[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 12751 through 12800 of 19388.

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SORRY. Electronica nursery rhymes with ample Lego beats, Fisher Price melodies, theremin trills, and Perry & Kingsley wackiness.

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SORRY. The debut single on Warp from this twee electronica outfit who had a few singles out on Wurtlizer Jukebox. Far more loungey and spacepop than "electronica."

Back in 1994, Mr. Plotkin recorded a guitar track and handed it Brent Gutzeit (of TV Pow) in 1995. Mr. Gutzeit destroyed it with homemade instruments, a boom box, and a 4-track. The ensuing recordings were passed back and forth between the two over the past 4 years and finally ended up on Kranky! Solemn, spacious drones and dreamy passages of ambient noise.

This Boston band's latest album Without Number conjures visions of a more aggressive Lhasa or the more recent brooding parlour rock of Celebration. Sound good to you? It sure does to us! Plumerai take the traditional rock band assembly of smokily emotive female vocals, low-slung guitar, bass and drums, and plush it up with the mesmerizing addition of accordion and organ. A stormy, slinky affair that blows winding smoke rings into the candlelight.

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From the depths of the Impulse label's more "psychsploitaton" side of jazz comes this exotic East-meets-West rarity from 1968. And if you dug Gabor Szabo's Jazz Raga, any of the John Berberian electric oud albums, the Indo-jazz of Joe Harriott, or the even more authentically "Indo" Indo-jazz of T.K. Ramamoorthy recently reissued by EM, this will be right up your alley. You might have second thoughts seeing the buttoned-down suit and tie wearing bass player Plummer seemingly taking the piss out of the sitar jazz craze of the mid-to-late Sixties, but this record's musical qualities far outweigh any trendy novelty or gimmicks. The opening track, "Journey to The East", is a groovy pop number with spoken singing (the only track with vocals) but the flute, tabla and sitar interplay is pretty far out. Things get further out on the sinewy free jazz of "Arc 294" and the quiet intensity of "Antares". Even covers like "The Look of Love" and The Byrds' "Lady Friend" have charms beyond what those songs normally have to offer. A cultish obscurity for years, it's awesome to see this one-off album reissued again!

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Markus Schmickler has enjoyed a long career of artistic reinventions, and his Pluramon project marks yet another with the highly acclaimed album Dreams Top Rock. Back in the early '90s, Schmickler began his musical career with a number of obscure electro-acoustic collaborations including Kontakta and Pol; but Schmickler's first major productions came with his first Pluramon record Pick Up Canyon, an album on which Schmickler worked with with Can's drummer extrordinaire Jaki Leibezeit. Outperforming much of the contemporary post-rock of the mid-90s (i.e. Tortoise, Stereolab, etc.), Pick Up Canyon brought an exceptional use of electronics to the always amazing clustered grooves of Leibezeit. Since then, Schmickler also released painterly electro-glitch collages as Wabi Sabi and an overlooked orchestral album that accurately reflected the ideas of such 20th Century avant-garde masters as Ligeti, Arvo Part, and Xenakis. Schmickler's return to his Pluramon project finds him re-investing in the sublime beauty of shoegazer pop on Dreams Top Rock. As with Pick Up Canyon which hinged upon the percussive prowess of Jaki Leibezeit, Dreams Top Rock revolves around the ego of another. This time it's the David Lynch dream-girl Julee Cruise. Yes, there's plenty of My Bloody Valentine to go around; but to these ears, Dreams Top Rock is also a pastiche of A.R. Kane's very early singles dotted with melodies lifted from the Angelo Badalamenti songbook. Cruise's breathy vocalizations and hushed etherial whispers work incredibly well with Schmickler's adept reinterpretation of the shoegazer sound. Unlike Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine, Schmickler doesn't present himself as a brilliant songwriter. His songs are certainly better than most; but he tends to overwhelm the songs with his flawless production of that narcotized guitar sound. Especially for anyone who bought the recent M83 record, Dreams Top Rock is an essential album. However, one non-music related complaint: Whose bright idea was it to put a sticker on the front of the digipak with the artist name and album title? I mean, sure, leave that info off the artwork, put a sticker on the cd case, or on the shrinkwrap. But if you decide to leave it off the artwork, then why would you put a sticker (that you can't peel off) directly on the cardboard of a digipack?! It makes no sense. GRRRR!!! ARGGHHH!!!

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SORRY. For an album that definitely IS the missing link between Krautrock and Postrock, "Pick Up Canyon" has been horribly under-rated. Combining the studio skills of Markus Schmickler and the percussive talents of Jaki Liebzeit (drummer for Can) Pluramon's sound perfectly fuses electronic technology and well executed live instrumentation.

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SORRY. Markus Schmickler's second album as Pluramon features ex-Can percussionist Jaki Leibezeit chugging away on all of the tracks for a propulsive / trance inducing album of prog-electronica. Certainly for fans of Kreidler and the recent Deutscher Funk compilation (which actually featured Pluramon).

We've been waiting a long time for this one. The follow up to Pluramon's 2003 outing Dream Top Rock, which is a classic AQ favorite at this point. These days Pluramon sound almost nothing like their earliest incarnation when Markus Scmickler was making somewhat abstract electronics with stunning results. But luckily Schmickler is one of those great musicians that changes his palette often but whose results always soar to great heights. This outing finds him exploring somewhat similar terrain as was found on Dream Top Rock, with Julee Cruise on board once again on several tracks with her blissed out and enigmatic vocals. With even more upfront and unadulterated pop in these tracks this has had us thinking lots of Mojave 3 and even the Broken Social Scene as well as My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver. Such perfect shoegaze songs for the crisp cold days we've been having in San Francisco. The Monstrous Surplus is one of those great records that weaves itself into your subconscious with repeated listens. Minus one dud (we could have gone without the spoken vocal delivery of "Fresh Aufhebung") the album is pretty close to daydream pop perfection. We're pretty surprised that the last Pluramon release didn't make bigger waves as we think it was just as amazing as releases by folks like M83 and Mum which did get to a wider audience. In a year with a nice resurgence of shoegaze influenced records from folks like Ulrich Schnaus and Trembling Blue Stars we hope that Pluramon finally gets the wide appreciation and respect they so rightfully deserve!

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Sticky sweet piano and voice ballads that fall somewhere between the lush pop harmonies of Sloan and the maturing 'post-rock' of all the Chicago bands (Gastr Del Sol, Tortoise, Pullman, etc...).

Ok, here's this list's special treat for all you proto-metal fans: a reissue of obscure, early '70s UK hard rockers Pluto! This digipack reissue isn't new, it came out a few years back but we missed it at the time - and in fact, as far as we know it's out of print (the whole Breathless label being now defunct), but we found a handful of these at one of our suppliers and grabbed 'em all. So, they won't be here for long, act fast if you want one. Pluto's sole album was originally released in 1971 (yes, once again, 1971 completely blows our minds, good grief!) on Pye's progressive, "underground" Dawn label. But the type of progressive rock Pluto plays isn't, y'know, like Yes or Genesis, or Comus for that matter (whose First Utterance was also a '71 Dawn release). No flutes or tricky time signatures. They just play poppy, heavy rock and aren't afraid to boogie. This digipack reissue contains 13 tracks in all, 3 of 'em non-album bonus cuts from singles. Bonus single track "I Really Want It" is possibly the star of the show, it's been comped several times, on Dawn anthologies and so forth, and for good reason, with suggestive lyrics that are well matched by the song's slow, stomping groove. But there's LOTS of good songs here, from cowbell knockin' fuzz rockers to some more melodic, ballady, even Beatlesy ones. Recommended for folks into the likes of early Wishbone Ash, Orang-utan, Leaf Hound, Human Beast, Power Of Zeus, Three Man Army, Luv Machine, Bubble Puppy, and other vintage, semi-heavy obscurities.

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Latest slab of grinding destruction from these bay area thrashers. Wicked and heavy, pummelling fastcore. Complex and amazing. With Max from Spazz/What Happens Next on the skins. Awesome.

Shhh, a lil' sleepyhead is singing in his dreams while an assembly of musicboxes unwind their cascading chimes and melting drops from icicles fall upon harp strings... or so the first few tracks sound on the debut album from Denmark's Po. Need we say? Lovely! This solo artist (aka eighteen year old Daniel Porcelli) crafts softly glitchy electronic soundscapes that solidify into more melodically inclined numbers ("Ten One"). Very calming, this will surely help smooth any ruffled feathers at the end of a hectic day. Psst, this is another of the uncommonly sumptuous array of releases from the young music label Dynamophone. As we mentioned earlier in the review of labelmates Balustrade Ensemble, they've only been around since mid-2006, but already have a bountiful catalog with many more on the way. Particularly if you've been recently enjoying the aquatic drone releases on the Mystery Sea label, you might wish to check out the seemingly likeminded, but more melodically inclined Dynamophone artists. An absolute treasure trove of shimmering and dewy listening delights. Delve in immediately (also see: Balustrade Ensemble, Disinterested, Halou, Pornopop, A Lily, Curium, and R/R Coseboom)!

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Another gorgeous chunk of swirling drone drenched psychedelic drift from this crushworthy LA duo. We raved about their recent Island Diamonds cd reissue, while lamenting the relative dearth of Pocahaunted reviews on the aQ site. Well, here's another record to aid us in our quest to make things right. Chains finds Pocahaunted blissing out big time, weaving hazy stretches of krautrocky avant drone pop, over four songs, two sides of vinyl, once again assisted by Mr. Bobb Bruno. The vocals chant-like and repetitive, the drums a simple propulsive plod buried in the mix, the guitars swirling and blurred, washed out and woozy, plenty of FX, delay, echo, a laid back druggy Velvet Underground style slowjam, dirgey and doomy, but weirdly folky too. The next two tracks tread similar ground, dropping the drums at one point to get super abstract and shimmery, but before long they slip back into another murky echo drenched slow jam, rife with dubby rhythms and all manner of muted, blurred and smeared ambience. The fourth track, and the one that gives the record its name, is a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Chains", which took us a while to even recognize, the band twist it all up and pull it apart, and craft it into something that could very easily have been a Pocahaunted original, the melodies sprawl, the vocals are crooned and wailed, wreathed in reverb, the drums a soft skitter, the two vocal lines intertwining dramatically, turning the original, already a pretty intense song, into something much more brooding and dark, druggy and krauty. Awesome. Cool color collage cover, xeroxed insert, and pressed on swirled yellow vinyl.

Considering the buzz surrounding this LA drone duo, it's really surprising that this is the first Pocahaunted release we've actually listed! Not to mention the tons of cd-rs, tapes and lps these gals have put out already! (Well maybe not so surprising - we did write a review of their Peyote Road LP on Woodsist, but never listed it 'cause we ran out and it went out of print too fast). In any case, we're super happy to include this genre bending slab of stoned drone-dub on this week's list. Island Diamonds, a reissue of a sold-out lp released on Arbor (see?) with added bonus tracks, is the latest album from these psychedelic sorceresses. And with the help of producer (and experimental electronica artist in his own right) Bobb Bruno from Polar Goldie Cats, they've really cooked up something special here. Dueling swells of wordless vocal hypnosis, all under the wing of brooding, trance inducing drones. We're reminded of Valet, but with dubby drum machine beats. The perfect balance between pop aesthetics, DIY urban groove and ominous, obscure psychedelia. Definitely new territory for these ladies, and for us. The cd comes beautifully packaged in a colorful digipak adorned with pictures of the band and the usual Not Not Fun collagey goodness. Pressed in an edition of 500, you know these will be gone in no time. Oh, and in addition to the 2 bonus tracks, there's also a music video you can play on your computer, that looks very much like it was made on someone's computer too.

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The return of the female dronenoise dynamic duo, often referred to as the Olsen Twins of noiserock (not sure if that's a dis, or if they came up with it themselves), it's unclear if the band ever actually broke up, but regardless, Make It Real marks the duo's first record in a while. The most noticeable difference here are the vocals, and well, the songs too, dialed back for the most part is the hazy drugged out psychedelia of old, and in its place is something much more rock, more fuzzy and propulsive and less abstract and spacey. From the first song, it almost sounds classic rock, big echoey drums, heavily reverbed guitars, fuzzy garagey organ, and some full on sixties girl group style vocals, finding their new sound more aligned with groups like Dum Dum Girls, the Beets, Brilliant Colors, Vivian Girls, than with their more tripped out labelmates. The sound suits them for sure, and even in their early days, they still dabbled in this kind of hazy psych-pop, it's just more pronounced here. The druggy groove of the Doors is all over this record (or for a more contemporary reference, Wooden Shjips or the Moon Duo), but things also get more jagged and angular as Pocahaunted channel some old school eighties post punk. Definitely cool, just be prepared for more song and less space, more rock and less drift, it for sure sounds like maybe the shift in sound was organic, the seeds sewn on past records blossoming here, born from a natural progression, from sound to song, making both the recorded, and the live Pocahaunted experience, much more rocking and danceable. Which is not at all a bad thing.

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SORRY.

Pocahaunted have become quite the household name these days, and rightly so. After releasing somewhere close to five LPs in a single year, the Olsen twins of drone, as they are so aptly nicknamed, show no signs of slowing down. And we can thank Troubleman for getting hip to these lady droners just in time to release their most promising effort yet. The duo teem up with the famed Bobb Bruno, as well as Cameron Stallones, a member of Magic Lantern and the man behind Sun Araw, to summon up a darkened slab of ceremonial drone that proves to be our favorite material from the band to date. Imagine Popol Vuh getting tribal with Brast Burn, throw in a touch of the mysterious voodoo vibes of Valet's Blood is Clean, and you pretty much have this album. Less dubbed out and much more focused then their last lp Chains, Passage is ghostly and unsettling. We can't help but notice how much this outfit has matured over the last few records. Seems like they really laid down some solid ideas on this record. Voices calling from the deserted plains as the sky grows heavy with menacing clouds, the distant clanging of gongs and bells growing louder and louder as the dry earth begins to crack. The pair's signature vocals are deep and melancholic, trance inducing and hypnotic as they sulk in apocalyptic lament. But there is a kind of astral freak out vibe hidden in the dark grain woodwork here, with flaring organ licks and fuzzed/reverbed out electric guitar that fades in and disappears. At times it kinda sounds like some New Agers channeling a Native American ceremony, only to realize they've conjured up some angry force that swallows them whole. Slow building, contemplative and, dare was say, dooooomy, we're definitely into it. And this time around, the band takes a break from their usual collagey album art aesthetic and opted for the more refined look. With a simple, vintagey cover complete with stark pictures of the female droners looking quite dashing, we have to say we're really impressed with the whole package. Don't miss out on this incredibly impressive release! Completely and sincerely recommended!!

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SORRY.Peyote Road, Pocahaunted's second offering from the Woodsist/Fuck-It-Tapes camp compiles two funereal dirges, one from the studio, while the other is a vibey live cut from the bands spate of dates supporting Sonic Youth's rekindling of Daydream Nation last summer. The former, "Divine Flesh," begins with a dirty and thick guitar phrase that is repeated sludgefully through the duration of the song. The guitar work is embellished with some spry bongo work, what sounds like a sitar ringing sympathetically on the periphery, and eventually the snaking and syllabic vocal meandering's of Amanda and Bethany, the band's two core members. The B-side, "Heroic doses," is a more clouded, and less melodic affair, quite possibly a result of the live recording techniques employed. It comes across as a sort of subterranean fugue, with more circular dynamics, and less track separation. Peyote Road's pace is more contemplative than previous Pocahaunted releases and performances, erring on the side of mournfulness, and stopping well short of the ecstatic catharsis that put this LA band on the map this past year. This is not a bad thing however, as it lends a bit of space to the listener. Despite its density, there is a loamy and diffuse quality that makes what is ostensibly heavy music by virtue of its palette and repetition, somehow spacious and inhabitable. Call it the bearable lightness of Pocahaunted; eschewing black superlatives for a dark grey sonic tapestry. Further, as their name would indicate, there is an embedded playfulness in the bands approach that sets them apart from many other contemporary drone/psych outfits. The vocals, despite being darkly minor, have an oddly pre-pubescent bounce one might expect to hear coming from a 3rd grader discovering their goth proclivities, and we again mean that in a good way. Certainly anyone well familiar with the band will be exceedingly pleased with this offering, and anyone who has yet to tap into the Pocahaunted/Robedoor/NotNotFun locus would be doing themselves a favor by taking a dip in the pre-natal drone slurry that's been drifting up the coast for the last couple of years. It is special. Warning: already sold out at label and we only have exceedingly few, so sorry, be prepared to be disappointed...

Final missive of dreamy druggy psych rock from the briefly reinvigorated Pocahaunted. Formerly a duo, half of which left to start the sunshinier beach pop combo Best Coast, the other half of the duo expanded Pocahaunted to a five piece, featuring THREE female vocalists, this the only recorded evidence of that lineup, recorded right here in SF with Tim Green, the first of these two tracks begins woozy and washed out, throbbing low slung bass underpins shards of softly angular guitar, the drums are muted and minimal, it's really all about the vocals, the three voices constantly swooping and flitting, locking into strange harmonies before separating again, the vibe is dark and groovy, and while things start off dreamy, the sound quickly builds to something much more frenzied and frantic, the vocals beginning to yelp and howl, the drums following suit, becoming way busier, the result a warmly chaotic chunk of vocal driven post punk psychedelia. The B side begins even more abstract and dreamy, just bass, skeletal guitar, simple drums, some cowbell, a little synth, and of course vocals, all very spare and spacious, loping and hypnotic, the bass locked into a hypnotic groove, allowing the guitars and vocals to float freely over the top, surprisingly lovely, and a sweet psychedelic swansong.

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Andee made us put this one on here.

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Several Poison Idea cd reissues recently hit the racks, and we rate this one the best (although they're all pretty darn good!). Poison Idea is one of the few bands that comes immediately to mind when you think about what a good hardcore band was really all about. Manic pace, adept "sausage-finger" guitar playing, a tight rhythm section and a singer wailing over the top with lyrics so poetic and fucking deep it's actually worth reading the lyric sheet! Poison Idea was that band -- Portland's finest -- and on top of it all, you had two serious behemoth madmen drinking and bleeding and rocking in a hellbent frenzy. With this 1987 release, War All the Time (yes, it's named after Bukowski, duh) the self-proclaimed "Kings of Punk" added extra power-pummel to the mix with the addition of Thee Slayer Hippy on drums and Vegetable Olsen on second guitar. This record still proves to be a timeless classic today as far as early hardcore/thrash/crossover goes. Lots of stop-and-start on a dime riffage, a million little cymbal splashes filling in the holes, Pig Champion moving those little chubby stubs up and down the fretboard at the speed of light (or maybe as fast as the malt liquor would allow on any given night!) and on top of it all Jerry A. mumbling / howling / screaming some seriously stoic shit in that immediately recognizable caterwaul, but you wouldn't know how serious unless you were reading along... You're definitely not a real punk without this in your collection!

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Every once in a while, there's a record that is so good and makes me so happy, I find it virtually impossible to write a review of it. There's all this pressure to somehow convey in the space of a hundred or so words how goddamn good a record is. To convince YOU that this record will move you as much as it did me. So I hem and haw and write all my other reviews around it until I have no choice but to face my fear and go for it. So here it is. The new record by Florida's Poison The Well. Up until now, I've been a fan, and definitely enjoyed their records. But 'Tear From The Red' is such a colossal leap from their last record. Ostensibly a 'metalcore' record, it manages to encompass so much more: rock, emo, hardcore, death metal, even pop. The heavy parts, even when the vocals are howled, are somehow as catchy and heart wrenching as any Get Up Kids weeper, if not more so. And then when PtW -do- go for it, and break it down and get all mellow and sweet and emotional it's just devastating. And the playing on this record is so phenomenal. The riffs are so thick and huge they just smack you upside the head, but you just kind of bob along, oblivious, banging your head and spitting out teeth and letting this wave of furious emotion watch over you. The songs shift from crunching near-death metal, to wild free-metal, to stuttering stop-start rhythms, to spacy almost Voi Vod-ish melodies, and dreamy shoegazey bliss out parts. Halfway through the record they break out with just vocals and acoustic guitar, but the melody is so odd, and the voice is so impassioned and the chord progression is so unexpected that it ends up being just as intense as any of the heavy stuff, and not cheesy at all. And track three! What can I say? If you could wear out a track from playing a cd too much, I would definitely need a new one by now. Track three has the absolutely most punishing part of almost any song I have ever heard, where the kick drums, guitars, and bass all stutter then stop, over and over. Huge and unbelievably heavy. I was listening to it in my housemate's truck, and when that part came on I had to turn up the stereo so loud that I could SEE the beat making little waves in the rear view mirror. We have been getting a little worn out on this whole metalcore explosion, but Poison The Well have stepped up to the plate with not only one of the best metalcore records ever, not just one of the best emo records ever, but one of the best records I have heard in a long time. Period.

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The last Poison The Well record was easily the best metalcore record, if not one of the best plain ol' METAL records, of last year. And this new one seems poised to repeat the feat! This is PtW's major label debut, taking the plunge, that years ago meant risking losing your core audience to cries of 'Sell out!' but now just means that we may be seeing Poison The Well on MTV and who can argue with that. It's getting tougher and tougher to describe metalcore, my thesaurus is worn away to the size of a matchbook. Yes, this is pummelling, crushing, brutal, punishing, the guitars are downtuned, thunderous riffs, and howled shrieks and furious double kick drumming and relentless rhythms and all that. So yeah, it's HEAVY. But Poison The Well write amazing songs. Every riff, every lyric, every melody, no matter how unlikely, is a part that you will find yourself humming to yourself days later. Incorporating the often problematic, clean vocals and melodic emo breakdowns more deftly than most into their overall sound, PtW drag you kicking and screaming on a rollar coaster of extreme dynamics, lush production and gorgeous catchy pop swathed in metallic brutality. The melodic parts, of which there seem to be a lot more this time around, owing more to their progress as songwriters methinks than their major label leap, are as soaring and captivating, as catchy and heart wrenching as anything the Get Up Kids or Reggie And The Full Effect could come up with on their best days. And so much less cloying, nestled the way they are, all snug and warm between a row of amps on 11 and a swirling, writhing moshpit. This definitely hits the metal spot, but pushes all our emo buttons and satisfies our pop sweet tooth at the same time. At first I didn't like this nearly as much as their last full length, but the more I listen, the more I am completely baffled and knocked out by how much more advanced this record is than its predecessor, so complex and varied, full of hooks, labyrinthine arrangements, beautiful melodies, sheer face-melting metal, gorgeous soulful vocals, lush, layered instrumentation, throat shredding demonic screeches and bizarre but subtle production. This definitely raises the bar impossibly high. It's about time!

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Over the last several years it seems the instrumental rock(ish) records can easily be filed in distinct sections. There are the proggy spazzed out offerings, angular math rock that's still being played to death, epic quiet loud quiet GYBE! worship, Chicago post-rock, folktronica, etc. etc. Something so nice about hearing a new outing from a band we always feel has slipped under the radar and whose take on instrumental rock feels really refreshing right now. Polar Goldie Cats have put out some great records on Up as well as Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace. They play songs that are subtle and brimming with just the right amount of suspense and tension. Like later era-Unwound there is a darkness with melody which go so nice hand in hand. In fact it got us thinking a lot of some of our favorite bands sans vocals like Quixotic, Blonde Redhead, Helium and Sonic Youth. While there was for sure a moment in time when this sound was all around, lately we haven't been hearing much like this and we have to say this has totally hit the spot.

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LA's Polar Goldie Cats continue their instrumental post-rock explorations on this new Up platter. Their Nels Cline-produced debut had faded into the mists of history, but lo and behold here they are with another album. A nice surprise actually.

Los Angeles instrumental band's first full-length. Endorsed by Thurston Moore, what does this tell you? Hmmm. Reminds us of a cuddlier, more linear Thinking Fellers.

Sometimes the world does indeed seem like a surprisingly small place. Years back, we were email penpals with a guy in England, who drummed for a killer mathy post rock band called Polaris. We exchanged records, and dug the shit out of the Polaris stuff we heard. Eventually we sort of lost touch, but would often wonder what happened to our friend, and wonder what had happened to the band, who as far as we were concerned should have been way more popular than they were.� Well, years later, we get a random email from a label looking to get their records into the shop, and lo and behold, right there on the list is a record from a band called Polaris. It couldn't be. Could it? But indeed it was, recorded in 2004, this most recent release (their last?) from UK math rockers Polaris is like a modern take on nineties math rock. A little dreamier and more melodic and a little less raw then we remember, but still so good. Channeling the sound of Polvo, Pitchblende, Archers Of Loaf, Rodan and the like. Spidery minor key melodies, angular riffage, complex mathy drumming, lots of start stop arrangements, super dynamic, with long brooding stretches of loping melancholy groove, giving way to brief squalls of soft crunch, moody Tortoise like meandering, occasional bits of metallic buzz, gorgeous swells of dramatic Slint-isms, weary drawled vocals, all woven into long flowing post rock soundscapes. We sometimes forget how great stuff like this sounds. Hardly any bands make music like this anymore, and even the modern math rock and post rock bands who do have a totally different vibe than back in the day. The cool thing is, while Polaris definitely sound like they were transported here from 1995, they manage to update the sound, making it their own, somehow prettier and dronier, the vibe woozy and dreamy as well as propulsive and tightly (un)wound. So good. Several songs in, we were smitten, totally transported, captivated. It seems impossible but it doesn't sound dated at all, even though it's so reminiscent of the nineties, a testament to the bands skills and chops. Absolutely recommended, especially to folks who miss the math and the post in their rock.

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MPEG stream: Out Of Harm's Way
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First we've heard from this French instrumental math / post / noise rock combo, and holy shit, these guys push all our musical buttons, channeling the spirit of Polvo and Pitchblende, all droned out atonal guitars and wild mathy rhythms, mesmerizingly hypnotic metallic grooves and soaring layered sonic sprawls, the perfect post / math rock hybrid, fusing loping super melodic mesmer with gnarled dense near metal crush, but somehow managing the near impossible, making all of this weird mathiness insanely catchy, the sort of rare band that can conjure up swirling intricate landscapes of chugging and churning and soaring and droning, all manner of shimmer and crunch, pummel and pound, into something that you may find yourself humming hours later. Fans of outfits like Psychic Paramount, Dazzling Killmen, Laddio Bolocko, Phleg Camp, Don Caballero, Bastro, Breadwinner, Drive Like Jehu, Rodan and the like will flip. A new favorite band for sure!

MPEG stream: Benre
MPEG stream: Vistule
MPEG stream: Krykun

It's been ages since we'd heard from these French math/noise/post rockers, but thankfully very little has changed in their sound world, still trafficking in a style of music woefully underrepresented these days as far as we're concerned. We'd still cite the same list of bands we did in our review of their first cd-r: Dazzling Killmen, Don Caballero, Bastro, Breadwinner, Rodan, Drive Like Jehu, Laddio Bolocko, you get the drift. Each song here is dizzying in its scope, sometimes locking into tense tightly wound grooves, other times obliterating structure entirely, the guitars churning and chugging, jagged and sharp, flitting easily from chiming melody to skull caving bombast, before unexpectedly unfurling weird bent notes, or strange detuned melodies, the drums don't hold everything together so much as make it even more frenzied, a constant cascade of wild, loose limbed fills, sometimes even slipping into total blastbeats, the guitars following along, the instruments doing some wild dance, lurching and stumbling, leaping and swaggering between styles and sounds, but somehow, the whole goddamn thing holds together like some musical math problem made flesh. It's short too, just 4 songs, but they cram as much into these 4 songs as most other math rock bands manage in their whole life span. Super limited too, and we get them direct from the band in Europe, so when we run out, it might take us a while to get more.

MPEG stream: Puy Des Goitres
MPEG stream: Suissesse

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

SORRY. Been searching for more projects from the members of the wonderful Pastels? Well, if you've already gotten a hold of the International Airport cd starring Ms. Aggi, this could very well be the twangy, sweet lil' addition to your collection that you've been seeking.

Hard-rockin' and sometimes jazzy progressive rock from Argentina, recorded in Buenos Aires in 1977. A four piece, guitar/bass/drums and the requisite assortment of keyboard instruments, including mellotron. Includes bonus tracks not on original LP. Lots of emotion and instrumental flash: psych-style guitar heroics, piano jammin', latin percussion, etc.

Hey, here's a new pop album from Uncle Bob! He may have laid his Fading Captain label series to rest, but Robert Pollard ain't shutting down any time soon! He can't be stopped, and Merge Records is helping to ensure that with not one but two new albums at once! The label has suggested the age-old Beatles vs Stones debate as a fitting differentiation point between the two faces of Pollard's current double whammy -- that is, a poppy one and a harder edged rock one. Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love is the former, and the one we favor of the two (psst, the other is Standard Gargoyle Decisions). Lots of jangly guitars, lots of peppy energy. Pollard's releases are seldom so clearly sorted and defined. We can usually count on some element of bee-in-his-bonnet randomness, but not so this time. And you know what? As much as we've always loved and appreciated his devil may care approach, it's really a pleasure to hear a relatively even keeled sixteen songs in a row. That's the case with this here album.

MPEG stream: Our Gaze
MPEG stream: Slow Hamilton

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

SORRY.

Man, it's about time this guy put something new out! Ha-Ha. We couldn't resist, but as anyone who has been paying any attention knows, Pollard has been putting out records almost every other day it feels like after he pulled the plug on the late great Guided By Voices. The post GBV records aren't all great, but they aren't all bad either. Most fall somewhere right in between, crammed with so many songs there's always bound to be a few classic Pollard winners, most often set amidst a whole bunch of less rememberable moments. More and more his songs have a very '70s era vibe (reminding us of The Who) and some of us thought this even ventures into Dire Straits or Peter Gabriel territory. Which makes sense when you think about it, because on classic rock radio of the future there better be lots of Robert Pollard in rotation. Bigtime Pollard fans/completists will want this, but not totally essential for everyone / anyone else.

MPEG stream: Things Have Changed (Down in Mexico City)
MPEG stream: Accident Hero

Ack, the word "CAMELTOE" surfaces without warning in the song "It's Only Natural" But wait! Please don't let that dissuade you from checking out this new Robert Pollard solo release. Yup, GBV / Pollard completists you probably already knew... he's gone and done it again! Cranked out another full length to add to his already bulging body of work. Geez, you'll soon be needing a dedicated shelving unit (if you don't already!). With such profuse musical output, you can imagine there might be some hits and some misses in the bunch, and there certainly have been. That said though, we're happy to report that this falls in the former category. Perhaps his most cohesive collection of songs in recent memory, this album alone is pretty darn jam-packed unto itself with a total of fourteen songs. It's an even balance between his more rambunctious obtuse tunes and what are perhaps his most wistfully reflective jangly numbers. His Fiction Man partner in crime was Todd Tobias who handled the lion's share of the instrument playin' as well as recordin' and producin'. For those keeping track, this is #30 in the Fading Captain Series.

MPEG stream: Run Son Run
MPEG stream: Built To Improve

In his first post GBV solo record Mr. Pollard shows no signs of letting up..at all! 26 new songs that run the range of the legacy of song writing that Pollard has displayed over the years. What's really nice is the timelessness that continues to be displayed in his songs. If you heard this playing you could think that maybe some of this was really early GBV songs that you never heard before. The cd starts on fire with 3 of the best Pollard penned songs we've heard in a while. If you've been feeling overwhelmed the onslaught of his releases this is one to jump back in with for sure. You get the raw lo-fi side of him as well as the more made for stadium fist in the air rockers as well. While we think that maybe folks like Ryan Adams don't need to be releasing as many records as they are, Robert Pollard can keep churning out the releases as long as he'd like and chances are we're gonna like what he comes out with.

MPEG stream: Field Jacket Blues
MPEG stream: Dancing Girls and Dancing Men
MPEG stream: I'm A Widow

It's hard to say what exactly a new Robert Pollard record means at this point. We'd imagine it means something dramatically different to different people. To fans, i.e. fanatics, who at this point most likely have thousands of Pollard penned songs in their collection, it simply means more songs. Which is not a bad thing at all. And if you're one of those people who makes arguments like "Do I really need everything by that band?" or "Do I really need another record by so-and-so?", well odds are, you're probably not a GBV fan, and heck, you're probably not an aQ list subscriber either. So for most folks, having 3 or 4 Guided By Voices records is probably enough Pollard to last them a lifetime. Which is perfectly fine on the one hand, but on the other, with a body of THOUSANDS of songs, limiting yourself to just a handful, you'll miss out on some amazing tracks. Spoken like a serious music nerd. But then this IS the aQ new arrivals list, and presumably, you too ARE a crazy music obsessive, and have more records than you can listen to, and tend to buy everything by the bands you love, and in that case, then we can happily tell you, that this is in fact another collection of killer songs from one of our favorite modern songwriters, and while it may be a 'solo' record, it sounds a lot like the most recent GBV records, which again is not a bad thing at all. The 'band' here is a duo, but they kick up a pretty good din, with a decent high fidelity production, and some crazy catchy songs, as well as the usual weird little experimental passages. And like all Pollard/GBV records, the sound is all over the place, jangly British invasion style jangle one second, murky super distorted dirgery the next, bombastic and anthemic one second, crunchy and fuzzy and power poppy the next. Full disclosure: we've loved pretty much every Guided By Voices record, and heck, most of Pollard's solo efforts as well, so even though our knee jerk response to a new record might be an exasperated sigh, once we throw it on, we find ourselves wanting to listen to little else.

MPEG stream: Heaven Is A Gated Community
MPEG stream: Take In
MPEG stream: Who's Running My Ranch
MPEG stream: The Rank Of A Nurse
MPEG stream: Tight But Normal Squeeze

Singer for Guided By Voices unleashes a full length that's as good or maybe better than recent work he's done.

Hmmm, has Robert Pollard been compared to the Energizer bunny yet? Goodness! When does this man ever rest? Perhaps he's aiming for a spot in the Guinness Book for most cds released? Yet another solo offering of his distinct, lo-fi (relative to later, not earlier, efforts), unadorned psych pop that jumps from cloudy, tripped-out guitar fuzz with vocal fits, to threadbare folkiness with piano and acoustic six-string in the blink of an eye (particularly on the four sectioned "The Spanish Hammer"). As is typically the case with any of his release, there's one or two songs that shine brighter than the rest. Motel of Fools is no exception, it's graced with the wistful "Captain Black". However there'll also be the one or two less... er, pleasing moments present also. On this cd, it's the beginning of the third song "Red Ink Superman" in which the vocal recordings are slowed down to a crawling sludge. Once he's done with that though the rest of the song - and album - for that matter - bounce back to fine Pollardness.

RealAudio clip: Captain Black
RealAudio clip: The Spanish Hammer

A week without a new Robert Pollard and/or Guided By Voices release is like a week without sunshine... errr, well, almost. Fortunately it seems we've got nothing to worry about 'cause the well sure isn't showing any signs of drying up. This week we not only received GBV's Suitcase 2 (a gigantinormous 4cd boxset to be reviewed soon), but also this new solo Pollard release. It's a six song collection of music he did for Steven Soderbergh's murder mystery 'Bubble'. Ah, one great musicmaker and one great moviemaker. What's not to love about that? Absolutely nuttin'! Pollard released both the boxset and this ep on his Fading Captain Series label (volumes #37 and 36 respectively).

MPEG stream: All Men Are Freezing
MPEG stream: I'm No Child