You put two of the things we love most in the world, Soul Jazz compilations and Brazilian psych/pop from the 70's together, and you've got one very happy bunch of AQ staffers! Brazil 70 is the follow up to the great Tropicalia compilation Soul Jazz put out a couple years back which served as a great document and serious opened some eyes to the amazing musical movement and revolution in sound that went down in Brazil in the late 60's and early '70s. This compilation picks right up where that one left off, giving us a great glimpse into the post-tropicalia world of the '70s Brazilian music scene. There are some Tropicalia pioneers included here like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Tom Ze. But what's most thrilling about Brazil 70 is all the amazing tracks from folks who haven't been as well documented here in the states. We've been blown away by the songs from Raul Seixas, Nelson Angelo & Joyce, Erasmo Carlos, Secos E Molhados, all of whom were making amazing and colorful sounds during the first half of the '70s in Brazil. Using the blueprints of the eclectic and spirited nature of Tropicalia, these artists tapped into some magical musical force, discovering new and incredible ways to create amazingly colorful psych-pop perfection. We can't stop listening to this...highly recommended!
Brazil's nastiest: Ophiolatry, Nephasth, Mental Horror, and Abhorrence.
Geez! Just when you thought you've heard all the Brazilian Psych and Tropicalia of the sixties and seventies worth listening to, comes this monster compilation of complete unknown jams from the era that very nearly blows away anything you considered to be the best. Distributed by the same folks who brought us the killer Psych Funk 101 compilation (a unanimous store favorite), if you dug that compilation you should definitely check this one out. Culled specifically from the rarest of 7" singles (the era's cheapest and most produced format), many of 'em promo only, there are none of the usual suspects, no Caetano, Os Mutantes or any of Rogerio Duprat's star artists. Instead this is the sound of the deeper radical underground, of groups most of which couldn't ever get record deals. The music is way heavier, the vibe more unhinged and funky with big fuzz and often wild, ecstatic arrangements. Here is the checklist of groups on here: Celio Balona, Loyce E Os Gnomes, The Youngsters, Serguel, Fabio, Tony E Som Colorido, 14 Bis, Banda De 7 Leguas, Ton & Sergio, Ely, Com OS Falcoes Reais, Marisa Rossi, The Pops, Piry, and Max Rybell. The cd comes with a HUGE full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures and the enhanced cd itself features a documentary, called "What Are Fuzz Bananas?" (good question). Meanwhile, the vinyl version comes with a large full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures. We got the last copies of the first vinyl pressing that include 3-D glasses, though we're not sure why they were included as none of the record sleeve was printed in 3-D as far as we can tell, though they do make the wildly colorful psychedelic drawing in the gatefold sure look neat!
Way Recommended!
"The Breaks", which is subtitled "Original B-Boy Street Funk and Block Party Classics," is, believe us, one of the best. The breakbeat era was filled with funky, complex beat-heavy black music that emerged as a direct response to the mindless obviousness of suburban white disco. The tracks here all hail from the '70s and most have been sampled by a few choice contemporary artists with the know-how to recognize a good break when they hear one (Dr Dre, Mantronix, Roxanne Shante, Geto Boys, Cypress Hill... even Deee-lite). There's the Jackson 5, Yellow Sunshine, King Errisson, and tons of other obscure geniuses. Also contains Windy's favorite singer Nina Simone with her funkiest song EVER (and a highly sought-after one at that).
UK import.
Published as the catalogue for an exhibition at the respected Max Protectch gallery in NYC, this is an enhanced CD that features a well crafted slide show of Brian Alfred's slick illustrative paintings that offer irony clad observations of corporate culture in paint-by-numbers graphic displays, and a soundtrack (playable on all CD players) collected from a number of electro-glitch artists including Nabukazu Takemura, E*Vax, Pulseprogramming, E*Rock, Ultra Living, Opiate, Lulltone, Loscil, Static, Jeremy Boyle, and Pan American. To the best of our knowledge, all of the music is previously unreleased.
A very special Record Store Day 2012 compilation, released on the new(ish) label 12XU, run by noneother than Mr. Gerard Cosloy (formerly of Homestead and Matador Records, among other notable ventures), and in the spirit of the day, it's a benefit, with all profits going to Austin's Trailer Space Records, a DIY shop that hosts all ages shows in addition to selling records, and this comp, named for the edict given to folks coming to aforementioned Trailer Space instores, is equal parts 12XU label sampler and Trailer Space compilation, featuring bands who've played the shop and/or who have records out on 12XU, in some cases both, in others neither. Regardless, it's a pretty excellent collection, with a few names we know: Cruddy, Chris Brokaw, Air Traffic Controllers, and even more we don't, Naw Dude, Carolee, Nazi Gold, Marriage, James Arthur's Manhunt, Followed By Static, The Flesh Lights and more. The sound ranges from the 68 second blast of dirgey distorto garage punk from Cruddy, the dirgey indie post punk of Nazi Gold, the Dead C meets Crazy Horse psychedelic skree of Cosloy's band Air Traffic Controllers, the echo drenched bellowing vokilled crustpunk garage dirge of Naw Dude, the spaced out FX heavy psych rock of Marriage, the fuzzy druggy dirge pop of Followed By Static, the angular bass heavy new wave post punk swagger of the Flesh Lights and more more more. Definitely had us hankering to hear more from all of these outfits.
Limited Record Store Day release, so these will definitely have a limited shelf life. Housed in full color covers, with photos of Trailer Space, and the titular 'Bring Beer' sign. Also includes a download coupon.
First of all: if you haven't seen Bring It On, go see it now. It is amazing. Funny, clever, stupid. If you liked Clueless, and Heathers, and Can't Hardly Wait, then you will love it. And to be honest, I'm not so sure that anyone would love this soundtrack without having seen the movie. That said, this soundtrack is pretty cool. Some seriously kick ass Timbaland-style R&B from Blaque (the big hit, and the ladies from Blaque also star as the girls on the black cheerleading squad!) and 3LW. Plus some crappy high energy cheerleading style music, that you'll end up liking once you see the movie. As well as a few absolutely cringe-worthy songs that are beyond brutal (including a techno remake of Toni Basil's 'Hey Mickey' which unfortunately is featured heavily in the film). Andee bought one. Like you care.
You know the drill. A covers record. Not entirely respectful, but not entirely tongue in cheek either. I mean, c'mon, who didn't love Guns And Roses? At least for a while there. Well, here you have some heavyweights tackling their favortie G&R tunes. Most are thrashed out and metalcore-d beyond recognition. A few try to do them straight but have trouble pulling it off with their limited vocal range. Highlights are the totally obliterated "My Michelle" by the Dillinger Escape Plan, the pummelled into submission "It's So Easy" by Unearth and the only sort-of-straight-and-actually-pulled-off cover, "Paradise City" by Eighteen Visions, whose vocalist manages a pretty respectable Axl!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
You know how everyone thinks they can be a DJ now, right? Maybe one of the unlooked-for benefits of this trend is that there are that many more people sifting through dusty ole record bins in dusty ole record stores worldwide, searching for the good breaks to sample and scratch. And perhaps that explains the sudden number of recent, very tasteful, well-done compilations that have graced the shelves here at Aquarius, comps filled with original source material utilized during or created for the breakbeat era's heyday (mid to late '70s). And hey, now that these amazing tracks are collected in one place on cd or vinyl, we can listen to them in the safety of our own living rooms -- instead of having to brave yuppies and cigarette smoke and $6 drinks to hear perfectly good tunes mangled by DJs of mediocre skills.
"Broasted or Fried" is another lovingly executed collection from the UK label Harmless. Wonderful '60s and '70s Latin music largely produced by musicians from New York, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. While mot of these artists produced more purely latin music during their careers, this comp focuses on the influence black music -- jazz, funk, soul-- had on their sounds. With Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Joe Bataan, Kako and his Orchestra, etc. Very extensive, well written liner notes.
One of our favorite Sublime Frequencies releases EVER, long out of print on cd, is finally available again, and on vinyl!!!! Here's what we wrote about this amazing record way back in 2004 when we first reviewed it on New Arrivals List #192:
The first recording in the Sublime Frequencies catalog to not focus on the noise people make, Broken Hearted Dragonflies gives a voice to our insect brethren in Southeast Asia, as recorded by Tucker Martine in Laos, Burma and Thailand in 2000. The disc starts off like any other "traditional" insect recording: lots of cicada-like whining and chirping, but gradually turns to sound unlike all the rest. As one particular insect in the field begins to slowly sweep up in pitch like an oscillator on a synthesizer. A short time later, the clashing buzz of insect varieties begins to grate against their own harmonies and sounds much like either a clever DSP patch or the aliasing sound of a poorly sampled instrument. In other words, it all sounds hardly organic. In fact, in the field recording genre, we'd have to place this one in the same bizarre category as Douglas Quin's Antarctica recordings. The Raster-Noton sounds of nature. We're periodically reminded of our bucolic setting only by the steady hoots and coos of the native birds. You will undoubtedly share our initial skepticism regarding the purity of these field recordings, but it is emphatically stated by the recordist that "these recordings were not processed, the insects actually sound like this!" Absolutely amazing stuff! Features liner notes by none other than Hakim Bey.
After a handful of killer releases (Sunchariot, Svetovid, Surt, Lascowiec, Gnieu, Uruk-Hai) comes this long in the works compilation from local black metal tape label Brotherhood Of Light, which gathers up a handful of rare and unreleased tracks from some of those same groups, as well as a bunch of others in BoL's underground orbit.
Up first is local BM duo (trio?) Lascowiec, who unfurl a gorgeous bit of super lo-fi, pastoral psychedelia, that gradually expands into a buzzing black cloud of washed out buzz wrapped around soaring majestic melancholic melodies, stumbling murky drum lope, and some seriously fierce bellowed vokills. Surt deliver a dreamy bit of piano laced drift, haunting and spectral, more of a sonic fragment, but quite lovely, like some lost Caretaker B side all fuzzy and hazy and dreamlike. The oddly named Vinland Special Services layout some strange industrial soundscape, all sampled voices, weird buzz, creaks and clatter, a sprawl of abstract collaged noise, the sound constantly shifting, and eventually splintering into a woozy bout of primitive turntablism, all warbly melodies and warped voices, before slipping back into more strange blackened industrial ambience. Finally, the A side is closed out by Uruk-Hai, and whose sounds is a mournful, depressive black metal drift, that's almost dreamy, with the guitars soaring majestically, the busy bassline providing a woozy melody, the vocals appropriately harsh, but otherwise, it's very Alcest like, all shoegazey and shimmery.
The B side starts off with Sunchariot, whose recent tape was a big hit around here, and is a new unreleased track from a forthcoming full length a blurry, bleary washed out avalanche of crumbling buzz, buried drums, muted melodies, and anguished vokills, super bizarre production, definitely can't wait to hear the full length. Up next is Cosmic Breath 88 who deliver a sort of abstract blackened industrial blowout, all flanged guitars, processed vox, and blacknoise buzz. Then there's a super raw, lo-fi chunk of primitive black buzz from USBM outfit Lord Foul, brittle guitars, the sound woozy and warped, almost looped sounding, tranced out and hypnotic. Aryan Art unfurl some surprisingly melodic black buzz, everything washed out and almost dreamy, a little bit shoegazey and blissed out, the vocals super anguished and WAY up in the mix, jarring at first, but then it sorta makes sense. The music gets very folky and medieval, even at its most furious it's sort of warbly and darkly dreamy. And finally, Svetovid finish things off, with some fuzzed out drum machine driven black buzz, laced with inhuman croaked vox and some super fuzzy dreamy melodies, again a weird mix of harsh and pretty, but it makes for a pretty compelling listen.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, and housed in full color J-cards.
Pretty cool comp of lesser known beat mashers gathered on this here compilation to protest police violence. Lot of lo-fi, blurred and bombastic beats, from digital hardcore skull snap to more sort of lower impact hip hop flecked beatscapes. You'll probably recognize Nettle and maybe Zipperspy, and there's a DJ/Rupture remix, but other than that, this comp is chock full of possible new discoveries. Check it out.
MPEG Download: NETTLE "End Of Public Space" [/audio/nettleendofpublic.mp3]
Arbouse is a new label out of France offering the obligatory compilation as an introduction to what they're all about. "14 titres inédits, entre post rock, ambient et electronica," is all they have to say about it; but it does include tracks by Twisted Science (mutilated drum & bass), Sink (a really nice Autechre / Third Eye Foundation piece of electronica), Rothko (a very nice piano and
This is a compilation celebrating 5 years for the Brick label. Some of the best underground hip hop around, with most of these tracks never being available on cd before now. Features: MF Doom, Mr. Lif, Lucky Dice, Rebel Alliance, MF Grimm, Insight,
Originally released in 1983 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta, Volume II", as the companion volume to the release now known as "Savannah Rhythms". The music on this album, even more than most others in the African portion of the Nonesuch Explorer series, is dominated by percussion instruments: calabash, metal objects, hand clapping, and all manner of drums. Which isn't to say that there are no melodic instruments contained here. A jirkil (a one string lute) makes its appearance quite often, as do the occasional thumb pianos and, of course, voice.
Originally released in 1981 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta", the change to the more poetic "Burkina Faso" (meaning "Land of Upright Men") was bestowed upon the nation by its Marxist leader a year after this album was originally issued. Performed in ritual -- the editor stresses this music as being performed "'with' people, not 'for' them" -- from everyday activities such as harvesting in the fields to special events such as weddings, the music on this disc is as varied as the events it accompanies. The disc begins with a couple of great xylophone (or marimba) ensembles performing during a wedding celebration, but also featured on this disc are tracks including mouth harp and flute, fife and drums, chorus, one-stringed lute and calabash, gourd clarinet and rattles, and more xylophones. One little detail purchasers may note is that there apparently was a bit of a track listing screw up whereby four cuts don't match their corresponding descriptions, but determined buyers can easily figure out which tracks go with which descriptions (and who knows, this problem may be fixed in subsequent pressings.)
Super low priced video document of the current "San Francisco Scene", heavy on the Extreme Elvis (you've been warned). Let me explain. AQ pal Virgil Porter had a cable access show called Burn My Eye, and this here DVD collects the greatest most memorable bits, including: A sweaty swaggering house show from garage rock trio The Coachwhips with random testimonials from some CW fans. An awesome high energy performance from Deerhoof -- watching the drummer, seated on a milk crate and pounding on his ramshackle 2 piece kit is totally mesmerising and pretty impressive. An interview with SF's very own Extreme Elvis, who is kind of like GG Allin trapped in the body of (fat) Elvis, as well as a sort-of Extrem Elvis greatest hits reel -- the candy cane in the ass, the pissing on the flag, the head shaving break up, the cum drinking. Wow. Some raw live footage of The Locust, as well as a backstage interview with them by Extreme Elvis that gets a little out of control. Noiseniks the Lowdown destroy it live at a house party and in a backyard. The Numbers get an interview and some live action. And Total Shutdown are naked in a park, and bursting eardrums at legendary local watering hole Bottom Of The Hill. Secret extras include a Numbers video as well as some live mayhem from local faux-gay-leather-techno boys Zeigenbok Kopf.
Recording the musical practices of other cultures is often extolled as a way of preserving those practices, as they seem to always inevitably become wiped out due to some form of "modernization" within the culture. Most often it seems that it's the multinational media conglomerates, the loud mouth of the United States, that has a bigger and bigger effect on culture everywhere as more and more people have television and radio. But sometimes it's something more directly horrific that has this detrimental effect on a culture and that makes the music that has been archived almost un-nerving to listen to. Such is this recording from Burundi made in 1974. Even at the time of the recording ethnic fighting had already resulted in the death of 200,000 Burundians. The Hutu of the Northwestern part of Burundi, where these tracks were recorded, that had not fled their country, have most likely been killed in the ensuing nearly 30 years of bloodshed. So the seemingly happy music contained on this disc belies the more sinister reality of its existense. No fewer than five of the tracks are tributes to then Tutsi president Michel Micombero, which were to be performed during rural political gatherings. Having said that, I hope that doesn't depress anyone enough not to pick this up. There's a great variety of excellent tracks on this disc ranging from beautful songs accompanied in various forms by ikembe (thumb piano), flute, drums as well as other stringed instruments (like the inanga which sounds like a stringed bass) to heavy drum corps songs. In particular, the song "Take Me Back To Mabayi" in which and old man accompanies himself on inanga and incorporating vocal effects reminds me of the late great Camerounian songwriter, poet, playwrite Francis Bebey. I wonder if Mr. Bebey picked up any tricks from Burundian musicians during his travels?
FINALLY REISSUED, ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME! One of our early faves in the great Sublime Frequencies series, originally released in 2004 on (now out of print) compact disc. What we said back then...
Given the sheer volume of commercially available music that's come out of Mali (to say nothing of its West African neighbors, and the rest of the continent), one would think there would be a lot more field recordings of street musicians and the sundry other less commercially viable artists who don't attract the attention of the mainstream world music market. There certainly were labels such as John Storm Roberts' Original Music (R.I.P.) which had been hard at work on just that task many years ago, but recent years - what with "world beat" becoming a commercially viable genre targeted to the lowest common denominator - there's been less and less new, raw, unadulterated sounds to be had from the region. The first, in what is hopefully not the last, attempt from Sublime Frequencies to ameliorate this oversight comes from Tucker Martine. And what a nice collection of tracks it is. Recorded in the Fall of 1998 with, if we may say so, some incredibly nice field recording equipment, Bush Taxi Mali is like a really nice panoramic snapshot of music and sounds. The tracks range from miscellaneous street sounds, the dulcet tones of the kora (a bridged 21 stringed lute with a large calf-skin covered gourd resonator), fife and drum music, children singing and clapping, gorgeous acoustic guitar, and an absolutely frenetic wedding celebration with distorted bull horn amplification.
This collection documents a unique method of computer synthesis called UPIC that was developed by Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis in the late '70s. This system did not use the traditional method of having a keyboard hooked up to a computer.
The majority of the composers closely follow Xenakis' approach -- a novel method that was also quicker means for Xenakis to compose electronic music along the lines of his legendary works "Bohor," "pH," and "Persepolis", full of sweeping drones of tense crackling electronic tones. Occasionally, these composers augment their electronic manipulations with traditional instruments with varied success: Jean-Claude Risset's duet for UPIC and saxophone is simply gimmicky, but Julio Estrada's full orchestra with UPIC works is as effective as any Luigi Nono composition.
Compilation of live tracks by Chicago's finest purveyors of what they're still calling "No Wave" or something: The Scissor Girls, Quintron, The Flying Luttenbachers, etc. Originally a very limited edition lp, now made available on cd for those who missed out the first time.
As far as we're concerned, Providence artrock/noise rock label Corleone, never has to do anything ever again, just by merit of releasing Throne Of Blood's genius I Hope You Fail Miserably And Never Accomplish Anything Ever Again record. And before we get into this review, let's once again beseech those guys to reissue that Throne Of Blood. C'MON!!!!!
Okay then, well, it's been 10 years that these guys have been assaulting our ears, so it makes perfect sense that for their tenth anniversary they decide to destroy our eyes as well. And as should be common knowledge by now, Providence Rhode Island is not just a hotbed for music, it's also jam packed with visual artists and filmmakers, so this collection of videos for various Corleone bands is totally eye popping and amazing.
Did you dig the Paper Rad dvd on Load, then you'll probably dig this too. Super varied, from ultra pro shot films to hand made animations, to absolute WTF weirdness. Some highlights: the super eight video ritual for Bonedust, the perfect visual to go along with their hissy drone-y buzz, the gorgeous sepiatone washed out video for The Body, mostly them playing live, but lit weirdly and all washed out like some old filmstrip, the super gross live action / animation mix of Snake Apt's video, featuring lots of applesauce spitting, and blood and guts and gore, the goofy live action video for Lorna Doom's bad ass white boy rap, a live Black Pus show, which is basically just Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale rocking out on the kit, the super blown out experimental video for Night Wounds, awesome arty collage intercut with live action for Get Killed, rad weirdo home movies to accompany Uke Of Spaces Corners, an awesome video of Fang Island performing for a class full of little kids who dance wildly, so cute! And on and on and on. And it's also a good way to get acquainted with a bunch of the bands on Corleone, all of whom are pretty bad ass. A killer audio AND video mix tape that will blow out your ear drums and make your eyeballs melt!
Full color artwork, clear dvd case, MASSIVE thanks list, full color booklet with liner notes and video info. ----* ----* 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! 3/3 "s/t" (P-Vine) 2cd 42.00 AFRIRAMPO "Suuto Breakor" (P-Vine) cd 25.00 AHMED, MAHMOUD & EITHER / ORCHESTRA "Tsedenia Gebre-Marqos" (Buda Musique) dvd 14.98 AHOUSEN "s/t" (PSF) cd 22.00 ALCHEMIST "Tripsis" (Relapse) cd 14.98 ALTER EGO "Why Not?!" (Klang Elektronik) cd 16.98 AMBER ASYLUM "Still Point" (Profound Lore) cd 12.98 ANGELBLOOD "Mambo Mange" (Locust) lp 17.98 APACHE "Boys Life" (Douchemaster) 7" 5.50 ARMISEN, FRED PRESENTS: JENS HANNEMANN "Complicated Drumming Technique" (Drag City) dvd 15.98 AVENGED SEVENFOLD "s/t" (Warner) cd 17.98 AXA HOUR OF DARA BLEU "Clones Of Eros" (Fire Museum) cd 13.98 BACH, SEBASTIAN "Angel Down" (Get Off My Bach) cd 13.98 BACHDENKEL "Lemmings" (Ork) cd 17.98 BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS "Skullgrid" (Metal Blade) cd 12.98 BETTER BEATLES, THE "Mercy Beat" (Hook or Crook) cd 11.98 BORIS / MERZBOW "Rock Dream" (Daymare) 2cd 32.00 BOSMANN, KARL "Eskalation" (You Don't Have To Call It Music) lp 38.00 BROTZMANN, PETER / MANGELSDORFF / SOMMER "Pica Pica" (Atavistic) cd 14.98 BROTZMANN, PETER / PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE / MATS GUSTAFSSON "The Fat Is Gone" (Smalltown Superjazz) cd 16.98 BRYARS, GAVIN "The Marvellous Aphorisms Of Gavin Bryars: The Early Years" (Mode) cd 16.98 CARBONARA, ERIC "Exodus Bulldornadius" (Locust) cd 15.98 CENTURIONS GHOST "The Great Work" (I Hate) cd 16.98 COFFINS / THE ARM AND SWORD OF A BASTARD GOD "split" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 COHEED AND CAMBRIA "No World For Tomorrow" (Sony BMG) cd 11.98 COLLINS, BOOTSY "Ultra Wave" (Collector's Choice) cd 13.98 CONTROL "OST" (Warner / Rhino) cd 16.98 COPE, JULIAN "You Gotta Problem" (Head Heritage) 2cd 27.00 DAUNER, WOLFGANG (QUARTET) "The Oimels" (Long Hair) cd 24.00 DEAD RAVEN CHOIR "My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind" (Aurora Borealis) cd/lp 14.98/17.98 DEATH AMBIENT "Drunken Forest" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 DOO SOO, KIM "Ten Days Butterfly" (PSF) cd 22.00 DOWN "III: Over The Under" (Down Records) cd 17.98 EQUIMANTHORN "Exalted Are The 7 Throne Bearers of Ninnkigal" (From Beyond) cd 14.98 ERGO SUM "Mexico" (Lion Productions) cd 15.98 ESKIBOY "The Best Of Tunnel Vision" (Baked Goods) 2cd 22.00 FIFTY FOOT HOSE "Cauldron" (Phoenix Records) lp 24.00 FLOWER TRAVELLIN BAND "Satori" (Phoenix Records) lp 24.00 FUTURIANS "Play The Breathtaking Sounds Of Tivol" (Soft Abuse) lathe cut 7" 14.98 GATES OF SLUMBER / SPIRITUS MORTIS "From The Ultima Thule" (Emissary) cd 14.98 GLUTTONY "Collapse Of The Roman Republic (Liber Primus)" (Cyclops) cd 15.98 GRUDZIEN, PETER "The Unicorn" (Subliminal Sounds) 2lp 39.00 GRUPPO D'IMPROVVISAZIONE "Nuova Consonanza" (Cherry Red) cd 17.98 GUSTAFSSON, MATS / PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE "Splatter" (Smalltown Superjazz) cd 14.98 HABIBIYYA "If Man But Knew" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 HALF MAKESHIFT "L'Anse Amort" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 HAROLD & MAUDE (CAT STEVENS) "OST" (Vinyl Films) lp+7"+booklet 42.00 HIORTHOY, KIM "My Last Day" (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98 HUGUENOTS, THE "s/t" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 HUMAN BEAST "Volume One" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 IELASI, GIUSEPPE "August" (12K) cd 14.98 IRISH COFFEE "s/t" (Set) cd 25.00 JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER "Valley Of Fire" (Textile) cd 15.98 JUNO "OST" (Rhino) cd 14.98 KLIMEK "Dedications" (Anticipata) cd 15.98 LICHENS "Omns" (Kranky) cd + dvd 16.98 MANINKARI "Le Diable Avec Ses Chevaux" (Conspiracy) 2cd 22.00 MARGINAL CONSORT "s/t" (Improvised Music From Japan) 4cd 79.00 MARTIN, AARON "Almond" (Preservation) cd 15.98 MASHAYEKHI, ALIREZA & ATA EBTEKAR (SOTE) "Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday And Today (1966-2006)" (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98 MAYER, NATHANIEL "I Want Love And Affection Not The House Of Correction" (Vampi Soul) cd/lp 17.98/29.00 METZGER, PAUL "Deliverance" (Locust) cd 14.98 MITSURU, TABATA "Lumrapideco" (Utech) cd 16.98 MONSTER MAGNET "4-Way Diablo" (SPV) cd 16.98 NAGOSKI, IAN "Kerflooey" (Ehse Records) lp 16.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Dark Garden" (Intransitive) cd 14.98 NILSEN BJ & Z'EV "22'22" (Ideal) cd 14.98 NOSTRADAMOS "s/t" (World Psychedelia) cd 17.98 OAXACAN "s/t" (self-released) cd-r ep 8.98 OCEAN, THE "Precambrian" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 ONNA "Katawa" (PSF) cd 22.00 OPETH "The Roundhouse Tapes" (Peaceville) 2cd 16.98 PEEESSEYE, THE "Mayhem In The Mansion, Shivers In The Sack" (Evolving Ear) cd 11.98 PINCH "Underwater Dancehall" (Tectonic) 2cd 22.00 PINHAS, RICHARD "East / West" (Cuneiform) cd 15.98 POCAHAUNTED / ROBEDOOR "Hunted Gathered" (Digitalis) 2cd 22.00 PRIMORDIAL "To The Nameless Dead" (Metal Blade) cd 13.98 R/S ONE "Snow Mud Rain" (Erstwhile) cd 14.98 RE/SEARCH "#4/5 : W.S. Burroughs, B. Gison, Throbbing Gristle" (Re/Search Publications) book 39.00 REICHEL, ACHIM "AR3" (Germanophon) cd 17.98 RELIGIOUS KNIVES "It's After Dark" (Troubleman) cd 13.98 RIGGS, DAX "We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 ROBEDOOR "Rancor Keeper" (Release the Bats) cd 15.98 ROOT "Daemon Viam Invenient" (Shindy) cd 15.98 ROSENHOLM, ELEANOORA "Vainajan Muotokuva" (Fonal) cd 17.98 ROSETTA "Cleansing Undertones Of Wake/Lift" (Translation Loss) cd 9.98 ROSETTA "Wake / Lift" (Translation Loss) cd 13.98 ROTH, DAVID LEE "Sonrisa Salvaje" (Friday Music) cd 15.98 ROTHER, MICHAEL "Flammende Herzen" (Water) cd 16.98 RUDD, ROSWELL "Blown Bone" (Emanem) cd 19.98 RUINZHATOVA "Original Soundtrack For Dream, Sea, Vacancy, Metropolis" (Kaeru Cafe) cd 14.98 RWAKE "Voices Of Omens" (Relapse) cd 12.98 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS "Face" (Radium) lp 13.88 SCIENTISTS "Sedition" (ATP) cd 15.98 SCORCHER "Thunder Power" (T.H.E. M.O.V.E.M.E.N.T.) cd 15.98 SEAWORTHY "Map In Hand" (12K) cd 14.98 SIEBENSUNDEN "Teratologen" (I Hate Records) cd 15.98 SIGRBLOT "Blodsband (Blood Religion Manifest)" (Nordiska Forlaget) cd/2lp 15.98/22.00 SIGUROSSON, VALGEIR "Ekvilibrium" (Bedroom Community) cd 15.98 SILMARIL "The Voyage Of Icarus" (Locust) cd 14.98 SIMONETTI, ENRICO & GOBLIN "Gamma" (Cherry Red) cd 17.98 SINCLAIR, JOHN "Guitar Army: Rock & Revolution With MC5 And The White Panther Party" (Process) book+cd 22.95 SKEPTA "Greatest Hits" (Boy Better Know) cd 21.00 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Open The Gates Of Mimer" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "The Sound Of Defekt Skulls" (Utech) cd 14.98 SOL "Let There Be A Massacre" (Van) cd 13.98 SOLITUDE AETERNUS "Alone" (Soul Food) cd 17.98 SOLITUDE AETURNUS "Hour Of Despair" (Metal Mind Productions) dvd 24.00 SORIAH "Ofrendas De Luz A Los Muertos" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 17.98 SPEKTR "Mescalyne" (Moribund) cd 12.98 STRIBORG "Trepidation" (Displeased) cd 14.98 SUISHOU NO FUNE "The Shining Star - Live" (Important) cd 14.98 SUN RA "Disco 3000" (Artyard) 2cd 33.00 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION UNIT "April Is The Cruellest Month" (Jinya) cd 24.00 TERJE, JESPER & JOACHIM "s/t" (Shadoks Music) cd 15.98 THROBS, THE "s/t (Special Collector's Edition)" (Rock Candy) cd 17.98 TIME FLYS, THE "In Crowd" (Douchemaster) 7" 5.50 TORSKE, BJORN "Feil Knapp" (Smalltown Supersound) cd/lp 16.98/21.00 TULUS "Biography Obscene" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 TURBONEGRO "Retox" (Cooking Vinyl) cd 14.98 ULVER "Shadows Of The Sun" (Jester) cd 12.98 UPSILON ACRUX "Galapagos Momentum" (Cuneiform) cd 16.98 V/A "10 Tons Heavy" (Planet Mu) 2cd 13.98 V/A "200" (Planet Mu) 2cd/2lp 9.98/17.98 V/A "A Number Of Small Things" (Morr Music) 2cd 21.00 V/A "Achtung! German Grooves" (Bureau) cd V/A "Asian Flashback: Underground Music From Asia" (PSF) cd 22.00 V/A "Beyond Amsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire" (Nonesuch) cd 13.98 V/A "Cut It Up Def: Miami Bass Jams" (Cut It Up Def) cd 14.98 V/A "Dr. Boogie Presents: Rarities From The Bob Hite Vaults" (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98 V/A "From Dubplate To Download" (Greensleeves) 2cd 19.98 V/A "Greasy Truckers Party" (EMI) 3cd 38.00 V/A "Lifting The Veil: The Earliest Blues Guitarists" (World Arbiter) cd 17.98 V/A "Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs And Folk Tunes From Tuva" (Dust To Digital) cd 15.98 V/A "Messthetics #105: D.I.Y. 77-81 Scotland I" (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98 V/A "Papagayo! The Spanish Sunshine Pop & Popsike Collection" (Toytown) cd 21.00 V/A "Pillows & Prayers" (Cherry Red) 3cd+dvd 42.00 V/A "Runeology 3" (Rune Grammofon) cd 9.98 V/A "Smashits" (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98 V/A "Sock It To 'Em J.B." (Body & Soul) cd 15.98 V/A "Space And Time" (Hotflush) cd 21.00 V/A "The Essence Of Swedish Progressive Music, 1967-1979" (Premium Publishing) 4cd 60.00 V/A "The Rubble Collection Vol. 1-10" (Fallout) 10 cd box 96.00 V/A "The Wire: "...And All The Pieces Matter."" (Nonesuch) cd 24.00 V/A "Trojan Country Reggae Box Set" (Trojan) 3cd 19.98 V/A "Waking Up Scheherazade" (Grey Past) lp 28.00 V/A "War II (The Turd Hunt Continues)" (Hip Hop Slam) cd 11.98 V/A "Welsh Rare Beat 2" (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00 V/A (ESHETE, ALEMAYEHU) "Ethiopiques Vol. 22 : More Vintage!" (Buda Musique) cd 15.98 VILE CHERUBS "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats" (Afterburn) cd 13.98 VILLAINS "Drenched In The Posions" (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98 WALTER, WEASEL QUARTET "Revolt Music" (ugExplode) cd 11.98 WANDERING MIDGET, THE "I Am The Gate" (Eyes Like Snow) cd 15.98 WARMER MILKS "Let Your Friends In" (Release the Bats) cd 13.98 WILLIS, NICOLE AND THE SOUL INVESTIGATORS "Keep Reachin' Up: Remixed" (Above The Clouds) cd 17.98 WYATT, ROBERT "Comicopera" (Domino) cd 15.98 YEASAYER "All Hour Cymbals" (Are We Free) cd 14.98 YEH, C. SPENCER "Violin, Objects" (Tone Filth) lp 17.98 YOKOTA, SUSUMU "Skintone Collection" (Skintone) cd 14.98 YOUNG, NEIL "Chrome Dreams II" (Reprise) cd 17.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD "Summer Wanderer" (Gipsy Sphinx) lp 17.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Amazing compilation of fucked up / out there / experimental rock from Zerga, the Finnish label run by our pal Pentti who fronts the band Deep Turtle. Obviously, Finland is gonna be well represented with a few bands we already love: Radiopuhelimet, Keuhkot, and a whole bunch we've never heard before: Torpedos, Fun, The Revolutionary Southern AMphetamines, Chelyabinsk-40, Astro Can Caravan, Hinageshi Bondage, Cause For Effect, Manifesto Jukebox, Mothers Against Sex Association, Suonihiuksisto, Kometa, and Vuk. Finnophiles will definitely want to pick this up. But in addition to all the Finnish weirdness, representing other parts of the globe we have Zu from Italy, Boxed In T.W.A.T. from the UK, Bz Bz Ueu also from Italy, Ground / Lift from Austria, Hather And Bollen from Australia / Holland, and Sabot from the Czech Republic. And as you might imagine, the sound is all over the map. Punk, prog, noise, hardcore, psych rock and beyond. We only have 10 copies and we're not sure when/if we can get more. So act fast.
While featuring established Brazillian artists like Amon Tobin, Arto Lindsay, and Soul Slinger, this compilation should be seen as an introduction to the Brazillian musicians producing potent amalgamations dubbed "batucada eletronica." Joao Parahyba, DJ Dolores, Apollo 9, and Chelpa Ferro are a few of the Brazillian exports fusing the timeless beauty of Bossa Nova and the daring psychedelia of Tropicalia with the contemporary groove of breakbeat culture. As electronica compilations have always been a dime a dozen, Caipirinha (which has been guilty of a few useless compilations) should be credited as releasing this exceptional document.
When Erik Hoffman of Ground Fault hand-delivered this monumental 10LP box crammed full of the most guttural noise, splattered improv damage, cosmic drone headcrack, and low-brow Dada absurdism that California has to offer, he threatened that he could have made this thing even bigger. Fuck. Bigger than 10LPs with 20 different bands abusing your turntable? Yeah, fuck is right! In alphabetical order, the California box features Amps For Christ, The Cherry Point, Joe Colley, Control, Gerritt, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Moth Drakula, Open City, Oscillating Innards, Damion Romero, Rubber O Cement, Sixes, The Skaters, Solid Eye, Spastic Colon, Tralphaz, John Wiese, Xome, R.H.Y. Yau, and Yellow Swans. Sure you may say, Yellow Swans currently hold residency in Portland, so why the hell are they on this compilation? Details, details, details... FYI, they were Californians until a few months back... You already know if you need this.
Yup, an Iron Maiden tribute compilation. Tortoise, Ui, Alec Empire, Jim O'Rourke--no wait, that's not right. Sorry. It's metal bands doing covers of classic Maiden material. Absu, Angelcorpse, Opeth, Vital Remains, Morgion, Solitude Aeturnus, and others.
Queer nation underground comes together here for a great mix tape (CD, actually) of some better knowns and some lesser knowns. Features tracks by Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, Kiki & Herb (featuring Justin Bond, here doing a hilarious rendition of Sleater-Kinney's "I'm Not Waiting"), the Butchies (NC, feat. Mr. Lady's Kaia), Amy Ray (of Indigo Girls fame), Oakland's
One of things we were most thankful for musically this year was the reemergence of Strut, the label we fell in love with for their great and deep digging tastes in booty moving obscure dance music from across the globe. Their Disco Not Disco comps are legendary for finding such outsider post-punk and left-field disco jams and they have released such amazing collections of Afrobeat, library music, old school hip-hop, etc. But the label seemed to disappear for the last few years so we were crazy stoked to see them back and on fire once again, with another volume of Disco Not Disco, as well as the awesome Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story collection, Nigeria 70, Disco Italia, and more! Which brings us to their latest immaculately packaged, well researched and most importantly totally jamming collection of Caribbean soul and funk from 1969-1979. The twenty tracks on here range from very Western influenced classic soul & funk to steel pan fueled jams, reggae tinged burners and loud & proud political anthems. A whole bunch of artists we'd never heard before that we are loving as well as a few AQ favorites sprinkled throughout (Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra, Cedric Im Brooks). We're so happy that this great label is strutting their stuff once again!
What? Another collection of Cambodian pop? But you just listed two volumes of Cambodian Rocks? (And, get ready for two more in that series!) It's true, Cambodian music seems to be the flavor of the moment on the obscure world music scene. But bear with us, as this one deserves all the attention afforded the Cambodian Rocks series... and then some. The history of Cambodia's flourishing and rich music scene was -- like the greater culture and society of the country in general -- cruelly severed in the early seventies by the Khmer Rouge during their "cleansing" program. All our favorite performers, anonymous until Khmer Rocks' own collections were recently released, were undoubtedly victims of the Khmer Rouge during this period. In the following years Cambodians who fled the country set up communities around the globe and among the other parts of their culture they treasured, the music of these lost performers was not forgotten. Throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties the scattered communities set up recording studios and continued to produce music just as amazing as those lost golden years. Enter Mark Gergis (of Neung Phak / Mono Pause and the man who brought us I Remember Syria). From 1999 to 2004 Mark diligently scoured the Asian branch of the Oakland Public Library, checking out each and every Cassette of Cambodian music produced in the period from the early seventies to the present. Many of the cassettes were unfortunately unlistenable; not merely because they'd been played thousands of times, or left on hot car dashboards, but because they were being slowly bulk erased by the library employees themselves as they would unwittingly pass them over the magnetic security system used to prevent book theft. Even with the best intentions of the public library as a repository for culture, Cambodian music was slowly being erased one cassette at a time. Of course there was no public outcry, at this point people had moved on to the newest thing (no doubt something recorded by one person with an electronic keyboard and other MIDI gear). It seems to happen everywhere: recent history is wiped clean for whatever happens to be hot at the moment. So it was that Mark culled together a collection of songs that are as amazing as they are rare. One thing particularly striking about many of the tracks is that, unlike what you'll hear on the Cambodian Rocks collections (all of which were actually recorded in Cambodia), they include both traditional Cambodian instruments alongside western instruments. There are tracks with Khan (the inimitable mouth organ of Southeast Asia) playing alongside electric guitar (which is often times being played in the style of a traditional Cambodian stringed instrument), saxophone, drums, electric bass and organ. Some of the combinations and bizarre genre bends are truly off the wall -- such as the track, unfortunately to remain untitled for now, a proto-metal Cambodian pop ditty featuring echoey and brash female vocals and a Queen-era guitar solo. While there are a few of the more modern pop tunes -- of the primarily keyboards and drum machine variety -- here, none are of the overly westernized Asian pop that is so ubiquitous these days. There are also 6 tracks of older tunes that were recorded in Phnom Penh between the mid-1960's and the early 70's (one of which was overdubbed by an American operated studio with a drum machine beat!) This is a truly amazing collection, certainly the best disc to be released by Sublime Frequencies to date, and Byram's top pick for 2004 thus far. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Previously issued a while back only on vinyl, "Cambodian Rocks" - now on CD - presents a handful of unknown (to the point that no artist names or track titles are given) Cambodian garage bands from the late 60s and early 70s. The liner notes explain that the compiler (s/he is also anonymous) picked up a bunch of random tapes while in Cambodia and put this together of the best tracks from those tapes. For those who are entranced by the psychedelic exotica found in the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series, "Cambodian Rocks" makes an exceptional companion. For the most part this compilation is dominated by really good fuzzed out organ / guitar garage rich with understandably crappy production. But along with the garage cuts, there's a track of incredibly unfunky James Brown mimicry that make the Make Up's theatrical irony seem even more insincere than they really are. Appropriated dancehall groove/stomps with Cambodian instead of Jamaican overtones. But the highlight is the appearance of the female led garage band who were featured on the Asian Psychedelic chapter of the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series. Greasy garage rock not far from the Count Five or the Seeds but with reverb drenched female vocals that hits high notes rarely found even on Bollywood sountracks. Totally essential.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
It would appear that the Khmer Rocks label is slowly rendering the original Cambodian Rocks compilation on Parallel World obsolete. With each volume of their version of the beloved series there are a smattering of those tracks included -- now better served with full disclosure of the artists' names, song titles and even lyrics! With volume 3 there are three more, leaving you with 16 completely new tracks. We figure that by volume 7 or 8 of the Khmer Rocks series we'll all be able to trade in the original. As a bonus, Khmer Rocks has included two tracks at the end of volume 3 of "Romvong Songs", or Cambodian circle dance songs. It's the label's way of turning on all the garage psychsters to some traditional Cambodian music. The first track is actually a lot like the tracks on the Cambodian rocks discs, but with a bit more swing. The second, by Cambodian superstar Sinn Sisamouth, replaces guitar and bass with flute and clarinet along with traditional Cambodian instruments, but it still has the same intensity of those rock tracks. What can we say? Highly recommended!
All right! The fourth volume in the totally rad Cambodian Rocks series is here at last (perhaps the compilers at the Khmer Rocks label were sensing competition from the now three-volume Thai Beat A Go Go series?). Volume four puts Cambodian Rocks into the lead with some truly over the top late '60s/early '70s rock n' roll, exotic psych-beat that's just so wild, weird, n' wonderful. WOW is all you can say. The 19 tracks include such brilliantly-titled songs as "Oops...He's Mute", "No Shorts Lesson Learned", "Leftover Smile" and "I'm All Skinny" performed by an all-star cast of Cambodian Rockers: Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron, Yol Aularong, and Meas Samoun. Until the tragic, catastrophic Khmer Rouge takeover of the mid '70s brought the genocidal despot Pol Pot and his gang into power, Cambodia (or its urban center Phnom Penh anyway) apparently was a hip, swinging place where teenagers could groove to plenty of homegrown rock n' roll music, inspired by Western R&B, surf, and psych but with a distinctive Cambodian flavor. You can sure hear that in so many of the tracks here, in the sweet female voices backed by distorted guitar and wigged-out organ. There's some serious psych-fuzz being laid down, sometimes murky and lo-fi duo to its temporally/geographically distant origins but full of spirit and energy. So very recommended, as every entry in this series has been! By the way, the compliers have thoughtfully included English translations of the lyrics in the cd booklet.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Whether or not you think Skin Graft's "Now Wave" concept is a dumb marketing ploy (I do), the fact remains that among the thirty three tracks here there's some real corkers, from the likes of UFO or Die, Omoide Hatoba, Ruins, Akaten, Space Streakings, Zeni Geva...whoops, besides our Japanese friends, there's some Americans on here too, let's see, US Maple and Brise Glace and Quintron all have something going on. A fine sampler, sure much of it is previously released (or will soon be) but you don't have it all, do you? Get this and see what you're missing.
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
By the looks of the first two compilations that Chapter Music has released documenting the Australian post-punk scene, we (and probably a lot of other folks) could use a series history lessons into the finer points of Antipodean punk. Having unearthed two incendiary Primitive Calculators collections from that same time period, Chapter again strikes gold with a stunning collection of terminally obscure bands who were much more talented and intriguing than their lack of recognition might reflect. The only two bands that have even come across our radar are Severed Heads (but here with an incredibly primitive electronic sound and a female singer) and Microfilm (the amazing, Wire-esque dour post punk band fronted by Lisa Gerrand who later went on to form Dead Can Dance); but for everybody else, it's anybody's guess as to whatever became of them. Nonetheless, this comp confirms that the Australian take on post-punk agitation, no-wave convolutions and contortions, and new wave bleakness was as vibrant as what more well know scenes (i.e. New York, Berlin, London) had managed. As on the first comp (which featured a band called the Slugfuckers), volume 2 also sports a band with an incredible name: The Goat That Went "Om." Highly recommended
