[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 51 through 100 of 286.

MPEG stream: Walking East (Excerpt)

Geeze, will you look at that cover?? A gory painting of a severed, hairy hand, dripping blood with hanging sinews and jutting bone, clawing at a wall. For 1978, when this album was first released, that had to be considered pretty extreme! It would be at least another ten years before the likes of Cannibal Corpse would make such "shocking" images commonplace on album covers. So perhaps it will come as no surprise that apparently this band went on to become an important part of the '80s heavy metal scene in their native Spain. But this debut album of theirs, recorded when the guys in the band were in their mid-teens (!), actually harks back more to the proto-metal heaviness of the early '70s and even '60s, to which we say, right on! It's fuzzed-out, garagey psych, tons of fierce, heavy acid rock guitar, sounding something like Stray or Sir Lord Baltimore, or seventies Spanish older-brethren Tapiman and The Storm. The first three tracks are all vicious stormers. Really raw and riffy!! Tracks four and five mellow out just a bit, balancing the heaviness with more melody. They've got a balladic '60s psych pop element to 'em, but they definitely don't wimp out in the end. We've gotta say, wow. Apparently the original of this is an expensive, rare-ass record (some collectors, we're told, even doubted its existence) but thanks to this cd reissue it's alive and well and and bloody and clawing at the walls. Recommended to all proto-metal freaks.

MPEG stream: Los 4 Jinetes Del Apocalipsis
MPEG stream: Lacontaminacion

This fictional collective is in fact one Carter Thornton, a New York based composer / sound artist, and 'Floor Child' collects five years of his recordings and live performances, sewn together into one throbbing, creaking, tinkling droning whole, spread out over two discs, and featuring appearances by a couple of No Neck Blues Banders and a handful of NNCK-related folks. This is a massive, expansive free form soundscape hobbled together out of everything AND the kitchen sink, humming drones, keening feedback, spacy honking free jazz horns, distant clatter and hum, snippets of short wave radio and TV dialogue, an assortment of strings, strummed, plucked and bowed, far away drums, found sounds, birds and running water, jazzy clatter, bouncy rhythms, tinkling piano, groaning swells, shimmery melodies and all sorts of other sounds. A surprisingly smooth and dreamy listen considering the disparate sounds and sources. Nice. Released on NNCK's Sound@one label.

MPEG stream: Between 245 + 368
MPEG stream: Feelds

GOD? is the Drag City imprint curated by garage rock wunderkind Ty Segall. Last list we highlighted the 7" single they just put out by noisepunks Running, and here's their other new release, seven inches of fury from Zath, a Chicago-based extreme metal outfit featuring members of Cave, Coughs, Oozing Wound and Oakeater among others, who have a previous 7" on the Captcha label. Hellish underground deaththrash is Zath's metier. We're talking pounding battery, growling vocals, brutally technical guitarwork, lots of nods to Slayer and the like... Zath sure as heck rip it up on these two tracks, "Black Goat Razor" (what you shave your black goat with?) and "Pain Reaper". Tuff stuff!

MPEG stream: Never Blame Her
MPEG stream: Isolation Icon And The Blackguard

When we reviewed the first Zdrastvootie record last year, the two bands we couldn't stop thinking of were Polvo and the Sun City Girls. Sort of like Torch Of The Mystics via Merge records or something. Sounds weird but it definitely worked and we loved it. The formula stays pretty much the same this time around, except for the much more prominent vocals, which most definitely remind us of French prog masters Magma, which can never be a bad thing if you ask us. Soaring and majestic, almost operatic at times, the vocals hover over a bed of tangled Eastern flecked post-prog-rock. Strange alien melodies intertwined with dense complex time signatures, angular atonal riffage, spastic start stop arrangements, gnarled Ginn-ish guitar noodling, all meshed into dreamy propulsive post rock that occasionally splinters gloriously into hyper complex free prog/jazz and stacatto bursts of noisy improv chaos.

MPEG stream: Ochiba Kana
MPEG stream: Gone And Here

Holy Mountain, the label that has so far essentially been home to only two artists, Six Organs Of Admittance, and Steven Ray Lobdell (and of course his Davis Redford Triad) has finally drawn new blood, seeking psychedelic sustanence from outside their very elite holy land. Coming soon, massive, lugubrious psych drone from OM (ex-Sleep!) but first stop, Santa Cruz, and the curiously named Zdrastvootie. The minute we threw this on, we immediately thought: Polvo plays Torch Of The Mystics (the Sun City Girls classic). And we haven't really been able to come up with a more apt description. Angular guitars woven into dreamy post rock soundscapes, occasional Greg Ginn like psychedelic squalls, all with a very Eastern raga-like hue. Rollicking and shambolic one moment, shimmering and pastoral the next. Riffs explode into full on rock mode but immediately decay into splattery, spare ambience. Chaotic skronk and skree implode into propulsive Krautrock mesmer. Really fucking great.

MPEG stream: 1
MPEG stream: 2

Our friends in Hammers Of Misfortune did a US tour this summer, and when they got back, they said that of all the bands they played with, there was one they felt was definitely better than they were. (Only one you ask? Maybe that sounds arrogant on their part, but they're not arrogant, just self-confident... playing over-the-top operatic metal like they do, you've gotta be self-confident, eh?). They'd played with a lot of good bands they liked, but only one really blew 'em away: Minnesota's Zebulon Pike. That was enough for me -- I had to hear these guys! A trip to their website and some mp3 downloads later, off went my email to 'em, ordering cds. And now here they are, and they look quite nice too. But how they sound is what's important -- and the most concise, comparative description I can come up with for Zebulon Pike is something like Pelican meets The Fucking Champs. They're a heavy instrumental stoner/math rock band, with two guitarists who are all about the insane harmonies. The drummer and bassist get a workout too, what with the complex, dynamic song structures this band navigates. From ultra-sludgy riff attacks to mellow and pretty (even a bit jazzy) breakdowns, the melodic doom calculus of Zebulon Pike proceeds at a generally slow pace (nine or twelve minute long songs are the norm), interspersed with bursts of note-manic playing. You'll definitely hear the band's '70s influences of Wishbone Ash and Black Sabbath, translated into a modern instrumental post-rock realm. The band also goes beyond metal and prog to cite classical composers like Bela Bartok and Avro Part as inspirations to their "slow motion apocalypse". Mighty, mythic instrumental metal indeed. FYI Zebulon Pike takes their name from an early American explorer, the same guy for whom Pike's Peak is named.

MPEG stream: The Iommi Variations
MPEG stream: Howl Of Wicca

Wow, not just a new Hammers Of Misfortune album this week but also a new Zebulon Pike! Two what we might call "advanced metal" bands that don't really have anything to do we each other, except a) they both slay and b) that we first heard about Zebulon Pike after Hammers came back from a tour raving about this kick-ass instrumental metal band they'd played with in Minneapolis. Epic length songs, dual-guitar harmonies left right and center, and HEAVY was the word from the Hammers camp. ZP's first album, 2004's And Blood Was Passion, proved all this and more to us, and we've been eagerly awaiting another one since then! As we're sure a lot of you have been too, 'cause that first Zebulon disc has been a steady seller here, people totally going for what we described as their blend of the math-rock, post-rock instru-metal prowess of both The Fucking Champs and Pelican. (And what we will -again- describe as a blend of those two bands!) ZP II: The Deafening Twilight is just what we wanted: still no singing, five more head-banging, mind-blowing tracks (one just five minutes long, two around thirteen, and the other two of 'em upwards of 20 minutes in length) of sheer shut up n' play stoner riff mastery, post-rock dynamics of beauty and might gone totally metal, as many twists and turns as a Pacific Coast drive on Highway 1, convoluted yet catchy and melodic... and again, damn HEAVY when the pedal's to the metal. They can thrash violently or go for pretty and quiet, even breaking out instruments like vibraphone, tubular bells, and medieval greatpipes when their compositions demand 'em. Furthermore, they're shredders but this doesn't come off as techy and complex for the sake of it like, say, Behold The Arctopus. It's more "classic" and song-centric. And way more metal than some of their instrumental peers. I mean, we do love Pelican, but are they metal enough to title a song "(Behold) The Wizzard's Fountain"?? ZP'd fit right in on a bill with The Sword or Baroness. Recommended.

MPEG stream: This Pyramid Is The Ascending Spiral
MPEG stream: Structure Of The Black Stallion

Massive Minneapolis instru-metal discovered (for us) by our friends in Hammers Of Misfortune a few years back in 2004. We instantly became fans upon hearing their first album. As did many of you. They followed that with an equally powerful second album in 2006. Now, another 2 years later, they're up to album number three, and we're proud to have such a burgeoning Zebulon Pike section in our metal bin! If you haven't heard ZP before, just imagine a mathy yet melodic, all-instrumental, and even more epick version of doomsters The Sword... Or, as we have said before, a mix of old Pelican and The Fucking Champs, with immense twin guitar harmonies and stonery heaviness. There's always been a "post-rock" side to 'em along with the metal, the post-rock coming on strongest on this third effort, with the the 2nd part of their loud-soft dynamics dialing up the atmospheric prettiness over significant stretches of these extended, and otherwise utterly heavy compositions. They're named after American 1800's explorer Zebulon Pike, but to our ears Zebulon sounds like some sort of science fictional, metallic element found on the extreme edge of the periodic table. As in, "the asteriod is composed almost entirely of solid zebulon." Or, "this chunk of zebulon possesses strange radioactive properties!" So connoting something both heavy and, um, technically advanced. But the being named after the pioneer who lent his name also to Pike's Peak makes sense too, in that ZP's music is not unlike a craggy mountain range, full of peaks and valleys, tall granite spires and bottomless chasms. This is mountainous metal. Their riffs are of avalanche proportions, their long songs (three on this disc, the shortest a mere 10:55, the longest 16:25) move with the inexorable power of giant glaciers, having slow but majestic momentum, though they pick up speed now and then for a sudden rockslide or volcanic eruption. The vast heavens above and beyond those peaks are also visited by ZP, especially on track two, "Star-Ocean", dusted with spacey, Zombi-esque synths in an cosmic interlude at about the 10 minute mark. It's a mystery to us why this band isn't better known. Why they're still putting out their records themselves on their own label, why they haven't gotten the sort of attention awarded bands like Baroness and Pelican and Mastodon and Om and Hammers... Why aren't they signed to Southern Lord or Hydra Head? Where's the limited picture disc vinyl and diehard boxsets and stuff? What about tours? But they're too good to stay our little secret forever! Anyone into metallic post-rock and/or stonery sludge ought to enjoy exposure to that Zebulon radiation we mentioned...

MPEG stream: Mirrors Of Blessed Miracles
MPEG stream: The Avian Magi

Zex isn't the only exciting release in the 'Z' section this week! We've also got the new album from longtime aQ faves, Zebulon Pike, instrumental post-metallers extraordinare from St. Paul, Minnesota. Zebulon Pike seem to be one of those bands that we love and think should be bigger than they are, but never seem to hear about except via our own reviews (another example: Combat Astronomy). It's been four years since this quartet's previous opus, Space Is The Corpse Of Time. That one we made a Record Of The Week (so they SHOULD have gotten huge, right?!?) and even in that review we were apologizing for having pretty much exhausted all our superlatives in our previous hyperbolic raves about the band's other albums. So once again we have to fall back on the old standby - if you are a Zebulon Pike fan, you already KNOW you want this; if you aren't, well what part of super heavy epic progressive spacey post rock instrumental metal do you not like??? These guys are the masters! This new disc features four new, and also of course quite long, tracks. Well, actually the last one, billed as an epilogue, is actually short, a mere two and a half minute ripper, but the others make up for it length-wise, especially the penultimate one, "A Fragile Portal", 18+ minutes long, which is also a ripper (in parts), and furthermore gets extra-fancy with the addition of two saxophones and a contrabass, sparingly deployed - but that arty chamber rock element doesn't stop it from being ultra-lumberingly-heavy, don't you worry, and neither does the eerie lullaby music box chiming part about six minutes in. As always, anybody with any ZP experience knows to expect perfectly executed, exquisitely crafted, compositions combining minimalist repetition, sheer thundering riffage, complex shifting song structures, super tight instrumental interplay, exciting dynamics, and massive amounts of majestic feeling. Once again, Zebulon Pike compare favorably with a bunch of other big aQ faves... "The White Leopardess" sounds like Stinking Lizaveta on steroids; while opener "Nostalgia (For The Unreal)" immediately reminds us of The Fucking Champs when ZP's dual guitar harmonies arrive, but soon it's like The Champs playing atonal 20th Century classical. Mammatus, Pelican, Pharoah Overlord, Yob, Broughton's Rules and a bunch of others could be namechecked too, though really at this point ZP should be a band we could namecheck alone. Grab this, strap your instru-metal heaviosity crash helmet on, crank it up, and get ready do some heavy duty loop-de-loops! MPEG Stream: "The White Leopardess" [/audio/zebulonpikethewhite.m3u] MPEG Stream: "A Fragile Portal" [/audio/zebulonpikeafragile.m3u] ----* ----* Also Relatively New In Stock, But Not Yet Reviewed : ----* A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS "Transfixiation" (Dead Oceans) cd/lp 13.98/17.98 ABDU ALI "Best Of Abdu Ali" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98 ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE AND THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. "High On Heaven: Live In New Haven" (Safety Meeting) 3lp 38.00 AKATHARSIA "s/t" (Econo Jam) lp 19.98 AKATOMBO "Sometime, Never" (Hand-Held) cd 14.98 ALASTOR / TUNDRA "The Forbidden Fruit Of Purity" (Slava Satan / Total Human Collapse Movement) cd 14.98 AMBARCHI, OREN "Live Knots" (Pan) cd 17.98 ANTWON "Heavy Hearted In The Function" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98 ART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS "Mosaic" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 ASS "Live In New Jersey" (self-released) cassette 6.98 ATKINSON, FELICIA "A Readymade Ceremony" (Shelter Press) lp 23.00 AXIS: SOVA "Early Surf" (God?) lp 17.98 BAR STOOL WALKER (BRUCE ANDERSON) "Oh Hey Broadway" (no label) cd 7.98 BARROW WIGHT "Unfinished Tales" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98 BELLE & SEBASTIAN "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance" (Matador) cd/2lp 14.98/31.00 BIRTH CONTROL "Operation" (Zyx) lp 21.00 BLACK SPIRITUALS "Live At Disjecta: High Vibration Resonance Vol. 1" (Tapeworm) cassette 8.98 BLACKSHAW, JAMES "Apologia" (Bladud Flies!) lp 23.00 BLACKWOLFGOAT "Drone Maintenance" (Small Stone) cd 13.98 BLAKULLA "s/t" (Mellotron) lp 29.00 BLANCO, MYKKI "Gay Dog Food" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98 BOOTLEGS "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 BOOTLEGS "W.C. Monster" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 BROADCAST "Haha Sound" (Warp) lp 27.00 BROADCAST "Tender Buttons" (Warp) lp 25.00 BROADCAST & THE FOCUS GROUP "Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age" (Warp) lp 25.00 BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH "s/t" (Neurot Recordings) cd 14.98 BROTZMANN, PETER / JIM O'ROURKE / KEIJI HAINO "Two City Blues" (Trost) lp 24.00 BROWNOUT "Brownout Presents: Brown Sabbath" (Ubiquity) cd 15.98 BUTLER, WILL "Policy" (Merge) lp 17.98 CARAGNANO, ANNA / DONATO DOZZY "Sintetizzatrice" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00 CARIBOU VIBRATION ENSEMBLE "CVE Live 2011" (self-released) lp 36.00 CARTER, DEAN "Call Of The Wild" (Big Beat) lp 23.00 CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 2" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98 CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 3" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98 CHAIN, PAUL "Unreleased Vol. 2" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 CHAIN, PAUL "Whited Sepulchres" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 CHAIN, PAUL VIOLET THEATRE "Opera 4th" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 CHERRY, DON "Complete Communion" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 CLENT, DJ "Last Bus To Lake Park" (Duck N' Cover) 2lp 24.00 CLOAK "Succumb" (Transylvanian Tapes) cassette 4.98 CODE III "Planet Of Man" (Wah Wah Records) lp 35.00 COLE LODGE "RNB" (Death Records) cassette 4.98 COLLINS, LYN "Think (About It)" (Get On Down) lp+7" 35.00 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS "Repetition Reinforcement" (Diagonal) 12" 17.98 COSMIC DEALER "Crystallization" (Pseudonym) 2lp 38.00 CRAVING ANGEL "Dark Horse" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 CRYPT VAPOR "Erotik Maniac" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98 DAMON & NAOMI "Fortune" (20/20/20) lp 15.98 DECEMBERISTS, THE "What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World" (Capitol Records) cd/2lp 14.98/26.00 DECERF, JEAN-PIERRE "Space Oddities 1975-1979" (Born Bad) lp 21.00 DEFYANCE "Amaranthine" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 DEFYANCE "Time Lost" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 DEFYANCE "Voices Within" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 DENGUE FEVER "The Deepest Lake" (Tuk Tuk) cd/lp 15.98/15.98 DESTRUCTION UNIT "Live In San Francisco" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98 DEVIL CHILDE "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 DINOSAUR JR "Bug: Live At The 9:30 Club" (Outer Battery) lp 21.00 DISSOLVE "s/t" (Painter Man) 12"/cassette 11.98/4.98 DRAKE, NICK "Family Tree" (Sunbeam) 2lp 34.00 DUAL ACTION "Back In" (Bed Of Nails) 12" 17.98 DURTHANG "Passage Beyond The Cold Vales Of Desolation" (War Against Yourself) cd 14.98 EARTH JERKS "File #06" (Computer Tapes) cd-r 4.98 ELFMILK "Relocation" (Independent Recordings) lp 13.98 ENGLISH, LAWRENCE "Viento" (Taiga) lp 26.00 EX-CULT "Cigarette Machine" (Castle Face) lp 15.98 FATHER JOHN MISTY "I Love You, Honeybear" (Sub Pop) cd 14.98 FATHER YOD & THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Kohoutek" (Drag City) lp 22.00 FEEDTIME "Flatiron" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98 FF "Ffeeling" (300 Mics) lp/lp+blotter paper 17.98/24.00 FUNHOUSE "The Way Things Will Be" (Minotauro) cd 14.98 FURY, THE "Sex" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 1" (War On Music) lp 21.00 GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 2" (War On Music) lp 23.00 GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 3" (War On Music) lp+7" 28.00 GREEN, GRANT "Street Of Dreams" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 GRIM FUNERAL "Abdication Under Funeral Dirge" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 GUNN, STEVE & THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS "Seasonal Hire" (Thrill Jockey) lp 19.98 GURU GURU "UFO" (Zyx) lp 21.00 HENRY BLACKER "Hungry Dogs Will Eat Dirty Puddings" (Riot Season) lp 16.98 HILL, ANDREW "Black Fire" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 HOLDERLIN "Holderlins Traum" (Zyx) lp 21.00 HORNWOOD FELL "s/t" (Avantgarde Music / Burma Music) cd 14.98 HOUND "Out Of Time" (SRA) lp 17.98 HUTCHERSON, BOBBY "Total Eclipse" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 IMPERIOUS RITUAL "Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambiguity" (Profound Lore) 2lp 34.00 IRON MAIDEN "Piece Of Mind" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00 IRON MAIDEN "Powerslave" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00 JANVS "Nigredo" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 KALEVALA "People No Names" (Svart) lp 26.00 KEMO KEMOSS "Rejoice, No Survivors" (no label) cd 4.98 KID MILLIONS & JIM SAUTER "Fountain" (Family Vineyard) lp 15.98 KRITZLER, JIMI "Noise In My Head: Voices From The Ugly Australian Underground" (HoZac) book 49.99 LE STELLE DI MARIO SCHIFANO "s/t" (BDS) lp 17.98 LI XI "Meet Me Somewhere" (Sundowning) lp 18.98 LIVING EYES, THE "Living Large" (Agitated Records) lp 17.98 LOTUS THIEF "RERVM" (Svart) 2lp 34.00 LOW WORMWOOD "Lanzhou Lanzhou" (Maybe Mars) cd 12.98 M.D.C. "s/t" (Beer City) lp 15.98 MAGMA "Felicite Thosz" (Jazz Village) lp 22.00 MAIOVVI, ANTONI "Avrokosm" (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98 MENACE RUINE "Venus Armata" (Sige) 2lp 26.00 MINGUS, CHARLES "Mingus Plays Piano: Spontaneous Compositions And Improvisations" (Supeior Viaduct) lp 23.00 MINGUS, CHARLES "The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady" (Superior Viaduct) lp 23.00 MISANTROPUS "s/t (violet)" (self-released) lp 21.00 MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 1" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 2" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 NAHAR "The Strange Inconvenience" (Avantgarde Music / Sad Sun Music) cd 14.98 NAME, JACK "Weird Moons" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98 NKVD "Hakmarrja" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 NOCTURNAL POISONING "Doomgrass" (The End) cd 12.98 NUDITY "Astronomicon" (Iron Lung) lp 16.98 O'DWYER, AINE "Music For Church Cleaners Vol. 1 And II" (MIE) 2lp 30.00 OF MONTREAL "Aureate Gloom" (Polyvinyl) lp 17.98 OFDRYKKJA "A Life Worth Losing" (Avantgarde Music / War Against Yourself) cd 14.98 OGRE "Dawn Of The Proto-Man" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 OGRE "Seven Hells" (Minotauro) cd + dvd 17.98 OIL THIEF "Obsolencence & Monality" (Chondritic Sound) 2 x cassette 15.98 OLDER SUN "Bad Man b/w What You Need" (Valley King) 7" 9.98 ORB "Womb" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98 ORCUTT, BILL "Gerty Loves Pussy" (Palilalia) lp 16.98 PANDA BEAR "Meets The Grim Reaper" (Domino) cd 13.98 PEOPLE'S TEMPLE CHOIR "He's Able" (no label) cassette 6.98 PERFECT PUSSY "I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling" (Captured Tracks) 12" 16.98 PINES "The Field Journal" (Time Released Sound) 3" cd-r + booklet 30.00 POP GROUP, THE "Cabinet Of Curiosities" (Freaks R Us) lp 22.00 POP GROUP, THE "Citizen Zombie" (Freaks R Us) lp 31.00 POP, IGGY "American Caesar" (Plain Recordings) 2lp 31.00 POPULARE MECHANIK "Kollektion 03" (Bureau) cd/lp 19.98/27.00 PUBLIC ENEMY "Fear Of A Black Planet" (Def Jam) lp 34.00 PURE GROUND "Europa" (Chondritic Sound) cassette 8.98 PUSHUPS "Beast Jammz 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98 PYONGYANG HARDCORE RESISTANCE "II" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98 PYRAMIDS "A Northern Meadow" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98 RILEY, TERRY & ROBERTO CACCIAPAGLIA ENSEMBLE "In C: Performed Live At Aterforum, July 9, 1988" (Mirumir) 2lp 37.00 RODMAN-MELCHIOR, LETHA "Shimmering Ghost" (Siltbreeze) lp 15.98 ROLLINS, SONNY "Newk's Time" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 SANNITI, ALESSIO "s/t" (self-released) lp 21.00 SANULLIM "The Psychedelic Years 1977-1979" (Dounia) lp 25.00 SETH "s/t" (Minotauro) 2cd 17.98 SHORTER, WAYNE "Adam's Apple" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 SIGNOR BEN EDICK THE MOOR "El Negro" (Deathbomb Arc) cd 8.98 SIGUR ROS "Agaetis Byrjun" (XL) 2lp 27.00 SILVERFISH "Fat Axl" (Southern) lp 16.98 SIVYJ YAR "From The Dead Villages' Darkness" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SLEAFORD MODS "Chubbed Up" (Ipecac) cd 15.98 SMILES "s/t" (Death Records) cassette 4.98 SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Deluxe]" (Time Released Sound) cd 50.00 SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Regular]" (Time Released Sound) cd 14.98 SONNY AND THE SUNSETS "Talent Night" (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98 SORDIDE "La France A Peur" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SPEAKING CANARIES, THEE "Platter Base Must Be Constructed Of Moon-Rock" (Chunklet) lp 16.98 SPECTRE "Ruff Kutz" (Pan) 2lp 30.00 STONE ANGEL "s/t" (Acme) lp 24.00 STONEY & THE JAGGED EDGE "Chasing Rainbows" (Big Beat) lp 23.00 SUMAC "The Deal" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98 SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES "Calculations Of The Ancient" (Minotauri) cd 17.98 SVARTRIT "I" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SVARTRIT "II" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SVARTRIT "III" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SWALLOWED "Lunarterial" (Dark Descent) cd 14.98 SWAMI JOHN REIS & THE BLIND SHAKE "Modern Surf Classics" (Swami) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 SWAY "s/t" cd 17.98 SWEET TORMENT "Hell / Ancient Pantheon" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98 SWERVEDRIVER "I Wasn't Born To Lose You" (Cobraside) cd 12.98 SYNT.TOFS "Radio Centraal 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98 TACTICS "The Re-Mastered Plan" (Minotauro) 2cd + dvd 32.00 TAYLOR, CECIL "Unit Structures" (Blue Note) lp 21.00 THE AVENGERS VI "Real Cool Hits" (Dionysus) lp 15.98 THEESATISFACTION "Earthee" (Sub Pop) lp 17.98 THOABATH "A String Detached" (self-released) cassette 3.98 TIARAS "s/t" (Mt. St. Mtn.) lp 15.98 TOMORROWILLBEWORSE "Down The Road Of Nothing" (Avantgarde Music / Bylec-Tum Productions) cd 14.98 TOO SHORT "Born To Mack" (Plain) lp 25.00 TORCHE "Restarter" (Relapse) cd/lp 14.98/23.00 TRAFFIC SOUND "A Bailar A Go Go" (Lion Productions / Repsychled) cd 15.98 TREPANERINGSRITUALEN "Veil The World" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98 TRITON WARRIOR "Satan's Train b/w Sealed In A Grave" (Supreme Echo) 7" 11.98 TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Monsanto" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98 TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Poppunk" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98 UNCLE SAM "Heaven Or Hollywood" (Minotauro) cd 17.98 UNION TRADE, THE "A Place Of Long Years" (Tricycle) cd/lp 9.98/19.98 V/A "Dance Mania: Ghetto Madness" (Strut) 2lp 29.00 V/A "Music of Tanzania" (Sublime Frequencies) 2lp 29.00 V/A "Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous" (Hammerheart) 2lp 26.00 V/A "Off The Beaten Tracks" (Grown Kids Radio) lp 19.98 V/A "Punk 45: Extermination Nights In The Sixth City" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 29.00 V/A "Spiritual Jazz 6: Vocals" (Jazzman) 2lp 28.00 V/A "Ultra High Frequencies: The Chicago Party" (Numero) 2lp 23.00 VANDROOGENBROECK, JOEL "Biomechanoid" (Aguirre) lp 28.00 VATICAN SHADOW "Death & Unity With God" (Modern Love) 2lp 26.00 VIET CONG "Viet Cong" (Jagjaguwar) cd 13.98 VOIVOD "Negatron + Phobos" (Hypnotic) 2lp 27.00 WAND "Golem" (In The Red) cd/lp 13.98/15.98 WEEPING RAT "Tar" (Handmade Birds) cd 10.98 WHIRR "Sway" (Graveface) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 WINTERFRONT "Northwinds" (Werewolf Promotion / Lower Silesian Stronghold) cd 14.98 XYZ "s/t" (Radical Elite) lp 16.98 ZERO DOWN "No Limit To Evil" (Minotauro) cd 12.98

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All kinds of awesomeness here on this new Zebulon Pike album, their fourth, and the Minnesota instrumental math metal stoner doom post-rock space-rock (whew!) combo's first full-length in like three years. It's also their first ever to be released on (double lp gatefold) VINYL as well as compact disc. If you're already a big ZP fan like us, and we know lots of AQ customers are, then you're automatically super stoked at this news and we should just get outta the way and let you "add to cart" without further ado. But, we realize that (for some strange reason) not everybody in the whole world knows who ZP is or just why they're so great. So unfair (for them) and unfortunate (for all their potential fans), 'cause as we've said before, they should be HUGE... at least signed to Hydra Head (instead of their own label) and touring with bands like Baroness, hyped by all the cool magazines and blogs and whatnot. Not sure why that hasn't really happened yet, but if we have anything to say about it, someday it will. Soooo... this album, being to our ears arguably their best yet, would be a great one to get into for the first time, for those who haven't yet been exposed to that special "Zebulon Pike radiation" we've referred to in the past. Not sure we can out-do any of our previous reviews in the hyperbole dep't., we've raved about 'em before for sure, and it will be hard for us to come up with anything better to say here, of course we'll pull out the old standby that they're kinda like Pelican meets The Fucking Champs, combining lumbering sub-bass heaviosity, surging melodicism, and stunning dual guitar harmonies - definitely a band playing music for music's sake ("Hats Off To Music" as the Champs would say, paraphrasing Led Zep's feelings about Roy Harper). With spiralling leads and chugging riffage, ZP is definitely into metal, but also 20th century classical (Steve Reich?), and prog, that's more from whence their extended song structures arise - the five tracks here are mostly long, all the double digits except one. Crucial for an instrumental band, they not only come up with good riffs, but also concentrate on interesting, extreme sonic textures, getting into avant garde areas at times. Like, what's up with the crazy chorus of "wheee wheee wheee" sounds (somehow produced by the guitars, we assume) cacophonously closing track one, "Spectrum Threshold"? We don't know, but we like it. The drummer gets into the avant-action too, there's stretches of percussive soundscapes, dense drum storms and spacious skitter. You definitely don't miss there being a vocalist, this definitely keeps your attention, as long as the songs are, with twists and turns, first hypnotizing with crushing riff repetition, then plunging into a droning abstract celestial otherworld or a quiet jazzy pretty passage, like the tinkling music box midsection dropped into "Echoic Worlds" that sets you up for the heavy angular riffage set to surge forth immediately afterwards. And this album never bogs down, there's always a sense of strong, propulsive forward motion, even with the ambient detours. Compared to earlier albums by these guys, we sense even more emphasis here on the '90s post rock part of the ZP equation. Lots of that loud/soft stuff a la Slint and Mogwai, but way more metal... some other bands that come to mind while listening to this, from moment to moment, include Don Caballero, Yob, Iceburn (circa Hephaestus, an underrated classic we'd love review someday, if it ever comes back into print!), Megaton Leviathan, forgotten AQ faves Fuehler, early Pharaoh Overlord, Isis, Boris, Conifer, Sardonis, and more... but they sound like ZP and only ZP at the end of the day. One sign of a good album is that it immediately compels repeated plays from the sometimes jaded, overwhelmed listeners here at AQ, this one sure did and that's why we made it Record Of The Week. Space Is The Corpse Of Time is pushing our buttons for what we like in "this sort of thing" while also springing plenty of surprises. So if you like your post rock to be heavy and sludgey, and you like your sludgey heavy rock to be instrumental, and you like your sludgey heavy instrumental post rock to be both super melodic and sonically adventurous, almost scientifically advanced, well heck then you sound like our sort of customer and we highly recommend this Zebulon Pike album to you! It's an epic feast of might and majesty and MUSIC. FYI, if you get the vinyl, it comes with an mp3 download card. Obviously if you get the cd, you don't need that.

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This was originally released as a super limited cd-r, and people dug it so much we could barely keep it in stock. Now the fine folks at Bo'Weavil have reissued it as a proper cd, packaged in a gorgeous fold out thick paper sleeves with extensive liner notes and an insert printed with a brief history of Zecharia's life, the whole thing housed in a thick plastic sleeve. Still limited, to 500 copies this time, so not sure how long these will be around. Also included on the reissue are two bonus remix tracks! Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the Middle East, on a hot sweltering day, with the dust, the scorching sun, and all of that history surrounding you on all sides, letting that intensity overwhelm you and opening your ears to a wondrous world of beautiful and mysterious sounds? Well here it is! Recorded in Jerusalem in 1980 and previously only available as a homemade cassette and later as a cd-r until now, this is a whole disc of Zadik Zecharia furiously rocking the zorna, an instrument most of us had never even heard of until now!! Born in a small village in Kurdistan before moving to Israel in 1950, Zecharia has dedicated his life to playing the zorna (a traditional Kurdish instrument somewhat similar to a longer more narrow trumpet or Scottish bagpipe). This record doesn't let up for a single second. The moment it starts Zecharia is taken over by the power of his instrument and the fugue state he must descend into to elicit such amazing passionate sounds. You get the feeling that there is no time to pause, no time to think, no time to even take a breath. When I (Irwin) had the amazing opportunity to be in the Middle East in 2000, I remember walking through street markets, standing on the border of Syria and Israel, feeling years of charged history, pain, and passion, right there beneath my feet, and all around me. Taking off my headphones I was immediately overtaken by the myriad of sounds baking in the desert heat. Those moments were magic, and it all seemed to come together perfectly, and for just a moment it felt possible to forget about hate, war, religion and politics. This record takes me back to that place more then anything I've ever heard. Like the best snake charmer records, the kind of music that grabs you by the ankles and sweeps you off your feet, this has the same hard hitting intensity, with an underlying energy that feels boundless and endless. If you've been to the store recently you've probably noticed the nonstop construction going on outside. So for hours at a time we've been hearing drilling and pounding and the sounds of asphalt being torn apart. When the Zecharia has been playing in the store, the combination of all that commotion and the wailing zorna has made for one of the most amazing high voltage drone drenched pounding creations we've ever heard. But even on its own, this record has the ability to take your body hostage, every listen literally forcing various parts of your body to break out in uncontrollable movement. The dola drum which accompanies the zorna helps create a simple backbeat that balances Zecharia's fiery melodic frenzies. A musical fire that you never want to see extinguished. Recommended with more exclamation points than we have room to print!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc...

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About a year ago we were completely floored by the cd release of a cassette recording made in Jerusalem circa 1980 of the intense and trance inducing zorna playing of Zadik Zecharia. His Kurdish Melodies On Zorna had the kind of fire and intensity that appealed not only to Middle Eastern music aficionados, but also noise freaks, drone lovers and experimental music-heads of all stripes. So when we heard that the Israeli label Something On The Road had compiled a remix cd of Zacharia's masterful record we were both intrigued and a little skeptical. We'll be the first to admit that most remix records tend to miss the mark, adding generic beats and kind of killing the original spirit of a work that we love. And the first couple tracks on this collection while ok weren't totally doing it for us but then...oh my god!!! after a few tracks things started to heat up FAST! While most records, especially compilations and remix albums, tend to be top heavy, this is in many ways quite the opposite. Things start off with a nice smoky Planet Mu almost dubstep kind of vibe and then as the record goes on the beats start to diminish in favor of drone and noise and buzz. We love how Something On The Road have such a good sense of continuity, mood and pacing, something most remix records completely ignore. We weren't familiar with most of the Israeli bands and DJ's involved in this record but now we will for sure try to seek out more music by the likes of Nemoi, Gal Tushia and David Ovadia. The one artist we were familiar with was Poochlatz an amazingly bleak and primitive noise project out of Israel who always whip up beautiful and chaotic doom & gloom! We love the tidal wave that erupts as this remix record unfolds. Like the best moments of Muslimgauze, this is Middle Eastern experimental electronica that resonates so strongly and does it's source material proud!

MPEG stream: Zecharia Remix By Nemoi
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Ever thought of what it would be like to be in the middle east on a hot sweltering day with the dust, scorching sun, and history all around you while the intensity of the surroundings blasted in your ears? Well here it is! Recorded in Jerusalem in 1980 and only released as an independent cassette until now, the sounds of the zorna are rocked so furiously by Zadik Zecharia on this cd filled to overflowing with the relentless sounds of the zorna. Born in a small village in Kurdistan before moving to Israel in 1950, Zecharia has dedicated his life to playing the zorna (a traditional Kurdish instrument somewhat similar to a longer more narrow trumpet or Scottish bagpipe). This record doesn't let up for a single second. The moment it starts Zecharia is taken over by the power of the zorna and the demands that it puts on the player. You get the feeling that there is no time to pause, no time to think, no time to even take a breath. When I (Irwin) had the amazing opportunity to be in the Middle East at the turn of the millennium I remember walking through street markets, standing on the border of Syria and Israel, feeling my feet walk on so much high charged history, pain, and passion. Taking off my headphones to get overtaken by the myriad of sounds baking in the desert heat. Those moments where it all would come together and for just a moment you could be in that place and forget about hate, war, religion and politics. This record takes me back to the place more then anything I've ever heard. Like the best of snake charmer records that have grabbed you by the ankles and swept you off your feet this has that same hard hitting intensity with an undying energy that sounds as if it will never ever let up. If you have been to the store recently you have noticed that right outside there has been some nonstop construction going on in the streets and on the sidewalks. So for hours at a time we are hearing drilling and pounding and the sounds of asphalt being torn apart. When this has been playing in the store the combination of all that commotion has made for one of the most amazing high voltage drone pounding creations we have ever heard. And even on its own, this record has the ability to take you body hostage, as there is no way to listen without various parts of your body breaking out in uncontrollable movement. The dola drum which accompanies the zorna helps give a backbeat which keeps the frenzy of a fire that you never want to be extinguished. Recommended with thousands of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!etc.

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For anyone who bought the Zadik Zecharia cd (and that's a WHOLE lot of you), an amazing disc of wild and energetic performances on a small traditional Kurdish horn called a zorna, a disc that is STILL played constantly in the store, this dvd-r is absolutely essential. The sound of the zorna is a buzzing high end hypnotic buzz, very much like snake charmer music, and is completely and relentlessly mesmerizing. A sound that is wild and festive and joyous, and that definitely has a primal power, a timeless intensity that transcends mere music, it's a sound that does in fact force your body to bounce and shimmy, dance and shake along. As is evidenced by this dvd-r, a home video recording of a wedding in 1987 that is just a nonstop dance party / zorna jam. It's a little strange to see, it's a little like watching some stranger's home videos, which it basically is. But wow!! If only weddings were this wild and festive in the US. Then again, if only weddings featured a kick ass zorna jam courtesy of Zadik Zecharia (maybe Andee and Heather would have actually gotten married by now). From the moment the bride and groom enter the building, Zecharia is playing a continuous stream of flowing buzzing melody, never stopping, accompanied by a huge thumped drum, and of course the clapping and shouting of the crowd. And that's basically it, a huge crowd of friends and family, dancing wildly, together, separately, in big groups, holding hands, forming huge chains, hands raised in the air, while Zecharia and the drummer, wander from the stage, strolling amongst the crowd and back to the stage again never letting up. In fact there are even some parts where Zecharia plays with one hand so he can use his other to communicate with some of the guests. A few folks whisper in his ear, to which he responds with a nod or a smile, still never letting the music stop. It's 1987 so there are some amazing fashions, wild pantsuits and big hair, which are fun to see, but it's all about Zecharia and his inspiring performance. Shot on a camcorder 20 years ago, which means the picture quality is not the best, but the sound is fantastic (minus a few drop outs) and if you're anything like us you can't get enough of Zadik Zecharia and his zorna!! So recommended!

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This is the first solo record in Thalia Zedek's 20+ year musical career. Although she's lent her unique voice to other projects, she is perhaps best known for her role as singer/guitarist in the highly regarded broodingly beautiful Boston, MA band Come. As is to be expected, this record is just as moody, deep and at times bluesy. Ms Zedek delivers a truly crushing cover of Leonard

RealAudio clip: Ex-Communications (Everybody Knows)
RealAudio clip: Dance Me To The End Of Love

Oh Thalia! You've blessed us with a second solo album that's even better than the first! Anyone who still laments the end of Boston's highly regarded band Come, will enjoy this new one from Ms. Zedek. Beautifully heavy, heartfelt songs at times filled with anguish, at times torment, and sometimes even a little bit of both. Her guitar, her soul and oh that voice! All of it compelling and legendary.

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Thalia Zedek has been making music for two decades in bands such as Dangerous Birds, Uzi, Live Skull, and Come. This is her 2nd solo record. Thalia's band features Daniel Coughlin from ex-band Come, Mel Lederman of Victory at Sea, and David Michael Curry of The Willard Grant Conspiracy. The feel of this ep maintains the bluesy mood that made Come so great, yet these songs are lighter and prettier, more crooning torch songs. Four original songs and two covers, the Velvet Underground's great song "Candy Says" and the title track is by Bob Dylan.

RealAudio clip: Everything Unkind

Ultra-damaged art skronk and gloomy power electronics from Miss Zeek Sheck with contributions from Weasel Walter (Hatewave, Flying Luttenbachers), Grux (Caroliner), Thymme Jones (You, Fantastic) plus members of Bobby Conn's band and the Scissor Girls.

The resurgence of the cassette as a viable media may provide an additional context for the work of Jason Zeh, as his gritty drone-noise constructions are entirely based on the contact points between magnetic tape and the tape heads that read / translate that magnetic information into sound. His approach to sound often deals with the dislocation of this contact point, which is akin to the way that Christian Marclay, Gum, or Phillip Jeck approach the turntable. Zeh might wield sandpaper to abrade the tape itself, magnetized razor blades to slice the tapes, leaving irradiated coronas of electrical hum near the edit, and even smearing globs of dirt into the gears and mechanics of the tape deck. All of these very tactile methods impart very tactile results, and as such, A Vacant Lot To Be In is much more akin to Chop Shop's obliterated tape saturation than the somber self-immolation found on William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. Both tracks on this vinyl only release rise through scabrous crumplings into a steady arcing mass of high-voltage dronework whose phase shifting patterns give the impression of an electrified sea of ferric oxide churning through tidal forces. One of the sides builds towards an intense crescendo of turbulent, boiling, junked noise, while the flip eerily navigates an insectoid minimalism. Zeh's work is very strong and deserves as much acclaim as we can muster, especially given his relatively low profile. Highly recommended for fans Joe Colley, Hive Mind, Mike Shiflet, and the more industrially slanted aspects of contemporary sound art. Oh yeah, limited to just 300 copies. ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*

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

SORRY. Review courtesy of AQ pal / Soft Pink Truth mastermind / Matmos co-mastermind Mr. Drew Daniel: I've never seen an honest to God minstrel show in which white people dress up and perform as stereotypical black people. But the last show I saw by Zeigenbock Kopf was the queer equivalent. Ostensibly straight scenester cutie-pie John Dwyer (also of Coachwhips, ex-Pink and Brown, etc.) kitted out as Hans Bunschlapen in mustache and mirrorshades and backed up by shirtless go go dancers, pretended to be a gay German clone of the 70s, barking sadomasochistic slogans over superdistorted electronic chugging courtesy of bandmates Ulrich Bunschlapen and beatmaker Detlef. When Dwyer stays in character as Hans, Zeigenbock Kopf is some funny shit: imagine the "Sprockets" guy in leather chaps pulling a train on a Munich motorcycle gang after too much coke. To give Dwyer and co. their due, 70s gay clone culture and chilly German electro posturing *are* kinda silly, no doubt; the first Zeigenbock Kopf cassette "The Architecture of Dark Dance" ran with these clich�s as far as they could feasibly go, and rocked to boot with hard, dark synth/gabber minimalism overdriven into Incapacitants territory. Funny and disturbing in equal measure, that cassette entered this particular fag's select pantheon of uncomfortably indeterminate queer-baiting comedy along with The Meatmen's "Tooling for Anus", The Angry Samoans "Homosexual" and The Frogs' "It's Only Right and Natural". A joke band's only job is to be funny, but woe to the joke band that isn't funny anymore. On this release, Zeigenbock Kopf teeter on that brink, but at 23 minutes total they cut things off before it wears out completely. The motto this time around seems to be: darker, harder, dumber, and when Z. K. decide that just saying the words "I Dig Men" is, like, totally hilarious, the shtick threatens to wear thin, curdling into something just perfect for "Skit Night" at the frat house. I guess straight white male privilege and the appropriation of funny/"exotic" otherness go together like Crisco and fisting. If you can bracket the creepy/phony aspect of this project, the saving grace is that the music still rocks like a bastard: Whitehouse-ish scree spurts and Esplendor Geometrico-ish crunched beats and DJ Scud-ish breakcore and Suicide-ish synths and basslines fight for attention while Dwyer spits tuff, horny nonsense about what a hair-pulling, ass-slapping queer stud he is. Maybe when the penny drops and he comes out of the closet we can look forward to his "comedy straight guy" band in which he emotes about downloading Catholic schoolgirl web porn, fixed rate mortgages, and finding the right babysitter over bland MOR rock. Heaven help us . . .

RealAudio clip: I Am A Slut
RealAudio clip: I Dig Men

Zeigenbock Kopf began as a joke to see if a legitimate techno / house label would put out a cheap imitation of 'gay disco' pseudonymously recorded by a giggling San Francisco rocker boy. Yet, the joke -- complete with S/M stage antics, ditzy sketches, and really clumsy music -- has been dragged out through three releases, unintentionally sparking a firestorm of public outrage and invoking a wide range of discourses on identity politics and cultural appropriation. Zeigenbock Kopf should really just stop these shenanigans, not because of the perceived insult to certain elements of the gay community, but because the musical well has run dry. Overdriving clunky, slightly off-kilter rhythms through distortion pedals, ZK comes across as second or third rate, post-Industrial knock-off of Hunting Lodge or Sleep Chamber, two bands who were mediocre at best. The vocals which monotonously slur through a cheap German accent have lost the ability to carry the joke and now come across as another boring dose of disinterested post-irony which this city has been subjected to for far too long from all of the arts, not just music. MPEG Download: "Boom Car Boys 2" [/audio/zeigenbockkopfboomcar.mp3]

MPEG stream: Boom Car Boys 2

Of all of the many Zeitkratzer collaborations that have appeared to date, this one seemed the most unlikely. Sure, the amplified horns and screeching strings that came out of Zeitkratzer's orchestral interpretation of Metal Machine Music worked well in the sheer audacity of the project; but Zeitkratzer's polyphonous tonalities had mustered an engaging re-interpretation of John Duncan's work with a balance between grace and force. So, when taking on a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, who is best known for his swaggering rhythms for pure tone and minuscule glitches as Alva Noto, we had to ask how this would work. Well, essentially, Nicolai has adapted his sound for Zeitkratzer, not the other way around, which might have been a real challenge for Zeitkratzer to attempt to adopt the thud and rumble of something like the Transall series. Instead, Nicolai and Zeitkratzer pursue long-form compositions, mostly for electronics, but occasionally with the assistance of a particular instrumental coloring from say a clarinet, a cello, or a piano. Each of the three pieces here were performed live, commissioned for this sound art festival or that in Europe. The first of which swarms around static-laden drones and crackling hiss which spirals around a Niblockian drone from a sustained clarinet, eventually a rhythmic undercarriage from a softly tapped piano ebbs against the slow-building arc of sound. The second piece seems to be staged from prepared piano, amplified televisions, and tone generators, offering another skeletal rhythm to the clinical frequencies. The third piece returns to the ideas of the first with the reprise of that piano, but here a semblance of a melody encroaches the slow-motion raga drone from low-thumbing electronics and rasping sustained strings. It's not all that far from another of Nicolai's storied collaborations, with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both Zeitkratzer and Nicolai are guilty of playing it safe on these three pieces, but the results are striking and lovely nonetheless.

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The gorgeous image of a stagecoach barreling down a mountain roadside, as if being watched by a crow perched in a fir tree, has great appeal to an imagination that begins listening the moment it beholds a record's cover. Unfortunately, the music inside this cover does not really correspond to what is evoked by that image. Not quite so mysterious, or adventurous, this live recording, complete with polite audience applause and the pristine but cold high end of a digital room recording, is probably less satisfying than actually having been at the performance(s) that brought together Japanese improv psych shaman Keiji Haino and the German experimental chamber music outfit Zeitkratzer. The physicality of Keiji's input - his vocalizations and percussive noises - rescues Electronics (3) from the banality of the "noise" its liner notes make such a fuss about. Sometimes it's a bad idea to read the liner notes! Whether it's just very naive or, more annoyingly, a stab at self-important academic validation, the essay that accompanies this disc offers little to make Zeitkratzer's project any more exciting or "important". Some name-dropping - Levi-Strauss, Nietzsche, Bach, musique concrete, Carlyle, Dionysus, Susan McClary (?), Debussy, etc. - sprinkled amidst lines of academic jargon and just a bit of actual information about the "construction" of this music, and rehearsals behind this record (aren't there artists and bands spontaneously creating such 'noise' music all the time? Artists like Haino?) makes one wonder why they just didn't opt for a photo of the the ensemble's gig bags for the cover? Couldn't the liner notes have simply said that these musicians were stoked to jam with Haino, and really let their hair down?? Having said all that, liner notes aside, for any Haino fan, this may be worth the purchase just for the dramatic track 3 alone, the approximately 25-minute "Sinfonia", given the peaks of ecstatic beauty reached by Haino's noise-making therein... tracks 1 and 2, "Aria I" and "Aria II", are rather more typical of haunting, eerie-sounding 20th century classical, albeit with added extremity due to the Haino factor. This is the third in a series of Zeitkratzer collaborations entitled Electronics, the other two featuring Carsten Nicolai and Terre Thaemlitz respectively, and thus this is the most "out there" of 'em all, being more about improvisation than composition, Haino himself (on guitar, Theremin, voice, drums...) the equal of the entire ensemble that's accompanying him (on tuba, trombone, clarinet, cello, drums, etc.). And now that we're listening to the disc, rather than reading that cd booklet, we've gotta say we're also really digging the "bonus" track 4, a "Drum Duo" (presumably of Haino and one lucky Zeitkratzer member). Their freeform percussion blitz gets down to business without any of the highbrow posturing of the previous, larger scale pieces.

MPEG stream: Aria II
MPEG stream: Sinfonia

Zeke are a popular, high energy punk rawk and roll band that with the release of "Death Alley" are trying to fool people into thinking that they're a metal band. Actually, I think they're trying to fool themselves too, but it's all in fun. Well, the rapid

RealAudio clip: Arkansas Man
RealAudio clip: Into The Night

This is not new at all, in fact, it's from way back in 2005, we just discovered a little bundle of these in the closet, which is pretty serendipitous, considering that they're just playing this weekend at the On Land festival, and because not only is this looooong out of print, but Pseudo Arcana isn't even an active label anymore, which means you should grab one of these while you can, cuz once these are gone they are WAY gone. Chicago's dream weavers Zelienople are masters of conjuring up gauzy washed out otherworldly dronescapes, buried melodies, billowing clouds of burnished guitar shimmer, deep smoldering low end rumbles, bowed metals stretched into glimmering sheets of reflective drift, cymbal sizzle falling like warm summer rain on old rusted metal rooftops. All of those sounds are deftly woven into the epic sprawling title track, a heady chunk of modern minimal raga, hypnotic and spaced out and abstract and pretty breathtaking. The second track takes all that droniness and abstract shimmer, and layers them into something slightly more songy, a soporifically unfurling, glacially expanding cloud of reverbed slowcore, twangy guitar drifting in clouds of effects, the vocals a soft effected drawl, the drums a murky pulse, the whole thing hazy and hushed, bleary eyed and washed out, a dark ballad of minimal spaced out doom folk drift. So good....

MPEG stream: Ghost Ship

Another fantastic disc of gauzy, shimmery otherworldly dronemusic, from the seemingly infallible Type label. Long time aQ faves, Chicago's Zelienople moved to Type, after a handful of releases on PseudoArcana, Digitalis and Root Strata, and it was a pretty perfect match. Rameses III, Alps, Goldmund, Grouper, Xela, North Sea, Helios, Svarte Greiner, Black To Comm, it's not difficult to see that maybe this was where Zelienople belonged all along. On Give It Up, the group deftly mix light and dark, weaving softly smoldering dreamscapes, all muted and hushed, with sun dappled dronefolk, all chiming soft focus guitars, and minimal percussion, hazy and gauzy and slightly blurred, vocals surfacing here and there throughout. A sort of ethereal slowcore, pop songs pulled apart and set in amber, this record a shadow produced by the muted sunlight shining through. Some tracks are brooding and doomy, laced with ominous creaks and deep moaning low end tones, wheezing organs, and layered ambience, others are folky and reverbed, strummed guitars wreathed in a patina of muted thrum, spread out over some almost Neil Young sounding vox, but buried way down in the mix, still others are skeletal and barely there, voices drifting in the ether, over spare tendrils of melody, only to slowly shift, and get lost in a cloud of prismatic chordal hum. Absolutely gorgeous, the perfect blend of minimal doom folk, hushed slowcore and abstract dronemusic. The lp version comes with a bonus cd (NOT a cd-r, an actual pressed cd), featuring Zelienople's soundtrack for a film called Gone, stunningly beautiful, even more minimal than the record proper, the first half of the disc all gauzy drones, the second half, bleary eyed slow motion chamber music. Be careful removing the cd from the lp, it's attached by a little dollop of glue or something, but a quick pull will take some of the lp sleeve with it...

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In the age of YouTube and MySpace, the idea of the music video has changed dramatically since the days of MTV (or at least the days when MTV actually played videos). In the past, only bands on major labels could make a video, often hiring a real director and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, plenty of bands have videos before they even have a record out. Super 8, digital video, Final Cut Pro, anyone can put together their own video and have it look as good if not better than the classic videos of old. Old news maybe, but the thing is, most bands seems to use the video as simply a promotional tactic, or an excuse to fuck around and film it. Instead of, dare we say, ART. In the underground though, it's not at all uncommon for like minded musicians and filmmakers to join forces. In fact, with the advent of live performances featuring laptops and other sedimentary sound making devices (when is someone gonna make a laptop guitar, so left out laptoppers can windmill and leap about with the rest of the band?), often it's the accompanying films that are way more compelling. Often, a show is touted as some band performing "with films by so and so", but in fact, more often than not, it plays out more like seeing a film, that just so happens to feature live accompaniment by some band. Few labels have really taken advantage of this new technology as much as Root Strata, who have quietly and steadily been releasing a series of super limited dvd-r's, each featuring new compositions by a small handful of artists, coupled with original films. The results have been pretty sublime, the films tending toward the abstract and impressionistic, the music following suit. When watching / listening to these, it's hard not to imagine laying on the floor, propped up on cushions, lights low, the film being projected on a huge blank wall, the band hunkered over their instruments in the corner, which makes sense as that's most likely how these films/sounds were conceived.� So we have two new super limited dvd-r releases, one from Zelienople and one from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson, both limited to 100 copies, both already out of print, so these are the only copies we'll ever get.� We've only ever had one other release by Zelienople in the past, the gorgeous Stone Academy. A smoldering noise drenched folk, simple strum surrounded thick sonic swells, tons of effects, often evolving into a blown out druggy haze. The music here is similar, but a bit more post rocky, a little Velvets, a little Bohren. A simple main riff, repeating over and over, wreathed in reverb, the vocals a hushed plaintive murmur, while all around, those elements, softly swirl, streaks of blurred effects, spidery reverbed guitar melodies, all heavy with reverb and delay, the sound super laid back and weary, dreamlike and drowsy. Which perfectly suits the visuals, a film by Donald Prokop (and the band), an endless shot of the world passing by outside a car window. In the first half, the various sights are rendered an impressionistic blur, long streaks, fields of color vibrating, whirring past, sometimes the screen is mostly sky, peppered with glimmering streetlights, but often it's a a jittery assemblage of shapes and colors and lights, here and there, more of the landscape is revealed, eliciting a strange sense of melancholy, of loneliness, enhanced by Zelienople's moody musical drift. Near the end, the camera seems to be traveling through a series of tunnels, the film offering up long stretches of blackness between smeared glass views of passing towns. So lovely.� Packaged in printed, folded papers sleeves, and again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, and already out of print. ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*

Another beautiful sounding and gorgeously packaged super limited release from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's (Tarentel) Root Strata label. This one, from a mysterious band of noisemakers from Chicago (even though they're named for a city in Pennsylvania), Zelienople. Having lurked on the periphery of the underground drone / noise / free folk scene, releasing a handful of limited cd-r releases on labels like PseudoArcana, 267 Lattajjaa and others, Stone Academy finds the band at their darkest and most expansive, droney and buzzy but still so delicate and beautiful, hopefully this release will be the one to get these guys more widely heard 'cuz they do belong right up there alongside Avarus and Starving Weirdos and Yellow Swans and Birchville and all of those ambientdronefolk household names. Stone Academy, at its core, is basically a stripped down folk record. Simple strummed steel string guitar, wavery plaintive vocals, warm swells of ambience, wrapped in TONS of thick reverb, like it was recorded in a cave or a gymnasium or empty swimming pool, and while each song has this strummy folk center, each track evolves or devolves in a totally unique way, into a barely there minimal crawl, into grinding washes of distorted guitar, into warm thick swirls of My Bloody Valentine like buzz, into weird 20th century abstract clatter, into Murky Dead C like blurry noise rock, and sometimes into nothing at all, just sort of quietly and contemplatively drifting along, shimmering in a druggy haze of warbly ephemeral folk and whirring ambient rumble. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Each copy hand numbered. Thick brown sleeves, each with an original ACTUAL photo by Diane Jones affixed to the front. Five different, equally striking images. So lovely.

MPEG stream: Plaster Dog
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Latest collection of minimal Americana doom-pop slowcore from this Chicago trio, whose music seems more faded and ethereal with every record, as if their music was an old weathered photograph, colors and shapes becoming less and less distinct as the years pass, everything fuzzy around the edges, a world of washed out ghostly memories, The World Is A House On Fire the perfect soundtrack. Spidery echo drenched twang, shuffling barely there percussion, softly crooned vox, and whirling Mellotron like organ whir, all held together by sinewy basslines and a gauzy cloud of smeared shimmer, dark and contemplative, haunting and otherworldly. Each track here is a shuffling smolder, a hazy sonic drift rife with echoey vapor trails, at times reminding us of Talk Talk, the same sort of hushed delicate minimalism, a wistful dream pop rendered in washed out greys and faded blacks, an end of the world threnody. So lovely. LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*

Not sure how we managed to sleep on this record when it came out last year. Had we heard it then, it doubtless would have made it into the year-end top tens of many of the metalheads here for sure. Fortunately, we did eventually get a clue - we realized we had to check out this Greek one-man-band after reading the interview with Zemial in the latest issue of Chips & Beer, 'cause any supposedly 'black metal' outfit that name checks Karlheinz Stockhausen*, John Cage, and Magma drummer Christian Vander, amongst others, sure sounds like something we'd dig here at aQ! And dig we do. So, here's Zemial's 2013 opus, Nykta. Majestic, propulsive, spacey, epic, catchy, hella weird, yeah, Nykta is right up our alley. Zemial has actually been around since 1989, but this is still only the band's third full-length album - and it's a doozy if you like extremely original 'extreme' metal music. The guy behind Zemial, multi instrumentalist Archon Vorskaath, is into modern composers and prog/jazz fusion drummers, but he's also big into Bathory. So this has got to be one of the only 'progressive metal' albums we've heard that's chock full of raw, dirty riffing and gruff vocals that sound right off a Venom album. But there's also out-there spacey synthscapes, Eastern-sounding exoticism, esoteric lyrics, suddenly prominent prog rock keyboard parts, and tons of uber talented and effective percussion from Vorskaath (that's his specialty, having played percussion professionally in an orchestra). And, he's pretty impressive in the vocal department, too, doing some semi-melodic, 'clean' but not too clean singing, with heaps of gusto and strangely effected weirdness. Zemial really manage thee perfect, hithero unattempted synthesis of savage, driving riffage and tripped out experimentation here. We don't think we've ever heard a metal band that sounds so 'old school' and yet so avant-garde and original at the same time. We fear we can't do this album justice in this review, it's one of those that we just gotta say, trust us, it's brilliant and weird and kickass and totally recommended to open-minded metallers (and non-metallers too), especially fans of Absu, latter-day Darkthrone, and Enslaved (circa Mardraum). Blizaro too - the moody, bombastic synth instrumental "The Small", at least, sounds a lot like something they would do. By the way, there's nothing wrong with your stereo - the final track here is an homage to Cage's famous composition 4'33", and has thrown a lot of unknowing metal reviewers for a loop, being of course (almost?) totally silent. Hey, it could have been on that Sounds Of Silence lp we made Record Of The Week a while back! (Note to Vorskaath, however: placing the silent track at the end of your album is less effective than if you'd put it right in the middle!) *In that Chips & Beer interview, Vorskaath talks about how he's played with Stockhausen's jazz musician son Markus, in a piece that involved the musicians fasting and meditating for, like, two straight days before getting on stage to improvise - now that's extreme!

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SF's finest R&B&Rockn'rollers offer up a gorgeous picture disc lp, in a limited edition no doubt, featuring a colorful painting three-eyed skeleton playing a watermelon mandolin, riding on a flying carpet...ok, so from a distance you might mistake it for a

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

SORRY. San Francisco's soul-tinged hard rockers Zen Guerilla are on loan from Sub Pop for this 7" single, wherein they demonstrate their love of metal, covering Black Sabbath on side A and Iron Maiden on side B! Fun stuff, and (as with all good covers) they put their own stamp on these songs -- first, they manage to make a classic Dio-era Sabbath tune sound like the MC5, while on "The Trooper" they drop their usual vocal effects for a straighter take on Bruce Dickinson's air raid vocals, but slop up and noisify (in good way) Maiden's militaristic music. Cool.

San Francisco rock n' rollers Zen Guerrilla's legendarily energetic live performances are matched only by the energy with which they've been cranking out recorded works lately (we count a heavy metal covers 7", the "Shadows On The Sun" studio album, and a The disc starts off a lot more mellow than we are used to hearing from these notorious jams-kicker-outers, but gradually builds into louder, heavier realms of warm psych guitar swirl and motorik rhythm, not unlike the krautrock grooves of Ash Ra Temple or modern practicioners of the same like Circle and Mogwai. But then about 15 minutes in, it seems like the (presumably drugged-out) characters in the movie have entered some futuristic club or something, as the heavy 70s psych jams suddenly meet bleeping mechanical beats, shortwave radio noise, unintelligible voices, and even some sampled old timey jazz. It turns into a psychedelic funhouse sound collage -- definitely a "trip". It would be nice with visuals for sure. If Zen Guerrila were Monster Magnet, this would be their "25............tab" ep. Pretty darn cool.

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These hard-working San Francisco (by way of Delaware and Philadelphia -- no they're not from Detroit but they sort of sound like they should be) boys offer up another album. Stoner rock, garage punk, 60's R&B: they combine all that and more, and kick ass in the process. "Shadows On The Sun" drops the vocal effects that were previously their trademark...we kinda miss that but they still sound great.

These S.F. boys mine the same sound as the Stooges or the MC5, but inject the venom, making it fast and furious and kick ass.

Here's one to play loud! The first new album from Japanese heavyweights Zeni Geva in six years (their last being 1995's "Freedom Bondage" on Alternative Tentacles), their ninth-ish disc overall (more if you count tapes and splits etc.), is out now on Neurosis' Neurot label. Zeni Geva mastermind KK Null takes a break from his solo ambient/electronics projects to return to his

RealAudio clip: 10,000 Light Years
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9 new songs from KK Null and crew. Heavy as ever, but with the addition of keyboards, acoustic guitar and melodic (!) singing on a couple of songs.

Swans. Godflesh. Big Black. Melvins. Eyehategod. Unsane. Zeni Geva. We're concerned here with the latter, who maybe aren't as well known as the first half dozen bands mentioned, but sure as heck belong in that illustrious company... and sound VERY much like some unholy, heavier-than-thou hybrid of all of 'em!! It's been a long time since we've had a new Zeni Geva album to write about... and no this isn't actually a new album. But we're still pretty excited. Every once in a while, we have the opportunity to list and review an old favorite. Something that's been out of print for longer even than we've been doing the Aquarius website and New Arrivals emails, that we'd never had the chance to stock and recommend before, that finally at long last gets a well-deserved reissue and is cause for much celebration 'round here. For instance, to name a couple of recent examples, Harvey Milk's My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment Of What My Love Could Be. And Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper. You'll note the examples we just cited are all on the "heavy" side... well that's 'cause what we're about to recommend here also pretty darn heavy. To say the least. You may already be familiar with Japan's Zeni Geva, as they've been around for years and years. This cult "progressive hardcore" trio is the brainchild of guitarist Kazuyuki Kishino Null, also well-known for his "nullsonic" solo recordings. Definitely influenced by early Swans, KK Null started up the doomy and noisy ZG in about 1987. Previously he'd done time in Tokyo underground industrial noise-terrorists Absolut Null Punkt, and with prog act YBO2, which also featured drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, who of course later went on to lead the incredible Magmoid duo Ruins. Meanwhile, post-YBO2, Null formed the far more metallic* Zeni Geva. Null did draft Yoshida in to play drums on some early ZG material (wouldn't you?), and you'll here him here on about half of this disc's tracks, contributing his distinctive vocals as well to a couple songs. Ikuro Taketani (ex-Hanatarashi) plays drums on the other half. The lineup also includes Tabata Mitsuru (ex-Boredoms and Leningrad Blues Machine) on guitar. That's right, there's no bassist in Zeni Geva which is pretty incredible considering how hellishly heavy they are! And it's clear that ZG are something of a underground Japanese rock supergroup. MMM was ZG's first cd release, coming out originally in 1990 on the UK's now long-gone Pathological label. It's a lumbering juggernaut fully blessed and bloated with everything we LOVE about Zeni Geva that would also be heard on later, Albini-produced releases like Total Castration and Desire For Agony: Utter headbanging, slo-mo, dirt-plowing destruction. Molasses thick riffs dripping from electric axes. Frenzied, technical bashing. Mathy post rock song structures. High-end guitar solo skree. Mean misanthropic attitude. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition.... adorned with the aforementioned guitar soloing, providing a crashing, crushing soundscape to underscore the throaty proclamations of "Sweetheart!" or "War Pig!" or "Blackout!" from gruff vocalist/guitarist Null -- the lyrics to these tracks being little more than the song title shouted over and over with fervent anguish. Glorious stuff, massive and mesmeric. From the first track, the 16 minute harrowing dirge-stomp "Slam King" that ends terrifyingly with waves of unaccompanied, effected vocals, to the last, the rhythmic and witchy "On Suicide", featuring lyrics borrowed from Bertold Brecht, this is scary, monolithic, artistic heaviness of the highest order. Let's give a big thanks to Cold Spring for making this classic available once again (as part of a wave of Japanese releases including a new disc from noise legends CCCC). Though we don't see why Cold Spring felt the need to replace the original, much more colorful, and in our opinion, superior artwork, we are happy to note that they did make one major improvement. While the eight songs on the original disc were inexplicably presented as one loooong track with no separate-song indexing (annoying!) they're thankfully corrected that. Now you can skip right to "Guystick Bodie", or put "Skullfuck" on repeat. And in addition to the eight original tracks, they've added three previously unreleased bonus cuts as well! Devastating live versions of album cuts "War Pig" (a Zeni Geva song, not Sabbath's "War Pigs" plural) and "Skullfuck", along with "Dead Car, Sun Crash" (an early ZG number not included on the album proper), recorded in Tokyo circa 1988-89. Whee! Like we said, we're so stoked to get to list/review/recommend this! *Though not metallic enough to be accepted by the online metal authority Encyclopedia Metallum it must be noted...

MPEG stream: Slam King
MPEG stream: Sweetheart
MPEG stream: War Pig (live)

Two weeks ago, we highlighted the reissue of Zeni Geva's Maximum Money Monster, which was the first cd from this ultra-heavy Japanese noise-rock-prog behemoth. In the process of reviewing Maximum Money Monster, we realized we'd never written up anything about this band's killer 1991 album Total Castration, the Albini-produced follow-up to MMM. It's our favorite ZG album, one that we always try to stock, it just predates the AQ list so it never got its due herein. It hasn't been reissued or anything, but we checked with our supplier and they said they still had about 150 copies of the original pressing still sitting and gathering dust in their warehouse, even though the Public Bath label is long defunct. Quite possibly a lot of the folks who snapped up the MMM reissue after reading about it last list don't actually also have this one either, so we figure it's our civic duty to highlight this old fave as well, while we can still get our hands on 'em! Basically everything we said in the review of MMM applies to Total Castration as well, starting with the litany of crucial bands that ZG must be mentioned alongside: Swans. Godflesh. Big Black. Melvins. Eyehategod. Unsane... i.e. HEAVY (but not necessarily metal) and scary sounds. What else would you expect from an album with a title like Total Castration?! That's also the name of one of the songs, as are these: "Shoot Me With Your Blood", "Bloodsex", "I Hate You", and "Bigman Death". Cheery stuff, eh? Lyrics pretty much consist of these happy concepts being throatily chanted over and over. Oh and there's also "Godflesh", maybe a nod to sonic contemporaries Justin Broadrick and crew. On each of these thunderous songs, the trio of trio of Null (guitar/vo), Tabata (guitar), and Eito (drums/metals) crash, smash, and bash, Null's guttural, nihilistic exclamations backed up by the iron fist of Zeni Geva's heavier than thou noise rockin'. The guitars chug and squall, the drums hammer down relentlessly. Screams and shrieks wail from the pounding shitstorm of metallic distortion that Zeni Geva have crafted into a throbbing, hypnotic riff-fest -- damn good riffs, with stretches of relatively restrained but still scary atmosphere now and then to heighten the impact when they eventually (as they always do) come down heavy. Meanwhile the high end guitar wielded by Tabata often unfurls intricate, catchy licks and squiggly solos over the top of all this mayhem, to make these songs even more brain-invading and body-shaking. And Steve Albini's production is killer, natch. (He would later play guitar with these guys on a live album, All Right, You Little Bastards!, that's now next to impossible to find.) Super, super recommended to anyone into heaviness, metal or otherwise. As crucial as the Melvins' Bullhead, Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun, Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper, Ruins' Stonehenge, Isis's Oceanic, Corrupted's Paso Inferior, Fudge Tunnel's Hate Songs In E Minor, Boris's Amplifier Worship... In other words, essential. If you missed this back in the early '90s, grab it. (By the way, Allan says the time he saw 'em on their US tour for this album was perhaps the best show he's ever been to.)

MPEG stream: Total Castration
MPEG stream: Godflesh

We knew nothing about this Zenlo fellow when this arrived in the mail, but just the sight of his somewhat sleazy, sexy and mysterious photo on the cover and the fact that Porter records has been releasing so much interesting stuff, definitely piqued our interest. What we discovered was in fact a total outsider classic! An Italian who has lived in London and elsewhere, the sounds Zenlo creates are truly the work of someone in their own unique and singular world. It's not quite clear but apparently his was all recorded in the early '80s, and all the songs here are supposedly completely improvised affairs with only first takes laid to tape. Using an array of instruments and wonderfully clunky electronics, Skelethal Antics roams worlds that are both bizarre and beautiful. The record begins with several tracks that feature some seriously damaged saxophone along with spaced out drum machines and an overall sound that feels as if its about to collapse and self destruct, but somehow manages to prevail in such intriguing ways. While the first several tracks do feature some serious horn time that does test our sax-phobia, luckily as the record goes on it becomes much more about slow and melting sounds created with organs, Casio, harmonica, guitar, electronics and and an untuned upright piano. Sounds buzzing with tension and awkward emotions. The perfect soundtrack to some lost avant-horror film. There are moments on the record that remind us of the early dark sounds of Cabaret Voltaire and it could even be the musical bed for some of today's equally eccentric outsiders like John Maus and Ariel Pink. It also has a nice '70s exploratory kraut/space/prog rock feel and an overall schizophrenic disposition that allows for moments that veer from Ariel Kalma to Ariel Pink. We could imagine everyone from Acid Mothers Temple to Goblin fans finding something to love here. Most of all we love how totally DIY the whole thing was. And it sounds like it. In a good way! This was truly the work of someone locked up in their basement with little care for popular trends but instead voyaging into their wild imagination to create something totally new and weird. It will always be the true eccentrics that manage to move us the most with their music, and Skelethal Antics leaves us shaking our head in disbelief, finding it hard to accept that something weird and wonderful could have escaped us and almost everyone for so long...

MPEG stream: The Crab
MPEG stream: War Prayer
MPEG stream: You Did It Again
MPEG stream: At A German Fun Fair

Bay Area hiphop turntablist action from DJ Zeph with additional beats & scratches from fellow DJ's Quest (Live Human), Imperial, and others. There's lots of live playing from local jazz cats, with flavors like flute, sitar, and trombone in addition to upright bass, drums, and electric piano, etc. Several tracks have lyrics from local rapper Azeem (Spearhead), but most are funky

Local luminaries pay homage to the guitar. Aggro, spindly freaked-out psychedelic space-rock.

Joining many of their contemporaries who've hooked into that smooth '70s soft rock revival, Zero 7's third full length takes the UK duo of Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns further away from their early downtempo groovi-tronica leanings. The Garden is a lush, silken (but not overly slick) production with much more focus on traditional song structures, not to mention more engaging personality courtesy of guest vocalists Jose Gonzalez and Sia Furler. For folks who dig the distinct breezy Euro-mellowness of artists such as Air, Kings Of Convenience and Nicolai Dunger.

MPEG stream: Future
MPEG stream: Seeing Things

[ aquarius records catalogue — Z ]