[ aquarius records catalogue

2nd album from these Canadian rockers, a great live band, pretty good on their debut, trying maybe to be a bit too poppy and not quite as metal on this follow-up. Who can blame 'em, they'd like to be as big as Wolfmother too. But as far as we're concerned, while there's some nice twin guitar harmony moments and stuff, we prefer the album prior to Prior To The Fire (which we imagine they like to pronounce, Fie-or).

On the same Italian label that brought us that lovely Luciano Cilio disc in 2004, here's more import-expensive but totally worth it amazing archival material (in ultra-nice digipackaging to sweeten the deal) from the Italian '70s sonic art underground, specifically Roberto Laneri's Prima Materia vocal drone ensemble. This is some heavy stuff here -- and heavy can mean a lot of things, AQ list readers have come to realize. In this case, it's heavy the way that Tibetan Buddhist Rites From The Monasteries Of Bhutan double disc reissue we listed last year was heavy (so said our distro rep when we ordered this, and he was right!). And this mesmerizing, yogic drone-fest does have a monkish sound, being produced entirely by live human voices, gargling and moaning and droning. Though if you didn't know that, you might think it was in part electronic. It's the sound of wind and weariness, sorta spooky and haunted, wavering and weaving, building and building, with overtones galore, a howling of souls into the Universe. Like a bunch of Tibetan monks or Tuvan throat singers wordlessly saying woe is me... and we're pretty sure that one of 'em at least sounds a heckuva lot like Elmer Fudd!! Seriously, though, it's really good and intense and magical... if you're a trance/drone fan (maybe digging stuff like Grouper, that has a vocal component), you should listen to this! We're told that "the musicians of the group Prima Materia individually researched and developed unusual vocal techniques (originally used in Tantric rituals in North India, Mongolia and Tibet), based upon the use of overtones coupled with a special state of inner concentration, which was the essential condition for both the emission and control of long-sustained and complex vocal sounds. Their capacity to sustain a note for what seems an eternity, and then continue to provide endless variations generated a continuous and sustained drone of sound, in which the overtones are clearly perceived." We believe it. The Tail Of The Tiger LP was originally released in 1977 as a private pressing by a small label run by Laneri, Alvin Curran and Giacinto Scelsi. Now, this digitally remastered cd reissue features the 33 minutes and 30 seconds of music from the original LP plus another 42 minutes of live performance recorded in Berlin in 1974 and Rome in 1976. And it's packaged not just with a booklet of liner notes but also 16 pages of "visual overtones", beautiful full color prints on tracing paper. Yup, nice! And it case you're still unsure, the blurb on the cover sticker contains high praise from none other than Terry Riley, who knows his drones.

MPEG stream: The Tail Of The Tiger LP Version
MPEG stream: Roma, January 17, 1976

Primal Scream's follow-up to the blazing XTRMNTR of 2000 continues on in a similar adenalin-pumped vein as that mighty fireball, but the firepower seems considerably less focused and less fully realized this time around. Many of the tracks spiral and claw at your eardrums with their battalion of distorted electronic beats, effected vocals, and overdriven squelching guitars courtesy of Kevin Shields. However, an equal or greater number bring a much more straightahead trashy Detroit rock sound. Two particular example is the sneering "City" and "Skull X". An even more odd turn of events occurs between those two songs, as they present their renovation of Lee Hazlewood's "Some Velvet Morning"... they're assisted in this mission by Kate Moss on ultra-breathy vocals. Other notable individuals making an appearance are Two Lone Swordsmen (in the producer's seat), Robert Plant (on harmonica), and Jim Reid (on vocals)! Not only does Evil Heat come with a bonus limited edition dvd containing an assortment of live footage and videos, but the cd itself can be used as a secret decoder on their website.

RealAudio clip: City
RealAudio clip: Some Velvet Morning

Been itchin' for some bar room brawlin' blues rock? Primal Scream are ready to take you on! Sounds like they've taken a step back from the searing techno-rock of their great last album XTRMNTR towards more traditional rock'n'roll instrumentation and songwriting. Very very Rolling Stones-y, this is Primal Scream at their most loosely slung! Seems like these Brits just can't help but switch back and forth between their two very distinct personalities -- that of slick dancefloor packers and unkempt hard rawkers. They've done the switcheroo on pretty much every one of their albums, and in our opinion they're much more potent doin' the latter. That said, regardless of their chosen arena, you can always count on much sneering attitude and driving aggression, both of which Riot City Blues has in ample doses.

MPEG stream: Country Girl
MPEG stream: Little Death

Primal Scream's latest has Bobby Gillespie getting Kevin Shields to help (smoke pot) in the studio. Big beats and pop hooks galore. Those in the know, tell me, that when on the dancefloor, this is the shit. But seeing as the dancefloor is the last place I want to be EVER, i'll just say that this is a surprisingly catchy, block rockin' big beat extravaganza, that to me, the little wallflower, sounds remarkably like Pop Will Eat Itself (complete with the unfunky British white guy raps!). Actually if you're not prone to fancy footwork neither, you might instead wanna take this one out for a drive. Pretty hot freeway cruisin' music!

A few years back we were digging a cool 10" of orchestral pop from a San Francisco band called Lady Genius. We had wondered what happened to them and as it turns out, they are still around but have changed their name to Primary Structures. With this full length we are once again taken by their ability to effortlessly create such bright and colorful pop songs. While they try to trick the listener into thinking its just very straightforward indie pop, the truth is their songs have really interesting arrangements and changes. We're reminded of some of our favorite records by The New Pornographers, The Dodos, and Dismemberment Plan. There are hints too of mathiness and even a touch of new romantic glam. But at its core, the sound is punchy and bright, fueled by confident vocals and crisp instrumentation.

MPEG stream: Jetset
MPEG stream: Balsa Tree
MPEG stream: Green Islands

We'd been hearing about this band for a while now, the new project featuring Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth and Bill Kelliher of Mastodon and a few other dudes, playing what? Grind of course, what else? But not really grind like you might be imagining it, Primate offer up a pretty fresh take on classic grind, merging the churn and pound and punkish ferocity with something WAY more melodic, a sound one could posit as the perfect mix of Brutal Truth and Mastodon, which is not such bad math when you think about it, and listening to Primate it definitely works. Pretty much all the tracks here thrash and grind to varying degrees, the drums heavy and complex, the guitars downtuned and chugging, the songs slipping from midtempo punk rock thrash to dense blackhole blast, Sharp's vocals as fierce as ever, but without fail, even the heaviest and most brutal of the bunch, are laced with some sort of serious melodic component, subtle in places, but totally overt in others, with tracks like "Global Division" getting CRAZY poppy, with some rad shredding guitar leads, and classic old school metalisms, or the punk metal pound of "Hellbound", which channels the same classic metal into a much more frenzied near-grind gallop. Or the harmonized metal guitars on "March Of The Curmudgeon, they even cover Black Flag's "Drinking And Driving" too, staying pretty true to the original. And of course, throughout, the group never hesitate to erupt into straight up full on grind, which of course kills, but it's all tangled up into songs that are surprisingly hooky while remaining super heavy. It helps too that the production is massive too, super polished, everything sounds loud, the mix is perfect, which is another thing that keeps this from sounding like standard grind. Instead, Draw Back A Stump is like some weird, sorta poppy modern grind metal record, one that could most definitely be a gateway for all those Mastodon fans out there to sounds much more fast and frantic, furious and fucked up.

MPEG stream: Global Division
MPEG stream: Hellbound
MPEG stream: March Of The Curmudgeon

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SORRY. Field recordings of hallucinogenic plants. Really, that's quite literally what this is. And though it wouldn't be the type of thing I'd expect hallucinogenic plants to sound like, or what I would choose to listen to while imbibing hallucinogens, it's a great recording. Prime uses the minute voltages of bioelectrical impulses from Cannabis Sativa (pot), Amanita Muscaria (shrooms) and Lophophora Williamsii (peyote) to control battery powered oscillators and then mixes them with the ambient sounds in their locations. The results sound much like a cross between Noto, Stephen McGreevy and Chris Watson. Oddly enough, the sounds of hallucinigenic plants are also quite similar to those of Douglas Quin's Weddell Seals (also on this list) and the two recordings make a fine companion set. And as always, if you have the Sound Of North American Frogs cd, or the Conet Project, then this is for you.

We had never heard of Greek black metallers Primeval Mass before, they were recommended to us by Roman Saenko, the man behind numerous bad ass Ukrainian black metal hordes: Hate Forest, Drudkh, Dark Ages, Lucifugum, Blood Of Kingu, needless to say, his recommendation was definitely enough for us, and we're glad we checked these guys out. Total classic old school black buzz, frenzied and frantic, insectoid riffs and blasting beats, raw and reverb soaked, heavy as hell but still lo-fi and a little fucked up, when the band is blasting full bore, it totally reminds us of early Immortal or Satyricon, that sort of chaotic black buzz infused with buried melody, a swirling maelstrom of raw Norwegian style blackness, that impossibly manages to be catchy even though it's essentially a furious black cloud of sound. But Primeval Mass add their own vibe to the proceedings, incorporating lurching stretches of Burzumic dirgery, bits of creepy spoken word, woozy droned out guitarscapes, little bursts of lo-fi practice space crunch, super primitive effected guitars, all phaser and flanger, but it all contributes to the glorious black mood and ambience, and the songs, for all their little bits of weirdness, spend most of their time buzzing and blasting and thrashing exploding in grim black gouts of true, kvlt sonic fury. Fucking AWESOME.

MPEG stream: Blackened Sky Upon The Mournfull Throne Of Suicide
MPEG stream: Burial Anthem For The Undead
MPEG stream: Oracle Of Truths Unveiled

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A few months back we raved about the Primitive Calculators anthology which came out on Chapter Music. Thanks to that review, we were contacted by Denise Hilton who had been one of the electronic wizards for that seminal Australian synth punk and had some rare singles that she was willing to part with. The Glitter Kids single was recorded live at the Champion Hotel in Fitzroy, just outside of Melbourne back in 1979. The three tracks fuse the electric arpeggiations of Suicide with DNA's brittle guitar attacks on top of a quintessential punk antagonism, and they don't appear on that afforementioned CD anthology. We only have a few of these, so don't dawdle!

During the fall of 2004, I (Jim) had the privledge of travelling to Australia for a month or so. Well, I guess that technically makes it *spring* of 2004; anyway, I met a lot of great people who had some amazing record collections, including a bunch of Australian post-punk and new wave stuff that probably never made it outside of Melbourne or Sydney. Of everything that I heard, there were a few bands that stuck in my memory: the Laughing Clowns, Microfilm (which happened to be the first band of Lisa Gerrard who later went on to found Dead Can Dance), and then there was the Primitive Calculators which was by far the best thing I heard. After asking around about those recordings, it became clear that I was probably going to be out of luck or out of a ton of money. So, I simply filed those band names away in hopes of coming across them somewhere, sometime, somehow. You could imagine my surprise when I discovered a compilation from the Primitive Calculators in a box from one our distributors. It's sort of like Christmas when you get that cool gift that you forgot you asked for, instead of the ugly sweater or pair of wool socks from Grandma. Anyway, The Primitive Calculators were Melbourne's answer to the Screamers, although I'd be hard pressed to believe that they actually heard that legendary techno-punk ensemble. It was more likely that The Primitive Calculators came to their sound through Suicide and the No New York compilation, in particular DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Their intense, throbbing post-punk songs centered around the raw electricity of twin synthesizers and drum machines hammering out noxious arppegiations whilst the lead singer / guitarist Stuart Grant screamed, grunted, and scraped up and down his guitar in short, sharp blasts of epileptic energy. This CD documents their one and only LP, which was a live recording in which the audience appears to dwindle despite the fact that their set gets more and more intense, culminating in a ridiculous cover of Lloyd Williams' soul standard "Shout." Fortunately a bunch of their studio recordings round out the CD, giving their exceptional songs a much fuller sound. Even without the serendipitous experience of re-discovery, I'd still love this record!

MPEG stream: Do The Icepick
MPEG stream: Stains
MPEG stream: Beat Goes On
MPEG stream: Shout

During the fall of 2004, I (Jim) had the privledge of travelling to Australia for a month or so. Well, I guess that technically makes it *spring* of 2004; anyway, I met a lot of great people who had some amazing record collections, including a bunch of Australian post-punk and new wave stuff that probably never made it outside of Melbourne or Sydney. Of everything that I heard, there were a few bands that stuck in my memory: the Laughing Clowns, Microfilm (which happened to be the first band of Lisa Gerrard who later went on to found Dead Can Dance), and then there was the Primitive Calculators which was by far the best thing I heard. After asking around about those recordings, it became clear that I was probably going to be out of luck or out of a ton of money. So, I simply filed those band names away in hopes of coming across them somewhere, sometime, somehow. You could imagine my surprise when I discovered a compilation from the Primitive Calculators in a box from one our distributors. It's sort of like Christmas when you get that cool gift that you forgot you asked for, instead of the ugly sweater or pair of wool socks from Grandma. Anyway, The Primitive Calculators were Melbourne's answer to the Screamers, although I'd be hard pressed to believe that they actually heard that legendary techno-punk ensemble. It was more likely that The Primitive Calculators came to their sound through Suicide and the No New York compilation, in particular DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Their intense, throbbing post-punk songs centered around the raw electricity of twin synthesizers and drum machines hammering out noxious arppegiations whilst the lead singer / guitarist Stuart Grant screamed, grunted, and scraped up and down his guitar in short, sharp blasts of epileptic energy. This CD documents their one and only LP, which was a live recording in which the audience appears to dwindle despite the fact that their set gets more and more intense, culminating in a ridiculous cover of Lloyd Williams' soul standard "Shout." Fortunately a bunch of their studio recordings round out the CD, giving their exceptional songs a much fuller sound. Even without the serendipitous experience of re-discovery, I'd still love this record!

MPEG stream: Do The Icepick
MPEG stream: Stains
MPEG stream: Beat Goes On
MPEG stream: Shout

Existing a few years in the late '70s and early '80s, The Primitive Calculators were a tireless synth-punk band from Melbourne, Australia paralleling what Suicide and The Screamers were doing in New York and the West Coast, respectively. A four piece, the band specialized in dissonant and suitably primitive synths, dangerously fast drum machines, knife-on-the-guitar-strings screechiness and amphetamine-riddled vocal barks, snarls, and agitation. Back in the day, they released only one album, which was a sweaty live album featuring a wreckless performance to only a handful of Aussie art-punks who must have left with blood streaming from their ears. This had been reissued with a bunch of other additional live tracks on Chapter Music in 2005; and the same label has released this anthology of the Primitive Calculators ventures into a recording studio which resulted in a couple of singles. This collection also documents the Melbourne phenomenon known as "The Little Bands," through which the members of the Primitive Calculators would reconvene with other musicians and non-musicians alike to explore various aesthetic trajectories of electro-shock no-wave, splattered metal bashing, post-punk theatrics, and even some Young Marble Giants-esque art-pop. The sound of The Primitive Calculators obviously bleeds into the sounds of "The Little Bands" all sporting names such as Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, The Take, Morphions, and Thrush & The Cunts. As rough as many of these recordings are, this anthology is yet another example of how fertile the post-punk scene was in Melbourne, no matter how much the world had neglected it.

MPEG stream: Do That Dance
MPEG stream: Summer
MPEG stream: Let Her Know

Epic Irish black metal band's fourth album. Quality stuff, totally heavy and majestic (with a few acoustic detours) that fits in stylistically with the likes of Enslaved and Opeth and Emperor, and even reminds us a bit of Albion's kings of mythic doom metal, Solstice (with whom they share their producer, and a similar mood). Primordial's varied vocals (from clear, sometimes overwrought tones to wretched rasps), dynamic songwriting, thunderous drumming, and folkish melodies conjure up a world of ancient Irish metal fantasy, from storming battle scenes to ponderous, sad laments. We found their previous album "Spirit The Earth Aflame" (perhaps their masterpiece) to be more immediately thrilling, but this one's good too.

RealAudio clip: Cast To The Pyre
RealAudio clip: Sons Of The Morrigan

Latest from these epic blackened Irish metallers, recorded by SF's own Billy Anderson for maximum heaviness.

Empires fall, Rome burns, and the heathen tribe that is Primordial sing a gallows hymn, both grim and grandiose, from their rugged emerald isle... gosh and begorra, these Irish metallers have outdone themselves on this, their sixth album. It's sweeping, weeping, epic wall o' metal, some serious shit indeed. You can get a good idea of the mood To The Nameless Dead conveys just by perusing the song titles, several of which we referenced in the first sentence of this review. Ancient pride and the sadness of loss mix masterfully on this album, the barbarians at the gates of the fallen empire knowing that their pagan glories too are fated for ruin and doom in the end... Primordial are a band that doesn't fit neatly into any category. Perhaps black metal comes the closest, with a folky vibe and a fair share of aggression. Primordial's vocals are sometimes clean and melodic, sometimes quite harsh, always super emotive and stirring -- as is their music. They're certainly heavy, so let's just call them an Irish extreme heavy metal band that can stand tall next to the likes of Scandinavia's Opeth and Enslaved. A lot of the time the black metal we recommend is all about being the quote unquote most fucked up ever. But once in a while, tribute must be paid to a band like Primordial whose massive and melancholic art -isn't- brutally primitive or inadvertently avant garde, but is just plain excellent, from writing to performance to production. In all respects, powerful.

MPEG stream: Empire Falls
MPEG stream: Heathen Tribes

OK no matter how indie, underground, death metal, experimental, minimal techno you are you can't deny that at one point in time you dug Prince at at least one of his songs kicked your ass and made you shake it like crazy. Prince's 1999 was actually the very first record Andee bought with his own money! Some of us here are still darn proud of our pure love of Prince. An amazing musician and songwriter whose eccentric persona is what usually gets him attention these days insted of his music, but we still think he's got some juice left in his songwriting. 3121 is one of his stronger albums in recent years with definite nods to his prime past. Of course like most of his recent outings it's not great from start to finish but when he's "workin' up a black sweat" he's still pretty irresistible.

MPEG stream: 3121
MPEG stream: Black Sweat

Decent collection of Prince Buster's recordings if you want to get a flavor for his style. Featuring his all time hit "Al Capone" plus many other great tracks, including the scandalously misogynist "Ten Commandments" off Wreck A Pum Pum and a couple of the best tracks off of the Judge Dread album.

Where in Prince Buster holds court as Judge Dread One Hundred Years. Great collection of rock-steady tracks with regular appearances by the judge as he sentences rude boys to 400 years in prison and as many lashes for murder, crying (rude boys are not supposed to cry) and interrupting. All done in Prince Buster's trademark spoken-singing.

RealAudio clip: Ghost Dance
RealAudio clip: Judge Dread
RealAudio clip: Nothing Takes The Place Of You

Vinyl only re-issue of a rare live recording of Prince Buster from a concert in the UK in 1967. The recording, though not the most hi-fi in audio quality, is quite good and the performance is stunning. According to the MC at the beginning of the show, it was on Prince Buster's birthday that the concert was held and Buster performs with the energy of a birthday boy. Backed up by a full band

Excellent collection of Prince Buster's ska, or blue beat tracks. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of this re-issue compilation was not so savvy about visual aesthetics. Really bad layout, combined with the oh so irritating "juice bar" font that everyone hates, makes this album seem as though it's going to be a terrible '90s world beat experience. Includes such influential hits as "Madness" and "Enjoy Yourself".

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SORRY. Volume one of the Golden Oldies collection of Prince Buster's works. This one contains lots of his best ska tracks. Track listing: Chineman, They Got To Come, Time Longer Than Rope, Tommy Will Tell, Madness, Wash Wash, Enjoy Yourself, Danny Dame & Lorraine, Over & Over.

A collection of some of Buster's ska tunes. No dates here, but this 3rd volume of Golden Oldies contains a lot of very righteous lyrics and some Maytals-esque gospel style back up vocals. Contains: Dog War, Pain In My Belly, Treating Me Bad, Bet You Lied, Judgement Day, Domino, Little Flea, He Is Real, Light Of The World, Good Idea & You Got Me Spinning.

Great record, with a cover that looks as though it was pulled out of a thrift store: a bikini clad female pistolero stands in front of a desert mountain, with three cowboys drawing up on horse back in the distance. The colors are all washed out like the album had been printed on newsprint and left in the sun for weeks on end. Musically this album is a keeper as well - tight ska with lots of Prince Buster's patented "hic-up" style vocal accompaniment when there's no singing. Includes his hit Al Capone and 11 other tracks. Sorry, not available on cd.

If there were ever a hokum rocksteady or ska record, this would be it. 12 tracks about sex and sex. The album opens with the title track -- "Wreck A Pum Pum" -- which is fittingly built around the melody of the x-mas standard "Little Drummer Boy". In this track Prince Buster describes his desire to have a woman, regardles of her looks, to "wreck a pum pum tonight." I might add that this album is not for anyone who may be sensitive to some blatant misogynist songwriting. The second track -- maybe as a consolation to the fairer sex -- is the same song only now sung by two women and directed at the guys. The song itself is actually damn catchy, and the treatment by the women, sung in a shrill duet, is wonderful. The album is actually full of a lot of great songs if you can bear it (the most absurdly brutal tune being Prince Buster's "Ten Commandments" to his woman.)

RealAudio clip: Wreck A Pum Pum
RealAudio clip: Pum Pum A Go Will You
RealAudio clip: Whine & Grine

Subtitled "A short treatise on the strange occurences of Janucember 69th in the year 00", this album might fool you into thinking it's hyperactive hip hop ridiculosity in the style of Dr. Octagon. And while the lyrics can descend to the point that a narrator is talking about sniffing Rush in high school, the music is thrilling. Deep dub bass rumbles, layers of clanging and waves of intensity -- your regular mindfuck stuff for those of you ready to explore the outer bounds of dub/hiphop experimentation. This is one of the best albums our new favorite label WordSound has yet released, and we highly recommend it.

AQ's summer of dub continues! You may have noticed that lately we've been dipping into the vaults, coming up with some pretty amazing classic reggae and dub records that we never had the chance to list before, and while they may not be new, we think they totally deserve attention and anyone who missed out on these before most definitely deserves another chance to lay their ears on these divine sounds. Earlier this summer we gushed about some classic releases by Black Uhuru and Horace Andy, and this 1981 outing by the legendary Prince Far I ranks right up there when it comes to deep grooved free flowing dub. Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 3 leads off with Prince Far I's commanding outerspace vocals that make us imagine what it might have sounded like if Afrika Bambata cut a dub record inside Thunderdome. The rest of the album is mostly instrumental top notch dub with some female vocals sprinkled sparingly throughout, with the main focus remaining on all the weird textures, electronics, tape speed fuckery and just flat out delicious dubby delights! Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 3 sort of serves as this perfect bridge using the early roots of '70s dub as its foundation but pushing forward a new vision of the possibilities of dub. So damn good!

MPEG stream: Shake The Nation
MPEG stream: Plant Up
MPEG stream: Low Gravity

Prince Far I's first album (1976) finally available again on lp (we also restocked the cd if vinyl is no good for you.) It's basically, as the title implies, the Voice Of Thunder himself toasting the Psalms (using some poetic license of course) in his unique, gruff fashion. Definitely a crucial work.

Along with Scientist, Prince Jammy was one of King Tubby's top pupils (engineers) and by the late seventies, when the tracks on this disc were laid down, he was pretty much the chief house engineer at King Tubby's. The tracks themselves are all classic Dennis Brown produced recordings with the zenith of studio musicians for the period laying down the foundation, including: Sly & Robbie (the ubiquitous rhythm section), Ansel Collins (organ), Cedric Brooks (horns), Junior Delgado (percussion) and more. Prince Jammy's engineering style here is quite similar to his mentor's, utilizing a very minimal toolbox: Tubby's EQ, tape delay, reverb and track faders. As far as can be told by listening and glancing at the notes, there wasn't any additionally tracking done on the original tapes by Prince Jammy, just straight up dubs. Props must also go out to either Blood & Fire for doing an excellent restoration job, or some kind soul for keeping the master tapes safe from deterioration all these years. For if we can't come up with any new superlatives for a good clean dub record anymore we can at least say about this one that it's been excellently preserved.

MPEG stream: Guidance
MPEG stream: Great Man Called Kenyatta

It's amazing sometimes how the DIY aesthetic is all but permanently affixed with punk rock at times. Now don't get me wrong, I love punk rock just as much as the next sailor, but when you look at all the Jamaican artists out there that formed their own

RealAudio clip: Step Forward Youth
RealAudio clip: For Star

Long overdue reissue of this lost jazz classic from Texas saxophonist Prince Lasha, who recorded with Dolphy, Sonny Simmons, Elvin Jones, and was a contemporary of Ornette Coleman. Recorded in the mid sixties, Insight is notable for its strange lineup:TWO bass players and a harpist (a la Dorothy Ashby), plus Lasha traded his sax for flute, and in fact played both the wooden flute and the plastic alto flute, and you know how we feel about flutes! Thee's also trumpet, trombone and piano of course, the sound lush and shimmery and skittery, and soulful, so fantastic, the harp especially adding a totally different vibe to the proceedings, the horns get all gloriously intertwined, the dueling basses makes the sound thick and more busy, the record is split pretty evenly between deep soulful jazz ballads and full on bop workouts. It's not super weird, or far out, or skronky or free, instead this is just perfectly played, classic sounding jazz, with a tinge of the out of the ordinary, the solos inspired, the arrangements divine, the playing fantastic, one of our favorite jazz reissues of the last few years along with the recent Record Of The Week, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz by Lloyd Miller. And like that one, this too is VERY recommended. Includes original liner notes as well as photos of the original labels and inside sleeves...

MPEG stream: Nuttin' Out Jones
MPEG stream: Out Of Nowhere
MPEG stream: Impressions Of Eric Dolphy

Death Waltz does it again. This amazing new soundtrack vinyl reissue label resurrects another John Carpenter classic, 1987's Prince Of Darkness, a trippy horror movie about the discover of an 'anti-god' in a strange vial of green liquid, there's messages sent through time, tachyons, MATH. It's a doozy, and the soundtrack is pretty much perfect. Carpenter once again teams up with Alan Howarth, the two having collaborated on the soundtracks for Halloween II and III, Escape From New York, They Live and loads more, and the sounds here will be immediately familiar to fans of those other soundtracks, even if they've never seen Prince Of Darkness. The opening is classic Carpenter/Howarth, a whipping wind beneath a dark sinister bassline, just a handful of notes, sort of like the beginning of an eighties rock song, but instead of breaking into a song proper, those notes just loop ominously, over and over and over, underpinning a haunting six note refrain, the sort of thing Carpenter and Howarth are masters of crafting, evocative and haunting, an earworm on par with the Halloween theme. Other abstract sounds swirl around the theme, muted pulses, distant drones, haunting choir like vocals. And the interesting thing about this soundtrack, moreso than any of Carpenter's others, is that all of the tracks here are essentially variations of that single theme, that bassline, and that melody, resurfacing in multiple incarnations, some lush and almost symphonic, others spare and nearly silent, hushed and harrowing, and still others, pounding and sinister and a little bit new wave sounding. The majority of the second side is taken up by "The Devil Awakens", which stretches the preceding sounds way out, into a grim, sprawl of spectral drift, lots of drifting drones and abstract ambience, punctuated with strangely out of place horns, mysterious voices, that melody hidden just beneath the surface, very tense, and darkly ominous. So great! And as with all Death Waltz stuff, the packaging is fantastic, that immediately recognizable red black and blue cover, with a super striking new painting, a strange figure with beams of light shooting into a black sky, the title in a pool of blood red, multiple eclipses, and some scary figures lurking in the background, that same painting is reproduced on the big poster included inside. The back of the jacket features liner notes from Howarth, while the inside sleeve features notes on the cover painting from artist Sam Smith.

MPEG stream: Prince Of Darkness

Yeah, skits are stupid (although some of the skits on here had me giggling a bit) but Prince Paul is THE skit man. That's sort of what he's known for. Which is kind of a shame seeing as how banging the tracks on this new record are. And it's the skits that will keep people from making it to the actual tracks. This is still basically a party record, but the beats are BIG and funky and pretty weird, with amazing production and all sorts of wicked guests: Erick Sermon, Kokane, Masta Ace, Guru, Planet Asia, Chuck D, Ice-T, Chubb rock, MF doom and more. No way to avoid the skits so you just gotta grin and bear it. At least a couple of the skits have Dave Chapelle who is pretty damn funny. MPEG Download: "Controversial Headlines AKA Champion Sound (Pt. 2)" [/audio/princepcontroversial.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Controversial Headlines AKA Champion Sound (Pt. 2)" [/audio/princepcontroversial.m3u] MPEG Download: "Not Tryin To Hear That" [/audio/princepnot.mp3]

MPEG stream: Controversial Headlines AKA Champion Sound (Pt. 2)
MPEG stream: Not Tryin To Hear That
MPEG stream: Make Room

Although 'Psychoanalysis' had its moments, this is definitely a return to form. Ridiculosity from the hip hopper extraordinaire who came to prominence as part of De La Soul. A concept album of sorts, featuring an amazing array of guests including Kool Keith of Dr. Octagon, Big Daddy Kane, Chubb Rock, Biz Markie, De La Soul, Chris Rock, Everlast, Sadat X, Xzibit, Kid Creole, and more. Still displaying his love of 'the skit', 'Prince Among Thieves' includes about 16 or 17 (one between almost every song!), although here, they are ostensibly clips/teasers from the film of the same name.

Re-release of the album first issued last year by Brooklyn's cool Wordsound label. One of hip hop's only remaining producers with an over-the-top original sense of humor, Prince Paul here makes fun of everything and everyone. Includes 3 bonus tracks plus an Automator (of Dr. Octagon) remix of one track, none of which appeared on the original.

Some of you may remember Prince Po as one half of the nineties hip hop outfit Organized Confusion with his partner Pharoahe Monch. While Monch went on to great solo success, Po kept a seriously low profile, almost disappearing completely from the musical radar. Po resurfaced a few years back and met up with Danger Mouse when he was working on the DM and Jemini Ghetto Pop Life record and the two decided to work on a new record together. So here it is. A massive slab of classic style hip hop, updated and modernised with all sorts of sonic fuckery and freaky production, with Danger Mouse producing a handful of tracks as well as Madlib, Jel, J-Zone and even Richard X! Po handles the mic most of the time, but gives it up once in a while for MF Doom, Raekwon, Jemini The Gifted One and J-Ro from Tha Alkaholiks. Anyone who dug the DM and Jemini record will love this. It's a LOT harder and a little meaner, but just like the DM record, this is the sort of shit that should be ALL OVER the radio and all over MTV. Funky and hard and funny and catchy and booming and bombastic and so so so good. As always, AMAZING Lex packaging, gold leaf, embossed, die cut sleeve, inexplicably though, there's a big ol' sticker not on the plastic, but RIGHT on the sleeve itself. Bad move. But fucking great record!

MPEG stream: Social Distortion (Feat. MF Doom)
MPEG stream: The Slickness
MPEG stream: Grown Ass Man

Warren DeFever of His Name Is Alive. Really really noisy.

I was all set to hate this record. You know that if someone's getting profiled on the often musically-clueless NPR, there must be something wrong with 'em. But nonetheless, this record actually is surprisingly likable, and Concetta Kirschner is commendably

RealAudio clip: You Get Mad at Napster
RealAudio clip: Bad Babysitter (feat. High & Mighty)

[ aquarius records catalogue — P ]