[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Experience the chilling terror of.... BLIZARO! Thrill to the nightmarish sensation that is... BLIZARO! Enjoy the lovely melodies of... BLIZARO! Space out to the swirling sizzling synths of... BLIZARO! Puzzle at the schizophrenic doom-prog-metal-soundscapes conjured by... BLIZARO! Oh yeah, we've been waiting for this one for a while! Keen readers of the AQ list might recall mention of Blizaro in our review of the debut Crucifist release on Profound Lore, earlier this year. We mentioned that the guitarist from that blackened death-thrash entity, John Gallo (also of true doomsters Orodruin), had an awesome, eccentric synth-based side project called Blizaro, whom we'd experienced via some self-released cd-r's. Thus we were looking forward to Blizaro's upcoming full-length cd, and at long last, it's finally here! Like a mad scientist's lo-fi, DIY mashup of Goblin and Black Sabbath, Blizaro is right up our dark and creepy alley. Yours too we might imagine. It almost makes up for that Tony Tears album having gone out of print. There's definitely plenty of metal bands who have taken inspiration from the classic Italian horror/suspense "giallo" cinema (and soundtracks), we're thinking Necrophagist, Hooded Menace, Cathedral, Moss, Acid Witch... and of course other musicians too, recent good examples being Zombi, Majeure, Magda, and Umberto. (Oh, and NightSatan, whose album we should soon have, too.) But Blizaro kind of take it to another, weirder level of worship. Blizaro is bizarro, yes that's for sure. Their sinister synthesis of Goblin/Sabbath has some off-kilter, confusional, sorta Sun City Girlish elements to it as well. It never really gets very metal, actually, but also stays away from the disco thing too. Divided into two halves, one "Physical" and one "Mental", this disc offers up a deranged range of strangeness, from the fuzzed out Sabbathy psych riffage of "Midnight Lurkers" to the purely synthesized spacey suspensefulness of "Violet Cosmos". The eight minute opening epic, title track "City Of Living Nightmare", is a progged out tour de force of both gentle, eerie melodies and jagged martial metal riffage. It certainly sets the stage for what follows... cinematic symphonics, whispered vocal incantations, organ drones, monkish moans, sickly grooves, acid guitar soloing, druggy atmospheres... with song titles like "Eyes In The Caskets", "Catacomb Man", "Portallucinations", and "Ceremonial Bone Ritual". And then, at the opposite end of the album, as if to give credit where credit is due, Blizaro wind up the disc with a spot-on cover of Goblin's theme to Suspira! Almost unnecessary, after what's come before, but a nice touch nonetheless. Quite recommended, especially to those who dig, say, both Osanna and Witchfinder General, or Fabio Frizzi and Paul Chain (all artists, among many others, that Blizaro cite as influences). Man, if only this were an actual soundtrack to an obscure old giallo, in the tradition of Argento and Fulci, we'd sure love to see that movie!! So, people, if you dare, feel the embrace of the purple-hued, witch-haunted horror that is... BLIZARO!

MPEG stream: City Of Living Nightmare
MPEG stream: Midnight Lurkers
MPEG stream: Violet Cosmos
MPEG stream: Mental Disease Overture

To quote ourselves, prepare again to "feel the embrace of the purple-hued, witch-haunted horror that is... Blizaro!" Yup, in reviewing this double disc journey into the violet cosmos of the prog/doom/soundtrack obsessed, mostly-one-man-band Blizaro, we would find it hard to top what we said about 'em before, in our review of the album we made a Record Of The Week back in 2010. That disc, City Of Living Nightmare, we likened to a mad scientist's lo-fi, DIY mashup of Goblin and Black Sabbath - a hybrid of psychedelic doom metal, synthesizer prog, and Italian giallo soundtracks that totally blew us away. That was followed by a split with female-fronted occult doom-deathsters Wooden Stake, also really great. But what came before? Well, several homebrewed cd-r's worth of Blizaro music preceded the compact disc debut we had made Record Of The Week. Some of us here had tracked down copies of those, and ever since we've been hoping they'd get reissued so we could share 'em with you. In fact, we liked 'em so much, we got in touch with the man behind Blizaro, John Gallo (guitarist for Rochester, NY doom metallers Orodruin), and were "in talks" with him to re-release the these cd-r's together on a proper cd, via aQuarius, like we did with our White Hills and Carlton Melton Record Store Day discs! But then the Italian label I, Voidhanger stepped in and snatched Blizaro away from us - which is perfectly okay 'cause they really did such a great job putting together this nicely appointed package, which they expanded to two discs, not just one, incorporating not only the material from Blizaro's three pre-City cd-r's, but also a more recent recording we hadn't yet heard, plus a whole bunch of unreleased bonus tracks too. Disc one of Strange Doorways consists of the tracks from Blizaro's The Old Wizard Of Winter (2009) and Black Magicians (2012) cd-rs, along with three extra unreleased tracks. Disc two's got the Horror Rock (2006) and Blue Tape (2008) cd-r's, and five extra cuts. 40 tracks in all! It's quite a varied array of material, all of it proving how amazingly talented and creative John Gallo is as a musician and songwriter. The music here ranges from creepy groovy stuff in the Goblin-y realm, to full on '70s hard rockin', to quirky prog epics, to strange synthesizer experiments, to classical guitar styled fantasias, and even echoed-out synthbass bunkurfunk. Lots to listen to, lots to like. The Old Wizard Of Winter stuff is heavily synth-based (originally recorded as a Christmas gift for relatives!!), mostly all Moog and organ, whereas elsewhere Gallo puts his electric guitar and quite a few other instruments to good use, his voice too, and gets a bit of help from friends, including his bandmates in Orodruin, and members of Revered Bizarre. BTW, Blizaro now has a membership of three, Gallo plus a drummer and bassist, so here's hoping they go on tour and we get to see 'em! The thick cd booklet features pages and pages of track-by-track liner notes from Gallo himself, discussing his ideas, inspirations and equipment, how each track came together. Kinda writing his own review, he namechecks everyone from Goblin and Paul Chain to Vangelis and Tangerine Dream to Atomic Rooster and Arthur Brown. We can hear it all, for sure. Wow. We've heard plenty of bedroom recorded indie pop and electronica, black metal too, but eccentric progged-out proto-metal? Blizaro does that - and more - quite convincingly. Highly recommended of course.

Yep, this one is sure to have the Vice Magazine scene frothing at the mouth! And in this case, it's not just for love of irony, shock and grossout. This is a mighty fine album! Hopefully the anti-Vice crowd won't be dissuaded from checking it out... Anyhoo, much like a number of their hyped-to-the-moon hipster dance rock contemporaries of a couple years ago, Bloc Party have wisely shifted their focus and expanded their sound since their hot shit Silent Alarm debut. The band has risen to the challenge of shedding the decidedly one-dimensional '80s fueled dance punk trappings, but unlike many of those same contemporaries, they haven't desperately transformed themselves into something alienatingly unrecognizable. Although we did pause for a moment of uncertainty during the first song to make sure that this was indeed Bloc Party, as the album progresses the familiar voice of Kele Okereke rings through. On A Weekend In The City Bloc Party are definitely not in it for the vacuous, line cutting party time. Although the infectious, driving insistence of tracks such as "Hunting For Witches" and "Uniform" definitely getcha up and bring to mind The Faint and Pulp respectively, the shadowy, heady swoon of songs like "The Prayer" aligns them more with TV On The Radio. Darker, moodier, heavier, sturdier and above all else more deeply personal, Bloc Party are aiming for so much more than a one night stand, and they succeed enormously. Pretty great!

MPEG stream: Hunting For Witches
MPEG stream: On

There's a bizillion bands right now (and surely many more to come) that sound *exactly* like this (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Futureheads to name a few of the ones some of us here prefer). Y'know, young bands whose members grew up hearing their older brothers' and sisters' records by The Fall, XTC, The Clash, Gang of Four and Duran Duran. Yelped, emotive vocals strained through their Danish accents atop an electric guitar blend of furious strumming and effected chime-y picked notes, a punchy drum beat and a seeming after-thought addition of a synth line to give it that very 'now' 80s sound. No deep listening allowed, just fun fun fun! So the task at hand is to sift through the cookie cutter redundancy to find the really stand-out stuff (or you might say, the packaging style you prefer -- sharkskin suit? well-worn denim?). Even so, each band's album only seems good for at least one or two totally awesome solid pop songs with the rest of it serving as filler comprised of inferior versions of the same idea. Such just might be the case with Bloc Party's debut full length -- although no single song has jumped out and made us exclaim, "Hot damn!!!" like Maximo Park's "Apply Some Pressure" did. That said, this record could just be a slow grower, as the more it gets played, the more we're digging it. Which is a good thing too, since you might as well get used to this Silent Alarm 'cause much like other 'buzz bands' whether you like it or not you're not going to be able to escape hearing more than your share of this band in the next few months. But strangely, no matter how much we're digging this record, it still just makes us want to pull out Pulp's Different Class album and blast it at full volume! Funny that.

MPEG stream: Like Eating Glass
MPEG stream: Positive Tension

We might as well stop denying it, we love this stuff. Maximo Park, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs. How can you not. Modern twisted takes on stone cold classics, Gang Of Four, XTC, the Clash. Sure it's not entirely original, but so what, it sounds fan-fucking-tastic. And Bloc Party fits right in there, reanimating their own favorite postpunk corpses and getting them (and us) dancing like crazy. So a popular band, a popular record, you know what that means. The dreaded REMIX RECORD. Once in a while however, whether it's the choice of bands, the song selection, pure luck, a remix record totally and completely blows away the original record. This is most definitely one of those cases. You know, when you hear a band cover another bands song, like say a metal band covering a Cure song, and you think "Why aren't there bands that just sound like that, a metal Cure? How cool would that be?" Or "Why aren't all that band's songs this good?" Substitute any band or any song, you know what we're talking about. A totally boring band can shine like a diamond when it's taking on a killer tune. Sometimes it reflects poorly on the band, demonstrating how weak their songs actually are when held up to some 'real' songwriting. But in the case of a remix record that eclipses the original, more often, it's a case of the remix record being so much weirder and varied and all over the map, while still retaining that connective thread that is the sound of the original record. Such is the case with Silent Alarm Remixed. A couple of these tracks showed up as bonus tracks on the import version, and were SO good that it got many folks we know to shell out the extra $$ for the 2 or 3 extra tracks (and who are now kicking themselves since those tracks are included here) but here, surrounded by a whole records worth of interpretations, makes us wish that this was Bloc Party's record proper. M83 offer up a buzzy, dense wall of fuzz, with layered vocals, thick synthesizers and just a HUGE sound. Four Tet's track is a smeary, shimmery, drone-y, dreamy, cloudy drone, that eventually kicks into a more jangly reverb drenched blur. Mogwai turn Bloc Party into moody post rock, their track a churning, slow building, pulsing epic. And the rest of the record follows suit, stretching Silent Alarm into strange new shapes: Ladytron turn their track into blissy electronic pop like Postal Service or Styrofoam, Whitey give their song some strummy post pock bounce, Blackbox give their version a bit of eighties new wave sheen with some aggro, angular post punk swagger, the Engineers' turn their Bloc Party into a super murky sexy dirge. Woah. Now, if someone had given us this Bloc Party record, we would have been completely blown away thinking this was the sound of one band, but maybe that's just too much to hope for. So what? Well, we like the remix record more than the record being remixed? Makes perfect sense to us. And for those of you who found Silent Alarm to be just a tiny bit too boring and predictable, this might just do the trick.

MPEG stream: The Pioneers (M83 Remix)
MPEG stream: Plans (Mogwai Remix)

Here's a new super-shortie CD from Bloc Party. It includes three renditions of their song "Tulips" -- the original version, a 'club version' remixed by Minotaur Shock and a video version. Gotta say I don't think I'd want to be at the club that plays the club version... it's a little too mopey melancholic... or maybe I just wasn't playing it loud enough and Lord knows our store stereo system doesn't pump out the boomin' bass of a nightclub, so who knows?! 'Though it could also be that the song sounds like Morrissey style lyricism over sped-up computer-krafted Brit pop. Hmmm, definitely more of an end-of-the-night wind-down song, and much less of the lively party atmosphere than we've come to expect from the Bloc kids. A new supposedly kick ass full length drops in a week or two!

MPEG stream: Tulips (Club Version)

MPEG stream: Banquet
MPEG stream: Staying Fat

While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio. Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!

MPEG stream: Silently
MPEG stream: SW
MPEG stream: 23

When we kept reading bad reviews for the latest Blonde Redhead record, one that comes after of a four year hiatus, we were curious to hear how bad it could possibly be. Or actually was. But you know what? We took one listen and didn't find it that bad at all, in fact we ended up liking it quite a bit and have been listening to it a lot. Ok, perhaps some of us here are indifferent, but there is nothing here that is so outright horrible that we feel warrants the level of dismissive vitriol we've read about it. After the bright drum machine-driven pop of Penny Sparkle, Barragan is a much more nuanced and textured affair, elegant, subtle, sexy, and beautifully sad. We suppose it's the slow burning reveal of it, the sparse arrangements, the late night world it embraces, filled with mysterious sounds and instrumentation of flutes, harpsichords and acoustic guitars, that perhaps leave folks with not enough to immediately grab onto sonically. But that is exactly why some of us like it. It's actually a lovely record that harkens back to their moodier atmospheric albums like Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons or Misery Is A Butterfly...

MPEG stream: Dripping
MPEG stream: No More Honey
MPEG stream: Defeatist Anthem (Harry and I)

Fake Can Be Just As Good is Blonde Redhead's third album. Despite the title, oddly enough this is the band's most genuine sounding release to date. They've scaled down from a quartet to a trio, and also almost symbollically this release marks their jump from Steve Shelley's record label Smells Like over to Touch & Go. They're definitely coming into their own. That said, their former Sonic Youth-y New York art school-ish pretensions still leak through here and there, but they're backed up by some solid, lean compositions sculpted with effective tension, mood and texture.

MPEG stream: Kazuality
MPEG stream: Oh James

The Japanese/Italian trio's last album Fake Can Be Just As Good should have been the album Sonic Youth made right after Daydream Nation. Fortunately, their latest album proves that they are no longer a Sonic Youth rip-off band. And for that matter, what they've grown into is quite something to behold. On In An Expression Of The Inexpressible, the band's fourth full length, lead female vocalist Kazu Makino has honed her pipes into a distinctly expressive wonder... taming its former shrillness into something very childlike and otherworldly. Noisy melodies of angular guitars, modest keyboards, and a tight rhythm section come across as desperate yet beautiful epics. Very highly recommended.

RealAudio clip:

Here's Blonde Redhead's second full length. Their Sonic Youth worship still lingers in these ten songs, but they're showing some signs of developing a sound of their own -- encorporating mathy elements and crisper dynamics, rather than relying on feedback squalls to get their message across. They take more advantage of the contrasts between loud and quiet, abrasive and soft, acoustic and electric.

MPEG stream: Harmony
MPEG stream: 10 Feet High

Blonde Redhead follows their strangely catchy "Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons" album with an EP that features non-English language versions of two of the tracks from that album. As Kazu's vocals lack decipherability anyway, the translations of these songs into Italian or French seem quite arbitrary. Regardless of language, "In Particular" and "Hated Because Of Great Qualities" are two of the better tracks reflecting Blonde Redhead's new, non-Sonic Youthist sound. Blonde Redhead fills out the EP with a dubbed-out Serge Gainsbourg cover and a Third Eye Foundation remix of "Four Damaged Lemons."

As of their last record, In An Expression Of The Inexpressible, Blonde Redhead had finally begun to shed the Sonic Youth-isms that plagued them over the course of their early recordings. Comparisons to the Cardigans or even Radiohead might not be far from the mark in terms of a bittersweet songwriting replacing their previous purposefully avant angularity. This is an album full of sad piano driven ballads, midtempo disco grooves (played on a drum kit, mind you), and Kazu Makino's voice which has matured beyond the high pitched bark to achieve actual vocal melodies. Blonde Redhead doesn't really appear comfortable with their new sound, as if they're wearing some fancy French suit when they clearly prefer a pair of grimy jeans. Is that the point?

Is misery really a butterfly? That's quite the non-consensus take on the usual butterfly metaphor. This record is good enough, though, that it could convince you. And butterflies bring up the subject of metamorphosis, which you could say Blonde Redhead has gone through. In the past, this band was often compared to (or vice versa): Sonic Youth, Polvo, Deerhoof. Guitar dissonance with distinctive vocals. This one is a bit different, following on from their last album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, the one where they veered away from their Sonic Youthisms of yore and embraced a poppier, less angular demeanor. With Misery Is A Butterfly, their Lemons remain Damaged, Certainly. I guess it wasn't just a phase. Blonde Redhead are still making "desperate yet beautiful epics" as we once said of their In an Expression of the Inexpressible album, but gone are the "angular guitars" and "noisy melodies" that were once their trademark. This time, what's new? In a nutshell, it's Blonde Redhead with STRINGS. All lush and orchestrated. It's as if Eleanor Rigby joined the band. (Actually they got help from violinist Eyvind Kang among others.) The resultant album has got an Italian soundtrack sort of feel to it. Also a bit of a Stereolab feel. Very 'of another time'. Melancholic, dreamy. It's a progression from their earlier works, maybe even a perfection in a way. The signature sound that remains are the vocals of Kazu: high, breathy, accented (Japanese but it could just as easily be French), sometimes dueting with her male counterpart Amedo, who also sings high, but with a voice less pure, a bit like the Flaming Lips guy. He sings a few songs all on his own but our ears prefer Kazu. With her at the mic, Blonde Redhead are sooo nice. We know this is gonna be a popular album, and it should be!

MPEG stream: Elephant Woman
MPEG stream: Doll Is Mine

Some bands just have the ability to reach high levels of excellence in everything they do. From their beginnings Blonde Redhead hit the scene as one of the most impressive and charismatic in a long run of Sonic Youth inspired bands, but it didn't take long for them to carve out and create their own totally unique and instantly recognizable take on that sound. Over the years they have released one great record after the other, as well as being one of the most consistently sizzling live bands around. In the last several years there has been a shift in their sound, eventually bringing them to Penny Sparkle, which is by far their most synth-y, steamy and sleek outing yet, all drenched in a certain kind of sweet sadness they've always reached for but never achieved, until now... It would be so easy for a band who has achieved the levels of success that BR has to just rest on their laurels and make the same record again and again, but instead they continue to challenge themselves as well as being so true to their inner vision. And you can tell listening to Penny Sparkle that this vision for Blonde Redhead is very much about feeling loss, the deep burn of missing someone dear to you, and the realization that things might never be like they used to be. Certain bands have earned the right to gain our trust through any and all twists and turns they take. Blonde Redhead is one of them. Penny Sparkle is not so much about immediately catchy songs but instead it's an album that creates a gloriously sensual, dazed and languid mood that melts with such a sensational slow burn. That's what's really the big deal here, not that they're using a drum machine. For a limited time, we have the deluxe version of the cd, which comes in a fancy printed canvas sack, inside a fancy printed box...

MPEG stream: Here Sometimes
MPEG stream: Will There Be Stars
MPEG stream: Everything Is Wrong

This was Blonde Redhead's debut album, produced by Steve Shelley and released on his label Smells Like Records. Back then (1995) the band were a foursome whose Noisy guitar feedback-laden sound was quite reminiscent of Mr. Shelley's band, y'know Sonic Youth... no, really the resemblance was downright unbelievable! Mid-90s Blonde Redhead was so very different from the band that we now know and love (and that they first showed signs of evolving into by their third album, Fake Can Be Just As Good).

Slo-mo country-folkish atmospherics from members of Neurosis (Scott Kelly and Noah Landis, plus two non-Neurosis dudes). Gloomy and low key, with Scott's Lou Reedish vocals dragging raw over the proceedings. Neurosis fans into Scott's previous solo outing Spirit Bound Flesh or the similar solo works of Steve Von Till ought to dig this disc of desolate 'rock' music. Non-Neurosis fans too! Gruff yet weepy.

MPEG stream: Deep Inside Of You
MPEG stream: Remember Me

Yet another in Southern's Latitudes series, there are two this week in fact, one from Guapo satellite Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, and this one, the latest from Blood & Time, aka Scott Kelly from the mighty Neurosis. But don't be expecting any sort of metallic bombast, or grinding riffage, pounding percussion, nope, Blood & Time is a much darker, quieter proposition, moody and melancholy, mysterious and ultra personal. Centered around Kelly's whispered baritone, a rumbling Michael Gira-like croon, which hovers above reverbed piano, simple acoustic guitars, drifting electronics, a spare, sparse, haunting soundworld. Fans of stuff like Swans, Angels Of Light, Sixteen Horsepower, Woven Hand, and other doom laden apocalyptic folk with be mesmerized by Blood & Time's grim countrified doom. The guitars unfurl like black clouds, the melodies like thorny brambles, in the background, the rich warm whir of an organ, and over the top, dripping like black tar, Kelly's woeful tales of sadness and loss, death and misery. It's hard not to think of Woven Hand, this stuff is so sonically similar, dark and apocalyptic, dramatic and menacing. Kelly's voice also reminds us a bit of Mark Lanegan, which is not a bad thing at all. We loved the last Blood & Time, but this ep is even better, his voice sounds amazing, the songs sound better than ever, the production is lush and expansive, and the fleshed out lineup (featuring other folks from Neurosis) has made a world of difference. Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. Each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, we got about 20 copies...

MPEG stream: Silver Ocean Storm
MPEG stream: From Sky To Sky

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

SORRY. Blood Box is a project of Michael Hensley whose work in the terrorist ambient ensemble Yen Pox we have praised before. On his own, Hensley strikes a more menacing pose; where Yen Pox conjures a narcotic numbness laced with the imagery of fear, death, and horror, Blood Box places you directly in the midst of a tragic aural nightmare. Snarling beasts and whispering demons haunt the nether regions of bleak reverberating dronescapes, giving way to majestic swells of minor key orchestral fragments. Later on, claustrobophia from The Iron Dream's sonic catacombs open into expansive forests, ominously crackling and creaking in the wind. At the same time, subtle musical gestures punctuate the wash and din, offering a hint of optimism to this otherwise oppressive album. On the Iron Dream, Hensley brings together the shadowy ambience found on Burzum's Filosofem, the soul-crushing depression of Anenzephalia, the darkly shimmered elegance of Maeror Tri, and subterranean terror of Lustmord. Morose, creepy, and gorgeously frightening.

MPEG stream: Fall In
MPEG stream: Far Side Of The Sun

Now on cd! The Blood Brothers are from Seattle and play a sort of hardcore/avant garde punk. This is their major label debut. This is some crazy, rad, chaotic stuff. Their live shows are said to change one's life. Judging by this release, they are another example of a band signing to a major label yet retaining their dignity, style and control. I (Sadie) totally love this band, they know the history of punk and proudly deconstruct and destroy what's been done over and over. So good. MPEG Download: "Burn" [/audio/bloodbroburn.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Burn" [/audio/bloodbroburn.m3u]

MPEG stream: Burn
MPEG stream: Fucking

The Blood Brothers are from Seattle and play a sort of hardcore/avant garde punk. This is the vinyl version of their major label debut, which comes out on March 18th. This is some crazy, rad, chaotic stuff. Their live shows are said to change ones life. Judging by this release, they are another example of a band signing to a major label yet retaining their dignity, style and control. I (Sadie) totally love this band, they know the history of punk and proudly deconstruct and destroy whats been done over and over. So good.

In totally oversimplified terms, Blood Brothers' latest album, Crime, sounds like Les Savy Fav had a baby with Mars Volta and swaddled the vocals in flanger and compression. The entire album is a sonic assault in similar tone to LSF's debut album 3/5, and it doesn't let up in a Volta kind of way, almost perpetually all-out riffage. The wailing vocals are also similar to Cedric's (singer from Mars Volta) but more acappella. Overall, it's an overwhelmingly visceral wall of sound, the recording of which seems inspired by an Albini-esque everything up as far as it can go approach. There's a lack of dynamicism here within songs and from song to song, but if you love the sound of incessantly hitting that visceral wall, this will totally be your jam.

MPEG stream: Feed Me To The Forest
MPEG stream: Trash Flavored Trash

More splattery screamo action from the Blood Brothers! This new 7-song EP spews forth a bunch of rare and previously unreleased stuff by these five Seattlites including two alternate versions, a remix of a Gang Of Four's "Anthrax", a live recording plus a video for "Hideous Car Wreck".

MPEG stream: Crimes (Alternate Version)
MPEG stream: Anthrax (Blood Brothers Remix Of Gang Of Four)

New abrasive sounds from the predominantly abrasive San Diego label run by The Locust's Justin Pearson. Severe punk-thrash ranting and clawing. Their music is a highly volatile substance that spits out caustic, barbed tentacles aimed at your vital organs. Time

RealAudio clip: March On Electric Children
RealAudio clip: Kiss Of The Octopus

There was a time when the kind of youthful angsty fury of bands like the Blood Brothers and The Locust wouldn't have been touched with a ten foot pole by major labels. My how times change. Seems the virulent noise those kids make is pretty darn marketable these days. Think a band of razor-wielding temper tantrums. Amid the squelchy scratch-yer-eyes-out vocalizations lurk little operatics a la Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler. Well, with the exception of the seventh track "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds" which falls more in line with the danceable post-punk groove of The Rapture...er, Gang Of Four. For fans of At The Drive-In, The Locust, The Mars Volta, and Nation Of Ulysses.

MPEG stream: Vital Beach
MPEG stream: Spit Shine Your Black Clouds

This Canadian doom-psych-prog-metal band's 2008 debut was a big fave 'round here, we likened their female-fronted n' flutey, Hammond organ driven occult heaviness to "Electric Wizard given a medieval, madrigal makeover" and compared 'em to a hypothetical Atomic Rooster + Jacula + Jex Thoth hybrid. So, stoked are we to announce the arrival of a brand new Blood Ceremony, still damp and crimson, and damn good! There's a few ways, we figure, a band like this could go: get darker and more extreme metal (a la Wooden Stake), or lighten up and develop more in their prog direction (we could imagine 'em sounding something like Curved Air in that case). Or, of course, they could provide more of the same, which would elicit no complaints from us. And that's what Blood Ceremony pretty much opted for, this album coming off like a continuation / perfection of their debut, nine more songs of vintage '70s sounding, witchy rockarolla. With plenty of rollicking Hammond organ and swinging retro riffery, they deliver the progged-out proto-metal goods like it's 1971 and they've just come from getting stoned with their groovy coven. Complete with a flute happy instrumental ("The Hermit"). And definitely, with a lot hinging on the dramatic, stagey, sometimes soft, sometimes soaring, vocals of Alia O'Brien. Again, VERY much in the vein of Jex Thoth. O'Brien and Blood Ceremony are almost the Burning Saviours to Jex Thoth's Witchcraft, if you follow that doom-nerd analogy. Another would be Black Sabbath with a sex change, and Deep Purple or Uriah Heep's keyboards hired on... as Sabbath's actual keyboardy stuff, courtesy caped wonder Rick Wakeman on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ferinstance, was a lot more "synthy" sounding than the classic Hammond vibe heard here, played in kick ass fashion by O'Brien by the way, a triple threat talent who's also the band's flautist, flaunting it indeed, what would they do without her? Not that the guitarist, for one, doesn't get to shine as well, in the riff department, and dueling leads with the organ, like during the swirling, surging tour de force of the epic "Oliver Haddo" (the album's second longest song, not quite beating out the 10 minute plus closer, "Daughter Of The Sun", another extended, involved rite, all right). This time, produced by Sanford Parker (Pelican, Yob, Zoroaster, Samothrace, The Gates Of Slumber, etc.), which perhaps accounts for some of the added thickness/heaviness we sense here, though the debut was heavy too. He also supplies some Moog. This disc's too-dark cover photo of the band is about the only disappointment, whereas the cover painting for their first album, by fantasy artist George Barr, was something to look at. But for listening, this is indeed the answer to your prayers to the Great God Pan. So good, we simply can't get enough of this, and if you too are truly in the mood for some beauteous and bombastic, rockin' pagan prog heaviness, then it's time to begin Living With The Ancients!

MPEG stream: Coven Tree
MPEG stream: My Demon Brother
MPEG stream: Oliver Haddo

Been looking forward to this one! The debut album from this seemingly time-lost Toronto band, the latest in the current spate of retro-proto-doom-metal bubbling up from the underground. All the heavy '70s Sabbath/Pentagram riffs -and- occult vibe of a band like Witchcraft, with soaring female vox and a thick coating of vintage Hammond organ, spooky and bombastic. It's an equation along the lines of Atomic Rooster + Jacula + Jex Thoth, maybe. Yeah, we're down with this. And that's just after hearing the first song. Then track two kicks in with some proggy flute! With LOTS more flute to follow on the rest of this album. So now they've added some Jethro Tull to the mix... Black Widow, Uriah Heep, Rainbow, and a mess of other more obscure '70s acts could also be cited as references too, along with the much more recent likes of the aforementioned Witchcraft and Jex Thoth. Now, if you hate Jex Thoth's singing, you might have a similarly tough time with Blood Ceremony, but we found that the lady here isn't quite as polarizing a proposition. And it's her dramatic vocals that gives Blood Ceremony their special sound, along with her flute playing. She's also the organist. But let's not forget the guitars... it's tough not to grow your hair long and sprout bellbottoms when exposed to these lumbering, loping riffs, all of 'em seemingly from the school of Sleep's Sabbathier-than-thou classic "Dragonaut"! Or imagine Electric Wizard given a medieval, madrigal makeover. And the lyrics... "I see witches in the sky, flying toward the quaalude eye"?? Ok. These guys and gal are definitely "smoking black drugs from Satan's bong" (I think that's what they said). Speaking of witchcraft, the dark arts of pagan ritual are of course Blood Ceremony's main subject matter, on tracks like "Into The Coven". The grooviest black mass we've attended in a while, right here. After spinning this for a while, if you find toads hopping about near your stereo, we wouldn't be surprised...

MPEG stream: Master Of Confusion
MPEG stream: I'm Coming With You

Some stoner doom rockin' from the usually reliable Invada label (run by one of the guys from Portishead, oddly enough). But sadly, this one brings Invada's batting average down, not living up to the likes of The Heads, Atavist, Brain Donor, etc. Mainly, 'cause oooh crickey the vocals are rough. Lines like "It's time for you to taste my wrath...oh yeah!" look better on paper than they sound coming from the totally "chainwallet" style singer. Plus some stilted singsongy almost rappy rhymes, no thanks. This would be way better if dude didn't sing. Hope he's also the guitar player or something, otherwise there's no excuse. Sorry.

MPEG stream: I Am The King
MPEG stream: For The Sake Of Clarity

On their latest album Liferz, Blood On The Wall keep playin' it primal, loose and low slung... y'know, bluesy New York gutter rawk. If you've dug the lanky sounds of Royal Trux and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, you might wanna dig into the raunch of Blood On The Wall.

MPEG stream: Hibernation
MPEG stream: The Ditch

Devonte Hynes has been a man behind the musical scenes for several years now, producing and writing tracks for the likes of Basement Jaxx, Florence & The Machines and Solange Knowles. But we are super glad he's finally taking center stage with his own project, as he is one of the best and most evocative voices we've heard in a long time. Listening to Coastal Grooves really feels like a sleek and steamy night out on the town. Wandering from one dark seedy nightclub to another, and blasting through city streets in a fast car with the windows down. The songs range from slow burning sensual ravers to more indie rocking driving anthems. Imagine some awesome combination of Hercules & Love Affair, Grizzly Bear, Twin Shadow, and Bloc Party, and you begin to get a picture of the sorts of sounds Blood Orange create. Their imagery and overall aura have a strong queer sensibility evoking the drama of drag queens and the underworld of after-hours cruising bars. For sure there is also a huge '80s influence ranging from Culture Club to Tears For Fears to Bow Wow Wow. But unlike many others mining from that era there is no wink or nod or irony in Blood Orange's sound, as these are heartfelt songs that move and sizzle.

MPEG stream: Sutphin Boulevard
MPEG stream: S'Cooled
MPEG stream: Champagne Coast

Debut 7" from this SF outfit (featuring members of aQ faves Ganglians), and goddamn if this band doesn't sound like they made this record just for us (and a lot of you presumably). A weird mix of fuzzy old school synth-pop and gloomy garage, weary, echo drenched vox, over programmed rhythms, and buzzing synths the A side almost sounds like some early Nirvana jam transcribed for synth-pop hooky as hell, with some wild squalls of distorted guitar and woozy synth freakout, totally drug addled, and while not heavy, super driving and hypnotic, and one of the best jams we've heard in ages. In fact, we listened to the A side about ten times before we could even bring ourselves to flip it over. But goddamn if the flipside isn't just as good, another robotic rhythm wrapped in crumbling distortion and zoner synth blur, the vocals almost entirely buried, and again, a sort of grunge-y punk lurking underneath all the electro-weirdness, the result, like the A side, some seriously ruling, heady, hooky, distorto synth punk that we can't get enough of. Counting the minutes til the full length... LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

Single number two from these local garage psych weirdos, and like the first, it�s another blast of warped and mangled pop, doused in reverb and echo, fuzz guitar draped over loose limbed drumming and soaring almost sunshiny vocals, the whole thing a glorious concoction that would be right at home on John Dwyer�s (Thee Oh Sees) Castle Face label, but is at the same time like some mutant strain of Best Coat-ian surf pop. It�s no coincidence that Blood Sister features members of aQ faves Ganglians, this stuff definitely shares some of the same sonic DNA. The A side really is some sort of alternate universe Summer beach jam, al hazy, and dreamy, and laid back, but still gnarled and fractured, a drugged out chunk of feel good downer garage bliss out. The B side gets a bit darker, more minor key and angular, but then those multi tracked vocal harmonies come in, and give the sound a sort of outsider Beach Boys vibe. Seriously good shit. Don�t be surprised if these guys turn out to be the next big thing. Fans of Wavves, Crocodiles, Jeff The Brotherhood and other similarly stoned garage pop miscreants will flip. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

**SALE **SALE* *SALE** First, classic album from the famous late '60s jazz/R&B/rock group. Now digitally remastered, with three bonus tracks and new liner notes. Totally fucked up proggy pop. Extended jams, crazy leads, stretched out languid blues. Hard to believe this stuff was top 40. If you loved that first Chicago record (and judging from how many we've sold, you do) then this will hit the spot.

Second, also classic album from the famous late '60s jazz/R&B/rock group. Includes hits "You've Made Me So Very Happy" and "Spinning Wheel", plus their cover/jam on Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" and interpretations of themes by Erik Satie! Now digitally remastered, with two live bonus tracks and new liner notes.

It takes a LOT for a joke band to impress us. First, the joke has to be really funny. Second, the music STILL has to rule. Or at least be good enough to make the joke worthwhile. Nothing worse than a joke band that relies totally on their gimmick. No need to worry about the mighty Bloodhag, the very heavy masters of all things Edu-Core. For those new to the 'Hag, imagine four nerds, white collared shirts (tucked in of course), totally obsessed with science fiction, so much so that each song is the name of an author, and of course the lyrics discuss the authors and their finest works, live the band hurls sci-fi paperbacks into the audience, and they even did an entire tour playing only in libraries!! It stops being a joke when it's this well researched and executed. Check out the cover too, a headless demon, laying atop a pile of books, the band dead with an 'overdue' notice stuck to one of their corpses, a warrior librarian, wielding a sword, clutching the demon's head, wearing sexy librarian glasses and of course with her library ID still around her neck. Awesome. Plus it's called Hell Bent For Letters! Fuck yeah! Check the Cavalar review elsewhere on the list for a rant on punny band names. What do they sound like? Sort of like a thrash metal Karp, sludgy guitars, galloping drums, shouted vocals, sometimes thrashy and noisy, sometimes gloriously epic, sometimes sort of grunt and death metally. But pay close attention, you might learn something. The tracks this time around (and Andee's take on the books by the authors referenced): "Gene Wolfe" (you must read his Book Of The New Sun series, so massive and dense and epic. One of the weirdest worlds ever written) "Robert Silverberg" (just read Book Of Skulls on the recommendation of AQ pal Barbara D., disturbingly racist and misogynistic and homophobic (like many books written in the seventies) but if you can get past that, it's really intense and fucked up and so strangely mysterious. Being made into a movie which seems like a bad move) "Douglas Adams" (recently re-read the Hitchhikers Guide 'trilogy' and it's still pretty darn funny. The movie was pretty good too) "Orson Scott Card" (the Enders series is the series that made me love science fiction, just don't read any of the introductions or you'll realize what a Mormon kook he is and it might ruin it for you) "Greg Bear" (The Forge Of God and Anvil Of Stars: one of the best sci-fi one-two punches ever. So epic and amazing!) Okay, we could go on and on, the rest of the tracks / authors: "James Blish", "Anne M. Caffrey", "Iain M. banks", "Edgar Allen Poe", "Philip Jose Farmer", "Michael Swanwick", "Frederik Pohl", "Thomas M. Disch", "Franz Kafka", "Madeline L'Engle" and "Jack Womack". If you like metal, you'll like Bloodhag. If you like science fiction, you -might- like Bloodhag. But if you love metal AND love science fiction, then pick up this slab of crushing edu-core, you just might learn something!

MPEG stream: Gene Wolfe
MPEG stream: Robert Silverberg
MPEG stream: Orson Scott Card
MPEG stream: Greg Bear

The full length, also heavy!

Pretty darn heavy, pretty darn rockin'. And despite what we heard and had hoped about '70s metal influences (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, mebee even Bloodrock?) this Boston band sounds very much like something of this day and age, though with lots of stoned nodding towards said '70s past. That is, they fit right in with the likes of High On Fire, The Sword and Early Man. A pummelling power trio who play doomy yet rollicking rock with plenty of twists and turns. Notable notes: Not an instrumental band but could be mistaken for one a lot of the time, jamming away without much thought to lettin' the singer sing (he's busy playing his guitar). Some bright n' happy (yet still heavy) moments. Rhythmically tight, dynamic songwriting that certainly gives the drummer some -- indeed, after a hard rockin' first couple minutes, the track "The Goat" is mostly a very atmospheric *drum solo* setting you up for the reintroduction of the woah-yeah main riff. This debut "EP" is 6 songs, 36 minutes -- and we'd guess that many of those into heaviness who hear this, are gonna want to hear more.

MPEG stream: Son Of Man
MPEG stream: Sparks

In our review of the recent archival release from Seattle/Aussie garage rockers Bloodloss, we went on a bit about the later years of Bloodloss, after their move to the states, when Mudhoney's Mark Arm took over on vocals, and then we realized we had never reviewed any of those Arm-fronted Bloodloss records, and then whaddayaknow, in drops this, the long lost final recordings from Bloodloss, in their final incarnation, still featuring members of Aussie noise rock legends Lubricated Goat, but firmly Americanized at this point with Arm up at the mic. Recorded way back in 1996 (we didn't realize they had broken up so long ago) and only unearthed and mixed last year, this is a healthy dose of swampy, punked up garage rock, still laced with some of the jazzisms (plenty of sax) that so defined the early years of Bloodloss, but for the most part, this sounds more like a grungier, scuzzier, swampier Monkeywrench / Mudhoney, although on opening track, someone else takes the mic, and delivers his lines in a Beefheart/Waits like raspy growl, but when the second track kicks in, we're off, propulsive tribal drumming, throbbing bassline, distorted buzz and crunch guitars, and that distinctive Arm wail, and from there on out, the record sort of flits back and forth, between slithery swaggery Beefheartian swamprock and post grunge Stooges-y stomp, with some wild drumming, gnarled guitaring, and plenty of twisted arrangements tangled up in both. Sorta forgot how much we dug these guys, both pre and post Arm, but holy shit is this kicking our asses, and inspiring us to revisit all those Arm led Bloodloss records! Includes a digital download of the album too!

MPEG stream: A Bottle & A Grin
MPEG stream: Another One Of You
MPEG stream: Bones Of My Ass

When most people think of Bloodloss, they probably think of the Seattle based "supergroup" which included members of Lubricated Goat, Monkeywrench, and Mudhoney, Mark Arm of Mudhoney lending his oh so distinctive vocals, forever making Bloodloss a 'Mudhoney sideproject', but long before Mark Arm joined the band, Bloodloss were a Australia-based junk jazz / dirge blues juggernaut who totally destroyed. Scenemates with such Aussie post punk luminaries as Lubricated Goat, Scientists, King Snake Roost, Feedtime, the Scientists, Bloodloss fit right in, their sound swaggery and low slung, noisy and bluesy, punky and slithery, fitting perfectly right between King Snake Roost and Lubricated Goat, two of our favorite bands EVER. To be fair, their Seattle era sound was not all that removed from their classic early sound, the big change being their ditching of the jazz element which was a big part of their early sound. Hell, their record is named after an Albert Ayler song, and they have a song about Archie Shepp, they've got sax on a handful of tracks, their songs are loose and wild, and while not necessarily 'free' (although a few tracks most definitely are), they definitely have the jazz spirit, a sound occasionally abstract and improvised, lots of jamming, killer freakouts alongside dense grooves and gnarled riffage, murky and low slung, the vocals seriously kick ass, deep and ominous one second, snarly and scowly the next, the guitars are dense and tripped out, wreathed in wah wah one second, all slippery slide the next, and the songs kill, catchy, noisy, heavy, wild and wooly, fans of all of the above mentioned bands, and that era of Australian post punk, who have yet to hear this stuff, holy shit are you in for a treat. The first disc contains The Truth Is Marching In album from 1990, along with a handful of bonus tracks from their never released Hair Of The Future album from 1991, while the second disc contains highlights from their self-titled 1986 cassette, their 1987 lp Human Skin Suit and a bunch of unreleased tracks and rehearsals, and the older tracks feature vocalist Sharron Weatherill, who left before The Truth Is Marching In, and her distinctive vocals definitely give those older Bloodloss jams their own unique vibe, besides the fact that they're all noisier and way more lo-fi. Super nice packaging with extensive liner notes and lots of photos. Memorandum continues to mine amazing gems from the Australian underground. Now we're just waiting for them to reissue all the old Lubricated Goat and King Snake Roost albums...

MPEG stream: Cold & Alive
MPEG stream: Blabbermouth
MPEG stream: Ghost Rider
MPEG stream: Slow Room

The opening song of this SF band's first cd finds them crunching out a rough'n'tumble garage pop with lots of snare drum that sounds a lot like Violent Femmes... but if Gordon Gano were replaced by more of a boyish crooner. The next track "Pipe Down!" does just that (bring things down a bit, that is!) as does the third song. These lower-key tunes which make up the better part of the album (and which gives you opportunity to catch hold of the lyrics), call to mind quirky storytellers such as Jonathan Richman, Microphones' Phil Elverum or Morrissey even. A promising indie pop debut!

MPEG stream: Lighter Than A Bullet
MPEG stream: Picking Up Your Pieces

New York doommongers Bloody Panda return with full length #2, this one courtesy of the always rad Profound Lore label. The band specializes in a style of glacial doom sounding like it was recorded in an enormous cathedral in the dead of night. Funereal keyboards and subsonic bass run alongside lumbering drums that put everything into a spiraling trance as the downtuned guitars puke out overwhelmingly negative sounding riffs. Then, there's the kicker, Bloody Panda's unassuming vocalist Yoshiko Ohara, whose beautiful and clear voice can just as easily switch from sweet croon to Yoko Ono howl to a throat ripping banshee scream to a guttural demon bark. Her super bleak lyrics focus on all the various aspects of mental instability that doom bands know and love, like a fever induced nightmare where Bloody Panda is the house band. Ohara's awesome and disturbing artwork perfectly mirrors the sounds within Summon, with lots of black space and faceless figures shrouded in slivers of hazy color. There are certainly some similarities to Neurosis' more, ahem, "tribal" moments, while the band's almost goth sensibility, not to mention the female vocals and organ, bring to mind Asva, but there is enough other stuff going on to make Bloody Panda stand out. This is only made clearer by the accompanying dvd, featuring a video for the 21 minute motherfucker of a song, "Miserere". Filmed by the band members themselves in various parts of Brooklyn in addition to shots taken in Indonesia, the dvd offers a stunning visual enhancement to Bloody Panda's sonic assault.

MPEG stream: Gold
MPEG stream: Pusher
MPEG stream: Miserere