[ aquarius records — Electronic ]

V/AQueensbridge(Columbia / Ill Will)cd$ 16.98

Between 1995 and 1997, Hrvatski and various accomplices put together a vinyl only collection of two minute electro-shock / drill 'n' bass tracks called "Attention: Cats." That homage to the short attention span has in turn been reworked into even an even

RealAudio clip: Shifty's Cut Bait Shoppe
RealAudio clip: Soft-Corpse Mix
RealAudio clip: Implements Amenable
RealAudio clip: Steaktippin Freerange Mix

Upstairs is the cd-r imprint for nostalgic electrons and warped lo-fi esoterica run by Daniel Lapotin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), and what's a better way to kick-start things than with a comp of the accomplices, malcontents, and hangers-on? There's a handful of artists we're familiar with (Julian Lynch, Pulse Emitter, Africa Germany, Caboladies, and of course Oneohtrix who's covering a Grouper song which sounds as weird and fucking awesome as you could imagine!) but a ton we've not got a clue about. For example, take Autre Ne Veut's '80s pop simulacrum filtered through disposable recording techniques; or the anti-aesthetics, bleepity techno of cheap synthesizers from No Fun Acid; or the suitably kosmiche zone tripping from Stellar Om Source; or the wild and woolly oscillations from Nackt Insecten. Pulse Emitter's jagged electronica maps out lunar rhythms for those smooth surfaces of synthetic melodies he's mastered in recent years. Julian Lynch wistfully taps out softened melodies sort of like an idiot savant rendition of Erik Satie with some squiggly ring modulation tossed in for good measure. Gatekeeper brings the compilation to a conclusion with murky recapitulation of early Chris & Cosey smears of shadowy electronica. There's plenty more between all of these points of interest, making for a pretty great album. It's a shame that there's only 75 copies, and Upstairs has already sold out of all of their copies...

MPEG stream: Heavy Water
MPEG stream: Artimis
MPEG stream: Origins

Actually this record is a few years old, but on first glance you could see why it got little attention. A rather shitty photoshop montage of the heads of four of the "Allstars" onto a cornball western snapshot as cover art illustrates the problematic artwork. For such reasons, this record has been spotted in the country / western bargain bins at large uninformed record stores. Anyway, what you get on the disc is spacious hyperminimal electronics that is the result of collaborations between Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic, Philius, etc.), Abe Duque (Kirlian), Suzanne Brokesche (the much unappreciated yet brilliant Sil Electronics), and many other minimal tweakers. Very similiar in scope to the last Plastikman record.

Chocolate Industries compilation, whoo-hoo! Some gems from the output of this excellent hiphop (and jazz) infused electronica label. Push-Button Objects, Ko-Wreck Technique, East Flatbush Project, Funkstorung, While, Sluta Leta (who deliver their dependable headscratching mix of some old 70s jazzrock LP with millenial quality breakbeats...Soooo nice) and others. Some tracks are new, some are classics from the CI back catalog. A good 'un.

RealAudio clip: Whispers Special (y2k mix)

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

SORRY. Mike Ink, Porter Ricks, Biochip C., Kerosene and others contribute tracks to this collection of abstract techno.

Seven tracks by seven different audio artists all using source material taken from the soundtrack to Martin Arnold's film "Alone, Life Wastes Andy Hardy." Using laptops and lots of software processing, most of the artists here disguise the source material well enough, bringing the film's soundtrack into their own realm and making of it what one might expect from a laptop. There are

The first 8 tracks on this disc comprise a best of Rather Interesting releases from 1999 to 2002. Essentially a slice straight down the middle of what Uwe Schmidt, a.k.a. Atom has been up to. Includes tracks from Los Samplers (Perez Prado drill n' bass), XXX (Atom with Chilean rapper Tea Time), Midisport (Brazilian samba gets the midi hatchet), Bund Deutscher Programmierer (refried laptops a la Mille Plateaux), The Roger Tubesound Ensemble ("digital jazz" in Atom's own words) and more. As a bonus, the last four tracks are all previously unreleased, so Atom fan amateurs and professionals alike have a reason to pick this up.

RealAudio clip: Space Bossa
RealAudio clip: Mambo Si, Trabajo No!

This Red Hot compilation (dedicated to fighting AIDS) features a very well-chosen collection of Today's Hot Young Acts covering Brazilian bossa nova classics. All tracks exclusive and new (we think). With Stereolab & Herbie Mann, Money Mark, EBTG, Mad Professor, PM Dawn, etc. Purists may want to get the companion cd which features the same song lineup, but this time it's the ORIGINAL versions as performed by Brazilian musicians, and the money goes to the same place.

Tribute to Nigerian musician Fela Kuti featuring a swarm of artists including Mixmaster Mike, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Femi Kuti, Macy Gray, Meshell Ndegeocello, Common, Manu Dibango, Tony Allen, Baaba Maal, Archie Shepp, Sade, Taj Mahal, Antibalas and much more. Though most of the tracks are a brief 4 or 5 minutes (instead of the Fela standard of an album side) they are set up in continuous form so that one guest will toast over a track for a bit, then someone else will pick up the slack where they leave off. So you kind of get the Fela feel in a 2nd millennium party mix sort of way. In fact, many of the tracks use Fela's original music as source material and throughout the collection it is remixed in varying amounts. Net profits from the sale of the album go to support Red Hot's AIDS awareness activites and other AIDS related relief and prevention programs.

RealAudio clip: Kalakuta Show
RealAudio clip: By Your Side (Cottonbelly's Fola Mix Edit)

Remixes of Steve Reich's compositions from across his career. DJ Takemura (soon to release a full length on Thrill Jockey, and also known as Child's View), Andrea Parker, Coldcut and DJ Spooky absolutely rise to the occasion by preserving a bit of what gave Reich his edge, but adding their own voices to the mix creating tracks that are unique in their own right. Also included (rather straight-up remixes where adding beats is the approach) are Howie B, Mantronik, Tranquility Bass, Ken Ishii and others. LP has an extra track.

The second testimonial, following the excellent Braindance Coincidence sampler, to the consistency of quality and occasional goofiness of Richard D. James and Grant Wilson Claridge's visionary Rephlex label. What you get here is a handful of 'hits' from some of electronic music's underground superstars as well as some of the amazing electroacoustic gems you just might have slept on in the recent past. Given the fact that Rephlex is notorious for their unpredictable agenda of keeping the back catalogue in or out of print (the majority of these tracks are from albums currently out of print or very hard to find), here's a good chance to catch up with what possibly flew over your head. Braindance heads will need this for the two exclusives takin' it back to the old school: AFX drops an acid classic while Luke Vibert shows you who's Papa, Amen Andrews style. Neophytes will enjoy previously released cuts from Astrobotnia, Pierre Bastien, Bochum Welt, Cylob, D'Arcangelo, DMX Krew, Ensemble, The Gentle People, Global Goon, JP Buckle, Leila, Like A Tim, Robert Normandeau, Bogdan Raczynski, PP Roy, Slipper and Yee-King.

MPEG stream: Remember This
MPEG stream: Mangle 11 (Circuit Bent V.I.P. Mix)

Mikael Stavostrand has done all that he can to distance himself from his earliest recordings in Archon Satani, whose bleak post-industrial work parallelled the earliest manifestations of the Norwegian black metal scene. No longer embracing the dark theatrical atmospheres embraced by the Cold Meat Industries label, Stavostrand is currently championing the minimal, tasteful,

Second in this series of 12"s collecting the crashing, crunching, bashing smunching, thrashing...ummm...twunching(???...well you know what we're getting at) sound of todays electronic underground. The tag team format is still enforced, foisting some of our favorite noisemakers on, well...some of our other favorite noisemakers!! Lesser gets chopped and spanked by Venetian Snares, Kid 606 gets bum rushed by Dat Politics, Knifehandchop gets sliced and diced by new-to-us 0=0, also-new-to-us CB4 gets schooled by Kid 606 (again) and two tag team match-ups offer up some more fresh faces: Casino Vs. Japan and Nudge whip up a little rhythmic hypnotronica workout while Fanny and DJ Paedophile bring the (caustic, face-melting) noise. Pretty cool.

I'm sure you remember how we raved (no pun intended) like crazy about the Soundmurderer record a few lists ago, a wicked collection of the finest old school jungle. Well, here we go again. This time, Soundmurderer (aka Todd Osborn) is joined by SK-1, who may be more familiar to some of you as Dabrye, on this collection of 12"s released by Michigans premiere Jungle label, Rewind Record. Huge bombastic, old school ruffneck ragga, with spastic beats, rumbling basslines, crushing synths and wicked toasting. Folks who miss the old days of jungle will be floored, and all you folks who have been getting into dancehall (and have been digging stuff like the Bug) should check this out.

MPEG stream: Dreader Than Dread
MPEG stream: Bad Sound

Another week, another forward thinking electronic music off shoot, another new genre. It's sort of always been like that. Acid house begets jungle begets drum and bass, begets drill and bass, begets UK garage or dark step or about a million other variations, which beget dubstep and grime, which then leads to this stuff, dubbed UK Funky, which was supposedly born out of the aggression and intensity inherent in grime and dubstep, moving back toward house music, a little lighter, with that 4 on the floor beat, and still lots and lots and lots of BASS. As always, Soul Jazz leaps right in to document this new scene and do a bang up job. Right off the bat, you'll notice a handful of familiar names, Kode9, Roska, Shystie, Grievous Angel, that's cuz Funky is not that far removed from dubstep, it's almost the same sound pallet, just with that dubstep lurch and swing replaced by a more steady driving beat, but around that beat, synths still bloop and bleep and bloop and buzz, the bass rumbles and warbles, and like jungle, Funky has a bit of a ragga vibe, so there's a definite dancehall feel, with some killer toasting on some tracks. This comp is pretty solid all the way through, and ANYone who's been digging the various Soul Jazz dubstep comps, will definitely dig this too. MJ Cole's "Volcano Riddim" takes super dramatic soundtrack strings and wraps them around a killer main groove and a very dubsteppy beat, Altered Natives' "Rass Out" is a cool murky muted minimal shuffle with live drums, moody minor key melodies, and some swooping swirling synths. Warrior Queen contributes to Sunship's "Almighty Father" creating a super funky grimy dubfunk workout, Zumen's "Rolexx" features some incredible tongue twisting flow from the awesomely named Leafnuts, Lil Silva lays down a skittery beat underneath bleating synths and woozy funk bass, super stripped down, but seriously bad ass, DVA gets super bassy and buzzy with his "Natty" that sounds like a skipping jungle record slowed down and swathed in synths. We could go on, but why bother, this stuff all rules, and for dubstep obsessive and grime freaks, this is just another collection of bass heavy dancefloor destroyers that should get your toes tapping and rib cage rattling. Like all Soul Jazz comps, includes a big booklet with lots of liner notes, info about UK Funky, the history of UK dancemusic and more. The cd comes housed in a cool extra wide half sized dvd style case, the lp split over two pricey but super swank double lps...

MPEG stream: Rolexx
MPEG stream: Volcano Riddim
MPEG stream: Predator Mode (Roska Remix)
MPEG stream: Pulse Vs. Flex
MPEG stream: Pull It (Ill Blu Remix Instrumental)

Another week, another forward thinking electronic music off shoot, another new genre. It's sort of always been like that. Acid house begets jungle begets drum and bass, begets drill and bass, begets UK garage or dark step or about a million other variations, which beget dubstep and grime, which then leads to this stuff, dubbed UK Funky, which was supposedly born out of the aggression and intensity inherent in grime and dubstep, moving back toward house music, a little lighter, with that 4 on the floor beat, and still lots and lots and lots of BASS. As always, Soul Jazz leaps right in to document this new scene and do a bang up job. Right off the bat, you'll notice a handful of familiar names, Kode9, Roska, Shystie, Grievous Angel, that's cuz Funky is not that far removed from dubstep, it's almost the same sound pallet, just with that dubstep lurch and swing replaced by a more steady driving beat, but around that beat, synths still bloop and bleep and bloop and buzz, the bass rumbles and warbles, and like jungle, Funky has a bit of a ragga vibe, so there's a definite dancehall feel, with some killer toasting on some tracks. This comp is pretty solid all the way through, and ANYone who's been digging the various Soul Jazz dubstep comps, will definitely dig this too. MJ Cole's "Volcano Riddim" takes super dramatic soundtrack strings and wraps them around a killer main groove and a very dubsteppy beat, Altered Natives' "Rass Out" is a cool murky muted minimal shuffle with live drums, moody minor key melodies, and some swooping swirling synths. Warrior Queen contributes to Sunship's "Almighty Father" creating a super funky grimy dubfunk workout, Zumen's "Rolexx" features some incredible tongue twisting flow from the awesomely named Leafnuts, Lil Silva lays down a skittery beat underneath bleating synths and woozy funk bass, super stripped down, but seriously bad ass, DVA gets super bassy and buzzy with his "Natty" that sounds like a skipping jungle record slowed down and swathed in synths. We could go on, but why bother, this stuff all rules, and for dubstep obsessive and grime freaks, this is just another collection of bass heavy dancefloor destroyers that should get your toes tapping and rib cage rattling. Like all Soul Jazz comps, includes a big booklet with lots of liner notes, info about UK Funky, the history of UK dancemusic and more. The cd comes housed in a cool extra wide half sized dvd style case, the lp split over two pricey but super swank double lps...

MPEG stream: Rolexx
MPEG stream: Volcano Riddim
MPEG stream: Predator Mode (Roska Remix)

Another week, another forward thinking electronic music off shoot, another new genre. It's sort of always been like that. Acid house begets jungle begets drum and bass, begets drill and bass, begets UK garage or dark step or about a million other variations, which beget dubstep and grime, which then leads to this stuff, dubbed UK Funky, which was supposedly born out of the aggression and intensity inherent in grime and dubstep, moving back toward house music, a little lighter, with that 4 on the floor beat, and still lots and lots and lots of BASS. As always, Soul Jazz leaps right in to document this new scene and do a bang up job. Right off the bat, you'll notice a handful of familiar names, Kode9, Roska, Shystie, Grievous Angel, that's cuz Funky is not that far removed from dubstep, it's almost the same sound pallet, just with that dubstep lurch and swing replaced by a more steady driving beat, but around that beat, synths still bloop and bleep and bloop and buzz, the bass rumbles and warbles, and like jungle, Funky has a bit of a ragga vibe, so there's a definite dancehall feel, with some killer toasting on some tracks. This comp is pretty solid all the way through, and ANYone who's been digging the various Soul Jazz dubstep comps, will definitely dig this too. MJ Cole's "Volcano Riddim" takes super dramatic soundtrack strings and wraps them around a killer main groove and a very dubsteppy beat, Altered Natives' "Rass Out" is a cool murky muted minimal shuffle with live drums, moody minor key melodies, and some swooping swirling synths. Warrior Queen contributes to Sunship's "Almighty Father" creating a super funky grimy dubfunk workout, Zumen's "Rolexx" features some incredible tongue twisting flow from the awesomely named Leafnuts, Lil Silva lays down a skittery beat underneath bleating synths and woozy funk bass, super stripped down, but seriously bad ass, DVA gets super bassy and buzzy with his "Natty" that sounds like a skipping jungle record slowed down and swathed in synths. We could go on, but why bother, this stuff all rules, and for dubstep obsessive and grime freaks, this is just another collection of bass heavy dancefloor destroyers that should get your toes tapping and rib cage rattling. Like all Soul Jazz comps, includes a big booklet with lots of liner notes, info about UK Funky, the history of UK dancemusic and more. The cd comes housed in a cool extra wide half sized dvd style case, the lp split over two pricey but super swank double lps...

MPEG stream: Pulse Vs. Flex
MPEG stream: Pull It (Ill Blu Remix Instrumental)

From Atari Teenage Riot's furious electro-punk to Christoph de Babalon's glacial darkness, "Riot Zone" is features Digital Hardcore's "greatest hits" so far. Along with the aforementioned acts, you get Shizuo, Hanin Elias, Alec Empire, Ec8or, Bomb20, and Patric Catani. DHR-heads will have some of this already, but unless you've got all the 12" vinyl this is still essential. And of course it features a manic neo-situationist manifesto from Mr. Empire.

MPEG stream: Pathwayz
MPEG stream: The Judgement
MPEG stream: 551 Blues
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Producers DJ Scud, I-Sound, and Errorsmith present this 4-track mini-comp. There's one track each by Scud, I-Sound, Disco Consultant (I-Sound & Errorsmith), and Thunder And Lightning (DJ Scud & I-Sound) of fucked-up glitch-dub beat/bass mayhem. It's not as heavy and damaging as some of their other stuff, but it's in the ballpark. On the new sister label of noise/reggae imprint

The term "counter-culture" seems to be Rough Trade's catch-all tag for this extremely eclectic compilation. This two disc set features a total of 41 tracks from around the world - many familiar artists (Bright Eyes, the Breeders, ESG, Bis, Johnny Dowd, Melt Banana, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cabaret Voltaire, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Prefuse 73, Tracy And The Plastics, Glass Candy And The Shattered Theatre, James Yorkston, Dempsey, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, Joy Zipper, Langley Schools Music Project) as well as many you may not yet be familiar with (Rubicks, The Be Good Tanyas, Trash Money, Akufen, Baxter Dury, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, My Robot Friend, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Crossover, The Books and Pink Grease). A genuine musical cornucopia!

RealAudio clip: Midas
RealAudio clip: You Lied Satan
RealAudio clip: Broken Telephone

Second compilation release from the influential and highly regarded Rough Trade shops in the UK. This collection focuses on the stores' favorite electronic artists (or in some cases influential to the genre) and songs throughout the years. Though all tracks are available elsewhere, these two discs cover the many aspects of the genre and its fringes: from the early experimentations of Joe Meek to the ephemeral Powerbook abstractions of Fennesz, the pivotal dancefloor innovation of Kraftwerk to the prodigous inventiveness of Aphex Twin. Forty-one tracks total with: Brian Eno, Rod Freeman & The Blue Men (Joe Meek), Oval, Barbara Morgenstern remixed by Robert Lippok, Throbbing Gristle, Christian Zanesi, BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Doctor Who!), i-F, Raymond Scott, Schneider TM vs. Kpt. Michi. Gan, Thomas Leer & Robert Rental, Autechre, New Order, Matmos, Uusitalo, Pierre Henry, Aphex Twin, Terre Thaemlitz, Kraftwerk, John Cage, NON, Faust, To Rococo Rot, Can, Stereolab, Pan Sonic, Arovane, Lb, D, The Human League, Aux 88, Bruce Haack, Kevin Blechdom, Fischerspooner, Thomas Brinkmann, The Normal, Depeche Mode, Dexter, Fennesz, Farben and Elph vs Coil. Surprisingly, Kid 606 does not make an appearance here.

When we first got wind of this comp, for some reason, we just assumed it was gonna be another amazing Soul Jazz reggae comp, it didn't even occur to us that it would be a collection of killer classic jungle jams from the early nineties. But we threw it on, and were just knocked on our asses, transported back to '93/'94 when we first discovered jungle, particularly, ragga-dancehall-jungle or whatever you wanted to call it, a killer blend of traditional Jamaican dancehall, and this new breed of sped up hip hop that had grown out of the rave scene in the UK. The history and genealogy is complex, but there's been plenty written about it, the liner notes here are particularly informative, tracing the development of ragga-jungle from the early Reggae sound systems, through the rave scene, UK hardcore hip hop, and beyond. Ragga jungle was a flash in the pan, existing for 3 or 4 years before most of the folks making it moved on to two-step, garage, drum and bass and on an on. But for our money, this was it. This was THE music we had been waiting for. We have loved dancehall forever, the harder and faster the better, so here was the toasting and melody of dancehall, draped over chopped up stuttering and pounding hip hop beats, all sped up into a rhythmic frenzy. If there's one track that sums it up for us, it's DJ Zinc's "Super Sharp Shooter", with its interminable vocal and squelchy synth intro, the loping creeping reggae groove, the buzzing melody, the simple shuffling drum beat, the slowed down Method Man sample, and that's all before the track actually even drops, and when it does... Whoooowheee. We remember hearing this for the first time in one of the few clubs in SF that played jungle back in the day, and it nearly knocked us out of our seats. We ended up buying a DJ mix tape from one of the DJs spinning, and thankfully it had "Super Sharp Shooter" on it, and from that point on, we listened to it over and over every day, in the car, cranked as loud as it would go, bass pumping (as much as the bass could be said to pump in a crappy old van). So fucking heavy and hooky and funky. When the track finally kicks in, it's massive, relentless serpentine pass line, ultra complex drums, funky and groovy but so tangled and dense, every once in a while the bass line locks on a single not and just hooooooooolds steady until it drops, hard, and we're off on another junglistic jam. As far as we're concerned this would be worth it just for this track, but thankfully, the rest of the disc is just as kick ass. Lots of familiar reggae and dancehall names, Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Cutty Ranks, and for those in the know, the rest of the names read like an early nineties jungle all star lineup: Ragga Twins, Poison Chang, Ragga Twins, DJ Zinc, Shy FX... but even if you don't know any of these names, the music speaks for itself. Check out "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi & Shy FX, beginning with some super hooky sing songy reggae vocals before the track launches into a maddeningly dense rapid fire snare workout underpinning a raw and tongue twisting flow. Furious and intense and so goddamn good. Then there's tracks like Ragga Twins' "Illegal Gunshot", with its playful and circusy melodic loop, but juxtaposed with some seriously aggro toasting, some Bomb Squad like production, and some outrageously funky drumming. Pretty much every track on here is a killer, never has a record so much made even us non-dancers want to head for the dancefloor and go fucking nuts. The cool thing about this stuff, is even if you're dancefloor phobic, is that these tracks are so dense and multi layered, full of convoluted rhythms and mad drumming and rapid fire rhymes and wild toasting and strange melodies and killer grooves, that they're almost as fun to listen to as they are to dance to. Almost. Like all Soul Jazz stuff, gorgeously packaged and extensively researched. Tons of liner notes, track notes, photos, all wrapped up in a full color slipcase.

MPEG stream: Super Sharp Shooter
MPEG stream: Illegal Gunshot
MPEG stream: One Bible
MPEG stream: Press The Trigger

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

SORRY. Compilation of new and strange electronica, with T-Power, Doctor Rockit, Jake Slazenger, Sureshot, Scanner, DJ Food, Cujo...

Man can we not get enough grime. Ever since we first heard Dizzee Rascal, we've ben jonesing for more grime. Which was tough since most of the killer grime was released as limited run 12" singles in the UK. Then came not one, but two whole compilations on Rephlex, and while we sort of dug 'em, there was just something missing, namely the vocals. Sure the jagged stuttery beats and fucked up synths hit the spot, but those mostly instrumental tracks were lacking some of the fire and vigor and snarkiness of the Dizzee Rascal (and the Wiley record we also dug!). So Vice records comes to the rescue, with a comp of CLASSIC grime tracks, many of which were essential genre defining 12"s (a few of which are even mentioned in this month's Wire, in the suddenly timely Grime primer, or, uh 'grimer') So what the hell does grime sound like you ask? Well, it's like hip hop, mixed with simple two step drum an bass (or garage -- pronounced gare-ij), some dancehall, constucted frrom simple hiccuping beats, weird synth melodies, throbbing basslines and some crazy cracy rapping/toasting. This comp is so high energy, fit to explode, fiery and furious and funky as fuck. The whole thing is so hyper and hard core and relentless. Totally raw and powerful. And then there's the ladies, who typically get left out in the cold when it comes to electronic music, but the ladies here represent. In a big way! Lady Sovereign, No Lay, and Shystie fucking rule it!!! Lady Sovereign's "Cha Ching" is one of the most awesome sounding songs we've heard lately. The much-hyped and biggest band of the lot, The Streets (who isn't technically grime, but whose track features a handful of heavyweight grime MC's hence his inclusion on the comp we suppose), have a song on here that almost pales in comparison to the other tracks, simply for its use of "rock" as an element in his track. The other tracks work so well because they're so simple and primal and stripped down. They contain only the most important elements. A beat, some electro zzzap, some sharp synthy melody, and a barely there bass line to hold it all together. And of course raw, mean-ass snarky lyricism. Run The Road is pretty fuckin "fit" as it were. If you haven't gotten into grime yet, you best mate. And this is the perfect place to start.

MPEG stream: Give U More
MPEG stream: Unorthodox Daughter
MPEG stream: Cha Ching (Cheque 1, 2 Remix)

Folks who've visited aQuarius in person no doubt have noticed the little mini arcade going on, we have Tron, Joust, Ghosts & Goblins and Rastan, and if we had more room, you can bet there'd be more. And along with out love of classic arcade games, comes with a nostalgia and extreme appreciation for the video game music that soundtracked so much our our childhood. Glorious symphonies in 8-bit sound, from goofy and playful bloops and bleeps to haunting and ominous buzzing soundscapes (we'd posit that Rastan has some of the best music EVER, and not just video game music), even removed from the context of the game, those songs and sounds displayed an amazing creativity, doing so much with so little, this impossibly limited sonic palette birthing an impossibly kaleidoscopic array of sounds. We've reviewed a handful of 8-bit recordings in the past, there being a bit of a resurgence in chip-tunes, folks making new music out of modded chips from vintage video games, heck we've even gone so far as ONE-bit sounds, becoming a bit obsessed with the compositions of one bit composer Tristan Perich. But this new collection holds a special place in our hearts, as some of us here at aQ, long before everyone had a personal computer in their house (and in their phone!), were the proud owners of what was once cutting edge personal computing technology, the Commodore 64! Complete with CASSETTE TAPE DRIVE!! It seems laughable now, but the C64 definitely inspired a cult of nerds, one that remains strangely obsessed to this day. Which brings us to SID Chip Sounds, which is in fact, a collection of music from classic Commodore 64 games, and for the 8-bit and C64 obsessed out there, this is totally essential, a handful of classics, and a bunch of weird games we'd never heard of, but all the sounds so fun and cool, the sounds driving and hypnotic, goofy and even psychedelic, and so weirdly prescient of the current fascination with lo-fi sounds and experimental electronics. In fact much of this could totally pass for some modern cd-r releasing bedroom electronics tinkerer. But that said, so much of this stuff is just so masterfully composed and created, again, conjuring up lush landscapes and intricately melodic passages, from an incredibly limited palette. Dig deep into this comp, and you'll hear tracks that sound like video game krautrock, spaced out 8-bit cosmic disco, and some swirly new agey ambience, even one that sorta sounds like Deep Purple, but all delivered via a fantastically antiquated lo-bit delivery system, and with a sound that manages to be nostalgic, but in its own weird way sort of timeless! Composers include Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish, and more, doing themes for such games as Last Ninja, Gauntlet 3, Glider Rider, Commando, and Arkanoid, among others.

MPEG stream: Last Ninja (Wastelands)
MPEG stream: Glider Rider
MPEG stream: Gauntlet 3 (1)
MPEG stream: Cybernoid 2
MPEG stream: Commando

A pretty fucking choice compilation of wintery dronemuzik, post-classical bleariness, and somber variations on the pop ambient theme divided equally between the heavy hitters and the newcomers, with a couple of San Franciscan dudes making the grade (including our own Jim Haynes!). The former Slowdive drummer Simon Scott opens the album with a blissful shimmer of amorphous shoegazing blur'n'drone pocked with echoing synth tones twinkling like satellites glinting the suns rays back to earth. A Winged Victory For The Sullen (one of the projects that blossomed from the ashes of Stars Of The Lid) twinkles a series of heartwrenching piano motifs laced with stringed orchestrations all bathed in a beautifully maudlin atmosphere. The lugubrious melodies from Black Swan reprise those hauntological strategies of Leyland Kirby's recontextualized 78s with equally emotive results. When it comes Haynes' track, Jim quipped that he tried to make something pretty but the colors of the rest of the album rendered his track much more ominous than anticipated. A stealth mode piece of shortwave drone, billowing noise, and scabrous textures, considerably darker than anything else on the compilation, but it's certainly a top shelf slab of isolationist griminess. Immediately following is En, who open their track with a bright strum across a koto, those plucked tones become the painterly gestures of a wintery landscape as seen from the comforts of a stone farmhouse surround by snow and frost. The Swedish outfit Pjusk slows down a monophunk bassline to an undanceably slow torpor, suspending deep-space ambient transmission pulses for a track that does remind us of the bleak atmospheres found on that fantastic Raime album Blackest Ever Black released in 2012. Noveller's take on the Durutti Column's guitar impressionism is a beautiful way to end this exceptional album. There is a very clear narrative arc that Ghostly International has scripted through these tracks, one that is evocative of the many moods of late autumn and early winter with grey skies and sheets of bonechilling rain giving way to clear sky nights for winter solstice dreams. (Also available on vinyl, but we're waiting for copies.)

MPEG stream: Water Shadow
MPEG stream: Ti Prego Memory Man
MPEG stream: This Is Radio Sweden
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Label sampler from souRce research records limited to 1000 copies and packaged in a cool blue vinyl sleeve featuring tracks (some exclusive) from: CoH, Cylobe, Leif Elggren, Matmos, Andrew Poppy, Cattivo and more.

One of the early Dutch electronic music masters, Dick Raaijmakers, gets his due here with this compilation, released as a companion to Basta's 3cd Raaijmakers Complete Tape Music set (seen elsewhere on this list). A bunch of big names on the experimental/electronic cutting edge either remix or entirely "reinterpret" old Raaijmakers pieces, among them Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski), Mouse on Mars, Jason Forrest, Phantom Orchid (Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori), David Grubbs, Thurston Moore, Atom TM, Isolee, Beautyon, Vert. All sorts of cool sci-fi sounding shimmery sizzle, bleeping drones, and glitchy poptronic silliness (like Atom TM's version of Raaijmakers' version of that old chestnut "Colonel Bogey") abound.

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It doesn't seem right that Wolfgang Voigt would drive a motorcycle. He seems more like a guy who would cruise around Cologne in a sleek Mercedes, cut off from the physicality of driving by the incessant pulse of a 909 kick. But Mr. Voigt has seen to covering the "Schaffelfieber" compilation with fetishized photos of motorcycles, drawing comparisons to Kenneth Anger's "Scorpio Rising," the cult art-film that articulated the rituals and fetishes of leather boy culture of the early '60s. If there is anything sexual about the Kompakt sound (which Voigt helped consecrate), it is a very mechanical sexuality, grinding through very cold structures and swinging techno pulses - almost as if the sweaty house grooves of Sylvester (responsible for the majority of the sounds which emanate from the Castro's gay bars) had been distilled into a pure albeit sterile rhythm, with gritty residues of the corny synth lines still lingering around the technist stomps. Voigt appears on the compilation as M:1:5 and Galoppmusik and alongside Sensorara, Bolz Bolz (whose "Groupies" is a wonderfully stupid techno gem!), Sascha Funke, Christian Morgenstern, and a few others.

Another new collection of classic dub tracks - all of these from the Blood & Fire back catalog - remixed by electronica artists. There are tracks by Smith & Mighty, The Orb, Avatars of Dub, Stereo MC's, Groove Corporation, The Erb and more.

The third and final installment of the popular Select Cuts series of Blood & Fire remixes in which contemporary "leftfield" DJs and Producers pay homage to Jamaican music by remixing classic tracks from the island. This collection features remixes of Big Youth (Waterhouse Rock, Political Confusion & Chucky No Lucky), Horace Andy (Do You Love My Music, Ital Vital), Impact All Stars (Dubwise Situation), Gregory Isaacs (Get Ready) and more by the usual suspects: Black Star Liner, Smith & Mighty, Groove Corporation, as well as Pressure Drop, Walkner.Mostl, Dan Donovan / Don Letts Dub Cartel, Dreadzone, Henry & Louis, Different Drummer Soundsystem, Small Axe, Kaleidoscope and even a bonus "Blood & Fire Megamix" by Fila Brazillia. This one's definitely made for the euro dancefloor what with all those beautiful rhythmmic gaps now filled in like so much wood putty in much of these remixes by the endless chattering 32nd notes or pounding breakbeat rhythms. Those who enjoyed the last two volumes will appreciate this one as well.

RealAudio clip: Horace Andy - Do You Love My Music
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With the abundance of amazing comps and reissues of lost gems from all over Africa in the 1970s, it can get easy to forget that there is the here and now, and that there is equally damaged, brilliant, fucked up and contagious sounds being made throughout the globe RIGHT NOW! Don't get us wrong we love all the reissues of '70s psych glory that's being dug up and rediscovered all over the world, including so much from Africa, but damn it's so refreshing and invigorating to get a set of brand new sounds from across the globe being created at this very moment that grabs a hold of our imagination in such exciting ways. Shangaan is a new form of dance music coming out of Soweto that merges the sounds of traditional mbira (thumb piano) music with hyperactive synthesizers. It really is like nothing we've heard before. Call and response glory wrapped in 180 bpm craziness! In some ways this feels like the spazzy cousin to the great Congotronics compilation from a few years ago, as that also showcased a new form of charged and body moving sounds coming out of Africa. But this is even more dance minded. You have to make sure you go online to YouTube and check out the actual dances that are performed to this music, so spirited, full of a new folklore and such a psychedelic aura. The sound of the songs is kind of like some early Nintendo game getting hijacked by Omar Souleyman armed with a karaoke machine and a troupe of boys, girls, men and women all ready to move on their feet as fast and furiously as possible. There are parts of the music that sound like Fever Ray played on the wrong speed, or what we imagine M.I.A. would blast at an afterparty. Forget about the World Cup, this may be the most mind blowing cultural phenomenon going down in South Africa that we are lucky enough to get to hear and appreciate NOW. Beyond recommended!

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Here we have a fantastically frenetic compilation from the always SO SO killer Honest Jons Label. Shangaan Shake compiles all of the releases from the "MEETS" 12" series in which current electronic heavy hitters and aQ faves like Actress and Demdike Stare took on the "Shangaan" dance music sound of South Africa (a genre celebrated by Honest Jon's great Shangaan Electro compilation 2 years ago, as you hopefully are aware). We didn't ever list any of the 12"s, they flew out of here too fast, but we were looking forward to listing this collection, which ends up being a high powered, schizophrenic double disc set of ass shaking dance floor BLISS! But this ain't yer typical floor fodder...oh no. True to form, Honest Jons only asked the best of the truly far out electro experimentalists to contribute to the series...fucked up foot work, abstract drifty dream techno, stripped down long form minimal workouts, spacey ghost vibez DUB, and super-future slo-mo ELECTRO! The Oni Ayhun (alias of Olof Dreijer of aQ faves, The Knife) Meets Shangaan Electro is the first tune to really set it off for us, a super frantic and hypnotic electro shuffle, the original vox from the Shangaan source being endlessly pitch bent into some truly bizarre yet catchy as hell melodies, while the hi-hats and claps stutter and fall out of phase, resulting in an hallucinatory funky freak out! Peverelist follows suit, but somehow ups the WTF quotient with his take on Tshetsha Boys. Starting with some industrial sized hi-hats, drifting in a syncopated haze, before a simple mid tempo electro drum pattern enters on an unexpected beat. It chugs along like this for a minute before yet ANOTHER hi-hat pattern enters bringing the track into a subtle yet transcendent groove, the sound design of which is seldom heard on this planet. Excitingly NEW sounds for sure. Actress, of course you know by now, will not bring something to light unless it is of the utmost quality, and here he does not disappoint. His take on Shangaan is truly mesmerizing, a jam that starts out as a sort of blissy dubby techno groove, albeit with some seriously deranged synth squelches and disassociated Shangaan vox atop, is all of a sudden transformed into something entirely different with the introduction of some discordant, Liquid Sky meets Rinse Dream meets Badalamenti sounding cyber-skronk keys! These chords are the twist yr ears up element, ultimately subverting your expectations and leaving you with something that feels entirely FRESH! Old Apparatus (whose Tapeworm cassette was a big highlight last list), turns the tempo down a bit, and treats us to some spooky ass Shangaan rub-a-dub! Pristine synths and that killer xylophone sound stretched and reverberated through a vast cave of FAR-I DELAY. We COULD go on and on...the rest of this double disc comp maintains this top shelf quality, with highlights ranging from the legendary Theo Parrish's ruff neck cut-up Mancingelani remix, to Demdike Stare's haunted house dubwise fraidy-pants minimal Soweto soundscape...not to mention forward thinking contributions from aQ faves Villalobos/Loderbauer and Hype Williams, as well as a funky ass Detroit style electro BBC mix from the venerable Afro-Futurist, Anthony "Shake" Shakir!!! Ahhhh!!! Too much good stuff! Honest Jon's have outdone themselves, by first of all sharing this Shangaan goodness with the world, and then following it up with a perfectly concise and meaningfully curated remix series, by some of the best, brightest, and down right weirdo-futurist producers of the now! Essential!

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This compilation of tracks from Urchin, Sufi, Suncoil Sect, Dust Devil, and Lightspeed and with remix work from Third Eye Foundation, Boymerang, and Alpha answers a common question here at Aquarius: "Can you recommend something that sounds like Boards of Canada and/or Kruder & Dorfmeister?" Nothing groundbreaking, just pretty and melodic electronica with plenty of armchair drum & bass breaks.

Alright all you hard ragga nuts, pick this fucker up! Damn, seems like it's been a while since we've got some real crazy shit in here that we could get really excited about and adamantly recommend to customers with complete confidence. Many of the tracks here have already appeared as 12"s and 7"s on Tigerbeat6's Shockout imprint. But those of us lacking turntables or too lazy to lift those heavy slabs for a mere 3 minutes of pleasure have been left out of the game... until now. Looking for some DJ Rupture? Looking for The Bug? Looking for something to replace those worn copies of DJ Scud's Murder Sound or yearning for a return of Panacea circa Low Profile Darkness? You'll find your fix embedded here in the digital pits of this here humble aluminum disc. Brutal two-step cut ups with gut churning bass, brain rattling hardcore ragga jungle and levelled off with some of the most phlegm inducing, distorted and gruff toasting you'll ever hear. Along with some of the heaviest singles in the Shockout series thus far by the likes of The Bug, Ove-Naxx, Soundmurderer & SK-1, Timeblind, Kid606, and Eight Frozen Modules, there are exclusive tracks from DJ Rupture, Com A. and Guislain Poirier (nice to hear some French in the mix for once). Plus this Shockout comp also includes the original "Killer" single by Rootsman and He-Man that The Bug remixed, which sounds like a madman trying to burp his way through a vocal dub. Verbally slobbering over this collection wouldn't be complete without mentioning the exceptionally great track sequencing. The comp kicks off with Strategy's mellow "Dunes Dub", a springy dub track with a Fela Kuti-esque keyboard line, and slowly works its way up in ferocity through the the next several tracks. Strategy bookends the collection in fact, with the A-side to their Shockout 12" "Going Street Dub" finishing things off. In flow, Shockout reminds us of DJ Rupture's now classic Minesweeper Suite. Everyone who loves those Ward 21 albums, DJ Rupture, The Bug's new ragga incarnation or the Kid (as in 606) should pluck this sucker up post haste. Highly fucking recommended!

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Hiphop/electro breakbeat compilation introducing a slew of up and coming Japanese DJs (Dazzle-T, Indope Psychics, Koji Sekiguchi, DJ Beat, DJ Yoh, DJ Shun, and others) all looking to be the next DJ Krush. Scratch-happy heavy beat science for those into the turntablist thing. One track gets remixed by DJ Cam, who is French not Japanese, but we won't hold that against him ;) As comps

"Tribute" compilations generally get a well-deserved bad rap, they're maybe a rung or two removed from string quartet versions and bluegrass covers on the ladder of uselessness, generally cheap cash-ins by a bunch of nobodies on some else's success. Or, for cult artists, not a cash-in, but a collection of fanboy loveletters also by a bunch of nobodies. But then there ARE always a few exceptions, we have a few faves in the category, some guilty pleasures perhaps but nonetheless faves: Darkthrone, Holy Darkthrone. Blue Explosion. Painted Black. The Great Koonaklaster Speaks. Powerslaves. Hmm, actually there's quite a lot of tribute comps we like. And you can add this to the pile, Silver Monk Time: A Tribute To The Monks. How can that not be cool? Especially when you eyeball the tracklist and see that the eclectic lineup ain't a bunch of nobodies, no sir. Try Mouse On Mars, Alec Empire (with original Monk Gary Burger), The Gossip, the Silver Apples w/ Alan Vega of Suicide, The Fall, Faust (also with Gary Burger), Barbara Manning, Psychic TV, Jason Forrest, The Raincoats, and and 19 others, filling up 2 cds. Sure there's some names on here we haven't heard of before (Doc Schoko, Fehlifarben, Floating Di Morel, and Singapore Sling, ferinstance) but then again, not everybody's heard of The Monks, either. We'll assume you have, and won't spend time explaining what an amazing, ahead of their time band they were: American GIs in '60s Germany, dressed up in monks robes with tonsures, playing the wildest punk rock ever recorded up 'til that point in history, and some years beyond...with banjo! The varied covers here have one thing in common, besides a reverence for the Monks. They all demonstrate that the songs of the Monks, as well as their style and delivery, were unique and insane, unhinged pop subversion still exciting and weird today. If this IS your introduction to the Monks, that's interesting for us to imagine... and please check out Black Monk Time if you haven't heard it! Apparently this was put together in connection with an upcoming Monks documentary film, can't wait to see it!!

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The "Skampler" was originally curated by Skam and Linus Booth (now of Phonics Distribution) for Silent Records as a collection of the best tracks from the very hard to find early singles from Skam -- one of the UK's premiere IDM / electronica labels. With

RealAudio clip: Leaves On The Line
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Skull Disco is dead. Hence this sonic gravestone, collecting a handful of the label's last few 12"s on one disc, and some remixes on the other. Definitely one of the most kick ass and ground breaking electronic labels of the last few years (certainly one of our favorites) Skull Disco took dubstep, minimal techno, and various other electronic offshoots and created their own incredibly distinct sound, murky and skittery, mysterious and otherworldly, with deep rumbling bass, skeletal rhythms, and the occasional vocal, usually some strange deep voice intoning rather than singing, making the sound even more ominous and harrowing. And while that sound is most definitely dubstep, as we mentioned in our review of the first collection, the sound is equally indebted to Muslimgauze, On-U-Sound and Spectre. Heck a few years ago, and Shackleton would probably have been putting out records on WordSound! Shuffling abstract beats, rumbling bass, subtle shadings and effects, these are low slung late night grooves. More chillout than dancefloor, more dub really than dubstep. Some tracks get a little Kompakt, but even then, it's dialed WAY back, tinted windows, tinted shades, dark corner of the club, cruising moonlit streets, hanging out under bridges, gathered around flickering fires, this is brooding moody midnight shit. So good. Not sure what else to say, if you bought the other one (and if you didn't, why the heck not?!) you're need this one too, if you've been into all the dubstep we've been listing, you'll probably want this too, or if you're just looking for some killer dark anti-dance music, or some chill out bliss out drift off lullabies, then this will do the trick. But wait! What about the second disc? All the remixes, some previously released, but others available for the first time. The Pole mix is a killer, and as unlikely as it may seem, it's LESS minimal than the original, the Rupture mix is cool too, but way too short at 2 minutes. Other remixers include T++. Geiomix, Brendan Moller, Bass Clef, Badawi and others, nothing too dramatic, just subtle variations on the original, the Badawi maybe being our favorite, looooong at 12+ minutes, and super spare, super dark, mostly drums, the sounds processed and effected, the whole thing even more dubbed out than the original! Packaged in a super striking oversized mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve, with that immediately recognizable Skull Disco artwork.

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Dub is all about the bass. The darker and more cavernous the better. The more you feel it, the more your fillings rattle, the better. So it makes sense that the same would hold true for dubstep, but maybe to an even greater degree, as the sound of dubstep is even more spare and skeletal than dub, leaving nearly nothing except for the rhythm and the bass. Soundboy Punishments collects the first 5 vinyl releases from UK label Skull Disco on cd for the first time, and while ostensibly this stuff is dubstep, it almost sounds more like Muslimgauze or old On-U sound stuff or even Spectre at times, but way more stripped down, way heavier, and with the sort of massive undulating bass that washes over everything like a thick black wave. The first 5 12"s on Skull Disco, split pretty evenly between the artists Shackleton and Appleblim (with one track from Gatekeeper) are all epic slabs of blown out bass heavy skitter, with blurry distant synth and little Eastern flourishes, as well as the occasional dubbed out vocal, smeared into blurred ripples of reverb. Super abstract and minimal, hypnotic and groovy, the beats and shuffling and subtle, not the huge pounding of 'traditional' dubstep, or the manic grind of jungle, instead, the sound is laid waaaaaaay back. A sort of more modern digi-dub, varied percussion, tablas, hand drums, all woven into simple rhythmic frameworks, always with a rumbling low end pulse lurking right beneath the surface, until part way in, the bass DROPS, and suddenly everything has changed, what was a lazy lope is transformed into a throbbing lurch, a wall of gut churning low end, fuzzy and distorted and blown out, sounding almost like the hardest jungle track ever, slooooooooowed way down. The first disc is pretty blissed out, hard to imagine these tracks filling dancefloors, although they have been, it sounds more like music to get wasted, and sort of just lounge about, head nodding, the vibrations washing over you. With all the hype about this disc and these tracks, initially we were a bit let down, but gradually, this has grown on us like crazy to the point where we pretty much don't ever want to listen to anything else. The second disc is where it gets weirder, and a bit harder, featuring unreleased cuts as well as non-Skull Disco tracks, including the long anticipated nearly twenty minute mix of Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" by Ricardo Villalobos. Anyone who dug that last Villalobos disc, Fizheuer Zieheuer will definitely dig this. Simple shuffling and ultra minimal pulses, stretched out endlessly, so dark and hypnotic, with slow shifting synths in the background. Our only complaint are the vocals, a slowed down mysterious voice intoning apocryphal lyrics over almost the whole song, a la Spectre or the last Plastikman record, it's a little distracting, and we have to say we probably would have liked it without, but even so, it's beginning to growing on us too. The rest of the second disc is like a supercharged version of disc one, more synths, thicker bass, stranger arrangements and creepier melodies, a lot more like slowed down jungle, with heavy beats and reverb and delay everywhere, the more laid back abstract cuts definitely remind us of the Bush Chemists, a totally druggy and dreamy outerspace dub. So good. And based solely on how much this gets played in the shop, this just might be a brand new unanimous AQ fave. Packaged in a cool, creepy black and white cardboard sleeve that looks way more metal that electronica... WAY recommended.

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Looks like, at least until folks run out of appropriate puns, we can count on more and more collections of skweee being released, thank god. We love the skeeee! It's a marvelous micro-genre that wouldn't exist without the '80s, video games, hip-hop, and the internet. Damaged, DIY retro-electro futurefunk that's spread from Scandinavia to a bevy of eccentric enthusiasts elsewhere across the globe, as this double lp Skweee Cruise proves. Released on the Poisonous Gases label from up in Portland, Oregon, who have previously brought us 7"s by such artists as skweee pro Daniel Savio and up-and-comer Lazercrotch. We hope you're already as much into skweee as we are (a lot!). In which case, you will definitely want this exskweeellent comp. But it's not just for skweee obsessives like us, it'd be a good intro to skweee as well. From itchy, glitchy popping and locking grooves to moody synthscapes for sipping on gin and juice to some Middle Eastern exotica flavored cuts (a skweee sub-specialty), taking this cruise will help you get your "skweee-legs", that's for sure! The eighteen new tracks spread across the four sides of this compilation include contributions from vets like Limonious, Daniel Savio, Joxaren, and Randy Barracuda (here under another moniker, The Golden Retrievers!). Plus there's plenty of funky folks fresh to us, including the first example of Japanese skweee of which we've heard (Shitaraba). The full line-up also includes: Coco Bryce, Easy & The Center Of The Universe, Razorsnatch, Boss Kite, Simple, Ben Butler & Mousepad, MO, Slow Hand Motem, mir, Michael Bruce, Wankers United, Hybakusha, and V.C. & Luc B. Gatefold vinyl, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES ONLY!!!

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Pretty soon it won't be so skweeeasy to come up with good skweee-puns... As you may know, we definitely do have a sweet tooth (or, rather, ear) for skweee and thus are super stoked about this new compilation, which is totally in the tradition of the Museum Of Future Sound Vol. 1 and 2 comps we freaked out about last year and the year before... in fact, this may as well be Museum Of Future Sound Volume 3 (Volume Skweee?), 'cause the same Skweeedish, we mean Swedish label that brought us those, Flogsta Danshall, teamed up with the UK's Ramp Recordings to release this new collection, featuring tracks selected by Flogsta boss and skweee artist Pavan. The vitality and variety of the cheeky skweee scene is certainly on display here. Some tracks are more dancey, some more minimal, some more chaotic. But it's all within the skweee realm of (mostly) instrumental, wacked out, synth damaged, chiptune-y, sometimes silly, glitchy grooves inspired by '80s electro, hiphop and video games. There's 13 cuts of that special Scandinavian DIY retrofuturefunk here, quite a few by names we already knew (Mesak, Liminous, Daniel Savio, Rigas Den Andre, Joraxen, Spartan Lover, Wankers United, Mrs. Queda) plus a few others we didn't (Beatbully, V.C., Easy & Center Of The Universe, Melkevlen, Slow Hand Motem). These skweee-boys bring it. Squelchy sizzly synths, 8-bit action, plenty of distortion, and fractured funk beats. It's the playfulness and fuckedupedness of skweee that made us love it so (plus that fact that the shit's so darn catchy), and you get plenty of all that on Skweee Tooth. The compilation gets off to a surefire start with Easy & Center Of The Universe's cleverly titled "Legend Of Selda". Geddit, computer game geeks? That's right, the track takes the melody from a song we know we've heard before by '70s Turkish folkpsych singer Selda, one of the AQ crew's faves, and turns into skweee! ALL the tracks here are cool, though, ranging from the shuffle of "Frisco Bum" by Liminous, to the very video-gamey "Liikutuksla" by Mrs.Queda, to "Distordelle", a thick, woozy one from Rigas Den Andre. One of the more manic, glitched out grooves is "Sex With A Woman" by Spartan Lover, with Joraxen's frantic "Fel I Facit" running a close second. Much moodier (skweee can be that too, actually) and more abstract is "Melkevlen" by Melkevlen Ft. Sagtann. And then at the very end of the disc, the crackly "Idea" by Slow Hand Motem surprises by including some mellow male vocals, alongside a synth lick that echoes the Middle Eastern psych element of Skweee Tooth's opening track. Heck we could go on about 'em all. There's never a dull moment, it's always wonderfully off-kilter, definitely fun stuff. In a world where electronic music can sometimes take itself too seriously, all academic and IDM and Ars Electronica and everything, the unpretentious pun-loving skweee is a breath of fresh air, just what was skweeeded. More, please! (And we promise, no puns next time, we couldn't possibly think of too many others anyway....ok one more: if one of these artists came over and did a tour of the States, we could say they were cross-country skweeeing!).

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This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens. On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.

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This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens. On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.

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This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens. On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.

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