[ aquarius records catalogue

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Proprietor of London's 323 Sound shop and protagonist in the New London Silence movement that bridges the ethos of minimalism within the scope of Birtish improv and academic composition, Mark Wastell is a figure whose name has been popping up more and more in recent months. Vibra #2 is a limited edition CD-R release of his solo work upon a tam-tam. In fact, the gong he used for this recording was previously owned by the late Roger Sutherland, to whom this album is dedicated. In softly tapping this gong, Wastell offers an exceptional drone construction of soft resonant timbres, clouds of natural metallic reverberation, and harmonic shimmers that give the impression of electronic treatments, even when Wastell used no such devices. The slow pacing of Wastell's performance adds to the languid almost submariner haze of the recording, providing something of a mix between Thomas Koner and Stockhausen's tam-tam composition Mikrophonie. Beautiful stuff! It's limited to 200 copies, of which we only have a handful. You know what that means!

MPEG stream: Vibra No. 2 (extract)

We noticed we still had a handful of these Boris rarities, and saw some popping up on eBay so we figured we would relist them in case anyone was still in the market for a pricey, exquistely designed 7" with lots of glamorous photos of Wata from Boris!!! Here's our review from when we listed these a while back: We took pre-orders on this ultra limited Boris rarity, but we managed to get a handful of extra copies, so for those folks who forgot to preorder, or folks who are only hearing about this now, here's your chance (however brief) to nab one of these� As with all Boris related stuff, this 7" photo book combo looks gorgeous. A 7"x7" softcover book, the cover a thick textured cream colored paper, the title embossed on the front cover, wrapped in a full color vellum obi, the text printed in metallic silver, with color photos of Wata from Boris and the members of the band sharing the split, Ai Aso. The book itself is nothing but glamour shots of the various women, full body shots, close ups of their faces, very fashion magazine looking, the pictures slightly distressed, the women posed in front of washed out colored backdrops. Strange, but heck, the pictures are quite nice, and the women are of course quite lovely, so who can complain. But here is a 7", and presumably, that's the main reason to pick this up (right?), it features Wata and Ai Aso each doing a cover, Ai Aso cover King Crimson's "Islands" and Wata covers Masashi Kitamura's "Angel" which we had never heard (or heard of) before. Ai Aso take "Islands" and let it unfurl softly and sweetly, a blissy dreamy drift, with hushed vocals over shimmering guitars, the drums are the focal point, way up in the mix and driving the song, almost martial at times, while at others shuffling along side the glimmering guitars. Very skeletal, but strangely lush at the same time and really quite pretty. Don't let the fact that the flipside is credited to Wata fool you, as the lineup is essentially all of Boris, AND Michio Kurihara. So it's basically the Rainbow lineup, with the addition of some other guy playing Mellotron! The track is gentle and tranquil, a soft focus psych folk, the guitars are simply strummed, the vocals and sweet and ethereal, the percussion is essentially just a tambourine, that is until the very end, when the band launch into a slow burning psychedelic freakout, not sure if it's Wata or Kurihara, but the guitar soars majestically, howling and screeching, wailing wildly over the dreamy strum underneath. Definitely sounds like it could have come from the same sessions that produced Rainbow, which is most definitely not a bad thing. LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES.

AT LAST, back in print. We haven't had this crucial black metal album for a couple years now, the original Drakkar version (reviewed on list #203) is out of print. But now Seaon Of Mist has licensed it for a domestic reissue WITH A BONUS TRACK - so if you missed it before, get it now! They just were through here on tour, bloody tour, and hopefully you didn't miss that either... (we did, we were working, it was a list night!). Here's what we said about this Satanic masterpiece originally: Like Anaal Nathrakh's debut The Codex Necro, we first saw this release reviewed (and awarded Album of the Month honors) in the UK's monthly extreme metal bible Terrorizer, long before we were actually able to track down copies to sell. Our suppliers either didn't know what it was, or had already sold out of the few copies they possessed. But now, we have finally gotten a hold of a few and thought we ought to let you know... Basically, Sweden's Watain are a blazing raw blackened metal monster, thrashing and buzzing and blasting. Sinister melodies bleed from behind cracks in the band's armored exterior. We're strongly reminded of Immortal and especially Dissection, with "Where Dead Angels Lie" haunting these proceedings for sure. At first our reaction was, yeah, this IS pretty good...but then, an undefinable X-factor started to emerge, as the album progressed and Watain's sounds sunk in and we realized that this was more than just pretty good. There's a constantly complex and subtle "shifting" going on Watain's songwriting, a layering of riffs amid the band's blur of speed that just takes it to another level. It's fierce and exquisite black metal mastery on display here. Maybe it's easy to go a certain distance with the black metal thing, y'know initially all you need is the right distorted guitar sound and raspy vocals and occult lyrics, the image and the musical basics. But once those black metal "signifiers" are in place, and a certain standard of competence is achieved, the playing field is level. Going the extra league (with Satan) as Watain do here is rare and impressive. Nicely done (as is the packaging!). PS there's a picture disc vinyl reissue supposedly coming too, but we haven't gotten ours yet... fingers crossed...

MPEG stream: Puzzles Ov Flesh
MPEG stream: The Golden Horns Of Darash

Here's the thing with Swedish black metaller Watain. Such a big deal is made out of their EVILness, their Satanism, their philosophy, their filthy, smelly live shows, rife with rotting animal heads and lots and lots of blood, all that stuff, there's really no way the music could live up to the hype, especially considering these guys, for as heavy and blasting and black they are, they are writing super melodic black metal, that is way too listenable and catchy really to be doused in blood and adorned with pentagrams and upsidedown crosses. If you had only seen pictures of the band, and heard about them, read interviews, you would undoubtedly expect something WAY noisier and WAY more brutal, insanely filthy and lo-fi and, well, frankly, more evil. There's been a huge backlash with this record, which seems weird to us, cuz it's not that far removed from Sworn To The Dark or Casus Luciferi, if anything it's the logical progression from those records, the sound is incredible, killer production, the guitars chaotic and crushing, everything sounds massive, the songs are a bit more complex and proggy, more parts, lots of weird tangly bits and strange time signatures, but the things is, these songs have a definite pop core, that no amount of buzz and blast can disguise. Which no doubt bugs the fuck out of the orthodox true grim kult hordes, but hell, for us, we're loving it, it's almost like these guys are taking up where Dissection's Storm Of The Light's Bane left off, total old school metal melodies mixed in with classic Scandinavian blackness, the songs epic and majestic and heavy, but hooky as fuck, crazy melodic, and WAY catchier than black metal was probably ever meant to be. What more do you need to know? If you can ignore the grim posturing and just dig into the music, this is definitely some seriously awesome shit, plus, as if to further distance themselves from the troo and grim traditionalists, they do a killer cover of "Chains Of Death" by Italian horror metallers Death SS!!! While they last, we have the super deluxe digipaks, that are fucking amazing, all designed to look like an old woodcut, but with a diecut front panel with the third panel visible through the hole...

MPEG stream: Death's Cold Dark
MPEG stream: Malfeitor
MPEG stream: Reaping Death
MPEG stream: Chains Of Death (Death SS)

We saw Watain in the last issue of Oaken Throne 'zine complaining about how this, their first cd, was put out in such a limited edition that no-one could get it anymore except on eBay, and how sucky that was so they were gonna make sure that their new album (Casus Luciferi, reviewed on AQ list #203) wouldn't be at all limited. Well guess what? We actually DO have Rabid Death's Curse in stock, but haven't been able to get more Casus Luciferis for some time now. Huh, can't make sense of it. But we'd recommend you get this now, if you want one, 'cause they'll probably be gone again soon too! And you should want one if you're a true black metal fiend, Watain being one of the best bands (along with, for instance, Funeral Mist and Leviathan) truly dedicated to keeping the flickering flame of black metal burning black. Utterly cult and underground yet undeniably skilled and intelligent. And religiously Satanic. So how does Rabid Death's Curse compare to the masterful Casus Luciferi? Watain's debut album is pretty great, and definitely an indication of even greater greatness to come. It's feral, fast, frenzied and ferocious. FFFF! Not the sound of a band you'd want to mess with. Look at 'em wrong and you can bet they'd pound the love of God out of you, literally.

MPEG stream: The Limb Crucifix
MPEG stream: Rabid Death's Curse

You've fallen victim to Rabid Death's Curse (2000). Casus Luciferi (2004) gripped your soul. After three years, now it's time to become Sworn To The Dark, with the return of Uppsala, Sweden's mighty "black metal milita", Watain. True underground black metal KINGS. One of the few "new" (they started in '98) bands to achieve (and deserve) the same respect lent to this Nordic scene's originators, bands like Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor, and Satyricon. Watain belong in such illustrious company there's no doubt, but there's one band with which they're most closely linked: Dissection. Still hugely influenced by Dissection in their prime (this is in fact dedicated to the memory of the late Jon Nodrveidt), Watain continue to earn our amazed respect with cold fierce dark riff after riff here on this headbanging storm of an album. They've upped the ante on old school art. Notorious for their blood drenched stage show, Watain's new album brings that blood to your home, spitting from your stereo speakers in an occultic frenzy. Needless to say, recommended to all Watain worshippers... and if you aren't already into Watain, but call yourself a black metal fan, you should waste no time buying this and then bowing down, as you shall.

MPEG stream: Legions Of The Black Light
MPEG stream: The Light That Burns The Sun

Dust off the fine china and pop open that economy sized barrel of cow's blood you've been saving for a special occasion, because there's a strange nauseating scent arising from the gloomy forests of Uppsala, and it can only mean one thing� Watain have returned! That's right, it's been a full three years since last these odoriferous Swedes disgraced us with their presence, and The Wild Hunt shows them further honing their razor sharp brand of accessibly grandiose black metal. Watain aren't reinventing the wheel here, simply smoothing it out, and that's by no means meant as an insult. In fact, its Watain's greatest strength. It's not until you pop The Wild Hunt into your stereo that you realize just how refreshing it is to hear a band playing old fashioned melodic black metal without any frills or gimmicky genre tags, and playing it really well to boot. There's nothing "post" about this, nothing avant garde, nothing "shoegaze". There's no drum machines. It wasn't recorded on a 4 track in someone's bedroom. There are just tons of well produced, catchy tunes. Fist pumping blackened thrash riffs grind away under Erik Danielsson's commanding authoritative vocals. Frantic manic guitar leads swirl on top of punishing double bass, recalling Slayer's glory days. There's a strong lineage of Swedish extreme metal coursing through Watain's music too. The mournful yet furious melodic sense of golden age Swedish black metal bands like Dawn and especially Dissection is clearly present, while elsewhere (mostly notably on the epically plodding "They Rode On") Viking era Bathory gets a look-in. There's even some Quorthorn-esque clean singing on that track! The album is cold, calculated and pristine in a similar way to latter day Satyricon or Immortal. The band sounds like a tightly wound killing machine. Nowhere is there a moment of hesitation or remorse. And like those aforementioned bands it's infinitely accessible, but without giving into the saccharine gothic impulses of other mainstream black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth. Sure, there are moments of slight experimentation: there's a bit of ballady clean singing like we said before (Allan here thinks they've been listening to R.E.M. or something), some more ambient clean guitar passages, even a bit of classical guitar! But for the most part it's flawlessly played, mercilessly executed metal through and through. And would you have it any other way??

MPEG stream: De Profundis
MPEG stream: All That May Bleed
MPEG stream: They Rode On

In our review of Boston metalcore outfit Watchmaker's previous album Kill.Fucking.Everyone, we stated that they were "THE MOST PISSED sounding band we've ever heard". Well, it doesn't appear that in the time elapsed since that album Watchmaker have been to anger management classes, or tried therapy, or fallen in love, or adopted puppies, or anything like that, as they certainly haven't gotten any happier!!! Erased From The Memory Of Man is as extreme and brutal and p.o.'d as ever. These sixteen tracks feature negative titles like "Lice Crawling Humanity", "Relentless Post Mortem Killing", "Theraputic Dirt Nap" and "Infidelity's Eyestabbing Unease"... and theres an epigraph of sorts in the cd booklet taken from Werner Herzog's film Grizzly Man, as follows: "The common denominator of the universe is not harmony -- it's chaos, hostility, and murder." This is definitely the disharmonic, chaotic, hostile, murderous soundtrack to Herzog's statement! Pounding drums, throat-ripped vox, gnarly guitars...sheer sonic armageddon on cd. Turn up as loud as you dare, and stand back! But, pissed as they are, it's nice to know that they do have a sense of humor about it all, judging by how the band members are credited with such creative job descriptions as "yearning flame of drum turret" (drums), "vocal fucking sawblade terror" (vocals), "rick and fucking backer" (bass) and "ghetto fucking bee keeper" (?). Recommended.

MPEG stream: Dawn Of Indifference
MPEG stream: Nuked To Ashes
MPEG stream: Oncrushing Advance

This is punk fucking rock. Or maybe heavy fucking metal. Actually it's sort of both. This band is THE MOST PISSED sounding band I've ever heard. So intensely aggressive from their music to their lyrics to the vocals to the name of their record. Not sure what a Watchmaker is (besides one who makes watches) or what that has to do with how pissed these guys are but who cares? This is so good. Somewhere between Drop Dead and Marduk, ultra fast, with the occasional blastbeat, glass gargling vocals and buzzing sharp-as-fuck guitars. Nineteen songs and 29 minutes of seriously furious, venomously antagonistic, head smashingly heavy, mean mean music.

MPEG stream: Catalepsy Of Fear
MPEG stream: Conference Call Immolation

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Featuring members of now defunct SF outfit New Thrill Parade, and loosely affiliated with the now seemingly hyped to death 'witch house' movement (due mostly to their cd-r on witch house flagship label Disaro), Water Borders have evolved into one of the strangest and most fascinating bands in the bay area. On their last record they sounded a bit like Coil, but on this 4 song ep, they sound, well, like pretty much nobody else. The title track is a thick miasma of glimmering high end, lush synth swells, looped percussion, haunting 'witchy' ambience, and deep crooned vocals, and a sound that grows more caustic and corrosive as it goes, the vocals following suit, getting more manic and maniacal, the sound suffocatingly intense and explosively freaked out. "Rome" features Glasser guesting, a creepy post industrial dronescape laced with fuzzy synths and crumbling melodies, Glasser's ethereal vocals locked in a doom-ed duet with those creepy bellowed WB vox, a gorgeously twisted electro-doom-cabaret ballad, melodic but also mesmerizingly damaged. That same track gets remixed and blossoms into something simultaneously more washed out and psychedelic, and more driving and propulsive, whirring loops, repetitive melodies, a low slung dubstep beat, some thick fuzzed out bass, some weirdo processed vox, all very spacey and groovy, sounding like a jam that some enterprising DJ might use to confuse the fuck out of a dancefloor. And finally, the title track gets remixed by Petals, which just so happens to be former aQer Cameron, and whose mostly unheard recordings rule, it's only a matter of time before some big label catches on and so does the rest of the world, but for now, revel in this grim, freaked out, darkly psychedelic reworking, all low end thrum and pulse, some feral grunts and growls, everything gauzy and blurred and even more haunting that the original, a black ambient electro gloom creep, that builds to a thick industrial pound the whole thing held together by a fragmented melodic loop, that will stick in your head like crazy. SO recommended. We definitely need to hear more Water Borders, and heck, more Petals while we're at it...

MPEG stream: Akko
MPEG stream: Rome Ft. Glasser (Nero's Day At Disneyland Rmx)
MPEG stream: Akko (Petals Rmx)

Yet another chunk of electro goth, witch pop, gloom-soul weirdness from this SF duo, who, while originally linked to the witch house scene, seem dead set on blazing their own confusional sonic path, and it does just keep getting better and better. Drippings is a songsuite of what to these ears sounds like minimal miserable electronic death ballads, or like a more lo-fi, creepy and drug addled How To Dress Well. The same sort of soulful vibe, but WB's 'soul music' is something altogether more grim and evil, mottled and murky, the music here stripped down and skeletal, the vocals verring from DJ Screw style sizurped drawl, to an almost Nick Cave sounding deep and dramatic croon. All laid over a strange framework of super spare electronic dub, crumbling bits of distorted melody, bits of metallic buzz and deep rumble, the occasional swirl of synthy shimmer, gauzy stretches of sci-fi kosmische ambience, wheezing drones, sometimes coalescing into a clattery detuned warped cabaret, other times spacing out into glimmering expanses of crystalline haze, and still other times, stumbling into strange Middle Eastern sounding grooves, that sound almost like Muslimgauze crossed with the Butthole Surfers, but still laced with those creepy ominous bellowed vox. Seriously twisted, dementedly genius, fantastically totally fucked up and thus WAY recommended. SUPER LIMITED! We might not be able to get more when we run out, so act fast.

MPEG stream: Side A (excerpt)
MPEG stream: Side B (excerpt)

Finally!!! The hotly anticipated debut full length from San Francisco weirdo electronic duo Water Borders, aka Amitai Heller and Loric Sih, formerly of SF rockers New Thrill Parade! And HOLY SHIT does Harbored Mantras deliver the goods! All of us around here have been eagerly awaiting this and are so psyched to finally be able to share this freakily futuristic and subversive bass goth with everybody. Hopefully, by now, avid aQ list readers are well familiar with the warped soundworld of Water Borders from past records on killer labels like Skrot Up, Disaro, and the Hungry For Power label run by kick ass blog 20 Jazz Funk Greats. While all that material was definitely amazing, and excitingly forward thinking, their proper debut, "Harbored Mantras", might just turn out to be a total game changer. It makes sense a bleeding edge label like Triangle would put it out, as it's an obvious attempt to diversify and re-direct their already stunning canon. The future is simply bigger than 'witch-house', and the keen eyes of the powers that be at Triangle seem to understand this all too well. (Also see the beautifully stark Ayshay ep featured elsewhere on this list for further evidence). It's a rare sonic artifact that successfully bridges the gaps between such disparate and divergent influences and comes out on the other side as something utterly unique. but Harbored Mantras does just that, and then some. Most of the reviews thus far and even the press release from the band itself have gone over the groups influences ad nauseum, but for the most part, they are pretty right on, we too hear Coil, we hear modern UK bass music, we hear echoes of Gavin Friday at his most expressive and brooding. All apt comparisons for sure. But what's so interesting to us is the manner and method in which Water Borders implement these influences to effectively create a fresh crossover. Water Borders' sound successfully inhabits multiple musical universes in ways that are both subtle and surreal, yet somehow impossibly calculated and perfectly executed. It's a churning gothic weirdness, it's well informed dance music, it's textural and moody, while at the same time solidly rooted in lyric based song form. The songs that constitute "Harbored Mantras" solidly convey a dark vision of the present and future. Technophobic paranoia, social inequities, workaday drudgery, narcissistic identity crisis, and the ever-changing nature of communication are all strands that are woven into the spirit and soul of this record. There's much to be discovered in this piece of work... let's get to the tunes. The album opens up with the slow burn of "Tread on Them". We're greeted with the sounds of long forgotten bones clattering in a blackened wind, while a ritualistic metallic clang creeps into the foreground. Heller's creepy baritone enters atop this hissing texture and suddenly with the introduction of bass we're sent falling into WB's bottomless sound-cave. The low end frequency is a dark and dubby stomach ache drone, creating a different type of club vibe. Euphoria replaced with claustrophobia. The sound is functionally cathartic, like good dance music ought to be, but the feeling is still foreboding. "Yelling long live success" as we waltz on top of the vanquished, feeling a deep shame all the while for acts willfully committed to arrive at the top of this heap... "What Wiwant" ups the energy with a nervously syncopated 2-step. Disassociated hand percussion and the ever-present bass wobble creating an absolutely hypnotic head-nod trance. The song is a driving banger swaddled in ominous synth textures, working you up to a frenzy while never letting you leave the hazy nightmare. "Waldenpond.com" is a brief respite from the chaos, offering up a beautiful slab of gloomy triphop. The guest vocals from Group Rhoda are a gorgeous addition to the WB's sound, strongly contrasting Heller's guttural croon with plaintive melody. The tempo is slower here, kind of a groovy, opiated dream state where melodies and textures swirl atop a dubbed out rhythm track. The vocal production is particularly stunning on this one. For the first half of the tune Group Rhoda's vocals are shimmery and ghost like, floating atop the beat with dense reverberation and spacious delay. About half way through the track the vocals are sampled and arranged rhythmically, becoming part of the beat itself. This clever production tactic lends itself well to creating an arc within the song... where we once sought comfort in the gauzy atmospherics we now are suddenly bucked off that cloud, hurled into a more jarring moment. The line "I hate the night" bouncing in our brains, awakening visions of a parallel world where identity is fragmented and "reality" is confused. And that BASS! Caustic, deep rumbles shaking us to the core. All elements combining to give an overall feeling of discomfort, albeit one that you can get down to. "Bad Ethos" is a harshly negative slo-mo industrial track. Lots of noisy mids and highs droning on and on with some seriously demented histrionics going on with Heller's vocals, the deep dark bellow replaced with a high end evil screech. Next up is arguably THEE cut of the record, "Even in the Dark". Originally featured on the group's Disaro disc, but now revamped and made even more MASSIVE! Starting with a minor key arpeggiation, the bass slowly creeping in and the vocals murky and misanthropic. Suddenly those same vocals become more discernible, albeit DRENCHED in a reverb glaze, revealing probably the strongest melodic moments of the record. The underpinning is still the throbbing pulsations heard throughout, but now with an intense element of high end melodic skree, tom toms ping ponging across a vast cavern, synths clawing at the ears, a cacophonous tumult resulting in an undeniable urge to erase the self and finally dance off that cliff that "Harbored Mantras" has been beckoning you toward throughout.� From here on out, the album remains driven towards this death trance mood, incredibly focused in its intent. It's alienating and disturbing but at the same time engaging and creative. Moments of beauty, moments of chaos...a fully developed record with an incredibly consistent vibe. This is what we mean by game-changer. It's at once a part of the now, but also something wholly different and utterly challenging, not easy listening at all. Never pandering to the trends, but at the same time so current and powerful! An infinitely rewarding debut record from an outfit that promises to keep on pushing their futuristic sonic agenda. Absolutely essential!!!

MPEG stream: What Wiwant
MPEG stream: Waldenpond.com
MPEG stream: Even In The Dark

Local duo Water Borders makes their debut with this 6 song ep, and anyone with a sweet spot for electro-goth weirdness will find plenty of reasons to rejoice. These guys earned their stripes in the enigmatic New Thrill Parade, whose status at this time is uncertain. Whatever the case, this stuff is right up our alley and sure to appeal to anyone digging the current revival of all things gothy, and yet Water Borders' take on things seems much more effortless and not concerned with racking up scene points. The songs seem to swirl within the self-contained atmosphere, with spooky keyboards and simple but incessant throbbing rhythms forming a nice cocoon for the dramatic and crazed vocals. Some of this stuff reminds us of Coil, while other numbers bring to mind a more, cough, "organic" version of Six Finger Satellite circa Machine Cuisine with more of an emphasis on actually singing. The sounds are both noisy and surprisingly majestic, and we are definitely digging the demented dance floor vibe on songs like "Even In The Dark". Limited to 100 copies, so don't snooze on it. A nice surprise, we can't wait to hear what these guys whip up next!

MPEG stream: Even In The Dark
MPEG stream: Yawning While Laughing
MPEG stream: Instincts Stink

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Ye olde '70s prog rock treat time here, folks, particularly for those (like us) who like lots of flute in their prog! Coming to us via the excellent Guerssen label, who last list brought us William Nowik's Pan Symphony In E, this reissue of Belgian proggers Waterloo's one and only album First Battle from 1970 reveals another one-off gem from the dusty prog past that we had never heard of before but now are digging big time. This group's music is infused with the paisley psych poppiness of the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks, but also provides lots of pounding organ and flute rippage, making for a bombastic prog bounty indeed, a catchy one as well. Presumably influenced by certain of the British progressive rock outfits of the day, such as the The Nice, Jethro Tull, and Mk1 Deep Purple, this gets heavier too, sounding at times not unlike Uriah Heep, but with flute! It's got it all, really: sunny pop balladry, groovy brass rock arrangements (a la Blood Sweat & Tears), jazzy moves too (including some scat singing in the midst of 11 minute epic album closer "Diary Of An Old Man"). And plenty of flat out flashy instrumental action, guitars organ drums and FLUTE all in full force, charging forth on the battlefield of rock like triumphant prog troopers. Fits in well with some other prog obscurities we've recommended previously... Blast Furnace comes to mind, also Supersister, Tetragon, Bachdenkel, Culpeper's Orchard, etc. Once again, we're wowed by the wonders of the reissue realm. How many more bands like this can there be?? To be sure, 'cause of how poppy this is, it might not be for those ONLY looking for the super dark or weird - though some of the lyrics ARE rather strange, like ferinstance the line "Can't you tell me where black children come from, daddy?" from the song "Black Born Children". What's that about? Also, don't expect any conceptual side-long song suites here, no this ain't Yes, in fact by prog standards only one song (the aforementioned "Diary Of An Old Man") is a double digit epic, the rest stay within the normal temporal parameters of pop single radio play, 2-3 minutes or so. But if you like the lighter (though no less tighter) side of prog, then check this out. It can only be regretted that Waterloo's First Battle was their last. Although, this reissue buffs up the original record's ten tracks with six extra bonus cuts from post-album singles and such. And, the cd booklet provides an in-depth history of the band in the liner notes, including mention of 'em jamming with members of Magma at one point!

MPEG stream: Meet Again
MPEG stream: Why May I Not Know
MPEG stream: Why Don't You Follow Me

John Watermann's Calcutta Gas Chamber has long been hailed as one of the minor masterpieces of post-industrial sound art, yet it's one of those albums that has escaped my (Jim's) ears up until now, as it's been reissued both on CD through Cold Spring and on picture disc by Die Stadt. Back in 1990, this German born sound artist had traveled to Calcutta where he stumbled upon a gas chamber that had been closed down just a few years earlier. Watermann explains in the liner notes that the Indian government had numerous policies, both official and clandestine, aimed at population control; and the gas chamber was one method that had been employed for the expedient dispatch of those condemned to death. The Calcutta Gas Chamber was one that actually closed down for economic reasons (and not for human rights issues, I might add), and I'm not all that sure if the Indian government still uses such practices at this day and age. Needless to say, the experience of walking through this death factory had a huge impact upon Watermann. There had been some debate as to the validity of Watermann's claim that he had managed to get field recordings of the gas chamber itself (as he claims in the liner notes) or if he replicated what he heard from recordings he made from a power station in Australia. As Watermann died several years ago, the true nature of the recordings will remain something of a mystery. That said, Watermann's Calcutta Gas Chamber deserves its place as esoteric gem of the darkly avant-garde. His compositional style is a industrial take on musique concrete, as he roughly chops his field recordings of mechanical clatter, aerated hisses, and disembodied voices into a claustrophobic arena of turgid repetitions and blackened drones that reflect the automation of death haunting that space. Occasionally a thick drone of flanging ambience creeps forth from his mechanized collage; but even as these sounds reflect something like the nightmarish guitars of Maeror Tri, there is very little jubilation to found within these recordings. A powerful album that shudders at the potential for man to exact atrocities upon fellow man and the world at large.

MPEG stream: First Shudder Project
MPEG stream: Third Shudder Project

We're not sure if it is tied to the recent death of visionary ESP-disk label founder Bernard Stollman, but it seems like many of the great forward thinking musical releases of uncategorizable out-rock, avant-jazz and beat performance pioneered on Stollman's label in the sixties and seventies are seeing new light. We re-listed the primal freak of Cromagnon recently, and the legendary Sun Ra lps Heliocentric Worlds vols. I and II are in our orbit once again as well (email us if you want to order). But this week, we have a solid vinyl reissue of the 1966 College Tour album from obscure out-jazz chanteuse, Patty Waters. An influence of Diamanda Galas, Patti Smith and Lydia Lunch, the seemingly mild-mannered Waters became well known for her 14 minute interpretation of "Black is The Color of My True Love's Hair", from her first ESP album, 1965's Sings. In it she takes the traditional ballad and wrings out every gut-wrenching emotion from restrained grey-toned torch song to epic fits of shrieks and screams. At the time, that song hit a visceral nerve especially coming after a more staid but nevertheless nocturnal repertoire of beautifully skeletal jazz-balladry. Here she was taking Billie Holiday's sad and soulful delivery to new depths of nuance and extreme vocal innovation. On College Tour she expands upon those dynamic vocals in a live setting using an all-star back-up group as part of a New York state college tour which included Sun Ra Arkestra, Burton Greene, Giuseppi Logan and Ran Blake. With flute, bass, piano and percussion in seemingly improvisational backing, Waters at first sings quietly in wordless coos and breathy whispers, that over time follow traditional jazz singing, but soon evolve (or devolve depending on how you look at it), into brays and wails, animal noises and hollers. The backing music follows suit. Two long suites embrace this dynamic with a brief, transcendent interlude of "It Never Entered My Mind" which is so gorgeously delivered, that it counters any doubt that this performer can actually sing. Water only recorded these two records for ESP, and then disappeared for about 25 years to raise a family. Though she made a new record of jazz standards in the nineties, it was nothing like these two early classics. Dig the Mansonesque cover photo, this is still some next-level shit! Remastered and hand-numbered to 1000.

MPEG stream: Song of Clifford
MPEG stream: Wild is The Wind
MPEG stream: It Never Entered My Mind

A new album from ESP-Disc vocalist legend Patty Waters (recently interviewed in Halana magazine)! Accompanied by pianist Jessica Williams, we get Waters' lovely voice interpreting songs by Gershwin, Billie Holiday, Eden Ahbez, Duke Ellington and others. Despite the atrocious digipak cover graphics, a wonderful album.

Re-issue of the legendary 1965 debut from innovative (read:kooky?) and highly-influential avant garde vocalist Patty Waters. Dark and jazzy and pretty creepy.

RealAudio clip: Licht Btandung
RealAudio clip: Wrotasfer

For some reason, we just assumed these guys were Australian, could be that they had some records on Aussie labels, or that they have a very Australian sounding, murky post punk thud, gloom-sludge garage rock sound, but it somehow made even more sense when we discovered Watery Love was in fact members of late great Philly noise rockers Clockcleaner. So after a handful of killer 7"s on labels like Siltbreeze, Richie and Negative Guestlist, along comes the debut long player from these dirgey thud-punks, a downtuned garage-y churn, blown out and fuzzy, the bass thick and gristly, the drums a caveman pound, the vocals, a strange sung/spoken croon alternating with throat shredding howls, the lyrics twisted and demented, some tracks creepy crawly, muted and muddy, others wild and unhinged and noisy and punk, the vocals on those tracks exploding into a feral atonal bellow, the guitars following suit, the riffing eye waveringly obtuse, exploding into wild squalls of feedback drenched shreddery, but the sound is ultimately rooted to a knuckle dragging plod that manages to be both tranced out and mesmerizing, as well as unhinged and chaotic, and yeah, fans of Aussie outfits like Total Control, as well as the In The Red stable of garage-noise punks, will dig these guys big time.

MPEG stream: Dose The Host
MPEG stream: Pump The Bimbo
MPEG stream: Competing Odors

Never heard of these guys, apparently they're from the US and are another band that sound like they should be on Siltbreeze, or maybe on AmRep circa 1995, they have that Aussie swampy noise rock blues vibe (a la Lubricated Goat or King Snake Roost), which is even further driven home by the A side, which is a Cramps cover, and after a squall of guitar squiggle, they erupt into a churning swampy groove, all detuned riffage and yelped vox, pounding caveman drums, some seriously rad wah wah guitars, the whole thing loose and heavy and noisy and very live sounding. The B side is more of the same, churning, chuggy primitive sludge punk dirgery, loads of feedback, sung/spoken vox, tangled melodies, some killer riffing, all leading up to a crashing chaotic outro. The sort of jam we would expect to discover via Brian Turner's radio show on WFMU, which of course means this rules!

One of two new strange sonic artifacts this week from the seemingly bottomless vaults of The Tapeworm, a UK tape label trafficking in the strange, the mysterious and the bizarre, this right here, an interesting bit of sound art based on the concepts of race and gender and sex and politics, and how those inform the works of artists, and what's at stake for artists as they try to push the boundaries and strictures of art, especially in terms of the above powerful themes. These references are however not so obvious on a purely musical level, Watkins weaves a slowly undulating dronescape, of deep sonic swells and muted electronic buzz, utilizing analog synths, guitars, drums and percussion, cassette, Casio, bass, and of course SuperCollider(!). Those deep swelling drones, grow more and more corrosive, the buzz intense and crumbling, building to a SUNNO))-like squall, but shot through with streaks of glitch and crunch, all draped over swirling clouds of hiss, and haunting undulating melodies before slipping back into a more tranquil stretch of deep resonant dronemusic. The piece is somehow based on a cassette tape Watkins found of a lecture by scholar and musician Bernice Reagon, a member of vocal group Sweet Honey On The Rock, which Watkins sometimes incorporated into live performances, though we don't hear it here. Definitely recommended for all the drone lovers out there, had this been a super limited cd-r, in mysterious black packaging, with some name like Blackened Blood Sphere, all you grim heavies would be all over this, so maybe that's actually what the dripping oozing crucifix cover is all about, and the title, cuz these are indeed some seriously grim black sonic spirituals. And are thus, as with pretty much all Tapeworm stuff, totally recommended. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES. With cool dripping crucifix cover art by Savage pencil.

A beautiful object d'art from the Bay Area cottage industry Land And Sea, Mixed Raced is a rare document of the harmonically charged compositions of Zachary James Watkins. He studied at Mills College under the tutelage of Pauline Oliveros, Chris Brown, Alvin Curran, et al; and is now a professor at UC Santa Cruz in electronic music. Mixed Raced is one facet of Watkins' work for rarefied tonal perfection that is emblematic of many of the graduates who matriculate from Mills, though some of his other solo work does move into an angular dissonance of saw-tooth noise with all the right No Wave allusions. Here, we have two compositions with multiple movements involving guitars and strings respectively. "Positively Right On" is Watkins take on the Branca / Chatham guitar harmonics. Watkins's composition only calls for two guitarists, setting up a duality of the harmonic interplay of growling drones and rasping fundamentals; but the results expose the diminishing returns on the guitar symphonies from both of those aforementioned heavyweights of downtown minimalism. These pieces glide, drift, hum, and blur with the best that either of those had done over the years, though the 20 minute program in three movements (obviously a requisite for a vinyl release) is a bit limiting, where a much longer duration would have been thoroughly entrancing. Nonetheless, "Positively Right On" is quite a triumph for Watkins. "Movement III" for violin and doublebass is a more conventional piece of academic minimalism with rising and decline notes sustained upon those two instruments, played out over seven variations on that theme. Think Lucier, Curran, Ashley, and any number of the American minimalists who came to prominence in the '70s. Features hand letterpressed artwork in an edition of just 100 copies.

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

SORRY. Curious that this disc is not on Touch, but the lack of the Jon Wozencroft design stamp does not detract from another impeccable recording from the world's premier field recordist - Chris Watson. A founding member of both Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, Watson turned his attention in sound to the natural world in the late '80s, having worked on countless documentaries for the BBC. We've long been taken by his ability to present and contextualize the humble field recording as a magnificent piece of art, much in the way that great photographers - say, Richard Misrach - can present all of the details of a landscape with no discernable tricked out production and make it sublime. Cima Verde is a document of the alpine landscape in Northern Italy, primarily focusing upon the diversity of bird life, although the rushed blur of the first track seems to be a collision of atmospheric events reminiscent of his work with BJ Nilsen. The blurting caws of ravens introduces us to avian life, made more ominous than mischievous by a thrumbing of wires agitated by the wind. Watson then spends a considerable amount of time with the grouse - first the gentle cooing of a black grouse and then the dramatic mating dances of the wood grouse (aka the capercaillie). This latter recording with its erratic flapping and odd growls is one that seems oddly familiar to us - perhaps we are just getting this confused with one of those Sitelle field recordings disc; but it sounds great nonetheless. Watson does include some water recordings - a very nice underwater recording of a stream and some cold cold rain; but the final recordings on Cima Verde return to the birds in two dawn choruses, one of which begins with the mellifluous song of a nightingale eventually overtaken by the rest of the riparian creatures, waking from their slumber in ecstatic chirping. Of course, it's amazingly recorded with details popping directly through Watson's microphones into our speakers. Very highly recommended!

RealAudio clip: Track 2

Preeminent field recordist Christ Watson returns with a bit of a twist on El Tren Fantasma. Pretty much all of his work up to this point (outside of his contributions to Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio way back when) has been audio verite. Even such albums as Weather Report, which edit field recordings from the African savanna (for example) into a condensed journey, are pristine, realist documents codified through the exquisite, lush details in Watson's enviromental sounds such as that of a lion panting after a successful hunt. El Tren Fantasma is much more engineered, imagined, and processed than anything else in his solo career; and this fictionalized Watson is no less compelling, no less dramatic, and no less awesome. El Tren Fantasma - The Ghost Train - traces a now-defunct passanger rail line which ran from the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Veracruz on the Atlantic Coast. Watson had the opportunity to make this journey while working as a sound recordist for the BBC for their Great Railway Journeys. His compositions work with extracts from that excursion travelling across Mexico along with archival recordings whose origins are not specified. As he's stopping throughout the Chihuahuan Desert, Watson does capture the stunning chorales of chirping frogs, buzzing insects, and the blaring call of a California Quail (whose syllabic chortle is often mnemonically transcribed as "chi-CA-go" as if it were seeking a more temperate climate); but it the train's power and mass that provides so much of the impact for Watson's album. By the fourth track "El Divisidaro," Watson captures a series of loops of the train - with the bellowing horn pitched back and forth into a sustained symphonic tone and the clatter of the train's engine becoming an ersatz rhythm track, which in turn gets tricked out with some Martin Hannett styled, phasing delay work. It's easy to get lost in the majesty of this track, much like the expressive electronica that Wolfgang Voigt produced on Konigsforst as Gas. What a brilliantly simple transformation executed to perfection! "Mexico D.F." reprises this strategy with rhythmic churns building out of the grinding brakes and the roiling tumult of steam blasting through the train's pipes, becoming an almost militant thump on a lone drum. The train's horn drifts suitably in a cloud of reverberation at the end of the album, dissolving into the ghostlike apparition Watson intended it to be. As brillliant as this work is, we should also point out that Watson is not alone in composing such fictionalized scores purely through environmental sound. We would be remiss if we failed to point out the work of Australian composer Tarab, whose deft psychogeographical albums share the scope and execution with Watson's El Tren Fantasma. So great!

MPEG stream: Sierra Tarahumara
MPEG stream: El Divisidaro
MPEG stream: Mexico D.F.

El Tren Fantasma was Chris Watson's amazing, imagined excursion across Mexico released in 2011, tracing a now-defunct passenger rail line which ran from the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Veracruz on the Atlantic Coast. Watson had the opportunity to make this journey while working as a sound recordist for the BBC for their Great Railway Journeys, and the resulting album was constructed using those field recordings. Unlike so much of Watson's previous field recording albums, El Tren Fantasma sported a quite a bit of processing and production work, transforming the rhythmic chug of the train into an electronica backbeat. The two mixes on this single further those propulsive aspects, especially on the album's highlight "El Divisidaro," where Watson captures a series of loops of the train - with the bellowing horn pitched back and forth into a sustained symphonic tone and the clatter of the train's engine becoming an ersatz rhythm track, which in turn gets tricked out with some Martin Hannett styled, phasing delay work. It's easy to get lost in the majesty of this track, much like the expressive electronica that Wolfgang Voigt produced on Konigsforst as Gas, expanded through glassine tones and deeper rhythms. "Veracruz" is certainly a bricolage, but pulls back on the rhythmic interlocking considerably, with chunks of locomotive noise surging against the backdrop of the harmonic train horns. Fantastic!

There's a considerable backstory to this collection of subtly processed field recordings from the master of phonography, Chris Watson. Our man was commissioned to create the soundtrack to an exhibition for the Lindisfarne Gospels on display at Durham University in the summer of 2013. These Christian texts were transcribed in the 7th Century on the tiny British isle of Lindisfarne, otherwise known by the locals as Holy Island. The monastery responsible for these Gospels was also home to an interesting character named St. Cuthbert, whose hermeticism led him into greater communion with the natural world, in particular the avian life that used Lindisfarne as a way station while traveling from Scandinavia to Western Europe and vice versa. Chris Watson himself has long been an avid birder and an active member / recordist of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; and this call for stewardship is where Cuthbert and Watson find common ground. On the four tracks of field recordings, you'll hear birds, birds, birds, and more birds. "Winter" finds a chill in its air with a threatening Aeolian drone that doesn't seem to bother the sea birds coming in for a landing. On "Sumor," these gulls and terns unleash all of their tempestuous blurts and bleats and seem pissed off or horny. If you've ever pondered the profound question - are those two birds fighting or fucking? - here's the soundtrack that has no answer to that existential quandary. The irritated / lusty birds eventually depart the soundfield leaving a marsh wren to croon from its perch above a snoozing elephant seal. The lapping of the ocean forms a gentle patter on "Haefest" whose relative calm is broken by periodic swarms of twittering sandpipers and uncouth eider ducks. We're guessing on the bird identifications here, and corrections of course are welcome. Still, this is a Chris Watson recording, meaning you really can't go wrong here. He's always been an incredible documentarian.

MPEG stream: Lechten
MPEG stream: Sumor
MPEG stream: Haefest

Brand new two track 7" from sound recordist extraordinaire Chris Watson. Having done time in both the Hafler Trio and Cabaret Voltaire, Watson deals now almost exclusively in unadulterated field recordings, mostly of nature and wildlife. Past full lengths have been huge hits around here, and this single is just as compelling. Demonstrating that, it takes much more than a tape recorder and a microphone to capture magical field recordings. It takes an amazing ear, and a bit of technical savvy, one listen to these two tracks, recorded underwater around the Galapagos Islands, make that abundantly clear. Two tracks, each recorded at a different depth, both dense and deep, rife with all manner of unexpected sonic subtleties. The first at 3 meters, is gorgeous and clear, it sounds nearly the same underwater as above, the sounds of the boat, and the water lapping against it, sea gulls, what sound like stones knocking against one another, all of these sounds wrapped in that haunting undersea shimmer, and captured perfectly, crystal clear and so vibrant. The flipside finds us dipping down to 10 meters and the sound changes dramatically, deeper and more resonant, all the sounds more warbly and indistinct, burbling and languid, muted and softly glimmering, all naturally smeared into a warm soft focus soundscape of underwater drones, and muted sonic events. So lovely. And both sides end with gorgeously hypnotic locked grooves, which were so nice, we ended up letting both play for a long time before realizing they were looping... Thick vinyl and a super striking Jon Wozencroft sleeve.

When it comes to the art of field recordings, Chris Watson is in a realm all of his own. As much as we love the Sittelle series (i.e. The Inaudible World - A Sound Guide Of The French Bats, Rutting Red Deer, and Pastoral Bells), Watson still stands quietly alone, so unique in what he is able to do with a microphone in a natural setting. So great is his work that the acclaimed naturalist Sir David Attenborough sequested Watson for recording on his breathtaking BBC series The Life of Birds and Life in the Undergrowth. Watson's history also separates him from many naturalists who have come to field recording or engineers who like being out in the woods, as Watson began his career as a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire and later established The Hafler Trio with Andrew McKenzie. In both cases, the provocative use of sound required a considerable fastidiousness in order to express the convoluted ideas (especially for The Hafler Trio) through the ephemerality of sound. It's been said that Outside The Circle Of Fire was the best electro-acoustic record that was never made, and that's a fair assessment. This album was Watson's second solo recording made back in 1998 and has recently been repressed. This features 22 recordings of various animals in their indigenous locales. The opening track of a cheetah purring is a sublimely intimate recording, in which the rasping ur-drones can easily be mistaken for the bowed minimalism of Taj Mahal Travellers or Organum expect for the fact that these sounds originate from an animal that wouldn't think twice about killing you. Similarly, the male capercallie display could be confused for a musique concrete piece by Pierre Henry or Luc Ferrari with its dynamic movement and expressive bouts of noise. Other notable creatures that Watson records are the Hippopotami (which make sounds as cute as the animals are large), a southern right whale surfacing off the coast of Argentina, and curious clatter from deathwatch beetles. Quite simply stunning.

MPEG stream: Adult Cheetah Resting By Beobab Tree
MPEG stream: Male Capercallie Display
MPEG stream: Spider Monkeys Moving Through Tree Canopy

Awesome Touch debut from one of our favorite field-recordists in the world, who travels the world, recording environmental sounds. Super recommended.

Two and half hours of a continuous, unedited recording from Chris Watson, the field recordist who should need no introduction! The Sukau rainforest is found in Borneo along the Kinabatangan River and is a dense primary forest with little access to the forest floor with the exception of a decaying boardwalk that meandered from the lodge where Watson was staying deep into the heart of the rainforest. One morning in October 2011, Watson followed this path several kilometers to the furthest point and lashed his microphones to a tree in order to record the growing dawn chorus of the birds, monkeys, and insects as their activities increased with the rising sun. At the beginning of the recording, Watson gives a brief description of the environment around him before he quietly retreats and lets the forest do the talking. He is quick to point out that the watery sounds are not of rain but of the huge amounts of moisture captured on the vegetation, tumbling down on the forest floor. As daylight approaches, the frequency of the cicadas and buzzing insects seems to increase ever so slightly and the bird calls tend to become more vibrant if a bit more spread apart. It's so easy to get lost in these beautifully rendered sounds of the forest; and Chris Watson's trademark of quality is stamped all over this recording. If you might be balking at the price of a dvd-r, the Framework Seasonal discs are only available to the donors supporting the Framework Radio series and Resonance FM. Patrick McGingly - the producer of Framework - made one exception in allowing aQuarius to be the only shop carrying these discs. So, yes they are expensive, but they are certainly going toward a worthy cause and Chris Watson's recording is well worth the price of admission!

MPEG stream: Sunrise In The Sukau Rainforest (excerpt)

Oooh. We're super pleased to get this new Chris Watson field recordings album (see note below). He's one of our favorites in the realm of just going out in the world, shutting up, and listening. With really good equipment and recording skills, that is. In the past he's brought us up close and personal with a variety of African wildlife, as well as the fauna of his native England. Now with the perhaps too-obviously titled "Weather Report" he focuses on the bigger picture, not just animals but the places in which they reside, which means a lot of weather phenomena in the mix. There's three long tracks, each providing an aural portrait of a location over time. Kinda like time-lapse film, but the action is not sped up here, just carefully edited together. They're all natural environments, not urban, the first ("Ol-Oloool-O") taking you on a virtual expedition into the wilds of Kenya's Masai Mara, one day in October 2002. The next, "The Lapaich" compresses four months of sound from a Scottish highland glen in the fall and winter. Lastly, "Vatnajokull" closely examines the slow flow of a glacier in Iceland, which sounds like drone piece from our experimental section. From animals, birds and insects to washes of wind and rain to quiet, creaking ice, this is all pretty darn magical. Newcomers to Watson's work should note that there's no processing of the sound to make it "experimental music", it's a straight-up documentary with no additions or interference (aside from the neccessary edits). Then again, I suppose it is "music" in the John Cage 4'33'' sense. And it's wonderful sound. Amazing, vibrantly real stuff that'll fire your imagination. If you've seen that amazing new documentary movie "Winged Migration" you've got a filmic analogy to the kind of thing Watson captures here. NB. You know, it's a bit embarrassing, but we've never listed this man's releases in our database before, aside from the "Star Switch On" disc of remixes and his contribution to Hazard's "Wind". Whoops! Dunno how that happened, 'cause we're all really big fans of his work. So, at least we can offer a timely review of this, his third proper release on Touch, and perhaps retroactively review his previous efforts "Outside The Circle Of Fire" and "Stepping Into The Dark" on a future list.

MPEG stream: Ol-Olool-O
MPEG stream: Vatnajokull

Wind and rain, birds and waves. Ok, that sounds a little bit like a clock radio you can get from the Sharper Image catalog. But if you're into field recordings of nature sounds, you know there's more to this than just white noise to help you sleep. On a full-length "audio documentary" such as this, your ears can aid your imagination, allowing you to "experience" far places and phenomena in a way much more immersive than a Discovery Channel program. And here, you're in the hands of two of the best field recordists around -- the UK's Chris Watson and Sweden's BJ "Benny" Nilsen (also known for his work as Hazard and his exquisite duets with Stilluppsteypa entitled Vikinga Brennivin and Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna) should be familiar to fans of field recordings, both of whom being responsible for some of our favorite releases on the Touch and Ash Int'l labels, including several prior collaborations on Hazard's albums. We're always thrilled to get a new release from either of them, documenting where/what/when/how they've been listening to (in) the world. The aptly-titled Storm finds the duo capturing heavy weather over the North Sea, from opposite shores. There's three long tracks, the first and last solo recordings done by Watson and Nilsen, respectively, the middle track a synthesis of recordings made by both gentlemen. In Watson's words, here's more of an explanation of the genesis of this disc: "During December 2000 several significant storm fronts developed across the North Sea and Scandinavia. Benny remarked to me that he had recorded some of these on the Baltic coast and proposed a collaborative CD project based around our mutual interests in the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and out to sea. We spent the next few years gathering recordings on our respective coastlines and islands during the very active weather windows during the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. This was focused around our following one particular cyclonic system, which veers over Snipe Point on Lindisfarne to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and finally descends upon Oland and Gotland where Benny listened in with a favorite pair of Sennheiser omnidirectional microphones." We're not really clear on how the edits were done, other than artfully! Through the tumult of thunder and crashing surf, and the calm of gurgling water and cawing gulls, they've seamlessly stitched together 50 minutes of wondrous audio, allowing you to stay warm and dry in the comfort of your own home and enjoy the sounds of these storm-wracked coasts.

MPEG stream: No Man's Land
MPEG stream: SIGWX

It's not entirely clear why these two pieces were bundled together, other than they're awesome, and they're both by Chris Watson, he formerly of electronic legends Cabaret Voltaire, now composer and field recordist, the first half of this here two-fer, is in fact, a processed field recording, but not processed in the way we're used to, where found sounds are mutated into new sounds, no, what Watson has done is recorded 12 hours (sunset to sunrise) of South Africa's Kalahari Desert, the hidden nighttime symphony that is the world of the nocturnal animals and insects, but that whole 12 hour recording, compressed into a mere 28 minutes. The cool thing is, it doesn't actually sound strange or processed, it's not a barrage of overlapping sounds, instead, Watson has deftly created a half hour glimpse of the desert at night, the trill of crickets, the high pitched whine of other insects, the whipping wind, chirping birds, some of the sounds identifiable, but many of them downright alien sounding, the whole thing in some ways playing out like some abstract experimental 20th century electronic tape music, only as always done better by nature. A gorgeous, haunting listen. The second piece by Watson for a festival called PESTival focusing on "insects in the arts and the art of being an insect" (we definitely need to check that out!), and composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings by Watson, exploring vocal harmonies between humans and bees, a choral piece woven into the sound of buzzing bees, the result is pretty stunning. A warm summery afternoon, replete with wildly chirping birds, is underpinned by the deep thrum of buzzing bees, over which the choir sings long tones, creating lush harmonies, and mysterious overtones. At first, it's more vocals, the bess way down in the mix, but as the track progresses, the buzz of the bees grows more prominent, the human voices more hauntingly liturgical, building to an intense operatic crescendo culminating in a squall of blurred smeared sound, sounding neither animal or human, before fading back into the insect chorale, the human voices drifting dreamily over the lovely low end hum of buzzing bees, that buzz, growing murkier and muddier until for the last few minutes it's just a warm washed out thrum. So lovely.

MPEG stream: Midnight At The Oasis
MPEG stream: The Bee Symphony

Great 23-track collection by the bluegrass guitar master. Includes 4 previously unreleased cuts.

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

SORRY.

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

Reissued by Henry Rollins' (major) label. Alan dispenses wisdom over what has been described as a totally high-grade psych freakout.

Out of all the proto-new age records that have become available again this one is quite unique and utterly weird. Often stated as the very first psychedelic album, it is more a document of of the intermediary space when beatnik bohemian sensibilities were beginning to transform into hippie communal expression. British born philosopher Alan Watts, who popularized Eastern philosophy for Western audiences from his base in the San Francisco Bay Area of the late fifties and early sixties, emphasized the link between the practices of Zen Buddhism and psychotherapy, and proposed that if the sane man couldn't let himself lose control every once in awhile, he wasn't truly sane. So what we have here are freeform recordings from 1962 of wordless group chants, drum circles and primal scream therapy tempered instrumentally by circular repetitions of out of tune piano, percussion and flutes. Babbling call and response, vocal trills and whistles over caveman rhythms with occasional spoken philosophical passages by Watts himself, it has early influential links to later communal psych records like Parson Sound, Amon Duul and Taj Mahal Travellers. Though its outright and blatant freakiness may be an acquired taste for some, those who have a penchant for the sort of recordings featured on the famous Nurse With Wound list, especially Alan Sondheim's group Ritual ALL-770, this may be right up your alley!

MPEG stream: Love You
MPEG stream: Umdagumsubudu
MPEG stream: Metamatic Ritual

Another in the recent spate of ESP reissues and easily my favorite of the bunch. Recorded in 1966 and featuring a large ensemble (8 players) on flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, vibes as well as the mighty Sonny Sharrock on guitar. Much more laid back and a

RealAudio clip: Backdrop For Urban Revolution

In a world full of tiny labels, it takes a lot to stand out, whether it's some amazing and mysterious sounds or super unique and hand made packaging. And if anything RuralFaune as shined in both respects, a crazy collection of some of the weirdest noisemakers in the world, and some seriously amazing, and in many cases, fragrant, packaging. Hand printed, painted, folded, pasted, held together with string or wire, often filled with branches or flowers, scraps of paper, seeds or bits of plant matter, many of them very strong smelling, all of them amazing. Well, Bruno, the man behind RuralFaune, was really getting into heavy music, and decided that maybe RuralFaune was not the place for such musics, so he started FaunSabbatha, a new label dedicated to heavy, creepy, dark music, metal, metallic, or just plain evil. Four new releases, each one outrageously limited, gorgeously hand packaged, and gone before you know it. Any band that thanks funeral doom horde Rigor Sardonicous is alright by us. Especially if RS are one of the only four entities thanked. One being the label, the other being one of the other bands featured amidst this recent spate of Faunasabbatha releases, Sorc'Henn. So what comes of an unhealthy love/obsession with Rigor Sardonicous, how about a creepy, ultra sick, noise drenched slow motion doom crawl? Downtuned, and lurching, stumbling and heavyheavyheavy. After a brief intro, all mournful windblown twang, a spidery latticework of spare, sorrowful melodies, plucked out over a whirling expanse of emptiness, comes the filthy, crusty, noisy multiple o'd doom. But sonically, Waverly Hills don't so much resemble funereal doom, as they do, modern noise rock, or Japanese ultra psych. The guitars are caustic coruscating streaks of blurred buzz, unleashed in heaving waves, while much of the band's time is spent crawling doomlike through a field of sonic broken glass, the guitars spend most of their time erupting in squalls of near white noise that sound like Keiji Haino fronting the Dead C. Thick clouds of whirling buzz, deconstructed riffage, super abstract percussion, the vocals a subsonic rumble, a blurred low end gurgle (except when it's a haunting ghostlike falsetto!) underpinning the soaring and drifting slabs of buzz overhead. Imagine doom metal being pulled apart, the notes and chords and riffs being rent asunder, the resulting squall still dark and doomy, by way more tripped out and damaged. So yeah, you doooooooomlords will definitely dig this, especially if you lean toward stuff like Moss and Khanate and Bunkur and of course Rigor Sardonicous, but it might be even more appealing if your cup of tea is abstract psychedelic noise a la Sunroof!, Total, Dead C, White Heaven, etc... LIMITED TO 74 COPIES, hand numbered on a tattered, torn piece of cloth, with the Faunasabbatha logo stamped on there as well, in a paper sleeve held shut wit a piece of metal wire.

MPEG stream: The White Plague
MPEG stream: In The Hallways

Holy shit is this great! We knew Wavves were capable of some serious pop genius, but this new one seals the deal. You can sometimes forget how good a band is, when nonmusical stuff overshadows the actual music. Relationships, breakdowns, tour drama, whatever. It had been a while since the last Wavves record, which we LOVED, but ever since, most of our exposure to the band has been via tabloid stuff, and little blurbs here and there, about cancelled shows and tantrums, and then Wavves mainman Nathan Williams was on the cover of one of the last issues of Spin, with his girlfriend Bethany from Best Coast, and it wasn't so much about their bands, as their romance, which definitely rubbed folks the wrong way (and made it less of a surprise when Spin folded). But like we said, we loved the last Wavves, and pretty much every one before, but this one is some seriously next level fuzz pop genius. Granted, the band have gradually been shedding much of their scrappiness, the days of snotty lo-fi garage punk blowouts and rough edged hook heavy stumble pop are gone for these guys, this new record firmly establishes them as the sort of band that could, should and probably WILL give Weezer a run for their power pop money. Seems like Jeff The Brotherhood recently made the same leap, their last record was a game changer for them, transforming their scrappy two piece metallic punk pop into big riff crazy catchy stadium rock, but we saw them open for Best Coast at a huge beautiful theater, and while the songs may have been polished and poppy, the band were still willfully bratty, their set up a little ramshackle jumble in the middle of a massive stage, and after a handful of killer noise pop, the treated the crowd of Best Coast fans to 10 minutes of squealing feedback. Similarly it's hard to imagine this won't be the record that does if for Wavves, and it's equally hard to imagine that they won't continued to be the same noise pop punks they always were, just trafficking in something way more polished and radio ready. Not that they weren't already huge, but this record is definitely leaps and bounds past the last one. And sure there are plenty of weird bits here and there, and some programmed drums, some psychedelic bits, and they still have a definite lo-fi experimental bent, and lyrically, lots of swears that would have to get beeped on the radio, but almost all of the songs here are classic power pop anthems in the making, fuzzy and rocking, hooky and heavenly, even the slow brooders, are gorgeous dark ballads, replete with female vocal harmonies, and warm chordal swirls, but in-between all that stuff, are some of the most kick ass indie rock noise pop jams we've heard in AGES. Might be too polished for the punks, but they're just missing out. If you dig Weezer, Jeff The Brotherhood, The Ovens, Redd Kross, Male Bonding, Sloan, Surfer Blood, all that big hook heavy pop, this could very well be your new favorite record. It just might be ours...

MPEG stream: Sail To The Sun
MPEG stream: Demon To Lean On
MPEG stream: Mystic
MPEG stream: Lunge Forward

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