[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

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Showing results 4401 through 4450 of 5033.

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

SORRY. With Alec Empire, Oval, Jim O'Rourke, Scanner, DJ Spooky, Trans Am, Atom Heart, etc. German import in a nice matte slipcase.

Sub Dub, DJ Spooky, Byzar, and We all plumbing the depths of the NYC "illbient" sound. We are happy to report the instore performance featured DJ Singe, otherwise known as Beth, spinning the most soul-satisfying jungle we've heard in a long time.

What's one to do, after the Beauty Bar closes, or Tonic or whatever your local watering hole is, where us ugly people are not welcome? And you and your model junkie girlfriend need some music to make out to or nod off to. And she's really pretty 'exotic'.

In 1998, Ochre began a series of 7" compilations titled "Infrasonic Waves", which was centered on post / space rock and electronica. Among the many artists contributing were Magnetophone, Our Glassie Azoth, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Avrocar, and The Freed Unit. The first disc of this 2cd set compiles all of the series. Disc two is a collection of new and unreleased recordings

This is the sort of thing that Andee tells us Lesser would subject him to while driving the van when he went on tour with A Minor Forest (to the point that Andee would volunteer to drive, no matter how tired he was, just to avoid hearing it). Retro techno

RealAudio clip: Crazy Comets Main Theme
RealAudio clip: Magnetic Fields IV (As Used In Yie Ar Kung-Fu)
RealAudio clip: BMX Kidz Title Theme

We have VERY few of these, as in just 3 or 4, so we'll keep this brief. But holy cow, is this something else, a massive 88 page oversized soft cover coffee table book, accompanied by two cds containing unreleased recordings made at the Institute For Psychoacoustics And Electronic Music at Ghent University in Belgium, which is sort of like the Belgian equivalent to the GRM studios in France, or DIEM in Denmark. The book celebrates 50 years and includes tons of rare photos of the various instruments and their operators, as well as a pretty extensive study of the Institute's contribution to the development of electronic music, the text in both English and Dutch, the book alone would be worth the price of admission, but the cds too, featuring tons of amazing music, from some names we recognize, but loads we don't, and the sounds, wow! Insane to think how prescient some of these noisemakers and academics were, considering much of this sounds like it could be contemporary, there are wild cut up collages, whirring blurry soundscapes reminiscent of the Caretaker, woozy, warbling ambience a la Philip Jeck, lots of drones, and abstract Musique Concrete, tape music and more, all recorded between 1963 and 1999. Again, the book is incredible, the music too, dark and mysterious, haunting and wildly experimental, SUPER recommended for weird music obsessives, and fans of early electronic / tape music. There's a good chance we won't be able to get more, so order super quick if you want one of the few we have, and be prepared to wait a while for more to come in, assuming we can even get more at all once we run out...

MPEG stream: Incantations
MPEG stream: Studie 1
MPEG stream: Les Cephalopodes
MPEG stream: Simparolo
MPEG stream: Monochroom

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

SORRY.

We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8 bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charged double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out. The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci-fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi Casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtly. We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad! Also available, as so many of these Soul Jazz comps are, spread out over two separate vinyl volumes.

MPEG stream: Streetsweeper
MPEG stream: Modern Times
MPEG stream: Bazooka Riddim
MPEG stream: M.D.M.A.
MPEG stream: Aktion

Vinyl part one, here's the review we wrote of the complete 2cd edition: We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charegd double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out. The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtlely. We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad!

MPEG stream: Streetsweeper
MPEG stream: Modern Times
MPEG stream: Bazooka Riddim
MPEG stream: M.D.M.A.
MPEG stream: Aktion

Vinyl part two, here's the review we wrote of the complete 2cd edition: We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charegd double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out. The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtlely. We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad!

The third compilation of eclectic electronica and noirish post-rock, conceptually linked as all are productions to films that never existed (definitely taking cues from Brian Eno and Barry Adamson). Artists include Rothko, Freeform, Susuma Yokota, Rob Ellis (Spleen, PJ Harvey), 310, Bass Communion, and more!

Another electronic music compilation featuring the usual suspects (and hometown favorites) Kid 606 and Lesser, plus Christoph de Babalon, Pisstank, Knifehandchop, and a dozen others. A loud, abrasive, and, well, *irritating* (like the label proudly proclaims)

RealAudio clip: What?Subjunctification?
RealAudio clip: Irritant

With a Designer's Republic deconstruction of archetectural symbols and texts as the cover art, this compilation has all of the trappings of looking like it should be on Warp. Musically, the aesthetics of the American label Schematic do not stray very far from the triumverate of the UK intelligensia of electronica: Warp, Skam, and Rephlex. 70's sci-fi / horror score ambience, post-electro breakbeats, and the non-household name factor of Phoenicia, Push Button Objects (who did just have a single for Skam), Richard Devine, Gliese, Metic, and David Kristian make this compilation quite an attractive collection.

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

SORRY. First of three internal remix eps of Schematic artists by Schematic artists. While comparisons to Autechre's fractured electro crunch are inevitable, Freeform, Richie Devine, Takeshi Muto, and Phonecia add noirish horns to digital skitter, along with occasional 4/4 stomps, and odd reconstructed future jazz that could have originally found their way onto Herbie Hancock's Sextant.

This historical document collects a handful of the sporadically released singles from the US based Isophlux label, which for better or for worse completely mirrors the tastes of the IDM on-line gossip/news list. The most curious thing about the Isophlux sound is that the latest singles have the most primitive sound, as if they are doing their best to mimic the early disjonted techno of Plaid or Global Communications, rather than the contemporary digital glitch manipulation which has been so prevalent. Still Autechrist/Aphex-ish algorithmic sequences and post-electro breaks dominate the IDM discourse for Isophlux. This compilation features tracks from Shad T. Scott, Greg Chin, L'Usine, Lexancaulpt, etc.

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

SORRY. The debut release from Matt Wobensmith's (ex-Outpunk) new label! Digital Hardcore-style dancepunk featuring unlikely teamups: Christoph de Babalon and Team Dresch, Jack Acid & Chris Polaris, Kento Oiwa (of Olympia's ICU) with Behead the Prophet, and 680x0 with the Mukilteo Fairies. We are happy to see the punk and extreme e-music worlds teaming up, and to think it was yesterday that the "Maximum R&R" guys were buying the Atari Teenage Riot single from us... Queercorps is leading the way.

Compilation from trustworthy labels featuring Cujo, Amon Tobin (on no less than 6 tracks), Sureshot, Funki Porcini...

"Tracks from the sound exhibition, organized by Roel Meelkop..." Contributions from Franz de Waard, Carsten Nicolai, Ryoji Ikeda, Peter Duimelinks, Francisco Lopez and Meelkop himself. Ultraminimal electronic music.

A collection of out-of-print and/or hard-to-find a-sides from the back catalogue of 555 Recordings of Leeds (run by Stewart Anderson of Boyracer / Steward fame). Tracks by the Aislers Set, Hood, Kid 606, Boyracer, Empress, Steward, The Remote Viewer, The Famous Boyfriend, and much more. 23 tracks total!

To celebrate their 100th release, Kompakt had 21 artists pick their favorite record from the first 99 Kompakt releases and remix it. So thus we have Kompakt 100, 21 of your favorite Kompakt classics remixed by a handful of your favorite Kompakt artists. Remixers include: The Orb, DJ Koze, the Modernist, Ulf Lohmann, Reinhard Voigt, Jurgen Paape, Markus Guentner, Dettinger, Kaito and more. To dig this collection you definitely have to like all facets of the Kompakt sound. Folks looking for a smooth, dreamy pop ambient compilation will definitely be blown out of the water by the beat heavy tracks, and beat headz might be bored by the swooshy ambient numbers, but those of you who like chocolate in your peanut butter, won't mind verring from four on the floor house, to wheezy, fuzzy ambience and back again. An amazing document of one of the best (and most important) electronic labels around.

MPEG stream: Ulf Lohman - Because Before
MPEG stream: Ulf Lohman - Because

NOW ON VINYL! Another killer collection of Kompakt techno, and while we may tend to lean toward the Pop Ambient side of the Kompakt roster, no label has done more to wear down our resistance to techno than the mighty Kompakt, so much so, that we now find ourselves looking forward to these Total comps nearly as much as the Pop Ambient comps. And once again, Kompakt comes through with, a killer collection of artists, and tracks, expertly sequenced into over two hours of minimal techno bliss. Just have a look at the names and you'll know what you're in for: Dj Koze, Justus Kohncke, Gui Boratto, Matias Aguayo, The Field, Burger/Voigt, Reinhard Voigt, Jurgen Paape and loads more, and along with the usal tight clipped, late night dancefloor grooves there are plenty of surprises. How about DJ Koze's "40 Love", with a rhythm track built around the sounds of a tennis match, including the crowds disappointed "Awwwww"s when someone misses a shot, birds chirping, squeaking shoes, grunts, all woven into a woozy bit of warm throb and skitter. Then there's Coma's awesomely murky midnight pusle and shimmer, and Jonas Bering's super fuzzed out synth jam that definitely reminds us of Justice or Daft Punk, and Matias Aguayo's sunshiney techno pop jam, that almost sounds like Phoenix or something, the warped and tweaked tropical wooziness of the Pachanga Boys and the circusy soundtrack weirdness of Jurgen Paape's oompah jam "Ofterschwang", and in between, plenty of that classic Kompakt sound that we can never seem to get enough of. If you've got 1-9, you obviously need 10, and if you've yet to dip your toes into the Kompakt pool, this is as good a place to start as any...

MPEG stream: Who Is Who
MPEG stream: 40 Love
MPEG stream: Lovestoned
MPEG stream: I'm In Love With A German Film Star (Gui Boratto Mix)

MPEG stream: Hicc Up
MPEG stream: I Built This City (Michael Mayer Mix)
MPEG stream: Pure Vernunft Darf Niemals Siegen (Superpitcher / Wasserman Single Mix)

For those who recall the now out-of-print "The Ghost Orchid" cd collection of EVP -- "Electronic Voice Phenomenon", the mysterious manifestations of unknown voices breaking through radio transmissions, presumed to be voices of the dead -- Konstantin Raudive may be a familiar name. His contributions to that recording (originally paired as a 7" with his legendary book from the mid '70s entitled "Breakthrough") were some of the most hyperbolic and grandiose, claiming that in his research he had contacted numerous recently deceased friends, as well as historical figures like Winston Churchill! Since "The Ghost Orchid" and the follow-up collection drawn from from fellow researcher Friedrich JurgensonFriedrich Jurgenson's EVP recordings have been very difficult to track down in recent months, we thought that this new release of recordings from the archives of Raudive (and his collegue Gerhard Stempnik) would make for an acceptable substitute. Well, it might have been, if it weren't for all of the extraneous, some might say unneccesary, tracks found here: remixes of Raudive's recordings, tracks inspired by Raudive's recordings, and tracks that got onto this album just because they were by DJ Spooky. (DJ Spooky? Get it? These are ghosts. Haha.) At least the folks at Sub Rosa had enough sense to program all of the actual Raudive recordings as the odd numbered tracks with the remixes and so forth being the even numbered ones. So at least you can program your CD player if you wish to avoid the pieces by DJ Spooky, Brett Dean, Scanner, Calla, Lee Ranaldo, David Toop, CM von Hausswolff, Random Inc. and others. Not to say that these remixes are bad (some are pretty cool, total X-Files electronica), but how can you hope to compete with the raw ghost transmissions themselves? Truly voices of the dead or not, they're still creepy radio-noise recordings with German-language lectures to introduce 'em, full of mystery and terror and dense sonic textures. Imagine an occult Conet Project. We're purists, I guess, and would have liked the tracks by the modern-day artists to have appeared on a seperate release from the archival EVP material. But others we're sure won't be bothered at all, and enjoy (and be haunted by) the whole package.

RealAudio clip: Here Is Konstantin Raudive
RealAudio clip: Radio Stimme
RealAudio clip: Palae Fore Memoire
RealAudio clip: Raudive Track

American Noise is a killer label sampler featuring all manner of minimal electronica, from skeletal abstract house, to squelchy acid grooves, to murky late night ambience, to woozy psychedelic electro, and pretty much lots of stops in between. The only thing we'd heard from the L.I.E.S. label before was a 12" from Steve Moore, of Zombi and Majeure, and he's one of the familiar names here, his 12 minute "Frigia" is another fantastic slab of haunting faux soundtrack synthscapery, melding Goblin / Carpenter like creepiness to pulsing futuristic Euro-disco, a lengthy Autobahn like sprawl of woozy pulsing psychedelia and house-y kosmische bliss out. Legowelt is another familiar name, his two tracks here are hazy, washed out electro-house groovers, that wed soft focus shimmering ambience to driving, motorik rhythms, wreathing the sounds in swoonsome chordal swells and distant swirling melodies, splitting the difference perfect between driving and drifting. But beyond those two names, most of the outfits here were new to us: Marcos Cabral, Torn Hawk, Terekke, Bookworms, Xosar, Vapauteen, Two Dogs In A House, Maxamillion Dunbar, Svengalisghost, Bonquiqui, Professor Genius, Beau Wanzer and Unknown Artist (not sure if that's a cheeky band name, like Various Artists, or in fact an unknown artist). And while we dig pretty much everything here, the most exciting discovery is most definitely Jahiliyya Fields, who starts things off with a glorious kaleidoscopic cascade of pulsating synths, and layered drones, a glimmering sprawl of kraut-psych shimmer, that gradually blossoms into a creepy sort of Eastern tinged cinematic ambience, and which had us DYING for more (thankfully there is a full length, a double lp, which we will have soon, and we'll hopefully review it on the next list). Nothing is quite as ghostly and abstract as that first track, but there's definitely lots to dig here, most of the jams are darkly rhythmic, from glimmering Kompakt style minimal techno blissouts, to groovy, super retro sounding eighties style electro-funk, to crunchy, almost Latin sounding big beat workouts, to churning, near-gothic sounding industrial dirges that remind us a bit of some of Dom Fernow's recent projects (Christian Cosmos, Silent Servant, Vatican Shadow). Beyond that, there's also some super soundtracky chase scene electro, heavily collaged loopscapes, noisy and a little chaotic, as well as some cool lo-fi retro electro-pop that sounds like it could be backing tracks for some lost James Ferraro project. Also in the mix, a couple hip hop sounding jams, all 808's and 909's, along with some minimal rhythmic Muslimgauze like murk, and some seriously slinky, slithery slo-mo house music, not to mention one brief but bad ass closer, all super tripped out minimal psychedelic disembodied beats, drifting in a metallic haze. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Servant Garden
MPEG stream: Frigia
MPEG stream: Sark Island Acid
MPEG stream: Deep Into Mercury
MPEG stream: Jail Lock

A while back we reviewed a compilation called American Noise / Volume One, which was a killer collection of tracks from the L.I.E.S. label, run by Ron Morelli, whose recent album Spit, a hypnotic collection of murky electronic minimalism, was a big hit around here. That comp featured a handful of folks we had heard before (Steve Moore, Legowelt) but loads more we hadn't. A sprawling and super varied sampling of the L.I.E.S. label's best and brightest, more of which is on display here, with most of the new-to-us artists from that first comp returning again (Svengalisghost, Beau Wanzer, Vapauteen, Terekke, Marcos Cabral) along with still more new names. And if anything, this comp might be even better than the first. Whereas American Noise definitely still seemed geared to the dancefloor to a degree, Music For Shut Ins seems to be true to its title, as most of the tracks here are more deep headphone listening, dancemusic for folks who wouldn't be caught dead on a dancefloor, claustrophobic, psychedelic, murky, minimal and abstract, once again straddling the line between the Kompakt and Hospital labels, slipping from dubbed out Euro-house to gristly post industrial electro, from robotic bunkurfunk to slo-mo soul, and from tripped out techno to noise drenched nineties style blunted beatscapes a la techno Animal. Some of our favorites include Terekke's "Amaze", which is all murky, hazy, barely there rhythmic skitter, swirling slowed down vocal samples, all heavily dubbed into a druggy drift, definitely for fans of Burial, Vessel, oOoOO and the like, the washed out hyper rhythmic abstraction that is Gunnar Haslam's "Aisepos", which buries everything under a woozy haze, the beat a bleary cascade of skitter and stutter, laced with soft synth swirls and what sounds like faux horns, but all blurred and smeared into something ghostly and ethereal. There's the distorto-house of Entro & Terri, which sounds like classic club music given a psychedelic noise makeover, or the squelchy FX drenched electro of TX connect, Daywalker & CF offer up some John Carpenter electro, if that even is a thing, all cinematic and sweeping, tethered to a tangle of overlapping rhythms and beats, all washed out and beautifully bleary, while Svengalisghost delivers some churning industrial electro that sounds like it could be another Dom Fernow project (Vatican Shadow, Christian Cosmos,etc.). There's plenty more too, with some tracks definitely falling closer to the actual dancefloor, but even those all seem at least a bit tweaked and twisted. Definitely recommended for all you electronic music shut ins, which most definitely describes many of us as well!!

MPEG stream: Basilisk
MPEG stream: Gimme A Light
MPEG stream: High Heel Sleeze
MPEG stream: Amaze
MPEG stream: The Cap
MPEG stream: Aisepos

Another installment in this series of fringe electronica compilations from the very cool Planetsounds label, who like AQ faves Fflint, continue to dig up amazing and obscure electronica that in a perfect world would send Warp and Lo and all those other labels crying home to their mommies. There are a few recognizable artists represented, Tele:funken (they did a split with Flying Saucer Attack a few years ago), Illuminati (see elsewhere on this list) and the Irritants, but all the others are veritable unkowns. The sound ranges from throbbing low-fi ambient technoscapes to fluttery chiming gurgle and buzz to static-y skittery electronic clatter to creepy shimmery high end skree and hiccupping drum stutter and all point in between. Any one who has been digging Berkowitz, Lake And Dahmer, Cousin Silas and all that Fflint stuff should check this out.

RealAudio clip: Wu Preface
RealAudio clip: I Am Dead
RealAudio clip: Button Boy

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

SORRY. Strangely antique, yet highly appealing, the Laton Compilation is a collection of hypnotechno from Vienna's unusual often irony laden school of electronica. With contributions Pomassl, Alois Huber, M. Soellner, Auralbino, Proof, A. Burger, and Fon, the compilation is surprisingly consistant in its sound, paralleling the monophunktraction of the Voigt brothers / Cologne sound but with more new wave sounds than deep house elements for something resembling early 90s Sheffield bleep techno (Tricky Disco, TGT, LFO, Altern 8).

A mix by Susumu Yokota includes works by Pole, Four Tet, Rothko, Faultline, Rob Ellis, P'Tang and Susumu himself.

This is a pretty wicked sampler of artists on Lex records, an imprint of Warp that specialises in hip hop, and who brought us the totally amazing Boom Bip 'Seed To Sun' record a while back. Features selections from the first handful of Lex releases as well as exclusive tracks from a bunch of non-Lex folks. Tracks by Boom Bip, Sage Francis, Why?, Peaches, Edan, Tes, Supersoul, Madlib, Jaime Lidell and loads more. Once again packaged in a cool Lex Records-style embossed slip case, this time done up all graffitti style!

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It could be said that the concept behind 'Lily Of The Valley' is the interpretation of love located deep within the sound cards of a handful of ProTools-driving laptops. Translation: guys who don't know how to talk to girls. Anyway, the concept is pretty much an immaterial aside to this compilation presented by the acclaimed label Schematic who are known for some exquisite replications of the Autechre-style IDM electronica skitter, and this compilation is no exception to the Schematic rule. The featured engineers/Romeos are Richie Devine, Phoenicia, Delarosa & Asora, Jake Mandell, Takeshi Muto, Jeswa, 09, and Gliese.

Limited to 600 copies (website says 700, they've probably got 3000), tracks featured here can also be found on the Tigerbeat6 Inc. 2cd compilation (save for a sneaky bonus Kid 606 track). This miniature, fuck-withable vinyl edition features D84 (aka Bevin Blechdom), Dwayne Sodahberk, com.a, Nut'n'Honey, Kevin Blechdom, Fossil and the aforementioned Kid (two tracks here).

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

SORRY. The second in this series of unknown local electronica technicians dropping funky drum & bass breaks and abstract skitter with lots of socially minded word play.

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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.

Two disc set documenting live performances by Sutekh, Khan, Senking, Thomas Brinkmann, Kit Clayton, Monolake and Noto among many others.

We've been DYING for this. In pretty much every review of a grime or dubstep record, we lament the lack of decent releases, at least in the US. But for the last couple years, Portland based dubstep label Lo Dubs, has been (not so) quietly releasing 12" after 12" of crushing, bass heavy, dancefloor destroying modern dubstep from a whole new crop of dubsteppers. We managed to get a handful of each of the 12"s, never really enough to review, but the wait was worth it, now ALL of those 12"s are compiled on this here double cd. One disc mixed, the other a collection of all the 12"s, both completely kick ass. Very few of the names are recognizable, unless you're already a little dubstep obsessed, well, except Nadja, more on that in a second, but half the names here are becoming fast favorites, South3rn, Starkey, Pacheko, all have taken the dubstep template and cranked it up, added their own style. This isn't nearly as laid back as a lot of dubstep, this stuff is hard, the beats dense and heavy, the atmospheres ominous, lots of buzz and rumble, plenty of lo-fi grit, the vibe is almost more like old school raga jungle, but all wrapped around that unmistakable dubstep stutter. And yeah Nadja / Aidan Baker completists, there is indeed a Nadja dubstep remix here, perpetrated by the legendary Vex'd, however, the original is barely recognizable, all the crush and buzz of the original is buried beneath Vex'd's brutal beat, sick synth swells, and all sorts of grinds and beeps, the end result is just as intense and brutal as a Nadja track, but rendered in electronics and beats. Awesome. But then, pretty much every track here is a killer, from dubbed out reggae, to robotic electro, to skeletal groove, super raw synthed out basslines wrapped around jagged dubbed out beats, alien effects, Jamaican style toasting, tons of buzz and weird skittery groove, anyone who has been digging dubstep at all NEEDS this. If you loved Milanese, Burial, Venetian Snares, the Box Of Dub comps, then this is for you...

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Inspired by his plentiful good times spent down in Sydney, Australia, DJ Tom Thump has compiled a double cd mix of twenty two tracks. One disc is appropriately titled 'Get Up', and the other 'Get Down'. Included are tracks by Playgroup, Chicken Lips, Frankie Knuckles, Cordovan, Makossa & Megablast, Julius Papp & Charles Spencer, Hideo Kobayashi & Pheeko Dubfunk, Chuck Love, Loopwreckas, Salvo, Shrift, and many more. You don't need to travel abroad to put this mix to good use as your own late night soundtrack to some randy loose'n'lively action.

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While we haven't had the the opportunity to list very many of his works, we have listed a few, and it should be obvious from those reverent reviews that some folks here at aQ are big, big fans of Harold Budd's special brand of ambient artistry. Just take a look at our write up of Budd's most recent opus, In The Mist: "Forget about the Pop Ambient series, and other modern dreamy music makers, when it comes to simply stunning, calming and beautiful sounds it just doesn't get better than Harold Budd." But of course, we ARE also huge fans of the Kompakt label's ongoing Pop Ambient compilation series (and by saying we, that probably includes you). So, that's why this new release (on a label distributed by Kompakt) is so perfect and makes for a great Record Of The Week, as it brings together a host of current electronic/ambient/lowercase artists, including AQ faves like Biosphere, Xela, and Deaf Center, all paying tribute to Budd. But, it really wouldn't matter at all if you've never heard any Harold Budd before, we'd recommend this as much as any Pop Ambient comp, and that's a big recommendation indeed. Lost In The Humming Air (that title referring perhaps to one of Budd's own inspirations, the telephone wires humming in the wind out in the Mojave Desert where he lived) has become our current go-to disc for our falling-to-sleep-music needs, and as always we mean that in a good way. Budd, originally an avant garde academic composer back in the '60s who went on to ambient/new age glory in the '70s and beyond, collaborating with Brian Eno and others, certainly does have lots of devoted fans, who love his recordings of atmospheric, usually piano-based bliss... Many of those fans are musicians too, for whom the music of Budd is a touchstone, and who got the good idea of doing this disc, with profits being donated to Budd's favorite charity. The thirteen recordings here aren't necessarily specific interpretations of Budd's own music, but are pieces inspired and informed (perhaps even moreso than usual for these artists) by Budd's aesthetic, making references to his work, from opening cut "Plateaux" by Deaf Center, with its drifting deep dark bass drones and exquisite, sparse piano... all the way through to the end of the disc, Brock Van Wey's collaboration with his mother, pianist, Criss Van Wey on the elegiac "My Father, My Friend". Along the way, there's plenty of glimmering drones and muted melodies, and even a gently pulsating "Harold Dubb" from Mokira. Besides the names already mentioned, you'll find the following on here: Loscil, Martin Fuhs, Marsen Jules, Andrew Thomas, Christopher Willits, Taylor Deupree, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Porn Sword Tobacco. We won't try to describe this track-by-track, suffice to say that each artist present reveals their own appreciation of Budd's special sort of ambience, and all share a soft, shimmering, swelling magic, so the listener will indeed be Lost In The Humming Air the whole way through...

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Almost a decade has passed since Warp Records issued "Real Intelligence" -- a compilation of electronic music that expanded the boundaries of techno beyond the mere utility of club music. That compilation has often been viewed as the blueprint for IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) introducing artists like Black Dog, Autechre, B12, and Aphex Twin. The aesthetic successes that these artists have enjoyed during the ensuing years has been both a blessing and a curse to the genre, as many of the IDM proponents have indulged in the rich veneer of IDM (with its fractured breakbeats, minor chord melodies, complex algorithmic patterns, aloof references towards obscure musique concrete composers, a techgnostic favoritism of circuitry over flesh, etc.) as opposed to the conceptualization behind IDM as a continuous examination of how 'intelligence' can marry 'dance music.' "MAS Confusion" is a compilation that undeniably falls into the worship of IDM surfaces. Curated by Don and Roel Funcken (the brothers who call themselves Funckarma) from the boxes of demo tapes collecting dust at the house of Michael Fakesch (from Funkstorung), "MAS Confusion" follows the same formulas that Funkstorung liberally acquired from Autechre. There is no inquiry or new solutions being put forward into the IDM discourse, but instead offers some exceptionally well-executed renditions of Autechre, Aphex, and the Autechre side-project Gescom. The artists in question include Metamatics, Lusine ICL, Stars As Eyes, Zela, Autophmc, Adam Johnson, Quench, Tomato Weirdo, Michael Fakesch, and Mr. Projectile.

RealAudio clip: We Got A Generator

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

SORRY. Wow...Very broad selection of electronica styles compiled by The Wire's David Toop and featuring the likes of Alec Empire, Plug, Mouse On Mars, Him, Bill Laswell, Third Eye Foundation, Spectre, Rome, and many more. This takes the growing indie/post-rock love affair with breakbeat music to a new level, as exemplied by the Ice Vs Palace cut - yep, a techno cut up remix of a Will Oldham song...

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SORRY. Another beautifully packaged limited edition double cd from this great label. This time going back to the late '80s to uncover Major Force, who kick out "dope up cyber-rap from Tokyo." 32 tracks in all.

We've long been champions of the mighty mysterious Fflint central label and their beautifully bizarre droning electronic weirdness. And we've raved about every single one of their cd-r releases. So we were pretty excited when the kind folks at Birdman decided to collect the best bits from all those releases and compile them on a real cd to create the ultimate Fflint primer. Essential for those of you who have yet to discover the amazing sonic world that is Fflint Central; absolutely necessary for those of you who have worn your old Fflint cd-r's down to spinning plastic nubs; and don't think you Fflint obsessives are getting off easy, there are several exclusive tracks never before released that you of course need! We could go on and on and gush endlessly, but since our very own Andee wrote the liner notes, we might as well just let you read what he had to say: What the fuck is Fflint anyway? A place? A label? A bunch of cheeky bastards who have, in the matter of a few short years, rendered all other UK electronica obsolete? Umm, a place? In the world of popular music, world-changing things get old fast. With the advent of punk rock, it was a thrill realising that anyone could start a band, but that wore off -real- quick, once everybody did. And then, when the laptop replaced the guitar as the "instrument" anyone could buy and thus have their own" band", it wasn't long before we found ourselves at shows, watching nerds check their emails on stage while we sipped overpriced drinks and fantasized about slipping into the bar to play some Galaga. And then came the cd-r. Christ, you thought the tape was bad. At least with tapes you always had something laying around to dub the new Van Halen or Motley Crue record on. But cd-r's, c'mon. Fuck. Not only can you not tape over them, but even my mom has a limited cd-r release. (And it's not half bad!) So when you discover some mysterious group, who are quietly releasing cd-r's filled with sounds that are beautiful and perplexing and dreamy and annoying and dark and mesmerising and fucked beyond all possible comprehension, you cling to them like you were a mama bear and these cd-r's were your newborn cubs. But at the same time you are constantly wondering why -- knowing that these sounds exist and are somewhat readily available -- anyone would knowingly choose to listen to the rest of the shit out there. Well that's all about to change. And I guess that brings us back to the big question. What the hell is Fflint anyway? Obviously it's music, after all you're holding their cd in your grubby little paws as we speak. But is it electronica? Noise? Dark ambience? Twentieth century? Twenty First Century? Who the hell knows? And honestly, who gives a shit. This is sound, pure and not so simple. An endless series of unlikely musical events. Some soothing and serene, some droning and delirious, and some so harsh it hurts to even listen. But all of it, every single bit, is unlike anything you've ever heard. Or ever will hear again. It's not just music, but the sounds of music. And the music of sound, entering your ears from the inside, filling your wide open skull with malfunctioning maelstroms of stuttering, fuzzed out synth and hiccupping bursts of thundering glitchery colliding with sputtering clicks and oscillating low end rumbles, draped over chest rattling modulated pulses. Ultra harsh noise smeared over a strange man humming into a broken telephone, while an orchestra of detuned guitars tries desperately to compete in the background. Thousands of tiny hands unwrapping cellophane candies in a hyperbolic chamber, while little girls in tap shoes run laps around your eardrums. Epileptic bagpipes and faraway seal calls rub up against scratching and scraping woodblocks, timestretched into sinister growls or raw and ultra distorted high end melodies, while player pianos are reverbed to death until they become an ominous hum, like a swarm of mechanical wasps pinned down by loping, stumbling Autechre-ish loops and rhythmic workouts: all stuttering thumps and slow motion handclaps, like Timbaland being held down in your bathtub struggling for air. Mysterious and sing-songy Krautrock, jangly and noisy, rambling and shambolic, giving way to shimmery skree, melodies shifting and eventually splitting apart and forming new more abstract melodies, while chirping birds and guttural Orc-ish vocalisations convulse atop a bed of keening chimes and high end swells. Abstract IDM gets deconstructed into shards of jagged dance refuse, beats, shuffling and skittering beneath shifting chords and slabs of minor key sound. Rich sheets of dense sound, layers of sweet ambience, and the metallic hum of excited strings, eventually becoming clipped and static, a hypnotic looped rhythm over accordions, crowd sounds and more bird calls. Grinding scraping pulsing drones unfurl like a small village being over run by snakes made out of bowed cymbals and broken samplers. A dense, crushing melodic downpour, like laying prone in a pool of Rephlex 12"s while hundreds of 'electronica artists' piss on you from above. Hissing ambience created by a choir of tracheotomy patients with malfunctioning hearing aids spewing intercepted shortwave transmissions, interrupted by occasional gunfire; only the bullets are Masonna cassettes and Merzbow cd-r's. A skittery but smooth drone-dirge, like someone drugged Boards of Canada and then pushed them down the stairs, while outside the Fflint guys try desperately to start the getaway car. Yes, but is it music? Can I dance to it? Will it make the opposite sex swoon and want to sleep with me? No, probably not. Actually, most definitely not. This is not like the music you're used to. This is not music you'll hear on the radio or download from iTunes or hear on a car commercial. This is not music to dance to, or fuck to, or headbang to. Or maybe it is. At least for some of us. But that's precisely what makes Fflint and their divine din so special. And so goddamn important. This is pure sound, sound outside of music. But music the way we wish all music could be: Pure and freed from all the constraints that keeps "popular music" so boring and pointless and well, popular. This is unpopular music. We are unpopular people. And we couldn't be happier. PS: actually, we should say that this is Record of *next* Week, technically. Since we actually can't sell it 'til its "street date" on Tuesday, the 12th. But go ahead and mailorder it now, 'cause you won't get your shipments until after then anyway. Locals, line up Tuesday morning!

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What the hell more can we say about grime?! Other than we love it. We're obsessed with it. Grime and dubstep are everything we wish hip hop still was (and some still is, the new Clipse absolutely destroys!). Fresh and funky, wild and weird. Fucked up beats and even more fucked up flows. Stuttering hiccupping what the fuck rhythms. It's maddeningly mind bending. And we just can't get enough. And the thing is, we're forced to subsist on a new grime/dubstep release every few weeks or every couple of months, when we could easily be eating up ten times that. This is the only music that stands any chance of getting our non-dancing asses out of our chairs and out onto the dancefloor. And even if dancing is even lower on your list of priorities that it is on ours, this shit is the perfect kicking back music, drifting off, mellowing out, late night dubbed out chill music, it also sounds absolutely amazing blasting in your car. Like we said, we just can't get enough. So here we have a collection of some of the best dubstep (and grime) jams of the last little while compiled by legendary DJ Mary Anne Hobbs. About half of these tracks were recorded or at least remixed specifically for this comp, the rest being all time grime/dubstep classics. The disc starts off with a track from recent AQ Record of the Weeker Milanese, a furious muted blast of grime-y groove and some killer dancehall style toasting over the top. The grime element is sort of pushed aside in favor of the more blissed out dubstep sound for the rest of the disc, featuring a track from another AQ record of the week Burial, as well as a track from Kode9 & Space Ape whose full length we raved about not too long ago. And of course a track from Kevin Martin's Bug... This whole record is just so dark and deliriously groovy. Beats are all over the place, alternating between shuffling and pounding, slithering and stuttering, huge basslines fuzz and buzz, thick swaths of low end synth threaten your woofers, vocals are minimal, sometimes wild tongue twisting flows, other times growled dancehall toasting, bits of jungle surface here and there, thick swirls of ominous ambience EVERYWHERE. So goddamn good. We've been listening to this non stop!! And every time we play this in the store somebody comes up to find out what it is, and usually ends up buying it. So what else do you need to know. Buy this now!

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The first mix cd from dubstep diva DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, Warrior Dubs, was a sort of greatest hits snapshot of the dubstep/grime scene at the time. Lots of well known names, tons of aQ faves: Milanese, Burial, Kode9, Bug, and loads more. And while it was an incredible comp, for those of us who had already been obsessively tracking down as much grime and dubstep as we could get our hands on, it was a little light on new discoveries, a terrific mix for sure, but one we might have made ourselves. Which is ironic considering that dubstep, like jungle and garage and techno before it, is a genre that thrives on the newest thing, on the latest tracks, so much so that all the great DJ's tend to spin dubplates, unique copies of discs that have yet to be commercially released. This latest collection from Miss Hobbs is something completely different though. And precisely what we were hoping for. Not only does if feature a whole mess of new names and never-heard-of's amongst the usual suspects, it also spreads out sonically, way beyond the realms of grime or dubstep, incorporating all manner of other electronic musics, but all somehow woven into something incredibly cohesive, and darkly groovy. Much of this collection is super minimal, laid back and downtempo, lots of murky production and slowly skittering beats, some haunting almost completely ambient tracks, but some serious bangers as well. But before we get to all those, we might as well talk about the biggest surprise here, "Theory Of Machines" by Ben Frost, a nine and a half minute slab of slow burning blurred dronemusic, that over the course of its 9 minutes builds from soft shimmer to dense crumbling Tim Hecker style blurred beauty, to thick caustic blown out soft noise, to an super distorted almost-trip-hop. The sound is immense and epic, and so gorgeous, wreathed in crackle and underpinned by buzzing downtuned lowend, streaked with soaring synths, the track's climax, all skittery beats beneath clouds of hiss and whir and crackle and fuzz is totally intense and gorgeous. And the fact that it's dropped right between a super spaced out reverb drenched out chunk of muddy dubstep and some sun dappled Boards Of Canada style downtempo shuffle, speaks to Hobbs' skills as a DJ. Song choice, arrangement, segues. Even with the artists we know, Hobbs didn't necessarily pick their big hit, instead opting for the song that best suited the mix, and it pays off. Opening with Ital Tek's glitchy dubby stutter, and closing with Claro Intelecto's hushed techno whisper, a soft washed out dreaminess over a barely there pulse, the tracks in between manages to be all over the map, without sounding random or just thrown together. A grinding buzzing synth heavy grime jam from Wiley follows hot on the heels of Cult Of The 13th Hour's Kode9-ish slow dub, replete with a motorik pulse, some muted muddied skitter, and some deep spoken word vocals. DJ Pinch offers up some super abstract dubstep, the usual synth buzz relegated to a distant murmur, the main rhythm, surrounded by little flurries of tribal shuffle, which is quickly followed up by Magnetic Man's electronic dub, that minus the dubstep synth warble brings to mind On-U-Sound or the Dub Chemists. Surgeon offers up some awesome Kompakt style techno, all looped and hypnotic, minimal and murky, which quickly gives way to a Boxcutter track that almost sounds like some electronic dub infused free jazz, all abstract skitter, crooned vocals, throbbing bass, strange space FX, bits of free freakout, even some whirring organ. Definitely not the mix for someone looking for a dubstep greatest hits, we've got the recent Steppa's Delight collection among others for that, this is more a collection of modern electronic music, a glimpse into the future of sound, how these various tracks fit together, how electronic music continues to change before our very ears, dub becomes dubstep but what will it become next, techno and grime and downtempo and trip-hop seep back into the 'new' sound and makes it even newer, hybrids of hybrids of hybrids, how these sounds look to the past to reach the future. But more importantly, you can dance to them. Well, sort of.

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