The Union Trade are a young Bay Area foursome who craft mostly instrumental atmospheric post-rock a la Codeine, Mogwai and Slint. Yes, the 'quiet-loud-quiet' dynamics live on in this band! Occasionally a bit mathy and a bit trippy with lots of effected, distorted electric guitar textures. When vocals come into the picture, they're hushed and quite resemble those of Lou Barlow. A promising debut.
United States Of America is quite a politically charged monicker these days, what with the whole country / world divided over the war in Iraq and our President and gay marriage and everything else under the sun. Probably wasn't a whole lot less volatile 36 years ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, when this record was first released. Which was precisely the point.
USoA mastermind Joseph Byrd was a long time devotee of twentieth century composition and minimalism, studying and/or studying with LaMonte Young, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Charles Ives and the rest. While at UCLA, Byrd helped organise the New Music Workshop and eventually arranged an elaborate set of concerts which culminated in a Lamonte Young piece that involved the inflation of a giant hot air balloon. Fearful that the less sophisticated members of the audience would get bored and leave, Byrd formed a blues band to play during that part of the performance and convinced his pal Linda Rondstadt to sing. Thus came the realisation that a rock band would give Byrd access to a much bigger audience, and so began his quest to start a psychedelic rock band, which would eventually be realized as United States Of America. Made up of Byrd's friends from academia and ethnomusicology and his ex-girlfriend, and born from his frustration with the war and his leaving UCLA, USoA became a politically charged experimental psychedelic rock combo unlike any that had come before. Utilising a not exactly standard bass /drums /guitar /violin lineup, their sound was further augmented by ring modulators, organ, harpsichord, and calliope. The end result was a sixties rock band, drenched in psychedelic filligree, swooping electronic trippiness, all sorts of circus-y weirdness, bizarre editing and song structures, but never losing sight of great songs.
And a lot of these songs are indeed great. Probably the best track on the record is "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", a super rocking Stereolab meets Jefferson Airplane number, that would not sound at all out of place on Emperor Tomato Ketchup, if it weren't for the gritty sixties rock chorus (with a hook to die for) and the storm of buzzing and bleeping, overloaded affects and tripped out swooping and soaring bleeps and bloops. And then there's the final track, a three part experimental montage / coda, all ambient jangle and ethereal ambience, with snippets and samples from the rest of the tracks on the record, resulting in a super damaged art-rock musical acid trip. And the rest of the record veers from countryish campfire stomps, to smoke-y sultry ballads, to freaked out psych jams and everything in between. All blessed by the absolutely gorgeous vocals of Dorothy Moskowitz.This record may be a psychedelic country pop rock record, but boy is it more than that. Reminds us quite a bit of recent AQ record of the week Euphoria, with it's complicated and bizarre arrangements and its unlikely melding of country rock, lush baroque pop and acid fried guitar leads. Imagine a Frankensteinian sonic monster constructed from Euphoria, Stereolab, Fifty Foot Hose, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds...then make said monster do some coursework in twentieth century compostion and experimental minimalism, and let it experiment with a suitcase full of homemade sound generators and you'd still have trouble imagining how great this record is. As always Sundazed does the reissue right, with extensive liner notes from Joseph Byrd, and interview with Dorothy Moskowitz and TEN bonus tracks, almost all of them unreleased, and most of them as good as anything on the album proper!
Now available on lp! 180 gram vinyl!
United States Of America is quite a politically charged monicker these days, what with the whole country / world divided over the war in Iraq and our President and gay marriage and everything else under the sun. Probably wasn't a whole lot less volatile 36 years ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, when this record was first released. Which was precisely the point.
USoA mastermind Joseph Byrd was a long time devotee of twentieth century composition and minimalism, studying and/or studying with LaMonte Young, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Charles Ives and the rest. While at UCLA, Byrd helped organise the New Music Workshop and eventually arranged an elaborate set of concerts which culminated in a Lamonte Young piece that involved the inflation of a giant hot air balloon. Fearful that the less sophisticated members of the audience would get bored and leave, Byrd formed a blues band to play during that part of the performance and convinced his pal Linda Rondstadt to sing. Thus came the realisation that a rock band would give Byrd access to a much bigger audience, and so began his quest to start a psychedelic rock band, which would eventually be realized as United States Of America. Made up of Byrd's friends from academia and ethnomusicology and his ex-girlfriend, and born from his frustration with the war and his leaving UCLA, USoA became a politically charged experimental psychedelic rock combo unlike any that had come before. Utilising a not exactly standard bass /drums /guitar /violin lineup, their sound was further augmented by ring modulators, organ, harpsichord, and calliope. The end result was a sixties rock band, drenched in psychedelic filigree, swooping electronic trippiness, all sorts of circus-y weirdness, bizarre editing and song structures, but never losing sight of great songs.
And a lot of these songs are indeed great. Probably the best track on the record is "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", a super rocking Stereolab meets Jefferson Airplane number, that would not sound at all out of place on Emperor Tomato Ketchup, if it weren't for the gritty sixties rock chorus (with a hook to die for) and the storm of buzzing and bleeping, overloaded affects and tripped out swooping and soaring bleeps and bloops. And then there's the final track, a three part experimental montage / coda, all ambient jangle and ethereal ambience, with snippets and samples from the rest of the tracks on the record, resulting in a super damaged art-rock musical acid trip. And the rest of the record veers from countryish campfire stomps, to smoke-y sultry ballads, to freaked out psych jams and everything in between. All blessed by the absolutely gorgeous vocals of Dorothy Moskowitz. This record may be a psychedelic country pop rock record, but boy is it more than that. Reminds us quite a bit of recent AQ record of the week Euphoria, with it's complicated and bizarre arrangements and its unlikely melding of country rock, lush baroque pop and acid fried guitar leads. Imagine a Frankensteinian sonic monster constructed from Euphoria, Stereolab, Fifty Foot Hose, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds...then make said monster do some coursework in twentieth century composition and experimental minimalism, and let it experiment with a suitcase full of homemade sound generators and you'd still have trouble imagining how great this record is.
A few years ago, we ecstatically reviewed an incredible anthology called The History of The Units that showcased the nearly complete recordings of San Francisco's legendary synth-punk anarchists. That release went out of print awhile ago, but the Futurismo label has just reissued the group's 1980 debut lp in a DELUXE package fully remastered with bonus tracks on colored vinyl with liner notes, digital download and poster. Most of our review of the anthology still holds for this reissue so here is what we said about Units back in 2009!:
Moog-enabled synth punk subversion straight outta San Francisco in the late '70s/early '80s, entertaining n' agitating electronic New Wave action excavated and reissued! And it's totally timely considering how many bands in today's scene would so love to sound like this.
We won't pretend we were familiar with The Units back in the day or even before 2009. Perhaps we'd heard the name before (or maybe we were confusing 'em with ol' Jandek's 1978 debut album, also under the name The Units), but we knew nothing about this band 'til we heard the disc a few weeks ago. And as soon as we did, it went into heavy rotation here at the store. These Units were definitely a important piece of San Francisco punk/new wave history, but just a bit before our time. Well, not Aquarius's time, just us folks who work here now! Actually, a close reading of the thanks list in the cd booklet will find a shout out to Aquarius, 'cause (if you didn't know) Aquarius was THEE punk/new wave record store in San Francisco in the '70s... (Which reminds us, we've got to get more of our history up on the AQ website.) And, in fact, this debut lp Digital Stimulation was the very first release on seminal SF indie 415 Records (who had their biggest hit with Romeo Void), a label run by one of Aquarius' owners at the time. So this most certainly isn't the first time that The Units music has been blasting regularly in the Aquarius shop, it's just been a few years, is all.
Not unlike Devo, The Units had a concept thing going, all about a critique of alienated modern industrial society, dehumanizing conformity, and corporate culture, with songs like "Cannibals" and "Work". Perhaps perversely choosing to use machines to make their point, The Units tried to take the human element out of the rock band equation, preferring for instance to project their own propaganda films rather than allow the audience to focus on a frontperson. And yes, they do also sound quite bit like Devo at times, which is way okay by us!
Their synth-obsession was also in part an anti-guitar thing, a reaction to the mainstream. In fact, they took their anti-guitar philosophy to the extreme of not only having a "stamp out guitars" logo, but also making fake guitars out of plywood to smash on stage, while letting their synths play on "cruise control". So definitely The Units were highly conceptual, art schoolish, but not academic - the liner notes are clear that the idea was to be an all-synth band that "kicks ass" (the full quote being: ""I wanted an all synthesizer band... and not some fucking polite, socially acceptable electronic experiment in academia. I didn't want a doctorate in electronic doodling. No, I'm talking about a synth band that kicks ass!") and according to what we're hearing here, they succeeded. And they were not without contemporaries. There were The Screamers, Nervous Gender, and of course Devo; all of whom wanted to take the synthesizer into punk. For many of the Units tracks, it would very easy to replace the lead synth lines with guitars and have an equally kick ass rock song, but the fact is that these are Moog-powered cuts which do oscillate between a quirky sensibility with angular chops and a full-throttle punk car-crash. If you would think the former finds the Units sounding like Devo and the latter like the Screamers, you'd be right!
There's loads of electric energy, some goofy humor, and certainly serious intent. So many gems here, incorporating buzzing droning distorted synths, propulsively skittering drum beats, and monotone vocals (both male and female). Their incredible singles "Cannibals" (a tempestuous, driving song that was pure '70s punk), "High Pressure Days", and "Warm Moving Bodies," are prominently featured here, all of which were impressively catchy. Other selections here include the cold wave weird science of "Digital Stimulation", and there's even an ode to our very neighborhood, "The Mission Is Bitchin", with lyrics about burritos and marijuana!
Putting things in proper place/time/scene perspective, is a whole bonus live set (it's a hidden track at the end of the cd, likely available via download for the lp) ending with an audio snippet of the late SF punk "godfather" Dirk Dirksen on stage at Mabuhay Gardens, good-naturedly mocking both The Units (accidentally referring to them by the name of another band, the Zeros) and their cheering fans (with the sardonic comment "obviously, people with as little taste as yourself would become ecstatic over such average talent").
Of course it's all a bit dated, of its era, and that's part of the charm... but like we said, a lot of this also sounds like it could be put out by a band today, since everything old is new again and the '80s New Wave / synth thing is a current retro craze. Definitely this is a good time for The Units to be reissued!
Moog-enabled synth punk subversion straight outta San Francisco in the late '70s/early '80s, entertaining n' agitating electronic New Wave action excavated and reissued! And it's totally timely considering how many bands in today's scene would so love to sound like this.
We won't pretend we were familiar with The Units before this fantastic anthology album showed up. Perhaps we'd heard the name before (or maybe we were confusing 'em with ol' Jandek's 1978 debut album, also under the name The Units), but we knew nothing about this band 'til we heard this disc a few weeks ago. And as soon as we did, it went into heavy rotation here at the store. These Units were definitely a important piece of San Francisco punk/new wave history, but just a bit before our time. Well, not Aquarius's time, just us folks who work here now! Actually, a close reading of the thanks list in the cd booklet will find a shout out to Aquarius, 'cause (if you didn't know) Aquarius was THEE punk/new wave record store in San Francisco in the '70s... (Which reminds us, we've got to get more of our history up on the AQ website.) And, in fact, The Units' debut lp Digital Stimulation was the very first release on seminal SF indie 415 Records (who had their biggest hit with Romeo Void), a label run in part by Aquarius' owners at the time. So this most certainly isn't the first time that The Units music has been blasting regularly in the Aquarius shop, it's just been a few years, is all.
Putting things in proper place/time/scene perspective, this archival disc starts off with an audio snippet of the late SF punk "godfather" Dirk Dirksen on stage at Mabuhay Gardens, good-naturedly mocking both The Units (accidentally referring to them by the name of another band, the Zeros) and their cheering fans (with the sardonic comment "obviously, people with as little taste as yourself would become ecstatic over such average talent"). Then, making us ecstatic, twenty tracks of prime Units music follows, The History Of The Units containing most all of the tracks from their 1980 415 Records album Digital Stimulation as well as a handful of stuff taken from early 7"s and demo tapes, as well as more experimental pieces recorded for film soundtracks and art happenings and other ephemera.
Not unlike Devo, The Units had a concept thing going, all about a critique of alienated modern industrial society, dehumanizing conformity, and corporate culture, with songs like "Cannibals" and "Work". Perhaps perversely choosing to use machines to make their point, The Units tried to take the human element out of the rock band equation, preferring for instance to project their own propaganda films rather than allow the audience to focus on a frontperson. And yes, they do also sound quite bit like Devo at times, which is way okay by us!
Their synth-obsession was also in part an anti-guitar thing, a reaction to the mainstream. In fact, they took their anti-guitar philosophy to the extreme of not only having a "stamp out guitars" logo, but also making fake guitars out of plywood to smash on stage, while letting their synths play on "cruise control". So definitely The Units were highly conceptual, art schoolish, but not academic - the liner notes are clear that the idea was to be an all-synth band that "kicks ass" (the full quote being: ""I wanted an all synthesizer band... and not some fucking polite, socially acceptable electronic experiment in academia. I didn't want a doctorate in electronic doodling. No, I'm talking about a synth band that kicks ass!") and according to what we're hearing here, they succeeded. And they were not without contemporaries. There were The Screamers, Nervous Gender, and of course Devo; all of whom wanted to take the synthesizer into punk. For many of the Units tracks, it would very easy to replace the lead synth lines with guitars and have an equally kick ass rock song, but the fact is that these are Moog-powered cuts which do oscillate between a quirky sensibility with angular chops and a full-throttle punk car-crash. If you would think the former finds the Units sounding like Devo and the latter like the Screamers, you'd be right!
Yes indeed, the songs on this disc range from urgent Devo-esque pop punk and Screamers-y rants to moody proto-'80s dance tracks to more abstract, instrumental, rhythmic/textural electronic pieces like "Tight Fit" and "East West". There's loads of electric energy, some goofy humor, and certainly serious intent. So many gems here, incorporating buzzing droning distorted synths, propulsively skittering drum beats, and monotone vocals (both male and female).
Their incredible singles "Cannibals" (a tempestuous, driving song that was pure '70s punk), "High Pressure Days", and "Warm Moving Bodies," are prominently featured here, all of which were impressively catchy. Their ability to write these hooks earned them a deal with Epic, who released two seminal 12" singles (which couldn't be licensed for this compilation) and has been sitting on another collection of recordings since 1983. But beyond the hook, the Units were plenty weird, as seen in their peculiar lullaby melodies on "Red" which almost comes across like a Rodd Keith song-poem with a very sparse arrangement. Despite the band's curses toward academic music, a few choice intertwining moments of the Units minimalist grooves come awfully close to sounding like a punked out Terry Riley! Hardly polite music!
Other selections here include the cold wave weird science of "Digital Stimulation", the gloriously grinding downer melody of "Contemporary Emotion" (apparently a cover, a song by some contemporaneous hard rock band we've never heard of called Trakstod Station), and there's even an ode to our very neighborhood, "The Mission Is Bitchin", with lyrics about burritos and marijuana!
Of course it's all a bit dated, of its era, and that's part of the charm... but like we said, a lot of this also sounds like it could be put out by a band today, since everything old is new again and the '80s New Wave / synth thing is a current retro craze. Definitely this is a good time for The Units to be reissued!
And Community Library have done a really nice job of it, the gatefold cd sleeve containing a thick 32 page cd booklet with elaborate colorful collage style liner notes by bandleader Scott "Dr. Tex Nology" Ryser, a Units manifesto of sorts, he also talks about the wild and crazy San Francisco of the '70s/early '80s era, and also there's several pages of old fliers for Units gigs at the Fab Mab and other SF punk venues... we noticed one for the Warfield too, with The Units opening for OMD and Gary Numan. Also shows with Romeo Void, Dead Boys, Soft Cell, Psychedelic Furs, Dead Kennedys, Crime, Screamers, Iggy Pop, the Police, Tuxedomoon... Definitely makes us young 'uns wish we'd been around in SF back then. (Another note about the packaging, it says copyright 2007 on the back but that that's a mistake, it's when the artwork was initially prepared, this is indeed a brand new 2009 release, with also a vinyl version upcoming as well, not sure when, though.)
This past Record Of The Week NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! There's fewer tracks than on the cd version, but at least the lp includes a download code to get mp3s of ALL of the tracks from the cd reissue. No booklet unfortunately (although it seems some of the booklet is reprinted on the cover), but there is an insert, with some liner notes, as well as an explanation for the song choice on both the cd and lp, the lack of the Units' major label material and the reasoning behind less songs on the lp. Regardless, totally essential, especially now that it's on vinyl. Here's what we said about it before:
Moog-enabled synth punk subversion straight outta San Francisco in the late '70s/early '80s, entertaining n' agitating electronic New Wave action excavated and reissued! And it's totally timely considering how many bands in today's scene would so love to sound like this.
We won't pretend we were familiar with The Units before this fantastic anthology album showed up. Perhaps we'd heard the name before (or maybe we were confusing 'em with ol' Jandek's 1978 debut album, also under the name The Units), but we knew nothing about this band 'til we heard this disc a few weeks ago. And as soon as we did, it went into heavy rotation here at the store. These Units were definitely a important piece of San Francisco punk/new wave history, but just a bit before our time. Well, not Aquarius's time, just us folks who work here now! Actually, a close reading of the thanks list in the cd booklet will find a shout out to Aquarius, 'cause (if you didn't know) Aquarius was THEE punk/new wave record store in San Francisco in the '70s... (Which reminds us, we've got to get more of our history up on the AQ website.) And, in fact, The Units' debut lp Digital Stimulation was the very first release on seminal SF indie 415 Records (who had their biggest hit with Romeo Void), a label run in part by Aquarius' owners at the time. So this most certainly isn't the first time that The Units music has been blasting regularly in the Aquarius shop, it's just been a few years, is all.
Putting things in proper place/time/scene perspective, this archival disc starts off with an audio snippet of the late SF punk "godfather" Dirk Dirksen on stage at Mabuhay Gardens, good-naturedly mocking both The Units (accidentally referring to them by the name of another band, the Zeros) and their cheering fans (with the sardonic comment "obviously, people with as little taste as yourself would become ecstatic over such average talent"). Then, making us ecstatic, twenty tracks of prime Units music follows, The History Of The Units containing most all of the tracks from their 1980 415 Records album Digital Stimulation as well as a handful of stuff taken from early 7"s and demo tapes, as well as more experimental pieces recorded for film soundtracks and art happenings and other ephemera.
Not unlike Devo, The Units had a concept thing going, all about a critique of alienated modern industrial society, dehumanizing conformity, and corporate culture, with songs like "Cannibals" and "Work". Perhaps perversely choosing to use machines to make their point, The Units tried to take the human element out of the rock band equation, preferring for instance to project their own propaganda films rather than allow the audience to focus on a frontperson. And yes, they do also sound quite bit like Devo at times, which is way okay by us!
Their synth-obsession was also in part an anti-guitar thing, a reaction to the mainstream. In fact, they took their anti-guitar philosophy to the extreme of not only having a "stamp out guitars" logo, but also making fake guitars out of plywood to smash on stage, while letting their synths play on "cruise control". So definitely The Units were highly conceptual, art schoolish, but not academic - the liner notes are clear that the idea was to be an all-synth band that "kicks ass" (the full quote being: ""I wanted an all synthesizer band... and not some fucking polite, socially acceptable electronic experiment in academia. I didn't want a doctorate in electronic doodling. No, I'm talking about a synth band that kicks ass!") and according to what we're hearing here, they succeeded. And they were not without contemporaries. There were The Screamers, Nervous Gender, and of course Devo; all of whom wanted to take the synthesizer into punk. For many of the Units tracks, it would very easy to replace the lead synth lines with guitars and have an equally kick ass rock song, but the fact is that these are Moog-powered cuts which do oscillate between a quirky sensibility with angular chops and a full-throttle punk car-crash. If you would think the former finds the Units sounding like Devo and the latter like the Screamers, you'd be right!
Yes indeed, the songs on this disc range from urgent Devo-esque pop punk and Screamers-y rants to moody proto-'80s dance tracks to more abstract, instrumental, rhythmic/textural electronic pieces like "Tight Fit" and "East West". There's loads of electric energy, some goofy humor, and certainly serious intent. So many gems here, incorporating buzzing droning distorted synths, propulsively skittering drum beats, and monotone vocals (both male and female).
Their incredible singles "Cannibals" (a tempestuous, driving song that was pure '70s punk), "High Pressure Days", and "Warm Moving Bodies," are prominently featured here, all of which were impressively catchy. Their ability to write these hooks earned them a deal with Epic, who released two seminal 12" singles (which couldn't be licensed for this compilation) and has been sitting on another collection of recordings since 1983. But beyond the hook, the Units were plenty weird, as seen in their peculiar lullaby melodies on "Red" which almost comes across like a Rodd Keith song-poem with a very sparse arrangement. Despite the band's curses toward academic music, a few choice intertwining moments of the Units minimalist grooves come awfully close to sounding like a punked out Terry Riley! Hardly polite music!
Other selections here include the cold wave weird science of "Digital Stimulation", the gloriously grinding downer melody of "Contemporary Emotion" (apparently a cover, a song by some contemporaneous hard rock band we've never heard of called Trakstod Station), and there's even an ode to our very neighborhood, "The Mission Is Bitchin", with lyrics about burritos and marijuana!
Of course it's all a bit dated, of its era, and that's part of the charm... but like we said, a lot of this also sounds like it could be put out by a band today, since everything old is new again and the '80s New Wave / synth thing is a current retro craze. Definitely this is a good time for The Units to be reissued!
This starts off in a deceptively "happy" manner, before delving into the darkness that we generally expect from what's always been a superbly creepy chamber-prog band. "Crawling Wind" is this Belgian group's super-rare Japanese only 12" ep from 1983, now for
Universal Indians are a long lost noise rock behemoth, from way back in the nineties, featuring Mr. John Olson of the Wolf Eyes on the drums, these guys whipped up a serious blast of blown out super distorted garagey psychedelic noise rock. The opening track is heavy and thick, pulverizingly aggressive, drums totally in the red, guitars crumbling and white hot, the whole recording doing much damage to the speakers, vocals that are sort of sung/spoken, the whole thing sounds very Brainbombs actually, which is a VERY good thing. Come track two though, and the production drops about a hundred notches and suddenly we're in old school noise rock, tin can and twine blow out territory, which is still good, just different, and a surprise after the ultra hot opener. But the rest of the record proceeds along with some serious Dead C worship, mumbled vocals, angular guitars, barely audible drums, recorded in an airplane hangar or a cave somewhere, with some damaged Dylan-y strum and warble mixed in, everything wreathed in lo-fi hiss and tape recorded warble. Gloriously ramshackle... Side two is a single sidelong epic, a sparse, outrock jam, simple strummed guitars, spacious stumbling drums, almost sounds like some long lost old Sebadoh practice tape, albeit run through with some extra noisy ambience and fucked up weirdness. Cool stuff, almost like some sort of super poppy Wolf Eyes... a stumbling, damaged, noise drenched spaced out psych pop...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Michigan's Universal Indians (who you may remember from their handsome split lp with Gravitar) and Scotland's Ashtray Navigations (known for their tapes) combine on this split cd, both bands being purveyors of murky psych/noise guitar improv splurge. Pretty cool, the packaging is crap though...
Once upon a time, there was a band called the Mint Chicks, whose sound was a total Pixies style blast of psych-fuzz jangle pop bombast, lush and super melodic, crunchy and crazy catchy, and while the pop kids around here were huge fans, for whatever reason, we were never able to get their records, at least not at a reasonable price. Hopefully someday those record will get (re)issued domestically, especially considering that one of the Mint Chicks has a new band, that's getting a lot of hype, and no undeservedly so. And while the music may not be super similar to the Mint Chicks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra do have a super distinctive sound, one that manages to fuse classic pop tradition and old school power pop songsmithery with warped home brewed DIY experimentation that most definitely manages to skew the sonic proceedings here into a more gloriously off kilter lo-fi indie rock direction.
On the first listen, the sound is immediately poppy and breezy, subtly psychedelic, very Beatles-esque for sure. If Tame Impala are the modern equivalent of Beatles-ish psychedelic bombast, UMO borrow more from the darker, dreamier, songier side of the Fab Four, taking swoonsome falsetto vox, shimmery jangle, woozy basslines, and irresistible melodies, and wrapping them in hazy swirls of sonic fug, a little bit lo-fi and a lot bit murky, but still propulsive and weirdly rocking at times, the songs most definitely possessed of a warbly AM radio sound, reminding us of Ariel Pink or John Maus, and at times Ween, but Ween at their perfectly poppiest, as well as recent Record Of The Weekers, Donnie & Joe Emerson. The songs tend toward the woozy, and lysergic, dreamy and drifty but often blossom into stretches both rhythmic and propulsive, groovy and a little bit krautrocky, but ultimately, the core sound is an old school sixties sounding jangle pop, hooky and heavenly, dark and dreamy, and just that little bit tweaked and twisted enough to make this more of a subtly out-pop record, which should appeal to fans of more mainstream sounds, as well as the usual aQ suspects into more underground murk-pop weirdness...
The sweet sound of mandolin charts the course for Unlucky Atlas. Sorry, couldn't resist the pun, but yes, that stringed instrument is integral to this new Chicago acoustic foursome's sound. Said instrument along with guitar, fiddle, cello, autoharp, and male and female vocals are entwined gracefully making for a harmony filled, somberly atmospheric, earthen seven song debut. Comes packaged in a lovely letter pressed cardboard jacket. Very very nice.
Whoa, some of the most unwashed, ragged, loose, ass-slappin' garage rawk we've heard in a long time has just landed in our unexpecting laps with a sweaty how-do-you-do! Seattle's Unnatural Helpers are at your service for those times when you just wanna get down to the not so serious business of rawkin'. And if you dig the low slung, kick in the pants goodness of bands like Tight Bros From Way Back When and Hot Snakes, you'll do yourself and them a favor and take 'em for a spin. A rowdy, beer-goggled shot in the arm.
Killer black metal / black ambient match up, featuring one of our favorite mysterious ritualistic drone combos, Uno Actu. But let's start with Maledicere, a duo from Minnesota of all places, and whose sound is a sort of raw pounding black metal, with a bit of a post rock vibe. After an intro of tinkling tones and dreamy ambience, the band launch into a loping Burzumic pound, but with strange howled vocals, very melodic, but still plenty buzz drenched. Mostly midtempo, but the band do explode into bursts of frenzied buzz with soaring majestic melodies, before slipping back into something more pounding and primitive. Definitely be psyched to hear more from these guys.
But no matter how good Maledicere is, Uno Actu are the reason we're so excited about this record. With only a handful of demos over the last few years (a couple of which we've raved about on past lists), a new record from these guys (or this guy), is like an (un)holy message sent from another realm, a rare occurrence that produces much rejoicing, and much huddling around the stereo late and night by candlelight.
A cloud of muted feedback and textured buzz, swirls and pulses, over delicate acoustic guitar, some sort of dreamy blackened noisefolk, slipping from corrosive and caustic to washed out and meditative. Demonic vocals gurgle over smears of fracture melody, and distant guitar strum, eventually spiraling into a looped bit of minor key droneguitar mesmer. So fantastic.
Someone needs to collect all the demos and release them on cd, or vinyl, or something, but until then, we'll just have to make do with these little offerings, everyone a black joy to behold.
REPRESSED!! Here's what we said when we made this then newly reissued album our Record Of The Week back in 2005... Now available on vinyl again! For the first time in more than 15 years! One of our favorite Unrest records, hell, one of our favorite records ever period...
Ahhhh, Unrest. There was a time when Unrest were IT. They could do no wrong. Mark Robinson (Unrest / Teenbeat Records mainman) was king of the indie scene. And listening to this record there is no doubt in our minds as to why. While the records before Imperial were sloppy and chaotic (in a good way!) and sort of punk rock, they were also dark and dreamy and sweetly melancholy, all hinting at some doleful sensitive underside, lurking like a shy boy, beneath Unrest's spikey exterior. So along comes Imperial (originally released in 1992), and it was sort of like that shy boy finally got up the guts to talk to that girl he had been longing for all year, and while she still ignored him, something about reaching that point made him realize he didn't need loud noisy punk rock, or smashing chaos, he could just be himself, and the sound of being himself, finally unveiled on Imperial, managed to suddenly illuminate the pop treasure map Unrest had been following since day one. All that sweet sweet pop was now the focal point, the foundation, no longer hiding bashfully behind the crash and clang. Gone were the willful snottiness, the distorted guitars, the ramshackle drumming and in their place, a languid, lustrous jangle pop shimmer, bathed in reverb, and laced with dreamy soulful crooning, lilting guitar melodies, and sweet sweet hooks, with the ultimate mixtape lyrics. "I Do Believe You Are Blushing". I mean, c'mon!! How sweetly romantic is that?! I for one must fess up to at least several tracks on Imperial making their way on to many a mix tape.
And while a few tracks do 'rock' ("Suki" has to be one of the best rocking pop songs EVER!), it's in that sort of liquidly propulsive Neu! meets Beat Happening sort of way, a droney jangle with repetitive guitars and shuffling rhythms, mesmerizing but a little bouncy too. However, on Imperial, it's all about the blissed out shimmer pop, lazy electric guitars, and distant throbbing bass floating delicately atop a slowly unfurling popscape, simple and absolutely beautiful, with Mark Robinson's gorgeous heartfelt croon as well as the occasional delicate angelic female vocal. So so so so beautiful! Such a stunning slice of pop perfection. Listen to the sound samples and you will understand just what we mean.
Ahhhh, Unrest. There was a time when Unrest were IT. They could do no wrong. Mark Robinson (Unrest / Teenbeat Records mainman) was king of the indie scene. And listening to this record there is no doubt in our minds as to why. While the records before Imperial were sloppy and chaotic (in a good way!) and sort of punk rock, they were also dark and dreamy and sweetly melancholy, all hinting at some doleful sensitive underside, lurking like a shy boy, beneath Unrest's spikey exterior. So along comes Imperial (originally released in 1992), and it was sort of like that shy boy finally got up the guts to talk to that girl he had been longing for all year, and while she still ignored him, something about reaching that point made him realize he didn't need loud noisy punk rock, or smashing chaos, he could just be himself, and the sound of being himself, finally unveiled on Imperial, managed to suddenly illuminate the pop treasure map Unrest had been following since day one. All that sweet sweet pop was now the focal point, the foundation, no longer hiding bashfully behind the crash and clang. Gone were the willful snottiness, the distorted guitars, the ramshcakle drumming and in their place, a languid, lustrous jangle pop shimmer, bathed in reverb, and laced with dreamy soulful crooning, lilting guitar melodies, and sweet sweet hooks, with the ultimate mixtape lyrics. "I Do Believe You Are Blushing". I mean, c'mon!! How sweetly romantic is that?! I for one must fess up to at least several tracks on Imperial making their way on to many a mix tape.
And while a few tracks do 'rock' ("Suki" has to be one of the best rocking pop songs EVER!), it's in that sort of liquidly propulsive Neu! meets Beat Happening sort of way, a droney jangle with repetitive guitars and shuffling rhythms, mesmerizing but a little bouncy too. However, on Imperial, it's all about the blissed out shimmer pop, lazy electric guitars, and distant throbbing bass floating delicately atop a slowly unfurling popscape, simple and absolutely beautiful, with Mark Robinson's gorgeous hearfelt croon as well as the occasional delicate angelic female vocal. So so so so beautiful!
This re-issue also tacks on 8 bonus tracks that while not included on the original, definitely sound like they could have just been placed anywhere throughout the record proper and would have seemed right at home. A massive 13 minute reworking of the title track, stretched out into a druggy, dreamy ambient janglescape, swoonsome and sweet, slowly shifting from a tripped out acapella blur to endless instrumental bliss-out. A trip hoppy version of "Isabel" that sounds just as good as the original, a couple ambient experiments that add more mystery to Imperial's moodiness, the dirgey , pretty slowcore crawl "Wednesday And Proud" and a few others. Inexplicably, they left off the infamous Unrest classic "Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl" which was only on a 7" and was once included as a bonus track on the import version of this. But that's hardly a complaint when faced with such a stunning slice of pop perfection. Listen to the sound samples and you will understand just what we mean.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Along with the delicate beauty of "Imperial ffrrr", "Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation" is by far the best thing Mark Robinson has ever done. Finally available on cd, this is the perfect mix of sweet pop, noisey agit-rock, faux 60's-isms, and the great songwriting that would be the foundation for Teenbeat's early 90's pop indie-monopoly. Worth it alone for the achingly beautiful 'She Makes Me Shake Like A Soul Machine.' Totally essential.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This is the first Unrest record, originally released in 1998, and is probably the best document of an 80's hardcore band embracing pop... thus alienating their entire audience. The hardcore is still there, but tempered by the sweet pop that would soon become the signature Unrest / Teenbeat sound. Essential.
Unrest's Imperial f.f.r.r. ranks near the top of our pantheon of all time greatest indie rock records EVER. We've raved about it on the aQ list before, but weirdly enough, we never reviewed the follow up Perfect Teeth, the band's final album, which is a shame, cuz as far as we're concerned, it's almost like Imperial part two, another clutch of perfect pop songs, some chiming and delicate, hushed and shimmering, others crunchy and frenetic, bouncy jangle heavy fuzz pop crunch. For this year's Record Store Day, Perfect Teeth was reissued as a deluxe 6x7" boxset, with some stunning packaging (more on that in a second), and we're a little shocked there are still any copies left, cuz Perfect teeth is brimming with some of the most perfect indie pop we've ever heard. Opener "Angel I'll Walk You Home" sounds like it could have been pulled right from the Imperial sessions, with it's chiming guitar figures, the hushed harmonized vocals, a slow drifting brooder, with lots of space, hazy and dreamy and softly reverby, then there's "Cath Carroll" which finds the band at their most rocking, the guitars crunchy and fuzzy, the drums frantic and busy, the vocals buried in the mix, but no amount of distortion of jangle can hide the oh so hummable hooks. "So Sick" splits the difference, a minor key jangle fest that sounds like the perfect rainy day soundtrack, and like pretty much every Unrest song, just begs to be the cornerstone of a makeout mixtape.
And like Imperial, the band were not just about pop, they had an experimental streak a mile wide, already evident in the off kilter arrangements and the unique song structures, it becomes even more obvious on tracks like "Food & Drink Synthesizer", a gorgeous swirl of whirling high end shimmer and the sounds of breathing, blurred into a gorgeous bit of abstract minimal thrum, or "Breather X.O.X.O" which sounds poppy and jangly at first, but then reveals itself as a dense repetitive arrangement with looping guitar figures and layered vocals, sounding more like Reich or Riley gone indie pop. In between these moments of overt experimentation, are still more dark pop gems, the droned out strum and drift of "Stylized Ampersand", the punchy, crunchy jangle pop of "Make Out Club" which just might be one of the catchiest pop songs ever, or "West Coast Love Affair", all spidery minor key guitars, shuffling rhythms, and strangely sung/spoken vocals, or the warm washed out shoegazey dreampop of "Six Layer Cake". So great! And so great to have this gorgeous deluxe vinyl version, that finds the record spread out over six seven inches, each one pressed on a different colored vinyl, along with a big 7"x7" booklet of photos, two stickers, a fold out poster featuring all the Teen Beat releases, a download coupon, the whole thing housed in metallic gold silkscreened origami style sleeve, tied shut with red string, each one machine numbered. Get it while you can.
Unsane yet again! Yeah!! Never stop the bloodbath.
"'Lambhouse' is the nickname of the market in New York's meatpacking district where Unsane frontman Chris Spencer buys the blood for his album-cover shoots." Does that quote from the liner notes to this 'best of' collection give you some clue about what this band is like? Bloody album covers and heavy duty grooves, uncompromising rock action. Unsane have been around forever, on-and-off, surviving despite a tragic drummer O.D. back in 1992, and life-threating beating suffered by the aforementioned Mr. Spencer just a few years ago. Getting their start in the '80s NYC noise rock scene alongside Foetus, Swans, Sonic Youth and others of that ilk, Unsane's brand of heaviness got 'em signed first to Matador, then AmRep and latterly Relapse. This 'best of' cd features 24 tracks spanning their recording career 1989-1998, covering material released on all three of those labels. And there's a second disc, a DVD, that includes 4 music videos (including the painfully funny skater wipeout montage of "Scrape"), plus live footage from 3 different shows, the earliest 1992 in Cincinnati, the latest just last year in Brooklyn. So if you're a fan who wants the video (or can't find your old records) OR if you haven't yet delved into Unsane's punishing world but like stuff like Zeni Geva and old Helmet, definitely check out Lambhouse.
It's hard to believe it's been more than 20 years since we first heard NYC noise rockers Unsane, but maybe even harder to believe that their sound, even after 25+ releases, remains relatively unchanged. Wreck offers up another collection of blood splattered, knuckle dragging heaviosity, that sounds just as good as the first time we heard them, via their crushing Sub Pop single, and their still tough to beat self titled debut full length. The math remains the same for the most part, the drums a muscled pummel, the guitars distorted and HEAVY, the bass holding it all together, and Chris Spencer's vox a feral wail. The songs mostly one or two parts, chugging and churning and pounding hypnotically. An exercise in metallic minimalism, a sort of hypno-noiserock. The one change we do notice, is a lot more melody going on, and Spencer's vox a bit softer, and also more melodic. While opener "Rat" is a dead ringer for the Unsane of old, the second track "Decay" ends up sounding almost like Mudhoney, Spencer's vox definitely drifting into Mark Arm territory, with the song offering up some surprisingly melodic broody moodiness. But it suits them. And it's been a while since we've listened to the last few records (we STILL listen to those first few) so those changes may have been creeping up gradually, but they definitely seem more prominent on Wreck. Fear not, Unsane has most definitely NOT gotten soft, the record for the most part is heavy on the headbanging noise rock crush, and any extra melody only makes it go down a little bit easier, but even so, there's plenty of jagged heaviness and head caving noisiness to get stuck in your craw, and do a lot of bloody damage in the process. And be sure and stick around for the closer "Ha Ha Ha", which features Spencer's demonic cackle as the chorus, mirroring Dan Higgs' much less malevolent laughing song, and beyond that, it might be the heaviest, and best of the bunch.
Holy shit! Here's quite a find for the discerning aQuarius customer! The inaugural issue of Unsound - a zine published in San Francisco back in the '80s with an uncompromising vision peering into industrial culture, underground electronics, post-punk at its most volatile, and transgressive performance art. The editorial disclaimer states: "We view the irregular as important, adherence to convention trends as camouflage for ignorance and see the only viable material as that produced in an alternative mode to fashion." Issue 1 was published in September 1983, and the list of artists on the cover represent an amazing cross section of those amorphous genres at the time, with Whitehouse, The Birthday Party, Culturcide, Kommunity FK, Z'ev, and Public Image Limited! The interview with Nick Cave is particularly entertaining, as is Brad Laner (later of Medicine fame) writing about the experimental scene down in LA. Between the interviews and reviews, Unsound splatters its pages with antisocial texts from San Francisco denizens and malcontents as well as high-contrast collages extracted from medical textbooks. Of course, the punk-as-fuck advertisements are amazing even without the content. It goes without saying that these are WAY out of print and extremely rare, and are probably worth more than the $15 price tag. And we've got less than a dozen...
Yup, another amazing find, the second issue of Unsound - a zine published in San Francisco back in the '80s with an uncompromising vision peering into industrial culture, underground electronics, post-punk at its most volatile, and transgressive performance art. In keeping with their ethos of favoring the true alternatives to mainstream culture, the second issue (also published in late 1983) has more of a free jazz bent with in depth interviews with Rova Saxophone Quartet and Wes Robinson to go along with a typically confrontational interview with Blixa Bargeld and a wild interview from the notorious SF performance artist Johanna Welt. Plenty of fantastic reviews, grim artwork (including a naughty piece by John Duncan), and amazing ads from the underground San Francisco Bay Area scene at the time (and well worth the price of admission just for those incredible ads!). As with the first issue of Unsound, it goes without saying that these vintage zines are WAY out of print and extremely rare, and are probably worth more than the $15 price tag. And we've got less than a dozen...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
These NW heroes can't be stopped, certainly not by untrue car-crash death rumors.
It's been quite some time since Unwound bestowed an album upon us. Finally, the wait is over. And our reward? A double cd! And the good news is, it seems some definite musical growth has taken place in the interim enough to merit the often unnecessary two cd
Disc two starts off with perhaps the biggest surprise, a dark and smoldering mope rock masterpiece that sounds amazingly like American Music Club (or even Red House Painters); swelling strings and muted minor key guitars, dark droning melancholic progressions with strange whale-like sounds in the background. Absolutely lovely. At this point, much like on disc one, things veer back toward the old Unwound days, but with a definite Godspeed influence. Still pounding and rocking, but much more introspective and dramatic. They really made good use of the double cd format, using the extra "room" to explore new territory while not neglecting their signature sound. A really great record, and quite a nice surprise.
We've long loved Japanese psych crew Up-Tight, and this new disc on aQ beloved Brazilian label Essence is another good one, another slab of dark heavy psych from these masters. From the first few seconds, we're hurled into the void: thick, distorted bass, simple, pounding drumming, and wild, shredding, blown out, in-the-red guitar-shred freakout, no preamble, no slow build, just straight into some heart-of-the-the-sun heaviness. The leads do fade out, letting the song breathe a bit, the vibe dialed down a notch, for the echo drenched vocals to drift in, and suddenly, it's like a super distorted, even more blown out Les Rallizes Denudes, and before you know it, that guitar swoops in, and whips the song into a noise drenched Japanoise-psych squall. But as fans know, it's not all freakout, these guys are capable of brooding beauty, which is what the second track offers, a woozy crooning drift, a dark psych ballad, all wreathed in reverb, it's not until the last minute that things get at all heavy, wild vocalizations, swirls of guitar noise, a quick blast, and then right back into the dark chanted creep that began the track. Two of the remaining three tracks are more pretty than heavy, the first, a dreamy bit of sun dappled jangle, that almost sounds more like American slowcore than Japanese psych, the second, a brief bit of dark strum, murky, and haunting, hushed and mysterious. And then right in between, the nearly 16 minute "So Alone", which is ALL noisy and distorted, a churning death march pound, swirls of jagged feedback, arcs of guitarnoise, the guitars grinding and howling, fields of skree and shriek, hurts of face melting buzz and shred, all the while the bass and drums, locked into a churning, doomic pound, the vocals too wild and feral, doused in FX and battling the wild guitarnoise. Awesome!
Along with a new record from one of our favorite purveyors of kosmische kraut-psych and spaced out synthscapery, Expo '70 (found elsewhere on this week's list) there's another new release, from Japanese psych crew Up-Tight, also on aQ beloved Brazilian label Essence, and like that Expo '70, this is in fact a PRE-ORDER for the super deluxe, super fancy, handmade BOX SET version, which comes not only with a bonus disc, but also housed in a crazy handmade box. It's limited to 91 copies and that's IT. We might be able to get 15, but even then, we're only getting as many as we get pre-orders for, so if you want one, order it now, we'll get them in sometime in the next few weeks, and they can either ship with your current order, or on their own. You will be charged for the box NOW, but then the shipping will be sorted out when we actually send the box (and it'll ship by weight, not as 1 item).
We've long loved Up-Tight, and this new one is another good one, if you're already a fan, maybe a super fan, odds are you're gonna want one of these, the box is super striking, all bird beaks and eyes, in an oversized, handmade boxset, that unfolds revealing still more artwork, along with a hand drawn third eye canvas collage. And along with the new record proper, it also includes an exclusive bonus album, a cd-r called Sweet Sister Session (Uncut) - For Lucrezia, a whole set recorded in 2004 during the sessions for their Alchemy release Lucrezia, and is ONLY available in this box. So needless to say, Up-Tight nerds grab one before they are gone.
The record itself, The Night Is Yours, is another slab of dark heavy psych from these masters, and from the first few seconds, we're hurled into the void: thick, distorted bass, simple, pounding drumming, and wild, shredding, blown out, in-the-red guitar-shred freakout, no preamble, no slow build, just straight into some heart-of-the-the-sun heaviness. The leads do fade out, letting the song breathe a bit, the vibe dialed down a notch, for the echo drenched vocals to drift in, and suddenly, it's like a super distorted, even more blown out Les Rallizes Denudes, and before you know it, that guitar swoops in, and whips the song into a noise drenched Japanoise-psych squall. But as fans know, it's not all freakout, these guys are capable of brooding beauty, which is what the second track offers, a woozy crooning drift, a dark psych ballad, all wreathed in reverb, it's not until the last minute that things get at all heavy, wild vocalizations, swirls of guitar noise, a quick blast, and then right back into the dark chanted creep that began the track. Two of the remaining three tracks are more pretty than heavy, the first, a dreamy bit of sun dappled jangle, that almost sounds more like American slowcore than Japanese psych, the second, a brief bit of dark strum, murky, and haunting, hushed and mysterious. And then right in between, the nearly 16 minute "So Alone", which is ALL noisy and distorted, a churning death march pound, swirls of jagged feedback, arcs of guitarnoise, the guitars grinding and howling, fields of skree and shriek, hurts of face melting buzz and shred, all the while the bass and drums, locked into a churning, doomic pound, the vocals too wild and feral, doused in FX and battling the wild guitarnoise. So good!
And as we mentioned above, we'll only be able to get about 15 copies of this box, and that's IT. So if you want one, order it now. We'll charge you and let you know when it arrives. If you're after the normal version, let us know that too, and we can put you down for one of those, but this listing is specifically for folks who want to nab one of the boxes before they're gone for good.
Relapse's latest grindcore wunderkinds, California's Uphill Battle manage to hold their own along side of Relapse heavyweights Origin, Burnt By The Sun, Human Remains, Nasum, et al. Chugging, grinding fury, with tense and ridiculously complex song structures, blurry blast beats, blazing downtuned riffs, crushing drums and weird melodic harmonies, while a demented madman howls above the whole thing! Listen to the sound clips, you know if you need this. God knows I do.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
From San Diego, completely aggro, instrumental free-jazz-math-rock. Complete with weird time signatures, baffling arrangements, plenty of skree and skronk. Noisy and off-kilter. Definitely for open minded fans of Don Caballero, Ruins, and the like.
Get your nose back in those math books 'cause Upsilon Acrux are back. Slowly simmering tension builders of abstract, prog-y, post rock-ification. Proggy and chaotic, stop/start mayhem and ultra complicated instrumental workouts. Dark, repetitive rhythms ripped
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The return of Southern California's masters of super mathematic, ultra complex, maniacally dense and sometimes goofily carnivalesque spaz-prog. This is relentless and uncompromising and brutal in every way, with mind bendingly convuluted song structures, labyrinthine melodies, impossibly octopoidal drumming and just truly bewilderingly accomplished musicianship all around. Definitely for fans of Orthrelm, Hella, Lightning Bolt, Ruins, Flying Luttenbachers and other such confusionally complex out-rock. Beautifully packaged as well, both the cd and the lp!
Latest collection of haunting experimental dronemusic from these aQ faves. Ural Umbo is the duo of Reto Mader (RM74) and Steven Hess (Haptic, Locrian) and here they unfurl another sprawling soundscape of sonic ritual and mysterious atmospheric ambience.
Right from the get go, this is some scary stuff, deep thick swells of distorted chordal thrum, metallic bells struck, the sound allowed to gradually seep into the the surrounding buzz, the tension constantly building, the sonic energy gaining momentum as the track progresses, more and more layers, the sound thickening and expanding, getting louder and heavier and more intense, gradually making the shift from hushed low end drift to near caustic blackened noisescape, building to a furious black crescendo, before quickly fading back into a shadowy shimmer. And that's just the first track.
Needless to say dronelords and heavy minimalists are gonna want to dig way deeper into Illusion Of Hope. Each of the tracks here playing out like some sort of blurred message for the other side, delivered via arcane ritual, the messages scrawled in black blood, occasionally splintering into lurching distorted rhythms, blown out and blackened, other times, expanding into glimmering driftscapes, laced with gurgling demonic voices and tinkling chimes, and still other times transforming gradually into strange buzz drenched percussive ceremonies, the sort of thing that would definitely appeal to fans of SUNNO))) and Aun and other slow and low audio minimalists/alchemists. The B side offers more of the same, a series of greydusted drones and grinding blackbuzz liturgies, ancient sonic rites rendered in crushing percussive pummel and wheezing organ drones, moaning horns and skittery rhythmic fragments, delicate crystalline drifts and dense effects doused dirges.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Super striking cover art, pressed on clear vinyl, and also includes a cd version of the record.
This here elpee is a pretty killer proposition for any/all of you who're into heavy, heavily FX laden, super synthed-out space rock, Swedish unit Uran coming across like sorta like mutant soundtrack to a hypothetical Hawkwind Atari cartridge, if that makes any sense. Like we said, heavy, pulsing, synthesizer overlord overload. It's distorted, grinding and gritty; played with a punkish energy, gleefully weird... Space rock that sounds like it's not just from space, but is in fact performed by aliens, y'know, green or purple ones with little antennas growing from their heads, waving around as they manipulate the machines (synths) making all these sounds. Whoosh swoosh zap whirr, all knobs twisted 'til they fall off, though there are moments of melody too, like the pretty little intro to, uh, "Fatfucker" before it stutters into the more typical tripped out set the controls for blowing up your brain style stuff. For fans of Gnod, or can you imagine an instrumental Circle gone sorta Skweee, perhaps? This was originally released as a cd on Germany's stoner rock Sulatron label in 2009, now unleashed on limited (to 499 copies) "radioactive yellow vinyl" by Swedish imprint Hoga Nord Rekords. We've only got, like, 3 of 'em and aren't too sure if more will be forthcoming or not, just FYI.
We loved Urdog before we even heard them. Hell, they're called Urdog for chrisssakes!! But thankfully their sound lived up to the monicker, a ramshackle concoction of tribal rhythmic workouts, free folk weirdness, pulsing progressive lo-fi krautrock, and freaked out noisy space rock -- like a weird combination of No Neck Blues Band, Acid Mothers Temple and Popul Vuh maybe? This new, third Urdog record however takes the band in a new, but not entirely unexpected direction. Five tracks, a little over half an hour of motorik rhythms, angular guitars, and warm pulsing synths, as well as haunting chanted vocals, sound familiar? Well to us at least, it sounds like someone gave Urdog a serious dose of This Heat. And it shows. And we love it! Repetitive and hypnotic, Eyelid Of Moon is a relentlessly propulsive head nodding, freaked out druggy dirgey drone rock trip! The pagan folk is still there too though. Recommended.
Finally one of our favorite slabs of spaced out primitve psych folk is back in print, and now with a bonus track recorded live in Switzerland.
Urdog. With a name like that it's gotta be good. And it is. The sort of swirling hypnotic heavy rock-folk-tribal weirdness we love so much. This is definitely prog, as the whole record is framed and driven by a big fuzzy organ spewing mesmerising prog riffs. Imagine a less heavy Tarantula Hawk, channelling E.L.P. with a healthy dose of Acid Mothers Temple style swirly space-y freakout throughout. A throbbing, urgent, mesmerising otherworldy drone rock. The other side of Urdog's personality is much more hippy, dabbling in the sixties-style avant folk of Devandra, Incredible String Band, Espers, etc. with gently acoustic guitar warbly keyboard ambience, dreamy distant vocals and sweet but haunting harmonies. But these moments of tranquility only exist as small clearings in a dense forest of thick slithering keyboards, druggy fuzzy riffs and fiercely propulsive rhythms. URDOG!
We've been huge fans of Urdog since we first heard them a couple years back. Their shambolic, rambling folky krautrockishness pretty much pushed every weird music button we posess! We raved about both of their full lengths on Secret Eye (one of which is out of print for now) and everyone was so into them we finally managed to track down their first cd-r, which flew out of here and has been out of print ever since. Well, when Andee and Allan were in NYC for CMJ, they ran into one of the Urdogs and he happened to mention that he had a stash of the very last 30 copies of the Urdog demo, we grabbed all of 'em and got 'em here for you, the VERY last copies ever. Here's our review from when we first had this in last September:
Everybody dug the Urdog record we listed a few lists back so when the band got in touch and let us know they had an earlier cd-r, we figured we oughta get that too. And we're glad we did 'cause it's just as good. Another rambling ramshackle collection of propulsive, fuzzed out psychedelic drone / krautrock. Super saturated keyboards, rumbling riffery and tribal drumming. A mix of Jewelled Antler foresty folk, Tarantula Hawk proggy pummel, and lots of druggy psychedelic filigree. Packged in a beautifully silkscreened sleeve with an extensive set of liner notes folded up and pacakged in a little hand stamped envelope. So nice.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We recently reviewed the Superior Viaduct vinyl reissue of the first and only full length from So-Cal (post) punks 100 Flowers, and as we mentioned in that review, before they were 100 Flowers, they were The Urinals, and as we mentioned in that review, 100 Flowers and The Urinals were essentially the same band, although with the name switch, came a pretty big stylistic shift as well, with the group angling for something more arty and poppy. But truth be told, even as The Urinals, their sound was pretty poppy and arty, more raw, more lo-fi, maybe a bit more, minimal and rhythmic and new wave, But ultimately this collection of the Urinals complete recorded works plays as a sort of rough and raw 100 Flowers demo, which is not a bad thing at all.
So many amazing songs here, some serious pop genius on display, making the shift to 100 Flowers not all that surprising after all. "Black Hole" has a serious Yellow Pills power pop vibe, right down to the harmony vocals, and then there's "Sex", which is noisy and punky, but also poppy as all get out, or "Hologram" which might be our favorite track here, a strange bit of muted murky jangle, with tranced out tribal drumming, weirdly crooned vocals, the whole thing so weirdly minor key and mantra-like, and of course "Surfin' With The Shah", which is another surfy, jangly instrumental that for sure foreshadows the impending shift to 100 Flowers. And you might recognize "Ack Ack Ack Ack", frantic and frenetic, and not surprisingly later covered by the Minutemen, it's a strange collection for sure, sonically super varied, everything the group ever recorded, over the three years they were a band (1977-1980), from snotty snarly punk anthems ("I'm White And Middle Class"), to jangly, hook heavy pop punk ("Scholastic Aptitude"), to noisy lo-fi hardcore stomps ("Go Away Girls"), to twisted jangly sing-alongs laced with wild freakouts ("I Hate"), to angular post-punk crunch ("Presence Of Mind"), to organ driven surf-garage ("I'm Like You"), to reverby twang flecked jangle ("Orange Anal Sin"), and so much more.
There are a ton of live tracks too, including a Soft Machine cover (!), as well as an acoustic version of "Sex" which had us thinking of the Dead Milkmen! WAY recommended, especially if you dug that 100 Flowers reissue, odds are you're gonna love this too!
Includes download card too!
