[ aquarius records — Compilation Split ]

We were quite surprised by how rocking these renditions of classic (and already perfect) Blondie tunes were. Tough sounding girl vocals and chunky guitar sounds amke this sort of great. Bands from all over the place: North Carolina, Japan, L.A., Detroit,

RealAudio clip: Call Me
RealAudio clip: In The Flesh

There's another festival goin' on right now here in festival-healthy SF... and L.A., San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Calgary too. It's the How To Destroy The Universe Festival of extreme art and music featuring performances by artists such as Blixa Bargeld, The Living Jarboe, and F-SPACE. In case you aren't able to attend, the organizers (Mobilization Records) didn't want you to completely miss out so they've released this compilation of recordings by select participants - the abovementioned as well as Savage Republic, Soriah, The Centimeters, The Sixteens and Black Ice. Come to think of it, for those of you who are attending, this'll make a cool nicely priced souvenir, won't it?

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

SORRY. The series that started with the classic "Beat of the Traps" lp continues, with dozens more examples of "amateur lyrics ground through the song poem mill". Rodd Keith fans will weep with joy.

The latest Soul Jazz comp gives us eight reggae covers of disco hits originally by the likes of Sugarhill Gang, Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and others. While not as essential as the string of great Soul Jazz reggae comps (like the Studio One and Dynamite collections), there are a couple nice tracks here. The Blood Sister's rendition of "Ring My Bell" is the highlight, featuring dubbed out drums and bass and sweet vocals that get the echo treatment toward the end of the track. Latisha's soulfull take on "I'm Every Woman" seems more earthy and convincing than Chaka Khan's (or, uh,Whitney Houston's) version; the darker, richer sound somehow provides a more complex angle on femininity despite the same lyrics. The main stumbling point is Xanadu and Sweet Lady's extremely faithful cover of "Rapper's Delight." It's not like it's bad -- it sounds a lot like Sugarhill Gang's version but with female vocals -- but it's not particularly "reggaefied," and no new angle is provided, it's just a cover of a hit song that probably went over pretty well on the dance floor. Other tracks do give their targeted hits a reggae makeover, which is usually something of an improvement, but nothing super amazing. Hustle! also lacks the extensive, insightful liner notes of other Soul Jazz releases. Maybe that's because "reggae covers of disco hits" is about the extent of what you need to know.

RealAudio clip: Ring My Bell
RealAudio clip: I'm Every Woman

Hard to believe the Hyperdub label has been going for a whole decade now, and what better way to celebrate than with this double disc, with one disc focusing on new stuff, and another on classics from the life of the label. In addition to commemorating 10 years, this comp is also meant to focus more on the label's dancefloor focused sounds, but even then, which is what's so great about Hyperdub, is that even the mainstream dance stuff, is still inherently experimental, sometimes to the point that it's hard to believe the level of popularity they've achieved, putting out some seriously challenging music, and for dance music, a lot of this definitely does NOT sound like it was designed to dance too. The first disc starts with a new jam from DVA, which pretty much sets the template, a dizzying, constantly shifting groover, that flits from bass heavy electro skitter, to dubbed out jungle, to weird clipped vocal metallic beat driven hip hop, to warped dubstep, even dipping into what sounds like some cheesy eighties proto-hip hop, before lurching right back into more skitter and stutter. The sound on disc one is heavy on the footwork, a sound we've championed here big time, infuriatingly repetitive and totally mesmerizing, but amidst the new footwork tracks, there's plenty of other weirdness, from experimental dubbed out electro, to string-laden grime, creepy electro-soul, wild jungle-y exotica, to boomin' system bass music. And the footwork jams, so good, a whole bunch of new names, and potentially new records forthcoming. The second disc is like a bad ass Hyperdub mixtape, starting out with Burial's classic "Spaceape" and hitting all the high points, killer jams from Ikonika, Cooly G, DVA, DJ Rashad, Terror Danjah, LV, and more, and even on the 'classics' disc, there are a handful of new (to us) tracks/songs, which had us scrambling for all the releases we missed...

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MPEG stream: Girl U So Strong
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Living in the Bay Area, we've obviously been hearing all about Hyphy for about a year now, a distinctly Bay Area sound, not all that dissimilar to Crunk or the chopped and screwed sound of the Dirty South, but with a vibe that was distinctly, well Hyphy (a mix of hype and fly btw). A sound that supposedly just sort of sprouted up in the beginning of 2006. We'd heard tracks by all the main movers in the scene, Keak Da Sneak, Mac Dre, E-40, and while we dug it, it didn't really sound all that different from the Bay Area hip hop we'd been hearing for years, and it sort of smacked of the great hype machine, coming up with a catch phrase to make something old and tired sound new and fresh again. But maybe we weren't hearing the right tracks, cuz we got our hands on this comp, featuring all the best Hyphy bangers from the first year, and HOLEEEEEEEEE SHIT, is this stuff amazing. Fucked up and funny, funky and fun and so totally over the top. Absolutely irresistible. In fact we sold one to a customer, who called us from his car ten minutes later FREAKING OUT about how great it was, and how every track was so good, he'd skip to the next one, expecting it to be a dud, only to discover it was even better. We had the exact same experience. We listened to a few minutes of each track, constantly skipping forward, not believing that every track could be that fucking great. But they were, and they are! We've been freaking out about grime for ages, a killer UK hybrid of hip hop and jungle (Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, Wiley...), we can't get enough of that grimey sound, so fucked up with killer beats and weird loops, and some of the funniest freaked out flows we've ever heard, dense and tongue twisting. With our new found love of grime, we had been lamenting the sad state of US hip hop, the same beats, the same boring gangster rap, the same glossy MTV stuff, but damn if these tracks don't push the exact same buttons that grime does, sounding fresh and thrilling all over again. But what does Hyphy actually sound like? It's kind of hard to pinpoint, it may be about location as much as sound, the scene as much as the music, but most of the tracks have some common elements. Synths for one. Lots of synths, thick and fuzzy, often the main hook is just a massive buzzing synth melody over a shuffling laid back rhythm. And the rhythms, they don't bang and pound as much as sort of slink. And the rapping, some seriously strange flows, from marble mouthed mumbles, to urgent whispers to Lil' Jon style hollerin' but it's not just the delivery, it's the actual words, a confusional mix of Hyphy slang that has you scratching your head as often as laughing out loud. Check out "I Got Grapes", the main lyric being a wailed "I got graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapes" over a super stripped down beat. Or "Yadadamean" where the main hook is a strangely affected "Yadadamean" repeated over a weirdly epic cinematic synth line. WTF?!? So amazing. I wish we could describe it more explicitly, but you just gotta hear it. If you're anything like us, you'll be grabbed in the first 30 seconds and won't be able to stop. Normally we're pretty skeptical of 'hits' collections like this, but it's hard to argue with a comp this jam packed with stunners, and we're not about to. Did you dig the B'more Music comp? The Science Faction: Grime comp? The Rio Baile Funk comps? The Warrior Dubz comp? The Razor X Productions comp? Well, you just might have a new favorite. THE dance party record of the year. Whether you're slow rolling with the top down, cranking it through the headphones, or bumpin' and sweatin' up the dancefloor, this disc is THE ONE.

MPEG stream: Yadadamean
MPEG stream: Get On My Hype
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A tribute to Antonioni's 1966 classic film "Blow-Up". Features a wide range of contributors including Matmos, Sun City Girls, Starfuckers, Dean Roberts, Richard Youngs, Arthur Doyle (!), Loren Mazzacane Connors, William Parker, Amy Denio, Dorgon, Mushroom and Birdsong's Air Force. Vinyl only.

The soundtrack to this Sean Penn / Michelle Pfeiffer tearjerker is comprised entirely of Beatles covers, and I'm sorry to say that it's pretty dire, except for the wonderfully earnest Rufus Wainwright rendition of "Across the Universe". Wainwright's voice just does not lie! Aimee Mann and Michael Penn romantically croon "Two of Us", and Paul Westerberg wails "Nowhere Man, and those're pretty good. But the rest of this stinks, including Grandaddy's version of "Revolution" and Nick Cave's embarrassing "Let It Be". Sigh. Other perpetrators include Eddie Vedder, Black Crowes, Sheryl Crow, Sarah Maclachlan, Ben Harper, the Wallflowers, Ben Folds, etc.

RealAudio clip: Across the Universe
RealAudio clip: Two of Us
RealAudio clip: Revolution

As the distinct sounds of flutes, harps, bells, gongs, pianos and of course synthesizers fill the air, we realize it wasn't that long ago that we had to defend our love for early new age music as a kind of guilty pleasure. Basking in the soft-focus vibrational glow of long form minimal composition, packaged in naive hippie-ish spiritual conceits bordering on and often overstepping into cheesiness, it was hard to consider it a distinct D.I.Y. practice. In hindsight, new age music can be seen as an early form of the slow food movement or folk art. It was music meant for slowing down time, taking stock and increasing awareness, and we have since come to view it more influentially in terms of its antecedents in ambient and drone music. Yet, over the years new age music has made quite a revival inspiring a new generation of long-form music practitioners and spiritual outliers. Nothing proves that more than this incredible compilation of private press new age music from Light In The Attic that features some old faves and new discoveries across a 40 year span. We have written plenty on influential figures like Iasos, J.D. Emmanuel, Gurdjieff and Laraaji (all featured here), but there are many, especially women like Judith Tripp, Nesta Karin Crain, Constance Demby, Alice Damon and Joanna Brouk who are equally blowing our minds. Often pulled from rare cassettes and hard to find records, this is an incredible survey and the perfect primer for the uninitiated. Fantastic tripped out and dreamy stuff!!

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MPEG stream: Om Mani Padme Hum
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Paying tribute to one of the greatest musical beings of our lifetime is a pretty hefty challenge but luckily M. Ward, who put together this comp, did a really nice job of bringing together artists who have been greatly influenced by Fahey's guitar playing and legacy. You can hear in the these covers how deeply felt Fahey's music has been to the next generation of musicians who use guitar as their tool of expression. This is one of those rare tributes that doesn't feel like a haphazard hack job. Fahey's music is so spiritual and pure that there is no doubt everyone on here was honored to pay their respects and came through with excellent versions of Fahey originals. With people like Devendra Banhart, Lee Ranaldo, Howe Gelb, Sufjan Stevens, Calexico, Pelt, Cul De Sac, Currituck Co. and more all contributing covers, it's so nice to hear how they each came to a Fahey song with their own aesthetic at hand. Released on Vanguard who put out many of Fahey's classic albums, the packaging is really nice with each artist contributing a blurb about their relationship with Fahey's music. Tribute records aren't usually this thoughtful and well executed and we're so glad that for John Fahey it was done right because he deserves nothing less then excellence in his honor!

MPEG stream: Death of the Clayton Peacock
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The long-awaited "stoner rock/doom metal" soundtrack to the perhaps equally long-awaited psychedelic splatter/gore flick "I Am Vengeance" by low-budget underground director Richard R. Anasky, who, inspired in his filmmaking by both '80s slasher movies *and* '80s doom metal like Witchfinder General, hooked up with Meteor City to put together this soundtrack, featuring the likes of Sheavy, Count Raven, Eternal Elysium, The Quill, Bloodfarmers, Space Probe Taurus, Naevus, Lowrider, Las Cruces, and others. I thought that doom legends Pentagram were supposed to be doing the theme song (it's on their last album), but here it's done by Doomsday Gouvernment (ex-members of Count Raven, who appear all over this comp). Anasky's liner notes seem to indicate that the Pentagram track will appear on a *second* volume of songs from the film to be released by doom label Game Two, but I haven't heard about a release date for that. Anyway, this is a fine comp of mostly-new (or hard-to-find) material by some excellent, if obscure, bands -- almost all of whom seem to have singers vying for the "Sounds Most Like Ozzy Osbourne" award!

RealAudio clip: Bullet In My Head
RealAudio clip: Scream

Initially we were thrown for a puzzlacious loop by the title. Sounds a lot like the Pamela Des Barres autobiography! Then, admittedly not being familiar with the phrase 'Sacred Harp', we also thought the subtitle might be somewhat misleading. We did a little homework though, and found out that it is a traditional choral singing style originating in the Southern states, gospel folksong with a repertory of pre-Civil War vintage. Whew, glad we got it all figured out. Anyways, confusion and definitions aside, the strength of this compilation is something far less complicated. An amazing document of both individual vocalists and congregations singing en masse, it exemplifies the power of the human voice, in concert with spiritual belief. Quite a force to behold, at once both humbling and uplifting. This disc is the aural companion to the documentary film Awake, My Soul, which we're now eager to see, after having spun this numerous times since it showed up here! The absolutely wonderful Dust-To-Digital label (responsible for the massive, wooden Goodbye, Babylon box set, and the Fonotone one too, among other treats) has again done a great job with the compiling and packaging of these olde timey treasures. The 30-track cd is housed in a handsome cardboard foldy kind of pack, and of course in the cd booklet there's an expert essay on sacred harp singing, as well as individual track notes. As the subtitle indicates, this is a recorded tradition going back 85 years. The earliest recording here dates from 1922, with plenty more from the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s -- along with several from 2006. We like the timbre of the older recordings best, of course (and the scratchier the recording, the better in our view!), but they're all pretty awesome (an appropriate word to use in this context, in its deepest meaning!). Majestically eerie, moving, and powerful are these songs raised to heaven. As voices overlap and merge, some of these tracks begin to almost sound like some avant-garde 20th century, prog choral piece or something. Others have more of a hillbilly, homey appeal. It's all quite beautiful, and highly recommended!!

MPEG stream: The Christian's Hope
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Amazing compilation of lost folk and blues from this relatively new Northwestern label (even though they're called Mississippi), who apparently have tons more killer comps on deck and coming soon. We can hardly wait! But for now, we're perfectly pleased to just dig into this one (and the other new Mississippi release, the�Lipa Kodi Ya City Council comp of African music, reviewed elsewhere on this list), a gorgeous chunk of dusty, sepia toned old timey blues, recorded between the years�1927-1948, all of it fantastic. Like a modern day Folkways, Mississippi has gathered up a gorgeous and varied collection of lost music, from campfire fiddles, to tap dance rhythms, to smokey night club joints, to brassy big band, to amazing yodeling, to Latin flavored rhythm and blues, to back porch stomps, to soft and shimmery crooned blues, it's all fantastic, the recordings raw and emotional, immediate, fuzzy and lo-fi, straight from the original 78's. Absolutely essential. The perfect vinyl addendum to your Smithsonian Folkways'�Anthology of American Folk Music box set.�

Killer compilation from this long running label, a triple cd overflowing with some seriously aQ beloved bands: The Body, Thurston Moore, The North Sea, Dead Machines, Anla Courtis, Antony Milton, Taurpis Tula, Pumice, Neil Campbell (Vibracathedral Orchestra, Astral Social Club), Mike Shiflet, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Crawlspace, Justice Yeldman, Carlos Giffoni just to name a few, and there are tons more, FIFTY artists total. A whole bunch of folks we had never heard before: Aaron Rosenblum, Craig Colorusso, Caustic Solution, Carpentry, Taiwan Death, Rainbeaux, Tinnitusstimulus, Hikka as well as Crush The Junta, who some of us here have dug for a while but who have yet to get reviewed on the list. The sound is all over the place too, but in a good way, warm metallic buzz, woozy steel string outsider Appalachia, hushed hazy droned out drift, there are occasional blast of noise, but they tend toward the more textural, Carlos Giffoni offers up some blurred synthy squelch, Cock E.S.P. deliver a minute long burst of caustic crunch, which is rife with weird voices, and surprisingly even a bit of melody, there's even some full on garage rocking (Crawlspace), some tripped out exotica (Irene Moon), downtuned lumbering doom (The Body), jangly country (Hinkley), twisted, wrangled guitar abuse (Thurston Moore), but for all of the varied sounds, the overall vibe does lean pretty consistently toward the dark and droney, the layered and atmospheric, much of this sprawling comp has the feel of an album proper, the songs linked sonically, creating these subtly thematic movements, a pretty amazing feat for a 3 disc compilation with 50 sonically disparate bands. This is definitely the sort of thing that should appeal to the aQ-ers into sounds murky and mysterious, haunting and hazy, and fans of all things that buzz and rumble and whir, and we should mention Crush The Junta, whose track here is a fantastically murky chunk of stumbling fuzz drenched dirgery, starting out all chaotic and almost free, before locking into a grimy, crusty churn, that manages to be both heavy and atmospheric, rhythmic and psychedelic. Definitely recommended. Sweet packaging too, the three discs (real cds, not cd-r's) housed in a dvd case, with a full color cover, and full color printed insert, the whole thing snug in a silk screened and hand sewn cloth bag, and yeah, probably crazy limited too...

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Based entirely on how much a record gets played in the store, this double cd dubstep comp is probably just about the most popular record we have in stock these days. No matter who's working, it seems to get played practically nonstop, and every time it's on, we find ourselves going up to see what's playing. EVERY time. Makes perfect sense, this comp is jam packed with THEE JAMS, every single "hit" from the birth of modern dubstep, until NOW. Dubstep obsessives will still probably find tons of stuff here they're missing, especially considering that most of these tracks have never been on cd before now, and newbies, holy shit, you cannot do better than this as an intro to dubstep. Over two hours of stripped down dubbed out beats, every possible permutation of that dubstep warbly bassline, raga like toasting, murky mumbling vocals, fuzzed out synths, some tracks playful and fun, others dark and sinister, so much glorious glorious bass, buzzing and rumbling, throbbing, pulsing, pounding, all beneath skittery beats, and laid back grooves, abstract funk and dark moody ambience. Just have a look at the lineup: Skream, Caspa, Loefah, Benga, Distance, Headhunter, Pinch, Shackleton, Digital Mystikz, The Bug, Kromestar, 2562, Kode 9, Burial and loads more. We've raved about pretty much every dubstep record we've managed to get in, but of all of them, this one is definitely THE one to get. Even if you already have all the other ones, ESPECIALLY if. And if you're a big fan of classic dub, but have yet to check out this modern permutation, you owe it to yourself to give it a try, definitely pushes lots of the same buttons, but ups the lowend bigtime, making it darker, and heavier, much more physical, and WAY bassier, which is never a bad thing.

MPEG stream: Rubber Chicken
MPEG stream: Mud
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Everyone loves Guitar Wolf! Lightning Bolt loves Guitar Wolf! J Mascis + The Fog loves Guitar Wolf! Jim O'Rourke loves Guitar Wolf! Puffy Amiyumi loves Guitar Wolf! Snuff loves Guitar Wolf! Jon Spencer Blues Explosion loves Guitar Wolf! Cato Salsa Experience loves Guitar Wolf! Fast Fourier loves Guitar Wolf! The Hellsquad loves Guitar Wolf! The Wildhearts loves Guitar Wolf! Porch Ghouls loves Guitar Wolf! Autoramas loves Guitar Wolf! Total Dork loves Guitar Wolf! Yes, very much! And they show it in spades on this tribute to the beloved Japanese band! If you've yet to experience the wild wonder that is Guitar Wolf, there's Golden Black which is a rad new best of and rarities collection that Narnack also just released. It completely encapsulates their greatness!

MPEG stream: Planet Of The Wolves
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Simply put, this is a covers album by indie-kids of '80s metal classics... with Reggie & The Full Effect doing Slayer (imagine "Raining Blood" with zippy new wave keyboards--it's amazing!), The Get Up Kids reworking Motley Crue, Jejune covering the Scorpions, and the much sought-after really weirdo experimental acoustic country rendition of Slayer's "South of Heaven" by Modest Mouse + Califone! Electric Frankenstein, Supernova, Less Than Jake, and others also contribute. Yeah, it's basically a fun, joke record, yet at moments kind of incredible (like The Killingtons' strange, unrecognizably spaced out take on W.A.S.P.'s "F**k Like A Beast"). It makes me wish that there were bands that actually sounded like this all the time! Put it this way: Allan never ever thought he'd have any desire to own a record containing a track by Modest Mouse, let alone a band with a name like 'Mephiskapheles', until he heard this one. (Mephiskapheles do a horn-free version of Celtic Frost's "Necromatical Screams" by the way).

So this is officially the third installment in the I Love Techno series we've reviewed, and in the first two, we had to qualify that we didn't actually love techno, but for some reason these comps pushed all our buttons and maybe we did in fact love techno. But this latest installment is so fucked up and fuzzy, tripped out and psychedelic and rife with big bass and blown out synth and even some punk and metal, not to mention weirdo video game sounds, all we can think is either we DO really LOVE techno, and this is more of the same, or this record is really fucking tripped out and damaged and genius and typical technerds will be way bummed out on this, while the rest of us just discovered the raddest electronic comp of the year. We're leaning toward the latter, or at least some combination of the two. Needless to say, this is not at all what we imagine most people think of when they think 'techno'. The first track alone, "Paradise Poltergeist" by some guy called Tai and techno legend Steve Aoki, is all over the place, twisted and totally geniusly whatthefuck, beginning with some dizzying 8 bit melodies, muted drums, and buzzy looped vocals, which give way to what sounds like time stretched Tuvan throat singing, modulated into a weird croaking frog melody, over a pulsing 4 on the floor beat, and some strange metallic crunches, not to mention some punky vox, some big banging drums, some ravey flourishes, fat buzzy synths, the song so hypnotic and psychedelic, we were sort of expecting the rest of the record to pale, but if anything, it just gets better and better. Twisted looped horns get wound into crackly fields of thick synth buzz, and machine gun squelches, sounds change speed and pitch, every track sounding like it's being broadcast through a funhouse mirror, the beats stuttery and skittery, lots of woozy squiggly melodies, weird voices, pitched way down or sped up like crazy, wild ragga toasting over more woozy lo-fi grinding synth buzz, we were constantly waiting for it to let up, or for some bum track to surface, but it never does, relentless and continually getting buzzier and weirder, the sounds unexpected and twisted and super surprising, culminating in the sped up Refused sampling "New Noise", which takes that new punk anthem and adds thick swaths of synth, bigger beats, but essentially leaves the original song intact, it's easy to imagine how bad ass that sounds in the midst of a techno set. Totally ruling, and yeah, based on this comp, not sure there's anything we actually like more than techno.

MPEG stream: Paradise Poltergeist
MPEG stream: Rubber
MPEG stream: Harmageddon (Felix Cartal Remix)
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This one shouldn't need much of a review at all. A killer 'local' band comp, featuring a bunch of our fave West Coast groups from San Francisco, Oakland, LA, and Portland: Warm Soda, Sonny & The Sunsets, Burnt Ones, Chris Cohen, the Sandwitches, Magic Trick, Little Wings, Cool Ghouls, Jessica Pratt and more. Warm Soda kick things off with a groovy blast of retro garage pop, all Yellow Pills style fuzzy, jangly power pop, that once again reminds us what a total genius Matthew Melton (Warm Soda, Snake Flower 2, Bare Wires). But there's plenty more good stuff here. Burnt Ones offer up their own retro blast, theirs significantly more murky and woozy and washed out. Ex- Deerhoofer Chris Cohen delivers an achingly lovely ballad, all distant shimmer, acoustic guitar shimmer, and glimmering harmonics, and those grogeous vox. The Sandwitches' track is all echo drenched lo-fi jangle, while Sonny & The Sunsets (whose Sonny curated this whole comp) give us some sun dappled, strum and jangle fuzz pop dreaminess, while locals Cool Ghouls get all sixties girl group, with reverby female vox, shimmery guitar strum and a hazy psychedelic production. The best part about comps, for us at least, is as much about new discoveries as old faves, and Pure Bliss are the big discovery this time around, all shimmery jangle, deep dramatic vocals, classic old school dream pop that had us hankering for LOTS more. Speaking of which, there's lots more here too, tracks by the Memories, Fronds, Sunfoot, Wet Illustrated and Earth Girl Helen Brown! Pressed on heavy, marbled slime green vinyl, that matches the zombie afro vampire cover art, includes an insert/comic, as well as a download code!

MPEG stream: Tell Me In A Whisper
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That it's the first double disc in the Sublime Frequencies series says something about I Remember Syria. Recorded by Mark Gergis (Monopause / Neung Phak, Porest) in 1998 and 2000, I Remember Syria is an impressive collection of sounds, interviews and music from a country that's essentially unknown to the western world. Vilified by Bush, Rumsfeld et al. There's really no access to the wonderful culture of Syria. Gergis successfully attempts to alleviate that with the two plus hours presented here. Recorded using a stereo mic. and minidisc recorder, and subsidized with excerpts from television and radio. Disc one focuses on the city of Damascus, while disc two features recordings from throughout Syria. Along with recordings of street musicians, wedding processions, prayers, mosque interiors and open air markets are brief interviews with Syrian citizens reflecting on the US Govt. and the west in general. I Remember Syria is an impressive and unique audio documentary of a country that deserves more positive exposure.

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MPEG stream: Youth Radio of the Syrian Arab Republic

MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert! Thankfully there is someone putting out these killer comps of little heard blues and gospel on vinyl, the way they were made to be heard. Such loving attention paid to selection, flow and packaging, so thoughtfully put together. Songs so lost, coated in light crackle that only adds to their warm, melancholic and far-off mystery. We can't get enough of these records, and this one is no exception! Another amazing compilation of rare, obscure southern blues dealing with sex, death and loss. Featuring Cryin Sam Collins, Henry Spaulding, Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy, Buster Johnson, Little Hat Jones, Robert Wilkins, Willie Baker, Blind Blake, Louie Lasky, Charlie McCoy, and Joe Callicott. Our favorite cuts are by the female singers including the incomparable Memphis Minnie, two tracks by Lottie Kimbrough (The Kansas City Butterball), and a sad lament by Elvie Thomas. Plenty of tracks brim with sexy suggestiveness and fast living, such as "Can't I Do It For You?" " How You Want Your Rolling Done?", "Wayward Girl Blues" and "Keep It Clean", while others deal with loneliness and dying: "Lonesome Road", "Undertaker Blues", "Motherless Child Blues" "Rope Stretchin' Blues" and "Fare Thee Well Blues". Only in the blues do living and dying interweave with such incredibly sublime intensity! Go Mississippi!

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Okay Mississippi Records obsessives, get ready to blow your tops. Besides the amazing Been Here All My Days comp reviewed on the last list (grab one if you haven't yet, it's fantastic!), there are five, count 'em FIVE other new Mississippi titles this time around: I'll Meet You On That Other Shore, I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, I'll Be So Glad When The Sun Goes Down, Worried Now, Won't Be Worried Long and Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea, all culled from a legendary set of Alan Lomax field recordings, collected during his "Southern Journey, a trip he took through the American South, between the years 1959 and 1960, accompanied by British folk singer Shirley Collins, during which he made the first ever stereo recordings of American Traditional music in the field, capturing in stereo for the first time, music from Southern prison farms, the traditional gospel choral folksong of the Sacred Harp, the Southern Fife And Drum Corps, the debut recordings of blues legend Fred McDowell, not to mention an incredibly varied selection of musics from blues to bluegrass to country to gospel, captured on porches, at dairy farms, in churches, at picnics, state fairs, in prisons, in living rooms and in bars, many of the musicians, many of the folks Lomax had recorded before, and was visiting again, years later, while many were new discoveries. According to the extensive liner notes, Lomax upon returning to the US, after a decade long recording trip in Europe and the UK, was hailed as a hero, responsible for the revival of interest in American folk music, but was quite disappointed by all the young people playing the folk music and traditional American music he helped discover, record and expose to this new audience, an audience that seemed to believe not only were they preserving the music, but also in some strange way "improving" on the originals, which horrified Lomax and spurred him to make the trip that would be later known as his "Southern Journey", not only to capture stereo recordings of all this amazing, still thriving American music, but to also prove those young folks wrong. The results speak for themselves, 5 lps of gorgeous, unique, heartfelt American music, instrumental and vocal, celebratory and sorrowful, ballads and bluegrass hoedowns, gospel spirituals and military marches, call and response prison songs and back porch blues, and so much more. This is classic, timeless music, sounds imbued with the sweat and blood, the lives and deaths, the loves and losses of the American people, past and present, moving and emotional, and totally fantastic... As for which one of the five to buy, it's a tough call, they're all fantastic, and the music is varied on each, they're not divided by theme or style, instead, it's more like a sprawling 5 part compilation, each as good as the next, so yeah, obviously if you can, you should buy all 5, but if that's too much, heck, just pick one, maybe with a title that appeals to you, and dig in. Odds are you'll be back for more. Packed in super heavy jackets, with printed liner notes on the back, each volume containing a big booklet, with photos and more notes on each of the different tracks and all of the various performers.

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SORRY. Newest offering from Germany's Trikont label. Yet another genre spanning collection of music, this time devoted to Hank Williams. Featuring covers by such disparate artists as The Residents, Hasil Adkins, Killdozer, Isaac Hayes, Link Wray, Freddy Fender, Mekons, Al Green, Buckwheat Zydeco, Jad Fair, Charlie Feathers and much more!

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SORRY.

As of late anyone with even a passing interest in the blues has had plenty of reasons to rejoice. Almost every list we are blessed with something vinyl on Monk or Mississippi, but even with the wealth of material available, there are still plenty of lesser known artists who will go unheard, due to their obscurity, lack of recordings, or inability to fit comfortably within the predominantly white myths that have, for better and/or worse, shaped the history of blues music and its legacy. That's why it's so great having this awesome new comp focusing on some of the less influential but still powerful bluesmen. With a whopping 24 tracks, this collection spans from 1923 (with, reportedly, the first recorded use of a guitar slide, or more appropriately, knife, as wielded by Sylvester Weaver) to 1929, one of the most noteworthy of years for recorded blues music. Some of these musicians you may recognize, like Ishman Bracey (whose Suitcase Full Of Blues we reviewed not too long back), but many of them are just names we've read about, and others still are completely new to us. No matter, it's all prime stuff carefully selected to help show us what we have been missing. Carrying on in the tradition of legendary labels like Yazoo and Arhoolie, Sub Rosa has done us a great favor with this one, and we're hoping even more labels will take a cue and excavate essential recordings from the past. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Why Do You Moan
MPEG stream: Workin' On The Railroad
MPEG stream: The Fore Day Blues
MPEG stream: Mississippi Bottom Blues

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Okay Mississippi Records obsessives, get ready to blow your tops. Besides the amazing Been Here All My Days comp reviewed on the last list (grab one if you haven't yet, it's fantastic!), there are five, count 'em FIVE other new Mississippi titles this time around: I'll Meet You On That Other Shore, I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, I'll Be So Glad When The Sun Goes Down, Worried Now, Won't Be Worried Long and Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea, all culled from a legendary set of Alan Lomax field recordings, collected during his "Southern Journey, a trip he took through the American South, between the years 1959 and 1960, accompanied by British folk singer Shirley Collins, during which he made the first ever stereo recordings of American Traditional music in the field, capturing in stereo for the first time, music from Southern prison farms, the traditional gospel choral folksong of the Sacred Harp, the Southern Fife And Drum Corps, the debut recordings of blues legend Fred McDowell, not to mention an incredibly varied selection of musics from blues to bluegrass to country to gospel, captured on porches, at dairy farms, in churches, at picnics, state fairs, in prisons, in living rooms and in bars, many of the musicians, many of the folks Lomax had recorded before, and was visiting again, years later, while many were new discoveries. According to the extensive liner notes, Lomax upon returning to the US, after a decade long recording trip in Europe and the UK, was hailed as a hero, responsible for the revival of interest in American folk music, but was quite disappointed by all the young people playing the folk music and traditional American music he helped discover, record and expose to this new audience, an audience that seemed to believe not only were they preserving the music, but also in some strange way "improving" on the originals, which horrified Lomax and spurred him to make the trip that would be later known as his "Southern Journey", not only to capture stereo recordings of all this amazing, still thriving American music, but to also prove those young folks wrong. The results speak for themselves, 5 lps of gorgeous, unique, heartfelt American music, instrumental and vocal, celebratory and sorrowful, ballads and bluegrass hoedowns, gospel spirituals and military marches, call and response prison songs and back porch blues, and so much more. This is classic, timeless music, sounds imbued with the sweat and blood, the lives and deaths, the loves and losses of the American people, past and present, moving and emotional, and totally fantastic... As for which one of the five to buy, it's a tough call, they're all fantastic, and the music is varied on each, they're not divided by theme or style, instead, it's more like a sprawling 5 part compilation, each as good as the next, so yeah, obviously if you can, you should buy all 5, but if that's too much, heck, just pick one, maybe with a title that appeals to you, and dig in. Odds are you'll be back for more. Packed in super heavy jackets, with printed liner notes on the back, each volume containing a big booklet, with photos and more notes on each of the different tracks and all of the various performers.

Electronic soul music pretty much begins with Sly Stone. In a year-long period of introspective but intensely prolific productivity that would ultimately transform his main band, The Family Stone, from upbeat soul poppers to deep socially-conscious funk groovers, Stone took a break from his main squeeze and had his hands in many pockets. Holed up in the studio with a a newly required Maestro Rhythm King drum machine and his trademarked wah'wah'd electronic organ in low key tempos, Stone not only recorded solo demos for what would become the most influential Family Stone record, There's A Riot Going On, but he also started a label, Stone Flower as well as a production team and released 4 singles. Two of them from Little Sister, which was a vocal group led by Stone's little sister Vaetta Stewart, one from soul singer Joe Hicks, and one from a funk group called 6IX, all of which featured Stone' organ and drum machine combo as well as production. On the surface, 4 singles doesn't sound like very much for a label, but their sound transformed soul and funk music into something more deeper and minimal, influencing not only more well known performers such as Timmy Thomas and Shuggie Otis, all the way up to Prince, but also lots of private press artists as well, who did not have the resources to hire full bands and recording studios to create their music. One of our very favorite compilations from the past few years, Personal Space, documents this trend in private press electronic soul from the seventies, and fans of that comp will find tons to love here. There have been previous comps of the Stone Flower output, but Light In The Attic dug a lot deeper (as they always do!) and included not only some of Sly Stone's demos, but plenty of unreleased material and alternative versions of the singles as well. The low key gospel spook of Little Sister's "Somebody's Watching You" has been a favorite song of ours for a long time, but it's also cool to hear the full band version where we can decipher the lyrics a lot more clearly: "Shady as a lady with a mustache", or "The nicer the nice/ the higher the price". I'm Just Like You is a fantastic intermediary look into the world of Sly Stone during a transformative period which also includes lots of photos and liner notes as well as a recent interview with the reclusive genius himself. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Somebody's Watching You
MPEG stream: Just Like A Baby
MPEG stream: I'm Just Like You
MPEG stream: Home Sweet Home pt. 2

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SORRY. The series that started with the classic "Beat of the Traps" lp continues, with dozens more examples of "amateur lyrics ground through the song poem mill". Rodd Keith fans will weep with joy.

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SORRY. You know how everyone thinks they can be a DJ now, right? Maybe one of the unlooked-for benefits of this trend is that there are that many more people sifting through dusty ole record bins in dusty ole record stores worldwide, searching for the good breaks to sample and scratch. And perhaps that explains the sudden number of recent, very tasteful, well-done compilations that have graced the shelves here at Aquarius, comps filled with original source material utilized during or created for the breakbeat era's heyday (mid to late '70s). And hey, now that these amazing tracks are collected in one place on cd or vinyl, we can listen to them in the safety of our own living rooms -- instead of having to brave yuppies and cigarette smoke and $6 drinks to hear perfectly good tunes mangled by DJs of mediocre skills. Raw funk compilation with all the tracks done by women, including Betty Davis (Miles' wife), James Brown protege Lyn Collins, Gladys Knight, Cold Blood (the Pointer Sisters were the backup singers in this band!), etc. Extensive liner notes put each song into context and provide gossipy mini-biographies of each artist. Example: the initials in Vera Hamilton's "But I Ain't No More (G.S.T.S.K.D.T.S.)" refer to the lyric "I used to be a Genuine, Stomped on, Twenty Karat, Sure 'nough, Knocked down, Dragged out, Turned down, Strung out Fool for you... but I ain't no more!" Cool! On UK label Harmless.

RealAudio clip: Anti Love Song
RealAudio clip: But I Ain't No More (G.S.T.S.K.D.T.S.)

We were first struck by the title. I, Mute Hummings. Very mysterious and provocative. Dark and abstract. But what really sealed the deal was the subtitle: "A Collection Of Drone Music And Dulcet Atmospheres" and the lineup: Keith Berry, Fear Falls Burning, Dronaement, Troum, Paul Bradley, Richard Lainhart and more. You had us at 'collection of drone music'... So with that sort of high caliber collection of dronelords, we hardly need to tell you what a gorgeously dark, ominously rumbling, dreamily whirring selection of tracks this is, but what the heck, we will anyway. Keith Berry starts things off with a warm, black tinted shimmer, densely layered, but seemingly weightless, a dark subterranean drift, laced with barely there, almost recognizable field recordings buried way down in the mix. Next up is maybe the greatest Fear Falls Burning track ever. Weird spacious affected guitars, not heavy or distorted, but instead glistening and prismatic, caught in a dreamy delay drenched loop, floating like some disembodied fragment of a long lost Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack, and nestled amidst long golden tendrils of lazy late afternoon fuzz. Dronaement offer up a lengthy soundscape of simulated field recordings, record crackle and murky glimmer underpinned by a distant rhythmic whir and wrapped in a gauzy dreamlike atmosphere. Then AQ faves Troum take over with one of their most ominous pieces yet, a gurgling bass heavy cavernous trawl through some dark hellish underworld, still shimmery and soft focus, but with an ominous undercurrent and some super distorted, deconstructed riffing roiling amidst thick swells of foghorn low end, and all manner of abstract black ambience. And the rest of the record is just as beautiful, continuing on in a similar darkdronedoom fashion, even the folks we didn't recognize (Jeffrey Roden, Steve Jolliffe, Column One) offer up some gorgeous slabs of bleak black drone dreaminess, so much so that it had us immediately seeking out more material by all of them...

MPEG stream: The Crossing
MPEG stream: Everything Was Wrong
MPEG stream: Phonorecord III

It's hard to believe that Important Records have been around for ten years. Even harder to believe that in those ten years, they've released THREE HUNDRED records, thirty a year. No wonder we can barely keep up with them. But it's sure fun to try. This super limited lp celebrates this big anniversary with exclusive live tracks from a handful of Important bands, a list that reads like an aQ dream team: Mugstar offer up some seriously fuzzy psychedelic stomp, a Stooges / Hawkwind hybrid equal parts heavy and spacey, Cave are at their most krautrocky here, blissed out and rhythmic, the sound thick layered and epic, Grails get almost funky, doing their best impression of classic Can, thick basslines, groovy rhythms and a sound that's super distorted and blown out, Bardo Pond deliver their usual blast of swirling druggy psych, all warbly vox and swirling chaotic psychguitar bliss, Master Musicians Of Bukkake get all ritualistic, with gamelan like percussion, bleating horns and demonic gurgling vox, Chord get seriously mellow, unfurling a hazy bit of dreamy drift, hushed and surprisingly ambient, aQ fave Bass Communion teams up with someone called Pig for a thick dense sprawl of blackened guitar buzz and swirling atmospheres, a slow burning track that gradually gets noisier and noisier, and then finally, someone called NHK yx finishes things off with a super minimal chunk of lo-fi skittery insectoid buzz and squelch electronica. All killer stuff, vinyl only, and most likely limited...

Another amazing document in the Sun City Girls' Sublime Frequencies int'l field recordings series of cds and DVDs. This is the third DVD in the series, this time focusing on Northeast Thailand, known to the Thai as Isan. Beautifully filmed and dizzingly colorful, we are first treated to a festival celebrating the birth of civilization in Isan, featuring lots of pomp and even a little magic, including an intense segment where live rabbits and chickens are hurled into the air and then caught and chased once again. Also there is an amazing segment that looks like it takes place in a school gym, featuring colorful traditional dancers backed up by guitar and xylophone, and later a very sultry performance in a gentleman's club (sonically quite remiscent of the Cambodian Rocks Southeast Asian take on Western pop music). Probably the most amazing segments are the solo performances on the Khaen, which is a set of pipes, two rows set together, with the performer covering and uncovering sound holes and producing some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear.

A friend of ours is a Canadian MC who often introduces himself with the line, "I'm quite popular in France... a country renown for its terrible taste in music." With that in mind, it's unsurprising that the treasures found on this latest compilation of French minimal/cold/new-wave and post-punk from the fine folks at Born Bad Records in gay Pareee never found much favor in their homeland the first time around, as a country immersed in accordions and Edith Piaf may not have known what to do with Warm Joe's synth-bleep-infused, art-damaged, poppity punk skronk ferinstance. If you've been following the slow but steady trickle of French reissue compilations that we've been fawning over for the past year here at aQ HQ like So Young But So Cold, BIPPP, and Les Jeunes Gens Moderne (that one coming soon on an expanded double cd by the way!), you'll be pretty familiar with the basic formula for many of the tracks: primitive beat box drums pushed to their limits + fuzzed out guitar + synths that provide everything from squidgy bass to massively hooky lead lines to disco lasers to de rigeur blips, bloops and bleeps + vocals that manage to sing, scream, coo, croon and yowl all at once = insanely melodic, freaked out french synth-punk that hybridizes everything good about early electro, new wave, disco, punk, pop and even chansons francais. So yeah, if you liked any or all of those other comps then save yourself the trouble of reading any further and just buy this already. It rules. Not convinced? Ok, fair enough. What if we told you that IVG not only digs as deep as if not deeper than the other comps (honestly, when a track you've never heard by Ruth is the most familiar thing on the tracklist, then you know that you're in for some serious obscurities...), but it also pushes the weirdo factor up exponentially? For starters, Dead Heat have a baby laying down vocals on their contribution, "Damnee Petite Sophie" and every single part of Crise de Nerf's over-caffeinated fuzz freak out, "Rock A La Tele," honestly sounds like it's about to explode spectacularly. Toss in some alternate reality soundtrack work by Stabat stable, not one BUT TWO soundscape-y tone poems by Theatre Commercial, and a song by Ruth that sounds frighteningly like Dr. Know from Bad Brains jamming with Sonic Youth and you know you are headed somewhere fantastic. Seriously, mes amis: up the volume, up the speed, up the fuzz, up the fucked up French punks. ALLONS Y!

MPEG stream: Mon Pote (Version Courte)
MPEG stream: Frustre
MPEG stream: Rock A La Tele

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SORRY.

Maybe only John Zorn's Tzadik label devotes as many releases as the Japanese (Kansai region) Alchemy label does to stuff to do specifically with the activity of the label-boss! It seems like almost every recent Alchemy disc has been a Jojo Hiroshige project of some sort, whether it be a solo DVD or a best-of or the current series of reissues of his seminal noise band Hijokaidan. Of course, we're all for it, we love his stuff, diverse as it is, from full-on noise assault to spacey drone to folky melodiousness... So, perhaps no surprise that this latest Alchemy release is a various artists TRIBUTE compilation to the "King Of Noise", the very same Jojo Hiroshige. And no surprise (or maybe a little bit of one) that it's so very diverse too! These ten cover tracks by ten different artists range from shambolic pop to frenzied punk to blissed out psych to harsh industrial mayhem. Several familiar faces from the Alchemy roster show up -- "Love Love Love" as performed by female psychsters Doodles is particularly lovely, while Solmania's contribution of psychedelic guitar drone is uncharacteristically calm and beautiful. And as an appropriate finale, Masonna chimes in with some full-on noise as is his trademark, the first new recording from the hopping one in a long, long time. A lot of the contributors seem to be making a definite Kansai / Kraut konnection here in paying tribute to the admittedly Krautrock influenced oeuvre of Alchemy bossman Jojo. Recommended to all fans of out-there Japanese psych, rock, and noise action.

MPEG stream: track 6
MPEG stream: track 7

Dang, we've got a good one here for followers of the whole "Wooden Guitar" crowd -- Wooden Guitar being the name of another compilation on another label, devoted to guitarists doing acoustic solos in the tradition of John Fahey and the other folky folks on his classic Takoma label roster. That's more or less the idea here too, except that in addition to contemporary flame-keepers of the form like Pelt's Jack Rose and Cul de Sac's Glenn Jones, this comp features quite a few veteran string pickers who were part of the '60s scene -- some of 'em just recently been coaxed out of retirement. There's a few archival cuts dating from decades back, but a lot of this is newly recorded, and much of it is as yet otherwise unreleased, live and studio tracks both. Not all the names are familiar but when you hear 'em you'll want to hear more. The line-up includes the aforementioned Rose and Jones, along with Sandy Bull, John Fahey, Harry Taussig, Harris Newman, Brad Barr, Bern Nix, Steve Mann, Janet Smith, Terry Riley and his son Gyan, Suni McGrath, Bob Hadley, Kaki King, and Max Ochs (whose Fahey-dedicated track "Inspirational Anthem" gives this collection its title, and appears here twice, once in a version recorded in '69 and another from just last year). Moods and techniques vary, from the more old timey to the Eastern-tinged to the jazz-flecked. But it's all totally entrancing, hypnotic, transportational music. Several generations of adventurous American acoustic guitarists are represented here and it's nice to know that this musical movement looks to be going on strong into the future. A fine comp indeed!

MPEG stream: Train Z
MPEG stream: Lake Shore Drive (Slight Return)

We just reviewed volume 5 of this ongoing series which surveys the vibrant traditional past and bright experimental future of guitar soli. Hot on the heels of that fifth and final volume comes this elaborate box set of the entire series, plus an unreleased live bonus album by Lambchop guitarist William Tyler called Elvis Was a Capricorn. While we were remiss in reviewing vol 4, it's easy to tell by our other reviews of just how good this is. Here is what we said about past volumes: ONE: Dang, we've got a good one here for followers of the whole "Wooden Guitar" crowd -- Wooden Guitar being the name of another compilation on another label, devoted to guitarists doing acoustic solos in the tradition of John Fahey and the other folky folks on his classic Takoma label roster. That's more or less the idea here too, except that in addition to contemporary flame-keepers of the form like Pelt's Jack Rose and Cul de Sac's Glenn Jones, this comp features quite a few veteran string pickers who were part of the '60s scene -- some of 'em just recently been coaxed out of retirement. There's a few archival cuts dating from decades back, but a lot of this is newly recorded, and much of it is as yet otherwise unreleased, live and studio tracks both. Not all the names are familiar but when you hear 'em you'll want to hear more. The line-up includes the aforementioned Rose and Jones, along with Sandy Bull, John Fahey, Harry Taussig, Harris Newman, Brad Barr, Bern Nix, Steve Mann, Janet Smith, Terry Riley and his son Gyan, Suni McGrath, Bob Hadley, Kaki King, and Max Ochs (whose Fahey-dedicated track "Inspirational Anthem" gives this collection its title, and appears here twice, once in a version recorded in '69 and another from just last year). Moods and techniques vary, from the more old timey to the Eastern-tinged to the jazz-flecked. But it's all totally entrancing, hypnotic, transportational music. Several generations of adventurous American acoustic guitarists are represented here and it's nice to know that this musical movement looks to be going on strong into the future. TWO: Second Volume of American Primitive guitar explorations from both the old and new schools, showcasing the diverse styles of its strongest players. While the patron saint of this movement is still John Fahey, the resonant strains between generations exemplify how far the movement has grown while allowing each artist to retain their own voice. Representing the old school this time around are Billy Faier, Michael Chapman, Peter Lang (re-doing a piece from the early '70s), Fred Gerlach and a rare live recording of Robbie Basho from the Venus in Capricorn era. The New school is represented by James Blackshaw, Jose Gonzalez. local Berkeley musician Sean Smith, Christina Carter from Charalambides, Jack Rose (also featured on Vol. 1), Jesse Spearhawk, and British Banjo player Sharron Kraus. From traditional Americana, to eastern inflected ragas, shimmering 12 string washes to minimalist banjo odes, this is a fine set of excursionary guitar. THREE: Looking at the line-up of Tompkins Square's new Imaginational Anthem volume three, you would think they were focusing on the more experimental side of the solo guitar genre. Featuring R. Keenan Lawler, Shawn David McMillen, banjo mystic George Stavos, electronic musician Greg Davis, Ben Reynolds, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Berkeley guitarist Matt Baldwin, and Richard Crandell amongst others, we were half-expecting (hoping for?) a more way out approach towards the instrument. But alas that's not the case and that isn't really a bad thing either. While the sounds are more in line with the previous volumes, and other compilations of solo guitar work, this compilation stands up amongst the best of the genre with some fine finger-picking by some unexpected sources. Though props go to Lawler, McMillen, and Stavos for pushing the envelope the most. FOUR: Volume Four, subtitled New Possibilities, contains tracks by mostly newbies to us, except for Chris Forsyth, William Tyler and Aaron Shepherd. Rounded out by tracks from Sam Moss, Nick Jonah Davis, Pat O'Connell, Tyler Ramsey, Michah Blue Smaidone, Mike Fekete, and C. Joynes. FIVE: The latest round-up of modern guitar soli practitioners is as beautiful as ever, this time focussing on the newest breed of the craft. Familiar and unfamiliar names abound, but we're sure folks will get as excited as we were at the inclusion of two longtime San Francisco acolytes, Danny Paul Grody formerly of Tarentel, who brings a lush and lovely kosmiche vibe to "Lookout Point", and Bill Orcutt, delivering a healthy dose of dissonance and experimentation with his track "John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can", a title the great master would surely love. The overall feel of this set seems to oscillate nicely between the two poles of the traditional and experimental with tracks also by Steve Gunn, Jordan Fuller, Nick Shallice, Will Stratton, Daniel Bachman, Eric Carbonara, Tom Lecky, Alexander Turnquist, Cam Deas, and Yair Yona. Gorgeous!

MPEG stream: Train Z
MPEG stream: Lake Shore Drive (Slight Return)
MPEG stream: River of Heaven
MPEG stream: Looking for the Hermits Cave
MPEG stream: Kowaka D'Amour
MPEG stream: High Tower Bells For Loren Connors
MPEG stream: Goblins
MPEG stream: When The Snow Melts and Floats Downstream
MPEG stream: Lookout Point
MPEG stream: John Fahey Commerative Beercan
MPEG stream: Standing at The Entrance of a Hidden City

The latest installment in Tompkins Square's round-up of modern guitar soli practitioners is as beautiful as ever, this time focussing on the newest breed of the craft. Familiar and unfamiliar names abound, but we're sure folks will get as excited as we were at the inclusion of two longtime San Francisco acolytes, Danny Paul Grody formerly of Tarentel, who brings a lush and lovely kosmiche vibe to "Lookout Point", and Bill Orcutt, delivering a healthy dose of dissonance and experimentation with his track "John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can", a title the great master would surely love. The overall feel of this set seems to oscillate nicely between the two poles of the traditional and experimental with tracks also by Steve Gunn, Jordan Fuller, Nick Shallice, Will Stratton, Daniel Bachman, Eric Carbonara, Tom Lecky, Alexander Turnquist, Cam Deas, and Yair Yona. Gorgeous! FYI, the whole five volume Imaginational Anthem series is also now available in as six cd box set, the sixth disc being a bonus live recording by William Tyler called Elvis Was A Capricorn. Price, $37.

MPEG stream: Lookout Point
MPEG stream: John Fahey Commerative Beercan
MPEG stream: Standing at The Entrance of a Hidden City

This past Record Store Day, the sixth volume in Tompkins Square's series of dreamy solo acoustic guitar compilations got its first vinyl release, and now post-Record Store Day, it's available on cd! And instead of contemporary players, or their Takoma-scene 60's and 70's forebears, they go even further back to the roots of what is often called American Primitive guitar, showcasing seven little known masters of the genre sourced from original 78 rpm recordings made between the 1920's and 1930's. You might not recognize the names of Sylvester Weaver, Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Davy Miller, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchison or Bayless Rose, but that shouldn't stop you from procuring some fine old rags and waltzes, parlor guitar meditations, slide guitar ruminations and dark blues folk, that inspired folks like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and then Jack Rose and James Blackshaw and others of their ilk. Housed in a gatefold sleeve with extensive liner notes of the player's histories as well as tragedies. This is beautiful stuff!

MPEG stream: Darkey's Wail
MPEG stream: Frisco Blues
MPEG stream: Tramp Waltz

Looking at the line-up of Tompkins Square's new Imaginational Anthem volume, you would think they were focusing on the more experimental side of the solo guitar genre. Featuring R. Keenan Lawler, Shawn David McMillen, banjo mystic George Stavos, electronic musician Greg Davis, Ben Reynolds, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Berkeley guitarist Matt Baldwin, and Richard Crandell amongst others, we were half-expecting (hoping for?) a more way out approach towards the instrument. But alas that's not the case and that isn't really a bad thing either. While the sounds are more in line with the previous volumes, and other compilations of solo guitar work, this compilation stands up amongst the best of the genre with some fine finger-picking by some unexpected sources. Though props go to Lawler, McMillen, and Stavos for pushing the envelope the most. LIMITED ADDED BONUS! The first ten purchasers get a free bonus 7" of two songs by Max Ochs from 1969, featuring the tracks "Imaginational Anthem" and "Oncones".

MPEG stream: High Tower Bells For Loren Connors
MPEG stream: Goblins
MPEG stream: When The Snow Melts and Floats Downstream

Second Volume of American Primitive guitar explorations from both the old and new schools, showcasing the diverse styles of its strongest players. While the patron saint of this movement is still John Fahey, the resonant strains between generations exemplify how far the movement has grown while allowing each artist to retain their own voice. Representing the old school this time around are Billy Faier, Michael Chapman, Peter Lang (re-doing a piece from the early '70s), Fred Gerlach and a rare live recording of Robbie Basho from the Venus in Capricorn era. The New school is represented by James Blackshaw, Jose Gonzalez. local Berkeley muscian Sean Smith, Christina Carter from Charalambides, Jack Rose (also featured on Vol. 1), Jesse Spearhawk, and British Banjo player Sharron Kraus. From traditional Americana, to eastern inflected ragas, shimmering 12 string washes to minimalist banjo odes, this is a fine set of excursionary guitar.

MPEG stream: River of Heaven
MPEG stream: Looking for the Hermits Cave
MPEG stream: Kowaka D'Amour

Universal/Soul Jazz release of recordings from the influential second string father/son production team of Vincent and Clive Chin. Vincent was responsible for starting the labels Randy's and Impact in the late sixties and, with his son, subsequently started their own recording studio -- Randy's Recording Studio 17 -- which was so successful that other producers on the island often used it as well. This compilation gathers together 15 of the best reggae soul and funk tracks the pair produced between 1969 and 1975. Allan particularly likes the Skin Flesh And Bones' instrumental version of the BT Express's funk classic "Do It Til You're Satisfied". Booklet includes a several page interview with Clive Chin conducted in 2002 and several archival photos.

RealAudio clip: Do It Til You're Satisfied
RealAudio clip: 30-60-90
RealAudio clip: Guns In The Ghetto