[ aquarius records — Soundtracks ]

Showing results 501 through 550 of 729.

SIDAY, ERICThe Ultra Sonic Perception(Dual Planet)cd$ 16.98

SIGUR ROSAgaetis Byrjun(Fat Cat)cd$ 15.98

WE WISH WE COULD SAY THAT THIS IS TOTALLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, BUT NOW IT'S BEEN REISSUED DOMESTICALLY... SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER THIS VERSION, GET THE OTHER ONE, IF YOU MUST. Here's a list of the accolades given to Sigur Ros: a near sweep of the Icelandic Grammys, constant praise from the UK rock gossip mongers, and bookings for a European touring opening for Radiohead. First, while Aquarius has nothing against the island state of Iceland, are there all that many entrants in the Grammys contest there? Second, putting critical faith in what NME has to say is about as sensible as brushing your teeth with e-coli laced toothpaste. Third, if you have heard the new Radiohead record, the differences between "Kid A" and "OK Computer" are so vast that anybody who sees Radiohead is not going to concern themselves with who is opening, rather they'll be scratching their heads wondering why "Karma Police" sounded so weird. No, we still don't much like the much hyped Sigur Ros, but if you like heavyhanded soundtracks to excessively melodramatic movies that patronize the audience with self-aggrandizing pseudo-philosophies, and sub-Cocteau Twins vocalizing, then boy have we got an album for you. For Sigur Ros fans not already put off by the above (and we'll admit that our Allan liked their last ep quite a bit -- the super bombastic parts reminded him of something by the Icelandic black metal band Potentiam, who should have won the Grammy, maybe they were even up for it?), we should mention that this full-length includes two tracks you probably already have, from their 2 prior Fat Cat eps.

SIMONETTI / MORANTE / PIGNATELLI (GOBLIN)Tenebre OST(Dagored)lp$ 23.00

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

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SIMONETTI, ENRICO WITH GOBLINGamma OST(Cherry Red)cd$ 17.98

We've got to check out anything that has anything to do with the cult Italian soundtrack specialists Goblin. This reissue does -- it's the score to a 1975 television science fiction show, composed by Enrico Simonetti, father to Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, and features Goblin themselves participating as session musicians on these recordings. Simonetti the elder had been a successful bandleader and film composer for years, possibly the reason that his son's band got into the game. Interestingly, the Gamma theme song was apparently a number one hit single in Italy, ironically knocking a Goblin tune (Profundo Rosso!) out of that spot. But the rare track that Goblin obsessives are really gonna want this for is "Drug's Theme", which sounds like classic example of that group's trademark sinister disco-prog groove. Enrico was definitely inspired by his son's band on that one. However, it IS the only track here that sounds much like Goblin, really. The rest of the album features more typical orchestrated soundtrack material, lush and moody and romantic, with some jazz and Latin flavoring. Doesn't seem too sci-fi, more like cheesy music for a prime-time soap opera. Maybe the best tracks outside of "Drug's Theme" are the couple cuts that feature sweetly melodic female vocals, those are pretty nice. Especially "Chi Mi Cherchera" which reminds us of, say, Francoise Hardy.

SIMPSONS, THESongs in the Key of Springfield(Rhino)cd$ 15.98

"Itchy and Scratchy", "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?", "See My Vest", "The Amendment Song", etc. Almost every song from the series excluding this season. Stars Tito Puente, Beverly D'Angelo, Jon Lovitz, Robert Goulet, Tony Bennett, more. Especially noteworthy is Rev. Lovejoy's choir singing "In-a-gadda-da-vida."

SLANEY, IVORTerror / Prey (OST)(Moscovitch Music)lp$ 17.98

Attention British Horror fans! We have here, released by a new a label run by one of the guys from sampling groop Quiet Village, two previously unreleased soundtracks on one lp from New Wave of British Horror director Norman J. Warren: Terror (1979) and Prey (1978). Warren, best known for three horror movies he made in the late seventies (the first one was Satan's Slave), had a film style similar to Dario Argento, highly explicit and gory supernatural thrillers filmed on a low budget with modern day settings and using younger actors, a sharp contrast to the classic period-set hammer films earlier in the decade. Composed by Ivor Slaney, an in-house composer for the DeWolfe Library, the music is deliciously creepy. Terror sounds like a lost soundtrack by Goblin, beginning with proggy synths and organ dirges augmented by female vocal moans that are equally wistful and uh, well, terrifying! There are a couple of groovy interludes, one of them a short blues-rock number, the others more pensive, but the final tracks are full bore high-pitched synth drones that had the hairs on the back of our neck standing up on end! Also, an interesting piece of side trivia is that Terror stars Tricia Walsh, better known as Tricia Walsh-Smith, the you-tube sensation famous for videos berating her ex-husband to the general public! Prey feels more like classic British horror scores, offering up at first soft and pastoral themes using harpsichord, organ and piano. From what we can gather from the sounds and the tagline (A Carnal Lust That Defies Earthly Expectation!) is that this is a rather twisted love story involving birds, as bird sounds emerge here and there. The lilting music soon turns to what sounds like a terrifying merry-go-round and then we get bits of sounds from the film itself of screams and flesh being ripped apart by massive bird-like creatures. There are a couple of party numbers, one a jazzy theme sung by someone who sounds like Caroline Peyton, the other by a lounge band, before the final twisted Moog dirge comes into play with snippets of doomy dialogue. Great creepy stuff! NOTE: A cd version is coming out in a couple of weeks or so, for the vinyl-impaired! Meanwhile this lp is limited to 1000 copies.

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, THE (RALPH JONES)OST(Death Waltz)lp$ 35.00

Another twisted gem from UK horror movie vinyl soundtrack reissue label Death Waltz, this one the infamous Roger Corman slasher exploitation flick, The Slumber Party Massacre, originally released in 1982, and initially reviled and ridiculed, but later, it would become a cult classic, due in no small part to the fact that it was written by a feminist writer Rita Me Brown, and directed by a woman (Amy Holden Jones, who would go on to write and direct much more mainstream fare, like Indecent proposal, Mystic Pizza, etc.) and was considered by some to be a feminist parody of the classic slasher flick. But classic slasher flick it is, lots of scantily clad co-eds, power tool torture, gratuitous nudity, and over the top gore. The soundtrack also is a strange surprise, the whole thing composed and performed on a primitive Casio keyboard, purchased at a Macy's by composer Ralph Jones, augmented by a single cymbal and some wine glasses, the resulting score is fantastic, haunting and ominous, dark and noisy, creepy and cosmic, hits of John Carpenter (of course), but also Perrey & Kingsley, the sound by turns playful and bloopy, droned out and sinister. A trippy sonic fantasia, that blends kosmische drift with classic soundtrack tropes, noisy experimentation, with a sound that impossibly emulates a huge church organ, removed from the movie, the score could be some trippy Umberto style modern retro homage, some limited home brewed cd-r, fantastic stuff for sure, and like all good scores/soundtracks, has us hankering to see the movie again. And like all the Death Waltz reissues, the packaging is fantastic, the vinyl is pressed on heavy, milky clear vinyl, the jacket is a super thick tip-on jacket, inside is a full color booklet with liner notes from Jones, and artist Luke Insect, who provided the new cover art, as well as a big poster of said cover art. So cool!

SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE (KENNY GRAHAM)OST(Trunk Records)lp$ 19.98

Another fantastic lost score rescued from obscurity by Trunk Records, this one a fantastic batch of flute driven jazziness, the score to The Small World Of Sammy Lee, a British classic we're told, but also one that's fairly racy, receiving an 'X Certificate', which is maybe similar to an X rating in the US, we haven't seen the movie, but the liner notes tell us it involves lots of pimps and strippers and thugs. Although the music is actually anything but racy, instead, it's dreamy and melodic, soft focus and serene. We had reviewed another Kenny Graham release on Trunk, which we described as sounding like Moondog recorded by Joe Meek, but this is much more traditional. Playful at times, lilting and lovely at others, occasionally tense and brooding, once in a while with a bit of an exotica vibe, those moments rife with wild percussion, tangled guitars, wild drumming (check out "Four O'Clock Hop"), definitely the most overtly soundtracky number here, one track has some melancholic violin, which gives that song a sort of gypsy folk vibe, but the bulk of the record is slow and smokey, lots of flute, and vibes, skittery percussion, understated bass lines, plenty of horns, subtle strings, all woven into some dreamy, sixties jazziness, that besides getting played on repeat quite a bit, has us really wanting to check out the film!

SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE, THE (KENNY GRAHAM)OST(Trunk Records)cd$ 17.98

Another fantastic lost score rescued from obscurity by Trunk Records, this one a fantastic batch of flute driven jazziness, the score to The Small World Of Sammy Lee, a British classic we're told, but also one that's fairly racy, receiving an 'X Certificate', which is maybe similar to an X rating in the US, we haven't seen the movie, but the liner notes tell us it involves lots of pimps and strippers and thugs. Although the music is actually anything but racy, instead, it's dreamy and melodic, soft focus and serene. We had reviewed another Kenny Graham release on Trunk, which we described as sounding like Moondog recorded by Joe Meek, but this is much more traditional. Playful at times, lilting and lovely at others, occasionally tense and brooding, once in a while with a bit of an exotica vibe, those moments rife with wild percussion, tangled guitars, wild drumming (check out "Four O'Clock Hop"), definitely the most overtly soundtracky number here, one track has some melancholic violin, which gives that song a sort of gypsy folk vibe, but the bulk of the record is slow and smokey, lots of flute, and vibes, skittery percussion, understated bass lines, plenty of horns, subtle strings, all woven into some dreamy, sixties jazziness, that besides getting played on repeat quite a bit, has us really wanting to check out the film!

SMALL, MICHAELBlack Widow / The Star Chamber / The Driver(Kritzerland)2cd$ 27.00

Amongst soundtrack composers, Michael Small was the king of the seventies thriller with amazing scores for the films Parallax View, Marathon Man, Night Moves, and Stepford Wives and AQ-fave Klute among so many others. His signature sound was infusing an uncanny subtlety and tension into his arrangements, that tension creeping up on you, but never overwhelming. This new double cd set combines 3 lesser known thriller scores from his later period and they don't disappoint: The Driver (directed by Walter Hill), Star Chamber (directed by Peter Hyams), and Black Widow (directed by Bob Rafelson). The Driver (1978) starring Ryan O'Neil, Bruce Dern and Isabelle Adjani, is sort of an early incarnation of the recent movie Drive. Ryan O'Neil plays a cool, soft-spoken driver who steals cars to use in robberies as getaway vehicles, and Dern is the detective who uses a robbery witness (Adjani) to focus a sting on O'Neil. Like the movie Bullitt, there are amazing car chases and the music follows suit with atmospheric tension, slow and eerie with delayed trumpet squeals and hallucinogenic phased synth drones in a dark jazz score. The Star Chamber (1983), starring Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook, is about a secret underground committee of judges who reap violent justice on perpetrators who are set free through technicalities in the legal system. The score has a slow heavy orchestration fraught with horns and strings punctuating the weight of judicial power with an ominous presence. And finally, Black Widow (1987) starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell, is a cat and mouse thriller about a investigative journalist who believes that a string of murders of wealthy men are connected by their mysterious young widows who may or not may not be the same deadly woman. The score is creepily hair-raising with eerie flutes and subtle orchestral manipulations reminding us of spiders crawling on skin as we're sleeping. Being creeped out never sounded so good!

SMITH, JACKLes Evening Gowns Damnées(Table Of The Elements/Audio ArtKive)cd$ 15.98

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

SORRY. Soundtracks from some of Jack Smith's legendary performances and films from the early 60's that gave birth to the New York 60's underground. Features Tony Conrad, John Cale and Angus MacLise. A first release from Table of the Element's new imprint Audio ArtKive, run by Tony Conrad.

SMITH, WAYNEPiano Lake(self-released)cd-r + poster$ 7.98

Winter is coming, and this new sound piece by San Francisco-based sound artist and graphic designer Wayne Smith is the perfect soundtrack for when the weather gets colder and more intensely calm and still. Smith, more well known under his Aero-Mic'd moniker, is a master of miniature electronica and ephemeral detail, pairing blithe melodies with gentle atmospheres of drones, modular synths and field recordings. Here he creates a soundtrack for an art exhibition at local apartment gallery 2nd floor projects with the poet Norma Cole and painter Leonie Guyer. The resultant "Piano Lake" is a 14 minute piece of sparse chordal clusters of piano filtered through various effects, at times sounding like a strumming guitar with blurred ringing tones that are meditatively left hanging in mid-air. Far off in the background are what sound like footsteps walking by gently lapping waters, and occasionally a high keening synth phrase will whistle out and float above, but what is most apparent is the lavish amount of open space that frames these sounds in high relief adding a sense of devotional calm and seasonal drama. Like watching a quiet snowfall on a beautiful moonlit evening, this is the kind of recording you can just put on repeat and listen to for hours. Silent Night indeed. Comes with a 15" x 10" poster on newsprint of a printed collage of floating cut-outs of various found objects Smith sourced from magazines and printed ephemera. Each cd-r comes in a plain white gatefold cd sleeve with hand-pasted collage elements. Limited stock.

SNATCH(OST)(TVT)cd$ 17.98

Boasts songs by The Specials, Herbaliser, Oasis, The Stranglers, Massive Attack, 10CC, and Madonna, but also includes a few dialogue clips from the movie. So you can hear Brad Pitt go "kaifnegjuavnnh" whenever you like. 20 tracks in all.

SONGCATCHER(OST)(Vanguard)cd$ 14.98

The soundtrack to the film Songcatcher is filled with compelling performances by such songbirds as Iris Dement, Dolly Parton. Alison Moorer, Deana Carter, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Emmy Rossum, Patty Loveless, Hazel Dickens, and Lone Justice's Maria McKee. About half of the songs are traditionals and they fit in well with the original compositions. Wonderful.

SONIC YOUTHSimon Werner A Disparu(SYR)cd$ 13.98

As much as we dig pretty much all the Sonic Youth records, from Evol to Sister, Daydream Nation to Dirty, even Rather Ripped and Murray Street, we definitely find ourselves a little partial to the group's SYR releases, various records that for whatever reason the band opted to release themselves, the sound usually well removed from the indie noise pop of their proper records, and focusing on collaborations, live performances, odds and ends, and even soundtracks. Simon Werner A Disparu is a collection of music SY recorded last year for the latest film by French director Fabrice Gobert. The group approached it like any musician scoring a film, watching the rushes and dailies, and crafting their songs and sounds into cues that fit the action on screen. But when it came time to release those recordings separate from the film, the band decided to return to the studio and rework the various cues into SY songs, creating altered versions and new compositions by taking those various cues and the numerous sonic fragments employed for the score, and weaving them together, layering them on top of each other, pulling them apart and reconfiguring them, essentially transforming the score into what is now less a soundtrack, and more an actual Sonic Youth record. And a pretty great one at that. Performed by classic SY lineup: Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve (with longtime SY collaborator Jim O'Rourke on one track), from the first track it's immediately recognizable as Sonic Youth, dark and mesmerizingly droney, shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar scrape and crunch, that gives way to a woozy loping slightly gnarled groove, rife with spidery guitar melodies and swirling guitar ambience. "Alice Et Simon" is up next and is classic Sonic Youth, it's almost impossible to keep from constantly expecting Thurston's vocals to come in any second, but they never do, instead the band weave a lush bit of softly atonal jangle and crystalline chordal shimmer. And so it goes, a series of instrumental SY jams, all propulsive motorik drumming, low slung bass thrum, and a gorgeously cacophonic symphony of angular guitars, from warm melodies to grinding crunch, chiming chords over warped melodic squiggles, all wreathed in plenty of crackle and buzz and the occasional strange effects. The final track finds the band joined by Jim O'Rourke for a sprawling 13 minute epic, droney and krauty, the sound shifting from shuffling jangle to super melodic slow build moodiness, to full bore psychedelic chaos to abstract ambient free noise exploration, culminating in a gorgeous droned out hypno-kraut outro. So good! And makes us want to see the movie now too!

SONIC YOUTH (ETC.)Demon Lover (Original Soundtrack)(Virgin France)cd$ 19.98

We here at Aquarius have not been boycotting the French. I myself have been making an effort to drink nothing but Evian and Champagne while eating baguettes covered in brie and reading Foucault and Sartre while watching Gerard Depardieu films and singing Frere Jacques. Another good way to support the French is by listening to this here imported soundtrack to the newest Olivier Assayas film (he's best known for Irma Vep, an inquiry into the state of contemporary French cinema starring Maggie Cheung and Nouvelle-Vague veteran Jean-Pierre Leaud) which consists primarily of original music by Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth are obviously French sympathizers, as they have played with subversive gallic chanteuse Brigitte Fontaine and covered Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi." Didn't much care for either the last Sonic Youth album proper or the recent "In The Fishtank" improv collaboration with I.C.P. and the Ex, but this is nice. Treading a path somewhere in between their song-oriented albums and noisier improvisations, not unlike the SYR record with Jim O'Rourke, Invito Al Cielo, or the little feedbacky instrumental moments in between singing on their poppier songs taken and stretched out into languorous, occasionally dark full length instrumentals (Kim Gordon does lend vocals to the first track). Some of the prettiest Sonic Youth instrumentals I've heard for sure, very mellow and pleasant, even post-rocky but with a gentle, layered touch. The more abstract, "difficult" pieces come together in waves of soothing, textural drone accented by softly clattering percussion. The addition of very slick (and very marketable, I guess) songs by Goldfrapp, Death In Vegas, Dub Squad, and Soulfly at the very end serve to break down the mood established by SY's subtle (but, comparatively, raw) washes of sound-- I'd recommend tuning out after track 8.

SOYLENT GREEN (FRED MYROW) / DEMON SEED (JERRY GOLDSMITH)OST(Film Score Monthly)cd$ 17.98

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SPACE CHILDREN, THE / THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (VAN CLEAVE)OST(Film Score Monthly)cd$ 17.98

Cool twofer disc of vintage sci-fi soundtracks.

SPACE: 1999(OST)(Silva)cd$ 16.98

SPACEMAN, J. / SUN CITY GIRLSMister Lonely(Drag City)cd$ 14.98

Harmine Korine tapped both the Sun City Girls and Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman of Spiritualized and formerly of Spacemen 3) to write the soundtrack to his film Mister Lonely. No, it's not a collaboration; but rather two opposing forces that may or may not work within the context of the film. As of the release date of the soundtrack, the film has not been released, so we can't comment on how it work in the film. Much like the restrained interludes on recent Spiritualized albums, Pierce offers lushly cinematic arrangements with spectral guitar crescendos, pretty-pretty pastoral tunes from string and woodwind ensembles, and sustained eerie ambience; and the Sun City Girls don't. These tracks do account for the final recordings ever to be made by the Sun City Girls, as drummer Charles Goucher passed away shortly after their completion. That said, these SCG tracks are not as absurdly weird as some of their soundtrack ventures (e.g. Dulce, Juggernaut, and Piasa: Devourer Of Men), but Alan Bishop's off kilter croon emerges alongside the rickshaw guitar picking of his brother Richard, plenty of out of tune piano ditties, and some cacophony between a transistor radio and a harmonica. It goes without saying that the Girls had to deliver a spectacular cover of the Bobby Vinton tune "Mr. Lonely." Hey, is that Werner Herzog issuing some demonstrative claim between a couple of the tracks? Why yes, it is!

SPINAL TAPFrom The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: This Is Spinal Tap(The Control Group)lp$ 29.00

One of our favorite Heavy Metal bands from the '70s and '80s, the underrated British outfit Spinal Tap, were surprisingly enough the subject of a documentary film, or 'rockumentary' if you will, back in 1984, entitled This Is Spinal Tap, when their career was, let us say, not at its zenith. If you can find a VHS copy, and a VHS player, it's worth checking out. Kind of like the more recent Anvil: The Story Of Anvil documentary you may have seen. A little while ago, we discovered that the soundtrack to that Spinal Tap documentary had been reissued on vinyl, and ever since, it's been a steady seller in the shop - perhaps there's more Spinal Tap fans out there than we supposed. Also, the soundtrack, which serves as a 'best of' the band, is the ONLY way you can get any of Spinal Tap's music these days, as their actual albums are inexplicably out of print and seemingly impossible to find - even on the internets. Thankfully, this soundtrack lp contains the most essential of their greatest 'hits', as well as a smattering of rarities going back to the late sixties when they were more of a twee flower power psych rock band than the metal juggernaut they later became. This album goes to 11 - that's how many tracks are on it. You get such Tap classics as "Big Bottom", "Tonight I'm Gonna To Rock You Tonight", "Heavy Duty"," Sex Farm", and "Hell Hole", that originally appeared on, respectively, the albums Brainhammer (1970), Intravenus De Milo (1974), Bent For The Rent (1976), Shark Sandwich (1980), and Smell The Glove (1982). But then, for the deep cuts, this collection delves way back to 1967 to dig up the title track of the band's debut single, "(Listen To The) Flower People". And there's also a great garagey freakbeat nugget, "Gimme Some Money", too. Oh, and who can forget Spinal Tap's almost parodic prog rock epic "Stonehenge"? Yeah, for some strange reason, this band is often considered a joke. Ok, so some of their lyrics aren't exactly Shakespeare, and can even be construed as sexist (not to be confused with sexy!). And musically too, Spinal Tap sometimes stumbles across the fine line between clever and stupid. But we maintain that they're in fact good songwriters. These tracks, with all their heavier than thou bluster or portentous proggy synthiness, are also full of catchy hooks that will stick in your ear, big riffs and majestic melodies. They deserve recognition alongside some better known bands of their era, like Zeppelin and Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult and KISS� indeed, you can almost hear their influence on those acts and others. Or perhaps it was the other way around. Seriously - this not only is this one of our favorite soundtracks, to one of our favorite movies (and one of the funniest movies), of all time, but it really IS also one of our favorite heavy metal albums, of all time, too!! First time on vinyl since 1984, comes in deluxe gatefold package in black on black cover (echoing the "none more black" graphic design of Smell The Glove), with original liner notes from the authoritative Rocklopedia Brittanicus. (By the way, it's also still available on cd too, with their "Christmas With The Devil" single as a bonus.)

SPINAL TAPs/t(Polydor)cd$ 16.98

The This Is Spinal Tap soundtrack album now reissued and remastered, with 2 versions of "Christmas With The Devil" added as bonus tracks! An all-time classic, we don't have to tell you that. "Tonight I'm Going To Rock You Tonight", "Big Bottom", "Sex Farm" and all the rest never sounded better!

SPOERRI, BRUNOTeddy Bar / Lilith(Cache Cache)lp$ 25.00

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE - MUSIC FROM THE MOVIE AND MORE(OST)(Sire)cd$ 17.98

We love Spongebob. How can you not? Voiced by Mr. Show's Tom Kenny, SBSP is dumb and silly and loud and obnoxious enough to keep kids giggling and mesmerized, but it's also so drug addled and completely fucked that adults will be in stitches as well. Cartoonist Kaz even does some of the design so you know it's gonna be weird. Don't believe us? Go see the movie. You will understand. And if that's not enough, the soundtrack is fucking amazing! Mostly original tracks written specifically for the film by bands that are huge fans (or whose kids are huge fans). Flaming Lips perform their ditty "Spongeob And Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy", a song so good it could have come right off Yoshimi or the Soft Bulletin. Ween contribute "Ocean Man" (from one of their proper records, but so fitting for Spongebob), a warbly underwater pop song with muted melodies and slowed down vocals. Then there's tracks by Wilco (exclusive!), Motorhead, Electrocute, The Shins, and Avril Lavigne (who some of us love so pppttthhh!) doing the Spongebob theme, as well as a bunch of awesome songs from the movie including the Twisted Sister-ish "Goofy Goober Rock" and the Spongebob theme performed by a bunch of pirates! Awesome!

SPOONBENDER 1.1.1Stereo Telepathy Academy - 2nd Edition (Studio Version)(The Helen Scarsdale Agency)cd$ 15.98

Edition 2 (studio version) of the Spoonbender 1.1.1 Stereo Telepathy Academy trilogy... Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of 'third mind' techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The material for Stereo Telepathy Academy was debuted during a live performance in which Spoonbender 1.1.1 performed with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV; however, for the second edition of Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 recomposed all of the material in the studio -- expanding and elaborating on their live performance, and making for a distinctly new and different listening experience that stand on its own with or without the visual accomaniment. That said, as in the first edition, Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional" for a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics. The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. In their score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well. PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging. The first version arrived as a cd-r edition of 111 copies sporting a white glove as an allusion to 'Crimes Of The Future.' (only a few remaining in stock!!). This is the second edition, a proper disc that comes with letterpressed artwork in an edition of 333. The final edition will be in an edition of only 3 copies!

SPOONBENDER 1.1.1Stereo Telepathy Academy - Live In San Francisco 2004(Seismic Seance Recordings)cd-r$ 11.98

Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup (of AQ!) consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of "third mind" techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Okay, not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The Stereo Telepathy Academy cd-r documents Spoonbender 1.1.1 live in SF while performing with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV. The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. Spoonbender 1.1.1 composed a musical accompaniment for these texts and images to a third film whose identity is both unknown and irrelevant. As Donaldson announces in the introduction to this performance / recording (a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics), Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional". In this score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well. Special handmade packaging comes with a single white glove (as seen in the film) for your edification. PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging (versions 2 and 3 will be non-cd-r, and on a proper label, with pressings of 333 and 3 copies respectively). Available here at AQ exclusively, this first version is limited to 111 cd-r copies only, so you know what to do!

SPROUT, TOBINFortunes: Songs From The Movie(Pravda)cd$ 14.98

SS HELL CAMP: CULT CLASSICK VOL. 1OST(Cult ClaSSick)cassette$ 7.98

We wish we had a million of these, and we wish it was a cd instead of a cassette, cuz this is so weird and freaked out and creepy and awesome that had it been a cd and not probably already out of print, we most definitely would have made it a record of the week. The lost soundtrack to an obscure video nastie, SS Hell Camp, one of those Nazi prison movies, lots of nudity, torture, violence, and while many of us here consider ourselves to be experts in all things fucked and freaky old movies, none of us had ever heard of or seen this glorious piece of cinematic trash. But based on the soundtrack alone, it sounds like it's probably the greatest bad movie EVER. Manic pianos, buzzing synths, creepy ambient music, weird seventies keyboards, orchestral percussion, the sounds of marching jackboots, German soldiers, machine gun fire, babies crying, women screaming, super bad acting dialogue, and inexplicably, a grunting panting beast right in the beginning. Maudlin, and cheesy, cinematic and overly dramatic, lots of this sounds like extra low budget Goblin, and if you can imagine Goblin scoring a Nazi prison flick, well, we barely need to say anything else. The recording is murky and lo fi, as if it was dubbed right off of an old VHS tape (which it probably was) but only adds to the mood and feel and flavor. When we first threw this on, it sounded exactly like some of the music from those fake trailers between the two movies in the Grindhouse double feature. Which is obviously what those guys were going for. We are gonna track down this movie eventually, but until then, we're watching it in our heads every time we play this chunk of trashy cheesy awesomeness. Super low budg packaging, and crazy limited so these will probably fly out of here, and odds are that'll be it...

STALLING, CARLThe Carl Stalling Project Volume 2(Warner)cd$ 17.98

STANTON, HARRY DEANPartly Fiction(Omnivore Recordings)7"$ 13.98

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

SORRY.

STAR MAIDENSOriginal Soundtrack(All Score)cd$ 16.98

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

SORRY. Heavy-duty cheesy soundtrack to Star Maidens, a U.K./German sci-fi television show from the '70s. The storyline? Men fighting for their freedom from the women of planet Medusa! Includes the song "Sex World". As performed by Barry Lipman and His Orchestra. Oozes sexy.

STONE(OST)(V8 )cd$ 16.98

Soundtrack to a crazy 1974 Australian biker flick, a precursor to Mad Max apparently. Reissued on the occasion of this cult film's 25th anniversary, and we're sure glad of it ('cause we never would have heard it, or of it, otherwise, although the movie was quite popular in Australia), the "Stone" soundtrack ventures from spaced-out electronics n' didgeridoo jams to ridiculous sub-Steppenwolf psych rock to eerie synth themes, with plenty of snippets of campy dialogue and sound effects from the film as well. Add to that banjo pickin', mournful horns, lounge jazz, acid-rock backed saxophone freakouts, and more. It's not musical genius, but it's certainly a weird and fun mishmash of trippy stuff. Some evocative track titles: "Cosmic Flash", "Undertaker", "The Death of Doctor Death", "Toad", "Rage". The booklet features stills, movie posters, press clippings, credits (it was composed, arranged and recorded by guitarist Billy Green), a fan essay, etc. Cool! By the way, this was released last year, but we just got hip to it recently.

STRANGER THAN FICTIONOST(Columbia)cd$ 17.98

Movie soundtrack or not, this cd is probably well worth nabbing because it features a new Spoon song and a stirring instrumental score by Spoon's Britt Daniel and Brian Reitzell! Apart from them, this soundtrack features a typical mixed bag of current hipsters and cred-heavy veterans that you'll find on most of the recent big budget ensemble cast movies (particularly those starring Will Ferrell). Here you also get Maximo Park, Delta 5, Califone, The Jam, The Upsetters, Wreckless Eric, M83 and Vangelis. For their part, Maximo Park rollick and riff on "Going Missing" with a guitar line that could easily have been nicked from Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner". All in all, a pretty decent mix tape!

STREET TRASH (RICK ULFIK)OST(Lunaris )cd$ 14.98

We LOVE Street Trash, one of the silliest, goriest, goofiest movies ever, and easily one of our favorite good 'bad' movies. The label describes the 1987 horror flick as the ultimate "melt movie", which is definitely true, although we never realized that was an actual genre. And for lots of you, that probably makes no sense at all. But it will. Street Trash begins when a liquor store owner finds an old case of 'Tenafly Viper' in his basement, some kind of cheap wine, and decides to sell it cheap. It's of course snapped up by the city's homeless population, who begin to, yep, you guessed it, MELT!! THEY MELT!!! There's also a subplot about a mean Vietnam Vet who rules the junkyard, but really it's all about the glorious gore, and again, it's not bloody gore as much as it's a sort of over the top Technicolor gore, with the hapless victims of the tainted malt liquor dissolving into greasy pools of rainbow hued goop, most notably one guy who sits on a toilet to drink in peace, and who begins to melt and drip and ooze and eventually becomes a mushy prismatic pool in (and around) the toilet bowl... And really all the rest is just window dressing, you know, there's some story and a little plot and all that, but it's all about the melting, a grossout hobo holocaust that is like that head melting scene from Raiders Of The Lost Ark stretched out into a feature length film! And like a lot of these films, we didn't necessarily remember the music, but revisiting now, we were pretty blown away. The score by Rick Ulfik is pretty cool, creepy and synthy, some tracks all weird echoey percussion, moody, haunting atmospheres, really cool stuff, but it was the eighties, so there's also plenty of goofy synthy drum machine dorkiness, and some geniusly cringeworthy, ultra cheesy sax driven groovers, what one aQ staffer described as 'trashjams', but to our ears sounds like the retro-futuristic schmaltzy VHS mall music of ex-Skater James Ferraro. One of those tracks is so good (bad?) that it gets lodged in our head like crazy, and we find ourselves not just digging it, but humming it to ourselves at odd times during the day, LONG after having actually listened to it. But the bulk of the record is made up of grim, ominous creepscapes, the whole thing in fact reminiscent of another aQ fave soundtrack, The New York Ripper, a similarly weird mix of cheesy eighties funkiness and seriously scary soundtrackery, the difference here being that most of the sound FX are left in, we're guessing because no real masters exist, so perhaps this was all mastered direct from someone's original VHS copy, and it sounds like it, as it's sort of tinny, and lo-fi, but it suits the sounds, and the movie if you've seen it, perfectly. And that's also a part of the score's charm, that most of the cheesiest tracks are bookended by the anguished FX drenched howls of some hapless soul melting, screaming in anguish, those screams turning into wordless gurgles, and usually leading right into another long stretch of creepy, synthy ambience. Then there's the final song, what we remember as the end credits track, a sort of bastardized version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" kind of jam, with some of THEE most ridiculous and hilariously over the top lyrics EVER. In fact, we had forgotten about that track completely, and the first time it played in the store, had we all been drinking, it would have induced some seriously comedic spit takes, as it is, we were in stitches, lines like: "Shut your face, you little scumbag", "You can stop the bullshit cuz this is the end", "Oh what's this?? I'm startin' to ooze! you little creep! What's this fuckin' shit??" and of course "Your face I'm gonna reshape - I'm gonna eat your fucking eyeballs like grapes", all delivered in a dramatic croon, one that becomes increasingly more unhinged as the track progresses, and as the singer presumably begins to melt himself! So great! Easily one of our favorites in this recent spate of horror movie reissues (obviously, as it's our Record Of The Week). And the Lunaris label, the latest to throw their bloody hat in the horror movie vinyl reissue ring, did a great job, killer new artwork, extensive liner notes, the whole shebang. And like all the best soundtracks, it has us wanting to watch Street Trash again SO BAD!!

SUN CITY GIRLSJuggernaut(Abduction)cd$ 16.98

Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls has been the curator of many of the finest Ennio Morricone collections, including the brilliant compilation on Ipecac Crime & Dissonance, despite the John Zorn written liner notes that seemed to suggest that Mike Patton had done the compiling. Needless to say, it makes a lot of sense for the Sun City Girls to find their way into the realm of the soundtrack, given Alan Bishop's love of Morricone; and Juggernaut is one of those Sun City Girls soundtracks. While this soundtrack was originally released on vinyl through Abduction back in 1994, the corresponding film by Mark Roman Bodnar and Kyrill Kazemirovitch Protsenko had never been officially released. That said, it did make an appearance at an Italian film festival in 1997; so, it probably is an actual film, and not some fiction propagated as a strange in-joke by the Sun City Girls. But then again... Anyway, Juggernaut is a pretty good Sun City Girls album. The band had always been a difficult proposition, as they had thrown every idea (from the great notions of smashing Southeast Asian pop melodies with SoCal skate punk energy to the better-in-theory modes of junkyard gamelan via free jazz) at the audience and let them sort out the mess. Juggernaut follows suit, as an entirely instrumental album with the highlights giving nods to the classic SCG album Torch of the Mystics through lysergic guitar solos splattered across acid-punk jams that could easily ground the work of early Flaming Lips or Thinking Fellers, if those bands were way more fucked up. The semi-focused, stoned ritualism that makes up the rest of the album could have had some atmospheric purpose in the original film although they're not out of character for any given Sun City Girls album.

SUN CITY GIRLSPiasa... Devourer Of Men(Abduction)cd$ 16.98

So the story goes that a young Italian director named Antonio Pomola got in touch with the Sun City Girls in 1993 to score a film about a giant pre-historic flying reptile terrorizing a 19th Century Native American tribe somewhere in the Midwest. According to the Girls, the film was never completed; and the soundtrack is the only document from the film's creative genesis. There doesn't appear to be any further information about the career or even existence to this Pomola character, beyond the fact that the Sun City Girls composed this soundtrack of fragmented interludes, raga instrumentals, and weirdo atmospherics. Needless to say, the Girls self-released this soundtrack in 1994 on vinyl; only to have it disappear from circulation in quick fashion. Jump a dozen years into the future, and the soundtrack is available again at last with a cd pressing. Composed immediately after their Juggernaut soundtrack (reviewed elsewhere on this list), the Sun City Girls offered a series of edited fragments, which mostly touch on a psychedelic ritualism which foreshadows the Finnish free-folk splatter of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, and Kuupuu. Faux-indian raga blues drifts into lumbering plods for plenty of chicken scratch guitar noodles, free-jazz drum stumblings, and glossalaic vocals. At times, the Bishop brothers and Charlie Gocher tease us with a glimpse of their mutant songwriting talents; but more often than not, it's sinister atmospheres for gongs, Tibetan horns, and amorphous guitar pluckery.

SUPERBADOST(Lakeshore)cd$ 16.98

Bootsy!! Also, who doesn't love this movie??

SURF NAZIS MUST DIE (JON MCCALLUM)OST(Strange Disc Records)lp$ 28.00

Most of us went to see Surf Nazis Must Die back in the day (the day being 1987) based entirely on the movie title, and the awesomely over the top poster which featured a a nazi with a machine gun in one hand, his other hand a metal claw, on a surfboard, pierced by a chainsaw, riding a wave, about to land on a terrified bikini clad beach bunny on another surfboard, the beaches burning in the background, with the legend: "The beaches have become battlefields... The waves are a warzone!" Who could resist? Certainly not us. Although it's been a while, but if memory serves, the plot was pretty goofy, like most Troma movies. An earthquake destroys the West coast, neo nazi surf punks battle for control of the beaches, but when a boy is killed, the boy's grandma breaks out of her nursing home for REVENGE! It got a rating of 1.5 stars on IMDB, and 1 star on Rotten Tomatoes, but we remember it being pretty funny. What we did NOT remember was the soundtrack, which has never been available until NOW. And you would think a Troma movie from the eighties would have an appropriately cheesy soundtrack, you might be surprised by John McCallum's score, which is very creepy and synthy, a little bit John Carpenter, a little bit Tangerine Dream, swirls of synth buzz, and moody minor key melodies, some squiggly FX. Lots of the tracks are tense and driving, that very classic 'chase scene' sound, with programmed drums, the vibe sort of soundtracky but new wavey, for sure Carpenter fans, and folks who've been digging this new renaissance of retro-synth music, will flip for sure, even without seeing the movie. And while that original poster was so cool, the new artwork is pretty bad ass, a huge chrome skull, floating in a blue sky over the Pacific Ocean, above two crossed surfboards (skull & crossboards?), with the legend: "Welcome To California"... LIMITED TO 800 COPIES, housed in nice thick jackets, with new liner notes from McCallum, the director, and various crew members. The new artwork was done by McCallum too!!

SWIMMER, THE (MARVIN HAMLISCH)OST(Film Score Monthly)cd$ 17.98

Warning: this review contains movie spoilers!!! An ancient vhs copy of this 1968 movie starring Burt Lancaster clothed only in a little black Speedo swimsuit (the whole time!) made its rounds around here back in the late '90s, and it's a total understatement to declare that everyone who watched it had their minds blown, melted, fried, and otherwise levelled by the viewing experience. Beyond the shock of seeing Lancaster in a Speedo (often in, ahem, profile we will add!), The Swimmer is a pretty darn bleak tale - one man's nightmarish unravelling presented in a unique, slightly perverse and boggling way. Over the past two decades, its cult classic notoriety has mushroomed to the point where there's been talk of a remake starring Alec Baldwin. Absolutely unnecessary, in our opinion! Anyhoo, as Andee pointed out recently, oftentimes when reviewing a film soundtrack, we inevitably end up gushing or going on at length about the movie itself. Kinda hard not to do, expecially with a flick like this one. So, we're doing our best to restrain ourselves (we'll just say that if you haven't seen it yet, please do so... immediately!). The Marvin Hamlisch composed music on the soundtrack is pleasant on its own, an instrumental blend of easy-listening '60s jazz pop and orchestral melodramatics. It's very much unlike modern-day movie soundtracks riddled with well-known popular hits, that lazily push the buttons of viewers' personal nostalgic and kitschy associations with those familiar tunes. It may mostly seem to lean towards the innocuous, however when combined with the film's visuals, it does what a soundtrack should do. That is, for the most part, it provides an unintrusive complimentary sonic backdrop, and occasionally making its presence felt more prominently, subtly influencing the viewer's perceptions. While it's not really something we'd listen to on its own on a regular basis, it definitely does serve as an effective memory triggering device for fans of the movie, stirring visions of Burt Lancaster in a Speedo running with a galloping white horse, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo wooing a nubile blonde, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo fighting to reclaim his hotdog cart, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo...

SYBARITEmusicforafilm(Temporary Residence Ltd.)cd$ 13.98

Extremely evocative soundtrack material that sounds intensely warm and melodic and brings to mind visual images of fear, peace, love--all that good archetypal stuff that soundtracks have to do well. Plaintively plucked guitar over shimmering electronic chimes; synth drones and melodic interludes that always make in-store customers ask what we�re playing. Can be favorably compared to AQ staff favorites such as Boards of Canada, Seefeel, the Aphex Twin when he was still --ambientÊ, Kid Loco, and maybe even the mellower moments of Kruder and Dorfmeister. If you like any of those groups, this�ll do it for ya. By the way, Sybarite is Xian Hawkins, who may have come to your attention as one of the folks who collaborated with Simeon in the 1990s version of the Silver Apples.

SYMMETRYThemes For An Imaginary Film(Italians Do It Better)3lp$ 25.00

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music Of Toru Takemitsu(Nonesuch)cd$ 16.98

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

SORRY. Sort of a "Best Of" Toru Takemitsu, the highly acclaimed film score composer from Japan. Features the original music from Harakiri, Woman In The Dunes, Dodes'kaden, Kaseki, Banished Orin, Empire Of Passion & Rikyu. Plus there are three extra tracks of Takemitsu's music recorded by John Adams & the London Sinfonia from the films Jose Torres, Black Rain and The Face Of Another.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 1(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 2(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 3(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 4(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 5(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAKEMITSU, TORUFilm Music vol. 6(JVC)cd$ 23.00

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

SORRY.

TAMAM SHUDEvolution(EM Records)cd$ 21.00

Last list we highlighted two somewhat unusual "surf music" reissues, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, both brought to us by our favorite Japanese reissue label, EM Records, as part of their Summer 2007 "EM Under Water Series"! Those were quite cool, and now we've got the remaining three discs in the series, all of 'em (like those first two) soundtracks to several now-legendary surfing movies from back in the sixties/seventies. With the exception of Farm (from the USA) all the bands in EM's series are Australian, and in all cases the movies they were doing soundtracks for were Australian productions and/or featured Australian surfers. And as before, this isn't your typical SoCal Jan & Dean, Beach Boys style surf music... it's *psychedelic* surf music. Well 2 out of 3 of these anyway (the Tim Gaze Band album being more of a yacht rock outing). Now this one is a bonafide Australian garage psych rock classic! It's also the only disc in the "EM Under Water" series that we'd ever actually heard before, as there'd been at least one (possibly non-legit) cd reissue in the past, and so we already know it was a good 'un, which boded well for the series as a whole. Tamam Shud, who took their name from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (it's Persian for "The End"), were a heavy (for the era), fuzz-drenched psych pop combo who recorded two albums in their brief career. This was their first, from 1969, and it served as the soundtrack to a motion picture on the subject of surfing (natch) called Evolution. Which was appropriate 'cause these guys were indeed surfers, even if their music sounded a lot more like The Amboy Dukes, The Litter, and The Count Five than, say, The Ventures (though apparently earlier in the sixties they did, when they were called The Sunsets). It's total Nuggesty stuff (why "Mr. Strange" or one of the other 11 tracks on Evolution didn't appear on the Nuggets II box set is puzzling), with a "progressive", Sgt. Peppers bent, full of ripping wild FUZZ guitar soloing, stomping riffs, and catchy hooks. The Shud could do wigged out blues rock jamming, or they could do totally poppy vocal cuts...as long as there was plenty of freaky freeform fuzz action to go 'round, which, there was. Like we said, a classic, one any '60s psych lover will be happy to spin. This reish is of course presented with the usual deluxe-level of care and attention characteristic of EM Records, complete with lyrics, photos, graphics, movie stills, and extensive liner notes by both Aussie "surf music historian" Peter J. McParland and Evolution's director, Peter Witzig. And EM has also dug up three bonus tracks, from a 1972 ep called Bali Waters, material which appeared on the soundtrack to another surf move, Morning Of The Earth. Who knows, maybe there will be another "Under Water" series next year wherein EM will reissue The Shud's second album, 1970's Goolutionites And The Real People, which was a concept album against pollution... we can hope.