Ahhhh, yes, more Voltaic Omen, the one man black metal weirdo from the Pacific Northwest, who has been blowing us away with recording after recording of fucked up and fractured lo-fi what-the-fuck blackness. And it just keeps getting better, and weirder!
This time around Mr. VO is teamed up with a noisemaker called Fire Island, AK, who we'll get to in a second, but first, VO begins proceedings with a super creepy stretch of processed ambience, all haunting minor key melodies, backwards cymbals, fractured loops, mumbly speaking in tongues vocals, it may be black metal, but it also sounds a bit like some of the super far out Teenage Filmstars stuff. Then all of a sudden, the track kicks in, and it sounds like it's being broadcast from a speaker atop a pole, down the street, murky and muddy and lo-fi, but with a strange clattery, almost Muslimgauze sounding rhythm laid over the top, before slowing down and tripping out, and transforming into some sort of doomic black ritual, slow pounding percussion, groaned vocals, distant tarpit riffing, haunting minor key melody, super hypnotic.
Fire Island, AK, who we'd never heard before, are way more of an experimental free noise outfit, exploring textures and tempos, patterns and layers, reverbed electronic squiggles wrap around bits of scrape and glitch, looped and repeating, gradually growing more dense and frantic, never quite attaining total Merzbowian overload, which is a good thing, even at its most impenetrable and chaotic, there still lurks some texture and rhythm, giving form and propulsion to could otherwise become pure noise. Cool stuff for sure. Buy this for the Voltaic Omen, stick around for the Fire Island. Definitely recommended.
Cool full color inserts, photocopied insert, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, each one stickered and hand numbered!!
Killer new split from Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies of Skullflower in their Voltiegeurs guise, which this time is not that far removed from the Skullflower mothership, in fact, a glancing listen, one would most certainly be forgiven for assuming it was a Skullflower jam proper, a dense field of pulsing, pulsating blackened psychedelic drone-noise, a sprawl of layered guitars, buried melodies, shifting textures, gristled and crumbling, but blurred into something almost tranquil and meditative, a heavy drone-guitar blowout, smoothed out into what ultimately sounds like a more washed out blissed out Skullflower which is not a bad thing at all.
The flipside comes from UK knuckledraggers Dark Bargain, who deliver a serious sonic wallop in the form of some blown out, ultra distorted noise rock crush, dirgey and in the red, a Brainbombs sort of death march churn, rife with buried melodies, and some subtle hookiness, but overall, it's more a bludgeoning sonic anvil to the skull, which will most certainly hit the spot for fans of BB, Rusted Shut, Violent Students, Drunkdriver and the like.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
We were pretty into Vom's Primitive Arts record from a while back, which we described as a "depressive, atmospheric, super distorted sort of gothic cold wave", and who we likened to groups like Soror Dolorosa, Sixx, Factums and Cold Cave, but whose particular version of sound was a much more raw and primitive beast, sort of crusty and filthy, from the production to the actual instrument sounds, even the atmosphere, it was as if a metal band or a noise band or somehow both, decided to make a gloom pop record, and failed spectacularly, and came up with something way meaner, weirder and more amazing.
This brand new split teams Vom up with another group of sonically like minded Scots with the awesome name Gummy Stumps, each group taking a whole lp side. Vom offer up more of the same, their sound driving and darkly post punky, the guitars thick and jagged, the bass fuzzed out and super distorted, the drums almost like some weird strain of motorik krautpunk, the vocals an effects drenched bellow, the group locking into long stretches of buzzing, snarling, minor key hypnorock, that sound like a goth rock Circle, pounding away relentlessly, the guitars unfurling slippery slithery melodies, over churning riffage and gloomy gothic bombast. But it's an epic, so the band sort of cobble together a songsuite, equal parts crash and burn, drift and smolder, shimmer and creep, the sound managing to be surprisingly lush while retaining its raw power. At one point haunting soundtracky synths drift in and transform the sound completely, before the band works its way up into another psychedelic cold wave gloom punk blowout. These guys are so fucking good, it's a crime they're not more well known.
With a name like Gummy Stumps, these guys had our hopes pretty high, and while they're not as grim or gloriously noisy, they're definitely a good match, their sound more of a Messthetics sort of post punk, all jagged angular guitar crunch, frenetic rhythms, and dueling call and response vocals. But again, like Vom's side, there's lots of space to fill, so the band stretch way out, slipping from murky psychedelic shimmer, to something that sounds like way more punk Arab Strap, to blown out drum heavy noise rock crunch, to surprisingly catchy punk pop and right back again to the angular post punkiness that started it all off.
Housed in super swank silk screened covers, with printed insert, cool lyrics booklet, and we're guessing it's pretty dang limited too...
- MPEG stream: B
- MPEG stream: A
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Warmth seem to exist only in the realm of split 7"s. We're sure they probably have a handful of cd-r's or cassette tape releases (actually at least one cd too), but this is the third split we've gotten from these guys, and this will probably be the third time we talk about how we want o hear more than one song!
The Warmth track here is indeed warm, beginning as a slow smoldering, barely there shimmer, but over the course of the side, the sound intensifies, getting more abrasive, more caustic and crunchy, eventually building to a sort of Wolf Eyes rumble, which is soon streaked with jagged shards of feedback, and swooping upper register tones, all smeared across the roiling buzzing crunch of the background drone. We can only imagine what might have happened if this were an lp instead of a 7" and the track was allowed to sprawl and spread and mutate for another 15 or 20 minutes.
The flipside comes from a band with the tongue twisting monicker Medroxy Progesterone Acetate, which a quick internet search revealed as a drug to decrease the production of Testosterone and to reduce the sex drive in males, aka "Chemical Castration" sometimes given to convicted rapists and sex offenders. Hmmm...
So what would something like MPA sound like? Maybe like this, a murky, fuzzy, muddy sprawl of rumbles and whirs, haunting melodic swells, squalls of glitch and buzz, teapot whistle melodies, disembodied voices, woozy, stuttering loops, tape hiss and sea sick warble, all beneath a gauzy lo-fi haze. Quite nice actually, if not a bit creepy.
Both tracks, and both bands are quite recommended, this 7"s is definitely a good taster, and yeah, we still want to hear more Warmth, and now we, ummm, want more Medroxy Progesterone Acetate...
Beautiful die cut silkscreened sleeve, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! most likely already out of print, we have a handful...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES
A brand new, super limited head to head meeting between these two sonically similar underground noisemakers, trafficking in the dronier dreamier side of modern abstract 'noise'...
Warmth are up first, and deliver a murky chunk of melodic drone, like some classic pop song, that had been transferred from tape to tape about a thousand times, before being dubbed onto a 20 year old cassette left in the glove compartment of your car for the last decade, then played back at the wrong speed, a gloriously lugubrious glacial crawl, the muted melody pulsing beneath a constantly shifting sonic sea of low end thrum, distant field recordings and washed out hiss and buzz.
Robe counter with a sonically similar chunk of sound, haunting and playful at the same time, muddy melodies, and what sounds like horns, it actually sounds like some Carl Stalling cartoon music played at 16rpm, warbly and off kilter, murky and blurry, a drawled moonlit soundscape of twisted smeared ambience, muffled percussion, and mysteriously fragmented melodies.
Packaged in a super elaborate multi paneled sleeve, printed with metallic silver ink on black, sealed with a black wax seal and including a purple and black on black insert.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
We noticed we still had a handful of these Boris rarities, and saw some popping up on eBay so we figured we would relist them in case anyone was still in the market for a pricey, exquistely designed 7" with lots of glamorous photos of Wata from Boris!!!
Here's our review from when we listed these a while back:
We took pre-orders on this ultra limited Boris rarity, but we managed to get a handful of extra copies, so for those folks who forgot to preorder, or folks who are only hearing about this now, here's your chance (however brief) to nab one of these�
As with all Boris related stuff, this 7" photo book combo looks gorgeous. A 7"x7" softcover book, the cover a thick textured cream colored paper, the title embossed on the front cover, wrapped in a full color vellum obi, the text printed in metallic silver, with color photos of Wata from Boris and the members of the band sharing the split, Ai Aso. The book itself is nothing but glamour shots of the various women, full body shots, close ups of their faces, very fashion magazine looking, the pictures slightly distressed, the women posed in front of washed out colored backdrops. Strange, but heck, the pictures are quite nice, and the women are of course quite lovely, so who can complain.
But here is a 7", and presumably, that's the main reason to pick this up (right?), it features Wata and Ai Aso each doing a cover, Ai Aso cover King Crimson's "Islands" and Wata covers Masashi Kitamura's "Angel" which we had never heard (or heard of) before.
Ai Aso take "Islands" and let it unfurl softly and sweetly, a blissy dreamy drift, with hushed vocals over shimmering guitars, the drums are the focal point, way up in the mix and driving the song, almost martial at times, while at others shuffling along side the glimmering guitars. Very skeletal, but strangely lush at the same time and really quite pretty.
Don't let the fact that the flipside is credited to Wata fool you, as the lineup is essentially all of Boris, AND Michio Kurihara. So it's basically the Rainbow lineup, with the addition of some other guy playing Mellotron! The track is gentle and tranquil, a soft focus psych folk, the guitars are simply strummed, the vocals and sweet and ethereal, the percussion is essentially just a tambourine, that is until the very end, when the band launch into a slow burning psychedelic freakout, not sure if it's Wata or Kurihara, but the guitar soars majestically, howling and screeching, wailing wildly over the dreamy strum underneath. Definitely sounds like it could have come from the same sessions that produced Rainbow, which is most definitely not a bad thing.
LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES.
It's the Brazil Issue! With Gilberto Gil on the cover. Also Joyce, Ceu, Tim Maia, Jards Macale, Arthur Verocai, Airto Moreira and tons more. All the deep interviews and awesome vintage color photography you expect from this fine magazine of funk, soul, hiphop, etc.
All right! Another colorful issue of this great magazine devoted to pretty much anything groovy and generally of a certain vintage. On the cover, the late great Nina Simone, whose significant socio-political-cultural impact is assessed. Also this issue, rapper Shock G of Digital Underground, Brazilian bossa jazz cat Dom Salvador, synth popster Hudson Mohawke, Band of Gypsies bassist Billy Cox, roots reggae's Yabby You, and plenty more. Including, perhaps for the first time in Wax Poetics, some krautrock, with a feature on Neu! Though, they probably have at least written about Kraftwerk or Can before, we'd imagine.
This is a downtuned stoner sludge face off between two German outfits, who tackle their Sabbath obsessions in slightly different ways. Weed In The Head start things off with delciate clean guitar figures, which are interrupted by ULTRA distorted blasts of metal riffing, the kind of distortion that is so fuzzed out the sounds are almost crumbling into pieces. Doesn't take long before the clean guitar disappears under an avalanche of groovy sludge, pounding Cromagnon drums and wailing sort of Ozzyish vocals. A weird blend of Sabbathy groove and Kyuss-y desert rock, heavy but most definitely stoney and groovy. Things occasionally slow down into almost Eyehategod terrirtory and eventually bliss out into a druggy trippy Monster Magnet style space jam. Cool!
Gorilla Monsoon (named for the wrestler we presume) counter with their own stoner psych sludge groove, starting out with a gorgeous bit of hazy ambience, all guitar distortion and feedback, before the main riff powers through, kicking up all that ambience into a swirling sonic dust storm. Dark and murky, but a bit more rocking than WITH, and much harsher vocals, that swoop wildly from a King Fowley type growl to a near Khanate like hellish shriek. There are some sludgy Eyehategod moments, lots of loping midtempo fuzz and groove, but like Weed In The Head, Gorilla Monsoon are ultimately channelling the spirit of the mighty Sabbath (heck, the singer's nom du rock is even Jack Sabbath) and there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Packaged in a nice fullcover foldover sleeve and pressed on nice thick vinyl
Reason #16 for sticking with the Ethiopiques series: 'cuz just when you think you've got the series pegged, along comes something from way out in left field to kick your generalizing ass. And that's exactly what Asnaqetch Werqu did to ours. So no, this is not another funk groove record -- for those of you who may have had enough of that. Like the Harp Of King David (Ethiopiques #11) that was released back in 2001, The Lady With The Krar is more of a "traditional" Ethiopian music disc. Culturally though, the Krar is the polar opposite of the Beguena and considered quite literally to be "the devil's instrument". The performer of this demi-satanic instrument, along with holding the claim to fame of being the first actress to appear on the Ethiopian stage, arose against the odds to acheive super star status as a sort of Woody Guthrie meets The Bard political minstrel performer. This is because Asnaqetch Werqu was not born into a family of performing musicians, a caste known as Azmari. Instead she acquired her fame through sheer lyrical, improvisational and musical prowess. A five (sometimes six) stringed lyre with a gut resonator, the Krar sounds not unlike an old-time five string banjo; though with its creepy tuning it sounds closer melodically to something out of Java than the Appalachians. Werqu accompanies her vocals with the Krar, playing a semi-paralleling melody to her vocal line. The interweaving of Werqu's soft, lilting voice and the percussive twang of the Krar is absolutely hypnotic. Andee almost immediately proclaimed this his new favorite in the series, to give you an indication of the magnitude of this recording. Highly recommended! Comes with a 30 page booklet with biographical liner notes, lyrics and historical photos. The 22 tracks included on this disc were taken from two LPs recorded by Werqu in 1974 and 1976.
The Not Not Fun label's Bored Fortress subscription split 7" series has been going on for a few years now, and is always killer, featuring a who's who of hip underground weirdo rock combos, not to mention some seriously fantastic packaging, and for whatever reason, this year, a handful of the previously subscription only singles have been made available to non subscribers, but not for long, as these babies are crazy limited.
We've yet to review anything by Peaking Lights, but this chunk of murky bass heavy jangle dronepop has us definitely hankering for more. Big thing low end throb, beneath distorted drums, weary woozy vox, and some glimmering jangly guitar melodies, the song constantly drifting into full on psychedelic dub territory, everything wreathed in reverb and echo and delay, totally spaced out and druggy and divine. More more more!
Wet Hair, formerly known as Raccoo-oo-oon, deliver some spacey, minimal almost kraut sounding hypnorock. Beginning all super hushed and skittery, before building to a gorgeously motorik jam, rife with whirling organ melodies, and super dramatic over the top vocals, all very proggy and psychedelic and way way druggy. Seriously good stuff, sounding almost like a way more tripped out lo-fi Circle, which is most definitely not a bad thing.
Also, we have another Bored Fortress title, besides the ones we're listing now, the Infinite Body / No Age split 7", VERY few copies of that one, not enough to list, just ask if you want one and IF we still have some left, it could be yours!
Two aQ black metal faves join forces for this killer split, Kentucky pagan anarcho vegan one man band Panopticon, and isolationist blackbuzz outfit Wheels Within Wheels (a side project of epic metal outfit Seidr), both offering up some of their best, and strangest material. Up first is Wheels Within Wheels, who unleashes two epic tracks of droned out blissy buzz, the first, "A Burial Of The Mother Of Orion", is downright shoegazey, the riffs so blurry and blown out, they seem to smear into a washed out dronescape of layered buzz, the drums buried in the mix, a murky distant throb, the guitars occasionally coalescing into a monstrous crumbling chug, but then just as quickly blissing back out into total blackbuzzdrone, before peeling back the buzz completely, leaving a long stretch of hushed skeletal guitarscapery, a haunting bit of shimmery drift over a deem ominous low end thrum, which leads directly into "A Splinter Of Hope In The Blackest Of Hearts", which is almost like a continuation of "A Burial", but more melodic, the guitars soaring majestically, but still wreathed in a haze of blurred buzz, growing gradually prettier as the track progresses, it's hard to describe, but it's a weird warm bit of blackbuzz shimmer, and when the vocals finally join in, a mournful croon, the sound is transformed again into a strange buzzy lament. Gorgeous and haunting, and a lot prettier and more washed out than the other WWW record.
And it's as if Panopticon decided to follow suit, opening with "The Road To Bergen", which might be the prettiest thing we've heard from him, a mournful, melancholy dirge, dreamy and washed out and super melodic, hazy and almost sun dappled sounding, it's a bit like listening to M83 at 16rpm, a gorgeous blurry, buzzy, dreamy slow build to a soaring super melodic almost Nadja like chorus. So great. And then there's the next track, "From Bergen To Jotunheim Forest" which retains the same lilting dreamy melody, but sets it amidst a much harsher landscape, all buzzing blackened riffage and blasting beats, but the melody drives everything transforming a grim black buzz into something weirdly emotional and strangely pretty, and when the guitars let loose with some wild melodic leads, and some killer harmonies, all over a background of blackbuzz and frantic beats, it's seriously mindblowing, and even 11 minutes of that is not enough. And the record finishes with another strangely pretty sonic missive, this one all clean guitar jangle, woozy chant like vocals, and glistening glimmering melodies, the sound almost liturgical, hazy and gauzy and washed out and impossibly dreamy, peppered with brief blasts of furious black buzz, bit for the most part, strangely lovely.
This just might be one of the least grim and black, black metal splits ever, but somehow it also just might be one of our favorites.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Along with the Carlton Melton / Mugstar split 7" reviewed elsewhere on this week's list comes another new 7" from the fine folks at Trensmat, this one another split, but this one from two bands we had never heard of before, the first, Whirling Hall Of Knives, already had us kicking ourselves, their track a gorgeous droned out chunk of brooding slow building psychedelia, layered tones, looped rhythmic fragments, all manner of buzz and swirl and thrum, pulsing and throbbing, hypnotic and mesmerizingly sinister, until suddenly a beat surfaces right in the midst of all this swirling hypno-psych noisiness, a sort of squelchy acid-y groove, that transforms the sound something else entirely, a sort of spacey electro kraut-drone groove, that seems to dissipate as quickly as it was conjured, leaving just a bit of washed out drone-drift shimmer to finish things off.
A NZ band called Tlaotlon counter with their own sort of abstract psychedelia, less dense and ominous, a little more looped and rhythmic, right out of the gate the sounds swirl and beats stutter and pulse, reminding us a bit of a more electronic, slightly less noisy Our Love Will Destroy The World. As the track progresses, it becomes more Goblin/Carpenter soundtracky and synthy, woven into the band's psychedelic swirl, heady and dreamy and really great. We'll definitely be after more from both of these outfits.
And as with all Trensmat 7"s, there's a link on the sleeve to a download, which in this case includes a 30 minute tripped out live video from WHOK, as well as two extra tracks from Tlaotlon. SUPER LIMITED as always, already sold out at the label, so these are the last ones we'll ever get.
At indie rock's dreamiest summit two titans of neo-shoegaze convene! One our very own hometown heroes Whirr, and the other Philadelphia's Nothing, both of whom we've raved about at great length in lists past! (In fact, Nothing's Guilty Of Everything was this particular aQer's fave album of 2014!) Seeing as these guys both deal in a pretty similar brand of hazy yet heavy, morphine-drenched shoegaze, and even share members, it seems a split was somewhat inevitable, but instead of simply phoning in some half-cooked studio outtakes or cover song fillers both bands deliver material easily amongst the best of their respective careers. Whirr especially sound revitalized here, their tracks have a newfound uptempo energy not often seen on their more downcast older material, sounding like a punched-up Slowdive aiming straight for the heart of early to mid '90s 120 Minutes, the driving rhythms at perfect odds with the bleary eyed anesthetized vocals. Nothing's contribution is a little chunkier in contrast, a little less shoegaze and a little more Hum-style soaring '90s alt-rock, but still with those breathy ghostly vocals to infuse the songs with a nameless, formless melancholic haze. And as always they masterfully bridge the gaps between hooky and spacious, heavy and melodic, bittersweet and plain rockin'. Highly recommended for baggy-teed stoned out gazers everywhere, and a great introduction to these two fantastic bands for anyone not familiar. And really a great place to start in general for anyone looking to investigate this whole new shoegaze renaissance the kids are all raving about.
This is volume 12 in the LAMC series from the Famous Class label, where a bunch of our favorite bands offer up an exclusive song for the A side, and pick one of their favorite up and coming bands for the flipside. Past participants have included A Place To Bury Strangers, Deerhoof, Fuzz, Mikal Cronin, Wand, CCR Headcleaner, Ceremony, White Magic and more. This time around it's local sixties style retro poppers White Fence, who offer up another glimmering sonic gem, a dreamy bit of lo-fi retro pop, all hushed vox, music box melodies, tinkling chimes, and fuzzy, jangly guitars sounding a bit like vintage Kinks by way of Guided By Voices, which is most definitely a good thing. WF picked Jack Name for the B side, whose Light Show record was recently released on Ty Segall's God? label, and reviewed here, and much like that lp, the track here is a woozy bit of garage pop murk, with deep dramatic vox draped over almost cabaret sounding fuzziness, a little bit baroque, a little bit lo-fi, all blurred into a heady, psych-pop gem, which should have folks who missed out on the aforementioned full length, righting that wrong, right away!
And yep, EXTREMELY LIMITED!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another blast of spaced out psychedelia from aQ faves White Hills, hot on the heels of their most recent full length, the kick ass Frying On This Rock. For this split 12", those East Coast spacelords (and lady) have teamed up with LA space rockers Farflung, whose last record, A Wound In Eternity, we reviewed a while back, and as you might remember, we were kinda blown away by just how heavy and spaced out and gloriously psychedelic it was, so it sorta makes sense that they would end up sharing a record (and a tour) with White Hills...
Each band offers up a sidelong track, Farflung starting things off, and pretty much straight away, they launch into some seriously stomping psychedelic spaciness, which we're guessing will have most fans of the current crop of psych/space rock (The Heads, White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Carlton Melton, etc.) wondering how the fuck they've managed to miss out on these guys for so long. It's like Chrome via Hawkwind via the Stooges, the sound MASSIVE, thick and dense and HEAVY, punkish processed vox over crushing stoner space rock riffage, all wrapped in druggy clouds of dense sci-fi FX, swirls and swoops and bleeps and bloops, the vibe slithery and swaggery, pounding and explosive, before the band bring it down part way through and unfurl some blissed out kosmische shimmer, all hushed and heady and drowsily dreamlike, before blasting right back into a stretched out kraut-flecked hypnorock jam that will have Heads / White Hills hands in heaven. And then they somehow crank it up even further for the last few minutes, finishing off with a wild freaked out heavy psych blowout that KILLS.
White Hills opt out of a heavy space psych duel, with Dave W. and Ego Sensation instead turning their sound inward, channeling some serious cosmic drift, much more akin to the sound of last year's aQ instore, blissed out and dreamy, but even more mellowed out here, soft swirls and thick chordal thrum, all blurred into gloriously soft focus smears of celestial kraut-psych shimmer, with a super cool, super weird mid song interlude, with a strange sample bit of angelic vox, like some scratchy old pop record, in a haze of warm crackle and wreathed in streaks of space spidery psych melodies, before slipping right back into the warm, whirling sprawl of muted guitars and softly swirling effects that started things off.
Killer stuff from both bands, White Hills great as always, and hopefully the perennially unsung Farflung will get some big time love from the legions of White Hills fans, cuz they definitely deserve it.
Featuring super eye popping red and white Manga style artwork by Keenan Keller. The vinyl pressed on either red or white (to match the red and white cover art), with a printed insert inside with liner notes and more awesomely garish artwork. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
Killer split 7" from Aussie heavies Whitehorse, and Floridian thrashers Hot Graves. Whitehorse offer up another skull caving slab of extreme heaviness, churning, lumbering, groovy and sludgey, with some cool harmonized melodies offsetting the otherwise downtuned crush. The vocals are a demonic gurgle buried in the mix, occasionally exploding into banshee like howls, the sound creeping one second, swinging and Sabbathy the next, a killer jam, and surprisingly melodic/catchy.
Hot Graves are new to us, and a quick glance online seemed to have them pegged as sounding like Swedish styled death metal, but to these ears, at least on this split, they sound way more old school thrashy metal, reminding us quite a bit of aQ faves Speedwolf. Loping, galloping metallic punk (or punky metal?), all classic metal chug, shredding leads, raspy throat shredding bellows, raw and fucking fierce, with wicked classic harmony guitar leads, and a cool second half, that slips into a mosh worthy breakdown with still MORE classic metal riffing. Definitely want to hear more...
Probably limited, super swank silkscreened covers, and a printed heavy cardstock insert.
It's been a while since we've heard from Aussie heavies Whitehorse, but they've returned on this split with East Bay grinders Negative Standards, Whitehorse's contribution to the split a sidelong sprawl of downtuned miserablism, a song that takes WH's usual knuckle dragging tarpit doom sludge, and adds some insectoid black buzz, the swirling fast picked guitar weaving a strange backdrop to the band's monstrous lumber, bellowed vokills and caveman drum crush, the song droning and tranced out, devolving into a killer stretch of power electronics midway through, a field of garbled static and solid state feedback, before lurching back into action, slipping right back into an epic sonic trudge, that like past jams, sounds a bit like a more abject, slo-mo Godspeed, before returning to that opening black metal riff to finish things off.
We had never heard, or even heard of Negative Standards before, even though they hail from across the Bay, but they definitely make a good match for Whitehorse, their sound not doomy as much as crusty and grindy, opening with an extended intro of blackened ambience, and swirling FX, before launching into some fierce D-beat pound, lurching from crusty churn, to furious fastcore grind and back again, the vocals a seriously sick demonic rasp, the sound relentless, until the doomy midsong breakdown, the song slipping easily into slo-mo, downtuned creep, all knuckle dragging pound that evolves into some near Neurosis level epicry, before exploding into one final salvo of blasting, grinding fury. Things finish off with a short sharp burst of crusty grind, beginning with a brief blast of static/feedback power electronics, before exploding into some frenzied metallic crush, the relentless blasting crust, peppered with a few seconds of seriously spaced out doom midway through.
Killer artwork from Sutekh Hexen's Kevin Gan Yuen! But no download, sadly.
The fact that there's a movie called Wicker Park is almost as bad as the fact that there was a movie a few years ago called "The Mission". And the fact that Josh Hartnett is in it doesn't make us any more likely to see it. Nor surprisingly does the amazing blonde on the cover who we assume is Hartnett's love interest in the film. Probably the most fascinating thing about this soundtrack is that it definitively marks the fact that WE, US, you and me, our generation, people JUST LIKE you and me, have infiltrated the motion picture industry and the advertising world and are using the music you or I would pick for a movie or put on a mix tape. Kind of cool. But also kind of creepy. Nick Drake or Tortoise on a car commercial? What about a major Hollywood motion picture, starring a current hearthrob featuring *rare* and *unreleased* tracks from...Death Cab For Cutie, Broken Social Scene, Postal Service, Snow Patrol, Mazzy Star, the Shins, Mates Of State, Mogwai and on and on. It's actually a pretty awesome soundtrack / mix. Worth it just for the Postal Service's awesome version of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds"!!
As a teaser for their upcoming Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux, RTX) produced full length, psychedelic metallic noise poppers Wildildlife team up with their sludge pop doom noise pals in Flood for a killer two song onslaught.
Wildildlife just keep getting better, their sound getting poppier and poppier, but somehow managing to not get less heavy or any less weird or psychedelic. Their track here explodes right out of the gate with some mathy drum pound and some tangled guitar harmonies, sounding almost like some sort of Iron Maiden / Butthole Surfers hybrid, the sound woozy and distorted and druggy, the vocals processed and all tripped out, hooks galore, but all buried under Wildildlife's blown out glammy noise pop chaos. Swaths of crumbling sound and swirls of spacey effects get wrapped around looped samples, and wild streaks of pop flecked psychedelia, churning, and rhythmic and heavy, and noisy and crazy catchy to boot.
Flood counter with some low slung slithery post rock lope, which gains momentum and finally explodes into a seriously stonery doomy sludge, the brooding minimalism giving way to some epic, majestic hypno doom crush, but with plenty of groove, the sound at one point locking into a long stretch of repetitive and hypnotic chug and churn, sounding like a downtuned doom metal Circle, pounding away beneath bellowed vox and majestic melodies. So good.
Limited to 500 copies, we managed to get a bunch of the colored vinyl. Each one is hand numbered, and comes with a download coupon.
In case you're unfamiliar with the In The Fishtank Series, here's a brief synopsis, Dutch label Konkurrent invites a pair of touring groups into the studio to spend a couple of days recording whatever they like. Past artists who have accepted the
Mr. Wilp, a strange German fellow who in the '60s composed crazy playful pop cocktail soundtracks and advertising jingles for among other products Mad. Ave. Perfume and AfriCola, gets the remix treatment by such equally sharp, stylish and fluffy artists as StereoTotal, To Rococo Rot, Tipsy, and Yasuharu Konishi (of Pizzicato 5). Very light and super fun.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Regardless on the time of year, we usually have a handful of Christmas-y cds in stock, and now we've got some holiday themed music on vinyl too! Here's a limited edition split 7" from a couple of Midwest music makers, one of whom we know and love so well, Windy & Carl! Their side has two suitably frosty songs "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Snowing". The flip side features one track, the cut'n'paste sample-icious "Spanky The Christmas Elf" from Frankie & The S.E.M.M. The clear green vinyl platter comes in a pretty handmade watercolor-y paper sleeve which comes in a clear plastic sleeve festooned with round colored stickers which bring to mind Christmas tree balls. But wait, there's more! Accompanying the record is a bonus (Mac/PC compatible) cd-rom with some strange footage of an early nineties call in Santa Christmas television show, with the sound a little chopped and remixed giving the whole proceedings a very tripped out surreal vibe.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
To celebrate their big two five oh, the UK's (heck, the English speaking world's) premier monthly magazine of "adventures in modern music" has included a free double cd compilation with this issue, with all kinds of crazy stuff on it, from The Necks to Ergo Phizmiz to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy to DJ/Rupture to Henry Grimes...mostly previously released or upcoming stuff I guess but still a cool sampler of what's what in the world of The Wire. Also this issue: a eulogy for John Peel, Irr.App.(Ext.), a Finnish Underground report (Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Es...), Greg Davis, an Invisble Jukebox with Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen, all the usual reviews and such, and a big section called "In Praise Of The Riff" (with 'the riff' meaning a lot of different things to a lot of different people, apparently). Too bad they had to diss on metal so hard in the process...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
New issue of the UK's new music Bible, The Wire. On the cover this month, LIGHTNING BOLT. Inside: Vashti Bunyan, Ray Russell, Tujiko Noriko, Ken Hyder, Susanne Brokesh, a primer on Jamaican deejays, tons of reviews and all that jazz, er, we mean, modern music. This issue includes a copy of the Wire Tapper 14 cd compilation including tracks by This Heat, Nels Cline, Cobra Killer, Dirty Projectors, Cage, Secret Mommy, Ray Russell and more!
Every month, like clockwork, the UK's premier magazine devoted mainly to the sort of music we love cranks out another informative issue. Here it is again, with techno maven Richie Hawtin on the cover, along with the likes of Lucky Dragons, Benge, Runhild Gammelsaeter (of Thorr's Hammer and Khlyst), Ingrid Laubrock, and more. David Grubbs has the "Epiphanies" essay in the back, and Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple does the "Invisible Jukebox" with Alan Cummings playing him the records. Pretty interesting. He spots Stockhausen and Gong straight off, taking more time with Ohkami No Jikan and Terry Riley, among others... Cummings stumps him with a tricky Afrirampo track. And there's a Helsinki scene report of special interest to certain AQ customers, since it's all about our favorite new musical movement, SKWEEE! Plus all the usual reviews and stuff.
Making this ish even more of a must buy than usual, it also comes with a free covermounted cd sampler, with stuff on it ranging from Grails to Moha!, cool.
This month's issue features Broadcast (on the cover) discussing their witchy new release, also spacey techno technician Dopplereffekt, "hypnagogic popster" Sun Araw, Romanian avant-composer Iancu Dumitrescu, the Master Musicians of Joujouka, and more, including Lou Reed given the Invisible Jukebox blindfold listening test by Alan Licht. Also, the Primer this issue is about kosmische krautrock music a la Ash Ra Tempel, Siloah, and Yatha Sidra amongst others. And Christian Marclay discusses the cover art of Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights. Plus all the usual reviews, columns, new bits, charts (where you'll find an Aquarius 15!), and more.
Oh, and this issue also features a free cover mounted cd sampler, The Wire Tapper 22, featuring Shits And Giggles, Zenlo, Pink Mountain, Climax Golden Twins, and 16 others.
Yay! Konono No.1 and their "Congotronics" on the cover! And also stuck to the cover, "The Wire Tapper 23" cd sampler w/ Han Bennink, Clogs, The A Band, Raymond Dijkstra, Rolf Julius, Aaron Martin, and a whole bunch of others we haven't ever heard of. Inside, interviews and stuff about Joanna Newsom, Giacinto Scelsi, Eleh, Edgard Varese, Stefan Goldmann, The Gaslamp Killer, and more. Plus all the usual interesting reviews and columns and charts and all. ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
If you read our list, you should probably also read The Wire. Just sayin'. And a lot of you do.
The latest issue of this music magazine outta the UK features the mysterious Zomby on the cover. Also inside: Forest Swords, BBC Radiophonic Workshop founder Daphne Oram, Tiawanese pipa virtuoso Luo Chao Yun, Kemialliset's Jan Anderzen, a Primer on Jim O'Rourke (that could have taken up the whole issue!), and an interesting essay by Bob Ostertag on why he now gives away his music for free online and what he's learned from that. Plus more, including all the other usual good stuff you expect in The Wire, reviews, charts, etc., AND a free cover-mounted cd sampler, Wire Tapper 26.
This month's cover star: Flying Lotus, doing something weird with his eyes. Also, among other interestin' things: Laurie Spiegel, Pelt, John Butcher, a scene report from Hanoi, and a wonderful 'Epiphanies' essay from William Basinski about an encounter with David Bowie in the '80s. And of course reviews, reviews, reviews... Plus, this issue comes with one of those Wire Tapper cd samplers glued to the front.
BROTZMANN! Peter, that is, on the cover, in black & white, looking intense. Besides an interview with (and a Primer on) the legendary free improvising saxophonist, this issue of our favorite must-read new music magazine gets into the likes of roots producer Niney The Observer, avant blues persons Loren Connors & Suzanne Langille, and "Postwar Optophonic Pioneers", among other things. Plus the usual reviews, news, reviews, charts, reviews, columns, reviews, etc.!
Another Wolf Eyes collab finally available on cd!
Portland's clattery, free improvised noise unit meets Ann Arbor's caustic power electronic doom-synth trio, for an unprecedented meeting of the..uh..minds. Smega seem to come out on top, with the overall sound falling squarely in their clinking, crashing, hippie music concrete by way of No Neck Blues band free folk clatter and Negativland-ish plunderphonic found sound collage. The strong sonic personalities in Wolf Eyes seem to have no problem playing the supporting role here, underscoring the ramshackle freeness of Smegma, with their buzzing homemades synths, and grinding electric guitar grit.
- MPEG stream: One
- MPEG stream: Two
They may be thousands of miles apart, but it would take more than something like distance to keep these two forces of musical darkness from meeting and unleashing this Black Plague. AQ faves, Australian noise rockers the Grey Daturas, were visited recently by the US ambassadors of noise, Wolf Eyes. Never one to squander an opportunity to get together and kick up a ruckus, the Daturas dragged the Eyes into the studio, and both bands spent a few hours cooking up their own unique vision of sonic decay. Wolf Eyes came up with the 5 part "Post Civilization Muzak", 24 minutes of grrrrrrrrrrrinding post industrial brutality. Huge sheets of coruscating electronics, super distorted guitar, and wild streaks of white hot feedback, all tangled up into a blazing blood red supernova of sound.
The Grey Daturas counter with some musical density of their own. A bit more lo-fi, three long tracks, one a tangled freejazz grind psychnoise splatter, a blurred cloud of stuttery staggering freakout, another a slow plodding glacial sludge, with thick washes of abstract doom and simple tribal drumming and finally a full on far out post rock post punk instrumental epic, heavy and droney and massive. Pretty killer stuff.
Packaged in a glossy digipak and released on the Daturas' Heathen Skulls label. Includes a bonus Wolf Eyes track NOT included on the upcoming domestic lp version!!
This is a split release if there ever was one. Two bands and SIX labels!! Indie labels Up Jumps The Devil, Vegalia, SNSE, Muet, Ignivomous and Nihilist all pitched in to bring us this tag team match of NOISE NOISE NOISE!!! First up, psuedo-industrial noiseniks, Factrix worshippers and AQ faves Wolf Eyes offer up a churning throbbing rhythm built from moaning low end organs, a sort of chopped-up hiccupping drone, that quickly splinters into FULL ON NOISE, pink noise and white noise battle feedback and rhythmic pulses of industrial crunch and midwestern style Japanoise. Panicsville, who we aren't so familiar with, present a very Wolf Eyes like din, that starts off innocently enough with bleeps and bloops and clicks and whirs, but soon erupts into a crushing tidal wave of rumbling, warbling drones, malfunctioning-video-game crunch, screeching feedback and distorted howls and screeches. Recorded live too, as far as we can tell. A seriously solid split of blistering brutality. Those of you who need this know who you are! Cool, gory cover art and swirly grey vinyl! ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A one line review is all we need here, and in fact, that one line could be used just to explain that we only got 30, that's all we're getting, and have already sold at least a third of those before we even had a chance to list this, so act fast ! And oh yeah, the review? This here's a split 7" featuring local psych sensations Wooden Shjips on one side (Spacemen 3 cover "I Believe It"), and a rare track from psych drone legends Spacemen 3 ("Big City", unreleased alternate demo version) on the other. About all you need to know...
ONE PER CUSTOMER!!!!! ----* ----* 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! AGUAYO, MATIAS "Ay Ay Ay" (Kompakt) cd 15.98 ANTI-POP CONSORTIUM "Fluorescent Black" (Big Dada) cd/2lp 15.98/23.00 ANVIL CHORUS "The Killing Sun" (Rockadrome) cd 12.98 APHRODITE'S CHILD "End Of The World" (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98 ARCKANUM "PPPPPPPPPPP" (Moribund) cd 16.98 BARONESS "Blue Record" (Relapse) 2cd 15.98 BIGOT, FRED "Mono-Stereo" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 BLACK BREATH "Razor to Oblivion" (Southern Lord) cd 12.98 BRAINSTORM "Smile A While" (Lion Productions) cd 14.98 CAETHUA "The Long Afternoon Of Earth" (Preservation) 2cd 19.98 CASPA "Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening!" (Fabric) cd 11.98 CELAN "Halo" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98 CINDYTALK "The Crackle Of My Soul" (Editions Mego) cd 17.98 CITAY "Remixes" (Dead Oceans) lp 17.98 COBRA KILLER "Uppers And Downers" (Monika 666) cd 15.98 COWLEY, PATRICK & JORGE SOCARRAS "Catholic" (Macro) cd 17.98 CYMBALS EAT GUITARS "Why Are There Mountains" (Sister's Den) cd 13.98 DEKHA JAYE GA / UF YEH BEVIAN "OST" (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00 DEVO "Are We Not Men?" (Warner Bros.) cd 14.98 DEVO "Freedom of Choice" (Warner Bros.) cd/lp 14.98/24.00 EARTH AND FIRE "s/t" (Esoteric) cd 23.00 ESPVALL, HELENA & MASAKI BATOH "Overloaded Ark" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/21.00 FAHEY, JOHN "America" (4 Men With Beards) 2lp 25.00 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS "I Told You I Was Freaky" (Sub Pop) cd/lp 15.98/21.00 FLY GIRLZ, THE "Da' Brats From Da' Ville" (True Panther Sounds) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 FROST, BEN "By The Throat" (Bedroom Community) cd 16.98 GODS GIFT "Pathology: Manchester 1979-84" (Messthetics) cd 12.98 GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98 HIGGINS, GARY "Seconds" (Drag City) cd 14.98 HOLLENTHON "Tyrants & Wraiths" (Napalm) cd 12.98 HOLY SONS "Criminal's Return" (Important) cd 14.98 KIRK, ROLAND "The Inflated Tear" (Atlantic / Rhino) lp 13.98 KRALLICE "Dimensional Bleedthrough" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98 LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98 LIFE ON EARTH (EDWARD WILLIAMS) "OST" (Trunk) cd 17.98 LIMITS OF CONTROL "OST" (Lakeshore Records) cd 17.98 LITMUS "Aurora" (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98 MANIAC / LILES / CZRAL "Det Skjedde Noe Nar Var I Belgia" (Dirter) cd 17.98 METALUCIFER "Heavy Metal Bulldozer" lp 17.98 MICHAEL AND THE MUMBLES "s/t" (De Stijl) lp 14.98 MIST AND MAST "Action At A Distance" (self released) cd 6.98 MOLINA & JOHNSON "s/t" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 MORDANT MUSIC "SyMptoMs (Version)" (Mordant Music) 10" 12.98 MORDANT MUSIC "SyMptoMs" (Mordant Music) cd 17.98 MUDHONEY "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98 MUDHONEY "s/t" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98 MUDHONEY "Superfuzz Bigmuff" (Sub Pop) lp 12.98 NIRVANA "Bleach (20th Anniversary)" (Sub Pop) 2cd/2lp 15.98/28.00 NURSE WITH WOUND "Space Music" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 15.98 PARASOL, RYKARDA "For Blood and Wine" (self released) cd 12.98 PORT O'BRIEN "Threadbare" (TBD Records) cd 12.98 RAINCOATS, THE "s/t" (Kill Rock Stars) lp 16.98 RAINEY, MA "Those Dogs Of Mine" (Monk) lp 22.00 REYKJAVIK! "The Blood" (Kimi) cd 16.98 RITA J "Artist Workshop" (All Natural Inc.) cd 13.98 ROCKCELONA "La Bruja" (Estereo Fonico Country) cd 21.00 SECRETS OF THE MOON "Privilegium" (Lupus Lounge) cd 14.98 SHINDIG! "November - December, Vol.2 Issue 13" magazine 9.98 SHINDIG! "Psychotic Reaction" magazine 11.98 SLAYER "World Painted Blood" (American) cd/lp 14.98/24.00 SPIRAL STAIRS "The Real Feel" (Matador) cd/lp 13.98/16.98 SYLVIAN, DAVID "Manafon" (Samadhisound) cd 15.98 V/A "D-Funk: Funk, Disco & Boogie Grooves From Germany 1972-2002" (Marina) cd 17.98 V/A "Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series" (Wergo) 3cd 53.00 V/A "Fire In My Bones" (Tompkins Square) 3cd 30.00 V/A "Forge Your Own Chains" (Now-Again) cd 17.98 V/A "Messthetics #107" (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98 V/A "More Andergraun Vibrations" (Hundergum) cd 25.00 V/A "Mutant Disco Volume 3: Garage Sale" (Ze) cd 16.98 V/A "Tumbele! Biguine, Afro & Latin Sounds From The French Caribbean, 1963-74" (Sound Way) cd/2lp 16.98/23.00 V/A "Warp 20 (Chosen)" (Warp) 2cd 22.00 V/A "Warp 20 (Recreated)" (Warp) 2cd 25.00 V/A (CROOKERS) "I Love Techno 2009" (Lektro Luv) cd 17.98 VHS HEAD "Video Club" (Skam) cd 9.98 VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98 WARMTH "Original Warmth" (Turgid Animal) cd 12.98 YE OLDE MAIDS "God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us" (Art Fag) lp 17.98 YONKERS, MICHAEL & PLASTIC CRIME WAVE "Bleed Out" (Spiral Staircase) lp 16.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD "Under Stellar Stream" (Jagjaguwar) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 _______________________________________________________________________ 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.
Well, heck this is a no-brainer, gotta be stoked by this, considering that we highlighted Wooden Stake's debut ep Vampire Plague Exorcism last list, and made Blizaro's recent full-length City Of The Living Nightmare a Record Of The Week not long before that too! Obviously, eagerly awaited, so Hail Satan it's here already - the split release that sees these horror lovin' lunatics together on one cd with exclusive new material. First up, there's the deathly, doomed-out duo Wooden Stake, one of the heaviest and gnarliest of the current wave of female fronted "occult rock" acts a la Jex Thoth and The Devil's Blood; followed by (mostly) one-man band Blizaro, who continues to channel the sinister soundtracks of Italian giallo film through a psychedelic, DIY doom metal prism. Totaling five songs, 43 minutes (two tracks, 14'44" of Wooden Stake; three tracks, 27'53" of Blizaro) this disc is a delirious dose of underground doom weirdness indeed.
Wooden Stake gallop into view with "Death Reads The Black Tarot", Vanessa Nocera's witchy wail leading the charge, somberly supported by the rumbling riffage and bashing battery of Wayne Sarantopoulos (aka drummer Elektrokutioner, of Decrepitaph, Father Befouled, and Encoffination infamy, among others). Their other offering, "The Legend Of Blood Castle" is equally grim and gruesome, the Blood Castle practically coagulating around your ears as you listen to its legend...
Then the balance of the disc is given over to the bizarre progged-out rites of Blizaro, conducted via copious quantities of lumbering bass heavy trudge, psychotic vox, and psychedelic six string freakout. The tracks "Night Fumes" and "Edgar's Blood" are both about one half maniac metal chuggery, one half ominous church organ atmospheres, with a bit more melody on the metal side of the equation with regards to the latter. And then Blizaro winds things up with the calm yet creepy synth soundscape, "Final Escape/Zombie Feast", a Moog-laden mood piece. Nice!
Limited edition release, never to be repressed, FYI.
Maybe not a match made in heaven, but definitely a match made in some twisted sonic otherverse where we want to spend the rest of forever, this brand new split finds East Coast psych folk combo Woods teaming up with ex- Man Is The Bastard weirdo psych noise SoCal shaman Henry Barnes aka Amps For Christ for a record of heady psychedelic drift and cosmic lo-fi sonic experimentation, that sounds just about as good as we figured it would. The track listing is a little bit confusing. Opener "Sleep" while credited to Woods, definitely sounds like a collaboration, the music itself is lilting sun dappled folk, all chiming and sweetly melodic, but underneath, a crazy distorted droned out guitar like buzz undulates and pulses, adding a strange sort of raga like vibe, and for folks new to Amps For Christ, definitely sounds like one of Barnes' gorgeous and gorgeously ramshackle homemade noise generators, which often look like some old kitchen cabinet you might find by the side of the road, all warped plywood, and strange nails, often screwdrivers and wild tangles of wires, and more often than not, everything decorated with strange drawings of winged guitars and bits of twisted bible verse. However, once we get to a track we know is a collaboration, we realize maybe that first track was just Woods paying homage to the twisted genius of AfC, "From Oatmeal To Buttermilk" a wild glitched out buzzing droney electronic raga, that squelches and chitters, a field of hazy electronic interference over mysterious electronic bagpipe like melodies. Soon after, we return to the tranquil dream folk of Woods, who seem to have infused all their songs with some mysterious psychedelic buzz, buried way down in the mix, a raga-like buzz underpinning the folky flutter, the campfire twang, and the abstract Appalachia, all before we get to the final three song suite, which finds Barnes and his Amps For Christ unfurling some surprisingly dreamy folk of his own (if the track listing is to be believed), acoustic guitars, simple hand drums, shakers and percussion, distant buzz and warm atmospheric shimmer, falsetto vox, and while we were expecting some crazy electronic freakout from the oddly named final jam, the nearly ten minute "Roto Koto In C Major", instead we're treated to a darkly hypnotic, brooding expanse of bas driven psychedelia, laced with bits of twang, flurries of acoustic guitar, more percussion, all very spare and spaced out, hauntingly mesmerizing, and dreamily trippy and druggy and woozily soft focus.
Fans of both bands will definitely dig, and this may just be the most easy to digest Amps For Christ record yet, certainly the perfect place to start for the uninitiated, and we can hope the perfect gateway record to all the weird electronic darkness that lurks beyond.
Maybe not a match made in heaven, but definitely a match made in some twisted sonic otherverse where we want to spend the rest of forever, this brand new split finds East Coast psych folk combo Woods teaming up with ex- Man Is The Bastard weirdo psych noise SoCal shaman Henry Barnes aka Amps For Christ for a record of heady psychedelic drift and cosmic lo-fi sonic experimentation, that sounds just about as good as we figured it would. The track listing is a little bit confusing. Opener "Sleep" while credited to Woods, definitely sounds like a collaboration, the music itself is lilting sun dappled folk, all chiming and sweetly melodic, but underneath, a crazy distorted droned out guitar like buzz undulates and pulses, adding a strange sort of raga like vibe, and for folks new to Amps For Christ, definitely sounds like one of Barnes' gorgeous and gorgeously ramshackle homemade noise generators, which often look like some old kitchen cabinet you might find by the side of the road, all warped plywood, and strange nails, often screwdrivers and wild tangles of wires, and more often than not, everything decorated with strange drawings of winged guitars and bits of twisted bible verse. However, once we get to a track we know is a collaboration, we realize maybe that first track was just Woods paying homage to the twisted genius of AfC, "From Oatmeal To Buttermilk" a wild glitched out buzzing droney electronic raga, that squelches and chitters, a field of hazy electronic interference over mysterious electronic bagpipe like melodies. Soon after, we return to the tranquil dream folk of Woods, who seem to have infused all their songs with some mysterious psychedelic buzz, buried way down in the mix, a raga-like buzz underpinning the folky flutter, the campfire twang, and the abstract Appalachia, all before we get to the final three song suite, which finds Barnes and his Amps For Christ unfurling some surprisingly dreamy folk of his own (if the track listing is to be believed), acoustic guitars, simple hand drums, shakers and percussion, distant buzz and warm atmospheric shimmer, falsetto vox, and while we were expecting some crazy electronic freakout from the oddly named final jam, the nearly ten minute "Roto Koto In C Major", instead we're treated to a darkly hypnotic, brooding expanse of bas driven psychedelia, laced with bits of twang, flurries of acoustic guitar, more percussion, all very spare and spaced out, hauntingly mesmerizing, and dreamily trippy and druggy and woozily soft focus.
Fans of both bands will definitely dig, and this may just be the most easy to digest Amps For Christ record yet, certainly the perfect place to start for the uninitiated, and we can hope the perfect gateway record to all the weird electronic darkness that lurks beyond.
Surely you've loved your copy of The Meadowlands to bits, and are desperately seeking more Wrens' pop goodness. C'mon admit it! Well, they must've heard your cries, 'cause they've gone and released a handful of new material, and they've brought along pals The Five Mod Four for the ride too. We found the four Wrens' songs to be quirkier, grittier and more frantic than those on Meadowlands, but no less infectious. The Five Mod Four are witty songtitle-writers and Brit style guitar pop songsmiths to boot. Their contributions to this cd are four bittersweet jangly pop tunes that recall Robyn Hitchcock or Morrissey. Clever, wry lyrics sung with a long face that counterbalance the bright melodies and perky drumbeats.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
In addition to getting the brilliant new Xasthur full length back in (see elsewhere on this list), we finally managed to get copies of this amazing split (now out of print!) between AQ black metal fave Xasthur and the unknown to us and now defunct Acid Enema. Xasthur offers up more of his grim, bleak, depressive blackness: buzzing guitars churning in a murk of tape hiss and amplifier grit, barely audible anguished howls, relentless drumming, all weaving melancholy melodies and dark fugues into epic and harrowing soundscapes of abject misery and soul ripping hatred. Blasting Burzumic squalls give way to loping melodic breakdowns with finger picked guitars and mournful keyboards. So gorgeously grim. Seems everything Xasthur touches turns to black. The Acid Enema tracks take the buzz and dirge of Burzum and Darkthrone and add some industrial weirdness and damaged brutality. Razor sharp speaker shredding guitar tone and big boomy drums underpin some seriously demonic howls. A whirling, blood-red pool of sonic chaos, threatening to crush and blacken your ears and your heart and your soul. Some weird melodic ambience and then a DHR worthy industrial cover of Mayhem's "Deathcrush" with rigid hyper-distorted beats and punch-to-the-skull machine gun rhythms. Now out of print, so when these are gone, they're gone for good.
Been trying to track these down for ages, and finally managed to get a handful. Two new tracks from longtime aQ fave Xasthur, and one from Swedish one man black metal horde Black Circle.
The Black Circle track is super simple, raw, old school, primitive depressive black metal, midtempo, murky muddy riffage, growled guttural vocals, simple drum plod, definitely a bit grim and frosty, but more sort miserable and moody.
The Xasthur tracks, both sound like fragments, maybe parts of a bigger, never realized epic, but they're pretty kick ass parts, if you've been digging the direction Malefic's been taking the sound of Xasthur lately. Washed out guitars in the background, everything woozy and warped, depressive and abstract, definitely less metal and more atmospheric, tangled atonal guitars, warm muted synths, soaring strings, croaked barely-there vocals (courtesy of new Xasthur member M.H.), everything ULTRA lo-fi, plenty of buzz and hiss, but that only adds to the atmosphere. The second Xasthur is actually a cover or interpretation of a song by Tiamat, but we couldn't tell, still sounded like a Xasthur jam to us.
Limited to 888 copies, each one hand numbered, they come from far far away, so when we do run out, we may not be able to get more, and even if we can, it might takes us a while to restock.
Back in stock!!! Last list's RotW...
We normally don't make "now available on cd" releases Record Of The Week. But there are plenty of reasons to do just that with this one! First off, C'MON! It's LEVIATHAN and XASTHUR! On the same disc! Two of the most important, and musically creative black metal one-man-hordes in the new wave of west coast black metal (NWOWCBM?) teamed up for the ultimate NWOWCBM one two punch. Singlehandedly (doublehandedly?) putting USBM back on the black metal map, and completely redefining the genre, grim and brutal and black for sure, but also totally bizarre and avant and experimental. Plus even you folks who picked up the vinyl versions will need this, as there are 4 bonus tracks, three of them are from Xasthur, a brand new unreleased track, a rehearsal track from 2004, and a Katatonia cover! The other bonus track is Leviathan's amazing version of Judas Iscariot's "Where The Winter Beals Incessant"! But even without the bonus tracks, this clash of the black titans is totally essential, some of the most beautifully blackened and furiously fucked up black metal you are ever likely to hear. Xasthur from Southern California and Leviathan from right here in SF are blackened brothers, both exploring similar themes of hate and misery, darkness and death, but coming at 'em from completely different sonic angles. Xasthur is more about mood and atmosphere, with thick swaths of fuzzy riffery, galloping drums, rumbling bass and agonised howls of despair, all dense and dark and claustrophobic. Leviathan is much more technical and a lot weirder, but no less moody, with ultra complex and bizarrely arranged parts, insane drumming, buzzing riffery, and hints of doom and progrock mixed into his bleak and blackened metalscapes. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!!
