[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 51 through 100 of 4057.

Side project of ALL the members of Cave In recorded during the off time of the sessions for their last record. No, it's not a return to their abandoned-in-favor-of-Radiohead-emulation metalcore roots, or even an extension of the "OK Computer" style art-rock found on their last brilliant album "Jupiter". Instead, Sacrifice Poles are all about post rock jamming. Repetitive, dreamy and directionless.

Debut full length from this Aussie Duo, who traffic in a primitive strain of old school thrashing blackness. Raw and ragged and loose, midpaced riffs and lurching drumming send these tracks galloping through eerie atmospheres, evoking the classic era of old school death metal, but definitely blackened, with a unique take on old school metal. Much of the record is spent thrashing and furiously bashing away, but then on tracks like "Victory Of Withdrawal", the band slow things way down, almost balladic, with shredding, super emotional leads, woozy, gloomy basslines, the sound moody and melancholy, underpinning gruff vokills, a weird combo but it makes for a weirdly powerful one, and when the song does finally kick into gear, it's not blasting or thrashing, it's a strange chugging, super melodic churn, that's downright groovy, accompanied by chiming distorted guitar melodies, pretty cool, and definitely weird, and not much like other metal you hear these days. Even at it's most furious, these guys add lots of melody, and a hauntingly mournful mood to the proceedings, not to mention lots of classic metalisms, crazy catchy riffs and melodies pop up throughout, the middle portion of "A.J. Shout VC" is about as catchy as music like this gets! The sound too is odd, murky and sorta lo-fi, with clean crooned choruses popping up now and again, spidery guitars wrapped around woozy riffage, everything hazy and gauzey, reverby and echoey, which gives everything a strange feel, a little bit timeless, but also sorta psychedelic. The whole record seems to be a sonic struggle between fierce furious heaviness, and plodding melancholia, the sound seeming to constantly return to super melodic dirges, and achingly miserable melodies. Apparently, the whole record is a rumination on war, which then makes the melancholic musical thread that runs throughout make more sense. Definitely cool stuff. Maybe not brutal enough for some metalheads, but it's pretty atmospheric, with lots of killer riffs, and sprawling, progged out arrangements, woven into moody doomic dirges, and old school classic metal shreddery, all sort of washed out into a hazy psychedelic death metal that we're digging a lot.

MPEG stream: Lone Pine
MPEG stream: Victory Of Withdrawal
MPEG stream: A.J. Shout VC

Out of the same politically fervent Chilean psych scene that brought us Congregacion, Los Jaivas, and Embrujo, we get another amazing spiritual-minded psych-folk artifact, this lone album from Sacros. Creating songs inspired by the great gods of South America, such as Quetzalcoatl, The Plumed Serpent, god of the ancient Mayas, and Viracocha, Lord of Tiahuanaku in the Andes Mountains, Sacros were a short-lived group supported by the Divina Providence Church, who in exchange for practice space, commissioned the band to write and perform an electric mass. Unfortunately, their debut album was released one week after Augusto Pinochet and his right wing regime took over the country and called for the destruction of the state run music label along with all released recordings, thus very few copies of the original album survived. Recently featured on the Chilean installment of the Love, Peace, and Poetry compilations, Sacros' unique sound - gentle Byrds-ish country-rock mixed with the psychedelic tinges of Popul Vuh - is quite beautiful and highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Quetzacoatl
MPEG stream: Cobre, Pobres, Viejos
MPEG stream: Su Herencia

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Just wanted to get the attention of the growing legion of Mississippi Records obsessives, as this week we have not one, not two, but THREE new releases from this PDX based all vinyl, mostly reissue label. In addition to unearthing rad rarities and reissuing them on vinyl, or putting together perfect mixes of blues, gospel and African music and releasing those amazing mixes as proper lps, Mississippi also does their bit to support their local scene, with a series called appropriately enough the North Portland Series, this being volume 2! (And no we never got, nor can we get volume 1, so don't ask) We know almost nothing about Sad Horse, other that what's to be found right here. And what that is, is 6 short sharp blasts of angular lo-fi punk rock stumble and garage-y pound and crunch. The drums simple and straight ahead, the guitar raw and fuzzy, wild shouted boy/girl vox, super energetic and fun. Beyond the musical component, Mississippi Records fanatics might also want this for the sleeve, a strange hand made, origami style jacked, with an extra little booklet affixed to the front, which just so happens to be a no frills, super lo-fi, partial Mississippi Records catalog! C'mon, know you want one...

Hefty 70-minute documentation of Sade's 2001 world tour. If you can get past the annoyingly extra-loud crowd enthusiasm, you'll find this is a nice collection. Sade's chilled out, smooth-as-silk vocal delivery is perfectly matched by the easy-listenin'

RealAudio clip: Somebody Already Broke My Heart

Let's see... I could start off this review all nostalgic-like, tell you about my first year in college when me and my girlfriends were learning how to smoke cigarettes, we'd sit around the large round banquet tables in the university cafe, surrounded by blue haze and the girl to my left was all into shit like Pseudo Echo, and Karen to the left of me was into U2 and the Alarm "and Zep", but all I wanted to listen to on the jukebox was Sade's "Your Love is King". There, now I've dated myself. But maybe I shouldn't tell you all that -- cos you'll think I'm silly... er, cos Sade's music is timeless not dated. And you'll be happy to know that Ms. Adu's icy-cool delivery of the most personal lyrics is much more emotional and warm now. I kind of don't think that a lot of AQ's customers are into Sade anymore, if ever, but think about it this way -- if she hadn't gotten all famous and mainstream back then, maybe today you'd be hailing her records as lost gems of quietly gorgeous, sophisticated soul. Think simplicity.

RealAudio clip: By Your Side
RealAudio clip: The Sweetest Gift

Solo record number two from Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier, and like The Trip before it, Silencio finds Sadier's solo sound not that far removed from that of the Stereolab mothership, if anything, she trades in some of the cosmic krautrock worship for something a bit more sixties and French sounding, a dash of Tropicalia, plenty of shimmery guitar jangle, lush orchestrations, the vibe for the most part lush and languorous, all warm and woozy and washed out, with swoonsome strings, and simple shuffling rhythms, dramatic vocal harmonies harkening back to a different time, her voice so lovely, heavily accented, perfect for conjuring up a lost era, subtly psychedelic, all vibes and warm whirling organs, the record rife with subtle space age effects, and peppered with bursts of more rocking jangle, that sound like a mix of some lost Teen Beat band and aQ faves The New Lines, in fact, fans of the New Lines will find much to love here, as will anyone into classic lush timeless pop.

MPEG stream: The Rule of The Game
MPEG stream: Silent Spot
MPEG stream: Fragment Pour Le Future De L'Homme

As lead singer for Stereolab, Laetitia Sadier's voice is instantly recognizable, so suave and sensual, able to effortlessly create such colorful and swaying sensations, with just her voice. Along with Stereolab Sadier has also released gorgeous records with her side-project, Monade, and finally she goes at it solo with one of the most emotional and ethereal sets of songs she has ever created. While The Trip will immediately remind you of Stereolab, the difference is that it's not so much about the dynamic scope of sounds and colors that Stereolab swirl in and out of, but instead, The Trip, is much more languid, allowing Sadier's vocals to sway in a soft breeze while she sings about loss, memory, and grief, dark emotions, but the record was made after the suicide of her younger sister. What has always made Sadier's voice so special is the way that even when the subject is somber and sad she still can evoke a dreamlike aura around it that allows for sparks of hope and enlightened acceptance. So sad to think of how much loss Sadier has had to suffer in the last few years, not only losing her younger sister, but the tragic death of her Stereolab comrade Mary Hansen. We could all learn a thing or two from Sadier's ability to remain so graceful and elegant after such painful loss and sadness and finding a way through her music to carry on and pay tribute to the legacy of people who have meant so much to her. A record we know we will be turning to even more when the days start to turn cold and we need warmth that we can count on.

MPEG stream: One Million Year Trip
MPEG stream: Summertime
MPEG stream: Ceci Est Le Coeur

After four solid albums (plus some great collaborations with Andre Williams and Jon Langford), we've grown accustomed to counting on The Sadies for their sorta chaotic blend of spaghetti western, surf guitar, country twang, psychobilly and murder balladry with equal nods to Ennio Morricone, Link Wray and Nick Cave. However, on their fifth album Favourite Colours (that spelling reveals their true Canadian-ness), the latter film score maestro's influence is much less pronounced, seemingly in favor of some new untrodden territory for the band. The fellows are lookin' a bit ragged around the edges. Well, at least half of them are... take a gander at the cover photo... who are those two mountain men?! Oh! But we must quickly emphasize that it in a good way! If anything the band is sounding more refreshed and composed than ever. Definitely not tired nor worn out... not at all! Their playing is as tight as ever, and it doesn't take long for them to make that clear. Just check out the hot guitar work on the lead-off track "Northumberland West". They're a band totally capable of playing it as loose and lanky as they please. The most noticeable change in the band's sound is the increased presence and range of the vocals -- from a Pink Floyd-ish contemplativeness on the second song "Translucent Sparrow" to the droll storyteller tone on "1000 Cities Falling" (akin to their Canadian forefather Gordon Lightfoot... "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald", anyone?) to the retro 60s Yardbirds / Animals-ness of the excellent finale "Why Would Anybody Live Here?". Another welcome detour is the seventh song "The Iceberg" which is as the title suggests a somber, galacial instrumental. Gorgeous! As usual, this Sadies album is comprised of a veritable grabbag of styles and moods, however there's a newfound fluidity and focus to the proceedings. Recommended! Oh and by the way, keep your eyes peeled in the coming year for The Sadies. They are tireless! The fellows have been busy working on new material with Neko Case. You might recall they were her backing band ('Her Boyfriends') for a spell and looks like they'll be rekindling their touring magic this fall.

MPEG stream: Translucent Sparrow
MPEG stream: The Curdled Journey

Not only are two of the band members brothers of a musical family (Dallas and Travis of the Good Family), but The Sadies as a whole are a formidable branch of a bigger musical family which includes the likes of Neko Case (whom they back up on her own live album The Tigers Have Spoken), Kelly Hogan, Blue Rodeo, Jon Langford, members of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and Rick White (of Eric's Trip, Elevator, etc.) not to mention many Bloodshot Records brethren. All of them along with Jon Spencer, Gary Louris (of Golden Smog and the Jayhawks), Steve Albini and a whole slew more got down to business on this live recording which took place over two nights at Lee's Palace in Toronto back in February. Whew! Whoa! As you might already be aware, the core Sadies all by their lonesome kick some serious wall to wall ass live each and every time. So entertaining. So lanky'n'loose and razor-sharp at the same time, effortlessly roaming from Morricone western soundtrack to frenetic surf guitar to murder balladry and back. Now with all the other folks in tow, hot damn, they very well cause a meltdown. 2 discs, 41 tracks, 110 minutes!

MPEG stream: Cheat
MPEG stream: Dying Is Easy

Known to veer wildly from style to style, tempo to tempo, mood to mood, those lanky Canadian troubadours The Sadies keep things at a relatively dour faced, slow creep this time around. Less sprawling too, notably absent on New Season are their trademark excursions into Hawaiian guitar, garage rawk and Morricone spaghetti western territories. Still they're as great as ever because these boys know just how to hit that perfect so-lonesome-you-could-cry pace'n'vibe time and time again. Awesome effortless musicianship, slightly tweaked and twisted takes on age old musical traditions injected with an ever affecting spookiness.

MPEG stream: What's Left Behind
MPEG stream: A Simple Apparition

No, this isn't a new release, it's the fine album which preceded this Toronto quartet's most recent Tremendous Effort which we reviewed recently. Rooted in rollicking twang that gives a hearty, respectful nod to surf guitar king Link Wray, their music can swell to Morricone spaghetti western proportions then swagger along the glinting edge of a murder balladry. Along the way they also tackle some traditional country and gospel songs ("Higher Power" and "Walking Ground"). The four fellows - brothers Dallas and Travis Good, Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky (who's also played with Jale and Pernice Brothers) - kick out their tunes mainly on guitars, upright bass, keyboards, fiddle and drums. Their live show, fueled by Marlboros and whisky, is absolutely electric, leaving band and audience fully spent. On record however, their sounds expands to include dobro, banjo and harmonica and an array of additional vocalists. Keep an ear out for guest turns by Kelly Hogan, Catherine Irwin (of Freakwater on "Eastwinds"), and Don Pyle (Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet). Capturing their fiery energy, this album was engineered and mixed by Steve Albini.

RealAudio clip: Medicine Ball
RealAudio clip: Higher Power
RealAudio clip: Eastwinds

Another full length from those tireless, sharply suited gents, and who's complaining?! Whether they're in one of their loping or galloping moods, it just doesn't matter 'cause they smoke either way. The Sadies will hit you one way or another like a stampede of cattle or a stiletto knife in the back. Often labelled simply as a country or garage or surf band, this Canadian quartet is all of this and more. While they can definitely deliver the goods solidly in any of these departments alone, unlike many bands these days they don't just regurgitate a style. They incorporate aspects of one into another, making music that echoes of a different time, but sounds distinctly of the Sadies. Visions of the ol' west with its trusty steeds, dusty desert sunsets and ten gallon hats may come to mind but are swept away by images of scorned lovers, shifty speakeasy figures with smoking guns.

RealAudio clip: Such A Little Word
RealAudio clip: Monkey & Cork

Screeeeeeeech! That's the sound of this hot rod peelin' out of the lot. What a perfect match -- Torontonian psychobilly hepcats The Sadies doin' the soundtrack for the film documentary about Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (perhaps better known as the man behind the bloodshot'n'buggy eyed rebel comic character Rat Fink)! Unlike their usual studio albums which careen across a vast and varied musical landscape, The Sadies for the most part takes a direct route to the surf, veerin' and huggin' a few curves in the process. Like lil' critters that dart out into headlights, their instrumental rabble-rousin' is flashed with a few dialogue snippits from the film. Super cool! What's that smell?! Burnt rubber, baby! They're smokin'!

MPEG stream: The Pyramid
MPEG stream: The Double Wide

These lanky Canadians have been known to assume the form of Neko Case's backing band The Boyfriends, and actually Dallas Good's tingly reverb-laden guitar stylings can also be heard on her new album Blacklisted. However, The Sadies are so much more than that! Kicking up the dust with this their third full length (the follow-up to 1999's excellent Pure Diamond Gold), they continue to unfurl their particular sonic blend: the sinewy twang of spaghetti western soundtracks, the more epic Morricone grandeur, the rawness of garage surf rock, the whisky-soaked, careening, hillbilly barn burners, and the smouldering, intense murder balladry (Dallas alone cuts a very striking, lean 'n' suave Nick Cave-esque silhouette). They do each of these styles so well that they could just stick with one and be quite impressive, but no, that's not what The Sadies have in mind. That said, they definitely don't shift gears as radically from one song to the next as much as they used to, this album is much more cohesive. And yet even still, their musical pendulum's swing shears a distinct and refreshing path through the predominantly 'alt-country' Bloodshot Records roster. Very cool!

RealAudio clip: Empty The Chamber
RealAudio clip: The Last of the Good
RealAudio clip: Flash

We first came across the mysterious black metal entity Sadness Saturn a while back with their awesome split cassette with Utarm. Picking up where they (or maybe he?) left off, Sadness Saturn returns with She, a three song tape that manages to be both raging and strangely meditative. Soundwise, it's a bit like a slightly less bizarre Velvet Cacoon, and it will also make sense to reference experimental black metallers Servile Sect, with whom the Sadness Saturn mainman is also involved. On side 1, "Childhood And The Journey To Satan" plods with a steady drum pound framing some queasy sounding melodies as tortured vocals scream out under a thick blanket of fuzz. The melancholy sounds of guitars and keyboards creep out like a mist of beautiful negativity, accompanied by plain spoken female vocals that actually make this sound a bit like a black metal Cold Cave! The song "Like Ghosts In The Freezing Night" is particularly effective as the calm female voice speaks out above the super intense (yet drumless) black metal atmosphere lurking below the surface. The appropriately named "Dreamer" brings She to its beautiful conclusion, a loping and majestic piece of black metal ambience that is almost uplifting, sort of like if Klaus Schultz had been digging some Ulver. Sound good? You bet. This handsomely packaged cassette is professionally presented to us by the awesome Japanese label Frozen Veins, and with only 100 copies out there, you are gonna want to act fast!

While currently spending his days surrounded by Berlin's techno digerati, Matthew Curry (aka Safety Scissors) pines for his hometown of San Francisco... or at least that's where his musical heart still is. "Parts Water" is Safety Scissors' debut album

RealAudio clip: Stormy Weather
RealAudio clip: 7 Glasses A Day / 7 Days A Week

It's tough enough keeping up with just John Zorn's output (which, we haven't been, even) let alone keeping up with every last thing he puts out on his label Tzadik. We'd like to, but we can't. Fortunately, though, we did (eventually) take notice of this release, which actually came out at the beginning of last year (see what we mean?. We gave it a listen maybe 'cause of the high concept: JEWISH METAL. Well why not? There's been Satanic metal, and Christian metal, and Saft's project surely isn't the first instance of Jewish metal, there's bands from Israel of course, and heck KISS was probably the first Jewish metal band, though of course they didn't make it the whole concept like it is here! Eclectic and intense, Black Shabbis is a dark, devastating disc of shreddtastic songs, or sometimes sheer doomy drone-dirgery, with overt Judeocentric themes. Furthermore, this is metal done by downtown NYC avant garde types, which makes it all the more interesting and improv-y in parts. Longtime Zorn associate Saft, whose past recordings for Tzadik include a piano trio tribute to Bob Dylan, is not only a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist (here playing guitar, bass, organ, Mellotron, Optigan, and synth), but was also apparently something of a metalhead growing up, or so we must assume (as this is billed as a "back to his roots" recording). He, and the lineup he's pulled together to play this stuff (which includes Trevor Dunn from Mr. Bungle/Fantomas/Secret Chiefs 3), certainly display hella metallic chops, this is HEAVY. The 13+ minute "Kielce" sounds like Khanate, plus machine guns! Other tracks are thrashier, or more melodic, or stoner/bluesy, or neo-classical... this disc part Krallice, part Hammers Of Misfortune, part SUNNO))) or Aun, with Slayer and of course Sabbath lurking in the shadows. Quite a mix, but it works, and is nothing if not unique amongst today's avant-metal acts. Being on Tzadik probably limited its metal cred/exposure, but this isn't just for Tzadik/Zorn fans, or those interested in "Jewish" music. While it makes sense Zorn would put this out, it's almost too bad it wasn't on Profound Lore or Southern Lord, instead! And then we could have had multiple limited edition colored vinyl die hard editions by now...

MPEG stream: Blood
MPEG stream: Der Judenstein (The Jewry Stone)

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Heads up! Here comes another wave of limited edition 7"s from 333 Records! Each release in this series is pressed in an ultra small quantity of 333! The latest additions are this one by Sagan and one by Girl Talk. Plus: The first 100 of this Sagan single comes with a little extra something -- a bonus 3"cdr! Don't fret too much if you do miss the first 100 though 'cause we've been assured that the track will be available online for download too. The ever mischievous and crafty trio of Jay Lesser, Blevin Blectum, Wobbly pour out the prickly tickles, thick bass thuddery, and druggy effected vocals for these two short heavily processed and distorted tracks. Always entertaining! We've only got a handful of these. Snoooze'n'loooze, kiddie!

We've been getting more and more tired of electronic music recently. How could you not? It seems that every week there's a hundred more glitchy wannabe Autechres or Aphex Twins. But thankfully, there are always groups of folks, quietly doing their own thing, thinking weird thoughts and making weird sounds, turning unlikely concepts into reality, and offering us amazing alternatives to the usual crap we are forced to sift through day after day. Thus we have Sagan. With a pedigree that would have us expecting no less. Jay Lesser, Bevin Blectum, Wobbly, fim maker Ryan Junell, and the label run by Drew And Martin of Matmos. You'd almost find yourself shouting 'supergroup' if yo didn't know that such behavior would get you a punch in the nose. A massive concept album based on Carl Sagan and just good 'ol science in general, Unseen Forces is a heaping sensory overload of sonic irregularites and visual fuckery. The audio disc is a lot more listenable that you might expect from audio terrorists like Lesser and Blectum. It's a far spacier affair, channelling classic Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd swoosh, Hawkwind spaciness, as well as modern glitch into a slowly swirling galaxy of shimmery synths, and stuttering starbursts, throbbing techno broadcast from a distant galaxy, and garbled through the light years into a smeary ambient blur, demarcated by chirps and clicks, thumps and throbs. A space opera for the IDM set. We were a bit wary of the accompanying film, fearing at best, some sort of cool music videos, and at worst, home movies of band members mugging and acting silly. Well, somehow it's actually both, but the sum of those parts is infinitely more watchable than you might think and so completely compliments Sagan's techno space glitch swirl. So much so that after watching the film, every time we listen to the record now, all we can picture is the scenes from the film! Various historical scientific discoveries and encounters are fictionalized and re-enacted by the band members as well as the guys from Matmos and AQ pal Dave Cerf. Gorgeously filmed and masterfully edited, the grainy Viewmaster menus and segues perfectly balance the silent movie feel of the vignettes, with the action skipping and hiccupping to the music. Funny and fascinating, silly but emminently watchable. Also the opening sequence and the closing credits are AMAZING looking. This record and film have been in the works for a LONG time, but we are happy to report that the wait was worth it! Also, the hybrid DVD contains 9 shows with over 6 hours of music!

MPEG stream: 18,000 BC - Figurines Of Vulva And Waterbird
MPEG stream: Fuguestate: Cosmic, Brah...

This was another one of those records that just showed up one day, and knocked us on our asses. And while all the descriptors pointed to something that would be right up our alley, spacey and psychedelic, krautrocky and kosmische, heavy and hazy, which all do definitely apply, the music manages to embody all those adjectives, while tangling them up into something all its own. This one man band opens up the proceedings with some droned out psychedelic synths, sounding like Amps For Christ or Daniel Higgs, the sounds undulating and spiraling into little tangled melodic squalls, there are bells, and a deep crooned almost chantlike vocal, very hypnotic and almost new agey, those droning synths (or are they effected guitars?), get more and more wild as the song proceeds, a wild woolly freakout over that deep sonorous drone. Great stuff, and we would have been perfectly happy had the whole record sounded like that, but instead, the second song starts off all low slung slither and wah guitar, it's got 'boogie' in the title, and it shows, sort of. Loose and ramshackle, the guitars again blossom into soaring streaks of high end skree, the drums pound and stumble, the vocals wreathed in reverb, the sound insanely dubbed out, everything swallowed up in echo and send swirling into the ether before landing again and reengaging with the in-progress kraut-dub space rock freakout. This is the sort of shit Burnt Hills would conjure up if they wrote songs instead of endless jams, infusing sort-of-proper song structures with all the elements of an unhinged drug addled jam, and the results are pretty wild. The rest of the record though is all over the place, feet firmly planted in psychedelia, and Appalachia, but exploring pretty much every disparate strain, from clattery, foresty free folk, sounding almost like No Neck Blues Band or Avarus, to back porch bluegrass Fahey-y style American primitivism, from strummy, synthy, noise drenched darkdrone balladry (maybe our favorite track, sounding like a muted Merzbow / Portishead slowburn mashup woven into some Appalachian psychedelic creep), to blown out, in-the-red, Japanese psych style White Heaven / Les Rallizes / Fushitsusha grinding guitar freakout, finally finishing off with another bout of melancholic minor key Appalachia. Killer stuff, most definitely recommended for fans of modern psych, neo-Appalachia, psychedelic dronemusic and the weirder side of space/psych/drone rock. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Includes multiple inserts.

MPEG stream: The Hidden Variable
MPEG stream: Bad Karma Boogie

Sage Francis has always been the best lyricist of the bunch, the bunch in question being the Anticon collective (Dose One, Sole, Alias, etc...), but until now it was ALL about the lyrics, the music being just background for Francis's nimble flow. A Healthy Distrust finds Francis on fire, spitting some of the most biting, brutal and brutally funny lyrics EVER, sometimes in a purposefully unfunky drawl, sometimes sung in a goofy sing song, and sometimes sprayed in an impossible series of tongue twisting turns of phrase. And unlike Atmosphere and some other hyped white rappers, Francis manages to flow effortlessly, incorporating his white boy idosycracies into his lyrics and delivery instead of letting them define him as an artist. And finally, for once, the music is just as impressive, dense and emotional, hard and heavy, but not heavy in that incongruous-metal-riff / metal-meets-hip-hop nu-metal way that most rap groups try at least once (and regret it), but in the way only perfectly crafted beats and thick evocative atmospheres can be. Intense and aggressive, melodic and strangely haunting and melancholy with minor key melodies and creepy sad loops. Thanks to a seriously impressive line up of beatmakers and producers: Danger Mouse, Alias, Sixtoo, Controller 7, Daddy Kev and more, A healthy Distrust would be just as good a record even if it was instrumental, with its dark deep Shadow-scapes, weird lumbering funk, skittering electronica, organic instrumentation and lots of wicked beats. So when you mix in Francis's Eminem-meets-MC Serch flow, you've got a contender for hip hop record of the year. A lot of the attention has focused on the track "Sea Lion", a collaboration between Francis and Will Oldham. And rightfully so. A subtle shuffling drum and bass rhythm, over plaintive mournful guitar and Oldham's cracked moan of a vocal line. Definitely an unlikely mmatch up that works perfectly. Another standout is the anti gangsta diatribe "Gunz Yo!" that had us laughing out loud: "Straight to the grill like a homophobic rapper unaware of the graphic nature of phallic symbols, tragically ironic, sucking off each other's gats and pistols, I've got more back issues than Guns n' Ammo, cuz my uzi weighs a ton and i never let go of the handle. Hanging onto mommy's pant leg...double fisted. Knee deep in shells, kicking ballistics. This dick is a detatchable penis. An extension of my manhood, positioned like a fetus. An introvenous hook up feeds bullets to my magazine. Nevermind the Bullocks, my pistol is a sex machine!" and: "I've got another gun, I keep it in my briefcase. It keeps me safe at my workplace. Cubicle gangster who's in need of his personal space. Angster of love who's unable to look girls in their face." In fact, this is one of the few hip hop records that actually had us dropping everything we were doing to actually listen closely to the rhymes, even reading along in the cd booklet. And again, the lyrics had us cracking up, and occasionally even getting all choked up. They're that right on. Here's a few favorites: "Now it's whistle blower versus the pistol holder. Case Dismissed. They'll lock you up and throw away the key witness. Justice is the whim of a judge. Check his chest density. It leaves much room for error, and the rest is left to density. The West Memphis 3 lost paradise. Now it's death penalty vs. Suicidal Tendencies. All I wanted was a fucking Pepsi. 'Making you think you're ugly is a million dollar industry.' Corrina Bain. If they could sell sanity in a bottle, they'd be charging for compressed air. They're marketing health care. They demonized welfare. Middle class eliminated. The rich get richer til the poor get educated." "Let em freestyle, Winner takes all. When the music's dead I'll have Ted Nugent's head hanging on my wall. Kill one of ours...and we'll kill one of yours with some 'friendly fire.' That's a funny term...like 'civil war'." "In a world where girl's got retro tattoos, and all I've got is a gut and velcro black shoes." It's all in the the delivery though, and the above lines are so deftly woven in to the music, that it's hard to imagine them on their own as they are above, but just listen to the sound samples! For hip hop, 2004 may have been the year of MF Doom and Madvillain, but this year (so far) it's all about Sage Francis!

MPEG stream: The Buzz Kill
MPEG stream: Sea Lion
MPEG stream: Gunz Yo!

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

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MPEG stream: Civil Disobedience
MPEG stream: Got Up This Morning

Another solo disc from the Anticon posse, Personal Journal is MC Sage Francis' long-in-the-works earnestly-autobiographical album. With producers odd nosdam, Sixtoo, mayonnaise, Controller 7, and more, all of whom keep his voice right out front.

RealAudio clip: Specialist
RealAudio clip: Inherited Scars

Sounds like an odd pairing, but it works surprsingly well. Sage Francis, assembles a dark and dreamy Anticon-ish hiphop-scape, with Oldham supplying the main vocals in his trademark laconic drawl. You can almost imagine what a great palace song this would make if you sucked out all the groove. But that's precisely what makes it such a great hip hop track. It's just a great song. On the extended version Oldham And Francis are joined by Saul Williams which is super cool. The B side, is the track "Stuck" and features fellow whiney rapper, Atmosphere.

The latest mysterious musical missive from now local label Moon Glyph comes in the form of this gorgeous bit of collaged ambience from M. Sage, who sound hovers in the shadows between the Caretaker, Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, a woozy loopscape of random radio snippets, of treated instruments and muted moody melodies, processed guitars drift wraith like over haunting field recordings, wreathed in hazy swirls of static, the various sounds all blurred into soft focus impressionistic drifts, that just seem to fade in and out, like the flickering of an old filmstrip, or the world viewed through the dusty old window of a beat up car, driving through empty towns and long abandoned neighborhoods. Sound become distorted, gristly and crunchy, shards of caustic buzz surface here and there, but are quickly smeared into another layer of sweetly swirling sound. And when proper instruments do surface, they give the sound a haunted otherworldly twang, or a glistening prismatic cosmic shimmer. The sound constantly shifting from sun dappled dreamlike glimmer, to murky, faded drifts, softly churning dronescapes, all slowed down sounds and softly keening melodies, warm whirs and hushed crackle, to darkly cinematic mesmer, the crackle almost becoming a physical presence, the dreamy lilting thrum beneath almost wholly obscure by this glorious patina of crunch and crackle, turning sound into something impossible tactile, a blissed out sprawl of heavenly soft noise. So utterly, and hauntingly gorgeous.

MPEG stream: Radio Slope (For Whitcomb)
MPEG stream: Campaign Cycles / Harrowing Straits
MPEG stream: The Apocraphyl Atlases

Sweden's Sagor & Swing are an instrumental drums and Hammond organ duo. HAMMOND ORGAN! We know some of you are crazy for the Hammond organ. We are too. And Hammond-freaks or not, this is a lovely, lovely record. Super melodic and dreamy, calm and mesmerizing. Eric Malmberg (organ) and Ulf Moeller (drums) take much inspiration from dark and sleepy Swedish forests, we're told, but we're sure the music of legendary Swedish '60s Hammond/drums duo Hansson & Karlsson is also a big influence! Malmberg actually plays a Hammond that Bo Hansson used on his beloved 1970 Sagan Om Ringen (Lord Of The Rings) album! Not only that, but he writes a comic strip published in a Swedish newspaper called -- get this -- Hansson & Karlsson In Outer Space. The duo's H&K obsession serves them well, without them becoming mere copyists at all. Some tracks are lively and spirited, with stick-in-your-head folk-derived hooks a la fellow Swede Bjorn Olsson (himself a sort of Bo Hansson protege), while others are more like slightly sinister Dario Argento/Goblinesque lullabies, that combine music box melodies with one-note ambient minimalism a bit like that one Aphex Twin-esque track on Burzum's Filosofem. Just a bit. Some Kraftwerk rhythms are hinted at as well, and Magyar Posse's cinematic epics too. This is definitely a universal AQ-staff fave, and we think you'll love it too. Apparently it's S&S fourth album, so we'll have to track down their other two asap!

MPEG stream: Grottmusik
MPEG stream: Lovverk
MPEG stream: Det Sista Aventyret

Second album from the fab Swedish drums and Hammond organ duo, preceeding Allt Hanger Samman which was such a hit around here. And this is just as nice!

The first, totally wonderful album from this Swedish organ/drums duo. Along with their other releases, solid AQ fave material.

The AQ-fave instrumental electric organ and drums duo Sagor & Swing return! These Swedes' previous disc Allt Hanger Samman was a big hit here, especially among those of us (like Byram and Allan) for whom the dulcet tones of the Hammond organ are a siren song. This new disc, Orgelplaneten (not to be confused with their 2nd album Orgelfarger), is actually a bit different from Sagor & Swing's earlier recordings. The line up of course is still the same -- Eric Malmberg on organ and Ulf Moeller on drums -- but the mesmeric mellow folky aspect of their sound is played down (though not gone entirely), and their more uptempo rockin' side is played up. This album is jazzier, punchier, louder. It seems that they've left the dreamy Swedish forests and headed for the bright lights of the big city. It's a playful, brassy, swinging affair that reminds us a bit of Finnish Casio-hipsters Aavikko. And it still reminds us, even more than before in fact, of '60s Hammond n' drums combo Hansson & Karlsson, whom we already knew were Sagor & Swing's biggest inspiration. This is very Hansson & Karlsson indeed! Total retro-cool. So, while other Sagor & Swing cds might be a good soundtrack for an intimate dinner, this one's meant for a real party. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Idiom
MPEG stream: Aventyr I Alperna

Yay! It's been a while since we've heard from this wonderful Hammond organ and drums duo from Sweden, but now they're back with a vinyl-only release on longtime label Hapna. Has it really been almost ten years since their last album? It has, and we've missed 'em, being big fans of their jazzy and dreamy and folky instrumental sound. Looks like Eric Malberg has found a new drummer to play with, Fredrik Borling of Dungen replacing Ulf Moeller on the kit. Malmberg also lays down some swirling synth textures as well as playing his trademark Bo Hansson-influenced organ, the delightful results range from bright and jaunty uptempo pieces to more moody melodic reveries... Moments make us think of Hansson, of course, and another great Swedish '70s organist, Merit Hemmingson (she of the "Swedish Hammond Folk Groove") but with the playful synths also of Joe Meek Telstar type stuff at times too. Altogether lovely, so glad to have 'em back!! Limited to 500 copies, comes with digital download code.

These girls kick so much ass. Four 20 year old Swedish girls kicking out the motherfucking jams like a more metal Runaways. They've been playing together since before they were teens, touring like crazy in Sweden and releasing two full length records. This is their first available in the U.S. and the timing is perfect what with the Hives/Vines/garage rock mania. Sahara Hot Nights spit out punky garage-y rock and roll, equal parts Kiss, the Helicopters and the Runaways. They sound a little like the harder, meaner sister of the Donnas. Heck, with the boyish garage rockin' good times boiling over on both sides of the Atlantic, it's high time we finally heard from the gals!

RealAudio clip: Alright Alright
RealAudio clip: Keep Up The Speed

Who would have though that guys from Gorgoroth were capable of coming up with something like this? Sure it's dark and heavy. But it's not really that evil. It's more sort of spacey and groovy. Two words you never thought you'd hear in the same sentence as Gorgoroth. But here you go. This is the stoner doom side project of Gorgoroth's King Ov Hell, and it's pretty awesome actually. You just have to sort of pretend this has nothing to do with Gorgoroth, otherwise it just doesn't compute. Think Sabbath (the vocals get really Ozzy at some points) for sure, but the sound is more modern groovy stoner doom, huge riffs, lurching loping rhythms, killer leads and wailing vocals, definitely brought to mind late era, post-Messiah Candlemass (think From The 13th Sun) but the interesting thing is how much a lot of this sounds like dark grungy moperock a la Alice In Chains, or like a more metalized Agents Of Oblivion (but not so metal as to be Acid Bath). It's actually what makes this record so cool. It's definitely metal, but it's so dark and haunting and moody. Like some mad scientist took the genes of Deadboy And The Elephantmen, Black Sabbath, Alice In Chains and old Monster Magnet and created these four guys in some underground laboratory. Sounds good huh? Well, that's cuz it is. Heavy and groovy, dark and moody, sludgey and stonery. We like this more and more every time we listen to it.

MPEG stream: Repent
MPEG stream: The Executioner Undead

NOW ON VINYL! Extra nice since the cd version of this great collection has been AWOL of late. We can't deny we've been quite smitten with so many bands in the last couple years who have blasted onto the scene playing inspired, raw, wild and blown out garage rock. But it may take going back to Peru to the years 1964-1966 to find the most riveting and TRUE origins of garage proto-punk, done to perfection. The first time we ever heard Los Saicos we couldn't believe our ears, this was the kind of garage sound we had always imagined in our mind. Gritty, spirited, and filled with charm and soul. And some pretty gnarly vocals for the time. It's not overstating the case to say they make other '60s dirty garage peddlers like The Sonics or The Monks seem kind of tame. This is the kind of blood, guts and charisma that helped create bands latter on like The Cramps, The Mono Men, The Coachwhips, and Davilla 666. With a primitive surf undertone, and an undeniable tough and cool sensibility they really do have a sound so many bands in the decades to follow tried (and continue to try) to emulate. Los Saicos are like the Peruvian version of a gang of bad kids from a Luis Bunuel film, forming a band and creating electric energy together amongst the harsh realities of the streets they roam. We're so so so thankful Munster has given Los Saicos the proper reissue and long overdue respect they so deserve. If you like rock n roll in any form, you NEED THIS!

MPEG stream: Demolici�n
MPEG stream: Te amo
MPEG stream: Come On (Ven aqu�)

We can't deny we've been quite smitten with so many bands in the last couple years who have blasted onto the scene playing inspired, raw, wild and blown out garage rock. But it may take going back to Peru to the years 1964-1966 to find the most riveting and TRUE origins of garage proto-punk, done to perfection. The first time we ever heard Los Saicos we couldn't believe our ears, this was the kind of garage sound we had always imagined in our mind. Gritty, spirited, and filled with charm and soul. And some pretty gnarly vocals for the time. It's not overstating the case to say they make other '60s dirty garage peddlers like The Sonics or The Monks seem kind of tame. This is the kind of blood, guts and charisma that helped create bands latter on like The Cramps, The Mono Men, The Coachwhips, and Davilla 666. With a primitive surf undertone, and an undeniable tough and cool sensibility they really do have a sound so many bands in the decades to follow tried (and continue to try) to emulate. Los Saicos are like the Peruvian version of a gang of bad kids from a Luis Bunuel film, forming a band and creating electric energy together amongst the harsh realities of the streets they roam. We're so so so thankful Munster has given Los Saicos the proper reissue and long overdue respect they so deserve. If you like rock n roll in any form, you NEED THIS!

MPEG stream: Demolici�n
MPEG stream: Te amo
MPEG stream: Come On (Ven aqu�)

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]