[ aquarius records catalogue

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We have a trifecta of free jazz "twofers" this week from way deep down in the Impulse catalog. Check out the reviews elsewhere on the list for Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. While the Coltrane features two of our favorite titles from her, the Ayler and Sanders releases are from albums we're less familiar with, or at least hadn't reviewed before, but have been psyched to (re-)discover. While perhaps not the best place to be introduced to these artists, these records reward those seekers of the overlooked deep cuts without the hefty collector/import price! Village of The Pharoahs is from 1974, and while that may be a late year for most cosmically-minded free jazz (most jazz at the time was hurtling towards fusion), this record does not disappoint. Fans of classic Sanders records like Thembi and Karma will find lots to love in the opening three part title suite. Sitars, piano, clattering percussion, and chanting vocals evoke a majestic marching groove rife with drama as soon as Sanders comes in with his elliptical eastern horn phrases, culminating later in a hypnotic three part tribal chant breakdown. Deeper spiritual vocalising permeates the short track, "Myth" as well, before building onto the long-form piano-led meditation "Mansion Worlds". The final two tracks, "Memories of Lee Morgan" and "Went Like It Came" venture more into Blute Note territory as he eulogizes the late trumpeter with a wistful pastoral piece that also includes flute and piano, then ends the album with a kind of rollicking skronky blues bop with a soulful female vocalist. That last track would probably read as a bit out of place on the album proper, but paired up with 1972's Wisdom Through Music, that kind of hard stylistic change-up is a perfect segue into one of Sander's more diverse outings. Opening with the energetic "High Life", Sanders channels the exuberant vibe of percussive African horn music followed by the celebratory and soulful "Love Is Everywhere". The title track that follows brings us back into cosmic mode with harp trills, tampura, and majestic waves of droning reeds, followed by the lyrical string excursion of "The Golden Lamp" and the final long-form vocal incantation, "Selflessness". Quite Stunning!

MPEG stream: Village of The Pharoahs Part One
MPEG stream: Memories of Lee Morgan
MPEG stream: Wisdom Through Music
MPEG stream: Selflessness

A wonderful piece of history precedes the reissue of this recording by the British pioneer of DIY electronics and cassette culture, Philip Sanderson. Having manufactured a number of cassette-only releases from 1978 - 1981 through his label Snatch Tapes, Sanderson devised the rather cynical ploy of recording under the moniker Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey to see if labels like Rough Trade, Cherry Red, or Fast Product might take the bait of women artists producing abstract electronic music. It's the same dodgy yet brilliant ploy recently used by San Francisco's Ziegenbock Kopf to market themselves as gay leatherboys. Unlike ZK, Sanderson got so far as to get a Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey track on the intriguing Cherry Red compilation entitled "Perspectives and Distortions" alongside The Virgin Prunes, Eyeless In Gaza, The Lemon Kittens, and Robert Fripp. The charade was up when Cherry Red made an offer to Claire and Susan to release an album and wanted to meet the two. Upon learning of the ruse, Cherry Red decide to pull out of the deal instead of continuing the masquerade. It's a shame that it had to come to that as Sanderson had produced a really amazing record of low-tech Cluster-inspired electronic bubblings, although Cherry Red's reaction is an understandable one. Regardless, Sanderson shrugged it off, issued the recordings as "Reprint" through Snatch in 1980, and thankfully 23 years later re-released it on CD through Anomalous Records. The album begins convincingly enough in regards to the Claire and Susan mythology as Sanderson has employed the vocal talents of a woman simply identified as Nancy in an ethereal collage of her voice cycling through a mantra of tape delay effects. Yet that is the only reference to anything distinctly feminine on the record, as Sanderson completes the record with variations and repetitions of clattering electronics corroding into grimy noise and smeary tape hiss, not unlike Chris Carter's productions for Throbbing Gristle and less structured than Sanderson's work as the Storm Bugs. Sanderson's liner notes describe the record as "academic rigour married to an inverted pop art aesthetic. For whereas pop art incorporated the cheap intoxications of consumer culture into the supposed lofty rooms of high art, here was an attempt to incorporate the form of high art into the low brutality of DIY electronics." Well stated! It's probably not for everybody, but with the proliferation of CD-R labels doing the exact same thing 20 years later, "Reprint" is a historical gem.

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It's been a very, very long time that Philip Sanderson has released anything new. Up until Seal Pool Sounds, the last recordings for Sanderson date back to 1982! During the late '70s and early '80s, Sanderson had been very active in the Britian's DIY cassette culture, producing music as the Storm Bugs (with Steven Ball) and as Susan Thomas & Clare Vesay (whose fictional femininity caused a minor bout of controversy between Sanderson and Cherry Red records). He also collaborated frequently with David Jackman who at that time had yet to form his seminal drone-scrape project Organum. Many of these recordings emerged on Sanderson's own Snatch Tapes; and some of those original cassettes have slowly been reissued in recent years. In the mid-'80s, Sanderson made a stylistic jump to film and installation, offering an explanation as to his whereabouts during all those years. Within the murk, hiss, and Frankensteinian electric constructions of his early work on Snatch, there was a peculiar and perverse sense of humor in Sanderson's work. On Seal Pool Sounds, he allows the playful aspects of that sense of humor to occasionally emerge with these much cleaner squiggles, jolts, and drones of electronic sounds. Alternately, a plaintive melancholia hangs upon other abstracted tones and broken rhythms, ending up sounding like more primitive constructions from Mika Vainio's solo work, those Microstoria albums, and even Manhatten Research era Raymond Scott.

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Lion Productions once again dig deep into super obscure international psychedelia of the '60s and '70s to bring us this amazing gem. Sandhy & Mandhy were an Argentinian duo who hit the scene almost as fast as they disappeared. Recording only one album in 1967, and doing it in just three hours. With no grand hopes of fame and fortune, their label pressed a mere 110 copies for the group to have at gigs they played. Years later those copies would fetch crazy amounts of money. Which is not surprising once you hear the music, cuz it's so damn good. Mixing both the dreamy and rocking elements of psychedelic pop, their sound was in a very similar vein and spirit to their contemporaries in nearby Brazil where the Tropicalia movement was just beginning. From moments of fuzz guitar to melt-worthy vocals, this is a record that covers a lot of ground, and does it so well. It really does sound like some awesome mix of Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes. Finally we all get to hear the magic of this album made over forty years ago. There are also five bonus tracks, that for some of us are reason enough to grab this, as their awesome lo-fi covers of The Doors and Marianne Faithfull/The Rolling Stones are pretty damn irresistible. We're totally digging this!

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Last list out we made Hope Sandoval's first record in over eight years our Record Of The Week. That record was in fact the follow up to this, her first full length after the dissolution of Mazzy Star, who clearly were one of the most important and influential bands of the '90s. Sadly this record had been out of print for years, but with the release of her breathtaking new record, Bavarian Fruit Bread has finally been reissued and that's beyond good news, as this is pretty much the pinnacle for hazy, dazed out and dreamy songsmithery, a suite of sound that both lulls and caresses, transporting you to a place that is somewhere between the clouds, the fog and that half awake/half asleep hypnogogic state. In fact we know a few people who have had some really amazing/healing moments with this record during a period of infirmity and under heavy medication, the perfect soundtrack, as if it were designed to play over and over and give such hazy relief, a glorious sonic painkiller, musical codeine, the kind of record that takes you to a beautifully numb and comforting place. We also plenty of folks who cite this as their absolute go to 'make-out' record, which makes perfect sense, as every note is permeated by a smoky sensuality that truly is intoxicating. If you missed this the first time around we can't stress enough what a stunning and achingly beautiful record this is. An absolute must have!

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Before Cat Power, Beach House, Grouper, Edith Frost, Christina Carter, Valet, Marissa Nadler, Tara Jane O'Neil, El Perro Del Mar, Isobel Campbell, Brightblack Morning Light, etc.... there was Hope Sandoval. Beginning with her work in seminal and influential slowcore dream pop legends Mazzy Star, Sandoval's trademark dazed and hazy vocals have inspired countless other bands and performers, her gorgeous languid purr and the dark swirling sounds surrounding it were no doubt an intoxicating influence, and as fantastic as so many of those Mazzy acolytes are, there is just something so magical, otherworldly and trance inducing about the original. After Mazzy Star called it quits, Sandoval released both an ep and a full length under her own name, that full length, Bavarian Fruit Bread, was easily as dreamy, seductive and enchanting as anything that Mazzy Star had ever created. It's been over 8 years since that album came out and we've heard very little from the elusive and mysterious chanteuse (other than rumors of a proposed Codeine reunion, with Sandoval on vocals, how amazing would that have been!!). She lives right here in the Bay Area, and performs now and again, sometimes with like minded music makers, sometimes on her own, she even made an appearance a while back on Vetiver's great debut record. Now finally, almost a decade since her last proper record, we have this completely chilling and utterly beautiful record, that proves it was well worth the wait, the record at once immediate and intimate, but also with the feel of something meticulously crafted over many long dark nights. Immaculate, lush, warm, melancholy, seductive, sensual, sexy, smoky... words only begin to scratch the surface when describing the intensity and emotion, the depth and and delicate beauty of Through The Devil Softly. The music here is again, a perfect match for Sandoval's gorgeous vocals, dark and lush and seductive and hypnotic, which comes as no surprise since her band The Warm inventions is comprised of some incredible players, including her main musical coconspirator, Colin O Ciosoig of My Bloody Valentine, who co-wrote several of the songs as well as being the Inventions' drummer. Through The Devil Softly is a record that even on first listen sounds timeless, and ageless, a record that will no doubt seep into your heart, and soul, and play on and on, a constant companion, a musical balm that will soothe and comfort, ease you when you are uneasy, wrap you in warmth as you dream the day away, and lift you into the air as millions of memories, thoughts and desires infuse your body and mind. Simply breathtaking!

MPEG stream: For The Rest Of Your Life
MPEG stream: Fall Aside
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SORRY. Hope Sandoval, she of the velvet vocal chords put to great use in Mazzy Star, releases her first new material in years. "At the Doorway Again" is four songs recorded with Colm O'Ciosoig, drummer for My Bloody Valentine. Quiet, sad, restrained melancholy with added cello and piano. It's pretty good, but without the brilliant guitarwork of David Roback (her partner in Mazzy Star), Sandoval's doped-out singing style isn't balanced with any songwriting ability, so it's pretty but ultimately sort of unsatisfying (for me). Legendary British folk guitarist Bert Jansch guests on one track.

RealAudio clip: Around My Smile

While he hasn't really had any projects quite as popular as his original group Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk has been quite busy and surprisingly prolific, most often indulging his electronic side. Sandoz is his dub project inspired by the heavy dub grooves of King Tubby but with a very '90s/modern electronic feel to it. And while modern dub as the potential to be cheesy, this is actually quite good. Deep and dark and dubby, almost sounds like it could be some lost Wordsound joint. Cool.

MPEG stream: I and I Meditation
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SORRY. Their label Metonymic qualifies Sandoz Lab Technician's "Synaptic Acres" as "fluent jazzish exotica, with undercurrents of 50's noir films that never were, to minutely detailed moments of stillness and beauty." I don't know what the fuck they're talking about. The Sandoz Lab Technicians emerge as one of the more mind-expanding outfits from the fertile New Zealand free noise community, which has also spawned The Dead C, RST, Flies Inside The Sun, Surface Of The Earth, etc. With freeranging sonic investigations with guitars, feedback, drums, sax, melodica, and bells (just to name a few of the many sounds uttered on this album), "Synaptic Acres" is a playful if gritty album akin to playing in the mud as a kid.

Sandoz Lab Technicians may be the most fucked-up and most freeform out of all of the mind-expanding, free noise New Zealanders that we have championed in the past (i.e. Birchville Cat Motel, Dead C, Omit, Anthony Milton, etc.). That said, Sandoz Lab Technicians haven't been terribly prolific (unlike pretty much everybody else we just mentioned), but they have been consistently way out there when they have managed to record their ramshackle improvisations. The Western Lands is as loose and freeform as you can get, with absolutely nothing resembling a song, a structure, or even the hint of a melody getting in the way of their sonic escapades. Random scrapes and scratches across both guitar and violin aimlessly drift behind a plinky-plonk keyboard smeared with the delay emitting semi-tonal clusters of notes that resemble jazz vibes at their most cosmic or most terminally stoned. Then, inexplicably one of the Technicians sloshes a glass of water around just below the microphone. Weird. SLT work better, however, when eschewing such Fluxus strategies and gravitating towards long-form, heavy amplifier drones dappled with gong crashes. Still, way more obtuse than anything you'll hear from any of those other NZ folks...

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Early '70s acid folk, from the USA but sounding very UK.

From the dark minds of Sandwell District comes this impressive mix of motorik techno, bleak disco, and heroin house. Sandwell District is both the name of a label which collects some of the finer specimens of electronica (i.e. Silent Servant, Rrose, Surgeon, Regis, Function, etc.) and the name of the project for Karl O'Connor (Regis, British Murder Boys, etc.) and David Sumner (Function). It's pretty much just a semantic difference when it comes to this mix, as many of the artists that have contributed to the label are featured on this mix. Sandwell District envision themselves (both label and project) as a logical outgrowth of the British industrial culture (e.g. Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire), with ominous chords and controlling rhythms bounding through their body of work. We've long heard that O'Connor likes to toss in some of the more extreme proponents of early industrial noise in his DJ sets; and we do get a brief taste of Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey - whose metallic flanges are driven by a thumping 909 kick. Not exactly the infernal chaos of Whitehouse, but still a nice touch. Most all of the mix comes from various cuts and mixes from the past 12-18 months with recognizable selections from Raime, Vatican Shadow, Ike Yard, Function, and Surgeon - all of which enjoy skeletal structures of muscular rhythms, black atmospherics, and nary a melodic chord in sight. The closest thing to a melody could be found in the Chain Reactive stabs of metallic synths that glide in sync with the ride cymbal swagger of Mary Velo's "Detune" and the mid '90s acid trax from Plastikman's "Plasticine." Nice work, Sandwell District, nice work.

MPEG stream: Loss (Regis Version)
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Hot on the heels of their awesome new 12" Duck Duck Goose, the ladies of The Sandwitches are wasting no time continuing their hot streak with these two brand new songs that continue to display what a cool range of sounds they're capable of conjuring. The A side "Makes Me Sick" is one of the most full on folk sounding songs we've heard from them yet filled with such a nice punch. Kind of like an updated version of a Karen Dalton track doused with a nice kick of piss & vinegar. The B side is the track we've been so obsessed with. "Idiot Savant" is so sparse and haunting, bringing us into a hypnotic world of sound filled with cobwebs and antique Oujia boards. With every step they take we keep falling for these ladies more and more. So good!

In a day an age when so many bands are getting huge due to hype from blogs, or one YouTube clip, The Sandwitches are a really refreshing reminder of how gratifying it feels to follow a band who are establishing themselves the old fashioned way. Playing shows around town and on the road, releasing tons of singles/ep's/collaborations, and refining their chops and songwriting prowess along the way. We've been huge fans of everything they've released so far and this brand new 7" keeps their perfect record alive. "The Pearl" is an awesome campfire spell of a song, where Sandwitches take the influence of folks like The Roches and Fleetwood Mac and place them in a much more rustic and raw setting. The B side "Benny's Memory Palace" is a really cool slightly warped track that makes us think of Sinead O'connor on K records covering Billy Bragg. Once again these fine ladies hit the bullseye with yet another awesome slab of wax.

One of the really cool things about working at a record store is how you get to watch as a band gets more and more popular... One day they are just a name on a record no one has heard of and then just weeks later they become a band that everyone calls and asks about. Such is the case with San Francisco's The Sandwitches. We were just as clueless about them as everyone else when we first got their debut lp on Turn Up, but once we heard it we became hooked like so many other folks. Once you hear their totally refreshing, unique and endearing living room lo-fi garage folk jams, it's pretty impossible to resist. This new 7" gives an awesome alternate version of the song "Back To The Sea" which was on the full length, this time out it's even more of a foot stomper, like The Shaggs doing a Bill Haley & His Comets cover. The B side "Beatle Screams" is a haunting slow burner with a nice pump organ groove running throughout conjuring up images of some kind of wonderfully haunted circus or a state fair gone way weird. Lots of folks have heard these fine ladies via their amazing back up vocals on The Fresh & Only's records as well as from playing in bands like Pillars Of Silence and Brilliant Colors. But if they keep creating such amazing songs, The Sandwitches will become a household name, you know at least in the kind of houses we all tend to live in!

Over the last year The Sandwitches debut lp, How To Make Ambient Sadcake proved to be a record with major legs. As we still have a hard time keeping it in stock as it sells out just about every week as people get turned on to what a unique and intimate sound these ladies have carved out. These brand new songs show that The Sandwitches are only getting better, with a set of songs filled with such warmth and a haunting glow. We hear hints of Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan, Christine McVie, Pentangle, Sybille Baier as well as contemporary artists like Tara Jane O'Neil, Jana Hunter, Marissa Nadler, Rio En Medio, Beach House, Tiny Vipers and Metallic Falcons. Or what it might sound like if Mimi from Low and Georgia from Yo La Tengo did lonely dark tinged covers of Red House Painters songs. The record has this timeless sound that makes us think of crawling up to the attic of our weird/cool aunt's house and finding an unmarked dusty record that we put on play as it turns to dusk outside and we flip through boxes of old photographs and torn out journal entries. Recorded & produced by Wymond Miles from The Fresh & Onlys, this ep really raises the bar for their sound. One of the most warm, eerie, yet comforting collection of songs we've heard all year. Stamped on one-sided vinyl and limited to 500 copies. Highly recommended!

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Lately some of our favorite Bay Area music makers have added record label head honcho to their resumes. John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) started his label Castle Face a few years ago, and Kelley Stoltz started Chuffed last year and now Marc Dantona of Conspiracy Of Beards and the now sadly defunct Pillars Of Silence has just launched his own label, Turn Up. The Sandwitches are the perfect band to be the first release on the label, as their smart approach to wide spanning pop shows what happens when folk minded musicians take it to the garage. The three ladies in the band have done time in great San Francisco bands like Brilliant Colors, The Fresh & Onlys, Pillars Of Silence and it is kind of cool how if you did put all three of those bands in a blender the sound of the Sandwitches can really be imagined. So many bands of late seem to be so dialed into such a narrow and small palette of sounds so it's really refreshing to hear a band who are no one trick pony, but instead cover lots of musical ground but do so with a cohesiveness that is often really tricky to pull off like The Sandwitches do on this debut. In lots of ways the record makes us think of what it would sound like for a band on Woodsist to cover Fleetwood Mac's amazing record Tusk. There is also something so honest and sincere about their delivery that you get the feeling they would play these songs with as much conviction and emotion in their living room filled with a few friends as much as they would on stage at a packed venue. Can't wait to hear what Turn Up unleash in the future and if this debut release is any indication this is going to be a label to keep your eyes on!

MPEG stream: Back To The Sea Again
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These fine ladies from San Francisco have been quite busy ever since we first fell for them so hard, a couple years back, with their debut full length How To Make Ambient Sadcake. Since then they have been playing out like crazy and releasing 7"s and 12"s at a dizzying pace. We love how they have taken advantage of the different formats to play with and display different sides of their sound. With their new full length outing, Mrs. Jones' Cookies, they've released their most satisfying and coherent recording yet. We've loved everything they've put out so far, but all those releases felt way more about the individual songs, while this one really feels like they've mastered the ability to create an overall mood and feeling with a set of songs that flow so well with each other. Mrs. Jones' Cookies is what it might sound like if Neko Case or Jolie Holland did way stripped down, haunting covers of The Roches, Fleetwood Mac, The Incredible String Band, and Karen Dalton. The Sandwitches greatest strength is that while you can tell they have such a rich and strong understanding of music's past they never sound like some nostalgic act, as there is such an immediate and fresh perspective that they deliver in all of their songs. So good!

MPEG stream: In The Garden
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Also on compact disc! Here's what we said about the vinyl we listed last time, plus now we've added sound samples too! We were so ecstatic when we discovered there was a new album by local ladies of indie-pop, The Sandwitches. It had been four years since their last record, and we were beginning to think the band was no more (although sadly, this IS apparently their final release). What's making us even happier is that not only have they made maybe their best album yet, but they've also made what might be one of the best records of the year. Even just listening to Our Toast once, it's easy to tell that the group is trying to make a serious sonic statement. Of course we've loved all of their past releases, but Our Toast really raises the bar, delivering a collection of songs overflowing with conviction and warmth. Not only are the new songs really great, but the recording too, is so rich and evocative, woozy and lush. It's clear that the band - along with Kelly Stoltz, who recorded it with them - had such a clear idea of how they wanted the album to sound, drenched in emotion and raw sensuality. Musically, Our Toast sits somewhere between Cat Power's Moon Pix and a Karen Dalton record recorded by Phil Spector: the perfect mix of moody melancholia and hazy, dreamlike wonder. Highly Recommended!

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We love The Sandwitches and are totally digging how they have developed this warped sort of split personality. They can create songs so warm, tender and haunting, while also able to whip up jams that are way more playful, childlike, and seemingly lost in a dusty daydream. This new split does a great job showing off both of their wonderful sides. At first we thought the A side was going to be a cover of a song by their pals The Fresh & Only's (the ladies in the Sandwitches add their warm vocals to many Fresh & Only's songs) but instead it's one of their most spirited tracks, mixing elements of gospel, garage and a warped pop sensibility. The B side is the one really finding its way into our hearts, showing that warm and glowing side to their sound but laced with just enough of a haunting vibe to keep us totally enchanted and under their spell.

One of the most treasured voices in Mali's musical landscape, Oumou Sangare has been making rich and rewarding music for over twenty years now. She is really one of those rare examples of someone who is respected and loved so deeply by her neighbors all throughout West Africa, as well as having the good fortune to see her music spread throughout the rest of the world in more recent years, to equal fanfare. Drawing upon the influence of folks like Ali Farka Toure and Youssou D'Nour in her ability to inject so much melody and passion into her songs, and with over forty amazing musicians playing on the record, the sound and instrumentation is beyond lush, and serves as an equally strong force to counter Sangare's beautiful and timeless voice. This is true soul music!

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Another fucked and demented and mysterious metal record, this one from the East Coast of the United States via Australian label Goatowarex. We weren't able to find out too much about these guys, other than the description: "Pure fucking depraved death metal lacking political goals or other such human bullshit." All right then. This may be 'death metal' although it definitely sounds to us, at different points, more like black metal and doom metal than death metal, and in fact it's some sort of confusional blend of the three. Some tracks are blazing fast, a roaring murky buzz, others are a lurching slow motion dirge, they even open with their own version of Mayhem's "Voice Of A Tortured Skull". The sound is super cavernous and lo-fi, with tons of natural reverb drenching the thrashing blackness in a thick cloak of ambient buzz, like it was recorded in some musty murky cave. That opening cover is a creepy Abruptum-ish ambient drone, with thick buzzing guitars and creepy anguished voices, and all sorts of weird sounds, which gives way to a super blackthrash freakout with buzzing riffs and blown out drums, the whole thing so in the red that it almost sounds like some sort of Merzbow-metal. The rest of the record shifts back and forth between totally fried black thrash and creepy ambient midtempo plod, and it's the doomier stuff that is the weirdest, with strangely obtuse riffs, lots of space, and fucked up arrangements. Halfway through there's another haunting ambient track, all organs and buzzy guitars, almost like Devil Doll or some Satanic wedding march or something, before lurching back into some killer Darkthrone style blackness.

MPEG stream: Voice Of A Torturred Skull
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Local black/death metallers Sangre Amado finally release a (non-demo) cd, and it's wicked and dark and really good. Obviously influenced by the blackest of Norwegian metal technology, with nasty rasping (female!) vokills and epic riffing. Atypical of their Nordic heroes, however, Sangre Amado utilizes lots of scary cinematic sampling (Gummo perhaps?) in-between songs. Lastly, the raging drumming is courtesy of Li'l Sunshine, last heard on the amazing Weakling album!

Sanhedolin is the new name for the project that brought together two of the most exciting artists in the Tokyo underground prog-psych scene, AQ faves progcore duo Ruins and dark psych shaman Keiji Haino!! They did a cd on PSF under the name Knead three years ago (and also an LP on the French Fractal label). Now they've teamed up again, but because the Ruins have a new bass player, they've changed the name of this unit to Sanhedolin (though, the Ruins didn't change their name, so go figure). Anyway, this what you get when guitarist/vocalist Haino has the hyper-excitable rhythm section that is the Ruins backing him up. Incendiary improv action! Heavy-duty guitar/bass/drums interplay. And... flute? Yep, oddly enough (but much to our approval) this album opens up with the lovely sound of the flute! Haino is not credited with playing flute on the sleeve, but it's got to be him. It's not until a track or so later that Haino unleashes his trademark searing electric guitar devastation. He also screams out some very anguished vocals, more soul-wrenching than those from any black metal throat. Haino's presence is key here (and like we said in our review of the Knead cd, although you can hear both the Ruins and Haino doing their respective, distinctive "things", the combination maybe makes it more of Haino's album than the Ruins -- it's like a really fierce Fushitsusha recording with an uncowed, caffinated rhythm section). And really, we like this better than a lot of other Ruins improv projects 'cause it's not just about the spazz-out bass/drums, the iron first of Haino's guitar playing is so STRONG that it keeps the Ruins in line, it's more purposeful I guess. Fans of either and/or both Ruins or Haino though should like this. And by the the way, new Ruins bass player Mitsuru Nasuno is just as nimble as any who've played with Ruins drummer/mastermind Yoshida Tatsuya before, as he'd better be!

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Scorched earth skronk from some of the best in the business... that'd be the Japanese underground improv psych power trio super group Sanhedrin, who consist of monster guitarist Keiji Haino of Fushitsusha, monster drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, and monster bassist Mitsuru Nasuno of Altered States. Before this, they had a cd on PSF under the name Sanhedolin, and before that, there was a unit called Knead (Haino + Ruins) but basically it's the same thing. Freeform freakout distortodelic action. Really heavy-duty stuff, fans of Haino know what to expect, if you've been waiting a while to really hear him crank it on the axe again, this is the thing to get! There's eight tracks, about 66 minutes filled with feedback and fuzz, recorded live to multitrack in 2007 at two separate performances. A combustible chaos of roiling drums, seesawing rhythms, angular wandering bass grooves, and, above all, thick wooly slabs of ultra-distorted guitar. Chaotic vocal babble (Haino? Yoshida?) intrudes only occasionally, and amidst all the mayhem there are some relatively serene (but heavy) stretches of black metal-ish amplifier drone bzzzz... Pretty killer! We can't imagine hearing any band of noise rocking whippersnappers doing this sort of thing any better. We don't normally quote from label blurbs, but can't resist this grammatically confused sentence: "Is equal to of the whole body which passion gushes from." Dunno exactly what that means, but y'know, it's probably true! The disc is some kind of limited edition, originally tour-only merch sold at shows in Japan. It's packaged in a glossy black cardstock tri-fold sleeve + obi, adorned with some odd, colorful collage artwork - a typewriter, a dragon, telephones, fish, a frog, a tuba, a Gibson SG guitar, an eyeball with squid-like tentacles...

MPEG stream: Yokuaukototowa Iwasenai
MPEG stream: Kitani Naritagaru Gate Reverb
MPEG stream: Saa Mannakada Donnakanji Part-2

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

SORRY. Sanja is an underground Japanese improv supergroup of sorts: Kan Mikami on vocals and guitar, Toshi Ishizuka on drums and percussion, and Masayoshi Urabe on alto saxophone, harmonica, bass blockfloten (?), accordion, piccolo and chains. Yes, chains, you can hear 'em. And we've gotta say: woah, not the most relaxing sounds we've ever heard! For non-Japanese speakers, even more difficult, because you won't be able to decipher the vocals of Kan Mikami, whose dramatic delivery comes across as a bit Muppet-like here to us Westerners. And Urabe's saxophone shrieks don't help matters. Nope, not always an easy listen. But that's not what they're going for, or what you're here for either, right? You're looking for some stark, intense improv a bit out of the ordinary. Well here you go. Free jazz for the wide-open spaces, avant-garde Japanese hobos camped around a fire trading hard knock life stories via vocals, drums, and sax. Even when relatively quiet, it's roiling.

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After a way too long break, Hidden Shoal return to aQuarius, with two new gems, both from long time aQ faves, the first is the latest from SF dreamdronedrifter Wes Willenbring, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this right here, the latest from German outfit Sankt Otten, who we originally described as a mix between Bohren And Der Club Of Gore and Portishead (they're often described in the press as the German Portishead), and really Bohren and Portishead, can't do much better than that. But we were excited to hear how these guys might have changed over the last couple years, and in fact, their sound has shifted quite a bit. At least in the beginning, the murk and the muted minimalism has been replaced by something much more washed out and ethereal, glimmering and dreamlike, the opening track is a weightless swath of gauzy chordal shimmer that leads directly into a deep throbbing bass synth, we were prepared for a descent into darkness, but weirdly, the sound shifts toward something more epic, a chiming gamelan like melody, over warm soaring synths, skittery drums, a sort of laid back droney downtempo shuffle, but laced with a weirdly major key melody. It's around track three, where the group slip into some serious downtempo trip hop territory, a gorgeous hazy trawl through greyed electronics and blackened ambience, more laid back skitter, thick throbbing bass, and all sorts of sweeping swirling melody, dark and epic and mysterious. But SA continue to defy the German Portishead pigeonhole, by cranking up the tempo, veering into a sort of krautrock by way of Four Tet one minute, whirling Pop Ambience the next, synthy sprawling blissed out prismatic new age the next, over the course of the record slipping back and forth between these various sounds, sometimes melding several at once, a gorgeous, moody sonic journey, from haunting atmospheric darkness, to sun dappled rhythmic mesmer, to spaced out psychedelic synth, to eighties sounding new wave to hushed dreamlike ambience, to creepy slowcore crawl. Awesome stuff.

MPEG stream: Ein Himmel Voller Galgen
MPEG stream: Mutter, Jazz Und Der Heilige Geist
MPEG stream: Mit Popcorn Und Champagner

Before we get into the story behind this disc, let us just start by saying, that not only is this one of our new favorite records, a gorgeous slithery, smokey cross between Bohren And Der Club Of Gore and Portishead, but that it took a whole lot of work to get it into the store and available for sale... So this has actually happened to us a few times, which either speaks to our naivete, or as we prefer to think a dogged belief in the record album as object, to be held, listened to and loved, and an inability to understand any thoughts to the contrary. Australia's Hidden Shoal Records got in touch with us and was hoping we would check out some of their bands, we did, and got all excited about carrying them at AQ. Until, after we emailed and tried to order some, we were regretfully informed that Hidden Shoal was in fact a digital only label, no lps, no cds, no cassettes, just MP3's. Too bad we thought, as far as we were concerned, though of course we know there are those perfectly happy to download some MP3's. But over the course of many months, and lots of emails back and forth, the label admitted to being interested in actually pressing up cds. We of course encouraged them, because we wanted all our customers to be able to buy and hear this music, but also, because, there's something about the object, the cd or the lp or the 7", the liner notes, looking through the booklet while listening to the music, the feel, even the smell. And sure, it IS all about the music, but that other stuff is part of it too, no matter how much iTunes wants us to think otherwise. Obviously most of you don't need to be told that, otherwise you'd probably not be reading this. Well, the upshot is, two of our favorite recordings on Hidden Shoal are now finally available on cd, well, cd-r actually. But they are professionally pressed, with full color artwork, printed artwork on the disc, and heck, we'll take cd-r's over MP3s any day. And lots of you seem to prefer cd-r's anyway... This disc is the latest from German combo Sankt Otten, often considered to be the Portishead of Germany, and sonically, that's not all that far off the mark. Although when we first heard it, we heard a lot of Bohren as well, late period Talk Talk, and maybe a little Tricky and Massive Attack. It all adds up exactly how you might imagine. Slow burning instrumentals, humid and sultry, Morricone-ish guitars drifting in a sea of rumble and shimmer, the bass a slithery serpent of sound, smooth and sexy sometimes, distorted and fuzz drenched at others. But as with music like this, it's all about two things, the drums, and the atmosphere. And the drums here are perfect. And heck, so is the ambience. The rhythms almost always begin a jazzy skitter, the cymbals sizzling, the snare brushed, occasionally lurching into a more propulsive funk flecked rhythm. A dark lugubrious pulse, dangerous and dimly lit. The drums demarcate a darkened path through back alleys and smoky clubs, everything cloaked in a thick, ominous ambience. Dense sonic swells wrapped around sparse arrangements and moody minor key melodies. More of a jazz vibe than any of the above mentioned bands... but the jazziness oozes into all sorts of gorgeous variations, with the various chunks of dreamy doomy shuffle separated by stretches of Circle like hypnorock or looped Necks style static jazz, or the haunting Sigur Ros like vocals on "Fallen Und Fangen (Johannes Der Laeufer)" draped over soaring super dramatic strings, or even the album closer, "Maerchenwald", which almost sounds like it could be on Kompakt, a grey hued shoegazey drift, with sweeping synths rainy day piano, and a strange techno pulse buried in the mix. Some tracks sound so much like Portishead, they could be lost B-sides or instrumental outtakes, but Sankt Otten manage to imbue even those tracks too with their own stamp, be it an unlikely melody, some Western twang, some strange distorted bass line, spidery atonal synth or an unexpected abstract breakdown. Or as is the case on "Zum Schweigen Verdammt" its flurries of cinematic strings, and super distorted percussive crashes. It's all just so intensely moody and melancholy, jazzy and dramatic, and so so gorgeous.

MPEG stream: Fremdenzimmer
MPEG stream: Happiness (Woanders Als Hier)
MPEG stream: Zum Schweigen Verdammt
MPEG stream: Hoehenrausch

Full length number two from Brooklyn instrumental, avant post-metal outfit Sannhet (the word for truth in Norwegian), Revisionist is a dizzying concoction of math-metal intricacy, prismatic pop shimmer, and dense metallic crush, taking the metalgaze sound of like minded modern metal combos like Deafheaven or Alcest and adding more dynamic indie rockisms and churning noise rock crunch, then somehow, distilling it all into more concise, pop-like song structures, while somehow packing just as many parts, and just as much majestic epicry into those comparably brief blast. Each track here a chunk of deftly crafted melodic heaviness. Massive riffs, and thick swaths of distorted buzz wound around dynamic drumming, wild squalls of mathed out drum crush wreathed in sparkling fields of melodic guitar shimmer, even the occasional blast beat, is decontextualized into something more blissed out than brutal, resulting in a sound that churns and soars, with beautiful bits of heavy ambience woven into moody, minor key riffage, peppered with brief bursts of straight up black metal / metalgaze buzz and blast, but even at it's most furious and frantic, it seems to be bathed in some sort of otherworldly glow, a hazy, dreamy poppiness infused into the sound. Just check out the opening one two punch of "Revisionist" and "Lost Crown", the title track delivering a decidedly non-metallic opening, with thick, undulating layers of fuzzy, psychedelic riffage, peppered with super dynamic fills, the vibe more proggy than metal, before dissolving into a sound more gothy and gloomy, dense tribal drumming, over chiming guitar shimmer, our first glimpse of blastbeats too, and much like the rest of the record, so strangely placed, and deftly composed, it might not even seem like a blastbeat at first, instead, it just adds to the layered texture of the sound, which careens back and forth between a roiling blackened blissed out churn and a sun dappled buzz drenched pop. "Lost Crown" opens up similarly, with a strangely loping, mathy noise-pop sprawl, the drums cascading over a field of crumbling distortion and warm fuzz, only to erupt into some actual buzzing blackness, but again, even here, it's more swirling and psychedelic than grim and brutal. And throughout Revisionist, those bouts of buzz and blast are tempered by moody, melancholy math rock passages, that occasionally blossom into still more furious black buzz, but more often, are transformed into something more textural, and at times almost gothic, in fact skip ahead a bit and check out the gloomy moodiness of "Enemy Victorian", driven by a low slung Joy Division bassline, and sounding like the Cure via Interpol, albeit with some swirling psychedelic guitar thrum, and the occasional bleary-eared blast beat, the end result is again not so much metallic as transcendent and emotional, melancholic and almost dreampoppy, especially when more layered guitar texture, and a skyful of keening, minor key melodies swoop in. And even further on, there's "Sinking Forward", a sprawling majestic epic somehow compacted into less than four minutes, a smoldering, slow-motion crescendo, that builds from hushed drift to Godspeed like bombast, a howling psychedelic coda, that leads directly into closer "You Thy�" which is where most bands might finish things off with a final burst of metal, but instead, Sannhet unfurl another textural sonic sprawl that briefly dips into some blastbeat driven metalgaze bliss, quickly settles sonically somewhere else entirely, sounding like some impossible, and impossibly dreamy, mathpop/dronemetal/postrock hybrid equal parts Shellac, Laddio Bolocko and Explosions In The Sky.

MPEG stream: Revisionist
MPEG stream: Enemy Victorian
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She's been on the scene for a few years now, but this is the first we've heard of the intimate and fragile dreamlike sounds of Sanso-Xtro, aka Australian multi-intrumentalist Melissa Agagte, who uses analog synths and electronics to create a fantasy soundtrack for a wander through a mystical forest, a sound that makes us think of folks like Islaja and Paavarhaju, or what it might sound like if Natural Snow Buildings teamed up with Colleen. It's never too precious for its own good, and in fact there's a mesmerizing haunting quality to this album that wraps you in its arms from start to finish. Like a warped music box floating on an empty lake, this is intimate and engaging music at its best!

Another enigma from the cassette underground via Black Horizons. Presumably, this is a contemporary project; and presumably, they / she hail from France (there is a recognizably female voice that appears throughout the album); and presumably, there's a guest appearance from one of the members of the post-industrial outfit Novy Svet. Nope, that's not a lot of context to frame this album, as the sounds within certainly could have come out way back when, on Inner X, Dead Man's Curve, or any of those Rising From The Red Sands compilations. Santa Espina provide us with 16 tracks, mostly of loop based material whose antiquated murkiness and dour drone-pulsations seems to be a codeine-sloshed bout of method acting that might have aspired to the Legendary Pink Dots / Edward Ka-Spel strategies of chemical sound, if Santa Espina weren't so woozy. When the French lady vocals do come into the mix, they are whispered almost like dreams or forgotten witchy incantations, onto a microcassette recorder and layered amidst various states of damp tape detritus. Limited to 100 copies. And as always, some super fancy packaging to boot...

Just what we've been hankering for, some perfectly breezy and colorful pop done just right. And lucky for us Santa Maria has got a perfect batch of the good stuff for us to enjoy. Leave it to the Swedes to make some of the most infectious and smart pop we've heard in ages. Best known as the guitarist in The Concretes, Maria Eriksson, aka Santa Maria steps into the spotlight with fantastic results. Joined throughout the record by some of Sweden's best and brightest, including members of Sagor & Swing, Tape, and Laakso, this is the kind of pop music we never ever ever get tired of. Equal parts peppy and bittersweet. Proving once again that pop doesn't have to be dumb or simple to be catchy and infectious. While her former Concretes bandmate, vocalist Victoria Bergsman stole the show with her contributions to the latest Peter Bjorn & John album, we're pretty sure that Maria Eriksson deserves the ears of all those who appreciate smart pop as well. With a sound similar to the great Concretes debut, Peter Bjorn & John, Camera Obscura, and The Aislers Set, this is one of the best pop records we've heard so far this year!

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'Get ready for drag-racing MAYHEM... Mayhem... mayhem... ummm do we really have to keep badgering them like this?' - Smithers OK, do not dismiss this as just a field recording of drag races (even though that is what it is). While the blasts of drag racing noise tear bi-aurally across this CD of field recordings from the Santa Pod Raceway in Podington, England on the site of an old American airbase, it is the constant ridiculous banter of the announcer whose barely audible / poorly-transmitted-through-a-crappy-speaker rants have captured the essence of the drag-racing. Certainly in the tradition of the 'Sounds of North American Frogs', 'The Conet Project', 'The Ghost Orchid', and 'One of One', this is brilliant.

Wow, "Creator" is quickly becoming our favorite single of the year. Santogold has been getting lots of attention and winning high profile fans like Bjork, Spank Rock and Lily Allen. "Creator" for sure makes us think of her friend M.I.A. in both the vocal delivery and the splatter-of-color production by Switch (who worked on most of M.I.A.'s latest). The 'b' side finds Santogold in more of a new wave territory sounding kind of like Karen O singing lead on the first Cars album. While both the aQ faithful as well as her famous fans wait for her debut full length, we'll be laying the needle on "Creator" again and again and again.

Santogold's eponymous debut came with a tall stack of expectations that nearly any artist would have a hard time fulfilling. The number of industry glossies that tagged her the next MIA, or even went so far as to whisper the hallowed name of one Lady Sovereign, had everyone abuzz, ready to witness the next vital permutation of global hip hop whatever pitchfork is calling it these days. So, that said, the record didn't quite pack the punch some of us were hoping for. Or perhaps rather, it just wasn't what we expected, taking many more forays into what can only call a kind of mid-'90s slick indie-rock, that's probably best left for the occasional late-night YouTube session. Even so, Santogold should be credited for her efforts to break genre-constraints, and ultimately the record is stronger for it, if not a bit schizophrenic. Over the last month most of us have uncovered a few new favorites, and certainly agree this record is no dog. Those in need of a handful of great summer jams from a fresh and promising voice working in the vein of the aforementioned trendsetters will certainly find what they are looking for. Of note, of course, is the fabulous lead single, "Creator," which features Santogold's more fierce vocal delivery, and a killer combination of hooks and rhythms. Also, another standout "Lights Out," shows Santogold making good in her efforts to reach toward new wave and even her punk past for a subtly inventive take on pop music. It's certainly a far cry from the global hip-hop/dancehall designation that "Creator" had her billed as, but even so its seriously infectious, and a few of the songs even sort of kick ass. If you've got a few holes to fill on a mix-tape or just feel like some P-O-P, do it.

MPEG stream: Creator
MPEG stream: Lights Out

Released on the local ambient label The Foundry, Dean Santomieri's "Boy Beneath The Sea" starts off pleasantly enough with slowly strummed Godspeed / Tarentel guitar riffs complemented by vaguely New Age-ish chimes and polished digital sheen. But Santomieri marrs the atmosphere with an extended monologue about "wonder, fear, guilt, impotence, love, anguish and freedom as uttered from

A close associate of Animal Collective and very well submerged in the New York new-avant art/music scene stratus, Rusty Santos envelopes us with minimal electronic singer-songwriter type lovelies on The Heavens, his third release. With considerable amounts of recorded-in-the-practice-space-room-sound here, Santos' musical creations are artful soundscapes that often give way to some lyrical urgency and are hard to pinpoint where it's all coming from per se. But somewhere in a big bowl of sound steeped with Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Violent Femmes and OMD, we loudly slurp up The Heavens. Recommended!

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"Spawned from the formidable Louisville, KY collective known as Black Velvet Fuckere (Valley Of The Ashes, Phantom Family Halo, Kark, etc.), Sapat resides as the centrifugal force in this Midwestern psychedelic madrigal set in the psychosexual backwaters of the mighty Ohio River. For the entirety of the '00 decade, members have kept busy collaborating with and/or massaging the egos of various and sundry avant-pontiffs such as Robert Fripp, Magik Markers, Dead Child (David Pajo's metal band. That's right, David Pajo!) and Eugene Chadbourne -- when not honing the orgone energy of Sapat."

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Got some of this old favorite back in stock, thought we'd list it again in case you'd missed it. Previously we wrote: The image of a pungi player hypnotically swaying the end of his instrument in front of a cobra portrayed in Western books and films is a fairly accurate one" says this disc's notes, and while that may justify this one Western preconception, it does nothing to prepare for how weird and wonderful the music from snake charmers really is. The three different instruments used by snake charmers (the oboe-like pungi and the rhythmic instruments premtal and kanyeri) provide not so much of a sexy sway as one might think, but a herky-jerky set of bobbing rhythms and an odd stop-start style of reed playing. Andee has likened it to the hard disc editing of Oval, Pita, and Jim O'Rourke but played live! Perhaps the snakes are Mego fans... This is a pretty spectacular collection of mysterious and stirring sound. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Theka Talin
MPEG stream: Melody From The Film Phagun

Local laidback rockers Sappington sure take their own sweet time. Their first cdep came out in late 2000 and we've not heard a recorded peep from them since. They do play out occasionally though which reassured us that they were still making music. To refresh your memory, this trio makes lovely, drowsy, starry sky tunes. In the time since that first release, it appears they've grown quite a bit. Their sound is much more confident, developed and detailed. The male and female vocals are much more robust and front and center than I recall. The latter are very reminiscent of Carly Simon or Rebecca Gates, and they're warmly effective in contrast to the fuzzy washes of electronics in their "Airtight" remix which closes the second side of the 10". So dreamy and mellow, this entry fits well in the Dreams By Degrees seasonal series which also includes fellow mellows Colophon (Jef from Tarentel), Loquat, and Coastal.

Four quietly dreamy numbers from this young San Francisco trio. Two voices slowly weave their way around the often-subdued guitar, sampled dialogue and twinkling space sounds. For fans of For Stars or Tarentel.

MPEG stream: A Wolf And It's Prey
MPEG stream: Through The Eyes Of The Vulture

Probably most well known around these parts for sharing a split with SF black metal overlord Leviathan a while back, Sapthuran pretty much held their own, which in that sort of company is saying something for sure. Their most recent full length was pretty great as well, a gloriously buzzed out slab of Burzumic brutality, as blissed out and hypnotic as grim and fuzzy. And a logical choice to be a part of God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3" cd-r's paying tribute to the writer H.P. Lovecraft, who has probably had more of an affect on metal music than almost any other writer (minus J.R.R. Tolkein obviously). This is volume four in the series. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist, the third from the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, but not to be confused with our own Leviathan and number four comes from this Kentuckian black horde.� Three songs, a little under twenty minutes, thematically Lovecraftian, but sonically, much like the last Sapthuran full length. The guitars are a drone-y buzz, loping and looping, fuzzed out and hypnotic, very Burzumy for sure, the vocals a strangled demony growl, the drums a chaotic black blast, the whole thing swirled into a relentlessly mesmerizing, pounding black buzz that wraps it's spiky tendrils around you and pulls you into the bleak and black emptiness below.�� LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 20 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.

MPEG stream: Into The Mouth Of The Earth
MPEG stream: The Watcher

Being on a split record with another band can be rough. If the other band sucks, your band gets dragged right down with them. If the other band is great, they can make the listener completely forget that your half of the split even exists. So imagine being a black metal band, a pretty darn good black metal band, and doing a split with the current king of USBM Leviathan. You can't pass it up. It's fucking Leviathan man! But talk about pressure. But heck, it's gotta say something that Sapthuran shared a split with Leviathan a while back, and not only did we not ignore them, but we actually dug their half of the split quite a bit. So much so that when we learned they had a new full length, we got a bunch for the store. Not nearly as weird as Leviathan, Sapthuran traffic in a more sort of trance like Burzumy buzz, single riffs are repeated and looped into a mesmerizing black metal hypnorock. Vocals howl and shriek, drums pound and blast, but it's all about the riffs, dense and fuzzy, a thick blanket of buzz laid over everything. Almost like a black metal Circle or Gore. Not a whole lot of parts, in fact, often just one or two, but the riffs are so good, and they are recorded so hot and blown out. It's like dipping your head in a furnace of black flames. Probably the weirdest thing about Sapthuran is all the acoustic guitars. It seems like almost half the record is not metal at all, instead a sort of lilting dark folk, fingerpicked minor key melodies, simple strumming, often placed in dark soundscapes of ambient drone, or distant black buzz, or crackling campfires, or the sound of howling wind, or burbling streams and chirping birds. Pastoral and tranquil, but still dark and ominous, the perfect sonic counterpoint to the hypnotic buzzing blackness surrounding that fragile serenity on all sides and perpetually threatening to swallow it whole.

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MPEG stream: Four
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[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]