[ aquarius records catalogue

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The flood of compact disc reissues of obscure krautrock albums has been constant and overwhelming in recent years, but few discs are truly as cosmic and inspired as collector hype claims make them out to be. Usually an album's rarity is confused with "classic" status. But every once in a while, we get pleasantly blown away by an unexpected unknown. Kalacakra is one such album that deserves its mythical, mystical reputation (and $300 price tag on the collector's market). Reissued in 2001 (but not heard by us until more recently, due to the glut of such reissues alluded to above), Kalacakra's "Crawling To Lhasa" contains eight tracks of mantric acid-folk self-released in 1972 by the apparently drugged-out duo of Claus Rauschenbach ("guitars, kongas, percussions, vocals, harmonica, slentem") and Heinz Martin ("electr. guitars, flute, piano, vibraphon, schalmi, cello, violin, synthesizer"). Their strange, hippie sense of humor and obsession with the culture of Tibet (the name Kalacakra is the Tibetan term for "wheel of time") results in some fantastically nonsensical, eastern-influenced psychedelia (nonsensical? well, that "slentem" that Claus plays is in fact a non-existent, made-up instrument!). The album begins with the dark, hypnotic "Nearby Shiras", a song about a plague-ravaged town in olden Persia, which features some totally sinister and maniacal whispered German-language vocals, reminding us a bit even of Comus. As their crawl to Lhasa continues, Kalacakra venture into zones of lovely folk-strum and raga-rock as well, before the album wraps up with a a deranged and damaged blues stumble called "Tante Olga". Oh, then there's two "bonus" tracks, recorded by Heinz in 1993, that are perhaps best ignored: electronic "world music" unfortunately lacking the mystery and insanity of his 1972 output, inoffensive but an unnecessary addition to this reissue for sure. Claus, we're told, still lives (on social security) in Kalacakra's home town of Duisburg, but does no recording. Good for him. Some folks we know (who often make music under the name Thuja) got so inspired upon hearing this disc that they determined to start their own hippie psych side project, to be called "The Ways Of God To Man", drawing upon Kalacakra as well as the similar sounds of Yahowah 13 and Maru Sankaku Shikaku and Faust's "Tapes" as influences. We'll let you know if they manage to actually record anything! Garden of Delights did their usual thorough job with this reissue, which boasts a thick booklet full of liner notes (in German and English), reproductions of label art from the original LP *and* from bootleg versions, plus photos of Claus and Heinz looking about as weird and long-haired and hippie-ish as it's possible to get! Albums like this make us worry about overlooking other hidden gems amid the multitude of kraut/psych/prog reissues that we're blessed/cursed with every month, so we'll do our best to try and check 'em all out, eventually...whew...

RealAudio clip: Nearby Shiras
RealAudio clip: Raga No. 11
RealAudio clip: Tante Olga

Now reissued on vinyl! Krautrock obscurity alert! Definitely a fave, an album deserving of its mythical, mystical reputation. Kalacakra's Crawling To Lhasa contains eight tracks of mantric acid-folk self-released in 1972 by the apparently drugged-out duo of Claus Rauschenbach ("guitars, kongas, percussions, vocals, harmonica, slentem") and Heinz Martin ("electr. guitars, flute, piano, vibraphon, schalmi, cello, violin, synthesizer"). Their strange, hippie sense of humor and obsession with the culture of Tibet (the name Kalacakra is the Tibetan term for "wheel of time") results in some fantastically nonsensical, eastern-influenced psychedelia (nonsensical? well, that "slentem" that Claus plays is in fact a non-existent, made-up instrument!). The album begins with the dark, hypnotic "Nearby Shiras", a song about a plague-ravaged town in olden Persia, which features some totally sinister and maniacal whispered German-language vocals, reminding us a bit even of Comus. As their crawl to Lhasa continues, Kalacakra venture into zones of lovely folk-strum and raga-rock as well, before the album wraps up with a deranged and damaged blues stumble called "Tante Olga".

MPEG stream: Monuments To Ruins
MPEG stream: Frozen Sun

We're always on the lookout for new weird music magazines, and we're fairly sure this might be our new favorite. To begin with, it's put out by one of the guys in weirdo black metal outfit Circle Of Ouroborus. Plus just have a gander at the contents, loads of AQ faves and a few bands we have yet to hear, but definitely sound promising. Blissy black metallers Amesoeurs and Amesoeurs offshoot Alcest, Finland's Ride For Revenge, Japanese metallic black ritualists Arkha Sva, Swedish suicidal black doomsters Hypothermia, Irish black metal cult Primordial, German black metal warriors Secrets Of The Moon, pagan folk legends Current 93, Australian one man metal horde Grippiud and Italian blackdeath warkult Blasphemophagher. As if that weren't enough, a bunch of record reviews, tons of cool photos, and every page is decorated in the margins with that cool pencil art that adorns all the Circle Of Ouroborus discs. Awesome!

Latest issue of this kick ass metal mag from long time aQ favorites, black metal geniuses (maniacs?) Circle Of Ouroborus, who, when not crafting twisted damaged folk flecked stumbling blackened buzz, put together a seriously excellent 'zine, covering a super varied selection of very AQ worthy outfits. Number 5 features NY based primitive black metallers Ash Pool, Japanese doomsters Coffins, Danish doom combo Sol, legendary Norwegian black metallers Trelldom, German blackened death metallers Drowned, death metal legends Incantation, stoner doom trio Ramesses. And even some new-to-us stuff: Australian black thrashers Denouncement Pyre, and four super obscure black death doom bands with only demos to their names: Arvet from Finland, Ignivomous from Australia, Exorcism (we're not sure where they're from) and another Finnish band Profetus. In addition to all that stuff, there's a bunch of reviews, as well as a killer primer on Finnish black metal, and each page has a cool hand drawn border with demons and flames and upside down crosses, skeletons, and in addition to all the various band photos, there are tons of creepy hand drawn illustrations.

Though we sadly haven't been able to get copies of the first Kaleidoscope album on cd of late (the one entitled Tangerine Dream, not to be confused with the krautrock band of that name), we are very happy to now have copies of this perfectly twee UK psych pop combo's recently reissued second album, 1969's Faintly Blowing! And it comes in a nice digipack with six bonus tracks! Now if only we had some tea and crumpets we'd be all supercalifragilistic. Ahem. Kaleidoscope were one of the best unsung post-Peppers British psych-pop acts. This one carries on from their first (a solid AQ fave) with more of the same delightful dreamy oh-so-melodic and lysergically lyricized pop psyke, some of the best ever in our humble opinion. Orchestrated, emotive, shoulda-been-hits abound, along with some way-out psychedelic experimentation. The Kaleidoscope story continued into the proggy '70s with a name change to Fairfield Parlour but Faintly Blowing was really their last colourful hurrah of dainty dandy '60s poppiness.

MPEG stream: Faintly Blowing
MPEG stream: Snap Dragon

Nice! The two crucial albums by this aQ fave sixties psych pop act, now reissued as a double cd, complete with bunches of bonus tracks! Not to be confused with the various other Kaleidoscopes of the era from the US and Mexico, this perfectly twee UK psych pop combo's were one of the best unsung post-Peppers British psych-pop acts. We believe these guys might in fact have been THE ULTIMATE psychedelic pop band ever. The first of the two discs here contains their 1967 debut album Tangerine Dream (which is also not to be confused with the famous krautrock/soundtrack outfit Tangerine Dream) is just incredible. Gorgeous vocals, killer melodies, lush orchestrations, and, especially, beautifully baroque psych-speak lyrics that put "Strawberry Fields Forever" to shame - with lines like "Battalions in baby blue are bursting beige balloons / the water pistols are all filled with lemonade / the jester and the goldfish have joined minds above the moon / oh please kiss the flowers and you too will be safe / oh swing and sway..." It's very British, twee and dreamy, being that perfect blend of sunshine and melancholy so many psych pop bands of the era were striving for. The Kaleidoscope did it best right here. I mean, if you like the Zombies and the Hollies and heck the Olivia Tremor Control, you should know about these gents too. Indeed, the album's final track "The Sky Children", might be THE ULTIMATE pop-psych track on this ultimate pop-psych record. (Hey a little hyperbole never hurt anybody.) It's an eight-minute epic, with a thrilling vocal hook on endless repeat, and amazing lyrics continually pouring forth the whole time. Truly awe-some, if you're attuned to the vibe. The disc is rounded out with six bonus tracks, from singles and such. Disc two contains the band's second album, 1969's Faintly Blowing (and an additional 4 bonus tracks). This one carries on from their first with more of the same delightful dreamy oh-so-melodic and lysergically lyricized pop psyke, some of the best ever in our humble opinion. Orchestrated, emotive, shoulda-been-hits abound, along with some way-out psychedelic experimentation. The Kaleidoscope story continued into the proggy '70s with a name change to Fairfield Parlour but Faintly Blowing was really their last colourful hurrah of dainty dandy '60s poppiness. Quite nice, fantastic, possibly even supercalifragilistic.

MPEG stream: Dive Into Yesterday
MPEG stream: Flight From Ashiya
MPEG stream: The Sky Children
MPEG stream: Faintly Blowing
MPEG stream: Snap Dragon

Not a new release -- nor even a new reissue -- but we just manage to get some and wanted to list it 'cause it's something that several of us here have been listening to a lot lately! This Kaleidoscope were a sixties British pop psych band (not to be confused with the various other Kaleidoscopes of the era from the US and Mexico) and we believe these guys might in fact have been THE ULTIMATE psychedelic pop band ever. This album (also not to be confused with the famous Krautrock/soundtrack outfit with the same name as the album's title) is just incredible. Gorgeous vocals, killer melodies, lush orchestrations, and, especially, beautifully baroque psych-speak lyrics that put "Strawberry Fields Forever" to shame -- with lines like "Battalions in baby blue are bursting beige balloons / the water pistols are all filled with lemonade / the jester and the goldfish have joined minds above the moon / oh please kiss the flowers and you too will be safe / oh swing and sway..." It's very British, twee and dreamy, being that perfect blend of sunshine and melancholy so many psych pop bands of the era were striving for. The Kaleidoscope did it best right here. I mean, if you like the Zombies and the Hollies and heck the Olivia Tremor Control you should know about these gents too. Indee, the original 1967 album's final track (followed here by six bonus tracks), "The Sky Children", might be THE ULTIMATE pop-psych track on this ultimate pop-psych record. (Hey a little hyperbole never hurt anybody.) It's an eight-minute epic, with a thrilling vocal hook on endless repeat, and amazing lyrics continually pouring forth the whole time. Truly awe-some, if you're attuned to the vibe.

RealAudio clip: Dive Into Yesterday
RealAudio clip: Flight From Ashiya

Record Of The Week honorees Los Dug Dugs aren't the only vintage psych band from south of the border that we dig, of course. Here's another, recently reissued rarity as well. The Mexican Kaleidoscope, not to be confused with the UK Kaleidoscope (a huge AQ favorite) or the USA Kaleidoscope either. Actually this Kaleidoscope was only sorta from Mexico - while record was originally released there, the band had begun in Puerto Rico, and then later moved in on the Mexican scene, via a stopover in the Dominican Republic, where this album was recorded, in 1967. Interestingly, on the back cover of the cd booklet, there's a show poster for 'em (billed as The Kaleidoscopes) that says they're from here in San Francisco, psychedelic central at the time, a promoter's claim made probably just to help sell tickets. But they did sound like they *could* have been from 'Frisco all right. Swirling organ and guitar fuzz dominate the uptempo numbers, like garagey, groovy opener "Hang Out", and there's plenty of organ and fuzz to be heard on the more melodic, moody likes of "Once Upon A Time There Was A World", a somber eight minute opus that one. Definitely killer psychedelic pop stuff for all you "Nuggets" fans, Kaleidoscope for sure fitting in with such acts as The Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Question Mark & The Mysterians, The Lollipop Shoppe, and others of the era. They seemed to specialize in the wild and unhinged, there's even a song called "I'm Crazy". The urgent and intense "Colours", with its stinging fuzz, burbling electronics, sudden horn-honks, and desperate vocals, is especially tripped-out. Crucial lines from the lyrics: "acid colors burn my brain / I'm just insane"! Also something about the singer's delivery on that track reminds us of Mexican-American punks The Plugz (of Repo Man soundtrack fame)... That's probably the number one nugget here, a classic, but all the tracks are pretty good. One song here, with the great title of "I'm Here, He's Gone, She's Cryin'", was written by their Venezuelan pals Ladies WC, the others all originals. This is a nicely done, totally legit reissue (they even tracked down the original cover artist), with extensive liner notes, vintage photos, and cool full color artwork in the cd booklet. It also includes 3 bonus tracks: 2 bluesy ones from a Kaleidoscope offshoot (which may or many not date from the '60s, we wonder) and a live recording of Kaleidoscope in 1969, doing Donovan's "Season Of The Witch". Shadoks pronounce themselves pleased to put this out, and they should be.

MPEG stream: Hang Out
MPEG stream: A Hole In My Life
MPEG stream: Colours

The Kalevala is the Finnish national mythological epic, and thus no surprise this '70s prog/boogie band hails from Finland. Yes that's right, we said prog/boogie. And Finland. Wonder if Itavalya are fans? There's two LPs reissued here on this single cd, the band's 1972 debut People No Names, and their 1975 follow-up Boogie Jungle. Of the two, well, you can maybe guess which is the best... People No Names is simply a crazed hard rockin' prog behemoth, kicking ass and taking names (no names?). The nine-minute title track doesn't hold back the rapid-fire changes, the ripping guitars, the jazzy grooves, the weirdly gruff vocals...it's wild stuff!! The other cuts here veer from instrumental shred to folky melodiousness to heavy psychedelic jamming, oftentimes all at once! Not for those with no tolerance for wackiness, though. The countryish hoedown "Tamed Indians" will see to that... Record number two, which appeared three years later, after the band broke up and reformed with a new line-up (including a new vocalist), is a bit more of an ordinary, less-prog, more Jimi Hendrix-y affair. Still wacky though. And, of course, they've gone BOOGIE big time. Some will find this just too ridiculous but we're having wonderful nostalgic flashbacks to a '70s rock n' roll Finland we never actually experienced. Interesting note: Liner notes that reveal the band's original name was Vietnam, which didn't fly with concert promoters at the time, hence the change... Another note: one annoyance is that Walhalla did that annoying thing labels so often do when they put out 2-on-1 cds, trying to cram both album's covers on one panel of the cd booklet rather than giving each cover a panel. Pet peeve #294,391.

MPEG stream: People No Names
MPEG stream: Lady With The Veil
MPEG stream: Mind The Fly Hunter

One would usually never align The Beach Boys with early freak folk, but then this strange and lovely oddity suddenly emerges out of nowhere and all kinds of links can be made. Stephen John Kalinich was (and still is) a poet and songwriter who with the help of Lindsey Buckingham in a project called Zarathurstra and Thelibus cut a demo of "Leaves of Grass" inspired by the Walt Whitman poem. Moving to LA in the mid-sixties, he met the Wilson brothers and based on the strength of the demo was signed as the first artist on their newly formed Brother Records imprint. He co-wrote songs mainly with Dennis such as "Little Bird" and "Be Still" from the Friends album (one of our Beach Boys favorites) as well as songs from the recently reissued "Pacific Ocean Blue". "A World Of Peace Must Come" was to be his debut release. Recorded by Brian Wilson at Brian's house in 1969, the tapes were immediately lost and never heard from since... until now. The production is not what you might expect from Brian Wilson, instead these are beautiful lo-fi recordings of beat-like impressionistic poetry and song, backed by simple arrangements of acoustic guitars, field recordings and tablas, with bits of dialogue between Brian and Stephen interspersed. One can't help but be reminded of the Jewelled Antler collective's foresty acoustics when listening to tracks like "The Deer, The Elk, The Raven". Or the gentle spoken word psych of Bobby Brown. Like Eden Ahbez was to Nat King Cole, Kalinich was a strange visionary figure in the Wilson's lives, and this is a fascinating document of their relationship, and an interesting curio of The Beach Boys in their peak era. Now if someone would only reissue that American Spring album........

MPEG stream: The Deer, The Elk, The Raven
MPEG stream: Be Still
MPEG stream: America, I Know You
MPEG stream: Leaves Of Grass

Mari Kalkun is a contemporary Estonian folk singer, who has taken up the task of resurrecting the early 20th century folk songs from her homeland, with many of her lyrics reworked from works by Estonian poets dating back to the 1920s. Kalkun was the artist who introduced us to the haunting singing quartet Utsiotso, a group that shares a similar influence and inspiration, in those selfsame early Estonian folk music traditions. That said, there's quite a lot we don't know about Estonian folk music; but from what she mentions about her own songwriting, Kalkun follows one particular strain - vaibakloppimine. This is a stripped down style for voice, minimal accompaniment, and a distinctive lack of drums, which presumably are prominent or at least present in other Estonian folk musics. In order to even attempt such a style, one has to have decent pipes; and Kalkun certainly has a beautiful voice, one that would bring to mind the empathic delivery of Chan Marshall. But with her minimalist arrangements for guitar, zither, or piano, the most obvious reference to us is Sibylle Baier. That should certainly register as high praise from aQuarius! "Hommukuvalge" is a downright beautiful number gliding around the simple vocal and guitar melodies that evokes the carefree daydreaminess of a wander through a sun-flecked forest collecting mushrooms and blueberries (quite the common weekend excursion for Estonians!) Kalkun puts the words of Estonian poet Raimond Kolk to music on "Tuulo Kaen" with a blossoming accordion drone, fragile clusters of piano notes, and her full-throated, harmonious voice taking a rather dramatic turn at the chorus. Elsewhere she adopts lyrics from Tove Jansson's Moomin stories, which were allegorical children's books with fantastical creatures akin to a Scandinavian Dr. Seuss. This song "Koduvana Puhendus" eschews the bittersweetness of the rest of the album, with its Germanic oompa rhythm cast in soft focus and Kalkun's cascading trills that sound a lot like John Jacob Niles. All sung in Estonian, mind you; but Kalkun's ability to emote transcends languages, and she's crafted quite a gem of an album.

MPEG stream: Hommukuvalge
MPEG stream: Maalapsekas
MPEG stream: Tuulo Kaen

It's unlikely that Michael Anacker (aka Kallabris) had much if anything to do with the once prolific, post-industrial outfit Cranioclast; but Kallabris did release a couple of magnificent pieces of submariner drone records in the late '80s through the Jazztone imprint which had some sort of cohabitation with the Cranioclast in-house label CoC. In many ways, those early Kallabris records were an obvious precursor to what Leyland Kirby has done recently with his Caretaker project in conjuring the mood of a Victorian ship slowly sinking out at sea. Haunted melodies, incidental creaks of distressed metal, and maudlin ambience are found in both sets of recordings. Jump ahead a decade or two, and Kallabris has buried some of the emotional sentiment found in his earlier work, moving more towards a sense of dislocation and unease through electro-acoustic means. Indebted to the German cut-n-paste work of P16.D.4 and G*Park, Music For Very Simple Objects may have begun humbly (e.g. field recordings and found objects), but results in two highly refined collages. The first side is filled with empty holes, bracketed by small events which get treated with all sorts of oblique effects, ending up sounding stoic and black in nature. The flip is more of the 'drone' side recalling the early Kallabris sounds (after-all this is released by Troum's Drone Records!), with slippery sustained tones oozing out of a musique concrete introduction of gossamer metallic klanks and clicks.

As the Kallikak Family's debut album opens mournful drones seep forth slowly. The track is titled "Organ Tuning / Surgery", and indeed that is what it sounds like. The tones lull themselves in and out of different ranges. Eventually the somber atmosphere is gently stirred by the surfacing of shimmery aquatic vibrations and vocal samples in the title track. These in turn give way to peals from distant chapel bells. Although the album's title is seemingly a date in the not so distant future, the sounds contained within evoke a sense of fleeting memories from the past. Airy and contemplative and yes, recommended.

MPEG stream: Organ Tuning / Surgery
MPEG stream: May 23rd 2007
MPEG stream: Bells In Bergamo

The RVNG Int'l label has been killing it lately with 3 incredible archival releases in a row highlighting the marginal worlds of second generation avant-garde ambient electronic auteurs. The first two were the spacey electro-industrial "folk" productions of Craig Leon and the blithely elusive Eno-worship of Seattle's K. Leimer. But it's this third release that we have been most excited about and that is the rare early recordings of France's Ariel Kalma, a polymath musician and spiritual explorer whose sonic endeavors cross-pollinate multiple genres of music including free jazz, minimalism, musique concrete, experimental tape music, long-form ragas and proto-new age devotional ambience. We made Kalma's 1978 masterwork of rainforest field recordings and atmospheric horn and organ textures, Osmose, Record of The Week when it was finally reissued back in 2006. There his interest in the correlations of sound and nature culminated brilliantly after years working with avant-garde musique concrete titan Pierre Henry at the legendary Institut National Audiovisuel, Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA GRM) studios � the same sound laboratory that spawned masterpieces by members Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis, and Bernard Parmegiani. But Kalma's restless wanderlust led him to travel, first to India, where he mastered circular breathing to be able to play the saxophone in continuous looping repetitions, then to New York where he briefly joined the mysterious musical spiritual collective, Arica, meeting one of his heroes, Don Cherry along the way. Evolutionary music spans a fertile period of little heard recordings between 1972 and 1979 that were culled mostly from private press lps and rare cassette releases. Terry Riley-ish organ repetitions, Percussive pieces, Experimental vocal tape recordings, ragas, interplanetary jazz motifs and spacious gorgeous ambient drones. A beautiful collection of head music that comes of course highly recommended!!!!

MPEG stream: Almora Sunrise
MPEG stream: Ecstasy Musical Mind Yoga
MPEG stream: Rainy Day
MPEG stream: Les Mots de Tous Les Jours (R�ves Etranges)

We raved over the earlier reissue of minimalist composer Ariel Kalma's 1978 epic Osmose. So much so we made it a Record of the Week! Now Beta-Lactam Ring has reissued Kalma's 1975 debut Les Temps des Moissons (Time of The Harvest), a foray into electronic ragas using saxophone (lots of sax), ethnic instruments, effects and all manners of electronic filters. Less proto-new age sounding than Osmose, Les Temps takes cues from Terry Riley's Poppy NoGood explorations with saxophone and time delay and expands on them with krautier influences using kalimbas, flutes and wah-wah effects into a metaphysical tapestry of free music. Fans of Riley, early Kraftwerk and Joakim Skogsberg will find lots to love here! As long as you don't mind sax...

MPEG stream: Bakafrica
MPEG stream: Fast Road To Nowhere

There's something truly magical about music in nature. And we don't mean the music we find in nature, although more often than not, that natural music is far more interesting and beautiful then anything we humans can conjure up. No, we're talking about playing music -with- nature, -in-nature. The act of collaborating with something so big, so grand, so overwhelmingly complex, that sometimes just the mere act of creating sounds away from the studio or stage, just being outside in nature with your music, can seem truly divine. And as listeners, there is something thrilling about man and nature working together to make music. From the primitive forest black metal blast of Ulver recording Nattens Madrigal in the Norwegian woods, to the Jewelled Antler collective communing with nature, allowing wind and rain and sticks and stones to play as important a part in their music as they themselves, to the rain soaked ritual of Koukiji Kougezan's Live [11th] Final Hyakusenmansyuuraku, a near ambient performance for flute and sitar, with the falling rain, and thus nature, the focal point of the ritual / performance. So lovely, and vital, the music seems so much more whole, so much more alive, all intertwined with the elements. Osmose was originally released in 1978 and found minimalist composer Ariel Kalma using all manner of keyboards, saxophone, harmonium, delays, effects, even circular breathing, to compose gorgeously minimal, softly spacey slow drifting ambient soundscapes, which were then mixed with the sounds of the rainforest (recorded by Richard Tinti). But unlike new age meditational music, this wasn't just music layered on top of random bits of field recordings, Kalma actually composed and mixed, edited and arranged his compositions to work with and within the sounds of the rainforest. Abstract melodies and warm chordal swirls, simple tribal war drums, perfectly blended with the calls of crickets and frogs and cicadas, the falling rain, birdsongs, flies, and all the sounds of the jungle forest. It sounds almost as if, while walking through the forest, you'd be just as likely to stumble across a bunch of analog synthesizers basking in a sunny glade or a wheezing harmonium perched in low hanging branches as you would frogs gathered by the edge of the stream. Sounds strange, but that's how interconnected the natural sounds are with Kalma's compositions. The distant animal calls sometimes form primitive loops, while Kalma paints them with warm soft smears of sound, extended drones and dreamy drifty ambience. Simple rhythms repeat while the sounds of the forest drift lazily by, everything sun dappled or rain soaked, It's almost like a pop ambient record recorded deep in the forest primeval. Or stumbling upon some ancient burial ground and discovering traces of some long gone krautrock jam, which over time had somehow sunk deep into the earth, or floated off into the sky, leaving nothing but memories, a handful of bones, sonic echoes of its former self. Sounds like ghosts, drifting like spirits through the leaves of the trees, floating weightless above the wet leaves and rich soil. Warm and fuzzy, dreamy and blissed out, so completely lovely and quite possibly our new favorite record to drift off to... Includes three bonus tracks recorded at the same time as the original lp, but unreleased until now, as well as a booklet of liner notes detailing the lives of both Ariel Kalma and Richard Tinti, as well as the genesis of Osmose.

MPEG stream: Saxo Planetariel
MPEG stream: Message 18.10.77

Yet another amazing band from the metal mecca of Finland. Bearing no small sonic resemblance to their countrymen and AQ faves Children Of Bodom, Kalmah take the melodic death metal of In Flames and Dark Tranquility, add ridiculously shredding guitar leads and fleet fingered keyboards and end up with a melodic metal masterpiece. Pounding double kick drums underpin the raging riffs, but melodies abound with Iron Maidenish harmony guitars and super melodic guitar/keyboard solos. My housemate who is a sucker for all things melodic death metal heard this and immediately said 'This is the best record ever.' While he says that about LOTS of records, you still get the idea. While the way-up-in-the-mix keyboards might deter some of you 'true' metalheads, the metal is more than heavy enough to balance it out. Includes a Megadeth cover too!

RealAudio clip: Hollow Heart
RealAudio clip: Swamphell

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

SORRY. Obscure, modern-day Japanese psychedelic rock band, kind of like Ghost but perhaps folkier and poppier. With traditional Japanese elements as well. Nice.

Another outing of hazy, jazz-dappled beauty from this instrumental German collective, I mean, kollektief, who are long-time AQ faves. Burbling drones, noirish atmospheres, electronic beats, lush melody, sampling and improv all combine on this gorgeous fifth album of theirs, Absencen. They've been compared (by us and others) to everyone from Fridge to Mum to AMM to Miles Davis... we're not gonna add any new names to that illustrious list for this review, rather we'd like to make the point that not only do they deserve such comparisons, Kammerflimmer now have pretty much established themselves as a standard for others to be compared against -- anyone who makes lovely, densely woven, textural soundscapey instrumentals that fall somewhere betwixt post-rock, jazz and electronica should be glad to be told they sound a bit like the Kammerflimmer Kollektief!

MPEG stream: Lichterloh
MPEG stream: Equilibrium

One of the few "post rock" bands to play somber organic, electronica-imbued music and have it NOT be background filler, but full of emotion, narrative, texture, and meaning, Germany's Kammerflimmer Kollektief have delivered their prettiest album with Cicadidae. The squiggly processed electronics frolic, sounding like seagulls, over warm violin, harmonium drone, and chattery, shimmering drums. There's saxophone, vibraphone, double bass, all so evocative and melodic. Exploratory experimental jazz bits contrast nicely with the epic lush resolutions, reminding us sometimes of Amon Tobin's quieter moments, also Kreidler, To Rococo Rot, the Tied + Tickled Trio. Windy's new favorite record and one of the most satisfyingly lovely albums since Fridge's Eph. Just listen to that first sound clip and my guess is you'll be hooked.

MPEG stream: Neuhmon Inselhin
MPEG stream: Blood
MPEG stream: Mantra

In contrast with their most recent album Maander, which pulsed and shuffled and rollicked along in a similar mellow electronica vein as To Rococo Rot, Fridge, and Boards of Canada, this new disc from this AQ fave band is a more abstract offering, with

RealAudio clip: Hysteria

The AQ-beloved German 6-piece, as we've noted in reviews of their other records, "take (post) rock and a bit of subtly handled electronics and mix them up so skillfully that it doesn't sound like a 'mix' anymore -- it sounds like an organic hazy wash of On Incommunicado, now finally released stateside, leader Thomas Weber asked the bandmembers to reinterpret their lovely Maander album, only this time the recording would be entirely improvised on different instruments (including guitar, strings, upright bass), and neither edited nor overdubbed. The recording is thus fresh, alive, and very very good. Those of us who already love Maander will enjoy this one too, it is substantially different and super interesting while still retaining the flavor (minus the electronics) of Kammerflimmer's signature sound. Recommended.

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If you regularly peruse our New Arrivals list (of course you do!) then you're probably aware that we sometimes review an album the week it's released, or sometimes the week after, or even the week before, or a few months later, or even a whole year later. This is due to a lot of random factors, and also some constant ones -- like the number of hours in the day! All this by way of saying, this excellent new album (the sixth) from Germany's always dependable Kammerflimmer Kollektief came out a month or two back, and it's about time we got it up on our website! A slowly unfolding, gloriously pretty affair, dense with buzz and shimmer, a mix of acoustic strings and electronic embellishment, gentle rhythms and lovely ambience. Never can tell just what to call 'em: post-rock, jazz, electronica, definitely a heavenly hybrid of all those things. Heck we could just call it krautrock couldn't we? Definitely falls into that tradition. Their moody mood this time around is even more calm and crackly and contemplative than we recall in the past, replete with harmonium and double bass drones... percussion and piano intertwining... and the abstract but alluring vocals of Heike Aumuller. As we like to say (feeling very self-reflective at the moment): quite nice!

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Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant record that got little attention when it was imported to the US last year. Temporary Residence has finally issued the all-instrumental Maander stateside, and perhaps now the German 6-piece will get the recognition it's due.

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The title pretty much says it all... and the cover art tells you the rest. This cd features ten remixes of Kammerflimmer Kollektief tracks by Noze, Sutekh, Radian, Secondo, Lump200, David Last, Jan Jelinek, Aoki Takamasa and Hans Appelqvist. Each track sounds exactly like a textbook definition of "remix" -- skillfully dismembered, edited, and augmented glitchy electronica in which both artists are sufficiently 'represented'. That said, the Jan Jelinek and Aoki Takamasa tracks were particularly pleasing treatments of these German faves.

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Yay, more Kampfar(rrrrrr)! This Nordic horde, whose first ep came out back in 1995, was missing in action for seven long years, returning in 2006 with the frosty Kvass, and now they're back again with another icy blast of their Norwegian black metal mastery. If anything, this one's full of even folkier riffs, but stays super grim and heavy too, making for some sort of pagan ritual trudge, rolling and rasping and rollicking on and on majestically. There's something quite "classic" about the folky metal lope of tracks like "Vansinn" that's for sure. And as frozen cold as Kampar's collective heart must be, much emotion is still conveyed by the likes of "Vettekult". So, recommended obviously to any/all Kampfar fans, but also to anyone if you just like picking up a new Nordic black metal album this week - this one is the real deal like back in the '90s! Something must also be said about vocalist and founding member Dolk (that's his name), who, in a recent band photo we've seen, displays a remarkable Kampfar logo tattoo across his stomach, gangsta-style! It looks pretty funny we must stay, but on the other hand, it's an excuse for him to show off his sixpack abs. As well as demonstrating he's serious about his band, it's no fly by night flavor of the month outfit. Indeed, though he somehow finds time for working out and getting tattooed and all that, Dolk's main priority remains channelling the wintry spirits of his Viking ancestors into metal music so powerful that even a non-band-member might consider getting the logo of inked on their body.

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For some dumb reason, we love saying the name of this Norwegian black metal band... but mispronouncing it like "Campfire" with a pirate-y drawl. Campfarrr! Dunno why we enjoy that so much. It's the same with Finnish black metallers Barathrum. "BATHROOM" we call 'em, or maybe "Barthroom". And we chuckle like idiots. None of this is fair to Kampfar (or Barathrum for that matter). Kampfar are in fact very much a not-funny, totally true and serious Nordic pagan black metal proposition, having released several cultish albums in the past, efforts easily the equal of their more famous peers like Gorgoroth and Darkthrone and Enslaved in their early days. Actually we didn't even know they were still around, Kvass is their first album in SEVEN years! And thus, happily, that classic '90s style Norwegian black metal is what you get! Six long, heavy tracks with rasping vox, raw riffage, and some Viking folky bits as well. Frosty and spikey and grim, with lots of slower parts and majestic melodies underneath all the ice. Yah, Kampfarrrrr!

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Don't know too much about this Icelandic (not Canadian) group, but this record really knocked us out. Starts off sounding like a souped up, surfed up version of Finnish Casio-popsters Aavikko, but over the course of the next few tracks it turns into something

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Simon from aQ faves The Heads is back with his second stellar solo opus under the name Kandodo. Once again he draws upon the rhythms and vastness of the sea and the sky to inspire the music on this album, which is a much more spacey and organic affair than the more intense fuzz freakage he indulges in UK garage psych masters The Heads. If you liked Kandodo's first one, you'll dig this too - it's again lovely and zoned-out, the tracks being pretty much entirely instrumental, composed of overdubbed, effects-laden guitar, shimming and fuzzy and droney, slowly and gently unfurling, sometimes building to a steady, krauty throb - as on the side-long epic "Swim Into The Sun", which Moon Duo fans will certainly love. The longer tracks like that are totally mesmeric and even the shorter interludes are too, before they fade out into the next. These pieces aren't so much "songs" as they are mood-setting soundscapes, the repetitive, layered guitar parts working alone or in many cases mixed with field recordings (the sound of surf, appropriately, on both "Waves" and "Swim Into The Sun"), subtle bass pulsations, and occasional hippie hand percussion. Some voices are heard too, in a couple places, but they're buried samples, almost unintelligible, though we did figure out that the track "Grace And" incorporates an edited audio-tour of Elvis Presley's Graceland, to hypnotic effect. Odd, but there's a sort of soothing Conet-quality to it. This radiantly glowing album is quite nice indeed and recommended; we can imagine Barn Owl fans enjoying the twang of "July 28th", we already mentioned the likes of Moon Duo, and also this has some post-rock appeal - folks into the softer side of Mogwai or Godspeed for instance might feel at home with a lot of this, though Kandodo is much more "wah wah psychedelic" in sound than yr usual post-rock. Vinyl comes with bonus limited edition 7" with an exclusive B side, "Left My Heart In Monkey Bay" (the A side is on the cd).

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Kandodo? If the name sounds familiar it's maybe 'cuz you've got the Wooden Shjips remix 12" wherein Kandodo was one of the participants. Aha, that's right, Kandodo is the solo project from guitarist Simon Price of UK fuzz psych mongers The Heads! And, following that Shjips remix, here's his first full-length under that moniker (the name of a supermarket in Malawai, where Simon grew up), released also through Thrill Jockey. So, this should be of extreme interest to the legion of Heads fans out there. Even though, this -isn't- one of those solo projects that sounds just like the person's main band. Kandodo, a spacey guitar n' effects based, all-instrumental manifestation of chilled out cosmic krautronics, is a different, more blissful beast indeed, one that's rather more in the mode of deep, late night and early morning listening, for prayerful headphone inner/outer mind explorations. Still, this is the sort of thing that we'd expect any fan of The Heads to enjoy as well. Also fans of Zomes, Expo 70, Barn Owl, Bjorn Olsson, Urthona... and there's also just a hint of Dr. Who theme music whoosh to this too. It's epic and echoing; both gentle and ominous, rhythmic and serene... Mellow and memorably melodic (each track, individually) even though composed, in the main, of hypnotic waves of droning distorted guitar, seeming simple and stark. Also some keys, tambourine, and lo-fi field recordings are woven into these "fuzzy lullabies" as Simon calls them. While in OUR universe Simon is a rock star, if he ever needs to pick up some extra work, this release proves he could / should easily get commissioned to do soundtracks to BBC documentaries about, like, ancient science and cosmology. We're envisioning this music accompanying images of pyramids and henges and starry night skies quite effectively. Furthermore, certain tracks here could give the likes of Umberto some competition in the imaginary giallo suspense film soundtrack department, too. About our only complaint is that this disc eventually comes to an end (after nine tracks) rather than being somehow limitless in duration, infinite and eternal the way it seems it should be. Quite highly recommended, in fact, we came pretty close to making this a Record Of The Week, probably should have, as we think it's a must have for many of our customers...

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Jonathan Kane was a founding member and drummer of the Swans, as well as a collaborator with La Monte Young and Rhys Chatham. This his new solo record is sort of similar to the idea of Young's Forever Bad Blues Band, an intense and focused foot tappin' blissed out blues sizzler. Repetitious guitar riffs and pulsating percussion that draws you in and leaves you in a frenzy. You can practically hear the sweat dripping off of Kane's body. But don't be expecting any Swans pummel or Teutonic crush, this is pretty much basic blues rock through and through, but of course played with an intense and fierce focus. Includes a Glen Branca cover, "Guitar Trio". And as always, there's totally beautiful packaging from the folks at Table Of The Elements.

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Picking up where his last record left off, Swans founding member Jonathan Kane returns with two more foot stomping blues sizzling instrumentals which use a pedigreed technique of building repetition that makes these tracks sound somewhere between excellent bar rock/blues with a hint of his more intense past and works with Rhys Chatham. Much like recent instrumental outings by Tom Verlaine (not that this sounds like that at all) it's actually sometimes nice to hear someone who seems to have aged gracefully and is playing what they want, with nothing to prove, and with a new found ease and confidence that seems appropriate with their moment in time.

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Heralded as supposedly the first Japanese female singer-songwriter, Sachiko Kanenobu's debut solo outing from 1972, Misora (Beautiful Sky), has an aura of legend. A hard-working presence in the burgeoning Osaka folk scene in the '60s, Sachiko worked for record labels and various bands before striking out on her own. Since it was rare for a woman to be playing her own songs, she quickly managed a record deal. But her love affair with American music critic, Paul Williams, forced her to decide to move to America three months before Misora was released. Without her in Japan to promote it, the record sank without a trace. While in America, she tried to revive her career with the help, of all people, sci-fi writer Phillip K. Dick (!!!), who had become friends with the couple through a piece by Williams for Rolling Stone. Dick, a longtime music obsessive, had always wanted to produce a female songwriter, but unfortunately died of a stroke before that could take place. Her major revival didn't occur until the early '90s when musicians from the buzzing Shibuya-kei scene, such as Cornelius, Takako Minekawa and Kenji Ozawa began citing Misora as a major influence and Misora as a favorite record. The music here is soft and dreamy reminiscent somewhat of Joni Mitchell but with her own innocent flair along with nice arrangements of flute and guitar. One can definitely trace Sachiko's influence on the dreamy sounds of Japanese female vocalists Takakao Minekawa, Tujiko Noriko, and Mineko Itakura from Angel'n Heavy Syrup. Beautiful!

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Something new on VHF! Some lovely, droning, minimal sounds as you might expect from that quality label. Kang Tae Hwan is an circular-breathing alto saxophone player from Korea whom we've never heard of before -- perhaps because this is his first ever US release. Seems like an example of VHF branching out from their standard roster, except that Hwan's includes Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple, who has previously appeared on VHF in collaboration with Richard Youngs. Here Kawabata plays both the Indian sarangi, and guitar. The trio is rounded out by Ichiraku Yoshimusu (also a member of Acid Mothers Temple, as well as Otomo Yoshihide's ISO, etc.) on bowed percussion and drumkit. So, I guess an *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* is in order! That aside, this is a nice album in its own right, consisting of one slow-building, exquisite 50 minute track for your late-night enjoyment. Not everyone loves saxophone, but this isn't any sort of typical jazz outing that's for sure. Packaged outside the VHF-norm in a brown, gold-embossed cardboard folio.

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You know avant-violinist Eyvind Kang from his several discs for John Zorn's Tzadik label, and/or his work with the likes of Ikue Mori, Bill Frisell, Dying Ground, Joe McPhee, Secret Chiefs 3, and the Sun City Girls, right? Indeed, you probably recall that Kang's extended violin improvisation was a highlight of the SCG's "300,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda", one of their best albums. Well here's more of Kang's violin, backed by a group called the 'Neti-Neti Band' who may or may not be those selfsame Sun City Girls. Four tracks, over an hour of quiet, beautifully droning, melodic violin-based instrumental soundscapes. A bit King Crimson-ish, we'd say. Quite nice. Track three, "Highlands", gets a bit noisier than what came before, but is still quite pretty. Sure does sound like the Sun City Girls, in a trance-y mode.

RealAudio clip: Heads On Red Lakes Return
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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. Seattle avant-violin etcetera wunderkind's second solo record, following his 7 NADES on Zorn's Tzadik label...If you've heard that, or enjoyed his collaborations with the Sun City Girls, now there's this to absorb.

Spooky 20th century classical stuff here from composer Kang. Performed by an Italian choral ensemble, singing Latin texts (by Giordano Bruno, "Marbod of Rennes"), with help from Mike Patton (voice), Jessika Kenney (voice), and a whole bunch of Italian musicians on guitars, sitar, trumpets, tuba, trombone.

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Violinist, improviser, experimental composer Eyvind Kang (best known for his appearances with the Sun City Girls as well as a host of other collaborations with such musicians as Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and others) returns with another of his fascinating, weird, and impressive solo albums. With a large cast of additional musicians, Kang creates an epic soundscape here. The first 5 tracks comprising "The Story of Iceland" are a pastoral mixture of weeping violin, arpeggiated marimbas, and earnest tubas. The 6th track is ten minutes of tortured David Bowie-style vocals with layer upon layer of chanting female harmonies -- lovely. And the album ends with a short gamelan song. Very shcizophrenic, nice album. Recommended.

Everyone's favorite avant-violinist Eyvind Kang (who you'll find fiddlin' on records with the Sun City Girls, Secret Chiefs 3, John Zorn and Blonde Redhead) has released a new "solo" album. But there's more here than just his violin: performed live at the Angelica Festival in Italy, 2000, Virginal Coordinates features Kang joined by a 22-member orchestra including Ipecac boss Mike Patton on vocals and electronics. But this is a much more delicate sounding record than the size of that ensemble (or the presence of Patton) might lead you to think. Pleasantly whooshy, droney, mild and melodic, some of this is in a soundtracky, neo-classical mold, other parts more 'exotic' in character, like a mellow, gauzey gamelan. Compared to a lot of other, more wigged-out stuff that's been released on Ipecac, this sounds like some "serious" music, academic almost. But quite nice.

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Latest from violinist / composer Eyvind Kang, released on the Ideologic Organ label, run by Stephen O'Malley of SUNNO))), three lengthy pieces performed by a strangely eclectic ensemble featuring a mix of young upstarts and minimal music legends. The instrumentation is equally eclectic: trombone, trumpet, violin, oboe, viola, voice, glass (!), piano, electric piano, modified cello and pedal steel guitar. The players include Kang of course, along with Stewart Dempster, vocalist, Jessika Kenney, Steve Moore from Zombi and a handful of others. The pieces here while distinct and separate, seem to form one single epic piece, austere and mesmerizing, minimal and droney, a series of haunting high end drones drift and undulate over minimal percussion, layered and lush, the moaning low end blurred into the keening high end, the result thick swells of sound that ebb and flow, leaving plenty of space, hushed and nearly static one second dense and intense the next, the vibe definitely cinematic, with the second 'movement' introducing more traditional melody, acting as a sort of closing coda for the side, pulling the drones apart into distinctive melodies before finally fading out. The sidelong third 'movement' might be our favorite bit, more of a buzzing raga, laced with glistening guitar harmonics, all the scrapes and screeches of the strings smoothed into long layered tones, all driven by a subtly pulsing rhythmic component, that fades gradually as the piece continues, the whole thing becoming more and more abstract until the parts seem to dissipate leaving just emptiness. So nice. And as with all Ideologic Organ releases, beautifully packaged in an O'Malley designed jacket, printed in super subtle, yet striking reflective ink.

[ aquarius records catalogue — K ]