[ aquarius records — Compilation Split ]

Showing results 3151 through 3200 of 3832.

V/ASuper Breaks. Return To The Old School.(BGP / Ace)2lp$ 25.00

V/ASuper Cool California Soul 2(Luv N' Haight)cd$ 16.98

There has not been a shortage of amazing soul reissues recently and we sure as heck aren't complaining. But we gotta say that the two new comps of golden era soul and funk we're listing this time out are two absolute must haves for vintage soul and funk lovers! You'll hear about the great "Florida Funk" comp elsewhere on this list but now we're talking about this collection from Luv N' Haight, an essential chapter in the history of California soul from 1966-1982. We've been playing this in the store pretty much every single day since its arrived (along with that Florida Funk), sometimes sneaking it on multiple times cause it just sounds so damn good! Starting off with the Gow Dow Experience's version of the Eugene McDaniel penned "Compared To What" which was first made famous by Roberta Flack on her essential recording First Take. The next fifteen tracks keep the fire alive with the kind of spirited soul that's pretty much impossible to resist. Whether it's the Bay Area's own Darondo turning on the sensual heat with his slow burner "Such A Night" or Spanky Wilson getting all sassy with her take of "Fancy" or Johnny Morisette getting super raw singing about being hungry. The perfect collection to be blasting at all summer bbq's and get togethers. Sounds that are so warm, so bold and still sound so alive today!

V/ASuper-8 Presents New Wave Explosion(Super-8 Underground)cd$ 6.98

A new collection of high spirited not necessarily new wave youths

V/ASuperlongevity 3(Perlon)cd$ 16.98

V/ASuperloooongetivy 4(Perlon)2cd$ 23.00

Two discs of blissed out thumping pulsing Kompakt style minimalist techno. Late night chillout, early morning groove, cold and clinical but strangely somehow soft and warm. Killer!

V/ASur La Mer Samp-Le-Mer(5 Rue Christine)cd$ 10.98

The 5 Rue Christine label (aka 5RC) from Olympia, WA presents a sampler of their roster. Many of 'em AQ faves! All of 'em musical beings of the eccentric, peculiar, and mildly cracked kind (we presume some faux and some genuine). Expect much staggering, drizzle, mumbling, percussive clatter, broken time signatures, occasional outbursts of angst and distress, and some downright delicate prettiness. The who's who: The Robot Ate Me, Xiu Xiu, Slim Moon And What Army, No-Neck Blues Band, Amps For Christ, Deerhoof (two songs from them!), Hella, The Planet The, Mae Shi, The Advantage, Need New Body, Wooden Wand And The Vanishing Voice, The Punks, Metalux, Excepter, and Barr! Seventeen tracks total, ten of them previously unreleased. Coool!

V/ASur-Terre.Net(Ytterbium)cd$ 16.98

Sur-Terre.Net is an interactive project by the Parisian multi-disciplinarian Gregory Chatonsky, involving film, sound, and a generative web interface. With only a cursory glance at the website (go figure, it's www.sur-terre.net), it appears that the work deals with layers of observation and being observed within social spaces, all with a vaguely psycho-sexual overtone. The project also happens to incorporate a very impressive soundtrack from a who's who in the world of abstract electronica and fractured sound-art: Fennesz, Scanner, Francisco Lopez, Steve Roden, Tim Hecker, Hazard, Pita, General Magic, and many others! We'll leave discussion of the sociological insights of the entire Sur-Terre.net project to the experts (or if you want to tell us what you think about it, be our guest!); but we most definitely can say that the soundtrack is exemplary almost from start to finish. The one minor hiccup is the clumsy rhythms of the Vladislav Delay track, but beyond that, richly textured electronic ambience and static vibrations dominate the compilation, laced with historical allegories, memory, disillusionment, and dislocation. Standouts include Fennesz' impeccable blurring of pixel-points, Atau Tanaka's eerie field recording manipulations, Francisco Lopez' grinding swells of gritty hiss, and even the sometimes lackluster Scanner contributes a brilliant piece of crepuscular electronics more in keeping with Biosphere's work. Unlike a lot of compilations which merely collect interesting tracks to be unceremoniously dumped onto the iPod, the soundtrack to Sur-Terre.net is totally engaging from start to finish. Recommended.

V/ASurinam!: Boogie & Disco Funk From The Surinamese Dance Floors '76 -'83(Kindred Spirits)2lp$ 25.00

V/ASurrealism Reviewed(LTM)cd$ 16.98

A document like this is awfully difficult to listen to in the store, even more so than a number of the ultra-minimalist compositions that grace the experimental section. Yet, from what I could grasp, "Surrealism Reviewed" appears to be an important art-historical documentation of audio recordings made by the chief proponents of Surrealism and Dada, dating back as early as 1928 and including Marcel Duchamp, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Phillipe Soupault, Salvador Dali, Herbert Read, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Roland Penrose, Robert Desnos, Andrea Breton, Louis Aragon, and Antonin Artaud. Spotted with a few musical interludes (including the tango from the Bunuel / Dali film "Un Chien Andalou" and an odd "snapshot from the jazz age" by Jean Cocteau), this is mostly a spoken word document with poems, lectures, and interviews, spoken alternately in French and English, and the liner-notes translate some of the French texts into English. Highlights include the incredibly bizarre Dali interview, Duchamp's lecture elaborating on the poetry of mathematics as a metaphor for the creative process, and the amazingly contrived radio interview between Lee Miller, Roland Renrose, and CBS radio host Ona Munson.

V/ASurrounded By Sun(Fonal)cd$ 14.98

From far north in Finland, the Fonal label, home to Es, Kiila, and a bunch of other fine bands, has just released a compilation focusing not only on their countryfolk but also likeminded artists from around the world. Psychedelic, experimental, indie, Floating Flower is an Acid Mothers Temple side project, featuring Kawabata Makoto on acoustic guitar, Yuki on vocals and violin, and Kaneko Tetsuya on tabla and electric guitar. A very lovely six minute track indeed. The P.G. Six track is another of his fragile, folk/psych compositions featuring just his voice, acoustic guitar, and piano. Greg Weeks, Janne Laurila, Ring, Ville Leinonen, and, well, quite a few of the artists on here take a much similar approach: sparse, homerecorded songs that are both quiet and melancholy (of course, some are better singers than others...). Fursaxa (who just played here in San Francisco with fellow psychedelic Philadelphians Bardo Pond) combines droning organ and sustained, sad female vocals. Scorces (members of Charalambides and Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast) does something similar, using bells instead of drones to back their extended, wordless vocal duet. Kinda creepy. The disc concludes with Kemialliset Ystavat's beautiful hippy-chant-folk-jam "Milla", which could have been an International Harvester outtake. This comp is very Ptolemaic Terrascope, to say the least! We like.

V/ASurvive And Advance Vol. 1(Merge)cd$ 7.98

A new sampler of some of the shining sounds coming from the land of Merge Records these days. Fourteen songs: four of them either already available or soon to be, and ten of them previously unreleased (four of them live). However, the biggest highlight of this compilation is the unveiling of the newest addition to the Merge family... Destroyer! Yay! Yay! Up until now, Daniel Bejar's wonderful music hasn't been as easily accessible as it should. For those of you already familiar with his uniquely beautiful songwriting (in both Destroyer and the New Pornographers) and for those of you completely new to Mr. Bejar, this is cause for celebration. He's in prime company too. There's many an AQ fave on this label: Spoon, Radar Bros, Spaceheads, and the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt (this time in his Gothic Archies guise). And they're all here along with Lambchop, Imperial Teen, Portastatic, Annie Hayden, Ladybug Transistor, Ashley Stove, East River Pipe, David Kilgour, and Crooked Fingers. All this good stuff and it won't hurt your wallet too much either.

V/ASurvive And Advance Vol. 3(Merge)cd$ 6.98

Another super-priced Merge Records sampler jam-packed with fourteen songs by all of your fave Merge artists. Take a gander at this list of delights who grace this third volume of Survive And Advance: The Clientele, Lambchop, Portastatic, Buzzcocks, East River Pipe, Spoon, The Rosebuds, The Karl Hendricks Trio, and Matt Elliott. Oh my! The aforementioned nine have all contributed previously unreleased songs, while the remaining bunch are soon to be released (Ladybug Transistor, Matt Suggs), a live radio recording (Crooked Fingers), or sadly out of print (M.Ward). Only one doesn't fall under any of these departments, that is the album track from The Essex Green, but we'll excuse them 'cause this is such a dandy compilation regardless. Yay!

V/ASushi 4004(Bungalow)cd$ 16.98

Subtitled, "The Return of Spectacular Japanese Clubpop".

V/ASwami Sound System Volume 1(Swami)cd$ 5.98

Rock n' roll! Hot Snakes dude John Reis (also of Rocket From The Crypt n' Drive Like Jehu n' Back Off Cupids) runs the Swami label, and with this budget label sampler he's asking you all to tighten your turbans and rock out with him and some of his favorite bands: Beehive And The Barracudas, The Husbands, Hot Snakes, Loincloth, Rocket From The Crypt, The White Apes, Testors, Dan Sartain, The Sultans, Sonny Vincent, and Mannequin Piss. One track from each, all unreleased 'til now. The highlight for us of course would have to be "Orphan Boy", the cut from from our own Sadie's happenin' sixties influenced garage rock combo The Husbands (debut album out soon on Swami)! Meanwhile, Hot Snakes are awesome as always, Dan Sartain is catchy and quirky, and we were really excited to hear the insane instrumental math-metal of Loincloth, the new band formed by ex-members of Breadwinner and Confessor!! (Which also goes to show that there's more to Swami than garage and punk, though there's plenty o' that here too.) Plus, some historical value is added by the Testors, a '77 NYC punk band getting a Swami reissue -- there's also a new track here from their singer that's maybe better than his band's old stuff. And Mannequin Piss have not just a great band name but kick a lot of ass too, ending this comp with some Black Flag styled combustion. MPEG Stream: THE HUSBANDS "Orphan Boy" [/audio/swamihusbands.m3u]

V/ASwarf Pot(Ringo)2cd$ 17.98

One of two new dubstep comps on this week's list. The other is a sort-of-mixtape from DJ/beat maker Diplo, and is more a collection of dancefloor destroying party jams, big beats, HUGE wobbly basslines, booming system sort of stuff, and then there's this one, a double disc collection of past, present and future 12"s cut on the legendary lathe at Transition Studio, which is South London dubstep HQ, with most of those 12"s being released on one of the two in-house labels, Transition and Ringo. A quick look at the lineup should be all it takes: Distance, Skream, Cluekid, Kromestar, LD, Coki, Benga and more, all the big names, as well as a handful of up and comers, crafting some seriously deep and dubbed out darkness. And that is basically the difference between these two comps, obviously, we're nuts for dubstep so we think both are essential, but the Diplo one is the one you're gonna blast in your car, the one that will get you out on the dancefloor and all sweaty, where this one is more laid back, stripped down, this is for after hours, winding down, late night drinks, chilling out, making out, and sure, you might blast this in your car, but you'd have the windows up, speeding down the highway, into a black expanse, or rolling slowly through rainswept empty city streets. Low slung, dubbed out, skittery and stuttery, the beats minimal, the bass still warbly and wobbly, but more muted, this one's more about mood and atmosphere, and has some of our favorite dubstep jams yet. Benga's "The Germ" is a haunting cinematic spy theme, with some very old school sounding horns, draped over the pulsing bass buzz and the skeletal rhythm. Distance and Skream team up on "Wiseman", a sample heavy bit of dubbed out crawl, dark and atmospheric, laced with occasional swells of ultra dense rib cage rattling bass. Kromestar takes that dubstep bass wobble and works it, choped and looped, sped up and slowed down, layered, pulled apart, the song is mostly a single stripped down beat without it, but that bass is so heavy and hooky and groovy and goddamn great! And speaking of heavy bass, Coki takes it even further out on "Goblin", playing that synth bass like some sort of metal guitar, buzzy and fuzzy and distorted and totally blown out. LD swaps his dubstep for some classic jungle on "Guerilla Warfare", a hazy old school drum and bass workout. We could go on, but needless to say, two discs, full to overflowing with some of the best dubstep out there, and if you're like us, you're gonna want this. Actually NEED this. This AND that Diplo dubstep comp. Cuz really, this is the perfect companion to that comp, one hard and heavy, one deep and dark, both totally bad ass...

V/ASwedish Assault(Relapse)cd$ 14.98

A smorgasbord of crusty Swedish grind on offer here, featuring Sayyadina, Assel, Disfear, Gadget, and AQ-faves Birdflesh. Plus the less crusty, more rock n' roll stylings of Genocide Superstar.

V/ASwedish Death Metal(Index Verlag)3cd$ 21.00

Writer Daniel Ekeroth really loves death metal. Specifically SWEDISH death metal. He's Swedish, yes, and plays in a Swedish death metal band, so maybe he's biased... but we DO have to agree, there's something special about the death metal scene in Sweden, particularly back in the very early '90s when it was at its fullest flower. Sweden has bestowed upon the world some of the best in guttural growling and blasting beats, crypt-rattling riffs and of course the "Sunlight sound". We reviewed Ekeroth's encyclopedic book Swedish Death Metal a while ago. Now, here's the audio companion compilation to said book. Maybe reading a 456 page tome all about the wonders of Swedish death metal is more than you're ready for. But even if you didn't read the book (and most definitely if you DID) you might still be interested in this. Either from reading the book you'll be curious to hear the obscure bands collected here, or from listening to this you too will develop an obsession with Swedish death metal and thus need to read the book... and listen to nothing else but Swedish death metal for the foreseeable future! Don't say we didn't warn you. Lovingly put together, this triple cd set is packed with crucial examples of the SDM phenomenon. Mostly rare demo tracks, or songs taken from vinyl-only eps... There's quite a few of the big names of course (Grave, Entombed, Dismember, At The Gates, Unleashed, etc.) but also many, many more obscure but also important bands. There's pioneering early tracks from the likes of Obscurity, Merciless, and Nihilist. Forgotten and/or underrated greats like Crematory, Afflicted, and Nirvana 2002. And, keeping death alive, the set wraps up with a couple newer bands, like genius throwbacks Repugnant! Here's some more names either to pique your curiosity, or if you know 'em, to whet your appetite: Edge Of Sanity, General Surgery, Grotesque, Desultory, Sorcery, Carbonized, Carnage, Tiamat, Furbowl, Seance... and there's tons and tons more. 52 tracks here by 48 bands!!! And we're telling you, it's quite possible, nay probable, that the heaviest, most brutal song EVER is one of the ones included on this cd. It must be. Disc one, covering 1986-1990 is the rawest, thrashiest stuff, exploring the cult origins of the movement, some if it super lo-fi but still crushing. What's a little tape hiss and distortion when you're listening to singing that sounds like an asthmatic cookie monster anyway? Disc two, 1989-'93, includes some all time classics, in Ekeroth's book and ours, and also delves into death/black crossover with tracks from Marduk and Dissection. And then disc three celebrates some lesser known greats, mostly covering the period 1990-1994, with a track from '98 and another from 2007 just to demonstrate that true Swedish death metal will never die. Like we said, this is clearly a labor of love, packaged in a handsome book-like package (it looks like the book, we mean). The four-panel digipack includes a thick cd booklet with notes on each and every track by author Ekeroth, who of course was one of this release's compilers. Awesome.

V/ASweet Hawaiian Dreams(Fire Breathing Turtle)cd-r$ 10.98

Okay, we *might* be able to convince Fire Breathing Turtle to print up more copies of these; but then again we might not. So be warned about the potential paucity of these Sweet Hawaiian Dreams! This short-run cd-r compilation comes by way of Jeffery Taylor - known to some as half of the Climax Golden Twins, to others as one of the curators of that impeccable Victrola Favorites anthology, and to those in Seattle as the bearded fellow behind the counter at Wall Of Sound Records. Pretty sure that all of these tracks come from Taylor's collection of '78s, dating from 1913-1936. This is a time period that predates the 'golden era' of Hawaiian music, when the territory became a state in 1959 and the rest of America became enthralled with the exotica of the Pacific Islands. Given the Victrola gramophone medium of these recordings, the fuzz and hiss of surface noise plays heavily throughout the compilation, but ukulele and slide guitar do their best to push through that pleasant patina of antiquated static. The signature slack-key sound of Hawaiian music is found throughout, the notes bent into languid, almost lazy melodies. There seems to be an equal number of instrumentals and vocal tunes, with the vocalists adopting a wide range of more continental singing styles, from the barbershop harmonic stylings of Sol Hoopii And His Novelty Five to the belting croon of the South Sea Islanders. Like we mentioned from the onset, very limited, but a worthy addition to all of those Sublime Frequencies anthologies which we have loved for so many years.

V/ASweet Sweet Casio(Blackbean & Placenta)cd$ 11.98

Much as we cringe at the ridiculous plethora of divisive genre tags flying about these days, we have to say that many many songs on this compilation define the "indie-tronica" label. Twee kiddie Casio lo-lo-fi pop. As difficult as it is to imagine, this is sweeter than anything from the candy-coated Kindercore family. Of the 24 artists on this cd, some familiar you might recognize:

V/ASwinging Mademoiselle(Sasha Monett Records)lp$ 13.98

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

SORRY. Are you a fan of those great "Ultrachicks" compilations of female French '60s pop? Do you feel like your turntable has been missing out on the fun? Well, here's a vinyl-only comp of similar cute Francophone chanteuses (Stella, Cleo, Charlotte Leslie, Berthe, Delphine, Liliane, and many others mainly with one nme only) circa 1965-1968...

V/ASwinging Mademoiselle Vol. 2(Sasha Monett)lp$ 14.98

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

SORRY. This is the second in the vinyl only series of 60s French girl groups. This the perfect vinyl companion the sporadically in-print "Ultra Chicks" CDs.

V/ASwinging Mademoiselles Deux(Silva Screen)cd$ 16.98

It's impossible not to have a soft spot for the breezy, sassy and sensual sounds of '60s French Pop. We can never get enough, so it was an exciting day when the second volume of Swinging Mademoiselles came our way, as the first volume has become one of those records we've played in the store countless times over the years. With its focus on the lovely ladies who delivered infectious gems of Gallic pop in the '60s, volume deux brings the goods once again with songs that treat our ears to such saucy and sophisticated delights. We love how this collection has a nice selection of the more seductive side to sixties French Pop. Of course there are some total hip-shakers and party tracks on here but this collection is really so perfect for a long ride with the windows down, or lounging by the pool with refreshing libations or just laying in bed on a lazy Sunday morning with that someone special by your side. Filled with so many of the era's greats: Jacquelin Taieb, Cosette, Zouzou, Pussy Cat. Brigitte Bardot, Clea, etc. These were the people and sounds that would inspire some of the best pop music that would come decades later from folks like Stereolab, Belle & Sebastian, Broadcast, Saint Etienne and El Perro Del Mar. OoooLaaaLaaaa what a perfect end of summer treat!

V/ASwinging Mademoiselles: Groovy French Sounds From The 60s(Silva)cd$ 16.98

'60s French girl group compilations come in and out of print so sporadically that you've gotta nab 'em when you see 'em 'cuz you never know if they might vanish the next week. Have to say, we haven't had much problem with the quality of the comps we've carried thus far in this delightful genre, and Swinging Mademoiselles maintains the standard already set by long out-of-print cds such as Girl Group Power, Histoires de Filles: Quebec 60's Go-Go Music and the Ultra Chicks series. Sassy, perky fun!

V/ASympathetic Sounds Of Detroit(Sympathy for the Record Industry )cd$ 11.98

With the recent success of the White Stripes (whose excellent second album 'De Stijl' was released by the Sympathy label), SFTRI bossman Long Gone John and Mr. 'Stripe himself Jack White seized the prime opportunity to shine the spotlight on some other

V/AT5(Time-Lag Records)5 x 7"$ 35.00

RIGHT UP FRONT, THIS IS VERY LIMITED, WE ONLY HAVE 4 COPIES, AND WE PROBABLY CAN'T GET ANY MORE, SO DON'T DAWDLE. Gorgeous five 7" box set to commemorate the 5th Terrastock festival. Designed and released by our pal Nemo who runs Time Lag records (who recently released the Charalambides double lp and those amazing Entoptic lp compilations) and records as Drona Parva. The box and the seven inch sleeves are made of really nice thick paper and are hand assembled and letterpressed. One seven inch each by THE IDITAROD, STONE BREATH, CHARALMBIDES, BARDO POND, and SONIC YOUTH (doing two Aerosmith covers?). Really cool.

V/ATOUCH: Islands In Between(Touch)lp$ 15.98

The first in a new series of vinyl only releases from Touch, this is an amazing document of Javanese and Balinese sounds, originally released as a cassette in 1983. A seamless collage of sounds edited into a dizzying sonic travelogue by Touch head honcho Jon Wozencroft, along with BJ Nilsen of Hazard, this collection is essential for fans of Sublime Frequencies and Mississippi Records. Heavy on the gamelan, obviously, the record flits from clanging metallic percussion, to buzzing burbling jaw harp, from super intense vocals, featuring some deeply moving, almost liturgical sounding call and response, in the background of many of these recordings, you can hear children laughing and playing, bustling markets, cars driving by, shouting and various voices, the music in the foreground is wild and chaotic one second, dark and contemplative the next, slowly bleating horns, unfurl a playful melody, before the sound eventually slips into something more modern, still gamelan driven, but in the form of some wistful Indonesian balladry, before finally finishing off in a blaze of super distorted almost free jazz sounding near psychedelic gamelan freakout, the sounds super saturated, and buzzing and crumbling around the lilting melodies, and hypnotic rhythms. Fantastic! Housed in an orange-stickered plain white sleeve, and most likely fairly limited.

V/ATRR50 Thank You(Temporary Residence Ltd.)cd$ 11.98

TRR50 Thank You marks the fiftieth release on Temporary Residence, and the thanks really should go both ways. Thanks Jeremy and T.R. for bringing such great music to the ears of many! This comp reveals the vast scope of this label -- from jazzy propulsive and glistening post-rock (Rumah Sakit, Sonna, Kilowatthours, Explosions In The Sky, Parlour) to gentle acoustic folkiness (Howard Hello) to atmospheric soundscapes (Tarentel, Kammerflimmer Kollektief) to glitchy electronic dreaminess (Fridge, Sybarite). Whether heavy and angular or delicate and vaporous, each Temporary Residence release maintains a common thread of beauty. Each of the eleven tracks is new and exclusive to this release!

V/ATag Of The Times 3(Mary Joy)cd$ 14.98

Underground hiphop comp with contributions from many of today's hipster heavy hitters: Company Flow, Aesop Rock, Buck 65, Dose One, Shingo2, Mr. Lif, Atmosphere, Aceyalone. For fans of all things Anticon, Def Jux, and underground hip hop in general.

V/ATags of the Times: 3(Mary Joy)cd$ 12.98

V/ATahiti: The Gauguin Years: Songs And Dances(Nonesuch)cd$ 12.98

The second and only other disc in the Explorer series to feature the music of the South Pacific focuses on Tahiti. While -- unlike the previous South Pacific disc -- there are hulas on this collection, the author of the liner notes aims to inform that the music of Tahiti is not so much about love and easy living as the stereotypes would have everyone believe, but about war and death and a history of war and death that goes back centuries. Before the Europeans came with their diseases (not to mention their "god" and tourism) to control the island's overpopulation problems, the islanders themselves used to stage battles periodically when population problems became overwhelming. This is part of the wonderfully biting liner notes that are included with this collection. The music is just plain wonderful though, and without knowing what the people are singing about (and unfortunately the documentation for each song is lacking) you would think that all the songs are about love and easy lifestyles, fast European sports cars and scantily clad beautiful young women (see album cover.) About half of the tracks here are choruses, mostly mixed choruses of men and women, another 25% are hula or other guitar / ukulele songs and the other 25% are either a capella voice or percussion and then there's one lonesome nose flute track aptly titled "I Am Alone" (at least I think it's a nose flute.) Recorded in 1968 by Jane Sarnoff.

V/ATake Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver(Badman)cd$ 14.98

Heartwarmingly well done compilation of John Denver songs. Consistently low-key and slow, the comp features lesser known Denver songs, and that's a very good thing, as a cover of "Rocky Mountain High" would've been too jarringly recognizable in this context. In other words, it works stunningly as a compilation of slowcore material, whether or not you're a John Denver fan. Highlights include tracks from Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy), Low, Sunshine Club, Tarnation with Joe Gore, Granfaloon Bus, Rachel Haden of That Dog, the Innocence Mission, etc. And the Red House Painters' instrumental offering "Fly Away" is just breathtaking, full of soaring My Bloody Valentine-style guitars. This comp is so good that every time we play it in store, we sell a copy.

V/ATake The Bird From The Birdman(Birdman)cd$ 6.98

Our fine feathered friend Dave Katznelson's Birdman label shows how they bring the rock with this budget sampler highlighting the best (and the rest) of their eclectic roster, which ranges from old timey blues to experimental noise. You've got the garage rock ass kickery of the Modey Lemon, the lewd electro-fuckery of PFFR, and the indie-synth-pop of The Cuts, plus the likes of the Twilight Singers, Paula Frazer, The Warlocks, Greg Ashley, Apes, Tom Recchion, and more. (All previously or soon to be released tracks of course, since it's a sampler.) Totally diverse and always more about what yanks Dave's crank than what's commercially viable. And that's a good thing. Take the Bird from the Birdman and check this out, for sure you're gonna find some stuff you like!

V/ATake The Brain Train To The Third Eye: Bud Mathis' Sunset Strip 1963 - 1967(Dionysius Records)lp$ 14.98

NOW ON VINYL! Oh...oh my... God...it's all so trippy. This compilation revolves around Bud Mathis, an ex prize fighter turned manager / songwriter / man about town / guy on LA's Sunset strip in the '60s. All of these songs are rare and/or previously unreleased songs that Mathis had a hand in during his career. Mathis's 'work' ranged from rock and roll to grungy garage to stripped down RnB, producing/recording such obscure bands as Brain Train, Joint Effort, Wolfgang, The Fairviews, and more. Even his teenage son, Mike, does a song, "My Old Lady", which just happens to be the best song on the whole record. So rad! Authentic, unaltered recordings of rockin' Sunset strip garage psych. If you love '60s rock and roll, check this out!

V/ATake The Brain Train to the Third Eye: Bud Mathis' Sunset Strip 1963 - 1967(Dionysus)cd$ 13.98

Take the Brain Train to the Third Eye. Oh...oh my... God...it's all so trippy. This compilation revolves around Bud Mathis, an ex prize fighter turned manager / songwriter / man about town / guy on the Sunset strip in the '60s. All of these songs are rare

V/ATales From The Flip III: The Next Episode(Kinjal)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY. More Roc Raida (X-Men) & friends turntable tales.

V/ATally Ho! Flying Nun's Greatest Hits(Flying Nun)2cd$ 14.98

This new compilation from legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun, their first proper greatest hits collection, has been getting played like crazy in the store, and it makes sense, just check out the line up, a dizzying collection of some of the greatest jangle pop and noise rock and everything in between that New Zealand has had to offer over the last THIRTY years: tracks from The Clean, The Verlaines, The Chills, The Bats, Straightjacket Fits, Chris Knox, The Dead C, The Gordons, Bailter Space, The Pin Group, Tall Dwarfs, Snapper, the 3Ds, and so many more. From the early days of the label, to now, the label having recently been re-activated/re-invigorated. Nothing here is super rare, no lost B sides or unreleased gems, so folks well versed in NZ rock, with a record collection to prove it, might not have a need for this, UNLESS you were after pretty much the ultimate kick ass NZ underground rock Flying Nun mixtape, cuz then outside of compiling your own, you'd be hard pressed to do better than this. And for folks who might have missed out on Flying Nun the first time around, this collection is overflowing with new discoveries, and so many potential new favorite bands. All sides of the label is represented, most notably, that distinctive jangle pop side, which went on ti influence pretty much every indie rock outfit since. Whether it's The Clean's impossibly catchy keyboard driven lo-fi classic "Tally Ho!" (from which this comp takes its name), or the dreamy jangle of the Chills' "Heavenly Pop Hit", which couldn't have been more appropriately titled. There's the jangly bass driven sweet harmonied girl pop of Look Blue Go Purple, that sounds like it could easily be a new retro pop 7" on Slumberland, the dreamy strum and jangle of the Bats, the quirkly lo-fi home brewed weirdo pop of The Tall Dwarfs, and then there's "Outer Space" by the 3D's which sounds like the best song the Pixies never recorded, but then there's the other side of the label, the darker, heavier more experimental side, represented here by the Dead C (of course) with a sub 2 minute blast of murky, tape manipulated, noise drenched weirdness, and the Gordons, with their dirgey, almost doomy swagger, and seriously fierce guitar crunch, Bailter Space, arguable one of the loudest bands ever, their track here dreamy and darkly shoegazey, there's the scuzzy garage rock blues of Solid Gold Hell, the Joy Division-y new wave of The Pin Group, and let's not forget about Snapper, who are like some weird sci-fi space rock, garage pop hybrid, with hooks galore, and that's totally just a taste. Like all the best comps, Tally Ho! is perfect as it is, a killer mixtape, but also, a launching of point for avid listeners to track down records by all these bands and become as obsessed now with this stuff as some of us have been for years!

V/ATangent 2002: Disco Nouveau(Ghostly International)cd$ 14.98

Don't be fooled by the title, this new fancily book-packaged compilation actually leans much more heavily on electro sounds than disco. Sort of a melting together of the two genres with the former as the dominant. Tagged in the liner notes as the "new disco",

V/ATape Op(Tape Op)2cd$ 14.98

Compilation of artists who've been featured in the pages of Tape Op magazine over the years and celebrating their various unique recording environments. Includes tracks (many exclusive to this comp) by: Elliott Smith, East River Pipe, Sue Garner & Rick Brown, Man or Astro-man?, Apples in Stereo, MK Ultra and more.

V/ATard and Further'd(Siltbreeze)cd$ 13.98

Selected out-of-print and otherwise really hard-to-find tracks from the Siltbreeze 7" catalog as far back as 1989. Dead C, Alastair Galbraith, Terminals, Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, Halo of Flies, etc.

V/ATeam Kitty-Yo(Kitty-Yo)2cd$ 16.98

Okay, nevermind the birthday cake! Here's a double disc compilation to mark ten years for the German label Kitty-Yo! The mountain of exclusive and previously unreleased aural gifts is stacked 26 tracks high and included are ones from familiar faces Tarwater, Laub, Richard Davis, Gold Chains and Sue Cie, To Rococo Rot, Maximillian Hecker, Peaches and Gonzales, Jimi Tenor, and Louie Austen as well as less familiar ones Sex In Dallas And Biladoll, Taylor Savvy, Spyritual, Raz Ohara, Preed, Kante, Rhythm King And Her Friends Rechenzentrum, Litwinenko and Jay Haze.

V/ATeam Mint Volume 2!(Mint)cd$ 4.98

The New Pornographers, Duotang, Neko Case, I Am Spoonbender, Nardwuar The Human Serviette (and his combos Thee Goblins, Thee Skablins and of course, The Evaporators)... sound like an unusual gathering? Hmmm, not really. Y'see, they're all on Vancouver's Mint Records, and a sampling of their songs have been collected together - along with those of sweet-twang Tennessee Twin,

V/ATeam Yamaha(Muysic For Peoples)7"$ 5.98

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

SORRY. Aavikko and friends get together to pay tribute to their favorite instrument: the Yamaha PSS Home Organ! Five European bands are featured here: from Germany, Frederik Schikowski (PSS-680) and Jeans Team (PSS-560); from Finland, Aavikko (PSS-680); from Iceland, Apparat Organ Quartet (PSS-390, PSS-480 & PC-100!); and from Sweden, Pluxus (PS-300). The tracks on Team Yamaha demonstrate that having the newest, most expensive keyboard is not as important as having the talent to play it. Cheap, versitile and easy to use, the Yamaha PSS series of portable synths can be found the world over in almost every genre of music that comes in contact with electricity. The gamut here runs from the twisted video game theme music sounds of Aavikko's "My Yamaha" to the sentimental dance tune "Polynesia" by Apparat Organ Quartet. Pluxus is perhaps the most "produced" sounding of the septet with the glitch pop number "Slow Rock", while the uber primitive award is a two way split between Frederik Schikowski's "Kreissegmente", which sounds as though it was recorded using only his PSS-680, and fellow Germans Jeans Team, with their baroque 8-bit reggae number "Spagaluzzi" which features a coda referencing Ravel's Bolero. In closing we should add that we have literally a handful of these on CD and 7" and once these are gone, they're gone for good. So get them while they're hot.

V/ATechnicolor Hell(Badmaster)cd$ 12.98

As we've mentioned in the past, we're a little wary of the noise. We love us some Merzbow now and again, some Hijokaidan of course, maybe some Masonna, New Blockaders sure� but pure noise, harsh noise, is an acquired taste we just haven't acquired yet. But while Technicolor Hell is by definition a 'noise comp', it's a lot more than that. The sounds are varied and rife with fucked up rhythms, bizarre textures and a world of grinding grating roaring whirring sounds that are somehow both hard AND easy on the ears. It makes sense that this wouldn't be your run of the mill noise record, as it comes by way of a Mr. Dave Smolen, whose last record we reviewed and dug heavily a while back (still got a few in stock), and who was also responsible for the mind blowing genius that was Flittermice Of Eld, a single track, abstract not-quite-black-metal-not-quite-noise tribute / homage to the Darkthrone song ""As Flittermice as Satan's Spys", drawn from just a handful of notes from said song. What the fuck?!? But so awesome. So Mr. Smolen's on here, and it's his label, and it's one of those comps where we pretty much don't recognize a single artist, but the names have us convinced before we even hear them that we'd have to love 'em: Cars Will Burn, Drums Like Machine Guns, Tweeter, Mincemeat Or Tenspeed, Sharks With Wings� Yeah okay already, but what the hell does it sound like, you're thinking, well, obviously the simplest description would be, well, NOISY. But like we mentioned before, that's just the tip of the ruptured eardrum. Mincemeat Or Tenspeed offer up their own sort of metal, but it's pulled apart and shattered into a million jagged pieces, the resulting skree sounds more like a crumbling wall of blown out distortion, wrapped in sheets of brittle feedback, but part way through, the track morphs into some creepy buzzing Goblin-esque synthscape. Smolen's track has Flittermice in the title, but if there's any Darkthrone in there we sure can't hear it. Instead it's a black sonic sky filled with streaks of ear piercing feedback and fireworks of grinding high end. Sharks With Wings is more traditional noise, channeling Masonna, a garbled vocal transmission caked in filthy FX and blown to bloody bits. Cars Will Burn weave a gorgeous little soundscape of downtuned grind, sine wave glitch, skittery static, all assembled into a strangely rhythmic jam. We had high hopes for Drums Like Machine Guns, c'mon, with a name like that? They don't disappoint, but they do surprise with a kind of lo-fi Atari Teenage Riot thing, pounding techno beats in a field of distortion and buzz, vocals hyper distorted and buried in the mix, almost like a synth squealing and shrieking above the din. Pretty dang cool. In fact this whole comp is pretty bad ass. Surprisingly (or not) we seem to be getting more and more noise in our diet lately, and quite frankly we're digging it big time. I guess it's about time we reconsidered our general position on noise music� Packaged in an oversized, eye popping color booklet, packed with liner notes, track info, color photos, diagrams and designs, a printed insert with the cd affixed to the last page. And probably pretty dang limited�

V/ATectonic Plates Volume 2(Tectonic)2cd$ 22.00

V/ATeen Dance Music From China And Malaysia(Thrift Score)cd$ 14.98

Fans of The Steps, Ho: Roady Music From Vietnam and fans of instrumental exotica weirdness take note. We are happy to have chanced upon this brand new collection of gems from the cracks of music history. According to the notes on the back of the case, the

V/ATeenage Heaven: The Fifties Girl Group Phenomenon(El Records / Cherry Red)cd$ 16.98

V/ATeenbeat 2001(Teenbeat)cd$ 5.98

Budget priced sampler with tracks by the usual gang of Teenbeat allstars: The Rondelles, hollAnd, Flin Flon, Aden, Mark Robinson, Phil Krauth and the like!

V/ATektonics(OM)cd$ 16.98

Turntablists and electronica artists meet up on this new OM comp. DJs Z-Trip, J-Rocc, Disk, Craze, Curse, Apollo, Rob Swift, Vin Roc, Tomcat, and more cut up grooves by Howie B., Meat Beat Manifesto, Photek, Propellerheads, Wagon Christ, and others.