[ aquarius records

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Imagine Neil Hamburger backed up by a drunk Albert Ayler. Imagine the worst comedian you've ever seen competing for your attention with an avant jazz musician in the same room. Imagine a 10 minute comedy sketch based on the assumption that DVD stands for I mean, we're well aware that there's a healthy chunk of Aquarius customers that scan our lists specifically for things we describe as 'fucked' or 'ridiculous' or 'bizarre' or even just 'stupid'. Well, you're in for it now. You have been warned. Anthony Braxton, much revered performer/composer/improviser, in yet another incomprehensible collaborative epiphany, has finally teamed up with...a stand up comedian. It's true. And of course, it wouldn't be true improvisation if the comedian weren't improvising as well, so what we're left with, is a series of skronks and squeals, and a series of witty (read: fucking stupid) riffs on newspaper headlines that are NOT FUNNY. REALLY NOT FUNNY. I don't mean Neil Hamburger not funny, I mean plain old bad not funny...unbearably painful. So painful in fact that our own Andee qualifies this as a must own!!

RealAudio clip: Composition No.281

Very interesting cd-r release from this German experimental jazz-rock group, led by Mr. Bungle fan and super-creative keyboardist Bjoern Eichstaedt. Guitar, tapes, percussion, double bass, various effects, voices, saxophone, flute, electric cello and more are

RealAudio clip: Thick Brown Air

This is a long lost classic (originally released in 1975) from ex-Sun Ra band member Brother Ah, and features a 25 piece ensemble and a vast array of exotic instruments such as shakuhachi flute, gong, space beam (?!), koto, pan flute, french horn, sitar, kiti kup (?!), tabla, oboe, shawn (?!), as well as various vocalists chanting, singing, shouting, and pre-recorded nature sounds. Sound far out? Well, it is, even by Sun Ra standards. Starting out with an Eastern-tinged spaced out raga, with buzzing sitars and subtle percussion underneath spoken word, then to a dreamy flute-flecked jazz number with Ethal Merman-ish operatic vocals over the top, on to funky African percussion workouts to chanted almost liturgical sounding afro-jazz-pop....Weird but definitely cool. For VERY adventurous fans of afro-rock as well as fans of Sun Ra and that sort of out-there-jazz.

RealAudio clip: Track one

Ex-Sun Ra band member and musical visionary Brother Ah created a world even farther out than Sun Ra's if you can believe that. This early seventies classic features two extended numbers, the first a dreamy, spacy, psychedelic soundscape with heavily reverbed, chanted vocals, and heavily affected nature sounds. Dark and drone-y and completely overpowering. As tripped out as anything Acid Mothers Temple or any other modern psych band has attempted. The second, a spare, rhythmic, super free, clattery No Neck Blues Band-ish hippy jam, with thundering percussion, howling horns, and bells and chimes and hand drums that slowly develops into a throbbing, jazz rock revival complete with celebrated drummer Max Roach testifying to the glory of LOVE while an enthusiastic crowd cheers him on as gongs and shouts and thrumming bass lines get more and more feverish, climaxing in a furious eruption of wild percussion. Way, way out there. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely for fans of Sun Ra, No Neck Blues Band, and all sorts of out rock/free jazz.

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RealAudio clip: Rap

"The third in Ikef's series of Brother Ah re-releases brings his privately issued LP Key To Nowhere back to center stage. Like our previous two titles, Sound Awareness and Move Ever Onward, Key To Nowhere continues the musical search through global rhythms, tight grooves and an absolutely brilliant rendition of the traditional 'Motherless Child' that has had DJs and Jazz fanatics alike climbing the walls to obtain a copy of this gem."

Legendary european avant-jazz saxophonist Peter Brñtzman is still pummelling audiences, as this recording from upstart free jazz label Ayler Records documents. The trio pulls off some intense, dextrous improv, although I just can't hang with the electric bass- it's wanky sound distracts from the overall visceral impact.

RealAudio clip: Off Sight
RealAudio clip: Nidhog 1

"Archive FMP Edition" via Atavistic's Unheard Music Series of this classic Euro-free-jazz blow-out starring pianist Fred Van Hove, mad percussionist Han Bennink, and tenor sax terror Peter Brotzmann. The fourteen minute title track, a Brotzmann "composition", starts off quietly before erupting into mayhemic sax chatter, piano note-scatter, percussion clatter, and even some weird vocal patter. The rest of the album follows suit, the "free-action" of this soon-to-be legendary improv power trio taking no prisoners. All three players could -- and do -- fill solo albums with energetic, interesting art, so the combined youthful musical fervor of the three of 'em is something to behold, on this, their debut trio recording (and only the second FMP label release ever). The tracks on "Balls" are fierce yet tightly wound, making strong statements, no messing around, even as they explore a wide range of sounds, and even silences. The four tracks from the original, long-out-of-print 1970 LP (remastered from the original tapes, packaged in a careful facsimile of the original LP design) are joined on this cd reissue by two untitled, previously unissued tracks cut by the trio in the same era, an exciting bonus indeed.

RealAudio clip: Balls
RealAudio clip: Filet Americain

Featured here are two previously unreleased recordings from the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 1968 and 1970. The first track is an alternate version of Brotz's classic attack "Machine Gun", as performed by a nine piece instead of the octet featured on the FMP Definitely a must for any free jazz junkie, these two lost artifacts were lovingly recovered by the fine folks at Atavistic.

Legendary free jazz giant's first record, remastered and available for the first time on cd! Originally released in 1967 on Brotzmann's BRO label, he is joined by bassist Peter Kowald and Sven-Ake Johansson on percussion. This remastered version also tacks on a bonus cut featuring pianist Fred Van Hove. Raw and edgy, though not as demanding and brutal as Brotzmann's subsequent "Nipples" and "Machine Gun".

RealAudio clip: For Adolphe Sax
RealAudio clip: Sanity

Who doesn't love Peter Brotzmann and/or Han Bennink? If you're into skronky European free jazz craziness that is. Saxophonist Brotzmann is a hard-blowin' legend, and Han Bennink is not only a percussion whiz but also a strong "pro" argument in the whole does-humor-belong-in-music? debate. Teamed up here on this expanded (meaning there's a whole bonus disc with ten previously unreleased tracks!) reissue of what those in the know, know as the 1977 Bro-Ben Black Forest recordings, Brotzmann and Bennink actually did the Jewelled Antler natureboy thing here and took their instruments out into the forest to improvise amid the trees and birds and small curious animals. Along with a supply of bread and wine they toted with them an assortment of clarinets and saxophones, a banjo, a viola, some toys, birdcalls, cymbals, and suchlike sundry instruments -- Han had to make do without his customary drum kit, playing instead on tree trunks and rocks with branches and stones. Their free music got all that much freer for being loosed in the great outdoors, and these Black Forest sessions certainly brought forth all the wildman whimsy you'd expect from this duo. In some ways a precursor to the field recording aesthetic practiced today by the Jewelled Antler gang and all those Finnish free-freak-forest-folk outfits we all love, Schwarzwaldfahrt is replete with the gurgling sounds of water, birds twittering, primal yelps from Han and/or Peter, and other things you wouldn't normally hear in more "civilized" jazz recording. At one point, Han pounds (or splashes) out a stacatto rhythm on the surface of a stream or pond, and you can for sure tell how much fun they were having! So much, that they recorded a lot more music/sound than they could release at the time. They had to edit down their tapes to just one LP's worth of material for the original edition of this on FMP, but now Atavistic's Unheard Music Series has given them two whole compact discs to fill up, and it's a joy.

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Year 2000 improv meeting betwixt European free-jazz titan Brotzmann (reeds) and Japanese improv veterans Haino (guitar) and Hano (percussion).

To fans of energetic-improv-free-jazz-type music, neither of these guys should need an introduction. (If you DO need an introduction, there's probably other discs that would be better to start with.) Drummer Hano and sax-blaster Brotzmann have collaborated on many occasions -- this newly-released recording actually dates from 1991, it's a full concert from a live tour the duo did in Japan that year, previously only released on cassette by Hano. 72 wailin' minutes, turbulent yet elegant.

MPEG stream: Snake And Sheep

Never was a title better chosen. The juttering salvo of massed horns that opens this record is machinegunnery indeed. Legendary hardblowing German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann is still around today taking names and kicking ass, but he's perhaps best known for this album from 1968, a recording that embodies all the radical turmoil of that year, remaining a powerful statement of energy, anger, & freedom even today. For '68, this was among the ultimate in "extreme" music, regardless of genre. The amplified antics of most rock bands (with the possible exception of free jazz aficionados the MC5) couldn't touch it. Of course, we're ignoring the subtleties of this music in stressing that. But if the extremity hooks you in, that's fine. And it's certainly true that Machine Gun was the spiritual ancestor to such modern noisy-jazz-industrial acts as 16-17, Borbetomagus, and John Zorn's Painkiller. Apparently "Machine Gun" was Don Cherry's nickname for Brotzmann, and the album Machine Gun is basically Brotzmann times 8, he got a whole band who could play at his level of ferocious intensity, a screaming, skronking collective improv blowout, but one that's directed, organized into a killing machine of concentrated force when necessary, or subsides, chests heaving, into still-clattering lulls of relative calm and abstract beauty at other times. The Peter Brotzmann Octet responsible for Machine Gun was really an all-star lineup, many musicians still well-known in the realm of European free jazz: Willem Breuker (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Evan Parker (tenor sax), Fred Van Hove (piano), Peter Kowald (bass), Buschi Niebergall (bass), Han Bennink (drums), and Sven-Ake Johansson (drums). That's some lineup. If you're familiar with those folks, chances are you've already heard this album, but if not, well it's one to get. And while it's been in print as an import cd on Free Music Productions (FMP) for some years, it hasn't always been easy to find. So it's great that it now takes a well deserved place in the Atavistic Unheard Music Series as a domestic cd release, and even better that they've added a bunch of bonus tracks to it! Extra alternate takes, and the only recorded LIVE version of "Machine Gun", from the '68 Frankfurt Jazz Fest. Plus there's new liner notes from Unheard guru John Corbett.

MPEG stream: Machine Gun (Second Take)
MPEG stream: Responsible (Second Take)

Fuck yeah! Free jazz assault from the legendary Brotzmann octet. Jazz? Unlike anything you've ever heard. Well, at least back then you didn't... Get this! For fans of all things "out".

Free jazz fanciers rejoice, here's a long-overdue reissue of one of Teutonic sax titan Brotzmann's classic, pre-FMP, uber-rare 1969 LPs. One of Thurston Moore's official Top Ten "free jazz artifacts" in fact. Check out the lineup for this European free improv energy supergroup: Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Fred Van Hove, Buschi Niebergall (ok, maybe he's not so well known...), and Han Bennink! Damn. Recorded at Conny Plank's studio.

A mix of traditional Asian music and traditional jazz - commemorating the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

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We haven't listed too much Marion Brown before, save for an early ESP label release, though his name is often spoken of in the same revered tones as Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, and John Coltrane. We loved his playing on Harold Budd's Pavilion of Dreams, and he had famously played on Coltrane's Ascension (two very opposite sides of the alto saxophone spectrum and really the only extremes of that instrument we dig) so we were very excited to get this latest entry in Impulse's "two-fer" cd reissue series to see what Marin Brown as a bandleader is all about, and this doesn't disappoint. Brown, who died in 2010, was a more understated (and underrated!) player than his better known contemporaries, often marking his playing with noted hesitations and tentativeness that most jazz giants readily avoided. The influence of poetry, ethnomusicology and southern folk tropes also took him into stranger and less popular directions than most jazz at the time. Geechee Recollections and Sweet Earth Flying from 1973 and 1974 respectively, are the second and third installments in what is considered the "Georgia Trilogy" (the first installment, Afternoon of a Georgian Fawn, from 1970, was recorded for ECM), based on the tone poems of Georgia poet Jean Toomer and Brown's Georgian upbringing. Both records are largely built around suites of songs, with Geechee Recollections more horn based and Sweet Earth Flying largely based around piano and fender Rhodes compositions. Geechee recollections starts with the loping bass groove of "Once Upon a Time (A Children's Tale)" propelled by ethnic percussive rhythms and energized alto sax playing. Toomer's poem "Karintha" is recited by Bill Hasson over an avant backdrop of intersecting violin, sax, kalimba chimes and other percussion. Passages of martial New Orleans style jazz open up into soft abstract spaces in the Tokalokaloka suite, that have a slow languid heat full of humid tropical associations. Mostly sheets of metallic percussion and tinkling bamboo surround Brown's intuitive and often introverted horn improvisations in fertile bursts of sound. Sweet Earth Flying may be more satisfying for those looking for a deeper, more inviting, immersion. Focused on two suites, the title one, along with one called "Eleven Light City", "Sweet Earth Flying" begins with a soft and graceful solo on fender Rhodes before jumping full flight into a percussive free jazz excursion. Part 4 of that suite features a swirling recitation by Bill Hasson of an invented hybrid language drawn from a variety of Latin, Afro-Caribbean and regional American vocabularies. "Eleven Light City" has a more late-night low-key feel, slightly noirish, but not foreboding. It has a spacious genteel quality that belies its more muscular undertones. But the chief beauty of this record is the genius pairing of Muhal Richard Abrams and Paul Bley on acoustic and electric piano that make this a truly exciting listen. This is the first time both records have been released on cd, and it's about time! So good!

MPEG stream: Once Upon A Time (A Children's Tale)
MPEG stream: Tokalokaloka (Part Two)
MPEG stream: Sweet Earth Flying (Part Four: Prince Willie)
MPEG stream: Eleven Light City (Part Two)

Another essential ESP reissue, this time from Marion Brown, who was an integral part of sixties free jazz, having played on Coltrane's 'Ascension' and collaborated on Archie Shepp's 'Firemusic'. This record features the legendary Rashied Ali on drums and

RealAudio clip: La Sorrella

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SORRY. Rova Saxophone Trio founding member (and former AQ-er) Ackley's debut as leader, with Masada members Greg Cohen and Joey Baron rounding out the trio. "...moves from conceptual improvisations to lovely ballads and straight-ahead swingers, showcasing one of the great soprano saxophone jazz soloists around." Truly.

Solo improvisations for oboe, English horn, and Chinese suona by the frontman of Chicago's Lozenge. Pieces range from ear piercing sonic attacks ala Peter Brotzmann to calm, intimate gestures reminiscent of Kaoru Abe or Evan Parker. The liner notes claim that Entymology was recorded in a living room, quite convincing given the personal nature of these pieces. The lo-fidelity of this recording is quite charming as you can hear the gasps for air between notes as well as the clanking sound of the keys of Bruckmann's instruments as he renders them unrecognizable! Look out for an upcoming CD of duets between Bruckmann and various improvisational luminaries!

Now reissued on vinyl... Eponymous debut and only ever release from this soul jazz outfit circa 1970, reissued now probably primarily because of the unmistakable presence of avant-jazz electric guitar legend Sonny Sharrock on six of the album's seven tracks. Definitely for Sharrock fans who've got a taste for some groove and soul (this ain't Last Exit!). Sharrock's spidery skronk sneaks out betwixt the sunshiney day horns and positive vibe vocals on this freely funky platter. But if the name Sonny Sharrock doesn't mean anything to you and you'd like to rectify that, we'd recommend checking out his 1991 classic Ask The Ages (sadly out of print at the moment), or perhaps his 1966 debut on Pharaoh Sanders' Tauhid album.

MPEG stream: Do It Right Now
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Three new tapes this week from aQ beloved tape label The Tapeworm (out of four new releases, we'll list #4 next time, it's a doozy!), running the gamut from solo piano to opera to bedroom recorded tape experiments to this. A wild skronked out blast of Norwegian free jazz from his drum/sax duo, described by the label as "harsh free jazz" which this most certainly is, the drumming relentless and intricate and wildly chaotic, the sax bleating and squealing and spitting out insane atonal melodic runs, the two instruments sparring constantly, like dueling solos, the method to their madness surfacing here and there, but for the most part a head spinning barrage of sound, that will probably hit the spot for folks into the wildest free jazz, think Borbetomagus meets the Jooklo Duo and you'll be in the ball park. Dizzyingly intense and wildly relentless, file under the Borbetomagus coined descriptor: 'snuff jazz'. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES.

WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so these have been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them. First up is After Love, originally released in 1970 by pianist Dave Burrell. Accompanied by Roscoe Mitchell on reeds, Alan Silva on cello and violin, Ron Miller on double bass and viola, Michel Gladieux on double bass and Bertrand Gauthier and Don Moye on drums. The opening track is a massive twenty two minute psychedelic free-jazz freak out. Super rhythmic, amd tribal, clattery and confusional, wild skronking horns and skittery percussion, pizzicato strings and rubbery bass and slippery string scrapes. Track two mellows out a bit into some smooth and sultry piano, and some creaking droning horns. The final twenty minute track starts off with gorgeous solo piano, languid and melodic, before the whole thing slips into some more traditional bop, but flecked with plenty of free-isms, eventually getting more and more dense and beautifully tangled. Comes in a gorgoeus diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet of liner notes with the original album liner notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

MPEG stream: After Love Pt. 1 (excerpt)

Some choice American freedom-energy-jazz-in-exile recorded in Paris on August 13, 1969. Pianist Burrell is joined by Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Alan Silva (bass), Sunny Murray (drums), Clifford Thornton (cornet), Grachan Moncur III (trombone) and Arthur Jones (alto sax). If you dug the fab Silva LP also recently re-issued in this series, check this one out too. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl,

Norway's always-on-it Rune Grammofon label seem to have a special penchant for finding "jazz" bands with electric guitars who really can rock, like the recently reviewed Hedvig Mollestad Trio, and the band currently under consideration, the oddly-named Bushman's Revenge, an instrumental bass/drums/guitar (and some vibraphone) trio. This is Rune G's third release by 'em, the follow up to 2010's Jitterbug, which we really liked a lot. And we like this one too! First off, first off... the opening track is a slightly rambunctious, bass-burbling cover version of the gorgeous "As We Used To Sing" by the late great jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock, from his criminally-out-of-print for years now 1990 masterwork, Ask The Ages! Excellent choice, making for an auspicious beginning to this album. So nice to hear that lovely melody again, as any Sharrock fan will surely agree. Bushman's Revenge bring to it a very lively feel, that's in keeping with the rest of the disc, recorded live in the studio, with few overdubs, and lots of energy. This band is quite electric, let's say, with dense squalls of guitar to the fore (of course, that's why they'd cover Sharrock, and heck last time out they covered Motorhead!), but they also take some serene detours too (even at volume). Among those mellower moments, "John Lennon Was The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" has a title that might sound facetious, but the particularly calm and beautiful music so named seems quite sincere. Once again, a great "jazz" album for folks who love amped-up, tangled-up rock. Gatefold lp (with download), or digipaked cd, both with Rune G's usual distinctive Kim Hiorthoy graphics.

MPEG stream: As We Used To Sing
MPEG stream: No More Dead Bodies For Daddy Tonight
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Hadn't heard this jitterbuggin' Norwegian bunch before, though they have a previous album on Rune Grammofon and one before that as well. Definitely gonna have to track down those too, 'cause this one is pretty great, if you're into avant rock/jazz instrumental rippage. At peak power, they're QUITE energetic and frenzied, but unfailingly musical too, and the disc has much in the way of moodier, mellower moments as well. Bushman's Revenge are a trio of electric guitar, bass, and drums, with a cameo appearance on two tracks here by organist Stale Storlokken of Supersilent. The guitarist is also a member of the proggy and metallic "blackjazz" group Shining. Which maybe explains why this is often so much heavier and rockier than most quote unquote fusion, and also why they do a Motorhead cover ("Damage Case" from Overkill done as an instrumental, or what they call a "Happy Go Lucky Karaoke Version", which stomps along exuberantly with a full-on freakout in the mid-section). Elsewhere, they veer from tangled and distorted guitar onslaughts to stately melodic reveries... and even play some deviant blues ("While My Guitar Gently Breaks"). Bushman's Revenge are for fans of other Rune G "fusion" like Scorch Trio for sure, and also we'd recommend 'em folks partial to Nels Cline.

MPEG stream: Kill Your Jitterbug Darlings
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Last list, we highlighted A Little Bit Of Big Bonanza, the newest full-length from this Norwegian improvising unit on Rune Grammofon. The takeaway: "...a great 'jazz' album for people who love amped-up, tangled-up rock." Fans will be interested in this vinyl-only 12", intended as a companion to that new album, recorded at the same sessions. It consists of cover versions of some of their faves. Bushman's Revenge has previously covered Motorhead and Sonny Sharrock, among others, and the covers presented here are equally diverse. Jazz, alt-rock, metal, they know no boundaries. They cover The Pixies ("Monkey Gone To Heaven"), The Police ("No Time This Time"), Black Sabbath ("War Pigs"), Sun Ra ("We Travel The Spaceways"), and even themselves ("Bushman Rock", a song left off their earlier Jitterbug album). As you might expect, these compositions are all respectfully rearranged, and deranged, when given the Bushman's Revenge treatment. Comes with mp3 download.

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SORRY. Andee sneers, "Jim thinks this record is jazz because it has saxophone on it. Jim only wishes all jazz sounds like this; shrieking & sputtering sax electronically processed into skittering waves of grit, buzz, squeaks, groans, drones, and hiccups. As if Pan(a)sonic or Pita of Mego were forced to take sax lessons as children. Like a more animated, more abrasive version of the Parker/Casserly 'Solar Wind' collaboration. I think Jim is jazz." Jim retorts, "No, I certainly am not."

Wonderful, wonderful clarinetist Byron and his band (including drummer Joey Baron of Masada) take on the music of Raymond Scott, Duke Ellington, Billy Steyhorn and John Kirby.

Jazz clarinetist Byron's newest, with poet Sadiq. Includes a Hendrix cover ("If 6 Was 9").

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SORRY. (From the liner notes:) Don Byron's newest group recorded live at the Knitting Factory during the NY blizzard of 1996. Byron's clarinet has single-handedly redefined the instrument's role in modern jazz.

Candiria are extraordinary for so many differnt reasons. They play a mix of stop/start death metal, hardcore, hip hop, and jazz fusion which is weird enough. They do it well, which is even more weird. And strangest of all, they have managed to become fairly popular playing this obtuse hybrid. Especially since most metalheads don't like hip hop or jazz fusion. And vice versa. And Candiria don't play "hip hop metal", their hip hop shit is REAL, as is their jazz fusion. They are fronted by a vocalist as comfortable howling his guts out as he is flowing on the mic. And this band has some of the most serious chops EVER. Think Naked City stop-on-a dime, switch-genres-every-10-seconds kind of chops. The fusion shit they spit out is SO REAL, it's almost cheesy, like Mahavishnu Orchestra or Stanley Jordan. But at heart, they are a metal band. And a pretty unbelievable one. Fans of Meshuggah and other super technical death metal will have a field day with the ridiculous time signatures and insane song structures. But like I stated earlier, an open mind is a must 'cause you never know when the metal will drop out and a funky hip hop groove will take over, or a horn section and some skittery 7/8 jazz licks will take the spotlight. A few things have changed this time around. On earlier records, the hip hop tracks were completely separate from the metal tracks, but on a few tracks here, there is some rapping on the metal tracks which brings them dangerously close to 'nu metal' territory at times. And their jazz-fusion obsession is in full effect, with at least two thirds of the tracks sporting some crazy skittery fusiony breakdowns (as well as some full on metal-free fusion tracks). And in the process Candiria come up with some occasional totally wacked death-metal-vocals-over-fusion-rhythm-workouts. Crazy! Disc two is 6 tracks of hip hop/electronica, 2 straight up hip hop jams, with the other 4 running the gamut from jazzy drum and bass to trippy skittery noodly ambience. Weird but pretty cool. Definitely a difficult band, and certainly an aquired taste, but I think most Aquarius customers are up to the challenge.

RealAudio clip: Year One
RealAudio clip: Bring The Pain/Multiple Incisions
RealAudio clip: Peel This Strip And Fold Here
RealAudio clip: Faction
RealAudio clip: Blue Suede Timbs

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SORRY. Now available on cd, record number two from Leyland Kirby's Caretaker project, whose last record, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases, was a unanimous aQ fave, and was of course one of Wire magazine's top 10 albums of 2008, and was, and still is, one of our best sellers, and it looks like this one is likely to follow suit. A sonic meditation on memory and loss, The Caretaker, takes old jazz records, various effects, and what sounds like a battery of old beat up Victrolas, and weaves Philip Jeck like soundscapes, but unlike Jeck, the source sounds here are not obfuscated, in fact, in some respects, The Caretaker records are almost like spectral spiritual otherworldly mix tapes, especially on this new one, which sounds like old 78s left to play in a big old auditorium, the room's reverb lovingly wreathing the music in a gauzy old timey haze, the surface noise, hiss and crackle and pop, somehow accentuated by the cavernous space. Better yet, replace the auditorium with an old abandoned mansion. Imagine the great room, animal heads on the walls, old oil paintings, a massive fireplace, charred black, old decaying rugs, all the furniture covered in white cloths, looking like ghosts, cobwebs in all the corners, the floor beneath a layer of dust, and in the corner, an old record player, lit up, its turntable spinning slowly, some old dusty record, to a room full of spirits, a sonic requiem for a time that once was, the music seeming to reflect the ever fading memories, and that's what these songs sound like, some sort of haunted house jazz, old timey seance blues, mournful melodies played on an old piano, muted trumpet, swoonsome strings, shuffling drums, a slow motion big band performing live in the ether, a spectral band playing lament after lament, dedicating it to their lost loves, and loves lost. An Empty Bliss Beyond This World plays like some archival collection of lost 78's, but where the records' provenance is unknown, timeless music that could have come from anytime, and anywhere, the imperfections and inconsistencies as much a part of the sound as the music itself, all of that hiss and crackle a warm wreath of time-transformed-into-sound detritus, the passing of time mad physical, a sonic memorial to the past. So utterly gorgeous.

MPEG stream: All You're Going To Want To Do Is Get Back There
MPEG stream: Moments Of Sufficient Lucidity
MPEG stream: The Great Hidden Sea Of The Unconscious
MPEG stream: Libet's Delay

You might say that the illustrious, seemingly tireless Ralph Carney is sorta the musical equivalent of a colorful traveling circus... uh, carney! Such a remarkably chameleon-like multi-instrumentalist / entertainer both on his own in the spotlight and in collaboration or support of others (Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman, B-52s, Marc Ribot, Beth Custer, Bill Laswell, Tipsy, Victoria Williams, Drizzoletto, Jim White, and Oranj Symphonette, to name just a few of the folks he's played with over the years)! Ever on the go, you just never know what he's gonna pull out of his hat or his bag of tricks or his magical wardrobe next. But you can pretty much bet that it'll be a little (or maybe more than a little) bit tweaked with an unorthodox yet seamless blend of styles (Dixieland, prog, bluegrass, lounge, pop or any fashion of jazz -- you name it!), and that the chops (musical that is, not his mutton chop sideburns!) will be bulletproof. Such is the case with this, the debut cd by his latest mostly instrumental project he formed with Kimo Ball, Scott Johnson and Allen Whitman (fyi: they also released a live cd-r last year which we also have in stock). Their horns, woodwinds, guitars, piano, percussion and sporadic vocals come together, become pals and have a rollicking coloring fest, shading both neatly inside and more rambunctiously outside of each track's lines. For a particular highlight, check out the third number "Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa". Great stuff!

MPEG stream: Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa
MPEG stream: (off)White Room

There is no doubt in our minds that Pavement has some crazy die-hard fans. This one is for them. Ever dream of hearing Pavement songs done as jazz standards? Well James Carter did and in fact he put together a quartet of mighty fine players to do just that. These aren't just like indie rock hacks picking up the sax, fender and upright bass. These are very competent yet pretty straightforward jazz musicians. It would have been a little more exciting to see what more outside jazz hands did with Malkmus' back catalog. But if you're a diehard Pavement fan you still might want this to feed your obsession.

MPEG stream: Stereo
MPEG stream: Cut Your Hair

MPEG stream: Athene
MPEG stream: A Tear And A Smile
MPEG stream: Little Miss Lady

Solo album from former member of Sun Ra's Arkestra. Featuring remix by Carl Craig.

[ aquarius records — Jazz ]