[ 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 1251 through 1300 of 1354.

At long last the soundtrack to the indie film of the moment (Blair Witch excepted of course). Includes two songs by the lead actress Franka Potente and a bunch of remixes.

This band features Rick and Sue from Fish and Roses, plus David Newgarden and Alan Licht (Lovechild).

For those who've dug into the groovy instrumental sounds of Run Return's recent debut album Metro-North (or for those just looking for a quick samplin'), you can get your fix right here on the vinyl format! Mind you, the title track does reappear on the cd, but it is a really good one though! Imagine a chops'n'creativity meeting of Fly Pan Am and Tortoise.

MPEG stream: Animals Are Beautiful People

Although this trio have been together since 1999, Metro-North is Run Return's full length debut. It features some exceptionally well done dark groovy city scene soundscapes -- a generous serving of eighteen! Each of them sound as though they were composed specifically for a rain-soaked midnight hour. Check out two of the album's best tracks -- the very Chicago post-rock sounding, jazzy glider "Sea Plane" and the perfect-for-late-night-driving thirteenth track which is also the title track of their recent 7" "Animals Are Beautiful People". Captures a chill-out mellowness but is also sonically and rhythmically active enough to keep you on your toes.

MPEG stream: Animals Are Beautiful People
MPEG stream: Sea Plane

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

SORRY. If you are looking for Lita Ford or Joan Jett, sadly you have found the wrong Runaways. If you are looking for that blunted Mo'Wax-style experimental instrumental hip hop found on the label's legendary Headz compilations, then you're in luck. This outift (formerly known as RPM) combines the sharpest of breaks and witty turntable tricknology for one of 97's BEST records of this genre.

If you are looking for Lita Ford or Joan Jett, sadly you have found the wrong Runaways. If you are looking for that blunted Mo'Wax-style experimental instrumental tricknology found on the label's legendary Headz compilations, then you're in luck. One of the best instrumental hip hop records of 1997 has finally been re-issued here in the States. A stunning combination of the sharpest of breaks and witty turntablism, with the addition of classical guitar on a coupla tracks, for fans of the old Mo' Wax sound found on the first Headz compilation (the Runaways personnel is two guys from Mo'Wax group RPM). It's all midtempo and very accessible.

UK (duh) group follow up their almost-all instrumental hiphop classic "Classic Tales" with this new effort. Progress? Hmm, well it's no longer as unique and Mo'Wax-y, with a bunch of guest MCs this time droppin' rhymes, including Masta Ace.

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

SORRY.

Lovely bossa nova versions of his own songs! And it sounds really good. And he's serious.

A good one!

Early stuff from this doom-death occult outfit reissued on a double cd. HEAVY!

This ultra-heavy, occultic doom/death outfit from Sweden have fashioned themselves into a cult of their own, steadily releasing limited album after limited album to a ensorcelled fanbase of Runemagick worshippers. With Dawn Of The End, the trio of Nicklas, Emma and Daniel have returned to their studio (cavern? lair? tower?) to perform and record another eight rites and rituals of sludge-riffed, dirge-tempoed Runemagick... hear and heed the call of their necromantical spells! Combining both grim atmosphere and raging brutality, portions of Dawn Of The End even sound to us like a death-metal version of Om. Includes the track "Chthonic Temple Smoke" from their recent split with fellow Swedish doomsters Ocean Chief (which we never listed, as we unable to get enough... though we might still have a spare copy or two in stock if you ask). Non-shrinkwrapped, digipack release, limited to 1000 copies.

MPEG stream: Voyage To Desolation
MPEG stream: Magus Of Fire

Swedish doom/death vets Runemagick follow up last year's AQ-hailed album On Funeral Wings with Envenom, another excellent example of the occult dirge metal that they do so well, in a ritualistic style all their own. I mean, they're not just a doomy death metal band anymore, this is something else, eldritch and eerie. Definitely heavier than thou, and almost progressive its arcanity (and track-length: there's six cuts here, the shortest over eight minutes, the longest closer to fifteen). Their death metal heritage is most evident in the grunts of the vocalist, though lines like "vultures of doom in magick circles, the dark alchemic" aren't standard DM fare... But blasting brutality this music ain't, Envenom moving at a torpid, trudging pace, a necromantic ceremonial procession of DOOM.

MPEG stream: Vultures
MPEG stream: Nebulous

If previous exposures haven't already summoned sufficient demons for your nefarious purposes, here's another disc of epic occultic dirge doom death from these Swedish masters of the arcane arts, sure to conjure some Hellish servitors. Heavy and haunting, the atmospheric sludge of tracks like "Invocation Of The Doom Runes" and "Black Magick Sorceress" should send all posers hiding under their beds. Limited to 999 numbered copies in digipack (which includes two bonus tracks).

MPEG stream: Invocation Of Doom Runes
MPEG stream: Fisher Of Souls

This Swedish band has been rumbling along for untold eons now (well, it's actually been probably just six years or so, but their music seems more ancient than that). Their doomy tarpit dirge and sludgy trudge conjure prehistoric visions, and their lyrical bent towards the occult also sets them in a cosmic, not human, time frame. But their true ancestors aren't dinosaurs and demons, they are bands such as Hellhammer/Celtic Frost from the '80s and the death metallers of the '90s. Sounding as if it was recorded by torchlight, Runemagick's latest is a 73 minute death knell tolling of Hell's bells, with unrelenting riffage, drums beating like black leather wings, and some sort of eternal, underlying bass drone that's always just under the surface. These unlucky thirteen tracks often seep and segue into one another, making invocations unbroken and epic. It's super heavy stuff with death metal vox, weird atmospheres and arcane inspirations, tough to catagorize exactly (experimental doom death? how about "Monolithic Death", the title of the first track here?) but something we think the doomiest subset of AQ customers should like. Imagine some sort of cross between Corrupted and Candlemass, ordinary death metal slowed down and ritualized...

MPEG stream: Rise Of The 2nd Moon
MPEG stream: On Funeral Wings

Three short sharp blasts of garage punk noise rock from this Chicago outfit, the first we've heard from them since their Vaguely Ethnic full length on Castle Face, and like that record, the two songs on the A side here are more of the same, swagger stomps equal parts distort riffage, echo drenched vox, wild chaotic drumming, murky and lo-fi, until the second track seems to gain a bit of fidelity, while blossoming into something slightly poppier, albeit still drenched in distortion and reverb, sounding a bit like the Oh Sees' evil twin, which is most definitely not a bad thing at all. The flipside starts off with some seriously corrosive guitar noise over a bed of tribal drumming, and then the thick buzzing bass swoops in, and that guitarnoise transforms into a weird sort of buzzing riffage, the whole thing sounding a little like Texas noise rock weirdos Rusted Shut, the reversed vocals resurface, along with some crazy low end bass noise, but all the while that main riff, buzzes along relentlessly, totally tranced out and super hypnotic. Probably pretty limited as these things generally are, we have a handful...

These Chicago noiseniks are already on full length number three, but the first we heard from them was their killer track on the second Group Flex flexi-book, and it sort of makes sense that they'd find their way to Castle Face (the label run by John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees), cuz as noisy and punk as they are, they also sort of sounds like a meaner, noisier Oh Sees, the vocalist's snarly reverbed yelp, the group's echo drenched garage rock crunch, it's exactly what you might imagine Thee Oh Sees would sound like on a seriously bad trip, which is of course good for us. Loads of feedback, caveman drum plod, the vocals doused in effects, often dubbed into oblivion, the guitars distorted and crunchy, the songs swaggery and slithery, lurching and lumbering, the guitar melodies woozy and wavery, dripping in weird effects, giving everything a warped psychedelic vibe, like a garage punk Butthole Surfers at times, but elsewhere, they're just seriously high energy garage rock radness that wouldn't be out of place on a bill with the Mayyors, or Rusted Shut, or The Intelligence, bands on the slightly weirder more warped side of the garage rock spectrum maybe, but really fans of the current crop of garage pop combos definitely might dig too, they just might have to push a little beyond their sonic comfort zone, but hell, it's so worth it, some seriously tripped out psychedelic garage punk that has us thinking we best track down those other two full lengths quick smart!

MPEG stream: Thanks For The Input
MPEG stream: Wanna Weekend
MPEG stream: Oo0o Oo0O Oo0oOo

When we reviewed the last record from these Chicago garage punks, we described them as sounding like a meaner, punker version of Thee Oh Sees, and thankfully not a whole lot has changed! Wake Up Applauding is another supercharged blast of furious fuzz and primal pound, everything doused in sheets of feedback, the whole record basically a gloriously haphazard arrangement of buzz and echo and reverb, howl and chug and crunch. The songs hide their pop smarts beneath lurching, noise rock stumbles, and loose limbed, galloping grooves. Guitars get all tangled up into woozy detuned melodies while the bass emits fat fuzzy rumbles. There are some cool creepy moments of psychedelic synthiness peppered throughout the record, which are balanced by some Butthole Surfers style drugrock pound which was all over the last record as well.

MPEG stream: Reclaimed Would
MPEG stream: Speed Camera
MPEG stream: No Wave Jose

Early '70s British progrock reissue, heavily featuring obscure jazz guitar legend Ray Russell. So yeah, it's kind of jazzy, with tons of fantastic Russell soloing.

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

SORRY. This is the first self released cdep by Bay Area multicultural folk artist Rupa! La Pecheuse shines with a warm earthy light. Her voice and guitar are complemented wonderfully by Ed Laskerville on cello. An impressive debut!

MPEG stream: Water
MPEG stream: Mi Diablito

Bay Area songstress Rupa Marya follows up her solo self released debut La Pecheuse with the considerably more elaborate and impassioned Extraordinary Rendition. Four of the original seven songs make a reappearance here. This time Rupa's joined by an excellent backing band. The April Fishes are trumpeteer Marcus Cohen, Adrian Jost on accordion, cellist Ed Baskerville (who also played on La Pecheuse), Eliyahu Sills on upright bass and the peculiarly tagged 'contraptionist' Aaron Kierbel. They sing and play together with such wonderful ease and gusto, it's as if they've been playing together for years. Their multilingual music draws from cross-cultural influences and source material -- Indian ragas, tango, French chanson, bossa nova, jazz, not to mention numerous forms of folk music from around the world -- which conjures words like slinky, fevered, hypnotic and intoxicating. Vocally, Ms Rupa has drawn comparisons to the sultry formidable likes of Lhasa and Mia Doi Todd, but she can also take a very Cat Poweresque, down-home folk pop turn as is sweetly evident on the closing number "Wishful Thinking". They'll surely have many fans in common in the near future!

MPEG stream: Maintenant
MPEG stream: La Pecheuse

At last, reissued -- as a 'real' cd (not a cd-r) and cheaper too! This debut DJ/Rupture mix disc was a big hit here at Aquarius (and elsewhere too, apparently). We'd been getting the cd-r version on /Rupture's own Soot label direct from the man himself, but those are no longer available. Kid606 stepped in and signed DJ /Rupture to his Tigerbeat6 label, with a new /Rupture set called "Minesweeper Suite" due for release on August 27th. But, in advance of that, the Kid's other label, Violent Turd, has made the "Gold Teeth Thief" set available once again. Packaged in one of those plastic clamshell cases, with nought but a sticker for artwork, this remains a budget release, but a welcome one. It's also apparently a limited edition reissue, so if you missed it before, don't sleep on it now!! Here's our original glowing review, backed up by being named one of the top 50 best albums of the year by The Wire: This is one of the best mix cds we've ever heard. And it's not about insane turntable skills, or about that 'isn't-it-weird-and-crazy-how-I've-juxtaposed-hip-hop-and-classic-rock' gimmicky stuff or about how famous or cool the DJ is (in fact, I bet you've never even heard of DJ /Rupture, an American living in Spain). It's about his choice of songs, and how smoothly and creatively they're mixed (live on 3 turntables). This cd is just an amazing and deft mix of dance hall (traditional -and- HARD ala DJ Scud etc.), hip hop, dub and electronica. Nothing fancy just 70 minutes and 43 tracks of some of our favorite shit: Missy Elliott, Nas, DJ Scud, Barrington Levy (a different track than his contribution to the amazing 400% Dynamite compilation, but you'll recognise his oh-so-familiar 'Woah Wooah.'), Nettle, Dead Prez, Bounty Killer, Kid 606, Venetian Snares, Luciano Berio, Shabba Ranks, Non Phixion, Wu-Tang Clan, Cannibal Ox, Djivan Gasparyan, Sub Dub, John Wall, Oval, Project Pat, Muslimgauze and even Paul Simon/Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Miriam Makeba (ending all smooth and pretty with no beats at all). Wow.

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Once in a while we get all super annoyed BY DJ'S and DJ culture. We love DJ's as much as the next guy (okay, well, maybe not AS much) but once in a while, we start to wonder how playing somebody else's records makes you a musician, or a celebrity or a star. C'mon, what the fuck? Sure there are DJ's and turntablists who blow our minds, who take the turntables and do amazing shit, from avant soundscapists like Jeck or Marclay, to actual hip hop DJ's like the Skratch Piklz or folks who exist somewhere in between like DJ Shadow. But for the most part it's hard to not think "Fuck DJ's". So when there's a DJ, who isn't some crazy acrobatic scratcher, isn't some crafter of obtuse beatscapes, but who just plays records, has killer taste, and deftly mixes and matches and mashes up tunes and beats and said cool records, well for us to love every single thing they do is definitely saying something. And that's precisely how we feel about Rupture. Sure being a DJ is the equivalent of being a professional mix tape maker, so your record collection is 90% of the battle, and judging from Rupture's last few records, he has one of the world's best record collections (rivalled only by DJ Andy Votel we'd imagine). This time around it sounds like Rupture has caught grime fever just like the rest of us. Sure there's loads of classic hip hop, spastic drill and bass, classic jungle, huge bigbeat ragga, dancehall, but there's also plenty of greasy grungy griminess!! Every track on here rules, From a wildly catchy and bizarre MIA remix, to a Dead Prez meets snake charmer joint, to a perplexing but killer a capella Tracy Chapman track mashed up with some super stuttery slow motion drum and bass. Funky, fierce, furious, and FUN. As if that weren't enough the disc also includes 4 live German radio mixes, over 90 minutes, 6 MP3's of crazy sonic terrorism, all over the map, from Sabbath, to eighties pop, to hardcore ragga but most importantly there's glorious GRIME all over the place...

MPEG stream: Got It Right Here (50 Cent Blend)
MPEG stream: Old Skool Armageddon
MPEG stream: Bush Is A Pussy Cloth + Backward Country Boy Explosion

As promised, the new DJ Rupture set is here on Tigerbeat6 and it does not disappoint. As on his last release, Gold Teeth Thief, Rupture's strong points, and this can't be emphasized enough, are combined in his great taste in a variety of musics and his smMOOOOVve mixing skills. There's also nothing ironic about his choices of source material and, maybe more importantly, he is only too happy to oblige us with the names of the cuts that he's mixing (well, most of them, presumably the ones he got permission to use). So obliging is he, that he makes the point of including label names and even URLs where applicable. So if you're curious enough you can track down all the individual cuts for yourself (which is actually a fun task to perform because you can hear what Rupture has tweaked through pitch and EQ from the sources to achieve his goals.) Unlike Gold Teeth Thief, which starts off like a stick of dynamite, Minesweeper Suite -- as I suppose its name suggests -- catches one off-guard. It begins with a pleasant track from Nubian musician Mahmoud Fadl gradually mixed in with the smooth dub sounds of J-Boogie and the two slowly pitched up together until by six minutes into the CD, Rupture has got the tempo up to a grinding pulse with all manner of breakbeats, dancehall, arabic music and hip hop weaving seamlessly in and out of the mix. In all, Minesweeper Suite is a much more ambitious undertaking than Gold Teeth Thief in that the source material that Rupture pools together for this set seems to consitently come from a wide variety of music from around the globe. Where the "world music" filled second half of his Gold Teeth Thief set may have seemed the weaker part of that disc, here it seems Rupture has increased his skills enough to throw just about anything into the mix and have it sound as if it were meant to be completely natural. Among the music sampled are Foxy Brown, dancehall from Cutty Ranks, Sade, Nina Simone, Robert Flack, Dead Prez, Djivan Gasparyan, Kid606, Cex, DOnna Summer, Wax Poetic, Dat Politics, even Cul de Sac. Quite an experience.

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Three early DJ Rupture tracks, from way back in 2000, a remix of Rupture by France's Rotator and a brand new Rupture track featuring Puerto Rican rapper MC Welmo Romero.

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

SORRY. We finally got our hands on enough of these to list. The title is a nod to Marcel Duchamp's famous, scandalous painting Nude Descending A Staircase. This 7" by DJ Rupture will most definitely not raise anywhere near the frenzy that the great surrealist's work did. Two tracks that you may recognize from his incredible "Gold Teeth Thief" mix cd.

It's been a while, but finally a new record from AQ fave DJ /Rupture. Unlike his previous releases, which were essentially mix tapes, this is a bonafide record of original tracks produced and arranged by Rupture with all sorts of guest vocalists and musicians. Now obviously it would be hard to create a record that stood up to your past releases, when they are all culled from the cream of your record collection, but Rupture makes a go of it and fares pretty well. The tone on Special Gunpowder is much more laid back and mellow that previous releases, and way less experimental. While your need for weird might not be fully satisfied, this is definitely much easier listening. A smooth mix of reggae and dancehall, as well as muted Eastern rhythmic ambience ala Muslimgauze. The dancehall tracks are awesome, but not at all aggressive like the Bug. Wicked Act, Junior Cat, Wayne Lonesome and a handful of others toast over darkly delerious, pulsing dancehall rhythms, nestled in Rupture's unique sonic stew. There are a few missteps, the opening spoken word bit is a little cringeworthy, and Eugene from Oxbow (who can do no wrong in our eyes) pops up smack dab in the middle of the record, mewling and howling over a creepy musical backdrop, and while we can never get enough Eugene, it definitely feels out of place and disrupts the flow. Other than a few hiccups, Special Gunpowder is a prety cool spin, and it's definitely cool that Rupture chose to write and record a record instead of cruising along on his impeccably hip record collection.

MPEG stream: Little More Oil ft. Sister Nancy
MPEG stream: Leech Wisdom
MPEG stream: No Heathen ft. Wicked Act (Blacksmith Mix)

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

SORRY. Now on vinyl! First half of the vinyl version of the most recent DJ Rupture. Check it out: It's been a while, but finally a new record from AQ fave DJ /Rupture. Unlike his previous releases, which were essentially mix tapes, this is a bonafide record of original tracks produced and arranged by Rupture with all sorts of guest vocalists and musicians. Now obviously it would be hard to create a record that stood up to your past releases, when they are all culled from the cream of your record collection, but Rupture makes a go of it and fares pretty well. The tone on Special Gunpowder is much more laid back and mellow that previous releases, and way less experimental. While your need for weird might not be fully satisfied, this is definitely much easier listening. A smooth mix of reggae and dancehall, as well as muted Eastern rhythmic ambience ala Muslimgauze. The dancehall tracks are awesome, but not at all aggressive like the Bug. Wicked Act, Junior Cat, Wayne Lonesome and a handful of others toast over darkly delerious, pulsing dancehall rhythms, nestled in Rupture's unique sonic stew. There are a few missteps, the opening spoken word bit is a little cringeworthy, and Eugene from Oxbow (who can do no wrong in our eyes) pops up smack dab in the middle of the record, mewling and howling over a creepy musical backdrop, and while we can never get enough Eugene, it definitely feels out of place and disrupts the flow. Other than a few hiccups, Special Gunpowder is a prety cool spin, and it's definitely cool that Rupture chose to write and record a record instead of cruising along on his impeccably hip record collection.

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

SORRY. Now on vinyl! Second half of the vinyl version of the most recent DJ Rupture. Check it out: It's been a while, but finally a new record from AQ fave DJ /Rupture. Unlike his previous releases, which were essentially mix tapes, this is a bonafide record of original tracks produced and arranged by Rupture with all sorts of guest vocalists and musicians. Now obviously it would be hard to create a record that stood up to your past releases, when they are all culled from the cream of your record collection, but Rupture makes a go of it and fares pretty well. The tone on Special Gunpowder is much more laid back and mellow that previous releases, and way less experimental. While your need for weird might not be fully satisfied, this is definitely much easier listening. A smooth mix of reggae and dancehall, as well as muted Eastern rhythmic ambience ala Muslimgauze. The dancehall tracks are awesome, but not at all aggressive like the Bug. Wicked Act, Junior Cat, Wayne Lonesome and a handful of others toast over darkly delerious, pulsing dancehall rhythms, nestled in Rupture's unique sonic stew. There are a few missteps, the opening spoken word bit is a little cringeworthy, and Eugene from Oxbow (who can do no wrong in our eyes) pops up smack dab in the middle of the record, mewling and howling over a creepy musical backdrop, and while we can never get enough Eugene, it definitely feels out of place and disrupts the flow. Other than a few hiccups, Special Gunpowder is a prety cool spin, and it's definitely cool that Rupture chose to write and record a record instead of cruising along on his impeccably hip record collection.

We're always excited by a new blast of DJ /Rupture's unique mixology from his decidedly left field record collection. And this split disc with New Yorker Mutamassik is no exception. No big surprises, just another wicked mix of hip hop, jungle, dancehall and obscure world music. Andee was most excited by Rupture's inclusion of two tracks by German Dancehall crew Seeed, whose records we haven't been able to track down for the store yet. And Mutamassik is the perfect compliment to Rupture, offering up a similarly ecclectic sonic brew.

MPEG stream: Bidoun 2
MPEG stream: Bidoun 3
MPEG stream: Bidoun 12

Wow, a super special "nice price" deal on this longtime AQ fave. Great collaboration betwixt - His Lord Majesty - Mad Professor, and the mysterious Douggie Digital, circa 1995. Deep, pulsing dub underlayed with jungle beats. It works great, and if that ain't enough, there's a cameo appearance from - His Royal Nuttiness - Lee Scratch Perry!

MPEG stream: Perry In The Dub Jungle
MPEG stream: Kunte Kinte Jungle
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This new Rush album came out earlier this year, and we didn't review it at the time -- it's a Rush album after all! But several of us here are in fact Rush fans (Andee and Byram for sure, plus Allan's a reluctant Rush fan), and it developed that more than one of us somehow ended up with copies of this, and liked it, so we thought we'd give it a mention after all. It certainly doesn't sound as tired as you'd expect. They've cut back on the keyboards and gone for a surprisingly heavy, classic, not terribly proggy rock sound. Actually, if it wasn't for Geddy Lee's distinctive vocals, you might not even guess this was Rush. As it is, this is what the second album from Cyclefly should have sounded like. And *another* reason we wanted to finally list this is the chance to include the URL (http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/articles/8A133F52D0FD71AB86256C2E005DAF1C) for a totally amazing rant on the ProRec.com website about the allegedly extra-loud production/mastering job this album received. ProRec.com editor Rip Rowan sounds off on how, despite being Rush's best album songwriting-wise in years, it nonetheless sounds "like dogshit". He goes into great, obsessive, hilarious detail about this harmful trend in record production and how it's manifested on "Vapor Trails", complete with graphic analysis of sound samples from the cd. Here's a caption from one of them that we found particularily amusing: "One of thousands of ruined kick drum transients from the Vapor Trails CD." He also puts a portion of his article IN ALL CAPS to illustrate his point...so, check it out!! And, in case you're wondering, ol' Rip Rowan might be right, he's a pro after all, but the Rush fans here still enjoyed giving this a spin.

RealAudio clip: One Little Victory

Featuring songs by Creation, Unit 4+3, The Who, Cat Stevens, Yves Montand, John Lennon, The Faces, The Kinks, and Chad and Jeremy. Plus incidental soundtrack music by Mark Mothersbaugh. The whole soundtrack is so well done that you don't even have to have seen this film in order to love the music contained here. And for what it's worth, Andee and Allan loved this movie but Windy and Matt-from-CoolBeans!, who thought it was good, also felt it was fatally flawed (weak character writing) and cannot recommend it, although the music ALMOST saves it.

Not to be confused with the similarly-minded Roska, Rusko, aka Christopher Mercer, seems destined to be the next hardest working producer in dubstep. Taking the dark serious side of the genre into more uproarious and exuberant blends of house, soul, rave and dancehall, Rusko strives to fit so many genre-busting ideas in one record that it makes for a rather head-spinning listen. But each delirious track stands out on its own. Much like the Major Lazer debut, they're a lot of guests including Gucci Mane and The Dirty Projector's Amber Coffman (whose track "Hold On" is one of our favorite tracks this year!) There's lots of hip hop autotune vocal hooks, eighties synth washes, rave sirens, donks, sped-up yelps, 8-bit woots, but Rusko weaves them into sublimely energetic and soulful motifs. It's more than a pastiche of previously explored sounds, Rusko creates a winning dance combination that we'll be listening to all summer long!

MPEG stream: Hold On
MPEG stream: Kumon Kumon
MPEG stream: You're On My Mind
MPEG stream: District Line

MPEG stream: Hold On
MPEG stream: Kumon Kumon
MPEG stream: You're On My Mind
MPEG stream: District Line

Live recording of eccentric Chicago jazz experimentalist Hal Russell, from 1979.

Finally released on vinyl, Another Thought was the first posthumous collection of unreleased tracks by the great Arthur Russell. Released in 1994, shortly after he passed away and years before his wide-ranging musical genius would be recognized by a larger audience, it contains tracks spanning over a 10 year period, some in demo form documenting early versions of songs he was preparing for his next release after World of Echo. Yet of all the many Russell collections that have subsequently come out, Another Thought has the reputation of being the most difficult to digest. Long in length and minimal in economy (most of the tracks are just voice and cello, with the occasional addition of other instruments like bongos and horns), it is certainly the most intimate and unadorned of all of Russell's work. Which is why the vinyl release does this collection a great service by giving the songs ample space to breathe over four long sides. There is an incredible amount of nuance and grace in every one of these tracks, and for being so close to death, Russell remains unhurried in his approach. And unhurried is the way it should be listened to. Incredibly gorgeous, passionate and devastating.

MPEG stream: Another Thought
MPEG stream: This Is How We Walk On The Moon

A few weeks back we listed Soul Jazz's The World of Arthur Russell, the eagerly awaited collection of hard-to-find music from that downtown NYC "disco visionary". Released almost simultaneously with that disc was this disc of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1985 and 1990. (Russell died in 1992, leaving behind tons of unissued music). If you liked the Soul Jazz comp, you'll like this. With Russell's laid back, oft-effected vocals, drum programming, trademark cello, as well as trombone and other instruments, this is some mellow, groovy, experimental dance music indeed. It's super artsy and '80s, and thus very cool now. While no one here at AQ has become a big Arthur Russell fan, we're not surprised to have sold a lot of these already. Perhaps our favorite track on here is "The Platform On The Ocean", featuring some nice fuzz sounds (fuzz cello?) and Arthur's looped, delayed voice intoning the track title.

MPEG stream: The Platform On The Ocean
MPEG stream: You And Me Both

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

SORRY. A few weeks back we listed Soul Jazz's The World of Arthur Russell, the eagerly awaited collection of hard-to-find music from that downtown NYC "disco visionary". Released almost simultaneously with that disc was this disc of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1985 and 1990. (Russell died in 1992, leaving behind tons of unissued music). If you liked the Soul Jazz comp, you'll like this. With Russell's laid back, oft-effected vocals, drum programming, trademark cello, as well as trombone and other instruments, this is some mellow, groovy, experimental dance music indeed. It's super artsy and '80s, and thus very cool now. While no one here at AQ has become a big Arthur Russell fan, we're not surprised to have sold a lot of these already. Perhaps our favorite track on here is "The Platform On The Ocean", featuring some nice fuzz sounds (fuzz cello?) and Arthur's looped, delayed voice intoning the track title.

MPEG stream: The Platform On The Ocean
MPEG stream: You And Me Both

The curious case of Arthur Russell continues with a new posthumous collection of previously unreleased versions of archival material recorded in the early eighties, but sounding as modern as ever. Like Love is Overtaking Me and Calling Out of Context, Corn was material that was being prepared for release at the time of its making, but for reasons unknown was scrapped. Russell was infamous for never being able to finish anything (he only released one proper album, World of Echo, in his lifetime, and many of his most popular dance tracks had multiple versions and often had to be finished by other producers such as Walter Gibbons and Francis Kevorkian), and it wasn't until after his death from AIDS in 1992 at the age of 40, that the world got to hear the full breadth of his musical genius. Flirting with modern classical, folk, disco and rock sometimes all in the same track but oftentimes exploring one genre expansively at great length, Corn mostly explores electro-pop, with a little bit of everything in between. With voice, drum rhythms and distorted cello, the music is neither quite aimed for the dancefloor like The World of Arthur Russell collection, nor is it as spare and oceanic as World of Echo or Another Thought. Instead, it strikes a highly listenable middle ground that takes a few of his better known tracks such as "Let's Go Swimming" and "This Is How We Walk On The Moon" into quite different pop-dance territory than on previous collections. And we don't recall the distorted cello having been such a sonic force on previous collections either, culminating in the eight minute abstract noisescape "Ocean Movie" that concludes this collection. While we originally thought this wouldn't be the collection we'd recommend for the uninitiated, we have been consistently selling copies every time we have played it in the store to folks who have no idea who Arthur Russell was, and we ourselves and been loving this release more and more each time we listen. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Lucky Cloud
MPEG stream: See My Brother, He's Jumping Out (let's Go Swimming #2)
MPEG stream: They And Their Friends
MPEG stream: Ocean Movie

Fourteen years after his death, the music of Arthur Russell is more alive than ever. Mostly known as a left-field disco producer and classically trained cellist, Russell was also an accomplished avant-garde composer, as evidenced here. Audika records, who re-issued Russell's World of Echo and Calling Out Of Context releases, focus their attention here on two little known early pieces: Instrumentals Vols. 1 & 2, and Tower of Meaning. It's no wonder they are so little known. While Instrumentals Vol. 2 was released on Belgian label Les Disques Du Crepescule in 1984, and Tower of Meaning was previously released on Phillip Glass's label, Chatham Square in 1983, Vol. 1 was made only into a test pressing and for some reason shelved (this is its first official release). The Instrumentals disc is the most interesting because for music so rooted in the New York avant-garde of the '70s and '80s, it's surprisingly accessible. Instrumentals 1 feels like Rhys Chatham playing with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra as harmonic variations of horns and strings play across bass and drum rhythms, while Instrumentals 2 leaves the rhythms behind. Towers of Meaning, a suite of 7 pieces, has a more classical Gavin Bryars vibe as the horns play out long melody lines with unusual intonations and harmonics with each piece stopping abruptly. Rounding out each disc are two other unreleased compositions, Reach One and Sketch for the Face of Helen. Known to obsessively tweak mixes of his songs (Supposedly, Let's Go Swimming, a left-field disco classic, was mixed *ninety-six* times) and then never release them, it's been rumored that Russell left one thousand tapes of unreleased music at the time of his death, making the title of this release a small inside joke. Hopefully Audika, unlike Russell himself, will be able to tell when enough is enough.

MPEG stream: Instrumentals 1
MPEG stream: Instrumentals 2
MPEG stream: Tower of Meaning

With this one track from 1986, Arthur Russell clearly set his sights for the future of dance music and pretty much became the godfather of chillwave, balearic house and other modern day pop forms dedicated to all that's the sun-kissed, blissful and breezy. This newly remastered version features three dubs of the song (Gulf Stream, Puppy Surf, and Coastal, the last one mixed by the legendary Walter Gibbons!) and a previously unreleased track called "Make 1.2 (Gem Spa Dub)", that has a more funk oriented vibe, but still as left-field as can be. There have been rumors that Arthur Russell had made 96 separate mixes of "Let's Go Swimming", and the versions here don't sound exactly like previously released versions on other compilations like Strut's Disco Not Disco 2 or Soul Jazz's The World of Arthur Russell, which felt more orientated to the dancefloor and could have been stripped down mixes by Gibbons and others. The Gulf Stream Dub may be the truest of the three mixes here to Russell's original vision of the song, a submerged percolating paean to the return to innocence of summertimes past. But the three mixes here are like one extended jam of the song going into a more balearic house mode on the Puppy Surf Dub then into Gibbons' more economic and percussive but mind-bending and body shaking Coastal Dub. Essential!

MPEG stream: Let's Go Swimming (Gulf Stream Dub)
MPEG stream: Make 1.2 (Gem Spa Dub)

[ aquarius records catalogue — R ]