We're embarassed to say we were late in getting hip to the damaged druggy folk genius of Pearls Before Swine. But a recent spate of reissues, had us rushing back to catch up on all the stuff we missed. And apparently we were the only ones so sadly far behind the curve, as this Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine tribute, featuring loads of AQ favorites, is already on volume 2 and 3. Oh well, better late than never. So this double cd features a who's who of the underground indie free folk scene: Kemialliset Ystevat, The Olivetree (Glenn from Thuja, Blithe sons, etc...), Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple's Kawabata Makoto, Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Oren Ambarchi, Black Forest / Black Sea, Noxagt, Fursaxa, Alastair Galbraith, Dead Raven Choir and those are just the bands we're familiar with. There's a whole host of others including Marissa Nadler, Aquarium Poppers, Gentle Tasaday, Prydwyn, James Jackson Toth, Bevel, Ron Chelsvig, Cauldren, Mutter and a bunch more.
In the realms of extreme metal, few bands have had as much impact as NOLA doom sludge legends Eyehategod. Even if said impact is based solely on the number of bands who cite them as a musical influence (read: totally ripped off their sound).�
Do you think we'd have Cavity, Mistress, Floor, Dove, Monarch, Khanate, Goatsblood, Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, Khanate, Moho, Zoroaster, Graves At Sea, Shallow North Dakota, Sourvein, Crowbar, Dot [.], Fleshpress, Marzuraan, Toadliquor, Wellington, Weedeater, Ramesses, Electric Wizard or any of about a million other downtuned doom metal sludge bands without Eyehategod? Don't think so.�
So finally, Eyehategod get their due, in the form of, a two disc tribute album, For The Sick, a massive collection of sonic prayers from various worshippers at the throne of Eyehategod. Lots of the above mentioned bands, as well as loads of other heavy headz like Cable, Bowel, Alabama Thunderpussy, Deadbird, Kylesa, Brutal Truth, Byzantine, Raging Speedhorn, Total Fucking Destruction, Minsk, Lair Of The Minotaur, Bloody Panda, Mouth Of The Architect, Swarm Of The Lotus, Kill The Client and loads more!
Most folks will want to buy this already either because they LOVE Eyehategod, and need to own anything even peripherally related, want to hear their favorite EHG songs done by some of their other favorite EHG acolytes, or they love some or all of the bands involved. Probably for most of us it's all three. Two discs, over two hours, a veritable downtuned doomsludge orgy, guitars grind, low end throbs and buzzes, riffs are glacial and soul crushing, squealing serpentine feedback all over the place, vocals are spittle spewing glass gargling, throat shredding howls, every track a tarpit dirge with pummeling pounding drums, and that strange slowed down almost-groove that seems to lurk within every EHG song no matter how slow or blown out.
Hard not to recommend this. It's slow, heavy, crushing, and it's got some of the most amazing songs ever! "Sister Fucker", "White Nigger", "My Name Is God (I Hate You)", "Kill Your Boss" (What?! No "Hit A Girl"?!) Positive vibes, not. If somehow you've managed to miss out on Eyehategod, drop everything and run out and pick up Dopesick or�In The Name Of Suffering or�Take As Needed For Pain, and then once you're properly indoctrinated into the cult of EHG, come on back and pick this up. The rest of you sludge heads already know you need this...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Interpretation of the work of Tom Rapp and Pearls Before Swine. With such luminaries as Flying Saucer Attack, Ghost's Masaki Batoh, Damon and Naomi, Bevis Frond, Mourning Cloak, and Tom Rapp himself.
A collection of covers of Depeche Mode songs from The Cure, Monster Magnet, Meat Beat Manifesto, Rammstein, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.... But the two that take the cake are the brilliant interpretations by Hooverphonic ("Shake the Disease" a wistful noirish trip hop track that recalls Portishead) and Locust ("Master & Servant" smooth dark basslines that sounds more like Barry Adamson than the electronica shards normally constructed by Locust).
This disc is pretty much Force Inc's answer to Richie Hawtin's "DE9: Closer To the Edit", method-wise. Guest producer Algorithm was commissioned to create this album, using a series of digitized loops from Force Lab's catalog of singles as well as some
As elemental to psychedelic music of the sixties and seventies as fuzz-fueled freakouts and surreal mystical lyricism, was the dirge! Those slow and heavy head-nodding anthems of bittersweet self-reflection often replete with powerful descending chord progressions and moody and soulful angst-laden vocal crooning.
The amazing folks at the Now-Again label (who usually focus on the funk side of the psychedelic equation) have assembled quite a tour-de-force with these rare heavy-hitters from around the globe, including long-time aQ favorites as well as plenty of new discoveries. Here's the line-up: Top Drawer (Kentucky), Sensational Saints (Cleveland, OH), East of Underground (USA via Germany), D.R. Hooker (New Haven, CT), Shin Jung Hyun & The Men (Korea), T. Zchiew & The Johnny (Thailand), The Strangers (Nigeria), Damon (Los Angeles, CA), Ellison (Montreal), Morly Grey (Cleveland, OH), Shadrack Chameleon (Dakota City, IA), Ofege (Nigeria), Ana Y Jaime (Columbia), Kourosh Yaghmaei (Iran), and Baby Grandmothers (Sweden)! Focusing not only on the rare, but also the rather unconventional modes of the ballad, this compilation doesn't just cover heavy psych territory, but also crosses currents with gospel, soul and downbeat international funk by obscure artists who sought after their own kind of sound. Just in time for those cold winter months, this is perfect fireside listening. In fact, it's the perfect, sad and beautiful companion to the energetic exuberance of that Psych Funk 101 compilation, we raved about a couple of lists ago. Meaning, it's a total must-have!
The cd comes with a beautiful booklet of album covers and notes about each band.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
You may recall a couple of AQ lists back (#114) we were raving about Adult., and named it one of the records of the week. Well, Adam Miller (one half of the Detroit duo and Ersatz Audio label mastermind) has many more electro gems up his lab coat sleeve and on his label. He shares a sampling of them with us on this dark, kinetic compilation which documents the music on Ersatz Audio from 1995-99. Included are a handful of tracks from each of his own projects LeCar, Adult. and Artificial Material, as well as notable cuts from Platex, Third Electric and G.D.Luxxe. Pulsating beats and thick synths prod your boogie mechanism as spartan synthetic voices seep through to the inner reaches of your ears.
A new San Francisco music compilation that totally runs the gamut style-wise. Comprised of tracks by 16 diverse artists including Twenty Minute Loop, Etienne De Rocher, John Vanderslice, and Ian Brennan.
Subtitled "A Collection of Music From Around the World", this compilation contains twenty-five tracks, all of which are 30 seconds apiece, from the likes of Faust, Skullflower's Stefan Jaworzyn, Merzbow, Incapacitants, Pickle Factory, Illusion of Safety, Nurse With Wound, Lee Ranaldo, and many others. We've had this on 10" vinyl before, but this is the first time it's been available on disc.
Of the hundred of Record Store Day special releases, we got as many copies of as many titles as we could, sold out of most of them, but a few we managed to get enough to list for out of town folks who might not have a local record store do visit on that oh so sacred of record nerd days, one of which is this, a super cool 5 track sampler, featuring new music from some names that most loyal aQ list readers will recognize right away: Blonde Redhead, Ariel Pink, Gang Gang Dance, The Big Pink, Tune Yards.
Most of these tracks will show up on forthcoming full lengths from these groups, but 4 of the 5 are different versions, demos, rough early versions, definitely worth it for fans of any of these groups.
It's weird enough that Ariel Pink is signed to 4AD, but with this first taste of the upcoming record, we hear a whole new side of AP and his gang, not nearly as lo-fi, or twisted, instead, loping, groovy, almost funky basslines, shuffling skeletal rhythms, reverbed guitars, and deep crooned almost gothic sounding vox, a sort of creepy broody ballad, but fear not, it does get pretty damaged by the end, all crumbling FX drenched psychedelic free-eak out meltdown, can't wait to hear more.
Blonde Redhead offer up a demo for a song from their new record, their first music in 3+ years, lush, woozy, electronic, warm and organic, less indie sounding, way more 'adult', like the most accessible Bjork tracks, still really dark and mysterious and beautiful, shimmery and dreamy, just more restrained and mature.
The Gang Gang Dance track, their first music for 4AD is awesome, a sprawling, super spare, stripped down dubscape, thick warbly bass, clipped samples, disembodied vocals, hazy and softly psychedelic, but really mesmerizing and beautiful.
The Tune Yards track is super soulful world music sounding demo, groovy and lovely, with crunchy looped samples, shimmery blurred acoustic guitars, sweet vocals, gradually growing more and more distorted. Cool.
And finally, a previously unreleased track from The Big Pink, all washed out and druggy, total Spacemen 3 / Jesus And Mary Chain vibe, buzzy guitars, buried barely there rhythms, reverbed and echoey and woozily hypnotic.
We have a bunch of these left, but once they're gone we won't be able to get more, so grab one while you can...
Beginning back in 2002, Framework is a radio show hosted by Patrick McGinley, who presents his listeners with an hour dedicated to field recordings and their use in composition. The first broadcasts appeared via Resonance FM in London, with syndication of the show expanding through various stations online and over-the-air in Belgium, Greece, and on occasion New York. The shows are stellar productions (even when streamed online) with McGinley often able to solicit exclusive field recordings from his numerous contacts around the globe. In celebration of the 250th broadcast and in support of his original host Resonance FM, McGinley has assembled this amazing 4cd document of exclusive compositions that in some way, shape, or form incorporate the art of field recording into the final piece. The list of contributors is quite large, and certainly acts as a who's who in the realm of avant-garde composition, featuring Phill Niblock, Asmus Tietchens, Peter Cusack, Steve Roden, Giancarlo Toniutti, and of course Chris Watson (arguably the pinnacle of sound ecology). But there's plenty of those who we here at aQuarius have long championed: Loren Chasse, Michael Northam, McGinley's own project Murmer, Jonathan Coleclough, Tarab, Keith Berry, John Grzinich, Eric Cordier, Richard Garet and our own Jim Haynes.
With four discs, there's a lot to cover and a surprisingly large amount of high caliber material. So, here it goes... Wooden creaks, bell strikes, and distant bird calls slowly percolate to the surface of Jonathan Coleclough's collaboration with Ben Owen, who collectively augment those sounds with Feldman-like gestures of windswept tonal clusters. Stalwart concrete / sound artist Toy Bizarre offers a compacted mass of water sounds; and Mark Schrieber offers a composition of squeezed noise courtesy of a windshield wiper grating against a contact microphone. Jim Haynes scrapes slabs of slate together before transmitting a harmonic overdrive of clustered bell-n-shortwave tone-floatation. Toshiya Tsunoda's exquisite study in low-end vibration patterns originated from a rope lashed from a boat to pier in his native Japan. Seth Nehil turns the cacophony of a traffic jam into a meditative thrum punctuated by mechanical gestures, aerated hisses, and oblique moanings. Having set contact microphones upon several pieces of wood mounted to a small dam, Maksims Sentelevs captured a polyphony of chiming noises amidst the bubbling watery percolation that's quite unsettling. Eric Cordier's haunted ululations and distant squeals loop hypnotically, making allusions more to horror sound effects rather than typical field recording fodder, even if the material is probably the sound of a gull screeching just off the shoreline. Jeph Jerman's grey hiss of a field recording scrabbles with the sound of insects rummaging around bamboo, all the while sounding like an extract cassette from the bottom of a tarpit. Conducting something of a small ritual with objects around his apartment, Loren Chasse layers textural sounds into an enthralling, mysterious mass of hushed sound. Tarab's corroded drones and tactile spillages from pure field recordings are as captivating as ever, proving that he's one of the more under-recognized composers around today. Steve Roden's contemplative, lulling piece is beautifully composed from two notes on guitar quietly plucked against the hiss of a rainstorm recorded back in 1930s on a 78 as an early sound effects record. Keith Berry's hauntological ambience could easily give Leyland Kirby a run for his money. Industrial rumble and concrete bunker reverberation dominate the low-end frequencies of Jez Riley French's exceptional contribution, perfectly situated next to the obscurant documentation from Giancarlo Toniutti's rattlings of ironworks and deep environmental droning. Chris Watson makes no secrets as to the source on his recording "Ravens" who sound as ominous and cackling as you would expect. Phill Niblock's contribution was sourced from a field recording he made back in 1986 of church bells, but elongated digitally into a slightly atypical piece for the minimalist, as it's less than 6 minutes long!
Whew! All of this and more. There's also the fact that this is limited to 250 copies. Actually, none of these discs were to be available in shops at all, but McGinley made one exception to this rule, allowing Aquarius to have a handful of these. We have less than a dozen, and it remains to be seen if we'll be able to get more. Yes, it's expensive, but it is worth it for the material at hand, plus the proceeds are going to support McGinley's production for Framework and Resonance FM.
Patrick McGinley has been broadcasting his exemplary Framework Radio series since 2002, showcasing the wild and wooly uses of field recordings in composition with the occasional Finnish freak-folk tune (laced with bird song, of course!). He began Framework through the seminal London-based Resonance FM, gradually expanding his scope with stations licensing the series around the globe. In support of these productions, McGinley started a small cd-r imprint whose releases would only be available to the donors supporting Framework; but he's made one very kind exception to this, appointing aQuarius as his sole retail outlet. The first collection McGinley offered was a 4-disc set of exclusive tracks with some heavy hitters amongst the lot including Chris Watson, Phill Niblock, and Giancarlo Toniutti with plenty of AQ-favorites dotted in the nearly five hours worth of music.
Here, McGinley begins what looks to be a quarterly cd-r series of exclusive material whose compositions feature field recordings in some way, shape, or form. At least for Issue #1, McGinley has picked an array of artists not featured on that aforementioned 4-disc set.
Here, the artists include Marc Behrens, Ernst Karel, Gill Arno, Sebastiane Hegarty, Mark Peter Wright, Mecha/Orga, Paulo Raposo, Lee Patterson, and Joe Stevens. The swarming, buzzing drone of Sebastiane Hegarty's track is a magnificent piece of field recording, originating from a couple of contact microphones attached to a taut wire vibrated by stiff English winds. Eerie and beautiful in its harmonic humming as an Aeolian harp. The Marc Behrens track reworks the chaotic urban soundscape of Hong Kong into a complex musique concrete piece looking back to those early collages by Jim O'Rourke. The enveloping thrum of Mark Peter Wright's very impressive "Around And Within" originated from a network of decommissioned drain pipes that resonate with a thick, vibrating set of frequencies captured with open air microphones along with the drips from melting snow. Very nice. Lee Patterson's hydrophone recordings capture the rich chorus beneath the surface of various fish and water-borne insects, with a skittering almost electrified-sounding bed of staccato chatter and sferic arcs. Paolo Raposo also uses hydrophones, although he coaxes ringing tones and drones from those recordings in this brightened piece of minimalist shimmer. A brilliant collection through and through.
Yes, the price is steep for a cd-r, but the offset folio packaging is quite nice and proceeds from this disc go to support Resonance FM!
Patrick McGinley's Framework radio show has been on the air for well over a decade now, sporting the tag line of "Phonography, field recordings, the art of sound hunting. Open your ears and listen." He began Framework through the seminal London-based Resonance FM, gradually expanding his scope with stations licensing the series around the globe. In support of these productions, McGinley (who also records under the moniker Murmer, fyi...) started a small cd-r imprint whose releases would only be available to the donors supporting Framework; but he's made one very kind exception to this, appointing aQuarius as his sole retail outlet.
This is the second in the ongoing series of the semi-regular Framework Seasonal publications, featuring a fantastic array of sound artists using field recordings in composition. Most of the artists featured are making their aQ debuts, although we are well acquainted with the work of the aktionist performance artist Dave Phillips of the Schimpfluch Gruppe and the industrial clamor of Australian engineer Camilla Hannan. Phillips's piece, being a field recording, is not the overt aggression one would find in his bloodcurdling performances or his diabolical sound designs; but certainly holds true to his abject agenda. He managed to capture the sound of a very drugged out transvestite shrieking into the night sky, punctuated by metallic clanks presumably from Phillips banging on the rails of a stairwell. Whether the transvestite was responding to Phillips sporadic percussive klank or not is unknown, but it does make for a very strange, and very unsettling duet. The Lithuanian sound artist Sala constructs an equally creepy track called "Arboreal Burial" that draws inspiration from a dream he had about a group of trees which bid farewell to their fallen brothers and sisters by sending them down to the river. The field recordings of creaking trees and deep resonant windscapes amass into churning thickets of acoustic noise. Very unsettling. Situated next to Sala's mobile tree rituals, a sense of dread rubs off on James Wyness' "6 Listening Environments," a collection of rustic scrapes and springtime weather events from the English countryside. Both Camilla Hannan and Aymeric De Tapol draw from the ultrasound and thrumming resonance of ship engines, with vastly different results. The former focuses on the wheezing repetition of the chugging pistons; where the latter collects the massive drones diffused through large bodies of water. There's all of this plus tracks from JD Zazie, Anton Mobin, Pali Meursault, and Lass-Marc Reik. Another brilliant collection from Framework!
Framework is a radio broadcast wholly dedicated to field-recording, and its use in composition. The tagline to the show is "Field-recording, phonography, the art of sound-hunting; open your ears and listen!" Each quarter, the show's producer and host, Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) has been commissioning composers, sound ecologists, dronologists, and noise technicians for work to be included in a parallel series of limited edition cd-rs for subscribers to the show. None of these discs have been made available to any shops, except for aQuarius; and now, McGinley offers us the fourth installment in that series. As before, McGinley offers some heavy hitters intermixed with some emerging artists. Here, the former includes Francisco Lopez, Yannick Dauby, and Maile Colbert; with the latter including Terje Paulson, Flavien Gillie, and Luis Antero. These recordings demonstrate considerable manipulation of the sounds and / or engagement with the environment, even if that's just through the deliberate choices of context.
Flavien Gillie's placid recordings of the winter birds from a nature reserve in Brussels speak to the contextualization approach, while Yannick Dauby & Olivier Feraud's manhandling of a fallen tree trunk, render its fibers all of the squiggliness of a theremin. Stefan Paulus' collage of farm-built bells that jangle from the necks of meandering cows and deep thrumming subharmonics from nearby shipping docks makes for one of the more compelling compositions from this edition. France Jobim's liquid drones were sourced from surreptitious recordings made at the Morongo Casino in Southern California, with the racket of the slot machines and the controlled carnavalesque cacophony inverted into ephemeral wisps of minimalism. Francisco Lopez proves once again why he's been one of the most respected artists using environmental sounds over the past two decades. His eerie reverberant tones and elongated slashes of razor sharp frequencies bend and curve along an amorphous surface that is both organic and synthetic, akin to the latter day works from The Hafler Trio. Maile Colbert laces her ecological portraits with a series of slow, maudlin melodies that points to the grandiose, dreamtime pieces of Stars of the Lid. Really beautiful!
Thank God for the nerds! The Framework Seasonal series continues with an amazing set of archival recordings from the Derby Tape Recording Club and the Leicester Tape Recording Club. Yeah, you read that right. Tape Recording Clubs! These represented two regional clubs which operated in this little known phenomenon that reached a peak in the late '60s and early '70s with commercial grade technology becoming readily available. Many of these clubs would actually record onto reel-to-reel tape, organizing outings upon which the participants would pool resources in order to collect primitive field recordings of motorcycle races, the howler monkeys from the Paignton Zoo, bowling tournaments, a guided tour from a power turbine... and yeah, there's a recorded example of trainspotting with a young man reading off the line and make of a particular train to the heart of England. Many of these recordings show their age with lots of tape hiss, compressed frequencies, clunky hard-stop edits, and a few bits of blown-out microphone distortion; but, really when is that a criticism here at aQuarius? But the charms of these recordings are not just found in the patina of crackle and flutter; the documented sounds themselves are often accompanied by narration from the various club members. One of our favorite field recordings is the bicycle ride of Leicester's John Buckler, who huffs and puffs his way through traffic noting the fish and chips shop to his left and how out of shape he is from a two minute bike ride uphill. There's a couple extracts from the Derby club's Christmas Party including a spirited round of musical chairs; and another gem is the radio advertisement from the Derby club complete with Derbyshire-ish bleepity electronics and an earnest call to join the club. Library Music enthusiasts will be rapt with joy over these antiquated sounds! What a gem of an album!
As we've noted before, the proceeds from the Framework Seasonal discs go to support the Framework Radio series of broadcasts dedicated to field recordings and their use in composition. Hence, the price.
Here's the sixth in the ongoing cd series from Framework, the weekly radio series hosted by Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) who defines the broadcasts as a "show consecrated to field-recording and its use in composition. Field-recording, phonography, the art of sound-hunting. Open your ears and listen!" All of these recordings found on the Framework Seasonal series are exclusive tracks, and as on the radio series, McGinley actively seeks out and encourages many emerging sound artists by including their work alongside some of more well known phonographers and sound ecologists. Mathieu Ruhlmann's exemplary piece of tactile slithering only cites amplified medical equipment and debris, with the hushed white noise of rumpled textures reflecting similar sounds from Small Cruel Party and Loren Chasse. One the finest composers of phonography Eric La Casa does not disappoint with his concrete-styled piece of clanging metal, military-installation rumblings conjoined with ominous bursts of thunder and seemingly indifferent field recordings to the tectonic shifts occurring throughout. Chris Whitehead's expressive chemical reactions emerge as small skittering events with echoing reverberations across plates of metal; but with the small interludes from what sounds like a muffled guitar, the piece almost recalls a super stripped down / subdued version of a Michael Morley / Gate track. Kim Walker's slow psychographical collage traces the various sites of sonic interest from the ancient kingdom of Moray located in what is now Scotland. Seafaring birds, oceanic roar, and the sounds of urban din lace this sunny sounding recording. Artificial Memory Trace, Sawako and David Velez take very hands off approaches to their straight field recordings - with AMT & Sawako recording the din of insects in the forest and Velez setting up a microphone inside an empty metal oil drum being struck by branches in the wind. These Seasonal Issues are super limited, and the proceeds of each issue goes towards the continued production of the Framework radio series.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A quick look at the listing of groups on this super limited triple cd-r collection of songs from France, or about France, or with some sort of French angle, should have most weird music fans freaking out bigtime. All exclusive tracks from tons of AQ faves, including: The Shitty Listener, Quetzolcoatl, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Silvester Anfang, Heavy Winged, Tom Carter, The North Sea, Taiga Remains, Ashtray Navigations, Uton, The Futurians, Mike Tamburo, Tanakh, Black Forest Black Sea, Ben Reynolds, Volcano The Bear, 6majik9, CJA, The Stumps, Gregg Kowalsky, Fursaxa, Seht, Valerio Cosi, Fabi Orsi, Birds Of Delay, Bjerga / Iverson, Robert Horton and more more more. 3+ hours of strange and magical sounds from all over the world, but all centered around France. From the ultra lo-fi barely audible pop genius of The Shitty Listener, the gorgeous mournful steel string Appalachian folk of The North Sea, the washed out murky drift of Quetzolcoatl, some super spare solo electric guitar drift from Tom Carter, a bit of haunting high end tribal buzz from Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, some gorgeous shuffle and twang, slither and creep from Silvester Anfang, an epic druggy slowburning NZ-style krautrockish jam from The Stumps, some whispered crystalline shimmer from Fursaxa and we could go on and on. Varied and expansive, from folk to drone to noise to pound to swirl to buzz to twang...
As with all RuralFaune stuff, meticulously packaged, each one hand assembled, three spray painted discs, rouge, blanc and bleu (the colors of the French flag), housed in a cool textured red and orange wallpaper cover, in a thick vinyl sleeve, with a sticker on the front. Inside is a huge fold out, 2 sided poster insert, with liner notes on one side and a painting on the other, as well as a bunch of other inserts, stickers, a tiny square of paper hand numbered and a "piece of blotting paper impregnated with red wine"!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. We will NOT be able to get more...
This is another limited cd-r from the mighty VHF, and once again they do it up right. No chintzy photocopied, thrown together bullshit. This cd-r comes in a gorgeous cardboard gatefold with full color images (of a whimsical frog) pasted on the front and
A followup to the recent Broasted or Fried compilation released on the dependable UK label Harmless, FreakOff again collects "Latin breakbeats, basslines, and boogaloo" recorded from 1963 to '73, made predominantly by Puerto Rican Hispanics living in NYC,
Unauthorized remixes of Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On" by Kid 606, Kevin Blechdom, Max Tundra, Posterboys of the Apocalypse, Mortal & Chemist and Kid 666 (uh, Kid 606 again). Sure to go out of print quickly, if not destroyed by Miss E and Elektra's lawyers first. The Kid's "Take The Piss On" humorously plunders in the melody of A-Ha's "Take On Me".
On October 29, 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the appeal of Mumia Abu-Jamal who, unjustly convicted of murdering a policeman, has been on death row for 18 years. This means the governor of Pennsylvania can sign the execution order at any time. The case against Mumia is completely fucked, if you hadn't already heard. Four witnesses said they saw someone else shoot the cop and flee the scene; two witnesses at the trial came forward and said they'd been forced by the police to lie under oath; the obviously-biased judge that has overseen his case from the beginning has sentenced twice as many people to death than any other judge in the country; the list of travesties goes on and on.
If Mumia's life has ever depended on a public, international outcry of support, it's right now more than ever. So this benefit cd is one form of that: an impressive, internationally assembled roster of musicians all contributing tracks, most of them exclusive and composed specifically for and about Mumia. It's really, really excellent music -- a scintillating survey of utterly contemporary grooves -- from wailing reggae to downtempo triphop, righteous and fiery hiphop, dub, and jungle. Contributors include Roni Size, Primal Scream (with Augustus Pablo), Asian Dub Foundation, Fun-Da-Mental, Third Eye Foundation, Zion Train, Smith & Mighty, the Rootsman, Chumbawumba, and so many more.
Double cd with fat booklet containing details of the case, quotes from the Declaration of Independence, Martin Luther King Jr, Rage Against the Machine, Amnesty International, and Mumia himself. And fascinating sections on the Black Panthers, the fucked up US prison system, other political victims like the Rosenbergs and Leonard Peltier, tons of contact and web-related info, and more.
See here for more Amnesty International's detailed and complete report [http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/reports/mumia/content.html].
Benefit compilation for Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols & Jessie Misskelley, otherwise known as the "West Memphis 3". In 1993 the three men, then teenagers, were tried and convicted for murder (Damien is currently awaiting lethal injection). The case is pretty heart rendingly laid out in the documentary "Paradise Lost", and if you haven't seen it I recommend it. According to the liner notes, the three "liked the kind of music that's on this CD." Though the producers and artists' hearts are in the right place with this comp, I think that these aren't the satanic rock and roll bands that the town was so upset over, and I don't know that the kids had even heard of Steve Earle, Rocket From The Crypt, Tom Waits, Supersuckers, Kelley Deal, Mark Lanegan, L7, John Doe, Murder City Devils or even Nashville Pussy. But they and more artists appear here to assist in their legal fund, and we applaud that. The tracks are all exclusive to this album and quite a few are covers, of the sort of stuff that Damien & Co. probably did listen to: Kelley Deal performs a Pantera song ("Fucking Hostile"--next to the Carnival In Coal version of this, our favorite Pantera cover ever), Murder City Devils play the Misfits ("She"), Zeke does Iron Maiden ("Wrathchild"), Nashville Pussy busts out some AC/DC ("Highway To Hell") and much more.
Who knew? Back in the sixties, not all the folk singers were left-wing pinko peaceniks. Apparently, there were a few "counter-counter-culture" folkies strumming and singing, in much the same style as the more popular likes of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez, but with a reactionary, not revolutionary, agenda. Singing songs of patriotism and anti-Communism, three folk troubadours for the "Silent Majority" - Janet Greene, Tony Dolan, and Vera Vanderlaan - appear here, on tracks from releases circa 1965-'68, that now sound quite quaint and corny, and maybe did back then too. Leave it to The Omni Recording Corporation to come up with a collection like this! It's both amusing (in a kind of Stephen Colbert kitsch sort of way), and of nostalgic, historical interest. Which brings up a point - it helps if you know stuff like what the S.D.S. was, and who Alger Hiss was, to fully appreciate these songs. Though everybody will get the jokes about hippies and hygiene! Many of the songs here are passionate and heartfelt ("Cry The Beloved Country", "Remember Bloody Budapest"); others are humorous, both intentionally and otherwise. Tony Dolan's "Abolish, Abolish!", which is actually in support of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, is quite Tom Lehrer-esqe in its tone of sarcastic, ironic humor ("Now it calls the Reds destructive, they're not that at all, they're actually very constructive, take a look at the Berlin Wall"). His "Join The S.D.S." is like that too, with one line being "They're the soiled young men, who fight for liberty / they know all the four-letter words, except S-O-A-P". Har har har.
Definitely an amusing novelty, and perhaps a great gift for some older person who might actually appreciate the sentiments expressed (like, your cranky grandpa who voted for Barry Goldwater?). However, we're not sure how many times WE'RE gonna want to hear a song like, say, Vanderlaan's "Modern Paul Revere", a paean to then-governor Ronald Reagan!! Still, lots of chuckles the first few times through, and of course it's packaged with typical Omni care, including fascinating & detailed liner notes, plus vintage graphics from the original releases by these obscure, conservative folkies. Anyone into the politics and culture of the era, should find this cd both interesting and entertaining.
Another incredible collection from Soul Jazz, this one focusing on jazz from the sixties, seventies and early eighties and how that music, and the lives of the performers intersected with the civil rights movement.
As jazz developed and radicalized in the sixties, African American artists began to rebel against the stereotypical image and role of the jazz musician, reimagining their music, the sounds, looking to Africa for inspiration, turning their back in the mainstream, and approaching their music more as art than entertainment, resulting in some of the most revolutionary music made in America, and producing all manner of musical hybrids as well as all sorts of musical and cultural organizations. The booklet is super informative, and will most likely have you wanting to read and learn more. And the music here perfectly captures all the energy, confusion, turmoil, pain, suffering, anger, despair, sadness, hopefulness and joy of the era. Lots of familiar faces: Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Joe McPhee, Gato Barbieri, Philip Cohran, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Joe Henderson, but also tons of amazing groups we'd never heard before. And the sounds are all over the map, straight up post bop jazz, wild skronky free jazz, groovy Shaft style jazz funk jams, wah wah guitars, soulful vox, intense tribal drum workouts, smokey late night grooves, some spoken word, some jazz almost verging on dub, lots of African influences for sure, in the instrumentation, the chant like vocals, the arrangements, some amazing flute action, some seriously intense and unique sounds and songs, and we're now on the hunt for records by most of the artists we heard here for the first time, which is always the sign of a great compilation, and this is most certainly a great compilation.
Gorgeous packaging, with a massive booklet packed with tons of photos and extensive liner notes... a great companion to the rad coffee table book of album cover art Soul Jazz also released under this title, reviewed last list.
NOW ON VINYL! This is part one...
Another incredible collection from Soul Jazz, this one focusing on jazz from the sixties, seventies and early eighties and how that music, and the lives of the performers intersected with the civil rights movement.
As jazz developed and radicalized in the sixties, African American artists began to rebel against the stereotypical image and role of the jazz musician, reimagining their music, the sounds, looking to Africa for inspiration, turning their back in the mainstream, and approaching their music more as art than entertainment, resulting in some of the most revolutionary music made in America, and producing all manner of musical hybrids as well as all sorts of musical and cultural organizations. The booklet is super informative, and will most likely have you wanting to read and learn more. And the music here perfectly captures all the energy, confusion, turmoil, pain, suffering, anger, despair, sadness, hopefulness and joy of the era. Lots of familiar faces: Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Joe McPhee, Gato Barbieri, Philip Cohran, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Joe Henderson, but also tons of amazing groups we'd never heard before. And the sounds are all over the map, straight up post bop jazz, wild skronky free jazz, groovy Shaft style jazz funk jams, wah wah guitars, soulful vox, intense tribal drum workouts, smokey late night grooves, some spoken word, some jazz almost verging on dub, lots of African influences for sure, in the instrumentation, the chant like vocals, the arrangements, some amazing flute action, some seriously intense and unique sounds and songs, and we're now on the hunt for records by most of the artists we heard here for the first time, which is always the sign of a great compilation, and this is most certainly a great compilation.
NOW ON VINYL! This is part two...
Another incredible collection from Soul Jazz, this one focusing on jazz from the sixties, seventies and early eighties and how that music, and the lives of the performers intersected with the civil rights movement.
As jazz developed and radicalized in the sixties, African American artists began to rebel against the stereotypical image and role of the jazz musician, reimagining their music, the sounds, looking to Africa for inspiration, turning their back in the mainstream, and approaching their music more as art than entertainment, resulting in some of the most revolutionary music made in America, and producing all manner of musical hybrids as well as all sorts of musical and cultural organizations. The booklet is super informative, and will most likely have you wanting to read and learn more. And the music here perfectly captures all the energy, confusion, turmoil, pain, suffering, anger, despair, sadness, hopefulness and joy of the era. Lots of familiar faces: Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Joe McPhee, Gato Barbieri, Philip Cohran, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Joe Henderson, but also tons of amazing groups we'd never heard before. And the sounds are all over the map, straight up post bop jazz, wild skronky free jazz, groovy Shaft style jazz funk jams, wah wah guitars, soulful vox, intense tribal drum workouts, smokey late night grooves, some spoken word, some jazz almost verging on dub, lots of African influences for sure, in the instrumentation, the chant like vocals, the arrangements, some amazing flute action, some seriously intense and unique sounds and songs, and we're now on the hunt for records by most of the artists we heard here for the first time, which is always the sign of a great compilation, and this is most certainly a great compilation.
New all-American installment in this electronica compilation series, with contributions from Yankees like Tipsy, DJ Spooky, Sub Dub, DJ Wally, Thievery Corporation and others. Studio K7, by the way, is Kruder and Dorfmeister's new domestic imprint, so it's all stuff they like.
Another in the series featuring Tipsy, Kreidler, Andrea Parker, Pan Sonic and Alan Vega, Ryuichi Sakamoto and many more.
"Frequencies [HZ]" is a musical compendium of an exhibition of sound art curated by the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, and acts as a Readers Digest / K-Tel anthology of the "who's who" in the current global community of experimental / noise / minimal / glitch music. Here, you get 28 two-minute tracks from a ton of artists including Achim Wollscheid, Marc Behrens, Alva Noto, Christophe Charles, C.M. von Hausswolff, Cyclo, Ekkehard Ehlers, Errorsmith, Farmers Manual, Frank Bretschneider, Hecker, Mainpal Inv., Marcus Schmickler, Merzbow, Monolake, Opiate, Pan Sonic, Pita, Pomassl, Random Industries, Richard Chartier, Ryoji Ikeda, Senking, SND, Steinbráchel, Stephan Mathieu, Thomas Koner, and Ultra-Red. Limited to 1000 copies, and packaged in an artful styrofoam package designed by Carsten Nicolai.
Another double disc jetsetter extravaganza compiled by the one and only DJ Tom Thump. This one is infused with the influences of Latin and African sounds and features a mix of familiar faces and newcomers -- Ocote Soul Sounds as remixed by Thievery Corporation, Romanowski, Aloe Blacc, John Beltran, Patato Valdes, Do featuring Omar Sosa and Greg Landau, Bobi Cespedes, Dtek, Zeb, 4Hero with Hector Calderon, Osunlade, Combo Moderna with Gerardo Frisina, Fort Knox Five with Mo'Horizons and many more!
Brand new Lo Records compilation, this time for an unbelievably low price of $6.98. Exclusive tracks from the likes of Kid 606, The Remote Viewer, Hrvatski (excellent track), Rothko, Ceefax, and much more. At 21 tracks in length, the price is right.
If you think you don't know Bread's music, think again. It might just be that you don't know the name of the artist behind that old tune you know and love so well. Many of Bread's songs have become so much a part of the day-to-day (let alone Musak'd ad nauseum), that song credits are seldom mentioned.
Who doesn't know the '70s tear-jerkers "If", "The Goodbye Girl", "Everything I Own", "Make It With You" or the puzzlingly titled "Baby, I'm A Want You" by this band? Do you remember, as Cup does, that there was even a non-Muppet puppet performance set to that song on the Muppet Show!? Well, it seems there's plenty of other folks who have a fond Bread memory or two or three too. '70s nostalgia is here with a -- albeit gentle -- vengeance, and Bread were definitely a soft rock staple of that decade. Sure those songs that we heard on AM radio back then were as vanilla as can be, but you have to admit the popcraft is still the sweetest something to behold. Main songwriter David Gates skillfully captured the weepy lows of love lost or unrequited. Oh so much yearning and heartache! This tribute kicks off with Josh Rouse doin' his best Gates impersonation on "It Doesn't Matter To Me". Following him are much less faithful but still very respectful covers performed by Kings Of Convenience's Erland Oye ("Friends & Lovers"), Call And Response ("Baby, I'm A Want You"), Oranger ("Make It With You"), Paula Frazer ("Everything I Own"), The Moore Brothers ("Look At Me"), Parchman Farm's Eric Shea with Bart Davenport ("Goodbye Girl"), Mojave 3's Rachel Goswell ("If"), Emily Sparks ("Too Much Love"), Cake ("The Guitar Man"), Holy Sons ("The Last Time"), Dambuilders' Dave Derby ("I Use The Soap"), and the Posies fellas Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow doin' one song each on his own ("Games Of Magic" and "Down On My Knees" respectively). If you're too young to have experienced these songs firsthand, you might still wanna give this comp a listen 'cause it offers shining examples of fine pop artists present coming together with fine pop songs past.
The annual all-day Frisco Freakout psychedelic festival has happened on two occasions so far, most recently earlier this month and also back in October of '08. Perhaps you were there! You shoulda been, it was a great show, both years. Co-sponsored by KUSF radio, Arthur Magazine, and yours truly Aquarius Records, and organized in part by Ripley from Wooden Shjips, the Frisco Freakout benefits Creativity Explored, a worthy cause right here in the Mission, where developmentally challenged adults get to express themselves artistically (and make amazing art they do!).
This year at the festival, there was a limited edition compilation cassette for sale featuring a selection of live performances recorded at the first Freakout. We scored a few copies - and are selling 'em for what we paid for 'em, $5 each, all of which goes to Creativity Explored. They only made 100 tapes and we of course just have a handful, when they're gone they're gone, so first come first served, and sorry if you don't get one.
There's songs here from Crystal Antlers, Art Lessing, Wooden Shjips, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ascended Master, The Bad Trips, Greg Ashley, Sequin Trails, and Earthless (who's track is an excerpt 'cause of course an entire Earthless jam would have probably filled a whole side of this tape!).
You know that guy with the Grizzly Adams beard you're always seeing skating down Valencia 'n dumpster diving outside Ti Couz? That would be the world famous artist that AQ knows as nice Mr Chris Johansson, who has single handedly released this double disc set featuring almost 50 of his favorite Bay Area rockscene bands (many of the tracks live). Everyone from Coachwhips to Caesura, Touched By a Janitor, Vetiver, Mr and Mrs Evil, Tarentel, Veronica Lipgloss, Trackstar, Total Shutdown, Quails, Troll, Erase Errata, A Tension, Tussle, Virginia Dare, Zmrzlina, Aislers Set, Tommy Guerrero, Crack W.A.R., Sonny Smith, Zeigenbock Kopf, Deep Throats, and so many more.
As with most comps meant to survey a local scene, this is a mixed bag, but there's tons more good stuff here than bad, and it's a real good way to taste what the local scene has to offer if you're not one of those folks that goes out to hear live music all the time. An exciting listen.
Double disc foldout digipack features artwork by local artists Jo Jackson, Chris Corales, Tony Cox, Dave Schubert, many more, but not, as far as I can tell, any of Johansson's stuff.
A remastered reissue of this compilation of word and sound from 1980! The title might be From Brussels With Love -- the city where the original release's label Les Disques Crepuscule was based -- but the contributions are by artists from well beyond that city's limits drawing from comrades in Manchester and London (many from the Factory Records camp). It features many wellknowns, soon to be wellknowns and certainly more obscure artists from back in the day: John Foxx, Thomas Dolby, Repetition, Harold Budd, Durutti Column, Martin Hannett, Michael Nyman, Phill Niblock, Richard Jobson, Bill Nelson, Kevin Hewick, New Order, Radio Romance, Gavin Bryars, Der Plan, B.C. Gilbert and Graham Lewis. Along with the music are included two interview clips with Jeanne Moreau and Brian Eno. The latter is layered with Niblock's gently droning "Third Trombone". Although it does come with a 20 page booklet, unfortunately this new cd version doesn't come with any special packaging unlike the original cassette release which purportedly came in a PVC jacket with a badge and booklet. A very cool and incredibly varied historical document.
BORIS BORIS BORIS BORIS BORIS. Okay. Just wanted to get the attention of all you freaks who can't get enough of Japan's mighty Boris (and we know there's a lot of you, since we can't seem to keep any Boris in stock for more than two seconds!!) And since
A rare occurrence happened the other day when LA producer and promoter Andrew Lojero came by the shop selling this collection he put together of underground L.A. artists from the hip and difficult-to-classify hybrid genres of soul, jazz and electronica. We recognized a few of the artists such as the Madlib produced Yesterday's New Quintet and Sound Directions as well as Flying Lotus and Georgia Anne Muldrow, so we bought a couple and when we put it on in the store, two people came up and immediately bought both copies we had. Sensing a hit on our hands, we called Andrew up while he was still in town and ordered a bunch more and it has been selling rather steadily without much assistance from us. But we're listing it anyway, because it's really, really good.
Not so much a compilation as it is a collection of specially made tracks that showcase the sunny multifaceted vitality of the urban LA scene. Tripped out broken beats, lounge-y interludes, jazzy R&B inflected grooves, sometimes edgy, sometimes mellow and all sounding remarkably fresh. Along with each track, Lojero asked contemporary LA artists to design a unique piece of art, all of which are featured in the accompanying booklet. 17 tracks of blissful awesomeness awaits you. Don't hesitate.
Originally released as a series of SUPER limited split vinyl eps, a 7", a 10" and a 12", each teaming up bizarre mysterious French black metallers Malicious Secrets with some of their more well known countrymen: Antaeus, Mutiilation and Deathspell Omega. Holy shit! You might as well stop reading right now and order one of these as fast as you can. You shouldn't even need us to tell you how totally fucking mindblowing this comp is. Antaeus offer up a short buzzing blast of ultra grim blackness, a fuzzed out blur of droning black metal, downtuned guitars, blown out lightning fast blast beats, guttural growls, the whole thing a white hot lo-fi blast of utter brutality. Then of course there's Mutiilation, who not only offer up a reverb drenched burst of atmospheric blackened buzz, also super lo-fi, blasting and buzzing, and hauntingly creepy crawly like it was recorded in a cave or at the bottom of a well, but they also do a cover of Sinatra's "My Way"! But you wouldn't necessarily know it, the croonsome orginal becoms a harsh ptichfork to the head, dripping with thick droney guitars and shrieking black howls, although it does have a super cool, riffy sort of un-metal breakdown in the middle. Most of you will need this for the final track, a brand new, exclusive to this comp 20 minute epic from Deathspell Omega, rife with impossibly obtuse riffs, weird atonal guitar skree, super complex rhythms, haunting ambeint dronescapes, weird math-metal breakdowns, and of course some of the fiercest fucked up black metal ever. Woah.
As if that weren't enough, let's not forget the three tracks from Malicious Secrets, each of their three tracks from the splits are totally dizzying swirls of ultra fucked up, BIZARRE black metal, riffs are bent and twisted into impossible shapes, blasting drums are sprayed wildly all over the place, each song is a serpentine, non-linear sonic mindfuck, a huge spastic black churning whirlpool, with little bits of riff or little streaks of blast beat surfacing now and again, while over the whole thing the vocalist moans and groans, low and haunting, each syllable stretched into long drawn out bellows, sometimes breaking into hacking coughs or throat clearing before once again returning to an utterly agonizing wail. So totally fucked up and so totally amazing!
If you dig the two New York Noise comps that Soul Jazz released recently, here comes another comp that is an absolute must have. While the Noise on those aforementioned comps actually leaned more towards the rhythmic and even dancy side of the early 80's NY scene, the newest installment in the Kitchen Archives series gets a little more down and dirty. It kicks off with two very rare versions of early Sonic Youth tracks the first featuring lyrics, vocals and guitar contributed by Michael Gira! (Swans, Angels of Light, Young God Records), then Swans jump in with two tracks of their own, from back in their pre-Jarboe existence. Then it's Arthur Russell time! We can never get enough of the totally wild and wide range of sounds Russell created in in his all too short life. His tracks here focus more on his no-wave minimalist, rough around the edges and completely haunting sounding as opposed to his later dancefloor leanings. And no comp focusing on early '80s sonic exploration in NYC would be complete without Christian Marclay whose turntable manipulations would foreshadow so much of the 'turntablism' and experimental music in general that was to follow in the upcoming decades. Rhys Chatham represents with his classic "Guitar Trio" and the disc is rounded out by a free jazz influenced rock-out track by Elliott Sharp. Another totally tasty slice of that early '80s NY underground that we can't stop eating up.
Compiled by the venerable Country Music Foundation, this features Ray Charles, Ivory Joe Hunter, Al Green, Charley Pride, Aaron Neville, Ted Hawkins, Stoney Edwards, Professor Longhair, Etta James, Joe Tex, Leadbelly, the Supremes (!), Wynonie Harris, Solomon Burke, and a host of lesser known black country music musicians.
Would you rather fight than swish? If so, we think you may be protesting too much, as this compilation of gay themed tunes contests. This hilarious and thankfully varied comp from the fine folks at Trikont showcases the prevalence of "the love that dare not speak its name" in songs from the early sixties to the late seventies. Starting with Jose Saria (aka. The Widow Norton) who held court at the Black Cat in San Francisco in the 50's and ending with Sylvester's uplifting Disco classic "You Make Me Feel", the 24 songs here range from novelty tunes ("Florence of Arabia"), spoken word (Rod McKuen!) queer subtext in songs by "straight" bands (The Kinks, The Ramones) and just rare and amazing songs by Curt Boettcher, The Twinkeyz, and Black Randy & The Metro Squad that are well worth the price of admission no matter where your proclivities lie. Check it out, we won't tell.
Extensive liner notes in both English and German.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The second volume to Black Horizons' tribute arrangements for the films of Ingmar Bergman sports the same oversized jewel case as the first. So, we'll reiterate what we mentioned about the packaging on the first volume: Black Horizons has packaged this in an extra-large oversized plastic clamshell that fits all three cassettes comfortably inside. Yeah, it looks really sharp, but the problem with this plastic housing is that if you break this case, you will NEVER find a replacement.
Onto the musical program, Black Horizons has commissioned a number of artists to score particular scenes from Bergman films, which are annotated with the specific time from said films so you could scrub through Passion Of Anna or The Seventh Seal and sync up the tape. Nope, we're not going to do that... instead we'll dig into the tapes themselves. Micromelancolie & Sindre Berje are sporadic collaborators from the Northern regions of Europe, offering an industrial meditation of grey din and emptiness pocked with incidental squalor and threatening avian calls. The Southern Californian outfit German Army churns a hypnotic set of voodoo rhythms and esoteric chants. L'Acephale seems to actually use the Swedish dialogue from The Seventh Seal alongside a melancholy neo-folk strum that slips from one depressive motif to another before launching into a burst of wintery black metal for one of the highlights on this compilation. We're gonna have to assume that the hauntological / grimly cinematic cello thrum of Head Dress is an entirely different project than the one who crafted acid-fried excess for No Quarter and Mexican Summer. Nice stuff, though! The enigmatic Spettro Family swirls synths, spells, and spooky FX that have much more of giallo / Goblin feel than anything else on these tapes. And the final entry comes from Night Worship, a thoroughly unknown drone project that grafts luminous tones from voice and trombone to bunker quality drones and rumble. Limited to 150 copies!
First things first. If you buy this, by all means protect the clamshell casing with your LIFE! Black Horizons has packaged this in an extra-large oversized plastic clamshell that fits all three cassettes comfortably inside. Yeah, it looks really sharp, but the problem with this plastic housing is that if you break this case, you will NEVER find a replacement. We'll take great care to enshroud this boxset in plenty of packing material for all shipments outside these doors; but the fragility of such a plastic case speaks to the benefits of modular design (e.g. the standard jewel case and the standard clamshell).
That said, Black Horizons presents a ponderous collection of doom-laden electronics, crusty dirge-metal, and ash-smeared drones all done as musical arrangements for the films of Ingmar Bergman, with contributions from Persistence In Mourning, Fear Konstruktor, Swamp Horse, Terence Hannum, Ryan Unks, and King Dude. Persistence In Mourning opens proceedings with a creaky, crusty neo-folk passage whose waltzing melodies across acoustic instruments lashes plenty of scabrous scrapes across the violins that's much more Alastair Galbraith than Tony Wakeford, before the outfit settles into a lo-fi apocalyptic doom dirge laced with piano and compressed feedback. The Russian dark ambient outfit Fear Konstruktor follows the snaking shadows that Cranioclast proposed as the cryptic soundtracks to private rituals. Josh Lay is one of the characters creating the blackened minimalism and wild-eyed stasis for Swamp Horse, very much akin to the recent KTL recordings. Locrian's cofounder Terence Hannum takes up the flip of this cassette with two slow-burning black ambient crescendos rising out of elegiac melodies and thickened downtuned walls of crumbled distortion. Ryan Unks, formerly of the grindcore band Creation Is Crucifixion and the pummelingly malevolent Human Quena Orchestra, dials into the spooky synth vein with a numbing drone setting the stage for serialist / radiophonic tone clusters. King Dude rounds out the compilation, loosening up for something far more shambolic in his doom-folk oeuvre, with sweeping atmospheres, wintry pagan drones, wordless chants, and a melancholy acoustic guitar strum girding the proceedings. Not quite Douglas P meets Elvis P (as is the formula for his previous albums), but this long form suite serves King Dude very well. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! All three tapes housed in the aforementioned triple cassette case, and wrapped in a super striking, black and silver ink-ed oversized J-card.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Experimental hardcore, power violence, noise, crust, etc. comp--starring Amps For Christ, Bastard Noise, Bullet In The Head, Drop Dead, Lightning Bolt, Men's Recovery Project, Rubber O Cement, Tit Wrench, and many others.
Cup has been raging about it for months. Allan finally got a hold of an import dvd of it (and a t-shirt!). Andee's just about to watch it. And we've got the import soundtrack compilation in stock now!
Sooo, what's with all the hubbub?! Well, the center of attention is a mockumentary indie film which may be described as "Driver 23" meets "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" meets "American Movie", but... Canadian. It's all about the tragicomic misadventures of two Molson-chugging burnouts (think a Canadian Bill and Ted, ten years older and wasted most of the time) spewing stoner wisdom like "turn up the good, turn down the suck!"
If that piqued your interest (or not), give the following news a moment's ponder too...
This cd contains a couple of extra special songs performed by AQ ultra-fave Canucks the New Pornographers *and* Sloan (psst, they even do a Rush song)! This very well could be the only peep you'll be hearing from those NPs until they unleash their new album sometime next year, and who knows when we'll be hearing from those Sloan boys? So if you need your fix... FUBAR is where it's at! It's also where you'll find NoMeansNo, Chixdiggit, The Sweet, Girlschool and more. For the most part the concept here is Canadian indie/pop punk bands doing covers of Canadian rock/metal classics from the past: thus, NoMeansNo does Neil Young, GOB tackles Kick Axe's "Heavy Metal Shuffle", Sum 41 performs the Helix anthem "Rock You", while other bands cover April Wine, Loverboy, Toronto, BTO, etc. And lets not forget he-man Canadian metaller Thor (a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek 80's relic himself) doing the film's catchy theme, "FUBAR Is A Super Rocker". Throw in some originals from Creeper (loser metal band of Fubar star "Dean") and some out-of-context dialogue from the film, and what other album could possibly be more fun and surreal?? ...Know what else? These filmmakers received funding from the Canadian government to do this. Fill yer boots, eh!
Finally as a little aside, we'd like to clarify that the Aquarius Records who released this compilation is not us, but a Canadian label with the same name. But, unlike most things on their label, we'd be proud to have put this out ourselves if we were a label... Canada + Comedy + Metal + The New Pornographers + Helix + Thor + Sloan + Kick Axe = Aquarius Record of the Week Big Time!!!
What the hell am I listening to? That's the reaction to a few minutes spent with this comp in the cd player. It's a very weird mix of stuff! Fujirekodsu is a new label set up by Tokyo's Cha-Bashira and Cologne's A-Musik labels to release unknown and unusual music from Japan and Europe (and all the artists on here, Japanese or not, either live or have spent time in Japan). This new label/project has received some assistance from the Tokyo record shop Los Apson, who some might recall released a bizarre compilation of their own back in '96 or so. We are told that this is sort of part II of that, and it is equally crazed. Don't get the idea that this is your typical Japanese noise thing, as it's not particularily noisy in the Merzbow sense; rather, there's a lot of different musical styles on here, including electronic groove, installation sounds, "actionism", lo-fi pop, and odd glitch-works. Nothing remotely ordinary however. Some of the names involved (a few that folks might know, but not many!): Why Sheep?, Smurf Otoko Gumi, Susumu Yokota, Christophe Charles/Brandon Labelle/Steve Roden, Q of Q, Noise Ramones (Eye and Yoshimi of Boredoms), Evil Moisture, Hair Stylistics, AOA, Rudolpf Eb.er, Nagata Kazunao, Tennessees, American Cherry, Tapes Klar!, L?K?O?, Vagamoron, many more. There's 29 tracks of this insanity. Pretty cool!
