[ aquarius records new arrivals

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

Showing results 1 through 50 of 111.

86 is a local quartet who play a down home concoction of sweetly sincere male harmonies over a rollicking twangy rock backdrop, made with chiming strummed guitars and fingerpicked banjo. Eschewing pretentiousness, their lyrics instead celebrate the mundane

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Attention Calexico lovers! Here's another collaboration between them and the Amor Belhom Duo. You better hop on it though 'cause this one's limited to 1000. UK import pressing.

Returning from a long absence, here's a three song ep from Sweden's infamous improv-black metal band Abruptum. None blacker! The first track, dating from way back in 1991, starts with gothic keyboards and has a lot of Satanic screaming, but with its gothic

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I imagine some Thrill Jockey completists will be a little shocked when they throw on this record and discover a super moody, old school hip hop record. But the ones that actually give it a listen will find that once again the unflappable Thrill Jockey followed their own star and have managed to release probably one of the best underground hip hop records so far this year. Dark and intense and with a certain anger and intensity bubbling right below the surface, All Natural manage to take simple old school beats, looped pianos and string swells, and a smooth lyrical intensity, and turn them into a seriously aggressive, totally funky and catchy, kick ass record. Recommended.

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Members of Stereolab, Add N to (x), and (the unfortunately named) Hairy Butter join forces to noodle about with their analog toys for a soundtrack to some upcoming movie I'm sure we'll hear more about.

Japanese sound artist Koji Asano recently (last weekend!) graced AQ with an instore performance, and it's a shame if you missed it 'cause what we'll call his "laptop Merzbow" style electronics were intense and mesmerizing indeed. He brought along copies of this

A marked improvement from their last release -- the disappointing blues jam "Set & Setting" -- Bardo Pond's "Dilate" mopes through its thick psychedelic haze of washed out guitar and slow 'n' simple rhythms that aren't exactly memorable, but can't be forgotten after taking a really big hit on that multi-chambered water bong. The first couple of tracks have all of the slow-burning dark

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From the land of Godspeed You Black Emperor (Quebec, Canada), and creating a very similar sonic landscape, are Below The Sea. Slow steps of sparse guitar twangs. Lonely long washes of strings. Dialogue drifting in and out. Solemn and ethereal.

A Dutch duo jazz-improv skronk fest, with the peculiar sputtering engine percussion of free jazz veteran Bennink and the clattery spidery guitar skree of The Ex's Terrie Ex. Seventeen wild and woolly tracks.

Harry Bertoia's sound sculptures developed from years of work as both a commissioned furniture maker for Knoll and as an environmental sculptor who built large scale balancing kinetic pieces, usually out of bronze. But in the 1970s, Bertoia and his son Val began experimenting with resonant properties of metal itself with huge sculptures of vertical metal shafts that were Unfortunately, this reissue concludes with a folk-rock song from a member of the extended Bertoia family... it's really really awful. Why is it there? Val Bertoia should know better. Consider it a non-bonus bonus track and ignore, while enjoying the rest of this lovely disc.

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Pulsating electronic euro-pop from Sweden. Co-released by syrup-pop label Kindercore and light'n'fluffy electronic pop label Emperor Norton. The perfect place for this release to be. At times sounding very much like the soundtrack to Sega Saturn's Bomberman videogame. Soothing, swirling and sweet.

Reissue of the classic and highly controversial (at the time) record by Serge Gainsbourg and his wife, Jane Birkin. This CD contains some of Gainsbourg's (arguably) best works, from the sexually charged "Je T'aime Moi Non Plus" and "69 Annee Erotique" to playful classics ("Les Sucettes", "Elisa") to the beautifully orchestrated ("L'anamour", "Manon" & "Sous le Soleil Exactement").

Two more sadsack songs from Omaha, Nebraska's Conor Oberst and co. Songwriting of the bleak and despairing kind. On a swirly storm cloud of grey vinyl.

The seven piece Bullfrog hail from Montreal and recently swept thru our town, bestowing just a few cds upon us. This is a 5-song 3" cd (their 2nd 3" cd). Not just a Kid Koala project at all, this band is really finding their sound and running with it, and Koala's turntables are just one part of the delightful equation. They play tone-perfect seventies sweet soul / Parliament-style

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New album from Paul Burch of Lambchop. Less bluegrass and more old timey than last year's "Blue Notes", the songs on "Last Of My Kind" were inspired by Tony Early's novel "Jim the Boy."

Gritty and unkempt garage/sludge from Philadelphia. Noisey and sloppy and super great. Sounding quite a bit like the Stooges or the MC5 (and not the way the Hellacopters turn Stooges/MC5 worship into catchy cock rock) all drunken swagger and snotty attitude.

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The third full length by the Butchies (aka Melissa York and Kaia Wilson former drummer and guitarist of beloved queercore hotties Team Dresch, and bassist Alison Martlew). With each album, they've moved farther and farther from their feisty punk days. That's not to say they don't rock out every once in a awhile. No, it's just generally more tempered down, more composed. And this slower,

Members of German avant-jazz outfit Bretzel Killing Machine take their interest in horror films/music a step further by forming this two-man experimental BLACK METAL band! Yes, B.K.M. leader (and solo electronics artist) Bjoern Eichstaedt has finally delivered his his long-promised (threatened?) Caacrinolas project. Keyboardist/vocalist Bjoern, together with guitarist/bassist It's definitely something for fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Abruptum, Nokturnal Mortum, Potentiam, and similar avant-ambient-black-metal trips. Excellent! We look forward to their next recording, which we're told is already underway, entitled "Satan et les légions fantastiques tourmentant le Crucifié"...

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Cage's first work composed entirely by using the I Ching (the title is taken from the name of Kurt Wolff's book on the I Ching "The Book of Changes". Every pitch value, note duration, expressive marking is determined by this painstaking process -- a process that Cage caught much flack for from many of his total serialist contemporaries. This was the first recording of that piece ever

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From totally out of the blue comes this surprisingly wonderful pop record. Capitol Years combines the gravelly-voiced lo-fi anthems of Sparklehorse and Tom Petty, the pristine pop of Paul McCartney, and the hazy vocalising of Pink Floyd, and comes up

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San Francisco mainstays Carlos finally return with a new record. Their quirky, heavy, punky, poppy sound hasn't changed too much, but they sure sound better than ever. A sparkling production and a batch of killer songs make this record a great pop surprise. The sound is a little Pixies, a little Weezer and a little Redd Kross. A really great record from one of the few San Francisco

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Buzzing and drony primitive keyboard-flecked black metal from right here in the U.S. Released on The Black Hand (Rage of Achilles imprint). Really raw and hypnotic. Lots of midtempo, chugging riffs and haunting Burzum-y keyboards that occasionally evolve into

This is a pretty awesome collection of early singles and compilation tracks from Florida's Cavity, one of the original (and still one of the best) new-wave-of-metal-core� bands. Noisy and completely devastating. If you like stuff like Converge, Isis, Cave In,

One of our favorite performers, Athens GA's Vic Chesnutt, unleashes a record of demos and rarities. It's his ninth album (god, I remember when his first one came out). More experimental than any of his previous releases, this record's got ghostly blues dirges

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AQ-fave, LA-based guitarist Nels Cline returns with a "big band" effort. Not big band in the Benny Goodman or Count Basie sense, but in group larger than his usual trio or duo format, with up to five guitarists (including Nels) tangling strings, with his

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Blazing fast primitve Swedish black metal in the style of Darkthrone, old Ulver, or Immortal. Blurry buzzsaw guitars, pounding blasting drums and raspy growling screams. Pure and evil and totally cult.

"The Future In Reverse" is an older piece from Sacramento's controlled noise artist Crawl Unit from 1997, and is generally considered his best work. Each track utilises cavernous bass tones in creating an ominously rumbling electronic sea that modulates

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Joe Colley (aka Crawl Unit) specialises in the internal feedback loop, showing masterful restraint, in keeping this simple sound generation technique from exploding in Merzbow's purposeful ugliness. Where fellow quiet feedback artist Arcane Device builds complex banks of electronic gear to transform and modulate these tones within controlled parameters, Crawl Unit plays fast and

"Trans History - Works 95-99" is a collection of singles and compilation tracks drawn from Crawl Unit's electroacoustic / noise 'n' drone work. A specialist in internal feedback systems, Crawl Unit sets up lo-tech / post-industrial looping patterns of granular textures and white hot electrical buzz. As all of this work had been commissioned as rather short pieces (a seven inch or

Before Creeper Lagoon were originally signed, 'they' were just a 'he,' and Creeper Lagoon was a completely different beast. It was back when San Francisco had more of a 'scene' and had at least a few more (than 2!) clubs to play, and Creeper Lagoon was a sort

Seeing the Danielson Famile recently open for Low at the Great American Music Hall was a thing of beauty -- the audience, who were mostly there for Low, was gloriously converted to the totally original oddity that is Danielson. Long story short: all six members Anyway, this is one band who truly must be seen live in order to "get it." They are UNBELIEVABLE. Daniel, the lead singer and guitarist, yowls in a whiny falsetto that has a punchy punk energy to it, while his sisters Rachel and Megan cavort on flute and xylophone and accompany Daniel's vocals with the prettiest call-and-response backup harmonies and, best of all, choreographed dances and hand gestures. You cannot take your eyes off the girls -- they're like the Supremes, narrating the entirety of each song with their hands and bodies in perfect unison. It's like the Supremes mixed with the angular savage songwriting chops of the Pixies mixed with the precision vocal stop-start antics of Heavy Vegetable. Uh huh! Now it must be said that they're not as good on record as they are live (and it sort of doesn't help that a customer of ours who is gay engaged one of the Danielsons in coversation and had to hear that the Bible says homosexuality is wrong), but anyone who's seen them live may want a cd or two to keep them company between Danielson concerts. Try this one on for size (or any of their previous albums which were all reissued recently.)

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Now that Daniel Bejar has left the New Pornographers (yes, sadly it's true) to return to his solo wanderer's journey (with stops already in Spain and Montreal), this album appears almost as a marker of the occasion. Fear not, the NPs will continue forth, as

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Eight-song effort from this Misfits-inspired Marduk sideproject. In fact, half the tracks are Misfits covers!

This is a pretty self-explanatory record from Manchester's village idiots better known as V/VM. It's totally beside the point if Dr. Fred is V/VM's doctor as this sounds just like the last bunch of V/VM records, with a warbled ring modulator affecting the

The Ex, maybe the Netherlands' most famous punk export, return with a new record of their unique churning, sinewy brand of punk angularity, but with a sound even more subdued than their previous release on Touch & Go, "Starters Alternators". If you're looking for the fury and rage of The Ex, definitely look to their earlier works. Much like their fellow hardcore vets Fugazi and

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Quite possibly the best example of the pure power pop brilliance that is the Fastbacks. Three early releases from Seattle pop greats Kurt Bloch, Kim Warnick and Lulu Gargiulo on one cd. Not only do you get '... And His Orchestra' (which is pretty much the bestest from start to finish), but also 'Everyday Is Saturday' (with their cover of "Midnight Confessions"), and '...Play Five Of

Wow. For Stars have always been a pretty cool band, playing a quietly melancholic brand of sadcore that pleases fans of Low and Nick Drake, etc. But on this third album their sound appears to have matured exponentially, developing into a newer better creature. Their songs now have a hushed majesty to them, with hookier (yet still minor key) melodies, and more dynamics, a lot

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Mysterious posthumous release of this irrepressible SF speed-punk-metal sect's entire recorded output. Led by the fearless SF scenester Matt Shapiro. Seriously in your (fuck)face. With a splatter of sampled dialogue. Mass unbridled thrashing and nudity abound. Watch the opposition cower in their boots.

Before we delve into a detailed discussion of Gate's latest release, let me just say that this album is gorgeous, droney and dreamy and about as un-noisy as noise gets, with chirping electronic whale-call blips and bleeps and luscious gossamer washes of Michael Morley's output in the New Zealand free-noise / avant-rock ensembles Gate and AQ-faves The Dead C has always been purposefully unsettling. He's primarily armed with gritty, somnambulent guitar noise and a half mumbled voice, yet "My Dear Sweet Reluctant Sweetheart" offers a drastic shift in his aesthetic focus, as he has recently put down the guitar in favor of electronics. This double CD features reworkings of two previously recorded pieces, with a condensed and vastly different remix of Gate's 1999 vinyl only double album "The Lavender Head" and a recapitulation of his 1996 soundtrack to the cacophonous sound installation "My Dear Sweet Reluctant Sweetheart." For Morley, the use of electronics is not just about the technological filters and modulations offered by drum machines and synthesizers, but also the ability to recontextualize and deconstruct the sampled fragment. Morley's use of the quotation may not seem anything new in comparison to, say, Amon Tobin, until he brings the woozy melancholia and troubled combativeness of his earlier guitar-based work to these electronic compositions. "My Dear Sweet..." is a series of electronic dirges made by collaging together various samples of contemporary electronica onto a really noisy 4-track with lots of tape hiss. Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 2," Panacea's "Twisted Designs" and something resembling Biosphere or Orbital are some of Morely's sources. These are pretty simple overlappings of rhythmically synchronized loops with elements of his guitar noise phasing in and out of the mix. And on "The Lavender Head" Morley loops his patented guitar grit into abstract slow-motion warbles, forming downtempo rhythms that appear lost in a sea of lo-fi tape hiss -- something *NEVER* heard in any other electronica. Really nice!

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From UK label Rage of Achilles comes this Canadian blast of molten sludge. Crushing downer-core ala Eyehategod, squealing feedback, slow motion drumming (with the occasional grinding staccato blast beat) and howling midrange shrieks. Heavy as fuck.

Import disc featuring Dan the Automator with guests Damon Albarn (Blur), Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), and Del tha Funky Homosapien. Sounds exactly like you'd think it would (assuming you'd think it would sound mostly

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Ultra noisy chaotic hardcore from South Carolina featuring ex members of Initial State and In/Humanity. Blazing fast, frenzied and abrasive, shrieking and furious, with a wry, thoughtful/humorous lyrical bent (ala Dead Kennedys or In/Humanity). Great.

Having difficulties in making wind recordings for his new project, Benny Jonas Nilsen (aka Hazard) asked field recording specialist Chris Watson for some help. Coincidentally, Watson had just finished, of all things, a radio program all about wind for Following the approach of juxtaposing natural acoustic phenomena with synthetic computer based processing that he utilized on his "North" and "Wood / Bridge / Field" albums, Hazard here generates a wide miasmic range of deep drones and dark looping passages from the manipulated wind recordings, but not overly-structuring the material, instead favoring an organic presentation of the sounds. The addition of Watson's pro recordings add a great deal of color to Hazard's otherwise cold grey timbres, with his dynamic recordings of wind whistling through creaky window frames, environmental recordings of westerlies whipping around mountainous peaks, and violent thunderstorms! The result is a fantastic record on par with Andrew Chalk's "East Of The Sun" or Zoviet France's "Mohnomische."

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"Light" is an all-exclusive precursor to the 2001 Touch Tour with Hazard, Fennesz, and Biosphere. Unfortunately, that tour is only taking place in England, so the rest of us will have to make do with this CD. Hazard's track is an eerie drone that rises quickly

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Limited edition little cardboard "box set" ep from these hard-rockin' Swedes... Includes five tracks, 4 of which are previously unreleased, plus 2 videos for your computer and a patch for your jean jacket.

Odd, left-of-center electronica from Kim Hiorthoy, who I believe runs the Rune Grammofon label (and does their distinctive graphic design). An abstract and playful disc that brings to mind stuff like Mouse on Mars, Autechre, Mira Calix, Concentrick, and other

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"Figure 2" is the second collaboration for sound artists John Hudak and Jason Lescalleet. Hudak's sound work is an extension of his work with delicate amplifications of emotive sounds which normally exist below the threshold of audibility, sounding like a On an undisclosed winter night when the first blizzard of the season hit the Boston area, Hudak and Lescalleet were perfoming inside the warm confines of the Lindsay Chapel of the First Church Congregational in Cambridge. The first snow is always a mixed blessing as it offers on one hand the dramatic shift in the landscape from the drab grey of autumn to the blinding whites of early winter, yet on the other the snow obviously signifies the inevitability of cold weather. "Figure 2" subconsciously speaks of these dual emotions conjured by the encroaching winter. Using manipulations of recycled sounds from the dark old chapel itself, Hudak and Lescalleet present a series of slow sub-bass drones punctuated by eerie creakings of the wooden architecture and whistling tones from the wind rushing through cracks in the windows.

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"Cyclo" is the inevitable collaboration between glitch maniplulators Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai, who quite obviously state that "the error itself becomes the topic for this release." This album sounds exactly as anyone familiar with both Ikeda and As with the packaging of the "20' to 2000" series on Raster with the then little seen clam shell cases, Raster has found a nifty new prefabricated case that houses the CD tightly inside until the adjoining plastic lever is pulled down, pushing the disc out of its case (like a manual toaster. There's probably a name for it... but we'll call it the Prest-O-Matic for now

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Innocuous instrumental playfulness courtesy of Simon Johns who has released material as Clearspot on Stereolab's label Duophonic (and who is currently the 'Lab's bassist). Sounds exactly as you'd think it would -- bubbly and harmless. Fans of Broadcast may like this, but it's not nearly as good.

[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 112 ]