[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 4501 through 4550 of 5033.

Fourth in popular series. With Beanfield, People Under The Stairs, J Boogie's Subtronic Science, King Kooba, more. 13 tracks.

Right from the beginning, this compilation starts off on the wrong foot. The foundation of the record is a shaky one, attempting to find semiotic connections between electronic music as a form of alchemy and the transmutation of language within the context of

"One2Two" is a double CD compilation of material from the first 12 Intermedium releases, plus a couple of unreleased tracks, featuring Hans Platzgumer, Samuel Beckett, Console and Thomas Meinecke, Philip Jeck, Guenther Koch, Ammer and Console, Walter

We've been trying to list this for ages now (we listed its predecessor, the Ongaku 70 comp, late last year), but our distributor kept running out, and then eventually it sold out totally and went out of print. Well, it's finally repressed and available again, but who knows for how long, so grab a copy before they're gone, cuz this stuff is so good, and so crazy, some of the coolest and weirdest minimal electronic and no wave music we've ever heard, and most of the groups were totally unknown to us. Sure there's Phew and Riuchi Sakamoto and Tako, but then there's also Daisuck & Prostitute, Gunjogacrayon, Lizard and so many more. For those of you who remember that awesome So Young So Cold compilation of seventies and eighties cold/new wave music from France, well, imagine an even more warped and whatthefuck Japanese version and you've got Ongaku 80. The sounds here are so varied and so all over the map, there's no way to really describe it as a whole, so might as well go track by track. EP-4 starts things off with "Robothood Process", which is in fact quite robotic, sounding a little like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" at 16rpm, a funky bassline, little flurries of percussion, a weird machinelike voice, streaks of feedback, tolling bells, all wrapped into ramshackle groove. Sakamoto's "Riot In Lagos" takes the new wavey prog of Yellow Magic Orchestra (Sakamoto's group), and pulls it apart into something more robotic, unwinding long streaks of dubby rhythms, and a stuttery almost hip-hop groove, wreathed in all manner of beeps and bloops and synth blurts. "Modern Beat" by Lizard might be one of our favorites, a militaristic beat, some spidery guitar melodies, buried crooned vocals, lilting melodies, but over the top super loud dubbed out drums and a thick super distorted low end buzz, that erupts every once in a while like a squelchy rib cage rattling pppppthhhh, not to mention some squiggly Bollywood melodies. Portray Heads offer up "Elaborate Dummy", which is a killer slab of futuristic electro-punk with sweet crooned girl vox over the top, pulsing and pulsating synthscapes that should have fans of Zombi, Umberto and all the rest flipping their lids. Gunjogacrayon channel early P.I.L. and the Slits for a noisy chunk of super rhythmic punkfunk, wreathed in all sorts of effects and guitar scrabble and garbled wild vox. Flip the record over, and things start off with "Urahara" by Phew, a weird bit of stiff robotic funk, with cold sung/spoken female vox over theremin like melodies and an almost Kraftwerk like arrangement. Tako's "Funk Of The Hostage" is indeed funky, bit a sort of sinister soundtracky funk that slithers and swaggers, a creepy bit of stuttery broody psychedelic spacefunk, with processed vocal garble and shards of squealing feedback and fractured melodies, as well as flurries of atonal piano, and bursts of distorted yelps and swirling FX. The awesomely named Daisuck & Prostitute almost sound like they could be some sort of proto-Ruins project, progged out scrabbly lurching grooviness, peppered with horn bleats and strangled guitar squiggles, all beneath dramatic vox, the song slipping from frenetic skitter, to grooving post punk. Shinobu's "Earth" is another track that sounds like a mutated version of HH's "Rockit", this time pelted with all manner of spaced out swirl and stuttering swoosh, a collage of sliced and diced sonic fragments raining down on a mesmerizing sci-fi synth groove, with some bizarre bellowed vox. And finally, PTA's finish things off with their epic "Woo-Guy After Dark", which weds post punk guitar jangle to tribal percussion, swoonsome synth swells to sweetly crooned female vocals, a slow build to something that more resembles a lost Bollywood soundtrack or some strange Southeast Asian cassette reissued on Sublime Frequencies, the song slipping from dense and percussive to swirly and ethereal and back again, all the while super rhythmic and hypnotic. Phew! So good, and so awesomely crazy and over the top! So totally recommended. We definitely can't say how long these copies will last, or if we can get more once they're gone, so better probably to not risk it. You have been warned!

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Where many of the 'Readers Digest' collections of electronica are generic codifications of style (as is the case with so many of the Mille Plateaux compilations), "Open Source Code" works in concentrating less on the 'who's hot' model of curation and more on collecting tracks that are well grounded in the fundamentals of techno. Good, well crafted techno always gives the appearance of effortlessness, and the majority of the tracks here display that effortlessness by emphasizing the minimalist bent for techno with only a few hic-cups of the overwrought conceptualization that has plagued the current 'click-hop' strain of electronica. "Open Source Code" is a presentation from Source Records and Ableton Software (whose Live program was used to construct the recent Scion mix of the Basic Channel back catalogue); and features some very polite cuts of minimal club techno from Akufen, Jan Jelinek, S.E. Berlin (aka Sun Electric), Robert Lippok (from Tarwater and To Rococo Rot), Bton, Sutekh, Thomas Brinkmann, Smyglyssna, Move D, Alex Cortex, Monolake, and Studio Pankow.

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Tigerbeat6 offer up a stunningly eclectic compilation to make your head spin, and with a price tag that won't make your wallet whimper! Two dozen tracks ranging from the hi-tech to the lo-tech, the sophisticated to the positively nerdy. Starring DJ Rupture, Stars As Eyes, The Bug, Com.a, Numbers, Cex, Total Shutdown, Electric Company, The Rip-Off Artist, Crack We Are Rock, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Terminal 11, Nathan Michel, Caro, Dwayne Sodahberk, Max Tundra, Original Hamster, Zeigenbock Kopf and of course Kid 606.

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Or Records' second compilation of computer music finds its definition of computer music in the late '60s and early '70s, when huge mainframe computers were neccessary to calculate not quite random but sequentially diffuse algorithms for the making of computer

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SORRY. A follow-up to "Gravikords Whirligigs and Pyrophones", this book (written again by Bart Hopkin with an introduction by Robert Moog) and cd compilation (with Aphex Twin, Tom Waits, John Cage, Stomp, Lou Harrison...) is another celebration of the creative spirit of instrument invention.

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SORRY. A budget collection of Leaf's upcoming releases of mostly fourth world electronica with Hindi and Japanese percussive elements filtering into abstract beatz and straight up UK techno. With Richard Thomas, 310, Eardrum, Four Tet (1/3 of Fridge), Beige, A Small Good Thing (aka O Yuki Conjugate), Gripper, Sons of Silence, Gorodisch, and Susumo Yakata, whose hypercheesed send up of Fat Boy Slim (making his claim as the 'funk soul brother' sound even more Caucasian) was long over due.

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SORRY.

It's hard to believe the British Asian dance label Outcaste has been around only five years. Their club nights in London are legendary, and they've translated that into half a dozen albums so far. Here's a compilation mixing previously available and unavailable tracks from such artists Nitin Sawhney, Up + Bustle and Out, Ananda Shankar, and Dave Pike (remixed by Badmarsh and Shri). Fans of Outcaste's "Untouchable Outcaste Beats", tabla 'n' beats, and Talvin Singh will appreciate.

Second vinyl accompaniment to the Output 64 remix compilation cd. Features tracks found on said disc by Raumagent Alpha (an extended version) and Computerjockeys as well as two unreleased cuts by The Bikini Machine and Cut Out (an excellent version of

As the title states, these are remixes of material from the Input 64 compilation. All utilize the sounds of the Commodore 64 computer game system. Some are fluffily entertaining, others considerably less so. Look closely and you just might spot a Chick on

This 2001 compilation is the impressive debut in the recorded realm of Bay Area clubland kingpin DJ Tom Thump. If you dig downtempo, soul and house sounds, you're probably already very familiar with Tom Thump. For those of you who aren't, rest assured he's a gent you can trust as a purveyor of the smooth funky, jazzy good times! This skillfully mixed compilation will carry you deep into the night in fab style.

The king of the Patty Duke fan club has just gotta be Mike Dereniewski of Detroit, MI. He's the man behind this musical mammoth ode to Ms Duke. His Patty Duke Fanzine has evolved over the last decade from a traditional cut'n'paste paper zine to one that included a 7" compilation with bands covering Patty songs to its current and final state, this double cd compilation. Talk about goin' out with a bang! Likewise, Mike D's musical periscope has stretched out beyond his early ultra pop focus, discovering and sharing sounds of all shapes and sizes from around the globe. Mind you, a big part of his record collection is still clearly reserved for the sweet sounds of girl groups. These two cds collect together tunes from past Patty Duke Fanzine releases and a whole lot more. You get an astounding fifty four tracks of music and almost as many dialogue snippits of Patty Duke from her tv shows and movies! Allow us to give you a mere sampling of the artists included: Asobi Seksu, Gore Gore Girls, His Name Is Alive, Jessica Bailiff, Kevin Blechdom, Mark Robinson, Rose Melberg, Slumber Party, Stereo Total, V/VM, and Windy & Carl. Wow!

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Ironic posturing. Dorky electronics. Sneering No Wave anti-grooves. Wack beats. Dumb raps. Cheap thrills. Yup, it's marketing genius from Tigerbeat 6 and they're commemorating the first full North American tour for Numbers, Cex, and Stars As Eyes with this label compilation. Along with the chopped art-rock angularity of the Numbers, Cex's perposterously juvenile hip-hop, and Stars As Eyes' majestic yet art-schooled IDM, "Paws Across America" features a smattering of DSP workouts, grimy disco, and abused Rotterdam 'ardcore from Original Hamster, Electric Company, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Nathan Michel, Uprock, and that enigmatic German duo Zeigenbock Kopf. Tigerbeat claims that this compilation is all new and exclusive; however, the Knifehandchop track did appear on "TKO From Tokyo" 12."

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Whassamatter? Can't keep up with the ever-accelerating rate of releases on Kid606's Tigerbeat6 imprint? Well we've got just the thing for you, the latest sampler compilation from Tigerbeat6 that will let you get acquainted with the current/upcoming crowd of Tigerbeat6 trouble-, I mean, music-makers in one fell swoop. 22 tracks, almost 80 freaking minutes of noise and groove colliding in a hard drive somewhere and making something special. We won't generalize beyond that, curious folks should just pick this up and get caught up with the exciting goings on in the world of Kid606 and friends. Some names though: DJ/Rupture, Donna Summer, Stars As Eyes, Total Shutdown, 0=0, Titwrench, Puzzleweasel, Dwayne Sodahberk, Soundmurderer...

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SORRY. Here's something we thought we'd NEVER see - the 8 volume boxset of 3"cd-rs from Peasant Magik. Peasant Magik was one of the exemplary freakfolk / feral drone imprints during the aughts which has all but entirely disappeared over the past four or five years. The contributions include Natural Snow Buildings, Gregg Kowalsky, The North Sea, Valerio Cosi, Fabio Orsi, Andrew Paine, Super Minerals, Big Blood, and Pillars Of Heaven. This was limited to 200 copies; and we managed to get just THREE copies. THREE!!! As such, we won't be going into too much detail about the sounds of each of the recordings. Expect dreamy, narcoleptic, glistening, magical tracks of half-melodic psychedelic dronings.

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SORRY. This compendium of 'New York Electro Hip Hop + Underground Dance Classics 1980 - 1985' has so many great tracks from Afrika Bambaataa, Kraftwerk, New Order, Cybotron, Liquid Liquid, ESG, Shannon, etc... it is baffling that Marc insists on only playing 'The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight' by Dominatrix not just once, but three or four times in a row. I'll admit that there is something charming about this song, but I have gotten sick of it. Nevertheless, the tracks on these compilations qualify the roots of techno, electronica, and gangsta rap. Vol 1. features Afrika Bambaataa, Yaz, Yello, Kraftwerk, Peech Boys, Planet Patrol, T.W. Funkmasters, and more. Vol 2. (perhaps the best of the 4) features Dominatrix, New Order, ESG, Liquid Liquid, Shannon, Freeze, Slack, and more. Vol 3. Shannon, Xena, Carol Lynn Townes, Heaven 17, Hashim, Tina B, Seidah Garrett, and more. Vol 4. (the most electro of the bunch) features Cybotron, Jonzun Crew, Quadrant Six, Newcleus, C-Bank, Afrika Bambaataa, and more.

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What a great comp! Rare but amazing examples of "Black music" (that's the European term) from the '70s, done with a heavy helping of at-the-time cutting edge electronics. Spaced out soul, in other words. Well, obviously it wasn't just cosmic krautrockers and spacey prog bands in the '70s messing around with the latest in synthesizers and other electronic music-making devices. Why wouldn't soul, funk, gospel, and RnB artists also make use of all that newfangled machinery? Of course they would, with folks like Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra leading the way. And they did. Especially those making music at home, without access to big studio budgets. That's the "Personal" part of the title, the songs here pretty much all being solo DIY home-brewed recordings, enabled by the technology... Which, along with the futuristic/sci-fi vibes that go along with the tech, give a lot of this a bit of an additional eccentric "outsider" feel, just check out the artist known as Starship Commander Woo Woo, for instance! So, the compilers of this collection have dug deep, to find all these fantastic selections of what you could call "electronic soul", that in the mainstream we'd really only previously heard from Shuggie Otis... so if you can imagine Shuggie Otis really way out in spaaaace, you've got an idea of what's happening here. Fat, buzzing synths. The mechanical tick-tock of primitive drum machines. Spacey FX galore. Mega multitracked masterpieces. Yeah, it'd all be novelty, if these songs weren't good. But, they ARE good. Obscure but definitely grade-A stuff in our book. The sci-fi sounds (which make a lot of this seem simultaneously '70s retro but also very up-to-date electronica-ish) are put to use by artists who come across like mutant Stevie Wonders and Sly Stones. There's 17 tracks here, from names we doubt you've ever heard of before: Jeff Phelps, Guitar Red, Johnnie Walker, U.S. Aries, The Makers, Cotillion, Spontaneous Overthrow, Jerry Green, Johnson, Key & Cleary, The New Year, T. Dyson & Company, Steve Elliot, Deborah Washington, and the aforementioned Starship Commander Woo Woo. Kinda hard to pick faves, some are simply groovy, some super bizarre, many both at once... The only omission we can think of, is that even though this gets into the '80s, there's nothing from Wicked Witch on here (see our review of EM's reissue of that if you aren't familiar). But what's here is plenty weird & wonderful, from the twangy zipzap of bluesman Guitar Red's "Disco From A Space Show" to the heavily echo-effected "My Bleeding Wound" by The New Year... Nicely presented, the cd in deluxe hardbound booklike slipcased packaging, complete with liner notes including thumbnail images of each original release. And the vinyl version is a 180 gram double lp, also nicely packaged.

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A fine introduction to the Kompakt family of artists and the signature Kompakt label sound typified by floaty, crystalline washes of spacious electronic beauty anchored by muted but insistent experimental techno rhythms (fans of Chain Reaction take note,

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Volume two in Kompakt's definitive guide to the tranquil aural haze of Köln. Like its predecessor, Pop Ambient 2002 covers the classic, very distinct Kompakt sound -- dense, gritty and repetitive, always simple and extremely melodic and beautiful. Featuring

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I was kind of surprised by the lukewarm reception this received from some of the AQ staffers, 'cause as far as I'm concerned this collection is as good if not better than the Gas titles we raved about in past lists as well as the last two Pop Ambient compilations. From gorgeous, shimmery, slowly shifting dreamscapes of heavily reverbed guitars and processed electronics, to warm fuzzy drones with skittery hiccupping beats to chiming ethereal washes of hummmmm and whhiiiiiiiirrrrr. So gorgeous. This has been my late night listening for the last week. Fans of Boards Of Canada, Gas, Troum, and the like will be in heaven.

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We were never all that into techno. Especially house music. But then along came the Chain Reaction label, and removed everything from the house music equation -except- for the beat and some leftover sonic detritus. And suddenly we found ourselves digging this new sort-of-house music. So now along comes Kompakt, and this time, they strip away all the -beats-, leaving just dreamy soundscapes, swirling eddies of sound, lonely chords, melodies drifitng lazily into space with no beats left to keep them earthbound. The result is a gorgeous, shimmery ambient music, angelic and ethereal, eschewing all of its techno roots, instead positioning itself somewhere between the late night chill out of the Orb, and that sort of barely-there music for meditation. New Age? As much as classic Tangerine Dream was new age, which is to say, a little certainly. But these Pop Ambient compilations manage to be soothing and shimmery without crossing the line into Windham Hill / Yoga tape schmaltz. Think AQ faves Gas with the beats stripped away completely. Or think an even more blissed out, less glitchy Oval. Gently strummed guitar chords, spaced far enough apart that you can almost hear the notes dissipate into the ether, gradually mutating melodies are stretched over a vast expanse of pastoral hum, shrouded in clouds of whir, subtle sonic swells create 10 bpm rhythms that don't sound like rhythms at all, tinlking chimes create shimmery waves that move slowly outward forever like ripples in a pond. So good. Perfectly dreamy and relaxing. Impossible not to love, this is volume four in Kompakt's Pop Ambient series and they just keep getting better. And more ambient. At this rate by volume 6 or 7 there may not be any sound left at all, just gentle whispers and inaudible drones. Can't wait. (fyi, the cd has one more track than the vinyl.)

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Another installment in the absolutely flawless Pop Ambient series. We casually mentioned in our review of the 2004 Pop Ambient comp that we weren't all that keen on techno. A few folks took it a bit too personally so this here review should hopefully smooth some ruffled feathers. It's true, we never liked the mainstream techno that much. It was the mutant strains that really hit the spot for us. But that's the case with pop music as well. And metal. And indie rock. And hell, music in general. That's sort of the point of this list and this store. It's the ferreting out of weird and wonderful subsets of genres that may not initially appeal to us. Finding that one techno record that the black metal folks might dig, or finding that one grindcore records that even indie rockers can't resist. So it is with the Pop Ambient. Gone are most of the beats, and ALL of the four on the floor throb, and most of the techno trappings, and left in their place are a ghostly glimmers, a shimmering trace of a pop song, the musical equivalent of catching something in the corner of your eye. Like condensation, little beads of melody slowly slip earthward, while indistinct melodies drift past like the last vestiges of early morning fog. Subtle and sleepy, dreamy and drowsy, gleaming and glistening, completely mesmerizingly hypnotic. The perfect sounds for warm fires, rainy days, late nights, full moons, thick fogs, lonely evenings, not so lonely evenings, good books, deep sleeps, a lazy afternoons and for drifting into nothingness. Tracks from the Orb, Gas, Ulf Lohmann, Thomas Fehlmann, Klimek, Andrew Thomas, Pass Into Silence, Triola, Popnoname, DJ Koze, and Peter Grummich. The LP is a few tracks shorter than the cd.

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There has yet to be a Pop Ambient compilation (we're up to number 6 now) that hasn't gone straight to our "most listened to" pile, and more often than not, that pile of special sleep cds we all keep by our bed. Makes perfect sense as there are very few records we get that are as deliriously dreamy and sweetly sleepy and gorgeously gossamer and late night langorous as these Pop Ambients. For those of you who don't know what the heck we're talking about, Pop Ambient is a mutant strain of techno that does away completely with all the beats, and almost all vestiges of the techno framework, leaving nothing but the ghostly remnants, drifting otherworldly melodies and shimmering shuffling ambience, a gorgeous abstract swirl of smeared melody and warm layered whirls of sound. The key to Pop Ambient is that while it is indeed ambient, and instrumental, and soothingly serene, it somehow manages to never slip into New Age pap. It remains vital and dense and interesting to listen to, as much as it lets us drift away in a gauzy cloud of sparkle and shimmer. Pop Ambient 2006 is perhaps the most soft focus outing yet, every note and chord and cluster of sound rendered fuzzy and indistinct, as if viewed through a fogged up window, the whole sonic world a blurred glimpse of some other world, a vision of the past, frozen in time and drifting by us frame by frame. Pop Ambient 2006 is the musical version of laying in the grass and watching clouds drift lazily by, or floating in the sea, eyes closed, feeling the gentle swells undulate gently beneath you, a sweet, rich, warm, pure sound that envelops you in its soft embrace, like having your head wrapped in cotton, your ears filled with honey, and your body made weightless. So absolutely lovely.

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What more can we say about this Pop Ambient series. Or the 'genre' in general. Its quickly become one of our favorite sounds, a blissy fuzzy ambience that is soothing and serene. Droney and drifty and dreamy and otherworldly. For those of you who have never heard of Pop Ambient, it's a term coined for a specific strain of techno, where most of the beats are removed, leaving just sjimmer and swirl of the music behind the beats. Lush looped soundscapes of warm synthesizer swells, deep drifts of slow moving sound, all washed out and blurry, the 'dance music' version of all that drone music we love, Basinski, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Aidan Baker and the like. In fact none of them would seem at all out of place on a Pop Ambient compilation. Think Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, but updated for the 21st century, chill out music that is not vapid or light, but is dense and deep and lush. 2007's volume is just as good or maybe even better than the preceding six volumes. Some familiar names, Markus Guentner, Thomas Felmann (of the Orb), Klimek, Andrew Thomas, most who we have raved about in the past. But some new names as well. Probably the most exciting track is a seldom heard rarity from Wolfgang Voigt's Gas! Gas is most definitely one of out favorite practitioners of the pulsing blissy pop ambient, and it's been years! We've been dying for some new music from Gas, so while this is technically not new, it sure does hit the spot. A relentless pulse beneath thick swirls of minor key sound, house music buried beneath layer after layer of glistening shimmering sound. The rest of this disc is just as good. Numerous variations on the Pop Ambience, looped vocals stretched into stuttering M83 style fuzz drone soundscapes, acoustic guitar loops arranged into stuttering rhythms, skipping cds smeared Oval style into lush orchestration, all of it so devastatingly dreamy. Every time a new Pop Ambient record comes out, it just replaces the one before it as the perfect late night dream drift record... Until next year!

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It's that time again. As inevitable and as the first snowfall, the first day of spring, the end of summer, comes a brand new installment of blissy beatless electronica from Kompakt. Since 2000, Kompakt has been releasing collections of what they call Pop Ambient. Techno with the beats removed, leaving just billowy clouds of shimmery sound, the vestiges of beats that once were now only ghostly pulses, or distant soft swells. Dreamlike melodies, washed out loops, whirring electronic shuffles, bits of glitch smoothed into soft rounded textures, bits of guitar strum pulled apart, the notes drifting weightless amidst bleary eyed ambience. Not sure what else to say at this point. By now, almost everyone we know anxiously awaits the arrival of a new Pop Ambient comp. Immediately, a whole new world of late night drift, a dark swirling ocean of sound that is at once soothing and mysterious, glimmering and haunting. This collection is no different. Most of the names are familiar by now: The Field, Markus Guentner, Andrew Thomas, Ulf Lohmann, DJ Koze, Klimek. The sounds are quite familiar as well. Gauzy, sun dappled, breathless and whispery, a sort of streamlined new age, meditative and mesmerizing, hypnotic and completely tranquil. Many techno tropes are still present, but here they are transformed into distinctly non techno shapes and arrangements. Most of the songs, are simple with only a single part. Slowly shifting and drifting and transforming. It's like Steve Reich or Terry Riley or Phillip Glass composing late night chill out techno. Long stretches of blurred fragmented melodies. Synths and strings wheeze and warble, the beats that remain are nothing more than metronomic bits of hiss, heartbeat like pulses, wreathed in prismatic sparkles, clouds of record crackle, hazy streaks of smoothed out shimmer. It's like a whole sound based on that one part of 10CC's "I'm Not In Love", a washed out sprawl of droning chordal buzz, but stretched out into billowing transparent sonic sheets, laced with subtly soaring strings, tiny bits of glitch and fuzz, dramatic, dreamy, soporific and sweetly serene. But not without just a hint of melancholy. All the tracks are amazing, but a few stand out, Klimek's "The Ice Storm" a slab of seriously cinematic soundscaping, replete with warm washes of synths, and super dramatic Bernard Hermann strings, an occasionally surfacing bit of percussive skitter, all woven into a darkly personal mysterious drift. And of course The Field, who we love, offers up one of his best tracks ever, "Kappsta 2", with an immediately recognizable skipping hiccupping looped cd landscape, like a much more dramatic Oval, with synths and vocals and strings and fuzzy bass all chopped and blurred into a kaleidoscopic, and strangely rhythmic expanse of dizzying and diffused dreamdrone. As always absolutely breathtaking. And oh so highly recommended.

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MPEG stream: Oceans Day
MPEG stream: The Ice Storm

Another year, another collection of gauzy, washed out atmospheric shimmer from Kompakt. The latest in their ongoing series chronicling the more ambient (and poppy?) side of techno, but unlike past installments, there has been a serious shift this time around. Not only are there a bunch of new artists, but the sound itself has definitely been transformed. Before, Pop Ambient seemed to be more about processed electronics and bleary eared synthscapes, like techno with the beats stripped away, but this time around, while those electronic and synth elements haven't been abandoned completely, the sound seems much more organic, more Kranky than Kompakt, more like a sound unto itself. We use Pop Ambient to describe much of our favorite drone music, hazy, shimmery, gauzy, dreamy, be it Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Jesu and the like, Pop Ambient, for us at least, has become a sort of analog to shoegaze, a drifting sound blurred and smeared and indistinct, while somehow remaining melodic and mesmerizing. Its relation to techno tenuous, if entirely nonexistent at this point, having taken off a life, and a sound of its very own. Every Pop Ambient comp has been a huge hit around here, so much so that we just naturally assumed that we had probably made all of them Records Of The Week in the past, but upon checking, we realized only one had made ROTW. Well, now TWO. 2009's Pop Ambient focuses much more on real instruments, horns, guitars, pianos, all woven into the already familiar landscape of soft synths and barely there rhythmic pulses, a swirling slow moving ambience, that flits from haunting chamber music, to looped post rock, to deep drone. The first thing you might notice, is some very aQ artists amidst the usual suspects, sure there's Klimek, Andrew Thomas, Burger / Voigt, but then also Tim Hecker and The Fun Years, as if they had asked for our 2 cents in putting together this year's comp. And sonically, we couldn't have done better ourselves. Much darker, and more mysterious than past installments, surprisingly varied, but it works beautifully as an album, not just a collection. Warped orchestral fanfares are slowed down and blurred beautifully, with a subtle rhythmic undercurrent, warm woozy horns blurred into sun dappled streaks, shimmery dramatic strings wind around plaintive piano, gorgeous and soundtracky, moody free jazz records get spun at 16 rpm, the piano plucking out a funereal dirge, flutes woven into wavering sheets of sound, record crackle everywhere, bits of electronic shimmer get stretched out into gauzy looped soundscapes, simple repetitive guitar figures lope dreamily over long stretches of harmonized horns, epic sweeping swells of dramatic buzz ebb and flow over buried melodies, distorted guitars unwind amidst swirling clouds of gritty textured ambience, skittering Oval-like loopscapes stutter and glitch soft focus tendrils of electronic whir, spidery guitars tangle with looped samples, locking into impossibly dreamy drifts of hypnotic repetition. It's a breathtaking collection of sonic wonder, of sounds we truly consider to be Pop Ambience, haunting and otherworldly, subtly dark, sometimes ominous, always gorgeous, and of course totally recommended. And while this is a no brainer for the Pop Ambient obsessed, the minimal techno folks, and the Kompakt fanatics, this record might prove to be a new favorite for anyone into Stars Of The Lid, Pan American, Labradford, Eluvium, Windy And Carl and other purveyors of deep drone and nocturnal drift.

MPEG stream: Shosts In Silver
MPEG stream: I Am Speaking Through Barbara
MPEG stream: Nuage III
MPEG stream: A Dream Of A Spider

Finally, the latest installment of pop ambience is here, a record we look forward to all year. Very few series, whether they be compilations, TV shows, movies, whatever, can make it to 10 installments, at least not without the quality suffering big time, but the Pop Ambient series continues to be amazing. And untouchable. We'd say that every one is better than the last, but that wouldn't be entirely true, since every single one has been equally fantastic. The 2009 installment introduced some new blood, some non Kompakt folks dabbling in their own ambient pop, like Tim Hecker and The Fun Years, along with the usual suspects. But for 2010, Kompakt decided to keep it in the family, lots of familiar names: The Orb, Mikkel Metal, Thomas Fehlmann, Dettinger, Andrew Thomas, Wolfgang Voigt, DJ Koze, but with a couple tracks from Brock Van Wey, whose Echospace imprint owes no small debt to Kompakt, and one from new to us Marsen Jules, with maybe the best song on the disc. Jules' "The Sound Of One Lip Kissing" starts things off with surprisingly dark and ominous take on the Pop Ambient sound, a gorgeously grim, lopped slow motion creep, all deep tones, lots of space, and a spare skeletal rhythm, all murky and warm and washed out, the various tones looped and stuttered into blurred sonic ripples, cinematic and darkly epic, we find ourselves playing that one track over and over and over. The two Brock Van Wey tracks take the post Chain Reaction minimal space dub sound of Echospace, and gives it a shimmery, sun dappled pop ambient overhaul, bits of guitar, and fragmented voices, wreathed in delay, and looped into ethereal dreamscapes, Van Wey's 17 minute closer "Will you Know Where to Find Me" begins as a muted blurry low end drift, but soon explodes into a glorious prismatic shoegaze blowout, that sounds a bit like a drumless M83, nearly static, a pulsing cloud of bleary eyed female vox and processed buzz, so epic and gorgeous. In between lurks plenty of soft focus beauty, from glistening, echo drenched slowcore dream pop, to swirling seas of hiss and crackle and submerged melody, to stuttery high end drones, to blurred gauzy piano driven abstract ambient ballads, to cinematic sting laden drifts, to super intense and emotional looped dronescapes, to hushed outer space minimal psychedelia, to blissed out slow motion mesmer. Another utterly gorgeous and transcendently divine ambient pop music, which will just have to hold us over until 2011... For vinyl folks, fear not, the lp version includes the cd as well...

MPEG stream: The Sound Of One Lip Kissing
MPEG stream: Schildergasse
MPEG stream: Glen Coe
MPEG stream: Will You Know Where To Find Me

A new Pop Ambient collection is always exciting news around here, perhaps our favorite single ongoing series of electronic music compilations EVER. And goddamn if we don't reference the Pop Ambient sound in about half our reviews. But it's inevitable really, after all the sound we've come to know as Pop Ambient is just so gorgeous and glorious, washed out and hazy and gauzey and dreamlike. It's techno without the beats, it's new age without the schmaltz, it's dark deep listening, but it's also ethereal and ephemeral and the sort of sound that ends up being the soundtrack to so much of our lives, so soothing and mesmerizing and hypnotic, dreamlike sounds that entrance, and lull and transport us to some other place, thus, a new batch of Pop Ambient jams is some soothing sonic balm for our weary musical souls... The biggest surprise this time around might be opening with a track by ANBB, the collaborative duo of Alva Noto and Blixa Bargeld of Einsturzende Neubaten, whose music, even here, is barely Pop Ambient, the sound is muted and buzzy, electronic and abstract, a slow building drone, that's more ominous than dreamy, very soundtracky and dramatic, with deep electronic pulses, and then right near the end, vocals come in, and the song is transformed into some strange bit of haunting electro cabaret. But that's about as weird as it gets, the rest of the record slips back into the swirling shimmering electronic dreamscapes we've come to love, pianos unleash flurries of notes that drift beneath soft swells of muted buzz and skittery barely there rhythms, warm whirring chordal streaks are layered and stretched out into beautiful sun dappled blurscapes, full on daydreamy fuzz pop like a druggier driftier M83 meanders and drifts like some after school special playing in slow motion, the standout track might be "30.6.1881", by Crato, who we'd never heard before, whose take on Pop Ambience is on the dark side, mixing a little heroin house underwater pulse to the otherwise whirring ethereal blur, fantastically warped and blurred and in places surprisingly noisy. But other than that and the opener, the rest of the record finds the Pop Ambient stable at their most blissed out, their most woozy and soft focus, featuring some of the usual culprits: Thomas Fehlmann, Jurgen Paape, Mikkel Metal, Wolfgang Voigt, Triola, as well as some fresh faces: Bhutan Tiger Rescue, Crato, Bvdub, Barnt and more. As always, absolutely, utterly and wholeheartedly recommended, total bliss out dreaminess for sure, and if you're just discovering the world of Pop Ambience, prepare to become totally obsessed, and with a desire to track down the first TEN volumes as well...

MPEG stream: Bernsteinzimmer
MPEG stream: Ein Schoner Land
MPEG stream: 30.6.1881
MPEG stream: Titan

It's that time again, Kompakt's yearly installment in their Pop Ambient series, a release we ALWAYS look forward to and one that typically immediately becomes out new favorite sleeping / chillout / late night listen, and this one looks to be no different. In that respect at least. One way it IS different this time around is the opening track. More on that in a second. For folks new to Pop Ambience, it's basically like minimal electronica with the beats stripped way, leaving just lush expanses of whoosh and shimmer, blurred melodies and abstract ambience. It's also become a sort of go to descriptor for that sound we love so much, the sort of hazy, gauzy, washed out soundscaping of folks like Tim Hecker and the Caretaker and the like, with these comps offering up new tracks by old faves, and every time at least one or two new discoveries. The big discovery this time around for us, and the one responsible for the above mentioned opening track, goes by the name of Mohn, and delivers what might be the darkest, heaviest Pop Ambient track yet, a thick hazy landscape of blurred, crumbling greys and blacks, lots of space, abstractly rhythmic, almost doomy, dense gristly swells, that remain warmly melodic, but still hauntingly ominous. It's a gorgeous cinematic creep, super dynamic, and darkly moody, growing more spare and skeletal near the end, we've been listening to just this track over and over, and while it's the first we've really heard from Mohn, we're definitely dying to hear more. The comp returns to more familiar ground with some more familiar names after that, Superpitcher, Wolfgang Voigt, Triola, Marsen Jules, Simon Scott, and while the rest of the tracks here are much prettier, and way less dark, and more traditionally pop ambient, they still retain a bit of that ominous undercurrent, usually in the form of more melancholic melodies, with lush shimmers drifting amidst sonic shadows, repeated motifs adding just a teeny bit of cinematic tension. Superpitcher's lush and lovely "Jackson" might be one of the most gorgeous things we've heard from him, all processed voices and looped pianos, repetitive and cyclical and totally mesmerizing. Another new name Morek offers up a bit of dark and gristly buzz, wreathed of course in lustrous swirls of haze and shimmer, while Triola weaves a dreamlike expanse of swoonsome drift, and almost post rock sounding brood. Voigt's track here sounds like a lost soundtrack for some acid drenched Tim Burton film, like the tape is warping and undulating before your very ears, transforming beauty into something a bit darker and shadowy, while Jules adds what might be the only actual beats here, but in the form of reverbed and blurred skitters, the whole thing super dense, dubbed out and dreamy. Simon Scott weaves a sprawling bit of string laden soundtracky drift, evoking images of rainswept streets and dark mysterious cities, until the new-to-us Loops Of Your Heart finishes things off with a wistful bit of gauzy guitarscaping, all sweetly tangled melodies, and subtly processed atmospheres, everything wreathed in a streaks of sonic gristle and some soft focus cosmic swirl. So lovely.

MPEG stream: Manifesto
MPEG stream: Jackson
MPEG stream: Richmodis
MPEG stream: Swans Reflecting Elephants

Of the now thirteen (!) volumes of Kompakt's Pop Ambient series, we've only ever made two of them Records Of The Week, at about three year intervals, which is a bit surprising considering how much we've dug them all, and the fact that the term itself, Pop Ambient, has become a frequent bit of aQ review shorthand we use all the time to describe the numerous variations of blissed out shimmer and dreamy washed out drift we can't seem to get enough of. And as with each past installment, this latest is another stunning collection of experimental ambient music, lush atmospheric electronica stripped of beats, the backgrounds pushed to the fore, abstract and hauntingly atmospheric, the lineup featuring a handful of familiar names, but some new faces as well. And another reason for making this latest Pop Ambient collection a ROTW, is that there seems to be a growing darkness in the sounds of these comps, a grim musical undercurrent that infuses these tracks with a brooding quality that most ambient music lacks, the artists pushing well past a sound that initially was simply a beatless Kompakt style techno, toward something that over the years morphed into fully fleshed out modern minimalism, expansive sprawls of cinematic soundscapery and gorgeous snippets of avant chamber music, but all retaining that sort of Pop Ambient haze, a soft focus murk that makes the music sound like it's being transmitted from some other world, or some other time. Leandro Fresco starts things off with a gauzy bit of hushed shimmer, laced with what sound like alien field recordings, and pocked with haunting little sonar like pings, and wreathed in soft chordal swells. The vibe is very much like the soundtrack to some slow panning shot across a fog shrouded landscape, lit by the moon, and a sky full of flickering stars. Kompakt mainstay Michael Mayer follows up with a dark thrumming sprawl (remixed by another Kompakt regular Wolfgang Voigt), wedding a deep rumbling low end to a woozy looped susurrus, whispery and wispy, but shot through with a strangely sinister drone element, that lurks in the background, but gives the track some serious sonic malevolence. Jens-Uwe Beyer dials back the darkness, and unfurls a bit of slowly blossoming soft focus glimmer, the sound reminding us of Machinefabriek or Jasper TX, a slo-mo, melodic drift, all softly shifting overtones, and undulating layers, gauzy and darkly dreamlike. Triola delivers a strangely circus-like track, that conjures up images of a brightly lit carousel, viewed through a thick fog, a very Something Wicked This Way Comes vibe that is deftly molded into something much more playful and pretty. Marsen Jules returns to the dark side, with a lush, layered landscape of long tones, of minimal percussion, and blurred melody, woven into a tense, slow building brood, before the sound bursts into a dense, percussive, almost doomlike lumber, almost like a fuzzy, soft focus, dreamdrift SUNNO))), crashing percussive bursts of swirling sound, surrounded by streaks of bleary hum and thrum, a darkly churning, hauntingly cinematic epic that is WAY to short. Mikkel Metal keeps it dark, introducing his track with a distorted churning rumble, laced with swirly psychedelic backwards swoops, and a clipped hissing pulse, the noise sculpted into majestic swells, the vibe blackened and industrial, building to a thick, caustic, but still woozy and washed out, climax of dense black swirl. Anton Kubikov brings things back into the light, but a grey, dying sun sort of light, wrapping reverbed piano in thick swaths of gauzey swirl and crumbling textures, sounding a bit like a lost Caretaker track, weathered and worn, melancholic and otherworldly. Wolfgang Voigt returns, this time with his own track, which plays like a collage of orchestras tuning up, simultaneously symphonic and cacophonous, a dizzying collage of tangled loops, of fuzzy textures, murky ambience, warbly melodies, flutes surface at one point, as do strings, not to mention some epic orchestral swells, but they all seem to be sinking into a gorgeous, whirring black sonic morass. Leandro Fresco lightens things up with his second track, sounding more traditionally Pop Ambient, all hazy, lush textures, slowly shifting, glimmering melodies, and softly pulsing overtones, again super cinematic, dreamily epic, gorgeously melodic, a sun dappled dreamdronedrift that definitely plays like the sonic denouement, the musical light at the end of this hauntingly dark tunnel. Which is followed up by the finale, another field recording flecked stretch of swirling electronics, and dark droning swells, adding shadow to the previous track's light, and then surprising us all but coalescing into an actual pop song, all strummed acoustic guitar, and echo drenched dreamy sad boy vox, all wreathed in softly swirling clouds of woozy thrum, and all manner of forest sounds and bird calls, pastoral but again, just slightly sinister. So good.

MPEG stream: Cuando El Sol Grita La Manana
MPEG stream: Sully (Wolfgang Voigt Mix)
MPEG stream: Point Of No Return
MPEG stream: Ruckverzauberung
MPEG stream: Cirrus Minor

It's rare that any series makes it all the way to a 14th volume, and probably for good reason, it's hard to imagine any musician, or artist or TV show or film series sustaining a level of creativity and originality after all that time, somehow remaining relevant, beholden to the past, but always looking to the future. And yet somehow, we've arrived at the 14th installment of Kompakt's Pop Ambient series, one every year since 2001, and if anything, it sounds as good as ever. Pop Ambient has even become a part of the aQ lexicon, used to describe any music that's washed out and dreamy, and when anyone comes in to the shop, looking for the best chill out music, whether it's for something specific, massage, mediation, or something more abstract, driving music, falling asleep music, late night come down chill out sun coming up soundtrack, it's the Pop Ambient series we always go to. And there literally hasn't been a dud in the bunch, not in 13 years. Now 14 counting this new volume, which is equally divine. The record is bookended by two tracks from Ulf Lohmann, who we no doubt have raved about in reviews of other volumes, opener "Sicht" is all pastoral shimmer, softly swirling psychedelia, looped and layered and utterly dreamlike, while closer "Pcc" is a slightly shadowier variation, melancholic and nearly symphonic, but still darkly, dreamily ambient. In between, there's Thomas Fehlmann's hushed drift, lightly dusted with some glitch, and peppered with delicate piano, all wound up in soft billows of synthy shimmer, and Mikkel Metal's buzzy mesmeric raga "Patience". There's Marsen Jules' "The Philosopher's Trap", all cinematic and spacious, and Cologne Tape's playful kraut-ambient "Moorpark", and Simon Scott's "Fur Betty", which is a drowsily looped Jeckian field of Caretaker-like orchestral swells. The Bionaut's "Aquamarine" gets remixed by Triola", the result a woozily murky bit of subterranean pulsation and swirling droned out thrum, and Wolfgang Voigt's "Ruckverzauberung 8" which might be the most minimal of the bunch, a field of sculpted grey noise, all staticky, deep swirls of hiss and hum. And finally what might be the most exciting thing about this new volume, the return of Pop Ambient legend GAS! Remixing The Field! And it's just as good as you would imagine, tense, and intense, dark and droney and ominously mesmeric. Here's hoping there's a proper new Gas record on the horizon! Like pretty much every single Pop Ambient collection, this will almost for sure be our new going to sleep / chill out music, at least until next year's installment (or a new Gas record!)! Needless to say, absolutely and whole heartedly recommended!

MPEG stream: Treatment
MPEG stream: Fur Betty
MPEG stream: Ruckverzauberung 8
MPEG stream: Cupid's Head / Gas Ambient Mix

Another wholehearted recommendation is in store for the 15th edition of the ongoing Pop Ambient series! As we mentioned many times before, the 'pop ambient' sound can be seen as a catch-all term for a blissed out electronica that scoffs at the practice of just making techno music without the beats. No, this global vocabulary (though conceived in Germany) re-engineers the very functional chill-out music into a divine meditativeness par excellence. Variations occasionally come along within the Pop Ambient vocabularies with entries that slide a bit towards a darker palette and others that engender more organic sensibilities; and we can say that 2015 glistens with the brightness of a well polished silver. As in previous editions, Kompakt allows for introductions to newer artists alongside the stalwarts in their roster of technicians. The hitherto unknown Thore Pfieffer opens the album with two gorgeous pieces of '70s inspired kraut-electronica passing through modern technological tools, thus ending up somewhere near those expansive guitar-n-electronics pieces that Mountains have crafted over the years with hypnotizing acoustic guitar loops brighted with slow-motion laser-show oscillations gently phasing about. Pfieffer's second track "Nero" is clearly the stand-out piece on Pop Ambient 2015, but there are plenty of other gems to track throughout the album. Dirk Leyers picks up right where Cluster & Eno parted ways so many years ago with brightly twinkled electronic sequences and brook-babbling melodic patter. Deep piano chords gird the domestic clicking of a clock that may be settled in Gregor Schwellenbach's living room as he lays down shimmering tones and cinematic contemplation upon the mundane. Further soundtrack references about on the eagle-soaring ambience from Leandro Fresco whose candy colored melodies recall the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti from his Twin Peaks sound design. As lovely as ever, this entry from the Pop Ambient series!

MPEG stream: Nero
MPEG stream: Assperg
MPEG stream: In White Pagodas, I'll Wait For You

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

SORRY. German collection of weird experimental electronic pop tunes -- all previously unreleased by the likes of Moog pioneer Jean Jacques Perrey, Jean Michel Herve, Amadeo Tommasi, and Pell Mell(!).

"Electronica erotica" with Mike Flowers, The Mellowtrons, others. Unlike the Vampyros Lesbos compilations, these are contemporary artists performing what to them equals sleazy listening (with lots of beats).

We really shoulda listed this comp a few weeks ago, since it's a sampler of all the cool new stuff out or about to be out on Norway's happenin' Smalltown Supersound label, some of which wasn't yet released when we first got this in. But hey some of it still isn't, though this does feature a track from that rad Sunburned Hand / Four Tet collab Fire Escape we highlighted last list, and a cut from the blissed-out Arp debut that showed up last week (and is highlighted elsewhere this list). Yep, Smalltown Supersound has been kicking ass lately, and if you want to cheaply and conveniently check out the who, what, and why of that bold statement, this is a great means of doing so. Suffice to say, if post-punk krautrocky space disco tracks (each one here being some and/or all of the above) float yr boat, then The Portable Supersound is a smart purchase -- unless you're planning to buy *every* Smalltown Supersound release anyway, which isn't such a bad idea either. From Scandinavia to San Francisco and beyond, there's a dozen cutting edge yet kinda clubby artists on here to get excited about... besides the already abovementioned, this also includes tracks from Kim Hiorthoy, Bjorn Torske, 120 Days, Tussle, Lindstrom, Mental Overdrive, diskJokke, Toy, Lars Horntveth, and last but not least, Japan's The Lift Boys, aka EYE from the Boredoms, whose full-Bore TECHNO! track taken from a 12" vinyl-only release is a good reason to get this all by itself.

MPEG stream: Hatten Passer
MPEG stream: Anarchy Way
MPEG stream: Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone

Chrome records (the drum & bass subsidiary of Force Inc./Mille Plateaux) has set itself a course to out darken Ed Rush and No U-Turn. Stalking explosive breaks, every beat and drone drenched with teutonic menace...w/ Panacea, Problem Child, Goner and Heinrich at Hart.

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

SORRY. Stylish AQ-hero Panacea remixes the Position Chrome back catalog! A tight efficient mix of brutalist techstep drum n' bass. All tracks are previously released except one new Panacea cut. Great booklet photos feature very glam and somewhat slimmed-down Herr Panacea posing in tight tank tops & leather pants, with a spiked wristband to boot. Very cute.

We've been meaning to start stocking stuff from the Urck label for a while now. They had sent us a bunch of discs by a band with the strange name of Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, and to be honest at first we were fearing the worst, yeah we know, don't judge a book by its cover or a band by it's name, but we often judge band's by their names and it usually works out pretty well for us, Bathtub Shitter, Fuck I'm Dead, Pocohaunted, we could go on, but to be totally honest we were sort of expecting some sort of hippy jam band, you know hackey sacks and dayglo jester hats, but thankfully, we couldn't have been more wrong. The sound was devotional for sure, and the focal point was certainly drums, but the sound was more tribal and ethnic, spiritual and dark, more along the lines of Muslimgauze, lots of samples and voices, intricate rhythms, hypnotic and trancey. So we will eventually review a record proper from Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, but we figured an even better place to start would be this brand new double disc compilation, featuring lots of bands on the Urck label, as well as a whole bunch of bands we already dig. The comp is called Post-Asiatic Lost War Dream Music and is subtitled A Compilation Of Eastern Influenced Experimental Music, which pretty much nails it, but within that fairly broad descriptor, the bands veer into all sorts of varied sonic territory. Right off the bat, there's a handful of bands who would have made owning this comp worthwhile all on their own, Amps For Christ, who offer up a gorgeous sprawling nearly 11 minute long jam, folky and lilting, guitars and sitars woven into drifting dreamlike harmonies, the melodies sunny and wistful, all very free and abstract, but gorgeous and we would have been happy to hear this track stretched out to fill an entire record. Muslimgauze does a stripped down, pure rhythm track, shuffling skittering drums, looped and cyclical, very hypnotic, and very very abstract. Neung Phak deliver a blissy slab of laid back psychpop, whirring organ, simple subtle drumming, twangy guitar, all wrapped around a super catchy Eastern melody. Experimental guitarist Bill Horist delivers some super spare squeak and scrape, chime and clatter, shimmer and swell, eventually that minimal guitar is joined by some sort of fiddle, wailing out a lonesome tune. Z'ev joins up with someone called Ramona Ponzini, for a haunting metallic scrapescape peppered with tribal drumming and with creepy disembodied vocals. There's also several tracks from that amazing Indian Soundscapes record we reviewed a while back, as well as tracks from Soriah, Metal Rouge, Moe! Staiano and F-Space. But the bands we hadn't heard of are just as exciting as those we were already familiar with. The aforementioned Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional unfurls a drum heavy ceremony, all pounding tribalism, and buzzing steel strings, sounding very East Asian, another track that we would have loved to hear stretched out to fill up the whole disc. Venerable Showers Of Beauty Gamelan, is just that, a DIY gamelan, chiming and resonant, the melodies definitely Asian influenced, but also a bit Western, with many of the tones allowed to drone on and on, giving the track a slightly ominous buzz. C.O.T.A. weave a dark slab of tribal dark ambience, lots of rumble and buzz, a thick bassy pulse and shimmering sitar like strings. We definitely need to hear more from these guys. And we could go on and on and on. This is after all two discs packed with all sorts of amazing music, and a whole clutch of new bands to discover and probably knowing us (and you we'd imagine) decide we need to hear more of. Recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands obviously, or anyone looking for into dark, dreamy, buzzy, blissful, tribal sounds. Everytime we play this in the store, someone comes up to ask what it is. Obviously, way recommended. Packaged in a super thick mini gatefold lp-style sleeve, with liner notes and credits inside.

MPEG stream: Happy New Year, Sibanjar
MPEG stream: Sadchatri 06
MPEG stream: Zahal End

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

SORRY. Well, I suppose it had to happen. Or did it? And boy were we torn. On the one hand we really don't want to support this kind of thing. Electro versions of Iron Maiden songs?? But on the other hand, before even hearing it, we knew that we were gonna have to order a ton of 'em, and that we would ALL have to buy one. And as if to seal the deal, we threw it on the stereo the minute we got it, and within 15 seconds a customer was already at the counter telling us they NEEDED whatever we were playing. And our guess is that you're gonna need one too. I mean c'mon ELECTRO versions of IRON MAIDEN songs!! And the timing couldn't be more appropriate with the recent tragic passing of Anton Maiden, the original powerslave, who sang tunelessly over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs downloaded from his computer (which some of us liked even more than his singing...). And basically, this is just Anton Maiden with a way bigger budget. Which is a good thing. All those timeless riffs we love and adore played by fuzzed out analog synths and turned into buzzy alien melodies, the throbbing, unmistakable basslines of Steve Harris become burping squelches and rumbling pulses, and of course those dual lead guitar harmonies are transformed into wild squeaky squiggles. Does it work? Hard to say. It does sound great though. Funny and wild and fun and silly. We'd think they were taking the piss, but the liner notes take great pains to explain that the album 'was conceived with the greatest respect' and by having each artist pick their favorite Maiden song and album, often not the track they performed. There are a few familiar names here, Legowelt and Kitbuilders, but most of these artists are new to us (some other names: Captain Ahab, Rude 66, Maxx Klaxon, Ra-X, Imatran Voima, Luke Eargoggle...). The best track has to be Hidari / Platzgumer's Number Of The Beast, which starts so fucked up it's almost impossible to tell what song it is, and the drum programming is so fucked that the rhythm ends up being a damaged and stuttery mess of clicks and crunches. The vocals start out super vocoded and distorted, sounding quite alien / monsterlike, until the clean vocals kick in, and then the melody is sung weirdly, tuneless-y and strangely familiar a la Anton Maiden. Whatever reservations we had were definitely quelled once we heard this whole comp. How could they not be? And it's approved by original Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno himself. A fitting record of the week and for us, a fitting "moment of silence" for Anton Maiden. R.I.P.

MPEG stream: Number Of The Beast
MPEG stream: Wrathchild
MPEG stream: The Trooper

Down tempo electronica comp with stuff by DJ Cam, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Shinju Gumi (remixed by Kid Loco), Cujo, Koji Sekiguchi (remixed by DJ Cam), Tosca, a guy from Thievery Corp (the jazzy Exodus Quartet) and others... "Lusciously blunted" it says here.

The latest Euro-dance burners from beardo Swedes Prins Thomas and his often collaborator Lindstrom have been pretty popular around here, and riding fast on the tail of their Reinterpretations album, we get this two disc mix from Prins Thomas that shows he's as good a compiler as he is producer. Featuring all kinds of unusual choices and sequences from bands we know and don't know in just about equal measure including Joe Meek, Holger Czukay. Hawkwind, Zombi, Boards Of Canada, Lindstrom, The Electric South (featuring Bob Lind), Glissandro 70, Bob James, Metalchicks, and Parliament among many many others. Keeping a proggy cosmic disco vibe that varies in pace but not in momentum, this is great for those long lit hot summer nights. Awesome!

MPEG stream: Sing
MPEG stream: City Of Lagoons
MPEG stream: Racing Tracks
MPEG stream: Sapphire
MPEG stream: Decollage

Si Begg, Khan, DJ Cam, Panasonic's Mika Vainio, and others both contribute tracks to this compilation, and "describe the musical process beind the creation of their tracks" in the booklet.

Not a collection of Morrissey remixes, or covers as one might expect from the title (or if they are, they sure did a good job disguising them), but a collection of electronica artists new and old to the Morr label out of Germany. Stressing the closeness of these artists, who keep contact via phone and online (exchanging audio files), in their one sheet, this affinity is borne out in the overall sound of this comp. Lots of pleasant electronica in the vein of Boards Of Canada, or the down tempo melodious side of Autechre. Includes tracks by The Notwist, Arovane, Tied & Tickled Trio, Schneider tm, Flowchart and much more.