[ 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 1051 through 1100 of 4057.

A very cool local trio making a joyous feminine racket a la The Raincoats. Recommended.

Here's the latest album from AQ friend Alan Korn's band She Mob. Not In My World is filled with intelligent punky pop that gives hearty nods to its cerebral post-punk and quirky art rock ancestors such as The Slits, The Raincoats, Au Pairs, Delta 5, Talking Heads and The Residents. Crafty, topical and engaging. Features cover art by Matt Waldron aka Irr.App.(Ext.).

A harrowingly good introduction to the bleak power electronics from She Spread Sorrow, the nom de guerre for the Italian transgressive artist Alice Kundalini. The industrial culture has long employed the language of violence as an aesthetic and conceptual tool, with varying degrees of grand rigor and varying degrees of thrill-seeking titillation. Kundalini certainly positions her work on this continuum, though there is more of a personal horror which she seems to wish to exorcise through the work. While she never outwardly expresses what that is, all of the signifiers point to some sort of sexual abuse; with the whispering declarations above the rasping low-end distortion holding a very uncomfortable position as a nexus of unmentionable past events of cruelty, present states of shame, and a future that grips with a potent sense of control of self. Kundalini's production stands solidly on foundations constructed by the likes of Anenzephalia, Puce Mary, and Atrax Morgue, with belicose noise, anxiously claustrophobic gloom, and an obsessive discipline all on display on this unblinking album. Would have been on the aQ best of 2015 had we gotten this in earlier.

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If you've been hooked into myspace.com, either the name She Wants Revenge will seem painfully passe to you by now or you might be riding the wave of anticipation to hold in your hands an actual cd of this band's up-until-now-only-digitally-available-online music. A brief synopsis for those of you to whom this all seems like Greek... She Wants Revenge is an LA duo who (along with another internet buzz-band, the UK's Arctic Monkeys) have been all the rage on the abovementioned phenomenal hipster/hype-machine community (but now Rupert Murdoch-owned) website for months. All that said, what does it sound like? Well, it's pretty much summed up with the phrase: She Wants Revenge totally 'out-Joy Divisions' Interpol. They've got a song titled "Tear You Apart"... ok. They've formulated their sound to drive into utter ecstacy the aural taste buds of everyone who likes that dour yet danceable sound, but with a few distinctions. Really, the aural resemblance is nothing short of shocking, but unlike Joy Division's tone of bleaker than bleak self-loathing and Interpol's romanticization of it, the two male djs-turned-band-members instead define and fetishize SWR's dour angular new wave dance punk with imagery of girls in panties with butcher knives. Your cup of tea?

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We'd been hearing about this new San Francisco band The She's for a while now, friends who have seen them live have been totally raving to us about 'em. We can see why now, as this is full on bright colored, punchy pop bliss! While we are in the crisp and cold time of winter right now, these songs are bringing us the hope of warmth and sunshine that springtime and summer will surely bring. Such an awesome feeling when the first time you ever hear a band you immediately feel the same way you did when you heard bands that have become all-time favorites. Think of some awesome version of Best Coast stripping away the lo-fi vibes and going on a road trip in a red convertible with the first Weezer album and The Breeders' Last Splash, and you start to get an idea of what kind of pop perfection The She's have created with this debut. While lots of other new bands have been great at tapping into a sound or era with their aesthetic, The She's are a refreshing reminder of how great it is to hear a new band that believes in SONGS. Pretty much every song on here is filled with such inciting hooks and melodies. We have a strong feeling that The She's could be the next San Francisco band who could make it kinda big, this is awesome!

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She-Satellites is the pseudonym for Atari Teenage Riot's noise programmer Nic Endo, whose second solo album (the first being Nic Endo's 'White Heat' on Digital Hardcore) reflects a more adventurous approach to noise and beats than her contributions in Atari Teenage Riot. The interplay between the digitized tones has an antiquated feel of the electronic music composers of the 60s (sounding very much like Arne Nordheim or Vladimir Ussachevsky) and accompanies a start-n-stop array of crunchy breakbeats. 'At its frequent best, 'Poison Lips' restores frissons of pleasure to noise zones, where punishment beatings had become the rule.' - Biba Kopf / The Wire

An intersection of the classical sounds of the Ictus Ensemble with Shea's ever-changing approach to sampling techniques.

Three newly arranged/performed pieces by sampling/turntable artist David Shea. Each focuses on the relationship between orchestrated live performance and the sampler as an instrument in its own right. "Sita's Walk of Fire" is based on the Ramayana cycle; "Satyricon 2000" is based on the Latin novel of the same name (a great read, by the way!; and "One Ride Pony" was composed

RealAudio clip: Sita's Walk Of Fire
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Seems only logical that local songsmith Dylan Shearer would end up on Castle Face, the record label run By John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees, even though Shearer's music is markedly different than most of the fuzzy, jangly garage punk/pop that is CF's bread and butter. But Shearer is a master songsmith, his music darkly psychedelic, broody and hypnotic, from the very first few seconds of opener "Time To Go", deep vocals, and laid back piano, shuffling percussion, all blurred into a hazy, softly psychedelic baroque pop reminiscent of Cardinal, the Moles, the Elephant Six bands, even going as far back as Van Dyke Parks, early Bee Gees, lush and lovely, grandiose, and timeless. The whole rest of the record follows suit, a stunningly mature songsuite, that really does sound out of time. And really, this is actually the record that should be getting all the hype that's being heaped on that Mac Demarco record, they both seem to be drawing inspiration from the same sonic gene pool, but while both most definitely count the Kinks and the Beatles and the Zombies as influences, Demarco's music ends up sounding more like a Jack Johnson / Jimmy Buffet style easy listening classic rock, while Shearer's most definitely positions itself in that selfsame pantheon, crafting moody, lovely chamber pop, and haunting softly psychedelic balladry, that taps into a classic strain of modern pop music, adding a few modern flourishes here and there, but ultimately, Garagearray sounds like some long lost classic from the vaults, some rediscovered and recently reissued lost holy grail of vintage psychedelic pop. Maybe too mellow and laid back for some of the Castle Face diehards, but for the rest of us, a stone cold modern / retro pop-psych classic.

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We first heard local singer songwriter Dylan Shearer on the In A Cloud sampler of local SF artists and were immediately smitten by his gorgeous old school retro sixties style pop, think Kinks, Zombies, early Bee Gees, Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, lush but spare instrumentation, dreamily strummed guitar, delicate piano, minimal drum skitter, instantly irresistible melodies, classic pop songsmithery, all driven by Shearer's distinctive dramatic croon, and all wreathed in a lush softly reverbed old school production. Dreamy and melancholic, definitely a sound out of time, reminds us of aQ faves Cardinal, the New Lines, Still Corners, Bipolaroid and other aQ beloved retro poppers. But where those bands definitely veer toward the experimental, Shearer plays it pretty straight relying more on the songs themselves, which effortlessly transport the listener to a simpler time, Porchpuddles the perfect soundtrack to that bygone era of classic baroque dream pop. Includes a download coupon of the whole record PLUS seven bonus tracks!!!

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When we heard that there was a new music album by Harry Shearer, two words jumped eagerly into our heads: Derek Smalls! Then another two: Mark Shubb! Alright, of course we all know that Harry Shearer has done so much more amazing stuff than portraying those two unforgettable musical characters (in the metal mockumentary Spinal Tap and the country/folk mockumentary A Mighty Wind respectively). They're only two of the innumerable very different facets of this man's genius (actor, writer, voice of numerous Simpsons characters, radio host of the NPR program Le Show, the list goes on). We have to admit tho', much as we love Shearer and his thought provoking and funnybone tickling work, this album ain't doin' it for us... but then again maybe he didn't make it for us. Maybe he's chosen not to preach to the converted as it were. On Songs Pointed & Pointless, Shearer has planted his social and political critiques in a musical style that for the most part appeals to a very conservative (taste-wise, not politically) audience. Sure his lyrics are loaded with his razor sharp insights, but the manner in which they're delivered can be a bit trite or downright cheesy. In that "Uh oh, Uncle Harry brought his guitar to the family dinner!" kind of way. You know what we mean!? So much so at times it's drawn audible cringes when played in the store. On second thought, we take that back. What are we thinking?! We'd kill to have Harry Shearer as our uncle! The thing is Shearer is such a master at assuming characters we can't tell if this is another role he's playing with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Regardless, if you have any mild-mannered, mild-tastebudded relatives whom you think need a little tutorial at the School Of Shearer, he's got his sharpened pencils at the ready. Give a listen for yourself!

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Following their acclaimed 2007 concept album Palo Santo, Texas band Shearwater deliver another haunting, dramatic work. Whether its title refers to the bird or chess piece of the same name we aren't certain (it's probably the second because main man Jonathan Meiburg studies ornithology), but both are quite apropos. The ten songs are imbued with the airborne grace of the former and the formidable icy stone gravity of the latter. If you've yet to hear this band's music, imagining a more ominous Coldplay (whom the band has opened for in concert) is a good place to start. Their sound at once harkens back to '70s UK folk rock as well as perhaps early '90s Talk Talk and the late '90s epic loud-quiet postrock of Godspeed or Mogwai. The swooping high vocals of Meiburg conjuring comparisons to Nick Drake, Mark Kozelek or Ron Sexsmith. Fans of any/all of the above, definitely check this somber beauty out!

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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.

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Fifth album from these Sabbath worshipping Canucks. Their claim to fame is that their singer sounds EXACTLY like Ozzy. Ozzy at his most nasal perhaps, but definitely Ozzy. And they exploit that vocal similarity to the utmost, by writing the most Sabbathy songs they can (which they do quite well). And who's to blame 'em? And although the too-obvious Ozzyness of the vocalist might hold these guys back from being taken totally seriously on their own terms, this should be at least as popular as the equally awesome Early Man, who also have been known to sound a bit like Sabbath/Ozzy. Not that this sounds quite like what you think it might. This is Sabbathy, but really uptempo Sabbath, rocking hard. Sheavy might be the only Sabbath-copyist band in existence to sound like they're specifically trying to emulate the Sabs circa Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die, the final two albums of the original Ozzy era in the late '70s. So no "War Pigs" or "Iron Man" re-writes here. The slowest and doomiest they get is the instrumental, "Moments Of Silence", whereas the rest of this is pretty darn rockin'. Actually, maybe it's more just Ozzy than Sabbath that they're going for here, as they also sound a lot like Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy's band when he went solo in the early '80s) -- even if Sheavy's guitarist never quite tries to scale the heights of Randy Rhodes. Though he's no slouch, either, and contributes plenty of crunch along with some sweet soloing. So for those of you partial to the rock (and Ozzy's pinched whine), Sheavy's Republic? would be a good one to crank. Produced by Billy Anderson, by the way, for the sludge-obsessives amongst you keeping score.

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Break out the Molson, 'cause Canadian Black Sabbath doppelgangers Sheavy are back with another (stoner) rockin' disc. The Sabbath comparison arises mainly from singer Steve Hennessey's uncanny vocal resemblance to the nasal tones of Ozzy Osbourne. Although Mr. Hennessey probably won't have his own reality TV show (on Much Music?) in thirty years, he really does sound a heck of a lot like the bat-bitin' one, circa Ozzy's early '80s solo heyday. Sheavy utilizes this seemingly-familiar voice to lead the listener into melodic and heavy (as per their name) territory more rockin' than doomy -- their take on the Sabbath/'70s vibe is closer to Fu Manchu than Electric Wizard: wailing guitars, plentiful hooks, driving grooves, even some "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" style keyboards. Definitely one any Ozzy/Sabbath freak has to check out, but also a recommended album for all into good ol' old fashioned hard rock/metal! Retro like we like it, with lots of sci-fi and car culture references for max kitsch value. How come these guys weren't on that Fubar soundtrack? A glaring omisson indeed.

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Your first reaction to his Canadian band will be: "I can't believe it's not Black Sabbath!" In a blind test, their singer could not be distinguished from Ozzy Osbourne by a panel of experts--it seems the only difference is that the guy in sHeavy hasn't bitten the head off any live animal (yet). That, and his band's got some better tunes for him to sing than what Ozzy's been up to lately. Normally, something that's this much of a copy would deserve scorn, but they're so damn good at it that you have to love it. This came out last year as an import, and now here's the domestic version, adding a (non-bogus) bonus track.

For those of you who have been FIENDING for some murky, gritty, booming and dark dubbed out techno, and seething, narcotic wareHOUSE similar to the dose we administered a couple months ago with the fantastic Porter Ricks reissue, Biokenetics, we got it for you RIGHT HERE! Shed, aka Rene Pawlowitz, offers up his third full length, The Killer, and man, while we're kinda bummed we're late to the party, it's SO great to finally arrive! Rolling, mesmeric, corroded bursts of metallic klang tangle with dark and HEAVY synthscapes, rattling bass tones, and subtle trance inducing rhythmic shifts. Hazy clouds of filtered fuzz, and buzzing skree smokin out the disco tech! "I Come By Night" is a nefarious and brooding techno stomper. The sounds of robot chatter and malfunctioning factory equipment crumbled up together and spread tautly over a tectonic rhythm grid, the sounds caustic and mysterious, buzzing and droning and teeming with dark energy. Like a WAY more brutal Actress, other worldly squeaks and blips ricocheting to and fro on top of some seriously gothic synthscapes. "Day After", "Phototype" and "Ride On" are more of a broken, fucked up and moody rendition of dubstep or UKG. The bass drum sound has us thinking of the gnarlier side of Chain Reaction, while the snares and hats swing rigidly on top (an oxymoron, we know, but we don't know how else to describe the confusional yet undeniably groovy sound Shed manages to achieve here). The synth vibes on these tracks are totally haunting. Heavy horror vibrations, and blissy blackened grittiness. Unintelligible vocal snippets looping over and over, creating an infectious syncopation. There are also moments of dubby drifting ambiance that tie The Killer together quite nicely. The introduction, "STP3 The Killer", is a pulsating, Hecker meets Hallucinator vaporous trance dance, while "Gas Up" (Voigt reference?) is a soporific bliss out dreamscape! Bubbling angelic synth tones flow in and out of focus, obscured by a fog of tape hiss. "The Praetorian (Album Mix) is an evolving digital landscape, again reminding us of Tim Hecker circa "Harmony In Ultraviolet". Arpeggiated plink plonking glassinine sonic shards and delicately discordant mesmer floating up to the heavens! Beautiful! The Killer is totally right up our alley, as far as techno goes. Massively heavy at points, dreamy and delicate at others. Blurry and narcotic, trance inducing dubbed out seismic GROOVE! If you dig all those Chain Reaction, Basic Channel and Gas vibes of yore, or are feeling that new experi-techno sound of Actress or that forlorn night music that is Burial, Shed's sound is definitely gonna hit you in the gut (in a pleasurable way)! RECOMMENDED FRESHNESS!

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We had never heard of Shed Dwellaz, but apparently these guys were a hip hop crew from Redwood City, active in the nineties, and NYC tape label Ormolycka has dug up these 4 track demos from back in the day, and folks who've been digging Ormolycka know the sort of fucked up taste they have in hip hop (Antwon, Juiceboxx, Lil Ugly Mane, Death Grips, etc.) so the sound of the Shed Dwellaz sounds right at home. Guessing most of these guys are white, it's got that sort of Beastie Boys via Anticon vibe too it, but it's much more lo-fi, DIY and old school, with some sick flows from the MC's and some pretty sweet tracks, swirling harps, stuttering chopped up vox, plenty off fuzz, distortion and static, weird samples. Hints of Wu-Tang of course, but also Sensational, even Hawd Gangstuh Rappaz Wid Gatz, some of this is goofy, but some of it's dark and sinister, shades of Gravediggaz for sure, but home brewed 4-track style. Killer stuff for sure. Housed in a sweet double cassette case, full color J-cards, and like lots of the Ormolycka jams, LIMITED!!!

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Any record that is an homage to Eric Dolphy and his (possibly imagined) interaction and fascination with birds is pretty much guaranteed to hit the spot. But when said record is wrapped in some of the most striking cd artwork we've seen in ages, and is in fact a strange sort of jazz drone collage constructed from samples of Dolphy records, field recordings and some added percussion, well, it's almost like they came to us and asked us what sort of record we wanted to hear, and we told them "Let's see, drones for sure, some field recordings, and heck, why not include some Dolphy..." The cover art is amazing. Like the illustrations for some childrens' book. A big eyed, horned, bat-bird-witch flying over a forest of angular trees, sitting in the clouds over a sea filled with ships manned by black headed rabbits with water pouring from their eyes, and spiriting away with a dry eyed black headed rabbit in his claws, while below, another rabbit fills a chalice with one eye, and the sea with the other. The artwork alone sets the bar pretty high. Dark and dreamy, playful but slightly ominous... Thankfully, the music is also all of those things. And then some. The brief opening track is a tangle of bass clarinet, smeared into a deep expanse of low end shimmer, while above, melodies and melodic fragments drift and splinter. Very evocative of a cloudy day, wet streets and soft sheets of rain. The second track introduces a simple motorik rhythm, that shuffles and skitters beneath a constant shifting drone woven from looped horns. Super hypnotic and dreamy. Almost like a stripped down, drone-y jazzy Pharaoh Overlord. As the drums peter out, the horns begin to bounce and dance, chirp and flutter, and suddenly the sky is clear and full of birds, or is it just Dolphy playing the sounds of birds? The final track is an epic, clocking in at almost 20 minutes, Dolphy's horns surface here and there, but most of the track has them stretched and smoothed out into ultra minimal low end drifts, warm swells of muted melody, a totally mesmerizing abstract drift. This is one of those records, that had we not known the story behind it, we probably wouldn't have necessarily made the Dolphy connection, or the bird connection for that matter, and actually the jazz element is subtle and quite minimal, but as a chunk of dreamy dark drone drift, it's really quite fantastic. And as far as we're concerned there can never be too much tribute paid to the late great Eric Dolphy!

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A 2005 release that somehow slipped through the cracks here, Colin Andrew Sheffield's First Thus is a magnificent, spectral drone album. Sheffield's day job is in the book industry, where the title of the book would hold some meaning in speaking of a first edition of a book that had been previously available but in a slightly different form. Sheffield applies this sensibility to his own appropriation of "other commercially available recordings." Of course, what those recording might be aren't made known through the radical disfiguration and obfuscation that Sheffield applies to these sounds. One can think back to Aphex Twin, and a remix he was commissioned to create for a band he despised, so he sped up an entire Jesus Jones track to a microsecond burst and used that bit of digital abrasion as an ancillary hi-hat in his polyrhythmic electronica. Whatever Sheffield may have thought of the original recordings has become irrelevant in the perpetually cascading streams of digital vibration and hypnotic ambience. Time-stretching is an obvious weapon within Sheffield's arsenal, but he's so heavily layered all of the cross-phasing patterns that massive washes of op-art inspired pulsations ripple through the protracted echoes and cavernous reverberations. His aerosolized sonic mist takes on a similarly ghostly patina found in the Leyland Kirby recordings and the frigid digital shimmer of the darker contributions to the Pop Ambient series. Pressed in a batch of only 330 copies, of which there can't be very many left in circulation.

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The veil of mediated sound hangs heavy upon the work of Colin Andrew Sheffield, a Texan born sound artist currently living in Seattle. His work is almost entirely based upon recontextualizing sounds from already released works, although unlike such plunderphonic artists like Christian Marclay, John Oswald, and Wobbly who allow for the samples to utter their origins, Sheffield obliterates almost all of the references into a field of static vibrations, densely compacted layerings, and hyper-stretched drones. Through his digital crucible, Sheffield extracts something almost completely different out of the sources that he puts into it. In running the ever impressive Elevator Bath label, Sheffield has found an outlet for a handful of his recordings, mostly as small run editions with the one exception being his outstanding First Thus cd. Signatures was commissioned by the San Francisco based label Invisible Birds, as the debut in what hopes to be a great catalogue of sound art composition that's somehow related to bird sounds and their environment. Keeping true to his working methods, Sheffield's contribution to Invisible Birds reclaims sounds from other records amidst what Sheffield claims to be field recordings of water and birds. The results have been so heavily obfuscated through the process that it's hard to hear any twitter of birdsong. The thunderous low-end repetition on the last track is purported to be the flapping of a bird's wing, but it's hard to discern. All of this said, Sheffield's results are gorgeous. At first, the album has almost an ominous feel, as a shimmering, arctic hush is shot forth from the speakers with layer upon layer of sympathetic vibrations interweaving into a hypnotic, if cybernetic sound. It sounds sort of like the classic Chain Reaction artists like Porter Ricks or Hallucinator with all of the techno extracted, and only a cold, cold drone of digitality left behind. By the end of the album, Sheffield brightens things into a stunning crescendo of church organ-like chords suspended in time and space with glints of vinyl crackle hanging like sunflecked dust floating in air. Here, Sheffield gives the impression of William Basinski reclaiming a Ligetti choral piece. Very highly recommended. INSANELY LIMITED. Already out of print. This is the super deluxe version which comes housed in a quite nice box, the disc wrapped in fabric, and includes a booklet and a bonus 3" cd-r!!

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New album from Steve Albini, et al. Almost sounds like an Olympia band doing Shellac. Much more melodic, with more singing and less testifying. Some really beautiful quiet parts and some amazing over distorted loud bits. People have been freaking out, saying this is the best thing Albini's ever done, although Rapeman and Big Black still hold that honor. Comes in a mini cardboard open reel style tape box.

Hey. Never listed this classic, and now we've got some vinyl in, so here's a review!! Steve Albini may be most well known for being a producer / engineer, having probably recorded a million of your favorite records, or for being a hilariously outspoken and opinionated loudmouth, and yeah, he's both of those, but more importantly, he was the architect /guitarist / mouthpiece for legendary industrial tinged drum machine driven noise rockers Big Black, not to mention the way less well known, but even better (as far as we're concerned) Rapeman, and then there's Shellac, Albini's minimalist rock trio with Bob Weston (Volcano Suns) and Todd Trainer (Rifle Sport, Brick Layer Cake), a band that bucks convention in pretty much every way possible, playing only occasionally, and more for fun, than promotion, recording and releasing records even more occasionally, running their band much like Albini runs his recording studio, never asking for outrageous amounts of money, offering to play first in order to get folks out early to see the other bands, their live performances a sort of spectacle, besides being insanely tight, there's lots of hilarious stage banter, not to mention some strange choreographed movements that would seem to be at odds with such a 'serious band'. Which is really the key to what makes Shellac so good, they ARE funny guys, and they DO have a great sense of humor, and that humor does worm its way into their sound, no matter how subtly. And that sound! It's like someone went into a laboratory and concocted our perfect band. Sinewy, angular chiming guitars, thick buzzing bass, and incredible, ridiculously mathy and super powerful drumming, all wound around gorgeously skeletal songs, that manage to be wickedly catchy, while remaining extremely difficult and abstract, so much so that their popularity does sometimes seem baffling, cuz this shit is fucking far out. A woozy fuzzy groove will suddenly splinter into a baffling stop start stretch of seemingly 'free' post / noise rock drift, a sprawling stretch of high end guitar / splattery crash and boom drum duel will stretch out for minutes, before suddenly locking into a proper, almost poppy sounding song, the record constantly veering from dense mathy indie rock to total experimental noise rock minimalism, often those two elements bleeding like crazy into one another. And Albini's pissed off snarly vox are the perfect fit, there aren't a lot of vocals, but when they do come in, it adds an awesome bit of menace to the proceedings. If you haven't heard At Action Park, man are you in for a surprise, heavy and mathy and abstract and noisy and brutal and catchy and still one of the best records from that era. Now if they'd just reissue those first three 7"s, long out of print and never reissued in any form, but pretty much a perfect trifecta of stripped down angular minimal math rock...

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The best comment we heard amidst all the bitching about the recent U2 record, you know the one that just showed up in your iTunes, uninvited (and in most cases, unwanted), was that there would have been a whole lot less complaining had we all woken up to find THIS record in our iTunes. If only... So yeah, it's a new Shellac record, and people have been freaking out (ourselves included) since word first leaked about its impending release, and its goofy/brilliant title. Thankfully, and maybe not surprisingly, very little has changed since their last record, 2007's Excellent Italian Greyhound. Right from the get go, the title track finds Steve Albini, laying down what sounds suspiciously like a lost ZZ Top riff (harkening back to that bad ass Rapeman cover of "Just Got Paid"), but then in comes Todd Trainer's ultra precise drumming, and Bob Weston's thick sinewy bass, and BAM, couldn't be anything other than Shellac, especially when Albini's sung/spoken vocals come in, and then the lyrics, a snippet of which includes the line "we'll go where the females congregate, perhaps they'll let us fuck them, and on the way, we'll have adventure", or something like that. And the sound, pure Shellac, super tight, lots of chug and pound, crazy dynamic (check out the super weirdly arranged "Compliant", that veers from some very Big Black sounding churn, to ultra spaced out stop/start breakdowns, and then some downright prettiness, along with some surprisingly croony vox!), but also UN-dynamic for much of the record, the band doing what they do best, and locking into tense / tranced out grooves, that could go on forever. Some of the tracks, like "You Came In Me" (with more 'fucking' lyrics), are super fierce, minus some goofy call and response vox, that one's a stunner, with some wild, octopoidal drumming, and one of the best guitar sounds we've heard in ages. "Riding Bikes" is a sweet curious slab of downer slowcore pound, while the beginning of "All The Surveyors" starts off with one of those parts, like the Shellac classic "Wingwalker", where live they all spread their arms out like the wings of a plane, and do a little a capella bit. Here the band do yet another little vocal intro, culminating in them howling "FUCK THE KING!!", not to mention Albini making crazed bird calls throughout. Which is kind of what makes this record (and Shellac in general) so good, and so fun. They never gave a fuck, that was obvious, but somehow now they seem to give even less of a fuck, taking the music utterly seriously, but injecting humor, whenever or wherever they feel like, the sort of stuff that to us on the outside is so obviously some sort of inside joke, or something dumb from the van or the rehearsal space, but the band take that stuff, and transform it into something as crucial to the song and sound as the music itself. That said, even without that stuff, the music itself, BY itself, is more than enough. Tracks like "The People's Microphone" are so tight, so progged out, but not wanky, it's math rock, but ultra minimal math rock, every note, and hit, concise and perfect, they're like a machine, but one that emotes, bleeds, broods, and most importantly, thinks that really goofy shit is hilarious! Like the monkey-hoisting-another-monkey-over-his-head-pro-wrestling-style cover art. And yeah, probably every review of this record will end like this, but how can we resist? Dude, INCREDIBLE!

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MPEG stream: You Came In Me
MPEG stream: Riding Bikes

It's hard not to love Shellac. They are definitely�one of the best sounding bands in the world. And they still manage to be as weird as all get out. Sonically, their recordings are so loud and live sounding. The players are unbelievably tight and efficient. The drums are like a machine, way up in the mix, driving the songs, so precise and perfect, but somehow still impossibly groovy. The arrangements are simple, but manage to be intense and convoluted and confusing at the same time. Albini is the absolute master of the jagged angular riff. Stripped down minimal math rock, no one does it better.� So what's a band to do, instead of making another perfect sounding record? Well, howsabout making a not-so-perfect sounding record? Or more specifically making a -mostly- perfect sounding record, but making it so weird and fucked up that it's bound to drive some folks nuts? Which is exactly what they've done.� The long in the works (6 or 7 years it seems like)�Excellent Italian Greyhound definitely sounds like a Shellac record, and in that, we already love it. And it does sound perfect. Most of the songs are relentless and intense, the guitar a precisely tuned rrrrroooooar, veering from sharp shards to warm crunch, in fact, Steve Albini's guitar tone sounds warmer than ever,�the bass a throbbing anchor, and the drums, holy shit, Todd Trainer is a mathrock drum cyborg alien master. And the songs! "Steady As She Goes" (we were secretly hoping it was a Raconteurs cover) is a post rock math rock post punk masterpiece. Tightly wound with a killer half time breakdown, and some relentlessly catchy riffing. The next track too, "Be Prepared", is about as good as stuff like this gets. A weird hook, a seasick rhythm, and amazing vocals.�And that voice, the same tortured whine, which in the past was another minimal element in Shellac's minimalist sound, is now taking center stage, often wailing all by its lonesome. And�while we're on the subject of vocals, that's one way in which Albini and Co. seemingly decided to fuck with us.�Albini's lyrics in Shellac were always a bit, um... mysterious, but here they're downright bizarre, and almost goofy. The opening track "The End Of Radio" has some slightly cheesy bits, some radio style sloganeering, sure there is a point, but it still sounds a little out of place. But leave it to Shellac to take those lyrics and couple them with the weirdest song on the record, musically, with Trainer and Albini seemingly playing two different songs, maybe not even listening to each other, but clicking every few measures, making it obvious that it was meant to be exactly that way. But the song that will probably be the most discussed (in this review as well) is the nine minute long "Genuine Lulabelle", most of which sees Albini crooning romantically a capella. Singing about partying and cum and other weirdness. But as if that wasn't strange enough, other voices enter the fray, the Moviefone guy (?), even Strongbad (?!?!), from Homestarrunner.com... At first we were convinced that Albini had lost it, but the more we hear it, the more it seems just weird enough that it manages to transform the song from annoying and goofy to damaged and demented. And there ain't nothing wrong with damaged and demented.� The rest of the record is rife with little bits of weirdness, the false starts on "Be Prepared", the jangly surf rock TV theme intro to "Spoke", as well as the usual deconstructed melodies, and abstract rhythmic workouts, but it all fits, it just takes standing back and seeing the big picture, no matter how convoluted and confusing and un-right it seems on the surface. Trust them. They're Shellac.�

MPEG stream: The End Of Radio
MPEG stream: Steady As She Goes
MPEG stream: Genuine Lulabelle

We actually originally discovered this record in a thrift store, years ago, and ended up buying it for $5 or whatever, just cuz the cover was super trippy, and it was printed on cool prismatic reflective paper, and of course, we had no idea what to expect, and while we dug it, a LOT, and listened to it constantly, for whatever reason, it never occurred to us that what we had was some treasured rarity lost psychedelic artifact, one that certain discerning producers have mined for killer breaks, until we found out this reissue was on the way. So we revisited the record and holy crap!!!! How could we not have known?! So insane, and inspired, and ridiculous, and over the top, and ahead of its time, and it totally out trip-outs almost any record we can think of! Needless to say, we're super psyched to have this reissue, which features that original record, along with a whole mess of bonus tracks!! So the record proper, Lux Aeterna, was originally composed to celebrate a friend of William Shaller's wedding, thematically driven by concepts of union and togetherness, and ostensibly based on the Catholic mass, this is far from any sort of religious music you've ever heard. Following in the footsteps of other iconoclastic composers, like Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, Lee Hazlewood, David Axelrod, Scott Walker and of course Magma (more on that in a second), Sheller conjured up what is at once an over the top symphonic prog epic, but also a strangely meditative operatic chorale, the sound a gorgeous and dizzying fusion of bombastic prog, classical opera, tripped out seventies psych, outsider jazzfunk, and soaring symphonic majesty. The first track alone should convince you, with its groovy loping stripped down rhythm, its woozy bassline, its swoonsome strings, its slippery slide guitar (!!), its lush operatic vox. That cut is equal parts lost soundtrack and weird Morricone-esque krautfunk, sort of, the sound epic and dramatic and VERY cinematic, dark and subtly sinister, minor key and haunting, but then with about a minute to go BAM, the the sound shifts, sort of fractures, and gets super lo-fi, soaked in phaser and flanger, swirling and tripped out, laced with psychedelic wah guitar, a woozy, melting fad out groove. Holy WOW. So fucking awesome. And that's pretty much how the rest of the record plays out, with Sheller weaving these lush orchestral epics, alternatingly symphonic or operatic, when all of a sudden he'll mix in some trippy sci fi freak out FX or fuse rock drums to soaring operatic vox and symphonic strings. Some tracks play it totally straight, like "Ave Frater, Rosae Et Aurae", which really could have been plucked right out of a mass, but then in swoops "Opus Magnum Pt. 2", with its driving kraut-ish groove, reprising the opening theme, but adding some seriously loopy bleeps and bloops, squelches, and reverby blurps, tripped out laser fire squiggles and swirling analog electronics. Only to then settle right back down into some hushed string driven drift, but a minute or two later and the sound explodes again in a frenzy of FX, the song gathering momentum, and heft, and transforming into a sort of dirgey driving jam, wreathed in strings and an avalanche of glitched out electronics. And so it goes, slipping from haunting ritualistic choral music, to tripped out psychedelic seventies prog funk grooviness and back again, sounding quite often like Magma, or some similarly epic prog combo, stopping occasionally to dip into a bit of musique concrete or twentieth century classical, or introducing seriously terrifying children's spoken word, reciting what sounds like scripture, before finally finishing off with a gorgeous melancholy piano coda, again a refrain of that opening melody. Quite a strange and twisted record for someone's wedding, sure WE'D all be psyched, but in 1972? Wow. After a two minute track of silence, meant to separate the programs, comes, as the first of a big batch of bonus tracks, several pieces from Sheller's soundtrack for a 1969 film called Erotissimo, the music appropriately psychedelic and seventies hippie rocking, but of course laced with strings, and surprisingly some heavy proto metal riffing, wild psych guitar leads, dreamy female vocals, the whole thing building to a killer fuzzy psych rock blowout, before slipping back into something a bit more fuzzy and woozy. After that is "My Year Is A Day", Sheller's big hit, a fantastic slab of orchestral pop, that reminds us of early Bee Gees and the Zombies, and fans of either/both will flip. The rest of the record is more of the same, fuzzed out psychedelic orchestral pop, "Couleurs" being a standout, with its freaked out effects heavy breakdowns, and sitar like buzz running throughout, but really all twenty tracks are killer, making us thing there must be a whole lot more William Sheller we need to track down. Maybe Omni will follow up with another reissue. Here's hoping! Like all Omni releases, lots of photos, and extensive liner notes, as well as some weird unseen art and reproductions of the covers of some of the singles that are included as bonus tracks!

MPEG stream: Introit
MPEG stream: Opus Magnum Pt. 1
MPEG stream: Opus Magnum Pt. 2
MPEG stream: Sous Le Signe Du Verseau
MPEG stream: Erotissimo
MPEG stream: My Year Is A Day

Two of the founding members of the seminal British punk-pop band the Buzzcocks have reconvened over twenty five years after their first band's inception. It's Pete Shelley (also known as the stoic figure behind the icy synth-pop alienation classic

RealAudio clip: Can You See Me Shining?

We only got in a handful of this album by this English electronic artist, who has released The Measuring Of Moments (which may be his debut?) through Ian Holloway's cd-r imprint Quiet World. Holloway's own deep drone smear had so impressed us on his collaborative album with Darren Tate and Bailey Banks, and even more so on his A Lonely Place solo production, that we have been investigating his affiliated recordings; hence, we've got this album to review and list. Shenton is less inclined toward the all consuming drone evocation, and more about steering Eno's ambient strategies into territories with a bit more drama incorporating plenty of light and shadow into this particularly autumnal album. At his darkest and perhaps most compelling, Shenton works unsettled punctuations of ominous strings into his sustained tones, half formed melodies caught in reverb cascades, and clusters of electronic shimmer. He also revisits some Tubular Bell motifs around soft arppegiations of synthesized chiming, not only bringing Mike Oldfield into the mix but also some of John Carpenter's incidental scores and sound design. Limited to 50 copies!

MPEG stream: Expectations
MPEG stream: Good Manners
MPEG stream: Sky Gazing 2

Here's the second album from these promising German doomsters, and it's a concept album perhaps, at least in regard to the track titles: "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday" -- there's a song for every day of the week. But the album has eight tracks, which means its has to wind up with the thirteen plus minutes of "Doomsday", the eighth day in Shepherd's apocalyptic week. Musically, this is mid-tempo, rocked-out stoner/doom fare in the vein of Goatsnake or Spirit Caravan. They're definitely into the latter -- indeed, they've brought in none other than the legendary Scott "Wino" Weinrich as a special guest, playing guitar on three of the tracks here and singing on one of 'em as well (demonstrating that Shepherd's usual vocalist doesn't do Wino as well as the man himself). The ultra-dirgey "Doomsday" boasts a special guest as well of interest to many AQ-customers: sax and Rhodes are contributed by a member of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore!

MPEG stream: Friday
MPEG stream: Sunday

We found ourselves showering Doug Shepherd's two new-to-us releases with much adoration even before finding out that he's stacked his decks over the years with terrific guest players from aQ faves Aislers Set and Calexico! Certain familiar traits of those two bands -- bittersweet pop inflections and a bit of rustic desert twang -- make their presence felt, but not obtrusively so. This Portland, OR gent's folk pop songcraft stands strong all on its own. His music runs the pop gamut from gentle and lulling to uptempo and peppery to breezy and janglin'. Aww, all the stuff we love. Mass Amount Of Love is his 2001 debut full length that was actually recorded back in 1998 right here in SF by one Mr. Wyatt Cusick (of Aislers Set, Track Star and Still Flyin). Imperial Teen's Roddy Bottum and the whole Aislers Set gang contributed to this indie pop luv fest. So wide-eyed and charming, the album closes with a terrific cover of Opal's "A Falling Star". Psst, the other release that we just got in stock from the man himself is a limited edition cd-r recorded at the famed Wavelab Studios in Tucson, AZ where the wonderful likes of Calexico, M. Ward, Giant Sand and Neko Case frequently work their aural magic. Both are mighty fine and very recommended for fans of all of the abovementioned folks.

MPEG stream: Postcard From Everett Ruess
MPEG stream: Majesty And Bloat

We found ourselves showering Doug Shepherd's two new-to-us releases with much adoration even before finding out that he's stacked his decks over the years with terrific guest players from aQ faves Calexico and Aislers Set! Certain familiar traits of those two bands -- rustic desert twang and bittersweet pop inflections -- can't help but make their presence felt, but not obtrusively so. This Portland, OR gent's folk pop songcraft stands strong all on its own. His music runs the pop gamut from gentle and lulling to upbeat and peppery to breezy and janglin'. Aww, all the stuff we love. The ep's delights start right from the opening track "Liquid Gold" which is graced with pretty female backing vocals and some trumpet too (we're guessing it is Rachel Blumberg and Jacob Valenzuela respectively, the credits aren't specific). The following bright tune "Pure Cinema" kicks the tempo up considerably. Good stuff! This limited edition cd-r's five songs are from a session recorded at the Tucson, AZ studio where the likes of Calexico, M. Ward, Giant Sand and Neko Case regularly lay down their awesome tracks. It's the second release in the studio's Wavelab Sessions series, and is limited to 200! Be quick like a jackalope!

MPEG stream: Liquid Gold
MPEG stream: Pure Cinema

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

SORRY. WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. Incredibly limited, these will probably be out of print before you know it. Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

The cd is out of print and no longer available, but is reissued here on 180 gram vinyl in a beautiful gatefold sleeve. Originally released in 1969, Archie Shepp, Lester Bowie, and Malachi Favors (from the Art Ensemble of Chicago), Philly Joe Jones, Dave Burrell, and Jeanne Lee. So nice.

BACK IN STOCK! We thought these Charly reissue cds were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. So, here's another in that BYG/Actuel reissue series, documenting American avant-garde jazz giants in exile (in

1967 Live album performed the same year that Shepp's Magic of Ju-Ju was released. This performance occured at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in Germany and is basically one piece split into two parts. "One for Trane" is a tribute to the recently departed jazz giant and features a brilliant opening solo by bassist Jimmy Garrison who played with Coltrane's band in their heyday. But this is not a sedate or maudlin performance and has actually been compared to the likes of the Stooges in its uncompromising raw free jazz power.

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.

So many cd-r's come our way on what seems like a daily basis, but it isn't often that one of them immediately stops us in our tracks on first listen. These seven tracks by Aaron Sheppard have done just that. Haunting psychedelic solo guitar that manages to be both meditative, spacey, and focused all at the same time. We had no idea who Sheppard was when this first showed up, but his playing won us over immediately. Like Roy Montgomery and James Blackshaw conjuring up a soundtrack for a dazed afternoon, Leverage also has moments that make us think of vintage Robert Fripp, the beauty of Heldon's second album Allez Teia, as well as the recent mind blowing output of Matt Baldwin that we've raved about in the last year. Alternating between more grounded finger-picking tracks to more melting and stretched out sounds, this is by far one of the most engaging and rewarding solo guitar records we've heard in so long. We actually want to go and on about how much this record has been moving us, but the cd-r is limited to 50 copies, so we should probably stop talking now and give you the chance to grab one of these before they are gone for good...

MPEG stream: Flight Path
MPEG stream: The Recidivistic Stowaway

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]