[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 401 through 450 of 1150.

Japanese duo Nerve Net Noise, with previous releases on Meme, Zero Gravity, and Hronir, make the sort of experimental electronic "music" that really separates the men from the boys (or, shall we say, the insane noise geeks from everyone else). But while Tsuyoshi "Tagomago" Nakamaru (who handles the mix and effects) and Hiroshi Kumakiri (who builds NNN's unique synthesizers) are from Japan, this *isn't* howling vacuum cleaner grinding shrieking death noise in the tradition of Merzbow/Hijokaidan/Masonna/etc. Rather, it's closer in style to the clicks n' cuts of Ryoki Ikeda and the "empty" sine wave pulses of Sachiko M. Some call it "onkyo" music. How about we call it squeaky toy, modem on the fritz, annoying buzzer going off music? Yep, it's still room-clearing stuff, y'know. Indeed, it was hard to review, 'cause my co-workers kept yelling at me to turn it off!! But to NNN's ears, this is beautiful music. From Kumakiri's liner notes: "At first, Nerve Net Noise enjoyed pure sound. These days, we try to think about music. We aspire to create music that is between played and not-played, between controlled and uncontrolled. We feel that consciously performed music can have too much evidence of human planning. But we also dislike random music that displays no evidence of human planning at all. We try to find a satisfying middle area with our albums." Well, that's an uncommon idea of "music", now isn't it!? But it explains a lot about how this album sounds. Basically, Kumakiri's array of homemade synths are switched on and allowed to make the noises they want to make, while the NNN duo tweak the volume and so forth, affecting the sounds and rhythms. When they're happy with what they're hearing, they record the results. It's kind of a Metal Machine Music concept. Imagine a nest of robotic birds, mechanically, repetitively chirping at one another, slowly building into patterns and rhythms that will drill themselves into your brain, causing either the euphoria of a trepanation (if you're into it) or simply the pain of such. But it's clear that the former is the intention. These guys aren't trying to make assaultive music for masochists -- they just hear things differently from most folks. For instance, we suspect they'd hear the beauty inherent in a malfunctioning car alarm. If you want to open *yourself* up to this realm of sound-appreciation, then "Meteor Circuit" wouldn't be a bad place to start -- just don't expect your co-workers, housemates, family, etc. to enjoy it! (Is it perverse to like this stuff? 'Cause some of us here have more than one NNN cd in our collections...)

RealAudio clip: #1
RealAudio clip: #4

"Various Amusements" by the Japanese glitch / onkyo / minimalist ensemble Nerve Net Noise was billed to us as an electronic meditation on the common activities of teenage girl's afternoon, such as shopping, talking on the phone, putting on make up,

RealAudio clip: Afternoon Nap
RealAudio clip: Make Up

On their debut album -- a fully fleshed out rock production -- SF band Nervebox reveal many facets of their musical personality including a flair for the somber and the dramatic. Oddly enough on initial in-store play, Drawn swiftly drew comparisons to such diverse artists such as Arcadia (remember that project by Duran Duran's Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes? check out "Out Of Line" which also hinted at shades of Portishead's pace and mood), early REM (on "All For The Best") or David Sylvian back in Japan days. And Nervebox certainly do traverse the vast rock terrain freely and confidently although they do tend to keep returning to the deep emotiveness of Japan/David Sylvian. Synths swoop and howl like menacing ravens on one song, decisively-picked guitar drives another, then suddenly you're immersed in a eerie carnivalesque rock number ("Monkey"). Nervebox keeps you on your toes.

MPEG stream: Out Of Line
MPEG stream: Monkey

Long overdue archival release from this '70s Texas punk rock combo, and like many seventies punk rock bands, their sound is a lot more pop than much of the punk rock that would follow in the eighties. The band made a name for themselves in the mid seventies, releasing a handful of eps, even opening for the Sex Pistols in 1978 (one of the only bands EVER to have opened for the Pistols), this here was meant to be their debut album, and was recorded in 1980 but never released until now - about time!! They start things off with a killer cover of Morricone's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly", before launching into their 'hit', "My Girlfriend Is A Rock", with its crunchy fuzzy power pop riffage and absurdist lyrics, and from there on out it's all swaggery, buzzy, caffeinated, punked out power pop, a little bit psychedelic, heavy on the hooks, and while "My Girlfriend Is A Rock" was an actual hit, it's hard to believe most of the tracks here didn't follow suit. Totally hooky punk pop that should most definitely appeal equally to punk rockers and power poppers. We've been listening to this like crazy!

MPEG stream: The Good The Bad & The Ugly
MPEG stream: My Girlfriend Is A Rock
MPEG stream: Girls Girls Girls Girls Girls

Drummer extraordinare Greg Saunier of Deerhoof and drummer supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Zach Hill of Hella kick up some noisy noise noise here. As you'd expect, there's lotsa drums in with their noise, plus...classical harp played by Joanna Newsom (of The Pleased, and solo fame)? Yep! It's a hectic thirty minute wonderland of bipping bapping drumbeats and electronic fuckery, with some moments of mysterious beauty, strangely enough -- often courtesy of Newsom's harp pluckery. Like a lot of things Deerhoof-related, odd but good. And it's definitely got a great cover pic, we think.

MPEG stream: Franks No Frank

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We have long been huge fans of New Zealand noisemaker Nigel Wright ever since we first heard him on a cd-r way back in 2005. Since then we've tried to carry everything we could get our hands on, but unlike his overproductive countrymen, it hasn't been much. We flipped over the recent Tapir 3"cd-r and only just recently got a handful of this disc. Nest is a duo, featuring Wright and LA based sound maker Andrew Scott, and for this little 3" the two have teamed up with Mark Sadgrove (of MHFS and Infintesimal) and together these three kick up quite a din, huge distorted washes of sound that shift and pulse and twist and throb like something alive. Burning white hot and blown out, it's a glistening wall of supernova guitars, wreathed in a hazy cloud of dense distortion and buzzy reverb. Like a single shard of My Bloody Valentine psychrock blowout, looped and run through a busted up old distortion pedal. A gloriously crumbling, coruscating blast of face melting psychedelic free noise bliss. Already out of print. We have about 25 copies, but these will probably go quick...

MPEG stream: excerpt 1
MPEG stream: excerpt 2

Last year we reviewed a cd-r by the duo Nest, guitarist Andrew Scott and NZ noisemaker Nigel Wright, where they teamed up with fellow kiwi MHFS, but for this latest outing, the duo has teamed up with yet another New Zealander, Tim Coster, and the results are again sublime. But in a much different way than the last collaboration. Where that one was distorted and heavy and buzzy, this new one is much darker and more introspective, guitars and laptops blurred into warm whirring blurs, soft distorted pulses smoother out into soft swells, a dreamy dark tranquil drift, that continues that way for much of the track's 25 minutes, but right around the 17 minute mark, the guitars grow a bit restless, the sound a bit more corrosive, over the continuous low end flow, soars streaks of coruscating high end, shards of feedback, eventually shedding the low end completely, leaving the sharper guitar to riff weightlessly and slowly transform into a fuzzed out chunk of slow swirling murk, that unfurls until the track's end. Good stuff. Fans of the usual abstract free drone stuff will dig this heavily!

MPEG stream: Untitled

Another mysterious disc that just showed up in the mail one day, and totally knocked our socks off. So we ordered a bunch cuz we wanted to share them with all of you, but then we realized we had to describe it, and damn if this isn't a tough one to figure out. Dark and somber, rhythmic and minimal, a muddy, murky, sort of krautdrone drift. The rhythms are pulses, that drift in and out, the guitars moan and keen, electronics warble and rumble, lots of twisted bits of low end, changing speed and tone, super abstract and drifty and otherworldly, the band occasionally coalesce into a sort-of-groove, but even then, it's a sort of convoluted lumber, vocals, wrapped in reverb and echo, draped over the stuttering anti-funk, the melody carried by deep slow shifting swells, all around fragments of sounds tangle and untangle, their overtones creating strange minimal melodies. When the vocals do come in, it almost sounds like some sort of avant coldwave, imagine a cold wave Starfuckers maybe, a little bit cold and clinical and machinelike, but Net Shaker are less concerned with song, and groove, and being new wave or cold wave or whatever. They definitely exist in their own fucked up and fractured world. The sound may be hard to pin down, but it's definitely mesmerizing, hypnotic, cyclical, a woozy, warped, murky assemblage of cold Teutonic pop, layered drones, motorik krautrock, spaced out post industrial ambience, not to mention some fractured druggy sonic collage. Noise rock, post punk, avant pop, dirge wave, cold core, krautwave, not sure what to call it, or if it even needs a name, what we do know is this is one of the most original sounding records we've heard in ages, and we find ourselves listening to this cd-r all the time. Which pretty much says it all...

MPEG stream: Descenda
MPEG stream: Silhouetta
MPEG stream: Church On
MPEG stream: Iss
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Finally, a brand new record from aQ pal Ernest Gibson, who as Net Shaker, and solo, creates some of thee most warped, and idiosyncratic music we've ever heard. And it seems like every record not only gets better, but somehow also gets weirder. It's always been incredible to describe Gibson's music, even after four releases, we still struggle to put into words, what he manages to conjure up out of a seemingly super minimal sonic palette. The first thing we notice on I'm So Cold, is the groove, the opening track is downright groovy, at least for Net Shaker, a sort of slowcore, downtempo dirge, all shuffling rhythm, wreathed in swirling murk and hushed vox, it's like Starfuckers covering Portishead, or something, but definitely super polished and dare we say, 'danceable'. But fear not, the second track returns us to the cracked sonic underworld that Gibson rules over. A sprawl of throbbing pulses, of heaving industrial moans, and echo drenched anguished voices, chopped up and layered into weird textures, and when the rhythm proper does kick in, it's just a trash can lid cymbal hit, monotonous and robotic, all the while, the sounds underneath swirl and sway, the whole thing on the verge of total collapse. Which is sort of what Net Shaker seems to be all about. A series of meticulously assembled sonic epics, which on some level, reveal an intricate array of inner workings, like the musical version of one of those visible man medical dummies, but in so doing, also reveals that all of these sounds, these melodies, these arrangements are balanced precariously on a knife edge, this impending doom, this black hole that seems to lurk beneath each of these songs, somehow imbues Net Shaker's music with a dark glow, a restless tension, that makes the songs exude a nervous energy, which is even more remarkable for the fact that many of the songs are near somnambulant, in a sort of circular stasis, yet still displaying some sort of warped gravitational pull to the surrounding sounds. The cool thing this time around is that the loose abstract sonic mysteries, seem to be balanced by more composed jams, minimal dubbed out dirgescapes, the sort of sound that's even too slow and low for a label like WordSound. Tracks like "Be Back" are like Spectre on Thorazine, a creepy, murky crawl, a slo-mo space dub, that measures grooves in minutes instead of seconds. And once you're locked into Net Shaker's nocturnal flow, the record collapses and the sound is transformed into a field of Geiger counter flutter, or swirling smears of soft focus thrum, but before long, another beat surfaces, and Gibson hangs whatever bit of melodic murk or tortured texture he has handy, and away we go, tranced out and mesmerized, until the cycle repeats, and we tumble into the next sprawl of garbled sonic detritus, as we wait patiently for the next beat to pass by. And yeah, this record is another weird one, but some of the songs here display a surprising sonic mastery, that's beginning to make us think Gibson is working really hard to try and NOT make music that's more accessible. But his struggle makes for fantastic and twisted listening. ESSENTIAL.

MPEG stream: Another Twin
MPEG stream: Antenna
MPEG stream: Be Back
MPEG stream: Carls Over
MPEG stream: Cement Color
MPEG stream: Loa

Finally, the first proper NON cd-r release from the warped and wonderful Net Shaker, who in the span of one song, remind us again exactly why we love them so much, and demonstrate a knack for fucked up songcraft that enables them to conjure up these bleak minimal abstract dirges, that manage to be simultaneously difficult and damaged, haunting and hypnotic, and somehow, weirdly catchy to boot. Fans of past NS releases will feel immediately at home, the song oozing from the speakers, a murky, moodily rhythmic creep, lugubrious and soporific, a slithery tarpit lumber, the music smeary and bleary, like listening through ears full of sand, but then the vocals, strangely clean and crooned, the result something like a pop song slowed down, and melted down into a black sonic blur. Minimal and muddy and abstractly doomy, the vocals gradually growing more garbled, drifting over rumbles and drones, a softly swirling sea of hum and thrum, all wedded to that omnipresent slo-mo shuffle. Awesome. The B side is a new track from Swedish sisters the Ectoplasm Girls, whose track sounds like it could have come from their awesome (but sadly out of print) TxN lp on Ideal, and ends up being the perfect match from Net Shaker, super psychedelic and freaked out, but still minimal and abstract, an almost industrial churn beneath clouds of heavily delayed vocals, a dense dubbed out squall of tangled yelps and croons, all heavily effected, the whole thing laced with weird atonal synth melodies, and like the Net Shaker track, the whole thing anchored by a warped and woozy rhythmic stumble.

Got just TWO copies of this, found tucked away in the closet here, originally released in 2003, looooong out of print, the label too is now defunct, this is some seriously epic, black hole, bottomless low end deepdarkdronemusic. Bleak and hushed, ambient minimal shimmer, cold and barren, cinematic and utterly ominous, shot through with streaks of crumbling distortion, the whole thing so gorgeously haunting and harrowing. Definitely for fans of Thomas Koner, and other masters of the grim black drone. Packaged in an oversized dvd case, full color printed cover, and as mentioned above, out of print, last two copies EVER.

MPEG stream: The Wholeness of Nothingness

It's that time again. That mysterious time, which only occurs a few times each year. Like an equinox or a solstice. When strange shimmering sonic clouds drift lazily across the sea and land gently in our earholes. That's right, it's time for some new sounds from one of our favorite labels in the world, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. This instalmment comes from the mysterious Nether Dawn, which is the work of Mr. Antony Milton, who just so happens to run another one of our favorite labels, PseudoArcana. Milton has spent much of his time lately making big noises, and causing much sonic destruction performing his own brand of free-drone-metal as Mirag, but here returns to his drone-drfit roots. Outer Dark is a gorgeously pastoral spacescape, fuzzy and washed out, huge drifts of shimmer and wide expanses of sun baked ambience. Delicate and crystalline, melodies lurk innocently beneath thick swaths of sweet buzz or dash furtively and barely noticed through deep swells of rich rumbling sound. Notes soaked in reverb float lazily through twilit skies, like listening to the most beautiful music with your ears crossed, so everything is just a little bit fuzzy, a little bit smeared, notes become tinly little shooting stars, their tonal colors turned into little musical trails drifting into the ether, while guitars are stretched into soft gauzy sheets, everything warm and wonderfully dreamlike. Beautiful!

MPEG stream: GreetÔThe Evening With A Kapai
MPEG stream: Southern Cross

Nether Dawn is the alter ego of Mr. Antony Milton, who really needs no more alter egos, but what the heck, with each alter ego comes another chunk of gorgeous sound, so we're not complaining. This is not really new, it's just been sitting here waiting to get reviewed, and we've finally gotten around to it, and as is often the case, from the second we threw this on, we were wondering why the heck we waited so long. Whisky Mute-Down begins as a gorgeous crumbling wall of rumbles and drones, of buried melodies and streaks of high end feedback. Noisy, but soft noise, it totally had us wishing it was the only track here and would continue on in the same vein for another hour. But thankfully, the rest of the record has other sonic treasures to offer. A spare guitar drifts above buzz and crackle, of amp buzz and the sound of bad connections and old cords, warm soft whirs spread out in thick waves, sounding a bit like field recordings, far beneath the call of some alien creature rings out, a clattery clanging guitarscape rings out over an almost techno pulse, the beat and the pulsing guitar swaying woozily back and forth, while a second guitar unfurls delicate little high end melodies, a long slow burning distant grinding guitar shimmers beneath glimmering high end, and above bellowing low end, the various layers blurring together like oil and water, offering up various colors and tones, and finally, another minimal dronescape, a doomy riff, wreathed in crackle and stripped to the bone, occasionally rearing up to chug and crunch, but otherwise laying prone, and the buzz and hiss pile up, the whole thing a smoldering sea of distorted drones, decaying before our ears. Worth it for the first track alone, but even more worth it for the rest...

MPEG stream: Evensong Pt. One
MPEG stream: Routes Through Grey Lands

Another killer (and super limited, argh) release from Sound & Fury, a killer record store / label in Australia, who recently decided to close down the shop, but will continue to book tours, have shows and release records, lucky for us! This disc is a live to minidisc recording from a massive New Zealand freenoise show featuring a who's who of AQ faves and kick ass NZ underground legends: Birchville Cat Motel, 6Majik9, James Kirk from Sandoz Lab Technicians, and of course the Nether Dawn and 1/3 Octave band. The Nether Dawn are Antony Milton (PseudoArcana, Mrtyu, etc.) and AQ pal Jon Dale, who teamed up for this 15+ minute set of soaring ur-drone and dense thick hum and shimmer. Big low pulses of sound tangled up with sparkling high end, glistening melodies and mumbled heavily affected vocals. A blast of cosmic space out along the same lines as Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! and the like but with a softer, more dreamlike focus. Nice. 1/3 Octave Band follow up with their own lengthy jam, a near 17 minute slab of chiming metal, clanging percussion, super reverbed pipefight, little swirls of high end feedback, reverberating chimes, and a soft shimmery skree, that about halfway sort of slow down and stretch out, into a languid, sunbaked guitar/electronics free jam drift. A shimmering cascading flow of warm reverberant chords, flickering feedback, and subtle but distinct minor key melancholia. So nice. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, WE GOT THE LAST 25 OR SO. Packaged in really nice brown paper, sealed with a black stamped wax seal, each copy hand numbered with a printed inner sleeve and a unique full color, actual photo.

MPEG stream: One
MPEG stream: Two

Yet another limited edition release from Mike Donovan's Folding cassette-only label. This one's considerably longer in running time than any of the recent batch, and it features early improvised recordings by John Dwyer (guitar) and Brian Gibson (drums) aka The Netmen. Noisy and rhythmic and weird and pretty wonderful. Just what you'd expect from the mad musical minds of Gibson and Dwyer. Super limited!

Julien Neto creates velvety and gorgeous drone music that twitches with static-like prickles. Each track of Le Fumeur de Ciel envelopes the listener with an aching heaviness, the kind that originates from deep within your chest. Quite moving and very film score-ish. If you enjoyed Port-Royal's Flares album that we highlighted last list, you might also find Julien Neto's music ticklin' your fancy.

MPEG stream: VI (featuring Keith Kenniff)
MPEG stream: Questionable Things

First full length from Nettle (a duo that just happens to feature AQ fave DJ/ Rupture!!). This disc is mostly made up of previously released 12"s, but adds some extra tracks to make the whole package worthwhile, even if you have the wax. The sound here is pretty far removed from the plunderphonic dancehall turntable mashups of the two Rupture releases (though some Nettle tracks can be found on those discs). Nettle is more like a hyper-glitched, super distorted Muslimgauze. Middle Eastern melodies are buried under bumping beats, downtempo rhythms and lots of glitched out bursts of hyper distortion and BZZZZZZZTTT. Dreamy melodies weave in and out of the mix as do brief hip hop snippets and found sounds. While this doesn't have the sort of novelty factor of Rupture's DJ mixes, this is still some seriously great stuff.

RealAudio clip: Minesweeper Dub
RealAudio clip: Ballad Of Jimmy Hollin

Been a while (8 years?) since we've heard from Nettle, or DJ /Rupture for that matter. Nettle is the live band project of DJ /Rupture, the amazing mix master (and self-described "border-crossing bass visionary") responsible for, as we put it, "plunderphonic dancehall turntable mashups" on his various rad mixes (2001's Gold Teeth Thief being THE classic). We know he's got a show on WFMU, still does music and mixes, but we didn't know that his band Nettle was still active, or rather that it had been reactivated. So this new Nettle album is unexpected, but nevertheless awesome. El Resplandor is a concept album, the quite cool concept pretty much revealed in its subtitle: The Shining In Dubai. Yes, we're in imaginary soundtrack territory here - what if, Stephen King's The Shining were set in an abandoned luxury hotel in the Arabian emirate of Dubai, on the Persian Gulf? Musically, this turns out to be an excellent idea... you keep the spooky psychological horror stuff (family moves into isolated empty hotel, things get weird, dad loses his shit, etc.) and add an ethnic Middle Eastern music element as well. DJ /Rupture, credited with "electricity, mudd", works with an ensemble of musicians, including guitarist Andy from The Ex. So there's guitar, cello (x2), violin, and guembri (an African 3-stringed skin-covered lute) - along with lovely, wordless female vocals, something that's always perfectly suspense soundtrack worthy! While in the past, this outfit sounded something like a beat-heavy, uber-distorted Muslimgauze, with hiphop elements even, El Resplandor is more restrained, atmospheric, and eerily evocative, in keeping with the concept. There's much somber shimmer and string pluck, and of course tape manipulation and electronic glitchery, with DJ /Rupture applying his mixing/editing skills to what may have been improvised solos from the various instrumentalists - we're not sure of the compositional method, but it certainly involves some measure of computer processing. The eleven varied tracks all individually contribute to the haunted, alienated, edge-of-the-desert vibe of The Shining in Dubai idea... From the stately exotic dance of "Espina" to the buzz, crackle and chaos of "Simoom (Wasp Wind)", this is a beautiful and dramatic disc. One that makes for a good late night listen, excepting the presence of that "Simoom" track, where thing get a bit... disturbed... that might wake you up from your reveries! The digipack packaging features scene-setting liner notes by none other than imaginative architectural essayist Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG fame (great blog, check it out if you haven't before) and equally appropriate photographs by Lamya Gargash. Quite recommended!

MPEG stream: Radio Flower
MPEG stream: Empty Quarters
MPEG stream: El Resplandor: In The Marsh

Seminal krautrockers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger have at long last (after an uncomfortable decade-plus of legal wrangling) patched up whatever their differences were in order to allow their three classic '70s albums to be offical released on cd for the For those of you not already Neu!-savvy, these are the guys responsible (along with Kraftwerk, with whom guitarist Rother and drummer Dinger once played -- that's how they met, before splitting to form Neu!) for the "motorik" beat, the propulsive, autobahn-friendly, proto-punk electronics hybrid that has influenced countless bands. From big fans Bowie and Eno back in the seventies to the hundreds of postrock/electronica acts that namecheck them now, Neu! are gods. Negativland not only got their name from a Neu! song off the first album, but even the name of their label, Seeland, comes from a track off of 75. Indeed, some bands have built their entire careers on, uh, paying homage to Neu! (Michael Rother, quoted in the most recent issue of MOJO: "I went to a Stereolab concert once. Suddenly I had the impression I was listening to myself -- very strange!") Astralwerks has done a nice job with these reissues. No, there's no bonus tracks or extensive liner notes or anything "extra", but all the original artwork is included (not that we have an original Neu! lp handy to compare with, but anyway they look nice). We could have done without the stickers on the front with blurbs from famous fans, but that's discarded once you unwrap the cd so no big deal. We'd guess that Neu!'s first album will sell the most copies, as it's graced with the endorsement of Thom Yorke, whereas we hope that Neu! 75 won't suffer from the moronic blurb from John Frusciante. In keeping with the generally fucked up saga of these records/reissues, we're already having trouble getting enough of these in stock (our suppliers getting one title, but not the others; very small quanities, that sort of bs), so act fast. Sorry for the high price, it *might* come down as the supply situation changes, but for right now it reflects what we have to pay for these. Argh. And the vinyl versions (YES! they're doing LP reissues) have been inexplicably delayed until the end of July! Double argh. Neu! 1 (1971) is a stunning work of art, drifting back and forth between the stripped down minimal kraut-pop that they're most commonly associated with, to long, spacey and psychedelic forays with lapses into musique concrete like moments with lapping water, children and jackhammers. Their sound could be most closely compared to early Kraftwerk or Cluster. In fact, the track "Im Gluck" sounds an awful lot like both Kraftwerk's "Radioland" and, believe it or don't, the beginning preamble to Rush's "Xanadu." Whether these two had Neu! in mind when they worked these songs out remains to be proven, but it's nice to think of such dissimilar groups drawing from the same well.

RealAudio clip: Im Gluck
RealAudio clip: Weissensee
RealAudio clip: Negativland

Neu! 2 could possibly be considered the world's first "remix" album, as a good portion of it features "varispeed" versions of previously released Neu! material. They ran out of studio time/money, so the story goes, and after recording two songs for a

RealAudio clip: Fur Immer
RealAudio clip: Lila Engel
RealAudio clip: Super 16

The critical status quo qualifies Neu! 75 as the best of three albums, simply because it is the most musically adept and holds the most studio polish. While we here at Aquarius are not going to deny that Neu! 75 isn't a great and possibly required album, we The two previous albums were infused with a bold spirit of experimentations that led to the mutable pace of the motorik grooves on "Negativland" (from Neu! 1), and the idiosyncratic "remixes" from Neu! 2. While Klaus Dinger's percussion remains unchanged from the first two releases, Michael Rother moves away from the risk-taking agendas from the first two albums, to a more commonplace rock schtick. Rother's guitars hold a greater range of dynamics with beautifully soaring Pink Floyd-esque harmonics to gritty aggro / glam rock power chords, but his insistance on singing much more isn't a great idea. As previously mentioned, Neu! was a profound influence for David Bowie; thus, it is not a coincidence that Neu!'s "Hero" (from Neu! 75) predates Bowie's "Heroes" by a good two years.

RealAudio clip: Hero
RealAudio clip: Emusik

This is one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen. Max Neuhaus' "Fontana Mix-Feed" features six "realizations" of an indeterminate John Cage score, in Neuhaus' hands an electro-acoustic feedback concerto created with timpani, contact microphones, amplifiers, and a mixer. Shrill, high-end death drone, different at each performance. This is common stuff nowadays, but back in 1965 before such genres as "power violence" and "no-input mixing board" music, it must have fascinated and/or severely disturbed the listeners (generally in some posh academic setting -- the booklet is full of great photos and flyers for Neuhaus' performances). Like the Ashley's "Wolfman", this Neuhaus disc is cool when you consider that context: as depicted on the cover, a nerdish young Neuhaus in suit and tie, on stage at Carnegie Hall causing audience discomfort and pain with his knob twisting! Definitely of historic import, at the very least. MPEG Download: "Chicago, April 1965" [/audio/neuhauschicago.mp3]

MPEG stream: Chicago, April 1965

PHAK YEAH!! It's been, like, ten years since this local groop, the 'South East Asian' alter ego of sonic subversives Mono Pause, put out their debut album, which became quite a bit of a hit here at aQ. Now at long last they've recorded a follow-up full-length, featuring the anthemic track "Fucking USA" which appeared on a 7" single some years back, along with ten more brand new cuts of their exuberant ethno-rock exotica. Among several AQ pals, Neung Phak's ranks include Mark Gergis (of Porest), who is the man responsible for a lot of our favorite Sublime Frequencies releases (and who now runs the likeminded Sham Palace label too). So you know that this band's take on various forms of traditional pop musics from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and elsewhere is well researched, steeped in firsthand knowledge probably gleaned on a backpacking / cassette-tape-digging trip overseas... Neung Phak should definitely appeal to fans of Dengue Fever, trafficking in the same sort of groovy vintage Cambodian Rocks style psych pop, but with more of a twisted, fucked up edge to it, in the tradition of the late great Sun City Girls - whose Abduction label put this out, and whose Alan Bishop makes a cameo appearance. "Fucking USA", which they would have us believe was recorded in Pyongyang, is probably the most punk rockish thing on here, but the whole album is exceedingly energetic and effervescent. And full of surprises - like the distorted electronic noise and free jazz freakouts that erupt in the middle of foreign-language funk vamp "Sa-Ha". Make no mistake, though, even with the sometimes crazed vocals and distorted acid rock guitars, many of these tracks are dancefloor fillers, for sure! Their wild East-West hybrid may have its faux-ethnic elements, but they don't fake the funk. It's like the music Funkadelic would have made if drafted and sent to Vietnam in the '70s, then gone AWOL and playing in some dive bar with local musicians. Meanwhile, the disc's closer, "Sad Chatri", is a seven-minute psychedelic slow burner, its grooves more for nodding out than getting down. Damn good, as is this whole album, highly recommended! By the way, this was also released on limited vinyl as well, a couple months ago, but that lp version went out of print too darn fast for us to list - though we may just have 1 copy left if you act quick...

MPEG stream: Bang Toyib
MPEG stream: Poot
MPEG stream: Sad Chatri

If Dengue Fever is an homage to the sort of band you might see in a clean well lit Cambodian bar, classy and melodic, with sweet pop vocals, then Neung Phak is a tribute to the sort of band you'd go to see around the corner from the nice clubs, down the alley, enter through the back, sitting in the gloom, in a cracked vinyl booth, letting the wild Southeast Asian pop rock wash your cares away. Neung Phak, aka Oakland's Monopause, have become masters of whatever SE Asian musics they decide to tackle be it Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, or Cambodian, made possible by the band's adept interpretations, but more importantly the band's vocalists Diana Hayes and Joi Po Dee, who are Thai and Laotian. Side A is the title track, "Fucking USA", a vintage pop rock tune, big band arrangements, horns, fuzzy psychedelic guitars, with the only bit of vocals in English, being the shouted "Fucking USA!!" Catchy and fun, and so genuine sounding it sounds like it came straight off one of those Sublime Frequencies discs. We can imagine this will be a hit... overseas anyway. The B side features two tracks recorded live for the radio, the first was immediately familiar, due in no small part to its frequent instore play, as it's a track from Neung Phak's full length, "Tui Tui Tui" with it's super catchy, totally recognizable chorus over a lush big band arrangement, with warm horns, understated guitars and shuffling drums. Originally performed by Yim Yamsupan, and quite possibly one of our favorite Southeast Asian pop songs EVER. The second track is a slowed down version of the title track, with the title changed to "Far King USA" for radio play, the whole thing a lugubrious, moody croon, with mournful piano, haunting vocals, somber and minor key. Pressed on super thick vinyl and packaged in a thick full color sleeve, with hilarious (and perhaps problematic) cover art! Limited to 300 copies.

Of course the first thing that will unfortunately happen for Neung Phak (a.k.a. Mono Pause) are the inevitable comparisons to Dengue Fever. And to come to their defence (and we're devout fans of Dengue Fever as well) Neung Phak have not only began working on these tracks prior to Dengue Fever's inception, but the music of the two bands are apples and oranges. Neung Phak (literal Thai translation of Mono Pause) is a new line-up and musical direction for the East Bay experimental music veterans Mono Pause. Featuring Diana Hayes and Joi Po Dee on vocals (Thai and Lao respectively) and some cameo appearances from Sun City Girl Alan Bishop, Neung Phak have done their homework when it comes to pop music of SE Asia. Less a fusion of styles, as seems to be the general trend with occidental ethno-pop bands, than a thoroughly researched compilation of SE Asian pop music genres, with each individual track being an excellently re-created execution of a particular idiom; be it Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Cambodian or Khmer. The album kicks off with "Hired By The King" an excellent toe-tapping mo lam like track (a Neung Phak original) with superb kaen (the ubiquitous mouth organ of the region) playing by Erik Gergis and accompanied by electric bass, electric guitar (picked like a mandolin or oud would be) and percussion (a track later on in the disc "Fired By The King" is similar, though featuring an out of tune bass line that's apparently popular in many of the originals). In stark contrast what follows is a cover of a Thai country pop tune from 1998, an adorably cute up-beat number featuring percussive nasal vocals ("Tui, Tui, Tui") by Diana Hayes. Still keeping the pace going, the group continues with a couple Cambodian Rocks-esque numbers that are probably as close to Dengue Fever as you'll hear Neung Phak get; the first track being a Khmer hit from the 80's and the second a Cambodian ballad featuring Alan Bishop on she-male vocals. In addition to these songs, the group has actually recreated portions of radio dramas from Vietnam and Laotian theatrical mo lam, the latter is an absolute noise freak out and not over-embellished at all according to sources. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Hired By the King
MPEG stream: Low Tide
MPEG stream: Morlam Pee Bah

The new, eagerly awaited full-length from the Bay Area's biggest metal band -- whoops, are they really a metal band anymore? They really haven't embraced that tag for a while now, if ever, being more artsy and tribal and droney and avantgarde than what most

RealAudio clip: The Tide
RealAudio clip: Watchfire

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

SORRY. Cold, Enemy, Locust, Lost, Takeahnase. If those song titles mean anything to you, you'll probably want this. The Bay Area apocalyptic metalcore artisans captured live to cassette at New York's Limelight back during their "Enemy of the Sun" days. Heavy.

The best part about one of our old favorite records getting reissued, especially one that predates the New Arrivals list, is that we finally get the chance to try and put into words exactly what it is that made the record so special to us. Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun is particularly overdue for some gushing praise, to this day it remains one of our favorite records ever, and definitely our favorite Neurosis record. Although it should be noted, that Allan and Andee have spent much of today arguing about which is the better Neurosis record, this, 1993's Enemy Of The Sun or 1992's Souls At Zero, and while arguments could be made for plenty of other Neurosis records as well, we were at least able to agree that it most definitely boiled down to one of these two, but since Andee's the one writing this review, guess which one wins here! Living in the Bay Area, Oakland's Neurosis were our heavy music heroes, crusty punks who embraced metal, transforming their early punk sound into something much more stately and epic and heavy, without losing touch with their punk ethics, their new sound as most folks by now know would go on to influence an insane number of the heavy bands of today. With no Neurosis there would be no Isis, no Pelican, and by extension of that, no metallic post rock bands at all, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. While Allan posits that Souls At Zero was the record where Neurosis made the shift from punk to metal (and chamber prog), Andee further posits that Enemy Of The Sun was the record where that new sound was perfected, the brooding slow builds, the mysterious samples, the Ozzy-like vox, the crushing doomy dirge-y pummel, the squalls of crushing heaviness, the sound so moody and atmospheric, yet so heavy and intense. Record opener "Lost" has to be one of the most perfect songs EVER, beginning with a haunting sample, simple high-hat rhythm, low-slung slow motion Joy Divisiony bassline, big bass kick and those Ozzy-ish vox, when the band kicks in, they sound almost industrial, like a Ministry track slowed down to a crawl, super dynamic, stop/start, big blasts of guitar crunch, and wailing harmonics, all underpinned by more samples, lurching and hypnotic, until finally the band explode into a churning downtuned blowout, only to slip right back into that start/stop harmonic driven drift, the song shifts a few more times, changing it up completely for the more punkish pounding outro, that also slips right back into chugging epic Neurosis style bombast. As if that track weren't devastating enough, "Raze The Stray" is just as good, with its strange Middle Eastern sung intro, minor key piano, soaring strings, acoustic guitar, the haunting revery shattered by a dense grinding tribal blowout, roiling and fierce as fuck, howled and heavy, only to again slip right back into that tranquil ambient drift, now laced with bells, and woozy bass. This track too changes gears and directions, weirdly proggy, but somehow still cohesive, the second movement featuring a loping mathy midtempo groove, with a killer scraped guitar part and more chuggy chunky guitar crush. We could go through the whole record, track by track, but you can probably figure out by now that they all rule, although it is worth mentioning the nearly half hour long closing track "Cleanse", a sprawling drum jam that definitely hints at future Neurosis side project Tribes Of Neurot, a hypnotic pounding Crash Worship style epic, laced with didgeridoo, and strange strangled vocalizations, those vocals wreathed in effects, and looped and sent spinning from speaker to speaker, the whole second half of the track a druggy damaged soundscape of hard panned, effects drenched, vocal trip-out. Woah. So fucking great, and even nearly two decades later, this still sounds better, and heavier, and more original than most of the stuff out there... The new reissue features the same bonus tracks as the 1999 version, a demo and a live track, but this new one comes housed in a swank slipcover...

MPEG stream: Lost
MPEG stream: Raze The Stray
MPEG stream: Cold Ascending

New albums from old faves come and go, but when you say, there's a new Neurosis, we sit up and pay attention. Like contemporaries the Melvins, they've reached an iconic, utterly influential status at this point in their long career -- and yet still keep making rad, relevant albums that keep pushing their now archetypal sound further. Pioneers who keep on pioneering, getting better and better, even as hordes of other bands copy them and try to keep up. The word on the street was that Given To The Rising was a "return to the heavy" for Neurosis, not like they ever really left. But yes, this is HEAVY. We can't say (like we did about A Sun That Never Sets) that is is a "kinder, gentler" Neurosis. Not at all. The riffs will slay you, the vocals are fierce, yet the scope (musical, emotional) of this disc is impressively broad... The proggy, psychedelic, post-rock and (dare we say) gloom-pop elements that run like a dark thread through their discography are present on these ten tracks, mostly all of epic lengths (as usual). Harrowing power. Depressive beauty. Ritual rumble. Alienated lyrics. Soft-loud dynamics. Droning space-outs. All utterly "owned" by the Neurosis crew. This band just levels everything and everyone in their path! This is one that will satisfy old school Neurosis fans and yet would be a perfect first-time Neurosis experience too. For instance -- although we can't imagine this is too likely! -- if there are any Jesu fans out there who haven't ever heard Neurosis, do yourself a favor and pick this up pronto!! Arguably their best album since 1999's classic Times Of Grace. PS while supplies last, we've got a bonus dvd that comes with the cd... oh and also there WILL be a vinyl pressing, but it's not out yet.

MPEG stream: Given To The Rising
MPEG stream: Fear And Sickness
MPEG stream: Water Is Not Enough

Really, at this point, what else is there to say about long running epic doom/sludge outfit Neurosis that we (or someone else) hasn't already? Their sound, ever evolving, remains a template for a million bands that have and will continue to follow in their gargantuan footsteps. The arrival of each new record is an event unto itself. Their performances, increasingly rare, rival Godspeed and Phish and the Grateful Dead in terms of obsessive and slavish fan worship, with fans driving hours, even flying to see them perform. And anyone (including us) will tell you it's well worth it, their performances visceral and emotional, punishing and epic. And they continue to masterfully craft their own brand of brooding, majestic heaviness, even now, nearly THIRTY years in. This latest full length finds them once again returning to Electrical Audio in Chicago, with Steve Albini manning the mixing board, having been recording them since 1999's Times Of Grace, and while we all have our favorite Neurosis records (Andee's is Enemy Of The Sun, Allan's is Souls At Zero), they've yet to make a bad record. And while they continue to crush and pummel, they have also mellowed with age, or maybe more accurately, gotten more comfortable expanding the group' sonic palette, and it definitely suits them, this new record might be the most varied, and in some ways the least heavy yet. The opener almost sounds like Neurosis channeling Lungfish, the same sort of looped trancelike mesmer, with the vocals delivered in a staccato sung/spoken bark, the vibe a little bit groovy too, a strange opener for sure, but about halfway through it slips into huge heaving riffery, and yet instead of sounding crushingly heavy, it's more sort of washed out and psychedelic, the heaving riffs, laced with woozy melodies, and weary clean vox. We can't help but think Steve Von Till's and Scott Kelly's forays into folky singer songwriter territory and their obsession with the late great Townes Van Zandt, hasn't informed the sound of Neurosis, with "At The Well" starting off with some spare guitar shimmer, and Von Till's raspy croon, and even when the hammer falls, it isn't the same sort of Neurosis pummel we would have expected, it remains mournful and melodic, and a little bit twangy, and it might just be our imagination, but we hear slivers of slide guitar drifting in the background, which gives the song even more of a melancholic vibe. "Bleeding The Pigs" too starts off a bit croony, but quickly evolves into something more fierce and feral only to lock into a long stretch of droned out psychedelia, that reimagined with different instrumentation could easily have turned into some brooding dark folk. And even in the heavy parts, that folkiness subtly surfaces again and again. And as the record plays out, you begin to realize that in some ways, this is in fact a way different sounding group, with the churning, gnarled super distorted heaviness, relegated to a supporting role, the second half of "Casting Of The Ages", the final few minutes of "Bleeding The Pigs", sounding especially like old Neurosis with weird samples, tribal drumming, and anguished bellowed vox, but really, most of the rest of the record seems to be more contemplative, with strings surfacing here and there, acoustic guitars, long stretches of post rocky minimalism, brooding expanses of hushed drift, and then when the riffs come in, the pounding drums, they seem to be infused with a sort of mournful energy, and seem to be recorded in such a way, that the sound is more psychedelic, more lush and enveloping, a hammer wrapped in velvet, the band unfurling some of their moodiest, and most majestic material yet, which we imagine, live, could still translate into something utterly brutal and punishing, but here, exists as something much more measured and mature, a darkly melodic, occasionally metallic, moody musical fugue that is as much brooding heavy post rock and roiling psychedelic heaviness as it is doom dirge crush, and more often than not, much more so. While they last, we have the limited version in slightly oversized gatefold digi-packaging, after which we'll have the slipcased jewelcase edition.

MPEG stream: We All Rage In Gold
MPEG stream: At The Well
MPEG stream: My Heart For Deliverance

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

SORRY.

As the title indicates, here's the first in a series of "official bootlegs" of live performances by SF's own punk/metal/experimental/tribal juggernaut, those cheerful dudes known as Neurosis. "This series is designed to provide specially priced quality recordings" of Neurosis shows, in an attempt to "put an end to low quality, overpriced recordings which do not represent our vision of our music" it says here. Not sure what's so specially priced about $14.98, but the recording IS of better-than-usual-bootleg quality for sure, doing justice to the band's sound. Massive, pounding, screaming, Neurosis heaviness, brutal and psychedelic. Recorded in France in 1999, the show documented here features three songs from their "Times Of Grace" album, plus one each from "Through Silver In Blood", "Enemy of the Sun" and "Sovereign". Even though one essential component of the Neurosis live experience -- the trippy video/film visual projections -- is of course missing from this disc, it's still a nice release for fans of the band, demonstrating their sheer metallic power to those who've been lulled by the melodic, post-rocky, even folky & acoustic direction of their last album "A Sun That Never Sets" and the various solo efforts of Mssrs. Kelly and Von Till (though the "Times of Grace" stuff was heading that way too).

RealAudio clip: The Doorway

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