[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 2401 through 2450 of 3006.

Soundtracks to two Morricone-scored films, on cd for the first time.

I have become completely obsessed with Chris Morris. He makes me sad. Sad that we don't have anyone nearly as funny in the United States. He's been a staple of British radio / television for years now. And it seems like since day one, he's been trying to get himself blackballed. Or killed. His BBC program The Day Today, was a Today Show parody. Complete with a washed up, neurotic weatherman (the also amazing Steve Coogan), a narcissistic and completely cruel host (Morris), and a gorgeous and ice cold business reporting babe that spoke in complete gibberish. After The Day Today was cancelled, came Brass Eye, one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. This time a parody of evening news programs like 48 Hours or 60 Minutes, taking things even further. The goal of this show seemed to be to publically humiliate trusted government officials and public figures (quite successfully we should add) and contributed to Brass Eye's rather brief run. Then came Blue Jam, a totally surreal and unstructured radio show. featuring bizarre (and often offensive) free association / high (low) concept skits over music from a who's who of modern electronica / trip hop (Later turned into an even more unstructured television program called Jam. loosely adapted from the radio show). The Blue Jam cd is basically the best bits from the Blue Jam radio show, featuring Chris Morris and a few other folks, eating and killing and arguing and shitting off their limbs (?) over music from Labradford, Propellerheads, Amon Tobin, Funki Porcini, Herbaliser, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Fila Brazillia, 9lazy9, Clifford Gilberto, Jimi Tenor, and more. Until we can get Brass Eye over here, Chris Morris comes to you only via Blue Jam, quite possibly the funniest headphone mindfuck ever.

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Boston-based guitar improviser Joe Morris busts out the steel-string acoustic for this solo set, which doesn't really sound too far removed from his electric excursions, since he's known for his clean, bright, effects-less sound. In fact, the twang and resonance of the steel-string seems *more* distorted than other stuff of his we've heard. Anyway, this is a nice, mesmerizing,

RealAudio clip: Shape

This is the most beautiful movie we have ever seen. EVER. And it is so appropriately Aquarius. Similar to how we love records buried in shortwave interference and vinyl hiss, and embrace all the crackle and pops and skips that add such depth and color to otherwise sterile recordings, Decasia takes that same tack with the visual. Compiled entirely from found film stock that had been archived and for the most part improperly stored, this is a gorgeous and meditative collage of stirring images, made even more so by the chemical reactions that threaten to overtake the images on screen, like some sort of plague or demon. Grainy and rich, the films have been affected in all sorts of beautiful ways by the elements: changing colors, stuttering frames, amorphous shapes, rotting filmstock with pure light shining through and every permutation in between. Obviously visually stunning, but equally thrilling is the score performed by the Bang On A Can Ensemble who in composing and performing this, simulated sonic decay by detuning their instruments and using prepared pianos. The result is totally haunting and absolutely mesmerising. My girlfriend's uncle showed me a film once called Alexander Nevsky by the late great Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, an epic tale of Russian resiliance. He had gone to great lengths to find a restored copy, where both the picture and the score had been repaired and now looked and sounded as close to flawless as was possible. I finally discovered a copy for myself, but it was an early version, not restored, with all sorts of visual detritus, and the sound was really scratchy and fuzzy and often indistinct. But it was so much better than the restored version, like a lost artifact (which it sort of was) finally unearthed, a mysterious glimpse into another time, the years and years imprinted on the film like the lines on an aging face, or the green cast of tarnished copper. Decasia celebrates deterioration and disintegration in very much the same way, letting time and nature run its course and simply observing the natural beauty inherent in decay.

Whoa, this is really... something! This cd is subtitled "40 one minute BIO-VIGNETTES by BILL MORRISON Recorded in 1971". And yes, it certainly is. So, who the heck is The Balloon Man? Well, we're certain that he's not Bill Morrison the filmmaker who made Decasia, nor is he Bill Morrison the videographer/musician who plays with Skinny Puppy. Nope, they're different fellows altogether. This Bill Morrison was a real 'one-of-a-kind' -- a peculiar nightclub performer who back in '71 concocted the idea of pre-taped one minute long radio shows. He believed they would make for a lucrative career move. Problem was, no one else at the time agreed. And it's not really all that hard to see why. But we know as well as you, that there's just not enough stuff like this in the world. If only we were around (well AQ was, but WE weren't) to stand up and proudly proclaim the... um... brilliance of this wacked and damaged disc. A Morrison minute can range from a totally focussed yet still absurd commentary to a completely oblique bizarre tangent. Along the way he touches on subject matter such as cars, brain tumors, coats, rectal disease, Leonardo DaVinci, wanting to stay in the womb when he was being born, and yes balloons. Hear him chuckling to himself about the how-to's of balloon blowing, getting himself riled up about blowing up balloons in different social situations, hollering a short phrase like "I sometimes think I should be! Y'know!" or "Oh oh oh oh oooh oooooooooh!" repeatedly until he's filled up the 60 seconds, and assorted other funny voices, noises and yuks. Sometimes he even continues to rant right over the cheery banjo'n'horn theme music that ends each vignette. Be sure to read the segments' titles, they're a hoot all by themselves! "Leftover Turkey", "Simple Balloon Animals: a Sequence", "Sex Between The Big Toe", "Make A Balloonskin Coat", "Bleeding Salmon", "In The Water But There's Something But You"! So yeah, you might've guessed the shows never aired. A year later along came Mal Sharpe (of the inimitable, 1960's absurdist men-on-the-street Coyle & Sharpe -- if you haven't done so yet, please do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with this duo... seriously!) who decided to make a short film about this Balloon Man. Now jump ahead over thirty years, and Sharpe's daughter Jennifer has just released those long-unheard recordings on cd. Whew! These forty unrelenting minutes could almost be a fairground attraction. How much can you take? Last 'til "Leftover Turkey" win a pencil! Last 'til "Go Climb A Rock" win a pair of socks! Last 'til "Balloon Man Take Me To Wherever You Are Going" win a date with Balloon Man! Okay, not quite. One thing though, be sure to listen to it in a relatively quiet setting 'cause if your space is even remotely noisy you'll probably only be able to hear random mumbles, hoots and guffaws between the much more, ahem, stable crystal clear theme music.� Very limited edition of 300 packaged in very sharp lookin' (oops, no pun intended) letterpress printed covers.

MPEG stream: Sex Between The Big Toe
MPEG stream: Balloon Person's Birth

Having been released both in excerpt and complete form at various times in the past, the Mad God... label has decided to take a stab as well as part of their Celebrities At Their Worst series. The story goes that Bert Berns, who ran the label "Bang" on which

RealAudio clip: The Big Royalty Check
RealAudio clip: Want A Danish
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Four years have passed since his last album Maladjusted, and it's comforting to know that Morrissey still sounds like Morrissey. Ever passionate, slightly poncy and petulant, he's always been the man with a brimming breast pocket full of wry metaphors and razor-sharp insult /compliments both self-deprecatory and directed at other. Grand orchestrations of stormy guitars, strings, flute (!) and keyboards provide the lush backdrop for the unmistakable soar and swoop of his voice. Be forewarned though that hearing the lead-off song might leave you wincing and worrying (as we were) that his bitter-bittersweet heartbreak poetry might be in short supply. Granted when you have a history of writing such stunning clever treasures as "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side" and "Girlfriend In A Coma", you've set the bar to a lofty height. Yet on this first song, Morrissey chose to set aside matters of the heart in favor of very pointed socio-political commentary. Suitably jarring, the very first words uttered are "America, your head's too big" (he also sings "America, they brought you the hamburger"!). The directness of his lyric writing is admirable, when it works it's like a graceful arrow piercing your heart, but what it doesn't, it's like a royal pain in the gullet. That said, fret not! Once he gets "America Is Not The World" off his chest it's back to his trademark imploring melancholia and cheeky cynicisms.

MPEG stream: America Is Not The World
MPEG stream: How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?

The follow up to You Are The Quary, a record that many of us felt was probably the best and most charged album Morrisey had made since The Smiths were still around. At this point you either love the man or loath him, but we all lean way more towards the love. He continues to write such great songs, the perfect phrase, wit in tact, heart on sleeve - connecting with that outsider inside all of us. While this isn't quite as great as You Are The Quary this is still a good record for sure. The strong songs are amongst some of the best in his catalog. His dramatic flare on full flame, he even enlisted Ennio Morricone for arrangements on one track. Recently it was reported he turned down five million dollars to reunite The Smiths. Under his larger than life and iconic persona, Morrissey has proven that he does represent integrity, smart songwriting, and being a ringleader for all of us outcasts and underdogs.

MPEG stream: The Youngest Was The Most Loved
MPEG stream: The Father Who Must Be Killed

Something happened to Morrissey when he moved to Los Angeles. It allowed him a new beginning of sorts. For the first time in his career he had dropped out of the limelight, he went almost seven years without releasing a record and for the first time since the beginning of The Smiths he really became a true underdog, and cult figure, gaining a revival of fans who maybe weren't around for the first, Smiths wave of Morrissey mania. When he finally returned with a new record, 2004's You Are The Quarry it really did feel like the triumphant second act to an already dramatic and amazing career. His two records since then have maintained that momentum and Swords collects many of the B-sides and non-album tracks from this era. Many of us who are Morrissey fanatics had grabbed some of the import 7"s that some of these songs come from, which are arguably as strong as any of his album tracks. There's also tons on tracks, not even the most tenacious fans around here were ever able to get their hands on, and all of it has the urgent punch and full sound that his defined his music over the last few albums, which rank up there with some of his best stuff. So many others who once possessed such golden voices really lose it as they grow older, but it's remarkable how intact and spot on Morrissey's vocal delivery has remained. And his songwriting remains utterly clever, strong minded, emotional, political, self deprecating and moving. We really can't think of any of his peers from those early '80s days who have remained so vital in creating great music all these years later.

MPEG stream: It's Hard To Walk Tall When You're Small
MPEG stream: If You Dont Like Me, Dont Look At Me
MPEG stream: Shame Is The Name

While so many of his big name '80s peers have either vanished or started churning out sub-par sounds in recent years (The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, etc.) Morrissey has kept great quality control and has been aging so so gracefully. Years of Refusal might be his most punchy, rocking and self assured solo outing to date. With his golden voice still so warm and rich and powerful and his brutish band offering some muscular back up, this is a set of songs that rely not only on Morrissey's always clever and dramatic word play but the rockin' music backing it up as well! His last album Ringleaders Of The Tormentors, though filled with some great songs, tripped up a bit on its over-ambition and pretension. Years Of Refusal gets it all right, with a sound palette very similar to one of his great recent outings You Are The Quarry. These songs bristle with such natural force and those magical melodies that Morrissey has been creating for over twenty-five years now are in full effect. Even folks here at AQ who are far from being devoted Morrissey fanatics have been digging this big time! And those of us who do have that special place in our hearts for Morrissey are finding this to be such an infectious album that only reaffirms that despite what one might think of his persona or mystique, this is truly one of the greatest songwriters and singers of our generation!

MPEG stream: Something Is Squeezing My Skull
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Holy shit, does this sound like a made-in-hell aQ dreamdate or what? The first filthy sonic offspring of a mutated meeting of the minds, between Mories the mastermind behind longtime aQ faves Gnaw Their Tongues and Aderlating, and the mystery man behind one man Aussie black metal/blacknoize juggernaut Nekrasov, known simply as Bob. Both men specialize in a sick breed of sonic depravity, the soaring orchestral cinematic black doom noise of GTT, the grim harsh buzz of Aderlating, and the noise infused blackness of Nekrasov, but none of that prepared us for the opening track, a haunting near symphonic sprawl of swoonsome strings, laid over a bed of spare percussion, and softly swirling black ambience, a darkly demonic chamber music, that sounds a bit like a satanic Rachel's, or a way more sinister noise drenched Necks, a hushed blackened shuffle, that is gradually subsumed by thick, caustic swaths of crumbling distortion, heaving low end moans and rumbles, the whole thing splintering into a glorious billowing cloud of hellish harsh noise and grim psychedelic blackness. Which is our baptism by black sonic fire, into the warped and harrowing soundworld that is Mors Sonat, nothing so lovely as that opening track, and if anything, the record is like a musical black pit, yawning before you, and with every track, you get farther and farther from the edge, where eventually, fingers bloody and torn, all hopes of clawing your way out have been abandoned, leaving the only hope to continue down, further into the blackness. Thick swirls of hellish voices, buried beneath cascades of black industrial crumble, dense low end rumbles and howls, and splinters into a grinding swirls of blackened shards, long sprawling stretches of slowly decaying power electronics give way to sheets of blacknoise, which in turn give way to dense noisy drones, and soundscapes of abject grey thrum, and terrifying cinematic mystery. There are moments of lightness, subjectively speaking, when compared to most of the records deep black, but those moments are suffused with their own terror, dense and intense, laced with ghostly voices, buried melodies, a strange uneasy oasis surrounded on all sounds by black walls of unstable sound, that can collapse at any moment, and usually do, transforming these small moments of tranquility, into full bore black holes of sonic chaos. Near the end of the record, there's a gorgeous bit of funereal creep, all pounded piano, and grinding blurred staticky ambience, spread out into a haunting expanse of sonic malevolence, lovely but blackly lovely, a final respite, the long slow trudge toward the inexorable end, in the case of Mors Sonat, the final track, an all engulfing blast of hateful, harrowing, feedback drenched white noise terror.

This Swedish progrock supergroup got together to interpret great horror film soundtracks, like Komeda's theme to "Rosemary's Baby" and Frizzi's music from "City Of The Living Dead" and "The Beyond". This should definitely appeal to fans of Goblin (who get covered here too, of course). Includes an amazing, epic 20-minute piece that will even satisfy Godspeed You Black Emperor fans looking for their filmic music fix.

A precocious one, that BJ Nilsen! Morthound (sometimes spelled Morthond on a couple of releases) was Nilsen's project when he was just a teenager, producing some of the more abstract convulsions of dark ambient and collaged electronics that appeared on the seminal Swedish industrial label Cold Meat Industries. This anthology collects the four Morthound / Morthond records recorded from 1991-1994 before Nilsen dropped the moniker in favor of Hazard, through which he matriculated onto Ash International / Touch Music shortly there after. Nilsen appends most of the discs of Mortology with various tracks from the CMI compilations and rounds out the entire collection with a whole disc of unreleased material. Death Time was Nilsen's first outing - a cassette from 1991 on CMI imprint Sound Source - and speaks much beyond the years of a 15 year old kid in Sweden going down to the library to check out sound effects and wildlife recordings to run through his Akai sampler and into a four-track. Along with those source materials, Nilsen also relied heavily on his shortwave radio, whose detuned transmissions and numbers station broadcasts he liberally cut-up into eerie collages full of shadow, drone, and dread. This Crying Age (also from 1991) was the first widely available Morthound cd, with a deep soundtrackish sensibility that recalled more of the early soundtrack work of Graeme Revell / SPK especially the Zamia Lehmanni album with its esoteric / occult mysteriousness through hypnotic, metal klang loops, emotionally somber rumblings, and wispily opiated flute melodies which sporadically graced the dark electronics. In the liner notes, Nilsen explained that he has never wanted to stick within one particular aesthetic, and Spindrift (1992) was very much a departure for Nilsen with this foray into legitimate psychedelic pop, with "Stairhead" being something of a hypno-drone-pop track of glistening guitars and summery organs with much more in common with Ultra Vivid Scene or A.R. Kane than Brighter Death Now! This track is a bit of anomaly as much of the rest of Spindrift is fleshed out with baroque, synthetically orchestral pieces full of John Carpenter / Halloween arpeggiations, David Lynchian themes within the creepy / maudlin scores, and plenty of saddened atmosphere. The final album recorded as Morthound was The Goddess Who Could Make The Ugly World Beautiful (a quote from Taxi Driver, fyi!), finding Nilsen shifting closer to the sound he would soon perfect under the moniker Hazard with stealth-bomber drones and arctic field recordings, but not before unleashing a handful of tracks inspired in equal parts by early Coil and contemporary In Slaughter Natives with a baroque pagan bombast through thrashy guitar riffs and muscular drum programming. The disc of unreleased Morthound material is uniformly bleak, spacious, and eerily abstract. Again, the material here points closer to the Hazard tracks that soon followed; and actually stands as some of the best material that Nilsen recorded during this time period. We have very limited stock on this boxset!

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

SORRY.

What can one say about Mortiis? Hmmm, he's apparently acquired a new set of ears since his last pair were stolen while on tour many moons ago. But one may ask, "has along with his new elfin ears come a new look and sound too?" An emphatic "yes!" From the

RealAudio clip: Spirit In A Vacuum
RealAudio clip: Antimental

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton (1885-1941) is one of the most important musical figures of the twentieth century, a jazz pioneer and a gifted composer during the days of Vaudeville and one of the first musicians to take part in the new revolution in recorded music. A jack of all trades, Morton began his career in show business as a teenager in New Orleans, playing brothels and touring the American South, with later stints in major cities like New York, Chicago, Vancouver, and Washington DC. Along the way, he also racked up experience as a comedian and supposedly even as a pimp. He was also apparently pretty handy with a gun. But moreso with a piano! These recordings were captured in Chicago in 1926 and 1927, showcasing Morton's staggering talents as a pianist, composer, and bandleader. The songs show off a style of "Hot" jazz that will be instantly familiar to many of you, with lots of blaring reed instruments and Morton's rhythmic piano serving as the anchor. The songs are fun, easy going romps with lots of humor thrown in and the occasional raspy Morton vocal. Things flow with a nice drunken sort of feel while still maintaining a high level of energy, with the instruments loping about constantly within the busy arrangements. Fortunately, Morton was given access to recording facilities that had the fidelity to match the complexity of his songs, and things sound great here. A few songs even make use of sound effects like old klaxon horns, which is certainly interesting considering that these may represent some of the earliest uses of non-musical sounds incorporated into commercial recordings. This winner comes to us courtesy of the good folks at Monk and serves as a great introduction to Morton's vast catalog.

New York pianist / composer / instrument builder John Morton has composed 5 pieces based around electronic and physical augmentation of traditional music boxes. Thus, the whirring plinks and tiny melodies of his arsenal of music boxes are central to Morton's work, but have occasionally been modulated by computer synthesis into odd timbres or altered like a prepared piano with

Ultra grim and frosty, gloriously plodding midtempo black metal from Finland, dirgey and completely hypnotic. featuring at least one member of the mighty Horna. This is ultra simple, dense and buzzing, with riffs that are more like static streaks of black buzz, the drums a caveman thud. Most of the tracks here break or come close to breaking the 15 minute mark, and most have no more than two parts, sometimes just one, usually a simple buzz, sometimes a haunting minor key melody, but always drenched in distortion, and always completely mesmerizing and dronelike. These sound like songs that have been playing forever, and will continue to play forever, and we've just stumbled across them, observing them briefly before moving on, leaving Mortualia to buzz and drone into the ether. But it's not just the riffing and the hypnotic plod, the vocals are utterly insane. Not Bethlehem insane, or even Silencer insane, they are much more feral and mewling, the closest we've come to capturing the sound of Mortualia is Burzum meets Oxbow!! An anguished, tortured shriek, equal parts demon, wild animal, and possessed child, draped over an endlessly blown out blackened droning riffscape. So good.

MPEG stream: The Blue Silence
MPEG stream: In Bleak Loneliness

MPEG stream: Penetrations Of Darkness
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12" from the second volume of Select Cuts From Blood & Fire featuring Kid Loco's contribution to the comp, plus a dub mix of his dub.

Some of us were ready to concede the fact that Mos Def may have evolved into a much more important and amazing actor than rapper, but with The Ecstatic he grabs us forcefully and reminds us that he is most definitely still a potent musical force to be reckoned with! Any record that opens with a Malcolm X soundclip and goes right into a song that samples the music of Turkish psych singer Selda is setting the bar pretty high, and Mos Def just keeps pushing that bar higher and higher, as The Ecstatic is his most intense, immediate and powerful record in a long time. The Ecstatic features some of the best hip-hop producers around (Madlib, Oh No, Georgia Ann Muldrow, Mr. Flash and even the late great J Dilla). While those producers help flesh out the strong beats and slightly Eastern vibe, the strength of the album is all about the presence of a rejuvenated Mos Def who sounds so commanding, in control and at ease on the mic. His flow and intensity on the record reminds us of classic Eric B. & Rakim, the kind of hip-hop that hits you hard on first listen but keeps unveiling more of its potency on repeated listens. Can't imagine a better hip-hop record coming out this year. So great!

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MPEG stream: Revelations
MPEG stream: Auditorium (Feat. The Ruler)

It's the much anticipated follow up to his highly acclaimed Black On Both Sides from way back in 1999. By his resume it was looking like Mr. Def was going to continue with his acting career and forsake his brief stint in the music business. With a cameo from Shuggie Otis on guitar, and production from the likes of Kanye West, we thought for sure we were going to hear something great. Did The New Danger meet our (high) expectations? Yes, and no. Some of us here were thrown a bit by how different this eclectic album is from its predecessor. And not everyone is a fan of all the styles that Mos Def throws into the mix on this genre-hopping disc. Whatever the case, others of us and our peeps think this record is one of the best pop music releases of 2004 -- yes, pop. Despite its heavy, slice-of-reality lyrics, and occasional use of metal riffs, this is a pop record. The New Danger flows like a beautifully made mix-tape, moving through a variety of genres with remarkable continuity. From early Funkadelic funk/blues ("Black Jack") to gritty urban hip-hop ("The Rape Over"), to Marvin Gaye-inspired soul ("Modern Marvel") to catchy funk/metal ("Zimzallabim"), Mos Def pulls out all the stops... and manages to combine them into a cohesive whole. Part of that is directly attributable to the extremely talented Black Jack Johnson band that Mos Def has assembled. Talk about street cred, Black Jack Johnson has it all over the place. The roster reads as follows: funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell (P-Funk), drummer Will Calhoun (Living Color), bassist Doug Wimbish (Sugarhill Records, Tackhead, Living Color), and guitar by none other than Gary "Dr. Know" Miller of Bad Brains! These guys insure that no one will ever mistake Black Jack Johnson for Body Count, as they combine taste and restraint along with their considerable chops. There is plenty of fine musicianship, but it's the songs that really stand out. Worrell, in particular, is great on "Freaky Black" which comes off like the best of Schoolly D as rapped over infectious funk-metal all held down by positively filthy funk keyboards. Maybe this record isn't genius, maybe it isn't going to be as influential as Black On Both Sides, and maybe it does make too many concessions to being a pop record (endlessly repeated choruses etc.). The thing that is certain is that "The New Danger" is spectacularly produced, extremely well-played, full of surprises, and relentlessly listenable. This moved into heavy rotation at my house after only a couple of spins, and two weeks later it has yet to disappoint.

MPEG stream: Ghetto Rock
MPEG stream: Sex, Love and Money
MPEG stream: Modern Marvel

DUMBEST IDEA EVER. A special "no art work" (no booklet!!) rushed version to beat the folks who leaked the album onto the internet before the actual release date... WTF?

MPEG stream: True Magic
MPEG stream: Thug Is A Drug

Unfortunately, we're unable to offer much information about Davide Mosconi, other than his affiliation with various Fluxus artists and that "La Musica dell'anno Zero" was constructed entirely from fog horns recorded off the Scottish coasts. This album appears

1971 strikes again! Proto-metal freaks, rejoice! Connoisseurs of the "early heavy" have reason to be excited about this, the lone album from this raw n' heavy psychedelic blues rock power trio from Denmark, originally released in '71, finally available as a legit cd reissue complete with liner notes and vintage photos in the cd booklet. Recalling Vincebus Eruptum era Blue Cheer (big time!!) and early, bluesy Black Sabbath a bit too, Moses deliver blown-out, fuzz-bombed, acid-laced, hairy hippy proto-metal of Biblical proportions. Full of stoned vocals, loping riffs, and lots of wailing, wasted acid rock guitar soloing (worthy of Blue Cheer's Leigh Stephens and/or Randy Holden), Changes is highly recommended to anyone whose interest has been piqued by anything we've just mentioned or referenced. There's six songs here, nothing complex, certainly catchy though, what more to say? Each one provides the good vibes of ye olde primitive proto-metal, starting with the thudding blues brutality of title track "Changes" (which has nothing to do with the Black Sabbath piano ballad of the same name, by the way). Later on, "Beginning" gives the drummer some, ready for some DJ to mine for a crude breakbeat. "Skaev" is the only one here sung in Danish, but the lurching, surging riffage requires no translation. We're glad the final track, 7 minute track "Warning" is in English, though, 'cause we're getting a kick out of the lyrics, a story of a "straight" falling in with a turned-on crowd, which include lines like: "...and suddenly the girl gives him two feeling good pills, eat them if you can, a little after in a big discussion, forgotten everything about his wife, moving with the others in a big procession, he shouts out, this is life!" Awesome. So, anyone into early Blue Cheer, Randy Holden's Population II, and the recently reissued Speed Glue & Shinki from Japan, stuff like that, will dig Moses for sure. Also, having just reviewed a bunch of '70s garage fuzz monsters from Africa, like Ngozi Family and Witch, we're hearing a lot of similarities here (minus the African thing, of course, but not the fuzz and groove). We bet if we said this was from Zambia or Nigeria, people would be freaking! Denmark is less "exotic", but that's not what's important when banging your head to these 1971 sounds.

MPEG stream: Changes
MPEG stream: I'm Coming Home
MPEG stream: Skaev

1987 recording dedicated to John Coltrane and including three pieces by Moses, two by cult guitarist Mu�os and "Naima" by Saint Coltrane, himself. A very sincere performance featuring John Medeski on piano.

Another mysterious Finnish troubadour, Ville Forss aka Moskiitto, explores a moaning creaking acoustic ambience, a clattery free folk wilderness, much like his countrymen Avarus, Anaksimandros and Vapaa. Simple muted guitars strum and shimmer beneath a forest of sawed violins and bowed cellos, creating a dreamy, ramshackle stumbling acoustic folk. A haunting assemblage of scraped strings and mumbled buzz and wheezing reed instruments. Lengthy overlapping melodies unfurl into deep drones drone and ambient drifts, majestic and strangely stately, like some ceremonial ritual. Reverberating steel strings are the framework for the whole disc, their overtones spreading out like ripples in a pond, above which flutter mournful melodies and abstract sonic shimmers. At one point accordions drift in, their melodies floating above a tangle of stretched out guitar melody. Very blissfully rustic, like sitting around some crackling campfire deep in the forest, the music slowly shifting and changing shape as various travellers arrive and produce their own unique musical offerings. Nice. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES.

MPEG stream: Kuundentoista Kautta
MPEG stream: Kappalainen
MPEG stream: Tiikeri

Welcome reissue of this early work by Swiss musical madmen Norbert Moslang and Andy Guhl, better known by their later moniker, Voice Crack. This 1982 recording shows them on their way to the "cracked everyday electronics" sound of VC, coming out of the FMP / European free improv scene in which they got their start. Although "normal" instruments like soprano saxophone do make an

Norbert Moslang of Switzerland's Voice Crack teams up here with likeminded improvisor Gunter Muller, Norbert commanding his trademark array of "cracked everyday electronics" and Muller making noise with (just plain) electronics and (Apple plug) an iPod. No drums, selected or otherwise, from him this time out. As you might imagine, it's a fairly abstract soundscape of unrecognizable electronic textures. Sounds like a continously, if mildly, upset stomach. Cool background glitch. Recorded on tour in Japan.

Solo skree from one half of Voice Crack.

Abject, miserable, mournful, agonized, anguished, tortured and tormented ultra mega doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom! That's right. We've officially reached an all time high in o's (40 in case you were counting), and an all time loooooow in DOOM. Every time we hear from these crushing creeps they've pushed it even further into the deep dark damnable depths, forcing us to add more and more o's. That's right, it's the return of Moss, the UK's heaviest, slowest, sludgiest slow motion downtuned doom metal behemoth. Moss take the paint peeling acidic abrasiveness of Khanate and combine it with the warm suffocating murk of bands like Skepticism or Thergothon, or even aQ faves Nadja (who did a split with Moss a while back). Ultra minimal and nearly static in its sludginess, with the simple caveman plod of the drums the only thing keeping this from turning into a full on drone, this is like one HUGE riff, pulled and stretched into two epic streaks of fuzz and pound, with vocals that might even give Alan Dubin from Khanate a bit of a fright, like a demon howling through a mouthful of broken glass and rusty bottlecaps, teeth black with the blood of a thousand vanquished souls, the sound that finally comes out is a noxious black cloud that causes everything it touches to wither and die, totally blown out and so harsh it makes our throats sore just listening to it. But like the best sludge / doom, there is some sort of subtle melodic undercurrent going on, maybe it's deliberate and these guys are on some whole other musical level or maybe it's just some chance occurance, some strange alignment of overtones or some lucky bit of abstract composition, it hardly matters, the end result is somehow both hauntingly beautiful and horrifically harsh, there's definitely some dark beauty hidden beneath Moss' black sludge exterior, but the joy of music like this is the fact that the music's beauty is buried and bruised, battered and brutalized, the sonic search for the beauty within is like wading waist deep through boiling hot pitch, ears plugged with hot tar, all the while being showered from above by the tears of angels.

MPEG stream: Crypts Of Somnambulance (excerpt)
MPEG stream: The Gate (excerpt)

The most recent Moss record, previous to this, besides being an awesome chunk of crusty ultra doom, was a bit of a debacle, at least in terms of release and format. The outrageously expensive 10" format, was in fact meant to be a DOUBLE 10", but was not, although the price seemed to still reflect the missing second record. Then the cd came out, including TWO extra tracks, a Discharge cover, which had already been on a split with Monarch, and the 11+ minute "Eternal Return", both of which were apparently meant to be included as that second 10". Or something like that. Needless to say, vinyl folks missed out on "Eternal Return", and the Discharge cover too if they missed out on the Monarch split, even though they sort of already paid for 'em. So the bad news, or maybe the good news, depending on your perspective, and financial situation, is that the third proper Blind Drugged Moss track, "Eternal Return", which was included on the Tombs Of The Blind Drugged cd, but has never been on vinyl, is NOW actually ON VINYL. And it's gorgeously packaged and elaborately presented, so the only downside of that is shelling out another $17 to finally get that track, "Eternal Return", on wax, but c'mon! It's Moss!! The track itself is a killer, it's Moss, so by now most of the aQ faithful should know what you're getting into, crushing, pummeling, doom drone dirge heaviosity, or as we described them in the Blind Drugged review: All anguished and distorted, with distended guitar and bass strings hanging loose and low, vokillizations of sheer misery and madness torn from the singer's throat like a still beating bloody heart ripped from the sacrifice, and bits of bent and battered drum kit scattered across the rancid tundra that is Moss's metallic soundspace! Indeed. We love Moss, and they RULE, and this is definitely worth the price of admission, just seems a tiny bit frustrating having to piece together Tomb Of The Blind Drugged one expensive chunk of vinyl at a time, but hell, we think Moss are worth it. And the packaging, wow! A thick fold out cardstock gatefold, with not one, but TWO Japanese style obis, one along the side, one holding the sleeve shut right in the middle, plus inserts, a poster, all pretty spiffy. And CRAZY LIMITED. Maybe already out of print, which means these are the only copies we'll ever get.

It's been a little while, but finally time to all out another complement of o's. That's right, UK doomlords Moss return with their latest batch of ultra mega doooooooooooooooom. And like their last record, Tombs Of The Blind Drugged, Horrible Night is another collection of slo-mo-sludge, sub-Sabbathian swing, glacial downtuned creep, and churning, lumbering low end heaviosity. The weird thing is, considering how heavy and sludgy these guys are, we only just now discovered they don't have a bass player, and the singer ONLY sings. We always assumed they were a proper three piece, guitar, bass, drums, with one of those blokes singing. Kinda insane that just guitar and drums can conjure up such a thick, blackened oozing sound. But we digress. While much of the sound on Horrible Night is essentially a continuation of their multiple o'd ultra doom, there is one thing that has changed, and that's the vocals. There are in fact still some throat shredding howls, but the bulk of the vocals are clean, soaring proper singing. Suddenly Moss have a twinge of true doom to them. Vocalist (just vocalist) Olly Pearson does a decent Ozzy-ish wail, which most definitely changes the tenor and tone of the Moss musical universe. The opening title track eventually settles into some old style Mossiness, replete with the howled anguished vokills, there's even some super weird tripped out psychedelic leads at one point, but the whole first half is total old school true doom, slowed down to a crawl, Pearson belting it out. Not sure if we're imagining it or not, but with the clean vocals, even the music seems to swing a but more, sounding a little bit more Sabbathy and stonery. Hard to say if true ultra doomlords will be disappointed, but we're digging it a lot. Definitely adds some melody and musicality to the group's otherwise minimal but massively crushing dour dirgery, and it's interesting too, that the music hasn't changed all that much really, so it's still droned out and doomy, lumbering and trudging, funereal/funeral ultradoom, but now with proper vox. We can't help but feel like the sound's gonna explode into a galloping classic metal groove at any point, and it feels like that expectation imbues the music with a weird dark tension, cuz it never does, Moss have it locked down, keeping their BPM to a minimum, and tuning down as low as they can, unfurling thick sheets of undulating, crumbling, super distorted buzz, the riffs serpentine and slow motion, it's the sort of metal that doesn't inspire headbanging so much as a sort of swaying back and forth, hypnotic, mesmerizing, a many o'd dooooooooooom, given new life, and transformed into the world's slowest, and most abject, blackly psychedelic true ultra doom. And we DIG it.

MPEG stream: Horrible Night
MPEG stream: The Bleeding Years
MPEG stream: Dark Lady

It's been a while since we've had to employ multiple 'o's in a review. A bit of a death of doom it seems. Or at least the sort of doom that requires all those extra 'o's. A loyal customer of ours even whipped up this [http://www.aquariusrecords.org/doomchart.html] "doom chart" based on our usage of multiple 'o'd doom in reviews! And if memory serves, Moss was one of the bands that routinely got described as doooom, or doooooooooom, and sometimes even doooooooooooooooooooooooom. So we were all ready to put finger to key and just let the 'o's roll out, one after the other after the other, until we felt we had conveyed the crushing doom of Moss. That is until we pressed play, and were treated to "Ritus", a five and a half minute soundscape of whirring synths and washed out ambience, of cymbal sizzle and proggy keyboard drones, of whispered voices and buzzing shimmer. Hmmm. The liner notes say it's inspired by Doris Norton, an electronic musician who's also a member of AQ faves Jacula!! An interesting start from one of the sludgiest, crustiest bands around. Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. Ahh. That's better. The second track returns us to that dank dark sloooooooooow place Moss call home. Twenty three minutes of downtuned crush, the tempo only slightly faster than the growth of actual moss. But even all gnarled and sludge-y, something has definitely changed. It's not nearly as filthy, and harsh, it's actually weirdly pretty. Almost like it's some more melodic metal record being spun manually with one finger at 3 or 4 rpm. The distortion is still dense, the long drawn out chords seeming to crumble, the drums spaced way out, but somehow still more buys than you're average ultradoom drummer, the vocals are still harsh and howling, but somehow, they too seem to be a bit more smooth, further down in the mix, like another layer of sound, the howls allowed to unfurl into another layer of buzz. It's strange, but we definitely dig. And we're not saying this is NOTHING like old Moss, or folks into Bunkur and Esoteric and the like won't love it, you will, the differences are subtle, and the sound is just a little bit, well, prettier, if you can imagine something bleak and black and harsh and hateful being pretty. Which we can! The next track, a nine minute dirge, is a bit more raw and rough, most of that prettiness we were blathering on about above is GONE. Shrieking feedback, the drums even slower and more spare, the guitars even more distorted and the vocals throat shreddingly harsh, the tempo slightly accelerated, bordering on Eyehategod territory. But it's all bout the closer, "Gate III: Devils From The Outer Dark". Clocking in at 35 minutes + and beginning with a churning sea of downtuned rumble and buzz, before the drums finally kick in, and f course by kick in we mean pound sporadically. This track is WAY more than a dirge. It makes the track before it sound like thrash metal. This is slooooooow and so so so so dooooooooooooooooooomy. The guitars thick and corrosive, the chords allowed to ring way out and fade away before the next one drops in to take its place, but weirdly enough, this one too sounds sort of pretty, not like the opening track, but still very dreamlike and mesmerizing. Long streaks of feedback spread out over wide open expanses of minimal thud and warm warped slow motion buzz, when the vocals drop out, it becomes something entirely different, finishing off with several minutes of thick low end drone, the guitars rumbling and wrapped into a thick nearly static pulse, something truly hypnotic and almost spacey, but without sacrificing a single one of those extra 'o's. Definitely a progression, a band can only pound and plod for so long, but so subtle that the casual listener might not even notice. "Oh yeah, heavy, slow, dooooooom", but as with most music, deep listening reveals a whole lot more going on beneath the surface, and once your ears lock on to that stuff, even the sounds on the surface begin to sound different. WAY RECOMMENDED for the doom-ed amongst you. And just cuz we knew you were waiting for it, Sub Templum could very well be doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom disc of the year!!

MPEG stream: Subterranean
MPEG stream: Dragged To The Roots

Besides being one of the filthiest, sludgiest doom bands EVER, Moss also hold the uniquely AQ distinction of being the first band to get 40 'o's in an AQ review. That's right. Moss are most definitely the supreme masters of D-oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-M. Only that many 'o's in doom can truly represent the sort of twisted anguished glacial drone drenched doom these guys are capable of unleashing. Every thing they touch turns to murky, dirgey mayhem. A blackened, hateful soundscape of slow motion thud and growl, a hellish trudge through a black sonic pit. But we're sure we already had you at 40 'o's! So what could be more appropriate than a single ninety minute epic lo-fi doom dirge, captured on three microphones and recorded on a fourtrack, then pressed on to a cassette, the grimmest and most cult of formats? Well how about if each cassette was housed in an mindblowingly elaborate, and highly dangerous, welded iron, industrial sculpture-like case? And how about if each cassette 'case' was welded together from nails, and strange rusty hinges, and huge links of chain, stuffed with burnt parchment and actual moss? Doesn't get much more doomy than that. Seriously though, when we cracked open the two HUGE boxes these tapes came shipped in, and began to unwrap these sharp and jagged works of art, everyone in the store gathered around to see what the next one would look like. Some were like Venus Flytraps made out of nails, others were huge bear trap things wrapped in chains, and spiked with nails. It was like discovering some long buried ancient armory. A dizzying array of sharp edges and hinged nails, weird greased axles that allow pieces of metal to slide open revealing the tape inside, or dense tangles of bent nails melted into tiny cassette coffins. So intense. And amazing looking. And so appropriate to the massive downtuned sludge inside. It's almost like these tapes occurred in nature, and the protective welded iron coating is a warning to wildlife to beware of what poisonous brutality lurks inside. Each case has the band's name welded or soldered on the side, and each contains a parchment like insert with the liner notes. And plenty of moss as well. So awesome. So here's the complicated part. They're all totally different. Some are huge, and weigh close to 5 pounds, a massive chunk of metal, some are quite not so big, but still equally spikey and dangerously sharp. So the postage will vary depending on which one you get, and due to the intensely spikey and sharp nature of these beasts, if you order them along with anything else, they MUST be shipped separately. And thus will incur an extra shipping charge. Unless you don't mind all your other records having huge nail holes in them and everything ripped to shreds. But let's assume you do mind, and so we'll just figure on separate shipping. But hell, it's so worth it. These are amazing and creepy pieces of art. It's almost just a bonus that inside is a tape of some seriously damaged, harsh and crumbling lo-fi doom. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES! WE GOT HALF OF THEM! When these are gone, they are gone forever.

If we had to come up with a four-letter word for doom, that wasn't d-o-o-m, it would be m-o-s-s. MOSS! These UK sludgelords, whose previous full-length Sub Templum was a record of The Week last year, are about as heavy as it gets, Moss sinking to the bottom of the black tarpit of doom below almost all others. Of course, playing so slow, the mere three songs here manage to stretch this way beyond ordinary ep length, each of 'em upwards of ten minutes... and then there's a fourth, hidden bonus track that gets this up to about 40 minutes total, so it's actually almost a full album really. And it's the usual grief we get from Moss: these tracks all anguished and distorted, with distended guitar and bass strings hanging loose and low, vokillizations of sheer misery and madness torn from the singer's throat like a still beating bloody heart ripped from the sacrifice, and bits of bent and battered drum kit scattered across the rancid tundra that is Moss's metallic soundspace... sometimes it eventually all congeals into one massive, melancholic drone, a true thing of beauty, heard for instance towards the end of the title track, upon which Moss employ Hammond organ. What else would you expect from something titled Tombs Of The Blind Drugged?? Tombs to which Moss have the "Skeletal Keys" and plan an "Eternal Return"... We mentioned a bonus track, it's the Discharge cover Moss did that originally appeared on their split 7" with Monarch. "Maimed And Slaughtered" is slowed from a 45rpm blitz to an unrecognizable 16rpm bludgeon... Here's what we said about it in our review of that now out-of-print 7": Moss transform Discharge's punky stomp into a barely moving morass of sludgy pound. Sounding very much like Eyehategod, with simple pummeling drums, howled vocals, and of course guitars tuned as low as they can go before the strings drop off like wet noodles. On top of all the murk, drift weird high end streaks of surprisingly melodic feedback, giving the whole track a haunting and ominous vibe. FYI, Tomb Of The Blind Drugged is also coming out on vinyl, as a limited double 10" record, minus the Discharge cover we think. Also minus track three, "Eternal Return", which apparently appears on a separate 12" we've yet to track down. We DO have a bunch of the 10" preordered, but the ltd. digipack cd version got here first.

MPEG stream: Skeletal Keys
MPEG stream: Tombs Of The Blind Drugged

If they gave out Nobel prizes for doom metal, whoever it was that managed to get UK doomsludge combo Moss together with French Sanrio doomsters Monarch, would be a shoe in. And it's not just the killer combo, or the alliterative band names, it's the song choice. As if Moss doing Discharge weren't enough for you, Monarch tackle Turbonegro's all time classic "I Got Erection"! Moss transform Discharge's punky stomp into a barely moving morass of sludgy pound. Sounding very much like Eyehategod, with simple pummeling drums, howled vocals, and of course guitars tuned as low as they can go before the strings drop off like wet noodles. On top of all the murk, drift weird high end streaks of surprisingly melodic feedback, giving the whole track a haunting and ominous vibe. Where Moss, turned their song inside out and basically made it their own, Monarch, after a misleading ultra slow count in, do "Erection" pretty straight (ahem), the riff immediately recognizable, same with the "woooooah ooooh" background vocals, so it's up to vocalist Emilie, to make "Erection" her own, and she does, delivering the goofiest, most brilliant lines ever, in a raspy feminine snarl "When I dig a hole... Erection!" It's definitely Monarch at their speediest, and certainly most melodic, and we have to say it sort of suits them. Maybe even better than when black metallers Satyricon covered the same track on a Turbonegro tribute disc some years back, and that was pretty killer too. And of course, SUPER LIMITED!

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

SORRY. ULTRADOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Or MEGADOOOOOOM. Whatever you want to call it, this is DOOM. Capital D. Lot's of o's. Lots of incredibly slow motion downtuned guitar sludge, pounding caveman drums, and a rumbling bowel churning low-end. This is the first recording we've been able to get enough of to list after a ton of super limited releases and demos. And if this doesn't hit the doom spot something good, then nothing will. Bunkur, Skepticism, Catacombs, Rigor Sardonicous, Esoteric, Planet Aids, Thergothon. And now Moss. The first track is a 15 minute slab of classic funereal doom. Soooooo sloooooow. Sooooooo heavy, crushing, pounding, chugging drone drenched sludge. Recorded live in 2004. The second track is taken from their long out of print split with Nadja, but here, the track is "fucked up and buried", and the result is a massive and abstract ambient soundscape, downtuned guitars are pushed way back into the distance, while in the foreground all sorts of rumble and crackle and what sounds like the burbling of a bong. A druggy, space-y ambient excursion through the massive decaying skeleton of what was once a doom metal beast. Moss is joined by the brilliantly monickered Wolfmangler. Wolfmangler just happens to be the work of one Smolken who you might know as the man behind Dead Raven Choir! Weird but true. For all his Jewelled Antler folkiness, Smolken made no secret of his black metal obsession. As Wolfmangler, Smolken takes that love of metal and doom and tempers it with his love of folk and country, and the results are truly weird and wonderful. Best exemplified on the track "Survive" a doom-ed version of a Hank Williams Jr. song. Fuzzed out drone guitar, random percussion, weird rubbery bass lines, and growled raspy vocals. Like a black metal Souled American? Johnny Cash covering Skepticism. Something like that. The rest of the WM tracks are weird, slow motion, fuzz drone dirges, with strange barely there melodies, occasional guitar twang, and lots of ominous ambience! Amazingly packaged in a vellum sleeve, printed in black on the outside, so the inside has a weird x-ray negative effect. Includes an insert for each band printed on thick vellum. SO NICE! Limited to 500 copies. We got 50 of those and will not be able to get more! So act fast!

MPEG stream: Abortion Clinic
MPEG stream: Survive

Temporary Residence does it again, after the recent Record Of The Week reissue of the complete works from nineties math rock gods Bitch Magnet, comes yet another amazing archival release, this one digging back even a little further, from the same sonic pool that so obviously informs TRL's taste in contemporary sounds - it's the complete recorded works of the late great Moss Icon, who in the mid/late eighties were crafting a super unique strain of post punk / hardcore / math rock / emo / gloom pop, that while definitely sonically tied to other groups in the underground at the time, drew from super disparate influences, and created a sound most definitely all their own, a sound that would eventually influence a whole slew of bands to follow. Imagine a mix of eighties hardcore and nineties post rock, a dizzying hybrid of the the Wipers, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Slint, Fugazi, Joy Division, all thick slithery low slung bass lines, jagged slashes of angular guitar, chiming chords and churning riffage, spidery melodies, the songs super intricate, and often nearly prog in their arrangements, super dynamic with soaring swell of near metallic heft, and long stretches of brooding mesmer, over which the usually howled vox slip into more of a spoken word, sometimes delivered in a haunting deadpan intonation, other times a fervent rant, the sound super tranced out, the band locking into long stretches of hypnotic almost looped riffing, driven by darkly propulsive rhythms, a sprawling moody psychedelia that's the perfect backdrop for vocalist Jonathan Vance's socio-political sonic shamanism. There are moments of surprising poppiness throughout, but usually tucked away amidst long stretches of droned out mesmer, fierce blasts of emotionally wounded heaviness and a relentless barrage of driving melodic crush and controlled sonic chaos. One of the great unsung bands from that era, and an incredible collection of sonically and emotionally powerful music that deserves to be (re)discovered. PS: Guitarist Tonie Joy would go on to play in Born Against, the Great Unraveling, Universal Order Of Armageddon, The Convocation Of and others, and ALL of those bands were definitely a product of the sounds and songs here.

MPEG stream: Mirroe
MPEG stream: I'm Back Sleeping, Or Fucking, Or Something
MPEG stream: Divinity Cove
MPEG stream: Lyburnum - Wit's End (Liberation Fly)
MPEG stream: Guatemala

Only got a tiny handful of these, but couldn't pass up on a new project from aQ pal Mick Barr (Krallice, Oldest, Orthrelm, Ocrilim, etc.), who is teamed up here with former DC hardcore kid and current NYX avant gardist Chuck Bettis (credited here with "Throat + Electronics"), so you can probably imagine a Mick Barr driven duo of guitar and electronics and 'throat' won't be any sort of easy listening, and guess what? It doesn't take much more than a few seconds for that to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. That said, these two, while kicking up a serious skree, a wall of keening, glitched out noise, do manage to work the sound into something weirdly listenable, with Barr doing his super intense, frenzied almost black metal riffing, sheets of fast picked high end unfurl into tense sprawls of upper register drone, swooping into more 'traditional' riffage' before splintering into more WTF shrieking shreddery again. Bettis more than holds his own, wrapped Barr's guitar in dense swirling clouds of crumbling distortion, woozy low end thrum, wild squelches and glitches, electronic squiggles and malfunctioning electronic curlicues, heaving robotic bloops and bleeps, layers of analog blorp, percussive thumps and dense tangles of grinding psychedelic noise, Bettis' vocals woven into the roiling backdrop, occasionally leaping to the fore, and slipping back into harDCore howl mode, transforming the sound into some muscly alien sci-fi noise-punk, or something. Black metal shrieks buried beneath avalanches of furiously roiling riffage, the vibe weirdly heavy and almost metallic, but simultaneously abstract and free form, black noise, power electronics, a super twisted, skull caving, ear shredding, metallic psychedelic noise juggernaut, that pounds and pummels, drones and grinds, dense and intense, and kinda fucking awesome! Definitely recommended for the iron eared, long time Barr fans will feel right at home, and noiseniks might dig Barr and Bettis' warped strain of noise, which while right on the edge of harsh noise, remains textured and dynamic, subtly melodic, like some super intense avant metal record, pulled apart, reassembled into strange shapes and then melted down into a swirling pool of caustic blackened sonic crush. Super cool. And SUPER limited... TO JUST 66 COPIES!!!!!

Montreal's dub outfit Mossman returns with their softmore effort and it doesn't disappoint. Like the first album "Vs. The World Bank", Mossman and crew keep their sound solidly in the tradition of the masters, but refuse to rest on their laurels content with their sound. For "Vs. Mr. Tsunami" the group is paired down to a mere two people: founding member Mossman (percussion, melodica, keys, vocals) & Tsunami (guitar, bass, keys, percussion and occaisional vocalist), with a few cameos from some guest musicians. What the group has lost in live musicians, it has made up for in studio wizardry. While full of modern digital effects and synths the sound is never cheesy or lifeless.

RealAudio clip: Quixotic
RealAudio clip: Slave Mason

"I can't believe it's not Scratch." Bringing together the holy trinity of Lee Perry, King Tubby & Scientist (the cover even features a classic Scientist-esque cartoon drawing of Mossman smashing the World Bank and squaring off against hostile military forces) the group known as Mossman (led by percussionist and turntablist "Moss") are to dub / roots what Brooklyn's Antibalas are

RealAudio clip: Tumble Weed
RealAudio clip: Spanish Alpha
RealAudio clip: It's Nice

Message In the Dub is not actually a new recording by Mossman, but it is the first time it has been made available. It was actually Mossman's first recording effort, made back in 1999, but for unknown reasons it was never officially released. For those unfamiliar with Mossman, he and a loosely knit group of musicians are a Montreal, Quebec outift dedicated -- it appears -- to the furthering of the classic mid-seventies roots dub sound. And we're far from complaining about that. We'll take our water wherever we can get it. While maybe a little more rough around the edges as Mossman's first "official" album, Vs. The World Bank, this one (unlike their later release Vs. Mr. Tsunami) features a host of musicians -- bass, guitar, percussion, drums, keys, melodica, and smidgen of vocals -- which adds to the authenticity of the flavor.

MPEG stream: Dub Dem Say
MPEG stream: Freedom Version

Meet the new kids on the block at this Canadian label home to Broken Social Scene and their Torontonian kin Apostle Of Hustle and Stars. The Most Serene Republic are just a hop, skip and a jump away, based in the small town of Milton on the western outskirts of the greater Toronto area. Due to the bands' proximity both geographically and label-wise, comparisons are definitely gonna flourish, and what can we say? They aren't unfounded. Once you hear Underwater Cinematographer, we're sure you'll agree. In many ways The Most Serene Republic's music does resemble the rest of the Arts & Crafts' roster, but with lead vocals that also remind us of Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie/Postal Service. This is not a bad thing! No, drawing from such an exuberant mish mash of influences and styles, their album fits in well between You Forgot It In People and Set Yourself On Fire. Actually with their subtle eccentricities scurrying out here and there, The Most Serene Republic's music brings to mind BSS and Frog Eyes having a low-key get-together... which is a mighty pleasing thought, indeed.

MPEG stream: Proposition 61
MPEG stream: Where Cedar Nouns And Adverbs Walk

[ aquarius records catalogue — M ]