[ aquarius records — Rock Pop Goth Industrial Darkwave ]

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Showing results 151 through 200 of 532.

Mark Spybey (Zoviet France, Download, and innumerable collaborative projects) and friends -- among them some members of Legendary Pink Dots -- meld together their individual sonic imaginations, seemingly shatter the outcome, and piece it all back together again to bring you this long-titled, meticulously beautiful work. Constructed from recordings made in Canada, Cuba, and Germany (the latter by krautrocker Michael Rother of Neu!, Harmonia and Cluster). It was produced and engineered by Spybey along with the multi-talented Frank Vershuuren (LPD engineer) and Darryl Neudorf (who's worked with such divergent artists as Neko Case, Twilight Circus' Ryan Moore and the New Pornographers). At times, swirling and crystalline. At others, sputtering, heavy, and percussive.

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RealAudio clip: Zeehond

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Deadwood the group, existed long before the HBO series of the same name, but it some ways, they have a lot in common, mostly in the bleak, hopeless, windblown vibe that permeates them both. Featuring a member of Swedish black metal horde and long time AQ faves Blodulv, Deadwood offer up extended tracks of ultra creepy low end explorations, that run the gamut from abrasive power electronics, to slithering drone drenched black ambience. Fans of stuff like MZ412 and other purveyors of bleak abstract sounds will definitely dig this. From thick squalls of white noise hiss, like rain on a metal barn roof, to super blown out Merzbowian hiss, almost black metal in its buzz and intensity, to crumbling landscapes of tape hiss and low end rumble, slowed down vocals, and mumbled scrape and shimmer, to strange murky tribalism, to skipping soundscapes of demonic vocals and ultra distorted slowed down beats, to decayed orchestral snippets chopped and looped into impossibly mesmerizing rhythms, a dark and damaged world of sound, though while at its heaviest could be the harshest, hissiest BM you've ever heard, spends most of its time crawling and lurching through slow motion fields of rumbling sound. Awesome.

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Dark Entries has only a couple of releases under their belt, but the aesthetic of the label is firmly dictated by those releases: darkened post-punk electronics and dour new wave. Obscure reissues seems to be the focus for Dark Entries, but then there is Death Domain, a contemporary one-man band out of Baltimore, who might as well have been releasing work in Belgium circa 1983. The two tracks here fall between two somewhat obscure sounds -- Kas Product (who you might recall doing the title track to the So Young But So Cold compilation of French coldwave from the '80s) and Leather Nun (in particular the Slow Death single recorded for Industrial Records way back when). Death Domain have the aggro rhythms of Kas Product cranked through the most primitive of drum machines, and the life-support system synths that Leather Nun provided for that one single. All together, it's pretty damn good. Yeah, Cold Cave again rears their oh so influential of late head here, but think Cremations, not Love Comes Close. Limited to 500 copies, with glow-in-the-dark silkscreened covers!

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In 1981, Tony Wakeford and Douglas P disbanded their anarcho-leftist punk ensemble Crisis in order to focus on their new project Death In June, which ostensibly was a more poetic and esoteric outfit, moving away from the politics that dominated the output of Crisis. The Guilty Have No Pride were the first recordings for DIJ; and immediately, there are numerous differences between DiJ and Crisis, for one, the earlier band had more of a pogo-punk / Oi! sound while DiJ blatantly wore Joy Division's militant gloom on their sleeve. Tony Wakeford still sang with the cockney accent as he did in Crisis (and persists today through his work in Sol Invictus), but Douglas P smoothed his voice into a languid croon not unlike Joy Division's late singer. The grim post-punk inclinations for Death In June resulted in some truly amazing songs found on The Guilty Have No Pride, like "All Alone In Her Nirvana," "Heaven Street," and "Nothing Changes", any of which definitively foreshadow Interpol's black clad revivalism (barring Wakeford's unmistakable voice and Death In June's questionable use of Nazi imagery which they obnoxiously never resolved as either fetishized allegiance or situationist shock-tactics). Politics aside, The Guilty Have No Pride is miles away from the industrialized-folk that Death In June has produced in recent years, and clearly stands as one of their finest moments. Even Andee who is not a huge DiJ fan, LOVES this disc and has been listening to it non stop. This recently re-released remastered version of The Guilty Have No Pride comes with DVD of a live performance from 1982 of much of the material that would later appear on the album itself.

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Both Death in June and Boyd Rice pioneered nearly the entire aesthetic, approach, and aural stylings of post-idustrial neo-folk. Their collaboration here is classic and infamous. This album amounts to a sacred text for post-humanist, anti-human humans. Xasthur, Leviathan, or any of the Norwegian hordes have never hated anything on the level of which these guys are capable. An historic document or another reason to join a cult far, far out in the woods and lose contact with humanity? You decide, but definitely an interesting listen nonetheless.

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Ultra limited cd document of this 2005 live performance by Der Blutharsch, in Vienna in 2005 before a small audience of invited guests. Unlike the lush composed industrial soundscapes of DB records proper, these songs and versions are performed in a much more straight ahead apocalyptic folk style. Strummed acoustic guitar, wheezing accordion, simple percussion and dueling male / female vocals. Urgent and strident, powerful and emotional. Wild gypsy rhythms collide with simple moody ballads, dark and dreary epics are woven into expansive militaristic epics. Packaged in a gorgeous, matte black, embossed digipak. And again, VERY LIMITED!!!

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The Philosopher's Stone marks the end the of ten long and productive years during which Der Blutharsch have unleashed their signature dark neo-folk upon the masses. Apocalyptic prophecies, mantras, and manifestos spewed forth from the hate-forged lips of Albin Julius, but even this must come to an end. Over the course of 8 tracks and nearly 56 minutes, long-time fans can't help but sit back and marvel at the gargantuan change between 1998's Der Sieg Des Lichtes Ist Des Lebens Heil! and the present release. The band was considered highly innovative at its inception, but in retrospect it's easily classifiable as straight-forward neo-folk, albeit at its very finest. These days? Geez, I mean, we're hearing something like a blackened, post-industrial Loop or Jesus and Mary Chain. Or maybe even what the Birthday Party would've sounded like if they were a suicidal '70s psych group. Staccato dirges grab distorted basslines and ride them into droney psychedelia, underneath a sky of swirling guitar leads and brutal, haunting vocals. In a way, the album is heavily indebted to Death In June's old, old album The Guilty Have No Past, but on tons of heroin -- and probably a fistful of other downers and/or mood stabilizers. But through it all Julius's mantra could not be clearer. In fact, the back page of the booklet even reads in bold letters: "Uniforms are always changing, rock n' roll will stay forever." And if rock n' roll's main objective is to scare parents, or the majority of society in general, Der Blutharsch are definitely, definitely a rock band. Even though they sure as hell don't look like one. If you were to see them in the street, you'd probably try as hard as possible not to make eye contact, and maybe assume they were an extremely well-funded fascist militia of sorts. Ah, which brings up their (at least implicitly fascist) politics. Well, they're highly questionable at best, and to get the whole story, you'd need to maybe talk with them yourself. As for us, it's not much different than listening to old Ike and Tina Turner recordings, great songs written by a much-less-than-admirable dude. Either way, The Philosopher's Stone is a fantastic cross-section of what Julius and crew are capable of producing, truly mood-altering, honestly fucked up music that completely transcends any traditional understanding of the way songs -- and albums -- work. Somewhere between a heathen liturgy and a well-produced personal catharsis, Der Blutharsch never fails to provide the listener with new experiences and forge new territory in a genre that tends to be cripplingly simplistic, predictable, and indulgent. Recommended. As always, the packaging is incredible, the cd is in a miniature hardcover book style digipak, all glossy inks and subtle embossing, a big booklet, and super striking imagery. The lp too is extravagant, a similarly rendered glossy layout, but with a BONUS 7" with two tracks not on the cd, in a full color sleeve affixed to the inside of the gatefold.

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Not sure why we've never listed any Der Blutharsch before. Especially considering they've been a favorite of ours for a long time. And in that whole militaristic folk / industrial scene, we much prefer Der Blutharsch (and MZ 412) over Death In June or Current 93 (at least if you ask Andee). As far as we can tell, this is DB's sixth full length and is as dark and hypnotic and intense as ever. Weaving together childrens choirs, maniacal growls, martial drumming, dark ambient drones, epic cinematic soundscapes, soaring strings, mumbled spoken word, pagan folk, found sounds, wartime propaganda soundbites, industrial rhythms, and apocalyptic / nihilistic lyrics. For those of you new to this stuff, imagine a renaissance faire, strolling minstrels the whole bit, but suddenly the sky starts to darken, shadows lengthen wrapping everything in inky blackness, the strolling minstrels slowly take on the appearance of demons, and the music loses its sunshine and cheer, becoming more and more ominous, major keys change to minor, bells toll, the men start chanting, invoking some unspeakable mystery, while the children's eyes turn black and they begin to sing as well, as if in some sort of trancelike state, the whole thing becoming less of a celebration and more some sort of ancient pagan ritual. Imagine Dead Can Dance with the vocalist from Rammstein, performing in the forest, covering the Comus record in its entirety, backed up by a military drum corps. Or imagine some impossible mixture of Current 93, Magnetic Fields, World War 2, In The Nursery, Ennio Morricone, a gypsy caravan, all the great black metal intros and all of those times you were lost and alone and afraid. It's that intense. And amazing. Allan actually thinks parts of this sound like a Hari Krishna version of Swedish drone folk outfit Parson Sound which they most definitely do at times. Time Is Thee Enemy is an epic and dark, cinematic journey through war and hell and the dark side of human nature. So recommended.

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A sprawling and expansive career retrospective from seminal militaristic folk / post industrial / dark ambient outfit Der Blutharsch, whose sound, while ever shifting, has remained constant in its dark mesmer, each record, and every track, a miniature epic, harrowing and hypnotic journeys through war and hell and the dark side of human nature. Weaving together children's choirs, maniacal growls, martial drumming, dark ambient drones, epic cinematic soundscapes, soaring strings, mumbled spoken word, pagan folk, found sounds, wartime propaganda soundbites, industrial rhythms, and apocalyptic / nihilistic lyrics. Imagine a renaissance faire, strolling minstrels the whole bit, but suddenly the sky starts to darken, shadows lengthen wrapping everything in inky blackness, the strolling minstrels slowly take on the appearance of demons, and the music loses its sunshine and cheer, becoming more and more ominous, major keys change to minor, bells toll, the men start chanting, invoking some unspeakable mystery, while the children's eyes turn black and they begin to sing as well, as if in some sort of trancelike state, the whole thing becoming less of a celebration and more some sort of ancient pagan ritual. DB take the apocalyptic folk of Death In June and fuse it to the Teutonic metallic stomp of Rammstein, wind it all up in the clattery industrial cabaret of Einsturzende Neubaten, before dousing it in the swampy fire and brimstone dirge of Sixteen Horsepower and the dramatic gothiness of Sisters Of Mercy or Bauhaus,. Elsewhere the sound is even more dazzlingly disparate, a roiling sonic cauldron equal parts Dead Can Dance, Laibach, Comus, Current 93, Magnetic Fields, World War 2, In The Nursery, Ennio Morricone, a gypsy caravan, all the great black metal intros ever, all of those disparate elements deftly woven into something dark and delightfully dreary, creepy and sometimes truly haunting... Der Blutharsch's music most definitely mutated and transformed over the years, the core sound still dark and droning, but the rock element much more noticeable, with a seemingly omnipresent churning low slung bass weaving a dense framework of rumbling low end, supporting doom laden soundscapes constructed from moaning cellos and martial snares, wartime sound samples and military speeches, pounding rhythms and dramatic Teutonic vocals, gypsy violin and distorted guitar. But even within this industrial doom rock framework, DB managed to inject all sorts of truly unexpected twists and turns, like some hellish take on a Morricone spaghetti western with little bits of blackened twang one moment, and like a lost track from some sixties girl group, albeit in this case, swathed in dark sonic swirls and all sorts of rhythmic interference, the next. This later sound something like a blackened, post-industrial Loop or Jesus and Mary Chain. Or maybe even what the Birthday Party would've sounded like if they were a suicidal '70s psych group. Staccato dirges grab distorted basslines and ride them into droney psychedelia, underneath a sky of swirling guitar leads and brutal, and of course the apocalyptic prophecies, mantras, and manifestos spewed forth from the DB mastermind Albin Julius... "Uniforms are always changing, rock n' roll will stay forever" is boldly emblazoned on a later DB release. And if rock n' roll's main objective is to scare parents, or the majority of society in general, Der Blutharsch are definitely a rock band. And really always were.... LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, on 180 gram vinyl, with hand numbered inserts, housed in black and red foil stamped jackets, odds are these could very well be the only copies we ever see...

Final glorious missive from Austrian militaristic folk / post industrial / dark ambient outift Der Blutharsch. Ex members of The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud and former collaborators with Death In June, DB carved out a truly unique and musically diverse niche in a genre rife with problematic politics and unoriginal ideas. The music of Der Blutharsch was and is a seemingly impossible mix, taking the apocalyptic folk of Death In June, the Teutonic metallic stomp of Rammstein, the clattery industrial caberet of Einsturzende Neubaten, the swampy fire and brimstone dirge of Sixteen Horsepower and the dramatic gothiness of Sisters Of Mercy or Bauhaus and crafting all of those disparate elements into something dark and delightfully dreary, creepy and sometimes truly harrowing. Their sound has gone from dark ambience to industrial clatter to dramatic doom, and have now arrived at a sound that is even more difficult to describe. We once wrote that the music of DB sounded like "Dead Can Dance with the vocalist from Rammstein, performing in the forest, covering the Comus record in its entirety, backed up by a military drum corps. Or some impossible mixt of Current 93, Magnetic Fields, World War 2, In The Nursery, Ennio Morricone, a gypsy caravan and every great black metal intro ever" and that still pretty much sums it up. BUT, somehow, for their last hurrah, they've managed to sound even more bizarre and unique and all over the map. The core sound is still dark and droning, but the rock element is much more noticeable this time around, with a seemingly omnipresent churning low slung bass weaving a dense framework of rumbling low end, supporting doom laden soundscapes constructed from moaning cellos and martial snares, wartime sound samples and military speeches, pounding rhythms and dramatic teutonic vocals, gypsy violin and distorted guitar. But even within this industrial doom rock framework, DB manage to inject all sorts of really unexpected twists and turns, one track sounds like some hellish take on a Morricone spaghetti western with little bits of blackened twang, and another even sounds like a lost track from some sixties girl group, albeit in this case, swathed in dark sonic swirls and all sorts of rhythmic interference. So amazing and strange and totally mesmerizing. It's sad to think this is the last we'll hear from Der Blutharsch. Packaged in a gorgeous all black, letter pressed sleeve, with a little sprig of edelweiss in full color, black text on a black background. Quite striking.

MPEG stream: When Did Wonderland End? II
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Here's a question that gets tossed around here more and more in recent months: Is this new or old? Given how many bands who make druggy, atmospheric ritualism could have produced those sounds in 1972 or 2009 with equal aplomb. The Amen Dunes record Dia (2009) and Warlus' Songs album (1975) make for an interesting case study. Over the past twelve months, there's been another resurgence of black clad, post-punk thanks to some of the dour Goth reissues from Sacred Bones, which fit neatly next to the spunky Joy Divisionisms of Blank Dogs and the moping, black eyeliner tunes of this weeks ROTW Soror Dolorosa. Those could also be addressed with that same question: is this old or new? In the case of the dark, moody sounds of Dial M For Murder, the answer is, as hard as it might be to believe, "new." Citing Joy Division and the Chameleons as their references, Dial M For Murder end up in a place remarkably close to Interpol. The vocalist David Ortenlof really does come across like Interpol's Paul Banks on a good chunk of the tracks, and almost like Mark Edwards from My Dad Is Dead on the others. Musically, the dark jangliness of the guitar and the punchy basslines situates around tight drum machine programming coming across like Ratatat reworking Joy Division singles. Gothic and haunting, but propulsive and poppy, really really cool stuff for sure.

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One of two great new reissues from Medical on this week's list, elsewhere you'll find a reissue of the Body 11 record (which reminds us of Pop Will Eat Itself and Suicide!), and then there's this, another one from Germany. It's the self titled debut from a group called Die Gesunden, a duo made up of Mabel Aschenneller and Eschi Rehm, who were one of the first Neu Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) bands, and who released their debut on the Innovative Communication label started in 1978 by none other than Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream. It is a weird one, right from the first track "Instru-Mental", which sounds like maniacal mad scientist electro, all skeletal and glitchy and buzzy, before the synths swoop in, and processed vocals, warped and carnivalesque, sounding like it could be the theme from some seventies or eighties low budget Z-movie, which means AMAZING. And while we were prepared to write "while nothing else is nearly as weird", the second track stopped us cold, a weird, buzzing, squiggly droned out, noisy industrial intro, gives way to some noisy, bloopy, bouncy, crunchy distorted synth pop, laced with whispered sinister vocals, the sound raw and lo-fi, it reminds us tonally of early Devo, especially when the second synth line comes in, all thick and fuzzy, the whole thing really dark and intense. Not at all what we were expecting. And the rest of the record is more of the glorious twisted same, a fucked up and freaky electro synth pop, all the sounds rough around the edges, lots of drone and buzz, crunchy crumbling distortion, lurching rhythms, even the poppier songs are twisted and tweaked, noisy and industrial, and just plain weird. After reviewing the Body 11, we were ready to proclaim it the weirdest Medical reissue yet, but this one is definitely giving it a run for its money. This and the Body 11 just might be our two favorite Medical reissues since either the Axxess or the Lou Champagne System, both of which were Records Of The Week, and now that we've reviewed both of these, we're thinking either or both could/should have been ROTW as well... LIMITED TO 650 COPIES!! Pressed on heavy 180 gram pink vinyl.

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Back in stock! There was quite a run on these recently after Pitchfork gave this a rave review...hey didn't anyone read *our* review of this some months before? Anyway, we've got a few more (at a slightly better price, the label repressed 'em and made 'em cheaper too) and here's what we said about it before: Like fellow Swede and AQ-fave Bjorn Olsson, Gustav Ejstes is a brillant timewarped melody-maker. Though, his "solo" project Dungen sounds more like a band than Olsson's albums do. Wunderkind Ejstes is certainly enamored of '60s/'70s psych-pop and his obsession has borne some fabulous fruit. This is his third album to date (the first being a vinyl-only affair we have yet to hear, the second being the now-hard-to-find Stadsvandringar cd that Allan raved about on our list two years ago). So we were pleased to hear about the release of Ta Det Lugnt. It rocks more than the last one, being brasher, with more in the way of electric guitar frenzies in a Hendrix kinda style. But otherwise it's pretty similar, with Ejstes singing his hook-filled songs in the same somewhat nasal, Swedish langage voice as before. There's jazz jamming, folk frolics, and plenty of fuzz. A retro trip indeed from searing electric rippage to spaced-out, sentimental melodicism.

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A vinyl reissue of one of the best Einsturzende Neubauten recordings! Halber Mensch ('half man' in German) originally came out in 1985, at the height of the apex of punk self-immolation, pure German expressionism, and industrial theatricality. The infernal vocal chorale of the title track is about as intense as a vocal piece could ever be, without resorting to pure guttural howling. Here is it a searing repetition of an atonal plainsong, buttressed by the always unique snarl of frontman Blixa Bargeld. The repurposed metals from junkyards and constructions site which have become synonymous with Neubauten immediately appear afterwards on their anthemic single "Yu-Gung (Fuetter Mein Ego)," whose insistent rhythm works almost Gamelan-like as the principal melody to this amazing tune. It should also be pointed out that Pussy Galore, who were already heavily indebted to EN, covered this on their Sugar Shit Sharp ep! later As a grand climax to the album, Neubauten again returns to hellish imagery through the symphony of bowed metals on "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy," where these cacophonic scrapes amass into a dramatic arc of acoustic noise that easily parallels those same constructions that David Jackman built through Organum. This is one of those seminal records that should always be in print, and one of those records that you should already have. But if not, you shouldn't pass this up!

On September 12, Blixa Bargeld wandered into Aquarius after hearing that his US tour with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds had been cancelled. While I had never met the man before, his demeanor was certainly curt and somewhat cold, muttering his disapproval that If I had been able to muster the courage to ask Bargeld for his thoughts, I could imagine that his answer would be something poetic but vaguely haunting, and maybe something a little bit more allegorical than Stockhausen's recent social gaffes. Or maybe, those are the attributes that I'd like his words to have, and he would just shrug it off as another stupid question from another stupid American. Yet, Bargeld and his stalwart project Einsturzende Neubauten have been engaged in presenting multiple possibilities for the end of the world within evolving musical theatres, ranging from their early brutalism of hammering infernal music out of metal and flesh to their more recent offerings of staged melodramas around Bargeld's lyrical complexities and restrained vocalizations. Thus, I would hope that Bargeld may have something intelligent and insightful to say about the WTC attacks. "Strategies Against Architecture III," subtitled "A Comedy of Errors" was obviously never intended to be Bargeld's specific answer; but within the current cultural climate, it does address the general themes. Over the last decade, Neubauten has calmed their industrial clamour and embraced the tasteful palette of a chamber ensemble, with strings and horns fleshing out their recent sound. It is obvious that Neubauten has changed with age, looking back at their early work through eyes that no longer seek expression through self-destruction. Rather, Neubauten stands in the ashes of their attempts at self-destruction seeing that the epistomological forces of life may in fact be stronger than the will to destroy. The gleefully abject explosions that made up their earliest work now quietly smolder within the pleasant, strangely cabaret-like, and almost holistically beneficial music found within "Strategies III." In essence, Neubauten's third compilation of rarities, alternate takes and 'greatest hits' finds their existential angst getting all warm and fuzzy. While I've been wholly disappointed by their work over the past decade, "Strategies III" makes for an nice condensed history for a time period in which existential answers were sought in lieu of taking aesthetic adventures.

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Admittedly, we approached this new Einsturzende Neubauten album with a little bit of apprehension. In our humble opinion, their recordings from the last decade and a half have fallen so far short of what you'd expect from a group that were absolute music groundbreakers (literally!). Seriously can Silence Is Sexy or Perpetuum Mobile hold a candle (or blowtorch) to Halber Mensch or Drawings Of Patient O.T.? We think not. So Alles Wieder Offen comes as something of a pleasant (hmmm, that's sort of a weird word to use with regards to this band, isn't it?) surprise. It's almost like Blixa Bargeld and co. had a wake up call (albeit a not so aggressive one) that shook them out of their velvet draped parlor and back into the rubble-strewn dank warehouse... at least for a brief spell. For one thing Bargeld is alternating his vocal croon with his former urgent bark. While there still isn't any of the early brutal thunder of heavy machinery, there are atmospheres filled with icy Germanic scowls and white knuckles. Hypnotic male chants, buzzing electronics, blunt object thuds, and metallic clatter too. At long last, Einsturzende Neubauten may have struck an affecting integration of what has long seemed disconcertingly at odds -- their early defiant dissonance and newer refined elegance.

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After Marc Chung and FM Einheit left Einsturzende Neubauten, Blixa ended up getting fat...and boring.

A brilliant reissue from the seminal German industrial ensemble Einsturzende Neubauten. This album represented the first full realization of the Neubauten project, with F.M. Einheit and Marc Chung (both hailing from the underappreciated post-punk ensemble Abwarts) joining the trio of Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, and N.U. Unruh. The O.T. from the title of this record references Oswald Tschirtner, a resident of psychiatric hospital for artists, where the patient created these compulsive drawings out of the unkempt visions in his head. Such is the way the Neubauten seeks to employ sound on this record: cracked, naive, and dangerous. Found objects, stolen radio transmissions, repurposed machinery, and lots of metal bashing appear in this album, inspired as much by musique concrete juxtaposition as by punk fury. The desolate drone-centric piece "Armenia" and the propulsive "Vandium I-Ching" represent two of the extremes found on this ever-impressive album.

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The very first release from reissue imprint Dark Entries was the highly collectible, if obscure album Bas Relief by Eleven Pond. Originally self-released in 1986, that album slipped out of view except for those avid synth-pop / minimal-wave collectors. Yet, when Dark Entries reissued the album in 2009, the album went viral, reflecting a particular historical revisionist strain of the mid-'80s that earnestly held onto the romantic poetry that oozed out of 4AD and Factory Records from those seminal days. Even two decades after the fact, Eleven Pond had a verifiable 'hit' single on their hands with the track "Watching Trees" which landed on many a retro-garde compilation and even warranted a limited edition 12" single from the art-rock imprint Angular Recordings in 2012. So, with Assemblage, we have another set of Anglophilic synth-pop from these upstate New York lads; but unlike Bas Relief, this album was recorded and then languished for 25 years (!) until Dark Entries was able to get the songs remastered and released. The bulk of the sound, all bittersweet chiming Marr / Sumner guitars meshed with minor-key synth percolations, carries over from Bas Relief, with a difference found in a new drummer using electric drums instead of a kit, really giving Eleven Pond a pretty serious New Order vibe. Certainly nothing to scoff at! There's a reprise of the aforementioned single "Watching Trees" appearing as a bedroom demo, which still sounds pretty damn good in a more stripped down, electronic context. Listening to this, you gotta wonder if there'd ever be a Bolshoi reissue campaign in the works... Great stuff as always from Dark Entries.

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What a total gem! An amazing unearthed, ultra obscure album from way back in 1986. Hailing from Rochester, NY, Eleven Pond crafted super infectious dark pop with wonderful synth moments and song writing that has really held up over the years. Some of the production, and much of the overall sound reminds us a bit of Seventeen Seconds era Cure, where basslines lead the tracks and the guitars and synths add such a nice mood and texture. We're also reminded a lot of another obscure mid '80s band, For Against, who had the same ability to take Factory/4AD elements and influences and meld them so nicely with classic eighties American college rock, they kind of sounded like this amazing hybrid of Joy Division and R.E.M. With new romantic vocals that totally tap into vintage Depeche Mode and New Order territory, we also hear echoes of other lesser known yet great bands of this era like Soul Merchants and Jet Black Factory. With so many new bands lately referencing that era and looking to similarly vintage sounds for inspiration, it's so refreshing to hear an actual relic from that period, too bad it sadly somehow slipped through the cracks, but now we can finally enjoy this set of songs, so worthy of much wider appreciation. Limited to a pressing of 500, each copy has been silk screened and contains two Eleven Pond postcards as well as a sticker from Dark Entries, the label who mark this as their first release and who we have a pretty good feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more from in the future. Grab one while you can, as this is highly recommended!

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In the early days of 1980, Severed Heads was a proper group, with principle engineer Tom Ellard accompanied at various times by Richard Fielding and Garry Bradbury. So when Ellard sporadically recorded his own solo work during this time period, he released it under his own name. By 1983 or so, Severed Heads was wholly under his control. That said, the Tom Ellard solo works do not fall far from the creative / aesthetic tree of Severed Heads - agitprop electronics, tape-loop errata, skewed post-punk detours, and the occasionally beautiful electro-pop melody tossed in for good measure. Eighties Cheesecake was a cassette of Ellard's that came right on the heels of a short-lived publishing venture called Dogfood Production System, which kicked out four lps from the eccentric community of bleak Aussie post-punk in 1981 but was unable to pay back the $5000 loan, thus forcing him to discontinue that venture. So, he (and Severed Heads) went back to dubbing cassettes through his cottage industry Terse Tapes. Jump forward some 30 years, and an older, more cynical Ellard discovered somebody selling the Eighties Cheesecake cassette online "for a stupid amount of money." His immediate reaction was to crank out an unlimited cdr edition of the cassette. Part out of the desire to confuse / frustrate the populace, part out of necessity to trim down the amount of material to fit onto vinyl, Ellard's recapitulation of Eighties Cheesecake contains only some of the material from that aforementioned cassette, with ancillary tracks from another cassette entitled Snappy Carrion, and previously abandoned tracks that got surgically stitched back together. No matter how you slice it, the Dark Entries release of Eighties Cheesecake is a corker or an album. These are punchy, taut electro-tracks with scabs of culture jamming samples, cheeky attitudes, and hyperbolic anxiety. Some of the tracks found on this version were later included in the Vinyl On Demand boxset of early Severed Heads experiments; though what Dark Entries released is entirely of the industrial pop vernacular. It's notable that Ellard dots the album with the iconic TB303, the bass-sequencer that was a failure for Roland for its intended use but later became the signature instrument for acid house and Detroit techno. For all of the acclaim that was put on the instrument throughout the years, Ellard seeths that "it was the worst piece of shit" in the liner notes. Piss and vinegar aside, Eighties Cheesecake makes for an exquisite revisitation!

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YES! Sweden's Elope are back. One of our favorite discoveries of 2004, their No Name Album was Beatlesly (or Wingsy), Neil Youngish, sorta stonery, and maybe a little Stonesy, authentically retro '70s classic rock sounding, utterly entrancing, mostly mellow pure POP genius! So we're excited to hear their new one, 3WD (three wheel drive?? somebody clue us in... maybe now we understand why their first album was more or less untitled). And additionally excited to learn that this is only the first of two new Elope albums due out this year, this one supposedly being the more rockin' one, with another cd coming this fall entitled 9 Distilled Dreams that will focus on mellower, slower, quieter material. So how's 3WD? Well we couldn't be happier. It is on the uptempo side -- they even break out a boogie now and then -- but still has the wonderfully laidback vibe we loved about their debut. And their abilities in the pop songsmithery department haven't diminished at all. Elope's honeyed vocals and harmonies help give a gentle glow to the hard-rocking energy on display. Reference points, '60s/'70s retro and otherwise ('cause they sound modern too): The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, Redd Kross (but not soo nyahh nyahh nyahh), and maybe even a little bit Elliott Smith if he had been more rockinger... And definitely If you like Dungen (especially the poppier side to their psych-pop equation) you should definitely be aware of their talented countrymen Elope. Totally recommended, and now we're impatiently awaiting the next one!!

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With the demise of Atari Teenage Riot due to Carl Crack's untimely death, Digital Hardcore's mainman Alec Empire continues to preach / sing / scream to the hordes of disaffected electro-punk youth. On the first disc of this set, Empire's tactics remain consistent with the ATR output, as heavy duty punk explosions signified by the relentless samples of gated, grindcore riffs are punctuated by huge 909 throbbing drum kicks and stabs of searing white noise. Not surprisingly, "Intelligence And Sacrifice" finds Empire aligning himself more with the industrial / metal crossovers of Ministry and the guitar crunch attacks from the mid-'90s Wax Trax! clones. The second disc lands more in a disjointed acid breakbeat / micro-glitch realm, that is as good as anything Mille Plateaux / Ritornell has been releasing during the past few months. Quite effective, but neither of the two aesthetic sides of Alec Empire can be purported as entirely groundbreaking.

RealAudio clip: Everything Starts With A Fuck
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End Of Your Garden was a minimal-wave / post-punk quartet from Denmark, whose "Celebration" single from 1981 has just been reissued (on a split lp with Da Ma Vaere Belgiere) via Dark Entries. And this disc features those four tracks, plus four bonus tracks (two in the studio and two live recordings). Their skeletal arrangements for cheap electronics, drum machines, violin, guitar, bass, and vocals that all come together like Siglo XX trying to work out Young Marble Giants covers. The vocals alternate between monotone male vocals from Benny Woitowitz and Jan Laursen with a guest spot on female vocals by the breathy Angie White on the downbeat and slinky tune "Don't Walk Away In Silence." The other tracks, especially the anthemic "Celebration" and the messthetical "The Autumn" are considerably more up-tempo and urgent in their delivery. "Test" is one of the bonus tracks, and had appeared as another single from EOYG's Replik Muzick, with a two-note arrangement for guitar and synth plopped upon a noisy drum machine groove that Cold Cave might have very well lifted for their Cremations album. Agitated guitar noise gives more of a This Heat impression towards of the end of this track, and makes us wonder why nothing else was released from EOYG or anything from any of the members of the band, who all seemed to disappear around 1982. The other studio track and the live material also offer a lot of intriguing art-punk electronics, that certainly would lend themselves to a long career throughout the '80s. But alas, this is all there ever was.

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More post-punk / minimal-wave obscurities by way of Dark Entries. Both of these bands were Danish outfits dating back to the early '80s, and don't seem to share much beyond their Danish good looks and the fact that both of these recordings had been released by the small Replik Muzick imprint. End Of Your Garden is more in keeping with the minimal wave vibe that Dark Entries has been promoting, through a skeletal arrangements for cheap electronics, drum machines, violin, guitar, bass, and vocals that all come together like Siglo XX trying to work out Young Marble Giants covers. The vocals alternate between monotone male vocals from Benny Woitowitz and Jan Laursen with a guest spot on female vocals by the breathy Angie White on the downbeat yet slinky "Don't Walk Away In Silence." The other tracks are considerably more up-tempo and urgent in their delivery. The first cut from Da Ma Vaere Belgiere is a deadringer for what Interpol had been producing at the beginning of their career with this impassioned, darkly tainted post-punk with death disco rhythms, galloping basslines, and spiky guitars. Again, Siglo XX (alongside Crispy Ambulance) pops up as a reference through the monotone vocals and the downcast mood set throughout the rest of the tracks, and a less obscure citation is made on their final track which lifts Robert Smith's riff from "M" of Seventeen Seconds. Not a bad thing at all! All of the material had been released as 7" singles back in the early '80s and now has been lovingly remastered and repackaged by Dark Entries. Recommended as with everything on the label!

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Very impressive. Much less randomly aurally assaultive than her previous works. Atari Teenage Riot's Ms Endo has steadied her aim, and carefully selected her angles of attack. Not a constant barrage of pummelling abrasiveness, but instead more of a

RealAudio clip: One Night Domination
RealAudio clip: The Program And The Brides
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Ultra limited cassette from Ensemble Economique, aka Brian Pyle, 1/2 of Humboldt avant abstractionists Starving Weirdos and RV Paintings. We've long loved the SW's sprawling rhythmic dronescapery, and on his own, Pyle explores similar sonic territory, but Pyle's approach sans partners seems to be more dense and dark, caustic and abrasive, the rhythmic element balancing the atmospheric elements, like here on the title track, which spreads out over all of the first side. A thick, swirling low end thrum oozes and undulates, it's a hazy blurred rumble, over which Pyle layers heaving shards of crunch, thick throbs, deep bell-like tones, rhythmic machine gun stutters, all of which pile up and overlap, creating a soft cacophony of clatter and crunch, chug and churn, a strangely haunting, and sorta noisy, almost industrial creepscape, that sounds like some weird hybrid of Wolf Eyes, Philip Jeck and Umberto performed by some strange robotic minimalist chamber ensemble. A swirling, heady, and darkly psychedelic barrage of loops and rhythms, layers and textures, mesmerizing and intense. The flipside is another permutation of Pyle's abstract beat laden drones, another thick swirling morass of sitar-like buzz and sci-fi synth squelch, this time the beats buried, little flurries of stutter and shuffle, squalls of glitchy tangle, more coloring the proceedings than driving them. The last track is a tense soundtracky stretch of layered buzz, haunting melody, a sprawl of pulsing high end over deep ominous rumbles, like the music from the scariest moment in some lost Italian giallo, stretched out into minutes instead of seconds, all tension, no release, brooding and intense, haunting and mesmerizing, fantastic stuff. LIMITED TO 120 COPIES! We only have a handful direct from Mr. Pyle himself when he was in town, and it's very likely that these are the last copies we'll be able to get...

First time available on vinyl, Sheik Aljama has long been heralded as one of the finer albums from the long-running Spanish industrial project Esplendor Geometrico. The recordings here began as early as 1986, but the album didn't see completion until 1991. Sheikh Alkama is laced with Arabic samples, percussion, and radio broadcasts, and given the entire catalogue from Muslimgauze who genetically fused Arabic modalities within an industrial agenda, Shiekh Aljama will now and forever be compared to Muslimgauze. There's plenty to separate Shiekh Aljama from Muslimgauze though, but context is key to understanding this album. Cabaret Voltaire may have been the earliest to use Arabic samples within a bleak form of proto-electronica; and these eerie dislocations of Arabic sounds from "the other" came as an anti-colonial diatribe against what the philosopher Edward Said described as Orientalism. Both Muslimgauze and Esplendor Geometrico took those ideas much further than Cabaret Voltaire's appetite for sensuality. For Muslimgauze, the noise and Arabic rhythms were in response to very specific contemporary political events taking place in the Middle East; but for Esplendor Geometrico, the album cites the fall of the Republic of Cordoba in the 11th Century with Arabic and Islamic culture being driven out of the Iberian peninsula. Esplendor Geometrico's mesmerizing rhythms sizzle with corrosive noise and metal-bashed clamor; and the sampled chants seem positioned more as subliminals than as overt citations. "Medinati" looks back to EG's pioneering industrial work in the early '80s, more in keeping with the direct-action pummel of Test Dept; but immediately following this is the disorienting yet hypnotizing dervish of "Descontrol" with its spasmodic dromedary rhythms and shrouded megaphone barking. Like Muslimgauze, Esplendor Geometrico builds a didactic framework and allows the aesthetics of their rhythm and noise to flourish within. It's a great album to have back in print; and very strange to think this has never been on vinyl until now.

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Can't really tell you much about Etat Brut, other than the limited information provided by Sub Rosa. EB were an obscure industrial duo from Belgium operating between 1978 and 1983, with connections to the transgressive collective Club Moral and the Cabs-inspired Pseudo Code. Supposedly, both of the individuals in Etat Brut were named Phillipe and went on to become science teachers after leaving all of this junk, noise, and squalid rhythm behind. But that's all the information we could dig up, which is a bit disappointing, as we'd love to know more about these guys, we imagine Club Moral must have published something about the group in their Force Mental zine. Anyway, for those keen on the more brutal / guttural / abject side of industrial culture (e.g. TG's Second Annual Report, Factrix' Sheintot, or SPK's Leichenshrei), this is a very compelling document of primitive sound-demolition with an equally primitive approach to deconstructing music into its rawest elements - noise, rhythm, screams, more noise, and plenty of aggro / provocateur antics. The post-punk monochord basslines and drum machine anti-groove of "Homme Nus" is a compellingly bleak track of Frankensteinian proportions, where "Crash" conveys a dehumanized atmosphere through grim blorping electronics, musique concrete techniques, and cut-up dialogue that could very well allude to JG Ballard if only we understood French. Crumbling tape machinations, rhythms looped from shortwave radio beacons, fucked-up noise, and guttural vocalizations fill in the blanks, very prescient of what Atelecine is attempting to recreate nowadays and holding up very well against the better known projects we listed earlier. The cd comes with two bonus tracks not found on the vinyl, btw.

MPEG stream: Hommes Nus
MPEG stream: Douce Nuit
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For those who love rhythm, attention! Is it Fire?, Jessie Evans' first solo record, has enough percussion to satisfy even the most energetic dancefloor junkie. Latin- and African-inspired beats programmed by Jessie are masterfully enhanced with live percussion performed by Toby Dammit (of Iggy Pop fame) and, on a few tracks, none other than Budgie (of the Banshees/Creatures). For the most part, the instrumentation is kept to a minimum, letting the rhythm drive the songs. Saxophone and bass played by Jessie add melody, and the occasional trumpet and other horns (played by Martin Wenk of Calexico) enhance the Latin air. A couple of songs are even sung in Spanish. Synths pop up every once in a while, and, except on a track or three, are left buried in the mix, serving only to add a little flavor. Sometimes, as on the last Vanishing LP, the vocals are fuzzed out into incomprehension, more of a washy layer than a narrative, opting to let the drums tell the story. And what a story they tell! Don't misunderstand: there's a lot going on within every track. Jessie had been bringing us great music for years, now: The Subtonix, The Vanishing, Autonervous. Is it Fire? is a strong notch on the belt of an artist who will hopefully continue to bring us great music for a long time.

MPEG stream: Is it Fire?
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Eyeless In Gaza's troubadour songs could be of courtly loves or of the occultish mysticism found on the soundtrack to "The Wicker Man," and seeping with the dark rich production and theatrical vocals that wouldn't be out of place on any of This Mortal Coil's albums.

After months of digging, we were finally able to track some of these down. For those of you not in the know, Factrix just happen to be AQ faves Wolf Eyes favorite band, so much so that not only do they try to sound like them, but to this day they continue to send their industrial-doom heroes letters of gratitutde and worship! Factrix originally manufactured their proto-Wolf Eyes sound in San Francisco some 20+ years ago. The history of underground music on the West Coast in the late '70s is not an easy one to trace. Unlike the punk explosion in England or New York, the influences and disturbances of the musical circuits manifested collusions of ideas that never really fit into the marketable ideas of punk or new wave. Even before those terms were commonplace, California was home to such anomalies in artrock as the Residents and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, who both experimented freely with technology, dadaism, culture jamming, and the detritus of post-psychedelia and bad acid trips. This was the environment that also spawned such genre unfriendly projects as The Screamers, Savage Republic, Non, Survival Reseach Laboratories, Nervous Gender, Negativland, and -- Factrix. In truth, SF's Factrix belonged to the original Industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, although their take on trangressive themes and their grim abuse of technology never reached as wide an audience as those icons of Industrial Records. In their short lifespan from 1978 - 1982, Factrix developed a language that clearly rivalled that of their European comrades; but in many ways, Factrix owed their sound to their San Francisco roots, as they inverted the paisley pretenses of psychedelia into a grim seance of sound in which free love became sexual taboos, universal peace became soul-crushing dread, and transcendence became morbidity. This inversion of psychedelia used many of the same tools of Haight-Ashbury in composing through non-structured improvisations as well as through a steady diet of psilocybin mushrooms; but the sound came out all wrong. Factrix devolved '70s pop banalities into dissonant slabs of noise with squiggling guitar feedback and all-encompassing dirges from over-distorted basslines, with a continuous, tinny pulse from an abused drum machine. The process of free association carried over in the vocal duties, which were typically shared amongst the chief protagonists Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, and Joseph Jacobs, although industrial culture celeb Monte Cazzaza was also known to offer his demented lisp to Factrix. While not presented as a 'best-of' collection, "Artifact" features the best material that Factrix had produced, including all of the tracks from their seminal "Schentot" LP on Adolescent Records and a ton of live material, which has been digitally salvaged so as to sound great. "Artifact" is an essential artifact, in fact and a great surprise!

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About ten years ago, we championed the San Francisco industrial prodigies Factrix via their Artifact 2cd anthology released on Storm, in fact, we made it a Record Of The Week. That went out of print quickly; so we are now quite grateful to Superior Viaduct for at last reissuing two of this band's seminal recordings! Factrix originally manufactured their proto-Wolf Eyes sound in San Francisco some 30+ years ago. The history of underground music on the West Coast in the late '70s is not an easy one to trace. Unlike the punk explosion in England or New York, the influences and disturbances of the musical circuits manifested collusions of ideas that never really fit into the marketable ideas of punk or new wave. Even before those terms were commonplace, California was home to such anomalies in artrock as the Residents and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, who both experimented freely with technology, dadaism, culture jamming, and the detritus of post-psychedelia and bad acid trips. This was the environment that also spawned such genre unfriendly projects as The Screamers, Savage Republic, Non, Survival Research Laboratories, Nervous Gender, Negativland, and - Factrix. In truth, SF's Factrix belonged to the original Industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, although their take on transgressive themes and their grim abuse of technology never reached as wide an audience as those icons of Industrial Records. In their short lifespan from 1978 - 1982, Factrix developed a language that clearly rivalled that of their European comrades; but in many ways, Factrix owed their sound to their San Francisco roots, as they inverted the paisley pretenses of psychedelia into a grim seance of sound in which free love became sexual taboos, universal peace became soul-crushing dread, and transcendence became morbidity. This inversion of psychedelia used many of the same tools of Haight-Ashbury in composing through non-structured improvisations as well as through a steady diet of psilocybin mushrooms; but the sound came out all wrong. Factrix devolved '70s pop banalities into dissonant slabs of noise with squiggling guitar feedback and all-encompassing dirges from over-distorted basslines, with a continuous, tinny pulse from an abused drum machine. The process of free association carried over in the vocal duties, which were typically shared amongst the chief protagonists Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, and Joseph Jacobs. Scheintot was the only studio album from Factrix, originally released on Adolescent Records in 1981. Its dark lysergic murk and obsessive decomposition crawls through scabrous guitars, clanking metal, distorted electronics, shadow-cast vocals and atmospheric doom, certainly paralleling the death-factory churn of TG's Second Annual Report and SPK's Leichenshrei. It must be stated that all of the tracks here (including the cd's two bonus tracks!) were present on the aforementioned Artifact 2cd; but with that long out of print, this becomes a recommended purchase!

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About ten years ago, we championed the San Francisco industrial prodigies Factrix via their Artifact 2cd anthology released on Storm, in fact, we made it a Record Of The Week. That went out of print quickly; so we are now quite grateful to Superior Viaduct for at last reissuing two of this band's seminal recordings! Factrix originally manufactured their proto-Wolf Eyes sound in San Francisco some 30+ years ago. The history of underground music on the West Coast in the late '70s is not an easy one to trace. Unlike the punk explosion in England or New York, the influences and disturbances of the musical circuits manifested collusions of ideas that never really fit into the marketable ideas of punk or new wave. Even before those terms were commonplace, California was home to such anomalies in artrock as the Residents and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, who both experimented freely with technology, dadaism, culture jamming, and the detritus of post-psychedelia and bad acid trips. This was the environment that also spawned such genre unfriendly projects as The Screamers, Savage Republic, Non, Survival Research Laboratories, Nervous Gender, Negativland, and - Factrix. In truth, SF's Factrix belonged to the original Industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, although their take on transgressive themes and their grim abuse of technology never reached as wide an audience as those icons of Industrial Records, even as Factrix teamed up with fellow San Franciscan provocateur Monte Cazazza for this Spartan yet very caustic live recording. California Babylon was originally released by Subterranean Records back in 1982. There are songs lurking throughout the scalding guitar noise, announced through repetitive, lurching basslines that sound like Flipper tunes played at super slow-motion. Growling slabs of toxic noise, grim electronic murk, tape collages (including some rather diabolical rants from somebody who sounds a lot like Jim Jones), and plenty of guttural No Wave deconstruction spew out from underneath those bass throbs, with Monte Cazazza occasionally spitting his own transgressive venom with his unmistakable, devilish lisp. There's even an appearance from Z'ev on a couple tracks clanking on found metal objects! The bonus tracks on California Babylon are pretty amazing, we have to say; and all of these were in fact featured on that aforementioned Artifact compilation. On these tracks, the trio was certainly honing their songwriting craft, but they had not eschewed the noise, the murk, nor the bad vibes. "Silver River" is an awesome slab of downer, drone-rock orchestration that could very easily be mistaken for some New Zealand / Expressway gem by Gate or Alastair Galbraith, where "No Trees" reprises Factrix' searing guitar noise with staccato punk vocals and deconstructed post-punk basslines. The accompanying dvd (which comes only with the cd edition, not the vinyl) features "Night Of The Succubus", the video that was shot at the same California Babylon live recordings. Like Scheintot, California Babylon is an essential document of San Francisco's industrial culture!

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Fetish 69. The name says everything, right? Well, perhaps not on this double CD of remixes and collaborations. With a name as bad as Fetish 69 (implying some horrid diva-house disaster or worse a My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult sex-horror-shock industrial

On this release for this year's Back To Black Friday Record Store Day (a sort of mini second part to April's big RSD extravaganza), the Flaming Lips offer up their song from the Ender's Game soundtrack, and it's classic Flaming Lips, at least the more modern iteration, bombastic, cotton candy megawatt orchestral psych pop, swirling FX, martial drumming, lots of shimmering synths, keening vocals, aching harmonies, lilting melodies, twisted sci-fi production, everything gauzy and reverby and prismatic. The rest of the tracks get a bit weirder, but unlike past B side excursions, they don't drift to far from the polished sympho-pop of the title track, there's the broody, pulsing sci-fi synthiness of "If They Move, Shoot 'Em", that eventually blossoms into some weird horn driven future pop bliss out, the aching heartfelt ballad that is "Is The Black At The End Good", that sounds like it could have been plucked right off their Yoshimi record, the minor key synth swirl cosmic ballad "Think Like A Machine, Not A Boy", and the loping, prog-pop of "Wolf Children, which is maybe the darkest and most dramatic of the bunch, until finally, the record winds down with the sprawling 10 minute closer, "Assassin Beetle - The Dream Is Ending", which starts off sounding like their recent full length the Terror, sort of krauty and spacey and creepy, before gradually morphing into a strange bit of orchestral exotica/cosmica, swirling faux strings, skittery, stuttery rhythms, robotic synth blurts, the vibe super cinematic and epic, building to a wild, noisy, grinding, distorted psychedelic coda, and more than the title track, sounding like music that could have accompanied one of the big battle scenes in the aforementioned big budget sci-fi blockbuster... Very few copies left, and it was meant to be a Black Friday / Record Store Day release, so when we run out, we may not be able to get more...

MPEG stream: Peace Sword (Open Your Heart)
MPEG stream: Wolf Children
MPEG stream: Assassin Beetle - The Dream Is Ending