[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 2701 through 2750 of 4057.

Another awesome Mississippi Records reissue, this one from Bahaman guitarist Joseph Spence, who has one of the most unique guitar and vocal styles EVER. This came out originally on Arhoolie way back when, but this vinyl reissue is super swank, one of those old school paste on type jackets, with the textured faux leather sleeve, with the artwork affixed over the top. But none of that would matter if the music wasn't amazing, and it IS. Spence's guitar playing is playful and lyrical, tangled and lush, melodies unfurled in little flurries, a weird and wonderful combination of strumming and picking and slapping and scraping and plucking, so so strange, but so magical, and when combined with his vocals... WOW. We're not sure he's even singing actual words. It's all mumbled and growly and grunted and howled and mush mouthed, every now and again, an actual word or two will pop up, but besides that, it's more like scatting, and he has a cool deep growl that sounds quite a bit like Captain Beefheart or a pirate, or some weird mix of the two. Such a fun and fantastic record. Way recommended.

2nd time reissued on CD, this was the amazing Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence's second album. Originally recorded in 1964, where this album excels over the first (recorded for Smithsonian Folkways in 1958) is that the producers had the prescience to load up with some great field recording gear. Important given that the dynamic range that Mr. Spence can coax out of his guitar is astounding. Though his repertoire consists almost entirely of traditional hymns and folk tunes that most all of us are familiar with, his renditions are hardly recognizable. Spence has a maniacally insane picking / plucking / slapping guitar style that would make Jaco Pastorius and Pete Seeger bow their heads in awe. To boot, Spence's singing, err... mumbling style is too lovable to resist. It's almost like hearing Captain Beefheart with his mouth wired shut. A cult classic!

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More way fun & catchy garage pop from right here in San Francisco. Spencey Dude & The Doodles share a similar scrappy & carefree demeanor as folks like Nodzz, Hunx & His Punx, Younger Lovers, Nobunny, etc. Fun fun fun...

Sun soaked tropical dreamy '70s psych-pop from a Latin American musical legend. Pippo Spero grew up in Uruguay where he studied classical guitar at the National Conservatory of Uruguay. As the military dictatorship of Uruguay grew more excessive, that school was shut down and life for artists and musicians became impossible. Spero didn't let that take him away from his love and gift for making such beautiful sounds and he started concentrating on songwriting, and crafted A Buen Puerto, a gorgeous album of breezy, warm and lilting perfection. Brimming with songs that make you melt and take you out of the rigid and cold structure of everyday life. It's so interesting to see how so many folks under the harshest political climate were able to make such beautiful music. Not turning to anger, but instead showing that no matter what, no one could take away their ability to create beauty and experience love. Yet there is still a bittersweet sadness and melancholy that floats through all of A Buen Puerto. There is also a kinship in spirit and sound with Caetano Veloso, which we hear all over this gorgeous album. In fact, after completing this album in 1976, Spero fled from Uruguay and moved to Brazil where he formed close relationships with many like minded musicians and songwriters there like Geraldo Azevedo, Alceu Valenca, and Milton Nascimento. Fans of any of the aforementioned artists, and folks like Lo Borges, Congregacion, and Eduardo Mateo will find a new favorite record in A Buen Puerto.

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As if we needed any more proof that Finland is and was a weird and wonderful place, producing some of the most far out sounds we've ever heard. It's no secret we have a thing for Finnish music, but c'mon, every record we hear, like this one for example, a reissue of one recorded in 1970(!!!) just proves over and over that Finland were always way ahead of the underground rock curve. Or behind it. Either way, the Finns have been blowing minds for 40 years now. (Remember that Psychedelic Phinland comp? There was a Sperm track on that...) Sperm was the project of a fella named Pekka Airakinsen, and consisted of him creating gorgeously abstract and haunting dronescapes and twentieth century style classical sprawls, constructed from looped guitars, feedback, primitive samples, and various found sounds and invented techniques, the results are fantastic. Dark shimmering fields of suspended tones, of tripped out psychedelic delay, of deep undulating low tones, thick, buzzing rumbles, jazzy horns, chaotic squalls of skronk and skree, No Neck style rhythmic workouts, tons of space, very dark and moody and mysterious. Minus the first half of side two, which features lots of horns and fractured jazz-isms (titled coincidentally "Jazz Jazz"), the rest of the record plays out like something that could have come out on a cd-r this year, seriously genius free noise abstract dronescaping that pretty much puts the current crop of noisemakers to SHAME. An exact reproduction of the original, with thick paste on, silkscreened sleeves, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Unfortunately already out of print. We only have 5 or 6, most likely the last copies we'll see.

Yet another new-to-us sonic mystery from local tape label Black Horizons, this from the oddly monikered Spettro Family, who we know next to nothing about, but whose sound is definitely hitting the spot, a hauntingly ritualistic soundtrack like ambience, that brings to mind classic eighties thrillers, the Carpenter influence is huge, minimal drum machine, swirling analog synths, ominous ambience, clattery tribal percussion, disembodied melodies, swirling primitive FX, plodding and sinister, Goblin is obviously another huge influence, it's nearly impossible to not imagine some grainy VHS trailer while listening to this stuff. Cheesy horns that surface here and there only add to the retro sonic veracity. Chillingly perfect melodies pop up again and again, the sort of musical mantras that get lodged in your head and seem like they MUST have come from some classic horror movie. Way recommended for fans of Umberto, Zombi and all the rest� Gorgeously packaged, red tapes, gold labels, black on black J-card, all housed in a red case. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

After listening to this disc, all we can say is Marissa Nadler and Joanna Newsom better watch their backs. If there is any justice in the world, the throngs of bearded and bead encrusted modern free folk freaks and forest maidens that make up the new weird underground will bow down before Jane Herships, the woman who is Spider. A softly strummed dreamy acoustic world of drifting shimmering loveliness. If Devendra Banhart is homecoming king at this year's forestfolk ball, well then Spider would absolutely have to be everyone's choice for queen. The Way To Bitter Lake is a blissful blend of Iron & Wine, Vashti Bunyan, Will Oldham, Cat Power, Edith Frost. Hushed vocals over lilting old timey folk, gorgeous and timeless melodies, spare arrangements, but so deftly arranged as to be more powerful than almost any of her contemporaries. There is definitely a serious Iron & Wine vibe going on, Herships sounds like Sam Beam's long lost twin sister. Even her turns of phrase and choice of melodies. The mind boggles at the possibility of those two making a record together. If either of them are reading this, for god's sake let's make it happen!! Regardless, this is an absolute gem. Pastoral, and haunting, soft and shimmery, suffused with warm summer sunlight, a rambling record if there ever was one. Cool afternoon, bare feet, tall grass, clouds drifting lazily by, soft breezes, the smell of earth and leaves, wandering through a fuzzy folk dream. Absolutely gorgeous.

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We've only got a couple of these; so we won't take too long in expounding upon the virtues of the Seattle heavy free-jazz ensemble The Spider Trio. Two of the members of the trio (Jeffrey Taylor and Dave Abramson) are current members of the ever entertaining / ever perplexing / ever compelling Climax Goldwn Twins, with the final member being saxophonist / painter Wally Shoup. Taylor quips that he may be the sole practitioner of a thing called "avant-garde free hillbilly guitar playing;" and yeah, his pseudo-Appalachian boogie deftly counterpoints Shoup's bleat and skronk while Abramson propels the ensemble with oblique fills and angular explosions of dynamic rhythm. Limited to 50 copies, each graced with a hand painted water color by Mr. Shoup.

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Every few years, we get a few offerings from Jeffrey Taylor's vangarde contortionism of freeform guitar wizardry outside of the esoteric contortionism of the Climax Golden Twins. And here, we have his dynamic The Spider Trio, which finds Taylor working alongside notable Seattle free jazz / improv saxophonist Wally Shoup and journeyman percussionist Dave Abramson, who has played with Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Grails, and the aforementioned CGT. These sessions typically highlight Shoup's blurting tumble, bright trills, and moments of volatile, almost-Brotzmann like muscularity on the sax, but the interplay with Taylor's avant-hillbilly / swaggering-boogie riffs make for the best moments on this live recording from the Woodland Theater, a suitably disheveled Seattle venue. It comes together with a Actuel / ESP vibe that would have made Volcanic Tongue quake, if they were still around to quake. Pro-duplicated cd-r in an edition of 100 copies for what that's worth.

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The Yellow Swans return from tour, which means a massive coming home party in the form of a new release orgy from their Jyrk label. Five new releases, definitely making up for lost time. Spider Webs is the duo of Tom Carter (from Charalambides and Sandy Ewen (from Weird Weeds), both on guitar, annd both coaxing an impossible array of sounds from their axes. Partial melodies dissolve into feedback, sheets of twisted guitar squeal, morph into delicate sonic filligree, all manner of croaks and shimmer and shrieks and groans, twist and turn, drift and reverberate. Very psychedelic, very abstract, and suprisingly abrasive and even heavy at points. Imagine the Japanese psychrock of Haino / Fushitsuhsa / White Heaven / etc. but with the bones pulled out leaving just a twitching psychedelic free for all. And although there are brief blinding bursts of psychedelic freakout, the majority of Away Away is more a wandering wondering dual guitar exploration of inner and outer space. Hand screened cardboard sleeve, photcopied insert. Limited to 200 copies!

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Another kick ass single from these Swedish hard rockers, this time on Kemado. Featuring members of both Witchcraft and Graveyard, Spiders kick up a serious sonic shitstorm, a super hooky heavy mix of classic rock, Southern rock and hard rock, the sound falling somewhere between the Hellacopters, Skynrd and Graveyard, but it's the vocals that really make Spiders stand out, even amongst the recent crop of female fronted hard rocking combos like Loon, Royal Thunder, Jex Thoth and all the rest. The riffs are big, the guitars are heavy, grooves galore, hooks too, the A side is a total Southern rock throwback, but cranked up for modern more hard rocking tastes, there's even a bad ass double time psychedelic wah guitar freakout near the end. The B side is a bit more classic rock, with super dynamic stop/start riffage, and the vocals, already powerful, get super intense, pushed to the limit, all rough and raspy and threatening to crack at times. Just like the other 7" on Valley King (which we still have if you still need one), we can't stop listening to these jams over and over. And now more than ever, we're dying for a full length. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered.

From the same label that brought us the recent Carlton Melton Handling Snakes 7", comes this, one of two new 7"s from Spiders (the other is on Kemado), a new group featuring members of Graveyard and Witchcraft, and whose sound is a witchy hybrid of the two, but taking that sound in a distinctly garagey, more classic rock direction. Fans of the recent crop of female fronted heavy combos, Loon, Royal Thunder, Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, Christian Mistress, Blood Ceremony and the like, should definitely check out Spiders. Definitely less metal than most of those, but no less heavy, Spiders whip up some seriously old school witchy hard rock, lots of extra percussion on the A side, along with crunchy guitars, and some awesome kick ass vocals, the vibe is HUGELY seventies, a little classic rock, a little Southern rock, the song shifts gears about halfway through, trading the slither and swagger for some double time rocking replete with lots of dynamic breakdowns and some seriously kick ass guitar leads. The flipside is even less metallic, but cranks up the seventies Southern Rock vibe big time, a garagey groove, the riffs dangerously Skynryd (not a bad thing), a distinctly Jefferson Airplane feel too, but the song super rocking, super heavy, and those vocals, and the main hook just sealing the deal. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Each cover beautifully silkscreened, hand numbered, and signed by the cover artist, includes a sticker as well.

Spiderwebs is Tom Carter (of Charalambides) and Sandy Ewen (of Weird Weeds) both on guitar, and kicking up a druggy psychedelic skree, maybe the heaviest freakout on either of these guitar slingers' resumes up to this point. Huge staticky squalls of grumbly guitar, wrapped in gauzy sheets of feedback. Like someone grated up a huge chunk of vintage Hawkwind and a weighty slab of classic Sunroof! and then sprinkled it liberally all over New Weird America. Equal parts noisy and lovely. A blissed out blown out psych guitar drone duel to the death. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES AND ALREADY OUT OF PRINT, SO THESE ARE THE LAST 15 OR SO COPIES EVER!!!

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A gorgeous slab of blissfolk improv from these free folk underground dreamweavers. Three separate tracks from 3 likeminded ensembles. First up, Spiderwebs (Tom Carter (of Charalambides) and Sandy Ewen (of Weird Weeds)), offer up a glistening ambience, spacious and hushed with chiming harmonics and slowly unfurling melodies, soft and shimmery, spaced out slow drifting soundscapes of keening guitar swells and crystalline abstraction, haunting drones floating and fluttering, melodies whirling like tiny dustdevils, so lovely. Next up is Mike Tambouro And Matthew McDowell who spin a dense web of strange electronic sound and warm whirring guitar, swells and swirls of moaning bells soft slow drones, a deep pool of sonic shimmer beneath lonely back porch strum and twang. A drone drenched, mysterious Appalachia. Finally, Keenan Lawler lets lengthy buzzing guitar lines sprawl loosely across super spare soundfield, each note, each chord, sliding and bombinating, raga like buzz and loping abstract country twang, loose and skeletal, haunting and otherworldly. Another amazing installment in the Music Fellowship's Triptych series!

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Perhaps the most historically relevant in the series, Laurie Speigel's piece for the Lanthanides 12" series was commissioned in 1975 by Carl Sagan to be included on the golden disc included on the Voyager II spacecraft (which is now beyond the orbit of Pluto moving into deeper space). Harmonices Mundi is Spiegel's relalization of the "harmony of the spheres", a celestial harmony of the planets' relationships envisioned by the ancient Greeks, and updated in 1619 by Johannes Kepler after discovering the true paths of the planets around the sun were in fact elliptical. The technology to convert these relationships into sound, however, would not exist until the computer bcame a viable instrument for making sound and music. Spiegel's instrumental interpretation is grand and sweeping. A repetitive and hypnotic cycle of siren like tones, sweeping majestically across a static sonic palette, overlapping and moving outward, seemingly to the ends of the universe, like ripples in a galaxy-wide pond. Fans of modern high end drone/skree (Sunroof!, Birchville Cat Motel, etc.) will glimpse will recognise this as a definite sonic precursor. On clear gold vinyl (like that legendary golden disc), with Voyager II's galaxial trajectory and Spiegel's Harmonices Mundi score silkscreened in black ink.

A wonderful collection of works composed between 1970 and 1983 from this obscure, criminally overlooked American composer and electronic music pioneer. Instrumentation involves analog electronics (both manual and computer-controlled), electronic tape,

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It seems in the past couple of years, electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel has gone from an obscure cult-figure to a championed celebrity right before our eyes. Thanks in part to a key sound design role in this past summer's blockbuster movie, The Hunger Games, but also to this incredible, and indeed expanded reissue of her 1980 debut release, The Expanding Universe, complete with an extra disc of bonus material from the period and extensive liner notes by Spiegel herself. Following key archival releases from fellow female electronic innovators Daphne Oram, Maggie Payne and Suzanne Ciani, we're finally seeing Spiegel getting her due for her stellar accomplishments as both captivating composer and inventor. While The Expanding Universe was released in 1980, it was made up of musical experiments Spiegel made throughout the seventies in her off time as a research scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratories where she developed unique modes of combining interactive and algorithmic computer logic to the compositional process. Originally released on folk label, Philo, Spiegel's organic compositions had more in common with folk music than one would initially suspect. A trained banjo, lute and mandolin player, Spiegel's first released recording, "Appalachian Grove I" was included on the groundbreaking compilation of female electronic composers, New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media, where she applied the idea of an open tuned string instrument to her electronically created composition. The entire Appalachian Grove suite is included here and is an unlikely mix of John Fahey and Philip Glass, where banjo-like tonal arpeggiations become a rhythmically organic and pulsating layered stream of undulating sounds. With each piece Spiegel seems to strive to explore the boundaries of the compositional process with a determined zen like focus on how sounds interact and overlap. But this is not an academically minded process of willful bleeps and bloops. This is instead a carefully realized beautifully layered intuitive sonic constructions that rewards deeply concentrated listening. Easily some of the best and most effective second generation electronic music we've ever heard, which gives this reissue our highest recommendation!

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SORRY. Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. Thes babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!! Bill Wood of the godlike 1/3 Octave Band teams up with his pal Ben Spiers for five massive tracks of floating free-form drone. Rumbling murmurs, fuzzy expanses of pink noise, delicate melodies stretched a mile wide, single notes dropped into the tranquil whir like tossing pebbles into a pond, creaking neo-classical minimalism, dabbed with reverb heavy skronks, like Albert Ayler playing at the bottom of a well filled with Sunroof! records. So good. For fans of Sunroof!, Basinski, Coleclough and the like.

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Shame on anyone who somehow managed to miss the acoustic Harvey Milk instore, with HM frontman Creston Spiers tackling stripped down Milk tracks, Leonard Cohen covers, heck, he even covered "Three Is A Magic Number" from Schoolhouse Rock. Well this one is for those of you who blew it, or for those of you who didn't but still need more. A super limited yellow vinyl 7", the second and supposedly last pressing, 300 copies, already sold out, we have about 30, of Creston Spiers from Harvey Milk performing acoustic, two originals, both awesome. And both sounding like could-have-been Harvey Milk tracks, or obscure Leonard Cohen covers, anyone at the instore knows exactly what we mean, his voice and way with melody is so distinctive, and owes quite a bit to Mr. Cohen. On these two tracks, Spiers' vocals are rough and ragged but still melodic, accompanied by stripped down steel string guitar, spare and melancholy, with slightly off kilter arrangements, the tone mournful and melancholy. Barring a recording of "Three Is A Magic Number" you couldn't hope for more. Pressed on thick clear yellow vinyl, housed in a clear plastic PVC sleeve, limited to 300 copies, out of print, this is most likely your last chance...

Siltbreeze continue to dig deep into the New Zealand underground, and it doesn't get more underground than this, a band who never released ANYthing, as in if you weren't in Wellington, in the late seventies, or knew someone who was, you literally never heard or heard of The Spies. Which is a shame, as The Battle Of Bosworth Terrace is a NZ pop gem, one that is seeing the light of day now for the first time ever! Featuring a few NZ luminaries, members of the Puddle, and the recently reviewed here Shoes This High, The Spies deliver a sort of noisy, jangly, lo-fi pop that wrapped jagged shards of guitar, around loose drumming, buzzing primitive synths, and alternating sweetly crooned high vox, and more swaggery, yowled gruff vocals, the guitars occasionally erupting into psychedelic tangles, but just as often unfurling spidery melodies, or groovy post punk jangle. The brief opener is a gorgeous little lo-fi pop gem, all busy blooping bass, carnivalesque keyboards, and judiciously employed almost Marc Ribot like guitar melodies, all beneath some angelic ethereal vocals. The second track though is more gritty, mush mouthed sung/spoken vocals over a bed of crunchy, brittle guitar, and swirling psychedelic keyboards, the rest of the record balancing a mix of the two, some like laid back Velvets inspired druggy drifts, others like warped reinterpretations of some alien classic rock sound, and still others, seriously tripped out and experimental, reverb drenched stretches of bedroom dub via NZ noise rock, sprawls of bleating horns over gristly buzz and woozy, minor key jangle, or twisted loner, folk pop, all 4-track warble and druggy Jandekian croon. For every bit of brilliant classic pop inspired tunesmithery, there's some seriously drug addled, WTF avant pop deconstruction or druggy home brewed psychedelia. The most minimal tracks here reminds us a bit of the legendary Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, while much of the rest of this sonically aligns the Spies with the rest of the Flying Nun / Xpressway regulars. NZ nerds are in for a treat! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Includes a download card.

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Special "under the influence" issue. No, they didn't get all their writers drunk. Instead, the idea is, "a bunch of stars grill their idols", hence, Britt Daniel talks to Ray Davies, Charlotte Gainsbourg talks to Kim Gordon, Ted Leo talks to Paul Weller, Billy Joe Armstrong talks to Paul Westerberg, Gerard Way talks to Iggy Pop... plus there's the usual other stuff you'd expect to find in an issue of Spin.

Maybe you don't always buy Spin magazine, and we're not sure if The Strokes on the cover are gonna convince you to pick this issue up - but maybe the "Oral History Of Mr. Show" feature will!! With Jack Black, David Cross, and Sarah Silverman. Also this ish, back to music, there's The Kills, Foo Fighters, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, and more!

Eminem on the cover, inside everything from M.I.A. to The Sword, Die Antwoord to Wavves, and more including "The Secret History Of Devo".

Latest issue, with Radiohead on the cover, yawn, but the cover STORY is actually pretty funny, all your favorite rock myths, true or false? Hair metal was killed By Nirvana? Rod Stewart had a gallon of semen pumped from his stomach? No one will miss the cd? Frank Zappa eats poop? Alice Cooper bit the head off a chicken and drank its blood? Keith Richards has a complete blood transfusion? And on and on... Plus, Tegan And Sara, a rad feature on metal in Savannah: Baroness, Kylesa, Unpersons, Blacktusk, etc., Band Of Skulls, Vampire Weekend, and of course the usual columns and reviews...

Their "Best Of 2010" issue, including their picks for the 40 best albums of the year... so if you're gonna buy just one issue of Spin this year, make it this one. There's multiple covers, featuring their three "Artists Of The Year": LCD Soundsystem, Black Keys, and Florence and the Machine. Also this ish: Gorillaz, Nicki Minaj, viral videos, Patton Oswalt and Amanda Palmer, and plenty more...

Oooh, Emo Andee's probably gonna be excited, Hayley Williams of Paramore is on the cover. Throwin' down! Inside, "The Tragic Life Of A Cult Hero": Vic Chesnutt. Sad. Also: Crystal Castles, Ozzy Osbourne ("Nazis, Guns, And Puppies"!), Big Boi, The Gaslight Anthem, and more.

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SORRY. On the cover: Stone Temple Pilots. Inside, Summer music festival guide, Band Of Horses, Kid Cudi, Against Me!, Vampire Weekend, The Dead Weather, and the return of Soundgarden! Also M.I.A., MGMT and the Hold Steady, and of course all sorts of other stuff, reviews, etc...

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

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Gotta say, the redesigned, oversized, matte-paper Spin is lookin' good. This ish features Lana Del Rey, M83, the Shins, Best Coast, Frank Ocean, Sleigh Bells, Korean pop, and plenty more.

25th anniversary issue, featuring "the 100 moments that rocked our world", kinda cool actually, from "#18: Surfer Rosa invents the '90s sound" to "#54: Paw and the year Scrunge broke" to "#83: the White Stripe's sister act is exposed"... brings you back, doesn't it? And all along the top of each page, in tiny type, are catch-phrases and subgenres of music, like C86 and twee and black metal, with suggested listening... A nice crash course in alt.culture over the last quarter century (!), informative for the young 'uns and nostalgic memory-stirrers for the older folk...

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On the cover, Merge records darlings Arcade Fire. Inside: Nick Cave, Kid Cudi, Lissie, Brandon Flowers, Jamey Johnson, and Oneohtrix Point Never even gets hotlisted! Plus tons of reviews, photos and a link to get 18 free songs from folks like Dungen, Abe Vigoda, Marnie Stern, Bad Religion, The Corin Tucker Band, No Age, etc.

On the cover, Soundgarden! Inside: Of Montreal, Interpol, Superchunk, Jenny Lewis, Phil Collins (!), Local Natives, Taylor Momsen, The Black Keys, Sleigh Bells, High Places plus loads of reviews and all sorts of other musical ephemera...

One of our favorite Heavy Metal bands from the '70s and '80s, the underrated British outfit Spinal Tap, were surprisingly enough the subject of a documentary film, or 'rockumentary' if you will, back in 1984, entitled This Is Spinal Tap, when their career was, let us say, not at its zenith. If you can find a VHS copy, and a VHS player, it's worth checking out. Kind of like the more recent Anvil: The Story Of Anvil documentary you may have seen. A little while ago, we discovered that the soundtrack to that Spinal Tap documentary had been reissued on vinyl, and ever since, it's been a steady seller in the shop - perhaps there's more Spinal Tap fans out there than we supposed. Also, the soundtrack, which serves as a 'best of' the band, is the ONLY way you can get any of Spinal Tap's music these days, as their actual albums are inexplicably out of print and seemingly impossible to find - even on the internets. Thankfully, this soundtrack lp contains the most essential of their greatest 'hits', as well as a smattering of rarities going back to the late sixties when they were more of a twee flower power psych rock band than the metal juggernaut they later became. This album goes to 11 - that's how many tracks are on it. You get such Tap classics as "Big Bottom", "Tonight I'm Gonna To Rock You Tonight", "Heavy Duty"," Sex Farm", and "Hell Hole", that originally appeared on, respectively, the albums Brainhammer (1970), Intravenus De Milo (1974), Bent For The Rent (1976), Shark Sandwich (1980), and Smell The Glove (1982). But then, for the deep cuts, this collection delves way back to 1967 to dig up the title track of the band's debut single, "(Listen To The) Flower People". And there's also a great garagey freakbeat nugget, "Gimme Some Money", too. Oh, and who can forget Spinal Tap's almost parodic prog rock epic "Stonehenge"? Yeah, for some strange reason, this band is often considered a joke. Ok, so some of their lyrics aren't exactly Shakespeare, and can even be construed as sexist (not to be confused with sexy!). And musically too, Spinal Tap sometimes stumbles across the fine line between clever and stupid. But we maintain that they're in fact good songwriters. These tracks, with all their heavier than thou bluster or portentous proggy synthiness, are also full of catchy hooks that will stick in your ear, big riffs and majestic melodies. They deserve recognition alongside some better known bands of their era, like Zeppelin and Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult and KISS� indeed, you can almost hear their influence on those acts and others. Or perhaps it was the other way around. Seriously - this not only is this one of our favorite soundtracks, to one of our favorite movies (and one of the funniest movies), of all time, but it really IS also one of our favorite heavy metal albums, of all time, too!! First time on vinyl since 1984, comes in deluxe gatefold package in black on black cover (echoing the "none more black" graphic design of Smell The Glove), with original liner notes from the authoritative Rocklopedia Brittanicus. (By the way, it's also still available on cd too, with their "Christmas With The Devil" single as a bonus.)

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The This Is Spinal Tap soundtrack album now reissued and remastered, with 2 versions of "Christmas With The Devil" added as bonus tracks! An all-time classic, we don't have to tell you that. "Tonight I'm Going To Rock You Tonight", "Big Bottom", "Sex Farm" and all the rest never sounded better!

Now that Scott has left, Rebecca seeks out assistance from others including John McEntire of Tortoise. So it's not the stripped down sound that won her kudos with Manos here, but her grasp of incorporating a wider range of instruments that makes this album more musically successful than Strand.

A tolerably well mixed 74 minutes of hip hop, soul, electronica, etc from the likes of Nightmares on Wax, Tek9, Terranova, Les Nubians, Runaways UK, 4Hero, etc. As with most of Spinna's releases, there's a second disc of the unmixed original tracks by

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

SORRY. A three cd collection of classic old soul, disco and r'n'b gems. The first disc is a continuous mix by DJ Spinna, whose skills aren't all there but somehow his clunkiness adds a charm to the whole thing. The two remaining discs are the originals of each of the records he used in his set, and this is such a treasure trove of good music, 27 tracks in all, well worth the price. With Minnie Riperton, Bohannon, Marvin Gaye, Donald Byrd, Sugarhill Gang, Foxy, Johnny Bristol, Roy Ayers, and many more.

RealAudio clip: Reasons
RealAudio clip: Hunk of Heaven

We missed out completely on the Ananta cd-r that Spiracle first released through the Mystery Sea label a few years back. It was limited to 100 copies and quickly disappeared, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Helen Scarsdale in her sage wisdom has just reissued that static drone opus with a second disc that reworks the original material while keeping the same intent. Hitoshi Kojo is man behind Spiracle, having wandered from his native Japan to Central Europe where he's been collaborating with the likes of Michael Northam, Maurizio Bianchi, John Grzinich, and Murmer. Much of his work deals with acoustic drone construction, with some of his records taking up the mantle of beautiful tactile noises like those generated by Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk. Ananta, now presented as a double disc, is an album with a purpose; or at least it has a purpose for Kojo as he's one who has trouble falling asleep. So he composed this album as a narcotizing agent to lull him into a deep sleep. But this is also a man who is a night owl, so the time when he's usually falling asleep is when the sun is just beginning to rise. So for this composition, Kojo tuned his drones to match the ruby reds and golden yellows of daybreak. The Mystery Sea Version of Ananta is a linear construct of softened static with wisps of sustained tones spiralling in and out of the mix. The composition shimmers along this focused path with few variations, reflecting a rigor of process much like the champions of minimalism (e.g. Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada) but with a delicate approach found in the likes of Stars Of The Lid. The Strato Version found on the other disc smoothes out the static into a rich undulating surface of warm golden tones, that could easily be an ambient lullaby to accompany a daydream whilst napping at the beach. So, so beautiful! The Helen Scarsdale reissue does increase the distribution of this disc, although not by much... there's only 300 of these beauties kicking around!

MPEG stream: Strato Version
MPEG stream: Mystery Sea Version

DR-100. The last 7" to be produced by Drone Records, and it's fitting that the Japanese drone-maestro Hitoshi Kojo (aka Spiracle) got the nod to author the finale to this very impressive series of singles. The gauzy, shimmering sounds that trickle off the clear vinyl were sourced from glass harps, resonant trumpets, sheet metal, and electronics that generate beautifully complex drones that interweave amongst themselves into dense, amorphous masses of sound. While Kojo has more recently been recording in the freaked-out / drone-out psychedelic outfit Juppala Kaapio, the Spiracle output tends to land on the post-industrial drone smears of early Andrew Chalk and Organum. Here, he's definitely at the top of his game. We've got ONLY THREE COPIES!

Spiracle's 20 minute composition Iris was actually released well over a year ago, but Clouds Of Static has been dormant ever since Mnortham abdicated his position as the artistic director for the label. It's a real shame, as there were some real gems which might have come out on the label, with recordings by Murmer and John Duncan and talks of reissuing the brilliant first cd-r from Of (aka Loren Chasse). Yet, none of that will probably come to pass; and it was quite possible that the remaining stock of what was released through Clouds Of Static may have languished in some Swiss castle (quite literally) for years. Fortunately, we were able to uncover a few copies of Iris by Spiracle (aka Hitoshi Kojo, whose collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi is reviewed elsewhere on this list). Taking cues from David Jackman's arsenal of growling harmonics from bowed metals, Ellen Fullman's long-stringed instruments, and Akio Suzuki's impeccable ear for tactile events, Hitoshi offers a dynamic drone composition of compacted layers of acoustic sound with slowly scraped strings amassing into a sustained drone made porous by tumbling fistfuls of sand poured out upon the floor and a weirdly compelling flanging bellow. We only got a dozen or so of these in; and we don't plan on storming any Swiss castle anytime soon, so these few copies are probably all that we'll be able to get!

MPEG stream: Iris

Very few bands benefit from a list of their instrumentation, but a group like the Spiral Joy Band, that list has much to say about the sounds to be found within: fiddles, gongs, bowls, harmonium, srutis, spiral cymbal, crash cymbal, crank whistle, flute, bells, banjosticks. Even more telling are these words from the liner notes: "no overdubs, no amplification, no effect". Spiral Joy Band are drone explorers, purists who spend their time rubbing and bowing and striking various objects to conjure up elements they can weave into their hauntingly mysterious organic drone music. While we're typically partial to the low end of the sonic spectrum, upper register tones have a magic all their own, and create an entirely different world of sound. Henry Flynt is definitely a good reference point for the Spiral Joy Band, notice that fiddles (plural!) were the first instrument listed, and the root of these sounds is definitely slow bowed fiddles, the sound is keening and moaning. and when all the fiddles get going together, it's like an acoustic version of Sunroof!, total glorious high end ur-drone nirvana. There's an element of twang to the sound, the sawed strings, it's unavoidable, the cymbals add another layer of shimmer, at it's most transcendent, it's like staring at the sun, glimmering, glistening, sparkling effulgence, the various overtones taking on a life of their own, at its most subtle, it's like some late afternoon country hoedown, but all slowed down, and all high end. So nice. This one is definitely not for drone dabblers, this one is for the true drone elite, looking to escape the sonic confines of this terrestrial world, to find musical salvation in the astral plane.

MPEG stream: Flowers In The Dooryard
MPEG stream: Little Sparrow

By now, avid AQ list readers should know just how much we love the drone, and how much we love dark swirling stretched out ambient music. And just how much of our favorite drone music comes from the always impeccable VHF record label: Sunroof!, Total, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flying Saucer Attack, Pelt and many more. And now you can add Spiral Joy Band to the list. A long running Pelt offshoot, this is the first official release from the SJB after having formed almost 5 years ago. The Spiral Joy Band focuses on just one element of Pelt's sound, bowed and struck metal, and makes that their sonic focal point, stretching the sound of reverberating metal into massive trance like drones. Singing bowls, gonga, sruti box, bells, flute, esraj, tanpuram, shenai, tongue drum, dumbek, shakers and electronics all contribute to the drone, or add subtle melodies and simple rhythms, each subtle layer and woven into a slow burning, dreamily hypnotic thrum. The final track adds some unlikely piano, that gives it a very laid back seventies hippy space psych prog vibe, with tinkling chimes, huge washes of gong and strange atonal melodies, all hovering above a distant rumbling Tony Conrad-like drone. Nice.

MPEG stream: Lullaby 1
MPEG stream: Lullaby 2

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]