most unwanted singing style: opera, rap, country And on and on, including many other preferences: least favorite subject matter, preferred tempos, numbers of performers, volume, subject matter, duration etc. So, according to Komar and Melamid's research, the most wanted song ends up being a short, guitar based rock/soul song, of moderate volume, medium tempo, singable lyrics about a love story sung by a low voiced female. The most unwanted song is a twenty-plus minute rap/opera/country hybid with far too many performers, far too many tempo changes, sung by children and a high voiced female, with an unmemorable melody and lyrics about holidays. A song supposedly scientifically proven that "fewer than 200 individuals of the world's population will enjoy"! (Hmm, wait a sec, that sounds suspicously similar to Steven Schultz' "Stalin Claus Superstar" rock opera, reviewed here for AQ-list #112!!) With these lame/absurd parameters in hand, our intrepid musicologists got weird-music guy David Soldier (most recently of Thai Elephant Orchestra fame!) to compose the most and least wanted songs, and then hired people (including Vernon Reid) to perform and record these two tunes. This cd contains the unfortunate results! To be honest, both these songs kind of suck (well, no surprise there -- indeed, the "good" song might be the worst song EVER, and the "bad" song isn't much better!) but this disc is pretty funny and pretty brilliant, conceptually. Definitely another album to file under 'fucked.'

RealAudio clip: The Most Wanted Song

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If you're familiar with the film, each of the seven jazzy tracks on this cd will certainly bring their respective scenes vividly to mind - whether it be the light lounge piano of "Radio Two" or the darker horn-filled final track. Polish composer and musician Krzysztof Komeda worked together with director Roman Polanski on many of his early films. He was responsible for the soundtracks to such notable films as Cul De Sac, Knife In The Water, and just prior to his untimely death at the age of 38, Rosemary's Baby. Komeda's works are a prime example of just how powerful and effective a film's soundtrack can be. Subtle, precise and highly influential.

RealAudio clip: Radio Two
RealAudio clip: Cul De Sac

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SORRY. The first in what seems to be a very promising series from the already exceptional Noton label. Packaged in an odd slimline case looking more like something to put birth control pills in rather than a CD, this series will consist of limited edition releases from twelve of minimalists, each composing 20 minutes of music for the end of the millenium. In theory, all of these will be released before this deadline... Komet's contribution is one of the best examples of 'bleep blip minimalism' we've encountered in a while. While barely audible on one level, it is exquisitely dynamic...

Audio.NL was an offshoot of the stalwart avant-garde label Korm Plastics, which released an impressive catalogue of adventurously minimalistic techno from 1998 - 2007 from the likes of Taylor Deupree, Motor, Goem, Tomas Jirku, and Komet. The label was at the forefront of the blossoming 'clicks + cuts' aesthetic of jittery electronica built almost one electron at a time; and that reputation was solidified through the two singles that Komet produced for the label. Komet, of course, is the work of Frank Bretschneider, one of the principals behind the seminal label Raster-Noton. While he's probably not as well known as his partner Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), Bretschneider has a similar knack for injecting the blip and bleep with as much of a slippery grooviness as one could muster from sine-tone pulses and phase patterns. This cd compiles all of the material that Bretschneider produced for Audio.NL, including those two singles and a compilation track. Everything has been out of print for years, so to have it all in one place makes a considerable amount of sense. On these 9 tracks, Bretschneider laces subtle glitchiness upon his reductive techno rhythms - little more than a drum machine high-hat and kick gliding at a metronomic pace. That digital errata is bent and twisted through delay patterns, flanging metallic gleams, EQ-fluctuation, and time suspension tricks, giving each of the tracks an unmistakable, if muted slinkiness that keeps the tracks from becoming dehumanized. Sterile, this may be; but Bretschneider makes all of the surgical tools dance on the operating table.

MPEG stream: Mog
MPEG stream: Gone
MPEG stream: Ghost

The third installment in Raster-Noton's exquisitely designed Raster. Post series features Komet aka Frank Bretschneider, weaving a fuzzy pulsing perfectly pastoral electronic dreamscape. Equal parts Oval's fuzzy glitch, Chain Reaction's subterranean throb, and Boards Of Canada's warm melancholia, this is gorgeous stuff. We've been so burned out on "electronica" lately, tired of hearing the millionth completely sterile chunk of icy minmal techno that could just have well been made without human intervention, but we're also tired of hearing Boards Of Canada ripoffs spewing moody mediocre downtempo pap. But this Komet manages to incorporate both minimal clinical chill and warm fuzzy moodiness into a throbbing, hypnotic wash of late night electronic bliss. The only distraction is the occasional random spoken word sample, similar to the ones that mar some of my favorite BoC songs. But a small complaint, considering how good this sounds. Fans of Oval, Boards Of Canada and of all things Raster-Noton should definitely pick this up.

MPEG stream: Wheel
MPEG stream: OMSK

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SORRY. Full length release from Raster-Noton head, and Signal collaborator Frank Bretschneider. Still working from a palette of aseptic beeps and clicks, but composing pieces that are surprizingly catchy in an utterly minimal way. Without stepping into the dubby, and almost (I said "almost") organic ballpark of Stefan Betke (Pole) and steering clear of the borderline housey territory of Thomas Brinkmann, Bretschneider none the less harkens the works of both in his own way. The tracks on this disk even have a slowly evolving quality, starting with very minimal pulse beats and short tones (typical of Raster-Noton) and developing to the point where, by the time you reach the end of the disk, you convince yourself you're hearing pop songs and hooks. Bretschneider has the knack of making the sterile swing.

RealAudio clip: #11

Three new tapes from Black Horizons, all of them mysterious, and mysteriously wonderful, this one from a German married couple who call themselves Kommissar Hjuler Und Mama Baer, and the label drops a Fluxus comparison, and we'd be hard pressed to disagree, a strange assemblage of lilting melodies, abstract lo-fi collages, field recordings, the opening track, sounds a bit like someone humming to themselves as they do things around the apartment, but somehow the sounds are blurred and abstract, and are transformed into some strange otherworldly mantra, the label description goes on at great length about the roots of this project/recording, much of which we won't even pretend to understand, but these were dropped off around Halloween, and we were told by label head honcho James that these were all very Halloween worthy, this one especially, in that it's sort of bizarre and subtly terrifying, like the soundtrack to some nightmarish dream sequence, warped and warbly, woozy melodies, fragmented pop songs, industrial creak and whir, hushed whispering, panicked vocalizations, lots of distortion, tape hiss, feedback, screaming, speaking in German, the mind conjures up some seriously chilling imagery to accompany these strange and alien sounds. Woah. Gorgeous packaging too, purple and gold offset printing on green vellum, held together by a riveted obi strip, all housed in a green case. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

Fans of the late great Japanese free improv guitar master Masayuki Takayanagi take note of this release. Guitarist Kondo and his group pay tribute with a version of Takayangi's gorgeous, gradually projected "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain". And the rest of this is quite in keeping with the spirit of Takayangi's pioneering New Directions Unit. And while therefore pretty "out" sounding, it's also quite a bit different from some of the more extreme offerings we've heard from Kondo's other band, the electronics n' computers plus free jazz noisemaking ensemble Exias-J, known for their droning and distorted Borbetomagus-like jams. Here things are often calmer and more, dare we say, melodic. Though this is still pretty darn avant-garde. It opens with a solo guitar piece, finding Kondo playing a "ten-string gut guitar", which is an impressively large, plank-like instrument. Later on, he's accompanied by a group featuring flute, percussion and contrabass. And this is called Structures for a reason. Even though there's a large improvisational element to Kondo's music (with certain tracks designated as such) he's really into experimenting with improvisations within particularly strict and unusual theoretical structures. Or at least that's the idea we get from what we've read about it, and certainly the very meticulous music here, full of moody pink-plonk, rumble-fumble, and scritch-scrape, seems like it could creatively stem from such complex, intellectualized musical methodologies...

MPEG stream: Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain
MPEG stream: The Secondary Object Of Mode One, Crossing Lines

Currently, Thomas Koner has been stepping outside of the heroin house persona that absorbed his work within Porter Ricks as the defining force for the Chain Reaction sound. Complementing his recent low-end frequency collaborations with Asmus Teitchens as Kontakt Der Junglinge, Thomas Koner's "Daikan" is a return to the isolationist aesthetics that were indicative of his earliest work (such as "Teimo" and the aptly titled "Permafrost"). Koner opens the album by breaking a pristini, black silence with deep bass rumbles that ominously plod, as if made by some Promethean creature from a Lovecraft horror story. Amidst these distant pulses (which resemble a 909 kick slowed way the hell down), cold washes of densely layered synthethic drones intrude into the audible realm, only to pass back into silence, but with an altered acoustic teleology, sounding sort of like the doppler effect. These fluctuations in and out of silence build up to a rather subtle climax in which Koner introduces a very simple descending three note melody composed out of those same synthetic drones. As simple a compositional technique, this melody, which only appears twice throughout the 54 minutes, is incredibly dramatic. For all of the metaphors and allusions that Koner implies in this work, it is a little odd that he would claim that it "will create a presence of sounds which do not refer to anything, and not only allow, but stimulates a complete awareness, free of dramatized illusion." While he's obviously intended something other than his end results, "Daikan" is a breathtaking vision into an existential void, just as powerful as anything Lustmord or Main has created in the realms of dark acoustic soundscapes. Very nice indeed!

RealAudio clip: Daikan excerpt 1
RealAudio clip: Daikan excerpt 2

My goodness. The arrival of a Thomas Koner recording has become an incredibly rare event, with the 2003 Zyklop album being the last album he released outside of his busy schedule traveling the world as a video/installation artist. La Barca parallels his globetrotting, as a travelogue presented through the glacial hush of his frozen ambient productions. Each of the tracks designates a GPS coordinate of a particular location, with ghostly remnants of human voices echoing in deep reverb amidst his signature darkened backdrops and slow-motion melodic phrasing. Many of the voices seem to be taken from the announcements from train stations, airports, and other non-placed environments that easily detach from the psychogeographic details of those specific places he designates in those coordinates. So, as much as this album is a travel narrative through various places, Koner intentionally presents the sonic artifacts as connected and unifying rather than endemic and localized. It's a feeling a profound melancholy and detachment that Koner succeeds in embedding into these pieces. The cd of La Barca went out of print before anybody really had the opportunity to get a hold of it; and that will definitely be the fate of the 2lp version of the album, which features 4 extra tracks not on the cd, making up the entirely of Side D!!

Novaya Zemlya is a grand statement. But then again, Thomas Koner doesn't operate in any scale other than monumental. All of his albums (barring the somewhat lackluster La Barca from 2003) speak through the gasping drones of a bleak existentialism. For Koner, the human condition is mirrored in the environment around us, especially those rugged, barren locales at the poles, with his isolationist smears of grey sounds alluding to water, ice, permafrost, wind, radiation, and vast empty spaces above the Arctic Circle. The environmental site for this album is a suitably inhospitable Russian archipelago jutting far out into the Arctic Ocean toward the North Pole. During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet Union used Novaya Zemlya as a nuclear test site, dropping the Tsar Bomba in 1961 on the landmass, which was permanently scarred by the largest atomic detonation in the history of the world. The thin layer of nuclear fallout which has buried itself in the frozen tundra of Novaya Zemlya commingles with radioactive isotopes from poorly managed storage facilities, sunken reactors, and scuttled submarines. Koner describes this landscape through its hazardous potential, which is so much worse than the current situation. With global warming, the methane gas spewed from a melted permafrost will lift all of that radioactive material into the atmosphere and send that along the prevailing winds across western Russian over Scandinavia and into continental Europe. Perhaps, a greater catastrophe than Chernobyl. In speaking to that potential, Koner manifests pockets of near silence throughout the album with his signature tectonic rumblings and stealth-bomber frequencies gliding beyond the event horizon into the realm of the audible. Darkened crumblings of earthen material pocks the beginning of the first in a trilogy of tracks, sounding almost like slabs of ice thunderously collapsing into the sea. Drones swell and collapse into pools of resonant emptiness, broken on the second track by a disembodied shortwave radio transmission of garbled voices. The album returns to those cold, contemplative sounds until the end of the album draws near, when Koner introduces a few elegant, melodic plucks from what might be a harp. For all of the foreboding that looms throughout, the end is almost hopeful that humanity might just sort out this global warming puzzle. But then again, we might not; and then, we're fucked. An easy contender for 2012's album of the year.

MPEG stream: Novaya Zemlya 1
MPEG stream: Novaya Zemlya 2

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SORRY. Thomas Koner's debut album Nunatak Gongamur was a record that quietly emerged on the Dutch label Barooni in 1990. With works from Nurse With Wound, Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, and Christoph Heemann also released by that same imprint, Koner's debut had some very good neighbors trafficking in a somewhat similar post-industrial murk and bleak minimalism. Unfortunately, the label went out of business after a ten year run, rendering many of those amazing records impossible to find. Two of Koner's other albums on Barooni - Teimo and Permafrost - were reissued on Mille Plateaux in 1997, only to suffer the same fate, when that company dissolved. In 2010, Type Records enters the picture and reissues Nunatak (now without the Gongamur) on vinyl, hopefully ushering in eventual reissues of all of Koner's early out of print material. The German isolationist Koner has always been known for his dark, haunting ambient music which further froze the already chilly strategies that Brian Eno set forth on his seminal album On Land. Almost all of Koner's recordings (at least his solo recordings), speak to the tundra of the Northern environs, with a lot of allusions to the expanses of Greenland in particular. Nuuk was the name of one Koner record, which happens to the capital and largest city of that frigid island; and Nunatak is an Inuit word describing any rocky outcropping not covered in snow. And of course, Koner excels in the producing of cold cold music. There is a considerable difference between this album and the rest of his catalogue, as Nunatak is an electro-acoustic album entirely sourced from huge gongs. His other records definitely obliterated the source material (some of which was cited as being the sound channel on blank 16mm film stock) into deep space shadow and blackened noise. Here on Nunatak, Koner leaves the resonance of his metal gongs alone, occasionally catching them in languid loops but always focusing on vast deep rumbling overtones and the vast subharmonic frequencies. Given the rasping textures from the gongs, this one is less the all-consuming isolationism and more of an adventurous dronescrape as if extracted from the hull of a cargo ship. As with all Type vinyl, this one is strictly limited...

MPEG stream: Untitled
MPEG stream: Untitled
MPEG stream: Untitled

With the three key albums of Thomas Koner's work having recently been reissued individually on vinyl, Type has now collected those records - Nunatak, Teimo, and Permafrost - in a handsome oversized folio for presenting those albums on compact disc. Here's a recap of our reviews of these stunning pieces of glacial minimalism: Thomas Koner's debut album Nunatak Gongamur (now truncated as Nunatak) was a record that quietly emerged on the Dutch label Barooni in 1990. Almost all of Koner's recordings (at least his solo recordings), speak to the tundra of the Northern environs, with a lot of allusions to the expanses of Greenland in particular. Nuuk was the name of one Koner record, which happens to the capital and largest city of that frigid island; and Nunatak is an Inuit word describing any rocky outcropping not covered in snow. And of course, Koner excels in the producing of cold cold music. There is a considerable difference between this album and the rest of his catalogue, as Nunatak is an electro-acoustic album entirely sourced from huge gongs. His other records definitely obliterated the source material (some of which was cited as being the sound channel on blank 16mm film stock) into deep space shadow and blackened noise. Here on Nunatak, Koner leaves the resonance of his metal gongs alone, occasionally catching them in languid loops but always focusing on vast deep rumbling overtones and the vast subharmonic frequencies. Given the rasping textures from the gongs, this one is less the all-consuming isolationism and more of an adventurous dronescrape as if extracted from the hull of a cargo ship. Teimo is an album that was originally released as a cd on Barooni in 1992. Like its predecessor Nunatak Gongamur, Koner had sourced much of Teimo from recordings of gongs, using contact microphones and hydrophones to capture an unusual assortment of resonance, timbre, and decaying frequencies from his gongs. In these recordings, Koner was investigating what he qualified as an 'aesthetic of decline' shaped by the processes of decay, thermal cooling, and any gradual event that will achieve stasis. Water seeking its own level. Glaciers amassing in frozen landscapes. The metal fatigue of submarines, cracking under the pressure of an entire ocean. The long sustained metallic resonances of the gong is an apt tool for his conceptual framework, with Koner further manipulating his sources into elegant passages of subharmonic rumblings that utter subtle melodic phrases whilst shaking the bottom of the seafloor. Amidst the low-end drones and allusions to barren landscapes, Koner takes great care to keep the sounds immersive without imbuing them with terror. Yes, this is 'dark' ambient music, but his aesthetic of decline is far more clinical than say the theatrical drama that Lustmord can muster through his deadly recordings. Koner's quest is for the sublime, filled with awe and beauty simultaneously; and he has effortlessly achieved that quest throughout his career, certainly including this masterful record. In Permafrost, we have the third and final chapter of this series of reissues from Type, documenting the long out-of-print isolationist composition from Thomas Koner. As with the previous recordings - Nunatak and Teimo - the German sound artist has masterfully captured the frigid atmospheres of the most northern ecosystems, and the title Permafrost leaves little to the imagination as to where this one will be travelling. Cold. Barren. Black. Sublime. The sounds are thoroughly abstracted into shifting blocks of grey noises slipping above seismic rumblings of infinitely bellowing low-end frequencies. By doing so, Koner eschews the use of the gong scrapes and metallic glistenings which graced those early records, adopting the bleak ethos which he continued to master on such albums as Kaamos and Daikan (the latter of which is probably the pinnacle of his career). All of Koner's work is required listening for anyone who has been interested in drone-based recordings from any time period (e.g. Eno, Lustmord, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Roland Kayn, Alan Splet, Bernhard Gunter, BJ Nilsen, Kevin Drumm, etc.). His subtle use of movement and half-melodic phrasing in his arctic-driven ambience has warranted him quite a reputation, and fortunately none of his reissues fail to sound timeless, breathtaking, and bone-chillingly beautiful. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Untitled (Nunatak)
MPEG stream: Untitled (Nunatak)
MPEG stream: Untitled (Nunatak)
MPEG stream: Andenes
MPEG stream: Teimo
MPEG stream: Nieve Penitentes 1
MPEG stream: Permafrost 1
MPEG stream: Permafrost 3
MPEG stream: Permafrost 4

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In Permafrost, we have the third and final chapter of this series of reissues from Type, documenting the long out-of-print isolationist composition from Thomas Koner. As with the previous recordings - Nunatak and Teimo - the German sound artist has masterfully captured the frigid atmospheres of the most northern ecosystems, and the title Permafrost leaves little to the imagination as to where this one will be travelling. Cold. Barren. Black. Sublime. The sounds are thoroughly abstracted into shifting blocks of grey noises slipping above seismic rumblings of infinitely bellowing low-end frequencies. By doing so, Koner eschews the use of the gong scrapes and metallic glistenings which graced those early records, adopting the bleak ethos which he continued to master on such albums as Kaamos and Daikan (the latter of which is probably the pinnacle of his career). All of Koner's work is required listening for anyone who has been interested in drone-based recordings from any time period (e.g. Eno, Lustmord, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Roland Kayn, Alan Splet, Bernhard Gunter, BJ Nilsen, Kevin Drumm, etc.). His subtle use of movement and half-melodic phrasing in his arctic-driven ambience has warranted him quite a reputation, and fortunately none of his reissues fail to sound timeless, breathtaking, and bone-chillingly beautiful. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Permafrost 1
MPEG stream: Permafrost 3
MPEG stream: Permafrost 4

Here's the second of three vinyl reissues of the early, seminal work from Thomas Koner, who alongside Andrew Chalk may stand as the greatest drone artist from the past few decades. Teimo is an album that was originally released as a cd on Barooni in 1992. Like its predecessor Nunatak Gongamur, Koner had sourced much of Teimo from recordings of gongs, using contact microphones and hydrophones to capture an unusual assortment of resonance, timbre, and decaying frequencies from his gongs. In these recordings, Koner was investigating what he qualified as an 'aesthetic of decline' shaped by the processes of decay, thermal cooling, and any gradual event that will achieve stasis. Water seeking its own level. Glaciers amassing in frozen landscapes. The metal fatigue of submarines, cracking under the pressure of an entire ocean. The long sustained metallic resonances of the gong is an apt tool for his conceptual framework, with Koner further manipulating his sources into elegant passages of subharmonic rumblings that utter subtle melodic phrases whilst shaking the bottom of the seafloor. Amidst the low-end drones and allusions to barren landscapes, Koner takes great care to keep the sounds immersive without imbuing them with terror. Yes, this is 'dark' ambient music, but his aesthetic of decline is far more clinical than say the theatrical drama that Lustmord can muster through his deadly recordings. Koner's quest is for the sublime, filled with awe and beauty simultaneously; and he has effortlessly achieved that quest throughout his career, certainly including this masterful record. Limited to 500 copies.

MPEG stream: Andenes
MPEG stream: Teimo
MPEG stream: Nieve Penitentes 1

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SORRY. Mille Plateaux has seen fit to reissue two of the three early isolationist recordings from Thomas Koner. At the time (being the early '90s), those three records (sadly there's no sight of a reissue of the best of the three: "Nunatak Gongamur") stood as a bleak dark ambient monuments that were too alien for the global hippy ambience of contemporaries like The Orb or Future Sound of London. However, Koner's membership in Porter Ricks - which defined the trajectory of the Chain Reaction washed out techno minimalism - has inspired more than a few techno boffins to look back at Koner's post-industrial roots. Very nice deep listening drones.

As an objet d'art, Thomas Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebiet" is almost perfectly executed from beginning concept to final product. The title translates from Koner's native German as "Unchartered Territory," a common theme for electronica's isolationist whose previous work has prompted metaphors of arctic desolation, astrophysical emptiness, and Zen-like nothingness. Inscribed upon one of the loveliest picture discs we've ever seen with images of antique seafaring maps of the Arctic Ocean / North Pole, Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebiet" is a very quiet composition that explores variations of low frequencies which crawl very slowly in and out of audibility amidst down-pitched cracklings and muted rumbles. It could be assumed that Koner has kept this album relatively quiet and has geared-down all the frequencies to give more presence to the surface noise inherent in all picture discs (which for better or for worse never sound as good as a thick slab of 220 gram vinyl). Koner has stated that this album has its origins from his experiments with the projections of a really dusty piece of blank 16mm film; thus, he's done his best to cover all the conceptual bases between the historical references to those old maps, the surface noise, and that dusty film. Of course, if you can't stand surface noise, by all means stay away and be content with the knowlegde that a slightly different CD version of this album will be published later on this year. But if you waffle on this one, I guarantee you will miss out as Die Stadt has manufactured a mere 700 copies!

RealAudio clip: Unerforschtes Gebiet 1
RealAudio clip: Unerforschtes Gebiet 2

For all of the successful albums that Thomas Koner has produced and been a part of, it was inevitable that he'd release a dud. "Zyklop" -- a double disc featuring radio plays, incidental music for installations, and live performances -- will never be remembered as Koner's finest moment. Many of the tracks have this feel of being "Imaginary Sound Design." Not dissimilar to the Imaginary Film Score, these pieces sound as if they had been lifted directly from an unidentifiable film, having two distinctly different layers of sound. The first being the ambient sounds, voices, and everything that matches up with the action seen through the camera, and the framing mechanisms of synthetic atmosphere which underscores a set of pre-determined moods that the director uses to develop context and atmosphere. The sporadic narration of French and German texts are clearly anomalous to Koner's previous albums, and without the film, installation, or live performance, these voices simply don't work very well. Koner's much better at establishing meaning through the unspoken languages of the isolationist drone. Futhermore, entire passages from his masterful album "Daikan" have been regurgitated onto "Zyklop." As Koner's work explicitly asks for careful listening, why would you think you could get away with releasing the same material twice?

RealAudio clip: Zyklop
RealAudio clip: Une Topographie Sonore: Col De Vence

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After marvelling (if you're at all of our mindset) at the cover painting, which features some sort of dulcimer, an electric guitar, and an amplifier itself decorated with a painting of a dead tree and a sunset, the first thing that'll grab you about this 1977 Swedish folk-rock reissue is that it's so superbly recorded -- crystal clear, not too slick or over produced, just simply sterling, live-in-your-room sound that belies this album's misty '70s origin. Though ordinarily we find dusty, crackly, low-fi recordings of long-lost folkesque psychedelia to be preferably evocative and mysterious, this just sounds *amazing*. So, your ears will rejoice at how great Kong Lavring sounds...and then, the songs. So good. Kong Lavring made a terrific mix of traditional Norwegian folk music and electric rock instrumentation, with the choppy bite of "Liti Kjersti" being a particularily stellar example of such. With both male and female vocals -- Viking style male choirs chanting it up, and lovely sweet female vocals, capable of exquisite unaccompanied beauty. Though never particularily popular (they made only two albums, of which this is the first), Kong Lavring could be considered a Norwegian version of Fairport Convention, to make a loose comparison. Also recommended for fans of Turid, Kebnekajse, Arbete Och Fritid, and other Scandinavian folk/rock outfits -- perhaps even those of the black metal variety like Storm. The aforementioned cover art suggests a lot to those of us enamoured of the '70s hippy folk vibe, and this disc is indeed as good as the cover portends.

MPEG stream: Liti Kjersti
MPEG stream: Fagre Piker

Latest clutch of epic psychedelic doom heaviness from these Swedes, four sprawling tracks that shift easily from chugging, churning riffiness, to soaring, super melodic heaviness, the sound epic, the production massive, The roots of their sound obviously reach back to Neurosis and Isis, and beyond to classic old school doom, but with the clean vocal choruses, the majestic melodies, makes much of this have an almost Soundgarden / Alice In Chains vibe, which is not a bad thing at all, just means that for every sprawl of roiling, downtuned dirgery, there's some serious hookage and a chorus most non-doom bands would kill for. And sure, the vocals often slip into death metal growls and glass gargling rasps, on "Tamed Brute" in fact, the sound slows to a crushing creep, maybe the heaviest point on the record, the sort of tarpit sludge groove that we can't resist, but on the title track, there's lots more melody, even some cool stretches of cool loping post rock, with chiming melodies, tribal drumming, squalls of feedback, and again, those soaring vox, makes for something super psychedelic and sorta trance-y. And the main riff, while definitely doomy, is also a killer, especially when the two guitar harmonize, totally epic, and then when the stomp boxes are stomped, and the song proper kicks in, it's a crusher for sure. The second half of the record finds the band doing more of that heavy/poppy mix and match, with some almost Agents Of Oblivion style slithery swagger, wedded to some seriously chugging doom, and more grinding chug. The last track is a slow burn, slow build epic, the first half all spaced out and ethereal, softly psychedelic, shuffling drums under spidery distorted melodies, and fuzzed out bass rumble, it's not until about halfway through that things kick off, and again, we're getting a huge AoO vibe, which we love! Surprisingly soulful and emotional doom-ed heaviness, that slips once again into some tripped out psych-doom drift, before building to a finale that's like a more doomy Godspeed, all swirling distorted shoegaze guitar, detuned metallic chug, tribal drum bombast, all gradually fading into a haze of gauze-y distortion, and blissed out psychedelic shimmer.

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From the very first notes of Assume Crash Position, we're immediately transported right back to Kinshasa in the Congo, a bustling town square, people going about their business, cars zooming past, children playing and shouting, people sitting at tables on the sidewalk drinking, eating, catching up, birds perched in the trees, chirping, just a regular bustling African city, except maybe for a certain group of musicians, creating their own soundtrack to daily life, conjuring up a gorgeous, rhythmic, hypnotic and strangely psychedelic racket, equal parts classic African folk music, High Life, and junkyard percussion. The musicians are wielding a strange array of hand built instruments, there's lots of rusted metal, car batteries, old cracked loudspeakers, various drums, and most notably, some fantastic looking, and even more fantastic sounding amplified thumb pianos. By now, regular readers of the aQ list most likely know we're talking about the truly amazing Konono No.1, quite possibly one of our favorite African ensembles ever, past or present. When we first hear them a few years ago, we were blown away, the super distorted thumb pianos spitting out clouds of rapid fire chiming notes, tangled melodies, all locked into super hypnotic drum driven grooves, call and response vocals, simultaneously festive and danceable, dark and mysterious, raw and feral, primitive and DIY, lush and melodic and like nothing we had ever heard before. When we first threw on Assume Crash Position, our first thought, was that very little had changed, and to a certain degree that's true, all of the above mentioned elements are still present, the wild thumb pianos, still the focal point, their sound curious but so warm and sweetly melodic, the call and response vocals, the tribal percussion, the groovy rhythms, but from the first track it IS in fact evident that some things have changed. That opening track, "Wumbanzanga", is far more melodic, far more pretty and almost more like some of the other traditional African music we've heard in the past, with great female vocals, the vibe super festive, but those thumb piano melodies definitely add a distinctly Konono vibe. Then the next track, "Thin Legs" explodes in a frenzy of whistles and tribal drumming and vocals, that's it, but it too manages to be super melodic and totally effusively celebratory. It's not until "Mama Na Bana" which opens with that Konono style stop start THRUMP THRUMP THRUMP, where the whole group locks in, before launching into classic Konono, it's really hard to describe, but those fuzzy buzzing metallic melodies wrapped around the repetitive rhythms and the super emotional vocals, the whole rest of the record is classic, albeit a bit more polished and melodic, Konono junkyard Congotronics... Some of the highlights this time around include "Makembe", with its buzzing melodies, crooned vocals, and the sounds of kids playing and birds chirping, before there's a BIG crash, apparently the sound of a concrete wall collapsing, a wall the vocalist was moments earlier leaning against, and then the band launches into one of the best jams on the disc. Or the gorgeous closing lullaby of "Nakobala Lisusu Te", with muted thumb pianos, super tangled melodies, and a sweet soulful croon, so dreamy and blissful, the perfect way to unwind after a wild, sweaty, funky, groovy, Congotronic workout. The packaging is cool too, with tons of photos of the local scrap yard / junkyard, where the band gather up most of the material they use to build their instruments, not to mention a shot of that collapsed wall that crumbled mid-song. As with past Konono's, utterly and absolutely wholeheartedly recommended!

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So here it is! Hard to believe it's finally here -- some of us have been waiting forever for this record, or at least ever since we discovered a tiny, super compressed, thirty second long sound clip on the internet over a year ago. In all of half a minute, we became OBSESSED. Completely captivated by this band's totally alien, lush, organic 'world music' weirdness. We eventually tracked down a (great) live record by Konono No.1, which we listed here a few weeks back, and then after tons of internet sleuthing and a bunch of emails we finally managed to get in touch with someone at the Crammed label in Belgium who was willing to sell us this brand new studio album directly, since they are without US distribution. Phew! So was it worth it? Hell yeah! Anyone who heard that infamous sound sample (which was from this album), or who got to hear the live record, knows that this band is totally amazing, and indeed this record is beautiful, wild and wonderful, chaotic and festive, totally perplexing but completely mesmerizing. For those who missed out on the live record (which we've also just restocked!) or are new to the wonders of Konono No.1, here's the story: twenty five years ago, Konono formed in Kinshasa, an area between Congo and Angola, performing their own version of traditional Bazombo trance music, incorporating the then-unwanted distortions of their haphazard homemade sound system. They left the bush and settled in the capital where they were forced to compete with the harsh sounds of the city: cars, trains, buses, shouting, etc. So with very little to work with they fashioned pick-ups, microphones, loudspeakers and amplifiers from stuff they could find on the street -- old car batteries, pots and pans, magnets, even branches. Their main instrument is the likembe, a kind of thumb piano. Konono features three of 'em (bass, medium and treble) and the sound of the electrified and amplified likembe is what defines their sound. Accompanied by dancers and percussionists, the likembes wail and drone, buzz and moan, totally overblown and distorted, sounding a little like sixties fuzz guitars, turning a glorious high life jam into something much more strange and wonderful. Super rhythmic, and thick with the buzzing melodies of the likemebe's, Konono weave a massive sound. It's the wildest weirdest street party you've ever been to. Throbbing with energy and emotion, rambuctiously rollicking and totally infectious. Seven lengthy tracks that all sort of bleed and fuse into one epic world-psych jam. The African high life Hawkwind? So so great! Check out this video clip: KONONO [http://www.crammed.be/craworld/movies/konono_promo.mov]

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Yay! These AQ faves -- everyone's faves -- from Kinshasa are back with another exciting dose of their "Congotronics". Chances are, especially if you're a regular AQ customer, that you know all about 'em already, and maybe even got to see them at one of the shows that (lucky for us!) they've played over the past couple years in San Francisco. Live is where it's at for them, a sweaty, joyous, unstoppable, never-ending groove heavily laced with the sound of their signature instrument: the DIY homebuilt electric amplified African thumb-piano (called a likembe). In the hands of Konono No.1, it produces a bright, burbling, somewhat distorted, almost-electronic-keyboard sort of sound that we immediately fell in love with way back when we first heard the band. But that of course is not all, there's plenty of percolating percussion underpinning the likembe melodies, over which they do exuberant vocal toasts and call-and-response chants. When they get going full-on, you'll want to turn it up LOUD and let the whole neighborhood enjoy the energetic density of Konono No.1. Eight tracks, 52 minutes total, recorded live (sounding great!) in Belgium. Some songs you might recognize from versions on the previous two Konono discs (Lubaku and Congotronics), others are previously unrecorded. All will get your body moving, guaranteed. This is dance music, nothin' but. At home alone, unwilling to dance? It'll still bring a mesmerized smile to your face for sure.

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We have been totally obsessed with these guys (as have the rest of you judging from how many folks have called and emailed about them and already bought a ton of copies from us before this review even was written) for at least a year if not more and until now there hasn't been a thing (other than a minute long mp3 sample available on Crammed Discs' website) which has been taunting us with the promise of a full length from these guys. So until that fabled Crammed Discs release actually comes out we've got this little nugget to tide you over. And it's no small shakes neither. Though we only learned of them recently Konono No.1 have been around for some 25 years. Hailing from Kinshasa, Congo, Konono No.1 are true African punk rock. They are real D.I.Y. Not putting on shows and printing zines, no, how about building their own instruments from found scraps and dismantled machinery and retrofitting and electrifying traditional instruments! For instance the lead musician Mingiedi Mawangu has taken his likembe (thumb piano), rigged it up to pickups (self-built from hammered parts purloined from car starter motors) and amplified it with a custom built amplifier driven by a car battery, using microphones built out of copper wire and branches. How cool is that! And the sounds these instruments produce is amazing. The likembe, with its muted gentle melodic thrum, is turned into an overdriven buzzing melodic powerhouse that sounds like nothing you've ever heard. Well, sometimes it sounds a bit like some sort of psychedelic alien fuzz guitar, but mostly it just sounds amazing and bizarre. The songs are all very melodically similar and mesh into one massive hour long jam, with wild percussion, chanted vocals, and of course the wailing Likembe. So completely amazing. Every time we play this in the store, someone buys one. Immediately. Seven extended tracks, recorded live and released on the Ex's label Terp.

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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. If there was ever a more unlikely split record, we sure can't think of one. But if there was ever a split we'd most like to see, it would be hard to do better than Konono No1 and the Dead C. Not sure if the two bands are a perfect fit, or just happen to satisfy our weirdly eclectic tastes, but this split 12" is fucking amazing. Two new tracks from Konono No 1, who if you are an avid reader of the AQ list are no doubt already familiar with ( we carry both their full lengths, their live record Lubuaku, as well as their studio album Congotronics). An African ensemble led by a trio of amplified Likembes (thumb pianos) and whose equipment is cobbled together from car parts, branches, batteries and other urban detritus. The sound is wild and joyful, rollicking and totally exuberant, the likembes sounding like some alien underwater psychedelic guitars. Wow. And then there's the Dead C. What can you say? One of the most important bands to ever come out of New Zealand. The masters and originators of the NZ free rock sound that has influenced hundreds of bands and been copied by hundreds more. The first 5 tracks are locked grooves, but skip past those (or not!) and you'll find three brand new tracks, 17 minutes of the Dead C in clattery chaotic rock mode, bursts of stumbling, distorted, propulsive free rock, like some lost Krautrock classic, played through crappy practice amps and on a beat up old drum kit, everything drenched in tape hiss and recorded in some cavernous space. Now if they had only managed to get Konono to record WITH the Dead C...

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There are a handful of purposeful mispellings of this project's moniker. For the sake of simplicity, we'll just go with the spelling on the cover. Konstruktivist was essentially the solo project of Glenn M. Wallis, who had been affiliated with Throbbing Gristle as something of a bouncer / heavy, given the rather suitable title in some texts as their "control agent." Would you really think that Genesis P-Orridge could take and/or throw a punch? No, Glenn Wallis did that for TG. After their mission was terminated in 1980, he began to explore the darker regions of electronic music and deconstructed minimal wave under those variously spelled Konstruktivist recordings, as well as maintaining an artistic relationship with Chris & Cosey and moonlighting as one of the revolving door members for Whitehouse on stage and on record. A languid synth melody introduces the record with a deathly pall resembling that of a Tibetan thighbone horn (whose eerie bleats graced Lustmord's Heresy album), that slides into a deliciously turgid piece of DIY garage-electronica for creeping drum machine and distorted basslines sounding like those great tracks by Cabaret Voltaire from way back when. A slippery piece of step sequenced synths on "Karnage" much more of a darkly kosmische vibe taking up the sci-fi electronica of Conrad Schniztler. The plodding "Karnal" follows the murky, abstractions that TG created with a distant, heavy drum machine, atonal guitar formations, and subliminally suggestive media collages. Wallis mostly fashioned his disenchanting rhythms and electronics to be instrumental, and when vocals did creep into the mix they tended toward a bleak monotone. The three bonus tracks on this cd seamlessly blend into the dour, DIY electronics of the original album; but sadly this cd reissue is also limited, to just 300 copies.

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With the same generic packaging: a white cd envelope and no-nonsense typography, as its predecesors, Kontakt Der Junglinge's third album reveals the novel concept that the order of their ongoing catalogue is heading in reverse, from "1" to "0" and now at "-1." Here, the German duo of Asmus Tietchens and Thomas Koner present another live documentation, this time at the Lagerhaus in Bremen, Germany. Initially, the artists appear to alternate between their individual styles as the sterile, neutered sounds of Tietchens' electro-acoustics takes center stage at first followed by Koner's prediliction for the very cold dronescapes of isolationism. Despite the two working methodologies, Tietchens and Koner appear to have found common ground in their drawing from an industrial landscape -- something like an iron foundry or a nuclear power plant. Throughout the album, both parties incorporate the scraping sounds of what could be heavy metal objects being dragged across a concrete floor. The intrinsic din of an architectural space gradually becomes more present, beginning with the processed drones from air vents then expanding into ominous electro-static cracklings and finally erupting into massive turbine-engine slabs of noise. As both Koner and Tietchens are masters at sonic engineering, it's a little difficult to discern what (if anything) may have come from field recordings of such industrial spaces or if they've managed to perfect electronic manipulation as a simulation of organic constructions. Regardless, Kontakt Der Junglinge have come up with another great noise / drone recording.

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"0" is the second installment in the apparent series of live releases from Kontakt Der Junglinge, a collaboration between Thomas Koner and Asmus Tietchens. Recorded in the formerly Eastern Bloc controlled German port town of Rostock inside the M.S. Stubnitz

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Two noted German electronic composers Thomas Koner (of Porter Ricks) and Asmus Teitchens gave this collaborative project a hybridized name of two compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen -- "Kontakt" and "Gesang Der Junglinge." Their first documentation is a bit unusual for both artists, as it is a live recording taken from a performance in Bremen, Germany in late 1999. While both Fortunately, Die Stadt didn't issue "1" as a video, effectively removing the physical presence (or lack thereof) of Koner and Tietchens from the listening experience, and simply leaving the amazing sounds behind. The 45 minute Kontakt Der Junglinge begins as a slow 'n' steady series of deep rumbles which are gradually accompanied by very distant Arvo Part-like choral elements. Later still, oceanic swells of processed static and granular synthesis fluidly encroach into the mix and take over the low end rumblings. As Tietchens' DAT whirrs ahead, fragments appear from his "A-Menge" album of asynchronous computerized clicks. Koner treats these sounds with a considerable amount of isolationist reverb, eroding some of the sharp edges of Tietchens' clinical sounds. Altogether, this is an exceptional record easily on par with anything that either artist has produced to date. Well worth checking out!

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As good as the previous three Kontakt Der Junglinge records are, "N" is perhaps the most perfectly realized synthesis of the aesthetics of Thomas Koner and Asmus Tietchens, the two artists who comprise Kontakt Der Junglinge. In their respective solo careers, both artists have developed exceptionally strong sound signatures, with Koner preferring an edgy isolationist quality in his cinematically grand drones, and Tietchens honing the language of cosmic electronics which he pioneered alongside Cluster, Conrad Schnitzler, and Brian Eno back in the '70s. Where the previous albums had either alternated between the two distinct styles or positioned each other's sounds in a dialogue of polite conflict, this album quietly merges the two voices into a singular expansive voice. Archetypally Tietchens-tones encapsulating a sterile plasticity, expand and collapse slowly throughout the album, while Koner's cavernous bass frequencies cradle each of Tietchens' sounds with his arctic atmospheres and lulling soundscapes. As with all of the Kontakt Der Junglinge album,"N" is a live recording; this time, the performance was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and happens to also be the quietest of their collaborations, which certainly helps to achieve the album's delicate balance. Highly recommended to all fans of dronemusik.

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This is the first we've heard from Konx-Om-Pax, aka Tom Scholefield, a video director whose made videos for all sorts of folks, as well as having toured with Mogwai as a DJ, we weren't sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised by these shortform abstract beatless soundscapes, displaying a sound that falls somewhere between the blissed out minimal drift of Pop Ambience, and the cinematic synthscaping of the current crop of Carpenter / Goblin worshippers, the difference being, that the jams here are not at all overtly retro, or really synthy, instead, each is a self contained sonic vignette, some gentle and pastoral, others layered and dense and dark, still others soaring and symphonic, all woven together into an ever changing tapestry of mini soundtracks. We can definitely hear the Orb in plenty of these songs, and KLF's chill out record, and a few tracks definitely display a similar sonic palette to folks like Umberto or Zombi, but Scholefield definitely has his own thing going on, the sounds blurry and crumbly, shimmery and blissed out, pulsing kosmische throb one second, tripped out primitive synth musique concrete the next, displaying a definite flair for crafting earworm melodies, and weaving lush lovely textures. In some ways it's tempting to point to his filmmaking as an influence on these purely audio sounds, and really, how could it not be? And the thing is, these songs and sounds here are truly evocative, definitely cinematic, evoking all sorts of sights and memories, colors and sensations, it's easy to imagine him moving from pairing his visuals with other folks' music to just doing it all himself. As it is, this is some fantastic stuff, equal parts retro synth, minimal soundscaping, pastoral ambience, and blissed out beat free techno shimmer, the perfect collection of soundtracks for whatever your subconscious can conjure up.

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For most casual listeners of music, Kool & The Gang will forever be remembered (and dismissed) for their platinum eighties mega-hit "Celebration". Which is a damn shame! That song alone has nearly built a wall so high over their past efforts that it's hard to convince people that in the seventies, there wasn't a harder working live band or tighter funk unit outside of James Brown & the JB's than Kool & The Gang. Even those familiar with their early funk hits, "Jungle Boogie", "Funky Stuff" or "Hollywood Swinging" (all from their 1973 album Wild and Peaceful) may not realize they put out five records of underrated solid grooves before that. Live At PJ's from 1971 was the band's third album, and their second live album released in a row. A hectic night after night touring schedule of gigs across the country had given the band the necessary chops to pull off one of the most exciting sets committed to wax. Not only were they tight on the funk side, but confident enough on the jazz side of things to get more exploratory and expansive. On the opener "N.T." (short for No Title), both funk and jazz sides are on full display at once. While they are known for having a killer horn section, the most amazing thing about this band is the flute leads, especially on "Sombrero Sam" and "Lucky For Me". Live at PJ's is largely an instrumental record, with occasional vocalizing on a couple of tracks, as the band at this point hadn't expanded much beyond it's soul-jazz roots into the full on funk band it would later become. But it's later hip-hop credentials become apparent on the last song (before the bonus track) "Dujii" as its opening groove became the foundation for "Jazz Thing" by Gang Starr. So awesome, that this underrated live set is available once again! Highly recommended.

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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. An 8-track mini-LP of sorts from this local DJ whose smooth production carries over into the nice hip hop breaks and scratching. Certainly a great scratching record to drop in one's set.

Totally smoking old school rap, back when that simply meant an MC and a DJ equipped with just turntables and a drum machine, none of that fancy modern bull. Kool G Rap and DJ Polo released two records together ('89 and '92) with producers Marley Marl and Eric B and left an indelible mark on hiphop. Specializing in street stories and raunchy sex tales, their 'Riker's Island' was covered by Noreaga, and their classic 'Streets of New York' will have you bobbing and weaving like you never heard hip hop before.

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Here at Aquarius we are of the opinion that Kool Keith is at his very best on the classic Dr Octagon record, his scatalogical rapping perfectly complemented by the Automator's booming, kick ass hiphop instrumentation and by QBert's inimitable turntablist skills. Followup albums such as 'Sex Style' and Dr Dooom disappointed way more than they pleased, which we strongly think is due to the presence of Kut Masta Kurt, instead of the Automator, at the mixing board. (Perhaps this is a coastal thing -- we know many folks in NYC disagree with us... but they're all wrong!) That said, we are happy to report that Keith's new persona as the Black Elvis is a much more successful effort. Neither Kurt nor the Automator is represented here much, but whoever partnered with Keith this time knew to keep the beats mixed far below the rhymes. Keith's rapping is crystal clear and as full of headscratching nonsequiters as ever. Recommended! LP is not yet available (end of August).

Yet another new album of messed up rap from this Ultramagnetic MC alum (the man formerly known as Doctor Octagon). Though we were rolling on the floor by the end of the first song, the first time around, the joke has clearly begun to wear thin for Mr Keith (for those who didn't see the tarnished brass on his ass a few records back). I don't know, maybe he just needs a really good producer, or a shitload of coke, or maybe a shitload less coke, but whatever it is, he needs something to keep Senstional from stealing his 'most fucked rapper' crown.

[ aquarius records catalogue — K ]