[ aquarius records — Compilation Split ]

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

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

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

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

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The Rough Guides series goes deep for this one. Unlike most of their compilations, rather than featuring (relatively) famous names and classic tracks, this one goes for only obscure cuts, even a bunch of previously unreleased ones. Well, that's why they call it RARE groove, right? So, get this and get into a wide selection of possibly new-to-you Latin soul/jazz, boogaloo, mambo, salsa, cumbia, and more. There's both vintage tracks and music from contemporary artists, also. Some names: Ray Lugo, Rumba Caliente, Los Po-Boy-Citos, Spanglish Fly, Gilberto Sextet, Los Kenya, Nelson Y Su Estrellas, and more. Release on limited edition 180 gram vinyl for Record Store Day 2014. Includes a download with extra tracks, including a whole full-length album by Spanglish Fly.

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

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

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One of this year's Rough Guide vinyl releases for Record Store Day, we have just a couple left. They did also did an African Blues one (see nearby) but his volume drills down to music from, arguably, the home of African Blues (and Desert Blues too), the ethnically diverse West African nation of Mali. The modern music of Mali often has a political dimension, in light of refugee-making conflicts along its borders and oppressive Al Qaeda incursions. Ali Farka Toure appears here, as he does on the African Blues collection, along with some other names we know like Bassekou Kouyate, Terakraft, Toumani Diabate, Nahawa Doumbia... and more we don't. So it is a nice sampler for sure. 180 gram, limited edition vinyl, with liner notes and download card. The download has bonus tracks, including a full-length album by Ali Farka Toure's protege Samba Toure. Even those of you already super hip to this stuff might find this could make a good gift...

It might seem silly to list the second of two 10cd boxsets before we list the first, but we to be honest, both are equally awesome, and there's really no specific chronology. And odds are, most folks who buy this one, either already have the other one, or are gonna want that one too. If you're the latter, and do want both, go ahead and order this one, and we can order you the first one, we're hoping to have more in the next week or so. Anyway, most record nerds and certainly most garage / beat freaks are no doubt well aware of the Rubble series of lps collecting all manner of garage, psych and pop rarities on killer comps, each filled with all time favorites and tons of should have been classics. Super grungy garage stomp, sunshiney pop, groovy psychedelic jangle, shimmery hippy grooves, fuzzy flower child folk, tripped out acid psych, druggy dream pop, fuzzy proto metal, Beach Boys-ish surf rock and every possible stop in between. Just a list of some of the hundred plus bands should have most music obsessives drooling: The Accent, Fairy Tale, The Californians, Ice, Cherry Smash, Felius Andromeda, The Attack, Turquoise, Bulldog Breed, Virgin Sleep, Human Instinct, The Timebox, Outer Limits, Tintern Abbey, East Of Eden, Ozworld, Buzz, Blue Bous, Southern Sounds, Force Five, The French Revolution, The Peep Show, Espirit De Corps, Our Plastic Dream, Nirvana, Ghost, Groove, Sub, Science Poption, Strawberry Children, Curiosity Shoppe, Noah's Ark, The Zipps, The Pretty Things, Tuesday's Children, Jackpots, Wonderland, Wallace Collection, Jason Crest, The Sound Barrier, House Of Lords, St. Valentines Day Massacre, Mint, Carriage Company, Dreams, Chasers, Remo Four, Sea-Ders, Fox, The Oscar Bicycle, Gentle Influence, The Lion Tamers, Wild Silk, Spice, The Afex, Philamore Lincoln, Andwella's Dream, Argosy, Time Machine, Oct'Opus, Dee & Quotum, The Still Life, Doomsday Machine, Infantes Junilate, Pregnant Insomnia, Fruit Machine, Lions Of Judah, Cymbaline, Together, Protobello Explosion, The Fourmyula, Icarus, The Moving Finger, Cinnamon Quill, Blossom Toes, Soft Machine, Bump Of Chicken, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Pandemonium, Adjeef The Poet, Apple and more more more!!! Besides having some of the most awesome band names ever, these are some of the most amazing tracks you'll ever hear. It's like the greatest pop psych fuzz surf garage hippy folk proto-metal mixtape EVER!!! LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Each disc in it's own sleeve, a huge booklet with liner notes, housed in a super nice acid drenched full color box, each one machine numbered. Way recommended! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item you're looking for, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 1-2-6 "Graveyard Paradise: The Complete 1 2 6 & Taboo Recordings, 1966-68" (Ugly Things) cd 15.98 ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT "Absolute Magnitude" (Blossoming Noise) cd 14.98 AETHENOR "Betimes Black" (VHF) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 AIR "Moon Safari" (EMI) cd + dvd + book 26.00 ALLIEN, ELLEN "Sool" (BPitch Control) cd 15.98 ALTER EGO "What's Next?!" (Klang Electronic) cd 16.98 AMBARCHI, OREN & Z'EV "Spirit Transform Me" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 AMEBIX "No Sanctuary" (Alternative Tentacles) cd/lp+7" 14.98/13.98 AMON DUUL II "Hijack" (Revisited Records) cd 17.98 ANAKRID "Banishment Rituals of The Disenlightened" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 16.98 ANCESTORS "Neptune With Fire" (North Atlantic Sound) cd 19.98 ARC "Arkhangelsk" (Epidemie) cd 15.98 ASCEND "Ample Fire Within" (Southern Lord) cd 15.98 BAKER, AIDEN "Book of Nods" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 17.98 BALDWIN, MATT "Paths Of Ignition" (American Dust) cd 14.98 BATTLEMASTER "Warthirsting & Winterbound" (Forcefield) cd 13.98 BLACK ANGELS, THE "Directions To See A Ghost" (Light In The Attic) cd 13.98 BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW "Zodiac Girls" (Suicide Squeeze) 7" 4.98 BON IVER "For Emma, Forever Ago" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98 BRUHIN, ANTON "Vom Goldabfischer" (Algamarghen) cd 21.00 BUN B "II Trill" (Rap-a-lot) cd 14.98 CAVE, NICK & THE BAD SEEDS "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" (Mute Records) cd 16.98 CHILD READERS "Music Heard Far Off" (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98 CIRCLE X "Prehistory" cd 14.98 COLDWORKER "Rotting Paradise" (Relapse) cd 14.98 COUGH "Sigillum Luciferi" (Forcefield Records) cd 10.98 COURTIS, ANLA / SEIICHI YAMAMOTO / YOSHIMI "Live At Kanadian" (Public Eyesore) cd 10.98 CROM "Hot Sumerian Nights" (Underdogma) cd 14.98 DANIEL, TED QUINTET "Tapestry" (Porter Records) cd 14.98 DISKJOKKE "Staying In" (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98 DJ SCOTCH EGG "Drumized" (Load) cd 15.98 DRUMM, KEVIN "Imperial Distortion" (Hospital) cd 19.98 EAT SKULL "Sick To Death" (Siltbreeze) lp 14.98 EATER "The Album + Singles Plus" (Anagram) 2cd 17.98 EIKO, ISHIBASHI & TATSUYA YOSHIDA "Slip Beneath The Distant Tree" (Rhythm Tracks) cd 15.98 EREB ALTOR "By Honour" (I Hate Records) cd 16.98 FLAMES OF HELL "Fire and Steel" (Draconian Records) cd 18.98 FREE POP ELECTRONIC CONCEPT, THE "A New Exciting Experience" (Vampisoul) cd 23.00 FRICARA PACCHU "Midnight Pyre" (Lal Lal Lal) cd 15.98 GIANT / TIDES "Split" (Level-Plane) lp 13.98 GOTO80 "Made On Internet" (Pinipung) cd 17.98 GREGOR SAMSA "Rest" (The Kora Records) cd 14.98 GUILTY SIMPSON "Ode To The Ghetto" (Stones Throw) cd 14.98 HAINO, KEIJI & MASAMI AKITA "Kikuri" (Victo) cd 15.98 HATCHET "Awaiting Evil" (Metal Blade) cd 13.98 HEAVEN AND "Sweeter as the Years Roll By" (Staubgold) cd 17.98 HEAVY, THE "Great Vengeance and Furious Fire" (Counter) cd/lp 14.98/22.00 HOWLIN' MAGIC "The Dreaming" (Lal Lal Lal) cd 15.98 JAY, JEREMY "A Place Where We Could Go" (K Records) cd/lp 14.98/13.98 JAZKAMER "Art Breaker" (Smalltown Superjazz) cd 16.98 JEX THOTH "s/t" (I Hate Records) cd 16.98 JEX THOTH / PAGAN ALTAR "split" (I Hate Records) 7" 12.98 JOYNER, SIMON "The Cowardly Traveler Pays His Toll" (Team Love) cd 14.98 KALMA, ARIEL "Le Temps Des Moissons" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 17.98 KAWAGUCHI MASAMI'S NEW ROCK SYNDICATE "Cat Vs. Frog" (Palindrone) lp 17.98 KAYO DOT "Blue Lambency Downward" (Hydrahead) cd 14.98 KLUSTER "1970 - 1971" (Water) 3cd 27.00 KLUSTER "Admira" (Important) cd 14.98 KLUSTER "Vulcano: Live In Wuppertal 1971" (Important) cd 14.98 KOSS "Four Worlds Converge As One" (Mule Electronic) cd 16.98 KULTIVATOR "Barndomens Stigar" (Mellotronen) 2cd 28.00 LIL MAMA "VYP Voice Of the Young People" (Zomba) cd 17.98 MANIACS DREAM "Turku Hold 'Em" (Lal Lal Lal) cd 15.98 MANITATSU "Reason For Travel" (Rhythm Tracks) cd 15.98 MAYER, NATHANIEL "Why Don't You Give It To Me?" (Alive) cd 15.98 MELOY, COLIN "Colin Meloy Sings Live" (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98 MONOPOLY CHILD STAR SEARCHERS "Infant Spirtuality Rates Coconut Percent" (Pacific City) cd-r 9.98 MONOTONIX "Body Language" (Drag City) cd/lp 12.98/12.98 MUDHONEY "The Lucky Ones" (Sub Pop) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 NADJA "Desire In Uneasiness" (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98 NAKED ON THE VAGUE "Blood Pressure Sessions" (Dual Plover) cd/lp 16.98/13.98 NATURAL FOOD "s/t" (Porter Records) cd 16.98 OLD 97'S "Blame it on Gravity" (New West) cd 15.98 ORCHESTRA BAOBAB "Made In Dakar" (Nonesuch) cd 16.98 OSBORNE "s/t" (Spectral Sound) cd 17.98 OSMONDS, THE "Crazy Horses / The Plan" (7T's / Cherry Red) cd 17.98 PATTON, MIKE "A Perfect Place" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 PENTEMPLE "s/t" (Southern Lord) cd 15.98 POLLARD, ROBERT "Robert Pollard Is Off To Business" (GBV) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 QUIET VILLAGE "Silent Movie" (!K7) cd 14.98 ROOTS, THE "Rising Down" (Def Jam) cd 14.98 RUBIES FEATURING FEIST "I" (Italians Do It Better) 12" 9.98 RUSALNAIA (FEAT. SHARRON KRAUS) "s/t" (Camera Obscura) cd 15.98 RUSSIAN CIRCLES "Station" (Suicide Squeeze) cd 14.98 SANTOGOLD "s/t" (Downtown) cd 14.98 SARAH'S CHARITY "Code Of Red Twin" (Arbor) cd-r 9.98 SARMANTO, HEIKKI "Moonflower" (Porter Records) cd 16.98 SEMIMUUMIO "Vamos" (Lal Lal Lal) cd 15.98 SHIT AND SHINE "Kuss Miche, Meine Liebe" (Load) cd SHY CHILD "Noise Won't Stop" (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98 SIAN ALICE GROUP "59.59" (The Social Registry) cd 14.98 SIC ALPS "Fool's Mag" (Folding) cassette 5.98 SILVER MT ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA-BAND "13 Blues For Thirteen Moons" (Constellation) cd/lp 15.98/22.00 SONIC YOUTH "J'accuse Ted Hughes" (SYR POB) 12" 10.98 SPRING HEEL JACK "Songs & Themes" (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98 STAR STANGLED BANGER "s/t" (Aztec) cd 24.00 SUN RA "Some Blues But Not The Kind Thats Blue" (Atavistic) cd 15.98 TABATA, MITSURU "Lumrapideco" (Utech) cd 16.98 TAPE "Luminarium" (Hapna) cd 16.98 UNEARTHLY TRANCE "Electrocution" (Relapse) cd 15.98 V/A "Disco Italia" (Strut) cd 14.98 V/A "IVG Vol 1" (Born Bad) cd 15.98 V/A "Living is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927 - 1929" (Honest Jons) cd/2lp 17.98/22.00 V/A "Nashville Sputnik: The Deep South / Outer Space Productions Of Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan 1956-2004" (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 16.98 V/A "Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump" (Strut) cd 14.98 V/A "Steppas' Delight Vol. 1" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 26.00 V/A "Steppas' Delight Vol. 2" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 26.00 V/A "Steppas' Delight" (Soul Jazz) 2cd 25.00 V/A "Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story" (Big Beat) 2cd 29.00 V/A "The In-Kraut Vol.3" (Marina) lp 19.98 VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA "Remixed" (Karmarouge) cd 17.98 VON TILL, STEVE "A Grave Is A Grim Horse" (Neurot) cd 14.98 WALKER, PETER "Echo Of My Soul" (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98 WE ARE SCIENTISTS "Brain Thrust Mastery" (Astralwerks) cd 10.98 WEED "s/t" (Revisited / Phillips) cd 17.98 WELLES, ORSON "Your Obedient Servant" (El Records) cd 17.98 YA HO WHA 13 "Feather Of Wisdom" (Phoenix) lp 23.00 YELLOW SWANS "Deterioration" (Modern Radio Record Label) cd 11.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER

The Rustler is this legendary British record collector who's compiled this look at super rare funk 45s. The sort of no-name, lost-gem stuff that DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist spin on their all-45s tours, including a single that someone offered the Rustler a

RealAudio clip: Wahoo
RealAudio clip: Down Beat
RealAudio clip: Funkity

This is the second Brazilian post-punk compilation we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. The first one that arrived was the electrifying Nao Wave - 1982-1988 released by Man Recordings. This one's from those fine folks at Soul Jazz who've built a solid reputation for releasing music of many sorts (reggae, funk, soul, and post-punk) from many distant locales -- all with one particular thing in common, an addictive, propulsive groove. They've certainly tapped into a wild geyser with this release, although it's not quite as out-there and off-the-hook as the tough-act-to-follow Nao Wave. Most of the eighteen songs are much more typical of the angular sounds you'd imagine when you think of British post-punk (Wire, Gang Of Four, etc). Some artists from Nao Wave reappear here, they are Akira S Et As Garotas Que Erraram, Chance, As Mercenarios, and Fellini, but fortunately only two song are redundant ("Sobre As Pernas" and "Samba De Morro" by the first two artists respectively).

MPEG stream: Ilha Urbana
MPEG stream: Tao Perto

This is the second Brazilian post-punk compilation we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. The first one that arrived was the electrifying Nao Wave - 1982-1988 released by Man Recordings. This one's from those fine folks at Soul Jazz who've built a solid reputation for releasing music of many sorts (reggae, funk, soul, and post-punk) from many distant locales -- all with one particular thing in common, an addictive, propulsive groove. They've certainly tapped into a wild geyser with this release, although it's not quite as out-there and off-the-hook as the tough-act-to-follow Nao Wave. Most of the eighteen songs are much more typical of the angular sounds you'd imagine when you think of British post-punk (Wire, Gang Of Four, etc). Some artists from Nao Wave reappear here, they are Akira S Et As Garotas Que Erraram, Chance, As Mercenarios, and Fellini, but fortunately only two song are redundant ("Sobre As Pernas" and "Samba De Morro" by the first two artists respectively).

MPEG stream: Ilha Urbana
MPEG stream: Tao Perto

Exciting new compilation for you "kosmigroov" folks, put together by Kirk DeGiorgio and Ian O'Brien. Lots of great old and new electronic jazz-groove-funk is in the mix, including a super rare and sought after unreleased 1973 Herbie Hancock cut called "The Spook Who Sat By The Door". Also: David Axelrod, George Duke, The Players Association, Shuggie Otis, Be Bob Dawg, Lonnie Liston Smith, more.

Could there be a more aQuarius record? A compilation of recordings by various cults, including Ya Ho Wa 13, the Manson Family, the Aum Shinrikyo (we had a 7" by them a while back), the Hare Krishnas, as well as a bunch of others we had never heard of. But that's just the beginning. These recordings were supposedly recovered from beneath a compost heap behind the house of Peggy Luciene, who, during her life had followed a bunch of those cults and who eventually went missing. Assumed dead and buried, some assume she ascended or transformed, depending on which cult you believe. The truth is, this disc is part of an art project, which involves the fictional life and death of Peggy Luciene, the cults she was involved in, the people she knew...it's pretty immersive. The cd features a hidden track, that is the audio of the art project, a sort of guided tour through the Mission and Dolores Park, you can also listen on a walkman radio, tuned to 107.9. We've yet to do the actual walkthrough, but listening to the disc, we can almost visualize the various buildings and spots the mother and daughter visit over the course of the 17 minutes. It's pretty awesome. A huge project, beautifully realized, from the audio to the concept. And then there's the comp. Even without all that art angles, we would have flipped for this comp. Some awesome rarities, with each group / cult getting a little paragraph description. There's the awesome "Mechanical Man" by Charles Manson and the Family, some awesome outsider folk, with some very creepy lyrics, plus you can hear various other family members talking and laughing in the background. Then there's some awesome psychedelic rock courtesy of Father Yod and -his- family. But what about the Shiva Lillas, who we had never heard of? There track is a creepy piano ballad, with a child speaking over the top. Followed by Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, whose folky hippy jam is pretty groovy, could be any seventies folkie, but of course these guys were obsessed with doomsday! The Hare Krishnas offer up an Indian influenced chant / raga, that again, if it was on some weird world comp, folks would be freaking out. The People's Temple, led by Jim Jones (although Jones wasn't part of the band as far as we know) deliver a joyous gospel celebration, while the All Saved Freak Band unfurl some gorgeously lush freaky Christian folk. Up next is Sun Ra, whose Interstellar Arkestra commune is about the uncultiest of these cults, but heck, Sun Ra is pretty inspirational, and if any one could convince us to sit in a field naked and wait for aliens it would definitely be him. The Bugotak Project is more modern, and do a sort of metallized throat singing rock, pretty trippy and far out, and would also probably be a big hit around here if it was some weird cd-r from who knows where, and finally, the Breatharian Institute Of America, whose members aspire to a state of ascension where they can exist without consuming food, their musical contribution is a creepy recitation over a sea of chimes and bells, really haunting, and super intense. A killer comp for sure, seemingly custom made for all you freaky folks into far out sounds and underground weirdness, an obsession with cults probably helps too, and the fact that it's all tangled up with the imagined life of a lost directionless young woman who spent her life looking for meaning in these sounds and with these groups, only makes it that much cooler. Definitely recommended, and for folks in the Bay Area, you should definitely lose yourself in the piece, throw some headphones on, and wander through another time and another world, right here in the Mission. Beautifully packaged, full color cover, with pictures and notes for each group / artist / cult, as well as liner notes pertaining to the art project.

MPEG stream: Mechanical Man
MPEG stream: The Mystery
MPEG stream: Superior Commune
MPEG stream: Something Got A Hold On Me

So we've actually already had quite a few amazing compilations of '60s and '70s popular music from Thailand, including a whole bunch of discs from the infallible Sublime Frequencies label (Thai Pop Spectacular, Siamese Soul, Molam: Thai Country Groove, Shadow Music Of Thailand, etc., etc.), and also the Subliminal Sounds label's Thai Beat A-Go-Go series, but we were still super excited when we heard about the upcoming release of this new comp of vintage Thai tunes, 'cause it's been put together by Soundway, the UK-based label that also seemingly can do no wrong when it comes to international crate diggin'. Soundway is responsible for all those Nigeria Special comps, and the Ghana Soundz ones too, among other fine collections and reissues, most focused on music from Africa or Latin America. This is their first venture into Southeast Asia, as far as we know, and boy did they do the job well! A more lively, colorful comp could hardly be imagined. The compilers, who have spent hours and days on the ground in Thailand searching out vintage vinyl, know their stuff (their DJ night, "Bangkok Paradise", must be a blast). Nineteen tracks, 66 minutes of music, ranging from yearning love songs to super groovy funk, all of it quite undeniably 'exotic' to our ears, so that even with Western psych and pop influences, incorporating surprise rock riffs, synths, and brass sections, it's most definitely music from Thailand, utilizing Thai folk traditions, sung in the Thai language, though some of it also reminds us of Bollywood stuff (which makes sense), or possibly the Ethiopiques series as well (a less likely connection there). We recognize a few of the artists' names from those other abovementioned comps, though they seem aware of what's been comped already and we're assured that most of the tracks here have never been released outside of Thailand before. The subtitle doesn't say "leftfield" for nothing, this probably isn't the most typical mainstream Thai pop from the period, more like the hippest and freakiest, though often from quite popular artists, many revered to this day. Soundway treat us to some wonderfully eccentric picks, gems like Waipod Phetsuphan's "Ding Ding Dong", a song inspired by a dumb 1971 Italian sex comedy about prehistoric cavemen (and cavewomen) that was inexplicably a hit film in Thailand. And the spaced out lounge-jazz of The Viking Combo band's "Pleng Yuk Owakard" must be mentioned. Mindblowing. Walking bass, spooked out electric organ, maniacal vocals, loud shuddery chords, sudden percussion, woah it's a weird one, almost disturbing. Whichever DJ/collector first dug that one up must have been stoked. So much good stuff here, our point is, the treasures of vintage Thai pop are plentiful enough to require this comp, those that came before, and hopefully many more to come. You gotta be thankful when you think about it, without the efforts of labels like Sublime Frequencies, and Soundway, etc., we'd be missing out on so much incredible music that we now listen to on a daily basis, whether it be from Thailand or Nigeria or wherever. This comes in a digipack with a thick 24 page booklet that boasts plenty of full-color graphics (lots of vintage record sleeves and labels, plus pics of some of the artists, and a couple shots of the interior of a vinyl shop in Bangkok) and extensive liner notes. There's a lengthy essay discussing the development of, and distinctions between, such popular musical forms as luk thung, luk krung, and molam, with the impact of Western sounds such as surf rock and Santana also being discussed. Then each track gets its own detailed explanatory note as well, often giving some insight into the sometimes peculiar lyrical content the songs. (Also one mentions that Ethiopian groove-master Mulatu Astatke once spent time in Thailand, and has been quoted as having found some of the sounds of Thai music quite similar to those of his own country, so it's not just us.) Super thorough and informative, much as we expect from Soundway. Yay!

MPEG stream: Mae Kha Som Tam
MPEG stream: Soul Lam Plearn
MPEG stream: Sao Lam Plearn
MPEG stream: Pleng Yuk Owakard

Yay! It's been awhile since we've had a new Finder's Keepers release, and this one is amazing! By now we're all too familiar with the Eastern cinematic pop splendor and sitar funk of Bollywood. But what about Lollywood? Yes, just to the north in Pakistan, the city of Lahore had their own cottage film industry. Perhaps not as well known outside Pakistan, Lollywood was highly profitable in the seventies and eighties, housing a unique music division with its own equivalent of Bollywood's R.D. Burman and Asha Bhole in M. Ashraf and his female collaborator, Nahid Akhtar. With the help of EMI, Pakistani musicians were able to create ambitious music in a world class studio, using far-out instrumentation like Moogs and other synthesizers, accordions, surf-guitars, and tons of traditional hand percussion instruments instead of a proper drum set. It's definitely a far more electric and electronic pop sound , than what we're used to hearing in classic Bollywood music. Having an almost retro-futurist bent in its explosive collision of Eastern and Western musical touchstones: Freak-Beat and Surf Rock meets Space-Age Moog Pop and Urdu Groove! Originally released on 7" mini-lps (a curious marketing scheme was to release one soundtrack on 3 separate 7"s!), this is the first time these wild and delightful cinematic obscurities have been collected. Let's hope more get discovered. This IS the Sound of Wonder!

MPEG stream: Dama Dam Mast Qalander
MPEG stream: Karye Pyar
MPEG stream: Society Girl

While often known mostly for being one of the birthplaces of the riot grrrl movement and home to challenging smart post punk art-rock bands, Slim Moon's Kill Rock Star label has always had a soft spot for the delicacy of a good singer-songwriter. Releasing records by the likes of Elliott Smith and Mary Lou Lord in the early days of the label, Moon showed he wasn't afraid to show his fondness for the sensitive song done right. This compilation is an extension of that love as Moon got 21 songs by some very well known and some unknown singer songwriters. With well known folks like Sufjan Stevens, Laura Veirs, Nedelle, Wooden Wand, Colin Meloy (Decemberists) alongside up and comers like Simone White, Lauren Hoffman, Essie Jain, etc. Quite nice. ----* ----* New DVD's : ----*

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

SORRY.

Slow. Low. Downtuned. Crushing. Heavy. Sludge. Dirge. Doom. Buzz. Rumble. Pound. By now, the appropriate parties should be paying attention, cuz this is for anyone who uses any or all of those descriptors to talk about the music that moves them. Two sprawling discs of ultra heaviness, all weirdly based on strangling scenes from horror movies, all tending toward the slow and low, a handful of aQ faves, a bunch of groups new to us, but all purveyors of metallic crush of one form or another. The first disc is frontloaded for aQ, beginning with an exclusive track from UK doomlords Atavist, who start things off with some pretty delicate guitar, which is just a slow build toward a heaving wall of lumbering sludge, glacial and epic, pummeling and monstrous, growled vocals, and massive drum crush, but that delicate opening guitar continues on beneath the heaviness above, adding a strange vibe to the proceedings. UK bruisers offer up 3 slabs of feedback drenched Eyehategod worship, not all that slow, but buzzy and stonery and low slung with some awesome superfuzz and wildly howled vox. French one man sludge outfit The Austrasian Goat slows it waaaaaay doooooown, to a gut wrenching crawl, channeling, classic ultra funereal doom, into some gloriously abject sludge. Up next is The Whorehouse Massacre, a Canadian one man band who spews some sick, super distorted ultra sludge doom, awesome stuff, we definitely need to hear more from this guy. All the bands on the second disc are new to us, beginning with Stasis, who do their own take on twisted downtuned heaviness, offering up weird acoustic interludes between the blown out bursts of howled and shrieked dirgery. Feast Of Sins are classic funeral doom, even offering up one track of grim black ambience, bookended by some glacial gloomy creeps. Ghost Empire are another rad sludge doom combo, but with a bit of groove, after some super skeletal spaced out ambience, these guys piledrive with churning riffs, big drums, and throat shredding vox. And finally, Welter In Thy Blood, who hail from LA, offer up a seriously harrowing chunk of blackened doom drenched ambience, sick inhuman vocals, super spare drums, riffs that ooze like black tar, the whole track like a Khanate jam played at 16rpm. Lots of killer stuff, all slow and low and heavy, doom, drone, sludge, if that's your thing, then THIS is most definitely for you.

MPEG stream: 20:11
MPEG stream: Green Pills
MPEG stream: Exorcism By Hatred

It's hard to complain about another killer collection of super rare, crackly old blues, country and bluegrass 78's. Especially when the theme of the collection is the ridiculous obsessive behavior of record collectors. We're not saying that we can relate, but heck, we can -totally- relate, as we bet most of you can too. There's a huge booklet, tons of liner notes as well as photos and assorted newspaper stories about, you guessed it, crazy collectors, but before we get to that... First the collection, an amazing array of SUPER rare tracks from an amazing array of musical legends as well as tons of folks we'd never heard of, from wild and jaunty campfire hoedowns, all sawing fiddles and knee slapping and hand clapping, to dark and soulful blues: check out one of the greatest blues tracks EVER, Son House's "Mississippi County Farm Blues", a dark minor key vamp, amazing guitar playing, and those vocals, so intense and haunting, the whole thing thick with crackle and fuzz, definitely up there with Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" And then there's Dock Boggs' "Old Rub Alcohol Blues", another crackly gem, with Boggs' weird whiny vocals, sad and strained, and some beautiful banjo. There's Jaybird Coleman, just singing and playing harmonica, so lonely and bittersweet, he's got the most amazing croon, slipping almost to a falsetto, with that perfect crack that great singers master without even trying, and an incredible vibrato. We could go on and on, needless to say, out of 64 tracks spread out over two discs, there ain't nary a clunker! But back to the record nerd angle, these discs come packaged in an oversized book style double digipak, with really funny, perfect R. Crumb cover art, as well as a comic strip inside the booklet, appropriately titled "Why I'm Neurotic About My Record Collection." The liner notes are by Richard Nevins, who over the course of a few thousand words, definitely demonstrates his collector mettle, with tales of his own cringeworthy exploits and obsessions as well as tons of amazing anecdotes about other collectors. There are a bunch of old newspaper clippings detailing the lives of folks who collect stuff like wishbones, hairs from the tails of elephants, 4 leaf clovers and even water from all over the world! There's also the sad tale of perhaps the most (in)famous collectors of all time, the Collyer Brothers. The two never left their building for over 40 years (except late at night to collect junk), filling it with tons and tons of random stuff, rusted bicycles, doors, kerosene stoves, old Christmas trees, 12 grand pianos and 30 years of EVERY daily newspaper! One brother was blind, and the other brother was attempting to cure him by feeding him 100 oranges a week, and figured that once he could see he would need to catch up on all that had happened. Woah! In 1942 the brothers were almost evicted for not paying rent for 11 years (one brother claimed it had slipped their minds). 5 years later the police were called after it was reported that there was a dead man in the house. Unfortunately the police could not get into the house there was so much junk, so they went up ladders and chopped a hole in the side of the building. They did find one brother who had apparently died of starvation. It took another whole week before they found the other brother who had been crushed by collapsing piles of junk. It turns out the other brother was paralyzed as well as blind, and died of starvation not long after his brother was killed and was unable to bring him food. Lordy! Let that be a word of warning for all you obsessive record collectors out there! Such great reading for liner notes, and such great listening too. A completely essential compilation for sure! Word of warning: be very careful removing the discs, they are incredibly difficult to get off the spindles, it requires some very careful, but very firm pulling, to get it out without damaging the discs!

MPEG stream: Mississippi County Farm Blues
MPEG stream: Up Jumped The Rabbit
MPEG stream: I'm Going Back Home
MPEG stream: Fightin' In The War With Spain

Whoo-hoo! Awesome to have this on dvd at long last, in a nice, complete "collector's edition" with various bonus features. One of the most exciting rock/R&B audio-visual documents ever, The Teenage Awards Music International Show live concert film was originally screened in theaters in 1964, and has never been on dvd before. It features James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Jan and Dean, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Lesley Gore, and more... including, in footage cut from most previous versions of this film, the Beach Boys. Watch Mick Jagger trying to cop James Brown's moves, watch James Brown do stuff that Mick could never do in a million years, watch garage band The Barbarians bash out their mop topped pop backed by a drummer with a hook for a hand, it's all here... an all time classic, now you can take in the whole thing rather than just watching individual clips on YouTube! Restored and remastered. Bonus features include director's commentary, the original trailer with commentary from John Landis, and radio spots.

Another yearbook of sorts from Mark Robinson's label. Reliably lo-priced compilation featuring many familiar TeenBeat faces: Air Miami, Flin Flon, Juliet Swango, The Pacific Ocean, True Love Always, Phil Krauth, Aden, Versus, Jonny Cohen, and the man himself.

RealAudio clip: Waves
RealAudio clip: Blue Again

Hmmm... Connecticut. Known for its (I'd rather kill myself than drive through its) never-ending stretch of I-95, shitty cities and incredibly concentrated wealth. How would we have known that hip hop from CT circa '79 to '83 was so good?! Well that's where this new comp produced by Stones Throw's Egon comes in, to educate us. The old school rap jams on here are nostalgia-inducing classics even if you've never heard 'em before. One we had heard, and will forever love, is Pookey Blow's "Get Up (And Go To School)", but the selections from the likes of The Chillie 3 MCs, Rappermatical 5, Mr. Magic, Starchild and the 2nd Showdown Crew, The Outlaw Four, and others also have all the kitschy humor, casual cool, positive pride and self-assurance that makes these rare tracks just as awesome as any more famous hits of the time outta NYC. Could be considered even more so, with some sympathy points for having hailed from CT!

MPEG stream: 2001 Kazoo's
MPEG stream: Get Up (And Go To School)

The title of this compilation as well as the label name, not to mention the artists involved, should give you a pretty clear idea of what this comp is all about. Some serious deep listening, music on the Threshold Of Silence, featuring loads of AQ faves like Aidan Baker, Troum, Paul Bradley and others... Yep, this is a collection of inward looking outward seeking minimal ambient drone music, and it's all quite gorgeous. Seven groups, utilizing a fairly standard array of instrumentation, synths, voice, percussion, guitar, effects, strings, keyboards, cello, electronics, analog modular system and water (!) between them, each picking some tiny microscopic corner of the sonic universe to open up and explore. Deep resonant cavernous underwater drones, warm bleary eyed drift, muted melodies floating above crystalline shimmers, dense melodic blurs rippling with subtle tonal color, fragments of guitar loosed and allowed to hover amidst opaque swirls and glimmering streaks of sound, long drawn out notes, layers of synths piled atop warm swells, all sorts of drones, from bright and sparkling, to murky and muddy to blissfully blown out, this without a doubt has become THE late night drifting off lullaby record of choice for some of us.� Packaged in an oversized full plastic sleeve, with an oversized card, full color image on one side and liner notes on the other.� LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each disc hand numbered.

MPEG stream: Untitled Guitar Drone
MPEG stream: Ultrachronos
MPEG stream: Fissure

This long in the works compilation from the always reliable PseudoArcana label, is one of those comps that we barely need to describe. A list of the bands involved will have most of you frothing at the mouth: Blithe Sons, Peter Wright, CJA, Anla Courtis, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Antony Milton, Uton, Moglass, Neil Campbell, Birchville Cat Motel, The Skaters, Of, 1/3 Octave Band, My Cat Is An Alien and more!!! Holy crap! Two whole discs. And with a lineup like that, it would be a bit hard to describe all the tracks anyway. The sounds within though are all conceptually linked, but sonically all over the map. In a good way. The concept being the receent discovery of a galaxy cluster light years away that has been resonating in a steady B flat drone (although something like 57 octaves below the threshold of human hearing), so all these tracks are theoretically 'cover versions' of that mysterious galaxy's song!

MPEG stream: Haboob
MPEG stream: 3 Bb Moods
MPEG stream: Ground Curve

Here's one of those Good News, Bad News reviews. The good news is this 4cd box set is really fantastic, the bad news is that it's out of print and we only have 3 copies to sell. It actually came out over a year ago, but somehow we utterly missed out on it then, whoops! Too bad 'cause we probably would have made it Record(s) Of The Week! Sticking to the good news side of things, once we did finally find out out about it, despite it being already out of print, we fortunately were able to acquire a small handful of copies from Drag City, who as luck would have it had just received a few back in a return from a European distro. So, THREE of you out there are in luck. But might not know why, yet. What's the deal with the Total Groovy? Well, a while back, we reviewed what was then a vinyl-only Drag City reissue of an album called Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners, which appears as one of the discs in this box set. That lp of previously unreleased material came from the archives of Pete Shelley's own Groovy label, the Buzzcocks' singer's DIY outlet for the krautrock inspired, avant-garde experimentation of himself and his friends, and the other three discs in this box are reissues of Groovy's first three original lp releases, all from 1980. So, first off, here's more or less what we said about Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners back in 2011: Best band name ever? Definitely a contender. Never really thought that Pete Shelley of famed UK punks The Buzzcocks had anything like this in him, but this album is pretty damn good - almost living up to the ridiculous moniker! Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners was Shelley's oddball synth-wave project that began even before the Buzzcocks broke up in 1981. Back then, he took up the habit of inviting any number of unidentified 'guests' over to his studio to jam with anything and everything in the place; and these Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners recordings came from the many tapes that he made by these means circa 1980-1984. Who those guests in Shelley's studio might have been is anybody's guess. Ours? Maybe Eric Random, maybe Francis Cookson (who co-founded Groovy with Shelley), maybe Sally Timms from The Mekons. Regardless, the resultant recordings are an electronic-heavy art-punk with plenty of weirdo synth meanderings, Keith Levene sounding guitar splinterings, dub-inflected basslines, and scatterbrained effects. None of the punk-pop hooks of the Buzzcocks are found here, even when guitars, bass, and drums enter the picture; it's pretty much all about the studio as instrument with lots of effects swarming about the drum machine rhythms and bare-bones post-punk grooves. One could think of The Storm Bugs, Crawling Chaos, The Psyclones, or Jeff & Jane Hudson. Then there's the other three, equally confusional discs also found here: the oscillator insanity of Shelley's solo lp Sky Yen, 41+ minutes of delightful knob-twiddling distorted drone actually recorded in 1974; some shambling drone-rock and dadaistic vocals shenanigans from a soundtrack by Sally Smmit And Her Musicians (aka Sally Timms, Pete Shelley, and others); and a record with four untitled tracks of lo-fi industrial improvised (?) rock from a unit called Free Agents. All stuff for which the terms 'weird and wonderful' were doubtless invented! Each disc comes in its own cardboard sleeve reproducing the original album art, the Free Agents one complete with miniaturized insert advertising the Groovy catalog, and tip-on cover. Also inside this eye-catching, Op Art adorned box is a booklet containing an interview Drag City did with Shelley all about everything Groovy, talking about other related projects like The Tiller Boys, revealing various influences (Eno, Can, Ralph Records), etc. Totally great for anyone into the oddest of Messthetics tracks, NWW list stuff, or even the Boredoms' Super Roots series. Again, kicking ourselves for idiotically overlooking this when we could have gotten more, argh. So now it's first come, first served (and since we have so few, if you're mailordering this, it's always a good idea to pick an alternate as well). Good luck though - sorry to provide such a big review of something we probably won't be able to sell you!

MPEG stream: Sky Yen Part 1
MPEG stream: Soundtrack To The Film Hangahar Part 1
MPEG stream: Untitled 2
MPEG stream: track 3

Hold yer horses folks, be forewarned this is NOT a new Snow Patrol album. It's actually two cds filled with an assortment of songs that Mr. Gary Lightbody wants you to hear. Of course most folks would go, "Who the hell is Gary Lightbody?! And why should we care?!", and rightly so. Hence this disc has been credited to Snow Patrol. Yup, he's that Scottish band's mainman who also fancies himself a dj. Now do you care?! And are you as skeptical as we are about the actual song choices? Some are way too obvious (yeah, TV On The Radio's "Staring At The Sun" is a great song, but...), while others seem to just be trying to score hip points (Deerhoof's "Milking"?!). Also included are some other familiar faces: Four Tet, Mum, The Shins, Nina Nastasia, Fiery Furnaces, CocoRosie, Low & Spring Heel Jack, Secret Machines, Joy Zipper, Rilo Kiley and Bill Withers. Other less familiar ones (at least to us) are Sir Drew, Husky Rescue, Feist, The Duke Spirit, Harco Pront, Smith N Hack and Hot Chip. In case you hadn't deduced yet, The Trip is essentially a series of mix comps as selected by different artists. Past editions have been compiled by Saint Etienne, Dirty Vegas, Tom Middleton and Tim Love Lee. Hpmh, wouldn't you rather get a mix cd made with loving care from someone you know and whose taste you trust? (uh, if you do know Mr. Lightbody and/or do trust his taste, then never you mind! But then again if that is the case you're probably not gonna be paying $28.00 for it, right?) Mind you, something your friend's mix cd might be missing is the almost omnipresent thumpin' dancebeat on the first disc (it's conspicuously absent on the second disc), but there're also a few awkward crossfades too. Oops, maybe we should've mentioned that sooner! Check out the audio clips and judge for yourself. 32 tracks in total.

MPEG stream: Heartbeats - Rex The Dog Remix / Everything Is Alright
MPEG stream: Bow Wow / Milking

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

SORRY. It's a nice idea -- gather a couple dozen of yer favorite recording artists and ask them to submit a capella pieces. Too bad so many of them put so little thought into it. The best tracks include those by Danielson Family (who do a sweet indie rock song in doo wop multi-part style), Low (whose music is so stripped down that going a capella isn't at all a stretch for them), Swans collaborator Jarboe (creepy layered voices), and Jandek (simply for the ridiculousness of his entry -- which just goes "Om"). Other artists making appearances: Grifters, David Grubbs, Elliot Sharp, Songs:Ohia, Modest Mouse, Damien Jurado, Sharon Tuopper of God is My Copilot, Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters, Pedro the Lion, etc.

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

SORRY.

Oh man, how this takes us back. Canadian label D-Trash is definitely the new DHR, spawning a whole new scene of breakcore bruisers and digital hardcore crushers. Admittedly they owe a huge debt to Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot and that breakcore/metal hybrid sound those folks practically created. So here it is, years after the demise of ATR, Empire has moved on, DHR seems to have disappered, so what better time to remind folks how amazing that shit sounded then, and brutal and heavy and badass it still sounds today. So here's the whole D-Trash roster, each tackling a classic Atari Teenage Riot track, all our favorites for sure, "Start The Riot", "Into The Death", "Delete Yourself", "The Future Of War"� Most of the bands here do it pretty straight, if anything just making the guitars crunchier and heavier, the beats more distorted and blown out, but still the tracks are classic, and sound enough like the originals that from note one, we're already banging our heads wildly. A few folks mix it up, Untitus (whose reissued full length is listed elsewhere on this list) slows things down, unfurling a thick buzzing backdrop, letting the drums lurch in a grinding anti-funk, the vocals all sultry and slurred. Schizoid (who also has a full length reissue on this list) turns his ATR track into some howling ultradistorted blast of blackened breakcore, the drums a chaotic blur, the vocals a hateful howl, so intense and furious, so much so that it almost makes the original sound tame. Other highlights include the robotic electro of Evestus, the old school (digital) hardcore punk rock of DHC Meinhof, the skittery metallized jungle of CTRLer, the playful video game gabber of 64Revolt� It's all pretty amazing, we of course lean toward the heavier more brutal blasts of digital hardcore, but goddamn, this all still sounds so great. We've been going pretty nuts, immersing ourselves in all this amazing D-Trash stuff, it's like a nonstop breakcore dance party around here and we STILL can't get enough. Start the riot! Delete Yourself!

MPEG stream: The Future Of War
MPEG stream: Death Star
MPEG stream: Ghostchase

Gorgeously packaged (a cd in a gold and black silkscreened 7" sleeve) ultra limited compilation featuring some of our favorite experimental drone based musicians, as well as a handful of lesser known, but equally sonically appealing folks. AQ faves Troum offer up one of their sweetest airiest pieces yet, a slowly drifting meditational blur and Steve Roden's piece is a hypnotic and dense, note heavy assemblage of thick drones and repetitive chimes. So good! This whole collection is a stunning listen. Other contributors include Toy Bizarre, Kallabris, Inade, Christian Renou and more!

MPEG stream: The Presence Of Copper
MPEG stream: Makaria

This is an awesome collection of early and way out of print 7"s from San Diego's The Way Out Sound label. A glance at the artists is all it will take to convince you how essential this really is. All exclusive tracks from: Merzbow, Muslimgauze, Skullflower, Truman's Water, Pure, The Silver Wizard, and Holland Skin Tunnel. Essential.

This one's pretty much an "add to cart" no-brainer; the subtitle says it all, "Afro Rock & Psychedelia In 1970s Nigeria". And it's on the wonderful Soundway label, who've brought us such prior treats as Nigeria Rock Special, Nigeria Disco Funk Special, and Ghana Soundz. Really, do you need to know more? There's 32 killer cuts spread across the two cds here, from almost as many bands, exuberant electric guitar wielding garage acts most of 'em, and funky too, super funky. Anyone eager for a sequel to that Nigeria Rock Special in particular, start freaking out now! Some of the names here are familiar from that comp or other reissues, but we don't think there's any overlap songwise. Others are way more obscure to our ears. So you get Ofege, Ofo The Black Company, The Mebusas, The Hygrades, Colomach, and The Action 13, alongside, among others, P.R.O. (People Rock Outfit), Chuck Barrister & The Voices Of Darkness, The Thermometers, The Comrades, The Ceejebs, The Funkees, The Hykkers, Bongos Ikwue, The Lawrence Amavi Group, The Ify Jerry Krusade, Sonny Okosuns & Paperback Limited, Cicada, The Identicals, and even a band called The Semi Colon! The Semi Colon's song is pretty badass, by the way, with Moog-y "Blow Your Head" style synth and wicka-wicka chicken scratch guitar, shades of The JB's for sure, James Brown's backup band probably a big influence on a LOT of these groups, along with psych rock from the West as well, especially various Frisco ballroom jammers. While there's variety, there's definitely a Nigerian scene "sound" of the era on display here, and that scene must have been a pretty competitive one, these bands are HOT. While there's some lovely, mellowed-out moments (like PRO's laidback ballad of "Blacky Joe"), mostly this collection consists of uptempo, dancefloor filling groovers, full of percolating percussion, wild wah-wah, and soulful vocal exhortations. A few have horns, there's a lot of funky electric organ, and in all cases, the rhythms are, not surprisingly, first and foremost the focus, driving these songs into your heart, mind, and soul via the involuntary head nodding, foot tapping, get up and get down reaction your body will have to 'em... The compilation takes its name from The Black Mirror's "The World Ends", found on disc two. Meanwhile, "Soundway" by Wrinkars Experience, from disc one, could be the theme song for the label! Kinda akin to a Nigerian "Nuggets", this is indeed yet another awesome Soundway comp, one of our faves from them so far and that's saying a lot. Can't argue with two discs this funky and fuzzed, though! Comes nicely packaged with a 44 page booklet featuring a plenitude of liner notes and vintage photos. Totally recommended.

MPEG stream: Somebody's Gotta Lose Or Win
MPEG stream: Yem Efe
MPEG stream: Oli Nkwu
MPEG stream: Life's Gone Down Low
MPEG stream: Bullwalk

NOW ON VINYL!! Separated into two volumes, both a bit pricey sorry to say, but might just be worth it for vinyl fiends, one of the best Afro-funk-psych compilations in recent memory! Plus each volume has TWO bonus tracks not on the cd version! Here's more or less what we said about that: This one's pretty much an "add to cart" no-brainer; the subtitle says it all, "Afro Rock & Psychedelia In 1970s Nigeria". And it's on the wonderful Soundway label, who've brought us such prior treats as Nigeria Rock Special, Nigeria Disco Funk Special, and Ghana Soundz. Really, do you need to know more? There's 32 killer cuts spread across the two cds here, from almost as many bands, exuberant electric guitar wielding garage acts most of 'em, and funky too, super funky. Anyone eager for a sequel to that Nigeria Rock Special in particular, start freaking out now! Some of the names here are familiar from that comp or other reissues, but we don't think there's any overlap songwise. Others are way more obscure to our ears. So you get Ofege, Ofo The Black Company, The Mebusas, The Hygrades, Colomach, and The Action 13, alongside, among others, P.R.O. (People Rock Outfit), Chuck Barrister & The Voices Of Darkness, The Thermometers, The Comrades, The Ceejebs, The Funkees, The Hykkers, Bongos Ikwue, The Lawrence Amavi Group, The Ify Jerry Krusade, Sonny Okosuns & Paperback Limited, Cicada, The Identicals, and even a band called The Semi Colon! The Semi Colon's song is pretty badass, by the way, with Moog-y "Blow Your Head" style synth and wicka-wicka chicken scratch guitar, shades of The JB's for sure, James Brown's backup band probably a big influence on a LOT of these groups, along with psych rock from the West as well, especially various Frisco ballroom jammers. While there's variety, there's definitely a Nigerian scene "sound" of the era on display here, and that scene must have been a pretty competitive one, these bands are HOT. While there's some lovely, mellowed-out moments (like PRO's laidback ballad of "Blacky Joe"), mostly this collection consists of uptempo, dancefloor filling groovers, full of percolating percussion, wild wah-wah, and soulful vocal exhortations. A few have horns, there's a lot of funky electric organ, and in all cases, the rhythms are, not surprisingly, first and foremost the focus, driving these songs into your heart, mind, and soul via the involuntary head nodding, foot tapping, get up and get down reaction your body will have to 'em... The compilation takes its name from The Black Mirror's "The World Ends", found on part 2. Meanwhile, "Soundway" by Wrinkars Experience, from part 1, could be the theme song for the label! Kinda akin to a Nigerian "Nuggets", this is indeed yet another awesome Soundway comp, one of our faves from them so far and that's saying a lot. Can't argue with music this funky and fuzzed, though!

MPEG stream: Somebody's Gotta Lose Or Win
MPEG stream: Yem Efe
MPEG stream: Oli Nkwu
MPEG stream: Life's Gone Down Low

NOW ON VINYL!! Separated into two volumes, both a bit pricey sorry to say, but might just be worth it for vinyl fiends, one of the best Afro-funk-psych compilations in recent memory! Plus each volume has TWO bonus tracks not on the cd version! Here's more or less what we said about that: This one's pretty much an "add to cart" no-brainer; the subtitle says it all, "Afro Rock & Psychedelia In 1970s Nigeria". And it's on the wonderful Soundway label, who've brought us such prior treats as Nigeria Rock Special, Nigeria Disco Funk Special, and Ghana Soundz. Really, do you need to know more? There's 32 killer cuts spread across the two cds here, from almost as many bands, exuberant electric guitar wielding garage acts most of 'em, and funky too, super funky. Anyone eager for a sequel to that Nigeria Rock Special in particular, start freaking out now! Some of the names here are familiar from that comp or other reissues, but we don't think there's any overlap songwise. Others are way more obscure to our ears. So you get Ofege, Ofo The Black Company, The Mebusas, The Hygrades, Colomach, and The Action 13, alongside, among others, P.R.O. (People Rock Outfit), Chuck Barrister & The Voices Of Darkness, The Thermometers, The Comrades, The Ceejebs, The Funkees, The Hykkers, Bongos Ikwue, The Lawrence Amavi Group, The Ify Jerry Krusade, Sonny Okosuns & Paperback Limited, Cicada, The Identicals, and even a band called The Semi Colon! The Semi Colon's song is pretty badass, by the way, with Moog-y "Blow Your Head" style synth and wicka-wicka chicken scratch guitar, shades of The JB's for sure, James Brown's backup band probably a big influence on a LOT of these groups, along with psych rock from the West as well, especially various Frisco ballroom jammers. While there's variety, there's definitely a Nigerian scene "sound" of the era on display here, and that scene must have been a pretty competitive one, these bands are HOT. While there's some lovely, mellowed-out moments (like PRO's laidback ballad of "Blacky Joe"), mostly this collection consists of uptempo, dancefloor filling groovers, full of percolating percussion, wild wah-wah, and soulful vocal exhortations. A few have horns, there's a lot of funky electric organ, and in all cases, the rhythms are, not surprisingly, first and foremost the focus, driving these songs into your heart, mind, and soul via the involuntary head nodding, foot tapping, get up and get down reaction your body will have to 'em... The compilation takes its name from The Black Mirror's "The World Ends", found on part 2. Meanwhile, "Soundway" by Wrinkars Experience, from part 1, could be the theme song for the label! Kinda akin to a Nigerian "Nuggets", this is indeed yet another awesome Soundway comp, one of our faves from them so far and that's saying a lot. Can't argue with music this funky and fuzzed, though!

MPEG stream: Bullwalk
MPEG stream: Somebody's Gotta Lose Or Win

Another fantastic compilation from the seemingly infallible Omni Recording Corporation, this one focusing on hillbilly music, specifically from the vaults of Columbia Records, between 1948 and 1959, and all focused around a Dallas recording studio run by a man named Jim Beck, and had the winds of fortune blown a little bit differently, and had Beck not died prematurely, then perhaps the recording industry in Nashville would have actually ended up based in Dallas. It's an interesting story, told in great detail in the copious liner notes, as are the stories of all the artists and their songs, and oh, what an awesome collection of singers and players, most of which we'd never before heard or even heard of. A selection of some of the best hillbilly sides recorded for Columbia in the forties and fifties, lots of songs about drinking, and about women, and of course drinking AND women: "Beer Bottle Momma", "Drinking All My Troubles Away", "Red Hot Momma And An Ice Cold Beer", "There's A Bottle Where She Used To Be", "The Barroom Girl", "I'm The Devil Who Made Her That Way", and like all Omni comps, there's plenty of weirdness, howsabout "Ugly And Slouchy", a track about the joys of having a less than attractive lady friend cuz there'll "never be no fear of her loving someone else", or the darkly creepy cabaret of the title track, with it's refrain "The world is a monster, its food is man's heart". And then of course there's just a stunning array of incredible unsung country classics, from heartfelt tales of loneliness, to bittersweet ballads, super rambunctious bluegrass hoedowns, rife with wild fiddling, earnest crooning, boasting and bragging, begging for forgiveness, wondering where it all went wrong, even some yodeling, fantastic stuff. And as with all Omni stuff, there's a massive booklet with tons of rare photos and ephemera, and extensive liner notes.

MPEG stream: The World Is A Monster
MPEG stream: I'm Playing It Cool
MPEG stream: I'm The Devil Who Made Her That Way
MPEG stream: Red Hot Mama And An Ice Cold Beer
MPEG stream: There's A Bottle Where She Used To Be

Another rich and immersive vintage compilation from the always reliable Honest's Jons label, The World Is Shaking focuses on a highly productive period during the fifties of urban popular music that was the seed for what would become Congolese Rumba, one of the African Continent's most popular musical dance forms of the sixties and seventies. We often hear of the westwardly influence of African music on West Indies, Cuba and the Caribbean Islands, but not so much in reverse. Yet the Congo in the fifties after suffering centuries of decimation from slave traders and Belgian colonial rule, embraced the Latin music of South and Central America like no other country. Many factors contributed to this, including the exports of radios and records from slave trading countries as well as the increasing popularity of early American Jazz music and European Torch singers that attracted Congolese musicians to play less traditional and indigenous musical forms in order to get work in colonial nightclubs. But perhaps the biggest factor was the arrival of recording equipment to the region that allowed radio stations to record and broadcast local musicians allowing them to become more disciplined in their musical approach due to the strict limitations of the three minute song format. And so with more records and bands, popular nightlife increased. Inspired by 78's from Latin America, musicians would often adopt the tunes and rewrite the lyrics in their own language. Adwika Depala, one of the more successful players recorded his own take on the popular latin song, El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor), changing the word for peanut (Mani) to a women's name (Moni), offering a lament to a jilting lover that local audiences perhaps related more to than the original lyrics. The danceable rhythms provided by guitars, horns, and accordions with occasional moments of odder instrumentation like banjo and kazoos sparked attraction in audiences hungry for modernity as well as a renewed sense of identity. Honest Jon's scores again!

MPEG stream: Maboka Marie
MPEG stream: Akei Cimetierre
MPEG stream: Tokowela Angelique
MPEG stream: Tika Koseka

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

SORRY. Bargain price import double cd sampler of some pretty cool, cosmic 70's German rock. You get two hours worth of the likes of Popol Vuh, Guru Guru, Birth Control, Witthuser & Westrupp, Holderlin and many more (obscure) bands. It's got a way cheesy cover, but it's also great deal.

Self-described as "spacedoutpostindiefutureoutrock". Yes quite, as it features Ui, Fuxa, Transient Waves, Flying Saucer Attack, Flowchart, Kreidler and others. The K-Tel of Space/Post-Rock.

Record Store Day alert! Here's a 2013 RSD release that we thankfully managed to get enough copies of to list... Please don't ask us to pronounce Theppabutr, but do ask us why this is so awesome - though the best answer is: just listen to it! International vinyl diggers, seeking out vintage grooves in far flung parts of the world, have made Molam music from Thailand into something that's now definitely a 'thing' in our world music section - we've had some other great Molam collections on the Sublime Freqencies label, for instance, so of course it's exciting to hear from 'The Man Behind The Molam Sound', Theppabutr Satirodchompu, responsible for the production work on the 17 tracks collected here from a variety of Molam artists. It's Molam of the modern variety (modern circa 1972-1975 that is, in this case), a form of electrified vocal music from Northeast Thailand that combines traditional folk melodies and ethnic instrumentation with electric guitars and electronic keyboards. Great stuff, all of it, lively and rhythmic, emotive and ear-wormy. Even though we don't understand a word, it's still immediately captivating. We love the keening singers and warbly organs, groovy beats and exotic vibes. If you haven't yet given Molam and closely related genre Luk Thung a try, this would be a great place to start. Seventies Molam like this is mighty fine stuff, up there with those 'Ethiopiques' recordings and certain Jamaican reggae of the same vintage, though we'd imagine the vocal stylings here might work for some folks and not so much for others. This limited vinyl version is a Record Store Day 2013 release - there is also a (presumably less-limited) non-RSD compact disc edition too, that we'll be stocking and will list next time, but we wanted to get this RSD vinyl listed now before they were gone! Especially since the double vinyl includes two bonus tracks not found on the cd version - as well as a 12"x14" poster, and download card for mp3s of all the tracks. Gatefold sleeve in faux woodgrain wrapper, liner notes, foldout poster inside.

MPEG stream: Siang Toey Jak Jai
MPEG stream: Sao Isan Lam Khaen
MPEG stream: Saksiam Dearn Glon
MPEG stream: Kor Hai Rak Jing

Reason #954,765,841 to compile a compilation: A photo was taken of the musician by a fellow musician. Okay, granted there's more to this than meets the eye, but when an album is sub-subtitled "Recordings Of Musicians Photographed By John Cohen", you have to

RealAudio clip: Have You Ever Been Mistreated
RealAudio clip: So Long: Go
RealAudio clip: Buck Creek Girls