THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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We thought these were gone forever, but we somehow managed to track down another batch of these psych rock beauties, but who knows if we'll get that lucky again, so don't blow it again...
HOLEEEEEE SHIT! You better tie down your speakers, strap on a helmet, put on some safety goggles and stand WAY back before you drop the needle on this. Three bands, doing super blown out fuzzed out needle in the red psychedelic space rock interpretations of, well, some psychedelic space rock.
The Heads take up a whole side with their rendition of Hawkwind's "Born To Go", and if you need anything more than the words "The Heads play Hawkwind" then there is something seriously wrong with you. It's almost exponential, like instead of Hawkwind filtered through the Heads, it becomes Hawkwind TIMES the Heads TIMES lots of drugs and TIMES about a million amplifiers. Super blown out acid fired drug drenched space rock nirvana!!!
And if you survive side one, side two will certainly do you in, Plastic Crimewave Sound starts it up with a smoking version of the Edgar Broughton Band's "Why Can't Somebody Love Me?" which is damn near as fierce as the Heads' track, needle pegged to the red, guitars set to stun, controls set for the heart of the sun, a furiously face-melting blast of outer space rock and roll. Finally, Lillydamwhite, who we had never heard before, cover the Pink Fairies' "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" and while not as fierce as either of the two other tracks, is still pretty rocking with a super propulsive groove and killer riffs wrapped in spacey FX.
Total space rock overload and WE LOVE IT!!!
Comes in a cool Crimewave designed sleeve (designed to look like an old psychedelic flyer) with a bunch of printed inserts.
SUPER LIMITED. we only got a handful and we may not be able to get more...
Achtung! Last chance to get with the In-Kraut, if you haven't already! This excellent series' third (and, sadly, final) volume offers up another twenty tracks of rare, super groovy dancefloor filling fodder from West Germany, circa 1967 to 1974, all of it pretty amazing and also amusing, in that it's generally waaay over the top and ultra-kitschy. In fact some of these tracks are so ridiculous, sooo deliberately go-go ga-ga "psychedelic" and "hip" and "groovy" that it's almost like they're parodies of these sort of swingin' sixties sounds, a la Austin Powers - who if he were German, would be getting down to exactly these sorts of swinging tunes.
If you're already an In-Kraut initiate you know what to expect: a mix of instrumentals and vocal numbers (speaking of vocal numbers, "Butterflies Never Cry" by Georgees is INSANE, utterly out of hand) done by big band-ish combos looking to wow the hipster denizens of Deutschland's discotheques back in the day. Which means this stuff is delightfully dated and far out at once, with fuzzy acid rock guitars slipped in alongside the funky beats, jazzy, zazzy horns, and lush orchestral maneuvers.
Other than the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra (whose "World Is Gone" is almost as disturbing as it is gleefully goofy and groovy) we don't really recognize too many of the artists here, except a few who also appeared on previous In-Kraut installments, most are totally unknown to us, yet awesome, which is a reason to buy a compilation like this. Some names: Daisy Clan, The Rainbow Orchestra, Inga, Ambros Seelos, Rolf Kuhn, Certain Lions & Tigers, Adam & Eve, Acid, Heinz Kiessling, The German Top Five, Memphis Black, Karl Schiller... and a bunch more. Just a few of the highlights include the Beatles composition "A Hard Day's Night" as performed by Katja Ebstein (which could have been a standout on that recent Easy Beatles collection), and a quite, uh, horny rendition of Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love" done by Dieter Zimmermann (and band), in the tradition of the Deep Purple cover that appeared on vol. 2.
From pop-rock covers to original soundtrack themes, there's plenty of shuffling grooves and slinky instrumentals (Acid's "Hipguard" would thrill Christine 23 Onna) to make this the perfect lava-lamp / mirror-ball crossover collection. Ja, vol. 3 is as strong the first two, highly recommended. You can't listen to this and NOT be having fun!
And as usual with these In-Kraut comps, the cd booklet is packed with graphics and text pertaining to each track. It's quite clear that the compilers know their stuff!
Insound has been issuing one super-limited edition e.p. per month of indie bands on tour; this album collects one song off each release so far. With The Rapture, Letter E, Very Secretary, Ida, Har Mar Superstar, Bright Eyes, Chris Leo/Dalek/The Oktopus, Tristeza, John Vanderslice, The Faint, Vue, Camera Obscura, Kind Of Like Spitting, Soul Junk, Fuck, Son Ambulance, and The Shyness Clinic.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Yes you read that right. $1.98 list price for this Matador and True Pather label vinyl sampler. Previewing upcoming 2012 releases, there's tracks by The Young, Ceremony, Lee Ranaldo, Perfume Genius, and Tanlines (or maybe theirs is totally exclusive?). Plus, it's got previously released 2011 hits from: Girls, Kurt Vile, Esben & The Witch, and Cold Cave (though theirs is a remix/remaster). And Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks contribute an unreleased cut from the Mirror Traffic sessions.
Wow, what an amazing compilation! Really, how could it be anything but awesome with a title like International Sad Hits?! We sure do love us some sad songs, the sadder the better. It's always fascinating to observe how different performers and composers around the world turn their sadness into sound. And in turn, how those sounds effect us as listeners.
This collection was assembled by Damon and Naomi -- a duo who certainly know a thing or two about sad songs. It features four artists whom D&N had heard while touring 'round the world. The duo have most certainly stumbled on some seriously lovely sad sounds, and now the rest of us can wallow in them too. Hailing from Turkey, Korea and Japan these artists echo a somber '60s folk aesthetic (a la Tim Buckley or Bob Dylan), or in fact are obscurities from the '60s themselves. Actually the Japanese contingent here (avant-folk veterans Kazuki Tomokawa and Kan Mikami, who also performs in Vajra with Keiji Haino) we at aQ and many of our customers are plenty familiar with and fond of already... Though they and the others (Turkey's Fikret Kizilok and Korea's Kim Doo Soo) may not be household names in the USA, and might only be known to a handful of adventurous music lovers, hopefully this comp will expose their amazing music to at least a few more lovers of melancholy folk!
Totally fascinating liner notes too, by Damon and Naomi as well as Allan Cummings. A gorgeous melancholy collection put together with much thought and love. So great!
If you're into heavy rock, psych and metal the way we are, then just one glance at the tracklist for this new compilation should sell you on it without much trouble. Yep, there's a bunch of the heavies here, for sure. Witchcraft! Witch! Pelican! High On Fire! The Fucking Champs! The Sword! and a dozen others. And quite a few of these 18 tracks are previously unreleased, over fifty percent in fact. So not a bad dealio indeed, rockers. This focuses on current indie darlings and more obscure upandcomers as well -- including several from right here in San Francisco -- so chances are you'll hear from a favorite band or two and probably get into something new too. Though the cover art (swiped from an old Metal Massacre comp) seemingly promises old school '80s metal action, that's not really what this is about. We wouldn't even classify a lot of these bands as "metal", really. There's just as much stoner psych and post rock and prog and Melvinsy dirge punk, but it IS all on the heavy side. As far as retro inspiration goes, it's the '70s and Sabbath that get the most nods. Faves? Among the Sabbathy, we already love Sweden's Witchcraft (who contribute a live version of "Queen Of Bees") and Witch (a track from their awesome album) but were also stoked to hear Portland's Danava for the first time, so spacey and rollicking. Of course Dungen's song is great (flute!) and you can't argue with Comets On Fire's blown out psych-noise either. Or with the metallic Yessisms of Diamond Nights. We also dug the unreleased cut by SF's hard rockin' Night After Night quite a bit. Heck it's hard to pick stuff out, there's a lot of cool tracks on here, from a bunch of bands we (mostly) love or soon will...
Ok, here's the fairly drool-worthy list of bands found here (asterisks indicate that they're contributing previous unreleased material): Saviours, Danava*, Big Business*, Black Mountain*, The Sword*, Dungen, Witch, The Fucking Champs*, Torche, Pelican, High On Fire, Witchcraft*, Comets On Fire*, Diamond Nights*, Wolfmother, Night After Night*, Warhammer 48K, Parchman Farm*.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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For the past few years now, we've been singing the praises of the Last Visible Dog catalog, which mostly consists of cd-r editions from the likes of Thuja, MCMS, Shizuka, Dead Raven Choir, and many other bands specializing in primitive electronics, droning lo-tech minimalism, or drugged-out psychedelic improvisation. Having recently made the jump to manufacturing real cds with their reissue of the Jewelled Antler project The Birdtree, Last Visible Dog now offers "The Invisible Pyramid" as a double-cd primer to their catalog, with *all exclusive* tracks from Thuja, Reynols, Charalambides, Omit, Birdtree, Fursaxa, Birchville Cat Motel, Karma (yet another Kawabata Makoto project!), Pelt, The Iditarod, Kemialliset Ystavat, SubArachnoid Space, Avarus, MCMS, Drona Parva, Karl Precoda & Mike Gangloff, Miminokoto, Pylon, Sandoz Lab Technicians, Black Forest / Black Sea, and Peter Wright. A wonderfully steady listen, "The Invisible Pyramid" fortunately doesn't suffer from the problems of most label comps, which are often filled with tracks not good enough to make it onto proper albums. Since all of these bands are SO prolific (just look to Birchville Cat Motel and the Jewelled Antler collective for evidence of the wealth of great recordings), getting great tracks couldn't have been that difficult a task for Last Visible Dog. The highlights include a massive four-part opus of space-fug from Reynols, the alienating electronic cryptography of Omit, the minimalist, sleepwalking strum of Fursaxa, and the wistful avant-folk of The Birdtree. Altogether, a wonderful compilation!
We just got this in earlier this week, and well, what do you want already? A review?? It's SIX count 'em SIX CDS!!! We can't listen to all of this and review it, nor do we need to. C'mon, just buy it. You know you want one. How can you not?? There's SEVEN HOURS AND 36 MINUTES of music on here from pretty much EVERYBODY that you love from the international drone / psych / folk scene, from the US and NZ and Finland and Japan and lots of other places. Here's just a partial list: Birchville Cat Motel, Avarus, Bardo Pond, Black Forest/Black Sea, Doktor Kettu, Steven R. Smith, Fursaxa, Peter Wright, Urdog, Seht, Uton, Loren Chasse/Of, Renato Rinaldi, Miminokoto, Matt De Gennaro, Geoff Mullen, Flies Inside The Sun, Up-Tight, Es, Wolfmangler, My Cat Is An Alien, One Inch Of Shadow, Keijo, Ashtray Navigations, Ben Reynolds, and a half-a-dozen more. GEEZUS. All kinds of haunting textures, space rock excursions, and free improv splurge. Of course, we'd love to provide you a detailed, multi-paragraph review where we discuss each track in depth and mention all the highlights, describe the variety, etc. etc. But that's crazy. We wouldn't get this listed until next year if we did that. And you want this NOW don't you? So, suffice to say that this is an amazing follow-up to the excellent, out-of-print "Invisible Pyramid" 2cd comp released a few years back by LVD. This time compiler Chris Moon, inspired by the classic triple LP comp Harmony of the Spheres released by Drunken Fish in 1996, encouraged the contributors to give him more material or longer tracks, in the 12-18 minute range. Perhaps later he saw this as a foolhardy decision when he realized the comp was going to take up six whole cds. But he did it anyway, and we can thank Chris for doing this, 'cause of course, most of these artists are all about the extended track length experience. These aren't bands that write three minute pop songs (although, some artists do provide suites of shorter tracks rather than one long one). They want to let loose and DRONE. And what's the use of a drone that gets cut short after a couple minutes? Exactly. So this comp avoids that problem, and is really a bargain at the price for so much music! Includes an appropriately thick booklet with liner notes, track info, and dedications to various extinct species.
It's a Mint Records family gathering of holiday sorts! This disc includes the five songs by Carolyn Mark, Duotang, David Carswell (who along with New Pornographer John Collins co-runs JC/DC Recording Studios) & Megan Barnes, the Evaporators and their offshoot Thee Snowglobe-lins originally released on the Team Mint Xmas Vol. 1 compilation that came out four years ago on 7" vinyl only. Adding to the festivities are eight more songs by country folks, diverse popsters and instrumental combos galore -- Ms Carolyn Mark (yes, she appears again!), Tennessee Twin, John Guliak (covering a Commander Cody song), the positively dreamy Young And Sexy, garage rawk party kings the Smugglers, the newwave-twangin' Buttless Chaps (covering a Johnny Cash song), the Ramblin' Ambassadors (members formerly of Huevos Rancheros), and Atomic 7 (ex-Shadowy Man From A Shadowy Planet Brian Connelly).
Plus a bunch of the Vancouver based members of the abovementioned groups got together with members of Beans, Maow, The Gay and The Organ and beat the Brits to the punch with their new rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" There's even a video clip included on the cd. But we wonder... being Canadian and all, why didn't they remake the Canadian counterpart from back then "Tears Are Not Enough"? Y'know the one with Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Burton Cummings! Note: Keeping with the spirit of the original project, $3 from each cd sold will go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which was established by the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Just found we have five (5) copies of this Acid Mothers Temple related compilation, that we'd never listed on our site before. AMT members (and pillars of the Japanese psych/prog underground) Atsushi Tsuyama, Tatsuya Yoshida, and Kawabata Makoto show off their chops n' weirdness here, each one solo and also together in various combinations. There's 7 audio tracks here, recorded live, and also 7 more mp4 video clips you can watch on your computer (and which reveal how much these guys revel in their silliness).
The cd starts off with some kind of broken-down freak-folk twang and psych shred from Atsushi Tsuyama, who sings a bit like Tom Waits transformed into a cartoon bear. Next, Kawabata Makoto contributes eight minutes of FX-laden outer space drone bliss. Chaos erupts with Yoshida's Ruins Alone track, a battle between his drum kit and video game zips and zaps it seems. Then, all three of these fellows sing in the comedic a cappella combo Zubi Zuva X, a crazed chorus that elicits much laughter from the audience - or perhaps that's part of their performance. Akaten (Atsushi + Yoshida) offer up what sounds like someone eating a meal, which turns into an improv session, and then devolves into echoed insanity... The track by Zoffy (Kawabata + Atsushi) is the most "rock" thing on here, so far, though of course also quite nutty. And then all three gentlemen, in the form of Acid Mothers SWR, wrap thing up with a display of their tight, mathy prog.
Limited to 300 copies produced for a 2008 European tour. Apparently we've had 'em hidden away here since then! Better late than never to list these, grab 'em while you can, AMT fans...
That's right, another Indonesian garage rock comp, but c'mon, how can you resist a record subtitled Indonesia Screaming Fuzz? One that promises "garage stomp, Indo-rock and beat surf"? You can't. Or at least we can't. Some of the names here will be familiar to long time readers of the aQ list. Groups whose albums have gotten the full on reissue treatment, like girl group Dara Puspita, and legendary Indo-garage rockers Koes Bersaudara (who show up again as Koes Plus), which should give you an idea of the sounds here, and while you might already own those tracks, odds are you probably don't have many jams from The Swallows, Females, Steps, Panber's, Mona Rita & The Kingstons, the Peels, Rolling Beats, Black Magic, Los Indonesios or Banjamin S. But we can promise, after listening to this you will wish you did.
The Swallows transform the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" into their own chunk of surfy garage-y hypno rock, Rolling Beats take sweet bubblegum pop and wreath it in a haze of serious guitar fuzz, the Peels do their best Stones (which means they basically just swipe a song and sort of cover it), with some twangy distorted guitars and some sweet vocal harmonies, Los Indonesios sound a bit like an Indonesian Monks, big twangy guitars, and booming echo drenched vox, Females mix classic Indonesian sounds with fuzzy garagey grooves, and introduce some dreamy vox and handclap, and Steps do some Ventures style surf rock, but with buzzy synths and some distinctly Eastern sounding melodies, and so it goes. It's a sound we just can't get enough of, groovy, fuzzy, surfy, jangly, the sound so distinctive, and even the 'covers' reimagine the originals in new and spectacularly groovy ways.
Needless to say (but we will anyway), fans of recent Record Of The Week Those Shocking, Shaking Days, will dig this big time, and if you liked other comps like Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1976-1983 and Thai? Dai! - The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground, or if you loved those Dara Puspita and Koes Bersaudara reissues and wanted more, well, here you go...
BACK IN STOCK! We thought these Charly BYG/Actuel reissue cds were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. This is one of the essentials in the series, a triple disc box set sampler which includes tracks from the other four BYG/Actuel reissues listed here (Sun Ra, Shepp, Don Cherry, and the Art Ensemble) as well as rare material by Sonny
Here's a refreshing collection of blues recordings produced by legendary keyboardist Jim Dickinson. It often seems that the best recordings of the blues and country come to us from crusty, decaying 78's lovingly cared for by obsessive collectors. Partly it's because the performers in the infancy of these genres had a certain amount of genuine inspiration, in contrast to the 1000th time someone plays the same blues progression with the now time worn cliche about being wronged by one's significant other. Another part of the equation is the circumstance under which the recordings were made. What someone plays, in one take, in their home or at their local bar than when surrounded by engineers and studio musicians and rehearsing a take 20 times before committing it to tape. Enter the Delta Experimental Project. For the first time, in what seems ages, a collection of recordings of great blues musicians recorded on the fly with -- in most cases -- minimal recording equipment and no second chances. Performers stop in mid refrain to talk about something that crossed their minds, or break out laughing (in earnest). In many tracks you can hear kids playing in the background, traffic rumbling and sundry other ambient noises usually aeseptically removed from studio recordings. Twelve great tracks ranging from barrel-house piano, gospel, fife and drum and more from the likes of Sleepy John Estes, Otha Turner, Mose Vinson, Johnnny Woods, Alec Teal & Butter Biscuit.
Besides being a totally astounding 'out-there' music maker himself, Joe Meek was also quite a whip-smart producer back in the '60s. This compilation gathers together the proof in the toe-tappin', finger-snappin' pudding. It dusts off twenty peppy, poppy cuts from long-gone (but now happily not forgotten) combos such as The Syndicats (check out their terrific organ-laden "What To Do"), The Puppets (there's a mean snarky boy vocal performance on Leiber & Stoller's "Poison Ivy"), Tony Dangerfield & The Thrills, The Blue Rondos and Bobby Rio & The Revelles. Includes lengthy liner notes and lots of photos of the bands' members and memorabilia from back in the day.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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The debut release from Matt Wobensmith's (ex-Outpunk) new label! Digital Hardcore-style dancepunk featuring unlikely teamups: Christoph de Babalon and Team Dresch, Jack Acid & Chris Polaris, Kento Oiwa (of Olympia's ICU) with Behead the Prophet, and 680x0 with the Mukilteo Fairies. We are happy to see the punk and extreme e-music worlds teaming up, and to think it was yesterday that the "Maximum R&R" guys were buying the Atari Teenage Riot single from us... Queercorps is leading the way.
Another amazing and mysterious and confusional release from Tesco, who almost single handedly are keeping modern industrial and post industrial music alive and kicking. They've brought us Der Blutharsch, Death In June, Anenzephalia, and now JUCHE. A compilation of modern industrial artists, weighing in on North Korea (!). What is Juche? Well Wikipedia describes it like this:
"The Juche Idea is the official state ideology and state-sponsored religion of North Korea and the political system based on it. The doctrine is a component part of Kimilsungism, the North Korean term for Kim Il-sung's family regime. The core principle of the Juche ideology since the 1970s has been that "man is the master of everything and decides everything". Juche literally means "main body" or "subject"; it has also been translated in North Korean sources as "independent stand" and the "spirit of self-reliance"."
Removed from the context of actual, totalitarian politics, Juche sounds kinda cool. Intense, brutal, simple. And certainly like some sort of industrial music manifesto. So it makes sense that these bands would have something to say about it. What exactly is up to you to decipher. From the music and the extensive art and text in the accompanying booklet. But for now we'll concern ourselves with the music�
We were mostly excited by a brand new unreleased track from aQ faves Anenzephalia, whose past records were rife with the sort of intense, bleak, grim, blackened dronescapes we can never get enough of. The track here is still grim and dark, but more rhythmic, a crackling lo-fi glitchscape, a skeletal rhythm crafted from squelches and pops spread out over the drift below, a garbled alien melody, equal parts sine-wave and damaged sonar ping, eventually joined by a wavery insect like blackbuzz, and some distorted disembodied vocals, a looped snippet from a speech of some sort, the whole track subtly harrowing, and weirdly hypnotic.
The Turbund Sturmwerk track is super creepy as well, a whispery shimmer of ambience, a strange looped vocal whir in the background, sweeping swell of distant distortion, soft smears of hiss, all beneath an urgent voice, an emotional speech of some sort, the song shifting gears part way through and morphing into a swirling dirge, of crumbling downtuned chords, throbbing low end buzz and extremely panned bursts of fuzz and hiss. The Grey Wolves offer up another chunk of grinding ambient creep, a rough, gritty textured wash of processed synths and strange looped distortion, melodies rendered in shards of feedback and fractured effects, a voice buried in the mix, urgent and ominous, peppered with bits of Bush, and some tangled blurred rhythms.
Operation Cleansweep weigh in with a sinister stretch of drawn out tones, layered caustic rumbles, whirring machinelike drones, mysterious percussive thumps and creaks, all smeared into a dense throbbing buzz. The strangest track is probably Militia's, beginning with some spoken word, that slips into singing, in the background a slow building looped chunk of glimmering ambience. Soon an hypnotic looped synth melody swoops in, pulled from some lost Phillip Glass piece, accompanied by junkyard drums, all very mesmerizing and repetitive, a bit like gamelan, or some Steve Reich piece. A haunting slab of alien industrial world music.
The rest of the tracks are just as weird and cool, dark and drone-y, Con-Dom, Genocide Organ, Ex-Order. In fact, much of this comp seems to fall more in line with experimental drone music, than traditional 'industrial' music, some of it reminding us of mellower more blissed out Prurient, with processed vocals, all manner of rumbling, pulsing low end, plenty of buzz and blurred murk, all of it dark and mysterious and fucking awesome.
Packaged in an oversized A5 red textured cardstock booklet, the text and symbols on the cover letter pressed in embossed metallic gold, inside a full color booklet, with lyrics, images, photos, each band with their own page. And as it says on the back cover "Limited Edition of 15,000,000 copies", so better get yours now�
Not sure where we were when this came out originally. Actually, the oldest of us here were around 11 years old, so we were still a few years away from discovering the joys of punk rock. But holy shit this comp is amazing. Originally released in 1981 on the Urinals' label, Keats Rides A Harley was a brief glimpse into the burgeoing Southern California (and Arizona) punk scene, featuring a handful of soon to be huge punk rock legends, many still sort of feeling out their sounds, all of them super raw and intense. Features the original comp, remastered, with Gun Club, the Leaving Trains, Meat Puppets, Earwigs, 100 Flowers, Human Hands, Tunneltones, S Squad and Toxic Shock. This cd reissue includes nine bonus tracks, an extra song from each of the above bands, as well as the way rare 5 track Happy Squid label sampler, featuring tracks from the Urinals, Danny And The Doorknobs, Arrow Book Club, Vidiots and Phil Bedel. Also includes super detailed liner notes, and an extensive history of each group.
Benefit compilation for Alternative Radio, an independent, non-profit production service which provides weekly one-hour public affairs programs for radio stations around the globe. Featuring an all-star cast of artists, including Negativland, Kronos Quartet, Olivia Tremor Control, Windy & Carl, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Friends of Dean Martinez, Pere Ubu, Built to Spill, and more. Also includes liner notes by Howard Zinn.
Soundtrack to the Larry Clark film. Includes some of the very best work Lou Barlow and John Davis have ever done, we say! Very rhythmic, groove-oriented, lots of Silver Apples and Satie samples. New songs from Folk Implosion (Lou and John), Deluxx Folk Imposion (Lou, John, plus Bob Fay and the guitarist from Cheater Slicks), and hip hop outfit Lo-Down. Previously released songs from Daniel Johnston and Slint. I am happy to report that as of 9/95, the major label appeared to be treating the Deluxx Folk Implosion well, going so far as to supply them with unlimited room service at that year's CMJ show. The lobster chili was both decadent and delicious. Thank you, corporate giant.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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The Kill Rock Stars and 5RC labels bring you the third installment (first in five years) of their video fanzine, now in the DVD format. That means there's a heckuva lotta stuff on here. You get music videos from the likes of Amps For Christ (which we really liked), the Decemberists, Men's Recovery Project (who also provide a "making of" documentary short that's even more entertaining and weird than their video), Stereo Total, Deerhoof, Gravy Train!!!, Kleenex/LiLiPUT, Mecca Normal, Xiu Xiu, Hella (a cute and clever puppet animation), and others. Then there's live clips from Born Against (hardcore!), The Gossip, Quix*o*tic, Sleater-Kinney, a very enegetic Unwound, and others as well. Plus other stuff, like the clip from Sadie Shaw and Sarah Reed's Charm movie. Something for everyone.
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Sacred Bones have their work cut out for them, if they wanna catch up with the Killed By Death series. That blatant bootleg series compiled collectible/obscure punk singles from all around the world, pressing them onto crappy vinyl and kickin' them out the door at a blazing pace. The numbers affixed to Killed By Death were a red herring; there were only a couple dozen released in the late '80s and early '90s but had volume numbers like #41, #77, #33, #202, etc. We're hoping that Sacred Bones will keep things sensible, but not too sensible, as they should continue to delve into the dustbin of the catch-all term "deathrock" for more and more and more compilations from back in the day.
Of the eleven artists on this album, we had only ever heard/heard of a few - Kitchen & The Plastic Spoons being one, which also garnered a Dark Entries reissue of their weirdo-synth theatrics, and Glorious Din, only cuz they were from San Francisco way back when.
As for what "deathrock" means, the obvious references to goth do apply as in the poppier veins of Christian Death or X-Mal Deutschland; but it can also be rather punky and snarly (as in Taste Of Decay's full throttled take on the Damned). It can also relate lyrically as well. "I Wanna Be You" by Your Funeral is a bouncy, jangly number that wouldn't be out of place next to The Clean or The Bats or any of the ecstatic DIY popsters on Flying Nun; but lyrically the band utters a raw, suicidal desperation. Both Twisted Nerve and Afterimage dissect Joy Division's classic single "Transmission" with the former wholesale lifting the bassline from that track, and featuring a crooner who sounds exactly like Julian Cope, while the latter adopts Bernard Sumner's pop-hook panache. Screaming For Emily (not to be confused with the equally goth-tastic Screams For Tina) explode with a hi-hat frenzy of death-disco rhythms, Teutonic melodies, and deepthroated vocals for one of the many high points on this album. The aforementioned Glorious Din lay down an archetypally gothy bassline swimming in liquid flange, with an almost nonexistent guitar scratch and pummeling rhythms that lie somewhere between Crispy Ambulance and Savage Republic. The Naked And The Dead reprise Sex Gang Children's uncanny ability to seem feral and freaked out in their unhinged guitars, randomly tumbling percussion, and sexpot/deathwish vocalizations, while strangely maintaining a grounded sense of compositional control. It is true that all of these bands on Killed By Deathrock have their references and antecedents, but the quality in all of these genetic mutants is top fucking shelf.
Thanks for killing us with deathrock, Sacred Bones. Let's do it again sometime!
This is so good. Wow. Never been much for hardcore. In fact as a teen, I skipped the punk rock stage entirely, jumping from top 40 right into heavy metal. Eventually I backtracked and discovered tons of amazing punk rock. But man, had I known when I was making the switch, that there was stuff like this out there....
This stuff sounds so fresh even now, and is so aggressive and mean and boiling over with utter fury. These songs say as much about teen rebellion and the disaffected youth as it does about the time period ('80-'85). Definitely a better reminder of the Reagan years than the stuff we've been hearing about him lately (man, was he ever lucky to die during an election year!). Anyway, this is a really amazing comp, especially considering that out of 23 bands we had only heard of one! And that band's from Finland! This stuff is so heavy and mean, it even out-brutalizes lots of black metal we've heard. Wild thrashing drumming, simple skull bashing riffing, shouting and screeching vocals, throbbing basslines, and lyrics that are pissed Pissed PISSED! Some of the bands: Urban Waste, Gasmask, Terveet Kadeet, Ultraviolent, No Pigs, Capital Scum, Genetic Control, the Left, Nihilistics -- hell, even the names sound pissed! Allan and Andee have been surprising everyone lately by playing this incessantly!
Faust's Hans Joachim Irmler compiled this collection of tracks from what might (might!) be termed modern-day krautrock bands -- even if they're not all strictly from Germany -- which includes not one but two tracks from Finnish AQ faves Circle, along with contributions from Faust, Irmler himself, Ole Lukkoye, Kangaroo Moon, Audiac, Nista Nije Nista, Adriano Lanzi & Omar Sodano, S/T, and (most bizarrely), indie hip-hoppers Dalek! Now, we have to confess that aside from a few obvious ones, we're not really familar with this line-up of artists. But of course, that's the whole point of the compilation, to introduce Faust's Klangbad label's roster. Most of which seems oriented towards the experimental, spacey, dark, droney, and repetitive. Even the Dalek track here fits in with that description. But you'll find some cuts are poppier, some are jazzier. Although we didn't care terribly much for the electronic trip-pop of Audiac, or the clubby lounge-electronica-rap-prog of Kangaroo Moon, this has the advantage of being a compilation, so those unfortunately cheesy cuts are soon superceded by more interesting ones, like the abstract jazzy soundscapes of Nista Niji Nista or Irmler's droning "Museum". Oye Lukkoye ends the album with the nine-minute "White Stone (Net Doma)", kind of an ethnic/beat epic in the mode of the Magic Carpathians. So, while not 100 percent great, this succeeds at being a diverse sampler, whetting our appetite for (at least some) further Klangbad releases. And Circle-fiends will of course be happy with the ten minutes of exclusive Circle music found here!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yes, it's "The Fiddler On The Roof" as interpreted by an interesting selection Knitting Factory friends. The Magnetic Fields do "If I Were A Rich Man," Negativland does "Tevye's Dream", The Residents do "Matchmaker"...you get the idea. Definitely a fun concept.
(Although whether this has a deeper meaning in the context of the downtown NYC new Jewish music movement I don't know). KF's Michael Dorf says "the inspiration for this project came from a combination of humor and commercialism." Other participants include David S. Ware, Uri Caine, Eugene Chadbourne, Elliott Sharp, Come, Hasidic New Wave, The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Naftule's Dream, Jill Sobule, and the Paradox Trio.
A collection of out-of-print and/or hard-to-find a-sides from the back catalogue of 555 Recordings of Leeds (run by Stewart Anderson of Boyracer / Steward fame). Tracks by the Aislers Set, Hood, Kid 606, Boyracer, Empress, Steward, The Remote Viewer, The Famous Boyfriend, and much more. 23 tracks total!
This just might be the coolest compilation ever. A musical compendium focused on the sound, singers and groups, who were in some way linked to the infamous Jewish mafia, aka the "Kosher Nostra", an organization including such underworld legends as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Meyer Lansky, a group who worked alongside the more well known American mafia, and who had a huge influence on popular music, creating a musical movement that was equal parts big band, jazz, swing and Yiddish music, a musical scene which existed parallel to the mainstream, with its own radio shows, record labels, and superstars. Organized by the artist Oz Almog, who is also a curator at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, and who created a high profile exhibition of his original paintings of Jewish gangsters, along with articles, biographies and crime scene sketches, along with someone named Shantel who wrote his thesis on the Kosher Nostra and did extensive research on organized crime and its influence on American musical culture, all of which is detailed in the massive booklet that accompanies this compilation. But even knowing nothing about the roots of these tracks, the music here is amazing, from Connie Francis doing a classic Yiddish tune, to Tom Jones singing the super dramatic "My Yiddishe Mamme", from The Andrews Sisters first big hit "Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn" to Chubby Checker singing in Yiddish on "Misirlou", Solomon Schwartz's fuzzy groovy version of the Jewish classic "Hava Nagila", tracks from Al Jolson (with the Andrews Sisters), Sophie Tucker and loads more. Some of the tracks live, others presented as part of old time radio shows, complete with announcers and advertisements, a gorgeous, and fascinating glimpse into this remarkable social and musical subculture, or as the label describes it "an unparalleled journey back in time to the music clubs, vaudeville theaters and gambling casinos of the 1920s to the '60s bearing compelling witness to this enormously diverse and truly remarkable fusion of styles". Easily our reissue/compilation of the year so far. So totally great!
Fantastic packaging, a massive booklet, loaded with extensive liner notes on the music, and the history of the Kosher Nostra, lots of pictures do, the cd in a similarly designed digipack, all housed in a swank slipcover.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Subtitled "German Psychedelic Underground 1968-1974." From the purveyors of the "Pre-Kraut Pandaemonium" lps and the "Electric Loosers" cds, this collection moves a few years ahead from the 60's German beat groups of those comps to full-on cosmic krautrock rarities. There's an unreleased early Can track on here ("Kama Sutra), also the likes of Exmagma, Electric Sandwich, Limbus 4, and many others--all very obscure and very psychedelic!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Purporting to be an Italian horror movie soundtrack (it's not), this locally-produced comp manages to make you wish there were such a movie, if only to see how the pretty awesome selection of songs on here could be made to fit into it. Contributors include The Need, Joan of Arc, Collosamite, Thrones, Impaled, Armatron, Transitional, Melt Banana, The Champs, Pablos Triangle, and more. As you can see from that list, this is a strangely varied comp indeed, from metal to emo to no wave, but it all somehow seems to fit together just like a "soundtrack" should. Good stuff.
CD reissue of this 1998 LP only compilation highlighting some of the lesser known bands on Hanson (ie: not Wolf Eyes). Long tracks from:
NAUTICAL ALMANAC -- retarded chicken scratch guitar, damaged casios, screeching sinewaves, instrument buzz, all stacked in a big squrmy, noisy pile.
ISIS AND WEREWOLVES -- Lo-fi carnival soundtrack rock. Feedback and clattery rhythms, wailing guitars and keyboards spit out a fuzzy, skronky Merzbow meets Goblin splatterscape (heavier on the Merzbow).
RON OF JAPAN -- A symphony of demented squeak toys gives way to pounding caveman thud which dissolves into an almost melodic, soothing free-noise drone.
ANDREW WILKES-KRIER -- Ambient clatter, moaning distant drones, and humming low end rumbles, bird sounds and sparse percussive tinkle. Quite a bit different than the stuff he does now under the Andrew W.K. moniker!
THE MINI-SYSTEMS -- Sing-songy electronic melodies under a shifting sea of white noise, amp buzz, gurgle and whir.
THE BEAST PEOPLE -- Noisy chaotic, skree-scape of recording dropouts, static and hiss, growling moster vocals, distant screechs, and warbly slow motion melodies wrapped in white noise.
Finland's Lal Lal Lal label is one of those cottage industry imprints that's always got something interesting going on, regardless of who's paying attention, releasing a diverse selection of lo-fi hijinks from (mostly) fellow Finnish freaks such as Fricara Pacchu, Avarus, and Maniacs Dream, though they've got some international friends on the roster as well like Howlin' Magic and The Skaters. Apparently a bunch of their acts got together last year for a festival, making rare live appearances some of 'em, and to have something to special to sell at the fest they produced this limited edition compilation cassette, containing tracks from Semimuumio, Suohumala, Fricara Pacchu, Astral Social Club, and Pylon. That's four from Finland and one (ASC, aka Neil Campbell) from the UK.
Side 1 is the "danceable" side, perhaps (seriously, they get a groove on). It begins with the "emotional, adult-oriented beat" 'tronica of Semimuumio, a cheerfully synth-laden instrumental ditty, the synthwork getting wilder and more warped as the piece picks up its pace. Then Suohumala chimes in with another pleasant groover, incorporating classical-Casio sounds and a bit of a burbling reggae dub vibe. AQ fave Fricara Pacchu comes next, his track a stomping one with thick flanged-out riffs, all-instrumental like the ones before. Finally on side 1, Astral Social Club's style of cacophonic cut-up loops and beats and effects brings a chaotic throb to the proceedings. All very nice.
The cacophony continues on the second side, but in a more freeform fashion, with interesting abstract stuttering and staggered sounds, blips and bleeps and glitched out skree from Pylon, who gets the whole side for this somewhat noisier and much longer track than the others. It's pretty cool too.
This entertaining artifact comes in the form of an opaque white plastic cassette, with the J-card cover looking to us oddly very early '90s desktop publishing in its graphical execution. Sadly, Lal Lal Lal say they're winding things up label-wise so this may be one of their last ever releases...
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Yep, Mississippi Records strikes again with another perfectly assembled compilation. Or more appropriately, they strike with a perfect cherry picked compilation of yet ANOTHER perfectly assembled compilation, as the eleven songs here represent highlights taken from Tompkins Square's massive 3cd set Fire In My Bones released back in 2007. So, in the event that you own that album already, you might not need this too, unless the vinyl format compells... But everyone else is advised to jump on board and embrace the gospel. Particularily if you'd rather have the 4 hours of that Fire In My Bones comp distilled down to two essential sides of vinyl.
The tracks here are of the variety that will make non-believers feel like they are missing out. It is important to note that Fire In My Bones was subtitled "Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel". Raw and other-worldly being perhaps the best descriptions for the sounds within. Naturally, the enormity of Fire In My Bones might be too much for some folks to handle, so Last Time Around gets a warm welcome here at aQuarius. These songs cover pretty wide sonic ground. You have tracks like opener "Get Back Satan" by Rev. Roger L. Worthy & His Sister Bonnie, where the siblings accompany each other vocally with a beautiful tremeloed electric guitar, reminding us of some of the material on Sonic Boom's recent Spacelines compilation. Isaiah Owens' "You Without Sin Cast The First Stone" offers up a nice contrast with slashing electric guitar that sounds slightly (not too much) and awesomely out of tune, while the vocals go from Son House styled growls to a wailing falsetto. Elsewhere we have Bishop McDaniel, whose "Rock Daniels" is a stomping rocker with a sound that manages to outsleaze many of today's garage rock hopefuls. The gang gospel vocals, of course, take things to levels of heavenly bliss that you just can't reach unless you BELIEVE. Awesome. Kicking off side B, Isaac Haney & The Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir's "At A Time Like This (Part One) is a slow organ led number that serves a beautiful comedown to Bishop Daniel's fire and brimstone. The legendary Precious Bryant makes an appearance here with "The Saints", her amazing clear vocals and cool country strummed guitar making this a standout among the standouts. The album closes with Theotis Taylor's rendition of "Swing Low", where plinky pianos and awesome crooned vocals appear to overpower and distort the microphones for that in-the-red sound that we all LOVE.
Mississippi-heads have no doubt already hit the "add to cart" button, and while this pristine collection is great for anyone even slightly interested in gospel music, the performances here are so passionate, energetic, and cool that they will likely win over people who had no idea what real gospel music sounds like. As always, this one gets our highest recommendation.
As some of you might know, last March, Tarantula Hill, the home-base and performance center of Baltimore's Nautical Almanac burned down in a fire. Luckily some of their friends in the wide world of the noise/experimental music scene have been coming to their rescue. This double-cd comp put out by Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace is a benefit for them with all proceeds going directly to Tarantula Hill. With folks like Aaron Dilloway, Chris Corsano, Burning Star Core and Mouthus you know there will be some serious havoc waiting for your ears. But there are some other folks like Jack Rose, The Haunting and Pengo to bring some more mesmerizing trance inducing sounds into the mix. Good noise for a good cause.
A comp featuring exclusive tracks by AQ faves like Circle, Jesu, and Stinking Lizaveta, among others?! Heck we'd want one even if it was a tribute album to, say, Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit. (Actually those sound like they'd almost be interesting in a sick sort of way.) This IS a tribute album, it's on the tribute-o-centric Dwell label after all, but the subject is much more acceptable: '60s psych legend Syd Barrett. And though we love early Pink Floyd and solo Syd too, none of us here are quite obsessed enough to expertly critique this comp's covers of Syd Barrett tunes from that side of things... but doubtless if that's the sort of detail you want, you can find some Internet chat page all aflame with commentary on the ins and outs and ups and downs of these bands' take on the music of Syd Barrett, who was most 'correct', and all. What we can tell you is, to our ears, this is a damn cool comp!
While tributes are often quick-buck cash-ins full of no-name acts, this one's good for several reasons, excellent songs to start with, with an equally excellent selection of bands doing the tributizing, several big-time AQ faves among 'em as we said: Circle! Jesu! Stinking Lizaveta! Unearthly Trance! freakin' Pentagram!! The compilers seem to have asked bands that lurk at the swirling vortex of heaviness/psychedelia/metal/prog and persuaded some of the best to put on the paisley and do their best Syd impressions.
Here's the full lineup: Kosmos (featuring Away from Voivod), Kylesa, Intronaut, Stinking Lizaveta, Jarboe (from the Swans), Pentagram, Giant Squid, Yakuza, Jesu, Unearthly Trance, Dredg, Circle, and Zodiak. Some do their Syd HEAVY, whereas others lighten up their usual sound. Intronaut definitely display some pop talent, and Stinking Lizaveta, normally all-instrumental, surprise with an excellent vocal rendition of "Matilda Mother" - but at about 1:48 into the song their true Stinking Liz identity comes to the fore, as they turn on the searing, psychedelic guitar soloing and bass-heavy groove. Lumbering cuts from Kylesa ("Interstellar Overdrive") and Zodiak ("See Emily Play") are true to form. Amidst this lineup, Jarboe's track, a version of "Late Night" (also recently covered by Belong on their Colorloss LP) is a bit of left turn, as it's all about her whispery vocals (nice, NOT annoying as sometimes we find her) and not so much about guitar like so many of the others here.
Some other random observations regarding a few of these tracks: Ancient doom metallers Pentagram, the oddest entry only 'cause it's so hard to believe they really exist in this time and place, stick close to the original of "Flaming", Bobby Liebling singing in his weird old man voice, but with an affected British accent (or maybe it's just how he often sounds a bit like Ozzy anyway). Giant Squid do a Syd song called "Octopus", natch, and make us want to check 'em out as we sorta slept on their album. Yakuza's intense version of "Lucifer Sam" really makes us think of Voivod - except Voivod, known for their Floyd covers, never did this particular one. Speaking of Voivoid, who here gets "Astronomy Domine"? Dredg, with a sparkling rendition. Jesu brings loads of shoegazing slo-mo fuzz and echoing vocals to their take on "Chapter 24", just as you might expect. And Circle's version of "Rats" is -very- Circle sounding, in their sorta folky-mode (a la their Forest album) with Mika Ratto's acid-gobbling vocals not at all out of place.
So, listen for yourself, this is one of those rare tributes you could probably enjoy either as a fan of the bands on it (as many of you are) and/or as a fan of the subject of the tribute. We imagine a Floyd freak could wind up getting into some cool new music as a result of this comp, and likewise it'll probably turn on some Jesu fans, or whatever, to the wonders Syd Barrett's melodic, acid visions.
And it's a "legitimate" tribute, in the sense that Syd Barrett and his Pink Floyd colleagues really were one of the crucial '60s artists to pioneer and make possible the wide range of weird, spaced out music we all love today, of which the bands on this comp are all good examples.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Third in the "Insound Tour Support" series of budget cds, this collection features mainly (only?) side-projects from members of June of 44 including Doug Scharin's H.I.M., Jeff Mueller solo, and Fred Erskine's Dueling Hearts...
Itchin' for some totally trashy garage rawk? Look no further! A total labor of love, this compilation record has been in the works since it was recorded back in '89 at the Purple Onion here in SF. The man behind it is Tom Guido, whose entertaining typewritten story of the entire process fills practically every inch of the record's fold-out photocopied sleeve... old snapshots of the shows fill up the rest. Seven obscure live tracks from the infamous Mummies, Gaping Wounds (featuring He Who Cannot Be Named of the Dwarves), Wild Breed, Carnaby Street Lamp Post, Driving Wheels, Pussy Hounds and Vanilla Whores. Ultra raw and super lo-fi with plenty of shrieks and howls. Limited pressing of 777.
Compilation of live performances of touring bands at Chico's 'The Blue Room.' Includes such AQ faves as Stinking Lizaveta, Burning Airlines, Richard Buckner and Edith Frost.
So, are you the curious sort of person that's willing to take a chance on a compilation featuring a whole bunch of bands you've never ever heard of before, as long as most of them have cool and/or ridiculous names?? Then this is for you, featuring as it does contributions from Whitney Houston's Crypt, Bridal Gnome, School Girl Report, Drunk Elk, WASP (no, not W.A.S.P.), and best of all, Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing, to name our favorite band *names* among the 23 on here. There's only one of 'em that we knew anything about already, but it might serve as a recommendation, as the very last track here is a live one by former aQ Record Of The Weekers, shoegazing Australian noise popsters The Bunyip Moon. Their new drummer is the guy that runs the Vacant Valley label, who put this comp together, celebrating five years of activity.
So, you might also be interested in this, if you wanna check out some underground, DIY, lo-fi bands from Australia and New Zealand, 'cause that's what these are. Certainly some cool noisy garagey clang and wallop to be found here! Some of it REALLY noisy and blown out. Other bands are more punk-poppish, or about the electronic weirdness and glitch. All sorts, though noisiness does seem to be a common theme. The cd booklet includes a bunch of show fliers so you can get a sense of the 'scene', along with liner notes. We just got a tiny handful of these comps, totally out of the blue, but now might have to investigate some of these bands further...
