[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1551 through 1600 of 4057.

"Itchy and Scratchy", "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?", "See My Vest", "The Amendment Song", etc. Almost every song from the series excluding this season. Stars Tito Puente, Beverly D'Angelo, Jon Lovitz, Robert Goulet, Tony Bennett, more. Especially noteworthy is Rev. Lovejoy's choir singing "In-a-gadda-da-vida."

Ultra limited cd-r release from Belgian outfit Simulacra, the black ambient project of NOTHingness head honcho Miguel Boriau. NOTHingness is responsible for a handful of AQ faves, including the dark doomy ambience of Tenhornedbeast and the epic doom of the recently released Morkheim. Boriau's Simulacra project falls more in line sonically with the former, although it's less doomy and more glacial and lovely. Imagine a more blissed out Lustmord, or Coleclough and Chalk tackling some sci-fi dark ambience and you'll be getting warm. Two epic tracks, each clocking in at over 20 minutes, each a slow burning, outer space drift, deep resonant swells, sweeping majestic vistas of low end shimmer and fuzzy dreamy drift. Mesmerizing and meditative, but still pretty dark and ominous. It's hard not to picture the vastness of space, or barring that, some endless series of underground caverns, this is the sound of black holes drifting through a starry sky, of our bodies hurtling through space in slow motion, gorgeously bleak and barren, warm and immersive, a dreamily dense slab of sonic swoon, the perfect soundtrack for your own late night interplanetary drift. LIMITED TO 96 COPIES! Each disc individually numbered, we got a handful and will probably be unable to get more.

MPEG stream: Wandering The Spirit World
MPEG stream: Disintegrate Into Nothingness

We reviewed the debut cd-r from this Belgian deep drone one man band way back, but sold out in a blink as it was limited to 96 copies. Well, don't blink this time, as we just got a brand new 3" cd-r from Simulacra, the project of NOTHingness Records main man Miguel Boriau (who now runs Consouling Sounds, whose first few releases we'll list here next time), again WAY too limited, this time 100 copies, and we got about a quarter of those. Gorgeously packaged in an oversized full color folder, adorned in blacks and rusty browns, with a photo print inside, each sleeve hand numbered, this latest disc from Simulacra, is a 22 minute expanse of hushed cavernous rumbles, and blurred melodic shimmer. Definitely dark and ominous and haunting and intense, but weirdly beautiful, and almost soft. It's like the sound of candlelight flickering in deep dark caves, the sound of sunlight struggling to filter through cracks and fissures to reach some subterranean underworld. The sounds are sprawling and drawn way out, it's drone music for sure, but arranged into soft swells and abstract melodies, cinematic and soundtracky, veering from intense low-end murk, to a sun dappled drift. It's like the soundtrack to a late afternoon stroll through the ruins of some ancient keep, as you wander along the walls, through the courtyard, into the depths below, sometime passing through shafts of sunlight, or stumbling into some cavern undisturbed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. So evocative and dreamlike. As soothing and mesmerizing as it is eerie and grim. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, hand numbered, these are the only copies we'll be able to get...

MPEG stream: Somewhere... Inside A Void (excerpt)

Sin Fang Bous is the solo project of Sindri Mar Sigfusson who's also in the Icelandic band Seabear. His album Clangour opens with a light summery boy pop tune that breezes along while seemingly incongruous Coleco game bleepity-bloop sounds play over top. Yes, a little odd, but it adds to the album's effervescence! He's layered up the vocals into an all-out sing along. One of his voices has a bit of a Devendra Banhart-ish warble, while another calls to mind Erlend Oye of Kings Of Convenience. Fans of that band as well as the rambunctious romp of bands such as Hidden Cameras and Wolf Parade will surely snuggle up to Sin Fang Bous! Nice!

MPEG stream: Advent In Yves Garden
MPEG stream: The Jubilee Choruses

Latest from Sin Ropas, a duo consisting of Tim Hurly of aQ faves Red Red Meat and Califone, and Danni Iosello, having called Germany home briefly, settled in North Carolia, where they holed up in a library to record Fire Prizes. Originally released on cd in Europe a few years back, now available as a super limited, deluxe and gorgeously designed lp. Sonically, Sin Ropas sound like the logical progression from Hurley's other groups, which as far as we're concerned is a very good thing. Oh how we miss Red Red Meat, and how we still love Califone. So it should come as no surprise that we love Sin Ropas too. A dark dusky mournful twang, stretched out over an abstract rock and roll frame, recalling the above mentioned outfits, but also the folky slowcore of Rex, the intimate dark country of Sparklehorse and the indie twang of the Grifters. Everything is shaded and dusty, the guitars go from spidery and slippery, to distorted and downtuned, Hurley's voice a whiskey soaked rasp, backed up by Iosello's angelic vocals, slide guitars drift and shimmer, everything dramatic and minor key, haunting vocal harmonies, muted percussion and jagged riffs, the songs going from druggy sprawl to crunchy campfire stomp, but always wreathed in teary eyed melancholy and warm washed out dreaminess. Fans of any of the above mentioned bands should definitely check this out. Like all the Shrug releases, vinyl only, and they spare no expense. And this one has to be the fanciest one yet. A full color picture disc, pressed on super thick vinyl, housed in a thick full color innersleeve, which in turn is housed in a gorgeous diecut jacket, rich textured paper, inked and letterpressed, with the silhouette of a leafless tree cut out, on the front and the back, so the inner sleeve is visible through the branches. SO NICE! And of course limited as all get out. ONLY 485 COPIES!! We have a handful...

Guys from Red Red Meat, Califone, Loftus, and Brokeback!

Sin Ropas (aka Tim Hurley of Red Red Meat and Califone, Noel Kupersmith of Brokeback and Chicago Underground Duo, and Danni Iosello) keep things all loose and lanky not unlike old Lou Barlow or Beck. Listening to their new album, you might envision the band slumped and beleaguered in the recording studio - barely able to lift a drumstick or a guitar pick even! But they managed to do so and the results are quite a fine and enveloping listen. Sorta like finding yourself sinking in a strangely intoxicating vat of molasses. Uhh, not that I've ever encountered a vat of molasses, but this is how I'd imagine it'd be - slooowly lulling, slightly unsettling and full of bittersweet aches. Sinews of bluesy guitar notes are stretched and strung together loosely leaving plenty of space for the hoarse drowsy vocals and ramshackle percussion. Very earthy and lowkey. Perfect for a lazy spring evening. MPEG Download: "Hands Inside" [/audio/sinropashands.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Hands Inside" [/audio/sinropashands.m3u]

MPEG stream: Hands Inside
MPEG stream: Candy Cobra

A prediction: we'll soon be reading an abundance of reviews of Nancy Sinatra's album referencing her '60s pop hit. Y'know, phrases like "forty years later her boots still keep walkin'". Oops, and now I'm guilty of it too! Anyways, is this woman some sort of freak of nature or what?! Holy shit, she just popped back up over thirty years after her last release (1971's This Is Nancy Sinatra) and sounds *exactly* the same. Her voice is absolutely ageless, and she's made her music pretty timeless too. Joined by a diverse bunch of younger jaunty musical suitors such as Morrissey, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Jon Spencer, Thurston Moore, Stevie Van Zandt, U2, Pete Yorn and Calexico, she covers such a broad pop palette that she can't be pinned down. As a result this album may appeal to virtually all ages and all walks. The album begins in the best possible way with Sinatra singing the Joey Burns-penned tune "Burnin' Down The Spark" with Calexico as her backing band! It's a fantastic inspired match (oops, no pun intended). The second song "Ain't No Easy Way" recalls her wonderful old duets with Lee Hazlewood. Aah, her ladylike vocals contrasted with the kinda strange'n'creepy male ones (on this one, it's Spencer who assumes the Hazlewood role). Have to say though I'm not so sure about his exclamation of what sounds like "sock it to me!" halfway through. Yikes! Further on, Sinatra proves she's got the spookiness in her too on the eery fifth song "Momma's Boy" penned by Moore. Among the eleven songs there's also smoky ballads, perky energetic numbers and more with Sinatra and all the boys rising to the occasion. Go Nancy!!

MPEG stream: Burnin Down The Spark
MPEG stream: Ain't No Easy Way

White Panther party chairman, former political prisoner (10 years in jail for two joints) and all 'round drugs, sex, and rock'n'roll guru John Sinclair wrote this book back in 1972, it's a classic of the era. Here's a new paperback edition, done by the fine folks at Process Books, and it comes with a bonus cd with tracks by the MC5 (Sinclair was their manager), Allen Ginsberg, Bobby Seale, and more including audio from meetings of the White Panther Party.

If you are a fan of widdly heavy metal guitar (aren't you? I am) then chances are you'll enjoy this, the third offering from Finland's Sinergy! Much of the widdly guitar comes courtesy Alexi 'Wildchild' Laiho, better known for his main band, the awesome

RealAudio clip: I Spit On Your Grave
RealAudio clip: Nowhere For No One

If aQ was sitting somewhere in the midst of Ontario, or Nova Scotia, or British Columbia (and not smack dab in the middle of San Francisco), this would be a really easy review to write: Singer's Unhistories is a fractured, post-rock take on the blueprint laid down by The Rheostatics and Wooden Stars. However, given that most folks aren't walking around with Canadian passports (and we mean the gov't documentation, not the haircut...), that probably doesn't mean much to you. SO... Picture a band trafficking in the best kind of snaking, Beefheartian, guitar skronk, add some seriously bad-ass drumming, then throw some four-part harmony into the mix and you're in the ball park. Unhistories is a cacophonous, ramshackle affair, with sounds and ideas crashing into each other, overlapping, crumbling apart and reconstructing themselves. The song structures are atypical; the guitar work is atonal; and the vocals manage to warble, flutter, and dip from falsetto to guttural growl and back again within the space of a few notes. That there's a lot going on in these songs would probably come as no surprise to anyone with even a superficial familiarity with Singer's pedigree: guitarist Todd Rittman and drummer Adam Vida did time in U.S. Maple, while bassist Robert Lowe (who also seems to be handling the majority of the vocal work) was a member of 90 Day Men and currently makes top notch drone-raga vocal/guitar improv as Lichens (look elsewhere on this list for a cool new art book + 3" cd collaboration from him). Unhistories is definitely a not-for-everyone affair (but then again, what on this list is?), but for those with a penchant for this particular brand of art-damaged post-whatever rock this is top notch stuff.

MPEG stream: Oh Dusty
MPEG stream: Please, Tell The Justices We're Fine
MPEG stream: Mauvais Sang

It's been a while since we last heard from this fine gent! We actually used to see Mr. Singer on a daily basis when he'd keep us not only musically satiated with his (sadly now defunct) indie label Tell-All Records, but also deliciously caffeinated across the street (fyi, he's a maestro at mocha making!). He moved eastward to Brooklyn a few years ago, and the last release from him was his second album, 2006's Our Secret Lies Beneath The Creek. Well, about a year or so ago we caught wind that he had a new album in the works, and it was destined to be released on the Australian indie label Hidden Shoal no less, home to a couple of other faves of ours, SF's Wes Willenbring and Germany's Sankt Otten. We were positively giddy about this good news. Needless to say, we've been eagerly awaiting its arrival, and we are happy to report that it certainly doesn't disappoint. Carrying on from and expanding upon his richly poetic sophomore beauty, Dislocatia features gorgeous piano and string performances, and full choral arrangements. Indeed, this is quite the elaborate vocal affair, once again he counterbalances his own downy dreamy vocals with feathery soaring female ones courtesy of Wendy Allan of Boxharp. While it certainly makes for a distinct element and a defining characteristic to his music, we'll be honest, we occasionally found the high operatics to be somewhat distracting as we were sinking into each song, but please don't let that dissuade you from checking it out though because this truly is lovely. Might be exactly your cup of tea! It's an elegant coming together of contemporary classical chamber music and folk pop, both flowing and nimble, which will easily charm fans of artists such as Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens or The Dodos who might be seeking something perhaps a little more challenging. Really, if Singer were to be creating music in just one of the two styles, we'd be plenty impressed and delighted, but his effortless integration of the two seals the deal! Particular standout tracks include the gorgeous wistful "The Brief Encounter" and "Bellingham, WA And The Four Green Doors Beyond" as well as the comparatively fervent "Morton Feldman Holding Notes For Eternity" which definitely gives a witty nod to 20th century avant garde composers, but also brings to mind the tongue-in-cheek eccentric camp of no holds barred pop extravaganza-ists such as Sparks. Recommended.

MPEG stream: The Brief Encounter
MPEG stream: Mold Me Torn Fan
MPEG stream: Bellingham, WA And The Four Green Doors Beyond

Wonderful! Mr. Liam Singer's second album is such a sumptuous affair! In the scale of production and composition, it's quite an impressive progression from his already mighty fine debut The Empty Heart Of The Chameleon which came out just last year. Evocative, earthy and at times quite bold and adventurous, this album pushes gently at the boundaries of popular music norms incorporating classical and operatic elements throughout. For instance, some folks may need to get a little acclimatized to the initially startling, spine-tingling operatic female vocals that punctuate the proceedings. They serve as quite an affecting counterpart to Singer's own softly poetic, boyish demeanor (which has drawn in-store comparisons to Elliott Smith) particularly on standout numbers such as "Travelogue - The Great Divide". However, where the spotlight shines brightest (and deservedly so) is on his intricate cascading piano passages. Most are delicately filigree'd and occasionally accompanied by trumpet, e-bowed guitar and very Spartan percussion, but we'd venture a guess that the syncopation/paradiddle workout in the eighth track "Left Ventricle/Tone Clusters" is a reverent reference to Steve Reich's Four Organs. Our Secret Lies Beneath The Creek exudes grace from the first note to the last. Yes, recommended.

MPEG stream: One Breath Out
MPEG stream: Travelogue - The Great Divide

The Empty Heart Of The Chameleon is the debut from Liam Singer. His soft, faint vocals have already drawn comparisons by a few AQ customers to Elliott Smith, but his solo piano and theremin that take turns accompanying his voice create altogether different lonely moods and solitary atmospheres. As well, on occasion, Singer's voice is contrasted with more classically trained sounding female vocals that climb to dramatic, operatic heights. Everything is ultra hushed and delicate, brittle around the edges, in danger of vanishing or being crushed under the emotions they bear. Much like autumn leaves that fall slowly one by one, this music is spartan and contemplative, allowing an achingly sensitive vocal phrase or simple note sequence to linger in the air. Starkly beautiful.

MPEG stream: Between My Lips, Which Did Sing
MPEG stream: Asthma / Rivets In Water

What do you do when the rules are simply: compose a piece of music using only one note? Well, the folks at SF label Tell-All Records decided to explore the possibilities with a 3" cd-r series titled "Twelve". Each of the participants was assigned (or perhaps chose for themselves) one note of the 12-note scale. Here's one of the first two volumes released thus far, it's Liam Singer in 'F' (the other is Dave Zohrob's compositions in 'E'). He utilizes octave jumps, tempo changes and rhythmic shifts and syncopation to bring movement and shape to the lone note. The proceedings are punctuated by sparse percussion and vocal utterances (cues?). A lively beginning to this series.

This is so absolutely brilliant and bonkers, that when we first heard it, we thought it must be fake, some modern day Rephlex artist putting everyone on, taking the piss, with a "raga-techno" album supposedly from the early '80s. But, no joke, this is the real thing! In 1982, Charanjit Singh, a famous Bollywood composer (he was featured on Sublime Frequencies amazing Bollywood Steel Guitar compilation), had a plan to translate ancient traditional Indian classical ragas to the synthesizer. Using the very synths that would later define Acid House (Rolands TB-303 and TR-808!), Singh unwittingly created a proto-acid masterpiece, before the techno genre ever existed. Since only a hundred or less copies were made originally, this release was mostly a rumor since its creation. We vaguely remember Drew Daniel from Matmos talking about it on Pitchfork, a couple of years back, saying someone should reissue it, but we weren't ready for how incredible and ahead of its time it sounds. Imagine if Kraftwerk (or even Oneohtrix Point Never) started composing music for a Bollywood Rave. Or imagine a more raga-inspired take on another proto-acid classic, Manuel Gottsching's epic E2-E4. While the "disco" rhythms are fast and frenetic and don't really vary that much between tracks (they're not really disco beats per se, but more akin to acid's trancey bounce), the synth flourishes and squelches of the raga over the top are soaring and floaty, making the tracks deliriously hypnotic. Capturing acid house's lysergic transcendence but with an outsider's economy that refuses to date it specifically to the era. While we only have the double lp, there will be a cd release sometime in the next month or so. But don't sleep on the vinyl too long as it's highly limited, and we guarantee there is not another release quite like this one in your collection. Highest Recommendation!

MPEG stream: Raga Bhairav
MPEG stream: Raga Madhuvanti

Brand new Talvin Singh record. Follow up to 'OK' which everyone seemed to love. More of the same. Modern electronica laced with tablas and sitars giving it a very 'eastern chill out lounge' sound. Nice. Expensive import. No word on a domestic release yet.

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

SORRY. Singh's now legendary status is much deserved--reknown for his tablas playing skills, his production for other artists, and his dance club "Anokha" that brings the sounds of the Asian Underground to the dancefloor. His new release (for now, only in beautiful limited edition double vinyl packaging) proves that he is every bit deserving of his status. Part dance music (from anywhere between London and Bombay), and part film soundtrack (from anywhere between London and Bombay) this record takes you on an amazing journey with 23 guests artists, the Madras Philharmonic Orchestra and a whole choir along for the ride--includes notables Bill Laswell, Ustad Sultan Khan and Ryuichi Sakamoto. This is Marc's new favorite record. Out on cd November 3.

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

SORRY. One song from the famous Talvin Singh, one of the major forces responsible for the whole sitar'n'bass scene. This is one song from his upcoming album, along with remizes by 4Hero and Kid Loco.

The title of this album "Vira" translates to 'Brotherhood", and although these two men are not related by blood, they certainly are connected in music. These recordings are of a single completely improvised performance by Singh on tabla and Chaurasia on

RealAudio clip: Meeting
RealAudio clip: Heaven

Song title of the week: 'antlers! antlers! antlers!' Single Unit is a Norwegian visual artist that also makes some truly freaked out electronic music. 'Family of Forces' is his exploration of hardcore, electronica, and metal! Well, sort of metal, at least moreso than most of the more recent Jester offerings (Garm from Ulver. Imagine a black metal record, a Mr. Bungle record, or even a Zappa record, chopped to pieces and reassembled into some sort of insane electronic video game music with sampled chugging metal guitars, industrial roars, and all manner of bleeping and blipping, that form hypnotically hiccupping plunderphonic metal or maniacal droned out washes of bells and hums and whirring feedback! Partially composed, partially improvised, Single Unit mixes buzzing chiming childlike lullabies with technical and impossibly unplayable experimental metal ala Melt Banana, Meshuggah or Strapping Young Lad. Weird and GREAT.

RealAudio clip: Moving In Caves, Enter Abstract
RealAudio clip: 5th Cumming
RealAudio clip: Tremolo Confidence

Deadly, devilish Dutch death metal done darn well. These guys have been around for a while, and always produce some of the most brutal and um, sinister sounds in their genre. Albums like "Hate" and "Aggressive Measures" are definite DM classics. With

RealAudio clip: Season Of The Wicked

Death metal is a heavily populated genre, with legions of faceless practitioners spewing gore lyrics and blast beats. Still, amid the masses, we all have our personal favorites that for some reason strike a (bloody) chord. For Allan one of those bands is Holland's Sinister, a long running death unit who've just released "Savage Or Grace", their second album with vocalist Rachel on board. (She's just as brutal a "singer" as any guy, in case you were wondering.) The production is kinda raw, but I don't think that takes away from the undeniable ripping power of the band. Rather, I like its warm, grinding embrace. And Sinister's usual brand of speedy, chugging devastation decorated with dizzying guitar breaks and quirky compositional details is in full effect. Includes, while supplies last, a seven-song bonus disc with no information given (is it live?).

MPEG stream: Dominion

Charles Kin's (Pinetop Seven/Boxhead Ensemble) instrumental project, featuring Ken Vandermark as well as members of Wilco, Handsome Family, Vandermark 5, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground. The sound is gorgeously lush and cinematic, falling somewhere between the Pinetop Seven, Calexico and the Coctails with lots of lonely strum, deserty twang, jazzy skiffle, melancholy melodies, thrumming upright bass, chiming vibes, muted late night horns and a mysteriously noir ambience. Really nice.

RealAudio clip: The Black Pool
RealAudio clip: Cakewalk
RealAudio clip: Sinister Luck

Album #2 from Allentown, PA's Sinister Realm, and if you're looking for the most metal thing on this week's list, this is it! Well, next to the other Shadow Kingdom release, their reissue of Manilla Road's The Deluge. But that's an underground '80s metal classic, while this one is brand spankin' new. And it smokes. Sinister Realm are very epic and '80s sounding indeed, in the grand tradition of such bands as Judas Priest (livin' waaaay after midnight), Mercyful Fate, Manowar, Maiden, Candlemass... The kind of rockin' heavy metal that Satan actually listens to, 'cause you know he's at least as old as your dad, right? Yeah, Satan would love this, with its headbanging riffs and commanding vocals... Especially on the slower, Sabbathier numbers like the title track, vocalist Alex Kristof really gets his Dio on. Dude's got a classic voice, and puts it to good use here, being Sinister Realm's main draw, though the prominent bass and the dual wailing/weedly guitars vie for supremacy as well. This is trudging and triumphant ("With swords held high we ride") all the way through to the ambitious album ender "The Tower Is Burning", nearly nine majestic minutes long, with eerie choirs and orchestration giving the definite impression that they love Satan right back. Wow. Horns up! Another top contender in the string of excellent trad metal albums to come out this year thus far: Argus, In Solitude, Portrait, Twisted Tower Dire...

MPEG stream: Winds Of Vengeance
MPEG stream: The Crystal Eye
MPEG stream: At The Hands Of The Tormentor

Shadow Kingdom Records are apparently on a quest to rule the cult heavy metal underground, snapping up a lot of cool bands lately in the true metal/trad doom genres. This list we have the debuts of two of 'em, Argus and Sinister Realm. Both happen to hail from Pennsylvania, which isn't that odd since the Pittsburgh-based Shadow Kingdom would of course wish to conquer nearby territories. Allentown's Sinister Realm, featuring a couple current and ex-members of stoner doom stalwarts Pale Divine, play a '80s influenced brand of "black candles & pentagrams n' shit" occult metal, on the midpaced, epick doomy side of things, with lots of headbanging, air-guitaring, invisible-orange-lofting potential. The bald domed, Anton-Lavey-in-leather lookin' vocalist really does the job right, his histrionic delivery the perfect match for the dark riffs and neo-classical shred offered up by the band's two guitarists. We get the idea that the bass player is the main songwriter, and he has a knack for stuff that sounds both sinister (yep) and anthemic. For fans of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Mercyful Fate, as well as Satan (the devil, not the band, we mean) and also the Shadow Kingdom roster in general.

MPEG stream: (The Oracle) Into The Depths Of Hell
MPEG stream: The Demon Seed

Italian abstract analog glitch-rockers Starfuckers have been a long-time AQ fave. There's just nobody else quite like 'em. As their music has become ever more fractured and dissonant and dissolved in time, so too with the band itself it seemed...at least, we hadn't heard anything from the Starfuckers camp for ages. But then we heard they'd changed their name to Sinistri, the title of the Starfuckers first cd in 1994. And now the Swedish label Hapna, whom we always look to for interesting music, have, much to our excitement, released Free Pulse, the debut Sinistri album (but also kind of the sixth-or-so Starfuckers release). On Free Pulse, Sinistri are a quartet, consisting of long-time core Starfuckers members Manuele Giannini (guitar, amps, echoplex, wah, speaker, computer), Alessandro Bocci (computer, sampler, mixer, synth, turntables) and Roberto Bertacchini (drums), plus newcomer Dino Bramanti (real-time processing/live mixing, sampling, MaxMSP code). And it seems that these fellows are up to their old tricks here, proving their motto that "music is a pollution of time". If you've heard the Starfuckers last album Infinitive Sessions from 2002, you'll have an idea of what to expect here -- they're still in their newfound "funk" bag. (Song titles indictate this is intentional, from to "Pre-verb Fried Funk" to "Black Vamp #1"). Not that this sounds very funky, far from it, though you can kinda hear it in their chicken-scratch guitar "licks". And if the song titles are clues to their sound, then try these: "Deep Squeak" and "Red Angular Feelin'". Sinistri play what they call "nonmetric music", but that doesn't begin to describe it. It's mostly-instrumental "rock" music, broken down into the merest tics and pulsations of sound, brief drum hits and stabs of guitar littering Sinistri's quiet soundscape, stark and sparse, interspersed with shortwave-sounding static. Noises that most bands use ProTools to *remove* are the building blocks of the Sinistri sound...there's nothing else here. What vocals there are never rise above a whisper (a sinister one that that), melody is almost nowhere to be found, and rhythmically this is impossible to pin down. Forget "post-rock", this is post-post-rock at least. Maybe we could compare 'em to Radian, or US Maple, maybe...taken to a further extreme. Microscopic sounds being played freely. Different from most musics, and to at least some of us here, endlessly enjoyable. If this is the first time you've ever heard Starfuckers / Sinistri, you may be bewildered. Give it a chance...you'll either not get it (that's fine)...or you might love it. Like this disc's pen-and-ink cover art drawings, Sinistri are intentionally cryptic. "Getting it" is thus optional, but pretty cool if you do, we think.

MPEG stream: Holes In Between
MPEG stream: Ampstone

We've been huge fans of the Italian avant free glitch prog abstract whatthefuck outfit the Starfuckers forever, so when the band quietly morphed into Sinistri (the title of one of their best records) we were most definitely intrigued. Their debut record on Hapna reviewed here about a year ago, found the ex-Starfuckers getting even more out there, even more damaged, and unfortunately for us being faced with reviewing the record, even harder to describe. This new cd-r features the band expanded to a sextet, jamming wild and free last summer. Wild might be a bit strong as Sinistri traffic more in musical whispers than shouts, but it couldn't get more free. The instrumentation goes a long way to explaining Sinistri's sound: guitar, amp, wah left channel, amp right channel, drumkit, real time basses, pulses, MaxMSPcode, mixer, synth cd-j, contact mic, effects and am/fm tuner. Lots of parts, but assembled quite economically. The final product is a completely abstract assemblage of guitar skronk, percussive skitter, instrumental scrape and slither, short bursts of white noise, drones and ambient fuzz, very textural and very spacious. Imagine a free jazz record as a huge complex pile of buliding blocks. Then knock it over, dump all the blocks in a big pile and remove about 50 percent of the pieces and then try to reassemble them into the exact same complex structure. You end up with a similarly expansive and ambitious structure, but one with huge gaps and spaces, turning what might have been a dense slab of free jazz, or free rock, or free funk, into a splattery scuttling minimal beast. Occasionally the guitar get almost heavy unfurling some convoluted psych riffage, and the bass does dabble in funkiness, but it's a bizarre alien funk that bears little or no relation to any earthbound funk. Sinistri are definitely a difficult listen, truly perplexing, baffling and confusional, but their peculiar sound manages to be as mysterious and beautiful as it is abstruse. Packaged in gorgeous hand assembled card stock covers with pasted on black and grey obi. Limited to 200 copies, each one hand stamped. We only got about 30 or so, and we're pretty sure once these are gone we won't be able to get more.

MPEG stream: Tk IV (Pt. 1)
MPEG stream: Tk VI (Pt. 1)

The Kult Of Nihilow website has this to say about Sink's The Process: "This is not a sludge record. This is not a drone record. This is not an experimental record." Which is not actually true, since it's actually an awesome mix of all three. More accurately, it's not an average sludge record, or a typical drone record, and isn't like most experimental music, but that's precisely what makes it so appealing. Sink are from Finland and have shared a split with aQ faves, UK dronelords Marzuraan, and they traffic in a sound that is both crushingly slow, blindingly heavy, as well as mysteriously dark and droney, but just like anything, it's what you do with all that stuff that matters. Anyone can tune down and play an E chord for 10 minutes. But not anyone can make it sound like angels singing. On their split with Marzuraan, we described their sound as "a swirling, sludgy wall of hissing fuzzed out blackened ultra noise, harsh and horrific", but there's nothing like that here. The Process is much more musical, and more measured, for a band who is typically defined as a sludge band, they spend much of their time unfurling dark muted shimmery dronescapes, hushed whispery smears of barely audible thrum. And even when they are dropping some serious sludge, it's not really sludgey, the guitars are thick and corrosive, but glimmering and crystalline, rife with haunting chords, the vocals deep monk like chants. The opener here is the perfect example, it sounds like Tibetan monks fronting a doom band, only the doom is strangely melodic, and hauntingly cinematic. Halfway through the track fades into some dark chiming ambience, all muted and blurred, before the crushing doomic blows begin to rain down again, those vocals returning to underpin everything with their thick rumbling whir (sounding quite a bit like Tuvan throat singing). It's a pity the track is only 11 minutes long. We could have gone for twice that! At least. The second track is all soaring Sunroof! like streaks of sound and strummed acoustic guitars, sounding like a noisier doomier Kiss The Anus, but all washed out and smeared into bleary shoegazey drifts, reminding us of a way more abstract Nadja or Angelic Process actually. Strangely enough, almost the whole rest of the record is devoid of any hint of sludge or doom, instead exploring longform guitar drones, super minimal sinewave skree, gentle dreamlike ambience, rumbling cavernous dronemusic, until finally, the not at all appropriately titled final song "The Silence", which is anything but silent, four minutes of murky corrosive drift, but like the opener, rife with mysterious melody, disembodied vocals, glimmering chordal blur, all spread out into a thick sluggish doom-ic haze, that seems to blot out the sun, bathing everything in a burnished blood red glow. Beautifully packaged In an elaborate fold out sleeve, printed in full color with a little tab to hold it shut. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!

MPEG stream: Weakness (The Process)
MPEG stream: Ascension
MPEG stream: Receiving Silence

One of six records which were originally part of a multi part release from local label Time Released Sound, whose releases are initially presented as deluxe hand crafted art editions, which we carry when we can, but in the case of this series, dubbed the 'chocolate box' series, which found each record pressed onto 3" cd-r's and packaged in a mini chocolate box, every box hand assembled, and every one different, the set had a seriously hefty price tag, and sold out super quick anyway, so while we weren't able to get our hands on the deluxe versions, thankfully the records were also available as proper cds in more modest packaging. We already reviewed the first two installments on the last New Arrivals List, Taskerlands and David Newlyn, and this week, we have the other four. One of which is this one, from Sinneplakken, a quartet who have crafted a gorgeous bit of electronic flecked ambient minimalism that is thematically focused on the history of the Frisian Islands (!), which comes in the form of a few spoken word passages which feature Frisian poetry (!), however, the music itself is quite compelling, rhythmic and spare, but somehow lush and lovely as well, deep pulsations, chiming bell like melodies, muted strummed guitars, spidery minor key melodies, lush swells, swirls of electronic shimmer, blurred effects and random bits of percussion, field recordings, delicate pianos, streaks of static, subtle bits of barely there drumming, wheezing organs, sitar-like buzz, and stretched out almost raga-like drones, soft squalls of psychedelic guitar buzz, shards of feedback, all woven into a strange series of soundscapes, that slip from barely there haunting abstract minimal folk drift, to almost post rock slow build smolder. Quite cool. LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: Oanspielt (Washed Ashore)
MPEG stream: Tsjindiel (Opposite)

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

SORRY. Swiss trio's fourth album delves into Sigur Ros melencholic atmospheres with synthetic repetitions of The Field.

From the dirty dirty dirty pun for a band name to the pornographic artwork on the vinyl (or the junkie grime on the CD), the Los Angeles instrumental glam-rock band Sinnerjizm is downright trashy; and that's the way they want it to be. A couple of the guys in Sinnerjizm also hail from the showboating '70s anthem rockers Jet Fuel, who've definitely got enough chops to venture into instrumental territory. Sinnerjizm sites Jesus Christ Super Star, Black Sabbath, Morricone, and the Butthole Surfers as their inspiration in making Inject Them With Rabies; and yeah, that's a pretty solid summation of their musical references. Obviously attuned to the folly of many an instrumental pop ensemble, Sinnerjizm is quick to make unexpected detours with some wah-wah porno funk here, a schmaltzy fun-in-the-sun groove there, and plenty of media samples which were rumored to be culled by Don Bolles of Germs / 45 Grave fame; but the band is best when transforming the 3 minute pop song into a kaleidoscopic marvel of sweet Hammond organ leads, immediately catchy Alice Cooper meets Link Wray riffs, and sweaty backbeats. Nicely done, boys.

MPEG stream: I Won't Remember Your Name
MPEG stream: The Weeds Will Grow

MPEG stream: Dwarf Reaching The Arch Wonder
MPEG stream: Naro Way

Not much to go on here other than a title scrawled in shaky pen as the artwork for this tour-only mixtape from Siobhan - the grimy techno-savant from Detroit. His studio work on Chondritic and Opal Tapes have mined the motor-city futurism that brought forth so many great producers of techno from that city; but he's also got ample chops with low-rent guttural noise. There's probably some cuts that from his other tapes on Nostivelo that are making their way onto this weird mix that features a chopped and screwed version of "Mystere Dans Le Brouillard" by Liaisons Dangereuse followed by some equally murky Houston sizzurp laden production. These are just two of the few things we could recognize in this post-Cabs, post-Aphex, post-witchhouse, post-everything confabulation of dark rhythms and smoldering noise. Very limited stock with an unlikely possibility of us getting any more copies.

When the pioneers of techno began laying down their tracks in the mid '80s, the futurist sound of Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson had little to do with the ideals and / or decline of the Detroit automotive industry. The sleek, motorik tracks were reflective of cultural dialogue with German electronics in parallel with a distinct African American science fiction emphasizing racial and class-based tensions. Detroit Techno's incredibly long shelf-life results from the mirage of club culture that emphasizes the new and the innovative while recycling the dominant lexicon of whumped basskicks, ecstatic melodies, electronic minimalism, etc. Those dudes did it first back in 1987 and it still sounds bad-ass. Siobhan (nee Travis Galloway) hails from Detroit and creates his own fucked / Goth-jam techno that has no discernible connection to the prevailing aesthetic of Detroit Techno. These crunchy, lo-fi tracks have none of the sleek production tricks from those Detroit elder statesmen, rather Siobhan takes a guttural, rock approach to production, compressing the fuck out of everything, cranking the tracks into the red, and probably even recording onto tape. One gets the sense that he could be jamming these tracks in an empty warehouse (or nearly empty with a couple of wasted goth-girls headnodding alone this corners) through a daisy chain of guitar amps and recording the result through a single microphone. As rough as that sounds, he's a damn fine programmer - squelchy acid percolations that would make Richard James blush, ghostly melodies channeled from Cold Cave, and potent industrially minded drum programming akin to mid-'80s Ministry, 242, Skinny Puppy, etc. One of our favorite cassettes in recent memory, and it makes for a great introduction to a hitherto unknown musician.

MPEG stream: Nothing Evoked
MPEG stream: Numb Tolerance
MPEG stream: Vulgar Yesness

On last week's list we reviewed a tape called Omega Stamp on Chondritic Sound, from an outfit called Siobhan. That outfit turned out to be one guy, called Travis Galloway, who just happened to be from Detroit, which made sense once you got an earful of his twisted take on classic Detroit techno, one that was far removed enough that it ended up sounding like some mutant strain of gothed out zoner-house, but by way of Skinny Puppy, which is pretty much right where this new 12" on Opal Tapes falls as well, although on the opening track, Galloway injects some serious John Carpenter style soundtrackiness into the proceedings. In fact, it almost sounds like two entirely different songs crammed together, one all sinister swirling synths, the other, a murky, stuttering techno loop, and that's not even mentioning the super creepy distort vox draped over the top. The second track almost sounds like Consolidated at the wrong speed, old school industrial, rife with strange sound effects, slowed down, sort of dragging, blackly groovy, before transforming into something approaching electro, but way more distorted and lo-fi, streaks of feedback, and glitchy electronics, all over another churning hypno-rhythm, underpinned by woozy, seasick synths. The flipside gets super electro, and about as funky as anything we've heard from Galloway thus far (which admittedly is not much), but even here, it's JUST the beat, everything else is grim and sour, dark and broody, the occasional swoop of synth is the only counterpoint to the swirling sonic murk that threatens to overtake everything, and every time the the main high melody surfaces, emerging from the morass, it's SO distorted and in the red, it briefly explodes in an almost Merzbow worthy sonic flare. The final two tracks are brief, but both take some retro electro and wind it up tight, at first letting it unfurl and a loping, woozy, warble, and then a final burst of manic old school beatsmithery, wrapped in black ash, and looped into a twisted, tone-bent techno.

MPEG stream: Del Ray 97'
MPEG stream: Night School
MPEG stream: Rail Split

Get out your crystals and light a candle... folkstress Mariee Sioux has a new release, this time on Brooklyn label Whale Watch Records. Like the more haunted folk artist Marissa Nadler, Sioux probably isn't any stranger to ghosts - though hers are the Yoni-power kind that embody the spirits of our ancestral mothers and give us strength in the face of adversity. Case in point would be the album's second track, "Ghosts in My Heart". The other seven songs on the album feature the same stirring and dreamy qualities as on her last release, 2007's Faces in the Rocks, that garnered her comparisons to the pantheon of British psych folk artists, including Vashti Bunyan. It's clear Sioux is trying to connect to something spiritual within nature - with lyrics picked up in the woods and along the streams of her Nevada City, California hometown, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, from where Joanna Newsom and Alela Diane also hail. "You taught the stones to talk," she sings in her feather-light voice on "Old Magic." There is just the right amount of arrangement to accompany Sioux's finger-picking, with gentle flourishes of piano, lap steel, cello, and flute. Also worth noting, her father, of Polish and Hungarian heritage, Gary Sobonya, plays mandolin on the recording. Nevada City is the new Laurel Canyon!

MPEG stream: Homeopathic
MPEG stream: Old Magic
MPEG stream: Swimming Through Stone

A self-explanatory collection that recounts the twenty year history of Steve Severin, Budgie and the ice queen herself, Siouxsie Sioux. All of the favorites are here, spanning from the incisive post-punk of tracks like "Arabian Knights" and "Happy House" to the glamorous Euro-club favorites like "Kiss Them For Me" (which I never realized was based on the breakbeat from Schooly D's "Saturday Night") and "Peek-A-Boo." Disc two will be of added interest to Siouxsie's collectors, as that disc featured a number of the hard-to-find extended mixes and remixes of their singles.

Although the centerpiece of this new Siouxsie & The Banshees dvd is the composite live concert footage from two nights at the Royal Albert Hall back in 1983, arguably the best parts are in the extras. The band's self-produced 'tv show' with performances by The Banshees, The Creatures and The Glove is a delight -- particularly the individual Banshee's distinct segments in which Siouxsie, Budgie, Steve Severin and Robert Smith each recite a spoken word piece in his/her chosen setting -- and the Old Grey Whistle Test tv footage which show the band in top form doing "Melt!" and "Painted Bird". Oh and the main concert footage is pretty great too. A definite fan pleaser!

Yay Sippy Cups! What started out as a few local rockers doing Syd Barrett and Who covers for kids a few years back has evolved into a full-blown kids entertainment juggernaut complete with sold-out choreographed live shows (involving a juggler!) and a whole new album of original songs. Electric Storyland is for parents who want to wean their kids off Barney-type treacle and nudge them into something weirder -- but not too weird. The album's songs are catchy and fun and have playful hints of psychedelia -- from '60s-sounding pop songs with suggestive/innocent titles ("Little Puffer" and "Magic Toast") to songs that reference Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips ("I Am a Robot)". Buy it for your sister's kids -- chances are this is the only album you, your sister and her kids might find some common ground on!

MPEG stream: Magic Toast
MPEG stream: I Am A Robot

Get ready for some glorious seventies-worshipping heavy rock via the self-released debut cd from this oddly named Vancouver band. Not as overtly Sabbath-derived as fellow Canadian rockers Sheavy, but similarly excellent (and Sir Hedgehog's "Bitchlord" *does*

RealAudio clip: Magic Garden
RealAudio clip: Bitchlord
RealAudio clip: The Cleavage And The Clamp

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]