[ aquarius records catalogue — V ]

Showing results 1951 through 2000 of 3547.

V/ARub-A`-Dub Soldiers(Makasound)cd$ 16.98

V/ARuckus Juice & Chittlins, Vol. 1: The Great Jug Bands(Yazoo)cd$ 15.98

V/ARuckus Juice & Chittlins, Vol. 2: The Great Jug Bands(Yazoo)cd$ 15.98

V/ARules Of The Game(Tripek)cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY. Local hip hop compilation featuring songs by Mystik Journeymen, The Coup, Fanatik, KNT (featuring Q-Bert), and lots more. We haven't had a chance to hear it yet so no comment on the sounds contained herein.

V/ARumble In The Jungle(Soul Jazz)cd$ 21.00

When we first got wind of this comp, for some reason, we just assumed it was gonna be another amazing Soul Jazz reggae comp, it didn't even occur to us that it would be a collection of killer classic jungle jams from the early nineties. But we threw it on, and were just knocked on our asses, transported back to '93/'94 when we first discovered jungle, particularly, ragga-dancehall-jungle or whatever you wanted to call it, a killer blend of traditional Jamaican dancehall, and this new breed of sped up hip hop that had grown out of the rave scene in the UK. The history and genealogy is complex, but there's been plenty written about it, the liner notes here are particularly informative, tracing the development of ragga-jungle from the early Reggae sound systems, through the rave scene, UK hardcore hip hop, and beyond. Ragga jungle was a flash in the pan, existing for 3 or 4 years before most of the folks making it moved on to two-step, garage, drum and bass and on an on. But for our money, this was it. This was THE music we had been waiting for. We have loved dancehall forever, the harder and faster the better, so here was the toasting and melody of dancehall, draped over chopped up stuttering and pounding hip hop beats, all sped up into a rhythmic frenzy. If there's one track that sums it up for us, it's DJ Zinc's "Super Sharp Shooter", with its interminable vocal and squelchy synth intro, the loping creeping reggae groove, the buzzing melody, the simple shuffling drum beat, the slowed down Method Man sample, and that's all before the track actually even drops, and when it does... Whoooowheee. We remember hearing this for the first time in one of the few clubs in SF that played jungle back in the day, and it nearly knocked us out of our seats. We ended up buying a DJ mix tape from one of the DJs spinning, and thankfully it had "Super Sharp Shooter" on it, and from that point on, we listened to it over and over every day, in the car, cranked as loud as it would go, bass pumping (as much as the bass could be said to pump in a crappy old van). So fucking heavy and hooky and funky. When the track finally kicks in, it's massive, relentless serpentine pass line, ultra complex drums, funky and groovy but so tangled and dense, every once in a while the bass line locks on a single not and just hooooooooolds steady until it drops, hard, and we're off on another junglistic jam. As far as we're concerned this would be worth it just for this track, but thankfully, the rest of the disc is just as kick ass. Lots of familiar reggae and dancehall names, Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Cutty Ranks, and for those in the know, the rest of the names read like an early nineties jungle all star lineup: Ragga Twins, Poison Chang, Ragga Twins, DJ Zinc, Shy FX... but even if you don't know any of these names, the music speaks for itself. Check out "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi & Shy FX, beginning with some super hooky sing songy reggae vocals before the track launches into a maddeningly dense rapid fire snare workout underpinning a raw and tongue twisting flow. Furious and intense and so goddamn good. Then there's tracks like Ragga Twins' "Illegal Gunshot", with its playful and circusy melodic loop, but juxtaposed with some seriously aggro toasting, some Bomb Squad like production, and some outrageously funky drumming. Pretty much every track on here is a killer, never has a record so much made even us non-dancers want to head for the dancefloor and go fucking nuts. The cool thing about this stuff, is even if you're dancefloor phobic, is that these tracks are so dense and multi layered, full of convoluted rhythms and mad drumming and rapid fire rhymes and wild toasting and strange melodies and killer grooves, that they're almost as fun to listen to as they are to dance to. Almost. Like all Soul Jazz stuff, gorgeously packaged and extensively researched. Tons of liner notes, track notes, photos, all wrapped up in a full color slipcase.

V/ARumpus Room(Ninebar)cd$ 19.98

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

SORRY. Compilation of new and strange electronica, with T-Power, Doctor Rockit, Jake Slazenger, Sureshot, Scanner, DJ Food, Cujo...

V/ARun The Road(Vice)cd$ 13.98

Man can we not get enough grime. Ever since we first heard Dizzee Rascal, we've ben jonesing for more grime. Which was tough since most of the killer grime was released as limited run 12" singles in the UK. Then came not one, but two whole compilations on Rephlex, and while we sort of dug 'em, there was just something missing, namely the vocals. Sure the jagged stuttery beats and fucked up synths hit the spot, but those mostly instrumental tracks were lacking some of the fire and vigor and snarkiness of the Dizzee Rascal (and the Wiley record we also dug!). So Vice records comes to the rescue, with a comp of CLASSIC grime tracks, many of which were essential genre defining 12"s (a few of which are even mentioned in this month's Wire, in the suddenly timely Grime primer, or, uh 'grimer') So what the hell does grime sound like you ask? Well, it's like hip hop, mixed with simple two step drum an bass (or garage -- pronounced gare-ij), some dancehall, constucted frrom simple hiccuping beats, weird synth melodies, throbbing basslines and some crazy cracy rapping/toasting. This comp is so high energy, fit to explode, fiery and furious and funky as fuck. The whole thing is so hyper and hard core and relentless. Totally raw and powerful. And then there's the ladies, who typically get left out in the cold when it comes to electronic music, but the ladies here represent. In a big way! Lady Sovereign, No Lay, and Shystie fucking rule it!!! Lady Sovereign's "Cha Ching" is one of the most awesome sounding songs we've heard lately. The much-hyped and biggest band of the lot, The Streets (who isn't technically grime, but whose track features a handful of heavyweight grime MC's hence his inclusion on the comp we suppose), have a song on here that almost pales in comparison to the other tracks, simply for its use of "rock" as an element in his track. The other tracks work so well because they're so simple and primal and stripped down. They contain only the most important elements. A beat, some electro zzzap, some sharp synthy melody, and a barely there bass line to hold it all together. And of course raw, mean-ass snarky lyricism. Run The Road is pretty fuckin "fit" as it were. If you haven't gotten into grime yet, you best mate. And this is the perfect place to start.

V/ARun the Road 2(Vice)cd$ 14.98

What more can we say about grime? Other than it's kicking our ass on a daily basis. This shit is so hard and heavy, so funky and catchy and freaked out. Why are people still listening to shit like 50 Cent, The Game, and all that bullshit gangster cookie cutter hip hop? Grime has all the aggression, all the ferocity, but mixes in loads of humor in a super subtle way, and the sound of grime is so much more funky and fun, so much more alive, more vibrant. A headspinning collision of hip hop, dancehall, jungle, ragga, huge slabs of distorted synth, throbbing basslines, bizarre sped up loops, that stuttering grimy beat, and the flows, oh the flows. Holy shit! These MC's could rap circles around our MTV elite, although no one would be able to understand a word they were saying. Super nimble, tongue twisting, mush mouthed, marble mouthed, cockney drawls, shooting off rapid fire lyrics, sputtering, stuttering tangled up rhymes splattered all over the hiccupping beats. FUCK! This is so good!!!! As much as we dug the recent Heavy Meckle comp, this second volume of Vice's Run The Road series is even better, definitely HARDER, as they have cherry picked the hottest tracks from the hottest names in grime (most of which remain criminally unknown in the US): Low Deep, Big Seac, Kano, Crazy Titch, Klashnekoff, Bear Man, Mizz Beats Sway and loads more. SO ENTIRELY AND UTTERLY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY RECOMMENDED!!!

V/ARuneology 3(Rune Grammofon)cd$ 9.98

V/ARunner: A Compilation of New Zealand Music(Next Best Way)cd$ 17.98

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

SORRY. Second release on wonderful Alastair Galbraith's record label, and tho you'll recognize many of the names on it, like David Merritt (3Ds), The Puddle, Bruce Russell (Dead C), Robert Scott of the Bats, Chris Heazlewood, and Cake Kitchen, the real gems on this album are from the folks who haven't -yet- received wide recognition for their talents. Worthy of your time.

V/ARunnin' On Fumes(Gearhead)cd$ 11.98

Although this compilation was compiled by Gearhead (an SF magazine devoted to the awesomeness of cars and rock'n'roll), you don't have to be a gearhead to love this cd. Lots of raunchy, fun tunes. Leaning heavy on the garage rawk horn, this 23-track collection includes songs by the Donnas, Man Or Astro-man?, Rocket From The Crypt, The Fastbacks, The Hellacopters and many more. If you've been an avid reader of the magazine, you probably already have these songs in 7" form (each issue included a bonus 7"), but here they are all together for ya with fun-filled liner notes and original cover art included.

V/ARural Psychogeography(Nexsound)cd$ 11.98

From the mysterious Ukranian label that brought us those amazing Moglass records comes this new comp, heady in concept, but equally heady in sonic experimentation. Psychogeography is explained in detail in the accompanying leaflet, but is a little too dense to explain here. The gist, as far as we can discern, is that psychogeography is a search for secret places, in cities, where madness and transgression result from areas of concentrated sociality. The pieces on this compilation, are the impressions of certain artists, of many of these places, real or imagined. A who's who of minimalism, Francisco Lopez, Courtis (of Reynols), lNexsound label head Andrey Kiritchenko, the Moglass, Radian, Tom Carter, Martin Tetreault, Kim Cascone, Rosy Parlane and more. All utilising the sounds of, or crafting a sonic homage to rural New York state, Patagonia, Arentina, Zurich, France, the Ukraine, Croatia, Bullhead City Arizona, New Zealand and more. From slow subtle rumbling shimmer, to distorted, fractured melodies, to straight up field recordings, this is an amazing document of abstract minimalism.

V/ARusskie Wig-Out! Surf / Electro / Exotica From Behind The Iron Curtain(The Omni Recording Corporation)cd$ 16.98

One of two new comps from one of our favorite reissue labels, the Omni Recording Corporation, and while the other one, The World Is A Monster fits squarely within Omni's country/folk/bluegrass focus, this one does NOT. Instead of lost recordings, rescued from plundered record label vaults or transferred from scratchy old records, instead of Dolly Parton or Porter Wagoner, instead of twisted country or bizarre bluegrass, Russkie Wig-Out! finds Omni collecting various recordings from the last ten years of "Demented Surf / Electro / Exotica From Behind The Iron Curtain". Which is as good as it sounds. Some folks are probably familiar with Messer Chups, whose records have been issued stateside, and who we remembered as being more a sort of modern rockabilly outfit, but this comp kind of knocked our socks off, and not only features a handful of Messer Chups tracks, but also the various post Messer groups, offshoots and solo records. And the sound here is not at all rockabilly really. Instead it's crazed sample driven Joe Meek like exotica surf rock weirdness. Twangy guitars, wild fluttery Theremins, lots of synths, groovy percussion, haunting Halloween melodies, and loads of samples, like some twisted hybrid of Les Baxter, Joe Meek, Perrey & Kingsley, Tipsy and Aavikko, this comp is like the ultimate party record. Just check out "Gitarkin Fast Food Empire", with its groovy horn riff, its counted off "1,2,3,4" vocal sample, culminating with a hurl like "BLEEEARGHHHH", not to mention the cool weirdo sort of scatting, the exotic female vocals, so good. Or check out "Bukva F" which is essentially a Perry & Kingsley cover, right down to the weird animal calls, but here it's revved up a little and given some extra vibe melodies and strange vocals. The whole record is totally fun and wild and ridiculous and catchy, it's sort of the music we'd imagine the house band on the Flintstones would play, or some fifties version of Pee Wee's Playhouse, or an alternate reality version of Gilligans Island, if Gilligan ran a seedy bar on the island. Totally far out, and totally recommended.

V/ARusty Axe - Under The Axe Vol. 3(Rusty Axe)cd$ 7.98

From the label that brought us the mind blowing blackmetalnoise of Enbilulugugal and the noise flecked Midwestern redneck black metal of Blood Cult comes a label sampler featuring a whole hellish mess of demented and damaged, fucked up and retarded, baffling and utterly brilliant metal mayhem. Rusty Axe and its stable of musical miscreants is not for the metal dabbler, or the true grim warrior, this shit is messed up, in the best possible way. Metal sure, but all drenched in goats blood, satan's semen, huge splattery gobs of noise and loads of what-the-fuck! Some of these bands are so fucked up they seem like they must be joking, others are deadly serious and are as heavy and buzzingly brutal as any black metal you've heard. Probably the most exciting band on here is Baphomets Horns, super fast and heavy grim black metal, furious and recorded so hot, it sounds like the band is spitting blood and flame right into your lap. On the other end of the spectrum are bands like Defecated Corpse, who sound a bit like Venom fronted by a lounge singer, but with loads of shredding lead guitar. They also cover the Benny Hill theme song. Yup, "Yakkety Sax". And then there's Satan's Almighty Penis, who do have a hilarious name, but their music is far from a joking matter, fucked up and furiously fast, another band that could go up against the Scandinavian elite for sure. The whole comp is pretty jam packed with the grimmest weirdest heaviest most fucked up black metal you've never heard from groups like Kill All Resistance, Wollfsschanze, Dark Energy, Sacrificial Blood, Mephistophelian, Demonic Mortuary, the brilliantly named FINISHER!, Tjolgtjar, Bethledeign, War Plague, Melkor, and loads more. We're already dying to hear full lengths from all of these bands! Fans of Benighted Leams, Rehtaf Ruo, Rigor Sardonicous, Emit, Furze, Detsorgsekalf, and all that sort of OUT black metal may have just found their new favorite label!

V/ARusty Axe: Under The Axe Volume 4(Rusty Axe)cd$ 6.98

The world is full of massive metal labels, Century Media, Relapse, Metal Blade, each home to hundreds and hundreds of bands, lots of bands we love, but plenty we could certainly do without. There are way more tiny little metal labels doing their own thing, WAY below the commercial radar, each cultivating their own unique little scene, based on a combination of location, style, and in the case of Rusty Axe, a totally brilliant, massively fucked and utterly idiosyncratic DIY approach to metal music. Every little while, Rusty Axe release a super cheap label sampler and every time we are totally blown away by the sheer weirdness and genius of the bands they dig up. This time around (volume 4!) there are way more familiar names than usual, but that in no way makes this comp any less appealing. In fact the known names will still seem pretty obscure to all but the most obsessive metalheads: The Wizar'd, Godless, Enbilulugugal, Black Vomit, V.A.C.K., Tjolgtjar, Marks Of The Masochist, and that's really about the only bands we know. Other until-now-unknown-to-us bands include Sermon Of Foulness, Trasher, Dead... Again, Sacrificial Blood, Talk Sick Earth, Esprit Derange, Brobdingnagian, Infinite Missiles, well we could go on and on, needless to say, for adventurous metalheads, this is the shit! Heavy on the black metal, but with plenty of doom and noise and fuzz and buzz and howl. Highlights include: a new track from aQ faves Black Vomit, purveyors of True Sheffield Black Psychedelia, which hear means a plodding blown out wall of buzz, peppered with fucked up effects and creepy inhuman vox, so heavy and in the red, it manages to almost slip into shoegaze territory. Almost. Toil offer up some lo-fi blackness, rife with classic metal riffing, but some seriously fucked up howled vocals and some tangled confusional leads. The Wizar'd cover Witchfinder General, the drums stumble gloriously, the guitars SO buzzy and hot, the vocals like a karaoke Zeeb Parkes. Enbilulugugal don't disappoint (do they ever?) with some retro thrash, but rendered all scribbly and lo-fi with INSANE vocals that sound like a million pterodactyls. Infinite Missiles are all old school retro punky thrash, with killer riffing and shouted vocals. Gaiman offer up the 'short version' of their track, which clocks in at almost 8 minutes, a sluggish Burzumy trawl through sonic black swamps with some gurgling underwater vokills and a bit of Viking riffage here and there. V.A.C.K. offer up some maniacal basement black metal, furious drumming, buzzsaw riffs and howled hellish shrieks�Fuck, who are we kidding, all the tracks here rule, not all of them will have us running out to track everything down by the band, but in the context of this comp, they are all pretty darn near perfect, in their own totally fucked and fractured, demented and damaged way.

V/ASID Chip Sounds: The Music Of The Commodore 64(Robot Elephant Records)cd$ 17.98

Folks who've visited aQuarius in person no doubt have noticed the little mini arcade going on, we have Tron, Joust, Ghosts & Goblins and Rastan, and if we had more room, you can bet there'd be more. And along with out love of classic arcade games, comes with a nostalgia and extreme appreciation for the video game music that soundtracked so much our our childhood. Glorious symphonies in 8-bit sound, from goofy and playful bloops and bleeps to haunting and ominous buzzing soundscapes (we'd posit that Rastan has some of the best music EVER, and not just video game music), even removed from the context of the game, those songs and sounds displayed an amazing creativity, doing so much with so little, this impossibly limited sonic palette birthing an impossibly kaleidoscopic array of sounds. We've reviewed a handful of 8-bit recordings in the past, there being a bit of a resurgence in chip-tunes, folks making new music out of modded chips from vintage video games, heck we've even gone so far as ONE-bit sounds, becoming a bit obsessed with the compositions of one bit composer Tristan Perich. But this new collection holds a special place in our hearts, as some of us here at aQ, long before everyone had a personal computer in their house (and in their phone!), were the proud owners of what was once cutting edge personal computing technology, the Commodore 64! Complete with CASSETTE TAPE DRIVE!! It seems laughable now, but the C64 definitely inspired a cult of nerds, one that remains strangely obsessed to this day. Which brings us to SID Chip Sounds, which is in fact, a collection of music from classic Commodore 64 games, and for the 8-bit and C64 obsessed out there, this is totally essential, a handful of classics, and a bunch of weird games we'd never heard of, but all the sounds so fun and cool, the sounds driving and hypnotic, goofy and even psychedelic, and so weirdly prescient of the current fascination with lo-fi sounds and experimental electronics. In fact much of this could totally pass for some modern cd-r releasing bedroom electronics tinkerer. But that said, so much of this stuff is just so masterfully composed and created, again, conjuring up lush landscapes and intricately melodic passages, from an incredibly limited palette. Dig deep into this comp, and you'll hear tracks that sound like video game krautrock, spaced out 8-bit cosmic disco, and some swirly new agey ambience, even one that sorta sounds like Deep Purple, but all delivered via a fantastically antiquated lo-bit delivery system, and with a sound that manages to be nostalgic, but in its own weird way sort of timeless! Composers include Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish, and more, doing themes for such games as Last Ninja, Gauntlet 3, Glider Rider, Commando, and Arkanoid, among others.

V/ASMM: Opiate(Ghostly International)cd$ 14.98

A pretty fucking choice compilation of wintery dronemuzik, post-classical bleariness, and somber variations on the pop ambient theme divided equally between the heavy hitters and the newcomers, with a couple of San Franciscan dudes making the grade (including our own Jim Haynes!). The former Slowdive drummer Simon Scott opens the album with a blissful shimmer of amorphous shoegazing blur'n'drone pocked with echoing synth tones twinkling like satellites glinting the suns rays back to earth. A Winged Victory For The Sullen (one of the projects that blossomed from the ashes of Stars Of The Lid) twinkles a series of heartwrenching piano motifs laced with stringed orchestrations all bathed in a beautifully maudlin atmosphere. The lugubrious melodies from Black Swan reprise those hauntological strategies of Leyland Kirby's recontextualized 78s with equally emotive results. When it comes Haynes' track, Jim quipped that he tried to make something pretty but the colors of the rest of the album rendered his track much more ominous than anticipated. A stealth mode piece of shortwave drone, billowing noise, and scabrous textures, considerably darker than anything else on the compilation, but it's certainly a top shelf slab of isolationist griminess. Immediately following is En, who open their track with a bright strum across a koto, those plucked tones become the painterly gestures of a wintery landscape as seen from the comforts of a stone farmhouse surround by snow and frost. The Swedish outfit Pjusk slows down a monophunk bassline to an undanceably slow torpor, suspending deep-space ambient transmission pulses for a track that does remind us of the bleak atmospheres found on that fantastic Raime album Blackest Ever Black released in 2012. Noveller's take on the Durutti Column's guitar impressionism is a beautiful way to end this exceptional album. There is a very clear narrative arc that Ghostly International has scripted through these tracks, one that is evocative of the many moods of late autumn and early winter with grey skies and sheets of bonechilling rain giving way to clear sky nights for winter solstice dreams. (Also available on vinyl, but we're waiting for copies.)

V/ASP20 - Casual Nostalgia Fest(Sub Pop)cd$ 10.98

Sub Pop these days is a seriously varied and eclectic label, they always were, but now more than ever, from folk to noise rock, electronic to power pop. But for most of us, Sub Pop will forver be associated with the much maligned, but frankly still KICK ASS genre they basically invented: GRUNGE. Sure it got watered down, like any scene, but that first wave of grunge is still untouchable: Green River, Soundgarden, Tad, The Fluid, Love Battery, Swallow, Blood Circus, Screaming Trees, Cat Butt, Skin Yard, U-Men, Malfunkshun, Pond... So when we heard about Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary celebration in Seattle, one aQuarian in particular had to go, a chance to see Green River, Les Thugs, The Fluid, Vaselines, Pissed Jeans, Eric's Trip, Kinski, Comets On Fire, Beachwood Sparks, Seaweed, and loads more, well it was too good not to go. So go this aQ-er did, and it RULED, the old guard destroyed, but the new bands were pretty great too. Some performances were transformative, not hugely into Fleet Foxes at the time, something about seeing them play in a green glade, those vocals soaring beneath the blue sky, amidst all those trees, suddenly their music made sense. A new fan was born. Green River had to be the highlight, members of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney brought back together again to play someof the sickest, swampiest, glammy grunge ever, and it still sounded better than 90% of the bands today. So to celebrate Record Stoe Day, Sub Pop decided to gather up some of the best recordings from the fest, and release them as a super limited cd. Which is what this is. Most of the above mntioned bands represented. The Vaselines do their classic "Dying For it", Beachwood Sparks sound magnificent, Obits seriously rock, as do Les Thugs, but probably the best moment of the fest, and of this comp is Green River, playing "Leech", a song popularized by the Melvins, but according to Mark Arm's before song banter, it's a Green River track, that was on a tape given to the Melvins way back when, which the band adopted as their own, but now that the legal might of Mudhoney and Pearl Jam are united, Green River plan to "Crush those bastards", which is met with a deafening roar, followed by a performance that makes the case for "Leech" being a Green River original, better than any lawsuit ever could. Joking or not, it's a magical moment, the fest was full of those moments, as is this comp!

V/ASR:ample(souRce research)cd$ 10.98

Label sampler from souRce research records limited to 1000 copies and packaged in a cool blue vinyl sleeve featuring tracks (some exclusive) from: CoH, Cylobe, Leif Elggren, Matmos, Andrew Poppy, Cattivo and more.

V/ASSSSSOSS2(Folding)cassette$ 4.98

Cool local cassette compilation compiled by Mike Donovan (Sic Alps, Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records) and artist Chris Johanson. Features tracks by Coachwhips, Big Techno Werewolves, No Doctors, Condor, California Lightening, Enablers, Ponies, Tits and a bunch more! As with most releases by these two fellows, there is only going to be a very small homespun run of these made, so needless to say, don't snoooooze! Pssst... we also have a very small number of some other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a couple of short ones from Death Sentence: Panda and Donovan's own band Sic Alps plus ones by Dark Yellow Swans (aka Yellow Swans) and NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!

V/ASSSSSOSS3(Folding)cassette$ 4.50

Volume 3 of the Folding Cassettes compilation series featuring tons of badass weirdo rock outfits, lots we already love, and a few we've never heard before... Sic Alps, Metallic Falcons, Fuckwolf, Octis, Numbers, Car Clutch, Si-Cops, Andrew Duke, Patrick Michael Mullins, Arsenio, Gass & The Bleed Sea, Tre Ferocious, Mammals, Bananas, and Magic Bag. Cover art by Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson!!

V/ASTRP1 - Reactions To Raaijmakers(Basta)cd$ 21.00

One of the early Dutch electronic music masters, Dick Raaijmakers, gets his due here with this compilation, released as a companion to Basta's 3cd Raaijmakers Complete Tape Music set (seen elsewhere on this list). A bunch of big names on the experimental/electronic cutting edge either remix or entirely "reinterpret" old Raaijmakers pieces, among them Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski), Mouse on Mars, Jason Forrest, Phantom Orchid (Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori), David Grubbs, Thurston Moore, Atom TM, Isolee, Beautyon, Vert. All sorts of cool sci-fi sounding shimmery sizzle, bleeping drones, and glitchy poptronic silliness (like Atom TM's version of Raaijmakers' version of that old chestnut "Colonel Bogey") abound.

V/ASacred Bones Presents: Todo Muere Volume 2(Sacred Bones)lp$ 16.98

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

SORRY. RSD 2012 comp from Sacred Bones... all gone!

V/ASacrifice At The Altar Of The Satanic Blood Angel: A Tribute To Von(Rusty Axe)cd$ 9.98

There are cult bands and then they are the TRUE KVLT bands. Few fit that bill better than San Francisco's Von. Von existed for a few years back in the late eighties / early nineties, recorded only two demos, and then split up and disappeared. But that's just the sort of stuff that creates the cult, that turns a band into something more, that and an incredible collection of furious grim thrashing black metal madness. Fourteen songs, all fast and black, all quite similar sounding, almost like one long song chopped up into 2 minute movements, but like very few bands, there's just something special about Von, sure the sound, the production, the energy, but it has to be the songs too, since even played by other bands, those songs exude a strange black power, a grim malice and hellish energy that belies their simple composition. Lots of folks have covered Von over the years, most recently SF's own Leviathan, on his split with fellow Bay Area black horde Crebain, but here we've got a whole disc of covers, most of them true to the spirit of Von, in that they are raw and primitive and buzzing, but each special in its own black way. Very few bands here that we've actually heard of: Enbilulugugal, Black Vomit, Godless, Execrator, Beastcraft, Tjolgtjar, Raw Hatred and that's about it. Check out the names on some of the other bands: Blasphemophager, Unholy Crucifix, Godslaying Hellblast, Sermon Of Foulness, Nuclearhammer, Ceremonial Castings� And they all sound just how you might think, carrying on in the grim tradition of Von, lo-fi, thrashing, black, brutal, buzzy, the rhythms fast and relentless, the riffing and drumming in a constant fury, the vocals in various shades of howl and gurgle, lots of the tracks peppered with wild squiggly leads, sometimes the sound is thick and caustic, a white noise blur, other times it's a tinny practice space recording, once in a while, like with Black Vomit, the song is transformed into something freaked out and damaged, but for the most part, this is one for the true, the grim, those of black heart and cursed soul. Definitely for fans of Von (obviously), Beherit, Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Darkthrone and other practitioners of raw raw raw primitive black metal.

V/ASaddam Birthday Party / Jailbreak(Greeensleeves)2lp$ 14.98

Another dancehall collection featuring tracks by singers using the "Saddam Birthday Party" and "Jailbreak" rhythms. All the greats are here: Capleton, Merciless, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Lexxus, Mr Vegas, Frisco Kid, Danny English and more. You just gotta be

V/ASafe Travel with Phil Pratt & Friends(Pressure Sounds)cd$ 17.98

Rock steady -- the Jamaican musical form that bridged ska and reggae, and somehow seems cooler than either, at least to some of us here -- flourished circa '66-68, and here's a collection of 23 rare tracks from that era, both vocal and instrumental, from such famous artists as Horace Andy (his first ever recording), Ken Boothe, Tommy McCook, and many more. Comps on Pressure Sounds are a pretty solid bet and this is a nice one with extensive liner notes and all. So if you are in a rock steady mood (relaxed, or in need of relaxation!) Safe Travel is a great compilation of Phil Pratt productions for the Calton and Jon Tom labels, featuring mellow, mellific vocals and laidback bass grooves.

V/ASafety In Numbers(Twisted Nerve)cd$ 10.98

V/ASaigon Rock & Soul - Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974(Sublime Frequencies)2lp$ 30.00

It seems like of all the Sublime Frequencies releases, all of which are incredible, many so incredible we felt compelled to make them aQ Records Of The Week, none has been as hotly anticipated as this one, ever since word of this release first surfaced, we would constantly get requests and inquiries, folks DYING to get their hands on a copy, and we'd be lying if we said we weren't pretty excited ourselves. So finally, here it is, Saigon Rock & Soul, a collection of fuzzy psychedelic Western influenced Vietnamese garage rock and pop, from the late sixties to the early seventies, heavily influenced by Western music of the time of course, but still somehow so totally and uniquely Southeast Asian. And like most of these collections, the sounds vary greatly, from super distorted acid drenched psychedelia, to fuzz guitar funk, to wild ramshackle garage rock, to dark smoky soul ballads and pretty much every stop in between. The history of this music, and the story of its creation, is as amazing as the music itself, as all of these tracks were recorded while the Vietnam war raged, recorded in makeshift studios, sometimes in US Army, camps, released as super limited 45's and tapes, the sounds constantly evolving as local musicians were exposed to the music American G.I.'s would bring over with them, from the surf rock of the Ventures and the Shadows, to stuff like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Santana, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, hence the heaviness of some of these tracks, with bands emulating that super distorted guitar tone and that druggy sixties psychedelic vibe. And some of this stuff really is heavy, the record opens with CBC Band's "Tinh Tuyet Voi", which explodes out of the gate with some seriously fuzzed out caustic guitar riffing, and then there's the "yeah yeah yeah" chorus, that almost sounds like the record is skipping, totally psychedelic and mesmerizing, wild drumming, lysergic leads - here's hoping Sublime Frequencies has a CBC Band reissue in the works! The rest of the tracks, while maybe not quite as heavy, are still super fuzzy and rocking and groovy, from wild horn drenched exotica, to organ driven garage rock grooves, to funky psychedelic soul, horns all over the place, wild psych guitar leads, super distorted fuzz basslines, pounded piano, loose chaotic drumming, lots of distortion and reverb, even some sampled birdsong (!), the vocals wailed and howled and growled, some of the tracks getting all dark and soulful and smoky, no doubt a nod to the Motown sound, also a huge influence on Vietnamese music of the time, but for the most part, the sound of Saigon at the time was fuzzy and buzzy, wild and rambunctious, rocking and totally psychedelic. Fantastic stuff, and while many of the groups featured here are some of the most popular artists in Vietnam at the time, most of them have remained pretty much entirely unheard by Western ears, until now. SUPER LIMITED of course, vinyl-only, and it's pressed on nice heavy vinyl, and housed in a thick full color gatefold sleeve, with extensive liner notes on the music, the musicians, and the era, as well as some amazing photos.

V/ASamba Soul 70!(Ziriguiboom / Crammed)cd$ 16.98

Soul influenced tracks from Brazil dating mostly from the mid to late seventies. Laced with funky electric bass, rhodes piano, horn sections, female choruses singing backup, and even the occasional string section, this is a perfect soundtrack for swank retro cocktail parties to get those guests dancing. A must for fans of the saucy soundtrack releases on the Crippled Dick Hot Wax

V/ASan Francisco Goth Synth Industrial(Denki Tiger)cd$ 10.98

An SF goth compilation completely by, for and about those "of the night". Fifteen tracks in all spiral downward into the shadowy depths of darkwave and synth pop, super-saturated with synthesized string sounds, arpeggiated basslines, and programmed beats. Heavy on the dramatic and melodramatic, the various vocalists draw easy comparisons to the classic goth kings and queens; for instance, the very Siouxsie/Danielle Dax-esque swooping female vocals of Trance To The Sun, Information Society's deep, emotive male vocals a la Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode or Peter Murphy, and Ganymede's swooning croon over clubland beats like that of Soft Cell's Marc Almond.

V/ASanity Muffin Label Sampler(Sanity Muffin)cassette$ 4.50

We only recently discovered Oakland label Sanity Muffin, but their first two releases kicked our asses, blackened Dutch doom/dirge/drone outfit Torture Corpse, and the project of the guy behind the SM label, Galena, a gorgeous collection of droned out blackened buzz. So here's a nice priced chance to check out some of the other stuff on Sanity Muffin. Not only do you get new and exclusive tracks from both Torture Corpse and Galena, you also get a hole mess of strange and wonderful sounds from a whole bunch of bands we'd never heard of. In fact, the only group we knew was hip hopper Odd Nosdam, but his track here is a whole different thing, a creeping, lumbering chunk of hazy, droney drift, swirly and abstract, crunchy and softly noisy, had us wishing all his records sounded like this! The rest of the comp is all over the place, from thick distorted buzzing drones to blackened rumbling creep, to gorgeous and epic field recording flecked collaged post rock ambience to spacey psychedelic skitter, nearly 90 minutes, pretty much not a bad one in the bunch, and will for sure have you looking for more from a lot of these folks. Super swank full color fold out covers, with photocopied inserts and a Sanity Muffing guitar pick!

V/ASaoco! Masters of Afro-Cuban Jazz(Rhino)cd$ 16.98

Collection of Afro-Cuban jazz from the genre's heyday, with tracks from as early as 1958 and on up to 1974. This is an assortment of smooth, clean, pristine and very controlled tunes that, fair or no, always makes me think of Cal Tjader -- so it should come as no surprise that he's included on this compilation. Both well known and not-so-well-known orchestras and cuts are compiled here (a

V/ASaturday Morning: Cartoon's Greatest Hits(MCA)cd$ 14.98

Wait a minute, it's subtitled "Alternative Rock for Cartoon Lovers: Make It a Part of Your Unbalanced Breakfast." And they want to *sell* records with that? I don't know. The only worthwhile piece on it, IMHO, is the Butthole's doing "Underdog," but whatever. I read all the Nancy Drew and Anne Of Green Gables books instead of watching cartoons and now must bravely face the holes in my popcult education. Other pieces people've been oohing & aahing over include Liz Phair (with Material Issue!) doing the Banana Splits theme, Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donnelly (Belly) covering "Josie & the Pussycats."

V/AScatter(Ash International)cd$ 14.98

Low-end experimentation from five Americans. This is the sequel to the all-Japanese "Chiky(u)u" comp listed last time. Jim O'Rourke, Earth, Daniel Menche, Kevin Drumm, and John Hudak.

V/AScattered Melodies: Korean Kayagum Sanjo From 78rpm Records(Sublime Frequencies)lp$ 21.00

Scattered Melodies is the first 78rpm compilation from aQ beloved world music label Sublime Frequencies (there's a second one, released simultaneously, focusing on Burmese music, which we'll review on the next list). It was curated by long time SF contributor Robert Millis, a member of aQ faves the Climax Golden Twins, and curator of many of our favorite world music compilations. Scattered Melodies is a rough translation of the Korean word 'Sanjo', which was in fact a form of improvisation in the late 1800s, as performed on the Kayagum, a cousin to the Japanese koto, with a similar sound and range, the notes plucked one at a time, decaying quite quickly, giving the melodies here a very pizzicato feel, but with overtones that ring out, making the sound buzz hypnotically, a little bit like a sitar. The notes are often scraped and thumped and snapped, the melodies angular, the playing percussive and physical. There's a definite connection to early American rural music, at least sonically, the same sort of aching, mournful quality, and of course it's all wreathed in that warm 78rpm record crackle. Some of the faster passages sound sort of slippery, like they could have been played with a slide. The tempo constantly shifts, the Kayagum accompanied by a simple hand drum called a changgo, not so much supplying rhythms, but instead accents, often mirroring the Kayagum, occasionally locking in with the Kayagum's melody, the building rhythm adding tension and pathos, but just as often, spread way out, a simple thump or pound every few measures, giving the sound a loose, skeletal framework. There's also the occasional vocal, just a shout or yelp in the background. Raw and visceral, emotional and mysterious, Millis explains in the liner notes, that it's Korean Kayagum Sanjo was the music that made him obsessed with 78rpm records, and listening to these tracks, it's easy to see why. Packaged in a nice old school tip-on style sleeve, with a printed, full color insert, featuring liner notes from Millis.

V/AScenes from the Ringing Isle(Rural Electrification Program)2cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY. I'm just going to admit that I love the name Rural Electrification Program for a label. It's just so antiquated and it fits so well with the squalid noise that Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof, Total) has collected for this compilation. As a whole, this compilation offers an excellent state of the union for the free noise compatriots around the globe. Humid blasts of muddled guitar feedback from Flies Inside the Sun, Sunroof, and Ashtray Navigations. The tectonic plate shifting from Surface of the Earth's low-end amplifier rumble. The bad-acid improvised 'pipe fights' of No Neck Blues Band's offshoot K. Salvatore. Also featured are Bradley / Campbell, Richard Youngs & Simon Wickham-Smith, and Dr. Gretchen's Musical Weightlifting Program.

V/ASchaffelfieber(Kompakt)cd$ 17.98

It doesn't seem right that Wolfgang Voigt would drive a motorcycle. He seems more like a guy who would cruise around Cologne in a sleek Mercedes, cut off from the physicality of driving by the incessant pulse of a 909 kick. But Mr. Voigt has seen to covering the "Schaffelfieber" compilation with fetishized photos of motorcycles, drawing comparisons to Kenneth Anger's "Scorpio Rising," the cult art-film that articulated the rituals and fetishes of leather boy culture of the early '60s. If there is anything sexual about the Kompakt sound (which Voigt helped consecrate), it is a very mechanical sexuality, grinding through very cold structures and swinging techno pulses - almost as if the sweaty house grooves of Sylvester (responsible for the majority of the sounds which emanate from the Castro's gay bars) had been distilled into a pure albeit sterile rhythm, with gritty residues of the corny synth lines still lingering around the technist stomps. Voigt appears on the compilation as M:1:5 and Galoppmusik and alongside Sensorara, Bolz Bolz (whose "Groupies" is a wonderfully stupid techno gem!), Sascha Funke, Christian Morgenstern, and a few others.

V/ASchaffelfieber 2(Kompakt)cd$ 16.98

V/ASchool Me! Vol. 1 (1968-1975)(Stage Band Research)lp$ 19.98

V/ASchoolhouse Funk(Cali-Tex Records)cd$ 16.98

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

SORRY. Vintage high school & college marching band versions of funk classics, from the '60s and '70s! "Chameleon", "Loose Booty", "Cisco Kid" (amazingly dirgey and gloomy sounding, like much of this disc--kind of a lonely-in-a-crowd feeling), etc. Fun/cked up. Compiled by the Quannum Projects guys, it seems, from old tapes or maybe thrift-store vanity LP pressing finds. Very cool.

V/ASchoolhouse Funk II : Raw Business(Cali-Tex)cd$ 21.00

V/ASchoolhouse Rock! Rocks(Lava/Atlantic)cd$ 14.98

It had to happen -- but too bad Atlantic felt the need to slap a cease-and-desist order on the indie label (can't recall its name) that had the idea first -- nonetheless this is a surprisingly good compilation, notable mostly for the Deluxx Folk Implosion's impersonation of a very whinyass Bill ("Yeah and *then* I hafta *hope* they make me into a *Law*") and Chavez! Yup, never thought I'd say that about Chavez but there you are: they contribute the liveliest, most creative track on the album, reminds us of "A Day in the Life."

V/AScience Faction: B'more Gutter(BBS / Milkcrate)cd$ 14.98

Holy crap! This record almost immediately became our favorite new record, while at the same time, proving to be maybe the most fantastically aggravating record of all time. Folks from Baltimore are probably well familiar with this kind of stuff, DJ Technics and the like. A sort of dizzying mash up of Miami bass, four on the floor techno, and druggy house music, but stripped down to its bare essence, usually a single loop, synths, drums and vocals, repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. But somehow we just can's stop listening to it. Super primitive, and maddeningly catchy, this must drive people fucking nuts on the dance floor. This is get wasted and dance until you drop club music for sure. Like those Rio Baile Funk comps, all cranked up, looped and let loose. Not many of us around here actually go dancing, but this relentlessly funky disc has at one time or another got every single AQ staffer if not dancing, at least bouncing or swaying, which is a serious testament to the sheer dance floor funk power of these joints. Some of the tracks are fierce and gangsta like "Murdaland" with it's gunshot percussion, almost jungle rhythm and raspy voiced rapping. Others are like nursery rhymes set to club music, like "Oxy's Anthem Featuring Roxy Cottontail", with a tired sounding club girl talking about shaking her ass endlessly over a super mesmerizing shuffling loop. And some are just bizarre, like "Kidstuff" featuring vocals by a gaggle of kids, over a stuttering, chopped up house beat. And those are just a few picked at random, every track here is somehow totally fucked, totally catchy and absolutely irresistible. Absolutely, THE dance party record of the year. Just toss this in your player, push play and let it spin over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

V/AScience Faction: Dubstep(BBS / Milkcrate)cd$ 14.98

Part of the same series that included the B'More Gutter Music compilation that we made record of the week on the last list, as well as the killer Science Faction: Grime comp (definitely a would've/could've/should've been record of the week as well), Science Faction: Dubstep is another killer slab of throbbing, shuffling, stuttering electronic griminess. And in some ways it's a lot more listenable than those other two. There's a very blurry line separating grime and dubstep. Grime is snotty and super syncopated, hiccupping beats, and lightning fast tongue twisting rapping, while dubstep seems to be the late night blissout version of grime. The grime version of the reggae/dub "version", with the vocals stripped off, more of a focus on the rhythms, the bass thick and resonant, dense stabs of fuzzy roof rattling synth. Sort of like chill out music you could dance to (if you were so inclined). Imagine stuff like African Head Charge and other modern digital dub given a seriously grimey 21st century makeover. Ominous and creepy, slithery and dark, but laid back and groovy. Lots of strange samples and loops, minor key melodies, over some of the most hypnotic beats EVER. Like jungle at 16rpm, convoluted and brilliantly unfunky in the funkiest way imaginable. But it's all about the low end, the basslines, the massive slabs of fuzzy synth, we had this blasting at the store and it literally had stuff on the desk rattling, and threatened to knock the plaster on the ceiling loose. The bass lines are thick wiggling eels of tectonic rumble, weird reverberating pulses that swallow entire rhythms whole, the synths sound like tuned airplane engines, thick fuzzed out warbling whirs like someone dumping a truck-full of low-end over your head. This sort of stripped down, instrumental dance music is supposed to be for dancing, and by all rights it should be totally boring to just -listen- to, but this comp is anything but, so massive and heavy and grimey and funky and fucked up that we haven't actually been able to stop -just- listening to it!

V/AScience Faction: Grime(BBS / Milkcrate Records)cd$ 14.98

Oh man, these Science Faction comps are KILLING us! The B'More Gutter Music comp reviewed elsewhere on the list. A killer dubstep comp we'll be reviewing soon, and this, the latest blast of grimey goodness from the UK. It's been a long time since we've gotten some serious grime. Seems like the world has discovered grime's mellower side and made the move to dubstep. Which is cool, don't get us wrong, but there's something about super blown out over the top grime that just totally kicks our asses. Totally hits the spot for us the way hip hope used to. It's just so aggressive and weirdly rhythmic. It's like the best parts of hip hop, jungle, and ragga, all wrapped up into a wild and goofy, funny and fucking fierce blast of fuzzed out, stuttery what-the-fuck. The flows are even faster, mush mouther and tongue twisting, wildly leaping to and fro, over weird snippets and loops and samples, all over a crunchy dancehall like rhythm and thick squelchy synths. This just might be the best collection of grime so far though. From Crazy Titch's bastardized classical music jam "Sing Along" all strings and flutes and huge moaning symphonies chopped into funky little bits, to Roll Deep's crunchy synth and growly ragga toasting, to the sci-fi videogame freakout funk of Bruza's "Doin' Me", to the gangsta ragga skitter of the Regal Players' "Rude Boy Remix". This is all just completely nuts. Funky, phat and fucked up and freaked out. If I was a dancing man, which I am most certainly not, but if I was, I'd be all over this shit. As it is, I don't have a single dancing bone in my body, and every track on this comp totally kicks my ass and gets my toes tapping and my head nodding, which is as close to actually dancing as I will ever get. Completely mental. And of course, recommended!

V/AScience in the Shape of Birds(ToYo)cdep$ 5.98

With contributions from Quintron, Bobby Conn, Zeek Sheck, and the infamous XBXRX, this comp is throwing a loud'n'nasty party in the garage. Quintron is his usual mysterious self, Bobby Conn does a commendable Jon-Spencer-meets-arena-rock blend, Zeek Sheck makes lots of noise, and XBXRX (reportedly Mr. Quintron's favorite band), a quintet of teenagers from Mobile, Alabama, make spazzing out on the floor like an epileptic look like fun! Recommended.

V/AScience of Glass Gargantua(Toyo)cd$ 7.98

Volume three in Toyo's series of musical misanthropy, this volume focuses on the skronk and the skree and the 'costume'. Seemed this volume could've been a video instead of a cd seeing as these bands are all costumed art project bands. But it works as a record nearly as well. Noisey and crazy and truly fucked up, this volume features the Lowdown, Pink and Brown (featuring Jeff from Lumen and John from Burmese), Rubber O Cement (featuring Grux from Caroliner, Mick from Insignificant, and Kurt, local engineer/soundman extrordinaire), and Lozenge. Never before has 7.98 bought you this much difficulty with your neighbors.

V/AScott Walker: 30 Century Man OST(Lakeshore)cd$ 17.98

Don't know if you had a chance to see this documentary about Scott Walker, but we highly recommend it! It has so much awesome footage of the Walker Brothers, his early and later solo career, plus it features the recluse himself, opening up about his long, varied, and eccentric life as he was prepping his last record, The Drift! This is not so much the soundtrack to the documentary as it's a companion tribute record to the enigmatic pop genius (at least we don't remember hearing these cover versions in the film!). On the surface, this can seem kind of bad, but it's actually much better than we thought, though definitely not as good as the originals, but then again, how could they be? There's an interesting mix of folks on here, a few that are new to us (Bee and Flower, Sally Norvell) but also ones that we like a lot such as Damon and Naomi, Saint Etienne, Dot Alison, Laurie Anderson, Ulrich Schnauss, Jarboe, and Peter Broderick. Though it gravitates towards lighter interpretations than we would have preferred, (only Jarboe attempts any song from the Drift) we have a feeling this was meant as an entry point for folks unfamiliar with Walker's wide ranging and sometimes difficult body of work.

V/AScratch Attack Vol. 1(Hip Hop Slam)cd$ 12.98

Scratch Attack was a monthly two hour radio show dedicated to the art of turntablism, and ran for one year until it unfortunately got booted off of KPFA in Berkeley. These tracks are culled from archives of the show, and feature both live on the air and pre-recorded stuff made especially for the show. Released by the inimitable Billy Jam, whose taste is impeccable, the collection isn't endlessly wanky (as many dj comps are, let's face it), but interesting and varied good listening. With DJ T-Rock, D-Styles, DJ Shortkut, 8-Ball, Quest (Live Human), Golden Chyld, even DJs from Netherlands, England and Ireland. Lots of spoken snippets from the radio shows, including poor Shortkut talking about how his records were stolen at an airport. Really fun, and a nice document of the groundbreaking radio show.

V/AScratch Attack Vol. 2(Hip Hop Slam)cd$ 14.98

Volume 2 of Hip Hop Slam's Scratch Attack series again compiles tracks from the legendary radio show. Scratch Attack was a monthly two hour radio show dedicated to the art of turntablism, and ran for one year until it unfortunately got booted off of KPFA in Berkeley. These tracks are culled from archives of the show, and feature both live on the air and pre-recorded stuff made especially for the show. The collection is tight and there's little filler involved, just really strong tracks from some of the best turntablists around, including a previously unreleased (clickety clackety boom boom) QBert piece, Italy's incredible Alien Army (whose scary tracks include dentist drills, Al Pacino, and werewolves), AQ-fave DJ Jester, DJ Quest & Live Human, Double Dee & Steinski, DJ Pone, DJ Spair, etc. Recommended.