[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 4201 through 4250 of 19388.

With so much of San Francisco's music scene lately dominated by blown out garage rock and charming garage pop it's kind of refreshing to encounter a local band operating in a completely different orbit. Dadfag carry the spirit of dirty, sloppy and dangerous damaged punk. Like Lydia Lunch jamming with The Fall and Flipper or Pretty On The Inside era Hole. Scenic Abuse is filled with urgent and irreverent sounds that tap into the more warped and reckless side of artpunk glory. Like early Bikini Kill stripped of its righteousness and doused instead in danger and unpredictability. We love how within their uptempo, fully charged, fucked up sound there is still room for variety, as they show different sides to their sound throughout the record. We're also reminded a bit in spirit of the now defunct San Francisco relentless noise punk band So So Many White White Tigers. We're always stoked to see folks find a way to use the influence of punk in a way that doesn't feel tired or played out, and Dadfag have succeeded quite nicely in bringing their own energy and vision to a legacy that will always ring so loud and true.

MPEG stream: Interrogation
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It's been over 6 months since Daft Punk played in San Francisco but anyone who was there will never forget it. Daft Punk proved they are one of the greatest live experiences on the planet. From an immaculate trance inducing light show, to a futuristic pyramid shaped console that they were housed in and then of course the loud, supremely danceable songs that they blasted through the amphitheater as thousands of people grinning wildly, completely let themselves go, dancing with ecstasy and an adrenalized joy that we rarely ever get to experience. Alive 2007 captures that show (and that recent tour) perfectly. It's pretty much the same set they played here as they morph many of their songs into one new track which gives a new life to many of their already well known songs from their three albums. We're sure that at least one Daft Punk record has found its way into your subconscious (Discovery will always be our favorite!) as they are a duo who have discovered an amazing way to be accessible to such a wide range of people (ravers, metal heads, hip-hop kids, gay club scene, indie rockers, ordinary joes, etc) yet create music with such charged and creative energy. They manage to bring elements of disco, prog, house, psychedelia, funk and rock to a level of ecstatic heights rarely reached in popular music. Long live Daft Punk!!!

MPEG stream: Burnin' / Too Long
MPEG stream: Aerodynamic Beats / Forget About The World
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The future funk robots are back and they brought with them an arsenal of legendary guests: Electronic euro-disco king Giorgio Moroder, Phantom of the Paradise and AM Gold madman Paul Williams, and Chic's Nile Rodgers who reigns over what will definitely be THE summer jam this year, "Get Lucky" with Pharell. Panda Bear of Animal Collective and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes round out the special guest roster. In the eight years since their last effort, the duo decided to eschew the computer technology of today and instead recorded the whole album in analog direct to tape, rewiring modern dance music with a fresh prog-disco retro sheen. Basically, school's out kids, here's your candy. Bright, delicious, electric candy. Vinyl is 180 gram, includes digital download; the cd is not quite so thick and is its own digital download.

MPEG stream: Give Life Back To Music
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Second solo album from this hardworking Norwegian jazz drummer, who has played on a lot of other folk's records and also spends much of his time collecting unusual instruments, mostly of the percussion variety, many of which you'll hear on this album, including some unique items like one built with cake molds and springs. His first album was named after a vintage drum kit, this one's named after a special set of chromatic bells. Dahlen sounds like a one-man percussion ensemble, playing everything here, also including electronics and musical saw (yeah!!). The album starts off with some shimmering, skittering click-clack clamor at its most beautiful, percussion meets drone in a dream wash of ambient mesmer, busy with sticks tapping and bells chiming. On track two, sprightly instrumental grooves with a bit more melody come to the fore, rather delightful. But then elsewhere, moody and sparse atmospheres prevail, accentuated by that wavvery singing saw, love it! On those tracks, it's more like more like some eerie postrock, almost Bohren-esque in its doomy slomo unfurling. Bohren meets Pierre Bastien, perhaps. There's also moments of what sounds like modern classical string-scrape, and twitchy improv bits too. All of it lovely and intriguing!

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We just love solo percussion albums. Stomu Yamash'ta, Toshiaki Ishizuka, Glen Velez, Milford Graves, Christopher Tree, Keiji Haino, Christian Vander, Janne Tuomi.... We're suckers for 'em. Something about a drummer saying, "hey, I'm more than just the timekeeper, you other guys, with your guitars and stuff, I don't need you, get lost, I'm doing this all myself my own way", is just cool, and often quite creative. So already we were interested in this debut solo album from this hitherto unknown to us (but apparently prolific) Norwegian jazz drummer, Erland Dahlen. And then there's the title, Rolling Bomber. Sound heavy, right? We're already thinking martial drum rolls, and, uh, Motorhead's Bomber. But, the title actually comes from the name of Dahlen's drum kit, it's a vintage Slingerland "Rollingbomber" model, from the '40s, mostly made of wood 'cause of wartime metal shortages. So this isn't heavy - aside from the thump of the bass drum upon occasion - it's more of an atmospheric, textural soundscape thing. Besides the Rollingbomber kit, Dahlen makes use of multiple other percussion instruments (gongs, logdrum, timpani, maracas, kalimba, temple blocks, bells, etc.), also electronics, and some custom built gadgets, and a "monkey drummer with battery"... AND, also close to our hearts here at aQ, he plays the musical saw! That's where a lot of the (eerie) melody comes from. Not a percussion instrument per se, but cool. So, the seven tracks here are all quite moody, dramatic, and rhythmically interesting (naturally). The grand finale, "Germany", gets kinda krautrocky, thus the title perhaps, with the beats more insistent, and the musical saw used effectively, it's an energetic culmination to this fine album.

MPEG stream: Flower Power
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When you hear the words Load Records, and then 'duo from Providence', you probably think of a certain sort of sound, blown out and super heavy, chaotic and noisy, the sort of sound that would be coming from a couple dudes rocking out wildly amidst a heaving sweat soaked crowd, and there could possibly be costumes involved, but odds are you wouldn't have thought of this - dark, brooding, moody, synthy coldwave, but that's precisely what you get with Daily Life, whose debut Necessary And Pathetic is indeed a Load anomaly, and we're digging it quite a bit! Skeletal beats underpin crumbling distorted synths and lush chordal swells, the vocals deep and moody, weird processed whispery wraithlike vocals swirl around soaring melodramatic melodies, chiming guitars, strange glitchy crunches swoop from speaker to speaker, organs whir and warble, lovely female vocals offer melodic counterpoint, lots of metallic buzzing, deep bassy rumblings, all manner of keyboard and synth textures, electronic pulses, super dark and dreamy, surprisingly poppy and melodic, and all very lush and dense and really pretty great. For fans of Blessure Grave, Interpol, Cold Cave, Silk Flowers, and all that sort of stuff.

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The third in Sacred Bones' ongoing series of 12"s comes from Chicago's Daily Void, who take eighties crusty punk (a la Rudimentary Peni, Crass, etc.) and give it a Sacred Bones, lo-fi new wave weirdo garage rock makeover, and the result is pretty bad ass, easily the heaviest most rockingest release on SB so far. Pounding crusty darkwave infused garage rock crunch, all swirling distorto guitars, pounding chaotic drummage, new wave vocals that slip from Nik Blinko to Jello Biafra, but usually hover somewhere right in between, spidery minor key melodies and urgent guitar crunch, wrapped around depraved tales of stabbing, strangulation, face ripping and all sorts of harsh grim weirdness, at one point a howl of "SIX SIX SIX" gets drenched in distortion and sent spinning into a glorious cacophony, the whole record an exercise in cold wave thrash, crusty garage punk and revamped noise rock anarcho wave radness, retro for sure, but looking back to a way different past than most of the Sacred Bones stable, and we're digging it big time.

From the same label that brought us Badly Drawn Boy, comes the UK's next big thing, Dakota Oak. Really pretty, kind of meandering folky / jazzy electronica, a bizarre mix of the Beta Band, Calexico, shimmery late night jazz, and Vince Guaraldi (of Peanuts theme fame). Sounds like it could be bad, but it's actually pretty cool.

RealAudio clip: Da Wollen Wir Him
RealAudio clip: J Love Buses & Girls

Tons of amazing hip-hop has come through here lately. We were all a-flutter over the most recent J. Dilla and El-P albums. And now we have the fourth album from Newark, NJ's Dalek. While not as mind blowing as either of those two, it's still a pretty cool disc. Minimalist rhythms follow the old-school bass/snare/bass-ba-bass/snare pattern and land Abandoned Language consistently somewhere between Tribe Called Quest and the Fugees in BPM's, but somehow the record fails to deliver the lyrical depth those groups thrived on. However, the aptly titled "Abandoned Language" is chock full of super interesting samples and strange scratching, at a speed perfect for contemplative head bobbing. This album definitely finds Dalek forging new sonic paths and we're curious to see where they'll lead next...

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It's been almost three years since we've had a full length release from Dalek, which is WAY too long. It's always refreshing to get some new hip hop in that doesn't follow the formulaic patterns that rigidly rule most hip hop releases. Absence is barely a hip hop album at all. Beginning with a 30 second a cappella from Dalek, we're quickly submerged into a wash of beautifully torrential guitar feedback drone and pounding almost metallic drums. From that point on Absence progresses as an album closer to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, or early Seefeel than to most hip hop albums. Not only in that Absence is lushly layered with droning feedback, keyboard sweeps and grinding blasts of noise, but Dalek's voice tends to get submerged -- way down in the churning murky mix, making his voice just another strange sound swirling and swooping amidst the chaos, and making this record a truly fucked up sort-of-hip-hop record!

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These last few months have finally seen the arrival of the most recent batch of Latitudes releases, some that had been in the pipeline for months, maybe even years, first Gang Gang Dance and Gowns, then Nadja and Mount Eerie, and most recently the Master Musician of Bukkake, and now finally, this sprawling avant hip hop doomscape from Dalek, who already pushes the boundaries with his proper releases, but this one takes it even further, a massive 44 minute untitled sonic sprawl, epic and abstract, dark and ominous, lush and majestic, a slow burning dubbed out bass heavy intro lays the groundwork. Warped and warbly, a shimmery downtempo creep, laced with distant melodies, buried vox, folky guitars, there's some rapping, more like spoken word, but it fades out quickly as the surrounding sounds blossom and expand into a dark swirling dronescape, bits of twang and garbled voices drift on a sea of hiss and hum, of muted melody and crumbling textures, and then things get serious, the sounds is cranked up, the low end thick, the rhythms industrial and grinding, almost like some sort of hip-hopped SUNNO))) / Godspeed hybrid, the vocals buried in the mix, before it all winds down again, and then in come the tablas (!), wrapped in weird backwards swoops and heaving slabs of low end rumble, building again, this time into a lumbering string laden machine like trudge, doomy and dark, almost like a more blissed out Gnaw Their Tongues, orchestral and epic, and after about 27 minutes, a proper hip hop beats swoops in, still wreathed in caustic buzz, and surrounded by all manner of fractures sounds and effects, and suddenly it's like the hardest heaviest hip hop you've never heard, super distorted and blown out, a crushing chunk of post apocalyptic robo funk lope, which eventually fades out, leaving just a long stretch of hushed shimmer, and tangled steel string melody, all blurred and smeared into a hazy expanse of ominous minimal drift, and one final verse, delivered ominously over the tense droning whir beneath. Fucking KILLER. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, the covers the immediately recognizable brown and white origami style Latitudes sleeves, this one with a black and silver cover image glued to the front, and a full color insert inside.

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After recently making two recent offerings on the Medical Records label into Records Of The Week (Axxess and Lou Champagne System), we figured we oughta review a couple other kick ass Medical releases that somehow slipped under our radar. There's the Guyer's Connection, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, a collection of lost tracks from a Swiss teenage synth / electro-pop duo, and this one here, another oddly named outfit, called Dalek I, short for Dalek I Love You, a UK duo, whose equally oddly named debut, Compass Kumpass, was originally released in 1980, and is available again on vinyl for the first time in thirty years! If you need a quick thumbnail of Dalek I's sound, it might be easiest to list the bands that members of Dalek I would go on to play in, most notably, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and the Teardrop Explodes. Dalek I offer up a glorious world of classic new wave and gloomy moody electro pop, dramatic and a little bit gothy, with post punk flourishes here and there, hand clap rhythms, skittery programmed beats, warm fuzzy synths, indie pop guitar jangle some of the tracks here sounding like total classic old school eighties electro pop, like the opener "The World", which sounds like Tears For Fears or Icicle Works, while others do get darker, and more haunting, like the brooding, droney "A Suicide", but for every sonic shadow, there's something bouncy and playful and super melodic, just check out "The Kiss" which is the impossibly peppy track that comes right after "A Suicide". They even do a cool (and pretty far out) cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me", with a woozy echo drenched abstract intro, that leads into a super taut angular almost Devo-esque sounding version that we find ourselves playing over and over. For the most part, this stuff steers well clear of the whole Carpenter / Goblin side of the synth spectrum, in favor of something much poppier, a lot more twee, but at the same time, way catchier. If you dig OMD, Tears For Fears, Icicle Works, Talk Talk and other eighties indie poppers / electro-poppers, definitely give Dalek I a listen... Pressed on 180 gram hot pink vinyl, housed in super eighties looking new wave jackets, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, and also includes a flexi-disc single, featuring two B-sides!

MPEG stream: The World
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Relaxed and off-key in all the right ways, Untitled floats her beautiful airy voice over simple, repetitive piano, noisy guitar, and the occasional cello, violin, and viola. There's a stunning, sparse song sung in Russian, and the whole thing was engineered/produced by Jim O'Rourke & Tom Mallon. Bill Callahanof Smog makes a few appearances as well.

Commotus is the debut from Spanish songstress/soundscaper Lucrecia Dalt, and definitely positions her amongst some like minded soundmakers we love - Grouper, US Girls, Valet, Chelsea Wolfe. Dalt has the same sort of knack for weaving lustrous dark dreamscapes, mixing the gothic folk of Wolfe with the hazy soft focus psychedelic drift of Grouper, but adding her own twists, in the case of album opener it's a background of layered, pitch shifted voices, which forms the whole of the sonic backdrop, all harnessed to skittery, percolating rhythms, and laced with a surprising blurt of woozy wah guitar and an out of nowhere swell of bleating brass. The overall effect is ghostly, spectral, haunting and darkly lovely, and the rest of the record unfurls similarly. "Excopolamina" almost sounds like an extension of the opener, a bit more hazy and blurred, metallic riffs muted into a churning rhythm, the beats more skittery, the vocals even more ethereal. Then there's the playful synth solo, and what sounds like an old fashioned wurlitzer humming in the background. There's definitely a woozy, washed out sort of Caretaker vibe to the proceedings here, the sounds and songs faded and worn, transmissions from some mysterious shadowy otherworld, dark ballads that drift ominously, only to collide with tracks that are downright playful ("Conversa"), which almost sound like a slightly darker, gloomier Liminanas, before slipping right back into another sprawl of abstract shimmer, twang flecked, bass-bloop peppered minimal murkiness, or some wispy slo-mo space blues, or some tripped out doomfolk new wave dirgery. But whatever strain of Dalt's dark sonic DNA drifts to the fore, she renders it haunting and heavenly, mysterious and murky, whether it's propulsive and groovy, or blissed out and barely there, it's always dreamlike and otherworldly. Stick around for the 8+ minute closer "Batholith", which is fast becoming our favorite, a sprawling stretch of minimal country murk, woozy, ethereal, laced with whirring organs, panned sound swooping from speaker to speaker, and some near carnivalesque melodies, all woven into a strangely psychedelic spaced out bit of lysergic dream pop shimmer. So good.

MPEG stream: Saltacion
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Wow!! It wasn't just but three lists ago when we were lamenting that Karen Dalton's second album (and only other recording), In My Own Time had yet to be reissued, and now here we are reviewing it (thanks Light In the Attic!). And we have to say, it has never sounded better! Recorded in 1971 with a full band at Bearsville studio in Woodstock, In My Own Time has a much different feel then Dalton's spare and smoky first recording, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You the Best. Since Dalton had so little recorded output, the differences between the two records has given In My Own Time, an unfairly maligned reputation over the years by folk purists and others due to its more contemporized feel and bluesy folk-rock arrangements. True, In My own Time, doesn't quite meet the folk majesty of It's So Hard To Tell, and there are a couple of song choices, such as the all too familiar "When A Man Loves A Woman", and the saccharine Motown stalwart, "How Sweet It Is", that we could probably do without (however, in Dalton's defense, if we had to hear either of those songs again, we would prefer her versions to anyone else's! Such is the strength of her musical interpretations.). But every other song is purest gold, from the heartbreaking opener by Dino Valenti, "Something's On Your Mind", to the traditional tunes "Katie Cruel" (covered recently both by Bert Jansch and White Magic) and "Same Old Man", where we get to hear her play her mighty 27 fret banjo. Produced by Harvey Brooks, who played bass on her first album, In My Own Time is right up there with the best folk and roots rock albums of the time put out by Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Featuring a 30-page booklet with lots of pictures and extensive liner notes by Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart. Reissue of the year and of course absolutely essential!!!!

MPEG stream: Something On Your Mind
MPEG stream: In My Own Dream
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Released in conjunction with Karen Dalton's freshly reissued second album, In My Own Time, this 7" single of "Something's On Your Mind" and a previously unreleased alternate take of "Katie Cruel" features two of the best cuts from the album. Her rich sweet voice was made for vinyl, and if you have never heard it before, than this is just the place to start.

MPEG stream: Something's On Your Mind

We've long championed the work of Joel Phelps, an unsung hero of the indie underground, beginning with his stint in Silkworm - he was the group's secret weapon, with an aching, about to break voice that could soar into a powerful howl, his songs tense and intense, delicate balances of hushed brooding shimmer and explosive angular crunch, his wild guitar wrangling the perfect match for that utterly distinctive voice. Then came a clutch of solo records, all stunning, and almost all completely under the radar. And then, nothing. He seemed to have disappeared. Stopped making music. Until now. There's a new Phelps solo record, which is fantastic, and we'll review that one soon too, but this new project is something else entirely. We often talk about bands or records that seem custom made for aQuarius, and this definitely seems like one of those. Joel Phelps, teamed up with Stuart Dahlquist, of Burning Witch, Asva and SUNNO))), the result very much like you might imagine, and like we would have hoped, the best, creepiest, Silkworm songs, fused to the slow, droned out creep and crawl of Dahlquist's previous bands, ultra-doom torch songs, indie rock fused to Arvo Part, avant drone meets intimate songsmithery, a difficult combination for sure, but one that rewards patient and deep listening. Fans of either/both Phelps and Dahlquist will marvel at this haunting soundworld the two have conjured, from the brief opening, with Phelps, crooning over simpler percussion, and slow shifting layers of chordal shimmer, aching and heartfelt, bittersweet and melancholy, seemingly setting the stage for something much more like Phelps' previous works, but instead, the sound shifts, the second track "Stravinsky" unwinding as a dense layered drone, and when the vocals swoop in, they explode into strange harmonies, those harmonies woven into thick bass tones, the result some sort of alien chorale, downcast and stirring, even sans vocals, it would be a gorgeous sprawl of bass driven droned out dirgery, at once ethereal and atmospheric, dense and down tuned, but the song, like the whole record is rife with dramatic dynamics, long stretches of airy organ, drifting weightless, other movements bordering on avant doom, and still others dreamlike and choral, which is a sonic microcosm of the rest of the record. Dahlquist delivering some breathtaking sound design, field sod digital glitchery, wound around glimmering soft focus swirls of sound, heaving low end thrum, soundtrack like melodies, all wound into tense slow-builds, sometimes transforming into some hushed Phelps like downer slow core pop, othertimes blossoming into something even blacker. On tracks like "The Chant", simple percussion underpins Phelps' harrowing vocals, which are soon joined by keening organ drones, the vibe intense and sinister, until another cascade of thick bass buzz swoops in, and Phelps' vocals explode into incredible and alien harmonies, the sound mutating into drowsy, sun dappled doom, laced with twinkling electronics, and buried dreamlike melodies. And without going track by track, the rest of the record continues to expand, prismatically, slipping easily from strangely psychedelic indie pop, albeit fractured and flecked with weird steel drum like percussion, to field recording laced dronescapes, to quietly broody stretches of moody agent pop, psychedelic slowcore drift, to minimal, almost liturgical ambience. Dizzying in scope, stunning in execution, a practically perfect, and perfectly IM-perfect, hybrid of haunting avant indie rock and modern composition, brooding, downer folk minimalism and expansive sound designed dronescapery, dreamlike torch songmithery and outsider, cinematic ambient bliss.

MPEG stream: Moonshine And Lion
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Record number two from Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer in his Damaged Bug electro synth pop guise, and like his first outing under that moniker, Hubba Bubba, Cold Hot Plumbs is another strangely delightful collection of quirky home-brewed pop, that sounds a little like Thee Oh Sees, but without guitars, and produced by Joe Meek and Brian Eno. And as much as we love Thee Oh Sees (and we do, a LOT), we find ourselves digging Damaged Bug even more. The record begins with a brief bit of cheesy Casio sounding schmaltz, before launching into "What Cheer", all synth buzz, laid back vocals, and wild, tribal drumming, pocked with some Stereolab style squelches, as well as some sax (!). "The Mirror" is up next, and it's very reminiscent of the first record, and sounds like an electro pop version of Thee Oh Sees, you can definitely imagine it recast all distorto guitars and yelped vox. But it's here where Cold Hot Plumbs gets REALLY good, and demonstrates Dwyer's pop song smarts, the record darkening considerably, but at the same time revealing previously unplumbed (yup!) depths of songsmithery. "Jet In Jungle" is anchored by an arpeggiated synth melody, the vocals are wispy and falsetto, all driven by propulsive rock drumming, and everything wreathed in wheezing synth buzz, and laced with cool, creepy backwards vocals, the sonics are practically perfect, but the song is too. We got to this song and spun it about 20 times before we could move on - and then were quickly rewarded with what might be our favorite Dwyer jam yet, Damaged Bug or otherwise, the brooding, moody "Der Mond", with its woozy melody, skittery rhythm, and moody vocal croon. Every time this song comes on, we almost forget what we're listening to, it sounds like some lost electro-folk rarity from the sixties or seventies, and yeah, just like "Jet In Jungle", we played this track to death before digging any deeper. And you'll probably not be surprised to discover, that Cold Hot Plumbs had much more to offer seeing as we weren't even halfway in. From playful singsongy electo-glam, that sounds like a more new wave Ty Segall, to pulsing almost krautrock sounding groovery, wreathed in swirling shimmer and bouncy synth chords, to synth-funk electro reminiscent of Perrey & Kingsley, albeit with some swoonsome vox over the top, to wild spacey, psychedelic synth pop, to full on synth drenched garage rock crunch, to what sounds like some lost seventies library music. All impossibly catchy, and super melodic, and sonically lush, and really, fast becoming our favorite Dwyer record EVER.

MPEG stream: What Cheer
MPEG stream: The Mirror
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We had been hearing about this for a while, John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees' 'electro synth pop' solo record, and while we were envisioning lots of things, it wasn't this. It's definitely electro pop, lots of synths, and programmed rhythms, but there's still plenty of the fuzzy, jangly garage pop of Thee Oh Sees, and Dwyer's songwriting is in fine form, so much so, that this is fast becoming our favorite set of Dwyer jams in ages. Listen to opener "Gloves For Garbage" and you'll know just what we mean. Ostensibly, it could really have been an Oh Sees song proper, just with more synths, but it reveals itself as something else entirely, a gorgeous chunk of gloomy pop, with some of the catchiest hooks we've yet heard from Dwyer, the vocals delivered in an uncharacteristically deep, dramatic croon, plenty of clean guitar jangle and simple drumming, surrounded by pulsing, fuzzy synths, not to mention an end of song breakdown where things crumble into a cool churning sprawl of motorik kosmische, Dwyer's vocals draped over the top, totally blissed out electro-gloom, goth pop that we can't stop listening to. So much so, that it took 4 or 5 listens before we even made it to the next song. And if you need more clues as to what Damaged Bug is all about, the most telling is probably the inclusion of a painting of Brian Eno included in the record's futuristic psych-ship cockpit cover art, cuz if you can imagine Eno as a SF garage rocker / synth wrangler, you wouldn't be that far off the mark. And the rest of the record, maybe unsurprisingly, is just as good. "Eggs At Night" sounds like a more lo-fi version of something you could hear on the radio. Instead of the swoonsome moody distorted vocals, you can almost imagine some overproduced diva, but instead, it remains a quirky little electro pop gem, with some mid-song synth swirl that transforms the song into some alternate universe John Hughes misunderstood-teen movie anthem. There's another side to Damaged Bug, which is a serious krautrock obsession, which first pops up via the unabashed Neu! / Kraftwerk worship of "SS Cassidinea", all motorik pulse and psych-kraut throb, but continues to surface throughout. There's plenty of Radiophonic Workshop style bloop and bleep, often wound around woozy primitive electro pop creep, the result strangely dark, all moody and broody, but that's balanced by plenty of spaced out, synth driven fuzz pop, with awesome swaths of thick, rib cage rattling low end, but before you know it, the sound swoops back into some warped electronic kraut-pop, complete with some weirdly effected vocals that sound almost Germanic, and remind us of a certain infamous Dwyer project of old, Zeigenbock Kopf, but this isn't nearly so leather-y and Teutonic, instead, Damaged Bug slips easily from billowy and dreamy in places, like on the super spaced out sonic fever dream of "1/2 An Airplane", to gurgly, rumbling synth-doom dirgery like on "Metal Hand", the dirge-y doominess somehow blossoming into another gorgeous tranced out sprawl of kraut-synth mesmer. And yeah, it's an electro pop record, so there are of course some vocodered vox, but they're usually all tangled up in sounds not so distinctly electro pop, whether it's spaced out rhythmic skitter, fuzzy, garage-y jangle, or shimmering, pulsing drones. The record finishes off with a heady, hypnotic blast of wild, chaotic, non-programmed, actual drumming, pounding away through fields of lazer zap squiggles and thick, fuzzy, squelches, almost like some free-synth freakout, but not noisy, just sorta swirly and psychedelic and totally hypnotic, and then the vocals come in, and the song quickly takes the shape of yet another practically perfect. dreamily dour electro pop gem, but only briefly, before disappearing in one final swirl of electronic starburst swirl...

MPEG stream: Gloves For Garbage
MPEG stream: Eggs At Night
MPEG stream: Hubba Bubba
MPEG stream: 1/2 An Airplane

A long lost Krautrock artifact? Perhaps not, as the distributor we got this from nudgingly noted that this had an April 1st release date. Actually the story (which itself may be suspect) is that this is a cd reissue (with 'bonus tracks') of a LP hoax originally perpetrated upon the record collectors of the world in 1989 by members of German experimentalists HNAS. And while the amazing collage cover art looks convincing, did they really think their false beards in the band photos were going to fool anyone? Plus the production doesn't really sound like something recorded back in 1971. But just 'cause it's fake Krautrock (actually, if it's HNAS its technically still is Krautrock in a way...) doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, this is a pretty cool record, full of freaked out sounds -- spacey, scary orgel, synthi, gitarre and effekte. Pretend or authentic, it doesn't really matter, it's still a droning psychedelic bad trip (with some nice droning pretty parts too) that krautheads and those into krautrock's modern equivalents will definitely enjoy. File this with the likes of German Oak, No Neck, Brainticket, Reynols, Sand, Angelblood, Acid Mothers Temple, those suspicious PsiFi "Unknown Deutschland" bands, and Tangerine Dream's "Electronic Meditation"... MPEG Download: "Innovative Schwingungen" [/audio/damenbartinnovative.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Innovative Schwingungen" [/audio/damenbartinnovative.m3u]

MPEG stream: Innovative Schwingungen
MPEG stream: Bring Uns Den Frieden

Okay, odds are most aQ list readers aren't gonna be interested in this. But in the spirit of aQuarius, and the sort of open mindedness we try to engender here, hopefully a few folks will give this a chance, cuz it's actually pretty great. The math sounds bizarre and it most definitely is, take two parts Fallout Boy, two parts Anthrax, and one part Every Time I Die (literally, it's members of those bands!), and this is what you get, a bombastic blast of super heavy, ultra melodic, catchy as hell classic eighties style hard rocking heaviness. Big riffs, wild leads, pounding drummage, some super epic clean vocals, classic metal guitar harmonies, all wound into super hooky heavy jams that kick tons of ass. "We've Got A Situation Here" is THEE one here, a pretty much perfect pop song rendered in shades of chug and crunch and wail and blast and pound. The guitars crunchy and heavy, the vocals throaty and what you might expect from the dude from ETID, but with a chorus most bands would kill for, not to mention some seriously heavy breakdowns, one in particular that seriously swings and sounds almost like Pantera or Down. And the rest of the songs are pretty much just as good, born from a shared love of Thin Lizzy, it's got that kind of classic rock vibe, some songs sounding a little like Kiss, others more like Queens Of The Stoneage or Foo Fighters, but the Damned Things, definitely temper their poppiness with some serious heaviness, and some killer songs. Scoff if you must, but some of us (mostly Andee) have been listening to this like crazy!

MPEG stream: We've Got A Situation Here
MPEG stream: Handbook For The Recently Deceased
MPEG stream: Bad Blood

All the Damned you will ever want or need on 3 cds. Damn!

Recorded live in Seattle, WA, last October near the end of an all too brief west coast tour, this is an artfully packaged double cd of improv conjured by former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki, his former Can-mate Michael Karoli, Mandjau Fati, Thomas Hopf, and Alex Schonert. Additional sounds and textures created by Mark Spybey (Zoviet France, Dead Voices on Air, Download) and Dustin Donaldson (I Am Spoonbender). Nine lengthy tracks including a version of CAN's "Mother Sky".

This is definitely the week of former Galaxie 500ers, isn't it? Let's take a peek at where two of the three are at these days (for the other third, check out the Luna review this AQ list), shall we? We've not heard from them since their 2000 collaboration album

RealAudio clip: Song To The Siren
RealAudio clip: Love

Intimate. Beautiful. Inspired. Damon & Naomi! The Earth Is Blue features 10 tracks, recorded in their home studio with special guest guitarist, Michio Kurihara, of Japan's psych-folk great ones Ghost. Also contributing are Greg Kelley and Bhob Rainey. Eight original tracks feature harmonic delicacies and melodic intricacies. In the same vein, interpretations of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Caetano Veloso's "Araca Azul" resound sweetly on this release. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Beautiful Close Double
MPEG stream: Araca Azul

MPEG stream: Eulogy To Lenny Bruce
MPEG stream: I'm Yours
MPEG stream: Eye Of The Storm
MPEG stream: The Great Wall

The retail/press info sheet for this goes on and on about what a boundary-crossing, genre-defying acid folk milestone this 'inevitable' collaboration between D & N and Japanese space-folk collective Ghost is. Too bad that's so far from the truth. 'Cause maybe if Damon and Naomi's sound wasn't so apparently inalterable and they did indeed plan on *actually* collaborating, this could have really been something amazing. But instead, it's your basic dreamy, reverby, 80's college radio space/folk pop. Truth be told, three tracks into this cd, we barely noticed Ghost's presence at all. It was as if they were...oh never mind. This is basically your standard Damon and Naomi record (essentially, Galaxie 500 with more ethereal vocals and less catchy songs) with Ghost acting as their 'house band'. So if you like Damon and Naomi already, then you will probably need this record. But, if you were waiting for some new Ghost, keep waiting.

Damon & Naomi's seventh full length Within These Walls is deep, dark and languid. They're joined by guests Ghost's Michio Kurihara, Espers' cellist Helena Espvall, and avant garde soprano saxophone player nmperign's Bhob Rainey. With their own impressive pedigree and these luminaries on board, you'd think that this would be a boundary pushing, resonant album, but in fact this rings with an air of '70s adult contemporary (a la Burt Bacharach, Carly Simon, etc). Pleasing, but surprisingly mild. Where they fare best is on the album's closing track "Cruel Queen", the most traditional folk number of the ten. It's an austere beauty that you'll be glad you stuck around for, but we wished there was more of its ilk on the rest of the album.

MPEG stream: A Silver Thread
MPEG stream: Cruel Queen

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

SORRY.

Zach Hill (Hella, The Ladies, etc) and Nels Cline (Wilco, Geraldine Fibbers, etc) are probably two of the busiest and most prolific musicians in the 'underground' these days. They've been trying to find time for ages to make a record together, as their talents do seem to speak to a similar ecstatic aesthetic. But finding the time proved to be quite a feat. Luckily when Wilco had a day off in Chicago and Zach was also in Chicago, the two decided to have an improv jam together and Distressed is the result. Hill's trademark frantic drumming moves more towards avant jazz as Cline once again shows why he is such an in demand guitarist. What if in their prime Van Halen were cool enough to cover a Pharaoh Sanders record? Maybe it would sound something like this.

MPEG stream: Space Needle
MPEG stream: Fork-Fed

The debut release from San Francisco's the Damsels contains three jangle pop tunes for our listenin' enjoyment. Gentle, bouncing guitar hooks. Shy boy vocals occasionally a bit shoegazerish. Quite reminiscent of a young Teenage Fanclub circa "Bandwagonesque".

RealAudio clip: Defy Your Radio

It's not really all that much fun writing a review of this new Danava album. What's fun is listening to it, turned up loud... and maybe getting buzzed on a substance of choice whilst doing so. Whoo-hoo! Granted, that's the case with lots of albums, classics like say Deep Purple In Rock or Alice Cooper's Love It To Death. The kind that require, nay inspire, such behavior. Those, though, weren't just released, but this was, so all the more an occasion for drunken loud listening. They don't make 'em like this all that often anymore, so kudos to Kemado for bringing us the real deal (ironic, isn't it). Though its exactly what we've come to expect from Portland psych-prog-stoner rockers Danava, and are happy to hear once again. Since the time we checked in with these boys, they've undergone some lineup changes. They now rock to the beat of a different drummer, for one thing. And the guy who only played synths is gone now... but in his stead, way better yet, they've added a 2nd guitarist for extra twin axe attackin', so that's a win. The bassist and the singin' lead guitarist are the same, and that's what really matters in this band, those dudes. They slay. Needless (at this point) to say, this new album is a killer, replete from the very get-go with rollicking, riff-rockin' badassery. These new Danava jams are seriously being kicked, way out. And they're, y'know, real songs too, with real vocals and everythin', like it's back in 1973 or so and they've got something to prove, those twin guitars givin' with the glorious harmonies (think Thin Lizzy, on the song "I Am The Skull" here especially). They sound like old time Pentagram too, but galloping like they wuz in the Preakness. The Preakness of freakness. Danava are doin' it, here. They're gonna out rock, out prog, out psych, out retro-proto-metal all comers. Speedy and sinuous, no doubt a bit of stress on all the wrists and necks involved in the making of this music. And there's still the usual embellishments of spacey synthy FX sprinkled about, even with that one guy gone. It's all almost a bit overwhelming, which is why it's nice that the very last track, the instrumental "Dying Into The Light" winds things up on a calming, eerily pretty note. Whew... And, it should be noted that they further pay tribute to their '70s forebears by covering a song, "The Last Goodbye", by obscure UK blooze bashers Slowbone, not that you'd think it wasn't one of their own. So, yep, getting ripped and listening to these guys rip (rollercoaster style, like they do) is of course way better than writing or reading this review. The response should be obvious. We, or well at least one of us anyway, is gonna kick back and crank this right now. You, should buy a copy and do the same as soon as you can. By the way, all that drink/drug stuff is meant metaphorically, for all we know the guys in Danava, and their intended listening audience, are super straight edge, not stoners, let alone beer drinkers and hell raisers - though we doubt it.

MPEG stream: Shoot Straight With A Crooked Gun
MPEG stream: The Last Goodbye
MPEG stream: I Am The Skull

We first heard this Portland stoner-prog-metal combo on the Invaders comp of happenin' heavy psych metal that the Kemado label put out a few months ago. Their track was one of the several highlights there. Went to go see 'em when they played here with Parchman Farm not long ago, too, and the Danava boys SLAYED, shredded, and (incidentally) were all really skinny. Awesome band. Basically a rippin' power trio with extra (and to be honest, seemingly unnecessary) keyboard electronics action. So we're looking forward to their upcoming full length debut due later this year on Kemado, who made the wise decision to sign these guys. As a teaser to that, here's a single-sided limited-edition 12" vinyl release featuring an epic track entitled "Quiet Babies Astray In A Manger".

A rockin' return (of course!) from Portland's finest, the mighty Danava. Retro stoner rock melodic metallic garage prog psych heaviness. Whew that's a mouthful. What did we say about 'em when reviewing their recent 7"? "A band whose ripping '70s style metallic power trio action is augmented by a dusting of trippy space rock synthesizer soundz from fourth member Rockwell." The deal with Danava is that, bottom line, they rip. Metal or indie or retro or hipster or whatever, we don't really care, we just know that they obviously love the same sort of '70s prog excess we dig (a la Sabbath's Sabotage), with flamboyant keyboard flourishes (check out the last minute of "Where Beauty And Terror Dance" ferinstance), write actual songs, sing 'em too, and totally kick ass live. Maybe that's not much to ask from a band, but these days, such real deal rock n' roll acts are few and far between. Likewise with kick ass albums like this one. Who else might we cite? Birds Of Avalon are one of 'em. Also recent Danava tour mates Witchcraft. And Oakland's Drunk Horse (imagine them in cahoots with SF's Crime In Choir perhaps, to approach the boogie prog shred you get with Danava). Unonou brings fans another seven songs sprung from the bulging collective Danava forehead, in the manner to which we have become accustomed. Which means, they feature virtuosic guitar (and bass) solo action, frenzied drumming, Ozzish vocals (very much so, up to and including some snippets of the lyrics), and the aforementioned eccentric electronic embellishments. Plus, this time 'round, there's a frickin' horn section throwing down in several songs! The album ends with the 13+ minute "Mind Gone Separate Ways", wherein the band manage to kick out the jams whilst making melodic space rock fusion, wow. Yep Unonou has got its share of sinister moodiness and spaceouts but consists mostly of REALLY energetic rollercoaster, uh, rippage (to use that term once more). Danava's '70s era references/influences would seem to include proggy Black Sabbath, early Blue Oyster Cult, lashings of Gobin (like the disco-ish groove that starts off "The Emerald Snow Of Sleep"), very early Alice Cooper, maybe even Jobraith... If that sounds good to you, get this, and definitely don't miss 'em live whenever that chance presents itself. (Vinyl coming soon, btw.)

MPEG stream: Where Beauty And Terror Dance
MPEG stream: Spinning Temple Shifting

Yay, two new songs from Portland's finest melodic heavy psych rockers Danava, a band whose ripping '70s style metallic power trio action is augmented by a dusting of trippy space rock synthesizer soundz from fourth member Rockwell... Just saw 'em recently opening for Witchcraft, one of the only bands around that's capable of giving us as much of a rock n' roll thrill as these guys. On this seven inch (which includes a coupon enabling a free download of mp3 versions of these tracks) you get the title cut "Where Beauty & Terror Dance", and on the flip, their cover of "Jericho" by fuzzblasted English psychedelic proto-metallers Stray, originally from that band's 1971 album Suicide. All right!

A few months back, we listed a one-sided, one-song 12" vinyl record that was a teaser for this, the debut album from Portland, Oregon's magnificent Danava, an eagerly awaited release 'round here for sure. And so we'll pretty much recap a bunch of what we said in the review of that 12", which featured their epic tune "Quiet Babies Astray In A Manger", also found on this disc: we first heard this stoner-garage-prog-metal combo on the Invaders comp of happenin' hipster heavy psych metal that the Kemado label released earlier this year. Their track was one of several highlights on that collection. We went to go see 'em when they played in Oakland with Parchman Farm not too long ago, and even more recently in The City when they were supposed to be opening for Witchcraft, and in both instances the Danava boys SLAYED, shredded, and (incidentally to the music) were all really skinny. Awesome band. Basically a rollicking, rippin' power trio with extra psychedelic embellishments from keyboards and electronics. If we were a label, we'd have signed 'em in an instant, and that's what Kemado wisely did some time ago. This resultant product comes close to capturing the excitement of their live show, while revealing other aspects we didn't hear whilst headbanging. It's got a reworking of their killer tune "By The Mark" from the Invaders comp, plus the aforementioned 12" track, and three others that are equally masterful, like "Eyes In Disguise" (hearing a hint of Black Sabbath in the vocal line on that one). When the fleet-fingered guitarist gets goin', and when the drummer and bassist lock in, Danava build to pure, amped up, enthused rocka rolla ecstasy and almost could just as well be a totally instrumental band and get away with it, but they have the bonus of actual decent singing capability and vocal hooks as well. Recommended if you like to rock.

MPEG stream: Maudie Shook
MPEG stream: Longdance

After all the hype, the drama, the "is it coming out or isn't it?", the beautiful book packaged with the blank cd-r so you could download this record illegally, we sort of expected to be blown away, but at first it was just the opposite, we were actively bummed out, not just disappointed, but appalled. Mostly because this was the last recorded music we'd hear from two of our favorite songwriters EVER, Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse and Vic Chesnutt, both of whom took their own lives. And frankly it kind of sucked. But we've listened to it a few times now, and it's not nearly as bad as we first thought. It seems more like a case of too many cooks, there's no way a record featuring so many guest stars and contributors could be cohesive, or at least the chances are pretty slim. Especially when you look at the list: Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Vic Chesnutt, The Flaming Lips, David Lynch, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, James Mercer of The Shins, Nina Persson of the Cardigans, Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals. And the record sounds exactly like you'd expect from that list, like a crazy mish mash of styles and personalities, of sounds and approaches, none of which really work at all with each other. The real question is WHY all of those people? Some sort of friend rock situation? Strip away all the bullshit and all the guest vocals and probably hidden in there is a really good Sparklehorse record. But instead, it's more like a compilation, and not an especially cohesive one, which is maybe fine, but some of the songs, the more rocking ones specifically, are stinkers, and definitely disrupt the flow. Chesnutt's track is pretty great, his voice always so intense, tortured and emotional, perfectly complimented by Linkous's gorgeous hazy production. Which in places does sound incredible, the guest-less Linkous tracks are pretty good, or the ones where the guests try to fit themselves into Linkous' sound instead of the other way around, but even then, for the most part there are no rough edges at all, which was always the best part, the crackle and buzz, the glitch and hum, the happy accidents, but throughout, the production slick and glossy, a little TOO slick. How we would have preferred some sort of super intimate DIY Linkous / Chesnutt collaboration, but alas, it's never to be. So best we just take what we can from this mostly disappointing collection. We'll probably end up picking 4 or 5 songs, to load on to the iPod, and then just forget all about the rest...

MPEG stream: Revenge (Feat. The Flaming Lips)
MPEG stream: Grim Augury (Feat. Vic Chesnutt)
MPEG stream: Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (Feat. David Lynch)
MPEG stream: Pain (Feat. Iggy Pop)

Some of the grittiest garage rock from the Oblivians is found on this collection of the recordings done at Melissa's garage in Memphis, with Walter Daniels (Jack-O-Fire) and Monsieur Jeffery Evans (Gibson Brothers and '68 Comeback) sharing the vocal duties. Half of these recordings were released on a very hard to find bootleg 10", with the other half released as a '68 Comeback single.