[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 2401 through 2450 of 4057.

Third EP in the self-released series. This is another instrumental work that is more similar to the second stretched out EP than the melodic first. Bonus: all text in Esperanto.

Recorded live at the 2005 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, this latest installment of the self-released SYR series chronicles the monolithic collaboration between Sonic Youth, Japanoise master Merzbow, and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Even Jim O'Rourke re-joins the band for this hour long improv sesh that results in a smoldering heap of damaged free jazz. These dudes really had to bring out the big guns here, considering they were opening up for Black Sabbath (!!!) on this particular night of the festival, not an easy task. On one level, this record sort of shows that improvising isn't exactly what Sonic Youth does best, although there is a charm in the clumsy nature of the collaboration that ends up being really cool and unpredictable. Merzbow and Gustafsson really shine here, conjuring a sea of noisy textures that are harsh and cataclysmic but never over the top or indulgent. "Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth" is the perfect addition to the SYR series and a must-have for any fan of free noise sorcery.

MPEG stream: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth Excerpt 1
MPEG stream: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth Excerpt 2

Number six in their SYR series. This time Sonic Youth show their support and love of avant-garde cinema as this was from a live show they played at The Anthology Film Archives Center for a celebration of the life and legacy of Stan Brakhage. Joined by percussionist Tim Barnes (Tower Recordings, P.G. Six, Nagisa Ni Te, Dean Roberts, Essex Green, Silver Jews, Jukeboxer, etc.) these are three long "heady jams" as the band calls it. You can hear and feel the influence of the NYC avant-film scene on these jams and can imagine them being a perfect accompaniment to the flickering projection of light and color. The packaging includes a nice poster from the concert and the cover image is a beautiful still of a young, mustachioed Stan Brakhage taken from a Jones Megas film from the 60's. NYC avant-cinema given the soundtrack it deserves.

MPEG stream: Heady Jam 1
MPEG stream: Heady Jam 3

Third EP in the self-released series. This is another instrumental work that is more similar to the second stretched out EP than the melodic first. Bonus: all text in Esperanto.

Cumbiadelic!! That's how this youthful, nine-piece instrumental outfit out of Mexico City would describe their sound, a delightful hybrid mixing together '60s Peruvian cumbia and garage psych, with other assorted flavors - Andean flute-folk, surf music, Spaghetti western soundtracks, and more. Sonido Gallo Negro (aka Black Rooster Sound, in English) here present their 2nd album, and first release outside of Mexico, and it's pretty fab. It sure would take a hard heart not to love this, a record that's utterly as lively and colorful and groovily trippy as its cover art! Percussive Latin rhythms (boogaloo, chicha, sonidero cumbia, rhumba, etc.) propel these ten pieces, underpinning groovy Farfisa organ and electric guitars; many tracks are energetically uptempo and danceable, while others zone off into eerie atmospheres via spacey theremin... Overall there's a definite exotic space age bachelor pad vibe, but one with a psychedelic Latin twist, and lots of garagey grit to it - acid fuzz guitar leads take the fore on "Mystery Of Zangbetos", ferinstance. This platter is littered with funky breaks, echo-effected Spanish-language samples, and strange synth textures, while the heavy rhythms dominate throughout. To compare to some aQ faves, at times we're reminded of Finnish exotic electronic instrumentalists Aavikko, and at others, we're also totally thinking Swedish voodoo psych sensations Goat, whose fans should totally check this out. Like Goat, apparently SGN's live shows are pretty special, some kind of ritualistic, multimedia spectacle, with video projections, the band costumed in monk's robes (why are monk robes so popular with so many bands nowadays?). Love to see 'em some day. In the meantime, we'll be spinning this, A LOT!

MPEG stream: La Patrona
MPEG stream: Tzantza Soul
MPEG stream: Mystery Of Zangbetos

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 Sonmi451, a Belgian soundscaper named Bernard Zwijzen, whose last release on TRS, Star Atlas, we dug quite a bit. Four Peaks, while thematically well removed from the celestial focus of Star Atlas, still sonically evokes much of the same imagery, but now, instead of looking out at an expanse of stars and planets, we're looking out at a mountain range, from our perch atop some lofty peak, the majesty of the earth laid out before us, these sounds, a collection of electronic ambience and shimmery dronemusic, help evoke the strange otherworldliness of such a setting, and surprisingly it's not that different than Star Atlas, the isolation of outer space certainly analogous to the isolation of some mysterious snow capped mountain, the sounds here surprisingly varied, we imagine to capture the sprits of the four peaks for which each track is named, from the gurgling glistening glitchfolk shimmer of "Eiger", to the strange swirling ambient collage of "Grossglockner" with its mysterious tangle of sampled voices, to the hazy almost new agey drift of "Matterhorn", with its woozy Oval like muted malfunctioning electronics, to the hushed dreamlike melodies of "Tre Cime De Lavaredo", a gorgeous languid coda, that might be the prettiest of the bunch. LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: Eiger
MPEG stream: Grossglockner

If anyone ever needed a reminder why mp3's will never compare to actual physical releases, they really need look no further than the handful of small labels who more than putting out records, are essentially creating art objects, releases where the extravagant and luxurious packaging are as much a part of the release as the music itself, a gorgeous fusion of art and sound, see elsewhere on this week's list for a handful of new tape releases from the Auris Apothecary, who blow our minds with every new batch of releases, as does Time Released Sound, a local label whose pricey creations are worth every penny, and could just as easily sit in a gallery as on your record shelf at home. Just feast your eyes and ears on this, the latest from Time Released Sound, another fantastically hand assembled release, this one from the oddly named Sonmi451, whose crystalline celestial shimmer is perfectly represented by the star/space themed artwork, but more on that in a moment. Sonmi451 is Bernard Zwijzen, a Belgian soundscaper who blends field recordings, electronics and acoustic instruments into a dreamy glitchy starscape of sound, pulsing skittery rhythms beneath dreamlike shimmers and tinkling bell like tones, mournful strings wrapped around sprawls of softly percolating electronics, looped and collaged, blurred and smeared into soft focus stretches of ethereal / ephemeral ambience, the sounds definitely evoking the starry sky, it's so easy to drift away and find yourself laying in thick grass, away from the lights of the city, watching the start twinkle glimmer, the black blanket of the nightsky painted blue by the glow of millions of stars, utterly gorgeous, hushed, delicate and dreamlike, the songs here seem to be made for sonic stargazers, for those lost late nights and lazy early mornings, transmissions from beyond the stars, sent from mysterious blinking beacons, drifting weightless in the cosmos, emitting these sweetly subtle sonic missives, sounds both muted and minimal, transformative and transcendental. So nice! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Each one hand numbered, we only have 15 OF THOSE COPIES, and that's all we'll ever be able to get. And as mentioned above, the packaging is sublime, the cds are thermal printed with a full color image of the night sky, the discs housed in a folded sleeve made from an antique star chart, all housed inside a vellum sleeve, printed and stamped and this time adorned with tiny glow in the dark stars, that hover above the deep blue night sky star field visible through the vellum. Also inside are a 5" star finder wheel, as well as various inserts, printed on antique book pages, so incredible!

MPEG stream: Alpha Centauri
MPEG stream: Beta Crucis

The 50th release from beloved local label Time Released Sound heralds the return of Sonmi451, whose two previous releases on TRS were big hits around here. The Limbic System finds Sonmi451, aka Bernard Zwijzen, pushing his already hushed and haunting sound even further into the ether, a soft focus soundscape of treated electronics, muted melody, pizzicato note suspended in billowing clouds of barely there shimmer, a whispery drift that at its most active, sounds a bit like a more pastoral Bohren & Der Club of Gore, but more often seems like some sort of sonic mirage, the sound waves simply microscope vibrations, like ripples in a placid pond, a hazy musical daydream constantly on the verge of blurring into pure empty sound, its shapes and surfaces smooth and glassy, born from new age and shaped into something more modern and yet more minimal. Like all Time Released Sound releases, there are two different versions, the first, FANCY, in this case, limited to just 70 copies, packaged like a case file, made from an art deco photo folder, each one containing, a unique photo, with a vintage glass brain specimen slide (!) hinged and laid over the top. Included also are some papers, poetry, handwritten sheet music and notes from vintage books on the study of the brain. The whole thing hand stamped, labeled and notated, the cd housed in a cotton sleeve. Then there's the standard version, which is limited to 150 copies, and comes in a full color digipak, sans all the rest of the above ephemera.

MPEG stream: Limbic Cortex
MPEG stream: Hippocampus

MPEG stream: Limbic Cortex
MPEG stream: Hippocampus

A lovely cd single from the Baltimore-based post rock quartet Sonna. Two songs (one of which, "Kept Luminescence", is one of my fave songs of theirs) that were previously released in limited vinyl 7" format on the UK Static Caravan label. Think double interweaving guitars, as delicate and precise and emotional as Felt (remember them? what a great band), with really smart, delicate drumming and just enough bass to anchor the sound and prevent it from getting wispy. Funny, I never noticed the Felt sound similarity before, but it's a good comparison. Nice!

RealAudio clip: Kept Luminescence

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

SORRY. Sonna are a Baltimore-based quartet of four of the cutest boys you ever did see. What, you need to know more than that? Okay, they play a charming instrumental postrock blend of emotive bass, masterful drumming, and entrancingly pretty interweaving dual lead guitars. Drummer Jim Redd used to be in metalcore band Coalesce but Sonna sounds NOTHING like that. Recommended! (And not just because they're so darling.) UK import single limited to 500 copies.

This is sadly the final album from the wonderful instrumental quartet from Baltimore. Sonna play the most complex quiet music we've heard in a long time. The drums and shimmering cymbals are forefront in the mix and are so tight, delicate, and careful. The two lead guitars quietly weave in and out of each other making melodies even more sweetly pretty by way of the resulting harmonies. The guitars sound frail but the combination of the two makes them strong as spider silk. And there are real dynamics here, carefully thought out shades of color and mood. A post rock band that delivers. Recommended. In fact, this is the first Sonna album that Allan has even admitted to liking!

RealAudio clip: Frone Taj

This rare EP from the Baltimore-based quartet Sonna is a gem, and we're pleased to be the only store to carry it. The disc was originally issued as part of the subscription-only Travels in Constants series of EPs from bands such as Low, Mogwai, Bonny Billy,

RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 1)
RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 2)
RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 3)

Sonna are a Baltimore-based quartet of four of the cutest boys you ever did see. What, you need to know more than that? Okay, they play a charming instrumental postrock blend of emotive bass, masterful drumming, and entrancingly pretty interweaving dual lead guitars. Beautifully meandering post-rock from this Baltimore ensemble who weaves a delicate sound of languid Pajo-esque guitar plucks, almost jazzy basslines, and lovely atmospheres. Drummer Jim Redd used to be in metalcore band Coalesce but Sonna sounds NOTHING like that. Recommended! (And not just because they're so darling.)

RealAudio clip: These Windows Are Pistons
RealAudio clip: 3

Just when you thought every "instrumental post rock" band should be buried alive in a hole never to be heard from again, here comes the Baltimore-based quartet Sonna with their first full length album that breathes so much fresh air into the genre we're

RealAudio clip: The Opener
RealAudio clip: Sleep On It
RealAudio clip: Real Quiet

A 4 song stomp through Sonny Smith's various musical alter-egos and genre-hopping style. In collaboration with local SF gals The Sandwitches, Sonny composed these 4 songs for his 100 records projects last year where he wrote and recorded 100 songs under the guise of different bands and singers and asked local artists to design the covers. Each of the 4 artist covers for the songs are represented here in full color (including our very own Scott Hewicker, who painted the titular cover!), as well as a comic book and coupon for digital download. Embracing themes of drowning, death and redemption, these tracks showcase Smith's dark folk, blues and country sides, mythologizing a real-life near-death experience into a moral epic of salvation and grace.

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

SORRY.

Sonny Smith is one of those tireless local songwriters and musicians that afters years of dedicated self-promotion is finally getting his due. This year alone saw the culmination of his ambitious project, 100 Records, where he recorded 200 songs in multiple genres (reggae, soul, country, punk, power-pop, etc.) for singles by fictitious bands with record cover art provided by 100 local artists. When it showed at Gallery 16 in the Spring, the opening was a packed house of local luminaries cheering Sonny on as his band performed a raucous set of the best songs he made. We quickly sold out of his latest band's debut, Tomorrow Is Alright, but we managed to get this 4 song 7" to tide us over between pressings of that lp. Sounding like Jonathan Richman recording an ep for the Woodsist label, the songs here are on the lo-fi folky side, sometimes with girl group back-up singers, a bit of jangle-pop, or some retro cool balladry. His lyrics discernible without his voice being too in the front of the mix like some of Jonathan Richman's work can be. All in all a very nice capsule of what Smith is exploring at the moment. The first few we had of these sold out in an instant, and it took us awhile to get more. The batch we have now is on yellow and blue swirl vinyl, but after these are gone, we'll probably only be able to get black vinyl so act fast!

Some awesomely sunshine-y jangle pop from right here in SF, Sonny & The Sunsets, fronted by local luminary Sonny Smith, who for his debut was joined by a who's who of local rockers, including Kelly Stoltz, John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, Shayde Sartin of the Fresh & Onlys, Flying Canyon and Kelly Stoltz's band and Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys, 3 Leafs, Amocoma!). The label compares S&TS to Jonathan Richman, Michael Hurley, Velvet Underground, the Holy Modal Rounders, which definitely all apply, but there's plenty of Beach Boys going on too. From brooding moody lope, to shimmery doo wop flecked surf rock to stripped down classic power pop, to fifties style balladry, to twangy back porch folk the songs are simple and heartfelt, sometimes intimate and hushed, other times subtly silly, even a bit more rocking now and again, but always catchy, melodic and cool.

MPEG stream: Too Young To Burn
MPEG stream: Death Cream
MPEG stream: Strange Love

A few weeks ago, The New York Times had an article about San Francisco's burgeoning garage rock scene with a big focus on John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, Tim Cohen of The Fresh and Onlys, and Sonny Smith of Sonny and the Sunsets. Sonny Smith is more of the wild card of the three, zig zagging into country, rock-a-billy and early rock styles, but wherever he goes, the man can sure write a mean hook. Hit after Hit is another great selection of songs that wouldn't sound out of place in an early 1960's jukebox. With great girl group harmonies (provided by The Sandwitches) and lo-fi and catchy freakbeat rhythms, Sonny and The Sunsets, like their more queer counterparts, Hunx and His Punx and Shannon and The Clams, are mining those great old sounds for brand new ears.

MPEG stream: She Plays Yo Yo With My Mind
MPEG stream: The Bad Energy From LA is Killing Me
MPEG stream: Teen Age Thugs
MPEG stream: Acres of Lust

Like the Onna above, here's another release from Japan's PSF label that we've been meaning to highlight for a while (they put out too much good stuff!). Finally we have enough of 'em in stock to list (for months we've been selling these steadily just by playing it in the store, actually). As the evocative/informative subtitle indicates, this is an archival collection of recordings by one Satoshi Sonoda... who he? A guitarist and composer in the realm of post-progressive rock, and new music avant-garde, part of the late '70s Japanese university scene, with connections to both psychedelic drone minimalists East Bionic Symphonia and noisepunks Gaseneta. From the subtitle, you'll also note that this release is dedicated to the late bassist Yasushi Ozawa, best known perhaps as a member of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. He apparently had quite an impact on Sonoda both artistically and personally. The seven tracks here find Sonoda performing with several different lineups/projects/units, several of which feature the presence of Ozawa. The first three tracks are all credited as Sonoda compositions, though they seem just as likely to be group improvisations, and are variously designated as by Free Music Space ("1") or Free Music Revolt ("rehearsal" and "session"). The very first piece, eleven minutes long, reminds us a lot of the oldest Onna stuff, dreamy and spacey, freaky and folky, a combo of raw wandering psychedelic jamming with majestic melancholic vocal balladry. Beautiful. The second track is even longer, over 24 minutes, and encompasses enthusiastic violin string scrape, somnolently nodding grooves, and free form freakout action. Very cool, as is the shorter but similar (sans violin) track 3. Next, tracks 4-6 are by a band called ANARkISS, performing live, and are more punky, with angular raucous jagged guitar, as well as some shakuhachi and sax and what they call "scratch noise"... one of the songs is a Kan Mikami cover, "Piss-Soaked Lake", which figures. The disc then finishes up with the sounds of Free Music Space 6, a large ensemble improv blow-out entitled, "Bound, Opened". The cd booklet contains super personal and detailed liner notes in tiny, tiny type from Sonoda himself, with his recollections of the era, discussion of various personalities including of course Ozawa, and track-by-track commentary on the material included herein. Interesting as that all is, you definitely don't need to know what's in the liner notes, or even what we've mentioned in this review, in terms of historical context or whatever, to enjoy the sounds on this disc. Like we said, just playing it in the store got people plenty intrigued. The unique vibrations from far away and long ago documented here still resonate and compel.

MPEG stream: Dusk, Darkness, Then Dawn
MPEG stream: Poly-Performance
MPEG stream: Piss-Soaked Lake

Sonoptic is the SF duo of Chuck Marcus and Alison Faith Levy fashioning loosely structured dronescapes for guitar, tape loops, and analogue synths, which falls not far from the New Zealand murky aesthetic axis of early Dean Roberts, RST, or even Gate. Pretty good stuff!

Members of June of 44, Rodan, Retsin, Rachel's...

Sorta like a more electronically haywire Stereo-Total or maybe the bratty kid sister of the Flying Lizards (circa "Top Ten"). If Chicks on Speed weren't such a mess, perhaps this is what they would sound like. Quirky, weird and fun.

Sons & Daughters take it in a new direction for This Gift. No longer drenched in the molasses blues folk dourness we'd come to expect from former Arab Strapper David Gow. Sounds like the present in question was a healthy dose of mood liftin' and energy pumpin' vitamins... or maybe this is simply what happens when Gow's partner in crime Adele Bethel takes center stage! The results are sleek gal-fronted modern rock with hooks far more akin to bands such as Metric, Elastica, Veruca Salt than their Scottish pop brethren. While we dig their newfound punchy drive, suckers for melancholia that we are, we can't help but miss a bit of the murder balladry!

MPEG stream: Gilt Complex
MPEG stream: Rebel Ghost

Glasgow, Scotland has produced many an indie folk-pop darling over the past many years, quite a number of them somehow connected to Arab Strap (in bandmembership and/or friendship). Sons And Daughters is no exception. Arab Strap's David Gow and Adele Bethel make a slight shift in musical focus for this new project. Leaning less on the trademark Arab Strap whiskey drenched introspective melancholia and more so on wider reaching age-old somberness, Sons And Daughters play a brooding, rough-hewn brand of bluesy folk with a little rootsy twang surfacing here and there. Each of the seven songs keeps to the slow and smoldering tempo that often approaches murder ballad status. A handful of low notes are strummed and plucked out on guitar while a primitive beat is pounded out on a drumkit that features the barest of essentials (we'd guess a snare drum, a kick drum and a highhat). Sort of the Scottish counterpart to the Fiery Furnaces.

MPEG stream: Fight
MPEG stream: Broken Bones

While Glasgow Scotland has certainly birthed a plethora of soft twee pop bands, the city also has a darker, more festering side as is exemplified in the musical clan known as Sons And Daughters (who happen to include David Gow and Adele Bethel of Arab Strap). Their fiery urgency brings to mind a less inebriated Pogues (yeah, we know they're Irish) or a more murderous Clinic (yeah, we know they're British). You can almost spot the glint of a rough-hewn shiv in the folds of their thread bare cloaks. You'd best be keeping an eye on these folks! At times, they seem downright unstable. The Repulsion Box lures the listener back down the gloomy dank alleyway that the band frequented on their previous EP Love The Cup. If you dig music that keeps the unsettling flow of bile and vitriol at a constant boiling point, Sons And Daughters is definitely for you. Great!

MPEG stream: Medicine
MPEG stream: Monsters

Stoner rock, anyone? But not just any ol' stoner rock. What this trio from up in Portland, Sons Of Huns has going for 'em, besides being darn heavy, is that they RIP. As is amply (and amp-ly!) demonstrated on this, their debut full-length for the newly dominating Easyrider label. We've heard lots of stoner rock bands content with making your head nod, these guys will have it not just 'banging but spinning 'round. They play slow, sure, but also they play FAST, so there'll be the usual lumbering stoner riffage that will suddenly shift into overdrive, no longer lumbering but shredding, the instrumental interplay tight and tenacious. With fuzzed out '70s sounding riffs (great riffs), air guitar worthy solos, and swinging rhythms, like most bands in the genre, they're beholden to Black Sabbath, but these guys remember when Sabbath was basically a (heavy) prog band, jamming hard. So imagine if, like, Sleep had started to sound more like Stinking Lizaveta... Sons Of Huns are kinda like that, it's ADD stoner rock, lots of parts and changes and sheer MUSIC on here, these guys always keeping it interesting, with chops galore, nothing lazy 'bout 'em despite the (presumed) pot smoking. In fact, that's a good tag for 'em, pot smoking music that's SMOKIN''!! The eleven tracks here offer a fair amount of variety: heck, the gonzo punked out rippage of "I'm Your Dad" is followed by the mellow-jazz instrumental interlude of "Waking Sleep"� there's stuff that's aligned with the stoner skate rock of bands like The Shrine and Hot Lunch, other moments more Melvinsy (somehow mixed with a little Dick Dale, on the epic "Super Kanpai Rainbow"), and oh yeah the rollicking retro proto-metal prog of fellow Portlanders Danava is obviously a good reference point too. And then we're back to the Sabbath again. Sons Of Huns in a word: Badass.

MPEG stream: Banishment Ritual
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Reliable sorts these Canadians are, aren't they? The Sons Of Otis are back, and fans (like us!) of their monolithic stoner rock / blues / doom will not be disappointed. It's all here on their fifth full-length album. Lumbering fuzzed out riffs, check. Spacey electronic atmospheres, check. Glacial pace, check. Psychedelic soloing, check. Heavier than thou jamming, check. Feedback, check. Gravelly, effects-laden, echoey vocals, check. Drugs, check (we're pretty sure!). They even continue their tradition of including super stoned sounding cover versions of classic tracks by their old school influences, this time 'round giving the Sons Of Otis treatment to two faves: Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Cry For The Bad Man" (here titled "Bad Man") and Motorhead's "Iron Horse"! In both cases it's like the original has been dipped in tar, dosed with drugs, and slowed down to 16rpm, especially "Iron Horse" which segues into a billowing dense ambient drone definitely not derived from the original Motorhead composition, the whole track lasting over 18 minutes! The Otis originals here will (slowly) kick yr ass too. "Haters" starts things off with a scowl, and they don't lighten up much... later on "Tales Of Otis" enters into almost Khanate-like ultra-doom territory, and it's hard to tell if Sons Of Otis are trying to take off into outer space or burrow deep into the earth. Definitely (as always) for fans of UFOmammut, Electric Wizard, Boris... and for folks who'd like to know what it would sound like if Monster Magnet mated with the Melvins. It's hard to know what else to say, either you're a fan of this and every other Sons Of Otis album, or you need to take more drugs.

MPEG stream: Lost Soul
MPEG stream: Bad Man

That's an aptly chosen title, as you should probably make sure your place has been seismically retrofitted before turning this up loud! Canada's space lords of lumbering, fuzzed out stoner rock / doom metal have returned with a new album, their sixth, which continues in the mesmerically massive, heavier-than-thou mold of past classics of theirs like Temple Ball and Songs For Worship. Once more, huge waves of repetitive, echo-effected, amplified sound surge forth, with the gruff vocals (a hacking gargle, doubtless sweet leaf damaged) and slow sludgey guitar riffs melding and melting in the spaciest, heaviest, most drugged out and distorted display of sheer stoner doom this side of Italy's UFOmammut, with whom Sons Of Otis share many similarities. Or imagine early Monster Magnet jamming (to the death) with Electric Wizard, all effects fully cranked. But we probably don't need to tell you any of that, 'cause any aQ-shopping connoisseur of 'the heavy' probably already has the Sons Of Otis spaceship/deathstar on their radar already, pinging away ominously... They've been doing this for 20 years now, after all! The trio's honest allegiance to classic rawk / blues / psych is still quite evident, their warped, wailing cover of a song by '70s rockers Mountain on here ("Never In My Life" - they already did "Mississippi Queen" on Temple Ball) joining past interpretations of tracks by the likes of Hendrix, Motorhead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Saint Vitus and Steppenwolf in the Sons Of Otis catalog. "More cowbell!" is all we can say. Into the future, out of the past, Sons Of Otis do their granddaddies proud while rocketing off into space, the album culminating in a lengthy "Cosmic Jam" that naturally makes us think of another aQ fave, Earthless.

MPEG stream: Far From Fine
MPEG stream: Alone
MPEG stream: Never In My Life

Massive, spacey, druggy stoner rock -- for a visual analogy, imagine the big black alien monolith from 2001 if it was actually a giant space-bong. This Canadian band follows up their Man's Ruin releases ("Templeball" being one of the heavier highlights of the

RealAudio clip: Losin' It
RealAudio clip: In From The Storm

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. From the barren tundra to the north (Toronto), comes the Sons Of Otis (formerly just Otis); lumbering heaviosity shackled to stoned and droned spaciness. Think the Melvins, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind. Take just the spaced out jams from Monster Magnet songs, stretch them out even further, add even more fuzz and echo, and voila. And, they cover both Mountain and Saint Vitus!!

Worshippers of all that is heavy, get ready for the return of Canada's stoner ambassadors, the Sons Of Otis! Their new, fourth album, simply titled X (which I guess could be the Roman numeral ten, but would that make any sense?), is another dose of their, uh, stoned spacey blues-based psychedelic heavy drug-rawk... good stuff for fans of Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Ufomammut, and the doomier likes of Electric Wizard and St. Vitus! With heavily effected vocals (is the singer even in there somewhere we start to wonder?), Orange amps vibrating in the void, riffage reverberating raw and run-down, this is stoner rock at its darkest and most dazedly wandering, slow and plodding. Is there life in outer space? It's hard to tell from this record. Recorded by (of course) Billy Anderson, this album ends with a fourteen-minute opus that seems even longer, not that you'll want it to end, entitled "Liquid Jam". It is indeed. Not that there's any *short* songs on here at all. X also includes includes their superbly slo-mo, Funhouse-ish cover of "The Pusher" by Steppenwolf (previously on a picture disc 10" they did a few years ago, but this may be a new version though), further underlining, however needlessly, the band's heavy '60s psych/drug direction. Yup, dunno who Otis is, but if these are his kids, he obviously failed to have that parental say no to drugs talk with 'em...

MPEG stream: Way I Feel
MPEG stream: Help Me

Rik Shaw and Ledeuce have also performed as Rome (with a few releases for Thrill Jockey) and as the Deadly Dragon Sound System (a dub / turntablist crew from Chicago). Sons of the Sun manifest low key breaks with a noticable dubby quality and lots of noodly analogue synth melodies.

This is the debut full length from Atlanta sludge pop crust punks Sons Of Tonatiuh, who unfurl the sort of hook filled heaviness we can't ever seem to get enough of. The label compare these guys to Sourvein, Iron Monkey, Eyehategod and Weedeater, and yeah, that definitely fits these guys, the lurching downtuned sludge, the chugging churning riffage, the throat shredding vox, but what these guys also have is a serious knack for infusing their rib cage rattling stoner sludge with some serious pop, it's not always obvious, in fact it rarely is, but the band will flit from lumbering doom-ic creep, to relentless crust metal pound without blinking an eye, and then suddenly unfurl THEE catchiest riff you've ever heard, before pulverizing it a second later with an avalanche of crumbling, distorted crush. And that's really what makes this stuff so good, the 'poppy bits' are black hole heavy, to the point of disguising said poppiness from the casual listener, and the heavy parts are subtly poppy, but not so much as to distract from, the pounding and riffing, cuz, c'mon, this is first and foremost some seriously and supremely heavy doom/dirge/sludge, it's just that there's more going on than bash and crash, the thick tarpit riffage and caveman pound hiding plenty of melody and twisted songcraft, which is pretty rare in a band like this. Recommended for fans of the above mentioned sludge outfits of course, but if you dig stuff like Torche, Floor, Capsule, and Tweak Bird, and are down for something a wee bit sludgier, this just might hit the spot...

MPEG stream: To The Throne
MPEG stream: Den Of Thieves
MPEG stream: Consumed

A few lists back we raved about a recently released 7" from a now defunct local band called the Sopors, who seemingly disappeared without a trace, they were part of the same scene that brought us pop heroes the Ovens, and post Sopors, some of the same members went on to play in Violent Change, whose debut tape we reviewed a while back too. And as much as we love that Sopors 7", and we really do, it barely scratches the surface of what an amazing and bizarre band the Sopors really were. This lp, most of the copies of which reside in boxes and beneath beds and in closets, is the sort of dizzyingly ramshackle and inadvertently brilliant record that inspires extreme music nerdery and slavish fanaticism, and we're not ashamed to admit that we're pretty goddamn obsessed with these guys, and it breaks out heart that they never got their due. Listening to this record now, we're compelled to proclaim these guys our favorite local band, it's catchy as fuck, but totally damaged and off kilter, it seems to us, that the people who lose their shit for Sic Alps and other sonically similar groups, should feel similarly about these guys. Of all the bands who channel that twisted post punk sound, a la Swell Maps, the Fall, Television Personalities, early Pavement, we really haven't heard anyone do it better than these guys, the fact that every song sounds like its on the verge of collapse only makes it that much better. Pop hooks galore, crazy catchy melodies, but all wreathed in angular guitar crunch, blown out lo-fi buzz, the drums so low in the mix they're often inaudible, the whole recording brittle and lo-fi, and tinny and in-the-red, but somehow, all of that stuff becomes a part of the Sopors' sound, a sound which is gloriously fucked up and just about the catchiest shit we've heard in ages. Some of the tracks here sound like lost eighties Yellow Pills style post punk power pop B sides, while others sound like some obscure British angular punk rock, and still others sound like bedroom 4-track indie pop, others almost sound like classic punk rock a la 999 or Stiff Little Fingers, all clanging crashing chords and gruff vox, but EVERY song here is impossibly catchy, some are so catchy it's impossible to believe they're not covers. Not sure what else to say, we're kind of obsessed with these guys, and have been listening to little else. If you dig ANY of the above mentioned bands, or have been loving that Violent Change tape, or love the Ovens, but wish they were more noisy and off kilter and twisted and fucked up, or just want to hear what we would make our record of the year, if it actually come out this year, then dig it! WAY WAY WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: It Turns Me On
MPEG stream: Me And The Others
MPEG stream: Let's Mammalian
MPEG stream: Friend

A list or two back we reviewed a tape from a new local group called Violent Change, a collection of twisted lo-fi pop that managed to be loose and chaotic, but catchy as all get out, and in that review, we mentioned that that group was born of the late great Sopors, a short lived SF band that existed in the same scene that birthed pop geniuses the Ovens, and while Sopors aren't as overly poppy as their brethren, their pop chops are undeniable, and the fact that they create such insane catchiness that at the same time manages to be so loose and ramshackle and wildly unhinged, in some ways, it makes it even better, with some of THEE catchiest melodies, and most irresistible hooks, but set amidst churning lo-fi riffage, and buzz drenched jangle. Just check out "Creation", the band unfurling some of the hookiest indie pop we've ever heard, but throughout, the song sounds like it could collapse at any point, reminding us a bit of early Pavement, but Sopors are somehow darker, their sound meaner and leaner, "Creation" spending as much time churning ominously as it does ringing out big melodies and sweet guitar jangle, if not more. And like Violent Change which would come after, Sopors at heart were a punk band, so on the heels of something as poppy as "Creation", comes "Germ Attack", an 84 second blast of monochromatic punk stomp, but even in the roiling three chord crunch, Sopors lace their sound with sweet melodies, woozy riffage, and tangles of detuned guitar weirdness that transform the sound into something way more than punk rock. "No Solution" has a serious Guided By Voices vibe, from the murky guitar, to the British Invasion vox, and fuck if it isn't as catchy as anything Bob Pollard's whipped up. Listening to this now, it blows our mind that more people didn't catch on. And "Repetition" just seals the deal, another punk pop gem, with thick fuzzy guitars, yelped processed punkish vox, busy melodic basslines, and some sweet hooks, which makes the Sopors sound like some lost eighties band you might have heard on one of those Messthetics comps. So fucking great! We also have the Sopors full length lp which we'll review next time, but if you want one of those (and trust us, YOU DO!!) just ask!

MPEG stream: Creation
MPEG stream: No Solution

Sorc'Henn's last disc, Harmonium Pieces & Dead Reveries, which was released on Faunsabbatha, the more 'metal' sub label of Ruralfaune, wasn't actually a metal record, more a dark dronescape, whirring expanses of Lustmordian Wolf Eyes style post industrial buzzing black shimmer. This latest Sorc'henn disc, released on Crucial Bliss (another sub-label, this time of Crucial Blast) is even more removed from anything metal. And in many ways anything dark. At least the 21 minute opener, which plays out like an Argento soundtrack composed by Oval, all shimmering layers, and skipping cds, looped ambience, that glimmer and glistens, a bit of Philip Jeck, a little Tim Hecker, all fuzzy and crackly melodies locked into haunting loops, while over the top, a child's voice whispers, and in the background bits of bird song. Truly creepy, but simultaneously quite lovely, totally mesmerizing, would have been happy if this track was stretched out to fill the whole disc. Odds are you'll find yourself listening to it over and over, luxuriating in its haunting mystery, eyes closed, picturing some old crumbling estate, surrounded by dark forests, a child peeking from the heavy curtains in an upstairs window. After that, the sound gets even more fuzzed out and crackly, a warm washed out hiss, speckled with bits of crackle and pop, a slowly unfurling minimal melody way off in the distance, the sound of thundering low end drifting by like black clouds, warm whirring organs, bits of electronic glitch, deep throbbing reverberating buzz, all leading up to the 27 minute long final track, a totally demented black musickal ritual, deep rumbles, growled Darth Vader like invokations, bits of industrial clatter, squalls of hiss, whirling streaks of effects, detuned guitars, woozy melodies, thick waves of crumbling buzz, slivers of feedback, creaking and groaning machinelike ambience, distorted chimes, disembodied vocals howling and moaning, a truly harrowing black and bleak soundscape, finishing off with a brief snippet of an old timey French piano ballad, adding even more mystery to the song's already eerie and mystical vibe. Like all the Crucial Bliss releases, packaged in a cool 3 panel full color fold over sleeve.

MPEG stream: Dodsdansen, Life Of An Island Lad
MPEG stream: Enez Varv Faaro

In a world full of tiny labels, it takes a lot to stand out, whether it's some amazing and mysterious sounds or super unique and hand made packaging. And if anything RuralFaune as shined in both respects, a crazy collection of some of the weirdest noisemakers in the world, and some seriously amazing, and in many cases, fragrant, packaging. Hand printed, painted, folded, pasted, held together with string or wire, often filled with branches or flowers, scraps of paper, seeds or bits of plant matter, many of them very strong smelling, all of them amazing. Well, Bruno, the man behind RuralFaune, was really getting into heavy music, and decided that maybe RuralFaune was not the place for such musics, so he started FaunSabbatha, a new label dedicated to heavy, creepy, dark music, metal, metallic, or just plain evil. Four new releases, each one outrageously limited, gorgeously hand packaged, and gone before you know it. Sorc'Henn are from France, and their particular brand of heaviness, as the title of their disc suggests is all about the harmonium, the piano, and lots and lots of drones. The opening track is a thick cloud of piano overtones, lots of sustain and reverb, a single funereal chord, struck over and over and over, the tones blending into each other, the overtones building up until it's some sort of doomy sonata. The second track, is a bleary buzzy blur, very Tim Hecker-ish or Oval-like, but with vocals that sound like the growls of some wild beast, a gurgling rumbling grrr. A bit like a pride of lions fronting Lustmord, very haunting and very very weird. But at the same time, strangely pretty. The next two tracks are thick layered drones, the first dreamy and blissy, lots of soft melody and dreamlike drift, the second is a blurred black metal, buzzing riffage doused in effects and overloaded, until the riff melts into its surroundings with the overall effect being a throbbing pulsing blackened swell. The awesomely titled "Where Does The Breath Of The Dead Pianist Come From ?" ironically enough features no piano at all (as far as we can tell), instead sprawling into some grinding Wolf Eyes-ian industrial plodscape, with plenty of dirge-y whir and distorted crunch. The second to last track "Grand-Harmonium Du Diable" is just that, a creepy lo-fi harmonium drift, the instrument wheezing demonically, haunting minor key melodies escaping like a demon's heavy breathing, an evilized version of the harmonium work of Gurdjieff or Nitsch. Finally, the disc finishes with "Huelgoat And The Droning Stones", a 10+ minute underwater dirgescape assembled from swooping backwards notes, murky and warbly and hypnotic, that fades to silence, before returning as a minimal muddy grinding low end melody that unfurls until the very end... SUPER LIMITED!! ONLY 66 COPIES!!!! In a spray painted cardboard sleeve, housed in a printed oversized paper jacket, all in a plastic sleeve with little bits of branches!

MPEG stream: Toulgoat
MPEG stream: Took Their Rise In Funerals

Making a seamless transition from charming indie-rock boy in the bay area's great Call & Response to now dishing out some of the most infectious and delicious electronic jams we've heard in a long time, it won't be long until Daniel Judd (aka Sorcerer) is a name on the tips of the tongues of everyone who has been loving the recent resurgence of great dancey and disco inspired electronica. If folks like Lindstrom, Gui Borrato and Strategy have pleased your ears as much as they have ours we think this is a record you should check out for sure. We love how he's able to bring a smooth and suave feeling to what's often a clinical and robotic sound. It's almost how we imagine it would sound if Sam Prekop of The Sea & Cake made a daydream electronic dance record, as it has that same kind of endless breeze and carefree melody that he's perfected over the years. It's like sliding down milky mountain waterfalls into the freshest ocean filled with frothy waves and trays of the tastiest cocktails floating alongside always at arms reach for a delicious sip. Sorcerer have tapped into some delightfully fresh sounding electronic gold. So nice!

MPEG stream: Hawaiian Island
MPEG stream: Surfing At Midnight
MPEG stream: Slow Burning Hands

Ok, well if the world really ends this weekend ("Judgment Day" Saturday May 21st y'know) then I think THIS is what we plan to be listening to, and loud, when the Christians get Rapturously sucked up to heaven leaving the rest of us to deal with God's wrath or whatever. Hella epic doom metal here folks, it'd make the perfect soundtrack to all that apocalypse... This cd is a remastered reissue of the two cult cassette demos done by this Swedish band back in the day (circa 1989 and 1992), almost 80 minutes of music in total. Majestic, massive, mystical, and as you might expect, manna to Candlemass fans, this band's closest comparison. Includes the song "Queen In Black", typical of Sorcerer's grandiose, dramatic style, one that was covered by modern day Puerto Rican epic doom metal mavens Dantesco on a recent release reviewed here, you may recall. And speaking of covers, this disc contains one too, an impressive take on Rainbow's classic "Stargazer", with Sorcerer's vocalist ably acquitting himself in the Ronnie James Dio role. This edition (nicer than the cd compilation done in 1995) includes new liner notes from long time Sorcerer fan John Perez, of equally epic doomsters Solitude Aeturnus (a big enough fan to have reissued this on his own label Brainticket!). Lyrics also included in the cd booklet, along with art from the original cassettes. So if you dig old school, melodic metal with leaden riffage, squiggly guitar solos, the occasional tolling bell, and - most significantly perhaps - soaring, cathedral-spire-ascending vocals, a la Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Dantesco, Savatage, Memory Garden, etc., then Sorcerer is a definite must-have. Too bad they broke up after making these two tapes (which sound fantastic, by the way, not at all like "demos"), no doubt on account of how this style wasn't terribly in vogue at the time... but apparently now they've reformed and have been playing some European festivals, so maybe there will be more to the Sorcerer discography sometime soon. Well, long as Saturday isn't really Judgment Day, that is!

MPEG stream: The Sorcerer
MPEG stream: Northern Seas
MPEG stream: Queen In Black

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Legacy Of Blood
MPEG stream: The Rite Of Sacrifice
MPEG stream: Death

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

SORRY.

Awesome '70s heavy, riffy proto-metal from the band Sorcery, whose only album was this soundtrack to this rad b-movie about stuntmen! The band's live show also involved stage magic, as depicted in the film.

Okay, Sore Throat are one of our favorite bands. EVER. But for ages their shit has been impossible to track down. Crusty, heavy, fast and furious, stupid, goofy, political, pissy, snarky, clever, wasted, and musically unbeatable. They were cramming hundreds of songs on to 7"s before Anal Cunt was even a bad idea. BUT, and this is the big but here, we tried to get a ton of these to list, and managed to only get 5. But we wanted to give at least a few folks on the list a chance to experience the fucked up grindcrust joy of the mighty Sore Throat. So be prepared to be disappointed. Only the crazy dudes up at 2am on Friday maniacally watching the aQ site for the update will probably be able to snag these, but you never know. Fear not though. There are some upcoming reissues, which we'll be able to get plenty of, enough for everybody. But for now, 5 of you are in luck, get ready, get set go... Oh yeah, the record. A cd compilation of some super rare demos, 83 songs in all, furious crusty metallic anarcho grind. Comes with an extensive booklet, some inserts and a Sore Throat patch!

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]