Mars Volta fans! We're sure you're well acquainted with the name Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, aren't you? Well, your fave band's guitarist goes solo once again (this is his fifth solo release)... and gets all electronic and acid jazz-y in the process. Emphasis as usual is on the (fusion and free) jazz side of things, mind you! We've heard some call these tracks experimental soundscapes, but once you get past the first minute and twenty seconds we think better terms to use are improvs or jams. They are far more active and melodic than the former term implies. Furthermore, there is a definite open-weave feel to the proceedings, and all of Rodriguez-Lopez's musical influences (other artists such as Santana and Mahavishnu Orchestra as well as geographic regions Latin America) are palpable at every turn. If you dig those stretches when he totally goes off during a live MV set, then you'll probably get deep into these recordings. Lots of mad flourishes of percussion, guitar and synth noodling, some cool segments that you wish would develop into full-blown songs but instead abruptly stop and jump to something else, it's sort of like an audio sketchbook of his time spent in Amsterdam although you'll also feel like he jetsetted to other exotic locales during the recordings. It wasn't a solo mission by any means. You'll hear plenty of contributions from his MV comrades as well as six-string buddy John Frusciante and Money Mark too.
The pastoral half of Cluster explores his penchant for French romanticism in this dazzling suite of spacious baroque minimalism from 1979. Produced with the assistance of Peter Baumann, Roedelius broadens his focus as a traditional composer and displays ample musicianship with an eclectic array of instrumentation: flutes cellos, pianos and harpsichords, steering away from the abstracting qualities of the sequencers and processors normally employed in his main group. There's a carnivalesque playfulness to the tracks here, suggesting carousels and waltzes, penny arcades, and street performers, but with a refined restraint that evades schmaltz. Like the perfect accompaniment to a Resnais film, each piece is a delightful handmade miniature strung together in a labyrinthian web. Liner notes by longtime friend Asmus Tietchens with six bonus tracks ONLY on the cd version, including three new songs, and three remixes from the album. Beautiful!
Along with the beautiful compilation of seventies recordings from Roedelius' Selbstportrait series (Diary Of The Unforgotten), we also have this lovely reissue of his 1981 recording Lustwandel. This was Roedelius' third solo record between the chamber baroque miniatures of 1979's Jardin Au Fou and the airy open-ended pastoralism of Wenn Der Sudwind Weht, recorded the same year as this. The music on Lustwandel is a perfect segue between the two approaches, comprised largely of solo piano works with subtle textural nuances of ambient atmospherics and classical inflected melodies, that occasionally transition into works for strings as well as harpsichord. But there are also some strange turns here and there into a warm angularity of soft martial rhythms and ballet moods, as well as some medieval sounding short pieces with pipes and hand percussion. It's a slowly sauntering set that takes its time to move from parlor to forest in an almost pageant like procession. Quite Beautiful!
Offene Turen (Open Doors), Roedelius's little known fifth album from 1982 and issued on cd for the first time, is definitely not like the others. Often considered his "experimental" record, Roedelius completed it shortly after the last major Cluster record, Curiosum, and it sometimes seems as if he wanted to make a record through the eyes of his more taciturn partner, Moebius. While it doesn't quite have Moebius's way with mechanical musical calibrations, the vibe is more stark and atmospheric and the closest we've heard any of the Cluster clan come to sounding cinematically proggy in the vein of John Carpenter and Goblin. Lots of church organ sounds and bell tones with an occasional glimpse into Roedelius's classical romantic side, but less so than on other releases. Definitely one of the worthier weirder records in the Cluster canon, perhaps not the place to start with, but for fans who are looking for something more unusual, there's lots to love, from songs that are seriously spooky and almost Oneohtrix-like, to other tracks that are charmingly naive experiments with the newest (at the time) digital tech. Recommended!
What a great time this is, and how lucky we are to be living in it, as the back catalogs of both Cluster members, Moebius and Roedelius, have been getting the long overdue reissue campaign they so rightly deserve. So many gems to be found in both of their discographies, in fact, they're almost all gems.
The Diary Of The Unforgotten is a collection of musical sketches that Roedelius made between the years 1973-1978. It never saw release until 1990, and sadly that pressing came and went quickly, so most of us here had never heard these amazing tracks before.
Shimmering with dreamy atmosphere, melancholic and flowing with a soft grace, you can tell Brian Eno was so in tune with these same sounds, sounds which would eventually evolve into their future collaborations as well as on Eno's own records like Before & After Science and Another Green World. What's so miraculous about these tracks is that while they flow with such a golden ease, they were actually recorded in such a lo-fi manner. Roedelius would just let the tape roll and would not add any overdubs afterwards. Perhaps that's why the emotional quality of these songs hits us so strongly. Nine of the ten songs range in the three to five minute range and then there's the epic twenty four minute centerpiece "Hommage A Forst". While we could argue forever about which Roedelius or Cluster offshoot release is our favorite, right now The Diary Of The Unforgotten is making a pretty great case for that honor.
Roedelius's fourth solo record from 1981 has obvious connections to his first record, Durch Die Wuste as evidenced from the similar album covers involving feet and water. But while his first record was a head-first dive into exploring the palatable possibilities of mixing acoustic and electronic instruments, Wenn Der Sudwind Weht is all about the tranquil relaxed after-glow, drying off in the afternoon sun. Limiting the instruments to just organ, synthesizers and piano, Sudwind is surprisingly rich and layered and arguably the most stunning of his solo records, reminding us of the pastoralism of Popol Vuh and early Deuter, but never succumbing to new age music's typical lack of focus. In fact it's the most focused Roedelius record of the last couple that have been reissued. While the Cluster-Harmonia catalog with all its off-shoots and solo projects can be quite unwieldy especially in the middle of its currently aggressive reissue campaign, but this may be the most essential Roedelius reissue of the bunch. Highest recommendation!
Any fan of '70s krautrock / electronic legends Cluster - and Cluster's constituent humans Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius - know that both gents remain exceedingly prolific music-makers to this day. Try as we might, we don't always manage to review everything either of them release, though we don't doubt that it's always quite good stuff. This new disc on Sub Rosa did happen to just catch our ears, however, and we felt we should share. It finds Roedelius (sometimes considered to be the more melodic half of the Cluster duo) collaborating with an interesting fellow we haven't encountered before, Christopher Chaplin, who is (true fact) the youngest son of famous actor Charlie Chaplin. The two, Roedelius & Chaplin, first met at an Art Brut themed festival in Vienna in 2010; and when in 2011 the BBC invited Roedelius to record a live session with a musician of his choosing that'd he'd never previously worked with, he selected Chaplin. That recording (some portions of which are heard here) eventually lead to them working together the next year on this album project.
King Of Hearts is centered around the beautiful, romantic piano playing that Roedelius is known for, while Chaplin processes and remixes it, bringing in additional electronics and other unnerving elements. Mysterious hisses and drones and mad scientist laboratory sounds pervade otherwise blissful piano reveries. On one track, there's some heavily effected, indecipherable vocals in the mix, and on a few others, someone (presumably Chaplin) plays distorted electric guitar, raw and lo-fi. One piece is based on a song from the Brian Eno album Before And After Science, in which Roedelius & Moebius participated.
However, the overall mood of this album is lush and lovely, and full of interesting detail. It's perfect music for staring out the window at the landscape on a cold winter's afternoon, while staying warm inside.
Krautrock electronics legends and former collaborators in seminal proto-ambient-industrial act Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler (prolific solo artist, initial member of Tangerine Dream) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia, solo) get up to their old
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Durch Die Wuste was the first solo outing by Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster/Harmonia fame, and originally came out in 1978 on the always impeccable Sky label. Melding his tastes for classical composition, spaced out ambience, and electronic rock possibilities, this album found Roedelius simmering in warm rolling waves that just invite you to get lost and daydream in their subtly hypnotic pull. What's most amazing and compelling about this album is how organic it all sounds. Years before folks were really getting a grasp of how to intertwine traditional instrumentation with electronics, Roedelius was doing it masterfully. We're also so taken by the divine percussive quality that rises to the surfaces on lots of the album, especially the record's last two songs where Roedelius manages to play the drums himself and creates an amazing orbital groove that we could listen to forever. Durch Die Wuste manages to combine both his more dark and outsider tendencies with his ability to create the ultimate in shimmering cosmic bliss. We can't believe that some of us had never heard this record before, we are so beyond happy that it's been reissued as this stands up against any of Cluster's breathtaking moments. Highly recommended! Oh and for those of you who need/prefer to have this on cd it will be reissued in that format in August!
Most 74 year olds aren't still making vital music, let alone going on tours with their kraut/kosmische pioneering outfits Cluster and Harmonia, but then again Hans-Joachim Roedelius really does seem like one of a kind. Hot on the heels of his stunning performances here in the Bay Area with Cluster (including a never to be forgotten AQ instore!) Roedelius has quietly released a new collaborative album with Tim Story. And while the pairing of Roedelius with a Windham Hill alumni may make some AQ faithful squirm, we have to say that while this does fall on the very soft and pretty side of things it still remains very tasteful, and shimmers with a subtle beauty and a hazy gaze. Like some of the more calming and subdued outings by folks we love like Harold Budd, Max Richter and Brian Eno, Roedelius proves that even when he's in a soothing kind of mood he's able to transcend the mediocre new-age/massage parlor sound of other artists of a similar ilk, who forego subtly and lay the schmaltz on thick. We've been giving Klimek and the Pop Ambient series a break from being our go-to-sleep nighttime listening, and in their place, Inlandish has been the perfect soundtrack to guide us to a blissful dreamstate.
Here's something definitely for fans (like us) of Sweden's Dungen -- you know, the retro-pop-sike wunderkind whose Ta Det Lugnt cd has been flying out the door here of late. Well, we're pretty sure that seventies Swedish psych-folk singer/songwriter Pugh Rogefeldt was a big influence on Dungen's Gustav Ejstes. We just got in this brand new import reissue of Pugh's 1969 classic debut, and quite a bit of it sure sounds a lot like what Dungen does, although overall it's somewhat folkier and more eccentric. Like the Dungen album, this is total ear candy for anyone into somewhat rustic psychedelic sixities pop. And oh yeah, Janne Karlsson of Hansson and Karlsson fame plays drums! And we should note that along with folks who like Dungen, DJ Shadow fans will also find this of interest, 'cause you ought to recognize the very first sounds you hear on this album as the (uncredited) intro to "Mutual Slump" from SJ Shadow's Endtroducing. One of those "so that's where that comes from!" moments, and more evidence of Shadow's excellent taste...
For everybody who freaked out about Pugh Rogefeldt's 1968 Ja, da a da! album, the cd reissue of which we recently reviewed, we've now got the reissue of the 2nd Pugh album, Pughish, originally released in 1970. Dunno if DJ Shadow has ever sampled anything from this, but it's almost as good as Pugh's first (from which Shadow lifted a neat phrase for Endtroducing). Anyway, if you liked that other Pugh and want more, this is recommended. Weird and whimsical psych/folk/rock/prog sung in Swedish, full of fun and surprises. Again, an LP we bet Dungen's Gustav Ejstes has in his collection!
After a handful of gorgeous drone releases under the name Berber Ox, David Rutledge returns with his new trio, Roger Nova Twelve, and a killer disc of experimental krautrock. The opening track here wouldn't have been out of place on a Berber Ox records, a dark, pulsating sprawl of kosmische low end, a softly undulating dronescape wreathed in squiggly high end filigree and underpinned by a hushed warm thrum. But the sound soon shifts gears, a strange swirl of collaged radio broadcasts and mysterious shortwave transmissions gradually gives way to a simple motorik rhythm, the surrounding sounds building momentum, the drums and what sounds like either a bass or a keyboard, locked into an endless hypnorock loop, while all around it, FX swirl and squirm and shimmer. Eventually guitars swoop into the mix, chugging out a trancey psychedelic riff, while another wraps the proceedings in layers of sonic swirl, and suddenly, we're in total space-psych bliss out, sounding like a dreamier more laid back Heads or White Hills, building to a serious heavy psych blowout, a dense squall of guitarnoise, that gradually fades leaving just a sky full of echo drenched delay and the tracks and traces of fully faded out riff.
But that's just part one. Part two begins with a strange muted whirl of percussive murk, peppered with chiming harmonics, everything blurred and bleary, like some strange underwater symphony, burbling and shimmery, voices chopped up and looped into strange textures, laid over the liquid sonic swirl, wreathed in organ and fuzzy soft focus drones, all manner of strange reverbed melodies fragmented and sent spinning off into the ether, all building to a thick billowing cloud of low end, which is when, about 14 minutes in, the first sign of rhythm appears, surfacing gradually, wreathed in the thick swaths of layered loops, finally becoming a proper space jam with about five minutes remaining, droney and tranced out, this blissed out pulsing psychkraut groove fading out way too soon, when it easily could have stretched out for another 35 minutes and filled up the whole rest of the cd-r.
Fantastic stuff, and definitely recommended for fans of the current crop of psych/space/kraut rockers, a la White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Carlton Melton, The Heads, Lumerians, Moonrises, Mugstar etc.
LIMITED TO 30 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, and housed in a cool clear coat printed envelop made out of magazine pages, each one different. And each one accompanied by a printed postcard/insert.
Another outing from Uwe Schmidt, that incredibly prolific electronicist best known as Atom Heart but also as Senor Coconut, Los Samplers, Atom and Tea Time, Midisport, Geez 'n Gosh, Lisa Carbon, Datacide, Dandy Jack, LB, Bund Deutscher Programmierer ... and more! This time the operative word is JAZZ. In the same way that Senor Coconut fused Kraftwerk with the mambo, The Roger Tubesound Ensemble is a fine excuse to play around with "jazz". It's all very lighthearted, playful and fun. While the first tune is a pretty much straightforward Esquivel-inspired number complete with girl vocalists, tinkling piano and jazz drums, the later tracks blend in the electronics that Atom just can't stay away from. He slyly creeps in some stereo separation effects, the jazz in one ear, drum 'n bass in the other. Sometimes the schizo effect is jarring and sudden, but eventually the music finds its own level as a honest to gosh hybrid percolating happily.
We heart The Rogers Sisters! Their new album kicks so much serious butt we can hardly take it! Each of the ten songs packs the combined wallop of a fierce glare, a cigarette burn and a doubleshot of bourbon. The gritty crunch and smeared lipstick snarl of their guitars... The snotty sneer of their throaty (sort of a cross between Kim Deal and Kate Pierson) vocals... The bratty yet solid stomp of the drums... Sooo rad! This is bad boy/bad girl music that makes you wanna get up to no good too. Don't get us wrong, The Rogers Sisters ain't no possessed wild men of rawk a la Screamin' Jay Hawkins or The Monks, but they do have their own brand of prickly bluesy garagey electricity. Can't wait to see this trio live! We'd say more, but we're too busy rocking out. Recommended.
If you're into the New York post-nowavedarkwavelectroclashp/funk scene that's been going for the past few years, YOU'LL LOVE The Rogers Sisters. The sisters Rogers and Miyuki Furtado kraft spare angular fashionistal neu-glam rock on their debut, Three Fingers. Just over 20 minutes long, their album is all in your face for just about all of it. Dueling angular vocals fight through the continual driving beats grasping for your attention. All the while, you know they look good, each chunk of hair placed in perfect position. Hottt!
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*MISSISSIPPI ALERT*
Of the several new/recent Mississippi releases that we haven't gotten around to reviewing quite yet, this one is one that's been really selling steadily in the store. Figured it deserved a write up for all you non-local folks who wouldn't just see it in our Mississippi bin... So, what this is, is an album of early, 1960s recordings from the legendary "King Of Palm Wine Guitar", Sierra Leone's S.E. Rogie (1926-1994), one of West Africa's most popular and beloved musicians ever.
There's a Bay Area connection too, S.E. Rogie having lived in the East Bay in the '70s and '80s. This material is all from long before he immigrated to the USA, though, and includes "My Lovely Elizabeth", voted in a 2004 poll conducted by the BBC as one of the top ten African songs of all time. Of the dozen here, it's only ONE of the loveliest - they're all really nice, showcasing Rogie's gentle, lilting vocal style, accompanied in most cases by his own acoustic guitar and simple percussion. Sweet and tender in both sound and lyric, it's hard to imagine this record not making most listeners quite happy. Fans of highlife for sure need this, clearly a classic collection.
Those of you who exhibited the good taste to purchase the cd reissue of Rogue Male's debut album, the 1985 NWOBHM classic First Visit, highlighted here recently, are all probably wondering when the reissue of the band's second and last album, 1986's Animal Man, would arrive, right? And you might also be wondering, just how well does Animal Man stack up against First Visit anyway? Well good news all around. It's finally here, and damn right Animal Man is just as good as First Visit, maybe even better. Which means: tough, hard rockin' '80s British metal, catchy, somewhat speedy, and still semi-futuristic (as far as their Mad Maxish costuming goes anyway... also note the computer voices at the start of side one).
Motorhead is still an obvious influence, some Thin Lizzy too. We're hearing both in the vocal dep't., which are sorta gruff and yobbish... kinda punk really. "The Real Me" reminds us of some Di'Anno era Maiden, specifically "Running Free" from Killers. Love the harmonica blowin' coda on that one too! There's definitely a punk, streetwise element to this band's metallic stylings, lots of take-no-shit attitude certainly. In fact, anyone in the market for an uplifting personal anthem might try out track three, "Take No Shit"!
At their most pogoish punk, the poppy unemployment protest rocker "Job Center" could be a Rezillos track. And at times, particularly when they work in the quasi-industrial "sci-fi" effects, this sounds a bit Killing Joke, actually. But their influences go further back - "You're On Fire" includes a nod to the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
As with the First Visit reissue, this too is limited (2000 copies) and comes in a digipack. One bonus track this time, the non-album cut "Rough Tough (Pretty Too)" from the "Belfast" 12" ep that preceded Animal Man's release. The cd booklet includes lyrics, and biographical liner notes that yet again misspell Rogue Male as Rouge Male. Whoops.
Remember, if Andee and Allan here at AQ had gotten their as-yet-unnamed and still utterly hypothetical '80s metal reissue label off the ground already, THEY might have reissued the two Rogue Male albums themselves, if they could have. Rogue Male was top of their list - get this (and First Visit) to really understand why, maybe.
So, as you probably aren't aware, Aquarius co-owners Andee and Allan have been thinkin' about doing a heavy metal reissue label for a while now. For obscure stuff they love from the '80s that's never ever been legitimately reissued on cd. They even each came up with a short list of things they'd want to try and put out on their (as yet hypothetical) label. Why are we telling you this? Well, on both their lists, you'd find this band, England's Rogue Male.
Now it turns out that they can take Rogue Male off the list - 'cause their album First Visit HAS just in fact been reissued! Yay! Metal Mind just saved Andee and Allan a lot of trouble, and thousands of dollars!
Rogue Male only made two albums, of which this, from 1985, is the first. It's speedy, fist-pumping metal with a definite, catchy rock n' roll edge to it. In combination with the singer's gruff, Lemmy-like voice, this garnered a lot of comparisons to the mighty Motorhead, especially with regard to this disc's lead-off track "Crazy Motorcycle".
But also, they were known for their "futuristic", "sci-fi" image, because of their Mad Max style stage gear and the cover of this album, which depicts what appears to be a Terminator cyborg with a mullet! For a few brief moments there in '85, Rogue Male were the heavy metal equivalent of William "Neuromancer" Gibson or something. Or thought they were. After all, the British heavy metal magazine of record Kerrang! named them "the next big thing", which unfortunately was probably the kiss of death (how many next big things ever are?). After just one more album (1986's Animal Man, also a good 'un and hopefully soon to be in stock here too) they called it quits.
Really, Rogue Male weren't as advanced as their whole "cyberpunk" image seems to suggest. They were maybe more punk than cyber, doing songs more streetwise than science-fictional, about such topics as motorcycles, sex, and unemployment. Though we suppose, if Mad Max is the model, then at least motorcycles and unemployment are indeed "futuristic".
Despite Rogue Male's lack of success back in the day, anyone into a gritty, melodic mix of heaviness and poppiness '80s style should enjoy this overlooked album, one that from start to finish is a simple headbanging pleasure! Definitely one of the best from the latter days of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, that reminds us not only of Motorhead but also some of the more "hot rockin'" Judas Priest tracks of the era, and also of Thin Lizzy just a bit as well. There's just such a raw charm to the urgent, chunky, repetitive riffing of a song like "Look Out" that we gotta love. It doesn't matter that Rogue Male weren't actually innovating anything, they still managed to have a distinct identity and make some basic, quality NWOBHM tunes that have stood the test of time and well deserve reissue.
This limited edition digipack cd includes two worthy bonus tracks, and a cd booklet with new liner notes (which unfortunately contain a couple of typos, misspelling the band's name as "Rouge Male", whoops) and a couple of pretty funny band photos. Recommended! Remember, we were gonna put this out if we could!
Why haven't Andee and Allan gotten their reissue label off the ground yet? Well aside from being way busy with Aquarius (and in Andee's case, tUMULt) they haven't had too much luck contacting the bands they were interested in, so far... and also (and most importantly) they can't seem to agree on a NAME for the label. Andee wants to call it Heavy Rescue Records. Allan's keen on Hair Sprain Records. Anybody have any better ideas? ...Or, know how to get a hold of any former members of a band called Lords Of The Crimson Alliance (from New York, circa '86)??
Here's a four-song appetizer to whet your Rogue Wave pop appetite (their new full length comes out in October)! This EP kicks things off with the forthcoming album's first single "10:1" which is followed by three previously unreleased songs exclusive to this disc -- "Interruptions", "Wait For It" and "Crush The Camera". Happy to hear that the band has picked up right from where they left off on their 2003 debut (Out Of The Shadows). That is, makin' sensitive smart-pop that doesn't skimp in the energy department. Can't wait for the full length Descended Like Vultures!
Oops, I do believe you've caught us napping! Sorry folks, not sure why it took us so long to come up with words to describe this SF band's latest full length. Of course we love it! Rogue Wave has been a trusted spring of utterly disarming pop tunes since their debut, 2003's Out Of The Shadows. They polish each one until it sparkles. Each of the dozen tracks on Asleep At Heaven's Gate is exceptionally well crafted and smart, the instrumentation warm and lush. Really, it's not an overstatement to say that the album starts strong with "Harmonium" and ends even stronger with "Cheaper Than Therapy". Zach Rogue's honey drop vocals are at their most lilting and earnest. We think fans of the high lonesome melancholia of My Morning Jacket might also find themselves caught in the comforting aural embrace of Rogue Wave. Soooo good!
Hooooray! Here's the second album from Bay Area pop dreamies Rogue Wave. No sophomore slumps here. No way! Hearing Descended Like Vultures in many ways reminds me of hearing Death Cab For Cutie's first album Something About Airplanes for the first time. Descended Like Vultures is soft, sweet and immediately endearing with its melted ice cream boyish vocals and lush pop arrangements. Mainman Zach Rogue is one dandy songwriter and composer with an overflowing treasure chest of irresistibly dreamy hooks and melodies. Very reminiscent of The Beatles, Raspberries, Bread and the abovementioned Ben Gibbard and co. You can bet yer boots that popcraft as splendid as this certainly comes highly recommended!
You might've caught sight of this new SF quartet opening for AQ faves Spoon at the Fillmore recently. One dozen delightful tunes that take turns lulling you sweetly and perking you back up again. A couple of songs particularly bring to mind the intelligent pop of bands like Thingy, American Analog Set, Death Cab For Cutie or Pinback. And well, if you have any inclination of how we feel about those bands, then you know this bodes very very well for our appreciation of these new popsters.
Fantastic lilting vocal harmonies, crafty hooks, and little embellishments like delicate chimes or birdy chirps to pretty things up even more. But heck, don't just take our word for it, see for yourself! Check out the album's third song, the gentle pop confection "Be Kind + Remind". Aaah, so lovely, and such a great debut!
Permalight is the fourth full length from this fine Bay Area band. Rogue Wave don't whip out an album a year, but take their time (usually about 2-3 years) crafting their absolutely wonderful heartfelt gems. Always well worth the wait! With each one the band maintains a remarkable consistency, and yet also continues to grow and evolve. This time we noticed a few more electronic elements blipping and bleeping dreamily around their buoyantly wistful pop/rock core of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. Also, it could just be our ears, but lead singer Zach Rogue's vocal phrasing and intonation seem a bit different than we remember. We can't quite put our finger on just what it is yet (maybe a shortening of vowel enunciation?), but what we can say though is if you swoon over the lovely pop sensitivities of bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, Postal Service or Nada Surf, or perhaps reaching further back Simon And Garfunkel, you just gotta give Rogue Wave a spin. Really good!
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Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" (Eve).
We look to Medical Records for all sorts of fantastic electronic music reissues, and find ourselves digging pretty much everything they dig up. So much so that a bunch of Medical releases have ended up aQ Records Of the Week. But recently, Medical has been dabbling in contemporary recordings, their first was a record from darkwave/synthwave outfit Illustration Sonore that we reviewed recently. And while contemporary releases from reissue labels hasn't always worked out so well, so far, Medical's foray into the present, has been a big success, and this, the debut from Texas duo Roladex, keeps that streak going.
The label describes Roladex as sounding like Kraftwerk covering Magnetic Fields, which is really not that far off, the songs minimal and melancholy, the music bleepy bloopy, analog kraut-synth, boy / girl vocals, but we also hear Human League and other outfits from that era. Ultimately though, that label description is pretty spot on, the music fantastically robotic and krautrocky, and with the deep dramatic vocals, it's hard not to hear a little Stephen Merritt. But then there are tracks like the John Carpenter-gone-electro of "Empty Streets", or the groovy electro disco-kraut of "Nuke It Out", with its electronic squiggles, laser blast bleeps, and cascading synths, that definitely give this it's own distinct sound. The crazy thing is, that sound is so perfectly and accurately crafted, we never would have assumed this was contemporary, in every way, it sounds like some lost electro-pop / new wave rarity from back in the day, which is probably why we're digging it so much, and what makes it such a perfect fit with the rest of Medical's reissue roster!
Pressed on 180 gram transparent electric blue vinyl, housed in a heavy full color sleeve, includes a poster/insert as well.
The return of Roladex one of the few contemporary artists on the kick ass new wave / synth wave reissue label Medical Records, and like their first full length, Anthems For The Microage, which we raved about back on list #445, their track here, "Glass Statuette" is another dark synthy gem, sort of Giorgio Moroder meets the Human League, pulsating synth arpeggios, romantic (but still a little icy) boy/girl vocals, robotic cold wave Kraftwerkisms surrounded by minimal programmed pulsations, and blooping, bleeping melodies, and like that full length, sounding as much like an actual reissue as anything on Medical.
The flipside is the first we've heard from [[Pressures]], and it's a good match for Roladex, a bit more melancholy and minor key, the vibe dreamily wistful, the sound propulsive and motorik, all pulsing synths, and lockstep rhythms, the hazy vocodered vocals, angelic and ethereal, give the track it's human/romantic/melancholy vibe, balancing the retro/futuristic machine music beneath...
Like all Medical releases, housed in a nice full color sleeve, and for this one, pressed onto heavy, transparent yellow vinyl. And yeah, also VERY LIMITED!
Latest from this Swedish duo, whose day jobs just so happen to be producing tracks for artists like Fever Ray and the Knife, but whose musical heart seems to belong to groups like Goblin and folks like John Carpenter, their records gorgeous, dark, cinematic soundscapes of swirling synths and pulsing rhythms, and this latest disc is no different, although if anything, it's much more subtle, and carefully crafted, as well as being quite a bit darker. Where past recordings evoked the the swirl of space, conjuring up streaks of celestial kosmische-ness, or the sleek streamlined imagined future of high speeds and automation, this new record is much more grimy and menacing. Even the opening track eschews the usual RTD hallmarks, and instead locks into a relentless groove, all ominous tension, and haunting repetition, no beats, to soaring synths, just a throbbing cyclical melodic played on old analog instruments that seem to decay as the track progresses growing more and more distorted. One might imagine the record might let up, but the following track is another looped bit of synth-y tension, a blooping minor key melody, over dark minor key swells, but laced with some gorgeous elegiac piano, which adds a serious gravitas to the proceeding, but in no way lightens the mood. This is fantastic stuff, the soundtrack to some dark dystopian future otherworld, as imagined and rendered in analog sound.
The sounds range from hushed piano drive ambient swirls, to creepy lumbering dirges, from gristly expanses of electro-drone thrum to blurred ominous synth buzz blur, and from blurred almost symphonic drift to washed out almost Eurodisco sounding grooves, but all held together by those dark dolorous piano melodies, and that melancholic mood that seems to infuse all the sounds here. Dark and mysterious, a grim and gorgeous glimpse of a dark kosmische underworld.
A super special limited Record Store Day release from these Swedish duo, a production team who has worked with Fever Ray and the Knife among others, but who on their own create super cinematic synthscapes that definitely appeal to fans of Umberto, Zombi, Majeure and the rest of the new wave of Carpenter worship.
This 2 track 12" was recorded live in Sweden in 2010, and features two sprawling sidelong epics, each a fantastically evocative chunk of synth heavy soundtracky pulse and shimmer. The A side is some seriously spaced out krautdrone drift, equal parts Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, the sound grows more and more dense as the track progresses, from minimal, to a dark haunting throb, the sound more noisy, more aggressive, before exploding in a final burst of frantic synth freakout. The flipside unfurls sweeping pulses that seem to swoop from speaker to speaker, a dreamy melancholy melody draped over the top. Distant swells, thick swaths of low end buzz, the vibe super cinematic, and darkly tense, multiple melodies overlap and interact, layer upon layer, the sound ever more dense and dark, the second half finds the sounds changing dramatically, the percussion ultra distorted, the eighties soundtrack feel even more pronounced, again finishing off with a barrage of wild glitched out synths. Great stuff.
And again, a SUPER LIMITED Record Store Day release. We were lucky to get enough copies to list post-RSD, which means these most definitely won't be around for long.
Past records from Roll The Dice found the Swedish duo channeling the spirit of John Carpenter, crafting lush, sinister synthscapes, that much like the rest of the current crop of Carpenterians, played like some lost soundtrack, and while this new one displays much of that sound still, they've fleshed out their sound big time, the most notable shift being the addition of actual strings, turning their already lush sound into something downright majestic.
Brooding pianos drift amidst clouds of crackle, deep reverby shimmers, ominous minor key melodies, little bits of glitch, the strings gradually building to a harrowing, haunting coda, and that's just the opener, that sounds exactly like it could be the music beneath the credits from some seventies Italian giallo, right down to the simulated record crackle.
The band push way past their faux soundtrack roots, building epic bombastic creeps, like "Assembly", a stately march, more of a trudge actually, the chords ringing out, beneath big booming percussive thuds, a sinister slow build, that eventually blossoms into something almost Swans like, albeit heavy on the strings and piano, but still, it's fierce and intense, a near orchestral sonic death march, with a Godspeed style slow build energy, the songs here not so much songs, as pieces, single parts that develop over time, that expand and sprawl, often to devastating effect, the strings stunning, the mood darkly heart wrenching, some tracks the strings get all Bernard Hermann Psycho-stabs, sometimes accompanied by the plunk of prepared piano, those tracks drifting into full on 20th century / musique concrete territory, but other drifting along dreamily, sounding like the prettiest, most minimal Tim Hecker track, all hazy and washed out, and delicately crystalline, while still others sound almost like trip hop, channeling groups like Portishead or Massive Attack, that sound even more effective with the strings, that add so much pathos and emotion. Fantastic stuff, haunting and lovely, alternately brooding and bombastic, cinematic and soundtrack, but also dabbling in straight up sound design, fans of Tim Hecker, and Fennesz, and Godspeed, and Belong, and Stars Of The Lid, not to mention all the modern retro-synth wranglers, the Goblin and Carpenter worshippers, this is the next step in the evolution of that sound, and is really pretty goddamn stunning.
A bit of a left field release for Digitalis, Roll The Dice is a duo from Sweden, producers who have worked with The Knife and Fever Ray, but who here, serve up some sort of futuristic retro John Carpenter / Goblin style synthscapes, albeit with their own twist.
The sound is most definitely spacey, and synthy, and soundtracky, throbbing, pulsing, subtly psychedelic, the continuous sci-fi pulse that seems to drive every low budget movie made in the eighties, but wrapped around elements that are distinctly more earthy and organic, a little bit of folk, some broody minimalism, even (and especially) a bit of pop, definitely a strange hybrid, but of the two elements it definitely leans heavily in the synth/space/retro direction. That said, these guys cover a lot of ground, slipping from full on Goblin pulse, all haunting and minor key, to moody poppy playfulness, to long drifts of shimmering spaced out ambience and even extended moments of almost Basic Channel-like deep dub minimalism, all of those held together by the presence, either subtle or pronounced, of that relentless, pulsing sci-fi synth line.
The flipside finds RTD getting all blissed out and Pop Ambient, washed out, shimmery, sun dappled and glimmery, crystalline melodies, and barely there buried soft focus rhythms, before closing the record with what sounds like the music behind the credits from some super obscure, eighties, straight to video thriller, slow and spacious and smoldering, ominous and a bit creepy, but still spacey and synthy.
Anyone into recent records from Umberto, D.A., Anima Morte, Somnam, Pulse Emitter, Steve Moore, as well as yeah, of course, the aforementioned Goblin, Zombi and John Carpenter, would do well to check this out too.
SOLD OUT AT THE LABEL, super limited, not sure how long these will be around.
What can we say that the title doesn't already tell you. Yes, this is Pole (aka Stefan Betke) remixing three tracks from Roll The Dice's last record, In Dust. Pushing the Swedish duo's carefully crafted kosmiche epics into ghost in the alien dub machine techtonics. From the darkly pretty and mysterious "Calling Dub Workers" to the heavy intense dub of "Echo Hands" and finally the Middle Eastern skittering excursion of "The Skull is Built Into The Version", this is a match made in heaven!
Latest from these Texas based heavies, and their first record to make it on the aQ list. Which seems weird considering how fucking kick ass and so very aQ this stuff sounds. Plus as much as we try not to judge a book by its cover, how can we not when said cover is a sprawling expanse of forest, with a rainbow soaring overhead, and in the midst of this jungle like foliage, a row of full stacks and a drumkit, right in front of what appears to be a river. Hell had we not already heard this, we would have been sold big time. And then, there's the fact that the first two minutes of record opener "Candle Black" essentially sounds like a Slayer 45 spinning at 33rpm, one of THOSE riffs, and then when the band does kick in, and cranks it up, it sounds like a doom-ed out stonery sludge combo channeling Slayer, into something much less speed metal, and way more lurching, lumbering doom sludge majesty. The band locking into mesmerizing and supremely headbangable grooves, the vocals a gruff growly bellow, the sound slipping from low slung riffery, to soaring epic almost-post-rock, to churning math flecked doom, to death march plod and back again.
Four songs, nearly 40 minutes, the longest jam 14+, the shortest nearly 7, this is dense, chugging, crusty, metallic, grim, doom-ed, sludge-y, slow burn, blackened, tripped out, mathy, stonery, Sabbathy heaviness that will no doubt hit the spot for anyone into similarly minded outfits like Bongripper, The Sword, Sourvein, Eyehategod, etc...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, housed in a super heavy, deluxe gatefold sleeve. Includes digital download too!
Rollerball scares up all sorts of psychologically charged demons within their cabaret theatrics, not unlike the atmospheres that saturate the works of Barry Adamson and to a lesser extent Tom Waits and Nick Cave (due to the fact that Rollerball's vocal duets / croons are engaging, but not as engrossingly powerful as either Waits or Cave, but the accompaniments remain similar). The slow patter of brushed drums, a minor chord on a piano, and melody lines from clarinet, accordion, and trumpet fix a darkened mood upon their jazz-decay creakiness. Occasionally, Rollerball dissolves the structures into epic free-jazz spaciousness that recalls their Portland comrades Jackie-O Motherfucker. "Long Walk For Ice Cream" collects the "Sam Donaldson" 7" single and the "Zapatos" 10" previously released through Cochon as well as four new tracks.
Medical Records branches out from their cold wave / new wave / synth wave bread and butter to delve into nineties indie rock, with this vinyl reissue of 1993's Shoulder Voices, the debut lp from Irish avant pop shoegazers Rollerskate Skinny, fronted by Jimi Shields, little brother of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. While there are hints of MBV in Rollerskate Skinny's sound, Shoulder Voices actually falls closer to that of Mercury Rev, the same mix of orchestral pop bombast and twisted songsmithery, but in Rollerskate Skinny's case, with a bit more fuzz and crunch, and some super distinctive vocals, that frequently swoop into a soaring falsetto, over a sound lush and proggy, distorted and psychedelic, a dizzying psych pop concoction of dreamy indie pop jangle exploding into heavy guitar shoegaze freakouts, with long loping stretches of woozy psychedelic meander, as well as dreamy ethereal ambience.
Some seriously tripped out nineties style indie prog, psych pop genius, that is definitely recommended for fans of other outfits from the era like the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Laika, My Bloody Valentine, Moonshake, etc.
Super swank packaging, heavy full color jackets, with a full color printed insert featuring an interview with Jimi Shields, as well as a Rollerskate Skinny retrospective written by Sean Kirkpatrick.
Pressed on heavy 180 gram red vinyl.
A previously unreleased extended version of deep cut dance classic from 1983's Undercover lp.
This is neither The Arthur Baker extended dance remix or the dub version from the original single, but this 10+ minute version has only been available from the 2cd bootleg anthology "Jamming With Stu". This is just Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts with a session guitarist getting funky in a studio with Jagger riffing off the top of his head about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A Paradise Garage classic!
Yep, reissued on vinyl!! Makes us happy in a way.
As much as we'd prefer not to, we're sure some of you would appreciate if we started this review with one of those AQ alerts. Goes something like: BORIS ALERT!!!! BORIS ALERT!!!! NEW ON INOXIA!!!! BORIS RELATED NEW RELEASE!!!! Okay, so now all you Boris obsessive can skip right to the buy button and move on, you're probably gonna want this, cuz A. it's on Inoxia, and B. it's produced by Atsuo from Boris! Oh, and let's not forget C. IT'S LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!
For the rest of you, who need more than a loose Boris connection, this is in fact a pretty awesome slab of drifting droning acid psych. No huge pounding sludge, or blown out fuzz rock, most of the tracks on Pinhole meander aimlessly, wandering from fluttery folks, to ambient drift, and back again, with the occasional squall of distorted buzz.
The record opens with a thick wash of blurred guitar, dense and swirling, groaning waves of distortion flecked with streaks of feedback, while beneath lurks a playful little melody, gently swaying peacefully beneath the sonic turbulence. Then suddenly, the record shifts gears, and we're floating weightless through some sun dappled glade, lilting detuned guitars unfurl gentle melodies all wistful and abstract, WAY off in the background some tape hiss and crumbling distortion. It's very spare and lo-fi, wreathed in sparkling solar flares and soft focus reverb, sort of like a druggy mix of Jandek, Loren Connors and the Durutti Column. Elsewhere reverbed guitars sway suspended in clouds subtle delay, nursery rhyme melodies and hummed / mumbled vocals draped over a shimmery crystalline latticework of delicate drifts of sound, super simple and unobtrusive percussion as well as barely audible field recordings. Now and again, the band launches into some super aggressive strumming, kicking up dense clouds of high end skree and blown out free noise fuzz, but even at their noisiest, Rollo are never far away from settling back down into another long stretch of soft psychfolk shimmer. Good stuff for sure. Not necessarily sonically something Boris fans will automatically love, although some of this did remind us of Boris at their dreamiest and most abstract, but fans of Japanese stuff like L, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Masaki Batoh, Eddie Marcon and the like will be in heaven.
Import of Greek folk artist that the Forced Exposure crowd is all over.
