[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 3451 through 3500 of 4057.

Yet another gnarled tendril of the ever expanding Anticon tree of life breaks up through the hip hop soil reaching for the sun! This time on the always impressive Lex label. The Anticon connection here, at least the most noticable one is the presence of Dose One and his immediately recognizable high pitched stream of consciousness flow. Sonically, A New White is the logical progression from the last Clouddead record Ten, loping organic instrumentals, simple, skittering, funky drum programming, sweetly melancholic melodies and of course Dose One. The main difference is that Subtle is a full on band, with a seriously varied instrumentation: electric and acoustic cello, electric and acoustic bass, woodwinds, synthesizers, drums, guitar, keyboards, melodica and sampler that offers up a way more expanded, and much fuller sound. The Subtle seasonal eps released over the last year or two sort of slipped under the radar, but this release should have everyone scrambling to catch up on what they missed. Anyone who digs Clouddead, Alias, Boom Bip, Themselves and all that Anticon stuff will obviously love this.

MPEG stream: Song Meat
MPEG stream: I Love L.A.

MPEG stream: Flying Horse Plans
MPEG stream: Eneby Kurs

On their second album, Subtle (aka Jel and DoseOne also of cLOUDEAD, 13&God and Anticon) appear to have sat themselves right down in the vacant seats between TV On The Radio, Gnarls Barkley, Peeping Tom, heck, maybe even Black Eyed Peas and Outkast too! And they've done so with a rather comfortable ease. For Hero For Fool is a quirkful, good time blender magic of hip hop, pop, funk, soul and film score music. Groovy highlights include "The Mercury Craze" and "The Ends".

MPEG stream: The Mercury Craze
MPEG stream: The Ends

MPEG stream: Swanmeat
MPEG stream: Farewell Ride

An album that arrived too late. Sadly the Subtonix are no more. Recently disbanded, they were a wild skronky art punk combo of four women. All raven-haired and smudged black eyeliner, they channelled the ghosts of James Chance & The Contortions (although they also made me think of We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It). The inclusion of sax in their instrumentation set them apart from the rest of the bay area punk scene. Raw punk/new wave sounds with old synths, saxophone, primitive drumming and slightly sneering swooping vocals. Known for their stage costumery (bloody nurses and dishevelled prom queens immediately comes to mind) they were high on punk rock haphazard dramatics. This album is short and sweet at just under a half hour, and it follows two even briefer releases a self-titled 7" and a split single with Glass Candy & The Shattered Theater. Note: Sax player Jessie Trashed now sings for The Vanishing.

RealAudio clip: Ashtray Girl
RealAudio clip: In Theatres

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SORRY. Channeling the ghost of James Chance and the Contortions are the Subtonix from SF. Sax squeals amid a herky jerky mayhem of guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Ah yes, the art-punk-no-wave spirit is alive and flourishing in these five women.

Here is the split release from the dark, sexy Portland, OR group Glass Candy and the now dead, but equally sexy SF band Subtonix (R.I.P.). Art-punk-no-wave for the gothy 70's punk resurgence fans. In the vein of X-Ray Spex, Suicide, James Chance and the

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SORRY. The Japanese, we all know, are no slouches when it comes to heavy, psychedelic rock n' roll. From seventies masters like the Flower Travellin' Band and Far Out and Blues Creation to current heavies like Boris and Green Machine and DMBQ (to name but a few from either era), there's a tradition of long-haired, amped-up mayhem over there... Well if you're like us and big fans of all that, you should know about this band, Subvert Blaze. They were a late '80s, early '90s psychedelic metal / stoner rock outfit, retro bellbottomed badasses doin' Sabbath and Hendrix covers alongside equally heavy originals just a few years before it was all that cool to do so. Their drummer later joined Ghost, but it's here where you'll really hear him put his gong to good use. Subvert Blaze did two albums for the Osaka-based noise and psych label Alchemy, Subvert Art and Subvert Art II, which have been out of print for some time, until recently when this double cd set appeared, reissuing the tracks from both those albums, and more! So we figured some of you might be interested...yeah it's thirty bucks but it's an import and a double cd, and getting the two original discs would have cost more and you wouldn't have the bonus tracks, which include a cover of "Summertime Blues" as well as a twelve-minute epic original entitled "Elegy (Of Turkey City)", and the band's two tracks from the Osaka Greasy Truckers compilation (early versions of "Butterfly" and "Innocent"). Convinced? Or do you need more description? Let's see... Kinda like Can meets Sabbath, total heavy psych rockin' and rollin', with gargly rough vocals and a dark energy. Yeah, if you can dig a band that combines heavy riffage with technical progginess and spacious, psychedelic moodiness, and is prone to the occasional extravagant drum solo, you might be a Subvert Blaze fan too! (NB. their singer/guitarist went on to form even heavier Alchemy act Garadama.)

MPEG stream: Butterfly
MPEG stream: Summertime Blues

Have to say, we haven't always been too keen on some of the contemporary acts on the Soul Jazz label. What with all the amazing reissues and vintage compilations, the newer bands often pale in comparison. But on the last couple of Soul Jazz singles comps, the tracks by British duo Subway have always caught our attention. And now we have this full length (their first for the Soul Jazz label) and it has barely left our cd player (or turntable, for some of us)! The opener "Persuasion" is a stunner, marrying cosmic Baleria with Seefeel like dub house. Krautrock influences are on full display from Kraftwerk to Cluster (obvious with a track called "Harmonia"), but with a warm edge that feels authentic rather than a pastiche of styles. And it's not all just geared for the dancefloor, with thoughtful meditative soundscapes and propulsive Moroder-esque themes offering the perfect cooling off music for hot summer nights! Recommended.

MPEG stream: Persuasion
MPEG stream: Harmonia
MPEG stream: Xam

This rare acid folk record from 1972 is not as Ren Faire as the cover would imply. Although subtle comparisons can be made to the Incredible String Band and Trees, Subway were neither staunch traditionalists or back-to-the-woods fairie folksters. Made up of American guitarist and singer-songwriter Irv Mowrey and British violinist Malcolm Watson, the duo met up in England, decided to go to Paris to try to make it, ended up playing in subway stations (hence the name) and wound up cutting a record on the French imprint of Epic Records. Of course, the record didn't fare very well and Epic ended up destroying the surplus, assuring them cult and holy-grail collectible status ever since. Mowrey's songwriting is first rate adding a nice American touch to their urban folk sound. There is also a really nice modal instrumental piece that takes this far past your average twee acid folk. Nice!

MPEG stream: Song For Sinking Shelters
MPEG stream: Enturbulation-Free Form

The main problem with unearthed supposed 'proto-metal' rarities or 'holy grail' psychedelic artifacts, is that after hearing for years and years how amazing and heavy and fuzzed out they are, often when we finally get to hear them, they so often sound a lot more like ordinary bar rock, or blues rock, the hype far exceeding the sound. No such problem with South African heavies Suck. This, their only record has been circulating for years as a bootleg, and the first time we saw it, we knew it had to be good. The cover was a cool black and white photo of a little long haired hippy kid sitting in the grass next to a kick drum, the band was called Suck (rumored to have almost been called FUCK), and the record was called Time To Suck, they covered Sabbath and King Crimson and Deep Purple, they're from South Africa and the record originally came out in 1970. It HAD to be good. But we were cautious, we had most definitely been burned before, but thankfully there was no need for caution cuz holy shit is this stuff amazing. Hard and heavy, super rocking, wildly psychedelic, the fact that if you weren't familiar with the covers here you'd be hard pressed to pick out the one original says a lot about these guys. Apparently Suck were infamous in South Africa for raucous, sometimes violent, always chaotic live shows, they were only a band for 8 months, and in that time only ever recorded ONE original track, and released one proper album, Time To Suck. Two Grand Funk Railroad tunes, "Aimless Lady" and "Sin's A Good Man's Brother", King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man", "Season Of The Witch" by Donovan, Free's "I'll Be Creeping", Deep Purple's "Into The Fire", "Elegy" by Colosseum and finally Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". That's a serious selection of songs. Then there's the one original, "The Whip", a killer chunk of Zeppeliny slither and Sabbathy crunch, some wildly proggy arrangements, frenzied guitar leads, incredible drumming, and lead vocalist Andrew Ionnides' Robert Plant like wail. A churning heavy metallic rock jam that sounds right at home amongst all those better known tunes. Their version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" is fierce and super distorted and as heavy if not more so than the original. "Season Of The Witch" burns slowly, peppered with cool fluttering flutes and all sorts of subtle guitar filigree, and of course "War Pigs", that takes balls to tackle that one, especially in 1970, but these guys definitely make it their own, staying pretty true to the original, minus an even more blown out intro, and the addition of some weird percussive string plucks or maybe bongos, way up in the mix, but makes it even more dizzyingly psychedelic, and if anything, their version as a whole is just a bit more chaotic and off kilter, an definitely faster, more like the German TV version of the Sabs you can find on YouTube. Needless to say, this is an essential proto-metal document, one that is actually pretty metal, fuzzed out, super heavy, intensely rocking, psychedelic and druggy, plenty proggy, and well, the song selection can't be beat!

MPEG stream: Aimless Lady
MPEG stream: 21st Century Schizoid Man
MPEG stream: The Whip

Frances McKee from The Vaselines now fronts Glasgow band Suckle. Very pretty folk-rock. Described as being like "the McGarrigle Sisters jamming with the Velvet Underground." Dunno about THAT, but this is really nice. Lush and soft vocal harmonies with graceful strings and flute. Sounding quite like a sister album to 'The Great Eastern', the lovely recent release by labelmates the Delgados!

**SALE **SALE* *SALE** "Featuring former SPK/Lustmord member Annie Subbs on vocals/percussion and Joke Lanz of Catholic Boys in Heavy Leather and Schimpfluch-Gruppe fame on 'noise toys', London duo Sudden Infant begin their industrialised invocation with a soothing, wave crashing, meditation instruction tape that sounds eerily like the voice of Margaret Thatcher before a barrage of broken glass, pump action shot gun blasting and ugly machinery shreds the illusion. 'Noise Relaxation' sets the mood for the rest of the album, a fearsome yet playful crashing together of mechanical noise with slivers of Suicide, tremors of early Current 93 and even a nod to Pierre Henry imbedded into it. These are then occasionally invaded by distorted cover versions of Cabaret Voltaire and Roxy Music tunes, or overlaid wit unsettling Phil Minton-like throat warblings and regurgitations. A strange beast indeed, all topped of with cover art that samples an unaccredited arcane drawing from magician, poet and mountaineer Aleister Crowley's Satanic sketchbook." For a comical, vomit splattered reinterpretation of Wolf Eyes, look no further!

Been hearing lots about Portland's Stunned records, and we're happy to finally have one of their beautifully packaged tapes for your listening/viewing pleasure. This one comes from San Francisco's own sax and guitar duo Sudden Oak. Matt Erickson, who also rips it up solo under the name Radiant Husk, sends soaring sax tones up through the atmosphere while John Ward's guitar feedback freak-outs lay bubbling below. Together the duo travel through strange noise-jazz lands, up and over urban creep zones that move and flow into fluid rhythms and fucked up loops. Picture an old Pharaoh Sanders tape echoing through a blown out amp in a water tank, so weird and so rad. Limited to an edition of 111, each with pro-printed j-cards plus insert, these are already sold out at the source, so act fast if you want one of these beauties.

I must admit more than a passing fondness for the bombastic, sexy drama of Brit poppers Suede. Their first few albums had a tendency to bring out the glamorous, hip-shaking bisexual diva in the shyest bowl-cutted indie popster. Of course, Brit pop hasn't been fashionable in years; all the mods have gone rocker, the British press delights in ripping apart their one-time darlings, and popscene overflows with khakis and baseball caps. Still, Suede chug on. They will probably never make another great album like "Suede" or "Dog Man Star," having lost an essential guitarist some time ago and a drug habit (with the accompanying dreary worldview) more recently, but "A New Morning" is nevertheless a very pleasant listen, and way better than their last album "Head Music." Producer-to-the-stars Stephen Street is at the helm, and while some of the more deliciously risque lyrics have been abandoned, the theatricality and overboard glam are here in full effect, and whenever Brett Anderson hiccups into a falsetto wail, it still has the power to make the boys and girls swoon. And ah yes- load this cd into your computer, and you'll have access online to alternate takes of every single cut on "A New Morning," just in case you really wanted to delve into Suede's, um, process.

RealAudio clip: Untitled Morning
RealAudio clip: Beautiful Loser

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SORRY. OK all you underground obscuro black metal freaks and obsolete format obsessives and fucked up video nasty collectors and super limited release weirdos, gather round this awesome audio/sonic artifact, you are definitely gonna want one of these. And you better act fast, cuz it's limited to 50 copies, and is already out of print, and we have the LAST 12 COPIES! Why should you care? Well for one, it's a brand new 30 minute improvised track of blasting droned out psychedelic black metal mesmer from some mysterious horde called Suffer the Shards Of The Lost Cult Of Silence, which features members of aQ black metal faves Woe and Absu, AND it's the soundtrack to a twisted nightmarish video collage, an eye popping video mashup of all manner of demented scenes from horror movies, sci-fi flicks, giallos, and who knows what else, a dizzying head spinning barrage of twisted imagery, the perfect accompaniment to STSOTLCOS's sprawling blown out black buzz, "inspired by the endless depths of infinite darkness", the sound lurching from noise drenched chaotic black pound to spaced out murky creep, to gnarled atonal doomic pound to blazing Norwegian style epic majesty, the whole thing lo-fi and wreathed in a cavernous gauze of blurred and blackened production, raw and grim and spooky and fucking awesome. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in white clamshell VHS cases with two color hand screened inserts, recorded onto purple VHS tapes, and comes with a download code (just for the music) as well!

We all have guilty pleasures, stuff we LOVE to listen to more than anything, but stuff that maybe doesn't get bragged about as much as that grim black metal or obscure indie rock band, we've tried to be pretty open about our guilty pleasures (heck we even made a No Doubt singles comp our Record Of The Week once upon a time), with the hopes that people will realize there ARE NO guilty pleasures, or at least, there's nothing to be guilty about, especially when it comes to some music you love, if it moves you, or you just enjoy listening to it, that's good enough. However, we've discovered a new sort of guilty pleasure, maybe a guilty displeasure, the sort of stuff music nerds harass each other about endlessly, in this case, that displeasure entails not stuff you DO like, but the stuff you DON'T. Bands that by all rights you should love, but for whatever reason you just don't. My (Andee) well known dislike of Can gets lots of mileage around aQ, and for the longest time, I also harbored a general dislike of late great Midwestern punks Husker Du. It took much hassling and many different mixtapes foisted on me, but eventually I came to my senses and decided that I did indeed dig Husker Du. But Sugar always seemed to pose the same problem. Bob Mould's post Husker Du band seemed right up my alley, sort of THEE ultimate noise pop band. Not sure if it was one of those knee jerk responses to the band that everyone likes, but I always just assumed Sugar wouldn't be my cup of tea, and thus, barring a few glancing listens here and there, managed to make it this far without ever hearing them. Which brings us to these two reissues, which compiles all three of the group's releases on two double discs, and here's where the silver lining of missing out on something everyone else already knew about. Getting to discover and dig things for the very first time. And digging these Sugar reissues I most certainly am! It's a sort of musical discovery that happens less and less in this era of music everywhere and iTunes and downloads, and the fact that it's a group from an era of music when I was discovering new bands and sounds left and right, and it's a sound I loved and STILL love only makes it that much better. So that's another thing hopefully folks can learn from us putting our weird music nerderies out there for the world to see, you should always be open to having your mind changed, cuz the worse thing that happens is you suddenly have more music to love. So yeah, you're all right, Sugar are pretty great, and while they still sound distinctly nineties, these records have weathered well for sure. Big crunchy guitars, crazy catchy choruses, a sound that's really not that far removed from Husker Du's Warehouse record, pretty much every song on Copper Blue, Sugar's 1992 debut, is a heavy hook filled killer, we could go song by song, but odds are most of you already know all about Sugar, the album tracks here fleshed out with a handful of B sides (available as a download with the lp version), as well as the following year's Beaster EP, which is really more of the same, although to these ears, it alternatingly sounds more shoegazy and/or more punk rock, but it fits pretty much perfectly alongside Copper Blue for sure. The cd version also includes a DVD featuring a live show from 1992. I still don't like Can though.

MPEG stream: The Act We Act
MPEG stream: A Good Idea
MPEG stream: Changes

We all have guilty pleasures, stuff we LOVE to listen to more than anything, but stuff that maybe doesn't get bragged about as much as that grim black metal or obscure indie rock band, we've tried to be pretty open about our guilty pleasures (heck we even made a No Doubt singles comp our Record Of The Week once upon a time), with the hopes that people will realize there ARE NO guilty pleasures, or at least, there's nothing to be guilty about, especially when it comes to some music you love, if it moves you, or you just enjoy listening to it, that's good enough. However, we've discovered a new sort of guilty pleasure, maybe a guilty displeasure, the sort of stuff music nerds harass each other about endlessly, in this case, that displeasure entails not stuff you DO like, but the stuff you DON'T. Bands that by all rights you should love, but for whatever reason you just don't. My (Andee) well known dislike of Can gets lots of mileage around aQ, and for the longest time, I also harbored a general dislike of late great Midwestern punks Husker Du. It took much hassling and many different mixtapes foisted on me, but eventually I came to my senses and decided that I did indeed dig Husker Du. But Sugar always seemed to pose the same problem. Bob Mould's post Husker Du band seemed right up my alley, sort of THEE ultimate noise pop band. Not sure if it was one of those knee jerk responses to the band that everyone likes, but I always just assumed Sugar wouldn't be my cup of tea, and thus, barring a few glancing listens here and there, managed to make it this far without ever hearing them. Which brings us to these two reissues, which compiles all three of the group's releases on two double discs, and here's where the silver lining of missing out on something everyone else already knew about. Getting to discover and dig things for the very first time. And digging these Sugar reissues I most certainly am! It's a sort of musical discovery that happens less and less in this era of music everywhere and iTunes and downloads, and the fact that it's a group from an era of music when I was discovering new bands and sounds left and right, and it's a sound I loved and STILL love only makes it that much better. So that's another thing hopefully folks can learn from us putting our weird music nerderies out there for the world to see, you should always be open to having your mind changed, cuz the worse thing that happens is you suddenly have more music to love. So yeah, you're all right, Sugar are pretty great, and while they still sound distinctly nineties, these records have weathered well for sure. Big crunchy guitars, crazy catchy choruses, a sound that's really not that far removed from Husker Du's Warehouse record. 1994's File Under Easy Listening was the band's swansong, and it too is a monster of kick ass noise pop record, hooks galore, some killer drumming, and a seriously hefty production that makes File sound even better than Copper Blue, but most importantly, some amazing songs, File is beefed up with a bunch of B sides and a whole live show (Available as a download in the lp version), both sets contain tons of photos and extensive liner notes, and yeah, I know I'm twenty years late, but this is getting some serious non-stop play. So for those of you who somehow missed out on Sugar, like some (one?) of us, absolutely and retroactively recommended. I still don't like Can though.

MPEG stream: Gift
MPEG stream: Company Book
MPEG stream: Your Favorite Thing

13 songs from the Icelandic band "that redefined modern rock" (that's what the sticker says) and spawned the career of Bjork.

Double disk set of the essential tracks by The Sugar Hill Gang plus lots of rarities, including a radio commercial and 12" b-sides. Comes with extensive liner notes on the history of The Sugarhill Gang.

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SORRY. A 180 gram vinyl colection of greatest hits from two groups that brought hip-hop from the streets of New York to global hit status. These guys took rap to a multi-billion dollar business forever changing the concept of popular music. Remember when MTV finally started showing hip-hop videos? Remember Yo! MTV Raps with Fab Five Freddie and Ed Lover? These guys paved the way for hip-hop to break ground into popular consumption. And here they are, a show-down between the two bands. Great hip-hop! Not the first of the time, but the biggest! And some of the best! Hells yes.

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SORRY. Finally took Eric of Giant Robot's advice and listened to this toothsome collection of their first 2 EPs. Excellent! This Japanese boy/girl duo cross My Bloody Valentine with Galaxie 500 into a thick sweet mixture, and add dreamy girl vocals. Every time we play this in store, someone asks "Wow, who is this!". Richly melodic. Very appealing on even the first listen, especially if all the new "drone" music is too spaced out for you.

Japan's Taku Sugimoto is best known for super minimalist guitar improvisation. But he also writes for other stringed instruments, as this new collection of Chamber Music will attest. The first track, which clocks in at just under a half hour, is entitled "Sonata for Violin and Piano". Yet, there's a third 'instrument' here, one present on all Sugimoto recordings: silence. Part of listening to and enjoying Sugimoto's music is, simply, waiting. Waiting for the next sound. It's not music for the impatient. Brief bleatings from the violin take turns with lonely notes from the piano. When one instrumental voice occupies the sound field for longer than a second, it's an event. Next is the 33 minute "Music for Violin, Cello and Piano" which follows the same minimalist scheme, the cello certainly not elbowing the silence out of the picture. There's almost a monk-like discipline required to enjoy this music. It's meditation as much as it is listening, the pay-off is in the process. A three minute coda for guitar and banjo (and silence) wraps things up, jaunty by comparison to the rest of the disc, but just barely. As always with Sugimoto, spending an hour with this will provide a kind of perverse delight to those attuned to his aesthetic.

MPEG stream: Sonata For Violin And Piano

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SORRY. SORRY. Real beautiful, slow, quiet, stringed-instrument improvisations from Sugimoto and cohorts. [/cat/experimental169.html]

We're always been interested in the work of Japanese improvisor Taku Sugimoto. There's no one else quite like him, though one could draw some parallels to the work of sometime collaborator Kevin Drumm, the solo guitar work of David Grubbs, and certainly several of Sugimoto's peers in the Tokyo "onkyo" improv scene like Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Otomo Yoshihide -- three gents who, not surprisingly, constitute Sugimoto's Guitar Quartet on this disc along with Sugimoto himself, some playing acoustic, and some playing electric guitars. Now, usually we prefer to hear Sugimoto just by himself, because recordings with collaborators usually get cluttered up with other people's playing, which tends to detract from the beauty of Sugimoto's restrained, minimal aesthetic. But this guitar quartet doesn't suffer from that at all -- indeed, it's really hard to imagine that there's actually four guys playing on this, as the results sound like they were barely there at all! Over these two half-hour plus tracks, the ratio of sheer silence to notes actually played is quite high, as we of course expect from Taku Sugimoto & co., whose careful placement of sound in silence leads to active, anticipatory listening from the audience. This leads us to wonder about their working practice in recording this -- it's over an hour long, but maybe there's actually ten minutes, if that, of audible "music" spread out over that hour. So, did they just play ten minutes worth and then "stretch it out" in ProTools? Or did they play for hours and hours and then edit the recording down to cd-length, picking the best stuff, silence included? Even if this is simply the entirety of a live performance (which it probably is), it's interesting to imagine the silent interaction of non-verbal gestures and delayed musical cues between the musicians, to say who was going to play something and when, with everybody most of the time just sitting there. All that's not to imply that this isn't worthwhile, you just have to be ready for what goes to a particular extreme of "difficult" listening. I personally enjoy it very much. Patience, and anticipation, and concentration, are required of the listener -- it's a meditative experience of sorts, and its beauty is in part your heightened awareness of your own environment.

RealAudio clip: Aria

One of our favorite Japanese improv guitarists takes his brand of minimalist abstraction to a new level on this disc, which 1) you have to turn WAY up to even hear the notes he's playing, 2) features lots of notes *not* being played, and 3) is fucking gorgeous. What we mean by 2) is that the three long tracks on here would be a lot shorter without all the silence. Not everybody will be

Japanese guitar improviser Taku Sugimoto (whose gentle, sparse style has made him an AQ-fave) teams up with German electro-acoustic guitarist Annette Krebs (who must live in Japan, as she constantly collaborates in that scene), to make a duo record of popping, scraping, droning, hissing, chiming, buzzing, crackling sounds for Sugimoto's Slub label. Sugimoto's measured, quiet playing, with his isolated melodic moments, is almost too fragile to successfully blend with the random percussive sound-events being conjured by Krebs (we assume, though of course it's hard to tell who is making what sound). This Eine Gitarre Ist... disc certainly IS worthy of investigation by Sugimoto and/or Krebs fans (and Keith Rowe or Kevin Drumm fans too for that matter), but to be honest we'd rather have seen this live, and just listen to a solo Sugimoto disc at home. There IS plenty of the silence and near-silence that characterizes Sugimoto's style, it's just that it too often comes as a relief from the parts that sound like someone (Krebs most likely) is slowly breaking her guitar into little bits. We like to listen to stuff like that too, just not when Sugimoto is playing. But others may disagree, so check it out.

RealAudio clip: track 1
RealAudio clip: track 3

Another meeting between these two friends and improvisers, Tokyo guitarist Sugimoto and Chicago guitarist Drumm. Their guitars (and electronics) will gently and delicate scrape at your brain. It's all very abstract and pretty and full of tiny sounds, good with earphones. Quite nice.

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SORRY.

MPEG stream: Wrath Of The Slaughter
MPEG stream: Rapehammer
MPEG stream: Possessed By Violence

When you listen to the audio clip we've put up for you, you're going to think we made a mistake & mixed up some totally different disc with American Supreme. It *is*, however, the new Suicide, but it sounds nothing like the old, amazing Suicide many of us know and love (ah, "Cheree"), and not only that, but if you had to predict what Suicide would sound like 25+ years after their heyday (not that they were ever that popular, mind you), what you hear on that soundclip is the *last* thing you'd imagine. Turntablist scratching, funky bass, bwang bwang bwang guitar, annoyingly echoey vocals, keyboards that'd be more at home on a Parliament Funkadelic record. I kid you not! I guess these guys should be applauded for, um, updating their sound -- namely, Alan Vega's doped-out vocals with the 'echo' effect turned to 11, and Martin Rev's worrisomely hip, um, programming on the keyboards. Oh man. On the other hand, a lot of people are falling for it, so... all I can say is: listen to this album before you buy it!

RealAudio clip: A Life in New Fragments

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SORRY. A collection of some of the earliest recording by this seminal electro-punk duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev. Dark, tense and seething. A stark, mad frenzy. Originally released back in 1981 on cassette only, but now released on cd with three bonus tracks.

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SORRY.

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SORRY. Suicide live, NYC & Berlin 1978!

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SORRY. Disc one is their first, classic album, and the limited edition disc two features two live shows (CBGB's '77 and "23 Minutes Over Brussels").

MPEG stream: Ghost Rider
MPEG stream: Rocket USA

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

SORRY.

This one probably barely needs a review for most folks. Ummm, let's see, lots of hot naked tattooed and pierced punk rock and goth and emo girls, dancing and stripping and running around naked and causing trouble. 'Nuff said. Most folks are probably familiar (maybe *very* familiar) with the Suicide Girls website, a modern pinup site featuring the above mentioned ladies and a very My Space like punk rock community. This DVD documents the first SG burlesque tour, and features lots of live footage (including a bunch shot at the Great American Music Hall here in SF), lots of new routines / stripteases set to punk rock, as well as interviews with the ladies and lots of on-tour antics, that play just like every band-on-tour video you've ever seen, but instead of a band you've got a bunch of giggling naked girls. Ahem. And you'd never watch that Death Cab tour documentary or the Beulah movie and see those guys completely nude in the middle of the night on the side of the road in San Francisco trying to hail a cab and find a cabbie who will let them writhe around on the hood naked. Which is most definitely for the best. Features music from Sparta, Her Space Holiday, Open Hand, !!! (Chik Chik Chik), Shipping News, the Mooney Suzuki, Daedelus, Probot, Jolie Holland, Youth Group and a bunch more. Oh, and did we mention the nekkid ladeez? All region!

Just got these in today, list day, four new aRCHIVE dvd titles (Ai Aso, Mick Barr, Khlyst, and Suishou No Fune). So, we haven't had a chance to watch 'em yet but since they're limited and all we figured you'd rather we just went ahead and listed 'em now rather than waiting 2 weeks. And all four artists are pretty cool after all. So, this one is from Japanese Tokyo Flashbackin' bleak psych-folk unit Suishou No Fune, featuring live footage from their 2007 East Coast USA tour, as shot and edited by James Plotkin. There's material from shows in NYC and Philly, and a segment where they jam with Bardo Pond and somebody called Harmonica Dan (like we say, we haven't seen it yet, but we'll guess he plays harmonica). So that all sounds pretty rad, if you like this band as much as we do. And Bardo Pond too! The dvd is approximately 1 hour long, and is packaged in a swank four-panel foldy card thing in a PVC bag, with art/design by Stephen O'Malley. Limited, OF COURSE, to 600 copies!!!!

Oftimes, in the past, the drifting dark psychedelia of Tokyo "bleak folk" combo Suishou No Fune has been on the dreamier side, never quite as distorted and heavy as some of their amp-frying Japanese peers. Up-Tight and LSD-march and Acid Mothers Temple and so forth tend to crank it up more brutally, more often, while Suishou No Fune, though often displaying flashes of heaviness, are usually content with wallowing in a more atmospheric, delicate sort of murk... so a title like "Mystic Atmosphere" is to be expected... yet on this new limited edition cd-r, Suishou No Fune (here a trio, with occasional drummer Tail on board) are fairly quick to turn it up to 11! The dreamy drift is still there, but also lots of clattery drum-pound and guitar grind, taken to its most loud n' distorted degree on the final, 14:48 monster jam "SUSANO'O". Elsewhere Suishou carve canyons of feedback through the mists of opener "The Memory Of Ancient Times" (also 14+ minutes), plod ritualistically into sweet oblivion on "Endless Descent" (11 minutes), and throw a lo-fi thrashing psych tantrum on "UZUME" (3 minutes). Definitely a SNF disc for those hankering to hear 'em heavy it up and freak out a bit more than usual. WAY limited. We only have a very small handful and they're the last copies ever...

MPEG stream: Endless Descent
MPEG stream: UZUME

There's been a batch of cool releases recently from this underground Tokyo flashbackin' "bleak-folk" duo, including live albums on both the aRCHIVE and Important labels. How best to follow those up? How 'bout with a two-disc, two-hour studio set on Holy Mountain, all the more room for the Suishou two (Pirako and Kageo, both on guitar and vocals) to sprawl out and let their heavy lidded (if not quite heavy) psychedelia bleed so bleakly and beautifully, including a few tracks previewed in live versions, like "Cherry" and "Til We Meet Again". Even if you haven't heard those, if you've heard any Suishou No Fune chances are you know what you're in for... the usual Suishou blend of fragile vocals wailing ever so gently over meanderingly melodic string strum and amp hum, a downer droney trance-out that's super languid and echoey, relaxed and Rallizesized. The extended, lethargic and lovely lo-fi shimmer that Suishou No Fune conjures is embellished by some percussive rattling ritual at the opening of "Prayer", and enhanced elsewhere by occasional amped-up moments of distortodelic heaviness ("Resurrection Night" being a solid sixteen-minute example), though it's generally far to the softer side of countryfolk Boris and Acid Mothers Temple (for instance). We can guess you'll be filing this with your Shizuka, LSD-march, and Nagisa Ni Te cds... that is, filing it only after playing it over and over quite a bit, lost in a hypnotic reverie each time. Prayer For Chibi was recorded with the help of Steven Wray Lobdell (David Redford Triad, Faust) and the cd booklet features Japanese-to-English translations of all the lyrics by the always helpful in that regard Alan Cummings, lyrics full of flowers, dreams, rain, stars, fireflies, and la la las...

MPEG stream: Prayer
MPEG stream: Resurrection Night

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

SORRY. What does Japanese underground psych-folk, limited to 300 copies, we only got a dozen mean to you? That we don't have to write a lengthy review of this? Thanks, we thought so. It's criminal that they made this so limited, 'cause some fans of this band are going to be disappointed (the ones that don't get a copy, of course, not those that do). This disc is another bleak trip into the "mystic atmosphere" of Suishou No Fune's lo-fi soundworld, the six long tracks here wandering a metaphorical, musical labyrinth golden with the glow of a setting sun. Some tracks generate a droning din, others more languidly flow with fragile vibrations, the band almost nodding off, but *nervously* never quite achieving that sad bliss. It's a hazy and gauzy interplay of (mostly) subdued electric guitar, clattering drums, and morose, wailing vocals that sound like the singer is singing *to himself*, trying to stave off existential loneliness and despair in the depths of the labyrinth. The guitar will sometimes build up, threatening full-on psych storms, but only really reaches max volume on the disc's final track, "Exit From The Labyrinth". We'd recommended this to fans of LSD-march, Fushitsusha, etc. but it's not necessary. Firstly those folks probably already know about Suishou No Fune and secondly, we only have enough of these for Suishou No Fune fans first and foremost.

MPEG stream: Fragments Of A Broken Glass
MPEG stream: The World In The Mirror

As always with our reviews of aRCHIVE releases, there's two things we can say about this, right off the top: the packaging is swank (in this case, the cd is affixed inside a glossy trifold card, itself enclosed in a translucent vellum wrapper). And it's hella limited (600 copies). So act fast if you want to score one of these documents of late-night, slow-burn psych from the duo of Tokyo's Pirako and Kageo. Recorded live in Philadelphia, PA on the 19th of March, 2007, The Light Of Dark Night consists of one 42 minute long track, featuring renditions of three songs flowing together: "Till We Meet Again (You Returned Home To The Heavens)", "A Rose Bloomed", and "You Look At The Night Sea". It begins with their guitars gently droning out of an ambient gloom, bleak yet beckoning... as their music meanders moodily forth, there's stretches of quiet, crystalline beauty, graced with soothing melody and yearning vocals... at other moments the proceedings are also graced with heavy duty distorto crunch, guitars amped up into sheer sheets of flashback fuzz! With no drums this night, it's more about the drone and the drift... definitely a disc that folks into the aura of Boris' Feedbacker might melt for.

MPEG stream: excerpt 1
MPEG stream: excerpt 2

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