[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 451 through 500 of 1423.

We really want to hate Kanye. He seems kind of like a dick. Anyone who spends that much time shooting his mouth off, most definitely deserves to at least be ignored, if not openly ridiculed. But you know what, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy gets him a pass. Big time. Sure he's probably nuts, and most definitely a prima donna, but he's also apparently a twisted visionary, cuz this record is so far removed from hip hop as you know it, it's hard to believe this is mainstream shit, that this is probably the most popular record in the world, or at least one of em. Some seriously NEXT level shit. This stuff is fucking WILD, and sprawling, and over the top, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy indeed. Assuming Kanye's fantasy was to create some sort of progressive rock opera hip hop epic, which is pretty much precisely what he's done. None of that tired rapping over loop and beats, this is so much more. Beginning with "Dark Fantasy", which opens up with a lush vocal/piano refrain, majestic and dramatic, sounding like some Antony / E.L.O. collaboration, before the beats kick in, and then over the course of the track, strings soar, soulful vocals are crooned, which leads into the fuzzed out psychedelic groover "Gorgeous", with it's buzzy psych guitar leads, and yeah, we said GUITARS, more awesome vocals wound around those guitars too, and sure there's rapping, but the vibe is more psych pop than hip hop. Then there's "Power", odds are you've probably heard it by now, it's pretty much a game changer, driven by chanted female vocals and handclaps, not to mention some fat fuzzy bass, loping rock drums, and bursts of crunchy guitar, super processed distorted vocals, and of course, a perfectly placed sample of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man". One of those rare tracks that doesn't have a single misstep. Dark and intense, funky and groovy, but also rocking and intense and emotional. The rest of the record continues in a similarly obtuse and surprisingly prog rock fashion, the songs convoluted and sprawling, the rhymes fucked up and funny and super clever. The other standout (on a record full of them) is probably "Monster", a stuttery bit of twisted dark pop, with tons of guests, most notably, Nicki Minaj, whose verse pretty much puts ALL others to shame, even Jay-Z, whose verse is particularly bad ass, but Minaj is a twisted weirdo, slipping in and out of characters, flitting from accent to accent, growling, yelping, crooning girlishly, talking endless amounts of hilarious shit, the track finishes off with still more moody crooning, reminding us that this is so much more than a run of the mill verse for verse trade off And so it goes, soulful, funky, proggy, dark and dreamy, heavy and crunchy, strings, guitars, beats, and of course Kanye's twisted unorthodox flow (best line: "I got two White Russians, but we also need some drinks"), a dizzying masterpiece of truly bizarre and epic prog hop.

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MPEG stream: Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)
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You already know how good this is. Smart and funny and funky. Everyone's hip hop record of the year. Not hard to see why.

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Chances are you either love to hate him or you hate to love him, but whichever camp you fall in, one thing is for certain... there's no escaping Kanye! One more thing that's for certain? Yeezus is as abrasive, genre-bending and challenging as any record you'll hear this year, mainstream or otherwise. It explodes with the kind of schizophrenic disregard for convention that only the most obsessive and confrontational albums achieve. From the jarring industrial assault of opening track "On Sight" to the sparsely bittersweet soul loop of closer "Bound 2", 'Yeezus' constantly surprises and consistently refuses to compromise. Single "Black Skinhead" is an exhilarating tribal whirlwind built around a '70s glam rock drum stomp. "I Am A God" doesn't sound too far from something the Swans might have come up with circa The Great Annihilator while the menacing dub of "New Slaves" wouldn't sound out of place on a Scorn record. Elsewhere the album flutters between grimy harsh synths, dusty soul, monolithic cinematic orchestral blasts, ethereal ambiance - seemingly all in the span of one song! Vocally the album finds Kanye at his most unrestrained and unrefined, sometimes recalling the guttural stream of consciousness outbursts of Death Grips. Lyrically it's by far his angriest record, pulsing with frustration and rage, tackling everything from race to excess to (very, very graphic) sex. It's not an easy listen but an immensely rewarding one and sure to be one of the more divisive albums of the year. And in our opinion one of the best!

Pedal steel guitar player Speedy West, along with being half of the legendary duo with country / jazz guitarist Jimmy Bryant is one insane mother fucking player. He's credited as country music's first pedal steel player, starting with Spade Cooley (read about Spades tumultuous life and tragic death in the new issue of Murder Can Be Fun) and later working with such notables as Johnny Horton, Spike Jones and Roy Rogers. Renowned for his lightning fast playing -- how else does one get named Speedy? -- explosive chords and myriad effects that would make a seasoned vaudevillian blush, he was also quite the songwriter. The 12 instrumental originals on this album were recorded in 1960.

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"This 112 song collection includes West and Bryant's complete recordings for Capitol from 1950 through 1956 and both Speedy's post-Bryant solo LPs for Capitol. But it goes further, featuring the first known recordings each man made as an accompanist and an entire disc sampling their rich and varied career as Los Angeles studio musicians, accompanying everyone from Tennessee Ernie Ford and Kay Starr to Spike Jones... from straight ahead country to big band jazz, always leaving their own mark while making the artist sound good. For those who've heard only a sample of these two at their peak and want it all, here it is. The 52-page book includes a newly researched biography by Rich Kienzle and a copmplete discography."

Sequel to 1995's "Stratosphere Boogie: The Flaming Guitars Of Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant", and like that disc, this is an essential collection of tunes by this absolutely legendary pedal steel/guitar duo. Country-jazz? Yes indeedy. 20 more choice cuts by these instrumental virtuosos from the 1950s.

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

SORRY. Not exactly what we would have expected as the first solo album from Swans guitarist Norman Westberg, who had been in that band from their earliest years; but 13 is an amazing album nonetheless! This is an oh-so-lovely ambient recording of deep guitar drones aching with sorrowful melodies, dripping in the reverb of a thousand empty churches, all melded together into a seamless piece of luminously smeared grey-hued hypnosis akin to Stars Of The Lid, Maeror Tri, and Rhys Chatham rolled into one!! So so nice.

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Yes, we have to admit we've found his last few releases to be sorta hit-or-miss, love/hate, however with the amusingly titled Besterberg it's nothing but love love LOVE for Mr. Westerberg. Ah, that endearingly hoarse voice, those unmistakable guitar melodies -- it's like getting together with an old friend from your college days. Diehard fans will surely already have all of the older material compiled on this cd, and will probably have their own gripes over their personal fave tunes that might not have been included. Alas, such is always the case with best ofs, innit? However, amid the plentiful twenty career-spanning songs there's an added bonus to pique the interest of Westerberg's completists -- a trio of previously unreleased songs! "All That I Had", "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon" and an alternate mix of "Once Around The Weekend".

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Those of us who loved the Replacements, hung on to post-Replacements Paul Westerberg for dear life, convinced that somewhere underneath all that shitty adult contemporary soft rock and schmaltzy balladry beat a heart soaked in booze and kept in a hot van and just bursting with rock and roll! So finally, after years of diappointment, Come Feel Me Tremble comes along to keep us all from feeling like jilted schmucks. This is some really good stuff. Not classics Replacements caliber classics by any stretch, but there are glimmers of that glorious booze adled rock-and-roll-brilliance that once shone so brightly. A little sloppy, a little rocking, and a little catchy, vocals buried in the mix, honky tonk Stones guitars way up in the mix, and songs that actually stick in your head. Not all of em, but enough to keep Replacements fans from having to listen to Let It Be or Tim for the five millionth time!

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The ever-prolific Paul Westerberg continues to keep his songwriting floodgates open with his fifth solo full length, Folker, recorded in his basement. In the string of his homespun releases, this is by far the most cohesive and focussed. Previous ones (released under his own name as well as his alter ego Grandpaboy) tended to ramble and stumble without direction, but this time the only cringe inducer is the title. Ouch. Frequently though, as he's done on his past few releases, the devil-may-care rock rogue Westerberg does sacrifice pitch perfection in favor of capturing ragged off-the-cuff immediacy. That said, fortunately it usually makes a song all the more scruffily engaging ("$100 Groom"). Although the vocal comparisons used to be the reverse, oddly enough Westerberg now sounds more like Wilco's Jeff Tweedy than Jeff Tweedy. Highlights include the very Beatles-y "Now I Wonder" and the abovementioned "$100 Groom".

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This very strange new "Stereo" from rock vet Paul Westerberg finds its home on emo-boy haven Vagrant Records. And although many of the youngsters on that label owe a great deal to the former Replacement's amazing songwriting pen, we're not so sure if this

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Recently we uncovered the lost thud-rock treasures of Dumb and The Ugly, an Australian ensemble from the early '90s that splattered heavy-duty riffs with sinister ambience and weirdo psychedelia. Since then, Dumb and the Ugly guitarist David Brown has plunged himself into the experimental community of Melbourne, with a number of interesting projects including Candlesnuffer, Lazy, and Western Grey. All of these are a far cry from Brown's musical infancy when he had a brief encounter with celebrity as the guitarist in AC/DC for about a month back in 1976! Western Grey is the electro-acoustic improv trio involving Brown, Philip Samartzis, and Sean Baxter. The three rotate through their pallette of scrabbled guitar textures (Brown), electric hums, noises, & tones, (Samartzis), and improv jazz drum stutter (Baxter), highlighting the extreme contrasts of these sounds rather than attempting to synthesize them into a holistic, meditative sound as found on recent AMM releases for instance. Brown and Baxter take turns colliding into Samartzis' finely tuned electrocutionist drones, splattering the sound field with off-kilter squiggles and harrowing scrapes. The final 24 minutes of Glacial Erratic finds Western Grey accompanied by sample-based British improviser Kaffe Matthews; and the expanded quartet explore the dynamics of the drone much more than earlier on the record.

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Soundtrack to the classic Sci-Fi flick Westworld, composed by Fred Karlin.

If you were sad to hear the end of Iowa City's Raccoo-oo-oon, have no fear, for Shawn Reed and Ryan Garbes have returned to the trance-punk altar with a new band, Wet Hair. With two synths, a drum kit, and some hazy distorted vocals the duo offer up Dream, their debut lp, a kraut punk offering of free synth meanderings and cosmic filth, all thrown together in some dusty garage. Pretty cool sunny day avant-punk improv for the deep dreamers, already out of print from Not Not Fun, we managed to get our grubby hands on a few, so act quick if you want one.

Latest from this post Raccoo-oo-oon duo, and like the records before, these two continue to confound, moving ever further away from the sonic chaos that was Raccoo-oo-oon, their sound a barrage of Dead C style noise rock melded to fractured outsider folk, all caustic and abrasive, freaked out and dementedly psychedelic, hell we even made one of their albums our Record Of The Week. And while we have dug most of the Wet Hair stuff, it never had the same impact that their old band did. Sort of more meandery and jammy, which is not a bad thing at all, but at times, it definitely seems confusional, and a bit aimless, but on In Vogue Spirit, it sounds like these guys have finally figured out where this Wet Hair thing was meant to be going, and apparently it was meant to be some sort of trippy, psychedelic krautrock, all motorik rhythms, woozy dreamlike melodies, buried in the mix Spacemen 3 like vox, pulsing low slung basslines, all woven into long stretches of spacey, trippy hypnorock. The sort of thing that should definitely appeal to fans of Wooden Shjips, Spacemen 3, Cave, Circle, Silver Apples, Moon Duo, and various other space/psych rockers. There's plenty of Stereolab/Neu! worship happening too, but filtered through Wet Hair's decidedly cracked post-whatever sensibilities. There is still plenty of schizophrenic weirdness, bizarre sonic detours, from skittery, echo drenched lo-fi outsider calypso exotica, circusy organ driven echoplexed ambience, lo-fi eighties style electro pop, squiggly effects drenched hazy blissouts, but even those strange moments don't sound as far removed as before, still droney and hypnotic in their own way, and thus tied to the core of Wet Hair's sound, which at least for now, is a fantastically spaced out, shimmery, droney, druggy spacekraut hypno rock. Awesome.

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The first thing you'll notice most likely is the $18 price tag, FOR A 7"!! But it's not just a 7", it's also a thick 7" x 7" art book, filled with super striking full color images, with a glossy cover. It's too bad the price is so steep, cuz even without the artbook, this is a pretty great single. Which finds Wet Hair, formerly Raccoo-oo-oon, taking their previously synthy krautrocky sound in a much more buzzy and garagey direction. And it definitely suits them. Starting off with some carnivalesque lo-fi synth prog, the sound gradually begins to blur and buzz and transform into some hazy tripped out space rock, not all that far removed from Spacemen 3 or Wooden Shjips, the same sort of looped mesmer, and psychedelic trance, shuffling stuttery rhythms, echoey vox, deep and bellowed, a little Suicide thrown into the mix, the whole thing doused in thick washes of noisy buzzy keys, lysergic and seriously mesmerizing. The other side starts out a bit more electro poppy, cascading melodies, percolating sc-fi FX, a skeletal robotic beat, lilting synths, the vocals laid back and weary, again washed out and druggy and trippy and hypnotically heavy in its own way. Like we mentioned, comes in a thick 7" sided art book, filled with all sorts of tripped out paintings and collages, that definitely offer a visual analogue to the psychedelic sounds within.

These Iowa psychpop-kraudrone-WTFwave weirdos return with their second full length for De Stijl, the group now expanded from a duo to a trio, with a sound that while still weird, continues to move further away from the twisted noiseness of the early releases, toward something distinctly more melodic and much more accessible. Mixing their psych-kraut tendencies with something that sounds much more like some lost new wave /cold wave artifact, due in no small part to the deep dramatic crooned vox of frontman Shawn Reed, he of the late great Raccoo-oo-oon, but the band get all wave-y too, weaving a lush twisted backdrop of synth buzz, and driving drums, the bass thick and fuzzy and sinewy, the sound rife with playful almost carnivalesque melodies, the sound often blossoming into sun dappled prismatic clouds of swirling synth shimmer, but just as often locking into a tranced out hypnorock mesmer, if these guys were an instrumental band, they'd definitely be a whole different beast, some sort of heady, druggy psych-kraut-prog combo that would fall more in line with groups like Cave, Lumerians, Gnod and the like, cuz the instrumental stretches here get downright blissy and trancey and dreamily psychedelic, the vocals though give it a distinctly goth-pop cast, adding some Suicide and Spacemen 3 and Interpol to Wet Hair's sonic equation, and transforming this into something much weirder, and in its own twisted way, much cooler.

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The Not Not Fun label's Bored Fortress subscription split 7" series has been going on for a few years now, and is always killer, featuring a who's who of hip underground weirdo rock combos, not to mention some seriously fantastic packaging, and for whatever reason, this year, a handful of the previously subscription only singles have been made available to non subscribers, but not for long, as these babies are crazy limited. We've yet to review anything by Peaking Lights, but this chunk of murky bass heavy jangle dronepop has us definitely hankering for more. Big thing low end throb, beneath distorted drums, weary woozy vox, and some glimmering jangly guitar melodies, the song constantly drifting into full on psychedelic dub territory, everything wreathed in reverb and echo and delay, totally spaced out and druggy and divine. More more more! Wet Hair, formerly known as Raccoo-oo-oon, deliver some spacey, minimal almost kraut sounding hypnorock. Beginning all super hushed and skittery, before building to a gorgeously motorik jam, rife with whirling organ melodies, and super dramatic over the top vocals, all very proggy and psychedelic and way way druggy. Seriously good stuff, sounding almost like a way more tripped out lo-fi Circle, which is most definitely not a bad thing. Also, we have another Bored Fortress title, besides the ones we're listing now, the Infinite Body / No Age split 7", VERY few copies of that one, not enough to list, just ask if you want one and IF we still have some left, it could be yours!

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Debut full length from this awesome San Francisco band who are bringing a much needed shot of carefree energy and exuberance to the current crop of lo-fi and garage pop peddlers. We loved their 7" from last year which while being right at home in a stack of records by such likeminded folks as The Fresh & Only, Nodzz, and Woods, also had its own really cool unique energy. 1x1x1 proves that while these guys do have a lot in common with the new wave of indie pop greatness they also tap into the golden age of indie rock with melodies as bright as Superchunk and the charged rhythm of The Feelies. They also have this really cool ability to merge different elements into their overall sound. Somehow bridging the gap between the all out party raucousness of bands like Hunx & His Punx and Shannon & The Clams, while having an ease and breeze to their sound similar to Beach Fossils and Melted Toys. Snotty without being obnoxious, and so catchy without being saccharine. This is how we love our pop music to sound.

Rad slab of very limited wax from this awesome San Francisco duo who serve up some totally exciting raw and supercharged garage psych pop. Recorded by Tim Cohen from The Fresh & Only's, Wet Illustrated prove they belong right there alongside other awesome like minded bands from SF like Nodzz, Bare Wires, Ty Segall, and The Fresh & Onlys. You can feel the sun shining down, the wind blowing, kites flying free. This is music made for blasting while drinking your favorite beverage of choice and letting go of inhibitions as these are songs that just take a hold of your body and you can't help but smile uncontrollably while these infectious songs get stuck in your head. As well as having a classic garage pop sound there is this really cool early SST vibe in these songs as well, reminding us of the Meat Puppets, and "Born Stoked" has this rad guitar sound that's like a dubbed cassette version of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. Only 300 of these handsome 7"s were pressed so best to act fast on this one!

Hell yeah! We knew just a short time ago when we heard their 7" on Captured Tracks, that these females from the UK were going to be a band we were gonna end up digging BIG TIME. With a full length hot on the heels of that 7", we are indeed digging this like crazy, as Frauhaus! is some totally immediate and addicting off-kilter post punk. Taking their love of greats like the Raincoats and The Slits and infusing so much of their own energy, vision and charisma into the songs giving them a very unique sound. In so many ways they feel like the perfect band to carry the torch for the great Erase Errata who sadly seem to have broken up (though we would be thrilled if that wasn't the case!). Herky jerky rhythms, songs that cut out all the fat, yet are full of such melodicism and incredible songwriting chops, something that so many groups who usually pull from similar sources of inspiration seem to be lacking. In fact there are some totally rad moments here that make us think of a scrappy DIY version of The Breeders or a way punkier Electrelane. It's been so cool to play this record and then figure out what would be so perfect to play afterwards, as you can go in so many directions. We've rocked Chin Chin, Kleenex/Liliput and early Bow Wow Wow right after playing Wetdog and it seems to keep the same energy and spirit going pretty much perfectly. Short but sweet these fourteen tracks clock in at just under a half hour, but every single moment is filled with such energy and exhilaration!

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Not sure where these gals are from, but they have a definite Raincoats / Slits sort of classic old school C86 sound happening, on this, their debut (?) on Captured Tracks. But it's not just those bands we hear, we also pick up on some Toto Coelo, some Belle Stars, heavy groovy bass, a sort of angular new wave pop, funky drums, low slung bass, minimal guitar (if there is any at all). It's a propulsive prickly pop tangle, that most definitely gets bodies moving. The A-side switches from angular and skittery, to more propulsive and back again, with super commanding call and response bad ass vocals, and a wicked main hook. The B-side has the same sort of vibe, but the vocals are dialed back, buried in the mix a bit, letting the drums drive the songs, with some cool stylophone melodies and some tangled woozy riffing. And of course delay and reverb all over the place!

Another fine release of cancerous electronic drones from Monorail Trespassing, whose tapes have been consistently some of the best being released in recent years. Wether is the work of Delaware native Mike Haley, who has been amassing an Aaron Dilloway work ethic of numerous releases in tiny editions; and there's one picture floating around online that documents a live Wether gig with Haley hunched over a suitcase of pedals and a microphone with long-hair covering his face. Yup, sounds like a Wolf Eyes show; but at least on Human Parka, Wether is not entirely recapitulating Michigan noise. Maybe something like Demons with their coldwave synth drones, but that's as close as he gets. Anyway, the two steady arcs of lazer beam drones amass out of phase pattern saw tooth analog tones, oscillating filter sweeps, and downshifted vibrations keyed into tectonic plate movements. Some of the low-end frequencies can be pretty fucking headsplitting, especially when listening on headphones. As mentioned, very well constructed. Twenty minutes, limited to 125 copies.

We had been hearing about this band for ages, and our mail order customer Greg just happens to play guitar in the band and was kind enough to send us cd-r's in the past so we were super psyched to finally get their first actual official cd release, and we were equally psyched when we realized what an absolute monster of a record it was! Ultra dense, super heavy and relentless Dazzling Killmen / Meshuggah / Voi Vod style tech-post-rock/metal weirdness. Complex and convoluted song structures assembled from jagged metal riffs, crazy drumming and weird atonal guitar freak outs, all woven together into a completely kick ass, impossibly labrynthine metallic math rock headfuck. Occasionally, the action lets up, allowing glimpses into some alien musical world behind the curtain, made up of almost mosh-worthy half time breakdowns, shouted stop start stutters, pretty melodic interludes, blasts of ADD Melt Banana-ish chaos and shimmery droned out space rock. But always returning to Wetnurse's brainmelting, spinecracking metallic calculus core. And then there's the vocals. Bizarre and beautiful (sort of), veering from grunted death metal howls to gutteral Pantera-ish hardcore shouts to shrieked almost-goofy demon-like warbles, usually in the same song! Woah. Definitely heavy enough and weird enough to be a new favorite! Guest vocals by Mike Olenader (ex-BURNT BY THE SUN), and recorded by the legendary MARTIN BISI!

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Just because this is on Skam doesn't necessarily mean it's an easy listen, interesting maybe, but not easy. To see listings for this record on other sights / postings on which the authors professed their critical admiration of this record makes me ask a common asked question at Aquarius : "Is anybody really listening?" At least in regards to the stupid piece of Negativland and V/VM influenced electronica comedy, the answer is no.

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Even if you think you've heard enough of the new weird acid folk underground to last you for a spell, you should check out this full-length debut from Brooklyn's Mike Wexler, a singer-songwriter who (with a little help from his friends, members of Psychic Ills and The Occasion) has recorded a remarkable song-cycle in the form of Sun Wheel. It's set apart from others in this burgeoning genre by the immediately noticeable, uniquely affected nature of Wexler's voice. Ok, maybe that makes him a male Joanna Newsom... and of course Devendra Banhardt too has a distinctive manner of singing. But Wexler sounds like neither, and once you get used to his nasal exhalations, his intentionally elongated enunciations, you may find his singing to be curiously compelling, complementing the crystalline guitar picking and gentle piano motifs of his melodic, majestic prog-folk music quite well. And Wexler's vocal style is also indicative of a very personal, seemingly spiritual lyrical vision, fixated on sun, shadow, paradise, lots of lines like "Sun shadow dilating in the eye" and "Falling through the sunshine's ray in a dream of water". It's gorgeous, moody yet strangely uplifting stuff, glowing with lightbeams amidst its shadows. Something that fans of P.G. Six, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Robert Wyatt could find of eerie interest for sure.

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Although the front cover photo suggests Ms Whalen has transformed from Squirrel Nut Zippers' retro-styled swing jazz lead singer into slightly taudry, contemporary shag haircutted Sheryl Crow or Lucinda Williams (an image that doesn't quite fit her, much like it didn't Sally Timms on her last solo album cover photo -- both seem unintentionally uncomfortable), musically Dirty Little Secret situates itself more in the elegant slightly clubby female chanteuse territory populated by the likes of Bebel Gilberto. She's joined on songwriting duties by multi-instrumentalist David Sale who also played all of the music and produced the whole affair. Perhaps it's his presence that spurred Whalen to embrace such a surprising blend of easy-breezy fruity cocktail sippin' resort numbers ("Meet Me By The Fire") occasionally embellished with saucy '70s soft rock horns and pretty, slower piano-driven ballads ("Follow"). On the latter occasionc it recalls her heartmelting performance of The Sixths' song "You You You" on their Hyacinths And Thistles album. That said, her sweet voice is unmistakable throughout and although there are definitely some 'ouch' songs on this album where she gets a bit uncharacteristically funky, her vocals' enchanting loveliness still somehow makes everything alright.

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

SORRY. Local fastcore/bandana rock/metalcore/hardcore/straight edge/crossover. Or something. Devon (of local metal/toyshop Howling Bull and of the late All You Can Eat), Max (drummer of Spazz, Plutocracy and more), Craig (formerly of Your Mother and All You Can Eat), and Robert (of Fuckface and Artimus Pyle), got together, drew X's on their hands, donned their bandanas, and set pits a spinning all over the world. This local 'super group' plays a wicked strain of eighties bandana thrash/ metal-hardcore crossover that is fast and furious and kicks total ass. Complete with positive lyrics, extensive and heartfelt explanations of said positive lyrics, and tons of photos of all the band members leaping and stage diving. Hard to tell how tongue in cheek this all is, but regardless, you may have to pull out that old bandana, X your hands and GET IN THE PIT!

Wow. When it rains it definitely pours. Especially when we're talking pop. And a lot of this recent downpour of pop goodness comes direct from the perfect pop headquarters of Barsuk Records, who in the past, have given us Death Cab, Nada Surf, Rocky Votolato and more. We've got two new Barsuk releases this time around. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the latest release from weirdo smartpop combo the Starlight Mints, and here we've got the debut from moody jangly dream poppers What Made Milwaukee Famous. We know, not the catchiest name ever. But it's sure as heck a lot better than calling your band Beer. And the name doesn't really prepare you for the jangly bouncy new wave classic pop sound these guys effortlessly conjure up. We knew it would be poppy since it was on Barsuk, but the name had us thinking HARDCORE!! Nothing could be further from the truth. What Made Milwaukee Famous take all that classic pop, you know... Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson (especially Joe Jackson), the Cars, and gives it a modern retro makeover. You'll hear some Maximo Park (and thus some XTC), some Modest Mouse, a smidge of the Arctic Monkeys, some Weezer, even some Strokes. And a little Postal Service. Especially on the first track, a gorgeously lilting gem assembled from bits of moody melancholy guitar drift and dreamy keening falsetto vocals, all draped over warm stretches of crystalline electronic skitter. And while that sort of Postal Service vibe surfaces subtly here and there throughout the rest of the record, for the most part most of the record leans way more toward that perfect mix of classic pop and modern indie jangle. Alternatingly rocking and lilting, crooning and swooning, bouncing and grooving. Just imagine Maximo Park channeling Joe Jackson instead of XTC, or a less quirky, more AM radio influenced Modest Mouse, and maybe you'd be getting close. Big guitars that jangle and crunch. Bouncy basslines. Some strings here and there, some piano. Warm warbly organs. And gorgeous vocals that croon and wail one minute, emote dreamily the next. A little bit retro, a little bit new wave, a little bit indie rock, which I guess would make this a killer retro new wave indie pop record. Which it most definitely is. Catchy as hell, hooks everywhere, moody but not maudlin, one of the coolest pop records we've heard in a while. And who knows, maybe one day what made Milwaukee famous will be What Made Milwaukee famous. Or... maybe not.

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MPEG stream: Blood, Sweat and Fears
MPEG stream: Sultan

A big bag of songs indeed! 28 of them as a matter of fact, and all pretty incredible from a singer/songwriter we weren't familiar with, though we did know his two most famous songs, "High Flying Bird" and "Jackson", as performed by others such as Johnny Cash, Jefferson Airplane, Judy Henske and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. Billy Edd Wheeler was smack in the middle of the crossroads where country, folk, pop and rock meet. Mentored by famed songwriting team Leiber & Stoller, Wheeler penned many great tunes for Cab Calloway, Lonnie Donnegan, Hank Snow and The Kingston Trio as well. Wheeler had a very folksy style using the big classic sixties country-pop production (the kind you've heard on plenty of other Omni reissues from Dee Mullins, Porter Wagoner, Hoyt Axton, Johnny Paycheck and Henson Cargill), but underneath the wholesome exterior of the songs lie pointed messages about the environment, taxes, falling out of love, the desperation of the hard working poor, and the soul-killing culture of the white-collar worker. Highly skilled with language and a turn of phrase, Wheeler was a master at weaving an epic story into a three minute pop song, whether it be a coal miner yearning to fly away like a bird, a mushroom taking elevator operator, a badass cowboy preacher, or the emotional wreckage of a marriage on the skids. So good!

MPEG stream: Blistered
MPEG stream: After Taxes
MPEG stream: Jackson
MPEG stream: High Flying Bird
MPEG stream: Bernard
MPEG stream: The Girl Who Loved The Man Who Robbed The Bank In Santa Fe (and Got Away)

Wheels Within Wheels is the curiously monikered project of a man called Crow (one half of the black doom duo Seidr, whose debut is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) and is a fantastically brutal and blown out collection of isolationist blacknoise buzz, each track a suffocating black hole of sound, the buzz so intense it seems to define the sound, reminding us of Wrath Of The Weak or Paysage D'Hiver, and other sonically like minded bands, in that the BUZZ IS ALL. WWW definitely tempers his black metal buzz with plenty of industrial drone and abstract noise, the opening track in fact is more noise than black metal, but still, there's the buzz, thick swaths of static guitarbuzz, sprawling and tangled into heaving black swells. It's a bit like black metal with the drums removed, and the riffs slowed way down, the distortion cranked way up, although about 6 minutes in, the buzz seems to coalesce into actual riffing, and it's a glorious buzzy crawl, the sound so hot and in-the-red it seems to be constantly peaking, making the sound even more distorted and fractured sounding. And once the sound gathers momentum, it's the perfect black metal, washed out, blurred and blown out, almost like a Merzbow / Tim Hecker / Pyha mash up, and if that doesn't sound fucking bad ass. Weird that when the buzz finally abates it reveals an acoustic guitar strumming away underneath, which has us wondering what else is going on beneath the surface. The next track, "Galvanzied Astral Corpses" is even more distorted, if that's even possible, but instead of sounding heavier or more black, it somehow sounds dreamier, almost shoegazey, like a blackened Nadja or something, the main melody lilting and lovely, but buried beneath layer after layer of heavily distorted riffage. There also seems to be some sort of echo drenched sampled vocals, very haunting and mysterious, but this is totally the sort of stuff that hits the spot, simultaneously heavy and buzzy, but also dreamy and droney and hypnotic, this is not the sort of black metal that induces headbanging, it's the sound that brings on deep trance, this is drifting off tripping out heaviness of the highest order. And the whole record is equally entrancing, impossibly dense and oozing with black buzz, this is the rare black metal record, that while grim and bleak and black and seriously punishingly heavy, it's also droney, and abstract, and weirdly blissed out and dreamy, there's even bass, a rarity in black metal, but it adds to the weight of these jams, and even gives a few of the tracks a sort of groove, but as mentioned above, it's all about the buzz, and metalheads and dronelords can all agree on the power of the buzz, and Wheels Within Wheels is one of the few bands who seem to be creating blackdrone rituals for both. VERY VERY LIMITED. We got our copies (in)directly from the band, but as this came out last year, these could very well be our last copies ever...

Super limited cassette featuring two one man black metal bands from Kentucky, the first, the oddly named Wheels Within Wheels we've raved about before, it's the solo project of Crow from doomlords Seidr, and even though the label describes his 20 minute track as some sort of industrial blackened sickness along the lines of Gnaw Their Tongues, to our ears, WWW continues to push his peculiar brand of blackness into ever more blissed out shoegaze territory, the sound here definitely veers into some noisier and grimmer territory here and there, but it remains epic and majestic, melodic and lovely, warm and fuzzy and washed out, especially the opening movement, way more psychedelic and dreamy than heavy, a pounding lumbering bliss pop dirge that should have folks into Nadja and Jesu and the like suddenly realizing that maybe they do in fact like (some) black metal, and once they're hooked, WWW gradually drags them somewhere much much darker. Merkaba, a before now unknown to us atmospheric black metal outfit counters with his own bit of melodic blackness, a sound the label likens to Fell Voices meets Neil Young which we have to say doesn't sound that far off. There's a definite Crazy Horse vibe, the sound psychedelic and drenched in feedback, long slow smoldering sprawls of rumble and buzz, that build to explosive squalls of heaviness, eventually erupting into dense blurs of black buzz, while still retaining the melancholia of the slower more psychedelic parts. Gorgeous stuff for sure, heavy and heady, a tripped out black buzz that is definitely recommended for fans of WWW and that sort of melodic shoegaze heaviness, although Merkaba sound, at least in places, definitely hews closer to traditional blackness. Great stuff from both bands. And of course, SUPER LIMITED.

MPEG stream: Your Body, Your Blood
MPEG stream: Lament

Two aQ black metal faves join forces for this killer split, Kentucky pagan anarcho vegan one man band Panopticon, and isolationist blackbuzz outfit Wheels Within Wheels (a side project of epic metal outfit Seidr), both offering up some of their best, and strangest material. Up first is Wheels Within Wheels, who unleashes two epic tracks of droned out blissy buzz, the first, "A Burial Of The Mother Of Orion", is downright shoegazey, the riffs so blurry and blown out, they seem to smear into a washed out dronescape of layered buzz, the drums buried in the mix, a murky distant throb, the guitars occasionally coalescing into a monstrous crumbling chug, but then just as quickly blissing back out into total blackbuzzdrone, before peeling back the buzz completely, leaving a long stretch of hushed skeletal guitarscapery, a haunting bit of shimmery drift over a deem ominous low end thrum, which leads directly into "A Splinter Of Hope In The Blackest Of Hearts", which is almost like a continuation of "A Burial", but more melodic, the guitars soaring majestically, but still wreathed in a haze of blurred buzz, growing gradually prettier as the track progresses, it's hard to describe, but it's a weird warm bit of blackbuzz shimmer, and when the vocals finally join in, a mournful croon, the sound is transformed again into a strange buzzy lament. Gorgeous and haunting, and a lot prettier and more washed out than the other WWW record. And it's as if Panopticon decided to follow suit, opening with "The Road To Bergen", which might be the prettiest thing we've heard from him, a mournful, melancholy dirge, dreamy and washed out and super melodic, hazy and almost sun dappled sounding, it's a bit like listening to M83 at 16rpm, a gorgeous blurry, buzzy, dreamy slow build to a soaring super melodic almost Nadja like chorus. So great. And then there's the next track, "From Bergen To Jotunheim Forest" which retains the same lilting dreamy melody, but sets it amidst a much harsher landscape, all buzzing blackened riffage and blasting beats, but the melody drives everything transforming a grim black buzz into something weirdly emotional and strangely pretty, and when the guitars let loose with some wild melodic leads, and some killer harmonies, all over a background of blackbuzz and frantic beats, it's seriously mindblowing, and even 11 minutes of that is not enough. And the record finishes with another strangely pretty sonic missive, this one all clean guitar jangle, woozy chant like vocals, and glistening glimmering melodies, the sound almost liturgical, hazy and gauzy and washed out and impossibly dreamy, peppered with brief blasts of furious black buzz, bit for the most part, strangely lovely. This just might be one of the least grim and black, black metal splits ever, but somehow it also just might be one of our favorites.

MPEG stream: A Burial Of The Mother Of Orion
MPEG stream: The Road To Bergen

Released in 1987, 'Drowning But Learning' keeps many of the same soundtracky elements as his earlier 'The Black Death' album, with the sound of rain, eerie strings and moaning horns, etc. but this time adds some pop sensibility and seperates the record into 14

RealAudio clip: Witchwood
RealAudio clip: Warfields
RealAudio clip: Those Grey Cats Invisible

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

SORRY.

The follow-up to the smash AQ-hit The Lobster Boys -- dozens upon dozens of copies sold here, and counting, no petite potatoes considering that the disc only sold 500 in all of Europe! -- is in fact a follow-up in the best sense. When doesn't return to the dark soundtrack stuff a decade ago that made earlier When albums so beloved of the black metal community. No, When gives us what we want -- sunshiney sike-pop n' electronica incorporating international ethnic sounds into a heavenly yet weird pop concoction. Pretty much The Lobster Boys part II, but with lyrical concepts taken from The Arabian Nights! Those fables and proverbs are rendered with gentle, even gently twee, self-harmonized vocals with a British accented lilt. You'll hear the Beatles, XTC, and some Bowie too. Combine that vocal-pop capability with sampled, shambling Middle Eastern bazaar musicks, jangling exotica and electronics, and you've got When's winning formula on Pearl-Harvest. It's a bit like Tipsy on a magic carpet ride with Andy Partridge doing the vocals. There's some darker, cartoon-wacky surreality thrown in that echoes old, disturbing When stuff, but that's almost a warped Disney element that works in perfect contrast to the pop-perfection of most of the songs. If you're not already one of the many AQ customers to have acquired a copy of The Lobster Boys (or Psychedelic Wunderbaum, or WriterCakeBox, or...) then you maybe unaware of the who and what of When. It's the project of Norwegian Lars Pederson, an eclectic eccentric musical mastermind if there ever was one. Here he sings and plays almost all the instruments -- keys, zither, flute, xylophone, programming, etc. -- with a little help from friends making guest appearances on accordion and guitar. We've liked all his stuff in the past, but this sampledelic pop niche he's been exploring recently is most impressive, and certainly the most sweetly satisfying.

MPEG stream: Prince Kamar
MPEG stream: Cost Of Pleasure
MPEG stream: Pearl-Harvest

'Prefab Wreckage' was release between 'The Black Death' and 'Drowning But Learning' and shows Pederson's gradual move towards songs, not so much the pop of 'The Lobster Boys', but more a sort of structured chaos, as opposed to When's more abstract

RealAudio clip: Hands Of Orlac
RealAudio clip: Dark Abyss
RealAudio clip: Prefab Wreckage

Strange project, this. The lastest album by Norwegian experimental musican Lars Pedersen, who has garnered praise from the black metal elite (including a profile in Nordic Vision magazine a while back), and has collaborated with Chris Cutler in the past. '...Wunderbaum' features lyrics from texts by not one but *two* Great Beasts: Aleister Crowley and Tom Wolfe! That, plus the fact that it's released on a label run by the guy from Ulver, and the aforementioned praise in black metal circles, means that there must be something distinctly sinister lurking within, although on the surface the music appears as very theatrical electronica referencing hyperdelic cartoon music. Ulver playing Raymond Scott? Another bizarre Jester release that we can only quizzically ponder and recommended.

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

SORRY. Before When's recent AQ record of the week 'The Lobster Boys' was released, When's sole member Lars Pederson had already been making amazing experimental music for almost a decade. We first heard about When from the completely baffling Norwegian metal magazine Nordic Vision, who heaped nothing but praise on this band we had never even heard of. And while this older stuff doesn't necessarily sound all that much like poppy 'The Lobster Boys', it's still pretty intense stuff. 'The Black Death', released in 1992, is a single 40 minute piece, that blends military percussion, strings, foot steps, a choir of angelic voices, weird orc-ish growling and muttering, jaw harp, rain, rattles, chimes, woodpeckers, and all sorts of unexpected sounds. Sounds like it would be perfect incidental music for a Dario Argento film, or City of Lost Children, or a movie about Jack the Ripper, or any sort of mystery/thriller set in the grimy dangerous streets of some 19th century city. Dark and ominous and eerie. Tense and creepy, swirling musical malevolence.

RealAudio clip: The Black Death (excerpt)

The band's name is When, but the question really is *What?* As in, what the hell is this? Totally amazing, for one thing, but beyond that...? One thing we can say about When is that we NEVER know what to expect from 'em. On this new album, the music is a When is the brainchild of Norwegian musician/sampler artist Lars Pedersen; he's been at it since the early '80s (after quitting a new wave/Industrial band called Holy Toy) and has released 8+ albums that have ranged from ambient soundscapes to prog rock, yet have steadily grown more and more pop. When's previous full-length release, "Psychedelic Wunderbaum", dabbled in pop sounds, if you consider Carl Stalling cartoon music meets crazed electronica "pop"! But on The Lobster Boys, Lars really lets his Beatles / Beach Boys inspiration come to the fore. His British (not Norwegian) accented singing is placed into some far-from conventional settings -- over, say, an Ethiopiques sampled loop (really!), or over crazy wild drumming most pop songs never get to feature. Lars and several friends handle sampling, organ, guitar, bass, xylophone, drums, vocals, melodica, viola, etc... all culminating in an utterly amazing final unlisted bonus track, 15+ minutes of trancey middle eastern samples and effects that build up into a distorted storm of loud electric guitar feedback skree, noisy and yet blissfully rhythmic throughout. Lastly, we have to say: how weird is it that we can only get this album from heavy metal distributors? Because it's on the Norwegian label Jester, which is run by Garm from (former) black metal legends Ulver, some from the metal community have noticed the record, but we worry it may go under-recognized by other intrepid listeners (except for, of course, AQ and you!) Truly, we never imagined how much we'd come to love this decidedly non-metal, fantastic band. (And if you want to catch up on When's previous work, we also stock "PW" and the When best of/rarities double cd compilation "The Unblessed World Of When: WriterCakeBox".)

RealAudio clip: Flower Jam
RealAudio clip: Instant Flute
RealAudio clip: Cut
RealAudio clip: The Greatest Sorrow On Earth
RealAudio clip: (untitled)

When is the (mostly) one man project of one Lars Pederson, who has been recording as When for almost 20 years now. This two disc collection (released on Garm from Ulver's Jester label) gathers songs and pieces and parts spanning When's entire existence. From

RealAudio clip: The Black Death Jingle
RealAudio clip: The Dark Abyss
RealAudio clip: Warfields

[ aquarius records catalogue — W ]