[ aquarius records catalogue

WEIS, MIKELoop Current(Barge)lp$ 14.98

While we have been fans of most of Kurt Weisman's previous projects (Feathers, Witch, King Tuff), this first solo outing on Important has really thrown us for a loop. Spazzy sped up strings, sprightly jigs, woodwind-led free jazz and wincing pitch-shifted vocals remind us more of Cocorosie than the Van Dyke Parks comparisons touted on the label. Weird? Definitely. Wonderful? Not so much.

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We had Kurt from Feathers' solo cd-r in stock a while ago and we loved it. A warbly and weird lo-fi folk, but it sounded like his little brother was constantly fucking with the knobs on his 4-track while he was recording it. Slowing down, speeding up, weird little glitchy hiccups. It added a whole 'nother layer of weirdness to what was essentially dreamy fey folk. On this most recent 7", everything we loved about the cd-r is pushed even farther out. The high reedy vocals are now even higher and sound almost like the Chipmunks. The sonic irregularities and recording glitches that peppered the cd-r, are now EVERYWHERE, the whole record is buried under strange effects, warbling warpage, squiggles of psychedelic guitar are splattered all over the place. This is seriously druggy and tripped out stuff. The first things that came to mind when we threw this on were: Ariel Pink, Christmas carols and It's A Small World After All. That should give you a good idea of the glorious strangeness we're talking about here. A glitchy lo fi psychedelia equal parts Feathers, Tiny Tim, Daniel Johnston, Ariel Pink, nursery rhymes and lots and lots of weed! Packaged in a goofy comic book style sleeve with a hot pink insert/lyric sheet. SUPER LIMITED. WE ONLY GOT 10 COPIES FROM THE BAND WHEN THEY WERE HERE ON TOUR...

Ok, it's definitely a gimmick. But a good one. David Weiss's 1985 album Virtuoso Saw is not just skating on "novelty record" ice, but actively sawing through the stuff (sorry). This is the fourth cd we've listed from the quirky Japanese label EM Records that showcases their obsession (quickly becoming ours too) with the instrument known as the musical, or singing, saw. A carpenter's steel saw bowed in such a way as to make a mellifluous sound, not unlike the wavering, haunting tones of an electronic Theremin. Virtuoso Saw sees Weiss, as one of the few, proud, masters of the instrument, showing how it can transform both classical and pop tunes. You'll hear his saw sing on such chestnuts as "Misty" (with the saw, soooo dreamy) and "Sweet Georgia Brown" (jaunty, yet given a dose of the unfamiliar with the saw). In addition, Weiss plays Simon and Garfunkel, Gershwin, Satie, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Bizet, Bach, and the Beatles -- three tunes from them, "Eleanor Rigby", "Yesterday", and "When I'm 64". Oh, and he even does, believe it or not, "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie. How cool is that? Sends the kitsch value of this, already high, through the roof!! Weiss's saw is set against lush orchestrations for strings performed by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (there's photos in the cd booklet of them playing at the Hollywood Bowl). Doubtless it was considered funny to see a guy in a tuxedo playing a saw... but maybe for us it's also a good excuse to listen to unique versions of some music that would otherwise not get a lot of play here at AQ even though we've got to admit it's quite nice! So if you've got EM's Jim Leonard and Sam Moore and Noahlewis' Mahlon Taits cds, your collection is not complete until you pick this up too... particularly if you were into Leonard's Super Saw disc, you'll want this, as it's a similarly impressive technical tour-de-force, updating the saw's repertoire to include a few more popular tunes of the rock era, such as those by Lennon/McCartney. We wonder what EM's gonna dig up next for our musical saw section!

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Quite an impressive solo debut from British noiserocker James Welburn! His bio quips that he's been playing in various art/drone/noise rock outfits since the '90s, though a quick glance through the entire internet didn't provide much in the way of information on what those projects might be. However, we know that back in 2008, he had a release under the name Project Transmit, which also featured the fantastic drummer Tony Buck from trance-inducing Australian 'jazz' group The Necks. Now, Buck has joined forces with Welburn once again for Hold - a well-controlled album of darkly ascendant drone guitars guiding a well-heeled rhythm section that's crushingly muscular when it needs to be and skeletally restrained when called for at other times. Second track here "Peak" falls into the latter camp with Buck and Welburn conjuring the slow-core nocturnes from Low's first couple of albums, with a Joy Division-y spaciousness on the bass and Buck tapping metonymically on the ride. Welburn fills in the blanks with cinematic melancholy dripping from his guitar strings into pools of drone. Buck stomps hard on the accelerator for the next track "Shift" with a punk-as-fuck jackbooted riff on the black metal blast beat, albeit done on a jazz kit, with Welburn slipping the buzzsaw guitars into icy layers. The detuned bass that anchors "Duration" with a bloody-knuckled masonry on par with Todd Trainor of Shellac, with the guitars again crashing forward with drone-metal blurs and slabs of frigid noise. Swans and Godflesh are reasonably close neighbors of what Welburn is up to here, although these tracks are entirely instrumental with the songs hitting their dynamics through slow-burn and flame-out approaches to their compositional arcs. Just imagine if Welburn and Buck were to get a hold of two or three dozen guitarists with their slipstream noise perfectly in step with Welburn's compositional prowess. Look out, Branca. Look out, Chatham.

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Lauded alt.country singer's second album produced by T-Bone Burnett. It's Allan's favorite of her several fine albums so far.

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Debut release from this amazing country singer songwriter, an all time AQ favorite.

Why do I love Ms. Welch SO much? I dunno. Love is like that. Maybe 'cause of her careworn, exquisite voice, which she puts to such good use on songs that channel Appalachian woe and slacker angst. Maybe because she's so smart and charming and talented. Maybe 'cause she's so funny in concert... Ah, yes, she's wonderful. And so of course people like me are gonna be thrilled to hear her new album. While the title "Soul Journey" might sound corny this record isn't. Much of this sees Welch with a full backing band (including one guy from Son Volt), but it still sounds real intimate. And don't worry, Welch's partner, guitarist David Rawlings is on board too. From slow, rocking numbers to old timey ballads, Welch, Rawlings, and co. mesh rootsy "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" stuff with an indie-rock, alt-country perspective. Her songs are sad and forlorn, but also so gorgeous and comforting. What a treasure.

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Geez, has it really been 8 years since Gillian Welch last captivated us with a new album? It's hard to believe we've gone on all this time without her darkly bittersweet country-folk songs applying a soothing balm to our troubled souls. But her return to recording couldn't have had better timing as her music, so rooted in Depression-era bluegrass and early country styles, gels so well with our currently dire economic times, offering a gothic and desperate vision of heartbreak, loss and courage that is instantly relatable, yet makes us feel less vulnerable to the harsh cruelties of living that her protagonists endure. Besides the long gap in time, not much has changed in Welch's (and her musical partner David Rawlings) sound or approach and that is just fine! Keeping the arrangements as stark as ever, there is only acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonicas and some hand and knee slaps along with the couple's peerless vocal harmonies as they waver between fatalistic folk songs, gospel-tinged bluegrass, and murder ballads. This is one of Welch's best records in a discography that has never wavered far from stunning. And speaking of stunning, the cover designed by Baroness singer, John Dyer Baizley is a beautifully unique letterpress print on thick handmade paper stock. A video of how the cover was made can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Mz_imdISk. Of course long-time fans will want to scoop this up, but if you are new to Welch's haunting and harrowing voice and vision, The Harrow and The Harvest is a good place to start. It's definitely as good as if not better than Time (the Revelator) and Hell Among The Yearlings (our other two favorites of hers), making this absolutely essential!!

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Who doesn't love alt-country songstress Gillian Welch and her musical partner David Rawlings? I kinda feel sorry for you if you don't. Anyway, chances are you're a fan, it seems most AQ-customers are. And fans should be pretty happy with this release, a DVD featuring the three videos shot for Welch's last release "Time (The Revelator)", plus nine songs filmed live in concert last year, five of which don't appear on any of Welch's albums! It's about an hour's worth of music total, and best of all -- it's in black and white! That's just perfect. Welch and Rawlings are wonderful live performers, so charming and funny that they make what they do seem easy, when of course it's not. Rawlings' impressive guitar solos, the duo's lovely vocal harmonies, Welch's brilliant lyrics...so good. See 'em live if you can -- checking out this DVD should definitely inspire you to do so. If it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts, this seems like an idea...

The third album of (alternative is it?) country-folk from singer/songwriter Gillian Welch, following up 1998's "Hell Among The Yearlings", which became a big favorite here at Aquarius (and elsewhere too of course!). Primarily focused on lonely acoustic

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This Seattle band has a name and album title ripe for an Abbott & Costello skit. Welcome! Sirs! Polite niceties aside, this is some tweaked, disjointed retro-pop that seems deeply indebted to The Soft Boys, The Pixies, The Breeders, Pavement and oh, maybe a little (or a lot) of The Beatles too. The ten tunes are played out on lanky electric guitar and loosely slung bass with singers who could almost convince us that they're the rambunctious offspring of Kim Deal and Robyn Hitchcock.

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Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of Into The Depths of Sorrow, the reissued 1991 debut from Texan doomsters Solitude Aeturnus. From the same label also comes this brand-new debut from another Texas EPIC DOOM METAL act who obviously take after Solitude Aeturnus in many ways. On Well of Souls' self-titled album, fans of doomful epickosity will find much in the way of chunky guitar riffage, utter dark dirge atmosphere, and tricky, technical prog parts, over which clean, witchy male vocals wave like a clenched fist in the air. There's light and shade, but mostly shade. They don't stray far from their influences (Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass, Confessor, modern Euro power metal, and old-school '80s American Metal Blade bands like Fates Warning) but they do what they do with power and perfection. The second half of the disc is occupied by the impressively indulgent "Black Reign" -- a suite in three parts, each around ten minutes in length. Epic indeed!

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Super-heavy crusty metal merchants from Tempe, Arizona. Pretty intense. For fans of Dystopia, Eyehategod, that sort of thing. We like. This discography cd collects the complete works of this now defunct band: their LP, 7"s, comp tracks, unreleased songs, that sort of thing.

Isobel Campbell seems to be making the most of her post Belle & Sebastian music making days. Exploring different sides of herself and collaborating with a range of artists. After her recent outings with Mark Lanegan she now takes off the boots and and handkerchief and trades them in for some dim light, red wine and her take on some lesser know Billy Holiday gems. Bill Wells, a great piano player who has released some great records on Geographic as well as Leaf lays down the keys, guitar and some tasteful electronics that allow Campbell's totally enticing voice to create the tender mood that these songs call for. Like the best kind of covers these songs use just a skeleton of the original's in making something that stand's on its own while bowing gracefully to legacy of Billie Holiday. This recording was actually made a few years ago and was pretty much impossible to get hands on but luckily it has finally been made available. This melts so deliciously!

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For a Scottish so-called jazz pianist, Bill Wells sure has lots of indie-rock cred, having had help at times in making his dreamy, mellow music from members of Belle and Sebastian and The Pastels, fellow Glaswegians to be sure. But with this new Osaka Bridge album he taps into the willfully naive soundworld of one of our very favorite underground Japanese psych-pop ensembles, the one and only Maher Shalal Hash Baz, teaming up with them presumably thanks to their shared connection with The Pastels' Geographic label. The music here is mostly written by Wells, but when filtered through the playing of his Japanese friends, it sounds so much like theirs. MSHB's childlike, almost Shaggsy musicianship semi-struggles playfully with Wells' compositions, making each track all the more beautiful for its fragility and simplicity of execution. Their approach, however lacking in musical chops, is perfect for what we know of Wells' penchant for melodious sound-sketches. In collaboration with MSHB, this is slow, languid, rainy day music... even the poppiest moments have a bittersweet aura. MSHB's trademark wavering horns are in full not-quite-jazz mode, and some of this sort of sounds like a '60s or '70 TV show theme music in spots, like Love American Style or a sitcom or something -- but that's not a diss, it's really pretty. Even prettier, are the tracks featuring beautiful, sad singing from Reiko Kudo, wife of MSHB leader Tori Kudo. Exquisite.

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Bill Wells and co. keep it short 'n' sweet on Pick Up Sticks (just shy of 21 minutes long) -- a subdued and unobtrusive improv of brass, synths, bass, keyboards and melodica. Although the overall atmosphere is airy and drifting, the focus of the eight numbers is on the smattering of Annie Whitehead's hazily hushed trombone. Slow, cautious and contemplative much like the title suggests. Nice!

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Whoa! The Bill Wells Trio are pouring out some smooth, easy-listenin' jazz full of mellow piano, baritone sax, trumpet, and harmonica. It immediately transported me back to the highschool years. Y'know, the kind of dinner jazz performed by the school's senior ensemble at the year-end assembly that made the brass players' parents beam with pride and want to dance the night away? There's even a song called "Jab The Chemistry Teacher"! In indie circles, this may succeed in doing for soft jazz just what Rachel's did a few years back for chamber music. The lone track that differs in pace among the ten - much more antsy and perked up - is "New Ascending Staircase" (catch that Marcel Duchamp/Salvador Dali reference?). The guest list runs the music gamut, from avant-jazz multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Cooper (playing tuba on "Presentation Piece #1" and bass on "D.A.D.E.") to The Pastels' Stephen and Katrina (providing keyboards and vocals respectively on "D.A.D.E.").

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A refreshing surprise from the Geographic label out of Scotland (said label headed by Stephen of the Pastels), the Bill Wells Trio is an instrumental outfit composed primarily of piano, trumpet, and harmonica. While this is certainly not jazz, or even jazz lite, there's something in the delicate evocative quietness of this group that nonetheless reminds us of late '50s cool jazz -- unhurried, purposeful, swirling pastoral sketches that wouldn't be out of place in some arthouse film about a boy coming of age, or "Love Story", or a French new wave film set in a fishing village. Heartbreaking chord changes. Modest grandiosity. Stevie Jackson (Belle and Sebastian second guitarist) contributes just gorgeous, wistful, Morricone-worthy harmonica. It's lovely! Fans of the Rachels, Halifax Pier -- heads up! We can only hope for another album, and soon, 'cause our only complaint about this one is that it's way too short (20 minutes or so!)...

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Another ultra limited cd-r from Root Strata, only 100 copies, most of which are already gone, so we'll be brief, but grab one of these before they're gone, it's quite lovely. A mere 20 minutes long, a series of hushed barely there ultra delicate guitarscapes, all drift and shimmer, breathless and minimal, a glacial swirl of muted tones, and subtle overtones, no attack, just decay, notes left to hang as they slowly fade out, only to have another hazy note laid over the top. Dreamy and ethereal and ephemeral, strap on some headphones to truly get lost in these blurred stretches of soft focus guitar, you'll most likely end up setting your player on repeat, laying back, and letting these sounds carry you away. So gorgeous. As is the packaging, brown chipboard, sleeves with a hole cut out, each one displaying a water colored insert, every one unique, all done by hand, and LIMITED TO 100 COPIES...

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Ex-Monster Magnet member and 2 ex-Soundgarden folks delve into 60's psyche-pop. Includes covers of obscure Japanese beat groups. Limited lp version on Super-Electro also available. The tastemakers at Ptolemaic Terrascope are big fans of this group.

Third record from the duo of Matt Cameron (ex-Soundgarden) and Jon McBain (ex-Monster Magnet). Wellwater Conspiracy is their sort of retro sixties psych pop band, complete with tamborines and jangly guitars, but a little harder edged and heavier. Like a mix of

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The return of the groovy, fuzzy sixties psych rock side project of John McBain formerly of Monster Magnet, and Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden. But those formerly's can only mean one thing, that Wellwater Conspiracy is a side project no more! We've sort of known that for a while now, but it becomes more evident with each successive record, as they just keep getting better and better. A ragged, psychedelic sixties jangle groove filtered through Cameron and McBain's elite stoner/space/cock rock pedigree with lots of meandering, spacy shimmer, bizarre production, loping, walking bass lines, lots of super affected, weirdly squiggly leads, harmonies, tamborine and even bongos. Think a slightly heavier, more well produced Kinks, Who, Blues Magoos, Fuzztones or Pretty Things. Heavy enough to still hit the spot for all you Monster Magnet / Soundgarden fans, but druggy and psychedelic enough for all you Ptolemaic Terrascopers / lo-fi psych-folkers!

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This is actually the first we've heard from LA black metal trio Welter In Thy Blood, and what an introduction. A super limited, and insanely elaborate lp, three songs, two sides, nearly 30 minutes of creeping, harsh, hellish, doom-ed blackness. WITB are often classified as black metal, but sonically they definitely fall more in line with ultra doom outfits like moss or Khanate, but with a distinctly black streak. The Transference Of Misery begins with slow sprawl of black ambience, all deep cavernous rumbles, groans and creaks, drips and whirs, distant industrial clatter, barely there tones, all blurred into a swirling sonic abyss. Eventually the second songs surfaces from the murk, even more drones, a particularly hellish blackdrone, that sprawls and oozes, sinister and malevolent, before a strange voice speaks and the song proper kicks in, a spaced out, abstract bit of ultra doom, hellish vocals shrieking over black squalls of crunch and buzz, lots of space in between, ultimately, the various parts coalesce and the song transforms and becomes a black doom plod, the guitars blown out and blurred into streaks of crumbling buzz, the vocals even more harsh and processed, the band lumber along, a hellish sonic death march, slipping occasionally back into dreamy black drift, before returning to the crushing black dirge that dominates the side. The flipside offers up another sidelong sprawl of creeping black doom, the drums a skeletal framework for more shrieked demonic vokills, moaning gnarled riffage, all detuned and angular, in fact, the B-side sounds quite a bit like a black metal Black Flag at 16rpm. An endless doomic plod, that while plenty hellish and black, is sonically way more Moss or Monument Of Urns or Bunkur, than Deathspell Omega or Funeral Mist. Fucking incredible. Essential listening for the doomlords, the black hordes, and the deathdoomdronedirgedrift obsessed... Incredibly elaborate and beautiful packaging. Pressed on thick black vinyl, housed in a black inner sleeve with a printed red obi style insert. That sleeve is then housed in a second sleeve, printed black on black, with printed red blood splatters, everything is then wrapped in a thick, gorgeously printed outer slipcover / sleeve. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

Full length number three from this LA blackened ultradoom trio, whose M.O. has thankfully not changed too much since their debut, which was a stunning mix of Khanate style arty abject sludge creep, Habsyll like downtuned minimal crush, harrowing black ambient dronemusic, and suicidal slo-mo grim buzz, all tangled up into a heaving, churning sprawl of multiple o'd funereal doooooooooom. This new one definitely pushes the envelope even further, the opening track displaying the group at their twisted, outsider best, fusing loose clattery percussion, and No-Neck / Sunburned style free form skitter, to harsh, hateful vokills and keening arcs of downtuned guitar moan, the vibe almost more Jandek or Derek Bailey via Bunkur or Moss than anything more traditionally doom, the group's secret weapon, bassist Darea Plantin, who in addition to providing the black hole low end, also wields an unlikely but super distinctive arsenal of not traditionally metal noises, including drone machines, circuit bent instruments, Moog and field recordings, all of which are featured prominently, defining much of the music here, if not the band as a whole, and not just arty filigree, the ambience and atmospherics smoldering and sinister, long stretches of strange haunting drifts and murky pulsations, distant pipe fights and free jazz percussive splatter. Even when the sound does coalesce into some proper chug and churn, it's still so far removed from actual doom, as to be some new genre entirely, tranced out and minimal, but dense and layered and heavy as fuck. "Blood Stained Hope" might be one of the more traditionally doom tracks here, but it's really all relative, cuz it's still spaced out and warped, the rhythms lurching from doomic pound, to super loose and off kilter, at one point locking into a rhythm that seems to be totally at odds with the rest of the music, creating a woozy tension, that transforms what might otherwise be a knuckle dragging crawl, into something wild and warped, damaged and demented, those more 'rocking' parts balanced by long stretches of hushed, haunting thrum, of softly crumbling ambience, and distant rumbling drones, the whole thing an ever shifting, at times skeletal, at other times strangely psychedelic, and at others still, abject and utterly depressive, avant experimental doom epic. Two shorter tracks find the group's sound coalescing into some warm washed out almost dreamy doominess, before again splintering into a weird sprawl of brittle high end plod, all buried murky guitar melodies, simple drumming, anguished vox, all wreathed in a cloud of swirling psychedelic noise, hissing and buzzing, swaths of crackle and blurred melody, all woven into woozy billows of abstract soft noise atmosphere, through which, the band trudges along, a lo-fi doom death march. Until we reach the closer, a near 11 minute epic, that begins with simple minor key clean guitar strum, super effected vokills, that sound almost like guitar feedback, swaths of field recordings, eventually erupting into full on doomnoise, but never getting totally doomy, instead, it's a glorious cacophony, the guitars tangled and detuned, the vocals hissy and hateful, the drums more like rattling chains and big sheets of metal smashing into each other, eventually, for the last few minutes, building to a gorgeous, thickly layered sonic fugue, super dense and tranced out, an ultra intense, and weirdly tranquil coda. As always, amazing stuff. Very likely WAY too arty for the true doom set, but very recommended for all you doomlords into Bunkur, Khanate, Habsyll, SUNNO))), Monarch, Fleshpress, Nihill, Otesanek and the like, as well as folks into tripped out arty free form psych, who maybe never imagined that stuff like that could be utterly crushing and tarpit heavy!

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Not sure if the distinctive arrow-in-a-circle on the cover is meant to reference legendary label No U-Turn, but it had us expecting some sort of throwback jungle, some dense tech-step style drum & bass, but instead, Signals is a modern take on classic dubstep and grime, sounding a bit like a slightly less minimal Burial, if that makes any sense, it's still all slo-mo and murky, but the beats are a lot heavier, and there are a lot more vocals, mostly fragmented snippets, which are all over the brief intro, but when "Galactic" kicks in, it's a fierce fucker, all stuttery skitter, beneath weird monk like chants, a twisted little metallic melody, the various sounds and samples in constant flux, slowing down, speeding up, the whole thing a lurching, lumbering, woozy creep, that mysterious little Close Encounters melody will stick in your head like crazy, and then in swoop some strings, and suddenly it's some sort of symphonic dubstep epic, and it's so good. Listen to the sample, if that doesn't do it for you, we don't know what will. Much of the rest of the record is a bit more low slung, more blissed out, the electro-drift of "Lunar", adds a sort of washed out kosmische vibe, while "You Know" adds some female vox to the mix, but then "Persian" kicks in, all electro-murk, laced with cool Middle Eastern melodies, the result is haunting and mysterious, almost like a dubstep Muslimgauze. A bunch of the tracks have a hip hop vibe, big beats and serious swagger, albeit run through a cracked techno/dubstep filter, but others, like "Time", remains stripped down and skeletal, laced with brief bits of vocals, and weirdly psychedelic atmospheres, or the title track which is straight up grime, wound around a seriously jungly groove, the vocals chopped up and swirled into a dizzying beat heavy mix, which reminded us how much we love grime! Speaking of which, record closer "Play Your Corner" is a serious sick slab of classic grime, with some killer vocals over a sinister bed of strings, draped over tangled rhythms and wound up with a dizzying production. Love it!

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Really mellow soft-pop from 1969, the sole album by teenage San Francisco sisters Wendy and Bonnie Flower (ages 17 and 13 respectively, at the time this album was cut). Very pretty and summery, but NOT super happy, it's got a melancholy sadness (and sweetness) to it, evoking late afternoon, end of summer feelings. Maybe they're a bit like a more folky, psychedelic 5th

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Gerald Wenzel's first album for Phthalo (one of the cd-r pressings) is a unique reconstruction of electronic debris into squiggly damaged breakbeats and patterned machine noise abstraction that sounds like it could be the night stalker side project of Aphex Twin.

On his second album for Phthalo (this one an actual cd, not a cd-r), Wenzel tries to create an aural representation of prairie desolation. "Prairie Program" is an exceptional collection of distilled electronica and computer synthesis that varies from the clinicism of Raster's post-techno to metallic percussive 808 bombast.

We last heard from Wereju was on a sprawling�two track,�double cd released early last year. The ambient drone side project of Irish ultra doom heavies Wreck Of The Hesperus, Wereju deviated from the mothership bigtime, their take on the slow and low a whole 'nother beast entirely, and then even not all that beastly. It wasn't massive or heavy or sludgey, instead it was dreamy and mysterious, the low end more soothing than corrosive. There were definitely some intense moments, but for the most part, the sound of Wereju was a gorgeous blackened late night shimmer.� So here we have the follow up, released on Basses Frequences, one of our favorite new labels, who recently brought us that cool Tamagawa triple 3"cd-r with the origami lantern, and several other releases elsewhere on this list. Wereju, sonically, are a perfect fit on BF, this disc another two tracker, the first, a gauzy glimmering slow motion soundscape, the sound of a camera slowly panning across a barren landscape, cloaked in fog, wreathed in smoke, the trees barely visible, just dark shapes wrapped in whites and greys, rendered in gorgeous loooong tones, not all low end either, in fact, this is firmly in the upper register, distant keening high end streaks, smoothed into strange slithery melodies, bell like tones ring out, the decay stretching out forever, softly pulsing as the sound waves drift heavenward, beneath it all, a soft rumble whirs lazily, like an ancient engine powering this slow moving celestial body of sound. Shimmering, glittering, ethereal, the sound of sunlight on water, of sunbeams filtering through the clouds, infusing the otherwise barren soundscape with a soft burnished glow. The second track, is a bit more ominous, a bit more minimal. Distorted guitars moan way off in the distance, a deep undulating low end, spreads out like a black cloud in front of the sun. Bits of feedback and reverbed melodies drift by, but where as the first track was day, this is most definitely night. Dark, ominous, shadowed, cloudy, lots of rumbling low end, but not quite disguising the soaring shimmering remnants of the opener, that seem to be lurking just below the surface, a softly churning, constant battle for sonic supremacy, light versus dark, high versus low, but a soft war, the two sounds not so much clashing, as bleeding into each other, black and whites become greys, the sound gorgeously languid and soft focus, a long, luxurious slow burning fade to black. Gorgeous.� Incredible packaging too. The cd is seated in a black tray within a hinged metal tin, with a paste on front cover, full color sticker, and a sticker inside too with the liner notes.� LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!

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MPEG stream: A Monument For Things To Come

A while back we listed a killer chunk of ultra sludge from Irish doom-mongers Wreck Of The Hesperus, whose particular brand of doom fell more in line with Eyehategod than Esoteric. A sort of blown out slithery not quite groovy drugged out sludgey bile spewing stoner doom. Phew. We dug it very much though. But who would have thought that under all that blown out distortion and downtuned swagger, lurked a shimmery droney drifting soft side. Certainly not us, but here we are, sinking deep into the dolorous embrace of Wereju, the dark ambient drone side project of one of those Hesperians. Not so much black ambient as dreamy droney drift, although that may just be splitting hairs. Hard to say what the sound source is, we're guessing guitar, but the end result is pretty and shimmery, dark and billowy, slow soft swells of rumbling whir, steel string reverberations smoothed into muted abstract melodies. At it's most fierce, you can hear some Sunn 0))), as the tones distort and overload the poor speakers on our computer, but more often than not Wereju occupies a sonic space somewhere between the hushed minimalism of Niblock and Coleclough and the slightly more active and blown out doomdone ministrations of the more aggressive proponents of dark ambience. Two discs, loooooong songs, every one a slow shifting hypnotic slab of mysterious darkness and ur-drone divinity. Way Recommended.

Werewolf are a mysterious Polish horde who specialize in murky, brittle, lo fi grimness a la their countrymen Graveland. Huge guitars swirl and buzz, the rhythms veer from seasick waltzes to buzzing blackened blasts, thick walls of guitarfuzz and swirls of chaotic ambience create a dense foresty murk, where drums pulse and throb way down in the mix, like tribal war chants barely heard drifting like the stench of death on the wind. The vocals are a growling gargle, another layer of buzz in Werewolf's chaotic sonic squall, the cymbals splash and shimmer like acid rain eating away at everything it touches. This is more of that glorious loping buzzy droning black metal we can never seem to get enough of. The mix is so thick and overblown that the riffs eventually blur and smear, the whole record becoming a super buzzy trancelike drone. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Wolfish Famine Of Blood
MPEG stream: Return Of Black Ravens

Reason #16 for sticking with the Ethiopiques series: 'cuz just when you think you've got the series pegged, along comes something from way out in left field to kick your generalizing ass. And that's exactly what Asnaqetch Werqu did to ours. So no, this is not another funk groove record -- for those of you who may have had enough of that. Like the Harp Of King David (Ethiopiques #11) that was released back in 2001, The Lady With The Krar is more of a "traditional" Ethiopian music disc. Culturally though, the Krar is the polar opposite of the Beguena and considered quite literally to be "the devil's instrument". The performer of this demi-satanic instrument, along with holding the claim to fame of being the first actress to appear on the Ethiopian stage, arose against the odds to acheive super star status as a sort of Woody Guthrie meets The Bard political minstrel performer. This is because Asnaqetch Werqu was not born into a family of performing musicians, a caste known as Azmari. Instead she acquired her fame through sheer lyrical, improvisational and musical prowess. A five (sometimes six) stringed lyre with a gut resonator, the Krar sounds not unlike an old-time five string banjo; though with its creepy tuning it sounds closer melodically to something out of Java than the Appalachians. Werqu accompanies her vocals with the Krar, playing a semi-paralleling melody to her vocal line. The interweaving of Werqu's soft, lilting voice and the percussive twang of the Krar is absolutely hypnotic. Andee almost immediately proclaimed this his new favorite in the series, to give you an indication of the magnitude of this recording. Highly recommended! Comes with a 30 page booklet with biographical liner notes, lyrics and historical photos. The 22 tracks included on this disc were taken from two LPs recorded by Werqu in 1974 and 1976.

MPEG stream: Mengedegnaw Lebe
MPEG stream: Shemonmwanayewa

MPEG stream: Phases I (1969)
MPEG stream: Phases II (1969)

Notorious Swiss drummer (of Alboth! and 16/17 fame) Wertmuller and guitar experimentalist Wittwer release improv tracks that are equal parts airy and dense, raucous and careful. Lovely yet super heavy. Caspar Brotzmann fans (like us) will enjoy. Recommended.

There is little doubt that the band behind James Brown from the late sixties to the mid seventies was just about the tightest unit around. Of course, Brown's habit of fining his players for missing beats would keep any band in check. But the band wasn't dubbed The JB's until after a legendary moment where most of Brown's band, including key figures Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, and Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, up and quit on him. Brown, in a pinch, quickly grabbed a young Cincinnati-based backing band, The Pacemakers, which included a young Bootsy Collins before he joined Funkadelic. With a new band, a new decade and a new sound, Brown pretty much singlehandedly created funk music, and the recently defected Wesley, Parker, and Ellis quickly returned to the fold. The JB's went under many different names and line-ups, including Fred Wesley and the JB's, Maceo and The Macks, Fred Wesley and The New JB's. The Last Word, and The First Family, but the core personnel were more or less the same except for the Collins brothers who were only on the first JB's 1970 lp Food For Thought which contained the hits "Pass The Peas" and "Gimme Some More". All of their records up until 1974 are solid funk staples with hits "Doing It To Death", "Same Beat", and "If You Don't Get It Right The First Time, Back It Up and Try It Again, Party" that would be endlessly sampled in hip hop for decades to come. Good to have these on vinyl again! Funk essentials!

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

SORRY.

A few months ago we obtained those long-awaited cd issues of the WCPAEB's four albums, remember? Well when it rains it pours: this is the official reissue of the legendary pop outfit's FIRST, SELFRELEASED album, which places it chronologically *prior* to the four albums fans have known and loved (and traded for large sums of money) for 20 years. Features radically different (more lush and sunny, less VU-ish) versions of songs that appeared, reworked on the latter four albums, plus *eight* previously unissued pieces.

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is one of those groups whose status in the collectorskum underground means that I once spent $75 on one of their LPs. Ouch. Thankfully most of their recorded output has finally been put out on cd by the excellent The voluminous liner notes (different in each of the three discs) are super interesting. I had no idea that what looks like the main guy in the band (he's in the middle in all the pictures) was this eccentric trust fund millionaire who kind of took over the band by buying them a big ole psychedelic light show system (their live shows were famous for this) and who was so annoying and odd that the other guys in the band tried to not let him do anything else on stage but play tambourine. The other band members, interviewed in the notes, say they hated him and feel like they would've been a better more popular band without him etc. Sour grapes! But perhaps that's what made the band so amazing, the push and pull of varying aesthetics resulting in a beautiful music.

RealAudio clip: Shifting Sands
RealAudio clip: I Won't Hurt You
RealAudio clip: Scuse Me, Miss Rose

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is one of those groups whose status in the collectorskum underground means that I once spent $75 on one of their LPs. Ouch. Thankfully most of their recorded output has finally been put out on cd by the excellent The voluminous liner notes (different in each of the three discs) are super interesting. I had no idea that what looks like the main guy in the band (he's in the middle in all the pictures) was this eccentric trust fund millionaire who kind of took over the band by buying them a big ole psychedelic light show system (their live shows were famous for this) and who was so annoying and odd that the other guys in the band tried to not let him do anything else on stage but play tambourine. The other band members, interviewed in the notes, say they hated him and feel like they would've been a better more popular band without him etc. Sour grapes! But perhaps that's what made the band so amazing, the push and pull of varying aesthetics resulting in a beautiful music.

RealAudio clip: In the Arena
RealAudio clip: Delicate Fawn

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is one of those groups whose status in the collectorskum underground means that I once spent $75 on one of their LPs. Ouch. Thankfully most of their recorded output has finally been put out on cd by the excellent The voluminous liner notes (different in each of the three discs) are super interesting. I had no idea that what looks like the main guy in the band (he's in the middle in all the pictures) was this eccentric trust fund millionaire who kind of took over the band by buying them a big ole psychedelic light show system (their live shows were famous for this) and who was so annoying and odd that the other guys in the band tried to not let him do anything else on stage but play tambourine. The other band members, interviewed in the notes, say they hated him and feel like they would've been a better more popular band without him etc. Sour grapes! But perhaps that's what made the band so amazing, the push and pull of varying aesthetics resulting in a beautiful music.

RealAudio clip: As the World Rises and Falls
RealAudio clip: Eighteen is Over the Hill
RealAudio clip: In the Country

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is one of those groups whose status in the collectorskum underground means that plenty of folks found themselves forking over HUGE sums for copies of the original releases. Thankfully most of their recorded output was reissued on cd by the excellent reissue label Sundazed. And now released on vinyl by Reprise / Rhino. This band never quite made it big, never had a hit record, but god were they good. They were stalwarts on the LA pop scene in the late '60s and released six albums (we think). The music is arty and psychedelic but also totally appealing and approachable, like a weird mix of Capt Beefheart and the Association or the Byrds. Very fun and very "of its time" - with several anti-Vietnam War songs, the requisite sitars, Fifth Dimension-style vocals, lyrics invoking fairies and dwarves, etc. Their sound was alternately sweet and silly, epic and serious... and you must hear it! We recently discovered that what looks like the main guy in the band (he's in the middle in all the pictures) was this eccentric trust fund millionaire who kind of took over the band by buying them a big ole psychedelic light show system (their live performances were famous for this) and who was so annoying and odd that the other guys in the band tried to not let him do anything else on stage but play tambourine. The other band members, say they hated him and feel like they would've been a better more popular band without him etc. Sour grapes! But perhaps that's what made the band so amazing, the push and pull of varying aesthetics resulting in a beautiful music. Needless to say, all three of these albums are essential listening, and these reissues are super swank, done up right, and not all that expensive. Definitely Recommended. ----* ----* Compilations : ----*

Some records are totally unanimous AQ favorites and then there are those times that we are split pretty divisively on something. The latest from Kanye West has both some haters and some big time lovers here at the store. Those who love it (Irwin, especially!) can't get enough of its raw emotion (these are songs recorded after the death of his mother and the breakup of his engagement) and totally stripped down 808 beats that almost sound like they could be at home on a Kraftwerk or Suicide record if it was produced by Timbaland. This time out Kanye isn't rapping as much as he is singing, but knowing he doesn't posses the world's best singing voice he uses a whole lot of auto-tuning on his vocals. That's where those not as in love with the record tend to get turned off as he does use them on almost every track, a la T-Pain, but those who love the record feel that those vocals fit so perfectly in the flashing heart on sleeve feel of the record. Anyone who has recently experienced heartbreak will probably have a much easier time fully surrendering to these songs. It's almost like some kind of electro-emo-hip-hop carried out with such fiery passion and it almost sounds like it was all recorded in his bedroom on an 808 infused with the emotions and dire after-effects of a broken heart. So thumping, electric and pulsating. The record does sound like a heart pulsating with such rapid motion throughout. Give this record a chance, even if you have a hard time with Kanye's huge ego, because under all the bluster and bravado he really is pretty talented!

MPEG stream: Say You Will
MPEG stream: Paranoid
MPEG stream: Love Lockdown

[ aquarius records catalogue — W ]