[ aquarius records catalogue — U ]

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URGEHALIkonoklast(Season Of Mist)cd$ 14.98

It's been ages since we reviewed a record by Norwegian black metal horde Urgehal, but since we've been flipping out over Urgehal side project Angst Skvadron, we figured it was definitely time to check back in with the grim black mothership. For those of you who missed out on our raving about Angst Skvadron, the twisted black industrial avant prog black metal side project of Urgehal member Trondr Nefas, take a second, read the review, check out the side project, probably buy one, then come back here, so we can rave about this record too. Urgehal is not nearly as abstract or out there as Angst Skvadron, but someone capable of that sort of weirdness, well, you gotta think those twisted thoughts and messed up musical ideas must seep into their day job, and they do for sure, albeit subtly. The sound is total third wave classic Norwegian black metal, epic, majestic, buzzing blasting, with hints of classic thrash, some old school eighties metal, but make no mistake, this is grim, frosty, kvlt shit. Opener "Stesolid Self-Destruction To Damnation" is everything we want in black metal, frantic insectoid rigging, blasting drums, convoluted and complex, but, the vocals are seriously twisted, not shrieked, more a sort of demonic croak, and there are wild guitar leads all over the place, adds a little weirdness, without detracting from the grim core. The second track is a woozy, almost waltzy blackened dirge, with more sick vox, and some killer riffing, not to mention all sorts of haunting ominous atmosphere, until the song explodes again into a monstrous burst of crushing blasting heaviness, with some throbbing rumbling bass, which is definitely a rarity in black metal. And so it goes, a fucking beast of a black metal record, just twisted enough to make it special, but not overtly weird or fucked up. The final track is the gem here, super melodic, with all sorts of lush layered guitars, arpeggiated melodies, a seasick tempo, and a cool final movement wherein buzzing soaring riffage is draped over haunting reverbed piano, super creepy, but really beautiful too, until the riffs drop out, leaving just the piano, to play the record out.

URGEHALThrough Thick Fog Till Death(Southern Lord)cd$ 16.98

First off, check out the "Creature from the Black Metal Lagoon" on the cover of this disc! That spikey fellow is Enzifer, responsible for "666 strings of electrotorture" in this quartet. Guys with looks like that, along with graveyard photoshoots and bloody, scantily clad women... yeah we're talking black metal here, old school style. But not just some random band of corpsepainted goons, no this has been carefully selected for your enjoyment by one of (possibly) your favorite record labels. Now, the Southern Lord label is perhaps best known for sludgy doom releases like SUNNO))), Khanate and Boris. But along with the doom they've always had a thing for the Nordic black metal stuff too -- with their own Thorr's Hammer having been kind of a hybrid of the doom and the black. This release, a reissue (with four live bonus tracks) of the 2003 abum by Norwegian black metal cult Urgehal, demonstrates the Lord's black metal bonafides. After all, No Colours put out Urgehal's first two albums. You know it's gotta be a good 'un, and it is. A raging, frosty blast of Satanic metal lust. It's nothing that Darkthrone hasn't done before, but since when was that a criticism of a black metal band? Heck it's a badge of honor. The songs mostly blaze by at fierce clip with enough change-ups to keep it interesting (Urgehal either going fast, or really fast, or sometimes not-so-fast at a Burzum sort of pace), there's no keyboards, and it's got all the eerie atmosphere and metallic hookiness needed for your necro headbanging pleasure. Totally lives up to the Through Thick Fog Till [sic] Death title. By the way, this band includes an ex-member of Kvist (an old, obscure one-album black metal fave of both Allan, Andee and Byram here at AQ) plus folks currently in Crest Of Darkness.

URINALSNegative Capability(Warning Label)cd$ 14.98

URINALS, THEAnother EP(Superior Viaduct)7"$ 10.98

URINALS, THENegative Capability(In The Red Archives)2lp$ 22.00

We recently reviewed the Superior Viaduct vinyl reissue of the first and only full length from So-Cal (post) punks 100 Flowers, and as we mentioned in that review, before they were 100 Flowers, they were The Urinals, and as we mentioned in that review, 100 Flowers and The Urinals were essentially the same band, although with the name switch, came a pretty big stylistic shift as well, with the group angling for something more arty and poppy. But truth be told, even as The Urinals, their sound was pretty poppy and arty, more raw, more lo-fi, maybe a bit more, minimal and rhythmic and new wave, But ultimately this collection of the Urinals complete recorded works plays as a sort of rough and raw 100 Flowers demo, which is not a bad thing at all. So many amazing songs here, some serious pop genius on display, making the shift to 100 Flowers not all that surprising after all. "Black Hole" has a serious Yellow Pills power pop vibe, right down to the harmony vocals, and then there's "Sex", which is noisy and punky, but also poppy as all get out, or "Hologram" which might be our favorite track here, a strange bit of muted murky jangle, with tranced out tribal drumming, weirdly crooned vocals, the whole thing so weirdly minor key and mantra-like, and of course "Surfin' With The Shah", which is another surfy, jangly instrumental that for sure foreshadows the impending shift to 100 Flowers. And you might recognize "Ack Ack Ack Ack", frantic and frenetic, and not surprisingly later covered by the Minutemen, it's a strange collection for sure, sonically super varied, everything the group ever recorded, over the three years they were a band (1977-1980), from snotty snarly punk anthems ("I'm White And Middle Class"), to jangly, hook heavy pop punk ("Scholastic Aptitude"), to noisy lo-fi hardcore stomps ("Go Away Girls"), to twisted jangly sing-alongs laced with wild freakouts ("I Hate"), to angular post-punk crunch ("Presence Of Mind"), to organ driven surf-garage ("I'm Like You"), to reverby twang flecked jangle ("Orange Anal Sin"), and so much more. There are a ton of live tracks too, including a Soft Machine cover (!), as well as an acoustic version of "Sex" which had us thinking of the Dead Milkmen! WAY recommended, especially if you dug that 100 Flowers reissue, odds are you're gonna love this too! Includes download card too!

URINALS, THESex(Superior Viaduct)7"$ 10.98

URINALS, THEs/t(Superior Viaduct)7"$ 10.98

URSPRUNGs/t(Dial)cd$ 17.98

A couple years back, you may recall, there was great a record called Black Noise by an artist named Pantha Du Prince, and although the album title might have the uninitiated imagining something, well, blackened and noisy, it was in fact a gorgeous collection of minimal electronica, that had us totally smitten. So here we are a few years later, and while this is not a new PdP record, it might be something even better. Ursprung finds PdP teamed up with Stephan Abry from 'kraut-folk' combo Workshop, for what is essentially a disc of loop-guitar kosmische electronica, with Abry unfurling gorgeous Vini Reilly like guitar figures, abstract melodic tangles and blissed out Rother style new age kraut mesmer, to which PdP adds minimal beats, muted rhythms, various arrangements of electro skitter, and murky Kompakt style pulses. The sound varies greatly over the course of these ten tracks, but they're all held together by a distinctive melodic / compositional thread. And while many of the tracks are definitely beat driven, it's strangely enough not really about the beat. But more about the rhythm and the guitar interacting. The opener is all spidery twang, over a pitter patter rhythm, all drifting just below a layer of hiss drenched keening shimmer, which is soon joined by thick chordal low end thrum, warm and whirling and totally mesmerizing. The follow up sends little melodic flourishes into the ether, to drift weightlessly, before a blurred shuffle surfaces, pocked with little bits of glitch and static. From there on out, Ursprung weave a lush and delicate landscape of steel string buzz, of smeared dreamlike melodies, of barely there pulsations, chiming harmonics, murky moody dirges and fuzz drenched sprawls of Tim Hecker like shimmer, rumbling whirs and insect like skitter, lo-fi drones and percolating synths, the sound crystalline and shimmery one second, blurred and smeared and bleary the next, the beats barely there one moment, skittering and stuttering the next, but all perfectly woven into a fantastic songsuite of mesmerizing droned out guitar driven electro-minimalism.

URTHONAAmid Devonia's Alps(Further)cd-r$ 9.98

We're excited to get this brand new second release from England's Urthona, bursting with more of what we termed "shoegazing freeform rural-psych-noise-guitar-drone" in our review of their first disc. The liner notes credit "all sounds, including field recordings in Devon and Wiltshire" to Neil Mortimer, he who is one man mystic band that is Urthona. Ah, field recordings. You know we love nature sounds here at Aquarius. Wind, water, uh... massive howling psychedelic electric guitar blow outs? Since when did you need earplugs for an out of doors ramble? Well, maybe you do, if it's with Urthona! After all, the cover for Urthona's first album I Refute It Thus showed Mr. Mortimer standing atop some Cyclopean stones out on a moor, posed with his Gibson Les Paul guitar thrust downwards like he was summoning feedback from the granite, and the cover of this one depicts an waterproof-anorak-wearing Mortimer again with guitar on a mossy green rock in the middle of a series of cataracts somewhere on a wooded mountainside deep in the wilds of Dartmoor. Does Neil Mortimer always take his electric guitar along on hikes? When he's hiking with his pal, druid dude Julian Cope (who took the photos), apparently so... Thus, while woven into these tracks there are some environmental audio samples taken from Mortimer's soggy tramps about the West Country, including "footfall squelches" mentioned in the liner notes, there's also mega amounts of amped-up guitar (played through his favorite "Durham Electronics Crazy Horse fuzz pedal"). Of course, he's not really recording the guitar out in the great outdoors. But definitely when he's back in the studio making Urthona music, he's got the ancient English landscape he so loves on his mind, channelling that earth energy into waves of glorious rumbling guitar fuzz. There's moodier moments, but mainly what Urthona unleashes is an ever expanding, exploding, grinding white light distortion drone meant to be played loud, generating vibrations as physical and solid as those giant rocks and stones found on the album covers. Amidst which, once acclimated, listeners will discern melodies slowly moving, gentle and glacial. It's something like a more organic, psychedelic, pastoral SUNNO))). Remember think global, act local? Urthona thinks local, acts cosmic. Just as with Urthona's previous disc, this one also consists of three loooong instrumental tracks, this time they are: "Urthona's Barbaric Yawp Sounds Over The Roofs Of The World" (19:06), "The Waters Of The Fen Have Brought Forth Flowers" (17:43), and "Born Psychedelic" (19:56). Each one makes you glad to be alive and appreciative of such "barbaric yawp", indeed! (At least, if you too were born psychedelic.) It's on cd-r rather than cd this time, but the packaging is still super fancy, just like that of the debut, in a tri-fold eco-friendly wallet with insert cards of William Blake artwork and various evocative quotations.

URTHONAI Refute It Thus(Head Heritage)cd$ 13.98

"Feedback-laden West Country psychedelic free-noise garage metal" eh? Released by the record label division of druid rock dude Julian Cope's indispensable Head Heritage website? Gotta check that out!! And so we did, and so here it is... Urthona's I Refute It Thus. The cover of this disc bears a picture of a giant granite outcropping on a remote moor in England, beneath white clouds and a curiously pink sky. These massive, lichen-encrusted rocks have loomed over this particular Dartmoor hilltop for untold ages. If you look closely at this photograph, you'll see the figure of a long-haired man standing amidst the stones, facing the dawning sun, holding an upside down electric guitar, headstock jammed into the earth. Now imagine that his guitar is actually powered up, feeding back, plugged in somehow to the cyclopean stones, themselves both a source of earth-energy and also an obvious visual parallel to a wall of Marshall amplifiers... well, that's just about what the music on this cd sounds like!! Rock, from the rocks. (Except, Urthona use Fender amps not Marshalls... the liner notes also tell us Urthona play Les Paul guitars, and "make frequent use of the Durham Electronics Crazy Horse fuzz pedal", aha.) There's three long instrumental tracks on this mystic silver disc... beginning with the woozy, vertigo-inducing electric strum and howl of the ten minute "Urthona Cannot Be Destroyed", which sorta sounds like the Dr. Who theme being played on primitive feedback guitar by krautrock hippies Amon Duul... nice. Track two, "The Bright Burst Of Morning" (19:34) is dronier, calmer, yet expectant with doomic potential. And finally, the third track, "Sun And Moon So Heavy" (21:44) does indeed do justice to its title. Waves of deep, grinding, spaced out guitar, so heavy indeed. Blissful at low volumes, vibrationally destructive at louder ones... seriously you need to be carefully turning this disc up! It's certainly heavy, but in an in-the-red atmospheric way that can reward a quiet listen... The primal sheets of shrieking skree and dense distortion unfurled by Urthona's guitars (multitracked, as it's a one-man-band; Neil Mortimer take a bow) are also intertwined with pretty, folkish melodies, with also brief bouts of hand percussion or field recordings of gurgling waters mixed in... We're put in mind of the gritter moments of Steven R. Smith's Ulaan Khol I. Or perhaps a heavy Keiji Haino session, if he were channelling some cosmic acid-folk concept in his mind's ear. The other Neil (Young) and SUNNO))) could be further comparisons. This cd comes in a unique eco-friendly tri-fold cardboard sleeve, with card inserts bearing details of art by William Blake and quotations from Walt Whitman and Albert Einstein, amongst other thought-provoking text found here. The photograph of the "Hound Tor" on the front is by J. Cope himself... The packaging, designed by like minded pagan droner and fellow Cope associate, Holy McGrail, is fantastic, except that we have preferred if the cd itself had been given its own paper sleeve. The pocket it sits in, along with the two inserts, isn't snug enough to hold it completely securely, and some minor cosmetic scuffing might occur to the disc's playing surface as a result. Bah, but that's a minor complaint, and interferes not a whit with our enjoyment of Urthona's glorious shoegazing freeform rural-psych-noise-guitar-drone!! We love this, and a lot of you are sure to, too.

URTHONAThe Elements' Rage (A Clash Of The Stars And Moon)(Further)cd$ 13.98

Some seasons have passed, earth energy forces have again gathered, and now we are happy to herald the return of Urthona - aka Neil Mortimer, guitar-wielding Briton from the West Country, a man who channels the pagan spirits of his native land in the way the ancients intended - with massive psychedelic electric guitar/amplifier feedback! Just ask Urthona's sometime accomplice, the archdruid dude himself, Julian Cope, he'll tell you. Or ask us. We've raved about Urthona's "heavy rural sound" over the course of several releases. For this one, Urthona conjures up a storm, seriously, that's the idea - this is a concept album about a historic storm that swept across the southern British Isles in November of 1703, or so we're told (we didn't consult an almanac). Must have been a doozy to deserve this disc, which consists of a single epic track (38 minutes and 3 seconds, no more no less). Don't get the wrong idea - this "storm" is portrayed with a lot of nuance, moments of respite, suspenseful dynamics; it's not a full-on blow-out for the duration. All-instrumental, as always, this begins with the (ominous) calm before the storm, a mix of windy, watery field recording ambience and quietly keening guitar feedbackdrone, slowly building, surging, unfurling, as the storm approaches. Mortimer's carefully collected and edited environmental field recordings lend verisimilitude, concept-wise, but it's how they blend with the howl of his guitar that gives this its amazing power, you hear the wind and rain but also what the imagination can only conceive of as celestial sounds, like sad angels singing wordlessly (don't laugh). 'Tis glorious stuff. Imagine, if you can, a Caspar Brotzmann / Chris Watson collaboration. Even at about ten or twelve minutes in, the storm hasn't fully struck, in fact, maybe there's a break in the clouds, some sun shining through, but you know that's not going to last... no, but it's another tantalizing and beautiful feedback-sculpted ten minutes or so more, before the drones of Mortimer's guitar and ambient weather recordings truly build into storm-of-the-century proportions, at the tempestuous climax of which Mortimer's abstract axe/amp wrangling (talk about guitar "squall") is further augmented with some "destroyed drumming" (or maybe this is when the drumming really kicks in, it could have been there all along, just buried under / indistinguishable from the distortion). Better batten down the hatches if you haven't already. And then, at the end, feel cathartic peace, the (sonic) storm having washed away all cares. Altogether a lovely experience for those who dig the elements: wind, water, electric guitar. We're always impressed with the amount of thought and care that Urthona/Mortimer puts in to his music, conceptually and compositionally - and that's carried through with its packaging every time as well. So once again, a super nice physical artifact, the disc coming in a T-shaped four-panel folding sleeve bearing color photos of Mortimer in a red anorak, with his trusty Les Paul, clambering around on WWII era anti-tank defenses on a beach in Dorset. It includes two inserts, a small hand-printed one and a larger, folded one; the latter with b&w photos of stones accompanied by some intriguing quotes.

URTHONAUrthona 3: Super-Heavy Hamoazian Reverie(Further)cd$ 13.98

Time once again, we're honored to announce, that we all are enabled to plug directly into the Earth's own Ur-Drone, 'cause we've got the new album from England's Urthona, psychedelic drone warriors heavily inspired, or even empowered, by the mythic natural landscapes of their rural West Country home, a green and pleasant and pagan land... Previous Urthona missives have all contained long, epic tracks, but this one takes things further, as it's but one single piece, clocking in at 47 minutes, 59 seconds, conceptually concerned with the "elemental cyclic seasons" and patterns of weather in the Southwest of England. "Super-Heavy Hamoazian Reverie" lives up to its title, and you don't even have to know what "Hamoazian" means (The Hamoaze is a stretch of river in Devon and Cornwall, it turns out). There's field recordings from the area's moors and ancient tors woven into/buried under the hazy, echoing guitar distortion, feedback and assorted electronics of the main Urthona dude/druid Neil Mortimer - whose usual amped up, windswept guitar and synthesizer is augmented by more modular synth from prior Urthona collaborator The Asterism, as well as for the first time on an Urthona recording, drums! Though we feel like we've heard some subtle hand percussion on other Urthonas, before. The drums here, though, are more to the fore, when unleashed - while much of this is droning, drifting drumlessness, when they do start pounding the skins, additional krautrocking power is manifested, and maybe it's no surprise that one of the guest drummers here is longtime Urthona associate Julian Cope, who knows a thing or two about ritualistic rock n' roll. The other two (!) drummers are Mr. E from Cope's band Braindonor, and one Albert Snazz. We're beginning to think of the Boredoms, say circa Super Roots 5. And as always, we'll mention Ulan Khol, Keiji Haino, and maybe Neil Young a la Arc. Cope you may remember once appeared on a SUNNO))) album, spouting pagan poetry... and while this is all-instrumental (they confine the poetry to the text found on the cd's sleeve and its inserts), Urthona could definitely (again) be compared to a pastoral SUNNO))) of sorts. This album is a sometimes blissful, but often blistering, trip, certainly meant to be played LOUD for full submission/submergence. There's feedbacky frenzies and quieter, calmer stretches too... sometimes The Hamoaze is flowing strongly, water roiling, other times it meanders gently, into an estuary with "strange eddies and weird tides", where you could certainly still slip beneath its placid surface and drown, down among the "conger eels and U-boat nets"... we're quoting here from the text that accompanies the cd, which is packaged, as with previous Urthona releases, in a handsome, eco-friendly cardboard tri-fold sleeve, with lovely photos/art, including two card inserts bearing quotations from William Blake and Fredrick Douglass.

URTHONA AND THE ASTERISMMurmurations(Further)cd$ 13.98

Chuffed to get another gorgeous transmission from the pagan UK dronester known as Urthona! Previously we've enjoyed the heavy organic sounds of his J. Cope approved "shoegazing freeform rural-psych-noise-guitar-drone" via Urthona's I Refute It Thus cd on Head Heritage and Amid Devonia's Alps cd-r on Further. Now he's back, teamed up with a likeminded mysterious entity known as The Asterism, for a cd (not cd-r) on Further called Murmurations. There's two tracks here, "River Severn Bore" clocking in at 24 minutes 20 seconds and the title track, a mere 19 minutes 50 seconds... about what we'd expect, epics! Both pieces are titled after natural phenomena that even though admitting of scientific explanation, still may appear mystically significant even to modern day observers. "River Severn Bore" refers to an unusually high wave that in ancient days inspired legends, "Murmurations" are what vast swirling swooping flocks of starlings are called, as they dance in the air, seemingly synchronized in their movements. Both titles make for excellent inspirations for the sonics here, Urthona and The Asterism's amped up guitars building buzzing drones massive enough to match such awesome spectacles, with their own field recordings captured on hikes in the English countryside mixed in perfectly, the electronic fuzz eventually morphing into a wash of rain/water sounds at the end of "River Severn Bore" ferinstance. That's the denser/darker of the two pieces, throbbing thickly, grinding drones licked with feedback, SUNNO))) and Boris fans should bow down... "Murmurations" is heavy too, but as befits its subject, displays more agile, active movement, sounding somehow exotic and raga-like, with delicate high-end shimmer from guitars and amps echoing the cries of birds from the field recordings that are also present in the mix, as is, we think, some gentle percussion... it falls somewhere between James Blackshaw and Bong, perhaps. Quite lovely -and- fuzzy. Packaging is again a trifold "eco-wallet" affair, recycled cardstock, vegetable based inks, these fellows nature worship taken pretty seriously, in more than just the music...

USAISAMONSTERR.I.P.(Northern Spy)cd$ 14.98

Sadly it's R.I.P. for Brooklyn-based artpunk combo USAisamonster, this is indeed their final recording (though we're pretty sure that despite disbanding, they still think the USA remains a monster). As their many previous offerings displayed, these folks are part prog rock, part druggy jamboree, part campfire singalong, and thus pretty unique, and quite delightful. With both singsongy mathrock spazz pop and synth-driven psych-outs, along with references to Native American folklore, this record fits firmly in the grand USAisamonster tradition, and makes for a fitting epitaph to their confusional career. The distorted screaming attack of "Four More Years" stands in contrast to the much more melodic vocal approach found on most of the tracks, vocals which are sometimes chanted in a way that makes us think of The Shaggs just a bit - though unlike The Shaggs, this unit of course has got hella technical chops (just check out the jazz fusion-y guitar soloing of "Heavner"!). With odd timings, plenty of melody, quirky surprises, and their own original, undefinable X-factor, it's difficult to make comparisons to other bands, but if you like, we dunno, say Deerhoof, Lightning Bolt, The Ex, 31knots, Talibam! (a member of which guests here) and, uh, Thingy, you should check these guys out if you haven't already. USAisamonster's legacy is to leave the world of music a little richer... and possibly more bewildered. They will be missed. Don't miss this.

USAISAMONSTER, THECitizens of the Chronic(Infrasound)cd$ 12.98

With a name sure to sell copies of their records overseas, this (American) two-piece unit would be wise to step up the availability of their merch. This release, the second to appear on our new arrivals list in the space of a month, shows that perhaps they're aware of the golden marketing opportunity the Bush administration has been providing. Actually, Citizens of the Chronic constitutes a compact disc edition of two previous vinyl releases by the band: 2002's Masonic Chronic 45rpm 12" ep and 2001's Citizens of the Universe LP. In the wake of the duo's excellent, recently highlighted Tasheyana Compost album, this is a most welcome reissue indeed. The disc is packed with tightly wound, yet rubbery math-rock outbursts, again in a politicized punk-hippy vein (not in the 'grebo' sense though!). With vocals varying from chanted poetry to punk shouting to absurdist falsetto 'singing', it's the instrumental 'grooves' that will get you though, full of maddening repetitions, noisy chaos, tight changes, and manic energy. Yet some unexpectedly melodic, almost folky moments crop up betwixt their twangy hardcore assaults. With their sincere, skronk-folk songwriting, Usaisamonster are somehow the hybridization of Lightning Bolt, Suicidal Tendencies, Amps For Christ, and NoMeansNo. Maybe. Anyway, they're pretty great at whatever you want to call what they do. So get Tasheyana Compost, first, and then if you need another dose (like we did), pick this up.

USAISAMONSTER, THESpace Programs(Load)cd$ 15.98

More spiraling, spastic yet melodic punk-prog from this radical Brooklyn band - radical both politically, and in the, like, "rad, dude!" sense of the term. A mere two-piece (with the occasional guest helping out on a couple songs herein, when the use of trombone and throat singing became necessary), The Usaisamonster draw comparisons to Lightning Bolt but go off in a lot more directions fancy and fantastical than that band. Maybe, imagine a hectic hybrid of Lightning Bolt, Koenjihyakkei, Heavy Vegetable, Deerhoof, Sun City Girls, and Uz Jsme Doma... Certainly opener "Cocaine Wedding" sounds something like that. Though later in this album, Usaisamonster mellow out a bit (never, however indulging in much of the campfire hippy folk stuff that imbalanced some of their previous albums). "Above All It's The Songs" is the title of one such mellower song here, one that comes the closest to being playable on '70s AM radio of anything these freaks have done, which is not too close of course. And above all it IS the songs we love 'em for, Space Programs simply being another fine collection of the Usaisamonster brand of bizarre but sincere-sounding songsmithery. Done with distorted stabbing guitars, catchy quirky rhythmic grooves, deliberate vocal chant (a la Om), sudden changes (from gentle placidity to roiling frenzy), and interesting, odd lyrics (as always evincing their interest in Native American heritage).

USAISAMONSTER, THESunset At The End Of The Industrial Age(Load)cd$ 14.98

Head spinning, herky jerky, bright and bold, yes indeedy one of our very favorite Load-label bands is back with a new album! Who else blends spazzcore prog with folk and hippy punk protest like these guys?? Nobody in the whole wide 'homeland' that every day makes this band's moniker more and more of a commonplace sentiment worldwide. It's no wonder that The Usaisamonster identify so closely with our nation's indigenous inhabitants, seeking some sort of (mythical, perhaps) spirituality, innocence and virtue somewhere in our shared American culture (the track "Okeepa Ceremony" is an example). Yet they don't choose to express their political passions (anger/disgust/horror, mainly) with unpleasant doomy grind or anything like that. No, their ranting takes the form of music that's much more creatively colorful and chaotic, up to and including epics like the 13 minute title cut, which spins from droning build ups to prog riff attack to simple folky strum. So even if you don't always get where they're coming from (or where they're going) the musical trip they take still is usually pretty interesting, or will be in just a matter of seconds. Imagine Lightning Bolt in Indian headdresses, jamming 'round a hippy campfire at an anti-G8 protest, something like that... musically, aesthetically and politically we can dig this album's general ideals, if not always the specifics, but regardless it's quite a spectacle!

USAISAMONSTER, THETasheyana Compost(Load)cd$ 13.98

Mathy, maddening, totally infectious protest rock from what's now the Brooklyn-based duo of Tom Hohmann (drums, keys, vocals) and Colin Matthews (guitar, vocals). We've had some of their hand-decorated LPs and cd-rs before, and were happy to see 'em show up on Load with this amazingly 'produced' effort. Their brand of post-hardcore art rock is hard to describe. Maybe a metallic (not metal, just metallic) Deerhoof? Their complexity and power remind us a bit of Ruins, and definitely Lightning Bolt and other Rhode Island spazz rock. Tasheyana Compost is all about rubbery spiraling grooves constructed with cheap keyboards, tinny, twangy, trebly guitar, and energetic drumming. 'Spoken' styled vocals and chants mostly accompany the music, but then in track 9 ("Pastures") some quasi-operatic by comparison vox surface -- cool. Their vibrant music is matched by the day glo pink cd cover with an American Indian drawn on it...they're down with Native Americans and other oppressed peoples, as near as we can tell from the cryptic lyrics. They kinda have a hippy punk political thing going on, I guess? Their great band name is of course a tip off. Allan says: this really freakin' grew on me. I thought it was gonna be all noisy and sloppy but instead, in it's own way, it's *tight* and catchy as heck. Recommended!

USAISAMONSTER, THEWohaw(Load)cd$ 14.98

Always thought this band was called The Usaisamonster, one word like that, but on the cover of this there's spaces between the words, The Usa Is A Monster. In interest of being consistent in our catalog, though, we're gonna continue to run 'em together. And either way, it's a damn good, unfortunately true, bold-statement kind of name, perfectly matched to the radical political attitudes expressed in the songs of this weird Brooklyn art-spazz-core-folk duo. We've been fans of these guys since they first brought us a bunch of self-released cd-rs and LPs some years back, and really really loved their previous Load release, 2003's Tasheyana Compost. The brand new Wohaw, which unleashes more of their rather unique blend of prog, punk and folk, has a similar appeal. It's a bit like a weird combination of Lightning Bolt and Robbie Basho! Herky jerky heaviness (with the 'Bolt's brand of bug zapper distortion) meets what could be traditional folk songs. Children's folk songs even. And there's a definite Native American Indian obsession/appropriation still going on here as well. This is the kind of band that uses big amps and a gizillion effects pedals, but also likes to take off their shirts to play flutes and hand drums (as pictured on one side of the folding cd-insert). Partway through, this album maybe loses some steam for us, going a bit too far in the acoustic-folk direction (something their singing ability can't quite support, to be honest). Suddenly it's campfire sounds and poetry, with nothing electric to be heard. But when they're doing the unique Usaisamonster hybridization of folk and noisecore that we prefer, this is fantastic. Definitely check this out if Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, Amps For Christ, and/or Thrones are bands you're into, as something about this reminds us of all of them.

USED, THEs/t(Reprise)cd$ 12.98

Rockin' the Ozzfest, the Warped Tour, and uh, I think some Blink 182 shows or something too, this emo/metal/pop/punk/hardcore act from Utah has hit the commercial big time already with their self-titled Reprise debut. Screamy but melodic, kinda like AQ faves Poison The Well or something I guess. Whiny emo guys and Slayer fans both will find something to like here. Well, not all Slayer fans. But whiny emo guys who *also* like metal should be happy. Presumably that's who's in the band as well. HUGE HUGE production and about the heaviest/catchiest thing you'll hear on modern rock radio. If this band was on an indie label (which might increase their chances of lasting more than one record) they would be HUGE and there'd be kids sitting outside 7-11's all over the country, sporting USED patches on their back packs.

USER, THEAbandon(Asphodel)cd$ 13.98

Remember The User from their Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers releases? They're the Quebec-based duo that made some amazing, techno-ish music simply by programming the output of a bunch of old printers! Now they've got another idea... Sonically, this is all about very nice, drifting, almost melodic, but very physical drones. Rising and falling, hovering, hypnotic. Conceptually, this is the sound of The User "playing" an abandoned grain elevator building in Montreal. That large resonating space (capacity five million bushels of wheat!) is an empty environment for them to set up electroacoustic feedback loops, resulting in these rumbling drones. There's some knocking about, like echoes of the activity that once took place in the building -- should we call this music "agricultural" as opposed to "industrial"? Mostly, though, these vibrating frequencies are absent any obvious source. This could be computer music, or one of Toshiya Tsunoda's field recordings of the air in a bottle... Very different from the dot matrix symphony concept for sure, and very beautiful. This silo performance is apparently only the first in a series to be recorded at the site, under the auspices of an organization called Silophone. More info to be had at www.silophone.net...

USER, THESymphony #1 For Dot Matrix Printers(Staalplaat)3"cd$ 8.98

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

SORRY. Yes, just what it says. Twelve ordinary office dot-matrix printers printing ASCII files from twelve computers, networked to a server (the symphony's "conductor") indeed create a rhythmic "symphony" of familiar buzzing/clacking sounds. That conceptual gimmick alone might make this worthwhile, but better still, the vaguely techno/electronica styled music is pretty cool regardless of the unusual source. Pretty neat.

USER, THESymphony #2 For Dot Matrix Printers(Asphodel)cd$ 13.98

The User's Symphony #1 For Dot Matrix Printers was released as a little 3" cd on the Staalplaat label back in 1999, and this longer follow up is (again) just what you'd expect: a bunch of standard, now rather obsolete, dot matrix computer printers running through a server (the "conductor"), set up to "make music" by printing synchonized ASCII files prepared by The User (Montreal duo Emmanuel Madan and Thomas Macintosh). It's kind of like a player piano music idea applied to ordinary office equipment. The resulting sounds make for some very satisfying, rhythmic, clicking and clacking "electronica" / "minimal techno" music (a la Raster Noton stuff like Noto). Or is this meant as a satiric commentary on such music? Regardless it's good listening. It's especially neat when you have it playing and you forget what you're listening to, your brain placing it in the catagory of "ambient background noise" (the usual fate of printer sounds) even though you probably don't have any dot matrix printers around...and then you gradually notice these mundane noises coalescing into music and you realize it's The User. It's been a while since I've listened to The User's first Dot Matrix Symphony, but this one seems a bit more musically sophisticated, although the conceptual gimmick (a cool one) remains, obviously, the same. For their next project, though, we're told The User will be documenting sounds from their Silophone, a sound installation in an abandoned grain silo that can be accessed to the public through the internet.

USPUTUSPUDDisco(Caligulan Records)cassette$ 5.98

FINALLY, the long awaited follow up to Usputuspud's "Liturgical Alcoholik", the side project of the mighty Wildildlife's, and Aquarius' own, Matthew J. Rogers. It actually hasn't been that long, but the otherworldly allure of his first tape had more than a few of us wondering where he would go next. With his new tape, Disco, gone is the delicate, breathy, gauzy, and windy washes of harmonica, replaced by much more muscular and present tones, as well as an entirely new commitment to rhythm. Anyone who has enjoyed the last couple Astral Social Club releases will be pleasantly surprised by this tape, as it has a similar angle on club music, but stretches the palette elsewhere. Where ASC has employed a program of smooth digital disorientation, Usputuspud invigorates the 4/4 dance tradition with incredibly warm, tapey washes of distorted harmonica, accented by the skitter and sputter of rhythmic clusters careening through the mix. The A-Side, "Cherished Wig," begins with a spare collection of dubby rhythmic ingredients, all persistently staking their claim to the track, before the 4/4 beat and harmonica washes flood the stage. As the track progresses the harmonica builds and bleeds through the entire spectrum of the track, resulting in a droney bedlam of bleary eyed tones, wandering the far reaches of the red. The b-side, "Fetish Ball", begins with an amazing and infectious loop of what sounds like a heavily distorted gamelan instrument. It's an entirely globular and bulging phrase, occasionally giving way to warm waves of distortion and losing its phase, but then coming back with buoyant and propulsive revolutions. In the loop's periphery Usputuspud accents the rhythms with surging bass tones, and watery percussive paddling sounds. As the song progresses, the variety and intensity of peripheral sounds grow, to include exalted vocal howling, and more established percussive counterpoint. The track ends with a fantastic and surprising coda that employs a more diverse array of tones, and a production approach that removes the distorted obfuscations from his sometimes belied interest in dance music. "Disco," is a nuanced affair, finding a soft spot between the ethereal drone of his previous work, and the uhhh... post-proto-motorik gabber he has infused it with! The results are mesmerizing, and recommended indeed. And to boot, it may be the most handsomely packaged tape we've received this year, with a beautiful layout, accented by vintage black-ink stamps, and some seriously decorative hole punching.

USPUTUSPUDLiturgical Alcoholik(White Lodge Tapes)cassette$ 4.00

Our very own mailorder underlord Matt just got back from a month long US tour with his band Wildildlife, hope you got to catch them live. We grabbed a bunch of this tape that Matt was selling on tour, a recording of his solo project, the bizarrely titled Usputuspud. When he's not shirtless and flailing wildly on stage with a bloodied and battered guitar, he's apparently holed up in a dark corner of some basement with some tapes, a 4 track, a different guitar and a harmonica (!). That's right, harmonica. But fear not, these aren't a bunch of back porch blues jams, this is some seriously dark and droney ambience. Deep resonant swells, drift and shimmer, melodies are pulled apart, the constituent notes allowed to float freely along the mysterious black tide, dramatic, melodic and strangely cinematic, you can almost imagine some vocalist like Nick Cave, crooning over the top, some hellish end of the world balladeering. Mysterious and mystical, a muted mumbly soundscape of rumble and shimmer, a gauzy low end smear, through which all sorts of subtle sonic colorings are visible, everything druggy and subtly psychedelic, an ominous creeping crawl into some dark pit of sound, glowing red, lit from below by some mysterious fire below. Essential for fans of all things slow and low, but wouldn't be entirely out of place in your tape case, next to your Yellow Swans, Skaters and Quetzolcoatl cassettes...

USPUTUSPUDLive In The Shit(The Nafs)cassette$ 4.50

Don't even try pronouncing this band's name. Just sit back, relax and let the murky tones send you into a cosmic nightmare, where fried-out Afro-beats meet mind melting droney destruction. Sound too awesome to be true? We thought so too. Solo project of Matthew Rogers, member of the heavy hitting Wildildlife (and former aQ employee!!), Live In The Shit is the latest live recording from Upsputspud, and it's a warm engulfing wave of fucked up bliss. Side A begins with a slow building wall of harsh, New Agey drones, kinda reminding us of taking a Cocteau Twins intro and sending it through all kinds of analog fuzziness and delay. A subtle rhythm creeps up from from the hazy horizon, a hypnotic pulse turning and melting into pools of cosmic dust. Usputuspud emits a sound solely its own, lo-fi astral loops soaked in layers of dirt and fuzz, like a more damaged and lo-fi Zomes (if you can even imagine). Side B starts things running, layers of epic harmonica growing louder and louder until some low end crumble begins to eat away at the tape itself. Drugged out psychedelic filth, soaked in radiation and neon face paint, left out in the desert to dry. Imagine a more mysterious and epic sounding Monopoly Star Child Searchers, then thrown in a dash of rhythmic weirdness, and you have Live In The Shit. Limited to 80 tapes in a cryptic xeroxed insert, these will go fast, so don't be left in the dust on this one!

USSACHEVSKY, VLADIMIRElectronic And Acoustic Works(New World Records)cd$ 16.98

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

SORRY.

USSACHEVSKY, VLADIMIRMusic of...(CRI)cd$ 15.98

For a man who could have been the Prince of Mongolia (read the liner notes for the whole story...), Ussachevsky has made it into the history books not for political but for musical reasons, as he was the founder of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the originator of the school of "tape music", the American experimenation developed independently of the French "musique concrete" and the German "elecktroniche musik". This collection features six compositions for electronic tape (including the awesome "Wireless Fantasy" in which bursts of electrical noise and morse code tappings are collaged over a fragment of Wagner's "Parsifal", which in turn was treated to sound like a short-wave radio transmission) and six pieces of choral work (which are often accompanied the electronic medium).

USTINOV, PETERThe Grand Prix Of Gibraltar!(Riverside)cd$ 15.98

USURP SYNAPSEDisinformation(Alone)cd$ 14.98

USURPERNecronemesis(Necropolis)cd$ 14.98

The "brimstone fist" of Chicago metal warlords Usurper strikes again. Necro this, necro that. Deathly grunts and ironclad guitars old skool style, as these dudes are well-known worshippers of Celtic Frost and other '80s underground thrashers. Leather, spikes and chains. This release even has black metal god King Diamond singing backup on one track (which, apparently, he did in return for Usurper rescheduling the recording of this album so that King Diamond could use the same studio to finish his recent disc).

USURPERSkeletal Season(Necropolis)cd$ 12.98

From Chicago, black/death/thrash metal in the vein of Celtic Frost, including the vocalist's love of Tom G. Warrior's death grunt. "Unghah, hey hey".

USURPERTwilight Dominion(Earache)cd$ 15.98

USVA / DRACORe-Desecrating The South Carelian Graves(Bestial Burst)cd$ 13.98

USX (AKA U.S. CHRISTMAS)Valley Path(Neurot)cd$ 14.98

Yay, it's Christmastime again. Well, US Xmas time that is. We don't know why they picked that odd name (abbreviated here to USX, dunno if that's an official change or what), but it doesn't matter now anyhow, since we've become firm fans of this band of Southern, psychedelic space rock, Hawkwind-worshipping, country-flecked heavies. Fans like us will be happy that they've got a new album out, and it's good, real good. However, The Valley Path may or may not be the best one for the uninitiated to start with, as it consists of but one long (38:53) song! A real doozy, obviously. Listening to this, we realize USX remind us of True Widow, if they stretched out and drew more on the majestic post-rock dynamics of the Neur-Isis contingent (USX are on Neurot after all), big and bombastic yet seriously moody and atmospheric at the same time. This album/song is replete with weary vocals, epic wailing psych guitar eruptions, wide open drone-twang, sweeping strings, martial drums, ambient field recordings, and sizzling synth FX... Yeah, we think you'll like it, if you dig anything/everything from latter-days Earth and Barn Owl to Godspeed You Black Emperor! to Six Organs Of Admittance to Grails to more recent Zoroaster. Merry USX everybody!

UTGriller(Mute)cd$ 14.98

Ut's final recording Griller from 1989 fully demonstrates the radical shift that the band made after they emerged from the NYC No Wave scene in the late '70s. With a much more conventional approach to songwriting, the straight forward tracks and vocals have much more in common with the Riot Grrl movement that was still a couple years away. Even the jagged melodies matched with unnerving vocal trills from Ut's three rotating vocalists (Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham, and Sally Young) were the obvious precursors to what Sleater Kinney would be producing shortly thereafter. Griller is also punctuated by a handful of far more obtuse songs which reflect the earlier, grittier sound with choppy twin guitars, rolling bass, and drum plod paralleling those of Live Skull or early Sonic Youth. Originally released back in the day on Blast First, now reissued through Mute.

UTIn Gut's House(Mute)cd$ 14.98

While the all-women trio Ut had their beginnings in New York back in 1978 coming out of the No Wave scene that spawned Mars, DNA, Sonic Youth, Swans, and many others, New York did not treat the ladies all that well. Their debut release was to come out on the influential Lust/Unlust label; however, the label folded before the record hit the streets. Shortly thereafter, Ut's Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham, and Sally Young packed up and moved to London, where the trio flourished and received considerable acclaim. In Gut's House was originally released as a double LP back in 1988 through Blast First, balancing their acerbic No Wave edge with a skewed pop-sensibility that would have found them in the company of the Slits or Liliput had they entertained more of a propulsive, groove sound. Instead, the rhythmic backbeat of Ut's sound is more of a morose plod acting as counterweight to the agitated, spiky guitars. When shifted further from a pop structuralism, Ut's narcoleptic nervousness was a gripping doppleganger for some of the great tracks produced by Mars back in the late '70s; but when their sound slipped in the other direction toward a more conventional songwriting approach, Ut's tunes foreshadowed the energy of Sleater Kinney. In Gut's House has long been heralded as a remarkable album and certainly enjoys some noble company due to their No Wave credentials, but is also an album that sparked many others who improved upon their template. Look no further than Erase Errata for the case in point.

UTARMApocryphal Stories(Handmade Birds)cd$ 12.98

For some reason, we've never properly reviewed a Utarm record on the aQ list before, even though the aQ metalheads here are longtime fans. We did review their split with Servile Sect offshoot Sadness Saturn, and dug their half quite a bit. And we gave a brief mention to their 2009 full length Minus The Divine, but now is the time to give this weirdo Norwegian black doom experimental one man band his aQ due, and it's pretty good timing too, as this might just be his most warped and what the fuck outing to date, which makes it even more fitting that he found their way on to the Handmade Birds label, his twisted take on doom-ed BM a perfect fit, alongside outfits like Circle Of Ouroborus, Pyramids, Crooked Necks, Sutekh Hexen, Pinkish Black, Theologian, not to say Utarm sounds like any of those groups, he most certainly doesn't but like those outfits, Utarm most definitely forges his own twisted, idiosyncratic sonic path. Only five tracks, but most are loooooong, the opener begins with a smoldering expanse of keening, music box melodies, over sheets of super distorted high end tones, feedback, anguished vocal mewlings, woozy and druggy, more twisted electro-ambience, and droned out avant psychedelia, it's not until six minutes in before there's any trace of actual metal, black or otherwise, and when it does erupt out of the warped sonic swirl, it's not the buzzing blackness you might expect, instead, it's a sort of epic, heaving, Gnaw Their Tongues style bombastic majesty, pounding, slo-mo drum crush, keening soaring metallic guitar buzz, howled wailed vocals, the melodies unfurling mournfully, a sort of ur-drone doom, almost like Sunroof! if they were from Norway and sported a black metal pedigree, we kept expecting it to burst into something buzzier or blacker, but instead, it continued to ratchet up the tension, total heart of the sun, black doom, ur-drone bliss out. The following track laces weird samples into swoonsome symphonic swells, and tortured, near operatic vokills, the vibe dense and dramatic, almost like some sort of satanic cabaret. The music warped and warbly, the tempo shifting constantly, as if someone was physically altering the speed, the result a woozy, creepy sprawl of dramatic black ambience that unwinds like some blackened, noise drenched murder ballad. That is before it crumbles into near silence, only to explode a weird black tangle, buzzing guitars, wild shrieking vokills, the whole thing wreathed in static, and glitch, and malfunctioning FX, but somehow retaining that twisted cabaret vibe. From there on out, it doesn't get any less weird, or any more traditionally black metal, instead, each of the three remaining songs, unfolds like some cursed garden of poisonous black flowers, heaving swells of epic chordal buzz, doused in sheets of crumbling distortion, but within this blacknoise, all sorts of swirling minor key melodies, layer upon layer, heavily textured, and strangely moving, "Black Light Aeon Apocryphia" almost sounds like Tim Hecker or Nadja, that same sort of warm melodic doomdrone swell, blown out and gorgeously gristly, while "The Headen Of Men And A Left Hand Dagger", the shortest of the bunch, still clocking in at a whopping 6:42, is a dense squirming tangle of layered guitar buzz, a tranced out electrified dronescape, brilliant arcs of whiteheat guitargrowl are channeled into a single sure of super heated Skullflower like guitarnoise, underneath which all manner of other sounds roil and churn. Tranced out and totally hypnotic. And finally, the record ends with the 10+ minute "Above Death", which is another sprawling field of high end howl, a sky full of burnished, black energy, streaks and contrails bleeding into a blinding white light, a grinding onslaught of industrial white noise, filtered through a fractured avant black metal filter, emerging on the other side some sort of damaged avant power electronics, the sort of thing that would make Utarm right at home on a label like Cold Spring, or the perfect group to tour with Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend or Theologian. Fierce and fucked up and dementedly brilliant, but black metalheads tread lightly, this could definitely be the gateway to much scarier, much noisier stuff...

UTARMMinus The Divine(Turgid Animal)cd$ 11.98

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

SORRY. No review for this... but here's what we said about Utarm's half of their split with fellow experimental metallers Sadness Saturn: Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing.

UTARM / SADNESS SATURNsplit(Chrysalis Of Matter)cassette$ 8.98

Ultra limited split between these two experimental black metal entities. Sadness Saturn is one of the guys behind aQ faves Servile Sect, whose most recent release just got re-issued on vinyl via Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, and Utarm is a one man band from Norway; the two square off on this split cassette tape. Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing. Sadness Saturn traffic in something much more raw and grim, unlike the glistening alien drone drenched blackness of Servile Sect, the sound here is a pounding black murk, the vocals and guitars nearly indistinguishable, all wound around each other like a single cloud of muted black buzz, the drums relentless and machinelike, but buried within SS's cavernous lo-fi crush, are haunting melodies, soaring and epic, the riffs, after repeated listens seem to crystallize, become much more intense and emotional, transforming simple black metal into something strangely melodic and abstract, but still plenty black and grim. Incredible packaging, printed black and white fold out covers with the band logos printed in extra glossy black ink, the tape case housed in a hand assembled slipcover, hand screened with a super striking, and super evil sigil. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have about 15, probably the last ones we'll ever get...

UTERUSGoatgod(Funeral Moonlight Productions)cd$ 10.98

UTLAGR1066 - Blood And Iron In Hastings(Sepulchral Productions)cd$ 13.98

We were pretty obsessed with the debut from this Canadian Viking black metal horde, released way back when on bad ass UK label Paradigms, so we of course planned on reviewing their second record as well, this one right here, but for whatever reason, it just sort of slipped through the cracks, and thus it was only quite recently that we realized A) we had somehow never reviewed it, and B) we had a handful in stock. Better late than never we suppose, and if we had more copies you can bet this would be a big ol' blackened highlight, but as it is, it's more of a warehouse find, and what a find it is! Like their debut, Utlagr spit out a furious (but still melodic) blast of epic, majestic, Scandinavian style blackness, a little bit Viking for sure, but more in the imagery and themes, sonically, they continue to channel Immortal, Satyricon, Mayhem and most especially Enslaved. Frantic riffing, sweeping melodies, furious drumming, the sound slipping from frosty buzz to waltzy melancholia, grinding grim crunch to mathy DSO style gnarled blackness, woozy depressive drift to almost classic sounding metal majesty. Fucking awesome!

UTLAGRTraditions Normandes(Paradigms)cd$ 11.98

Another blast of frosty grim blackness from the always reliable Paradigms label. In the past, they've brought us the drone dirge of Hjarnidaudi (an AQ Record Of The Week), the chamber gloom of Amber Asylum, the cult black metal of Throne Of Katarsis, the druggy prog of Blueprint Human Being, and now two new releases, a slow motion dirge metal epic from The Angelic Process (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this, the debut (as far as we can tell) from Canadian black metal warriors Utlagr. This is epic, classic, Scandanavian style black metal, very much in the spirit of Immortal, Satyricon and Mayhem, and while Utlagr may not be Scandanavian, their roots most certainly are, as evidenced by this blackened tribute to their Pagan heritage, in honor of Rolfr Utlagr, founder of Normandy, their ancestral homeland. They may in fact be from Canada in the year 2006, but eyes closed they could be from Norway circa 1995! Whirling winter winds blow an ill wind from the North, while melancholy acoustic guitars, offer up lilting melancholia, before being obliterated by a burst of blasting Pagan brutality. Six tracks of buzzing majesty, blasting beats, gloriously epic melodies, all wrapped up in a thunderous swirl of dense and grim, furiously foresty classic cult black metal might! Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.

UTONAlitaja Ylimina(Dekorder)lp$ 22.00

For every band that manages a record every few months, there are bands who we like just as much, but who we don't hear from nearly enough. Such is the case with Finnish combo Uton. In the space of time it takes for us to get a new record from these guys, a band like Circle spit out 2 or 3 (even more if you count side projects). But with Uton it's well worth the wait. Alitaju is another epic expanse of mysterious murk and long form ambience. A dizzying mix of Finnish free folk, and haunting dark ambience. Uton's sound is always both massive and cavernous, as well as intimate and highly detailed. This record is no different. Uton drags us along on a strange and wondrous journey through long muddy swirls of muted melody and wide open stretches of indistinct blur and shadow, almost festive percussion jams draped over wheezing accordions and distorted feedback, all wrapped in foggy swirls of fuzz, chaotic free jazz freakouts with mad drumming, and wildly fluttering flutes, and all stops in between. The long tracks here tend to be slow moving glacial crawls, with all the instruments smeared into one blurry whole, a drifting stretch of warm muted soft sound, that just sort of envelops you with it's haunting mystery and dense creeping beauty, those tracks separated by the more rhythmic passages, almost like a rise in the road,where the fog clears and you can see for miles into the distance, before you dip back down under cover of the grey clouds and billowing fog. As always, gorgeous and mysterious.

UTONBackground For Silence(Ruralfaune)cd-r$ 10.98

Latest missive from these Finnish forest freaks, who continue to churn out, utterly mesmerizing otherworldly murk, every record as weird and wonderful as the last. Background For Silence is two tracks, nearly fifty minutes, of Uton at their most subtle and understated, a muddy ambient swirl of sound, simple strummed guitars smeared into streaks of grey and brown, draped over a strange mechanical whirring, the sounds eventually blending into a warm droning shimmer, while over the top drift little crackles of feedback, crumbling clatter, various creaks and thumps, and barely audible voices. None of those extraneous sounds detract from the static mesmer though, with the drone eventually taking on more of an electronic vibe, with the guitar and whir being joined by layers of static and glitchy hiss, all blurred into a single slow shifting expanse of dark ambience. The second track is even more minimal, with the same sound somehow muted into a mumbled low end drift, while a minimal melody is played out over the top by an oscillating tone that buzzes in and out like a tiny swarm of electronic insects. Before too long however, the track becomes more lively, as the sound expands to include bits of clatter, chimes and percussion, low end guitar thrum, wheezing keyboard, skronking horns, fluttering flutes, bits of FX and processed voices, the sound becoming distinctly more 'free folk' than strictly dreamy and droney. Packaged in a full color sleeve, with printed inner insert, and sealed with a piece of twine. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!! We got a handful and they will probably go fast...

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UTONEchoes In The Wonderland(DNT)lp$ 17.98

It seems like in every Uton review, we inevitably mention both that they are mysterious, and that we don't get nearly enough music from them. And once again, it's been a while since we've heard from these mysterious Finnish forest freaks, who definitely rank way up their in our Finnish music pantheon, and the fact that their record seem to be rare occasions only makes us treasure them more. This latest was in fact recorded two years ago, on a 4 track using only headphones as speakers ("no other speakers were used during recordings and mixing of this record", the liner notes proudly explain). It's also suggested that we "listen near midnight in a dark room (or with minimal light)" which is always good advice when it comes to Uton, whose music is haunting and ritualistic, and most definitely evokes some sort of nocturnal gathering, especially here, where processed voices chant over fluttering flutes and minimal percussion. Swirling squelchy effects drift in fields of deep sonorous rumbles and whirs, manufactured field recordings surround layers of malfunctioning synths, and dreamy melodic cacophonies, and lush swirling swaths of deep low end, this new record darkly restrained, meditative and hypnotic, heavy on the vocal driven drones and subterranean shimmer, with some almost throat singing woven into the woozy whirling thrum, everything driven by murky pulses and buried rhythms, might be the darkest, dreamiest Uton yet, and as always, WAY recommended. LIMITED TO 275 COPIES!!

UTONGround's Dream Cosmic Love(Students Of Decay)cd-r$ 7.98

These last few weeks we've been trying to get a bunch of kick ass cd's and cd-r's reviewed for no other reason than they have been sitting here way too long, when they should be spinning in someone's stereo or jammed into someone's iPod. It's been a while, almost a year actually, since we last reviewed something by Finnish freedrone combo Uton, not counting these two discs that have been sitting here forever! Not because they're not great, they are actually, just because we dropped the ball. Anyway, these were both super limited, so odds are once we sell out of the small clutch we have of each, we won't be able to get more, so if these tickle your fancy, and hard to imagine they wouldn't, you better be quick. Ground's Dream Cosmic Love, released on Students of Decay way back in 2006, is most definitely out of print, limited to only 100 copies or so, which means these are definitely the last ever. A single 45 minute long track, about as murky and muddy and mysterious as these guys get, glistening melodies hover wraithlike, beneath a constant warm low end rumble, washed out and whirring endlessly, it's like the sound of surf, the rumble of rain on rooftops, the vibrations of a passing train, thunder, the vibrations of a busy overpass, all melted down into a swirling black morass, a black pool of sound that seems to ripple subtle with various effects and buried sonic events. A seriously dense sprawl, like being buried alive in a concrete bunker and listening to the world above ground, or floating weightless on the ocean's floor, listening to huge tankers rumble by, a dense and gorgeous slab of ultra minimal dronemusic, rife with subtleties that most definitely reward close listening. Again, this one is WAY out of print, so go for it, but steel yourself for some disappointment.