[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 13651 through 13700 of 19388.

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

SORRY.

A man of numerous indie music hats over the past 16+ years, Mark Robinson has ventured into many a musical style under various guises (Unrest, Flin Flon, True Love Always, Air Miami). On this - only his second release using his own name - he drifts into the mellow, low-key clubhouse whose clever songster membership may be said to include the highly relaxed and relaxing Sea and Cake,

A very quiet and simple record from Mark Robinson, former leader of Unrest, Air Miami, and head of the Teenbeat label. The members of Versus help round out the sound on "Tiger Banana" (Robinson's first officially solo release), but it's still as sparse as can be, at times sounding more stark then even, say, Young Marble Giants, of whom we'll bet he's a big fan. Quietly strummed guitars, terse lyricism, less melodic than you'd expect. It doesn't rock our world, but perhaps it's not trying to. You be the judge; listen to the soundclips.

RealAudio clip: Starfighter
RealAudio clip: Putting up good numbers

The latest album from this Anacortes art pop one-man band is quite a departure from his previous full length, last year's decidedly more conventional pop Carousel Waltz. You might say Good World is a very Deerhoofian affair, if perhaps less adventurous, more wistful and with the added ample squeaky quirk of woodwinds. Think: more of a docile merry-go-round than a loopy rollercoaster ride. Band leader Ryan Bouchard's high pitched twee vocals coo up close to the winky clarinet and wheezy accordion while slightly haphazard percussion and other found sounds loosely populate the rest of each mildly eccentric tune. This fleetingly short album (it's only 22 minutes!) may very well please the ears of those who luv the abovementioned Deerhoof and maybe Xiu Xiu and Frog Eyes too. Gentle, tweaked pop prettiness.

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MPEG stream: Celebration Time

One of two amazing vinyl-only reissues on the brand new Medical Records label (the other is Record Of The Week Deutsche Wertarbeit). This one, a holy grail of sorts for all the cult disco seekers, a sexy, exuberant and at times wonderfully sleazy hybrid of Italo-disco, French electro, and Minimal Wave weirdness by the one and only Alexander Robotnick (aka Maurizio Dami). Ce N'est Q'un Debut was released in 1984 after his first single, "Problemes D'amour" became a mega-cult hit in New York underground dance club circles a year earlier. The extended version of that track was prominently featured on the Strut label's Disco Not Disco 2 a few years back, and it fits right in with Giorgio Moroder, Bernard Fevre, Arthur Russell and other Mutant Disco aficionados as a defining dance staple of the era. This mini-lp features 6 killer tracks including the Moroderesque, "Dance Boy Dance", another popular cult single that was probably heard more in gay bathhouses than in mainstream discos due to its lurid minimal rhythms and suggestive whispered singing. Sooo good! Sweaty summer dancing begins here! Don't let this one slip away! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each 180 gram colored vinyl and hand-numbered. We're not sure how long we'll have these, so don't wait too long. Highest Recommendation!

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MPEG stream: Dance Boy Dance

An odd, odd blend of jazz with drum'n'bass and a bit of post rock... from Poland! Shifting percussion, heavy doses of saxophone, spaced-out textures.

So, what if we tell you that there's this band called Rock Jack that does songs with titles like "Belly Bones", "Goblin Talk", "Toilet Master" and "Darth Vader Is Mean"? And sound like some exuberantly drunken bar band fronted by a vocalist with an unusually high, childish voice, unusual enunciation (and pronunciation) and a gift for seeming stream-of-consciousness babble? Sounds like it might be one of those weird AQ faves already? Well then let us add the crucial fact that the singer for Rock Jack, one Erza Lux, is all of three and a half years old. That's right, he's a little boy, and (we know, 'cause we've met him) an exceptionally precocious, adorable, cute little boy indeed. Ezra Lux's dad some of you SF locals know as Aesop, drummer for Ludicra (and formerly, Hickey). Aesop sure has one cool kid. Whenever he brings him into the store, Ezra entertains us with his banter... we know he's really into music, heavy metal especially, 'cause he's told us about the various bands he's supposedly formed, our favorite being "Iron Potato". So when Aesop told us that Ezra had recorded his first cd-r release, we had to hear it. And although it's not the Iron Potato debut we still want to hear, Rock Jack is pretty cool too. With his Fisher-Price karaoke machine, Erza sing-speaks his own weird and funny lyrics (the lone exception being a Van Halen cover) over backing from members of Ludicra (Aesop, John and Ross), who crank out some some punked up, trashy rawk n' roll vamping with metal riffs and blues licks a lot older but no less energetic than Ezra. I think the way it worked is that the Ludicra guys made up a bunch of songs in their rehearsal space, gave the tape to Erza and he picked the ones he wanted to sing on. The results have got a whiff of The Shaggs, Motorhead, Great White, Reynols, Van Halen, Wesley Willis and Hanoi Rocks... We've noticed an "alternative children's music" trend lately, but Rock Jack is one of the few examples of music BY a child. Certainly irresistably cute, and really very strange. 18 and a half minutes, 8 tracks.

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

SORRY. A new album full of rough-hewn songs of sunbaked pain and anguish from this Georgia quartet. Recorded in a storeroom in their homebase of Cabbagetown, GA, at times this reminded me of early Waterboys (a good thing in my book). With guest vocals from Shannon Wright.

As we've mentioned in a bunch of other reviews, lots of our favorite bands are woefully under-represented on the aQ list, generally, it's because those records predated the list, so when a record gets reissued, it's often a chance to finally lavish praise on a record that's been a favorite for years (or decades). In this case, it's not a reissue, but instead a live record from Georgia garage punks the Rock*A*Teens, who are currently are covered on the aQ site by just a couple sentences about one of their records, which is really a shame, cuz we LOVE these guys. So until someone mounts the lavish, deluxe reissue campaign these guys and their incredible records deserve, we can revel in this sweat soaked high energy live set cobbled together from an extended residency at the Star Community Bar in Atlanta, between 1998 and 1999, courtesy of aQ pal and Chunklet mastermind Henry Owings, who continues to dig up incredible rarities (we're still loving the recent Don Caballero record, and are hoping he'll do a Bar-B-Q- Killers reissue, another legendary and underappreciated Georgia outfit), and incredible this is. If you've yet to discover the Rock*A*Teens, imagine a swampy, reverb drenched, fifties style, garage rock rockabilly, filtered through something more modern, swaggery and dramatic, the same sort of gospel tinged swampiness of Woven Hand, but more rocking, feverish, loose limbed and wild. Brooding, sweat soaked, bloody knuckled, broken bottled, booze soaked, psychedelic blooze stomps and echo drenched slow burn ballads in equal measure, all whirring organs, reverb galore, buzzing distortion, wild tribal drumming, and stunning, timeless songwriting, all wound up into something gloriously gritty, grimy, ecstatic, cathartic, murky and emotionally charged. Just check out the samples and you'll be sold. "Black Ice" might be one of our favorite songs EVER, in a body of work that has an impossible number of potential all time faves. Every record a stone cold gem, and this live set manages to transcend the limitations of the 'live record' and transports the listener to a dive bar in Georgia, lit with Christmas lights, packed with punks, this band crammed onto a little stage in the corner, conjuring up musical demons, and angels, and creating a gorgeous, noisy, heart breaking din. AWESOME. Includes a download too.

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MPEG stream: Don't Destroy This Night
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Collection numero dos of singles, compilation tracks, b-sides and other rarities from everyone's favorite sparkley-shirted, pompadoured, horn-section-havin', kick-ass San Diego party rock band!!

Those of us who were huge RFTC fans (and there's quite of few of us at aQ) know that the band's output can be divided into two categories. There was the totally catchy, horn filled, hand clappers that should have really been all over the radio and MTV if there were any justice in the rock 'n' roll world. And then there was the way more raw, dirty, sleazy scorching garage punk side to the band that they usually reserved for their non-major label releases like Hot Charity and The State Of Art Is On Fire. It's this side of the band that always cuts right to our guts! No one could mix melody with blazing, sweat inducing soul inspired garage punk better then RFTC. This collection is that raw and undeniably charming side of RFTC. Pulled from demos they recorded on 8-track in their San Diego practice space from 1997-2000. Most of these songs have never been released before, and the few that were took a totally different more slick shape on the Interscope releases they appeared on, so it's so rad to get to hear those songs in a much more dirty and rocking form. And so many of these songs that were never released before blow away just about everything else rock bands of the time were putting out. A few years after these songs were recorded, bands like The Strokes and White Stripes would be hailed as "the return of rock" by the mainstream press and get all sorts of fame and fortune, but we always thought it was Rocket From The Crypt that really deserved to be the biggest rock band on the planet!

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The latest from San Diego's kings of shiny shirted, pomade haired, horn flecked, kick ass punk rock. Plus there's a big snake on the cover!

I'd be surprised if any of you didn't know who Rocket From The Crypt was, but just in case, here's a quick synopsis. San Diego party rock band hits the big time with rollicking, super kick ass horn flecked power-pop-punk. Become the next big thing, but never actually become THE big thing. Soundwise, Andee thinks Andrew W.K. owes it ALL to Rocket, but whatever. This here cd is a cd reissue of two super out of print vinyl RFTC rarities, the doomed 'Hot Charity' lp and the 'Cut And Play 12". Both are not ordinary RFTC records as the liner notes describe in great detail, but the long and short of it is, 'Hot Charity' was recorded twice, with lots of major label moolah, and the 'Cut and Play' 12" was released after all of that disappointing major label bullshit and recorded punk rock style with Hot Snakes bassist and hot shit San Diego engineer Gar Wood. The 'Cut And Play' 12" was originally a 12" with the record stuck to the sleeve with a sticker so you had to...duh... cut it out to play it! These are two of my favorite RFTC records, but are not necessarily the -best- rocket records. But if you don't want to buy the lps for $70 on EBAY then this cd is the way to go!

RealAudio clip: Pushed
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Don't be fooled by the title, this is no live record. In fact, this is their first full length studio album in almost a year and half. Nothing super new, but everything people love about Rocket: super tight, kinda slick, rowdy and high energy pop/punk rock with Rocket's signature dual guitars, layers of horns and percussion, the snarly mean voice, tight songwriting and dynamic intros, it's all here! While I was listening to this record, song #3 "I cant feel my head" kept reminding me of something, driving me crazy to the point of keeping me up at nights, and I just finally figured it out! Yess!! The chorus sounds just like Blondie's "Hangin on the Telephone". Anyway, another great Rocket From The Crypt record. Check it out.

RealAudio clip: Im Not Invisible
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RealAudio clip: I Can't Feel My Head

There's no doubt about it, Rocket From The Crypt were one of the most exciting and entertaining rock bands to come out of the '90s PERIOD. In the pre-Strokes and pre-White Stripes landscape they were the only ones really championing the eternal power of rock n' roll's spirit to indie, punk, garage, and pop kids across the nation. John Reis was born to be a lead man, with his fiery guitar playing, witty mind and Elvis meets Johnny Thunders stage presence. R.I.P. is a recording of their last ever live show which went down in San Diego on Halloween of '05. Anyone who saw RFTC live knows that they always brought the goods full throttle. Their shows were meant to make your body move, and we can remember the great feeling of so much sweat pouring out of our bodies at so many of the amazing Rocket shows we got to see. Not many other bands could inspire so many people to get tattoos of their logo (which if you had one you could get into any show they played for free). The band called it quits before they got stale or tired, as even 15 years after their birth they still could tap into the fires of rock n' roll like magic when onstage. As with all the RFTC records, there are some super funny liner notes by Mr. Reis himself. Long live RFTC!

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Rocket From The Tombs was borne of the same urban decay that coughed up the Electric Eels, the Consumers and Pere Ubu. While not as well known as the any of those bands or the other bands like the Stooges or the MC5 that shared their sound/ideals (although fairly well known as the band that Rocket From The Crypt stole their name from) RFTT kicked serious ass, spitting out trashy, classic seventies anthemic punk. I LOVE this shit! 'Day The Earth Met' is a collection of rare and live tracks (great recording quality considering). Perhaps "The best record never recorded". Two Stooges covers and some songs that would later became Pere Ubu songs (RFTT's Peter Laughner's next band) The lyrics are desolate and depressing, hopeless and punk and stupidly brilliant (or brilliantly stupid). To quote their song "Ain't it Fun": "Ain't it fun when you're always on the run / Ain't it fun when your friends despise what you've become / Ain't it fun when you get so high you can't cum / Ain't it fun when you know your gonna die young / Such fun / Such fun / Ain't it fun when you feel you just gotta buy a gun / Ain't it fun cuz your takin care of #1 / Ain't it fun when you just can't find yer tongue / Cuz you stuck it way to deep in something that really stung / Ain't it fun / Somebody came to me and they spit right in my face and I didn't even feel that / It was such a disgrace I broke the window / smashed my fist right through the glass / But I couldn't even feel it, it just happened to fast. / It was fun / Such fun / Such fun" Definitely for fans of the aformentioned bands as well as anyone into dirty, scuzzy, nasty, snotty catchy garage/punk/rock!

RealAudio clip: Ain't It Fun
RealAudio clip: Life Stinks
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Everyone's favorite Ohio proto-punks return all grown up, reform and re-record a handful of their old classics! Featuring the star studded lineup of David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Richard Lloyd (Television) Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys), Steve Mehlman (Pere Ubu), and Craig Bell (Saucers). Maybe not as fierce and urgent as the original versions, but pretty cool nonetheless.

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Blast off! Have a close encounter here with some spaced out, switched-on analog synthesizer overload from the early '80s, total DIY Moog madness for fans of Bruce Haack, Gershon Kingsley and Dick Hyman. Amazing how there ALWAYS seem to be totally, totally obscure records out there still to be reissued, Rocket Robert's eponymous 1982 album (142 copies pressed, originally, on his own label) being the latest discovery we think you'll flip over, if you're into swooshing, whooshing, throbulating electronics and hyperkinetic video game soundtracks! It lives up to the sci-fi name and sleeve artwork for sure, and ranges in mood from totally playful to darkly sinister. First time reissue from master tapes, includes liner notes and 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks of quirky, new wave synthpop w/ vocals.

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Pretty provocative name huh? These problematically monikered nineties Bay Area improvised noise makers, in fact, boasted a pretty surprising and stellar pedigree, the duo included Kelvin Pittman now of Portland Bike Ensemble, and Kyp Malone, of fellow SF noiseniks Iran and now of... TV On The Radio!!? Huh? Yep, long before Malone was playing huge festivals and helping send Pitchfork into conniptions, and releasing solo records, and impressing the indie rock throngs with his impossible and impressive facial hair, he was in fact one half of Rocket Science, a raucous, blasting, psychedelic combo, who spit out a wild fusion of free jazz and free noise, and this was their only record, released on Vulgar Tango way back when, along with the debut Iran lp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list. The Vulgar Tango dude discovered a stash of records (both Iran and Rocket Science) that had been hidden away for close to a decade, and decided to let us have them! So yeah, we always sort of wondered why in all the articles about TV On The Radio, they never ONCE mentioned Kyp's time in RSATNLF, although we can sort of guess. Which is too bad, cuz these guys ruled. Nothing at all like TV On The Radio of course, or Iran really (except for some of the noisiness), Rocket Science took guitars and bells and drums and some 'singing' and wound 'em all up into a super charged take on that SST jazz sound, filtered through a warped SF noiserock filter. Sometimes surprisingly melodic and tranquil, but more often than not, fierce and free and heavy and loud, skittery percussion, tangled grinding guitar gnarl, some serious psychedelic crunch, lots of feedback, all woozy and warped, chaotic and off kilter, brief squalls of splattery atonal skronk, give way to warbly drone psych squiggles, which gives way to drum-kit-down-the-stairs cacophony, which then gives way to some almost metal chug and thud, which always seems to blossom into a crumbling mass of swirling sound and amp damaging free-rock delirium. Gloriously ramshackle and seriously challenging, an extremely noisy and loud look back at one of our favorite unsung outfits that helped define the SF underground in the early 2000s...

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

SORRY. New recording propels Rocketship away from twee pop and into the realm of murmury, quiet electronica soundscapes... Very, very good (and we hear a lotta stuff of this ilk, believe me)!

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

SORRY. So lovely! British guitarist (living in LA) Poole, who has done two great, trance inducing solo albums of his "just-intonation" improvisations, here has his acoustic guitar accompanied by the droning, bowed guitars of Douglas Williford and Joseph Hammer, for 18 minutes of bliss. Our only complaint is that this is not a full-length.

For folks who musically came of age in the nineties, there are a handful of bands that defined out tastes, bands we obsessed over, bands that even to this day, are spoken of in hushed tones, a musical pantheon who not only created some of our favorite records EVER, but also seemed to spawn a legion of later/future bands, started by those self same fans. We're talking Slint of course, Codeine, Bitch Magnet, but then there's Rodan, another Louisville band (same as Slint) that seemed poised for greatness, but who left us with only one record, just six songs, but holy shit, those six songs, that one record is a fucking mind blower, a heavy, noisy, melodic math rock stunner that to this day few bands have come close to matching, in terms of intensity, originality, and pure math/post/noise rock radness. And while the various members would go on to play in other great bands, June Of 44, the Rachel's, Shipping News, Sonora Pine, none of those bands captured the same sonic magic as Rodan. Readers of the aQ list who don't have Rodan's record Rusty, do yourself a favor, and drop everything, and track it down NOW. You will not be sorry. For those of you like us, who have played that record to death for the last 20 years, well, this record is for you. There were rumblings a while back of a new Rodan record, or perhaps an unearthed second album, which had most of us FREAKING OUT. Ends up what it was, was a collection of singles and compilation tracks, and Rodan's Peel Sessions, so not a new record, or a lost record, but hell, we're not complaining one bit. This collection opens with what might actually be one of our favorite Rodan song ever, their track from, the Simple Machines way way split with Tsunami, Unrest and Superchunk, and it's the perfect Rodan song, with it's super mathy, tense and dense, opening, all stop start heaviness, crazy shifting time signatures, continually morphing arrangement, then BAM, the song explodes into an impossibly catchy almost jangly pop, that sounds a bit like a noisier mathier Sebadoh, albeit all instrumental, finally returning to that churning mathy intro. Worth it JUST for that track. But there's so much more. Their How The Winter Was Passed 7" from 1993, which was released right before Rusty, and is a bit more aggressive, howled vox, wild mathy tangles, some VERY Slinty spoken word broodery, then there's their track from the Half Cocked soundtrack, their track from another killer split with Rocket From The Crypt, Pitchblende and Walleye, another one of our Rodan faves, churning and proggy, heavy and noisy, crunchy guitars, spidery melodies, wild intricate drumming, more Slinty spoken word, and some cool trippy psychedelic vocal harmonies, and there's a killer track from some comp even us obsessive Rodan fans never managed to track down, which finds Tara Jane O'Neil handling the vocals, over another Rodan classic, lurching from mathy tangle, to lilting lope and back again. And if that weren't enough, the real reason for fans to snag this is the Peel Sessions, three tracks, never before released as far as we can tell, from the same era as Rusty, and sonically, it's more Rodan radness, darkly melodic, heavy and mathy and super melodic."Sangre" is all aching minor key moodiness, wrapped in prickly mathy crunch, "Big Things, Small Things", is quirky and tangly, a slow build, super dense/tense math workout that's like prog for the indie post rock set, the sound dizzying and intricate, but never losing site of the song, never ditching the melody, the sort of impossible hookiness that Rodan seemed to conjure up effortlessly. And finally, there's the almost 11 minute long "Before The Train", which needless to say, RULES, tons of parts, all woven together into an incredible, epic sonic sprawl, some ridiculous drumming, some stuttery start stop mathiness, some dreamy driftiness, a practically perfect collection of everything we loved, and still love about Rodan! On top of tall that, both the cd AND the lp also include a bonus download of ten unreleased live tracks!!! So absolutely and utterly recommended!!! RIP Jason Noble.

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Wow! Yet another amazing re-issue from this exciting new reissue label Sunbeam. We haven't been this excited about a rediscovered psych-folk classic since Red Hash by Gary Higgins. Nobody knew what to expect from the cover photo of Rodier, (looking a lot like Geddy Lee) staring out at us from a hazy meadow with the strange enigmatic title: Upon Velveatur. But by the second song, we had immediately snatched up the only two copies. So we knew we had to get more and share this with the rest of you. Upon Velveatur is a dreamy French-Canadian psych-folk pop suite that varies from hushed mystical songs lushly orchestrated with strings and theremin to more rock-oriented numbers featuring stinging electric guitar. Lazy comparisons to Nick Drake are inevitable, and if we must go there, Upon Velveatur is closest to Bryter Later in terms of feel and production value. But Rodier can also sound like John Lennon with Cream as the band, Fleetwood Mac on backing vocals,and produced by Roger Nichols and his Small Circle of Friends all on one song! We get the feeling that maybe some folks like Neil Halstead were onto the sounds of Rodier as we were listening to some Mojave 3 and could totally hear Rodier's voice and stylings being transmitted by Mr. Halstead. Featuring bonus singles from an earlier psych folk project, Rodier-Gauthier, and liner notes from the man himself. Totally Recommended!

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As archival collections of "lost tapes" by hitherto unknown musical geniuses go, Strut's release last year of Rodion G.A.'s The Lost Tapes was the creme de la creme. The bomb. Top of the pops. We made it a Record Of The Week and it's still steady sellin'. Fuzzed out, Eastern Bloc electro-prog funk madness from the late '70s / early '80s that's super catchy, melodic and motorik; a lo-fi, synth-laden outsider kraut-groove delight all around. Then, this year, for Record Store Day, Strut was like, check it out, there's MORE! They released a limited edition 12" consisting of Rodion's previously unreleased (and apparently, unused) soundtrack music intended for an animated science fiction series on Romanian television, circa 1983, called Misuinea Spatiala Delta (Delta Space Mission). Wow. It was limited to just 1000 copies, we got as many as we could for Record Store Day (a whole bunch) and they sold out immediately. Never got to list it. BUT, yay, somehow some more copies were just made available to us by one of our suppliers. Don't know if it's a repress or what, pretty sure we can't get more in any case. So we brought in a bunch for all of you who missed it on RSD, grab 'em while you can. As with The Lost Tapes, this 12", which plays at 45rpm, is highly recommended! Featuring lots of swirling, spacey synth (of course!), all pew-pew-pew zip-zip-zap, this also of course includes some funky electro grooves with tick-tock electronic beats and nicely melodic synth-swoosh. Come to think of it, it's not unlike the music of T.R.A.S.E., another recent Record Of The Week. And of course if you liked The Lost Tapes, you'll like this. Let's hope they keep digging in Rodion's vaults, a Lost Tapes Vol.2 would be cool! LIMITED! Record Store Day leftovers (???) while they last!! (By the way, you can find some of the Delta Space Mission animation on YouTube, supposedly with the Rodion music. Looks pretty cool!!)

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Wow! Ok, this is pretty darn amazing. We ordered a copy of this based on a brief description we read, something along the lines of: "long lost futuristic funky proggy electronic music from behind the Iron Curtain". That was enough for us. And maybe for you too, though we're gonna go on and on about this anyway. But yeah, if that description piques your interest, let us just say that you will NOT be disappointed. However incredibly weird and cool you might imagine this could be from that short synopsis, it is probably even better! And we were listening to it, and loving it, before we delved into the detailed liner notes and found out what it was all about - or when exactly it was from. So that's another recommendation, the music stands on its own without prior awareness of its quite interesting historical aspects. What you get here are ten killer tracks drenched in echo effects, dense with percolating beats, uber-distorted analog synths, and eerily ear-catching melodies, a sound utterly full of "flanged, phased, and fuzzed electricity". They're previously unreleased reel-to-reel recordings, circa 1978-1984, from the vaults of this pioneering Romanian DIY electro-prog-pop groop who only released two tracks officially during their career, on a state-sanctioned compilation lp in 1981, before fading into obscurity. Rodion G.A. was founded in 1975 by a fellow named Rodion Ladislau Rosca, who had been collecting prog records and experimenting with homebuilt electronic gear since the dawn of the '70s. The G.A. comes from the names of the other two founding members of the band, but it's really composer Rodion Rosca's show, the material here recorded in Rodion's home studio in Cluj, most instruments played and programmed by Rodion himself, with occasional 'real' drumming contributed by one of the other guys. Despite the deprivations of living in an oppressive Communist dictatorship, Rodion's creativity flourished, and this music still sounds super fresh and ahead of its time, venturing even into full-on proto-techno with the likes of "Diagonala", though always in its own unique hybrid form, on that track ferinstance mixing in what sounds like Eastern European folk motifs and Goblin-y giallo soundtrack spookiness. Krautrock influences shine through too, Kraftwerk and Cluster for sure, plus we can't help but think of odd outsider aQ faves Bruce Haack and Wicked Witch - cool company to be in! Rodion's bombastic "hairy funk" prog grooves are melded to melodic pop hooks, always cloaked with a wonderfully miasmic layer of lo-fi grime. Everything here has its unique charms, ranging from the sinister, grittily distorted bunkurfunk of "Citadela", to the motorik delightfulness of "Salt 83", so strangely warped and sunshiney, to "In Linistea Noptii", wherein lovely piano playing mixes it up with the electronic elements. Some tracks are instrumentals, some have catchy vocal choruses - and some are visited by what sound like the echoing cries of a prehistoric pterodactyl, presumably another synth effect, sizzling stabs of which are always swooshing around. So THIS was the sound of underground Romania back in the day, who knew? We are so thankful this freaky music didn't stay a secret forever. Yep, these "lost tapes" are quite the discovery, minds have been blown for sure. Automatic Record Of The Week. Packaged with extensive liner notes by Andy Thomas, illustrated with vintage photos, telling the whole fascinating story of Rodion's stunted career, and recent reemergence as the "Godfather of Romanian electronic music". Oh, and the vinyl version also comes with a cd!

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Pop quiz! Quick: who's the "street poet" singer with no first name*, son of Mexican immigrants, born and raised in Detroit Michigan, whose debut album from 1970 sounded like a fuzz-soul-psych version of Bob Dylan and/or Donovan, and was an underground hit in South Africa of all places?? Duh, Rodriguez of course. It's about time his inexplicably obscure Cold Fact got the deluxe reissue treatment it deserves. Seriously, after listening to this for the first time, you'll feel like you just heard a bona fide '60s classic, and be amazed you had never heard these songs before. They ought to be all over "oldies" rock radio. It's ridiculous like that. Songs like "Sugar Man" and "I Wonder" seem like they should be fixtures of the baby boomer memory lane hit parade. It's so very of its era, "This Is Not A Song, It's An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues" is certainly a sixties song title, isn't it? Likewise "Rich Folks Hoax", "Hate Street Dialogue", and "Crucify Your Mind"... But, maybe he was just a little too freaky and right on, and (crucially) never got the right sort of record label support to become well known to the Woodstock Nation, though this album had some rather random, surprising success so far off in the Southern Hemisphere, in South Africa and Australia and New Zealand, which Rodriguez himself was unaware of for many years! If left to his own devices, perhaps Rodriguez would have come off sounding a bit too much like Dylan. But Cold Fact was a "Theo-Coff" production, from the badass Motor City team of Mike Theodore and funk guitarist Dennis Coffey, and they helped accentuate the more underground and urban aspects of Rodriguez's sound. With his hip, Dylanesque poetry set amidst lush orchestration and gritty grooves, Rodriguez's Cold Fact is a super catchy, tripped out slice of street-level, soulful psychedelia, full of drug references and radical political critique. We alluded to "fuzz" above, but on the track "Only Good For Conversation" we mean FUZZ. That track's a stone(d) cold classic when it comes to heavy duty fuzz guitar crunch. This reish comes in a nice digipack, with cover embossing and a big ol' cd booklet stuffed with text (liner notes, lyrics) and photos. One of the several cd booklet essays explains in part Rodriguez's unexpected appeal in South Africa - apparently, in that repressive society, it was due to the edgy, uncensored nature of his lyrics. "I Wonder", for instance, with its lines about "I wonder how many times you had sex / And I wonder do you know who'll be next" was considered so risque that if you were a teenager and wanted to be cool, you HAD to have this record. Apparently, many folks in South Africa thought of Rodriguez as being a star up there with the Beatles, and when they didn't hear more from him, all sorts of wild rumors spread that he'd died, been accidentally electrocuted, OD'd, or even committed suicide on stage! When, in fact, he simply had no idea how "big" he was in South Africa, and his recording career had stalled out elsewhere after his sophomore album, 1971's Coming From Reality (also soon to be reissued). Turns out he's still alive and well, today, and has actually gone to South African to pay arena (?!) shows in recent years. In fact, when we've had album in the store before, it was only available on cd as an expensive import - from South Africa! So we're, again, super stoked that Light In The Attic put the effort in to do this long overdue, definitive domestic reissue. *actually, his first name was Sixto, but he usually just went by Rodriguez.

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Mars Volta fans! We're sure you're well acquainted with the name Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, aren't you? Well, your fave band's guitarist goes solo once again (this is his fifth solo release)... and gets all electronic and acid jazz-y in the process. Emphasis as usual is on the (fusion and free) jazz side of things, mind you! We've heard some call these tracks experimental soundscapes, but once you get past the first minute and twenty seconds we think better terms to use are improvs or jams. They are far more active and melodic than the former term implies. Furthermore, there is a definite open-weave feel to the proceedings, and all of Rodriguez-Lopez's musical influences (other artists such as Santana and Mahavishnu Orchestra as well as geographic regions Latin America) are palpable at every turn. If you dig those stretches when he totally goes off during a live MV set, then you'll probably get deep into these recordings. Lots of mad flourishes of percussion, guitar and synth noodling, some cool segments that you wish would develop into full-blown songs but instead abruptly stop and jump to something else, it's sort of like an audio sketchbook of his time spent in Amsterdam although you'll also feel like he jetsetted to other exotic locales during the recordings. It wasn't a solo mission by any means. You'll hear plenty of contributions from his MV comrades as well as six-string buddy John Frusciante and Money Mark too.

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The pastoral half of Cluster explores his penchant for French romanticism in this dazzling suite of spacious baroque minimalism from 1979. Produced with the assistance of Peter Baumann, Roedelius broadens his focus as a traditional composer and displays ample musicianship with an eclectic array of instrumentation: flutes cellos, pianos and harpsichords, steering away from the abstracting qualities of the sequencers and processors normally employed in his main group. There's a carnivalesque playfulness to the tracks here, suggesting carousels and waltzes, penny arcades, and street performers, but with a refined restraint that evades schmaltz. Like the perfect accompaniment to a Resnais film, each piece is a delightful handmade miniature strung together in a labyrinthian web. Liner notes by longtime friend Asmus Tietchens with six bonus tracks ONLY on the cd version, including three new songs, and three remixes from the album. Beautiful!

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Along with the beautiful compilation of seventies recordings from Roedelius' Selbstportrait series (Diary Of The Unforgotten), we also have this lovely reissue of his 1981 recording Lustwandel. This was Roedelius' third solo record between the chamber baroque miniatures of 1979's Jardin Au Fou and the airy open-ended pastoralism of Wenn Der Sudwind Weht, recorded the same year as this. The music on Lustwandel is a perfect segue between the two approaches, comprised largely of solo piano works with subtle textural nuances of ambient atmospherics and classical inflected melodies, that occasionally transition into works for strings as well as harpsichord. But there are also some strange turns here and there into a warm angularity of soft martial rhythms and ballet moods, as well as some medieval sounding short pieces with pipes and hand percussion. It's a slowly sauntering set that takes its time to move from parlor to forest in an almost pageant like procession. Quite Beautiful!

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Offene Turen (Open Doors), Roedelius's little known fifth album from 1982 and issued on cd for the first time, is definitely not like the others. Often considered his "experimental" record, Roedelius completed it shortly after the last major Cluster record, Curiosum, and it sometimes seems as if he wanted to make a record through the eyes of his more taciturn partner, Moebius. While it doesn't quite have Moebius's way with mechanical musical calibrations, the vibe is more stark and atmospheric and the closest we've heard any of the Cluster clan come to sounding cinematically proggy in the vein of John Carpenter and Goblin. Lots of church organ sounds and bell tones with an occasional glimpse into Roedelius's classical romantic side, but less so than on other releases. Definitely one of the worthier weirder records in the Cluster canon, perhaps not the place to start with, but for fans who are looking for something more unusual, there's lots to love, from songs that are seriously spooky and almost Oneohtrix-like, to other tracks that are charmingly naive experiments with the newest (at the time) digital tech. Recommended!

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What a great time this is, and how lucky we are to be living in it, as the back catalogs of both Cluster members, Moebius and Roedelius, have been getting the long overdue reissue campaign they so rightly deserve. So many gems to be found in both of their discographies, in fact, they're almost all gems. The Diary Of The Unforgotten is a collection of musical sketches that Roedelius made between the years 1973-1978. It never saw release until 1990, and sadly that pressing came and went quickly, so most of us here had never heard these amazing tracks before. Shimmering with dreamy atmosphere, melancholic and flowing with a soft grace, you can tell Brian Eno was so in tune with these same sounds, sounds which would eventually evolve into their future collaborations as well as on Eno's own records like Before & After Science and Another Green World. What's so miraculous about these tracks is that while they flow with such a golden ease, they were actually recorded in such a lo-fi manner. Roedelius would just let the tape roll and would not add any overdubs afterwards. Perhaps that's why the emotional quality of these songs hits us so strongly. Nine of the ten songs range in the three to five minute range and then there's the epic twenty four minute centerpiece "Hommage A Forst". While we could argue forever about which Roedelius or Cluster offshoot release is our favorite, right now The Diary Of The Unforgotten is making a pretty great case for that honor.

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Roedelius's fourth solo record from 1981 has obvious connections to his first record, Durch Die Wuste as evidenced from the similar album covers involving feet and water. But while his first record was a head-first dive into exploring the palatable possibilities of mixing acoustic and electronic instruments, Wenn Der Sudwind Weht is all about the tranquil relaxed after-glow, drying off in the afternoon sun. Limiting the instruments to just organ, synthesizers and piano, Sudwind is surprisingly rich and layered and arguably the most stunning of his solo records, reminding us of the pastoralism of Popol Vuh and early Deuter, but never succumbing to new age music's typical lack of focus. In fact it's the most focused Roedelius record of the last couple that have been reissued. While the Cluster-Harmonia catalog with all its off-shoots and solo projects can be quite unwieldy especially in the middle of its currently aggressive reissue campaign, but this may be the most essential Roedelius reissue of the bunch. Highest recommendation!

Any fan of '70s krautrock / electronic legends Cluster - and Cluster's constituent humans Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius - know that both gents remain exceedingly prolific music-makers to this day. Try as we might, we don't always manage to review everything either of them release, though we don't doubt that it's always quite good stuff. This new disc on Sub Rosa did happen to just catch our ears, however, and we felt we should share. It finds Roedelius (sometimes considered to be the more melodic half of the Cluster duo) collaborating with an interesting fellow we haven't encountered before, Christopher Chaplin, who is (true fact) the youngest son of famous actor Charlie Chaplin. The two, Roedelius & Chaplin, first met at an Art Brut themed festival in Vienna in 2010; and when in 2011 the BBC invited Roedelius to record a live session with a musician of his choosing that'd he'd never previously worked with, he selected Chaplin. That recording (some portions of which are heard here) eventually lead to them working together the next year on this album project. King Of Hearts is centered around the beautiful, romantic piano playing that Roedelius is known for, while Chaplin processes and remixes it, bringing in additional electronics and other unnerving elements. Mysterious hisses and drones and mad scientist laboratory sounds pervade otherwise blissful piano reveries. On one track, there's some heavily effected, indecipherable vocals in the mix, and on a few others, someone (presumably Chaplin) plays distorted electric guitar, raw and lo-fi. One piece is based on a song from the Brian Eno album Before And After Science, in which Roedelius & Moebius participated. However, the overall mood of this album is lush and lovely, and full of interesting detail. It's perfect music for staring out the window at the landscape on a cold winter's afternoon, while staying warm inside.

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Krautrock electronics legends and former collaborators in seminal proto-ambient-industrial act Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler (prolific solo artist, initial member of Tangerine Dream) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia, solo) get up to their old

Durch Die Wuste was the first solo outing by Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster/Harmonia fame, and originally came out in 1978 on the always impeccable Sky label. Melding his tastes for classical composition, spaced out ambience, and electronic rock possibilities, this album found Roedelius simmering in warm rolling waves that just invite you to get lost and daydream in their subtly hypnotic pull. What's most amazing and compelling about this album is how organic it all sounds. Years before folks were really getting a grasp of how to intertwine traditional instrumentation with electronics, Roedelius was doing it masterfully. We're also so taken by the divine percussive quality that rises to the surfaces on lots of the album, especially the record's last two songs where Roedelius manages to play the drums himself and creates an amazing orbital groove that we could listen to forever. Durch Die Wuste manages to combine both his more dark and outsider tendencies with his ability to create the ultimate in shimmering cosmic bliss. We can't believe that some of us had never heard this record before, we are so beyond happy that it's been reissued as this stands up against any of Cluster's breathtaking moments. Highly recommended! Oh and for those of you who need/prefer to have this on cd it will be reissued in that format in August!

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Most 74 year olds aren't still making vital music, let alone going on tours with their kraut/kosmische pioneering outfits Cluster and Harmonia, but then again Hans-Joachim Roedelius really does seem like one of a kind. Hot on the heels of his stunning performances here in the Bay Area with Cluster (including a never to be forgotten AQ instore!) Roedelius has quietly released a new collaborative album with Tim Story. And while the pairing of Roedelius with a Windham Hill alumni may make some AQ faithful squirm, we have to say that while this does fall on the very soft and pretty side of things it still remains very tasteful, and shimmers with a subtle beauty and a hazy gaze. Like some of the more calming and subdued outings by folks we love like Harold Budd, Max Richter and Brian Eno, Roedelius proves that even when he's in a soothing kind of mood he's able to transcend the mediocre new-age/massage parlor sound of other artists of a similar ilk, who forego subtly and lay the schmaltz on thick. We've been giving Klimek and the Pop Ambient series a break from being our go-to-sleep nighttime listening, and in their place, Inlandish has been the perfect soundtrack to guide us to a blissful dreamstate.

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Here's something definitely for fans (like us) of Sweden's Dungen -- you know, the retro-pop-sike wunderkind whose Ta Det Lugnt cd has been flying out the door here of late. Well, we're pretty sure that seventies Swedish psych-folk singer/songwriter Pugh Rogefeldt was a big influence on Dungen's Gustav Ejstes. We just got in this brand new import reissue of Pugh's 1969 classic debut, and quite a bit of it sure sounds a lot like what Dungen does, although overall it's somewhat folkier and more eccentric. Like the Dungen album, this is total ear candy for anyone into somewhat rustic psychedelic sixities pop. And oh yeah, Janne Karlsson of Hansson and Karlsson fame plays drums! And we should note that along with folks who like Dungen, DJ Shadow fans will also find this of interest, 'cause you ought to recognize the very first sounds you hear on this album as the (uncredited) intro to "Mutual Slump" from SJ Shadow's Endtroducing. One of those "so that's where that comes from!" moments, and more evidence of Shadow's excellent taste...

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For everybody who freaked out about Pugh Rogefeldt's 1968 Ja, da a da! album, the cd reissue of which we recently reviewed, we've now got the reissue of the 2nd Pugh album, Pughish, originally released in 1970. Dunno if DJ Shadow has ever sampled anything from this, but it's almost as good as Pugh's first (from which Shadow lifted a neat phrase for Endtroducing). Anyway, if you liked that other Pugh and want more, this is recommended. Weird and whimsical psych/folk/rock/prog sung in Swedish, full of fun and surprises. Again, an LP we bet Dungen's Gustav Ejstes has in his collection!

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We heart The Rogers Sisters! Their new album kicks so much serious butt we can hardly take it! Each of the ten songs packs the combined wallop of a fierce glare, a cigarette burn and a doubleshot of bourbon. The gritty crunch and smeared lipstick snarl of their guitars... The snotty sneer of their throaty (sort of a cross between Kim Deal and Kate Pierson) vocals... The bratty yet solid stomp of the drums... Sooo rad! This is bad boy/bad girl music that makes you wanna get up to no good too. Don't get us wrong, The Rogers Sisters ain't no possessed wild men of rawk a la Screamin' Jay Hawkins or The Monks, but they do have their own brand of prickly bluesy garagey electricity. Can't wait to see this trio live! We'd say more, but we're too busy rocking out. Recommended.

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If you're into the New York post-nowavedarkwavelectroclashp/funk scene that's been going for the past few years, YOU'LL LOVE The Rogers Sisters. The sisters Rogers and Miyuki Furtado kraft spare angular fashionistal neu-glam rock on their debut, Three Fingers. Just over 20 minutes long, their album is all in your face for just about all of it. Dueling angular vocals fight through the continual driving beats grasping for your attention. All the while, you know they look good, each chunk of hair placed in perfect position. Hottt!

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Here's a four-song appetizer to whet your Rogue Wave pop appetite (their new full length comes out in October)! This EP kicks things off with the forthcoming album's first single "10:1" which is followed by three previously unreleased songs exclusive to this disc -- "Interruptions", "Wait For It" and "Crush The Camera". Happy to hear that the band has picked up right from where they left off on their 2003 debut (Out Of The Shadows). That is, makin' sensitive smart-pop that doesn't skimp in the energy department. Can't wait for the full length Descended Like Vultures!

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Oops, I do believe you've caught us napping! Sorry folks, not sure why it took us so long to come up with words to describe this SF band's latest full length. Of course we love it! Rogue Wave has been a trusted spring of utterly disarming pop tunes since their debut, 2003's Out Of The Shadows. They polish each one until it sparkles. Each of the dozen tracks on Asleep At Heaven's Gate is exceptionally well crafted and smart, the instrumentation warm and lush. Really, it's not an overstatement to say that the album starts strong with "Harmonium" and ends even stronger with "Cheaper Than Therapy". Zach Rogue's honey drop vocals are at their most lilting and earnest. We think fans of the high lonesome melancholia of My Morning Jacket might also find themselves caught in the comforting aural embrace of Rogue Wave. Soooo good!

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Hooooray! Here's the second album from Bay Area pop dreamies Rogue Wave. No sophomore slumps here. No way! Hearing Descended Like Vultures in many ways reminds me of hearing Death Cab For Cutie's first album Something About Airplanes for the first time. Descended Like Vultures is soft, sweet and immediately endearing with its melted ice cream boyish vocals and lush pop arrangements. Mainman Zach Rogue is one dandy songwriter and composer with an overflowing treasure chest of irresistibly dreamy hooks and melodies. Very reminiscent of The Beatles, Raspberries, Bread and the abovementioned Ben Gibbard and co. You can bet yer boots that popcraft as splendid as this certainly comes highly recommended!

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