[ aquarius records new arrivals

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Showing results 1 through 50 of 117.

After Dinner was an '80s Japanese art rock band that featured the delicate and beautiful vocals of Haco (she of but one name). This 1989 album of theirs (originally a RecRec label LP) sees cd reissue in remastered form, and it is a true delight. Haco's

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Feedback is as much about the context of recording as it is about musicians who set their guitars up against their amps while they step out for a bite to eat. Australia's Oren Ambarchi and Martin Ng have taken great care to find the right space to manufacture the lustrous feedback on Reconnaissance. The feedback here resists the urge to violently screech; rather it floats like the gentle

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Pretty insanely catchy cock rock, super anthemic and dumb, as only the Bulb label (and now, we're told, Rick Rubin's American label!) can provide. Skull art on cover, tight pants, greasy hair, songtitles like "We Want Fun" and "Music or Die". Somewhere

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Antibalas is a music cooperative out of Brooklyn, spearheaded by Martin Antibalas. The same group (more-or-less) was formerly known as The Daktaris, who you may recall as the modern-day '70s styled faux-African funk combo who cut an excellent disc for the

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Appendix Out are a Scottish outfit whose plaintive neo-folk style has been compared to Palace's Will Oldham. But Appendix Out's sound is free of the patented Oldham quirkiness that I can't seem get past anymore, that calls more attention to its style than the beauty of simply written and performed songs. Somehow, after hearing Olhdam records for so many many years, Apprendix Out

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Conceptually, this record seemed destined to be right up AQ's alley. The next Conet Project?! Maybe not...Recordings made in natural environments, using only pre-historic instruments; magnolia leaf rattles, ribbon reeds, slate slabs, bamboo stalks,

Reissue of the second album by this '70s Italian band (follow up to their "Tilt: Immagini Per Un Orecchio" reviewed last list) and it's another slice of Mahavishnu/Crimson style prog.

If Company Flow are the scary guys in hip hop that stand on the street corner, take drugs, mutter to themselves, sleep in cardboard boxes, think they're from space, and generally freak everyone out, then Atmosphere are CF's goofy little brothers that Musically, Atmosphere are much much smoother, like Del or maybe Gang Starr. Nice and smooth and really good, but missing all the grit and nastiness and mania that makes CF so fucking awesome. But if Company Flow is too weird for you a lot of the time (or if you just like it smooth), give this a try.

Newest record by everyone's favorite one man (and one machine!) band that sings exclusively about punk rock, and his friends, and the metric system and a bunch of other dorky crap! Yep. It's Atom and his Package. Not much has changed, except for some more Byram thinks it sounds like retarded They Might Be Giants. I think it sounds like Ween, if they were 15 years old, and listened to Slayer and straightedge. Either way, pretty funny, and pretty great. And some nifty Vermiform cover art.

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Polish outfit with members of the Magic Carpathians, but not nearly as droney or avant-garde as you'd expect from that, or from their name. Instead, this is lighter fare, kind of an indie-rock thing, not as psychedelic or weird as might be assumed.

This is such a strange cd. And we've all become completely obsessed with it. A bizarre series of spoken instructions and long droning notes. Easier to just share Forced Exposure's description: "The playing directions for the instrumentalist on this CD are derived directly from the so-called sucking stones sequence in Beckett's Molloy, where the author has his protagonists invent three variations of the correct way to suck 16 pebbles -- distributed between two coat or trouser pockets. Everything takes place inside the head, and yet these image provoking speech rituals find their way to the outside. Everything becomes the listener's projection room. We look on the speakers as we would an open, exposed interior. Speech is its own dissecting instrument. Existence is transferred into speech, being is removed from its time. The images remain, the sound of speech remains -- in which the secret of an entire world is concealed." Simply, it's 3 actors, reciting instructions like: "Take a stone from pocket one. Put it in your mouth. Suck it. Suck it...." and so on. With the occasional moaning horn. Totally surreal and creepy and super great.

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When we first put this on, I was pleasantly surprised. The first song starts off with intense, rumbling and droning feedback, offset with what sounds like a malfunctioning music box. Actually quite cool. But it only takes a minute or two for everything to devolve to the lowest possible level. Yelping, screeching, stupid and inept, lame art-punk crap. Actually, referring to this as

A couple years back Will Oldham adopted the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker and released what stood as the crowning achievement of his career, the brilliant I See a Darkness. Now he returns to form with an album that is quite possibly even more heartbreaking,

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Frank Bretschneider is one of the founders of the German electronic collective Raster / Noton, recording as both Komet and Produkt. For his second record with Mille Plateaux, he has kept things very simple, even for the ultra-stripped down simplicity of minimalist techno that has defined the Raster sound. "Curve" begins with a simple slow motion bass techno pulse around 80-85 bpm

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At long last, two new tracks on wax from these San Francisco metal legends! If you're into '80s metal, you need to know about Brocas Helm. Their first album came out in '84, their second in '88, and we're still waiting for their third! But, despite their glacially slow pace of releases, this new single now exists. Melodic, rough edged vocals, lots and lots of guitar, bass and drums,

A two-piece band of indie rockers from the Pacific Northwest doing their best to play metal...no, not The Need. It's C-Average -- but these guys might need to think about changing their name, as on this release they've manage to bring their grade point average

Wow! Back to the DOOM for these jolly British gents, no more of the tongue-in-cheek discofied retro '70s rock pastiche that, well, sucked, and rendered the majority of their output over the last decade (excepting their mighty debut) pretty much worthless. It's

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Super limited ep from AQ faves Cave In. Having fully shed their metalcore skin, and become what can be best described as the heavy metal Radiohead, this ep moves even further to the proggy pop side of things. Four tracks from the their recent Jupiter record, one, very slightly reworked, and three radically different 'piano versions'. And obviously, the piano versions are the reason to

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The always-inventive Maine collective releases a two-song cd single for those who can't wait for their next album. Although Cerberus' strongest moments are its multilayered instrumental climaxes that come after several minutes of murky, evocative

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The duo of Don Cherry (pocket trumpet, piano, indian flute, bamboo flute, voice, bells, percussion) and Ed Blackwell (drums, percussion, bells) doing some pretty incredible "pan-ethnic jazz outness" thing, two LPs all recorded in one day (August 22nd 1969) in Paris France. Thanks again to Charly for making these rare albums available again. Now available in a super fancy sleeve,

The long awaited new Company Flow, does not disappoint, but does take an unexpected turn towards the normal. The last CF record was a crazy confusional mess of sputtering, disorienting, ultra strange nonsensical hip hop madness. On '...and Cannibal', the

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First off: fab colorful "spacey" cover painting on this one, an Italian cd reissue (in mini-lp style sleeve) of this 1970 early fusion session. Larry Coryell on guitar, plus the likes of John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham and Miroslav Vitous! An

During a recent illness, David Tibet had one of his earthmoving visions in which he was told to summarize his life's work in a singular recording. The powers that be instructed him that this life summary was to be a densely layered collage of all of his recordings as Current 93 and with Steven Stapleton all piled on top of each other. When Tibet recovered from his sickness, he and

Ha! Ha! Ha!!! It comes with a fucking credit card! A credit card, forsooth! What a bunch of scrubs.

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.

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Newest and possibly best (certainly best in a while) record from black metal's second biggest 'sell outs' (first place belongs to Cradle of Filth of course). Not sure how this band managed to alienate the true black metallers (other than by getting popular)

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Newest Ambush jungle/dancehall assault. This one's a split between Ambush head honcho Scud and Rich Kid (AKA Panacea). It's less ragga / dancehall and more noise and mayhem and insane drill and bass. Really cool and heavy and crazy, but left us yearning for

Pretty damn good sophomore effort from San Francisco rockers Drunkhorse. Basically, these guys play a heavy, '70s inspired style of honkin' hard rawk, a la Fu Manchu and other "stoner" outfits also found on the Man's Ruin roster. But, unlike a lot of those

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Really cool, instrumental post-rock / metal with lots of super complex playing and weird jazzy-ish bits. Definitely check it out if you're into Don Cab, Bozart, The (Fucking) Champs, etc.

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The liner notes for Eastanburia's first and possibly only record state that "there was no intention other than having a fun reunion." This vinyl-only limited edition Japanese import picture disc release definitely lives up to that claim, being a percussion and vocal jam session from and all star line-up: Yoshimi P-We (Boredoms / OOIOO), Atr (Boredoms), David Nuss (No Neck

Rough, raw and shambolic pop from midwest art rock / garage popsters the Embarassment. This is the perfect companion to the almost-comprehensive 'Heyday' compilation released a few years back. Live tracks and demos of some of their best (and for some reason unreleased / unrecorded) stuff.

Mr Future Pilot is a Scot of Indian ethnicity whose new record is on The Pastels' Geographic label (which hasn't released a bad record yet), and knowing all that, his new album sounds much like you'd expect. Super light, fresh, and unpretentious melodies are

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Originally issued in 1964, Confidentiel takes on a new sound for Gainsbourg, stripping down the musical backing to simply electric guitar and upright bass (Eleck Bacsik and Michel Gaudry, respectively). Wonderful and relaxed jazz sounds here.

The sixth Gainsbourg album, originally released by Philips in 1964. A return to Alain Goraguer�s orchestration and the wonderful sounds produced on his second LP. Extremely lively and playful, this record definitely lives up to its title, as drums and percussion are the driving force behind the music here. Taking the Mambo influence of No2 and bringing forth other worldly

This is a collection of non-LP singles released between 1965-1968. Featuring many of the tracks which make up the Comic Strip collection released here in the states. Classics include: "Bonnie and Clyde" & "Comic Strip" (both with Brigitte Bardot), "Ford Mustang", "Qui est In� Qui est Out�", "Bloody Jack" and "Docteur Jekyll et Monsieur Hyde", among others. Not necessary for those

Third album, again orchestrated by Goraguer. Originally issued in April of 1961. Strangely enough, barely any of these tracks made it onto any of the American comps, save for "Les Amours Perdues", which made an appearance onto Couleur Cafe. Another Gainsbourg classic, "La Chanson de Prevert" appears here alongside many other whimsically beautiful songs perfect for Spring.

The second, untitled Gainsbourg album, originally issued in June of 1959. Brilliantly orchestrated by Alain Goraguer, with playful Mambo flair which dominated the style found on the Couleur Cafe compilation! Features a hilarious take on the American Western musical (think Oklahoma), "Jeunes Femmes et Vieux Messieurs"! Wonderful and lively.

The fourth Gainsbourg album, originally issued by Philips in May, 1962. Orchestrated once again by Alain Goraguer. No4 is a bit slicker in production and slightly darker in tone than Gainsbourg's previous efforts -- just a taste of what's to come. Many tracks here were featured on the Jazz and Couleur Cafe collections.

The first Gainsbourg album, originally issued in Sept. of 1958. Vocal jazz-pop, many tracks here were featured on the Du Jazz Dans le Ravin compilation (the bulk of said comp were actually culled largely from his first and fourth albums as well as the Confidentiele LP, some of which spilled over onto the Couleur Cafe compilation, which in turn was mostly taken from his second

Garadama is a hitherto unknown to us, super heavy metallic rock trio from Japan, making their debut on Osaka's Alchemy label (home to albums by Hijo Kaidan, Merzbow, Masonna, Angel 'In Heavy Syrup among others). They're not unlike a more modern-sounding version

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As you may have already guessed, this is a disc of solo jazz piano by Charles Gayle, a NYC free jazz musician much better known for his saxophone playing. And, perhaps surprising given his propensity for way-out sax squalls, his piano playing is remarkably melodic, although quiet kinetic and restless. It sounds like someone tickling the ivories at a cheesy jazz piano bar getting bored

This is the second 'solo' record of dark, langorous desert soul from Giant Sand mainman Howe Gelb. As with the last Gelb solo record, it basically sounds like a super spare, stripped down Giant Sand record, which is definitely a good thing. Lazy and sparawling mini epics, with minimal piano, guitar and mumbled vocals and lots and lots of space. Fans of Calexico (obviously),

Ex-Boredoms vocalist Yoshikawa's weird percussion/vox/synth crew captured live in Japan. Complete with JB's style MC introducing the band, Yoshikawa and Co. energetically bash out their drum-heavy exotica jams. While definitely better in person,

Long unavailable domestically, now back in stock thanks to the band themselves bringing copies in, here's the 1995 full-length debut from Osaka's Grind Orchestra. Not a noisecore collective like their name may suggest, GO rather is the outfit formed by

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Guided By Voices continue on their lugubrious trek towards stadium rock. Where are we now? Album number 10? 15? Who can keep track? But this is definitely about as close as they've gotten to standing alongside their Madison Square Garden brethren: Rolling

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This is the previously unreleased 1979 sequel to Bruce Haack's 1970 "Electric Lucifer" LP, perhaps the most awesomely bizarre psychedelic pre-Kraftwerk electronica album ever to be released on a major label (Columbia) or elsewhere. The robotic voices and

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What does it say about the state of my brain that when I played this in the front room of the store, I hated the solo record by Neil Hagerty of Royal Trux, yet now that I am listening to it in the office on my iMac with its KICK ASS new iSub subwoofer under the desk, it doesn't sound so bad? Am I just enamored of my new subwoofer, or is the subwoofer highlighting the pulsing bass

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Finnish band Haikara's 1973 album "Geafar" was an amazing disc of wild prog-rock, and if you haven't checked out the reissue on Jussi of Circle's label Ektro, do so now! However, this 1990's reunion effort is not quite so wild, indeed, it's a kind of on the twee side...but not without appeal to hardcore progheads. In keeping with the lovely forest photos featured on the cd cover, this

John Hudak's minimalist sound experiments have often utilized single source materials. But unlike the elemental singularity of Aube where water, flourescent bulbs, and oscilators are transmogrified into almost interchangeable, dense noise fields, Hudak's choices are based upon the metaphoric content of the subject matter as in "Don't Worry About Anything..." which broke apart an

[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 110 ]