[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

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Showing results 4001 through 4050 of 5033.

More pleasant electronica from Matt Elliot aka Third Eye Foundation, this time with vaguely ethnicky female voices sometimes making their way into the mix.

New EP features some of the tinniest, lo-fi drum'n'bass we've heard, all the while trying really hard to sound EPIC, which adds up to a very appealing, enjoyable listening experience.

Matt Elliot latest full length dissolves almost all of the recognizable associations once heald with former collaborators Flying Saucer Attack. "You Guys Kill Me" actually holds more in common with another super star of Bristol... Tricky. Creepy over-processed guitar noises that end up wailing like screaming animals (see track 43 on the "Sounds of North American Frogs" collection on Folkways) with disjointed breakbeats. A little lighter, a little less angry and a little more playful than previous Third Eye records, but still maintains the intensity of lulling drones accompanied by edge-of-yr-seat rolling beats. Somewhere in the midst of Bowery Electric, Portishead and Bauhaus.

If we had to choose a favorite purveyor of pop ambience, it would definitely be tough to pick just one, but Andrew Thomas would definitely be a contender. We still find ourselves listening to his Fearsome Jewel Record, A hushed, understated collection of minimal drift and dreamlike shimmer, the usual washed out ambience infused with record crackle, and muted electronic glitchery, a bit like Gas fused with Philip Jeck. We hadn't heard from Thomas in a while so we were thrilled to discover a new record, and it's just as fantastically sublime as we had hoped. Even more minimal than Fearsome Jewel, Between Building And Trees finds Thomas painting lush cinematic soundscapes, from subtly looped samples, warm whirring synths, there's still some record crackle, artifacts from the samples we presume, but it adds warmth and intimacy, making these sprawling shimmery soundscapes sound hand crafted, as if you could watch him at an old work bench, taking sounds and samples, as if they were scraps of leather or metal, and fashioning this gorgeous, sonic OBJECT. Lovely and whispery and melodic, warm and whirring and blissed out, this immediately became sleeping music of choice for some of us, the absolute perfect nocturnal soundtrack, some of the tracks so minimal the sounds seem to bleed into the background, fading into the starry sky, until the next track kicks in, and suddenly the stars are sounds, glimmering and pulsing, blurring into streaks of soft focus flutter and languorous dreamlike drift. So so so beautiful.

MPEG stream: One Thousand Pin Holes In A Black Paper Sky
MPEG stream: A Dream Of A Spider
MPEG stream: Light On Sea (From Above the World So High)

We first heard Andrew Thomas on the amazing Pop Ambient 2004 compilation released on Kompakt and reviewed a few lists back (a Record of the Week in fact), and while that whole collection was mesmerising and beautiful, Thomas' music definitely stood out. This New Zealander has obviously found a home amidst these German ambient pop explorers, but has managed, along with Wolfgang Voigt (aka Gas), to really move beyond ambient techno into another world, a sonic world of sweet timelessness and endless shimmer. Lush and lugubrious ambient soundscapes of warm and muted underwater loops, breezy and shimmery, with record crackle, radio static, heartbeat like pulses, tinkly piano, reverberant drones, and dreamy, meandering melodies. Totally mesmerising and trance like. One epic 30 minute piece in 10 loosely connected movements. Equal parts AQ faves Gas, Philip Jeck and Pierre Bastien. So recommended!

MPEG stream: Fearsome Jewel 2
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With reissues of Peter Thomas' bombastic scores for 60's German sci-fi movies and tv shows appearing almost once a month, a remix album would certainly not be far behind... and here it is! Stereolab, High Llamas, Coldcut, John McEntire (Tortoise), St. Etienne, Mr. Scruff, Stock Hausen & Walkman, Tipsy, Momus, Dauerfisch, Yoshinori Sunahara, Mina, Brezel Goering, The Sons of Silence, Schneider TM, and Ronnie & Clyde all take their turns at mutating Thomas' scores. But that's just disc one... Disc two documents the sounds of Peter Thomas himself.

As much as we dig the collaborations between Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, we're beginning to think we might like these two Norwegians even more on their own, separately. With his latest solo outing, Prins Thomas has reminded us how masterful he is at creating glacial and spacious dance beats infused with waves of blissed out krautdisco. More so than on his collaborations with Lindstrom, Thomas demonstrates that he has a really nice range of sounds in his arsenal, with subtle hints of prog, psych and krautrock all mixed into a blend of his unique electronica. Lots of this record makes us think of some amazing remixed version of the cosmic kraut classic recording by Riechmann, or how Jonas Reinhardt might sound if they really allowed their more flowing and dance-y side to run wild. You can tell that Prins Thomas has a deep love of groups like Neu, Harmonia and The Phantom Band as much as he does of the space disco stylings of Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley and Cerrone. So many epic and nuanced tracks here, with one of the standouts being "Wendy Not Walter", you have to love the nod to Wendy/Walter Carlos. Further proof that Prins Thomas is not only a student of great electronic music but also one of its best creators these days!

MPEG stream: Wendy Not Walter
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SORRY. Record of the week second runner up! Extremely appealing, subtle, layered drones beautifully held together with "bleeps and clicks." Lovely, hard-to-describe full-length cd expounding the talent of Mr. Thomas who was featured on the last Lo recordings compilation (so you know it must be good). Unanimous store favorite. Sounds just so "right" -- kind of like the first time you heard Oval or Flying Saucer Attack. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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SORRY. While his previous outings marked an interesting return to music (he also was the drummer for the underrated 4AD band Dif Juz in the 80s), his painterly electronica has stumbled a bit, not quite succeeding where Squarepusher has in fusing electronic squiggle to 70's jazz.

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SORRY. An amalgamation of the warped psychedelic out-rock generated by the Wormholes and the outstanding electronica fuckery from Richard Thomas, whose Shoes and Radios Attract Paint was one of the electronica gems for 1997.

What can we say, this is just a really cool record. Please Please Please is electro-lounge at its finest- totally ambient and dreamy with a quirky bit thrown in here and there for good measure. Most of the album is instrumental, building slightly in speed to accommodate the minimal, sharp, airy vocals that come in on the third to last song and to make way for Thomas's most daring feat on the record -- a remix of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." If you are as big a fan of well remixed classics as some of us are, you'll be pleased pleased pleased. Overall, Please Please Please is a total chillout record perfect for summers on the porch. LOVE IT!!

MPEG stream: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (Ada Mix)
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By far the best electronic sounds we've heard come out of San Francisco in a long time, and damn while this is only an e.p it may just be another major contender for electronic record of the year. Ben Thompson creates super saturated prismatic Technicolor colorful beats that swirl and flow and shimmer so infectiously. Like a standout track on a Kompakt Total compilation, this is electronic music that is as much about the dancefloor as it is a fully satisfying sonic experience. Like Gui Boratto or those early Aphex Twin and Plaid records we loved so much, the sounds on Time Traveler incorporate everything we loved about the heyday of IDM into a more current sonic template. There is something so flawless about Thompson's execution that really makes this record stand out, as it has the potential to appeal to both fans of dancemusic and those of us who would rather just put our headphones on and nod along to the music. We can't wait to hear more from Thompson, but for now we are blasting this ep over and over and it sounds so damn good each and every time!

MPEG stream: Time Traveler
MPEG stream: Hands Down
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Phaserprone returns with more of their bunker mentality for obscurant synth-punk noise and rhythms, here authored by Brooklyn's Thought Broadcast (although now living in SF), who had at least one release on the uber-hip Gel label. Phaserprone champions this release as a surefire trajectory out of the "rarified TB discography," which seems to be wholly enigmatic from what we can discern; not surprisingly, this is our first exposure to the project. Thought Broadcast offers up 4 short monosynth and rhythm box trax whose dark-minded minimalism splatter with the power-electronics vibe of the pre-Brighter Death Now project Lille Roger or some of Cabaret Voltaire's more zombified efforts circa 1978 and with a little bit of Dome thrown in for good measure through TB's effects scrambling vocals, blorping synth sequencing, and monotonous mechanoid plod exhumed from a tarpit of tape murk. Cut at 45, so you know we're also loving this at the wrong speed! Elegantly packaged with Phaserprone's heavily embossed letterpress artwork. Limited to just 175 copies!

The schizophonic erasing and minimalist-dub-industrial aktions of Thought Broadcast are strategies directly replicated from very obscure sources from a very specific time frame. One admitted source is the unheard catalogue of Vanity Records flexidiscs from Japan circa 1981. In positing the work as an outright forgery, Thought Broadcast's copies of copies of copies of copies engender a punk-situationist zenith of radically free appropriation as artform. Where Through Broadcast is taking its cues from Vanity; Vanity was obfuscating the work of Maurizio Bianchi (amongst others), who in turn took after Conrad Schnitzler (amongst others), who leapt into sound upon his tutelage from Joseph Beuys. The network of influences and detours and rhizomes through both time and space is never a linear one, always convoluted and morphing; and Thought Broadcast is very clearly aware that the simulacra of signifiers can be an exhausting, unending cycling of ideas. In the replication and variations on stolen, damaged goods, Thought Broadcast re-ignites an obsessive, psychological tension which speaks of VHS video nasties, conspiracy theories of subliminal messages coded in television static, and the liminal horror of sound being used a control mechanism. Yes, these were the ideas that were spawned out of the Industrial Culture Handbook (e.g. Burroughs, TG/PTV, Z'ev, etc.); and Throught Broadcast's distillation of synth-punk ideas and aesthetics through the variation upon the most minimal of means -- a flanging, noisy-as-fuck synth droning above a grittily-phased drum machine -- is undeniably perfect in it's reminiscence for a time when everything else was fucking boring and fucking horrible. Yeah, one of the best electronic records of year. 1981? 2014? It matters not.

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Quite the student of the obscure & forgotten histories of synth punk and industrial culture, Ravi Binning's Thought Broadcast firmly embraces the primitive technology and the vacated zeitgeist from 1979-1983. For Binning, the musical universe may have ceased to exist after SPK's major label dalliance on the unforgivably bad "Metal Dance," but he still carves out plenty of room to operate alongside The Units, Factrix, and Club Moral. As we heard last on the super limited Phaserprone 7" released earlier in 2012, Binning has at his disposal a collection of primitive monosynths and drum machines, possibly of vintage origin, possibly reverse engineered through modern technology, possibly new circuits designed to sound old. No matter what the means of production might be, his sound is decidedly primitive, with the simplest of minor-chord melodies, the most zombified of arpeggiations, and the tinniest of mechanical rhythms filtered from Conrad Schnitzler through TG and MB, all of it swamped with tape hiss and scabrous noise errors. How could Binning not record this on the shittiest of 4-tracks? Highly compressed, garbled vocals bark in distant monotone at erratic intervals, with crude tape-delay manipulation further obfuscating whatever apocalyptic, anti-social, damaged epithets Binning may be uttering. It's brilliant in its bleakness and its re-animatation of that peculiar hollowed-out industrial sound.

MPEG stream: Fortune Teller

Tripped out sci-fi groove-rockers from Austin, Thousand Foot Whale Claw make their vinyl debut, and it's even better than we hoped it would be! We sold through a bunch of their Holodeck tape, Lost In Those Dunes, which was typical of their tape releases, two long sides of heady space rock drift, explosive cosmic psych expansiveness and ambient nuance. But for their vinyl debut, they really take their sound to the next level in the rhythm section, adding more bass and drum groove into tracks that enter an almost psych-rave territory, as if Spacemen 3 and Fuck Buttons gave birth to a baby in the bleak vacuum of space. Like local hypno-rockers, Lumerians, TFWC take advantage of an arsenal of psychedelic styles that propel the momentum, but keep the energy fresh, exciting and interestingly unpredictable. A tremendous debut that comes highly recommended! Fans of Cave, Moon Duo, Carlton Melton, White Manna, and Wooden Shjips take note!

One of five new tapes from the awesome Austin based experimental tape label, Holodeck. Largely documenting the growing and diverse Texas underground scene of synth conjurers, drone lords, psych meditators, and classical folk devotionalists, each tape conceived as a unique listening experience with beautifully designed minimalist packaging. We listed tapes by Lumens, Smokey Emery and Thousand Foot Whale Claw awhile back, and this time around we have another tape from Thousand Foot Whale Claw as well as tapes by Survive, Amasa Gana, M. Geddes Gengra, and Silent Land Time Machine. Since we reviewed the last Thousand Foot Whale Claw tape, Lost In Those Dunes as well as their vinyl debut, Dope Moons Volume One, we've become huge fans of the group's long form exploratory psych excursions. Time Brothers is an artifact of the group's beginnings comprised of two 20+ minute tracks that are extended demo versions of songs from both the previous tape and the vinyl lp plus the shorter unreleased titular track from the Lost in Those Dunes sessions.These primodial demos showcase the more ambient side of this space-rock group. Employing psych waves of oceanic bliss that conjure up images of tranquil beaches on far-off planets, brewing acid guitars, synth washes and circular bass rhythms create elongated textures and build-ups that restrain themselves from full-on freak-outs and remain in an elongated holding pattern of raga-ish devotion. Limited to 100 copies!

The cover for Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats is a marvelous piece of subversive design. The four members of Throbbing Gristle look quite dapper, Genesis dolled up in a tailored white suit jacket, Cosey smiling happily in her pert miniskirt, and Chris & Sleazy both wearing rather conservative sweaters, but they had situated themselves on the cliffs of Beachy Head (a notorious suicide spot on the south coast of England) with a rented Range Rover in the distance and in a variation of this scene, a nude male body lies at their feet in the grass, presumably dead. This design (executed by Sleazy through his day job at Hipgnosis Design) was a sneering act of contempt for British society that failed to see the horrors and injustice which boiled just under the surfaces of congeniality and civility. Both Second Annual Report and D.o.A. were ostensibly compilations of recontextualized material both from the studio and extracts from live recordings, but 20 Jazz Funk Greats - the third proper album from Throbbing Gristle - feels like a conceived album from beginning to end, even with all of its dead-ends and contradictions. The album opens with the title track, where a slow-motion drum machine and synthesized bass tones strut with a mechanical swagger with Cosey's discordant cornet blurts in the distance and predatorily whispered vocal extracts of what could be some smooth jazz DJ trying to set the mood - with that mood being a sickening, menacing threat. Such is also the case, with the lugubrious "Tanith" whose atonal rolling basslines churn against strange electronic blorp and tinkling chimes, which leads into "Convincing People" - whose metronomic synth sequencing became the signature for nearly every 'industrial' band that claimed TG as an influence. The detuned and distorted guitar from Cosey smears the mechanical edges while Genesis wailed through the lyrical repetitiveness which articulated to the effect that if you say it enough, people will start believing you. A hammer might help too. The minimalist club hit "Hot On The Heels Of Love" is one of the most memorable TG songs, and for very good reason as TG offered a much-imitated disco frugality through their insistent drum machine, squiggling sequencing, and Cosey's whispered vocals. Immediately following this is a nightmarish narration of the aftermath of a night of partying too much in "Persuasion", as disembodied female yelps of sexualized horror sporadically punctuate a slithering Genesis donning the role of a low-rent pornographer. "What A Day" is another 'industrial' template with a corrosive loop of cybernetic thumps forming the only backdrop to Genesis barking as loud as he can in a diabolical take on a footballer's chant. The finale "Six Six Sixties" finds Cosey's monochord guitar awfully prescient of Sonic Youth and Bailter Space in the drone intensity through distortion and rhythm, with Genesis reciting a suitably bleak monologue above, rounding out what is arguably the best of the Throbbing Gristle albums. The cd version contains a bonus disc with live material extracted from the numerous live cassettes (and some of these versions apparently appear on the 24cd boxset of live TG material, although we've not cross referenced these facts yet). The two versions of "Discipline" (which were released as a 12" on Fetish Records in 1981) suitably conclude this disc, as that was the track that TG also performed at the end of their sets, with the heavy drum machines whipping the crowd into a frenzy and Genesis barking hysterically for some order. Such were the wonderful contradictions of Throbbing Gristle. About as a high a recommendation as we can give.

MPEG stream: 20 Jazz Funk Greats
MPEG stream: Persuasion
MPEG stream: What A Day!
MPEG stream: Discipline (Berlin)

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I guess it was only a matter of time before something like this happened: a Throbbing Gristle remix album. Of course, the focal point of this remix album is "Hot On The Heels Of Love" which out of context of the whole TG oeuvre falls very close to the spartan contingent of contemporary techno and house. Carl Craig, Ratcliffe, and Carter Tutti (i.e. half of the original TG) take their turns jacking up the beats to dancefloor fodder. Hedonastik, Two Lone Swordsmen, and Motor also take their turns applying club-friendly trax to Genesis P-Orridge's inimitable voice.

MPEG stream: Hot On the Heels of Love
MPEG stream: Hamburger Lady

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Really well done kitchen table electronica from local guy. What's with the odd name, though? Manages to combine exciting, fast paced breakbeats with a lush layer of slowly drawn-out melody. If you like the soundclip below, you'll enjoy the whole album.

RealAudio clip: Save your Changes

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SORRY. This self-produced cd-r features smooth mix of rare groove and deep house from this stalwart San Francisco DJ.

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SORRY. This self-produced cd-r features smooth mix of latin grooves, deep house, and funky drum & bass from this stalwart San Francisco DJ.

This is all about dirty, sassy, and sweaty fun! This duo from Toronto excels in banging club jammers that exist in the same charged booty shakin' atmosphere as folks like Peaches, CSS, L' Trim, Bonde De Role, Yo Majesty, etc. But there is something about front-woman Isis's commanding presence and sizzling charisma that really makes this one stick out amongst the electro club pack. It's exactly the kind of record you would want blasting from a dance club's stereo, and it would sound just as good coming on after Justice as it would Missy Elliott. With summer around the corner we are searching for our summer party jams to fill the void that records from folks like Yelle provided last year, and after several listens we're pretty convinced that Thunderheist is going to be our soundtrack to shakin' it, for quite a while!

MPEG stream: Sweet 16
MPEG stream: Little Booty Girl (LBG)
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Rachael Kozak (aka Hecate) presents her own version of the Digital Hardcore girl-groups, in particular the super stupid Cobra Killer project from Gina of EC8OR and Annika from Shizuo. For the Thunderinas, Kozak assumes the sexually explicit, grease covered pseudonym Bloody Knuckles alongside her equally antagonist partners Carolina Fastburner and Audrey Anaconda for a sloppy album of hot-rod samples, groovy DHR breaks, and bombastic jump-up, scream 'n' shout, punk-as-fuck vocals, though this is not nearly as noisy as their DHR sisters.

RealAudio clip: Full Speed

In the world of quietly melodic experimental electronica, I seem to be the designated AQ reviewer / expert, and that's fine, because I like this world, which is peopled by such relatively popular acts as Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars, To Rococo Rot,

RealAudio clip: United World Elevator (excerpt 1)
RealAudio clip: United World Elevator (excerpt 2)
RealAudio clip: Tusovska Dub Version

For the last eight years this German group, featuring members of The Notwist and Village of Savoonga, have been putting out solid records of dub/jazz/electronica-post rock which has made them come to be regarded as sort of the German little brothers of Tortoise. This release features a new 19 minute track plus a dvd filled with videos and live performances. The new song is one of their blissed out high in the sky traveling through clouds and sun while exploring the outer limits of free-jazz minus the skronk for a very pretty and well played addition to their catalog.

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German jazzlovin' post-rockers (some of whom are also in Village of Savoonga, so you know this is good) Tied & Tickled Trio relinquish compositional control to a few of their friends on this eight-song remix album and the results are surprisingly great. Much like the Aerial M remix album of a couple years back (which Tied & Ticked Trio was a part of), this album fits very snugly in the rest of the band's normal catalog. All of the rich electronics are still intact and the rhythms are never harder than the originals. The biggest difference might be the attention to craft. Where T&TT tends to polish everything to a perfect sphere, these remixes offer some slightly more reckless takes on their formula of fusion electro-jazz. Snippets of bandmates talking in their native German tongue and scraps of out-takes are seamlessly blended into many of these tracks. For anyone who has not given this amazing band a chance, now is the time. And this is just as good a place to start as any.

RealAudio clip: Nummer 2

Die Stadt marches on with the second in the series of CD reissues documenting the unique career of German electronic musician Asmus Tietchens. "Biotop" was originally released in 1981 on Sky Music, marking the second album in Tietchens' self-professed 'pop intermezzo,' before unleashing a torrent of emphatically abstract electronic recordings. Tietchens' definition of pop music was always a bit suspect, as his Moog synthesizer melodies while playful and cheeky are often stiff and lacking in basslines. That said, "Biotop" is a charmingly naive record that is far more suited to the ironic listening experiences within Jean-Jacques Perrey, Dick Hyman, and even some of Atom Heart's clever recapitulations of dorky electronics. Comes with two bonus tracks of likeminded material not found on the original vinyl version.

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We were WAY skeptical of the claim that Tiger Throat sounded like "an Instrumental Bone Awl thrown into a blender with Mono and HEALTH", but it kind of really does, and even though such a description would piss off the misanthropic Bone Awl, we're pretty into it. This are only three songs (even though there are 10 actual tracks, the rest are weird noisy interludes), but those 3 songs cram in a crazy amount of wild spastic drumming, frenetic buzzing riffage, and all manner of blown out glitch and skitter. The record opens with a soaring almost Cave-like fuzzy hypno krautrock workout, pounding and epic and melodic but still pretty raw and frenzied, until part way through the track crumbles, the song lurching through a field of downtuned guitar groan, grinding effects, backwards drumming, only to explode in an almost D-beat blast, while somehow remaining poppy as fuck, like a more fractured and melodic Ancestors? Whatever you compare these guys to, it works, the track winds down into something more slowcore and post rock, all loping drums and sprawling downtuned buzz. All kinds of sounds worm into the mix. And even though it thrashes pretty hard, it's also catchy and sort of fun. Plenty of weird electronic parts (the HEALTH influence) mixed with the aforementioned thrashy, punkish energy. Pretty unique in parts, pretty psychedelic and very melodic. The second track is way more dirgey and doomy, but in a sort of spaced out post rock way, the guitar shimmering and ringing out, not really distorted, the drums WAY in the red, very practice space sounding, until the track shifts gears and the guitars explode, and vocals come in, super processed and warped, the whole track music and vocals seems to undulate and twist, like a sonic funhouse mirror, but it's also probably the blackest moment on the record, it goes on for a few minutes, but we were sort of wishing it would KEEP going. So rad. The final track opens with a mathy manic start stop, you can hear a band member breathlessly counting it off in the background, the result is a lurching squelchy skronky no wave-ish electronic noise rock jam, that gets more and more dense and harsh as the track progresses, finally spilling into a rad hypnotic dirge, the guitars are all overblown while the drumming is teetering on the edge of distorting, the track winding up with a cool staccato grinding metallic outro. Probably not metal enough for most metal heads, even with the Bone Awl / Ancestors references, it's obvious from the artwork and band name that the black metal influence, while definitely there, is more sort of abstract and just another part of the noise, that said, adventurous metalheads line up here, and for the rest of you, who dig noisy, hooky, electronic, metallic, psych rock weirdness, this is WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: An Arch Between Two Crossings
MPEG stream: This Brave Waning Light

Jeff asked a very reasonable question about this record, "Is this Vladislav Delay or Thomas Brinkmann? No, no, this isn't clinical enough to be Brinkmann, it's gotta be Delay." While each sound (the dubbed out glitch, the monochromatic techno pulse, the big simple bass lines) is a direct copy of the Vladislav Delay sound, this is the work of one Andreas Tilliander.

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SORRY. Surely this one will be ending up on the IDM lists in the form of ecstatic hyperbole (probably more so than us!) perhaps more due to the relative obscurity than to the content. Fortunately for us (and therefore for you), we don't have to worry about the obscurity issue as we can get a steady supply of these singles from Orthlorng's label boss - Kit Clayton. While Clayton has had acclaim with his Cytrax label, Orthlorng is a more leftfield venture than the straight techno of Cytrax. Timeblind (aka Chris Sattinger) successfully follows the genre-jumping aesthetic of the likes of Gescom or Lexaunculpt. One track is reminscent of the devistaing low-end hip hop of Techno Animal, the electro fracture of Black Dog, and some quality dubby downtempo electronica. An excellent start to what looks like an excellent label!!!

"Most Eye" is a collection of remixes of one of the more populist cuts "Rastabomba" from the willfully eclectic Timeblind release "Rugged Redemption." Here, Timeblind has enlisted Kid 606, Kit Clayton, and DJ/Rupture to remix alongside the original and three of his own remixes. The original opens this album as a darkened piece of hip-hop futurism, with a relaxed rudeboy toasting in a thick patois that has more in common with the detacted smooth delivery of French rappers like MC Solaar. Accentuated with Chain Reactive dub elements, those thick rhythms recall the brief but noteworthy collaboration between Porter Ricks and Techno Animal. Of all of the remixes, Kid 606 offers the most predictable production as he's mixed out the low-slung rhythmic groove in favor of the dum-dum Rotterdam 909 techno stomps and big Amen breaks. To his credit, the Kid does concede to the original mid-range tempo instead of maniacally reving up the adrenaline as he is oft to do. Kit Clayton turns the original into a thouroughly distressed dancehall hip-hop mix, DSP-dub mangling the original with the Timbaland rhythms behind Missy Elliott's "One Minute Man." DJ/Rupture leaves very little of the original behind a mess of throbbing distortion and kaleidoscopic breakbeats.

RealAudio clip: Rastabomba (original)

Timeblind's "Rugged Redemption" is one of those recombinant albums that has received a handful of praise for rendering a multitude of styles within a singular but multi-faceted vision. Blunted French hip-hop, Chain Reactive techno grit, mirages of DSP

RealAudio clip: The Rastabomba
RealAudio clip: Indestructible

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SORRY. Blankets of thick analog buzzes and hums weave around more delicate ambient tones, textures and vocals. With its repetitive keyboard melodies, at times this brought to mind a tiny, entranced, mad organist in a very large ancient cathedral. Very textural, melancholic and relaxing. A great follow-up to the Mort Aux Vaches cd on Staalplaat. For fans of Spacemen 3!

First we've heard from Tin Man, aka producer Johannes Auvinen, who specializes in a gorgeously melancholy, minor key house music, downcast and skeletal, total morning-after, minimal, come down electronica. You can almost imagine this stuff playing at full volume, through huge speakers in a massive, totally empty warehouse, the floor covered with trampled rave flyers, empty cups, and discarded clothing, a sort of dance music 'world without us', Ode playing like the soundtrack to a series of images of empty clubs, of decrepit spaces, night clubs laid bare in the cruel light of day, the beats, dubby, and murky, the surrounding sounds bleary and hungover, super tranced out and mesmeric, most definitely dance music made NOT to dance to, but instead the soundtrack to an endless night, the listener hunkering down in a dimly lit corner both, waiting for a morning that may never come. A handful of the tracks here are 'vocal' tracks, which we were quite wary of at first, especially considering that with house music, that generally means some sort of cringeworthy diva vocals, but not here. On Ode, Tin Man delivers his own dour vocalizations, a softly effected croon, deep and dramatic, sung/spoken, way down in the mix, laid back and a little bit wasted sounding, perfectly complimenting the wasted nocturnal house grooves beneath. Maybe our new favorite NON dance music, dance music record...

MPEG stream: No New Violence (Vocal)
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MPEG stream: What A Shame (Vocal)

Very reasonably priced 12" from smart label whose renown is only going to get better, mark my words. Crowd-pleasing Tipsy is instrumental lounge exotica -successfully- updated (read: don't even -think- Combustible Edison) for the 90's. For fans of Sukia and Esquivel. With contributions from Joe Gore and Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle, tho this sounds NOTHING like Bungle).

This new Tipsy cd is so appropriately titled! The lively festivities feature some fabulous reworkings of their playful trip hop tracks by a bunch of AQ faves from around the globe: Matmos (SF), People Like Us (Kent), Bran Flakes (Seattle), and Optiganally Yours (San Diego), as well as World Standard (Tokyo), High Llamas (London), Curd Duca (Vienna) and nine others. With nutty collage cover art (guinea pigs! green slime! shag carpet!) that'd be just as suited on a cd by Stock, Hausen & Walkman or the aforementioned People Like Us. Very bubbly and fun, for people who don't take electronica without a dose of bubblegum.

RealAudio clip: Sweet Cinnamon Punch
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What with Ken Nordine, Paul D Miller, and this newest band, local label Asphodel just keeps on putting out winners; the label doesn't limit itself to any genre, locale, or era = bravo. Tipsy is like lounge exotica successfully updated for the 90s, not as weird as Sukia but coming from a similar planet. 'Trip hop' fans will like this as will Esquivel lovers. With contributions from guitarist Joe Gore and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn.

It would be easy to dismiss this record as more nostalgic "space age bachelor pad" music tailor-made for today's Cosmopolitan-imbibing yuppies, but Tipsy deserve more than that. Sure, they're obviously huge fans of such acknowledged geniuses as early synth experimentalists / producers Raymond Scott, Joe Meek, and Perrey & Kingsley, as well as exotica pros Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, and Les Baxter. All of those folks made their mark in the sixties or prior, but the smartasses in Tipsy know that while imitation is the sincerest flattery, it don't get you much street cred. So their weirdly successful millennial take on that music is to mix it up, layering genre upon genre, psychedelic synthesizer alongside birdcalls, squeaky toys, vintage organs, and inspired percussion. They do it pretty damn well. The sound is sometimes a little too exotica-"on-acid", and one occasionally feels the need to be more aurally challenged, as if they're some Holiday Inn bar band wasting their lives playing the tongue-in-cheek theme to I Dream of Jeannie when they're obviously capable of much more. (With esteemed Willie Winant, Joe Gore, and Ralph Carney guesting -- all of whom have turned in more challenging music than this -- you KNOW Tipsy is capable of more.) Nonetheless, you'd probably be better off listening to this than most of the other dreck that passes for "lounge music" these days. Fans of Cornelius and most of the artists mentioned above will likely appreciate this record.

RealAudio clip: Sweet Cinnamon Punch

Electronic minimalists with connections to similarly-lauded Kreidler.

German outfit, To Rococo Rot, bring us silky smooth electronica with their latest release, Hotel Morgen. Beautifully produced, lulling though chillingly distant, this album doesn't ask or answer any questions. It's just a pleasant and driftworthy sonic experience.

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To Rococo Rot composed this album to cohabitate with the architectural forms found within the "Kolner Brett" building designed by the Cologne architectural firm b&k+. As the building held the grander notions of blending living and working in each of its single

RealAudio clip: Kolner Brett 1