[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 6201 through 6250 of 19388.

Now available on vinyl. Packaged in a super deluxe woodcut looking chip board sleeve! This record is so Aquarius it almost feels like they made it just for us. And you of course! Taking all sorts of crazy stuff that we love and stuffing it all into a single band. Ostensibly, Forensics are a metal band, a really heavy, metal band. But their peculiar brand of metal includes, extended hypnotic bass-heavy post rock work outs, dreamy dark ambience, full on fuzzed out stoner rawk (think Boris' Heavy Rocks), crushing minimal sludge and mathy spazz rock. But somehow it all fits together perfectly. Like Neurosis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Codeine, Bastro, Dazzling Killmen and Old Man Gloom all got together to jam, and this is what came out. Super dramatic and epic, lengthy super repetitive jams that give way to squalls of metallic fury that then give away to creeping minor key slowcore. Chaotic bursts of grinding spastic metal bookended by Slint-ish hypnorock. Huge blackened slabs of glacial riffage that decay into pulsing minimal krautrock. A massive, crushingly heavy, emotionally compelling cinematic soundscape. I swear if I was a film maker I would be getting bands like this to score my films for sure. Features members of Burning Airlines, Corn On Macabre, Pg.99, Trial By Fire, and Waiffle.

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A release we've had before, but not for a while, 'cause it's been hard to get -- but recently Allan & several of his friends really really got into Forest, so he managed to track down and order a bunch (though, probably not enough...). This double cd contains Forest's entire output -- two albums, one from 1969 and one from 1970 -- and should definitely be of interest to anyone into that whole '60s British folk-psych vibe. Y'know, if you liked the Tony, Caro & John or Fairport Convention reissues we've recently listed, or dig that excellent current interpreter of the genre, P.G. Six. Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make these albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound. This double cd reissue includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens.

RealAudio clip: A Glade Somewhere
RealAudio clip: Fading Light
RealAudio clip: Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway
RealAudio clip: Graveyard

Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading! Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! (Actually, there IS an upcoming black metal-inspired release from Jewelled Antler, a 3" cd-r by a group they call Tomes, but Tomes takes an even more subtle approach than "Winter Howl"...look for that here at AQ soon!) Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.

RealAudio clip: Enburnst The Christians
RealAudio clip: Winter Howl

It was only a matter of time. If Forest Swords hadn't done it, someone definitely would have, but hard to imagine it could have sounded as good as this. DRONESTEP. That's what they call it. A fusion of dark post-rock ambient drone music and skittery spaced out dubstep. Warm languid guitars, brooding atmospheres, and laid back downtempo grooves. In the wrong hands it definitely could have been lame, but Forest Swords nailed it, the result so organic and warm and mesmerizing, odds are the last thing you'll be thinking about is what to call it. Instead you can just sit back, and let these lush droned out grooves carry you off. Had this not been on Olde English Spelling Bee, it certainly wouldn't have been out of place on some upstart dubstep 12" label, it definitely has the same sort of lugubrious soporific feel as Burial or Kode9, murky, washed out, muted, muddy and bass heavy, but instead of being sample based, guitars unwind, spidery melodies all tangled up in clouds of hazy reverb, vocals drift in and out all spectral and ethereal, in fact if anything, it's like some awesome, nineties slowcore jam, Codeine, or Seam, or someone like that, remixed by Portishead, transformed into a different kind of slowcore, a bleak, moonlit, forest dancefloor slowcore, everything bathed in dark blues and soft blacks, smokey and gauzy, the beats skeletal and minimal, the guitars chiming, glistening and glimmering, the bass, rumbling and throbbing, a rib cage rattling hum, samples woven into the mix, but doused in effects, so vocals becomes little swirling clouds of truncated melody, and melodies drift heavenward like wisps of grey smoke. Every track here is a smoldering late night blur, a bleary ear-ed slither and skitter through some soft focus soundscape, dreamlike and hypnotic. Gorgeously dark, otherworldly, warmly mysterious, and darn close to being our favorite new record this year... Comes with a download coupon as well...

We've said it many times before, but the best album discoveries are the ones that come totally out of nowhere. Forests came to us on a tip from a friend, a Taiwanese band with little in the way of press or internet presence, and one minute into the first track we heard and we were hooked. Think "Mix Up" era Cabaret Voltaire but with the a drummer that falls somewhere between the skeletal pulse of Disappears and the repurposed junk-drumming of Einsturzende Neubauten. A lysergic swirl of strange, effects-laden synths and electronics, dark, brooding post-punk bass lines, hypnotic rhythms, and monotone vocals, all with a kind of outsider approach that makes you wonder if they've even heard the bands they sound like. Quite a welcome departure from their previous incarnation as a more Sebadoh/Pavement style indie rock band, we must say. Weird, awesome, and highly recommended! (We got these direct from the band in Taiwan, so if/when we run out, we will get more but it might take a little while, just fyi.)

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***Jawbreaker alert!!!**** Man we haven't been able to utter those words in a long while, and as you might know by now all things Jawbreaker related strike our interest right away as they were really one of our favorite bands from the '90s. After they called it quits lead man Blake Schwarzenbach emerged with a new band called Jets To Brazil whose debut still holds as one of the best moments of that whole emo sound, a sound that would become big business for so many others in years to follow. With his new band Forgetters, he's joined by former Against Me! drummer Kevin Mahon as well as unknown to us bassist Caroline Paquita. The sound of Forgetters is much more urgent and punkish then Jets To Brazil, in fact it recalls early Jawbreaker in such pleasing ways. Scharzenbach's vocals are as impassioned and honest sounding as ever and his lyrics continue to be so poignant and poetic. Four great songs sure to please fans of Jawbreaker, as it's totally hitting the spot for us! Comes with a coupon for a digital download of all the tracks.

Never thought we'd be able to list this. Everytime we got it in, it would go too quickly, just flying out the door by word of mouth we guess. Clearly this '90s Norwegian black metal band has a cult following! Then we thought that this triple cd box had gone out of print. But thankfully No Colours just pressed up some more, and we think we scored enough copies to dare list it, even though the label may be out of it already. So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything, despite song titles like "Grip Of Frost" and "Dimension Of The Blackest Dark". As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." That by itself would be enough to explain this band's appeal. But our sensibilities here at AQ are further stoked by the fact that the more you delve into these discs, the more you find yourself wondering just what the hell you're listening to...as Forgotten Woods mysteriously morphs by the third cd into something that sounds like jazz-inflected, naive indie-rock mopery, with clean jangly guitars that starts to sound like Felt or The Church or even Maher Shalal Hash Baz! Other tracks seem to echo The Cure, all slow and post-punkish... what a weird band! We can only wonder at what they thought they were doing, and wonder even more so at why they're so accepted by the grim black metal underground. So, even though this is a $25 import triple-disc set, it's the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness. And in case you're wondering, this does collect the entirety of Forgotten Woods' output (three albums, plus one recorded under the name Joyless) from the years indicated in the title...

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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. ""A fork is a cold shiny tool / To pierce, tear and ingest / Whoever has the fork in hand / Controls the meal of its choice." The opening lines for the Lard song, "Forkboy" which in turn gave the name for an Oulu-based quartet formed in 1993. Born out of love for AmRep noise, AC/DC, Dead Kennedys and driven by twenty-something angst, Forkboy recorded three demos and one previously unreleased session during their 6 year existence and it's all documented here on one disc. Furiously rocking songs packed with gritty guitars and feedback, rhythm section heavy as an elephant turd and as the band puts it, "lots of shouting". The original recordings have been carefully restored and remastered by Pentti Dassum and the sleeve features original artwork and photos by the band along with liner notes. If you were there during the late 90s noise rock craze or if you have only recently discovered its splendour or if you just have a boner for hidden gems of Finnish punk/noise/rock, this CD is for you!"

Limited cd-r pressing of 300! We've just received two releases from these young post rock instrumentalists! Recirc is their limited edition ep on the terrific Bay Area indie label Three Ring Records. As with their debut album The Form And Fate Of Lakes which we've also got, Recirc featured somber black and white photography on the cover and it suits the music well -- moody expanses which when observed closer burst with textures and dynamics. Fiery and jagged at times, thick and brooding at others, all tempered by delicately picked lilting guitar passages. Sure, we've heard the 'loud-quiet-loud' done a-plenty but we're not complaining 'cause these guys do it exceptionally well!

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We've just received two releases from these young post rock instrumentalists! This one is their full length debut on the terrific Bay Area indie label Three Ring Records (we've also got a limited cd-r, the Recirc ep). The black and white photography of distant glacial landscapes featured on the cover suits the music well -- moody expanses which when observed closer burst with textures and dynamics. Fiery and jagged at times, thick and brooding at others, all tempered by delicately picked lilting guitar passages. Sure, we've heard the 'loud-quiet-loud' done a-plenty but we're not complaining 'cause these guys do it exceptionally well!

MPEG stream: Emoticons Vs Decepticons
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Sometimes, after listening to all of the ambient / improvised / noise / drone music we so dearly love, part of us truly longs for songs, and pop, and hooks, and choruses, and pretty singing, and cool arrangements. Which is precisely why there's no chance of our pop sweet tooth going sour any time soon. And when it comes to pop, we definitely have two distinct sides, our crashing, big guitar power pop pummel side, and our lush dreamy jangly sweet and subtle side. Every once in a while though, a band manages to touch on both, and of course, when that happens, we are in absolute pop heaven. Thus we have the Format, who definitely lean more toward the sweet jangle side of the spectrum, but manage at the same time to pack a secret serious powerpop punch. Dog Problems is a gorgeous collection of dizzying kaleidoscopic pop, lush and swirling, bouncy and crunchy, but moody and melancholic at the same time. Killer hooks constructed from sweetly distorted guitars, circus-y keyboards, shuffling rhythms, dreamy harmonies, and some seriously keening, near falsetto vocals that wail and swoop so charmingly. You can definitely hear bits and pieces borrowed from the Beach Boys, the Flaming Lips, Posies, Sloan, Postal Service and the Elephant Six Collective, but the Format, manage to turn all those bits and pieces into their own peculiar and perfect pop. We've been listening to this nonstop since we got it in! So good. Produced by retro power pop super hero Steve McDonald from Redd Kross!

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Former Ghosts is a primitive darkwave trio featuring two folks we know quite well, the teen goth chanteuse Zola Jesus and Xiu Xiu's emotionally wracked Jamie Stewart; but it's the third party who's responsible for penning all of the songs for Former Ghosts. That would be one Freddy Ruppert, who also records as brilliantly named solo project This Song Is A Mess But So Am I. Even though Zola and Jamie are the supporting cast in Former Ghosts, their unique theatricality is welcomed in Ruppert's dark cabaret of cheap synths wheezing out downer melodies. The Joy Division / early New Order axis is the most obvious influence on Ruppert's songwriting, alternating between peppy minor-chord tunes and maudlin electro-dirges; yet the production veers much closer to the John Maus ethos for warped home recordings. In fact, the track "Mother" could be straight out of New Order's Power, Corruption, and Lies, minus the lack of a Martin Hannett production in favor something much more jagged around the edges. Zola Jesus mostly keeps her vocals as backing chorales of sustained trills and ululations, but on a couple of tracks she steps forward to belt out those songs with operatic prowess. As affected and gloomy as Ruppert's monotone can be, the Zola Jesus tracks are probably the standouts on the album. Certainly one to place alongside Cold Cave, Blank Dogs, and of course Xiu Xiu and Zola Jesus. Great stuff.

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Wow, well, we thought we'd heard every weird-ass variation on black metal possible... but we had never heard black metal with autotuned vocals before, until now. That's right, autotune, the computer program used and abused by all of today's worst pop stars (and many amusing YouTube videos). In this black metal context, it's pretty funny, and clever, if you're not too "troo" to get into this obscure Norwegian duo's blend of blasting grimnity and (artificially enhanced) soaring melody... And autotune's not the only unusual feature of Formloff's "black metal", other factors that make this disc surreal and subversive include an obvious affinity for both '70s prog (including lots of groovy-proggy organ), and the latest in emo-pop electronica. And more. They have a kitchen sink approach that really works, maybe because it combines the sudden mood/genre swings with plenty of melody. So, there's techno beats on here, alongside hysterical screaming vokills, buzzsaw guitars, spacey electronic textures, symphonic metal, and even a chorus of dogs barking on the track "Gregor Samsa I Las Vegas"... yet it's catchy too. Yeah, yeah, it sounds a bit silly on paper, and we don't mind silly, but actually it seems like Formloff -aren't- just joking around, or at least that's the feeling we get, though all the singing, autotuned or otherwise (there's all kinds of gruff growling and funny voices as well) is in Norwegian, so we can't judge from the lyrics what the heck is really going on. Maybe a good thing. We imagine they're pretty bizarre though. This is the Norwegian duo Formloff's debut (and thus far, only) full-length, from 2006, recorded when the band members were still in their teens. Apparently the label that put this out folded not long afterwards, so this release never really was properly distributed. We recently acquired some copies from a friend of the band who thought we might like it... and we do! Pretty amazing stuff, actually, musically and conceptually, and if you're into genre-splicing, mashed-up weirdness a la Mr. Bungle, as well as the Nordic black metal of Darkthrone and Enslaved, you should definitely check out Formloff! To further elaborate on the "for-fans-of" thing, we should mention Sigh's Gallow's Gallery, also Arcturus, Shining, various bands on Garm of Ulver's Jester label, latter-day Master's Hammer, and Pan-thy-monium if you remember them. Not surprisingly, the cd booklet graphics aren't your usual black metal style either, referencing generic 1950s conformist Leave It To Beaver domesticity instead of the usual corpse paint and burning churches. Huh. Well we're enjoying this, and certainly curious about what's next from Formloff, as we're told they've got a new album in the works as well...

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Water Became Wild from Sara Forslund is the second release on the Time Sensitive Materials label (after the Classical, which we reviewed a few weeks back), a sublabel of Time Released Sound, who over the last couple years have releases a ton of amazingly beautiful (and beautiful packaged) avant ambience and mysterious pastoral drone music, most of which we've raved about right here on the aQ list. Time Sensitive Materials was launched to be a home for music that didn't quite fit on Time Released Sound, although Water Became Wild DOES have a more direct TRS connection, as Forslund was half of the duo Birch And Meadow, whose Butterflies And Graves album was a big hit around here. In our review of the Birch And Meadow record, we mention that Forslund is channeling classic seventies British folk, albeit surrounded by sounds more murky and droney, electronic and cinematic, all warped loops and field recordings, fields of buzz and crumble, but on Water Became Wild, obviously it's still Forslund's voice, but all of that experimental ambience is replaced by more standard instrumentation, acoustic guitars, moaning strings, clouds of cymbal shimmer, this time around it really DOES sound like seventies British folk, Forslund's voice, hushed and delicate, the arrangements lovely and crystalline, the vibe moody and melancholy, a beautifully rendered softly psychedelic folk record, seemingly out of time, but also timeless in it's personal resonance and haunting emotion. Fans of the usual Time Released Sound releases might be a bit thrown off, but folks into Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Shirley Collins even Comus, as well as modern practitioners of a similar sound like Fleet Foxes and Vetiver, will most definitely find themselves quite smitten. Unlike most Time Released Sound / Time Sensitive Materials releases, this one is a split release with a European label, who are handling the standard version, which means we ONLY have the deluxe version, which in this case is limited to just 63 copies, of which we only have 3 or 4, and like other deluxe additions on TRS is pretty stunning. Housed in a hinged, lidded box, with a magnetic seal, the box is decorated with a handstamped pattern, and covered with super striking photos of Forslund. Inside is a 3D diorama, under glass, and made from leaves and branches, collected from the Swedish forest where the pictures of Forslund were taken. Also inside is an 8 panel accordion style fold out insert with lyrics and more artwork, the cd housed in a black envelope, along with actual pages from Forslund's journals as well as Forslund's hand typed and signed Swedish poems, flecks of her pipe tobacco, and smudges of her lipstick. Obviously VERY limited. Once we sell out of the VERY few we have, we will NOT be able to get more.

Such a fantastic songwriting duo truly beloved by fans and critics alike! They simply do not make 'em like they used to. Together as The Go-Betweens, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan were virtually peerless in their pop excellence. Separately, each gent was a formidable and altogether distinct artist in his own right. Sadly Grant McLennan passed away last year at the age of 48. So needless to say, listening to this posthumous release is nothing short of heartbreakingly bittersweet. He left such a profound pop music legacy. The special deluxe 2cd edition compiles the 'best' of their respective solo works as selected by the artists' themselves. Who better to choose the cream of the crop? The deeper, more robustly voiced Robert Forster's songs were the more rugged, lonesome cowboy numbers whereas the softer spoken Grant McLennan's came across as the more sensitive, sweet and bookish. Delivering his straight-to-the heart, wise lyrics, he would sing in his unmistakable comfortingly gentle voice which was often accompanied by comparatively gutsier guitars. So damn good! Fans will probably already have the original albums from which all of these songs came, but even if you do, this makes an awesome mixtape for any fan of well-crafted pop. Don't miss... seriously! FYI: Beggars Banquet will be releasing the two cds separately at a later date.

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What a title! Don't know what the heck it means, but we love the sounds contained inside. Released on Jozef Van Wissem's Incunabulum imprint, this is a beautiful solo 12-string record by Chris Forsyth, Brooklynite multi-instrumentalist and founding member of Peeesseye (PSI). But this has a different approach to the solo guitar genre than we've heard before. Focusing on a restless back-porch style minimalism, Forsyth layers overlapping and slow repetitive cascades of mandala-like rhythms and patterns with subtly shifting melodic changes. Often undercut with organ drones, cymbal washes, and minimal percussion, the sounds unfold like intricate patterns of Oriental tapestry or Tibetan sand-paintings, captivating and mesmerizing us into circling and swirling trance-like states. Quite lovely and very limited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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A new album from this faery tale folk maiden! Her first two highly acclaimed albums certainly defined her otherworldly music as distinctly of another time and A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing is perhaps even more so (at least for us English monolinguals). Not only is it her interpretations of seven nineteenth century compositions by Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Robert Shumann, but it's sung entirely in German. If it weren't for the presence of guest player Brian Goodman's sinewy, distorted guitar, you could easily imagine this being some recently unearthed ancient folk artifact. That said, it is the dissonance of the electrified strings that make for a terrific contrast to Foster's oft-ghostly serenades. Check out the sixth track "Auf Einer Burg". Wow. Spellbinding.

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What better current singer to tackle texts by reclusively prolific American poet Emily Dickinson than the elusive Josephine Foster? Translating 26 out of the thousands of poems Dickinson wrote into the gentlest of song forms, many matching the brevity of the originals, must have been a daunting task. Poems do not translate into songs as easily as one might think, just as songs don't always translate into poetry. But not really since Aaron Copland in 1950 has anyone really delved so deeply into the idea. And Foster is largely successful. The arrangements on guitar or ukulele are very minimal and while her lilting delivery can be a little same-y, each song on its own, unearths a tiny jewel of intimate beauty that is quite something to behold. The material may be too rich for one sitting (unless your knitting on a rainy Sunday perhaps), but we think this might be the perfect sublime ephemera for the shuffle feature on your iPod.

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If you picked up last year's All the Leaves Are Gone album by folk singer Josephine Foster -- whose vocal stylings have caused us to dub her the Shirley Collins of Chicago -- you heard her with a nicely weird-making psychedelic rock backing band, The Supposed. Now she's back sans band, doing solo intimate acoustic folk numbers that hew even closer to the British folk tradition that's an obvious influence (Shirley Collins, if you weren't sure, is a '60s UK folk singer of reknown, whose tremblingly pure voice rescued rustic ballads from the mists of the past on her many LPs). The mists of the past hang heavily over Foster's entirely self-penned tunes too. Not just the Brit-folk but also oldtimey down-home blues/gospel too. This disc consists of fourteen tracks of pretty, pastoral, "cosmic madrigals" sung in her high, wavering, angelic voice, self-accompanied on guitar, kazoo, harp, bells, sitar, tambourine, tin whistle, wooden spoons and "black cat" (?) amongst other instrumentation. Willowy, melancholic, melodic... certainly something that anyone who has got a "contemporary indie acid-folk" section going in their music collection is probably gonna want! File with your Banharts and your Six Organs and your Espers and your Skygreen Leopards... But should we feel band reviewing this since we haven't yet got 'round to listing a bunch of the Shirley Collins reissues that we also recently got in stock?

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Another timeless gem from Chicago's Josephine Foster. Her third full length, This Coming Gladness is a heartfelt collection of breezy folk tunes that don't veer too far from Ms. Foster's usual stylings. Her wavering, Shirley Collins-ish voice we know and love is accompanied by Victor Herrero on lead guitar and Alex Nielson (Richard Youngs, Jandek) on drums. The two do a fine job of creating a warm, relaxed environment that perfectly envelops the voice and words of Ms. Foster. And inside on the sleeve is an awesome picture of the beautiful Ms. Foster herself, posing wearing a plastic armor breastplate, like an ancient warrior. What a charming gal.

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Now on vinyl! Probably our favorite Josephine Foster album. Here's the review from when it was first released, on cd: Chicago's Josephine Foster we'd heard before in the folk duo Born Heller. We immediately were impressed with her voice -- she's basically a dead ringer for Brit-folk legend Shirley Collins! But Born Heller was maybe a little bland, compared to this, where Foster's uncanny and timeless vocals are set in a more exciting, acid-psych folk-rock format. I know some people who are actually put off by this and Born Heller 'cause she sounds just so much like Shirley Collins, but you know, why not? If I could sing like this, I would! And for all we know, Foster's actually an English transplant who grew up at her grandmother's knee listening and learning old ballads and it's just in her blood. Even if she's just a Chicago hipster with good taste in old folk music, that's cool too. One to file with your Vetiver, and P.G. Six, and Six Organs, and so forth!

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2004 cd-r recording of live performances from the All The Leaves Are Gone tour with The Supposed.

MPEG stream: All The Leaves Are Gone
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The first (and before now, only) Fotheringay album from 1970 is one of our favorite records of the British folk era, but they were a group that from the beginning seemed like they were never meant to last. Led by a post-Fairport Sandy Denny and her husband, former Eclection guitarist Trevor Lucas, Fotheringay was more like a temporary dalliance away from the larger entity of Fairport Convention with Denny departing for solo stardom (and tragedy) after their first album, and most of the other members joining Fairport later on. A second album was in the works but never completed, well, until now that is! The Fledg'ling label has gone to great lengths to rescue the shelved tapes and restore the tracks to their seventies British folk glory. The sound is incredible and typical of Joe Boyd and using a light touch, sounds like a lost artifact from a previous era. While these are mostly traditional tunes and covers, their are five original compositions including two from Sandy Denny that have been little heard before now. We can't say that it betters the first album, but there are plenty of great songs for fans of this era. Named after the castle where Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded, it's interesting that after 38 years when this recording was started and long after it's two principle members have passed on, that the ghosts of the past are singing once more.

MPEG stream: John The Gun
MPEG stream: Eppie Moray
MPEG stream: Silver Thread and Golden Needles

At last, this excellent early '70s Brit-folk-rock album is back on cd, in a nice new edition complete with four live bonus tracks. Fotheringay features the exquisite, sweet vocals of the legendary Sandy Denny. The band was formed by Denny and her husband, former Eclection guitarist Trevor Lucas (who also sings here), shortly after she left Fairport Convention, releasing this self-titled LP 1970 (the same year Denny was voted the UK's top female vocalist in Melody Maker magazine). They only did this lone album before Sandy went solo, but it's definitely one of Sandy's best and essential for all fans of her previous brilliant albums with Fairport like Unhalfbricking and Liege & Lief. It's largely dreamy and pastoral with a country tinge (as with Lucas' "The Ballad Of Ned Kelly"). So lovely. In addition to original compositions by both Denny and Lucas, there's Fotheringay's album-closing arrangement of the traditional tune "Banks Of The Nile", a langorous, eight-minute epic, almost post-rock in scope, that's definitely one of this album's highlights. And as well, the band does a song each by Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot, and one of the added live tracks is Chuck Berry's "Memphis Tennessee".

MPEG stream: Winter Winds
MPEG stream: Peace In The End

The latest Darren Aronofsky film The Fountain has been eagerly anticipated by many folks around here (we dug his previous works Pi and Requiem For A Dream). Haven't had a chance to go to the theater yet, but we have had a chance to hear the movie's soundtrack which sparkles with its own magical light. It is a particularly nice surprise because it features new recordings by Mogwai and Kronos Quartet. They're performing compositions penned by Clint Mansell. Now, they couldn't help but be anything but a perfect musical fit for Aronofsky's visual splendor, could they? That said, this album is somberly wonderful all on its own. Close your eyes and sink in. Sweepingly epic and intricate and absolutely moving. A must for fans of both groups.

MPEG stream: The Last Man
MPEG stream: Tree Of Life

MPEG stream: The Summer Place
MPEG stream: Richie And Ruben
MPEG stream: Acela
MPEG stream: Action Hero

MPEG stream: '92 Subaru
MPEG stream: Someone To Love
MPEG stream: Yolanda Hayes

This is an amazing pop record. Really. In the way Weezer and OkGo! and a handful of other MTV bands make amazing and accessible (but still a teensy bit subversive) pop. Super well produced and lush and catchy and funny and clever. The only real problem with Fountains Of Wayne is the lyrics, which are pretty cringeworthy at moments. There are some clever bits and some really funny lines, but lots of it is simple and fluffy and very songwriting 101. But if you're in the mood for some summery, sweet, melancholy but rockin' pop, the kind that sounds so good blasting from your car stereo when the top is down and you're driving around aimlessly, with songs about how hot your friend's mom is, your favorite waitress, getting drunk and losing your wallet, and girls and love and all that stuff, then this may just hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Stacy's Mom
MPEG stream: Hey Julie
MPEG stream: Bright Future In Sales

Most DJ mix cd's end up leaving us a bit cold. Either the selections are too obvious, or the need to scratch and make it "funky" kind of kills the mood and wastes the good tracks that might be there. But leave it to Kieren Hebden (aka Four Tet) to get it just right! We would kill to walk into a club to find him behind the decks. Especially if this is the stuff that was flowing from the speakers. His taste is pretty damn immaculate and refreshingly varied as well. Starting off with the avant pioneer David Behrman (cofounder of Sonic Arts Union) and along the way dipping into everything from Heldon, Curtis Mayfield, Gong, Madvillian, Cabaret Voltaire, Heiner Stadler, Stereolab and so much more. Like the best DJ's, Hebden is a master of timing, pacing and flow. Seamlessly spinning from an early '80s electro jam to a classic Nonesuch explorer series track from Zimbabwe like they were always meant to be side by side. Keeping your body twitching and your synapses firing... what else could you want from a DJ? Highly recommended!!!

MPEG stream: Les Soucoupes Volantes Vertes (Heldon)
MPEG stream: Taireva (Shona People Of Rhodesia)
MPEG stream: Leapday Night, Scene 1 (David Behrman)

My Angel Rocks Back and Forth delivers pleasant, slightly sweet, non-threatening electronica by Fridge's post-rocker, Kieren Hebden. The sound is minimal and ambient using broken chimes, a little backwards feedback and a DJ Shadow kickdrum. This album is more just contemplative than overly challenging. Some very pleasant listening. It also includes a DVD disc featuring four music videos!

MPEG stream: My Angel Rocks Back and Forth
MPEG stream: All the Chimers

The super pretty and stirring full length from Four Tet begins with what sounds like a muted irregular heartbeat, the track then gradually fans out into an airy mingling of drum beat shuffles, glinting wistful piano melodies, chimey sparkles, reedy (oboe?) bleets, an occasional groovy bassline and a smattering of odd buzzing jolts. Actually the latter which happens only early on in the album closely resembles that sound when you slip up while playing that old board game Operation, and they're what keep the listener from completely drifting off on the mesmerizing lake of Four Tet. No complaints though, this album is quite simply a delight - layer upon layer of shimmering goodness that draws a very warm response every time we've played it in the store.

MPEG stream: Unspoken
MPEG stream: As Serious As Your Life

Latest release from former Skater Spencer Clark, whose partner in the Skaters, James Ferraro, was recently awarded record of the year honors by UK music mag The Wire, but as much as we dig Ferraro's stuff, we have to say, we often find ourselves more partial to Clark's outings, especially his project Monopoly Child Star Searchers, especially those early cd-r's, twisted murky soundscapes woven from woozy looped rhythms and blurred samples, dense and dizzying and druggy and dreamy, so we're always excited when we discover a new record from Clark. Fourth World Magazine is in fact Clark's new project, and in some ways it finds his sound drifting toward that of his former bandmate, this high concept record based on something called the Spectacle Of Light, which happens in Salt Lake City and concerns UFO's, as does most of Clark's recordings we seem to remember, hard to tell if it's a put on, or if all this spiritual stuff is real (or at least real to Clark), but ultimately it hardly matters, cuz musically it's real, and whatever the twisted concept, it gets woven into Clark's sonic flights of fancy, this one in particular opening up with swirling new agey synths, what sound remarkably like the music from one of those late night star chart segments on cable access, and thus like much of Ferraro's recent work, but from there on out, Clark definitely mixes it up, beginning with garbled voices, weird tape manipulation, and more hazy synth shimmer, peppered with weird bird call like squawks, before transitioning into a collage of warped looped melodies, playful and sunshiney, almost like a snipped of fifties film music as envisioned (or reworked) by the Caretaker. Soon those new agey synths return, but now with murky muted rhythms, which somehow transform the sound into something more raga like, then adding more of the garbled vocals until we finally reach the final track, and epic nearly sidelong jam, that might be our favorite stuff here, definitely harkening back to the aforementioned Monopoly Child Star Searchers cd-r's, all lo-fi Casio melodies, chaotic looped rhythms, skittery tangles over woozy collaged layers, everything muddy and smeared and gloriously washed out, a fantastic chunk of outsider psychedelic rhythmic drift. This is the first release on Clark's Pacific City Sound Visions label, and comes in a full color 12 page 12" x 12" jacket/book, with fuzzy photos, and plenty of text explaining (sort of) the Spectacle Of Light, of which this music is dedicated to.

The Second chapter of Clodagh Simonds experimental voice project trilogy continues to explore the tenuous boundaries of traditional songforms while collaborating with some heavyweight electronic composers such as Brian Eno, Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio) and Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound). Simonds is best known for her early '70s work with British Folk outfit Mellow Candle (she also appears on Current 93's new record), and her voice here remains tethered as pulsating sounds of harmonium and glass instruments, trumpets, and electronics float like ghosts through the ether-like arrangements. Like the previous chapter, it's very short, clocking in about 19 minutes, which may call into question the expense. But this project is not about casual listening. Like reading an Emily Dickinson poem (as the sticker on the front compares this to), you are meant to ponder and drink in every nuance, turn of phrase and weight of breath. Put your player on repeat, and you will not hear the same song twice.

MPEG stream: Huge (The Joy of Trouble)
MPEG stream: While You're Away

With so many stories circulated about legendary LA-based weirdo (many, including the man himself, might say "asshole") Kim Fowley, it can be easy to overlook the reality that he was, if nothing else, ridiculously prolific as a songwriter and producer. The amount of songs Fowley is responsible for is staggering and quite impressive. He appears to be of that rare breed that could crank out songs with ease and completely forget their existence by the time he had moved on to the next project. Even while many of these songs were probably viewed by Fowley himself as disposable pop fodder and a quick paycheck, they are incredibly enjoyable pieces of quirky '60s pop, stupid in the best way and just plain fun. Nostalgic in the most snarky way possible, a good portion of the songs concern themselves with teenage '50s high school themes (like the outrageous "Memories Of A High School Bride" by The Players (Vol. II), a programmatic soap opera saga complete with a tape-manipulated gossip chorus!), or swingin' sixties turn on, tune in, drop out freekdom, tongue seemingly in cheek, like Althea And The Memories' "Worst Record Ever Made" (Vol. I). There's plenty of just plain WTF weirdness too, like Donnie And The Outkasts' "Big Fat Alaskan" (also Vol. I). A bunch of Fowley-sung numbers crop up, delivered with a snotty awareness that makes them among the best tunes on here. Looking at the pictures within, the gangly Fowley sticks out like a sore thumb among the wide eyed bands and, ahem, teenage girls, who probably felt they were going to make it all the way to the top. Little were they aware of the madness that would see them ending up on these awesome compilations so many years later. Good stuff, both volumes equally recommended, get 'em both!

MPEG stream: The Renegades - Geronimo
MPEG stream: Kim Fowley - Big Sur, Bear Mountain, Ciro's, Flip Side, Protest Song
MPEG stream: The Players - Memories Of A High School Bride

MPEG stream: Bruce And Jerry - I Saw Her First
MPEG stream: Patterns - Late Late Show
MPEG stream: The Rituals - This Is Paradise

Laura Weinbach, songwriter and the voice behind Oakland's Foxtails Brigade, is pretty much a force of nature. Weinbach is a self-professed fan of Joanna Newsom, and it shows in the details densely and beautifully layered into her music and lyrics. She occasionally performs solo with just her voice and six-string nylon acoustic, or as a duo with string player Anton Patzner, and is able to mesmerize audiences with her intricate finger-picking and impressive vocal range. After a string of EPs and self-released cds, Foxtails Brigade has finally released a proper album, and its been a while since we've heard pop music with such incredible, almost baroque arrangements and instrumentation. Although Weinbach's perfectly punctuated vocals and fingerpicked guitar form the basis for most, if not all, of the songs, the album is filled and flushed out by an incredible band that includes long-time aQ favorite Josh Pollock on electric guitar (3 Leafs, DJ Female Convict Scorpion, Citay). Songs like "Nun But the Lost" really exemplify the band's range, moving from acoustic guitar to bird song to a filled out horn section to a bit of chaotic noise. "Dirtbags & Dozers" follows, which, except for Weinbach's voice being nothing like Scott Walker's, sounds like it could easily be a lost track off Scott 2 or 3. The arrangements are just that good. The group delicately walks a line between playful, synthy power pop and carefully structured macabre folk that, with all of their distinct influences, makes a sound entirely their own.

MPEG stream: We Are Not Ourselves
MPEG stream: Perfect Execution

Invariably whenever we play this in the store, a customer will ask, "Is This Gary Numan?". We can understand the confusion. Both artists are synth-wave pioneers and share a Ballardian sense of imagery of fetish-ized car crashes and cold urban architecture. But ultimately it was Foxx's role in the first incarnation of Ultravox!, one of the first British bands in the mid-to late seventies to combine electronics and rock in a frigid form of post-punk romanticism, that makes him the true innovator of the genre. Foxx, who left that band after three albums and before they found mainstream success, ambitiously pursued a solo career in the early eighties and created an influential studio, The Garden, where many bands recorded (including Depeche Mode, Brian Eno, Trevor Horn, Bronski Beat, The Cure, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tina Turner, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Tuxedomoon). Foxx, who has been having a revival lately touring with his new band John Foxx & the Maths, opening for OMD and recently doing a split 7" with The Soft Moon, might not have as well-known songs as Numan, Depeche Mode and his other contemporaries, but Foxx had decidedly more complex lyrics and a stronger sense of nuance when it comes to atmosphere and texture. This 2cd anthology is a great intro to his particular sound world, with both dystopian pop songs and Blade Runner-ish ambient themes. There are even solo recordings of some of the early Ultravox! material like "My Sex" and Dislocation". Not all of the material dates well, but as prolific as he was (this antholgy collects nearly 30 tracks), there are many more hits than misses.

MPEG stream: Glimmer
MPEG stream: No-one Driving
MPEG stream: Sunset Rising
MPEG stream: Cities of Light 5
MPEG stream: My Sex
MPEG stream: Burning Car
MPEG stream: Stepping Sideways

Hard to believe we've never listed this before, it's been reissued a bunch of times already, being a bit of a classic of underground USA '60s private press psych. Now it's out on cd again, with we're told a vinyl reissue upcoming on the Mexican Summer label too. So about time we gave it a write up, 'cause if you haven't heard it before and are at all into the 'early heavy' this is indeed one to check out! From LA, Fraction played druggy, Doorsy, psychedelic proto-proto-metal, loaded with loping, lumbering fuzz riffs. It's very sixties, hippy/biker garage heaviness, yet almost no longer dated, if Fraction were part of today's psych scene, they'd fit right in with Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, Dead Meadow, and suchlike. Well, except we'd be a bit surprised by the deep growling Jim Morrison style vocal intonations, a gruff voice that sways and screams with utmost sincerity and conviction, and truly elevates Fraction into ultra cult classic status. The singer's cryptic lyrics are vaguely Christian-Apocalyptic, and Fraction manages to make heavy (in the "that's heavy, maaaan" pass-the-joint sense) music to match. Recommended If You Like: Blue Cheer, High Tide, Sam Gopal, Iron Butterfly, Negative Space, B.F. Trike...

MPEG stream: Come Out Of Her
MPEG stream: Eye Of The Hurricane

Killer debut from this French one man post rock outfit, whose sound definitely leans toward Jesu and Nadja and that sort of fuzz drenched dirginess. From the first few second of the opening track, the 'band' launches into a blissed out hazy drift, programmed drums pound out a hypnotic beat, the guitars swirl, wreathed in thick crumbling fuzz, and then the vocals, holy cow, they sort of seal the deal as far as Jesu-ness is concerned, a dead ringer for Justin Broadrick's reverb drenched soft croon. If anything, imagine a more laid back, driftier dreamier Jesu, which sounds like a very good thing, and it is. The songs to get chunky and riffy launching into stretches of muscled metallic pound, and just as often the sound slips into super minimal drones, whether it's synths or guitars, it's difficult to tell, but the end result is the same, warm fuzzy rumbles and blissed out murky whir. Then the drums kick in, then the vocals, and the sound is squarely back in Jesu / Nadja territory. Folks looking for something totally original, that they've never ever heard before, might fight Fragment a little frustrating, but for anyone who loves THAT sound, the blissed out shoegazey metallic post rock shimmer of Jesu, or the distorted drenched dream doom of Nadja, and wants more more more, and might even like that sound even more if it were softer and prettier, well then Fragment will definitely hit the spot. A perfect collection of late night drifting-off soft metallic drift. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Probably the last copies we'll be able to get...

MPEG stream: Empire
MPEG stream: Ghost

First things first, we'll be frank, young SF band The Frail almost received an immediate Gong Show gong from us on the opening track of their debut ep. Anyone who samples/butchers Erik Satie's gorgeous classical piano work "Gymnopedies" in such a wanton dance-fied fashion should be strung up by their fingernails! We bit our tongue and resisted the urge to hit the 'stop' button. Needless to say, not the best introduction! Anyways, get past that first awkward moment, and you'll find this new Bay Area pop-tronic duo combining the sweet and dreamy side of pop with the comparatively harder thump of electronic rock. Their gently persistent unwavering programmed beats and boyish vocals draws easy descriptions of The Faint meets Postal Service. Definitely for fans of those bands as well as the electro-pop bands on the German Morr Music label!

MPEG stream: Addicted
MPEG stream: Who Am I?

The Franciscan Hobbies are one of the more anarchistic manifestations of the Jewelled Antler 'collective', The Hobbies themselves being a free-form, free-wheeling group of variable membership that turns idyllic nature excursions into documents of magical, improv folk psych. At The World's End comes by way of New Zealand cd-r label PseudoArcana, and this time around The Hobbies include 3 of the 4 members of Thuja, plus a bunch of their friends, including Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards), Greg Bianchini (The Muons), and Cole Palme (Factrix). However, whoever's present on this recording isn't all that important, as they meld into a very relaxed communal music-making clan. Furthermore, discussion of instruments and techniques would seemingly convey less of a sense of what the Hobbies sound like than more poetic allusions to damp moss and dry leaves. Imagine napping in the undergrowth of a forest, dreaming drones and fractured melodies. Theirs is a drifting, indirect music, more hints and haunts than songs per se. And, we ask, how can you not love a record with a track entitled "The Unicorn Murders"??

MPEG stream: The Black Chimes
MPEG stream: Seekers In Darkness

Ah, the Jewelled Antler collective! The Franciscan Hobbies is yet another facet of the same opiated psych-improv collective that has evolved into a number of projects including Thuja, The Blithe Sons, The Birdtree, The Skygreen Leopards, The Child Readers, The Knit Separates, etc. Usual suspects Glenn Donaldson, Rob Reger, Loren Chasse, and Jason Honea all appear on this -- perhaps the largest and loosest of the Jewelled Antler projects -- alongside relative newcomers to the collective: Greg Bianchini (of SF folksters The Muons), Kerry McLaughlin, Buffy Vice Sick, Dylan Brock, Christine Boepple, and Aquarius' own Dungeon Master Jeremiah Allan Horrocks (singing into an electronic toy while lying on his back somewhere in Golden Gate Park one sunny day, he tells us, but bets you won't be able to pick that out while listening to this). In working with such a large citizenship, The Franciscan Hobbies wisely eschews structure, favoring the psych-improv equivalent of front porch noodling that ends up sounding like a more sedate version of Birchville Cat Motel, the Vibracathedral Orchestra, or the hillbilly minimalism of Henry Flynt. Yet the druggy, murky atmosphere that dominates so much of Thuja's recordings takes a backstage to the quiet sound of semi-strummed, semi-plucked banjos, ouds, guitars, and occasional Tom Waits-esque tossin' junk in the kitchen sink percussion. Beautiful and mysterious, "Caterpillars Of The Oak Beauty" makes for another very nice cd-r release from Jewelled Antler!

RealAudio clip: The Secret Forces
RealAudio clip: Festival Of Sticks And Grasses

Courtesy of new Florida-based label Soft Abuse, "Masks And Meanings" is the first full-length "real" cd from San Francisco's wonderfully dreamy improvisors The Franciscan Hobbies, following the "Caterpillars Of The Oak Beauty" cd-r on their own Jewelled Antler label. Featuring members of Thuja (Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Rob Reger) and others, including Greg Bianchini from SF folk troubadours The Muons, you can perhaps guess what this sounds like. Somewhere between the psychedelic forest drones of Thuja and the folkiness of Glenn and Loren's Blithe Sons project. Abstract, droney, relaxing. Gently plucked guitar strings, rattling and rustling noises of indeterminate origin, very organic and natural sounding. Field recordings and non-instrument sound making fill sonic spaces alongside what might be mellow kraut/hippy jams on guitars and percussion, if they weren't so damaged and sparse and loosely structured. It's music, like sunlight, filtering down through the leafy branches of the forest canopy, into a grassy nest the Hobbies have burrowed out and furnished with antiques. Afternoon light, and shadowed darkness and dust. Indeed, like most of the J.A. projects, The Hobbies often record out-of-doors, in meadows in Golden Gate Park for instance. They came up with their name, actually, from a piece of wood they randomly found on the site of one of their recording sessions, upon which the words "Franciscan Hobbies" were printed. Their music's mysterious yet oddly whimsical vibe is carried through the collage artwork and song titles ("Wasp Embodiment", "Plough Drawn By Toads"). Very nice. That some tracks end with abrupt edits would be about our only complaint... Definitely for fans of Tower Recordings, Kemialliset Ystavat, the whole Jewelled Antler "collective" and suchlike. You know who you are/what this is. MPEG Download: "A Preordained Sequence" [/audio/franciscanpreordained.mp3] MPEG Stream: "A Preordained Sequence" [/audio/franciscanpreordained.m3u]

MPEG stream: A Preordained Sequence
MPEG stream: The Matchless Phenomenon

Jewelled Antler picnic-party The Franciscan Hobbies are certainly the biggest and vaguest, most free-form collective in the "collective". The Hobbies' albums are where Thujans and Muons and Blithe Sons and Skygreen Leopards and Child Readers and Buried Civilizations and all of 'em go to let it hang loose...or looser than usual. Even moreso than the other "bands" found under the umbrella of the San Francisco experimental-improv-folk-psych Jewelled Antler family, The Franciscan Hobbies have a indeterminate, open-ended membership, and make suitably organic, sprawling, abstract music... much of it quite as lovely as anything in the Jewelled Antler canon: dark and dreamy, with noise-textures and fragmented melodies played on acoustic and electric instruments both drifting in and out of these pieces like nature-sounds in the forest, in a manner perhaps akin to their Finnish brethren and sistren (?) Kemialliset Ystavat and Avarus and Uton. This new Hobbies cd, their fourth disc, was recorded over the past three years in various places with various persons participating -- among those persons, members of all the aforementioned groups. And AQ's own Allan even shows up singing on "Goat With The Dolphin Face", recorded in a wooden teepee on a beach up in Point Reyes. (Not that you can tell that it's him...or in a teepee.) And that's also got nothing to do with why we're going to tell you that this is highly recommended, particularily to those of you for whom the more abstract edges of the Jewelled Antler thing appeal. Intimate, hushed and full of quiet clankings and fragile drones...meandering, mesmerizing guitar-plucked lullabies...bowed strings and rustling sticks...indistinct vocalizations...all carefully edited and mixed by Glenn Donaldson (the track "Satan Crystals" by Loren Chasse). So nice.

MPEG stream: Elijah The Stone
MPEG stream: Asmodeus

Don't really know too much about this "Francisco". Looks to be a musical hippie guru something along the lines of a Father Yod / Ya Ho Wha 13 with some Santana thrown in? I suppose I could do some research on the ol' internet and find out more, doubtless there's many a record collector blabbing online about how rare and valuable the original vinyl of this is, and maybe one of 'em provides some the backstory. But y'know, I'd rather keep it a mystery. A "Cosmic Beam Experience" probably is best unexplained, just experienced. It's enough to marvel at the galactic magic of the cover artwork and know that this was recorded in Santa Monica, California in 1976 (in a cathedral!) and has a bunch of hippies involved. Tuning in, the first track "Heal Yourself" is a really groovy, soulful, entrancing jam that's a real spiritual, uplifting thang. Nice, but would you want to listen to a whole record like that you might ask yourself? But then, as if on cue, track two "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 1)" takes a drastically different approach, being a lengthy soundscape of field recordings, ocean sounds... an ambient and eerie trip that takes up the entire remainder of the original LP's first side! Side two (beginning with track 3 here) starts off, like side one, with a trancey spiritual song, "Love Sweet Love", another groovy number. But the positive vibes chanted forth therein are again followed by the ever-more ominous dronescapes and tribal percussion of "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 2)" and "Hey Mister Sun". A lot of darkness here to balance the hippy-dippy light. I mean, some of these tracks would fit in nicely in a John Carpenter film. So this ends up being a strange, mysterious, very evocative experience indeed! We ended up really digging it.

MPEG stream: Cosmic Beam Experience (Part Two)
MPEG stream: Heal Yourself