[ aquarius records catalogue

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

Showing results 701 through 750 of 1354.

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

SORRY. Guitarist Ribot's take on many jazz tunes, standards and otherwise ("Body and Soul", "I'm In The Mood For Love", Albert Ayler's "Ghosts", Charlie Haden's "Song For Che", and many more).

Simply solo guitar from one of the great stylists Marc Ribot, denizen of the downtown Knitting Facotry avant jazz scene. He puts his own flavorful, loping, precise take on pieces by Albert Ayler (three of them), Leonard Bernstein, The Beatles, John Zorn, John

RealAudio clip: Holy Holy Holy

The latest from downtown NY jazz guitarist Marc Ribot manages to sound as much like a Ribot record as any of his other recordings while sounding totally alien and beautiful. The liner notes mention Ribot's "world of atavistic horror", and then mentions that the compositions touch on Ayler, Feldman and obviously the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi mentioned in the title, and while you can definitely hear those influences on this record, Ribot douses them in plenty of Goblin/Argento darkness and drone-y doomy clatter. From the opening track, with it's haunting distorted guitar, scrabbling over a brambly bed of chaotic percussion, with thorny tendrils of Klezmer woven throughout and sounding not unlike a free jazz Tom Waits number, the record gets dark and sppoky and keeps the creepiness coming with throbbing pump organ, pulsing bass notes, moaning low end and rumbling drones, noisy, clattery clangy free form guitar over a militaristic framework of tribal tom toms, occasional squalls of machine gun guitar and splattery percussion, stumbly bass and tinkly piano, heavily affected guitars, buzzing and shimmering, all culminating in the music concrete drone of the 12 minute centerpiece 'Geese', with accordion, pump organ, violin, viola, clarinet, bass clarinet and of course guitar, stretching a 20th century composition into occasional atonal Nitsch style fugues and Reichian repetetive motifs. Quite possibly our favorite Ribot record yet, and one that definitely hits the spot for you drone loving, free clatter creepiness afficianados.

MPEG stream: Bataille
MPEG stream: Scelsi Morning

"From brilliant surf guitar to perverse improvisation to Cuban rhythms, this eclectic compilation of his cinematic music displays the full range of his talents and the sick depths of his mind....listened as an album without the visuals, suggests a twisted and vivid narrative drama."

Ribot'mrairplanelikethat.ra mrairplanenotliving.ras second record with his band, Los Cubanos Postizos, of sort-of-traditional Cuban music. Nice.

Marc Ribot's comedy record? Sorry, we love Marc Ribot, but this is, um, not so good. Indeed, one listen to the title track (skronk-punk with perhaps the worst vocal ever) will cause a painful full-body cringe. The original Shrek record on Avant was lovely, stick with that.

Terra Incognita is the second retrospective of the work of Boyd Rice / Non, with the first being the emphatically abrasive Easy Listening For Iron Youth released back in the early '90s. For all of his Social Darwinist propaganda, deleterious noise, and semantic provocation, Rice has enjoyed a curious affinity for mood music throughout his 30 year career. For the most part, Muzak and mood music hold benevolent (if insipid) intentions; but this is not so for Rice, as his motivations are a forced communication, in which he directs, wills, or suggests a meaning upon the listener. Within the ambient work that dots his entire catalogue, Rice lulls the audience into relaxing their defenses, at which time he can then slip in any number of subliminally dark or subtly perverse themes. At times, these take the form of complex phase patterns as heard on the infamous Black Album pieced together from physically factured pieces of vinyl sounding like the noxious older brother of Philip Jeck; at other times, Rice presents a grandiously bleak form of isolationism. It's still surprising to hear how listenable these recordings can be.

MPEG stream: Father's Day
MPEG stream: Untitled 1
MPEG stream: The Fountain Of Fortune

NYC punk icon Hell reads the first two chapters of his novel Go Now, backed by Robert Quine's guitar.

You may not necessarily know who Emil Richards is, but you've most definitely heard him play. The list of his musical accomplishments, is nearly Zelig like, seeming to appear everywhere and on pretty much every great recording, and having played with a who's who of performers, jazz, rock, underground, mainstream, even a small sampling of his music resume will have you wondering why he isn't a household name. He played with Charles Mingus, Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, Doris Day, Judy Garland, he performed frequently with Harry Partch, he plays the bongos that open Lalo Schifrin's theme to Mission Impossible, he's the guy snapping his fingers on the theme music from the Addams Family, he played tuned bowls and gongs on Jerry Goldsmith's iconic soundtrack to 1968's Planet Of The Apes. He later played with Frank Zappa, George Harrison (he even traveled to India with Harrison) as well as Blondie, and hundreds of other pop artists, and played on soundtracks like Taxi Driver, The Exorcist, Shaft, Chinatown, Dirty Harry, and again, HUNDREDS more. But for weird music obsessives, he's no doubt best known for his record New Sound Element: Stones, originally released in 1967, which was a collection of 12 songs, each named for a month, and its specific birthstone, and which is infamous for the fact that it was in fact the first commercial recording to feature the Moog Synthesizer. But beyond that, it's a crazy record, some sort of twisted electronic jazz sci-fi exotica, the main instruments being ring modulated mallet instruments (marimba, xylophone, etc.) and synth, trippy and woozy, playful and silly, but at times, seriously twisted and darkly psychedelic. We're reminded of course of Perrey And Kingsley, after all for many of us, that was our first real exposure to early Moog pop, but Richards' compositions are a lot less goofy, less melodic too, more rhythmic, with the best tracks layering wild jazz drumming, over heavily effected marimba or xylophone, the sound locked into propulsive grooves, while the tones and overtones are constantly altered to created woozy warbly melodies, that's not to say this stuff isn't on the playful side, it most definitely is, the darker passages more than balanced by goofy, super melodic workouts, but the sound seems to always slip back into something a wee bit darker, whether it's the droney, swirly shuffle of "Emerald (May)", or the driving drum heavy psychedelic trip out of "Bloodstone (March)", the wild Moog swaddled xylophone shredding of "Moonstone (June)", or the fuzzy twisted jazzfunk of "Ruby (July)". Imagine a drum/percussion driven sixties jazz record, re-engineered by some Moog mad scientist, and you'll get an idea of what Richards concocted on Stones, which has been floating around as a bootleg for years, but this is the first official reissue. And Stones is only the beginning. While it's most definitely the reason to pick this up, Omni has also tacked on a bunch of bonus tracks, first, a handful of songs from New Time Element, also originally released in 1967, which features a selection of pop and jazz standards, presented with odd time signatures and unique percussion, the original liner notes even give the listener breakdowns of the various rhythms of each song. It's not super far out, but a fun listen, and a nice chunk of sixties jazz. The final batch of extra tracks come from Richards' 1968 release Journey To Bliss, which is probably closest to Stones in sound, dialing back the electronic element, and heavy on the rhythms, lots of marimba, xylophone and percussion, some drum solos, a bit of fuzzy jazz funk, a heady psychedelic jazz excursion for sure, fans of the recent Spiritual Jazz collections will definitely dig, the album culminating in the final 18 minute six part epic "Journey To Bliss", which features a yogi like recitation, directions for meditation and inner peace, over Eastern raga style buzz, playful percussion, and more of Richards' wild psychedelic jazz. Like all Omni reissues, gorgeous presented, with loads of pictures and extensive liner notes!

MPEG stream: Bloodstone (March)
MPEG stream: Moonstone (June)
MPEG stream: Opal (October)
MPEG stream: Turquoise (December)
MPEG stream: Journey To Bliss - Part III

Year in and year out, Jonathan Richman keeps on opening his heart in song to his legions of devoted fans delight. Charmingly heartfelt, genuinely sweet and seemingly ageless, his latest album Because Her Beauty Is Raw & Wild is Richman at his best. Just him and his guitar nailing you right in the heart over and over again in his unmistakable lilting, multilingual style. A perfect spring into summer album! Breezy and carefree!

MPEG stream: Es Como El Pan
MPEG stream: When We Refuse To Suffer

I saw the last 2 songs of Jonathan Richman's Live set opening up for Belle and Sebastian (who are rumoured to never have an opening band, except the Tindersticks, and I guess now Jonathon Richman). He was so personable and funny and gave me a warm

RealAudio clip: Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow
RealAudio clip: Springtime In New York

We've had quite a month full of Jonathan Richman! Four nights at the Make-Out Room (he played two sets each evening just a hop, skip 'n' a jump around the corner from us) and a totally packed feel-good AQ in-store performance a few days prior to that. 'Twas a genuine non-stop lovefest between Jonathan and his fans! In case you were sleeping under a rock and missed all that... don't miss this! They're such warm and intimate recordings... it's almost like he's perched right there on your stereo guitar in hand. As the title of his 21st (holy smokes!) album suggests, he's so much more about the giving than the receiving. No one leaves without a smile firmly planted on his or her face. This album is pure Richman goodness with many tunes that rank among his best. No vast departures from his past efforts... there's no need for any! His trademark sweetly earnest, quirkily witty songwriting has stood the test of time. One listen will assure you that his wide-eyed musings on romance ("My Baby Love Love Loves Me"), human nature ("He Gave Us The Wine To Taste") and occasionally politics ("Abu Jamal") remain wonderfully intact. He's joined by his pals drummer Tommy Larkin, multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney, and bassists Miles Montalbano and Greg Keranen. A definite Richman fan's delight!

MPEG stream: My Baby Love Love Loves Me
MPEG stream: He Gave Us The Wine To Taste

Hark! O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth... 'tis a new album from the inimitable Jonathan Richman! Sure, his legions of diehard fans have undoubtedly scooped this up already, but some of us are slower on the draw and some folks have somehow yet to discover Mr. Richman as he alternately feverishly and liltingly strums his guitar, and charmingly croons his intimate, yearnful song-stories. He's now in his fourth decade of music making, and he's showing no signs of stopping. He has so many records (both solo and with The Modern Lovers), we've lost count, but we're happy to add this to the stack. A definite pleasure for fans, old and new!

MPEG stream: O Moon, Queen Of Night On Earth
MPEG stream: Sa Voix M'Atisse
MPEG stream: Even Though I Know I Am The Wind And The Sun, I

Now you can see San Francisco's favorite New England ex-patriate Jonathan Richman perform live in your very own home! Recorded at The Great American Music Hall in 2002 "Take Me To The Plaza" features 17 tracks from the former Bostonian including such favorites as "I Was Dancing In the Lesbian Bar" and the oft covered standard "Pablo Picasso". For those who've never seen the man perform, Mr. Richman's performances are just as popular for their music as the off kilter humour that he delivers during his concerts. Also included are two interviews with Jonathan, a complete interactive bio (okay, maybe it's not interactive, but in the spirit of things it sounds nicer) and two bonus tracks: "You Can't Talk To The Dude" and "Nineteen In Naples". Total running time is approximately 94 minutes. This DVD is NTSC region 1.

Max Richter first caught our attention with his gorgeous arrangements on Vashti Bunyan's long awaited return to the world of music, 2005's Lookaftering. He's put out several of his own post-classical works, and his latest is just simply stunning. 24 short tracks made for gray days spent looking out the window as rain falls gently and memories drift to the surface. Most of these tracks are under two minutes and were actually intended to be used as ringtones. Somehow Richter is able to pack such strong emotions into these short tracks but also allows the listener to fill in the blanks and wander away. Anyone who uses these as ringtones will for sure be sporting the most elegant and classy cell phone around. Simply beautiful!

MPEG stream: Cathodes
MPEG stream: Lullaby From The Westcoast Sleepers
MPEG stream: In Louisville At 7

Not many musicians and composers are able to create music as beautiful and elegant as Max Richter. Whether it be his stunning albums, soundtracks or arrangements for folks like Vashti Bunyan, Richter has proven to be one of the most restrained and versatile composers of the last decade. Infra was a work originally created as a score for a Ballet called The Waste Land. These fragile, subdued miniatures create such a dislocated and gray musical mood. Allowing your mind to wander or stay frozen in a numbing disbelief. Our only complaint regarding some of his previous work was the incorporation of unneeded and heavy handed spoken word/voices which tended to ruin the flow of the music, but luckily on Infra he smartly keeps that out of the mix and allows the haunting, cloudy sounds he's created to speak for themselves. While this may have been made for a ballet we are finding it the perfect soundtrack to those foggy/cold days we've been having in July (oh San Francisco summer) and those early mornings you find yourself awake but bleary headed and needing a musical companion to your clouded vision and foggy mind. So nice!

MPEG stream: Infra 1
MPEG stream: Journey 2
MPEG stream: Infra 5

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MPEG stream: Flowers For Yulia

MPEG stream: On The Nature of Daylight
MPEG stream: Shadow Journal

Released for the first time on cd, this is Don Rickles' 1969 comedy album Speaks! as reissued by the Jewish Music Group under license from Warner Bros. Unavailable for years and years, it features the infamous comedian fielding queries, press-conference-style, on a broad array of disparate topics -- sports, TV, current affairs and Frank Sinatra! Even by today's standards, his sardonic, biting vitriol comes across as nothing short of shocking. He'd have folks shaking in their boots any time he took the podium at celebrity roasts, for sure. Indeed an incredible quick wit was the fount of his trademark acid tongued barbs, but his astute insights were also frequently overshadowed by the controversy of his slurs. He could be very VERY politically incorrect. Like for instance, on this record, borderline racist humor about his pal Sammy Davis Jr... or borderline bestiality jokes about Sinatra! (The "Rat Pack" sure takes some lumps here.) That said, social/political issues, merciless insults and self deprecation were delivered in equal doses. Howard Stern has nothing on him. Nor does your mean, drunken grandpa. For those of us who weren't even born when this album was originally released, some of the many political pop culture references made by Rickles are gonna be puzzling to say the least. It's almost a surreal stream of consciousness thing full of now-so-dated-they're-cryptic allusions. But that actually makes this all the more fascinating, even when it's not funny, which it often isn't, except in a sorta painful way. And even the people and events the mentions that we are familiar with, it's pretty weird to listen to jokes about -- including Spiro Agnew, the Arab-Israeli War, Robert Goulet, Ho Chi Minh, and the Electric Prunes! A curious artifact for sure.

MPEG stream: Current Events
MPEG stream: Some Good Friends

Dancehall seven inches galore. This one agaian has the One Minute Man rhythm (Missy Elliott). B-side, though claiming to contain a "Remix" of the aforementioned rhythm, has a completely unrelated version.

My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Slowdive's Soulvaki, Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See - there are just some records that stand especially tall in the pantheon of shoegaze's finest moments. Ride's album Nowhere belongs right there too, as one of our all time favorites, a truly perfect album from start to finish, that has most definitely stood the test of time. While Ride made some other cool records, they never were able to duplicate the genius of Nowhere. A record that soars and floats with such emotional honesty as well as that dazed 'n glazed vibe that has made it one of those records we've turned at so many different times in our lives. It came out in 1990 and really served as a perfect extension of what folks in the '80s like The Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, The Durutti Column, Loop, and The Cure were doing, infusing that sound with an even deeper emotional quality as well as lots of psychedelic undertones, creating music that soared and floated with dreamy ease and driving force. No matter how hyperbolic we get, we simply can't even get close to describing how much this record means to so many of us. We've turned to it in moments of despair, we've cranked it with windows down on endless drives with crushes and close friends, we've shacked up alone in our bedrooms with this playing during intense moments of loneliness, we've lain in beds with the ones we love lingering in ecstasy as it plays. It's a record that has and will continue to be such a constant source of pleasure for our ears and minds, hearts and souls. Long out of print, we are SO stoked that Rhino has stepped up to reissue this classic on vinyl now! YOU NEED THIS! (There's also supposedly a special deluxe double cd edition on Rhino that includes a whole mess of bonus tracks, we haven't been able to get our hands on that yet, however.)

The masters of Finnish caveman black metal are back with another unholy slab of primitive nastiness. If you've followed us and our reviews for any length of time, you will be well-versed in our near-universal praise of RFR's discography, and Ageless Powers Arise delivers the goods. The goods, of course, being some of the heaviest, rawest, and weirdest black-doom-psych ferocity in the whole world, sounding something like Aluk Todolo after a lobotomy. For old and new RFR fans alike, this is a necessary listen.

Finnish experimental black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, might be one of our favorite groups going right now. We've raved wildly about every one of their records so far, and then there's RfR electronic offshoot Will Over Matter, who we dig just as much. And it's not surprising, Ride For Revenge don't traffic in grim black buzz, they're not sonically similar to classic Norwegian black metal, or Swedish, or French - if anything, they're much more in the tradition of all the WTF? music we love from Finland, from Circle to Keukhot, Dead Reptile Shrine to Circle Of Ouroborus, their music is murky and dirgey, mathy and rhythmic, repetitive and hypnotic, and if you thought their records proper were fucked up and far out, this new double cd of singles and comp tracks and live jams will blow your mind. The first track alone is worth the price of admission, RfR getting all Will Over Matter, and unfurling a 21 minute electronic/black buzz hybrid, the first 6 minutes of which, is just weird squelches and bleeps and bloops, with some creepy voice intoning over the top. And when the riffing finally comes in, the song doesn't explode into metallic gallop, or burst into furious blasting, instead, that riff, just sort of buzzes in the background, while the bleeping and squelchy blooping continue, the whole thing a sort of damaged black buzz kosmische or something. And then at about 9 minutes in, another guitar (or is that a synth?) comes in, all thick and crumbling and corrosive, drums too, plodding and spare, and again, no blasting or galloping, now it's just a woozy, murky creep, still spaced out and cosmic, but now buzzy and blurry lumbering, and then vocals come in, raspy and sinister, over a bed of what is essentially blackened power electronics, the vocals mutating gradually, until they sound robotic and alien, a little like Cylons from the old Battlestar Galactica!!! What the fuck? And that's just part one. Part two of the 32+ opening jam, finds the band slipping back into a field of blooping FX and electronics, that again, are eventually subsumed by some damaged drumming, and crumbling distorted guitar buzz, noisy and chaotic and fucking demented. This time, the sound does get fast and buzzy, but it's a loping, stumbling blackened mess, that eventually resolves in a tangle of buzzing, glitched out electronics. Phew! Only two other tracks on the first disc, but they're lengthy WTF? workouts. One's an old track from 2009, that is freaked out NOISE, sounding very Japanese, or Japanoise. Total skree and screech, howl and throb, feedback, and gristly grinding crunch, howled vokills, some seriously brutal blacknoise. The other's a 20 minute epic, recorded in 2013, the same time as those first two tracks, this one ditching the electronics, and unfurling a murky rumbling ambience, which soon turns into some weirdly dubbed out black dirge murk, sounding a bit like Aluk Todolo, a sort of black-kraut hypno-rock, totally mesmerizing, and if those first two tracks didn't make it worth it for you, this one definitely will... The second disc is much more 'metal', the first few tracks live, the band sounding a bit more conventional, but only a bit, the sound distorted and blown out and lo-fi, but still tranced out and minimal, very much in the vein of Aluk Todolo, some dirge-y occult rock, with some sick, howled vox, loping, lumbering, minimal black murk, that veers from churning almost-doom, to stumbling metallic frenzy and back again, with at least one guitar doing nothing but spraying thick crumbling black drones over the proceedings, either that or the riffs, just blur into blackened smears, either way, it's plenty tripped out and hypnotic. There's a few awesome demo tracks, super brittle and muddy, with weirdly clean guitar riffing, distant drumming, rumbling vokill rasps, all smeared into some minimal black metal murk. There are some other rarities, a fantastic 10 minute ambient creepfest, all grinding low end, mumbled vox, pipe fight percussion, spare and SUPER creepy, laced with some electronic flecked guitar buzz, and some seriously tripped out production, and a second track, that's cut from the same cloth, but then adds a shit ton of furious blackened guitar-noise to the proceedings, not to mention some super fucking creepy vocals, making it sound like some blackened bastard offspring of Whitehouse and Suicide! Then finally, more old demos, these the most metal of the bunch, epic riffing, simple drumming, the first of the three almost sounding like 'true' metal, old school lo-fi crusty filthy blackness, raw and fierce and pretty fucking rad.

MPEG stream: Disturbing The Dream Pt. 1
MPEG stream: Disturbing The Dream Pt. 2
MPEG stream: The Privilege
MPEG stream: Morning Won't Bring A Twinkling Star
MPEG stream: Declaration Of Darkness

Finland's weirdo minimalist black metallers Ride For Revenge might just be in the running for most aQ Records Of The Week, especially if you count RfR electronic offshoot Will Over Matter, and even moreso if you consider the fact that even if we didn't make one of their records a ROTW, we thought about it, and likely wanted to, and probably didn't for some non musical reason, like having to get them from Finland, or ordering a bunch and selling most of them before we even get a chance to review/list it, and really, in retrospect, not sure why we didn't just institute permanent/perpetual Record Of The Week status on these guys. What we're getting at, is even though this is NOT a Record Of The Week this time around, it basically IS. And will always be, cuz if any band demanded the slavish worship of the aQ crew it's these guys, who manage to take a genre we already love, and transform it into something that barely sounds like that genre at all, and yet somehow makes us love it even more. This latest batch of jams is another black-dirge / noise-rock wallop, this trio delivering some ultra primitive heaviness, with some of the sickest, grittiest, gnarliest guitar buzz ever, not to mention thick, organ dissolving low end, and chaotic, shambolic, caveman drumming of the highest order, all wound up into extended dirges that play like krautrock melted down into a brew as black as pitch, then reconstituted with some sort of ancient black magic, the resulting lumbering sonic ritualism is as mesmerizing as it is terrifying, the sound in constant flux, whether it's stumbling black metal primitivism, doom-ed tarpit creep, psychedelic blacknoize, or wild, thrashing metal-punk, it all bleeds into one massive, epic, demonic sonic sprawl, in fact, so much so that song titles, and even song breaks seem superfluous, nobody's gonna grab this and think to themselves, let's throw on "The Fog Is Green And Pungent" (okay full disclosure, we actually did!), no this is a fully immersive experience, this is the sort of black bog filth you're meant to luxuriate in, to get lost in, to let wash over you, and pull you under, just surrender, let the churning molasses riffage and pounding dirge-drummage ooze into your every orifice, and transform you from the inside out, headphones on, you become a shambling, blackened acolyte to these mysterious priest of blacknoise/occult rock ritualism, and suddenly it's transcendent, the sound becomes shape, the shape becomes divine, the underworld rises up and swallows the surface dwellers whole, and the soundtrack to this apocalypse becomes, a gnarled, filth encrusted thing of grim black beauty, and we honor this epochal convergence, by sacrificing ourselves, and as our souls wither and die, we become one with these ancient spirits, approaching the black gates of the netherworld, we all join together, a hulking black shape, horned and fiery, and for eternity, we Ride For Revenge!!!!

MPEG stream: Nights Possessed
MPEG stream: Dead Insane
MPEG stream: Victorious
MPEG stream: Enter The Gauntlet

We talk a lot about how weird Finland is, so before we go any further, let us apologize to the majority of Finland who to be fair are probably not weird at all. Now that we've got that out of the way, HOLY SHIT! Is there no end to the amazing and damaged and demented music coming out of Finland. We're beginning to think not. The latest evidence comes in the form of the brand new full length from Ride For Revenge, who we first heard a while back on a split with fellow countrymen Torturium, their half of the split a downtuned black trudge, like Winter or diSEMBOWELMENT but with that impossible to describe Finnish something that transforms everything into some special sort of what-the-fuck. Creepy synths, plodding drums, grinding guitar and harsh vocals, not exactly black metal, not in the traditional sense at least, but most definitely metal. On King Of Snakes however, the band have gotten even weirder, and distinctly less metal, but no less heavy. Supposedly there are guitars, but to our ears it just sounds like just drums and lots and lots of bass. Each song a plodding doomic lurch, the drums pounding out a simple rhythm, the riff repeating over and over, most songs with just a single part, very mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like a caveman Circle or a guitarless Gore, these guys just bash out endlessly cycling looped low end and killer crushing doom drum pound. The vocals are a super affected gurgling growl, not in the death metal sense, instead, super dramatic, intoning unspeakable evils, a rumbling demonic baritone, peppered with the occasional super delay drenched goat metal grunt. Some tracks also have cool creepy keyboards as well, that add all sort of mood and texture, and it's not cheesy metal synth either, it's all strange analog buzz, a sort of krautrocky blur draped over the endlessly pounding groove. Ride For Revenge are another one of those black metal bands, who seem to be black metal more out of pedigree than sound, but even though this doesn't sound like metal, it is most definitely black. It sounds a bit like Godheadsilo jamming with Finnish alchemical dronelords Tiermes, with the occasional injection of Hawkwinded FX and SUNN-drenched rumble, mysterious and murky swaths of throbbing low end thrum wrapped around the drums like some evil warlock's cloak. Imagine if Amphetamine Reptile was a black metal label... then these guys would be Halo Of Flies... Most definitely one of our new favorite 'black metal' records...

MPEG stream: Erotic Needs In Emotional Void
MPEG stream: Disturbed By Spiritual Tormentors
MPEG stream: Death Of The Feeble Masses

It's always a struggle to know what to say about these guys. Purveyors of some fiendishly sick strain of blackened sludge, some twisted tangle of dirgey doom metal and knuckle dragging noise rock, but filtered through whatever makes Finnish music so goddamn brilliant and baffling. Do Ride For Revenge get better with every release, or were they always this good? Do they get weirder, or did they start out utterly batshit off the rails? We're guessing it's the latter in both cases, but goddamn if every new record has us scrambling for superlatives, and proclaiming it the best RfR yet! After a brief bit of squelchy power electronics (borrowed perhaps from RfR offshoot Will Over Matter?), the band launches into a filthy, lumbering dirge, that sounds like a black metal Flipper. Lo-fi, stumbling, lurching, the demonic vocals are the only thing keeping this sounding like some weird AmRep B-side, or some unreleased Unsane jam. With the vocals though, it becomes some sort of next level noise metal ritualism. And while we'd be happy just zoning out to the group's endlessly motorik pound, the sound begins to twist into weird shapes, sheets of noise cascading down from above, wild tangles of blown out psych guitar, at one point nearly doubling in volume, the background plod sounding still like the Brainbombs on thorazine, but beneath a Fushitsusha or White Heaven worthy noise guitar fug. From there on out, it's damaged and demented variations on a theme, the group adding distant squiggly melodies, some new wave synths, in fact the middle portion of "Sexual Rhythm Of Death" sound downright groovy, like some fucked up mutant new wave, all noisy, but also super melodic and spaced out. There are long stretches where most of the music drops out leaving the vocals to ooze over minimal gurglescapes (like on "Devil's Star On The Rise"), there's the ultra lo-fi, grinding black blast of the title track, and holy shit, "The Reversed Cross" is downright catchy, almost poppy, a tranced out, blackened hypnorock track. After some mathy stop/start feedback weirdness, the song settles into an almost krautrockish groove, super melodic, and downright mesmerizing, again it's only the vokills that keep it from turning into something else entirely. The record finishes with the super minimal, almost industrial sounding "Secrets Of Cryptic Metal", which maybe not surprisingly is possibly the LEAST metal track on the record. the guitars sculpted into these weird, distorted drenched drones, layered melodic pulsations, that woozily undulate, under slo-mo tribal drumming, kinda like RfR's warped idea of death rock, or goth, those monstrous vocals dragging the whole thing down into the pit, before the final few minutes, the dirge now enveloped in swirls of FX and alien electronics, locked into a super tranced out, psychedelic dream-dirge that could/should have gone on forever, but instead winds down into a hushed rhythmic coda. Like pretty much EVERY Ride For Revenge record, completely and utterly head spinningly genius!!

MPEG stream: Sexual Rhythm Of Death
MPEG stream: The Reversed Cross
MPEG stream: Soul Abortion

The thing about Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, is that really, they are hardly even black metal. Hell, hardly metal at all. Instead, they always seemed to traffic in a mysterious low slung, sludgy abstract blackened rhythmic minimalism that reminded us of Circle and Aluk Todolo way more than Darkthrone or Beherit. And then there's RfR offshoot Will Over Matter, who take that same sort of abstract rhythmic weirdness and harness it to primitive electronics, and have created a sort of tripped out blackened power electronics. So of course we were super excited for a new Ride For Revenge, and were expecting another disc of twisted rhythmic churn, or something similar, but what we were not expecting was THIS. After a truly strange intro, which is essentially just a Speak & Spell toy emitting all those 8bit bleeps and bloops and wreathed in echo and delay, which had us imagining maybe RfR had moved toward Will Over Matter sonically, but then when the first song proper kicked in, we were blown away. Metal. And we mean METAL. Dirgey and sludgey and super distorted. Right out of the gate, the band erupt into some seriously corrosive blasts of full on blast beat-ed GRIND, in between which, the band churn and lumber, the guitars filthy and crumbling with blackened distortion, the vocals a glass gargling gurgle, the drums a simple dirgey pound, so we were prepared for the ban's return to full on primitive blackness, but then out of nowhere, in swoop all manner of weird warbly synths, and tolling bells, the whole song transformed into some sort of woozy avant buzz drenched doomic dirge, it's pretty ruling. But then by track two, it's right back to the primitive bash and pound, the distortion even more blown out and in the red, the band sounding a bit like a blackened Brainbombs, which is not at all a bad thing, the songs peppered with ridiculous twisted drug addled guitar leads, super effected crooned gothic vox, some totally fucked up and freaked out Butthole Surfers style vocal garble, cool thick layered harmonies, that add a sort of warped majesty to some of the tracks, and at least one blast of weird bellowed, strident sermonizing beneath a cloud of in-the-red white noise skree. There are a couple tracks that strip away some of the crumble and buzz, and harken back to the more purely rhythmic RfR of old, but those moments are brief, the band quickly slipping back into their woozy sea sick doom-sludge churn, but even then, pretty much every stretch of seemingly pure raw blackened doomic primitivism, is in fact seriously fucked up, whether that fucked upness is in your face, or buried way below the surface, it's there, and it keeps Under The Eye firmly rooted in whatever fucked Finnish tradition RfR oozes from...

MPEG stream: Second Gate Opened With Power
MPEG stream: For Those About To Kneel
MPEG stream: The Gutter And The Grave
MPEG stream: Under The Eye

The long awaited return of Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, and when we say weird, we do in fact mean WEIRD. We sort of forget about these guys when we're going on about the most fucked and damaged black metal ever, and maybe that's because their sound ends up being SO fucked up and freaky that it almost ceases being black metal entirely, instead, they seem to traffic in some sort of bass and drums, downtuned doom dirge, a series of hypnotic loops, locked riffs, all completely fractured and crumbling and confusional. In the review of the last RfR record, King Of Snakes, we mentioned Amphetamine Reptile, and Halo Of Flies, Winter and diSEMBOWLEMENT, Gore and Circle. On Wisdom Of The Few, they continue on in that same baffling blackened trajectory resulting in a sound that off the top of our heads sounds a little like Om and Faxed Head. Right. Most metalheads we'd imagine will not be pleased, as this is seriously wacked, more textural and rhythmic than riffy and buzzy, it again sounds mostly like just bass and drums, but that's once you make it past the lurching, stumbling, guitar intro, streaks of feedback are all tangled up with a strangled reverb drenched guitar, playing out some sort of fractured atonal riff, the entire thing peppered with bits of hiss and glitch, before finally exploding into the lo-fi dirgery of the title track. A super murky muddy looped riff, pounding drums, rumbling low end, and some croaked demonic gurgles, the sound is super in the red, the drum fills peg the needles, but it still manages to sound muddy and subterranean. The drums and bass (or extremely downtuned guitar) locked into a mantra-like loop, the cymbals super hot, a relentless crash and sizzle, again reminding us of a blackened super minimal Gore. But things get even weirder. The clouds of hiss and glitch from the opening track return, and suddenly the sound is not metal so much as some sort of abstract doomy drone. A bass riff pounded out over and over and over, while around it, static crumbles and buzzes, sheets of feedback drift off in the distance, the 'groove' is peppered with little squalls of scrape and crunch, all underpinning a creepy spoken vocal. The next track is even weirder (or perhaps just as weird), the drums wrapped in weird warped FX, pounding out a simple propulsive beat, wrapped in flanger and phaser, sounding super space-y while all around it, the gurgling demonic vocalist grunts and gurgles, over another totally mesmerizing black groove. Let's not describe the next track as weirder than the one before, cuz it's gonna seem ridiculous after a while, needless to say, it's weird in a different, equally twisted way. A deep whirring rumbling low end, a skittery almost funky krautrock beat, a heavily accented voice speaking ominously and dramatically, the voice switching from speaker to speaker, the drums shifting and subtly speeding up and slowing down, the rumbling drone-y buzz, occasionally revving up, then revving back down. Fucked up for sure, but so creepy and cool. "Morning Won't Bring A Twinkling Star" is the longest track here, and manages to merge many of RfR's disparate elements into one epic sprawling blackened rhythmscape, a loping drum beat, a woozy seasick bassline, the drums distorted and motorik, the vocals reverbed and haunting, before slipping into a long stretch of warped low end warble and high end sine wave shimmer, before lurching back into blackened action. The record finishes off with a brief soundscape, equal parts distorted crunch, moaning feedback, downtuned flutter, minimal whirring synth, thick doomy buzz and FX drenched warble. Woah. It's like dipping your head into a garbage disposal grinding up muddy murky chunks of Darkthrone, Aluk Todolo, Gore, Faxed Head, Circle, Urfaust, Geronimo and Lightning Bolt at 16rpm, a utterly demented and genius mix of freaked out, lobotomized black sound, a total mind melting, speaker shredding, ear punishing, minimal post black metal mind fuck. SO FUCKING AWESOME!

MPEG stream: Ghostship
MPEG stream: Wisdom Of The Few
MPEG stream: Dungeons Of The Original Sin
MPEG stream: Morning Won't Bring A Twinkling Star

ATTENTION FINNISH MUSIC FREAKS!!! It isn't all forest folk and hypnotic space rock over there you know. Finland has some serious metal bands as amazing, as heavy and as fucked up as anyplace else, maybe even more so. Just off the top of our heads, Dead Reptile Shrine! Maybe the weirdest black metal band ever, Reverend Bizarre, amazing classic doom, and let's see... Horna, Thergothon, Circle Of Ouroborus, Spiritus Mortis, Stumm, Wyrd, Vultyr, Trollheim's Grott, Uncreation's Dawn, we could go on and on and on... So here we have a split from two Finnish black metal one man bands, one name you might recognize, the other you might not, but both are equally amazing. It takes a very special band to share a split with the mighty and mighty demented Dead Reptile Shrine, but Torturium were up to the job, as evidenced on their recent split with DRC reviewed right here a few months back. Here they continue on their damaged and convoluted journey through some off kilter black thrash buzzscape. Midtempo and completely blown out, guitars are thick snarling beasts, flaying the flesh fron your skin, while some of the most anguished vocals EVER soar and shriek, the drums a murky thud, everything chaotic and crazed. Blasting and buzzing relentlessly, the whole thing threatening to come hunhinged and fly into sharp jagged pieces. Fucked up and furious and so great. Torturium shares the split with fellow counryman Ride For Revenge, who with a name like that you might expect some classic thrash, but this is anything but. Muddy downtuned guitars, harsh vocals and simple pounding drums, all woven into some sort of murky dirgey black doom. Midtempo rhythms, drums WAY up in the mix, everything sort of droney and hypnotic, tons of reverb, weird swaths of creepy clean guitar, everything cloudy and indistinct, a super old school production liek Winter or diSEMBOWELMENT, fuzzy and relentlessly, trudging through thick FX drenched drifts of black buzz and weird whorls of creepy haunted house synth. So cool and so weird. Definitely a new favorite, and another notch in Finland's holster, or bedpost, or whatver. SO RECOMMENDED!!!

MPEG stream: On The Rays Of Victory
MPEG stream: Blasphemous Contemplation Of The Void

Cosmic-kraut lost masterpiece! We knew we would get your attention with that, and for good reason because this is a record that any fan of spaced out kosmiche needs to own. Released in 1978, Wunderbar was the only solo album by Wolfgang Riechmann, as he was tragically murdered just a few weeks before this record originally came out. Influenced by the sounds around him in Germany you can hear bits of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Neu!, Kraftwerk, etc. The record has a fluidity to it that just soars and flows with such a shimmering grace. Makes a lot of sense that he was in a band in the early '70s with Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia) and Wolfgang Flur (Kraftwerk) called Spirits Of Sound. Recorded over thirty years ago, you can definitely hear Wunderbar's possible influence in the music of folks like Lindstrom, Prins Thomas, Arp, Jonas Reinhardt, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Growing, Emeralds, etc. Riechmann would have sounded right at home on the Pilooski curated Dirty Space Disco compilation we love so much, which connected the dots between the spaced out electronic sounds of '70s Germany and cosmic disco dancefloors. We wouldn't be surprised if Matmos was listening to this as inspiration before they made Supreme Balloon. Wunderbar is that rare kind of album that allows you to get lost in space while never losing its keen melodic sense, a sound that is fresh and alive, never stagnant or pointlessly self absorbed. Mind boggling to think how his music would have evolved over the years if his life wasn't ended so abruptly, but here's hoping that Wunderbar finally gets the recognition and respect is so rightfully deserves! And you non vinyl inclined folks hold tight, a cd reissue is on its way in July.

SKWEEE!

SKWEEE!!!!

As always, we were way ahead of the curve. You were too, right there with us. Going all the way back to Acid Bath, that seminal NOLA rock band, that somehow combined Eyehategod style sludge, and groovy dramatic emotional rock a la Alice In Chains or Katatonia or Jeff Buckley, we were proclaiming that not only should Acid Bath have been HUGE, but AB frontman Dax Riggs should be a rock star. So here we are over ten years later, and all that time, Riggs has continued on, first with Agents Of Oblivion, then Deadboy And The Elephantmen, all groups and records we LOVED, and played incessantly, but still, Dax and co. lurked way underground, barely even making a ripple in the mainstream music world. But come last year, Riggs resurfaced, performing live and releasing a pretty decent disc (that we've yet to review), and suddenly being pushed hard, his sound, not all that different from Agents Of Oblivion, but now with some promotional real label muscle behind him. Unfortunately, not much happened with his solo record, so it was time for plan B, the first Deadboy And The Elephantmen record, re-released as a Riggs sort-of-solo record. Fair enough. We proclaimed it genius way way back when, and time has done nothing but demonstrate what a killer slab of dark grooviness and intensely emotional heaviness this record is, was and continues to be. So since lots of folks may not have been around when we first gushed about this disc, figured this was the perfect time to gush again. Years and years ago, the big rock n' roll sleeper hit here at Aquarius had to be the awesome Agents Of Oblivion album, featuring two crucial ex-members of the late lamented cult band Acid Bath. Heavy, poppy, psychedelic rock with vocalist Dax Riggs crooning beautifully over it all. We shoulda made it record of the week, we all thought in retrospect. It became one of our favorite records EVER. We were really bummed then to hear that the Agents, like Acid Bath before 'em, broke up not long after the album's release. But, rumors filtered in that Dax and a new crew of New Orleans n'er-do-wells had formed a new band with the unlikely name of Deadboy and the Elephantmen to carry on where the Agents left off. Allan confirmed this when he happened to visit N.O. and was lucky enough to catch a live performance from this new band. They had a demo out then, and we anticipated a full album release on some big label to appear soon...we waited...and waited... and eventually a Deadboy record did come out, but the band had to release it themselves, since once again, the big labels had no idea and dropped the ball big time. Mystifiying, 'cause Dax is a rock star if ever there was one, and these guys should have been HUGE. This record is epic and darkly dramatic, heavy and groovy and weird as fuck, but also catchy and beautiful. Totally accessible yet morbidly underground, we hear everything from some voodoo Alice Cooper darkness and drama, to a little Aerosmith swagger, to the heaviness and angst of Alice In Chains of course -- Acid Bath was always an AIC meets EHG (Eyehategod) hybrid, in a really good way. Radiohead's "Ok Computer" is hinted at too, and Jeff Buckley, as the music combines weirdly sensitive melodicism and dark atmosphere inspired by their hometown's swamps and cemeteries. Dax is as impressive as ever, he really *sings*, drawing out vowels over a dozen notes. His vocals are oddly warm and comforting but also anguished and intense. While the songwriting on this album does not quite match the relatively flowery yet heavy tunesmithery of the Agents of Oblivion album, and neither does the instrumentation call attention to itself, that's not necessarily a bad thing here as it lets Dax' voice take center stage and he... just... wails. He's like a sludge metal Bowie, flamboyant, and dramatic, his vocals impossibly emotive and intense. Sometimes despairing, sometimes incantatory. Oh the angst! And the music is a perfect match, going from brooding and minor key, to explosive and space-y. For fans of Alice in Chains, Acid Bath/Agents of Oblivion (of course), Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees, and Woven Hand. It may have taken a decade, but finally the rest of the world can discover what some of us knew all along�

MPEG stream: Strange Television
MPEG stream: Waking Up Insane
MPEG stream: Song With No Name
MPEG stream: Grave Beyond Windows

If we had to pick a favorite rock vocalist, or more specifically VOICE, it would be pretty tough to not pick Dax Riggs. His croon is so intense and emotive and powerful, able to brood and croon, as well as howl like a banshee, or even shriek in full on metal mode. Having done time in the mighty Acid Bath, not to mention Deadboy And The Elephantmen and Agents Of Oblivion, Riggs' voice was always the defining element in all of those bands, beginning with Acid Bath, a serious metal band, whose sound was tempered by Riggs' incredible voice, transforming it into something totally unique, giving it a dark almost cabaret element that was lacking from most metal, most music. As he drifted from Agents Of Oblivion to Deadboy, and finally going it alone, the music got less and less heavy, the sound more and more dramatic, which definitely suited his voice. A voice that sits somewhere between Robert Plant, Glenn Danzig, Mark Lanegan, David Bowie and Jeff Buckley. Super expressive, super unique, and a little bit glammy. His solo records have tended toward the dark and bluesy, the stripped down, Say Goodnight To The World is no different, although the opening title track gets pretty fuzzy and heavy, and might be the most rocking thing we've heard from Riggs in a while, slithery and dark, the riff a little bit sludgey, but it's really just a showcase for his voice, and it soars and trills, and almost cracks, and gives you chills, goosebumps, all that, if there was ever a case of "he could sing the phonebook" it's Riggs. Folks hankering for the heaviness of the old days probably won't be too into this new record, but if you're like us, and appreciated all the slower jams, the acoustic numbers, even as far back as Acid Bath, then Say Goodnight To The World will sound pretty darn sweet, broody and smoldering, and to be fair, pretty dang rokcing and heavy at moments, the new band is pretty bad ass, and at least half of these tracks get pretty fierce, but those tracks are balanced by some grim balladry, hell, there's even a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel", transformed into some sort of murder ballad, slowed way down, to a crawl, the melody changed quite a bit, the result something seriously harrowing and sinister and awesome. Which pretty much describes this whole record. WAY recommended for anyone into sounds mysterious and passionate, bleak and intense, heavy and emotional, dark and dramatic...

MPEG stream: Say Goodnight To The World
MPEG stream: I Hear Satan
MPEG stream: You Were Born To Be My Gallows

Acid Bath, Deadboy And The Elephant Men, Agents Of Oblivion, we love them all, due in no small part to frontman Dax Riggs. As we've mentioned before, in numerous reviews of the above mentioned bands, Riggs was and is a rockstar, even in the druggy sludge combo Acid Bath, his soaring super dramatic vocals, and twisted surreal lyrics helped transform that band into something much more than just another NOLA sludgerock outfit. With every new band, came progression, away from the heavy, the dirgey, the druggy, toward a sound much more bluesy, glammy, poppy, but always the focal part was Riggs brooding moody croon. We recently made the reissued Deadboy And The Elephant Men record If This Is Hell Then I'm Lucky record of the week, reissued under Riggs' name, in a bid by the label, we're guessing, to finally push him toward the mainstream, which makes perfect sense. Even more sense once we heard this, Riggs' first proper solo record, from last year. Fans into stuff like the White Stripes, Wolfmother, the Black Keys, no reason they shouldn't be digging this just as much. The sound on We Sing Of Only Blood And Love is a weird slithery Southern bluesy drugrock, incorporating bits of glam pop, gospel, AC/DC groove, but most of all, lots and lots of blues. Makes sense that this came out on Fat Possum, same label as the Black Keys. In lots of ways, this actually sounds quite a bit like the Black Keys, only if they were raised on Eyehategod instead of Howlin Wolf. Supercharged metallic blues, with pounding drums and some awesome churning riffage. But like with everything Riggs does, it's all about THAT voice. As rich and lustrous and over the top as ever, so much so, that at times, it almost sounds like Jimmy from the Frogs, full of trills and soaring almost operatic drama. Which is not at all a bad thing, and that voice all tangled up with these sludgey blues riffs, it's tough to beat. There's also a bunch of stripped down, more acoustic numbers, sprawling and skeletal. The vibe very Mark Lanegan, sinister and languorous, but where Lanegan's voice is a whiskey soaked baritone, ominous and haunting, Riggs voice again, is intense and almost over the top. If you're fans of any of Riggs' other outfits, and lord knows you sure as shit should be, you'll definitely need this. But for the uninitiated, this just might be the Riggs record that's accessible enough to turn him into the rockstar he's always should have been.

MPEG stream: Demon Tied To A Chair In My Brain
MPEG stream: Radiation Blues
MPEG stream: Spinning Song
MPEG stream: Truth In The Dark

Something new from the Dynamophone label, those SF based purveyors of the shimmering-est, hazily atmospheric-est and loveliest sounds from around the globe. Whereas many of their recent releases have been of the drifting soundscape ilk (Fjordne, Abbasi brothers, etc), Rigil's Concertina Heart is an angora soft, dream pop debut. It delivers much more in the way of song structure, but still offers the enveloping warmth and intricate crystalline textural details typical of most releases on the label. The ten tracks are a nicely balanced mix of vocal songs and instrumentals. On the former, hushed lullaby melody vocals are intimately sung by 20 year old British lad Robert Slade as feathery wisps of Ovalesque electronic glitchiness flit about like fireflies dancing with candle flames. Very nice indeed!

MPEG stream: Full Circle
MPEG stream: Two Worlds

We were totally blown away by the last Rigor Sardonicous record, a massive crushing black hole slab of funereal doooooooom (WAY more than two o's!) with its slow motion sludge, impossibly guttural vocals, but more importantly (to us at least) was what we dubbed "the most evil cymbal in the world", a huge trashcan like crash, that punctuated almost every measure. As we reasoned, it HAD to be the most evil cymbal in the world, why else was it so frigging HIGH in the mix?! To praise the Dark One of course. And while the ridiculous aspect certainly appealed to us, the 'evil cymbal' only added an extra element to what undoubtedly would have been a completely amazing doom record anyway. But add the evil cymbal and we've got a metal record of the year contender for sure. But now we have a brand new record, or more accurately a brand new recording, as these tracks are re-recorded versions of the band's pre-Principia Sardonica demo. So now, if the weirdly mixed cymbal was a fluke or a recording mistake, here's a chance for the band to fix it, change the levels, record it correctly. But they didn't!! In fact just the opposite! Which most definitely proves the 'evil cymbal' theory!! The cymbals, yes there are more than one, are EVEN LOUDER, clanging and clanking even more dark praise to the most evil one. In fact every aspect of Apocalypsis Damnare pushes all the stuff we loved about the first record even further. The riffs are thicker and slower, hugely sludgey and downtuned. There's more bizarre stuttering double kick drums, and the vocals are SO low, they are dangerously close to dipping below the boundaries of human hearing. A rumbling subsonic gurgle that sort of just drips like tar all over these tracks. And that would already be enough to kick our asses for sure. Maybe the heaviest slowest 'funereal doom' record since Skepticism's Stormcrowfleet or Thergothon's Stream From The Heavens. But then there's those 'evil' cymbals. Holy fuck?!?! Like giant dented trashcan lids, a massive clattery crash demarcating the ponderous plodding rhythms. Imagine UK ultradoom outfit Esoteric, jamming in the garage, spewing that thick viscous doom we love so, while neighborhood kids stood outside throwing bones and sticks at the metal garage door. So weird. And so completely genius.

MPEG stream: Apocalypsis Damnare
MPEG stream: Pandemic

There's been tons of good doom lately. Especially of the funeral death dirge type. You know, the reviews we usually start with the word dooooooooooooooooom. The more o's the slower and creepier it is. So we'd have to give this one about 10 o's, cuz man is this dark and dismal and glacier slow. This is straight up Skepticism / Thergothon worship. And we love it! Huge tarpit guitars, broadcast from the bottom of a fiery pit, so the sound is a throbbing muted hum, struggling to be heard through the damp stone walls of whatever keep you're holed up in. So overdriven that even at low volume it cause the speakers on our computer to practically melt. Simple pounding drums keep the doom from spilling into space and becoming shapeless rumpling drones. But Rigor Sardonicous have two things that set them apart from the doooooooooom (yes, ten o's) pack. First, the vocals. So gutteral and subhuman they sound like the growl of an angry mother bear defending her cubs. Or sort of like the recent Caninus record that featured pitbull dogs growling out the vocals. So impossibly low and rumbling and demonic. The second is "the most evil cymbal in the world." It must be the most evil cymbal. Why else would it be so much louder in the mix than anything else? Right. It must be because as the most evil cymbal, the best way to praise the Dark Lord, is to offer up a crash every few seconds. But wait, track three contains what can only be "the most evil gong in the world!" And again proper worship to the Dark Lord requires whacking a big ol' gong every few seconds. Definitely bizarre (too bizarre for some -- AQ pal and Stalin Claus mastermind Steven Schultz could not handle the evil cymbal!) but it all adds a certain weirdness that we can't seem to get enough of. So just imagine Benighted Leams mixed with Skepticism. And then of course include the "most evil cymbal in the world". Oh, and the "most evil gong". And on further listening there seems to be a "quite evil hi-hat" as well. Fucking awesome!

MPEG stream: In Autumn Twilight
MPEG stream: The Dead

Ah, nothing like a glacially slooooooooow blast of ultra mega doooooooooooooom to calm the nerves, at least that's the way it seems to work around the mail order department for the boys (and girls!) who work back in "the Tombs" of AQ. Rigor Sardonicous - one of our all-time favorite "apocalyptic doom" bands - sent a package recently containing their latest CD, "Risus Ex Mortuus" along with some stickers and a hat...we all fought over the hat a bit, but Andee doesn't like to mess up his "drummer hair" and Jason already sports a bitchin' Rigor Sardonicous glow-in-the-dark print T-shirt, so Allan scored the new lid. Besides, we see him wearing that hunter's orange/camo cap a bit too often lately and - where were we - oh yeah - Risus Ex Mortuus!!! Once again, Rigor Sardonicous is back, and on this CD we get a bunch of re-recorded versions of early tracks from long out-of-print releases, an unreleased track, and even a Kiss cover! You haven't heard "God Of Thunder" until you've heard it Rigor-ized, a thick syrupy sludge-y Sunn-y crawl, with the vocals belched out in impossible guttural grunts. The CD even somehow sports some beautiful "Rigor Sardonicous" Old English script printed on the UNDERSIDE of the CD - SICK !!! Also back again is the signature drum machine (who has occupied the throne since 1991) and the return of 'the most evil cymbal in the world', tha clanged-out trash can lid of a cymbal that we have been totally obsessed with and completely transfixed by since we first heard RS. It's like nothing you've ever heard in the realms of dark murky doomy sludge-pyre music (except on the other RS records obviously). It is back and better (and louder) than ever - way out in front where it constantly rears its ugly head again and again, crashing forth with a clanging clattery crash, before quickly fading back into the sludge. Sounds like Sunn 0))) playing Moss covers at the bottom of a giant sewer pipe while someone drops metal garbage cans from above... a strange kind of beautiful. Mr. drum machine also seems to be taking it up a notch rhythmically with more blast beats, faster and louder, while somehow not actually making the music sound any faster, just weirder and heavier. And there's no mistaking the downtuned, strings-so-slack-they-touch-the-floor, buzzed-out slow sludge rumbling roar coming from the guitar. Like the sound of low-flying aircraft "strumming" overhead power lines... And again those vocals, spread all over the proceedings like some viscous black paste, a subsonic curdle / gurgle that is hardly human. If you close your eyes, you can't help but picture some goo spewing giant lizard ready to consume you whole, or some creepy Hellraiser / Pinhead style hellbeast declaring your doooom. WE LOVE IT. The AQ dark lords, sit upon their throne of skulls, surrounded by fire and burning flesh, demons swooping through the murky skies, the earth trembling, the ground littered with the dead, gazing cooly at the scorched landscape that stretches forever in all directions, before looking to the sky and letting out a blood curdling cry of "MORE EVIL CYMBAL !!!" (The band claim that these are indeed actual cd's, although, we're pretty sure they're cd-r's, but who the hell cares, you can't go wrong for $10.98, and you can't print bitchin' olde English band logos on the playing side of a real cd... or can you?)

MPEG stream: Prooemium
MPEG stream: Rigor Sardonicous
MPEG stream: God Of Thunder

It's been a while, but it's time to haul out all those extra doom 'o's we've been saving for an occasion just like this. The return of ultra doomlords Rigor Sardonicous, they of the monstrous glacial downtuned crawl, the 'evil' cymbal (more on that in a second), the growled demonic vox, the lugubrious slow motion trudge, all that stuff we love, and all the stuff that can usually only be described by a whole handful of extra 'o's in doooooooooom. But the opening track threw us for a bit of a loop. All weirdly folky, with chanted vocals, and fluttering flutes, some haunting almost Renn Faire court music, which quickly gives way to clean mournful minor key clean guitar, could this be the same Rigor Sardonicous? All doubts are wiped away moments later when the whole sound shifts down about a hundred octaves, the crumbling super distorted guitar spreads out like a black fog, the drums pounding, the cymbals still way up in the mix (beginning to think it's their trademark), and then the vocals. WOAH. Impossibly gurgly rumbles, like a frog croaking from the bottom of a tarpit, perfectly complimenting the band's murky plod. Weirdly the band does speed it up, but everything is so muddy and blurred that it almost makes no difference. You can hear what sounds like a little girl way off in the distance, as if she's locked in the dungeon of some great black beast. This is some awesomely creepy, heavy, and fucked up dooooooooooomy shit for sure. If it's even possible, this is the most extreme Rigor record yet. The guitars more dense, heavier, even more downtuned, the vocals absolutely inhuman, it does almost sound like some super slow dooooom record, slowed down even more. And when the band do 'rock', they still out-doom most of their slow motion contemporaries. Nothing else to say really. Been digging the most recent Moss, the Corrupted reissue? Still loving those Monarch records, the recent Trees disc? Fancy yourself a doomlord? Well strap on your armor, your headlamp, some industrial strength ear protection, and crawl headfirst into this black tarpit of sound, Rigor Sardonicous take even the heaviest and slowest sounds somewhere even slower and lower and so much doooooooooooooooooooooooomier�

MPEG stream: Silens Somnium
MPEG stream: Incompertus Quod Anon

Long time lyricist and activist Boots Riley has been a staple of the Bay Area community for decades. His clever brand of political hip-hop in such acts as The Coup (his most long-lived musical project) and Street Sweeper Social Club (his band with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine) has turned Riley into an international celebrity. His new book, Tell Homeland Security - We Are the Bomb, is an excellent collection of his lyrics and essays spanning back all the way to The Coup's first record, Kill My Landlord. It also features lyrics from the two Street Sweeper Social Club releases. Pretty much every song is a political manifesto, with enough humor thrown in to make the bitterness a tasty treat instead of a dry diatribe. Those of us who lived in the US through the first decade of this millennium will appreciate songs like "Babylet'shaveababybeforeBushdosomethin'crazy" and "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO." Most songs are accompanied by a short essay by Riley about the impetus behind the song, or at least some of his thoughts and feelings about it. Boots also expresses numerous feminist ideas and ideals through his lyrics, through songs written for his daughter and a fictitious mother who was killed by a pimp named Jesus. It cannot be stressed enough how large a part of the Bay Area progressive activist community Boots Riley has become. Anyone who went to any of the Occupy Oakland rallies a few years back was sure to see Boots somewhere nearby with a megaphone or holding a sign or giving a speech. Anyone interested in progressive hip hop or political activism should read this book.

The recent vinyl reissue of this totally essential Terry Riley album has given us the opportunity to finally review a record that holds a special place in many of our hearts. A Rainbow In Curved Air is pretty much the ultimate in hypnotizing cosmic bliss out. Two long tracks in which Riley used electric organ, harpsichord, rockischord, dumbec, saxophone and tambourine, to create a sound in which his minimalist background served as a launching pad for him to really reach the outer limits of sound, a sound that is about as perfect as a soundtrack to sunrise we could ever imagine. A Rainbow In Curved Sky was originally released in 1969, it was the first album Riley made for Columbia records and it's still so baffling and amazing to think there was a time when major labels would release such brilliant, noncommercial transcendent music like this. After doing some digging around we realized that one of the main reasons that Riley amazingly ended up on Columbia was because fellow electronic pioneer David Behrman had landed a job at the label, so he brought Riley into the land of Columbia and produced this amazing album. Forty years after it's genesis, these are still sounds that make us stop in our tracks and suck us in, allowing us to get lost in the most amazing sonic daydreams one could imagine. A Rainbow In Curved Air has proven to be a model for several generations of cosmic music makers. It's safe to say that without this record there wouldn't be folks like Arp, Growing, Emeralds, White Rainbow, etc. Beyond recommended and totally essential!

[ aquarius records catalogue — R ]