[ aquarius records — Compilation Split ]

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Showing results 3201 through 3250 of 3832.

This 2 cd set documents a bunch of out of print singles and tracks that never made it onto singles for Earworm and includes a demo track by Jon & Dave (pre-Flying Saucer Attack rural psychedelia from Dave Pearce, the Neu! grooves of Avocar, Orange Alabaster Mushroom's garage variant of the Elephant 6 bunch, and tons of other cool things.

The new Bay Area label Tell-All Records have hit the ground running with a bunch of new releases from a bunch of new artists. Nicely varied but mostly keeping within the gentle, hazy realm -- evoking pastoral scenes or drifting about in outerspace or an abandoned old concert hall with a forgotten cobwebbed piano -- the label strikes a balance between ambient soundscapes and song-based music. This label sampler compilation, their first official release, clearly shows, it all fits together wonderfully. Twelve songs by Liam Singer (who is one of the young gents running the label), Peter Surla, 28 Degrees Taurus, St. Rosa, One Umbrella, Dave Zohrob, Kallikak Family, Keith Negley, and Carrier (whose dreamy Home Movies cd-r we carried a couple of years ago) for under five bucks! Other releases from this label include a solo full length from Singer, Kallikak Family's May 23rd 2007 album and One Umbrella's 8-song cd Solve.

MPEG stream: Red Skies
MPEG stream: New Year's

When we first read about this new comp of underground music from Dunedin, we were pretty excited, wondering what sort of vintage Flying Nun and Xpressway rarities Ba-Da-Bing might have dug up, only to discovery that the rarities contained here, are all from the last 3 years. That is, it's all contemporary NZ bands mining similar sonic territory as this that came before. We were wary for sure, as we are with most comps where we don't recognize a single artist. Mavis Gary, Death And The Maiden, The Prophet Hens, The Males, Mr. Biscuit, Opposite Sex, Strange Harvest, Astro Children, Trick Mammoth, you get the picture. But all it took was a few seconds of the first track to make us feel right at home, murky lo-fi jangle, simple skeletal drumming, hushed sad boy vox, swirling synth shimmer, melancholic minor key melodies, all softly psychedelic, and sounding like it COULD actually be from back in the day. Which is true with much of this comp, which while sonically is all over the map, is obviously heavily beholden to the sound of eighties and nineties NZ pop, from Death And The Maiden's low slung electro post punk, with chiming guitars, swirling FX and some moody witchy female vox, to The Prophet Hen's DIY jangle pop, hazy and liltingly dreamy, with endearing boy/girl harmonies, and from the Males' urgent fuzz pop, that sounds like it would be right at home on Slumberland, and featuring some super distinctive falsetto vox, to Mr. Biscuit's noise drenched, distorto noise-pop grrrl punk, all angular crunch and sonic snarl, with some almost metal moments. From there on out, the comp veers wildly from strummy bedroom folk, to new wave-y post punk, to horn flecked baroque psychedelia, to Wipers-esque post punk grunginess, to fey, downer, jangle pop, to hazy, murky, home brewed girl group garaginess, to Cleaners From Venus style anglo dream pop, and on and on and on. We found ourselves wanting to hear more from pretty much every band here, which is a rarity with comps and makes this one, very very recommended!

MPEG stream: Dim The Droog
MPEG stream: Flowers For The Blind
MPEG stream: Party To Your Om

This year's fest marks a decade of Noise Pop! And if the rumblings suggesting that this might've been the final one are true, this double cd succinctly encapsulates the music and spirit of Noise Pop. Featuring pop notables Spoon, Flaming Lips, Preston School Of

The Secret Eye Label who hosted the latest Terrastock music festival in Providence RI this past April have put together this compilation of 11 exclusive tracks from some of the festivals highlighted acts such as Bardo Pond, Kinski, and the Magic Carpathians including many Secret Eye bands (surprise, surprise). While this compilation showcases some of the best acts of the neo-psych scene, from the overdriven space rock of Paik and Major Stars, and the abstracted shambolic noise of Avarus and The Spacious Mind, to the far flung folk of P.G Six and Fursaxa, it fails to completely convey the musical and generational diversity that is part of the festival's huge appeal. Revival acts such as Bridget St. John and Pearls before Swine are not included, while the psych-pop of Green Pajamas, the punk noise of Lightning Bolt and the acoustic traditions of Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, and Marissa Nadler are unrepresented. But that might be a lot to ask for from a single disc. So it's best not to look at this compilation as a cohesive festival document, but rather as a good solid dose of spacey psych majesty. Limited to 500 copies.

MPEG stream: Water Moon
MPEG stream: Learning City People to Walk In the Woods Quietly
MPEG stream: Festival Short Circuit

Bill Laswell masterminded this meeting of jazz and jungle, with a cast including DJ Spooky, Material, DJ Soul Slinger, Graham Haynes, and Byard Lancaster.

After the giggles subsided over the cover art (which features a photo of a shadowy warrior figure with a drawn-in red rose in his teeth), we settled in for the no-wave and electro action. This is the real deal from the late '70s and early '80s, folks. None of that watered down replication that's been tagged 'electro' these days. However, the catch of Teutonik Disaster is that this music was not coming from the New York scene back in the day, but instead from the depths of Germany. Much of this may sound silly and absurd today, and taken in their historical context many are... absurd and silly! But many are also so far ahead of the pack, groundbreaking even. It's a fun'n'eclectic mix of tracks scattered with funky basslines, saxophone skronk, gluey detuned analog synth lines, programmed beats, plus spoken, barked, grunted and moaned vocals. Some tracks are clunky and strange like "Je t'air" by Reifenstahl which is punctuated by a "La Bamba" guitar lick. Others like Schwarze Bewegung's Traumfrau" are like a ska-tinged herky jerky comrade of Von Lmo and James Chance (psst, no-wave fans! be sure to check out the brand new James Chance box set too!). And others like Carmen's "Schlaraffenland" are just a real good time. Very entertaining!

RealAudio clip: Schlaraffenland
RealAudio clip: Traumfrau

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

SORRY. Volume Two of this "German New Wave, Punk & Funk 1977-82" (according to the comp's subtitle - although you might wanna add electro and no-wave to that description too) is in every way just as much of an entertaining gem as the first. Thick, arpeggiations bound and bend as though they're being played on rubber keyboards. Odd, pinched vocals bark out spoken/sung lyrics in German and English. Saxophones jump in to join the synthesizers in their squelch-fest. Regimented programmed rhythms keep everyone in line. Some songs are definitely more... um, cheezy than others - both in composition and instrumentation, but that only adds to the lively diverse party scene. A super fun sonic document!

MPEG stream: Part Of You
MPEG stream: Frauenkorper

We're not sure just when we got this Trikont compilation in, but somehow it slipped under our radar and never got listed. That oversight will be redressed presently. For this collection Trikont has assembled an impressive collection of recordings of Bohemians, Moravians and Germans living in South Central Texas playing the music they love most: Polkas, Waltzes and Schottisches.

RealAudio clip: Edelweiss
RealAudio clip: Corn Cockle Polka
RealAudio clip: Wooden Heart

Great comp of rare funk tracks from Texas (naturally). DJ Shadow contributes to the liner notes.

Wow, is this ever cool! We kinda took a chance on ordering one in, 'cause what do we know about '80s underground metal from down in Texas? Well now we know it RULES. At least, the stuff they picked to put on this cool comp sure does. So, we ordered a bunch more copies to share with y'all. 15 tracks here from 13 bands, recorded circa 1983-1987. When metal was at its zenith, really, 'cause this stuff is so killer yet so obscure - by underground, we mean, really underground. All this stuff is from self-released demo tapes, none of these bands ever got past the demo stage to get signed or make a "real" album. So, unless you're an '80s metalhead from Texas (with a good memory), or perhaps someone who was fanatically into the tape trading scene back then, you've never heard of these bands, ever. Thus, there's no Pantera on here - though some of these tracks were recorded at the Pantera dudes' dad's studio, and one of the bands features a guy who sang for Pantera before Phil Anselmo joined 'em. Here's the lineup: Battalion, Sentinel, Valkyrie, Death Tripper, Necrovore, Baron Steele, Warlock, Heavens Force, Wicked Angel, Forced Entry, Scythian Oath, Morbid Termination, and Rotting Corpse. You're really not metal if that list of names doesn't sound cool to you, just the names themselves, so totally typically metal aren't they?? While each band is in fact different, you can pretty much say it's all galloping old school heavy metal action, with tons of raging youthful energy, displaying then-current influences from England, Germany, and the Bay Area, some bands more melodic than others (Baron Steele and Wicked Angel ferinstance), most of 'em in the edgier thrash and speed metal style of the day, often pushing the envelope of speed and technique, and taste! Some tracks get even more extreme, witness the protogrindpunk of Death Tripper, and the early black/death belchings of Necrovore. Vocally, while there's some punkish hardcore growls here and there (courtesy of the latter two bands mentioned, mainly), most of these acts go for clean, high pitched screaming vocals, some of 'em really over the top. Countering that, the frontman of Forced Entry (the one who had the Pantera gig, briefly) has a sneering Dave Mustaine-like voice. And by the way, if you're an Absu fan, it's interesting to guess if any of these bands were an immediate (local) influence on 'em growing up, we'd imagine some might have been, we can kind of hear it. Sound-wise, this is all pretty decent for 20+ year old demos, really. This is metal, nothin' wrong with a little distortion! The typically lo-fi production of a track like Scythian Oath's "Shadow Of The Torturer" is actually kinda cool, the way it's kind of fucked up, it almost gets weirdly psychedelic, the mixing strangely schizophrenically "active", elements fading in and out, up and down. (If you've heard that Wicked Witch record on EM, imagine them playing metal instead of funk!). Other tracks aren't necessarily so bizarre. Raw, yes, but that's nothing to complain about. The thick, full color cd booklet contains super detailed liner notes, plenty of graphics, photos, old fliers, logos, etc. Our favorite pic has got to be the one of Morbid Termination, their singer posing in his stage regalia, modified football shoulder pads with spikes sticking out, very homemade looking gear indeed! And there's a lot of super detailed liner notes, written by compiler John Perez (Brainticket label owner and Solitude Aeturnus guitarist), who knows his '80s Texas metal for sure, having been a part of the scene back then himself. Very obviously this whole thing is a labor of love, and the packaging reflects that. Similar, really, to that excellent Swedish Death Metal collection we highlighted recently. Heck we're not counting on selling a ton of these, but it would be cool if we did, just 'cause it you really do dig metal, we absolutely know you'll get a kick out of this! Looking forward to volume 2!! (And wondering if Texas was so special, or were there bands this rad in the places we grew up, too?)

MPEG stream: Metal Child
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Now on vinyl!! Here's some of what we said when we reviewed the compact disc version, though as before the programming of the cd and vinyl versions differ somewhat, but even if the track list isn't quite the same (the cd had 5 more songs), the general thrust of the following review still stands: It's beginning to appear as though Subliminal Sounds' well of amazing undiscovered Thai Beat music might be bottomless! We were a bit surprised when they managed to pull off a second excellent collection of Thai bubblegum psych tunes from yesteryear, but now a *third*?? "Is it just as good", you ask? Well, heck yeah, it is! It doesn't seem as though they culled the best for the first, or even the second, collection. This third volume may in fact be the best - though it's hard to choose. This one has about the same ratio of purely weird and inimitably Thai "pop" to off-kilter covers of your favorites from the golden era of rock, but add into that mix a great deal of seventies funk & disco and even some Santana-esque rock, all with a Thai twist and lots of fun. In addition to all the cool music on this collection is album's cover, which looks as though it were taken from a '70s Thai B-grade horror film. A "scary" looking dude in blue slacks, red sweater, and dracula fangs is lightly held back (or is he dancing with?) two sexy Thai girls wearing matching green skirts and white knee high boots. WOW! is our reaction to that, and the whole disc as well! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 2+2=5, THE "Into The Future..." (Spittle) cd 21.00 ARCHITEUTHIS REX "Dark As The Sea" (Utech) cd 14.98 AUBRY, GILLES "s6tr8" (Winds Measure Recordings) cd 12.98 BASSHATERS "Harsh Lovers Sick Zoo" (Yik Yak) cassette 5.00 BOSSE-DE-NAGE "s/t" (Flenser) cd 9.98 DADAWAH "Peace And Love" (Wild Flower) cd/lp 16.98/24.00 DIVORCE "s/t" (Optimo) 10" 13.98 DURUTTI COLUMN "LC" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 DURUTTI COLUMN "The Return Of The Durutti Column" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 ECHOSPACE "Liumin" (Modern Love) 2cd 15.98 ENDTABLES, THE "s/t" (Drag City) cd 14.98 FEROCIOUS FEW "Juices" (Birdman) cd 12.98 FNS "S/t" (Miasmah) cd/lp 15.98/19.98 FOOT VILLAGE "Anti-Magic" (Upset The Rhythm) lp 17.98 HEALTH "Disco 2" (Lovepump United) cd 14.98 JJ "N� 3" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 KEEPAWAY "Baby Style" (Lefse) lp 14.98 KNIGHT SCHOOL "Revenger" (Make A Mess) lp 14.98 MAGIC BULLETS "s/t" (Mon Amie) lp 14.98 MAX PLANCK "Kill The Pain" (Buried By Time And Dust) lp 32.00 NEON "Oscillator" (Spittle) cd 21.00 NORTH SEA, THE "Bloodlines" (Type) lp 19.98 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THE "Say No To Love" (Slumberland) 7" 5.98 PERNICE BROTHERS "Goodbye Killer" (Ashmont) cd 10.98 ROEDELIUS "The Diary Of The Unforgotten" (Bureau) cd 17.98 ROSE, JACK & GLENN JONES "The Things That We used To Do" (Strange Attractions) dvd 20.00 ROSE, JACK WITH D. CHARLES SPEER & THE HELIX "Ragged And Right" (Thrill Jockey) cd ep/12" 11.98/14.98 SWORDS & SANDLES / VHOLTZ / WOMAN'S WORTH / ETTRICK "s/t" (self released) cassette 5.00 TRANS AM "Thing" (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98 URAL UMBO "s/t" (Utech) cd 14.98 V/A "Clicks And Cuts 5.0" (Mille Plateax) cd 17.98 V/A "Head Over High Heels: Strong & Female 1927-1959" (Trikont) cd 17.98 V/A "Karl Rove: Courage And Concequence" (Seismic.Wave) lp 14.98 V/A "Milano New Wave 1980-83" (Spittle) cd 21.00 V/A "The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol.II Ethnic Music Classics; 1925-48" (Outernational) 2lp 31.00 V/A "To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings From Istanbul" (Honest Jons) 2cd 26.00 V/A "Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!!" (Nosmoke) cd 25.00 VANGELIS "Who Killed The Dragon? (The BYG Sessions)" (Finders Keepers) 12" 14.98 WE LIKE CATS "Proper Eats" (Marriage) lp 13.98 WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY "Against Love" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 ZUMPANO, JASON "Room And Mansion" (Inflight) cd-r 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ 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 all-time AQ favorite is finally available on vinyl! From the label that brought us Dungen, Parson Sound and Abner Jay comes a crazy collection of Thai Go-Go. We're still reeling from the double whammy of the two volume Cambodian Rocks releases and the excellent Cambodian Cassette Archives and now this. Though to be fair to the latter, this release might not necessarily cater to all the same fans. The music here is more likely to appeal to fans of obscure 60's pop and garage than say, fans of off kilter pop influenced Thai music. In fact, much of what's on this disc would be difficult to place within any particular country, let alone region of the world through listening alone. Apparently the musicians here were first and foremost concerned with reproducing an accurate replica (there are many overt copies included here) of popular American music of the day. This was, after all, during the Vietnam war and plenty of American servicemen were stationed in Thailand and American music was being broadcast far and wide for their benefit. That said, there are still plenty of great rocking vocal and instrumental tracks here and a few nutty renditions of classics. Of note is The Son Of P.M.'s version of the "James Bond Theme", which gets a little spicing up with Thai drums and The Cat's "Meow" or Louise Kennedy's "Poo Yai Lee", either of which would have been an excellent addition to the Ultra Chicks compilations. There's also a version of Hank Williams' "Kaw Liga" with augmented Native American drumming and a super upbeat bridge, and Johnny Guitar's "Klongyao", probably the best representation of Thai-Western pop hybrid on the collection. Definitely stick this one out to the end when you pick it up though, as it seems heavily weighted with the best tracks in the second half.

MPEG stream: Phom Rak Khoon Tching Tching
MPEG stream: Klongyao
MPEG stream: Yom Pha Barn Norn Pahwaa

Hot on the heels of the first volume, Subliminal Sounds has released this second collection of Thai garage beat pop go-go madness. And we have to say it's better than the first. Much better (and cheaper too). Like the first volume the tracks here are all distinct replicas of popular music from the Occident of the late sixties. Some notable covers include the King's "All Shook Up", Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'aime Moi Non Plus" and The Beatles' "Lady Madonna". What makes this collection stand out for us though is both the inclusion of a wider range of severely demented production aesthetics and a great deal more songs that, vocally, sound more Thai. The album starts off with a bang to Viparat Piengsuwan's "YoK YoK" with chipper plosive vocals that could only come from Thailand. So cute it'll make you barf. Not skipping a beat we're led into Surapon's "Ding Dong", which sounds like a seriously fucked up deconstruction of the "Surfing Bird". A little later Waipot Petsuwan's "Mia Chaa" throws a monkey wrench into our expectations with a dreamy ellyptical vocal line -- that sounds reminiscent of Mo Lam -- over an otherwise standard garage beat tune, instantly transforming it into a classic. Then, of course, there's some demented production like excessive reverb in the oddest places and a strange Thai version of the Chipmonks that'll have you spitting your lunch out your nose. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Yok Yok (Jump)
MPEG stream: Mia Chaa (My Darling)
MPEG stream: Nang Maew Pee (The Ghost of Catwoman)

It's beginning to appear as though Subliminal Sounds' well of amazing undiscovered Thai Beat music might be bottomless! We were a bit surprised when they managed to pull off a second excellent collection of Thai bubblegum psych tunes from yesteryear, but now a *third*?? "Is it just as good", you ask? Well, heck yeah, it is! It doesn't seem as though they culled the best for the first, or even the second, collection. This third volume may in fact be the best -- though it's hard to choose. This one has about the same ratio of purely weird and inimitably Thai "pop" to off-kilter covers of your favorites from the golden era of rock (including "Hang On Sloopy" and another Elvis number "Heartbreak Hotel"), but add into that mix a great deal of seventies funk & disco and even some Santana-esque rock, all with a Thai twist and lots of fun. But the real gems on this collection are two tracks -- "Thai Boxing" and "Siamese Boxing" -- by Jiraphand Ong-Ard which nearly bookend the anthology and completely fill their own void of strange rock. Both tracks pay homage to Muay Thai boxing and raam muay -- the traditional music that accompanies boxing events. The music of raam muay features a Thai reed instrument that sounds like a kazoo run through a Marshall amp. Both the tracks use this music as an odd bridge mixed in to them -- almost arbitrarily -- in such a way that they sound bi-polar. In addition to all the cool music on this collection is album's cover, which looks as though it were taken from a 70's Thai B-grade horror film. A "scary" looking dude in blue slacks, red sweater, and dracula fangs is lightly held back (or is he dancing with?) two sexy Thai girls wearing matching green skirts and white knee high boots. WOW! is our reaction to that, and the whole disc as well!

MPEG stream: Thai Boxing
MPEG stream: Lua Chan See
MPEG stream: Where Is the Love?

Another killer installment in the Sublime Frequencies series of wondrous and fantastical musics from around the world, and although we've probably proclaimed this about past volumes, this just may be the best one yet. The hardest thing about enjoying strange musics from other lands, though, is realizing that the music only seems strange to us. And with that realization comes a responsibility, c'mon, the pop music popular in the US must seem just as strange to folks in other countries, Avril Lavigne, Britney, every singer from American Idol, or how about Weird Al? So you sort of have to take into account that knowing the language, and growing up listening to the various popular musics of a region, would probably help to contextualize the strange hybridized pop music that we love to listen to and that is such a cornerstone of this series. Imagine how different it would be listening to a band like Circle if you understood Finnish. Might not seem so crazy. But that's part of the joy, it does sound crazy, and wild and weird, and wonderful, and there's certainly nothing wrong with being fascinated by seeming strangeness of the music, or enjoying the lyrics as just another instrument since we don't speak the language, and digging the seemingly bizarre juxtapositions, as long as we respect the heritage and the makers of this music that gives us such pleasure. And we do. And holy crap does this latest installment give us all kinds of pleasure. It -is- wild, an awesomely confusional mix of Molam, Bollywood, Ethiopian groove, funk, soul, American pop and surf rock, all tangled up into amazing shapes, and peppered with killer hooks, amazing vocalists, bizarre production techniques, but most of all amazing amazing songs. The sort of songs that get stuck in your head and you find yourself humming to yourself, wondering if it was something you heard on the radio or something that was playing in some store you were just in, then realizing it was actually some seventies Thai pop song! We knew this collection was going to be amazing before we even got to the music. Past installments in this series focusing on Thai music were already among our favorites, the photos are awesome, and check out some of these song titles: "There Are Many Handsome Men Out There", "You Should Die By Bullets", "Drinking Whiskey Until I'm Blurred", "Look Whose Underwear Is Showing", "Monthly Wife", "Uncle Dee Is A Drunk"... And the music is just as fun and funky, crazy and catchy. A killer collection of Thai disco classics, music from Thai films, a bunch of stone cold pop gems, some unknown, some by Thai superstars, and a totally tweaked version of "The Night Chicago Died". Some of our favorites are "Dance Of The Ngeo" by Johnny Guitar, a bad ass surf guitar jam, that begins with some strange trash can percussion, that surfaces again and again throughout, as well as some awesome fuzz organ, all making it sound like the coolest weirdest track Joe Meek never recorded, "You Should Die By Bullets" by Chailai Chaiyata & Sawanee Patana, a super funky slab of tripped out Bollywood style disco, with some truly damaged alien synths, and some amazing vocals, "We Both Think We're The Best" by Sangthong Seesai, a seasick, slithery groove, all blown out percussion, fuzzy organ, really grimey and groovy and sultry sounding, "Long Time No See" by Generation, a badass Barney Miller wah guitar groove, strutting and sexy, with a super strange totally blown out cymbal that gives the track a really strange shimmer, "Wise Old Man" by Gawao Siangthong, a funky horn flecked funk workout, that almost sounds like the Thai version of an Ethiopian Grooves track, there's even a weird breakdown in the middle of the song, where the two vocalists joke and banter, before launching right back into the song, "Title Theme from Live From The Rocket Festival" by Chalermpon Malakum, a space age seventies sitcom soundtrack groove, with weird warbly synths, funky horns, and a killer psychedelic guitar solo, and maybe our favorite (although it's practically impossible to choose), "Papaya Salad Merchant, by Onuma Singsiri, a slow burning shuffle, moody and brooding, with super sultry vocals, a wicked Morricone-ish Spaghetti Western twang guitar, some subtle waka waka rhythms, and a main melody to die for. It's hard to describe any of these tracks without the word 'groove', as the above would seem to demonstrate, and that's because almost all of these tracks are indeed groovy, full of funky horns, wah wah guitars, bouncy bass lines, wild percussion, wicked drumming, and an incredible array of vocals and vocalists... but even the tracks that aren't inherently groovy, still seem to groove somehow... and even though we picked our favorites above, the more we listen, the more -every- song here is becoming one of our favorites... so so great! Unlike a lot of other titles in this series where the sources were dubbed tapes or unlabeled recordings or radio broadcasts, each track here is credited to the performer (and hopefully, we assume, the performers will see some of the profits this time around?), each with it's original Thai title and translated English title, as well as what album the song is taken from, and there are liner notes from Sublime Frequencies head honcho (and Sun City Girl) Alan Bishop and frequent SF contributor Mark Gergis.

MPEG stream: Roob Lor Thom Pai
MPEG stream: Mae Kha Som Tum
MPEG stream: Fawn Ngeo
MPEG stream: Kwuan Tai Duew Luk Puen

Another fantastic collection of far out seventies South East Asian grooves, from rock to garage to surf music, once again HEAVILY influenced by American and European music of the time, although this time we do in fact mean HEAVILY, as this collection features various hard rocking jams from Asia, recorded in the seventies, all songs and sounds that lean toward the heavy, the psychedelic, the metallic even, with lots of fuzzy guitars, pounding drums, distorted horns, throbbing basslines, not to mention some wholesale borrowing from popular rock songs of the time, all given a distinctly Asian sonic makeover, mixing traditional folk vocals with thick super distorted guitar crunch, or wrapping wild psychedelic guitar freakouts around funky grooves and more traditional sounding vox. This strange hybrid is probably best exemplified by the killer opener, Sroeng Santi's "Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng", which essentially swipes that oh so iconic riff from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", without doing much to it at all, but then mixes it with a dark slithery low slung verse, all broody and fuzzy and a little bit sinister, with those totally irresistible Thai vocals, which as we've mentioned before, most of us heard for the first time via the Butthole Surfers' track "Kuntz", in fact, "Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng" sorta sounds like an "Iron Man" / "Kuntz" mash up, and it RULES. Then there's Jalwal, Annie & Geerasak's "Klug Tum La", which is essentially a Thai version of Chicago's "25 or 6 To 4", that immediately recognizable riff, SERIOUSLY fuzzy and crunchy, and then the horns, fantastically atonal and harsh, adding a strange vibe, as do the sweet crooned female vox, which occasionally slip into a powerful witchy howl, there's also a seriously fierce, super distorted psychedelic guitar solo. Another one of our favorites is Teungjai Bunpraruksa's "Kanong Krung" which is just crazy and over the top and so good, pounding and fuzzy and groovy, with wild horns, twangy guitars, frantic drumming, a fat fuzzy main riff, super strange girl gang vocals, all distorted and often erupting into wails and screams, a total free for all party anthem for sure. A lot of the tracks here are not necessarily super heavy, but they all share a certain something, whether it's a bit of fuzzy guitar, or some wild chaotic drumming, or some psychedelic guitar leads, and the sounds do vary dramatically, with many on first listen sounding like they could have come from any of the other recent Thai and Asian comps from Sublime Frequencies or Subliminal Sounds, whether it's twang flecked Morricone-esque moodiness, or Ventures like surfiness, or groovy fuzzy exotica, but spend a little time with each song, and no matter how traditional they sound at first, before you know it, some fuzzy riff or tangle of psychedelic guitar, or burst of skronking horns, or flurry of tribal drums will surface, and the song is transformed into something else. And we do mean SOMETHING ELSE! Includes a booklet with photos, and liner notes, with more details about the history of the music, as well as the artists and the songs.

MPEG stream: Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng
MPEG stream: Ruk Kum Samong
MPEG stream: Pai Joi
MPEG stream: Nam Mun Pang
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Awwwwww, snuggle up kiddies! Here's a compilation of Scottish indie pop and rock from Scottish indie labels (Electric Honey, Pema, Postcard Circa 1980, Fence, Chemikal Underground, Codex / Pop Aural, Domino / Geographic, Shoeshine, and Creeping Bent. Mostly jingle jangle sweetness comin' from the old faves like The Pastels, Belle And Sebastian, The Delgados, Teenage Fanclub and Future Pilot A.K.A., but Josef K, How To Swim and The Nectarine No. 9 add a teeny bit of edginess and variety to this soft argyle and cardigan wearin' set. A delightful trip down a tartan pop memory lane.

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Initially a very post-rock focused indie label, Temporary Residence has branched out over the years to become quite a mighty eclectic entity. This compilation literally picks right up from where the label's 2004's Thank You compilation left off. It features brand spankin' new, previously unreleased tracks by almost every artist that Temporary Residence has signed since Thank You was released. Present and accounted for: Eluvium, Caroline, Lazarus, Cex & Nice Nice, The Ladies, Sleeping People, By The End Of Tonight, The Drift, Mono and Anomoanon.

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On this double cd you'll find the scores to six *entire* classic WB cartoons (including "What's Opera, Doc?"), in addition to tracks taken from hundreds of others. Every imaginable genre is represented: 19th century art songs, nationalistic tunes from the

Fab collection of rare, groovy tracks dug up and dusted off from back in the sixties/seventies heyday of such funky goodness. It's wide-ranging but carefully curated comp, chock full of soul, gospel, disco, soundtrack and library music of diverse geographic origin: Brazil, England, France, and the USA.... Included is Nina Simone's classic put-down "Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter" but that's not the only highlight. Library disco diva Madeline Bell's title track is another. (By the way, in case you're wondering, "library music" is music recorded to be sold for commerical purposes, like in advertising, as opposed to music released to the public on its own.) We also were taken by French teen pinup France Gall's samba/jazz confection "Zozoi" also, and library music "mad scientist" Nino Nardini's "Poltergeist" too. Heck it's hard to pick favorites, all of these are definite DJ droolers. These cuts are all selections derived from the Jazzman label's series of 7" vinyl reissues, but handily enough for those of us who missed those collectables (or prefer the convenience of a cd) they've compiled some of the choicest tracks here. And we must give props to Jazzman for the well-researched linernotes complete with full-color photos, that's the way to do it!

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Fire up your Christmas spirits early with this sackful of seasonal song-poems! For those unfamiliar with the phenomena, here's a quick summary that we wrote a whiles back... Back in the '60s and '70s, song-poems were vanity recordings where any schmo with the dough could send in their original poems / lyrics and have them made into songs! For anywhere between $75 and $400, one could have their words set to music by professional studio musicians, often recorded in one take. Indeed, some were poignant, some were bizarre, and some were downright brilliant. Heck, that's no surprise, after all these were professional players! If that's piqued your interest, definitely check out the recent dvd documentary Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story and its soundtrack cd as well as the excellent compilation The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood And Brush. Okay, got all that? Now wouldn't you love a collection of song-poems all about Santa and Christmas, Christmas, Christmas performed by the likes of dapper gent Rodd Keith (aka Rodd Rogers) and the lovely ladies of The Sisterhood among others? Well, yearn no further 'cause Bar/None Records have made it a reality with song-poems like "Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile", "Randy, The Lil' Elf", "Christmas Time Philosophy", and "Santa Claus Goes Modern".

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Another Finders Keepers / B-Music treat here, folks! A collection of kooky, creepy, very cool music from the films (many of them about vampires, and many of THOSE about sexy lesbian vampires!) by French underground auteur Jean Rollin, circa 1968-1979. The late Rollin has been proclaimed the "father of European Horrortica". On the freaky fringes of free jazz and psych rock, the tracks found here are the perfect accompaniment to the director's sexy, surreal cinematic phantasmagorias. And unless we're much mistaken, we recognize one of the tracks here, Acanthus' theme to "Le Frisson Des Vampires", as having been surreptitiously covered in heavier fashion by drugged-out doomlords (and horrotica fans) Electric Wizard on their Witchcult Today album! Another one of note is Pierre Raph's aptly-titled "Gilda & Gunshots", a track of consisting of excited percussion, jazzy bass and pretty trumpet, overlaid with whipcrack-like gun shots, girlish whimpers and cries. It could almost be some noir-jazz experiment by the Boredoms. What the heck was happening in the film scene this scored, we don't know... We could go on describing this track by track, but there are 31 cuts in all on this disc! With great titles like "Abstract Procession", "Bizarre Cult 2", "Crotch Batterie", "Crimson Gates", and "Violent Library", these vary widely and weirdly, encompassing spooky theremin-like tones, chamber music drones, somber choirs, flute-laced grooves, melodic reveries, arrhythmic interludes, all sorts of stuff. It's a real cornucopia of suspenseful strangeness and freeform avant-rockin'. Composers/performers responsible include the aforementioned Acanthus and Pierre Raph, along with many more by Phillipe D'Aram, Yvon Gerault, Francois Tusques and others. Much of this is previously unreleased. And of course Finders Keepers provides plentiful, fully illustrated liner notes in the cd booklet. By the way, we also have a couple copies each of the soundtracks to Rollin's films Requiem Por Un Vampire (1972, composed by Pierre Raph) and Fascination (1979, Phillipe D'Aram) on import 10" vinyl, reissued by Finders Keepers as well (key tracks from which appear on this cd collection, naturally).

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For a lot of us, buying comps and reissues and stuff put out by Finders Keepers / B-Music is pretty much a no-brainer. These folks know their stuff. They can DJ for us anytime! So mentioning that The BYG Deal is the latest from 'em might be all we need to say, though dropping some names like Brigitte Fontaine, Jean-Claude Vannier, Daevid Allen & Gong, Giorgio Gomelsky, Robert Wyatt, Vangelis, Ame Son, and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago couldn't hurt. Or perhaps a name like Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band - never heard of 'em before, no, but they've gotta be good, right!!? (And they are, their track "Floating" anyway being a blissful bit of la-la-la space psych ceremony). What we have here is a collection of tracks released by France's BYG, a post '68 radical rock/jazz label that flourished 'til about 1974. We'd heard of 'em before mainly in conjunction with the famed BYG/Actuel series of African-American jazz releases, stuff by the Art Ensemble, Don Cherry, Sunny Murray, etc. But this disc demonstrates that BYG (which according to one graphic here stands for Beautiful Young Generation, though elsewhere we're told it's the initials of the three label owners) was as much about psychedelic pop rock and groovy "hairy funk" as it was about avant-garde free jazz... an awesome blend in our opinion, and blend they do, some of these tracks really hard to classify. Maybe it's the "Total Space Music" of which they speak. In any case, whatever discotheque played this stuff must have been REALLY hip and happenin'. The music here is almost all super groovy, but often quite quirky too (take Gong's circusy nursery rhyme freakout "Hip Hypnotise You" for instance!), these various tracks loaded with flute, orgasmic female vocals, heavy psych guitar, and equally heavy prog organ (running wild alongside frenetically shuffling drums on Vangelis' "Stuffed Tomato", for example, among many standout spots here). From chanteuse Valerie Lagrange's ye-ye grooves to the poppy psychedelic stomp of Coeur Magique to Banana Moon's Beefheartian crunt, this is pretty far out and awesome. Here's the complete lineup of artists appearing here: Alice (2 tracks), Francois Wertheimer, Brigitte Fontaine and Areski, Gong (3 tracks), Alan Jack, Couer Magique (2 tracks), Valerie Lagrange, Jacques Barsamian, Alpha Beta, Ame Son (2 tracks), Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Freedom, Vangelis, Paul Semana, Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band, Banana Moon, Joachim and Rolf Kuhn. Yep, the disc is crammed, 22 tracks, almost 80 minutes, and the thick cd booklet is equally full up with full color graphics and extensive liner notes, it's amazing the compilers could dig up so much info on this stuff, considering how obscure a lot of this is, but that's their biz! There's a few tracks you could have run across elsewhere on other reissues, but most of 'em you haven't, that's for damn sure. For instance, the awesomely named track "Astral Abuse" from the rare 7" by Alpha Beta, a one-off Vangelis project. And there's plenty more from other collector's-only, never before on cd sources. If you liked other B-music compilations like Andy Votel's Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, this ought to be right up your alley. Likewise if you enjoyed the two Pop Made In France comps we've listed, this is a bit like those (some of the same artists appear, in fact) but way weirder. And of course any fan of Jean-Pierre Massiera's strange productions is gonna find this of interest as well... in fact there's personnel connections to his Visitors project, and connections also to the likes of Magma and Aphrodite's Child for that matter. Another keeper from Finders Keepers that's for sure, thankfully available domestically, complete with slipcover!

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For those unfamiliar with The Bay Bridged, it's a bountiful website dedicated to Bay Area independent music (podcast, blogs, videos, show reviews, concert calendar, you name it!). Now they've released a bountiful compilation featuring a mix of previously released and unreleased tracks by eleven of the fine bands they covered -- Tartufi, Social Studies, Love Is Chemicals, Finest Dearest, The Lonely Hearts, The Dont's, Peloton, Tempo No Tempo, Or The Whale, and The Dodo's.

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Music from '60s German thriller cinema based on the books of Edgar Wallace. Peter Thomas is on here, and others of his swingin' ilk.

There's a LOT of great Trojan vintage reggae comps out there, with a variety of concepts. Their triple cd box series alone has dozens of titles, each one focusing exclusively on everything from ganja-themed songs to Beatles covers to X-rated reggae. Really, there's so many that we can't stock 'em all, or there'd be nothing in our reggae/dub section but Trojan comps! But we do try to get some of the cooler comps in now and then, and spaghetti western inspired reggae is certainly pretty neat (right up there with all that Kung-Fu reggae, of which there is also a Trojan comp devoted, previously reviewed). So, this collection, released last year, includes tracks from 1968-1972 by such artists as The Upsetters, The Crystalites, King Stitt, Lloyd Charmers, The Destroyers, Hippy Boys and others doing songs named for either favorite spaghetti westerns or spaghetti western stars -- "A Fistful Of Dollars", "Return Of Django", "Lee Van Cleef", "Franco Nero", "Clint Eastwood", "The Bad", etc. etc. The heavily echoed song intros/skits are usually where you get the specific spaghetti western inspired content, as the songs themselves are fairly bouncy and groovy and wouldn't be mistaken for a moody Morricone score (though his famed The Good The Bad And The Ugly theme does get appropriated a few times). No, it's good ol' upbeat instrumental reggae grooves throughout. But there's plenty of gritty drama in those intros -- The Crystalites even manage a whole trilogy of tracks chronicling the rise and fall of a gunslinger called The Undertaker. Like Kung-Fu movies, these Italian westerns were popular in Jamaica at the time for the same reasons they're cult favorites today: the desperate violence and stylish visuals. So it makes sense that reggae producers would want to use 'em to sell songs. The liner notes to this comp discuss the phenomenon and explain to what films and characters each track is making reference, illustrated by reproductions of some representative film posters.

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A few years back MoWax resurfaced on our radar with the Now Thing compilation of popular dancehall rhythms. People seemed to dig that collection enough, especially on vinyl, so when we saw this new(ish) collection of rhythms from the trusty Greensleeves label, who are responsible -- for better or worse -- for the endless stream of rhythm albums (the kind that feature the same rhythm with toasting from 20 different artists) we thought it'd be a good thing to snatch up. And surely it is. The Biggest Rhythms is just that: 18 unadulterated ragga dancehall tracks sans vocals of the 'best' rhythms from the 46 odd collections. While not credited as a producer on any of the tracks, Andre Gray of Ward 21 has his name attached to several rhythms nonetheless -- and we know there's a few Ward 21 fans out there. Rhythms included here are: Diwali, Mad Ants, Clappas, Bollywood, Egyptian, Coolie Dance, Amharic, Masterpiece, Bad Company, Sign, Good To Go, Krazy, 20 Cent, Jumbie, Knockout, Bun Bun, Martial Arts, and C-4. Those waiting for a vinyl edition of this shouldn't hold up: according to Greensleeves, this is CD only.

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The Numero Group and their Eccentric Soul series have helped usher in a new era of comprehensive and well thought out reissues of amazing long lost soul music that so deserves the chance to reach more ears. And we couldn't be happier Since that music totally hits the spot for us. We're also happy that other labels like This Rabbit Factory are popping up to help preserve more of the sounds of artists and labels that otherwise would just be erased from history. This collection is a look into the soulful sounds that came out of Birmingham, Alabama. Best known as being the center of the Civil Rights struggle this compilation puts its focus on The Sound of Birmingham studio run by a plumber named Neal Hemphill. In his studio the best and brightest of the Birmingham soul scene had the opportunity to record inside a real studio that was dedicated to the sounds of soul. Many of these musicians never even performed live but got to lay down some seriously warm and solid soul tracks in Hemphill's studio. A very welcome addition to the recent soul reissue explosion.

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In 1961, Piero Manzoni offered the artworld 90 cans of his own shit for its own consumption. It certainly stands as one of the greatest moments of artistic transgression that reveled in culture's jettisoned waste. While the idiocy of Jackass has trumped every single aspired transgressive artist with scatalogical inclinations, there are enough elements within the "morally upright" society who will get upset at Chris Ofili lumping piles of elephant shit on his bedazzled paintings. It's this reaction that has perpetuated the shit-vomit-labia-testicles-n-piss ethos for the misanthropic bastions of bedroom Dadaists around the world. The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig is a compilation that features the next generation of contenders for Nurse With Wound's crown. So willfully obscure is the compilation that Aquarius has only encountered three of the projects on this compilation: those being the Broken Penis Orchestra, Mixed Band Philanthropist (aka Richard Rupenus of New Blockaders and Organum infamy who has contributed a rare track from an old cassette dating back to 1983) and Forms of Things Unknown (longtime AQ patron Ferrara Brain Pan with a well done offering of plunderphonics with exotic rhythms and decontextualized spoken samples). With projects entitled things like snma, and Nequaquam Vacuum, this is definitely an album made by wacky absurdists for wacky absurdists. Within the context, The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig is a pretty well done concoction of Fflint Central electronica damage, Sylvie 'n' Babs tape collages, and shit-stained Surrealism.

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Those frisky, fine folks at Bloodshot Records sure aren't the kind to leave anybody out in the cold. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is this CHILDREN'S album! They've even enlisted the help of non-Bloodshoters like Neko Case's pal and fellow Corn Sister Carolyn Mark to join in the tykes' merriment. Much in the way of storytelling and singalongs abound. I know firsthand that while hanging out with your favorite baby, toddler or child, the music that they usually have, and sadly are programmed to like, sucks. It could drive a well-meaning mom or caregiver nuts! Disney and 'We Sing Silly Songs' and such. This release is a pleasant change in that it is fun for kids and easy to listen to for adults (psst... another choice pick in the kids' category is They Might Be Giants' "No!" from earlier this year). Robbie Fulks' "Godfrey" ("the sickly unemployed amateur children's magician"!) is worth the price in chuckles alone. Plus I think it is our duty as musically tasteful people to introduce our children to music that doesn't suck from early on. Right?

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The fourth installment of The Breaks comps is fantastic. Not only are most of the tracks rare collectibles that you'd be hardpressed to find elsewhere, so coveted by DJs are they, but after one listen you realize that these original tracks are stone Another nice thing about The Breaks comps is that the liner notes are detailed and inspiring, they give you just enough substantial info to make you wanna find out more about each artist, plus they namedrop all the many musicians who love this music too and have sampled these very tracks -- on this album alone are tracks used by Wu Tang, NWA, Del, the Beastie Boys, KRS-One, Raekwon, Limp Bizkit (!), Gang Starr, Massive Attack, etc., making the listening experience both new and pleasantly familiar.

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Wow! Wow! Wow! This is for sure gonna be at the top of quite a few wish lists this holiday season! The title is a bit of an overstatement. "Of The Last Millenium"?! Not quite, how 'bout "Of The Last Decade And A Half Of The Last Millenium"? Uh huh, that's more accurate. Anyways, nitpicking aside, this box set contains four cds packed with 78 songs total plus a big 80-page booklet! So many old favorite UK bands -- many of which had shamefully slipped through the cracks in our memory until now! Disc One features The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Felt, Shop Assistants, Mighty Lemon Drops, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, The Primitives, The Wonder Stuff, The Sone Roses, The Charlatans UK, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Inspiral Carpets, The Trash Can Sinatras, The La's, and The Sundays. Disc Two has Ride, Pale Saints, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, The Telescopes, Chapterhouse, Catherine Wheel, Bleach, Curve, Five Thirty, Moose, The Family Cat, The Dylans, Thousand Yard Stare, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Birdland, Manic Street Preachers, and Teenage Fanclub. Disc Three includes Suede, Swervedriver, Eugenius, Superstar, New Order, James, Nick Heyward, The Boo Radleys, Saint Etienne, Stereolab, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, These Animal Men, Mega City Four, Echobelly, Gene, Menswear, Supergrass, Cast, and Elastica. Disc Four closes out the box with Dodgy, Ash, Sleeper, Marion, Kula Shaker, Ocean Colour Scene, Babybird, The Bluetones, Super Furry Animals, The Divine Comedy, Cornershop, Silver Sun (YAY!!!), Spiritualized, Mansun, Hurricane #1, The Verve, Rialto, Catatonia, Placebo, and Gay Dad! Plus for those of you (and us!) who are geeks for special packaging gimmicks, the 6"x12" box comes tricked out with a little light that illuminates not only the telephone booth sign on the outside front of the box, but also a mini stadium stage inside. Yes, batteries are included!

It used to be jazz combos and chamber ensembles who would try making new, original music to accompany screenings of classic films from the silent era. Now, the new generation of electronic "clicks n' cuts" artists are getting into the act on this double cd.

We know lots of you probably had that early years of Hip-Hop torch reignited by the recent Soul Jazz Big Apple Rappin' comp. If you're anything like us you totally loved the feel good sounds on that collection but still wanted more from that era, but maybe with a bit of a weirder edge. Which makes this two disc collection of the Celluloid label's early hip-hop roster so appealing. Celluloid was the label founded by a former co-owner of BYG, a label known and adored by most avant/free-jazz lovers. With Bill Laswell on board as one of their talent scouts they built a roster of hip-hop artists with feet and beats crossing all lines and genres. Futura 2000 hooking up with The Clash. John Lydon alongside Afrika Bambaataa. Nods to early graffiti culture, some raps in French, and beats that will make you wanna bust out your old breakdancing moves.

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Two discs, 26 tracks of all new and exclusive tracks from the Planet Mu roster: Hrvatski (record forthcoming, we hope), Jega, Capitol K, Luke Vibert, Hellfish, Producer, Phthalocyanine, Electric Company, Venetian Snares, Speedranch, Leafcutter John, Joseph

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Second collection of vintage 78 rpm records from the Sublime Frequencies label, following the fantastic Scattered Melodies compilation we reviewed recently, which focused exclusively on music played on the kayagum, a Korean instrument similar to the Japanese koto. This new one is all music from Burma, now Myanmar, all ultra rare recordings from 1909 to 1960, and again assembled by Robert Millis, a member of aQ faves Climax Golden Twins, and more recently, the curator of many of our favorite world music compilations. The provenance of these recordings is almost as fascinating as the music itself. The liner notes explain that these records were collected by Millis and former Sun City Girl Alan Bishop over the course of several trips to Burma, some given to them by a dealer with boxes of records tied to the back of his scooter, others from small shops in tiny villages, one in particular where the proprietors would wash its records under the town's single faucet, and still others from their driver, who handed over a bag of records belonging to his dead father. The music itself is as varied as the sources, the A side made up of various 'zat pwe's, a term avid Sublime Frequencies fans might remember from several other SF comps we've carried in the past, and which refers to troupes that would travel throughout Burma performing their musical dramas, soaring emotional vocals, wild squiggly melodies, tinkling chimes, and darkly shimmering gamelan like percussion, some of the tracks are sung by children, the vocals almost always the focal point, the wild melodies in the background tightly wound up in those vocal melodies, making for lush tapestries of exotic inspirational sound, hypnotic and mesmerizing. The flipside offers up several tracks featuring the Burmese harp, one of the most important instruments in Burmese music, with some tracks sounding like American blues, rich throaty vocals over laid back twang, and what sounds like wildly sawed fiddles, and the thick layer of crackle definitely furthers that whole early shellac / old timey sound. A few of the tracks are more modern, with piano, and male/female vocals, some of the tracks even sound almost like big band jazz, a definite Western influence for sure, but deftly woven into a distinctly Burmese sound. And then it's right back to another stretch of quavery almost traditional sounding Burmese folk music, buzzing strings, intricate vocal melodies, dreamy and dramatic and so divine. When we first got this in, we sold two copies within minutes of putting the needle in the groove. Fantastic, gorgeous, utterly unique, emotional and haunting, all in equal measure. Obviously recommended for international / world music enthusiasts, but the sounds here totally transcend any sort of classification, anyone into adventurous listening and discovering new (old) sounds should most definitely take a flyer on this, you won't be sorry. Pure sonic bliss that will hopefully open up your mind, and ears, to a whole other world of music out there, past and present. Comes housed in a heavy, old school Stoughton style tip-on full color jacket, and includes a printed insert with extensive liner notes, and rare photos.

Remix anthologies are almost always varied affairs. While one may like the re-mixer, one may not always like the artist being remixed or vice versa. Here the DFA Team offer up their takes on ten cuts from artists who exist outside of the DFA family, with predictably mixed results. The best cuts are from the artists whose sound already has an affinity to the DFA style of production (Metro Area, Radio 4), and the remixes of Chemical Brothers, Soulwax and Gorillaz offer some nice surprises. But even re-mixers sent from GOD can't ever make the Blues Explosion sound good, so why bother? All in all, this is a decent compilation that would have been better if there was more to sink our teeth into, but what is here is a nice appetizer that keeps us hungry for a more up-to-date main course. Hopefully we'll find that in Vol. II.

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The second edition of DFA remixes improves upon the first by delving into less obvious rhythm and dance territories. Increasing the atmospheres rather than cowbell-driven propulsion, DFA's reworking of Goldfrapp, UNKLE, Tiga, N.E.R.D. and Nine Inch Nails, among others are often more expansive and symphonic, at times extending passages and compositions to almost 14 minutes in length. This is an excellent dose of dance tunes for the mind as well as the body. Awesome!

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Ecstasy Of Gold, besides being the name of an iconic Ennio Morricone track from the legendary Italian Western, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, is also the name of this incredible series of compilations, five volumes in all, this being part two, collecting classic and rare tracks from Italian Westerns. Sure, Morricone is probably the most well known, but like on the first volume, you'll find more amazing music here from some of the lesser known composers, some we knew and already love, like Bruno Nicolai Francesco De Masi, Alessandro Alessandroni, Riz Ortolani, Piero Umiliani, but plenty of unknown to us before now: Stelvio Cipriani, Vasco Vassil Kojucharov, Carlos Pes, Nico Fidenco, Marcello Giambini, Armando Sciascia, Guido & Maurizio De Angelis and loads more. But really, you don't need to know the names to dig this stuff. It's wild and psychedelic, twangy and atmospheric, all dramatic vocals, dusky guitars, exotic percussion, fluttering woodwinds, mariachi horns, groovy wah wah fuzzguitar, orchestral swells, playful xylophones, jawharp, loads of sound effects, explosions and gunshots, even some futuristic sound electronics, and yeah, of course, even some whistling. Haunting and cinematic one second, dark and brooding the next, slipping easily from jazzy and jaunty, to strident and tense, some tracks lush and orchestral, others fuzzy and psychedelic, and others ambient and atmospheric, we're digging this as much as the first volume, and like that one, it's got us wanting to track down more music from all of these folks, as well as a hankering to check out some of these films... LIMITED TO 750 COPIES!! Like the first volume, housed in a super swank eye popping gatefold jacket adorned with more classic images from Italian Westerns, film stills, poster art and more.

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"Ecstasy Of Gold" is one of THEE most iconic songs from perhaps the most famous Italian western ever, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, and was written by none other than Ennio Morricone. And it's pretty much everything you want in a song like that, booming percussion, haunting melodies, reverby twang, galloping rhythms, swirling strings, horns, gorgeous almost operatic vocals, the sound epic and majestic and so dramatic. The only thing missing is that whistling we've come to associate with Italian Westerns (and Morricone in particular), and while Morricone might be the best known of the many composers who scored classic seventies Italian Westerns, there are plenty of others who were making music just as compelling. So while this compilation is in fact named for a Morricone track, you won't find any Morricone here, instead, a bunch of lesser known composers, some we were familiar with: Bruno Nicolai, Francesco De Masi, Alessandro Alessandroni, Piero Umiliani, while others not so much: Gianni Ferrio,, Marcello Giombini, Luis Bacalov, Stelvio Cipriani, Nora Orlandi, Nico Fidenco, but well know or obscure, the sounds here will be instantly recognizable to fans of Italian spaghetti westerns, fuzzed out surf guitar, sinister laughter, plenty of twang, woozy psychedelic exotica, tolling bells, deep dramatic vocals, mournful trumpets, acoustic guitars, barroom piano, rattlesnake percussion, hazy spectral female vocals, swirling strings, whirring organs, and yeah, some whistling of course, plus plenty of strange sound effects, like guns being fired, plus snippets of dialogue, all woven into that dusky, twangy classic Italian western sound, that will hopefully have you searching out more from some (or all) of the composers here, and heading down to your local video store to rent some of the crazy amazing flicks these tracks come from. LIMITED TO 750 COPIES!!! Packaged in a super swank gatefold with awesome images from classic Italian Westerns, stills from films, and paintings from movie posters. So cool!

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