This is the second Maeror Tri reissue to appear in the past month, perhaps signifying a flood of old material from the seminal German droned-out industrialists. Or maybe not. Regardless, Meditamentum I originally came out on the tiny Holonom label back in the mid-90s, collecting tracks from the huge catalogue of Maeror Tri's cassette-only releases dating back to 1989 (including tracks from Peak Experience, Somnia et Expergisci, Ambient Dreams, Sensuum MEndacia, Sublimal Forces, Allianz, Hypnobasia, and Venenum, if you must know). Limited to 500 copies, the first volume of Meditanentum quickly went out of print, only to be repressed (in a much nicer package with embroidered cloth sleeve) by Manifold. As a whole Meditamentum is a far more ambient, drifting collection than the black-hole isolationism found on the recent Singles collection released on EE Tapes; nevertheless, the trio still concentrates on their signature cold, grim soundfields of droning guitars, laced with backwards breathy echos and haunted extented vocalizations.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While Maeror Tri ceased activities and 2/3 of the band continued on with Troum last year, archival recordings of this very prolific outfit have finally resurfaced. With more than a dozen albums, Maeror Tri released countless limited edition�collects the best work from those tapes. Maeror Tri (as well as Troum) excel at the dynamics of the repetitive drone, from slow steady darkness to dense crashing guitar noise. One of Jim's all-time favourite bands... and this certainly does not disappoint!
Multiple Personality Disorder was the first cd and first major release for the seminal post-industrial ensemble Maeror Tri; and yes, the album's title does allude to one line of psychological research into the delineation of (in this case) four personalities that often correspond with acute cases of multiple personality disorder. On one hand, this thematic application does make a parallel to the pseudo-diagnostic aesthetics promoted by SPK and Lustmord in the early '80s; but on the other, Maeror Tri's Stefan Knappe was studying psychology throughout university, and those ideas clearly impacted the way he approached music, smearing dark drones and ethereal melodies out of heavily processed guitars, bass, synths, and other instruments through Maeror Tri to provide an evocative, enveloping, atmospheric, and occasionally threatening form of dark ambience.
The four suites of the album include "The Administrator," "The Anaesthetizer", "The Revenger", and "The Protector," each seeking to encapsulate the metaphoric sounds of those aforementioned personality traits. Hence, the first seeks something of a balance that's neither too dark nor too warm in the shimmering guitar drones and backwards masked swells of monochromatism. The second piece is a opiating, druggy drone track, that has a serpentine, oozing quality in the densely stacked rumbles of low-end distortion and shadowy murk. "The Revenger" is a suitably menacing track of down-pitched vocal snarls and demonic growls that grate against a noisescaping drone backdrop. The finale is downright beautiful certainly looking forward to the post-Maeror Tri project Troum and their luminous, billowing drones sculpted with lilting melodies buried under tons of smeared reverb. Multiple Personality Disorder was always one of the best Maeror Tri albums, and one that succeeded through this conceptual framework (which would have caused lesser artists considerable trouble). The reissue does do away with the original Korm Plastics artwork, which wasn't anything really to write home about; so, if you don't have the original and are keen on anything dark and droning, pick this up!
Maeror Tri was a legendary German post-industrial band that forged a mighty sound of corrosive, post-Industrial dronescaping throughout the '90s before moving onto the equally impressive drone-based project Troum. Myein was one of the first CDs for Maeror Tri, originally released by ND Records and housed in an unusual, oversized triangular sleeve. Now that this has been reissued through Waystyx, Myein enjoys a slightly less cumbersome, but no less appealing matte black, die-cut sleeve with a gold envelope housing the disc. Myein opens with a black cauldron of swarming guitar drones that steadily increases the atmospheric pressures over the course of the opening track before cracking in a burst of seething noise. Maeror Tri follows this with one of their more melodic interluded, extending a melancholic descending chord progression into a haunted mantra. The final entry on Myein finds Maeror Tri at their most sprawling, amorphous, and shadowy with an undulating ocean of dark dark drones littered with flanging sounds. We can only hope that Myein is the first of many reissues from Maeror Tri's hard to find back catalogue. Excellent!
"Like a waterfall in your mind" reads a pithy text on the back of this reissue from the German industrial-drone iconoclasts Maeror Tri. It's very much a fitting descriptor to the sprawling, long-form bass-rumble that those three had developed as their signature sound during their prolific career from 1988 to 1996. Hypnotic, transfixing, ominous, sublime. Subliminal Forces was one of the many cassettes that had been released in a tiny edition at sometime during their career. The sub-underground imprint Tonspur put out the original cassette, doing so in 1993, which was a couple years after the recordings were completed. Suspended tones of flanging guitar noise and flecked electronics hang above inky black, gothic, shadowy, sepulchral, subterranean, and otherwise dark-as-fuck tones, lending to an post-apocalyptic imagery of flickering strands of Christmas lightbulbs that somehow managed to stay illumined while the remaining landscape is charred, bombed-out, deserted, and strewn only with rubble. After seven tracks of expressively desolate slabs of industrial drone, album's isolationist tendencies crack only slightly with the final track "Memento." Here, pools of synths and guitars ripple against each other's languid reverberations and spectral decay. Very lovely. Reports from the peanut gallery about the original tape's inconsistent sound seem to have addressed with the remastering of this album for the 2014 relaunch. As such, it's a necessary reissue on all fronts.
During the past couple of weeks, there has been a deluge of reissued material from the German ensemble Maeror Tri, whose exceptional, post-Industrial dronemusik straddles the current obsession with the doom-laden atmospherics of Corrupted, SUNN O))), Earth, etc. and the sublime impressionism of Jonathan Coleclough and Mirror. The Beauty Of Sadness was one of the last cassettes that Maeror Tri released before calling it quits in 1996; and as one might be able to discern from the title, this record finds Maeror Tri shifting their drones away from their heavy, menacing bleakness and toward a transcendent etherealism. Out of the churning wash of sound from their dynamic use of reverb, delay, and flange effects boxes, Maeror Tri push through honest to goodness songs of hypnotically repetitive guitar chords, melodies, and harmonies, making The Beauty Of Sadness come across like a rough-hewn but equally effective version of My Bloody Valentine's bleary eyed monotone found on Loveless. For those familiar with the recent work of Troum (whose members were two-thirds of Maeror Tri), The Beauty Of Sadness is an obvious precursor to thier marvellous first chapter in the Tjukurrpa trilogy.
Limited to 200 copies each wrapped in a slipcover that fits (almost too) snugly over the jewel case. There's a good chance we won't be able to get more and if you happen to concern yourself with the collectability / condition of your cd's, we would urge to take care when removing the jewel case from the slip cover.
Since their early beginnings, the German guitar-drone ensemble Maeror Tri had a love affair with the 7" single that extended into their formation of the now seminal Drone Records series of 7" only releases. From 1993 to 1998, the trio released five singles on a handful of labels, condensing their ground zero ambience, post-industrial shadows, and subharmonic detonations into eight minute chunks. Cleverly packaged in a seven inch cover, this compilation from EE Tapes features four of those five singles, including the Physis 7" for Fool's Paradise, the Mystagogus 7" for Noise Museum, and their two releases on Ant-Zen, Exorbitant and Pleroma. Saltatrix, which was the first single that Maeror Tri produced for Drone Records, is the one missing single from the compilation; and that's only because Drone is planning on re-pressing that single sometime in the future.
The Physis single opens the album with a post-Neubauten bashing of tribal rhythms upon heaps of scrap metal which gets an accompaniment of looping feedback, static, hiss, and ominous throbbings. While better known for their bleak ambience, both Maeror Tri and their later incarnation Troum explored primitive rhythms within the guitar excursions from time to time. Mystagogus and Exorbitant delve into subterranean murk with deep, all-consuming heavy drones steeped in a gravel throated menace, often heard in recent days from naysayers SUNNO))) and Corrupted. The album ends with some of the best pieces that Maeror Tri or Troum have ever done from the Pleroma 10" which happened to be released after MT had already disbanded in 1996. It's a cauldron of low-end misery that brims forth with an ominous riff whose melody sheers through the isolationist pall of secrecy. Absolutely stunning! Considering that only 524 of these things exist, they (like the rest of the Maeror Tri catalogue) won't last long.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Some of the earliest work from this amazingly prolific German drone band, "Venenum" was originally released back in 1991 as a cassette on AudioTapes and now sees a super limited digital release. At this early stage in Maeror Tri's existence, the overstaturation of guitar, keyboard, and occasional Teutonic vocalising held much more of a post-industrial ambience than the trancedent darkness of their later work. Lumbering melodies and bleak passages of raw sound filter through tons of icy effects. Really great stuff.
Very prolific, that Maeror Tri! This new Wheel double cd marks the third compendium of obscurities, compilation tracks, and unreleased material for this aQ-favorite drone-industrial outfit, following the two volumes of the Meditamentum series (originally released individually, but later collected onto a double disc set). Maeror Tri began back in 1988 and developed into one of the pioneering dark-ambient projects of the '90s before the project dissolved. Two of the members continued on as Troum, trekking along a similar trajectory for the heavy / bleary thrumm. The album is sequenced chronologically, with the title track of a DIY 4-track piece of echoplex saturation and sci-fi synths. This track of eerie synth pointillism and the next track from 1989 of monophonic plainsong chants cast through abandoned warehouse reverberation represent Maeror Tri's wanderings in the dark in search of their own vocabulary. By 1990, the flanging, shimmering gossamer guitars took root within the heavy pall of reverse-tape loop effects and dense bass-drones. The first disc marches through terminally obscure tracks (including one from a VHS tape that would be very interesting to watch, in order to see what Maeror Tri's visuals would have looked like!) from 1988-1994; and the second takes up the period from 1994-1996. On this latter half, the band abstracts the echo and shadow into slippery pools of despairing drone-melodies complemented with thunderous bass rumblings. There's a maudlin fragility to these guitar-laced melodies often stitched onto a far more desolate or tumultuous underbelly than heard on the first disc, as Maeror Tri become master impressionists in their compositions for sodden atmospheres, ironclad rigor, and grim industrial vibes. Hand-numbered Russian pressing, and as such, we have limited stock on hand.
"See me walking around like I own the whole place. Well, I do!" Yes, she's come a helluva long way since she first sang this refrain, but it still hold true. You may better know her as simply Lois. And who doesn't love Lois? Adore her. She kicks ass. Queen of the K Records / Olympia scene and beyond. Collaborator with many (to name a few: early on in the band Courtney Love with YoYo Records' Pat Maley, later with Calvin Johnson and Dub Narcotic, and here with Brendan Canty of Fugazi), and not one to shy away from something new. She's the whipsmart brain behind such wonderful tunes such as "Strumpet" (see lyrics above), "Davey"... songs that spoke truths to and for indie girls (and boys) everywhere. Well listen up, she's got a new album out now on Kill Rock Stars. Warm guitar strumming and piano melodies. Soft moments with a touch of twang. And her sweet voice.
Second solo record from Preston Nunez, whose 'day job' is playing in cosmic synth drone outfit Scantily Clad, whose three cd-r's were all big hits around here. A little while back Nunez sent us some copies of the debut record from his new group Guisher, which while bearing virtually no relation to Scantily Clad, still totally hit the spot, a head spinning bit of slice and dice audio collage weirdness, rhythmic and groovy and noisy and all over the sonic map. So we weren't entirely sure what to expect from this new project, Mafouka, which definitely has more in common with Guisher than with Scantily Clad, but where Guisher was a relentless sonic barrage, Mafouka sounds more measure and composed, at least a bit, it's still a bit of a barrage, 14 songs in a little under 20 minute, short bursts of hypnotic soundscaping. The opening track is all woozy and warped, a rhythms created from what sounds like a needle scratching across the surface of a record, not to mention some slowed down beats, looped female vocals, shimmery synths, it's like a super raw, primitive home brewed Portishead almost, that sort of washed out, late night vibe, then the next three tracks, all clocking in at well under a minute each, offer up brief snippets of sound, from a layered and looped but of easy listening, to some dialogue heavy, drum addled ambience, to a killer chunk of super distorted dirgey doom, again laced with bizarre samples, until finally another song that breaks the 2 minute mark, a synthy distorted creeper, the sound panning from speaker to speaker, laced with chopped up bits of drumming, layered voices, warm swirling melodic shimmer, which leads directly into another twisted, surprisingly melodic loopscape, from which unfurls the rest of the record, a sprawling selection of primitive sampledelia, equal parts Art Of Noise and Negativland, but all woven into something much more moodily musical, a glorious bit of home brewed 4-track alchemy that in some way plays out like a bedroom indie pop Endtroducing, albeit a bit more freaked out and fractured.
More super extravagant home mad packaging, this time, colored jewel cases with the art printed onto clear stickers which are affixed to the front, no tray, the 3" disc affixed to the inside of the trayless jewel case, over some photocopied artwork pasted into the bottom, which is also visible through the back of the jewel case, which has yet another clear sticker affixed to it. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!
Second single from Chicago electro pimp Marlon Magas (he and wife / Metalux member Bridgette Wilson also run the squeaky clean underground electronic superstore Weekend Records And Soap!), formerly of no wave supergroup Lake Of Dracula and Detroit rawk legends Couch. Sad to say, the vocals are the weak spot here... and such a very weak, distracting spot it is! Remove them, and
Finally a long overdue, and totally necessary reissue of the first album from quintessential art-punk outfit Magazine. Howard Devoto founded the band in 1977, after parting ways with the Buzzcocks. Less than a year after the Sex Pistols exploded onto the world stage, Devoto recognized the problematic cliches of punk and sought to remedy the trad-rock banalities and the limitations of just being able to play a couple of chords. Real Life applies the energy of the punk rock that's full of piss and vinegar to the glammy dynamics of early Roxy Music and David Bowie. Surrounding Devoto were bassist Barry Adamson (later one of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds and accomplished solo artist in his own right) and John McGeoch (one of the longer serving guitarists for Siouxsie & The Banshees). The opening track "Definitive Gaze" defines what it means to be angular, with its catchy if choppy basslines, spryly jittery snare fills, and sci-fi synth leads punctuated by sneered vocals from Devoto. This track along with the two singles off the album - "Shot By Both Sides" and "The Light Pours Out Of Me" - mark three of the high water marks of what could be defined as post-punk. The album as a whole jerks itself between restless arm-flailing mania, tempestuous emotional outbursts, and melodic croons whose ghosts would eventually haunt the likes of Radiohead, Kaiser Chiefs, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs many many years later...
Berlin-based, Detroit-raised Magda makes minimal techno for people who love Umberto and Demdike Stare! She did a Fabric mix that started off with a Goblin track, and the first cut on this debut full-length of her own productions is called "Get Down Goblin", so you know she's got a thing for vintage Italian horror soundtrack prog-funk. Another track is titled "Doom Disco", and that's sorta the concept for this whole dark and groovy album, replete with eerie echoes and subtle whip-cracks, music for a darkened, desperate dancefloor. Sometimes the propulsive beats thump like the tell-tale heart, at other times they take a backseat to the hauntological electronic atmospheres.
"Get Down Goblin" begins with the creepy caresses of a keyboard in horror movie mode, shimmery, ominous, before percolating rhythms bubble up, jittery grooves commence, and you can get down indeed to her off kilter, zombified funk. And so it goes. Later, the likes of "Little Bad Habits" ride on steady beats interspersed with atonal piano stabs and tinklings and other eerily abstract, almost modern classical flourishes, clearly suspense film inspired, in fact that one reminds us a bit of David Shire's classic score to the Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3.
We're smitten, From The Fallen Page is totally techno that's up our alley as fans of anything Goblin-y... Recommended!
Portable mp3 players and iTunes and all the digital music out there has definitely changed the way we listen to music. Many folks barely listen to whole albums anymore, instead making playlists, or setting their devices on shuffle, and while in some ways, that's a bummer, that the traditional concept of THE ALBUM, seems to be slowly fading from the collective consciousness, in other ways, it's actually gotten lots of folks to listen to music they've had forever, but had maybe forgotten all about, and shuffle is the best thing to happen to deep cuts EVER. How often does some track start playing, and you're forced to check and see who it is, and it ends up being some band you love, some record you love, but it's a track hidden away mid record. And the other thing we've noticed is how much you end up listening to records that are in your iTunes RIGHT AFTER one of your favorite records, there's that record you always listen to, which inevitably leads right into whatever comes next alphabetically, and bam, that next record is suddenly a new favorite too. Something similar happened at work, where one of the computers had an iTunes full of music, and there were certain records we listen to all the time, and like above, one of those records would play right into the next, and EVERY time, we would have to check and see what it was, and every time, it was a band called Magdalena Solis, so we checked the store, and the website, and we had never carried it. A mystery of sorts. Quickly solved when we discovered that it was sent to us by two awesome aQ customers, Wouter and Terje, thinking we'd like it, and boy did we, we LOVED it in fact, so much so that we tracked down the band, and then the label, and finally got actual copies for ourselves, and for YOU. And trust us, it was well worth the wait.
The sound of Magdalena Solis hovers somewhere between psychedelic space rock and kosmische krautdrone, which means it's pretty much EXACTLY what we love, hazy, washed out drifts of dense distorted wah wah guitars, swirling FX, Eastern melodies, hushed angelic female vox, minimal drums, most of the tracks, pulsing and drifting and shimmering, and when there are drums, it's more sort of a blissed out, percussion laced spacedronedrift, take "Seven Boys And Seven Girls" the drums a simple motorik pulse, the main melody looped and cyclical, the whole thing wrapped in effects-heavy swirls of distorted synth and psych guitar buzz, the sound building to a seriously blown out cacophony, only to settle right back down again, leading into the comparatively contemplative "Cities Crumbling Planets Growing", a sitar soaked stretched of billowy low end, and distant sci-fi squiggle, barely there guitars slowly build into something, thick and fierce and spaced out and dreamily distorted.
The whole record is a series of smoldering slow build space drone epics, heavily layered landscapes of swirling synths, wheezing organs, skittery percussion, lush warm sonic swells, all wreathed in thick swaths of serious psych guitar, the sound constantly shifting from tranquil and dreamlike, to blown out and druggy/droney and way tripped out, heady and hypnotic and easily some of the best kaleidoscopic kosmische space/drone/psych we've heard. Most definitely recommended for fans of White Hills, Grails, the Alps, Expo 70, Gnod, Carlton Melton, Bong, Lumerians, White Noise Sound, Spacemen 3 and other droney, druggy psychedelic drifters...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, comes with a download code.
Elsewhere on this list we're reviewing the vinyl reissue of a long out off print cd-r featuring an AQ wet dream collaboration between Australia's Grey Daturas and Portland's (formerly SF's) Yellow Swans. Here we have a similar match up, but instead of those two bands butting heads in a dense noisy free for all, Maggoted is the secret rendezvous of just two like minded souls. Rob Mayson from the Grey Daturas and Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans. You can almost picture the scene. Two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, keyboards, lots of noise, a big glorious ear splitting drone drenched racket, when Pete leans over and whispers in Rob's ear "Psst. You wanna go somewhere, umm, a little less crowded, you know, just you and me?" So the two secret off, and whip up their own private din. 30 minutes of droning grinding industrial free noise ambience, that ends up being as good as anything either one has done on their own.
There's definitely a like-minded approach to sound making shared by the Swans and the Daturas, obvious on their collaboration, and even more evident here when it's just one on one. Huge slabs of corrosive distorted whir, are separated by stretches of haunting tranquility, peppered with strange little sonar like tones, sort of industrial, a definite creeped out dark ambience, grinding and lumbering like Godflesh with all the metal removed, leaving nothing but a huge dense amorphous heaviness. By the end of the first 15 minute tracks, all the subtle dynamics and mysterious industrialism has been swallowed up completely by sheets of white noise and squalls of brutal hiss. The second 15 minute track follows a similar pattern. A dreamy muted drift, with boiling teapot high end skree way in the background, a moaning minimal drone right underneath, wavering and warbling below, with soft fluttering notes and lower register melodies drifting and swirling like whisps of black smoke. As the two meander darkly through this subtle sound world, a distant wave of white noise and damaged electronics threatens to overtake them, building into a frothing fury, before completely burying them in a thick swirl of cracked glitch and buzz and wild whipping streaks of grinding guitarnoise. Woah!
Packaged in a cool blue on black handscreened sleeve with photocopied insert.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, OF WHICH WE GOT ABOUT 40!!
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Ultra sick gore grind from Japan via aQ faves Bathtub Shitter. Ahh, the magic words for folks around here. Lord knows we love any and all Bathtub Shitter, so we were super excited when we heard about the band Maggut featuing folks from the 'Shitter. Total old school, nineties, downtuned, cookie monster vocals, death gore grind. We love it! Sometimes nothing hits the spot quite like 16 tracks, each averaging about 90 second, of bowel eviscerating, throat shredding, scalp peeling hypergrind, song titles like "Circle Of Maggots", "Frozen Gut", "Cannibal Carnival", "Vicious Vivit Vomit", and a vocalist who sounds like a rabid dog about to tear your throat out. Maggut are ultra tight and super heavy, with massively thick riffs, a killer production, and an appropriate taste for gore, from the lyrics right down to the Carcass homage cover art!
This may just be our new favorite record (though, it's not that new -- we've had 'em here for months but they sorta slipped thru the cracks, review-wise, until now). Which is not at all what we were expecting. Not even remotely. The first solo release from ex-Acid Mothers Temple axeman and Acid Mothers Temple soul collective member Magic Aum Gigi, MMMM is not just another AMT related psych rock freakout. As much as we do dig almost everything AMT release, we are definitely filled to overflowing with their endless barrage of tripped out psychedelic rock. So it was with some trepidation that we prepared to review yet -another- Acid Mothers Temple related release, the 30th or 40th in the last year maybe. But HO-LEE SHIT! This record completely blew our minds. When we cracked this open, a big triangular insert fell out, printed on it was a circle with the words "Raga Metal" inside, and on each corner were the words "drone", "trip" and "music." And damn if that ain't exactly what this is. DRONE TRIP MUSIC. Or RAGA METAL. Both only begin to describe the blissy heaviness and abstract beauty of this disc.
Gorgeous, fuzzy Tim Hecker sort of blurry guitars, doused in tons of distortion and reverb, until the riffs are just indistinct blurs, almost like listening to My Bloody Valentine through a transistor radio under your pillow, all murky and muddy but still gloriously melodic and epic. But beyond that, the riffs and thick swirls of sound constantly drop out, glitching into brief crackling silences before stuttering back into motion, like it was recorded on some old, super degrade tape, or as if the needle keeps slipping off the vinyl or some dizzying combination of both. Like an even more lo-fi, metallicized William Basinski, or a blissed out dronier Faxed Head. It ends up being as much about the music as it does about the strange distortions and mysterious drop outs. Like some EVP transmission from beyond, rendered in fuzz guitars and looped murky rhythms. A super distorted slab of metallic dreammusic drenched in hiss and buzz and recorded onto a thrift store cassette with using a toy tape recorder with dying batteries. So goddamn beautiful. And we only have a few, and only will ever have these few, as it's on the out of print wagon now.
We proudly proclaimed Magic Aum Gigi's last lp, the mind blowing MMMM, to be our new favorite record when we reviewed it a while back, a dense blast of "raga metal" that pushed ALL our buttons. So we were super psyched when we heard there was a brand new lp, which is way different, but just as cool.
Magic Aum Gigi is a Frenchman, and honorary member of the Acid Mothers Temple extended soul collective, but the music he makes on his own is well removed from the blown out psych of the AMT mothership. You won't find any raga metal here, instead, four extended tracks, each created with a single instrument or sound. From the Ash Ra homage on the cover, we knew we were in for something hypnotic and tripped out.
The opener is worth the price of admission alone, the first half of side one is solo Jew's harp, heavily affected and processed, the twang and buzz looped into an epic expanse of Reichian rhythmic pulses, rife with all sorts of strange and subtle variations and sonic overtones, some so percussive it ends up sounding like some alien robotic transmission. Fans of Daniel Higgs' Jew's harp record will go nuts. And any one into dense looped drones will be in heaven. We could listen to just that track forever.
The second track, and the rest of the first side is a mumbled soundscape assembled from just voices, a background glottal buzz, an undercurrent of rapid syllabic sibilance, all blurred and looped until the voices just sound like haunting tones, deftly arranged into slow shifting rhythms and sweeping moody arrangements. Cool.
The flip side begins with a piece for just synthesizer, and is a crazy tangled chunk of chaotic sound, like a squiggly spaceship harpsichord gone haywire, garbled melodies, synth buzz, all atonal and slippery, dizzying and confusional, a bit like some stately Medieval court music, brought to the future and played by malfunctioning computers. Finally the record finishes off with a piece for just guitar, a gorgeous muted percussive drift, the notes all attack and very little decay, an ultra pizzicato assemblage of melodies, pulses and thumps, delayed and reverbed and woven into tranced out krautrocklike rhythms. So awesome.
ULTRA LIMITED! Only 200 copies!!
What to say? It's a reunion of Captain Beefheart's legendary Magic Band, sans the Captain, but with John "Drumbo" French doing his best impression of Don Van Vliet on the mic in his stead. Along with Drumbo, Mark "Rockette Morton" Boston, Gary "Mantis" Lucas, and Denny "Feelers Reebo" Walley are on board for this 17-song assortment of classic Beefheart tunes. As you might expect, these guys are still excellent musicians, and the songs are still as weird and angular as ever, it's just that age has seemingly tamed a bit of their wildness. That and the relatively comfortable recording environs they enjoy now, instead of the cruel taskmaster conditions under which they were directed by Vliet originally, probably takes off a bit of the edge. Mostly, we think maybe this would have been a bit more intriguing if there were no vocals -- or if Drumbo didn't emulate Beeheart's gravelly voice so closely. I mean, it's kinda weird -- why not see how these songs would sound with a different style of singing? Or at least take the Beefheart impression to an over the top extreme, maybe make it more of a black metal rasp or death metal grunt (Andee's suggestion) -- THAT would have been cool. We can definitely see the appeal of this reunion to Beefheart fans in the live context -- it's the closest you'll get in this day and age to actually seeing/hearing live Beefheart for sure. (The Beefheart vocal impression makes sense in that context.) But why exactly would you listen to this at home, instead of an old Beefheart album? Novelty I suppose, and curiosity, and some excitement that this music still "lives" in a sense. Excitement that is evident in the effusive liner notes penned by Matt Groening, a fan who is perhaps less put off by the seeming contrivance of this release than we were. Hey, it's not bad -- but it is what it is. If this was a new band, we'd probably be pretty into it, though we'd be wondering why the heck that guy is singing like that. So, all you Beefheart maniacs, we've got this if you want it!
If we were talent scouts for Slumberland records we'd be jumping all over San Francisco's Magic Bullets, who hit the scene with this self released 12", filled with a dreamy and dramatic '80s indie-pop sensibility. We're reminded a bit of the great Pains Of Being Pure At Heart record on Slumberland that we've been pretty addicted to, but there is something a bit more brooding and bittersweet in the sounds of Magic Bullets. A strong Smiths sensibility shines through these four songs for sure, and while everyone seems to be going the fuzz-pop route these days it's actually kind of refreshing right now to hear these flowing dreamy-pop nuggets that soar so nicely on their own without relying on lo-fidelity fuzz for instant credibility. We're sure these guys wish they could have come of age in the early '80s Manchester scene but we're super happy they are here now creating songs that while nod to that era still sound so fresh and relevant. We're kicking ourselves for missing their recent show opening for The Homosexuals and Brilliant Colors, but if this 12" is any indicator we're gonna be hearing lots more from these Magic Bullets. The band only pressed a limited amount of these records and they each come with a free download card so you can crank these jams on your iPod!
Great single from this awesome 80's inspired indie-pop band.
While Pains Of Being Pure At Heart perfectly tap into the breezy and carefree side of '80s glory in the vein of The Smiths, the Magic Bullets reside in a similar territory but there is more of an emotional urgency imbedded in their songs. We loved their debut 12" from last year, and when we heard they lost one of their members to the band Girls, we were worried that that meant the end of Magic Bullets. But luckily that is not the case as they have this brand new album and a new 7" (reviewed next time!) and the songs are sounding even more confident, catchy and punchy. While The Smiths are the band we're sure they'll get compared to the most, we actually hear much more of a Housemartians influence in their sound, which we think is awesome as we've always been surprised that the Housemartians never experienced the huge revival of praise and attention that they totally deserve. Magic Bullets have this great ability to tap into the best of romantic Manchester pop, yet never sound like a tribute or nostalgic act, as their songs are crafted so well with hooks and melodies that have been making us sway and swoon with total delight.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Magic Carpathians, or Projekt Karpaty Magiczne if you prefer, are the Polish experimental-ambient-ethno-folk duo (augmented by various guests) that developed out of the similarily minded avant-hippy outfit Atman.
In their psychedelic, eco-centered songcraft you may encounter field recordings of nature, the vocals of Anna Nacher (who, we're told, runs a workshop for women only called "reclaiming the voice"), harmonium, guitar, various ethnic instruments, and even some electronic sequencing. Anna and her Magic Carpathian partner Marekk Styczynski have recently been doing a lot of soundtrack work for documentaries on Polish television, including a show about Baltic aquatic wildlife, the cd of which we listed not long ago (Baltyckie Szepty -- we still have a few in stock). Those recordings of Baltic seals splashing and moaning are reprised here, giving this new album (their third) a kind of Chris Watson-meets-Ghost feel... The resulting music is beautiful, strange, and powerful (in a gentle, mellow way).
The saga of The Magic Carpathians, formed by Anna Nacher and Marek Stycznski and using a revolving cast of guest musicians continues to explore traditional Eastern and Central European folk, blended with an eerie psych-drone that never fails to be compelling and moving. This latest, putting tabla and bass center stage on many tracks, evokes both their regional and psychic influences, creating a deep, noisy atmospheric triumph.
Ecological and feminist-minded avant-hippie Polish ethno-drone-folk-rock outfit the Magic Carpathians are back with, I think, their fifth album. We've been fans of these Terrastock-style sonic explorers since their days as Atman, and even had 'em play in in-store here at Aquarius a year or two ago, which was very cool. This new disc is more of their experimental Eastern European psychedelic "rock" music: dark and primal, with lots of repetition and drone. The Carpathians really mix things up as usual bringing in jazz bass, cello, gongs, squeaking baby toys, acoustic guitar, signalling trumpet, and more. And it's quite an international production, with portions recorded live in Varanasi India, others in galleries in Poland, with some remixes done here in California by the rhBand.
All songs of course feature the voice of Anna Nacher, who really gets wild on some of this, giving this a bit of a Bjork-gone-bonkers-gone-Balkan flavor...indeed her dramatic 20th century classical style shrieking sometimes sounds like someone from a Luigi Nono composition -- or even Keiji Haino!! Haunting stuff, even when she sounds like the Knights Who Say Ni on the track "/dark/". But she can be mellow and melodic as well. Still, this disc might be the creepiest and most 'difficult' of the Carpathian's albums yet.
The Polish avant-hippy experimental ethno-folk duo (got that?) the Magic Carpathians release their first domestic US disc, quickly following up their recent import-only "Denega" album (and coinciding with their first ever US tour, which featured an appearance
For the listener who craves the deep, warm, dark green and forest brown, fog-drenched Indian influenced psychedelia that chartered its way out of San Francisco in the late sixties / early seventies, this reissue of the Magic Carpet�s debut record will ring a true chord. True, the band hailed from the UK” nowhere near the flower children of the Haight, but their brand of "Eastern Psych Folk" is close kin to After Bathing At Baxter�s era Jefferson Airplane (a seriously underrated record) and calls to mind the Bay Area folk revival scene going on today. In a time of Devendra Banhart�s elfin freakiness, Joanna Newsom�s evil-angel resurrections, and the resurgence of interest in Vashti Bunyan, the Magic Carpet�s 1972 lost classic could not sound fresher. Alisha Sufit is a resurrecting chanteuse whose dark voice is crystal clear and mesmerizing; Clem Alford�s sitar playing is top notch and truly psychedelic. The songs come as old friends (our favorite: "Father Time") and hang in the air as mysteries, leading to the sweet 20+ minute instrumental raga not found on the original release. Top notch rainy day music, and for those so inclined, a perfect bong stuffer for the holidays. (Review courtesy of AQ pal and Birdman label boss David Katznelson.)
These guys have been getting a ton of hype lately, not to mention some controversy, and not necessarily because of their music, although that has something to do with it. These modern doomlords have a classic sound not that far removed from say, Black Sabbath or Pagan Altar or Witchfinder General - lumbering, true doom riffage, and some seriously wailing Ozzyish vocals - which is nothing new obviously, but these guys caused quite a stir cuz this true doom combo is in fact made up of a handful of Boston hardcore luminaries, guys who used to play in Mind Eraser, Rival Mob, Battle Ruins and Doomriders. So that fact had punk rockers crying sell out and metalheads crying poser, certainly everybody kind of shocked/surprised. And while there remains not a shred of their punk past, really, metalheads have nothing to complain about, just give "Scream Evil" a listen. Holy shit, who thought these punks had it in them? Especially the vocalist, who manages to conjure up a killer Ozzy beholden wail, without falling in to the Sabbath copycat trap lots of other doom vocalists seem unable to avoid. It's hard to say exactly what it is, but the phrasing is different, and the timbre of his voice, more rough and raspy, which gives these songs a different kind of emotion and energy, and a raw urgency. And heck, let's not forget about the riffs, which KILL. When you're done with "Scream Evil", give "Magic Circle" a try. There a distinctive pop element running throughout, making the songs crazy catchy, besides being heavy, and sorta psychedelic, the overall sound is actually quite minimal, the occasional classic metal lead, some harmonized guitars once in a while, but lots of tempo shifts, the band not afraid to crank it up, "Magic Circle" morphs into "Cloven In Two", which adds some serious swing, slipping into something very NWOBHM sounding. And "Scream Evil" too, gets downright rocking, launching into some metallic pound that sounds more like Angel Witch.
Those two tracks, originally released on a super limited 7" are buried WAY deep on the record, but opener "Winter Light" sets the stage just fine, with it's slithery downtuned main riff, a classic doomy dirge, and those vocals soaring over the top, a killer chorus, the whole thing darkly psychedelic and totally epic, as are the other three tracks, the most notable being the furious galloping onslaught of "Rapture" which almost has a Tokyo Blade feel too it, and has some seriously kick ass lead guitar, that sounds super processed and tripped out, but "Conquering Nocturnity" is pretty amazing too, another jam that sounds like it could have been transported here from back in the day, classic, soaring, majestic, emotional doom of the highest order. Fuck the haters, the doomlords around here have been digging this like crazy, and all you aQ-ers into true doom, past and present, enter the Magic Circle!
NOW ON VINYL!!!
These guys have been getting a ton of hype lately, not to mention some controversy, and not necessarily because of their music, although that has something to do with it. These modern doomlords have a classic sound not that far removed from say, Black Sabbath or Pagan Altar or Witchfinder General - lumbering, true doom riffage, and some seriously wailing Ozzyish vocals - which is nothing new obviously, but these guys caused quite a stir cuz this true doom combo is in fact made up of a handful of Boston hardcore luminaries, guys who used to play in Mind Eraser, Rival Mob, Battle Ruins and Doomriders. So that fact had punk rockers crying sell out and metalheads crying poser, certainly everybody kind of shocked/surprised. And while there remains not a shred of their punk past, really, metalheads have nothing to complain about, just give "Scream Evil" a listen. Holy shit, who thought these punks had it in them? Especially the vocalist, who manages to conjure up a killer Ozzy beholden wail, without falling in to the Sabbath copycat trap lots of other doom vocalists seem unable to avoid. It's hard to say exactly what it is, but the phrasing is different, and the timbre of his voice, more rough and raspy, which gives these songs a different kind of emotion and energy, and a raw urgency. And heck, let's not forget about the riffs, which KILL. When you're done with "Scream Evil", give "Magic Circle" a try. There a distinctive pop element running throughout, making the songs crazy catchy, besides being heavy, and sorta psychedelic, the overall sound is actually quite minimal, the occasional classic metal lead, some harmonized guitars once in a while, but lots of tempo shifts, the band not afraid to crank it up, "Magic Circle" morphs into "Cloven In Two", which adds some serious swing, slipping into something very NWOBHM sounding. And "Scream Evil" too, gets downright rocking, launching into some metallic pound that sounds more like Angel Witch.
Those two tracks, originally released on a super limited 7" are buried WAY deep on the record, but opener "Winter Light" sets the stage just fine, with it's slithery downtuned main riff, a classic doomy dirge, and those vocals soaring over the top, a killer chorus, the whole thing darkly psychedelic and totally epic, as are the other three tracks, the most notable being the furious galloping onslaught of "Rapture" which almost has a Tokyo Blade feel too it, and has some seriously kick ass lead guitar, that sounds super processed and tripped out, but "Conquering Nocturnity" is pretty amazing too, another jam that sounds like it could have been transported here from back in the day, classic, soaring, majestic, emotional doom of the highest order. Fuck the haters, the doomlords around here have been digging this like crazy, and all you aQ-ers into true doom, past and present, enter the Magic Circle!
RSI is another UK label trafficking in difficult and totally original electronic music (like countrymates Fflint Central). It's a shame that they only make cd-rs. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be able to sell 1000 cds, but it hardly makes a difference, because this stuff is so good.
This is easily the most difficult of the bunch. An honest to goodness noise record. Well, sort of. It begins with chopped up opera singers (not literally), stuttering blue note drum loops and skittering high hats that, by track two, has turned into a noisy sort-of-rhythm, with squealing high end electonic reeds, and skull scraping, ultra distorted bursts of Merzbow-ish NOISE that coalese into some sort of sadistic barely discernable breakbeat! Even the 'quiet' track is built from eye watering sine waves and subsonic, speaker shredding low end. Totally brutal, and totally fucking great.
Vast celestial ventures, blinding cosmic rays, rhythmic inductions, psych jams from another planet! Well, not exactly another planet. Sun soaked Long Beach locals, Magic Lantern have generated quite the buzz over the last year or so after a steady output of limited cdr's and tapes.� We managed to catch one of their kraut-bliss live sets over the summer and we were really blown away. High Beams, their first vinyl release, is a finely crafted representation of Magic Lantern's sheer psychedelic power. Heavy blistering riffs swimming in a primordial ooze of spaced out organ, ripping solos, and luring drones.�By far the most solid and impressive recording we've heard from these dudes.�A fully engaging experience, High Beams maintains a nice balance between more intense, freak out, explosive-type jams and mellow, soft-daze meanderings. Pressed in an edition of 500 by the Not Not Fun family, this album is a must have for fans of anything cosmic! Trust us, you need this!
Damn. If we didn't know better, we'd swear this was some obscure late '60s psych platter reissued by Shadoks or something. But nope, LA's Magic Lantern (featuring the guitar and keyboard talents of astral traveller Cameron Stallones, the man behind aQ faves Sun Araw) are real and current, and the uninitiated will be scratching their heads in amazement, while those who dug any of the band's past work will find no complaints either. The band expertly channels the sounds of Amon Duul II, Ash Ra Tempel, and blown out Japanese psych, and it's almost uncanny just how "authentic" these guys sound - wah wah pedals, dense organ, grooving krauty basslines, stony non-vocals, and drumming that is, as they say "in the pocket" - all that shit is the LAW here. And while these elements can very often lead to bad bad things, Magic Lantern sidestep whatever tends to snag so many bands, and instead they just kick complete ass. Let's face it, not many bands these days can pull off being, uh, "funky". But a good deal of the songs on Platoon fall into that category, and we seriously can't get enough. Magic Lantern do their thing, and they do it well. The spacious production courtesy of Bobb Bruno (Robedoor, Goliath Bird Eater, Best Coast, and a shit-ton more) certainly suits these songs well, giving them a nice thick haze to swirl about in. It has a nice live feeling to it, and while we're at it, Christ, this band must just destroy live (though it appears they may be on hiatus, bummer). Maybe this might be a bit jammy for some people, but if you like this kind of thing, you will love Magic Lantern.
The cd version of Platoon contains two bonus that comprised the recent Showstoppers 7".
Magic Leaves has all the elements of things we love to listen to on Sundays. Sunny pop, soft psych-tinged harmonies, and catchy songs that get stuck in our heads for days. Reminiscent of Emitt Rhodes, Paul McCartney and Olivia Tremor Control, Magic Leaves are a more simplified lo-fi heir-apparent to the Beatlesy pop we often go nuts for, but no less charming. A very sweet debut!
Holy shit! The year is just starting but this record (um, cassette) by Magic Leaves is going to find itself on some of our year end best of lists in 11 months or so for sure, as this is totally blowing us away. We had heard some cd-r's by this Bay Area group in the past, but nothing prepared us for the psychedelic wonderland they have created here.
Their music really does fit their name so perfect as it sounds like glimmering sunlight bouncing through the leaves of some crooked old tree in some mysterious magical forest. Expansive and so creative, they take several twists and turns on these eight songs, tapping into everything from Dead Meadow, Ariel Pink, Led Zeppelin, The Fresh & Onlys, Ducktails, Moon Duo,�Caetano Veloso, and The Meat Puppets. From tropical vibrations, to darker stoner riffs, to blissed out explorations, every track on here has taken us to somewhere we are so happy to be. So fucking good!
New side project / 'supergroup' from Black Heart Procession and 764 Hero.
Bobby from Charles Brown Superstar wields some impressive synthesizers. There's something for everyone here, from Gary Numan-style powercheese to CB Superstar-ish pop to depressed drone.
Yet another full length from the crazy prolific Tim Cohen, mastermind of SF jangle poppers The Fresh & Onlys as well as the man behind weird one man black metal band Amocoma (released on Andee's tUMULt label), who was STILL not busy enough so started a 'solo' project, which was in fact a band called Tim Cohen's Magic Trick, but for this new album, a couple things have changed, now it's a proper band, right down to the name, and instead of perfect little 2 and 3 minute pop nuggets, this record is four long songs, the sounds shifting and sprawling, Cohen and company stretching out a bit, keeping much of the pop intact, but weaving it into much more expansive and experimental frameworks. This permutation of Magic Trick includes members of Thee Oh Sees, the Sandwitches and Citay, and Cohen and his cohorts unfurl some gorgeously lush folk, all glimmering melodies, hushed vox, strummed acoustic guitars, ethereal harmonies, the sound beholden to classic sixties psych pop for sure, but reimagined and filtered through Cohen's twisted pop lens, the opener jangly and dreamy, a seriously epic pop song, almost prog pop, and then about 10 minutes in the song shifts dramatically, and is transformed into a buzzing drone-y raga, hazy and psychedelic and darkly dreamy. And from there on out, the record continues on in a similar fashion, not shying away from abrupt shifts, or melding disparate sounds, "Daylight Moon" takes a strummy shuffle, and adds all sorts of progginess, some cool start stop arrangements, some jazzy psychedelic freakouts, but all wound around a delicate pop core.
"Clyde" starts out all hushed and strummy, rife with woodwinds, lush vocal harmonies, infused with a dreamy droniness, the song subtly propulsive but growing less so as the song progresses, evolving into a sort of shimmery drift, before the strangely jaunty almost cabaret sounding coda. And finally, "High Heat" begins with some Fahey style American primitive guitar, draped over a buzzing thrum, before slipping into a reverbed skeletal folk, the sound blossoming into something much more lush, almost like some sort of chamber pop, and then again, the song shifts into a dark drum heavy psych folk, almost dirgey, but still impossibly poppy, and laced with vocal ooh's and aah's and swoonsome soaring strings, Cohen and his crew managing what in most hands would be impossible, creating catchy, perfect pop that just so happens to be in the form of 10+ minute long epics. Almost makes us hope he never goes back to the 3 minute pop song...
Awesome campfire indie folk from this new (at least to us) San Francisco band. Stripped down, raw and warm songs that are as intimate as they are intoxicating. Their sound brings to mind a lot of our favorite tender records that were coming out of the Pacific Northwest in the late '90s by folks like Rose Melberg, Kaia, Sarah Dougher, and Lois, as well as displaying hints of a darker disposition, sort of like a more twee Cat Power or Edith Frost.
We've got a feeling their future releases will be more fleshed out and include more instrumentation, but we are really digging how stripped down this sounds, allowing the beautiful vocals and sincere songs to stand on their own.
The tape comes with a digital download as well.
We recognize that probably only people who've been looking for these five cds ever since they were first released in limited and expensive form in Japan almost ten years ago are likely to want to pay nearly $120 for this box set reissue, and they already know
In 1993, Japanese label Mom & Dad promised to release fifteen discs chronicling the unreleased studio recordings of Tokyo psych legend Magical Power Mako, but were only able to produce the first five. Israel-based MIO has decided to take on the project and will release three box sets containing five discs each. The material that makes up Hapmoniym 1972-1975 was recorded while Mako was working on his second masterpiece for Polydor, "Super Record". Often compared to krautrock pioneers Faust, this collecton is an incredible assemblage of sound experiments, collage pieces, tape manipulations and astral folk-psychedelia so epic and so out, one might be so bold to state that Hapmoniym as a whole even surpasses the density and innovation of the mighty Faust Tapes. And he was only a wee sixteen years old on the earliest of these recordings! Andee is especially fond of disc two, the part where it sounds like Jimi Hendrix jamming with a meowing cat. Keiji Haino fans take note as he appears on disc one, on possibly his most spaced out psychedelic trip ever. We await the remaining two 5-disc volumes with curiousity and excitement (and, patience). We do, however, have to scold MIO for a slight problem with the packaging: the 5 discs are in slim cd5 cases inside a little red cardboard box, with a booklet as well. It looks handsome, but each disc has its own unnecessary obi that doesn't really fit anywhere in the package once opened, but that of course you can't throw away, either, if you're like us. Oh well. We also could have done with more English language text in the booklet, it's mostly the original Japanese liner notes.
Mako is truly one of the most masterful musical minds behind some of the best psychedelic sounds that came out of Japan in the '70s, a relatively unsung hero of that scene. While his project Magical Power Mako certainly produced other records that are noisier, weirder, more abstract and fucked up, there is no doubt that the 1975 album Super Record is his absolute tour de force! An album that left many of us stunned upon our first encounter with it. It's one of those records that exemplifies what you really want in a psychedelic record, filled with a wide range of textures and mystical sounds from across the globe that take you on a journey and make you forget where you are.
Super Record melts into an unforgettable washed out pastoral setting as it glides and floats through different terrain of dripping colors and hallucinatory smoke. Like the best psychedelic albums of this era, Super Record is an absolute start to finish experience, with different interludes laced with lute, harmonica, melodica, charged fuzzed out guitar all in a ceremonial tone which creates a mood and vibe that would be at home in a film by Jodorowsky or Antonioni.
Think of some mind melting combination of Ash Ra Temple, Bo Hansson, early '70s Pink Floyd, Jean-Claude Vannier, and a dash of The Incredible String Band and you start to get a picture of the kind of musical magic that is happening on Super Record. We also get the feeling that some of our favorite modern day psych music makers like The Alps, Blues Control, and Dungen have all been influenced by the brilliance of this album as well. Super and magical!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another one we never got around to reviewing for some reason. A home brewed psychedelia, fusing Eastern melodies, psych folk shimmer, strange electronics, cinematic soundscapes and dense layered noisiness, using a crazy assortment of instruments, and not-exactly-instruments, including pump organ, voice, contact mics on faulty electrical lines, melodica, toys, iron balls rolling on wooden floors, accordion, cellophane, air cans, tape decks for the blind, guitar, shruti box and lots more. Twisted droney avant folk noise weirdness that is definitely right up our alley...
In the world of Magick Markers this release on the Gulcher label is perhaps most notable for being their first ever professionally manufactured compact disc. Yup, it's a fact! Up until now the band has had their music released on cassette tapes, cd-rs, and oh one vinyl lp on Ecstatic Peace (aka that label run by that fellow Thurston Moore). So, this is certainly a cause celebre for... someone. Musically, this very long-titled album is a disorderly heap of chunks and slabs of noisy guitar shambles that some folks might consider a distant relative of No Wave, but methinks that comparison would imply more compositional structure and form and organization than the Magick Markers have mustered here. File under: electric guitar dysentery. Note: although they've listed a whole slew of song titles ("Jung Knew Enough To Shut Up" is one of them), this is actually two 19+ minute long tracks (i.e, the individual songs aren't indexed).
