This is a compilation of Australian post punk and new wave from 1978-82. While not nearly as rocking as the Do The Pop! compilation from a few lists back, this is still a pretty awesome collection. The stuff on this comp leans more towards the no wave, art rock side of the spectrum. Quirky, angular but still punk. There are a few dance-y numbers with badass female vocals that are at times reminiscent of the Slits or Kleenex/Lilliput and some more gritty lofi stuf that reminds us of the Adverts or the Undertones. All in all, a solid document of a time and place that seems like it was most likely totally amazing and inspiring. The perfect companion to the Do The Pop compilation. And if you like the current crop of no wave wonders like SF's Numbers or Erase Errata, you should definitely check this out. Oh yeah, and did we mention there's a band called the Slugfuckers... oh my god.
We know, we know... at this point you're probably as skeptical as we are of yet another compilation of ultra-rare, super heavy funk 45s from the dustiest corners of small-town USA, but believe us when we say that the crate diggers behind UK reissue label Jazzman have outdone themselves with this look at the undiscovered funk gems of North and South Carolina. You might recall how excited we here at aQ were about the Florida Funk compilation from last year and this installment is every bit as satisfying.
You'll hear a wide range of styles represented on this collection, from straight up deep funk to tracks that touch on psych, jazz and smooth soul -- 22 tracks in all of fuzzed out guitars, horn hits, break beats, flute solos, shouts, wails, and powerfully soulful vocals. However, where Jazzman really stands out from other reissue labels is in the meticulously assembled liner notes that accompany the record. You'll learn not only about the songs and artists themselves, but also information about the different parts of the Carolinas from which they came. It's a lovingly assembled package of songs, stories, background info, label scans and rare photographs on par with any of the reissue comps to come from Soul Jazz or Numero (and that's saying something!).
We've been spinning this one a lot in the store as of late, and it's been the perfect way to heat up these grey February days. So good!
"The songs of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys" as interpreted by loads of folks, including Alex Chilton, Kim Fowley, Saint Etienne, The High Llamas, Eric Matthews, the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, Jad Fair, The Aluminum Group, The Free Design, and many others more pointless to name here. The booklet's got an exclusive interview with Brian Wilson, as well. With 24 tracks by such a varied group of people, one can't expect total quality, but it's got moments.
Once again Soundway continues to unearth amazing tracks from yet another overlooked international scene. This collection digs into the cumbia and descarga sounds out of Columbia in the '60s to early '70s that were being released on the Discos Fuentes label. Jose Maria 'Curro' Fuentes ran the label which would become Columbia's largest. In many ways he was like the Berry Gordy of Columbia, using his immaculate taste to curate an amazing roster of musicians. Sadly most of these artists never had their music heard or even released in other parts of the globe, so this release marks the first time most of these nineteen tracks have been released anywhere outside of Columbia. The raw recordings really serve the music so well as these aren't the kind of tracks you would want overproduced or with a shiny slick veneer. Instead the infectious rhythms within the songs emerge organically with such rich and warm grooves. With sunshine time hitting us in a big way the past week, this is becoming the perfect soundtrack to outdoor get togethers and rooftop afternoons. No denying how damn hot this is!
We can sum up this new Matador release in about three words: pretty cool comp! And as you should guess from the subtitle (or maybe from the anagrammatic title itself), it's geographically centered on Austin, Texas, where it comes as no surprise they have a kick ass local music scene, and we're not talking country or blues or whatever, either. Expertly compiled by none other than former Matador head honcho Gerard Cosloy (who now lives in Austin), with liner notes by him too, these are simply some of his faves currently playing the divier bars and back yards of that town, the kids keeping their local indie rock / punk / pop scene(s) fresh and happenin'. There might be some next big things on here, certainly lots of folks proudly flying the flag for sounds heard first in the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, but forever young...
19 tracks, 19 bands, most of whom, what with us not being Austinites (Austiners? Austinians?), we hadn't heard of before (which is sort of the point of a comp like this, of course). Probably Woven Bones is the only one we knew of already, but now we've got a whole bunch of other bands to look out for. Here's the whole lineup for your perusal: Follow That Bird!, The Young, Woven Bones, Flesh Lights, Dikes Of Holland, Tre Orsi, The Distant Seconds, Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers, Elvis, Love Collector, Bad Sports, Wild America, Harlem, The Stuffies, The Golden Boys, The No No No Hopes, The Teeners, The Persimmons, and the Lost Controls. Not perhaps the best collection of band names ever (Follow That Bird!, really?), but it's the music that matters and Cosloy has certainly selected some quality tracks regardless of the dodginess of some of the names...
You'll have noticed that two Austin area bands who we recently hosted a dual instore appearance by, Silver Pines and Pure Ecstasy, don't happen to be on here, but it sure seems like they should be, definitely their shoegazey pop psych sensibilities are shared by several of the artists who did get included, though there's quite a variety of sounds here, some tracks grungier and grittier, others more poppy and polished, all of 'em pretty darn catchy in their own way. You'll find doses of distorted jangle with a hint of Spacemen 3 influence (several bands, including Woven Bones), plenty of punky garage rock and garagey punk rock (such as Flesh Lights' instantly classic sounding "Crush On You" and the even more punkish likes of The Teeners and their barely one minute long ragged blast "Nazis On Film"), some new wavey rhythmically synthed-out moments (from the Lost Controls, ferinstance)... all sorts of stuff really... and kudos to Cosloy (and the bands), no real duds! Quite the opposite, lots of picks that click. Check it out.
Ok, so originally we were going to review the bizarre "Necro-Demonic dungeon crawl" fantasy boardgame that this cassette is the audio companion to, along with listing the tape, but we already sold out of the few copies of the game we had (yep, we know some nerds!). Maybe we'll get more, we'd like to, definitely let us know if YOU are interested. We haven't had a chance to actually play the game yet ourselves, but boy does it look cool, with creepy black & white & gray art by Fort Thunder comic book artist Mat Brinkman. In the game, each player takes on the role of an evil Necromancer, digging tunnels in an subterranean crypt and creating grotesque monsters out of ooze to fight against his rivals and their hordes, vying to become the sole master of the Darkest Pit. Pretty darn black metal, eh?
In addition to looking cool, apparently it's actually an excellent game, receiving a pretty high user score on the BoardGameGeek website (7.9 out of 10) and we're read lots of good reviews. Can't wait to play it when we find time and learn the rules. If/when we get more copies in, they sell for $84. Like we said, let us know if you'd like us to get you one! Check out the YouTube trailer for the game at www.caveevil.com - which doesn't actually show the game or anyone playing it, instead it's a short movie purporting to show what the horrific, troglodytic existence of these Necromancers is all about. Love the low-budget special effects.
Soooo, anyway, the folks who made the game also have a tape label, and this is the official Cave Evil tie-in release, with some of the same sounds heard on the soundtrack to the trailer. This 90 minute mix features tracks by 15 different underground artists: Night of Ultraviolence, Wizard333, Swordsect, Abandoned Places, Manifester, Cex, MarderIII, Muroc, Hatred, Crypt Enforcer, Whispers of Dead Gods, Tres Quatro, Mammal, OoznDmrr, and Khand, plus sound FX by filmmaker Damon Packard, who did the trailer. It's an ultimate sinister cinematic synth experience, variously featuring blackened drones, eerie dark ambience, primal percussion, majestic synth-horns, and other dungeon-worthy, DIY sonics. Cool, creepy stuff that is certainly whetting our appetites for a session of Cave Evil. Limited to 300 copies on pro-dubbed chrome plus cassette.
If this does well, we'll stock some more Rotten Shape cassettes, all of which the label has assigned a "GVR", or Game Voice Rating, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being hardest) noting how difficult it is to speak over the music in a gaming setting. The Cave Evil Radio Mix has a GVR of 2.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Long awaited volume 3 of the best bloopers comps we've ever come across. This is again a double disc set (actually, cd-rs this time, for some reason). While there aren't as many high points as on the first and second volumes, this is still gonna make you
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While hearing celebrities make complete asses of themselves is always entertaining, the M.D.W.C.G.C.G. label is beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel of this genre on this cd, and we really can't say any of this is outstanding with the exception of Courtney Love, who has such a way with making an ass of herself. M.D.W.C.G.C.G. should really consider releasing a box set of the best of Courtney Love, if only to piss her off more. A notable runner up on this one is Roger Waters, who repeatedly stops in mid-song to complain about the audience whistling and or setting off fireworks during his set. Also on this disk: Joan Crawford, Mark Lindsay, Sharon Tate, Joe E. Ross, Angelyne, Florence Henderson, Melvin Belli, Porky Pig (Mel Blanc briefly spouts naughty words as the loveable cartoon pig), Peter Frampton, Mae West, Talullah Bankhead, Dr Nina Simone, Joanne Worley, Billy Crystal, and more.
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Completely hilarious bloopers will keep you in stitches. Andee keeps telling the story of how he had to listen to Joe from Souled American imitating the drunken John Wayne! Everyone from William Shatner to Elvis, Colonel Sanders, Tom Brokaw, Liz Taylor, Billie Holiday, The Beach Boys, Barry White, Casey Kasem (of course), Jack Palance, and more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Guaranteed to be answering machine fodder for eternity, this is "2 1/2 more hours of bad acting, bad comedy, bad rock'n'roll, bad everything." Bloopers and profanity recorded but never ever meant for release, from 62 personalities including Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams, Stevie Nicks, Linda McCartney, Hank Williams Jr., Jim Morrison, Elton John, Tiny Tim, William Shatner, Brian Wilson, James Brown, Buddy Hackett, George Burns, Dean Martin, and the entirety of the out-of-print live Venom 7" put out by Ecstatic Peace, the one that was edited so that it consisted mainly of ridiculous between-song banter (if you can call comments like "Hell yeah!" banter).
Fans of that magnificent "Orgues A Bouche" mouth-organ music from Bangladesh cd might be interested in checking this disc out, as it features some pretty darn cool horn music polyphony from the Banda Linda people of the Central African Republic, who sort of do with their horns what the Bangladeshi musicians do with their reeds: repetitive, minimal drone-trance music, although this is perhaps a bit livelier and "danceable". The Banda Linda make their horns, some of them over 6 and a half feet long, from the trunks of kapok trees that have been hollowed out by termites. With upwards of twenty members to an ensemble (which consists mostly of kapok horn players who can only play one pitch, plus a few higher pitched antelope horn players capable of two pitches along with trills), the combined trumpeters mete out an eerie polyphony. Also included on this disk are several tracks by the Banda Linda of percussion ensemble music.
BACK IN STOCK! We thought these were gone for good a month ago, but we've just managed to get a few more!
Here's the soundtrack to your wildest blaxploitation-fueled fantasies, baadasssss R&B with an acid rock edge. You'll never need to ask, "Mommy, what's a funkadelic?" after this.
"Chains & Black Exhaust" is a compilation of late sixties/early seventies raw, fuzzed-out funk put together by some young, devotedly-crate-diggin' Memphis DJs, who apparently don't think we need to know what exactly we're listening too, 'cause there's no artist info, no track listing, nothing -- heck, the title of the comp appears nowhere on it, even! They give us a tantalizing but unhelpful glimpse of some original 45 labels in a photo in the cd booklet, which is otherwise illustrated with snapshots of black motorcycle club insignia. We can't imagine this lack of info is for copyright reasons, perhaps they just don't want their finds being identified & scooped by other DJs...? And unfortunately, none of us here, despite our enthusiasm for this stuff and general musical expertise, can tell you what's on here, nor did we locate a tracklist on the internet.
Oh well, whoever these mystery artists are, what's important is that they kick out the jams big time here: hard, heavy stuff full of wailing acid-psych wah wah leads, driving organ, killer grooves, and soulful vocals. It's funk verging on rock, with Black Power meets garagey rock n' roll attitude. Of course, these old singles tracks are served up with lots of lovely ol' vinyl crackle, just scratchy enough to lend that extra level of authenticity and atmosphere to the party. Highly recommended -- if you're into *early* Parliament-Funkadelic you'll dig these 16 cuts. This is one of those albums that just sells itself the second we put it on over the stereo -- even our pal DJ Z-Trip bought one instantly. Enjoyed that Peanut Butter Wolf-produced collection of unearthed funk singles? Then you'll love this one too. Right on.
We're told that *perhaps* someday this will get reissued with proper liner notes (the kind that actually tell you who is on the record at least) but that's at least a year or a year and a half off, if ever. So, we'd recommend grabbing these copies now, while you can, before they're gone, again...
This compelling compilation brings together tracks from a bunch of different releases in Buda Musique's Musique Du Monde series to provide a global, pan-cultural perspective on traditional shamanic ritual music. Here you'd definitely find some wild and wonderful examples of musical expression made by and for shamans and other "possessed" persons from places as diverse as Indonesia, Iran, Siberia, Haiti, Vietnam, Ecuador, Guyana, and Brazil. From the always-incredible Cak chant of Bali to Voodoo frenzies, from the anti-suicide ceremony of a Siberian shaman to the hallucinogenically-enhanced mouth-bowing of an Amazonian healer, this is both some great listening and a fascinating reminder of the universal human desire to transcend this world and find strength and succor in what to some is a very real spiritual realm. Some of the selections demonstrate the communal, celebratory energy needed to make contact with spirits, while others seem to derive their power from the depth of feeling evident in a singer's solo performance. 11 tracks, 60 minutes, an excellent international "shaman-sampler" indeed.
Subtitled "Neo-Classical Metal Guitar". No doubt you've been hankering for a collection of Yngwie-style '80s metal guitar shred instrumentals, and the fact that there's almost no chance you've ever heard of anyone on this comp (they're ALL from the Czech Republic, something never adequately explained anywhere in the liner notes, although we'd have to guess this was originally
Celluloid was always one of those prolific kitchen sink labels that you were never sure you could trust. Operating between the late seventies and late eighties, their releases were often hit and miss, mainly because they never consistently focused on any particular genre, gravitating bravely instead towards dynamically urban niche markets (no-wave, punk, hip-hop, future dub and eighties afro-beat) when most of the music industry at the time basked in a mainstream top-40 wasteland of monocultural white MTV blandness. Where else would you find a label with such diverse acts as Fab 5 Freddy, Snakefinger and Ginger Baker? Thankfully, the fine folks at Strut separate the wheat from the chaff and give us a killer introductory comp of the label's best and most obscure moments, serving as a historical record of this unique musical time.
Founded by Jean Georgakarakos, a French record shop owner who co-founded the BYG record label and managed at one time the bands Magma and Gong, Celluloid was born from a move to New York and recognizing a need to release socially resistant music that was growing in popularity at underground clubs and parties, but couldn't be heard on the radio or bought at record stores. Noticing trends in New York that were also happening in Europe, Celluloid released new wave music from French acts Mathematiques Moderne and Nini Raviolette as well as Americans, James Chance and Suicide, but eventually moved to hip hop and dub with Afrikka Bambata and Bill Laswell's Material. Laswell often produced most of the later releases especially as the label expanded into dub and African musical territory. The label folded as the mainstream finally caught up with them. MTV finally got on the hip hop train, and more DIY labels were sprouting after the rise of college rock, leading the way towards grunge and alternative rock. Though they weren't always consistent, Celluloid was pretty influential in opening up new genres of music to a much wider audience.
Here are all of the artists represented: Shockabilly, Massacre, Ferdinand, Mathematiques Moderne, Thomas Leer & Robert Rental, Snakefinger, Winston Edwards & Blackbeard, Lightin' Rod (with a posthumous appearance by Jimi Hendrix!), Future 2000 feat. The Clash, Timezone, Deadline, Bobongo Stars, Toure Kunda, Nini Raviolette, Modern Guy, Sapho, Ginger Baker, Last Exit, Mandingo Feat. Foday Musa Suso & Herbie Hancock, Manu Dibango, Material, D. St., B Side with Bernard Fowler, Fab 5 Freddy and The Last Poets. Wow!
Punk nerds rejoice, this legendary, and LONG out of print hardcore cassette comp from the early eighties, finally reissued, and on vinyl for the first time. For lots of kids back in the day, this was their first taste of some seriously classic punk rock, featuring a handful of bands everybody likely knows now, Die Kreuzen, Void, Husker Du, Articles of Faith, Toxic Reasons, along with a bunch of more obscure outfits that most maybe folks don't (except everybody out there WAY punker than us, and of course, anyone who had this comp the first time around), like UXB, District Tradition, Double O, Sin 34, Rebel Truth and more. Originally released in 1982 on the Version Sound label, this was some early DIY radness, back when the underground was all about homemade zines and tapes, traded between friends and endlessly dubbed. We're guessing this was the soundtrack to many a skate sesh way back when. Mostly unreleased tracks, and demos/live/alternate versions, this is a classic slab of vintage hardcore, the sound all over the punk rock map, from the furious face melting hardcore blowouts of Void and Husker Du, to the poppier gothiness of 5051, from the sing songy hardcore jangle of Rebel Truth, to the frantic fuzz of Personality Crisis (with some super cool/weird/distinctive vox), some classic punk-noise yowl from Die Kreuzen (alternate versions of tracks from the Cows & Beer 7"), some heavy, almost metallic chug and swagger from District Tradition (channeling some later period Black Flag maybe), some blown out, feedback drenched crush from Double O, and tons more.
Pressed on thick vinyl, and housed in a heavy jacket with new artwork, includes an old school style printed zine/insert with liner notes from Version Sound head honcho Bob Moore and Die Kreuzen vocalist Dan Kubinski.
Well it looks like everybody wanted to be on this album, and lots of them are: Primus (with the theme song and more), Ozzy Osbourne/Old Dirty Bastard/DMX/Crystal Method, Wyclef Jean, Devo, Ween, Meat Loaf, Perry Farrel, Rick James, Elton John, and more...argh. Almost worth the 17 bucks though for "Come Sail Away" as sung by the show's Cartman. Several other tracks are pretty amazing too, actually, including the aforementioned Ozzy/Ol'Dirty etc. thing, the Chef's outrageous "Chocolate Salty Balls", and especially "Kenny's Dead", a remake of Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead" done No Limit style by Master P & crew--which basically makes unintended mockery of the entire gangsta rap genre. Ah, you can give it as a Christmas present to your favorite South Park fan.
DJ Garret Goddard (aka Cherrystones) is back, having dug up another disc's worth of totally rad '60s/'70s psychedelic rarities. His previous compilation entitled Cherrystones Rocks was an excellent, eccentric collection of freaky fun mostly from bands we'd never encountered before. Cherrystones Hidden Charms focuses a bit more on funkier, groovier fare (psychefunk says the sticker on the front), and also delves into realms of obscurity unknown to us. Sure, you'll likely recognize names like Ennio Morricone and The Shadows and Shocking Blue and Cher (yes, Cher!) but what about Mashmakhan, Shadow Mann, Dynastie Crisis, Roosevelt Fountain (And The Pens Of Rhythm) and Bugsy?? Wow. He's been diggin' all right. And it's (almost) all killer, no filler. I mean, we've got our faves: the garagey fuzz mania of Die Anderen's "Neurotic Reaction" (which would also have fit nicely on Cherrystones Rocks) is a discovery worth the price of this disc alone, we think, and we're also partial to the surprising grunt of The Shadows' "Scotch On the Socks". And if you dig the genre of what might be termed "stripper music" you'll find a bunch of acid-burlesque treats on here as well! As with the first comp, Cherrystones/Goddard provides blurbs in the liner notes about each band which is always appreciated. Again, awesome.
A very original, wonderfully varied collection of uber-rare international "psych and progressive gems" of the '60s and early '70s presented by Lo Recordings, who've always brought us the cool cutting edge modern electronica. Lo has previously also delved into the past for library music / acid funk compilations...now they go waaaay out with these bizarro rock tracks, picked by British hip hop DJ Garreth Goddard (who records as Cherrystones for the Twisted Nerve label). Obscure artists on here indeed -- we had previously only heard Brazil's Rita Lee (of Os Mutantes) and Detroit R&B hard rockers Frijid Pink (with "Crying Shame", one of their best songs). Garreth's obsessive crate-digging has paid dividends here, making this the kind of comp you've got to get 'cause you'll never find these records OR reissues. It's all groovy, psychedelic, crazed stuff. Some other names: Taiconderoga, Black Cat Bones, Klaus Doldinger, Niagara, Breakout, Mecki Mark Men, Sunbirds, The Mogol, and more. Veering from free-jazz inspired horn soloing to heavy fuzz guitar riffs to spoken beat poetry, the stuff on here is all over the place yet is freaky, funky, fried fun that really seems to belong together -- kudos to the DJ. Awesome.
Hey, here's the third killer compilation we've had from British 'digger and DJ Cherrystones (aka Garreth Goddard)! Cherrystones Rocks and Cherrystones Hidden Charms were both excellent, eclectic collections of groovy '60s/'70s international psych-rock surprises, and Cherrystones Word continues the tradition, complete with his customary detailed notes on each track included in the cd booklet. This one though seems somehow darker and more deviant, with a wider, weirder range, from '60s pop-psych to '70s krautrock to '80s garage-rock. It's definitely not necessarily a floor-filling DJ mix, more like what we'd imagine a random shuffle through Garreth's iPod playlist of fuzzy freakiness might turn up. The overall theme seems just to be cool and obscure, with an unexpected quotient of experimental prog and even queasy, off-kilter New Waviness included in the mix. Here's the run-down: Brainbox (featuring the hyper-Hendrixy guitar of Jan Akkerman, later of Focus fame), Dead Moon, George Brigman and Split, The Deviants, Chrome, Nosferatu, Fusioon, Roger C. Reale & Rue Morgue (a cover of The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself"), Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest, Midnight Circus (not the Messthetics one), Pan y Regaliz, Episode 6, Bintangs, George Romanos, and Lard Free. Who would put the exquisite, flute-laden Spanish psych sadness of Pan y Regaliz on the same comp with notorious sci-fi guitar punks Chrome? Or think that Dead Moon's urgent garage punker "Dead Moon Night" should go on the same disc with the slow and sinister sax-laced heaviness of "Warinobaril" by French freak proggers Lard Free? Or clue us into the R&B side of The Deviants, while also introducing us to the percolating quirk-funk of Spain's synthy Fusioon? Well Cherrystones would. Word!
Soul Jazz are really the king of comps now, and this latest is another excellent entry in their catalog, subtitled "Electric Blues, Funk & Soul: The New Sound Of Chicago In The 1960s". Everything here was originally released on Chess -- presumably you've heard of Chess Records, the Chicago "black music" label that was home to Muddy Waters, Etta James, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and others... You hear from all of those big names here, but also other '60s greats of lesser fame (Dorothy Ashby, The Stereos, Phil Upchurch, Eve Barnum, The Soulful Strings, etc.). That decade was an exciting time for music everywhere of course but Chess was one of the it labels, releasing tons of now classic electric blues, urban jazz, soulful singers, and even some psychedelic r&b. Packaged in a slipcover with a big ol' book of text and photos for your edification, whilst yr ears enjoy the Chicago soul sounds.
The French weren't the only ones creating irresistible "French Pop" in the '60s and '70s. A whole lot of amazing sassy effervescent pop was being created in Spanish speaking countries like Mexico and Spain (although there it was of course actually called Spanish Pop, but we digress), and this compilation digs out the amazing ladies responsible for these party starting Spanish Pop gems, that fans of French Pop sounds are gonna love. We had no idea who folks like Pili Y Mili, Sonia, Gelu, or Lorella were, but damn now we know they were responsible for some of the most saucy and addictive songs to come out during this amazing era for bright sunshiney pop. These ladies are like the Spanish equivalents of France Gal, Lulu, and Mina... Nancy Sinatra, too, for that matter. These are the kind of tunes you put on and everything around you starts looking a lot better, and a bad mood becomes practically impossible. If you've loved the Pop A Paris comps or the awesome Sensacional Soul collection that Vampisoul released a few years back, this will definitely hit the spot too. This is as fun and colorful as pop music gets. Makes us wanna get all tipsy on sangria and margaritas and dance the night away.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Present and future 555 artists remix one another, featuring tracks by Hood, Third Eye Foundation, The Remote Viewer, Empress, Kid 606, Tin Foil Star and much more.
Electronic soundscapes from a host of Japanese experimenters, including noise-names Aube and MSBR, although much of the sound tends towards the ambient and interesting, rather than the harsh. The theme is sounds from the earth, whether that be stones, seismic activity, contact-mic'd streams, or Akira Yamamichi's "sand dust limestone cave dead mine crystal frequency magnetic field". Excellent comp! (This is the first in a series, with European and American artists to appear in future installents.)
Is there something in the air lately beside sneeze-inducing pollen? Suddenly children's albums are popping up from all over the map, including this one which was compiled by Ekkehard Ehlers. However with the exception of the burbly sounds on the first track by Fan Club Orchestra and oddly enough Devendra Banhart's contribution, the very sing-song-y, handclap-y "Make It Easier", there's really not much that seems truly engaging for children. C'mon folks, using elfin effected vocals and sounds resembling those of a musicbox or from a toybox isn't really enough to categorize something in this genre! And actually we think kids might lose interest and get bored pretty quickly with it. Soooo, maybe we should just approach this compilation as a neat assortment of 25 gentle, relaxing tracks by an impressive bunch of international artists including Nobukazu Takemura, Asa-Chang & Junray, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Anna Laplantine, Dr. Rockit, World Standard, F.S. Blumm, and Oren Ambarchi. Hmmm, much more appealing for the full grown kids, don't you think? Maybe it should've been titled Parentish Music.
The first two Nuggets box sets have become pretty much legendary, absolutely essential for ANY music lover. And rightfully so. The popularity of the music in the first two Nuggets boxes is often attributed to Greg Shaw, who wrote a magazine (Who Put The Bomp) that then became the Bomp! record label and who later ran the Voxx label and who was almost soley responsible for the popularization of sixties style garage rock in the US and thus was essential in spreading the gospel on the musics we now hold near and dear: mod, psychedelic, British R&B, freakbeat, twee-pop, American garage rock, you name it. But what hath those Nuggets wrought? Well, of course the Children Of Nuggets, a selection of neo-garage, eighties power pop, paisley underground psych and all the other microgenres spawned by all that groovy and funky sixties psychedelic rock. Completely amazing collection of bands you already love, bands you thought you didn't like but are actually pretty fucking great and bands you have never heard of but if you had you would definitely love them: The Dukes of Stratosphear, Lyres, Bangles, Barracudas, Flamin Groovies, Hoodoo Gurus, the Posies, The Rain Parade, the dB's, Revillos, Plimsouls, Sun Dial, Screaming Trees, The Chills, The Last, The Mummies, The La's, Green Telescope, Dream Syndicate, Untamed Youth, The Milkshakes, The Droogs, the Swingin' Neckbreakers, Teenage Fanclub, The Church, Julian Cope, The Cynics, Green On Red, United States Of Existence, Plasticland, The Lime Spiders, The Pandoras and so many more!
Includes a massive book, with liner notes, photos and extensive notes on each and every track!
Hey all you grown-up kiddies, the nice folks at Daft Alliance don't want you to feel left out! Joining the other fine child-oriented releases that have come through our door recently is this Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 compilation. And despite the title, we can report that there's plenty on it for most age groups and attention spans. From the get-go, it's a lively listen. The most obvious appeal is not that these songs were 'made for children', but that many of them were playfully created with the sounds from a child's world (toys, tv shows, etc). It ends up becoming a name-that-toy puzzle of sorts! That said, it is definitely more than a one-time-listen novelty. Most tracks are thoroughly engaging and amusing, but the fifth and seventh songs are particular stand-outs. They're Bad Dudes' "Dawn of the Dudes" and hey willpower's "Janet and Aggie" respectively, seeming very inspired by the nuttier spastic moments of Mr. Bungle. The Bay Area-centric compilation also features tracks from Concentrick (Tim Green of the Fucking Champs), Open City, Sarge, M. Kourie, Comainu, Bookmobile, Final Cut To, Hell Hound (on my trail), Circadia and three from Tomo! If you like what you hear, keep in mind that this is just the beginning -- the first of a three volume series.
Wolf-positive "remix" compilation of The KLF's "Chill Out" album. Artists such as Aube, Bannlust, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Alois Huber and others all take their best shots. One stand-out track is Panacea's "Demolition Desaster" which is perhaps his most extreme piece to date, if you can imagine that...
This longtime AQ favorite is finally available again!
Recorded in 1970 and '71 at his countryside home outside of Hong Kong, the elderly (but spry) Lo Ka Ping will captivate you here with his performances on the qin, a type of ancient Chinese seven-stringed zither with a soft, subdued sound. Confucius' favorite instrument, the sound and style of the qin in the hands of Lo Ka Ping really evokes both Buddhist music and the blues. In his sparse, soulful performance on these ten tracks (four of Ping's own composition and six traditional numbers) you'll hear echoes of the the likes of Son House and Blind Willie Johnson - you could almost imagine this is a lost backporch recording by an unknown gospelish slide guitarist, playing a mysterious, alien blues. Parallels to Indian classical music can be heard as well, to which there is a link to the qin tradition in fact as well as in spirit.
This cd is rounded out with a couple of older, crustier recordings circa 1946-48 by two other "Chinese Masters of the Guqin", Zheng Yingsun and Xu Yuan Bay, who alongside Lo Ka Ping make this a lovely, raw, spiritually resonant document indeed.
Kind of like a game of extended global telephone, and featuring the talents of Mike Paradinas (aka Uziq), Bedouin Ascent, T Power, Sons of Silence, etc., this cd is the result of one artist sampling a Stereolab track and then sending the resulting mix to another artist, who similarly remixed it and sent the result to yet another remixer. Get it? Oh, and when Stereolab got back the track they remixed it once more for good measure, then put all the tracks into chronological order on one cd. Very drum'n'bass.
More than twenty years after the three first volumes, "Chocolate Soup for Diabetics" Vol. 4 and 5 are finally released. Fourteen titles on each lp, twenty one on each disc. Totally great 1960's UK psych, groovy rock, and soul by The Transatlantics, The Perishers, Gary Walker, The Peasants among others. Extensive liner notes for each song. Sooo good. The highlights on vol. 4, for me, are the fuzzy fucked up version of 'You Don't Love Me' by Gary Walker, and 'How Does It Feel' by The Perishers.
More than twenty years after the first three volumes, Chocolate Soup for Diabetics Vol. 4 and 5 are finally released. Fourteen titles on each lp, twenty one on each disc. Totally great 1960's UK psych, groovy rock, and soul by The Transatlantics, The Ways and Means, The Magic Lanterns among others. Extensive liner notes for each song. Sooo good.
It's hard to tell if this is a bootleg or not. Regardless, this clearly isn't something that we're going to be able to keep in stock for long. Chocolate Soup For Diabetics is a series of compilations with a bunch of unknown psych / garage bands probably
The second volume in the series of questionably legitimate compilations entitled "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics." Again more '60s psych / garage bands with more of a UK Big Beat feel (early Kinks, Yardbirds, etc.). Again super limited. This line-up packs the
The third volume from the "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics" psych / beat series concentrates on the UK sound from the mid-'60s. Of the three, this one is the most soulful and has the dodgiest 'mastering' which is quite noticeably riddled with surface noise,
Psych reissues are a dime a dozen these days, no matter how you classify or organize the songs and groups, specific certain years, a particular sound, or scene, or whatever, there's no way to spin it, there's just too too too much. And plenty of those tracks, well, like lots of reissues, could very well have just remained undiscovered. It takes more than just cramming a bunch of tracks on a record and putting some cool psychedelic artwork on the front, it requires knowledge of the music, as well as a knack for making mixes. Some folks definitely have it. Andy Votel obviously, and of course Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond, who has been releasing killer reissue comps on the Psychic Circle label. And there's whoever put together these Chocolate Soup For Diabetics comps, which gathered up some of the coolest UK psych rock from the sixties, originally released only on lp, now finally available all gathered up into a single 5cd box. And holy shit, no matter how tired of this stuff you might be, if you're anything like us, this stuff will immediately get you excited again. Fuzzy, tripped out, super rocking, jangly, space-y and most definitely PSYCHEDELIC. A few bands we already dug like Tintern Abbey, The Misunderstood and Wimple Winch, but so many new (old) discoveries: The Voice, Nuchez's, The Fresh Windows, The Fire, Graded Grains, Felius Andromeda, The Syn, The Tickle, Dantalian's Chariot, odds are the psych obsessives out there are probably a bit more well versed in UK psych obscurities, but for the rest of us, this stuff is blowing us away.
Take the first track on the first disc, "The Train To Disaster" by The Voice, after a purloined sample of Arthur Brown's "God Of Hellfire" intro, the track explodes into a fuzzy, super distorted stomp, that sounds ridiculously heavy for the time, hooky and fuzzed out, catchy like crazy, and those guitars! Raw and fiery and fuzzy and bad ass. The next track by the weirdly named Nuchez's, begins all jangly, but quickly builds momentum, some proggy organ wrapped around the guitar chug, some moody crooning, woozy guitars, and then some awesomely distorted fuzzpsych leads, and the song is transformed into something that sounds more like the Monks. We could go track by track for sure, but you probably get the picture. 5 discs, 5+ hours of super rocking, fuzzy psychedelic garage rock bliss, from jangly and trippy to crunchy and heavy, we just can't stop listening to this stuff. Wow.
Comes in a nice full color box, each one machine numbered (LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES), each disc in it's own full color sleeve, and includes a massive booklet with tons of photos and liner notes...
Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many CDs of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime ( tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his -- well deserved -- reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts -- such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge -- and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) -- not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when I (Byram) first listened to this record I could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that I remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
YES! This long-time AQ fave on Sublime Frequencies, is back in print on cd! And it's a newly updated, expanded deluxe edition, 2 discs this time instead of just one, with new liner notes, newly remastered/restored audio, and 4 bonus tracks not on the original edition!!
Here's the review former aQ-staffer Byram wrote, from when the first version came out in 2005 (note, George W. Bush was president then, and the war in Iraq was still on): Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many cds of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime (tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his - well deserved - reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts - such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge -- and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) - not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when I (Byram) first listened to this record I could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that I remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!
Here's our review from way back in 2005, when the cd version was first released...
Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many cds of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime ( tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his - well deserved - reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts - such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge - and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) - not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when we first listened to this record we could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many at all. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that we remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
Originally released way back in 2005, the first volume of Choubi Choubi, a collection of folk and pop music from Iraq, remains one of everybody's favorite Sublime Frequencies releases. And for good reason, besides the political implications of the music, made almost entirely during the reign of Saddam Hussein, which might have you envisioning the typical Middle Eastern story, of people forced to make music in secret, fearing for their lives, their livelihoods, but strangely, as we mentioned in our review of the first Choubi Choubi release, Hussein was in fact an avid supporter of the arts, and started cultural centers for both art and music throughout Iraq. Sadly, performers, artists and musicians who were not commercially successful, were deemed to be of a lower class, and the idea of Choubi, an Iraqi style of music that features rapid fire beats, buzzing oud melodies and wild fiddle playing, was considered by most to be a province of the seedier side of Iraq, dingy nightclubs, prostitutes, criminals, etc. In fact many female performers would wear masks to hide their identities. And while the music was encouraged by the government, music by its very nature is rebellious, so this music of the people had a power that made Choubi essentially the 'national dance of Iraq', and as the liner notes explain, even with Choubi's stigma and reputation, and parties and weddings, Choubi is the music of choice, with people whipping out their best Choubi moves.
The first Choubi Choubi comp has been out of print for a while now, so it's super exciting to have another volume to dig into. With the songs culled from the same era and time period, sonically, it's more of what we loved about the first one, wild, chaotic beats, flurries of percussion, super passionate vocals, dramatic and intense, lots of strings, the oud playing distorted and truly psychedelic, the recordings far out and lo-fi, in-the-red, the drums and rhythms slathered in cool primitive FX, reverb and delay, some of the tracks freaked out and energetic, others moody and minor key, some have an almost Bollywood vibe, others, are totally far out drum driven weirdness that reminds us of the twisted Indian soundtracks of Vijaya Anand, and still others sound almost liturgical, while others are distorted and buzzy and hypnotic, but really all of the tracks here incredible!
The story of the music and the musicians in Iraq at the time is super fascinating, and is gone into in more detail in the liner notes by Sublime Frequencies' Mark Gergis. As is the roots of Choubi, and what's gone on post Hussein, and post war in Iraq. Those extensive liner notes are accompanied by tons of awesome photos, as well as notes on each track, all on a super heavy full color gatefold sleeve.
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"Chronologi" is a self-congratulatory compilation from the Brooklyn experimental / electronica label 12K, celebrating their first four years of operation. 12K is run by Taylor Deupree, who is in many ways the American doppleganger of Carsten Nicolai and 12k is the American version of his Raster-Noton collective. Both artists' labels specialize in positioning ultra-minimalist clicks and
It may not be super obvious from the aQ website, but we've long been champions of Mark Mulcahy, whose band Miracle Legion was and is an all time favorite. All of the Miracle Legion records went out of print long before the aQ list, so we never got a chance to gush adoringly. We also became a bit obsessed with Mulcahy's post Miracle Legion outfit Polaris, who performed the bad ass themes song to the late great kids show Pete And Pete. We have however, highlighted at least two of Mulcahy's solo records, the last of which, In Pursuit Of Your Happiness, still gets played all the time. And features some utterly perfect pop, emotional, clever, jangly and so so catchy.
Apparently we're not alone, judging from this star studded comp, a tribute not just to the amazing songs of Mulcahy, but to his late wife, who passed away last year. The outpouring of musical emotion and support is truly moving, and the redone versions are uniformly fantastic, with some fairly faithful renditions, and some seriously out there takes.
This record is getting TONS of press, mostly due to the inclusion of a Thom Yorke track, and it is great, skittery rhythms, distorted electric guitar, super strange percussion, and some super intense emotional vocals, kind of like a more punk rock, lo-fi take on one of his Eraser tracks. Well worth the price of admission for sure. But that's just the first track. Other bands taking on Mulcahy's genius originals include The National, Dinosaur Jr, Frank Black, Vic Chesnutt, Rocket From The Tombs (whose version is SO twisted, but so great!), Michael Stipe, Mercury Rev, Juliana Hatfield, and on and on. It plays out like a killer classic nineties college rock mix, anchored by Mulcahy's awesome songs. Hopefully it'll get the world to finally discover what an amazing and way under appreciated songwriter Mulcahy really is, and just maybe it'll convince someone somewhere to get all of those Miracle Legion records reissued!
The only bummer about this release is that there's another 20+ songs, not on the cd proper, only available electronically (from iTunes), which is ironic, since Miracle Legion and Mulcahy on his own were embraced by indie record stores first and foremost, who sort of get the shaft as do fans who if they want all of the songs have to shell out another $20 for the bonus tracks, but the download only tracks include jams from AC Newman, Buffalo Tom, Dumptruck, Syd Straw, Laura Veirs, and others. They should have just made it a double cd, but what can you do, worth it either way, and if you like what you hear, you'll probably end up trying to track down every Mulcahy thing ever, and rightfully so...
Breakbeats created by the getting-more-famous-every-day, all-around-nice-guy Automator (of Dr. Octagon) for your programming/DJ pleasure.
Smithsonian Folkways gets their chance to put a final word on the post-O Brother bluegrass sampler mania that has been in effect for over a year now and you might recall the sour review we gave to Rounder's entry into this arena a few lists ago. But S.F., unlike Rounder, has not only put together a collection of classics, but has priced their disc quite a bit more competitively. Then again, if any label was going to put together a collection of classic bluegrass, S.F. would be it. Having released the first full length LP of bluegrass music way back in 1956, Folkways has a mighty powerful back catalog of both well known and obscure bluegrass tracks. 'Classic Bluegrass' not only contains some of the more well known artists within the genre, including founder Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, but also many important lesser known (outside of bluegrass circles) artists like The Johnson Mountain Boys, Red Allen, Snuffy Jenkins, The Country Gentlemen and a lot more. More significantly, S.F. has steered away from making this a collection of the most popular bluegrass tunes ever recorded, so you needn't worry about having yet another version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" in your juke box. Like all S.F. reissues, this collection is done right in the documentation department as well with 31 pages of notes on the individual tracks, a history of Folkways records, and suggested further reading / listening. The only thing I could find wrong with this collection was a typo concerning Bill Monroe's passing, which is incorrectly listed as 1993 instead of 1996.
There's been no shortage of amazing blues reissues recently, especially on vinyl (and especially via the Monk label), Blind Blake, Dock Boggs, Ishman Bracey, Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Furry Lewis, Blind Wille McTell, Charley Patton, Charlie Poole, but weirdly, we never really paid much attention to these classic blues cd / calendar combos, even though at least one of us has had one hanging in our house for the last couple years, they're actually really cool. The cd is an amazing collection of classic blues, featuring some of the above mentioned artists, classic tracks from Charley Patton, Ma Rainey, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi Sheiks and others, including a handful of ultra rarities (remastered from the only surviving copies) from Tommy Johnson, Furry Lewis, Jaybird Coleman and Charley Patton! And even cooler is the calendar, which features original artwork for each of the 12 tracks, early advertisements, record sleeves, old flyers, as well as quotes and liner notes related to each record and its artwork, and the calendar is of course marked with various blues related dates, births and deaths of all the greats, in fact, even if for some reason you didn't want to use it as a calendar, it's pretty fun just to read through and check out all the illustrations, it's almost like having a proper lp sized set of liner notes for the cd! And we should mention one of our new (old) favorite song titles: "Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus"!
