[ aquarius records catalogue

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As co-monarch (with Leif Elggren) of the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland, C.M. von Hausswolff has issued an edict which abolishes death and has invited the dead to become citizens of their virtual state. In order to communicate with the dead, von Hausswolff

Many have commented on the power of female intuition; but has anyone commented on that of the other sex? Well, C.M. Von Hausswolff offers the first of two album pertaining to the subject of male intuition, and in his own dryly absurd / absurdly dry ethos of logic-leaping constructs and rudimentary electric constructions. While Hausswolff composed the album as a single piece, he's broken it into indexed chapters which incorporate spoken recordings from some of those men who have influenced his work as well as pieces dedicated to similar folk -- including Fluxus artist Willem de Ridder, the Dalai Lama, Alvin Lucier, Mika Vainio, Albert Hoffmann, paranormal investigator Friedrich Jurgenson, J.G. Thirlwell, and Brion Gyson. As Hausswolff runs the spoken elements through some shitty distortion boxes and / or speaker constructions, the language becomes garbled in a ruptured crackle perhaps with its message received through intuition? Behind these broken, disembodied voices, Hausswolff modulates a network of serpentine sinewaves, sonar bleeps, and field recordings from earth, air, and sea. Hausswolff's work has long dealt with the mysteries of human perception and the mythologies that we build around those perceptions (whether that be religion, metaphysics, or politics), always addressing absurdist questions with a blackened deadpan delivery. There may be no discernible answers for us to discover here, but the question is enough to be provocative; and as on his previous works, the question may be intriguing on a conceptual level, but the aesthetics themselves are a wonder to behold. Recommended.

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C.M. von Hausswolff ventured to Chicago in 2003 at the behest of the arts organizations Lampo and Whitehalls, who had commissioned the Swedish conceptualist for several pieces. There Are No Crows Flying Around The Hancock Building was one of the commissions and, as one should ascertain from the title, was inspired by the lack of avian activity found at the observatory deck of one of Chicago's highest buildings. For Hausswolff, the lack of crows was unacceptable as a building of such grandeur must have some kind of bird population; and he composed this album to remedy this lack. Given that crows and ravens enjoy a mixed bag of cultural references as harbingers of death, mischieveous pranksters, and creatures of profound intellect, Hausswolff's fictional birds are quite grim in nature. Working with recordings of electrical field disturbances, wind, and the tourists wandering around that very same obervation deck, Hausswolff extracts a churning oscillation of electric sound whose slow-motion spikes and pulsations recall some of Pan Sonic's rhythmic experiments with raw electricity. Gradaully, the rhythmic motion flattens into a flatlined drone of saw-tooth noises occasionally broken by electrical chirpings. It's impossible not to anthropomorphize Hausswolff's sounds into a cacophony of vocalizations and flapping wings. Even so, Hausswolff doesn't entirely make it clear whether his ghost birds are guardians of the Hancock Building in their vigilant surveillance or if they are forecasting something dreadful on the horizon. Hausswolff has always done well in realizing his conceptual strategies, and this album is no different.

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A curious commission for sure, and one that was destined to fail from the outset. CM Von Hausswolff is the Swedish sound / installation artist responsible for all sorts of unusual projects including his collaborations with John Duncan, The Hafler Trio, and of course Leif Elggren as the twin figureheads of the Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland. His clinical sounds using shortwave radio, WW2 era oscillators, sonar, amplified electrical fences, etc. manifest the electro-magnetic detritus from these various technologies. We're pretty sure that when Hausswolff received the commission to broadcast his various tones and drones within the Istanbul Airport as part of the 5th International Istanbul Biennial, he must have been playing with Brian Eno's strategies of his Music For Airports with the machines doing the talking for him through cyclical ambient passages. Of course, Hausswolff's sources are grey, corroded, and not exactly easy listening; so only half of the submitted work was accepted for transmission. The first disc is a 60 minute plus excursion into deep-electric isolationism, with swells of grim resonance and low-frequencies occasionally usurped by squiggling synthesis. As sound design, it's purposefully rough-hewn and very dark in its intention; and in the context of an airport, this would certainly instill dread and foreboding into somebody getting onto a plane. But for late night bunker-inspired / dark-ambient listening, this is pretty fucking great. The second disc features those tracks that had been accepted for airport listening; and these are much more peculiar for Hausswolff as he's eschewing his normal mode of operation for downtempo electro rhythms and slow-motion samba loops topped with accordion. Rather summery wallpaper music that's probably what the curators were looking for, but not nearly as impressive as the first disc.

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The connection between the Swedish conceptual artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff (former member of The Hafler Trio and current co-monarch of The Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland) and the Raster-Noton label began in 1997, when von Hausswolff collaborated with Raster-Noton's Carsten Nicolai (aka Noto) and Frank Bretschneider (aka Komet). At that time, all of these artists shared a common Aside from that previous collaboration, it's still a little hard to believe that Von Hausswolff would produce a record for Raster-Noton. Not surprisingly, "Strom" has very little in common with the Raster sound. Instead, he is continuing his documentation of electronic seances which he first began researching while in The Hafler Trio and more recently presented on his "Operation of Spirit Communication" record. Implementing telephone bugging / wire tapping microphones, Von Hausswolff captured these anomalies when recording the pure drones of electrical circuits and datafrequency hardlines. The point of such recordings was to uncover the sonic neologisms found by EVP researchers Raymond Cass and Friedrich Jurgenson. While "Strom" does not specifically feature any ghostly EVP languages, these thick low-frequency tones are striated with distant rhythmic statics, fluctuating glitches, and aerated electrical-field washes. This is easily Jim's favorite record from Raster-Noton!

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Carl Michael von Hausswolff stands as one of the more intriguing conceptually based sound artists, often manipulating electro-magnetic ephemera within highly codified contexts, installations and performances. Hausswolff is most well known for his collaborative project with Leif Elggren called The Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland, a psycho-geographical territory that claims to have annexed all of the land between countries and the space where dreams exist, along with a number of deliberately absurdist proclamations to act as a critical counterpoint to the nation-state of the 21st Century. Beyond this, Hausswolff has steadily produced an eccentric body of recordings, culling static, noise, feedback, and tones from disturbances in electro-magnetic fields. For Leech, he has taken on the role as a parasite, extracting the sounds on this recording from the electro-magentic disturbances caused by four of his contemporary artists: Olafur Eliasson, Carsten Holler, Tommi Gronland / Petteri Nisunen, and Richard D. James. Hausswolff provides a scant amount of information about the installations / performances, and it hardly even matters that some of the sounds might have come from one of Eliasson's ephemeral installations bringing the fog into large-scale mirrored kaleidoscopes or the legendary sandpaper DJ set by the Aphex Twin back in 1994. Hausswolff's sounds are typical of the technology he has always employed: wire-tapping microphones, cheap algorithmic samplers, and noise-gating devices. The resulting sounds on Leech are raw recordings of glitches, crackle, and sinewave piercings that hold a cathode ray deadness to the collected recordings, except for the Aphex extractions which have been bathed in a cavernous warehouse reverb. The concept does seem to stand a bit above the execution of Leech; but the idea is such a strong one, and Hausswolff has such a strong grasp of his equipment that the album certainly holds up to his previous albums.

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Oof. What a title! Actually that's par for the course for Swedish conceptualist CM von Hausswolff, who has his fair share of projects that extend quite plausible thoughts to absurdist extremes. He's perhaps best known for collaboration with Leif Elggren as the twin heads of the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland, as well as for his 'blasphemous' installations that attempted to communicate with the dead at a New Mexican cemetary. Hausswolff continues to offer a wealth of interesting ideas alongside his clinical presentations that revel in their purposeful lack of ornamentalization. Three Overpopulated Cities continues where A Lecture On Disturbances In Architecture left off as a critique of the failure for urban planning and architecture to accomodate Hausswolff's eccentric ideas. For this album, Hausswolff addresses the pollution problems of the electro-magnetic spectrum: cell phone traffic, shortwave utility signals, wi-fi network grids, etc. While there might be a public policy issue in how all of these are affecting the environment, Hausswolff bemoans the fact that these may be interfering with attempts at documenting EVP, the paranormal phenomemon of unknown voices breaking through onto radio signals and presumed to be those of the dead. The four extended tracks on this album express those ideas as raw data, simply documents of electromagnetic fields from various overpopulated cities around the globe. This amounts to volatile static from walkie-talkie distortion, surgically exact sinusoidal drones, and 60 cycle hums interrupted by field disturbances. Very little, if any processing can be heard on these recordings, putting this closer to his work Basic or To Make Things Happen In The Bunker Via The Micro Way.

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Debut ep from this Brooklyn based boy girl duo who traffic in gloriously blissed out, slo-mo, witch house-y synth-wave nu-gaze dream pop, the sound super minimal and stripped down, like Portishead crossed with oOoOO, a bass and synth heavy electro brood, that creeps and drifts, smoldering and sexy, swirly and darkly abstract. A series of glacial electro ballads, that pulse and throb, washed out dark wave slither slipping sinisterly from cold wave, to new wave, to trip hop and back again. The basslines thrum, the synths whir and wheeze and shimmer, all beneath deep, smokey chanteuse like vox, each track, a thick undulating synthscape, minimal and moody, skeletal and spidery. Here and there arise bits of psychedelic squall, of metallic buzz, and effects drenched swirl, but for the most part the record drifts moodily and dreamily, the perfect late night, last drink, dark bar, drift off, lights low, bliss out, come down jam. The first track on the B side mixes things up a bit with a blast of feral post punk energy, sounding a bit like a more fiery Strokes, lots of guitar crunch and real drum pound, distorted weary boyvox, the whole thing sweaty and fuzzy and intense, and then as if to make up for that sonic transgression, the rest of the record is dialed even further down, mostly just synths and vocals, various keyboards, wheezing organs, a droney minimal dreampop drift, softly buzzy and druggy, like a disembodied, even more stoned Velvets or Spacemen 3, perhaps a bit more modern and electronic, but just as lysergic and laid back. Super thick vinyl, nice heavy full color gatefold and printed full color inner sleeve.

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Florid Pagoda marks the return of the enigmatic Von Himmel, a scant few months after we awarded Record Of The Week status to the monolithically awesome Space Communion lp. The four collage-like pieces here conjure all kinds of beautifully disorienting atmospheres and moods. Pulsating melodies provide a rhythmic, breath-like quality to all the tracks, while there seems to be no discernible percussion, and at times it sounds like some subterraneous orchestra is trying to claw its way out from below. In the end, those demonic scrabblings and cavernous rumbles can't help but be overtaken by the majestic swells of melodic noise. At one point in the song "Shadow Locus", from out of the cosmic hugeness there appears to be some sort of synth war, with electronic sounds raining down from above. While at other moments you feel as if you're wandering dreamlike through some creaky old house. Closing number "Luminous Inertia" alters the vibe with Klaus Schultze-like spaciness and sequenced sounds taking things into eternity. Awesome. Super swank hand painted packaging, and of course ULTRA LIMITED.

Within the last few years, the frequency of Von Himmel and related releases has picked up significantly, and thus, here we are with the band's long in the works follow up to their mighty Space Communion lp. Things have gotten even more insular with this two song monster, offering yet another glimpse into the band's strange and unique soundworld. "Rock N Roll Animal", aka all of Side 1, comes across like some weird, warped Alice Coltrane number beamed in from another dimension, all woozy and queasy sounding. Stuttering drums merge with glorious cascades of jagged riffing to form a beautiful, strangely cohesive mess. We've mentioned legendary Texas psych pioneers the Red Krayola before when talking about Von Himmel, and the similarities are still evident in their expansive collage-like jams. Jams that manage to be hypnotic and quite lovely at times but also noisy as hell. Things are definitely chaotic, but it's a chaos with purpose, recalling previous VH releases but with what appears to be a new sense of direction, or at least forward momentum. Ramshackle bursts of melodic noise that sound a bit like an orchestra pit warming up, or fucking around, create a suspended dream state before switching gears at the midway point with some majestic cymbal washes and drones. Zoned out bits of German Oak style proto-industrial ambience appear, before things end in a swirling mass of pulsing noise that would make the Taj Mahal Travellers proud. Side 2, "Traum Esel", begins with a sinister drone intro, heavy and sort of evil sounding, a bit like Harmonia at their most ominous. It's more meditative and subdued than the A side, maybe a little more "focused" than the freewheeling feel of the first track/side. As the song continues, things get seriously krauty with immersive, washed out melodies and sparse bits of looped percussion before ending in clouds of billowing GAS-styled bliss. Another winner that somehow manages to top their previous release, pushing in new directions, but dragging much of what we loved about that record with them, this lp also marks the inaugural vinyl release for the band's Donkey Disc label. Grab it now!

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It's been a while since we last heard from Von Himmel, and this lp is actually a reissue of a now out of print cassette put out by Sloow Tapes a few years back. As was written on that label's website, Space Communion is "absolutely deserving of a vinyl reissue on some hopelessly obscure American private-press psych label." Thankfully the future is now, and if you weren't one of the 70 people to get a tape you'll want to do yourself a favor and pick this up NOW, and not only because the lp is itself limited to a mere 300 copies. You'll want it because Space Communion is a completely mesmerizing piece of multi-layered drifting free psychedelia and one of those records that seems to exist outside of time and location. That said, the major touchstones here are of a decidedly '70s German variety (the band's name no doubt a reference to the song "Von Himmel Hoch" from the first Kraftwerk lp), think Ash Ra Tempel, early Cluster, German Oak, NEU!, and all the other greats. Throw in some ESP-Disk styled experimentation and it only makes sense that we would make this a ROTW. The album begins with "Moon Moss", where lush atmospheres merge to form an ambiguous, slightly disconcerting vibe not unlike that moment right before the drugs kick in. We were reminded of Sun Ra's wild Moog experiments from the Space Probe album we reviewed a while back, in addition to all the great library music collections we love from labels like Trunk and even more recent favorites like Anworth Kirk. It's not difficult to imagine this as some educational 1970s soundtrack whipped up by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and one can almost hear David Attenborough's mellow voice describing the living habits of leafcutter ants or something. "Astronomer" opens with what sounds like a flute (or maybe it's a synth?) and some sparse percussion, which slowly builds and shifts to a more aggressive rhythm while still maintaining a degree of restraint. You get an image of bearded longhairs recording in a field under the stars before the drums cease and you are left with pure buzzing bliss. The first song to utilize a more "rock" based structure is "Sun Spots" with its steady rhythm and hypnotic bass groove. Bits of electric guitar strum away in the background as the keyboards swirl their way into the mix. It's similar to something you might hear on a Wooden Shjips record, but even more skeletal. In other words, it's a good one to get lost in. "Mantra" works in some field recordings (we couldn't tell if they were played in reverse or not) of a man chanting as the band's melodies shimmer beautifully loose and free. You close your eyes and zone out, but then you gotta flip the record over to side 2 where Von Himmel ups their experimental tendencies even more with two lengthy tracks. "Strawberry Hill" opens with an evil buzz that sounds like it's seeping out of a medieval dungeon. This one definitely had us thinking of German Oak, as well as something you might here in a film like the Devils or anything else where witches are burnt at the stake, sorta like the snippets between Electric Wizard songs. At around 7 minutes, frantic free jazz drums enter followed by a bleating saxophone, spinning wildly before fading into a barely audible hiss. Closer "Country Bog" begins with a sitar drone and more nature sounds before a subsonic bass gets things rumbling into somewhat doomy territory. The sounds here blend in and out so perfectly before wrapping up with a moaning voice and more clattering percussion. Space Communion is one of those rare records that exists in its own world, outside the notions of "psychedelic" or "experimental" music that most bands today adhere to. Things here are brilliantly presented on their own terms, not merely as some modern day interpretation of an old Krautrock record. Bold words indeed, but we ain't fucking around, and neither is Von Himmel.

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LP number three from these local psychedelic cosmonauts, and like the two previous ones (both of which we made Records Of The Week), the nearly unpronounceable weltraumruckfuhrungsubereinkommen, finds VH delving ever deeper into the cosmic ether, but unlike those past outings, this new one is way less raw, more polished and focused, the recording too, at least in places, much more high fidelity, the sound lush and layered and expansive, the closest they've come to capturing a majestic ur-drone / psychedelic raga bliss out. Still hugely beholden to their krautrock forebears, VH deliver an ever shifting soundworld of dense tangled drumming, flurries of murky rhythmic drift, wreathed in clouds of high end shimmer, which blossoms into straight up psych-kraut drift, all fluttery flutes and loose percussion, not to mention billowing clouds of sitar like buzz, while elsewhere, loping motorik rhythms, drift in and out of dense washes of electronic squiggles, distant melodies, blurred chordal shimmer and soft-noise ambience, all woven into a heady, hypnotic sprawl, anchored by slo-mo caveman drumming, not to mention occasional blasts of kosmische trip out, wedded to mysterious percussion, and woozy spaced out FX, not to mention swaths of keening guitardrone melody, scraped strings, buried tabla like rhythms, everything wreathed in alien electronics, and soft swirls of divine druggy ambience. As always, gorgeous, fantastically tripped out stuff. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES! We have less than ten that we got direct from the band. If/when we run out, it'll take a little while to get more from the label overseas, and they'll likely be more expensive. So grab one quick while you can, or be prepared to be patient and to pay a bit more... Packaged in hand screened sleeves, screen printed in two different colors. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 20 GUILDERS "New Songs And Wrong Songs For Patricia" (Gulden) cd 14.98 ABDUL-RAUF, LEILA "Cold And Cloud" (Saadi Saati / Pesanta Urfolk) lp 19.98 ANIMA MORTE "The Nightmare Becomes Reality" (Transubstans) lp 19.98 ANNIE GIRL & THE FLIGHT "s/t" (Calar Music) lp 14.98 APHEX TWIN "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (Apollo / R&S) 2lp 29.00 AQUA NEBULA OSCILLATOR "Spiritus Mundi" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98 BEGGARS "s/t" (Lotus House) 2cd 13.98 BLACK FLAG "What The..." (SST) cd 10.98 BLOOD ORANGE "Cupid Deluxe" (Domino) 2lp 25.00 BOARDS OF CANADA "Twoism" (Warp) lp 21.00 BONNIE PRINCE BILLY "s/t" (Royal Stable) lp/cassette 15.98/8.98 BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, THE / TEENAGE MONSTER (WALTER GREENE) "OST" (Monstrous Movie Music) cd 27.00 BRAN (...) POS "Den Of Ordure And Iridescence" (Resipiscent) lp 15.98 BUDD, HAROLD "Budd Box" (All Saints) 7cd box 58.00 BURNING TREE "Lammergyer" (Utech) lp 19.98 CAIRO GANG, THE "Tiny Rebels" (Empty Cellar Records) lp 11.98 CALLAHAN, BILL "Dream River" (Drag City) lp 17.98 CARPENTER, JOHN "Assault On Precinct 13" (Death Waltz) cassette 9.98 CHATHAM, RHYS "Outdoor Spell" (Northern Spy) cd/lp 9.98/12.98 CHURCH OF MISERY "Thy Kingdom Scum" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) 2lp 32.00 CLOSED ROOM "s/t" (Valse Sinistre Productions) cd 12.98 CORYELL, LARRY "Barefoot Boy" (BGP) cd 11.98 COUM TRANSMISSIONS "Home Aged & The 18 Month Hope" (Dais) lp 22.00 CYBOTRON "Motor City Machine Music: An Exploration Of Cybotron" (BGP) cd 14.98 DAMNATIONS HAMMER "Disciples Of The Hex" (I Hate Records) cd 16.98 DANTESCO "We Don't Fear Your God" (Inframundo) cd 13.98 DAVIS, MILES "Kind Of Blue" (Columbia) lp 25.00 DAVIS, MILES & THENOLIOUS MONK "Miles & Monk At Newport" (Columbia) lp 25.00 DBUK "The Red Cross Is Giving Out Misinformation / Immaculately Warded Children" (Pesanta Urfolk) 7" 9.98 DE MEESTER, LOUIS "Alpha Recordings" (Dead Cert) lp 24.00 DEMENT, IRIS "Infamous Angel" (Plain) lp 16.98 DESTROYER "Five Spanish Songs" (Merge) 12" 13.98 DOT WIGGIN BAND "Ready! Get! Go!" (Alternative Tentacles) lp 14.98 ENDING PEOPLE "Fill Your Lungs" (Cash Cow Production) lp 14.98 ENTRANCE BAND, THE "Face The Sun" (Beyond) lp 19.98 ERICKSON, ROKY "Don't Slander Me" (Light In The Attic) 2lp 28.00 ERICKSON, ROKY "Gremlins Have Pictures" (Light In The Attic) 2lp + 7" 26.00 EXTINCTION DE LOS INSECTOS "Untitled" (Lupus / Chingaste La Confianza) lp 19.98 FALCON (EX-CIRCLE) "Beer & Ribs b/w Sunset Street" (Full Contact) 7" 8.98 FIGURE STUDY "Lesson One / Pirouette" (Dark Entries) 7" 6.00 FIGURE STUDY "s/t" (Dark Entries) lp 14.98 FLAMIN' GROOVIES "Shake Some Action" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 FONTAINE, BRIGITTE "Comme A La Radio" (Superior Viaduct) cd 15.98 FONTAINE, BRIGITTE "Est... Folle" (Superior Viaduct) cd 15.98 FOUR TET "Beautiful Rewind" (Text) cd/lp 14.98/23.00 FUZZ "s/t" (Easy Rider) cassette 12.98 GENERALISSIMO "s/t" (Arbeit Macht Dinge) 3" + cassette 5.98 GHOST "Opus Eponymous" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) lp 25.00 GLAXO BABIES "Nine Months To The Disco" (Superior Viaduct) cd/lp 14.98/15.98 GOODBYE & AMEN (GUIDO & MAURIZIO DE ANGELIS) "OST" (Intermezzo Media) cd 29.00 GORGUTS "Colored Sands" (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98 GROUP RHODA "12th House" (Not Not Fun) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 GUNN, STEVE & MIKE GANGLOFF "Melodies For A Savage Fix" (Important) lp 24.00 GUTTERIDGE, PETER "Pure" (540 Records / Xpressway) 2lp 28.00 HAZLEWOOD, LEE "Lee Hazlewood Industries: There's A Dream I've Been Saving 1966-1971" (Light In the Attic) 4cd + book + dvd + flexidisc 91.00 HIDDEN MASTERS "Of This & Other Worlds" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) cd/lp 14.98/32.00 HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER "OST" (Intrada / Universal) 2cd 27.00 HOT AND COLD "Any Monkey Is Dangerous" (Maybe Mars) cd 12.98 HUNX & HIS PUNX "Street Punk" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/13.98 HUSERE GRAV "You Are Transparent" (Crucial Blast) cd+zine+button 9.99 IKEDA, RYOJI "Supercodex" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 ILLUSTRATION SONORE "Undisciplined Strips Of Emotions" (Medical) lp INHALT "Occupations" (Dark Entries) 12" 11.98 JACUZZI BOYS "s/t" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/13.98 JANDEK "Athens Saturday" (Corwood) 2cd 12.98 KEITH, RODD "Black Phoenix Blues" (Roaratorio) lp 17.98 KINIT HER "Storm Of Radiance" (Pesanta Urfolk) 2lp 26.00 LARAAJI "Essence/Universe" (All Saints) cd/lp 15.98/23.00 LAUREL HALO "Chance Of Rain" (Hyperdub) cd 15.98 LEATHER STRIP "Teenage Demos" (Dark Entries) lp 14.98 LIVING MUSIC "To Allen Ginsberg" (Roundtable) lp 22.00 LORD NASTY "Phuck Em And Forget Em" (self-released) cd-r 11.98 LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE "Live In Mexico City" (Captcha) lp 17.98 LORNA DUNE "Miamisphere" (Lo Bit Landscapes) 12" 11.98 LOS SIQUICOS LITORALENOS "Sonido Chipadelico" (Sham Palace) lp 17.98 LOW / SHEARWATER "Stay / Novacane" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98 MAGIK MARKERS "Surrender To The Fantasy" (Drag City) lp 19.98 MAJEURE "Romance Language" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 12" 19.98 MANSFIELD, JOE "Beat Box Obsession" (Get On Down) book+cassette 70.00 MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKAKKE "Far West" (Important Records) lp 17.98 MAZZY STAR "Seasons Of Your Day" (Rhymes Of An Hour / Fontana) cd/lp 15.98/29.00 MCDOWELL, FRED & ANNIE MAE "My Home Is In The Delta" (Sutro Park) lp 14.98 MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Three Solo Pieces" (Unseen Worlds) cd/lp 16.98/23.00 MEN, THE "Campfire Songs" (Sacred Bones) 12" 16.98 MGMT "s/t" (Columbia) lp 31.00 MIMINOKOTO "Chofu, Ekoda, Koenji [Live In & Around Tokyo]" (Plunk's Plan) cd 14.98 MINOT "An Era Of Institutional Failure" (self-released) cd-r 11.98 MIRKWOOD "s/t" (Machu Picchu) lp 22.00 MITTOO, JACKIE "In Cold Blood" (Striker Lee / Ernie B's) lp 17.98 MOCKASIN, CONNAN "Caramel" (Mexican Summer) lp 22.00 MOORE, ANGELO "Sacrifice" (self-released) cd 8.98 MORBID / MAYHEM "A Tribute To The Black Emperors" (Warhammer) cd 10.98 MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL "Ballade For A Beaver Moon" (Motion Sickness Of Time Travel) cd-r 15.98 MR. 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We're always up for some more tripped out abstract space psych, or some druggy far out improv krautdrone, or even some cracked electronic prog, so this debut cd from local outfit Von Himmel definitely hit the spot, touching on all of those imaginary genres and then some. The note that arrived with this disc included a bunch of wacked text including bits like: "Recorded through a single mic with the power of a thousand suns" and "First in a series of stone-age crystal technologies' hyper metareverberant mycophiliac outer space groove unit transmissions" and of course "An as yet unknown German psych substitute with free jazz perversions discovered lodged in the core of a meteorite" which all sounds completely wacked, until you wrap your ears around the sounds these guys conjure up. Picking carefully through those garbled transmissions, we come up with German, free jazz, metareverberant and psych, and you might be getting close. You'd also have to include druggy, krautrock, murky, tripped out, and handful of other descriptors. Three long songs that manage to sound both abstract and groovy, channeling German Oak as much as any other influence. The German Oak vibe is huge, the cavernous lo-fi production, the strangely funky vibe running throughout. But at the same time, Von Himmel are exploring some lost corner of the galaxy, setting a course for the heart of the sun, they blast through dense clouds of swirling effects, metero belts of tribal percussion, the sky a series of fuzzy smears, their path shifting from blown out psychjam, to laid back sun baked groove to full on drug doused black ambience. The first two tracks are extended sonic explorations, equal parts Can, Faust, Popol Vuh, German Oak, Amon Duul, looooooong spacey voyages, all long hair and big amps, black lights and bellbottoms, big drums and lots of wah and flange, but for the final track, the band lets loose of all that stuff, leaving some whirring buzzing black hole, which rumbles and reverberates eventually disappearing into the inky blackness. Definitely for fans of the above mentioned groops, but well worth checking out if you're into stuff like Comets On Fire, Wooden Shjips, Hawkwind, Spacemen 3 and other outer sonic space explorers. CRAZY LIMITED! Only 50 or so copies...

MPEG stream: Lunar Meditation
MPEG stream: Skylark

Have to admit, we were a bit disappointed to find out that these ladies didn't bust out a cover of Duran Duran's saucy early hit on their latest 12" of the same name. Instead we s'pose they're maybe giving a hearty nod to their recent activities (you might've spotted them in the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man?). They've honed their party and playing chops plenty from heaps of touring, and the trio packs quite a wallop... not to mention a soulful stomp and a tribal thump. This ep features six songs - three new ones and three from their 2007 full length Our Own Island!

Von Iva's music is impassioned, loose and fun! These three ladies seem always party primed. That's right, we said three! Since their last release the band bid a fond farewell to bassist Elizabeth Davis Simpson. As a result, their sound has become far more minimal with Kelly's primal drum beats, Jillian's sultry vocals and some of Becky's stark keyboard lines filling in for the departed basslines. Seemingly inspired by ESG and Tina Turner, Our Own Island's ten tracks are ultra retro sounding and electro funky. Jillian continues to keep brows and loins fevered with her super-soul pipes. These gals don't perspire, they sweat! And we suspect they'll get you all hot'n'bothered too.

MPEG stream: Guise
MPEG stream: No Resistance

These four gals have been raising a ruckus 'round town for a couple years now. You might recognize two of them as being former members of the short-lived SF synth-wave band Clone as well as 7 Year Bitch. Live, they've had their hot nights and ones less so, but when they're 'on', their shows can be a super sassy time with equal parts sweat and lipgloss. Really, a major part of what makes them cool is also what can be their downfall, and that is their unbridled swagger. 'Cuz of course when you're rockin' the blues you can't be all uptight, but you also can't be so loose that you're downright messy. Now on record, they've successfully captured the feel of one of their fiery, saucy good nights on tape. When taken sans vocals, Von Iva rock out a straight-ahead by the books dance punk sound with their two-note arpeggiated keyboard and basslines. However, add in the ballsy soulful female vocals and it's quite a different animal. They definitely provide the distinct personality to this band. A flamin' cocktail brewed up from an ample shot of blues rock, a dollop of disco, a scoop of new wave and a dash of batcave.

MPEG stream: Same Sad Song
MPEG stream: Feel It!

Full length number two (record number three) from this fantastically confusional minimalist techno supergroup, a trio made up of Mortiz Von Oswald (Chain Reaction, Rhythm And Sound), Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay) and Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric), but like the first record, and the Live In New York double lp, the members and their sonic pedigrees do little to prepare you for the actual sound of the trio. Not techno, not even really electronica, at least at first, instead it's a sort of minimal jazz abstract dub, a thick, sinewy baseline holds the first track together, while around it reverbed guitars drift and pulse, bits of glitch surface here and there, flurries of percussion, fragmented melodies, it's all very abstract, hushed and minimal, it takes 6 or 7 minutes for the various strands to be pulled together, and then anchored to a super stripped down metallic rhythm, nothing else changes, those bits of guitar still swirl and shimmer, the rhythm pulses within a cloud of muted murk and strange abstract effects, finally growing more propulsive during the last several minutes, a skeletal beat, augmented by hand drums, tambourine, soft billows of hiss and whir, streaks of crunch and crumble, but all way in the backdrop and the rhythm loops hypnotically. The second track begins much more overtly electronic, with another minimal electro pulse, but again, the surrounding sounds are definitely more organic that you might expect, glimmers of guitar, soft streaks of melody, some rubbery upright bass thrum, scatters of extra percussion, hazy synth swirls, but for all that seems to be going on, it's super hushed and muted and yeah minimal. The other two tracks are of course variations on the same theme, with "Structure 3" being perhaps the most Chain Reaction-y, with a little bit of a heroin house vibe, a muted electronic pulse, a dubbed out rhythm, laid across a sea of distant jangle and swirling echoes, until the final track, the longest of the bunch, and perhaps the most heavily rhythmic, but just barely, a groovy jazzy sprawl, the only deviation a couple of sonic squalls, one a flurry of wildly sawed strings, brief but dramatic, the other a less obvious burst of extra percussion, but throughout, the whole thing remains hushed, and muted and minimal and quite darkly dreamy. Like the other MVOT records, features super striking minimal cover art.

MPEG stream: Structure 1
MPEG stream: Structure 2

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

SORRY. We were pretty into Vertical Ascent, the debut release from the trio Moritz Von Oswald, a sort of abstract electronic dub minimal techno super group, featuring the group's namesake Moritz Von Oswald, he of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound, Vladislav Delay and Max Loderbauer of Sun Electric. And it sounds basically how you might imagine. Dubbed out, abstract, a pulsing minimalism, and while the full length was intriguing, it wasn't until this live record that we were totally smitten. Not sure if it's more loose, or if the vibe that night was just right on, but it manages to be dark and hypnotic, but also strangely effervescent and dreamy. The beats are total Chain Reaction, muted, wreathed in effects, suspended in spacious fields of hushed shimmer, of distant rumbles, that would be enough, but here, the beats drift through hazy landscapes of dubbed out ripples, drifting clouds of abstract effects, brief sonic squalls, swaths of synthy shimmer, streaks of glitch and skree, all of which makes the music sound more improvised, more 'jammed' and more LIVE, you can also hear low level conversation once in a while, when the music is at its most skeletal, but instead of distracting, it sounds almost like just another sound one of the players is adding to the mix, a mumbly textural low end rumble. The tracks are long, and all 4 seem to flow into one another (at least on the accompanying cd, not on the 4 sided vinyl of course). Unlike the more abstract leanings of the record proper, the trio keep things beat oriented here, letting the sound and sounds get seriously far out, but always anchored by some gorgeously hypnotic beat. The 15 minute opener is the most Chain Reaction of the bunch, while the closer is the funkiest, managing to create some sort of impossible minimal abstract funk out of crunchy synths, swirling buzz, stuttering skeletal beats, thick swaths of noisy psychedelic electronics, the crowd reacts in kind, whooping and going a little bit nuts, while the two songs in between, sound a bit more Kompakt, ultra minimal, cool and late night, still laced with unlikely sounds and twisted arrangements (again, some of the weirdest parts getting big reactions from the crowd), but all wrapped around super stripped down muted thumps and skitters. This is the rare electronica / electronic music that works both on the dancefloor and in the headphones, a mesmerizing after hours body moving slow burn groove, or a blissed out, come down, late night chill soundtrack for drifting off and dropping out... Incredible packaging. Insanely thick gatefold jacket, with super stunning cover art, includes a cd version (NOT a cd-r, an actual cd) in a hand screened sleeve. Already out of print, these are the last copies EVER!

This one is difficult to categorize. Rigid electronic music in the guise of open-ended free jazz? 20th century minimalism with subtle ethnographic influences? Concrete stoner music for the Salvia Divinorum set? Ok, the last one may have been a stretch, but this record has been really hard to wrap our brains around. This super group of sorts, all from the new wave of minimalist techno, includes not only Moritz Von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm And Sound) of course, but also Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay) and Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric), veering a bit from the predicted norm. That this was released on The Honest Jon's label adds another level of unexpected curiosity as this is an electronic record but not quite the "heroin house" you would expect from the Chain Reaction label, nor the classical recompositions Von Oswald made with Carl Craig earlier this year. What you get is a flexible weaving of machine calibrated electronic treatments (drones, synth sequences and hazy shifting textures) with an array of clattering handmade rhythm instruments (metal clangs, wooden clops, and watery blops) interlocking in organic ways designed for improvisation and live performance. It's definitely warmer and more inviting than most of the Basic Channel stuff, while still keeping the sound and performances reigned in. Yet we're not sure if this is a first foray into a more exploratory open-ended direction or just a curious one-off. Overall though, we go away with a beautiful and interesting sounding recording that's definitely worth checking out!

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Otto Von Schirach's first full length for the awesome Schematic label is a frenzied mix of Aphex Twin-style electronica squiggles and Squarepusher-ish manic energy, along with a healthy dose of randomness, as if it's a car-racing video game soundtrack whose direction is determined by crashes and explosions of a turbo vehicle. Nice and fun, but a lot to take in one sitting.

RealAudio clip: Time Traveling Lives

More hyperspastic funk-ass algorithmic computer music from Miami butt-technician Otto Von Schirach. First in the Chopped Zombie Fungus trilogy of eps.

Von Schirach's second long player of leftfield electronica, very schizo, following his spastic "8000 BC", also released this year. Quite prolific, Mr. Otto Von, for he could have edited the best parts of each release down to one powerful record. Features guest

Atavistic's Unheard Music Series of obscure but amazing free jazz reissues (overseen by Chicago jazz musician and critic John Corbett) strikes again with this release from German pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach and a squad of kick ass European improvisors including sax legend-to-be Peter Brotzmann, Dutch drummer extraordinare Han Bennink, trombonist Paul Rutherford, and others, including Manfred Schoof, on cornet, flugelhorn, bass, clarinet, etc. Engineer Conny Plank (later famed for his krautrock productions) put "The Living Music" to tape in April 1969, and it was originally issued on LP by both Schlippenbach's own Quasar label and then by FMP. Three-quarters of an hour of "living music" indeed: it's music full of breath, action, beauty, pulsing blood. Moody, melodic piano runs, percussive dances betwixt the drums and the horns, kinda noir-ish, sleepy interludes, and (of course!) hardcore, full-on, skree-filled blow-outs: this is the energetic free improv that you'd expect from the early days of the FMP scene. A good 'un, you jazz cats take note.

RealAudio clip: The Living Music
RealAudio clip: Into The Staggerin'

In case you hadn't heard, Von Sudenfed is the collaboration between Mark E. Smith and Mouse On Mars. Given that Smith had once quipped that The Fall could involve anybody's grandmother on bongos accompanying Smith and his cantankerous slurred vocals, it's a bit surprising that this isn't considered a Fall project. Nonetheless, Tromatic Reflexxions is clearly the best album that Mark E. Smith has been part of in years. The same goes for the Mouse On Mars side of the equation. We're not going to stray too far from the conventional wisdom regarding Tromatic Reflexxions, as we basically agree that it really does sound like LCD Soundsystem, even though Mark E. Smith wants nothing to do with any of those comparisons. Musically, the combo produces a smarty-pants concoction of post-everything rhythms with dubstep density, disco-punk punchiness, and electro grooviness all mashed up into an infectious squelch, which clearly resembles the LCD Soundsystem singles of a couple years back. Smith is just as cranky, irritable, and insufferable as he's ever been on any give Fall recording. Perhaps not surprisingly, Smith's presence in an electronica context offers an obvious comparison to James Murphy's smug delivery on the LCD Soundsystem recordings. Many of us here hadn't thought that this collaboration would work in the least, but more than a handful have been clearly won over. In all likelihood, Tromatic Reflexxions will stand out as one of the best art-rock / electronica albums of 2007. Well worth checking out.

MPEG stream: The Rhinohead
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Found a few of these tucked away in the closet, one of our favorite records from this mysterious industrial martial folk neoclassical goth pop combo, 2001's E Pluribus Unum. While on all of the various VT records, the band does get seriously industrial, that side of their sound is balanced by their tendency to craft sort of woozy dour gloom pop that at its songiest sounds like some hybrid of the Doors, Spacemen 3, This Mortal Coil, and at its most abstract sounds like some darkly chilling soundtrack music, to some forgotten Dario Argento thriller, or some classic German art film. The record starts off with tolling bells, and then a guitar riff, wait, it's AC/DC's "Hell's Bells", sampled, and looped, over and over and over, but instead of launching into the song, the riff becomes a weirdly mesmerizing groove, that main riff wrapped in strummed acoustic guitar, and softly swirling effects, laced with pounding martial drumming, all supporting a dreamy dramatic crooned vocal. Fans might remember the track on their Sacrificare record, where they took the Who's "Pinball Wizard" and similarly transformed it into their own weird sort of industrial goth pop. The rest of the record is more traditionally neoclassical / neofolk, with mournful strings, swirling synths, militaristic drums, haunting samples, snippets of speeches, occasional gouts of crumbling distorted guitar, or growled demonic vox, it's a darkly gorgeous pseudo historical soundscape, a mysteriously varied, epic and majestic collection of otherwordly war songs, hazy sonic propaganda, and blackened doom pop.

MPEG stream: Bells
MPEG stream: Mitternachtsberg
MPEG stream: Inthronisation

A long overdue reissue of this miltaristic ambient industrial folk, cinematic masterpiece originally released in 2000. Very much in the vein of Folkstorm, Toroidh, Der Blutharsch and the like, the music of Von Thronstahl was conceived, in the band's own words, with the idea of making "music & art which would be more attached to a real European heritage and not to a freemasonary, anarchic tradition of false liberty, which means lawlessness and rootlessness." Oof. Heavy. Well, no need to agree, or to even understand to dig this record. An expansive, orchestral, dark hued journey through European History, Fascism, War, life and love and loss. Huge sweeping minor key strings, over mournful melodies, plaintive piano, martial percussion, snippets of found sounds, snatches of old songs and speeches, ominous whispered vocals. Very intense and ominous and emotional, and weirdly reminiscent of UK outfit In The Nursery with the big strings and occasional pounding militaristic percussion, and even some once-in-a-while playful gipsy melodies. But the occasional lighthearted vibe aside, Imperium Internum is a raw and harrowing record, majestic and epic, but ultra personal, full of sorrow and misery, darkness and light. So great.

MPEG stream: Imperium Internum
MPEG stream: Vorwarts, Die Raben Der Endzeit
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Newest record from this long running post industrial neo-folk outfit, whose sound fits perfectly amongst AQ faves like Der Blutharsch, Folkstorm, Toroidh and the like. Combining militaristic rhythms, acoustic guitars, field recordings, snippets of newsreels, military speeches, their sound transporting the listener to otherworlds, other times. The last disc to war torn Europe specifically, the music evoking the smells and sights and sounds, crumbling buildings, smoldering fires, smoke and the smell of burning flesh, the marching of soldiers, announcements over loudspeakers, all wound up into a haunting dark ambient sonic journey. This latest disc though is a lot more song oriented, less dark and droney and more lilting and lovely. A dark apocalyptic folk reminiscent of later Swans, The Angels Of Light, Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, even New Model Army and especially Current 93. The opening track is all acoustic guitars and soaring strings, haunting harmony vocals and simple subtle percussion. The second track begins with a simple eighties style drum beat, until the minor key guitar strum joins in as well as a totally gorgeous falsetto vocal hook, some strange chanted vocals, and weirdly some awesome "Stand And Deliver" style Adam Ant horns. "Gloomy White Sunday" is pure folk, like some lost seventies UK single, or Current 93 channeling their sonic forefathers. Gorgeously dark and languorous. And then there's the perplexing but brilliant "Occidental Identity", which steals wholesale the main riff from the Who's "Pinball Wizard", and transforms it into a haunting chunk of dark folk, intertwining vocals wrapped around that instantly recognizable riff, eventually the acoustic guitar drops out, leaving just the dynamic crashes, while strung in between are strange drones and processed vocals. A totally brilliant appropriation. The rest of the record dabbles in both: moody, melancholy folky strum, and the occasional purloined musical phrase or melody, as well as bits of cinematic ambience, dramatic strings, thick washed out drones, and various other mysterious sounds, with the focal point remaining the songs, the strum and the voice. All the disparate elements gorgeously woven into one of the coolest weirdest collections of dark apocalyptic folk we've heard in ages.

MPEG stream: The Age Of Decay And Democrazy
MPEG stream: Molti Piu Onore
MPEG stream: Gloomy White Sunday

A dark and thick and beautiful as a scrying pool of molasses! This is the third solo album from the formidable Steve Von Till (Neurosis, Tribes Of Neurot). He sounds like a man mustering his last shreds of battered hope and dusty breath as dreams fade with the sunlight into dusk. On the surface it may seem quite akin to many other somber country and folk contemporaries, however much like that of his band (whose music traverses terrain so far beyond the bounds of the 'metal' genre in which they are usually slotted), Von Till's music evokes something more -- an expression beyond common man world weary melancholia. The hushed strum of an acoustic guitar offers some comfort as the haunting slink of slide guitar threads its way around Von Till's bristly deep voice cresting into ominous swells of electric guitar grit and distortion. Recommended.

MPEG stream: A Grave Is A Grim Horse
MPEG stream: Looking For Dry Land

This is the first solo record from Steve Von Till, guitarist/vocalist for bay area tribal teutons Neurosis (in fact I think it's the first 'solo' record by anyone in Neurosis). It is a dark and somber affair, as you might expect, but what might surprise you is it's restraint and fragility, just voice, acoustic guitars, and occasional strings. The sounds on this record were hinted at on the last Neurosis record; droning and hypnotic, whispery balladry, replete with cellos and violins (courtesy of Amber Asylum who definitely share some sonic qualities here). Steve's voice is a gruff whisper, abrasive, but subtley melodic, bringing to mind Michael Gira, Nick Cave and Tom Waits.

You may be accustomed to hearing this gritty growl of a voice on Neurosis records, or maybe seen Steve Von Till onstage with them -- he's the scary looking Viking guy (although his pals here at AQ prefer to think of him as a teddy bar slash garden gnome) playing guitar. This second solo album treats us to a glimpse of Von Till's folksy side. With only the sparest of accompaniment -- a single fiddle, or acoustic guitar, or Hammond organ -- he whisper-growls tales of barren fields, blood red moons, howling beasts, broken anvils. The pace is very slow, the chord changes warm and emotional, and the mood is despondent. Reminds me at times of former Swans leader Michael Gira's recent solo work. Fans of Black Heart Procession might even take a risk on the metaller side of sensitive. Includes a Neil Young cover and a few minutes of Von Till's grandfather reciting verse.

RealAudio clip: This River
RealAudio clip: Breathe

We reviewed a super limited tape a while back by Ben Wildenhaus, former guitarist from Northwestern garage rockers Federation X, and an occasional collaborator with members of the Reeks And The Wrecks, and as we mentioned in the review of that tape, Wildenhaus has since transformed into a bit of an avant guitarist, now living on the east coast, and managing the Instrumental Quaalude blog, on which he weekly posts new recordings, always instrumental, always under 5 minutes. That tape, Great Melodies From Around, has now been reissued both on cd (and yeah, a real cd, not a cd-r), and vinyl, with a download coupon, and while there is new artwork and the curious addition of 'Von' to Wildenhaus' name, Great Melodies From Around is presented in these new formats, sonically identical to it's early cassette tape iteration... Great Melodies From Around seems, in fact, to be an extension of Wildenhaus' Instrumental Quaalude blog, as it is a moody and sonically surreal collection of similarly dark, gorgeously instrumental excursions, assembled from lush layered drones, Appalachian style steel string guitars, woozy twangy slide guitar, strange murky percussion, bits of vocals (NOT singing) employed as more texture, wheezing organ, sinewaves, minimal drumming, subtle electronics, bits of glitch and hiss, amp buzz, a little noise here and there, the occasional sample... The sound is smokey and dark and ominous, dreamy and hauntingly lovely, a distinctly Lynchian soundtrack vibe for sure, late night, lights low, everything dusty, and dark, and lonely, and lit by the streetlights outside, hazy, gauzy, fuzzy, and totally and fantastically lovely.

MPEG stream: The Orientalist
MPEG stream: Geebz
MPEG stream: The Limping Axeman
MPEG stream: Only Fool

Another fantastic batch of broody, moody instrumental guitarscapes from the man who used to swing his axe in Northwestern garage rock outfit Federation X, but who has since transformed into a bit of a wandering troubadour, a veritable one man band whose twisted take on guitar soli, sounds more like some impossible John Fahey / Ennio Morricone / Sir Richard Bishop / Joe Meek hybrid, slipping easily from haunting hushed strum, to groovy, smokey, jazziness, to twisted cinematic ambience, and it's not just guitar BVW wields, there are drums, and organs, bass, all woven into some super striking darkly psychedelic mood music. The A side sets the mood with a slow burn sprawl of twang flecked, post Appalachia mesmer, before disappearing into a black cloud of pulsing, almost John Carpenter-ish soundtracky malevolence, could be synths, could be processed guitars, either way, dark and creepy, and trippy and psychedelic, but then effortlessly, the sound slips right back into some skittery, almost bop-sounding jazziness, replete with crowd sounds, shuffling feet and a smattering of applause. From there on out, anything goes, a quick burst of super distorted angular crunch, some Waitsian / Ribot style spidery atonal guitarscapery, a bit of swoonsome tango, albeit wreathed in feedback, cool murky dream folk, lo-fi and laced with tape hiss and strange samples, some experimental ambience that sounds almost like Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck, all warbly and woozy and washed out. And that's just the A side. The flipside is another dizzying sonic journey through BVW's twisted soundworld, opening with some darkly contemplative, drone swaddled, twang, before the drums come in, and we're suddenly in post rock territory, the sound like early Tortoise, a sort of jazzy slowcore. The side continues its meandering trajectory, some gristly, glitchy, distorted back porch blues, a bit of hushed folky shimmer, some FX drenched kosmiche folk, some almost straight up Appalachia, a short stretch of haunting, dusky piano laced balladry, and finally finishing off with some spare, abstract steel string wrangling. And if that wasn't cool enough, one of the aforementioned jams, is in fact a cover of the theme song from Cannibal Holocaust! Cool packaging too, the tape housed in one of those plastic bags, sealed at the top with a paper label, the kind you see hanging from hooks in the drugstore! Probably limited, so don't dawdle... Includes a download code as well!

MPEG stream: Side One (excerpt)

Never before released live recording from Von Zamla's 1983 European tour, taken from two dates in Germany. Featuring Michel Berckmans [oboe & bassoon], Eino Haapala [guitar], Lars Hollmer [keyboards], Hans Loelv [keyboards], Wolfgang Salomon [bass], Marten Tiselius [drums], and performing tracks from No Make Up, Zamlaranama, and a Samla track. Challenging yet still filled to the brim with toe-tapping melodies and great playing.

2006 was a banner year for amazing Tropicalia reissues. Records by the likes of Som Imaginario, Alceu Valenca & Gerardo Azevedo, Marconi Notaro, Luis Eca, Rubinho e Mauro Assumpcao and Paulo Bagunca kept us feeling warm and fuzzy all year long. Discos Mariposa has become the label to turn to for amazing long lost Tropicalia as as they were the ones responsible for many of our favorite Brazilian reissues from the last year. It looks like 2007 may offer another exciting slew of Tropicalia rediscoveries for us as we began the year getting to know the music of Ronnie Von. A star of song and the small screen in Brazil for the last four decades, Von made his first television appearance in 1965 on the TV show the Brazilian Beatles Club. Von would perform live on various variety shows and cut records that sold quite well. His show The Small World Of Ronnie Von helped give a wider audience and launch careers for folks like Os Mutantes, Martinha and Gal Costa. But beyond just having such good taste, his own music is so so delightful. His vocals are so effortless and breezy. You can't help but wish you were soaking in the sun and daydreaming the afternoon away when you hear the songs on this collection. He's been backed by members of Os Mutantes and even collaborated with Caetano Veloso. Even after being struck by polio he's fought off illness and continues to be a staple of Brazilian television, the big screen and now more of us finally get to hear his great sounds!

MPEG stream: Mil Novecentos E Alem
MPEG stream: Espelhos Quebrados

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. This is by no means a new record, but it seemed appropriate to let Jim share with you, his new found understanding of the absolute brilliance of the evil dwarf IT, and his ode to the dark side of 'the Force'. -A. + A. Vondur's first (and much better) album is a more enigmatic black metal record than their second venture into conceptual absurdity, which was a crudely performed joke complete with wretched covers of Motley Crue, Judas Priest, and Elvis. Vondur is the duo of All and It - the chainmail donned / jaundice corpse painted midget who is also in Abruptum, War, and Opthalamia. Jagged drum machine blast beats, deeply buried in the mix Burzum-esque guitar fuzz, and All's sulfuric acid gargle for vocals make up the primitive almost anti-rock sound of Vondur. "Stridsyfirlysing" - with its "Star Wars" cover art - is a tribute to the dark side of the force, complete with lyrics mostly sung in Icelandic. All of the metaphors on the album seem to be pointing in entirely different directions, yet somehow "Stridsyfirlysing" works... well at least on the day when AQ's non-metaller Jim passed up Nurse With Wound's "Alice The Goon" for this.

Hard to tell what's more ridiculous here--the album graphics (featuring the corpse-painted faces of Vondur members It and All morphed onto the bodies of Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue) or the wretched cover tunes included (of songs by the Crue, Judas Priest, and Elvis) or Vondur's super-primitive & raw black metal originals (such as "The Raven's Eyes Are As Mirrors On The Bottom Of Satan's Black Halls" and "Panzer Legions of Vondur"). Now, it's difficult to believe that the same guys responsible for the absurd Vondur are also involved with the much more serious, epic, doomy black metal of Opthalamia, but they are. The Vondur and Opthalamia albums also represent It's last efforts in black metal, as he recently quit all his bands (these two plus War and Abruptum), sold all his black metal paraphernalia (midget-sized chainmail anyone?) and moved away from Sweden...

Wino-esque doom from Germany.

More Sabbath-inspired doom metal from the pycheDOOMelic label. Germany's Voodoo Shock (strange name, that) rose from ashes of former Rise Above act Naevus. Even if you've never heard Naevus, though, they'll sound familar, with Ozzy-ish vox singing songs full of wonderful doom/stoner cliches like "electric mind" and "rainbow sky". Slow to mid tempo, melodic but ultra heavy, this is in the style of Terra Firma, Sheavy, Trouble, Spirit Caravan, y'know the sort of thing. The riffs are weighty, but Voodoo Shock's perculiarity might be their penchant for spacey mellow parts. Also they cover "Nights In White Satin"!

MPEG stream: Rainbow Sky

Finally!!! It's taken us years (literally) but we finally managed to track down the second record (in a quantity enough to review and list) from one of our all time favorite outsider weirdo whatthefuck metal bands, VORAK! If you're a regular reader of the list, you know how much we love the damaged and demented, the fucked up and freaked out metal, so believe us when we tell you Vorak just might be the weirdest and most fucked up EVER. When we reviewed the first Vorak years and years ago, we summed it up suggesting that Lord Vorak, the man behind one man classical nihilist black metal commando unit Vorak "either must be joking or is totally out of his mind" and record number two only furthers that sentiment. The first record was a dizzying logic defying head spinning blur of spastic drum machines, sped up vocals, garbled metal guitar and snatches of piano, all tossed in a blender and spewed out in a confusional froth. Well if anything, record number two, Rhetoric Of The Supermen, demonstrates a little bit more song structure, but manages to sound not one whit more sane. In fact Vorak's sound is almost even weirder when applied to actual sort-of-actual-song arrangements. But let's start from the top. Vorak. Aka Lord Vorak, a man we're led to believe must be a classically trained pianist, whose record covers are covered in metallic gold busts, flaming eagles, and barbed wire, who's partial to song titles like "Dies Irae: Kruel And Glorious Purgation Of The Untermenschen", "Synthetic Nepenthe", "Australyan Uber-Volkslieder 1", there seems to be some sort of obsession with fascism, inside the booklet, it mentions that "All aspects of this supreme music of the future production emanate from the mind of Lord Vorak entirely for his own amusement and gratification"... and heck, we haven't even gotten to the music yet. An ultra fucked up and completely fractured assemblage of super distorted classical piano, screeching metallic buzz, damaged chipmunk vocals, stumbling chaotic drum programming, interspersed with some straight classical piano, some soaring strings, all tangled and convoluted, every track rife with new head scratching (and head banging) moments... The record opens with some wild tangled harpsichord sounding piano, dense flurries of notes, strangely recorded, but distinctly classical, until the super distorted metal riffing takes over at the beginning of track two, laid over a series of struggling stumbling drum machine rhythms, and super high pitched vocals, sounding a bit like that girl at the beginning of Kiss's "God Of Thunder" but more maniacal... The guitar is furious, the riffing relentless, with wild squiggly leads everywhere, huge swells of string like synths, and the vocals squawking and bleating all over the place, the drums a head spinning splatter... The next track slows things down a little bit, a thick sheet of blurred distorted guitar laid over some gorgeous minor key piano, the vocals sporadic and drenched in reverb, creepy more than weird, the whole thing super emotional and dark, but still completely unhinged. Then comes "Blood-Reich 2000", with its relentless metallic onslaught, that gives way to strange piano / helium vocals / sputtering drum machine interludes, always returning to that furious minor key riffing. Several tracks are just piano, and those are quite stunning, atonal and modern, but still melodic and emotional, also strangely recorded so the lower notes are super distorted and at times sounding like a harpsichord. And there's one long track of blown out ambience, fuzzy and blurry, and strangely cinematic, thick swaths of buzz over strings all arranged into sweeping movements. But those tracks are surrounded on all sides by mind melting flurries of manic metal and furious freaked out metallic damage. The disc includes two bonus tracks, both solo piano, both pieces by Richard Wagner, a strangely lovely and sedate finish to a record that most definitely ranks as one of the weirdest, and absolutely one of our all time favorites. Totally recommended. And absolutely essential for all lovers of damaged, demented, fucked up, freaked out, outsider metal weirdness.

MPEG stream: Dies Irae I: Kruel And Glorious
MPEG stream: Fylfot Lakrimosa Et Sanguinus
MPEG stream: Blood-Reich 2000
MPEG stream: Dies Irae II: Blood Katharsis

Is it a screeching petrodactyl attacking a piano? Wagner gone mad with a drum machine?? Actually this is a Nietzsche-obsessed multi-instrumentalist manaic from Austrialia. Vorak is his one-man "black metal" band, and he's either got to be joking or he is So totally demented, so totally retarded, Vorak's 1996 debut "Triumph Of The Will" might even edge out Benighted Leams' "Astral Tenebrion" as the most retarded black metal album ever -- which means it's so amazing you'll die. Among other things, Vorak plays fretless bass and vibraphone, but it all comes out as utterly nonsensical noise. Perhaps the only "metal" thing we've heard that's more fucked than Vorak are the mp3's by Exhumed Narcissist Paleontologist (http://www.reckankomplex.com/enp) but that's definitely a joke (being Keith "Hrvatski" Whitman's death metal band). Why did a label even release this?? We don't know, but we're glad they did. We've been dying to share this with y'all ever since we discovered it a while ago, but only just recently managed to get a few copies of this disc, cheap. (Unbelievably, there's a second Vorak album from 1998 that's equally insane, but perhaps not surprisingly it doesn't seem that anyone we deal with stocks it!).

RealAudio clip: Blitzkrieg -- Fighting Under The Rune of Triumph
RealAudio clip: Bloodlust, Discipline, Hatred
RealAudio clip: Hail The Nuclear Berserker!

More tripped out avant blackness from Santa Cruz, and yet another twisted project from the drummer of Fell Voices. His last solo outing was as Sleepwalker, who released a couple demos a few years back that we LOVED, and now he's on his own again with Vorde, and like Sleepwalker, in a way, it's a reimagining of Fell Voices' sweeping, epic black buzz, recast as something much more warped and melodic, psychedelic and strange. Just check out the first few minutes of the opener "Hatewave", which sounds like some sort of lysergic funhouse ambience, all roiling clouds of warble whir, and woozy shimmer, washed out and ethereal, honestly we would have dug it if the whole record was just this weird atmospheric drift, but fear not, in swoops the blast and the buzz, but instead of being a furious buzz, it's more loping and hypnotic, the guitars swirling and almost cinematic, the vocals a raspy bellow, drenched in echo and delay, the track exploding at one point into something much more dramatic, the vocals following suit, a heaving, galloping heaviness underpinning over the top, dramatic crooning, a sort of black buzz cabaret, but imbuing the whole thing with a gothy, depressive vibe, all the while, the black buzz in the background gets more and more frantic and chaotic. But Vorde is no one trick pony, check out "Transformations Of the Vessel", which begins with some super melodic, almost power metal sounding guitar swirl, before the track explodes into wild dense swirls of cosmic buzz, or the cave-ish creep of "Blood Moon", which drapes spidery clean guitar and moaned vocal incantations over a bed of furious drumming, and swaths of black ambience. That doomy creepy-crawly dirgery extends into the sprawling "Crown Of Black Flame", which again, oozes malevolently, at least in the beginning, before blossoming into another blown out cloud of cosmic black buzz, the vocals this time buried in the mix, but twisted into a strange melodic mewling, again, the vibe more akin to some buzz drenched gloom that straight up black metal, those ominous, over the top vocals defining the sound, with even the grimmest, buzziest blast, when paired with that croaked demonic torch song croon, transformed into something darkly dramatic, moody and mesmerizing, all the while remaining buzzy and blackened. Especially the super melodic closer, which almost sounds like Iceage or the Holograms playing black metal, right down to the stretches of bothy guitar shimmer, and almost Joy Divisiony sounding outro. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! On 180 gram vinyl (with random copies on purple wax, don't ask, it's RANDOM), housed in a super striking black and purple sleeve, matte finish with spot gloss printing.

MPEG stream: Blood Moon
MPEG stream: Hatewave

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

SORRY.

It used to be that Japan seemed to do everything better than the US. Cute things were way cuter, bizarre things were way more bizarre, music, art, comics, it's like that whole infinity plus one thing, anything the US could come up with, Japan could just make it ONE more. We're beginning to think the same thing about Finland, specifically in regards to music. It's like magic. Black metal. Ho hum. From Finland. WHAT THE FUCK! WOAH! And it's not some weird fetish thing, there is definitely something going on. We're in no position to figure out what it is, but whatever it is, we're grateful for it. This is record number three (but the first one we've ever listed) from Vordr, a mysterious Finnish trio that just happens to count one of the Circle Of Ouroborus guys as a member, which would normally be enough for us, but don't be expecting CoO style fractured folk flecked stumbling black weirdness, no this is way at the other end of the spectrum, super raw primitive harsh buzzing blackness, a la Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ancestors, and like those bands, this is almost as much a punk record or a noise rock record as a metal one. There are moments where you can hear a little Darkthrone or Hellhammer, but it's way more rough and furious than that, lo-fi and murky and muddy and noisy, the riffs usually midtempo, but sometimes lurching into a furious blast. The songs end by falling apart, and sort of stumble into motion, the guitars are brittle and buzzy, the drums so low in the mix they're often just another layer of hiss and buzz, there's even some cowbell here and there (!) but it's the vocals that make or break, and as far as we're concerned it's MAKE. Big time. Hysterical falsetto shrieking, punkish howling, on the verge of cracking, super intense and emotional and over the top, but low enough in the mix so it's not distracting, but it somehow perfectly balances the churning old school black metal noise rock buzz beneath it. Definitely fit perfectly on your shelf between your Nuit Noire, Circle Of Ouroborus, Akitsa and Bone Awl records� Needless to say SO UTTERLY RECOMMENDED.

MPEG stream: A Slashing Chill
MPEG stream: An Ending In Solitude
MPEG stream: Bliss Of Freezing Light
MPEG stream: Breathing Bellow

The return of these Finnish freaks, and another awesome disc of blown out, ultra raw, ultra grim black metal buzz. Vordr may feature a member of aQ faves Circle Of Ouroborus, but as we mentioned in our review of the last Vordr, you won't find any stumbling folk, or abstract black ambience, or bizarre fractured WTF here, the domain of Vordr is reserved for tweeter destroying high end brittle lo-fi blast and pound, a swirling melee of chaotic skree drenched buzz, D-beat death pounding drums and sharp slivers of buzzing insectoid riffage, unfurling in long blurred streaks beneath anguished tortured wails and teeth gnashing demonic shrieks. There is most definitely plenty of melody lurking below the surface, but those bits of melody are well protected, only the blackest of souls can withstand the constantly churning sea of fucked up sound that surrounds them, billious bursts of abject fury, in-the-red shards of buzz drenched rrroooaaar, festering gouts of sonic virulence, this is sick, ugly, gloriously noxious black grimnity, a series of musical ice picks to the inner ear, a tinnitus inducing swarm of beautiful blackness, which will most definitely warm the cold dead hearts of all who worship at the altars of Bone Awl, Ash Pool, Akitsa Vegas Martyrs and the like.

MPEG stream: Wild Of Glory
MPEG stream: Legends In The Bark
MPEG stream: Vitterlicht

[ aquarius records catalogue — V ]