[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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

Showing results 19151 through 19200 of 19388.

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Is this album cover supposed to make us think of a Cocteau Twins record? And maybe the title too? Even the Kill Rock Stars label logo on the back looks suspiciously like 4AD's from a distance. Well, the record definitely doesn't sound like the Cocteau Twins... at least not entirely. As always is the case with Xiu Xiu, there are many references to other musics in Women As Lovers. They are both subtle and overt, and ever ingeniously assimilated into the band's unique ethos. 20th century avant-garde composer Lou Harrison (or maybe just his namesake?) makes a cameo in the lyrics of 'No Friend Oh!' As well, sharing vocals with Xiu Xiu's Caralee McElroy and Jamie Stewart on a cover of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" is Michael Gira -- the presence of whom seems more iconic than musically awesome. Regardless, it is good to hear him and to be reminded of Swans records needing to be listened to again! With Xiu Xiu, the musical tips of the hat consistently seem genuine and inspired, never gratuitous nor shamefully derivative. The palette of sounds on Women As Lovers is similar to most Xiu Xiu records -- electronics, guitar, strings, acoustic and electric percussion, vibraphone, organ, bass, kalimba, whip, wind, 'drones'. Oh, and what may be a new addition to the arsenal... saxophone! If you're a fan of the free jazz skronk, then this is the Xiu Xiu album for you! One can't help but think that even the parts of songs that break down into stumbling noises, jerks, shards, scrapes, blasts and off-kilter thrusts couldn't possibly be improvised. Each sound and its place in the song is so deliberate. The overall music has a spirit of great intention behind it, the duration of each song part so seemingly calculated for optimal effect, that Xiu Xiu's genius seems to lie much in the composition of these songs. Theirs is a music so excessive and yet strangely so economical. After listening, you ask, only 14 tracks? There are as many songs within each song as there are tracks on the album. It's a genius spirit that unites so many disparate musical tropes into a seamless and jaggedly ecstatic music - music that has great pop hooks at its core (or maybe, more exactly, along its edges?). It's the sort of music that goes into the 'acquired taste' category -- the kind of music that younger bands might eventually be taking their cues from. If you're willing to listen and undergo the embarrassment, the dark laughter, self-deprecation, 'hurt buttholes', Freudian complexes and all-out heartbreak in the stories within the songs, you might end up beholding your favorite pop/noise/ambient/industrial/electronica/free jazz/chamber music album of the year. *Listening to Xiu Xiu is like looking at photos of Leigh Bowery, deeply personal, outlandish and strangely embarrassing, that is, Embarrassment as an art form. http://www.leighbowery.com.br/.

MPEG stream: I Do What I Want, When I Want
MPEG stream: Under Pressure (feat. Michael Gira)

Something for Xiu Xiu diehard fans and completists... A sturdy 7" picture disc featuring two very fleeting collaborative glimpses of Xiu Xiu and photographer/Xiu Xiu merch guy David Horvitz (one vocal number "Boy Soprano" which is filled with the group's characteristic angsty drama and the other a low-key loosely structured instrumental "Saint Pedro Glue Stick" -- both from their most recent full length The Air Force), and two very different Horvitz-shot photos (one of a grey cloudy sky and the other of a blue mud-masked, fully clothed, shell-shocked looking guy lying in a motel bed next to a bored looking gal. Limited to 600.

Picture disc!

The beautifully damaged worlds of Xiu Xiu and Grouper are magically melded together on this limited edition ep. The trademark drugged out dreamy drones of Liz Harris aka Grouper perfectly compliment the mopey dark instrumentation of Xiu Xiu. Like their collaboration with Larsen last year, Xiu Xiu prove that besides their intense lyrics and over-the-top vocal delivery, they have a knack for creating a truly creepy and unsettling ambiance. Vocals and voices are just another element of the haunting mood these two effortlessly conjure up. Like the ghost sounds of a carnival that rode off into the sunset hundreds of years ago but whose imprint has never been totally erased. Together Xiu Xiu and Grouper weave sounds that occupy some perfect space between dreams and nightmares. Highly recommended! And we only got a handful direct from the bands, so you know what that means...

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AQ-pal and our computer-life-saver Eric Rose wrote the following review for us: Brand-new 4-disc set of live tracks, album demos, alternate versions, and outtakes from those crafty popsters from Swindon: XTC. Few bands inspire and facilitate such rabid collector-frenzy and completism among their fan-base, and in a magnanimous gesture, the "lads" have thrown open the vaults, bringing almost 20 years worth of buried treasure to the surface. (Also rumored for release later this year: "Fuzzy Warbles" - a collection of non-album demos). Hardcore XTC fans already know that they need this like they need air to breathe, and thus will buy it track-list unseen. The trick, then, is creating a solid overview/sampling of the band's career that'll appeal to the casual fan, while offering the diehards something that they haven't yet gotten their collector-paws on. In this regard, the set is a success, covering the ground between their Devo-meets-New York Dolls beginnings in '75 to their stately, elegant pop of the 90's, via recordings that are -- for the most part -- recently-unearthed and un-bootlegged. A sprinkling of "representative" album tracks throughout provides a nice counterpoint to the largely unpolished nature of the collection. As an added bonus, the set includes a 60-page book, featuring track commentary by the ever-witty Andy Partridge and the ever-humble Colin Moulding.

RealAudio clip: Things Fall to Bits
RealAudio clip: Yacht Dance
RealAudio clip: Find the Fox

Fascinating glimpse into the creative process of Andy Partridge, for over 22 years now leader of the seminal UK pop group XTC. This album is composed of demos of the previous two XTC albums, Apple Venus vol. 1 & 2 (Wasp Star). (Plus XTC's contribution to the Hello Record Club series curated by They Might Be Giants.) While XTC's insanely perfect pop creations are in a class of their

RealAudio clip: Some Lovely
RealAudio clip: The Pot Won't Hold Our Love
RealAudio clip: Playground

Oh geeez, this timely reissue comes at such an opportune moment, providing even more new bands with a solid schooling on the how-tos of great pop music making. You're prolly already plenty familiar with some of the recent retro-styled young'uns who've clearly learned a thing or two from XTC (Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, Hot Hot Heat to name a handful), but few can really hold a candle to the original. Andy Partridge and his crew were responsible for some truly brilliant smart pop songs, and this compilation features eighteen of 'em drawn from seven of their albums leading up to the comp's release. It's fantastic to hear 'em again! Awesome!

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Studio sessions and live material dating from 1978-80.

On The XX's sophmore effort, Coexist, the UK trio has stripped down their sound even more then on there debut, giving the tracks more less-is-more focus then genre-jumping experimentation. Still sexy and elegant, they ride the line between Beach House's parlor pop and Little Dragon's minimalist dance music. Yet it ultimately leaves us wanting a bit more to sink our teeth into than its genial offering of what can only be described as posh romanticism for the luxury car set. Though if you are looking for a wistful night drive soundtrack, this may just hit the spot. FYI, the 'Deluxe' lp edition features a die cut gatefold sleeve on heavy card with 24 page booklet on rainbow mirri board. 180 gram vinyl with mp3 coupon. Or, there's regular compact disc and lp options too, the latter with mp3s too.

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MPEG stream: Sunset

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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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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This UK band with their dueling male/female vocals really know how to get to evoke a seriously sleek and sexy state of sound. Falling somewhere between The Concretes and The Chromatics, The XX pull from a myriad of influences ranging from post-punk, electronica, RnB and pop to create a sound overflowing with shining hooks and smoky melodies. In many ways their sound is like a fleshed out Young Marble Giants infused with warm layers of shiny sparkle and a smooth seductive sheen that totally gets under your skin. There is an ease and stripped down sensibility in the way The XX meld electronics into their more organic sounds, that has us imagining Hot Chip, if they took a deep breath and chilled out a bit or if Junior Boys tried their hand at covering Taken By Trees. We haven't heard someone tap into a mellow, sparkling groove like this in quite a while, and it's definitely hitting the spot!

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Whoa, you won't be mistaking this cd for a super size t-shirt! No, this is a collaboration between Xiu Xiu and Larsen! An intriguing combination? That's putting it mildly. Think, the aural equivalent of a darkening storm cloud billowing forth with flashes of fork lightning, thunderous crashes and rumbles. An unstable atmosphere of eccentricity and melodrama. Although the overall mood is as heavy and disorienting as that of either groups' own releases, as the first track begins, you initially get the impression that there won't be as much of the emphasis on the overwrought vocals of Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart that we've come to expect from Xiu Xiu's own songs. The glitchily dynamic sixth song "Lipstick Fair" offers a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, but then the next song, a strange cover of Adam Ant's "Prince Charming" pulls you back into the woe. No, he's not (and you're not) gonna get off so easy. Stewart seems to be singing from beneath a fortress of blankets afraid to see what's outside. The song swells to unveil another deeper male vocal, then it's almost as though the rest of the band members burst in, tearing the covers away from Stewart, exploding into a group chant/shriek atop cycles of clatterous percussion and plucked strings. Definitely one of the cd's high points. As in the song above, a few passages take on more traditional rock song formations, but they're soon scattered apart by seemingly random acts from crudely motor skilled limbs, only to settle into a more recognizably hypnotic, almost mystical and haunting tone. Here's hoping these two groups get together more often!

MPEG stream: Lipstick Fair
MPEG stream: Prince Charming

Wow, we've gotten in three releases this week that starkly contrast with the sunny warm weather we've been having. Seemingly residing in the chilled shadows of dense forests and ancient stone chambers are the latest albums from XXL, Rothko and Tanakh. Dark, expansive beauties, all of them! Go on, defy the sun or tuck these away for a suitably overcast autumn or winter eve. Larsen and Xiu Xiu have joined international forces once again for another handwringing aural onslaught. They sure bring out the best in each other. In molten lava like fashion, Spicchiology burns, sparks, and engulfs everything in its immediate vicinity. It's a double disc no less. Clearly the sprawl of this project couldn't be contained on one disc. The second cd presents the groups' rehearsal sessions for this album. Now, for pretty much any other band this would seem superfluous, however, for Xiu Xiu and Larsen the raw immediacy and unstructured nature of these recordings are revealing and affecting in their own right. All of the characteristic calling cards of each group come together wonderfully. Prickly percussive sounds, withery breathless vocals and sprays of dissonance punctuate Spicchiology while slowly leaning string and organ drones fuse everything into one. Fingers alternately soft shoe and wrestle across organ and synthesizer keyboards, guitar and banjo fretboards and accordion keys. Dare we say, this is a collaborative pairing whose combined strengths far exceeds the individuals' efforts. Distressed and absorbing. Very recommended.

MPEG stream: So Easy, So Cheap
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Don't ask why, but we've decided to review this record like we're making a stay together/breakup laundry list of plusses and minuses (or deltas if you're optimistic). Minuses: 1. At times annoying, particularly "We're Always Waiting" which combines a "sugar pie honey bunch" style organ line with the words "we want all that stuff, all that stuff that costs too much" sung in the style of "Lady Humps" by the Blackeyed Peas, ugh. 2. Not much lyrical depth (at all). 3. Singing often comes off more like talking with a constant inflection. 4. Plusses: 1. Some songs could satisfy our electro laptop-pop craving. 2. At times playful. 3. A little bit ambitious. 4. It's a dead heat! We left you some room to listen to the sound samples and fill in the blanks. *sidenote: after writing this review, we noticed pitchfork wrote an article describing Jona Bechtolt's decision to quit his former duo The Blow and do Yacht full time. Looks like we're not the only ones who've been making laundry lists lately! Thank you Pitchfork for keeping us up to date on all the latest z-list celebrity gossip!

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Feel good summertime fun that's sure to be the soundtrack for many upcoming dorm room dance parties. Yacht take cues from '80s luminaries like the Tom Tom Club and B-52's as well as more left of center dance/electro-pop that was created on Ze records back in the day, and share a spirit similar to modern day kindred spirits Hot Chip and The Blow (to whom Yacht's Jona Bechtolt used to belong). Fun stuff for sure!

MPEG stream: Ring The Bell
MPEG stream: Psychic City (Voodoo City)

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There are a handful of records that seem to truly define the unique (sometime ridiculous) aesthetic that we pride ourselves on here at Aquarius Records. The Conet Project is one, a four cd set of haunting mysterious shortwave transmissions of spy stations, hours and hours of numbers and music. Then there's the Thai Elephant Orchestra, a recording of gamelan playing elephants, or the Ghost Orchid, a recording of emanations from beyond the grave, but one release that is truly near and dear to our freaky musical hearts is the Yahowha box. Originally released on Captain Trip as a jumbo sized box with 13 cds in regular jewel cases with a huge LP sized booklet, with lots of amazing photos and loads of Japanese text, this massive collection has been re-issued in a gorgeous wooden box, sealed with gold cords and a wax seal, the jewel cases are gone and instead the discs are housed together in slim sleeves, and the all-in-Japanese-anyway booklet is gone now too (although we've yet to crack one of these open, so we suppose it might have been resized to fit in this much smaller box), but it's also cheaper and will now fit on your cd shelf. But why is this collection so essential and why should you absolutely drop everything and pick up one of these amazing boxes? Read on... For 13 discs you better get the complete recordings... and here on God and Hair that is what you get. (Well, this was true until recently when The Operetta was released...but you do get plenty!) Led by the late, legendary Father Yod (who supposedly died in a hang-gliding accident in the late 70s... just like Icarus!) YaHoWha 13 "epitomize the insanity of highly-personalized psychedelic exploration via the fringes of rock music and its subsequent private documentation better than anything else produced by the human race to date." (a glorious if over the top description from the fine folk at Forced Exposure)... This collection ranges from tribal acid pound to weird noisy float to dense aural freakouts, all accompanying Yod's megalomaniacal vocal output (as on the unbelievable masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home). Then there's the other side of Yod and his minions, creepy cult-guru sermons over simple acoustic guitars (which give those tracks a vibe not unlike the recently reveiewed freak folk of Charles Manson's). Warning: this stuff is VERY hippie. But if you're anything like us that's maybe not so much of a warning as it is a promise!

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

SORRY. For 13 discs you better get the complete recordings... and here on God and Hair that is what you get. [well, this was true until recently when The Operetta was released...but you do get plenty!] Led by the late, legendary Father Yod (who supposedly died in a hang-gliding accident in the late 70s... just like Icarus!) YaHoWha 13 "epitomize the insanity of highly-personalized psychedelic exploration via the fringes of rock music and its subsequent private documentation better than anything else produced by the human race to date." (a glorious if over the top description from the fine folk at Forced Exposure)... This collection ranges from the tribal acid pound with weird noises floating in and out of aural spaces alongside Yod's megalomaniacal vocal output (as on the unbelievable masterpieces "Penetration" and "I'm Gonna Take You Home") to the cult-guru sermons over simple acoustic guitar (which give the uncanny resemblance to Charles Manson's folk). Warning: it's VERY hippie. The huge 13" x 13" heavy duty box houses the 13 discs and a 50 page booklet (which is unfortunately only in Japanese). So fucking cool. (If anyone out there has any more information about this band (in English) please direct us to it.) Please Note: Due to the sheer cost of this thing, AQ will only have 1 or 2 in stock at any given time. We will certainly do our best to fill any orders that come in, but please be patient with us! And it's a limited edition, too, of course, so don't delay...

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SORRY. What? You haven't yet bought the 13-cd Japanese import box set of Yahowah 13 reissues?? Eating and paying rent is more important to you than listening to some crazy hippies playing freaked out psych rock for hours and hours??? Huh. Well now thanks to the Swordfish label, the less committed among you can still get in on some Yahowah 13 action. Dunno if they're gonna release each of the band/commune's albums individually or not, but at least they're started with a good 'un. Next to Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony (which we did also just get a vinyl-only reissue of, not cheap at $30!) this is one of the best from that box set. Father Yod and his eager crew of seemingly LSD happy hippy followers recorded and originally released this LP back in 1974. This tribe of "Aquarians" jam out some truly unhinged drug rock godhead music, crammed with stinging garagey guitar, groovy percussion, and exceedingly wacked out vocals (and whistling!). Yes it's dated, yes it's ridiculous, but as "outsider" acid rock goes its pretty great. There's a naive cheesiness to it that works only because the bizarre parts are so, what can we say, Reynolsian? On the cosmic/comic divide. And the disturbingly quasi-erotic album cover will doubtless become one of the most, uh, remarkable in your collection. Licensed from the Source Foundation -- that means the Children of Yod are still out there!

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We here at Aquarius Records love our jobs. There's just some things you can get working at a record store that otherwise might pass you by for years, if not for your entire life. The pleasure of listening to Yahowah 13 is one of those. The chanting, the improvisation, the psychedelia, the beards! For those of you who didn't pick up God and Hair, the 13 cd reissue box-set, Magnificence in Memory might be a good place to start. Over 70 albums were recorded by Yod and his "sons" in the early '70s, but only 13 were originally issued on vinyl. The rest sat around on tape in a garage for 30 years accumulating dust and unfortunately disintegrating a bit. Magnificence in Memory is the second album to be released from those original unused tapes, and why these songs were never used, only Yod knows. The excellent songs on Magnificence range from early Beefheart-like dissonant blues jams to tribal chanting to improvised hippie whistling workouts to heavy proto-metal yowling. Despite these disparate elements, there is a continuity that escapes the recordings, one that can only come from a bunch of people living together and creating together in close harmony for years. One gets the feeling that most if not all of these cuts were made up on the spot, but the changes within the songs are (mostly) executed with an almost uncanny precision, like the musicians were speaking to each other on another, higher, plane of existence. Well, maybe. But regardless of how you feel towards communes, cults and hippies, we guarantee you will love Magnificence in Memory from the bizarre Yahowah 13.

MPEG stream: Camp Of The Gypsies
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Whoah, man. A seriously trippy, dark and clangorous document here from the (very literally) cult group of early '70s rockers called Ya Ho Wha 13. Of all the many albums that the legendary Father Yod and his band of freaky communal-living hippies made back in the day (most but not all of 'em compiled into the massive Aquarius-beloved 13-disc God And Hair box set that came out in Japan some years back), it's always been THIS one that we at AQ (and pretty much every other reputable source too) have heralded as the absolute heaviest and best of the bunch. An essential item for anyone into far-out freeform '70s psych weirdness. And it's got an unbeatable title, eh? Penetration, An Aquarian Symphony. How can we not dig that? So we're quite stoked that the UK's Swordfish label has reissued it on cd for those who haven't got and/or aren't ready for the box set . The four tracks here (including one entitled simply "Ya Ho Wha 13") venture from droneing spacey effects laden soundscapes with eerie Eastern-sounding vocal wailing to full-tilt throbbing, percussive tribal lift-off frenzies complete with stabs of heavy guitar distortion. Throw in some whistling to add an off-kilter spaghetti western soundtrack vibe and you've got Penetration. A damaged, dense, intense, quasi-religious psychedelic California-krautrock experience. Even the mellowest parts are still pretty edgy. This 1974 recording is definitely to be considered a cosmic precursor to everything from the drum circle discs of the Boredoms to the improv rock of Reynols to the neo-hippy clank of the No Neck Blues Band. Amazing.

MPEG stream: Yod He Vau He
MPEG stream: Journey Through An Elemental Kingdom

Time to don your white robes, brush out your white beards, and slip on your headbands. Yahowa has returned! Well, no, not Father Yod, who perished in a hang gliding accident 33 years ago, but the psychedelic rock band of mortals who survive him: the legendary Yahowa 13! Now the core tribal trio of Djinn Aquarian (guitar), Octavius Aquarian (drums), and Sunflower Aquarian (bass). And they definitely have kept the faith, white robes and headbands and all, biding their time up on Mount Shasta or at Rainbow Gatherings or maybe out in astral space, until the stars were right and the time had come for the music of the Yahowa 13 to again surge forth spreading the word of Yod. Who would have thunk it possible? That they'd be back, and so damn good too? We wouldn't have believed it, either, but we saw 'em with our own eyes, when they hung out at Aquarius one afternoon not too long ago for a book signing, and then played a fantastic show (well, except for when Sky Saxon joined them on stage, but that's another story...) at the Cafe du Nord that same night. Wow. (There's a live LP document of that show, actually, entitled Feather Of Wisdom, that we haven't ever listed but do still have a few copies of in stock, act quick if you want one!). Yep, Sonic Portation, their first studio album in over 30 years, is good. Better even than several of the original Yahowa discs in the totemic God And Hair box set! Seriously. The track record of bands from the distant past "getting the band back together" and doing something worthwhile is often dismal, with some pleasant exceptions (like Trad Gras Och Stenar, of whom this reminds us!). So that this is so good is a sweet blessing. A blessing consisting of hypnotically throbbing, head nodding, guitar-heavy psych rock in service to the power of Yod, his presence still felt. It begins with the longest of the six jams on the disc, "E Ah Oh Shin", pushing 12 minutes. The other songs are shorter, though we'd be happy if they'd gone on longer... the completely enthralling, choppily rhythmic chant of "Yod Hey Vau Hey", which we recall as a highlight of their live show, is here only a mere, uh, 4:20. Of course the whole album flows together in a spiritual and improvisatory trance-state anyway. The sorta Circle-ish rhythm section gets into a groove around which Djinn's guitar does various far out things. From shimmering blissfulness (he plays with a feather, sometimes) to heavy washes of distortion, Djinn's sound hints at everything from surf music to oldies garage rock n' roll to the Sun City Girls. The group's music is mostly instrumental, with some weird vocals chanting or growling in the background once in a while. But the instrumental interplay is key. The Higher Key. We started off this review with the assumption that this would be for folks already hip to the whole Ya Ho Wa thing (as so many AQ customers are). But even if you -weren't- already a knowledgeable fan of this group's cult (in more than one way) output from the '70s, when they existed as the musical arm of The Source, an LA religious commune led by the charismatic, bearded guru known as Father Yod, we'd recommend this. Heck if this wasn't Yahowa 13, but some kids named Crystal Master Antjler or something, we'd still be all over it. As would Arthur magazine, and all the hippy hipsters of today. Make it a limited edition cd-r release, with handmade covers, and tell us it's some spaced out new band from of freaks from Finland or Japan, and we'd be convinced. Seriously (again). We always have said the original Ya Ho Wa stuff was the closest West Coast American psych came to the best krautrock, and again this is krautrock like Acid Mothers Temple is krautrock. Three decades later, their love and dedication shines through. Whatever you think of religious cultish hippyish stuff, it's kinda heartening that these guys are still so into it! And we're into it too. What a fantastic reunion. Most mystically recommended!!! PS for those who want to learn more about Ya Ho Wa, we still have copies of the aforementioned book, The Source.... look up our review elsewhere on this site.

MPEG stream: Yod Hey Vau Hey
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SORRY. For those of you for whom a 13-cd box set ain't enough, here's a previously unreleased album now on cd by everyone's favorite freaky '70s communal acid-rock ensemble, the infamous Ya Ho Wha 13 lead by Ya Ho Wah aka Father Yod (long since deceased in a Hawaiian hang gliding accident, God rest his beard)! Recorded in a warehouse in Marin County just north of San Francisco in 1975, the cassette tape now found on this cd somehow survived for 30 years before recently being discovered and released (licensed from The Source Foundation) so that now you can hear Yod, Sunflower, Octavius, Pythias and Djin get down with some wild garagey psych-rock religion. It's taken us some time to absorb this, and review it... after all, it's not every day one listens to an "Operetta of Sun Water Air Earth and YOU!" as it says here. Could the first track possibly be a prequel to "Anarchy In the UK"? Sounds kinda like it at first, all slowed-down and damaged, with some weird-ass vocals... This is some shambolic, spontaneous, lo-fi stuff indeed, that all of today's 'new weird' psychsters couldn't match no matter what sorta substances they stuff in their bongs. At its demented best, this record reminds us a bit of Michael Yonkers! The energy level wavers and wanders throughout this recording, but the group kicks out a fair amount of righteous raving mayhem amidst their more mellow jamming. And can we mention the wonderful whistling found in track six? Ya Ho Wha whistling. Sweet. It's all very loose and improvised, with a lotta detours and derailments, never all that 'together' even though who or what could be more 'together' than this cultish commune? Few deals are more real than this. Fans of Yod and his flock will happily accept this, and try to find a way to fit in into the God and Hair box as disc 14. Features enthused liner notes by one who was there, Djin Yhw 64.

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A weird musical mix here from this brutal metalcore / post rock / uh, jazz fusion? band from Chicago. We were prepared for it, though, having previously liked and reviewed their debut album Way Of The Dead a couple years ago. In that review we said that only weirder metal band on the Century Media roster was Japanse black metal bizarros Sigh (both bands have moved on to new labels since then). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the saxophone player (yes, saxophone player) from Yakuza guested on the most recent Sigh album. And now Yakuza are back with a new full-length, just as heavy and arty as before. They remind us a bit of Iceburn (the vocals, the jazz influence) but heavier, more in the direction of Neurosis and Isis. Massive sonics throughout, with unexpected styles and instrumentation mixed in. The songs here blenderize tech grind mayhem, hardcore screaming, Alice In Chains style clean vocals, chamber music, and smooth jazz chops, and don't make as much a mess of it as you might expect... No, this works for us. If you're into the likes of Fantomas or Kayo Dot we'd imagine this might work for you too. Avant-cellist Fred Lonberg-holm shows up as a guest, as does one of the Mastodon dudes. That maybe tells you something right there.

MPEG stream: Cancer Of Industry
MPEG stream: Exterminator

Back in 2011, we made the debut full length from this Canadian "pan-Asian cultural collective" our Record Of The Week. And for good reason. We spent the bulk of the review talking about how rare it was for us to be surprised and/or totally blown away by a new band or new record, chalking it up to the musical overload of working in a record store, but somehow this oddly monikered group did it for us big time. It helped that before we even heard them, they were described to us by referencing Taj Mahal Travellers, Deep Purple, the Boredoms and Flower Travellin' Band among others, and comparisons that good usually lead to disappointment, but not in this case. In fact for once, that hyperbolic over the top descriptor was pretty much right on the money. So that record has stayed in heavy rotation pretty much constantly ever since, just waiting for this to happen, a new Yamantaka // Sonic Titan (and yeah, both the slashes are part of the name), and that first record set the bar pretty high, so our hopes were equally high, and while Uzu is a totally different record, it's still pretty freaking great. The description of the first record also mentioned J-Pop and Chinese opera, which for that album didn't seem nearly as applicable as prog-metal or noise rock or some mix of the two, but the opening two songs on Uzu DO actually play out like some sort of alien opera, haunting brooding piano, soaring dramatic female vox, bombastic percussion, fluttering woodwinds, gongs and cymbal shimmer, squelchy synths, the second of the two songs downright poppy, but with some crunchy almost metallic guitar, beneath the otherwise almost saccharine sweet pop hooks. It's not until the third track where things get truly tripped out and metallic, with crunchy metal guitars chugging away beneath soaring FX drenched vox, and pounding mathy drumming, but again, the pop quotient is pretty high compared to the first record. Which is pretty much how most of Uzu plays out, metallic moments here and there, but for the most part, the sound of Uzu is like some J-pop metal cabaret, infused with a healthy dose of cosmic prog, and some over the top brooding balladry, much of the chaotic bombast of the first record dialed way back, leaving something much more dramatic and musical, in fact like an actual musical, a lot of Uzu sounding like music from some bizarre experimental musical, a series of psychedelic show tunes from an alternate dimension, trippy, and poppy, freaky and far out!

MPEG stream: Atalanta
MPEG stream: Whalesong
MPEG stream: Lamia
MPEG stream: Saturn's Return

For all the things that are truly great about working in a record store, on of the only real bummers is that sometimes it's kinda hard to be surprised by new music, in most cases, we know when a record is coming long before it's out, and often we get to hear albums before they're released, so some of the musical excitement we grew up with is gone, and we sometimes really miss that thrill of making a special trip to the record store only to discover some record you didn't even know about. So when it does happen, we freak out big time. Similarly, being the music nerd obsessives we are (and most of you are too), we're constantly on the hunt for new sounds, and for new favorites, and the one thing we DO still experience, is stumbling upon a record, and being blown away by the crazy cover art, or the weird name, or both, only to find that the music inside more than lives up to that unspoken promise, which is precisely what happened with the oddly monickered Yamantaka // Sonic Titan (and yeah, that double back slash is part of the name), not a split between two bands, but a duo, who the label describe as being a "pan-Asian cultural collective" based in Canada, whose two person lineup is expanded to eight members for this record, and whose eclectic lineup includes a traditional Mohawk singer, and the sound, WOW, not just a pleasant surprise, but a total revelation. The label describe YT // ST as being "for fans of Boredoms, Flower Travellin' Band, Taj Mahal Travellers, Deep Purple, J-Pop and Chinese Opera", and whenever you read such an over the top impossibly rad comparison, you sort of feel obligated to call hyperbole/bullshit, but the weird thing, as impossible as it seems, we might have come up with something similar, although we would add something about math rock / post rock / noise rock, and would definitely include Blonde Redhead, the vocals are occasionally a dead ringer for Kazu Makino, albeit much more washed out and druggy, and there's definitely some of the hyper Magmoid prog of Hundred Sights Of Koenji / Koenjihyakkei going on, but not so hyper, a little more toned down and stretched out into woozy rhythmic mesmer. As with all great records, this stuff is actually really difficult to describe, although odds are by now, some of you are already flipping out over the above comparisons. The record opens with a brief bit of ritualistic ambience, the sound of rainfall and distant thunder, reverbed vocal harmonies, like the chanting of some astral female monks, all swirly and druggy and ethereal, which leads directly into "Queens", which unfurls in a haze of strange looped voices and whirring Deep Purple like organs, the vocals come in, and the sound is transformed into a sort of psychedelic indie rock, the melodies though reminiscent o seventies British acid folk, the rainfall present throughout, haunting and liturgical, epic and mysterious, and then the drums kick in, super distorted, in-the-red, the guitars coalesce into some serious riffage, splintering off into psychedelic swirls, the sound blown out, but dreamily so, until the blown out indie rock haze devolves into some seriously heavy, churning mathy pound and crunch, the vox processed into dizzying loops, blurred into the organs and the swirling psychedelia. So good. Imagine a way heavier, mathier, tripped out psychedelic Blonde Redhead and you might be close. But it only gets better/weirder from there. After a brief bit of ethereal haze, that sounds like a grittier spaced out lo-fi take on Kate Bush / Cocteau twins, those British folk melodies here rendered in thick corrosive streaks of warm woozy guitar buzz, underpinned by powerful drumming, the sound coalescing into a brooding ballad, heavy and dark and broodingly beautiful. But then comes "Reverse Crystal // Murder Of A Spider", which feels like the record's centerpiece, beginning with a grinding, crumbling bit of blurred orchestral swell, wreathed in clouds of decayed FX and fractured muted rhythms, the song explodes in a twisted mathy progged out frenzy, like the Ruins meets Nomeansno, only to immediately blossom into a super distorted heavy post rock lope, and then the soaring crystalline vocals come in, and the song is transformed into a bass heavy math prog groove than manages to be impossibly catchy at the same time, with what sound like wordless vocals unfurling a gorgeous and irresistible melody over some serious organ drive prog that sounds almost carnivalesque at times. After a brief tangle of abstract noise and processed tape, the song shifts into its second movement, a muted, rhythmic, almost krautrocky groove, that sounds like This Heat by way of Tortoise, and as the song progresses, the drums distort, the sound gets darker and heavier, the vocals surface adding a swirling spectral layer to the churning rhythmic low end below, before gradually getting more and more abstract and then finally fading out. YT // ST manage in one song what most bands can barely pull off on a whole record. "Hoshi Neko" starts off sounding almost like some alien Christmas carol, a music box melody over a hushed tinny rhythm, all blurred with FX, and then in come the big distorted drums, and the band locks into a dark sinister groove, that almost sounds like a heavy creepy Stereolab, the vocals here are dramatic, transforming the song into what sounds like some classic sixties girl group songs reimagined as some sort of rhythmic post rock churn. "A Star Over Pureland" is the other long song on the record, and in some ways is competing with "Reverse Crystal // Murder Of A Spider" for sonic centerpiece privileges, and definitely makes a good case, although it's less fully formed songwise, instead it's a killer mathprog workout, the drumming particular, intricate and intense, while the guitars grind and crunch and howl, occasionally splintering into full on psychedelic squalls, there's definitely some sort of White Heaven / Fushitsusha classic Japanese psych going on here, but filtered through groups like Aluk Todolo and the Psychic Paramount, the track constantly morphing, locking into a very Ruins-y groove about midway through replete with strange effected vocal barks, wild Yoko Ono like warbly wails, and some thick buzzing bass, only to return to that strangely hypnotic lurching and stuttering groove and riding it out until the end. Finally, the record closes with the awesomely and evocatively titled "Crystal Fortress Over The Sea Of Trees", which opens ominously like some sort of John Carpenter cinematic creepfest, but instead launches into some serious mathy post rock, only to have that Carpenter-y synth return, to help the song transition into something more swirling and surreal, but it only briefly, as the drums crash right back down, and the song returns to that opening post-math-psych-prog groove, the sound noisy, with all manner of guitar shards and fragmented melodies and bits of keyboard and strange voices swirling all around it, the song building to a strangely choral sounding drum and vocal coda, before devolving into burst of bass buzz and drum pound before clipping out abruptly, leaving a long stretch of near silence, a barely there distant blur of tinny vocals and ghostlike shimmer. Definite contender for record of the year, it's available on both cd and lp, the vinyl limited to 500 copies...

MPEG stream: Reverse Crystal // Murder Of A Spider
MPEG stream: Raccoon Song
MPEG stream: Queens
MPEG stream: A Star Over Pureland

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

SORRY. Japanese early '70s fusion, a good one.

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

SORRY. Japanese early '70s fusion, another good one.

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

SORRY.

A sonic reimagining of a follow up to the Arabian Nights, this is perhaps one of the most out there, druggy and experimental of the Chinese independent records we have carried as of late. Yang Fan, who produced the Chui Wan record we made record of the week a few lists ago and is the guitarist and songwriter for other Chinese groups like Ourselves Beside Me and Hang On The Box, has produced a solo record of elegant bedroom-psych miniatures that spins a nocturnal fairy tale of wonder and dread. Largely instrumental with a few key moments of witchy ethereal commune folk singing, this reminds us of some far out combination of Gong, Woo, Magical Power Mako, and Alastair Galbraith, with a uniquely dreamy Chinese folk-classical bent. Kotos, melodicas, guitars and glockinspiels weave into various field recordings of crows and rivers and hushed female voices drawing a narrative of princesses and witches, emperors and snowmen. Getting weirder, dreamier and more sublime with each track culminating in a whirling torrent of chaotic sound where the distinction between dreams and reality remain forever blurred. Fantastic!

MPEG stream: Arabian Princess
MPEG stream: The Fly Flies
MPEG stream: Song For Some One
MPEG stream: See! (Here Comes) The Witch!
MPEG stream: Awake (or Not?)...

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

SORRY.

Holy shit!!! This has to be our krautrock (re)discovery of the year. Definitely contender for krautrock reissue of the year!! We have been listening to this NONSTOP since it came in. We had heard OF Yatha Sidhra, a German group whose only record, A Meditation Mass, was released in 1974, but until now we had never actually heard it. Apparently the record was massive flop which is utterly shocking hearing this now. Everything we could want in a krautrock record, loooong tracks, simple tribal percussion, flute all over the place, simple effected guitar, crooned almost chantlike vocals, squalls of totally heavy super distorted freaked out psychedelia, wild drumming, tons of effects, as well as long stretches of tranquil drift and fluttery folky shimmer. The opening movement of the Mass begins with all manner of rumbles and drones, before it slips into a lilting laid back groove, all soft guitar curlicues, spare percussion, warm languid bass, and flittering flute, the track drifts lazily, occasionally erupting into ultra brief psychedelic blowouts, the flute howling, a cacophony of frenzied drumming, only to settle right back into the mellow drift. The second movement is a little more active, the drums more propulsive, piano draped over deep dubby bass, and the flute fired up and swooping wildly, jazzy but still pretty krautrocky. The third movement is probably our favorite, clocking in at 12 minutes, the song starts out by returning to the opening groove, loping bass, fluttery flute, spare guitar, the drums a bit more aggressive, some angular guitar solos, all wrapped up in tripped out FX, eventually the song shifts into a more upbeat shuffle, the drums getting wilder and more chaotic, the guitar going nuts, spitting out psych leads all over the place, until the band locks into a serious blowout, the guitar white hot, the drums freaking out, the bass swooping back and forth, everything doused in so many effects the whole track seems to crumple and crumble under the weight, flanger and phaser and echo have everything totally tripped out and druggy, the drums and flute engage in a wild battle, a free jazz krautrock psychedelic frenzy, before finally simmering down, and slipping into a super soft lazy lope, the flute floating over a deep bass and minimal drum workout, finishing off with another drum vs. flute freakout, everything again dripping with echo and delay, as of the whole band was slipping deeper and deeper, moving further and further away. The final movement, revisits the opening, the band slip smoothly back into that original groove, the guitars way more effected, the drums a bit more tribal, the flute still drifting above it all, the whole band locked into a totally dreamy, blissed out krautdrone drift, with the instruments dropping out one by one, eventually leaving just the guitar, wreathed in effects to shimmer and finally fade out. So freaking amazing. Boggles the mind that these guys, and this record aren't spoken of in hushed reverence and worshipped along with Can and Faust and all the other krautrock legends. Hopefully that will change with this reissue, and even if it doesn't, at least we know how mysterious and magical A Meditation Mass really is... Packaged in a super spare digipak, with a big book of liner notes (in English and German) and a bunch of photos.

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MPEG stream: Part 3

!!!COLD CAVE ALERT!!!! Hopefully that got your attention, not only because the world seems to be going totally batshit for minimalist synth poppers Cold Cave, but ALSO because we only have a scant 15 COPIES of this pre-CC group, and it's looking like that will probably be it for all of history, or until someone else decides to come along and reissue it. So you probably want to act now or miss out. Ye Olde Maids follow a similar path as Cold Cave, in fact you might be hard pressed to tell the difference. But hey, we're not complaining, because like everyone else, we're too busy digging these propulsive, gloomy as hell lo-fi jams. Like Cold Cave, you might want to compare this to New Order or the Cure in terms of atmosphere and in their overall approach. It's easy to see that this is where Wes Eisold began to solidify all his new wavey inclinations after years of playing in hardcore bands, though the songs definitely stand strongly enough on their own. Things are probably a little more noisy and disjointed than what has been perfected with Cold Cave, but for those who can't get enough CC, you will definitely want to grab this one fast. Did we mention that we had only 15 copies?

Hmm, not finding too much to say about the latest from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. There is much more of an emphasis on synthesizers and less on guitars, though we think it would have come out cooler had they pushed that even further. Some tracks do demonstrate the best possibilities of this very Blondie meets Italians Do It Better sound, like "Dragon Queen", but lots of the songs here just don't commit to being here or there and sort of just are. Not bad really, but not as exciting as we were hoping it would be....

MPEG stream: Zero
MPEG stream: Dragon Queen

After a couple of insanely hyped singles which altogether clocked in at about 18 minutes total, New York's garage-punk trio The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have mustered enough material to warrant their debut, full-length album "Fever To Tell." As expected the car-crash of thuggish rockabilly licks and punky-disco grooves guided by vocalist Karen O's snarling sexuality and blackened humor are present and sound an awful lot like a female fronted Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or perhaps more appropriately Boss Hog when they were good. However, there's only about 15 minutes worth of sneering rock 'n' roll on the album; and the remainder of the album comes as a huge, but certainly not unwelcome surprise, as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs round out the album with a handful of slower, darker, and sentimental ballads. These later tracks are not unlike the recent works of PJ Harvey, transforming raucous punked-up energy into emotive songsmithery; however, they may not be exactly what fans of the previous EPs would expect. Hey, don't be discouraged though, "Fever To Tell" still has those 15 minutes of possessed blues to match those previous EPs. MPEG Download: "Date With The Night" [/audio/yeahyeahyeahmaps.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Date With The Night" [/audio/yeahyeahyeahmaps.m3u]

MPEG stream: Date With The Night
MPEG stream: Maps

Is Is is the follow-up to Yeah Yeah Yeahs' startlingly different Show Your Bones album. If you happen to think that it in turn sounds starkly different from that album, and more like the hot'n'bothered YYYs of old, well... good ears, my friend! These songs were actually written back in 2004 while the band was on tour in support of their Fever To Tell album. Four of the five were previously available on the Tell Me What Rockers To Swallow dvd (the exception is the track "Isis"). That explains things a bit, doesn't it? On this ep the trio sounds downright wild, loose and furious... a lot of what we thought was sorely missing from SYB. Karen O rocks and rages at the top of her lungs. You almost expect a fist to burst through your speakers. On those few moments when she calms down a little (on the song "Down Boy"), her voice glints with her more familiar, and very Siouxsie-esque throaty inflections. Guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase are right there with her throwing a bunch of their own rawk punches left, right and center. Raw art-punky good.

MPEG stream: Rocker To Swallow
MPEG stream: Isis