[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 9201 through 9250 of 19388.

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

SORRY.

Two live sets of Kraftwerk captured with reasonably fine fidelity, one from a 1976 show in Paris (performing tracks from Ralf & Florian and Autobahn) and the other from a 1981 show in Utrecht (performing tracks from Computer World and Man Machine).

Taking Cues from the Russian Constructivist movement for its cover, 1978's The Man Machine was the most removed album to that date from Kraftwerk's krautrock origins. Taking on the form of automatons, the music is cold, and mechanical pop about robots, models, and urbanization that opened up the floodgates for new wave and electro. It is also one of the best and most realized albums in their evolving career.

It's about time. Dusseldorf's most famous export, the Godfathers of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk, finally see their classic albums remastered and reissued for the 21st century (although, unfortunately, not yet their EARLIEST classics, the ones with the traffic cone covers). Given the group's notoriety for demanding nothing but absolute perfection, you can safely bet that these sound AMAZING after years of tireless mixing and mastering in Kling-Klang studios. That's probably the main selling point here, as Kraftwerk was never really a "bonus material" kind of band, and there is none of that here; if it was released, it pretty much meant it was labored upon until being deemed suitable for public exposure. These reissues have also got some pretty fancy expanded artwork, with simple but bold slip covers housing the actual cds. Of course, if you don't already have these albums in some form or another, you should probably do yourself a favor and purchase every single one of them immediately. The Man-Machine was originally released in 1978, a year after the artistic and commercial triumph of Trans-Europe Express. Obviously there was a lot to live up to following TEE, and Kraftwerk had little difficulty doing so. The Man Machine is likewise a genre-defining masterpiece, containing at least two of their most well known songs with "The Robots" and "The Model". It also features one of their strangely overlooked songs, the too-awesome-for-words "Spacelab". The cold, mechanical approach Kraftwerk had been striving for is perfected on this record, also expertly conveyed from a visual standpoint on the cover, where the group appears all angular and unsmiling in their matching red shirt/black tie getup. It's pretty crazy to imagine the reaction this must have received right in the middle of the punk explosion. As the rest of the world reveled in sloppy, wide-eyed rock n' roll, Kraftwerk became more precise and jettisoned the most recognizable traces of human emotion usually reserved for the pop market. Still, though the most noteworthy traits here bring to mind a glum, dystopian future, like on the title track and the ominous "Metropolis", there is also a good deal of humor and an implied human warmth, as Kraftwerk themselves, more than anything, take the role of detached observers in a world that defines itself more and more through technological progress. Sound familiar? Oh, and a note to vinyl obsessives, these reissues will be coming out in that format next month, we're told!

MPEG stream: Spacelab
MPEG stream: Metropolis
MPEG stream: Neon Lights

They should've left well enough alone. They should've left well enough alone. They should've left well enough alone... but alas, they did not. Now that we've gotten that out of our system... The major disappointment with this new Kraftwerk is not that it's a poor album. Let us stress, that is NOT the case at all. Actually it sounds remarkably like the work of many many fine current electronic artists (or rather, *they* sound just like Kraftwerk!), and THAT is the major point of contention here. Tour De France Soundtracks simply doesn't sound like the work of great sonic revolutionaries. Arguably they reached the pinnacle of their innovations with Computer World -- making astounding, ground-breaking music that sounded unlike ANYTHING at the time nor many years to follow. Granted it took a very long time, but over the years Ralf, Florian and co. spent devoted to cycling the globe, it seems the world finally caught up to Kraftwerk.

MPEG stream: Chrono

MPEG stream: Europe Endless
MPEG stream: Showroom Dummies
MPEG stream: Trans Europe Express

Traditional Seasonal FolkTunes from British banjo chanteuse.

In other words, Slapp Happy. "Camera" originated as an opera comissioned for TV, broadcast 1993. Singer Dagmar Krause stars "as a lone individual figure struggling against a nightmare of bureaucratic intrusion." With The Balanescu Quartet among other additional musicians. (Caveat: it's pretty mediocre, we'd recommended it primarily to Slapp Happy completists.)

Smart Cory Brown says: 'Speaking of Unrest, Phil Krauth's Cold Morning is a bit of a surprise. I'd heard good things about it, but had no idea exactly what elements he'd brought to later Unrest. Y'see, I always figured Unrest (or Stereolab) could do a great version of the Association's "Windy." Then they broke up and Air Miami abandoned the '60's almost completely for the '80's. But Mr. Krauth goes on to write the lost Association demos (none of that flaccid production). I'm waiting for the "Love Is All Around" or "That Girl" b-side.'

New six song ep from Mr Krebs. This time out Pete chooses a stripped down format much more akin to pal Elliott Smith's early recordings of solo guitar and voice. Notable exception is the rocking final track.

It makes perfect sense that Bureau B has released this new album by Kreidler, if you were to hear this without having any idea who it was, and you were told it was a long lost early '80s electronic proto-techno exploration by Moebius and members of Neu!, you would have no reason NOT to believe it. These are dark, motorik, trance inducing sounds at their best. More than any of their modern day German peers, Kreidler really have been the ones to build on what their krautrock forefathers and mothers (don't forget Deutsche Wertabreit!) laid down the blueprints for. Mixing their instrumentation and electronics with organic ease, the album flows start to finish with a late night K-hole seedy sensation. Kind of like Villalabos remixing Jonas Reinhardt, Arp, or White Rainbow. You can hear echoes of Cluster deep in these tracks as you can tell Kreidler have gained much inspiration from albums of theirs like Zukerzeit and especially the Moebius/Beerbohm outing Double Cut. We could also see folks who have been digging lots of the John Carpenter/Goblin inspired sounds by folks like Zombi, Umberto, Xander Harris, Black Devil Disco Club, and The Oscillation getting way into Tank. The live drumming really helps fuel the record and the undercurrents of such a dark and sinister soundworld have drawn us so deep into this recording. This is shaping up to be our favorite Kreidler outing yet!

MPEG stream: Jaguar
MPEG stream: New Earth
MPEG stream: Saal

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

SORRY.

Sombre and strange record of post-classical miniatures originally recorded to accompany various ballet and dance pieces. Sparse piano, Eastern-European strings, field recordings, eerie found sounds and electric-acoustic chamber drones with dark and haunting textures reference a kind of surrealist narrative that wouldn't be out of place in a film by Luis Bunuel. Perhaps not as somnolent as past Miasmah recordings from Elegi and Jacaszek, as the dynamics of the score can veer into some occasional, theatrical dramatics. Best not let it lull you into sleep, for fear of unsettling dreams or being abruptly jarred awake. Recommended nonetheless!

MPEG stream: Na De Sex
MPEG stream: Meisje In Auto
MPEG stream: Aspyxia

There are three types of folks who will want one of these. Fans of the Brainbombs, which makes sense, considering the fact that Krig I Hudik includes two of Brainbombs amongst their ranks. Or fans of classic Finnish punk, as in anyone who bought that rad Finnish Punk boxset we listed a while back, or anyone super into bands like Totalitar (who coincidentally also count some Brainbombs as members), and of course, the folks who are both. Which we would guess is a lot of you. Krig I Hudak jam 10 tracks onto this 7", a head caving, ear splitting barrage of snarling, crusty, pounding, thrashing, late seventies / early eighties style Finnish punk rock, blown out and heavy, practice space drums buried in a haze of crunchy riffs and bellowed vocals (even some strange chant-like backup vox now and again), super hooky and anthemic, raw and intense and totally kick ass, from midtempo grind, to frenzied chaotic thrashing, the majority of these tracks are in fact covers of super obscure punk rock bands from back in the day, who hail from the same hometown as Krig I Hudik, although two are originals, but you might not ever know it. Folks looking for purely misanthropic dirgey sludge, a la the Brainbombs, might be a bit disappointed, but for the rest of you, in the market for some bad ass blasting punk rock, and filthy furious Finnish crush, this shit is unbeatable. Super swank sleeves, printed inserts with lyrics, LIMITED TO 500 copies, seemingly already out of print at the label!

Circle's Jussi Lehtisalo recommended this to us: another Finnish band that operates in the in-between realm of rock, improv, jazz, and prog. Kroko are an all-instrumental basso/perkussio/kitara trio featuring the guitarist from Bad Vugum recording artists Deep

RealAudio clip: Sol Ist
RealAudio clip: Agent Weird
RealAudio clip: Polanski After Ski
RealAudio clip: Liero
RealAudio clip: Setzur Au Naturelle

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

SORRY.

Local stalwart Victor Krummenacher delivers another wellcrafted collection of singer songwriter material. With the assistance of musicians such as Dave Alvin, Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers), Alison Faith Levy, and David Immergluck and Jonathan Segel of Krummenahcer's old band Camper Van Beethoven, Krummenacher writes instantly catchy poignant songs, with the high points being the duets with female vocalists. Check out the title track "Bittersweet" and see if you aren't immediately drawn in. This is high quality music from a talent so steady and mature that he doesn't make any mistakes. Nice.

RealAudio clip: Bittersweet

Finland's Ektro Records label (run by Jussi from Circle/Pharaoh Overlord as you may know) would have us believe that this four-song ep is one from the vaults, supposedly a reissue of singles tracks recorded back in '83 by the mysterious metal entity known as Krypt Axeripper. Obscure cult '80s metal, eh? Well it looks like it: it's got a suitable logo, fantastical n' scary artwork, and the cd booklet even reproduces the labels from the "original" vinyl release of the tracks "Battle Of The Axehammer" and "Possessed (By Trees)". Wait a sec, "Battle Of The Axehammer"? Isn't that also the title of the live Pharaoh Overlord album? Indeed it is, and we're about 99.666 percent sure that "Krypt Axeripper" is in fact the heavy metal alter ego of our friend Jussi! Playing guitars, bass, synths, and singing, Axeripper is joined by "Rattfinder" on drums, who from the sound of it is probably one of Jussi's colleagues in Circle... And of course, as with *anything* Circle-related, no matter what the concept, it's got that hypnotic Circle-sound at its base. In fact, we'd say that there's stuff on Circle's Sunrise or Pharaoh Overlord 4 that's actually way more metal than the songs here. Yes, they're all got a bunch of very metal (and crudely catchy) guitar riffing going on, albeit ramshackle and lo-fi. But then there's the vocals, which despite lyrics about Lucifer, have a very woozy, weirdly crooned, eccentrically pop quality to them, pitched high in a much more gentle way than a real metal screecher would do. And the guitar solos -- those are all totally psychedelic, Floydian/Frippian washes, really nice as well. And the drums, we mentioned, not metal at all. Too wimpy and motorikally rhythmic. So it's a truly unique and amusing mix, and we LOVE it. Sure the vocals come across as a bit silly at first, but they're actually pretty cool when you really listen, and it's impressive how the vocal parts are arranged, with various lead and backing vocals interwoven, all sung by Mr. Axeripper hisownself. False metal? More like freak metal. Krypt Axeripper may be fake (and funny) but we're still fans for real. It's interesting how in trying to make a pastiche of heavy metal music (if that's really what he was trying to do...), Jussi came up with something that, if we had to compare it to an actual metal record, reminds us of Voivod's most controversially "alternative" album, the college radio confusional Angel Rat from 1991. We also appreciate that this experiment was kept to just 11 minutes, four amazing, strange songs, not overdoing it, just enough to give his inner metalfan a chuckle -- and to get us to keep hitting play again and again and again on this wacked-out quartet of relaxed, quasi-metallic tracks. Krypt Axeripper seriously (or maybe not-so-seriously) rules!

MPEG stream: High Speed Thunder Forever Gone
MPEG stream: Possessed (By Trees)

We're flipping out a little over this new Memorandum label, a reissue label dedicated to an era of Australian underground rock that we've been obsessed with for years, Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost, Grong Grong (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), the Hard-Ons, the Triffids, Radio Birdman, the list goes on. We had never actually heard the Kryptonics before, but did know that members of the Kryptonics went on to play in Radio Birdman, the Hard-Ons, and most exciting for us, Lubricated Goat! But the sound of the Kryptonics was not nearly as noisy or punk, they were more a sort of garage pop combo, who listening to this now definitely remind us of the Hoodoo Gurus, or the Lime Spiders, albeit a bit more raw and rough around the edges. But holy crap could these guys write songs, a bunch of the tracks here are incredible and sound like could have been / should have been hits, in fact the whole first disc is pretty much super catchy, super rocking, kick ass punk pop through and through, so much so that a bunch of these sound like we MUST have heard them before. The second disc is mostly live and odds and ends, but live these guys definitely kicked ass, and there's an awesome cover of The Only Ones' "Another Girl, Another Planet"! Comes with a massive booklet, tons of liner notes, photos, flyers, etc. Anyone into garage rock of ANY stripe will definitely dig this stuff if they're not familiar with these guys already, and for anyone into the new breed of garage rockers, and noise poppers, check out the Kryptonics, even if it's just to realize that the NEW sound is not nearly so new after all...

MPEG stream: She's Got Germs
MPEG stream: Dare
MPEG stream: Telephone Line
MPEG stream: Rejectionville

With this release, S-S Records brings us a reissue of two 12"s by German band Krysmopompas. The plastic sleeve has a sticker referencing "neue Deutsche welle and krautrock with Wire-like minimalism." Well said, although we're not going to make it quite so reductive. Bands like Der KFC, Abwarts, and Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle definitely deserve mention, and maybe even a little Art Brut minus the slappy irony. Although, these guys' sense of melody is much more restrained than the latter, with simplistic structures rooted in repetition and sparse application. That's pretty much where the German new wave thing comes in. Anyway, the early '80s can be a little confusing given that there were so many newly emerging and intermingling genres, (even though Krysmopompas are actually contemporary) but if we had to try and explain a little more then we'd say that this is somewhere between post-punk and punk influenced new (or cold) wave. But closer to the punk side of things. And there's not really much synth. We read somewhere that they were "post-post," and while we're not entirely sure what that means, it kinda makes sense. Things could always be a little weirder and we wouldn't complain, but this fits very nicely next to compilations like IVG, BIPP, B9 Belgian Cold Wave, or even Des Jeunes Gens Modernes. If, like us, you can get into that, then this is for you! Maybe it helps shed light on things pointing out that S-S Records was also responsible for putting out music by A-Frames and Monoshock, two more excellent, crazy post-punk-what-the-fuck bands.

SUNNO)))-worshippers alert! 1/2 of that drone metal behemoth, our pal Stephen O'Malley (who has also piloted or participated in such units as Khanate, Burning Witch, Ginnungagap, Teeth Of The Lions Rule The Divine, Thorr's Hammer, Fungal Hex, Lotus Eaters, etc.) has travelled to Europe to collaborate with Austrian experimental digital noise artist Peter "Pita" Rehberg! They're calling themselves KTL because the music they made is to be the soundtrack to some sort of stage piece called Kindertotenlieder by performance artist Gisele Vienne and novelist Dennis Cooper ("Closer") due to debut at a festival in France next year. Judging from the music, not to mention the people involved, we imagine it's gonna be beautiful, but also somehow disturbing and dark... This cd certainly is. It starts off with the 24 minute drone "Estranged", blissful and spooky piece that builds towards its end to noisier heights, threatening the storms to come on this album. And yes, the four parts of "Forest Floor" that take up the main, middle part of the disc are a harrowing journey indeed, into a buzzing, claustrophobic realm of dangerous digital sonics and heavy drone, like SUNNO)))'s lugubrious riffage mixed with the glitchy crunch of Pita -- which is what it is, of course! Not for the faint of heart. Part four, in particular, sounds like a doomed prop engine airplane rumbling over a dark forest landscape from some black metal album cover, at night... Finally O'Malley and Rehberg wind things up with the quieter (but still creepy) 13 minutes of "Snow", a softly pulsing, detailed improv exploration of lowercase sounds... Very nice! Let's hope KTL isn't just a one-off collaboration, we'd like to hear more from these two! Their mastery of minimalist ambient music, electronic glitchology and Earthy guitar sludge make a fine sipping brew. A note for all you object fetishizing consumerist completist types, be forewarned that there will eventually also be a vinyl version of this on the Aurora Borealis label, a double LP limited to 500 copies... we can take preorders now...

MPEG stream: Estranged
MPEG stream: Forest Floor 4

When we reviewed the recent career retrospective compilation on Omni from weirdo German outsider sci-fi electro pop alchemist Felix Kubin, we got a little taste of his very early material, and in a weird way, found some of that stuff the most twistedly and disturbingly appealing, so in the spirit of digging deeper into the warped youthful sonic dabblings of a burgeoning musical madman comes this lp collection of, as the title suggests, Teenage Tapes, which in fact is precisely that, a collection of early EARLY recordings, from a teenage Kubin, aged 11-15 (he began playing at age 8!). And like the tracks we heard on the Omni comp, maybe even more so, these tapes do not disappoint. Consisting of nearly half entirely previously unreleased material, Teenage Tapes is a wild melange of tripped out electro pop, primitive cold wave, and some weird strain of home brewed krautrock, just check out opener "Paris Paris", with it's driving drum machine beat, twisted electronics, goofily playful melodies, sinister super distorted vocals, it may have been a teenage experiment, but it's way more fierce and bad ass than half of the grown up bands trying to pull this stuff off now. And more of Teenage Tapes is made up of the same sort of churning, rhythmic minimal kraut-pop weirdness. Stripped of the vocals, these jams could easily be early electronic krautrock experiments, but add in the vocals, and it becomes some sort of warped avant electro pop, with some tracks drifting into almost kosmische synth territory, others sounding a bit like Perrey & Kingsley doing Tangerine Dream, others like wild 8-bit freakouts, and still others sounding like some rad new band on Wierd or Captured Tracks. And while usually, a collection of early teenage works would end up being more of a novelty, and sure, some of this stuff is a little goofy, many of the tracks here are incredible, lush and textured and atmospheric and near cinematic. Hard to believe Kubin was making music like this in grade school, just grateful that someone is finally digging through Kubin's teenage archives. Here's hoping there's more to come. Nicely packaged in a heavy jacket adorned with a teenage Kubin's gothy made up face, with an inner sleeve featuring lyrics, and some hand drawn diagrams and schematics.

MPEG stream: Japan Japan
MPEG stream: Agitabo
MPEG stream: The Germans
MPEG stream: Melancholia
MPEG stream: Hans, Der Ist Nicht Artig

Brand new music from German outsider sci-fi pop weirdo / visionary, whose "particle accelerator pop" positions somewhere between a sort of naive, alien Gary Numan, and a time traveling Brian Wilson cyborg, his pop music meticulously crafted from the detritus of classic pop music past, fused into some impossible space aged future pop, Kubin a Joe Meek like studio mad scientist, transforming pop music into something strange and wondrous, even when working with someone else's music, just check out the opening track, a killer and fantastically confusional cover of Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes", which turns the original into a near operatic robotic future funk, channeling the spirit of Klaus Nomi (who also does a killer version of the song), but Kubin has no shortage of his own mini masterpieces, beginning with "Atomium Vertigo", which sounds like Serge Gainsbourg played by an all robot band, a krauty drum machine kraut-groove beneath fields of FX and static, while Kubin delivers his sultry spoken word, oh yeah, and of course there's the bleepy bloopy vocodered chorus. And so it goes, every track here a twisted future pop gem, from the avant electro-kraut exotica of "Nachts Im Park", to the 8-bit skitter of "Flies Without Memory", to the garbled electronic jazz collage that is "Restez En Linge", to the banging synth hop of "Piscine Ressonenzi", which has us envisioning Kubin as a producer and beat maker for the current crop of pop stars like Ke$ha, or Beyonce, or Britney... if only! And Kubin never lets up, the second half of Zemsta Plutona as chock full of electro future pop weirdness as the first, flitting from plunderphonic style forties jazz to maniacal alien electro, and from murky minimal avant-kraut weirdness to Perry & Kingsley style electronic experimentation, and beyond! Like all Omni releases, Zemsta Plutona is beautifully appointed, there's a big full color booklet, with liner notes and plenty of photos!

MPEG stream: Lightning Strikes
MPEG stream: Atomium Vertigo
MPEG stream: Nachts Im Park
MPEG stream: Flies Without Memory

Aaaiiieeeee! Sounding just as you'd expect a collaboration between Aavikko and Felix Kubin would sound! "Superlake Beat" will make ya wanna do a juiced-up-funky-twist-shimmy-shake on your orange shag-carpeted ceiling. "Antarktis Slow Rock" is a four minute

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

SORRY.

We're always on about '70s prog. Well what about prog in the '80s? Here's a nice example, though it's from the very early in the decade (recorded 1980, released 1981) so it's practically '70s anyway. A rather obscure Swedish outfit called Kultivator, whose sole album Barndomens Stigar (which boasts a b&w engraving on the cover by none other than conceptual artist & experimental musician Leif Elggren) blends the quirky herky jerky of prog complexity with blissful melody, tilting at times towards the twee whilst menacingly muscle-flexing at others. There's sizzling instrumental solo sections, and also much in the way of delightful female vocals (mostly wordless ba-ba-ba's). Kultivator were a quartet, with lots of Fender Rhodes electric piano, as well as other organ and synth keyboards. Also recorder and/or flute. And on occasional backing vocals, a boy's choir. Yup, very proggy indeed. Armchair prog percussionists are provided with their fair share of air-drumming opportunities, percolating energetically as the drumming here does! All those keyboards create a moody, slightly jazzistic sound which reminds us a bit of the brilliant Bo Hansson, '70s Swedish prog royalty. There's also a definite Magma influence at work (the thick bass riffing and martial drumming in the middle of "Kara Jord" for instance, leading some to go so far as to label Kultivator a genuine "zeuhl" band), and you'll hear hints of traditional Scandinavian folk music as well. Further reference points: fellow Swedes Samla Mammas Manna and Kebnekajse, also '70s UK prog like Genesis and Gentle Giant, RIO a la Henry Cow, and specifically Canterbury groups like Soft Machine, among others. Guess that's what happens when you make prog in 1980, with a whole previous decade of genius from which to draw inspiration! Although Kultivator, um, certainly cultivated their own unique spin on what came before. We'd also say this is a good one for folks who enjoyed the modern day Swedish prog of Gosta Berlings Saga, reviewed here last year. This brand-new reissue on the Mellotronen label features three bonus tracks added to the original LP's eight cuts, plus a whole extra bonus disc, called Waiting Paths, featuring four songs recorded by the now-reunited band in 2006. Since they already seemed a bit "out of time" (& we don't mean rhythmically!) even back in '81, it's no surprise that this more recent material sounds like a more modern Kultivator... but not that much more modern. Also included in this nice digipacked reissue, a big booklet with vintage photos and lengthy liner notes. Prog-lovin' AQ customers, check this out!

MPEG stream: Grottekvarnen
MPEG stream: Barndomens Stigar

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

SORRY. Totally brutal, Chicago powerviolence ala Spazz, Drop Dead, etc...These kids know how to thrash with the best of em though. Short blazing, grinding, pounding furious grindcore. Excellent.

One guy and his acoustic guitar, conjuring up the spirits of Kottke, Basho, and Fahey. Gentle, mellow, folk-classical guitar explorations, pretty and somewhat melancholy. Kunin's playing, while adept and intricate, is not as out there as what fellow

RealAudio clip: Brindavan

Kuupuu, aka Jonna Karanka, is a name that might not be immediately familiar, but when you realize she has played in Avarus, The Anaksimandros, Kukkiva Poliisi, and in Hertta Lussu �ss” (with Lau Nau and Islaja), then those Finnish music obsessive ears of yours perk right up! This new 7" comes hot on the heels of two super limited cd-r's, and is amazing! Warm and warbly and fuzzed out, like a blurry old photograph, wheezing chords and lush multitracked vocals are spread into a thick staticky haze. Clattery percussion is smeared into the already murky whole, everything wrapped in a warm wispy fog of tape hiss and old record crackle and broken four track bristle. Completely mesmerizing, the first side a dense tangled smear, like a lo-fi loop of foresty fuzz, sonically quite reminiscent of Philip Jeck or William Basinski. Side two is much more spare, with what sounds like super distorted thumb piano, plucking out sparse ghostly melodies, that hang there suspended like dust motes trapped in a beam of late afternoon sunlight, a haunting music box melody from some lost place in time. So lovely. Released on Time Lag so you know the packaging will be beautiful. And it is, a gorgeous full color print on thick textured paper, limited to 600 copies and hand numbered!

The best cover versions, we always think, are the ones where the band doing the covering really makes the song being covered their own, do you agree? Then, that makes this one of the best covers albums ever, 'cause regardless of whether Kuvezin and Yat-Kha are doing Led Zeppelin or Kraftwerk, it sounds like the music of the steppes. That's right, Yat-Kha are the band from Tuva in Central Asia whose music is already a hybrid of the rustic folk traditions of their native land and Western rock, on records like Yenisei-Punk and Tuva-Rock. We like 'em very much. I mean, a rock band with a throat-singer is hard to beat! Vocalist Albert Kuvezin is always a regular member of Yat-Kha (he's the band leader in fact), but he gets special star billing here I guess 'cause the songs they're doing are his selections, reflecting his influences outside of Tuvan folk music. You can tell that the counter-cultural Kuvezin is no garage-band or electro-clash obsessed youngster, but the tracks he's picked are, taste-wise, pretty right-on. A good balance of the hip, classic, and obscure. The aforementioned Zeppelin and Kraftwerk songs are also joined by the works of Hank Williams, Iron Butterfly (it says "via Slayer" but we don't hear any of the latter), Joy Division, Captain Beefheart (whose voice Kuvezin must love!), Motorhead (another vocalist Kuvezin clearly appreciates), the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and others, including some less familiar names like Russian cult figure Vladmir Vysotskiy and Tuvan symphonic composer Alexei Baktrevitch Tchyrgal. There's notes on each track (about why they were chosen, what they mean to Albert and Yat-Kha) and even a map pinpointing the geographical origins of the original artists. There's of course a novelty aspect to this in part, we can't deny (just as we can't deny that it's just plain cool to hear "Orgasmatron" performed acoustically with a singer who makes Lemmy's gargle sound like the voice of a song-bird) but it's not as if Kuvezin and Yat-Kha aren't serious, and like we said, they really make these songs their own -- you might not always immediately figure out what you're hearing, and even when you do, if you didn't know better you might be able to believe that "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was originally a Tuvan tune, for example, meant for Kuvezin's rumbling voice and the high lonesome Country Eastern sounds of Yat-Kha's traditional instrumentation.

MPEG stream: In A Gadda Da Vida
MPEG stream: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Latest from this Berlin-based, but British, boy-girl duo (whom we've never reviewed before, but should have!) who really do a bang up job of mixing psychedelic guitar shoegazery with cold / minimal wave electronic beats, so across these dozen tracks you get a loud and lovely dose of this duo's dark dance floor ruminations, replete with washes of distorted guitar, propulsive rhythmic sequencing, heavy-with-reverb vocals, Joy Division basslines, tick-tock percussion, and anthemic minor key melodies. Quite moody & mesmeric, with lots of atmospheric synth-werk, and an undercurrent of, well, desire. Darkly romantic some would say. It's both very '80s and very 'now', and should appeal to fans of such aQ faves as Moon Duo and UK noise-poppers Novella. Over in England, this was released on Invada, the label run by Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Beak, and was recorded in his Bristol studio, where The KVB took full advantage of his impressive collection of synthesizers. Most certainly recommended.

MPEG stream: White Walls
MPEG stream: Night Games
MPEG stream: Lower Depths

It was beginning to get pretty ridiculous, for ages we were hearing all about this band, how great they were, reading about them in metal mags, hearing other metal bands rave about them, much talk of how amazing their record was, appearances in top ten lists, pictures of the super striking John Baizley cover art everywhere, even beginnings of a backlash on the blogs about how overhyped they were, but the only problem was, you couldn't find the record ANYWHERE! At least in the US, we spent months and months, trying every metal distro, every non metal distro, we had just about given up, when voila, it finally got picked up and released domestically, with a whole mess of bonus tracks to boot. So was the wait worth it? Does Kvelertak live up to the hype? Well, yeah, actually it was. This stuff IS pretty awesome, and bizarre, a weird blend of blasting black metal and D-beat cock-rock Turbonegro style over the top rock. Just have a listen to the opening track, which explodes in a frenzy of buzz and blast and shriek, only to switch gears into a way more groovy heavy metal punk pound, the shrieked vocals the only thing keeping it from going full Turbonegro. In fact, the NON black metal parts kind of sound like a supercharged Hellacopters, which is not at all a bad thing. And the sound is epic, the production massive, the energy through the roof. But it's that sort of heavy rock groove thing, that might deter lots of the more true and kvlt metalheads. "Mjod" is all pounding pianos and tamborines, and big rock riffage, epic and swinging, that Hellacopters vibe huge, and the vocals are shrieky, not counting the deep bellowed gang vocals on the chorus, there's even a little acoustic guitar break, and then suddenly, a stretch of blasting black metal, which slips right back into the soaring cock rocky chorus. And so it goes. Hard to tell if these guys are black metallers indulging their inner KISS (or Turbonegro, or Hellacopters, or...), or if it's just some heavy rockers who toss in a blast here and there or a little tremlo picking to add some cult cred. Cuz it is a weird mix, and it doesn't always flow so smoothly, but we're digging it a lot, and if anything, it sounds like these guys probably KILL live. And that definitely comes across here big time.

MPEG stream: Ulvetid
MPEG stream: Mjod
MPEG stream: Fossegrim
MPEG stream: Sultans Of Satan

Wow. We can't get over this incredibly cosmic, tripped-out debut cassette from KWJAZ. SF mastermind Peter Berends decides that space is the place and sets his sights for uncharted musical territory. Falling somewhere between outsider instrumental pop and dubbed-out psychedelic ethno-jazz, Berends leads a colorful excursion into the astral unknown. The two, side-long tracks unfold like some otherworldly mix-tape, deep basslines giving way to sizzling warbling drones, cut-up bits of rhythmic clatter ooze and materialize into slow grooving monuments to the stars. Chopped up samples and distorted swells melt into a lo-fi woozy web. Hazy, primitive beats (picture a slowed down Ethiopiques loop) rock and sway as horns, electric piano and weirdo samples add to the celestial crunk. And keep in mind, though KWJAZ is weird, far-out and strange, this humble cassette is overflowing with musicianship and close attention to layering and detail. What makes all the tripped-out, genre defying weirdness so satisfying is Berends's ability to form these diverse elements into a propulsive, evocative musical journey through time and genre. Moments of cool jazz tranquility unexpectedly morph into trip-hop fantasy ballads, long-tone new age bliss suddenly shifts into West African romps, and somehow all these tangents seem impossibly and seamlessly linked. We can't recommend this one enough! Limited to an edition of 121, fans of Hype Williams, Rangers or Ducktails will not want to miss out on this lysergic masterpiece!

MPEG stream: Once In Babylon
MPEG stream: Frighteous Wane

This swank double cd reissues the 1972 third album from Canada's craziest new music/psychedelic rock collective, the anarchic L'Infonie which flourished from '67-'74. (Giving you some clue about their methodical madness, their other LPs were titled "Vol. 3", "Vol. 33", and "Vol. 3333", of which only the first has also been reissued on cd as yet -- we recommended it here back in '01.) Hailing from Montreal, Quebec these academic avant-garde freaks mixed classical chamber music, acid fuzz rock, weird warbling vocal babble, jazzy groove, free improv, musique concrete, prog overload, etc. etc. into a confusing, chaotic, comedic happening that should appeal equally to Terry Riley and Zappa fans. I know sometimes mentioning Zappa is the kiss of death, so don't take it the wrong way. Let's mention some other stuff this reminds us of, in part: Soft Machine Goblin New Trolls Univers Zero Faust Mahogany Brain Art Zoyd Nurse With Wound. This is pretty darn cool and weird and original, bizarrely funny sometimes and simply strange and beautiful on other occasions. Disc one is more "rock", disc two more "classical." What it all means, I don't know -- there's lotsa liner notes, but useful only to the francophones among us.

MPEG stream: Section 19-23
MPEG stream: Ubiquital

On the same label that reissued that weird Les Maledictus Sound album, comes this even weirder French-Canadian late '60s artifact. But this isn't really like the pop-psych commerical craziness of the Maledictus disc. L'Infonie was a much more avant-garde group,

RealAudio clip: J'ai perdu 15 cents dans le nez froid...
RealAudio clip: Ode a L'Affaire -- Ouverture
RealAudio clip: Viens danser le 'OK La!'

Dip is quite possibly Aidan Moffat's most expansive and varied L. Pierre release to date. So much so that it's easy to get lost in and forget who you're listening to. It's quite unlike anything we've heard from him (either on his previous L.Pierre and Lucky Pierre recordings or his other band Arab Strap's). With considerably more forward motion and development, each of the six tracks certainly seem far less loop-centric than 2005's Touchpool. Super pretty at times quite majestic.

MPEG stream: Gullsong
MPEG stream: Drift

We had never heard of La Big Vic before, but from what we had read, it was an unlikely supergroup of sorts, with a frontman that once fronted a Japanese J-Pop band and produced hip hop records and commercials before moving to the US. There's also some sort of Pink Floyd connection, and the label described La Big Vic as a sort of RnB hip hop thing, which we were imagining was more of that current strain of weirdo sonic explorers who take elements of those genres and twist them all up into something new, which is actually a bit closer to the truth. Opener "LYNY" is more a sort of washed out psychedelic dream pop, garbled samples, swirling effects, warm woozy melodies, hazy ethereal vox, with some softly cacophonous crescendos that soar and shimmer majestically, and that sound definitely informs much of the record, the second track "Heyo (Silver Morning)", takes the hazy psychedelic shimmer of the opening track and adds some skittery rhythms, some strange clanking percussion, spidery guitars, again all burred and smeared into something dreamy and blissed out. There's some sax that surfaces near the end, and begins showing up more as the record progresses. Which depending on your feelings toward the sax, may affect your feelings towards La Big Vic. And so it goes, there are moments that do seem to dabble into a sound more RnB rooted, but only just barely, the vibe is way more lysergic and warped, that sax, actually begins to make more sense as the record progresses, there's some cool angelic female vox too, and at least one track that downright rocks, all super shoegazey and sounding like an alternate soundtrack for the Breakfast Club, finally finishing off with a nearly 11 minute closer, a stripped down skittery ballad, wreathed in warm whirring synths, and swirling soft focus effects, the most hypnotic song on the record for sure, channeling a little space/dirge/drone rock into their synth drift, finishing with some wild tangled psych guitar and Carpenter like pulsing synths. Tripped out psychedelic abstract RnB synth weirdness, that should most definitely appeal to fans of the usual subjects: James Ferraro, Gary War, Ariel Pink, How To Dress Well, D'Eon and all the rest...

MPEG stream: LYNY
MPEG stream: Heyo (Silver Morning)
MPEG stream: FAO

Argentinian psych from '71 with some nice fuzz bits!