Can't imagine a blackmetalhead who wouldn't consider this DVD absolutely essential. And it just might be enough to lure some unsuspecting innocents to the dark side as well. Videos from Absu, Immortal, Antaeus, Impaled Nazarene, Melechesh, Nortre Dame, Phazm, Arkhon Infaustus, Dark Tranquility, Gehennah, and a bunch more. As well as live sets from Angel Corpse, Immortal, Blasphemy, Inhume, Notre Dame and Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition. Pretty much everything on this disc is a blast, but definite highlights would have to be the two Immortal videos, the first, "Blashyrkh (Mighty Raven Dark)", features Abbath and Demonaz, in full corpsepaint and spikes, playing atop a mountain, above fjords and forests, with superimposed lightning storms, and occasional unintentionally hilarious mad dashes from peak to peak, while still rocking! The second video for "Grim And Frostbitten kingdom" has the band fully rocking out again, this time atop a glacier, again in full corpsepaint, except for fill in drummer Hellhammer, who is sans corpsepaint and wearing a frilly pirate shirt. The whole thing intercut with shots of Abbath singing through a sheet of ice. Wow. Then there's the totally over the top Notre Dame videos, especially "Scarecrows" which features the whole band strapped to wooden posts and singing from atop their perches, in the middle of a corn field. And howabout Impaled Nazarene's black metal "Smells Like Teen Spirit"-ish video for "Armageddon Death Squad." Woah. We could go on and on, but trust us, this is awesome! And for sure don't miss the bonus feature "At Home With Snowy Shaw", a goofy Cribs-like tour of Shaw's (from Notre Dame) horror movie memento stuffed house as well as a little acoustic sing along. So weird.
NTSC and ALL REGION! ----* ----* Finally! New AQ wear!! : ----* NEW AQURIUS T-SHIRTS $12.98 Available in sizes S, M, L, XL and 2XL (2XL sizes are $14.98)
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
There are a handful of compilations, so well thought out, so well put together, with just the perfect artists and the best songs, that function like an impossibly perfect record. If you could somehow imagine that said compilation was in fact, a record by some band it would be absolutely the greatest record ever. Never has that been more true than in the case of a couple of black metal comps from back in the nineties. One is the amazing Darkthrone tribute, Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone, an absolutely stellar comp featuring Satyricon, Enslaved, Marduk, Thorns, Emperor, Dodheimsgard, Gorgoroth. So it should come as no surprise that another 'perfect record' comp is this one right here, Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous. While we're still waiting for that Darkthrone comp to be reissued, it's no small consolation that this one has been resurrected, to demonstrate once again, that no matter how amazing bands are now and how far black metal has come, it really was never better than in 1995.
A tribute to Euronymous, the fallen leader of Mayhem, who was murdered by Count Grishnack aka Burzum, beginning the non-musical 'Lords Of Chaos' saga of Norwegian black metal that would become tabloid fodder for the next decade, this compilation was actually already in the works as a showcase for the Scandinavian bands of the time, but Euronymous ended up dying before he could release it on his own label Deathlike Silence. So it was completed by his allies at Necropolis Records (RIP) as a tribute to their fallen 'leader'.
Like that Darkthrone comp, a look at the bands should be enough to tell you that this is something special: Abruptum, Mayhem, Dissection, Emperor, Mysticum, Marduk, Thorns, Opthalamia, Enslaved, Mortiis and Arcturus. Basically every band that mattered, the bands that defined Nordic black metal. Plus these aren't just any tracks, these are almost all some of these bands' best tracks.
Abruptum's "De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet" is still a tweaked and damaged BM classic, completely unhinged, with angelic female vocals, warbly pitch shifts, blackened blasts, and those vocals... the perfect way to start things off. Next up "The Freezing Moon" by Euronymous and Mayhem, frosty and grim, but melodic and catchy and an all time classic. The reverb drenched blasts sandwiched between gorgeously melancholy melodies. And then Disssection's "Where Dead Angels Lie", maybe one of the greatest black metal songs of all time, with a killer fucking hook and some of the most amazing guitar playing EVER. And it just goes on from there, most serious black metal fans will most likely have all of these tracks, but it's like the ultimate BM primer. If they taught a class in black metal, this would absolutely be essential listening. (And it was indeed studied intently by those of us who were working here at Aquarius back during our big black metal discovery phase in the mid-nineties, we have fond memories of this album!).
Other highlights include Thorns' "Aerie Descends", a lurching slow motion blackened trudge, with creepy circusy keyboards and weird whispered vocals, a very cabaret vibe mixed in with seriously grim blackness. Then there's a killer rehearsal version of Emperor's "Moon Over Kata-Shehr" which proves it wasn't the production or the recordings that made them so good, it's the songs. Epic and complex and fucking fantastic. There's some classic Enslaved, and even back then at their grimmest and most buzzy, they still demonstrated all sorts of prog tendencies.
Pretty much every track on here is essential. Even if you have most of these, it's like the ultimate classic black metal mixtape, and like we mentioned before, if you've been hesitant to explore black metal, this is probably the best possible place to start!
This three CD boxset documents the post-punk scenes indigenous to Liverpool and Manchester from the 70s and '80s. Most of the tracks can be found kicking around (i.e. Buzzcocks, Smiths, The Fall, Joy Division, Magazine, A Certain Ratio, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, OMD, New Order, etc.), but there's enough rare tracks to make this collection an interesting listen (i.e. Yachts, Pink Industry, Lori & The Chameleons, etc.).
Talk of this compilation has been making the rounds for months, and now that it's here we can see why. We can also see why it took so dang long. But it was well worth it. The final product, the lineup, the songs, the packaging, the cause, WOW. The bands are a who's who of indie / avant / alternative rock / folk / electronica / experimental, all over the map. It's dangerously close to being SO eclectic that it's just a mess, but if you approach it as the worlds longest mixtape, made by your coolest friend with the best record collection it all starts to make some sort of skewed sense. But who cares? Look at this lineup:
Angles Of Light, Michael Yonkers, Antony And The Johnsons, Thighpaulsandra, Devendra Banhart, William Basinski, Bevis Frond, Teenage Fanclub, Sundial, Six Organs Of Admittance, Suishou No Fune, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Richard Buckner, Vashti Bunyan, Damon And Naomi, Shock Headed Peters, Isobel Campbell, Dolly Collins, Shirley Collins, Bill Fay, Marissa Nadler, Tom Recchion, Colin Potter, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Linda Perhacs, Max Richter, Current 93, Jad Fair, Simon Finn, Edward Ka-Spel, Pearls Before Swine, Nurse With Wound, Jarboe, Charlemagne Palestine, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, Mirror, Matmos, Alex Nielson & Richard Youngs, Larsen, Faun Fables, James William Hindle, The Hafler Trio, Keiji Haino, Allen Ginsberg, Howie B, Ghost, irr.app.(ext)., Cyclobe, Fursaxa and more more more!
The liner notes make it impossible to tell just which tracks are exclusive or unreleased and which are album tracks, but again it hardly matters in this context. Like borrowing some cool kids Ipod and setting it on shuffle. And of course the most important part of all this, and the whole reason this compilation exists is that all proceeds go to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) to support their work in fighting HIV / AIDS in Africa.
Packaged in a cool slipcover box, with individually printed cd sleeves, a HUGE book with liner notes from Mark Logan who runs Jnana records as well as information about Medecins Sans Frontieres, as well as track by track notes from each band.
Let's not forget the blues. New buget-priced label sampler from badass blues champions Fat Possum (now distributed by big punkcorporation Epitaph and set to conquer the world). Features some wild and wooly tracks from R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough (R.I.P.), Hasil Adkins, T-Model Ford...i.e. lots of old fellers who'll put a boot up your backside. Plus some young 'uns, including Jon Spencer Blues Explosion side-project 20 Miles. So don't just get the blues and sit there depressed, get the blues, put this on, and break things! An excellent introduction to the many somewhat sensationalistic but genuinely non-crap artists on Fat Possum.
Another budget comp of raw and gritty blues by old (sometimes dead) Delta denziens like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Scott Dunbar, T-Model Ford, Paul Jones, and others.
This is another one of those compilations that seems custom made for aQuarius. And one that needs very little in the way of a description except for a list of the bands who contribute exclusive material to this sprawling quadruple lp celebration of Three Lobed's tenth anniversary. The packaging is out of this world, totally over the top, but before we get to that, let's give you that list, and odds are, some of you can stop there and add this gem to your cart and be done with it:
SUN CITY GIRLS
SONIC YOUTH
BARDO POND
COMETS ON FIRE
ETERNAL TAPESTRY
STEVE GUNN
MOUTHUS
D.CHARLES SPEER / WOODEN WAND
Not too shabby for sure!
Each band gets a whole side, and here's some more details on the contributions. The Sun City Girls tracks are live recordings from Emo's in Austin Texas from their final US show EVER. The Sonic Youth tracks were recorded over the space of 10 years, one in 2010, the other in 2000. The Comets On Fire side is a collage of various recordings made between 2006 and 2010. The Bardo Pond side is a 20 minute long exclusive track recorded in 2010. The Eternal Tapestry side is a reworking of an old track, slowed down, with lots of added organ! The Mouthus side features two new exclusive tracks recorded in 2010. The Steve Gunn side features a new recording, made earlier this year of a live staple, and finally, D. Charles Speer & The Helix and Wooden Wand share a side, the Speer tracks feature Dave Nuss from No Neck Blues Band. Phew. And that's just the music. This box is also a serious chunk of musical art.
The vinyl is all pressed on super thick 140 gram vinyl, and each lp is housed in a full color printed inner sleeve. There's a big folded insert with liner notes from Wire / Pitchfork scribe Marc Masters, there is also a download card for mp3s of all the music, and the whole thing is stashed in a gorgeous, heavy Stoughton lp box. It's definitely incredible, and well worth the price. It is HEAVY though, so if you order this, it will NOT count as a single item, whatever your shipping, whether it's just this box, or this box along with other stuff, it will ship by weight.
And besides all that, this thing is CRAZY limited. We got a whole bunch, but we're not sure how many are left, or how many we will be able to get (if any) once we run out, so best to grab one quick before they are gone for good.
Let's face it, most tribute albums suck. I can count on one hand the number of tribute albums I have *loved*. (Well, actually on one finger, namely the Roky Erickson trib.) Now along comes this FANTASTIC collection of songs performed by a perfectly-chosen array of alt country musicmakers, all paying their respects to Kris Kristofferson with achingly gorgeous renditions of his songs. I'm hard pressed to even name highlight tracks, because *all* of them are lovely. The mood is consistently downer, the performances retain the flavor of the individual contributing bands, but let the brilliance of Kristofferson's songwriting show thru. And who doesn't love "Me and Bobby McGee", "Help Me Make it Thru the Night", and my personal fave "Sunday Mornin' Coming Down"? If you're not a Kristofferson fan (yet), get this anyway -- it serves as a wonderful intro to the perpetual outsider with the progressive politics who mopped floors at a Columbia's Nashville studios just so he could slip Johnny Cash tapes of his songs! (The liner notes go into his life story a bit -- quite fascinating -- he was involved in the Central American conflicts, visited the Sandanistas, is working to free Leonard Peltier, etc.)
Participants include Souled American, Calexico, Radar Brothers, Zmrzlina, Virgil Shaw (Dieselhed), Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Grandaddy, Deanna Varagone (Lambchop), Court and Spark, Califone, Handsome Family -- all artists already established as wonderful. Hear them pay tribute. Take it from me, the picky tribute listener -- this one is GREAT. It will make you love Kristofferson while also providing a stunning snapshot of the current alt.country scene. Highly recommended!
DFA Records thrives on the past. The debut track by label bossman James Murphy's band LCD Soundsystem, "Losing My Edge," humorously exposed his healthy record collection and grinningly unveiled current day, hipster cynicism. But one of the conundrums about DFA is that while their influences are timeless, much of their output simply isn't. This collaboration release with Rong reifies that sentiment. And while Notwave is certainly a catchy term, it isn't immediately obvious what it means, or what the common thread is that holds it together. Styles range from the Kraftwerk musique of Nonstop's "Hydration Explosion" to the New Romantic meets The Slits-ness of Striplight's "No Search No Entry," to the abstract, paranoid peyote-soul of former !!! members Free Blood to the Gwen Guthrie-style, b-side dub of Research. Everything is fine really, nothing is great. The Nonstop track is the only one that seems to standout. It's solid bedroom krautpop. Speaking of the past, Sal P of Liquid Liquid is present on a perfectly fine early '90s acid house-style Tussle remix, and James Chance & The Contortions live freakout/meltdown "King Heroin" shows up second to last. Then out of nowhere, we're right back in some mid-'80s electro-soul for one final track. DFA completists, desperate disco revivalists, or those looking for an extraterrestrial, extraneous house/dub cover of Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On" may want this.
Who better to put together a killer compilation of great covers then the modern day masters of the new wave cover, Nouevelle Vague. Having made quite the name for themselves reconstructing new wave and post punk classics (obscure and famous) into irresistible bossa nova and carribbean tinged concoctions, they are the perfect folks to dig into their record collections and pick out some of their own favorite covere versions. This 2-disc set is so damn fun! OMD doing The Velvet Underground, Antena's classic take on Astrud Gilberto, The Stranglers tackling Dionne Warwick, The Slits amazing version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", The Flying Lizard's doing Curtis Mayfield proud, Nico's dramatic take on David Bowie, the list goes on and on. Put together so well and pretty much an instant party!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Possibly the most non-sensical compilation ever, this Japanese import features tracks from Costes (French vulgar vaudeville), Gastr del Sol, several Japanese hardcore/funk/metal units (including Gaji, who sound very similar to Melt-Banana), and improv music by Ikue Mori and others. Truly a bizarre item.
Seems like it's been ages since we've got anything in on MoWax. I guess I haven't been paying much attention to them of late, their second volume of sleepy bedroom trip hop Headz bombed so bad, I thought that was the end of them. So it's a bit odd to be
Marking their 10 year anniversary as THE purveyor of quaint, vintage, obscure and unflinchingly British ear candy, Trunk Records has released a splendid compilation of the cream from *most* of their best releases from the past decade. Most is the key word here as three of their best releases, the awesome soundtracks to "The Wicker Man", "Psychomania", and the unreleased film music of "Dawn of The Dead" are not represented. But Trunk has always been a mixed bag label, and odd horror scores were only one facet of their obsession, the others being pastoral jazz, long forgotten children's songs, off-kilter ad jingles, library music, documentary film scores, and cosmically avant-garde electronic compositions. If you were curious about any of their past releases such as the Fuzzy Felt Folk compilation of obscure children's folk, or the Sven Libaek anthology of underwater documentary soundtracks, or the Michael Garrick Trio's lost cosmic jazz, or any of Basil Kirchan's sublimely eccentric compositions (all of the above are awesome BTW!) but wary to commit to a full album then this compilation might be a smoother introduction to Trunk's unusual tastes. What's even better is that 7 of the 22 tracks are previously unreleased with inclusions from Delia Derbyshire, Herbie Hancock, Douglas Wood and Paul Lewis. Please note that the sound samples are from the unreleased selections because many of the Trunk releases we had already thoroughly reviewed, so if you are curious about what Michael Garrick, Sven Libaek or the Fuzzy Felt Folk comp sounds like, check out the reviews and samples elsewhere on our site. They are all worth your time. Congrats Trunk!
This brilliant cd box set lives up to Rhino's slogan "We collect records so you don't have to." Covering the nether regions of 1964-'69, Nuggets II is a virtually hitless, yet absolutely priceless, collection of mod, psychedelic, British R&B, freakbeat,
Now on vinyl! Twenty eight tracks of rare and unreleased funk and exotic outerworldliness specially selected by Luke Vibert from the music libraries of Chappell, Southern, iM and PIL. Artists featured include Nino Nardini, Jack Arel, Eddie Warner, David Holland, Anthony King and more. Don't be misled into thinking this is Luke Vibert's music, it is him doing the selecting and
The soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film "O Brother Where Art Thou" was recorded before even a single frame of film was shot, so it really is a film that exists as (as Joel Coen puts it), "a valentine to the music." The brothers enlisted the help of T Bone Burnett and Gillian Welch to compile old recordings and also lots of new material recorded specially for the film. Includes the talents of bluegrass sweetheart Alison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, the Stanley Bros, the Fairfield Four, the Cox Family, etc. Yes, the songs that the band in the film (George Clooney, etc) performs are also here, and they ain't half bad. If you want a fine collection of old timey, bluegrass, and country music, go for it. (Also do get this if, like me, you're an Alison Kraus fan, as her rendition of "Down to the River to Pray" is sublime.)
A wonderful compilation of the -- until recently -- under-exposed world of female bluegrass music featuring the lovely, familiar voices of such artists as Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard and Alison Krauss. Nineteen rich, rootsy numbers in all (18 taken from the
You know those Obey/Giant (Andre the Giant has a Posse) stickers? Well for some reason here's a compilation of currently hip bands (indie, garage, pop punk, electronica) such as The Hives, Peaches, Gonzales, International Noise Conspiracy, Icarus Line, and Modest Mouse aligning themselves with that strange subcultural phenomenon. Maybe they're all skateboarders. The tracks on here don't seem to have any particular bearing on the "subject" nor are they all exclusive or anything. But obsessives into the Obey/Giant street art thing may want this.
BACK IN PRINT! And now augmented with an additional dvd disc!! We just got these in so we haven't been able to watch the DVD yet, but it contains over two hours of rare never before seen performances, interviews, animation and experimental video!
This box (sans the DVD) was originally released five years ago and hasn't been available for some time now. Here's what we said about the audio portion of this, previously:
Following hot on the heels of the Early Modulations compilation from a while back, the OHM box takes the same general idea; a brief and cursory overview of the whole of experimental electronic music, and attempts to give it a little more depth. And it does, to a certain degree. But such a massive undertaking could fill 10 cds, or 20. So what we have here, is 3 cds, 42 tracks, from a who's who of electronic music in the last 32 years: Clara Rockmore, Oliver Messien, John Cage, Edgard Varese, Stockhausen, La Monte Young, Xenakis, Luc Ferrari, Terry Riley, David Tudor, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Raymond Scott, Brian Eno, Robert Ashley, Bernard Parmegiani and a bunch more. A pretty great assortment, for sure, and definitely the best 20th century/avant electronica primer to come along. The only frustration is that a great number of the pieces are edits, often 5 or 6 minutes from a 20 or 30 minute piece, rendering some slow building gradual shifting works a bit limp. But other than that, this OHM compilation is pretty excellent, packaged impeccably in a triple digipak, housed in a cool silkscreened transparent slipcase, with a fairly well researched book and some spot on musical choices. Definitely a great place to start. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org. ABSOLUTUS "Ostendit Quam Nihil Sumus" (Goatowarex) cd 14.98 ADAMS, JOHN LUTHER "Strange and Sacred Noise" (Mode) cd 16.98 AGUATO, MATIAS "Are You Really Lost" (Kompakt) cd 15.98 ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "You Are My Sister" (Secretly Canadian) cd ep 5.98 APPLE, FIONA "Extraordinary Machine" (Epic) dualdisc 19.98 ARPANET "Quantum Transposition" (Rephlex) cd 15.98 ASHES "Hymn To A Grey Sky" (Supernal) cd 15.98 ATHEIST "Elements" (Relapse) cd 13.98 ATHEIST "Piece Of Time" (Relapse) cd 13.98 ATHEIST "Unquestionable Presence" (Relapse) cd 13.98 BAD PLUS "Suspicious Activity?" (Columbia) cd 17.98 BASTRO "Antlers" (Drag City) cd 14.98 BEWITCHED "Unveiling Zion" (Supernal) cd 15.98 BLACK DICE "Smiling Off" (Astralwerks) cd ep/2x12" 8.98/11.98 BLACK TAJ "s/t" (Amish) cd 14.98 BOARDS OF CANADA "Hi-Scores" (Skam) cd ep 8.98 BOARDS OF CANADA "The Campfire Headphase" (Warp) cd/lp 15.98/21.00 BODY, THE "Cop Killer Dead Cops" (Corleone) 7" 3.98 BORBETOMAGUS "Barbed Wire Maggots" (Agaric) cd 15.98 BORFUL TANG "Root" (Snurp) cd 9.98 BROTZMANN, PETER & HAN BENNINK "Schwarzwaldfahrt" (Atavistic / Unheard Music Series) 2cd 21.00 BURR, ANTHONY & SKULI SVERRISON "A Thousand Incidents Arise" (The Worker's Insititute) cd 14.98 BUSH CHEMISTS "Raw Raw Dub" (Roir) cd 15.98 CAGE "Hell's Winter" (Definitive Jux) cd 16.98 CATHEDRAL "The Garden Of Unearthly Delights" (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98 CAVE-IN "Perfect Pitch Black" (Hydra Head) cd 11.98 CHESSMACHINE "Live In Los Angeles" (Line) cd 14.98 CHEVREUIL "Sport" (Sickroom) cd 13.98 CHILDREN OF BODOM "Are You Dead Yet?" (Spinefarm) cd 14.98 CHIODOS "All's Well That Ends Well" (Equal Vision) cd 13.98 CIRCULUS "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 CLINE, PATSY "Walking and Dreaming" (Masked Weasel) cd 14.98 CLUSTER & ENO "s/t" (Water) cd 15.98 CODE "Nouveau Gloaming" (Spikefarm) cd 16.98 COFFIN LIDS "Round Midnight" (Bomp) cd 13.98 COHEED AND CAMBRIA "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol.I" (Sony / BMG) cd 16.98 CRYPTOPSY "Once Was Not" (Century Media) cd 16.98 DANGER DOOM "Sofa King / Mince Meat" (Epitaph) 12" 6.98 DAVKA "Live" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DEPECHE MODE "Playing The Angel" (Sire) cd 17.98 DIAMOND NIGHTS "Popsicle" (Kemado) cd 13.98 DRIVER, TOBY "In the L..L..Library Loft" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DRONES, THE "Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By" (All Tomorrow's Parties) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Autumn Aurora" (Supernal) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Forgotten Legends" (Supernal) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Lebedynyi Shlyakh" (Supernal) cd 15.98 EARLIES, THE "These Were..." (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 FIREBALL "Blessed Be" (High Roller) 12" 12.98 FOLKSTORM "Folkmusik" (Old Europa Cafe) cd + 3"cd 24.00 FORREST, JASON "Shamelessly Exciting" (Sonig) cd 14.98 FUZZTONES "LSD 25" (Get Back) cd + dvd 26.00 GRIMFIST "10 Steps To Hell" (Candlelight) cd 15.98 GUERRERO, TOMMY "Year of the Monkey" (Galaxia) cd 10.98 GUITAR WOLF "Golden Black" (Narnack) cd 14.98 HARVESTMAN "Lashing The Rye" (Neurot) cd 14.98 HORSE THE BAND "The Mechanical Hand" (Combat Records) cd 13.98 KANE, JONATHAN "February" (Table Of The Elements) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 KELLY, R. "TP.3 Reloaded" (Jive) cd + dvd 17.98 LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR "Cannibal Massacre" (Southern Lord) 3" cd 8.98 LANGENUS, COLIN "Living With The Rock" (Corleone) cd 13.98 LAPPETITES, THE "Before The Libretto" (Quecksilber) cd 15.98 LARSEN "HMKE" (Important) cd 10.98 LEAF HOUND "Growers Of Mushroom" (Repertoire) cd 19.98 LOGH "A Sunset Panorama" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 MAGNETOPHONE "The Man Who Ate The Man" (4AD) cd 13.98 MCPHEE, JOE & JOHN SNYDER "Pieces of Light" (Atavistic) cd 14.98 MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT "The Very Best Of" (5RC) cd 14.98 MERZBOW "Merzbuta" (Important) cd 14.98 MINDFLAYER "Expedition To The Hairier Peaks" (Corleone) cd 11.98 MOONDOG "The Viking of Sixth Avenue" (Honest Jon's) 2lp 27.00 MUGISON "Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 MUM "Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is Ok" (Morr) cd 14.98 MV / EE & THE BUMMER ROAD "We Offer You Guru" (Child Of Microtones) cd 15.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / CHRISTINA CARTER & ANDREW MACGREGOR (Very Friendly) cd 14.98 NADJA "Truth Becomes Death" (Alien 8) cd 14.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Radio Life" (Staalplaat) cd 19.98 NI HAO! "Gorgeous" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 NURSE WITH WOUND "Livin' Fear Of James Last" (Castle) cd 17.98 OCEAN "Here Where Nothing Grows" (Important) cd PARTON, DOLLY "Those Were The Days" (Sugar Hill) cd 17.98 PAUL, SEAN "The Trinity" (VP) cd 17.98 PHAIR, LIZ "Somebody's Miracle" (Capitol) cd 17.98 PINETOP SEVEN "The Night's Bloom" (Barbary Coast) cd 14.98 POISON IDEA "Pajama Party" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 POISON IDEA "The Early Years" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 POISON IDEA "War All The Time" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 ROBERT POLLARD "Music For 'Bubble'" (Needmore Songs) cd 5.98 RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER "Buried In The Front Yard" (Relapse) cd 13.98 SANDERS, PHAROAH "Elevation" (Impulse) cd 13.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "s/t" (Collector's Choice) cd 14.98 SHEAVY "Republic?" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 SKYGREEN LEOPARDS, THE "Jehovah Surrender" (Jagjaguwar) cd 9.98 SONDHEIM, ALAN / RITUAL ALL 770 "The Songs" (Fire Museum) cd 13.98 STOLTZ, KELLY "The Sun Comes Through" (Sub Pop) cd ep 5.98 SUSUMU YOKOTA & ROTHKO "Distant Sounds Of Summer" (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98 TAAKE "Helnorsk Sbartmetall" (Karisma) cd 14.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Action Direct" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 33.00 TALL DWARVES "Weeville" (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98 TALL DWARVES "Fork Songs" (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98 TAPE "Mort Aux Vaches" (Staalplaat) cd 21.00 TRIBES OF NEUROT "Meridian" (Neurot) cd 14.98 TURN ME ON DEAD MAN "Technicolourmother" (Galaxy Groove) cd 11.98 UP-TIGHT & MAKOTO KAWABATA "s/t" (Galactic Zoo) cd 14.98 V/A "For A Decade Of Sin: 11 Years Of Bloodshot Records" (Bloodshot) 2cd V/A "Maan Matoset" (Pohjoisten Kukkaisten Aanet) cd 14.98 V/A "This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul" (Razor & Tie) cd 17.98 V/A "Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective" (Vertigo) 3cd 38.00 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "H To He Who Am The Only One" (EMI) cd 15.98 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "Pawn Hearts" (EMI) cd 15.98 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" (EMI) cd 15.98 VOIVOD "DVOD 1" (Music Video Distributors) dvd 14.98 VOLTAGE "Building The Bas Castle 1" (Flameshovel) cd 13.98 WU-TANG "Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture" (Babygrande) cd 16.98 YOUNG BLEED "Rise Thru Da Ranks" (West Coast Mafia) cd 16.98 YURA YURA TEIKOKU "na.ma.shi.bi.re.na.ma.me.ma.i" (Mesh-Key) cd 11.98 ZOMBI "The Zombi Anthology" (VCO) cd 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Following hot on the heels of the Early Modulations compilation from a while back, the Ohm box, takes the same general idea; a brief and cursory overview of the whole of experimental electronic music, and attempts to give it a little more depth. And it does, to a certain degree. But such a massive undertaking could fill 10 cds, or 20. So what we have here, is 3 cds, 42 tracks, from a who's who of electronic muisic in the last 32 years: Clara Rockmore, Oliver Messien, John Cage, Edgard Varese, Stockhausen, La Monte Young, Xenakis, Luc Ferrari, Terry Riley, David Tudor, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Raymond Scott, Brian Eno, Robert Ashley, Bernard Parmegiani and a bunch more. A pretty great assortment, for sure, and definitely the best 20th century/avant electronica primer to come along. The only frustration is that a great number of the pieces are edits, often 5 or 6 minutes from a 20 or 30 minute piece, rendering some slow building gradual shifting works a bit limp. But other than that, the Ohm compilation is pretty excellent, packaged impeccably in a triple digipak, housed in a cool silkscreened transparent slipcase, with a fairly well researched book and some spot on musical choices. Definitely a great place to start.
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"Oacis" -- an acronym for "Optics Acoustics Calculated In Seconds" -- documents the progress of the German collective Raster / Noton, which has been busily constructing works of utopian minimalism over the past five years. Raster / Noton rigorously applies the motto "less is more" to not only their post-techno productions, but also their intrinsically simple design aesthetic. This was exemplified by 1999's "20 to 2000 series," in which simple magnets connected a series of 12 clam shell cd cases to form what could be a model for a nanotechnist coil of energy distribution. This spindly construction perfectly housed the series's electronic minimalism, constructed out of the all mighty trio of digital synthesis -- the click, the ping, and the boom.
"Oacis" is a 100 page book with lots of articles expounding on the label's digital purity (including a rather poetic piece by The Wire's Rob Young), lots of live 'action' shots of Carsten Nicolai and Frank Bretschneider staring intently at their laptops, and of course an ultra-clean design. And in addition to all this lovely stuff to look at and to read, the accompanying cd is one of the best things to yet emerge from Raster.
With its self-explanatory subtitle, "Oasis" compiles some of the recent work from the Mills College faculty, including Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, and Alvin Curran. What, no Willie Winant? As a whole, the Mills
Seems like every few months we're blessed with the release of another cool psych rock reissue compilation full of obscure gems... Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Neurotic Reactions, Cherrystones Word, Cambodian Rocks, the entire Love, Peace & Poetry series, just to name a few... It's amazing what can be dug up by the dedicated collectors and DJs who put these mixes together, folks who trawl the dusty record shops and flea markets of the out of the way corners of the globe looking for the freakiest sounds. In that tradition, this week's excellent example is entitled Obsession, a compilation named for the reason it exists! And the groovy, swirling, often harder-edged fuzz attacks found here are certainly worth obsessing over. Just little bits of flat plastic to some, but the best things in life to others!
Obsession also sorta sounds like the name of a perfume, and if this was a perfume, it would be a very exotic scent indeed. We can kind of imagine that the Sun City Girls would have found a lot of this fairly inspirational to the "international rock" side of their output. Circa 1967-'73, the tracks here come from all over the world. A whole bunch from South America: Brazil's Quarteto Nova Era, Flavio Kurt, Novos Bahianos, Arnaud Rodriguez, Suely E Os Kantikus. Peru's Sonora Casino and Jean Paul. Uruguay's Ovni 87 and Los Chickichaka. And Argentina's La Barra De Chocolate. Then there's three from Turkey (Ersen, Arif Sag, and the beloved Erkin Koray, with a cut from his Bunalim-related band, Ter, meaning Sweat), and even outfit from India (Atomic Forest, whose track "Obsession '77" is actually what gave this comp its name).
Best of all, most of 'em we'd never ever heard of before -- and yet the killer to filler ratio is muy excellente. You get everything from jungle sounds and loungey vibes to Middle Eastern bellydance fuzz guitar to Mutantes-style tropi-delic pop to slamming go-go dancing beats to swinging horns... and let's not forget the plethora of wild wah-wah'd psych guitar soloing found here. And this comp gets further points for including in the cd booklet full-color sleeve art from the rare original singles, and some textual information too, pertaining to each track.
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Released to accompany the (fantastic) David Toop book of the same name: Aphex Twin, ("Sextant"-era) Herbie Hancock, long-missing-in-action My Bloody Valentine, John Cage, Satie, Les Baxter (R.I.P.), Beach Boys, Miles Davis, Zorn, Debussy, Sun Ra, plus bearded seals and howler monkeys and much more. Meticulously paced with an eye to flow and variety -- a stylistically broader compilation probably has never existed. [/cat/compilationsplit59.html]
Last year, AQ-fave Japanese guitar experimentalist Taku Sugimoto put together a series of "Composed Music" concerts at a Tokyo venue called Off Site, featuring pieces written and performed by a who's who of the current Japanese underground jazz/noise/experimental/electronic scene. This disc collects some live recordings from those shows.
Disc one opens with Otomo Yoshihide's sixteen-piece "Portable Orchestra". It's the "home electronics equipment version" and that means the musicians, among them Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Utah Kawasaki, Masahiro Uemura, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Otomo himself, are improvising with "instruments" like food mixers, electric drills, shavers, cel phones, gameboys, cameras! Avant-improv music for a [insert dept. store name].
Intriguing as presented here (unless you just can't stand that dentist drill sound!), but probably even better in person, watching these folks fool around with these gadgets and tools.
Moving on, the next three tracks are for a more traditional ensemble: an acoustic guitar trio, albeit one with so few notes being played (or even sounds being made) that the involvement of more than one guitarist seems almost superfluous. The rest of the disc, with pieces by Toshimaru Nakamura and Taku Sugimoto for solo saxophone and turntable/sinewaves, respectively, also feature quite a lot of silence, a hallmark of the oh-so-quiet and abstract "onkyo" style attributed to these musicians. The subtle drones and delicate (and not-so-delicate) noises of that final 30-minute turntable/sinewave track should be found to be especially beautiful and interesting by listeners with patience and the right mindset.
Disc two starts with Annette Krebs, Sachiko M, and Taku Sugimoto performing a piece for paper and contact mic, ripping and tearing. Other pieces involve radios, accordions, electric and acoustic guitars -- all very abstract and sparse, sometimes self-evidently pretty, mostly just mystifying. The idea here seems to be for there to be some odd juxtapostions of composer/performer/instrument -- there's even a track wherein Otomo Yoshihide plays a Sachiko M compostion on an acoustic guitar! (We'll assume, if you've read this far, you're familiar enough with these musicians to think that a bit unusual.)
This is the soundtrack/companion to AQ pal Jamie Metzger's brilliant song poem documentary Off The Charts just released on DVD and reviewed elsewhere on this list. The movie, in case you missed it or haven't checked out the review yet is funny, sad, poignant and amazing. So good. This compilation follows suit, compiling many song poem classics as well as tons of our favorites. This is definitely the best song poem compilation yet! For those of you who are new to song poems, there is a whole industry of musicians (and shysters of course) that would set your poem to music for a couple hundred bucks. Often promising fame and fortune. Well, listening to the results it's obvious why fame and fortune eluded most of these folks, but that doesn't mean these songs aren't brilliant, because they are definitely some of the weirdest most amazing songs we've ever heard. From the surreal sixties exotica of Human Breakdown Of Absurdity, to the eighties tinged bizarre tale of...well, um "Non-Violent Taekwando Troopers", to the all time classic "Blind Man's Penis", to the "best song ever" (as Andee and Allan like to call it) "Jimmy Carter Says Yes!" This stuff is just so totally remarkable and satisfying and absolutely genius! The best song-poem compilation yet.
***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***
Like a Pavlovian bell, just the mere utterance of this vinyl-only Portland label gets everyone aflutter, ready to eagerly acquire no matter what the sounds contained inside. We suppose if they put out a record solely of sounds made by cement mixers, back-hoes or traffic noises and packaged it in a sweet homemade album cover with nostalgic photos of antique construction equipment, and called it something like "My Heart Belongs To The Public Works", we'd sell out of them just as fast as their awesome compilations of pre-war blues or their reissues of obscure post-punk groups. As cool as that actually sounds, the not one, but TWO Mississippi releases we have this week are both super stellar and we know everyone is going to want at least one if not both of them.
Oh Graveyard, You Can't Hold Me Always is Mississippi Record's third (and arguably best) compilation of obscure gospel recordings. But instead of focusing on church revival songs featured on Life is a Problem, or the personal redemptive blues of Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long, here we have a compilation of joyous private pressing recordings from the sixties and seventies featuring mostly small family vocal groups and band ensembles, like the Mosby Family singers, Straight Street Holiness Group, Laura Rivers, Rev. Lonnie Farris, Radio Four, Joe Townsend, White Family, Silver Quintette, James Carter & The Mighty Stars, Farris and Williams, Traveling Echoes, Brother Willie Eason, Happy Travelers and an anonymous final track that sounds like either small children or munchkins singing "We Shall Overcome". Often sounding like they were recorded on street corners or in small community halls or city shelters, we can imagine that like the picture on the cover, these songs were recorded with the whole group surrounding one microphone. Although there are a few old school blues moments, there is a greater emphasis here on R&B and soul motifs than on previous gospel comps. Many of the songs feature mostly just guitar and bass, with the guitars playing out chiming circular riffs in an almost Afro-Caribbean vein, suggesting that many of the tracks were recorded far outside American urban centers (there's no liner notes, so we're guessing). One sweet instrumental track features some very nice Hawaiian-style slide guitar. This is a stunning collection of gospel tunes, amazing for its atypicality, showcasing an innocent simplicity and a transcendent independent spirit.
Some folks love it, some folks despise it. The latter have to grin and bear it 'cause it's pretty inescapable this time of year. We're talking about holiday themed music. The folks at Yep Roc have corralled a dozen members of their colorful musical family for this decidedly less conventional Christmas compilation -- you need only check out the song titles (example: "Your Christmas Whiskey" and "Something Funny In Santa's Lap") . to figure that out! Lots of garage rawk, Americana and pop levity from the likes of Los Straitjackets, Marah, Reverend Horton Heat, The Minus 5, Cities, The Moaners, and The Apples In Stereo and more!
This 3cd boxset is a fantastical document of parapsychological research throughout the 20th Century, with recordings of purported demonic possession, glossolalia, precognition, poltergeists, and the already well documented Electric Voice Phenomenon. The latter had been the subject of research by noted parapsychologists Raymond Cass and Freidrich Jurgensen, whose work was collected on several cds released on the Touch label, one of which was the AQ perennial favorite The Ghost Orchid. The first disc of this set focuses on voices spoken through a person, who may not be conscious of the spirits controlling their words. There are several examples of demon possessed children, and a particularly creepy recording of a spirit medium who has contacted those who died in a plane crash and weeping through the medium to "move on." The second disc concentrates on Xenoglossy (the articulation of a language not known to the speaker) and Glossolalia (also known as 'speaking in tongues'), with examples of an English girl who speaks in an arcane form of Egyptian. There's also a few examples of Aleister Crowley famously channeling the Enochian language which the 16th Century mystic John Dee had also been known to conjure up. The third disc documents the sounds left behind by the spirits themselves, including paranormal music (that which has been transcribed from a deceased composer into the hands of a receptive living musician), the rappings of poltergeists within the walls, and the aforementioned EVP. A good deal of these recordings suffer from poor recording qualities that exacerbate the mystery of these spirit communications. From a strictly aesthetic point of view, we have long extolled the virtues of scratchy 78s, tape hiss, and surface noise as a patina of remarkable beauty and sublime power. This rusted sound makes things seems haunted to begin with, and then add the recordings of demons, ghosts, and other spirits, and we've got one thoroughly creepy and amazing document.
Includes extensive liner notes in both German and English.
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We've said it before and we'll say it again... "Yay Merge!" They've always dished out the delightful (and very nicely priced) compilations. Well, this new one kicks things up a notch or three! In celebration of the label's fifteenth anniversary, they present Old Enough To Know Better, a triple disc compilation, with chucklesome liner notes by none other than the Rock Rot and Rule guy, Ronald Thomas Clontle!
Discs #1 and #2 offer a fantastic stroll down the Merge memory lane with FORTY TWO (!) of your fave songs by Neutral Milk Hotel, Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, Buzzcocks, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, M. Ward, Destroyer, Pram, The Clientele, Versus, The Clean, Spaceheads, Breadwinner, Rock*A*Teens, The Beatnik Filmstars, Pipe, Butterglory, 3D's, Ganger, Matt Suggs, Portastatic, Third Eye Foundation, Spent, Ladybug Transistor, Imperial Teen, Ashley Stove, Bricks, Mad Scene, Karl Hendricks Trio, Seaweed, Music Tapes, The Rosebuds, Guv'ner, Annie Hayden, Polvo, East River Pipe, The Essex Green, David Kilgour, Erectus Monotone, Paul Burch, Spoon and of course Superchunk.
The third disc contains NINETEEN (!) more songs of the rare and previously unreleased kind by many of the abovementioned artists as well as Camera Obscura, Shark Quest, Crooked Fingers, Richard Buckner, Radar Bros and Angels Of Epistemology.
To boot, the label is donating all profits from the sale of this comp to the Future Of Music Coalition.
Awesome two disc introduction to the amazing ESP Disc label, arguably one of the most important labels in the history of free jazz. Not sure what to say about this collection, other than if you have ANY interest in the history of jazz, modern free jazz, and modern new music in general, and have yet to dip into the ESP label, not only have you been missing out on some of the most amazing and important music of the twentieth century, you should go out and buy every ESP record you can get your hands on. Or barring that, pick this up, and after listening to this endlessly over and over as you almost inevitably will, THEN, go out and buy every ESP record you can find.
Just look at the lineup: Marzette Watts, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Milford Graves, Sunny Murray, Charles Tyner, Giuseppi Logan, Fred Hampton, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Simmons, The Free Music Quintet and more more more!
It's a little frustrating as most of these tracks are edits, culled from looooong tracks, but they're definitely enough to whet your ears. A gorgeous assemblage of horns that moan and skronk, wheeze and wail, drums ALL OVER THE PLACE, from subtle shuffle to full on chaotic splatter, basses throbbing and slithering, every single track on here, be it slow and shimmery, or blown out and wild, is absolute perfection.
As if two discs of amazing music wasn't enough, they come with a perfect bound book, written by this collection's compiler. Who happens to be Wu Ming 1, a member of the Wu Ming collective of anonymous Italian authors (Allan's been reading their bleak historical-political novel, Q). It includes an excerpt in both English and Italian from his solo-written novel, New Thing, about free jazz and 'black' music, as well as a handful of amazing never before seen photos, as well as track by track notes for all the songs. Both the cds (housed in a folded oversized jacket) and the book are packaged in a super swank slip cover. The perfect introduction to ESP. You will never listen to modern music the same way again.
We're super picky when it comes to noise, and noise rock, okay so maybe we're just really picky, but like techno, it takes something special to really win us over. We were a little wary at first of this comp, which collects a bunch of music and bands "From Providence And Olneyville Rhode Island". Sure there are tons of those bands who totally rule, but there are also a whole bunch of one off costume rock joke bands. Thankfully this comp is pretty fucking solid all the way through, splitting the difference between aggro noise rock, and weird damaged metal, and pretty much every stop in between. All the usual suspects are here, Landed, Necronomitron, Mindflayer, Prurient, Drop Dead, Lightning Bolt, White Mice, Kites.... But there are also plenty of noisy newbies, Knights Of Timbre, Em Dath Rir, Football Rabbit, Suffering Bastard, Bloodthrone, Knifestorm, Smashed Femur Dance Party, Patootie Lobe and more...
Standout tracks include the technical metal mayhem of Necronomitron, the Lightning Bolt-ish psychdamaged drum/synth freakout of Mindflayer, the cartoon cutup buzz and glitch of Knights Of Timbre, the 20 second hyperspeed blast of female voiced brutality from Bloodthrone, The electro sludge of Football Rabbit, the damaged turntable manipulation of Mahi Mahi and so much more.
Never thought we'd say it, but pretty much every single track on this noise comp kicked our ass, and at least a few had us wanting to hear LOTS more!
Fourth in popular series. With Beanfield, People Under The Stairs, J Boogie's Subtronic Science, King Kooba, more. 13 tracks.
Lawrence English has been one of the champions of Australian sound art, in both bringing international artists to Australia and in exposing the world to the finer recordings from his countrymen and women. In 2006, English had co-curated a conference / exhibition at the University of Tasmania on the subject of isolation in any number of political, aesthetic, and philosophical guises. In addition to the theoretical investigations of the event, English assembled an all-star cast of international sound artists to offer their own take on the subject of isolation. According to English, this CD "was provided to delegates attending a conference in Hobart in 2006 at the University of Tasmania to help awaken a deep imagination and engagement with these matters." The highlights from the compilation include the Borhen & Der Club Of Gore -like doomy vibes and atmospheres from Dale Lloyd, Stephen Vitiello's emphatic crack of electric noise that gently fades into driftwork / dronescape, the very special nothing music of Richard Chartier with the smallest of sonic ruptures located upon a vast plane of undulating bass rumbles, Jeph Jerman's quiet ritual with found objects set against the constant din of a nearby ocean, and Richard Francis & Nest's bleak soundfield of shortwave radio static and mournful guitar distortion. Lovely stuff.
Oh yeah! I'm sure you all remember in your youth, just going nuts on the dance floor, shaking and frugging and getting down to the latest smash from the likes of The Shock Absorbers ("It's Your Thing"), The Keith Mansfield Orchestra ("Soul Thing"), or Ken Woodman's Picadilly Brass ("Mexican Flier"), right? Whew, those were the days! What, you weren't making the scene in swinging sixties London? Well this comp should give you some idea what it maybe might have coulda been like, it's called On The Brink. Subtitled: Return Of The Instro-Hipsters. And the cover blurb goes on to state: "A happening and eclectic mix of vintage instrumental grooviness from the UK, with sitars, flutes, organs, horns and fuzz guitars." And that's no lie. This cd, compiled by none other than noted psych record collector Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond, is a veritable cornucopia of late '60s/early '70s instrumental toe-tappers from studio-bound big bands and nightclub combos letting their hair down and getting their funk on, swank stuff that could be the soundtrack to the coolest cocktail party ever. Delightfully goofy, some of this, dated of course, and verging on the psychedelic for sure... especially Stanley Myers' "Organ Fantasia In D Major", now that's an awesomely groovy freakout. Myers is one of the few names we already know here, session sitar guy Big Jim Sullivan being another, but it's nice to also become acquainted with the often ephemeral likes of The Chris Barber Soul Band, Trax Four, The Mike Cotton Sound, The Les Reed Orchestra, The Fidd, The Vic Flick Sound, and all the rest. 20 bands, 20 tracks, jazzy and snazzy, lush and bombastic, racy and romantic... not a clunker in the bunch, though we might have to frown about how much The John Schroder Orchestra's "Nightrider" sounds sooo much like the famous theme to Batman. Definitely if you love library music, or those In-Kraut compilations, this is kinda like the UK version of the same sort of thing, almost... and being British and from the swinging sixties, it's also no wonder that a lot of this could fit nicely in a spy movie, some of it very James Bond/Austin Powers sounding. The cd booklet includes notes on each track, photos, and lots of bright color. Right on.
Exactly what you might expect from a compilations called One Man Drone, 4 'groups', each made up of one member, each exploring their own idea of the drone. And that's where it stops being exactly what you might expect. As all four of these groups (three French and one Swiss) have dramatically different ideas of what constitutes drone music. And of course all of them are right...
Up first is the misleadingly monickered Shit, who sound anything but, a super minimal ghostly glow, distant whirs wreathed in low end crumble, like slowly sinking in some sort of sonic quicksand. Imagine listening to Fennesz at ONE RPM, an impossibly slow, murky, glacial dirge, rife with melted melodies, an abstract crawl through a world of low end mystery, realized on a battery of homemade instruments. Up next is Oldine, whose sound is as different from Shit's as you could possibly imagine. A loping, lazy, dreamlike post rock, the drone is not so obvious, but it is definitely there, riffs cycle and repeat, lilting and hypnotic, stripped down, blissed out, laid back, melancholy, and yeah, droney in a very subtle pretty way.
Side two starts off with Tamagawa, who return to a much more orthodox exploration of the drone, a heavily layered guitarscape, sounding quite a bit like the opening riff off Sabbath's "Iron Man" pulled apart and slowed waaaaaay down, a dirgey sludgey metallic riff that just repeats and repeats, allowing the buzz to drift and crumble each time before the riff kicks in again, taken on its own, this stuff would definitely hit the spot for SUNNO))) freaks and Earth nerds...
The hands down winner though of this 4 way tag team match has to be B Tong (it's actually B, then the little degrees symbol, then Tong, but for some reason that won't show up right on our website) who have managed some truly bizarre, gorgeously freaky cinematic dronemusic. Opening with a burst of playful Peter & The Wolf flutes and strings, the track quickly becomes a roiling soundscape of environmental recordings, demonic dark ambience, bits of classical music, and all manner of distorted and processed sounds and samples.
Snippets of playful classical music are swallowed up by thick swirls of grinding sludge, slowed down strings vibrate and pulse, FX swirl and obfuscate everything, mumbled vocals, processed blasts of industrial clatter and streaks of pealing bells, all get tangled up into the dark and heady mix. Almost like a Philip Jeck mix of Goblin and Wolf Eyes!!
Pressed on clear vinyl, with wispy colored streaks, packaged alongside a thick piece of hand painted cardboard, with two thick printed inserts. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!!
Right from the beginning, this compilation starts off on the wrong foot. The foundation of the record is a shaky one, attempting to find semiotic connections between electronic music as a form of alchemy and the transmutation of language within the context of
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From the makers of the "Sound for Little Ones" comes this collection of recordings made on "Recordio Discs" - self recorded 78s. Sort of an audio equivalent of the instant photo booth, these thrift store gems are now audio time capsules of the average and not-so-average American living in the 1940's: rants, songs, whistles, gossip, making-baby-cry-while-trying-to-make-baby-talk, foul mouth antics, and more. If you've ever found a strange photograph lying pathetically in the street and needed a story to go with it, this is for you.
"One2Two" is a double CD compilation of material from the first 12 Intermedium releases, plus a couple of unreleased tracks, featuring Hans Platzgumer, Samuel Beckett, Console and Thomas Meinecke, Philip Jeck, Guenther Koch, Ammer and Console, Walter
French import, a vinyl-only comp of some excellent Japanese psych stuff from the Seventies!! We weren't able to get very many, it's now out of print, and we've got like 3 copies left, first come first served!
13 tracks, circa 1969-1978, including cuts by Les Rallizes Denudes, JA Caesar, Kuni Kawachi & His Group, The Apryl Fool, Sadistic Mika Band, Stomu Yamash'ta's Red Buddha Theatre, Akiko Yano, Toshiaki Tsushima, Harry Hosono & The Yellow Magic Band, Osamu Kitajima, Karuna Khyal, and more... Some we'd heard before (the ones that have seen full album reissues in recent years) but others we'd never even heard OF, and are utterly new finds for us. There's a very "Japanese" vibe indeed to these particular psych acts, and an arty one too. Cool!
There's a sequel too, Ongaku 80: Alternative Waves From Japan, that we sold out of already, but that one we're told we might see more of again in a few weeks...
We've been trying to list this for ages now (we listed its predecessor, the Ongaku 70 comp, late last year), but our distributor kept running out, and then eventually it sold out totally and went out of print. Well, it's finally repressed and available again, but who knows for how long, so grab a copy before they're gone, cuz this stuff is so good, and so crazy, some of the coolest and weirdest minimal electronic and no wave music we've ever heard, and most of the groups were totally unknown to us. Sure there's Phew and Riuchi Sakamoto and Tako, but then there's also Daisuck & Prostitute, Gunjogacrayon, Lizard and so many more. For those of you who remember that awesome So Young So Cold compilation of seventies and eighties cold/new wave music from France, well, imagine an even more warped and whatthefuck Japanese version and you've got Ongaku 80.
The sounds here are so varied and so all over the map, there's no way to really describe it as a whole, so might as well go track by track. EP-4 starts things off with "Robothood Process", which is in fact quite robotic, sounding a little like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" at 16rpm, a funky bassline, little flurries of percussion, a weird machinelike voice, streaks of feedback, tolling bells, all wrapped into ramshackle groove. Sakamoto's "Riot In Lagos" takes the new wavey prog of Yellow Magic Orchestra (Sakamoto's group), and pulls it apart into something more robotic, unwinding long streaks of dubby rhythms, and a stuttery almost hip-hop groove, wreathed in all manner of beeps and bloops and synth blurts. "Modern Beat" by Lizard might be one of our favorites, a militaristic beat, some spidery guitar melodies, buried crooned vocals, lilting melodies, but over the top super loud dubbed out drums and a thick super distorted low end buzz, that erupts every once in a while like a squelchy rib cage rattling pppppthhhh, not to mention some squiggly Bollywood melodies. Portray Heads offer up "Elaborate Dummy", which is a killer slab of futuristic electro-punk with sweet crooned girl vox over the top, pulsing and pulsating synthscapes that should have fans of Zombi, Umberto and all the rest flipping their lids. Gunjogacrayon channel early P.I.L. and the Slits for a noisy chunk of super rhythmic punkfunk, wreathed in all sorts of effects and guitar scrabble and garbled wild vox.
Flip the record over, and things start off with "Urahara" by Phew, a weird bit of stiff robotic funk, with cold sung/spoken female vox over theremin like melodies and an almost Kraftwerk like arrangement. Tako's "Funk Of The Hostage" is indeed funky, bit a sort of sinister soundtracky funk that slithers and swaggers, a creepy bit of stuttery broody psychedelic spacefunk, with processed vocal garble and shards of squealing feedback and fractured melodies, as well as flurries of atonal piano, and bursts of distorted yelps and swirling FX. The awesomely named Daisuck & Prostitute almost sound like they could be some sort of proto-Ruins project, progged out scrabbly lurching grooviness, peppered with horn bleats and strangled guitar squiggles, all beneath dramatic vox, the song slipping from frenetic skitter, to grooving post punk. Shinobu's "Earth" is another track that sounds like a mutated version of HH's "Rockit", this time pelted with all manner of spaced out swirl and stuttering swoosh, a collage of sliced and diced sonic fragments raining down on a mesmerizing sci-fi synth groove, with some bizarre bellowed vox. And finally, PTA's finish things off with their epic "Woo-Guy After Dark", which weds post punk guitar jangle to tribal percussion, swoonsome synth swells to sweetly crooned female vocals, a slow build to something that more resembles a lost Bollywood soundtrack or some strange Southeast Asian cassette reissued on Sublime Frequencies, the song slipping from dense and percussive to swirly and ethereal and back again, all the while super rhythmic and hypnotic.
Phew! So good, and so awesomely crazy and over the top! So totally recommended. We definitely can't say how long these copies will last, or if we can get more once they're gone, so better probably to not risk it. You have been warned!
This is the third in a series of super limited lps, each offering a fantastic, albeit brief overview of the Japanese underground music scene, separated by decade. Starting with the seventies, which featured Les Rallizes Denudes, JA Caesar, Kuni Kawachi & His Group, The Apryl Fool, Sadistic Mika Band, Stomu Yamash'ta's Red Buddha Theatre, Akiko Yano, Toshiaki Tsushima, Harry Hosono & The Yellow Magic Band, Osamu Kitajima, Karuna Khyal and a bunch more. Then there was the eighties volume, which included Phew, Riuchi Sakamoto, Tako, Daisuck & Prostitute, Gunjogacrayon, Lizard and load of groups we had never heard of. And now we arrive at the nineties, and this time around, a lot of the groups are familiar, Phew and Riuchi Sakamoto make return appearances, which makes sense, as they were both just as active in the nineties as the eighties, there's also Ghost, Fushitsusha, The Gegogerigegege, E*Trance, Demi Semi Quaver, Takako Minekawa, Idiot O'Clock and Jun Miyake. Weirdly enough, a lot of these tracks almost sound more eighties than the actual eighties installment did!
Jun Miyake starts things off with cool tribal drumming, chant like vocals, programed electronics, sounding a bit like a Japanese Muslimgauze, albeit with a Native American techno vibe (!). Phew do their warped funky weirdness, mewled vox, jazzy horns, layered drones and lots of space-y FX. Sakamoto does his thing as well, sounding a bit like traditional Japanese music modernized and electrified, a little bit electro, a distinctly new wave vibe with some woozy crooned vocals. Japanoise weirdos Gergogerigegege (that translates as 'vomit, diarrhea, ha, ha, ha') offer up an all acapella track, spoken female vocals, accompanied by the moans and groans of the band's masturbator (they do indeed have a band member who wears a diaper and jacks off!), as he does his thing! The Ghost track is a gorgeous chunk of hazy, chanted, free-form psychedelic murk, ritualistic and haunting, while Idiot O'Clock finish off the A side with some full on new wave, which as mentioned above, sound way more '80s than '90s.
Japanese heavy psychlords Fushitsusha start off the B side with a surprisingly hushed and restrained slow jam, super spare drumming, barely there guitar strum, brief flurries of gnarled fretboard scrabble, all as a softly psychedelic backdrop for Keiji Haino's anguished wail. E*Trance are up next, whose track is a glorious chunk of loping weirdo psych rock, full of atonal melodies, twisted choruses of laughing voices, weird sporadic percussion, swooping heavily effected guitars, and what sounds like some traditional Japanese instruments, not to mention some seriously rad fuzzed out psych/shred leads. Takako Minekawa delivers a short blast of squelchy minimal synthy new wave, a little Kraftwerky, and another track that doesn't necessarily sound distinctly nineties. And finally, Demi Semi Quaver wrap it up with a lengthy, sprawling psychedelic jam of weirdo spaced out Japanese prog, female vox, abstract drumming, shuffling rhythms, wheezing accordions (?), lots of space, the instruments drifting in wide open expanses, sort of like the warped more progged out version of a Japanese jam band!
All of these comps are super limited, they go out of print quickly, and even before then, we often have trouble restocking once we sell out, so grab one quick before they're gone.
