[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 301 through 350 of 1150.

No band will ever match the insane no-wave freaked out death metal what-the-fuck of Gorguts' Obscura album. An impossibly chaotic blast of tangled guitar lines, obtuse drumming, bizarre songwriting, atonal melodies, fractured rhythms, all whipped into quite possibly, one of the greatest, weirdest death metal records ever as far as we're concerned. But if any band was to come close, it sure as heck would be Negativa, for the obvious reason that it's the work of Gorguts mastermind Steeve Hurdle, along with some of his likeminded pals from other techmetal combos like Ion Dissonance and Augury. The opening track blows out of the gate a perfect post-Obscura grinding chugging masterpiece. Not quite as dense and freaked out as anything on Obscura, a little more linear, but all the stuff we love is there. The guitars are baffling, not just riffs and licks, they scrape and grind and keen and shriek and rrooooar, pick slides everywhere, the drums a chaotic blur beneath, it's absolutely dizzying. This is the stuff that makes us fall in love with death metal all over again. But it's the second track that really blows our minds. Imagine Obscura era Gorguts playing downtuned doom metal, a weird death sludge, guitars so slow, they slither and crumble, over the top, other guitars clang and wail, mournful melodies drift by, bits of percussive crunch, the drums stumble and plod, it's like some fucked up version of diSEMBOWELMENT. The band does kick it up a notch and blows into some midtempo death metal before splintering into a near ambient stretch of Tool-like bass, scraping steel strings, huge plodding doomdrums and lots and lots of space. Super abstract and doomy, before building into a loping atonal minor key groove. Hard to explain other than to say it's fucking AWESOME! The third and final track is more of what we go in track one, another brain melting burst of avant death metal, guitars and drums and bass so convoluted and fucked up, we can barely manage to headbang. But goddamn if we're not loving it. Short stuff, three songs in twenty minutes, but as with Gorguts, there are more notes and parts than most bands can jam into a whole 60 minute full length. We're already dying to hear more, especially off that fucked up damaged death doom. Bring it on!

MPEG stream: Chaos In Motion
MPEG stream: Rebellion

With all of the black noise swaddled in runes and death-obsessed iconography, it was only a matter of time before the cult label Vaald released a proper black metal project. Negative Crown seems to hail from an undergrowth somewhere near Athens, Georgia; but this diabolical horde keeps this suitably inscrutable on their first demo. Chiming, loner chords leave a Slinty taste in our mouth at the onset of this tape before a blizzardy blast-beat and some matching guitar fury tear through the plane of existence followed by a sustained blood-curdling scream. The track soon collapses into a swirl of blackened, dense FX, completely fuzzed out and drone-on white noise that is more hypnotizing than pummelling. This and the other two tracks on the A-side (all parts of a trilogy called "Bracken") aligning in all the best possible ways with Paysage D'Hiver. The B-side opens with a black ambient swirl of mournful and sinister synths, giving way to a throat-ripping finale of start-stop-start BM buzz'n'riff, and as before the blast-beats and diabolical vokills melt into a soft-focus blur of hypnotic, grim, miserablist drone-sheeting. Super fucking limited, and pretty fucking epic.

MPEG stream: Bracken Part I
MPEG stream: Hex Of Pines

A couple people asked us/told us about this before we got it... apparently word-of-mouth among cult black metal mavens was strong early on! And all their hushed queries and whispered expressions of awed enthusiasm are well deserved, we discovered, once we heard it ourselves. This is definitely NOT just another run of the mill black metal album. Negative Plane somehow have captured something more ancient and strange than usual in their music. They have a real "old school" mystique about them, that Venom / Celtic Frost / Bathory feel, yet at the same time this is infused and infested further with an especially alien weirdness, a bit of the same vibe as Nordic avant-gardists Ved Buens Ende. The album is drenched in effects, rendering the rasping vocals into an internal, infernal dialogue with themselves due to the amount of reverb, echoing in collusion with the music to make extra-effective what's otherwise indecipherable. And though so seemingly raw and olden, there's a lot more "going on" here than with some of the dronier black metal efforts we've heard -- these tracks are full of complex runs, twisting turns, sudden changes. And sheer atmosphere is not neglected. Neg Plane's doomy vibe, their church organ tones and eerie melodies, are one important aspect of this record -- lashed with tons of FX to their other aspect, raging riffage, you've got an underground cult already established, the duo of Nameless Void (guitar/vocals) and Bestial Devotion (drums) requiring servitors rather than mere fans. Very special.

MPEG stream: Staring Into The Abyss
MPEG stream: A Church In Ruin

Hmmm, we must have done something to obtain Satan's approval, since he has recently rewarded us with releases from two of our absolute favorite cult black metal bands, and both exceedingly idiosyncratic ones at that. There's Inquisition's highly anticipated and indeed amazing Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm opus, which we'll be reviewing next time (we ran out this week!), and this, the equally eagerly-awaited 2nd album from Negative Plane, whose 2006 debut caused us to describe them as "very special", a band so underground and cult that they require the devotion of "servitors rather than mere fans". As such, we bow and praise, for five years later, this second strike is another slab of antiquarian, abyssic genius. Doomy, dramatic, delirious black metal that's so thick with true old school feeling that after a few spins, the only thing you can follow it with are crackly vinyls by '80s and early '90s underground overlords like Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost, Possessed, and Mayhem. Yet their artistry is directed down their own path, not that of retro nostalgia, even if they stir up the same Satanic vibrations as those ancient ones. Negative Plane are masters of mystique, their music a masterful combination of atmospheric (and not only that, but also interesting) interludes, that evoke eerie olde silent film musick, and much more metal onslaughts, that emerge intricately from the hissing murk with pounding drums, swarms of guitar, and raw guttural vokills. Field recordings, bells, cello, piano, organ, and some female vocals are all woven into the mix, creating something quite unique and effective. These rumbling, rollercoastering compositions, with their sepulchral production and strangely classical motifs, are all cloaked in weird, haunting ambience, it's like they recorded with Leyland Kirby or Indignant Senility in the producer's seat. If it's truly possible for metal to not just be about the occult, but actually BE occult, the reverby rituals recorded by Negative Plane are, and leave us with a Lovecraftian "indescribable" to add to this review. Vinyl version to be unleashed in March, FYI.

MPEG stream: The Fall
MPEG stream: Lamentations And Ashes
MPEG stream: Angels Veiled Of Bone

Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Myles Of Destruction, fronted by long time aQ pal Myles Donovan. A kick ass trio of drums, bass and violin, a little bit metal, a little bit grind, a little bit gypsy stomp, an unlikely cross between Amps For Christ, Warlock Pinchers, Emperor and Magnetic Fields maybe. Well Myles is back with a new band that's a bit darker and a whole lot doomier, the evocatively monikered Negative Queen, which we initially surmised came from the Pansy Division song, but according to the liner notes is actually something someone said to Donovan at one point, oh and it might be worth pointing out at this point then Negative Queen are purveyors of QUEER DOOM. And while we weren't sure what to expect sonically, would it be ultra blown out sludge, or downtuned metallic plod, we were pleasantly surprised to discover it was neither, instead, something more spare and sparse, more moody and melodic, tapping into a sort of swampy apocalyptic creep more than anything, hints of Woven Hand and Nick Cave, a sort of gothy grim moodiness that wreathes the minimal drumming, the spidery minor key guitars, the warm low slung bass, and the deep dramatic croon. And while it's definitely heavy and dark enough that metalheads should give this a chance, it definitely sounds like something that would be way more at home alongside the darkwave and slowcore in your collection. Did we mention Swans? The Swans vibe is huge too. The sound lush and layered, hauntingly atmospheric, just instead of pounding and pummeling, it creeps and slithers, drift and plods, dark and doomy for sure, but also strangely dreamy.

Slow and sludgy doom metal from New York, simple but effective. Their basic approach seems to be a repetitive riff played at an agonizingly slow pace with some throat-tearing vocals and NASA samples thrown in, plus some spacy fx. These guys seem obsessed with astronauts and outer space (the cover art features pyramids on the Moon), it's not surprising that the bonus track is a

MPEG stream: Lost
MPEG stream: Loathing

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

SORRY. Negative Reaction is the New York sludge combo. Ramesses is the band formed by the (drunk, stoned) guys that quit Electric Wizard.

Like the Poobah reviewed last list, here's another, though much moldier, oldie previously reissued by Monster Records, now made available again by Rockadrome. The Monster version had different art/graphics and was titled The Living Dead Years, but these are the same tracks. And since the main reason collectors are into Negative Space is probably because their 1970 private press album was called Hard, Heavy, Mean and Evil (aren't YOU intrigued?) it's a good idea for Rockadrome to use that title for this edition, which includes that very album plus bonus tracks from post-Negative Space act Snow and other related stuff. Unfortunately, not much of this is actually all that hard, heavy, mean or evil. Unless you think garage psych covers of "Summertime" count (track two here, pretty laid back but for some sudden eruptions of fuzz guitar distortion). There's a song here with a title that would seem promising, "The Long Hair", but that one's actually way mellow. While this is still a cool underground artifact of grungy garage at the dawn of the seventies, let's just say Sabbath had nothing to fear from these guys. Negative Space at their heaviest are more like a scuzzy Steppenwolf. Rather than being proto metal, these guys were already sounding retro in 1970-71 (among the bonus tracks there's covers of "Light My Fire", "Purple Haze", "Johnny B. Goode", and also Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher", a hit for ol' Steppenwolf y'know). The tracks that ARE heavy ("Calm Before The Storm" and "Forbidden Fruit" in particular) WILL get Blue Cheer fans excited. But the solo acoustic demos from NS leader Rob Russen tacked on at the very end of this disc might kill that buzz. Heck, we don't really mean to slag this, it IS cool for what it is. Just be aware, it's not exactly what the title and band name and wishful thinking might lead you to believe. It's certainly ultra distorted and wailin' at times, but only at times, otherwise just a bit bleak and moody. Their mean & evil, hard & heavy reputation probably had more to do with their live show. In the cd booklet (packed with lyrics and liner notes in thorough Rockadrome tradition) mention is made of a studio engineer asserting "how impossible it was to capture and contain the power and fury of Negative Space's music". Apparently so, since so much of this is not-so-hard hippie rock, with its own rough hewn charms however, plus ever-lurking fuzz blasts to tease those here only for the heavier fare.

MPEG stream: Isolated Ivory Tower
MPEG stream: Hey Wall
MPEG stream: Forbidden Fruit

We were introduced to these East Bay crust metal crushers via a split lp with Aussie heavies and long time aQ faves Whitehorse (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), but this right here is the Negative Standards' first proper full length, a relentless and furious onslaught of churning D-beat crust punk and epic, chugging, Neurosis style sludge metal heaviness. No song titles just numbers, tracks I through V can be found on their debut ep, and tracks XII and XII are on the split with Whitehorse, but "VI" though "XI" make up this 12", and deliver a punishing barrage of sick riffage, and skull caving drum damage, and the vocals, a throat shredding demonic bellow, the whole thing a brutal chug fest, songs lurching from driving crust punk, furious and chaotic to tarpit, downtuned doom sludge crush, with some super blown out weirdness that gives the sound a seriously psychedelic vibe, the band equally adept at knuckle dragging, pit stirring, ferocity, and soaring, majestic sonic epicry, just check out the 8+ minute "X", which spends the first half of those minutes, unfurling a gorgeously morose and melancholic true doom crawl, moody and mesmerizing, somewhere between Bell Witch and True Widow, slowcore downer doom, that creeps and lumbers, before exploding into a noise drenched, punk metal blast, those two disparate sound somehow fusing together for the last few minutes, the guitars soaring, the arrangement a slow build toward a Godspeed / Neurosis style crescendo, but still punk as fuck, and seriously crusty. Killer stuff. Every track here, some sort of black-crust / punk-doom hybrid, that we can't get enough of. Not sure how we'd never heard of these guys before, but doing our best to make up for it now. Released on the always great Vendetta label, with a super striking, creepy dead body / surveillance photo album cover. Sadly, there's no download (although you can get the digital versions for free on their bandcamp!)...

MPEG stream: X
MPEG stream: VI
MPEG stream: XI

Hurrah, finally something new(ish) from Negativland! For A Few Of Our Favorite Things, Negativland takes a similar to fellow Bay Area enigmas The Residents who released a dvd compilation a few years back which brought together the old and the new. They enlisted eighteen non-'band' member filmmakers to cut-up, collage, collaborate and create new and often very appropriate videos for a whole bunch of the group's classic recordings such as "Time Zones", "Christianity Is Stupid", "No Business", "Over The Hiccups" (one of Cup's faves!), "U2", "Guns", "Aluminum Or Glass", "Truth In Advertising", "Freedom's Waiting", the list goes on and on! Their works have always been loaded with social and political commentary, subversion, absurdity and black humor. Why stop now? Awesome! Oh and also included is an audio cd featuring The 180-Gs...uhhh, who?!?! The 180-Gs! Apparently they're a Detroit, MI a cappella doo-wop group who cover Negativland 'songs', but it's so bizarre a thought that we're suspicious that our leg is being pulled... hard.

This one's been in the works for so long I was sure it was only to be a pipe dream. Death Sentences is really two almost completely independent Negativland projects combined as one for release. The book, a collection of photographs of junk yard automobiles and their contents, is the brain child of Richard Lyons -- one of the founding members of the group and an on again, off again contributor in recent times. Lyons spent years visiting junkyards (remember he's the auto obsessed maniac behind the O.T.E. "Starting Line" show), digging through battered cars for tell-tale documents that might give insight into their former owners. Each page contains a scanned image of a letter, or other -- primarily hand written -- short memo overleafed with a photo of the now demolished car from which it was retrieved. All of this handsomely packaged within a sleeve mock-up of an accident report. The book is at once impossible to put down and difficult to trudge through. Not because it's poorly put together (on the contrary, like most Negativland releases, it's gorgeously laid out and beautifully packaged), but because the contents are so incredibly depressing. Several letters are apparently written from prison, or rehab, with the author's pledge that this time when they get out they'll straighten up and fly right. This contrasted with a demolished car, some from brutal accidents, windshields containing shattered buldges where the occupants once sat, reposed in a bleak and overcast auto graveyard in the Pacific Northwest (one of the most depressing areas of the U.S., for those unfamiliar with our messed up little country.) The disc, for its part, is a bit of a departure for Negativland. One might refer to this as their "instrumental" album, for while there are voice tapes processed and buried within the mix, there isn't a narrative driving the album like pretty much all of their albums have had in the last 10 years or so. In a way, Death Sentences brings Negativland back to the beginning of their career with their eponymous release of 1980. Which makes one wonder if the band, having become so bogged down in copyright this and fair use that, is either trying to reinvent themselves or if Death Sentences is in fact their swan song. Its success as an album is perhaps best judged by one's tolerance for freeform electronic improv. While there are moments of cohesion here, for the most part the disc sounds like someone crossfaded together all the improv segue sections from Negativland's live shows. In the end though, even if the CD isn't your cup of tea, the book more than carries its weight for the set. In that case you can view the inclusion of the disc as a free bonus to your purchase of the book.

RealAudio clip: Pack It Up
RealAudio clip: Don't Fool Me

DICK VAUGHN IS DEAD! But that's old news by now. Moribund Music of the '70s is volume four in Negativland's Over The Edge series of live radio broadcasts. In this installment, Richard Lyons' (a.k.a Dick Vaughn) vainly attempts to be the first to cash in on

RealAudio clip: Celebrity Wives Quiz, More Idle Threats, People Are Talking, etc.
RealAudio clip: Introduction, Witness For the Documentation, Disclaimers and Floaters, etc.

Completely satisfies (MUCH more so than their last few releases) with the unpredictable, sharp soundcollages you already know and love, plus surehanded SONGS that remind us of early Brian Eno. This time instead of U2 and Casey Kasem, the object of Negativland's righteous wrath is Pepsi. Contains snippets of memorable Pepsi moments, even the commercial where Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire, but for some reason leaves out the Suicidal Tendencies.

First new Negativland release in over two and a half years. We thought these guys had all but quit on us, when actually there's no better time than the present for a new Negativland release; what with file sharing and intellectual property issues being such a continuing hot topic. So it should come as no surprise that "No Business" is focused around such issues as public domain, fair use and out dated modes of conducting business in the music industry. "Bunch of smartasses..." one might ponder, "why don't I just download their album for free?" Well you could, and I don't think the Negativland boys would begrudge you for doing so. But then you wouldn't get the oversized folder with the 50 page essay "Two Relationships To a Cultural Public Domain" (well you could probably find a PDF of that somewhere). But there's no way in the world you're going to be able to download the genuine whoopee cushion imprinted with a giant copyright logo on its top. The disc, in stark contrast to the more song oriented Dispepsi and Free releases (Mark) is a pure cut up job (Don) which boasts on the cd booklet that "no elements original to Negativland were used to make these recordings." On some such tracks, like the re-edit of Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things", this old methodology works great. In fact, everyone here seemed to laugh their asses off at that one. Unfortunately some of the other tracks, like "Keep Rollin'" (from a trailblazer commercial) and "Piece of Pie" (from a 1940's radio drama) go on a bit too long. I think the move from analog tape, where every edit was carefully thought out and executed to ProTools has allowed the boys much more leeway to play fast and loose with their compositions. In the grand scheme of things, those old Negativland records (Big 10-8 Place, Helter Stupid) were a-joke-a-second mind bogglers of edits. On No Business in contrast, you're bombarded with the same joke over and over for 5 minutes. What this release lacks in compositional density it makes up for in the aformentioned ancillary contents. The essay is a good read and the whoopee cushion is a good sit (it really does let out a real "Bronx Cheer"). If that ain't enough there's a video -- featuring animation cells lifted from Disney's Little Mermaid -- of "Gimme the Mermaid" (from the cd that was included with the Fair Use book) that's not only hilarious, but screams lawsuit.

MPEG stream: Downloading
MPEG stream: Favorite Things
MPEG stream: Piece of Pie

Negativland's thirteenth album Thigmotactic is primarily the brainchild of founding member Mark Hosler with a supporting cast that includes the rest of the group as well as a few other particularly notable sound artists Thomas Dimuzio, Wobbly and our beloved former aQer Byram Abbott! According to the group this is their first "entirely song-based project... of electronic folk-pop noise songs". Hmmm, that description sounds conventional enough, does it? But of course we weren't fooled because even their most seemingly conventional of works is galaxies away from that of the common folk. As always can be expected from a Negativland release, they turn everything - be it low-brow and high-brow art and literature, pop culture, social traditions, politics, mundane everyday objects and products, not to mention other artists' works - on their collective head with a healthy dose of irreverence and mischief. It's a well documented fact that Negativland have a keen ear for melody too. Here in the spotlight, Hosler's frayed cardigan, rain-soaked puppy singing voice could easily be mistaken for that of an indie rock popster (a la Sebadoh, Pavement or Bright Eyes)! Of the album's generous seventeen songs, some sound like campfire or coffeehouse singalongs ("Extra Sharp Pencils"), some like the jumble that you hear when spinning the radio dial ("It's Not A Critique"), some like a b-side from a long lost Magnetic Fields 7" ("Basketball Plant" and "Lying On The Grass"), and some are more typically deliriously Negativlandish ("By Truck", "Virginia's Trip" and our current fave "Your Skin Is Gelatin"). A wryly witty, utterly tweaked, cut-up audio extravaganza with plenty of ear candy and lyrical absurdities. It includes a hefty 36-page booklet too! Doo dah!

MPEG stream: Lying On The Grass
MPEG stream: Your Skin Is Gelatin

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

SORRY. Consists entirely of MUSIC (for a change) recorded live on Neg'land's weekly KPFA radio show Over the Edge.

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

SORRY. Volume 1 1/2 of Seeland's Over The Edge series (so named for the weekly radio show produced by Negativland on KPFA) originally recorded in 1985. On this (single) disc Richard Lyons, aka Dick Goodbody, hosts an auto trivia show with both complete sincerity and expert detail. It's probably the most amazing piece of radio theater since the zenith of the Firesign Theater's semi-improvised comedy antics during the seventies. You'll hear callers attempt to stump Dick with questions about their classic cars. You'll hear the Weatherman go head to head with Contra Costa County's top radio trivia whiz Daryl Garrison where callers abuse them with their trivia questions and much more. Though the idea of an "auto-trivia" show may seem pedestrian to some it is perhaps in spite of this that somehow the show works and is quite funny. It's like tuning into an AM radio show in the middle of the night after taking several tabs of acid. The performance is dry, so dry in fact that several participating callers don't appear to realize that the show is a joke. As a bonus to this CD edition you get a "Dick's Auto Hive" key chain, and a fold out full page advertisement for the Auto Hive from a faked Contra Costa Times page circa 1985. Also included on this disc is the "Rototiller Singalong"; thirty five minutes of madness, the highlight of which is a five minute segment at the end where David, the Weatherman, presents a stereo recording he made of his neighbor rototilling his backyard!

RealAudio clip: Auto Trivia: Cool Cars, Cheaper Cheese, Limousines of Pope John Paul VII, etc.
RealAudio clip: Pure Full Stereo Rototiller and So Long

Way back in the 20th century, 1991 to be precise, media pranksters Negativland got themselves into a legal tussle with Island Records when they naively released a single on SST that covered U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and revealed Casey Kasem to be a foulmouthed ogre, all on the same track! Both SST and Negativland were subsequently sued into submission. Copies of the original U2 cd can still be had for anywhere from $75 to $100 US for the disc and bootlegged copies have been floating around ever since the track was pulled. Rather than go further into that whole can of carnuba wax I'll just refer those who are unfamiliar with this mother of all fair use lawsuits to Negativland's thorough and entertaining book "Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2", a 288 page document of the entire court case and Negativland's subsequent legal troubles with Greg Ginn and SST. Well now, here we are in a new millennium, on the ten year anniversary of the lawsuit where Seeland has already tested the legal waters with their re-issue of John Oswald's magnum opus "Plunderphonics" and so far the sharks aren't biting. Sensing that maybe the industry's lawyers have lost their taste for such passe copyright issues in favor of the much tastier Napster and the whole peer-to-peer fiasco, the label "Seelard" (hmmm...) has stepped in to see the return of this classic piece of copyright infringement. As a bonus to this risque reissue Seelard has included 9 extra tracks relating to the original single such as an excerpt from an Over The Edge (Negativland's Don Joyce's weekly radio show on KPFA) show from 1989 where the germination of the single began. One track is an edited version of the "Radio Edit" so that you *can* now safely play it on the radio -- all the nasty words have been covered up with a cornucopia of sound effects. The seven remaining tracks on this disc were taken from live performances by Negativland in 1990 (Knitting Factory, NYC) and 1993 (Great American Music Hall, SF) and cover Casey's "Long Distance Dedication" on up to material that wound up on the cd that accompanied Negativland's book (see above). There's an abundance of good material added to the fated single in these live performances including numerous tapes referring to "U2" that Don Joyce had picked up in the interim, plus some more serious audio forays detailing Francis Gary Powers' fateful flight over the USSR in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Diddley Shit!

MPEG stream: Special Edit Radio Mix - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
MPEG stream: The Black Lady of Espionage (Live)

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

SORRY. Like they did so well with Casey Kasem and U2 way back when, this is *TOTALLY ENTERTAINING* nose-thumbing at smooth talk radio show host who avoids the hard questions as best he can... This clever aural collage is available only on 7".

Volume three of discs derived from Negland's Over The Edge weekly radio show. Herein issues of gay repression are addressed apparently. Also included is a free booklet, The Weatherman's Dumb Stupid Dictionary, a glossary explaining the strange words and phrases used by the Weatherman...

Volume 6 in Negativland's Over The Edge series (so named for the weekly radio show produced by Negativland on KPFA). This volume is dedicated to David Wills -- aka The Weatherman -- and his obsession with field recording, most notably his fixation with recording his family. Don Joyce and David produced several shows on Over The Edge dedicated to David and his tapes and then distilled it down to these two discs. Beginning with a recording of David with his first tape recorder as a young wippersnapper and continuing with all the various tapes he made through his youth, adolescence, and on into adulthood. One of the principle subjects of David's recordings are Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with his family. In David's house, where he lived with his parents up until they passed away, he had both his room and the kitchen wired for sound so that he could play tapes of his mom and grandmother talking while making thanksgiving dinner as they made thanksgiving dinner a year later, or two years, or five... etc. The two then remark on the previous years as David continues to record them and talk back to them. The result is a really bizarre, non-linear ongoing conversation. Interspersed throughout these two discs of David's audio history are sections where listeners to the show call up and query Mr Wills for help with their cable TV repair, radio and electronics problems, ask questions about home cleaning and participate in the "Fake Bacon & Electronic Music" hotline.

RealAudio clip: I'm A Vegetable, Wired Up House, Steamin' Mad At Dirt, etc
RealAudio clip: Fuck You, Tough Darts, Jingle Bells, etc

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

SORRY. Negativland's first album, originally released way back in 1980 (damn, has it really been that long?) Seeland has gone through the trouble of attempting to recreate the original packaging of the album, in that each is individually packaged, no two are the same. Each one comes in a 5" cardboard box and each one is decorated with pictures cut out of Home & Garden magazines from the 60's (disturbing food fads seem to be a popular choice.) Included inside are some recipe cards and a "Seat Be Sate" pin. The album is a lot darker and creepier than what Negativland would move into later. The voice tapes are still there, but they don't play as predominant role as they do in their following albums. Holds the test of time quite well.

Listen and learn, kiddies.

This isn't new really, but we've been dying to review this blast of black frost for ages, and we were only recently able to get enough to list. This German horde are not fucked, or bizarre, or damaged, they're really not all that weird actually, but man does not live by weird alone, sometimes, all it takes is a huge heaping dose of ultra blazing, super intense, grim and frosty black metal. And Negator are indeed that. This is blurry, buzzy, dizzying and epic, majestic and mournful melodies, insane technical riffing, incredible blast beats, and a killer production that does away with the lo-fi buzz of bedroom black metal and replaces it with HUGE heaviness, a swirling black cloud of blizzard like brutality. Speaking of blizzards, Old Black is probably the frostiest, fastest, grimmest slab of icy blackness to come our way since Immortal's legendary Blizzard Beasts record. Which is saying a lot, but damn if this hasn't become one of our most listened to BM discs of late. In fact, we hear so much ultra personal bedroom black metal, and damaged stumbling outsider black metal, and don't get us wrong, we LOVE that stuff, but it's sort of refreshing to hear some real, true, fierce and furious, classic sounding black metal. Think Immortal, Emperor, Mayhem, Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, 1349, if these weren't young guys from Germany, you'd definitely be forgiven for thinking this was some slab of blackness from Norway circa 1995. And that's a very good thing. All bow before the new Blizzard Beasts....

MPEG stream: Science Of Nihil
MPEG stream: Free Bird

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

SORRY. The return of Romania's avant black metallers Negura Bunget, who were best known around these parts for their last record, which sounded remarkably like SF black metal legends Weakling. NB have progressed, or regressed, or at least moved on, so now they truly sound like nobody else. Four epic tracks clocking in at almost an hour, and sonically all over the place. Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the first track kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. Really strange breakdowns are peppered throughout, like a drum/keyboards/clean-vocal part that sounds like an ultra raw Killing Joke or Sisters Of Mercy, ambient passages with howling wind and far away wails, a loping black metal waltz, buzzing and swaying drunkenly, and a closing drone that rumbles and whirs and sounds as good as any Jonathan Coleclough record. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. There's a definite post rock vibe in the song structures especially in a lot of the drum parts. Strange production with quiet guitars and LOUD guitars and occasionally LOUD drums. But it all makes for a really unique record. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by "Romanian mysticism". And, it comes in a really beautiful oversized cardstock sleeve that unfolds sort of like a map and contains an actual twig from some Romanian tree!

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Finally re-pressed and back in stock but not sure for how long!!! We sold SO many of the last Negura Bunget album 'N Crug Bradului and for good reason. It was one of the coolest weirdest black metal records we had ever heard. So when we found out about this triple cd set collecting all of their earlier long out of print releases we knew we had to haveit (and figured you probably did too)! We described Negura Bunget so well the first time around, I'm not sure how we could do it any better. So here's what we said about this mysterious Romanian black metal band: "Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the music kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by 'Romanian mysticism'." Wow! They sound pretty good huh? Well, they ARE that good. This box compiles the first three Negura Bunget albums dating from 1995 to 2000, including their first demo from when they were still called Wiccan Rede. The albums are: Sala Molska, Zirnindu-Sa, and Maiastru Sfetnic, each in a jewel case and all bundled in a cardboard slipcover, all with amazing new artwork. The sound on these earlier recordings isn't quite as polished and fully realized as on 'N Crug Bradului, it's actually a lot rougher and simplistic, but perhaps because of that, it's also a whole lot weirder, grim and creepy but damaged and freaked out. Keyboards play a much bigger part, huge swaths of buzzing melody laid over the thrashing metallic onslaught. Probably the most interesting aspect is how much Negura Bunget sometimes sounded like SF black metal legends Weakling. Whether it's the agonisingly wailed vocals, or the epic droning riffage, you know that sounding even remotely like Weakling is a REALLY good thing. We get these direct from Romania and as always we can't be sure how long they'll be available so don't miss out on these again!

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Finally, the older earlier records from our favorite Transylvanian black metallers are getting their due, some super swank deluxe reissues packed with extras. For the longest time, we carried the cd box, which we got direct from the band in Romania, which contained Negura Bunget's first three albums and an ep. Lots of long time aQ list readers no doubt have that box, as it's some of the most essential black metal we've ever heard. But for years now, we've been unable to get those boxes back in, and now we know why. Lupus Lounge has decided to re-issue all of those records, with extra tracks, and in the case of a couple of them, extra discs containing whole extra alternate mixes of the records proper. Also, the new versions are now housed in super nice multi panel full color digipaks. We have all four (one of the original three, was split back up into its original two separate parts) in stock, in very limited quantities, have a look at the 'in stock, not yet reviewed' section, if you want to go nuts and get all of them (and why wouldn't you?!) but for now, we're gonna list/review From Transylvanian Forest first, and get to those other ones later. And this is as good a place to start as any. An ep from 2000, which was in fact a remixed and remastered version of a demo by PRE Negura Bunget outfit Wiccan Reed, before they changed their name, but already, their unique sound was fully formed. For those new to Negura Bunget, here's how we described the band on more recent releases: Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the music kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by 'Romanian mysticism'. On From Transylvanian Forest, and all of these older records in fact, the sound isn't quite as polished and fully realized as on the newer records, it's actually a lot rougher and simplistic, but perhaps because of that, it's also a whole lot weirder, grim and creepy but damaged and freaked out. Keyboards play a much bigger part, huge swaths of buzzing melody laid over the thrashing metallic onslaught. Probably the most interesting aspect is how much Negura Bunget sometimes sounded like SF black metal legends Weakling. Whether it's the agonisingly wailed vocals, or the epic droning riffage, you know that sounding even remotely like Weakling is a REALLY good thing. WAY WAY recommended. As are all four of the reissues!

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MPEG stream: Transilvanian Fullmoon Vampirism

This is not brand new, but instead is an ep from right before the most recent full length Om. But until recently we were never able to get more than a handful of copies. But finally, we have enough to list, but we're not sure how long we'll have these in stock, so don't dawdle if you want one. Negura Bunget, one of our favorite avant black metal bands, hailing from Romania (okay, Transylvania!), a band who weave dense black soundscapes incorporating lots of traditional black buzz, but also mystical folk, haunting ambience, and whatever other sonic strangeness is part of their twisted black vision. And who even at their most 'metal' and most 'traditional' still sound weirder than almost any of their contemporaries. The opening track begins with thick washes of super dramatic keyboards, and mysterious monklike chants, as well as all sorts of traditional percussion and hand drums, before some killer blackened riffing joins in and the band launch into a twisted black journey, along the way blasting briefly beneath majestic keyboard swells, weaving through some convoluted Voivod riffage with some crooning clean singing and finishing up with some seriously mathy rhythms beneath more keyboards and tangled blackened guitars. The second track is some haunting forest ambience, long stretches of droning rumble, strange rhythms over swirling misty keyboards, bizarre vibraphone like melodies, and all manner of creepy creaks and unidentifiable sounds. Track three is the centerpiece of Inarborat Kosmos, a mostly midtempo atmospheric black jam, with super strange (and unbelievably catchy) riffing, dense tangled rhythms, huge swaths of epic keyboards, and about a million different parts, a song that seems to constantly shift and change shapes without ever losing cohesion or direction. Occasionally the keyboards become so dense and massive that they overpower the rest of the instruments and the song becomes a weird high end drone, at least briefly. A head spinning blast of baffling blackness for sure. The final track is another swath of foresty black ambience. Long slow drawn out keyboard drones, and thick clouds of crumbling distortion, but most notably, all manner of strange and guttural, creepy and almost monstrous vocalizations, howling and growled, tortured and anguished, sounding like some ancient clan, gathered around a fire, performing some strange rite or ritual. Which, when you get right down to it, is how Negura Bunget always sound, like some mysterious ancient clan, performing all manner of forest flecked black metal rituals. So great. Also included two live videos viewable on your computer. LIMITED TO 734 COPIES!!

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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.

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

SORRY. Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren. On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz. Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in. Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift. A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need! Includes a DVD, that has amazing stop motion animation menus, with an old frayed rope, that squirms and slithers depending on your selection. Two videos, the first is a series of gorgeous landscapes, forests and slow moving clouds, intercut with some impssobily mind bending shots of forests and waterfalls, super processed and affected so it almost looks like animation, a sort of dizzying water colored 3-D effect. Or something. So beautiful, but so confusing to your brain it's almost impossible to not look away. The other is quite similar, but a bit more lo-fi, with various shots of the band members in a moonlit forest, back lit trees and thick storm clouds as well as some arty shots of faces superimposed on flowing magma, hands in water, lots of washed out abstract images, all on different film stocks, from super high definition to super grainy 16mm. Three live clips, each super arty, one all smeary and indistinct, washed out colors and artful blurs, the other two are all super distressed black and white, with the film shimmying and shifting along with the music, like some old nickeloddian. Pretty cool. Extras include an interview with the band, a short promo video with more breathtaking images of the Romanian countryside, a slideshow set to music, as well as another live clip and some appropriately arty credits. Packaged in a super deluxe 8 panel digipak, with super cool, pagan Wickerman / Jan Svankmyer style artwork.

MPEG stream: Tesarul De Lumini
MPEG stream: Conoas Terea Tacuta

Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren. On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz. Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in. Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift. A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need! Includes a DVD, that has amazing stop motion animation menus, with an old frayed rope, that squirms and slithers depending on your selection. Two videos, the first is a series of gorgeous landscapes, forests and slow moving clouds, intercut with some impssobily mind bending shots of forests and waterfalls, super processed and affected so it almost looks like animation, a sort of dizzying water colored 3-D effect. Or something. So beautiful, but so confusing to your brain it's almost impossible to not look away. The other is quite similar, but a bit more lo-fi, with various shots of the band members in a moonlit forest, back lit trees and thick storm clouds as well as some arty shots of faces superimposed on flowing magma, hands in water, lots of washed out abstract images, all on different film stocks, from super high definition to super grainy 16mm. Three live clips, each super arty, one all smeary and indistinct, washed out colors and artful blurs, the other two are all super distressed black and white, with the film shimmying and shifting along with the music, like some old nickeloddian. Pretty cool. Extras include an interview with the band, a short promo video with more breathtaking images of the Romanian countryside, a slideshow set to music, as well as another live clip and some appropriately arty credits. Packaged in a super deluxe 8 panel digipak, with super cool, pagan Wickerman / Jan Svankmyer style artwork.

MPEG stream: Tesarul De Lumini
MPEG stream: Conoas Terea Tacuta

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

SORRY.

First record in more than 4 years from these Romanian black metallers, and longtime aQ faves, Negura Bunget. We had almost given up hope at one point of ever hearing new music from NB, as the band had broken up, only to recently reform with just one original member, and yet instead of recording a new record, they chose to RE-record some of their old music with the new lineup. But this, this IS in fact the first new music from the newly reformed Negura Bunget, and considering such a dramatic personnel shift, the sound is relatively consistent with recent NB records, although in many ways, Virstele Pamintului is in fact quite different than OM, the last proper full length. The band do continue to move further away from their early sound which was a very Weakling-like blasting black Norwegian style metal, growing more and more atmospheric, more folky, more proggy, and at the same time somehow more simple. This is most definitely the folkiest record yet, as the first half of the record is mostly not metal, and the folk element definitely takes center stage here. The record begins with a nearly 6 minute intro, performed on all traditional Romanian folk instruments, flutes and hand drums, wooden percussion, and buzzing strings, creating a lush, mysterious, foresty feel, until finally the band launch into some proper metal, but it's not blasting or fierce, instead, it's washed out and almost atmospheric, with thick swaths of synthesizer underpinning the melancholy buzz, soaring majestic guitar melodies, the vocals bellowed dramatically, and after less than two minutes, the band shifts back, and unveils a shimmery landscape of long glimmering tones, layered soft focus drones, choir like vocals, acoustic guitars weaving crystalline lattices of subtly tense melody, that had they been swathed in buzz, would make for some serious blackness, but instead here, they just help evoke a haunting dreamscape, finally the drums thunder in, the vocals too, spoken dramatically, but still, it's mostly folky and acoustic, until finally the metal erupts again, and instead of blackness, it's almost a sort of depressive doom pop, very melodic, and emotional and intense, still heavy, just more moody, and it suits them for sure. After another stretch of dark Romanian folk flecked ambience, track four, again beginning with a dark folk intro, slowly mutates and intensifies, until it too explodes into some black metal, but even here, about as fierce and heavy as the record has gotten, the blackness is rife with acoustic guitars, fluttering flutes, swirling synths, all wrapped around a very Maiden-y melody, woozy serpentine guitars, chugging riffage, all still softened by those folk underpinnings. And while there are indeed moments of blackened aggression, and bits of blasting fury, that doesn't seem to be what NB are really about anymore, the group seem to be more concerned with evoking emotion, creating a landscape of sound that reflects their philosophy and mythology, the black metal more just an element of the whole, and really not even that prominent of one at this point, instead the modern sound of Negura Bunget is some sort of blackened dark folk prog metal, epic and sprawling, intricate and intimate, not concerned with heaviness or kvltness or any false scene idea of 'true', because when it gets right down to it, the music of Negura Bunget is indeed as true as it gets, true to the self, and to their vision, and that sort of truth is the only thing that can create musical art like Virstele Pamintului.

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MPEG stream: Dacia Hiperboreana
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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.

Seth Nehil and John Grzinich have been collaborating in various sound ventures off and on for well over a decade, back when the two met in Austin, Texas. Gyre marks the conclusion of a body of field recordings and agitated environments that the two began working on while travelling throughout Eastern Europe and later manipulated into installation soundtracks, arriving at three lengthy tracks. A constant fluidity of gray sounds wraps around the opening track of Gyre, which gives the impression of being deep underwater investigating the nether regions; yet the tactile sounds of various rubbings and cracked details contrast the subaqueous references with earthen found sounds of soil, stone, wood, and metal. The second piece acts as a call and response to the acoustics of some crumbling Soviet warehouse, with wooden tappings echoing from various parts of the space, presumably from the two participants. Gradually, a thick rumble of low end thrumb reverberates through additional layers of chattering birds which serves to counter the 'industrial' sound debris. The creaking from a high tension wire sets the stage for the final piece on Gyre, with ringing metallic vibrations amassing into a beautiful aura of hallowed droning. On par with the likes of Murmer, Loren Chasse, Tarab, Eric La Casa, and Small Cruel Party, Gyre is an excellent album.

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Strangely enough, we had never managed to get any of these records in stock when it originally came out in 2002 as the companion to the now out of print album Confluence, which had been released on the Intransitive label. Stria is one of many collaborative projects between these two impressive sound artists, straddling the realm of dronescape delirium and dislocated field recordings. Seth Nehil and John Grzinich first began working together in the humidity of Austin, Texas in the revolving door collective of Alial Straa, which also proved formative for Michael Northam and Olivia Block. But as all of these folks wandered to various corners of the globe (Grzinich in Estonia, Nehil to Portland, Block to Chicago, and who the hell knows where Northam currently calls home), the collaborations have become impressively focused projects, even as they take several years to complete. Like its companion piece, Stria centers upon the idea of resonance, spread across three longform pieces. The first of which collects various bowed tones from a huge ensemble of musicians and twists them all into a sinewy mass of slowburning drones and gradual progressions. The reference in the liner notes to Alvin Lucier makes complete sense in view of this impressive dronesmear crescendo on par with anything that Jonathan Coleclough or Organum had mustered. The second piece is more in keeping with Grzinich's recent work with clattering stone and found objects in concrete bunkers, as scrabbling sounds and tactile noises echo back and forth against murky atmospheres. The final piece returns to the drone work with motors agitating long thin wires with phase shifting oscillations and eerie turbulence rattling what otherwise would be some very pretty ambience, but instead becomes a sublime listening experience. An excellent piece of work all around.

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Naturalist aktionism? Sure, let's call it that. We can't really say that the Hermann Nitsch and Gunter Brus bloodletting as grand allegory is applicable to this collaboration between Portland based sound artists Seth Nehil and Matt Marble; but a rigorous body of work is definitely at hand. These two are the editors of the sound art journal FO A RM, and have both generated impressive bodies of conceptually minded compositions through field recordings, found objects, the almighty drone, and hand-built instruments. Here, Nehil and Marble wax poetic about the overlay of tactile sounds to emphasize the ruptures, holes, and negative spaces which may have been present on each layer of sound. So, instead of a gaping piece of unbroken ambience, Ecllipses is a tense and discordant album of rollicking textures which bristle and scrape against each other. Nehil and Marble revel in tumbles and scrabbles of what could be a revolving metal drum filled with various pine cones, twigs, and pebbles. Elsewhere, they focus upon churning bowed steel-strings, which offer buzzing clouds of softly rendered acoustic noise; and then soft pluckings of what sound like softened dulcimers drift into prolonged echo, hinting at avant-folk drones of Jewelled Antler (especially the Ov recordings) and Kemialliset Ystavat. Barring a minimal amount of signal processing and ring modulation, the album flourishes in the sodden palette of natural objects: wood, grass, leaves, soil, and rock.

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Like many of our favorite black metal outfits, this Canadian one man band is masterful at fusing epic swaths of atmospheric black buzz, with brooding psychedelic ambience, the sound a series of sprawling epic slow builds that drift through soft swirls of folky thrum, cinematic synthy shimmer, and mysterious field recording flecked soundscapes, before exploding into furious squalls of black buzz majesty. However, don't be expecting any black buzz here, as Natura Mortis Sonoris gathers up the group's 'deathcraft', i.e. dark ambient tracks that appeared on various releases between 2006 and 2013, re-envisioned, and reworked, and presented as a proper album of sorts. Generally we'd scoff at a collection of what is essentially a handful of 'scary' black metal intros, but N&N's 'deathcraft' really is so much more than that, deftly conjuring up other worlds, a sonic travelogue through some mysterious alternate universe, filled with deep dark forests, subterranean caverns, endless expanses of star filled sky, and scorched barren wastelands, haunting and harrowing, lush synth swells blossoming into soft kosmische shimmer, leading us toward something all together darker, acoustic guitars draped over a reverbed metallic buzz, a firelit folk that's sinister and ominous, but somehow still darkly lovely, laced with swoonsome strings, a blackened chamber folk that gradually bleeds into a woozy stretch of softly psychedelic kraut-age dreaminess. Soon strange percussion surface, as does the distant rumble of thunder, and the sound of rainfall, insects, it becomes evident that we're now wandering beneath the canopy of some ancient primeval grove, when suddenly voices drift in, the sounds of some primitive ritual, voices chanting, a cacophony of tolling bells, a dense dizzying nightmare of swirling sounds, that coalesces into strange sort of looped rhythm, lurching and lumbering hypnotically, deep dramatic crooning and some rasping vokills drifting over the top, soon joined by percolating synths, and then before you know it, silence. And we're only three tracks in. From there, Natura Mortis Sonoris unwinds languorously, weaving brief bits of near silence, to crystalline synth swirl, crows circling in the blood red sky above, drifting into near tranquil bits of campfire strum, only to devolve into blackend tarpit thrum, churning caustic fields of darkdrone energy, that decays into strange industrial crumble, before some of that firelit folkiness returns, with brief detours into Gobliny soundtracky synthiness, haunting drifts of whipping wind and druggy varispeed wooziness, anguished teeth gnashing psychedelia, burnished soft focus dreaminess, but always returning to the shadows, the record not so much a battle between light and dark, but of dark and darker, of darkness, and whatever lurks just beyond the darkness, a blackened sonic mystery that is utterly spellbinding.

MPEG stream: 3rd Hymne Fragment
MPEG stream: Aux Portes De La Crypte
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MPEG stream: Hibernation (Short Version)

We've been meaning to review something by this Canadian atmospheric/ambient black metal horde for ages, but there records have been surprisingly difficult to get in numbers enough to review and list. But finally we got enough of this one, not brand new, but a reissue of an ep from 2009, with a single from the same year tacked on, four tracks, 42:23 in all, of some of the best, tranced out black ambience and buzzing blackness we've heard. Check out the first track, the slow building "Loudon" which sounds like an even blacker more lush Locrian, beginning with a recording of some preacher, condemning a witch to burn at the stake, all over a deep rumbling whir, the sound blossoming into a thick lush drone, all woozy warped tolling bells, swirling synths, mysterious reverbed percussion, and finally a guitar, the slowly erupts into a caustic roiling buzz, a thick crumbling distorted swell over a hunting Jeck like loop, which gives way to near silence, and recordings of what sounds like running water, beneath an acoustic guitar, the vibe sort of Comus-y, but even more harrowing and haunting, finally finishing off with another strange sample, which leads directly into the epic "Rituel Incantatoir Du Grimoire Du Sorcier", which erupts immediately into a fierce frenzied black buzz, the drums so fast they sound almost like a drone, the guitars blurred and frantic, the arrangement cyclical, weirdly looped with a little stutter, making the song swing hypnotically, and then the song explodes into an almost-waltz, epic and majestic and melodic, the blazing double kick returning, now accompanying the waltz like main riff, the sound seeming to grow ever grander, only to bliss out part way through, the guitars smeared into a lush layered sprawl, over which another mysterious sampled voice surfaces, and then it's back to the loping buzz, finishing off in a squall of synth soaked black doom churn. The final track of the ep is all ambient, a haunting liturgical drift, all chanted voices blurred into woozy drones, delicate piano melodies, subtly manipulated sounds, almost like tape experiments, hazy and washed out and totally mesmerizingly hypnotic. Which leads directly into the single track, the even more epic 18+ minute "Thanatonaut", which spends its first 5 minutes droning ominously, swirling winds, the sound of workers toiling in the dungeons, then finally, the guitars come in, massive and heavy and huge, unfurling creeping chugging doom, an ominous creep, with more swirling synths, and some impossibly gurgly demonic vokills, the song a sonic death march, subtly psychedelic, wreathed in ambient shimmer and atmospheric swirl, a gorgeously abject slab of blackened doom, which trudges resolutely to the very end. So fucking great. While very little of this release is in fact black metal, black energy oozes from every note, and will no doubt convince the uninitiated, that Neige Et Noirceur could very well be their new favorite band.

MPEG stream: Loudon
MPEG stream: Rituel Incantatoir Du Drimoire Du Sorcier

The story behind this record is almost too outlandish to be believe. According to lore and the liner notes on the back of this album, David Neil was a Canadian acid-folk minstrel in the Gram Parsons mould, with an appetite for drugs as large as his capacity to churn out insightful, psychedelically tinged country tunes. During a four year period from 1970 to 1974, Neil squandered every penny of his advance from his deal with Anchor Records on drugs and various affairs with bored housewives in Hollywood and Long Island. Nevertheless, he and his band toured relentlessly, working out the material that never actually got released. During Neil's final tour in 1974, a young Steve Kilbey, the Australian bassist / vocalist who would later go on to form The Church in the early '80s, joined the band. This tour was cut short as Neil died an improbable death, according to the liner notes "the plane he was on crashed while at the time he was overdosing in the toilet while a jealous husband kicked in the door and gunned him down." Yes, those were the days before excessive TSA screenings. Jump forward a couple of decades, when Kilbey acquired the master tracks of Neil's unfinished album. Many of the tracks were just sketches but featured Neil's distinctive Marc Bolan styled falsetto; and others were lacking vocals altogether. Kilbey managed to piece together the missing vocal tracks from memory and from a long lost lyric book of Neil's. Kilbey and Ricky Maymi (of Brian Jonestown Massacre fame) went into the studio to flesh out these tracks, recording all to tape and using vintage equipment wherever possible to achieve as close to the original sound that Neil was going for way back when. The resulting album is a charming romp through Americana (or would that be Canadiana?) bittersweet, country-fried pop with bouncing basslines, gracefully rustic slide guitars, and a stoned-in-the-summertime vibe that's quite infectuous. Limited edition private pressing from Kilbey and Maymi, who put a lot of love and heart into these recordings... and it shows!

MPEG stream: Hollywood Ending
MPEG stream: Higher Than Yesterday
MPEG stream: Equator

Long time collaborators (and OG Jandek backing band, for his first live shows ever), AQ fave Richard Youngs and Alex Nielson once again team up for an absolutely gorgeous collection of sonic wonder, from lilting fuzzy folk, to massive churning guitarscapes. Five tracks, all ten to fifteen minutes long, each a sprawling expanse of dreamy deconstructed pop, fluttering free folk drift, abstract percussive clatter or full on wall of sound rrroooaar. The opener is a delicate, tribal swirl, Rumbling low tones, pulsing piano, ethereal chant like vocals, dark moody melodies wrapped around flickering electronic FX, shuffling hand drums, a bit Wicker Man, a little hippy drift, hypnotic and meditative, drowsy and so lovely. The follow up is just as lovely, but way more abstract, a slowly shifting ambient tableau of sizzling cymbals, muted distant melodies, disembodied voices, and shimmering washes of abstract sound, all smeared into a blissfully blurry soundscape. Track three jacks up the cacophony just a bit and suddenly the disc gets dangerous. Super blown out guitar throb underpins a clattery skeletal framework, supporting slippery slivers of high end feedback, everything clouded in thick swirls of dense effects, eventually building to an impenetrable psychdrone fug. And even before you can shake it off and get that ringing out of your ears, the band slips back into tribal drift mode, building another dreamy swirlscape of looped whir and muted rhythmic scrape, glistening acoustic guitar and coo-ing vocal ambience. The final track is another dreamy drone-y drift, but this time wrapped in spike-y psychedelic guitar leads, the whole track hovering beneath FX-drenched warped and warbly wah wah guitars, everything spinning and swirling, like the soundtrack to one of those sixties films about getting high, but even more druggy and gloriously far out.

MPEG stream: New Moon Alone
MPEG stream: Pictures For The Multitudes

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

SORRY. Oval-esque hard disk editing of digital skipping, from a variety of sources including electrical input buzz and pop, toy like melodies, and non place ambience. Quite lovely.

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

SORRY. Neina are a Japanese trio recording for the famed Mille Plateaux label out of Germany. They take a cue from Oval, with whom they share a fondness for warm & scratchy minimalist electronica, then make it even more interesting. At first sounding charmingly as if they're underwater (where it's peaceful and not claustrophobic), they settle into a brief but brilliant few minutes of what actually sounds like IMPROVISED bleeps, swoops and beats. They also explore the gentle but insistent pulsing associated with artists like Pan sonic and other Chain Reaction outfits. It's quite lovely!

[ aquarius records catalogue — N ]