[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1301 through 1350 of 1361.

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SORRY. Believe it or not, Lustmord's Heresy was the first cd I (Allan) ever bought, back in 1990 when it was first released. (Not my first tape or LP, but my first cd -- the second, if I recollect correctly, was either Nirvana's Bleach or Lights...Camera...Revolution by the Suicidal Tendencies...someday I'm gonna do a 'zine on the subject of 'first records purchased', but I digress). I think I'd read about it in some magazine, and was intrigued that it was apparently recorded deep underground in some cave or crypt. These subterranean origins are certainly believable when you listen -- it's dark and deep indeed, an ambient well of sound echoing with what sounds like the cries of buried, ghostly whales, a fog-shrouded hour of droning unease. Haunting, beautiful, something enjoyably scary to listen to alone at night. As the first-ever cd in my collection, of course it's near and dear to my heart, but it's the music that prompts me to tell you it's a great album. We're glad that it's finally now been reissued (in a spiffy digipack, still sporting the fantastic, apocalyptic cover piece "The Great Day Of His Wrath" by English Romantic painter John Martin), all tracks remastered by Brian Lustmord in 2004. Highly recommended. If you're at all into dark/ambient/drone musics, you ought to have one or two or more Lustmord discs in your collection, and I'd say Heresy should be one of them.

MPEG stream: Heresy Part I
MPEG stream: Heresy Part IV

Back in 2004, Lustmord and The Melvins released what turned out to be a truly magnificent collaboration in the form of the album Pigs Of The Roman Empire. For Juggernaut, Brian Lustmord entered the studio with the Melvins' King Buzzo once again. The result is less of a collaborative project and more of a Lustmord album with Buzzo contributing vocals and guitars to Lustmord's dark, dark ambient sound design. The album opens with some signature Lustmord moves: cavernous bass drones, tectonic plods for a rhythmic underbelly, and loops of weeping violin. All of this points to the same creep show ambience that worked so well on Lustmord's seminal albums Heresy and The Monstrous Soul; yet, when King Buzzo's guitar comes into focus, the two signatures couldn't sound any more mismatched. It's really quite baffling: a hardly distorted chug of the guitar that sounds more like a teenager who's just figured out that you can downtune an E chord rather than a legend of dirge and doom. And Lustmord just lets it sit there; no manipulation, no augmenting sounds, nothing else. And so it goes. Towards the end of the record, Lustmord brings in some screeching Ligeti strings that do improve upon the previous 30+ minutes of tedium. Given that Stephen O'Malley and Pita raised the bar pretty high for avant-garde doom metal hybrids with their recent KTL collaboration, Juggernaut needed to be a hell of a lot better than this.

MPEG stream: Prime
MPEG stream: Able

Perhaps beginning with the soundtracks that Throbbing Gristle supplied to Derek Jarman films and Coil's rejected score to "Hellraiser," industrial culture has slowly been creeping into more and more mainstream venues through its affiliation with film. Brian "Lustmord" Williams' work is certainly no exception as he began his musical career during SPK's most devistating period back In the mid '90s, Williams followed the lead of SPK's Graeme Revell by working on the sound design for big Hollywood movies. Revell, in fact, is credited with scoring the "Tombraider" soundtrack (amongst 30+ others)... Quite a long way from the autopsy imagery of SPK's "Information Overload Unit!!!" Anyway, "Metavoid" marks the first proper Lustmord album in almost seven years, and the time that Wiliams has spent toiling for Hollywood has undoubtably affected his own work as Lustmord. While the slashing drills and unnerving screeches blast from his gaping drones, Lustmord has laced these already threatening pieces with unneccessarily theatrical synthetic strings and mystical flutes that seem better suited for "Xena" than a Lustmord album. A disappointing return.

Under his moniker Lustmord, Brian Williams has authored a signature sound that has become the pinnacle of the dark ambient sub-genre, even if he is loathe to that accept that catagorization. Williams began recording in the early '80s with the seminal industrial project SPK for the Leichenschrei album. While often working with SPK live, Williams began trawling subterranean locations and coupling field recordings from those spaces with a scientific rigor into the very low frequencies that hovered just on the threshold of audibility but could clearly be felt if not heard. Paradise Disowned was the second Lustmord record originally released back in 1984. Working with John Murphy (best known for his contributions to early Current 93 recordings), Williams crafted eerie soundscapes from his field recordings of deep nuclear shelters, Welsh caves, French crypts, and slaughterhouses. The haunting wails of Tibetan horns and mysterious ritualistic incantations further darkens the mood, although some of the drum machine tracks toward the end of the record do more to date the record than add mechanical paranoia. Nevertheless, the concepts and recording methods for Paradise Disowned are in fact very similar to those found on Heresy, which is still Lustmord's masterpiece.

MPEG stream: Beckoning
MPEG stream: Pyre (Necro Cristi)
MPEG stream: Comahon Q.Q. Comahon

Purifying Fire collects a handful of rarities and unreleased pieces from the legendary dark ambient composer Brian Lustmord. Those of you familiar with his masterpieces Heresy and The Monstrous Soul, won't find this to be a huge jump (forward/backward/anywhere) in Lustmord's aesthetics of deep space isolationism and psychic deterioration, but that's no complaint. It's still amazing stuff.

MPEG stream: Strange Attractor
MPEG stream: Deep Calls To Deep

Earlier this year, Brian Williams (aka Lustmord) was commissioned by the Church of Satan to perform at the first ever public Satanic High Mass. Of course the date of that event was June 6, 2006, coinciding with the release of the Omen remake and a Slayer album, all trying to maximize the evil that can be ascribed to a trio of sixes. For his score of the event, Williams culled choice elements from his impressive career of dark ambient soundscaping. The Tibetan horns, melodic phrases, and monstrous vocal bellows from Heresy are prominent in the mix, as is the vast expanse of anti-gravitational drone which dominates The Place Where The Black Stars Hang. Tesla coil discharges, metallic airlocks slamming shut, hallowed plainsongs drenched in cathedral reverb, down-pitched electrical crackle, and elongated gong resonance also feature into the mix of the score. It's a thoroughly blackened sound of the self-made individual gaping at a vast emptiness of creation.

MPEG stream: Compassion
MPEG stream: Conclusion

The Dark Places Of The Earth is a collection of re-compositions using some of the source material that went into Lustmord's 2008 album [Other]. Where that album featured the guitar work of Aaron Turner and King Buzzo set amidst a signature dark ambience, The Dark Places Of The Earth is a magnificent piece of black-clad minimalism without any hint of those guitars in the mix, which weirdly seems to make the sounds that much more abject and haunting. And even for an artist known for bleak sustained tones and psychologically charged stillness, this album is particularly sparse. In the gaping silences which linger around the slow-burning arcs of tectonic rumblings, Lustmord seems to be tapping more into the highly spatialized minimalism of late period Morton Feldman. Seriously. As hard as it may seem to imagine Feldman adorning a black leather trenchcoat and paratrooper jump boots, that's pretty much where this album ends up. Much of the sonic palette has been reduced to a few recurring sounds originating from [Other] and quite possibly from previous albums like The Place Where The Black Stars Hang and The Monstrous Soul. Billowing reverberations appear as distant vapor trails that streak against blackened skies, with those huge growling notes that have appeared in every single Lustmord album since Heresy to lend a suitably Lovecraftian air of horror. Lustmord cycles through these varying elements with strategies of repetition and difference, articulating these chromatic variations of in degrees of blackness. Very subtle drones and nervous vibrations occasionally surpass the event horizon of Lustmord's emptiness, and on a few tracks, the air-lock compression clanks reprise from [Other] alongside the crackling of frozen tundra with cold silences spilling out everywhere else. Easily the best work Lustmord has produced since The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.

MPEG stream: Fallen
MPEG stream: Atom
MPEG stream: Eon

Lustmord's nightmare aesthetic continues to map out aural manifestations of subconscious terror. "The Monstrous Soul" was originally released through World Serpant in 1990. While the earlier Lustmord records had been acoutic in nature, this time, the digital prowess of Adi Newton (Clock DVA, T.A.G.C.) was enlisted to add a digital clarity to the psychoacoustic malevolence. "The Monstrous Soul" is a series of dark ambient environments sounding like some Lovecraftian haunted forest ready to send its trees tumbling on top of any trespassers. Ominous tectonic plods, loops of Crowley's incantations, and samples pronouncing the intention of demonic possession are interspersed between the dark ambient passages rich in deep reverberations. A perfect bridge between the avant black-metal of Skepticism and the dadaist dirges of early Current 93.

Curious that we hadn't reviewed Lustmord's impressive 1994 album The Place Where The Black Stars Hang until now. One reason for that is that this is one of those records that has slipped in and out of print over the years; but thankfully Soleilmoon has just released this remastered version of the dark ambient classic. Brian "Lustmord" Williams began his musical career in the late '70s as a member of SPK, whose early Industrial albums set a very high standard for aggressive electronics, shock tactics, and raw aggression, definite sonic inspiration for current darlings such as Wolf Eyes and Prurient although those groups have never quite surpassed the original. While Williams and SPK's frontman Graeme Revell have remained close friends and occasional partners for Hollywood sound design projects, Williams struck out on his own in the early '90s as Lustmord, taking SPK's psychoacoustic intensity, noise, and ill-temper with him. While the early Lustmord records have the finger on the SPK template, Williams really made his first big impact with 1990's Heresy -- an overwhelmingly bleak album that literally fused the reverberations from catacombs and underground passages with a spectral ambience whose influence can be felt from the acoustically inclined realms of sound art to the infernal expressionism of black metal. While the follow up album to Heresy (The Monstrous Soul) pushed further toward the occult and horrific with incredible panache, it never received the universal acclaim that Heresy did; but The Place Where The Black Stars is the other verifiable masterpiece in his catalogue of recordings. Taking poetic license from the astrophysical studies of black holes as well as from archaic solar cults, Williams has crafted an electronic album that is as nightmarishly bleak as it is Wagnerian in scope. Long passages of irradiated dark matter stream into eternal drones reflecting the vastness of empty space; and subdued half-melodies and siren-song chantings slowly churn into ever deepening rumbles and the blackest of ambient drift. Absolutely essential.

MPEG stream: Aldebaran Of The Hyades
MPEG stream: Metastatic Resonance

The Word As Power is the first Lustmord record to incorporate the human voice with such prominence. Sure, Brian Williams - dark lord of ambient music behind the Lustmord project - has used vocal samples and disembodied screams to punctuate his cavernous drones and atmospheric horror in the past; but here on The Word As Power, he's crafted an entire album around the eerie ululations, glissandos, vibrato, and harmonic vocalizations from a handful of vocalists, none of whom fortunately utter a single recognizable lyric. Instead, these vocalists offer their talents as a secular (or Satanic, given Lustmord's alignment with the dark arts) form of sacred music. The hybridization of wordless vocalizations and dark ambient music is nothing new, as it's a common trope within Hollywood filmscores to combine the two in the sound design for anything mystically exotic and / or darkly enigmatic. Lustmord's production sensibility is as impeccable as ever, with a judicious use of reverb dripping over the vocals, which hover above ghostly shadows and echos with subharmonic drones and leviathan rhythmic plods interspersed throughout. Lustmord has employed the talents of four vocalists - the most prominently featured one being the hitherto unknown Aina Skinnes Olsen, who does have pipes akin to Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. The Butoh-trained vocalist Soriah offers his thrumming throat singing, Jarboe provides the best work she's done since the World Of Skin albums from back in the late '80s as a Swans side project, and Maynard Keenan of Tool pulls out some impressive Gregorian chanting for Lustmord's blackened ambience. We have to admit being very skeptical of this record before hearing it, but it turns out to be much better than we could have ever thought.

MPEG stream: Babel
MPEG stream: Chorazin
MPEG stream: Abaddon

Lustmord began in the early '80s, when Brian Williams was a member of the seminal Industrial ensemble SPK. The first Lustmord records followed suit from SPK's brutish dark noise with rhythmic underpinnings; however, the Lustmord aesthetic was fully realized in 1990 with Heresy. This has long been one of the best examples of dark ambient composition with plenty of occultish references and absolutely terrifying soundscaping. The two albums that came afterward - The Monstrous Soul and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang - formed something of an ersatz trilogy of essential Lustmord recordings. The initial ideas behind these albums were a bridge between psychoacoustic research and the metaphors of horror, definitely in keeping with the Industrial roots which spawned Coil and Psychic TV. But in recent years, Lustmord has been a huge influence upon the ambient sides of metal - black, doom, or otherwise. So, Hydra Head has now commissioned their second album from Lustmord in [Other]. This is a much better record than the previous album on Hydra Head, although the things that work for [Other] have been the staple in Lustmord's productions past -- murmuring rumbles of blackened energy, downpitched Tibetan horns blasted through catacomb reverb, and slashed noises cast in shadow. Like on Juggernaut, Lustmord augments his nightmarish sound design with guests and their guitars. Lustmord revisits one of the problematic tracks from Juggernaut which found King Buzzo from the Melvins chugging out a downtuned riff, and which sat somewhat flatly against an ocean of dark drones. Where this track fails, the collaborations with Aaron Turner are pretty damn awesome, with some slow-motion desolate notes reflecting a similar vibe found on the recent Earth albums (i.e. Hex and The Bees Made Honey). A little uneven, but when this is good, [Other] is really good.

MPEG stream: Testament
MPEG stream: Godeater
MPEG stream: Er Ub Us

Two lengthy remixes of Lustmord tracks from the 2008 album [Other], one by Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) and the other by Lustmord himself. Neither of the sides on this limited 12" are labeled, so it's anybody's guess as to who's responsible for which side. There are dubby electronic breakbeats lacing the signature Lustmord dark ambience on both sides, and neither really give away much either. Both sides incorporate the doomy guitar riffs that were present on the Lustmord tracks, and actually tend to work pretty well with the rhythms, dub production, and dark dark dark ambience swirling about, pretty much sounding a lot like the classic Scorn sound from the mid '90s. We definitely dig!

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SORRY.

Not sure how it happened, but we've never listed any records by Ukrainian one man black metal horde Lutomysl. Even though most of the black metal folks, ourselves included, are WAY into Lutomysl's furious black metal buzz. So let's remedy that shall we... Sonically similar to many of his countrymen, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum (of which he was once a member), Astrofaes, Blood Of Kingu... etc. Lutomysl spews raw blasting grim Ukrainian black metal of the sort we never seem to tire of, buzzing chainsaw guitars, blasting double kick beats, harsh vokills that go from weird and mysterious clean singing to full on suicidal shriek, and a surprising amount of dynamics, lots of twisted convoluted transitions, strange off kilter rhythms, all wound up into the otherwise seemingly straight ahead grim blackness. But like other Ukrainian BM, there is also plenty of melody, even at its harshest and most frenzied, the riffs are catchy, and often unravel into something almost folky before exploding back in a furious onslaught of buzz and howl. The songs are peppered with distinctly un-black metal breaks, giving the songs a seriously avant / progressive vibe here and there, which nicely balances the relentless lightning fast drone drenched buzz that constitutes the core of Lutomysl's sound. There's also plenty of bass, or at least low end, which as we've discussed before is rare in black metal, and probably goes a long way to making this record sound so thick and heavy. Grim and kvlt and necro, and just weird enough to keep it interesting, essential for fans of all things black and Ukrainian, and heck, probably pretty worthwhile if you just need a buzzing black soul crushing blast of sonic fury.

MPEG stream: Thou Shalt Shine!
MPEG stream: The Blade Of Reality
MPEG stream: Peace Is Not Found (Ode To Lucifer)

It's been ages since we reviewed anything from this one man Ukranian black metal horde, in fact we only ever listed his 2008 album De Profundis, but that record was a huge hit with the black metalheads around here, combining raw, blasting blackness, with some insane over the top suicidal shrieking vokills, and 5 years, later, on full length number eight (!) very little has changed, if anything the music has gotten tighter and more polished, still furious and frenzied, blasting, buzzing and epic, but much less harsh, which means folks into raw primitivism and TROO old school blackness might be a little put off, but as far as we're concerned, the sound here is killer, the riffing fierce and fast, the drums pounding, the production making all the sounds clear, without losing any of the sound's heft or heaviness, the arrangements epic and intricate, with some weird mathiness, occasional woozy doominess, even some sweeping midtempo epicry, but for the most part, the sound is frantic and furious. The sound is ALSO super melodic, at times almost surprisingly so, like minus the vocals, it could be a whole different sonic beast (check out "Don't Put Out!"!), and those vocals, still a weird shrieky almost falsetto, definitely a love 'em or hate 'em element, one that we of course totally love, and it's really what gives the songs, even, and maybe especially, at their most melodic, a sort of unhinged maniacal vibe, which helps balance the more polished super melodic sound. Needless to say, fans of past records will definitely dig, but if you're looking for some melodic super fast black buzz, or just love Ukranian BM bands like Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Astrofaes, Lucifigum (of which Mr. Lutomysl was once a member!) and Blood Of Kingu, this might just hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Behind The Mask
MPEG stream: Don't Put Out!
MPEG stream: Confession

The Rise Above Relics label's first two releases -- Possessed and Luv Machine -- are bound to intrigue all fans of obscure, early '70s psych/prog heaviness...we know there's a few of you reading this! And both of these albums were recorded in the magical, mystical year of 1971 that we (well, Allan) is always going on about. The band at hand, Luv Machine, were originally from Barbados, but took their groovy psych-pop hard rock to the UK to try to make it big, revamping the lineup in the process with the addition of a few British musicians replacing members who got homesick for the West Indies. Definitely influenced by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and sounding to us a bit like another obscure band of the era, The Next Morning (who also hailed from the Caribbean, by way of NYC instead of the UK), they're certainly a fun listen. Not terribly heavy at all, really, but still pretty cool -- cool enough that they became pals with The Sweet, who took 'em on tour to Italy! Yes indeed, a quite funky lil' band with plenty of fuzz guitar crunch and a sunny disposition. There's a few weak cuts, some stuff that just seems a bit "off", but then again that might be intentional weirdness (like the crazy sped-up tape manipulation that occurs at the end of "Maybe Tomorrow", for instance, and the more Jimi than Jimi styled vocals at times). Mostly though this is soulful and psychedelically quirky, a foot-tapping good time, dated but delightful. Imagine if you can a blend of Shocking Blue and the Band Of Gypsies... This slipcased reissue includes all the tracks from their collector-coveted 1971 album (which boasted some "tasteless", "pornographic" cover art, not used by Rise Above Relics but fortunately at least reproduced inside the thick, heavily text and illustration laden cd booklet), plus six previously unreleased cuts. NB. the track "Reminiscing" was written by Vernon Pereira of Possessed, and was recorded by that band on their album Exploration.

MPEG stream: Witches Wand
MPEG stream: Everything

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SORRY. Hey Rondelles fans. Check this out! More pop from Albuquerque. Boundless bounce and fun. Music for the highschool science or math class geek in all of us.

This is volume three in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. This volume features the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, and not to be confused with our own Leviathan. LVTHN just so happens to be the black ambient ritualistic alter ego of one Gaendaal from the band Wraiths, whose Paradigms disc we reviewed recently, and if you dug the Wraiths disc, you'll for sure want to check this out. This is gorgeously bleak and mysteriously abstract, an ambient world of strange sonic events and ominous drones. Inspired by the Dunwich Horror, Sentinel Hill is one long, slow crawl through the blackest of terrors, distant tolling bells, crumbling wastelands of blood drenched hills and drone drenched swells, rhythms are muted pulses, layer after layer of black sonic gauze is wrapped in billowing clouds around every sound no matter how slight, disembodied vocals and clanging metal are smeared into still more layers of blackness. Truly dark and dense and harrowing. Another perfect sonic tribute to the master. Each disc includes a full color booklet as well as an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.

MPEG stream: track 1 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: track 1 (excerpt 2)

It has to be said this is not the Lycia record that we would have picked get reissued on vinyl; but it is very interesting that the highly acclaimed label Handmade Birds has dug into the back catalogue of the dour doom-goth-pop outfit Lycia to publish their first ever vinyl release. Lycia was probably the best known band on the US goth label Projekt, originally a one-man project from Mike VanPortfleet which expanded to a trio with the addition of Tara Vanflower and David Galas by the mid-'90s. But the vision for Lycia was always that of VanPortfleet, through his funereally paced dirges draped with suffocating amounts of reverb, whispered vocals, and his signature, effect-laden guitar work. Cold was the band's fourth studio album dating to 1996, but was the only proper album that found that trio working in the studio together. The albums before didn't feature Vanflower, and the albums after didn't feature Galas. The chemistry between the three does make for a very consistent record, and that was something lacking even from Lycia's strongest album A Day In The Stark Corner which came out a few years earlier. The tracks uniformly float at a ghostly pace, occasionally swooning in step to a forgotten Victorian waltz, with Vanflower's ethereal vocals countering the whispered baritone of VanPortfleet. As is the case for all of Lycia's albums, they managed to craft a strongly recognizable sound that nonetheless draws heavily from the somber atmospheres of New Order's first album, the claustrophobia of The Cure's Pornography, and the black-trenchcoat theatricality of Fields Of The Nephilim.

MPEG stream: Frozen
MPEG stream: Bare
MPEG stream: Snowdrop
MPEG stream: December

Local cavern-dwelling dooooooomsters Lycus are back with their second full-length, although, for whatever reason we missed the boat and never reviewed that one (though we do have a couple copies in stock)! We did, however, review the wonderful Flenser reissue of the demo, which we called a "glacial, downtuned slab of ultra-doom bliss". That's pretty spot on - Lycus revel in the the fundamentals of funeral doom with an eye always towards the sun-drenched bliss and melodic power of the forefathers of the genre - Asunder, Shape Of Despair, etc. They also have no problem breaking into all out blast-beat ferocity when necessary, am element severely lacking in many current wannabe doooom bands. Chasms is, without question, Lycus' most compelling, haunting, and meditative record yet. Lycus, along with Vastum, Dispirit, Pale Chalice, and a whole bunch of others, are keeping Bay Area metal alive and powerful.

MPEG stream: Solar Chamber
MPEG stream: Mirage

One of two new releases on local label The Flenser, the other being the latest full length lp from LA black metallers Lake Of Blood (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and this one, the first demo from Oakland funeral doom band Lycus, who existed briefly years ago in Sacramento, but reshuffled their lineup and relocated to the East Bay, and finally released their first record, and it's a doozy. A gorgeous sonically lugubrious crawl, glacial and downtuned, the sort of sludgey ultra-doom bliss that should hit the spot for folks into Skepticism, dISEMBOWELMENT and the like. And like those bands, there's a huge melodic component, this is not the sort of slow motion tuneless ultrasludge (which we also dig!), this is like classic doom, slowed waaaaaay down, there's even some groove, a little Sabbathy swing, but it's subtle, the band creeping and lumbering for the most part, but with a surprising amount of complexity, in the arrangement, the melodies, the drumming quite busy for music this slow, and the riffing active, with all manner of intertwined melodies and churning riffage. The sound slipping from classic metal to funereal dirge and back again, often letting the two bleed into each other, the resulting hybrid, impossibly catchy, heavy, and doomy all at the same time. In fact, when we were playing this in the store, it got Allan to come investigate, he being notoriously finicky about his doom, but it's that sort of sound, grim and slow and murky and dirgey enough to appeal to the doomlords, but melodic and subtly poppy enough to immediately stick in your head, rare is the sort of doom that is actually catchy, and catchy without losing any of its dark energy and blackened heft. The band also mix the typical doom vocal gurgle with clean vocals, monklike chants in places, but that dramatic croon just adds another element, not just melodic but also textural. There are even some strange melodies that sound almost like horns in one track, and the band also don't hesitate to explode into blast of furious black metal crush, but when they do, it's only briefly, then it's right back to that loping, lumbering impossibly catchy, melodic downtuned churn.

MPEG stream: Resonance In Aether
MPEG stream: Among The Ruins

Len Lye was a staple of the 50's and 60's art scene in Greenwich Village and a leading figure in the burgeoning field of kinetic art. He designed and built a series of large scale metal sculptures that not only moved, but also created sound. Just to look at, the sculptures are breathtaking, very sleek and modern, simple and stunning, large sheets of steel, strange little metallic antennae, long twisted metal strips, all hanging or spinning or vibrating. Like some alien machines, whose function can not be discerned. So mysterious and lovely. This disc is the first time the sounds of Lye's sculptures have been recorded and released commercially. And they are just as haunting and beautiful as the strange pieces of metal that produced them. The sounds are quite varied, depending on the piece, from reverberating pulses, like a struck spring, whirring metallic drones, the overtones shifting in pitch as the metal bends and twists, warm subterranean whirs, musicbox like melodies, simple subtle chimes, clattery clang and crash, subtle almost industrial rhythms, like a sprinkler or the blades on a helicopter, scraping metallic soundscapes, like a million little metal bugs rustling alongside one another, and then there's some full on spaced out swirl and hiss and shimmer like wires whipping in the wind, which sounds like Merzbow or Total, way too dense and weird to be the work of nothing but a big piece of metal, but it is. Magical, mysterious and pretty darn amazing.Ô Comes with a big book of linernotes, text about the performances / recordings as well as lovely photos of each of Lye's sculptures.

MPEG stream: Blade
MPEG stream: Universe
MPEG stream: Roundhead

We've been trying to get enough of these to list for a while now. Our friend Drewcifer swore up and down that when he heard this he knew we (and you, the AQ customers) would love it. And man, was he right. Lykathea Aflame is another band from the Czech Republic (following AQ faves Root among others) and they are pretty difficult to describe. They are definitely metal. And they are definitely grindcore at points. But it's the way they put it all together and what they do with it. The record starts with crazy double kick drums and guitars playing ominous Eastern melodies, while every couple of measures a furious blast beat interrupts, and it becomes this sort of triumphant march, almost like a metal theme to Star Wars or something. And this continues over the course of the record, with LA flitting back and forth between, totally melodic metal, crushing monochromatic grind, weird gothy bits with bellowed male vocals, to almost classical interludes. But they always return to the blast. Half tempo grinding riffage, then blast, a melodic seasick waltz, then blast, an almost ballady bit with acoustic guitar and a stick-in-your-head melody, then back to the blast. Everyone we've played this for has freaked out and LOVED it. Listen to the sound samples, they say more than I ever could.

RealAudio clip: Land Where Sympathy Is Air
RealAudio clip: To Become Shelter And Salvation

Another aQ New Arrivals List, and another Time Released Sound offering! It's kind of crazy that TRS are now on their 55th release! And even more amazing, is the level of quality they've sustained since day one, both in the music, and the elaborate packaging. It's been nearly impossible to keep up with their relentless release schedule, and to collect all the releases, but it remains pretty fun to try. Mirror Lands is the first we've heard from the Scottish duo of Mark Lyken and Emma Dove, and we weren't sure what to expect, considering the opening track is what sounds like a field recording of a construction site. Voices, the clank of metal on metal, engines revving, and no music whatsoever. But then on the second track, it's all delicate piano, subtly processed into shimmery contrails of sound, a haunting chamber music, very cinematic, hushed and ethereal, quite beautiful for sure, and very subtle, headphones definitely recommended. And right when we thought we had the sound pinned down, in swoops something completely different, the piano twisted and mangled, stretched and smeared, into a fractured field of glitches, and wound around still more field recordings, a twisted sonic menagerie, that gradually works its way back around to the pretty piano from the beginning of the track. The rest of Mirror Lands offers variations on those themes, tending toward the lowercase, the whispery, the crystalline, piano being the main vehicle, but just as often as the notes are allowed to drift and shimmer, they're muted and mumbled, blurred and broken, there are more stretches of seemingly unadulterated field recordings, and of course, moments where those elements bleed beautifully into one another. There's the occasional near-noise crescendo, and the once-in-a-while electronic skitter, but for the most part, it's a darkly delicate landscape of haunted melodies, and lush, atmospheric sound design, a minimal soundworld that evokes all of the mysterious that lay beyond, and within. Like all Time Released Sound releases, there are two versions, a deluxe and a standard. This time, the over the top deluxe version is limited to just 65 copies, and is housed in a vintage reel-to-reel tape box, double banded with two Japanese style obis, and is covered with vintage prints of the Scottish Highlands, antique maps, pages from 100 year old travel books and more. Also includes hand printed and stamped inserts as well as a link to a private viewing of a Mirror Lands film! There's also a standard version, only slightly less limited (only 100 made).

MPEG stream: Fishing For Rigs Part I
MPEG stream: Hills Strewn With Ribbons
MPEG stream: Douglas

MPEG stream: Fishing For Rigs Part I
MPEG stream: Hills Strewn With Ribbons
MPEG stream: Douglas

Watts Writers Workshop poet Curtis K. Lyle reads his compelling and at some points risque Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson, while Julius Hemphill provides flute back-up and some furious sax improv. This is pretty cool and interesting black consciousness spoken word which sets a precedent for hip-hop; unfortunately, at this point in history all that flute conjures images of watered-down media versions of beatnik espresso jams. Not as bad-ass as Gil Scott-heron, but worth a look for anyone interested in spoken word or African-American poetry. 1 2 [/archives/148p2.html] » [/archives/148p2.html]

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Bay Area's The Lymbic System bring us instrumental indie post-rock pop with a jazzy lean, a la Tortoise. That said, their ep Carved By Glaciers maintains a looser and slightly edgier sound, thus keeping a safe distance from truly formal post-rock constructions. Low frequency distortion, hints of a Moog-y synth, a Wurlitzer, layers of electronic melody and many incredibly delicate moments form these songs within a generous spatial structure. Very nice guys! May we have another?

MPEG stream: Lotan Baba
MPEG stream: Carved By Glaciers

No one is scary and sexy like David Lynch. Of course, this IS David Lynch, so the phrase "scary and sexy" includes images of some weird dude just standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his dog a la Blue Velvet, more than a bit of violence, and possibly rabbits. Music and sound production have always played large roles in Lynch's movies, from the squirrel-cheeked cabaret number in Eraserhead to Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive, and for much of that span, Angelo Badalamenti has been the primary musical composer and performer. As much as Badalamenti's beautiful piano work is missed, Crazy Clown Time definitely holds its own among the ranks of Lynch's oeuvre: accessible on the surface, but pretty fucking weird when you dig into it a bit. Lynch follows two basic themes for much of the record: reverb-laden, stark guitar-driven pieces similar in vein to his work in Thought Gang (on the Twin Peaks soundtrack) or the Mullholland Drive soundtrack, and lusher, sometimes faster electronic tracks. The production on the entire record is phenomenal. The lows rumble and the white noise really crackles and everything has this great washiness that doesn't so much blur clarity as it does add depth. "Pinky's Dream", featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, opens the record. Vague imagery of potential car crashes and open mouths is conveyed through Karen O's sexy delivery. The rest of the tracks feature David Lynch himself doing the vocals, sometimes more effectively than others. He doesn't have the greatest voice, but he plays this limitation off well through various effects and by not taking himself too seriously as a singer. Numerous parallels can be drawn between Crazy Clown Time and Crispin Glover's record The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution, the Solution = Let It Be, and not just because they are both records done by Hollywood types of the weirder variety. They both feature clowns (Lynch's title track and Glover's single Clowny Clown Clown). Their vocal deliveries are sometimes uncannily similar, although at times Lynch also sounds a bit like Alan Bishop performing as Alvarius B at other times remarkably like Sparklehorse, both music AND vocals. Both Lynch and Glover like to have a lot of sex and like to write songs about it. Both records also incorporate spoken word. The longest track on Crazy Clown Time ("Strange and Unproductive Thinking", running at seven and a half minutes) is basically a lecture about transcendental meditation given by David Lynch-as-a-computer. At first maybe a bit jarring, the song is actually totally hypnotic in its stream-of-consciousness. Where Glover is overt in his self-deprecation, however, Lynch's humor is more complex and subtle, and overall, Crazy Clown Time commands more respect from its listener. This record in no way comes off as a vanity project. It is a well-conceived, well-executed piece of art. FYI, regarding the vinyl version: download card? Yes!

MPEG stream: Pinky's Dream
MPEG stream: Good Day Today
MPEG stream: Football Game
MPEG stream: Strange And Unproductive Thinking

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Sacred Bones, who brought us (briefly!) the all too limited Eraserhead soundtrack vinyl reissue, now present the latest musical endeavor from the eccentric auteur himself, David Lynch. As a follow-up to 2011's Crazy Clown Time, this is again, OF COURSE, still fairly weird, but also somewhat more accessible, Tom Waits-y pop music, with Lynch singing/speaking lyrics that only he could dream up, in his distinctive drawl, sounding a bit like a nasal George W. Bush, or the guy from Jon Wayne (the band). The music, a sort of slow-motion, almost dubby electronica meets rockabilly, is less surreal than on Crazy Clown Time, and the lyrics are less -overtly- surreal as well - there's no "Rotting Teeth" this time around. Maybe the weirdest thing is hearing Lynch do a cover of Dylan's doomy "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown". Yet how, dare we say, PLEASANT this is is maybe even more disturbing, 'cause you know being by Lynch it's still creepy at heart. Vinyl version includes a bonus 7".

MPEG stream: Star Dream Girl
MPEG stream: Last Call
MPEG stream: The Ballad Of Hollis Brown

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

SORRY. Totally essential for lovers of film, coffee, absurdity, vomit, or pretty much anyone who wants to enter the mind of a truly unique American artist.

The vinyl version on Sacred Bones of this classic David Lynch movie soundtrack is long gone, but now they've put out a new cd version, complete with the bonus tracks from the 7" that came with that vinyl edition. So here's what we said before, more or less... Before we get to the actual music though, it's probably best to come clean, and admit that the person writing this review (as well as at least a couple other people at aQ) has NEVER actually seen Eraserhead! A travesty we know, not sure how we managed to make it this far without seeing it, we always meant to, and we WILL, especially now that we've gotten an earful of this amazing soundtrack. Much more abstract and noisy, droney and minimal than we expected. The first few minutes, all blurred noise, and rumbling low end, a smeary bit of ambient drift that sounds like Organum or Lustmord. Sinister and a bit harrowing, eventually all sorts of subtle sounds enter the mix, distant calliope melodies, like from a carousel way off in the distance, fog horns, all smeared into the smudged grey thrum that oozes across side one. Eventually, that low end is dialed back, leaving more of that mysterious organ music, this time wreathed in an insectoid hum, like a sky full of crickets, laced with Raster Noton like glitches and clicks, having not seen the movie, but being of course familiar with much of the iconic imagery, these sounds seem like the perfect sonic accompaniment, the score is peppered with strange dialog, and swirling hissy swooshes, sinister swells of blackened thrum, keening feedback, muted into minimal melodies, the sound noisy and industrial, and almost like some weird field recording flecked experimental drone record you might hear on Type or Blackest Rainbow, all wreathed in a sort of otherworldly hazy, which gives the whole thing a creepy, darkly psychedelic vibe. The "Side 2" track begins with what sounds like a field recording of a couple in bed, creaking springs, rustling covers, which is soon swallowed up by a huge wheezing wall of atonal chords and layered tones, all draped over the sounds of choking, driven by a strange percussive pound. A long stretch of hiss and hum, gives way to haunting church organ, then cavernous rumbles, the whole second half of the soundtrack a wild, noisy chaotic collage of dense drones and crumbling noise, of whirling wind and fractured melodies, lots of buzz and crunch, creak and howl, it sounds less like a soundtrack and more like some lost record by Nurse With Wound, or Psychic TV or Throbbing Gristle. Super rad, and even removed from the visuals, this is a killer slab of lo-fi musique concrete, abstract free form noise and post industrial dronescaping. The first of the bonus cuts is "In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)", which is some gorgeously creepy organ driven balladry, with woozy falsetto vox and lots of warble and buzz; it sounds a little bit like a dronier, doomier Daniel Johnston. Bonus track number two, unreleased until its appearance on the aforementioned 7", is "Pete's Boogie", which is anything but a boogie, instead it sounds like it oozed right off the soundtrack, all buried organ melodies, hissing shimmer, and wheezing looped rumbles, creepy and haunting and seriously freaky. Which pretty much describes the whole soundtrack, and yeah, we know, the whole movie as well. This new cd version comes in a handsome gatefold sleeve, and includes a thick booklet too.

MPEG stream: Side 1
MPEG stream: Side 2

We've been trying to get these for ages now, a super deluxe, extravagantly packaged lp+7" reissue of the soundtrack to David Lynch's Eraserhead. They came, and went, and now it's apparently been repressed, but those are going fast too, limited to 1000 copies. We managed to get just ten, and aren't sure our supplier has any more now. So, if you want one, grab one quick before they're gone. Before we get to the actual music though, it's probably best to come clean, and admit that the person writing this review (as well as at least a couple other people at aQ) has NEVER actually seen Eraserhead! A travesty we know, not sure how we managed to make it this far without seeing it, we always meant to, and we WILL, especially now that we've gotten an earful of this amazing soundtrack. Much more abstract and noisy, droney and minimal than we expected. The first few minutes, all blurred noise, and rumbling low end, a smeary bit of ambient drift that sounds like Organum or Lustmord. Sinister and a bit harrowing, eventually all sorts of subtle sounds enter the mix, distant calliope melodies, like from a carousel way off in the distance, fog horns, all smeared into the smudged grey thrum that oozes across side one. Eventually, that low end is dialed back, leaving more of that mysterious organ music, this time wreathed in an insectoid hum, like a sky full of crickets, laced with Raster Noton like glitches and clicks, having not seen the movie, but being of course familiar with much of the iconic imagery, these sounds seem like the perfect sonic accompaniment, the score is peppered with strange dialog, and swirling hissy swooshes, sinister swells of blackened thrum, keening feedback, muted into minimal melodies, the sound noisy and industrial, and almost like some weird field recording flecked experimental drone record you might hear on Type or Blackest Rainbow, all wreathed in a sort of otherworldly hazy, which gives the whole thing a creepy, darkly psychedelic vibe. The flipside begins with what sounds like a field recording of a couple in bed, creaking springs, rustling covers, which is soon swallowed up by a huge wheezing wall of atonal chords and layered tones, all draped over the sounds of choking, driven by a strange percussive pound. A long stretch of hiss and hum, gives way to haunting church organ, then cavernous rumbles, the whole second half of the soundtrack a wild, noisy chaotic collage of dense drones and crumbling noise, of whirling wind and fractured melodies, lots of buzz and crunch, creak and howl, it sounds less like a soundtrack and more like some lost record by Nurse With Wound, or Psychic TV or Throbbing Gristle. Super rad, and even removed from the visuals, this is a killer slab of lo-fi musique concrete, abstract free form noise and post industrial dronescaping. The bonus 7" features "In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)", which is some gorgeously creepy organ driven balladry, with woozy falsetto vox and lots of warble and buzz; it sounds a little bit like a dronier, doomier Daniel Johnston, and there's even a little note on the sleeve about how this specific track came to be. The B-side is a never before release bonus track called "Pete's Boogie", which is anything but a boogie, instead it sounds like it oozed right off the soundtrack, all buried organ melodies, hissing shimmer, and wheezing looped rumbles, creepy and haunting and seriously freaky. Which pretty much describes the whole soundtrack, and yeah, we know, the whole movie as well. The packaging is totally swank, with a thick black and white gatefold sleeve, the singe to housed in a heavy sleeve, both adorned with images from the film, inside a huge booklet with still more photos, as well as several photographic prints, AND a download code. Super awesome, and again SUPER LIMITED. This is probably your last chance to snag one of these at a somewhat reasonable price. As they say, buy now, or cry later.

MPEG stream: Side A (Excerpt)
MPEG stream: Side B (Excerpt)

Another gorgeous missive of warped hazy dream pop from the guy who is fast becoming a sort of figurehead for that scene, a scene that includes Ducktails, Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, not to mention the more rocking outfits like Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, Ty Segall, but Lynch has definitely struck out on his own, chucking the reverb and low-fidelity-for-low-fidelity's-sake for something much more melodic and heartfelt, a soft focus classic pop that is as much about song as sound, and which definitely looks to groups like The Kinks, the Bee Gees, the Zombies, and other classic pop combos, but manages to infuse that sound with some of the fuzzy warble that the kids seem to dig so much. These two songs are no exception, "Droplet On A Hot Stone", is a loping, fuzzy, heart-on-the-sleeve pop gem, lots of fuzzy keyboards, lush vocals, simple spare drumming, jangly guitar, some crunchy buzzy psychedelic melodies, all wreathed in a gauzy sun dappled production. "Nen Vole" dips back into a little bit of the tropical summer flavor that was such a big part of Lynch's former outfit Ducktails, it's the lo-fi pop equivalent of mint juleps on the lawn, a lazy hazy summer afternoon pop drift, acoustic guitars, and still more wheezing keyboards. It almost sounds like Ween, if they were less jokey and more serious about crafting perfect pop. So nice. And both songs were originally recorded for a full length called Born2Run, which was never released, but is included as a bonus cd-r here, with both the tracks from the 7", but also the rest of that unreleased record, all of which is just as nice, woozy, washed out, fuzzy, softly psychedelic, a little bit tropical, a lot summery and sunshiney, jangly and dreamily warped. And other tracks are definitely more warped than the single's tracks, mostly instrumental, with lots of tripped out production, a sort of Joe Meek meets The Beach Boys vibe, heavy on the experiments, but even the experiments end up being dreamy and hooky and gorgeously mesmerizing. WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: Droplet On A Hot Stone

Full length number two from Lynch, the latest super hyped phenom in the ever expanding world of warped and warbly, garage pop, and for good reason, after having been a sideman for tropical folk bliss outfit Ducktails, Lynch has really come into his own as quite a crafter of dreamy lysergic folk pop, slippery woozy acoustic guitars drifting through starry fields of undulating shimmer, his sound both stripped down and spare, lush and lysergic, trafficking in similar sounds as Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, a sort of retro pop re-envisioned, but Lynch doesn't douse everything in reverb, or wrap sounds in damaged FM radio detritus, instead he weaves intimate hushed pop songs, lacing them with subtle psychedelia, abstract spaceiness, his vocals a soft falsetto, drifting over minimal muted drumming, folky acoustic guitar strum, buried wah guitar warble, dreamy druggy laid back basslines, fluttering flutes, tinkling chimes, twisted fuzzy synths, the vibe abstract and ramshackle, a bit dubby here and there, a little new wave-y in places, but for the most part, Lynch weaves lush little stretches of hazy dreamy folk pop, his vocals ethereal and angelic, making everything sound wistful and heartfelt. There is at least one moment of rambunctious rocking: "Ears" features big drums, some tangled incendiary psych rock leads, some freaked out damaged squalls of guitar noise, but even then, it's super melodic and poppy. Just a subtle variation in the sweetly serene folky fabric of the rest of Mare. Which keeps it from sounding like just another in the seemingly endless stream of homebrewed bedroom garage pop records, and transforms it into something much more timeless and classic sounding, a sort of sweetly twisted modern folk flecked soft rock, so good! Comes with an mp3 download card as well...

Latest from this hazy psychedelic dreampopper, and a bit of a left turn for sure, as these tracks are original instrumental compositions created as the score to a film, the music here borrowing heavily from classic Indonesian music, as well as incorporating some serious classic free jazz as well, the opening track alone should be enough to convince you that this is not a normal Lynch record. The gamelan rhythms, the moaning horns, the looped cyclical arrangements, the label mentions that all of these elements are woven into Lynch's bedroom psych, and there is in fact a little of that that finds its way into each of these tracks, the production is a bit fuzzy, there's one track with some cool wah wah effects, but the psych element definitely takes a backseat, letting the distinctive rhythms and melancholy melodies drive these songs, they are pretty fantastic, even removed from the visuals, some seriously cool and mysterious, Indonesian influenced free jazz gamelan psychedelia. Nice! Comes with a download code.

MPEG stream: Natalie Barney's Salon
MPEG stream: Temple Dance

First full length (as far as we know) from this sometimes Ducktails collaborator, who seems to be making his move lately for some solo recognition, and he's bound to get it, occupying as he does a sonic station similar to Ariel Pink, Gary Way, John Maus, Ducktails (obviously) and that whole new breed of warped lo-fi sunshiney downer pop. Thankfully, Lynch brings his own take on THAT sound, creating something much more washed out and abstract and haunting, with sorrowful vocals, throbbing Joy Division-y basslines, gnarled super effected wah wah psych guitar, and of course, LOADS of murky haze. The vocals tend toward a delicate falsetto, often hovering over whirring synths, warbly organs, skittery drums and almost always some crazy weirdly wild and almost unhinged sounding guitar squalls. A seriously strange mix of hushed jangle balladry and wild psych freakout. There's also some strange electronics, a little drum machine, some distinctly new wave stretches, even some tropical sounding calypso moments that betray his Ducktails past, and of course plenty of abstract tweakery, but at its very core this is pop music, a bit fractured and fucked up for sure, but still plenty dreamy and drifty and divine.

Latest full length from one of our favorite purveyors of warped and warbly lo-fi lysergic garage pop, which had us a bit confused, as the first track starts off with some smoldering sexy sax, over some woozy almost funky sounding bass, sure there are some strange sounds swirling around, but we were definitely wary, until the song proper kicked in and we were back in more familiar territory, laid back acoustic guitar strum, warm whirling atmosphere, and some sweetly crooned, softly reverbed vox, the only remnant from that intro, the loping bassline, there's harmonica too, it's a strange jam, all laid back and wistfully woozy, but it's definitely not that far removed from past Lynch outings. The second track is pretty laid back too, super slowed down, the guitars warbly and spidery, the vocals a lovely falsetto, a dark, woozy dreampop ballad for sure, but we're getting the idea, that maybe this is a different kind of record for Lynch, which is definitely confirmed by the next track, after a big crashing open chord, the songs lips into something much more mellow, minimal muted percussion, reverbed piano, a sort of smokey lo-fi ballad, rife with some extra percussion, little bits of oddness here and there, but for the most part, still more mellow gold. It's not until "Canopy", 4 songs in, that the sound is cranked up a little, with distorted drums, slithery bass, a blown out production, but even here, it's far from raucous, in fact, the sax returns, adding some smoky smolder to the proceedings, somehow managing to avoid sounding cheesy. In fact the sax is all over the second half of the record, as well as what sounds like some other horns, lots of acoustic guitar jangle, some psychedelic buzz swirled in, but again, all washed out, dreamy, laid back and mellow. If the other Lynch records were to get the party started (already a mellow party by most standards), then Terra is to bring it down, as the last guests trickle out, the fire begins to flicker, the sky begins to glow with the impending dawn, this is the sort of long night, bleary, dreamy drugpop that sets the mood. Or at least it's the soundtrack to those last few minutes before you drift off. Nice.

MPEG stream: Terra
MPEG stream: Clay Horses
MPEG stream: Fort Collins

For the life of us, we can not understand why this record didn't become a huge hit when it came out originally in 1968. It always seems so arbitrary as far as to which artists or records get hugely popular and which fall through the cracks into obscurity. Luckily, Water knew what was what, and is giving this true soul classic another shot! Barbara Lynn possessed not only one of those totally melty soulful voices, but she was also quite an accomplished (left-handed) guitar player. Bittersweet and heart wrenching, Lynn's voice just nails every emotion and conveys so much passion and pathos, we're reminded a lot of Irma Thomas, and many of the more uptempo exquisitely crafted tracks here make us think of The Supremes as well. And heck, somewhere between Irma Thomas and The Supremes is a pretty damn great place to be, and Here is Barbara Lynn is a damn great record. Any fan of the golden age of soul absolutely needs this as it's given our ears such a great and lasting ride. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Take Your Love And Run
MPEG stream: I'll Suffer
MPEG stream: Sure Is Worth It

At 83 years old, Loretta Lynn is still on top of her game! A dozen years have passed since her last album, the wonderful Van Lear Rose which she recorded with Jack White. This time, going "Full Circle" she connects with and embraces her roots, re-visiting her back catalog, doing re-workings of many of her classic songs as well as penning new tunes. With her daughter and John Carter Cash (you can guess who his parents were) as co-producers of this outing, the warmth and intimacy of those family bonds can surely be heard in these 13 songs, which radiate with such a refined and classic country glow. Nothing better then getting to hear a legend continue to show that they still got it, and in fact this hasn't left rotation since we got it in the store. Forget about new records by Bonnie Prince Billy or M. Ward, this is the real, real deal. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Who's Gonna Miss Me?
MPEG stream: Wine Into Water
MPEG stream: Fist City

Hot damn, does Meg White have reason to be jealous?! This is Loretta Lynn's first album in four years (we're not quite sure exactly what number it is in her discography... we lost count around fifty!), and it's got huge Lynn fan Jack White of The White Stripes in the producer and arranger's seat. Their vocal duet "Portland Oregon" (which will surely draw truckloads of White Stripes worshipping Loretta Lynn neophytes to this album) is hardly this excellent album's highlight. On the other hand, White's gritty guitars are a perfect foil for Lynn's feisty singing on songs such as "Have Mercy". Some may think that some of this, if you listen close, actually sounds like White Stripes songwriting, but it's more likely a case of Lynn's formidable influence on White coming full circle. Regardless, Van Lear Rose is all about the singular wonder that is Loretta Lynn and White has done a fine job of ensuring just that. Her voice is in top notch form. Her range is absolutely smokin' whether she's breakin' honky tonk hearts or baring her own or simply givin' everyone what-for. Mid-album she fires thing up for the rousing gospel stomp of "High On A Mountain Top" and then takes it down a few notches for the spoken story-song "Little Red Shoes". Wonderful! A vibrant, rich, and organic album. All hail Loretta Lynn!

MPEG stream: Have Mercy
MPEG stream: High On A Mountain Top

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[ aquarius records catalogue — L ]