[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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

Showing results 13951 through 14000 of 19388.

The new album from our new favorite Norwegian instrumental 'post-rock' band, finally in stock (along with restocks of the two discs we listed before, "Clingfilm" and "Jugend")! We think people will like this quite bit, although we're slightly less gung-ho

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Salvatore's second album, subtitled "Music from and inspired by De Utvalgte's literary installation based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde", was recorded in Morocco for reasons unclear to us, although we could go on and draw comparisions to the Read the review of Savatore's debut "Clingfilm" nearby to get the lowdown on these Norwegians, whose albums are a must for any fan of AQ-faves Circle. "Jugend" is equally as good as "Clingfilm", with maybe more of the drone quotent, though that's a generalization. It does feature as its opening an eleven-minute epic called "Jugend II" that's an awesomely beautiful heavy guitar drone piece, each delicious wave of feedback-distortion seemingly designed to directly trigger your brain's pleasure centers. Play this one LOUD! Elsewhere on the album, mellow out to the dub effects of "Gallo" or the sheer beauty of "Ambrosia". And let's just say that track three, "We Have Found The Enemy And He Is Us", may be the best Circle song Circle never wrote! The theme of Wilde's "Dorian Gray" is the battle of Youth and Beauty with Time, with the lesson being: Live! Such exhortations make sense when in the grip of this music! A fucking great record. Although Salvatore do remind us so strongly of Circle (and Circle offshoots like Ovalki, Ektroverde, and Pharaoh Overlord), it seems likely that such similarities are the result of shared influences rather than a direct ripoff. And, even if Salvatore *are* shamelessly copying the Circle blueprint, we can forgive 'em 'cause they do it sooooo well. A final note: their brand new album, entitled "Fresh" will be arriving in a few weeks, we'll list it when we get it. And we hear that they are recording a fourth album in Chicago with Tortoise's John McEntire...

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Yes, at last! The new Salvatore is here! We've been trying to get this, their fifth album, for AGES. For whatever reason, these imports were tough to come by, but finally we've got 'em. And now that it's booming through our stereo here at the store, we know that it was worth the wait. First off, the love of Neu! still beats strongly in the hearts (and, um, beats) of these mostly instrumental Norwegian post-rockers. That motorik percussion propulsion that we love too. Instant hypnosis in other words. Which means that they're still very much of the "Circle-ular" persuasion, leaning towards the likes of Tortoise and Trans Am too. Tortoise's John McEntire did the mix, in fact (and contributes drum machine on one track, "Brugata"). That's alongside drums, guitar x 2, organ, bass, "bassdrones", xylophone, vocoder, "sitter" (sitar?) -- and each track has a slightly different, usually expansive line-up of musicians and instrumentation. The bass and percussive elements are always quite strong, of course, but Salvatore still manage to make their music quite delicate too -- and although Luxus remains on the lighter side of Salvatore's output (the "poppier" path they've followed since 2002's Fresh), there are certainly bolts of electric darkness and grit shivering through these tracks, especially on the scarily reverberating "Fluxus"...while the combination of female vocals, strings, and "fake balaban" (presumably the middle-eastern sounding horn we hear) on the ten-minute-plus title track is simply gorgeous, not scary or dark at all. Speaking of balabans, Luxus establishes that ethnic influences are definitely a part of Salvatore's sound, something that they have in common with krautrockers Can, doubtless another inspiration of theirs. So, for fans of Can, Circle, Neu!, Tortoise, etc. Salvatore has produced another winning album, that we're so glad to finally have, to share with you.

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About time we listed this -- we had limited quantities of the import version of this but now the latest from this Norwegian sensation has gotten a domestic US release. Yay we say 'cause Salvatore is a solid AQ fave. Like Finland's Circle, they're a sort of instrumental, psychedelic post-rock band who do a lot with repetition, riding the motorik Neu! krautrock rhythm into the 21st century. Indeed, the easiest description we can muster of their recent output is Circle + Tortoise = Salvatore. Take a listen and do the math yourself. Super pretty, super hypnotic stuff. Recorded in 2002 in Chicago by none other than Tortoise's John McEntire, Tempo follows on from Salvatore's previous album Fresh with more airy, dubby grooves. Supposedly they're done a live recording with ex-Can vocalist Damo Suzuki on the mic, which makes a lot of sense! Hope to hear that some (future) day... While we wish that Salvatore's first two, darker/heavier albums were still available, the "poppier" style of Fresh and now Tempo is quite enjoyable too.

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The band with history's most intriguing combination of band name and genre tag returns! Yes, it's Seattle's self proclaimed "deep space power violence" two-piece Same Sex Dictator, rearing its hideous two heads once more to inflict maximum eye-bulging agony and crushing, rib-splitting suffocation upon feeble fleshbags the world over! Open The Coffin is an album length cassette bursting with ideas - heaving and bubbling over with punishing d-beat hardcore aggression, lurching scorch-earth doom, rank agonized vocal howls, and lush alien synthesizers. The ritual pummel of tribal toms roll into a swaying drug-haze of a jam. Throbbing John Carpenter ambience gives way to grinding uptempo blackened punk. The martial shuffle of a militaristic snare crumbles under the weight of a limping minimal nausea-groove which builds into a riotous double bass flurry. And all the while, whether at their most furious or most ominously minimal, there is a constant undercurrent of murky dread, like the shadow of a leviathan beneath the waters, not to mention a wholly unhealthy dose of violent misanthropy. And with song titles like "Obviously Dead", "God Is Not Here" and "Run Into Knives" would you expect/want any less?? Of course not. Highly recommended for musical masochists everywhere.

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

SORRY. Finally available again, but for now only in box set form. Everyone knows Samhain were cool, and that at least the first 3 records are essential (and they are of course included here) so we will focus on the other stuff. The box also includes the "Final Descent" cd as well as an unreleased double live cd. Also included is a pretty cool live video and the Samhain comic book (although it seems more like a comic pamphlet, being all of 8 pages). So far, if you don't have these records, it all seems like a pretty sweet deal. Except...all of the cds are packaged in simple cardboard, promo-style sleeves. No jewel cases or booklets. Kind of shoddy. And for some reason, this all comes packaged in a HUGE box, most of which is taken up by some sort of plastic 'space-taker-upper' and not actual stuff, which means it takes up extra, valuable space in our cramped apartments. Suitable for Danzig's ego, not our shelves. So aside from the lame packaging, if you do not have these records already, we say, go for it.

The very first album by Swedish prog-rock gurus Samla Mammas Manna finally reissued by Silence. Originally released in 1971 and recorded at their home studio (as were all of their albums come to think of it) the Chickenhouse. Founded and led by

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You think Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is weird, wait until you hear APHG offshoot Samps, who basically take all the fucked up retro FM radio-ims and tweaked yacht rock tropes of Ariel Pink, and tosses it all into a blender, chops it all up, twists it into crazy head spinning shapes and spits them back out in the form of the most fucked up, drug addled seventies coke party disco dance freak out you've ever heard. From fat fuzzy funked out basslines, to stuttery sampled vocals, to blown out AM radio melodies, to record crackle crusted synthfunk grooves, to cheesy MTV style new wave pop, to creepy jittery collages of slap bass, wah wah guitar, fuzzy synth and electronic drums, but Samps fuck it all up, piling on layers, looping samples, sometimes into full on blown out blissed out almost shoegazey sounding sheets of ethereal buzz and shimmer, but just as often into some sort of stumbling, lurching, unfunky, eighties pop-funk free for all. It's cheesy as all get out, but it's so tweaked and twisted and fucked up, that it basically becomes a sort of low brow high art, a dizzying psychedelic sampledelic mash up that in some weird way transcends all the references, and creates something pretty bad ass out of the musical detritus we've all tried to leave behind. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, comes with a download coupon, we're not sure we can get more of these once they're gone...

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Part one in the Table Of The Elements' label series of super limited one sided 12"s, comes from the relatively unknown Georgia ensemble San Agustin, a three piece free-rock-minimalist-noise-improv outfit that takes the propulsive rhythms of post rock, deconstructs them and wraps them in dense clouds of shifting drone, with occasional NNCK tribalism and Dead C-ish clatter. Really beautiful. They also have a 3 cd set on TOTE if this 12" strikes your fancy. Gorgeous woodcut image silkscreened in glow-in-the-dark ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. So nice. And SO LIMITED!

First album from 1977 by this South Korean group of three brothers who began to play together while attending their university. Apparently the three, completely disconnected from the greater Korean rock scene, were most inspired by the likes of Australian rockers AC/DC, but lacking the right equipment or technical know-how couldn't replicate their sound. Whether this is factual or not the music of San Ul Lim, it must be said, sounds absolutely nothing like AC/DC; rather, they sound a lot more like Turkish psych faves Erkin Koray, Haramiler, Mogollar, et al. In fact, the second track on this album shared a space next to some of those very Turks on the Love, Peace & Poetry: Asia collection and despite the fact that their tune had been recorded as much as ten years later than some of the others, they sound as if they could have been cut in the late 60's. San Ul Lim, while ostensibly a trio -- with the eldest brother on guitar, the youngest on drums and the middle playing bass -- either did some over-dubbing work or had another un-named member playing keyboards. Small oversight maybe, but the keyboardist has as big a role as the eldest bro when it comes to carrying the solos for the group using a broad array of synths -- a harpsichord farfisa patch being popular -- and electric pianos. On many of the groups songs it seems like they just gave the keyboardist cart blanche to just solo through the entire tune. The bass playing of the middle brother is equally spirited. Not content to merely playing his role in the rhythm section and keeping harmony going, he has a tendency to keep busy with fast moving scale fragments and melodies. It's all almost too much for the youngest on drums to keep up with at times! Definitely something that anyone who dug the HE 6 reissue reviewed recently (or the Shin Jung Hyun disc reviewed on this list) and wants to further explore the Korean '70s psych scene ought to check out for sure. Likewise if you haven't yet delved into these sounds from SK but like the other international psych sensations we've brought you before...

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Following up their recent split with Oakland's Stormcrow, this warlike Seattle-based crew of crusties drop their full-length for 20 Buck Spin. And it's the sound of a whole lotta new ones being torn! Angry, crushing metallic mayhem. Guttural vox over churning, deathly guitars n' battery. Inspired by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Unleashed, Extreme Noise Terror and Amebix, they do their influences proud, carrying the banner of "War Crust" high, following their own marching orders into the meatgrinding artillery barrage and resulting bloody red mist that their music creates. Packaged in a nice cardboard mini-LP-style gatefold sleeve, adorned with black and grey grim graphics. We count AT LEAST twenty-three obvious skulls and/or severed heads on stakes in the artwork. The disc also includes seven bonus tracks taken from two earlier vinyl ep releases.

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Sand's first album Golem is an utter classic of ur-folk krautrock recorded back in 1974 with the nascent technology known as Artificial Head Stereo Sound, meant to the expand beyond the quadrophonic. The recording gear was being lugged around by Klaus Schulze who was the man responsible for capturing Sand's album. They were a peculiar band for the whole Kraut scene, as they were drummerless - or mostly so, as a Yahowah 13-ish hippie boogie is tapped out on the album's finale "Sarah". But for the remaining four-fifths of the album, it's just bass, guitar, synth, and voice. The openness of their arrangements served the Artificial Head recording very well (with the results best rendered on headphones, very trippy); but all of these cool tricks would be worthless had Sand's Golem not already been lumbering, lugubrious monster of an album. The sprawling tracks roll in and out of slowly plucked / strummed guitar - like Manuel Gottsching or Gunter Schickert if played at 16rpm. It's sparklingly gloomy avant-folk, with spooky vibes from the synth and horror-laden lyrics uttered by the weirdly mannered vocalist Johannes Vester, whose take on a Cockney slur via Bavaria is most certainly an unconventional approach. It's no wonder that this album was one album that David Tibet obsessed over upon discovering it in Steven Stapleton's record collection. So much so that Tibet not only reissued the album, but reprised Sand's "When The May Rain Comes" on the iconic Current 93 album Thunder Perfect Mind. Probably the closest neighbors to Sand would be the aQ-endorsed strum-und-drang of German Oak or the weeping fortune telling of Paternoster. Required. Required. Required.

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Wow, were we completely surprised by this record! We all remember not really being that into the UK's Sand when we first heard them a few years ago. But then it seems like maybe they underwent some sort of serious sonic transformation. Gone are almost all traces of their dance-y path. Sure some of the rhythms on the Dalston Shroud could still fill up the dancefloor, but their whole electronic / techno / dance / funk vibe has been transformed into some sort of fuzzed out industrial garage rock stomp. Their past is littered with remixes and performances for dance troupes and providing alternate soundtracks for films and performing with a who's who of techno heavyweights, but we have to say this new direction is seriously kicking our ass. The opener is a groovy fuzzy punk rock jam, all angular guitar and HUGE throbbing basslines, moaning horns, buzzing synths and pounding drums. It almost sounds like Interpol doing space rock. Maybe Hawkwind if they formed in NYC in the last several years. Fuzzed out and spacey, but pulsing and relentlessly groove. The second track is a buzzing industrial garage funk electro work out, with FAT fuzz bass and weird sung/spoken vocals and a throbbing beat. The rest of the record manages to meld the two sides of the band, their groovy side, and their freaked out psych rock side, resulting in a sound like some impossible cross between Spacemen 3, Jesus And Mary Chain, old Ministry, Loop, Swans, Hawkwind and with maybe just a little of that Manchester sound swirled in. Occasionally the band dips back into their electronic bag of tricks resulting in weird free jazz funky breakdowns, or blissed out Shadow style downtempo grooves, but they always return to the riff, and said riff is usually wrapped in thick swirls of delay and echo and all sorts of other FX. Sand are like a gas masked, camouflaged krautrock krew piloting some space rock dancefloor, drifting through the galaxy, directly into the sun.

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Lion Productions once again dig deep into super obscure international psychedelia of the '60s and '70s to bring us this amazing gem. Sandhy & Mandhy were an Argentinian duo who hit the scene almost as fast as they disappeared. Recording only one album in 1967, and doing it in just three hours. With no grand hopes of fame and fortune, their label pressed a mere 110 copies for the group to have at gigs they played. Years later those copies would fetch crazy amounts of money. Which is not surprising once you hear the music, cuz it's so damn good. Mixing both the dreamy and rocking elements of psychedelic pop, their sound was in a very similar vein and spirit to their contemporaries in nearby Brazil where the Tropicalia movement was just beginning. From moments of fuzz guitar to melt-worthy vocals, this is a record that covers a lot of ground, and does it so well. It really does sound like some awesome mix of Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes. Finally we all get to hear the magic of this album made over forty years ago. There are also five bonus tracks, that for some of us are reason enough to grab this, as their awesome lo-fi covers of The Doors and Marianne Faithfull/The Rolling Stones are pretty damn irresistible. We're totally digging this!

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Last list out we made Hope Sandoval's first record in over eight years our Record Of The Week. That record was in fact the follow up to this, her first full length after the dissolution of Mazzy Star, who clearly were one of the most important and influential bands of the '90s. Sadly this record had been out of print for years, but with the release of her breathtaking new record, Bavarian Fruit Bread has finally been reissued and that's beyond good news, as this is pretty much the pinnacle for hazy, dazed out and dreamy songsmithery, a suite of sound that both lulls and caresses, transporting you to a place that is somewhere between the clouds, the fog and that half awake/half asleep hypnogogic state. In fact we know a few people who have had some really amazing/healing moments with this record during a period of infirmity and under heavy medication, the perfect soundtrack, as if it were designed to play over and over and give such hazy relief, a glorious sonic painkiller, musical codeine, the kind of record that takes you to a beautifully numb and comforting place. We also plenty of folks who cite this as their absolute go to 'make-out' record, which makes perfect sense, as every note is permeated by a smoky sensuality that truly is intoxicating. If you missed this the first time around we can't stress enough what a stunning and achingly beautiful record this is. An absolute must have!

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Before Cat Power, Beach House, Grouper, Edith Frost, Christina Carter, Valet, Marissa Nadler, Tara Jane O'Neil, El Perro Del Mar, Isobel Campbell, Brightblack Morning Light, etc.... there was Hope Sandoval. Beginning with her work in seminal and influential slowcore dream pop legends Mazzy Star, Sandoval's trademark dazed and hazy vocals have inspired countless other bands and performers, her gorgeous languid purr and the dark swirling sounds surrounding it were no doubt an intoxicating influence, and as fantastic as so many of those Mazzy acolytes are, there is just something so magical, otherworldly and trance inducing about the original. After Mazzy Star called it quits, Sandoval released both an ep and a full length under her own name, that full length, Bavarian Fruit Bread, was easily as dreamy, seductive and enchanting as anything that Mazzy Star had ever created. It's been over 8 years since that album came out and we've heard very little from the elusive and mysterious chanteuse (other than rumors of a proposed Codeine reunion, with Sandoval on vocals, how amazing would that have been!!). She lives right here in the Bay Area, and performs now and again, sometimes with like minded music makers, sometimes on her own, she even made an appearance a while back on Vetiver's great debut record. Now finally, almost a decade since her last proper record, we have this completely chilling and utterly beautiful record, that proves it was well worth the wait, the record at once immediate and intimate, but also with the feel of something meticulously crafted over many long dark nights. Immaculate, lush, warm, melancholy, seductive, sensual, sexy, smoky... words only begin to scratch the surface when describing the intensity and emotion, the depth and and delicate beauty of Through The Devil Softly. The music here is again, a perfect match for Sandoval's gorgeous vocals, dark and lush and seductive and hypnotic, which comes as no surprise since her band The Warm inventions is comprised of some incredible players, including her main musical coconspirator, Colin O Ciosoig of My Bloody Valentine, who co-wrote several of the songs as well as being the Inventions' drummer. Through The Devil Softly is a record that even on first listen sounds timeless, and ageless, a record that will no doubt seep into your heart, and soul, and play on and on, a constant companion, a musical balm that will soothe and comfort, ease you when you are uneasy, wrap you in warmth as you dream the day away, and lift you into the air as millions of memories, thoughts and desires infuse your body and mind. Simply breathtaking!

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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. Hope Sandoval, she of the velvet vocal chords put to great use in Mazzy Star, releases her first new material in years. "At the Doorway Again" is four songs recorded with Colm O'Ciosoig, drummer for My Bloody Valentine. Quiet, sad, restrained melancholy with added cello and piano. It's pretty good, but without the brilliant guitarwork of David Roback (her partner in Mazzy Star), Sandoval's doped-out singing style isn't balanced with any songwriting ability, so it's pretty but ultimately sort of unsatisfying (for me). Legendary British folk guitarist Bert Jansch guests on one track.

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Early '70s acid folk, from the USA but sounding very UK.

Hot on the heels of their awesome new 12" Duck Duck Goose, the ladies of The Sandwitches are wasting no time continuing their hot streak with these two brand new songs that continue to display what a cool range of sounds they're capable of conjuring. The A side "Makes Me Sick" is one of the most full on folk sounding songs we've heard from them yet filled with such a nice punch. Kind of like an updated version of a Karen Dalton track doused with a nice kick of piss & vinegar. The B side is the track we've been so obsessed with. "Idiot Savant" is so sparse and haunting, bringing us into a hypnotic world of sound filled with cobwebs and antique Oujia boards. With every step they take we keep falling for these ladies more and more. So good!

In a day an age when so many bands are getting huge due to hype from blogs, or one YouTube clip, The Sandwitches are a really refreshing reminder of how gratifying it feels to follow a band who are establishing themselves the old fashioned way. Playing shows around town and on the road, releasing tons of singles/ep's/collaborations, and refining their chops and songwriting prowess along the way. We've been huge fans of everything they've released so far and this brand new 7" keeps their perfect record alive. "The Pearl" is an awesome campfire spell of a song, where Sandwitches take the influence of folks like The Roches and Fleetwood Mac and place them in a much more rustic and raw setting. The B side "Benny's Memory Palace" is a really cool slightly warped track that makes us think of Sinead O'connor on K records covering Billy Bragg. Once again these fine ladies hit the bullseye with yet another awesome slab of wax.

One of the really cool things about working at a record store is how you get to watch as a band gets more and more popular... One day they are just a name on a record no one has heard of and then just weeks later they become a band that everyone calls and asks about. Such is the case with San Francisco's The Sandwitches. We were just as clueless about them as everyone else when we first got their debut lp on Turn Up, but once we heard it we became hooked like so many other folks. Once you hear their totally refreshing, unique and endearing living room lo-fi garage folk jams, it's pretty impossible to resist. This new 7" gives an awesome alternate version of the song "Back To The Sea" which was on the full length, this time out it's even more of a foot stomper, like The Shaggs doing a Bill Haley & His Comets cover. The B side "Beatle Screams" is a haunting slow burner with a nice pump organ groove running throughout conjuring up images of some kind of wonderfully haunted circus or a state fair gone way weird. Lots of folks have heard these fine ladies via their amazing back up vocals on The Fresh & Only's records as well as from playing in bands like Pillars Of Silence and Brilliant Colors. But if they keep creating such amazing songs, The Sandwitches will become a household name, you know at least in the kind of houses we all tend to live in!

Over the last year The Sandwitches debut lp, How To Make Ambient Sadcake proved to be a record with major legs. As we still have a hard time keeping it in stock as it sells out just about every week as people get turned on to what a unique and intimate sound these ladies have carved out. These brand new songs show that The Sandwitches are only getting better, with a set of songs filled with such warmth and a haunting glow. We hear hints of Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan, Christine McVie, Pentangle, Sybille Baier as well as contemporary artists like Tara Jane O'Neil, Jana Hunter, Marissa Nadler, Rio En Medio, Beach House, Tiny Vipers and Metallic Falcons. Or what it might sound like if Mimi from Low and Georgia from Yo La Tengo did lonely dark tinged covers of Red House Painters songs. The record has this timeless sound that makes us think of crawling up to the attic of our weird/cool aunt's house and finding an unmarked dusty record that we put on play as it turns to dusk outside and we flip through boxes of old photographs and torn out journal entries. Recorded & produced by Wymond Miles from The Fresh & Onlys, this ep really raises the bar for their sound. One of the most warm, eerie, yet comforting collection of songs we've heard all year. Stamped on one-sided vinyl and limited to 500 copies. Highly recommended!

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Lately some of our favorite Bay Area music makers have added record label head honcho to their resumes. John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) started his label Castle Face a few years ago, and Kelley Stoltz started Chuffed last year and now Marc Dantona of Conspiracy Of Beards and the now sadly defunct Pillars Of Silence has just launched his own label, Turn Up. The Sandwitches are the perfect band to be the first release on the label, as their smart approach to wide spanning pop shows what happens when folk minded musicians take it to the garage. The three ladies in the band have done time in great San Francisco bands like Brilliant Colors, The Fresh & Onlys, Pillars Of Silence and it is kind of cool how if you did put all three of those bands in a blender the sound of the Sandwitches can really be imagined. So many bands of late seem to be so dialed into such a narrow and small palette of sounds so it's really refreshing to hear a band who are no one trick pony, but instead cover lots of musical ground but do so with a cohesiveness that is often really tricky to pull off like The Sandwitches do on this debut. In lots of ways the record makes us think of what it would sound like for a band on Woodsist to cover Fleetwood Mac's amazing record Tusk. There is also something so honest and sincere about their delivery that you get the feeling they would play these songs with as much conviction and emotion in their living room filled with a few friends as much as they would on stage at a packed venue. Can't wait to hear what Turn Up unleash in the future and if this debut release is any indication this is going to be a label to keep your eyes on!

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These fine ladies from San Francisco have been quite busy ever since we first fell for them so hard, a couple years back, with their debut full length How To Make Ambient Sadcake. Since then they have been playing out like crazy and releasing 7"s and 12"s at a dizzying pace. We love how they have taken advantage of the different formats to play with and display different sides of their sound. With their new full length outing, Mrs. Jones' Cookies, they've released their most satisfying and coherent recording yet. We've loved everything they've put out so far, but all those releases felt way more about the individual songs, while this one really feels like they've mastered the ability to create an overall mood and feeling with a set of songs that flow so well with each other. Mrs. Jones' Cookies is what it might sound like if Neko Case or Jolie Holland did way stripped down, haunting covers of The Roches, Fleetwood Mac, The Incredible String Band, and Karen Dalton. The Sandwitches greatest strength is that while you can tell they have such a rich and strong understanding of music's past they never sound like some nostalgic act, as there is such an immediate and fresh perspective that they deliver in all of their songs. So good!

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Also on compact disc! Here's what we said about the vinyl we listed last time, plus now we've added sound samples too! We were so ecstatic when we discovered there was a new album by local ladies of indie-pop, The Sandwitches. It had been four years since their last record, and we were beginning to think the band was no more (although sadly, this IS apparently their final release). What's making us even happier is that not only have they made maybe their best album yet, but they've also made what might be one of the best records of the year. Even just listening to Our Toast once, it's easy to tell that the group is trying to make a serious sonic statement. Of course we've loved all of their past releases, but Our Toast really raises the bar, delivering a collection of songs overflowing with conviction and warmth. Not only are the new songs really great, but the recording too, is so rich and evocative, woozy and lush. It's clear that the band - along with Kelly Stoltz, who recorded it with them - had such a clear idea of how they wanted the album to sound, drenched in emotion and raw sensuality. Musically, Our Toast sits somewhere between Cat Power's Moon Pix and a Karen Dalton record recorded by Phil Spector: the perfect mix of moody melancholia and hazy, dreamlike wonder. Highly Recommended!

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We love The Sandwitches and are totally digging how they have developed this warped sort of split personality. They can create songs so warm, tender and haunting, while also able to whip up jams that are way more playful, childlike, and seemingly lost in a dusty daydream. This new split does a great job showing off both of their wonderful sides. At first we thought the A side was going to be a cover of a song by their pals The Fresh & Only's (the ladies in the Sandwitches add their warm vocals to many Fresh & Only's songs) but instead it's one of their most spirited tracks, mixing elements of gospel, garage and a warped pop sensibility. The B side is the one really finding its way into our hearts, showing that warm and glowing side to their sound but laced with just enough of a haunting vibe to keep us totally enchanted and under their spell.

Before we get into the story behind this disc, let us just start by saying, that not only is this one of our new favorite records, a gorgeous slithery, smokey cross between Bohren And Der Club Of Gore and Portishead, but that it took a whole lot of work to get it into the store and available for sale... So this has actually happened to us a few times, which either speaks to our naivete, or as we prefer to think a dogged belief in the record album as object, to be held, listened to and loved, and an inability to understand any thoughts to the contrary. Australia's Hidden Shoal Records got in touch with us and was hoping we would check out some of their bands, we did, and got all excited about carrying them at AQ. Until, after we emailed and tried to order some, we were regretfully informed that Hidden Shoal was in fact a digital only label, no lps, no cds, no cassettes, just MP3's. Too bad we thought, as far as we were concerned, though of course we know there are those perfectly happy to download some MP3's. But over the course of many months, and lots of emails back and forth, the label admitted to being interested in actually pressing up cds. We of course encouraged them, because we wanted all our customers to be able to buy and hear this music, but also, because, there's something about the object, the cd or the lp or the 7", the liner notes, looking through the booklet while listening to the music, the feel, even the smell. And sure, it IS all about the music, but that other stuff is part of it too, no matter how much iTunes wants us to think otherwise. Obviously most of you don't need to be told that, otherwise you'd probably not be reading this. Well, the upshot is, two of our favorite recordings on Hidden Shoal are now finally available on cd, well, cd-r actually. But they are professionally pressed, with full color artwork, printed artwork on the disc, and heck, we'll take cd-r's over MP3s any day. And lots of you seem to prefer cd-r's anyway... This disc is the latest from German combo Sankt Otten, often considered to be the Portishead of Germany, and sonically, that's not all that far off the mark. Although when we first heard it, we heard a lot of Bohren as well, late period Talk Talk, and maybe a little Tricky and Massive Attack. It all adds up exactly how you might imagine. Slow burning instrumentals, humid and sultry, Morricone-ish guitars drifting in a sea of rumble and shimmer, the bass a slithery serpent of sound, smooth and sexy sometimes, distorted and fuzz drenched at others. But as with music like this, it's all about two things, the drums, and the atmosphere. And the drums here are perfect. And heck, so is the ambience. The rhythms almost always begin a jazzy skitter, the cymbals sizzling, the snare brushed, occasionally lurching into a more propulsive funk flecked rhythm. A dark lugubrious pulse, dangerous and dimly lit. The drums demarcate a darkened path through back alleys and smoky clubs, everything cloaked in a thick, ominous ambience. Dense sonic swells wrapped around sparse arrangements and moody minor key melodies. More of a jazz vibe than any of the above mentioned bands... but the jazziness oozes into all sorts of gorgeous variations, with the various chunks of dreamy doomy shuffle separated by stretches of Circle like hypnorock or looped Necks style static jazz, or the haunting Sigur Ros like vocals on "Fallen Und Fangen (Johannes Der Laeufer)" draped over soaring super dramatic strings, or even the album closer, "Maerchenwald", which almost sounds like it could be on Kompakt, a grey hued shoegazey drift, with sweeping synths rainy day piano, and a strange techno pulse buried in the mix. Some tracks sound so much like Portishead, they could be lost B-sides or instrumental outtakes, but Sankt Otten manage to imbue even those tracks too with their own stamp, be it an unlikely melody, some Western twang, some strange distorted bass line, spidery atonal synth or an unexpected abstract breakdown. Or as is the case on "Zum Schweigen Verdammt" its flurries of cinematic strings, and super distorted percussive crashes. It's all just so intensely moody and melancholy, jazzy and dramatic, and so so gorgeous.

MPEG stream: Fremdenzimmer
MPEG stream: Happiness (Woanders Als Hier)
MPEG stream: Zum Schweigen Verdammt
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Full length number two from Brooklyn instrumental, avant post-metal outfit Sannhet (the word for truth in Norwegian), Revisionist is a dizzying concoction of math-metal intricacy, prismatic pop shimmer, and dense metallic crush, taking the metalgaze sound of like minded modern metal combos like Deafheaven or Alcest and adding more dynamic indie rockisms and churning noise rock crunch, then somehow, distilling it all into more concise, pop-like song structures, while somehow packing just as many parts, and just as much majestic epicry into those comparably brief blast. Each track here a chunk of deftly crafted melodic heaviness. Massive riffs, and thick swaths of distorted buzz wound around dynamic drumming, wild squalls of mathed out drum crush wreathed in sparkling fields of melodic guitar shimmer, even the occasional blast beat, is decontextualized into something more blissed out than brutal, resulting in a sound that churns and soars, with beautiful bits of heavy ambience woven into moody, minor key riffage, peppered with brief bursts of straight up black metal / metalgaze buzz and blast, but even at it's most furious and frantic, it seems to be bathed in some sort of otherworldly glow, a hazy, dreamy poppiness infused into the sound. Just check out the opening one two punch of "Revisionist" and "Lost Crown", the title track delivering a decidedly non-metallic opening, with thick, undulating layers of fuzzy, psychedelic riffage, peppered with super dynamic fills, the vibe more proggy than metal, before dissolving into a sound more gothy and gloomy, dense tribal drumming, over chiming guitar shimmer, our first glimpse of blastbeats too, and much like the rest of the record, so strangely placed, and deftly composed, it might not even seem like a blastbeat at first, instead, it just adds to the layered texture of the sound, which careens back and forth between a roiling blackened blissed out churn and a sun dappled buzz drenched pop. "Lost Crown" opens up similarly, with a strangely loping, mathy noise-pop sprawl, the drums cascading over a field of crumbling distortion and warm fuzz, only to erupt into some actual buzzing blackness, but again, even here, it's more swirling and psychedelic than grim and brutal. And throughout Revisionist, those bouts of buzz and blast are tempered by moody, melancholy math rock passages, that occasionally blossom into still more furious black buzz, but more often, are transformed into something more textural, and at times almost gothic, in fact skip ahead a bit and check out the gloomy moodiness of "Enemy Victorian", driven by a low slung Joy Division bassline, and sounding like the Cure via Interpol, albeit with some swirling psychedelic guitar thrum, and the occasional bleary-eared blast beat, the end result is again not so much metallic as transcendent and emotional, melancholic and almost dreampoppy, especially when more layered guitar texture, and a skyful of keening, minor key melodies swoop in. And even further on, there's "Sinking Forward", a sprawling majestic epic somehow compacted into less than four minutes, a smoldering, slow-motion crescendo, that builds from hushed drift to Godspeed like bombast, a howling psychedelic coda, that leads directly into closer "You Thy�" which is where most bands might finish things off with a final burst of metal, but instead, Sannhet unfurl another textural sonic sprawl that briefly dips into some blastbeat driven metalgaze bliss, quickly settles sonically somewhere else entirely, sounding like some impossible, and impossibly dreamy, mathpop/dronemetal/postrock hybrid equal parts Shellac, Laddio Bolocko and Explosions In The Sky.

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MPEG stream: Enemy Victorian
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She's been on the scene for a few years now, but this is the first we've heard of the intimate and fragile dreamlike sounds of Sanso-Xtro, aka Australian multi-intrumentalist Melissa Agagte, who uses analog synths and electronics to create a fantasy soundtrack for a wander through a mystical forest, a sound that makes us think of folks like Islaja and Paavarhaju, or what it might sound like if Natural Snow Buildings teamed up with Colleen. It's never too precious for its own good, and in fact there's a mesmerizing haunting quality to this album that wraps you in its arms from start to finish. Like a warped music box floating on an empty lake, this is intimate and engaging music at its best!

Just what we've been hankering for, some perfectly breezy and colorful pop done just right. And lucky for us Santa Maria has got a perfect batch of the good stuff for us to enjoy. Leave it to the Swedes to make some of the most infectious and smart pop we've heard in ages. Best known as the guitarist in The Concretes, Maria Eriksson, aka Santa Maria steps into the spotlight with fantastic results. Joined throughout the record by some of Sweden's best and brightest, including members of Sagor & Swing, Tape, and Laakso, this is the kind of pop music we never ever ever get tired of. Equal parts peppy and bittersweet. Proving once again that pop doesn't have to be dumb or simple to be catchy and infectious. While her former Concretes bandmate, vocalist Victoria Bergsman stole the show with her contributions to the latest Peter Bjorn & John album, we're pretty sure that Maria Eriksson deserves the ears of all those who appreciate smart pop as well. With a sound similar to the great Concretes debut, Peter Bjorn & John, Camera Obscura, and The Aislers Set, this is one of the best pop records we've heard so far this year!

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Wow, "Creator" is quickly becoming our favorite single of the year. Santogold has been getting lots of attention and winning high profile fans like Bjork, Spank Rock and Lily Allen. "Creator" for sure makes us think of her friend M.I.A. in both the vocal delivery and the splatter-of-color production by Switch (who worked on most of M.I.A.'s latest). The 'b' side finds Santogold in more of a new wave territory sounding kind of like Karen O singing lead on the first Cars album. While both the aQ faithful as well as her famous fans wait for her debut full length, we'll be laying the needle on "Creator" again and again and again.

A close associate of Animal Collective and very well submerged in the New York new-avant art/music scene stratus, Rusty Santos envelopes us with minimal electronic singer-songwriter type lovelies on The Heavens, his third release. With considerable amounts of recorded-in-the-practice-space-room-sound here, Santos' musical creations are artful soundscapes that often give way to some lyrical urgency and are hard to pinpoint where it's all coming from per se. But somewhere in a big bowl of sound steeped with Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Violent Femmes and OMD, we loudly slurp up The Heavens. Recommended!

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"Spawned from the formidable Louisville, KY collective known as Black Velvet Fuckere (Valley Of The Ashes, Phantom Family Halo, Kark, etc.), Sapat resides as the centrifugal force in this Midwestern psychedelic madrigal set in the psychosexual backwaters of the mighty Ohio River. For the entirety of the '00 decade, members have kept busy collaborating with and/or massaging the egos of various and sundry avant-pontiffs such as Robert Fripp, Magik Markers, Dead Child (David Pajo's metal band. That's right, David Pajo!) and Eugene Chadbourne -- when not honing the orgone energy of Sapat."

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Four quietly dreamy numbers from this young San Francisco trio. Two voices slowly weave their way around the often-subdued guitar, sampled dialogue and twinkling space sounds. For fans of For Stars or Tarentel.

We always assumed that Denmark's Sarah's Charity must include Matthew Bower of Skullflower, or Marcia Bassett of Hototogisu, or at least someone from Heavy Winged or Double Leopards or one of those sorts of bands. They have the same sort of slow burning heaviness going on, the washed out walls of psychedelic swirl, grinding guitars, keening streaks of high end. Another one of 'those sounds' we can't ever seem to get enough of. Ends up SC are indeed from Denmark, and do not count any American or British noise rock ringers among their members, which is just as well, as these guys can totally hold their own, and then some, whipping up a seriously dense and deliriously blown out soundscape of buzz and blur and shimmer and rrrroooaaaaar. The other cd-r we had from SC was equally guitar heavy, but here, the sound seems significantly murkier and more muted, softer even (softer being relative of course), giving it a more dreamy drone-y sound which is no bad thing at all. But fear not, this is still fierce and prickly and caustic and HEAVY, just sort of pretty too. We only have a handful of these, it was LIMITED TO 150 COPIES (each with a hand numbered insert), and they've been waiting for a while to get reviewed and listed, so pretty sure these are long gone and out of print at the source, but while they last, we got em here...

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Great hook-filled indie rock, tight and charming, with female harmonies... If you think indie rock is at a standstill, try this. For fans of Tiger Trap and Team Dresch.

Night Gallery 3 compilation alumni Sarumatakemitsuko (whose name might translate into something in English like "Monkey Crotch Mushroom Mituko"?? no that can't be right... we hope not!) bring us their debut full-length for Osaka's Alchemy label. They were also just on Alchemy's recently reviewed Tribute To Jojo Hiroshige, and both comp appearances whetted our appetite for this cd. An all-female psych rock trio (vocals & guitar/guitar/bass... no drums!), Sarumatakemitsuko's album is often a haunting and beautiful thing, initally making quite effective use of eerie, lovely vocals and occasional stabs of guitar, eventually exploring chanting, fuzzed-out repetition, using slashing guitar chords percussively in lieu of drums. But it's not all downer drone-psych minimalism, as with track three "An An" the disc suddenly veers into sunny indie-pop jangle a la Maher Shalal Hash Baz or Nagisa Ni Te. Eventually things cloud over yet again, getting again all drifting and dreamy, especially on the disc's final 13 minute cut "Akai Butter", wherein emotive vocals and notes plucked out on one guitar are suspended over what builds into a droning bed of distortion...wandering, narcotic. Very nice indeed. Certainly something fans of Nagisa Ni Te, Angel 'In Heavy Syrup, Doodles, Eddie Marcon, etc. should hear!

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C'mon, how can a record called Hard Blood Shock NOT be good? Especially when it's a collection of crazy punk rock music from the former Yugoslavia, all by this guy, a singer with the stage name of Satan Panonski (aka Ivica Culjak), who was about as alternative & subversive & punk rock as you can get, particularly in a communist dictatorship: a self-mutilating body artist, avowed homosexual, underground poet, painter, and asylum/prison inmate (he'd killed a man in a fight in self-defense and wound up in a state mental hospital for criminals for nearly a decade). Apparently, though, they'd let him out on weekends, so he could continue his punk rock career, playing live and recording several cassettes and lps with Croatia's top punk musicians. Unfortunately for him, perhaps the only conventional thing he ever did was to join the army to fight against the Serbs when they invaded Croatia during the break up of Yugoslavia in the early '90s, that's how he died in 1992 at the age of 32, a victim of the Balkan Wars. This lp-only release on S-S (no cd, no download) is a 'best of' this tragic Croatian punk legend, drawn from his rare late '80s/early '90s releases, transferred from original tapes. And as you might expect, it's hard, bloody, and shocking. Of the 18 tracks, only a few have titles in English, including one called "Kiss My Cock", which might give one an idea of the attitude on display. Satan Panonski's music blends snarling old school punk (a la Sex Pistols) with some ethnic Croatian folk bits and noisy, experimental weirdness. It's pretty wild and rockin'. A rager. Included is a 16 page booklet with biographical essay, translated lyrics, drawings, photos, etc. Anyone with an interest in Eastern European punk ought to check this out.

Killer blast of garage pop surf scuzz from this Stockton California combo, that had us immediately thinking of another surf garage group we flipped over a while back, Mrs. Magician, but SW take that same sound, strip it way down, and add some fuzzy, wasted shoegaze to the proceedings, just check out opener "Freeway", which sounds like it should have been on Slumberland, lo-fi, fuzzed out, simple propulsive drumming, over spidery melodies, and some ethereal vocals that give the vibe a serious girlgroup feel. Follow up "She's Not Right" injects some Beat Happening style minimalism, with boy/girl harmonies sung by two boys, the intertwining high/low vox wrapped around some dirgey, reverb soaked riffage, and more primitive drumming. And that's pretty much how Black Eyed Kids plays out, the sound shifting from stripped down, lo-fi crunch, to lush, swirling fuzz pop. Tracks like "Reality's A Bitch" combine the two into jangle pop gems that pile on the warm swaths of distortion, multiple vocals, buzzing distorto-melodies, even some buried samples and sound effects,. There are moments that are obviously home brewed mad scientist tinkering, the band gleefully indulging in weirdo 4-track dub experiments at one point, but it somehow fits perfectly with the rest of these woozy surf pop and garage rock jams, the second half of the record heavy on 'hits', "Sun Coma" sounding a bit like Jeff The Brotherhood, a crazy catchy burst of distorto-pop radness, or the sprawling slo-mo closer "Therapy", which sound like Thee Oh Sees at 16 rpm. Fans of the current crop of garage pop should flip for these guys, file next to Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Thee Oh Sees, The Intelligence, Mrs. Magician, Sultan Bathery, Herzog, etc...

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MPEG stream: Freeway
MPEG stream: She's Not Right
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Wow! Classic UK punk from 1977, and how! Satan's Rats came out of Evesham, Worcester, and among their claims to fame -- playing some of the earliest punk festivals -- they opened for the Sex Pistols and were so well received the audience demanded and encore (no small feat for a band playing for finnicky young punks waiting to see the genre's defining act.) This anthology, compiled by founding member / guitarist Steve Eagles includes everything the band ever recorded: six songs off their three singles and 14 demo tracks recorded between 1977 and 1979. The final four demo tracks are true gems, primitively recorded in a basement studio which had decayed so far by the time they were preserved in the digital realm they were riddled with drop outs. Damn, if there's nothing greater than those anomalies of analog recording indelibly archived in the digital world! I don't know why, but I always love hearing that. As far as the music of the Rats goes, it's just plain good old fashioned punk rock n' roll. Both the music and vocals sound a bit like Generation X, but maybe with the stick pulled out of Billy Idols ass a bit, or maybe a little like The Buzzcocks but pitched an octave or so down. On the six demos (never before released?) the band was working on in 1979 before vocalist Paul Rencher split the group (Steve Eagles went on to form The Photos aftwerwards) you can hear the Rats working towards extended rock jams -- like Ulster rockers Stiff Little Fingers -- with guitarist Eagles spreading his wings (pun maybe intended) and showing his guitar prowess. Includes repros of the original 7" sleeves, publicity photos of the group and a brief bio of all the important moments of the group's career penned by Eagles. Oh, and they do an irreverent cover of "Lady Is A Tramp"! What more can we say? Highly fucking recommended and shit!

MPEG stream: In My Love For You
MPEG stream: Year of the Rats
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Die Screaming, last year's killer album from these doomed-out, garage-rockin' dement-oids, we made a Record Of The Week, and it landed in several of our year-end top tens too, so yeah we are excited about this, the Satyrs' brand new album, and yeah, it rules!!! But, as with their previous record, it makes a weird first impression; if you haven't heard 'em before it might take a bit to get your head around - but for us, a few songs in and we were 100 percent hooked. It's just that, for a bunch who present themselves like a outlaw biker gang from some '70s, Z-grade exploito-movie shocker, they're more poppy than you might expect. They're psych and metal too, but lead-off track "Full Moon And Empty Veins" is soooo uptempo and upbeat, that it's really glammy pop we're hearing, super distorted and fuzzy, yeah, but also major key happy and bouncy. That poppiness persists in the Satyrs' speedy garage metalpunk sound as the disc spins, these high energy jams replete with fucked up freakout frenzies of solos and perhaps the Satyrs' most distinctive feature, the love 'em or hate 'em vocals - sneering, snotty singing taken to the most gnarled extreme ever. Like Ozzy after having been fed some really strange drugs, causing weird brain damaged speech impediment. Tracks like "(Won't You Be My) Gravedancer" sound like Pentagram's garage demos from the '70s given a bubblegum injection, while several others take off on way out psych-solo excursions - it's the sort of thing that when you've got it cranked, nothing could possibly be cooler. Definitely another winner from this gang, for fans of Uncle Acid, Zig Zags, Fuzz, King Tuff, and we're just now thinking Fred Cole's pre-Dead Moon '70s band Zipper. Freakin' recommended. Goddamn this makes us wanna see these guys live - missed 'em the last (and only?) time they were here, opening on tour for their comrades Electric Wizard, argh. It was the night before Record Store Day so we were too busy... Well hopefully they'll be back and we'll be there!

MPEG stream: Full Moon And Empty Veins
MPEG stream: (Won't You Be My) Gravedancer
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We've been trying to get the full length from these Virginia biker doom garage punks for ages now with no luck. So we were super psyched when this new single popped up, featuring Satans Satyrs teamed up with aQ pals Ohmwar. For those new to SS, the opening track is about all you need to know, starting out with a Black Flag cover, transformed into a massive blast of churning, metallic psychedelic biker doom, which quickly explodes into some snarly, swaggery metalpunk, all gristly guitars, and yowled vox, feedback galore, loose, wild and freaked out big time. The second track on the SS side is weirdly poppy, lots of jangle, almost sounding like a Kids In The Hall style theme song to some obscure cult TV show, minus the crazed tangle of blown out psych guitar squiggle, which is AMAZING. Man, we need to get that full length. Ohmwar make a good match for SS, kicking out the classic post punk noise rock, with some fierce glass gargling vocals over some surprisingly melodic guitar lines, and sampled thunder and rain, minus the vocals, the sound would be more like Husker Du or the Nils, albeit, with a slightly more metalpunk bent, but the vox transform in into something way more aggro. The second track finds Ohmwar tackling their own Black Flag cover, "Nervous Breakdown" this time, given a sort of hyperkinetic punk pop makeover, with the cool addition of wild squiggly guitar shred and some awesomely mush mouthed vocals...

Do you ever wish classic hardcore was more, well, you know... Satanic? Well, then this is for you. A tribute/homage to legendary straight edge hardcore heroes Minor Threat, with those short/sharp paeans to punk purity reimagined as something much more sinister, transformed into blasts of blurred sonic blasphemy, but really, as usual, we were sold before we heard a single note. The original black sheep / Out Of Step cover art, here features the black sheep as an evil black ram with glowing red eyes, retitled In To Hell, with a printed sticker price of $6.66 (of course), and song titles like "Guilty Of Hating Christ" (original: "Guilty Of Being White"), "Satanic Threat", "Small God, Big Cross" (original: "Small Man, Big Mouth"), "Cursing At The Cross" (original: "Screaming At A Wall"), you get the drift. The back cover is also adorned with a super metal looking Jesus, tongue out, flashing the devil horns, upside down cross in hand, stigmata dripping blood, what's not to love? But don't be expecting super metallized version of hardcore songs, other than the new lyrics, the sound here is straight up old school hardcore, furious and frenzied pissed off and punk as fuck, yowled vox over blasting, galloping hardcore heaviness, just way less positive, and WAY MORE EVIL! The super short album proper is filled out by a live show, with mostly the same songs, this time including ST's version of "Steppin' Stone" (which Monor Threat also famously covered), as well as some pretty hilarious stage banter, and plenty of excellent heckling!

MPEG stream: Guilty Of Hating Christ
MPEG stream: He's On The Cross
MPEG stream: I Ain't Gotta Worship

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

SORRY.

Oooooh, yes! Remastered and reissued on cd! Blinded by the pearly white teeth, blown away by the skin-tight polyester disco boogie... that's what many of us were after seeing Saturday Night Fever way back in 1977. Seems like a whole 'nother lifetime. These days John Travolta's moving in a different kind of polyester crowd, and the seventies fashions we thought were gone for good have more than made a comeback. Oh, the more things change.... Such is also the case with the central musical force on this soundtrack. When you think of the Bee Gees, isn't this what springs to mind? Such a different musical beast from the band who just a few years earlier made the immensely Beatles influence drenched albums 1st, Idea and Horizontal (fyi: all three were recently reissued as deluxe 2cd editions, one of which was our Record Of The Week back in January!). Overflowing with delectable falsetto harmonies as only the Brothers Gibb could dish out, we love this album! Yes, there are ample top 40 moments and many dripping with cheese ("A Fifth Of Beethoven" anyone?), but don't be mistaken! This isn't just a "so bad it's good" trip. Nostalgia, yes. Irony, no. And lest we forget film score dynamo David Shire's presence. His disco-fication of the classical composition "Night On Bald Mountain" (retitled "Night On Disco Mountain") is mighty wonder unto itself! Yeah, you know how to do it!

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MPEG stream: Night Fever