[ aquarius records

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

Showing results 701 through 750 of 1265.

AQ was (and still is) totally obsessed with DJ Screw the Southern Fried DJ that slowed all your favorite hits down to a crawl, making MTV hits into murky musical nightmares. When Screw passed away a few years back, there was a line around the block of DJ's willing to 'screw' tracks for a buck. And of course with that came some variations on the Screw formula. So here's a record of Southern underground hip hop skrewed ('k' instead of a 'c' just so we're not confused) and chopped, which from listening to this disc, we take to mean, the dj stops, scratches, and rewinds the -whole- record. The record which has already been slowed down (skrewed). None of this scratching over the top as embellishment, this is stopping the whole record...shka....shka...shka.....and then it starts up again. Pretty cool. Not as fun as hearing the big hits chopped and screwed but pretty damn cool nonetheless.

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Reissue of the debut cassette only release from Odd Nosdam, the man responsible for the music on the amazing cLOUDEAD records. 55 short and sweet tracks of abstract hip hop sound art: unfinished rhythms, bizarre sound collages, super distorted song fragments, scratchy drum loops and tons of good stuff, all recorded on a battered set up of junky garage sale/flea market recording equipment. For fans of Anticon, cLOUDEAD, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock and the like.

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

SORRY. A gorgeous and dreamy ten minute slab of hypnotic blissed out hip hop. Lazy loping beats, vocal snippets, fuzzed out casios, huge head nodding rhythms, some purloined horns, a little jungle skitter, all chopped and cut and sliced and diced. Limited to 1000 hand numbered copies.

Some seriously twisted WTF hip hop for fans of Sensational, the Pharcyde and the like, blending warped home brewed studio fuckery, with some classic hip hop. He's a member of Deadverse Massive, along with Dalek and Destructo Swarmbots.

Madlib's super talented younger brother Oh No has been doing a great job as the ambassador of '60s & '70s international psychedelia to the hip-hop world, liberally sampling all sorts of aQ faves, Turkish psych, Mediterranean pop, whatever struck his fancy, so Dr. No's Ethiopium should really come as no surprise, a whole record sampled and inspired by rare '60s and '70s Ethiopian soul, jazz, funk, folk and psychedelic rock, all chopped up and recontextualized into brief little snippets of bad ass Ethiopian groove, wreathed in record crackle, peppered with pops and clicks, adding a warm timeless texture to these jams, some are just straight ahead sampled, others are rearranged into lurching, stuttering rhythms, the basslines woozy and funky, horns wailing, the vocals often left intact, but just as often all mixed up, flipped backwards, woven together to create strange hiccupping vocal layers, the sound ranges from soulful ballads, to pounding jazz funk, to cinematic string laden drama, to swirling Ethiopian folk transformed into something way more buzzy and bouncy, some jams synth swaddled, others warped and warbly, the bass cranked up all over the place, you can almost imagine the Wu-Tang swooping in for a verse or too, these brief jams are just so groovy and heady and funky and kick ass. Hands down THEE mix of the year!!!

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We knew it was only a matter of time before someone sampled Turkish psych diva and AQ fave Selda. While that may have been too obvious of a move for the likes of Madlib, it comes across as a bold opening statement of distinction from Madlib's younger brother, Michael "not that Michael" Jackson aka Oh No. Oh No's third record marks a more noted evolution as producer from his last Galt MacDermot-inspired efforts like J Dilla's Donuts and Madlib's Beat Konducta series, Dr. No's Oxperiment is a solid instrumental hip-hop record of 28 tracks no longer than 2 minutes each. While none of the other samples are as easy to recognize or as obvious as Selda's, Oh No's main focus throughout the album is on fuzzy Turkish and Mediterranean psych pop breaks more akin to Dr. Delay and Cherrystones than Madlib or Dilla. But then about a third of the way through, on the track "No Guest List", things start to turn more soulful with more R&B inflected rhythms and vocal snippets that definitely place him closer to Dilla's camp though ultimately not quite as sublime. Despite some flaws, like the anti-climatic ending, Dr. No's Oxperiment is definitely a welcome addition to the ever-growing cannon of instrumental hip-hop. Now that some sibling rivalry has been established, hopefully the Jackson brothers will be keener to keep upping the ante on both of their future releases.

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Holy shit does this rule: hip hop producer Oh No crafts a whole record using nothing but samples from DOLEMITE, one of the most legendary blaxploitation films (and soundtracks) ever. Rudy Ray Moore is the mother fuckin' OG. Oh No samples wah guitars, slithery seventies grooves, killer symphonic snippets, movie samples, female vox, harpsichords, guitar funk, smooth soul, wheezing organs, funky horns, all sorts of rad, weird shit deftly looped and layered to the point that unless you were super familiar with the film you probably wouldn't know it was Dolemite at all, but odds are, plenty of rap jams before this borrowed bits from Dolemite anyway, cuz all of these sounds are super well suited for repurposed looping, and Oh No kills it, funky as fuck, catchy as hell, big booming beats, fuzzy synth buzz, woozy rib cage rattling basslines, and a wicked array of underground hip hop royalty doing their thing over these killer jams: MF Doom, Chino Xl, Erick Sermon, Phife Dawg, Sticky Fingaz, Prozack and loads more.

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God, I love Ol' Dirty Bastard. Remember on that awards show, where he was so messed up he nearly walked into a fountain of flames? Or remember that other awards show where ODB ran on stage and started rambling incoherently about the Wu-Tang while some poor

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Like a lot of you, we flipped for Chinoiseries, a killer collection of sample heavy jams from French-Vietnamese producer Onra, the sources for which were all culled from old records scored while crate digging in Asia, the result was a dizzying barrage of beat driven almost Bollywood craziness, folk music, opera, classical, pop, chopped and looped and wrapped around funky beats, transformed into crazy catchy crackly grooves. We were psyched to discover there was more Onra out there, although this is not so much an album proper as it is a sort of beats and breaks record, and it's not new material, it's archival (check the date as title), but even so, all the breaks here KILL! The song titles are pretty self explanatory: "Porn", "Hit The Bong", "Dirty Loop", "Disco", and as you might imagine, those tracks do in fact sound like the title suggest, but not exactly. Onra definitely has a knack for twisting up sounds and making them weird and warped. Vocals are clipped and layered, collaged and recontextualized, lots of wah guitar, breathy exhalations, plenty of sci-fi synths, bloopy bleepy electro-funk, electronic squelch wrapped around passionate porno moans, bubbling bong sounds over woozy grooves, blasts of disco skitter, much of the record definitely falling into a sort of psychedelic / fuzzed out, almost Blaxploitation sort of vibe/sound, with a bunch of the tracks getting all RZA like, one in particular with fuzzy flutes, squiggly effects and a gaggle of giggling girls. So cool!

Every crate digger worth their salt has come upon the Asian record dilemma. Records (often Chinese) that look so awesome and full of promise with their mysterious photography, strange graphics and humorous English misspellings, only to be underwhelmed by the most boring, pedestrian and oft-times sickly sweet music contained within. But what's a cratedigger to do when they are actually IN Asia and have to wade through stacks upon stacks of such records knowing they can only bring home a tiny batch? That's the dilemma the French-Vietnamese producer Onra found himself in on a trip to Vietnam where scouring through various flea markets, he picked up a stack of promising but highly worn records. Like the best of recent instrumental hip-hop records by J Dilla, Madlib (especially his Beat Konducta Indian series), and Oh No processed through the radio collage filters of Sublime Frequencies, Onra was able to mine pure gold from the scratchy sounds he collected abroad. Bits of operatic theater, odd sixties easy-listening covers, traditional flute and string ensembles, love songs and obscure soundtracks chopped into loops and grooves with all the rough crackle and sheen kept in tact. Soooo Awesome!!!!

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Yep, it's true. A greatest hits record. Right off the bat, we should tell you to just get all the records, cause they're all great. But if for some reason you've been living in a cave or on the moon, then by all means get your grubby mitts on this puppy

Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho! Outkast finally return, and in full Juke-Joint mode. Employing Tin Pan Alley quirks, marching bands, and swing-era rhythms and melding them all to hip hop beats, Idlewild may not be the return to the Dirty South sound that some folks were hoping for but it sure is fun. While still more solo than together, Andre 3000 and Big Boi have a yin/yang working dynamic that supports the flow of the record nicely. Though some songs are performed together, there are no overt distractions of inconsistency. There are a lot of interludes and skits we could do without, but that makes more sense with such a multimedia-blitzed soundtrack concept. We look forward to the next time they get back together for a proper studio record (if they do one, that is!). But we sure are fine listening to "Morris Brown" in the meanwhile...

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Hard to know what to say about this new Outkast record. We all pretty much love Outkast, and their total disdain for what's hip or cool in hip hop circles. Weirdly dressed, wildly inventive musically, with videos that are tough to beat, they pretty much stood out like a big beautiful funky sore thumb. So while we weren't necessarily surprised by ther decision to release a double cd, basically 2 solo records, we were a bit surprised by the records themselves. 'The Love Below' is Andre 3000's joint and is basically a smooth R+B slow jam ala Prince or Billy Ocean or Luther Vandross, but with a healthy does of Ween. Yep, that's right, Ween. Ridiculously silly lyrics and goofy goofy love songs. Byram posited that this is what Ween SHOULD sound be doing. Ultra slick, incredibly smooth, well produced jamz....with lyrics like "I know you like to think your shit don't stank, but lean a little closer and see that roses really smell like boo-boo-boo, boo-boo-boo." So your call. Fun. Definitely funny. Soulful and funky, but really really dorky and goofy. Now Big Boi's disc sounds way more like the Outkast we know and love, in fact, it really does seem like an Outkast record. Big beats, weirdly inventive arrangements, crazy raps, and wickedly catchy choruses. Just consider 'The Love Below' a bonus disc of slow jams to do with what you will. Boo-boo-boo. Boo-boo-boo.

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Long anticipated release of the new Outkast, the group that comes closest to recreating George Clinton's Mothership in all its funk glory, as heard through the new century's hip hop paradigm. There's a lot going on, including interesting sampling choices, unison singing a la Parliament, and looped silliness to keep the groove going. If you've been listening to K-MEL or the various hip-hop equivalents around the country, then you've most definitely heard Outkast's "Ms. Jackson" on heavy rotation for the last several weeks. It's certainly a track worthy of all that play; I still find myself singing the chorus at random moments throughout the day. Everytime we listen to this record we find more to like about it; like Prince if he'd been as "out there" as we wished he'd been. And for all you Erykah Badu fans out there, she makes a cameo here.

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One of the most infectiously exuberant bands I've ever seen live, Ozomatli are LA's premiere latin/jazz/salsa/funk/hip hop sensations. Don't take those genres lightly -- these guys do it all and they do it with joy and energy. The hip hop is real, so is

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Vinyl single from the new album...

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Full-length debut for LA's latin/jazz/salsa/funk/hip hop sensations. Includes the "Cut Chemist Suite" in which their famed DJ (also of Jurassic 5) shows his stuff.

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For a while now, we've been raving about the various groups/collectives attempting, in their own ways, to sort of reinvent hip hop. Mush and Anticon and all those folks, Dose One, Cloudead, Sage Francis, Sole, Why? etc. And part of the appeal was their apparent disregard for hip hop tradition, removing whatever they felt like, beats, hooks, structures, funkiness, rhymes and replacing all of that with the everything and the kitchen sink. Bizarre samples (jazz, metal, field recordings, whatever), damaged, stuttering massively unfunky beats, stream of conciousness lyrics, and that whiny, white-boy, tongue twisting flow. But it seems like all of that stuff is doomed to remain on the periphery of popular hip hop. Not sure if the world is ready, and by world I mean kids who watch MTV and want nothing more than a new Jay-Z record that sounds EXACTLY like the last one. So what happens when someone with the same idea, reinventing/re-invigorating hip hop, takes a different, more subtle approach? Doesn't bury their respect for traditional hip hop under a wash of effects and Satie loops and epileptic beats. And attacks from the inside. Subversive and insidious. You get something that sounds like it -could- be on MTV and the radio, definitely -should- be, but probably still won't. Onry Ozzborn and his Old Dominion crew have been crafting some of the most original and BEST hip hop for several years now. Staying pretty underground, but not sure how long that can last. This is an amazing sounding record, amazing production, banging beats, wicked flow. But there's this aura of creepiness that is what makes it so appealing. All minor key, and gritty and ominous. You can hear lots of influences, Xzibit, Ras Kass, even Onyx, but it's all filtered through Ozzborn's twisted vision. The weird thing is, this sounds like it really COULD be huge. On the surface it just sounds like really good hip hop. Dig a little deeper more and more strangeness is revealed. Not to say this stuff isn't weird. It is. It's just a little less obvious. Less "Look at me! Isn't this crazy!!" and more "Back off...you have no idea what you're getting into motherfucker..." The samples are strange and original, but they're so deftly woven into the tracks it feels like they couldn't sound any other way, haunting Gregorian chants, rumbling synths, creepy minor key pianos, heavily reverbed electric guitars, what sounds like a bubbling aquarium, and all kinds of stuff. The beats are loping and head bobbing, and Onry's flow is thick and gritty, dark and threatening and downright evil sounding. There are hooks galore, choruses that actually stick in your head. And if that wasn't enough to make this one of my favorite hip hop records of the year, this record has one thing, that automatically qualifies it for major respect...NO SKITS!

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Man, why hasn't anybody made this record until now?! Boomin' MTV style big beat hip hop with Bollywood samples and vocal breaks! This is so good. A few artists have dabbled with Indian samples in the past, but none have pulled off this not-so-unlikely hybrid as perectly as Panjabi MC. Take the crazy, exotic over-the-top-ness of Indian movie soundtracks, tablas and sitars, wild vocalising, awesome male and female vocal interplay, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aproach of the Bollywood soundtrack (funk and jazz and heavy metal and lounge and country and soul...) with a huge, speaker rattling production, some rough and funky hip hop, and maybe even get Jay-Z to rap on a track... and you've got a definite winner. The record is split evenly between bumping, barnstorming dance tracks and brooding, hypnotic, slow-burners. Really cool.

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The much anticipated return of Paris. A man who's no stranger to controversy, Paris' new album is certainly going to sell a few copies and/or cause some consternation over the cover alone. Most people can remember his debut The Devil Made Me Do It as a kick ass record for its time, and his 1992 track "Bush Killa" certainly garnered him some attention. But his following albums suffered from good intentions coupled with tepid production values. Sadly, if it wasn't for the bold cover and title we honestly probably wouldn't have picked up his newest. Sonic Jihad isn't a complete disappointment though. And depending on one's predilection toward late nineties west coast production values you might get even more mileage. The funky bass low rider optimized rhythms here smack of Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg's hey day. But the worst of it is the background soul vocals of the slow jam variety that do the biggest diservice to the album. On the upside, there's a great cameo appearance from Capelton (Dead Prez, Public Enemy and Kam also make appearances). And lyrically, it's a great album. While everyone else in hip hop seems content to press their street credentials ad naseum, it's about time that someone stepped up and bitch slapped Dubb-yuh. Paris and the Dixie Chicks, what strange bedfellows.

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Cool psych soul/hip-hop project from the prolific and talented Georgia Anne Muldrow.

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

SORRY. DJ Paul Nice's battle breaks for fearless turntablist DJs.

Oh dirty, sassy, strong Miss Peaches is back with another clutch of sweaty and sexy dancefloor jams. By this point you probably know where you stand with Peaches and those of us already in love with her mischievous and intoxicating sounds are finding lots to delight us on I Feel Cream. While not hugely different than past releases, Cream does have a slightly shinier production (courtesy of Simian Mobile Disco and Digitalism) and there are a few tracks where Peaches sings full on and proves to have a pretty good singing voice. But fear not, she still gets down and dirty and keeps most of the rhythms and beats primitive and stripped down. It's a perfect blend of the new sleeker Peaches with the more raw dancefloor roots of her great debut Teaches Of Peaches from almost a decade ago. We would rather hear this blasting over the airwaves than Lady Ga Ga anytime! While AQ staffers have been pretty split over the years on Peaches (she does tend to create a love or hate response) those of us who love her sound and what she does, what she stands for, and the music she makes, are feeling pretty damn good about I Feel Cream.

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Kind of indie grime from SF.

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Wow, this is totally hitting the spot! Much like disco, it's just as important to look at who produced a hip-hop record as it is to see who the actual artist is, as the producer's trademark sound and amazing beats will be all over the record. The latest outing from Percee P was produced by the one and only Madlib so when we saw an instrumental version of the record was available on vinyl we were super excited. While we still need to get our ears on the non-instrumental version of this eagerly anticipated outing by Percee P, Madlib's production and tasty touch is doing us so well on its own. If you like your hip-hop with madly creative samples and driving beats then it really doesn't get much better then this. Madlib's production here is as good as it gets making this a must have for DJ's, J Dilla fans and anyone who loves cream of the crop hip-hop.

Not sure what all the hype is about with Dudley Perkins. We half expected some empowered funk in the vein of Gil Scott-Heron or George Clinton, but Perkins gravelly singing/rapping style is just too clunky to carry a full record. And the one skit on this record, a clumsy jab at "Cops"�style domestic abuse cases, falls dead flat. Diehard Madlib fans may want to get this for the breaks and production, but we recommend they wait for the instrumentals version instead.

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

SORRY. Strange hip hop from Glasgow, and not just because it's from Glasgow! Slow, unsettling and slightly mutant with one part electro-ness, a hefty dose of goth, dialogue samples, sub-bass and laid-back keyboards.

Latest from these Cali non-gangsta-rappers is a laid back and jazzy affair, advanced hiphop stuff for fans of Del and the Roots (whose Blackthought guests on one track).

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From the golden era of hip-hop, The Pharcyde's 1992 debut Bizarre Ride II is available on vinyl once again. West Coast equivalents to A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, Bizarre Ride II completes a trifecta of essential hip-hop records that includes 3 Feet High and Rising and Quest's The Low End Theory, though it's probably not as well known outside of hip-hop circles as either of those two. Based in South Central LA and comprised of choreographers and street dancers who did stints on "In Living Color", the Pharcyde drew on early funk samples, skits and interludes and an "everyone on the mic" approach to rap that was more present in East Coast rap at the time. Though they released three records over 14 years (a Record Store Day box vinyl set is in the works!), it was their debut that gave them the most acclaim after going gold. Their most well-known track, "Passin' Me By" with its stony Quincy Jones sample of "Summer In The City" making it an infectious groove, is the perfect song for cruising in your car on a hot summer day. Did we say essential?

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[ aquarius records — Hiphop ]