[ 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 3251 through 3300 of 4057.

A brand new 7" single from beloved Bay Area chap Kelley Stoltz (yeah, we know he's originally from Michigan, but he's been here so long that we're claimin' him as our own!)! Side One is from his forthcoming full length which is scheduled for a February 2008 release. "Owl Service" on Side Two is exclusive to this record! Sounds like he's picking right up from where he left off on the retro pop/rock steeped Below The Branches (2005). Always a pleasure!

Besides having one of the best band names ever (inspired by A Confederacy Of Dunces, strangely enough), back in the '80s Sweden's Stomachmouths were their nation's undisputed masters of snotty sixties-style surf-psych garage, leading a revival that would last for most of that decade and predated the current Swedish garage mania (Hives et. al.) by almost twenty years! This compilation encompasses the Stomachmouths' short sharp burst of creative, manic rock and roll that lasted a brief three and a half years. Raw and noisy, catchy and rocking, the Stomachmouths sound like the perfect mix of twangy, reverby Dick Dale riffs, the fuzzy and crunchy garage-y buzz of the Sonics, and the cranky, spazzy brattiness of the Electric Eeels or the Styrenes. Sounds like a pretty amazing collection and it is! This has been playing in the store non-stop since we got it in last week. Awesome, super detailed liner notes too!

MPEG stream: Don't Put Me Down
MPEG stream: Dr. Syn
MPEG stream: Eegah!

Soundtrack to a crazy 1974 Australian biker flick, a precursor to Mad Max apparently. Reissued on the occasion of this cult film's 25th anniversary, and we're sure glad of it ('cause we never would have heard it, or of it, otherwise, although the movie was quite popular in Australia), the "Stone" soundtrack ventures from spaced-out electronics n' didgeridoo jams to ridiculous sub-Steppenwolf psych rock to eerie synth themes, with plenty of snippets of campy dialogue and sound effects from the film as well. Add to that banjo pickin', mournful horns, lounge jazz, acid-rock backed saxophone freakouts, and more. It's not musical genius, but it's certainly a weird and fun mishmash of trippy stuff. Some evocative track titles: "Cosmic Flash", "Undertaker", "The Death of Doctor Death", "Toad", "Rage". The booklet features stills, movie posters, press clippings, credits (it was composed, arranged and recorded by guitarist Billy Green), a fan essay, etc. Cool! By the way, this was released last year, but we just got hip to it recently.

RealAudio clip: Ecoblue/Toadstrip
RealAudio clip: Gravediggers
RealAudio clip: Pigs

Dark 70's British folk with mostly female vocals and verses like, "And pale, pale grew her rosy cheek, and pale and cold was she, she seemed to be as surely dead, as any corpse could be." Instrumentation includes dulcimer, recorder, flute, violin, and mandolin in addition to the usual three piece. For fans of Current 93.

Nice new reissue of this underground Britfolk fave. Long ago we had a version on the Kissing Spell label, so here's our succinct but quite positively intended write-up from back then: Dark 70's British folk with mostly female vocals and verses like, "And pale, pale grew her rosy cheek, and pale and cold was she, she seemed to be as surely dead, as any corpse could be." Instrumentation includes dulcimer, recorder, flute, violin, and mandolin in addition to the usual three piece. For fans of Current 93. We'd now go on to add, also for fans of the Midwinter demos disc we reviewed a few months ago, also issued by Prog Temple, since that was the band that later turned into Stone Angel. And of course, for anyone already into the likes of Shide & Acorn, Loudest Whisper, Caedemon, and other British folk-psych obscurities. A classic, no doubt about it.

MPEG stream: The Bells Of Dunwich
MPEG stream: Stone Angel
MPEG stream: Black Dog

Latest from this long running neo-folk outfit, a fantastic collection of traditional folk standards, performed with a reverence that displays Stone Breath's obvious sonic debt to groups like Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Comus as well as their modern descendants like Sol Invictus and Death In June. The sound is simple and spare, all acoustic, the instrumentation appropriately old timey: lute-guitar, dumbek, harp, bodhran, tamboura-lyre, ramyaj, etc. and multiple vocalists. Delicate steel string guitars drift dreamily beneath deep dramatic male vox and angelic female vocals, gorgeous harmonies, the sound stirring and timeless, a few tracks slip into almost bluegrass, drawing from classic Appalachia, but most have a sort of renaissance vibe to them, slipping easily from broody and balladic, to hushed and crystalline, soaring majestically, but then settling right back into something much more haunting and spiritual. Pressed on thick vinyl, and housed in heavy jackets, and yeah, you guessed it, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!!

Some years ago, we were all freaking out about a compilation called Chains And Black Exhaust, a killer mix consisting of obscure, '70s heavy funk music, all from ultra hard to find singles and such, none of which was even identified, though curious folks have since figured out the tracklist... One of those mystery tracks, "You Know", turns out to have been by this outfit, Ohio's Stone Coal White. It's from one of their two rare 45's, circa 1972, and a's and b's of which are compiled together on this archival release, along with "four previously unissued tracks, found in the basement of a now-condemned motorcycle gang hideout in Dayton, Ohio." Which is a good story we'll happily choose to believe! It sure SOUNDS like music from a black motorcycle gang's basement, super raw stoned blaxploitation grooves full of wah wah chicka chicka guitar, with almost dubby sounding lo-fi production, lots of distortion and psychedelic echoey effects. They do a couple badass covers, both Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and Curtis Mayfield's "Hell Below" (with their singer doing a spot-on Curtis impersonation on that one!), and their own jams have some of the early drugged-out Funkadelic feel. Yeah, good stuff! Fans of another C&BE alumnus, Black Merda, ought to love Stone Coal White. You can thank uber-digger Josh "DJ Shadow" Davis for doing the archeology on this one, and releasing it via his Cali-Tex imprint. Oh, and we can't resist mentioning something we noticed, if you look up Stone Coal White on YouTube, this is the top rated comment under one of the tracks that's been posted: "I've just made love to my wife with this playing. What a great artifact of black rock."

MPEG stream: You Know
MPEG stream: Stone Coal White
MPEG stream: Move Your Hand

Ahhh, the musty aroma of archaic heavy metal, like dried blood upon the brittle pages of Robert E. Howard pulp magazines... Sorry, halfway through the first sentence and we're already getting carried away, but it's hard not too when the metal's this epic! This is the vinyl pressing of the debut demo from Stone Dagger out of Massachusetts, who'll probably be most notable to perusers of this list for sharing literally every one of their members with big time aQ doom metal faves Magic Circle (who will soon be playing right down the street from us at the Elbo Room in San Francisco on October 25th, with Satan, Slough Feg and Space Vacation - aieee!!), but just a few seconds into the A-side, and it's clear they've traded in their Sabbathian Pagan Altarisms for a much hairier chested sound. Right off the bat "The Siege Of Jerusalem" slinks out of the gate with a windswept barbaric plod, a stone cold dead ringer for some lost Manowar track circa Into Glory Ride, Brendan Radigan's vocals an absolute perfect accompaniment to the torchlit din - rugged, timeless, world weary and wise, like a cross between Ian Gillan, Eric Adams, Mike Taylor from Quartz with maybe even a dirty hint of Blackie Lawless. And then two minutes in the song erupts into a driving NWOBHM stomper, all swirling guitar solos, fist pumping drums, and soaring vocals with just a hint of bittersweet lament, like early Iron Maiden soundtracking Conan The Barbarian. B-side "Black Clad Rider" keeps the high energy rock & roll heavy metal ride going, again sounding like equal parts early Manowar and '80s British metal as well as recalling Manilla Road & Cirith Ungol's hookier, more uptempo numbers. To say this demo is a promising start for this band feels like a pretty serious understatement. One of the most exciting pieces of true metal heroism we've heard in quite some time, and we absolutely can't wait to hear more!

MPEG stream: The Siege Of Jerusalem

Not '80s metal, not '70s metal, this is '60s metal. Or at least, heavy hippie psychedelic garage rock to be more precise. The Shadow Kingdom label, who seem to go for cult current metal bands and even more obscure reissues, reached pretty far back for this one, all the way back to the late sixties (the recordings collected here date from between '65-'70 as far as we can tell). Stone Garden were from the Pacific Northwest, predating the Seattle grunge scene by a couple decades... But if they'd been born later, we could almost imagine 'em on Sub Pop, playing shows with Mudhoney and, uh, Soundgarden, yeah. Pounding drums and bass, wild jamming organ, and plenty of throbbing distorted guitar, that's what you get from Stone Garden. No, it's not Black Sabbath (it never is) but this ought to appeal to heavy psych, proto-metal heads into Blue Cheer, Bubble Puppy, Sir Lord Baltimore, Iron Butterfly, Fraction, Negative Space and the like. For the era, and considering their age (in the pictures here, Stone Garden are really young looking, though shaggy-haired, teenage kids still in high school), this was on the HEAVY side of the blues rock spectrum most definitely. Not all of it, but enough of it. "Assembly Line", ferinstance, is an appropriately grim lament, laced with acid guitar soloing. They were into Cream and Hendrix, you can tell. Throughout these 15 tracks, production quality varies, some material was recorded in a real studio, others in a basement home studio, still others in a living room, or live on stage. So this collection has got a patchwork production vibe for sure, but that doesn't stop Stone Garden from rockin'. And when they did make it into a studio, they took advantage of it, you gotta love the freaky tape speed manipulation studio shenanigans that make "Grayworld Forest" an even weirder place to wander than the title suggests. Stone Garden's music has been reissued before, originally on a limited edition (long out of print) vinyl by Rockadelic in the '90s, and also on compact disc by Gear Fab, but this Shadow Kingdom cd edition is the best, with a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks and a nice booklet full of liner notes, vintage photos and, on the back, what we're guessing was the b&w flower power sleeve of their sole 7" release, circa 1969, with the boys looking really REALLY young on it. Which means you can flip the booklet around and have it as a the cd cover instead of the crappier looking "Stonehenge" cover inherited from the Rockadelic lp version, if you like.

MPEG stream: Oceans Inside Me (Ripcord Version)
MPEG stream: Assembly Line

Though it may not always seem like it, these are blessed times in which to live. That is, in regard to the cd reissue of various record collector "holy grails". Sooner or later, it seems like every highly coveted, whispered-about psych/folk/prog masterpiece gets a reissue - recently, for instance, records by Joakim Skogberg, Bobb Trimble, Moolah, and Cold Sun. Of course, these reissues often as not go right back out of print all too soon, but that's the way of the world. The point is, at least we get a chance at 'em. We mention this on the occasion of this cd reissue of the privately-pressed Stone Harbour LP from 1974, not to imply that it's of uniformly mindblowing, out of this world quality, no not quite, but still it's pretty good. And when it's bad, it's maybe even better, 'cause this basement hippie multi-instrumental duo from Youngstown, Ohio had the shambolic, stoned DIY thing down, this album achieving a primitive, fucked up brilliance despite (or because of) the hissy lo-fi homebrewed production and the musicians' lack of technical chops. Imagine Bobb Trimble jamming with George Brigman, perhaps after listening to records by Syd Barrett and Uriah Heep, and getting super wasted and emotional, that's what a bunch of this sorta sounds like... well we mention Uriah Heep 'cause they do, this album's typewritten thanks list specifically highlighting Heep's keyboardist Ken Hensley, definitely an inspiration for all the ornate spacey synth sounds zapping in and out of the songs here. We'll admit, though while the holy grail hype is mostly right, Emerges IS a bit hit or miss. Not every Stone Harbour song is a brilliant gem. But when they hit, they hit! You could happily buy this for the haunting likes of "Grains Of Sand" and "Summer Magic Is Gone", alone. But there's plenty more besides. With lots of lovely lalalas, acoustic strum, and lysergic electronic effects, this is a weird, magical mix of melancholic murk (drifting soundscapes like "Thanitos") and more grunged-out, garagey rock n' rolling (on the likes of "Rock & Roll Puzzle"). Heck, they fully boogie it up on "Still Like That Rock & Roll" (one of the aforementioned misses, but not without its charms). As usual, Lion provides a jam-packed cd booklet, with lyrics and pics and as much background info as they could dig up (Stone Harbour's Rick Ballas blessed this reissue, but declined to be interviewed for the liner notes). This disc also includes four additional bonus tracks, recorded in 1975, that fit in quite nicely with the album tracks, the highlight among 'em being "Witch To You", a song that sounds sooo much like a lo-fi, real-deal version of the doom-prog vibe AQ faves Witchcraft are conjuring today. Most likely, it's 'cause on that track, Stone Harbour were heavily influenced by both Black Sabbath and Roky Erickson, much like Witchcraft are too, albeit from the further remove of a couple extra decades. What more to say? Psych fans, we've done our duty, please check out the long lost Stone Harbour and be amazed.

MPEG stream: Rock & Roll Puzzle
MPEG stream: Summer Magic Is Gone
MPEG stream: Witch To You

Forget Blur, Pulp and Oasis, The Stone Roses were the best britpop group ever! Well, maybe if we lived in a just world. Ultimately, their career fizzled early on, but their debut record and the array of singles they released around it still tower mightily to this day. Light in The Attic subsidiary, Modern Classics, just reissued both their superb 1989 self-titled debut and, for the first time on double vinyl, the singles collection Turned To Stone, originally released in 1992. Indebted to sixties British mod forms but evolving them into dreamy psych-pop bangers, The Stone Roses' sound seemed to float around burgeoning "Madchester", britpop and shoe-gaze tropes just as those genres were being coined and defined. Yet they didn't quite fit neatly into a single scene. They had jangle guitar pop hooks, coolly detached vocals, psychedelic club-ready grooves, and a sublime intuitive sense toward a kaleidoscopic sonic production (the backwards tracking on "Don't Stop" for example) that was druggy and at times beautifully ethereal and arresting. We recommend both wholeheartedly, the self-titled is no-brainer essential listening, but if you are looking for deep cuts definitely get the singles collection, which has the epic "Fool's Gold", a guaranteed dancefloor filler. The singles were where they really got to stretch out and experiment and collected together offers a deeper picture into their brilliantly ambitious brains, before it all vanished away. For a limited time, we have the 'stone' colored vinyl of both!

MPEG stream: Elephant Stone
MPEG stream: Standing Here
MPEG stream: Simone
MPEG stream: Fools Gold

MPEG stream: I Wanna Be Adored
MPEG stream: She Bangs The Drums
MPEG stream: Bye Bye Bad Man
MPEG stream: Made Of Stone

Here's a handy link [http://www.sukothai.com/] to Carl Stone's web page. A Bernal Heights resident and wonderful electronic composer, he's also inventor of that Powerbook-and-human-voice-driven sound-trip called Acid Karaoke, which you really ought to see live.

Stoneburner's previous slab of crushing heaviosity came to us via the Seventh Rule label, but they fit in just as well on Neurot, their new home. Certainly Neurosis fans ought to want to willingly submit to Stonerburner's burly onslaught of atmospheric sludge sonics. These Portlanders are serious pros at atmospheric sludge all right, their well crafted compositions balancing sections of steamrollering metallic power with others of postrocky slow/low moodiness. To elaborate, amidst all their epic-length tracks packed full of riffs to pound you into the ground, the occasional pretty part will surface - an acoustic guitar interlude there, a passage of sombre quietude there - before the distorted amp-abuse and accompanying pained throat-rasped vocals kick (your head) in again. Stoneburner's brand of doomed-out lumbering despair comes in a variety of modes and it's all very effective and affecting, guitar solos included. Their previous disc, the one on Seventh Rule, was titled Sickness Will Pass, but it hasn't, yet, for them, or their listeners...

MPEG stream: Caged Bird
MPEG stream: Pale New Eyes
MPEG stream: Done

"Play At Maximum Volume" it says here, right on the face of the cd. Well, OF COURSE! Duh. Stoneburner, from PDX, are another sludgier-than-thou (and maybe than Thou) metal band, whose debut full-length is brought to us by the same label, Seventh Rule, recently responsible for the newest, aQ Record Of The Week awarded Author & Punisher album, as well as cool discs from the likes of Atriarch, Batillus, Wizard Rifle, Indian and other heavy hitters. Furthermore, one of Stoneburner's guitarists used to wield his axe in the late, great Buried At Sea. So, it comes as no surprise that Stoneburner, in the nasty doomed-out tradition of such bands as Buried At Sea, Graves At Sea too, Eyehategod, YOB, and yes their hometown pals & labelmates Atriarch, are loaded for bear with fuzz-storted heavy riff-chuggery and throat-ripped vile vokills, along with some suddenly quiet, postrockish detours into acoustic-atmospheric moments that serve to make the prevalent heavy and wretched sounding parts all the more heavy and wretched by contrast (and earn Stoneburner some extra points for musical nuance and sophistication). Six songs here, including an unlisted bonus soundscape-y one (that the CDDB tells us is called "Thank You For Listening"). The misanthropically doom/sludge lovin' amongst us will indeed be playing this at the recommended volume. But we doubt the neighbors will be thankful for listening. Oh, and we like how the "band pics" in the digipak are all (only) of the individual band members pedals - drum pedals for the drummer, many and various effects pedals for the others.

MPEG stream: Christian's Charity
MPEG stream: Marriage
MPEG stream: We Have Failed

Pretty much everybody, country fan or not, recognizes the names of Jimmie Rodgers, and the Carter Family, but even country aficionados might not be familiar with Ernest V Stoneman, even though he played as big a part, if not bigger, than more recognizable performers, in the birth of recorded country music. His relative obscurity is all the more shocking when one realizes his career stretches from the days of wax cylinders all the way to the advent of compact discs, not to mention the fact that he was not only the first rural singer / songwriter to record his own compositions, but he was also the first to record on the autoharp. He was an amazing musician, and a fantastic performer, and an innovator who never really got his due. This collection gathers some of Stoneman's most famous songs, as well as including 20 tracks never before reissued. Ranging from old timey bluegrass to folk hymns to spirituals, many recorded for the first time by Stoneman, and there are even a few tracks that include skits and spoken word segments, as if they were recordings of a radio broadcast or a school performance. And since these are all mastered from old 78s, the sound is wonderfully warm and scratchy. Anyone who loves the Anthology Of American Folk Music (which includes Stoneman), or any of the Folkways reissues like Mountain Music Of Kentucky, or reissued recordings by Roscoe Holcomb and Elizabeth Cotten, will definitely love this. And the packaging is fantastic. So deluxe. 5-String is definitely offering Dust-To-Digital some serious competition. An oversized hardcover book, with a massive booklet, with liner notes, photos, histories, and notes on each song, where they were recorded, when, and various anecdotes, like with "The Titanic", the first song Stoneman ever recorded, and the story goes that he wanted to make a great impression for his audition, so he decided to play the autoharp (he was thus the first to record on the instrument), and he built his own multiple harmonica harness! Fantastic stuff. Another absolutely essential document of the early years of country music.

MPEG stream: Goodbye, Dear Old Step Stone
MPEG stream: The Titanic
MPEG stream: Possom Trot School Exhibition Part 2
MPEG stream: The Raging Sea, How It Roars

All right, time to get yr underground proto-metal kicks! Remember the new album from San Francisco longhairs Dzjenghis Khan we highlighted last list?? Well THIS is exactly the sort of thing those retro-stoners were going for. Step up for an authentic '70s hard psych experience. Stonewall's rare, awesomely fuzz riffed record was recorded in '69, but not actually released until 1974, and even then without the band's knowledge, due to exploito-label shennanigans. Read the liner notes for more about that. (Actually, other sources claim this was recorded circa '71-'72, and then released in '76, we don't know what to believe, but either set of dates sounds plausible.) Stonewall pump out stompin', rockin' boogie, durn heavy for '69 (or '71), fronted by an expressively raspy vocalist, gripped by the spirit of rock n' roll at its countercultural best. He also busts out the occasional harmonica wail. But it's generally guitars to the fore, and fuzzed-out. There's some Hendrix and Cream influences of course, maybe Led Zep too depending on when this really was recorded, and we're treated to some total organ jammin' blues rockin' on "Try & See It Through", while "Atlantis" hints at the slightly proggier riffage of Captain Beyond's debut.... Definitely for fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang, Jerusalem, etc. Also if you remember a much more recent (but very retro) band from the '90s called The Want, who did a disc for Southern Lord, this sounds pretty much just like them. Which is cool 'cause we really digged The Want. Maybe they really digged Stonewall? Oh, and yes, this IS the same Stonewall album that was previously reissued on cd some years back by the Italian label Akarma, with a different cover and title (Akarma called it Stoner, and the cover had a wall of Marshalls, with blood seeping from several of 'em.) Presumably this is the how the original lp really looked.

MPEG stream: Right On
MPEG stream: Solitude
MPEG stream: Outer Spaced

Two discs of "Raw Power"-era live Stooges, for everybody who can't get enough of "Metallic K.O."'s live chaos. Over a hundred minutes of what had to be 1973's punkest rock shows. Not a boot, this is part of the official Iguana Chronicles series on Bomp! Sound quality is about what you'd expect, but at least Iggy's between-song foul-mouthed banter comes through pretty clearly (as does the piano, which I've always guessed was the latter-day Stooges attempt at adding a Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire" type of edge to their already dangerous sound). And Iggy's wit and wisdom combined with a noisy, fucked atmosphere is really what you're after, isn't it?

The classic record remixed 25 years later by Iggy Pop! Much heavier and cleaner than the original, notoriously not-quite-right David Bowie mix. Hear it again for the first time. Liner notes include a longish interview with Iggy about the remix project. Also many sexy, sexy photos of Iggy and crew.

Hmm. We really should have gotten these listed a few months ago when they first came out, but we were debating with ourselves about whether we really needed to write a review that explained how awesome the Stooges are or not. I mean, we figure most AQ customers are hip to these punk rock pioneers, right? So basically, our recommendation boils down to this: if you don't have these albums, BUY THEM NOW. If you don't like 'em, we can't help you. But we think you'll like 'em. Some of the most primal yet avant-garde heavy garagey punk metallic rock n' roll ever made. Of the two albums, debate can rage as to which is most essential. We don't need to answer that question here. Get 'em both. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is on the debut, whereas you get all the crazy saxophone freakouts on Funhouse. Now what about if you do have these albums? Should you buy 'em again 'cause they're now "deluxe"? Well, yeah. They've got an extra disc apiece of alternate takes and unreleased material. Damn!! For instance, the full version of "Ann" on the second disc of the s/t package is awesomely super sleazy -- we love it. And don't you wish you could buy a "new" Stooges album every week? Take this historic opportunity! With one caveat: if you happen to be a lucky owner of the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set, you might not need the deluxe version of that album, as we're pretty sure (though we didn't do any exhaustive research) that all the extra material on the second disc also must have appeared somewhere on the many discs of that amazing (and long out of print) box set.

You can't get the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set anymore, but here's a box set that ALSO features multiple run-throughs of the same Stooges song over and over. Which, as any proud owner of the Funhouse box can tell you, is a supremely GOOD thing. Can't get enough. So, here's SIX discs of primo live, rehearsal, and studio outtake material recorded circa 1972-1974. From London studio tapes (13 different takes of "I've Got A Right" on that disc!) to Detroit rehearsals to Max's Kansas City and Whisky A Go Go sets, there's plenty of raw power here for the true Stooges fan to bask in... some of it you might have heard before, on bootlegs and so forth, but this box set is approved by the band. Probably a must-have for the dedicated fan, what with the unreleased recordings, rare photos, interviews with Iggy and the Asheton brothers, and other stuff (including a Stooges sticker) included.

Sorry. Sorry folks. We're very sorry. In fact, we've been putting this off, so maybe we won't be the first to tell you, that this new, eagerly-awaited Stooges reunion album sucks. That's just the way it is. No songs to speak of. Terrible lyrics ("She Took My Money", "Free & Freaky In The USA"). It's just not good. Iggy's made way better solo albums than this, even in recent years. For a leathery old guy Iggy still has the long hair and rambunctious energy of someone much, much younger, that's true. But that doesn't mean that getting together after thirty some years with the surviving Stooges to do anything other than play their old songs was a good idea. We wish we could tell you different, we were excited before we heard it too. But it's bad and we've yet to talk to anyone who didn't agree. Oh well, we bet they'll still be worth seeing on tour, as long as they don't do too many of these tracks...

MPEG stream: Trollin'
MPEG stream: The End Of Christianity

Hmm. We really should have gotten these listed a few months ago when they first came out, but we were debating with ourselves about whether we really needed to write a review that explained how awesome the Stooges are or not. I mean, we figure most AQ customers are hip to these punk rock pioneers, right? So basically, our recommendation boils down to this: if you don't have these albums, BUY THEM NOW. If you don't like 'em, we can't help you. But we think you'll like 'em. Some of the most primal yet avant-garde heavy garagey punk metallic rock n' roll ever made. Of the two albums, debate can rage as to which is most essential. We don't need to answer that question here. Get 'em both. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is on the debut, whereas you get all the crazy saxophone freakouts on Funhouse. Now what about if you do have these albums? Should you buy 'em again 'cause they're now "deluxe"? Well, yeah. They've got an extra disc apiece of alternate takes and unreleased material. Damn!! For instance, the full version of "Ann" on the second disc of the s/t package is awesomely super sleazy -- we love it. And don't you wish you could buy a "new" Stooges album every week? Take this historic opportunity! With one caveat: if you happen to be a lucky owner of the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set, you might not need the deluxe version of that album, as we're pretty such (though we didn't do any exhaustive research) that all the extra material on the second disc also must have appeared somewhere on the many discs of that amazing (and long out of print) box set.

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

SORRY. The teacher calls on an anxious kid in the back of the class who strains his arm reaching so high in the air and thinks he know the answer to the Storm & Stress question. "It's produced by Jim O'Rourke and it's got members of Don Cabiyerro!" The teacher shakes his head, "Yes, that may be true, but does it make it a good record? I'm not sure this piece of annoying would-be avant-jazz-rock warrants comparisons to either O'Rourke or Don Caballero. Work on your pronunciation, by the way."

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

SORRY.

The Storm Bugs were the construction of Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball, who were two very active participants in the post-punk explosion of DIY productions in the late '70s and early '80s. Their gritty electronic aesthetic tended toward the industrial reappropriation of found materials and abused consumer electronics that harken back to Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle. Sanderson and Ball had also formed the Snatch Tapes label, which had released a handful of David Jackman cassettes back in the day as well as some compilations of likeminded eccentric malcontents. So far, a handful of collections of Strom Bugs material has surfaced in recent years with Supplementary Benefit being the most recent. This anthologizes two singles released in 1980 and 1981, as well as an overview of their experiments with the VCS3, a unique British synthesizer whose patch bay could be configured into a series of complex feedback loops, which the Storm Bugs used to great effect. Expect abrasive arpeggiations, primitive technotic marches, and unhinged arrangements of broken turntablist damage, oblique dirges, and obliterated textures. Pretty tremendous stuff, and kudos again to Vinyl On Demand for reclaiming another set of recordings that surely would have quietly disappeared into the ether of history.

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Destroyer
MPEG stream: Of Sadness And Grim Cyclones

We have pretty good reason to assume that the guys in Fayetteville, Arkansas' Storm The Castle! (exclamation point theirs, but wholly appropriate) won't mind us comparing their band to Hammers Of Misfortune, the beloved "operatic" metal act from here in San Francisco, related to the somewhat similar sounding Slough Feg. They'd better not mind, 'cause that's what happens when you play over the top progtastic power metal that's part '80s, part indie-artsy-postrockishness, with clean, dramatic vox and technical instrumental shred, including of course twin guitar harmonies galore! Sure there's differences - no female vocalist, no Hammond organ - and the singer of Storm The Castle! sounds something like (a very theatrical version of) Metallica's James Hetfield, moreso than he does any of Hammer's male singers past or present. But we DO think that Hammers Of Misfortune fans might dig this big time. In fact, Allan was playing it in the office 'round about when the most recent Hammers opus came out and Cup was momentarily convinced that this WAS the new Hammers. "The Chief Goal Of Alchemy" opens the proceedings with an atmospheric electronic effects + mysterious spoken word sample into, which gives way to gentle acoustic guitars, bursting almost immediately into bombastic, triumphing true metal ass kickery. Later tracks are also crammed with complexities of hectic riffage, heroic melodies, and unexpected interludes. Slough Feg fans will find familiar the (heavy) folky motifs in "Victory, But At What Price", while "Laugh Track" is simply a ripper. This five song, half-hour-plus debut wraps up with its longest epic, grand finale "Here, Be Dragons" (10:54) which again features some very Slough Feggy guitar parts, we must say. It's all very VERY metal and yet paradoxically otherwise, or at least unexpectedly artier, giving us suspicion that this was seemingly conceptualized as a collection of metallic signifiers juxtaposed with the otherwise, to obtain an alloy that transcends such labeling. All in all, this is one that we suggest, nay insist that fans of Hammers check out, as you've already gathered. Same goes for fans of the 'Feg, Blind Guardian, The Fucking Champs, Zebulon Pike... oh and NYC's Under Satan's Sun (a band who get the award for sounding even more like Hammers, however).

MPEG stream: Laugh Track
MPEG stream: Fire Breathing Sympathy Machine

If you picked up the Spanish Trip compilation we reviewed a few months back, you might recall a song by this band from Seville, that we described as an example of "off-the-rails Deep Purplish bludgeon". And by "off-the-rails" we meant that their track, "I Don't Know", was played with a sloppy, wild abandon that made sound almost punk. Pretty cool! Well that song was from this, their only full-length album, originally released in 1974, and finally now reissued on cd in a fairly deluxe package (slipcover, bonus video clip), which features another seven tracks of hard rockin' proto-metal psych with gobs of heavy organ and acid blues guitar soloing...there's even a drum solo on here too. More aggressive than progressive, The Storm did their best to live up to their name, kicking out the jams more energetically than any other band from Spain up to that point in Spanish rock history except maybe Tapiman (whose excellent album with the pink skull on the cover was also recently reviewed by us, you may recall). Yet despite all their "storminess", though, these guys seem to have a sunny side too. Not downer rock by any means. You can kinda hear their '60s Beatles-lovin' pop roots. Now, we've gotta say, on our last list we reviewed the comparably hard rockin', equally vintage Pax album from Peru, and it didn't get quite the response we were hoping for... we thought there were more of you proto-metal fans out there reading this stuff! Hmm. But if you're there, this is one you might dig (and that Pax too, go back and read about it).

MPEG stream: I Am Busy
MPEG stream: I Don't Know

We don't know too much about Stormcrow, besides that they're from Italy... beyond that we don't know if this is their first record, or if there are any folks from other bands in the band. Hardly matters really when you get right down to it. It's the music that matters and holy shit is this a serious blast of ultra black buzz. The sticker on the cover mentions Emperor, Dark Funeral and 1349, and while any super fast, super tight black metal band will most likely sound a little bit like one or all off those, Stormcrow somehow have a little bit more groove. It's still super fast and grim and true and blah blah blah, but the riffs sort of swing, and instead of being nothing but a black blur, it sort of lopes and lurches at lightning speed. Some killer blast beats underpinning a serious dose of killer riffing. Definitely worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the above mentioned hordes, with a little something special to set them apart. Don't be mislead though by the 'swing' and the 'groove', this is first and foremost, ultra fast, harsh as fuck, brutal and raw black metal, but there are a bunch of little sonic subtleties, weird composition, subtly strange song structure, and that killer drumming, combined with slightly twisted riffs, that makes us dig this way more than we expected to.

MPEG stream: Dark Promises (Are Always Kept By Satan)
MPEG stream: Demons

Yet another heavy hitting downtuned blackened blast and dirge matchup, this one between Oakland ultra heavies Stormcrow, and Japan's equally brutal Coffins. Stormcrow start things off with a trudging grim pummel, all sludge and trudge and pound, the vocals a hellish belch, eventually exploding into some thrashing blasting punishment, the band spewing a filthy brew that's equal parts Bolt Thrower and Winter, and over the course of nearly 13 minutes they drift from woozy mournful classic doom, to twisted crusty sort-of speed metal, to sprawling D-beat blasts but always back to crushing lumbering slo-mo sludge. Coffins definitely exist right there next to Stormcrow in the sonic spectrum, their dirgey downtuned doom laced death metal creep, a grim and harrowing thing, lumbering and monstrous, the sound blow out, the guitars impossibly low, lurching along below some grunted vokills, and some WAY up in the mix drums, the cymbals adding a strange haze of sizzle to the proceedings, and like Stormcrow, Coffins mix it up, slipping from Corrupted style sludge to Hellhammerish primitive death metal and back again, some seriously crusty, crushing, amp destroying, head caving filth for sure. Awesome.

Want some brutal "war crust" to, um, brighten your day? Look no further. Stormcrow (from Oakland, and not to be confused with the Italian black metal band of the same name) team up with likeminded metallers Sanctum (from Seattle) for this split cd on the ever-reliable, heavy as heck 20 Buck Spin label. Dark and wretched, violent and crushing, it's a raw mix of speedy death and moody doom from two bands both of whom love their Bolt Thrower and Amebix, Winter and Doom. The grey-shaded artwork depicting armored foes in medieval combat is quite appropriate, as across this sprawling split, they're either charging forward with berserk fury, or trudging battleweary from the killing fields... (generally Sanctum do the former, Stormcrow the latter). Imagine Asunder with D-beats.

MPEG stream: Dead Dreams
MPEG stream: Age Of Ruin

One of our Danish customers, an experimental musician named Peter Bach Nicholaisen, aka Stormhat, sent us this a while back - his first cd after a couple cd-r releases. It kind of got lost in the shuffle but we just discovered we had a little pile of them so here's a review! It's a brief (21 minute) disc consisting of six fairly abstract, textural tracks made from field recordings and glitchy digital manipulations. It's mostly quite gentle, yet active. Sometimes quite pretty, at others maybe even a little bit sinister-sounding. There's sounds of a baby gurgling, tinkling fragments of music-box melodies, falling rain and indistinct voices... various crunchings and rustlings, edits and echoes... The droning hiss and weird noises suggesting a nest of small, fantastical creatures, their mysterious activities being listened-in upon from a safe distance via sensitive microphone equipment. The final, title track is our favorite, as these critters settle in for a long winter with ringing drone and drowsy birdlike twittering, the night drawing in, wind at the window, hush, hush... This is not unlike something that you might find on Hapna, Helen Scarsdale, or Kning Disk. It's packaged in a gatefold digi-sleeve thing, the cd itself being one of those nifty ones that's like a 3" cd inside a 5" clear plastic disc.

MPEG stream: Regndrone
MPEG stream: Klokker Og Guldsmede

This one's a bit puzzling, innit? The Bubblecore label's dipping their toes into the realm of Bulgarian gypsy music? Somehow it seems less odd when you discover that the band Storsveit Nix Noltes is from Iceland. The case being that unpredictability is certainly a strong point of many an Icelandic artist. Anyways, we'd by no means claim to be Bulgarian music experts, but to our relatively untrained ears this does sound pretty darn respectful and authentic... and pretty darn enjoyable too. Love the lively brass arrangements!

MPEG stream: Kreptatka
MPEG stream: Griska Lagid

Ultra limited (only 100 copies) cassette release from this lesser known solo project of Garek Druss, who plays in PDX dronedoomsludge combo Tecumseh, and also records as Dull Knife (who split a cd-r a while back with aQ faves and weirdo outsider heavies Inh Halentropy). And it's some hazy, heady, gorgeous stuff. A lush layered landscape of grimy, gristly, crumbling, softly distorted dronemusic, at once warm and melodic, caustic and corrosive. Waves of feedback crash over churning buzz, all blurred and blearily blown out, but within this noisy swirl and squall, is a lovely and serene core, a deep meditative sonic swell, that infuses the noisiness with an impossible loveliness, the whole thing seems washed out and sun dappled, any of the jagged edges are smoothed out, and as the sound builds, in volume, and intensity, the sound remains rooted in melody, and drifts dreamily dragging a contrail of crunch and hiss and swirling overtones in its wake. The first movement (side) is a much more incendiary affair, building to an almost deafening (but still dreamy) Sunroof-style ur-drone roar, a blazed sprawl of zoner drift and spaced out shimmer, but the second half (side) dials it back a bit, the sound more cavernous and echo drenched, the melodies less abstract, and woven into something almost propulsive, wheezing chordal blur over undulating deep swirling swells, a captivating bit of grey ambience, the sound rich with overtones, and buried melodies, hypnotic and woozy and in its own way strangely tranquil, a gauzy droned out minimalistic drift, total dreamdoomdrone bliss for sure... LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, nice thick printed cardstock sleeves, and cool transparent cassettes...

Hot on the heels of the recent super limited cassette on Flingco (got a few left, ask if you want one), comes this also limited lp from Gareck Druss, aka A Story Of Rats, who might be more familiar to aQ folks as a member of PDX doomdronedirge outfit Tecumseh. And A Story Of Rats actually seems like a logical extension of the Tecumseh mothership, a more minimal, hushed sound, but definitely the same sort of dirgey drift. Thought Forms is a single sprawling epic split up into two sidelong movements, the first is as you might expect, a creepy atmospheric dronescape, all distant sounds, reverbed field recordings, warm whirling tones, the sound drifts meditatively, but begins to grow more industrial, as the sounds grow more caustic, bell like chimes, are wreathed in distortion and begin to crumble, vocals buried so they sound like more rumbles and whirs, keening fragmented melodies drift beneath the surface, the sound constantly in motion, but subtly so, shifting from deep somnambulant creep to washed out shimmer and back again. The second side/movement is more looped and hypnotic, woozy and psychedelic, the sounds more hazy and softly swirly, melodies blurred into chordal thrum, it's prettier than the A side, but the darkness seems to grow gradually, a droned out soft noise that builds and builds into a crumbling and ominous black buzz outro. Most definitely for fans of all things slow and low, minimal and droney, dark and drifty. The packaging is incredible, hand screened jackets, black and metallic gold ink, the vinyl pressed on swirled black and grey vinyl, packaged with a super swank insert, again hand screened in metallic gold ink, on heavy textured paper. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES.

MPEG stream: Thought Forms I (excerpt)
MPEG stream: Thought Forms II (excerpt)

One of our favorite "folkpsych" albums of last year was the debut full-length Tale Spin from the English father-son duo known as The Story. Wasn't terribly much of a surprise, really, since the elder half of The Story, Martin Welham, was an integral member of Forest, an amazing (and undeservedly obscure) band from back in the original late sixties/early seventies magical era of British acid folk music, contemporaries of Fairport and Pentangle and the Incredible String Band and Dando Shaft and Comus. The reissues of their two albums have been huge favorite here at Aquarius. But now it's almost forty years later, and we suppose that Martin making music with his son Tom could have been a let-down. But it wasn't, not a bit, no sirree. Martin still had "it". And apparently a musical talent for pastoral prettiness runs in the family too. And this second album from The Story is also quite something. Again what wows us is just the lovely blend of their gentle voices and sprightly guitar strum, singing songs full of melancholic atmospheres and melodic enchantment... As an acoustic duo, the focus here is on the song writing, the melodies and pagan-tinged lyrics, not psychedelic effects or rock bombast, and the Welhams do wonders with just their guitars and voices, plus some sundry hand-percussion, flutes, and (literal) bells and whistles too. Like Tale Spin, this album is utterly sweet and mellow and hum-able...in terms of mood, it has its dark corners but even then the Martin and Tom's harmony vocals bring warmth and light to the journey, which seems to be along forest paths and over country streams, across both misty moors and sunny meadows. The songs (sixteen of 'em) are ALL quite nice, none of them overly lengthy, mostly just a minute or three apiece, making maximum melodic impact before The Story moves itself along to the next song. Timeless stuff -- we could almost imagine a Welham grandchild eventually joining up and The Story continuing and bridging yet another generation... PS They also have a track on the excellent new Brit-folk compilation John Barleycorn Reborn, which we'll be reviewing on our next list...

MPEG stream: Watch Out
MPEG stream: Flash Across The Sky

Ooooh. The Story is a good one. Imagine if Elliott Smith was fey and British and made hippie music (that's what Pam calls this, and it's a pretty good description). The Story is the handiwork of the father-son duo of Martin and Tom Welham, Tale Spin being the full-length follow up to their side of the split LP they did last year with Santa Cruz psychfolk outfit Whysp. We know Whysp were excited to appear on the same piece of vinyl as these guys, since Welham the elder (Martin) was once an important member of legendary UK psychfolk band Forest, whose two all-too-obscure albums from the early '70s are both firm favorites among us here at Aquarius as well! We LOVE that band. And are very happy to report that Martin and his son Tom have kept the tradition alive and well. The Story's music is full of the same leafy forest glade melody and melancholy that made Martin's old band so amazing. Being a duo, this is more acoustic and less rock than Forest sometimes got, but is otherwise definitely reminiscent in terms of songwriting quality and style. For those of you who haven't heard Forest, we could offer comparisons as well to the Olivia Tremor Control, Yes, and the Hollies... sort of... think of those bands at their most gentle and acoustic and twee. A magical combination of sweet strum, mellow vocal harmonies, and poetic lyrics (one of our favorite lines, from "Winterborn" -- "It takes a lifetime, but in the end / You come to know what the fates intend"). Total hum along music. Recommended!!

MPEG stream: Down To The Trees
MPEG stream: Winterborn

The Dawn Is Crowded is an international split LP between West Coasters Whysp and The Story who hail from the U.K. and count as members Martin Welham of '60s psych-folk band Forest and his son Tom! Not unlike waking at the daybreak and stumbling across an earthy psych-folk gathering deep within some distant enchanted forest. On The Story's side, everything is leafy green, glistening with dew and pixie dust with slightly twee male vocals. On the flip side, Whysp invite a few more players into the fold for a more varied and up-tempo group performance. Nice!

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]