[ aquarius records

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Showing results 401 through 450 of 2798.

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SORRY.

Seven tracks of absolutely positively soothing music. Very pretty and a bit wistful; full of reverb drenched, lilting guitar arpeggios. 'Home Movies' could very well have been issued on Temporary Residence or Kranky. Hop aboard the ambient post-rock hovercraft and drift along to the sounds of Carrier.

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RealAudio clip: Skyline

SF local faves, now on cd.

Carta is the coming together of two music vets, Alexander Kort (also of Subtle) and Jared Matt Greenberg (also of Charles Atlas). The duo make post rock music of the pretty kind, incorporating a bit of shoegazer dreaminess and folky earthiness in there too. While they're not breaking any new ground, they do the tried and true quite well. The Glass Bottom Boat is their first release, an instrumental album for the most part, the one exception is the album's lengthy title track which is graced with some lilting female vocals. It's a bit of a surprising appearance late in the mostly mellow proceedings as is the sudden burst of dissonance in that very same track. For fans of Hood, Eluvium, Tristeza and Kammerflimmer Kollektief.

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MPEG stream: Burning Bridges

Carter, who as you may or may not know is one half of psych folk dronesters Charalambides, has been stepping out quite a bit lately, this super limited one sided 7" the latest evidence of that. Two tracks, that sort of melt into one, a barely there ambient drift far away electric guitar moans float above a vast spare backdrop of hiss and whir and ambient noise. The guitars build into a thick murky wash of pitch shifted riffing, warbly seasick melodies, crumbling slabs of high end that drifts and crackles as if it were being transmitted via shortwave. Creepy but hauntingly pretty. Limited to 211 copies, we only got a handful. Packaged in a hand stamped, hand stitched, embossed textured paper sleeve. A one sided 7" each copy hand numbered on the actual vinyl!

Mr. C.F.T.P.A. himself Owen Ashworth just brought these new snazzy t-shirts in! Two color combos: navy blue with silver print of his hand-drawn logo, and baby blue with red print. Assorted sizes. Stock varies depending on whether Owen's in town or on the road, so please ask for size availability.

We were pretty crazy about In Witch Order, the debut from this local female fronted metal combo, which was released on the venerable German label Van. This new one also came out on Van a while back, but finally it seems metalheads in the US are catching on, as it was just reissued on Prosthetic in the states, which we can only hope means this kick ass classic metal / witchy psychedelic doom trio will finally get some of the love afforded their contemporaries in the current crop of female fronted metal combos, like Jex Thoth, the Devil's Blood, Loon, Blood Ceremony, Christian Mistress, Witch Mountain, cuz really, some of us at aQ thick Castle rank at the top of that bunch, their sound not so much doom (although it is definitely doomy) as psychedelic heavy rock mixed with some classic metal, from the riffs to the killer leads, the proggy arrangements, the sound epic and majestic, groovy and druggy, melodic and plenty heavy, and while the songs kill, and there are hooks galore, brimming with unusual parts and super memorable guitar melodies, it's bassist Elizabeth Blackwell's vocals that define the sound, and she's gone one of those voices that's both melodic and sultry, but also a bit raw and raspy, on the throaty side too which gives her vox a power and heft that some of the above mentioned outfits lack, and suits Castle's sound big time. "Ever Hunter" starts the record off with what is essentially a pop song in metal clothing, but it works, the vibe is still ominous, the guitars buzzy and a bit blackened, but it's got a crazy catchy chorus, although somehow the verses are almost catchier than the chorus, and there's a cool, mathy breakdown midsong, where it does get sort of metal, until the leads come in and instead of shredding, it adds a droned out almost sitar melody to the track, which only makes it sound even more psychedelic. "Corpse Candles" lets Blackwell shine, her vocals dreamy and divine, over more crazy catchy riffing, while "Storm Below The Mountain" lets guitarist Mat Davis take over on vocals, his voice a raspy growl, which is perfect for the teutonic chugging crush beneath, there's some killer guitar leads and a super dynamic stop/start breakdown, not to mention some sweet male/female harmonies. The title track is slithery and swaggery, and again delivers a wicked chorus, the whole thing mathy and proggy and again not so much metal as just heavy, which is how the rest of the record plays out, the band deftly weaving together all sorts of disparate elements into a kick ass collection of psychedelic heaviness that we're digging like crazy.

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MPEG stream: Corpse Candles
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It's always weird to discover a local band via a label in another city, or even another country, but it happens all the time. Not sure if it speaks to a lack of venues in SF, or less importance placed on bands playing tons of shows before putting out a record, or just us not going to enough shows, but we keep discovering records by bands we didn't even know existed, even though they're from right here. Which was the case with Castle, whose new record was just released on aQ beloved German label Van Records, who in the past have brought us incredible music from Ruins Of Beverast, Sol, Nagelfar, The Devil's Blood, Griftegard, Verdunkeln, Funeral Procession, Kermania and more. Castle might have the most in common with their labelmates The Devil's Blood, being a female fronted heavy rock band, and with the seeming popularity of 'witchy' metal bands, it seems only a matter of time before fans of Loon, Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth, Cauchemar, The Devil's Blood, Christian Mistress, Purple Rhinestone Eagle and all the others finally discover these guys (and gal) and freak the fuck out, cuz Castle might just be one of our favorites, they have an incredible sound, heavy and psychedelic, drawing on classic heavy metal, a little modern black metal, classic psych, and vocalist Elizabeth Blackwell has a killer voice, raw and rough around the edges, but powerful and emotional, a little bit gritty, a hint of a rasp, the same sort of vibe we used to get from Doro (vocalist for Warlock), intense and powerful, without resorting to shrieking or howling, somehow the perfect match for the music, riffy and psychedelic, and in fact, they have a little Sunset Strip swagger, some of what we love about eighties metal finds its way in, as does some cool mathy post rockiness, opener "Descent Of Man" might be the heavy psych jam of the year, with a killer main riff, a wicked hook, groovy and heavy and tranced out, took a while before we could even get to the rest of the record, but once we did, pretty much all the tracks hit just as hard. So great!!

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very very limited pressing of 300!

... are brothers Jake and Josh Housh. Jake can also be heard in the band Moviola, while Josh can also be heard in Our Lady The Highway. They took some time out from their respective bands to get together for a little acoustic family gathering. The result? A baker's dozen of rough-hewn gentle twang tunes full of brotherly love. Very homespun, earthy and warm which extends to the packaging too - a delicately hand-printed white cardboard jacket. Oh and they thank they're folks and family in the liner notes too. Awww!

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You may be familiar with the pastoral jazz-twang sounds of Minneapolis band Lateduster (whose roster features Andrew Broder and Martin Dosh of Fog) from their impressive Five Easy Pieces cdep or self-titled full length we have here at AQ, but did you know they also composed music for a dance performance choreographed by Ms Emily Johnson? 'Tis true. Their aural accompaniment to the Catalyst troupe's presentation of "Plain Old Andrea, With A Gun" shows a somewhat darker, more tense and gritty side to the group. Very fitting for the volatile, unsettling visual proceedings. The dvd includes two versions of the performance, a behind the scenes documentary and some highlights from "Lateduster - Live At The Walker".

In 2001 East Bay's Catfive released a good record filled with unlikely samples -- Fela-style afrofunk, Brazilian batucada, lounge, moments of dub, scratching that sounds like a twisted harmonica -- that worked so well atop a mix of beats and groove. The new 7" is somewhat timely -- a pro-peace, anti-war message -- but as such is maybe a little too predictable, featuring samples of Bush I and II, other politicians, journalists, Elvis, etc. Negativland is funnier, but Catfive's hearts are certainly in the right place. The B-side is a cool gimmick, though. It plays backward -- i.e. the needle starts in the middle and works its way outwards. It's a bunch of cartoon / old movie / tv samples with a similar political bent as side A, but without added music. On transparent red vinyl.

Lily Cedar's debut album is comprised of nine pastel-hued tunes -- sweet and pretty like a bouquet of buttercream icing roses. From the fuzzy-soft female singing to the thoughtful guitar strumming, everything is ultra light and wistful with an air of daydreamy innocence. Very much in the K Records / Olympia, WA lo-fi pop camp.

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SORRY. San Francisco's Champs (or C4AM95 as they prefer to be called for silly legal reasons) are an amazing two guitars and drums no bass, sometimes three guitars no drums, very rarely any vocals, trio that on this their debut album crank out over seventy minutes of catchy, complex, mostly instrumental metal in indie/math-rock clothing. Kind of like the indie-prog of Don Caballero or Breadwinner, with touches of Trans Am (the bombast and occasional "techno electronica" interlude) ...and healthy helpings of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Metallica, Carcass, Motley Crue, Priest, etc. I could go on. Mesmerizing live, they're on tour now but will be back soon so I hope y'all went to their shows. For what it's worth, there's a former member of Nation of Ulysses in their ranks. Rec-o-f'n-mended.

Trio led by tenor saxophonist Chan, with Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle we must note) and Elliot Humberto Kavee. Great jazz.

Local guy Charles Wyatt along with Matt Greenberg returns with a second Charles Atlas full length, this time released on the dependable Static Caravan label. Looped haunting guitar, lulling stereo-separated pulses, softly-uttered melodies, plus some

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Only available here at aQ! Even if you're already well-acquainted with Charles Atlas (the band, not the bodybuilder!), you won't want to miss this 'introduction'. It's an absolutely lovely summer-melting-into-fall sort of album. Breezy but not lightweight, drifting melodic tendrils of horn, piano and organ are accented by chiming vibes. Despite the gentle chill of melancholia, the whole proceeding is warmed by lots of reverb and warbled by lots of tremolo. Sure to appeal to fans of Sea & Cake and High Llamas!

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A fine new album from local darlings Charles Atlas, on UK's Ochre label who've released music by similarly dreamy outfits Windy & Carl, Fuxa, Magnetophone, Kawabata Makoto, A.M.P., etc. This is organic instrumental blissout music -- warm and human -- consisting mainly of heartbreakingly pretty arpeggiated piano and guitar chords whose gentle notes articulate themselves separately yet are moodily sustained for many seconds, a sonic tactic we've also heard wielded by Boards of Canada, but Charles Atlas is more sad and emotional. Reminds me of Sonna, Pan American, David Kilgour, and Tarentel, although Charles Atlas sets itself apart using gorgeous flourishes on warbly musical saw, quiet tinklings, female oohs and ahhs, cool trumpet, hollow ticktock clicks (a la Young Marble Giants). The chords are minor key and tension-filled yet still pastoral and hushed -- a very pleasant combination that prevents the album from becoming boring or sickly sweet. Very restrained, mature and introspective. Had enough of Boards of Canada? Give Charles Atlas' fresh take a try. Beautiful.

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Bay Area-based jazz sextet, Charles Sharp 6 make their vinyl debut on local San Francisco label Empty Cellar which also released the avant-jazz Sword and Sandals lp Good and Plenty a year or two back. An uncommon combination of reeds (sax and clarinet), cello, accordion, double bass and drums, this group of improvisers seem to be channeling a late fifties /early sixties era jazz, but one that neither sounds classic or retro. In fact, as good as these musicians are, they almost sound like they came to jazz, through some other means, like punk, judging by the near-ramshackle bombast of the opening track. Yet, there is a laid-back angularity to their work that feels like it should be in a beat-era or eighties indie movie, evoking the same sort of vibe as Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, or even the Lounge Lizards with out so much of the eighties art attitude. Sometimes ferocious in their compositional approach, the C#6 are hardly as twee as their instrumentation might suggest, but they can also really intensify a mood with quiet focus, allowing the diversity of instruments to congeal and worry around subtle modal variations, expanding but not releasing the tension. One of the most interesting new jazz albums we've heard in a long while!

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SORRY. Local boy Matty Charles' first 7" won't, or shouldn't, be his last. Beautiful, heart rending songs sung with a voice at times silky and others gravelly. Some of the best country to come out in a while.

Charm is a gore-tastic low-budget psychological horror film made in the year 2000 by San Francisco underground moviemakers, former AQ-er Sadie Shaw and Sarah Reed (both of The Husbands). Five years later, it's finally available on dvd and cd! The soundtrack covers a wide range of song styles. All are appropriately haunting, though they travel from classic soundtrack stuff to pulsing techno beats to spaced-out melancholia. Some highlights are Tim Green's very classic sounding title theme; Aislers Set's Joy Division-ish rhythm on "Attraction Action Reaction"; Deerhoof's rowdy noise-fest on "Appetite"; Replikants' spacey melancholia of "Memory" sounding a lot like that Ulrich Schnauss we listed a little while back; a weird one from The Need with lots of dog barking and Carol Channingesque vocal magic; Sara Lund and Aaron Beam's appropriately titled "A Lucid Moment" which is a melodically peaceful moment before the Thrones' "The Walk" creeps up at you; Concentrick's technocratic "Dansk Floor"; The Lies' angry rock song, "Wrong Kind Of Flirt"; and again with Tim Green and his classic-film-score "Epilogue". This movie is for fans of lo-budge emotionally-charged gore flims, its soundtrack for fans of, well, awesome soundtracks!

MPEG stream: Main Title Theme
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Amazing triple female harmonies laid over rapid fire fake ethnic music. For fans of Uz Jsme Doma, Sun City Girls...and Idiot Flesh, which this band basically is entirely members of (but better).

For those familiar with the SF group Charming Hostess, this follow-up to 2001's Trilectic album is an eagerly anticipated, more than welcome sight (or should we say sound?). For those unfamiliar, this is a wonderful way to acquaint yourself with Charming Hostess' vibrant trio of fiery female vocalists Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes and Cynthia Taylor. Richly infused with Balkan, Jewish and Sufi elements, their music is at once captivatingly complex, electrifyingly bold and nothing short of acrobatic. You might also know these ladies for their membership in the equally avant SF bands Idiot Flesh and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum -- some of whose members also contributed to this album.

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This local San Francisco duo of heavy shoegaze witchery had us smitten with a way too limited tape awhile back, that we described as the fuzziest and loudest side of My Bloody Valentine, the haziest, most washed out and dreamy side of Bardo Pond, and the white noise of Flying Saucer Attack all somehow coming together. Sadly that tape quickly went of print and left us wanting more. And now with this new single on new local upstart label Sleep Genius, run by our pal Brad from Tied To The Branches, we have just a little more, but it's so good!! Heavy and slow crushing swells of guitar churn and dark dream pop bliss, a heady mixture of early A.R. Kane's violent swooning feedbackdrift and Slowdive's gothic melancholia. The B side, a remix of the A side by Brad, stretches out the original into a witch house-y excursion of sustained hollowed out keys and slow motion creep. Featuring Marc Manning on keyboards, all we can say is: MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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MPEG stream: Bad Evolution (Remix)

While we totally dig tapes, we don't often find ourselves in anxious excitement over a soon to be released cassette. But with this new ep by Chasms that's been in the works for a while we found ourselves giddy with anticipation, and we're happy to report that the pay off is well worth the wait! Riser finds the San Francisco duo at their most focused and effective, starting the A side off with flashes of hot white light, tapping into that classic shoegaze sound, with Chasms aiming and reaching so much higher then most of their peers. The first two songs have an almost dark industrial vibe to them, which had us imagining Coil remixing Cocteau Twins or Slowdive! The second side starts off what may very well be their most beautiful song yet "Not In This Dimension", a shimmering gem that we had to play over and over after the first time we blasted this on our headphones. And each subsequent time we do, we close our eyes and let the song engulf us, gliding through a soft and swirling sonic sensations that we haven't felt since maybe Slowdive's masterpiece Pygmalion. The tape's closer "Soft Opening" has a haunting and mesmerizing quality that brings to mind Labradford or Flying Saucer Attack teaming up with Julianna Barwick! Needless to say we've been giving our Walkman's (Walkmen?) a workout flipping this tape over and over and over. It's that fucking good! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!

Ah, Chasms! This has been one our favorite local acts in recent years, thanks to their smattering of cassette only releases and their impressive live performances of shoegazing heaviness and goth-laden electronics with an almost dark industrial vibe, which had us imagining Coil remixing Cocteau Twins or Slowdive! Subtle Bodies collects material from two of these (now out of print) cassettes along with a brand new track as a bonus! As we mentioned in an earlier review about the Riser tape (whose four tracks comprise all of side one of Subtle Bodies), the San Francisco duo are at their most focused and effective, starting off with flashes of hot white light, tapping into that classic shoegaze sound, with Chasms aiming and reaching so much higher then most of their peers. "Not In This Dimension" may very well be their most beautiful song yet, a shimmering gem that we had to play over and over after the first time we blasted this on our headphones. And each subsequent time we do, we close our eyes and let the song engulf us, gliding through a world of soft and swirling sonic sensations that we haven't felt since maybe Slowdive's masterpiece Pygmalion. The flipside dives into a more narcoleptic and narcotic sound with the the drumless haze of "When It Comes" and the claustrophobic, blurred dirge of "Darker Outside" reminding us of some of those super creepy tracks by The Cranes from way back when. The eleven minute "Dissolution Into Light" rounds out the album as a blissed-out ride down the river Styx with desolate thrums of bass distortion and heartbreakingly sad melodies wavering through the feedback and reverb. Totally recommended!

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Imagine the fuzziest and loudest side of My Bloody Valentine, the haziest, most washed out and dreamy side of Bardo Pond, and the white noise of Flying Saucer Attack coming together and you start to get an idea of the amazing terrain that San Francisco's Chasms wander so perfectly on their debut offering. We've been smitten with these two ladies from the first time we saw them perform, at what may have been their first or second show ever opening for Royal Baths. Every time we've seen them since then they only get better and better, and this cassette finds them in seriously fine form. Raw and primitive drum machines back their shredding and trance inducing guitars, and then the vocals, which are captured perfectly in the mix, bring it all together for a listening experience that makes us sway and nod and close our eyes as we get lost in the clouds of their foggy sonic daydreams. The cassette is brimming with such a perfect full and alive sound, we can't help but think of everything from Bowery Electric to Nadja to Grouper. We could go on and on about how much we love this duo, but we have the FINAL 6 COPIES of the tape left and once they're gone it's out of print, so chances are by the time you finish reading this review this cassette will already have disappeared into the ether.

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MPEG stream: Heavenly Blue

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SORRY. Oval, Disc, Autechre... Lots of folks like that digital glitch stuff -- we do too -- but how 'bout some analog 'glitch'? Good old fashioned record crackle! AQ friend and fave sound artist Loren Chasse's new solo release, his first for Anomalous, totally delves into the realm of crackle, from records and beyond. For details, we may as well quote directly from the label's press release (since our own Allan wrote it!): "The work of sonic artist/investigator Loren Chasse (solo, Thuja, id Battery, Coelacanth and various manifestations of the 'Jewelled Antler collective') usually involves the documentation and manipulation of minute sound events (rubbings, scrapings, clickings) involving found objects and natural phenomena, emphasizing unexpected perspectives and connections. Even when performing in the psychedelic improv outfit Thuja, his 'instruments' primarily consist of contact mics, a mixer, some rocks and twigs, and his imagination. Loren's processed field recordings are fragile and full of strange beauty and feeling. "Hedge of Nerves is dedicated to a friend of Loren's who dearly loves the sound of record crackle as it mingles with the music from a record's grooves. He also enjoys the sound of record crackle alone, as when an LP cycles on its run-out groove. Compact disc reissues of early 20th century ethnic music 78s, or Portishead, or Philip Jeck: if it's got that crackle, he likes it! So, this friend asked Loren to make him a recording of vinyl surface noise only, one that he could DJ with, mixing with non-crackly musical sources, to create virtual scratchy records. For this reason, the idea was to avoid any obvious looping, but to make a continuous, unbroken and organic field of crackle. Thus inspired, however, the project soon turned into more than that, as Loren decided that it was more interesting to emulate the sound and texture of record crackle using other sources. The resulting cd indeed begins by utilizing sounds from a scratchy old 78 rpm disc (one recorded by Loren's grandfather in the 1930s at NBC Radio) but also explores more 'elemental' crackling sounds derived from fire and wind and water, from rustling branches, waves, and sand. Hedge of Nerves is dynamic, moving from loud crinkly-crackly storming sound-swarms to the sounds of a wilderness quietly bristling. It's a mesmerizing expanse of hiss and drone, buzz and click, with hints of melody (from his grandfather's 78). The originating idea of surface noise is ever-present, but upon closer examination that 'surface' proves quite deep, something within which the listener will become submerged, blissful and fascinated. Hedge of Nerves is a masterpiece -- just ask Loren's grateful crackle-loving friend, who files it with the best of Philip Jeck, Jonathan Coleclough, M. Behrens, Troum, and other masters of detailed drone constructions." As you might have guessed, that friend of Loren's is of course our own Allan...and he really does love this disc!! (And he did manage to use an advance version of this to DJ with at the Beyond The Pale festival last year -- it goes really well with Bo Hansson, actually.) Even if you're usually wary of some avantgarde academic "experimental" sterility, try this out anyway, it's warm and organic and inviting in a way many glitchy, noisy things are not, like a bonfire on a desolate, foggy sea-shore.

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Loren's first solo cd! (not a cd-r, either)

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THERE'S A CD-R VERSION NOW AVAILABLE A 60 minute tape of field recordings from Mr. Chasse's sabbatical to Pennsylvania this past summer. Humid atmospheres and fragmented sounds of stones scrapping across each other are accompanied by bittersweet piano and violin. While not intended to be as conceptually complete as some of Chasse's other albums (notably the brilliant Id Battery record for Ecstatic Peace), this a nice document into the working process into of the most underexposed sound artists.

During the past couple of years, San Francisco's Loren Chasse has split his time equally between textural minimalism, as found on his exceptional solo album "Exfolia Motors", and organic improvisations, as heard in Thuja as well as several other bands on the "Fantasy Apparition" is a super limited CD-R pressed in an edition of only 200 and wrapped in hand screened burlap bag. So, when these are gone, they're gone.

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There's no better way to visually represent the music of Jewelled Antler's Loren Chasse than with the various bits and fragments of nature's detritus, stones, pebbles, sticks, leaves, branches, dust and dirt. This newest release from Chasse goes a step further, encapsulating the disc itself (a little 3" cd) along with a sponge and a piece of lichen gathered from the German countryside in an actual petri dish, all in a sealed medical baggy. Wow. And the music inside is just as meticulously assembled as the packaging. Delicate and crystalline, intricate structures, microscopic movements, gentle reverberations, subtle scrapings, abstract shimmer and barely discernable micromelodies. It's almost impossible to tell which parts are natural ambience, and which parts are Chasse reacting and responding to nature, but that's what makes his work so vital and fascinating and what makes Script Lichen such an engrossing listen. And like the rest of Chasse's work, this is not something you just throw on (although you could), this music requires deep listening, active listening, the act of listening akin to a slow, exploratory wander through a sonic forest, every step causing brambles to shimmer and rub against each other, breezes to send leaves drifting earthward, the crunch of each step, the forest, and the earth around it, shifting slightly, the sonic evidence of such minute movements deftly captured by Chasse and reworked into a subtly different soundworld. So nice. Each 3" cd comes packaged as we said in a petri dish with a sponge and a piece of lichen, wrapped in a medical baggy, every one with a sticker, and hand numbered. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!! We only got 50 and once those are gone this will be out of print and gone for good!

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Loren Chasse (Id Battery, Thuja, Knit Separates) originally released "Synthesis of Neglected Places" as a limited edition cassette but has finally released a second pressing as a cdr. The majority of these recordings were made during Chasse's sabbatical in the keeping up with Steve Roden's retro-grade process of being "experimentally incorrect" (where such 'pop' aphorisms of melody and Martin Baytes' baroque singing could be included with archetypal experimental techniques such as musique concrete), Chasse concludes his album with a beautiful selection of plaintive piano improvisations, rippling with a hazy production wash and tweeting birds in the distance. "Synthesis of Neglected Places" acts as a nice bridge between the droning abstractions of his solo work and his collaboration in Thuja.

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With all of those Jewelled Antler projects keeping AQ's dear friend Loren Chasse busy, it's no wonder that it took over three and half years for him to complete the follow up to his acclaimed 2002 album Hedge of Nerves. Yep, it's true that Loren has released two solo projects under the Jewelled Antler moniker Of; but he doesn't see work such as The Air In The Sand (or Hedge of Nerves, or anything from id battery or Coelacanth, for that matter) as being related to Jewelled Antler. Who are we to argue? That said, Loren's solo work is made in pretty much the same manner as much of the Jewelled Antler work, particularly The Blithe Sons, where he treks up and down the Pacific Coast making tons of field recordings and then playing those recordings back in similar environments with small speakers and occasional accompaniments from rocks, sand, teasles, leaves, and the occasional alto recorder. Part of this process is an attempt to move away from the constraints of the digital workstation; but at the same time, Chasse is far more interested in the curious alchemy that occurs when a space listens to itself making sound. A nighttime chorus of crickets gurgles within aqueous percolations and the tectonic crash of surf crashing against rock. Rain vaporizes in a caustic sizzle as it falls upon overhead electrical wires, and this sound is compouned by the sharp crack of branches and the slow hiss of sand. For all of the elemental sounds that dominate his recordings, Chasse extracts subtle musical timbres and fragile half-melodies that haunt The Air In The Sand. Beautiful and timeless, this is another marvellous album from Mr. Chasse.

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MPEG stream: The Air Inside The Rain
MPEG stream: Drawing Water

Loren Chasse is a man of many guises, while his recent solo releases being issued under the moniker Of for the past couple of years, his constant output via Jewelled Antler related projects has continued with his revolving presence in Thuja, Blithe Sons, Softwar, Ov, Kyrgyz, and many others. The work that Loren produces under his own name tends toward the sound art end of his aesthetic spectrum, closer to his work with Id Battery and Coelacanth than the field recordist approach to rural psychedelia found in those Jewelled Antler efforts. Throughout all of his sonic pursuits, Chasse's use of sound has always been to spark the imagination and generate a sense of mystery; and that is certainly the case here on The Footpath. A dark cloud of rumbles and growls announces the beginning of this album, as Chasse grasps several heavy rocks in his hands and caresses their surfaces with sand, dirt, leaves, water, ash, and other debris. As is often the case, these recordings have been recorded outside with a contact microphone or two and a digital recorder. So the external sounds of the environment creep into these crackling textures and eroded drones. The lulling fluctuations of surf and wind are most common, indicative of Chasse's continued wanderings up and down the California coast. But, you will also find the buzzing slash of an insect chorus or the smoldering bristle from a campfire. Chasse deftly abstracts these softened noises without ever making them sound like they had been processed in the digital arena. Every piece here enjoys a wonderfully rough hewn quality with the edges torn, tattered, and frayed. Hints of the melodic phrasing which Chasse brings to Jewelled Antler pop up on sporadic occasion in small two note phrases, that only barely pass for melodies, emerging from the mire and debris, or with his zither buried within a cloud of tape hiss and bunker reverberations, replayed and re-recorded numerous times exacerbating all of that tactile crunch. Chasse's work always comes recommended, and The Footpath is no exception!

MPEG stream: Footpath 1
MPEG stream: Footpath 2
MPEG stream: Footpath 4

We got a very very very few of these. It is after all limited to a mere 50 copies. Chasse completists and Jewelled Antler obsessives, as well as fans of gorgeous abstract field recordings, it's a race to see who can grab one of these before they're gone. Chasse's piece is 10 minutes long and begins with a burst of static, but as you might imagine, that's not static at all, it's more likely a field recording of wind in branches, or water traveling over a rocky stream bed. The sound soon fades, and then rest of the track is a constantly shifting soundscape of textures and timbres, many recognizable, many not, but all of them strangely musical. Such is the magic touch Chasse has with field recordings, an alchemist who with a handful of sticks and some pebbles can conjure up a beautiful world of earthy sound. Sonderberg is a member of the Chicago based sound-project Haptic with Steven Hess; and his half with Katherine Young is not quite as serene as Chasse's, a sound field rife with squeaks and creaks and thumps and Geiger counter like clicks, the sound shifting from spare and skeletal to thick and hissy and almost distorted, all underpinned by a weird low end almost electronic sounding thrum. Really nice, but as mentioned above, we have VERY FEW of these, it's almost out of print, and once they are gone, we will not be able to get more. Cool packaging too. A 3" cd-r affixed to a small block of wood, wrapped in s sheet of clear plastic, attached on one side with little nails, and velcro on the other, the liner notes a sticker beneath the plastic, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 50 COPIES.

MPEG stream: Characters At Water Margin
MPEG stream: Speech Acts

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

SORRY. Latest blast of psychedelic textural soft-noise sonic experimentation from this local duo, who swing from heavy crunch to blissed out drift, this particular sonic session captured live on the radio, on the always awesome KFJC...

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

SORRY.

George Chen is responsible for so many cool things in the Bay Area. Whether it's helping keep the all-ages scene alive with Club Sandwich, injecting life into zine culture, championing all sorts of weird and unusual music, etc. So it's kind of easy to forget that the man is also quite an awesome music maker himself, for proof just check out records he's been on in bands like 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Common Eider King Eider, Voltz, etc. Teamed up with Steve Santa Maria the two have put together quite a potent concoction of damaged, haunting and often gorgeous textural sounds that rank right up there with folks like Taiga Remians, Simon Wickham-Smith and Birchville Cat Motel. Collapsing electronics, fractured guitar, seamless samples and primitive drum machines all come together to create sounds that would make the perfect soundtrack to a mysterious and brooding post-apocalyptic experimental film. These are sounds of machines on their last legs, creeping and crawling through fields of grit and grime and buzz and glitch trying to survive. Their affiliation with the East Bay noise scene can be heard on some of the more squelching and stuttering moments here, but they also have a more subtle side to their sound that is more dreamy and drifting keeping things drifting and spacey and oh so hypnotic!

MPEG stream: Tic Taxed
MPEG stream: Insides Out

If you live in the bay area and don't know who George Chen is, we can safely say you've been locked in a windowless room for the past decade, surviving only on bread crust and lint. For those of you who fall under the above condition and have not had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Chen, he is a huge organizer of all kinds of all ages events and get togethers in the bay area, and has been on the road with all kinds of people from Grey Daturas to Common Eider King Eider. He also makes some seriously awesome music under the name Chen Santa Maria, usually of the noise freak-out persuasion. And this collaboration between Chen Santa Maria and Luuse is no exception, almost an hour of live sonic exploration from these dudes, relentless and all the while totally immersive and huge. Recommended!

MPEG stream: A
MPEG stream: B

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

SORRY.

SF singer/songwriter Odessa Chen returns with her second album, a grander but no less intimate affair than her debut One Room Palace. This classically trained vocalist/cellist accompanies her lovely vocals with some self-taught delicately picked guitar and an impressive group of guest players -- Nels Cline (Wilco), Danny Grody (Tarentel, the Drift), and Devin Hoff (Xiu Xiu, Nels Cline, Good for Cows). The results are a sweet, serene sophomore album filled with a gentle elegance.

MPEG stream: Kill The Lights
MPEG stream: The Ballad Of Paper Ships

An increasingly prolific body of work is emerging from a loose collective of San Francisco artists and musicians, a group that has spawned such neo-psychedelic improvisers as Thuja, Mirza, The Knit Separates, The Blithe Sons, and now The Child Readers.

RealAudio clip: Darkness Beneath The Trees
RealAudio clip: Reading For Winter

"It's not magic, it's music". The Child Readers are the duo of Jewelled Antler mainstay Loren Chasse and vocalist Jason Honea of The Knit Separates. This, their third album (the two earlier ones were cd-rs on JA, now out of print) is something like an audio postcard from their own far-off fantasyland... They give free reign to their creativity, with tracks here ranging from textural noise/drone of near Merzbowian dimensions to the folky acoustic song-fragments seemingly recorded on a picnic in the woods...We hear child and adult voices mingling, alongside tape spooling and twinkling tinkling toy piano or chiming music box sounds...Honea's sensitive, melodic vocals might be accompanied equally by sparsely strummed guitar and the burble of a brook. Lyrically, he could be taking inspiration from children's stories -- that is, stories BY children. Such as the weirdness of "The Shark Airplane". Other tracks, like "Sexual Anguish (including The Psychic Castle)" can only be the work of grown up children. Full of interesting textures and real emotion, this is yet another excellent Jewelled Antler-related release, something like Honea's inner child being babysat by the Blithe Sons. Euro import, limited.

MPEG stream: Voyaging (The Reds, Pinks And Purples)
MPEG stream: The Shark Airplane

Yay, 'tis time for another delightful dose of Jewelled Antler goodness... these dusty gems aren't strewn about the twiggy forest floor as much as they used to be (back in the day of Jewelled Antler's prolific cd-r production), so it's with even greater pleasure that we regard this latest from Jewelled Antler potentate Loren Chasse (Of, Ov, Thuja, Blithe Sons, Franciscan Hobbies, The Knit Separates, etc.) and his compatriot, and Berlin-based expatriate, Jason Honea (The Shitty Listener, Teenage Panzerkorps, Chord Fort, The Knit Separates, Franciscan Hobbies). The usual hazy Jewelled Antler soundworld of abstruse natural field-recordings, fragmented folky melodies, and the textural droning of acoustic instruments (and non-instruments) is utterly entered into here, with the gentle, lullaby-like vocals of Mr. Honea softly taking you by the hand to wander in wonderment through it all. The music glistens and shimmers and sighs like the soughing sound of wind in the trees, and Honea's voice does too... it's some sort of lo-fi, fairytale indie-rock, though not very rock - the angular outset of the track "A Loved Thing/Gull's Blood" being the most raucous, rock-like thing here, almost Swell Maps-ish, reminding us, as much of this does, of likeminded New Zealanders Pumice... mostly though, while replete with much buzzing noise and sudden shiftings, this certainly on the dreamier and driftier side of things! Imagine Martyn Bates magically transported into the musical context of a Charles Burchfield landscape painting, perhaps... yet with this duo's "weird dude energy" keeping things interesting and unexpected (for instance, "A Poem In One Song" features indistinct background groanings that we recognize as Loren being silly). Jason's intimate, close-miced vocals provide distorted textures of their own to go with the rather abstract music-making, always melodic and soothing even if you never bother to puzzle out the imagery of his improvised, stream-of-conciousness lyrics, some of which probably have to do with his new experience of fatherhood! There's a sweet sixteen audio tracks here, plus four MPG4 video clips as a bonus! A few guests drop in to join Chasse and Honea on some of the songs, including Rob Reger (Thuja), former AQer Christine Boepple (Ov, Skygreen Leopards, Whysp), and Mark Williams (Mirza, Father Beard). Meanwhile, the videos take you out in the field with the Child Readers, each one a perfect visual analog to the accompanying music (four non-album tracks), full of natural scenery and more of that "weird dude energy", Jewelled Antler style. For these alone this is probably a must-buy for any Jewelled Antler fan or follower - if it wasn't already - since this fourth Child Readers disc (after 2 cd-rs on JA and a cd on Mallard Lake, all seemingly years and years ago) is perhaps our new favorite. Sometimes it's hard for us to express how much we like these records, 'cause we're friends with these guys and we feel weird gushing to much, but this IS fantastic. So glad the Child Readers are still up to their (un)usual hijinks. Recommended!!

MPEG stream: Young Worlds-Try To Hear!
MPEG stream: Son Of Man
MPEG stream: Starlight Veering

[ aquarius records — Local ]