[ 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 151 through 200 of 1423.

Long awaited newest volume of Chris Ware's unmatchably beautiful comic. This issue is really large (11" x 18") so any mailorders for it will be shipped separate from any other items you may be ordering, and the shipping will be $4.00 (sorry).

I was completely crushed when I heard that Chris Ware had decided to end his Acme Novelty Company / Jimmy Corrigan comic series. A very very special and moving story by an astounding artist. At times, brutally heartwrenching, at others darkly humorous. Honestly this has brought tears to my eyes more than a few times. Completely redefining and elevating the form of the comic book. Ah, what could Mr. Ware do for a finale? Wrap the complete story up in a beautiful hardcover with a fold-out poster / dustjacket. Of course, sorely missing from this format are the added features and embellishments found in the individual comics such as the highly detailed and entertaining faux ads and extra stories. If you've not yet discovered the greatness of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, here's your chance to jump right in head first and experience it from beginning to end. So absolutely positively recommended.

And now for something slightly different...this, the umpteenth (13th, to be precise) album from the always killer David S. Ware Quartet is a bit of a departure, in that it incorporates an electronic element into their free blowing jazz. Pianist

RealAudio clip: Jazz Fi-Sci
RealAudio clip: Corridors & Parallels
RealAudio clip: Somewhere
RealAudio clip: Mother May You Rest In Bliss

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

SORRY. His 4th album. The stellar players: Matthew Shipp, Whit Dickey, William Parker.

Great new one from saxophonist Ware and his stellar quartet: Matt Shipp, William Parker, Susie Ibarra. This quartet's last two records were on the now-defunct Homestead label, the ex-head of which just said to heck with indie rock and started up Aum Fidelity to concentrate on the free jazz (there's also a new double cd out with William Parker as leader) -- more power to him.

Our Reggae section is by no means gigantic but we like to think that what we lack in quantity we make up in quality. But one thing that is apparent about our reggae section is that it's all about the classics and it's very rare that we hear newly recorded reggae that sounds as good to our ears as the old stuff. Sadly most new reggae (even by those who once delivered the good stuff) is riddled with cheesy keyboards and ultra-slick production while most newer dub is plagued by a generic paint-by-numbers ambience that lacks the grit and guts of what makes roots reggae and classic dub so special. So we were super psyched to find out that this Wareika Hill Sounds record we've been falling in love with was not some classic reissue as we first thought because of its totally warm and authentic sound, but is in fact a brand new recording by Calvin Cameron, who has played with the likes of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation and Light of Saba. Smoking dubwise roots reggae that can not be denied! With an element of afrobeat in the fold (Tony Allen even makes an appearance!), there is a warmth and strength in these songs that has kept us coming back to this record over and over again. By far our favorite new reggae recording in a long time!

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We've been trying to get enough copies of anything on the amazing Sylvan Screams Analog label to review and list, but previous releases were so limited, that we were only able to get a couple. And while they're just as limited, we did now manage to get a handful of the two most recent releases, this one is super raw, primitive old school black metal, the label references Blazebirth Hall and Les Legions Noires, and it most definitely has that feel, the guitars swarm insect like, the drums skeletal, the bass inaudible, the vokills a buried rasp, like a lot of that stuff it's about emotion and energy, the feel and the vibe, and the vibe here is definitely grim and frostbitten, even though these guys (this guy?) hail from Georgia. They somehow manage to channel France and Scandinavia, into something equally kvlt, blown out and brittle, sounding like it was recorded in practice space, a forest, or a cave, the second track is a weird creepy dirge, all stumbling lumber, and frosty black buzz, the vocals in-the-red, the whole sound blurring into blacknoize before settling back into that death march creep, only to eventually explode into another blast of galloping black buzz. LIMITED TO 44 COPIES!!! Each one hand numbered.

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Well, "Columbodia, Missouri's" own Warhammer posse showed up not too long ago here at aQ enroute to all corners of the country and they stopped in long enough to rock the asses of the San Francisco scene in a wickedly intimate "bus show" (AQ pal and former A Minor Forest-er has a huge mobile venue, IN A BUS, with a stage, a solar powered generator and an engine that runs on vegetable oil!) and to hand us off a a big pile of their new self-released second cd entitled An Ethereal Oracle. By the looks and sounds of it, the title holds true to the old adage "what you see is what you get". That is if you can figure out what an ethereal oracle is -musically- speaking. While the mind-melting debut Uber Om was more of a big loud thud upside your melon, An Ethereal Oracle is more like some forbidden fruit. That something or someone, you've been warned about, you know it's dangerous, potentially deadly, but you just can't resist. It's the temptation of the darkside, the dangerous, you know you're in for it, you know you're done for, you just can't ever be sure when. Or how! The record starts off with a long scary radio broadcast track, you know, like one of those Emergency Broadcast System things warning you about "the big storm approaching", and just when you start feeling REALLY nervous, you start to get dizzy, everything becomes blurry, your head is spinning, your ears are ringing, you feel flush, you start to sweat, goosebumps, the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end, you try to resist, fight it off, but it's too much, you are completely under its spell. You let the jagged guitar lines, birds chirping in the distance, strange what-the-fuck acoustic folk fuckery, drugged out laid-back droned-out blissful warmness and full on red-line space jam experimental shredding pummelry drag you into the darkness. Before you know it, you're bruised and bloody, naked and tied up with broken guitar strings, ears ringing and bleeding, you have strange WH48K images burned into your flesh, laying atop a pile of bloodstained broken drumsticks, surrounded by a Stonehenge like circle of towering totem like amps, in front of which stand the mysterious members of Warhammer, smiling wickedly as they prepare to do it all over again. And that's only the first half of the cd! Limited to 500 intricately illustrated/hand printed/hand assembled copies, and we only have about 30 left of the ones we got. So act fast...

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A few months ago, Andee received a cd-r in the mail. In a spray painted DVD case, with a photo of Patrick Swayze inside. Hmmm. The band was called Warhammer 48K (the name of a sci-fi miniatures wargame as Allan would later inform us) and the record was KILLER. So killer in fact that Andee had already begun trying to figure out a way to put it out, and Jason (having heard it from Andee) was even considering starting his own label to put it out. Well, before either of those things could happen, the band already had gotten a friend's label to press them up and suddenly showed up in our store with a box of cds. Well, for a record to have that much of an effect on Andee and Jason, you can just imagine what a serious slab of kick ass rock this must be. Falling somewhere between the indie mathy metallic crush of bands like Unwound, Lync, the Narrows, and Karp and the post rock sludge metal of bands like Conifer, Baroness, and Tides, but with their own unique sense of dynamics and some strange and strangely original riffs. From loping minor key slowcore, to super dense complex dual guitar riffing, to pounding full on metal, to lurching sludge rock, to noisy indie mathrock, to massive squalls of downtuned riffing and squealing feedback, this is heavy and epic, catchy and weird, noisy and freaked out, super dynamic and totally original.

MPEG stream: Get Bodacious
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The pride (or is it "the scourge"?) of Columbia, MO, the slippery spazzy sludgy spacy (post)rock combo known as Warhammer 48k return with this crazy 3" cd-r limited to 666 copies. Knife Hits picks up where they left off on their recent full length, Uber Om, which was a massive hit 'round here; packing all the nooks and crannies with a big smear of gooey dripping chaos. Pounding rhythms and thick sludgy guitars, a sort of indie rock but dipped in heavy metal and rolled in jagged shards of punk rock and then splashed in the face with a bracing cup of icy cold POP. Heavy but not metal, catchy but not poppy, sludgy but not 'sludge'. The bastard offspring of all the 'rock's, post, math, space, indie and of course HARD! This (literally) compact disc comes nestled in a 3" petri dish, the top half has a transparent sticker that makes it look like a little piece of stained glass, the bottom half is layered in colored wax drippings, over some abstract artwork that makes it look kind of creepy and smeary - but perfect for the music (barely) contained within!

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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. Debut cd from this Boston doom metal band (which we have been waiting for ever since we reviewed their "Priestess" 12" on list #99, which we still have in stock). In a word: heavy!! Devastatingly so. Compares well to very early Cathedral and Electric Wizard in that department. Indeed, they're going on tour with the Wizard! But their heaviness is moderated with occasional quiet parts -- piano, acoustic guitar, jazz bass interludes, all nice moves giving them an original sound, enhancing the heaviness when the electric guitars crush back to the fore, while also giving "As Heaven Turns To Ash" a bit of a psychedelic, '70s cosmic vibe. Highly recommended to those in the mood for doom! Our good customer John Botz liked the record so much that he emailed us this mini-essay about it, which we asked him if we could print since it expands nicely (and enthusiastically) upon the points made above: "Let me say up front that of all of the retro movements in recent memory, this stoner/doom metal thing has me scratching my head the most. Yes, I admit that I really enjoy some of this "new"/old stoner metal myself, esp. bands like Eternal Elysium, but as great as old Sabbath was, I think that even Ozzy, Tony, Bill, and Geezer themselves, have to shrugging a bit to the degree in which their sludgy sound has been deified at the turn of the millenium. The other thing about this "movement" that amazes me is how little resemblance a lot of this new doom bears to the original (but, then again, I guess every retro movement only resembles that which spawned it by no more than half, since anything taken out of time by a generation or more is bound to be somewhat removed from the times from whence it came), for example, the "original" retro Sabbathy tribute stoner band was Saint Vitus, which was already quite a bit slower than most vintage Sabbath. Also, many of these new doom bands use gravelly, deathmetalesque vocals (i.e. Burning Witch, who to me, suck beyond being good, if you know what I mean) which bear little resemblance to any circa 1970 vocals, let alone Ozzy's plaintive wail which, in addition to the sludgy guitars and bass heavy sound is what I associate with stoner/doom metal. All of that said, the new Warhorse is damn good, and may actually live up to most of the pre-release publicity! Warhorse's website claims that this apocalyptic doom metal includes some of the "most vicious (I originally typed "viscous," but I suppose you could say that, too) sounds ever put to vinyl...Crushing Bass with Obscenely Overdriven Guitar (yes, they capitalized those words) melted with intense psychedelic effects...bludgeoning doom mixed with soothing, trance-inducing interludes...(sounds like) death metal on quaaludes..." blah blah blah...you've heard it all before, only this album may deliver the goods better than any other that's tried to make such cocksure claims...no, really! Most of the myriad albums that try to emulate the dynamics of "Master of Reality" come off sounding weak to me, but all of the quiet "flowers and beads" interludes on this album are quite effective, and authentic-sounding, with an eastern flavor, like you really are walking into a c.1970 drug den with beads hanging in the doorway. And you gotta love titles like "Lysergic Communion." The vocals? Well, they're of the gravelly kind, but they're effectively recessed into the sound stage so that they are not obtrusive. Anyway, you guys may already know all of this stuff, but I just thought I'd let you know that this collection of doomy dirges may very well be the best I've heard in this new retro stoner/doom metal craze -- in fact (throat clear), okay, here I go (drum roll, please) giving hostages to fortune by making a hyperbolic claim: this could be the stoner/doom metal album to end all such albums."--John Botz

RealAudio clip: Lysergic Communion
RealAudio clip: Doom's Bride

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

SORRY. Super doomy psych-sludge metal from underground heroes WarHorse, in the stoned vein of Saint Vitus and High On Fire. Side One is the title track, which d/evolves into a jam. Side Two tackles an old Wargasm tune. Handsome sleeve as well.

Denver's hip hop punk rock retards the Warlock Pinchers, who flourished in the late '80s/early '90s, are either the stupidest band ever, or the most genius, probably the former, although we think it's some impossible/improbable mix of the two. You may have heard their classic anthem "Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse", a heady, hooky dose of borderline homophobic Smiths bashing, but like all of their jams, it's all in good (stupid) fun. Their proper albums are chuck full of big dumb beats, crunchy metal riffs, big dumb rapping, and irresistable choruses, they're one of those bands who practically everyone we know LOVES, which makes way less sense once you hear them. Bomb The Franklin Mint is tough to recommend to anyone but diehard fans, as it's a collection of early recordings, demos and practice sessions. That's not to say that this doesn't rule, it does, but it rules in a way that maybe only WP fans can really understand. Imagine very early Beastie Boys, but way more simplistic, the beats totally primitive, the guitar playing rudimentary, and the lyrics, alternatingly ridiculous, over the top, offensive and/or funny as fuck. And on these early jams, all that stuff is even more magnified, the sound even more raw and lo-fi and capital D dumb, but so fun and funny and infectious and fuck it, AWESOME. We'd probably recommend tracking down Deadly Kun Fu Action / Pinch A Loaf and Circusized Peanuts first, the proper records do in fact rule, big time, fucked up and funny and funky, but listening to this, even the demos and practice sessions sound pretty bad ass, but then we LOOOOOVE the Warlock Pinchers, so we're not exactly objective. So fans, buy this, you definitely want it, especially for the old stuff, the first tape, most of which we'd never heard, for the rest of you, give it a try, check out the sound samples, prepare yourself for some awesomely inane over the top lo-fi goofiness, and you never know, you just might end up as weirdly obsessed as we are... [Only one sound sample, per the band's request]

MPEG stream: We Got The Beast (Demo)

As it says in the cd booklet, Pure Unholy Black Metal! Indeed. Some seriously grim and frosty blackness from these legendary / infamous Finnish black metallers, totally kvlt, primitive and raw, recorded way back in 1998, murky and blown out, the production fucked and ever fluctuating, the drums way louder than everything, the guitars blurred and black and so buzzy they almost become black drones, but the atmosphere, fuck, this stuff is so dark and haunting and mesmerizing and mysterious, they seriously don't make music like this anymore, even the grimmest of the grim these days, can't conjure up the same sort of blackness, the same sort of hellish hateful ambience, and for all it's lo-fi-ness and sonic shortcomings, the 'sound' is untouchable, it's the sort of blackness we can never get enough of, total trance inducing drone drenched heaviness, that more than a decade later pretty much puts the rest of the black metal scene to shame...

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Another reissue from this legendary Finnish black metal horde, Womb Of Pestilence was their second and final record, and is another frosty blast of buzzing black malevolence, sonically similar to The First Possession, in that it's murky and muddy and the drums are way too loud, and the riffs bleed into one another, but it's actually a bit more melodic, while remaining seriously necro. Warloghe are one of the few non French bands that truly sounds like they could have been a member of the Black Legions, think Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre, Torgeist, the same sort of atmosphere, the same sort of raw primitive vibe, the feral lo-fi fury, the hellish ambience, in fact, unlike the relentless blasting of their debut, things get weird and creepy and downright experimental once in a while, like on the freaky creepy "Monolith Clad In Fog", a twisted drift of guitar harmonics, black drones, pulsing rhythms and raspy incantations, or the strange crooned almost operatic vocals on "Corpse-Altar-Light", but those moments are indeed brief, only serving to enhance the already grim atmosphere of Warloghe's "Pure Unholy Black Metal".

MPEG stream: Opened And Tainted Graves
MPEG stream: Underneath The Seven-Fold Eye
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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. Would you happen to be seeking some really epic, catchy, melodic, complex, amazing music that just happened to encorporate elements of Black Metal before Black Metal even existed? That sounds like an impossible request to fill, doesn't it? But we've got it! Look no further than this ultra obscure, short-lived California band's groundbreaking debut mini-album from 1983. Seriously, Black Metal historians know that a lot of the BM touchstones Warlord practiced predated genre titans Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate by years. A little aQ back story, once upon a time many moons ago, it seemed that only our own Mr. Connors and his friend Dustin Donaldson (of I Am Spoonbender and co-founder of tech-prog-math-metallists Thought Industry) knew about (let alone loved!) the band Warlord. Through proximity to their gushing, Cup got to hear Warlord a whole bunch, but it only took a couple of listens to get her hooked too. So much so that she's been known to burst out singing "Winter Tears" without warning! Proto Metal, Power Metal, call it what you will, Warlord's music embodies epic European melodicism, veiled mysticism and a haunted romanticism. It sweeps the listener up in its neo-classical movements, each one possessed with an almost medieval feel and an ever present doomed, tragic tone. The band members fearlessly tread in flamboyant theatrics, assuming mighty pseudonyms (such as Destroyer, Damian King and Thunder Child) and suitably audacious stage garb. So how did this band fall through the proverbial cracks? Well, keep in mind that this was back in the olden days (when there were truly underground music scenes, before the age of mp3s, cdrs and the internet... alright, 'nuf jokes about us being grannies and gramps!). Beloved as they are, cassettes and vinyl lps were inarguably more labor intensive and cumbersome vehicles to spread the word about a band you loved. It was even harder once said releases vanished into the record label's out-of-print bin. So needless to say, all of the abovementioned individuals were quite elated when this mysterious reissue appeared before them. Most of these songs are from their long-gone first mini-album, but there's a few extra fan pleasers such as the non-album single "Mrs. Victoria" plus lyrics (so that we can all sing along accurately). Unfortunately this reissue does suffer from a few disappointments -- namely rather flimsy digipak packaging and a not so hot mastering job (there's occasional slight distortion of the bad kind). Not complaining tho', the original was a less than stellar production unto itself, suffering from among other things a less than impactful final mix. And yet, all in all, the greatness of the songs still shines through!!

MPEG stream: Winter Tears
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Heavy Karp/Melvins-style rock from up Portland way, on this four-track ep that we're listing mainly to point out that these guys are lame for naming their band Warlord when they should have known that the name was already taken by the far superior *real* Warlord, who recorded Yes-meets-Maiden prog metal for Metal Blade back in the '80s.

Oh yeah! The Guerssen label strikes gold again with another rad reissue of totally obscure psych-pop, this time out of France, circa 1975. Unless you're one of the two hundred people who actually got a copy of this private press record the first time around there is no way you (like us) have ever heard Warlus before. The timing couldn't be better on this reissue, as its stoned and breezy sounds would be so at home in today's underground. Imagine if Ariel Pink or Kurt Vile were coming of age in the '70s, this might be the home recording they would have made. We also hear hints of the more stoned and drifty side of Thee Oh Sees, even. While this duo were French they sang in English and this, combined with the group's lo-fi and D.I.Y aesthetic, makes Walrus sound almost like some kind of amazing proto-Shrimper release. We're reminded of the psych-pop of Roger Rodier and, at times this makes us imagine a more melodic Jandek joining forces with fellow outsider Bob Trimble, covering Kinks songs! Or something equally awesome. The songs are intimate and woozy, with nice sound experiments sprinkled throughout. We've been hooked on this the second we heard it. Highly recommended!

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In our reviews of the two most recent compilations on Castle Face, the Group Flex flexidisc book set Son Of Flex, and the Velvet Underground tribute, we singled out a group called Warm Soda, as being a new favorite, and in both reviews we mused "Who is this band?" And now we're kicking ourselves for not realizing it, but Warm Soda is the new group / project from big time aQ fave Matthew Melton, who has played in both Bare Wires and Snake Flower 2, as well as releasing a clutch of killer solo jams. And we're happy to report that Warm Soda pretty much falls in line sonically with all of those groups/records. Jangly garage pop, that unlike much of the current crop of garage rocker newbies, is much more beholden to classic seventies power pop and AM radio rock, the sounds here so genuinely seventies sounding, it would be easy to believe this was in fact a reissue of some long lost power pop gem. And really for all its garaginess and all of it's fuzzy riffage, Warm Soda is all about classic songsmithery, and hooks galore. Fans of another aQ fave Purling Hiss (whose new record is also reviewed this week) should flip for this big time. Think Dwight Twilley band, the Kinks, the Stooges, Cheap Trick, the Mice, even modern groups mining the same influences, like Redd Kross, and yeah, Purling Hiss, total Yellow Pills garage pop radness, with plenty of swagger and crunch, jangle and pound, but the sort of hooks most other bands would KILL for, and which Melton seems to toss off like it ain't nothing. Just check out the samples and you'll be hooked! Hard to pick out a favorite track here, every listen, we become obsessed with a new song, or re-obsessed with a previous fave, needless to say, this is one of those rare records, where EVERY song is a potential fave, and in a perfect alternate universe, a total radio hit. And really, it's not just the music, but the sound, the production, appropriately lo-fi, but not shitty low fidelity, more like old analog tape style, early reel to reel 4 track, the sound lush and rich, and when things get distorted, the sounds ooze and bleed into each other, the way only old school analog recordings seem to. Along with the Purling Hiss, and the Tony Molina solo record, another contender for pop record of the year on the same list!! Includes a download coupon as well.

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Hooray! Warm Soda! We were largely captivated around here at aQ HQ by these local garage popsters previous opus Young & Reckless Hearts last year (in fact it appeared on this particular aQer's best of the year list!) and just a little over a year later we are gifted with another giddy dose of nostalgic, high energy pop songcraft, all endearing naivete and lovelorn starry eyed wonder, like the house band at the best coming-of-age middle school prom you never went to, clad in glittery cumberbunds & slightly too small tuxedos (but it a cool way). Equal parts garage rock, boogie woogie, classic powerpop, stuttering '70s punk & glam rock glitter stomp, Warm Soda recall uber-classics like The Buzzcocks, T. Rex, radio pop era Clash, Big Star, maybe even early Strokes?? - all while retaining a sound all their own, wrapped perfectly in a murky syrupy production - the vocals way up front with the tightly wound drumming & punchy guitar work serving the perfect backing. There's a sense of "simpler times" running through Warm Soda's music (even down to the classic American diner themed album cover) almost like wistful doo-wop/girl group songsmithery funneled through a wilder 1970s lens, the lyrics all yearning and lovestruck. In a way, they're sort of like if the TV show Happy Days was a band! Anyway, whichever ridiculous metaphor you choose to go with, it's probably best not to overthink rock music this simple, fun and pure. Just pop it on and feel great for half an hour. What better recommendation is there??

MPEG stream: I Wanna Know Her
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Record number two from local retro garage power pop geniuses Warm Soda, fronted by none other than Mr. Matthew Melton, who avid readers of the aQ list no doubt remember from his previous outfits, the equally genius Bare Wires and Snake Flower 2. But with Warm Soda, Melton and crew continue to hone a practically perfect strain of Yellow Pills style power pop, that sounds, right down to the production, and the songwriting, straight out of the seventies. In fact, if this was 1978, we can only imagine these guys would be HUGE, playing with Dwight Twilley and Cheap Trick, and heck, it's not hard to imagine a Warm Soda Live At Budokan record, cuz holy shit, if we dug the first Warm Soda record, this one is even better. In fact, EVERY time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what we're playing, and often ends up surprised that it's in fact actually a NEW band. But it's easy to see why, Warm Soda's sound is pitch perfect, jangly fuzzy guitars, woozy super melodic basslines, simple propulsive drumming, and Melton's whispery croon, and of course the SONGS, which are amazing, so catchy, the sort of songs, that even on first listen, sound like you've heard them before, and get immediately lodged in your head, and even after only hearing them a couple times, you'll find yourself humming them days later. Assuming it was something you might have just heard on the radio. The production too, somehow manages to sound modern, while still sounding exactly like some classic vintage recording from back in the day. And the way the choruses are all fuzzy and washed out and reverb drenched, it's hard to explain, but they seem to just soar. We could go on and on and on, as we like to do, and describe this record song by song, but why bother, if you dug the first record, or any of Melton's other projects, you NEED this, and if you've never heard anything, all it should take is a couple of the samples below to convince you, that like us, you might have just found your new favorite retro-garage power pop record!!!

MPEG stream: Going In Circles
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Local favorites. Ex-Harm Farm. A bestseller.

Warmdesk is the work of Chicago electron technician Bill Selman, who has produced this 30 minute EP for the Irish Fallt label of Force Inc / Mille Plateaux influenced techno minimalism loaded with conveyor belt shifts of ring modulated tones, splattering dub delay patterns, and fragile Sahko shards of electronics.

RealAudio clip: Non Commercial 88.5 FM

Not sure how we managed to properly review anything from these Kentucky weirdos (just a tossed off two line review for a previous cd on Troubleman), but holy shit, just discovered a little stash of these, their 2007 two track full length on Release The Bats, and it's a head caving chunk of tripped out noise drenched schizophrenic collaged avant psychedelia. Two sprawling tracks, the first, a nearly 15 minute epic, beginning with a barrage of serious sonic weirdness, slipping from white noise hiss, to twisted tape experiments, warped voices, crumbling distortion, chaotic noise, eventually morphing into some gorgeously lugubrious tarpit riffage, which in turn develops into some hazy, druggy, slowed down psychedelic noise rock, which then begets some pounding feral punk rock crunch, before the whole thing begins to collapse and crumble into a slowly decaying sprawl of stumbling, creeping sludge and noise and skree. The second track, even longer at over 16 minutes, is some sort of woozy, warbly outsider noise folk, like No Neck and Avarus and Sylvester Anfang channeling Captain Beefheart, but reeeeealllly slowly, and abstractly, rubbery detuned bass, atonal guitar strum, jagged shards of distorted chordal clang, swirls of tripped out FX, moaned crooned garbled vox, wreathed in echo and delay, the whole thing creeping and crawling and slithering through gauzy fields of distorted whir and twisted abstract psych bliss drift. Wow. And only got a few copies left...

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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. This strangely named band makes some strangely contorted indie rock with anguished male singing and churning guitars. A post-punk and post-rock head-on collision. Personally we prefer the absolutely bizarre disjointed (or is it doublejointed?) control/catharsis of Chicago's deconstruction crew U.S. Maple. But if you're seeking something with a little more Kentucky swamp sludginess, Warmer Milks might fit yer bill!

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Leave Your Wet
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Brand new ultra limited full length from Warmth, who really couldn't have chosen a more appropriate monicker, as the sounds here are indeed warm, dark, swirly, humid, shimmery, a drifting blackened dronescape of elongated tones, blurred melody, and smoldering low end. Not really dense or heavy or blown out, instead, the sounds are hushed, muted, dense and deep, barely there, a whirring whispery smear of sound, industrial but only slightly, machinelike, but simultaneously organic, a haunting otherworld of looped rumbles and layered clouds and swirls of melodic fragments, and constantly shifting textures, a warm, lush, soft noise, rife with what sound like field recordings, but could also be mechanical detritus, creaks, groans, clicks, even those sounds dialed way back, just another bit of hazy grit added to the already washed out sprawl of dreamlike ambient dronedrift. Privacy From God is a strange hybrid of sounds that in other hands would be cranked up, doused in distortion and spewed from massive speakers, but Warmth take those same sounds and pull them apart into microscopic clusters of dreamy ambient minutae, soothing, surreal, softly undulating, hushed and looped expanses of near static, frozen in time, dreamdrone minimalism. So nice. Packaged in a clear plastic oversized clam shell case, with silver offset printing on black vellum paper. Hi-bias chrome tapes with silver labels. And... LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!

Warmth seem to exist only in the realm of split 7"s. We're sure they probably have a handful of cd-r's or cassette tape releases (actually at least one cd too), but this is the third split we've gotten from these guys, and this will probably be the third time we talk about how we want o hear more than one song! The Warmth track here is indeed warm, beginning as a slow smoldering, barely there shimmer, but over the course of the side, the sound intensifies, getting more abrasive, more caustic and crunchy, eventually building to a sort of Wolf Eyes rumble, which is soon streaked with jagged shards of feedback, and swooping upper register tones, all smeared across the roiling buzzing crunch of the background drone. We can only imagine what might have happened if this were an lp instead of a 7" and the track was allowed to sprawl and spread and mutate for another 15 or 20 minutes. The flipside comes from a band with the tongue twisting monicker Medroxy Progesterone Acetate, which a quick internet search revealed as a drug to decrease the production of Testosterone and to reduce the sex drive in males, aka "Chemical Castration" sometimes given to convicted rapists and sex offenders. Hmmm... So what would something like MPA sound like? Maybe like this, a murky, fuzzy, muddy sprawl of rumbles and whirs, haunting melodic swells, squalls of glitch and buzz, teapot whistle melodies, disembodied voices, woozy, stuttering loops, tape hiss and sea sick warble, all beneath a gauzy lo-fi haze. Quite nice actually, if not a bit creepy. Both tracks, and both bands are quite recommended, this 7"s is definitely a good taster, and yeah, we still want to hear more Warmth, and now we, ummm, want more Medroxy Progesterone Acetate... Beautiful die cut silkscreened sleeve, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! most likely already out of print, we have a handful... LIMITED TO 300 COPIES

A brand new, super limited head to head meeting between these two sonically similar underground noisemakers, trafficking in the dronier dreamier side of modern abstract 'noise'... Warmth are up first, and deliver a murky chunk of melodic drone, like some classic pop song, that had been transferred from tape to tape about a thousand times, before being dubbed onto a 20 year old cassette left in the glove compartment of your car for the last decade, then played back at the wrong speed, a gloriously lugubrious glacial crawl, the muted melody pulsing beneath a constantly shifting sonic sea of low end thrum, distant field recordings and washed out hiss and buzz. Robe counter with a sonically similar chunk of sound, haunting and playful at the same time, muddy melodies, and what sounds like horns, it actually sounds like some Carl Stalling cartoon music played at 16rpm, warbly and off kilter, murky and blurry, a drawled moonlit soundscape of twisted smeared ambience, muffled percussion, and mysteriously fragmented melodies. Packaged in a super elaborate multi paneled sleeve, printed with metallic silver ink on black, sealed with a black wax seal and including a purple and black on black insert. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

Another blast of Yellow Swans, this time splitting a 7" with the appropriately monickered outfit Warmth. Yellow Swans here are on the noisy side, but even at their noisiest, there is much going on below the surface that keeps their sound from devolving into mere 'noise'. A crumbling and gritty distorted lowend soundscape, noisy and blown out, but murky and muddy with thick synthy swells and surprisingly sweet melodies buried under the roiling clouds of damaged guitars and fried electronics. Harsh and heavy, but also quite subtly dreamy. Warmth take the opposite path, offering up almost nothing at first, just the sound of tape hiss, and bits of found sound, like a field recording, before eventually bits of rumble and whir and static and crackle begin to surface, as do distant high end creaks and haunting swells of barely there drone, the whole thing very murky and mysterious. Near the end, some very strange Star Trek like FX are introduced, sort of alien and angular, giving the Warmth track a bit of a sci-fi vibe. Cool stuff. Packaged in an eye popping cover with virtually no information. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Already sold out and out of print, so once these are gone, they are gone for good.

Maybe best known for counting actress Shannon Sossamon as a member, Warpaint managed to downplay any sort of celebrity hype and create a brooding doomic chunk of gloomy murky indie rock loveliness. Equal parts shimmery shoegaze, mumbly slowcore, and soft focus noiserock, the band slip easily from hushed whispery jangle to full on psychedelic freakout to classic fuzzy sixties pop. These six songs are super varied, but do manage to sound perfect together. "Stars" is all Mazzy Star meets Blonde Redhead, glimmering, moody and minor key, the vocal harmonies so lush and angelic, the music perfectly warm and lugubrious. "Elephants" features weirdly processed vocals, over heavy drumming, chiming guitars, lots of reverb and delay, and gets all Sonic Youthy part way through. "Billie Holiday" might be the best track on the record, so warm and druggy and dreamy, with sixties girl group vox, muted guitars, droning synth/strings, and a killer main hook. Although "Krimson" might be a contender too, with it's looped sounding main melody, throbbing bass, and super emotive vocals, the sound is very early nineties indie rock, but manages to sound all modern at the same time, and so so good. A super fantastic ep for sure. Surprised Warpaint aren't way more popular than they are. Could be because this was originally self released in a super limited run, and is only now getting reissued, so odds are, a record this cool won't stay a secret for long....

MPEG stream: Billie Holiday
MPEG stream: Beetles
MPEG stream: Krimson

Ever since their Exquisite Corpse ep from a while back, we've been pretty much totally smitten with Warpaint, a witchy, washed out, slowcore female four piece from LA, whose sound plays like a much more mysterious and mature take on the whole hazy reverb heavy dream pop that seems to be so ubiquitous these days. Like on that ep, the sound on The Fool is gorgeously languid, dark and haunting, the music is muted and minimal, guitars unfurl lazily, the drums mostly simple, but occasionally augmented by extra percussion, little flurries of tribal rhythms, and the vocals, so emotional and ethereal, drifting wraithlike over jangly guitars, spidery melodies, and soft billows of bass, hints of Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead, the Breeders, surface here and there, but it's usually in the form of a borrowed bit of guitar sound, or a stray bit of melody, the sound of Warpaint manages to sound lush, while remaining washed out and woozy, pop songs blurred into impressionistic sonic smears, drum machines churn out muted beats, while guitars chime over the top, almost-krautrock grooves become blissed out dreampop drifts, acoustic guitars swirl and shimmer, gnarled bits of angular riffage collide with powerful dramatic croons, the whole thing a constantly shifting songsuite of gloriously dour, folk flecked, minimal dreamdrift downer rock. Breathtaking.

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It's been 4 years since Warpaint's full length debut, The Fool, and this beguiling girl group hasn't lost any of their dreamy mystique, despite gunning for a lusher and glossier production. Sonically, the band is tighter than ever before, more centered rhythmically, and wielding a greater prowess on electronic and atmospheric elements. But they still have a dark pop witchiness that comes out in interesting ways, not just in the moody swirling hypnotic foundations of their songs, but in dubby bass-centered jams like "Disco/Very", that shows the band only getting stronger and fiercer with age. Their sound more highly polished, Warpaint still channel bands like Electrolane and Blonde Redhead in their best moments, but are taking it a step further in defining their sound and completely owning it. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Love Is To Die
MPEG stream: Disco/Very
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Attention hard rockers and proto-metal freaks! Finally, the self titled debut and only release from Canada's Warpig gets the deluxe reissue treatment, thanks to those rockers at Relapse. After numerous shoddy bootlegs, this is the first time this record has ever been officially available on cd, and the first time it's been available at all since the original record was released in 1970. Very much in the same vein as the recent Relapse Pentagram reissues, this is some serious stuff, heavy and psychedelic, groovy and dark, Warpig were a heavy rock outfit very much in the spirit of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Blue Oyster Cult... Heavy heavy riffs, thick fuzzy organ, kick ass drumming, and wild wailing vocals, lengthy extended riffing, organs atop guitars, slithery snake-like leads, throbbing sludgy bass lines, and catchy-as-fuck songs... Every track is a killer: the wild proggy Jethro Tull-ish groove of the opener "Flaggit", the "In A Gadda Da Vida" meets Black Sabbath jam "Tough Nuts", they even had a song called "Melody With Balls" fer chrissakes!! One of the best (and strangest) tracks is the lengthy instrumental epic "Advance In A Minor", a dense moody, almost classical sounding metallic prog workout, with loping minor key stretches of muted low end guitar strum and simple piano chords, strung between killer bursts of mathy prog, staccato and dynamic, the whole track eventually twisting itself into some slow burning hard rocking blow out, propulsive and relentless. Later on in the record is another lengthy jam, the strangely titled "U.X.I.B.", rife with wild wailing leads, a groovy main riff, fuzzed out organ, and long stretches of blissed out space rock drift, with the vocals not joining in until nearly halfway through. Unlike a lot of supposedly heavy "proto-metal" records, where one or two of the tracks rock super hard and the all the rest are just bad twelve bar blues bar rock, every track here kicks ass, heavy and proggy and groovy and spacey and pretty dang metal for 1970. Quite recommended! Includes all new artwork, rare photos and brand new liner notes...

MPEG stream: Flaggit
MPEG stream: Tough Nuts
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A simple album of stark sonic gestures from local composer Henry Warwick. Just one or two perfectly realized elements are unfolding at a time, usually a variant on shimmering waterfalls of analogue synth pulsings, often warm and delicate, sometimes threateningly dark, sometimes minor key and wistful. Quiet and lovely. Comes packaged in a signed edition of 500 with copper leaf

RealAudio clip: Cricket

Some abstract, cinematic, late-night (or early morning) drone-whoosh here from this academic/electronic/experimental composer. He's now based in Toronto, but we know him from his years in SF, as he's an aQ customer of long standing. Recorded between 2003-2012, the seven tracks here encompass warm waves of blissed out ambience, glitch-distressed hauntology, and cold glacial drone. 'Tis nicely varied from track to track, and within each one as well, there are enough dynamics and textural shifts to hold one's interest, if you're actively listening - though a more relaxed listening practice could easily result in simple mesmerization. Apparently, this disc is the first release in a trilogy, documenting Warwick's latest program of "audio research". The title of this one, Something Borrowed, is in reference to his compositional process here - the basic sound materials are all "borrowed" (samples from cds, synth presets, etc.) and then manipulated with the use of computer software. Not that you'll recognize the sources or anything. Fans of stuff like :zoviet*france: and Tim Hecker should perhaps investigate.

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It's been ages since we've seen folks freaking out and getting so excited about a record months before it was even released. But that's exactly what happened with this 12" by Washed Out. And while we tend to be a bit skeptical of blog-hype we have to say we whole heartedly agree with all the excitement surrounding Washed Out, because they/he do deliver, and what they deliver is some fantastic and infectious terminally chill pop. The name Washed Out suits the sound so perfectly as the six songs on Life Of Leisure really do sound like some amazing washed out version of New Order, or Ariel Pink if he wore all white and cranked out a bunch of covers of Hacienda classics. Much like the Neon Indian record we recently raved about, Washed Out operates in that same realm of faded 80's nostalgia, and Ernest Greene's vocals are so casually seductive and smooth. Kind of like the male equivalent to the slow burning bedroom jams of Nite Jewel or a way stoned Cut Copy. One of our customers said this was like the ultimate make out jam or post-sex chill out record and we can't really argue with that. Unless you were one of the lucky few to grab one of the crazy limited cassettes this is probably the first chance to get a physical copy of Washed Out songs and all six of the tracks on here are totally great (not a bummer in the bunch) and it also comes with a digital download. These might not last long so you know what to do......

If there was ever a perfectly named band, it's definitely Washed Out, whose woozy dreamy chillwave retro pop seems to get more and more, well, washed out, with every release. On more than one occasion, when this new one was playing in the store, some of us were totally convinced it was some old eighties pop band, sounding like it could have been plucked right off the soundtrack to some classic John Hughes movie, shades of Simple Minds, Dream Academy, OMD, New Order and the like. Paracosm takes all of those classic old school new wave pop-isms, and runs them through a (slightly) more modern filter, everything shimmery and crystalline, delicately psychedelic, the record even opens with bird song (which pops up throughout) and soft swirls of cascading zither like melodies, before the sound proper kicks in, all hazy and lush and a little bit looped, laced with swoonsome strings, laid back lazy rhythms, softly crooned sad boy vox, all wistful and yeah, washed out. If you dug the other WO records, this one will push all the same buttons, and it's most definitely our favorite set of Washed Out songs since Life Of Leisure! Divine pop dreaminess!!

MPEG stream: Entrance
MPEG stream: It All Feels Right
MPEG stream: Don't Give Up

Washed Out's debut, Life Of Leisure, stands high above the crowded field of chill wave records that came flooding out over the last few years. It was a refreshing new sound that mixed a sensual dance floor sensation wrapped in a warm and yes washed out sensibility. Along with Neon Indian, Washed Out's debut has had the most lasting power of the many like-minded records from that same time. Like any new trend or style, it's always interesting to hear what bands do on their follow up record. Was it just the cool sound they tapped into, or is there something more behind it that will make them an artist with serious staying power? Washed Out proves with Within And Without, to be the latter. There is such an intimate and infectious way in which Ernest Greene crafts his songs. The album's cover art showing a guy and girl in bed with their naked bodies wrapped around each other, really is the perfect representation of the sounds Washed Out creates. It's music made for long make out sessions, and post-sex bliss. Filled with slow burners that sizzle with such understated perfection. Next time you're alone with that special someone, you can't ask for a better soundtrack to help set the mood. WHILE THEY LAST, buy either the cd or lp version of Within and Without, and get a free bonus 7"!

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Imaad Wasif, formerly of lowercase, the Folk Implosion, Alaska! and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, struck gold with his last record Strange Hexes, a gorgeous record of moody, melancholy, emotional post rock, verging on classic rock, with a little twang, a little of that Woven Hand / 16 Horsepower sort of apocalyptic folk, all woven into perfect songs, some rocking, some drifty and balladic, his voice powerful yet delicate, the arrangements simple and elegant, the songs so so catchy. This is the second 'solo' record from Wasif, and features a whole bunch of killer guests, Bobb Bruno (Polar Goldie Cats, Goliath Bird Eater), who played on the first record, Dale Crover from the Melvins, and a bunch of other folks. If anything, Voidist is more polished and less rocking than Strange Hexes, some might call it mature, but it just seems like an amazing rock record. The production is lush, the songs are dark, but emotional and still catchy, and the sound is not super underground at all, this is the sort of record we would expect to hear all over the radio, there's a little Muse-like Bombast, some dramatic crooning a la Rufus Wainwright, some Death Cab like pop jangle, a bit of twang, seems like folks into Bright Eyes and that sort of dark emotional indie pop stuff would go nuts for this. But stick around, Voidist has a surprise up its sleeve. Hang out for the last song, a serious rocker that sounds like later era Cave In with super distorted heavy riffing, big drums and soaring dramatic vocals. In fact quite a bit of this record sounds like Cave In circa their Raidohead phase, which is not a bad thing AT ALL. That last track is the only really truly heavy track on the disc, but it serves as a good balance for the rest of the record's warm washed out drift and twang flecked post rock. And like the last one, we find ourselves liking this more and more with every listen.

MPEG stream: Redeemer
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Not sure how many folks remember lowercase, but they were definitely one of our favorite SF bands back in the nineties, a brooding dark rhythmic post rock with a total AmRep noise rock edge (they put out a couple records on AmRep appropriately enough). Lke most bands do, the duo (sometimes trio) called it a day, and the two lowercasers went their own way. Drummer Brian Gurgis went on to play in local noisepop combo Track Star, indie reggae outfit Still Flyin' and recording solo as Si, Claro, while Wasif's career trajectory took a much stranger tack, first a stint with Lou Barlow in the Folk Implosion, a brief stop in a group called Alaska! with Russ Pollard from Sebadoh / Folk Implosion, and even a pretty sizable part in the film Laurel Canyon (where he sported a fake British accent!). After touring as a second guitarist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wasif recorded a solo record released on Kill Rock Stars, finally forming the group Two Part Beast (with Bobb Bruno from the Polar Goldie Cats) which brings us to Strange Hexes, which is quickly becoming one of our most listened to records recently. Not noisy, or all that aggressive, instead, the sound of Strange Hexes is dark and brooding, falling somewhere between Woven Hand, Wasif's old band lowercase (or any nineties slowcore post rock outfit, Codeine, Seam...) and Jeff Buckley. Sounds strange, but it's really not, it's quite lovely, a dark twangy indie rock, Wasif's vocals rich and emotive, soaring and slithering over clever arrangements and lush instrumentation. Album opener "Wanderlusting" is fantastic, epic and majestic, with a killer hook, an awesome main riff, a sound heavier than almost anything else on the disc, even offering up some serious Sabbath worship part way through, and Wasif's vocals suit the sound perfectly, rough and raw, but still somehow soft and smooth. The follow up "Unveiling" is another dark slow rocker, with a killer hook that sounds like it was transplanted straight out of some classic rock jam, but spread out into something much folkier and driftier, always with a barely restrained bombast, sounding like under different circumstances, that these songs could explode into full on Muse-like stadium rock, but the fact that they never do, adds all sorts of tension and drama to the sound. The rest of the record is just as great, each song an expansive mini epic, with folky flourishes, subtle twang, brooding moodiness, dark heavy riffing, lots of hooks and heartfelt emotional vocals. It's tough to explain what it is exactly about this record that has us so entranced, other than the usual stuff that makes a rock record rule, the songs are awesome, the arrangements are great, the playing is top notch, and Wasif's vocals seal the deal, so distinctive, his voice having definitely developed into something really really special.

MPEG stream: Wanderlusting
MPEG stream: Unveiling
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Mark Wasserman is a San Francisco design maven who came up with a pretty cool idea that's basically the visual equivalent of a remix: he invited fellow graphic designers to apply their own style to the original files of existing projects, everything from posters and album covers to ads and book jackets. If it sounds like the end result would be a confusing mess, you're wrong. The book ends up being a simple, clever way to demonstrate the stylistic differences amongst designers; and such is the skill of the ones Wasserman admires that the resulting projects sort themselves out beautifully, with recurring themes in each design that harken back to the original. For example, a cute pink New Pornographers gig poster gets sexed up by one designer, and extra-digitized by another. In another example, the slick cover to "Solesides Greatest Bumps" gets reimagined as a toy truck ad by one design house, and gets visually "pissed on" by another. Each re-design comes with funny comments by the artist and cool insight into his or her aesthetic process. All in all, this is a great intro to the most interesting graphic designers today. If you're the sort of music-lover who's been known to buy a record because you loved the cover that much (come on, we've all done it), then this book will keep you happy.

[ aquarius records catalogue — W ]