[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

Showing results 1301 through 1350 of 5033.

ENDLESS TIMEPowerless(Imminent Frequencies)cassette$ 6.98

ENDO, NICCold Metal Perfection(Geist)cd$ 15.98

Very impressive. Much less randomly aurally assaultive than her previous works. Atari Teenage Riot's Ms Endo has steadied her aim, and carefully selected her angles of attack. Not a constant barrage of pummelling abrasiveness, but instead more of a

ENGLISH, LAWRENCEWilderness Of Mirrors(Room 40)cd$ 17.98

A drop dead gorgeous album from Australian drone kingpin, Lawrence English. Wilderness Of Mirrors follows along the same woolly path that he carved out on Kiri No Oto and The Peregrine. Those albums bristled with a fracturous noise that was less of the raw-nerve probing and more a blast of polar wind smashing against your skin and racing past your ears whilst peering at the smeary, gray horizon line between a sullen ocean and a leaden sky. An existential gaze of self-reflection and melancholy. Wilderness Of Mirrors offers a similar avalanche of shoegazing droneworks with English layering noise upon noise upon noise, with everything blurring into a portentous density of somber, doom-laden downtunings broken apart by sparkling radiant bursts of tape-decayed synthtone. English further slows the melodic phrasing buried within the snow-packed masses of distortion, finding his work in very good company with the likes of Tim Hecker and Christian Fennesz. The title is a reference to a T.S. Eliot poem "Gerontion" - yet another fine literary reference from the well-red English, who had adopted the quote's original sentiment along with its latter day meaning as a geopolitical meme in speaking about the prickly business of Soviets and American duplicity throughout the cold war. English posits the title in relation to his own aghast reactions to the contemporary unfolding of political crisis after political crisis; but far from being a mere political statement, English allows the album to unfurl as an allegory full of abstraction and fragmentation enshrouded in a glistening fog of emotive drone. Very nice.

ENO, BRIANAnother Green World(EMI)cd$ 16.98

We didn't review Another Green World with the other Eno reissues featured a couple weeks back 'cuz they turned out to have some weird defect, but that's been fixed now and so here you go: Unlike most of the recent reissues of classic albums, Brian Eno's aren't graced / padded with extra bells'n'whistles (outtakes, demo versions and the like) nor are there swollen booklets of liner notes, photos, glowing praise, etc. No, you get the albums as they were originally released -- albeit remastered and packaged in simple digipaks with plain clear plastic slipcovers -- and frankly, with albums as timeless and remarkable as these, that's enough! Each is an inspired and inspiring work, remaining vital and compelling even thirty years later. Needless to say, each is fully deserving of an honored place in any record collection. What remains to be said about one of the all-time classic art-rock records? Here we find Brian Peter George St. John Le Baptiste De La Salle Eno (yes, that's his full name!) leaving behind the song structures of the preceding albums, and jumping straight into inventing the mood-driven, almost-snippits-but-too-composed-to-be-just-parts style of atmospheric 'songs'. A melding of his ambient sides with occasional vocals. "Sombre Reptiles", "I'll Come Running", "St. Elmo's Fire"... MAN, JUST TOO GOOD. If you've never heard this record, buy it and live with it for a few years. It'll getcha eventually... Really, just a flat-out model and inspiration for everything synthetic / experimental / art / punk / pop from Bowie's Low album to Talking Heads to I Am Spoonbender (Cup admits that IAS often uses a set of Eno's 'Oblique Strategies' cards during sessions, just like those mentioned in the liner notes to this essential release. FYI: they were a small black box containing a deck of cards imprinted with an assortment of open-to-interpretation statements... an oracle of sorts that you could refer to in times of creative blocks).

ENO, BRIANApollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks(Virgin)cd$ 15.98

The opportunity of a lifetime film score for Brian Eno: providing a soundtrack to the most, quite literally, other-worldy film footage ever shot. Eno was approached by ex-astronaut Al Reinert in the early eighties to put his ambient touch on a project that Reinert was working on documenting the apollo missions. Reinhert had sorted through 6,000,000 feet of NASA film footage shot by astronauts on those missions, picking out what he considered to be the best clips. To this he intended to add only the voices of the astronauts themselves -- both from interviews after the missions and from their transmissions to Houston during them -- and Eno's music. Though Eno's score was released in 1983, Reinert's film -- For All Mankind -- wasn't completed until 1989. Recorded just a year after his Ambient 4: On Land, the material here is quite similar. The compositions are far less conceptual than his earlier ambient works, yet the pieces here have an intuitive, textural and emotional feel without relying on -- for the most part -- melody. All but four tracks on this album use that same Eno M.O. of blurring the idea of "foreground and background", much like his previous release On Land. The guitar and bass, when the appear, are subverted from their original roles -- melodic lead, rhythm and harmony -- and instead are used for texture and atmosphere as much as the synths and electronics. The ambient tracks on Apollo have a foreboding and sublime quality -- appropriate enough for the vast eternity of space and the dessicated & bleak terrain of the moon. The four non-ambient tracks on this disc, all nestled together towards its end, are a bit of a departure from the rest of the album. "Always Returning" is probably the weakest link on the album, with its sentimental guitar part played by Daniel Lanois. Lanois however redeems himself with his pedal steel guitar playing on "Deep Blue Day", like a Sons Of The Pioneers tune, shot full of heroin and launched into the vacuum of space.

ENO, BRIANLux(Warp)cd$ 17.98

Finally a new Brian Eno solo record, his first for Warp (his past two Warp releases were collaborations, mind you), and it's a record we can fully get behind without apology. His first solo record since 2005's Another Day On Earth (which was a return to rock forms), Lux is a beautiful ambient recording reminiscent of his classic period especially the records, Discreet Music and Thursday Afternoon, Lux serving as a continuum of those same ideas, namely his "Music For Thinking" project started on those records and continued on 1993's Neroli. Lux is a 76 minute composition broken into 12 movements over 4 tracks, at its core a progression of layered loops of piano and synthesizer that shift in unpredictable ways. Evolved from a work currently housed in the Great Gallery of the Palace of Venaria in Turin, Italy, if you try to listen to this with intense scrutiny, it may just come across as merely pretty and evocative, but it actually evolves in ways that are very compelling. If left to play and forgotten about, it has the ability to sink into your consciousness and subtly vibrate your peripheral surroundings with an unidentifiable charge. Eno once said that the inspiration for Discreet Music was from being in a hospital bed unable to turn up the radio in the room, so had to lie motionless listening to a barely audible murmur and was trying to recapture that strange disembodied audio-acoustic feeling. Lux works on that same level. It's a rare ambient release that we could seeing being used as a tool of meditation, as well as a score for a psychological horror film. It will play with your mind! This first edition comes with a series of prints Eno made exclusively for this release, and there's a download card with the 2lp verion.

ENO, BRIANThursday Afternoon(Virgin)cd$ 15.98

In a lecture given by Brian Eno for the Long Now Foundation last year he explained the genesis of his ideas on ambient music, which was in itself inspired by the music of Terry Riley, Fela Kuti and the Velvet Underground -- music that he felt "flattened" the "hierarchical structure" of its components. He went on to say that "In my own work this manifested in an emphasis on making what would have been called the background more interesting, and what would have been called the foreground, less and less central, thus sinking foreground elements into the background." The results of these musings culminated in, amongst others, the now highly regarded Discreet Music and Music For Airports. Discreet Music was composed of individual elements, each of differing lengths, such that the sonic soundscape would sound similar from moment to moment, but never exactly the same either. Thursday Afternoon takes a similar road map to Discreet Music, but is executed on a much larger scale. Originally recorded for a VHS tape released by Sony Japan of 7 "video-paintings" of Christine Alicino. The advent of the compact disc allowed Eno to greatly increase the length of time under which his compositions could unfold, which is exactly what Eno was able to accomplish with the audio only release of Thursday Afternoon. Thursday Afternoon is like a macro focused version of Discreet Music with every element further stretched, every minutia of hierarchy further flattened and every element of the medium -- compact disc -- exploited. Not only is the scale of the work greater, but utilizing the dynamic range of the CD Eno is able to make greater use of quieter passages with sound that previously would have been lost below the area of surface noise -- towards the end of the pieces as the individual elements drift away, you can hear the faint sounds of birds outside of Eno's studio. The increased time available on a CD, as opposed to the LP, makes for a better execution of his idea of ambient music. No more flipping the vinyl every twenty minutes, just program your CD player to repeat. Like Music For Airports, Thursday Afternoon's most distinctive element is that of a Rhodes -- or similar electric piano -- keyboard playing languid broken arpeggios, underneath which is a glistening mirage of ever shifting drones. The combination of these ever fluxuating elements creates the auditory illusion of movement and stasis.

ENO, BRIAN & J. PETER SCHWALMDrawn From Life(Astralwerks)cd$ 16.98

Boring and uninspired new Eno collaboration with J. Peter Schwalm. Really unnecessary and sad. I sure wish my musical heroes would learn when to retire. Sigh...

ENO, BRIAN & RICK HOLLANDDrums Between The Bells(Opal / Warp)cd$ 15.98

ENO, BRIAN (WITH JON HOPKINS & LEO ABRAHAMS)Small Craft On A Milk Sea(Warp)cd$ 15.98

As true a return to classic form as could be expected by this pioneer of ambient music, the one and only Brian Eno. Eno's later records are always met with a bit of trepidation as he seems more often to collaborate or explore musical realms that are perhaps more interesting to him than his listeners. But we were excited and curious to learn that Warp would be releasing this new record, and the label's pretty strict quality control ensures that it doesn't disappoint, but it's not altogether revelatory either, as much of a nice listen it truly is. We've heard Small Craft on A Milk Sea as being billed as a series of filmless soundtracks, but we've also learned that the albums genesis was from the rejected recordings for the film, The Lovely Bones. The cinematic quality of the tracks especially the opener, "Emerald and Lime" is highly evident and harkens back to classic Eno records, Music for Films or Thursday Afternoon, with their billowly atmosphere and far-away piano tones. Later tracks evolve with more urgent dynamics as distorted guitars, percussion and processed electronics up the rhythms and textures significantly from the earlier tracks, and remind us of Eno's fourth world strategies heard on Another Green World and on his collaborations with Jon Hassel. The last third of the album calms back down with more placid ambient moods and ethereal washes and layers. This is definitely a record to spend some time with as it doesn't quite reveal itself completely after two or even three listens. It's the best Eno record in years, which might not mean that much, but it's not for the easily dismissive. Like the best Eno records, it graciously rewards the patient.

ENO, BRIAN X NICOLAS JAAR X GRIZZLY BEARs/t(Warp)12"$ 13.98

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

SORRY.

ENSEMBLEs/t(FatCat)cd$ 14.98

Ensemble is actually one fellow named Olivier Alary, but he isn't alone. He's made a habit of working with fine singers (Chanelle Kimber and Bjork to name just two!). Here on his sophomore album he's enlisted the vocal support of Lou Barlow, Camille Claverie, Mileece and Chan Marshall. Alary clearly allows his guests' respective styles to dictate each song's direction -- the Barlow song sounds Barlow-penned, the Marshall one closely resembles a Cat Power tune, and we're not familiar with Mileece but her collaboration is markedly different from the rest in its downtempo groove. That said, the overall vibe is one of Sea And Cake-y breezy mellowness and softly lit Sondre Lerche-esque smoothness, so much so that this is almost like yachting music for the indie set. Time to take your boat out on the lake.

ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUELive In Studio - July 19th 2011(self released)cd-r$ 9.98

First off, this is a super fucking limited cd-r, produced in the fog-laden confines of Manila, California by the one and only Brian Pyle. This dude is one of characters in the Starving Weirdos and RV Paintings, with Ensemble Economique being the moniker he's chosen for his solo work. The last couple of Ensemble Economique albums - especially the Psychical lp recorded for Not Not Fun - had been veering from a home-grown psychedelic improvisational splatter and into wonderfully off-kilter takes on cinematic melodrama. Psychical was clearly hedging towards the VHS-horror / John Carpenter vernacular, but here Pyle's jumping into dark-synth croon territory as he's molding sparse songs out of his morass of loops, witch house rhythmic skitter, and occasional arcs of luminous downer guitar tones. What's more is that Pyle SINGS throughout the album - not the reverb-soaked sustained caterwaul he would utter in the Weirdos, but more of a late-nite stoned balladeering that could have infected Pyle's brain from too many Miami Vice re-runs. One could imagine this to be Brian Pyle's ode to that show's incidental music - not the Don Johnson chase scene frenzy, but the crying tone-bent guitar excursions that would peg a scene's cinematic tragedy. Bits of dialogue splattered with delay tricks and synth nodes flash with neon intensity against Pyle's naked electronica, all of which was recorded in a marathon session on one day in the summer of 2011. It's pretty dang amazing actually, it even had folks coming up from the back room to find out what the heck was playing, which is always a good sign. We're probably the only source for these discs... and who knows if more can be procured!

ENSEMBLE PITTORESQUEThe Art Of Being(Minimal Wave)lp$ 24.00

The Art Of Being comes courtesy of Minimal Wave, the label that has been digging deep, very deep into the realms of post-punk and new wave to uncover many a release that might have been lost otherwise. For those who have procured plenty of terminal obscurities from such blogspots as Mutant Sounds, No Longer Forgotten Music, or Systems of Romance, some of the vinyl-only reissues on Minimal Wave may be familiar. But these are no grey area reissues. Minimal Wave has assured us that they have taken great care to procure the rights for each of these recordings! Ensemble Pittoresque was an obscure Dutch electro-punk band, who managed to release a couple of LPs in the mid '80s. Having been averse to performing live, they didn't garner that much of a following beyond the small distribution they had managed throughout the Netherlands and a few neighboring countries. The Art Of Being is a collection of lost recordings, none of which had been released until this edition for Minimal Wave. Ensemble Pittoresque submitted some of this material as a demo to Polydor in 1982, only to fail to move beyond opening negotiations. The recordings are very synth heavy, drawing in equal parts from John Carpenter's soundtracks, Fripp and Eno's Evening Star, and the early albums by the Human League. Amidst the icy bellowing from the synth melodies and sci-fi eerieness, Ensemble Pittoresque dotted their songs with acoustic guitars and vocals buried deep in the mix. Really great stuff, we must say!

EPPLE, KAT & BOB STOHLSanctu Spiritus(Dead-Cert)lp$ 22.00

After a handful of weird and wonderful unearthed sonic rarities rescued and reissued by the Dead-Cert label, run by aQ faves Demdike Stare and Finders Keepers label head honcho Andy Votel, which included rare experimental radiophonic electronic recordings from Suzanne Ciani, an early eighties souvenir recording from a sculptural installation project that utilized stainless steel sculptures, and a reissue of a rare eighties Folkways release that mixed modular synth, tape manipulations, field recordings and traditional Persian string instruments, comes this collection of early space music / new age from the boyfriend / girlfriend duo of Kat Epple and Bob Stohl, who would later go on to some measure of cult fame with their group Emerald Web, but these recordings predate the formation of that group, documenting some of the earliest recordings from Epple and Stohl, a couple of the first musicians to combine synthesizers with organic instruments like flute, guitar, percussion and of course the human voice. The liner notes mention the music of Epple and Stohl, as well as their subsequent group Emerald Web, fitting more in the 'space music' scene, than the new age scene (which definitely embraced them), and we can definitely see that, the sounds here are cosmic and expansive, darkly psychedelic. Shades of current groups like Expo 70 are all over Sanctu Spiritus, deep swirling ambience, the synths fuzzy and buzzy (or are those effected guitars?). This record consists of five long tracks, each a sprawling, smoldering drift rife with deep low end pulsations, sizzling arcs of melody, drifting through soft clouds of washed out chordal shimmer, the vibe softly psychedelic and mesmerically melancholic. Which is not to say much of the music here is not new agey, it most definitely is, but it's less relaxation massage style new age and more interdimensional cosmic drift new age, with glimmering fields of softly cascading synth textures, tinkling chimes, harp like shimmery strum, fields of fluttery flute, super chilled out and almost jazzy in places, a little folky in others, some seriously dreamy zoner drift for sure, and for every bit of new age fluff, there's some brooding, ominous moaning low end, like the brief closer on side one, a seriously dark ambient drift that's surprisingly menacing considering the context, foghorn like tones over the muted rumble of what sound like reverberating metal, thick slow moving sonic swells, and dense almost noisy crescendos. But then the second side shifts toward something more airy and ethereal, the first half soft and swirly and slowly unfurling, but by the second half, clouds begin to gather, the same new agey drift now wreathed in shadow, moodily brooding, a cosmic dark jazz drift wreathed in the subtle sound of whipping wind, and slow moving fields of shimmering sci-fi FX. LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!!

EQUITANTKonstruckteur(Tarot Productions)cd$ 14.98

And here's the second, more-or-less simultaneously released disc from Absu's Equitant, that we mentioned recently when we reviewed its companion, Zeit. In case you missed that review, here's the deal: Absu is the amazing Texan black metal band. Equitant is their guitar/bass player. But Equitant's solo albums (these two anyway) are NOT black metal. So much better than that -- they're ELECTRO music. As in, '80s Euro-disco-industrial Kraftwerk worship. Dark and moody dance floor fodder, as well as atmospheric soundscapes ("Winds Of Phobos"). It's all very dramatic, yet we suspect a bit tongue in cheek...but who can tell with the Absu crew? In any event, we're enjoying this, probably as much as Equitant enjoyed doing the photo shoot for the picture inside the digipack -- check him out in his shades, white shirt and pants and silver bracelet...sexy! So if you're up for a trip from "Germany To Detroit" (one of the song titles here) in the '80s, via the unexpected imaginings of an otherwise black metal guy in Texas right now, both Equitant albums are quite recommended!

EQUITANTZeit(Tarot Productions)cd$ 14.98

One of those "believe it or not" type records, this one. Ok, you know the Slayeristic Texan occult black metal horde known as Absu? If you've been paying attention to our black metal recommendations, you should. Well Zeit is Absu guitarist/bassist Equitant's solo project. But it's not metal. Nor dark ambient. Or ritualistick okkult conjurations, as with another Absu side project, Equimanthorn. Nope. It's, like, ELECTRO. As in, retro '80s synth beat stylings. All cold and mechanical and dark and driving. Totally Teutonic, Kraftwerk worship, full of spacey atmospheres and robot rhythms. There's some John Carpenter in here too. And also some heavily effected, Vocoder'd vox, in part courtesy of Absu drummer and AQ fave solo artist in his own right, Proscriptor (who released this on his own label, Tarot Productions). We'd never have thunk Equitant would make music meant for the dancefloor of some smokey European nightclub, but he's done it, and done it very well indeed. Such quality at least we'd expect from a member of perfectionists in every detail Absu. So if you've got a taste for autobahn-ready electro darkness, tune in to Zeit. (There's also a second Equitant album, Konstructeur, that was released simultaneously, we'll list that soon too but we do have a couple of 'em in stock now).

ERASE ERRATADancing Machine: Erase Errata Remix Record(Troubleman)cd ep$ 12.98

As Erase Errata is another awesome Bay Area band whose tight, jagged sound defies you not to shake your bee-hind, what we said about the Numbers remix album a few lists back also applies--(Erase Errata), all by themselves, have a firm handle on taking the tools of punk rock and using them as instruments of total dancefloor destruction, making them prime candidates for re-interpretions of their songs that highlight, rather than obliterate, their inherent status as dance tunes-- although it ends up that most of the songs on this disc were actually more danceable *before* being put through the remix grinder. Coming in at opposite ends of the "dance" remix spectrum on this release are Adult and Kevin Blechdom. Adult's fairly subtle remix is the track most deserving the title "Dancing Machine," taking Erase Errata's angular, funky bassline and urgent vocals and coating the whole thing in a crisp synth veneer. Robotic boogie mania ensues. The Blechdom track, on the other hand, is a backwards tape scrubbin' hyper sped-up electronic noise fest, with out-of-control video game bursts, soprano ooh-ing, and a snippet of the song in its original form alluded to in the mix here and there, all topped off with some nice country fiddle (crossed over from Wobbly et al's Wide Open Spaces?). Thoroughly deconstructed and rearranged according to her unique sonic worldview, Blechdom makes the Erase Errata material entirely her own. "Dancing Machine" also includes mixes by Matmos and Kid 606. MPEG Stream: "Marathon (Adult Remix)" [/audio/adultmarathon.m3u]

EREMITA, VICTORA Study For Transcendental Communication(Black Horizons)cassette$ 8.98

One of two new tapes on this week's list from local label Black Horizons, the other being a new one from local psychedelic drone folk drifters Common Eider, King Eider, and this one, the first we've heard from Victor Eremita, the moniker for a mysterious Swedish soundscaper, who delivers a cold, haunting, minimal ritualistic industrial music, all murky pulses, abstract scrapes and creaks, whirring shimmers, at times sounding like super abstract house music slowed to a crawl and then fused to Ghost Orchid style EVP recordings, at others, like some haunting machinemusic, a softly churning barely there rhythm, wreathed in clouds of keening high end thrum, and blurred layers of rumble and whir, haunting but not so much harrowing, as ominously entrancing. A dreamworld of rusted automatons, animated by some dark spirit, and compelled to create this soft focus din, an otherworldly sonic ritual, an ethereal, skeletal krautrock style churn, blurred and smeared into soft focus streaks of haunting mesmer, which are ghostlike and spectral, and seem to have been conjured from a realm free of human interference, their presence less musical, and more spiritual, the remains of a mad sonic scientists lab, imbued with the dying spark of his soul, which has somehow kept everything barely working, a strange workshop, a perpetual musical motion machine, gradually running down, captured here in the throes of slow expiration, and a gradual drift to the other side. Haunting and darkly lovely. And as with all Black Horizons releases, super swank packaging, this time the tape is all clear, with no sticker or printing, housed in a silver and black printed vellum J-card, which holds several printed cardstock inserts. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

ERNESTUS, MARK / KONONO NO.1Masikulu Dub(CNG)12"$ 13.98

ESA Love Cycle(Fonal)cd$ 15.98

Coming out of the same Finnish scene that spawned AQ-faves Circle and Ektroverde, Es is the work of Sami Sanpakkila, who in addition to this solo project, also plays in various bands like Kiila and Velvolino. He also runs Fonal records. (I guess all that

ESBEN AND THE WITCHViolet Cries(Matador)cd$ 13.98

It's weird how everyone is so into goth now, maybe it's part and parcel of the whole eighties resurgence, but Goths were once the outcasts, at least when we were in high school, wearing all black, listening to Sisters Of Mercy and the Mission UK and the Cure and Depeche Mode, and clomping around in Doc Martins, lots of skulls and leather jackets, sitting in their own little group at lunch, getting picked on by jocks, who knows that might still be true, but in underground music, and even these days in mainstream culture, the Goths rule, from Hot Topic to Twilight, Zola Jesus to Cold Cave, Blessure Grave to cold wave, and for those of us who dug it back in the day, we're definitely into this new wave of gothic rock, taking all the stuff we dug about it the first time around, and sort of revamping it and modernizing it. Like all the musical movements of late, the word spreads like wildfire and suddenly there are way too many bands playing whatever super hyped sound is the flavor of the day/week/month, and most of them not playing it very well. The same could be said of this new goth wave, the cream definitely floating to the top, Cold Cave, Blessure Grave, Zola Jesus, and now UK Goths Esben And The Witch, named for a Danish fairy tale, which told the story of Esben and his 11 brothers, and their (mis)adventures, EATW conjure up a gorgeously expansive and explosive sound, lush and shoegazey, the guitars chiming and shimmery, the drums heavy and tribal, the vocals reminiscent of Zola Jesus, all woven into huge swirls of gothic psychedelia. The record opens with "Argyria", which begins, all broody and jangly, minimal and hushed, shimmery and drifty and warm and woozy, before building and building and finally exploding into a massive and surprisingly heavy squall of dense, shoegazey wailing, the vocals howled and buried in the mix, before winding down into a skeletal bit of pulsing electronic gothy drift, haunting and otherworldly and gorgeously creepy. "Marching Song" is the band's big hit, with it's crunchy main riff, and tribal drum pound, the song gets slow and low for the verses, with the vocals delivered in a deep witchy croon, over a Joy Divisiony bassline, and wreathed in swirling spectral vocal harmonies before launching into more epic, majestic choruses, and a killer percussion heavy outro. "Light Streams" is all hazy and washed out, druggy and dreamy, the ethereal female vocals, backed up by strange processed demonic male background vox, before becoming engulfed in echo and reverb and spinning out of control into a pounding blown out swirl of gothpsych haze, grounded by a gorgeous repeated high end guitar figure. "Hexagons IV" weds dirgey gothy shoegaze to murky electronic pulses, as does "Chorea", but like the rest of the record, they eventually spiral into full on buzzy, fuzzy blissed out blown out shimmer. "Eumenides" is an experimental dronescape that's equal parts druggy drift and chaotic crunch, an extended bit of swirling lysergic ambience, that give way to the gorgeously brooding closer, "Swans", the vocals VERY Zola Jesus here, but much more expressive and acrobatic, laced over some deserty guitar twang, some deep rumbling drones, and clouds of abstract percussion, the sound eventually transforming into a hazy, end-of-the-world choral drift, dense and dramatic, dark and dolorous, winding down slowly, the harmonies and spidery guitars seeming to melt into each other before fading away completely. Modern goth has rarely sounded so good. Definitely recommended for fans of any of the abovementioned gothics, but also, anyone into moody, shoegazey, dreamy, dramatic darkness.

ESGStep Off(Soul Jazz)cd$ 16.98

Slightly underwhelming reunion disc from the Scroggins sisters of ESG, whose best-of compilation A South Bronx Story, containing all their classic trax, is still the best way to get into this band. Step Off at first left me bored and wistful for the old days, but after a few more listens on the headphones, the more the new record makes sense. In other words, don't look for this record to completely funkify your life; that's not what ESG are about. And yes, the new songs are slower and sometimes even, well, less kickassedly raw than their groundbreaking older material, but ESG is still the best at leaving OUT elements of dance music that lesser, more self-indulgent musicmakers always always always overdo. For example, this album's got a track that's only Renee singing and a bass hook. Oh there's a beat all right, but they don't make a sound: you're hearing it *in your head*, and it sounds better than they coulda played it. Every song on this record is a marvel of restraint. (Which, come to think of it, invites remixing -- let's hope they pick decent remixers). Recommended, but only if you already have A South Bronx Story.

ESKIBOYThe Best Of Tunnel Vision(Baked Goods)2cd$ 22.00

ESPERANZAs/t(Jester)cd$ 16.98

Dark and skittery blissed out electronica drone, with hints of Autechre or Boards of Canada maybe...but more spooky and more surprising. Matador UK, pay attention! On Garm of Ulver/Arcturus' label! Kind of like a black metal band had recorded the obligatory eerie synth intro track to their album, and then decided that they should just add some strange beats and do a whole electronica record instead. Recommended.

ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICOArispejal Astisaro(Geometrik)2lp$ 28.00

ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICOSheikh Aljama(Geometrik)lp$ 21.00

First time available on vinyl, Sheik Aljama has long been heralded as one of the finer albums from the long-running Spanish industrial project Esplendor Geometrico. The recordings here began as early as 1986, but the album didn't see completion until 1991. Sheikh Alkama is laced with Arabic samples, percussion, and radio broadcasts, and given the entire catalogue from Muslimgauze who genetically fused Arabic modalities within an industrial agenda, Shiekh Aljama will now and forever be compared to Muslimgauze. There's plenty to separate Shiekh Aljama from Muslimgauze though, but context is key to understanding this album. Cabaret Voltaire may have been the earliest to use Arabic samples within a bleak form of proto-electronica; and these eerie dislocations of Arabic sounds from "the other" came as an anti-colonial diatribe against what the philosopher Edward Said described as Orientalism. Both Muslimgauze and Esplendor Geometrico took those ideas much further than Cabaret Voltaire's appetite for sensuality. For Muslimgauze, the noise and Arabic rhythms were in response to very specific contemporary political events taking place in the Middle East; but for Esplendor Geometrico, the album cites the fall of the Republic of Cordoba in the 11th Century with Arabic and Islamic culture being driven out of the Iberian peninsula. Esplendor Geometrico's mesmerizing rhythms sizzle with corrosive noise and metal-bashed clamor; and the sampled chants seem positioned more as subliminals than as overt citations. "Medinati" looks back to EG's pioneering industrial work in the early '80s, more in keeping with the direct-action pummel of Test Dept; but immediately following this is the disorienting yet hypnotizing dervish of "Descontrol" with its spasmodic dromedary rhythms and shrouded megaphone barking. Like Muslimgauze, Esplendor Geometrico builds a didactic framework and allows the aesthetics of their rhythm and noise to flourish within. It's a great album to have back in print; and very strange to think this has never been on vinyl until now.

ETHERNETOpus 2(Kranky)cd$ 14.98

We've never reviewed anything by Ethernet before, but now upon the release of ambient composer Tim Gray's third album under the moniker and second for the Kranky label, we wonder to ourselves why it took us so long. Opus 2 is cut from the same cloth as many ambient drone composers we've loved so much in the past: Aphex Twin, Tim Hecker, Gas, White Rainbow, Boards of Canada, etc. In fact it reminds us some of BoC's polygonal musical forms, but pulled apart under layers of the kind of warm propulsive chill often explored in the Kompakt label's Ambient Pop series. Largely composed in a process of self-hypnotic improvisation, the resulting pieces are culled of overtly compositional elements, so instead we hear layers of polished down melodic forms and rhythmic pulsations under a brilliant haze of wondrous sonic drift. Beginning gently with waves of airy exploratory melodies that soon become overwhelmed by an embryonic vastness of sound that is both pastoral and bleak, the sun-dappled vibrancy soon mired in weathered earthy textures and slow windswept turbulence that gradually darken in gorgeous decay. Quite lovely!

ETHNIC ACIDPower-Works 1986-88(Industrial Recollections / Freak Animal)2cd$ 15.98

Anthony Di Franco is probably best known as a member of British noise rockers Ramleh, as well as the legendary Skullflower, playing on that band's seminal, industrial sludge records including Obsidian Shaking Codex, a bunch of impossible to find singles, and the universally revered IIIrd Gatekeeper. Di Franco also had a couple of other solo projects in Ax and Novatron, the latter has proven to be an awesome, if rarely heard slab of headrinsing, low-end noise, and Ax, holy shit, so punishingly good, c'mon someone, reissue those NOW!!! Di Franco was also the man responsible for the power electronics noise project Ethnic Acid, which existed for a short two year period from 1986 to 1988 but managed eight cassettes during that time period. A couple of those tapes were self-released through Di Franco's own JFK imprint; and most importantly as a historical note, one of those cassettes was released by Broken Flag. It's most likely due to Di Franco's working relationship with Broken Flag's Gary Mundy, that he become one of the revolving members of Mundy's Ramleh. Outside of his better known bands, Di Franco's solo work has always been very worthwhile, and these early recordings of tape splatter and electronic bloodletting do not disappoint! Managing to be heavy and noisy and caustic, but also surprisingly listenable. As we've mentioned before in the past, we're not always that into full on noise / power electronics, we're way more into texture and timbre and dynamics, and thankfully, for every spurt of face melting crush found on Power-Works, there's a long stretch of rumbling drone, or strange stuttering collaged heaviness. Di Franco's pedigree should probably be enough to get most folks on board, and noiseniks were probably already anxiously awaiting this collection, but for the rest of you, definitely check this out, if you're not into noisemusic AT ALL, this might not be your thing, but anyone into dronemusic and dark ambience, and experimental tape music, this is some seriously powerful and varied stuff. From heaving digital crunch, to stuttering almost metallic sounding loops, to murky stumble and blackened rumble, to spaced out soundscapes of sine waves and looped classical music, to wild squalls of distorted sort-of-riffage, to whispered industrial whir, to smeared and blurred dronescapes, it's all pretty fantastic and heady stuff, especially for being 20 years old. And anyone who's been digging Skullflower's recent return to noisiness (Vile Veil, Malediction, The Paris Working, Desire For A Holy Warm, Pure Imperial Reform) will most likely find lots to love here, although in comparison to those discs, lots of this stuff is downright pretty!

EUROPALa Ultima Emocion(Dark Entries)lp$ 15.98

We love how far and wide across the globe Dark Entries have been traveling to find us some of the best and most overlooked synth sounds of the early '80s. This time out they take us to Valencia, Spain in 1980 for the bright, DIY inspired synth pop of Europa. Originally released as a cassette, these songs now get their proper place on wax and goddamn is this a set of irresistible electro-pop perfection. Just goes to show that the UK wasn't the only place turning out amazing, catchy, synth pop bands, as this really stands at the same level of excellence as records by folks like Depeche Mode, OMD, and The Human League that were released around this time. While most bands that surrounded them in Valencia were still trapped in over the top prog rock conventions, Europa took inspiration from punk and the burgeoning electronic scene and proved that you didn't need fancy, expensive equipment to make an awesome sounding record. They built their synths from scratch, and recorded this on a 4-track reel-to-reel, and it pretty much blows away what so many folks these days with so many more resources and endless plug-in's use when trying to capture this sort of sound. Some reissues are cooler in theory than in actual listening pleasure, but this one is all about pleasure! Anyone who loves great early synth-pop will want to jump on this right away. Viva Europa!

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRLWalking Wounded(Atlantic)cd$ 15.98

Ben Watt isn't looking too healthy on the cover. Hmm. Mixes from Todd Terry, Springheel Jack, and others. Whether you think the 'jungle' beats are (a) cool, subtle & mellow or (b) irreparably watered-down in deference to the so-called mainstream's palate (I would say -b- but Cathy thinks it's great record = -a-, so here we are), should EBTG be commended for recognizing the beauty of the new beats?

EVIL MADNESSSuper Great Love(Editions Mego)lp$ 21.00

To look at the personnel line-up of Evil Madness, you probably wouldn't know what to expect. There's the melancholy composer Johann Johannsson with a number of acclaimed cinematic records on 4AD. There's the bleak-minded drone specialist BJ Nilsen and his long-time collaborators Stillupsteypa. And there's another Icelander dude named Petur Eyvindsson, who has some oddball releases under the name DJ Musician. Given that, the punchy discotheque grooves of Evil Madness are way out of left-field and totally great. Italo disco, minimal wave / EMB, anthemic Detroit techno circa 1988, John Carpenter's paranoiac synth arpeggiations, lots of analogue synth worship, and pre-fab electronic beats all come together underneath the stoic yet tongue-in-cheek banner of Evil Madness. We suspect that Sigtryggur from Stilluppsteypa has quite a lot to do with this one, given the electro-breaks that would occasionally slap in the face of his seriously minded crackled dronemuzik; no matter who's responsible, both sides of Super Great Love are brilliantly hedonistic mash-ups of vintage synth stabs, stupidly good anthemic electronic melodies, and plenty cybernetic Moroder sequences, spiralling upon techno, disco, and electro rhythms. Super Great Love is actually the fourth record by Evil Madness, with their other releases coming out through the poorly distributed 12 Tonar label and the dada-fetish imprint Ultra Eczema, so this album on Editions Mego should garner a broader audience for Evil Madness (they'll be releasing a cd version eventually too). Fans of Majeure, Umberto, K-X-P, and the Oneohtrix Point Never sideproject Games would be well served to check this out!

EVOLMagia Potagia(Mego)cd$ 16.98

EVOLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEEAll Rights Reserved(Seeland)2cd$ 13.98

Probably best known for their legendary mash up fusing the a cappella vocals from a Public Enemy song to a jam by Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass, this lawsuit baiting plunderphonic duo return with a new record of twisted samples, mutated mashups, and a sure fire way to fend off lawsuits (which will come in handy, since on this album they fuck up a Beatles track, quite brilliantly, more on that in a moment), but how exactly does the ECC expect to insulate themselves from the teams of entertainment lawyers who will no doubt be knocking down their doors? Simple. By legally and contractually forbidding you, the listener, to listen to their record. What? Yep, it's right there, TWICE in fact, an audio contract stating that by listening to the record, you have broken a binding legal contract, and thus the ECC are absolved of any wrongdoing. Pretty genius, especially considering by listening to the contract, you're already breaking said contract. Who knows it if would actually hold up in court, but pretty dang funny nonetheless, and since we already broke the contract by listening to the record, well, heck, we might as well tell you what it sounds like. Our favorite might have to be "What Would You Think If I Sang Autotune", which uses the oft abused Autotune program for what it was originally deigned for, to subtly tweak vocals to change their pitch and 'autotune', them, but here, instead of shifting the vocals so they're IN tune, they take a Beatles song, and do nothing but nudge the vocals slightly out of tune, turning a classic into a cringeworthy exercise in terrible karaoke. Then there's "Stairway To Britney" which finds Ms. Spears groaning and crooning over Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven", and it's a surprisingly good fit. Or maybe "California Dreamings" which seems to take about a million different cover versions of "California Dreaming" cuts em up into little parts and weaves them together into a schizophrenic ADD cover version. Or "Fock It" which melds Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit" and the surprisingly similar sounding "Axel F Theme" from Beverly Hills Cop. And so it goes, a dizzying head spinning mix of samples, and chopped up beats, voices, and sound snippets, each song a plunderphonic mash up of epic proportions, groovy, funky, twisted, stuttery, confusional, baffling and brilliant. The cd version includes a second computer data disc, with high quality MP3 files of the record as well as album length commentary tracks, outtakes, remixable song versions and more!

EVOLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEEThe Whipped Cream Mixes(Eerie Themes)7"$ 4.50

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SORRY. 2 Public Enemy vocal tracks courtesy Chuck D from some of their 12"s, which often feature vocals without any accompaniment, laid right on top of 2 Herb Alpert instrumentals. Truly hilarious results; we wonder what Chuck thinks...

EXCEPTERAlternation(5RC)cd$ 14.98

For the last several years Excepter have been creating super fucked up, seriously pleasurable waves on outsider dancefloors everywhere, with an onslaught of ep's, 12"s, and split releases. Now it's finally time for their debut full length, and it does not disappoint! Herky-jerky rhythms, beat up electronics, drugged out rumblings, late night salvation. The album really does work like a full record should. The first half has some almost catchy pop moments (this is all relative of course) including quite possibly their most infectious song to date "Rock Stepper", while the second half of the album features longer tracks that melt and burst with the unique flavor we've come to love from these guys. They seem to be taking some of the more melodic moments of Throbbing Gristle's legacy (a friend even suggested one might throw one of these songs on a mix right next to TG's "Hot On The Heels Of Love!") Excepter makes sounds that are the perfect conglomeration of the now and hip with a eyes toward the future and a knowing nod to the past. And while their music sounds nothing like Ariel Pink, we can totally imagine the sort of craziness that might result if those wonderfully warped melody makers got together. Since they both approach music making from a damaged and drugged out, Technicolor drenched angle unlike almost any other bands we've heard. Until then, we'll just be content to soak up this super kick ass full length.

EXCEPTERDebt Dept.(Paw Tracks)cd$ 14.98

Haunted and humorous, Excepter's Debt Dept. opens with a Sabbath like riff, looped and fuzzed to create the platform for the vocals of not 1, nor 2, but 3 vocalists' unhinged ramblings. Excepter's cast flood the track with faithless and caustically delivered lyrics, half sung, half spoken. The effect is oddly chilling, considering the tone is ultimately that of Excepter's tried and true mix of futurist-dub, narcotic fuzz and drone, and mellow yet schizophrenic vocals; a pastiche sometimes too dynamic, ridiculous, or slapdash to take "seriously." Nonetheless, on Debt Dept., Excepter's sardonic wit and notedly more focused approach gives them a winning hand. Their most recent efforts have been less oriented towards vocals and lyrics, but the addition of two new vocalists, Clare Amory and Lala Harrison, has changed that. The vocals by committee approach is made a dominant fixture through the diverse array of effects their digressions are filtered through. The rhythmic collision course is more spacious than previous efforts giving time for grooves to develop, and even a few hooks to set in. Beyond the half-sung/postpunk/almost-rap like vocal delivery, there are also spectral vocal interludes, resulting in blanketed and billowing textures that soften the harsh and incisive beats and guttural, expulsive, and erotic moaning. Those who love Excepter will find themselves well satisfied with Dept Debt., as it embellishes and improves upon their developing style of droney, dubby eclecticism. On this, their full length Paw Tracks debut, the band offers a near staggering swirl of most of the styles and sounds the label already offers, with heavy ladle-fulls of Black Dice, Rings, and Ariel Pink added to the already potent brew. Lest this hint at a lack originality, it must be stressed that the way in which the band incorporates and stirs these qualities is wholly original. Rhythmically, the album is a little tighter and more committed than previous efforts, with a greater apprenticeship to hip hop and dub, and some wacked notion of post-industrial dance. It could work well as the soundtrack to some alchemists in a satellite factory processing dark matter into... well... dark pop. Or perhaps like watching a disco ball shatter in slow motion, its shards reflecting a disparate collection of cultural references as they fly past you. Whichever the more operative metaphor, the band has invited you lovingly to their fucked-up, post-everything party, and if we were you, we'd be joining them in the festivities.

EXCEPTERFRKWYS Vol.2(RVNG International)12"$ 16.98

Really? Carter Tutti and Foetus remixing Excepter? Yup, that's what you'll get on this 12" from the newly birthed Frkwys imprint (read Freakways as a play on Folkways). Carter Tutti (the re-named duo for Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, then and now of Throbbing Gristle fame) have tightened up the jammy industrial wanderings of Excepter's "Shors Ring" (from the Debt Dept. album) within their own rhythmicist precision that recalls some of the best work they've ever produced over the past 30 years (e.g. Heartbeat, Synaesthesia, The Space Between, etc.). Mr. Foetus twists Excepter's "Stretch" (also from Debt Dept.) into one of his manic marches of bombastic drum corps rhythms and huge melodic crescendos certainly not dissimilar from his twisted anthems of old. It's hard to hear much of the Excepter sounds within either track, but the productions from both remixing agents are so strong that it really doesn't matter.

EXCLIPSECTPoint Of Focus(Unit)cd$ 10.98

Thick, oppressive electronic thud and glitch that doesn't let up for 76 minutes. Abrasive, metallic, repetitive and bass heavy, like a meeting between Digital Hardcore's Panacea and Schematic Records' IDM duo Phoenecia. There's a lot of this kind of music around these days. Some of it is being executed extraordinarily well (example: the aforementioned Phoenecia), some of it much less so. Exclipsect does excel in molding and sculpting his textures and beats, but there's not really much to distinguish it from the rest. If this cd had come out a few years ago, it might be a different story. That's not the case however, so... another way to look at it would be: if you're looking to simply expand the heavier end of your IDM library, this surely won't let you down.

EXHALERA DECKBreathe(Black Bean & Placenta)cd$ 11.98

A collection of electronic tracks culled from various 12"s from the man behind Accelera Deck, Chris Jeely. Features two remixes by James (Dntel / Figurine) and David (Figurine). For fans of Darla-esque electronica fluff. On the eclectic Blackbean and Placenta label.

EXILEPro Agonist(Planet Mu)cd$ 14.98

EXISTs/t(DTrash)cd-r$ 10.98

EXOSEleventh(Force Inc. )cd$ 15.98

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

SORRY. With previous releases on Thule - Iceland's answer to the Basic Channel / Chain Reaction sound - Exos' spatial techno sets hypnotic patterns of chilly metallic tones against big four on the floor stomps, with all of the required downtempo ambient passages. Quite good.

EXPERIENCEOne Amazing Day(V/Vm Test Records)cd$ 14.98

There are two ways to look at the work of V/Vm and their croneys: 1. that they actually are the ultimate post-modern pranksters offering aural jokes so complex as to confound even the most astute cultral analyst, or 2. that they have convinced themselves that they are the ultimate post-modern pranksters, but have gotten so wrapped up in their self-consecration within the realm of

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCHDeath of a Robot/Automatic Music(Ochre)lp$ 16.98

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SORRY. Death of a Robot... is a surprisingly good E.A.R. record not nearly as tinny as some of his other records. Here Sonic Boom and E.A.R. make two long tracks in the drone tradition of early electronic composers like Ussachevsky or Xenakis.

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCHSpeak and Spell(Space Age)cd$ 17.98

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SORRY. And thus spake Sonic Boom on Speak & Spell, "The sound collages on this disc were created using 8 human voice synthesizing toys originally marketed by Texas Instruments as the 'Speak & Spell' range during the 1970's. These instruments have been customized with added switches, buttons, knobs, & wiring to give phoneme looping, random phase generation, various modulation, pitch shifting, & other non-standard effects."

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCHThe Koner Experiment(Space Age/Revolver)cd$ 12.98

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SORRY. Sonic Boom's E.A.R. (featuring members of AMM, God, and My Bloody Valentine) team up with European electronic composer Thomas Koner to try to prove some lovely hypothesis about ambient drone music.

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCHVibrations EP(Rocket Girl)cd ep$ 14.98

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SORRY. E.A.R. has pared themselves down to one member: Sonic Boom (Spectrum / ex-Spacemen 3). The "Vibrations " ep is a demonstration of his advances in reconstructing Morton Subotnik's electronic plasticity found on "Silver Apples On The Moon" and "The Wild Bull." Sonic Boom employs a variety of custom built synthesizers and vocoders to layer abstract patterns of flanging / warbling antique electronics. At times, Sonic Boom wrangles his devices to form a synthetic gamelan with intertwined percussive melodies and swirling electronic effects; but for the most part, he leaves the tones relatively unstructured. The vinyl version is specially packaged with an extra sleave screened with regularly spaced black bars on a heavy clear plastic cover to offer some nice optical illusions for the colored patterns on the cover itself.

EXPRESS RISINGs/t(Memphix)cd$ 14.98

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SORRY.

EXTNDDNTWRKJust Tracks(Fourth Dimension)2cd$ 22.00

UK white boy hip hop duo Sleaford Mods were an unlikely hit around here. When we first read about them on the Norman Records website, proclaiming them as they favorite band of the year, we were totally skeptical, but we ordered a few anyway, and then quickly found ourselves becoming obsessed, and suddenly, we got it, and we agreed, and then a second record came out, and we dug that one just as much. What the hell? Who can explain stuff like that, but it did have the effect of making us curious about this, the first proper release from Extnddntwrk, which just so happens to be one of the guys from the Sleaford Mods, a collection of all the random home recorded electronic weirdness he'd put together over the last few years, and we have to say, it's pretty goddamn great. We were definitely expecting what would essentially amount to instrumental 'Mods backing tracks, and some sound like they could be just that, and you might find yourself imagining those guys rapping along, but really, this stuff is pretty mesmerizing, and hypnotic, just check out the first track "Care Less", a low slung looped groover, that's plenty dark, a little moody and minimal, in a way it sounds like a more electro Boards Of Canada, but a bit darker and more skeletal, and that actually does describe a bunch of these tracks, but since it's a collection of odds and sods, it is a bit all over the map. "Dirty Soup" is a weird gloomy creep, pocked with synth blurt and distorted guitar chug, but still driven by a primitive Casio style beat. "Foul Play" is definitely one of those tracks that sounds destined to be a Sleaford Mods track proper, but then it butts up right against "Crystal Ball", which is spare and weirdly lovely, all shimmery melodies and pizzicato string plucks, melancholy and moody. And so it goes, from sort of calypso exotica, to Meat Beat Manifesto style industrial electro, to crackly, murky slow-soul groove, to cool start/stop stuttery avant soul weirdness, to what sounds amazingly like skweee. There's also an unlisted 18 minute secret track at the end of disc 1, that is essentially a wild plunderphonic free-for-all that sounds like some mad scientist flipping from channel to channel, but it's pretty fun. The second disc is more of the same, with the exception of a killer/weirdo cover of Big Black's "Bad Penny", which slows it down, recasts it as a sort of woozy, synth dirge, the sounds heavily panned, swooping from speaker to speaker, this one with vocals, a whispery croon, way up on the mic, as if he was whispering ominously right in your ear, occasionally becoming weirdly vocodered, it all makes for a pretty awesome, and awesomely creepy version of an already extremely creepy classic.