Aquarius Records closed in 2016. This site is an archive — a place to rediscover their extraordinary music recommendations. Nothing here is for sale.
Showing results 2551 through 2600 of 2798.
V/AFame Whore(Apathy Productions)cd$ 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Soundtrack to Jon Moritsugu film features 2 previously unreleased Barbara Manning pieces (she made me cry during "The Arsonist's Song" at Terrastock), 2 previously unreleased Emily's Sassy Lime songs, and others by No No Boy, Dub Narcotic Sound System, and Dixieland.
V/AFascination: The Bowie Show()book w/ cd$ 19.98
In 2002, Gallery 16 here in San Francisco exhibited The Bowie Show, which collected art, writing, and music that takes David Bowie as inspiration. This is an arty, spiral bound, full color, glossy-paged book with a cd and nicely embossed cover. Contributors include Rick Moody, Jason Mecier, Michelle Tea, Doug Coupland, Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, Ann Magnuson, etc. And the (all exclusive!) tracks on the cd are each covers of a song off Bowie's Low album. The music runs the gamut from Matmos' slinky electronics on "A New Career in a New Town" to Troll's simmering Talk-Talk-meets-Nina-Simone take on "Warszawa". Other musical participants include Glenn Donaldson of local faves Thuja), Wayne Smith of Aero Mic'd, The Sadnesses, Tom Recchion and more.
V/AFever Pitch Music & Magazine Presents Just Drums II Project(Fever Pitch)2cd$ 11.98
If you or someone you know has a penchant for percussion, holy smokes, have we got just the cd for you or him or her! Moe! Staiano (of Moe!kestra, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and formerly Idiot Flesh) brought these in for our drum delight. It's a double cd compilation containing 36 tracks by more dextrous drummers than you can shake a (drum)stick at! The second disc is particularly notable as it includes the stellar likes of William Winant (whose performed with John Zorn, Sonic Youth, Kronos String Quartet, Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle, Oingo Boingo to name just a few), Trey Spruance (of Asva, Secret Chiefs 3, Faxed Head, Mr. Bungle, etc), Ches Smith (Secret Chiefs 3, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle among others), Karen Stackpole and Mr. Staiano himself. Released by Fever Pitch Music (which is also the label of DJ Jester and which is also a magazine from Wisconsin).
V/AFortune Cookies(Fortune)cd$ 8.98
A new San Francisco music compilation that totally runs the gamut style-wise. Comprised of tracks by 16 diverse artists including Twenty Minute Loop, Etienne De Rocher, John Vanderslice, and Ian Brennan.
V/AFriends and Lovers: Songs of Bread(Badman)cd$ 13.98
If you think you don't know Bread's music, think again. It might just be that you don't know the name of the artist behind that old tune you know and love so well. Many of Bread's songs have become so much a part of the day-to-day (let alone Musak'd ad nauseum), that song credits are seldom mentioned. Who doesn't know the '70s tear-jerkers "If", "The Goodbye Girl", "Everything I Own", "Make It With You" or the puzzlingly titled "Baby, I'm A Want You" by this band? Do you remember, as Cup does, that there was even a non-Muppet puppet performance set to that song on the Muppet Show!? Well, it seems there's plenty of other folks who have a fond Bread memory or two or three too. '70s nostalgia is here with a -- albeit gentle -- vengeance, and Bread were definitely a soft rock staple of that decade. Sure those songs that we heard on AM radio back then were as vanilla as can be, but you have to admit the popcraft is still the sweetest something to behold. Main songwriter David Gates skillfully captured the weepy lows of love lost or unrequited. Oh so much yearning and heartache! This tribute kicks off with Josh Rouse doin' his best Gates impersonation on "It Doesn't Matter To Me". Following him are much less faithful but still very respectful covers performed by Kings Of Convenience's Erland Oye ("Friends & Lovers"), Call And Response ("Baby, I'm A Want You"), Oranger ("Make It With You"), Paula Frazer ("Everything I Own"), The Moore Brothers ("Look At Me"), Parchman Farm's Eric Shea with Bart Davenport ("Goodbye Girl"), Mojave 3's Rachel Goswell ("If"), Emily Sparks ("Too Much Love"), Cake ("The Guitar Man"), Holy Sons ("The Last Time"), Dambuilders' Dave Derby ("I Use The Soap"), and the Posies fellas Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow doin' one song each on his own ("Games Of Magic" and "Down On My Knees" respectively). If you're too young to have experienced these songs firsthand, you might still wanna give this comp a listen 'cause it offers shining examples of fine pop artists present coming together with fine pop songs past.
V/AFrisco Freakout I (10-11-08)(self released)cassette$ 5.00
The annual all-day Frisco Freakout psychedelic festival has happened on two occasions so far, most recently earlier this month and also back in October of '08. Perhaps you were there! You shoulda been, it was a great show, both years. Co-sponsored by KUSF radio, Arthur Magazine, and yours truly Aquarius Records, and organized in part by Ripley from Wooden Shjips, the Frisco Freakout benefits Creativity Explored, a worthy cause right here in the Mission, where developmentally challenged adults get to express themselves artistically (and make amazing art they do!). This year at the festival, there was a limited edition compilation cassette for sale featuring a selection of live performances recorded at the first Freakout. We scored a few copies - and are selling 'em for what we paid for 'em, $5 each, all of which goes to Creativity Explored. They only made 100 tapes and we of course just have a handful, when they're gone they're gone, so first come first served, and sorry if you don't get one. There's songs here from Crystal Antlers, Art Lessing, Wooden Shjips, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ascended Master, The Bad Trips, Greg Ashley, Sequin Trails, and Earthless (who's track is an excerpt 'cause of course an entire Earthless jam would have probably filled a whole side of this tape!).
V/AFrisco Styles(Deitch Projects)2cd$ 13.98
You know that guy with the Grizzly Adams beard you're always seeing skating down Valencia 'n dumpster diving outside Ti Couz? That would be the world famous artist that AQ knows as nice Mr Chris Johansson, who has single handedly released this double disc set featuring almost 50 of his favorite Bay Area rockscene bands (many of the tracks live). Everyone from Coachwhips to Caesura, Touched By a Janitor, Vetiver, Mr and Mrs Evil, Tarentel, Veronica Lipgloss, Trackstar, Total Shutdown, Quails, Troll, Erase Errata, A Tension, Tussle, Virginia Dare, Zmrzlina, Aislers Set, Tommy Guerrero, Crack W.A.R., Sonny Smith, Zeigenbock Kopf, Deep Throats, and so many more. As with most comps meant to survey a local scene, this is a mixed bag, but there's tons more good stuff here than bad, and it's a real good way to taste what the local scene has to offer if you're not one of those folks that goes out to hear live music all the time. An exciting listen. Double disc foldout digipack features artwork by local artists Jo Jackson, Chris Corales, Tony Cox, Dave Schubert, many more, but not, as far as I can tell, any of Johansson's stuff.
V/AFuzz Dance: Electroconvulsive Therapy Vol Two(Medical)lp$ 24.00
We got two different records from the Medical label for Record Store Day, and got enough extra to list for all you far away folks who couldn't make it to aQ in person, a killer Alexander Robotnick collection, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and this one, part two in the ongoing Electroconvulsive Therapy series, which collects rare new wave singles, this second volume focusing on a label called Fuzz Dance, gathering up 3 super rare, iconic Italo disco 12"s (along with a couple bonus tracks), from a handful of bands we had never heard before, Trophy, ZED, Mya & The Mirror, Mon Bijou and NAIF Orchestra, but that's kind of the joy of these sorts of comps, and Medical in general, who manage to dig up some crazy cool rarities. So yeah, Trophy meld some classic eighties new wave pop with their Italo Disco, pulsing synths, strummed guitars, Teutonic vocals, plenty of squelch and echo drenched handclaps, offering up both versions, a vocal and a weirdly electro-dubbed 'instrumental'. ZED give us "Plastic Love" which sounds like it could have been a hit in the eighties, sort of Berlin meets Human League, pulsing synths, dramatic female vox, the instrumental version super stripped down, and sans vocals, sounding surprisingly like a slightly discoier Kraftwerk!! Mya & The Mirror offer up more of the same, sultry electro-disco new wave, the vocals heavily accented and sultry, with some weird horns (!), the "Reflex" version, essentially instrumental, but with way more horns and wilder eighties percussion. Crazy stuff. The extra tracks include Mon Bijou's "Just A Lover", which again, sounds like some could/should have been eighties new wave electro pop hit, while NAIF Orchestra's "Check Out Five" adds some funky guitar strum to pulsing synths, and some super loopy vox, the vibe playful, a little goofy, but super catchy, and like the rest of the tracks here, sounds like it was yanked straight out of some alternate universe eighties new wave hit parade. No liner notes this time, but comes in a super striking, very Italo-disco looking cover, the vinyl on heavy 180 gram Italian flag colored vinyl (!), and as always, very limited...
V/AGold Record Studio: Live At Laney Flea Market(Edgetone Records)2cd$ 14.98
Record collectors, check it out: in a sense, this is a compilation of tracks from some of the rarest records EVER -- even though they were just recorded last year! That's cause they only existed in editions of, like, one. Ok, this is gonna require some explanation. The Gold Record Studio is the latest contraption/conception from our man Jon Brumit (whom we first met when he brought us field recordings from the San Francisco dump!) and colleague Lisa Mezzacappa... Basically a set-up where one-of-a-kind vinyl records were pressed on-the-spot with an antique record cutter for folks who recorded live (and impromptu) in an open-air, homebuilt studio at a local flea market! This was totally free of charge, with instruments and even guest musicians provided, and apparently proved very popular. This took place over several weekends last spring at the Laney College Swap Meet over in Oakland... the City of Oakland actually ponied up some arts-funding money to help make it happen. And it seems like a pretty cool thing, for both the participants (the "recording artists") and now listeners who get to check out the diverse array of talent (and otherwise) who made records at the flea market, the best (and worst? no such distinctions really being made) have been compiled onto this sprawling double disc set. There's contributions from folks of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities. Some musical pros show up (including a couple Serbian prog rockers, and the DJ from the Ghetto Boys!), but also many total amateurs, young kids n' senior citizens. Lots of surprises in other words! This man-in-the-street, instant-gratification, no-rules recording project really let some folks get, shall we say, expressive. And creative. And downright weird. Portions of this do come off like a rather dubious talent show, or drunk mom karaoke -- but lots of tracks could be some really underground, experimental cd-r fodder, too. As a whole, it's almost like a hypothetical installment of the Sublime Frequencies series dedicated to the sounds of why-be-normal urban America, jumping from track to track with ADD abandon. For instance, among the many tracks of disc one, you've got a woozy improv session with a barking dog factored in, followed a few tracks later by a version of "My Favorite Things" recast conversationally (and humorously) between teenage girls. There's also a pretty badass blues rock guitar instrumental, some crazy scat singing, and a song that sounds to us a lot like The Shitty Listener! And much much more... It's mind-boggling and exhausting and pretty darn special. Even the recognizable tunes that people try (for good or ill) are enhanced in our ears by the bustling flea market field recording happening in the background. And then, there's a whole 'nother disc. 50 cuts on disc two, starting off with some very lovely solo guitar from "Sam"...which is followed by a much more maniacal track with a shouting child... and then some guy singing "Let It Be"... a super-distorted rap by a teenage girl... and on and on and on. There's definitely some Gong Show moments, which are good for a laugh or can be taken as something maybe unintentionally avant-garde. We really like the more "damaged", confusional tracks (of which there's plenty), where it sorta sounds like the people you hear DON'T know they're being recorded, or at least seem unaware of where the microphone is, or when the song is supposed to start or stop. Even in the age of mp3 and MySpace, this Gold Record Studio project has taken the democratization of the "music industry" a step further, down to street level! There's just something really joyful about it, possibly due to the serendipitous social interaction happening right then and there at the point of creation. You're getting a glimpse at the inner musical burgeonings of people who until that fateful day they were wandering around the flea market, probably never ever ever dreamed that they would so soon be the proud owners of a physical vinyl artifact with their own singing/rapping/playing/barking/whatever on it, whether silly or serious. And that's pretty cool. Also, if you get this, you'll definitely have some good material to put on your outgoing answering machine message for months to come... file it with stuff like MSR Madness anthologies of song-poem recordings, or Jacob Smigel's Eavesdrop disc of found sound recordings, although this takes its own unique place in that array of oddity...
V/AGolden State Funk(BGP Records)cd$ 19.98
With the Bay Area Funk comps that Luv N Haight put out in the last few years we were reminded of what a lot of spirited funk and soul was busting out of the Bay Area during those golden years. Golden State Funk digs even deeper as it mines the dancefloor burners and gritty shakers that were recorded inside Leo Kulka's Golden State Recorders studio here in San Francisco in the late '60s and early '70s. Many of the twenty tracks on this all hits and no-misses collection were never released before. It's making us want to try to get our hands on anything and everything by the likes of Jeanette Jones, 87th Off Broadway, The San Francisco TKOS, Ramona King, and loads more. These are songs that could hold their weight right next to more well known hits by big names like Ike & Tina, Sly & The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield. So cool that a recording studio operated by a Czech native which started in LA recording folks like Frank Sinatra and Little Richard really came into its own when it moved to San Francisco in 1965 on Harrison Street and found magic in the soul and funk scene that was about to explode here in the Bay Area. Packed with really interesting and informative liner notes. This is not just an amazing historical document but a record filled with super tasty grooves and deep hitting funk!
V/AGoode Tyme Jhamboree(Planet Pimp)lp$ 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Featuring David Nudelman of Three Stoned Men singing about how he hates vegetables, Gomez, MC Terror T with Nardwuar (the Human Serviette), Man...Or Astroman?, the Hi-Fives, etc. The highlights of this record are the phone calls "Comfy Jones" (Neil Hamburger?) places to the Original Car Thieves. I would like to know how Outpunk, Pansy Division, and others feel about this saga; but here's how it's been recounted to us: Sven of Planet Pimp called up the Car Thieves and said he liked 'em & wanted to release a 7" record. They said 'Great! And you can do the cover art... "Just don't make it too gay." Sven, righteously disgusted, designed the entire package, songtitles and artwork to portray the band as hot leather boys. The Car Thieves reaction? On this compilation, 'Comfy Jones' calls up the band to tell them how happy he is that they're out and proud and that he can't wait for them to play San Francisco. The bandmembers, who are apparently not too bright and thus don't get that they're being ridiculed, protest that they're not gay and that Sven is just making fun of...homosexuals.
V/AGot Howls(Pish Posh Of North America)cd$ 9.98
Killer three way split from three local modern hip hop / electronica outfits, one of which, the awesomely titled Lazer Sword, just so happens to include our very own Antaeus. So let's start with the Lazer Sword, who of the three are probably our favorites, and we're not just saying that cuz of Antaeus, nope, we're saying that, cuz of the three, LS are the hardest and the grittiest, with fierce beats, and crazy hidden hooks, each of the three tracks are full on�looped, stuttering, skipping dancefloor fillers, with big beats that shuffle and pound, vocals chopped up into strange hiccuping rhythms, buzzing synths and throbbing bin rattling bass, angular alien melodies, everything sharp and grinding, but warm and thick at the same time. We�definitely hear some Justice in there, and boy would Lazer Sword be right at home on one of those Ed Rec comps. But just because Lazer Sword are our favorites, doesn't mean the other two bands don't 'rock' just as hard, cuz they do, only differently.� Ghosts on Tape is a bit groovier, a little more laid back, "Mogadishu Night Life" has a definite dancehall vibe, with Eastern melodies, and rhythms chopped and looped into some strange circusy hip hop jam, "Port Moresby" is rife with more block rocking beats, weird swooping FX, robotic and machinelike, some cyborg freaked out future funk for sure, and their last track, "Scraped Up", is muted murky slither, complete with a super recognizable sitar sample, but smeared into a blur of fuzzy synths, thumping beats and blown out buzz. Finally, Hours Of Worship deliver three tracks of swooshy fuzzy pop ambient techno, the beats simple pulses beneath dense clouds of looped vocal samples and swirls of dense FX, strangely propulsive chill out music, minor key melodies, and a bit of cinematic epic-ness, that over the course of their three tracks, drifts from four on the floor pound (but a soft and shimmering pound), two mumbly almost heroin house, to the closer, a dreamy, eighties style slab of New Order-y new wave, complete with rainy day melody and a blurry washed out M83 sheen over the whole thing. So good.� All we have to say to dance music dorks is fuck Europe, people better start looking to the US (and maybe to SF in particular) for the new breed of dancefloor destroyers, cuz they're right here...
V/AGravity Spells(Bimodal Press)2lp + 4dvd-r + book$ 110.00
Earlier in 2014, the multimedia artist John Davis presented an amazing series of expanded cinema at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, showcasing Bay Area artists whose work operate in the liminal regions between avant-garde composition and experimental filmmaking. The most visible and vocal proponent of such work is San Francisco's Paul Clipson, whose 8mm and 16mm films of in-camera edits & overlaid imagery have long been the visual accompaniments to the likes of Barn Owl, Grouper, Tarentel, Joshua Churchill, and Brendan Murray (just to name a few). Clipson's work was just one of many artists presented during the month-long festival that Davis curated, with this weighty object - two slabs of vinyl, a hefty book, and four dvd-rs each dedicated to one of four filmmakers - documenting a handful of the pieces that were exhibited / projected / performed during the festival. So, there are filmmakers Lawrence Jordan, Craig Baldwin, and Kerry Laitala joining Clipson on the video programs; and Tashi Wada, Maggi Payne, and Ashley Bellouin & Ben Bracken joining John Davis as the composers. There were far more notable artists whose work did not get covered in this compendium (e.g. Keith Evans, Beige, Mary Helena Clarke, Steve Dye, Andy Puls, and aQ's own Jim Haynes), meaning that there's more than enough material to warrant a second volume. The two slabs of vinyl contain long-form tracks from each of the aforementioned composers, whose work corresponds to the soundtrack of the video programs, but these sounds are also designed to be listened to independent of the image, harboring an indeterminacy to the marriage of sound and image as well as its severance. Bellouin & Bracken are stalwart performers here in the Bay Area, who sadly have not released any of their work up until now. Overtones and harmonics from bowed metal rods, handcrafted glass harmonica, and subtly reinforced electronics offer an amazingly rich composition of melodic sound pools progressing at the pace of a late period Morton Feldman composition. Davis has released his own work through Root Strata and Students Of Decay over the years, with world-weary delicacies of sonic filigree suspended upon field recordings and cracked electronics. Here, he takes on the contemplative sequences of analog synth / library musics with fragments alluding to Susanne Ciani that darken over time through scratchy loops and radiant black drones. The iconic Bay Area minimalist Maggi Payne slips through her quiet hush by way of downpitched white noise into thrumming masses, Shepard tone glissandos, and ice-sharp textures. Tashi Wada's downtuning compositions for two violins resonating acoustically in near lockstep with each other is a perfect recapitulation of Tony Conrad's ideas behind Slapping Pythagoras. Brilliantly done by all of the composers! We'll leave the video components alone for the time being; as Gravity Spells is strictly limited to 100 copies, many of which were sold at the festival itself. There's only a handful of these left. A true labor of love from John Davis, and it shows!
V/AGroup Flex II: Son Of Flex(Castle Face)6xflexi 7"$ 29.00
We made the last Group Flex flexi-disc book thing Record Of The Week back in 2011, and for good reason, visually and design wise it was about the coolest thing we'd ever seen, a cool little book, where each page was a fricking record, and you just put the whole book down on the turntable and let it spin! Besides how goddamn cool it was as an object, it also featured exclusive tracks from some of our favorite outfits: Thee Oh Sees, Blasted Canyons, Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin. So a few months back we got word from Oh Sees mainman / Castleface head honcho John Dwyer that there was another installment of Group Flex brewing, and it was gonna be even better than the first. And true to his word, when it showed up, we were sorta blown away. This time around, the book is entirely transparent, with crazy, surreal, psychedelic artwork on the various pages, so when the book is closed, the multiple pages, and strange shapes and creatures, form a sort of 3D visual, little Strawberry men with guns, weird demons holding maces, a creepy scribbly purple mountain, tree-cats, bloody brick walls, snake headed skull doctors all woven into a dizzying tableau that sort of reflects the warped music within. Once again, plenty of faves: Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Mallard, Sic Alps, White Fence, Mikal Cronin, The Fresh & Onlys, Kelly Stoltz, Blasted Canyons, as well as a few surprises: Burnt Ones, Warm Soda, Running. And like the first installment, anyone into ANY of these groups is basically gonna need this. Warm Soda might be the biggest surprise of the bunch, their track "Lost For Words" definitely has us hankering for more, a super catchy lo-fi power pop, that sounds like some strange mix of Guided By Voices and the Shoes. Thee Oh Sees deliver a cool broody, fuzzed out garage pop dirge, spare and swaggery. Ty Segall's "Fucked Up Motherfucker" is a super distorted blast of howl and pound laced with plenty of horns and sax bleat, while Mikal Cronin's "King" is all druggy, droned out organ, and drifting acoustic guitar strum, washed out and gloriously woozy. The Mallard are all lo-fi jangle and crunch, while Running prove themselves to be another new band to look out for, one that most definitely fits in with the rest of the Castle Face crew, sounding like The Oh Sees' snotty little siblings. The Fresh & Onlys drift through some laid back, softly psychedelic classic pop, Kelly Stoltz's "Double Exposure" sounds like some lost slab of seventies/eighties new wave power pop, and White Fence gets even further out, super spaced out, tripped out, space pop weirdness, lots of FX and crumbling distortion, echo drenched vox, and warped production, and somehow in there, some crazy catchy melodies. Former Record Of The Weekers Blasted Canyons kick out the jams on a short sharp burst of warm, blown out fuzz drenched jangle pop, before Sic Alps do the same, infusing the same sort of garage-y pound, with some expansive psychedelic classic pop-isms, before Burnt Ones finish things off with a super trippy chunk of processed guitar chug and swirling psych pop, crazy catchy, and like Warm Soda, has us wanting more more more! As you might imagine, CRAZY LIMITED! The whole thing comes in a thick, screen printed PVC sleeve, also clear, adding to the 3D-ness, includes a download code for all the tracks, as well as instructions for playing and care of your Son Of Flex flexi-disc book. Each one unique, everyone slightly different. So cool. And so absolutely recommended.
V/AHyphy Hitz(TVT)cd$ 15.98
Living in the Bay Area, we've obviously been hearing all about Hyphy for about a year now, a distinctly Bay Area sound, not all that dissimilar to Crunk or the chopped and screwed sound of the Dirty South, but with a vibe that was distinctly, well Hyphy (a mix of hype and fly btw). A sound that supposedly just sort of sprouted up in the beginning of 2006. We'd heard tracks by all the main movers in the scene, Keak Da Sneak, Mac Dre, E-40, and while we dug it, it didn't really sound all that different from the Bay Area hip hop we'd been hearing for years, and it sort of smacked of the great hype machine, coming up with a catch phrase to make something old and tired sound new and fresh again. But maybe we weren't hearing the right tracks, cuz we got our hands on this comp, featuring all the best Hyphy bangers from the first year, and HOLEEEEEEEEE SHIT, is this stuff amazing. Fucked up and funny, funky and fun and so totally over the top. Absolutely irresistible. In fact we sold one to a customer, who called us from his car ten minutes later FREAKING OUT about how great it was, and how every track was so good, he'd skip to the next one, expecting it to be a dud, only to discover it was even better. We had the exact same experience. We listened to a few minutes of each track, constantly skipping forward, not believing that every track could be that fucking great. But they were, and they are! We've been freaking out about grime for ages, a killer UK hybrid of hip hop and jungle (Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, Wiley...), we can't get enough of that grimey sound, so fucked up with killer beats and weird loops, and some of the funniest freaked out flows we've ever heard, dense and tongue twisting. With our new found love of grime, we had been lamenting the sad state of US hip hop, the same beats, the same boring gangster rap, the same glossy MTV stuff, but damn if these tracks don't push the exact same buttons that grime does, sounding fresh and thrilling all over again. But what does Hyphy actually sound like? It's kind of hard to pinpoint, it may be about location as much as sound, the scene as much as the music, but most of the tracks have some common elements. Synths for one. Lots of synths, thick and fuzzy, often the main hook is just a massive buzzing synth melody over a shuffling laid back rhythm. And the rhythms, they don't bang and pound as much as sort of slink. And the rapping, some seriously strange flows, from marble mouthed mumbles, to urgent whispers to Lil' Jon style hollerin' but it's not just the delivery, it's the actual words, a confusional mix of Hyphy slang that has you scratching your head as often as laughing out loud. Check out "I Got Grapes", the main lyric being a wailed "I got graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapes" over a super stripped down beat. Or "Yadadamean" where the main hook is a strangely affected "Yadadamean" repeated over a weirdly epic cinematic synth line. WTF?!? So amazing. I wish we could describe it more explicitly, but you just gotta hear it. If you're anything like us, you'll be grabbed in the first 30 seconds and won't be able to stop. Normally we're pretty skeptical of 'hits' collections like this, but it's hard to argue with a comp this jam packed with stunners, and we're not about to. Did you dig the B'more Music comp? The Science Faction: Grime comp? The Rio Baile Funk comps? The Warrior Dubz comp? The Razor X Productions comp? Well, you just might have a new favorite. THE dance party record of the year. Whether you're slow rolling with the top down, cranking it through the headphones, or bumpin' and sweatin' up the dancefloor, this disc is THE ONE.
V/AI Need You Bad(Polyvinyl)lp$ 15.98
This one shouldn't need much of a review at all. A killer 'local' band comp, featuring a bunch of our fave West Coast groups from San Francisco, Oakland, LA, and Portland: Warm Soda, Sonny & The Sunsets, Burnt Ones, Chris Cohen, the Sandwitches, Magic Trick, Little Wings, Cool Ghouls, Jessica Pratt and more. Warm Soda kick things off with a groovy blast of retro garage pop, all Yellow Pills style fuzzy, jangly power pop, that once again reminds us what a total genius Matthew Melton (Warm Soda, Snake Flower 2, Bare Wires). But there's plenty more good stuff here. Burnt Ones offer up their own retro blast, theirs significantly more murky and woozy and washed out. Ex- Deerhoofer Chris Cohen delivers an achingly lovely ballad, all distant shimmer, acoustic guitar shimmer, and glimmering harmonics, and those grogeous vox. The Sandwitches' track is all echo drenched lo-fi jangle, while Sonny & The Sunsets (whose Sonny curated this whole comp) give us some sun dappled, strum and jangle fuzz pop dreaminess, while locals Cool Ghouls get all sixties girl group, with reverby female vox, shimmery guitar strum and a hazy psychedelic production. The best part about comps, for us at least, is as much about new discoveries as old faves, and Pure Bliss are the big discovery this time around, all shimmery jangle, deep dramatic vocals, classic old school dream pop that had us hankering for LOTS more. Speaking of which, there's lots more here too, tracks by the Memories, Fronds, Sunfoot, Wet Illustrated and Earth Girl Helen Brown! Pressed on heavy, marbled slime green vinyl, that matches the zombie afro vampire cover art, includes an insert/comic, as well as a download code!
V/AIn A Cloud II: New Sounds From San Francisco(Secret Seven)lp$ 12.98
The second volume in local label Secret Seven's SF underground rock primer lp series, and like the first, it's jam packed with tons of aQ faves, including the Ty Segall Band (whose recent Slaughterhouse album we made our Record Of the Week), Tim Cohen of the Fresh & Only's and Magic Trick, Wymond Miles also from the Fresh & Only's, Paula Frazier of the late great Tarnation, Sonny & The Sunsets, Hannah from Grass Widow, Kelly Stoltz, the Papercuts, Vetiver, as well as a few new to us names including Bad Backs and Lucky Eyes. And while there are no huge sonic surprises here, that's not what this series is all about, it's either an introduction to a thriving scene for the uninitiated, or a killer mixtape of exclusive tracks from a who's who of SF indie rock combos. And again, like the first volume, plenty of gems to be found, Vetiver's "Any And All" might be one of our favorites from them yet, sounding like some lost Kinks B side, all lilting jangle and twang pop chorus, Ty Segall offers up a bruising guitar heavy chunk of garage pop crunch. Papercuts deliver some hazy washed out slowcore blissiness, Hannah from Grass Widow offers up one of the best tracks here, a heady, home brewed bit of reverby slo-mo dream pop balladry, all multi-tracked vocals, and lush layered lo-fi loveliness. Bad Backs combine organ drive garage rock fuzz pop with classic power pop songsmithery that definitely has us wanting to hear more (which is not surprising once we'd discovered BB features Andrew from SF pop punk heroes Ovens!), and Lucky Eyes too are a nice surprise, their track a strange harmony vocal-ed dirge pop creep. And there's more more more more, and like all good comps, will have you scrambling to pick up anything and everything you don't have already by all of these artists! Packaged in a swank full color sleeve with a printed insert.
V/AIn A Cloud: New Sounds From San Francisco(Secret Seven)lp$ 14.98
Killer new collection jam packed with aQ faves, a vinyl only primer on the San Francisco underground. Most folks won't need to know much more than this: EXCLUSIVE TRACKS FROM THEE OH SEES, TY SEGALL, THE FRESH & ONLYS, SONNY 7 THE SUNSETS, KELLY STOLTZ, TIM COHEN, THE SANDWITCHES... But there's way more, there's also Hannah And Raven of Grass Widow, the Trainwreck Riders, the Exray's, Paula Frazier (of Tarnation), Dylan Shearer, Jacques Butters, and Donovan Quinn + The 13th Month (he of the Skygreen Leopards), a pretty stellar collection, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Sonny & The Sunsets' offer up some warm summery jangle, the Fresh & Only's get all new wave with a song that sounds at first like Devo's version of "Working In A Coalmine", before getting all twangy and reverby, Thee Oh Sees track is a twisted garbled-vocal sixties shuffle, a twisted murky Monster Mash groove, Tim Cohen offers up a bit of classic Beatles-esque pop, haunting and stripped down, the Ty Segall track is a snotty noisy garage rock dirge that RULES, and we could go on. Needless to say, fans of any or all of the above outfits are gonna want this, and it just might introduce you to some other local combos that could very well become new favorites...
V/AInterference: Supplemental Text I / Sampler I(self-released)cd$ 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Interference is a nicely varied local compilation filled with text and sounds that run the mellow gamut from washy electronics to airy atmospheric folk. Nothing too raucous nor abrasive. Draws plenty of queries whenever it gets played in the store. Nice!
V/AIrreplaceable Hand: A Benefit CD For Dax Pierson(Pink Bandana)cd$ 15.98
Back in February 2005, the eccentric, Anticon hip-hop outfit Subtle was on Interstate 80 in Iowa while touring the mid-west, when their van hit black ice and flipped over several times. The band members emerged from the wreckage bruised but unharmed, except for one: Dax Pierson had broken his neck. Since then, Dax has undergone extensive physical therapy; and while his insurance has covered his medical expenses (hooray for small businesses who give their employees health benefits!), there's plenty which his health insurance does not cover. As a result, there has been an international campaign to aid in Dax's recovery. Dax is a man who has touched many people's lives, inspiring them not only with his incredible musical talents but also with his generosity and jovial nature. For those who have lived in the Bay Area, tribute concerts for Dax have been occurring regularly throughout the spring and summer of 2005 often spear-headed by Anticon itself but also by many of the Dax's co-workers at Amoeba Records in Berkeley; and this compilation continues in these efforts. Curated by Amoeba's Andy Way and Jim Kaiser, the Irreplaceable Hand may speak more to their affinity for the oddball things that float through their experimental section, but this nonetheless speaks to the numerous people whose hearts have opened for Dax. Nurse With Wound, Matmos, Odd Nosdam, irr. app. (ext.), High Volture (aka Bruce Anderson of MX-80), Moe! Staiano, and Petit Mal are some of those who have contributed to the Irreplaceable Hand. A.C. Way opens the album with a track of nightmarish ambience with Lustmordian overtones and a persistently unnerving squiggle. High Volture quickly changes gears with a splatter of post-Derek Bailey improv. The always impressive irr. app. (ext.) offers a piece of bowed metal dissonance and drone bristling with post-surrealist aural fragments. Matmos' quirky collage of re-engineered vocal samples and Moe! Staiano's all-fists on the organ keyboard stand out as moments of comic relief against the rather dark atmosphere that this comp. As one could image, the highlight of the album is the Nurse With Wound track, as Stapleton moves from ominous drones similar to those heard on the Angry Eelectric Finger sessions and slowly introduces a pretty groovy breakbeat, perhaps an indication of how a NWW hip-hop record might sound. Of course we can't resist mentioning that there's of picture of Dax shot by Matt Waldron of irr. app. (ext.) while the two where shopping here at Aquarius! For information about Dax and his progress, please check out www.daxpierson.com.
V/ALive From The Complex 3(Entartete Kunst)cd$ 7.98
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SORRY.
V/ALive From The Complex Vol. 1(Entartete Kunst)cd$ 7.98
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SORRY.
V/AMatter 10.2007 (Tape Of The Month)(self-released)cassette$ 5.00
Back in September we got the first installment in what was meant to be a sort of tape of the month thing organized and recorded by two local guys, one who you all might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (he also plays in Black Fiction and 3). It was a huge hit (we do have a few copies left if you missed it) and so they immediately got to work on the October installment. So we know what you're thinking, but it wasn't all our fault, just mostly. We got the October tape, right at the end of the month, but then stuff got crazy and we're only now getting around to reviewing it and it's December! But fuck it, just imagine that ten is a twelve and we'll be fine, it's just as cool and weird and varied as the first volume, with each dude taking a side of the tape, and this one like the first is essential for lovers of weirdo black metal as there's a brand new Amocoma track! And it's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone. So buzzy and washed out, it's barely even black metal, it's more like some cavernous black ambient epic, the riffs more like throbbing pulses, the vocals hissy clouds of static, grim and fuzzed out, but because of the extreme blur and smear it's almost like black metal pop ambient. Here and there, the riffage does coalesce into extreme blackness, or splinters off into some spare clean guitar slither, but it always returns to the blossoming avalanche of black buzz. There's a track by a band called Hash Hashish, that's a serious slab of gorgeous distorted dreampop, with some weird almost death metal vocals mixed in as well as some circusy keyboards and a dense wall of My Bloody Valentine blur. The 3 Leafs song is an awesome stretch of super spaced out druggy ambience, all whirling FX and disembodied voices, percussive thud and dark rumbling whir. The flip side is packed with sonic weirdness, it's hard to differentiate which is which (ah, good old tapes!), but there are two tracks by Debre Damo, and two by Atom Eve, they all sort of blend into each other, but it's all awesome. Abstract electronic experimentation, bleeps and bloops, whirs and shimmers, very musiq concrete, woven into dense tripped out garagey space rock with thick guitars and pounding drums and of course lots and lots of FX. Weird alien guitar experiments are stretched out into crumbling glitchy ambience, it seems like maybe the names are just to keep it interesting as the whole side plays like a single piece. As always, dying to hear more from all of these outfits, and keep listening to that Amocoma track over and over... ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
V/AMatter 9.2007 (Tape Of The Month)(self released)cassette$ 5.00
First in a new series of monthly tape releases from two local guys, one who AQ customers might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (as well as playing in Black Fiction and 3 Leafs among others) and the other, his partners in musical crime. For this inaugural tape, the two decided to each compile one side of the tape, offering their own take on the sounds they've been making, discovering, and digging.� Side A begins with a blast and never lets up, the first band�Bereavement delivers a�super dense blast of thrashing black noise, drenched in reverb, a furious chaos, a whirling dervish of sound, with strange little interludes that are just as quickly swallowed up again. Black Fiction deliver some damaged tribalism, all simple drumming, reverbed chanting, jagged shards� of upper register guitar, streaks of feedback, some creepy ritualistic ambience for sure. Then there's an unreleased track from Amacoma, a glorious muddy murky soundscape of black buzz and blown out drone (anyone who missed out on the full length should buy it NOW)... the side continues on, leaning toward the chaotic and heavy, another track from Bereavement, as well as more Black Fiction and tons of other cool stuff.� The B side begins with two tracks from the awesomely monickered Death Cheetah, who traffic in a weird sort of lo-fi, Hella meets Justice, synth and drums ramjam, funky and chaotic, heavy and weird as all get out. The cool thing about this tape (or frustrating thing depending on your angle), is that it's sort of difficult to tell where one song ends and another begins, they're all sort of tangled up, blending into one another, some groups sound similar, so their tracks almost sound like two parts of the same track. The B side continues with a bunch of songs from Atom Eve (we think), who sound like some crossbreeding experiment between Finnish folk and NY free noise a la NNCK or SHOTM, fluttering flutes, tribal drumming, simple guitar riffing, looped and circular... and this side continues on, more from Death Cheetah, some spaced out ambient glitchiness (Man In San Diego?) and a bunch more Atom Eve. A killer glimpse into the mad musical minds of these mystery men, a nice sampling of some SF underground sounds, and a brand new Amacoma track to top it all off! Can't wait to hear what October's installment has in store... ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
V/AMusic By The Children Of Ala Costa(The Dancing Tree)cd-r$ 9.98
Hmm, what to say about this exactly? It's a 24-minute cd-r collecting stuff recorded by 'developmentally disabled' kids (ages 6 to 22) at the Ala Costa Center in Northern California who participated in a twelve week music workshop run by San Francisco's The Dancing Tree organization, which seems like wonderful fun for them. The kids are let loose with tom toms and kazoos and and xylophones and slide whistles and sticks etc., and these are some of the results. Funny and silly, sweet and innocent and full of creative enthusiasm (if not skill). Musically, it's primitive stuff, with lotsa playful percussion and singing. We really like all the pieces that utilize "sticks on playground structure". File with the Tangerine Awkestra and the Kids of Widney High in the untrained and/or differently-abled avantgarde section. "Trees And Whistles" is pure beat poetry, while the single-minded abandon of several of the tom tom jams outdo Amon Duul and Crash Worship. Well, maybe.
V/ANeonbeats(Klanggalerie)2cd$ 25.00
Were there any New Wave and/or Post-Punk bands from Liechtenstein? If there were, there will surely be a comp documenting the scene soon enough, as plenty of choice tracks have been unearthed from throughout Europe and North America care of numerous compilations that have been released in recent years - The Minimal Wave Tapes, So Young But So Cold, BIPPP, Cold Waves + Minimal Electronics, New Deutsch, and pretty much everything through Vinyl-On-Demand. So, here's Klanggalerie's anthology of the Austrian scene throughout the early to mid '80s (plus some current acts who are striking a retrogarde pose), proving that there's plenty of music between the era of Falco and the era of Christian Fennesz. Admittedly, very few of the artists on this comp have crossed our paths, making this quite an excellent discovery. Of those, we do know, there's the masterful proto-techno artist Monoton making an appearance as does the cold wave outfit Zyx. Perhaps the most surprising find is the first band from Peter Rehberg, who fronted a sludgey, pig-fuck band with the brilliant / terrible name of Peterlicker. Over two discs, Neonbeats touches on anything and everything that tangentially came in contact with new wave and post-punk, making the comp more of an cross-section of the entire underground scene, but the selection is pretty great in spite of the diverse genre hopping of all the bands. Much of the work here draws inspiration from the NDW sound, with darkened electronics over cheap drum machines topped with heavily theatrical vocals. Zyx's low slung bassline and monotone vocals provide an appropriately sinister mood to their skeletal, stalking electronics, with similar tracks produced in equal aplomb by Molin & Jox and Red.Chamber. Plastix and Squishy Squid add punchy punk backbeats to stripped down 3-chord tunes laced with minimal electronics. A band with a name taken from a Neubauten / Fad Gadget single - Collapsing New People - offer a charmingly spunky Trio / Young Marble Giants inspired number that belies the origins of their name. You'll also find a few No New York / 99 Records references as well, with the muscular funk-punk sax leads from Pas Paravant. And yes, Peterlicker. Rehberg's band existed for less than six months in 1989, and it seems that he's re-started the band, which is pretty fucking brutal with a Swans inspired heavy guitar plod and growling vokills. Admittedly, this sticks out quite a bit from the rest of the comp, but it's a pretty awesome track!
V/ANothing Left To Lose: A Tribute To Kris Kristofferson(Incidental Music)cd$ 13.98
Let's face it, most tribute albums suck. I can count on one hand the number of tribute albums I have *loved*. (Well, actually on one finger, namely the Roky Erickson trib.) Now along comes this FANTASTIC collection of songs performed by a perfectly-chosen array of alt country musicmakers, all paying their respects to Kris Kristofferson with achingly gorgeous renditions of his songs. I'm hard pressed to even name highlight tracks, because *all* of them are lovely. The mood is consistently downer, the performances retain the flavor of the individual contributing bands, but let the brilliance of Kristofferson's songwriting show thru. And who doesn't love "Me and Bobby McGee", "Help Me Make it Thru the Night", and my personal fave "Sunday Mornin' Coming Down"? If you're not a Kristofferson fan (yet), get this anyway -- it serves as a wonderful intro to the perpetual outsider with the progressive politics who mopped floors at a Columbia's Nashville studios just so he could slip Johnny Cash tapes of his songs! (The liner notes go into his life story a bit -- quite fascinating -- he was involved in the Central American conflicts, visited the Sandanistas, is working to free Leonard Peltier, etc.) Participants include Souled American, Calexico, Radar Brothers, Zmrzlina, Virgil Shaw (Dieselhed), Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Grandaddy, Deanna Varagone (Lambchop), Court and Spark, Califone, Handsome Family -- all artists already established as wonderful. Hear them pay tribute. Take it from me, the picky tribute listener -- this one is GREAT. It will make you love Kristofferson while also providing a stunning snapshot of the current alt.country scene. Highly recommended!
V/APirate Fucking Radio 100(Hip Hop Slam DJ Series)cd$ 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Celebrating five years of battery powered radio waves and uncensored low-wattage, "Pirate Fucking Radio 100" is a scratchtastic collection of mostly Bay Area turntablists from the same label that released the Shiggar Fraggar pirate radio sessions with tracks from Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Eddie Def, Peanut Butter Wolf, Kool Keith & Kut Masta Kurt, Chuck D (well just seven seconds of Chuck D), The Space Travellers, and more!
V/APraeface(Praemedia)cd$ 11.98
One of the three new and not so new titles just in from the electronic music label Praemedia (Stars Like Fleas' Sun Lights Down On The Fence and Tim Perkis' Motive are the other two)! This comp features a wide variety of solo and collaborative IDM tracks by the aforementioned artists as well as Lance Grabmiller, Shannon Fields, The Gold Sparkle Band, Matt Lavelle, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Mou, Lips!, HSoA, Lisle Ellis, Nanaqui, Quiet American, Martin Nieznanski, Tom Djll, Haco and AQ fave Wobbly. Much delightfully clickery, woozy sputtering, squelching and itchy glitchin' ensues!
V/AProject>Soundwave: An Exploration Into The Nature Of Sound(Special Music)cd$ 12.98
V/ARock Scientist(Spaced)lp$ 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Local favorites Fuck, Grady Sisters, Snowmen, Baby Carrot, Ponyride, etc.
V/ARules Of The Game(Tripek)cd$ 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Local hip hop compilation featuring songs by Mystik Journeymen, The Coup, Fanatik, KNT (featuring Q-Bert), and lots more. We haven't had a chance to hear it yet so no comment on the sounds contained herein.
V/ASSSSSOSS2(Folding)cassette$ 4.98
Cool local cassette compilation compiled by Mike Donovan (Sic Alps, Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records) and artist Chris Johanson. Features tracks by Coachwhips, Big Techno Werewolves, No Doctors, Condor, California Lightening, Enablers, Ponies, Tits and a bunch more! As with most releases by these two fellows, there is only going to be a very small homespun run of these made, so needless to say, don't snoooooze! Pssst... we also have a very small number of some other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a couple of short ones from Death Sentence: Panda and Donovan's own band Sic Alps plus ones by Dark Yellow Swans (aka Yellow Swans) and NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!
V/ASSSSSOSS3(Folding)cassette$ 4.50
Volume 3 of the Folding Cassettes compilation series featuring tons of badass weirdo rock outfits, lots we already love, and a few we've never heard before... Sic Alps, Metallic Falcons, Fuckwolf, Octis, Numbers, Car Clutch, Si-Cops, Andrew Duke, Patrick Michael Mullins, Arsenio, Gass & The Bleed Sea, Tre Ferocious, Mammals, Bananas, and Magic Bag. Cover art by Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson!!
V/AScratch Attack Vol. 1(Hip Hop Slam)cd$ 12.98
Scratch Attack was a monthly two hour radio show dedicated to the art of turntablism, and ran for one year until it unfortunately got booted off of KPFA in Berkeley. These tracks are culled from archives of the show, and feature both live on the air and pre-recorded stuff made especially for the show. Released by the inimitable Billy Jam, whose taste is impeccable, the collection isn't endlessly wanky (as many dj comps are, let's face it), but interesting and varied good listening. With DJ T-Rock, D-Styles, DJ Shortkut, 8-Ball, Quest (Live Human), Golden Chyld, even DJs from Netherlands, England and Ireland. Lots of spoken snippets from the radio shows, including poor Shortkut talking about how his records were stolen at an airport. Really fun, and a nice document of the groundbreaking radio show.
V/AShiggar Fraggar 2000(Hip Hop Slam)cd$ 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. More turntable trickery from respected Bay Area-based series.
V/ASoul Sisters: The Sights And Sounds Of The African-American Underground(Black Beauty)cd$ 14.98
FYI: if you *don't* like naked ladies, you'll want to avoid perusal of this disc's booklet, which mostly consists of vintage full-color cheesecake shots of a bevy of well-endowed "soul sisters". But don't let that put you off... just forget for one second that this cd is billed as a collection of '70s African-American porno flick soundtracks. For one thing, it sure doesn't sound like the typical "boogie nights" retro-porn soundtrack. No cheesy throbbing synths or disco beats. No orgiastic moans even! Instead, what you get here is avant-groove jazz funk of an almost experimental, freeform nature. The vibe can be lively but not "sleazy"... bad-ass though. Very funky and full of nasty geetar and jamming Hammond organ. To tell the truth, there's so very little documentation presented here that we can't say we're 100 percent convinced that this is what it says it is, instead of something perhaps made by some clever musicans today creating replica vintage avant-funk soundtrack for imaginary x-rated flicks... though we should stress have no evidence of that at all, and we'd be mighty impressed if that was the case. Supposedly these tapes were recently found in a studio in Oakland, where the recordings we're told took place circa 1972-75, and the musicans that get credited here were, it seems, operating under pseudonyms (for obvious reasons perhaps). The films are alluded to only in the track titles, but who knows if those cited are real (anyone seen "Chocolate Cherry"?). There's no dialogue or sound effects or anything, since this is the original, raw soundtrack music only, what later was to be utilized perhaps in edited form in the finished film. Puzzling. But no matter, this stuff IS great! There's the aforementioned avant-funk that surely fits into the '70s blaxploitation aesthetic, but this funk is full of sizzling feedbacking guitar that is hard to square with scenes of, um, lovemaking. But actually a lot of this is in more of an introspective mood that the wah-funk stereotype. More laidback that about getting laid. A long portion of track five ("Music From 'Copper Cuties'") consists of variations on a pensively repeating, gentle piano figure, generating a mood far from you might expect to be "exposed" to in an ostensibly X-rated flick. And only the last track "Jam Back At The House" has vocals, they go with that cut's smokey groove but do serve to break the almost mysterious feel set by the preceeding tracks a little. Overall, this is way more amazing than we ever thought it would be. What we though might be kitschy and/or kookily amusing turned out to be downright fresh and intriguing. Miles Davis had a track on his album Get Up With It entitled "Rated X" -- maybe he'd been checking out the cinema and was inspired by one of the films that used music like this? Definitely this comes close to what we'd imagine would be how that "big freak" would have scored a porno soundtrack!! So, this is one for fans of those Deep Note porno soundtrack comps and maybe moreso for folks who simply dig weird and wonderful jazz/funk obscurities, which would seem to be a lot of people who hear it (and then buy it) when we've been playing it in the store!
V/AStates Of Abuse(Entartete Kunst)cd$ 14.98
From the formidable Bay Area music collective known as Entartete Kunst comes this potent compilation which in their words is "a radical assault on the mediocrity of our everyday lives, state government and corporate fascism". It features nineteen tracks by over a dozen outspoken underground artists from around the globe. Styles run the gamut including hip hop, grime and dub. Standouts include Monkeytribe and E.K. Collective. Note: If you've got the vinyl version, you should be alerted to the fact that this cd contains new mixes and other exclusive material not on the LP.
V/ATell-All Records - Vol.1(Tell-All )cd$ 4.98
The new Bay Area label Tell-All Records have hit the ground running with a bunch of new releases from a bunch of new artists. Nicely varied but mostly keeping within the gentle, hazy realm -- evoking pastoral scenes or drifting about in outerspace or an abandoned old concert hall with a forgotten cobwebbed piano -- the label strikes a balance between ambient soundscapes and song-based music. This label sampler compilation, their first official release, clearly shows, it all fits together wonderfully. Twelve songs by Liam Singer (who is one of the young gents running the label), Peter Surla, 28 Degrees Taurus, St. Rosa, One Umbrella, Dave Zohrob, Kallikak Family, Keith Negley, and Carrier (whose dreamy Home Movies cd-r we carried a couple of years ago) for under five bucks! Other releases from this label include a solo full length from Singer, Kallikak Family's May 23rd 2007 album and One Umbrella's 8-song cd Solve.
V/ATen Years of Noise Pop 1993-2002(Amazing Grease Records)2cd$ 17.98
This year's fest marks a decade of Noise Pop! And if the rumblings suggesting that this might've been the final one are true, this double cd succinctly encapsulates the music and spirit of Noise Pop. Featuring pop notables Spoon, Flaming Lips, Preston School Of
V/AThe Bay Bridged, Volume 1(The Bay Bridged)cd$ 9.98
For those unfamiliar with The Bay Bridged, it's a bountiful website dedicated to Bay Area independent music (podcast, blogs, videos, show reviews, concert calendar, you name it!). Now they've released a bountiful compilation featuring a mix of previously released and unreleased tracks by eleven of the fine bands they covered -- Tartufi, Social Studies, Love Is Chemicals, Finest Dearest, The Lonely Hearts, The Dont's, Peloton, Tempo No Tempo, Or The Whale, and The Dodo's.
V/AThe Funky Precedent Vol. 2(Matador)cd$ 14.98
The successful music-education-in-urban-schools benefit compilation "Funky Precedent" from a few years back has spawned a follow-up. Again it's focused on hiphop and turntablism, but Vol.2 specifically concentrates on Bay Area artists: Rasco, Live
V/AThe Good Old Days Are Gone(20 Sided)cd$ 5.98
V/AThe Jewelled Antler Library(Porter)4cd box$ 61.00
Oh wow. It's here, though not for long. You may have seen it announced on our blog or elsewhere, and really should have preordered one... we've already sold most of the copies we got (which was a lot, as many as we could afford, really). But at the moment we still have, like, a dozen. And possibly will be able to restock a few again next week, though we don't know that for sure. The label only pressed 1000 copies, and we know they're going fast. So perhaps listing it here is just for posterity's sake. So, what's all the excitement about you ask? If you're a fan of San Francisco's acclaimed Jewelled Antler collective of psychedelic/drone/improv/nature folks you should know, some years back (2003), they decided to release a series of 3" cd-r eps, once a month or so, with entries from JA regulars like Thuja, likeminded folks such as Dead Raven Choir and Antony Milton, and also odd, one-off quirky projects like Loren Chasse's frog-sounds disc dubbed Green Laughter. The idea was to release stuff that stood alone in twenty-minute doses and didn't need to be padded out to full-cd length. These cute lil' 3"s proved quite popular here at AQ, and of course are now long, long out of print like all Jewelled Antler cd-rs. Apparently a set will put you back about $100-120 on eBay nowadays, or until recently anyway... Well there'd been talk for some years now of these wonderful eps getting reissued on cd, in a box set or something, and lo it has finally come to pass thanks to the enthusiasm (and deep pockets) of Porter Records. The Jewelled Antler Library box contains 4 discs in cardboard sleeves, Books One to Four, comprising all 12 original entries in the approximately-monthly 3" cd-r ep series plus some extra bonus material! 59 tracks, four hours and forty minutes in all. It breaks down like this... Book One: Loren Chasse/Tomes/The Ivytree/Hala Strana, Book Two: Dead Raven Choir/The Famous Boating Party/Uton, Book Three: Claypipe/The Muons/Thuja, Book Four: Fursaxa/Kemialliset Ystavat/The Ways Of God To Man. And interspersed between each of the thirteen volumes are twelve "Footpath" tracks of brand new field recordings by Loren Chasse, up-close-and-personal documents of rain and wind and other evocative textural cracklings and rustlings from the natural environment. The box also contains individual, full-color cards with the cover art and credits from each ep. We reviewed all of them when they originally came out (or almost all of 'em, not sure what happened to the last few). Waste not, want not, so what follows is a conglomeration of our reviews of each library installment, slightly edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies. Note how several of the entries in the series may have been the very first time we'd heard from a particular artist, such as Finland's Uton for instance, now well known to us and AQ customers... Volume 1: Frogs!!! Can AQ-customers resist frog recordings? We think not. Certainly we can't. Green Laughter is primarily frog field recordings made and edited by Loren Chasse (Thuja, Id Battery, Of, Blithe Sons, etc.). It's twenty minutes of the call of the wild (featuring frogs, cicadas, and perhaps birds), starting off as a fairly straight documentary and then blending into a computer-processed drone-wash constructed by Chasse from his original recordings. It's like wandering in a dense creature-inhabited forest back East somewhere in the summertime, your ears overwhelmed by the natural sounds, you getting dizzy and almost passing out, the ribbitting and chirping and buzzing and tweeting taking over your mind. But it eventually dissolves back into a blissful background ambience. Real nice. And many of the sounds on here that sound insect-like or electronic Loren assures us are in fact frogs. It's nature's electronic music, the sound of a laptop computer overwhelmed by heat and long grasses and the green laughter. Just the thing for when I (Allan) get homesick for Pennsylvania. Volume 2 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 noisier 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 particularly 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 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. Volume 3 comes from The Ivytree, a solo project of one of the Jewelled Antler's chief protagonists, Glenn Donaldson (who can also be found in Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Knit Separates, The Birdtree, etc). Donaldson has publicly announced an affinity for creating different monikers to accompany the innumerable variations of his musical productions, so The Ivytree may be just one in a number of upcoming 'tree' projects from Donaldson. Certainly this 18 minute ep has a lot in common with his previous 'tree disc, The Birdtree album, which garnered high praise from us. Centered around a plaintive, elliptical finger-picking guitar technique which renders every note full of melancholia, The Sun Is The Lamp weaves in and out of harmonium drones, field recordings of birds, and Donaldson's evocative vocals. As strong as the best Richard Youngs projects that might be the closest comparison we can make, this is another fantastic recording from Jewelled Antler! Volume 4 is by Thuja's Steven R. Smith, who has taken up the Hala Strana moniker for his Eastern European-folk music inspired meditations. Karst continues down the path of his previous Jewelled Antler production Kohl, with a more ramshackle production for his dense acoustic arrangements for guitar and scratchy violin, which often hints at Eastern European timbres but as played by Nikki Sudden. In fact two of Smith's tracks are versions of traditional Polish and Romanian folk songs. Often beginning with a clutter of loose sounds, Smith coaxes his orchestrations into melancholic melodies and has smothered everything with an unusual patina of crunchy vinyl static, giving these 18 minutes a distinctly antiquated feel. A great entry in a great series... Volume 5 is by Dead Raven Choir, the Texas-by-way-of-Poland based folk/improv one man project that the Jewelled Antler powers-that-be seem to be totally in love with of late - this was their 3rd DRC release of 2003! As with his previous Jewelled Antler cd-rs, DRC here conjures up some eccentric vocal theatrics and sparse, haunted acoustic guitar playing, like some sort of Eastern European Jandek. And his black metal obsession with wolves continues in the title here as well. Scarily beautiful, with atmospheric piano and unknown other sounds providing a hissing soundscape for his vocal, all three tracks here featuring macabre poetry by Paul Verlaine. Volume 6 is something a bit different, yet familiar too to Jewelled Antler aficionados. It features the Blithe Sons (Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse, both also of Thuja and much else besides) joined by Eleanor Harwood on vocals. This trio's music is totally inspired by '70s art rock ensemble Slapp Happy, it's actually an intentional tribute of sorts. Eleanor is the heart of this, and we must say that for an untrained vocalist in an improvised setting, she's very impressive! Singing lyrics taken from a book of Kenneth Patchen poetry that was near to hand, "The Famous Boating Party", she totally inhabits the Dagmar Krause role, her vocals all wonderfully warbly and birdlike and lovely. She reminds us of Bjork at times too, no bad thing! Backing her up/leading her on, Glenn strums melodically on his 6 & 12 string guitars and adds comforting keyboard coloration, while Loren's "percussion & noises" both provide a steady beat and contribute the usual detailed, natural Jewelled Antler ambiance. It's very hazy and folky and fairytale like, a summer's afternoon encapsulated in a magical music box. Maybe not to everyone's taste (Slapp Happy certainly isn't either) but for some this will be a highlight in the Library series. Volume 7 is also from outside the immediate ranks of Thuja and company. Although they've had a couple of cd-r releases popping up from tiny labels around the globe, this was our introduction to Uton. This anonymous, acoustic-noise-drone band hails from Finland, although they seem far more at home within the New Zealand community of Birchville Cat Motel, Anthony Milton, and Handful of Dust. Zwuiji is a bit more grating than most entries in the Jewelled Antler Library series, which typically opiate themselves with hazy improvised psychedelia and obtuse folk renderings. Rather Uton revels in mistreating their electric gear in order to fill up the audio spectrum with buzzing drones that swarm out of their amplifiers like angry wasps. Scratchy violins and atonally shifting wind instruments hover behind these gritty walls of vibrating feedback which comes across more as a misaligned engine block rattling all of those tones inside your head than as a typical trick with a couple of effects boxes. Certainly the fans of cd-r labels Celebrate Psi Phenomenon or PseudoArcana will like this. Volume 8 hails from New Zealand's Claypipe. It seems Jewelled Antler have found some kindred souls Down Under, no not Gandalf and Frodo but in this case Antony Milton (who runs a cd-r label himself, Pseudoarcana) and Clayton Noone (C.J.A., Armpit) who together are known as Claypipe. Repetition and drone and field recording grit coexist with lovely acoustic guitar - it's real nice. With wistful, earnest vocals, some distorted and layered, this is neither indie-pop nor environmental ambient, but a hybrid that totally fits with Jewelled Antler 'groups' like the Blithe Sons and Child Readers, while possessing that special New Zealand magic we all adore. Seven tracks, 20 minutes, and you're left wishing it were longer. Volume 9 is a disc from SF's Muons, not a Jewelled Antler band per se, but in those guys' orbit. There's five songs here, just under twenty minutes of fragile, psychedelic folk recorded live, where they really shine. Inspired by traditional British folk music, but made soooo minimal and spacey that they've been called the "Bernhard Gunter of space-folk", the Muons make forlorn lullabys for adults. For this performance, the Muons were just the duo of Greg Bianchini and Rickey Reneau. Greg, who has played with Jewelled Antler acts Franciscan Hobbies, Thuja and Blithe Sons, is an gifted instrument maker, and on this recording plays a home-built 14-string electric lute as well as sings. Rickey plays an electric dulcimer, probably also built by Greg. Greg's languid strumming and melancholic vocals seem to drift out of the smoke and mist of another era, and could be from a lost UK psych-folk comp, although this is so slow and sad and desolate that no hippy could have made it - they'd be too bummed out. We're also reminded of some Galaxie 500, or old NZ stuff like the Chills. Certainly this is a bit different than much else in the Library series - it's got to be the most 'composed' set of songs found on any of these 3" discs. But we think JA fans will like it, a lot. It has a 'flowers in the rain' vibe that's just lovely. And the loveliness extends to the paintings Greg did for the 3" cover. Very nice. Volume 10 is from Thuja. With the series getting close to the end, it's about time for these guys to finally make an appearance (unless you count the almost-Thuja entry by black metal inspired alter ego Tomes). 20 or so minutes, 2 tracks. Again, the Thujans (Loren Chasse, Rob Reger, Steven R. Smith, and Glenn Donaldson) make some of the most beautiful and mysterious abstract instrumental improv we've heard. All we're told is that Fable was "recorded at night in the Garden of Kains, August 30, 2003". There could have been weird old hippies sitting in, or magical woodland beasts (of the past), or academic dronologists gone a bit strange on natural pharmacueticals...but probably it was just Thuja, and their music is conjuring these imaginary visitors not the other way around. All those above reviews from our archives get us up to book/disc four, volumes 11, 12, and the previously unheard by us quasi-volume 13 in the Library series. We'll briefly describe 'em here (as if you needed us to...): Volume 11 is from Fursaxa, and consists of one haunting track, "Harbinger of Spring". Nearly 18 minutes of wordless vocal drone, tumbling tribal drums, and other mysterious atmospheres. Good music for the next time you're trapped inside a Wicker Man. Volume 12 comes from Finnish freaky forest folks Kemialliset Ystavat, who always seemed like Jewelled Antler soulmates. Five tracks here of their moody, magical improvs. Primitive, krauty jams we love. And then the "bonus" Volume 13 is by Jewelled Antler act Ways Of God To Man (Christine Boepple, Kerry McLaughlin, Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson). It was originally released in a very limited edition on a NZ cd-r label in 2004. Despite featuring 2 former AQ employees, we never even got any... Three tracks ("Nothing", "Everything", and "Anything") of dark psychedelic throb and abstract, distorted melodic murk, over 28 minutes total. It sounds to us like Jewelled Antler's tribute to Ya Ho Wa 13! Even if you already have the other 12 volumes of the library on the original 3"s cd-rs, and getting them again on the more durable medium of actual compact disc isn't a compelling enough reason to buy this box, we'd imagine that getting to hear the Ways Of God To Man could sweeten the deal considerably. All right, considering we KNOW we're gonna run out of these right away, this review is quite long enough! Just one more paragraph to go... Need we say, pretty darn recommended. But do we have any complaints? Well, musically, not really, of course some volumes will appeal more that others but that's the deal, and you can't get 'em individually anymore anyway. Also, just in terms of physical production, any ambitious, unique project like this is bound to have a few flaws. Will the metallic foil debossing of the Jewelled Antler logo on the box top IS quite handsome, the box itself is a bit of a disappointment. It just a bit flimsier than we were expecting ("heavy chip board stock" it's not), apparently due to the difficulty of debossing on heavier cardboard. Also it's bigger than it needs to be, leaving empty space inside for the cds and cards to rattle around. Had each one been stuffed (in true Jewelled Antler style) with twigs and moss and suchlike, that would have solved the problem, unfortunately that probably proved to be impractical, but you could do it yourself once you get this! There's also just a couple of proofing errors we noticed, nothing serious (Hala Strana got left off the back of the box, alas) but it's still too bad. However, the overall presentation is still pretty nice and of course it's the music that matters. So, that said, we can only reiterate: pretty darn recommended!
V/AThe Monks by The Goblins, Graves Brothers Deluxe & Kelly Stoltz(Discos Electro-Harmonix)7"$ 5.50
Cup got positively giddy when she saw that The Goblins were on this record, but she soon found out that they're not Thee Goblins from Vancouver - the jawdropping spectacle lead by Nardwuar The Human Serviette (interviewer extraordinaire and leader of The Evaporators who actually do an appropriately blistering, bizarre cover of The Monks' "Higgle-ly Piggle-ly"). Despite the liner notes (written by The Monks' Eddie Shaw!) describing these versions as bringing "30 year old music into the 21st century", they're really much more controlled, faithful renditions courtesy of The Goblins, The Cuckoos, The Graves Brothers and Kelley Stoltz. Of course, the wonder of The Monks was their absolute raging fearlessness especially taking into consideration the time in which they existed... 1966! Five GIs stationed in Germany formed this strange strange band. They shaved the tops of their heads monk-style, worn long black robes, and thumped out the most amazing primal rock. Vocals were howled, yelped and ranted. Lyrics were filled with bile and dark wit. Everything was completely untethered, so truly punk, badass and one-of-a-kind! That said, it seems kinda odd to cover them - either attempting to recapture the songs' raw energy or to completely rework them - 'cause there was so much more to The Monks than the songs.
V/ATired of Standing Still(Highpoint Lowlife)2cd$ 13.98
A compilation chronicling the current state of the San Francisco 'scene'. Lots of familiar names here, but even more unfamiliar ones (might be due to the fact that the comp is filled out by 'solo' contributions from almost every member of Tarentel as well as
V/ATopography of Indefinite Impressions(Autopia )lp$ 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. While presented as a compilation, this is more of a collective in which each of the projects are various combinations of a rotating core of likeminded San Franicisco musicians. In the end, "Topography of Indefinite Impressions" enjoys a lush aesthetic link between the pastoral space-rock of Mirza, Stephen R. Smith, and Thuja with the alchemic dronolgy of id battery, L. Chasse, and Music For Tunnels (which happens to be the experimental / electronica pseudonym for Tim Green of The Champs). Limited to something like 300 copies and well worth it! And note, the obscure title is meant to poke fun at such titles, not to be understood...
V/ATranslation Music(Don Lee Records)cd$ 5.98
Cool compilation of local (and not so local) post rock / punk rock bands: Caesura. Fort Erie, Roots of Orchis and a bunch more. Packaged in a cool hand stamped sleeve.
V/ATurntables By the Bay(Hip Hop Slam)cd$ 11.98
A really nice cd version of the four vinyl Turntables by the Bay comps. This contains most but not all of the tracks from that series, along with really detailed liner notes, contact info for the DJs, etc. With tracks from star turntablists Q-Bert and other
V/AUnfamiliar Ceilings(Tear )cd$ 11.98