[ 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 51 through 100 of 109.

Dark, distorted solo guitar and voice from Tokyo psychedelic-scene veteran Kaneko Jutok (of Kousokuya), with bass and drums help on two tracks. It's blackness, sheer blackness. One for fans of Keiji Haino, no doubt (and his vocals are much easier to take than

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A lovely split release between Low and Karla Schickele of Ida (and formerly of Babe the Blue Ox and Beekeeper). As expected, this is a slow, quiet dreamy gathering of like-minded souls. Tara Jane O'Neil adds drums and organ on the k. tracks. Mr. Warn Defever recorded the Low tracks and remixed one by k.

Don't know too much about this Icelandic (not Canadian) group, but this record really knocked us out. Starts off sounding like a souped up, surfed up version of Finnish Casio-popsters Aavikko, but over the course of the next few tracks it turns into something

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This is record number two for this noisy metalcore combo from Cleveland Ohio. Much heavier and more chaotic (and more complex) than their first; churning riffs, howling vocals with the occasional midtempo moody bit, but those bits don't last for long, before they're crushed flat by a huge wall of downtuned fury. Somewhere between Neurosis and Coalesce. Nice.

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This is easily my favorite metal record this year (sez Andee) along with the Crest of Darkness, and the Thorns record. Like the Thorns record, Khold has a very clinical, wintery feel, but the sound has much more in common with Burzum. Fierce and buzzing,

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Two noted German electronic composers Thomas Koner (of Porter Ricks) and Asmus Teitchens gave this collaborative project a hybridized name of two compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen -- "Kontakt" and "Gesang Der Junglinge." Their first documentation is a bit unusual for both artists, as it is a live recording taken from a performance in Bremen, Germany in late 1999. While both Fortunately, Die Stadt didn't issue "1" as a video, effectively removing the physical presence (or lack thereof) of Koner and Tietchens from the listening experience, and simply leaving the amazing sounds behind. The 45 minute Kontakt Der Junglinge begins as a slow 'n' steady series of deep rumbles which are gradually accompanied by very distant Arvo Part-like choral elements. Later still, oceanic swells of processed static and granular synthesis fluidly encroach into the mix and take over the low end rumblings. As Tietchens' DAT whirrs ahead, fragments appear from his "A-Menge" album of asynchronous computerized clicks. Koner treats these sounds with a considerable amount of isolationist reverb, eroding some of the sharp edges of Tietchens' clinical sounds. Altogether, this is an exceptional record easily on par with anything that either artist has produced to date. Well worth checking out!

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Local treasures The Lies know that on the one hand there's abject depression that's fun for no one including your audience, yet on the other hand there's the kind of romantic depression whose embodiment in musical form can be quite beautiful and delicate to

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Yep, it's as good as you had hoped it might be. This is the Dirty Three collaborating with Low for the newest in the KonKurrent label's In the Fishtank series of releases, where artists are given two days in a Dutch studio to do whatever they like. And the

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RSI is another UK label trafficking in difficult and totally original electronic music (like countrymates Fflint Central). It's a shame that they only make cd-rs. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be able to sell 1000 cds, but it hardly makes a difference, because this stuff is so good. This is easily the most difficult of the bunch. An honest to goodness noise record. Well, sort of. It begins with chopped up opera singers (not literally), stuttering blue note drum loops and skittering high hats that, by track two, has turned into a noisy sort-of-rhythm, with squealing high end electonic reeds, and skull scraping, ultra distorted bursts of Merzbow-ish NOISE that coalese into some sort of sadistic barely discernable breakbeat! Even the 'quiet' track is built from eye watering sine waves and subsonic, speaker shredding low end. Totally brutal, and totally fucking great.

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The "Psychedelic Solid Free Attack Group" from Tokyo return on the legendary Psychedelic Speed Freaks label with five scorching new tracks. Mainliner this time around are bassist/vocalist Nanjo (High Rise, Toho Sara, etc. etc.), guitarist Kawabata (Acid

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The latest (third) and greatest album from this impressive Swedish stoner rock band, one that does more than most to avoid the nu-grunge "Kyuss-clone" tag, and really comes into their own on this disc. Sure, thanks to their big sound and pop sensibility,

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You ever have that problem where you're in an internet sex chat room, and you make a date with some pervy girl for a phone sex session, and then when you call her up it's actually some jerk with a sampler loaded with a sexy female voice telling you things A few of the callers figure it out, and then it gets even more pathetic as they continue to masturbate, being such geeks that they're turned on by the technical details of the joke (one guy asks, excitedly, about if the sampler is triggered by keyboard or mouse). But most of the guys are so clueless and horny that they're completely unfazed by Kathy's bizarre comments ("I think you might be racist", "I want to have your retarded babies", "I've got a pickle in my ass") and limited vocabulary (she says "Yesssss!" the same way every time), or her deafeningly noisy, Merzbow-level obviously-looped screams of orgasmic ecstasy. We could go on, but we don't want to reveal too much. Just get this, it's the best crank call disc we've heard in a long time. You'll be playing it for everyone you know, except maybe your mom. Absurdly funny.

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New cd from local orchestra/comedy troupe accompianists. The music here is actually quite good, heavy on the Klezmer, playful and energetic.

Here's an apparently much sought-after rarity now reissued (thanks again to the fine folks at Sundazed), that we have to confess we'd never heard of until now. But that's one of the great things about reissues, isn't it? And as reissues go, this one's a 62 tracks total, that's almost 3 hours of material, all direct from the original analog tapes in Columbia's vaults. This massive reissue package, which includes extensive liner notes and many photos as well as those three compact discs of geniune genius '60s "Soft Pop" music, was assembled with the active cooperation of the original musicians.

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Billed as the world's first all-synthesizer band, the trio of Dave Borden, Judy Borsher and Steve Drews were obscure '70s "electronica" pioneers. This cd reissues their second (and last) album, originally released in 1976. Influenced by repetitive

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Seminal krautrockers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger have at long last (after an uncomfortable decade-plus of legal wrangling) patched up whatever their differences were in order to allow their three classic '70s albums to be offical released on cd for the For those of you not already Neu!-savvy, these are the guys responsible (along with Kraftwerk, with whom guitarist Rother and drummer Dinger once played -- that's how they met, before splitting to form Neu!) for the "motorik" beat, the propulsive, autobahn-friendly, proto-punk electronics hybrid that has influenced countless bands. From big fans Bowie and Eno back in the seventies to the hundreds of postrock/electronica acts that namecheck them now, Neu! are gods. Negativland not only got their name from a Neu! song off the first album, but even the name of their label, Seeland, comes from a track off of 75. Indeed, some bands have built their entire careers on, uh, paying homage to Neu! (Michael Rother, quoted in the most recent issue of MOJO: "I went to a Stereolab concert once. Suddenly I had the impression I was listening to myself -- very strange!") Astralwerks has done a nice job with these reissues. No, there's no bonus tracks or extensive liner notes or anything "extra", but all the original artwork is included (not that we have an original Neu! lp handy to compare with, but anyway they look nice). We could have done without the stickers on the front with blurbs from famous fans, but that's discarded once you unwrap the cd so no big deal. We'd guess that Neu!'s first album will sell the most copies, as it's graced with the endorsement of Thom Yorke, whereas we hope that Neu! 75 won't suffer from the moronic blurb from John Frusciante. In keeping with the generally fucked up saga of these records/reissues, we're already having trouble getting enough of these in stock (our suppliers getting one title, but not the others; very small quanities, that sort of bs), so act fast. Sorry for the high price, it *might* come down as the supply situation changes, but for right now it reflects what we have to pay for these. Argh. And the vinyl versions (YES! they're doing LP reissues) have been inexplicably delayed until the end of July! Double argh. Neu! 1 (1971) is a stunning work of art, drifting back and forth between the stripped down minimal kraut-pop that they're most commonly associated with, to long, spacey and psychedelic forays with lapses into musique concrete like moments with lapping water, children and jackhammers. Their sound could be most closely compared to early Kraftwerk or Cluster. In fact, the track "Im Gluck" sounds an awful lot like both Kraftwerk's "Radioland" and, believe it or don't, the beginning preamble to Rush's "Xanadu." Whether these two had Neu! in mind when they worked these songs out remains to be proven, but it's nice to think of such dissimilar groups drawing from the same well.

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Neu! 2 could possibly be considered the world's first "remix" album, as a good portion of it features "varispeed" versions of previously released Neu! material. They ran out of studio time/money, so the story goes, and after recording two songs for a

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The critical status quo qualifies Neu! 75 as the best of three albums, simply because it is the most musically adept and holds the most studio polish. While we here at Aquarius are not going to deny that Neu! 75 isn't a great and possibly required album, we The two previous albums were infused with a bold spirit of experimentations that led to the mutable pace of the motorik grooves on "Negativland" (from Neu! 1), and the idiosyncratic "remixes" from Neu! 2. While Klaus Dinger's percussion remains unchanged from the first two releases, Michael Rother moves away from the risk-taking agendas from the first two albums, to a more commonplace rock schtick. Rother's guitars hold a greater range of dynamics with beautifully soaring Pink Floyd-esque harmonics to gritty aggro / glam rock power chords, but his insistance on singing much more isn't a great idea. As previously mentioned, Neu! was a profound influence for David Bowie; thus, it is not a coincidence that Neu!'s "Hero" (from Neu! 75) predates Bowie's "Heroes" by a good two years.

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"Funeral Music For Perez Prado" collects the two out of print Nurse With Wound EPs "Yagga Blues" (originally released in 1995 in conjunction with the "Who Can I Turn To Stereo?" album) and "Soresucker" (from 1990). While the two versions of "Yagga Blues" The "Soresucker" ep is notable for "I Am The Poison" -- the slight remix of "Alas The Madonna Does Not Function," with Sol Invictus' Tony Wakeford gumbling something misanthropic and creating a simple groove on his bass.

More candy-coated lo-fi Beatles-esque pop chews from Kevin Barnes and friends (some of which are fellow Elephant 6ers Julian Koster, Scott Spillane, and Eric Harris). A super earnest and tweeee theme album of sorts with some unexpected, interesting and

The Okros Ensemble is a group (violins, double bass and viola) dedicated to the preservation of Transylvanian folk music. "I Left My Sweet Homeland" features three important guest musicians in the world of Transylvanian folk music. Most important is violinist

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Jazzy, groovy Italian soundtrack reissue (for a 1969 Lucio Fulci flick, the US title of which was One On Top Of The Other, or alternatively, Perversion Story!) that should bring out the inner Austin Powers in you...

In 1989 Canadian audio artist John Oswald released his tour de force of sound appropriation "Plunderphonic", a cd that was never intended for sale, and found himself face to face with The Canadian Recording Industry Association and their lawyers. Whether they Despite its extremely limited release "Plunderphonic" (reasonably) became something of a holy grail of tape manipulation and champions of its artistic validity have been making it available by making cassette copies for a small fee and even more recently the cd has been uploaded -- sans artwork -- for anyone with a fast connection to download (I, myself spent three days downloading it on a 28.8 dial up three years ago... nerd.) Now, over eleven years after its creation, for the first time ever "Plunderphonic" is now available, in somewhat steady supply and hopefully without legal interruptions... for sale. Initially Oswald had intended to see this edition released "legitimately" (in the eyes of publishing companies and major record labels) by clearing all the samples, but quickly ran into problems with music industry bean counters who have little patience for fair use (especially now, I suppose, that the disc is being offered up for sale.) As a way of bypassing the authorization process Seeland Records has thankfully stepped in and "stolen" the disc for, err... *from* Oswald and produced it themselves. And yet, saying that this is merely a reissue of "Plunderphonic" would be an extreme misnomer. Although all of the original tracks from Plunderphonic are here on this collection, many have been reworked -- some slightly, and some greatly -- and sequenced differently than on the original album. So those of you that have cdr's of the original might not want to start using them as coasters just yet. Also included on this anthology is Oswald's 1991 commissioned work for Elektra Records' anniversary (and previously only released as a promotional item), the five song ep "Elektrax" (Elektra chose to rename it "Rubaiyat") in which Oswald was given free reign to plunder anything in Elektra's vaults. On top of all that are several tracks from Oswald's 1991 release "Discosphere" (released by ReR / Cuneiform and consisting of tracks commissioned for dance), several miscellaneous cuts and tracks made for compilations dating as far back as 1975 and excerpts from Oswald's 1993 piece de resistance "Plexure" (Avant, Japan), a 20 minute opus featuring over 1,000 sampled artists. Also included is a 46 page interview with John Oswald which alone is worth the cost of admission here. Along with going through all the tracks in the set and explaining the methodology behind each, Oswald details the events that led up to the cease and desist of the original cd. The two discs are packaged in a deluxe, hard bound long box and though the exterior artwork is much different than the original -- all of the original artwork is reproduced inside, along with additional plundervisuals by Oswald. As a final note, many of you are probably wondering what the legal status & future longevity is of this edition. Well here's the scoop: this pressing has already been exhausted, we have 30 copies left as of this writing. However, we have been assured that this is NOT going to disappear or be a limited edition item. There are already 10,000 books made waiting for more cds to fill them, but that will probably be a month or two before that happens. So if you want your Plunderphonics now you should place an order ASAP, otherwise you will need to wait for the next batch of discs to be pressed.

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Arrrgh. My cd player is STILL skipping. 5 years later!

Over a decade ago, Black Dog Productions found company with Autechre, Aphex Twin, and F.U.S.E. (the first project from Richie Hawtin) in Warp Record's "Artificial Intelligence" series. While Hawtin's work could be seen as one of the blueprints for the

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New record from these ex-Rorshach, ex-Kiss It Goodbye folks, so you can imagine what it sounds like. Roaring, complex, pummeling east cost style metal core. No huge progression, but if Coalesce, Kiss It Goodbye, and that sort of stuff is your bag, this'll hit the spot.

Mac MacCaughan of Superchunk and Merge Records composed a bright little soundtrack for what is probably a bright little indie film. Portastatic has always been his bedroom side project and while at times that has resulted in wonderfully inventive stuff played out on synths and samplers, this time any originality has been subsumed under the need for innocuous background music that

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Vinyl only re-issue of a rare live recording of Prince Buster from a concert in the UK in 1967. The recording, though not the most hi-fi in audio quality, is quite good and the performance is stunning. According to the MC at the beginning of the show, it was on Prince Buster's birthday that the concert was held and Buster performs with the energy of a birthday boy. Backed up by a full band

SF's own DJ Quest has been winning solo scratching competitions worldwide since the early '90s, while also making music with first the Bulletproof Scratch Hamsters (later to become the Space Travellers) and then with the groundbreaking jazz/scratch outfit Live

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Re is a duo featuring one of the founders of Constellation Records, who -- it must be stated -- is not a member of their flagship ensemble Godspeed You Black Emperor. Rather, this is the most electronically based outfit to emerge from the Canadian collective. The very slow looping sounds and the occasional clatter of distant mechanized beats has drawn Re to compare themselves to Aphex

A man of numerous indie music hats over the past 16+ years, Mark Robinson has ventured into many a musical style under various guises (Unrest, Flin Flon, True Love Always, Air Miami). On this - only his second release using his own name - he drifts into the mellow, low-key clubhouse whose clever songster membership may be said to include the highly relaxed and relaxing Sea and Cake,

Local quartet Rumah Sakit's possibly last release (they broke up) is an EP from Temporary Residence's first Travels in Constants series. Since Rumah is local, they've graced us with a few copies of this disc, of which copies were sent only to the series

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Newest volume in legendary label Cold Chillin's "best-of" series. This focuses on MC Shan of the Juice Crew who put the Queensbridge Projects on the map with his incredibly deft vocal stylings backed up the spare booming production of Marley Marl. So old school, so dependably great. Recommended.

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Fucking gorgeous new album from pianist Shipp, who almost never disappoints. Moody, classical-inspired jazz that also makes use of the talents of Mat Maneri (violin) and uber-bassist William Parker. From lyrical and melancholy to nervous and energetic, this

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Back in stock at long last, now as a domestic major label cd (which means, of course, that it costs more than the indie-label import did). But, at least it's here, so everyone who's been sent into a salivating tizzy by the relentless next-big-thing hype can finally get their copy. No, we're not fans of these guys' Godspeed-for-Yuppies output. The Sigur Ros backlash began here at

Part of that whole advanced hiphop Anticon label collective, Halifax rapper Sixtoo (MC/producer for Sebutones and 1200 Hobos as well) presents his second (I think) solo disc, all written, recorded, produced and mixed by him. The lyrics are clever, the music

Fifth (almost) full-length release by ex-local drone rocker Steven R. Smith (of Thuja and Mirza.) Steven recently invested in an 8-track recording deck and "Tableland" could well be considered a christening of the new machine. It's probably important to note

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Here's the eagerly-awaited second full-length slab of doom-groove from legendary guitarist and vocalist Wino (aka Scott Weinrich) and his band of stoner rock saviors/survivors Spirit Caravan. Like their 1999 debut "Jug Fulla Sun", this builds on the sound of Wino's previous downer-metal outfit The Obsessed (and his experience singing for psychedelic-punk doom-lords Saint Vitus back in

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Reissue of this long out-of-print LP, originally released on Land Mammal in 1979. Formed in the early '70's in upstate New York, Starship Beer obviously share a love for Captain Beefheart and free jazz, the group is augmented by the talents of Pat O'Brian and

Styrofoam is the electronica alter-ego of Arne van Petegem, who has also made a few Krankyish space-rock records under the moniker Tin Foil Star. "The Point Misser" is another offering from Morr Records and fits perfectly within Morr's particular niche of delicate electronica favoring the more melodic aesthetics of Boards of Canada and early Autechre. Bittersweet, pleasant, and

Everyone is all excited about the discovery of lost sixties documents of drone, and rightfully so, with new archival releases from Tony Conrad and John Cale. But historical significance aside, the sound is not all that satisfying for the modern drone connoisseur: whiny, reedy wavering squeals. Hopefully musical archivists in 2030 will discover lost recordings of Sunroof! and Probably the only modern master of the organic drone (you know, played by an actual person, or a band, no laptops, no 'processing'), utilising mostly guitars, but also occasionaly reeds and other more exotic instruments, Bower has been droning since we were tots, in Skullflower, Total, and now Sunroof! Sunroof! being by far the most accessible. Bower is some how able to harness high end skree, that would normally be harsh and grating, into shimmering washes of crystalline drones. This latest lp is by far the most fully realised and breathtakingly beautiful piece of drone-music that we've heard. One side is an epic 20 minute wash of oscillating harmonics, guitars ringing and feeding back, gently tinkling chimes. Ghostly and totally captivating. Intensely powerful but somehow totally soothing and serene. The other side is a darker, more monochromatic wash of guitar hum and ground buzz, fluctuating and shifting, creating a subtle soundscape of blurred and static-y midrange. Absolutely incredible.

Have to say I was quite entertained by the fact that this chunk of raging emo-core shares its title with an album by the splendid pretty pop combo Aislers Set. Needless to say, this is something very different. This is only the second full length from these DC boys who've been around since 1995. Crankin' up their fire power to ten, they don't let up for the full length of this album which

Reissue of the first single from the highly acclaimed San Diego pretty post-rock "supergroup". Three songs: "Foreshadow", "Smoke Through Glass" and "Cinematography (Original Version)".

In the liner notes for this compilation, Saburo Teshigawara states that "the nothingness of immobility is an extraordinary energy with minus quality that functions dynamically." Teshigawara is the director of the Japanese dance ensemble Karas, which has been seeking out the beauty of the human essence within a manufactured environment. As the score to the ensembles' worldwide tour of As a whole, this compilation develops a simple yet effective narrative-like construction with a gentle revelation of sound that reaches a specific denoument and fades ultimately into silence. Biosphere and Zoviet France open up the album with some beautifully radiant drone work. Monolake and Hallucinator then kick things into gear with the archetypal Chain Reaction heroin house sound. Hazard and Gescom (who are surprisingly quiet!) round out the compilation with minimalist pieces more suited to the Trente Oiseaux label. Very nice work.

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From the masters of dredging up obscure euro-pop and jazz, Crippled Dick Hot Wax takes you on a time warp behind the iron curtain to listen to late 60's & mid 70's jazz grooves -- mostly tracks from Poland and Czechoslovakia are represented here, though there

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Subtitled "Neo-Classical Metal Guitar". No doubt you've been hankering for a collection of Yngwie-style '80s metal guitar shred instrumentals, and the fact that there's almost no chance you've ever heard of anyone on this comp (they're ALL from the Czech Republic, something never adequately explained anywhere in the liner notes, although we'd have to guess this was originally

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Groundbreaking ten-year old underground hip hop label releases a new 2-disc compilation for the nice price of one. Bomb Hip Hop was responsible for the Return of the DJ compilations which brought the label into worldwide spotlight, and they've been going strong ever since. The tracks on this comp are not throwaways, each one is a strong showpiece. The second disc is a cool contrast

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In 1998, Ochre began a series of 7" compilations titled "Infrasonic Waves", which was centered on post / space rock and electronica. Among the many artists contributing were Magnetophone, Our Glassie Azoth, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Avrocar, and The Freed Unit. The first disc of this 2cd set compiles all of the series. Disc two is a collection of new and unreleased recordings

It's a good thing none of the artists involved with this project are local to the Bay Area, cos I'd have to go buy a gun and shoot them for crimes against music. And not just any music, this is soundtrack music by the acknowledged genius Ennio Morricone, the one and only. Yes, Morricone sanctioned this project, but that doesn't mean it's going to turn out good -- it just means whoever We made a couple sound clips just for those of you with morbid curiousity.

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Stefan Betke (aka Pole) looks at his urban surroundings in Berlin with the same saddened gaze with which Carl Craig beholds his Detroit. Both of these electronica musicians bear witness to the dystopian elements of their hometowns, by creating different, but equally expressive musics which act as depressingly sympathetic soundtracks to the urban plight of their respective cities while While Carl Craig's techno fits perfectly in with the mythologies of the Motor City, Betke's work is better suited to the headphones of a walkman and the slower speed of the pedestrian. Betke himself describes his Scape label as presenting various neo-dub soundtracks for an urban state of mind. "Staedtizism 2" is certainly a perfect mix tape for Betke to enjoy on his way throughout Berlin. Yet only about half of this compilation falls close to Pole's personal brand of digital dub with contributions from System, Jan Jelenik, Nolte, and Bus. The non-digital dub contingent of this compilation revolves mostly around the way-out California electronica sounds of the Phthalo and Plug Research labels, with tracks from Low Res, Headset, John Tejada (whose contribution is a really nice downtempo house number woven together with post-rock guitar lines, sounding a lot like AQ-faves Fridge!), and Kit Clayton (offering a distinctly difficult track of Reichian piano arppegiations). In contrast to the majority of electronica collections, "Staeditizm 2" has a nice personal touch that keeps this from seeming like it's merely a compilation of the flavors of the month.

[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 114 ]