[ aquarius records catalogue

Free jazz improv trio featuring Britishers Simon Fell on double bass, Simon Vincent on drums (and tone generator), and Graham Halliwell on alto sax & percussion. Some may know Fell from his role in the out-jazz-skronk combo Descension. But with VHF, Fell and cohorts are not nearly as ferocious, forgoing extreme volume and noise for a quieter, more sombre sound that contains much detail and tension. Slow rumbling bass, mournful sax, sparse drum-hits...moody.

For those that haven't heard the legendary Hungarian group VHK (aka Vagtazo Halottkemek, or the Galloping Coroners) before, how the heck to describe 'em? Well, this primal psychedelic punk ensemble has been around for years (their first album came out in 1988, but they had formed as far back as the mid '70s!) and they're for sure a band equally at home in a radical '80s punk squat, or on an ancient Indo-European battlefield, or out in space among the stars. As well as at home now on Ektro / Full Contact, the eccentric label associated with our fave Finnish space rock weirdos, Circle. They have put out previous albums on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, and can certainly be considered one of the most significant, and definitely unique, Eastern European "punk" bands ever. Their sound is part pagan improv, part raucous gypsy-punk hoedown, part Hawkwind style blast-off. Their naturally "tribal" sound even reminded one person here, who hadn't heard 'em before, of Echo And The Bunnymen - but way more raw and wild and loose and heavy. They've been on some sort of hiatus for quite a few years now (their last release came out in 1999), so it was a pleasant and exciting surprise to find 'em back again with this record, and at full force! The powerful, expressive voice of VHK's frontman, "Grandpierre Atilla", leads the charge, singing and screaming with passion in his native language. Yet, this album begins in a deceptively mellow mood, VHK conjuring a shamanistic campfire ritual on opening track "Handshake", at least at first, being acoustic, melodic, and in a way almost comforting. Those aspects persist, but as the album progresses, it builds and builds in intensity, always offering much compelling rhythmic drive and dark atmospheric vibes, culminating in a track, "Hun Testveriseg" ("The Hun Brotherhood"), recorded live at a festival last year called Black Noise, where we really can imagine these guys coming across as reincarnations of their ancestors, channeling their warrior spirit with electricity and amplification. You want some "music review math"? Well, there's moments on this album that sound like the Sun City Girls jamming with Neurosis, and we'd further suggest that VHK are perfect for anyone who enjoys both Acid Mothers Temple and Rudimentary Peni. Of course, if you already know VHK, you'll be happy they're galloping again! Old fans like us will love this. And for those who have yet to be trampled underfoot, this is a fantastic introduction to the mythology of this strange band. We realize that we we've never previously reviewed anything by VHK (we've only referenced them twice before on our site, in fact, in reviews of records by countryish space rockers U.S. Christmas and avant-folky black metallers Hollenthon). Glad we're able to rectify that now with this write-up. Limited vinyl version available now, get 'em while you can. We also should hopefully be stocking a cd of this at some point in the future.

MPEG stream: Kezfogas (Handshake)
MPEG stream: Az Elet Unnepe (The Celebration Of Life)
MPEG stream: Szarnyas Egbolt (Winged Sky)

At long last the highly anticipated debut from VHOL is here, via Profound Lore. Highly anticipated 'cause VHOL, if you don't already know, are a "supergroup" of sorts. Actually, as far as we're concerned, in more ways than one. Firstly, VHOL (dunno if the name is supposed to be in all-caps, but it looks good to us like that) is formed by members of several other groups we like, band that might not be household names required of supergroup status, but probably ARE household names where people who read the aQ-list dwell. And on top of that, they're all amazing musicians so it's "super" that way too. VHOL consists of guitarist John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune, ex-Ludicra, ex-Slough Feg, etc.) and his former Ludicra bandmate, drummer Aesop Dekker (also of Agalloch, Worm Ouroboros, etc. - and a noted blogger too), plus on bass Sigrid Sheie, who is also in Hammers with John. And making this more than just a San Francisco scene thing, on vocals is Mike Scheidt from Portland's mighty sludge-space-doomsters YOB. With these individuals involved, it sounded pretty good on paper, and now the proof is here, it actually sounds extremely good for real as well!! Prior to hearing this, we'd been informed that the concept behind VHOL was "psychedelic D-beat" music or something. Well... ok, sorta. Aesop's a punk drummer at heart, to begin with (remember Hickey?). And yeah, having Scheidt provide his unique soaring screaming vox, all spacey and wavery and effected, can't help but make this sound psychedelic, plus the preponderance of mindboggling guitar solo shred from Cobbett helps in that dep't too. Early reports that had VHOL being a full-on Dis-core Crust-Metal band were somewhat misleading, however. Just like Ludicra, Hammers, heck ALL their other bands, this is a hybrid of a whole bunch of different things. And ends up being its own special thing. But if we had to say, sonically this perhaps aligns closest with John & Aesop's previous outfit, avant-black metallers Ludicra, and with the more black-metally side of Yob. There's some delving into doomy, post-rock depths at points, plus of course Scheidt's distinctive vocals. So a cross between Ludicra and Yob, perhaps. But with some of the grandiose artistry of Hammers too. And both hectic punkish attack and sheer rockin' NWOBHM-inspired old school metal moments as well. Lots of them. Which is really what makes this for us. What a combo - and it works. Both energetic and epic, with churning riffs, intricate soloing, pounding rhythmic chaos, and actual catchy songwriting too. Our knack for finding buried "pop" music in the most unlikely, ugly places is not to be thwarted here, especially ferinstance on track four, "Grace", where some very effective, very poppy hooks are hiding, amidst that track's dense ripping architecture that conjures the sci-fi spectre of old (and new!) Voivod - a connection also suggested by this disc's very Away-like cover artwork, done by Cobbett himself. Crucially, Scheidt puts on quite a performance, varying his vocals in cleanliness, from clean-ish to unclean, layered over each other even, doing death grunts and blackened rasps and guttural screams as well as his trademark higher-pitched, but distorted wailings - even getting into almost '80s metal ballad territory on the album's closer, "Songs Set To Await Forever". Favorite tracks are hard to single out, they're all good, but "Arising" really, really impresses - a rollicking tour de force that kinda reminds us of certain latter day Darkthrone efforts, a la some tracks on their recent The Underground Resistance. Some of the same influences at work perhaps. All in all, VHOL lives up to expectations (whatever they were!), certainly quality-wise. And perhaps confounds some others. But definitely doesn't disappoint. In fact, we might be digging this more than some of the VHOL folks' "main" bands right now, and that's saying a lot.

MPEG stream: Insane With Faith
MPEG stream: Grace
MPEG stream: Arising

This sounds like electronic music made by someone who spent way too much of their life working in a video rental shop. And in fact, that just might be the case. Released on the UK label Skam in one of those solid black jewel cases they like to use, this 19 minute disc is a fairly entertaining ADD episode of sample-based electronica, a collage of music and sounds apparently almost exclusively sourced from VHS tapes of cheesy '80s movies, we're guessing many of them the straight-to-video variety. It's a jagged, jaunty cavalcade of chopped-up sounds, chaotic and glitchy, funky too, almost like a more lo-fi Justice, VHS Head splicing together synth themes, electro-beats, and all too serious sounding voiceovers (the first words you hear are "Matthew Modine"). The five tracks here aren't exactly fully realized "songs" (this ain't DJ Shadow digging through the old tapes at your local video emporium), it's more kinetically random sounding than that, but definitely fun stuff, and even comes with a "video club" membership card. Remember, be kind, rewind.

MPEG stream: Video Club
MPEG stream: Kincaid

VHS Or Beta join the legions of sleek, well executed retro-80s-wavers currently making the danse punque scene... y'know (and perhaps luv) the likes of The Killers or Radio 4. Dangerously close to being a complete Duran Duran copycat with its funky Chic-style bassline and very Simon LeBon-y vocals. Clearly they took full advantage not only of the major label resources but also of the current hip disco punk wave, producing a slick slab of dancefloor candy to be gobbled up by hip fashionistas far and wide.

MPEG stream: You Got Me
MPEG stream: Nightwaves

VHS Or Beta join the legions of sleek, well executed retro-80s-wavers currently making the scene... y'know (and perhaps luv) the likes of The Killers or Radio 4. This is the first single and title track for their first full length on EMI, and it's dangerously close to being a complete Duran Duran copycat with its funky Chic-style bassline and very Simon LeBon-y vocals. Clearly they took full advantage not only of the major label resources but also of the current hip disco punk wave, producing a slick slab of dancefloor candy with three surprisingly faithful remixes (i.e, they're not totally unrecognizable from the original) by Interpol's Carlos D, Tommie Sunshine and Cut Copy.

MPEG stream: Night On Fire
MPEG stream: Carlos D Remix

We've gone on at great length about our love of French black metal, the more grim and gnarled and fucked up and fierce the better. And it doesn't get a whole lot better than VI, a record we got a while back, but not enough to list properly, instead, the few copies we had sat lurking in the shadows... But since it looks like we won't actually get more, we figured at least a few of you would love to get your blackened little paws on this sonic sickness, and sick it is. About as heavy and punishing and furious as French black metal gets, definitely on par with say Deathspell Omega, maybe not quite as weird and progressive, bur easily as intense and evil, the sound supremely black and utterly grim, but the vibe, and the atmosphere... so oppressive and so so evil. The guitars are massive, and so fast and buzzy, they almost blur into trancelike drones, the whole band a blasting black beast, careening wildly, only occasionally slowing down to something less than lightning speed, mixing in haunting melodies, strange angelic voices, but focusing mostly on the sheer brutality and black ferocity of their sound. Kind of shocked actually that these guys aren't huge. Anyone into orthodox French blackness, should definitely bow down. More from the label: "In their first gospel, French black metal devil worshipping misanthropes VI launch a ceremonious attack on the sheep-like practices of God-fearing man. Armed with dark fervor, diabolic discipline, devilish devotion, frenzied insectoid riffing and apocalyptic blasting, the deviant duo unleash their profane scriptures amid a rapturous cataclysm of scorn and disgust. Abiding by an alternate set of tenets, VI dutifully exercise their (anti-)faith, whilst exorcising the belief system of the virtuous. Espousing hedonism, individualism and overt Satanism, these prayers are composed (in the native tongue) with reverence and respect, venerating all things vile and vicious. Consecration of the depraved; sanctification of the obscene; emancipation of the human spirit. Bless them, father, for they have sinned..." Indeed!

MPEG stream: Et Maintenant Je Lui Appartiens
MPEG stream: Je Me Dresse Devant Le Trone

Via Sinistrae's album The Tower looms like a foreboding industrial thunderhead, conjuring apocalyptic visions of claustrophobic chambers and clammy chemically battered flesh. Well, at least it did for this listener! Heavily processed voices, sand-blown rhythmic passages and noise bursts lurk and lunge out of these thickly shadowed soundscapes draped in murky grey and brown hues. Recorded live.

MPEG stream: Track 1
MPEG stream: Track 3

More Spanish stoner metal for ya! After the fucked up weirdness of Dirty Lust and the flowers and beads spaciness of Fooz, Viaje A 800's straight-forward blend of doom and groove is kinda refreshing. Super heavy, rockin' tunes with Spanish-language vocals.

RealAudio clip: Cardio Limite

Packaged like a miniature passport, this 3" cd by the globetrotting French-Canadian duo Vialka squeezes five hectic songs into about 22 minutes. They're a quirky bass and drums two-piece, a bit along the lines of Ruins, Sabot, or Hella, with the drummer (a woman) providing most of the somewhat dramatic vox, that go well with the skronky twists and turns of their energetic music. These songs were apparently written in a small mountain village in Slovenia this past winter and recorded in "a fit of early morning low-fidelity mayhem" in Geneva, Switzerland this summer. We don't know much else about this band, but they just played here in San Francisco and we bought a few (six) copies of this release, that's all we have and all we're gonna have so be quick if you want one of these "Vialka Passeports".

MPEG stream: Communication System Of The Bored And Boring
MPEG stream: Bouche Of Ghosts

Boris Vian was a French jazz musician, playwright, novelist, translator of hard-boiled American crime classics, all-around agitator and bon vivant. Serge Gainsbourg was a big fan and intended to collaborate with Vian. Unfortunately, due to Vian's untimely death in 1959, this collaboration never came to pass. This cd compiles much of Vian's work as a cabaret singer. His songs are steeped in the French chanson tradition, social poetics, and dadaist wit & wordplay. As the liner notes exclaim, "Boris Vian is one of those solitary adventurers who has discovered a new world of la chanson." (thanks to our regular customer Rael for the translation!)

French prog from the seventies can move us in just the right ways, especially if it hits that sweet spot between Kosmiche new age and sublime Euro-jazz, yet still has that individually eccentric feel that you only get from the French. Patrick Vian's sole 1976 lp Bruits et Temps Analogues, famously included on the Nurse With Wound list, is just such a record. An amalgam of Michael Rother sky gliding electronic music and a mellower take on the "Superficial Music" of Bernard Szajner, Vian packs a lot of punch into his compositions, propelled forward by the hypnotic counterpoint of sunny guitar lines, analog Moog washes, flutes and all kinds of dazzling rhythmic instrumentation, such as kinetic jazz drumming, and deep vibraphones, the latter thanks to the help of Mino Cinelu (who had played with the likes of Gong, Weather Report and Miles Davis). There's also an exotica quality at play here especially on the track, "Orenock" which feels like we're on safari on some strange desolate planet, as well as some avant-garde tendencies, such as using tape manipulations of recordings of American sporting events on the musique concrete piece, "Tricentennial Drag". Vian began his musical career in the legendary French prog /free jazz band Red Noise, but the vibe on Bruits et Temps Analogues is way more serene and groovy. It lives up to its awesome cover painting. Originally released on the Egg / Barclay label, it's about time this stellar album got reissued. Thanks Staubgold! Highest Recommendation!!

MPEG stream: Sphere
MPEG stream: Oreknock
MPEG stream: R&B Degenerit!
MPEG stream: Tricentennial Drag

A surprisingly pleasant meeting of minds (and nimble fingers): legendary British steel guitar player BJ Cole and knobtwiddling Luke Vibert (Plug). The cool thing is that BJ Cole is the one who approached Vibert about collaborating. This is one of those records that's so appealing we sell multiple copies every time we play it. David Toop, the music writer who brought the two musicians together, enthuses: "Almost everything I like is on here: swinging big bass, melancholy honky tonk romanticism, Hawaiian music, R&B, stragne harmonies, psychedelic Indian music, Yma Sumac style vocals, electricity, acid, moody piano loops, scorching fuzz lines, sliding strings, indefinable noise and slamming big band brass. It makes me laugh for being so brazenly cheesy but at the same time it's so in-the-pocket, as musicians used to say, so inventive, so uncontrived and so up that I play it over and over."

While this is not a cd-r, and is not on VHF, or on Rural Electrification Program, I'm sure you'll understand its inclusion in this section: Another slab of glorious din, courtesy of the Vibracathedral Orchestra. This time, in the guise of the VCO 'drum troupe', they explore a different side of their personality on each side of this seven inch. One side sounds like an orchestra, tuning up for all of eternity. Notes stretched and bowed in some sort of cosmic slop. The other side sounds like just the orchestra's percussion section, pushed down a stairway that goes on forever. Bells and gongs and shakers in some sort of ancient sounding ritual. Quite nice.

Judging from the amount of material coming from the Leeds collective, the Vibracathedral Orchestra must be constantly performing, recording, or manufacturing artwork for their exponentially increasing discography of super limited edition cd-rs, seven inch

RealAudio clip: He Play All Day Long
RealAudio clip: The Body Is The Arrow, The Arm Is The Bow

This is a limited cd-r live document of AQ faves the Vibracathedral Orchestra recorded in 1999 at shows in Leed, Glasgow and Manchester as a five piece. But before we get to the music, let's just talk for a minute about Bill at VHF and how much care and 1. Tinkling chimes and buzzing metallic grit pierce a monstrous wall of hum. 2. Seriously intense washes or warbles and roars and thrum, with a simple one-drum rhythm holding the whole thing together. Epileptic percussion and waves of cymbal/gong wash give way to squealing horns and a drum corp gone haywire. 3. An almost-folk song constructed from looped guitars/synths, shakers, bells and cymbals. 4. Spaced out meditative ur-drone. This time complemented by the sonic crush of a church organ. The sound of the apocalypse. Think: Nitsch jammng with Skullflower, or better yet, don't think at all, just sit back and give up.... 5. Noisy chaotic out-rock drone. Sounds like a rock band, loosed of any sort of ties to 'the proper way of playing' (which it sort of is) and just letting the instruments do what they want. Thick and relentless, layers upon layers of electrified fury that eventually dissipates into tranquil dreaminess. Live is definitely where the VCO come into their own, stretching and exploring the sonic possibilities of 'rock and roll', and coming up with some of the most gorgeous and transendentally intense droning free-rock we've heard! So recommended! And as you might have guessed, limited.

RealAudio clip: Thirteenth Note
RealAudio clip: Adelphi

It's been a while since we've heard from UK ur-drone spacelords Vibracathedral Orchestra, founder Neil Campbell took off on his own a while back, and now kicks up a ruckus as Astral Social Club, but the Orchestra is still going strong, fronted by long time members Mick Flower and Adam Davenport, who for this new set of THREE (!!) full length releases, is joined by John Moloney of Sunburned Hand Of The Man and the mighty John Godbert of the legendary Total. Each of the three, Joka Baya, The Secret Base and Smoke Song, function on their own as fully formed proper albums, but the three also seem to fit together into one expansive whole, a sweeping sprawling songsuite, that seems to drift from one lp to the next, and in fact, although we didn't try it, we imagine you could probably play these records simultaneously in various combinations and the results would be even trippier. Needless to say, most folks will most likely want all three, but no harm done in starting with one, and then grabbing the others later, unless they sell out that is, which seems very likely considering that these are quite limited. Up first is Joka Baya (in the black cover) beginning with a bit of African drumming, which gives way to some gorgeously glimmering and glistening prismatic dronemusic, swirling effects, all dreamlike and bleary eyed, with what sounds like birdsong mixed into the chiming notes and extended tones. The record shifts gears after that into something much heavier and more blown out, a full on psychedelic post Hawkwind spacejam, a heavy krautrock rhythm beneath a flurry of tangled psych guitars. The African drums return briefly before the band lock into a throbbing processed minimal looped dronescape, murky and washed out, dark and hypnotic. The flipside is a single side long epic, a slow burning cloud of processed guitars, cymbal shimmer, glitched out FX, building to a pounding psychedelic crescendo before slipping into a propulsive muted buzzdrone raga outro. The second lp is called The Secret Base (in the white and red cover) and begins immediately with a total Spacemen 3 / Loop styled drug rock jam, repetitive, mesmerizing, super hypnotic, the guitars smoldering and incendiary. The next track is an Eastern tinged spacekraut groove, strangely Southern sounding as well, a bit twang flecked, a little dubby even, melodic, and major key and surprisingly playful. Like the first record, The Secret Base also fills its second side with a single extended track, this time, it's all clattery and ritualistic and tribal, shakers, bells, hand drums, moaned and chanted vocals, very reminiscent of Avarus, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, eventually the sound locks into a skeletal groove, hypnotic and propulsive, but still abstract and way loose. Finally, the third art in the trilogy, Smoke Song (in the Orange cover), which begins with a sprawling bit of Clattery, twangy tribal free drift, fluttery flutes, lots of percussion, a sort of wild and wooly drum circle, laced with woodwinds and swirling effects, before slipping into a muted spacey jam, all subtle drumming, wheezing chords, little bits of guitar jangle, warm whirring keyboards, druggy, psychedelic, and just a bit Doors-y (or Wooden Shjips-y, for a more contemporary reference). Smoke Song too offers up a side long closer, this one ending the whole trilogy, and it's a doozy, full on droned out drug rock, cyclical, mesmerizing, sitar-like buzz wrapped around a simple, but pounding motorik beat, while all around it a swirling cloud of hiss and buzz and shimmer. Needless to say, all three are recommended, and again, not sure how limited these are, or how long they'll be around...

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

SORRY. The Vibracathedral Orchestra is a hypnotic free noise group out of the UK which features current collaborators in Sunroof (whose most notable member is Matthew Bower of Skullflower and Total). Cyclical clatter of strumming guitars, not-quite-but-almost-drum-circle percussive swells, and squawking horns build the majority of these loosly improvised tracks that fall squarely between the free jazz of Albert Ayers and the dissonance of the experimental sides of Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo.

Back in print! And cheaper! First reviewed on list #182, four years ago, as follows: This amazing record, previously LP only, finally gets the digital reissue from the until now primarily F/i oriented Lexicon Devil label. This one's for all you turntable-less folks and those of you who just may have missed out on this the first time around. But even those of you with the lp might have to pony up again, since there are 3 lengthy bonus tracks! Long, long, long pulsing drones, with strummed guitars, thrumming and warbling wind instruments and wheezing hurdy-gurdies. Classic Vibracathedral. At one point the mostly rhythmically free drone moves into a brief section that's surprisingly rocking for Vibracathedral Orchestra with drums beating out a steady 4/4 beat and lead by organ and electric guitar along with the usual saturation of droning accompaniment before settling back into a wash of gorgeously swelling drones once again. As always, totally mesmerising.

MPEG stream: Track 2
MPEG stream: Track 3

Managed to get another batch of these back in. Not sure how long they will last or if we'll be able to get more, so if you missed out last time, you got another chance! Don't blow it. You know you want this. We did the minute we heard about it, and then again the second we laid eyes on it. And you best act fast 'cause these are SUPER LIMITED. Massive triple cd-r documenting VCO's recent US tour. And it's just as good as you would expect. Extensive shimmering primal tribal free drone epics. Take the best parts of NNCK, Sunroof!, Jackie O Motherfuckers and spread them in a thick paste over a sundappled mountaintop and you still don't even come close to how fucking perfect this is. Three hours of some of the most divine skree you will ever here. Hypnotic and mesmerising and breathtaking and the sounds I hope to hear as I drift into the next world. Matthew Bower and Tom Greenwood (Jackie OMF) guest on a few tracks her and there. Packaged in a cool odd sized triple cd DVD-style case and filled with blurry, rose tinted live shots of the band in full bliss out action. And again, VERY VERY LIMITED!

MPEG stream: "Pontiac Lady
MPEG stream: "Pontiac Lady

Vibracathedral Orchestra are the unsung heroes of drone rock. Free noise underdogs. They mine the same rich sounds as their more well known compatriots, Sunroof!, Hototogisu and the like, but they never receive the accolades, the adoration. Well, we're here to let them know that WE adore VCO, they are one of our favorite noisemaking outfits around! And as far as we're concerned, not only have they never released a bad record, they've released a few that might just be some of the best droning free rock we've ever heard. That said, here we have the latest in VCO's quest for the ultimate drone. Well, this one will probably not help as this is both a decidedly more 'rock' and more abstract affair than their usual soaring skree. Starting off with a lush, soft cacophony, VCO take bells and percussion and woodwinds and chanting vocals, and twist them all into a gloriously droney din, sparkly and effervescent, like a sunnier Sunroof! in fact. But this soon gives way to a more tripped out krautrock, pulsing rhythms, looped guitar figures, drizzled with spacey filigree, very reminiscent of Can or Faust. The sidelong B side though, is not rock, nor is it drone, it's a dizzying day at some strange Eastern bazaar, percussion and vocals swirl like dust kicked up by passing carts, vocals chant and mutter, imagine strolling along back alleys, and down side streets, hearing all the strange sounds of some mysterious city, from a bustling marketplace to street musicians on the corner, all rendered with the same array of instrumentation, just wielded differently. From clangy tribalism to blissed out ur-drones, all heard as the living breathing sights and sounds of the city, shifting and changing as you pass by. Really cool. Packaged in a hand screened black sleeve, with a little abstract painting attached to the front.

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

SORRY. We had planned on listing this new Vibracathedral Orchestra record but only just discovered that it is already out of print. So know this: we only have FOUR COPIES. If you are reading this any later than the day after the list comes out, assume they are already gone. So quick on the trigger... Two side long epics, side one is an endless ambient shimmer the way only VCO can do it, side two is less drone and more rhythm, lending the proceedings a distinct SHOTM / NNCK vibe. Nice.

It's been a while since we've heard from UK ur-drone spacelords Vibracathedral Orchestra, founder Neil Campbell took off on his own a while back, and now kicks up a ruckus as Astral Social Club, but the Orchestra is still going strong, fronted by long time members Mick Flower and Adam Davenport, who for this new set of THREE (!!) full length releases, is joined by John Moloney of Sunburned Hand Of The Man and the mighty John Godbert of the legendary Total. Each of the three, Joka Baya, The Secret Base and Smoke Song, function on their own as fully formed proper albums, but the three also seem to fit together into one expansive whole, a sweeping sprawling songsuite, that seems to drift from one lp to the next, and in fact, although we didn't try it, we imagine you could probably play these records simultaneously in various combinations and the results would be even trippier. Needless to say, most folks will most likely want all three, but no harm done in starting with one, and then grabbing the others later, unless they sell out that is, which seems very likely considering that these are quite limited. Up first is Joka Baya (in the black cover) beginning with a bit of African drumming, which gives way to some gorgeously glimmering and glistening prismatic dronemusic, swirling effects, all dreamlike and bleary eyed, with what sounds like birdsong mixed into the chiming notes and extended tones. The record shifts gears after that into something much heavier and more blown out, a full on psychedelic post Hawkwind spacejam, a heavy krautrock rhythm beneath a flurry of tangled psych guitars. The African drums return briefly before the band lock into a throbbing processed minimal looped dronescape, murky and washed out, dark and hypnotic. The flipside is a single side long epic, a slow burning cloud of processed guitars, cymbal shimmer, glitched out FX, building to a pounding psychedelic crescendo before slipping into a propulsive muted buzzdrone raga outro. The second lp is called The Secret Base (in the white and red cover) and begins immediately with a total Spacemen 3 / Loop styled drug rock jam, repetitive, mesmerizing, super hypnotic, the guitars smoldering and incendiary. The next track is an Eastern tinged spacekraut groove, strangely Southern sounding as well, a bit twang flecked, a little dubby even, melodic, and major key and surprisingly playful. Like the first record, The Secret Base also fills its second side with a single extended track, this time, it's all clattery and ritualistic and tribal, shakers, bells, hand drums, moaned and chanted vocals, very reminiscent of Avarus, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, eventually the sound locks into a skeletal groove, hypnotic and propulsive, but still abstract and way loose. Finally, the third art in the trilogy, Smoke Song (in the Orange cover), which begins with a sprawling bit of Clattery, twangy tribal free drift, fluttery flutes, lots of percussion, a sort of wild and wooly drum circle, laced with woodwinds and swirling effects, before slipping into a muted spacey jam, all subtle drumming, wheezing chords, little bits of guitar jangle, warm whirring keyboards, druggy, psychedelic, and just a bit Doors-y (or Wooden Shjips-y, for a more contemporary reference). Smoke Song too offers up a side long closer, this one ending the whole trilogy, and it's a doozy, full on droned out drug rock, cyclical, mesmerizing, sitar-like buzz wrapped around a simple, but pounding motorik beat, while all around it a swirling cloud of hiss and buzz and shimmer. Needless to say, all three are recommended, and again, not sure how limited these are, or how long they'll be around...

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

SORRY.

On which perhaps our favorite troop of UK blissed out dronesters takes the percussive clatter, free jazz bleats, and latent Krautrockery of weird America's No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand of The Man, adds some Eastern raga to the mix and then melds it to their already divine cosmic drones resulting in Vibracathedral Orchestra become perhaps the only true heir to the long vacant Krautrock throne. Epic and unfettered, VCO emit long peals of sweet sonics that leisurely unfurl into massive expanses of cosmic hippy bliss, but the pulsing rhythms and relentless throb, harness the ethereal ambience, and manage to squeeze free sonic strum into ultra hypnotic, pounding perfection.

MPEG stream: Our Head Shone Like A Stone
MPEG stream: Magnetic Burn

It's been a while since we've heard from UK ur-drone spacelords Vibracathedral Orchestra, founder Neil Campbell took off on his own a while back, and now kicks up a ruckus as Astral Social Club, but the Orchestra is still going strong, fronted by long time members Mick Flower and Adam Davenport, who for this new set of THREE (!!) full length releases, is joined by John Moloney of Sunburned Hand Of The Man and the mighty John Godbert of the legendary Total. Each of the three, Joka Baya, The Secret Base and Smoke Song, function on their own as fully formed proper albums, but the three also seem to fit together into one expansive whole, a sweeping sprawling songsuite, that seems to drift from one lp to the next, and in fact, although we didn't try it, we imagine you could probably play these records simultaneously in various combinations and the results would be even trippier. Needless to say, most folks will most likely want all three, but no harm done in starting with one, and then grabbing the others later, unless they sell out that is, which seems very likely considering that these are quite limited. Up first is Joka Baya (in the black cover) beginning with a bit of African drumming, which gives way to some gorgeously glimmering and glistening prismatic dronemusic, swirling effects, all dreamlike and bleary eyed, with what sounds like birdsong mixed into the chiming notes and extended tones. The record shifts gears after that into something much heavier and more blown out, a full on psychedelic post Hawkwind spacejam, a heavy krautrock rhythm beneath a flurry of tangled psych guitars. The African drums return briefly before the band lock into a throbbing processed minimal looped dronescape, murky and washed out, dark and hypnotic. The flipside is a single side long epic, a slow burning cloud of processed guitars, cymbal shimmer, glitched out FX, building to a pounding psychedelic crescendo before slipping into a propulsive muted buzzdrone raga outro. The second lp is called The Secret Base (in the white and red cover) and begins immediately with a total Spacemen 3 / Loop styled drug rock jam, repetitive, mesmerizing, super hypnotic, the guitars smoldering and incendiary. The next track is an Eastern tinged spacekraut groove, strangely Southern sounding as well, a bit twang flecked, a little dubby even, melodic, and major key and surprisingly playful. Like the first record, The Secret Base also fills its second side with a single extended track, this time, it's all clattery and ritualistic and tribal, shakers, bells, hand drums, moaned and chanted vocals, very reminiscent of Avarus, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, eventually the sound locks into a skeletal groove, hypnotic and propulsive, but still abstract and way loose. Finally, the third art in the trilogy, Smoke Song (in the Orange cover), which begins with a sprawling bit of Clattery, twangy tribal free drift, fluttery flutes, lots of percussion, a sort of wild and wooly drum circle, laced with woodwinds and swirling effects, before slipping into a muted spacey jam, all subtle drumming, wheezing chords, little bits of guitar jangle, warm whirring keyboards, druggy, psychedelic, and just a bit Doors-y (or Wooden Shjips-y, for a more contemporary reference). Smoke Song too offers up a side long closer, this one ending the whole trilogy, and it's a doozy, full on droned out drug rock, cyclical, mesmerizing, sitar-like buzz wrapped around a simple, but pounding motorik beat, while all around it a swirling cloud of hiss and buzz and shimmer. Needless to say, all three are recommended, and again, not sure how limited these are, or how long they'll be around...

Vibracathedral Orchestra are one of those rare groups with a completely singular sound and a seemingly endless reserve of psych rock free drone inspiration with which to explore it. For us, they are one of the only bands who we could literally listen to forever, an everlasting endless jam, unfurling over the course of the next 50 years, each riff unfolding every month or so, each drum hit an entire day, melodies stretching for weeks and weeks. Our eyes close and we drift off to the next world while the music plays on... That's exactly how it feels listening to Tuning To The Rooster. The songs are long, and they do feel gloriously and deliriously long, but they're never quite long enough. Not for us anyway. VCO have been masters of the drone, of the slowly shifting soundscape since their inception, but much like Skullflower discovering their inner Hawkwind on recent records, VCO seem to also have rediscovered the RIFF this time around. The opening track is like an Allman Brothers track gone totally apeshit. Or maybe Skullflower jamming with the Outlaws. Or something! There's a jangly sort of Southern rock riff, over chaotic propulsive drumming, a serious jam for sure, but the whole thing is wrapped in a thick cloak of droning shimmering distorted guitar noise, a continual psychedelic freakout SO continual that it becomes a static psych rock drone, with the original riff eventually repeating mantra like until it meshes with the background drone and it all becomes a brain melting divine psychedelic jam of the highest order. Woah, everyone who freaked out over Skullflower's Exquisite Fucking Boredom needs to check this out! The second track is back to that classic VCO sound we can never get enough of. A primal primitive space jam, all drones and rumbles and whirs and shimmers, a glorious pagan ritual that makes us want to lay naked in the middle of the forest and sink into the wet leaves as our eyes sparkle with reflections of shooting stars. Drifting and dreaming... The last two tracks again focus on the riff, hypnotic and repetitive, like Steve Reich composing for Hawkwind. A glorious minimal psychedelic jam, wreathed in a haze of swirling feedback and wild melodies, minor key pianos, and all manner of swoosh and swoop. So utterly and fantastically divine!

MPEG stream: Baptism > Bar > Blues
MPEG stream: Wearing Clothes Of Ash

The second album from this UK quintet is quite simply jubilant, an adjective not often used to define the circle of esoteric free-noise makers that spawned the Vibracathedal Orchestra, as well as Skullflower, Ramleh, and Ashtray Navigations. Vibracathedral Orchestra embark on the time honored journey of achieving the eternal drone supreme, hobbled together from fuzzed out guitar wash, acoustic guitar strum, long duration violin bowing, church organs and thankfully sporadic skree horns. "Versatile Arab Chord Chart" is well balanced between continual haziness and a variety of textural plucks and scratches, and ends up sounding quite reminiscient of Amon Duul's "Psychedelic Underground," No Neck Blues Band's improvisational hippiness, and Skullflower's lithium laced contemporary 'dream music' as initially envisioned by Cale, Young, etc. (these historical roots are available in a recording found elsewhere on this list).

First proper full length in a while from these ur-drone space explorers, which is long overdue, considering the protracted near silence of VCO, and Matthew Bower all but abandoning his Sunroof! in favor of the noisier Hototogisu. Whatever you call that sort of music that Sunroof!/VCO traffic in, very few other outfits have managed to channel the same sort of ferocious guitar freakout and blissy ambient swirl into the magical metallic drift that those two groups did. So here we have Wisdom Thunderbolt, featuring the VCO usual suspects (Neil Campbell, Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport) with a whole mess of special guests, underground drumlord Chris Corsano, the aforementioned Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, etc.), Pete Nolan of the Magik Markers and John Godbert (Skullflower, Total) and the sound is exactly as we remember it. Thick and dense, swirling and blissed out, druggy and blurry, smeared and shimmering. There is percussion, it mostly tinkles and skitters, but occasionally pounds and swings, organs and synths are woven into weird little buzzing soundscapes, horns wail and skronk, guitars growl and jangle... While the opening track is a ramshackle stumble, all over the place, but in a very good way, the second track is where the band locks into that perfect groove they've always been capable of. A blown out stretch of raga like buzz, tribal drums underpinning a simple riff, a spacey sea sick shimmer, all wrapped up in layers of guitar buzz and hissy synth, rich and thick and totally mesmerizing. The rest of the record is more of the same, longform buzz drenched krautrocky drone jams, with some notable exceptions. The 12+ minute "Rainbow Whirlwind, which sounds like some lost Spacemen 3 jam, the guitars pulsing and throbbing, tones beating against other tones, the synths and guitars creating constantly shifting rhythms, interrupted in the middle by a blown out free noise fest, before slipping back into spaced out pulse and dreamy drift. And, the uncharacteristically 'rock'-y intro to "Sway-Sage" that sounds like the Guess Who's "American Woman", before quickly slipping back into some super distorted space jam, with a glitchy buzz laid over a relentless rhythm, and with thick ropy swirls of guitar and synth buzz burying everything in that distinctly VCO warm washed out sonic blur.

MPEG stream: Wisdom Thunderbolt
MPEG stream: A Natural Fact

Originally released in 2004 in a criminally limited run of just 250 copies, this killer slab of classic psych/drone/raga is available again, however briefly, reissued on VHF, a swank double lp, accompanied by a live DVD (more on that in sec). An amazing archival selection of tracks, performed by the 'classic' lineup: Mick Flower, Neil Campbell, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport, Julian Bradley, and right off the bat, it's total bliss, a thick droned out wash of heavy layered buzz, soaring upper register skree and pulsing low end throb woven into a feedback drenched psych-kraut raga, laced with all manner of fluttering woodwinds, warped FX, which sort of sets the template for the rest of the records, longform drugged out space psych ur-drone drift, the various tracks bleeding into one another, ending suddenly, the edits weirdly jagged, but it all contributes to the home brewed flavor of these incredible psychedelic explorations. Pulsating guitars are blurred into thick swirling clouds, and draped over woozy low slung basslines and creaking electric guitar buzz, primitive ritualistic rhythms, pound and skitter through a fog of sci-fi bleeps and bloops, smatterings of splattery percussion drift atop processed guitars and streaks of string buzz and electronic squelch, the sound often coalescing into some seriously heady grooves, total mesmerizing minimal hypnorock krautjams that should have fans of Circle and Sylvester Anfang and Wooden Shjips losing their shit. The second lp takes up right where the first one lets off, but dials it back a bit, with some tripped out alien folk, all looped steel string guitar and bloopy rhythm, which gradually becomes more and more driving, like some strange motorik electro folk, replete with keening vox and loose chaotic drumming, before slipping into some sweetly somnambulent buzz, a simple stumbling rhythm, beneath a sky of shimmery strum and hazy chordal wheeze. Soon the sound becomes almost funky, a strange sort of folk groove, that sounds like a field recording of some lost tribal folk, which dissipates leaving some gorgeously serene folk, all fuzzy and softly twangy, which almost immediately splinters into stretch of pulsing krautrocky grooviness, only to return to that washed out skyfull of swirling strums, this time with some skittery splattery free jazz drums added to the mix, and some atonal twang, before finishing off in a soft focus blaze of skronk flecked psychedelic thrum. So awesome. The accompanying dvd includes some amazing live footage of the group, the video of varying quality, with two of the clips looking professionally shot/edited, the sound incredible, with the band mostly in full rock mode, bombastic and heavy, some seriously energetic psychedelic stuff, and also includes some amusing band commentary on one of the tracks!

The first physical release on Accident Prone in nearly five years is this killer split from two new to us cold / synth wave outfits, the first is Vice Device, who hail from Portland, and whose sound is dark and angular, caustic and chaotic, the music equal parts swirling psychedelic synthiness and buzzing clattery post punk, check out "Fractured Desire", which lays down shards of electro buzz, would in tight coils of sinewy bass, pelted by distorted squelches and clouds of FX, driven by a motorik pulsing, relentless rhythm, all beneath some super powerful, dramatic female vox. "Even Blind" adds some droned out moodiness, and introduces some super melodic male vocals, giving the sound an almost Interpol-ish vibe, with a hint of old school LA goth (Abecedarians, Kommunity FK). The rest of the Vice Device side unwinds similarly, tense and taut, distorted and darkly dramatic, hints of Depeche Mode surface on "Symmetry", a woozy brooder, and things get downright balladic on closer "Bound", which sounds like classic Berlin via Soft Moon! Void Vision is a one woman cold/synth/new wave project from Philadelphia, whose sound is much more electro, opening with a beat that's a dead ringer for classic New Order, before in swoop ominous, buzzing, arpeggiated synths, underpinning, swirling sci-fi melodies, and some eighties style percussive flourishes. The female vocals much more girlish, and more down in the mix, the sound darkly distorted, with some buzzing post punk guitar crunch wound into the otherwise woozy, skeletal synthiness. The sound slipping from cold and clinical and robotic, to swirly and psychedelic and seriously tripped out. "Not Much Of Anything" sounds like a more robotic Gary Numan, icy vox over percolating metallic melodies, flurries of electronic drums, and some dizzying atonal music box melodies draped over the chorus. And VV closes with a killer cover of Queen's "Take My Breath Away", here re-envisioned as a brooding, psychedelic synth ballad, FX heavy vocals, witchy and sultry, delivered over plink/plonk music box synth lines, and swirling clouds of dubbed out shimmer! THE LP IS LIMITED TO 330 COPIES!! Each copy hand numbered. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, and includes a cd version of the record as well! The cassette version is limited to just 60 copies, and most copies were only available direct from the band at shows, and those include DL codes as well!

MPEG stream: Fractured Desire
MPEG stream: Even Blind
MPEG stream: A Version
MPEG stream: Take My Breath Away

While many assumed that Paradigms was an exclusively heavy music label, seeing as many of its early releases were metal, and that it was born out of the death of the truly kick ass Rage Of Achilles label, in fact, from the very beginning, Paradigms has been releasing drone records and free folk records, weird prog records, along side the heavier metal and black metal and noise records, discs by bands like Gnaw Their Tongues, The Angelic Process, Throne Of Katarsis, Titan, Utlagr were balanced by discs from Plants, Tropes, Amber Asylum, Somnam, Snowdrift, this latest from California's The Victim's Shudder definitely fits more with the latter group. Long dreamlike expanses of synthesized shimmer, drifting female vocals. The obvious reference is Cocteau Twins, maybe Dead Can Dance, TVS would have been right at home on 4AD, or at their most bleak and drone-y on Cold Meat Industry. TVS is essentially a one man band, who weaves massive reverby drifts of soft sound, shimmery and dreamlike, ethereal and New Agey at times, flurries of delicate piano drift over synthesized strings, cooing vocals hover in wide open expanses of sun dappled ambience, everything is gauzy and soft around the edges, bleary eyed and blurred. A few tracks up the ante heaviness-wise, like "For Francesca" with its buzzing synths (or could they be real guitars?), growling demonic vox, lots of distortion and crumbling rumbles, grit and interference, all draped over a soaring chunk of stately neo-classical, or the cinematic drift of "A Godless Serene", replete with the sound of water and wind, field recordings layered beneath quivering strings and mournful melodies. The disc closes with the 13 minute "One Last Fatal Suite", beginning as another delicate crystalline blur, vocals indistinct and wordless, piano, simple and pointillist, eventually joined by strange electronic specters, high end streaks, grinding bits of crunch, static, hiss, building to a haunting caterwaul before drifting away completely. Beautiful and haunting, definitely for the 4AD inclined, and fans of neo-classical dark ambience. Maybe not heavy enough for some of the Paradigms faithful, but quite pretty nonetheless. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Packaged in a white dvd style case, with a full color cover and printed black and white insert.

MPEG stream: Silent When You Scream
MPEG stream: Enchanting Spiral Gears

One of two reissues of NZ obscurities on this week's list. Elsewhere is the complete recorded works of Scorched Earth Policy (featuring members of Pin Group, Terminals, Renderers, Vacuum), and then there's this, originally released in 1983 on Flying Nun, the lone self titled lp from the Victor Dimisich Band, and while you might expect there to be a Victor Dimisich in the band, like Scorched Earth Policy, VDB is in fact fronted by NZ scene staple Peter Stapleton who played in Pin Group, Vacuum and Terminals, and the sound of those groups definitely informs the brooding minimalism of the Victor Dimisich Band, Stapleton's deep dramatic croon somewhere between Roky Erickson and Scott Walker, the music a sort of gloomy psychedelia, a little garage rock, a little classic balladry, a little drugged out Morricone style twang, and yeah, a little distorted NZ noise rock, but overall, it's a darkly dramatic affair, Stapleton's vocals the driving force, while the band wove lush gothic sonic backdrops, lots of organ warble, Velvets-y jangle, the whole thing moody and minimal, with many of the tracks super stripped down, while others blossom into near orchestral arrangements, while still others splinter into atonal post punk, and a few others get downright noisy. Flying Nun obsessives who don't already have this will flip for sure. And any/everyone who dug that Pin Group reissue, this will likely be right up your alley! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Includes a download code!!

MPEG stream: Native Waiter
MPEG stream: Thirteenth Floor
MPEG stream: Claude
MPEG stream: Jonah

Victrola was an Italo-disco project that released just one single in 1983 although they began performing as a standard quartet back in 1979, only to slim down to just a duo, electronics and guitar. This one single hedges more toward the darker regions of Italo-disco with minor-key basslines girding metronomic hi-hat and mechanoid disco rhythms. The title track graces us with some catchy, ice-synth melodicism and monotone vocal melancholy that's not too far from the likes of Section 25 or Neon Judgement; and this was actually featured on the recent Mutazione compendium of Italian post-punk, new wave, and early Italo-disco. The B side "Game Of Despair" is an even darker affair with skeletal guitar chords chiming with the elegiac electronics and slow-motion rhythmic tranced-out programming. Both tracks are well over 8 minutes long, and it seems that this is all that Victrola were ever to record. That's a shame as these are stellar tracks for the black-eyeliner set! As always, Dark Entries has spared no expense with the production value of the vinyl, with a top-shelf remastering job by George Horn and an exact reproduction of the original artwork.

MPEG stream: Martime Tatami

Also known as Televasquez and the proprietor of the East Bay electronica label Incomplet, Vid offers his debut album on Phthalo of quiet stirrings for dubbed-out electronics and cybernetic timestreched drones over slow motion drum machines. Certainly fits in

RealAudio clip: Sprayed Into Nostalgic Obsolescence
RealAudio clip: Why Cry Today, Pedro?

From the band Town & Country...

Not super familiar with Ben Vida, but this super limited cassette for Root Strata has definitely whetted our appetite for more. On two long form synthscapes, originally a soundtrack to a video projection / art installation, Vida takes the whole synthdrone sound, that frankly is getting a little played out, and twists it all up, most noticeably, constantly shifting the speed/pitch, creating unlikely melodies by speeding up the sound, then slowing it down, making those buzzing synths gorgeously woozy and warped and warbly. Not to mention that the whole thing is wreathed in field recordings of chirping crickets, bird song, and the subtle white noise of crashing surf, or burbling brooks, as well as adding extra panpipe like melodies, and some swirling sci-fi spacey fx, but subtly, the various elements, even the field recordings, shifting dramatically in volume, in the foreground one second, barely audible the next, the label describes it as some kind of sonic safari, and it really does sound like it, maybe like some synth/flute performance, taking place in some remote forest glade, the entire thing recorded onto a 4 track with dying batteries, the results, a dreamily druggy, atmospheric ambience, a warped ritualistic Jewelled Antler styled new age, and a seriously divine soft epic. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES.

MPEG stream: Soft Epic, or: Savages of the Pacific West

This is the third, in a series of lp collaborations gathered under the heading Required Wreckers (the second being the recently reviewed Ensemble Economiques record Standing Still, Facing Forward), a collaboration between Ben Vida, whose recent Root Strata tape was big hit around here, and longtime aQ fave/pal, Keith Fullerton Whitman, formerly known as Hrvatski. Two side long tracks, one new work from each artist, both experimenting with digital / analog hybrid compositions, Vida starts things off with a flurry of squelchy electronics, a tangle of fragmented melodies, and buzzing tones, the sound flits all over the place from warm whirring shimmer, to glitchy electro crunch, from whirling stereo panned pulses, to fractured sci-fi spacesynth warble, from blooping bleeping lab conjured electronic minimalism, from layered sinewave soundscapes, to playful Radiophonic Workshop style electronic primitivism. Whitman counters with his own high concept piece, one using live recordings, multiple speakers and inputs, room noise and crowd sound, all woven into a constantly twisting and transforming soundscape, that pairs dolphin call like electronic clicks with skittery lo-fi glitchery, ping pong like percussion with super distorted stuttery electro-chaos, almost jubilant sounding high end music box like melodies that seem to fade into more percussive skitter, with hazy, and buzzy garbled almost shortwave sounding transmissions, with thick swaths of keening tones that buzz and undulate while beneath other sounds pulse and percolate. Heady, trippy, strange stuff for sure. Both sides in fact, a bit more academic / avant compared to much of the electronic/synth music we hear, but definitely gorgeous stuff, and essential listening for fans of abstract electronic experimentation. Gorgeously packaged in nice thick sleeves, with a letterpressed mini obi attached with colored elastic string, includes a 16 page art booklet insert as well.

MPEG stream: Aggregatepulseripper (Damaged IIII)
MPEG stream: 080114

This is the first we've heard from the awesomely monikered Video Nasties, aka Montreal video artist Rob Feulner, whose sound is a mix of lo-fi psychedelic dub and noise drenched no-fi new wave synth damage. The opening starts out straight up dub, all upstroke guitar and swirling atmospheric shimmer, but soon, a buzzing warbling synth enters the mix, and the sound grows more woozy and washed out, druggy and darkly dreamy, the various effects cranked to 11, that dubbed out beginning soon submerged beneath a wild squall of echo and reverb and wild squiggles and blasts of high end skree, before gradually transforming into a more sort of spaced out droney drift, all scrabbling melodies and blurred chordal drift, before transforming again, into a heady bit of kosmische almost Reich-like carnivalesque home brewed synth wave minimalism. The flipside explodes right out of the gate with a blast of ear piercing feedback, which gives way to some feedback drenched super distorted chords, sounding like an old Casio run through a million distortion pedals, a lilting synth-noise lullaby, driven by a weird industrial rhythm consisting of just short sharp blasts of white noise, the rest of the side shifting from strange distorted bloops and bleeps, to smeared layered textures, and finally another long stretch of pulsing cosmic synthscapery, that sounds like a lo-fi little brother to folks like Zombi or Majeure. LIMITED TO JUST 25 COPIES!!! Each one housed in a gorgeous screen printed wooden box, along with a full color insert and a pin.

MPEG stream: Side One (exceprt 1)
MPEG stream: Side One (exceprt 2)

MPEG stream: Ascent
MPEG stream: Attachment
MPEG stream: Paavanaguru

I hate vegetables. Always have. I haven't eaten a vegetable other than corn since I was a kid. My mom tried everything. Disguising them. Frying em. Drenching them in stew. Making me stay at the table until I ate them all. Telling me I wouldn't grow up big and strong if I didn't eat them. Withholding desert. Nothing worked. But had I known vegetables were so, well, musical, things just might have been different. I probably still wouldn't have eaten them, but I sure as hell would have played music on them! This is one of the weirdest wildest discs we've ever heard. And it's pretty difficult to believe that all the sounds on this record are produced or played on actual vegetables (slightly modified for playability of course). The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, is in fact a small-ish ensemble, that customizes vegetables, and then composes scores to be played on those very same vegetables. That's right, composed! All of the music is composed and notated just like regular musical scores, except in this case they are scored for radisynth (radish), digiginger (ginger), vegital synthesizer (?), soundseeds (?) and all sorts of customized carrots, tomatoes, peppers and some completely unrecognizable vegetables. But what does it sound like you ask? Not how you might think actually. This is the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra's second release, and as stated in the liner notes, their goal was to produce electronic music using entirely organic means, and the results are pretty spot on. Lots of clicking, and hollow thumping, resulting in a complex Raster-Noton style minimal techno rhythm which is the framework for most of the record. Sort of swaying between super clinical electronic minimalism and sort of jammy hippy tribalism. Gurgling, inhuman vocalisations occasionally accompany the almost static, slowly shifting rhythms, as does the sound of burbling liquids, shimmery ambient hum, and occasional super distorted ultra processed screams. The end result is a pulsing throbbing Chain Reaction heroin house minimalism that is totally mesmerising and hypnotic. They even manage to do a couple covers: fellow Austrians, Radian, giving that group's electronic/post rock hybrid a little shot of vitamin B, and a fairly abstract version of Kraftwerk's Radioactivity. Allan really wanted me to mention their (food) processing and of course their 'beets' and how they can't be 'beet', but I wisely choose not to. Fans of all things glitch, Raster-Noton, minimal techno and even the hippy jams of NNCK and Sunburned Hand Of The Man will be begging for seconds.

MPEG stream: Asp
MPEG stream: Stoik
MPEG stream: Radioaktivitat

It's funny that the one person at AQ who can't stand vegetables is the one who keeps reviewing the records made with them. But I, Andee, love listening to them, just as long as I don't have to eat 'em! We listed Automate, the newest record by the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra on the last AQ list, and folks were so into it we thought we really ought to get the first one as well. For those who aren't familiar with this group, The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra is a small ensemble that customises vegetables, and then composes and notates music to be played on them. Just vegetables. Pretty neat. Unlike the clinical minimalism of Automate, where the Orchestra were attempting to simulate modern electronic music, Gemise is much more playful and exuberant and improvy with circus-y whistles and kazoo like humming, wild thumping, and skittery rattles, and all made with just vegetables! The vegetables are accompanied on some of the tracks by human voices, gurgling and whooping, hooting and squeaking like wild bird calls, mimicking the whistling vegetables. Most of those tracks build and build into frenzied climaxes, whirling chaotic rituals of pagan vegetable wildness. Like a vegetarian Wicker Man or something. The rest of the tracks hint at the minimal rhythmic direction of the second record, with rumbling didgerdoo like reverberations, simple thudding frameworks of hollow thwacks and solid knocks, and keening high end trills that swoop and swell, screech and squeal. But the focus here definitely seems to be on the novelty and fun of the whole experience. The liner notes even mention that all of the instruments are recycled and made into a soup for the audience to enjoy a second time! And the spine of the jewel case comes filled with beans so you can rattle right along with the record. And we also got a bunch more of Automate (see AQ list #169), for those who missed out on that one.

MPEG stream: Dithlaka
MPEG stream: Ogludschda
MPEG stream: Rezept

We got this disc a while back, but like many things around here, it got overlooked in the day to day hustle and bustle, and we only just rediscovered them a couple days ago, and figured we should get it reviewed and up on the list. Cuz it's from a year or two ago, and cuz you know we gotta represent, this horde of black metal warriors is from right here in the Bay Area, Oakland to be exact, and have been playing around town like crazy. This demo is super raw, practice space style, lo-fi for sure, with loud drums, loud vocals, and the guitars murky and muddy and a little lost in the mix, but the various parts tend to bleed into one another, making for a fuzzy blown out bit of blasting blackness. Chaotic and primal, noisy and almost punky at times, and weirdly enough, there seems to be some super melodic poppy elements creeping in here and there. Which gives the sound (especially the opening track) a really strange vibe.

MPEG stream: This Is Not A Dream
MPEG stream: The Cursed And The Blessed

There is a long tradition of famous offspring failing to achieve the same level of success and/or artistry as their more talented folks (Jacob Dylan, Lisa Marie Presley, Julian Lennon, Ziggy Marley, etc...) So you can understand why we might have had some reservations when we heard that the son of the late great Ali Farka Toure, was coming out with his own album. Those reservations disappeared the second we pressed play. We were immediately swept away by the soulful and richly melodic sounds of Vieux's amazing music. There is no doubt that he was blessed with much of the musical talent his father possessed, and it's obvious that this music needed to be heard. His dad had actually forbidden him to play music when he was growing up as he didn't want him to face the same hardships that he did. Luckily Vieux rebelled, unable to suppress the music that clearly flows through is veins. This debut is so good! There is of course a deep similarity to the sound of his father, but in a way that feels so connected and yet with a soul of its own. Ali Farka actually appears on the record on two tracks, the last recordings he made before his passing last year. Toumani Diabate, the renowned kora master also plays on the record adding a layer of delicate beauty to Vieux's songs. It's funny how Vieux actually means old in French, and in so many ways when you listen to his songs, despite his young age there is a richness and quality and timelessness to his voice and music that has you feeling like you're listening to the music of an old-soul. In many ways this is like a calmer side to the great new Tinariwen record we are still so in love with. A wonderful debut and we can't wait to see what the future holds for Vieux!

MPEG stream: Sangare
MPEG stream: Diabate (Featuring Toumani Diabate)
MPEG stream: Wosoubour

The metal label Stormspell's motto is "Old farts stuck In the '80s and proud of it". They're the folks who have been bringing us a lot of cool cd reissues of obscure, cult metal bands from the '80s (such as Max Planck, Xinr and Detest), some of 'em as part of Stormspell's ongoing "Red White and Heavy Arcane Collector Series For The Initiated" featuring long-lost demos from bands that are SO cult and obscure they never even got signed to make a proper album. Well, the old farts at Stormspell have now found some young bands also stuck in the '80s, and have begun a new series of releases, putting these bands' demos out on cd but this time not waiting 30 years to do it. Fantastically dubbed the "Jewels Of Gwahlur" series (the Jewels Of Gwahlur being the macguffin of a Conan story of the same name), five volumes have now been released, and we're reviewing 'em all this list. It's a bit like something else Stormspell did some years ago, the "Thrash Clash" series of splits by underground thrash acts. But these bands are even more "old school" in sound. Each entry in the series comes in nice trifold digi-wallet packaging, the covers pretty much identical except for the band logos, with a standardized "bejewelled ancient leather tome" look, a la the 3rd Edition D&D rulebooks if you're familiar with those; doubtless some of these bands are! However, despite the uniform design, each entry in the series gets its own unique artwork on the inside, as well as credits, liner notes, etc. Most of these discs are ep-length, around 4-6 tracks, but it should be noted that they're quite cheaply priced. So even though we're reviewing each one individually you might as well buy 'em all and let your cd player sort 'em out! As for us, we're looking forward to hearing more from all these bands (pretty sure we will!), and are curious as to what further Jewels Of Gwahlur will be uncovered by Stormspell in the future. The "occult heavy metal" of Slovenians VIGILANCE is pretty rippin', galloping NWOBHM styled stuff, kinda like a rougher, helter-skelter Iron Maiden at times. Rollickin' riffs, shredding solos, wailing vox, the works. This disc is also a bit longer than the others in this series, with the five tracks of Vigilance's Steeds Of Time ep (previously released on vinyl) included here augmented by another four demo tracks. Apparently these guys "got signed" and have a full-length album out now too, we're not surprised. Gonna have to track it down!

MPEG stream: Out Of The Sun

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