[ aquarius records catalogue — P ]

Showing results 51 through 100 of 1919.

PADDED CELLWord Of Mouth(DC Recordings)12"$ 11.98

PADDEN, DANIELPause For The Jet(Dekorder)cd$ 16.98

Another back room discovery, a little stash of these until-now-unreviewed discs, 2008's Pause For The Jet, from aQ fave Daniel Padden, whose solo records we ended up digging way more than his day job in Volcano The Bear. Not to slag VtB, but Padden on his own, manages to create gorgeously head spinning, fractured and fantastical worlds of sound, schizophrenic and chaotic for sure, leaping willynilly from all out noise assault to lilting folk, from murky drone to twangy ethereal drift, which in other hands could definitely be jarring and disorienting, and, well... hell, it still is in Padden's hands, but there's just something about the way he strings all those disparate sounds together that works. Although works in a way that will most likely not be obvious to the casual listener, but by now, anyone into weird homebrewed sounds, will no doubt find much to dig here (and anyone whole loved Padden's other discs, you're probably gonna want this too!). Pause For The Jet seems to tend toward the drone and the drift, sort of, 17 songs most of them pretty short, some as short as 30 seconds, the longest almost 5 minutes, but the rest hovering between 1 and 3 minutes, which might frustrate some, looking for long, slowly unfurling dronescapes, but taken as brief bits of droning sound and twisted melodic weirdness, PFTJ is a pretty appealing listen. Stretches of ethereal shimmer, underpinned by plonking piano and low slung bass, slip into maddeningly fractured collages of varispeed tape manipulation, hazy blurred drift and disembodied pump organ, detuned twang flecked campfire folk gives way to hushed melancholic thrum, Tow Waits-ish back alley cabaret is peppered with Ribot like guitar buzz and still more tape weirdness, elsewhere strings keen and buzz and bombinate, Padden croons beautifully over skeletal melodies, dark swells of thumping upright bass pulse beneath Herrmann like strings and noisy percussion, the record lumbering back and forth between atonal skronk, and haunting avant lo-fi folk, psychedelic shimmer, and disembodied ghostlike creep. Another one we have VERY few copies of, so act fast...

PADDEN, DANIELThe Isaac Storm(Ultra Eczema)lp$ 25.00

As much as we all dig Volcano The Bear, we've actually been loving VtB member Daniel Padden's One Ensemble project even more. While Volcano are more of a surreal dada-ist experimental sound outfit, for the One Ensemble, Padden takes those same Dadaist tendencies but tempers them a bit, wrapping them around pretty pop or lilting folk and creating some truly alien sounding prettiness. But on this ultra limited lp, Padden takes his One Ensemble and wanders back into some serious Volcano The Bear territory. Demented music box melodies drift amidst soaring strings, clinking clanking percussion, deep moaning cellos, bursts of staticky field recordings and manipulated field recordings, while over the top float haunting mysterious melodies. Sounds a bit like a more druggy demented Tom Waits. Elsewhere, thick washes of fuzzed out ambient whir wrap themselves around damaged pitch shifted guitar warble, junk yard percussion marches through thick clouds of ominous drones, detuned acoustic guitars shimmer beneath heavily reverbed scrapes and squeaks and wheezing harmonica melodies. A totally mesmerizing, dizzying and damaged trawl through some surreal junk yard filled with broken musical instruments and ghost musicians, jamming in the middle of the night to an audience of beat up stuffed animals and rusted out appliances. So cool! Packaged in a super spiffy crayon colored owl, coloring book collage cover. LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!! We got a bunch, but it's already sold out and out of print at the label so once these sell out we won't be able to get more.

PADDEN, DANIELThe One Ensemble of(Catsup Plate)cd$ 14.98

Daniel Padden, of English improvisational psych-folksters Volcano the Bear, creates meandering, lovely music that has received comparisons to artists as accomplished as This Heat, Soft Machine, and Art Ensemble of Chicago. Distant and spooky to warm and languid, "The One Ensemble Of..." features subtle improv mixed with sparse, repetetive, melodic piano, and manges to make kazoos sound sad and beautiful. Instrumentation also includes violin, cello, saxophone, harmonium, ballaphon (like a Ghanian xylophone), and other "little instruments." A wistful, gorgeous and strange album.

PADDEN, DANIEL (THE ONE ENSEMBLE OF)The Owl Of Fives(Textile)cd$ 16.98

As much as we dig UK musical experimentalists Volcano The Bear and their disjointed sonic surrealism, VtB member Daniel Padden has always managed to take that sound of theirs even further, somewhere else entirely, to a place where his juxtapositions coalesce into a dark and highly personal, mostly instrumental melancholia. Meandering and thoughtful, like a twilight walk through a musical forest, just wandering, laying down on the ground when the mood strikes you, gazing at patches of sky through the dense canopy of leaves, feeling the wet earth soak through your clothes, shivering as small insects crawl all over you tickling your skin, squinting as you're blinded by a brilliant shaft of sunlight that breaks through the trees, then melts into the forest floor beneath while you're sprinkled with a fine mist as the wind looses the condensation from the branches. This not-so-precise effect is achieved with reverby pianos in vast expanses of space, slippery slide guitar, plinkety plonk keyboards, soaring minor key strings, Appalachian guitar picking over squirming beds of bombinating drones. Padden's dense buzzing ragas are all dreamy and melancholy and super intimate and personal sounding, but somehow at the same time are grandiose and epic, with occasional waltz-like marches, like chamber music for some outer space / otherworldly king and his court. Occasionally delicate and haunting, occasionally rambunctious and a little chaotic. But always totally beautiful and mesmerising and truly mysterious. Think somewhere between Eyvind Kang, the Sun City Girls, Kronos Quartet, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Jack Rose. All that and more is filtered through Padden's slightly skewed musical mind's eye.

PADE, ELSE MARIEElectronic Works 1958-1995(Important)2cd$ 23.00

The Danish composer Else Marie Pade's compositions of scintillating electronic minimalism and sprawled musique concrete were born nearly sixty years ago, but it wasn't until 2000 or so, when she reached the age of 74 that any of her work was actually published. Her history is an intriguing one, as she was an active participant in the Danish resistance during WWII, was arrested for her acts of sedition, and began composing in her head during her imprisonment. After the war and upon her early career as a radio producer, she discovered Pierre Schaeffer's ideas for musique concrete; and in 1952, she travelled to Paris to study with him. By the mid '60s, she had spent several summers at Darmstadt studying with Stockhausen. Her first compositions began in the early '50s and she continued to work up until the '70s when her personal life dictated that she put music aside. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Pade had all but disappeared from the public eye, with Denmark holding little regard for avantgarde composition even if were by a pioneering Dane; but by the turn of century, the academic imprint Dacapo collected Pade's work for the first time. Slowly, her work was being rediscovered, eventually leading to her breakthrough album Svaevninger with Jakob Kirkegaard. This anthology mostly centers on the earliest works of Pade's career, though the vocabulary she has developed over the decades is remarkably consistent - sinewy lines of electronic tone, perpetually fluctuating granular synthesis, and eerie clusters of melody. The "Faust Suite" from 1962 is a suitably brooding piece of electric miasma dotted sporadically with echo-delay patterned snippets of narration from the Goethe classic. Pade was not interested in creating a radio-play out of the text, instead focusing on an impressionist mood engineering of internal friction, angst, and emptiness. "Syv Cirkler" from 1958 marks the earliest work from this anthology, as a commission from the 1958 Expo whereby she crafted a celestial work of ringing tone colors and satellite-chirp sequencing that's very ahead of its time. The 1995 piece "Illustrationer" is remarkably similar to all of the work she had done earlier on, though she does layer prepared piano and aqueous field recordings into the digitally rendered work. The anthology concludes with "Glasperlespil" - a composition of stately loops and monochromatic passage with enough poetic austerity that inspired Stockhausen to include the piece in his lectures about electronic music from the '70s onward. A fantastic, enterprising collection! (NB. also available as a rather more expensive triple vinyl lp set, we'll have those back in next week.)

PADE, ELSE MARIE & JACOB KIRKEGAARDSvaevninger(Important Records)lp$ 27.00

A drop-dead gorgeous album of pure tone minimalism from two outstanding Danish composers. Jacob Kirkegaard is a familiar name around these parts, thanks to his impeccable recordings for Touch, channeling quite literally radioactive field recordings and even ear-piercing tones captured from inside his own ear; but Else Marie Pade is a figure who actually towers over her fellow countryman as she's been working with analog electronics and electroacoustic minimalism for close to 60 years. She was quite the bad-ass in her youth, fighting in the Resistance during World War II as an explosives expert (fuck, yeah!), ending up a prisoner of war from 1944 until the end of the war. During that time in the P.O.W. camp, she composed hymns to lift the spirits of the fellow prisoners. Upon release, she began studying piano; and by 1954, she quickly moved into the nascent realm of electronic music and musique concrete, becoming what many have cited as being the first Danish composer of both media. Her sensibility is one that is not dissimilar to that of Eliane Radigue in terms of long-form programs, although Pade seems more interested in tonal slippages akin to somebody like Roland Kayn. This collaborative work is a picture perfect example of what two great artists should create when given the chance to work together. The album is sourced both from Kirkegaard's 'otoacoustic' recordings (those aforementioned recordings of inner-ear frequencies) and from Pade's vault of analog electronic recordings. The six tracks of Svaevninger appear as portraits to cloud formations, an apt metaphor to the ephemeral slippages, crystalline phase-patterned hypnosis, and glassy-eyed suspended tone-floats these two produce. Think Chalk, Derbyshire, Oram, Niblock, Nilsen, Coleclough, and any number of the great electronic drone-artists / minimalists we've championed. A marvelous album!

PAGAN ALTARJudgement Of The Dead(Buried By Dust And Time)lp$ 36.00

We know you folks love limited edition vinyl releases, as Record Store Day just proved yet again. Well, here's something we just got a handful of copies of, and might not be able to get again - it's on the same label that did the Saint Vitus Die Healing vinyl that sold out so fast. And it's another one for vintage doom fanatics, a vinyl version of the debut album, aka Vol.1, from NWOBHM (aka New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, in this case, make that very very British) cult Pagan Altar! Songs written circa 1978-'81, recorded 1982, not released for the first time officially until 1998, and now available again in a deluxe gatefold vinyl edition. Obscure as it is, this is really a classic, '70s Sabbath/Priest styled (proto) metal, with an authentic occult vibe, powerful and melodic, up there with Angel Witch and, especially Witchfinder General - if you like them, you need to hear Pagan Altar as well! Amazingly, the band is still around, still quite active, having released a couple other excellent albums, with work proceeding on a new one. They also did a split 7" with Jex Thoth not too long ago. As a matter of fact, Allan had the pleasure of seeing Pagan Altar play live just last week, at the Roadburn Festival in Holland! As far as he was concerned, one of the highlights of the fest (along with one of the only bands there to have been around longer, Comus!!!). When they came out on stage, the silver-haired singer (Terry Jones, brother to lead guitarist Alan Jones) was wearing a feathered top hat, that he gracefully doffed towards the audience, greeting us in a mellifluous Yorkshire accent. He possessed a theatrical, charismatic presence that made him seem not unlike one of the earlier incarnations of Dr. Who! They then proceeded to kick out an utterly classic sounding set of twin guitar NWOBHM, including of course many songs from this album, folkloric metal of witchery and doom, sung in a reedy voice that sounds a lot like a British version of Roky Erickson. They were really, really good. So, if you're lucky enough to get a chance to see 'em, do so! And, at the very least, if doom and NWOBHM is your thing, check out their recordings, this being a great one to start with, except that we probably won't have it for very long (we only got, like, 8, and already have sold a few)...

PAGAN ALTARMythical & Magical(Shadow Kingdom)cd$ 12.98

Mythical and magical, indeed! Pagan Altar, hopefully you know by now, are an '80s metal band from the UK, who never released anything back in the day, but here in the 21st century have been putting out records, dusting off their old, unrecorded songs to much underground acclaim and amazement. Their style is one that works as well, or even better, when played by gents of advanced age - part epic NWOBHM thespianism, part Black Sabbathy doominess, part hoary Brit-folk tradition. It's misty, mystic full moon music that the ancient headbanging druids of Stonehenge would probably find even more appropriate for their esoteric purposes than house band Hawkwind. So, here's the final (for now) entry in the Pagan Altar discography for us to list. This 2006 release, originally on the band's own Oracle Records label, has been newly reissued by cult metal label Shadow Kingdom (for whom Pagan Altar are THEE best band ever). This joins Judgement Of The Dead, The Time Lord, and The Lords Of Hypocrisy in the Shadow Kingdom's Pagan Altar catalog, and it's right up there with any and all of 'em, full of emotive, incredible soloing, catchy, doomy riffs, wonderful vocals (again reminding us of a creaky combo of both Ozzy Osbourne and Roky Erickson), and an overall pagan atmosphere delivered with classic rock perfection that's not much known this side of the the '80s. What else can we say, besides, recommended!

PAGAN ALTARThe Lords Of Hypocrisy(Shadow Kingdom)cd$ 12.98

Red letter day here for old school doom fanatics... Shadow Kingdom brings us not one but two cd reissues from those mystic, misty masters of British metal majesty, Pagan Altar. A truly "cult" doom act from the NWOBHM era, somehow still kicking in the here-and-now. Their debut was recorded in 1982, but kept secret and unreleased until almost the year 2000AD. They followed that with this album, Lords Of Hypocrisy, in 2004, originally released on their own Oracle Records label. It features songs which were originally written back in the late '70s, early '80s by the brothers Terry Jones (vocals) and Alan Jones (guitar). While all Pagan Altar rules, this just might be our fave. Terry Jones' nasal voice is a dramatic, wizened croak and caw, that can soar with ravens in the night sky... evoking both both Roky Erickson and Ozzy Osbourne (which means, Witchcraft fans should hear Pagan Altar). His brother brings the Sabbathy riffs and lead guitar rippage, also playin' some banjo on twangin' folk instrumental interlude "The Devil Came Down To Brockley". Throughout the album there's drifting soft folky parts and epick metal stormers, Pagan Altar combining a pastoral prog vibe with a Satanic metal one... sad and melancholic, with intelligent lyrics, and it doesn't get more DOOM than songs about nuclear armageddon! Somehow the overall sound reminds us of Ozzy (early solo, circa Randy Rhodes Blizzard Of Ozz era), but gone way underground and druidical. A classic that stands with the best of the NWOBHM even though it was released so many years later... like a time capsule from the '80s. Brilliant stuff any NWOBHM and/or doom lover who's got a pagan bone in their body ought to own. The original cd release of this we never were able to get enough of to list. And then the swank limited vinyl edition Buried By Time And Dust came and went (as did an earlier Miskatonic vinyl version). So nice to have it back as an affordable cd release thanks to the doom fiends at Shadow Kingdom. (Wish they'd have included the two bonus tracks found on the vinyl, but oh well...)

PAGAN ALTARThe Time Lord(Shadow Kingdom)cd$ 13.98

In the past, we've listed a couple, now out of print limited vinyl reissues of stuff by this lost-in-time, doom-laden New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band, so we know some of you are already fans. And anyone into either Witchcraft or Witchfinder General, who hasn't yet heard Pagan Altar, should really check them out! They could be considered one of the NWOBHM's best kept secrets, seeing as how the songs they recorded back in the '80s weren't even released until many, many years later. Nowadays they're finally getting some attention, playing festivals like Roadburn, where Allan was lucky enough to see 'em, in 2010, and having more of their music finally see the light of day (or the full moon, as might be more appropriate). While many of the releases in this band's somewhat curious discography, like 2004's Lords Of Hypocrisy and 2006's Mythical & Magical, consist of songs written (but not recorded) over 20 years earlier, what we have here REALLY goes back, way back, to the band's beginnings - these five songs are the earliest known Pagan Altar recordings to exist, actual demo tracks dating from 1978: "Highway Cavalier", "The Time Lord", "Judgement Of The Dead", "The Black Mass", and "Reincarnation". Some of course were redone on later releases. But they sound pretty darn good in their original demo form, tape hiss included. Total heavy riffing, epick rocking, infused with pagan Britfolk vibes� kinda like Sabbath meets Roky Erickson (on account of frontman Terry Jones's reedy Roky-like voice) meets the NWOBHM, all under the influence of Dr. Who; in other words, the Pagan Altar we know and love. Classic mystic misty majestic metal. Pagan Altar, next to Manilla Road, are probably the top favorite band of the cult metal fetishists who run the Shadow Kingdom label, so we know they were thrilled to put this out on remastered cd (I Hate Records did a 12" vinyl version back in '04). We're stoked about it as well. AND they're gonna be doing domestic cd reissues of Pagan Altar's Judgement Of The Dead and Lords Of Hypocrisy albums soon, too!

PAGAN HELLFIREOn The Path To Triumph(Tour De Garde)cd$ 12.98

On The Path To Triumph is full length number five from this long running (since 1996) Canadian black metal one man band, whose only appearance on the aQ list, was in the review for the Eight Acts Of Origin split lp, which featured Pagan Hellfire, alongside such aQ faves as Ash Pool, Akitsa, Woods Of Infinity, and a bunch more. We described PH's track thusly: "Another blast of brittle lo-fi black metal, plenty raw and buzzy, with a cool loping bridge, and some crazy wheedly guitar shreddery". But much has changed in the seven years since, the sound of Pagan Hellfire is still plenty raw and buzzy, but way less brittle and lo-fi, the production pretty heavy and thick, the guitars lush and layered, the songs rife with melancholy melodies and not much shreddery to be found, instead, it seems the Pagan Hellfire of 2013 traffics in something much more moody and melancholic, a little bit depressive, in fact, the record opens with some downright pretty midtempo blackness, that wouldn't be out of place on an Alcest or Amesoeurs record, and even when the song splinters, and explodes into something more blasting and buzzy, the melodies remain, woven into the texture of the song, infusing it with a surprisingly gorgeous dark energy. And that dark energy continues throughout, the overall feel of the the whole record a sort of mournful, wistful blackness, the sound drifting from frenzied grim black buzz, to swoonsome melodic blackness and back again, with most of the record existing right in between. Classic black metal, epic and majestic, frantic and furious, yet rife with haunting melodies and subtle sonic shadows. Really fantastic stuff.

PAGAN HELLFIREThe Will Of Night(Tour De Garde)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY.

PAGAN HERITAGE / UNJOYsplit(Legion Blotan)7"$ 11.98

PAGANSPink Album ... Plus!(Crypt)lp$ 10.98

From Cleveland, the land of Pere Ubu and The Electric Eels, comes the Pagans, totally essential, completely awesome late seventies scuzzed out punk rock. Noisy and sloppy and snotty and totally catchy. The lp includes 2 unreleased songs and two demos, one exclusive to the lp. The cd includes 3 unreleased tracks (as opposed to 4 on the vinyl) and tons of live stuff from 1979-1983

PAGANSShit Street(Crypt)lp$ 10.98

From Cleveland, the land of Pere Ubu and The Electric Eels, comes the Pagans, totally essential, completely awesome late seventies scuzzed out punk rock. Noisy and sloppy and snotty and totally catchy. The lp includes 3 unreleased tracks and 2 super rare tracks from 1979 including the studio demo of 'She's A Cadaver' which is only on the lp. The cd includes 4 extra studio tracks (as

PAGANSWhat's This Shit? 1977 / 1979(Thermionic)lp$ 18.98

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

SORRY.

PAGE FRANCEHello, Dear Wind(Suicide Squeeze)cd$ 14.98

Twee folkster Michael Nau has such an endearingly bleaty voice sort of a cross between Daniel Johnston and John Lennon (especially on songs like "Bush"). But his voice also has a cool scratchy raspy Paul Westerberg quality, that adds even more emotion, like he's always about to break into a top-of-his-lungs croon, or like his voice is always just on the verge of cracking. The songs are simple, but surprisingly lush, rife with impossibly memorable hooks, and lots of little melodic flourishes and subtle instrumental embellishments. Musically Page France is like a latecomer to the Elephant Six set with a SERIOUS Neutral Milk Hotel influence, from the guitar / vocal interplay, to the clever turns of phrase, even down to the not so veiled religious subtext. Lots of songs about Jesus and love and salvation, although not always obviously so. This could almost be some early Jeff Mangum project, recorded right before his voice changed. It has the same wide eyed innocence, the strange surreal psychedelia and the eclectic kitchen sink instrumentation as NMH, there's horns, super simple shuffling percussion, chimes, vibes and Nau also finds his perfect female counterpoint in the childlike croon of Whitney McGraw. So catchy and dreamy. Neutral Milk Hotel fans do NOT want to miss out on this...

PAGE FRANCE AND THE FAMILY TELEPHONEs/t(Suicide Squeeze)cd$ 14.98

Page France And The Family Telephone returns with another generous serving of twinkly twee pop! We liked his last album 2006's Hello Dear Wind very very much, so we welcome this new one with open arms. And it doesn't disappoint! Mainman Michael Nau's like a more child's view cousin of Destroyer or a prepubescent Flaming Lips. His toothsome storybook tales, singsong-y vocals and chiming melodies could easily have tumbled out of Mr. Rogers' Land Of Make Believe. Cute as a button!

PAGE, JIMMY & THE BLACK CROWESLive At The Greek(The Orchard)3lp$ 34.00

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

SORRY.

PAIKCorridors(Beyonder)cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY. For those of you who dug their recent Satin Black release, here's Paik's sophomore full length from 2001 on which they harnessed their crashing post-rock waves of guitars and cymbals into something considerably more moody and space-y than its predecessor, the very My Bloody Valentine-esque Hugo Strange. Corridors aligns them more with bands such as Mogwai (who they themselves were an aural amalgam of MBV and Slint).

PAIKHugo Strange(Beyonder)cd$ 14.98

For those of you who dug their recent Satin Black release, here's Paik's debut album from 1998. Hugo Strange reveals that the band's beginnings were very much rooted in shoegazer territory. Upon reaching the center of the album you'll find the band applying some very noticeable My Bloody Valentine-isms -- lots of woozy, warped record guitar style effects. They stick in this hazy reverb and distortion drenched atmosphere for a few songs then take a turn into the land of post-rock fueled by a healthy dose of insistently down-strummed guitars.

PAIKMonster Of The Absolute(Strange Attractors Audio House)cd$ 14.98

This instrumental space rock trio from Michigan has been smoking heaping bowlfuls of the same stuff Hawkwind used to burn up and is thus churning out some serious space rock with mighty results. Spacious and sweeping, chugging with propulsive groove, but without the quiet-loud dynamics of post-rock bands like Mogwai, nor the shoe-gazing drone burners of bands like Growing and Belong. More like a 120 mph road-trip through Death Valley at sunset and the acid just kicked in.

PAIKSatin Black(Strange Attractors Audio House)cd$ 13.98

On their newest 'full length' (although the cd only has five tracks, they're all nice and looooooong), Paik once again unfurl the darker, heavier and more ominous side of shoegazerin'. This Michigan-based space rock band pour on layer after layer of guitar washes which along with the thundering drums and crashing cymbals build to a hypnotic roar. An occasional melodic element will seep out from the dense creeping haze. Trippy, atmospheric and very much for fans of Bardo Pond, Kinski, Growing, Landing and Mogwai.

PAIKThe Orson Fader(Clairecords)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY.

PAIK, NAM JUNEWorks 1958-1979(Sub Rosa)cd$ 16.98

Five compositions by video artist Nam June Paik. Long before he became famous for his work in the visual arts, Paik had travelled to both Japan and later to Germany (along side Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Westdeutsche Rundfunk's Studio For Electronic Music)

PAIN TEENSs/t(Charnel Music)cd$ 12.98

First time on cd for this, the very first (1988) and long out of print album by Austin's Painteens. Even then, this industrial/experimental rock outfit (featuring the core duo of vocalist Bliss Blood and guitarist Scott Ayers) were no slackers at noisemaking. Painteens is a brutalist hybrid of Rhythm & Noise with Coil, cooked up in a Texas psychedelic punk laboratory. This cd also includes additional material from their fantastic early cassette releases.

PAINEZero to...666Paranormal(Kaari)cd-r$ 9.98

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

SORRY. The Finnish band Paine (which in their language means not Pain, but Pressure) features at least three ex-members of Circle...and you can tell. Like Circle, Paine construct tight, repetitive riffs and rhythms, mostly instrumental. Darker and scarier though, with bombastic grooves and distorted vocal snippets. It's a sort of mechanical brutality, like Circle gone Industrial. Paine march in endless, relentless circles in a sci-fi wasteland. Paine, pressure, pleasure. This six-song cd-r is actually a reissue (with 2 additional tracks and new, fancy oversized packaging -- a blue vellum envelope with acetate inserts) of a previous limited cd-r release. This one's limited too (there's 150 of 'em), we've only got what we've got -- 12 copies -- and that's it.

PAINE, ANDREW & RICHARD YOUNGSMauve Dawn(Fusetron)lp$ 14.98

PAINFORGED / GNAW THEIR TONGUESA Confession Of Worshipping The Depraved And Perverse Human Psyche(Shadowgraph)cd-r$ 9.98

We won't go into too much detail with this one, it was limited to 100 copies, is already sold out, and we got a mere 10, sold 3 or 4, so by the time you read this we'll have 5 or 6 left, and will NOT be able to get more. Gnaw Their Tongues obsessives will NEED this, three new tracks of GTT's fucked up and brilliantly brutal industrial symphonic cinematic black doom, all buzzing guitars, crashing percussion, twisted strings, warped vocals, twisted samples, black ambience, all woven into something freaky and creepy and unlike anything else you've heard. We had never heard Painforged before, but they are most definitely a worthy matchup for GTT, a similarly abject bit of abstract blacknoize and metallic ambience, processed sounds throb and skitter and pulse over monstrous vocals, strange samples laced with super spare programmed doom-ed drumcrush, swirling black ambience and thick swells of rumbling buzzing doomdronedirge low end, laced with deconstructed and decaying riffage, slowed down cookie monster vox, and spidery atonal guitar squiggles, all melted down into a noxious and black sonic stew. Packaged in a dvd style case, nice printed covers, almost sold out, so cross your fingers and add to cart...

PAING ENSEMBLE, NAI HTAWMon Music of Burma(Fire Museum)cd$ 13.98

There is something so thrilling about Burmese instrumentation. The Nai Htaw Paing Ensemble are regarded as masters of traditional Mon music. Using instruments like the Kyam (known as the crocodile zither, a 3-string zither with frets shaped like a crocodile), the Batt Kine, a row of around fourteen pitched gongs, and the Mon violin, a three-string fiddle that's played upright. While this isn't as damaged or fucked up as some of the music from Burma we've gotten our hands on in recent times (like the amazing Mandalay Marionette Music disc we listed at the end of last year), this is still pretty amazing. A really nice example of the more traditional yet still totally fascinating feel of Burmese music.

PAINKILLERCollected Works(Tzadik)4cd$ 41.00

4 cds collecting the almost-complete works (plus some previously unreleased pieces) of the collaboration among 3 of the biggest egos in contemporary music: John Zorn, Mick Harris, and big bad Bill Laswell. Nicely presented, with all the original (banned-in-England in one instance) artwork. Includes "Guts Of A Virgin," "Buried Secrets," and "Execution Ground" (with the bonus live in Osaka disc from the import Japanese version, featuring guest Eye Yamantaka of Boredoms). And then there's the previously unreleased track with Keiji Haino on guitar (doing a Jacks cover!). Makigami Koichi also guests on vocals.

PAINKILLERJohn Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 12(Tzadik)cd$ 15.98

JZ's 50th was/is a never-ending party it seems. The cds just keep on coming. We haven't managed to keep up at all with 'em all. But we did have to take a moment to check out this, a new Painkiller document! Painkiller being one of our favorite John Zorn ensembles, wherein he teamed up with grindcore drummer Mick Harris (Napalm Death/Scorn) and ubiquitous bassist Bill Laswell for several extreme explorations of heavy-duty, jazz metal improvcore back in the early '90s. The "Collected Works" four-cd box set on Tzadik remains quite recommended (especially for the band's best work, the dubby death ambient double disc set called Execution Ground), and includes guest appearances from the likes of Eye Yamantaka and Keiji Haino. So what's the deal with this live, September 2003 birthday Painkiller reunion, then? Well, first off, although Laswell is (of course) on board, Mick Harris isn't. Does he even still play drums? His replacement is Chicago jazz percussionist Hamid Drake. And, the special guest at this show was Mike Patton, always a suitable stand-in for Eye. So this isn't quite the same Painkiller, being rather, um, "funkier" than we remember 'em being. It's also certainly exuberantly noisy. Well, maybe the darkest Painkiller stuff wouldn't really be right for a birthday party, after all! The three tracks here, two of 'em quite lengthy, were all composed and/or improvised by the Zorn/Drake/Laswell/Patton unit. Patton contributes plenty of distorted screams and jib-jabbery glitched out electonics n' vocals, while the Laswell/Drake rhythm section generally grooves along, and Zorn switches back and forth between both camps, blowing like crazy to keep Patton company or playing "jazzier" stuff to swing with Laswell and Drake. Zorn, Patton and yes indeed old Painkiller fans will all find this of interest. It's not quite the Painkiller of the Mick Harris days, but there's still plenty of dubby, mayhemic skronk here that's at least really "Painkillerish".

PAINKILLERTalisman: Live In Nagoya(Tzadik)cd$ 15.98

It's been a while since we've heard from this band, the infamous John Zorn / Mick Harris / Bill Laswell sax, drums and bass trio called Painkiller. No, they're not playing again, but they've dug up some old recordings for first-time release on this disc. Hopefully you're familiar with the evil ambience of their masterpiece "Execution Ground" or their earlier death-jazz outings like "Guts Of A Virgin" (all still available as part of their 4 cd "Collected Works" box on Tzadik). Total avant-jazz heavy dub darkness! Like some of the other past projects these guys have been involved with (Naked City, Massacre, Napalm Death, Scorn, Last Exit, to name a few) this is intense and original music, and that's certainly demonstrated on this archival release, a live recording from their 1994 tour of Japan. The monstrous first track, the 35-minute improv "Batrachophrenoboocosmocachina" (good grief!) encapsulates (at length) Painkiller's strengths: the shrieking (and sometimes lyricism) of Zorn's alto sax, the energy of Harris' drumming, and the burbling droning bass backdrop offered by Laswell. All these strong voices urge one another on, downwards into the dense black pit of their collective musical imagination. A welcome, and essential, release for fans, and not a bad place to start if you're not ready to jump in with that four-disc collection!!

PAINKILLERThe Prophecy(Tzadik)cd$ 16.98

We've fallen behind - like, WAY behind - in keeping up with John Zorn's output in recent years. (Sorry JZ!) But we are fans of the downtown NYC avantgarde saxophonist/composer, if not to the obsessed extent of certain people we know. And when we found out about this, we had to get it in! One of our favorite of Zorn's many projects, Painkiller is an extreme jazzcore power trio, originally featuring Zorn, bassist Bill Laswell (whose discography is also pretty hard to keep up with), and drummer Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Scorn). Painkiller's first recordings of deathjazz improv came out on grindcore label Earache, natch. Later on, they got more dubbed-out and ambient (illbient?) on the amazing Execution Ground set. Well, now Painkiller returns, with this recording. Zorn and Laswell of course have kept up their chops, but Mick Harris probably hasn't touched a drum kit in a while, so he's been replaced. They've found a suitable substitute, however, making us maybe even more excited about this: Tatsuya Yoshida of Japan's amazing Ruins!! So yeah, we'd be happy to hear all three of these guys simply solo for hours, and, well, that's basically what you get here. A thrilling onslaught of drums, sax and bass, soloing separately and all at once (which technically isn't soloing, but you know what we mean), it's quite a ride. There's of course some moments of relative calm, it gets melodic even, and groovy, but intense is pretty much the word for it. There's three tracks, the first, "Prelude", not much more that two minutes long, and when it ends it's a bit disconcerting to hear audience applause already ('cause this was recorded live on tour in Europe, in 2007) but then they launch into track 2, the title track, and that one's over an hour long, so you forget about it being live, you forget about everything, except insane squealing sax skronk, eight armed drum damage, and how-low-can-you-go, wah-wah'd bass warble! This tour-de-force is followed by a brief "Postlude", and then it's time to spin the disc again because when it stops suddenly silence seems crazy and Painkiller's music is now what sounds normal to your ears. Maybe.

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEARTBelong(Slumberland)cd$ 13.98

Not many pop groups have won us over so utterly and completely as Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Their blissed out debut from a couple years back tapped into the best bits of '80s dream-pop and Sarah records glory, and the group created such infectious and fresh sounding songs that we've blasted so loud and so many times by now. With their follow up full length they return with an album that's a bit more meaty and fleshed out, featuring a much slicker production. Don't get us wrong the dreamy and breezy elements are still there, but they are accompanied by a more '90s sounding guitar rock vibe a la Smashing Pumpkins circa Siamese Dream, The Swirlies or Swervedriver. But under the ringing of the guitars is still that breeze and ease that makes POBPAH such the perfect band to listen to when you're cruising in a car on a sunny windy afternoon, or laying in the park with friends as you take a break from the harsh realities of the day to day. Carefree and rocking in such delightful ways.

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEARTCome Saturday(Slumberland)7"$ 3.98

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEARTHigher Than The Stars(Slumberland)cd ep$ 8.98

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are responsible for one of our favorite albums of the year! Their debut full length which came out right at the beginning of 2009, was the sort of refreshing slab of pure pop bliss that we had been so starved for. It's a record that we still listen to with as much excitement and frequency as we did all those months ago. The way they are able to tap into that great dreamy '80s state of pop while still sounding so fresh and original has made it a record that's going to be on many of our year end favorite lists for sure. So of course we were super excited to get a new ep from the Pains, they really are one of those rare bands that have made such an impact on us that just getting a handful of new songs from them is so damn exciting. What's even more exciting is that these songs are some of the best and most infectious they have written so far. Influenced by that Sara records sound, Pains create songs that soar with such ease reminding you of being in the backseat of your best friends car with the window's down as you heard The Smiths playing for the first time. With the recent passing of John Hughes, these are the kind of songs you know he would have wanted to be on the soundtrack for a movie like The Breakfast Club or Pretty In Pink if they they been made today. So romantic and yearning and with a distinctly daydream spirit we've already fallen head over heels for. Another amazing set of songs from one of our favorite new bands! The cd version comes with an extra track not on the vinyl which is a really cool remix of the title track by Saint Etienne.

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEARTJeremy / My Life Is Wrong(Slumberland)7"$ 6.50

We were super excited when we first heard about this single, assuming of course that it was gonna be a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", but once we got over our initial disappointment (or not), we were still pretty psyched to discover, that it was in fact still a cover, but a Magnetic Fields cover, and as you might imagine, the song suits TPOBPAH's sound perfectly, so much so, that had we not been familiar with the original, we would not have doubted for a second that it could have been an Pains original. Jangly, and propulsive, bouncy and hooky as hell, the vox here are handled by one of the boys in Pains, even though the cover apparently has deep meaning for Pains vocalist Peggy Wang, who found solace as a teenager in the music of the Magnetic Fields. The flipside is another cover, this one originally by East River Pipe, and another perfect choice, supercharging the original, wreathing it in wild swaths of distorted guitar, and sheets of feedback, a heavy heady chunk of shoegazey jangle pop, that definitely finds Pains at their most rocking, and also had us thinking we should dig out our old East River Pipes, which is precisely what the best covers should do...

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THEDays Of Abandon(Yebo)cd$ 14.98

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THEHeart In Your Heartbreak(Slumberland)7"$ 5.98

This gets us so excited for a new full length from Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, which we're hoping will grace our ears sometime MUCH sooner than later. These two songs are for sure up there with the band's most satisfying and addictive slabs of sweeping dream pop glory! "Heart In Your Heartbreak" sounds like a classic even the first time you hear it. Like the best of their songs it takes you to this place of carefree bliss, yet evokes memories filled with crashing waves, epic sunsets, and car-rides you hoped would last forever. The B side "The One", starts off with a rad Superchunk-like guitar riff and then mutates into a Creation records sort of sound which they have totally perfected and somehow made their very own. Comes in a nice sturdy sleeve with beautiful cover art by Winston Chmielinski that was so immediately striking, it sent us in search of more of his work, realizing we had just discovered one of our new favorite artists!

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THESay No To Love(Slumberland)7"$ 5.98

Over the last couple years no pop band has won over our ears and hearts more then Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Their full length and follow up ep displayed a band capable of creating highly addictive, breezy and melodic pop crafted so meticulously. So two new songs from them is something to celebrate for sure. And they continue their amazing streak of not releasing a single dud yet. It's true every song on the amazing debut full length and the Higher Than The Stars ep were all absolute winners. The kind of records where every few weeks you listen, you have a new favorite song. These two new jams find the band at their most sun kissed, songs perfect for cracking the window and feeling the soft breeze on a warm summer afternoon. While it will always be hard to talk about them without mentioning the sound of classic romantic UK pop of the '80s like The Smiths, James, and The Field Mice, there is no doubt that Pains Of Being Pure at heart have employed those influences with greater results then so many others. And in the process they have created their own take on that classic sound, which all bands that follow in their footsteps will now be be judged by.

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THEYoung Adult Friction(Slumberland)7"$ 5.98

Oh how we've fallen in love with this band from New York. Not only are they one of the cutest bands around, but they have beautiful pop chops as well, making them not just nice to look at but so totally fun and engaging to listen to. Their full length has become one of those records we've listened to more then almost anything else this year and is sure to find its way on to many of our year end favorite lists. Their take on the Smiths / Creation Records dreamy jangle pop with a punch is not only endearing, but also addictive, as we've grown to love their songs more and more with repeated listens. So if you already have the full length, you already have one of these two songs, the great, infectious stand out track "Young Adult Friction" but luckily the 'b' side which is a non album track called "Romana" makes this slab of wax well worth it anyway, especially for those of us utterly smitten by these Pure At Heart Pains. That track displays the more midtempo, daydreamy and lingering side of the band. The 7" comes pressed on cool reddish colored vinyl.

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THEs/t(Slumberland / Fortuna Pop)cd$ 13.98

Hey Slumberland, where have you been? It turns out that the Oakland label didn't disappear after a lengthy hiatus from 2000 to 2007; and we'll admit that we didn't take too much notice of what these indie-rock tastemakers had been doing as of late until they released the Crystal Stilts masterpiece Alight The Night. And, after that ecstatic burst of noise & bliss pop on the Crystal Stilts disc, Slumberland delivers another great record that, well, sounds exactly like a Slumberland record should. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart hail from Brooklyn, but they could have easily been any number of the bands spawned by the C86 revolution of indie-pop around the likes of the Pastels, Heavenly, and of course My Bloody Valentine (circa Ecstasy & Wine, mind you). Within the not-quite-shoegazing wall of sound, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart craft a brightly jangling set of tunes, some of which get anthemic and punchy with all of the panache of a great power pop number with boy/girl vocals crooning all sorts of "oooohs" and "aaahs", and others smacking of a sugary '60s bubblegum jingle with all of the softened edges that Alan McGee wanted in every Creation band around 1990. For all of the British references that make their way into the Pains, they really sound a hell of lot like so many of those bands that made Slumberland so great to begin with: The Lilys, Velocity Girl, and Black Tambourine. We're not complaining one bit!

PAINTED CAVESNot Here Not There(Dust Editions)cassette$ 9.98

It's here! Not Here Not There is the first release from Painted Caves, aka Evan Caminiti, one half of psychedelic dronefolk duo Barn Owl, and while Painted Caves, like many of the Barn Owl offshoots, definitely exists in a similar sonic plane, one of sprawling smoldering guitar thrum, and shimmering soft focus guitar ambience, Not Here Not There finds Caminiti getting way more abstract, mixing some ethereal synth drift into the dense swells of chordal thrum, a gorgeous expanse of guitar/synth exploration, with subtle electronic manipulations, all blurred into a gauzy softly billowing whole. The tape begins very much like past Barn Owl outings, a sort of twang flecked, sun dappled whirring cloud of warm guitar swirl, but after a spell, the sound grows downright malevolent, expanding into churning sonic stormclouds before dissipating into another hazy washed out ethereal atmosphere, underpinned by a smoldering chordal fog, wreathed in a murky shimmer that soon gives way to a brooding softly undulating soft-psych thrum, and eventually finishes with the dreamily wistful final track, a hauntingly melancholic smear of muted prismatic buzz and hum, almost like a more psychedelic dronedrift version of the Caretaker, with buried lost memory like melodies, and a glimmering field of soft focus crackle and cosmic haze. This is the first release on Caminiti's Dust Editions imprint and is LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Includes a digital download as well.

PAINTED CAVESSurveillance(Shelter Press)lp$ 23.00

Surveillance is the latest release from Evan Caminiti, one half of aQ beloved drone/doom duo Barn Owl. And displays Caminiti's gradual shift away from purely guitar based ambience, toward something more dark and dystopian, and beat driven, shedding much of the twang flecked duskiness, in favor of murky fragmented rhythms, and gristled textures. Barn Owl too has displayed a similarly dramatic sonic shift over the last few releases, introducing drum machines, and synths, and similarly Caminiti's partner in Barn Owl, Jon Porras, has expanded his solo sonic palette as well, occasionally shoegazey, but also dabbling in witchy electronics, most notably as DVVLLXNS. But Surveillance might be the closest either have come to crystallizing such a distinctive, and distinctively entrancing sound, one that channels seventies and eighties soundtrack music, abstract electronics, modern minimalism, minimal house music (a la Chain Reaction), and who knows what else, into something stunningly mesmerizing, hauntingly bleak, and strangely alien. Yet somehow, still quite beautiful. Surveillance does play out like some sort of soundtrack, with a few moments touching on the Carpenter/Goblin sound that seems to be so prevalent these days, but those moments definitely don't smack of any sort of bandwagon jumping, instead existing as just one sonic element, deftly woven into a much more sprawling and epic whole, with most of the tracks blossoming into something altogether stranger, lurching, pulsing, revealing mysterious arrangements, unfurling constantly shifting textures, rhythmically mesmeric one second, a creeping tar pit ooze the next. "Event Boundary", sounds a bit like a futuristic Muslimgauze, a simple skeletal rhythm, drifting atop a whirring raga like buzz, and wreathed in soft melodic swirls, heady and heavenly hypnotic, gradually growing more and more sinister, the electronic buzz sounding almost like processed horn bleats, the strange tangle of electronics dense and tense, haunting and harrowing for sure. "Leningrad" is similarly bleak and barren, with another field of buried pulsations, beneath arcing fields of tones, and soft focus synth sweeps, not to mention some dubbed out beats, all in a softly psychedelic haze. "Flesh On Tape" is about as close to the current Carpenter craze as it gets, but even then, the sound is much more minimal and softly glitchy, the Chain Reaction influence in full effect, maybe Carpenter on Chain Reaction is good band math, and it sounds just as good as you think it would. "Shadow Gamelan" sounds like it was plucked from some obscure seventies Euro-art film, not hard to imagine this on a soundtrack for a movie like Possession, softly squiggly guitars, disembodied buzz, lots of echo and dreamlike reverb, hazy and soft focus, but underpinned by a subtle sonic malevolence, while "Loft Life" sounds like something on Kompakt slowed way down, and wreathed in shadow, before finally, the record ends with "Stalker" (an homage to Tarkovsky maybe?), which is a gently noisy, swirling psychedelic shimmerscape of keening high end, buzzing swells, buried pulsations and strange hissy vocal emanations, a stunning sprawl of harrowing cinematic soundscapery that again, like much of Surveillance, seems to effortlessly blur the line between hushed haunting loveliness, and brooding, blackened sonic intensity. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

PAINTING PETALS ON PLANET GHOSTFallen Camellias(A Silent Place)cd$ 10.98

We love, love, loved the cd that Japan's PSF label released by Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, 2009's Haru No Omi, a disc of hushed hazy psychedelic semi-acoustic drones backing delicate female vocals, themselves often gently looped and layered. Although on PSF, and despite those vocals being in fluent Japanese, PPOPG is the work of Italy's Ramona Ponzini, joined by the ever-industrious Opalio brothers from My Cat Is An Alien, and is probably our favorite thing the Oplaio's have been involved with. Now, we knew of an earlier Painting Petals album on Time-Lag, the vinyl long out of print, but had somehow missed out on this one, a 2008 release from the A Silent Place label. Well, as you may have noticed elsewhere on this week's list, we just managed to acquire an assorted quantity of A Silent Place "product", at a "nice price" too, including (yay!) a handful of these lovely discs. It's totally along the lines of the PSF release, being another album of gorgeous, near-ambient driftworks, apparently recorded in "mystic locations" in the Italian Alps, with Ponzini's dreamy vocals once again set amidst melodious shimmering drone, and tinkling bells... there's both wind chimes, and what sounds like field recordings of actual wind, along with guitars, glockenspiel, antique accordion, mini-keyboard, and harmonica. Utterly entrancing and relaxing. So, if you liked the more recent Haru No Omi as much as we did, you should act fast and try to grab one of these. We won't be able to get more, and only have a few...

PAINTING PETALS ON PLANET GHOSTHaru No Omoi(PSF)cd$ 16.98

It'd be easy to mistake this beautiful, beautiful album for being Japanese... the title is in Japanese, the singing is in Japanese, and it's on the great Japanese psych label PSF after all, with an obi and everything! But actually, it's the work of Italian experimental chanteuse Ramona Ponzini, who is an associate of the My Cat Is An Alien collective (members of whom also being part of this project), and is obviously fluent in Japanese. Totally belongs on PSF though, worthy of being of the rare albums of Western origin appearing on that label, and we think it's one of the loveliest, regardless of where it's from. And it also lives up to its evocative name Painting Petals On The Planet Ghost, whatever that phrase might mean... On the seven hushed tracks here, Ponzini's gentle vocals hover amidst even gentler hum and hiss, accompanied by sun-dappled, slow motion acoustic guitar melodies, minimalistic and melancholic, and droning synth. These songs are sometimes visited by chiming bells, or restrained, ceremonial-sounding percussion. There's an intimate, yet mysterious vibe to it all, one that's dreamy and drifting, Ponzini's singing at the center of these songs, the focus of the listener's attention, but at the same time, the soft-focus nature of these tracks as a whole also being the attraction, the delicate interplay of vocals, melody, and drone almost becoming a haunting, holistic oneness. Pleasantly haunting that is, a hypnotic late night listen, somnolent folkish lullabies given gorgeous drone treatment. Doused in mild echo effects, with overdubs her sweet singing is vaguely layered and looped, or at least some ghostly suggestion is made in that direction, where she starts one vocal line, then it fades into a wordless hmmmmmm, as another one of her vocals is layered over what has become part of the warm background hum... For fans of Fursaxa, Grouper, Valet, and other female-fronted loner psych-folk-drone stuff, as well as of course certain Japanese artists, like AQ faves Nagisa Ti Te for sure, or Ai Aso with her cooing waifish vocals. Or, remember female Japanese duo Eddie Marcon's Shining On Graveposts disc (soon to be available again, at long last, by the way!)? This reminds us a lot of that wonderful album, but 'tis even more gauzy and droned-out... Packaged in a miniature LP-style gatefold sleeve, and highly recommended!