[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 7651 through 7700 of 19388.

2nd album from this seminal French electronic rock act lead by Richard Pinhas (Guitars, ARP, VCS 3, Mellotron and tapes). With Pinhas on this record is Georges Grunblatt (Mellotron, Guitar and ARP). Features the Pinhas composition "In The Wake Of King Fripp" -- tells you his big influence, don't it?

The first and third Heldons as one double cd.

Fourth album (of course) from Heldon. Great cover, great album.

This unanimous store favorite has been newly reissued on vinyl with a beautiful gatefold sleeve. Come on, who could resist that classic cover of a mysteriously sexy lizard alien in a retro space helmet? Surely not us! Ok, anyone into Magma and/or Moogs pay attention! Pretty much anything by Heldon, the pioneering French electronic rock act from the '70s comes highly recommended by us, but Interface perfectly combines Pinhas' Frippertronics guitar obsession with (what are now) vintage synth sounds into some of the best psych-prog sci-fi jamming EVER. Interface was Heldon's sixth LP, dating from 1977, and features the latter-day Heldon trio line-up of Pinhas (guitar, various Moogs, electronics), Patrick Gauthier (later of Magma, on the Moog bass and Minimoog) and Francois Auger (drums and synthesized percussion). Tracks like "Jet Girl" and the nearly twenty minute title cut are kinda like King Crimson meets Suicide or something like that. It's at once both hectic and contemplative, filled with dynamic energy and industrialized nervous ambience. Essential!

MPEG stream: Jet Girl
MPEG stream: Interface - Live (Part 2)

This triple cd set in a fat ol' jewel case combines two previous Captain Trip releases of rare live Heldon material that we'd previously reviewed -- those were the Live Elektronik Guerilla: Paris 1975-1976 cd and Well and Alive: Live in Nancy 1979 2cd. It's a lot cheaper to get 'em both together in this 3cd package, though you're missing out on the miniature lp style sleeves. Here's a conglom of our reviews of the two: The disc that collects the 1975-'76 live recordings consists (in contrast to the rhythmically precise spaciness of the later '79 material) of looser, stoned, rockin' jamming. Indeed. Of course, still pretty darn spacey. This wasn't recorded by electronic robots by any means. Sounds more like mellow Hendrix-digging freaks doing drugs and getting off on droning acid rock guitar. We can't exactly argue with that, though. Be warned that sound-quality-wise, this is fairly hissy and lo-fi. Not a pristine studio recording, that's for sure -- but it really works with all the fuzz, effects, and feedback, akin to a Rallizes boot. Still, not the place to start if you're utterly new to Heldon. Then on to the two discs from '79...what a difference a few years made! The '79 stuff kicks so much precision ass. Awesome! On the first disc, the band effortlessly locks into hypnotic rhythmically complex cycles driven by Francois Auger's incredibly tight yet dexterous drumming. Some stretches are austere, atmospheric and almost soothing, while others possess a mysterious dark force that'll thrust you back in you seat, and still others' synthed-out spaciness might have you tripping your pants off. Mind-melting. The second disc is less kinetic, more along the lines of frontman Richard Pinhas' later solo guitar and synthesizer drone explorations (think: more Tangerine Dream, less King Crimson). Please note: be forewarned that the recording quality is less than stellar (somewhat murky at times), but also keep in mind that these are previously unreleased tracks. Personally we feel the pros outweigh the cons in this situation, but of course you'll have to decide for yourself. If you're new to this group, allow us to simply proclaim: late '70s Heldon = psych-prog / electronic rock at its finest. Prior to entering the live Heldon arena, we'd highly recommended checking out 1977's Interface and 1979's Stand-By. Fierce, menacing and propulsive.

MPEG stream: 1984 Apres Cosmic C'Etait
MPEG stream: Track Of Cocaine
MPEG stream: Heldon UFO War Machine
MPEG stream: Red Line Target

OK, all you dedicated fans of the French synth prog act Heldon, here's the other live document of Richard Pinhas' band recently released by the Japanese label Captain Trip, alluded to in our review last list of the double cd Well and Alive: Live in Nancy 1979. We mentioned that while the 1979 set was both rhythmically precise and wonderfully spacey, this single-disc collection of earlier live recordings from the 1975-'76 era consisted of looser, stoned, rockin' jamming. Indeed. Of course, still pretty darn spacey. This wasn't recorded by electronic robots by any means. Sounds more like mellow Hendrix-digging freaks doing drugs and getting off on droning acid rock guitar. We can't exactly argue with that, though. Be warned that sound-quality-wise, this is fairly hissy and lo-fi. Not a pristine studio recording, that's for sure -- but it really works with all the fuzz, effects, and feedback, akin to a Rallizes boot. Still, not the place to start if you're utterly new to Heldon. 52 minutes, seven previously unreleased tracks, limited to 1000 copies, packaged in a nice Japanese mini LP styled sleeve.

MPEG stream: 1984 Apres Cosmic C'Etait
MPEG stream: Track Of Cocaine

Ok, anyone into Magma and/or Moogs pay attention! A couple lists back we got our friend Loren Chasse to write some nice things about Tranzition, the latest album from cult French musician Richard Pinhas, the guy who masterminded the pioneering electronic rock act Heldon back the '70s. That made us realize: hey, we really should get some of those old Heldon records up on our website too! So if you look you'll see we already stuck a few up there with real brief reviews. However, Cuneiform happens to have just brought these two Heldon albums back into print on cd and that gives us a perfect excuse to further sing the praises of Pinhas and his band, as these are two of our faves (though all Heldon comes recommended by us), perfectly combining Pinhas' Robert Fripp guitar obsession with (what are now) vintage synth sounds into some of the best psych-prog sci-fi jamming ever. Interface was Heldon's sixth LP, dating from 1977, and features the latter-day Heldon trio line-up of Pinhas (guitar, various Moogs, electronics), Patrick Gauthier (Moog bass and Mini-Moog) and Francois Auger (drums and synthesized percussion). Tracks like "Jet Girl" and the nearly twenty minute title cut are kinda like King Crimson meets Suicide or something. Then there's 1979's Stand By which was Heldon's final studio outing and sees the Pinhas/Gauthier/Auger trio augmented by several additional musicians, including vocalist Klaus Blasquiz of Magma fame. The three tracks here (two of them quite lengthy) will definitely appeal to fans of Magma's "zheul" style. But the Fripp and Suicide allusions above also apply. One track is an extended space-rock opus loosely based on "Bolero"! Even judged by their covers alone, Stand By and Interface both possess a lot of the future-retro cool that's so hip nowadays, while being legitimately classic albums that anyone who digs krautrock or Circle or that kind of thing should investigate. Both discs have been reissued with two bonus live tracks apiece, by the way. So if you aren't already hip to Heldon, either or both of these would make good starting points!

MPEG stream: Stand By
MPEG stream: Une Drole de Journee

From 1976, the 5th album by Richard Pinhas's classic band. This one's super dark and dense, Magma gone industrial? Proto-industrial French electronic rock anyway. With 2 bonus live tracks. Heldon on this recording features bassist Janick Top (Magma).

What a difference a few years made! Of the two live Heldon albums that we just got in, this one from '79 kicks so much precision ass (while the other from '75-76 is looser, more straight-forward jam rock). Awesome! On the first disc, the band effortlessly locks into hypnotic rhythmically complex cycles driven by Francois Auger's incredibly tight yet dextrous drumming. Some stretches are austere, atmospheric and almost soothing, while others possess a mysterious dark force that'll thrust you back in you seat, and still others' synthed-out spaciness might have you tripping your pants off. Mind-melting. The second disc is less kinetic, more along the lines of frontman Richard Pinhas' later solo guitar and synthesizer drone explorations (think: more Tangerine Dream, less King Crimson). Please note: be forewarned that the recording quality is less than stellar (somewhat murky at times), but also keep in mind that these are previously unreleased tracks. Personally we feel the pros outweigh the cons in this situation, but of course you'll have to decide for yourself. If you're new to this group, allow us to simply proclaim: late '70s Heldon = psych-prog / electronic rock at its finest. Prior to entering the live Heldon arena, we'd highly recommended checking out 1977's Interface and 1979's Stand-By. Fierce, menacing and propulsive. Limited to 1000!

MPEG stream: Heldon UFO War Machine
MPEG stream: Red Line Target

Sure, let's call 'em a super group. Why not? Helen is fronted by Liz Harris. Yes, THAT Liz Harris, of Grouper fame; and she's joined by bassist Scott Simmons of Eat Skull, and Jed Bindeman, who seems to be the only drummer in Portland, Oregon given his ubiquity in so many great projects (Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged, Operative, The Greys). Also, the trio list an eponymous Helen as the backing vocalist, who sounds remarkably like Liz Harris herself. They've also made claim that the band's first intentions were to be a thrash band. Now, that would have been quite amazing had Helen followed through on that concept; but that was not meant to be. Instead we have this lovely lovely lovely shoegazing noise-pop project. Liz Harris has long been able to craft drifting, pop-narcotic perfection through her slumbering songs as Grouper. Joined by a rhythm section, she's forced herself to step forward with her melodies - both vocally and on guitar, both of which are still buried in rainclouds full of reverb and sadness - and it's a gambit that pays off very nicely. Simmons tends to throttle the bass, which has him sounding more like D Boon than Deb Googe more often than not; and Bindeman take an understated, if upbeat approach to the kit. Actually, the whole rhythm section of Simmons and Bindeman can be pretty upbeat, with Harris adhering a jangly blur to the wintery grandeur that's long been her trademark. It's a nice mix. The atmosphere on The Original Faces is pretty damn captivating, reminiscent in all the right ways of Black Tambourine, The Aislers Set, The Lilys, and whatever your favorite Slumberland band is, past, present, or future. A wonderful release!

MPEG stream: Violet
MPEG stream: Felt This Way
MPEG stream: Dying All The Time

Local early ought's all-casio group with songs about Colors, Margot Hemingway and Mysterious Disappearances. Fans of Marine Girls, Young Marble Giants and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, take note!

Oh yes, we're always happy to discover something new from Keith Kenniff! He's the Boston based gent behind the postrocktronic gauzy gazes of Goldmund and Helios. Whenever a new customer asks for something relaxing, meditative, massage-suitable, of course we'll first say "Brian Eno", but chances are we'll then steer them in Kenniff's direction. We've just received the latter's third album (as well as a new Goldmund album titled Two Point Decimation too... yeesh, does this guy ever sleep?). It's definitely got a few new twists and takes on his usual light-touch instrumental approach. For one thing, Ayres features Kenniff utilizing his voice as another sound source -- murmuring, whispering and otherwise haunting the proceedings in dreamy, shimmer-shiver fashion. As well, the half dozen tracks seem to materialize and form slightly more solid presences than the drifting, shifting layered ambience of past releases. May be quite appealing to those who love Mum and The Album Leaf. Psst, included is a cover version of "In Heaven", the awesome Lady In The Radiator song from the soundtrack of David Lynch's cult classic Eraserhead!

MPEG stream: Woods And Gives Away
MPEG stream: Signed I Will You Well

You can't always judge a record by its cover. But after one look at the cover of Caesura, disc number four from Boston's Helios, we could pretty much tell this would be a wondrous escape into some heavenly realm of ambient goodness. Between the latest Grouper release and the cosmic psychedelia of the recent Alps disc, Type seems to have tapped into some infinite well of dream pop specialists. And Helios is one of the most outstanding members of this cast of dream weavers. Boston's Keith Kenniff, the man behind Helios, has crafted an album of delicate, gorgeous compositions shrouded in winter's haze. Light and somber guitar passages stepping along side sparse electronic beats and percussion to create a lush wreath of pop ambiance. Unlike some pop ambient records that too easily meander into the dreary corners of space, Caesura remains anchored to earth. Invoking images of quiet pines and blissful isolation, there's a captivating relationship between the more industrial, electronic backbone of the record and the droning, organic melodies that hover above. Caesura is the perfect soundtrack for gazing out at the morning fog on lonely winter mornings. Need we say much else?

MPEG stream: Hope Valley Hill
MPEG stream: A Mountain of Ice

For his second release under the moniker Helios Keith Kenniff (also of Goldmund) has crafted pretty gauzy post-rock instrumentals from feathery melodic wisps of guitar, keyboards and electronics set atop soothing dronescapes. Imagine an album filled with solely the hushed, delicate atmospheric passages of artists such as Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Mum, Album Leaf, and many artists on the Temporary Residence label. Really really lovely. A blissed out soother.

MPEG stream: First Dream Called Ocean
MPEG stream: The Toy Garden

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With the addition of Polvo bassist Ash Bowie, Mary Timony and the rest of Helium turn to agitated bittersweet music that's been compared to everyone from Pink Floyd to T-Rex. An improvement over their other recent releases.

Great group name, and an album title that really says it all! This mysterious 1968 exploito-psych album of disputed provenance, newly reissued on cd, lives up to its Supreme Psychedelic Underground billing, all right. It's really doesn't even matter if it's the pseudonymic work of a young Deep Purple, as some Purple fans are convinced. Others will tell you that while maybe the guitar neck wringing sounds a lot like Blackmore, and the bombastic organ pounding sounds a lot like Lord, it's not them - instead, it's dudes from krautrock proto-metallers Lucifers Friend! Which as far as we're concerned is an equally appealing theory. We don't know what to believe, are they or aren't they? You decide, we'll just groove to these crazy sounds, man. With wild organ and wah wah guitar up the wazoo, the tracks here range from instrumental freakouts ("Time Race") to novelty tribal weirdness ("We Like The White Man") to baroque prog hoedowns ("Courante") to, well, there's all sorts of swingin' acid rock action here folks! A few faves to mention would be the Eastern-tinged "Shalom", which is infused with all kinds of weird noises and sound FX as well, the super groovy shake-and-shimmy "Let Me Shoot You", and definitely the awesomely Bo Diddley-ish "Turn Turn", probably what would be this record's hit, if it had one. It's interesting that these days, actually, we've kinda gotten to the point where it almost makes more sense to say that a '60s psych artifact like this one was "ahead of its time" and compare it to today's crop of psychedelic freeks, instead of the other way around. Certainly there's moments here, when the pulsating, wailing sounds get really far out, that we could think for a second we were listening to, say, a Sun Araw album. At other times, of course, it's VERY "of its times", and that's rad (in a kitschy way) too. The jarringly tripped out "Spy In Space" could only have been made in the '60s we're pretty sure, woah. Certainly fans of MK1 Deep Purple ought to check this out, even though the theory that it's a German studio project, featuring ex-members of beat groups The Rattles and The German Bonds (who would eventually form Lucifer's Friend) seems fairly likely to be the correct one, since those very same folks cut another similar exploito-psych album under the "band" name Bokaj Retsiem around the very same time. That album was simply titled Psychedelic Underground, so maybe they thought they did an even better job as Hell Preachers, Inc.!

MPEG stream: Time Race 1
MPEG stream: Shalom
MPEG stream: Turn Turn

A double disc set for the price of one from the inimitable Richard Hell, founding member of New York-style punk in the '70s with the bands Television, the Heartbreakers, and the Voidoids. The first disc is a reissue of the formerly cassette-only ROIR release Disc two is a document of a few live shows, including one that took place in England on an ill-fated tour with the Clash. Hell calls this performance one of the most aggressive he'd ever given, but the recording quality is terrible throughout the live disc, and I don't really get why he chose to release it. Liner notes are extensive, with song by song recounts written by Hell himself, and lots of photos.

RealAudio clip: Love Comes in Spurts
RealAudio clip: Time

You wouldn't think that a band revisiting their past would make us fall in love with them all over again but that is precisely the case with this new ep from Hella. Acoustics finds Hella reworking some of their early songs but this time done all acoustic! Hella + acoustic? "Huh? What? How?", you might be asking yourself, but the answer is a huge big colorful YES!!! We have to admit we were getting a little cold on the whole Hella thing, but with Acoustics they have totally regained our attention and recaptured our hearts, with their intricate spazzy convoluted prog laid totally bare (err... well acoustic at least). Hard to imagine Hella acoustic, but it's pretty darn cool, maybe like Gastr Del Sol on a steady diet of crystal meth and cocaine, or a more manic Cheval De Frise. While it's easy to sound crazed and weird and spastic with amps turned to eleven and feedback busting out of every speaker, it's a whole lot harder to maintain that same sort of intensity with no electricity at all. That's what separates Hella from so much of the spazzy pack. Sure anyone can freak out hidden behind huge amps and silly costumes, but only the truly talented and demented can knock your block off with an all acoustic record. We think someone should slip a copy of this to Tom Waits as Hella in this incarnation would make the perfect backing band for his next record. OK, Lightning Bolt, Wolf Eyes, Black Dice -- the gauntlet has been thrown down... can you get it up up when the power is out? Hella sure as hell can! So totally recommended!

MPEG stream: 1-800-Ghost Dance
MPEG stream: Welcome To The Jungle Baby, Your Gunna Live!

A new 12" on nice marble vinyl. The band known for a million riffs a minute and insane drumming brings some electronic beats to the party before tearing into some incredibly dense noise prog. Like Lightning Bolt and Orthrelm, Hella turn two people into a finely honed instrument of sonic destruction. While the drumming never lets up its multilayered, frantic pace, the guitar (augmented here and there by keyboard) takes Hella's sound from This Heat precision to all out noise and into more accessible song territory on the last track, which features vocals, a first for the band.

Whooahh man. Hella's latest (and third) release is an overwhelming, two hour long, double solo album exploration. Drummer Zach Hill's Church Gone Wild battles guitarist Spencer Sein's Chirpin Hard. Church seems to be a dismembered hour-long noise mantra in 12 parts. It's pretty driving and kinetic, a swirling maelstrom of free-noise muddied by pitch-shifted vocals and tape manipulation. As for Sein's contribution, imagine the pixelscapes of Nintendo NES' Tennis, Joust, Tetris, Zelda, Double Dragon, Mega Man, Golf and Cobra Command all meshed into one massive super-game being played at a warehouse free-noise show and we could have it's documentation here with Chirpin Hard. Hella fans will lovingly dive into this behemouth double album without hesitation.

MPEG stream: Half Hour Handshake
MPEG stream: Gold Mine, Gold Yours

Do you rememer that scene in the movie, "Hook" where Rufio and all the Lost Boys have a massive feast *powered by imagination* and all the food looks like radioactive play-doh and then they start having a food fight and everyone gets smattered with colorful edible goo? No? Ok well....then just imagine a radioactive play-doh food fight. Now convert that into sound. There you go. That's this album. Except....every 6th or 7th wad of play-doh food is actually a bag full of flaming fists. Sloppy, raucous, and punch you in the face fun. Woah. Disc two is a double feature DVD from Hella's Japanese Tour.

MPEG stream: Gothpel for You Not Them
MPEG stream: If I were in Hella I would eat lick

A couple of brief outbursts of precision mayhem from Hella, featuring their trademark maniacally dense drumming and head splitting guitar riffery.

Well now, this record is certainly a breath of fresh air. I mean when was the last time you heard a decent mathrock record? Hella is two Sacramento guys on guitar and drums and they've made this loud 'n awesome record, which is super listenable and accessible,

RealAudio clip: Been A Long Time Cousin
RealAudio clip: Brown Metal
RealAudio clip: Cafeteria Bananas

The precision, nutso drumming of Zach Hill and the frantic, fearless guitar playing of Spencer Seim is something the world needs more of, and they are happy to oblige with this, only their second full-length recording after a few eps and live discs. Yay, Hella! This dynamic duo hold the lease on hectic, headspinning math rock mayhem, tempering their breathless performances with a very eclectic, electric variety of sounds and good sense of what's catchy and what isn't. The Devil Isn't Red is perhaps denser than their debut Hold Your Horse Is, but no less delightful. As almost always, this is all-instrumental, with cryptic art and song titles to add to their aesthetic of controlled chaos. Into indie-prog a la Don Caballero, Lighting Bolt, Ruins, This Heat? Well if you haven't already, now's the time to make room for a Hella section in your record collection. (By the way, did you notice how 'Hella' no longer seems like a dumb band name, it just means Hella the band? You know, just like with the Melvins, for instance. They're good enough and have been around long enough now to make that transition.)

MPEG stream: The Kid The Mother Could Be You
MPEG stream: Welcome To The Jungle Baby, You're Gonna...

That rad Sacto duo Hella is back, guitar and drums just goin' for it in a punk-prog stylee. You can still use Lightning Bolt and the Ruins as comparisons, but with the added instrumentation -- noisy, new wavey synths -- they're getting further away from the Bolt template. All instrumental save for some funny voices bookending the tracks, this album is just as kinetic and hyperchaotic as their previous output, veering into a bit o' Carl Stalling style cartoon music as befits the title. 7 songs in just under 20 minutes, plus for those with computers, a live video clip for "Brown Metal" from their first album. Definitely a treat for those into drums, math, and spinning around until you're dizzy. FUN!

MPEG stream: Your DJ Children
MPEG stream: Magixburg

Here's a good buy for fans of either or both bands: a double cd, featuring a disc each of Hella and Dilute performing live. SF's Dilute do "Apple", "Alphabet", "Sickroom", "Balloon Song" and "Sold" while Sacramento's Hella play "Republic of Rough and Ready", "Better Grab a Broom!", "Cafeteria Bananas", "Biblical Violence", and "City Folk Sitting, Sitting". If this was a competition, we'd have to say Hella has the better song titles. But it's not a competition and both bands are winners, with Dilute being one of the Bay Area's best, most creative post/indie rock combos and Hella being NoCal's answer to Lightning Bolt, a two-piece instrumental tour de force. Go see both bands if/when you get the chance, and in the meantime don't miss out on this double live document (which maybe could have fit all on one disc, but whatever).

MPEG stream: Apple
MPEG stream: Republic of Rough and Ready

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

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A compilation of Hellacopters tracks you might've missed 'cause they're all from singles, 10"s, split releases, etc on labels from Sweden, Spain and the U.S. As is often the case, some of the best songs appear in limited release on 7"s, and so it is with the Hellacopters. If you're a fan of the garage punk revival (particularly the Swedish one - hello, Hives!) you'll surely want to check this comp out. Nicke Royale (aka Nicke Andersson ex-drummer of Entombed) writes some damn catchy retro rock anthems full of ballsy guitars, hammering piano, gang vocals. And they do some respectable rockin' covers of songs by the Stones, Iggy Pop, Nino Tempo and Social Distortion. One thing though, the cd's packaging is a bit confusing. I opened up the six panel foldout and found that one whole side is taken up by a "Cream of The Crap" poster. The weird thing is it looks as if the poster was supposed to be nine panels instead of six and they just sliced off the top three. Confused? Me too. On San Francisco's garage, punk and hotrods label Gearhead Records. Also features the track 'Killing Allan'. Hmmmmmm.

RealAudio clip: Thanks For Nothing
RealAudio clip: Television Addict
RealAudio clip: I Got A Right

This band rules so hard. Big guitars, big hooks, leads all over the place, even that sort of pounding piano that hasn't been cool since forever. Or more specifically, since your Dad was high as a kite holding up his lighter to Bob Seger's "Turn The Page". Or your Uncle was feeling up some girl in the parking lot of a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. This is totally classic, fucking awesome rock and roll. The kind you should still be able to see in stadiums instead of nu-metal and MTV crap. Huge in Sweden, it's a crime they're not packing Madison Square Garden here. But that's good too, 'cause it means that's it's still okay for all the hipsters to still dig 'em. But ignore all that stuff and just buy this record. Think every stadium rock show you've ever seen, Kiss, Lynrd Skynrd, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Van Halen, Peter Frampton, and then supercharge it, filter it through a bunch of former death metallers, and you've got the Hellacopters. In a perfect world bands like the Darkness and the White Stripes would be begging for a chance to open for these guys! Or not. Includes two videos, a video interview and a patch!

MPEG stream: By The Grace Of God
MPEG stream: All New Low

The domestic release! Sweden's been churning out some fiery garage punk in the last few years. Example #1: The Hives! Example #2: these guys! Actually calling these guys garage punk - a genre in which they've been frequently categorized - is a bit misleading.

RealAudio clip: Toys And Flavors
RealAudio clip: You're Too Good (To Me Baby)

Limited edition little cardboard "box set" ep from these hard-rockin' Swedes... Includes five tracks, 4 of which are previously unreleased, plus 2 videos for your computer and a patch for your jean jacket.

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SORRY. Hellchild are the undisputed kings of Japanese metalcore. And for good reason; huge complex compositions that are brutally heavy and ultra fast, downtuned and furious. We have both their full lengths as well as the limited 10" that features two absolutely unbelievable medleys (track one: Whiplash/ Metallica/Exodus/Destruction/Slayer/Kreator and track two: Motley Crue/ Motorhead/U2 (!)/Sex Pistols) twisted and contorted almost beyond recognition. Almost.

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Awwww, February, blossoming romance is in the air! Fans of fey femme folk, here's a Valentine sweetie for you! Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers, Swan Lake) and his ladylove Sydney Vermont took some time out from North America and travelled to Spain for a spell. The musical inspirations that their journey spawned are found on this here album. It's an earthy, ephemeral melange (yes, we said "melange"!) of Kate Bush drama, waif-pop Lavender Diamond, '70s soft rock AOR singers such as Melissa Manchester or Carly Simon. With a description like that you could be warily anticipating a somewhat milquetoast listen, but fear not! It's all distinguished and elevated by Bejar's unmistakable musical eccentricities. His prickly guitar and distinct voice are perfect foil for Vermont's lilting soprano tones -- particularly on fine songs like "Mediterranean Snow" and (Cup's current favorite) "Sunny Skies". Oh and yes there's even flute (ya hear me Andee?). Go on, don a flowing chiffon gown and sway to this floral loveliness. Includes a cover of Kevin Ayers' "Hymn".

MPEG stream: Hello, Blue Roses
MPEG stream: Sunny Skies
MPEG stream: Skeleton Aim

Hellvete is the work of one of the members of Belgian funeral folk collective Sylvester Anfang, and while in many ways, the two outfits are similar, Hellvete takes the loose abstraction, and stumbling freeform mystery of SA, and tightens it up, into epic slow burning pieces that sound and feel more composed, majestic one moment, haunting and hushed the next, strings and subtle percussion, buzzing steel string guitar and thick undulating drones, a sprawling epic soundtrack to an imaginary film, flickering images of some forgotten world, a time lapse exploration of the birth and death of the black forest. Long drawn out, almost sitar like buzz, drifts beneath ethereal female vocals, super minimal Eastern sounding percussion underpins some skeletal folky twang, a slow building bit of dronemusic, like Godspeed gone black Appalachia. Strings swoop in, upping the cinematic vibe, minor key, tense, dramatic, echoey vocals wrap around buzzing steel strings, transforming into thick raga like drones, laced with druggy space rock pulses, a sort of Spacemen 3 vibe, buried beneath the smoldering black shimmer. Tinkling chimes dapple the soaring strings, all wound into bursts of Sunroof! like skree. Abstract free drumming hurls out swirling clouds of cymbal shimmer, fields of speckled skitter, way off in the distance, wordless voices moan and chant and hum, eventually swallowed up by thick grinding sheets of coruscating guitar buzz, a furious explosive crescendo, slipping back into that black Appalachia, before finishing off with a muted, but still intense burst of full on swirling psychedelic drug rock. Awesome stuff. In many ways even better than the Sylvester Anfang jams that came before, as if SA had somehow evolved, the sounds and compositions grown more lush, more expansive, while at the same time, gotten even darker, heavier, and more epic. WAY recommended.

Sint-Denijs is the second solo record from Glen Steenkiste, he of Belgian psych-kraut collective Silvester Anfang / Sylvester Anfang II, and much like the Hellvete debut, De Gek, released on Kraak back in 2009, Sint-Denijs finds Steenkiste continuing to explore his love of modern minimalism, ditching still more of the folky, krauty shamble of the Anfang mothership and delving deeper into longform dronemusic. With an arsenal consisting of harmonium, bowed banjo, electric tampura and analog synths Steenkiste fills both sides of this lp with gorgeously lush layered shimmer, softly pulsing tones, constantly sifting textures and ghostly overtones, the oddly titled "C-142" is some primo kosmische bliss out, beginning as a simple drone, but gradually blossoming into something much more, a dense tangle of melodies, that seem to gradually peel off, the slowly swirling super nova of sound releasing melodic flares, with headphones, it's easy to sink deep into the sound, lush, and lustrous and luxurious, super melodic, but with the various melodies bleeding and oozing into one another, a constantly evolving molten sonic core, that gives us glimpses of those melodies, as they softly shift and slowly swirl. There's a brief interlude of sorts, the equally oddly titled "MDD-409", which must be an interlude based entirely on space limitations, cuz it's another gorgeous layered dronescape, one that given another side of vinyl, would most definitely transformed into yet another epic sprawl of ur-drone majesty. But instead, it acts as a bridge, keeping us suitably entranced, before culminating in the B side filling "G-356", which begins a bit more minimally, with sitar like drones, over soft low end pulsations, reminding us of local outfit Date Palms, the same sort of classic modern minimalism fused with a sort of Spacemen 3 like druggy drift, drowsy and dreamily divine, the low end growing more dense and dark as the track progresses, before the melodies once again begin to peel away, filling the sky with arcs of prismatic shimmer, grounded by the warm, liquid pulsations beneath, slowly building to a swirling tangle of softly psychedelic sound, totally tranced out tranquility of the highest order. Fantastic! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, on 180 gram vinyl. Includes a digital download code too!

Epic heavy metal fans know that it's been fairly frequent occurrence of late that we've gotten new a reissue of an old '80s album by US underground metal eccentrics Manilla Road, and also once in a while, a brand new release from that still active (and still epic) cult unit. But this is a bit more unexpected - the debut from a Manilla Road SIDE PROJECT, called Hellwell, featuring MR main man Mark "The Shark" Shelton. The Hellwell name we thought was kind of faux-scary goofy, until we learned that the other driving force behind the band was a personage in fact named Ernest Cunningham Hellwell, who plays organ and synths. Also on board, Bryan "Hellroadie" Patrick, sharing some of the vocals with lead guitarist Shelton much as has been the case on Manilla Road albums of recent vintage. And really, name aside, this is basically another new Manilla Road album, and a good one. MR fans will feel right at home with it, it's hardly a big departure. Except, imagine Manilla Road with ornate Deep Purple style keyboards, loads of 'em (courtesy of the eponymous E.C.), AND an extra emphasis on the more "extreme" side of the MR equation - lots of fuzz, some guttural death metally vox and the like - whilst keeping it quite epick and eldritch indeed. Think Poe and Lovecraft. 'Cause lyrically, these songs are rooted in good old pulp literature. It's tale-telling of the horror story variety, in the grand tradition of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond and of course Manilla Road themselves, among others� Music to listen to after dark, in other words, especially if you can get yourself in the mindset of someone in the '40s listening to a creepy radio play or something, as delivered by a band part '70s prog, part '80s heavy metal, part gothic doom, part modern extreme metal� It's a cool mix, again one that most MR fans will dig 'cause that's basically what MR is all about anyway. You know how Slough Feg has gotten their share of Manilla Road comparisons? Well, perhaps Hellwell could likewise be compared to Hammers Of Misfortune.

MPEG stream: The Strange Case of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes
MPEG stream: Eaters of the Dead
MPEG stream: Acheronomicon I: Tomb of the Unnamed One

Review courtesy of Justin Foley, long time aQ customer, and member of fellow Hydra Headers The Austerity Program! Long time readers of the AQ mailing list may remember Northwest sasquatch-metallers Harkonen, whose two EPs and full-length or two charted out a wooly mass of distortion-laden virility. Harkonen's pummel stumbled across the line between Cavity's fierce crust/metal and Schlitz-dripping barn burners. At the head of this obviously unshaven trio was Ben Verellen, pumping out distorted bass lines and howling a great rock yell that is probably a family heirloom. � Harkonen broke up a few years back and after a while word got around that Ben was in a new band - Helms Alee. Putting on their first full length - Night Terror - those who know some or all of the history above won't be too surprised at first. Ben's driving, fuzzed-up bass starts things off with an off kilter riff that spins into the instrumental intro "Lefty Man Handle", sounding a bit like Harkonen dipped in the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone movie. At the beginning of the second track, the same voice that bellowed over Harkonen's amps builds up from a measured sing to a top-of-the-mountain whoop - I'm telling you he's got a set of pipes on him. And by the time the song really opens up, the drummer is slamming on the cymbals, the bass and guitar are locked in a hypnotic two note riff and that guy's just roaring at you. Then something truly wonderful happens. And this is why the Helms Alee is surely my favorite record from 2008. Because while I love the ripping stomp that the song had purposefully built into, the band suddenly drops out the bottom and the drums, takes a breath and shifts into a guitar shimmering break. A two part female harmony picks up the song and carries it to what you later realize was the only place that it could have gone. It's like coming out of a tunnel into early daylight. And for the next 35 minutes or so, they deftly weave the pounding, yelling sweat-rock of the best Harkonen stuff with the equally strong and bittersweet beauty of an unexpected melody and harmony. Some times this happens at the same time, at others they switch back and forth. But it's done nearly perfectly over the course of the whole record, resulting in a sound that's equally poignant and heavy. � Make no mistake - it's still a loud rock record that probably eviscerates live. But the thing that's really special about this band is the unexpected space they've found in a type of music that often seems like it runs out of new room. Special mention should be made of two things. First, the recording work on this is great - clear, physical and very unobtrusive. Second, those who buy it and sit for a full listen will really be rewarded by "Shmnna" - a record closer (almost, there's actually a nice coda song) that's obviously the climax of what the whole thing's building toward. The song's final guitar bit absolutely brings down the house. So good! I've noticed that AQ likes to give reference points, so I'd suggest anyone who craves the male/female juxtaposition of X or Barbaro, the aging prizefighter nobility of Tar, or even some of the more rock parts of My Bloody Valentine must buy this record now. There's probably whole other groups who I should target as well - anyone who's into other stuff on the label, anyone who likes loud rock music at all, anyone who is signed up for the AQ mailing list, anyone who's not my sister - because this thing is a real, unexpected treat.

MPEG stream: Left Handy Man Handle
MPEG stream: A New Roll
MPEG stream: A Weirding Away