[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 301 through 350 of 1106.

Very late one night in the summer of 2000, Kentuckian sound artist Keenan Lawler, metallurgist Eric Clark, and three members of the psychedelic-drone ensemble Pelt (Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose) ventured into a stone silo at a Franciscan monastery just north of Louisville. Bringing within them an arsenal of cymbals, gongs, bells, Tibetan singing bowls, bronze

This classic album from 1971 has been lovingly reissued by Tompkins Square. Released originally on the LA-based Black Jazz label, Shawn-Neeq was soul-jazz guitarist Calvin Keys debut release after years being a member and session player in several famous jazz combos with the likes of Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jack McDuff. Shawn-Neeq begins with the cosmic opening herald of "B.E." before launching into an understated groove backed by Fender Rhodes, bass, and flutes, some low-key horns, but the main space is left open for Key's travelling guitar lines that explore wildly while still keeping it all glued together. The title track delves into a softer focus of pretty balladry with lyrical flute and Rhodes keeping the momentum. The eight minute "Gee-Gee" brings a funkier vibe back into play and is probably our favorite track. Though it's hard to beat the closer, "B.K." which has a harder funk vibe and distorted Rhodes again that give the song a more acid-y psychedelic feel. This is an excellent slice of empowered soul jazz and we're psyched to see it available on vinyl once again! Recommended! Calvin Keys lives in Oakland these days and we've heard he's playing out again in support of this reissue, unfortunately we missed his show at Yoshi's but hope to see him soon.

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MPEG stream: Gee-Gee
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We continue to wade through the shimmering technocolour world that is France's Gooom Records. First there was the amazing shoegazing electronic pop of M83, then the Autechre-ish fuzzy bliss of Mils, and the dreamy propulsive buzz of Purple Confusion. So next on the hit list is KG, who somehow manage to string all of that together into one glorious sonic bloodbath. The first track takes you on a quick guided tour of KG's soundworld, with some straight up techno that slowly unravels into ambient-ish electronica and is then subsumed by huge squalls of white noise, whirling eddies of sonic detritus while frail melodies struggle desperately to stay afloat. Like listening to M83 on the radio but then driving under a bridge and losing reception! Only better. The rest of the record is a melancholy sonic travelogue, from skittery electronica to almost-industrial clang and clatter, to throbbing techno to New Order-ish new wave, but always wrapped in bittersweet melody and thick warm swaths of synth fuzz. Fans of M83, Lali Puna, Postal Service, Dntel, Morr music and all that sort of stuff will definitely dig this.

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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.

Kicking Giant may be long gone but its leader certainly isn't. Tae Wu is back musically under the moniker The KG. In recent years, you may be more familiar with his graphics than his sonic output, designing several striking album sleeves, posters, etc. Here he is assisted by many of his Olympia, WA co-horts (including Kento from IQU). Spartan and raw recordings not veering far from the dissonant Kicking Giant scope but with more blips and bleeps.

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

SORRY. KGB Man & Oneohtrix Point Never are both the work of Daniel Lopatin; however, neither of these tapes are marked as to what sound is to be ascribed to which project. Ultimately, it matters not; as everything that Lopatin has touched over the recent year has been golden. So, here we've got two cassettes, each clocking in around 20 minutes in total length. The first OPN track (well at least on what was the first tape that we grabbed) is a cold undulating set of slightly modulated tones set on glacial cruise control; the flip side of this cassette (which might also be by OPN) continues in this sentiment with a more wash, blur, and synthetic shimmer, still wrangling all of those nostalgic images of a future once imagined but now abandoned. What appear to be the KGM Man tracks finds Lopatin in his subaqueous, sampledelica vein somewhat like those earlier Caretaker recordings but with Lopatin twisting and bending maudlin piano notes into seasick electronic flanges and slippery looped structures. His luminous synth melodies do occasionally flicker through these mutant constructs; and oh yeah, drum machines, you don't find that in OPN. A very nice touch! Limited to 125 copies of which we only have 10 copies, never to restocked!!!

Heavy on the quirk and camp in a StereoTotal sort of way, but somewhat more sexed up and raucous. Some French girl vocals, some very Euro, Fred Schneider meets Jon Spencer vocals. Well actually, maybe that *is* Jon Spencer, 'cause he does sing on here, along

Not sea shanty, but space shanty. Great title for a space rock record, right? And this 1972 album, newly reissued on cd with two bonus tracks, is definitely space rock - there's even a crazy looking space ship on the cover. But how come it's not called Space Shanties? There's eight tracks here after all, including the bonus ones. Anyway this is a classic, classic prog record, the first and only album from the UK's Khan, a band formed by guitarist Steve Hillage, just prior to his stint with those self-proclaimed "pot-head pixies" of the planet Gong. While Hillage is probably best known for playing in Gong after Khan passed on, he also had a successful post-Gong solo career as a prog rock guitar hero, and later found favor with the trance/techno/ambient crowd in the '80s and '90s. But you don't have to be down with The Orb or The Ozrics to enjoy this album! And actually, Aquarius customers just as likely might know Hillage from his appearance in an even earlier, college-daze outfit, the obscure but beloved heavy psych act Arzachel. Khan, while more polished and "pro", isn't that far off from Arzachel, really, at least in terms of the amount of psychedelic guitar action and organ jamming going on. Also, another ex-member of Arzachel appears in Khan, keyboardist Dave Stewart (not the Eurythmics fellow, but the guy who founded mathy proggers Egg, and later on played in Hatfield and the North). So... in brief, Khan's a mixture of gentle, Pink Floydian atmospheres, Canterbury style organ burble, and hard rockish guitar power, with song titles like "Stranded (Effervescent Psychonovelty No.5)", "Mixed Up Man Of The Mountains", and "Stargazers". Being prog, the instrumental parts are paramount, but also look out for cool spacey lyrics like "Starstruck moonman looks so blind/You're still a slave within your mind". It's very of its era, that's for sure! Excessively prog, but in the best way. The songs are all longer than your typical pop single of course, though none break into the double digits minutes-wise. And, importantly, it's all very melodic, the singing expressing much majestic emotion, as does Hillage's searing acid rock guitar leads and the driving organ grooves of Stewart. At times we're reminded of Atomic Rooster, at others Van Der Graaf Generator, and at still others of Caravan... so a definite AQ prog recommendation, all right.

MPEG stream: Space Shanty (incl. The Cobalt Sequence and March Of The Sine Squadrons)
MPEG stream: Driving To Amsterdam

Whatever you do, don't let the godawful cover art fool you. This is not some crappy new age cd you'd buy in an art gallery in New Mexico, while picking up some healing crystals. This is some seriously demented, gloriously inspired outsider free jazz abstract psychedelic dub tribal weirdness. You'd never know from the cover though. A super cheesy crayon drawing of the band beneath some pyramids... ugh. Inside there's a bad ass photo of the band, killer afros, leather jackets, cravat, one guy holding a flute, leaning against a wall, looking ready to unleash some seriously cosmic musical might. Had that picture been on the cover you'd know exactly what you were getting into. Cuz this is indeed some seriously cosmic shit. Released originally in 1973 in a run of 300 copies, this disc by vibraphonist Khan Jamal has become a jazz head free music freak holy grail. And it's easy to see why. A heady mix of vibes, marimba, clarinet, drums, glockenspiel, guitar, bass and percussion. But it's all about the drums. These four lengthy tracks are all about rhythm. If the opener doesn't totally blow your mind, there is something seriously wrong. A completely effect drenched burst of free jazz drum splatter, careening and echoing all over the place, horns bleating, reverberating into infinity, adding more tripped out percussive swirl to the already chaotic soundfield. Eventually the drums drift off, and the track morphs into some dizzying glockenspiel marimba jam, all tinkle and shimmer, still drifting in swirls of FX and random clatter. This track alone makes this disc essential. But it's only the beginning. The second track is like a supercharged, blown out, extended version of the opener, just with more horns and a more obvious rhythm. A groovy free jazz drum jam, beneath skronking horns, shouting and hand clapping, reverb drenched horns, a total wild and wooly free for all, before the marimba comes in, and things coalesce into a slightly less abstract funky free jazz percussion blow out. So good. Track three is the most subtle of the bunch, but that in no way means it's any less weird or tripped out. A droney bass line, some jazzy smokey guitar, all beneath a dense swirl of percussive shakers, wrapped in tons of FX, a sort of dubbed out ambient jazz. A slow mellow groove that sort of drifts and slithers, occasionally bits of freaky effects float by, but for the most part it's all late night mellowness, a slow stroll through a moonlit alley, or hold up in the dark corner of some alien jazz bar. The final track takes the smokey moonlit ambience of track three and gives it the King Tubby treatment, Sounds are dubbed to kingdom come, melodies become distorted and crumble into pieces before they're sent careening into the ether, drums shuffle and stutter, occasionally being propelled dubwise, the whole thing sounding like some Wes Montgomery b-side produced by Lee Perry. A supreme, super laid back dub drenched free jazz freakout of the highest order. In fact this whole disc is some sort of cosmic dub drenched free jazz from beyond. Some seriously Sun Ra meets King Tubby in the great hereafter shit. A divine jam session transmitted through some mysterious sound system and captured on tape. Totally and completely mindblowing.

MPEG stream: Cosmic Echoes
MPEG stream: Drum Dance

Like that old saying, I may not know Indian music, but I know what I like. And to a certain extent that's true. I don't know much of the history of Indian music, but this record is dreamy, hypnotic, and quite lovely. Ali Akbar Khan runs a world famous Music college in San Rafael (outside of San Francisco) and has since 1967. Students come from all over the world to study. This record documents one of Khan's first performances with his son Alam, both playing the Sarode (sort of like a short sitar but not exactly) and accompanied by Swapan Chaudhuri (on tabla), also an instructor at the Ali Akbar Khan College Of Music. Part of why this recording is so beautiful and intense, and a lot of Indian classical music for that matter, is that it is composed on the spot, and it's quite gruelling for a student to be accompanying his teacher (or father) in front of a huge audience. The music here is shimmery and drone-y, weaving a warm web of vibrating strings. A meditative buzz that soothes and relaxes. This record is totally mesmerising. Recommended!

RealAudio clip: Ragini Puriya Dhanasri

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"Flowing with infectious rhythm, hypnotic percussion, mesmerizing repetition and spine-tingling vocal improvisation, Qawwali music has thrilled listeners since the 10th Century. One family -- the Khans of Pakistan --has dominated this vibrant musical form with an unbroken line of truly great male vocalists. As Qawwali music rides an unprecedented wave of worldwide popularity, the star

We usually start reviews of records released on Mississippi Records with a blaring announcement that looks a little like this: **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Cuz we know there are plenty of folks out there, that like us, are crazy obsessed with that label, and will buy ANYthing and EVERYthing they release. And we imagine those folks will no doubt buy this one as well, but for the folks who might not be quite so Mississippi obsessed, or who might have gotten in the habit of seeing that announcement and skipping on by, we didn't want anyone to miss out on this one, because this record just might be the one to suck you in and MAKE you that obsessed. Sure it's yet another incredible unearthed gem from the crazy music obsessives who run the impeccable Mississippi Records label, and as we hinted at above, pretty much everything they release is worth checking out, and yeah, they're all special in their own way, there's a bunch of others on this very list, but this one, this one is something else altogether, a collection of 78s from legendary Indian classical vocalist Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan, dense, lush, emotional and spiritual ragas, haunting and mystical and completely gorgeous. A huge influence of legendary minimalist composer La Monte Young, in fact the liner notes offer up a quote from Young that basically says it all: "When I first heard the recordings of Abdul Karim Khan I thought that perhaps it would be best if I gave up singing, got a cabin up in the mountains, stocked it with a record player and recordings of Abdul Karim Khan, and just listened for the rest of my life." We can definitely understand his feelings, this is the sort of music, so powerful and so passionate, that it definitely puts most 'singers' to shame. The instrumentation is very traditional classical Indian, but it's the vocals that drive these songs, the instruments way down in the mix, Khan's gorgeous vocals soaring and dramatic, haunting and moving and utterly breathtaking. We've seen descriptions of these recordings as being "not easy listening, but ultimately very rewarding", and while we definitely agree with the second half of the statement, these sounds while complex and totally unlike most of the other music you've heard, are not at all difficult to listen to, just the opposite, after just a few seconds, you'll be whisked away, totally transported, as the sounds surround you, and seep into your spirit and soul. The music here so utterly transcendent, so lush, warm and welcoming, yet at the same time, so strange and wondrous, Khan's voice sounding like its bathed in divine light. Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan truly was a sonic shaman for the ages, delivering these divine musical messages to us, his willing supplicants. Incredible. Packaged in super thick full color old school tip-on jackets, with a big booklet packed with liner notes and photos.

MPEG stream: Pyare Nazar Nahin - Bilawal
MPEG stream: Phagwa Brij Dekhanako - Basant Khayal Jalad Tritaal
MPEG stream: Jamuna Ke Teer - Bhairavi Thumri
MPEG stream: Jadu Bhareli Kaun - Gara Thumri

Recently released on vinyl by Mississippi Records, and made a Record Of The Week by us, this fantastic collection of 78s from legendary Indian classical vocalist Ustad Abdul Karim Khan is now available on cd (with different cover art for some reason). Compiled by Ian Nagoski (who also put together some of our favorite old timey 78's collections, including Brass Pins & Match Heads, Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts and Black Mirror: Reflections In Global Musics, among others!), the sounds here are unlike anything you've ever heard, so haunting and mysterious, timeless and powerful, a collection of lush, spiritual ragas, which manage to be both simple and Spartan, yet simultaneously sonically dense and melodically complex, a soundworld both moving and mystical, emotional and utterly gorgeous. Khan was a huge influence on legendary minimalist composer La Monte Young, in fact the Mississippi lp liner notes offer up a quote from Young that basically sums it up better than we ever could: "When I first heard the recordings of Abdul Karim Khan I thought that perhaps it would be best if I gave up singing, got a cabin up in the mountains, stocked it with a record player and recordings of Abdul Karim Khan, and just listened for the rest of my life." We can definitely understand his feelings, this is the sort of music, so powerful and so passionate, that it definitely puts most 'singers' to shame. The instrumentation is very traditional classical Indian, but it's the vocals that drive these songs, the instruments way down in the mix, Khan's intense and ecstatic vocals soaring and dramatic, so commanding yet still impossibly warm and mellifluous. We've seen descriptions of these recordings as being "not easy listening, but ultimately very rewarding", and while we definitely agree with the second half of the statement, these sounds, while complex and totally unlike most 'Western' music you've heard, are not at all difficult to listen to, just the opposite, after just a few seconds, you'll be whisked away, totally transported, as the sounds surround you, and seep into your spirit and soul, soft swirls of soothing sonorous, sonic spiritual bliss. The music here so utterly transcendent, so lush, warm and welcoming, yet at the same time, so strange and wondrous, Khan's voice sounding like it's bathed in divine light. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan truly was a sonic shaman for the ages, delivering these divine musical messages to us, his willing supplicants. Incredible.

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MPEG stream: Saughand: Vilambit Ektal
MPEG stream: Saughand: Drut Tintal

A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.

RealAudio clip: Capture

Wow, is this exciting! A killer Japanese import, that combines the most recent Khante release, the lengthy two song Capture and Release, as well as the long out of print and going-for-way-too-much-on-eBay Dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005!! Woo Haa!!! If you missed out, now's your chance. Plus it's in an all new super swanky Japanese style mini gatefold sleeve with an obi and everything! Here's what we had to say about the cd: A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music. And here's what we had to say about the DVD: This captures (and limitedly releases, ha) angsty doom merchants Khanate in the live realm, sometime last year. If you've ever seen this band, you know that they don't exactly 'rock out', having a somewhat static stage presence, though vocalist Alan Dubin always puts on an impassioned performance. Fortunately for those of you who'll be lucky enough to watch this at home, this is a very 'arty' visual document -- the live video footage has been processed to be all the more grim and psychedelic. Cool to look at, while of course the music is murder-by-decibels, feedback-filled, downtuned DOOOOOOOM like you expect.

MPEG stream: Capture

Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new, vinyl-only (for now, see below) Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album. There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes... Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing", which takes up all of the B side, is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal. So, this here is the assuredly limited, swank domestic vinyl edition. Real nice O'Malley design, colored vinyl (the one we're looking at now is "caramel vanilla swirl", yum). Apparently, someday there's gonna be a domestic cd version too, with a bonus dvd, but on that "Every God Damn Thing" is given a major edit, shortened to, like, 8 minutes. Also rumored, a picture disc vinyl version (dunno if we'll see that) and a Japanese cd edition on Daymare which we think will include the full half-hour version of "EGDT" heard here... not sure when/if we'll ever have that though, either. Just fyi.

Just like Hydra Head's Live In Chicago DVD by Pelican that we (oh so briefly) had in stock last year, this is *super limited edition* release... we were only able to get 30 of them and half of those are already gone! So, Khanate fans, act fast and maybe you'll get one...we're sorry in advance if you don't. This captures (and limitedly releases, ha) angsty doom merchants Khanate in the live realm, sometime last year. If you've ever seen this band, you know that they don't exactly 'rock out', having a somewhat static stage presence, though vocalist Alan Dubin always puts on an impassioned performance. Fortunately for those of you who'll be lucky enough to watch this at home, this is a very 'arty' visual document -- the live video footage has been processed to be all the more grim and psychedelic. Cool to look at, while of course the music is murder-by-decibels, feedback-filled, downtuned DOOOOOOOM like you expect. Nuff said, we expect these to be gone in less time that it takes to read this review....

Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way. This one was previously released a while back by aRCHIVE in a 500 copy edition, and has now been remastered and repressed in an edition of 1000, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. Recorded live in the USA during Khanate's final tour in 2005, it features three long tracks, renditions of "Capture", "Release", and "Pieces Of Quiet". Each track is utterly agonized, distorted bass drones split by shrieks and silence, with drumming that gives this a perverse free jazz feel. As tombstones go, this (and also its companion, Live In Stockholm) is awful dense and heavy, cracked and crumbling. SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).

MPEG stream: Capture

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

SORRY.

Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way. This one was previously released as a tour-only cd-r limited to fewer than 75 copies, but is now available (for the moment!) as a remastered cd pressing in an edition of 1000 copies, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. The three long tracks here, "Fields", "Pieces Of Quiet", and "Under Rotting Sky", were recorded live on tour in Sweden in 2004. The sound of wretched life, wretched death incarnate, extended trawls through ugly feedback and gorgeous shimmer, lumbering dirge catastrophe to the utter extreme that pretty much only Khanate has pushed it. We hope it was cathartic for them, and any listeners who didn't just run for cover, or curl up under the hot water in the bathtub with bleeding wrists... SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).

MPEG stream: Under Rotting Sky

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Khanate return with a two song teaser from our pals at Load to hold us all over until their upcoming Southern Lord full length. Khanate, for those who don't already know, are sloooooow and looooooow and heavy as fuck. Featuring two members of the late great O.L.D. (Alan Dubin, and James Plotkin), Stephen O'Malley from Sunn 0))) and Burning Witch and the drummer from Blind Idiot God, you get just what you'd expect with a pedigree like that. "Dead" is a black hole of crushing, oppressive doom metal. Trudging along at a glacial pace, decimating everything in their path, taking THE RIFF and slowing it way down, stretching it way out, laying a thick, rotting blanket of dismal sound over out heads, filling our ears with filth and muck, and slowly suffocating us. But it's soooo good. "No Joy" is a track from Khanate's first record, and here gets the remix treatment from James Plotkin. Still doomy, but way more spacious and spare, the guitar becomes less of an unstoppable force, and more of a tattered curtain, casting sinister shadows over the proceedings while the stripped down skeleton of the song is supported by a slow motion drum and bass cadence and tortured, demonic howls. Definitely the most evil thing on Load yet!

Extreme doom here folks. I mean, these four tracks (two of 'em approaching twenty minutes each) are slower and lower and uglier even than the tunes on Khanate's immense self-titled debut from two years ago! We're not saying this tops the debut (that would be difficult) but Things Viral takes the Khanate sound into a seldom-explored realm where signs of life and hope are few and far between. This is some sparse, slow, intensely creepy metal for sure. The plod of a drum, some glitchy amplifier feedback, a crushing guitar riff, bass drone...all the perfect accompaniment to the anguished rasp of vocalist Alan Dubin, who turns this record into his own personal let-it-all-out psycho-drama session. As soon as the first track "Commuted" starts, you can imagine the band, broken, bleeding, crawling across the floor of the studio, scrabbling at their instruments, Dubin clutching the microphone like it's his last link to a world of human emotion. It's harrowing, simply put. The ravings of a disturbed man put to music by Earth would be a decent description. Downer metal was never so down, and the clarity with which this was recorded belies the term sludge. Only for the brave -- leave the lights on when you listen to this, and make sure you have the suicide hotline number handy. Includes the track "Dead" previously released on vinyl only as the b-side to the "No Joy [remix]" 12".

MPEG stream: Commuted
MPEG stream: Too Close Enough To Touch

Khanate = slow, plodding, dark, distortion-filled, droney, dissonant DOOM, in the (sliced and bleeding) vein of Esoteric, Burning Witch, Corrupted, Earth, Boris, Eyehategod...5 looong tracks (56+ minutes total). And if you haven't heard, this new doom-metal

RealAudio clip: Skin Coat
RealAudio clip: Under Rotting Sky

NOW ON VINYL TOO!!! Absolution is the debut full length from Denver doomlords Khemmis, and unlike the various strains of dooooooom we find ourselves usually obsessing over, the sound of Khemmis is not especially sick or sludgy, dense or droney, or even all that drugged out or psychedelic. Instead, it's doom born of TRUE metal, epic and majestic, huge churning riffs, laced with soaring leads, killer harmonized melodies, and some seriously classic sounding metal vox. Sure there's the occasional howling bellow, but the main vocals are what makes this band so appealing, the songs groovy as they are heavy, hooky too, channeling the spirit of legendary practitioners of the doom-ed arts, like St. Vitus, Cathedral, Count Raven, Blood Famers, Revelation, Penance, Solstice, and All the rest. Bow down and doom on. Likely the doom fix you were waiting for, if you're cool with some growly vocals in your otherwise classic sounding dooming.

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Fast and furious death metal from this Finnish band featuring members of the totally amazing Finnish black metal band Horna. No black metal here though, just massive downtuned, super heavy and super fast traditional death metal ala Incantation and Morbid

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Awesome new group from the Bay Area who channel international psych of years past to create some totally engaging and undeniably fun sounds. We're lucky to have so many amazing bands and musicians in San Francisco and we're even luckier that many of them are customers of ours. So it's always cool to see what lots of our favorite music makers in town are listening to and checking out when they swing by the store. And not that we've been spying but every time Max Balaoin (one of the master minds of Khi Darag) has come into the store over the last couple years it was hard not to notice how fast he'd make a beeline to the '70s Turkish Psychedelia section, as well as always seemingly after left of center sounds from across the globe circa late '60s and '70s. With a band that features folks from groups like Rube Wadell, Rupa & The April Fishes, Charming Hostess, Lord Loves A Working Man and even the SF Mime Troupe, these extremely talented musicians have taken those international psych sounds from years past and brought in their own elements of surf rock, klezmer, and soundtracks to create music that is pretty impossible not to move to. Much like Dengue Fever they use their influences from the past with total respect and love and it comes out in the sounds that they create. They also have a bit of a suspenseful undertone to their aesthetic which makes us think this is exactly the kind of band Mike Patton or John Zorn would want playing at their wedding with a dancefloor of weirdos having the time of their life. So fun!

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For those mourning the recent passing of creeping doom sludge lords Khanate, we've got the next best thing. In fact in some ways, it might almost be the next -better- thing. Khanate low-end technician James Plotkin suddenly jumped ship only to start up this dour little duo with Runhild Gammelsaeter, the Nordic goddess you might remember as the vocalist for bleak black/doom metal outfit Thorr's Hammer. On first listen, Khlyst sounds remarkably like Khanate, huge sluggish low end doom, a thick glacial sludgey plod, while over the top a shrieking, impossibly guttural mewling howl, like a demon clearing her throat or a hysterical cheerleader possessed by the devil and spewing impossible foulness. But even at their most Khanate, Khlyst ends up sounding just a whole lot weirder. Instead of downtuned riffage, the guitars are twisted and processed into strange slippery licks, drenched in chorus and phaser, like some sort of alien guitar synth, sputtering and stumbling, a jagged series of noodly little six string blasts, fragmented metallic chunks, over ultra dense tangles of free jazz drum splatter, everything thick with buzzy guitars and ominous ambience. A super freaked out, utterly demented psychedelic doom sludge stretched and twisted into a sputtering spastic black buzz, pelted with bits of prog and wrapped in thick layers of damaged drone. Elsewhere, the duo, stretch out into hauntingly blissful soundscapes constructed from processed vocals, swirling billows of reverb, echoey guitar shimmer, almost like a creepier Grouper. Drifty and hauntingly lovely. And sometimes the rhythmic furor builds into a vortex of impossibly dense drumming, over thick swaths of low end drone, with growling panting Diamanda-like vocalisations struggle breathlessly over the top. Like some sort of demonic sludge jazz drum solo torture session. Imagine weirdo black metallers Rehtaf Ruo crossed with UK doomlords Moss, featuring Buddy Rich and Rashied Ali on dueling drums, and a vocalist one part Bathtub Shitter, one part Kevin Sharp from Brutal Truth and one part Dani Filth from Cradle Of Filth, the whole thing recorded by Lustmord. Bleak and blackened, squirming and slithery, shivering and stumbling. An epic and deranged slab of ultra-ambient-doom-prog-drone-sludge splendor.

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Just got these in today, list day, four new aRCHIVE dvd titles (Ai Aso, Mick Barr, Khlyst, and Suishou No Fune). So, we haven't had a chance to watch 'em yet but since they're limited and all we figured you'd rather we just went ahead and listed 'em now rather than waiting 2 weeks. And all four artists are pretty cool after all. This one's a live set (possibly the only one ever) of sheer DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM from James Plotkin's post-Khanate outfit, Khlyst, which also features Nordic maiden/extreme vokillist Runhild Gammelsaeter of Thorr's Hammer fame. It's pro shot, with multiple cameras, at a CMJ Hydra Head showcase gig in 2006. Again, we haven't seen it, but we're looking forward to what must have been a very very heavy evening's entertainment. Lovely packaging, as you'd expect from aRCHIVE, with a matte paper cardstock fold-over featuring gorgeous, disturbing paintings by Stephen Kasner, with text silkscreened in metallic ink. The dvd has a handstamped black sleeve of its own inside the folder, which itself is nestled in a PVC bag. Nice. Limited, OF COURSE, to 500 copies!!!

Copper Lock Hell is the first we've heard from this UK dronedirgedoom duo, who seem to have found the perfect home on Cold Spring, their bleak, rumbling industrialisms, paired with heaving, droned out SUNNO)))-like heaviness. Churning dirges with bellowed vokills, driven by hellish machine like rhythms, plodding sprawls of clatter and hiss, grind and crunch, all set amidst a harrowing landscape of densely layered sonics, swirls of processed vox, layered tones, and swirling psychedelic squalls, a churning, noise drenched dirgery that almost sounds like Skullflower doing doom metal maybe, or an old Godflesh record spinning in slow motion. Grinding, and corrosive, but strangely hypnotic, the tracks often shed the rhythms, leaving just cascades of crumbling distortion, wound in fields of mysterious vox, that give some of the tracks an almost alien world music vibe. There are also strangely folky bits, that seems well out of place until they're subsumed by an avalanche of oozing black riffage, grinding an corrosive, slipping into serious Moss / Bunkur ultra-dooooooooom territory for sure. But even at its most bleak, Khost will introduce some unlikely element, that transforms the sound into something weirdly beautiful, whether it's some buried melody, some fractured rhythm, fluttering flute surfacing mid metallic churn, it makes for super nuanced listening. Sure if you're just in it for the heavy noisiness and the blackened crush, odds are you won't be disappointed, but that sound is much more blurry and murky than most, the tracks here blackened psychedelic creeps, wrapped in crumbling buzz, lumbering and lurching, and pocked with all manner of sampled sounds, if you peeled away the distortion, and dialed back the vokills, you'd suddenly have something like a more malevolent Philip Jeck or a more grim, blackened Ghedalia Tazartes. High praise perhaps, but for what we initially took for just another (admittedly kick ass) slab of industrial metal/doom crush, has revealed itself to be something infinitely more nuanced, and delivers some super satisfying deep listening, fusing ultra abject downer doom with psychedelic avant soundscapery, into some impossibly epic, avant blacknoise psychdoom deathdrone majesty. FYI, there's a guest appearance on here from Eugene Robinson of Oxbow.

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It all started with a video on YouTube. Odds are one of your music nerd friends sent it to you already, or maybe you WERE one of those music nerds, sending it to everyone you know. Check it out: KHUN NARIN ELECTRIC PHIN BAND [http://youtu.be/IYGl-l0Toig?list=FLCuwmGlbaOAStwXMiPVY5Kw] A mysterious video with very little in the way of description, but really, it hardly needed a description, the sound was incredible, a wild, percussive, effusive, droning psychedelia, like a Thai version of Konono No.1, all buzzing distorted melodies, hypnotic rhythms, we, like many of you, must have watched that video a hundred times. And the visuals too, a group of musicians, relaxing in plastic chairs, in a town square, all in matching red vests, presumably from their jobs as taxi drivers, the sound pumped out through a wheeled, home built PA, all manner of instruments, double necked guitar style lutes, hand cymbals, drums, percussion, while all around them, people mill about, seemingly oblivious, to the psychedelic genius going on right before their strangely averted eyes! Well somehow, some fella got in touch with the band in the video, and organized a proper recording for the group, which we discovered was in fact, Khun Narin Phin Sing, or Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band, the name taken from the group's use of an electrified, double necked version of a traditional Thai instrument, the lute-like phin. As for the folks in the video that seem to be ignoring the music and the musicians, apparently this sort of music is pretty commonplace in Thailand, even former aQ staffer Byram, who lived there for the last few years, told us he'd wander past bands like this playing all over, all the time, but for the rest of us, this stuff is a revelation, and Khun Narin Phin Sing crazy new Thai psych rock stars that we're totally obsessed with. The record itself was recorded in a way to as closely as possible replicate the YouTube video, no fancy studios, no expensive mics and multi-track recorders, no overdubs, instead, the band set up in a field right outside their town, in the mountains on Thailand's Northern border, and the music was captured field recording style, live, one take, the group made up of multiple generations, from kids in high school, to men in their '60s, the band running their instruments through chains of guitar pedals, using home built instruments and amplifiers, and of course that custom PA system, a visually and sonically striking behemoth made of 8 loudspeaker horns mounted atop a huge bass cabinet, with wheels of course, and the group just let loose, unfurling a glorious sprawl of droning, buzzy, heady, hypnotic Thai psychedelia, spidery distorted guitar melodies over motorik rhythms, minimal percussion, loping sinewy basslines, the sounds growing more urgent and frenzied, the wild phin shredding drifting atop a roiling bed of constantly swirling and shimmering buzz and thrum, gloriously mesmerizing, and totally transcendent, so utterly amazing, and absolutely recommended to anyone into weird and wonderful sounds, but especially fans of Sublime Frequencies style desert psych, who will be in heaven!! Vinyl version comes with a download card, btw.

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This is definitely one of my favorite metal records from the '80s (and now Allan's too even though he hadn't heard it until a few years ago). And one of the few that has actually held up pretty well, all things considered. Sure it's cheesy, I mean, c'mon,

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The latest record from the electronic wunderkid that can seem to do no wrong these days. 'Down With the Scene', released for some reason on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, is a brutal and schizophrenic junglist hodge podge of samples, loops, crushing jungle breaks, all sorts of fucked effects, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Includes an awesome sample from 'Fear of a Black Hat' which seals the deal for me. I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but, this is an awesome and overwhelming record. Although I can't help but feel like he owes an enormous debt to local electrofucker (and Kid 606 co-hort) LESSER, who has been making records like this for years now, but fails to get the recognition he deserves. Regardless, this is a kick ass record and Kid 606 kicks ass, but definitely keep your eyes peeled for LESSER's Matador debut 'Gearhound' in the fall. It'll set everything, and everyone straight.

By the time this list is sent out, it will be useless to qualify "GQ on the EQ" as the latest album for the Kid, since he'll probably peddle his wares to another label and have another record out in a week or two. At this rate he's looking to surpass the excessively prolific output of Muslimgauze and Merzbow combined in less than a decade. But before the Kid 606 box set of 606 cds comes out in the year 2012, we give you "GQ on the EQ" -- a compendium of the vinyl only releases that the Kid made for 555 records over the past three years. At times quite lovely with crystalline shards of skipped and timestretched hard disc edits, at other fast and loose drill 'n' bass work.

Electronica's wonderkid/schmooze-extraordinaire displays an all-star line-up of remixers including Hrvatski, Electric Company, Aube, Christoph de Babylon, Twisted Science, etc. for a noisy, crunchy drum n' bass fest.

Kid 606's press agent acclaims that "the Kid has consistently sabotaged categorization of his work by remaining true to its core; his violence is against sound, against the sounds of comfort; against the sounds listeners expect." This record is pretty good, but that's a bit much. What this album does offer is a really cool drum & bass party album, with lots of sweaty Amen breakbeats, dum dum Rotterdam rhythms, ragga toasting, and a refined understanding of where all of the samples should go within a pretty great jungle record. The Kid's choices of samples includes police sirens, sci-fi effects, and rave blasts, following the standards of jungle set by Metalheadz and Ed Rush almost a decade ago. Maybe it's an homage? Either way, this is just the thing for your boomin' system.

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It's been a while since we've heard from Kid 606, we've long been fans of his wild and warped, super fucked up, gnarled, glitched out electronic pummel, every record a dizzying, ADD, short attention span, sonic onslaught, but apparently things in the Kid's life have been rough recently, and this record is a dark, surprisingly restrained chunk of meditative and melancholy minimal synth heavy reflection. Gone are the sliced and diced, chopped and screwed, blown out beat-blasted freakouts, and in their places some seriously droned out mesmer. Opener "Godspeed You African American Emperor" (at least he hasn't lost his knack for irreverent song titles), is all blurred synth shimmer, and muted skeletal skitter, wreathed in dark swirls of ethereal thrum, and soft focus cosmic FX, a darkly dreamy, cinematic dreamscape, that sounds a bit like a remixed Tim Hecker. "Gimme Summer" takes the same sort of gauzy sonics, stirs in some swirling synth melodies, and adds another stripped down beat. "New Boss Same As Old Boss", cranks up the volume, adding some grit and gristle, but the sound remains blurry and bleary, and woozily melancholy, the beat all but buried in the mix, the vibe almost like a more abstract M83, sort of shoegazey retro electro-pop, but smeared into something much more fuzzed out and druggy. We sort of kept waiting for the record to explode into a burst of tangled rhythms, or a grinding squall of blast beats, or some wild junglized drill & bass, but instead, the record remains pretty sedate throughout, slipping into some serious, hushed ethereal ambience ("Cardamom's Gone Soft"), delving into dreamy dubby outer space drifts (I'm Sick But I Ain't Dead"), blossoming into swoonsome electro gaze club jams ("Night Club Vs. Book Club"), and slipping into smears of soft swells and percolating dreampop melodies ("Big Black Ketamine Jesus"). There are moments, where it seems like the sound is about to explode, but it's more about a delicate balance of tension and release, the whole record fantastically mellow and moody, and easily the darkest dreamiest thing we've heard from the Kid yet.

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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. It's hard to keep up with the Kid, but here's his (for the moment) latest release. And it's certainly different from the distorted drill & bass workouts found on his recent "Down With The Scene" opus. Instead, "PS I Love You" has found a very comfortable home on the abstract electronica label Mille Plateaux, with its blend of almost chill out swirling cybernetic ambience and glitch driven rhythms. Just beautiful!

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On Kid 606's website, he's peddling a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: "I did a remix for Kid 606 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." At least the Kid is recognizing his ubiquity within the electronica scene with a good sense of humor. "PS You Love Me" is the requisite remix album of his Mille Plateaux "PS I Love You," featuring the production techniques and electronic twiddle of

RealAudio clip: Twirl: Photoshoot Remix by Matmos
RealAudio clip: Unleft Remix By Pan American
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Kid 606 keeps up his prolific nature with another release on his Tigerbeat 6 label. This time out the tongue in cheek title gives a hint to the sounds he's brewed up on this outing. Unapologetic '90s sounding techno, with all song titles followed by a listing of the beats per minute. With most songs falling around the 120-136bpm range this is some four on the floor dance till it gets bright out again, pills be kicking in, peaking so nice, dance tracks. Rave Rave Rave. With his heart & spirit in a disco somewhere in Berlin but his body still planted in our backyard in Oakland. Wild.

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Is it any coincidence that Resilience -- quite possibly the most unobnoxious, non-in your face Kid606 release ever -- is dedicated to his mother? And is it just us or does it also seems like this album took him way longer than any of his previous ones. Unrushed loving care? More sincere contemplation? Not sure, but we can tell you that he's toned things down so much that the tracks have reached the point of being downright subdued by his standards. The Kid goes dooooowntempo? A very different and unexpected approach but not entirely alienating, dare we say, at times it verges on pretty. His trademark ominous splatters of distorted glitch are all but absent. Makes us think that maybe this release should have been titled Repose rather than Resilience. Whereas on past releases such as Down With The Scene he was all about sonic agitation, here he begins the album somberly with "Done With The Scene". Deep, slow sliding synth lines, delicate tinkly melodies and ghostly voices peek out here and there.

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[ aquarius records catalogue — K ]