[ aquarius records catalogue

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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.

What the heck? There's FIVE new Les Rallizes Denudes archival releases on this hitherto unknown label Ignuitas? And three of them are ALREADY out of print? (Sorry!). That's right. We were only able to get a handful of each, and they sold out in the store almost immediately. But we do have A FEW copies left of two of 'em that we were able to get more of, and by a few we mean like 6 or 8... so act fast, Rallizes-heads. Not even sure if we should bother with a "review" since in this case it'd be a mere formality, but here goes, briefly... Les Rallizes Denudes were/are a seminal underground Japanese psychedelic rock band, totally influential on the current crop of Tokyo guitar psych acts like LSD-march and Up-Tight (for instance), yet obscurely under-documented. What you CAN find, is primitive lo-fi genius (?). For more possibly dubious but nonetheless very interesting info get Julian Cope's recent book the Japrocksampler (when we have it back in stock, it's on backorder right now). And check out the recent Rallizes "best of" cd entitled Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go reviewed on AQ list #282. These two releases, since we have so few, are reserved for the devout fans. There's Are You Rallizesed?, subtitled Shizuoka Stupa 1974, a double disc of material recorded live in '74 (natch). 115 sprawling minutes of classic Rallizes murk, nine tracks total. It's all moodily melodic psych drift that's a wraith-like presence, about to spontaneously combust into ashes even as it echoes irresistibly in your mind, ever out of reach. Is it band leader Takeshi Mizutani's searing guitar making that distorted sound... or just the deteriorating recording medium? Either way, once you've ingested the entirety of these two discs you won't be able to listen to any "normal" or "correct" recordings, quite the same way again. What else has this much fragile emotion, or needs your ears to meet it more than halfway, to hear the music within the magnetic tape miasma that they made that night 34 years ago? (Or maybe it's not all from the same night, since they do one song twice...) The other one we've (barely) got is called Live May 25 1975 Yaneura. And that's about all the info we have for you right there. Four tracks, about 31 minutes of Rallizes' damaged distorted jangle as captured by someone's cheap, tinny tape recorder. It's a mysterious meeting of the shrillest of feedback and the sweetest of psych pop. You can put your imagination to work to try to figure out what it actually sounded like in person or just go ahead and assume it's meant to be so fucked up and muffled and utterly destroyed... that's right, we probably don't need to spell this out, but be warned: these are EXTREMELY lo-fi, dub-of-a-dub, Nth generation, ultra-bootleggy sounding recordings. The tape hiss is almost as loud as Mizutani's guitar. It's like this Rallizes music is psychically appearing on tape from beyond the grave a la EVP, Ghost Orchid style... But of course, you wouldn't expect anything less. It's all part of the Rallizes mystique anyway. Half the reason folks like Rallizes is 'cause nothing else is ever allowed to sound like THIS. What we can legitimately complain about is the crappy cheap graphic design Ignuitas has thrown together for these releases. Good grief these look terrible. But you're not buying 'em for the packaging anyway. And the ARE real cds, not cd-rs... so that's something. Rallizes fans will take what they can get, when and if they can get it, we know 'cause we are. First come, first served...

MPEG stream: The Last One
MPEG stream: (Japanese title third track)

The avalanche of reissues from this legendary Japanese psych outfit continues unabated, with yet another multiple disc box, this one of note, as it's perhaps the most sought after studio recordings from this group, recorded during a brief period in the early eighties when the band included guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi, whose playing meshed perfectly with Les Rallizes mastermind Takeshi Mizutani, resulting in some of the group's dreamiest, and most high fidelity recordings. By now, all but the most stalwart and utterly obsessed Japanese psych nerds are probably burnt out and broke from trying to keep up with all these jams, so with these boxsets, we often find ourselves prefacing our reviews with the warning that they're probably for collectors only, but with Mars Studio, this might be a good place to start, it's definitely the least lo-fi, which for some of us is not necessarily a good thing, it does mean, that the songs are definitely the focus here. The liner notes point out that these are all live takes, as the songs were never properly finished or mixed, and that many of these were captured on a single microphone in the mixing booth, which is why on some tracks you can hear conversations between the musicians and the engineers. But it's all part of the magical mystery of Les Rallizes, and while there are a handful of feedback drenched jams, and a few heavy numbers, the bulk of the tracks from the 3 months the group spent in the Mars Studio tend toward the darkly psychedelic, and in many cases display a distinctly Velvets-y vibe, all low slung and groovy, the guitar solos much more measured and melodic, and ultimately quite gorgeous. And like on other Les Rallizes collections, their are multiple takes of the same songs, often with the different versions virtually unrecognizable, again, another part of the group's mystery. Fans of the noisier fucked up side of Les Rallizes might be a bit thrown off, although there is some of that here to dig, like the 24 minute "Guitar Jam" on disc 3, but folks into a more laid back psychedelia, will definitely be in Japanese psych heaven. The fourth disc is a legendary 1980 live show originally released as Double Heads September, and is a pretty good document of the band at the time, although really, since the studio tracks are also essentially live, it fits pretty perfectly with the first three discs. Even after all these reissues though, we love this stuff, and can't seem to get enough. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, each disc housed in a full color sleeve, all the sleeves housed in a full color box.

MPEG stream: Enter The Mirror
MPEG stream: Distant Memories
MPEG stream: A Tale Of Love

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

SORRY. [/cat/japan20.html]

With the publication of Julian Cope's long awaited Japrocksampler tome, interest in Japan's underground psychedelic rock scene in the '70s has gotta be running at an all time high. A big portion of Cope's book dealt with the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes aka Hadaka No Rallizes, a long running (since the late sixties, still "active" today) and influential act led by guitarist Takashi Mizutani. Without Les Rallizes, more modern day bands like Up-Tight and LSD-march wouldn't exist. Rallizes were also a big inspiration for Keiji Haino's equally significant Fushitsusha group. Their style (musical and sartorial), their distortion, their sunglasses... blown-out minimalist rock throb, carving delicate and/or devastating beauty out of guitar feedback and reverby pop simplicity. Unfortunately for readers of Cope's book, pretty much the entire catalog of Rallizes LPs, cd, cd-rs, cassettes etc. falls into the category of near-myth, hard to find at the very least. It used to be, you could go into a record shop in Japan and spend hundreds of dollars for a handful of live Rallizes cd-rs. We've stocked what we could, but Rallizes cds are few and far between. In other words, good timing that this disc just materialized (and maybe no coincidence that it was written up as a Record Of The Month on Cope's Head Heritage website a few months back). Titled either Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go or Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings, this cd offers up eight tracks of prime Rallizes, a "best of" of sorts drawn from rare recorded relics circa the early/mid '70s, though it goes back to '67 for track one. The disc opens with that garagey raver, "Otherwise My Conviction", then ventures into a gentler but no less distorted drone pop territory with "Valle d l'eau". The mood stays mellow until Mizutani busts out his searing Neil Young eat your heart out style guitar scorch for the end of the 13 minute third track, "Enter The Mirror". Has Wooden Shjips heard this? We're pretty sure they have. "Smokin' Cigarette Blues" is next, supremely lo-fi (with this band, that's a virtue), about as murky a 19 minutes of "blues" as you'll ever hear...it's all ambient low rumble and clatter, so abstract it's hard to tell if there's a band involved or not... this could be the Dead C for goshsakes! Wow. Following that, the fiery "Flames Of Ice" is propulsively distinct in comparison, and these 17 minutes should weigh heavily as a reason to pick this up. Then they plow into "Field Of Artificial Flowers", another heavy one, something like Link Wray's "Rumble" ultra-distorted into white hot sizzle and stretched out for ten minutes. What can they do to follow that? Being Les Rallizes Denudes, they go "Deeper Than Night" of course, which perfectly condenses everything that's wonderful about Les Rallizes into a mere two minutes and 24 seconds -- the mantric plod, the screeching sheets of sound wrenched from still bleeding guitars and amps. And then we're back to "Otherwise My Conviction", another version ending this disc much like it began. Whew. While any Rallizes cd is almost by definition essential, this really covers all the bases. Definitely one to get -- and it's also one of the only ones you CAN get.

MPEG stream: Enter The Mirror
MPEG stream: Field Of Artificial Flowers

Super rare, totally amazing split lp from two Japanese legends. Fuzzed out psych rockers Les Rallize Denudes on one side, blissy drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers on the other. HOLY SHIT! What a match up! We only had this once before and it was nearly $40 (and we were only able to get a couple copies that time). Now we managed to get FIVE more copies, and they're only $18.98! Need we stress that these will be gone before you even finish reading this... sorry!!

Reissue of one of our favorite indie rock records ever. Les Savy Fav don't really get their due, but back in the day, these guys were just about the most freaked out, chaotic noise-pop proposition going. An insane vocalist who spent as much time in the crowd, or dragging his mic into the parking lot as he did on stage. And a hyper kinetic band of dissonant, angular axemen and a seriously spastic drummer backing him up. This disc, their debut from 1999, finally gets the remastering/repackaging/reissuing it so deserves. A gloriously energetic blend of the Pixies and the Archers Of Loaf, but with loads of extra snotty swagger, plenty of metallic crunch, and a fistful of hooks most pop band's would kill for. And some of the best indie rock vocals ever, sometimes getting locked into long stretches of looped yelps, or wildman stream of consciousness ranting, all delivered in a distorted scrachy garage rock howl. Worth it alone for the third track, a wholesale rip off of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy", that instantly recognizable melody, but all twisted up into a chugging, propulsive chaotic slab of fuzzy pounding perfect pop throb. An all time mix tape staple for sure. But the rest of the record kicks just as much ass. Like the record the Pixies would have made if they were twenty something art school nerds from Rhode Island dosed on Red Bull and Robitussen. Fuck yeah! Pssst: new record coming in 2007!

MPEG stream: Cut It Out
MPEG stream: New Teen Anthem

Hey Les Savy Fav fans, if you missed the band's Accidental Deaths release the first time around when it was released as a limited edition, tour only cd in Australia on Pop Frenzy Records a few years back, today's your lucky day 'cause it's been reissued! Mind you it's another limited edition! The two songs "Hit By Car" and "Hit By Train" have been pressed onto a 7" vinyl record. This time it is by the Rococo label. Limited pressing of 1000.

These east coast art-rocking boys are back with their third release. Word has it that this band is pretty right-on live. This record is totally dancy and catchy, and much more emo and peppy than previous releases. Their post-punk guitar assault swings from

RealAudio clip: track 1
RealAudio clip: track 5
RealAudio clip: track 7

Attention Les Savy Fav fans, here's a compilation of sixty-three inches of your favorite band... or if you prefer, nine LSF singles... or if you prefer, eighteen LSF songs which charts the band's notable progress in reverse chronological order (i.e, it begins with the most recently released and steps back in time with each subsequent song on the cd). An unusual choice for sure, but then again LSF are well known for not always sticking with the norm. Whichever way you choose to measure it, you gotta credit those LSF folks with creating some damn cool angular postpunk. At each stage of their career thus far, from the early more raw recordings to the recent more 'polished' stuff, they've maintained a consistency of dynamics and craftiness. Oh and hop to it 'cause the first pressing of the cd includes a bonus dvd!

MPEG stream: Knowing How The World Works
MPEG stream: Our Coastal Hymn

Hard to believe, but it has been close to six years since Les Savy Fav's last studio album! For this grand occasion, they've pulled out the big guns in the guest department... Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger, Metric's Emily Haines, Islands' Nicholas Thorburn, Modest Mouse's Joe Plummer, Fred Armisen, and the whole of Enon! Have to say, it starts out a little peculiarly jumping from Modest Mouse-y indie rock ("Pots & Pans") to Turbonegro or Hot Snakes-y fire power ("The Equestrian"). Actually it isn't until the fourth song that they make us feel we're truly back in the Les Savy Fav zone. It's the alien indie funk post punkiness of "Patty Lee" that does it. So it idiosyncratically goes, Let's Stay Together is a total mixed bag, but a super hyper fun one! Sounds like at the heart of it all their aim is to rock you, and they succeed!

MPEG stream: The Equestrian
MPEG stream: Patty Lee

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

SORRY. Not so much a split or even a collaboration really, this is basically two tracks from spastic indie noise-rockers Les Savy Fav with a David Cross intro / outro on each track. The LSF songs are great, falling somewhere between Deerhoof, Grandaddy and Interpol, equal parts moody throbbing hypno rock, and skronky indie splatter. And the Cross stuff is pretty funny, mildly un-PC as you'd probably expect, but unfortunately quite brief.

It's still very early in their career, but those hectic Rogers Sisters, real-life sisters Jennifer and Laura along with their honorary bro' Miyuki Furtado, have already demonstrated a penchant for brevity in each of their releases. Why belabor the subject? Why waste time? Just get in, have yer fun and get out! The Brooklyn-based trio's latest is no exception coming in the form of a bilingual 2-song cd single. The title song is sung in Japanese by Jennifer while the other "45 Prayers" is sung in French by Miyuki. Note: If you've already got their album Three Fingers, you might not really need this unless you're a total completist 'cuz you've already got these songs, albeit in slightly different versions. If you don't have Three Fingers and/or have never heard them yet, this makes for a nice little sneak peek. Very much following in the footsteps of the 70s/80s female post-punk, no wave, and stripped-down funk bands such as Slits, Liliput and ESG with jutting guitars, skronky sax and whooped vocals. Pretty rad!

MPEG stream: 45 Prayers

Another beguiling project introduced to us by way of Chondritic Sound, who have been mining two separate veins of analog electronics w, ith a videodrome, minimal-wave camp of synth-punk insomniacs on one hand and a battery of noise-mongering misanthropes on the other. Les Temps Barbares is an entirely different construct, but no less an impressive set of recordings. If H.P. Lovecraft were to conjure some sort of demonic creature that would haunt El Chapo's hermetic narco-tunnels, these would the corresponding soundtracks. A very dank, subterranean murk is prevalent in the plodding synth explorations and occasional use of live, Aztec percussion that's paced at quite a torpor. It makes for a very amorphous set of tracks, that ooze and bleed with dissonant noise and volatile electronics. More animistic than the archetypes of power electronics (Anenzephalia, Brighter Death Now), but way too abrasive to fall into the ritual-industrial contingents (O Yuki Conjugate, Zero Kama, etc.). Limited stock.

MPEG stream: Maldito Seras Al Entrar Y Maldito Al Salir
MPEG stream: Como Abrir Un Candado

This recording of the Missa Luba - a version of the Roman Catholic Latin Mass filtered through traditional Congolese songs - was made in 1958 by a group of 45 teenaged boys under the direction of a Belgian Franciscan Friar named Father Guido Haazen. It's beautiful to the point that we're stumped as to what else we can say about it, which given how verbose we usually are is probably saying something. We will, however, relate an anecdote:�a few days ago a woman came into the shop, spent a good while browsing the stacks, and eventually made her way to the counter to ask for a recommendation. She was hippie-fied in a particularly San Franciscan way, and the only direction that she gave us was that she wanted a record that was going to "open her mind to new possibilities" (we know this sounds like a Scharpling and Wurster bit, but we swear to God that this actually happened!).�We scratched our noggins for a few minutes, asked her a few questions about what she did and didn't like, and played her a few things. She walked out with this record, and by all accounts the new possibilities are now a-flowin'...!� OK, so maybe touting Missa Luba as a catalyst for middle-aged, hippie enlightenment isn't the best way to sell it to aQ list devotees, but a quick straw poll of aQ staffers has this record popping up in the collections of at least 3 of us, all of whose tastes run to some pretty different extremes (on that note, all of us who happen to be lucky owners of the original US lp release from 1965 are excited to see a complete cd reissue that includes the performances of traditional Congolese songs that were left off the only other digital release). Again, it's hard to explain precisely what it is that makes this record so captivating, but there's something about it that is so emotionally pure, honest, humble and beautiful that it's hard to deny.�Perhaps it's the fact that we spend so much time listening to dark, hopeless, bleak music - songs about death and drugs and depression and misanthropy and whatever else - that when we hear something as unrepentantly joyous as this record, it throws us for a loop. It's a simple formula - songs of praise sung in a Congolese style by a boys' choir - and it sounds almost exactly like you would expect based on the description (those of you who were thoroughly blown away by the last song on the first side of Mississippi Records' Lipa Kodi Ya City Council LP take note!); however, if you're anything like us, you won't be expecting the effect that these songs will have on you. This is one of those records that grabs you and forces you to listen in a way that makes everything around you stop for a few minutes. Catholic or not, we're positive that's a good thing. Beautiful, essential, perfect.

MPEG stream: Banaha (Soldiers' Song)
MPEG stream: Gloria
MPEG stream: Sanctus

One of the stranger one-off missives of early eighties post-kraut weirdness was the lone 12" of Conny Plank and Holger Czukay's Les Vampyrettes project, offered here in a limited cassette reissue. No kosmiche krautrock here, instead Les Vampyrettes is an homage to the dread factor in horror cinema offering a brooding melange of slow creeping bass, spine-tingling ritualistic sound scapery of cut up screams, chants, water drips and knife scrapes amid Satanic incantations in deep monstrous tones. Extraordinary sound design, but very bizarre! Listen at loud volume or on headphones in the dark for full fear effect. Uber-limited!

MPEG stream: Biomutanten
MPEG stream: Menetekel

Everyone's favorite, um, "lesbros" from up north in the Cascadian woods are back, three years after their last effort, with a new album of epic heaviosity. And we do mean epic - perhaps it should come as no surprise since Lesbian's previous two albums were full of pretty darn long songs with lots of parts, but here they REALLY decided to go for it and do the one long song thing - there's just one track on this disc, and it's 44 minutes long. Not as groundbreaking as when Sleep did it way back when on Jerusalem, but like we said, it makes sense for 'em. Why write several 15 or 20 minute long songs when you can just cram everything into one non-stop barrage? With that much time to kill, Lesbian opt for (as always, actually) a kitchen sink approach, mixing together a wide variety of metal styles: stoner-doom-sludge, post-rock/post-metal, black metal, and more... There's parts here that remind us of everything from Neurosis to Agalloch to Mercyful Fate! Also, there's "less metal" moments that bear some resemblance to their colleagues, the Master Musicians Of Bukkake (whose Randall Dunn produced this, and whose Timba Harris arranged the strings here), as well as the forest-y pagan ambience of stuff found on the Glass Throat label from the same neck of the woods too. While we couldn't possibly give a comprehensive, blow-by-blow account of this lengthy composition, let's mention a few of the high points. Forestelevision opens ominously, like some sort of soundtracky black metal, lots of eerie / arty atmosphere, but a few minutes in gets a lot more sludgey, with heavier riffs and vokills. At about 10 minutes in, you'll find a fantastic folk-riffed segment, like a collaboration between Swedish '70s psych act Trad Gras Och Stenar and Neurosis! By the 20 minute mark, Lesbian have worked themselves into a bit of a frenzy, getting all hectic and mathy, with lots of effects and a great deal of effort on the part of the drummer. This crazy chaotic section goes for a while, then at around 32 minutes or so they need to take a breather and so the song suddenly gets all mellow and moody, delicate and even kind of pretty. Lesbian could be mistaken for a ordinary, instrumental postrock band at that point - but not for long, because soon they launch into a triumphant metallic gallop (or maybe it's just a trot, but it's glorious) crowned with completely unexpected high pitched shrieking King Diamond style heavy metal vocals! WTF?! Rad!! If we weren't convinced we needed this already, we are now. They chug along like that for a while, while we make involuntary devil horn hand gestures. Not sure why they waited, like, 36 minutes to bust into this part, maybe it took the singer that long to get up his courage... This more metal than thou section proves to be the album's heroic climax, stretching out in an almost psychedelic fashion however, before it at last comes to the end. The End. And guess what? The excitement of that last section really makes us want to hit "play" again right away and take the whole trip all over again - so that's a recommendation! Of course it also makes us want to go listen to some of our other favorite "one long song" cd metal cds, like Crimson by Edge Of Sanity and Key To The Gates Of Apocalpyses by Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra... Digipak cd or double lp gatefold vinyl, the latter of which actually messes with the integrity of our review by adding on an exclusive bonus "outro" track!

MPEG stream: Forestelevision (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Forestelevision (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Forestelevision (excerpt 3)

Black Metal. No, wait. Sludge-doom. Wait, no, it's post-rock. Huh? Seattle's Lesbian (who do themselves no favors with their dumb name, although they used to be called Lesbian Witch, not sure if that's better or worse) are, to us, pleasingly confusional and compelling when given a listen, their extended, epic songs -- 4 tracks in 1 hour here, folks -- veering from sheer metallic violence to moody melody to shoegazing stoner space-outs... it's like Wolves In The Throne Room one moment, Pelican or Isis the next. And it's great. Definitely another "heavy" winner from the eccentric Holy Mountain label, fresh from their successes with the likes of Om and Mammatus, two other question-mark-metal bands with heady, hypnotic abilities. Their throat-torn vocals and the weighty riffage argue for Lesbian's status as metallers, while the many passages of quiet blissfulness reveal a surprisingly sensitive side, just as emotionally effective, each opposed aspect of their music enhancing the power and beauty of the other via Lesbian's devastating dynamics and psychedelic synergy. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Black Forest Hamm
MPEG stream: Powerwhorses

Er, we've never been sure that Lesbian was such a good name for this all-dude band from up north Seattle way. Unfortunately not an easily Googleable choice either, if you're just trying to find the band. But in its seeming inappropriateness, it does at least represent the "not quite what you expected" nature of their sound. And we HAVE always liked 'em; their debut for Holy Mountain, Power Hor, was a bit of a heavy fave here when it came out in 2007, we compared it to both Pelican and Wolves In The Throne Room! Now moved over to the Important imprint (they have good taste in labels, and vice versa), Lesbian present a solid follow-up in the form of Stratospheria Cubensis. Giving off a serious, melancholic vibe, this new opus, resplendent in Seldon Hunt artwork, should meet all your epic prog-doom-stoner-psych-metal needs quite handily. The disc starts off with a great song, with a great title: "Poisonous Witchball", full of proggy angular riffs, and very metal ones too. It's the shortest song on the album, but still manages to fit in a great number of shifts and surprises, foreshadowing what's in store on the rest of the disc, which consists of looooong songs, five of 'em, that shortest one a relatively brief 8'28", the others in the double digits, up to 22'31", which gives them plenty of space to stretch out and psychedelicize... rather than go track by track, let's just say you get a smorgasbord of avant-metal mayhem and majesty, with repetitive sludge-bludgeon, speedy attacks, postrock soft-loud dynamics, sharp shredding guitar shards of quirky math metal, mammoth doom riffage, shoegazing melodic pretty parts, and more. It flows, though, how it flows. From ripping it up like Darkthrone one minute to crushing like Conifer or Samothrace another, there's no false steps, and no boring (but many beautiful) moments. We note that the "Lesbros" thanks list does not omit drugs, and likewise *your* thanks list should not omit Lesbian!

MPEG stream: Poisonous Witchball
MPEG stream: Poverty And War Forever
MPEG stream: Raging Arcania

We've mentioned it before, but it definitely bears repeating. It's always good to print the speed a record is meant to be played at. If your band is slow and sludgey, droney and dirgey, then odds are it will sound good at both 45 -and- 33, and if you're like us, you'll probably think it sounds better slower, dirgier, heavier, so we're gonna review this split at 33, cuz it sounded better that way. If it was meant to be played at 45, well, everything we're about to say, only slightly higher pitched and a bit faster. Lesbian are from Seattle and feature a bunch of dudes who have done time in other heavy bands, most notably Asva. They released an awesome album on Holy Mountain a year or two ago. And here, they offer up one track of classic sounding doom, at least at first, soaring minor key guitars, wrapped around crushing drums, harsh demonic vox, strangely haunting and pretty, but as the song develops it gets weirder and weirder, introducing some blasting double kick, some old school eighties style chug complete with guitar harmonies, and some streaks of blurred almost-black metal. Like Khanate meets Iron Maiden, but weirder, and even cooler than that already sounds. The flipside is a new track from Ocean, from Maine, not to be confused with THE Ocean from Germany, the sound here is brooding post rocky metal, a simple strum, all murky and Godspeedy, slow building, before exploding into a churning low slung sludge, that at 33 is thick and viscous, but maybe slightly less so at 45. Heavy and murky and pummeling, before giving way to a pretty droned out abstract outro. Packaged in sturdy full color sleeves, pressed on thick opaque yellow vinyl, and most likely limited.

With an artist as prolific as Jason Lescalleet, we're a little ashamed that we've only ever managed to list two of his releases. And both of those were fantastic. One a super limited cd-r on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, the other a collaboration with fellow sound artist and long time AQ fave John Hudak. We'll try to remedy that, beginning with this most recent release, an epic and incredibly lovingly assembled sonic tribute to Lescalleet's father who passed away in 2005. A lot of drone music, minimal experimental music, while sounding cool, often amazingly cool, doesn't always resonate emotionally. A lot of it is dark and mysterious, moody or melancholy, but without lyrics, and with minimal melody, it's hard to convey much emotion. A select few, those with a deft hand at sculpting sound, are able to infuse even the most minimal of musics with feeling and emotion, but lots of music is simply an assemblage of interesting sounds, which truth be told is often enough. For The Pilgrim, Lescalleet has created an incredibly emotional and moving tribute in sound, to his father, who found a strange and surprising appreciation for his son's music. A combination of field recordings, old tape recordings and live performance, this set is both musically ambitious, and sweetly personal. A combination that in less capable hands could have turned into something maudlin and schmaltzy, instead, The Pilgrim is simply beautiful. The picture disc features two recordings, both moving in their own way. The first is a live performance recorded shortly after the discovery that his Father's cancer was terminal. Lescalleet begins the set by reading an email from his father, where he explains how much he liked his son's music, and how it reminded him of being young and laying on the floor of the car and feeling the vibrations rumble through his body. And the sounds of bells. Both rich memories for his father. So Lescalleet performs a piece incorporating those elements, the parts of his music that so moved his father. And it is indeed lovely. Deep rumbles, subtle whirs, slowly drifting from barely there shimmer to cavernous roar, but usually hovering dreamily somewhere in between. Toward the end, the sound grows more corrosive, with subtle rhythms surfacing amidst the crackle and buzz, before winding down to silence. The second recording is a little difficult to listen to, and is extremely intense and personal. While Lescalleet's father was in the hospital, he gave him a hand held recorder, thinking it might lift his spirits to be able to record messages and his thoughts. But his father was incapable of having long conversations, so the whole side is a recording of a hospital room, with bits of mumbled speech, footsteps, snatches of conversations in the hall, very stark and lonely sounding, the room giving the recording a strange natural reverb. Incredibly moving... The cd is a new 70 minute piece based on those same sounds Lescalleet's father found so appealing: bells, chimes, rumbling vibrations. And it's a gorgeous piece of minimal dronemusic. Murky and bleary eyed, a slow almost funereal drift, the low end sometimes throbbing like the engine of a car, but just as often glistening in abstract smears. Part way through, more and more melody surfaces amidst the dreamy drones, before the track devolves into some serious, and very cathartic noise, crumbling, ultra distorted howls of white noise and blown out buzz, eventually fading out, leaving just the voice of Jason's daughter singing to her grandfather while he was in the hospital, an old Irish folk song. As her song ends, the record drifts off with a dark and barely audible coda of softly struck bells. So intense and poignant and absolutely gorgeous to listen to. The packaging is divine as well, a deluxe gatefold sleeve, a rich blue on the outside, inside a painting by Lescalleet's brother of their Dad, as well as the printed out email. The lp is a picture disc, one side an old fashioned tape reel, the other a photo of Lescaleeet's Dad eating cake. Inside is a deluxe booklet, with the cd in a pouch on the inside of the cover, lots of liner notes, photos, notes on each track and the whole story of this record.

MPEG stream: The Pilgrim CD (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: The Pilgrim CD (excerpt 2)

Mr. Lescalleet, besides being a loyal aQ customer, is also quite an amazing experimental musician with loads of releases on labels like RRR, Chloe, Cut, Erstwhile and others. To The Teeth is his first release on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, and it's a pretty darn good match. Lescalleet definitely traffics in NOISE, but he has a deft touch and his noise is filled with all sorts of subtle shadings and strange dynamics. The first track on To The Teeth starts off with a subtle rumble, which grows into a hiss, and then builds into a thick wall of whirring which finally transforms into a churning pulsing battering ram of white hot staticky fuzz. Track two is a harsh expanse of overloaded circuits and rumbles, all turned into full on rrrroooaaarrrs, the whole track sounds like a trip to hell (if hell was a bottomless pit filled with white hot crackle and analog synthesizers set on fire), where a game of Pong is slowed way down and played for eternity, every blip so distorted they sound like pokes in the eye. The final track is another beast, a bit like laying on a bed of nails while tons of grinding circuitry and huge sonic black holes are dropped on you from above, until eventually a huge barrel of molten white noise is upended and dumped over your bruised and bloody body. Not for the faint of ear! SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!

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The weird and wonderful Trunk records who in the past has brought us unreleased soundtrack music from Dawn Of The Dead, the Psychomania soundtrack, the Flexi-Sex compilation of X-rated flexi discs as well as a handful of archival recordings from the amazing Basil Kirchin, returns with another amazing, and totally bizarre collection, this time it's all sorts of creeped out ambience, demented sound effects, chopped and spliced mood music, haunting drones and all manner of spooky swirly spacey soundtrack music. Originally issued as super limited acetates just for friends, later licensed and re-released on 78rpm library discs, these recordings remained mostly unheard, outside a few science fiction and mystery programs, including Dr. Who! The story of Leslie's life was about as weird and fascinating as his music: grew up in an Irish castle, became a fighter pilot, wrote one of the earliest new age / UFO books, recorded this here music, quit music, opened a nightclub in a castle, punched out a reviewer who gave a scathing review to his wife's one woman show, wrote some spoof science fiction, finally developed a huge interest in meditation and spirtualism, pursuing both until his death in 2001. These tracks recorded between 1955 and 1959 are so demented and ahead of their time, they could very well be some dada-ist sound collage from Nurse With Wound or some modern experimental music concrete. Being as this is taken from one of the original acetates, the whole thing sounds warm and fuzzy and slightly distorted, adding to its alien otherworldliness. Lots of primitive tape manipulation, strange found sounds, sped up and slowed down, bathed in reverb and echo, the sounds of flies and wind and whatever else he could get his hands on, all jumbled together into slow moving slabs of ominous creep and freaked out buzz and scuttle, droning and haunting and dark and demented. It's a bit hard to believe music this dense and weird and wonderful could remain lost for so long, or that it could be the product of a man dabbling in music, rather than a musician who had dedicated his whole life and being to sound. Includes Leslie's music for Music Of The Voids Of Outer Space, The Day The Sky Fell In, Death Of Satan and Sacrifice B.C. 5,000, as well as Leslie's original notes on each, and a brief overview of his life and history.

MPEG stream: Destruction of The Flies (from The Day The Sky Fell In)
MPEG stream: Asteroid Belt (from Music Of The Voids Of Outerspace)
MPEG stream: Dawn, Invocation (from Sacrifice B.C. 5,000)

This is strange indeed. The last Less record (reviewed 2+ years ago) was a blast of MTV ready prog-gloom post-metal, equal parts Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Nine Inch Nails with strange and wonderful math rock filligree a la Don Caballero. We predicted that in a couple years we'd probably be seeing them all over MTV if there was any justice in this world. So you can imagine how surprised we were when we first threw this, the new Less record, on. A completely different beast altogether. Well, not completely. First off, there's not a distorted guitar to be found. Anywhere. And all traces of pounding percussion have been replaced by skittery brushwork and delicate whispery shuffles. The riffs remain, still sort of doomy and heavy, but slowed down, played on a steel string guitar, giving them a sort of backwoods mystery and acoustic urgency. This may be stripped down and acoustic, but it's definitely not wimpy. This is dark and heavy and groovy, grim and sinister, creepy and crawly. Slightly distorted/reverbed vocals wail minor key laments over dirgy minor key doomscapes, vocals slithering between the riffs, tense and intense. Lots of ambient murk, backwoods twang, and sinister groove. Think Sixteen Horsepower crossed with Deadboy And the Elephantmen, or Woven Hand mixed with Agents Of Oblivion, or an even darker, creepier version of Alice In Chains' acoustic record Sap. Recommended.

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Local one man band Less (not to be confused with Lesser) spits out a caustic blend of Tool and Don Caballero and Rage Against The Machine. I can't really figure out what this guy is doing releasing his own cds, when he should be on MTV and touring with Tool or

RealAudio clip: It's Over
RealAudio clip: Garrotte
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Longtime readers of the aQ list will no doubt remember our undying love for some thing / group / person called Lesser. If not have a look at the website and revel in our Lesser love. Heck, our own Andee even sports a Lesser tattoo. Briefly signed to Matador, and an auxiliary member of Matmos, Jay Lesser is responsible for some of our favorite weirdo electronica EVER, and yet, has always been about the most reluctant artist we can think of. Seemingly driven since day one to stop making music, yet, with every new thing we heard, we marveled at the amazing shit he could conjure up, whether it was wildly twisted drum and bass, or pure what the fuck experimentalism, few could rival his warped vision, and it's still a travesty that the world at large didn't embrace him the way we did. We like to think it was because it shit was just too weird, too next level, an opinion which seems to be furthered by this unexpected return. While we assumed that Lesser was done, apparently, he got super interested in building his own synths, and this is the result, a pretty stellar chunk of heady, rhythmic electronic experimentalism that sounds so good, we're again wondering why the fuck Lesser isn't still making music on a regular basis, and why this is self-released, this would fit perfectly on Spectrum Spools or Ideologic Organ or Root Strata or Digitalis, and if any of the folks who run those labels are reading this, buy one of these and put out a fancy pants vinyl version. Two sidelong sprawls that manage to be impossible varied, but somehow hold together as single epic pieces, beginning as a dizzyingly dubbed out field of percolations, the track soon mutates into, a thick chunk of crunchy beat heavy stutter, underpinned by woozy swooping low end, the sounds all crumbly and raw. Before too long the sound shifts again into a sort of super raw electro, all wild sonic squiggles and a beat constructed from squelches and static, the beats gradually fading into a murky minimalism, before blossoming into a strange sort of glimmering field of bleeps and bloops. The second track/side starts off all minimal pulsations and dense chordal swells, laced with strangely soundtracky sonic filigree, before the beat drops and it becomes a strange sort of cinematic electro shuffle. Elsewhere, the sound grows serene, and becomes a dreamily melodic drift, all tinkling melodies and chiming tones, but wreathed in constantly swirling spaced out psychedelic synth squiggles, that soon gives way to some minimal squelch, before the track bursts into some seriously Perrey And Kingsley worthy bleep blorp playfulness, but edges with a slightly sinister undertone, before finally winding it up with a brief blast of primitive academic synth.

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So here it is. The new Lesser record. On Matador no less. We were all a little afraid, that not wanting to blow his big chance (it's quite a leap from Vinyl Communications to Matador), Jay Lesser was going to soften his attack, blunt his weapons, and make a 'nice' record (one the Plaid/Plone/Boards of Canada crowd could get into) which probably would be okay, but lacking the confusional chaos that we here at AQ love so much but which most people have trouble getting their heads around. Fear not. This is THE record Lesser has been trying to make for years. It all comes together just right. Gone is most of the drum 'n bass dabbling of the last record, and in its place a tangled mess of skittering beats (like a malfunctioning Autechre), funky hiccupping beats patched together from a thousand skipping cds, long stretches of ambient noise, radio interference and just completely random sound. Probably the most difficult Lesser record yet. Certainly the most difficult thing you've heard on Matador. But it's worth the work, because underneath all this mayhem and confusion are some amazing songs, catchy melodies super funky beats, hilarious (usually unrecognizable) samples, and some of the most unique amazing 'sound' you've ever heard. Imagine an Autechre / Merzbow soundclash on New Years Eve, in Central Park, and for some reason their rig is intercepting thousands of cellular phone calls / radio transmissions / crowd sounds, and then it begins to rain, and the whole thing short circuits, causing an ungodly assortment of sizzle and crackle and white noise and total mayhem. It's kind of like that, but with a few pretty parts. I mean, any record that gets a review calling it "a detriment to humanity" (Stanford Intermission) has got to be great. Most musicians, kings, presidents, criminals and supervillains work their whole lives towards that end and still don't make it. Hopefully this record will steal some of the Kid606 / Matmos / Blechdom / Kit Clayton thunder and put it back where it probably belonged all along. Fucking essential.

RealAudio clip: Deep Sixed in the Back Nine
RealAudio clip: Matador Records Tax Deduction

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SORRY. One of the most innovative and most overlooked electronic musicians... Intense jagged soundscapes that alternately slip in and out of beat heavy dance, painful noise, tranquil ambience, and occasional jungle. For fans of Aphex Twin, Merzbow, Scanner, Photek, Oval, Gate, Locust, Dead C, Autechre... it's that good!

Everyone knows Aquarius loves Lesser. I mean, Andee even has a Lesser tattoo!!! And how could you not love him. He's a musical madman/genius, turning everything he touches into some mutated, 6 headed, 3 dicked, spastic, unpredictable crazy mixed up

RealAudio clip: Markus Popp Can Kiss My Redneck Ass
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Not as willfully cacophonic as the "Gearhound" album for Matador, "Mensa Dance Squad" finds Jay Lesser making an overachieving concept record which rails against the pretenses of IDM (aka 'intelligent' dance music) and all of its self-congratulatory

RealAudio clip: Samen Dance Squad
RealAudio clip: Mensa Dunce Squad (Leg Up Program)
RealAudio clip: Crumble

You know how much aQuarius loves Lesser don't you? Andee even has a Lesser tattoo for chrissakes! And you should too. Everyone should be branded with the symbol that marks them as someone who recognises the sound of genius! Lesser is one of the few punks out there that manages to make the boring world of electronic lap toppery exciting. Whether he's removing his pants live, dancing maniacally amidst a terrified crowd, growling out his best cookie monster vocals in front of a very unmetal audience, or infusing his electronic music with soul and humour and the occasional metal riff, he manages to come up with amazing and beautiful sounds, wrapped in completely confounding rhythms. Speaking of confounding, the first track will make you think you put the wrong disc in the cd player, as a blast of grinding riff heavy death metal spews forth, with barely discernable glitches and robotic vocals buried in the mix that subtly betray the metallic pummel as being less(er) than the sum of it's parts. The rest of the record is an exercise in rhythmic restraint, especially for someone whose past efforts are designed to hurt your brain and your ears. Gone is the spastic glitchery and the purposeful annoying sonic invective of past Lesser outings and in their place, smoother, more hypnotic beat oriented downtempo rhythmscapes. It's not a bad thing either. The sounds are still wrong, and the rhythms are completely erratic and insanely programmed, it's just less punch in the face and more bear hug, less knee in the nuts and more hand in your back pocket squeezing your ass. Skittery glitch, crunchy rhythms and barely recognizable samples throb and pulse making for what could perhaps be Lesser's "funkiest" record to date. Like Autechre playing the Boards Of Canada songbook through a PA that keeps cutting out, adding even more rhythmic variance to the proceedings. There are also moments of surprisingly dreamy drone-y tranquility tempering the controlled chaos. Maybe he's mellowing with age, maybe it's the personal subject matter of this record (the death of his father), or maybe he's just tired of all the sound alike crap in modern electronica, but whatever it is, it only makes Lesser, and every record he makes that much more appealing. Also features a bunch of MP3's by the mysterious group known only as THE ROBOTIC as well as some amazing Lesser videos by AQ pal Dave Cerf!

MPEG stream: The Science Of Pathology
MPEG stream: Young, Dumb, Full Of Come And Destroying My Will To Live
MPEG stream: That Shit Might Fly In The Sticks

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SORRY. Aquarius' favorite "techno" artist...his recent 12" now on cd, with bonus tracks! The only junglist we know of who also plays lead guitar in a Metallica cover band!

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SORRY. One of our favorite electronic musicians, Mr. Lesser makes his last foray into drum'n'bass and boy, what a way to go. Imagine Nico or Ed Rush spinning a mix of Merzbow, They Might Be Giants, Alec Empire, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince and you might be getting close. Song title of the week: "Markus Popp can kiss my redneck ass." Easily one of the best drum'n'bass 12"s of the 1998.

For me (Andee), this record brings back terrifying memories of driving across the United States with Lesser. Everytime it was his turn to drive (driver controls the stereo, you know the rule) he would play Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 music full blast. It got so no matter how tired we were, we would still drive, just to keep control of the stereo away from Lesser! So years later, some of that stuff sees a proper release on Kid606's Tigerbeat 6 label. And out of the context of being exhausted and hungry in Nebraska, this stuff sounds pretty darn good. While still mildy irritating (as all video game music is to a certain degree) this is cool and kitschy and pretty fun stuff. Sounds like a Mario Brothers rave or a Sonic The Hedgehog dance party. We love Lesser.

RealAudio clip: Necrophobic
RealAudio clip: The Syndrom

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SORRY.

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

SORRY. Super limited colored vinyl 7" from AQ's favorite electronica posterboy Lesser and some dude called Pisstank. On Stuart Boyracer's label!

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SORRY.

We've made no bones about out love of the POP. We love the fuzzed out black metal too, and the sludge-y dirge sure, and of course the beautiful blissed out drones, but sometimes nothing does it for us like pop. Pop. POP! Be it delicate lo-fi 4-track bedroom pop, jangly indie pop, or big guitar hook drenched POWER pop. Sometime you just need to fill your head with hooks, bounce around, air guitar, sing along, you know. And no recent band did it for us quite as much as The Stereo, who wrote unbelievably catchy songs, wrapped in HUGE chugging guitars, amazing drumming and gorgeous harmony vocals. The Stereo broke up last year which really bummed us out (The Stereo being one of the few bands EVER than Andee has ever written a fan letter to!) but we soon discovered 2/3 of The Stereo had regrouped as Let Go. In fact when Andee and Allan went to CMJ, one of the only shows they really wanted to see was Let Go at CBGB's (which they didn't, goldarnit, since the show was WAY sold out) but upon their return to SF, the Let Go record was out and as if it were even possible, it might be even better than the Stereo. It basically sounds like the next Stereo record would have, bigger hooks, catchier songs, even more clever arrangements, more elaborate harmonies, and like the last Stereo record, it's definitely a grower, as all great records are. On first listen, we were mildly disappointed, but now we can't stop listening to it over and over again. Even has a sticker on the front of the cd featuring testemonials from other current pop bands (including Fallout Boy) going on and on about how good the Let Go are and how their bands wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Let Go and the Stereo and maybe the most accurate: "Let Go is your new favorite band." Indeed.

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Another heavy one from this great label.

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SORRY. Another excellent installment in the ongoing series of classic horror score vinyl reissues from UK label Death Waltz. So far we've seen some of our favorite soundtracks get the deluxe reissue treatment: Escape From New York, Halloween II, Halloween III, Zombi 2, Prince Of Darkness, heavy on the John Carpenter for sure, even some soundtracks we hadn't heard of before like Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue. And now we have Let The Right One In, easily one of the best modern vampire movies, and notable in the Death Waltz catalog for being the first modern score (with more apparently on the way), and even beyond that, it's a strange fit sonically as well, as Johan Soderqvist's score is much more of a traditional, lush symphonic big budget Hollywood movie score, but it's still a good one, and for folks who've seen the film, the cues here will immediately evoke some iconic images from the film. But even if you haven't seen the movie, the music here is quite beautiful, and stirring, soaring swoonsome strings, minor key melodies, darkly emotional, haunting and melancholic, long passages of brooding and mesmerizing minimalism, with tracks like "The Slaughter" and "Hiding The Body", as the titles and the corresponding scenes in the film might suggest, unfurling as much darker, atonal affairs, adding dissonance, and creating tense / intense dronescapes, laced with subtle percussion, clouds of cymbal shimmer, moaning brass, delicate crystalline pianos, all set amidst softly roiling billows of low end thrum, sounding more like something you might here on Type or Miasmah. And like some of our other favorite scores, there are recurring melodic motifs, and Soderqvist deftly creates the sort of gorgeous haunting melodic themes that get lodged in your head, and become forever linked with the mood and emotions of the film. There are a few tracks that border on the maudlin, it is after all a big time symphonic score, and to be fair those moments make perfect sense in the context of the film, but the majority of the score is a much darker, and more ominously brooding affair, which does make it in the end, a pretty excellent match over all for the Death Waltz series. And like the rest of the Death Waltz lps, the record comes housed in that super distinctive black and blue bordered Death Waltz sleeve, with a new original painting, depicting the main character, sitting alone, in the snow, on the jungle gym in front of a dilapitated apartment complex, beneath a black sky. Includes a printed inner sleeve, liner notes by both Soderqvist and cover artist Candice Tripp, as well as a large A2 sized poster of the cover art.

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SORRY.

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SORRY. A while back we came across a demo tape by this New York band, who play an excellent sort of math-core metal, and whose members eventually formed one of the recent (and since replaced) Today Is The Day line-ups (the one that recorded the punishing "In The Eyes Of God") and went on to found AQ-fave metallers Mastodon!. Now, finally that demo and a bunch of other equally hard-to-find (and equally heavy and chaotic) stuff by the band makes it to compact disc, two of 'em in fact.

Metgumbnerbone is not a reference that pops up all that much, nor is it one that would mean much to anyone who isn't a complete dork about British esoteric experimental musics. But that's where we'll start for this review because that's the reference that one such dork had to make here at Aquarius (it was Jim if you must know). Metgumbnerbone was a shadowy collection of dour Brits (including Richard Rupenus of The New Blockaders) who took up residence in an abandoned factory somewhere in Newcastle and constructed a bleak ritualist music out of the refuse found within. Scraping metal and atonal horns crafted out of plumbing material abound in the Metgumbnerbone vocabulary. Such is the case for Lethe as well, the found-space project of Japanese improviser Kuwayama Kiyoharu. However, as Metgumbernone's post-electrical scrabblings were the result of a collective effort, Lethe's spatializations emerge from an orchestra of one. It seems impossible that he did not overdub many of these sounds, but the production so fully embraces the cavernous space of his choosing that Lethe's pieces sound as if they were constructed in a single take. For Catastrophe Point #5, Lethe used an abandoned grain warehouse located on the outskirts of Nagoya, Japan. Much more than an ambivalent shuffling or wandering scattering of clunky sounds, Lethe amasses sympathetic scrapings from pieces of metal, large and small, as they are dragged, bowed, and beaten throughout the space. Long form drones emerge throughout the performance as if he's triggering a resonant frequency of the space, echoing against itself. It's true that many of these sounds resemble those found on the impossible to find Metgumberbone records, but other references would be Organum's Vacant Lights album, Z'ev's finer moments, the recent John Grzinich constructions, and even Yoshi Wada's bellowing recordings of his Earth Horns. Excellent!

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MPEG stream: Untitled 2

It's hard not to jump right into discussing the packaging that Invisible Birds has crafted for this opus by the peripatetic Japanese experimentalist Lethe (aka Kuwayama Kiyoharu), but that will have to wait for later on in the review as it's the incredible, occluded sounds that Lethe generates that are of true import here. For many years now, Kuwayama had been recording the resonance of various abandoned spaces, first around his native Japan and more recently from sites far far away. He seeks out an old warehouse, airplane hanger, the hull of a ship, or any massive slab of architecture shaped by concrete and/or steel which happens to have an open door (or broken window) and a choice amount of natural reverb and resonance. There he collects whatever he can find within the space to use as source material to resonate those industrial spaces: slabs of metal, empty water tanks, sodden wood, broken glass, small bones, and the flotsam that had collected on the floors after years of neglect. Out of these found objects, Kuwayama has an uncanny knack for producing natural, acoustic drones which hold a haunted aesthetic amplified through the cavernous reverb of those crumbled cathedrals to industry. Given the seemingly surreptitious nature of Kuwayama's wanderings, these recordings are swaddled in the darkness of night with only candles or a bonfire somewhere in the far corner of the building as his illumination. It has to be said that Kuwayama does overlay and edit all of his recordings into composition, following liked minded artists such as Tarab, Eric La Casa, or John Grzinich. Catastrophe Point 7 begins with this process at a site deliciously referred to as Arsenic in Lausanne, Switzerland. Well, it turns out that Arsenic is a contemporary theater space in current use, and despite his non-feral residence, Kuwayama offers an incredible assortment of acoustic drones, noises, and textures. Bellowing tones emanate from a variety of long plumbing pipes, replicating the circular breathing strategies of Yoshi Wada; and around these leaden flutterings, he scrapes uneasy textures and builds clattering crescendos. The point about Arsenic not being a totally disused space comes to the forefront about halfway through Catastrophe Point 7 as he rolls a piano into the empty theater space and sets forth a melancholy series of clustered piano tones, much like his one time collaborator Jonathan Coleclough produced on his signature album Period. Catastrophe Point 8 was recorded in an abandoned space. This time, it's a former power station in Scotland. A mournful acoustic drone, perhaps from a similar set of plumbing pipes heard in the Swiss recordings opens this disc, with small crumblings of wood, glass, and concrete positioned close to the microphone. Set in spatialized contrast to these closely miced sounds, Kuwayama captures various clanks, thumps, and other bumps in the night all decaying in the prolonged reverb of that power station. It's a much more Spartan affair than the first disc, but just as effective in its haunted sensibility. Highly recommended listening! And yes, the packaging. The discs themselves are housed in a beautifully printed letterpress folio, with a lengthy booklet written by fellow industrial shadow-master Giancarlo Toniutti. For this small art-edition, Invisible Birds has housed the two discs in an archival, embossed box with another booklet of photographs from Kuwayama and a snippet of 8mm film. The art edition is beautifully done and well worth the expense. Needless to say, they made just 100 of the art edition!

If you were to touch a piece of metal to dry ice, an incredible squeal bursts forth at a caustic frequency and high volume. This phenomenon of sonic alchemy is the result of the temperature change between the metal and the dry ice. When the dry ice jumps in temperature from 60 degrees below zero, the molecules rapidly sublimate from solid to gas. Since the metal is quite rigid, the carbon dioxide gas bursts outward and the two surfaces of the solid dry ice and the metal act akin to a reed on a sax played by a six year old. We first saw this trick employed by Matmos at their Yerba Buena Center for the Arts residency many years ago; and Lethe - the Japanese acoustic experimentalist Kuwayama Kiyoharu - took this up on a much large scale with large steel tables heated by candles and situated in a massive industrial warehouse. The protracted squeals, sonorous buzzing, and shrill drones aren't too dissimilar to how Kuwayama would bow metal, wood, and other found objects within abandoned warehouses, especially with the cavernous reverb that spills around every sound. As with pretty much all of his other recordings, Kuwayama takes great care in the amount space he uses between each of the highly variable shrieks and bellows produced by such incredibly simple means. It's a fantastic post-Fluxus performative gesture presented on a grand scale.

MPEG stream: Dry Ice On Steel Tables

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

SORRY.

There must be something that we are missing in the moniker Lettera 22, which was a very common, lightweight typewriter that came into circulation in 1949. Two Italians - Matteo Castro and Ricardo Mazza - have adopted that unlikely name for their sordid, junk-heavy noise project that falls somewhere between the aktionist brutality of the Schimpfluch Gruppe and the high-octane power electronics that might come from the Broken Flag side of things. The opening barrage has all of the hair-raising wallop of shoving a fork in a toaster, only have the lesson go unlearned with the fork continuing to make its way into the toaster over and over again. Sparks, blistered fingers, and burnt hair should be expected from any attempts to recreate this. Yup, there are squalls of feedback which puncture the bracing chunks of dirty noise, all of which comes to a grinding halt with one of several trash-strewn concoctions of abject texture from electro-acoustic sources, while still exhibiting the electrical burns from those knife-meets-toaster explorations. The second side musters a thoroughly dynamic assault reminiscent of the pre-digital noise-junk tactics of Merzbow himself, chock full of whistle-screech chaos, cable-buzz exaggeration, harshly-shaped edges of bewilderment, and overdrive anti-psychedelia. Oh, and with this release, we see the return of one of the great cassette labels, Monorail Trespassing.

MPEG stream: Subsequent Teeth

Awesome collection of many of the jams Larry Levan would play (and many he mixed) at the legendary garage in the heyday of the New York disco scene. Everyone from Talking Heads to Gwen Gutrhie, Teen Gardner to Patrice Rushen. Carefree, groovin and so much fun!

MPEG stream: Heartbeat
MPEG stream: Love Honey, Love Heartache
MPEG stream: It Should Have Been You

[ aquarius records catalogue — L ]