[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

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Showing results 3351 through 3400 of 5033.

Music for smoking weed and making graffiti to. REQ is a Brighton-based graffiti artist and music / beatmaker signed to Warp after his debut for Skint (Fatboy Slim label). The downtempo breakbeat stuff here is very stripped down, no lush layers to obstruct, the sound mainly defined by slightly interesting percussive loops made out of various acoustic elements (shakers, thumb piano,

RealAudio clip: Dolby C
RealAudio clip: Colours

Legend has it that way back in their infancy, these infamous southerners transplanted to San Francisco sent a demo tape to Warner Brothers for consideration. Needless to say, the Bros. passed on the project and shipped the tape back to the address from which it had come, addressed to "The Residents" -- as no names had been included with the cassette. And so the band earned their moniker. Apparently these earliest recordings were not what eventually became the album Meet The Residents, and have never been heard outside of the Warner Brothers' offices (if they even bothered to put the tape on at all). So now I bet you're all slathering at the mouth to hear these recordings. Well so are we... still. Unfortunately, what you get with WB: RMX is a remix of those original recordings which basically amounts to a lot of bad factory preset rock / hip hop drum programming and some sampled elements of the original tapes. Listen really carefully and you might be able to dissemble the original recordings from the mix. While true Residents fans will be forced to purchase this out of obligation, we can't recommend this as a starting point for anyone else. Sigh... Maybe this is a prelude to a release of the original demo tape.

MPEG stream: The Mad Sawmill Of Copenhagen, Germany

Another fantastic release from Echocord, and another excursion into deeeeeep dark spaced out dub, Resoe, a long time techno producer, explores all the various facets and permutations of dub, from buzzing dubstep, to shimmering ambient dub, to pulsing techno, even a little house, but the building blocks of this modern minimal abstract digidub, those sounds we love and can't seem to ever get enough of are all here, in full effect, think Echospace, Rod Modell, Variant, Quantec, Deepchord, Pole, etc, skittery skeletal rhythms, swirling atmospherics, abstract pulsations, muted murky loops, reverbed ripples drifting out into the ether, and then of course bass, rumbling Teutonic low end, washed out thrums, the sound warm and enveloping, the bass a swirling organic sound pulls you under and carries you off. Opener "Lakeviews" is the perfect introduction, all spare and sparse, layered sounds gently swirling, unfurling, tangling and untangling, but blurred and smeared into soft streaks of whir and echo and throb, the beat, sort of dubsteppy, but way stripped down, drives the track, the bass a dark spectre just below the surface, while all around thick synth swells drift in and out. The sort of thing we could listen to forever. And from there on out, it's some sort of spaced out bass excursion, propulsive clubby house music, gives way to hazy, skittery minimal 4 on the floor pulse, glitched out robotic space dub transforms into abstract Eastern tinged, almost African Headcharge sounding reggae flecked dub, grimy dubby echo drenched creep, crawls right into some crunchy stuttery alien dubstep, finally giving way to a long stretch of warm, whirling, gristly, pulsating dreamy dub drift...

MPEG stream: Lakeviews
MPEG stream: Demoon
MPEG stream: Radikal Alterations

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SORRY. Dark drone w/ hidden hip-hop beats experimentation, maybe not quite as good as their first (Vol. 1 1hr.1min.) but still excellent and not like anything else...the first half hour thirty seconds has the buried beats under the noise, the second half goes fully ambient.

Record number three from electronic/krautrock/spacedrone/experimental soundscaper Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose fifth and most recent record was an aQ Record Of The Week a while back, and whose second record we reviewed just last list, and now as we work our way through his catalog, we've got his 3rd record, and it's just as great and all over the map as the two previous ones. Kintopp is German for cinema, and on Kintopp, Reuber creates mini soundtracks, twisted little electronic vignettes that range from playful to brooding, noisy to minimal, dark and haunting to twisted and abstract, and more often than not some dizzying combination of all of the above. A quick sampling would reveal: a strange bit of cabaret, rubbery basslines, looped mechanical rhythms, and a strange high end melody that sounds like it's being played by releasing air from a balloon, pulsing almost techno style throbs buried beneath a dubbed out expanse of melodic shimmer, a looped bit of bassy riffage, like some sort of spy theme, laced with backwards sonic swoops, and little flecks of melody and shards of glitched out electronics, that same sort of spy theme bass riff is wrapped around deep mysterious Tuvan style throat singing, hushed melancholy strings, soar over a deep expanse of rumble and thrum, a kaleidoscopic avalanche of pizzicato notes tumble like a hazy glimmering sonic waterfall, swirls of pop ambience spread out in clouds of gauzy blurred soft focus haze, a pounding almost industrial groove that sounds like a techno-fied themes song to some Miami Vice knockoff, the whole thing peppered with strange percussion, and wreathed in sweeping streaks of warm whirling sound, a weirdly looped collage of chopped and looped African folk music, wrapped in reverb and delay, a tinkling bit of piano driven cinematic ambience, like a more woozy, washed out Chariots Of Fire, all dramatic and epic and majestic, but slightly warped and warbly, and on and on and on. A fantastically varied collection of beautiful but brief electronic soundscapes, woven together into a strangely cohesive whole. Oh and did we mention the cover photo, of Reuber (we presume), wearing a leather jacket, a cowboy hat, American flag pants, with his foot up on some sort of sports car, with a personalized REUBER license plate, holding a spear gun, standing next to a stuffed elephant, that has been speared, and appears to be bleeding spaghetti in tomato sauce. Woah.

MPEG stream: Stadtflucht
MPEG stream: Uberlandweg
MPEG stream: In Fernen Landern
MPEG stream: Walzende Wirrnis
MPEG stream: Schlusskuss

We made Reuber's Ring a Record Of The Week a little while back, the latest solo record from Timo Reuber, who is one half of the electronic duo Klangwart. Ring was fantastic, super varied, slipping from kosmische dronemusic to pulsing psychedelic techno to spacey new wave. We loved it so much, that many of us got a little obsessed, and decided to dig deeper and check out some of Reuber's other releases. Thus we have this, Reuber's second solo release, from 2001, the title translating to "Stay Cool", the bulk of which is made up of the two part title track, each part about 22 minutes. The first part, definitely in keeping with the album title, is an extended electronic dronescape, shimmery and crystalline, lush yet delicate, warm tones drifting from speaker to speaker, bathed in a hazy glow, meditative and dreamlike, new agey and a little bit krautrocky, soft flurries of notes dissipate into gauzy streaks, bits of electronic glitch and spacey effects surface here and there, like the score for some educational film about interplanetary travel. The sounds eventually coalesce into an almost rhythm, pulsing warmly, wreathed in strange atonal melodies, before quickly blissing out again, and spreading out into a barely there cloud of glistening, tinkling blur. The second part of the title track is pretty much the opposite, a pulsing metallic buzz like rhythm, skeletal and mechanical, skitters and shuffles, the sounds growing more and more thick and buzzy, distorted and intense, eventually becoming almost Merzbowian, thick and corrosive, yet still somehow warm and melodic, a wildly buzzing chunk of hypnotic spaced out rhythm, the timbre constantly shifting too, from dense and layered, to brittle and tinny, finally to fully blown out and in-the-red. All the while managing to sound kosmische and psychedelic, under that coating of crunch and thrum and buzz and glitch. Finally, the record finishes off with another bit of 'cool'ness, a relatively brief (7+ minutes), of hazy high end shimmer, a warm whirling drift of subtle overtones, slow shifting layers, of blurred melodies and glowing near static thrum, a perfect bit of tranquil mesmer to finish with. Fantastic stuff, anyone who dug Ring will like this too, and anyone into kosmische drift, and spacey new age kraut drone, who is not averse to a little bit of crunch and buzz, this will definitely hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Ruhig Blut A
MPEG stream: Ruhig Blut B

And we continue to dig deeper into the catalog of Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose most recent, fifth record Ring we made our Record Of The Week not too long ago, and whose other records we've been reviewing one at a time ever since. All different, but all pretty fantastic. This one is record number 4, following Kintopp which we reviewed last list. Sudpol translates as "South Pole", not entirely sure if there's any meaning, or if there's some South Pole theme running through the record, but like Kintopp, Sudpol seems to simply be a super varied, and totally hypnotic collection of sonic experiments, ranging from propulsive electro krautrock workouts, to droned out fields of glitch and pulse, hazy pop ambient shimmer to super distorted industrial flecked skitter, groovy almost post rock sounding loopage to fuzzy playfully melodic techno-pop, Kraftwerky robotic electronic funk to blissed out sun dappled soundtracky synth wave, culminating in the epic 12 minute dronescape "Steppengraskrieger", with its billows of distant buzz and haunting almost operatic barely there vocals, buried electro beats, sounding as if they're being blasted on the stereo in the apartment next door, lush gauzy streaks of hazy whir and thrum, those buried beats constantly surfacing amidst the swirl and shimmer, until finally, the track transforms completely into a softly slow swirling tangle of looped and warped melodies, strange metallic buzz and soft focus flurries of glimmering tones and muted streaks of smeared sound. So nice. Another winner for sure, and and yet another record that has us wondering why Reuber is not way more of a big deal�

MPEG stream: Altweiber
MPEG stream: Amundsen
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Martin Rev without Alan Vega (the artist's other half in the mid-'70s minimal electronic punk duo, Suicide) seems like Oates without Hall, maybe even Donny sans Marie. But members of duos often make solo "me" time to try stuff they might not otherwise with their sonic partners, and synthesist Rev has been releasing solo records for most of his tenure with/since Suicide. In fact, we were really impressed with his 2009 Stigmata album. While Vega typically donned a rockabilly hat for most of his solo releases, Rev has tried on more than a few musical caps. This new vinyl reissue of his first solo venture from 1980 is one of his more minimalist efforts - think early Human League experiments like "Being Boiled". "Baby Oh Baby" is the only one of the lp's six tracks that isn't an instrumental - and even there, the lyrics don't extend beyond what you see right there in the song title. The melody on the opening track, "Mari", carries an optimism you wouldn't associate with the dark and eerie downtown duo, and demonstrates Rev's exploration of other moods. It's so upbeat, you might expect Stephin Merritt's low croon to swoop in any second. The rest of the short album is filled with the synth washes and oscillations Rev basically patented as the vocabulary of the synth wave to come. Any fan in search of synth pop's origins will want to include this classic piece of cold electronic minimalism in their collection.

MPEG stream: Mari
MPEG stream: Baby Oh Baby

We knew from the bastardized artwork on this 12" which uses Millie Jackson's classic Feeling Bitchy cover as its blueprint that there might be some super fun & funky sounds in these grooves and boy were we right! Lorenz Rhode comes from Dusseldorf, Germany and we get the feeling his home listening probably includes everything from Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Go Plastic era Squarepusher, lots of late '70s/early '80s funk to all kinds of synth heavy space-funk odysseys. We're sure folks like Lazer Sword, Chromeo, Simian Mobile Disco and Dam-Funk will all be loving these sounds. We sure are. Don't ever think Germans don't know how to let loose and boogie cause here is some golden proof that they know how to make totally great and contagious party sounds.

Hmmm, rhythm and sound. What else is there? What else do you need? Especially when the rhythm is a shuffling dubbed out reggae filtered through that Berlin minimal techno heroin-house aesthetic we love so much, and the sound is the gorgeous vocals of reggae vocalists like Sugar Minott, Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman), Jah Cotton and others. Thus we have this latest outing from Rhythm & Sound, the German production team of Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald. On their last record from a few years back, With The Artists, Ernestus and von Oswald teamed up with various reggae vocalists, and See Mi Yah is a bit of a continuation of that, a modern minimalist version of the 'one rhythm' album, where each vocalist takes a turn singing over the same rhythm. But unlike most one rhythm records, Ernestus and von Oswald arrange and mix the rhythm differently for each track, so See Mi Yah ends up sounding like one totally gorgeous, 46 minute long, druggy, drifty, shimmery, hypnotic slab of blissed out dub. Which it basically is. The See Mi Yah rhythm is a lush bit of heroin-reggae (think Chain Reaction heroin house meets the dubbiest of reggae) a drifting skeletal pulse above a murky and dense soundscape, shuffling and throbbing, slowly shifting and stretching farther and farther out. So completely mesmerizing. Vocalists include: Sugar Minott, Paul St. Hilaire, Freddy Mellow, Bobbo Shanti, Ras Donovan, Ras Perez, Koki, Walda Gabriel, Rod Of Iron, Jah Cotton and Willi Williams. So glad we finally were able to get this in, been waiting for it for a while due to lame distribution problems!

MPEG stream: See Mi Yah
MPEG stream: Dem Never Know
MPEG stream: Rise And Praise

We've been getting these Burial Mix 10" singles in here for some time now and probably the single most asked question regarding them has been "when the hell are they going to release these on CD?" Well, the time has come. Rhythm & Sound created a stripped down post-Detroit techno sound reminiscent of Chain Reaction and the Stefan Betke/Pole continuum of Euro-dub artists. Unlike others though, Rhythm & Sound took it one step further and acquired the talents of some excellent modern roots vocalists like Paul St. Hilaire (Tikiman), Cornel Campbell, Shalom, The Chosen Brothers, Love Joy, Jennifer Lara and Jah Batta. Asphodel has pragmatically chosen to release the singles as two separate discs, one of the A-sides including the vocals and one of the B-side dub remixes; cuz sometimes you feel like a nut, n' sometimes you don't.

MPEG stream: Queen Version
MPEG stream: Troddin Version

MPEG stream: King In My Empire
MPEG stream: Jah Rule

Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald (aka Maurizio) are the shadowy figures whose anonymous productions through the Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, and Rhythm & Sound monikers / labels remain the foundation for German electronica as we know it. While the two As Basic Channel morphed into Chain Reaction, Ernestus and von Oswald began Rhythm & Sound to explore and exaggerate dub techniques within their techno constructions. There isn't much to the Rhythm & Sound approach, but that's the point, with an uncluttered yet seductive drum machine pulse, an incredibly deep bass line, and a metallic organ riff as the offbeat rhythm. But, the cavernous dub which softens all of the sounds into amorphous currents and dissolves time into a languid stupor is what makes Rhythm & Sound so effective.

RealAudio clip: No Partial
RealAudio clip: Smile
RealAudio clip: Imprint

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SORRY.

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

SORRY.

You may not necessarily know who Emil Richards is, but you've most definitely heard him play. The list of his musical accomplishments, is nearly Zelig like, seeming to appear everywhere and on pretty much every great recording, and having played with a who's who of performers, jazz, rock, underground, mainstream, even a small sampling of his music resume will have you wondering why he isn't a household name. He played with Charles Mingus, Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, Doris Day, Judy Garland, he performed frequently with Harry Partch, he plays the bongos that open Lalo Schifrin's theme to Mission Impossible, he's the guy snapping his fingers on the theme music from the Addams Family, he played tuned bowls and gongs on Jerry Goldsmith's iconic soundtrack to 1968's Planet Of The Apes. He later played with Frank Zappa, George Harrison (he even traveled to India with Harrison) as well as Blondie, and hundreds of other pop artists, and played on soundtracks like Taxi Driver, The Exorcist, Shaft, Chinatown, Dirty Harry, and again, HUNDREDS more. But for weird music obsessives, he's no doubt best known for his record New Sound Element: Stones, originally released in 1967, which was a collection of 12 songs, each named for a month, and its specific birthstone, and which is infamous for the fact that it was in fact the first commercial recording to feature the Moog Synthesizer. But beyond that, it's a crazy record, some sort of twisted electronic jazz sci-fi exotica, the main instruments being ring modulated mallet instruments (marimba, xylophone, etc.) and synth, trippy and woozy, playful and silly, but at times, seriously twisted and darkly psychedelic. We're reminded of course of Perrey And Kingsley, after all for many of us, that was our first real exposure to early Moog pop, but Richards' compositions are a lot less goofy, less melodic too, more rhythmic, with the best tracks layering wild jazz drumming, over heavily effected marimba or xylophone, the sound locked into propulsive grooves, while the tones and overtones are constantly altered to created woozy warbly melodies, that's not to say this stuff isn't on the playful side, it most definitely is, the darker passages more than balanced by goofy, super melodic workouts, but the sound seems to always slip back into something a wee bit darker, whether it's the droney, swirly shuffle of "Emerald (May)", or the driving drum heavy psychedelic trip out of "Bloodstone (March)", the wild Moog swaddled xylophone shredding of "Moonstone (June)", or the fuzzy twisted jazzfunk of "Ruby (July)". Imagine a drum/percussion driven sixties jazz record, re-engineered by some Moog mad scientist, and you'll get an idea of what Richards concocted on Stones, which has been floating around as a bootleg for years, but this is the first official reissue. And Stones is only the beginning. While it's most definitely the reason to pick this up, Omni has also tacked on a bunch of bonus tracks, first, a handful of songs from New Time Element, also originally released in 1967, which features a selection of pop and jazz standards, presented with odd time signatures and unique percussion, the original liner notes even give the listener breakdowns of the various rhythms of each song. It's not super far out, but a fun listen, and a nice chunk of sixties jazz. The final batch of extra tracks come from Richards' 1968 release Journey To Bliss, which is probably closest to Stones in sound, dialing back the electronic element, and heavy on the rhythms, lots of marimba, xylophone and percussion, some drum solos, a bit of fuzzy jazz funk, a heady psychedelic jazz excursion for sure, fans of the recent Spiritual Jazz collections will definitely dig, the album culminating in the final 18 minute six part epic "Journey To Bliss", which features a yogi like recitation, directions for meditation and inner peace, over Eastern raga style buzz, playful percussion, and more of Richards' wild psychedelic jazz. Like all Omni reissues, gorgeous presented, with loads of pictures and extensive liner notes!

MPEG stream: Bloodstone (March)
MPEG stream: Moonstone (June)
MPEG stream: Opal (October)
MPEG stream: Turquoise (December)
MPEG stream: Journey To Bliss - Part III

MPEG stream: On The Nature of Daylight
MPEG stream: Shadow Journal

SKWEEE!

SKWEEE!!!!

A few lists back we reviewed a tape by the oddly monikered Funeral Fornication, who trafficked in some pretty epic black metal buzz. But apparently, Jaron Evil, the man behind Funeral Fornication, suffered some sort of brain injury, that rendered him unable to play guitar, so while he recovered, he endeavored to create this, a sprawling, and equally, yet differently epic collection of Tolkien themed black ambience and neo-folk, and while at first we were expecting something super cheesy, it's actually pretty cool and weird. Field recorded forest sounds, gristly, lo-fi synth swirl, lush swells of droned out black ambience, dramatic piano stabs, faux strings, swirling FX, some of the tracks pastoral and blessed out ("The Second Age"), others more sinister and cinematic ("The Secret Stairs"). There are still moments of black buzz, like the second half of "Nine Riders", which unfurls a furious blast beat, harsh vokills and insectoid riffing, spread out beneath a layer of cosmic synth swirl, making for a strange, and quite cool juxtaposition. But for the most part, the tape is made up mostly of synthy ambience, ominous drones, mysterious sound design, and epic faux soundtracks to some Lord Of Rings style otherworld. Fantastical and fantastic. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!

MPEG stream: The Second Age
MPEG stream: The Secret Stairs
MPEG stream: Nine Riders

Nope, not a single Emerson, Lake, & Palmer sample on the album. Didn't mean to get your hopes up, but The Rip Off Artist (aka Matt Haines) does pilfer from the rest of pop culture with reckless abandon, obliterating it within a cut 'n' paste / electronica mindset. This whimsical electro-glitch album has found a perfect home on Hot Air, alongside Stock, Hausen, and Walkman and People

Umpteenth record from Matt Haines and his first for Mille Plateaux. Super rigid algorithmic textures akin to the aesthetic of Schematic artists Phoenecia or Richie Devine. Skittering, frenetic rhythms whisk by your ears before you can actually process

One of the best hip hop records of last year had to be RJD2's Dead Ringer, a wicked mix of gritty beats, seamless sonic collages, and epic cinematic soundscapes. And the track 'The Horror' was the one that set the whole thing off, a dark and soulful, horrific musical trip through seedy streets and back alleys, a noirish epic that rivaled DJ Shadow at his best. So to hold us over until the next record comes this deluxe double cd compilation of different mixes and video footage. Disc one starts off with the original track, 'The Horror' and it just reaffirms what a fucking amazing track it is. Hasn't lost any of its impact. The rest of the disc expands the sonic pallete of RJD2's nightmarish funk / soul hiphopscapes, with some minimal female vocals and tense cinematic strings, serious soulful grit and fierce funk, and loose ramshackle rhythms and dark drony dreaminess. Even if you don't have the Dead Ringer album, this disc of mixes is good enough to function on its own, no throw away remix/filler crap here. Disc 2 is a cd rom that has two live performances (as well as some interviews), one from the Bowery Ballroom in New York, the other from our very own Beta Lounge here in SF. And proves beyond any sort of doubt that RJD2's got some serious skill on the decks as well as the sampler. Also included is a 'making of' documentary chronicling the filming of 'The Horror" video (which we unfortunately don't get to see) and an animated video for "The Horror" that is really amazing looking, a fuzzed out noirish nightmare, claustrophobic and grainy. Like a cartoon gone bad! Definitely recommended, as is of course the Dead Ringer full length. MPEG Download: "Bus Stop Bitties" [/audio/rjd2busstopbitties.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Bus Stop Bitties" [/audio/rjd2busstopbitties.m3u]

MPEG stream: Bus Stop Bitties
MPEG stream: Ghostwriter Remix
RealAudio clip: The Horror

One of two amazing vinyl-only reissues on the brand new Medical Records label (the other is Record Of The Week Deutsche Wertarbeit). This one, a holy grail of sorts for all the cult disco seekers, a sexy, exuberant and at times wonderfully sleazy hybrid of Italo-disco, French electro, and Minimal Wave weirdness by the one and only Alexander Robotnick (aka Maurizio Dami). Ce N'est Q'un Debut was released in 1984 after his first single, "Problemes D'amour" became a mega-cult hit in New York underground dance club circles a year earlier. The extended version of that track was prominently featured on the Strut label's Disco Not Disco 2 a few years back, and it fits right in with Giorgio Moroder, Bernard Fevre, Arthur Russell and other Mutant Disco aficionados as a defining dance staple of the era. This mini-lp features 6 killer tracks including the Moroderesque, "Dance Boy Dance", another popular cult single that was probably heard more in gay bathhouses than in mainstream discos due to its lurid minimal rhythms and suggestive whispered singing. Sooo good! Sweaty summer dancing begins here! Don't let this one slip away! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each 180 gram colored vinyl and hand-numbered. We're not sure how long we'll have these, so don't wait too long. Highest Recommendation!

MPEG stream: Problemes D'amour
MPEG stream: Dance Boy Dance

One of our favorite 2014 RSD releases was this incredible collection of Alexander Robotnick rareties by the always reliable Medical Records, and thankfully we've still got a few left... Robotnick was an early purveyor of Italo-disco and electro, crafting some of the most infectious dance grooves of the early eighties. Sexy, exuberant and at times wonderfully sleazy, Robotnick's productions mixed the best of disco, electro and euro-minimal wave into a hybrid of sublime movement and groove. Opening with the extended single, "I Wanna Believe" released under the moniker of Gina & The Flexix in 1985, we're taken on a freaky journey through the nightclubs of Europe, basking in the glowing energy of the dancefloor as well as loitering in their darkest corners where anything could happen. So good! Mutant disco freaks, the line starts here!

MPEG stream: I Wanna Believe (Gina & The Flexix)
MPEG stream: Les Grands Voyages de L'Amour (original)
MPEG stream: The Vampir
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An odd, odd blend of jazz with drum'n'bass and a bit of post rock... from Poland! Shifting percussion, heavy doses of saxophone, spaced-out textures.

We've gone kind of nuts for Chicago 'juke' music, the soundtrack for a distinctly Chicago dance style called footwurking, a frantic frenetic sort of dancing, that required an appropriately frantic and frenetic soundtrack, and this is most definitely it. We recently listed a record by another juke/footwurk legend, DJ Nate, and described the sound like this: "Looped, sped up soul samples, stuttery 808 drum machines, and short snippets of vocals, chopped up and looped into rapid fire weirdly hypnotic mantras. Like the backing tracks to some lost Kanye West record, looped and then rapped over, but the rapping is just the same phrase repeated ad infinitum." Which most definitely could describe this collection of footwurking jams from Chicago's DJ Roc, but if anything, Roc takes that sound even further, makes it darker, less reliant on soul samples, and moves it into more of an almost DJ Screw sounding bit of ominous stuttery groove. The samples grim and minor key, the soul samples set amidst groaning synth swells, modulated choral samples and low slung bass lines, and those looped mantra like sampled vocals, way more angry and bad ass "You ain't gonna do shit", "Fuck Dat", "They Can't Fuck With Me". Already maddeningly repetitive, to the point that folks are pretty much split right down the middle on this stuff, most of us can't get enough, but lots of people we know are driven crazy within minutes. Give the samples a listen, you'll know right away if this is your cup of tea. Roc definitely nails it here, his production and arrangements are pretty fantastic, if he applied the same methods to dubstep or some other 'hip' style, he'd be HUGE. "One Blood" sounds like a sped up way more manic Burial, "Let's Get It Started" is all wrapped around a killer creepy Twilight Zone sample, "They Can't Fuck Wit Me" is the perfect mix of haunting murderous creep and sped-up-soul, "Gun Smoke" takes a chunk of horns and tangles 'em all up with some dizzying rhythmic skitter, we could go on, track by track, but by now you get the picture. So funky, and frenzied, and frenetic, dark and sinister, and like that DJ Nate record, total ADD hip hop trip out. WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: Let's Get It Started
MPEG stream: They Can't Fuck Wit Me
MPEG stream: Phantom Call
MPEG stream: DJ Roc Symphony
MPEG stream: Gun Smoke

We knew nothing at all about this disc when it arrived. Not even sure how we ended up listening to it, but we're so so glad we did. The thing is, we get tons of stuff to listen to. Some all time AQ favorites began life as a random record that showed up in the mail, so we try to listen to everything, or as close to everything as we can. But there's so much, that just listening to random stuff that gets mailed in could be its own full time job (and before you all email wanting that job, trust us, it's not all it's cracked up to be). Inevitably stuff slips through the cracks, or we finally manage to listen to a cd months, sometimes years after it shows up. But this one caught our eye straight away, with a super creepy cover depicting a dead woman, covered in blood, in a wide expanse of blackness, above her a head, with a hole in the forehead, and a rainbow shooting through the head onto the dead woman, all done sort of oil painting style. Immediately we thought, "Wow, that sort of looks like some Argento movie". Then we saw the title, 31 Invalid Movie Themes � Italian Music. Hmm. By a group called Orchestra Di Rockford Kabine. Okay, so maybe, we thought, a soundtrack to some giallo we'd never heard of. The first track seemed to confirm that, a snippet of dialogue from some Italian movie, dialogue, some buzzing creepy sci-fi synth, a panicked woman, screaming, some sort of struggle... Then suddenly, we're in some sort of groovy sixties funk jam, all shuffling percussion, wah wah guitar, throbbing bass grooves, and then out of nowhere, a strangely convoluted interlude, very brief, but sort of stuttery, and then back to the groove. So now we're dying to know what movie this is from. Then the next track is some sort of stripped down electro groove, a jazzy piano vamp, lots and lots of record crackle, this couldn't be from the sixties... And it isn't. It ends up it's a German duo called Rockford Kabine, not a person at all, not a composer, an electronic/sampling outfit who describe their sound as "acid smurf" (huh?) and whose modus operandi is crafting little cinematic pop nuggets. Like DJ Shadow doing Morricone. The various tracks are super brief, but super groovy and catchy, some are dark and ominous and ultra creepy, some are playful and exotic. Some sound like they belong in a spaghetti Western, others like they belong in a classic Italian horror film, one track even uses the sound of a pinball machine as the rhythm. Plus the whole disc is peppered with bits of dialogue from movies making it seem even more possible that these could all be little fragments from lost movie scores. The sounds are all over the place, but manage to sound like they all belong, if not in the same film, at least in the same collection. From the aforementioned opening groover, to the smoky synth flecked mood music of "Al Signor Lorenzo N." complete with a creepy children's choir, to the exploitation cop show funk jam of "Di-Stanza", to the super distorted buzzy sixties psychedelia of "IX", to the Tom Waits via Amon Tobin stuttery junkyard percussion of "Insensato", to the muted meandering twangy western sizzle of "Italo Calvino", to the stripped down, but somehow still spooky rhythmic workout of "Zombi 3000", to the very DJ Shadow-ish creepy crawl of "Profondo Rosso" and it goes on and on. Every track is a strange little gem. Mysterious and cinematic. Each could easily be the theme from some lost film, or just a kick ass little segment from some DJ's set. 31 tracks, averaging a little more than a minute each, these tracks may not actually be from real movies, but repeated listening will have you wishing they were, or just creating the movies in your head as you listen. Fucking awesome.

MPEG stream: La Caccia
MPEG stream: Al Signor Lorenzo N.
MPEG stream: IX
MPEG stream: Insensato
MPEG stream: Italo Calvino
MPEG stream: Zombi 3000
MPEG stream: Profondo Rosso

We first discovered amazing German duo Rockford Kabine via their debut full length, Italian Music: 31 Invalid Movie Themes, which on the surface played like a series of micro snippets of actual Italian soundtrack music, interspersed with snippets of dialogue, brief excerpts from what we can only assume are in fact real films, the music the perfect compliment, wah wah guitars, Morricone-ish twang, smoky synths, spooky rhythmic dronescapes. It was an incredible collection of music that very well could have been soundtrack music, but was in fact an original creation, imagined music for imaginary Italian films. And we were blown away. Not soon after, the band contacted us to let us know that they were already working on a follow up, this one an ACTUAL soundtrack, to some sort of arty XXX adult film, yep, a porno, which in some weird way made sense, what with RK's ability to conjure up super sultry and sexy sounds, that draw from all sorts of different sources, their music already cinematic on its own, seemingly perfect to be wedded to visuals, and heck, when the visuals turn out to consist of sexy women, some wielding daggers, wearing World War 2 style gasmasks and leather bodysuits and well, it's tough to argue with that. But since the soundtrack was to be available ONLY as a bonus disc with the movie itself, it required some wrangling, and contacting an actual adult film distributor down in SoCal to get our hands on copies. But we're so glad we did. Even removed from the visuals, like all great soundtrack music, Rockford Kabine's score for XERO is incredible, haunting, mysterious, groovy, funky, abstract, cinematic for sure, but also lush and experimental and moody and mysterious. The strange thing too is that the film seems quite European, almost like some Inglorious Basterds style Tarantino war pic (or maybe that's just the aforementioned gas mask get up getting to us), but the music is very Eastern, in fact all the titles seem to be in Japanese, which only adds to the mystique of Rockford Kabine's fantastic soundworld. So we'll discuss the film in a bit, but as aQ is a record store, and this is in fact our Record Of The Week, it's probably best to discuss the soundtrack/score all on its own first. Like Italian Music before it, XERO is a series of shortish tracks, between 1 and 2 minutes, each super distinctive, with the duo conjuring up incredible mysterious moods in a manner of seconds, leaving the listener in most cases wanting more more more. And like their Italian Music, this does play out like some sort of DJ Shadow style sonic collage, still drawing from Morricone, and the Italian giallo tradition, but also from classic '70s porno music, with some funk and groove, but instead of the oft ridiculed wah wah guitar style porn kitsch, this is much more evocative, and dark, guitars are slithery, basslines low slung, undulating, bells chimes, notes drift through fields of reverb, riffs chug and churn only to dissipate in a field of chimes, spaced out drones collide with almost Tangerine Dream like synths, flutes flit and flutter, the rhythms are minimal and motorik, some tracks playing out like some krautrock groove (reminding us that Can made softcore soundtracks too, way back when), others like some lost cosmic disco. It's actually quite hard to describe XERO, there are so many different sounds and styles, and it's hard to imagine them working as a soundtrack, especially to an super stylized XXX art film, but removed from the film, the music, as varied and constantly shifting as it is, somehow plays out cohesively, like an album proper, guitar twang is laced over a minimal footstep like rhythm, organs wheeze, everything sounds softly woozy and lysergic, exotic percussion collides with gamelan like melodies, minimal hip hop beats are wrapped around stuttering loops, occasionally coalescing into some seriously fuzzy hairy funk, other times drifting into Goblin style almost new wave sounding synthscapes, acoustic guitars unfurl some Western strum, but woven in are some haunting synth melodies, even some mysterious voices, soaring strings and sorrowful piano, tense droned out ambience, skittery almost Portishead style downtempo beats, bells and chimes, all sorts of strange production, the sound sometimes crystal clear and lush and lovely, other times hazy and druggy and gorgeously washed out, a kaleidoscopic sonic journey through some imaginary world of naked women, gasmasks and daggers, weird Asian masks, furry shag rugs, a world that would have stayed imaginary had these sounds not been used to edit the film of the same name. The film is indeed pornographic, and XXX. It's all female-on-female, there's very little actual hardcore sex though. And while it IS a porno, with no plot to speak of, it's almost more like it's about the music. Indeed, the movie was edited to the music, much like Sergio Leone used to blast Morricone's scores on the set and have the actors move to the music, so the film here is a series of impressionistic tableaus, the colors acid drenched and super saturated, long slow stripteases, even the actual sex is strangely arty and not traditionally sexy, but the strange constantly shifting images, the cool, always changing music, work together, creating something much more than a porno, in fact, the film seemed more like something the band would project behind them when they performed live, strange masks, the aforementioned rubberclad gasmasked mystery woman, another woman who looks a bit like a sexier female version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, long duster, big hat, face obscured by hair, and as the back cover proclaims, "See the shocking ending the censors didn't want you to witness", and we can definitely attest to the fact that the ending is really weird, depressing and violent, and not at all sexy, but in some way, that makes this whole project more interesting, and bizarre, and pretty much perfect for Rockford Kabine's incredible soundtrack. Though of course you don't HAVE to watch it, the prudish can enjoy the soundtrack fully without reference to the visuals. Needless to say, this is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, but, since the soundtrack cd does in fact come with an XXX rated adult dvd, thus is required some unaccustomed legalese on our part, as follows... This is only to be purchased by adults, and by purchasing this, and/or adding it to your online shopping cart, you are hereby agreeing to these stipulations: that you are an in fact an adult, being of legal age, 18 or 21, in your legal jurisdiction to view adult oriented material that may be sexual or graphical in nature. (Local laws vary throughout the United States, so if you are not 100 percent sure of the laws applicable to you, you are advised to check before purchasing.) Further, you agree that you will not redistribute this material to anyone for which it is illegal for them to view or possess such material, nor will you permit any minor, or any person who would find this personally offensive, to view this material, and finally that you will hold harmless aQuarius recOrds, its officers, ISP, and employees, from and against any claims, liability, losses, costs, damages, or expenses (including attorney's fees) arising from you use of the images contained on the dvd. Furthermore, you will defend aQuarius recOrds against all claims of impropriety regarding your purchase of this item. Phew. We'd have put all that in small print if we could.

MPEG stream: Dangai
MPEG stream: Hana Gin
MPEG stream: Pantsu Etchi Na
MPEG stream: Saigo No Kisu Wa
MPEG stream: Hotto Ni Naru
MPEG stream: Rorikon
MPEG stream: Xero Vs.The Black Angel

MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!! Ok, that no doubt got your attention. However, unlike Mississippi's forays into blues, world music, and, uh, Dutch punk rock, this record (an alternately titled reissue of Rockmore's The Art Of The Theremin album) takes a surprising turn into the realm of classical music. But not just *any* classical music, no, this here record will no doubt be familiar to many aQ customers, as Lithuanian born Clara Rockmore (1911-1998) is legendary for her mastery of one of the first and strangest electronic musical instruments ever - the theremin. Even if you think you are unaware of what this unique instrument sounds like, you've definitely heard it SOMEWHERE, most likely in some cheesy sci-fi movie from the 1950s. But rather than retread the story of the theremin in general and Clara Rockmore specifically (for that you're advised to check out the amazing documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey), we will just let you know that this record is completely amazing, absolutely beautiful, and probably unlike anything else you've heard before. Covering selected works from composers such as Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, among others, Rockmore is capable of creating some of the saddest, most mournful sounds ever committed to tape. With literally every song, the theremin sounds like it is weeping out its melodies alongside its piano accompaniment, provided by Rockmore's sister Nadia Reisenberg. Soundwise, many of you will be reminded of a singing saw, or perhaps some heavily sustained bowed string instrument, but the buzzing electronic warmth of the theremin is really beyond classification. The sounds are at once familiar but also totally alien, and anyone who has actually played a theremin should be well aware of how unbelievably difficult they are to control (you don't even touch the thing!). But Rockmore was clearly cut from a different cloth altogether, and to this day she remains undisputed master of the instrument. Mississippi really outdid themselves with the packaging on this one, the heavy duty lp comes housed in a beautiful thick gatefold jacket with all kinds of detailed information. And we should hardly have to warn you of this record's limited availability, so don't miss out.

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

SORRY.

As archival collections of "lost tapes" by hitherto unknown musical geniuses go, Strut's release last year of Rodion G.A.'s The Lost Tapes was the creme de la creme. The bomb. Top of the pops. We made it a Record Of The Week and it's still steady sellin'. Fuzzed out, Eastern Bloc electro-prog funk madness from the late '70s / early '80s that's super catchy, melodic and motorik; a lo-fi, synth-laden outsider kraut-groove delight all around. Then, this year, for Record Store Day, Strut was like, check it out, there's MORE! They released a limited edition 12" consisting of Rodion's previously unreleased (and apparently, unused) soundtrack music intended for an animated science fiction series on Romanian television, circa 1983, called Misuinea Spatiala Delta (Delta Space Mission). Wow. It was limited to just 1000 copies, we got as many as we could for Record Store Day (a whole bunch) and they sold out immediately. Never got to list it. BUT, yay, somehow some more copies were just made available to us by one of our suppliers. Don't know if it's a repress or what, pretty sure we can't get more in any case. So we brought in a bunch for all of you who missed it on RSD, grab 'em while you can. As with The Lost Tapes, this 12", which plays at 45rpm, is highly recommended! Featuring lots of swirling, spacey synth (of course!), all pew-pew-pew zip-zip-zap, this also of course includes some funky electro grooves with tick-tock electronic beats and nicely melodic synth-swoosh. Come to think of it, it's not unlike the music of T.R.A.S.E., another recent Record Of The Week. And of course if you liked The Lost Tapes, you'll like this. Let's hope they keep digging in Rodion's vaults, a Lost Tapes Vol.2 would be cool! LIMITED! Record Store Day leftovers (???) while they last!! (By the way, you can find some of the Delta Space Mission animation on YouTube, supposedly with the Rodion music. Looks pretty cool!!)

MPEG stream: Bau-Bau

Any fan of '70s krautrock / electronic legends Cluster - and Cluster's constituent humans Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius - know that both gents remain exceedingly prolific music-makers to this day. Try as we might, we don't always manage to review everything either of them release, though we don't doubt that it's always quite good stuff. This new disc on Sub Rosa did happen to just catch our ears, however, and we felt we should share. It finds Roedelius (sometimes considered to be the more melodic half of the Cluster duo) collaborating with an interesting fellow we haven't encountered before, Christopher Chaplin, who is (true fact) the youngest son of famous actor Charlie Chaplin. The two, Roedelius & Chaplin, first met at an Art Brut themed festival in Vienna in 2010; and when in 2011 the BBC invited Roedelius to record a live session with a musician of his choosing that'd he'd never previously worked with, he selected Chaplin. That recording (some portions of which are heard here) eventually lead to them working together the next year on this album project. King Of Hearts is centered around the beautiful, romantic piano playing that Roedelius is known for, while Chaplin processes and remixes it, bringing in additional electronics and other unnerving elements. Mysterious hisses and drones and mad scientist laboratory sounds pervade otherwise blissful piano reveries. On one track, there's some heavily effected, indecipherable vocals in the mix, and on a few others, someone (presumably Chaplin) plays distorted electric guitar, raw and lo-fi. One piece is based on a song from the Brian Eno album Before And After Science, in which Roedelius & Moebius participated. However, the overall mood of this album is lush and lovely, and full of interesting detail. It's perfect music for staring out the window at the landscape on a cold winter's afternoon, while staying warm inside.

MPEG stream: Comme Ca
MPEG stream: Autrement
MPEG stream: Bien Sur

After a handful of gorgeous drone releases under the name Berber Ox, David Rutledge returns with his new trio, Roger Nova Twelve, and a killer disc of experimental krautrock. The opening track here wouldn't have been out of place on a Berber Ox records, a dark, pulsating sprawl of kosmische low end, a softly undulating dronescape wreathed in squiggly high end filigree and underpinned by a hushed warm thrum. But the sound soon shifts gears, a strange swirl of collaged radio broadcasts and mysterious shortwave transmissions gradually gives way to a simple motorik rhythm, the surrounding sounds building momentum, the drums and what sounds like either a bass or a keyboard, locked into an endless hypnorock loop, while all around it, FX swirl and squirm and shimmer. Eventually guitars swoop into the mix, chugging out a trancey psychedelic riff, while another wraps the proceedings in layers of sonic swirl, and suddenly, we're in total space-psych bliss out, sounding like a dreamier more laid back Heads or White Hills, building to a serious heavy psych blowout, a dense squall of guitarnoise, that gradually fades leaving just a sky full of echo drenched delay and the tracks and traces of fully faded out riff. But that's just part one. Part two begins with a strange muted whirl of percussive murk, peppered with chiming harmonics, everything blurred and bleary, like some strange underwater symphony, burbling and shimmery, voices chopped up and looped into strange textures, laid over the liquid sonic swirl, wreathed in organ and fuzzy soft focus drones, all manner of strange reverbed melodies fragmented and sent spinning off into the ether, all building to a thick billowing cloud of low end, which is when, about 14 minutes in, the first sign of rhythm appears, surfacing gradually, wreathed in the thick swaths of layered loops, finally becoming a proper space jam with about five minutes remaining, droney and tranced out, this blissed out pulsing psychkraut groove fading out way too soon, when it easily could have stretched out for another 35 minutes and filled up the whole rest of the cd-r. Fantastic stuff, and definitely recommended for fans of the current crop of psych/space/kraut rockers, a la White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Carlton Melton, The Heads, Lumerians, Moonrises, Mugstar etc. LIMITED TO 30 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, and housed in a cool clear coat printed envelop made out of magazine pages, each one different. And each one accompanied by a printed postcard/insert.

MPEG stream: Intro
MPEG stream: Part 1

Another outing from Uwe Schmidt, that incredibly prolific electronicist best known as Atom Heart but also as Senor Coconut, Los Samplers, Atom and Tea Time, Midisport, Geez 'n Gosh, Lisa Carbon, Datacide, Dandy Jack, LB, Bund Deutscher Programmierer ... and more! This time the operative word is JAZZ. In the same way that Senor Coconut fused Kraftwerk with the mambo, The Roger Tubesound Ensemble is a fine excuse to play around with "jazz". It's all very lighthearted, playful and fun. While the first tune is a pretty much straightforward Esquivel-inspired number complete with girl vocalists, tinkling piano and jazz drums, the later tracks blend in the electronics that Atom just can't stay away from. He slyly creeps in some stereo separation effects, the jazz in one ear, drum 'n bass in the other. Sometimes the schizo effect is jarring and sudden, but eventually the music finds its own level as a honest to gosh hybrid percolating happily.

RealAudio clip: Dear Lost Listener
RealAudio clip: Roger's Back

The return of Roladex one of the few contemporary artists on the kick ass new wave / synth wave reissue label Medical Records, and like their first full length, Anthems For The Microage, which we raved about back on list #445, their track here, "Glass Statuette" is another dark synthy gem, sort of Giorgio Moroder meets the Human League, pulsating synth arpeggios, romantic (but still a little icy) boy/girl vocals, robotic cold wave Kraftwerkisms surrounded by minimal programmed pulsations, and blooping, bleeping melodies, and like that full length, sounding as much like an actual reissue as anything on Medical. The flipside is the first we've heard from [[Pressures]], and it's a good match for Roladex, a bit more melancholy and minor key, the vibe dreamily wistful, the sound propulsive and motorik, all pulsing synths, and lockstep rhythms, the hazy vocodered vocals, angelic and ethereal, give the track it's human/romantic/melancholy vibe, balancing the retro/futuristic machine music beneath... Like all Medical releases, housed in a nice full color sleeve, and for this one, pressed onto heavy, transparent yellow vinyl. And yeah, also VERY LIMITED!

MPEG stream: Glass Statuette
MPEG stream: The Voices

Latest from this Swedish duo, whose day jobs just so happen to be producing tracks for artists like Fever Ray and the Knife, but whose musical heart seems to belong to groups like Goblin and folks like John Carpenter, their records gorgeous, dark, cinematic soundscapes of swirling synths and pulsing rhythms, and this latest disc is no different, although if anything, it's much more subtle, and carefully crafted, as well as being quite a bit darker. Where past recordings evoked the the swirl of space, conjuring up streaks of celestial kosmische-ness, or the sleek streamlined imagined future of high speeds and automation, this new record is much more grimy and menacing. Even the opening track eschews the usual RTD hallmarks, and instead locks into a relentless groove, all ominous tension, and haunting repetition, no beats, to soaring synths, just a throbbing cyclical melodic played on old analog instruments that seem to decay as the track progresses growing more and more distorted. One might imagine the record might let up, but the following track is another looped bit of synth-y tension, a blooping minor key melody, over dark minor key swells, but laced with some gorgeous elegiac piano, which adds a serious gravitas to the proceeding, but in no way lightens the mood. This is fantastic stuff, the soundtrack to some dark dystopian future otherworld, as imagined and rendered in analog sound. The sounds range from hushed piano drive ambient swirls, to creepy lumbering dirges, from gristly expanses of electro-drone thrum to blurred ominous synth buzz blur, and from blurred almost symphonic drift to washed out almost Eurodisco sounding grooves, but all held together by those dark dolorous piano melodies, and that melancholic mood that seems to infuse all the sounds here. Dark and mysterious, a grim and gorgeous glimpse of a dark kosmische underworld.

MPEG stream: Iron Bridge
MPEG stream: Calling All Workers
MPEG stream: Maelstrom
MPEG stream: The Skull Is Built Into The Tool

A super special limited Record Store Day release from these Swedish duo, a production team who has worked with Fever Ray and the Knife among others, but who on their own create super cinematic synthscapes that definitely appeal to fans of Umberto, Zombi, Majeure and the rest of the new wave of Carpenter worship. This 2 track 12" was recorded live in Sweden in 2010, and features two sprawling sidelong epics, each a fantastically evocative chunk of synth heavy soundtracky pulse and shimmer. The A side is some seriously spaced out krautdrone drift, equal parts Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, the sound grows more and more dense as the track progresses, from minimal, to a dark haunting throb, the sound more noisy, more aggressive, before exploding in a final burst of frantic synth freakout. The flipside unfurls sweeping pulses that seem to swoop from speaker to speaker, a dreamy melancholy melody draped over the top. Distant swells, thick swaths of low end buzz, the vibe super cinematic, and darkly tense, multiple melodies overlap and interact, layer upon layer, the sound ever more dense and dark, the second half finds the sounds changing dramatically, the percussion ultra distorted, the eighties soundtrack feel even more pronounced, again finishing off with a barrage of wild glitched out synths. Great stuff. And again, a SUPER LIMITED Record Store Day release. We were lucky to get enough copies to list post-RSD, which means these most definitely won't be around for long.

Past records from Roll The Dice found the Swedish duo channeling the spirit of John Carpenter, crafting lush, sinister synthscapes, that much like the rest of the current crop of Carpenterians, played like some lost soundtrack, and while this new one displays much of that sound still, they've fleshed out their sound big time, the most notable shift being the addition of actual strings, turning their already lush sound into something downright majestic. Brooding pianos drift amidst clouds of crackle, deep reverby shimmers, ominous minor key melodies, little bits of glitch, the strings gradually building to a harrowing, haunting coda, and that's just the opener, that sounds exactly like it could be the music beneath the credits from some seventies Italian giallo, right down to the simulated record crackle. The band push way past their faux soundtrack roots, building epic bombastic creeps, like "Assembly", a stately march, more of a trudge actually, the chords ringing out, beneath big booming percussive thuds, a sinister slow build, that eventually blossoms into something almost Swans like, albeit heavy on the strings and piano, but still, it's fierce and intense, a near orchestral sonic death march, with a Godspeed style slow build energy, the songs here not so much songs, as pieces, single parts that develop over time, that expand and sprawl, often to devastating effect, the strings stunning, the mood darkly heart wrenching, some tracks the strings get all Bernard Hermann Psycho-stabs, sometimes accompanied by the plunk of prepared piano, those tracks drifting into full on 20th century / musique concrete territory, but other drifting along dreamily, sounding like the prettiest, most minimal Tim Hecker track, all hazy and washed out, and delicately crystalline, while still others sound almost like trip hop, channeling groups like Portishead or Massive Attack, that sound even more effective with the strings, that add so much pathos and emotion. Fantastic stuff, haunting and lovely, alternately brooding and bombastic, cinematic and soundtrack, but also dabbling in straight up sound design, fans of Tim Hecker, and Fennesz, and Godspeed, and Belong, and Stars Of The Lid, not to mention all the modern retro-synth wranglers, the Goblin and Carpenter worshippers, this is the next step in the evolution of that sound, and is really pretty goddamn stunning.

MPEG stream: Blood In Blood Out
MPEG stream: Assembly
MPEG stream: Coup De Grace

What can we say that the title doesn't already tell you. Yes, this is Pole (aka Stefan Betke) remixing three tracks from Roll The Dice's last record, In Dust. Pushing the Swedish duo's carefully crafted kosmiche epics into ghost in the alien dub machine techtonics. From the darkly pretty and mysterious "Calling Dub Workers" to the heavy intense dub of "Echo Hands" and finally the Middle Eastern skittering excursion of "The Skull is Built Into The Version", this is a match made in heaven!

The debut album from this Japan-based duo is a kick ass electronica album with some very heavy influences from Aphex Twin. So much so you'd think you were listening to extra tracks produced by Richard James himself right after his Boy / Girl EP. Very Nice!

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

SORRY. The new solo project from avant-ambient guitarist & programmer James Plotkin (Old/Scorn/Flux/Plotkin-Spybey/etc.). Rhythmic electronic instrumental pop (a bit techno-y like Locust), infused with weird patches of pretty piano, hissing noise and Ovalish stutter.