[ 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.

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Originally released in 1961, this is the first domestic cd issue of Ornette Coleman's This is Our Music! As many fans of experimental jazz already know, alto saxophonist Coleman pioneered a particular brand of improvisation, giving equal weight to

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There's been quite a few Shirley Collins reissues lately, and they're all pretty great if you've got a soft spot for this British singer's sweet voice and the trad folk she celebrates. We should get 'em all reviewed one of these days, but we thought that we absolutely had to provide a little write-up for this one, originally released on LP in 1964. Amidst the many wonderful Collins discs, this one is just a little bit different and special because it finds her collaborating with pioneering jazz/folk guitarist Davy Graham. It was some record company's notion of getting folk vet Collins and up-and-coming guitarist Graham (a fellow turned on to both Thelonious Monk and Indian raga) to make a "folk-swinging" record, but one that worked out well, even if they were somewhat of an odd couple -- Collins a responsible young mother with two children, the younger Graham a decidely bohemian character with vices that extended beyond merely smoking pot. But despite their differing lifestyles, Collins and Graham's Folk Roots, New Routes is quite a wonderful one-off work, blending old fashioned folk and modern jazz and strains of non-Western music into arrangements both innovative and lovely.

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Reissued for the first time on vinyl, A Monastic Trio was Alice Coltrane's remarkable 1968 solo debut. Made in tribute to the life of her husband John Coltrane after his death the previous year, its arrival heralded an incredible new voice, and seemingly from it a new spiritual direction in jazz was set forth. Deeply personal and reverent, A Monastic Trio is marked by Coltrane's cascading and majestic turns on both piano and harp, with musical support from Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, Jimmy Garrison and Ben Riley. The pieces both burrow to the core of grief and longing delving into gospel and funereal blues forms while also using open Eastern musical influences to form ascending arcs of mystical transformative sound. While Coltrane had previously collaborated with her husband before he died, most notably on the epic Cosmic Music, her subsequent solo career after his death stood apart from his as she moved the focus away from his oft-frenzied and intense horn-led modalities and brought a deeper dedication to a vital cosmic musical core where her harp, piano and organ flourishes could intermingle more fluently with the rhythm section into an organically flowing life-affirming musical unit. This is essential!

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Alice plays it all on this reissue of her weird 1976 album -- she's wields the harp and organ, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, even cymbals. Each song is different in mood and instrumentation, with the first track "Spiritual Eternal" featuring a veritable

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RealAudio clip: Spiritual Eternal

This is one of those records that was nearly impossible to track down for years, so we are beyond happy for this vinyl only reissue to finally surface. Recorded in 1969 right after her great debut, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery is an album that ranks right near the top of the amazing legacy of music that Alice Coltrane left us. Playing piano and wielding her majestical harp in a magnificent trio that featured Ron Carter on Bass and the wonderful and sadly recently passed away Rashied Ali on drums and percussion. So much thought, love and devotion was put into every single note that Alice Coltrane recorded, and Huntington Ashram Monastery is such utter proof of that. No wasted notes, or throwaway moments. You can't lay the needle down on these grooves and not be moved and transported to another plane of consciousness. This is truly sacred, essential and transcendent music. Beyond recommended!

Along with the Marion Brown disc highlighted last list, and the Howard Roberts we highlighted 2 lists ago, here's another brand new & quite welcome entry in this fine series of 2-on-1 Impulse! label reissues. And one that we were especially thrilled to see, as we love love love Alice Coltrane, and these two albums of hers in particular. This twofer contains Huntington Ashram Monastery (1969), which we've reviewed on vinyl but have never had on cd before, and also another one of our all-time astral Alice C. faves, World Galaxy (1972), which we have stocked on cd before some years ago, but never reviewed, because it was only available as an expensive Japan-only import. And so if you like avant jazz, if you like cosmic music, if you like Alice Coltrane, this is an essential. The one we hadn't previously reviewed, World Galaxy, we'll cover first. Credited on the colorfully Peter Max designed cover to "Alice Coltrane With Strings", that's what sets this one apart. Massive, sweeping strings, sometimes subject to subtle tape manipulation, that has this somehow reminding us of Super Ae by the Boredoms (or rather, the other way around)! For this record, Alice Coltrane's trademark harp (as well as her piano, electric organ, and tamboura) was joined by a 15-person string section, including violinist LeRoy Jenkins, who also solos. Other personnel: Reggie Workman on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Frank Lowe on saxophone, and Elayne Jones on tympani. And, respected Indian guru Swami Satchidananda provides a recitation on the subject of love as part of this album's final track, a heartfelt version of John Coltrane's classic "A Love Supreme". The album also begins with a tune closely associated with Alice Coltrane's late husband, "My Favorite Things". The remaining four compositions featured are Alice Coltrane originals, given the "With Strings" treatment, and all are majestic, beautiful, the album sounding like some very spiritual, avantgarde soundtrack music, with shimmering melodies carried aloft by the strings, intertwined and intercut with Eastern-sounding zing and twang and bass drone and keyboard burble, all the layers coming together with passion and power. A unique item in the Alice Coltrane discography for sure, and one of our favorites for that. (Well, her great Universal Consciousness employed strings too, but this takes it to another level.) And then here's what we enthusiastically had to say about Huntington Ashram Monastery when we first reviewed the reissued vinyl version: This is one of those records that was nearly impossible to track down for years, so we are beyond happy for this to finally surface. Recorded in 1969 right after her great debut, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery is an album that ranks right near the top of the amazing legacy of music that Alice Coltrane left us. Playing piano and wielding her majestical (majestic + magical!) harp in a magnificent trio that featured Ron Carter on bass and the wonderful and sadly recently passed Rashied Ali on drums and percussion. So much thought, love and devotion was put into every single note that Alice Coltrane recorded, and Huntington Ashram Monastery is such utter proof of that. No wasted notes, or throwaway moments. You can't lay the needle down on these grooves and not be moved and transported to another plane of consciousness. This is truly sacred, essential and transcendent music. Beyond recommended! So, put these two together, as they have here, and that's a disc that's not just recommended, it's pretty much required. However, be aware, a nice warm layer of surface tape hiss from the original analog source is particularly present on the Huntington Ashram Monastery half of this twofer, not that we mind.

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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. An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972 reissued a little while ago by Verve Japan. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinski who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". An amazing and important addition to the Verve Japan reissue collection.

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A nice collection of tracks by composer Alice Coltrane taken from albums recorded 1968-1971. Eastern spirituality and the legacy of her late husband figure prominently.

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

SORRY. The first record by Alice Coltrane to feature horns on the entire album. She enlisted both Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson as her sax players and decided to separate their playing in the mix. Sanders is in the right channel and Henderson in the left. She viewed them as representing two different perspectives: Henderson being the more intellectual side and Sanders being the more free and transcendent side. The album is a great example of how well Alice Coltrane understands creating a sense of mood and ambiance in her recordings. There is a fierce intensity that carries throughout the four tracks on the album. An essential recording in the legacy of Alice Coltrane. p.s. check out the totally prog-metal looking cover art.

Last year, a few months before her passing a few of us here were lucky enough to see Alice Coltrane live at one of her last performances ever. It was a night we will never forget. She is one of the few people whose mere presence gives us goosebumps and effects our soul in such a tangible way. We thought it would be nice to shine some light on one of her lesser known albums which we feel is one of the best records she ever made. Alice Coltrane would always be the first to say that she was not just a jazz musician. There was a higher calling to her music making, a wider sphere of influence she was drawing from. Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is one of the most beautiful examples of her extraordinary range. While much of her music had a huge Eastern influence it's on this record where she really let the spiritual side flourish with most amazing results. A series of devotional chanting songs, with Alice backing a vocal choir on Fender Rhodes and organ along with a couple traditional Indian songs, Coltrane absolutely soars on these tracks. One number here is a short but stunning song with her majestic harp accompanied only with Tamboura and the albums closer is an 18+ minute fantastical odyssey with Alice on her Wurlitzer organ channeling outerspace sounds like only she could, with John Coltrane Jr. on drums. The chanting songs are fantastical psychedelic hymns with elements of pop mixed in, throbbing and pulsating, elevating the songs to a greater place. We can imagine that this record has had a huge influence on folks like Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) as it's a striking example of using vocal chants, repetition and melody to reach harmonic bliss! Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is an album from the heavens. While words like soulful and spiritual are used so much that they often lose their meaning this is the real deal. These are sounds that not only uplift the spirit but also move us in a way few artists are ever able to. Alice Coltrane was one of the truly special ones. Of course we have to urge you to get many of her other albums too, as they are some of the best records ever made (all hyperbole aside, really)! Check out Journey In Satchidananda, World Galaxy and A Monastic Trio which are three of our all time favorites... We will miss her so much but luckily her spirit lives on within her amazing music.

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A welcome reissue of Alice Coltrane's 1977 album Transcendence, this is a sort of unlikely (although if you know Alice Coltrane's work then you know not to expect the usual) yet LOVELY album. On three tracks Coltrane's harp leads the way down an ethereal,

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Although Alice Coltrane released few recordings back when she was performing regularly in the '60s and '70s, several welcome reissues have come to light in recent years. This is the first time on cd for Transfigurations, a live performance from 1976 at

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Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, I have to say this is the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene not in a boring way, but in a sort of drone-y way, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely highpitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ. This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights, and I highly recommend you get it, whether you're a beginner or an Alice fan from way back. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out. Comes in a cd-sized mini gatefold sleeve (like an LP). Really well done!

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For all their majestic beauty, it can sometimes be forgotten that some of Alice Coltrane's greatest records posses an intensity and power that most noise bands these days only wish they could achieve. We can't tell you how happy we are that Impulse has reissued two of her most overlooked, and jaw dropping albums, Universal Consciousness and Lord Of Lords. Here's what we said about these two records (now on one disc together) when we reviewed them on their own years back. Universal Consciousness: Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, we have to say this might be the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene and drone-y, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely high-pitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ. This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out. Lord Of Lords: An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinsky who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". Further proof that Alice Coltrane was an artist who transcended genre, while we file her in jazz for convenience, she really was also a 20th century composer, a spiritual conjurer of musical magic!

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Here's jazz giant John Coltrane's masterwork, now presented in a deluxe double cd edition with one disc containing the original 1965 release and the other including not only some studio outtakes but also the first authorized release of the only live recording of "A Love Supreme" AND two previously-unheard, holy-grail alternate takes of its opening movement performed by an expanded sextet version of Coltrane's group, with Archie Shepp and Art Davis added to the original classic quartet line-up of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. What can we say, this is a classic... I mean, the 33 minutes of the original LP are a gorgeous, spiritual, jazz-and-beyond-jazz work of genius, and don't NEED bonus stuff, but all the same we can't argue with the extra disc! Not to mention that this has been properly remastered for cd for the first time by original engineer Rudy Van Gelder, so it's the definitive digital edition.

RealAudio clip: Part 1 - Acknowledgement - Alternative Take

This was Coltrane's debut for the new Impulse label in 1961 and what a first impression! His quartet at the time: McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones, were backed by a large brass orchestra conducted by Eric Dolphy (though there has been conflicting reports over the years that actually give more credit for the orchestration to Tyner). The 16 minute opener "Africa" is one of Coltrane's most masterful compositions (and that's saying a lot!). It features two basses with Art Davis joining Reggie Workman as Coltrane wanted to create a piece using African rhythms instead of 4/4 or 3/4, so he spent lots of time listening to African music for rhythmic inspiration and came up with something that forty years later still sounds so damn soulful and pleasing. While we sometimes dig all the bonus tracks that come on reissues, it often can get a bit tiresome so we're actually glad this was reissued just as the original album was released with just three songs, a short sharp 30 minutes of true musical genius.

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Coltrane. Larger than life jazz legend. One of the greatest tenors, ever. Musical genius. Some people even think he's a goddamn saint. And yet, I just didn't care all that much. Giant Steps, Love Supreme -- pleasant enough stuff, for sure, but it always somehow struck me as background music. OK, jazz lover, put down your hand! You don't need to slap sense into me. Ascension already did that. Slappped me -- knocked me flat on my ass, actually, the first time I ever heard it. Listening to Ascension really is an intensely physical experience, as you are just pummeled by this wall of sound and emotion and expression. It's seriously one of the most intense and powerful recordings of any kind of music, ever. Hearing it made everything else Coltrane ever recorded make some kind of sense to me, as documents of a search for the ultimate means of expression and spiritual connection through sound. On Ascension, the results of that search reach a kind of force and power that belongs more often to nature than to mere musical recordings. While many critics and fans recognized the utter brilliance of this record upon its initial release, others were unable to follow Coltrane into the outer limits of free expression. Basically, the work reveals itself as a fierce and undeniable classic to the serious and adventerous listener (i.e. most Aquarius customers), although to some people it might still come across as anti-jazz. For Ascension, Coltrane assembled a ten-person ensemble which included the "classic quartet" lineup of Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and Mccoy Tyner, with the addition of Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp (tenors), Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson (trumpets), and Marion Brown and John Tchicai (altos). The structure, as such, involves a string of solos bookended by freeform group improv, continuing uninterupted for approximately 40 minutes. The orginizational ideas reflect Coltrane's interest in and respect for free jazz innovators Albert Ayler and especially Ornette Coleman, whose landmark 1960 record Free Jazz is Ascension's clearest antecedent in terms of structure and innovation -- but Ascension pushes the envelope of unfettered expression even farther than that record. The recording session resulted in two different takes; Coltrane changed his mind about which version he preferred after the album's initial release, with represses presenting the alternate take. This Impulse cd, originally re-issued in 2000 but unlisted by us until now, contains both versions for your listening -- I don't know if "pleasure" is quite exactly the right word, as that might imply that the reward doesn't take a bit of work on the listener's part; let's say "for you're listening benefit." Ascension is a true masterpiece, a work to be approached with a degree of awe. Words like "mindblowing" and "essential" seem understated, despcription wise. It altered my understanding, both of John Coltrane and Jazz itself. Anyone interested in improvisational music owes it to themselves to own this.

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Recorded in 1962, Ballads is one of John Coltrane's most lyrical, accessible, and downright "pretty" albums, sooooo much more than the 'dinner jazz' some people regard it as. This deluxe reissue sees a whole extra disc of previously unreleased material by the quartet (Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones), including 4 versions of "Greensleeves", seven versions of "It's Easy to Remember" and more.

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First Coltrane recording to solely feature the classic quartet of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. First disc is the album as released, and the second bonus disc contains four alternate takes of "Tunji", the previously-unreleased "Not Yet", and more.

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One of Coltrane's last recordings, a brilliant, out-there duet with drummer Rashied Ali. Essential free jazz.

Classic quartet recordings, originally from the Mastery of John Coltrane-Volume One lp, reissued on cd with the previously unreleased bonus track "The Last Blues."

Jazz giant John Coltrane's last recorded live concert performance, at Babatunde Olatunji's Center of African Culture in NYC, on Sunday April 23rd 1967 (only 3 months before Coltrane died), consisting of two half-hour pieces: the Afro-Brazilian "Ogunde" and

1974 spiritually inspired meeting between Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana...

A couple years back, we raved about a disc called The Dematerialized Passenger, the first album from this unique band (or perhaps we should say project), remember? In case you don't, here's the deal: Combat Astronomy are a USA/UK collaboration, creating a crushing industrial/jazz/prog hybrid. Imagine Godflesh with a free improv horn section, saxophones squealing amidst the metallic riffage. Or Scorn taking a skronked-out stab at chamber music. Like their earlier release, this new Combat Astronomy opus is again laced with punishing, rigid drummachine beats, along with heavy, uber-low-end fretless bass shaking each song with doomic distortion. Which establishes an absurdly heavy context for sax, clarinet, flute and bassoon to freak out organically, like wild weeds creeping through cracks in giant slabs of concrete, on the floor of an abandoned factory somewhere. But unlike their all-instrumental debut, this time Combat Astronomy have recruited a female vocalist, Elaine di Falco, who also plays some piano, to add yet another unusual dimension to their mashup of extremes, now reminding us slightly of James Plotkin's now forgotten post-Old project Flux. (Hmm, maybe Kayo Dot and later Ulver could be other comparisons now too.) If the addition of her vocals makes this a bit more overtly melodic, it's still no less extreme overall. And certainly just as intricate, her delicate vocal arrangements in themselves quite complex, multi-tracked, as on the urban R&B influenced (???? no, we're crazy) "Touch The Moon" and the album's whispery coda, "Ordinary Miracles". And the focus of CA is still on the ominous grooves, ambient electronics, and battling horn bleats... tracks like "Alive Inside Eternity" and "Sentinel" are lengthy epics (12:36 and 16:49, respectively) of serious beats and blats and skree, in the challenging, compelling, militant manner to which actually only Combat Astronomy can truly lay claim. The vocals, when present, then take it into another, equally unlikely, atmospheric realm of twisted prog-pop. Pretty darn cool!

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You don't really hear much about Combat Astronomy, except from us at Aquarius Records (do you?). Which is weird, 'cause this band should be a lot better known than they are, among fans of heavy and/or freaky music, considering they're already on their third (and a half, counting a split) cd release, one that has been long awaited, for a certain subset of AQ-customers in the know. For those not in the know, we'll say that basically CA sound like a Justin Broadrick or Kevin Martin industrial metal act (Godflesh or God, something along those lines) mixed up with freeform improv horn-skree, for results both brutal and beautiful. This band, or we should say this collaborative trans-Atlantic project, to be precise, is the unholy spawn of American sub-bass sludge technician Jamie Huggett and British improv reedsman Martin Archer (and friends). Thus they don't play live that often, which might have something to do with their low profile. They're self-described as an "intense hypnagogic industrial/jazz/prog/doommetal hybrid", and we can't think of any other outfit that better fits that mouthful. As we now know to expect, CA's new disc dishes out uber heavy doomic annihilation, bludgeoning with squelching bass and machine-like beats, the entire thing in fact percussive in its distorted rhythmic impact, amidst ominous organ and rising electronic drone. Yet CA also has a prog/classical side, thanks to Archer's woodwinds and also some female vocals, first introduced to this previously all instrumental act on their 2nd album Dreams No Longer Hesitate, returning here only wordessly, to eerie, avant garde effect. With that in mind, and all the heavy bass, Magma fans might find this to be their extreme sludge combo of choice. We'd also of course recommend Combat Astronomy to those who appreciate the likes of Painkiller, 16-17, Scorn, and even UFOmammut... And Earth Divided By Zero might just be their best disc yet, keeping the expanded palette of sounds found on their last outing, but leaving aside that disc's occasional surprise explorations of vocal (prog) pop song-ishness, instead forging a more organic synthesis of what we REALLY dig about this unit, the grinding low end and squealing sax skronk, the heavy rhythms and atmospheric, ambient-ish interludes. Not that it's without melodic surprises, like how track two tries to lull us with a placid piano intro, shades of Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore... but soon enough the bass and distortion attack is back in force. Punishing, but such sweet punishment.

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With the arrival of Combat Astronomy's fourth album, welcome once again to that unlikely alternate universe inhabited by us at Aquarius Records (and a few others too, like you?), where this intense instrumental outfit is as HUGE as their sonic footprint, their ultra-heavy hybrid of avant garde jazz and post metal industrial doom resounding planetwide in giant concert halls... if 21st century classical chamber deathjazz sludge were the next big thing, they'd be the biggest. Whereas, heck, in real life, we don't even know if they tour, probably not, since some of the group live in England, with another crucial band member based here in the USA. When they get together (however they do it) it must be a cathartic experience for everyone involved. As they say themselves about this album, it's "LOUD BASS LOUD HORNS LOUD DRUMS MASSIVE RIFFS" all the way. Well, with some quasi-ambient interludes, and bits of melody amidst the mayhem. But for the most part, thick drone, rumbling bass, punishing programmed rhythms, screaming horn blurt. It's kinda like if Godflesh were to record an album for Tzadik, armed with an arsenal of horns and woodwinds. Combat Astronomy use and abuse a variety of saxophones and clarinets, various flutes, bassoon, bass recorder, reindeer horn (?), along with fretless 5 string bass, organ, electronics, zither, tambourine... On Flak Planet, the formula has been perfected. The disc's opening track "The Stone Tape", is both cinematic and assaultive, it's jazz, but for the squelching sub bass and trudging jackboot rhythms. As the disc spins, there's outbursts of maniacal piano, jarring prog complexities, stretches of exotic atmospheric drone, and more monolithic thud. Brutal yet beautiful, as we've said before, for fans of 16-17 (natch) as well as, we'd bet, possibly PIVIXKI, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Ehnahre, and assorted RIO ensembles.

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A fine follow-up to 2011's Flak Planet, here's another hectic, headspinning batch of blat, bash, and blast from this unusual unit, avant-industrial-prog-jazz-doom titans Combat Astronomy, the collaborative project of American James Huggett (fretless 5-string bass, guitar programming, production, etc.) and the UK's Martin Archer (horns, organ, electronics). Archer also brings in the Juxtavoices choir for the disc's 13+ minute finale "Cave War", Juxtavoices being the vocal ensemble we last heard on the recent Record Of The Week outing by Archer's incredible Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere. As any Combat Astronomy aficionado expects, 'tis total, tumbling heavy jazz-grind, the burble of Archer's clarinet or saxophones surfacing amidst the thick low-end rumble of Huggett's bass and jackbooted machine rhythms. Where else are you gonna get this fix? You'd have to go back to John Zorn's Painkiller or England's mighty God back in the '90s to hear something like this. Keeping it interesting, the iron fist of Combat Astronomy slips on the velvet glove, sometimes, with occasional snatches of sinister but blissful ambient drone or third-stream jazz or buried melody battling the propulsive chaotic crush of the riff/rhythm onslaught. The pounding power, freakout energy, and sometimes ceremonial-sounding beauty of these ten tracks have us fully entranced. Seeing 'em live (do they ever even play live??) would be amazing. Never thought about this before, but we hope that the name Combat Astronomy doesn't mean that they're opposed to the science of astronomy, as in "fight against astronomy". Combat astrology, ok, but astronomy? Or maybe, it's a type of astronomy, the kind used in combat, like if you're a starfighter pilot or something. Anyway, not important, nevermind. What is important is that this band shouldn't be as under-the-radar as they are, 'cause they're pretty incredible.

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[ aquarius records — Jazz ]