[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 501 through 550 of 915.

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

SORRY.

There's a palpable aura of giddy excitement whenever Yoshimi from The Boredoms unleashes a new OOIOO record. We've loved Yoshimi as long as we can remember. Ever since we first heard the Boredoms. OOIOO's last album "Gold & Green" is a perennial store favorite. And Taiga finds Yoshima and company reconnecting to that same primal spazzy sound while building all sorts of wild and chaotic momentum. Scrappy, peppy, unrelenting. Like being in some insane Japanese pep rally! Off kilter melodies, unique rhythms, pulsating percussion and so much blindingly brilliant musical color. Yoshimi talks a lot in interviews about how much color plays a role in her music making, and that usually when she makes a record she will tell her band about the kind of colors she is trying to create. This time out the beautiful and curious cover gives the listener a clue as to the sounds and colors contained within. Intriguing splashes of silver, black, red and pink all over the place. Yu can almost feel your ears filling up with all those different colors. While far away from San Francisco their kinship in sound to Deerhoof is uncanny, especially on this outing. Yoshimi sounds as feisty as ever even recalling Brigitte Fontaine at her most wild and free. Another wonderful, playful and creative gem from OOIOO.

MPEG stream: UJA
MPEG stream: UMA

While to most folks, 'witch house' was a sort of flash-in-the-pan, one of those musical genres that blogs and the media leap all over, it blows up big and pops up everywhere, before all of a sudden, poof, it's gone. As we've mentioned in past reviews of witch house and witch house related outfits though, we LOVE that sound, STILL, no guilty pleasure here, it's the sort of woozy, warped electronica we can't ever seem to get enough of. Witch House, also referred to as drag, due to the fact that everything drags, is all hazy and lazy, the beats molasses slow, the vocals too, slowed to a creepy crawl, jagged edits, fractured loops, dizzying collaged layers and textures, everything melty and oozy and gloriously murky and tripped out, and while lots of former witch housers have jumped ship, some have definitely stayed the course, and while pushing the boundaries of the WH sound, haven't deviated too much from THAT sound, if anything, digging even deeper, getting slower and murkier and even more fantastically druggy and darkly dreamy, while somehow fusing that haunted creep to something more polished and modern, which is precisely the case with this, the latest from local witch house warlock oOoOO (supposedly pronounced 'oh' btw), who does just that, starting out with some vintage old school witch house (albeit with a spiffier production than most of the witch house we first heard), "Sirens" unfurling as a weirdly cinematic dirge, wreathed in hiss and crackle, haunting female vocals drifting through clouds of shimmery hum, the looped background constantly shifting pitch, everything warbly and woozy, the beat a barely there skeletal pulse, the whole thing laced with faux strings and delicate piano, all choppy and glitchy throughout. But then the second track swoops in, with a super soulful vocal, draped over a lurching half speed hip hop beat, some serious slo-mo soul, a la Burial or Vessel, some of the old lysergic pop yacht rock-isms (as described in our review of the last oOoOO record) surface here too, but in the form of mutated sampled backdrops that warble woozily, a la Ariel Pink or James Ferraro, but they're really just warped backdrops for oOoOO's swoonsome soul slither. And the rest of the record essentially splits the difference, some tracks, minimal and moody, total witch house murk, while others drift further into the more soulful modern minimal slow motion electronica, the best moments though, are on tracks like "3:51 AM", where both those sonic sides are melded into a subtly stuttery chunk of loping tarpit witch-hop, laced with weird sampled snippets, and boasting a gorgeous, lilting melody (the sort of track that should have big name rappers hitting this guy up for beats), or the brooding cinematic closer, a darkly moody, totally epic, slo-mo electro-soul ballad, that might be the most haunting and stunning track here. So good!

MPEG stream: Sirens
MPEG stream: Stay Here
MPEG stream: 3:51 AM
MPEG stream: Across A Sea

Dig the creepy cover, the extended claw like arms extended above a shadowy shawled woman, the whole image hazy and ghostly, and inside, strange electronic ghostly minimal dream pop that is the perfect soundtrack for that image, and for a lost world of similar sights, of blood red moons, of creatures in the dark, of low lit mysterious after hours underground gatherings, welcome to Witch House. No doubt most folks have already heard something about this new movement/genre, a twisted sample heavy dark minimal electronic music, which may have begun life as a witchy sort of house music, but has blossomed into a whole cadre of bands, make spooky, and evocative, and darkly lovely music. Most of these sounds released on limited tapes or cd-rs or as free downloads, the bands all named with strange option-control heavy keyboard characters, little black triangles, underscores, tiny crosses, jumbles of &'s and *'s, even OOOOO is written oOoOO, and who knows how it's pronounced. We could list some of the other bands, but it's probably just as easy to set your font for Zapf Dingbats and peck away at random! But for all the secrecy and purposeful obfuscation, when you finally get your ears on this stuff, it is indeed, pretty fantastic. Woozy, warped, haunting, hypnotic, mysterious, dark, retro, futuristic, minimal, electronic, sampled, looped, depending on the group, it could be some sort of bewitching IDM shuffle, or some horror movie sampling bit of plunderphonia, or in the case of oOoOO, a gorgeous chunk of electronica flecked otherworldly dream pop. Skeletal and shoegazey, a soft pop cold wave wreathed in a ghostly haze, like Cocteau Twins or Slowdive but chopped & screwed. There's a little of that eighties sci-fi synth soundtrack stuff that's so popular right now, but somehow here it sounds more genuine, more a part of the admittedly twisted whole. Swirling effects, spectral ambience, atmospheric synth shimmer, occasionally slipping into some dark and sinister propulsive kraut disco, vocals clipped and looped into clouds of psychedelic soft noise, other times, the sound drifts more toward eighties MTV style yacht rock, but again, dubbed out, slowed down and wrapped in a blurred gauze, and throughout it all, the wispy angelic wraithlike female vocals, ethereal and ephemeral, a dreamy sonic thread that holds it all together. Gorgeous stuff for sure. Anyone into all that hypnogogic pop stuff, or tripped out lo-fi cold wave, as well as folks like Zola Jesus, Nite Jewel, or even Beach House and other shoegazey dreampoppers, here's something just a bit darker, and a bit more out there, for when you're wandering the streets at night, or holed up in your house, lights out, candles lit and emotions dark, needing something pretty and poppy still, but infinitely more murky and mysterious.

Initially we were mostly intrigued by this new ep from Italian punx Thee Oops, cuz the six year old daughter of a friend of ours, has a band called the Oops, where she and her same aged friend, each sit at a drum kit, and try to hit all the drums without hitting the cymbals, and every time they do, they both shout "OOPS!" This record is by no means as cute as that, but then what really could be? Instead, these guys have tacked on an extra E and delivered 10 short sharp blasts of furious, catchy as fuck punk rock, nothing twisted or weird or experimental, just three chords, pounding drums, yowled vox, and hooks galore. Like all the best punk rock, these songs are essentially pop songs, super charged, revved up and let loose. Opener "1994" has been stuck in our head for weeks, even after only a handful of listens, and the more we listen to this (ten songs in a little over 12 minutes, so it's a lot!), the more it's true of pretty much every song here. Wild little squalls of lead guitar, crazy catchy choruses, some kick ass riffs, the songs flitting from anthemic singalongs to crunchy almost metallic punk to J-Church / Jawbreaker style pop punk to fuzzy midtempo UK punk rock to Toy Dolls style hyper pop. They even do a Beastie Boys cover (as in old punk rock BB!!). So great! Vinyl folks, fyi, this will be coming out as a double 7" sometime soon.

MPEG stream: 1994
MPEG stream: Happy Charlie
MPEG stream: Global Warming
MPEG stream: Hope You Die Tonight

Has there ever been a better name for a doom / sludge band? We think not. And with a name like that we were imagining some multiple o'd mega ultra doooooooooooom, but instead these Italians aren't as ooze-y as you might expect, in fact they traffic in something a bit groovier, their psychedelic slo-mo doom rife with, stonery, Sabbathy swing, right from the get go (after a little intro with silly Satanic samples over a field of feedback) the band launch into the first of many serious stoner rock jams, but fear not, there's plenty of sludginess and abject downtuned churn, and the vocals too, a harsh, Eyehategod style glass gargling bellow/shriek, the sound massive, the guitars thick, and practically oozing (yep!) crumbling distortion, and yeah, there are grooves all over the place, the band lumbering druggily between stonery riffage, and knuckle dragging dirgery and back again, with some tracks landing somewhere right in the middle, a few bordering on classic doom, others something all together more harsh and hateful. It's all heavy though, extremely heavy, blown out psychedelic stoner doom stomp of the highest order, druggy and dirgey and slithery and Satanic and while maybe a little too groovy for the grim, troo, ultra doooooooomlords out there, for everybody else, this is some seriously primo stoner-sludge psych-doom, and if you're anything like us, it's a sound you just can't get enough of...

MPEG stream: Thankless Life
MPEG stream: Night Gastrix Reflux
MPEG stream: Worthless

Heck yeah. This nasty-named, evil-sounding Chicago metalgrind trio dish out the raging headbangables here, following up their so very appropriate split with Providence's Black Pus from earlier this year with this, their second totally sick album. 'Tis blackened and brootal, pounding and thrashy, with extreme, anguished vokills - the singer probably spends a lot of his income on throat lozenges. Speed-wise, there's plenty of 1,000 mph blasting and shredding along with some slo-mo sludge parts too. And, additionally, there's enough in the way of avantgarde noisy textures and trance-inducing use of repetition to make 'em possibly the grinding metal band of choice for fans of Kevin Drumm, Wolf Eyes, and Zs fans, as well as Slayer, which along with the geographical point of origin, helps to explain why these guys are on Thrill Jockey (home too of minimalist, mathy, "transcendental" black metallers Liturgy, of course). By the way, here's a (dumb) idea for these guys - how 'bout next time, they simultaneously release two albums called Ooze Your Illusion I and II?

MPEG stream: Going Through The Motions Til I Die
MPEG stream: Hippie Speedball
MPEG stream: False Peak (Earth Suck)

Attention all Calexico, Giant Sand, and Lisa Germano fans! In case you missed it the first time around, the collaboration between those fine artists has been re-issued. Yessiree, and those jubilant cheers you may be hearing are undoubtably coming from our Cup. Why? Well, 'cause it's one of her absolute most favorite albums ever. Not just another Giant Sand side project. No! It's a magical one-time combination of John Convertino, Joey Burns, Howe Gelb AND Lisa Germano. The beautiful rich twang we've grown to know and love from the gents' main projects (Calexico and Giant Sand) is most definitely in full glorious bloom here. Combine it with Ms Germano's off-kilter, melancholic vocal delivery and you've got yourself one very special album. Odd textures and noises creep in to keep the slow bittersweet melodies company. Originally released in 1997, these eleven moody, heartswelling 'n' handwringing songs never ever fail to break Cup's heart (especially tracks #3 and #5). Beautiful downer music. Includes a breathy, slow-winding world-weary duet between Germano and Gelb covering Lee Hazlewood's "Sand". Damn fine listening. Sooo very very recommended.

RealAudio clip: If I Think Of Love
RealAudio clip: It's A Rainbow

A new name in the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon stable, this Scottish outfit manage to take the low tuned, tectonic guitar rumble of Earth / Sunn 0))) / etc., rev it up a little, add some melody and make it sort of rock, in a seasick, lurching through six inches of tar, being crushed beneath a black sky sort of way. And that's only the first track. Track two is a dizzying expanse of creaking machinery, dubby guitars, reverb and echo all over the place, some seriously overblown, guitar soaked dark ambience. Track three manages to mix the two together. The guitars are still there, fuzzing and buzzing and squriming like downed electrical wires, but they're spitting sparks from beneath a warm ocean of thick chords and muted feedback, melodic and drifting dreamily, a bit like Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra. Really nice. Fans of the Earth / Sunn 0))) / Corrupted / dirgedronedoom axis will NEED this for track one, but drone freeks will find the whole thing essential listening. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!

MPEG stream: What Monsters Continue Their Lives In My Depths

Three extended tracks of improvised free-form avant-noise drone from this LA outfit. Imagine the Dead C, slowly crumbling from the inside out, all vestiges of 'rock' and 'composition' are now a viscous puddle in front of your speakers, leaving just a splattery, skeletal clattery clank of a record. A huge cavernous space, a player in each corner, sending pipes and guitars and drum sticks and plectrums careening across the floor, raising an unholy, but pretty damn pleasing racket.

MPEG stream: One

The Los Angeles duo of Doug Russell and Peter Kolovos has expanded their lineup as well as sonic capacities with newcomer Andrew Maxwell, formerly of SF's Caroliner. With this second lp, Open City has abandoned the haze of a pure sonic assault for a more rigid and dynamic "free" approach. Audiophile vinyl housed in a beautiful heavy duty gatefold sleeve and limited to 500 copies.

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

SORRY. The debut lp from Los Angeles-based duo of Doug Russell and Peter Kolovos (they have since expanded into a trio). Two sidelong pieces of Branca informed sonic dissolution, both recorded live in 1997. Handsomely packaged in a heavy duty gatefold sleeve in an edition of 500.

The first thing you notice is the amazing die-cut artwork. Orange and red overlapping circles each with target like concentric inner circles, cut to resemble a fuzzy washed out mountainscape of orbs and spheres, with the tray card cut so the cd nestles perfectly into one of the valleys. So nice. The second thing you notice, or the first thing you notice once you throw this in the player, is how compltely KICK ASS this record is. This is literally all we've been listening to the last few weeks! We always talk about Queens Of The Stone Age as being this guilty pleasure we all seem to have. But what's so guilty about liking them? They rock, have great catchy songs, the remnants of that huge sun baked Kyuss fuzz guitar. What's not to love? Well, it could be our aversion to the whole MTV / VH1, dating or not dating Brody Dalle?, People Magazine / US Magazine, Dave Grohl killing time, supergroup, more crooning than rocking, not really about the music anymore?, corporate rock element. Yeah, could be. So what if there was a band of young guys, who put out a record on punk / metalcore label Trustkill, and who took all of the stuff that made QOTSA so great, but turned that stuff inside out, and added all sorts of other disparate elements, turning what could have been just a decent QOTSA rip off into one of the coolest, catchiest rock records of the year?! Well, we'd probably make it record of the week and gush like giddy music nerds. So let us commence gushing, shall we? Imagine huge fuzz guitars, unfurling super rocking Kyuss / Rocket From The Crypt / Burning Brides sort of stoner garage pop riffs, sometimes langorous and lysergic, sometimes so heavy and intense it's almost impossible to not air guitar! One track in particular, "The Kaleidoscope" has perhaps one of the best riffs EVER (sez Andee and Jason) an impossibly God-like Kyuss / Sabbath fusion, that gets everyone in the store nodding along like Wayne And Garth in Wayne's World. So we've got the riffs, now we go to the vocals, which go from breathy falsetto, to growly indie whine, to howled rock wail, with plenty of occasional female vocals, sometimes employed in surprisingly unorthadox ways giving a couple of the songs a really bizarre edge. Hard to describe, you just have to hear it. But this is not just about rocking, as much as we wouldn't mind that at all. No, there's lots of weird wonderful pop experimentation all over, from loping bass driven Pinback-ish lullabies, droning brooding minor key dirges reminiscent of the Deftones or maybe Tool, some Sonic Youth-y skree and textural weirdness, even some moody electronic miserablism that has Depeche Mode worship written all over it. It all works so well together somehow, heavy and head banging, dreamy and blissed out. Can't believe this band isn't HUGE. But we're secretly a little glad they aren't. For now at least. The sticker on the front insists that You And Me "obliterates the boundaries between indie rock, stoner rock, metal, emo and garage." Before we heard it we were pretty sure that was some serious label hyperbole, but now we're not so sure. Open Hand take all that stuff and more, wrapping everything around some of the best pop songs we've heard in ages and comes up with a record that hasn't stopped kicking our ass since we got it. Record of the week is always a tricky proposition, we try to make it something out of the ordinary, something mysterious and weird, maybe something hard to find or impossible to get or maybe just overlooked, but once in a while, those things don't seem to matter as much as the simple fact that a record gets played over and over and over over, every day, all day, here AND at home, on our computers, in our iPod's, with no end in sight, that speaks volumes. And sure, maybe you can catch their video on MTV once in a while, or maybe hear them on the radio, but that's not a bad thing at all. If only everything on the radio or on MTV was this good. The world would be a much better (and most likely much stranger) place!

MPEG stream: Pure Concentrated Evil
MPEG stream: Her Song
MPEG stream: Tough Girl
MPEG stream: The Kaleidoscope

Now reissued on vinyl! In their vigilant unearthing of one-off psych and folk obscurities, the Sunbeam label has been one of our favorite reissue labels even if their catalog can sometimes be hit and miss. Their vision, however is remarkably consistent, never reissuing a rare record just for the sake of it being rare, and making a practice of working with the original artists whenever possible to put together these reissues, like this one, a 1969 British psych rock rarity by The Open Mind, who were a mop-topped gang of guys from the paisley era. They liked to stroll on the harder, rockier side of the '60s psych-pop street, and this album contains a few gems for sure, *especially* the first of the four bonus tracks included, their truly great single "Magic Potion". That's the one for which they'll really be remembered (and it can be found on the Speaking My Mind: New Rubble Volume 2 compilation as well). It was also later covered by '90s space rock band Sundial. We think some proto-metal fans might dig it too!

MPEG stream: Horses And Chariots
MPEG stream: Cast A Spell
MPEG stream: Magic Potion

We first heard Operative (a.ka. Scott Goodwin of Bonus) at the Root Strata curated music festival, On Land, last September here at San Francisco's Cafe Du Nord. Expecting to hear some piercing long-form drone meditation, we were pleasantly surprised that Goodwin was joined by two live drummers for a set of exuberant and organic minimal house workouts that were a welcome change of tone from much of the beautiful but exhausting roster of introspective drone experimentation that had been happening throughout the day. Likewise, we're keen on this 12". "Ramp" begins with a slow-rising siren tone that continually elevates in pitch. As it's countered by other rising tones in a sort of Charlemagne Palestine-ish way, the drums and steady bass tones kick in taking the track to an urgent futuristic thriller as scored by Giorgio Moroder kind of territory. "Pulse" is more organic, taking warm rhythmic synth loops and looping them on top of each other to a pulsating and hypnotic 4/4 rhythm. So good! This 12" marking Operative's debut comes courtesy of Honey Owens' (Valet, Jackie-O Motherfucker) new label for left-field techno, Ecstacy. Look out for her Miracles Club 12" on a future list!

MPEG stream: Ramp
MPEG stream: Pulse

New on Man's Ruin. Operator: Generator are the Bay Area's answer to Kyuss. Groovy doomy swinging stoner rock. Not quite as heavy though, O:G sit somewhere right between Kyuss and Queens of the Stoneage. Warm fuzzy guitars, reverb drenched vocals, and a rhythm section that spits out prime chunks of seventies groove.

RealAudio clip: Equinox Planetarium

Reissued yet again! This time with an extra disc, featuring 2 previously unreleased tracks and a video! Not sure if it's worth buying again (although it probably is for Allan and Andee) but if you haven't got this yet (WHY NOT?!?!?) then now's the time. And you can also get yourself all psyched up for the fall release of not one, but TWO brand new Opeth albums (Use Your Illusion style!). The bonus tracks are cool, but we're not sure they're essential, both are gorgeous and simple, finger picked acoustic guitar workouts with plaintive vocals. Really nice but definitely NOT HEAVY. The video is cool though, lots of Opeth-in-the-studio footage. But here's what we had to say about the disc last time: Opeth are GODS. The Swedish gods of progressive death/black metal, that is. And by progessive, yes, we mean full on '70s style prog-rock, mixed with the heaviest, most crushing metal attack you can imagine. The many many local SF fans of Weakling should be aware: this band was one of the big influences on Weakling's trance-inducing compositions. Opeth's songs can be equally epic and hypnotic, but of course incorporate a wider, dare we say lovlier array of musical elements. In Opeth's arsenal, there's vocals both growled and clean, acoustic guitar, an incredible sense of dynamics, and inspired melodicism. Blackwater Park (inexplicably named after an obscure krautrock boogie band? we can't figure it out) follows their awesome Still Life album, making for the fifth entry in the Opeth pantheon. While it would be hard to be much better than that album (and that's what we thought about Still Life's predecessor, My Arms Your Hearse too), Opeth continue to perfect perfection, I guess. While the nine-minute plus song lengths found here don't push past earlier excesses, Blackwater Park does see Opeth progressing into even more, uh, progressive areas. Being Pink Floyd fans, they even got Steve Wilson of UK young Floyd proggers Porcupine Tree to produce! So, the mellow parts are mellower, the metal parts cleaner and more precise. If you've never heard them before, we might suggest starting with their more psychedelically murky masterpiece My Arms Your Hearse, but Blackwater Park should also be on your list. Pure art from the masters. All that drool was justified.

RealAudio clip: The Leper Affinity
RealAudio clip: Harvest
RealAudio clip: The Funeral Portrait

Here it is, the "mellow" album from Swedish death/prog metal masters Opeth. Originally, this was to be the second disc in a heavy vs. light two disc set, but they chose to release 'em separately, with the heavy one, "Deliverance" coming out last year. "Deliverance" pretty much sounded like an ordinary Opeth record (that is, amazing) and had its share of acoustic bits like they all do, though it was darn heavy overall. But this one is ALL mellow, so it certainly stands out as an anomaly in the grand Opeth catalog. Basically, if you like those quiet, melodic, cleanly sung, pretty, psychedelic parts of Opeth's albums (always an important part of their unique formula) you'll undoubtedly enjoy this record, 'cause that's all it is. We thought maybe that they'd get all retro and folky and '70s on this (since we know that long-lost Scandiavian psych prog stuff is their inspiration), but despite the lack of "metal" here, this still has a modern, almost slick sound. We found ourselves digging it, but also unavoidably (and futilely) waiting for the heaviness to suddenly, satisfyingly kick in. You just expect it -- that's their schtick, those dynamics. One solution would be to put this in a multi-disc changer with four other Opeth albums, and play it on 'shuffle' mode! We wonder what someone who's not already into Opeth (or metal!) would think of this. Maybe for a lot of prog heads this would be their favorite Opeth opus, for there rest of us it's an interesting addition to their canon but we do look forward to the next, light AND heavy Opeth album!! MPEG Download: "Death Whispered A Lullaby" [/audio/opethdeath.mp3]

MPEG stream: Death Whispered A Lullaby

I'm going to make this a short review -- only because mere words cannot adequately express the godliness of this band. And because, chances are, you know that already. This new release (their sixth album) will sell itself. Formerly a totally underground cult act, Sweden's Opeth are now extreme metal superstars, and deservedly so. Taking modern brutal, technical death/black metal and melding it with the '70s progressive, psychedelic rock aesthetic that they love so much, Opeth have forged a new style of super heavy, epic & melodic metal of which they are, simply, the masters. Dynamics -- extreme shades of light and dark -- are an important element of their sound, and "Deliverance", um, delivers as you'd expect: you get both thrashing, heavy riffing with Voivod-like twists and gargled death metal vocals, AND pretty, Pink Floydian space-rock with tuneful, folkish singing and acoustic guitars, all in the same song. But, as you may know, "Deliverance" does intentionally lean towards the "heavy" side of the Opeth equation, as they've recorded another album called "Damnation" for release in March with which to explore their more gentle side. This one certainly sounds like an Opeth album (i.e. amazing), we'll see if that one does too.

RealAudio clip: Deliverance

One of our very favorite metal bands returns with a new album, a domestic release for big-league metal label Roadrunner, which made us wonder if they'd somehow gone all nu-metal on us. Opeth as an Ozzfest band? Well, this is the slickest Opeth record yet, surely. And there's clean singing on here that does seem like it might be geared for (gasp) radio airplay...but, that singing is in the same song with total death metal growling. So it's really the same ol' Opeth we know and love. A well produced, super dynamic and atmospheric blend of death metal and progressive rock, with epic-length songs, ripping technical playing, and sensitive acoustic interludes. And a healthy dose of Mellotron and other keys, moreso even than in the past, as they've now made their keyboardist an official, permanent band member. It could be we're hearing a hint of nu-metal in some of the bouncier, stop start bits...but put that in the context of proggy baroque keyboards, and this is definitely not Slipknot or Korn, that's for sure. And if Opeth can turn what they do into "pop" music and get away with it, more power to 'em. Not that that's likely... Is this eighth Opeth opus destined to be considered a classic like several of their earlier albums? Well, c'mon, it's undeniably tough for 'em to top what they've done in the past, regardless of how good this is! We are glad to have all the shades of Opeth back together on one album after the heavy disc/light disc dichotomy of their twin previous releases Deliverance and Damnation. And anyway, at this point we can't imagine any Opeth fan daring to not purchase, listen to, and (out of love or awe) worship this!

MPEG stream: The Ghost Of Perdition
MPEG stream: The Baying Of Hounds

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

SORRY. Now on vinyl. Third & perhaps best (yet) album from this Swedish band worshipped the world over for its combination of heavy death/black metal and epic progrock (i.e. they're no strangers to ten-minute plus song lengths). Note title derived from a Comus lyric!

Third & perhaps best (yet) album from this Swedish band worshipped the world over for its combination of heavy death/black metal and epic progrock (i.e. they're no strangers to ten-minute plus song lengths). Note title derived from a Comus lyric!

People have been waiting for this record like it was the new Star Wars movie or something. And, why not? After all, their last record, 'My Arms, Your Hearse', was a masterpiece. Probably the best mix of black metal, '70s progrock, and just plain awesome songwriting; riffs, melodies, power, that record had it all. Now the new album is finally here, and it too seems destined for similar acclaim. The basic formula remains, a complex, oh-so-skilled mixture of might and beauty. Like all Opeth releases to date, this one will take a little time to digest! Impressive. And, needless to say, definitely better than that lame Star Wars movie!

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

SORRY.

Fancy packaging edition.

Boston's Ophibre (aka Benjamin Rossingol) has been releasing tiny editions of cassettes, cd-rs, and at least one reel-to-reel tape for the past five or six years. His work often revels in forgotten / obsolete technologies whose artifacts and residues become the source material for his crusty drones, abraded noise, and splattered musique concrete constructions; he couples those sounds with a dry blackhumor that falls somewhere between GX Jupitter-Larsen and George Macunias. This album, released on Intransitive's new series of hyper-limited cd-rs, draws from Rossignol's experience with an MRI machine while he was participating in a few medical studies to help pay the bills. As the giant powerful magnetic spun around him, Rossignol found himself hearing a complementary series of harmonic tones that didn't appear to be originating form the MRI. He wasn't sure if those sounds were hallucinatory or if they were some peculiar acoustic phenomenon that he had discovered. Here, he's attempting to replicate that experience through configurations of controlled feedback, synth overdrive, and dead-eyed noise. The first track is a screeching rasp of magnetic noise, particle accelerated vibration, and hurricane fury, that's well-suited to the likes of Birchville Cat Motel and Hototogisu; but after this 15 minute blast of noise, Ophibre's sublime, yet gritty dronescaping takes over with mirrored tones and hazy echoes that appear like the tracers from a bad drug reaction, flickering upon his murky immersions. All things that we dig in our dronemusik! Limited to 100 copies.

MPEG stream: Phase Plane Cake Decorator
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Sometimes you can tell what you're gonna get just by an album cover. Rarely is that more true than with metal records, and the stern looking bearded dude with the winged helmet on the cover of I: Redbad is a pretty good indication of what lies inside - furious, overblown pagan black metal that buzzes and rages like a fucking war. Ophidian Forest is a trio with members stationed in the Netherlands, Croatia, and right here in San Francisco - imagine that. They conceive their music through file swapping online, and the liner notes explain that the three band members have never communicated through phone and wouldn't even recognize each other in person. So how are the results so amazing? Dark forces are surely at work with this one, not only is the music way more "natural" (not to mention totally awesome) than you might expect from such a lack of formal communication, but it may even work in the group's favor; with nothing to focus on except the creation of thrashing metallic glory with an extra heaping of mythological nihilism, the project has taken on a greater meaning than if it would have been defined in the traditional sense of what a band should be. Obviously these three are connected on some higher plane in the realm of black metal, because I: Redbad is a perfectly realized vision, a take no prisoners onslaught of filth and transcendental power. It's also a well thought out concept record focusing on the life and times of the Frisian King Redbad (c. 680-719), who in true metal fashion resisted the Christian onslaught of the Merovingian dynasty while maintaining the pagan ways of his people, who lived near the North Sea extending along the borders of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. But this is hardly just for you history buffs out there. The guitars remain firmly in the red, the drums keep things blasting relentlessly, and the atmospheric keyboards add a nice touch of otherworldly ambience. And then of course, you get the singer's hateful, distorted screeches, adding a nice witchy element to the affair. Things are as filthy as you could hope for in a metal band, but the songs are also so punky and catchy that you might be surprised to find these sticking in your head for quite some time. To top things off, the band members all look like nefarious forest dwelling wizards, which certainly adds to the mystical vibe they have effortlessly obtained. One can only hope these guys keep up with the collaborations, because this stuff definitely covers everything we love about our black metal.

MPEG stream: A Herald On Silver Wings
MPEG stream: Savage Day Rising
MPEG stream: Shamanic Visions

Record number two from this intercontinental pagan black metal horde, and like their first record a pretty impressive feat, considering the drums were recorded in California, the guitars and basses captured in Croatia, and the keyboards laid down in the Netherlands, but somehow, all of the elements came together to form this epic, sprawling, super complex, super frenzied collection of blackened grimnity, and indeed epic it is. As well as strangely melodic, the pagan element more pronounced this time around, and the keyboards higher in the mix, as well as some seemingly way more intricate, almost mathy arrangements, but other than that, the blown out heaviness and frosty blackness that defined the first record are in full effect. The first track makes that abundantly clear as it explodes with some Scandinavian style buzz, and a little pagan melody, a frantic soaring bit of black metal majesty, peppered with stuttery start stop breakdowns, but always slipping smoothly right back into more blasting insectoid buzz. Throughout the record, the vocals are garbled and monstrous and harsh, the drums dense and pummeling, the keyboards ethereal and unobtrusive, but adding lots of atmosphere and subtle melody, the tracks are expansive and almost proggy, the riffing super tranced out and droney, in fact, lots of the parts seem to blur into a sort of droned out psychedelia, cyclical, repetitive and totally hypnotic. The vibe somehow manages to be raw and crusty as well, and a little punky, hooks and melodies woven deftly into parts that would otherwise be more like black blurs, the result is some surprising catchiness, alongside some super intense black brutality, and lots of unexpected and seriously -A- typical black metal elements: ultra twisted and convoluted drum parts, lush layered guitars, some gnarled off kilter riffage, warped keyboard melodies, all wound up with the more traditionally blackened elements into a constantly evolving, ever shifting, dizzying barrage of awesome twisted blackness. LIMITED TO 400 COPIES. Comes housed in a half sized dvd style clamshell case, with a metallic silver printed cover, and an insert with lyrics/liner notes. [And don't miss the secret hidden track, a super cool, weridly poppy black metal jam that we were convinced had to be a cover...]

MPEG stream: Fenrir
MPEG stream: The Eagle
MPEG stream: The Frozen Plains

Brand new split from these two black metal outfits. There's the intercontinental trio Ophidian Forest, who have gotten much love on the aQ list in the past, one third of which is in fact the man behind eco-terrorist drums-and-dulcimer black metal one man band Botanist, who are teamed up with a San Jose one man band called Haeresiarchs Of Dis, who we've yet to review on the our list, but who some aQ metalheads have dug for a while. The split, titled Darkest Origins, is in fact, just that, early material by both bands, unreleased until now, which as you might have guessed means more raw and lo-fi, which is just fine with us. Ophidian Forest are up first, and while the production is a bit more rough, their sound seemed to be already essentially fully formed, classic almost traditional black metal, shot through with some weird woozy melodies, the occasional almost carnivalesque keyboard, the vocals so raw and raspy, they sound like blast of staticky hiss, the overall sound washed out and a bit blurry, but in a way that really suits the sound, giving everything a tranced out vibe. OF dip often into a sound more midtempo and atmospheric, especially on the final track, which has a melody in the background that almost sounds like a Christmas carol, but when wedded to the shriek and blast, the buzz and howl, it pushes the sound toward something approaching almost choral, take the drums and vokills away and we'd have some seriously blissed out gauzy ambience, but fused to the black buzz, it becomes something pretty cool and weird. From what we'd heard of Haeresiarchs of Dis in the past, his sound was a furious unrelenting, almost dizzying onslaught of lightning fast black buzz, furious and frantic and frenetic, a relentless blasting fury, shot through with all manner of warped melody, and constantly shifting texture, super dynamic, peppered with swaths of swirling synth, and some seriously insane vokills. And all of that is definitely evident here, although again, in a slightly more lo-fi version, with HoD slowing things down now and again, for some serious chugging, and more punkish pound, the vocals augmented by strange samples, the whole thing laced with some surprisingly melodic classic metal sounding melodies, not to mention the occasional bit of piano driven atmospheric ambience, or psychedelic swirl, or creepy static drenched Caretaker like drift, but all of that weirdness if woven into the overall blackened buzz.

MPEG stream: Densest Green
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Lion Productions brings us another super obscure psych/prog reish that's pretty darn cool. France, 1972: the dawning of Ophicus, an astrologically inclined band staffed by some serious musicians from the French rock/pop scene, including a former member of Zoo. They certainly had a lot of promise, this debut album of theirs being a gorgeous and eclectic (and sometimes experimental) stylistic mix, encompassing everything from lilting acoustic folk to lush symphonic pop to raw backporch blues to heavy fuzz acid rockin' grooviness (Francais Metal de Proto ooh la la!). Sublime string orchestration, lovely vocal arrangements, and memorable melodies contribute to the wonderful moody atmosphere that pervades this album despite its diversity. There's a lot to like here. This disc's 20 tracks include eight bonus cuts taken from a unreleased second album, among them several English language versions of songs from the debut meant for international release. And Lion (as is typical of them) provides a fairly hefty cd booklet into the bargain, full of photos, lyrics, and brand new liner notes from the band themselves, including commentaries on each track (for example: "'Darbouka' was meant to silently convey the feeling of oppression and the impossibility of expressing where it comes from"). If you liked the previous Lion reissues from France (Classical M, Ilous & Decuyper) you definitely should check out Ophicus, likewise if you've been digging that Pop Made In France comp we highlighted recently.

MPEG stream: Prenez, Donnez
MPEG stream: Darbouka
MPEG stream: Ne Cherche Plus

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

SORRY. Now, it's difficult to believe that the same guys responsible for the absurd Vondur are also involved with the much more serious, epic, doomy black metal of Ophthalamia, but they are. A Long Journey" is a re-recording of the band's debut from several years back, original titled A Journey In Darkness... improved production and more capable band members being the main differences. The Vondur and Opthalamia albums also represent It's last efforts in black metal, as he recently quit all his bands (these two plus War and Abruptum), sold all his black metal paraphernalia (midget-sized chainmail anyone?) and moved away from Sweden...

A nice reissue of this cult classic Swedish black metal album, another one of those things that it seems that we should have reviewed when it first came out, but didn't, probably 'cause back in 1995 the AQ "list" was just getting started. And we were also only just then getting into the black metal as well, come to think of it. But we did love this album, and still do. It's especially majestic, melodic, quite unusual black metal, on the slower side, with epic progressive atmospheres reminding us of early Opeth perhaps, and also Dissection, with which this band has some connection. The winding guitar lines are what stands out for us, as played by none other than the infamous "It", also a key member of Abruptum, Vondur, and War. Unlike those other band of Its, this isn't so primitive and noisy. It's more about the guitar, which weeps melancholically over martial but sorta jazzy drumming, playing insidiously catchy, sorta folky riffs that are woven into doomy, sorrowful, and sinuous compositions. What we really like is when it gets kind of frantic, as in the middle of "Slowly Passing The Frostlands/A Winterland's Tear" (all the songs have the two-part names, by the way), all twisted and tangled, and the song starts to sound a heck of a lot like a Black Flag instrumental or something from one of Greg Ginn's first two Gone albums!! Raspy vokills and weird whispers factor into the mix as well, along with a "practice space" production vibe, making this sound more black metal than it might otherwise, given that the herky-jerky, never ending guitar riffage also sounds more like rollicking '70s heavy rock on occasion. Making sure there's no question about it (and It) being black metal, though, if the band's medieval/gothic/ridiculous painted portraits weren't enough, along with their pedigrees in other bands (Abruptum, Marduk, Pan-Thy-Monium, Swordmaster, etc.) this ends with a bonus track (as did the original cd), that's a cover of the great "Deathcrush" by Mayhem. Ophthalamia made several albums, but this - their second, strangest, and we think most memorable - is our favorite, and also one of our favorites among Its entire discography. Glad it's back in print, a great reminder of all the fantastic, original albums we were discovering back in the '90s coming from the Scandinavian metal scene...

MPEG stream: Black As Sin, Pale As Death/Autumn Whispers
MPEG stream: Slowly Passing The Frostlands/A Winterland's Tear

During the past four or five years, the Raster Noton label has developed a very precise aesthetic or language of the electronic glitch within in a post-techno context. While artists like Goem and Taylor Deupree have taken the Raster Noton vocabulary of utopian purity and clinical sterility as an endgame of overly conceptualized minimalism, Raster Noton has recognized the folly of

Well versed in the spatial relations of digi-dub techniques and a whimsical approach to IDM melody & rhythm, the Danish electronica artist Opiate (aka Thomas Knak) has nestled himself right in between Boards Of Canada and Pole. Released on the label Morr specializes in the electronica-pop hybrids of Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, and other Notwist related projects, "Sometimes" politely follows the productions that Knak offered on a couple of the tracks on Bjork's "Vespertine." These 6 concise tracks of subtle programming skitter and fragmented melodies strike the balance between opposites (space vs. density, slow vs. fast, harmony vs. dissonance, etc.) with a mathematical precision. Nice. MPEG Download: "Amstel" [/audio/opiateamstel.mp3]

MPEG stream: Amstel

With pretty little electronic bells, pretty little electronic melodies, and pretty little electronic rhythms, Opiate has crafted a pretty little record in "While You Were Sleeping." Denmark's Thomas Knak (aka Opiate) has had the good fortune to work with such electronica luminaries as Bjork and Carsten Nicolai, with his own work falling squarely in between those two distinct aesthetics, bringing a wide-eyed and wondrous sense of melody to the clinical sterility of the Raster glitch 'n' pulse. "While You Were Sleeping" appears to be a collection of oddities, collaborations, and compilation tracks that Opiate produced during the past couple of years. If you never read the liner notes, you would probably never know that this was a compilation as Opiate's sound is so uniformly solid that an album of ephemera even sounds pretty good all the way through. Opiate's success hinges upon the interplay between stuttering, often oddly timed electronica rhythms and the perpetually minor-key melodies. For the most part, the album pulls off a moodiness similar to Boards of Canada's "Music Has The Right To Children" or Autechre's "Amber;" although Opiate's child-like lego-beats and melodic plinkiness can be a little overly cute. But that's never stopped the legions of Boards of Canada fans.

RealAudio clip: Srain
RealAudio clip: Dromte Mig En Drom

What hath the popularity of The Osbournes wrought? Music for the weirdest nightclub you've never been to, apparently. Opium Jukebox is actually Martin Atkins of Killing Joke -- Opium Jukebox seems to be his project for doing trancey techno cover versions of rock music. He's already done a Sex Pistols tribute, an alt-rock one with Nirvana and Jane's Addiction tunes, and has a Rolling Stones tribute in the pipeline. None of which much interest us...but THIS does. He's roped in a sitar player and dug up some vocal samples ("courtesy some dodgy market place in the Far East") to do a "Bhangra" style album of Black Sabbath covers!! Yep, a blend of traditional Indian instrumentation and modern electronic synth and beats making essentially instrumental and 'exotic' (but mostly recognizable, if you know your Sabbath) versions of the likes of "Iron Man" and "War Pigs". For some reason they've neglected "Sweet Leaf", which seems odd 'cause this has a definite hookah-suckin' vibe -- most of the synth effects sound like bong hits, even. It's super-cheesy, but how can you resist? We couldn't. While we would certainly recommend the artistry and atmosphere of Rondellus' Latinized early music style Sabbath-chants above "Bhangra Bloody Bhangra", there's still a place on our shelves next to that AQ-fave Rondellus "Sabbatum" disc for this. It's a worthwhile novelty for sure. Wonder why it exists, but listen and enjoy (or at least, confuse your friends). Track list: Supernaut, Iron Man, Heaven & Hell, N.I.B., Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Snowblind, Embryo, War Pigs, Suicide Solution (hey that's a solo Ozzy song, not a Sabbath one!), and Supernaut again. And as we later discovered, if you dig this, check out the Opium Jukebox Sex Pistols record which is done in a similar style, sitars and all.

RealAudio clip: Iron Man
RealAudio clip: N.I.B.

We made The Puritan our Record Of The Week a couple lists back, the twisted ultra doom project of Reverend Bizarre's S.A. Hynninen, aka Albert Witchfinder, and that record was indeed twisted and doomy, crushing and slow, warped and mysterious, a little bit gothy and dramatic, a lot bit pummeling downtuned crush. So now we have Opium Warlords, Hynninen's most recent project, which we would have made our record of the week as well if it was a bit easier to get, cuz holy shit, it's like an even more fucked up Puritan, the slow parts are slower, the croony gothy parts, are, well, MORE. It's a creepy crawly burning, sprawling avant doom juggernaut, equal parts classic doom a la My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, Japanese sludge a la Corrupted, Boris, Solar Anus, and strange minimal prog, but it's WAY poppier too, and pretty, so much so, that we often forget what we're listening to, seventies British prog? Peter Hammill? Sounds strange, and it definitely is, but even in true doom outfit Reverend Bizarre, Hynninen and his crew were way weirder than your average doom band. And the thing with Opium Warlords, is at first it just seemed slow and weird, but it totally blossoms, the more melodic songs revealing themselves as epic and catchy, well crafted avant prog. Or something. The record opens in full on doom mode, big crashing chords ring out, lots of space, the vocals a mewling croon that goes from growl to falsetto, as the track plods along for 8+ minutes, lurching along doomily, yet melodically, before slipping into the second track, a super spacious skeletal drift, that sounds more like Bohren than Boris, before finally stumbling into full on doomsludge, harsh howled vocals, and strange twisted melodies, until the record shifts gears entirely. The next two songs, nearly 22 minutes, is a smoldering dark cabaret, guitars distorted and spidery, with Hynninen really singing, dramatic and emotional, it almost sounds like some long lost dark krautrock ballad, no drums, minus the occasional rumbling percussion off in the distance, just a warm drift of lush chords, and minor key melodies, really gorgeous, and timeless sounding. Which gives way to another bout of doomic pummel, but again surprisingly melodic, all instrumental this time, just the guitars churning, the drums pounding, all wound into a tense chunk of doom pop heaviness. The next track gets all Eastern with some layered guitars, and abstract percussion, heavy for sure, but also a bit raga like, with a strange mix, big bass thrums way up in the mix, the song eventually transforming into a convoluted math metal workout, which gives way to yet another chunk of more classic sounding doom. Slooooow, and spare, harsh growled almost falsetto vocals, over the pounding drums and big distorted chords left to ring out, heavy and slow, but still really pretty... The final proper track, is all muted bass strum, jangly clean guitar, total dreamy pop vocals over the top, eventually growing more and more rocking, before finishing off in a tangle of almost Champs sounding guitar harmonies and then 30 seconds of feedback and amp buzz. The whole thing put to bed by the 5 second closing track, a brief burst of pounding grunted furious grind metal. Phew. Baffling. Brilliant. Even the booklet is utterly confusional. Packed with random text, strange doodles, diagrams, there's even a fragment of one of his papers from grade school, plus the record is NOT live, and it's unclear if this is a band, or if Hynninen plays everything himself, the artwork is super striking, very pink, and on the back, Hynninen offers up this description of Opium Warlords' self described "Black Gobi Desert Rock", which just may render the above review moot: "A ritual of jet-black sonic occultism inside an imaginary subterranean temple. A mental trip to the minimalist galaxies of suffocatingly slow and heavy nekroambiences. A ground-breaking bi-polar exploration. A droner's delight and headbanger's holiday. A rave of deranged militarist dance beats. A celebration of psychosexual isolation. Essential and easy-to-listen-to fear music for unbalanced and self-hating youth. Kutu-vibrations for sweatshirt-sporting rillirillos. A message "from beyond". Uncontrolled emotional outbursts to cheer up those with the long faces. Something just for you, who "have heard it all" and "really could not care less". Quality time for a suicidal inner-space astrodoomonaut."

MPEG stream: I. Soon Be Here, Prince Of Sleep
MPEG stream: II. Return To The Source
MPEG stream: III. Let It Pour, Let It Pour

3rd album from this aQ fave band with perhaps the best "truth in advertising" name in the realm of psychedelic doomy druggy heaviness. They also have some of the strangest album titles too. A project of Sami "Albert Witchfinder" Hynninen, of Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.) and The Puritan fame, Opium Warlords' brand of doom metal is often on the minimalist, avantgarde ambient side of things, and oddly prog-inflected. Sprawling Finnish weird-ass doom dirgery at its best! These slo-mo riffscapes meld the sombre Sabbathy-ness of Reverend Bizarre with the more experimental, extreme likes of early Earth (Extra-Capsular Extraction era), some of the tracks being stripped down to just guitar only, others accompanied by the plodding of a live drummer, or the even more precise plodding of a drum machine. They can range from the somnolently super-sludged to the curiously acoustic, always massively moody in any case, simple and effective. Several are purely instrumental, while some feature Sami's deep voiced vocals ponderously intoning melancholic lyrics, like on the morose, majestic organ-laced 12 minute epic "The Self-Made Man" (which concludes with a noodling, jamming outro that Orthodox might do in one of their more Greg Ginn-ish moments). Sami also occasionally unleashes some wretched black metal style anguish in the vokill dep't. as well, as on the quietly despairing "The God In Ruins". Depressive and dreary, but strangely comforting and beautifully mesmeric at the same time, Opium Warlords have again come up with a hard to describe, quite original slab of less-is-more, confusion-infused doom (or doom-infused confusion). Scratch your heads and bow down, as they doom on!

We flipped for the first Opium Warlords record, so much so that we wanted to make it Record Of The Week, but like this new one, it was just too difficult to keep in stock and available. Otherwise you might be reading a Record Of The Week review right now instead of just a VERY enthusiastic highlight review! OW is the most recent, and most active solo project of S.A. Hynninen, aka Albert Witchfinder, he of late great doomlords Reverend Bizarre, not to mention, the man behind weirdo avant doom outfit KLV, as well as spaced out doom sludge psychedelic one man band The Puritan. So here's mysterious missive number two from Hynninen's Opium Warlords, the very strangely named We Meditate Under The Pussy In The Sky, and if anything, it's even more far our and difficult to describe. We'd say it's doom, but really it's not, not really, or it is, at least in places, but otherwise, it's pretty experimental. We'd like to say it's heavy, and it is, but only in places, we CAN say, it's psychedelic, cuz it is all over, and weird, and warped, and demented and damaged. This is definitely one of those records, where all you can really do is describe the sounds. The brief opener is a five minute drift of shimmering guitar, of clanging chords, a droned out psychedelic guitarscape, that flits from hushed drift to crashing chaotic clang and back again, it's slow building psychguitar intro to what is essentially the record's centerpiece, the 12 minute "Slippy", which also just happens to be the most whatthefuck track here. Beginning with tribal drums and haunted house organs, we were preparing for a sort of majestic creeping doom, but instead, after about 2 minutes, the sound shifts dramatically, like someone switched channels, and the sound is suddenly a weird sort of calypso-like prog, angular guitars, super distorted, bursts of jagged cymbal crash, harsh hellish vokills, looped and loopy, all over a strange sort of shuffling groove, but that only lasts for a couple minutes as well, before the sound slips into a hushed barely there drone, before exploding into that calypso prog freakout once again. Eventually, the sound settles into a dark bit of psychedelic shimmer, all clean guitar, minor key melody, clean vocal croon, sounding almost like fifties doo wop, this too goes on for ages, until suddenly, the track explodes into a heaving blast of lurching distortion drenched doom, laced with weird jagged dynamic stop/starts, and then again, slips into that weird calypso like percussion for the last minute or so. Holy Finnish whatthefuck. So nuts, but so genius! The last three songs are on the shorter side and are not nearly so twisted. The first is a sprawl of doomic dirgery, laced with chiming clean guitars, and underpinned by roiling basslines, and what sounds like hysterical female screams, the sound growing more and more Eastern sounding, and buzzy, as the track progresses, sounding like some droned out snake charmer jam by the end. The second is a seriously distorted drum and bass dirge that sounds a bit like Ride For Revenge, super murky and minimal, before shifting gears partway through into a sort of Hypothermia style post-black metal / post rock clean guitar and drums groove, which is soon joined by buzzing psychedelic guitar tendrils, ending with an abstract sprawl of dubbed out FX drenched bass buzz. Finally, the third, and last track of the closing three, erupts in a billow of amp buzz and rumbling distortion, out of which emerges a dreamy tangle of guitar melodies, laid back and woozy, the final track playing out more like an outro, nothing too weird or tripped out, just a darkly psychedelic coda, surprisingly lovely considering the tweaked and twisted nature of the rest of the record. Another blast of confusional brilliance from this Finnish master of baffling psychedelic heaviness and outsider minimal doom confusion. Recommended to all Finnish music freaks for sure, but also anyone into confounding heavy outsider weirdness, which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.

MPEG stream: Sxi-Meru
MPEG stream: Slippy
MPEG stream: Lament For The Builders Of Khara Khoto
MPEG stream: This Wind Is A Gift From A Distant Friend

[ aquarius records catalogue — O ]