[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1001 through 1050 of 1354.

The tireless SF DJ Romanowski brings good tidings with his brand new festive mix, Holidays With Romanowski! His turntable boughs are weighed heavily with old soul and hip hop classics. Nice.

Local DJ Romanowski and Greg "P-Nut" Galinsky put together an art show featuring sixteen pairs of plain white Adidas shell toes. each decorated to within an inch of its life by sixteen artists. Some of them look pretty cool, like Romanowski's which he bronzed and be-winged. The show opened in SF and will travel to LA, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, and finally NYC. Romanoski mixed this cd as a special soundtrack to accompany the show, and in addition to several of his own previously-unreleased tracks, there are contributions from Latyrx, Poets of Rhythm, Rad, Exotic Pets, Viva Brazil, etc. Fine mood music for an ultra hip event such as this. Made specially for the art show and limited to only a few stores. Nice photos of the shoes too.

RealAudio clip: My Adidas Intro
RealAudio clip: Skindo-Le-Le
RealAudio clip: Say That

Here's a reissue of this Bay Area band's sophomore release from 1982. Romeo Void were perhaps most known for their underground hit "Never Say Never" (aka "I might like you better if we slept together" song). That propulsive number which was characterized by some jagged sax, some time signature twists and vocalist Debora Iyall's distinct edgy delivery is indeed on this album along with eight others, many of which bear a striking resemblance to that one song. Also included on this 2006 pressing are four bonus tracks (one of which is a 12" version of "Never Say Never"). Cool.

MPEG stream: Version)
MPEG stream: Shake The Hands Of Time

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

SORRY. Japanese instrumental trio, equal parts King Crimson, Don Caballero, Circle, Ruins, Altered States...pretty great and affordable too.

You just may have heard me (cup) raging about the punky pop magic that was The Rondelles last album entitled "The Fox". Really, it was one of my top picks from 1999. Well, when the time came to press play on this their newest sock hop offering, I was positively giddy. Granted this is a bit of a mishmash collection containing six new songs, two K Records singles and a Teenbeat Records

RealAudio clip: Like A Prayer
RealAudio clip: Safety In Numbers

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

SORRY. With this release, The Rondelles hold the honor of being number XCIX (#99) in the International Pop Underground Singles Series. Hooray! Quite simply, this Albuquerque band continues to kick some super power-punk-pop ass --- albeit here in only two very brief bursts. Just a little single to keep us happy 'til the follow-up to the fabulous "Fox" album appears. More Rondelles, please!

Bubblegum rock'n'roll action from Albuquerque! Peppy, high-spirited tunes for your next rollerskate party. This cd has not left Cup's stereo since it came out. Yes, it's that good from start to finish. Snappy songs, super hooks. Confident vocals at once youthfully exuberant, world weary, and wise beyond their years. An ultra-great trio sure to glue a smile on your face. Hey, Donnas fans in need of a more pop fix...this is definitely for you!

OK, here's an Aquarius-approved 'high concept' album, all right: Estonian medieval music group Rondellus performing covers of Ozzy-era BLACK SABBATH songs translated into Latin!!! Now *this* sounds like a Black Mass! Backed by lute, harmonium, psaltery, One of the best, and most original, 'tribute' records ever. Now they should go on tour with Apocalyptica (the Finnish cello quartet that does Metallica covers)!

RealAudio clip: Oculi filioli
RealAudio clip: Funambulus domesticus
RealAudio clip: Post Aeternitatem

Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Girls At Dawn, and on and on. So many of our favorite lo-fi garage pop bands of the last few years share one common bond, a deep love and appreciation for Phil Spector's production and the girl groups that he helped bring to life. When it comes to his production and THAT sound he perfected, it just doesn't get more classic than with The Ronettes. The 'Wall of Sound', the drenched reverb, the hypnotic warmth, the catchy melodies, the heartache and yearning. Makes it extra heartbreaking and bittersweet to revisit these songs knowing all we do now about the troubling relationship that Phil Spector and Ronnie Spector had and of course the ongoing black cloud that haunts Spector's life. But no one can ever take away the amazing and revolutionary sounds he helped create with The Ronettes. These recordings really did help shape the landscape of so much of the best pop music that would follow over the next quarter century. From The Beach Boys to The Ramones, all of the greats have been influenced by the sounds of The Ronettes.

MPEG stream: I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine
MPEG stream: Be My Baby
MPEG stream: Walking In The Rain
MPEG stream: Here I Sit

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SORRY. Ron Anderson of the Molecules teams up with the Ruins, to play hyperspeed absurdist prog.

1996 uber-group recording featuring Tom Cora on Cello, Lux Ex on Bass, Phil Minton on Vocals and Michael Vatcher on drums. One of those rare and amazing efforts that continues to impress me every time I hear it. I guess it takes heavyweights such as these four, with broad backgrounds in music to produce such a unique album that is both completely out there skronk, and retaining catchy songlike membrane to every piece. Highly recommended. Includes a cover of Harry Partch's "The Letter."

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY. A super limited lathe cut 10" (pressed by Peter King in NZ) from the man XLR8R magazine calls "the John Coltrane of techno" also known as O.S.T. Caustic metallic tones and bleak timestretched drones fight for space with the heavy clatter of drum programming which slowly dissolve into a rather sad electronica number. I could see this thing being one of those legendary releases that IDM fanatics will shell out alot of money for in about five years. Now's your chance.

NOW ALSO ON CD! UK horror soundtrack vinyl label Death Waltz, deviates again from their ongoing reissue campaign to offer up another modern soundtrack, but fear not, Room 237 stacks up pretty well against all the classics the label has been resurrecting recently, it would be really easy to mistake this for some classic slab of grimy cinematic sonic creep from back in the day. Jonathan Snipes and William Hudson channel the greats, John Carpenter, Goblin, equal parts sinister synth drones, twisted electronics, blackened ambience, seventies kosmische, haunting melodies, Italo-disco, groovy synth wave, the craziest part of all is that it's the soundtrack to a DOCUMENTARY! But then it's not any documentary, it's a 2012 film about Stanley Kubrick's classic, The Shining, or more specifically, all the crackpot theories folks have about the Shining, with interviews with various people, each presenting their take on the hidden meanings behind The Shining, and some of them are doozies, from the genocide of the American Indians, to the Apollo 11 moon landing, and yeah, even the Holocaust. The movie is twisted, and fascinating, hilarious and disturbing, some of the theories totally far fetched, others not so much, with plenty of visual evidence given for each. Watching the movie, we were actually struck by the score, which at times reminded us of the music from Phantasm (Death Waltz, reissue that one!!!), or Halloween, which seem like they wouldn't be suited to a documentary, but somehow, they add a sort of cinematic gravitas, even more so when this new score is coupled with original footage from The Shining. But hell, even removed from the film, Snipes and Hutson's score is fantastic, big bombastic percussion, darkly swirling synths, choir like vocals, haunting melodies, pulsing almost disco-y synthscapes, plenty of futuristic electronics, cascading keyboard arpeggiations, and shimmery chordal swells, fluttery psychedelic flutes, some of the music super tense and ominous, reminding us also of the incredible score for the recent Beyond The Black Rainbow (Death Waltz! Do that one too!!), sort of cosmic prog, infused with a heaping dose of the sonic heebie jeebies. So goddamn good. And again, fans of classic old school horror scores, will likely flip their lids! As will anyone into the retro futuristic faux-soundtracks of Zombi, Majeure, Umberto and all the rest. Like all Death Waltz releases, the packaging is super swank, the cd comes in an eye popping full color six panel gatefold digisleeve, complete with the cool pop up cd holder featured in other DW cds, the vinyl is 180 gram, red and yellow, cut at 45rpm, and housed in a heavy casebound tip-on sleeve. The vinyl version also includes a cd of the complete score as well!!

MPEG stream: Recourse To Eagles
MPEG stream: To Keep From Falling Off
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Slumberland are killing it lately. Band after band, release after release, it's beginning to feel like they've got the market cornered on fuzzy garage rock and buzzy jangle pop. And this new single from roommates only drives it home. Roommates is in fact Ben Cook from Fucked Up, and his partner in the Fucked Up side project Marvelous Darlings, Mark Fosco, and the two have cooked up some gorgeously hooky fuzzed out garagey power pop that totally kills. Big distorted guitars, pounding reverbed drums, the sound hazy and dreamy and shoegazey, with washed out vox and big big hooks. The two tracks on the A side came out as a crazy limited tape back in the day, and apparently were never intended to be heard outside of a few friends. Lucky for us, cuz these are fast becoming new favorites around here. The B sides dials back some of the buzz and fuzz and channels some totally classic old school power pop, with fantastic vocals, harmonies and hooks galore. It's weird to think of this as a tossed off side project, cuz most bands would kill for these songs. Here's hoping there's more where these came from...

We'd been hearing about these guys for a while now, and from all sorts of folks, metalheads, popkids, all pretty adamant about how we had to check them out, we didn't realize it was one of the guys from Double Dagger, but as much as we dig DD, we were hardly prepared for THIS. A seriously kick ass blast of hooky heaviness, equal parts AmRep pig fuck noise rock, tangled old school math rock crush and vintage grunge, just check out the opener "Bait Car" (even sounds like a Tad song title), super distorted guitars, pounding drums, a breakdown verse that's all buzzing bass, drum crush, squealing feedback, yowled vox, and then holy shit a seriously Nirvana worthy chorus, and then a killer mathy breakdown, and then another Nirvana style part that's even more catchy. Holy shit, we had to listen to that first track 3 or 4 times before we could go on to the rest of the record, and to be honest we had a similar reaction to almost every song here, hooky and heavy, sludgey, grungy, poppy, the Nirvana vibe looms large, but filtered through old school Midwest heaviness and modern Torche style metallic pop, everything here totally hits the spot, the guitar sound is massive, crunchy and crumbly, the songs swing and bounce, groove and grind, every single one has a hook most pop bands would kill for, but it's set amidst some serious downtuned riffery and muscly metallic heft, think Helmet and Hum, Polvo and Drive Like Jehu, lots of nineties influence for sure, but all woven seamlessly together into what might be simultaneously our new favorite pop record, and new favorite heavy record, all at the same time. Obviously CRAZY recommended!

MPEG stream: Bait Car
MPEG stream: Vaporize
MPEG stream: Bowlth
MPEG stream: Wojtek

Second blast of gloriously grungy noise rock from these recent aQ faves who seem to have taken the blatant Nirvana obsession of their Ideal Cities and tempered it a bit, the new ep way more polished and poppy. All of which was hinted at on that first one for sure, but here, the moments of noisy crunch and fuzzed out pound are more in service to some seriously kick ass songwriting and big BIG hooks. We're tempted to even say 'radio ready', cuz goddamn if this stuff wouldn't sound right at home alongside the usual modern rock suspects. That said, Roomrunner are still plenty scrappy, and the influence of classic grunge is all over their sound, but they've managed to finally make those influences less obvious, crafting a sound that ultimately sounds like Roomrunner, and not the bands they grew up on. Opener "Ms. DNA" takes up right from where Idea Cities left off, a pounding grunge groover, but quickly the sound blossoms into something way more melodic, with spidery guitar melodies, wound around equally spidery melodies, giving it a sort of psychedelic vibe, before the chorus swoops in, all anthemic with vocal harmonies galore, before lunging right back more grungy crunch. And the rest of the record plays out similarly, most of the songs starting with a very Nirvana-esque sonic seed, often transformed into some very familiar sounding grunt riffing, but then in EVERY case, the song becomes something else entirely, jangly, catchy, poppy, the vibe is still super nineties, and given no context at all, you'd likely think this was from back in the day, but somehow it sounds simultaneously nostalgic and fresh and exciting at the same time. A rare feat for sure. And while it's still noisy and weird enough for underground weirdos, it definitely sets these guys up for some mainstream love, which is not a bad thing at all. Includes a download too!

MPEG stream: Ms. DNA
MPEG stream: Chrono Trigger
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Probably the best metal band to come out of the Czech Republic (and though it may seem unlikely, there are quite a few!) is the ominously monikered Root. Around for almost 15 years now, Root continue to make amazing records, evolving and growing with each release, from their roots (ahem) in raw black metal to avant-garde almost-operas more recently. "Black Seal" is easily their best, blending their old, simpler metal sound, and their new more polished, more melodic direction. Classic eighties sounding metal, with killer riffs, amazing harmony leads, great production, super interesting and complex songs, and wildly creative drumming, but it's the vocals of Root leader Big Boss that really push this over the top. From warbly maniac-lounge-singer wailing to hushed chants to occasional guttural growls (not like death metal cookie monster vocals, more like sinister preacher threatening sinners with the end of the world), to absolutely dreamy, rich and lustrous lower register crooning. And somehow these bizarre vocals complement the music perfectly, with the band deftly veering between almost-thrash-metal, doomy Sabbath style epics, classic sounding hard rock, and awesome Katatonia-esque moody minor key masterpieces with hymn like harmony vocals. The whole record is dark and moody and heavy, personal, introspective and creepy. It all culminates perfectly in the album's final track, an intense and beautiful mid tempo epic, with chugging guitars and wispy minor key synths and gorgeous melodies. Big Boss contributes perhaps his best vocals of the record with a Nick Cave sort of baritone spinning a heartwrenching tale of loss and sorrow, that slowly turns into a bizarre acapella chant, with rich, low harmony vocals that go on and on and on for a full 15 minutes! SO bizarre but SO great!

RealAudio clip: The Incantation Of Thessalonian Women
RealAudio clip: Nativity

We'd be exceedingly remiss (in our duty to Satan) if we were never to list the most recent record from long-running Czech "black metal" (or "dark heavy metal") practitioners Root. Their eighth full-length studio album, 2007's Daemon Viam Invenient begins with an acoustic prologue, after which Root then launch into the storming "Human", an auspicious beginning to this fully epic and idiosyncratic collection of ripping tracks. Band mainstay, vocalist Big Boss (bedecked with face paint that makes his bald head look like a badly cracked egg) is in fine form, mixing up rasping croaks and whispers with almost-operatic bellowing that's melodic, yet deep and gruff. On that aforementioned intro, he even sings quite softly & sensitively, sounding a bit like a shaky Leonard Cohen with a Czech accent! Likewise, Root's music shifts gears continuously, moody moments swept aside by catchy riffs, choppy chunky rhythms, swarms of shred guitar soloing, and prominent basslines. Imagine a modernized version of '80s evil like Bathory and Mercyful Fate competing with the WTF? factor of a band like Sigh. And, as always with Root, there's an unholy dose of Eastern European eccentricity at play here too. Or, maybe the baroque bizarreness is all them. Fans, who have learned to expect the unexpected (and extreme) from these guys, should be satisfied.

MPEG stream: Human
MPEG stream: Awakening

Ultra limited, insanely deluxe quadruple lp box set from the greatest weirdo black metal band to ever come out of the Czech Republic. Fronted by the truly iconic Big Boss, with his evil black face paint and booming low voiced delivery, he howls dramatically over fierce black riffing and weirdly romantic keyboards, a buzzing blackness reminiscent of Venom or Bathory, but WAY weirder. Definitely one of Andee and Allan's all time favorite black metal bands. This box set contains all of Root's demo tapes from the late 1980's plus various bonus live recordings taken from the Death Metal Session Festival vol. 2 (Prague 1988). Also included is a massive 32 page 12" x 12" booklet containing tons of photos from the band's early days, flyers, newspaper clippings, interviews, fanzine articles, and lots more. 4 lps in two deluxe gatefold jackets, an XL Root t-shirt, a big poster, all housed in a custom made box printed in red, black and metallic silver, sealed with a vellum obi with a foil-stamped logo. Holy crap, this is amazing. You have to see it to believe it. Definitely one of the most extravagant packages we've ever seen. And c'mon, it's ROOT!!!

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

SORRY. The Czech Republic's Root are one of the most talented, original, and eccentric black metal outfits around. Slowly we in the West are getting clued in to their stuff. Here's two of their earlier efforts remastered and repackaged as a double cd: 1991's relatively raw "Hell Symphony" and 1995's more advanced and melodic "Kargeras". Also included: some live bonus tracks recorded in 2000.

Damn, the new Root! Weird black metal from Czech just gets weirder. They're set apart from all others by their sense of drama, and by vocalist/mainman Big Boss and his deep voiced delivery. And the unbridled dementia they bring to their very metal, very odd songwriting and arrangments. Originals they most certainly are, combining killer blackened riffage with romantic keyboards and parts that sound a bit Jesus Lizardy though they might not be aware of it. One of the most striking tracks, "The Last Gate (The Story Of Demons)", uses tribal drumming and overlapping vocal chants to approximate the sounds of demonic possession or worship (or something), making Root sound like Sepultura's Roots (until insane chipmunk voices like those on the last Sigh album kick in!). Wow.

MPEG stream: Madness Of The Graves (Calling)
MPEG stream: The Last Gate (The Story Of Demons)

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

SORRY. Root is Czech black metal band, led by vocalist/visionary Big Boss. They've been around for a long time now, developing from rather primitive and fucked up black metal to the likes of this album: classical-leaning heavy metal opera weirdness. As fucked up as their earlier stuff but so much more advanced. Really amazing and strange, with Big Boss' sub-baritone vocal stylings being only the first of the many eccentricities on display here. Recommended.

For years now we've been singing the praises of these weirdo Czech black metallers, fronted by the enigmatic Big Boss, a big guy with some crazy evil panda face make up and a super unique bellow. Their sound, at least in the beginning, raw and grim like classic Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, but often slowed down, more midtempo, lumbering and lurching, sometimes blasting chaotically, but more often than not, fantastically plodding, the guitars super raw, the sound lo-fi, but perfectly suited to Root occultic and cult-y sounding metal, and the truly strange vocals of Big Boss just sealing the deal, from froglike croak, to demonic croak, to raspy croon, to multitracked, almost Butthole Surfers sounding alien drawl, there's just something so mysterious and magical about these guys. Easily one of our all time favorites. Revelation, originally recorded in 1990, is a re-recording of their Zjevni debut, with all the lyrics redone in English. And while it's been 20+ years, The Revelation still sounds just as good, and haunting, and heavy as ever. Sure it's black metal, but this is more old school classic metal, with black elements. It's more witchy and doomy and creepy and atmospheric and dirgey, which only makes the fast bits sound that much more fast, the chugging guitars and way-up-in-the-mix double kick drumming. And all the heavy parts are balanced by the multiple song intros, acoustic guitars, analog synths, weird bits of percussion, swirling atmospheres, Big Boss's strange almost liturgical sounding spoken word, each intro a little mysterious sonic ritual designed to evoke some ancient atmosphere, perfect to conjure up the next blast of stumbling buzz drenched blackness. Totally cult and totally genius. Includes new liner notes...

MPEG stream: The Revelation
MPEG stream: Aralyon
MPEG stream: Song For Satan

A double cd reissue (w/ bonus tracks) of two albums (from 1990 & 1992, newly remastered) by this cult Czech black metal band. Not as advanced as their latest release "The Book", but definitely unique and full of interesting music. For fans of fellow Czech weirdos Master's Hammer and strange black metal in general.

Hey folks! Limited vinyl pressing of 500! Snooze and looze!

The Roots of Orchis are a five piece post-rock ensemble from San Diego who can't decide which is better, Physics or Tortoise. Hey! Pick Physics and stay away from the bad jazz-fusion basslines.

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

SORRY. Many songs on this rad 3-cd collection are from a time when The Roots wrote, practiced and partied on a rooftop in Old City (Philadelphia). Occasionally coming down through a skylight into the kitchen of a friend of mine to drink all her beer, they were totally nice and cool although they did drink quite a bit of beer! Do This Well contains 45 awesome remixes and rarities from 1994-1999. Not sure what else to say about this except that all Roots fans must must must own this and anyone who's ever had their interest piqued by this Philly hip hop group will enjoy this as a hefty introduction to their amazing rapping delights.

MPEG stream: Proceed III (Feat. Bahamadia)
MPEG stream: The Good The Bad And The Desolate

When it comes to musical prowess, bands don't get more well rounded, well versed and sickly skilled than The Roots. While they are ambassadors of the hip-hop community their musical arsenal and appreciation runs through just about every genre and style of music of the last half-century. They are true students and scholars of music but what makes them special is that they also have their own deep running soul that takes all that knowledge and appreciation and transforms it into such rich sounding music, helping to create a wide musical community that they are endlessly collaborating, producing and playing with. None of here think Jimmy Fallon is all that funny but damn do we watch his late night show so much now as the Roots are his house band, and its so amazing to watch them play and back bands that perform on the show like Erykah Badu, Hot Chip, Herbie Hancock, Ludacris, etc. The best part of the show is when Jimmy interacts with ?uestlove and the rest of the band, challenging them to come up with songs in every kind of style at the drop of a hot and they always pull it off spot on with such suave style. How I Got Over, shows that their network TV gig hasn't tainted their musical vision one bit, in fact getting to play every night like that has probably only made them an even tighter unit. There is something so assured and unforced about the Roots, it all flows so pure and naturally. While the record is filled with guests it doesn't feel uneven as the Roots are so masterful at bringing different people together yet maintaining their own groove underneath it all. They even do an awesome track with Joanna Newsom that takes her track "The Book Of Right On" and turns it simply into "Right On" with her vocals and harp merged with their beats and raps with totally stunning results. There is not a single miss on this album, we kind of forgot how damn good the Roots can be on record as we always think of them as a live band these days, but wow they continue to show they can do it all! And do it so well!!

MPEG stream: Walk Alone (Feat. Truck North, P.O.R.N. & Dice Raw)
MPEG stream: Right On (Feat. Joanna Newsom)
MPEG stream: Doin' It Again

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

SORRY. The popular Philly hip hop band does the double live thing, and they really are a band so it makes sense. This two-disc set (with "enhanced cd" video footage) is a limited edition, I guess there's also a single disc version but we only got the double, of course.

How can you not love the Roots? A live hip hop band. Why that remains an anomaly is beyond us. But it is, and it makes the Roots stand out even more than they would otherwise. Besides a tight-as-fuck band, their emcees can not be beat. The Roots are one of those rare hip hop groups that are hard enough that the thugs still dig em, but not so thuggish that they don't appeal to everybody else. They even lampoon thug life and the hip hop industry in a video and everybody still eats it up. Why? Because the Roots are amazing. Funky and soulful and a little bit hard, pure organic hip hop. This time around, the most noticable change is that a handful of the songs totally sound like they were produced by Timbaland, all stuttery and sort-of-unfunky, but since we're assuming they're still doing this stuff live, it makes it even more amazing. We used to fantasize about there being a live jungle band with a live drummer (or drummers) but it never really happened. At least not how we envisioned it. But here the Roots seem to be pulling off a similar trick with a rock band playing as tight and funky as the MTV / Timbaland sound du jour, but even better because you know they can rock that shit live! Just like all the other Roots records, this is dense, provacative, funky, funny, dark, politically charged and deeply personal hip hop. And of course, highly recommended.

MPEG stream: I Don't Care
MPEG stream: Don't Say Nuthin'

Philadelphia's Roots return with what may be their finest record yet. Dark and intense. And still a real live band. One of the few groups that's still about the music and the message as opposed to the hype and the 'legend' (Wu-tang anyone?)

?uestlove, the drummer and band leader of The Roots has been in the news a lot lately for the musicial prank he pulled on Michelle Bachmann during her appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the show for which The Roots are the house band. But we really hope that incident doesn't overshadow what amazing musical visionaries he and his Roots crew are. They close the end of the year with a bang releasing not only this great new album, but a collaboration with legendary soul vocalist Betty Wright (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list). Undun is a concept record of sorts based on the life of a fictional character representing the struggle and realities of inner city life. The album melds hip-hop with R&B, all fueled by such superb playing and guest spots by Bilal, Greg Porn, Dice Raw, and Big K.R.I.T. The record comes to a climax with its two closing songs, "I Remember" and "Tip The Scale" and then segues into a majestic closing suite complete with cello, violin, and viola. In a hip-hop world dominated by bravado and flashy antics, The Roots always keep substance at the front of their game, making music in the process that transcends genre and leaves a deep and lasting impact.

MPEG stream: Sleep
MPEG stream: Kool On
MPEG stream: I Remember

[ aquarius records catalogue — R ]