[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

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Showing results 1251 through 1300 of 5033.

Brad Laner's Electric Company gets the remix treatment from many of his wonderfully talented friends: Kid 606, U-Ziq, Blectum From Blechdom, Pimmon, Phthalocyanine, Tom Recchion (y'know, from the LAFMS!), Leafcutter John, Frank Bretschneider, Geoff White,

RealAudio clip: Josie and the slamming Demonic Riffs Rmx
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Despite all the crackling digital fuzz, this is basically a pretty digestible pop record. "It's Hard to be a Baby" is a bit smoother than the usual mind melting laptop glitch fest. Witness the nouveau-bossa acoustic guitar flourishes here and there, mix that with pretty, melodic minor key synth strings and reeds and some non-threatening mid-tempo beats, and you're halfway to the atmosphere of a trendy boutique. There's plenty of interesting moments, though, as attention is focused on process through obvious, pause-ridden loops, and distorted piano and catchy melodies are plastered with distortion. It's all topped off with the sense of playfulness that infuses the Tigerbeat roster. Kinda like downtempo lounge for robot programmers or glitch-core for aspiring international supermodels.

RealAudio clip: The Lifestyle
RealAudio clip: It Is Not That Very True

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

SORRY. An old record, but new to us! As mentioned in Windy's Bay Guardian column, and from the label that brought us the Conet Project! Each member of The Electric Family (which was the collective of all the electronica artists for the very odd Irdial records... Anthony Manning, Beautyon, Spy vs. Spy, Mrs. Mimi Magick, Ray Tracing, Gas Man, Spacemole, 2007) was given a Nintendo Super Famicon with the instruction to write a song only using the music sequencer and the sound pre-sets from Mariopaint. Clumsy yet entirely brilliant melodies with quirky horns famous from Simm City, whimisical digitized bells, and wholly un-hip beats. Somehow it makes complete sense that Akin Fernandez (Irdial's proprietor) would three years later release the Conet Project!

We are living in a post-Postal Service world. In the last several years we've been flooded with groups turning down their guitars and turning up their electronics, syrupy melodies, sensitive sentiments and catchy choruses. Unfortunately very few of these groups reach the bar set by the folks they are looking up to like the aftermentioned Postal Service, The Notwist and many of their Morr label-mates or on the non-electronic side of things, Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie. Unfortunately Electric President don't bring a whole lot new to the table and while they would sound fine in the background of a new episode of The O.C. we can't say this is going to win any awards for originality or songwriting talent. It's not bad it's just sorta pleasant. Definitely for those who like their electronic pop to be ultra feather-soft, pretty and with male vocals that bring to mind Stuart Little or the little frog Robin on Sesame Street... which come to think of it probably includes quite a few folks.

MPEG stream: Good Morning Hypocryte
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We only have a very few of this Record Store Day release but wanted at least a few mailorder folks to get a shot at it. We weren't really sure what to expect, actually we sort of were, we just weren't sure whether it would work or not, and whether we would dig it. But like last year's Electronic Anthology Project, which focused on the songs of Built To Spill (BTS's Brett Nelson is the man behind EAP apparently), which we somehow missed completely, the EAP reimagines the fuzzed out indie rock jangle of our youth as eighties synth pop anthems, and weirdly enough, making it seem possible that ANY of these songs would have fit right in that decade, and could easily have ended up on the iconic Breakfast Club soundtrack, or in any of John Hughes' movies, Dinosaur's J Mascis has the perfect vocals, all cracked and weary and whiny, the original melodies just a bit melancholy, and the new arrangements/productions are spot on, channeling the cheesiest eighties electro pop and synth pop, all skittery drum machines, hand claps, and chiming synths, pulsing and pulsating, fuzzy faux basslines, and somehow, weirdly enough, these Dinosaur Jr classics work really well, which is either a testament to the originals, to the new versions, or both. Some of the folks at aQ were driven crazy by repeat plays on Record Store Day, but some of us, couldn't get enough. And again, totally sold out and out of print. We have just a little handful, and then these are gone for good.

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

SORRY. We only have a very few of this Record Store Day release but wanted at least a few mailorder folks to get a shot at it. We weren't really sure what to expect, actually we sort of were, we just weren't sure whether it would work or not, and whether we would dig it. But like last year's Electronic Anthology Project, which focused on the songs of Built To Spill (BTS's Brett Nelson is the man behind EAP apparently), which we somehow missed completely, the EAP reimagines the fuzzed out indie rock jangle of our youth as eighties synth pop anthems, and weirdly enough, making it seem possible that ANY of these songs would have fit right in that decade, and could easily have ended up on the iconic Breakfast Club soundtrack, or in any of John Hughes' movies, Dinosaur's J Mascis has the perfect vocals, all cracked and weary and whiny, the original melodies just a bit melancholy, and the new arrangements/productions are spot on, channeling the cheesiest eighties electro pop and synth pop, all skittery drum machines, hand claps, and chiming synths, pulsing and pulsating, fuzzy faux basslines, and somehow, weirdly enough, these Dinosaur Jr classics work really well, which is either a testament to the originals, to the new versions, or both. Some of the folks at aQ were driven crazy by repeat plays on Record Store Day, but some of us, couldn't get enough. And again, totally sold out and out of print. We have just a little handful, and then these are gone for good.

This 21st Century Toy is comin' at ya fully loaded with electro-punk Electronicat's barrel full of guitar samples, distorto-effects and analog synths. The lead-off track gets the party rolling with some super fuzzed-out guitar riffin' and glammy vocals not unlike that of Doctor & The Medics' "Spirit In The Sky" or Gary Glitter. But never fear, a more familiar thick synthesizer buzz soon enters the fray and threatens to obliterate all in its path. Lots of raw trashy dancefloor fun and glammy frivolity ensue as hinted at by song titles such as "Hoo Woo Woo" and "Birds Just Want To Have Fun" (actually one of the slower numbers on this album does indeed feature a bunch of birdies chirpin'). Play loud. Note: the cd version includes three more tracks than the vinyl.

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

SORRY. Four new scorching tracks by the Wolfgang Voigt of France, Fred Bigot aka Electronicat. More of the addictive filthy analogue nastiness -- the soundtrack to your after hours drunken stupor -- from the latest remix darling of Depeche Mode. Nasty and pungent -- like good cheese, er, like French music should be.

On his fourth long player, Frenchman Fred Bigot has refined his unique style of psychedelic electropunk to excess. Gnarly analog synths rigged with loads of distortion are coupled with hard-as-fuck 808 shuffle rhythms and ripples of wah wah guitar. Imagine

More bubblegum electrofuzz poptronics from France's Electronicat, aka Fred Bigot (pronounced bee-joe we imagine), following up last year's Voodoo Man quite nicely. This new one's got all the shufflin' techno beats and glammy garagey guitar hooks you'd expect from this feller, and doesn't stint on his trademark fuzz at all. There's some female guest vocals (and rapping), plus plenty of synth squiggle and skinny tie new wavey catchiness. Go go Bigot!

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The French shuffletime electro maven known as Electronicat has his admirers here at AQ, and apparently 'round the world as well, as this obligatory remixes disc goes to show. It's got a completely hip and fairly diverse lineup of remixers: Adult., Dat Politics, the ubiqitous Kid606, dDamage, Felix Kubin, The Hacker, Mike Ladd, Original Hamster, and even Zbigniew Karkowski, amongst others. If you like your beats crunchy and catchy, glammed up with gobs of electro-punk guitar distortion, you should be an Electronicat fan -- and if you're an Electronicat fan, you already know if you would be interested in remixes I suppose. We enjoyed 'em.

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Excellent, ass-moving, dancefloor filth in the oh-so-infectious "Schaffel" style from Fred Bigot, aka Electronicat - French counterpart to T. Raumschmiere/Marco Haas or a tight rockin' Wolfgang Voigt (re: his 12" series as Frieland). The title cut was

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

SORRY. Second disc from France's analogue dancefloor thump maniac Fred Bigot. T-Rex is resurrected in a haze of rumbling analogue synths and smooth shuffle rhythms. Featuring the Kompakt approved "Shuffle Time".

Bo Diddley goes Electro? Uh-huh, some of this sounds a bit like that. Yes, France's Electronicat (aka Fred Bigot) is back with another neigh-irresistable album of glammed-up, poppy, punky, distortion n' groove engorged electronica. If you liked Electronicat's previous disc 21st Century Toy you'll like this. His clash of electric guitar fuzz and "shuffletime" techno beat-throb works its usual magic here, this album perhaps getting even more into, um, a Powerbook psychobilly thang. Lead off track/single "Dans Les Bois" sets the tone with Bigot's voodoo man lyrics (in English, with a French accent) about being "lost in the jungle". Oui, there's something kinda campy about it all, but we can't help but like it nonetheless. And that thumpin' fuzz is so satisfying. Includes a big ol' lyric sheet with cryptic personal notes on each track's genesis as well.

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

SORRY. First record from sexy electro Frenchman Fred Bigot aka Electronicat. Like someone raided Panasonic's studios and crafted a big batch of fucked up booty tracks.

Seems like no matter what, there's always some obscure gem left out there to be dug up and reissued, you've never heard it all. Here's the latest example, a reissue of a 1976 album with a promising title and equally alluring cover art. Electronic Mind Waves by Italy's mysterious Elektrikus (aka one Andrea Centazzo) is indeed pretty awesome, as a lone offering naturally touching on both the traditions of Italian prog and Germanic "kosmische" electronics, especially heavily influenced it would seem by the latter. While over the years Centazzo has apparently made other albums, of improvised avant-garde jazz, collaborating with the likes of Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and ROVA, under his one-off Elektrikus guise (as might be expected) he concentrated on synthesizer-based keyboard music, creating hypnotic (and sometimes haunting) electro-acoustic soundscapes of abstract droning synths and sequencer patterns, also employing tinkling bells, tape effects, and on one track, upright bass. There's eight tracks here, 38 minutes of his shimmering, ringing, burbling sounds that wouldn't sound out of place on the score to some strange sci-fi flick. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze should definitely check this out... For an Italian comparison, maybe some Franco Battiato? It also reminds us of a variety of more current underground acts, at moments like Vibracathedra Orchestra, or Kemialliset Ystavat, or something on Spectrum Spools, perhaps! Kinda disappointed that this turned out to be a cd-r, though. We thought it was a real cd at first, it's in a jewel case and totally pro-printed with color artwork and all. Not sure why they didn't make it a real cd (and it's NOT a bootleg, Ictus is Centazzo's own label, started in the '70s and reactivated recently). Oh well, still neat to have!

MPEG stream: Frequencer Departure - Flying At Daybreak
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This isn't all that new (it came out last year, 2011) but we just heard it, as soon as we did, we knew we wanted to review it. It's the third full-length album from this Vienna-based band, who play what sounds like techno music LIVE, with all-analog 'rock' instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums - no computers, no sampling, no synthesis, no loops, no overdubs. Elektro Guzzi are probably not the only artists to think of doing this, but they're the first we've heard, and they do it really, really well! It's kind of amazing - listening to this, if you didn't know they were a live group of humans playing 'real' instruments, in a kind of reverse engineering of electronic dance music, you probably wouldn't ever guess. Their music is as rigid and repetitive as any techno made by machine� and yet, you might detect that there's something special about 'em, something more vital than most techno, an extra depth to the sound that could never come out of a laptop. Must be incredible to see/hear in person, 'cause it's so mesmerizing on disc. They play with all the discipline and precision of aQ faves The Necks, but in a different, though equally hypnotic, idiom. And, setting them further apart from more everyday techno, these ten tracks can often eventually build into blowouts wherein the rhythmic elements become dense enough to have rather more of a textural impact. Very impressive, everyone here agrees, including our resident techno DJ Matt. Now we'll have to get their other earlier albums too...

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Like Clubroot, Eleven Tigers is another artist pushing the boundaries of the dubstep sound. And as much as we love the stripped down dubstep big beat heaviness that's all stuttery thump and big bass warble, we're also pretty into these new dubstep variants that concern themselves with atmosphere, texture, mood and vibe, as much, if not more than beats, taking those beats, and setting them in some verdant otherworld of sound, lush and expansive, or submerging them in some swirling murky subterranean sonic sea, infusing the core dubstep sound with bits of techno, house, even soul, to create, in this case, a single linked set of songs, each one flowing into the next, slipping seamlessly from washed out hazy shimmer, to sweetly soulful dubpop, to bass heavy dubstep crunch, to playful almost ska flecked electronic skitter, to warped woozy downtempo drift, to Portishead-y trip hop and back again. The record begins super atmospheric, with psychedelic streaks of sound, fragments of melody, all floating in a softly swirling haze, the beat a buried pulse, warm lush swells, when the beat does finally surface, it manages to be fierce, but still subdued and subtle, eventually the beat slips back under the surface again, leaving a whirling bit of muted murk, which slips directly into a short stretch of cool twisted processed sound, clipped and looped guitars, twisted into atmospheric smears, glitchy and hypnotic, like some Jeckian loop, which leads into the first proper song, a woozy bit of folk flecked electronica, the vocals wistful and sweet, balanced by some serious bass buzz, a little distant guitar strum, vocal harmonies looped over a tangle of skeletal rhythm and buzzing synth, so nice. From there on out, the record is a continues flow of constantly evolving dubstep, dipping into the above mentioned sounds, but twisting each on up over the course of the track, darkly aggressive one minute, tranquil and dreamy the next, the beats varied and expressive, the surrounding sounds lush and layered and in constant motion, a long slow build that finally settles back down near the record's end, into some divinely dark and stripped down dubbed out electronic bliss. Another new favorite electronic record, to add to the stack recent discoveries from Clubroot, Gold Panda, Actress, Glitterbug, Pantha Du Prince, Walls, Vex'd T++, Klimek...

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We've mentioned it before, but we love it when people we know make amazing records, and we're then available to share them with all of you. Such is the case with this, the oddly monikered Elfmilk, the project of aQ customer/pal Eddie, who hails from Mexico, and who is solely responsible for the gorgeous sounds to be found on Extragalactic Distance, a collection of abstract ambience, deep drones, and experimental rhythmic minimalism. Beginning with the brief minute long intro "Spiral", a smoldering bit of crumbling distorted piano, and shimmering overtone rich drift, Elfmilk reveals itself as something more raw and immediate than much of the ambient/drone/electronic music we hear. It's super well crafted, and lush and lovely, but it's still raw, and rough around the edges, which makes the sounds more warm, the vibe more human and organic, instead of sounds, these feel like songs, long tones shimmer and undulate, melodies seem to slowly evaporate into a haze of high end whir, scattered throughout are fragmented rhythms, dubby and abstract, disembodied pulses and ghostly beats, a sort of electrokrautrock that seems to be gradually coming apart, like some old space station left in orbit, the various pieces drifting off into the ether, some into the heart of the sun, some into the cold black void, here liquid squelches demarcate loose swirling melodic tangles, and thick swells of feedback wreathed buzz, acoustic guitars let loose spare notes, that flutter like leaves falling from trees, or mysterious detritus floating through space. In a few places, the sounds go haywire, explosive bursts of almost jungle like rhythms, or exploding firecrackers woven into frantic beats, but even then the sounds surrounding these blasts are warm and whirling and sweetly soothing, while elsewhere, the sounds slip into dubby Portishead like low slung downtempo grooves, culminating in the 14+ minute epic "Obsidian", a constantly shifting soundscape that plays out like a soundtrack to some mysterious art film, swirling electronics, lush textures, fractured effects, pulsing synths, the sound seeming to shift ever minute or two, finishing off with a stretch of grinding downtuned lo-fi dirgery, which leads directly into the closing number, a fantastically blissed out sprawl of super distorted melodies, all hazy and spacey and dreamlike, but wrapped in crunchy buzz and hissy static, which eventually slips away, leaving lush lustrous sonic swells, lovely hushed computer vox and what sounds like field recording, all woven into a softly undulating bit of dreamlike drift. Fantastic stuff. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Degenerate Dwarf (Mix C)
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The solo album from the Atari Teenage Riot vamp / diva Hanin Elias is a collection of the tracks which she had recorded outside of her ATR career. Electro-thud beats, analogue squiggliness, overblown vocal barks & screams, and a slick neo-goth behavior situates Hanin between the jet black electronica punk of ATR and Add (N) to X. Not surprisingly, Alec Empire supplies additional production on half the tracks.

In the early days of 1980, Severed Heads was a proper group, with principle engineer Tom Ellard accompanied at various times by Richard Fielding and Garry Bradbury. So when Ellard sporadically recorded his own solo work during this time period, he released it under his own name. By 1983 or so, Severed Heads was wholly under his control. That said, the Tom Ellard solo works do not fall far from the creative / aesthetic tree of Severed Heads - agitprop electronics, tape-loop errata, skewed post-punk detours, and the occasionally beautiful electro-pop melody tossed in for good measure. Eighties Cheesecake was a cassette of Ellard's that came right on the heels of a short-lived publishing venture called Dogfood Production System, which kicked out four lps from the eccentric community of bleak Aussie post-punk in 1981 but was unable to pay back the $5000 loan, thus forcing him to discontinue that venture. So, he (and Severed Heads) went back to dubbing cassettes through his cottage industry Terse Tapes. Jump forward some 30 years, and an older, more cynical Ellard discovered somebody selling the Eighties Cheesecake cassette online "for a stupid amount of money." His immediate reaction was to crank out an unlimited cdr edition of the cassette. Part out of the desire to confuse / frustrate the populace, part out of necessity to trim down the amount of material to fit onto vinyl, Ellard's recapitulation of Eighties Cheesecake contains only some of the material from that aforementioned cassette, with ancillary tracks from another cassette entitled Snappy Carrion, and previously abandoned tracks that got surgically stitched back together. No matter how you slice it, the Dark Entries release of Eighties Cheesecake is a corker or an album. These are punchy, taut electro-tracks with scabs of culture jamming samples, cheeky attitudes, and hyperbolic anxiety. Some of the tracks found on this version were later included in the Vinyl On Demand boxset of early Severed Heads experiments; though what Dark Entries released is entirely of the industrial pop vernacular. It's notable that Ellard dots the album with the iconic TB303, the bass-sequencer that was a failure for Roland for its intended use but later became the signature instrument for acid house and Detroit techno. For all of the acclaim that was put on the instrument throughout the years, Ellard seeths that "it was the worst piece of shit" in the liner notes. Piss and vinegar aside, Eighties Cheesecake makes for an exquisite revisitation!

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These are some crappy two-step "remixes" of Missy Elliott's ever so popular "Get Ur Freak On". Apparently someone wants us to believe that they could shit a Timbaland beat on a 12" and people will buy it. These remixes have got nothing on the spartan "Bounce A Gal" (the Special Remix 7" of Lexxus plopped onto the GUFO rhythm), and the Capleton "Mi Food" single which uses the

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

SORRY. SORRY. With the datapanic in year zero amounting to next to nothing (just a lot of government money spent), the countdown series by Raster / Noton to the year 2000 may seem a little anticlimatic... especially since the last disc arrived in the middle of January 2000. Fortunately, the musical content of the finale completes the brilliant and nearly perfect series on a rather bleak note. Coil's contribution to the countdown series is recorded under their Elph moniker, whose 1994 release "Worship The Glitch" was the metaphoric precursor to this series as well as such digital fuckery by Oval, Pan Sonic, Ryoji Ikeda, etc... Coil's menace, which was oddly lacking on the "Musick To Listen To In The Dark", returns as creepy lunar drones shift into an oppressive digital dirge and followed by a recombination of contemporary digital skitter with 1960's concrete / academic bleeping.

It's been three years since we last heard from Matthew Cooper, aka Eluvium, and that record, Similes, found Cooper mixing it up a bit, adding vocals, and transforming his Eno like shimmery drift into something more songlike, reminding us at the time of Black Heart Procession. But here on full length number seven, Cooper returns to the sound of his earlier records, like 2007's Copia, creating a lush, hushed landscape of cinematic ambience, minimal and melancholy, long sweeping expanses of synth shimmer floating ghostlike beneath stately piano chords, all wreathed in a wistful haze, but tempering this wistful drift with some seriously dark brood. The opener tugs at the heartstrings, and once again has us wondering why Cooper isn't in Hollywood scoring blockbusters, but then the tone shifts a bit, the follow up track adding some shadow, some sonic pathos, haunting, near symphonic swells, washed out and ethereal, as lovely as the opener, but slightly downcast, which leads directly into the brief dark sprawl of "By The Rails" which finds Cooper giving Stars Of The Lid a run for their money, unfurling a seriously dark bit of droned out thrum, rife with minor key melodies, and churning low end textures, all smeared into a blur of shadowy shimmer, and overlaid with soft sheets of static and distant keening melodies, fantastically murky and moving, an anomaly in Cooper's oeuvre maybe, but it had us hankering for more, and embracing the sonic shadows when they do surface. The rest of the first disc unwinds dreamily, long swaths of soft noise drift dissipates into a gorgeous stretch of solo piano, which gives way to another dreamlike expanse of crystalline piano, this time wreathed in muted rumbles, and slow shifting textures, again, super cinematic and moving. Finally the final track on the first disc adds some rhythmic static and some softly corrosive crunch to the proceedings, the whole thing building to an almost Godspeed-like coda. Disc two begins with a surprisingly noisy bit of ambience, delicate pointillist piano floats weightless in clouds of thick crumbling buzz, cascading sheets of distortion smoothed out into soft swirls of blurred blackened shimmer, the end result a dreamily noisy bit of dreamy drift. That noisiness seems to have bled into the rest of the record, at least a few tracks, with Cooper's usual haunting hush, augmented by thick sheets of shoegazey thrum, but still peppered with passages of delicate solo piano, or whisper like moody minimalism, the record closing with a brief bit of gristled soft noise, and then a sprawling stretch of stately dreaminess, warm fluid piano drifts atop long shimmering tones, and vocals surface for the first time, transforming the warm, wistful ambience, into a haunting dream-drone lullaby. Gorgeous.

MPEG stream: Don't Get Any Closer
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eM is the work of Michael Bentley, who also happens to run the local ambient label The Foundry. His own work is well entrenched within the proper definition of Ambient, or at least the aesthetics initially propagated by Brian Eno in the early '80s. "All the Stars Burning Bright" is conceptually a sci-fi album, with heavily processed sounds culled from NASA deep space recordings and

Conceptually following the "All the Stars Burning Bright" album, "Outward" by eM (aka Foundry label boss Michael Bentley) is an ambient excursion that begins here on earth with a series of digitally manipulated recordings of insects, animals, and earthquakes, moves out towards the far orbits of our planet with processed sounds of satellite telemetry, and arrives quite optimistically in the quasi-mystical pulsations of deep space, implying the "infinity that lies beyond what we have explored." Bentley's methods for the construction of his ambience are conventional mostly achieved by overloading synthesizers and digital samples with tons of reverb and nebulous swooshing sounds, complementing most of the spacemusic ambience often heard of the Hearts of Space radio programs.

RealAudio clip: Across The Milky Way

We reviewed an amazing album on the Dead-Cert label (the boutique subsidiary label of Finders Keepers and Demdike Stare) a while back by musical couple Kat Epple and Bob Stohl called Sanctu Spiritus, a proto-new age document of early recordings utilizing synthesizers and flute with tape-loops to be used in planetariums and space documentaries. That release is now sadly out of print, but that was just the beginning. Between 1978 and 1982, the couple would later form the group Emerald Web, a mixture of space and fantasy music with proggy new age leanings and release 5 recordings (1 lp and 4 cassettes) on their own imprint label Stargate from which the tracks here are compiled by the fine freaks at Finders Keepers/B-Music. Hailing from Florida, the duo recorded their music at night utilizing the studio they used for their day jobs as synth-programmers, music consultants for computer technology labs and TV and film soundtrack work. Named after a laser show formation and combining elements of dungeons and dragons fantasy and cosmic ambience, the group released their vinyl debut, Dragon Wings And Wizard Tales in 1979, a heady post-prog synth epic of tripped out soundscapes and ethereal female vocals that was recently featured on the Record Store Day compilation Monster Skies. The subsequent tape releases were less proggy and more spacey, filled with field recordings, dueling flutes, and ambient electronics that have more of a minimal composition focus than your typical new age music does. The couple would go on to record music for Carl Sagan's Cosmos series and hopefully that will get released soon as well. So great! There is an import lp version of this, but it's been very hard for us to track down, so for now we only have the cd.

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Remixed by Daphni (aka Dan Snaith -- better known as Caribou)

Mark McGuire, John Elliott, and Steve Hauschildt - the talented trio of synthesizerists and guitarscapers collectively known as Emeralds - have taken a break from their own personal, prolific release schedules and other music-related activities like running labels and such, to enter Tangerine Sound Studios in Akron, Ohio and come up with this, their umpteenth (we have no idea really, what with all the limited cassettes and cd-r's as well as cds and lps!) album together, following 2010's Does It Look Like I'm Here? The instrumental shimmer of Just To Feel Anything carries on from that prior release, Emeralds' mix of motorik beats, majestic ambience, and "glowing guitar workouts" again being expressed in shorter form, more "song-like" compositions. After an opening track, "Before Your Eyes", which begins as a barely audible bliss-scape of subdued synth before building up into militant beats and soaring melodies, this new Emeralds opus keeps the old school drum machine beats going on the bright and energetic "Adrenochrome", which goes from kinda dancey to guitar-oriented by the end of its own epic trajectory. Emeralds are annexing some Zombi/Moore/Majeure territory there, or sounding like something by Trans Am. A sudden shift of mood brings us to "Through & Through", a pensive & romantic sounding piece for guitar� But the very next track, "Everything Is Inverted", gets us back to the late-night-driving, early '80s krautronica soundz that make us think Zombi (and Michael Rother). Gorgeous future-retro grooves. Then, "The Loser Keeps America Down" (which would be the start of side two, on the vinyl version of this that we expect will be out in the next few weeks) sees Emeralds embrace their not forgotten, more experimental side, its textural distorted crackle not unlike a burning fire of electronic origin. Following that, eerie Goblin-like tones open up the album's title track, which blossoms into probably our favorite cut here, encompassing all the attractive features of the current Emeralds program. 'Tis shimmering, burbling, propulsive, and ultimately emotionally stirring. The album then comes to a close, bookended by another beautiful bliss-out piece. Nice!

MPEG stream: Adrenochrome
MPEG stream: Everything Is Inverted
MPEG stream: Just To Feel Anything

Drifting backwards in time from the post-noise excursions into placid meditations for guitar and synth, Emeralds have become one of the favorites here at Aquarius; and for very good reason, everything they touch seems to turn to gold. Solar Bridge was a such a tease of an introduction for us, and probably was the same for many out there entering into the swirling concoctions of electronic drone; but it has been the two albums What Happened and Allegory of Allergies that really laid the foundation for their impending greatness. Not only do they have a strong grasp on the minimalist theatrics of the drone, but also Emeralds enjoys a selective memory of what made progressive electronics and progressive rock in the late '70s and early '80s great. The pastoral colorfields of Cluster, the alienated ethos of Heldon, and the insistent arpeggiations of Achim Reichel and Ash Ra Tempel all figure heavily into Emeralds sound. This vinyl-only, eponymous record seems to percolate and bubble with electronics, at times veering into the same Omni Magazine territory that Oneothrix Point Never has been mustering for the past year. It may not be a surprise that OPN and Emerald's guitarist Mark McGuire have collaborated in a project called Skyramps, which is as good as you might imagine. The three tracks on the first side wrangle squiggling rhythms, bleepity squelches, and bending sustained tones generated by Emeralds' two synth jockeys John Elliott and Steve Hauschildt, while McGuire dishes out his best Manuel Gottsching impression. The second side is one of the epochal, long form constructs that slows everything on the first side down to an elegant pace with watery field recordings laced throughout. Pretty fucking awesome. And no doubt somewhat limited...

We're big fans of J.D. Emmanuel who has been self-releasing his own private press new age music since the early eighties. His 1982 masterpiece Wizards may be our favorite release of his, at turns evoking a Tangerine Dream like synthscapery with soft-focus kraut-rock propulsions. But this newly reissued 1981 release is in our opinion just as good, even if it is more gentle and new-agey, but still quite mysterious and meditative. Evoking ideas of past-life journeys, Emmanuel employs multi-tracked organ and synthesizers with occasional acoustic guitar and windchimes in compositions that remind us of works by Terry Riley and Peter Hammill but filtered through a mesmerizing pastoral sensibility. Wonderfully kaleidoscopic and vibrant, like sunlight piercing through a dark cathedral-like chamber, this will appeal to fans of atypical new age music like Ariel Kalma, Iasos, and Jordan De La Sierra. Download card included.

MPEG stream: Earth Dance
MPEG stream: In Movement on the Rings of Saturn
MPEG stream: Sunrise on a Tibetan Hillside

Back in 2007, when J.D. Emmanuel was reintroduced to the world via Lieven Martens (aka Dolphins Into The Future) through Martens repress of Emmanuel's 1982 masterpiece Wizards, it completely revived his career, and we've seen many archival releases of Emmanuel's organic new-age synthscapery reissued since. Soon after in 2011, he was touring Europe with Martens and Paul Labreque and finding large new audiences embracing his fluid performances, Emmanuel decked out in a cowboy hat and Hawaiian shirt complete with psychedelic visuals behind him. We even managed to see him live at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival that same year performing on a bill with Kevin Drumm and Gregg Kowalsky (what a night!). This new double lp on the Aguirre label documents his live set from that tour with long form excursions that have great sci-fi titles like "Adrift in The Gamma Quadrant" and "Ghost Emanations From Seti Alpha 6", but also new age references like "At-One-Ment" and "Path Inward" that reveal Emmanuel's lifelong dedication to meditation, healing and cosmic harmony. Emmanuel's sound is rarely dark, but it's otherworldly in a way that avoids coming off as fluff. We can follow his mind-journeys through music anywhere he wants to take us. Recommended!

Oh, how we still love Alec Empire. We just can't help it. We loved (and heck, still love) DHR so much. Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, Fever, EC8OR, Patric Catani, Bomb 20, for a while we were downright obsessed with all that stuff. Like all things new and exciting though, Empire and his crew sort of lost their relevance, their silly sloganeering, rehashed metal riffs, pummelling drum beats and screecheed vocals became more tired and boring than thrilling. Some stuff Like Empire's Destoyer stood the test of time a little better, but as music got more extreme, that whole DHR thing just didn't seem so badass. So the return of Alec Empire, could've been a sad rehash, but guess what, he's managed to knock us for a loop again. Your fist hint is Empire on the sleeve toting a guitar case, but Futurist is all ROCK. And heavy too. A super aggressive pounding metallic garage punk stomp. At times it sounds a but like Ministry or what we WISH Nine Inch Nails sounded like, which is hard to avoid when you're talking pounding beats and metal guitars, but it also sounds like the Hives or the Refused, super charged and slightly DHR-ed (some of the drum fills become that instantly recognizable DHR digital drill) A few tracks do slow down into chugging punk rock dirges and sound like some fucked up take on Fear or Fang or Flipper. But for the most part this is wild and sweaty, kick ass metallic garage stomp future rock. And we LOVE it.

MPEG stream: Kiss Of Death
MPEG stream: Night Of Violence
MPEG stream: Gotta Get Out

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

SORRY. Marking the end of his dealings with Mille Plateaux, Geist collects the best tracks from those albums, compilation appearances, and unreleased tracks. No digital hardcore...rather electronica, odd hip hop and musique concrete.

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SORRY. Another in the continuing onslaught of Alec Empire output, this one foregoes the brutality of Digital Hardcore for a more "loungey" techno sound, as it says on the cover: "file under Easy Listening & Space Jazz." Fun stuff.

With the demise of Atari Teenage Riot due to Carl Crack's untimely death, Digital Hardcore's mainman Alec Empire continues to preach / sing / scream to the hordes of disaffected electro-punk youth. On the first disc of this set, Empire's tactics remain consistent with the ATR output, as heavy duty punk explosions signified by the relentless samples of gated, grindcore riffs are punctuated by huge 909 throbbing drum kicks and stabs of searing white noise. Not surprisingly, "Intelligence And Sacrifice" finds Empire aligning himself more with the industrial / metal crossovers of Ministry and the guitar crunch attacks from the mid-'90s Wax Trax! clones. The second disc lands more in a disjointed acid breakbeat / micro-glitch realm, that is as good as anything Mille Plateaux / Ritornell has been releasing during the past few months. Quite effective, but neither of the two aesthetic sides of Alec Empire can be purported as entirely groundbreaking.

RealAudio clip: Everything Starts With A Fuck
RealAudio clip: Intelligence And Sacrifice
RealAudio clip: Vault Things Of The Night
RealAudio clip: Silence And Burning Ice

Unlike the adolescent brutality of this chameleon-like producer's digital hardcore, this is influenced by musique concrete, Stockhausen and Schaeffer. Cluster fans should dig this. No beats.

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SORRY. 'You'd be hard pressed to find something this caustic from another eye-liner-wearing global citizen' preaches the gospel of Hrvatski. This Digital Hardcore Limited release (of 1500 copies!!!) is more of a reflection of the scope of Empire's work from the trebly lo-fi Amen drum & bass crash to trebly lo-fi polyrhythms which sound like Terry Riley on a crappy tapedeck to trebly lo-fi cacophonous collages from the crowd noise during a riot following a Black Sabbath show. Mostly recorded during the sessions for Atari Teenage Riot's '60 Second Wipe Out' while Alec was waiting for the rest of the band to show up...

Sundries previously released on 12" 1994-1996. Killer digital hardcore rap techno.

The domestic issue of the bruitist drum & bass / Rotterdam fusion that opened the floodgates for future Digital Hardcore albums by Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, and the rest of the gang. Two new tracks added to this US version.

Most people probably remember Alec Empire best as the head of Digital Hardcore Recordings, or as the front man of Atari Teenage Riot, or for his various solo records, but here at aQ he's probably best know for the LOUDEST instore ever. It was pretty insane, not sure how we even got away with it. Folks were coming down from stores 4 or 5 doors down to see what the heck was going on. There was as big a crowd of lookie-loos as there was people to see the show. He was DJing with Merzbow albums or something. But it's been years, and Empire has gone through a bit of a transformation since then, he's not so much into the super distorted jungle anymore, his more recent records have been more industrial, sounding like Nine Inch Nails or Ministry, but actually good. We dug his last, The Futurist, a slab of metal riffs and drum machine beats, of howled vocals and stomping garage rock. A weird mix, but one that definitely suited him. But this most recent disc is different all over again. First there's the glamour shot in the booklet, all bleached bangs and aviator shades, and the legend underneath the disc that says "This is an indie rock noise record...", and it is, sort of. But we'd also say it's a sort of industrial synth pop new wave record, borrowing HEAVILY from prime era Gary Numan, and a little from Suicide too. It may be derivative, but it's still awesome. The opener is worth the price of admission alone. A killer hook, total new wave goth-industrial dream pop, equal parts Interpol and Gary Numan (the synth line is criminally Numan), the vocals a bit robotic, a weird atonal bridge, but the whole song so fierce and catchy, and the sort of thing that would destroy a dancefloor filled with silver booted, multi-scarved glam pirates for sure. There is some weird shit here too, robotic proto-funk, angular electro, murky ballads, groovy garagey buzz, it's all good, we're also reminded of the Mark E. Smith + Mouse On Mars project Von Sudenfed at times too. But the best parts are definitely rife with thick fuzzy synths, and killer beats, all wound up into groovy late night, strobe lit, stilleto heeled, funky, sexy blasts of buzzing new wave. Way cool.

MPEG stream: New Man
MPEG stream: If You Live Or Die
MPEG stream: Ice (As If She Could Steal a Piece of My Glamour)

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SORRY. Hmm. Worst title ever? Digital Hardcore maven and Company Flow guy team up. [/cat/e14.html]

A clash of the titans like this undoubtedly has noise freaks everywhere salivating like crazy. It sure as heck did back in 1998, when as part of CMJ, it was one of a handful of must see shows. By some weird set of circumstances, I (Andee) actually got to witness said clash, and it was something else. Something else in this case being a noisy, ear drum destroying mess. It was definitely a blast (literally). Easily the loudest show I have ever been to. So much so that we had to leave early. This set of supersonic skree translates a lot better on record than we expected it would. Live it was a minimal set up, Masami Akita hunched over his equipment, Alec Empire behind his sampler, occasionally shouting over the din. Sonically it's much as you might imagine. BIG digital hardcore beats pelted by jagged shards of white hot noise. Occasionally everything clicks and it sounds like the best DHR record that never was, and occasionally it just sounds like you're standing in the hallway of a practice studio listening to Empire and Merzbow doing their own thing, oblivious of each other. Either way, this is a beautifully furious, crushingly caustic set of big beat noise that should hit the spot for those who dig that sort of thing.

MPEG stream: The Destroyer And Merzbow
MPEG stream: The Full Destroyer / Merzbow Meltdown
MPEG stream: The White Man Destroys His Own Race