[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

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Showing results 4251 through 4300 of 5033.

Third in the series of international blip-bleep compilations from this French label. This edition features 14 tracks of previously unreleased music from six electronic musicians: AQ-fave Neotropic from England, Austrialian "lowercase" artist Pimmon, Bovine Life (UK), Novel 23 (Russia), Zonk't (France), and Atau Tanaka (Japan).

Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better! If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps. Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger... Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.

MPEG stream: 20h25
MPEG stream: Pretty Day
MPEG stream: Game And Performance

Also now available on vinyl!! Yay! Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better! If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps. Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger... Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.

MPEG stream: 20h25
MPEG stream: Pretty Day
MPEG stream: Game And Performance

From the same label that brought us that amazing Shitmat grunge cover split (the one that came packaged in actual flannel shirts!) comes this new vinyl only comp of totally fucked up and genius junglized drill and bass ravecore, featuring the best Shitmat track in ages! A sort of cover of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" but all sped up and doused in drum damage with manic synth stabs and chopped up jungle beats and that Oasis track is all cut up so the line about "getting high" is repeated over and over, all tangled up with Shitmat's completely insane spastic beat freakout. So good. And the rest ain't so shabby either. Mochipet offers up a murky and manic jam, plenty of glitch, pounding beat, all sorts of garbled sounds, chopped up samples, eventually transforming into a crazed jungle blowout. The Foxdye take a Pointer Sisters track, speed it up, twist it all around, add some seriously frenzied drill and bass, and turn it into the dance party JAM OF THE YEAR for sure! The flipside is pretty great too, Blaerg revs up some FM radio chestnut dousing it in THICK jungle bass and wild spastic drum skitter. The H8RS go all old school rave but add plenty of jungle, the whole thing getting all stuttery and skittery. Graz offers up some classic nineties style jungle rave, and finally Selector Catalogue takes some old school B-Boy jam, revs it up, flips the speed to 78, adds a heap of distortion, and tangles the whole thing into a gnarled squall of hiccupping stop start, ultra dense skipping and stuttering droned out fractured drum damaged ravecore. Fuck yeah. Gorgeous packaging too. Eye popping full color cartoon cover, each one hand customized, and each one hand numbered (LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!), pressed on thick green and yellow swirled vinyl.

Second installment in what's now apparently a series. Two years ago (to the day, oddly enough) we wrote about the Dub Tribunl CD on Inflatabl. That disc featured Atom Heart, The Rip Off Artist and Small Rocks (Matt Wand of Stock, Hausen & Walkman) and consisted of fairly off kilter, if not outright irreverent homages to Jamaican dub. This time round The Rip Off Artist is joined by Akufen and Freeform and the genre being dismantled is the Blues. 78 rpm discs meet the modern age head on. You ever chuck a 78 at a laptop? They shatter into pieces. Those silly shellac discs are no match for the durable plastic material they make laptops out of these days. Stupid 78's! Blues sources are mixed, looped, stretched and plundered. It's sure to make the biggest analog and roots music purists cringe, but it's equally likely to put a smile on everyone else's face. A definite must for fans of Atom Heart and Stock, Hausen & Walkman.

MPEG stream: What Kind of Blue
MPEG stream: The World Wanna Know

Slowdive's "Pygmalion" was the album that broke the band up and got them dumped from Creation just weeks after its release back in 1995; yet, that album has become one of the templates for the current strain of electronic melancholia. That album was ostensibly a solo album for Neil Halstead, who indulged in a majestic piece of electro-acoustic minimalism disguised as mope rock. "Pygamalion" displayed very little of the sublime tapestries of shoegazing guitars, and often blurred the fragile song structures into beautiful mirages and haunted echoes. For the business minded Creation, it was a commercial disaster and never got any serious consideration for licensing or even distribution for that matter. Which is a real shame, as it was a fantastic album. While they didn't reissue that album, Morr Records did produce this tribute album to the Slowdive and their contribution to electronic music. Disc one of "Blue Skied An' Clear" (the name of a song off of the aformentioned "Pygmalion" album) is a collection of Slowdive covers by Morr musicians and likeminded artists. This collection as a whole - like everything on Morr - is pleasant, moody, rainy-day electronica with wistful guitars and vocals prominent in the mix. Disc two features tracks 'inspired' by Slowdive. Artists include Future 3, Isan, Lali Puna, Ulrich Schnauss, B.Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda, Limp, Solvent, Styrofoam, Skanfrom, Komeit, Manual, Herrmann & Kleine, Mum, Guitar, Populous, Icebreaker/Manual.

RealAudio clip: Crazy For You
RealAudio clip: Blue Skied An' Clear
RealAudio clip: Waves

Another label recognizes the brilliance of the wildly prolific Indian film industry's musical scores, puts its money where its mouth is, and releases a compilation. Good on you, Outcaste. This comp is heavily influenced by soul, funk, jazz, and latin music -- and since the record was made specifically for djs, it's purposefully heavy on the groove and not so much into quick changes and challenging juxtapositions, like the more pop-oriented Bollywood Funk records (which we highly recommend). That's not to say the non-DJ can't get into this -- it'd be excellent for your next party. Fans of Bombay the Hard Way will like this.

RealAudio clip: Cosmic Flute
RealAudio clip: Tonight My Love

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

SORRY. Wild Indian Soundtrack music from the 1960's, made by the Shah brothers Anandji and Kalyanji, that has gotten the 90's production by The Automator, who enlisted DJ Shadow to add a couple of beats here and there throughout the record. It's pretty good, though somewhat same-y after the first half hour. And I have to say that both myself and the Automator are so damn tired of lazy, ignorant food-based one-liners used to describe music made by Asians and Asian Americans. Naming a song on this cd "The Good, The Bad, and The Chutney" just shows that the only familiarity too many Westerners have with Asians and Asian Americans is through food. How pathetic.

When we first heard about this Box Of Dub comp on Soul Jazz, we were super so psyched. Regular readers of the AQ list by now have heard us grouse about the paucity of grime and dubstep releases in the US. And a quick look at the lineup here, had us convinced this would be a killer collection of modern dubstep. Which it is. Sort of. In fact, more than 'dubstep' as we've come to know it, Box Of Dub is exactly what it purports to be. A box of dub. Modern dub, maybe. Future dub, also maybe, but not always dubstep per se. In fact, most of the tracks on Box Of Dub remind us more of stuff like On U Sound and The Bush Chemists and Adrian Sherwood and African Head Charge and the whole legion of modern electronic dub. Which is not a bad thing. Not at all, just wasn't what we were expecting. That said, there are lots of distinctly dubstep moments, sudden bursts of blown out bass lines, super fuzzy distorted synths and the like. "Dread Cowboy", credited to Tayo Meets Acid Rockers Uptown, would be a straight ahead dub jam, complete with melodica melodies, but draped over the whole track is that trademark dubstep oscillating superdistorted bass line. And "Respirator" by Scuba, is a thick, lurching bass heavy dubstepper for sure. Kode9 contributes "Magnetic City", a dark shuffling dubstep jam, but it too is heavy on the melodica and classic dub guitar lines. But most of the rest of the record, is more killer modern electronic dub than dubstep, blissed out beats, plenty of reverb, that reggae rhythm, lots of melodica, reggae crooning, but with bits of dubstep mixed in here and there. The beats are slightly darker and distorted, the synths and basslines are thicker and more raw, pulsing and throbbing. In some ways, if you didn't know what dubstep was, this might be the ultimate dub compilation, all the best parts of dub, stripped down, skeletal, but with the bass pumped and all sorts of extra synthy buzz and rhythmic skitter. It may all just be semantics. Whatever you call it, we can't stop listening to it. And it sounds sooooooo good turned way up with the bass on ten, makes the whole shop rattle. Fans of recent AQ faves like Burial, Kode9 (both on here!), Milanese, the Skull Disco comp, the Science Faction: Dubstep comp, will absolutely need this too...

MPEG stream: Dread Cowboy
MPEG stream: Irie
MPEG stream: Respirator

Much like volume one, which we raved about a while back, this latest installment of Soul Jazz's Box Of Dub collection of dubstep and 'future dub' is as much a straight dub record as it is a dubstep record. Maybe even more so. Hence the 'future dub' descriptor in the title. Could well have called it modern dub or something similar. The dub element, while sometimes totally twisted into new shapes, is more often left relatively pure, a slab of classic old school dub, just slightly modernized, maybe with a bit of extra bass, or some haunting effects, but not much else. The power, as always, is in the BASS. And just like the first volume, this is an absolute killer. All the tracks here, whether they be shuffling classic dub or super creepy skeletal dubstep, are dark and slithery, with huge thick basslines, skittery dubbed out percussion, vocal fragments, warbly loops, hypnotic rhythms, all hovering somewhere between late night bliss out, and bumping slow motion dance floor destruction. The tracks are all distinctly dub, but in all sorts of shapes and forms, from Ramadanman's swirling dizzy shuffle, with strange little sonic flares and vocal snippets over a looped bassline and some modern electro shimmer, to the straight up soulful dub of Pinch's "Step 2 It" featuring the smooth soul croon of Rudey Lee, but like most of the tracks here, peppered with fucked up FX, thick undulating basslines, and all sorts of random sonic weirdness. The Cult Of The 13th Hour track sounds like a Kode9 outtake, super minimal, lots of record crackle over a looped Eastern Melody and an ominous spoken word vocal line, growling and muttering over a revved up Portishead rhythm track. Cotti's "Tamil Dub" sounds like a dubstep Muslimgauze, with buzzing sitars, and a killer throbbing bassline stutter, creepy animal calls, and slowed down vocal samples. Digital Mystikz contribute two tracks, the first some classic sounding dub, channeling the modern British sound of On-U Sound and the Dub Chemists, the second a more dubstep number, but with clanky kitchen sink percussion and horns, sounding like a slowed down Specials. Pinch offer up more dark and dangerous dubstep with their second track "Chamber", a super spare slab of low end sprawl, the drums a hiccupping stutter, the bass surfacing in big roiling waves, everything murky and mysterious, and ultra minimal. The disc closes out with Skream's "Sublemonal", another nod to the old school, with a super reverbed horn refrain over an ultra stripped down barebones dub workout, the snare reverbed into the ether, the bass smooth and shimmery. The more we listen to this, the less distinctly 'dubstep' it sounds, and the more it just sounds like some freaky outer space dub record, which is in no way a bad thing, just a bit surprising. Because of the dearth of decent dubstep and grime in the US, we're always hankering for more, so whenever a 'dubstep' record pops up, we're pretty excited and order it right away, but lest we forget, long before this new fangled dubstep, we loved us our dub, BIG TIME. So when someone takes a dub record and adds all sorts of buzzing bass, gets it all space-y and tripped out, low slung and speaker melting, haunting and ominous, pulsing and throbbing, we're pretty much sold.

MPEG stream: Every Next Day
MPEG stream: Wickedness
MPEG stream: Tamil Dub

Brainwashed.com is an indispensible website dedicated to all sorts of musical arcana, publishing an insightful number of reviews and hosting the official domains for such diverse artists as Nurse With Wound, V/VM, Matmos, Mirror, Labradford, Trans Am, Hey, we're not claiming these to be right! Have fun with it yourself, we sure did! Where this compilation succeeds in its musical content, it royally fails in packaging: three loose cds in a metal tin which requires the booklets to be bent in order to fit, accompanied by a cheap keychain, a cloth patch, and a q-tip (???). All of this is wrapped with an unkempt piece of wire. Arrggg.

This bargain sampler celebrates ten years and over 100 releases on Richard D. James' REPHLEX label. 16 tracks clocking in at 76 minutes by µ-Ziq, Cylob, DMX Crew, The Gentle People, Bochum Welt, Chaos A.D. (Squarepusher), Global Goon, D'arcangelo, The Railway River, Baby Ford (Remix by AFX), Vulva, Vibert Simmonds (yes, Luke Vibert), Bogdan Raczynski, Mike Dred with Peter Green,

This is a rather good collection of 22 tracks taken from the consistently great Fat Cat catalog, plus five previously unreleased ones (including one by SIGUR ROS). Fat Cat has released a lot of navelgazing music, especially at their start, but have since branched out and in doing so are forming their own wideranging aesthetic particular to their own logic (as all good labels should do). It's almost all uniformly slow to midtempo, ranging from bedroom electronic melancholia like that of Transient Waves and Mice Parade; to the abstract deconstructions of Fennesz; to the outer edges of postrock and/or postfolk typified by David Grubbs and Set Fire to Flames; to exuberant post punk of Programme, Giddy Motors, and Party of One; to the noisier experimentalism of Black Dice and Xinlisupreme. But none of the Fat Cat stuff ever gets too 'out there', if you know what I mean, so in that nice way it's a great safe label to trust, especially if you're wanting a listen on the more accessible side of nonetheless experimental genres. With all of the abovementioned artists, plus Kid606, Matmos, Bjork mit Funkstorung, the Dylan Group, Mum, Grain, Sylvain Chaveau and more.

MPEG stream: Transom
MPEG stream: Avila
MPEG stream: Eg Mun Laeknast!
MPEG stream: Murder License

Published as the catalogue for an exhibition at the respected Max Protectch gallery in NYC, this is an enhanced CD that features a well crafted slide show of Brian Alfred's slick illustrative paintings that offer irony clad observations of corporate culture in paint-by-numbers graphic displays, and a soundtrack (playable on all CD players) collected from a number of electro-glitch artists including Nabukazu Takemura, E*Vax, Pulseprogramming, E*Rock, Ultra Living, Opiate, Lulltone, Loscil, Static, Jeremy Boyle, and Pan American. To the best of our knowledge, all of the music is previously unreleased.

RealAudio clip: Untitled
RealAudio clip: A Song For Brian Alfred

Pretty cool comp of lesser known beat mashers gathered on this here compilation to protest police violence. Lot of lo-fi, blurred and bombastic beats, from digital hardcore skull snap to more sort of lower impact hip hop flecked beatscapes. You'll probably recognize Nettle and maybe Zipperspy, and there's a DJ/Rupture remix, but other than that, this comp is chock full of possible new discoveries. Check it out. MPEG Download: NETTLE "End Of Public Space" [/audio/nettleendofpublic.mp3]

MPEG stream: End Of Public Space

Arbouse is a new label out of France offering the obligatory compilation as an introduction to what they're all about. "14 titres inédits, entre post rock, ambient et electronica," is all they have to say about it; but it does include tracks by Twisted Science (mutilated drum & bass), Sink (a really nice Autechre / Third Eye Foundation piece of electronica), Rothko (a very nice piano and

RealAudio clip: Zurich Trains
RealAudio clip: Iltra

While featuring established Brazillian artists like Amon Tobin, Arto Lindsay, and Soul Slinger, this compilation should be seen as an introduction to the Brazillian musicians producing potent amalgamations dubbed "batucada eletronica." Joao Parahyba, DJ Dolores, Apollo 9, and Chelpa Ferro are a few of the Brazillian exports fusing the timeless beauty of Bossa Nova and the daring psychedelia of Tropicalia with the contemporary groove of breakbeat culture. As electronica compilations have always been a dime a dozen, Caipirinha (which has been guilty of a few useless compilations) should be credited as releasing this exceptional document.

Ok, so originally we were going to review the bizarre "Necro-Demonic dungeon crawl" fantasy boardgame that this cassette is the audio companion to, along with listing the tape, but we already sold out of the few copies of the game we had (yep, we know some nerds!). Maybe we'll get more, we'd like to, definitely let us know if YOU are interested. We haven't had a chance to actually play the game yet ourselves, but boy does it look cool, with creepy black & white & gray art by Fort Thunder comic book artist Mat Brinkman. In the game, each player takes on the role of an evil Necromancer, digging tunnels in an subterranean crypt and creating grotesque monsters out of ooze to fight against his rivals and their hordes, vying to become the sole master of the Darkest Pit. Pretty darn black metal, eh? In addition to looking cool, apparently it's actually an excellent game, receiving a pretty high user score on the BoardGameGeek website (7.9 out of 10) and we're read lots of good reviews. Can't wait to play it when we find time and learn the rules. If/when we get more copies in, they sell for $84. Like we said, let us know if you'd like us to get you one! Check out the YouTube trailer for the game at www.caveevil.com - which doesn't actually show the game or anyone playing it, instead it's a short movie purporting to show what the horrific, troglodytic existence of these Necromancers is all about. Love the low-budget special effects. Soooo, anyway, the folks who made the game also have a tape label, and this is the official Cave Evil tie-in release, with some of the same sounds heard on the soundtrack to the trailer. This 90 minute mix features tracks by 15 different underground artists: Night of Ultraviolence, Wizard333, Swordsect, Abandoned Places, Manifester, Cex, MarderIII, Muroc, Hatred, Crypt Enforcer, Whispers of Dead Gods, Tres Quatro, Mammal, OoznDmrr, and Khand, plus sound FX by filmmaker Damon Packard, who did the trailer. It's an ultimate sinister cinematic synth experience, variously featuring blackened drones, eerie dark ambience, primal percussion, majestic synth-horns, and other dungeon-worthy, DIY sonics. Cool, creepy stuff that is certainly whetting our appetites for a session of Cave Evil. Limited to 300 copies on pro-dubbed chrome plus cassette. If this does well, we'll stock some more Rotten Shape cassettes, all of which the label has assigned a "GVR", or Game Voice Rating, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being hardest) noting how difficult it is to speak over the music in a gaming setting. The Cave Evil Radio Mix has a GVR of 2.

MPEG stream: Cave Evil Radio Mix side 1 excerpt

Celluloid was always one of those prolific kitchen sink labels that you were never sure you could trust. Operating between the late seventies and late eighties, their releases were often hit and miss, mainly because they never consistently focused on any particular genre, gravitating bravely instead towards dynamically urban niche markets (no-wave, punk, hip-hop, future dub and eighties afro-beat) when most of the music industry at the time basked in a mainstream top-40 wasteland of monocultural white MTV blandness. Where else would you find a label with such diverse acts as Fab 5 Freddy, Snakefinger and Ginger Baker? Thankfully, the fine folks at Strut separate the wheat from the chaff and give us a killer introductory comp of the label's best and most obscure moments, serving as a historical record of this unique musical time. Founded by Jean Georgakarakos, a French record shop owner who co-founded the BYG record label and managed at one time the bands Magma and Gong, Celluloid was born from a move to New York and recognizing a need to release socially resistant music that was growing in popularity at underground clubs and parties, but couldn't be heard on the radio or bought at record stores. Noticing trends in New York that were also happening in Europe, Celluloid released new wave music from French acts Mathematiques Moderne and Nini Raviolette as well as Americans, James Chance and Suicide, but eventually moved to hip hop and dub with Afrikka Bambata and Bill Laswell's Material. Laswell often produced most of the later releases especially as the label expanded into dub and African musical territory. The label folded as the mainstream finally caught up with them. MTV finally got on the hip hop train, and more DIY labels were sprouting after the rise of college rock, leading the way towards grunge and alternative rock. Though they weren't always consistent, Celluloid was pretty influential in opening up new genres of music to a much wider audience. Here are all of the artists represented: Shockabilly, Massacre, Ferdinand, Mathematiques Moderne, Thomas Leer & Robert Rental, Snakefinger, Winston Edwards & Blackbeard, Lightin' Rod (with a posthumous appearance by Jimi Hendrix!), Future 2000 feat. The Clash, Timezone, Deadline, Bobongo Stars, Toure Kunda, Nini Raviolette, Modern Guy, Sapho, Ginger Baker, Last Exit, Mandingo Feat. Foday Musa Suso & Herbie Hancock, Manu Dibango, Material, D. St., B Side with Bernard Fowler, Fab 5 Freddy and The Last Poets. Wow!

MPEG stream: Suis Je Normale
MPEG stream: Disco Rough
MPEG stream: Escapades Of Futura 2000
MPEG stream: Change The Beat

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

SORRY. Present and future 555 artists remix one another, featuring tracks by Hood, Third Eye Foundation, The Remote Viewer, Empress, Kid 606, Tin Foil Star and much more.

Electronic soundscapes from a host of Japanese experimenters, including noise-names Aube and MSBR, although much of the sound tends towards the ambient and interesting, rather than the harsh. The theme is sounds from the earth, whether that be stones, seismic activity, contact-mic'd streams, or Akira Yamamichi's "sand dust limestone cave dead mine crystal frequency magnetic field". Excellent comp! (This is the first in a series, with European and American artists to appear in future installents.)

Is there something in the air lately beside sneeze-inducing pollen? Suddenly children's albums are popping up from all over the map, including this one which was compiled by Ekkehard Ehlers. However with the exception of the burbly sounds on the first track by Fan Club Orchestra and oddly enough Devendra Banhart's contribution, the very sing-song-y, handclap-y "Make It Easier", there's really not much that seems truly engaging for children. C'mon folks, using elfin effected vocals and sounds resembling those of a musicbox or from a toybox isn't really enough to categorize something in this genre! And actually we think kids might lose interest and get bored pretty quickly with it. Soooo, maybe we should just approach this compilation as a neat assortment of 25 gentle, relaxing tracks by an impressive bunch of international artists including Nobukazu Takemura, Asa-Chang & Junray, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Anna Laplantine, Dr. Rockit, World Standard, F.S. Blumm, and Oren Ambarchi. Hmmm, much more appealing for the full grown kids, don't you think? Maybe it should've been titled Parentish Music.

MPEG stream: Mika Bubble Sing
MPEG stream: Kobana

Hey all you grown-up kiddies, the nice folks at Daft Alliance don't want you to feel left out! Joining the other fine child-oriented releases that have come through our door recently is this Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 compilation. And despite the title, we can report that there's plenty on it for most age groups and attention spans. From the get-go, it's a lively listen. The most obvious appeal is not that these songs were 'made for children', but that many of them were playfully created with the sounds from a child's world (toys, tv shows, etc). It ends up becoming a name-that-toy puzzle of sorts! That said, it is definitely more than a one-time-listen novelty. Most tracks are thoroughly engaging and amusing, but the fifth and seventh songs are particular stand-outs. They're Bad Dudes' "Dawn of the Dudes" and hey willpower's "Janet and Aggie" respectively, seeming very inspired by the nuttier spastic moments of Mr. Bungle. The Bay Area-centric compilation also features tracks from Concentrick (Tim Green of the Fucking Champs), Open City, Sarge, M. Kourie, Comainu, Bookmobile, Final Cut To, Hell Hound (on my trail), Circadia and three from Tomo! If you like what you hear, keep in mind that this is just the beginning -- the first of a three volume series.

MPEG stream: Dawn Of The Dudes
MPEG stream: Janet And Aggie

Wolf-positive "remix" compilation of The KLF's "Chill Out" album. Artists such as Aube, Bannlust, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Alois Huber and others all take their best shots. One stand-out track is Panacea's "Demolition Desaster" which is perhaps his most extreme piece to date, if you can imagine that...

Kind of like a game of extended global telephone, and featuring the talents of Mike Paradinas (aka Uziq), Bedouin Ascent, T Power, Sons of Silence, etc., this cd is the result of one artist sampling a Stereolab track and then sending the resulting mix to another artist, who similarly remixed it and sent the result to yet another remixer. Get it? Oh, and when Stereolab got back the track they remixed it once more for good measure, then put all the tracks into chronological order on one cd. Very drum'n'bass.

"Chronologi" is a self-congratulatory compilation from the Brooklyn experimental / electronica label 12K, celebrating their first four years of operation. 12K is run by Taylor Deupree, who is in many ways the American doppleganger of Carsten Nicolai and 12k is the American version of his Raster-Noton collective. Both artists' labels specialize in positioning ultra-minimalist clicks and

Breakbeats created by the getting-more-famous-every-day, all-around-nice-guy Automator (of Dr. Octagon) for your programming/DJ pleasure.

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SORRY. Following the awesome 'Modulations & Transformations' compilations, Mille Plateaux presents yet another veritable encyclopedia of electronica minimalism. A nice addendum to the 20' to 2000 series, 'Clicks & Cuts' features a handful of electronica technicians recontextualizing digital residue into a variety of melodic & rhythmic structures. While only a few of the tracks are exclusive to the compilation, it's still quite a handy collection. The artists include Wolfgang Voigt's All moniker, Thomas Brinkmann (recording under his dead sister's name and sampling Blixa Bargeld), Pan Sonic, Kit Clayton, Vladislav Delay, Goem, Pole, Panacea, Kid 606, Stillupsteypa, and more!

Jeff wins the endurance award for listening to all three discs back to back. The second volume of this appropriately titled compilation of miminal electronic technicians. With tracks from Kid 606, Vladislav Delay, SND, Frank Brettschneider, Thomas Brinkmann, Swayzak, Kit Clayton, Pan Sonic, Matmos and many more.

"The muse was in the mistakes," reads the press release for the third installment in Mille Plateaux's compendium of contemporary, glitched electronica; however, it has to be said that these "mistakes" -- hard disc rewrite errors, pinprick glitches, microsonic tears, etc. -- have come to define stylistic conceits of a very clean, posh deviation from the standard templates of techno, electro, and occasionally hip hop. True, there has been enough of an stylistic acceleration since the second Clicks & Cuts compilation from 2001 to warrant a new cross-section of glitched electronica; yet the trajectory has steered towards an ironic, self-reflexive position of pop iconography, complete with favoritism towards gimmicky hooks, disposable R&B vocals, and lite rhythms. Mille Plateaux claims that this sound follows Deleuzian models as a "bastard offspring of capitalist output." This may be true, but why does its current form sound more like the commonplace output of capitalism rather than its subversive antithesis (which is what Mille Plateaux has always implied about its purpose)? Nevertheless, the music -- if you can conveniently overlook the potential conceptual dilemmas -- is quite enjoyable and pleasant. As stated above, it reflects the genres of techno, electro, and hip hop through the glitch. Artists include SND, Frank Bretschneider, Andreas Tilliander, MRI, Bizz.Circuits, Claudia Bonarelli, Geeez 'N' Gosh, Alva Noto, Rob Acid, Luomo, Antonelli Electr., Mikael Stav�strand, Swayzak, Donnacha Costello & David Donohoe, Rechenzentrum, AGF, Tim Hecker, Dat Politics, Boris Polonski, Robin Judge, Ekkehard Ehlers, and Pomassl. Sometimes, you run the risk of ruining your own art by mashing together conceptual agendas and formal techniques that don't exactly fit.

RealAudio clip: Painkiller
RealAudio clip: Disarm The Police

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SORRY.

Remixes of upteen million Ninja Tunes by (on the first disc) Coldcut & DJ Food, and (on the second disc) DJ Krush. Funki Porcini, DJ Vadim, London Funk Allstars, The Herbaliser, Luke Vibert, etc. etc. etc. rock these two continuous sixty minute mixes...a two hour breakbeat bonanza.

First off, anyone who bought the Minimal Wave Tapes compilation, another recent aQ Record Of The Week, is most definitely gonna want this too, another killer collection of, like the title says, Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics, a perfect part two, or companion, and fear not, the only overlap is one single band, who do appear on both comps, but with different tracks, so this is essentially an all new (old) collection of vintage coldwave dark synth sonics, which, if you're anything like us, and we're beginning to think you are, you can't get enough of. It's pretty strange how cold / dark / new / synth wave have made such a huge comeback, bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, Human League, Front 242, Soft Cell, are now cited as huge influences on a new breed of dark synth driven combos. Also funny considering something similar happened 8 or 9 years ago, when a rash of bands were exploring similar territory: Adult., The Faint, Fischerspooner, Erase Errata, etc. But music is definitely cyclical, and as a new generation discovers the treasures of the past, they start bands mining that past, and revist that past via reissues. The most recent issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian offers a mini primer on the difference between the various waves: darkwave was early industrial and goth rock, cold wave the French version of darkwave (as we first discovered on the amazing So Young But So Cold comp), Synth wave was like cold wave but more sparse and moody, and new wave, well everyone should know what that is by now. Lately, it seems most folks make little distinction between the various waves, instead lumping them all together as cold wave, or minimal wave or whatever, since regardless of the variations, they definitely all share a similar sound and vibe, and speaking for ourselves at least, it's a sound we dig big time. But then most of us never really stopped digging that stuff to begin with. Lots of former goths here for sure. And every time we discovered a band exploring the sounds we dug so much back in the day, we went way out of our way to gush about them big time, like one of our 2009 Records Of The Week, from Soror Dolorosa, a black metal side project that sounded like some lost Joy Division jam, or rare cold wave antiquity, and more recently records by groups like Blank Dogs, who may not have grown up listening to this music, but if they didn't then must have had a super hip older brother. But as was demonstrated on the Minimal Wave collection, there were tons of bands outside of the obvious above mentioned references, who were just as cool, if not cooler, the underground of a scene that for a while was very mainstream, on the Minimal Waves comp, it was Crash Course In Science, Tara Cross, Das Kabinette, Ohama, Das Ding, Martin Dupont, Deux, Bene Gessert, Turquoise Days, and others, a few of the more wave-informed folks here knew many of those bands, but to the rest of us, it was a revelation. So much amazing music, so many new groups. On this Cold Waves collection, it's Absolute Body Control, Ruth, The Neon Judgement, Stereo, The Vyllies, Days Of Sorrow, Land Of Giants, End Of Data, Eleven Pond, Ausgang Verboten, Nine Circles and more more more. And like before, a few groups we're familiar with, but a whole bunch of mysterious new names, all of which contribute killer tracks, and most definitely have us hankering for more from all of them. The obvious ones, Ruth of course, a long time aQ favorite, whose track here also appeared on the out of print So Young But So Cold, sort of Kraftwerk meets Gary Numan, Linear Movement, who also had a track on the Minimal Wave comp, whose track here is awesome, catchy and swirly, with super hypnotic synth melodies and awesome vocals, groovy bass and that clipped new wave drum machine rhythm, Absolute Body Control, who recently received the deluxe Vinyl On Demand boxset treatment, with some awesomely gothy gloom pop, in fact, this collection sounds WAY poppier than the Minimal Wave collection, so much so, that almost all of these bands sound like they should have been right up there with Depeche Mode and the Human League. Needless to say, this is another fantastic comp, with some incredible songs, and already has us hankering for volume 2! Nice thick gatefold sleeve, tons of liner notes, and pix, also comes with a download card. CD coming soon too... ----* ----* Highlights : ----*

Do you like run away drum machines? Dubby echo? Danceable DIY '80s underground electronics? Homebrewed minimal electro pop? The Vox Populi! anthology we made a Record Of The Week last year? All the many cool synthwave reissues on Dark Entries? Then please give THIS your attention, you won't be sorry. The Color Tapes label - later known as Color Discs for the vinyl editions - was the cottage industry of UK art-rock synthesist Gary Ramon, who with the music documented on this collection, sort of comes across like a new wave doppleganger of Cleaners From Venus. And there actually was a split cassette release between Cleaners From Venus and Ramon's band Modern Art (who later morphed into psychrockers Sun Dial) from 1986 or so. Here was a prolific songwriter of coldly sequenced and somewhat quirky minimal wave albums, mostly all of which were released on cassette with a small audience that radiated outward from the coastal village of Waltham, England. He, along with a loose collective, recorded in a handful of interchangeable projects - Modern Art, Mystery Plane, and WeR7 being three with the largest discographies, each with at least a dozen albums recorded in a six to eight year period. The former two projects later warranted vinyl anthologies from Vinyl On Demand; and it seems that the interest in this material blossomed from there. Ramon and his cohorts were a talented bunch, following the rabbit-hole of darkly minded electronica. Think Factory, Sheffield, Industrial Records, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and all of those Wire side-projects and you'll be able to triangulate the sound of Color Tapes. There was a knack for the pop-hook and the death-disco backbeat present this material that makes all of this material age very well. The opening track to the comp is from Berserk In The Hayfields, with its clamorous electro-bongo fills girded to a taut techno pulse sounds very prescient of the Belgian EBM scene some five or six years later. Live Of Angels and The Lord were two non-Ramon projects and both peddled in weird-science blorp and effects-happy guitars above spry programming. But the strongest material is through the streamlined step sequences and deft rhythms that showcase Ramon's engineering prowess. The vinyl edition of this is almost all gone and out of print (we only have a few), but please note there are two bonus tracks on the cd not found on the wax.

MPEG stream: Tease
MPEG stream: Alternative Universe
MPEG stream: Excerpt From Cassette Number 10

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SORRY. Volume two in the Lo recordings series (the amazing "United Mutations" was vol. 3). This equally fab comp features strange, adventurous, and largely successful collaborations between Luke Vibert, David Toop, Bedouin Ascent, Scanner, Luger, Funci Porcini, Pere Ubu's David Thomas, and more.

'Collision Course' is an awesome compendium of the confrontational hip-hop/electronica linking Public Enemy and Alec Empire in both militant posturing and penchant for noise. A good portion of the tracks are exclusive to compilation and include some of our favorite damaged beatmongers such as Sensational, Fever, Ice, Anti-Pop Consortium, DJ Scud / Nomex, Patric C, Bomb 20, and more! Compiled by Kevin Martin (Ice, God, Techno Animal, etc.) who is also responsible for the Macro Dub Infection series as well as the amazing Isolationist compilationn from a few years back.

"The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center was the first electronic music center to be established within the U.S. This selection, drawn from those seminal years from 1959 - 1973, is an excellent overview of the wide variations in musical style and aesthetic that was encouraged by the center's guiding spirit Vladimir Ussachevsky." With breathless electronic experiments by Bulent Arel, Charles Doage, Ilhan Mimaroglu, Ingram Marshall, Daria Semegen, and Alice Shields.

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SORRY. Defining the Chain Reaction / Basic Channel sound to anyone not familiar with their specialized variant of techno is somewhat of a daunting task. Wholly self-referential. Intelligent in concept and execution, yet its functionality is located entirely within the physical. A perfection combination of Carl Craig's late-nite Detroit techno and Lee Perry production techniques of manipulation equalization and dubbing out tape hiss. With that said, an apt description has been offered unto us for the Chain Reaction sound: 'Heroin House.' Aside from that, this is a collection of some of the best singles to date from Scion, Erosion, Continuous Mode, Substance, Vainqueur, Pelon, Monolake, ridis, and Porter Rick's absolutely monolithic "Port of Transition".

Irony is the name of the game for the Noodles Foundation, the self-appointed "Stupidest Recording Organisation in the World." Judging from the monikers of some of the artists featured (like The Buttmasters and Anal Parade), it's likely that the members of

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SORRY. The second compilation of remixes/collaborations/exquisite corpses/whatever from Lo Recordings. Mostly leftfield electronics sprinkled with avant-rock noodlings that feature Stereolab & Hairy Butter, Squarepusher & Richard Thomas, Persona & Warn Defever, Void & Twisted Science. The definite highlight is the gorgeous remix that Four Tet did of Rothko's "Rivers Become Oceans" (which appears to differ from the 12" remix earlier released, with the interlude of our favorite numbers station "Swedish Rhapsody"!).

Yet another electronica comp, and it's a double cd as usual. Can't argue with the Sub-Rosa related line-up though: Scanner, To Rococo Rot, Bump & Grind, David Shea, Rehberg & Bauer, DJ Olive, Kreidler, Vincent Hanni, Stock Hausen & Walkman. Runs the gamut, worth checking out.

Electronic music compilation benefiting something called "The School of Sound" that teaches the healing power of music... Contributors include Mouse on Mars, Seefeel, Scanner, Moby, Oval, E.A.R., The Dylan Group, Aube, and others.

A fantastic compilation of amazing French cosmic prog-tronic jams that is blowing our minds! An incredible survey of experimentation and rhythm that shows us that while the French may not have invented prog or disco, they certainly had the most fun taking those genres to their outer limits in exciting combination. Practically everyone is represented, including cinematic gems by Jean-Michel Jarre, Alain Goraguer (La Planet Sauvage composer!), Patrick Juvet and Serge Gainsbourg; Moog workouts by Jean-Jaques Perrey, Quartz and Pierre Bachelet; and cosmic disco reveries by Bernard Fevre, Space, Droids, Space Art and Cerrone. But there are also plenty of rarities from groups we know less about: Atomic Crocus, Rene Roussel, and Universal Energy amongst many others. Dig the Mobius-style cover art too. So Killer!

MPEG stream: La Reve
MPEG stream: Blackbird
MPEG stream: Ombilic Contact
MPEG stream: La Physique et Le Figure

Here's the second annual compilation of the selected staff faves over at the UK record shop, Rough Trade. In the liner notes, they make a point of specifying that the songs weren't chosen according to sales figures. No, these are forty-nine tunes that simply captured their fancy this past year, and the selection runs the absolute gamut. From Coil to Cryin' Shames to Cobra Killer to Cocorosie to Cornershop to Candi Staton to Coachwhips, from Wanda Jackson to Whitey to Whirlwind Heat, from Measles Mumps Rubella to Micah P. Hinson And The Gospel Of Progress to Magoo to Mara Carlyle to Mu, from Sunburned Hand Of The Man to Sons And Daughters to The Soviettes to Schwab to Sonic Youth, from Le Tigre to Liars, from Animal Party to Ambrose Tompkins to Alter Ego to Alan Glen, from Bloc Party to Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham to Brakes to Brooks to Beastellabeast, from Throbbing Gristle to Todd to Ten Minutes With My Dad, from Jolie Holland to Jad Fair... and there's plenty more, but you get the picture, doncha? So many familiar and not-so-familiar faces, it's like a cool mix tape made with loving care by your most obsessive music fan buddy.

MPEG stream: Your Baby (Can't Stand The Rain)
MPEG stream: Sex With Sun Ra

Marco Haas (aka Kompakt recording artist T. Raumschmiere), Sascha Ring (Apparat) and their Shitkatapult label strike back with the fifth installment in his Cozmick Suckers series of compilations of minimal electronic sounds from around the globe. Much like their contemporaries in Cologne, these Berlin producers similarly specialize in all that microscopic pulsing dancefloor filth with an addictive "schaffel" touch to superfluous ambient abstractions and clinical sine tone palpitations. Artists from the Shitkatapult roster (Rechenzentrum, Sami Koivikko, Fenin, Magnum38, as well as the aforementioned T. Raumschmiere and Apparat) are paired with newcomers Munit, Napoli Is Not Nepal and Zoy Winterstein and special guests like Kyborg, Chicago's Slicker and the wonderous sine drones of Steinbruechel. Fans of the Kompakt persuasion will love this.

RealAudio clip: Yellow Dub
RealAudio clip: Red8.4-Index.2
RealAudio clip: Anti

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SORRY. WOW! Spectre, HIM, Sub Dub, Loop, We. Bass-heavy dub filtered through a politically awake hip hop lens -- Brooklyn's Word Sound is very happening scene in and of itself. Important.