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Stylish AQ-hero Panacea remixes the Position Chrome back catalog! A tight efficient mix of brutalist techstep drum n' bass. All tracks are previously released except one new Panacea cut. Great booklet photos feature very glam and somewhat slimmed-down Herr Panacea posing in tight tank tops & leather pants, with a spiked wristband to boot. Very cute.
We've been meaning to start stocking stuff from the Urck label for a while now. They had sent us a bunch of discs by a band with the strange name of Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, and to be honest at first we were fearing the worst, yeah we know, don't judge a book by its cover or a band by it's name, but we often judge band's by their names and it usually works out pretty well for us, Bathtub Shitter, Fuck I'm Dead, Pocohaunted, we could go on, but to be totally honest we were sort of expecting some sort of hippy jam band, you know hackey sacks and dayglo jester hats, but thankfully, we couldn't have been more wrong. The sound was devotional for sure, and the focal point was certainly drums, but the sound was more tribal and ethnic, spiritual and dark, more along the lines of Muslimgauze, lots of samples and voices, intricate rhythms, hypnotic and trancey.
So we will eventually review a record proper from Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, but we figured an even better place to start would be this brand new double disc compilation, featuring lots of bands on the Urck label, as well as a whole bunch of bands we already dig.
The comp is called Post-Asiatic Lost War Dream Music and is subtitled A Compilation Of Eastern Influenced Experimental Music, which pretty much nails it, but within that fairly broad descriptor, the bands veer into all sorts of varied sonic territory.
Right off the bat, there's a handful of bands who would have made owning this comp worthwhile all on their own, Amps For Christ, who offer up a gorgeous sprawling nearly 11 minute long jam, folky and lilting, guitars and sitars woven into drifting dreamlike harmonies, the melodies sunny and wistful, all very free and abstract, but gorgeous and we would have been happy to hear this track stretched out to fill an entire record. Muslimgauze does a stripped down, pure rhythm track, shuffling skittering drums, looped and cyclical, very hypnotic, and very very abstract. Neung Phak deliver a blissy slab of laid back psychpop, whirring organ, simple subtle drumming, twangy guitar, all wrapped around a super catchy Eastern melody. Experimental guitarist Bill Horist delivers some super spare squeak and scrape, chime and clatter, shimmer and swell, eventually that minimal guitar is joined by some sort of fiddle, wailing out a lonesome tune. Z'ev joins up with someone called Ramona Ponzini, for a haunting metallic scrapescape peppered with tribal drumming and with creepy disembodied vocals. There's also several tracks from that amazing Indian Soundscapes record we reviewed a while back, as well as tracks from Soriah, Metal Rouge, Moe! Staiano and F-Space. But the bands we hadn't heard of are just as exciting as those we were already familiar with.
The aforementioned Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional unfurls a drum heavy ceremony, all pounding tribalism, and buzzing steel strings, sounding very East Asian, another track that we would have loved to hear stretched out to fill up the whole disc. Venerable Showers Of Beauty Gamelan, is just that, a DIY gamelan, chiming and resonant, the melodies definitely Asian influenced, but also a bit Western, with many of the tones allowed to drone on and on, giving the track a slightly ominous buzz. C.O.T.A. weave a dark slab of tribal dark ambience, lots of rumble and buzz, a thick bassy pulse and shimmering sitar like strings. We definitely need to hear more from these guys. And we could go on and on and on. This is after all two discs packed with all sorts of amazing music, and a whole clutch of new bands to discover and probably knowing us (and you we'd imagine) decide we need to hear more of. Recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands obviously, or anyone looking for into dark, dreamy, buzzy, blissful, tribal sounds. Everytime we play this in the store, someone comes up to ask what it is. Obviously, way recommended.
Packaged in a super thick mini gatefold lp-style sleeve, with liner notes and credits inside.
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This enchanced CD from the Leonardo Music Journal is playable as a normal audio CD and as CD-Rom with additional music, multimedia documents, and software from a number of academically inclined artists such as Phill Niblock, Elisabeth Schimana, Chris Brown, Terre Thaemlitz, Kim Cascone, Anne Wellmer, Audiorom, Sensorband, and many more.
Nintendo theme music as performed by a bunch of video game addicted indie musicians! First up, is "The Legend Of Zelda (Overworld Theme)" tackled by supremely qualified for this sort of thing math/metal rockers The Fucking Champs. The mathiness continues with Upsilon Acrux (Rush n' Attack) and Ahleuchatistas (Bad Dudes), both prog rock bands who when not practicing their instrumental chops, must be glued to their gaming consoles. Then there's some artists with more of an electronica approach, also quite appropriate here, like Cripple Camp (Ghosts n' Goblins), Animal Style (Tetris), and Christopher Willits (Metroid). Doug McDiarmid of Anticon artists Why? provides a break from the plugged-in, caffienated craziness of some of these tunes with his pleasant piano rendition of the music from Marble Madness. Most far out is maybe Flossin (Kid 606 + Christopher Willits + Hella's Zach Hill, right?) with their spacey, psychedelic and chaotic version of "Castlevania". As with all tribute comps, there's some bands we hadn't heard of before, like Kindergarten Hazing Ritual (River City Ransom) and Twelve Handed Men Of Mars (more from The Legend Of Zelda)... but whoever they are, they know their Nintendo.
Heads up super-popsters! Flying your way are Apples In Stereo, Cornelius, Komeda, Dressy Bessy, The Bill Doss (ex-Olivia Tremor Control), Frank Black, Bis, The Sugarplastic, Optiganally Yours, Shonen Knife, and Devo. Each with a song inspired by Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles (cartoon characters if you didn't know). Puff up kids!
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Well, I suppose it had to happen. Or did it? And boy were we torn. On the one hand we really don't want to support this kind of thing. Electro versions of Iron Maiden songs?? But on the other hand, before even hearing it, we knew that we were gonna have to order a ton of 'em, and that we would ALL have to buy one. And as if to seal the deal, we threw it on the stereo the minute we got it, and within 15 seconds a customer was already at the counter telling us they NEEDED whatever we were playing. And our guess is that you're gonna need one too. I mean c'mon ELECTRO versions of IRON MAIDEN songs!! And the timing couldn't be more appropriate with the recent tragic passing of Anton Maiden, the original powerslave, who sang tunelessly over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs downloaded from his computer (which some of us liked even more than his singing...). And basically, this is just Anton Maiden with a way bigger budget. Which is a good thing. All those timeless riffs we love and adore played by fuzzed out analog synths and turned into buzzy alien melodies, the throbbing, unmistakable basslines of Steve Harris become burping squelches and rumbling pulses, and of course those dual lead guitar harmonies are transformed into wild squeaky squiggles. Does it work? Hard to say. It does sound great though. Funny and wild and fun and silly. We'd think they were taking the piss, but the liner notes take great pains to explain that the album 'was conceived with the greatest respect' and by having each artist pick their favorite Maiden song and album, often not the track they performed. There are a few familiar names here, Legowelt and Kitbuilders, but most of these artists are new to us (some other names: Captain Ahab, Rude 66, Maxx Klaxon, Ra-X, Imatran Voima, Luke Eargoggle...). The best track has to be Hidari / Platzgumer's Number Of The Beast, which starts so fucked up it's almost impossible to tell what song it is, and the drum programming is so fucked that the rhythm ends up being a damaged and stuttery mess of clicks and crunches. The vocals start out super vocoded and distorted, sounding quite alien / monsterlike, until the clean vocals kick in, and then the melody is sung weirdly, tuneless-y and strangely familiar a la Anton Maiden. Whatever reservations we had were definitely quelled once we heard this whole comp. How could they not be? And it's approved by original Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno himself. A fitting record of the week and for us, a fitting "moment of silence" for Anton Maiden. R.I.P.
One of the three new and not so new titles just in from the electronic music label Praemedia (Stars Like Fleas' Sun Lights Down On The Fence and Tim Perkis' Motive are the other two)! This comp features a wide variety of solo and collaborative IDM tracks by the aforementioned artists as well as Lance Grabmiller, Shannon Fields, The Gold Sparkle Band, Matt Lavelle, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Mou, Lips!, HSoA, Lisle Ellis, Nanaqui, Quiet American, Martin Nieznanski, Tom Djll, Haco and AQ fave Wobbly. Much delightfully clickery, woozy sputtering, squelching and itchy glitchin' ensues!
Down tempo electronica comp with stuff by DJ Cam, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Shinju Gumi (remixed by Kid Loco), Cujo, Koji Sekiguchi (remixed by DJ Cam), Tosca, a guy from Thievery Corp (the jazzy Exodus Quartet) and others... "Lusciously blunted" it says here.
The Sublime Frequencies vinyl reissue campaign continues. A few weeks ago, the long out of print Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 1 cd was repressed on lp, and now another old fave, Princess Nicotine: Folk & Pop Music Of Myanmar gets the same treatment, pressed on vinyl, in a super deluxe full color gatefold sleeve. And while the cd remains out of print, this amazing sonic document is available again, at least for a limited time...
If you have seen the Sublime Frequencies Nat Pwe dvd, then you at least have a rough idea of what you're getting yourself into here. But even if you're not all that familiar with Burmese music, you'll find this compilation truly weird and wonderful. Unlike the handful of Burmese releases on other world music labels, this is something else entirely, a completely raw and unfettered, whole grain Burmese sonic assault. In other words: it's absolutely manic! At its most insane, it's akin to taking your standard, off-the-wall Bollywood arrangement and running it through a prog rock or free jazz filter. Nasal double reed instruments parallel vocal lines, clashing cymbals emphasize every beat, while the pat wain (a set of rice paste tuned drums which encircle the performer) smacks out its own melody like a set of out of tune roto-toms. On the mellower side of things there's strange hallucinogenic Appalachia featuring sudden bursts of piano, interjecting banjo, violin, flute, horn and most oddly: sultry female vocals offset by distorted male vocals. There's also hazy semi-Hawaiian psychedelia, with piano and keyboards pounding out the occasional random chord progression. So intense, and unique and utterly amazing. If you have to chose just one record to blow your mind, this could very well be THE ONE!
If you have the Sublime Frequencies Nat Pwe DVD reviewed a few months back, then you at least have a rough idea of what you're getting yourself into here. But even if you're familiar with Burmese music, you'll find this compilation truly weird and wonderful. Unlike the handful of Burmese releases on Shanachie, this is a completely raw and unfettered, whole grain Burmese sonic assault. In other words: it's absolutely manic! At its most insane, it's akin to taking your standard off the wall Bollywood arrangement and running it through a prog rock or free jazz filter. Nasal double reed instruments parallel vocal lines, clashing cymbals emphasize every beat, while the pat wain (a set of rice paste tuned drums which encircle the performer) smacks out its own melody like a set of out of tune roto-toms. On the mellower side of things there's strange hallucinogenic Appalachia featuring sudden bursts of piano, interjecting banjo, violin, flute, horn and most oddly: sultry female vocals offset by distorted male vocals. There's also hazy semi-Hawaiian psychedelia, with piano and keyboards pounding out the occasional random chord progression. If you have to chose just one record to blow your mind this year, definitely make it this one!
The latest Euro-dance burners from beardo Swedes Prins Thomas and his often collaborator Lindstrom have been pretty popular around here, and riding fast on the tail of their Reinterpretations album, we get this two disc mix from Prins Thomas that shows he's as good a compiler as he is producer. Featuring all kinds of unusual choices and sequences from bands we know and don't know in just about equal measure including Joe Meek, Holger Czukay. Hawkwind, Zombi, Boards Of Canada, Lindstrom, The Electric South (featuring Bob Lind), Glissandro 70, Bob James, Metalchicks, and Parliament among many many others. Keeping a proggy cosmic disco vibe that varies in pace but not in momentum, this is great for those long lit hot summer nights. Awesome!
Si Begg, Khan, DJ Cam, Panasonic's Mika Vainio, and others both contribute tracks to this compilation, and "describe the musical process beind the creation of their tracks" in the booklet.
Man, is Andy Votel our favorite DJ/mix complier or what?? (With Garreth Goddard/Cherrystones running a close second.) Obviously, Votel's got the record collection we wish we had... or are working on, but he's got the original LPs and 45s and we've just got the cd reissues. Anyway, his love of '60s and '70s obscure, international prog/psych/folk/funk is right up our alley. The Votel comps we've listed include AQ Record Of The Week honoree Vertigo Mixed, the amazing Welsh Rare Beat disc, and the Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word collection. Now here's the follow-up to that one, eagerly awaited 'round these parts, Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word. And you know how we love prog!
Though, Votel's definition of "prog" or "progressive rock" is deliberately loosey-goosey. Indeed, he pretty much wants to leave out what most people would consider prog -- famous bands like Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Mike Oldfield, Genesis, and their imitators... Not that we were expecting any of those to appear here, but we thought maybe Gnidrolog or Osanna might show up, or Magma or Le Orme. However, Votel's agenda is about the grooves, with a helping of fuzz, and the exotic weirdness factor of foreign-language vocals and ethnic influences too... the sometimes pretentious intellectual/conceptual aspects of prog aren't what is being celebrated here, nor symphonics or narrative suites or virtuoso keyboard solos or caped outfits... though we're sure Votel digs all that too. But this is more about tracks that are freaky and avantgarde yet rhythmic and hooky enough to be a DJ's hidden weapon. What you get here is some really obscure stuff from around the globe that *might* be "prog" rock (it's certainly not "regular" rock!), dating from 1969-1978, more or less prog's heyday. Pretty much the most prog-identified band on here is Britain's Egg (who are even featured doing a classical styled piece, "Fugue In D Minor"). They're in the company of a crazy crew of artists from the Continent and further afield, some we've heard of and many we haven't. Among the names we know, there's Jean-Claude Vannier (with a track from the amazing L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches recently reissued and reviewed here last year), Bran from Wales (who also appear, with a different track, on Welsh Rare Beat), Poland's Breakout (who also were on the Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word comp), Krautrock jazz fusion act Embryo, Korea's wonderful San Ul Lim, Baris Manco and 3 Hur-el from Turkey (the latter with one of the best Turkish psych tracks EVER, "Omur Bitter Yol Bimez" from their Hurel Arsivi album), and France's Phillipe Bescombes. But we confess we'd never heard of Italy's Picchio Dal Pozzo, Poland's fierce and fuzzy Czerwone Gitary, or Yugoslavia's Drugi Nacin before, among others on here that leave us wanting to hear, and know, more! There are fairly informative liner notes, though, which is always appreciated. And album covers too! Recommended, 'specially if you're already a fan of the several comps of Votel's that we alluded to above, and the Cherrystones Rocks one, and the best Love, Peace & Poetry volumes and so forth...
The second of two new releases in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding catalogue of 'world music'. The first, reviewed elsewhere on this list, is the wild Latin American psych rock vinyl sampler Latinamericarpet, one of the weirdest and wildest in the series so far. But this one is pretty weird and wild as well, but in a completely different way, though it's also Latin American.
Remember those Rio Baile Funk comps we reviewed a while back, killer mashups of Miami Bass, new wave, techno, top 40, all wrapped up into super dense and wild sexy dancefloor freakouts? Well this is similar in that this too is the music of the favelas, and features some of the same elements, but unlike the jubilant party vibe of the Rio Baile Funk stuff, this is much more stripped down, much more intense, and aggressive, and is closely linked to criminals, drugs, gangs, murder and mayhem.
Proibidao is the name given to an electronic funk which grew in popularity alongside the blossoming drug gangs in the nineties. The music is basically a stripped down Miami bass style rhythm, mesmerizing and tribal, there are not really any parts, just the drums looped over and over, while MC's and vocalists improvise over the top, toasting, howling, crooning, shouting, singing. Gang leaders set up big parties, hire DJ's and MC's do their thing, the tracks are often recorded and distributed as cd-r's or MP3's...
On first listen, we actually weren't all that into this, it just sounds like super simple stripped down electronic music with way too intense vocals over the top, but the closer you listen, the more you can hear traditional Brazilian musics incorporated into the jams, the sound becomes more and more musical, more powerful, on some tracks you can hear massive crowds responding with call and response vocals, there are lots of sirens, machine gun sounds, the rhythms are WAY down in the mix, offering up the simplest of frameworks for the sweatsoaked distorted vocals. And it IS all about the vocals, strident and urgent, intense and passionate, so much so that a lot of the time it ends up sounding almost like a Rio Baile Funk Fugazi!
Repetitive, hypnotic, stripped down and funky, but at the same time, dark and dangerous, mysterious and really intense and aggressive. Not necessarily recommended for your next dance party (unless there's something we don't know about your dance parties), but recommended nonetheless.
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The 10" vinyl came out on UK's Earworm and here's the cd version of this all-star spacerock jam session that occured at last year's Terrastock festival in Providence, RI. You've got members of Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond, Windy & Carl, and Azusa Plane doing what they know how to do so well.
The psych rock maven appropriately known as The Psychomaniac is back with another killer comp, one of the best we've heard from his comp-happy label in fact. Super groovy, super fuzzy, super psychedelic!! First off, though, you might be wondering, what happened to Psych Bites Volume One? Why start with the second volume in the series? Well there indeed is a Volume One, and it's probably very cool, but we haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Also that one's entirely devoted to Australian bands, so this new, geographically unfettered volume isn't precisely a sequel to the first. We'd like to review vol.1 too, but for the moment prefer to direct your attention to this disc, which has SO MUCH GOOD STUFF on it, it's kinda ridiculous. Stuff that, when you hear it, you'll be wondering, why haven't I heard this before? (Maybe you have, we knew a few of these tracks, but there's twenty of 'em here, so not to worry.) Recorded circa 1968-1974, with 1970 most heavily represented, and from all over the world, England, Germany (West -and- East), Holland, USA, Quebec, all the way to Nigeria, the unifying factor being only that these tracks are obscure classics to the max. And full of fuzz, let's not forget.
Let's touch on a few of the many highlights. The disc begins with a band with the bizarre name of Zappatta Schmidt, doing a horn-fueled, sweat-soaked, funky-drummed groover called "Someone In The Crowd" that's like if Otis Redding showed up on that old Chains and Black Exhaust comp... badass! That's followed by "Tomorrow Night", performed by the hopefully-named Chartbusters, more ye olde "hairy funk" with jamming organ, which might sound familiar though 'cause it's an Atomic Rooster cover, and a good one. We can't skip Spencer Mac's "Blues Up In Downtown", which keeps the party goin'. And that's followed by Milwaukee's Motown signings the Messengers telling us what it's like "In The Jungle"... good grief, we're mentioning ALL the tracks so far. Well, here's a few further highlights, though it's hard to choose, as you can see...
Gotta mention the kuriously monikered Kannibal Komix (aka Die Anderen) who offer up their klassic "Neurotic Reaction", which sounds like a cross between something by The Count Five and The Sweet, part freakbeat, part proto-glam, all unhinged and awesome. Heard it before on another comp or two, but always kool to hear it again. Another one we already knew was Ofo The Black Company's Afro-funk fuzz bomb "Allah Wakkbar" from '72 (a standout on the Love's A Real Thing comp from Luaka Bop, and also heard on Afrostrut's Nigeria 70 collection). But what's neat is that the almost as freaky flipside to that single, "Beautiful Daddy", is also included here too, new to us! (This disc also includes more Afro-rock from London-based Danta.) Madeline Chartrand's mesmeric "Ani-Kuni" we know we've heard somewhere before, as well, but can't remember where, so glad to have it here. Tranced out Native American chant meets space age psych, with some electric sitar thrown in for good measure. A treasure.
What else? There's the swinging sixties freakouts of Blackbirds 2000's "Let's Do It Together" and Janie's "Psycho", the latter being the sort of get everyone in the studio and get high and see what funny things wind up on the tape party that Kim Fowley was partial to, too. Oh, and this disc also provides a healthy dose of krautrockers: Frumpy, Krokodil, Orange Peel, and the prae-kraut pandaemonium of The Rattles. All good stuff. And the cd booklet provides notes on everything, plus full color graphix.
So, if you have been digging the comps done by the B-Music crew, or Psychic Circle, or similar various artists international fuzz-psych collections like Obsession, Neurotic Reaction, Cherrystone's Rocks, the best of those Electric Asylum comps (also put together by ol' Psychomaniac), etc., etc. then this is for you!
Looking at the cover of this comp, what catches our eye? Well, of course the words PSYCH and FUNK in big electric pink letters. Pretty much had us right there, we're easy like that. But then the fine print on the sticker on the front adds an extra tingle of excitement: "None of these tracks have ever been reissued"! So what we have here is a survey course on some obscure shit, an international collection of freaky, fuzzy, funky jams from the golden years, circa 1968-1975 or so, mostly from groups we'd never heard of before. The ones did know were a good sign, being super groovy and decidedly eccentric. (Though we do have to point out that at least a few of the cuts here actually have been reissued before, that's how we knew 'em!). Here's the lineup: Hunsu Ozkartal Orkestrasi (Turkey), Kukumbas (Nigeria), Mulatu Astatke feat. Belaynesh Wubante and Assegedetch Asfaw (Ethiopia), Kim Sun (South Korea), Petalouda (Greece), Mehr Pooya (Iran), Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona (West Germany), The Group (Italy), Armando Sciascia (Italy), Wadih Essafi (Lebanon), Omar Khorshid (Egypt), Metin H. Alatli (Turkey), George Garanian with The Melodiya Jazz Ensemble (Russia), and Eskaton (France). 14 tracks in all, all of 'em b to the a to the d to the ass. Get ready for plenty of percolating percussion, infectious bass lines, analog synth buzz, chicken scratch guitar, greasy organ, drugged out FX, and in many cases Middle Eastern or African or other 'exotic' ethnic elements as appropriate to their nation of origin. Highlights are almost impossible to pick. All the African stuff is killer (Ethiopiques fans take note), so are the Turkish tracks (you want weird? check out how the Metin H. Alatli cut somehow segues from Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith music to stoned cocktail bellydance improv!!), so is everything else. We dig how eerieness and jazziness are combined on "The Feed-back" by The Group (aka Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, featuring Ennio Morricone), and also Armando Sciascia's suspenseful "Circuito Chiuso" is pretty eerie too. Both are from Italy, where it seems that it's hard NOT to sound like you're scoring a phantasmagoric horror flick a la Goblin. Also, we love love love the grandiose extended electro-funk from Magmoid progsters Eskaton that closes out the disc. But why keep writing about this, you know you need it - unless your record collection already includes all these rarities, and there's no way it does.
Lovingly compiled with the help of DJs like Cut Chemist and Stone's Throw's Egon, Psych Funk 101 is truly a lesson in, well, a variety of awesome vintage funkiness, in the tradition of other cool comps like Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Obsession, Trap Door, and the Afro-centric Love's A Real Thing. Housed in a handsome digipack, it boasts a thick, 36 page booklet featuring a two-page spread on each track, with full color repro of the original LP or 45 sleeve from whence the cut originated, along with a page of text giving more info than you'd expect.
FYI this also came out on vinyl, but was gone so fast, we don't have any to list. However, we are told it is being repressed, soon we hope...
Psych. Funk. India. The '70s. Yes it's gonna be awesome. Sitars and Bollywood stars, badass grooves and acid rock guitars. This excellent new collection comes from the same folks (deeeeeeep diggers they are) who brought us that incredible international Psych Funk 101 comp a while back. They are EXPERTS. It's not entirely a joke that they present these comps in the guise of academic coursework, their research is extensive and if you pay attention you're gonna learn somethin'. According to the liner notes, Psych Funk 101 is considered a pre-requisite to this new "seminar", which is subtitled "Aesthetic Expressions Of Psychedelic Funk Music In India". Fortunately they don't carry the academic gag too far, and keep grad school jargon to an amusing minimum. (By the way, if you don't have Psych Funk 101, well, we figure you can still audit this course... though we DO recommend picking that one up too).
So, what's this Sa-Re-Ga! all about? 20 tracks, all killer no filler, circa 1970-1983, that showcase several "key figures / movements in Indian Psych Funk", from the garagey late '60s Sgt. Peppery stuff you'd expect from a former British colony (and from anywhere else in the world the Beatles had made their way), to the work of genius Bollywood composer R.D. Burman (and his eventual wife, the famous singer Asha Bhosle), to the Go-Go stylings of brothers Kalyanji Aalyanji Anandji, to hard rock bassist Keith Kanga's "wild beat group" Atomic Forest and related acts. Much information is provided about all of those artists and more in what must be the BIGGEST damn cd booklet we've ever seen. 52 pages!! The digipack sleeve can barely contain it. Packed with tons of dazzling full color graphics and learned text. Totally gettin' your money's worth with this one. (It's packaged like the Forge Your Own Chains comp, equally fat and deluxe.)
But even without the frills, just the music alone would make this a must. You can't listen to this without getting a gleeful smile on your face, from the get-go it's great and then somehow each song manages to top the one before it, with insistent propulsive percussion, bombastic orchestration, impassioned vocals, musique concrete techniques, and indeed some heavy, Hindi, FUNK. We're having trouble picking individual tracks to single out, only because they're ALL so good. But we gotta mention just a few of the super standouts, one of 'em being a live version of the classic "Dum Maro Dum" performed Bhosle and Burman and band at the Royal Albert Hall in 1978. That's a song you've heard before, most likely (the Kronos Quartet even recorded it, on their 2005 album with Bhosle), and it helps to realize that not only does a lot of the music on this disc seem like it oughtta be the most popular stuff in the world, in many cases, it really was quite popular, and not just in India. This rendition of "Dum Maro Dum", which means "Take Another Toke" by the way, was their concert's deliriously ecstatic, well-received finale. Then there's "Freak Out Music", another R.D. Burman number, that couldn't have been a hit, but is certainly Freaked Out. (And it's not even the one here by him that combines the sounds of strings with that of smashing glass.)
We also were excited to hear more from Atomic Forest, a band that provided the title track to the great international fuzz compilation Obsession a few years back (now out of print). They do a cover of a Deep Purple tune, "Mary Long", and of course laden it with extra fuzz. Another one for classic rock fans would be Bappi Lahari's "Everybody Dance With Me", which sounds suspiciously like Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" given an exotic Indian disco makeover, with bongos and wild wails... And, conversely, as an early example of Indian groove filtering into the West, the compilers have included a track by krautrocker/fusioneer Klaus Doldinger, "Sitar Beat", which is indeed just that, and must have been a highlight of the 1969 spy movie soundtrack on which it originally appeared. Which is interesting, 'cause the entry by Indian garage band X'Lents, "Psychedelia", originally from the Simla Beat 70 compilation, sounds like it would be perfect for a James Bond style spy movie too.
So, in sum, quite a lesson, and definitely a fun one. We'd go so far as to say this should be a required course/comp. We've been lucky lately with the quality of comps and other archival releases coming out, documenting vintage music from (for us) far off lands. We recently made the Soundway's The Sounds Of Siam a Record Of The Week, now this Sa-Re-Ga! is making us so happy... and we've got our eye on an upcoming Now-Again comp devoted to '70s Indonesian rock and funk, called Those Shocking Shaking Days, we've got high hopes for that one, it promises to be rad too. The vaguely connected network of collectors and DJs who are responsible for these comps, true labors of love, deserve all our thanks!!
As we said, the compact disc version boasts a massively thick booklet, and the swank double vinyl comes with a large 20 page one too.
Another modern day Christmas comp featuring some psych heavies, many of them aQ favorites, including Dead Meadow. Psychic Ills, The Cosmonauts, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Sleepy Sun, Elephant Stone, The Movements, Iggy Pop and many more. Get it while you can still stomach Christmas tunes!
Subtitled: Heavy Underground (1967-71). Some great, late '60s heavy garage psych stuff here. Yep, another compilation of obscure bands from before you were born or at least before you were buying records. And even if you were buying records back then, chances are you didn't ever pick up any of these, tracks from obscure bands released on obscure 7" singles on obscure labels from obscure places, from Peru to Malibu! And amazingly, these dozen tracks really are all pretty darn killer, no filler. Seriously, We've been listening to this pretty much non-stop since we got it in. Like it says, this is heavy, but in that '60s way -- not really proto-metal but rather psych-pop garage rock jams turned up and turned on, folks gettin' a little freaky with the volume and the effects and the sonic psychedelic drug explorations. Lotsa FUZZ of course, that's a major ingredient.
Here's who's here: Blackrock, Sound Machine, Yesterday's Obsession, Mastermind, Sangre Mexicana, Bhagavad Gita, Protein Bros, Purple Canteen, Los Nuevos Shains, Blow Mind, and Dirty Filthy Mud. It's hard to pick faves, though the B-side of the single by Oakland California's Dirty Filthy Mud, "Forest Of Black" from 1967 is pretty much worth the price of admission all by itself if you're into ye olde heaviness like we are! All in all an excellent comp for the psychedelic minded, a bunch of great-sounding tracks we'd never heard before with a decent helping of vintage graphics and liner notes about each act in the cd booklet.
Two of our favorite words! (Though we normally spell Phinland, Finland.) The current Finnish psych
phenomenon -- Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Kiila, etc. etc. is of course a major AQ obsession. As is vintage psych from, well, heck just about anywhere, but certainly Scandinavia. So this double-disc compilation, subtitled "Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974" has got us all excited. There's 29 tracks from almost as many artists, a fantastic trip into the early daze of the Finnish freak-scene. Perhaps another good subtitle would have been: "When Drugs Came To Finland". There's even a few songs about marijuana to set the mood, starting off disc one. But Psychedelic Phinland is just as political, and parodic, and perverse as it is potheaded. There's plenty of Flower Power pop and/or fuzzed-out blues rock, but you'll also find jazz-damaged prog and mystic folk, revolutionary theatre and electronic insanity. There's so much here, we can't mention it all, but look out for heavy psych jammers Baby Grandmothers, "rocking lavatory anarchists" Suomen Talvisota 1939-40, and progrock pioneers Wigwam... then there's there's Eastern-inflected psych-folk from Pekka Streng and the Yippie ranting of Markku Uto...
And then on disc two things get REALLY weird. Yeah this one's even further out, crossing over a bit into "Arktinen Hysteria" territory (you maybe remember, that great collection of early Finnish avant-weirdness from a while back, also released by Love Records). It starts off innocently enough with our new favorite band(name), Those Lovely Hula Hands. Really, that's their name, and they included several 13 and 14 year old sisters playing violins and recorders, singing gently amidst tape-recorded bird-twitter... a song about Tarzan! Then we hear from Pekka Airaksinen and also his band The Sperm, doing extended feedback and tape music experiments. We remember The Sperm from that Arktinen comp and had wanted to hear more. Later on, there's some wonderfully primitive, ceremonial hippy jamming, particularly from a band called Sikiot, who have a krautrockish vibe like Siloah or Amon Duul. And there's plenty more, some other names of note on these cds include J.O. Mallander, Charlies, Topmost, Juice Leskinen & Coitus Int, Apollo, Blues Section, Hector & Oscar, and Kruunuhaan Dynamo...
All of this is pretty much totally obscure, in fact a lot of it consists of previously unissued archival recordings from the vaults of Finland's Love label and other sources... A true labor of Love. Comes with a twenty page, full color cd booklet with English-language notes on each track and tons of cool old photos and graphics.
Recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Since the beginning of the Century, there has been a growing community of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii. These recordings made in 1990, reflect their unique niche. At times, the music is archaic in comparison to mainland Puerto Rican music, yet is spiced with influences from both Hawaiian and Japanese neighbors.
FINNISH WEIRD MUSIC OBSESSIVES will not want to pass this up. The strangely named Puistokiitajainen compilation collects haunting and lovely, mostly acoustic tracks from another circle of the Finnish music underground that we have seemingly barely scratched the surface of. Not a single band name we recognize: Adolf Hiller, Amigo Result, Krax Orchestra, Parta & Viikset, Esko Mrk, Tomi, Pulkkinen, Monuments In The Horizon, Jump P.A. And The Guitar That Wasn't Mine, Kanttoripoika, Stories, Jan-Erik & His Band Of Banjos, Neljakakkonen, but we're willing to wager at least a few name we know might be involved. But it hardly matters, every track here is a gem. Dark and folky, detuned and deconstructed, dreamy and drifting. acoustic guitars crumble and drift, wrapped in dense swaths of tape hiss, harmoniums and accordions wheeze out old timey ambience, metallic percussion and random clinks and clatters shimmer way down in the mix, whirring stretches of tinkling ambience butt up against birdlike FX and looped angular guitar, field recordings, and tiny tangles of warm dreamlike strum, each track totally unique, but somehow sonically linked to each other, like a strange sampling of the long lost works of some recently unearthed alien Appalachia, all muted twang and abstract ambience. So nice. ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
Our pal Stan at Aether Records put together this comp of modern-day psychedelic bands paying tribute to the psych greats of the past. Like most comps, it's got its winners and losers, but the concept works out pretty well, and it makes for a good introduction to both the contemporary acts doing the cover versions and the '60s/'70s era artists being covered, who range from Woodstock-era big shots to obscure artists mainly known today only to psychedelic record collector freaks, here's some of 'em: The Doors, The Stones, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Pretty Things, The Fox, Apple, The Syn, Linda Perhacs, The Churchills, The Incredible String Band... Meanwhile, the international array of artists doing the covers are *definitely* obscure, with the best-known to AQ customers probably being the Bevis Frond, P.G. Six (doing the ISB cover of course!), Abunai!, and SF's own Mushroom. Then there's Israel's psych-popsters Rockfour (who tackle a track by Israel's premiere '60s psych export, The Churchills), Japan's Kaminumada Yohji (whose 'cover' of AQ-fave UK pagan weirdos Comus is actually more of an improvisatory interpretation inspired by Comus, sorry to say) and ten others, some of which Terrastock types will doubtless recognize. Fortunately, Stan provides plenty of background in his detailed liner notes on every band/track. Generally you can't tell past from present with these covers, one exception being female-fronted LA duo Senseri who start things off with what's maybe a too modern-sounding (and cheesy) take on The Doors' "Peace Frog". After that though you're totally in the realm of retro nirvana though, geared towards fans of the genre. Of course fans will have their own ideas of what bands shoulda been on here (both old and new)...
MPEG Download: BEVIS FROND "Grounded" [/audio/pgsixmynameis.mp3]
MPEG Stream: BEVIS FROND "Grounded" [/audio/pgsixmynameis.m3u]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Sanity Muffin cassette label just keeps bringing out the gems. This one is a fantastic mix of obscure psych guitar gems from Asia from the '60s and '70s. From cinematic Spaghetti Western-ish sojourns to go-go pop, electric guitar weirdness, pastoral exoticism and funky eastern soul. Like the Teenage Dance Music from China, Indonesian guitar, Shadow Music of Thailand and Cambodian Rock comps, this is an incredible mix of little heard guitar driven music coming out of various Asian countries. Here are the groups included: The Red Stars, Cousen Brothers, M. Shariff and The Zurah, Salim I., The Caterpillars, Adnan Othman & The Wanderers, The Tones, The Steps, Jong-Yee Sho, The Hawks, M. Johari & Quandos, TLA Production Group, Mei Fong W/ Tony & The Polar Bear Five, Charlie and The White Cloud Orchestra, Group 123, and Apollo Band.
Super limited to 100 copies! Get it while you can!
Okay, whose w-a-c-k-y idea was this??? Today's "punk" bands take aim at today's top 40 hitmakers. On the "punk" team? Dynamite Boy, Stretch Arm Strong, Noise Ratchet, Nicotine, Reach The Sky and a dozen more. Some of their targets? Destiny's Child ("Survivor"), Pink ("Get This Party Started"), J. Lo (I'm Real"), Britney Spears ("...Baby One More Time") and the
FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER! FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER!
Holy shit does this look amazing. 4 cd's, 132 songs, 78 bands, 5 hours of classic FINNISH PUNK! Comes with a massive 76 page booklet (probably in Finnish though, but bet there are lots of pictures!). We don't have this in stock, nor have we even seen one, but we freaked out when we found out about this and thought you might too. We hardly know any of the bands, Terveet Kadet, Radiopuhelimet, a few others, but considering how much we dig those bands, and Finnish music in general, this seemed pretty amazing. They are a bit pricey, so we're only gonna get as many as we get orders for, so think long and hard, if you want one, add it to your cart, and we'll have one for you in the next few weeks, hopefully. Needless to say, this is a pre-order, so whatever else you order will NOT be held for these, we can ship your Finnish punk box on its own when it arrives, or with your next order. And if you weren't already convinced, have a gander at all the cool-sounding acts/songs on the track list:
CD 1:
1. Briard: I Really Hate Ya
2. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Olen tyoton
3. Eppu Normaali: Poliisi pamputtaa taas
4. Problems?: Ei taa lama p��h�n k�y
5. Pelle Miljoona: Lahdetaan kiitamaan
6. Se: Ei asfaltti liiku�
7. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Vakivalta ja paihdeongelma
8. Eppu Normaali: Nipa�
9. Maukka & Nahkatakit: Tahdon sotaa apatiaa vastaan
10. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Pelkistettya todellisuutta
11. Problems?: Tapan aikaa
12. Ratsia: Lontoon skidit
13. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Sapinaa�
14. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Mulla menee lujaa�
15. Eppu Normaali: Mekin tehtiin rakkautta
16. Ratsia: Ole hyva nyt�
17. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Nuoret sankarit �
18. Ratsia: Tama hetki ja tulevaisuus
19. Hassisen Kone: Muoviruusuja omenapuissa
20. Problems?: Katupoikien laulu�
21. Hassisen Kone: Hassisen Kone�
22. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Viesti�
23. Problems?: Maanantaina
24. Ratsia: Taalta tulee yo �
25. Hassisen Kone: Rappiolla �
26. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Moottoritie on kuuma�
CD 2:
1. Kollaa Kestaa: Musti sotakoira�
2. Sehr Schnell: Orja� �
3. Ypo-5: Energia on A ja O �
4. Briard: Fuck The Army
5. Sehr Schnell: 18 v.v.k
6. Karanteeni: Kaljupainen gangsteri
7. Sensuuri: Kirjoitan seinaan
8. Sehr Schnell: Vaihda vapaalle � ��
9. Kollaa Kestaa: Kirjoituksia kellarista
10. Loose Prick: Mua potkitaan paahan
11. Sehr Schnell: Neuroottiset pohkeet �
12. Ypo-5: Mari pogoaa �
13. Widows: Famous Five �
14. Briard: Miss World �
15. Karanteeni: Sid Vicious �
16. Vaavi: Mihin jai punk? �
17. Vandaalit: Ala pilaa nuoruuttasi
18. Ypo-5: Kaupunki muistaa nuoria
19. Karanteeni: Ei ole meilla mitaan paikkaa �
20. Sensuuri: Kaupunki nukkuu��
21. Widows: Wall Of Berlin �
22. Loose Prick: Kaupunki elamaa �
23. Kollaa Kestaa: Jaahyvaiset aseille�
24. Vaavi: Tytot hymyilee �
25. Kadotetut: Anna syd�mesi �
26. Vaavi: Rakkauden orjat ��
27. Widows: We�re Comin�
28. Sensuuri: Hengissa lapi Helsingin
29. Vandaalit: Betonikolossit � �
30. Fucking World: Human Rights
31. Kadotetut: Hiljaiset kyyneleet
CD 3:
1. Lama: Totuus loytyy kaurapuurosta
2. Rattus: Muotipunk
3. Terveet Kadet: Vapaa Pohjola�
4. Lama: Nimeton
5. Kohu-63: Paavola � � �
6. Terveet Kadet: Mull on liian lyhyt sanky
7. Kaaos: Kytat on natsisikoja �
8. Cadgers: Kaaosta taa maa kaipaa�
9. Appendix: Ei raha oo mun valuuttaa
10. Rattus: Rajoitettu ydinsota � �
11. Bastards: World Burns To Death
12. Terveet Kadet: Tornion kevat �
13. Riistetyt: Poliisivaltio �
14. Lama: Penisten vapautusrintama�
15. Maho Neitsyt: Ne ei myyneet mulle viinaa �
16. Kohu-63: Kaatakaa rauhanjuna �
17. Riistetyt: Ala luota systeemiin
18. Nato: Helsingin yot
19. Antikeho: Suomi -83 �
20. Maho Neitsyt: Mika mun paassa nykii �
21. Dachau: Huomenna haudassa
22. Lama: Ajatuksen loppu �
23. Unicef: Kakimassaa �
24. Kaaos: Mellakka � �
25. Destrucktions: Hinta�
26. Tampere SS: Painajainen olohuoneessa � �
27. Riistetyt: Systeemi tappaa �
28. Fucking Finland: Loputon sota� �
29. Marionetti: Palvele valtioo �
30. Terveet Kadet: Jeesus perkele �
31. Appendix: Huora � �
32. Bastards: Jumalan sotilaat���
33. HIC Systeemi: Ei ikina �
34. Kansan Uutiset: Koira on parempi kuin poliisi �
35. Aivoproteesi: Porojen maa �
36. Klimax: Suvivirsi � �
37. Varaus: Syyllinen �
38. Riistetyt: Bella Ciao �
39. Vaurio: Musta unelma �
40. Maho Neitsyt: Ei tippa tapa � �
41. Kansan Uutiset: Ankee aamu
42. Mellakka: Kiitollinen kansalainen � �
43. Pyhakoulu: Sa keinut �
44. KTMK: Kalinka� � �
45. Euthanasia: CCCP (Stalishnaja Hojo)
46. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus: Verenkuva � �
47. Radiopuhelimet: Saalimattoman ovela mies� �
48. CMX: Lapsi � �
CD 4:
1. Popeda: Erkki ja Leena
2. Se: Tulitikkutytto � � �
3. Vihan Muna: Terasmies �
4. Wrum: Takapihojen rocktahdet
5. Hellhound: Pakoon neonarmeijaa �
6. Raime: Ottaa paahan �
7. Paat: Jet set � � �
8. Tinneri: Mustavalkoinen maailma
9. Sig: Lauantaina � �
10. Se: Punk on typeraa �
11. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Kun sa tuomitset mut
12. Paat: Rotat �
13. Hymy Taskinen & co: Hei, tytto, hei! �
14. Korroosio: Hei hei hei � �
15. Rattlers: Vaahtopaat�
16. Lola Ego: Kaupungin tytto �
17. Xtaasi: Er�s lauantaiyo �
18. Woude: Vanhat pierut
19. TV:n Orjat: Tavallinen ihminen � �
20. Vau!!: Yo asematunnelin keskitysleiriss� � �
21. Hurskas: Isanmaa huumaa �
22. 000: Silminnakija
23. Teurastamo 5: Elavia ruumiita �
24. 013: En jaksa enaa �
25. 000: Tanaan taalla, huomenna poissa� � �
26. Ne Luumaet: Sam pani kai jotain juomaani
27. Reds: Sydamenmurskaajat �
A quick look at the list of the bands on this DVD is all it should take. GBH, Angelic Upstarts, Adicts, UK Subs, Mau Maus, Exploited, Johnny Thunders, Lurkers, Eater, Vibrators, Peter And The Test Tube Babies and so many more. TOTALLY essential. Culled from an extensive video archive compiled by an independent video company who spent the eighties driving a van around the UK filming show after show and releasing them on video. This is a sort of a best of compiled from all of those videos and holy shit this stuff is amazing. All of the above mentioned bands totally destroy, and it's the first time we've seen lots of those bands live. Worth it for the GBH and Adicts footage alone! Plus there are tons of bands we've never even heard of who are just as cool: One Way System, Burial, Outl4w, Destructors, Urban Dogs, XPOZEZ, Dead Mans Shadow and even a handful of second wave punk rock bands like Red Alert, Menace, Business, Lurkers and more. Fuck yeah! Mohawks and liberty spikes and more spiked leather than the Folsom Street Fair!!!
Not a collection of Morrissey remixes, or covers as one might expect from the title (or if they are, they sure did a good job disguising them), but a collection of electronica artists new and old to the Morr label out of Germany. Stressing the closeness of these artists, who keep contact via phone and online (exchanging audio files), in their one sheet, this affinity is borne out in the overall sound of this comp. Lots of pleasant electronica in the vein of Boards Of Canada, or the down tempo melodious side of Autechre. Includes tracks by The Notwist, Arovane, Tied & Tickled Trio, Schneider tm, Flowchart and much more.
Yet another incredible comp from the fine folks at Dust-To-Digital, after two recent aQ faves, the Luk Thung collection of obscure Thai 78's, and the Kassidat compilation of rare, raw 45's from Morocco. Well if you dug those, you're gonna want this one too, another collection of rare 45's, this time from Yemen, a handful of singles released in the sixties and seventies, documenting a sound and music that has historically remained immune from Western influence, and thus offers a true glimpse into the lives of the Yemeni people, and gives Westerners perhaps one of their first glimpses of Yemeni music. And as you might imagine, it's pretty magical, lots of oud, a buzzing guitar like instrument, that's rich and resonant, accompanied by fantastically expressive and emotional vocals, laid back and weary on some tracks, effusive and wild on others, some call and response, accompanied occasionally by simple percussion, handclaps, one track forsakes the oud completely and instead lays down an amazing percussive backdrop, all clattery and clangy and metallic, a shimmery pulsing field of hypnotic metal, over which some of the most beautiful vocals soar and swirl. The whole collection is stunning, by turns mysterious, intimate, playful, passionate and completely mesmerizing.
As always, the packaging is top notch, tons of photos, and extensive liner notes, on the region, the history, the songs and the musicians.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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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.
Another document of Finnish music weirdness featuring a handful of aQ favorites, CIRCLE, in the form of their more sinister side project Rakhim, as well as Finnish cd-r darlings KuuPuu and LauNau. We won't go into too much detail as these are super expensive and we only got 15 or so...
Circle team up with Hans Joachim Irmler from Krautrock legends Faust, for a sidelong heavy percussion jam. The track begins with someone on the kit, busting out some wild fills that eventually coalesce into rhythms, while beneath the drumming is a constant low level clatter of tinkling chimes, muted hand drums, bits of percussive thump and rattle, sometimes whipped up into little flurries of subtle tribalism, but just as often allowed to just shuffle and drift. Part way through washes of muted looped guitar strum surface, accompanied by strange, heavily effected cookie monster vocals, all beneath thick swaths of droning chordal whir. The vocals continue to grunt and growl over an increasingly frenetic percussive backdrop, until everything stumbles to a halt.
The B side features Lau Nau and KuuPuu teamed up with someone called Lauhkeat Lampaat for a double boy/girl free jam, the results are as percussive as the other side, just more abstract, and less propulsive. The vibe is very NNCK or Sunburned Hand, Jew's harp, swirls of video game FX, strange chirping vocals, scraped steel strings, clattery percussion, fragmented melodies, peppered with brief bursts of frenzied drumming, wheezing kazoos, lots of woodblock, disembodied ghostlike vocals, all wound up into a chaotic finale, a wild forest faerie drum circle.
SUPER LIMITED, so much so that we probably can't get more, in a gorgeous blue tinted reindeer-and-snow sleeve, pressed on thick marbled blue vinyl...
So stoked to have this awesome collection back in print!
Here's an interesting collection. Put together by Robert Crumb, at the behest of his wife Aline, from his personal collection of 78's. The collection moves across the globe by continent, starting in Louisiana, USA moving south through Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America; then touching down in Europe (Spain, Sicily, Greece and Turkey), moving south through Africa, on to India and South East Asia (Burma & Vietnam), and finally resting in the South Pacific. Most of the recordings come from the 30's (with a few from as early as 1927 and as recent as 1950) and are quite likely to be tracks you've never heard before in your life. Some artists, like Greek singer Rita Abadzi, first lady of Cajun Cleoma Falcon and Norteno musician Lidya Mendoza are well known, and have plenty of recordings assuring their place in history. But of much of the others on this disc, very little is known. In a typically erudite, but self deprecating and witty form that is unique to himself, Robert Crumb leads us through his recordings armed with what little knowledge he's been able to glean about each performer (mostly from the internet and, Crumb insists, with the help of others who understand such modern technology).
How we love Rock Is Hell! This Austrian label has given us some seriously damaged and dementedly genius jams over the last few years. A list of some of our Rock Is Hell faves should say it all: Thee Oh Sees, Burmese, Dig That Body Up It's Alive, Total Shutdown, Octis, Nate Denver's Neck, XBXRX, Ocrilim, Reflector, Mark Deutrom, Shit And Shine and so many more! And as if that weren't enough, all the Rock is Hell releases are gorgeously packaged, usually in super swank hand screened sleeves or deluxe limited boxes.
So Rock is hell turns 50, not years old, but FIFTY RELEASES!! And what better way to celebrate than by releasing a super limited lp, with tons of super short tracks by mostly super obscure Austrian bands (to us at least), who according to Rock Is Hell are quite popular at least in Austria. On top of that, these aren't just regular tracks, as the insert explains: "This record contains loops. locked grooves, songs running inside out, find out and enjoy"! Which is exactly what this is, a dizzying collection of fractured sonic fragments and super tranced out loops, the needle moving backwards and forwards, the sounds surprisingly hypnotic and tranced out, from murky, glitchy electronics, to dirgey distortion drenched noise rock stomps, in fact while reviewing this, we'd occasionally forget these were loops and get totally lost in some killer churning riff out, or some creepy blurry drift.
That said, this record does require some work, as you either end up stuck in a single loop, or lost in the ether between loops, so this is active listening, pick up the needle and drop it anywhere, and you're treated to some mysterious noisy, rhythmic, textural weirdness, like musical Russian roulette, but with a musical bullet in every chamber!
Of all the bands we really only knew a few, aQ faves Reflector of course, Bulbul, who are super awesome, but have yet to make it onto the aQ list, and [[[ Altar:Thron ]]] whose Rock Is Hell lp from a while back as a monster. Some of the other outfits/groops/musicians/weirdos involved: NoOne, Maja Osojnik, Heimo Wallner, Lepenik, Flugfeld, Muscle Tomcat Machine, The Striggles, Tumido, Big D., The Pooka Boys, Rdeca Raketa, Hella Comet, Martin Zrost, Macaque Revue, Rokko Anal & The Coathangers, Mental Terror, Spring And The Land, Dr. Mad Fister, and we could go on. And as we mentioned before, it doesn't really matter if you know the bands are not, probably impossible to find an exact track anyway, but we spent a long time exploring the various track and loops, and they're all pretty goddamn great, a few are definitely on the pummeling side, but most are super hypnotic, be they heavy or dreamy, dense or atmospheric. A super interactive and fiendishly fun record, packed with sounds weird and wonderful. Here's to 50 more releases! Long Live ROCK IS HELL!!
LIMITED OF COURSE!!! Pressed on ultra heavy clear vinyl, and housed in a two color hand silkscreened jacket!
Between 1995 and 1997, Hrvatski and various accomplices put together a vinyl only collection of two minute electro-shock / drill 'n' bass tracks called "Attention: Cats." That homage to the short attention span has in turn been reworked into even an even
We reviewed this a while back, a mind blowing, ear destroying, super limited collection of strange sounds, noisy weirndess and fractured heaviness, all gorgeously packaged in a silk screened box with inserts and buttons and all kinds of stuff.
We discovered a small handful of these tucked away, and figured some of you may have missed out the first time around. Maybe your last chance to snag one of these....
Everyone around here is a huge fan of weirdo music label Rock Is Hell, as are most of you judging from how fast we sell out of their stuff and how quickly it all goes out of print. Pretty much everything on Rock Is Hell has blown us away, the Dig That Body Up It's Alive lp, the crazy Nate Denver's Neck etched one sided lp box set thing, the super limited Octis lathe cuts, the XbXrX / Total Shutdown double 5", all gorgeously packaged and jam packed with mind melting sounds. With that in mind we worked out a special deal with Rock Is Hell, which will give AQ customers first (and maybe only) crack at this ULTRA limited 7" box set!!!
The set is limited to only 400 copies, it was almost completely sold out on preorders, minus the 8 or 9 we just got, so this will be your last and only chance to get one of these, if you didn't already preorder one. All the records are on white vinyl with white labels, and the records are housed in a silkscreened cardboard box with an inlay and 2 buttons designed by BONGOUT (http://frre.fr.freee.frfr.e.free.fr/). And all the copies we got have the secret bonus 7"!!! Only 50 or so of those! The singles included are:
Foot Village (USA)
Z's (USA)
Sasqrotch (USA)
Child Abuse (USA)
Death Sentence: Panda! (USA) / Fugu & The Cosmic Mumu (AUT)
Bulbul (AUT)
Bug (AUT) / Reflector (AUT)
Rokko Anal (AUT)
So if you want to be one of the lucky few to own this crazy chunk of sonic and visual weirdness, click the buy button and you'll be all set! So there you go, don't blow it!!!
And remember, ROCK IS HELL!!!!! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just searcgh for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 3 INCHES OF BLOOD "Here Waits Thy Doom" (Century Media) cd 15.98 ACCUSED, THE "The Curse of Martha Splatterhead" (Southern Lord) cd 13.98 AFRICA GERMANY GERMANY MEXICO TURKEY AUSTRALIA "s/t" (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 25.00 ALTAR OF OBLIVION "Sinews Of Anguish" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98 ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN "UTP_" (Raster Norton) cd+dvd 32.00 ANTLERS, THE "Hospice" (French Kiss) cd 12.98 ARGUS "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 ASTRA "The Weirding" (Rise Above) cd 13.98 ASYLUM "The Earth Is The Insane Asylum Of The Universe" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 BEHEMOTH "Evangelion" (Metal Blade) cd 15.98 BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER "split" (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98 BIRDS OF AVALON "Uncanny Valley" (Volcom Entertainment) cd/lp 14.98/13.98 BLACK JOKER "Watch Out" (Olde English Spelling Bees) lp 21.00 BLACK SHEEP "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse 2" (Invada) 2cd/2lp 31.00/39.00 BLIND BLAKE "Bahamian Songs" (Megaphone) cd 17.98 BLK JKS "After Robots" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 CABLE "The Failed Convict" (The End) cd 12.98 CONGA DE LOS HOYOS "Carnival Music Of Easern Cuba" (World Audio Foundation / Soul Jazz) cd 17.98 COURTIS, ALAN / BRUCE RUSSELL / EDDIE PREVOST / MATTIN "The Sakada Sessions" (Azul Discographica) lp 27.00 DDAA "Action And Japanese Demonstration" (Fractal) cd 27.00 DELAY, VLADISLAV "Tummaa" (Leaf) cd 14.98 ELECTRIC PRUNES, THE "Mass In F Minor" (Reprise) lp 14.98 ESPVALL, HELENA & MASAKI BATOH "Overloaded Ark" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/21.00 ESSO TRINIDAD STEELBAND, THE "Van Dyke Parks Presents" (Bananastan) cd + dvd 16.98 FENRIZ' RED PLANET / NATTEFROST "Engansgrill" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00 FLUXION "Inductance" (Echospace) 12" 13.98 GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98 GRASS WIDOW "s/t" (Make A Mess) lp 12.98 HABOOB "s/t" (Long Hair) cd 27.00 HARBOURS "No Souvenirs" (HR) lp 14.98 HEALTH "Get Color" (Lovepump United) cd HEIMS "Worship Or Die" (Moribund Cult) cd 15.98 HOOD, ROBERT "Minimal Nation" (M-Plant) 2cd 17.98 ILL WIND "Flashes" (Sunbeam) 2cd 25.00 JAFFE, SARA & MIA CLARKE "The Art of Touring" (Square Root Books) book + cd 19.95 JANDEK "Not Hunting For Meaning" (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98 KUUPUU "Lumen Tahden" (Time-Lag) cd/lp 15.98/29.00 LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN "Sabor A Fresa" (Vampi Soul) cd 22.00 LI JIANHONG "Classic Of The Mountains And Seas" (PSF) cd 22.00 LITMUS "Aurora" (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "C'est La Derniere Chanson" (K) 2cd 13.98 MASERATI "Passages" (Temporary Residence) cd 13.98 METH TEETH "Everything Went Wrong" (Woodsist) lp 14.98 NECRONOMICON "Strange Dreams" (Garden Of Delights) cd 22.00 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART "Come Saturday" (Slumberland) 7" 3.98 PLAIN RIDE "House On The Hill" (Ektro) cd 14.98 PUMICE "Perservere" (Soft Abuse) 7" 6.98 RAVAGE "End Of Tomorrow" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 ROCKCELONA "La Bruja" (Estereo Fonico Country) cd 25.00 ROXY MUSIC "s/t" (Virgin) lp 21.00 ROYHKA JA RATTO JA LEHTISALO "Hiekkarantaa" (Ektro) cd 14.98 SARKE "Vorunah" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00 SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY "Dance With Action" (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 29.00 SINISTER REALM "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 STONE GARDEN "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 SUCH HAWKS SUCH HOUNDS (Long Song Films) dvd-r 16.98 SWASHBUCKLE "Back To The Noose" (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Archive 1" (Jinya) 5cd 95.00 TREE PEOPLE, THE "Human Voices" (Guerssen) cd 17.98 V/A "A Orillas Del Magdalena" (Domino Sound) lp 14.98 V/A "Electric Asylum Volume 3" (Past & Present) cd 17.98 V/A "La Belle Epoque" (EMI / Zonophone) cd 14.98 V/A "Songs In The Key Of Z: Volume 1 & 2" (Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98 V/A "The Midnite Sound Of The Milky Way" (Big Beat) cd 16.98 V/A "Transmissions From Sinai" (Arthur) cd 13.98 VIVIAN GIRLS "Everything Goes Wrong" (In The Red) cd 13.98 VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98 WARDRUNA "Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga" (Indie Recordings / Fimbullijod) cd 21.00 ZOMBY "Digital Flora" (Brainmath) 10" 14.98 ZOMBY "One Foot Ahead Of The Other" (Ramp) cd/2x12" 14.98/25.00 _______________________________________________________________________ Please place your order via our website. [1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings! [2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive. [ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
That's right, 500 lock grooves (250 per side!) from the likes of Sonic Youth, Terry Riley, Derek Bailey, Aube, Bruce Gilbert, Zoviet France, Otomo Yoshihide, 2000 Dying Rats, Jan St. Werner, Marcus Schmickler, His Name is Alive, Mortician, Exit-13, Today is the Day, Brighter Death Now, Soilent Green, Masonna, Id Battery, and 482 more! Hilarious and very very cool listening. Some are 2 seconds long, some run up to 10 or so. Adventurous DJs should buy this, most of us did...
Lock grooves are so cool. There are records that unwind into that perfect final moment, and then that moment is so seamlessly looped and locked, that you end up listening to it for ages before you realize that it would in fact go on for EVER. Then there's the lock grooves in the middle of songs, placed there by sonic terrorists looking to subvert the listening experience, turning their songs into sonic minefields, or obstacle courses (Billy Bao, being the most recent culprit). But there is an art to the lock groove, that brief couple seconds as the ultimate micro-composition. The musical version of Flash Fiction. Just enough time to whip up a tiny fragment, not enough to be called a song, just a SOUND, and then crafting it just so, so it plays over and over, seamlessly, sometimes blasting endlessly, sometimes locking into a stuttering rhythm. But there's the problem of what kind of person pulls out a record of lock grooves and sits back, and listens to the same 2 seconds over and over and over. Records like that either require some sort of zen bliss out, or they require active listening, constantly lifting the needle and placing it in the different grooves, sampling all the various micro-tracks. As you might imagine, we're pretty into records like this, and while it's true, they're not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination, they do offer up a strange window into sound, and music making, and in the case of this the second RRR lock groove disc, into the various permutations of NOISE.
Whereas RRR-500, now out of print, had 500 artists each offering up on groove each, RRR-1000, takes 20 artists, and let's each one deliver FIFTY grooves each. THAT'S ONE THOUSAND LOCK GROOVES ON ONE LP!! The one benefit here, is that the grooves are gathered in little bunches, which makes it easier to hear the specific artist you're looking for, although good luck finding the same track in less than 10 or 20 tries. Needless to say, this is a killer record, for folks into weird sound, and fucked up musical objects. It almost doesn't matter who's on here, but a quick glance at the artists will give you a rough idea of what you're in for: Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Fullerton Whitman, C. Spence Yeh, Prurient, Kevin Drumm, Incapacitants, Francisco Lopez, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Sudden Infant, Damion Romero, RLW, Jerome Noetinger, The New Blockaders, Lasse Marhaug, Jason Lescalleet, GZ Jupitter-Larsen, Carlos Giffoni, AMK, Thomas Dimuzio and Aaron Dilloway.
And sonically, while it does tend toward the noisy, there are some amazing bits of minimal drone, lurching rhythmic stutter, garbled vocal weirdness, grinding noxious buzz, warm whirring crunch and about every variation in between. And in our hop scotching across these 1000 tracks, we found ourselves lingering happily on a whole bunch of em.
Cool hand made covers, photocopies, found images, bits from magazines, and lots of duct tape!
