Attention Neko Case fans!!!
After a couple of tour drumming stints with her Vancouver pals Cub got her feet wet and got her music wheel spinning, Ms Case launched her own ass-kickin' girl trio with two other awesome ladies C.C. Hammond and Tobey Black. This was years before The Boyfriends! Hammond, Black and Case were originally known as Meow, but there was apparently another band who'd already laid claim to that moniker, so Maow it was! Kept their fans in stitches... no, not from their fierce kick-boxing skills but moreso from their hilarious rough'n'tumble stage banter and garb, unforgettable press photos, and blisteringly catchy garage pop tunes. Released in 1996 on Mint Records, The Unforgiving Sounds Of Maow was their only album, and a fleetingly short one at that - clocking in 14 songs in just over twenty minutes! A little bit country and a little bit rock'n'roll, but there ain't no chance of these naughty hellions being mistaken for Donny and Marie. You definitely don't wanna miss "Ms Lefevre"! Come and get it, fans and funseekers!
Psst, we've also just gotten in a few other new and new-to-us titles on this fine Vancouver indie label by The Awkward Stage, Buttless Chaps and Immaculate Machine!
From Zimbabwe.
Known as the Lion of Zimbabwe, Thomas Mapfuno is one of the most popular African musicians and next to Fela Kuti, one of the most politically outspoken. Leading a string of bands from the sixties to the eighties, Mapfumo is probably best known for creating and popularizing a form of African music called "Chimurenga" (meaning "struggle") that took its roots from the traditional rural Shona music of his upbringing but fusing it to Western rock instrumentation and styles. This mainly involved transcribing the sounds of the mbira to the electric guitar and singing in the Shona language instead of English. This also helped to disguise the inflammatory anti-government sentiments of his songs, but not for long. Wrongly imprisoned and his music banned from state controlled radio, the government couldn't stop his music being played in the discos and there was enough protest to warrant his eventual release. Having helped oust the government with the installation of free elections, Mapfumo helped Mugabe come to power only to later sing out against him and be forced to flee to America where he currently lives.
Hokoyo! (Watch Out!) from 1979, recorded with the Acid Band for this one time release, was Mapfumo's first outing musically and introduced the Chimurenga style after recording music for years influenced by Western pop music. It's also what made the government censor his music and throw him into the prison camps without charge. The Chimurenga vibe is definitely laid back, having more in common with Jamaican reggae than Kuti's Afro-funk extrapolations. Not as forceful as much political music can be, but like Brazil's Tropicalia movement, the power is in its popularity and giving the people their own voice!
Known as the Lion of Zimbabwe, Thomas Mapfuno is one of the most popular African musicians and next to Fela Kuti, one of the most politically outspoken. Leading a string of bands from the sixties to the eighties, Mapfumo is probably best known for creating and popularizing a form of African music called "Chimurenga" (meaning "struggle") that took its roots from the traditional rural Shona music of his upbringing but fusing it to Western rock instrumentation and styles. This mainly involved transcribing the sounds of the mbira to the electric guitar and singing in the Shona language instead of English. This also helped to disguise the inflammatory anti-government sentiments of his songs, but not for long. Wrongly imprisoned and his music banned from state controlled radio, the government couldn't stop his music being played in the discos and there was enough protest to warrant his eventual release. Having helped oust the government with the installation of free elections, Mapfumo helped Mugabe come to power only to later sing out against him and be forced to flee to America where he currently lives.
Gwindingwi Rine Shumba ("Lion In The Bush") from 1980 was released the same year that Free Elections took place and it's with the band that Mapfumo has remained with the longest. The first song "Shumba" is the stunner with a melancholy amplified mbira sound. The Chimurenga feel is definitely laid back, having more in common with Jamaican reggae than Kuti's Afro-funk extrapolations. Not as forceful as much political music can be, but like Brazil's Tropicalia movement, the power is in its popularity and giving the people their own voice!
We're really so excited to finally welcome local label Time Released Sound to the aQuarius family. We've yet to list anything, in part because their releases are so limited, but also, because they sell out so quickly. Every single release, every single copy is an incredible work of art. Each one hand crafted, individually assembled, numbered and hand stamped, letter pressed and printed, the packaging thematically linked to the sound within, with photographs, or old records, strange little knick knacks, clock hands, piano keys, they're really incredible, an absolute labor of love, with most of the limited versions taking hours to assemble, and the fact that Time Released Sound is just one man, makes it all the more impressive. So from here on out, we'll get a limited number of each release, they're quite limited already usually around 70-100 copies. And odds are we won't be able to get more than 10-15, but trust us, they're worth it, sonically beautifully, and visually stunning. There will be regular non-art editions of some of the releases, much less limited, and thus less expensive, but if you're after one of the limited editions, you'll want to act fast.
The art edition of this one sold out to quick for us to get copies, but it's the first Time Released Sound release to get an actual proper cd release, which is a good thing too, cuz this stuff is way to gorgeous to be only heard by a handful of folks. A hazy droney drift, equal parts haunting ambience, mysterious field recordings, and abstract synth shimmer, these soundscapes are lush smoldering expanses of hypnotic sound, dreamily layered loops, judiciously applied effects, all woven into totally mesmerizing drones and sweetly melodic cinematic miniatures, from the soundtracky synth shimmer of "Below Sea Level" to the hazy, ethereal ambience of "Floating Sculptures", Maps And Diagrams, creates an otherworld of sound, a world of water, dominated by the sea, the sounds of water seep into many of the tracks here, a distant drizzle, the sound of a far away shore, but the music itself is evocative and lovely, simple melodies draped over lush landscapes, as much about texture and tone, mood and meaning as notes and chords, these blurred abstract drifts seem to hover ghostlike, before taking shape, only to fade into the ether once again. Dreamy and darkly divine, WAY recommended for all the aQ-ers into lush, mysterious ambience, and dreamily melodic dronemusic, fans of Jasper TX, Machinefabriek and other crafters of soundworlds hushed and haunting.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!
Of all the releases on local label Time Released Sound, Get Lost by Maps And Diagrams, holds a special place in our hearts, as it was the first TRS release we were able to get enough of to actually review. And besides that, it was a gorgeous collection of hazy droney drift, the perfect first release, deftly delivering a sound that would essentially define the label's sonic mission statement, pastoral, dreamlike, woozy and washed out, electronic flecked folkiness and moody droney ambience. So here we are two years later, and Time Released Sound delivers their second Maps And Diagrams record, In Circles, which delves into similar sonic terrain, another sprawling bit of gauze-y dreaminess, soft focus clouds of swirling synths and whirring organs, blurred melodies, and smeared streaks of abstract shimmer, all sculpted into heady, heavenly swaths of ethereal pop ambience, glistening, crystalline shimmer, all infused with a lush, organic vibe. Some of the tracks here are all chiming guitars, gristled electronics and mysterious field recordings, others glistening swirls of slow shifting chordal shimmer, and still others are woozy loopscapes wreathed in a fuzzy patina of Caretaker like faded thrum. At least one track features vocals, and is thus transformed into a haunting drone-folk ballad, underpinned by a softly roiling bed of swoonsome strings and record crackle static. But really, every song here is mysteriously and heart wrenchingly fantastic!
The packaging, as always, is top notch, the standard version housed in a digipack and limited to 200 copies, while the deluxe version, limited to just 70 copies, is packaged in a hand altered black digipack, which is collaged, punched, and most strikingly, inlaid inside and our with ornate silkscreened Spanish real cork wallpaper. There's a printed and hand punched insert, everything inside a hand stamped, hand punched, inked and diagrammed translucent envelope, and each one also includes a 75 year old page of hand drawn diagrams and text. Wow!
Of all the releases on local label Time Released Sound, Get Lost by Maps And Diagrams, holds a special place in our hearts, as it was the first TRS release we were able to get enough of to actually review. And besides that, it was a gorgeous collection of hazy droney drift, the perfect first release, deftly delivering a sound that would essentially define the label's sonic mission statement, pastoral, dreamlike, woozy and washed out, electronic flecked folkiness and moody droney ambience. So here we are two years later, and Time Released Sound delivers their second Maps And Diagrams record, In Circles, which delves into similar sonic terrain, another sprawling bit of gauze-y dreaminess, soft focus clouds of swirling synths and whirring organs, blurred melodies, and smeared streaks of abstract shimmer, all sculpted into heady, heavenly swaths of ethereal pop ambience, glistening, crystalline shimmer, all infused with a lush, organic vibe. Some of the tracks here are all chiming guitars, gristled electronics and mysterious field recordings, others glistening swirls of slow shifting chordal shimmer, and still others are woozy loopscapes wreathed in a fuzzy patina of Caretaker like faded thrum. At least one track features vocals, and is thus transformed into a haunting drone-folk ballad, underpinned by a softly roiling bed of swoonsome strings and record crackle static. But really, every song here is mysteriously and heart wrenchingly fantastic!
The packaging, as always, is top notch, the standard version housed in a digipack and limited to 200 copies, while the deluxe version, limited to just 70 copies, is packaged in a hand altered black digipack, which is collaged, punched, and most strikingly, inlaid inside and our with ornate silkscreened Spanish real cork wallpaper. There's a printed and hand punched insert, everything inside a hand stamped, hand punched, inked and diagrammed translucent envelope, and each one also includes a 75 year old page of hand drawn diagrams and text. Wow!
Mapstation is the work of Stefan Schneider - better known for his work in To Rococo Rot. Using a lot of gurgling electronics and sampled live instrumentation, Mapstation sounds like a rock band trying to pull off what Oval does live, but realizing their mistake half way through the process and turning back to the laptop. Mellow almost noirish electronica melodies that aren't too far from the early Tarwater albums. But, if you've never heard To Rococo Rot's stunning albums, we suggest you start with them first instead of Mapstation.
We previously heard from San Diego indie rural-psychsters Maquiladora on the Acid Mothers Temple n' friends 3cd compilation Do Whatever You Want a while back. Now here's a Japanese import cd featuring them jamming with the Acid Mothers Temple's number one guru, guitarist Kawabata Makoto (and also ex-AMTer Cotton Casino). Over these two discs is sprawlingly spread a lot of lovely, drifting, droning, gentle, largely instrumental cosmic bliss with a slight desert-sunset, country-psych feel (hints of Maquiladora's rootsy roots come through with some plantive home-on-the-range harmonica that appears alongside the less rustic instrumentation of analog synth, glissando guitar, Hammond organ, piano, vibraphone, etc.). Maybe it's due to Makoto's usual magic, but this is surely good enough that now we'll definitely have to check out Maquiladora's own couple of previous records! Real nice, mellow, moody.
Although they didn't start out that way, for this album, the musical entity that goes by the name Mar has become a mini super group of glistening glacial proportions. Its central figure is one Mr. Kyle Reidy originally from Arkansas, but its guest membership here includes Jimmy Lavalle of The Album Leaf and Mum's Samuli Kosminen. Recorded at Syrland Studios in Iceland (that would be Sigur Ros' studio!), The Silence is a drowsy drifting affair with whispery male vocals that not unsurprisingly nestles in perfectly with the Lavalle and Kosminen's main projects. Reidy mines the aching emotional depths with such a delicate touch countered with a grand regality that has become the trademark of Icelandic bands -- articulating both the monumental and the minute, the mighty and the frail in single sweeping elegant gestures. Guess it goes without saying that we'd highly recommend this to fans of Mum and The Album Leaf (and probably Sigur Ros too)... and/or folks who like their music to seek out the heartstrings in a most shimmery fashion. Lovely!
It's nice to know that no matter how many records are reissued, or rare gems discovered, or mysterious private press releases rescued from oblivion, there will always be more. And even though sometimes we feel like the bottom of the reissue barrel has been reached, based on some dubious reissues, all it takes is a record like this, to remind us that there are truly some mind benignly fantastic records that have yet to be unearthed. And yeah, this is some truly next level, mind bending stuff. EVERYBODY here digs it, so we knew we had to make it a Record Of The Week, even though a week ago, we'd never heard of Mar-Vista. Sounds like of like a motel or something.
Originally a private press record, released in a run of just 200 copies in 1976, and packaged in blank white sleeves, and sold locally in France, this deliriously trippy and over the top chunk of French psychedelic synth prog is so good, and so weird, it really is one of those rare records, that's makes it hard to believe it could've remained lost for so long. Cuz really, anyone hearing this, would immediately freak out. We most definitely did. Apparently this duo was heavily influenced by minimalists like La Monte Young and Terry Riley, and krautrock combos like Ashra Tempel and Popol Vuh and while that's not actually bad band math when trying to describe Mar-Vista, the truth of the sound is so much stranger.
A single 41 minute song suite, separated into 6 movements, Visions Of Sodal Ye begins with primitive lo-fi drum machine (or drumming that sounds programmed), beneath whirring organs, fingerpicked acoustic guitars, droning synths and shimmering melodies, with laid back vox way down in the mix, not to mention some killer distorted psych guitar shred, the whole thing wrapped in warped sonic warble. There are plenty of weird production glitches, drop outs, and tape decay/damage from the original masters we would assume, but it only adds to the sound, a sound that soon blossoms into soaring kosmische synth swirls, anchored by more of those primitive drum machine like rhythms, and wreathed in what sounds like whipping winds, and jaw harp like spring melodies, more plink plonk, sing songy synths, and a fierce squall of psychedelic noise guitar. The movements merge into one sprawling epic, continuing with the coolest, creepiest track of the bunch, a dour, murky dirge, a tripped out sort of doom-kraut creep, with low buzzing synths, skittery rhythms, and multiple vocal lines, all wound up into a haunting, intense, organ and synth drenched lumber, that could be the weirdest heaviest French psych-prog jam EVER. That quickly (d)evolves into a cool, groovy sixties style psychedelic blow out, all cascading synth melodies, pulsing hip shaking rhythms, and super distorted theremin like squiggles over the top, before settling into some pulsating, cosmic shimmer, tinged with just a little bit new age, some serious synth prog that blossoms into awesome John Carpenter like soundtrackiness! The record/songsuite culminates in the final 21+ minute movement, a sprawling cinematic synth epic, a twisted dronescape of layered synths and extended tones, ominous and sinister, minor key and darkly malevolent, again, like it could be from the some lost Carpenter movie, all creepy slo-mo melodies, and crumbling textures, plenty of tension, haunting and shadowy and mysterious.
And generally bonus tracks are bonus tracks for a reason, cast offs, throw aways, songs that weren't good enough to make the cut, but not here, the two bonus tracks (found only on the cd!!) are crazy, and crazy cool, the first, "Synthetik Way", is a glistening, glimmering planetarium style cosmic synth workout, all lush, hushed and tranquil one second, then distorted and wildly psychedelic the next, while the second "Crash '73", is an impossibly trippy, surprisingly heavy psych rock jam, with in-the-red distorted guitar and skittery drumming, beneath a wild tangle of snake charmer synth shred, and a totally WTF twisted stuttery finale, which had us imagining a whole other record tucked away with more of this outsider synth-prog-psych weirdness�
So incredible, quite possibly the reissue of the year! Minimal liner notes, a reproduction of the original sleeve, but sadly somewhat flimsy packaging on the digipack cd...
The cd version is limited to 500 copies, the lp just 300.
One of two new tapes on this week's list from UK tape label The Tapeworm, this one might be the heaviest / noisiest thing we've heard on that imprint yet, a live freeform freakout from Norwegian free-noise duo Maranata, a sax/guitar/electronics combo here joined by a couple extra hands, belonging to the drummer from Japan's Nisennenmondai, so you're in for a dense barrage of free jazz / free noise chaos. Sounding like vintage Japanese psych, fused to Zorn's double quartet Spy Vs. Spy, or Borbetomagus jamming with Lightning Bolt, this is furious droned out heaviness, wild tangles of guitar, crazed chaotic drums, and the sax, which sounds less like a sax, and more like a burst of sci-fi laser blurts, the sound grinding, and blown out, the group slipping easily from loose improv, to frenzied blasting, to creeping, almost doomlike plod, this is heady, wild, psychedelic stuff. Borderline white noise at times, but displaying loads of texture and nuance, this is some intense freaked out shit! Extreme free music obsessives will dig big time. And folks thinking about dipping their toes into the world of free jazz/rock weirdness/wildness, this would definitely not be a bad place to start. Exhausting and exhilarating.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A single, one hour and twelve minute track by Portuguese composer David Maranha, performed live in New York in 1998. Using only a grand piano, four electric motors and a violin bow, Maranha "excites" the strings from within the piano to produce a beautiful, continuous drone that subtly shifts in emphasized overtones. The motors -- small, garden variety, electric motors -- are placed on the ends of microphone stands with what appear to be small brushes affixed to their business ends and set over the strings. Maranha adjusts the dynamics and pitches by the amount of pressure the motors apply to the strings and slowly moving the locations of the motors to the strings. On top of this Maranha adds various bowing techniques to augment the overall color. All in all this is an excellent cd, reminiscent of Coleclough & Chalk's "Sumac" or the works of Troum and other dronologists. Highly recommended.
First we've heard from these drifting ambient drone dudes from Ohio, but we're definitely digging it. Ultra minimal swells of sound. Dark and shimmery, distant melodic fragments glistening, everything a lugubrious creep. Haunting and mysterious, but soft focus and delicate. There's a definitely Stars Of The Lid vibe, the sort of endless expanses of rolling oceanic swells, as well as a bit of Growing at their most blissed out and dreamlike.�
The sound of Maravich is an active ambience, with reverbed guitars shimmering over metallic buzz, throbbing and pulsing, smeared with bits of delay, creating subtle rhythms, and constantly shifting textures. If they had a drummer, you could almost imagine some of these tracks, turning into lopingly propulsive post rock grooves, but instead, they remain in the realm of drift and shimmer, the two guitars reflecting off the other, creating lush harmonies and plenty of ethereal Fripp and Eno like interplay. So nice.�
Our friend Adam who runs the super cool Crucial Blast label, has, for over 6 years now, been quietly (and not so quietly) putting out some of the coolest shit around. From crusty Finnish metal to droning electronica to sparse folk to brutal power electronics. This new series of cd-r's, limited to 100 copies and nicely packaged in oversized DVD cases will only be available via Aquarius records (unless you get them directly from Crucial Blast). So don't blow it...
Marax, named for an asthma medication, is the long running experimental electronic project of one Eric Crowe. For Crucial Blast, Crowe decided to do an expansive project focused on death and dying. 12 cd-rs released monthly for a year. LIMITED TO ONLY 25 COPIES each and hand numbered. This is volume one in the series and is very dark and grim. A gritty, noisy and completely intense drone record. One of the best we've heard in a while actually. Very reminscent of Organum, Lustmord and that sort of thing. Funereal washes of chest-rattling low end and ear-scraping grit and dreamy (as in bad dreams) walls of monstrous thrum. Really great. And I'm sure if you want, we can get Adam at Crucial Blast to hook you up with all 12. But let us know quick.
Our friend Adam who runs the super cool Crucial Blast label, has, for over 6 years now, been quietly (and not so quietly) putting out some of the coolest shit around. From crusty Finnish metal to droning electronica to sparse folk to brutal power electronics. This new series of cd-r's, limited to 100 copies and nicely packaged in oversized DVD cases will only be available via Aquarius records (unless you get them directly from Crucial Blast). So don't blow it...
This is volume two in Marax's 'For The Love Of Death' series of super limited cd-r's (LIMITED TO 25) thematically focused on death and dying. Where the first volume was slow brning drones ala Lustmord or Organum, volume two takes that drone and adds even more grit and static, with the resulting sound, much more akin to turnatablist Philip Jeck. But where Jeck's gritty soundscapes are dreamy and pastoral, Marax uses the antiquated sound to invoke memories of the long dead and times best forgotten. A dark and doomy trip down memory lane. Kind of like an Organum wax cylinder played on a decrepit old gramaphone with occasional anguished howls in the distance. Melodies surface but soon deteriorate into a wash of grit and grime. When the vocals come in it sort of sounds like Burzum played at 15 r.p.m. transmitted through tin can and twines. So fucked up and creepy and great. And as I said before, I'm sure if you want, we can get Adam at Crucial Blast to hook you up with all 12. But let us know quick.
As we mentioned on the last list, our friend Adam runs the super cool Crucial Blast label, and has, for over 6 years now, been quietly (and not so quietly) putting out some of the coolest shit around. From crusty Finnish metal to droning electronica to sparse folk to brutal power electronics. This new series of cd-r's, limited to 100 copies and nicely packaged in oversized DVD cases will only be available via Aquarius records (unless you get them directly from Crucial Blast). So don't blow it...
This is volume THREE in Marax's 'For The Love Of Death' series of super limited cd-r's (LIMITED TO 25) thematically focused on death and dying. Where the first volume was slow burning drones ala Lustmord or Organum, and the second volume was griity and granular like a Philip Jeck record, Voulme three pulls it back a little toward a much more ambient excursion. Distant rumbles like passing traffic heard from underwater, with barely audible digital skitter and analog hiss, and occasional far-away feedback. Super minimal, but quite nice. This one would definitely appeal to fans of Bernhard Gunter and John Hudak.
As we mentioned before, I'm sure we can get Adam at Crucial Blast to hook you up with all 12. But let us know quick.
As we mentioned on the last list, our friend Adam runs the super cool Crucial Blast label, and has, for over 6 years now, been quietly (and not so quietly) putting out some of the coolest shit around. From crusty Finnish metal to droning electronica to sparse folk to brutal power electronics. This new series of cd-r's, limited to 100 copies and nicely packaged in oversized DVD cases will only be available via Aquarius records (unless you get them directly from Crucial Blast). So don't blow it...
This is volume FOUR in Marax's 'For The Love Of Death' series of super limited cd-r's (LIMITED TO 25) thematically focused on death and dying. Volume four is quite similar to volume three, with distant rumbles and faraway shimmers, gently panning from speaker to speaker, a hypnotic slow motion pulse, that is joined for the last ten minutes by what sounds like a train crossing signal way off in the distance. Another hyper minimal and very appealing installment in this awesome series (all this one clocks in at a quite short 16 minutes, good thing it's only 5.98).
As we mentioned before, I'm sure we can get Adam at Crucial Blast to hook you up with all 12. But let us know quick.
While he's best known for the pandrogynous polymorph work as Rene Hell, Jeff Witscher released a handful of super private edition cassettes of ambient orchestrations for synths and pedals under the moniker Marble Sky sometime in the aughts. The Marble Sky recordings harken to a specific time of 'post-noise' when Emeralds in particular had emerged out of the Midwestern noise community with their youthful reclamation of kraut electronics and guitars circa 1974. Similar hints of a blustery discontent drift through Witscher's Marble Sky recordings, with the harmonic surges of synth melodies drifting through impressionist scores that rippled with oceanic currents of tempered white noise and tape-mediated meditations of forgotten memories and illusory dreams. Works by the likes of Marble Sky, Taiga Remains, and even Jon Borges' late-period Emaciator embraced ambient symphonic grandiosity in alluding simultaneously to the innerspace vistas from stoner staring contests at passing clouds and the mile-high vantage points of hugely dramatic historical paintings. It's no big leap to make the connections from the introspective reductionism of Stars Of The Lid or even some of Tim Hecker's more docile recordings through the recordings of Marble Sky to arrive at the revisionist infatuation with the crystal-powered navel-gazing of new age recordings.
This eponymous collection from the pastorally-droned imprint Students Of Decay takes all of the Marble Sky material that Witscher released on his own Callow God label, which mostly held to the morally bankrupt ethos of brutalist power electronics with the very obvious exception of the Marble Sky recordings. Fragile. Sonorous. Lovely.
Recorded in New Orleans in 2005, the week the Hurricane hit, this is an intense and super moving field recording from musician, composer and sound artist Matt Marble. Plenty of street sounds, musicians, bicycle bells, voices over loud speakers, whipping wind, foot steps, drums, rushing water, a 21 minute wander through the streets on NOLA, finishing with a strange coda of long high end drones laid over the rumble of cars and the whir of the storm. Very haunting and emotional.
The other two shorter tracks, feature an interview with a Gulf Coast family, radio playing in the background, and various family drama playing out, and a street singer doing an Otis Redding classic and engaging his captive audience.
It's all beautifully recorded, and not only sonically appealing, but a riveting brief glimpse into lives touched by tragedy.
Packaged in cool hand assembled sleeves, hand stamped, with a photocopied insert, and a phot pasted to the front. Originally limited to 90 copies, this is obviously WAY sold out, and these are thus the last copies ever...
Yet another new release from one of our new favorite cd-r labels, Portland's Onomato, run by the guys in Ghosting!
Matt Marble is a composer, a researcher, a student of Speech And Hearing Science, and he's also the co-editor for sound art magazine FO A RM. He spends much of his time composing for large ensembles and "non-musicians". Chiasmata, like many of his works, was created using processed field recordings and hand built instruments.
The first track begins with 5 minutes of upper register shimmer, like rainfall transformed into bells, a ringing chiming high end drone, that gradually dissipates into an ultra minimal low end drift, before breaking down even further, into a barely audible, seemingly unaltered field recording, insects, leaves, wind. The second track, part two, begins where the first track ended, a microscopic world of insectoid scrape and skitter, distant chimes, all manner of found sound. Eventually, a subtle drone begins to materialize, a barely their uneven buzzing, soon some sort of looped vocal moan appears, and suddenly for the last few minutes, the sound builds to its most active, a warm thick drone, wrapped around a dense clatter of rattle and chime before just as abruptly, it disappears. Nice!
Packaged in hand printed covers with a full color photo affixed to each, photocopied insert and all housed in a heavy vinyl sleeve.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES, WE GOT ABOUT 20. ONCE THEY'RE GONE THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD.
What's in a name? Well, when the name of your band is Marblebog, and the name of your record is Csendhajnal, pretty much everything is in the name. We were sold before we'd even laid ears on it. But we're happy to report, the dark sorrowful sounds within more than live up to the bizarre monicker.
Marblebog specialize in that super fuzzy mournful black metal, midtempos and blurry hypnotic guitars, every track a slowly swinging seasick waltz, so completely droning and mesmerizing. The metal buried within churning clouds of thick murky ambience. The guitars not always sharp and jagged and buzzing, but sometimes just distant grumbles and whirs, buried beneath dense swirls of swooshing Tangerine Dream synths, while the drums sort of plod along waaaaaaaay back in the murk. And the vocals, woah, some of the most anguished, tortured, howling, damned-soul sort of howls we've ever heard, think Weakling, Silencer, Bethlehem, Sterbend, a near hysterical shrieking. But in Marblebog the vocals sound almost out of place, making them that much more harrowing and depressive. Imagine a lonely overgrown graveyard, weeds, flowers, ivy tangled in the bars of the wrought iron gates, the sky a dim grey, overcast, pregnant with the possibility of storm, the sound is not wind or birds or passing cars, instead it's a depressive dirge, not harsh or super aggressive, not even really buzzing, more a thick blanket of grey fuzz smothering everything in gorgeously miserable murkiness, then right in the middle of the graveyard, a mysterious figure is pushing his way through the dirt, a rotting creature of the night, crawling up from the grave, emitting a fowl hellish shriek of utter and absolute terror, while thick tendrils of graveyard mist swirl up around him, the vocals a glaring and harrowing blight on the otherwise peaceful (yet still dark and depressing) world of the dead.
The vocal-less tracks on Csendhajnal are downright lovely, slow, meandering synthscapes, of low end melodic miserablism, and slow drifting dark shimmer, like a more ambient Skepticism or Burzum, some haunting, otherworldly new age dooooom. But even the more properly metal tracks here are imbued with the same sort of new age dreaminess and slow motion, end of the world doominess. So awesome.
This disc collects the debut cd (from back in 2003) from this Hungarian horde and tacks on a whole bunch of killer extra tracks including the Nostalgic Moods In Grimwoods demo from 2002, the Arhat promo from 2002, and the rehearsal track "Hatefullmoon" from 2003, most of which were released as super limited tapes and/or splits. Killer cover art too!!!
SUPER LIMITED! 555 copies, each disc hand numbered!
Since we first heard the name Marblebog, we somehow just knew this obscure Hungarian horde would be a fast favorite, before we had even heard a note of music, and man were we right. The last record, 2004's Csendhajnal, now unfortunately out of print, was a huge hit at AQ, the perfect balance of swirling synthy ambience, and mournful melancholy Burzumic buzz, so we had been anxiously awaiting the reissue of 2005's Forestheart ever since, and now it's finally here.
This duo from Hungary mix traditional Hungarian folk, modern grim black buzz, and blissed out ambience into epic swaths of blurry blackness, woven from loping minor key guitars, simple mostly midtempo drumming, strangled croaked vocals, and while the parts might sound similar to black metal obsessives, it's not just the parts, it's how they're played, and recorded and arranged, the mood and the timbre, the sound and the feeling as much as the actual riffs.
And while the riffs are of course amazing, it's the feel more than anything that make Marblebog so special. Everything is dripping with such sadness and sorrow, not just minor key, but whole arrangements and progressions perfectly assembled to evoke strange feelings, heartbreak and woe, death and destruction, so mournful and melancholy, sweeping swells of buzzing sound, with incredible dynamics, and bits of melody that swoop in out of nowhere and are immediately swallowed up again.
The appropriately titled "Opening" is a brief stretch of swirling krautrocky synth, peppered with haunting animal like FX and creepy scrapes and groans, all drenched in reverb and delay, hovering beneath a pale moonlit sky. This intro opens up into the sort of title track "I Am The Forestheart", a glorious blast of melancholy blackness, with a main riff as catchy as it is dark and depressive. Part way through the band shift gear, and slow down into a strummed folky interlude, a jig like melody, Jew's harp, the sound of wind and rain, a haunting spare drift.
There are three more longish tracks, all channeling the same forest spirit, looped cyclical black buzz, suffused with hypnotic drones and unlikely little melodic flourishes, everything muted and murky and dreamlike, often breaking down into simple acoustic guitar drifts, before picking back up again. The harrowing over the top vocals of the first records are now much more settled into the background, more a part of the music, almost like another layer of buzzing drone, but still just as harrowing and anguished.
The final track is a 13+ minute ambient soundscape of shimmering synths, and mad scientist lab FX, burbling and gurgling beneath, dreamy washes of high end drift, strange muted percussion, some seriously Goblin like keyboard creep, and eventually some awesome lurching downtuned guitar, not so much crushing and heavy as creepy and thick, cyclical and hypnotic, a gorgeous lurching dream doom.
Finally available again, the gorgeous all ambient second album from Hungary's Marblebog, who on other records (which we gushed about on past aQ lists) combined bits of ambient drone with their mournful black buzz, but for Wind Of Moors, they jettisoned all traces of metal completely, and in their place, crafted a gorgeous slow moving world of drifting melancholy ambience. Very krautrocky, and quite reminiscent of Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh and the like, the opening track is soft and sun dappled, gentle muted bongos, beneath a constant low level raga like buzz, soft synth swells, shimmering streaks of ethereal whir, a gorgeous laid back sprawl of nearly new age mesmer.
The next track is even lighter and dreamier, chords smeared into shadows as they drift by, chords suspended in soft swirls of sound, the notes, floating weightless, a breathless whisper of a song.
The third track has a bit of muted propulsion, a gentle heartbeat like pulse, beneath some thick, but still soft, buzz, a gorgeous minor key melody played out in high end tones, draped over the droning blurred raga below, so completely entrancing and hypnotic. Slightly ominous, dark clouds drifting across a steel blue sky, but still, the vibe is more like a forest just before the storm, hauntingly calm but still slightly uneasy.
The final track is the darkest of the bunch, a creeping sonic fog, layered melodies, gauzy and shimmering, slowly drifting, casting dark shadows, filling the speakers with dead leaves and cold rain. A chilling, but mysteriously lovely bit of dreamlike sound.
Originally released in 2005 as a cd-r limited to a mere 55 copies, and then later as a tape, limited to 144 copies, this killer split FINALLY gets a proper reissue, with new art, and an extra track, thanks to the always kick ass Tour De Garde label.
Ben a while since we've heard from Hungarian horde Marblebog, although they've been doing tons of split releases over the last few years, this one though is with Brazilian black metallers Draugurz, who long time aQ metalheads will probably remember from their raved about A Yell From The Past record.
Marblebog open the proceedings with some swirling drones and creepy black ambience, before introducing some spidery melancholic guitar, a tangled web of crystalline melody, which gives way to a burst of murky lo-fi buzz, a pounding midtempo depressive dirge, all weepy minor key chords and booming basement drums, with some seriously raspy and hellish vox, reminiscent of Hypothermia for sure, that sort of blackened post rock lope, but the band definitely get grim, exploding into blurred blasts of old school blackness, interspersed with strangely melodic stretches of meandery drift and shades of gloom pop. The other Marblebog track is all solo guitar, a distorted woozy blackened riffscape, creepy and solitary and haunting, a strange tension, as if at any point the drums might kick in, or the song might begin proper, but instead, the riff, twists and transforms, a dense sprawl of mournful buzz and trancelike drone. So cool.
Draugurz counter with some ultra raw, primitive black crunch, punkish guitars, stumbling drums, howled distorted vox, the songs sometimes slowing down into woozy warped doomy plods, with tangled minor key leads, sometimes locking into mesmerizing chunks of hypnodrone black metal, like a grim frosty Circle, building to dense blown out crescendos before slipping into more primitive pound.
This cd version tacks on an extra Draugurz track, a creepy ambient synthscape, all majestic percussion shimmering layered mournful buzz, with a super strange tripped out synth flute interlude, all clipped bleats and alien flutters, before returning to the stately march that started the track.
Killer stuff, from both bands, and probably still limited...
Hungarian black metal lords Marblebog have been a longstanding favorite here at aQuarius, and this split with fellow countrymen Vorkuta marks a triumphant return indeed. Both bands specialize in abject black metal with smatterings of goth and punk. Oddly enough, at various moments throughout the record, each band brought to mind Dance With Me era T.S.O.L. - but maybe that's just us. Either way, we're digging it.
The record begins with Marblebog's "Uttalan Utakon", a seven minute blast of furious black metal that also sounds surprisingly like early American hardcore, at least before the harsh goblin vocals croak their way into the mix. The momentum is kept going with super fast drums and buzzy guitars before a weird, gothy outro plays out over siren like feedback. Vorkuta's "Prophecies" is a three part display of classic, Darkthrone-esque black metal outlining the joys of killing. While the band doesn't have to work too hard to prove their metal credentials, they also work in an interesting instrumental middle part with backwards tape effects and slow, distorted drums suggesting a somewhat psychedelic approach to their music. Definitely looking forward to checking out more from these dudes, who seem to specialize in splits.
A glorious slab of concentrated blackness, limited to 500 copies and pressed on bonechilling pink vinyl.
Originally released in 2008 (hence the title) as a tape and a 7", this killer two way split is now available on cd, featuring two Hungarian hordes: long time aQ faves Marblebog, and Vorkuta, who have just one split to their name, but about a million splits.
Marblebog should need no introduction, a weird group of nature obsessed black metal warriors whose sound shifts easily from blackened atmospheric drift to blazing buzzing blackness. Their contribution here falls into the latter category, with some of the heaviest Marblebog we've heard, churning Burzumic riffage, over pounding drums, and some of the creepiest sickest vocals EVER, an impossibly distorted raspy gargle, demonic and alien, and so cool. The track is a long one, and slips from frenzied blast to almost doomy pound to woozy melodic midtempo lope, complete with reverbed guitar solos, to epic almost Viking sounding metallic majesty, to skeletal clean guitar post metal meander. So good.
Vorkuta, counter with an epic 3 part single track, that explodes out of the gate, super raw and primitive, buzzing insectoid riffing, pounding blast beats, and weird croaked sing songy demonic growls that follow the guitar melody exactly, making the whole song seem seasick and twisted, until it breaks down into a tribal drummed churning breakdown, only to lurch right back into the frantic blasting blackness. Vorkuta too dabble in some abstract ambience, clean spidery guitars over crystalline shimmer, cool effected backwards loops, distant chimes, before finishing off with a buzz drenched tangle of grinding black crunch.
Definitely need to hear more from these guys. Who knew that Hungary had such a serious BM scene, beyond just these two outfits too? Judging from the list of related bands, and the pedigree of both Marblebog and Vorkuta, we definitely have some more digging to do...
Aah, we haven't heard the sweet sweet voice of Ms April March in years! Her last album Chrominance Decoder came out back in 1999! Her records have always been warmly received for their kicky kitten-heeled retro French stylings. Often resembling a '60s ye-ye girl, she's never fails to deliver the delightful pop in spades. Which is why the first track off of her newest full length is such a jarring jolt. It's a very mid/late '90s-ish electronica number that overwhelms her vocals and comes off sounding like a weak loungey downtempo track. Ick! Fortunately things promptly take a turn for the better after that -- achieving more of a balance between her old crunch'n'jangle guitar bounce, grand Bacharach-esque escapades and her newer electronic leanings. With her English/French vocals and the sleek Euro-pop sounds courtesy of her frequent collaborator Bertrand Burgalat (he played a multitude of instruments, mixed and produced this album), this often veers close to Stereolab and Broadcast territory. So if you enjoy the lighter sides of those two bands, you just might find yourself smitten by Ms March.
Throughout their 25 year career, Voice Crack (the Swiss duo of Andi Guhl and Norbert Moslang) have sought out fellow improvisers and electronic experimentalists to collaborate with, including 16-17, Jim O'Rourke, Erik M, and Otomo Yohsihide. During this time,
Perhaps as an homage to the Metamkine 3" series Cinema Pour L'Oreille of brief musique concrete programs, Mixer (run by one of the former employees of Staalplaat) has released this 3"CD from French composer Lionel Marchetti who has worked extensively at both INA-GRM and at the CFMI in Lyon. The Pierre Henry influence upon Marchetti is quite clear on the first half of the record, as Marchetti splatters the stereo field with an arsenal of chopped up tape noises, mangled effects, and blurted instruments. It's almost comical at first with the sounds emerging as scatological excess and slapstick behavior; but about halfway into the piece, Marchetti shifts gears with a gorgeous display of sweeping sinetones frozen behind a number of reverb units. When the plastic squiggles and whirring spirals of tape machinations reappear, their nature is brazenly hostile. A short 20 minute jaunt, but one that displays Marchetti's immaculate craftsmanship of immense details.
Electro-Acoustic composer Lionel Marchetti has built quite a considerable discography, consisting mostly of collaborations with the likes of Jerome Noettinger (who runs Metamkine) and Voice Crack. "Portrait d'un Glacier" -- one of the handful of his solo
Recorded at the age of 22 back in 1989 (but just recently released), "Sirrus" stands as one of the earliest documentations from French musique concrete composer Lionel Marchetti. This is a trilogy based upon abstract interpretations of natural phenomenon
Eccentric Italian composer Walter Marchetti (whose albums "Nei Mari Del Sud" and "Antibarbarus" are two excellent and highly evocative pieces of electro-acoustic composition) here accompanies his "De Musicorum Infelicitate" with a fragmented manifesto
Beautiful calligraphic tones -- the result of a piano triggering six magnetic tapes, whose signals are displaced out-of-phase, reverberating quietly and slowly over empty space in this stunning piece by Marchetti -- dark and ominous. Along with some excessive liner notes (if you thought we could be long winded), there's an awsome photo of Walt on the back cover enjoying a martini at some dark hotel bar.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This disc features three distinct pieces from the sonically adventurous composer Walter Marchetti. The first "Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio" is a beautiful action piece in which a burly Latvian man methodically hurls boulders into a deep cavernous pool (although when I listen to it, I like to pretend it's my coworker Byram tossing rocks into a swimming pool)... and the 'score' might not have specified Latvian brawn, but nonetheless the carefully recorded resonations and the natural echoes from objects dropped into deep waters were intentionally composed for this meditative piece. "Da Nulla E Verso Nulla" appears to be an homage to Harry Partch with playful wooden percussion over oscillating electronics. And Marchetti's "Song For John Cage" is a tranquil collage sewn from multitracked chirps of grasshoppers.
We have a customer in Japan who HATES Keiji Haino, and delights in sending us emails detailing just how much he loathes the man and his music. Andee of course delights in torturing Allan, an admitted Keiji mega-fan, with these very same missives. Having spied Haino shopping in a record store, our customer remarked "Even the way he looks at cds sucks", and once he emailed that he could make a Keiji Haino record simply by sticking an electric guitar and an amp in the trunk of his car and driving around on bumpy Japanese roads. Which brings us to Guitar Drag, the soundtrack to a video installation in which Christian Marclay, took an electric guitar, plugged it in, tied it to the back of a truck, and drove around dragging the guitar behind him and recording the results. Visually it's pretty amazing. And a clever statement on music and art, as are all of Marclay's pieces. But the sound yields something surprisingly listenable. Super lo-fi, a swirling, clanging crash and crunch of hum and twang and rumble and roar, a noisy mess, perhaps, but surprisingly dynamic, with random melodies and some remarkable sounds surfacing from the murky stringed chaos. Actually, one was to listen to this not knowing it was some art prank, one would most certainly be forgiven for thinking this was in fact some totally abstract free rock psychedelic freakout, the Dead C, or some mysterious Matthew Bower project, or even -that- above mentioned nonexistent Haino guitar-in-the-trunk record we wish would come out. Not sure what it says about those bands when dragging a guitar behind your car produces the same sound, but who cares?! Art nerds already need this, but now all you free noise psychedelic freaks can feel all 'arty' when you throw this on right between Fushitsusha's Live 2 and the Dead C's Trapdoor Fucking Exit!
Cool sleeve image, a video still of the dragged guitar, and pressed on super swank cloudy clear vinyl.
Two living legends of avant-garde turntable manipulation join forces for this duo recording. Downtown NYC fixture Marclay, a true pioneer in using the turntable as an instrument, abusing it and the LPs themselves in ways that even the craziest hiphop DJs wouldn't imagine. Japan's Otomo Yoshihide, whose seminal Ground Zero band set the turntable loose in a free jazz improv context. Ask Zorn, ask Sonic Youth, ask DJ Spooky: they'll all tell you these guys are the masters. Anyway, chances are you already know all that and more...here these two have created a tapestry of scratching, snatches of music and noise: sometimes the musical sounds the needle is pulling from the vinyl and sometimes the non-musical sounds the vinyl is making on the needle. It's not a DJ Shadow style sample-soundtrack, but rather a beautifully rhythmic new-music, abstract and intriguing. It makes sense that this would be released on Asphodel, home to both recordings by hip hop turntablists The X-Ecutioners and 20th century avantgarde electronic composer Xenakis...
Fuck shit up, man. Yeah, fuck it up real good! Two Sonic Youth guitarists and their pal, NYC turntable artist Christian Marclay team up for this live performance from the Victoriaville "Jazz" Festival. While it's not, as the title suggests, a purely aggro-punk noisathon, the lengthy improvisation documented here does do some destruction to highbrow art pretense.
Sweden's black metal panzer division get the box they always deserved. Two full cds of rare, unreleased and re-recorded goodies spanning their entire career. Plus a live video and a booklet with tons of photos and lyrics. This one's definitely just for
The mighty metal panzer divsion return with a vengeance, to lay waste to all poseurs in their path. Marduk's buzzing and blazing-fast black metal is fully intact, but this time around, it's tempered with lots of droning mid tempos and old school eighties metal riffs making for a pretty great 21st century black metal/80's thrash hybrid.
