[ 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 2451 through 2500 of 2798.

Really well done kitchen table electronica from local guy. What's with the odd name, though? Manages to combine exciting, fast paced breakbeats with a lush layer of slowly drawn-out melody. If you like the soundclip below, you'll enjoy the whole album.

RealAudio clip: Save your Changes

Laser Eyes is the third ep release from Bay Area shoegaze trio, Tied To The Branches and is fast becoming our favorite one. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework. While this ep will be available to the general public as a digital only release, the band has given aQuarius an exclusive but limited physical cd-r version just for our customers, so act fast on this one. It's so good!

MPEG stream: Black Clouds
MPEG stream: 9 Times
RealAudio clip: Ice

What an awesome new band from right here in San Francisco. Some of you might remember how much we raved about Marc Manning's self released cd-r from last year. A dark, doomy and rustic bedroom excursion that left such an impact on us. Tied To The Branches finds Manning teamed up with his longtime partner, Brad DerManouelian and Justin Wasterlain to create some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind. While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. The five songs on Light Of Day, It's OK, clock in at just under half an hour, and are all filled with such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good!

MPEG stream: Walls
MPEG stream: Demons
MPEG stream: Backwards

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

SORRY. We're such suckers for inventive / over the top packaging, and this super limited 'box set' from beloved local shoegazers Tied To The Branches pushes all our crazy packaging buttons, and it's not just the packaging here, this special release also collects EVERYTHING they've ever recorded, the two cd-r's we've reviewed and listed, but also a third record we never even got, as well as a bunch of demos AND a bunch of videos. All of these goodies are contained in a cool oversized pill shaped 8gb USB thumbdrive, and that drive comes housed in a classic orange pill bottle with white twist off lid, complete with TTTB prescription label, a TTTB button, and of course plenty of cotton. It's so cool! But sadly, CRAZY limited, as in only TEN copies were made, of which we got just EIGHT. So if you want one, best be quick, cuz these will be gone in a flash! Here's a couple reviews of the two Tied To The Branches we've reviewed. First, the most recent ep Laser Eyes, TTTB's which might be our favorite from this SF shoegaze trio. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework. Also included here is the first release we'd heard from these guys, the Light Of Day, It's OK record, which features some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind. While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. Such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good! And as mentioned above, a third record, demos, unreleased tracks, videos and more more more!

MPEG stream: Black Clouds
MPEG stream: 9 Times
MPEG stream: Ice
MPEG stream: Walls
MPEG stream: Demons
MPEG stream: Backwards

Sophomore album from Oakland '70s style punkers The Time Flys, which leads off with the title track of their 'tween albums single, "Reality (Is A Rock Band)". Like their debut, this retro-rockin' disc is appropriately snotty and undoubtedly well-schooled in their chosen genre, with lotsa energy, not a lotta chords, and some handclaps, but this time 'round we're not feeling it as much... something here (the lyrics, maybe) just seems a bit forced. It's like, they're trying too hard. If you're gonna emulate the likes of the Ramones, you've gotta make it seem easy, c'mon! On the other hand, maybe we just weren't in the mood for the 'tude when we first put this on, and it's just gonna take a few more spins (and a few more PBRs?) for us to 'get'... we'll see.

MPEG stream: Reality (Is A Rock Band)
MPEG stream: Bronzo's A Bruiser

This looks and sounds like it's gotta be a reissue, a lost '70s punk vinyl classic dug up by a devoted record collector and at long last put out on cd. But actually The Time Flys are a band from the here (Oakland, specifically) and now, so if you live 'round these parts you can not only spin this disc but also go see 'em play, which is a good show I'm telling you. The Flys are three guys and one girl, the girl playing drums, all of 'em rock-star skinny, one of the guys being Andy from The Cuts. And I'm sure none of 'em are teenagers but they're all about the teenage angst and energy. Just check the song titles here: "Smokin' Dope", "Jailbait", "In My Skool", "Teenage Is The Stone-age" (which comes right after another song called "Teenage Tears"). There's 12 songs in 27 minutes 32 seconds, total '70s wasteoid punk stylings in the vein of thee MC5, New York Dolls, Heartbreakers, and (to mention another current band similarly retro-fitted) Chicago's Vee Dee. With snotty vocals, distorted guitar jangle and primal drum clatter that altogether does the shimmy, not to mention the packaging -- b&w pics and typewritten lyrics -- in a blindfold test this would probably fool even some not-so-casual old skool punk rawk collector types. Produced by Greg Ashley of the Gris Gris, another great Oakland garage band with a way-back machine (though theirs is dialed more to the '60s). Very kool.

MPEG stream: Jailbait
MPEG stream: 1900's

MPEG stream: Reality (Is A Rock Band)
MPEG stream: Bronzo's A Bruiser

A while back, we reviewed a cd by an SF outfit called Burial Tree, who trafficked in a sort of dusky deserty twang (a la Earth, Barn Owl) fused to a heaving churning mathy postmetal crush (Neurosis, Isis, etc.), well it seems when BT mainman / aQ pal Monte is not doing Burial Tree, he spends his time meticulously crafting a whole different world of sound, under the monicker Time Spent. Four sprawling tracks of haunting rhythmic ambience, sounding at times like Brian Eno jamming with Muslimgauze, especially on the opening track, which unfurls gradually in softly shimmering swells, buried melodies, everything panned and woozily drifting from speaker to speaker, with simple spare percussion surfacing a few minutes in, and transforming the vibe into an almost sort of spaced out dub, we hear hints of African Head Charge too, but Time Spent is much darker, more sonically sinister, the opening track very cinematic evocative of late nights, and cities lit by moonlight, a world in shadow. The second track, the comparatively tranquil/meditative "LaurenClaire", takes the same synth shimmer, but spread it out into soft ethereal billows, more major key, softly sun dappled, a hushed new agey drift, that also finds itself melded to a rhythm, which instead of adding propulsion, seems to add a delicate framework, turning the middle portion of the song into a sort of downtempo shuffle, before drifting into an ether of blurred thrum and field recordings. "Memories Drift & Fade", begins with a stretch of grey noise static wreathed in sci-fi swirls, before the track blossoms into something blissed out and kosmische, the guitar figures drenched in echo and floating on streaks of spacey shimmer and soft focus cosmic hum, the track, gradually growing less abstract and more guitar driven, the second half sounding like Expo 70 at their most Eno, softly tangled guitar melodies, over swells of prog like synth, all hazy and dreamily druggy, too short even at nearly ten minutes. And finally, the record finishes off with the relatively brief "Warm Chatter", which sounds a bit like one of the more experimental Teenage Filmstars jams, garbled found sounds and random voices, buried beneath a warm liquid swirl of melodic murk and glacial chordal creep, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing, and again, way to brief. Fantastic stuff, and recommended for fans of spaced out kosmische drift, Eno-like new age ambience, and dark, dreamlike dronemusic. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered.

MPEG stream: Mystery & Meaning
MPEG stream: LaurenClaire

There's been changes galore in the world of Tin Hat. Most notably Rob Burger, one of the group's founding members has left the fold. They've wisely recruited the wonderfully talented multi-instrumentalist Ara Anderson (Iron And The Albatross, Boostamonte, Tom Waits) and acclaimed clarinet player Ben Goldberg, and dropped the "Trio" from their name. And they've released The Sad Machinery Of Spring, their fifth luminous album. Tin Hat are frequently categorized as a chamber music group but the music they make reaches out far beyond that genre's borders. They effortlessly and seamlessly incorporate elements of classical, jazz, and a broad spectrum of Americana and international sounds. Excellent.

MPEG stream: Blind Paper Dragon
MPEG stream: The Land Of Perpetual Sleep

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

SORRY.

This cherished local group is comprised simply of languid violin, sprightly accordion and gentle guitar, but what a lovely deep full sound they make. Sometimes they're conjuring up macabre cartoon music, sometimes a dusty waltz, sometimes it's a Kronos Quartet-style light romp through several different moods 'n genres within single tracks. Willie Nelson even guests on one song! If Tom Waits opened a coffeehouse, Tin Hat Trio would be the house band.

RealAudio clip: Bill
RealAudio clip: Joel

This new Tipsy cd is so appropriately titled! The lively festivities feature some fabulous reworkings of their playful trip hop tracks by a bunch of AQ faves from around the globe: Matmos (SF), People Like Us (Kent), Bran Flakes (Seattle), and Optiganally Yours (San Diego), as well as World Standard (Tokyo), High Llamas (London), Curd Duca (Vienna) and nine others. With nutty collage cover art (guinea pigs! green slime! shag carpet!) that'd be just as suited on a cd by Stock, Hausen & Walkman or the aforementioned People Like Us. Very bubbly and fun, for people who don't take electronica without a dose of bubblegum.

RealAudio clip: Sweet Cinnamon Punch
RealAudio clip: Reverse Cowgirl

Bay Area label Three Ring Records expand their roster by a third with four impressive new releases by Rykarda Parasol, Frankel, Scattered Pages and these New Englanders who call themselves Tom Thumb & The Latter Day Saints. Three Ring has already got fine releases by the indie rock/pop likes of Elephone, Soltero, Ebb & Flow and D.W. Holiday and Scrabbel, but with this recent outpouring they bolster their country'n'folk branches. What a great introduction Kindermusik is! Their withery vocals are much like those of The Weakerthans with some Thom Yorke-ian inflections. They're set atop music that brings together the rustic twang of Calexico and the pop rocks of Sloan. Very warm and engaging. Also ripe for the picking if you like M. Ward and My Morning Jacket!

MPEG stream: Real Small Talk
MPEG stream: Atlantic City

Volume two in the planned monthly twelve volume Jewelled Antler "Library" series of 3" cd-rs (a format for which we are suckers -- they're just so cute, darn it) is the debut recording from a group called Tomes, who are, as it turns out, basically Jewelled Antler flagship group Thuja (Rob Reger, Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, absent Steven R. Smith), letting themselves get a little bit louder and noiser than they usually do in Thuja, harking back a bit to precursor band Mirza in fact. Probably the main reason this wasn't put out as a Thuja release is because Tomes' title and artwork are in fact the Jewelled Antler collective's knowing nod to a black metal aesthetic (which has fascinated Glenn particularily of late). But while intended as a tribute of sorts to black metal, the psychedelic drone music found here only holds subtle echoes of dark Nordic woodlands and burning churches. The twenty minutes of abstract heavy improv of "The Dreadful Gift (parts 1 and 2)" is darn good stuff regardless of the tangential conceptual framework. With noisy phantoms clanking chains, groaning drones, tell-tale heartbeats and and distorted freeform guitar feedback, this does achieve a dark n' dirgey but beautiful atmosphere. Too beautiful perhaps to leave the black metal hordes quaking in their corpsepaint, it still could be a Jewelled Antler Halloween soundtrack of sorts -- I wonder why didn't they wait 'til the October Library installment for this? Definitely recommended. MPEG Download: "Dreadful Gift 1" [/audio/tomesdreadful1.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Dreadful Gift 1" [/audio/tomesdreadful1.m3u]

MPEG stream: Dreadful Gift 1
MPEG stream: Dreadful Gift 2

You might recognize Tomo if you're in the Bay Area and have seen the dance party Hey Willpower. He's their boogie woogie trackmeister. Prior to that, he was in the angstful post-punk SF band The Boy Explodes. It might be said that both of those groups brought out the wild side of this quiet, unassuming fellow. His solo work on the other hand strikes quite a different chord. Whereas his other projects are right at home cutting loose in a bar or basement rec room, this seems like it'd be more at home in a science lab (perhaps inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop?). Definitely much more controlled, methodical and brainy, For Many Birthdays is his second glitchy electronica album. Whereas his self-titled debut was a light effervescent affair, this is still quite woozy and bloopy, but darker and occasionally more abrasive -- revealing yet another facet of Tomo! Very cool!

MPEG stream: Sometimes Dreams Shouldn't Come True
MPEG stream: More And More Is Coming

This reserved young Japanese fellow can also be seen and heard in a number of local bands (two that spring to mind are the raucous postpunkish The Boy Explodes and Willpower, the new wave-y side project of Imperial Teen's vocalist Will Schwartz). This is his first solo release, and it sounds like neither of the above. No, it's a playful array of electronic, sample-laden tracks -- sometimes light and ticklish, sometimes stuttery drum'n'bass-y, sometimes downright funky, sometimes chiming and musicbox-y. The latter forms the basis for one of the album's brightest points, the giddy fifth track "Ritual Of Bubble" which incorporates some very Cornelius-esque chopped up vocal samples. Tomo's music bears a striking resemblance to a slumber party / wrestling match between a bunch of tipsy arcade games. Absolutely delightful!

MPEG stream: Ritual Of Bubble
MPEG stream: Yellow Flowery Thing

Unloading The Sun is both the premier release on new SF label Grand Gallop Music and the first solo cd by Luke Top. Perhaps you're already familiar with this gent as he has also been known to play in The Cave-Ins (plural) and Ceramic Isles, and perform on the road with Cass McCombs. For his debut he keeps things all breezy and easy-going. Unloading The Sun is filled with eight nicely crafted mid-tempo pop tunes featuring muted horns and drowsy lilting vocals quite akin to those of Rufus Wainwright. A well timed, mellow, wind-down-your-summer kind of album. Limited edition of 300 packaged in a cool 3-color screenprinted cardboard case.

MPEG stream: Feel So I Am
MPEG stream: Further Than Comfort

Man, they just keep starting 'em younger and younger, don't they? Pretty soon we'll be hearing covers of old punk classics emanating from the womb (which reminds us of that Mr. Show sketch about pre-natal beauty pageants, but we digress...). This Bay Area trio join the likes of Rock Jack, Eyeball Skeleton, The Stinky Puffs, Evil Wicked Warrior, Mark Shit and of course Old Skull in their prepubescent mission to rock you. Total Annihilation are ten year old Eddy Demon on vocals and guitar, thirteen year old Pietro D'Amato on drums and a young at heart 35 year old Dorkmeister Harmoniak on bass. Noggin is their garage/bedroom lo-fi punky rawk debut cd-r which includes four originals and a cover of "I Wanna Be Yr Dog"!

MPEG stream: Rock'N'Roll On A Friday
MPEG stream: I Wanna Be Yr Dog

Total Shutdown. If you live in San Francisco and you've been following the contemporary music scene with even a smattering of interest, you've no doubt encountered this post-emo / screamo hardcore 'art' rock noise band. And it seems that Total Shutdown has been amassing a sizeable audience of ardent followers. And while we weren't all that impressed in the beginning, they have But TS -are- one of the few local bands trying to kick up a shitstorm of some kind, and for that we salute them. You can't take it lightly since our once vibrant scene is slowly being whittled away to nothing (fewer bands that don't suck, fewer clubs period, jaded show go-ers, etc.) So keep your eye on these kids, 'cause one of these days everything's gonna hit at once, and maybe then we'll be singing their praises, but for now, recommended only for those with iron ear drums, bowels of steel and a not too discerning taste for skronk, chaos and noise.

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

SORRY. A blast of improvised guitar and drum action, featuring a member of KIT and XBXRX...

Three boyz. Two bands. Two albums. Toughguy Fantasy is an aural onslaught of noise insanity. Barely keeping up with itself, it's sorta in the vein of Lightning Bolt but with more musical toys and much more disfunction, making for an intangible attack from all angles. Arctic Boyz is the slightly quieter sibling. Still chaotic for the most part, imagine Hella without "songs" with much clattering feedback. Starts off with a slightly middle-eastern flavor, and ramps up into a scratchy non-sensical maelstrom. Features members of Hella, Chrime in Choir, The Appreciation and Holy Smokes: Zach, Carson and Justin.

MPEG stream: Thank Gods It's Friday
MPEG stream: Quanah

From Sub Pop's new sub-label comes a full length from SF's own Track Star, strumming furiously and angsting so much you'd think they were the Wedding Present or something.

Wyatt Cusick is the skilled scribe of some of the sweetest, smartest tunes around!! And he's in two of the brightest pop bands around - the Aislers Set and Trackstar. Purveyors of all that is sensitive, peppy and charming, tempered with a balanced dose of fuzzy and jangly guitars. His fellow Track Star Matthew Troy is certainly no songwritin' slouch either. After so many years of making music together its clear their chemistry is capable of brewing up a melodious storm. Each fellow brings his distinct approach to the group, Wyatt all warm, soft and boyish, and Matthew a bit more feisty and gritty. The faster songs are driving power pop whereas the slower ones have a definite Belle And Sebastian-esque fragile lilt and sigh to them (such as on "Green To Gold" a song that also appeared on their late 2001 Omnibus Records 7"). This is made even more pronounced on the song titled "The End" by the added honey-sweet vocal grace of Alicia Vanden Heuvel (of the Aislers Set and Poundsign). This release also marks drummer Brian Girgus' (formerly of Lowercase) full length debut for the Trackstar team.

RealAudio clip: Green To Gold
RealAudio clip: The One We Play
RealAudio clip: The End

We're pretty picky when it comes to garage rock/punk, it's really got to be raw, impassioned and at least a little fucked to truly catch our full attention. Traditional Fools blast out the kind of reckless garage rock jams we can totally get behind. Should be no surprise as one of the members of the band is Ty Segall whose solo debut last year was one of our favorite records of the year! Traditional Fools are a bit more on the traditional side of punk/garage rock, but still way blown out, lo-fi and way fun. They cover Red Kross and Billy Childish which gives you a pretty good idea where they're coming from, and this full length really is full of drunken garage rock delights that could have been at home on Crypt or Rip-Off Records back in the hey day of classic garage. Fun and irreverent and totally raw and rocked out. A co-release by two great San Francisco labels Make A Mess (home to Nodzz, Brilliant Colors) and Wizard Mountain who put out Ty Segall's first cassette. Comes on nice white vinyl and for so cheap. It's a no brainer!

Record number three from these local country punks, and the first one we've reviewed, which is weird, since some aQ-ers have long been fans, but also because Trainwreck Riders include amongst their members, Andrew from SF pop gods the Ovens, but while TWR are in fact a bit poppy, their sound is much more twangy, bringing to mind, most obviously, Camper Van Beethoven, Uncle Tupelo, Dieselhed and that whole No Depression crowd. And sure none of those bands exist anymore, and really that whole scene sorta dried up and disappeared, but these guys definitely remind us of why we loved that stuff so much, and have us again wondering why more bands still don't do the whole country punk / country rock thing. It sounds as good now as it ever did. And it's easy to imagine these guys being huge back in the nineties, records on Bloodshot, touring with the Old 97's or the Mekons, but these days, they're definitely doing something WAY outside of what's hip and cool. But goddamn these guys nail it. Big jangly guitars, lush arrangements, loping rhythms, plenty of twang, drawled, laid back vocals, crazy catchy songs, with some occasionally exploding into kick ass start/stop almost mathy breakdowns, like on the second half of "Gypsy Stealin', which finds the band unfurling a dense tangle of progged out twang flecked post rock churn, which somehow fist perfectly with the rest of the songs droned out blugrassy groove. The band definitely have their pop down too, every song here impossibly catchy, "House On The Hill" being one of our favorites, heavily beholden to Uncle Tupelo, sounding like it could be a cover of some Anodyne B-side, which is a huge compliment for sure! "Orchard Keeper" too, definitely displays a huge UT influence, the song shifting constantly from country gallop to woozy twangy dream pop and back again. But the more we listen, the harder and harder it gets to pick a favorite, as more and more of the songs become potential candidates, which is always the sign of a great record, in fact we only just now made it to the brooding closer, "Shark Attack", a moody woozy reverb drenched country ballad with some seriously grim lyrics about, yep, a shark attack, the music appropriately dirge-y and ominous, a serious chunk of grim dark twang. The cd comes in a digipak, the vinyl pressed on 180 gram vinyl, also includes a cd version of the whole record!

MPEG stream: Sailin' Off Alone
MPEG stream: House Upon The Hill
MPEG stream: Gypsy Stealin'
MPEG stream: Orchard Keeper

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

SORRY. From the lead-off track "Delia", Trainwreck Riders come galloping at ya, and they maintain that fevered clip throughout the rest of the album's eleven kick-in-the-pants songs. Where The Neon Turns To Wood is filled with scruffy, whisky-soaked country rockin' that brings to mind the hoarse Jeff Tweedy yelp of Uncle Tupelo, but the band also occasionally veers into more straight-up indie rock territory a la Modest Mouse.

MPEG stream: Delia
MPEG stream: Seven By Seven

A collaboration between SF math metallists The Fucking Champs and Washington, DC's electronic rock boys Trans Am? The concept sure sounded promising to me. The actual outcome? Well, have to say, somewhat disappointing. Aquarius loves the Champs, and has been a big supporter of both bands, but in all fairness we have to express our true opinions of this particular release. The first song

"Core members Mason Jones, Melynda Jackson and Chris Van Huffle of San Francisco's SubArachnoid Space gathered one evening in July 1998 with some compatriots for a night of musical freedom. Th�s event was recorded, but nothing came of it initially and the tapes were misplaced for over eight years. Finally given the attention it deserves, the session was transferred to a better system and improved as much as possible. The seven songs respectively phases were finally presented under the moniker TRANSITIONAL PHASE in 2007, released on Last Visible Dog - an excellent collection of improvised space and krautrock jams in best SubArachnoid Space tradition."

7"=2 songs, cd single=4 songs.

Tribes of Neurot is the ambient, ritualistic side-project of mighty metal legends Neurosis. Grace is intended to be played simultaneously with the latter band's recent Times Of Grace album. So the doomily atmospheric drones and spoken words of this disc meld in with the hypnotic tribal chug of that one. A formidable combination! However, it's a fine listen all by itself (so don't fret if you don't have two cd players). Mixed by Tribes Of Neurot along with Dustin Donaldson of I Am Spoonbender and Neurosis' longtime sound engineer Dave Clark. Recommended!

First we've reviewed from this Midwestern misanthrope, a one man, synth swinging, electro-punk, garage pop wrecking machine, who sounds little bit like some musical DNA splicing experiment gone fantastically wrong, equal parts Suicide, Thee Oh Sees, David Bowie, Fabulous Diamonds, Chrome... well, you get, seriously twisted and WTF, darkly sci-fi, a little bit droney, spaced out and psychedelic. Opener "Fashion Has Happened To Fashion" sounds like Bowie's "Fashion", and not just because of the "Fashion" in the chorus/refrain (although that helps), it's stripped down and refashioned into a psychedelic kraut-garage groove, and the follow up also sort of sounds like the same Bowie jam at first, but it's soon pulled apart and reconstituted by some sonic mad scientist, into something much more sinister, wrapped in pulsing, pulsating FX drenched guitars, and tethered to a hypnotic robotic rhythm, with a killer recurring melodic flourish that will get stuck in your head like crazy. The sound is all fuzzy, crumbling guitars, swirly sci-fi synths, skeletal Casio beats, and yelped, occasionally almost falsetto vox. It's dirgey and murky one second, frenetic and frenzied the next, the sound simultaneously spacey and futuristic, raw, primitive and retro. There's an awesome pic of Mr. Trin Tran himself on the sleeve, jamming on synths, guitar strapped across his chest, weird mic contraption hung around his neck, a strange sort-of-Batman mask (of course), with some cymbals, seemingly strapped to his synths, all set up in what appears to be the dingy corner of some run down bar, adorned with a sad little string of Christmas lights, and a closet filled with empty hangers in the corner. If we had to imagine what kind of weirdo was making this music, nothing we could have imagined would have been as perfect as that pic. A sonic space alien, stranded in some podunk town, sending these musical distress signals to his home planet hoping to be rescued. We're digging these jams enough, that we're intercepting those signals, in the hopes that help might never come...

MPEG stream: Fashion Has Happened To Fashion
MPEG stream: Eyes The Size
MPEG stream: Hearts Are Serious

Local quintet Troll has made a delightfully ambitious record. The flavor is sort of Pizzicato 5 meets Os Mutantes meets Amon Duul, and each song is a minor gem, albeit a little rough 'round the edges', with multiple vocalists, epic harmonies, intensely simmering guitar, and well-written, unpredictable songs, dynamic pieces that grow and develop within themselves. Being smart folk with wonderful taste in music (we should know: they're AQ-customers!), Troll describe themselves quite accurately: "The sound is a combination of hard Nordic and Spanish garage, mellow blissful euro-tinged psychedelia, Japanese tropicalia and ambient jazz. The languages sung on the album are Danish, Spanish, Japanese, French and English." Nice.

RealAudio clip: Blue Skies
RealAudio clip: Silver Mountain
RealAudio clip: El Vampiro

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

SORRY.

Tujurikkuja is a meeting of San Francisco musical minds, namely Kit Clayton and Chris Dixon. It has been a very long time since we've heard anything from Clayton, the digital wunderkid who recorded a handful of deliriously glitched-out dub albums around the turn of the millennium and also ran the highly influential Orthlong Musork imprint which released work by Stephan Mathieu, Blectum From Blechdom, Akira Rabelais, AGF, Timeblind, and Gold Chains. While he hasn't released much of anything in the past six or seven years, he does perform here in the Bay Area mining the gaps of audiovisual errata as well as DJ-ing full-frontal techno sets. His partner in the Estonio-phonically named Tujurikkuja has recently been copping a dour drone-noise pose under the guise Earth Jerks, but he's long been a noisenik artrocker in Death Sentence Panda and Murder Murder. This one-sided lathe-cut 7" sports a spaced-out electro-drone mantra with Dixon churning through a shoegazing riff muffled through a mountain of cotton candy FX, and with Clayton delicately layering analogue (or seemingly analogue) electronic tones and drones throughout. Very lovely stuff; and we do hope to hear more from Tujurukkuja very soon. For those who care about such things, the lathe was cut at Funky Frankenstein the heart of middle Tennessee on a sheet of polycarbonate which shouldn't degrade or do any damage to the needle. Limited to 50 copies!

MPEG stream: Om De Nimic

Electric freaks, indeed! New Bay Area trio Turn Me On Dead Man sure do crank out the searing, overdriven, space rawk on this, their debut album. Things really kick in by the sixth song "Apocalypse Rock". Heavy and tripped-out! The band's played plenty around town since they got together in 2003, and this album successfully captures their gritty live energy. Word has it that since the release of this record, they've fleshed out their lineup and sound with a fourth member on keyboards. Rad!

MPEG stream: Apocalypse Rock
MPEG stream: Beatles George

These Bay Area guys have followed up their 2003 debut, God Bless The Electric Freak, with another wigged-out heavy ass-kicker. They were plenty beefy last time around when they were a three piece, and now Technicolourmother launches their recorded existence as an even beefier quartet. Ready to get yer speakers drenched with equal parts stoner rock, metallic pop and space rock?

MPEG stream: 67 Dreams
MPEG stream: Wonder Mint

Tussle is an appropriate name for a group that has had as many line-up changes as it has records. With the addition of Tomo Yasuda (The Boy Explodes, Hey Willpower, Coconut) on bass stepping in for the departing Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp, The Alps), who in turned filled in on bass duties for the previously departing Andy Cabic (Vetiver), it looks like we're finally seeing a group beginning to gel. While their overall sound philosophy remains intact from album to album (highly percussive bass-driven disco rock), Cream Cuts shows the keyboard and synth tracks taking more of a lead role than on previous albums where before they mainly served as atmosphere. While still very bass and rhythm heavy, it has less of the post-punk disco references of Liquid Liquid and ESG and more of a trippier cosmic vibe of cinematic flourishes, spacier textures and idiosyncratic nuances that are a welcome development to this much loved local outfit. One small beef we must call out though is the tedious inclusion of what sounds like the band setting up in the middle of the record. Save it for the live shows, guys!

MPEG stream: Night Of The Hunter
MPEG stream: Rainbow Claw

Tussle's disco dub track "Disco D'oro" gets a couple more remixes on this 12", a round two of sorts for this single. The first one was great. The original track and then two remixes by Ben Cook and DJ Spun. But now, ok, I think I'm gonna need a redbull over here. Side A is a deep-dish techno disco beat blanket by Berlin's MUNK, while Ben Cook's Side B parties in the art-rock dance-dub circuit. Friends and fans of Tussle's other work, as well as DFA and LCD Soundsytem, will have something to keep on in the zone of their all-out discotrash dance attack with DD2. Will there be a 3?, 4?, 7?! This party may never die.

Local boys Tussle strike again with Don't Stop, an ep that brings us two new tracks along with the dub version of "Eye Contact" (found on the cd of this only) from their previous, debut 12" of that title, and remixes of said two new tracks, one by Mr. Drew Daniel of Matmos/Soft Pink Truth. You can hear here why folks are making such a fuss over Tussle -- their instrumental post-punk-funk jamming is so then it's now, so out it's in. Referencing krautrock, '80s NYC new wave disco, and Jamaican dub, amongst other hella retro, hella cool soundz, they just kick ass and make you wanna invite 'em to play your next freak party. Hopefully there's a full-length on the horizon, cuz these eps always leave us wanting more.

MPEG stream: Don't Stop
MPEG stream: Windmill (Soft Pink Truth Disco Hijack)

For six bucks, this is a great little nugget of Tussle! Moreso a sweet morsel for the discodubby DJ, this 12" is a good start for those still caught unawares by the perma-lockgroove styles from this San Francisco fourpiece; nom: Tussle. Actually, if you're gonna buy one thing, it best be the Kling Klang (their full-length debut that came out late last year). Still, Here It Comes! + Lockgrooves! has the tiltle track, a punky electro-noise workout that totally kills and two alternate versions, one a DSP / Banghra freakout, and the other a super laid back Neu-ish groove.

At loooooong looooooooooong last!!!! The debut album from this San Francisco 4-piece! They've taunted you with ep, singles, splits, short coastal-US or European tours and finally a solid album's worth of grooviedubbydance beats. Think Liquid Liquid, ESG meets found (now seemingly archaic) electronic machinery. Two drummers, one technically traditional, the second a junkyard kit trash-beat man machine, elegantly powerhouse percussion. A snaking bass-line guides you all around and straight on up through catchy electronic samples all the while creating a perfect balance of sonic kineticism. Kling Klang is just Krauty enough in its pairing down of essential sounds and repetitive percussive treatments to ensure it as a classic recording. Despite many songs recorded by two different engineers and a few recorded in their basement practice space, the production is as smooth as can be -- in fact, it sounds fucking great!!! Long Live Tussle!!

MPEG stream: Night Food
MPEG stream: Moon Tempo

Tussle have always been the musical version of the party you wish existed and would go on forever and ever. The one where everyone is having fun and has great taste in tunes. Sadly for some reason that sort of party is a real rarity. Most parties are filled with people screaming and -trying- to have a good time but not really doing anything fun or interesting. And the rooms filled with folks with "good taste" can get pretty dang stuffy, weighed down and boring. Rare is the party packed with people who want to go wild, but want to do it to the best tunes imaginable, who realize how amazing and important it is to move your body and have a good time. Luckily for our ears Tussle are that rare band, whose music is the perfect soundtrack to THAT kind of party. Great taste and fun spirit wrapped in one. With Telescope Mind they have once again come up with the perfect formula. The one where Can is jamming with Liquid Liquid and ESG is in the living room unfurling with beats your body can't deny. Crafted with much care, Tussle have truly created an album that works from beginning to end. A perfect balance of experimentation and percussion fueled ecstasy. Since the recording of this album the band has gone through some major lineup changes, with co-founding member Alexis Georgopoulos leaving the band and super talented SF scene fixture Tomo joining the group. We're excited to hear what Alexis cooks up in the future as his writing and aesthetic were a huge part of this record and Tussle's sound in general, as well as where the new lineup of Tussle will travel. Until then we'll just follow the instructions in the liner notes and enjoy Telescope Mind at MAXIMUM VOLUME because this is an album that will be moving our bodies and pleasing our ears for a long time to come!

MPEG stream: Warning
MPEG stream: Elephants
MPEG stream: Pow!

[ aquarius records — Local ]