After being AWOL for a year or so, this longtime fave is now back in stock, and the timing is perfect since we've been raving about a bunch of similar comps of cool vintage French new wave/punk/electro stuff recently like Bippp and IVG and Des Jeunes Gens Modernes. If you liked those, you gotta check this out, 'especially if you're into the proggier side of things.
This one was kind of a sleeper hit when we first listed it. I mean, we knew it was a cool record, but boy did people like it. We sold a ton and then the label ran out. At last it's been repressed, so here it is again. Definitely recommended!
France. Synths. 1977-83. Intrigued? You should be. This comp, compiled by a couple of today's top trainspotting electronica mavens, highlights what are indeed some obscure, awesome French entries into the field of proto-techno. Richard Pinhas of Heldon we've talked about recently, also Metal Boys, and you might remember Ruth from a reissue a while back, but there's plenty of names here we're getting acquainted with for the first time: Nini Raviolette, Mathematiques Modernes, Kas Product, The (Hypothetical) Prophets, Moderne, The Droids... Sixteen tracks in all of sinister prog/pop electronics, droning ambience, Magmoid robotics, futurepunk, and sci-fi dance darkness. So young, so cold - so stylish.
And when Alchemy says it's a mysterious sound collection, it IS a mysterious sound collection! The ever-excellent Japanese noise/psych label has assembled a very interesting four-way split release here. Probably if we could read Japanese it would all be a little clearer, but from the Siamese twin motif of this cd's graphics, and the info on the artists featured, we'll conclude that this experimental, abstract sound compilation intentionally features only duos -- perhaps being duos formed soley for this comp (perhaps not...we don't know). We've never heard of any of these acts, though we have heard of several of the individuals participating in each duo.
The disc starts off simply and beautifully with Mr. So-&-So's "Unknown", which features the two electric guitars of Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba) and Masahiko Ohno (Solmania) -- so when some more extreme sounds begin to filter in it's no surprise. Next up is A X A, the duo of Aya Ohnishi and Akifumi Nakajima (Aube). With kazoo, drums, voice, field recordings and synths they make a fascinating soundscape which we won't really try to describe since, well, it is mysterious. As are the other two contributions to this disc, from Swastika (between them, members of CCCC, Incapacitants, Tangerine Dream Syndicate, etc.) and kishidashin (dunno who these two are). All are well worth investigating, if you're into the more controlled and crafted side of "Japanese noise". Maybe that's not the term to use at all, one could just as easily call this psychedelic industrial improv or somesuch. In any event, another worthwhile Alchemy release.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Long out of print singles and other rarities from the now-famous Solesides crew, as Jeff Chang will tell you in the liner notes, started off spinning and mixing records in the unused other studio at UC Davis college radio station while Chang DJ'd legit in the other room. The boys (Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Lateef, etc) went on to form Latyrx, Blackalicious, and other outfits, are famous all over the world now, and as soon as it started to get less than fun, they dissolved the label (which now lives on as Quannum so it's all good). Contains some downright gems, including the totally out of print Shadow track from the DJ SHADOW/CHIEF XCEL Mo'Wax 12". See audioclip.
No doubt we've loved so much of what Italians Do It Better has released recently, in so many ways they really helped reignite the love of dance music in indie culture. With different shades of smoky, slow burning spaced out disco, techno and house music, their roster really reads like an exciting list of some of our favorite synth heavy late night dance floor favorites. Solid Gold is a collection of tracks from 12" singles IDIB have released over the last few years by folks like Invisible Conga People, T&K, Bottin, Twisted Wires, and even Beyonce's sister Solange. We dig this collection so much because as much as we like so much of the Johnny Jewel fueled sounds that have come from the Italians Do It Better camp (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire), it's nice to hear a set of songs that have a bit of a different angle and perspective to dance music, than just one group/guy's vision. From total spaced out ravers to cold and thrilling chillers we've been listening to this loud and nonstop ever since it came in to the shop. We even noticed that folks who are usually a bit dance music shy are getting way into this as there are so many awesome prog and psyched out synth moments on this record.
Much like their last compilation After Dark, Italians Do It Better have once again provided us with a seamless compilation that flows so perfectly from start to finish and is making us move in the most sensual and satisfying ways. So smoking!
We always like to have a good '60s/'70s psych-pop compilation to recommend, when we can. Happily enough, this list we do, it's Some Songs Stuck In My Mind, an international comp of utterly killer tracks from rare 45s by 18 different, totally obscure artists that we'll go ahead and list here for the hell of it, so you can feel all collector-music-nerd-snobby if you've heard of any of 'em before: Springwell, Manolo Y Ramon, Don Curtis, The Comforts, Michael, T.M.L., Eduardo Araujo, Bluebeard, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Serge Et Christine, La Metamorphosi, Adriano Celentano, Puzzle, Little Sammy Gaha, Francois De Louville, Les Playboys, Vincent, and Injun Joe. All of it wonderfully groovy, fuzzy, catchy and funkily far out. If this were a DJ set spun in a bar 'round here, there would be a either a stompin' dancefloor and/or a bunch of bearded guys bugging the DJ about what they were playing as each track came on.
The cd booklet's got liner notes talking 'bout each track, and lil' full-color pics of the cover art from the original singles. Recommended, in the tradition of Neurotic Reactions (from the same label), Andergraun Vibrations, Cherrystones Hidden Charms, Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils, Nightmares At Toby's Shop, all those cool Psychic Circle comps, etc.
Another fantastically curated collection of magical and mysterious and mostly unheard songs from Honest Jon's, these vintage recordings from East Africa, recorded between the years 1938 and 1957, and categorized as 'native records', in that this was music that was intended for sale to native Africans, not the white colonialists or various traders or laborers, and these recordings helped capture and preserve popular music, the various styles popular before the influence of imported sounds from abroad and various immigrants. These sounds were specific to various villages and represented many different languages and styles. The other cool thing about these performances, is that they were specifically by non professionals, since earning a living making music was nearly impossible, instead these were regular folks, who were often called upon to entertain, at weddings or parties, at markets or for various rituals. The liner notes, like all Honest Jon's liner notes, go into incredible detail, about the various styles of music, the difficulties in translating the languages, the musicians, the performances, the recording processes, it reads like a primer on East African music, and like it should be part of a college course, in fact, we often think smart schools would be snapping these guys up to teach courses in world music, but beyond the background, it's the sounds that count, and the sounds here are incredible, so strange and lovely and mysterious and at once warm and intimate and emotional and totally alien and fantastical.
The first track is the perfect example, a super hypnotic stretch of relentless vocalizing over a barely audible string melody, the sound distorted, the vocals more like testifying, it's not until the very end of the track where the vocals drop out that you can hear how strangely frantic the string playing really is. And from there on out, there's never a moment that's less that totally wonderfully lovely, whether the sound is super melodic and folky, or minimal and rhythmic, buzzy and droney, moody and emotional, we lack the vocabulary to truly describe these sounds, other to say that they move us, and that they're so absolutely beautiful, sometimes haunting and mournful, other times effusive and celebratory, always breathtaking.
The cd comes in a beautiful hardcover style book, with a massive booklet inside, filled with extensive liner notes and vintage photos. The vinyl version is spread out over two double lps, the first with the same title as the double cd contains all the music from the first disc, while the second, containing the music from the second disc, is titled Bellyachers, Listen!
Nine exclusive tracks licensed by Thrill Jockey from Mouse on Mars� Sonig label -- with f.x. randomiz, Microstoria, Vert, Wang Inc., Lithops, etc. Nice, layered, melodic electronica. Mellow and lulling. Recommended!
Irregular? Indeed! This compilation jumps around in total hyperactive fashion. It's made up of the fifteen tracks from three of the previously released, limited edition Sonig Irregular Series 12"s: Schlammpeitziger (the first four tracks), Jason Forrest (the second five) and Wevie De Crepon (the final six). It'll have you bouncin' off the walls in no time. AQ regulars might already be familiar with the first two fellows German gent Schlammpeitziger for his kooky, heavily squidge-laden Augenwischwaldmoppgefloete cd and Jason Forrest for his spasmodic glitchy jumble o' fun under his own name as well as the moniker Donna Summer. If you dig the sounds of People Like Us or Wobbly, you should definitely check out this trio of artists and vice versa. Oh yeah, and adding further to the irregular nature of this release, when we scanned the cover art into our computer, the image came out black instead of the bright kelly green that it actually is (at least to our eyes!).
Here's a fine way to get acquainted with SF label Expel Records who put out the lovely Brookhaven album. If you've had a chance to hear and enjoy that record or if you're a fan of such mellow groups like The Album Leaf, Tristeza or Languis, you're certain to enjoy this compilation featuring a couple nice tracks from Brookhaven as well as Telefecteau, Roche, Clay Payton, Ecru, and Hinokuma. They all fall somewhere on a spectrum of minimal electronics blended with more traditional indie-type elements (guitars, live drums). Funky sampled beats and cold, beautiful synth washes, little lo-fi keyboard bedroom recordings-like and more polished productions all find their way into this collection, hopefully signalling more full lengths on the way from Expel artists. Quite nice!
Another great Dust-To-Digital comp here! This one's actually a reissue of an lp originally released in 1975, and should be welcomed by the same folks who loved such Mississippi-label collections as Life Is A Problem and In The Storm So Long.
The subtitle kind of explains the focus here, but to get more specific, all the tracks are recordings dating to between 1965 and 1973, documenting spiritual and gospel songs "performed in informal non-church settings". And in many cases the performers are either "active or former blues artists". Guitar accompaniment is the norm, though there's also at least one fife & drum band on here too.
Both the cd and lp formats come with a big booklet of liner notes and b&w photos, with details on each track and artist as well as an essay pertaining to the general thrust of the compilation, to highlight "the important role that religious music plays in the Southern black communities and in the daily lives of individuals", written by ethnomusicologist David Evans of the University of Memphis, who was one of this album's recordists and producers.
There's sixteen tracks, from artists including Robert "Nighthawk" Johnson, Ephram Carter and His Fife & Drum Band, Reverend Rubin Lacy, Eddie Lee "Mustright" Jones, Babe Stovall, Willard Artis "Blind Pete" Burrell, Napoleon Strickland, Pattie Rosemon, and more.
Beautiful, evocative, moving music for sure.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuul... umm... gospel? Yes it is, Amen!! Praise Soul Jazz for bringing us one quality compilation after another! Amen!! Actually, this one could be called a masterpiece. Each song has a solid and glowing fullness to it that's certainly not matched on any other comp we've heard. I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but I once watched a show hosted by David Attenborough called "The Biological History of Music". As you can imagine, Attenborough drowned himself in different situations, mostly in Nature and knee deep in swamp poo. His goal was to study things like bird calls, whale songs, etc. juxtaposed with the most lude clips of Jimi Hendrix performing live on stage I'd ever seen. Attenborough's theories throughout this special pronounced that music seemed biologically created for three different purposes: 1) mating; 2) protecting/gaining territory; and 3) spirituality. Of course, the whale songs were not be analysed for their spirituality (unfortunately), but several spirituals and gospel songs were used as demonstration. Really, this Soul Gospel compilation would have been THE proof for Attenborough's third biological purpose for music! The songs are each a powerful combination of the Spritual and Secular, proclaiming a belief in something "other", or rather, simply well seated in a sense of "otherness". One of the more moving tracks is one by Odetta. Her "Pastures of Plenty" is deep and haunting. Definitely my favorite. For followers of Soul Jazz releases, this comp is a must have. For lovers of Soul and Gospel, your desire for this is obvious. For anyone who's seen that show of which I speak above, you gotta take a gander at this and you'll see what I mean!
So we don't usually do much mixing of music and praising the lord around here... unless it's the dark lord that is... but when Soul Jazz hits us with the follow up to their amazing Soul Gospel compilation we can't help but get on our Sunday best and raise our arms in complete surrender to these totally irresistible sounds. Spanning the late 60's to the end of the 70's these 20 songs go beyond beyond simple soulful songs in the gospel tradition. When Louise McCord tells you "you better get a move on" you've pretty much got to. When the Marion Gaines Singers tell you to "Do Your Thing" you dang well better. When Marion Williams belts out tales of "Bad News, Bad Times", you can't help but feel her pain. Songs that soar so high, with vocal delivery that's just so right on. As always immaculate packaging, liner notes, and photos make this a total must-have. Are you a Believer? We think that maybe after these 20 songs you'll be a convert like us. Amen!
Everyone's got to know by now what a stupendously awesome label Soul Jazz is. Forever mining the vaults for lost gems and unearthing compilation after compilation of rare dub, esoteric post-punk, free jazz, regional soul, dancehall and dubstep, always accompanied by meticulous liner notes, well researched and full of incredible facts and amazing anecdotes. For those of you who can barely keep up with their Herculean output of compilations, you probably overlooked the steady stream of limited edition singles as well, tons of obscure Dancehall, Ragga, Dubstep, Micro-house, Post-Punk, German Rock, Baile Funk Italo-Discoand Electro all released in the past couple of years.
Well don't fret, because the definitive compiler's label has compiled all of their singles onto a 2cd set with a bonus mix cd. Funky and diverse, leaping from one genre to the next yet keeping a solid flow. Featuring Subway, ESG, Kit Clayton, Capracara, Kode 9, Digital Mystikz, Ladybug, Skream, Tetine, DJ Rupture and so much more!
WAY RECOMMENDED!!!
Bet you don't have any Black Hebrew soul in your record collection. We sure didn't! But leave it to the folks at the Numero Group to extract this amazing document of the diaspora of black folks from Chicago and Detroit who converted to Judaism and made the pilgrimage to Israel, and more precisely to a city located just west of the Dead Sea called Dimona. When in Israel it was the music and spiritual soul that many of these people brought with them from Chicago and Detroit that would become the soundtracks to their new lives. Musically this is very much in line with the best of spiritual soul and gospel of that era (early '70s) and you can hear the influence of many of their Chicago brethren (Pieces of Peace, The Dells, Earth Wind & Fire). But of course what makes this so cool is the totally unique context that these songs came out of. On a few tracks they even sing some lines in Hebrew and the amazing pictures and in depth liner notes of this very obscure movement and moment in time makes not only for a great record but an even more amazing historical document.
FYI: if you *don't* like naked ladies, you'll want to avoid perusal of this disc's booklet, which mostly consists of vintage full-color cheesecake shots of a bevy of well-endowed "soul sisters". But don't let that put you off... just forget for one second that this cd is billed as a collection of '70s African-American porno flick soundtracks. For one thing, it sure doesn't sound like the typical "boogie nights" retro-porn soundtrack. No cheesy throbbing synths or disco beats. No orgiastic moans even! Instead, what you get here is avant-groove jazz funk of an almost experimental, freeform nature. The vibe can be lively but not "sleazy"... bad-ass though. Very funky and full of nasty geetar and jamming Hammond organ.
To tell the truth, there's so very little documentation presented here that we can't say we're 100 percent convinced that this is what it says it is, instead of something perhaps made by some clever musicans today creating replica vintage avant-funk soundtrack for imaginary x-rated flicks... though we should stress have no evidence of that at all, and we'd be mighty impressed if that was the case. Supposedly these tapes were recently found in a studio in Oakland, where the recordings we're told took place circa 1972-75, and the musicans that get credited here were, it seems, operating under pseudonyms (for obvious reasons perhaps). The films are alluded to only in the track titles, but who knows if those cited are real (anyone seen "Chocolate Cherry"?). There's no dialogue or sound effects or anything, since this is the original, raw soundtrack music only, what later was to be utilized perhaps in edited form in the finished film. Puzzling. But no matter, this stuff IS great!
There's the aforementioned avant-funk that surely fits into the '70s blaxploitation aesthetic, but this funk is full of sizzling feedbacking guitar that is hard to square with scenes of, um, lovemaking. But actually a lot of this is in more of an introspective mood that the wah-funk stereotype. More laidback that about getting laid. A long portion of track five ("Music From 'Copper Cuties'") consists of variations on a pensively repeating, gentle piano figure, generating a mood far from you might expect to be "exposed" to in an ostensibly X-rated flick. And only the last track "Jam Back At The House" has vocals, they go with that cut's smokey groove but do serve to break the almost mysterious feel set by the preceeding tracks a little. Overall, this is way more amazing than we ever thought it would be. What we though might be kitschy and/or kookily amusing turned out to be downright fresh and intriguing.
Miles Davis had a track on his album Get Up With It entitled "Rated X" -- maybe he'd been checking out the cinema and was inspired by one of the films that used music like this? Definitely this comes close to what we'd imagine would be how that "big freak" would have scored a porno soundtrack!!
So, this is one for fans of those Deep Note porno soundtrack comps and maybe moreso for folks who simply dig weird and wonderful jazz/funk obscurities, which would seem to be a lot of people who hear it (and then buy it) when we've been playing it in the store!
Here's a double cd compilation of Angolan shantytown pop from 1965-1975, with a similar lineup of artists as the "Angola '60s" and "Angola '70s" comps we've already been carrying: Artur Nunes, Os Kiezos, Urbano de Castro, Oscar Neves, Jovens do Prendo, Os
"The Sound Of Nature, The Nature Of Sound" is an excellent compilation put together by the Kaon label, which has actively been promoting the artform of the manipulated field recording. Francisco Lopez - perhaps one of the more well known composers of manipulated field recordings - offers one of his incredibly quiet pieces, so quiet in fact that we'll take Frans de Waard's
NOW AVAILABLE ON GATEFOLD VINYL, WITH A BONUS TRACK!!
So we've actually already had quite a few amazing compilations of '60s and '70s popular music from Thailand, including a whole bunch of discs from the infallible Sublime Frequencies label (Thai Pop Spectacular, Siamese Soul, Molam: Thai Country Groove, Shadow Music Of Thailand, etc., etc.), and also the Subliminal Sounds label's Thai Beat A-Go-Go series, but we were still super excited when we heard about the upcoming release of this new comp of vintage Thai tunes, 'cause it's been put together by Soundway, the UK-based label that also seemingly can do no wrong when it comes to international crate diggin'. Soundway is responsible for all those Nigeria Special comps, and the Ghana Soundz ones too, among other fine collections and reissues, most focused on music from Africa or Latin America. This is their first venture into Southeast Asia, as far as we know, and boy did they do the job well! A more lively, colorful comp could hardly be imagined. The compilers, who have spent hours and days on the ground in Thailand searching out vintage vinyl, know their stuff (their DJ night, "Bangkok Paradise", must be a blast).
Nineteen tracks, 66 minutes of music, ranging from yearning love songs to super groovy funk, all of it quite undeniably 'exotic' to our ears, so that even with Western psych and pop influences, incorporating surprise rock riffs, synths, and brass sections, it's most definitely music from Thailand, utilizing Thai folk traditions, sung in the Thai language, though some of it also reminds us of Bollywood stuff (which makes sense), or possibly the Ethiopiques series as well (a less likely connection there). We recognize a few of the artists' names from those other abovementioned comps, though they seem aware of what's been comped already and we're assured that most of the tracks here have never been released outside of Thailand before.
The subtitle doesn't say "leftfield" for nothing, this probably isn't the most typical mainstream Thai pop from the period, more like the hippest and freakiest, though often from quite popular artists, many revered to this day. Soundway treat us to some wonderfully eccentric picks, gems like Waipod Phetsuphan's "Ding Ding Dong", a song inspired by a dumb 1971 Italian sex comedy about prehistoric cavemen (and cavewomen) that was inexplicably a hit film in Thailand. And the spaced out lounge-jazz of The Viking Combo band's "Pleng Yuk Owakard" must be mentioned. Mindblowing. Walking bass, spooked out electric organ, maniacal vocals, loud shuddery chords, sudden percussion, woah it's a weird one, almost disturbing. Whichever DJ/collector first dug that one up must have been stoked. So much good stuff here, our point is, the treasures of vintage Thai pop are plentiful enough to require this comp, those that came before, and hopefully many more to come. You gotta be thankful when you think about it, without the efforts of labels like Sublime Frequencies, and Soundway, etc., we'd be missing out on so much incredible music that we now listen to on a daily basis, whether it be from Thailand or Nigeria or wherever.
Something about this cd, about the way it looked, made me predisposed to like it. Maybe the reindeer on the front, or the solid shade of pink used on the back and spine. I like reindeer, and I like pink cd packaging. Nothing wrong with that. Aside from what it looks like, though, I was also curious to check out "the Electro Sound of Finland" as this compilation is proclaimed by Dutch label Bunker. After all, stuff from Finland is always weird and cool and also I happen to be a very casual fan of electro, that '80s-retro techno style that's pretty hip these days. Apparently it has got quite a few practicioners in Finland, a country whose electronica output we'd previously associated mainly with the clinical sterility of Pan Sonic and the minimal dub techno of Vladislav Delay. But it seems that Finns like to get sweaty on the dance floor as well as in the sauna, happily shakin' it to the home-grown robotic funk bass-crunch and blip-bleep of such artists as Huaratron, Deceptions, V.U.L.V.A., Imatran Voima, Polytron, Nu Science, Kings Of Techno, New York City Survivors, and Alpha Males, who number among the dozen Finnish electro acts represented here. I think think the only one on this comp I'd really heard of before is Mr. Velcro Fastener (who did "The Trooper" on that nutty electro tribute to Iron Maiden disc we loved last year) but all of 'em are pretty great.
Nice collection of sound system exclusive tracks belonging to King Tubby, taken off of sessions recorded by Bunny Lee. Starting in the late sixties, Bunny "Striker" Lee and King Tubby would develop a special symbiotic relationship where Bunny would bring all his sessions to King Tubby to be mixed and cut to disc, and in return King Tubby would get to keep a copy of the tapes himself to mix special dub plates and other versions for use on his incredibly popular "King Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi" sound system. These are some of the most popular sound system tracks of the day, including The Abyssinians' "Satta Massa Gana" voiced by crooner Ken Boothe, Jackie Edwards' "In The Mood", Johnny Clarke's "Ride on Girl" and Horace Andy's "Guiding Star".
A diverse collection of hard techno & angular electronica from Cologne, Germany... featuring Mouse on Mars, Schlammpeitziger, F.X. Ramdomiz, Club Off Chaos, Dr. Walker, and many more.
Pretty damn solid compilation from the Rawkus label, intended to whet your appetite for forthcoming albums from most of the participants included here. Runs the gamut from straight up lyrical hip hop to 'slow jams' to... Zap Mama?! Yep. The entire thing is sequenced smoothly, with a coupla non-annoying skits scattered throughout. We all know how bad those clumsily put together comps can sound -- that's not the case here: Rawkus did a really great job making this thing flow. The impressive roster also includes Mos Def, Kool G Rap, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Jonell feat. Method Man, The Roots, Styles P. & Pharaohe Monch, many more. Highly recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Cool Philadelphia space-rock compilation with: Transient Waves, Azusa Plane, Aspera Adastra, Photon Band, Bent Leg Fatima, Asteroid #4 and more. Although Philadelphians Bardo Pond are not included here, fans of that band (and My Bloddy Valentine) will be happy with this cd, full of wall-of-sound layers and buried melodies.
This selection of long-forgotten disco favorites is surprisingly decent (not great, but better than mediocre) -- full of trilling organs, declamatory guitarpicking, solid bouncy bass, and barked lyrics a la Chic. The sort of stuff played at Studio 54, the
We had to do it. How could this NOT be an aQ Record Of The Week? Some folks will no doubt cry foul, and accuse us of arty pretension, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sure we love lots of strange stuff, and we love difficult listening, and challenging, arty sonic WTF weirdness, and have been known to champion some seriously bizarre records and groups, but we do love all that stuff. Like we love jangly pop, and buzzy black metal, we also love field recordings of abandoned buildings, we love the sound of record crackle, tape hiss, we love industrial sounds, the whir of heating units, the thrum of traffic bleeding through the walls, we love the drone found in everyday life, the music hidden in the most unmusical of places. In fact, it's almost become a running joke around here, we'll be somewhere, and some piece of machinery will be buzzing or humming, or some construction site will be emitting a strangely rhythmic crunch, and our first thought it often "We could definitely sell a bunch of these at aQ!" And after all these years, we know you're right there with us. Buying recordings of hospital rooms and life support machines, recordings of mating deer and drag races, records made entirely from runout grooves, we could go on and on, but c'mon, you love that stuff as much as we do. Which brings us to Sounds Of Silence, which as the title suggests, is in fact a collection of the most famous musical silences! That's right, a silent record. Or at least mostly, bear with us.
We've had other 'silent' records at aQ before, from the not-so-silent Blank Tapes, which found Argentinean weirdos Reynols constructing a whole record from recordings of, yes, blank tapes, that disc a fantastic sonic landscape of hiss and hum, subtly textural and weirdly mesmerizing, to (in the used bin once), a purported compilation of Billy Joel's "Greatest Hits", which was in fact a recording with no sound at all, an obvious artprank jab at the ubiquitous piano man. Hell, we even poked fun at ourselves by listing a cd that didn't even exist on our April Fools list a while back, waxing poetic about the 'nothingness' and the 'void' and the concept behind the lack of actual music, we even made a mock up with an empty jewel case, that spent a good long while on the employee favorites shelf in the store. But the thing is, we do love silence, or at least, the attempt to capture silence, in a world, where true silence doesn't actually exist. From barely there recordings by Francisco Lopez and Bernard Gunter, to field recordings of industrial spaces, it's not so much about the silence, as what surrounds it, and what threatens to destroy it.
So yeah, maybe you'd have to be a pretty big music dork to want to pay thirty bucks for a silent record, but then, we're all pretty big music dorks after all. C'mon, check out the lineup! Andy Warhol, Ciccone Youth, Sly & The Family Stone, Robert Wyatt, Afrika Bambatta & Family, Orbital, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Crass, Whitehouse, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Soulfly, John Denver, The Count Backwards and lots more. Maybe the most unlikely lineup on a compilation ever. Who knows if this is some super provocative art-prank, or a lovingly curated collection of experimental sound, or heck, a little of both, it's pretty goddamn fascinating, and weird, and cool, fans of lowercase sound will find much to dig, lots of crackle and hiss, of course even beyond the original recordings, depending in your method of playback, each person's listening experience will be different, more noise and hiss and hum and crackle and pop, you could even scratch the shit out if it before you play it and truly individualize it, Christian Marclay style! But the sounds themselves are surprisingly varied, those that come from digital sources, are truly nearly silent, while others are actually not so silent, and still others, don't even exist at all, their length listed as 0'0'', presented here as they were when they were originally 'released', the original intention unclear, high concept, political statement, who knows, but tracks like Sly & The Family Stone's "There's A Riot Goin' On", which was mentioned on the album cover, but was then conspicuously absent from the actual lp, or Andy Warhol's "Silence (Copyright 1932)", which was supposedly created by Warhol when he was 4 years old, or the Afrika Bambatta track "Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere) (Silent Version)", which was originally presented as a "Radical Mix". But fear not, Sounds Of Silence, is not all high concept, there are actual tracks, well, actual sort of silent tracks, it seems a little pointless to describe each one, since, they are all essentially 'silent', and they ARE, both sides, track after track of barely there thrum, fields of crackle, the occasional pop, most of that we're guessing from OUR turntable, but close listening reveals much of the source, some tracks have barely there sounds, whether it's the sound of the room, or the vinyl from which it was mastered, or who knows, maybe we're just hearing what we want to. Maybe there is nothing but silence. A long time ago, we at aQ dreamed of a record made entirely of vinyl lp crackle, which led sound artist Loren Chasse to do just that (sort of, he simulated it with field recordings of surf and rain actually), so in a way, if you remove the high concept angle, Sounds Of Silence, is kind of like that, like maybe a more minimal version of our long dreamed of record crackle record. Either way, you know if this is your cup of tea or if you think it's a total crock of shit. If you've read this far, we're guessing you're in the first camp, but really either way, we LOVE this. It's brilliant, hilarious, confusional, baffling, there are extensive liner notes too, track by track discussing where each one came from, why each one is important, the concept behind them, there's even an essay on silence, it's of course fantastically packaged, and totally over the top. Well, as 'over the top' as a silent record can be.
Recommended for music nerds, weirdo sonic obsessives and anyone who would dig having such a ridiculous record in your collection. Don't believe us? Check out the sound samples? What sound samples? Exactly!
Cool Simon & Garfunkle parody cover art too. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES ONLY!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This collection of stumbling lo-fi experiments from Athens, GA, resembles the between-song noodling of the Olivia Tremor Control, who appear in their Black Swan Network guise along side The Japancakes, Melted Men, and a handful of pseudo-Elephant 6'ers smugly scratching their beards over the monumental artistic force it takes to twiddle a knob for five minutes.
Very good, surprisingly consistent collection of accessible spacey rock, sometimes synth-heavy, sometimes wonderfully My Bloody Valentine-ish, from the likes of Flowchart, Lenola (members of Bugskull), Photon Band, and the well-named, Bitch Magnet-influenced Dagobah System. You may not have heard of the bands but this comp is good. Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Rarely does an indie rock comp hold well together sonically, but this fine record is one of the few exceptions, with its laidback sonic landscapes mixed with intimate bedroom recordings -- a hallmark of the Temporary Residence label sound. And "Sounds of the Geographically Challenged" even has a cool concept -- all the participating artists have members living in 2 or 3 separate cities, all rather cutely listed in the liner notes. Ranges from the bleak electronic work from Continental OP (perhaps the only recording of this duo featuring David Pajo and Will Oldham), to The Halifax Pier's southern theatricality, and Nero's muscular math-rock. Windsor For The Derby's slide guitar hypno-rock is a major highlight, as is the entry by Sonoroa Pine (ex-Rodan and June of 44 peoples), and the rollicking Songs:Ohia track is one of the best we've ever heard from him. Also making appearances: Retsin, Liquorice, Hz Roundtable, drona parva, Fuck, Wino, The For Carnation, Haelah, and Ruby Falls. All songs except the Fuck one are exclusive!
"Sounds of the Geographically Challenged" was intended to be a four part series of limited 12"s, but delays and natural disasters kept the project from being completed with only 3 of the 4 singles seeing the light of day. Although the vinyl versions sold out long ago and now fetch high bids on eBay, the fine folks at Temporary Residence have compiled onto CD all of the tracks from the series -- including the final unreleased 12". It's been a long time coming, but it's certainly well worth the wait.
This compilation documents a project that brought together a handful of German writers and electronic musicians to digitally mess with an series of historic radio plays, using this material (without any necessary reference to its original content or purpose) to compose new "soundstories" live on air. Participants include To Rococo Rot, Console, and Hans Platzgumer among other less
This is a nice little recording of temple music from South India. Basically your level of enjoyment of this recording depends on your threshold level for double reed instruments. Like the accordion, banjo and flute, double-reeds -- at least those in the higher octaves -- tend to put people in war camps. And while some may liken their sound to a kazoo or a bee caught in one's sinuses, their sound is truly unlike anything else. In fact, they're about as close as you can get to sounding like a fuzzed out electric guitar without plugging in. Which is why this music rocks so hard I suppose. When two of those nagasvaram get going at once, with their buzzing virtuosic melodic lines weaving together it's easy to see how this could induce ecstatic states in people. That and the fact that the guitarist's ego is replaced with a fear of god for incentive to perform. Periya Melam is the name of the particular ensemble that performs during various religious rituals, rites and festivals. The ensemble -- the instruments of which are considered "equals to the gods" -- used to be much more common throughout temples south of the river Krishna, but has declined in recent years. The instrumentation usually consists of two double reed oboes (nagasvaram and), two double headed drums (tavil) in which one head is played using the fingers and the other with a stick, metal castanets (talam) and a drone instrument (used to be another oboe, but is now commonly a harmonium or even an electronic instrument).
An explicit warning on the back cover admonishes us not to expect to hear any "Hawaiian guitars, ukuleles and the Hula" on this disc. Which is all fine and dandy, because in its stead we're treated to some exceptionally rare recordings that span the wide pacific ocean. In 1978 David Fanshawe flew from island to island, seeking out the music of the people who lived there and -- if the local governments allowed it -- recorded them. Fanshawe travelled to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Western Samoa and Tahiti. From his travels he culled together twenty eight varied tracks, from the frenetic high speed drumming of the Cook Islands to the soft melodies of the Fangufangu Nose Flute. But most cherished on this collection are the beautiful choruses, both religious and secular, which sound like eerie inverted versions of an American Baptist gospel choir. In one love song, sung by a group of men gathered at a drinking club, the chorus is accompanied by the sounds of a woman pouring kava. Originally released in 1987 as "Island Music of the South Pacific".
From the liner notes: "South Sulawesi is remarkably rich in string music. Among the instruments are the kacapi (a two stringed, plucked lute), gambus (a plucked lute probably originating in Arabia), mandaliong (a keyed zither), and the violin. This album presents professional narravtive and lyric singing with kacapi from the Bugis, Makasar, and Mandar peoples, along with informal, private singing with kacapi from the Toraja and driving Bugis and Kajang instrumental tunes. Also from the Kajang comes the quite different music of the gambus. And as contrast to the plucked lutes, the album offers, from the Bugis, mysterious violin duets, a violin trio with singers, and a lively ensemble of violins, mandaliong, flute, kacapi, and singers."
Cool comp collecting the current crop of NY underground hipster nosieniks. Exclusive tracks from the No Neck Blues Band, Sightings, Terrestrial Tones (feturing Black Dice/Animal Collective folks), Enos Slaughter (NNCK/Sunburned Hand Of The Man folks), Breast Fed Yak and a bunch more.
Everyone knows we at aQuarius love us some comps. That much should be clear on pretty much any list, and lately we've gotten some interesting compilations that place a new and different emphasis on things instead of merely throwing together a bunch of great tracks from whatever genre. The ones that stand out the clearest are the recent Dirty Water albums, which include artists who aren't necessarily "punk" in the '77 studded leather jacket way, but undoubtedly punk as fuck in their iconoclastic assault on the status quo. That's why you'll find Albert Ayler next to Captain Beefheart and Mott the Hoople, artists that inspired the great big giant fuck you to society that we all know and love. With Spacelines, we have a particularly intriguing batch of tunes put together by none other than Sonic Boom himself, and anyone in love with Spacemen 3, Spectrum, or Spiritualized (sorry Sonic!) will most likely dig this shit BIG TIME. It all makes perfect sense and while it's a bummer that there is no information about anybody here, they are for the most part familiar enough that you should already know what they're about or not have any trouble finding all the relevant info. Instead, this comp is a bit like hanging out and burning one down with your ol' buddy Sonic Boom.
The album kicks off with the Staples Singers' "This May Be The Last Time", the obvious roots for the Stones song and a clear influence on the Spacemen 3, sounding a lot like their rendition of "May The Circle Be Unbroken". Bo Diddley is next with "You Don't Care", a classic albeit stripped to the bare bones example of the man's trademark rhythm, its minimal approach clearly a huge influence on a band like Spacemen 3. "Transparent Radiation", which we described as perhaps one of Spacemen 3's finest moments, is presented here by its authors the Red Crayola in a super bare demo form. It's funny hearing Mayo Thompson singing with a sort of fey vocal and laughing from time to time. There are also contributions from Washington Phillips and Jessie Mae Hemphill, who should be familiar to many of you from recent Mississippi Records titles. Other highlights include "Can't Let Go" by Evie Sands (the melody of which was utilized with completely stellar results in Spectrum's "How You Satisfy Me"), Juicy Lucy with their swampy original version of "Just One Time" covered by Spacemen 3 as "Mary Anne", Daniel Johnston, MC5, and northwest garage legends the Wailers. At 23 songs on a single cd, this one may be perfect for those who might have had difficulty gulping down the massive double disc Dirty Water sets. All in all, a seriously kick ass collection, one that proves how many of the greatest bands are perhaps, more than anything else, great interpreters.
Here's a disc we'd definitely recommend to those of you who love exploring the realms of hitherto unknown (we'd assume, pretty much) '60s and early '70s garage/psych bands from overseas. In this case, from Spain, which seems to be the land of hot reissue action lately. 23 tracks in total taken from rare 45s, ranging from poppy psych to heavy-duty hard rockers. There's lots of wild, fuzzed-out groovers here! Including the stompin', super-distorted but also totally bubblegum rockin' of Cafe Con Leche, whose "Land of Light" sounds like the Jackson Five run through a giant fuzz pedal. Other faves include the off-the-rails Deep Purplish bludgeon of Storm, Los Roller's Creamier-than-thou Spanish-language "Camino Cortado", and the raucous psychedelic R&B belted out by Clock, among others. Si senor, plenty to dig on this comp for sure. The booklet includes band photos, sleeve shots, and liner notes in both English and Spanish.
Like prog? Like psych? Well hey, check it out, the bands on this comp are all what the compilers consider to be "prog/psych", a hybrid that flourished circa '69-'72 as the psychedelic sixties transitioned into the progressive rock era of the seventies. Give a listen and you'll see what they mean, even if such musical taxonomy is a generally vague pursuit. The deal there is that even though prog is known as an album-oriented genre, that didn't stop bands who hoped to make the Top of the Pops from cutting some killer singles, obscure though they may be (fortunately each track is annotated in the cd booklet with a few tidbits of information). The bands, all from the UK, include: The Rats, Rescue No.1, Triconderoga, Eire Apparent, Rumplestiltskin, The Imposters, Glass Managerie, The Open Mind, Nancy, The Montanas, Raw Material, Opus (who do a dead-on rip-off of Led Zep), Putney Bridge, The Fruit Machine, Andromeda, Rumble, Rare Bird, and Walrus. Many of 'em we've never heard of before, though we certainly do remember the Triconderoga track ("Speaking My Mind") from the excellent Cherrystones Rocks compilation Lo Recordings put out a while back. If you liked that comp, or the "hairy funk" of Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed cd, this may also be up your alley. Lots of organ grooves, wailing vocals, fuzzed out guitars, and catchy beats make the scene here. Bombastic horn sections, sweet melodies, and heavy riffs all coexist in these tracks. Maybe the so-called "prog/psych" documented here truly is a long-lost hybrid genre of music, nobody does stuff like this anymore do they??
This double disc compilation is a music geek time machine. For a handful of you, these collected singles will immediately tranport you right back to your bedroom, where you'll find yourself laying on your bed, headphones on, a messy pile of 7"s spread out on the bed in front of you, as you meticulously assemble the perfect mixtape. And for those of you who somehow missed out on this stuff, holy shit are you in for a treat!
Some of the best singles ever released on the super cool No. 6 label, run by legendary A&R man Terry Tolkin.
Highlights include the two Ornament tracks, which was a short lived group featuring the Afghan Whigs and Marcy Mays of Scrawl, doing a killer cover of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", appearing here on cd for the first time, the very first Dwarves single, a filthy, heavy drug fueled racket, the first two post Galaxie 500 songs from Dean Wareham, the very frist US Tindersticks release, two killer versions of Unrest's "Winona Ryder", the Cagney And Lacee single, which was Dean Wareham and his wife, some brooding noisy creep fron King Carcass, and Bewitched, Bob Bert of Sonic Youth's sort of solo project band thingie. All that and some lesser knowns who still kicked ass: Vegetarian Meat, Pork and Glue! This stuff is so good, and has definitely stood the test of time. Hate to sound like old fogies, but they sure don't make indie pop like this anymore...
