Punk nerds rejoice, this legendary, and LONG out of print hardcore cassette comp from the early eighties, finally reissued, and on vinyl for the first time. For lots of kids back in the day, this was their first taste of some seriously classic punk rock, featuring a handful of bands everybody likely knows now, Die Kreuzen, Void, Husker Du, Articles of Faith, Toxic Reasons, along with a bunch of more obscure outfits that most maybe folks don't (except everybody out there WAY punker than us, and of course, anyone who had this comp the first time around), like UXB, District Tradition, Double O, Sin 34, Rebel Truth and more. Originally released in 1982 on the Version Sound label, this was some early DIY radness, back when the underground was all about homemade zines and tapes, traded between friends and endlessly dubbed. We're guessing this was the soundtrack to many a skate sesh way back when. Mostly unreleased tracks, and demos/live/alternate versions, this is a classic slab of vintage hardcore, the sound all over the punk rock map, from the furious face melting hardcore blowouts of Void and Husker Du, to the poppier gothiness of 5051, from the sing songy hardcore jangle of Rebel Truth, to the frantic fuzz of Personality Crisis (with some super cool/weird/distinctive vox), some classic punk-noise yowl from Die Kreuzen (alternate versions of tracks from the Cows & Beer 7"), some heavy, almost metallic chug and swagger from District Tradition (channeling some later period Black Flag maybe), some blown out, feedback drenched crush from Double O, and tons more.
Pressed on thick vinyl, and housed in a heavy jacket with new artwork, includes an old school style printed zine/insert with liner notes from Version Sound head honcho Bob Moore and Die Kreuzen vocalist Dan Kubinski.
Well it looks like everybody wanted to be on this album, and lots of them are: Primus (with the theme song and more), Ozzy Osbourne/Old Dirty Bastard/DMX/Crystal Method, Wyclef Jean, Devo, Ween, Meat Loaf, Perry Farrel, Rick James, Elton John, and more...argh. Almost worth the 17 bucks though for "Come Sail Away" as sung by the show's Cartman. Several other tracks are pretty amazing too, actually, including the aforementioned Ozzy/Ol'Dirty etc. thing, the Chef's outrageous "Chocolate Salty Balls", and especially "Kenny's Dead", a remake of Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead" done No Limit style by Master P & crew--which basically makes unintended mockery of the entire gangsta rap genre. Ah, you can give it as a Christmas present to your favorite South Park fan.
A very original, wonderfully varied collection of uber-rare international "psych and progressive gems" of the '60s and early '70s presented by Lo Recordings, who've always brought us the cool cutting edge modern electronica. Lo has previously also delved into the past for library music / acid funk compilations...now they go waaaay out with these bizarro rock tracks, picked by British hip hop DJ Garreth Goddard (who records as Cherrystones for the Twisted Nerve label). Obscure artists on here indeed -- we had previously only heard Brazil's Rita Lee (of Os Mutantes) and Detroit R&B hard rockers Frijid Pink (with "Crying Shame", one of their best songs). Garreth's obsessive crate-digging has paid dividends here, making this the kind of comp you've got to get 'cause you'll never find these records OR reissues. It's all groovy, psychedelic, crazed stuff. Some other names: Taiconderoga, Black Cat Bones, Klaus Doldinger, Niagara, Breakout, Mecki Mark Men, Sunbirds, The Mogol, and more. Veering from free-jazz inspired horn soloing to heavy fuzz guitar riffs to spoken beat poetry, the stuff on here is all over the place yet is freaky, funky, fried fun that really seems to belong together -- kudos to the DJ. Awesome.
Hey, here's the third killer compilation we've had from British 'digger and DJ Cherrystones (aka Garreth Goddard)! Cherrystones Rocks and Cherrystones Hidden Charms were both excellent, eclectic collections of groovy '60s/'70s international psych-rock surprises, and Cherrystones Word continues the tradition, complete with his customary detailed notes on each track included in the cd booklet. This one though seems somehow darker and more deviant, with a wider, weirder range, from '60s pop-psych to '70s krautrock to '80s garage-rock. It's definitely not necessarily a floor-filling DJ mix, more like what we'd imagine a random shuffle through Garreth's iPod playlist of fuzzy freakiness might turn up. The overall theme seems just to be cool and obscure, with an unexpected quotient of experimental prog and even queasy, off-kilter New Waviness included in the mix. Here's the run-down: Brainbox (featuring the hyper-Hendrixy guitar of Jan Akkerman, later of Focus fame), Dead Moon, George Brigman and Split, The Deviants, Chrome, Nosferatu, Fusioon, Roger C. Reale & Rue Morgue (a cover of The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself"), Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest, Midnight Circus (not the Messthetics one), Pan y Regaliz, Episode 6, Bintangs, George Romanos, and Lard Free. Who would put the exquisite, flute-laden Spanish psych sadness of Pan y Regaliz on the same comp with notorious sci-fi guitar punks Chrome? Or think that Dead Moon's urgent garage punker "Dead Moon Night" should go on the same disc with the slow and sinister sax-laced heaviness of "Warinobaril" by French freak proggers Lard Free? Or clue us into the R&B side of The Deviants, while also introducing us to the percolating quirk-funk of Spain's synthy Fusioon? Well Cherrystones would. Word!
Is there something in the air lately beside sneeze-inducing pollen? Suddenly children's albums are popping up from all over the map, including this one which was compiled by Ekkehard Ehlers. However with the exception of the burbly sounds on the first track by Fan Club Orchestra and oddly enough Devendra Banhart's contribution, the very sing-song-y, handclap-y "Make It Easier", there's really not much that seems truly engaging for children. C'mon folks, using elfin effected vocals and sounds resembling those of a musicbox or from a toybox isn't really enough to categorize something in this genre! And actually we think kids might lose interest and get bored pretty quickly with it. Soooo, maybe we should just approach this compilation as a neat assortment of 25 gentle, relaxing tracks by an impressive bunch of international artists including Nobukazu Takemura, Asa-Chang & Junray, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Anna Laplantine, Dr. Rockit, World Standard, F.S. Blumm, and Oren Ambarchi. Hmmm, much more appealing for the full grown kids, don't you think? Maybe it should've been titled Parentish Music.
The first two Nuggets box sets have become pretty much legendary, absolutely essential for ANY music lover. And rightfully so. The popularity of the music in the first two Nuggets boxes is often attributed to Greg Shaw, who wrote a magazine (Who Put The Bomp) that then became the Bomp! record label and who later ran the Voxx label and who was almost soley responsible for the popularization of sixties style garage rock in the US and thus was essential in spreading the gospel on the musics we now hold near and dear: mod, psychedelic, British R&B, freakbeat, twee-pop, American garage rock, you name it. But what hath those Nuggets wrought? Well, of course the Children Of Nuggets, a selection of neo-garage, eighties power pop, paisley underground psych and all the other microgenres spawned by all that groovy and funky sixties psychedelic rock. Completely amazing collection of bands you already love, bands you thought you didn't like but are actually pretty fucking great and bands you have never heard of but if you had you would definitely love them: The Dukes of Stratosphear, Lyres, Bangles, Barracudas, Flamin Groovies, Hoodoo Gurus, the Posies, The Rain Parade, the dB's, Revillos, Plimsouls, Sun Dial, Screaming Trees, The Chills, The Last, The Mummies, The La's, Green Telescope, Dream Syndicate, Untamed Youth, The Milkshakes, The Droogs, the Swingin' Neckbreakers, Teenage Fanclub, The Church, Julian Cope, The Cynics, Green On Red, United States Of Existence, Plasticland, The Lime Spiders, The Pandoras and so many more!
Includes a massive book, with liner notes, photos and extensive notes on each and every track!
Hey all you grown-up kiddies, the nice folks at Daft Alliance don't want you to feel left out! Joining the other fine child-oriented releases that have come through our door recently is this Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 compilation. And despite the title, we can report that there's plenty on it for most age groups and attention spans. From the get-go, it's a lively listen. The most obvious appeal is not that these songs were 'made for children', but that many of them were playfully created with the sounds from a child's world (toys, tv shows, etc). It ends up becoming a name-that-toy puzzle of sorts! That said, it is definitely more than a one-time-listen novelty. Most tracks are thoroughly engaging and amusing, but the fifth and seventh songs are particular stand-outs. They're Bad Dudes' "Dawn of the Dudes" and hey willpower's "Janet and Aggie" respectively, seeming very inspired by the nuttier spastic moments of Mr. Bungle. The Bay Area-centric compilation also features tracks from Concentrick (Tim Green of the Fucking Champs), Open City, Sarge, M. Kourie, Comainu, Bookmobile, Final Cut To, Hell Hound (on my trail), Circadia and three from Tomo! If you like what you hear, keep in mind that this is just the beginning -- the first of a three volume series.
Kind of like a game of extended global telephone, and featuring the talents of Mike Paradinas (aka Uziq), Bedouin Ascent, T Power, Sons of Silence, etc., this cd is the result of one artist sampling a Stereolab track and then sending the resulting mix to another artist, who similarly remixed it and sent the result to yet another remixer. Get it? Oh, and when Stereolab got back the track they remixed it once more for good measure, then put all the tracks into chronological order on one cd. Very drum'n'bass.
More than twenty years after the three first volumes, "Chocolate Soup for Diabetics" Vol. 4 and 5 are finally released. Fourteen titles on each lp, twenty one on each disc. Totally great 1960's UK psych, groovy rock, and soul by The Transatlantics, The Perishers, Gary Walker, The Peasants among others. Extensive liner notes for each song. Sooo good. The highlights on vol. 4, for me, are the fuzzy fucked up version of 'You Don't Love Me' by Gary Walker, and 'How Does It Feel' by The Perishers.
More than twenty years after the first three volumes, Chocolate Soup for Diabetics Vol. 4 and 5 are finally released. Fourteen titles on each lp, twenty one on each disc. Totally great 1960's UK psych, groovy rock, and soul by The Transatlantics, The Ways and Means, The Magic Lanterns among others. Extensive liner notes for each song. Sooo good.
It's hard to tell if this is a bootleg or not. Regardless, this clearly isn't something that we're going to be able to keep in stock for long. Chocolate Soup For Diabetics is a series of compilations with a bunch of unknown psych / garage bands probably
The second volume in the series of questionably legitimate compilations entitled "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics." Again more '60s psych / garage bands with more of a UK Big Beat feel (early Kinks, Yardbirds, etc.). Again super limited. This line-up packs the
The third volume from the "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics" psych / beat series concentrates on the UK sound from the mid-'60s. Of the three, this one is the most soulful and has the dodgiest 'mastering' which is quite noticeably riddled with surface noise,
Psych reissues are a dime a dozen these days, no matter how you classify or organize the songs and groups, specific certain years, a particular sound, or scene, or whatever, there's no way to spin it, there's just too too too much. And plenty of those tracks, well, like lots of reissues, could very well have just remained undiscovered. It takes more than just cramming a bunch of tracks on a record and putting some cool psychedelic artwork on the front, it requires knowledge of the music, as well as a knack for making mixes. Some folks definitely have it. Andy Votel obviously, and of course Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond, who has been releasing killer reissue comps on the Psychic Circle label. And there's whoever put together these Chocolate Soup For Diabetics comps, which gathered up some of the coolest UK psych rock from the sixties, originally released only on lp, now finally available all gathered up into a single 5cd box. And holy shit, no matter how tired of this stuff you might be, if you're anything like us, this stuff will immediately get you excited again. Fuzzy, tripped out, super rocking, jangly, space-y and most definitely PSYCHEDELIC. A few bands we already dug like Tintern Abbey, The Misunderstood and Wimple Winch, but so many new (old) discoveries: The Voice, Nuchez's, The Fresh Windows, The Fire, Graded Grains, Felius Andromeda, The Syn, The Tickle, Dantalian's Chariot, odds are the psych obsessives out there are probably a bit more well versed in UK psych obscurities, but for the rest of us, this stuff is blowing us away.
Take the first track on the first disc, "The Train To Disaster" by The Voice, after a purloined sample of Arthur Brown's "God Of Hellfire" intro, the track explodes into a fuzzy, super distorted stomp, that sounds ridiculously heavy for the time, hooky and fuzzed out, catchy like crazy, and those guitars! Raw and fiery and fuzzy and bad ass. The next track by the weirdly named Nuchez's, begins all jangly, but quickly builds momentum, some proggy organ wrapped around the guitar chug, some moody crooning, woozy guitars, and then some awesomely distorted fuzzpsych leads, and the song is transformed into something that sounds more like the Monks. We could go track by track for sure, but you probably get the picture. 5 discs, 5+ hours of super rocking, fuzzy psychedelic garage rock bliss, from jangly and trippy to crunchy and heavy, we just can't stop listening to this stuff. Wow.
Comes in a nice full color box, each one machine numbered (LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES), each disc in it's own full color sleeve, and includes a massive booklet with tons of photos and liner notes...
It may not be super obvious from the aQ website, but we've long been champions of Mark Mulcahy, whose band Miracle Legion was and is an all time favorite. All of the Miracle Legion records went out of print long before the aQ list, so we never got a chance to gush adoringly. We also became a bit obsessed with Mulcahy's post Miracle Legion outfit Polaris, who performed the bad ass themes song to the late great kids show Pete And Pete. We have however, highlighted at least two of Mulcahy's solo records, the last of which, In Pursuit Of Your Happiness, still gets played all the time. And features some utterly perfect pop, emotional, clever, jangly and so so catchy.
Apparently we're not alone, judging from this star studded comp, a tribute not just to the amazing songs of Mulcahy, but to his late wife, who passed away last year. The outpouring of musical emotion and support is truly moving, and the redone versions are uniformly fantastic, with some fairly faithful renditions, and some seriously out there takes.
This record is getting TONS of press, mostly due to the inclusion of a Thom Yorke track, and it is great, skittery rhythms, distorted electric guitar, super strange percussion, and some super intense emotional vocals, kind of like a more punk rock, lo-fi take on one of his Eraser tracks. Well worth the price of admission for sure. But that's just the first track. Other bands taking on Mulcahy's genius originals include The National, Dinosaur Jr, Frank Black, Vic Chesnutt, Rocket From The Tombs (whose version is SO twisted, but so great!), Michael Stipe, Mercury Rev, Juliana Hatfield, and on and on. It plays out like a killer classic nineties college rock mix, anchored by Mulcahy's awesome songs. Hopefully it'll get the world to finally discover what an amazing and way under appreciated songwriter Mulcahy really is, and just maybe it'll convince someone somewhere to get all of those Miracle Legion records reissued!
The only bummer about this release is that there's another 20+ songs, not on the cd proper, only available electronically (from iTunes), which is ironic, since Miracle Legion and Mulcahy on his own were embraced by indie record stores first and foremost, who sort of get the shaft as do fans who if they want all of the songs have to shell out another $20 for the bonus tracks, but the download only tracks include jams from AC Newman, Buffalo Tom, Dumptruck, Syd Straw, Laura Veirs, and others. They should have just made it a double cd, but what can you do, worth it either way, and if you like what you hear, you'll probably end up trying to track down every Mulcahy thing ever, and rightfully so...
Every once in a while something comes along that we KNOW we're gonna love, just from reading about it ahead of time. Here's a very good example, and now that we have heard it, we certainly DO love it. Heck, it pretty much had us with its subtitle - and also 'cause of the label it's on. From Jonny Trunk's ever reliable, nostalgic UK imprint specializing in all kinds of unusual vintage finds, comes this compilation of children's music - no, not music FOR children, but music BY children, made in British primary and secondary schools, as part of, well, classroom projects, between 1959 and 1981. All sourced from rare, mostly privately pressed vinyl (released by the schools themselves, for educational purposes or to commemorate an event), collected over the years by Trunk. The selections presented here encompass many, many sorts of the strange and the wonderful, brimming with youthful innocence and enthusiasm. There's lovely renditions of traditional folk songs, there's quaint classical pieces and instrumental improvisations, there's experimental stuff influenced by 20th century avant-garde composers like Stockhausen (via an enlightened teacher), there's an oddly amusing choral song about drunk driving, there's a cover of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" from the Watership Down soundtrack�
Of the 25 tracks (19 on the vinyl), some of the standouts for sure are the creative efforts of a group/project called Sounds Of Silence, who contribute the track "Musique Concrete" among others, including the creepy "The Lyke-Wake Dirge". Also many of the folk/vocal numbers are quite gentle and quiet and lovely. Lots of charming tracks to treasure here, in other words. We imagine that Trunk had to sift through a lot of lesser material to find these gems.
For sure for fans of the classic Langley Schools Music Project, as well those who liked a couple previous Trunk releases, namely Carl Orff & Gunild Keetman's Music For Children, and the album by Cults Percussion Ensemble.
Naturally, the cd booklet and lp sleeve includes Trunk's informative liner notes and cover graphics from the original lps.
Collection of recordings made live at San Francisco's Clit Stop. 38 tracks from such notables as: Kit Clayton, Three Day Stubble, No Neck Blues Band, Deerhoof, Zeek Sheck, Rubber O Cement With Karla Lavay, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, and much more.
Even if we weren't already aware that the early '70s output of the German record label Kuckuck was pretty darn cool, being a significant part of the whole incredible krautrock thing, we'd be eager to hear this new compilation, following as it does B-Music's other recent celebrations of labels like BYG in France (The BYG Deal comp) and Belter in Spain (the Absolute Belter comp), all of 'em awesome. This well-researched collection, part of the B-Music / Finders Keepers "krautsider music" series, is a tribute to the vision and dedication of the Kuckuck label's founder, Eckart Rahn (about whom several fascinating pages of the text and photo filled cd booklet are devoted). Presented with distinctive graphic style, Kuckuck's always adventurous and ever eclectic roster made records ranging from progressive pop to acid folk to out there kosmische electronics, in other words krautrock at its finest.
There's nine bands represented across the 20 tracks here. You get, among others, the heavy blues rock of Armageddon, the proto-New Age bliss of AQ fave Deuter, Antiteater's soundtracks to Rainer Werner Fassbinder films, the brilliant minimalist hypnorock of Out Of Focus (another AQ fave), the Moog synthesizer experimentation of American composer Sam Spence, and proggy pop pioneers Ihre Kinder (plus various spinoffs), and more. Of the several artists we hadn't ever heard before, Sam Spence was particularly intriguing, especially since the liner notes explain that his Moogs were paid for by the National Football League, for whom he made film soundtracks! We'd be curious to hear more of his Kuckuck recordings based on the two tracks from him included here, which sound something like a more tripped out Perrey and/or Kingsley.
Dunno why they didn't include some Murphy Blend, too, but it's a fine comp anyhow! Any Finders Keepers follower or krautrock fancier should be keen on this. Can't go too wrong with Kuckuck.
Better act fast on this one, super limited, as in ONLY SEVENTY COPIES, and it's a pretty killer sampling of some of the best SF bands around, all exclusive tracks, from a bunch of our favorites, and a whole bunch of bands we'd never heard of before.
Barn Owl, Lucky Dragons, Tussle, Pale Hoarse, Ascended Master, Snowblink, Drumz and so many more. Two discs, nearly 2 hours, of spaced out drone, groovy abstract rhythms, dark swilring ambience, woozy drum machine driven lo-fi pop, pounding low slung post rock, and lots of stops in between.
All of the tracks were recorded live in the Fall of 2007, during Drew Bennett's collaborative Clouds Carved The Mountains Installation / Sound Series at the Triple Base Gallery, here in SF.
Beaufiul hand assembled and hand silkscreened cover, with a printed insert, of the seventy copies we only got a handful, so grab one quick before they're gone...
First off, anyone who bought the Minimal Wave Tapes compilation, another recent aQ Record Of The Week, is most definitely gonna want this too, another killer collection of, like the title says, Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics, a perfect part two, or companion, and fear not, the only overlap is one single band, who do appear on both comps, but with different tracks, so this is essentially an all new (old) collection of vintage coldwave dark synth sonics, which, if you're anything like us, and we're beginning to think you are, you can't get enough of.
It's pretty strange how cold / dark / new / synth wave have made such a huge comeback, bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, Human League, Front 242, Soft Cell, are now cited as huge influences on a new breed of dark synth driven combos. Also funny considering something similar happened 8 or 9 years ago, when a rash of bands were exploring similar territory: Adult., The Faint, Fischerspooner, Erase Errata, etc. But music is definitely cyclical, and as a new generation discovers the treasures of the past, they start bands mining that past, and revist that past via reissues. The most recent issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian offers a mini primer on the difference between the various waves: darkwave was early industrial and goth rock, cold wave the French version of darkwave (as we first discovered on the amazing So Young But So Cold comp), Synth wave was like cold wave but more sparse and moody, and new wave, well everyone should know what that is by now.
Lately, it seems most folks make little distinction between the various waves, instead lumping them all together as cold wave, or minimal wave or whatever, since regardless of the variations, they definitely all share a similar sound and vibe, and speaking for ourselves at least, it's a sound we dig big time. But then most of us never really stopped digging that stuff to begin with. Lots of former goths here for sure. And every time we discovered a band exploring the sounds we dug so much back in the day, we went way out of our way to gush about them big time, like one of our 2009 Records Of The Week, from Soror Dolorosa, a black metal side project that sounded like some lost Joy Division jam, or rare cold wave antiquity, and more recently records by groups like Blank Dogs, who may not have grown up listening to this music, but if they didn't then must have had a super hip older brother.
But as was demonstrated on the Minimal Wave collection, there were tons of bands outside of the obvious above mentioned references, who were just as cool, if not cooler, the underground of a scene that for a while was very mainstream, on the Minimal Waves comp, it was Crash Course In Science, Tara Cross, Das Kabinette, Ohama, Das Ding, Martin Dupont, Deux, Bene Gessert, Turquoise Days, and others, a few of the more wave-informed folks here knew many of those bands, but to the rest of us, it was a revelation. So much amazing music, so many new groups. On this Cold Waves collection, it's Absolute Body Control, Ruth, The Neon Judgement, Stereo, The Vyllies, Days Of Sorrow, Land Of Giants, End Of Data, Eleven Pond, Ausgang Verboten, Nine Circles and more more more. And like before, a few groups we're familiar with, but a whole bunch of mysterious new names, all of which contribute killer tracks, and most definitely have us hankering for more from all of them.
The obvious ones, Ruth of course, a long time aQ favorite, whose track here also appeared on the out of print So Young But So Cold, sort of Kraftwerk meets Gary Numan, Linear Movement, who also had a track on the Minimal Wave comp, whose track here is awesome, catchy and swirly, with super hypnotic synth melodies and awesome vocals, groovy bass and that clipped new wave drum machine rhythm, Absolute Body Control, who recently received the deluxe Vinyl On Demand boxset treatment, with some awesomely gothy gloom pop, in fact, this collection sounds WAY poppier than the Minimal Wave collection, so much so, that almost all of these bands sound like they should have been right up there with Depeche Mode and the Human League.
Needless to say, this is another fantastic comp, with some incredible songs, and already has us hankering for volume 2!
Nice thick gatefold sleeve, tons of liner notes, and pix, also comes with a download card. CD coming soon too... ----* ----* Highlights : ----*
As listed on our in-betweener last week, this aQ Record Of The Week from last year is now again available on vinyl, we'd only had a few before (in fact, it was only the cd version we had been able to list as Record Of The Week at the time). And it's a bit cheaper now too. We ALSO just got in on vinyl a Volume 2 of Cold Waves Of Color, which we'll hopefully list next time!! (If you want one now, please just ask).
Anyway, here's our review of Volume 1 again, if you missed it...
Do you like runaway drum machines? Dubby echo? Danceable DIY '80s underground electronics? Homebrewed minimal electro pop? The Vox Populi! anthology we made a Record Of The Week last year? All the many cool synthwave reissues on Dark Entries? Then please give THIS your attention, you won't be sorry.
The Color Tapes label - later known as Color Discs for the vinyl editions - was the cottage industry of UK art-rock synthesist Gary Ramon, who with the music documented on this collection, sort of comes across like a new wave doppleganger of Cleaners From Venus. And there actually was a split cassette release between Cleaners From Venus and Ramon's band Modern Art (who later morphed into psychrockers Sun Dial) from 1986 or so. Here was a prolific songwriter of coldly sequenced and somewhat quirky minimal wave albums, mostly all of which were released on cassette with a small audience that radiated outward from the coastal village of Waltham, England. He, along with a loose collective, recorded in a handful of interchangeable projects - Modern Art, Mystery Plane, and WeR7 being three with the largest discographies, each with at least a dozen albums recorded in a six to eight year period. The former two projects later warranted vinyl anthologies from Vinyl On Demand; and it seems that the interest in this material blossomed from there.
Ramon and his cohorts were a talented bunch, following the rabbit-hole of darkly minded electronica. Think Factory, Sheffield, Industrial Records, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and all of those Wire side-projects and you'll be able to triangulate the sound of Color Tapes. There was a knack for the pop-hook and the death-disco backbeat present this material that makes all of this material age very well. The opening track to the comp is from Berserk In The Hayfields, with its clamorous electro-bongo fills girded to a taut techno pulse sounds very prescient of the Belgian EBM scene some five or six years later. Live Of Angels and The Lord were two non-Ramon projects and both peddled in weird-science blorp and effects-happy guitars above spry programming. But the strongest material is through the streamlined step sequences and deft rhythms that showcase Ramon's engineering prowess.
Note there are two bonus tracks on the cd not found on the wax, unfortunately.
A concept album/compilation, trying to be some kind of co-op Sgt. Pepper's for the current indie-rock generation or something (its success in this endeavor is of course questionable, and some of the bands have certainly not contributed their absolute best
Auckland, NZ label compilation includes tracks from AQ faves Lovely Midget and Bruce Russell among others.
Why is it that 'tributes' inevitably involve straight-up mimicry and/or wacky genre switcheroos? That's the case with most of the renditions (by predominantly unfamiliar artists) on this Sonic Youth tribute. Fortunately there's a few notables who bring more to the table -- namely Steelpole Bathtub, Elf Power and Saicobab (aka Boredoms' Yoshimi).
Consider this to be the Cliff Notes for your Constellation Records class. Yes, this ten-song label sampler offers a glimpse of the varied artists' works previously released on the Montreal label (1997 through 2001). They are Do Make Say Think, Hangedup, Fly Pan Am, A Silver Mt. Zion, Sofa, Re:, Frankie Sparo, 1-Speed Bike, Sackville, and Exhaust. Label devotees, you probably already have all of the original releases from which these tracks came, but for those unfamiliar with the label or with the vibrant Montreal music community that extends far beyond the blanketing shadow of Godspeed You Black Emperor) this might be just the thing to get you hooked.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The "Traveling Issue". Look at that reasonable price! For this you get an interview with Andee's band A Minor Forest, Lee Ranaldo, Modest Mouse, plus a Fuck tour diary, a story by Aaron Cometbus. CD includes Ranaldo, Corduroy, Ex-Chittle, Carlos, A Minor Forest, and more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Matt Kelly's "Cool Beans" zine mutates into Uncool Beans this time around, with cover art depicting Beanie Baby As Roadkill (very nice). Interview with Mudhoney, PEE tour diary written by AQ's very own Andee Connors (who also writes a hilarious review of the Dynamo metalfest in Holland), The Worst Of San Francisco, more cabbie insider trivia, and a CD featuring 28 tracks from the likes of PEE, Mudhoney, Eric Gaffney (ex-Sebadoh), MK Ultra, 50 Million, etc.
We're finding it tough to keep up with the output of Psychic Circle, all their awesome '60s/'70s psych/pop/beat compilation action is a bit overwhelming, from Phantom Guitars to Instro-Hipsters to Fairytales Can Come True, and it's all been pretty great. In large part 'cause most of these comps have been put together by record collector extraordinaire, Nick Salomon, previously known to us as the Bevis Frond guy. So, we've missed listing a few, but here's one of the very latest, one we had to review, 'cause it's the follow up to the fantastic Blow Your Cool. Remember that one? "20 Prog/Psych Assaults From The UK & Europe". Itself sorta the sequel to A Visit To the Spaceship Factory, which in turn was kinda the UK version of Psychic Circle's White Lace & Strange comp of American garage-psych heaviness. So, what has Salomon dug up to blow our cool with this time? A "cosmarama" of obscure sounds, from twenty bands we haven't heard of AT ALL (well, with just two or three exceptions). Fortunately they're all pretty rockin', and Mr. Saloman provides liner notes about each.
The bands: Distant Jim, Carriage Company, Kingdom, The Tower, Back Street Band, Big Wheel, Bismarck, CWT, Silence, Ginger Ale, Pussy (ex-Jersusalem), Tenderfoot Kids, Electric Food, Mr. Albert Show, The Petards, Castle Farm, The Pebbles, Corporal Gander's Fire Dog Parade (!), Chips, and Richard St. Clair & Forum.
There's some folky-proggy dreamy stuff here, and melodic popsike moments, but mostly these cuts are on the harder rockin', and totally groovy side of things, approaching proto-metal, even, when it comes to the efforts several of these acts... with plenty of jamming organs, acidic fuzz wah guitars, cowbell, and the occasional horn section (this is from back when having one was hip). Maybe it'll mean something to you that there's more than one song here with the word "Woman" in the title! Definitely we're reminded of the likes of Steppenwolf, Dust, Bloodrock, and Grand Funk at times. Black Sabbath no, not so much except on Pussy's "Feline Woman" which could almost be a re-write of the song "Evil Woman" originally by Crow, that Sabbath covered on the UK version of their debut album...
Another Psychic Circle winner. All we know is, if Nick Saloman were DJing at a bar anywhere near here, we'd be drinking there all night!
The first Cosmic Machine compilation of French progressive electronic and cosmic disco tracks from 1970-1980 still continues to be a big hit around here and so we were of course psyched that there is a sequel and it's even better and weirder than we expected. Mining deeper into the outer nebulae of space funk, propulsive musique concrete, sci-fi dreaminess and even some ecstatic pop-disco novelty cash-ins (Anarchic System's space cover of Hot Buttered's "Popcorn", The Pepper's, "Pepper Box", Rosebud's French disco take on Pink Floyd). It doesn't get any more far out than this. Includes tracks by Pascal Comelade, Rosebud, Francis Lai, Stereo, Moon Birds, Nicolas Peyrac, Heldon, Grand Prix, Queen Samantha, Michael Magne, Roger Roger, Christophe, Anarchic System, Video Liszt, Richard Pinhas, Arpadys, Georges Rodi, Pierre Porte, Araxis, Joel Fajerman & Jan Yrssen, The Peppers, and Pierre Schaeffer. Highly recommended!
Note: the vinyl version is currently backordered but is expected to be restocked eventually.
A fantastic compilation of amazing French cosmic prog-tronic jams that is blowing our minds! An incredible survey of experimentation and rhythm that shows us that while the French may not have invented prog or disco, they certainly had the most fun taking those genres to their outer limits in exciting combination. Practically everyone is represented, including cinematic gems by Jean-Michel Jarre, Alain Goraguer (La Planet Sauvage composer!), Patrick Juvet and Serge Gainsbourg; Moog workouts by Jean-Jaques Perrey, Quartz and Pierre Bachelet; and cosmic disco reveries by Bernard Fevre, Space, Droids, Space Art and Cerrone. But there are also plenty of rarities from groups we know less about: Atomic Crocus, Rene Roussel, and Universal Energy amongst many others. Dig the Mobius-style cover art too. So Killer!
Awesome cd reissue of this legendary compilation of seminal Texas 'hardcore' bands. Features the Butthole Surfers (whose track was recently included on their 'Humpty Dumpty L.S.D.' rarities collection), The Dicks, Watchtower, the Big Boys, D.R.I., Really Red, The Offenders, My Dolls, Not For Sale, Prenatal Lust, Stick Men With Rayguns, Hugh Beaumont Experience, Marching Plague and Bang Gang. Noisy, spazzy, fucked up and essential.
Here's the second annual compilation of the selected staff faves over at the UK record shop, Rough Trade. In the liner notes, they make a point of specifying that the songs weren't chosen according to sales figures. No, these are forty-nine tunes that simply captured their fancy this past year, and the selection runs the absolute gamut. From Coil to Cryin' Shames to Cobra Killer to Cocorosie to Cornershop to Candi Staton to Coachwhips, from Wanda Jackson to Whitey to Whirlwind Heat, from Measles Mumps Rubella to Micah P. Hinson And The Gospel Of Progress to Magoo to Mara Carlyle to Mu, from Sunburned Hand Of The Man to Sons And Daughters to The Soviettes to Schwab to Sonic Youth, from Le Tigre to Liars, from Animal Party to Ambrose Tompkins to Alter Ego to Alan Glen, from Bloc Party to Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham to Brakes to Brooks to Beastellabeast, from Throbbing Gristle to Todd to Ten Minutes With My Dad, from Jolie Holland to Jad Fair... and there's plenty more, but you get the picture, doncha? So many familiar and not-so-familiar faces, it's like a cool mix tape made with loving care by your most obsessive music fan buddy.
Germany's Trikont label is responsible for some of our favoritest, weirdest comps, like Ho! Roady Music Of Vietnam, Beyond Istanbul, and that whole Flashbacks series of early 20th century Americana oddities. Here's another one, sort of a primer on what was cookin' in the psychedelic era of the hippies and the yippies in the United States of Amerikka, stuff that maybe (maybe) won't ever get used for a baby boomer beguiling car commercial... including tracks by Captain Beefheart, Blue Cheer, The Fugs, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Pearls Before Swine, The Stooges, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Lothar & The Hand People, Tiny Tim, The Godz, Exuma, Kaleidoscope, Canned Heat, Chambers Brothers, Shel Silverstein, Tim Rose, Country Joe & The Fish, Grace Slick & The Great Society, The Holy Modal Rounders, Moondog, and the MC5. Yeah, chances are you have, or certainly have heard, a lot of these tracks already -- some are obvious, classic picks ("Summertime Blues", "1969", "Tiptoe Through The Tulips", "Kick Out The Jams", "Time Has Come Today" etc.) -- but it's still a righteous comp of significant tuneage that in fact, at the time, -was- in opposition to the "mainstream". And it's interesting to hear those better-known hits in context with some of their more obscure contemporaries, the "underground" documented here embracing protest folk, psychedelic soul, Woodstock hard rock, and even some (hopefully) satirical coffee house beat poetry, the latter from Shel Silverstein of "Where The Sidewalk Ends" fame! Lots of humor here, actually, whether due to the track in question being a novelty song (Tiny Tim!), or just 'cause of the hippie era datedness. So, while NOT the most bizarre Trikont comp ever, not a bad spin... and a good gift for your younger family and friends who have yet to be exposed to some of this. And when was the last time you heard Hendrix tearing apart the "Star Spangled Banner"? Still pretty powerful stuff.
Over the last several years Finders Keepers / B-Music has mined and shared some of the most amazing sounds from the psychedelic past, bringing folks like Selda, Jean-Claude Vannier, The Yamasuki Singers and Susan Christie into heavy rotation in these parts. Record diggers will be so envious of what Andy Votel and his equally talented collection of record collecting friends (including Gruff Rhys, David Holmes, Cherrystones, Jazzman Gerald, etc) dug up for this comp of rare finds from all over the globe. Lots of fuzz, heavy psych, deep grooves, and tripped out delights from all across the globe. We were especially excited to finally get to hear a track by Indoor Life, the drugged out post-punk project of legendary San Francisco disco producer and Sylvester collaborator Patrick Cowley. Once again the Finders Keepers crew have mined some obscure psych gems that will be pleasing our ears for a long time to come!
From the same folks who brought us that amazing Invisible Pyramid six-cd compilation of the free/drone/folk/cdr/etc. underground, comes another dose of the same, this time "just" a double cd (but apparently the first in a series?). The international array of artists include: The Free Players, The North Sea, Western Automatic, Ilya Monosov and Preston Swirnoff, Andrea Belfi, Paper Wings (Antony Milton and Anthony Guerra), Northern Cross (Geoff Mullens and Kris Lapke), Brasil & The Gallowbrothers Band, Sunken (Antony Milton again, and Stephen "Pumice" Neville), Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate and Oaxacan. Everything from ritualistic rumbling drone ceremony from New Zealand to lumbering distorto Tokyo psych rock! It's all sorta dark and dreamy, there's plenty of instrumental mellow droning bliss and pensive folk guitar picking, mysterious field recordings and electronic shimmer.
You can pretty much trust that this would be gritty and gorgeous and evocative and everything you'd want a comp from these farflung, dusty corners of the "New Weird" to be. Immersion in the contents of these two discs ought to both relieve stress, and make you want to hear more from any and all of these folks...
This is another record that barely needs a description, most aQ heads are gonna want one of these for sure, a collection of exclusive, unreleased tracks celebrating 15 years of releases by the mighty Rocket Records, a UK label that over the years has brought us tons of amazing spaced out heaviness, from groups like The Heads, Goat, Hills, Gnod, White Hills, Teeth Of The Sea, Mugstar, Anthroprophh and loads more, this comp collects some of those very same bands, along with a handful of 'friends of Rocket' as well as some other outfits who have records coming soon on the label. Needless to say, even just the names we know make this worth grabbing. Recent Record Of The Weekers Teeth Of The Sea offer up a fierce field of grinding static drenched drones, shot through with smoldering feedback, and progged out psychedelia, while another former Record Of The Week combo, UK space rock heavies Gnod, deliver some tripped out reverb soaked weirdness. Swedish psych rockers Hills get all buzzing kraut-raga, channeling Parson Sound and Amon Duul, while long time aQ faves, UK via Texas weirdos Shit And Shine unfurl a sprawling 15 minute rhythmic noise rock dirge, with creepy helium vox, and some seriously harsh garage tone, like the Butthole Surfers but even more caveman. Cherrystones give us his take on tripped out minimal drift, a little bit dubby, laces with shimmery guitars, and fields of mysterious glitchery, and big time aQ faves Goat offer up some unreleased live action, their special brand of African infused Swedish occult stoner space rock tribalism, that has us hankering for more more more! And yet another previous Record Of The Week honoree, Heads side project Anthroprophh, delivers what sounds like a super heavy, ultra drivingly rhythmic spaced out This Heat, all dense percussion, thick swells of chordal thrum, and FX soaked shimmer. Vision Fortune, whose Cardinal Fuzz lp we reviewed recently, give us some blown out, grinding, fuzzy, distorto dub, wound around loping math-kraut mesmer. And those are just the bands we know. Of the new to us combos, Blood Sport get all groovy, almost funky, sorta proggy, with an almost African feel, a little bit of a Goat influence perhaps, with some super stylized, almost glam sounding vox that align their sound with fellow space rocker Hookworms. There's a Swedish outfit called Uran, whose sound is all gristly, electro-fuzz, distorto stomp, groovy space garage heaviness, there's the Heads related outfit Roll bars, with some squelchy synths, thick fuzzed out bass, sounds bit like Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song" drugged up and spaced out, and finally, an Italian band, that the label claims to be one of their faves, The Lay Llamas, who get all woozily playful, unwinding a mesmerizing stretch of looped space-kraut drift, all tranced out and cyclical. Phew! So much good stuff. Obviously, all you space / psych / drone rock nerds who dig all things Cardinal Fuzz / Agitated / Rocket (obviously), are gonna want this, so best grab one quick before they are gone for good...
Not a new release, but a new arrival, at the recommendation of AQ's Jeff. This comp collects of singles tracks from the following mid-60s Japanese garage groups, in the "Group Sound" genre: The Napoleon, D'Swooner's, The Hi-Lo's, The Unicorns, The Gallopers,
After punk exploded, an entire community of independent labels arose to document the wide spanning world of do it yourself, home recorded, punk and post punk that blew up soon after. This great Soul Jazz collection focuses on the explosion of those small Do It Yourself labels that began to emerge in the UK scene in late 70's and early 80's. Labels like Rough Trade, Heartbeat, Small Wonders, Zama, New Hormones, etc. all releasing 7" singles and albums from the likes of The Buzzcocks, Throbbing Gristle, Swell Maps, Kleenex, Glaxo Babies, and a whole lot more. Killer selection of bands and tracks, and a gorgeous 40-page booklet with band biographies, label spotlights, amazing photos and tons of artwork. Just like how those Can't Stop! compilations made us wish we were in Australia smack in the center of the post-punk era, this collection once again reminds us how fertile the underground music scene was in the UK during the '77-'82 era and has us longing for our own punk rock time machine (although this comp sort of is a punk rock time machine when you think about it!). An important nice historical document and a killer disc!!
It's long been clear that a skilled studio production team can transform a band or artist's music from weak or average into ass-kickingly addictive. Y'know... sorta like polishing a turd. Well, the fabulous DFA production team of Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy brought their expertise to the indie realm. Not only has this duo been instrumental in the metamorphosis of potential college rock fodder into propulsive dancefloor triggers, but also they have brought along a knack for cooler than thou marketing which has spilled over from Goldsworthy's past associations with the once unstoppable Mo' Wax hype machine. An unbelievable example of this was their impressive production / marketing of The Rapture's "House Of Jealous Lovers" last year. Unfortunately this one track drew flocks seeking more of the same from a band whose past recordings were very different and well, somewhat disappointing in comparison. Instead, those folks should've really been searching out more DFA productions, which have been notoriously few and far between. Anyways, fans of The Rapture's aforementioned track will be pleased to hear that the cowbell-laden, Gang of Four makeover reappears on this compilation of DFA produced 12" A-sides. Other highlights include LCD Soundsystem's "Give It Up" as well as their club fave of hipster cynicism "Losing My Edge", plus an older lengthy track and an even lengthier newer one from the very Boredoms-y art punks Black Dice. The latter two proving that DFA are just as deft on non-traditional dance numbers. Eight tracks in all.
New York's best-presented flash-in-the-pan label and mix-masters, DFA, produce and remix some of the most self-conscious dance music ever made... albeit forced and/or contrived, still very well done and definitely worthy of extreme dancing to. This 3cd compilation contains so many irresistable goodies! Some hi-lites on the first two discs: J.O.Y.'S sparse and cool Slits-style vocals set to a DFA remix of their song "Sunplus", (also recently released as a 12" -- see our earlier review), Juan Maclean's (ex-Six Finger Satellite) sinister "Dance Hall Modulator Dub", Pixeltan's driving non-stop beat attack on "Get Up / Say What", DFA producer, James Murphy's band, LCD Soundsystem, featuring 4/4-beat-man-machine, Pat Mahoney (ex-Les Savy Fav) and their song "Beat Connection", legendary Liquid Liquid's "Bellhead" and The Rapture's "Echoes", just to name a few! *sigh* So much hipster dubby disco dancing, so little time. A third disc is actually a mix cd of DFA tracks, so provided you do not own your own DJ mixing equipment, you can enjoy the DFA hyper-active dance jams in one continous angular movement. Recommended.
A swell comp of, like it says, crunchy guitar instrumentals from the sixties! That means, tracks by Link Wray and loads of likeminded folks we've never heard before: Riptides, Fireballs, Jay Bee & The Kats, Teddy & The Rough Riders, and more. 20 tracks total.
Compilation of artists from John Peel's late sixties early seventies record label.
Some serious West Coast punk rock history here for sure. A double cd collecting the fourteen 7"s released on Dangerhouse between 1977 and 1979, featuring lots of names you no doubt know: the Avengers, X, the Bags, the Dils, the Weirdos, Black Randy, but some other more obscure artists that you might not, like the Alley Cats, the Randoms, Howard Werth, the Deadbeats, Eyes and Rhino 39!
We raved about the Avengers a while back, when we reviewed the reissue of their self titled lp, and odds are we don't need to tell you what X sound like, the early tracks from both those bands are of course awesome. But there's so much more good/weird stuff here, there's the snarly punk rock swagger of the Randoms, their songs, laced with some subtle power poppiness. Or Black Randy & Metrosquad's demented drum machine driven punk minimalism, all detuned guitar melodies, primitive Casio style programmed rhythms, and Randy's insane ranting vox, sometimes sounding like some seriously wacked outsider bedroom new wave weirdness, other times sounding like wasted knuckle dragging electro punk. The Dils of course, total classic SoCal punk rock, energetic and political, quirky vocals over frenetic drumming, and some seriously crunchy riffage. The Weirdos too, fuzzed out punk rock radness, and their anthemic "We Got The Neutron Bomb", which is one of thee best punk jams ever. The Alley Cats, whom we had never heard before, wrap chugging riffage, frenzied almost funky basslines, and intricate drumming, around some jagged guitar crunch, and wailing vox. Howard Werth delivers some fuzzy power pop, with a definite Yellow Pills vibe, which had us definitely wanting to hear more (if there even is more), and Rhino 39 kick out the noisy, raucous punk rock jams, with rapid fire Dead Milkmen style vocals over wild instrumental tangles, and Eyes are pretty poppy, organ driven and sing songy, super catchy and surprisingly un-punk. There's lots more, the always awesome Bags, The Deadbeats and of course more Black Randy weirdness (lots more, three singles worth!)...
The booklet includes a an extensive interview with Dangerhouse founder David Brown, who talks about the label, as well as all the bands, there are tons of rare photos, flyers and a second booklet which reproduces all the original single sleeves! So great. Absolutely essential punk rock radness.
BTW: We can also get the vinyl version, which is a box with all fourteen 7"s, and is super expensive, but if you want one, just ask and we can order it for you.
Pretty awesome that Matador got involved with the Red Hot Organization, a great international charity that works to raise funds and awareness about HIV and AIDS around the globe. Red Hot has aligned itself with the music world many times before for benefit comps you might remember like No Alternative, Red Hot & Blue, Red Hot & Rio, etc. This time out the Red Hot compilers got loads of heavyweights from the indie underground to contribute exclusive tracks and some cool collaborations for this double cd.
The track listing pretty much reads as a who's who of indie star power from the last several years and beyond: Yo La Tengo, Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Antony, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, The Decemberists, the list goes on and on. There are also some really cool collaborations like Jose Gonzalez and The Books joining forces for a cover of the Nick Drake classic "Cello Song", Grizzly Bear and Feist team up to cover Vashti Bunyan's "Train Song", Kronos Quartet do an inspired version of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night", Sharon Jones & The Dapkings do a smoking version of the Shuggie Otis classic "Inspiration Information". Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian fame goes at it solo and Conor Oberst brings Gillian Welch into his world with a duet of a newly penned Oberst track. Like all comps there may be a few tracks that don't totally hit the mark, but the winners far outweigh the losers on this comp. The collection was produced by Bryce Desner of The National, and with over two hours of music and all proceeds going to this awesome charity this is pretty much a no brainer.
Once upon a time not so long ago a Scottish gent (and dandy, tweaked and twisted line drawing artist) named David Shrigley made an LP size book filled with his song-less song lyrics. 'Twas a novel concept which was welcomed and gobbled up by many -- the first edition sold out right away! Of course some of the folks who were charmed by it just happened to be musicmakers themselves, and the novel concept to compose and perform music for the lyrics was born. The awesome results (39 of them total!) are featured here on this double cd which comes packaged in its own cd-sized hardcover 100-page book. The list of contributors is nothing short of stimulating: David Byrne, Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat, TV On The Radio, Deerhoof, Mt. Eerie and Mt. Eerie's Phil Elverum, Grizzly Bear, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Trans Am, Islands, Tussle, The Dead Science, Final Fantasy, Scout Niblett, R. Stevie Moore, Cibelle, Les Georges Leningrad, Max Tundra, Yacht, Roger Ferguson, Dirty Projectors, The Curtains, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Liars, and more! The renditions are as varied as you'd expect, ranging from the sparsely twee pop to the angular dance rock to the tenderest indie folk to the most anticipated indie art-rock perturberances. Still, not at all unexpected it's the elder statesman of the bunch David Byrne whose offering is most successful -- at once showing a genuine sensitivity to the original artist's work while maintaining his own artful and whimsical identity and making the song wholly his own! Pretty great.
We admitted a while back to catching on unbelievably late to the drug addled, space rock brilliance of Hawkwind. What can you do? We've tried to make up for it, by listening to NOTHING BUT Hawkwind for hours at a stretch, trying to get everybody who walks in the door to buy at least one Hawkwind record, and trying desperately to convince AQ customer Cayce to start a Hawkwind tribute / worship band with us. We're still working on that last one. But on the subject of tributes, it's always nice to know that all over the world there are little enclaves of equally obsessed music freaks. One of those enclaves just so happens to be Godreah records in the UK, home to the Meads Of Asphodel, and fellow Hawkwind obsessives. So obsessive in fact, that they've scoured the globe looking for bands willing to put their Hawkwind love on display for all to see, on this here massive double cd compilation. It should of course come as no big surprise that some of our favorite groups just so happen to also have a thing for Hawkwind and put their music where their mouths are. The Meads Of Asphodel cover "Utopia", Circle turn "Don't Understand" into a suitably circular krautrock workout, Acid Mothers Temple take "You Know You're Only Dreaming" completely apart and turn it into an burst of interstellar freakout, and Sigh tackle Hawkwind's finest pop moment "Psychedelic Warlords..." and give it the ol' Japanese what-the-fuck treatment. And that's just four of the 27 tracks. Some familiar, Acid King, Farflung, Amorphis, but mostly loads of unknowns, all of them steeped in their own particular brand of fuzzed out freaked out spaced out Hawkwind worship! Massive batch of liner notes, complete with band photos and a track by track description of the group and their particular take on each song.
