[ aquarius records — Exotica Novelty ]

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Showing results 301 through 350 of 571.

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

SORRY. Subtitled "Astral Animations & Komputer Kartoons", this is a compilation of Moog-&-Odioline-master Jean-Jacques Perrey's best work outside his collaborations with Gershon Kingsley. It appears that the futuristic pop tunes originated bewteen 1957 and 1985, but nonetheless maintain a wacky sensibility throughout.

Far out electronic entertainments created with the fabulous Moog Synthesizer. Indeed. If you liked the Perry & Kingsley In Sound From Way Out record, you'll love this -- all totally fun, truly demented 60's Moog pop. British import.

Along with Gershon Kingsley, Jean-Jacques Perrey comprised the legendary duo of "Perrey & Kingsley" as pioneering madmen in electronic music. With two amazing records "Spotlight On Moog" and "The In Sound From Way Out" they inspired generations of

RealAudio clip: The Percolator
RealAudio clip: Ballet Intersideral
RealAudio clip: La Panthere Cosmique

The final installment in Tiliqua's Erotic Oriental Sunshine series of Japanese erotic music from the sixties and seventies (the fifth of five!). We reviewed Kokotsu No Sekai from Japanese sexy action heroine Ike Reiko a while back, Kuwabara Yukiko To Anata from Japanese "Play Girl" Kuwabara Yukiko not long after that, and then Modae No Heya from seventies bondage / S&M queen Naomi Tani, music recorded and released in 1979 to commemorate her retirement from the world of porn. And most recently Tokyo Emmanuelle Fujin - Amai Yoru No Tameiki from legendary porn actress Taguchi Kumi. The final installment is, according to the label, perhaps the rarest of the bunch, with original copies fetching thousands of dollars, and to our ears, it's also maybe the best of the bunch, certainly the weirdest. For those just discovering the wonderful world of Iroke Kayoyoku for the first time, it's a sort of loungy exotica, equal parts Les Baxter and Ennio Morricone, a bastardized version of a more popular Asian music of the time, a funky, groovy, soulful soundtrack music, but sexed up with chanteuse like crooning, and most important of all, an amazing array of moaning and groaning and cooing and giggling, very playful and silly and sexy. Originally released in 1971 (in keeping with Allan's 1971 music theory, see about a hundred other reviews...), Petite M'Amie was in fact the nickname of Mari Keiko, who could very well be responsible for the very first iroke record, which perhaps explains the relative lack of nudity on the sleeve, Girl Friend - Baby Doll was the seed, from which would sprout a whole genre of sexually depraved sounds... As her nickname might have led you to believe, Keiko's schtick is innocence, the whole Lolita factor, and boy does she play it up, giggling and cooing, purring in the listener's ear, so sexy and sultry, but very 'little girl' like. The music is similar to the other installments, Morricone-ish spaghetti Western twang, smooth Lawrence Welk muzak, horns and strings, funky and jazzy in places, and on this disc maybe more than some of the others, a bit of psychedelia mixed in. As always, it's all about the vocals though, draped sexily over the strange musical backdrops, Keiko delivers her pitch perfect Lolita tease, culminating in the track "Shower", which is just the sounds of Keiko in the shower, the rushing water, splashing and sloshing, and her cooing and giggling all reverby from the shower's tile walls. Sexy for sure, but still very very strange. Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, saucy non-nude photos of Keiko on the cover, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese! ULTRA LIMITED!!! Unlike the others in this series, this one was limited to only 500 copies, and is, yep, you guessed it, already out of print. We got a bunch, but if the other volumes were any indication, these will be gone in a flash!

MPEG stream: Girl Friend
MPEG stream: Cry
MPEG stream: Shower

After a handful of killer 12"s, some of which were included on those awesome Skull Disco comps, comes the debut dubstep longplayer from Punch Drunk label head honcho Peverelist, a dark and moody collection of stutter and skitter, weirdly melodic in places, reminiscent of folks like Boards Of Canada or Autchre, but fused onto a dubbed out stripped down dubstep chassis, the opener is a low slung groover, but with a dizzying repetitive main melody and a wheezing chordal backdrop, while "Revival" finds Peverelist teaming up with Pinch, for some super blissed out, underwater dubstep drift, skeletal and spare, mysterious and haunting. The rest of the record sort of slips back and forth between the two, shifting from super melodic Warp style skitter, to clipped murky downtempo dub, dabbling in sounds more techno, throughout, culminating in the closer "Clunk Click Every Trip" that adds some Pop Ambience, and some retro synths that make it sound like some sort of John Carpenter dubstep remix. Cool.

MPEG stream: Revival (Featuring Pinch)
MPEG stream: Bluez
MPEG stream: Clunk Click Every Trip

From the depths of the Impulse label's more "psychsploitaton" side of jazz comes this exotic East-meets-West rarity from 1968. And if you dug Gabor Szabo's Jazz Raga, any of the John Berberian electric oud albums, the Indo-jazz of Joe Harriott, or the even more authentically "Indo" Indo-jazz of T.K. Ramamoorthy recently reissued by EM, this will be right up your alley. You might have second thoughts seeing the buttoned-down suit and tie wearing bass player Plummer seemingly taking the piss out of the sitar jazz craze of the mid-to-late Sixties, but this record's musical qualities far outweigh any trendy novelty or gimmicks. The opening track, "Journey to The East", is a groovy pop number with spoken singing (the only track with vocals) but the flute, tabla and sitar interplay is pretty far out. Things get further out on the sinewy free jazz of "Arc 294" and the quiet intensity of "Antares". Even covers like "The Look of Love" and The Byrds' "Lady Friend" have charms beyond what those songs normally have to offer. A cultish obscurity for years, it's awesome to see this one-off album reissued again!

MPEG stream: Journey To The East
MPEG stream: Arc 294
MPEG stream: Antares

From the label's catalog: 'CD reissue of the legendary vinyl album with which French composer/arranger Andre Popp explored the boundaries of audio technology back in 1957. Hackneyed tunes like "La Paloma" and "The Beer Barrel Polka" were reinvented by way of weird orchestrations and sound effects. The result: a milestone of musical creativity-- "The most extremely eccentric studio orchestra LP of all-time." (Marshall Crenshaw in MOJO)'

BBC radio DJ and avid record collector Gilles Peterson has never steered us wrong, especially when it comes to rare jazz and Brazilian music, and this one is a gem. Recorded in 1958, it is one of the rarest Brazilian releases, one that became a touchstone for the evolution of Brazilian music in the sixties from samba and bossa to tropicalia. So rare that Peterson didn't have a copy and was approached by a seller offering it for a staggering $4700, prompting Peterson to put an ad out in Record Collector urging someone to reissue it. Johnny Trunk saw the ad, got in contact with Tim Maia's nephew Ed Motta, who is a record collector and musician who had the lp in his collection, and got to work transferring Motta's copy digitally and remastering it, so we finally have a chance to listen to it, and it's quite fantastic. A part of a global touring show called Brasiliana by Polish producer Miecio Askanasy and arranged by Jose Prates, the cast members cut a couple of records and this is one of them. Its lush orchestration of exotic rhythms, haunting choral passages and old world musical theater charm at turns evoking the soundtrack work of Ennio Morricone and Allesandro Allesandroni, the exoticism of Les Baxter and Yma Sumac and even the choral African mass of Missa Luba by the Troubadours du Roi Baudouin, make for a captivating and hypnotic listen. But one song in particular, "Nana Imboro", turns out to be the inspiration for Jorge Ben's "Mas Que Nada", one of the most popular Brazilian songs ever made. At times, mournful, mysterious, reverent and ecstatic. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Nana Imboro
MPEG stream: Nega Zefinha

Just in case you were wondering, there IS a universe. A universe in which a band from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley released a privately-pressed lp in 1975 containing some crazy sci-fi jazz fusion prog rock jams. You may not have heard that record yet, but you live in that universe, too. That band was called Probe 10, and that lp was called There Is A Universe. Imagine an underground hippie space rock band, with plenty of acid rock guitar and fuzz bass, teaming up with a groovy trumpet playing jazz cat who wandered in from some '60s nightclub. It's like Herb Alpert, smoking a lot of herb (ha). Usually when obscure private press reissues are billed as long lost psych/fuzz gems, especially when there's any sort of 'jazz' component, you have to be skeptical. But, in this case, it's actually pretty cool artifact. Super over the top with chops, and with the fuzz. The band, obsessed with the likes of Return To Forever, get busy with hectic tempo changes and rollercoaster song structures, brassy attacks, and flute too, lots of flute. And there's a big drum solo on here as well, part C of the five part suite "Invasion Of The Malladroids". Just ridiculous, really. And when they aren't conjuring jazzy sci-fi space battles with their instruments, they get all new agey, check out the babbling brook and spiritual spoken word on "To Improvise A Dream", and then there's the very first song, the title track, the only one with singing on it (courtesy guest vocalist Susan Rudelich), shrill and sweet at the same time, misleadingly melodic and hippified though, setting you up for a surprise as the band kicks into the first of the Malladroid invasion cuts immediately afterwards, some of the fuzziest, freakiest prog fusion absurdity we've ever heard. Nicely packaged in a miniature lp sleeve, the cd booklet featuring personal liner notes from two of the band members, Jim McGee and Barry "Buzz" Bachman. Also, there's five unreleased bonus tracks on the cd (a vinyl version of this reissue is forthcoming too, btw).

MPEG stream: Invasion Of The Malladroids: A. Invasions
MPEG stream: Intergalactic Crossfire
MPEG stream: Solar Winds

We first heard Philly psychedelic shoegaze death rockers via their VHS tape (!) released on Video Horror Show, and as we mentioned in that review, the band describe themselves as sounding like "the time you saw your creepy metalhead brother at 80's night", which while hilarious is really pretty spot on. The guys are most definitely gloomy and gothy, thick Joy Division-y basslines, reverbed dramatic vox, all moody and minor key, but beyond that, they buck lots of gloom pop and goth rock convention by tethering that stuff to big muscled drum pound, clouds of wild psychedelic guitar freakout, not to mention dense distorted guitars, reminding us at time of Bailter Space, thus the shoegaze vibe, the result a sort of eighties death rock, cranked up and spaced out and metalized, in fact that Bailter Space comparison definitely taps into what makes us dig these guys so much, cuz in some ways, with the noisy guitars and thick bass, and the deep vox, they almost sound more like some super obscure Flying Nun band from the eighties, who put out one lp that no one really heard but that still pretty much destroys everything else you've heard. They also remind us of AmRep Aussies Kingsnakeroost and Lubricated Goat, that sort of noise rock blues stomp just gothed up a bit. Plus they pepper their gloomy crush with blasts of almost punk sounding crunch, which makes them seem even heavier when they slip back into the churn and pound. These guys must kill live, which definitely seemed to be the case from what we could discern from that VHS tape (of which we have a few copies left), and this record oozes the sort of live energy most recordings lack, which of course means this is WAY recommended, for fans of gloomy heaviness, metallic gothrock, psychedelic shoegaze deathrock and other sonically similar genres we just made up! Pressed on white vinyl, housed in a cool striking heart-art cover, with a big white 'x' affixed to the outer sleeve. Includes a download coupon as well!

MPEG stream: YUNG
MPEG stream: KIRA
MPEG stream: ROSE

Do you like some acid sprinkled into your sun soaked psychedelic G-rated children's television shows, well, what if we added even MORE acid it and made it into a movie... well, then Sid & Marty Krofft were for sure your pushers. The big screen spinoff of HR Pufnstuf, these songs were a crucial part of creating the overall over-the-top fantastical and colorful world of the characters of Pufnstuf. A couple lists back we revelled in there finally being a domestic release of The Bugaloos cd and we gotta say we're rejoicing in just the same drink the crazy kool-aid way for these sounds from Sid & Marty Kroft's other druggy, deliriously metaphor filled, bizarre and bright colored daydream for kids with some winking nods to their parents watching along. With a great weird cast of characters including Mama Cass as Witch Hazel, we wish all family entertainment was this bizarre and jam packed with imagination and pleasure. We're still waiting for folks like The Polyphonic Spree or some Elephant 6 tinged groups like Olivia Tremor Control or Of Montreal to fully embrace our television childhoods and carry the torch of Pufnstuff, the Bugaloos and all of our druggy friends for a new generation of kids to trip out too. So fun and dazzling!

MPEG stream: Pufnstuf
MPEG stream: Fire In The Castle

What kind of an album would feature on its back cover a still from "The Big Lebowski" with Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and John Goodman sitting at a bar in a bowling alley -- all wearing black metal corpse paint??!? And feature music that kinda actually *sounds* like that picture might sound?? One by the notorious Steven Schultz (of The History Of Vats, Stalin Claus Superstar!, Busuchan, and I Forgot To Get A Rap Name! infamy) and fellow musical mastermind/masturbator Jason Kocol, of course! "No One Will Ever Understand Our Genious" is a more than apt album title for this duo's output. Genious [sic] put to questionable use. Embarrassing but stoopid funny music nerd indulgence, with the boys' sick chops in metal, jazz, dance music and whatever else they choose to abuse making the likes of Mr. Bungle and Estradasphere and Frank Zappa seem like mere puppies next to these Puny Humans. A silly genre-shift every 1.5 seconds or so, with blasting metal giving way to kazoo blues interrupted by circus music then back to the metal but with tinkling bells and sampled interjections from Flava Flav and house beats and skits and the quiet storm etc. etc. etc. Good grief! The mind reels, the throat chortles. This is really over the top. There's skits (y'know, the producers talking like on a rap record) and they even stoop so low as to sample the Benny Hill Theme at one point. Yes, the dumb humor driving this is SO dumb and relentless that it might even be brilliant. I mean, can you argue with songs that actually live up to song titles like "Deicide At Their Mom's House", "Sweep-Picking The Flugelhorns", and "Wouldja Look At The Ass On That Mummy?". Nope, or at least you wouldn't want to waste your time. Of course, without the dumb humor this mighta been the best ridiculous meta-metal ever, like if they were Japanese or something and we didn't "get" the jokes. But with the humor, it still shows Mr. Bungle where to get off. We really can't help but like it despite ourselves. Trying too hard to be insane -- and succeeding!! MPEG Download: "Thorax, Ho!" [/audio/punythorax.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Thorax, Ho!" [/audio/punythorax.m3u]

MPEG stream: Thorax, Ho!
MPEG stream: Hey, There's Always Urine!

We're getting to the point now where EM Records could sell us pretty much anything. We've come to trust them that much. Whether it's singing saws, some lost psych oddity, sixties symphonies made entirely from bird calls, space age bachelor pad music, or lost jazz funk artifacts, they have such a knack for unearthing true gems, and then lovingly compiling liner notes and photos and extra track so that the final product is almost as impressive an -object- as it is a piece of music. The newset mysterious missive from EM is this long lost mysterious jazz record, originally released in 1976. We haven't been able to glean too much about The Pyramids, there are no liner notes (if that tells you how obscure this recording was/is) and a Google search turned up almost exclusively Japanese language sites. But don't let the lack of background keep you from enjoying this record, cuz it's definitely one of the most amazing rediscovered free jazz gems we've heard in ages. And it's not just free jazz, all wild swirl and skronk. Instead it's an exotic blend of Don Cherry's Orient, Funkadelic's Maggot Brian, some Art Ensemble Of Chicago, with wild Eastern sounding tribal rhythms, shuffling jazzy post bop, fluttering flutes and skronking horns, chanted vocals, droning buzzing ragas, seventies psychedelic free folk, propulsive krautfunk jams, some totally chaotic free jazz here and there, octopoidal drumming and wild shrieking sax, haunting percussive soundscapes, replete with strange creaks and whistles, and then before you know it transforming before your ears into what sounds like traditional African music with warm muted thumb piano melodies, chanted harmonies, bird calls, and sweetly melodic flute, rollicking bass heavy grooves under wild hand drums and carnivalesquee noisemaking. The final track, the 16 minute long "Black Man And Woman Of The Nile", is a mellow slow burning groove, with a throbbing bass riff, warm rich sax runs, shuffling percussion, the whole thing a laidback, sun drenched, barefoot funkjazz jam, warm and dreamy and hypnotic, with a short break in the middle for a brief skronky freakout, and then straight back into it, eventually drifting off into abstract ambience, softly moaning horns, dreamy melodies and barely there percussive chatter. Awesome!

MPEG stream: Aomawa
MPEG stream: Birth Speed Merging

No one does organ fueled fuzzy garage party rock better than New Orlean's quirky Quintron. Too Thirsty 4 Love has been sounding so damn good blasting from our stereo. Like a way more disturbed B-52's channeling The Cramps, these are the sounds you would want to be going nuts to at the best Halloween party ever. While Quintron is often just laughed off as a joke or novelty artist, the truth is, there is so much blood, sweat, guts and grit to these songs, and this outing is reminding us again of how damn great he really is!

MPEG stream: Waterfall
MPEG stream: Dirt Bag Fever

It had to happen. It probably already has happened actually, but we love the weird, and the random, and we figured you probably would too. This is a Japanese import, not sure exactly who the artist is, but it's 99 tracks, each a rich lustrous tone, some deep and bell like, some soft and sonorous, some high pitched like a sine wave. All you have to do is set your cd player on random and away we go. A soft, subtle ambient journey, that ends up sounding a bit like Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, only a bit though. It also sort of sounds like Tibetan bowls, or chiming bells, or soft ambient Japanese music (which I guess it is). Soft and lovely, and most importantly RANDOM. 99 seperate tones means the number of possible songs is an astronomical 9.33262154 x 10 to the 155th! And that's if you only let each tone play once... So even though the disc is actually only about 8 minutes long, set to shuffle it turns into 8 million billion trillion minutes! Or more! Anyway, this seems to work best if you import the disc to iTunes, set to shuffle and with a decent crossfade, then just sit back and drift off, let the gorgeously soft and shimmery, sweet and serene ambience wash over you.

MPEG stream: One

We know you've all be waiting for us to weigh in on one of the burning issues of our time: just how terrible IS the Lou Reed / Metallica album? Is it terrible terrible, or maybe so bad it's good (but still terrible)? Or, perhaps, like The Wire, would we be all contrary and proclaim it to actually be brilliant, not terrible? Well... let's just say that actually writing a review of Lulu is difficult 'cause simply sitting through Lulu is difficult! Imagine a random rock band (Metallica) jamming on some generic stoner riffs they wrote in like 5 minutes, while Grandpa Simpson (Lou Reed) speak-sings disturbing/cryptic/asinine lyrics from the POV of an underage girl prostitute and whatnot over the top... and it's TWO freaking discs long! Well, even opinion here at AQ is divided... just like when Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus came out. We DO like stuff that's "fucked up" after all, and certainly this is. And there's ways in which the "transgressiveness" of this might appeal to Oxbow fans, for sure (and we're Oxbow fans). But if you're a Metallica fan... well you're a glutton for punishment already anyway at this point, and this IS better than St. Anger (what isn't)? Is it possible that Lulu is Lou Reed's laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank joke on a clueless, desperate-to-be-artistic Metallica? Maybe we should just cop out and say that Lulu stands outside of any conventional good/bad judgment. It's just...ludicrous. And not 'cause it's Lou Reed and Metallica, as a concept, per se. Actually, when we first heard about Lou Reed teaming up with Metallica, some of us thought it had potential. On paper. After all, Lou Reed had written songs for KISS before (on 1981's Music From The Elder) and look how that turned out. No, seriously, we dig that KISS album. And if Lou was good enough to write songs for KISS, he should be good enough to write songs for Metallica, heck they should have brought him in sooner. Or, another possibility, was that they would do a full-on noise album together, conducted by Reed: Metallica Machine Music, perhaps?! That could have been cool. Instead, we got this arty absurdity. Which, to be fair, does have its (unintentionally HILARIOUS) moments. For instance, "I Am The Table" (not the name of the song, but it should be, it's actually called "The View", after the TV talk show) is almost worth the price of admission, it's already a classic. Or, check out the very next song, "Pumping Blood", sample lyric from Reed: "Waggle my ass like a dark prostitute coagulating heart pumpin' blood... c'mon, James!" Yes, he really says/sings that. Wow. And if Reed's half-assed spoken word style, way-too-high-in-the-mix vox weren't ruinous enough, James Hetfield then sings backup throughout, in his usual heartfelt, gruff, rock dude croon. Singing stuff like the aforementioned, "I am the table!". The juxtaposition is, again, just so ridiculous. As is the entire album. We're not sure what's worse, when they try to do "songs" (like "Iced Honey") or when it's just Lars on the drums providing random backup for Reed's beat poetry. Ok, it's not all laffs. Ferinstance, in the finale of the set, the whole second half of the epic 20 minute "Junior Dad" is just droning somber strings, and that's quite pretty, although that part doesn't appear to involve either the members of Metallica OR Lou Reed... So, our "verdict": you should definitely hear this, a least a bit of it, for a laugh. But buy the thing? Well, we've got one copy, and expect to have it for a while. But please go ahead, buy it. We dare you. And when you're listening to it, try not to imagine this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPzElP_eSI

MPEG stream: Brandenberg Gate
MPEG stream: The View
MPEG stream: Cheat On Me

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

SORRY. Swedish 'Southern' groovy stoner metal. Who would've thought that something this southern fried and stoned sounding could come out of Scandinavia? Huge crushing riffs, ultra catchy hooks, and an amazing Phil Anselmo (Pantera/Down) sound-alike vocalist (that is, like Phil when he's actually singing, not when he's sounding stupid). Incredible.

So, what if we tell you that there's this band called Rock Jack that does songs with titles like "Belly Bones", "Goblin Talk", "Toilet Master" and "Darth Vader Is Mean"? And sound like some exuberantly drunken bar band fronted by a vocalist with an unusually high, childish voice, unusual enunciation (and pronunciation) and a gift for seeming stream-of-consciousness babble? Sounds like it might be one of those weird AQ faves already? Well then let us add the crucial fact that the singer for Rock Jack, one Erza Lux, is all of three and a half years old. That's right, he's a little boy, and (we know, 'cause we've met him) an exceptionally precocious, adorable, cute little boy indeed. Ezra Lux's dad some of you SF locals know as Aesop, drummer for Ludicra (and formerly, Hickey). Aesop sure has one cool kid. Whenever he brings him into the store, Ezra entertains us with his banter... we know he's really into music, heavy metal especially, 'cause he's told us about the various bands he's supposedly formed, our favorite being "Iron Potato". So when Aesop told us that Ezra had recorded his first cd-r release, we had to hear it. And although it's not the Iron Potato debut we still want to hear, Rock Jack is pretty cool too. With his Fisher-Price karaoke machine, Erza sing-speaks his own weird and funny lyrics (the lone exception being a Van Halen cover) over backing from members of Ludicra (Aesop, John and Ross), who crank out some some punked up, trashy rawk n' roll vamping with metal riffs and blues licks a lot older but no less energetic than Ezra. I think the way it worked is that the Ludicra guys made up a bunch of songs in their rehearsal space, gave the tape to Erza and he picked the ones he wanted to sing on. The results have got a whiff of The Shaggs, Motorhead, Great White, Reynols, Van Halen, Wesley Willis and Hanoi Rocks... We've noticed an "alternative children's music" trend lately, but Rock Jack is one of the few examples of music BY a child. Certainly irresistably cute, and really very strange. 18 and a half minutes, 8 tracks.

MPEG stream: Toilet Master
MPEG stream: Darth Vader Is Mean

We first discovered amazing German duo Rockford Kabine via their debut full length, Italian Music: 31 Invalid Movie Themes, which on the surface played like a series of micro snippets of actual Italian soundtrack music, interspersed with snippets of dialogue, brief excerpts from what we can only assume are in fact real films, the music the perfect compliment, wah wah guitars, Morricone-ish twang, smoky synths, spooky rhythmic dronescapes. It was an incredible collection of music that very well could have been soundtrack music, but was in fact an original creation, imagined music for imaginary Italian films. And we were blown away. Not soon after, the band contacted us to let us know that they were already working on a follow up, this one an ACTUAL soundtrack, to some sort of arty XXX adult film, yep, a porno, which in some weird way made sense, what with RK's ability to conjure up super sultry and sexy sounds, that draw from all sorts of different sources, their music already cinematic on its own, seemingly perfect to be wedded to visuals, and heck, when the visuals turn out to consist of sexy women, some wielding daggers, wearing World War 2 style gasmasks and leather bodysuits and well, it's tough to argue with that. But since the soundtrack was to be available ONLY as a bonus disc with the movie itself, it required some wrangling, and contacting an actual adult film distributor down in SoCal to get our hands on copies. But we're so glad we did. Even removed from the visuals, like all great soundtrack music, Rockford Kabine's score for XERO is incredible, haunting, mysterious, groovy, funky, abstract, cinematic for sure, but also lush and experimental and moody and mysterious. The strange thing too is that the film seems quite European, almost like some Inglorious Basterds style Tarantino war pic (or maybe that's just the aforementioned gas mask get up getting to us), but the music is very Eastern, in fact all the titles seem to be in Japanese, which only adds to the mystique of Rockford Kabine's fantastic soundworld. So we'll discuss the film in a bit, but as aQ is a record store, and this is in fact our Record Of The Week, it's probably best to discuss the soundtrack/score all on its own first. Like Italian Music before it, XERO is a series of shortish tracks, between 1 and 2 minutes, each super distinctive, with the duo conjuring up incredible mysterious moods in a manner of seconds, leaving the listener in most cases wanting more more more. And like their Italian Music, this does play out like some sort of DJ Shadow style sonic collage, still drawing from Morricone, and the Italian giallo tradition, but also from classic '70s porno music, with some funk and groove, but instead of the oft ridiculed wah wah guitar style porn kitsch, this is much more evocative, and dark, guitars are slithery, basslines low slung, undulating, bells chimes, notes drift through fields of reverb, riffs chug and churn only to dissipate in a field of chimes, spaced out drones collide with almost Tangerine Dream like synths, flutes flit and flutter, the rhythms are minimal and motorik, some tracks playing out like some krautrock groove (reminding us that Can made softcore soundtracks too, way back when), others like some lost cosmic disco. It's actually quite hard to describe XERO, there are so many different sounds and styles, and it's hard to imagine them working as a soundtrack, especially to an super stylized XXX art film, but removed from the film, the music, as varied and constantly shifting as it is, somehow plays out cohesively, like an album proper, guitar twang is laced over a minimal footstep like rhythm, organs wheeze, everything sounds softly woozy and lysergic, exotic percussion collides with gamelan like melodies, minimal hip hop beats are wrapped around stuttering loops, occasionally coalescing into some seriously fuzzy hairy funk, other times drifting into Goblin style almost new wave sounding synthscapes, acoustic guitars unfurl some Western strum, but woven in are some haunting synth melodies, even some mysterious voices, soaring strings and sorrowful piano, tense droned out ambience, skittery almost Portishead style downtempo beats, bells and chimes, all sorts of strange production, the sound sometimes crystal clear and lush and lovely, other times hazy and druggy and gorgeously washed out, a kaleidoscopic sonic journey through some imaginary world of naked women, gasmasks and daggers, weird Asian masks, furry shag rugs, a world that would have stayed imaginary had these sounds not been used to edit the film of the same name. The film is indeed pornographic, and XXX. It's all female-on-female, there's very little actual hardcore sex though. And while it IS a porno, with no plot to speak of, it's almost more like it's about the music. Indeed, the movie was edited to the music, much like Sergio Leone used to blast Morricone's scores on the set and have the actors move to the music, so the film here is a series of impressionistic tableaus, the colors acid drenched and super saturated, long slow stripteases, even the actual sex is strangely arty and not traditionally sexy, but the strange constantly shifting images, the cool, always changing music, work together, creating something much more than a porno, in fact, the film seemed more like something the band would project behind them when they performed live, strange masks, the aforementioned rubberclad gasmasked mystery woman, another woman who looks a bit like a sexier female version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, long duster, big hat, face obscured by hair, and as the back cover proclaims, "See the shocking ending the censors didn't want you to witness", and we can definitely attest to the fact that the ending is really weird, depressing and violent, and not at all sexy, but in some way, that makes this whole project more interesting, and bizarre, and pretty much perfect for Rockford Kabine's incredible soundtrack. Though of course you don't HAVE to watch it, the prudish can enjoy the soundtrack fully without reference to the visuals. Needless to say, this is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, but, since the soundtrack cd does in fact come with an XXX rated adult dvd, thus is required some unaccustomed legalese on our part, as follows... This is only to be purchased by adults, and by purchasing this, and/or adding it to your online shopping cart, you are hereby agreeing to these stipulations: that you are an in fact an adult, being of legal age, 18 or 21, in your legal jurisdiction to view adult oriented material that may be sexual or graphical in nature. (Local laws vary throughout the United States, so if you are not 100 percent sure of the laws applicable to you, you are advised to check before purchasing.) Further, you agree that you will not redistribute this material to anyone for which it is illegal for them to view or possess such material, nor will you permit any minor, or any person who would find this personally offensive, to view this material, and finally that you will hold harmless aQuarius recOrds, its officers, ISP, and employees, from and against any claims, liability, losses, costs, damages, or expenses (including attorney's fees) arising from you use of the images contained on the dvd. Furthermore, you will defend aQuarius recOrds against all claims of impropriety regarding your purchase of this item. Phew. We'd have put all that in small print if we could.

MPEG stream: Dangai
MPEG stream: Hana Gin
MPEG stream: Pantsu Etchi Na
MPEG stream: Saigo No Kisu Wa
MPEG stream: Hotto Ni Naru
MPEG stream: Rorikon
MPEG stream: Xero Vs.The Black Angel

Classical music doesn't get more "goth" than this. Elevating the Theremin from the realms of sci-fi and horror movie sound effects, Lithuanian-born child musical prodigy, Clara Rockmore is considered to be the most accomplished classical performer of this early electronic instrument and greatly assisted in its further development. With the stern temperament of a classical diva and the rigid eastern European beauty of a vampire, Clara Rockmore was an other-wordly virtuosa that completely hypnotized her audience with a ruthless dedication to her craft. Originally trained as a classical violinist, malnutrition made her unable to play past her teen years, eventually leading to her discovery of this newborn electronic device. Blessed with absolute pitch, and the ability to have extremely precise and rapid control of her movements enabled her to play the Theremin better than most other performers. Working with Leon Theremin in the early days of its commercial development in the United States, Rockmore made improvements on the original design to make it better suited as a performing instrument and also developed a sophisticated fingering system, which allowed her to accurately perform fast passages, and large note leaps. This is a previously unreleased album of classical pieces recorded in 1973 accompanied by her sister, Nadia Reisenberg on piano. While Rockmore elevated this unique instrument into the classical music world, the haunting pieces on this album never stray far from the gothic feel of those early romantic horror films. Spooky!

MPEG stream: Liebeslied
MPEG stream: Nocturne in C# Minor

OK, here's an Aquarius-approved 'high concept' album, all right: Estonian medieval music group Rondellus performing covers of Ozzy-era BLACK SABBATH songs translated into Latin!!! Now *this* sounds like a Black Mass! Backed by lute, harmonium, psaltery, One of the best, and most original, 'tribute' records ever. Now they should go on tour with Apocalyptica (the Finnish cello quartet that does Metallica covers)!

RealAudio clip: Oculi filioli
RealAudio clip: Funambulus domesticus
RealAudio clip: Post Aeternitatem

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

SORRY.

We're pretty into twisted psychedelic music. The more twisted the better. And that mutant strain of weirdo psychedelia that is CHRISTIAN psych, somehow that seems even weirder and more ridiculous. Even though in some strange way, both Christians and psychedelic freaks were each trying to attain enlightenment, albeit by very different means. Which makes it all the more glorious, to hear the squares try to co-opt the super hip, in hopes of luring some of the lost toward the light. It rarely worked, and in most cases had the exact opposite effect, portraying the co-optors as painfully out of touch, and even more impossibly square. However, Brother John Rydgren might just be the exception. This Lutheran pastor very nearly pulled it off, due in no small part to his amazing voice, equal parts Ken Nordine and Orson Welles, his radio show a twisted dizzyingly psychedelic meditation on love and sex, war and death, set to some seriously fuzzed our psych rock. This double cd collects his three late sixties lps, which were originally only distributed to radio stations and churches (the radio stations instructed to burn them after broadcast, hence their rarity), and it's some of the craziest, coolest stuff you'll ever hear. Every once in a while, when we're playing this in the store, and people are freaking out, laughing, not believing what they're hearing, we sometimes jokingly ask if folks are ready to convert, but listening to this now, it's actually not that far fetched to imagine that back in the day, Rydgren could have really pulled it off, making Christianity cool and convincing druggies and hippies that somehow, that was the more righteously psychedelic path. Really, all it takes is a listen to the opening track, "Music To Watch Girls By", with its fuzz guitar crunch, and exotica vibe, all tropical horns, and groovy rhythms, Brother John intoning over the top, sounding way too lascivious as he describes one girl from head to toe, her lips, hair, her body, her lipstick, hearing that impossibly deep voice say things like: "She likes to be watched", "It's creamy", "Looks like she's ready for a happening", obviously there's a punchline, but it's a pretty uncomfortable wait, until he finally explains, that God created people, girls included, "Quite a design". "God made it", he explains, so you can think about it next time you're out watching girls, he doesn't want to take the fun out of it, it just makes girl watching... mean more! Holy shit, how cool is this Brother, it's okay to watch girls, just know that those gorgeous honeys were created by the man upstairs. And it doesn't get any less weird. "Personality Doll Of The Week" is a weird anti-war sketch, where a nerdy scientist pulls the string on the back on the Personality Doll Of The Week, and she continues to say the same thing over and over, no matter what question he asks "I don't like war, I think everybody should love everybody else". Then there's "Mercy Mercy Mercy", which lays down a bluesy gospel groove, with Brother John, prosthelytizing over the top. Some seriously sweet sermonizing, and that voice, that VOICE!! Keep digging, up next is the "Hippie Version Of The 23rd Psalm", where Brother John rewrites that iconic psalm in hippie speak, with lots of baby's, and cool's, and dig's, and man's, all over a wild organ driven psych rock freak out. But it's the next track, "Rinky Dink", that sealed the deal, with Brother John's stentorian lyric reading, over another groovy fuzzy psychedelic jam, and thee most ridiculous chorus, Brother John delivering this line in a deep deadpan: "One, two, three, four, rinky dink". Groovy and ridiculous, and sorta crazy catchy too! It stays relentlessly far out, warped and psychedelic, the music pretty great, choirs, sitars, fuzzed out surf guitar, tribal drumming, streaks of feedback, even some cool collaged experimental soundscapes, replete with samples of popular songs and fragments of Christmas carols, there's "To Sir With Love", a stately bit of baroque pop, over which various women describe love, and how to treat their man, and how their man should treat them, there's "The Happening", where Brother John interviews various people: Smokey Robinson, both Peaches and Herb from Peaches And Herb, one of the guys from the Association, one of the guys from Paul Revere And The Raiders, and bunch of others about God, and their faith, and how drugs are not the way to attain enlightenment, all peppered with Brother John again explaining: "They're young, they think, and some of them live what they think", there's the sultry sitar driven "Dark Side Of The Flower", with Brother John again sounding disturbingly sensual, there's a "Christmas Montage", that mixes Christmas carols, with horrible samples of news reports about people dying from drunk driving, rats overrunning neighborhoods, crying babies, so bizarre! The whole second half of the first disc finishes with 20 one minute tracks called "They Say", each one a different vignette, delivered over some groovy psychedelia, each one finishing off with Brother John delivering the solution, beginning with the words "They say�" And again, some of them are disturbingly 'sexy', all about what men want, want couples need, etc., and of course, Brother John explains what 'they say' and ties it all back to God. Wow. The second disc starts off with the "Cantata Of New Life", a sprawling 26 minute epic, rife with choirs, and orchestras, call and response vocals, very dramatic and cinematic, and of course the whole thing's peppered with plenty of fuzzy psych, and Brother John's deep sonorous voice, reminding us a bit of another recent Record Of The Week, William Sheller's Lux Aeterna. But then we get back into yet another collection of his radio broadcasts, and if it's possible, things get even creepier, Brother John in conversation with some mysterious woman, about dying young in car crashes, going AWOL, there's a track about computers, which is goofy and crazy, there's one about how God made rhythm, and more more more. Finally, the two part "This Is Silhouette", a weird collaged soundscape of fuzzed out psych, Brother John telling us how it is, and interviews with young people talking about God and drugs, and one final psychedelic sermon from Brother John! Seriously incredible stuff, warped and wonderful, disturbing and inspiring in equal measure, fans of sixties spoken word, Christian psych, outsider music of all stripes, weirdo radio broadcasts, and other Omni releases, this one just might take the psychedelic Christian cake! Packaged in a swank full color six panel digipak, with a huge booklet, with rare photos and extensive liner notes.

MPEG stream: Music To Watch Girls By
MPEG stream: Personality Doll Of The Week
MPEG stream: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
MPEG stream: Rinky Dink
MPEG stream: Hippie Version Of Creation
MPEG stream: Plea Of A Lonely Girl
MPEG stream: Forgiveness (The Boy Looking Natural)
MPEG stream: Computers

Got something here for fans of Jex Thoth, the No Neck Blues Band, AND weird religious cults... there's probably some overlap there, we imagine! The Ajna Offensive, best known for black metal releases by the likes of Deathspell Omega and Funeral Mist, and also that fancy Bobby Beausoleil box set not long ago, now bring us the Sabbath Assembly, singing "glorious songs of praise to Lucifer, Satan, Christ, and Jehovah". Huh? These are indeed REAL hymns, and all from one church. Some would say, cult. The explanation: ever heard of the Process Church Of The Final Judgment? This is their music, "reProcessed" by a contemporary psychedelic (super)group of underground musicians, including Jex Thoth of, um, Jex Thoth on vocals, David "Xtian" Nuss (NNCK, Angelblood, Under Satan's Sun), and Randall Dunn (Master Musicians Of Bukkake)!�So you can expect this will be ominous and esoteric. The subject of a recent Feral House book, the Process Church was a '70s phenomenon, of course, a kind of apocalyptic Jesus-freak cult with radical political dimensions. We're told they wore black cloaks (always cool) and had German shepherds (really?). We first heard of 'em years ago thanks to George Clinton's band Funkadelic, who for a while in the early '70s were, if not followers, at least supporters of the Process Church, who presumably had a chapter in Detroit. Several Funkadelic lps feature Process Church teachings (propaganda?) on the sleeves. The music of the Sabbath Assembly doesn't sound much like Funkadelic, though. Not quite that funky! Nor are they metal as you might assume from the label... it's actually often pretty, mellow stuff, presumably sounding close to what the Process Church folks themselves sounded like when singing the Lord's (or Lucifer's?) praises back in the day, these hymns very hippie sounding, churchy and folky, but also garagey, with twangy guitar and groovy organ, building into throbbing rhythmic psych workouts. It even gets a bit jazzy in spots ("The Power That Is Love"). Still, while this isn't heavy in the guitar dep't the way Jex Thoth's regular band is, it is definitely "heavy" in terms of subject matter. Jex is the perfect vocalist for this, her dramatic, devotional delivery at once both innocent and intense, sincere and sinister. Her exaltations and exhortations rise from a delicate whisper to commanding, demanding heights, sometimes unaccompanied, at others, with backing vocals reinforcing the message. Be warned, this ain't Sunday school. When Jex asks "will you serve the will of God?", it seems like you had darn well better answer (yes!). Dunno if the Process Church is still around (haven't read the book yet) but if they are, there's a good chance this record might recruit some converts... And at least, it's certainly making us curious to read that book. Creepy, yes, and quite catchy too, we can understand why these folks were drawn to reinterpreting these songs. Though of course curious about what the original source material was (lyrics? vintage recordings?). Perhaps it says somewhere inside the lp packaging, we haven't checked for liner notes as yet. This was produced in association with Feral House, so it would seem the Sabbath Assembly had access to whatever inside archival info there was on the Process Church's musical activities. As "religious" recordings go, this is what we dig! For fans of Jex of course, and Yahowah 13, Family Jams, Sounds Of Ascension, and other "cult" audio... recommended! For now, vinyl-only, 180 gram, gold-colored. There will also be a compact disc version, out later this month sometime.

MPEG stream: Glory To The Gods In The Highest
MPEG stream: Hymn Of Consecration
MPEG stream: Judge Of Mankind

Once more, it's time for Church. The Sabbath Assembly has reconvened to sing the songs of the idiosyncratic '70s hippie religious organization (some might say, "cult") known as the Process Church Of The Final Judgment. Not your everyday hymns here, folks! These are songs of praise to both Christ AND Satan. If you've heard Sabbath Assembly's 2010 debut Restored To One, which we highly recommended, you sort of know what to expect. Arcane Jesus/Satan Freak music reinterpreted by a psychedelic rock outfit helmed by David Nuss of the No Neck Blues Band. The results: lovely, atmospheric, sing-song catchy, sometimes soulful; slightly sinister, yet strangely uplifting (as it was meant to be). Ye Are Gods is mostly gentle and folky, sometimes jazzy and trippy, and kinda Comus-y, with sudden dramatic eruptions and majestic excursions. We wouldn't call it at all metal, yet at certain times, this reminds us a bit of SF's own operatic prog-power metallers Hammers Of Misfortune - perhaps not surprising since one of Nuss's other bands is the very much Hammers-influenced Under Satan's Sun. And, aha, in fact, none other than former Hammers (and Wolves In The Throne Room) vocalist Jamie Myers turns out to be Sabbath Assembly's lead singer on this recording, having taken over the mic from their previous frontwoman/high priestess, Jex Thoth. While some might miss Jex, Myers' delicate, dulcet tones admirably fill the void. The full on gospel pop sound of "Exit" was a surprise, but she pulls it off! Also new on board this time, Genesis P-Orridge. Her presence brings a Current 93 element to the proceedings, Genesis doing the David Tibet thing, providing portentous spoken sermonizing, credited in the role of "Sacrifist". Ye Are Gods also features performances by Imaad Wassif, Eyvind Kang, Kevin Rutmanis (ex-Cows/Melvins), and quite a few others eager to embrace the Process message (or at least, who find it intriguing?). The deluxe digi-book cd packaging is quite handsome, and contains lyrics, original sheet music, Biblical quotations, and various other related texts. The similarly-fancy vinyl version also includes this material, in a lp-sized booklet. Nice. While most of us here aren't regular church-goers, you can believe we'll be spinning this a lot, and twice on Sundays...

Hard to believe, but this is indeed a RAP record from one of the drummers of BURMESE! But Burmese fans aren't necessarily Schaffer's demographic, as there are no hellish howls, or gut ripping low end, of head crushing percussive onslaught, just some bumping bass, casio-ish drum beats, and a whine-y white boy flow. But it's the lyrics that keep the Burmese flame burning. Metal, Satan, mayhem, rock and roll and assorted other punk rock debauchery spit in a sing songy, un-funky flow. Fans of Steven Schultz's I Forgot To Get A Rap Name record should definitely check this out!

MPEG stream: Your Band
MPEG stream: Attack Of The CLonefucker

Of all of this year's crop of Record Store Day releases, this is one of 'em that we were probably most excited to hear about - in fact, did you see our blurb in (of all places) Entertainment Weekly, for their Record Store Day feature? They asked Andee for his two RSD picks, he chose this and (naturally) the A Minor Forest reissues. So, Rock, Rot & Rule, if you don't know, was originally a cd released years and years ago. It's an old aQ favorite. The cd's out of print, but someone got the great idea to do (red colored) vinyl for Record Store Day, yay. The story goes something like this: "Rock, Rot, & Rule: The Ultimate Argument Settler" is supposedly a 98 page book which simply lists band names and states whether these groups ROCK, RULE, or ROT. Published with a cover price of $25.00, it is the brainchild of one Ronald Thomas Clontle. This record documents a live radio interview between WFMU DJ Tom Scharpling and Mr. Clontle, in which irate, exasperated callers attempt to argue the inaccuracies of Mr. Clontle's analysis - challenging such Clontle proclamations that Madness RULE ("because they invented ska"), while the Beatles only ROCK ("because they wrote some bad songs like 'Strawberry Fields Forever'"), and Stereolab ROTS ("because they don't use guitars"). All the while, the bemused host prods the painfully unhip yet obnoxiously opinionated Clontle to more and more absurd critical appraisals. It is frickin' HILARIOUS. Needless to say, if there is anybody who is baffled by aQuarius' aesthetics, we insist that you buy this, as we agree with ALL of Mr. Clontle's tautological sputterings. As Mr. Clontle predicts, time will vindicate us! By the way, Mr. Clontle is a pseudonym for Jon Wurster - the drummer of Superchunk. He and Tom Scharpling's show on WFMU was always super funny, Wurster playing different weirdos being interviewed by straight man Scharpling. Ronald Thomas Clontle is one of Wurster's best characters, and this recording (originally broadcast live, November 9th, 1997) is our favorite Scharpling & Wurster thing EVER. Especially funny for people like us who have our own 'Rock, Rot & Rule' style conversations all the time. How they didn't crack up doing this, we don't know. We endeavored to get a lot of these 'cause we knew we'd want to list it, but we don't have a ton left, it was limited to 1000 copies and may well be sold out at the source.

MPEG stream: "Rock, Rot & Rule
MPEG stream: "Rock, Rot & Rule

Subtitled, Another Suplex Prune Hittite Fantasy! But I think this needs a little more explanation. Argh. Ok, some of you will remember Steven Shultz for his remarkable "History of Vats" cd, or his more recent rap album, the "I Forgot To Get A Rap Name!" The four cds come packaged in a cardboard box, complete with a thick booklet providing you with the entire libretto, and more. Basically, this is the Conet Project of "comedy"! (that is, if you can consider this comedy...) This also features a special guest star, a certain local metal singer who wisely desires to remain anonymous (hint: he's on one of Andee's recent tUMULt releases), who, as a favor for Steve, played the role of Hulk Hogan! ...I also think I heard Bob Dylan on here... So, if you think pro wrestling characters from the '80s are amusing and that the slang term 'hella' is funny and you like Frank Zappa, or if you are simply a connoisseur of the idiotically ridiculous, this is for you!! Don't say we didn't warn you. Basically, if you can stand to listen to the entire thing, you've got problems. (See www.harmful.org/stalinclaus for more information, including a helpful flowchart explaining the, uh, plot. Or so we're told, we were too scared to go there.)

RealAudio clip: Kaos In My Beard
RealAudio clip: Allright, You Little Comatose Maniac!!
RealAudio clip: The Beard O Garchy (Down With It)
RealAudio clip: Orchestral Manouvres In The Prune

Also available on (import only) vinyl! It's pretty obvious why the folks at B-music (like DJs Andy Votel and Dom Thomas) dig these particular collectible exploito obscurities so much, and why they're so excited to be reissuing 'em in their new "Germanic Miner" series dedicated to "krautsider music"! What could be more B-musical than these two faux soundtracks concocted in the late sixties by a couple of creative German producers, operating at the weird, wacked out intersection of kitschy library music and freaky krautrock? One's a slice of slinky, sorta-scary "horrotica", the other a spaced out sci-fi fest for the Barbarella set. Both are delirious, demented party-pleasers. The Vampires Of Dartmoore and their Dracula's Music Cabinet conjures a sexy frightmare of hip swinging, bloodsucking sounds. "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)" seems kinda surfy, but mostly this is about groovy porno lounge music, with smoky horns and jazzy percussion, interwoven with screams and creepy sound effects, moaning and groaning, dogs barking and something going boing boing boing... It's a very NON-academic application of musique concrete technique, noises worked into the songs, such as the rumbling explosions that punctuate "Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful Of Nitro)". The mix is fairly chaotic, stuff fading in and out, levels up and down. If this WAS a movie soundtrack, it would have been a pretty crazy movie. Tracks reference Hitchcock, Dr. Caligari, and Frankenstein's monster. And sex. Definitely sex. Equally bizarre, if less R-rated, is the Science Fiction Dance Party. Again, it's groovy, jazzy, sometimes fuzzy "instro-hipster" style stuff, laced with loads of goofy outer space sound effects and rocketship radio drama theatrics. It sounds like music for a cocktail party and/or acid test on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine Robbie the Robot getting down to this. Distorted alien and/or computer voices abound, song titles include "Visitors Of A.D. 2022", "The Whistling Astronaut", and "Hit Parade In The Light Year 25" (which doesn't even make sense, don't they know that light years are a measure of distance?). As well as whistling, there's some screams here too, as spacemen are presumably being zapped with rayguns, but the music remains jaunty. Even the song "Death Rays Out Of The Universe" is inexplicably upbeat. So, it's all very silly, but a lot of fun. Both albums feature bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased "Petting Party" jams on Vampires, 4 extra tracks on Science Fiction that come back to earth to delve into disco and Eastern exotica instead). The slipcased cds of these are now domestic releases (we waited instead of getting the expensive imports) but the LP versions remain imports.

MPEG stream: Monster On Saturn 1
MPEG stream: Murder In The Space Station
MPEG stream: Death Rays Out Of The Universe

Last time, we reviewed The Omni Corporation's reissue of a wonderful rare "library music" album entitled Omega 2000 by German composer Peter Thomas and his "Orchestra". Those diligent diggers at Omni Corp. have another one along those lines for us this week, again a '70s library music collection, from the much less well known name of Patrice Sciortino. Can't believe this is the first we've heard of the man and his music, considering that this stuff sounds something like the more outre of Morricone efforts, pretty darn cool. And apparently, there's plenty more where this came from. Wow, thanks Omni!! Sciortino is classically trained French musician, born in 1922, who eventually established a career in the '60s/'70s as a prolific and somewhat peculiar composer, with, eventually, many obscure recordings to his credit. He's also a poet and playwright. With an interest in both non-Western musics and the most avant-garde of electronics (he studied at GRM), his musical vision, as displayed here, is unusual and otherworldly. Where that Orchestra Peter Thomas disc was groovy and funky, all about the big bombastic beats, this Sciortino stuff is much more atmospheric and academic sounding... it's like 20th century classical gone soundtrack wacky. Imagine Bernard Herrmann (of Psycho fame) meets Carl Stalling (of Warner Bros. cartoons fame). Or Luigi Nono writing music for TV shows. His music is sometimes ominous, sometimes uplifting, offering plenty of percussive exotica, chimings and tinklings, with shuddering, sawing cello and eerie wordless female vocals. And occasional echo effects intensifying the rhythms. This disc comprises Sciortino's entire, intriguing 1970 album Chronoradial, plus extensive selections from three different 10" records of his belonging to a library music series out by the Musique Pour L'Image label circa 1967-1968. There's 36 tracks here in all, many of them jittery and unsettling, suspenseful and nervous - but others lively, joyous and beautiful. Nicely done, in typical Omni fashion, the cd booklet full of informative liner notes, and awesome freaky black and white artwork from the original lps - love that raccoon-like creature with the clocks for eyes!! Quite recommended.

MPEG stream: Kuklos I
MPEG stream: Horizons Roses
MPEG stream: Tumulte
MPEG stream: Forage

A while back, we highlighted an Omni label reissue of a pretty cool album called Chronoradial, some way-out library music from the late sixties/early seventies by avant-garde French composer Patrice Sciortino, which we likened to "20th century classical gone soundtrack wacky". Some months later, Omni released a follow-up second volume with more of Sciortino's works, which we're finally now listing as well. That's this disc, featuring two whole Sciortino albums: Percupulsions, from 1970, and 1975's Gymnorythmies/1, plus a few extra bonus cuts taken from a couple other Sciortino lps of the era - 43 tracks in all! Percupulsions - what a great title, it sounds like a word we'd have coined to describe it - is of course very rhythmic, with classical percussionists gracefully navigating jazzy compositions that also incorporate harspsichord and tape manipulation, a soundscape that's melodic and playful - and rather strange and sinister too. Gymnorythmies/1 is likewise full of quirky movement and joy, being meant to accompany modern dance and gymnastics exercises (a instructional booklet with diagrams of dances was included with the original lp release!). Pretty neat, recommended to folks who liked Chronoradial or Omni's other arty European '70s library music reissues, such as those lps by Egisto Macchi.

MPEG stream: Fonderurgie
MPEG stream: Para-Docks
MPEG stream: Exercices Avec Cerecaux No.1
MPEG stream: Exercices Avec Cerecaux No.2

Like a modern Switched On Bach, DJ Scotch Egg, armed with modified game boys, and a serious arsenal of 8 bit noisemakers, takes all your favorite Bach tunes and turns them inside out, tangles them all up, slathers them in overloaded electronic buzz and glitch and all sorts of squiggly video game music, and creates some glorious bastard classical gabber electronic classical knee-to-the-nuts techno. And it's a blast. Wild and goofy, funny and sort of funky, but completely brilliantly baffling. Lots of the pieces are ones you'd recognize, but they are quickly transformed into blown out lo-fi blasts of damaged dance music. Some tracks feature garbled super distorted vocals, and end up sounding like some toy version of Atari Teenage Riot. Allan thinks a lot of this sounds like the video game version of the theme from Bad News Bears or maybe an 8-bit Virgil Fox trapped in a haunted video arcade. However it strikes you, odds are you won't hear a record this weird and this much fun anytime soon. Imagine playing some insane futuristic version of Dance Dance Revolution on a crappy old Atari 2600, but with the sound patched through 1,000 Marshall stacks. Fucking awesome! If you're anything like us (at least two of us have the sounds of Rastan on our iPods and we have a full size Tron machine in the back room of AQ!) this is so deliriously damaged and absolutely essential!!

MPEG stream: Scotch Bach II
MPEG stream: Scotch Ruins
MPEG stream: Scotch Bach
MPEG stream: No Beats

Like the "Pushbutton Parfait" album that was released last year "Kodachrome" is a collection of contemporary recordings of the music of Raymond Scott. But unlike the former, "Kodachrome" contains material written by Scott which has never been released before (with the exception of one track, "Naked City", which was also recorded for "Pushbutton Parfait"). The tracks on this collection were penned between 1935 and 1953 (with the bulk coming from the mid-forties) for a much larger band than those late thirties cuts he recorded with his quintette. The Metropole Orchestra, a twenty-something-odd piece orchestra, has faithfully transcribed 17 of Scott's big band works and recorded them here, revealing yet another musical facet of the ever fascinating Raymond Scott. As much informed by a vigorous passion for jazz as by a talent for classical counterpoint, the tracks on Kodachrome are rife with arrangements that are at once immensely complex as they are irresistibly catchy. MPEG Download: "Egyptian Summer" [/audio/rscottegyptian.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Egyptian Summer" [/audio/rscottegyptian.m3u]

MPEG stream: Egyptian Summer
MPEG stream: Minor Prelude (a.k.a. 2nd Prelude)

The academic eggheads that congregate around the musical institutions of the globe have from time to time tried to bring elements of whimsical pop to the sonic weirdness of musique concrete and the electronic oscillators that have continued to gyrate since the 60s. For the most part, the experiments meshing pop & academic New Music have been pretty lame, but not those of Raymond Scott. "The Manhattan Research Inc" is a double cd which collects the "new plastic sounds and electronic abstractions" from Scott's idiosyncratic work from the 50's & 60's, which included space-age ditties for commercials and oddball electronic noodling. As weird as the 60's space electronics from Dick Hyman / Command Records, yet just as complex as Tod Dockstader or Vladimir Ussachevsky, but with Scott's previous work with Carl Stalling scoring cartoons, these recordings retain a solid grasp on the intrinsically catchy pop jingle. Top it all off with commercial voice-overs for detergent and chewing gum for a wonderful collection of electronic esoterica. It should also be noted that, if you didn't know any better, on first listen, there's a good chance you would mistake this for a Tape Beatles or Negativland record!

"Arguably the first ambient techno records, 1963's Soothing Sounds For Baby LPs were the culmination of Raymond Scott's decade and a half as an electronic music pioneer. Scott is better known for his circular, giddy jazz compositions from the '30s and '40s, many of which endeared themselves to youngsters through their eventual use in Warner Bros. cartoons. Soothing Sounds, though, is _meant_ for young children--he called it an "audio toy"--and, reissued on three short CDs, it can have the same stimulating, pacifying or hypnotic effects on adults (we don't recommend driving to "Sleepy Time," for instance). These gracefully layered loops of early electronics have the unmistakable stamp of their era -- Scott most likely used existing instruments of the time, like the Ondioline and possibly a derivative of the theremin -- probably combined with sequencers and modifications of his own design, the details of which are now lost. Still, his endlessly pinwheeling, trance-inducing grooves were far ahead of their time: we suspect that more than a few techno artists heard these records in their cradles, and though they're playful, pretty and simple, they have a depth and peculiarity that prefigures minimalism as well." [--Robin Edgerton & Douglas Wolk in CMJ New Music report, 6-29-97] Wow. Available at a very reasonable price, these sought-after recordings have been packaged with very extensive liner notes and photos. If you're only wanting one volume, we recommend #2 or #3. They're all equally good (honestly) and Volume 2 features "The Toy Typewriter" which Irwin Chusid has likened to Metal Machine Music For Babies. We think a young Tom Jenkinson heard these in the cradle and thus preordaining that he grow up to become the Squarepusher.

Oooh...The Secret 7. I already like the sound of this. And it was Raymond Scott's band, so it's got to be good. Scott, for those who don't know, was a quirky composer -- a bonafide genius of very strange music -- who experimented with 'electronica' decades before it became fashionable, and whose big-band jazz was used to score Warner Bros. cartoons and must have inspired John Zorn as a young 'un. Anyhoo, back in 1960 Raymond Scott put together this seven-piece ensemble of anonymous yet all-star jazzers and cut The Unexpected. With this reissue the mystery of their identities is solved (we're warned on the back cover "This package contains new information about the SECRET lineup"). Turns out the Secret 7 included harmonica player Jean "Toots" Thielmans, sax player Sam "The Man" Taylor, and drummer Elvin Jones, among others! So the secret's now blown, but this LP is still alluring, featuring as it does these cats playin' some cool, swinging jazz tuneage by Mr. Scott as well as standards...Cole Porter, Gershwin, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"...but is it weird or wacky? Well, check out the demented chipmunk vocals (yes!), nursery rhyme lyrics and hyperactive arrangements. Yep it's a fine Raymond Scott fix indeed. So pour a cocktail and get to snappin' yr fingers!

MPEG stream: And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon
MPEG stream: In The Beginning

"Good evening dancing America, and lovers of exciting dance music. We present Raymond Scott, extraordinary composer of modern music, and his Orchestra, featuring Nan Wynn. All this exciting music comes to you from the equally exciting Panther Room of the hotel Sherman's College Inn in downtown Chicago." So says the announcer on track one of this cd, introducing pianist/arranger/composer and nowadays cult figure (best known for the use of his music in Carl Stalling's classic Warner Brothers cartoon scores, and also for his later electronic experiments) Raymond Scott and his band in what was originally an exciting 1940 live radio broadcast. This disc sees Scott updating many of his classic, quirky Quintette compositions to the swingin' big band format of the forties. Female vocalists Nan Wynn and Dorothy Collins (later Scott's wife) sing on a couple of numbers, but mostly this is instrumental dance fare. The 24 cuts here are culled from studio and live radio performances circa 1940-1944, and are mostly jaunty and playful Scott-penned tunes, like "At An Arabian House Party", "Caterpiller Creep", "Eagle Beak", "An American In Russia", "The Lark Leaped In", and "Toonerville Trolley". Some of the non-Scott material includes a song by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Scott's jazzed-up take on the traditional "Pop Goes The Weasel"! One for fans of Raymond Scott and/or oldsters among you... seriously, lots of nostalgic, energetic fun!

MPEG stream: At An Arabian House Party
MPEG stream: Mocassin Glide

The Raymond Scott Orchestrette were so named in homage, obviously, to the Raymond Scott Quintette, who originally performed many of the pioneering composer / inventor's musical works. Most well known for his work with Carl Stalling scoring cartoons (listen to "Powerhouse" -- you'll recognize it instantly), Scott also invented various music making machines and early synthesizers, and even released three albums of music made especially to soothe babies! Now, with the help of Irwin Chusid, AQ friend, customer, and manager of the Scott musical estate, a band has been assembled. The Orchestrette are comprised of piano, violin, bass, accordion, drums, and Brian Dewan on zither / koto / etc. and not only offer choice versions of many of Scott's best loved pieces, they also do pieces Scott never took out of the studio. The version of the all-electronic "Little Miss Echo" as rendered by the all-acoustic Orchestrette is so lovely! I could listen to a whole album of these playful, serene acoustic versions of previously-electronic works.

RealAudio clip: Little Miss Echo
RealAudio clip: Powerhouse

Double disc set of 41 Raymond Scott Quintette tracks -- and while many of them are alternate takes of pieces you may already own, over a dozen of the tunes were never recorded by the Quintette and are only available to us now because they were captured as live radio rehearsals and broadcasts. Includes the only known recording of Raymond Scott singing! Liner notes include an old Time magazine article about Scott, plus an interview with his first wife. Possibly for Scott completists only. MPEG Download: "Square Dance with Eight Egyptian Mummies" [/audio/scottmummies.mp3]

MPEG stream: Square Dance with Eight Egyptian Mummies

Either you want this or you don't! Not much we're gonna be able to do to persuade you either way, once we explain the premise: yes, it's a Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme split! This record collects together the audio from a whole bunch of movie trailers by those two iconic '80s action stars. On the Seagal side, you get the exciting advertisements for Above The Law, Fire Down Below, Glimmer Man, Hard To Kill, Marked For Death, On Deadly Ground, Out For Justice, Under Siege, and Under Siege 2. On Side Van Damme, enjoy the trailers for Bloodsport, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Double Impact, Double Team, Hard Target, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Nowhere To Run, The Quest, Sudden Death, and Universal Soldier. It's a limited edition of 150 copies, and we only were able to get, like, 4 of 'em, so act fast if you want one (why wouldn't you??). Great DJing fodder we're sure, or just to spin at home prior to a trip to the video rental store.

Hell, whoops, ach eee double hockey sticks yeah! Or should we just say hallelujah!? This obscure Xtian '60s psych fave has just been officially reissued with loving care and TONS of extra, associated material. Here's what we said about The Search Party when we first encountered a reissue of it (a Korean import, at the time) some years ago: Fans of psychedelic sixties rock n' roll might be a little concerned about what they're getting when a peek at the album cover shows that two of the band members are men wearing clerical collars. Priests who rock? And these are no long-haired Jesus Freaks, either. The four men and one woman in this band look pretty straight. But, have no fear, their music is plenty far-out. This self-released 1968 album is the sole recorded legacy of The Search Party, a Christian folk-psych combo masterminded by the Reverend Nicholas Freund of Mount Saint Paul College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but recorded at the San Francisco Theological Seminary's Montgomery Chapel (hence the title). They were definitely hip to the sixties West Coast vibe, with female vocals that remind us a bit of both Grace Slick and Linda Perhacs. Much of this is quite ethereal and haunting, full of organ drone-tones and dreamy, downer atmosphere. The album's centerpiece, the nine-minute "So Many Things Have Got Me Down" could be a lost acid-krautrock jam. While The Search Party are at their best on the slower, moodier numbers, the more uptempo songs, though, go to some amazing extremes with over-the-top vocals and searing fuzz guitar - as in "You And I" which stands in stark contrast to the gentle, somber sounds of much of the rest of the record, whose original liner notes include the statement that "this album...is a demonstration of these five people's concern for you." Now how often do bands today say things like that? Bless' em. The New Creation and the Concrete Rubber Band - a couple other lost '60s Christian rock reissues we reviewed here previously - have nothing on this! And not only do you get that wonderful album here, but Lion Productions have tacked on a whole extra disc. Turns out, prior to the formation of The Search Party, Nick Freund and The Search Party's guitarist/vocalist Peter Apps already had made music together in the St. Pius X Seminary Choir. As you can guess from the name, this group was rather more overtly religious, less secular sounding, 'though it was during this period that Freund attended a show at the Fillmore (featuring Cream, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Janis Joplin!) and got turned on to the hipper sounds of the SF ballroom scene. The St. Pius X Seminary Choir released three albums: Sing Out With Joy To The Lord, Sing To The Lord A New Song, and Each One Heard In His Own Language About The Marvels Of God, the third of which appears in its entirety on this set's second cd, with selections from the other two spread across the balance of both discs as bonus tracks. While the St. Pius X Seminary Choir was different in style, being mostly more 'square', churchy choral music with some rock/pop influences, and definitely not in the same league as The Search Party, it's still cool to hear music from 'em, particularly the stuff on the Each One Heard In His Own Language album, which starts off with a quite freaky, possibly Stockhausen-influenced electronic noise / sound collage composition (!) and also includes what appears to be a version of "Twist And Shout" rewritten as part of "Mass For The Secular City"... Furthermore, this is packaged with a thick cd booklet full of liner notes (including reminiscences from both Freund and Apps), press clippings, photos, lyrics, etc., etc. Let's say it again, hallelujah!

MPEG stream: Speak To Me
MPEG stream: So Many Things Have Got Me Down
MPEG stream: The News Is You
MPEG stream: Pentacostal Sunday, Double Alleluia
MPEG stream: Get Together