[ 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 64.

Arrington de Dionyso of Olympia, WA's Old Time Relijiun goes all freakout, solo saxophone skronk over smooth jazz radio. Hot.

"Exhibit V" in the Absu discography of blackened occultic Texan thrash supremacy! This disc was a long time coming and well worth the wait. The trio of Sir Proscriptor McGovern (drums, vocals), Shaftiel (guitars), and Equitant Ifernain (bass) again assault

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Now on cd with extra tracks! "La Novia" is a dark and droning take on the usual Acid Mothers Temple mix of hippie freak rock and experimental psych weirdness, with lots of faux-throat singing! Apparently this is based on traditional "Occitanian" folk music,

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From local musician Wayne Smith comes this *excellent* little slip of a 25-minute album. A record this genre-hopping might in lesser hands be a chore to listen to, but with Aero-Mic'd the first few minutes are just so good that you easily put your trust in

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Two of the underground Japanese music scene's most proficient, prolific, and (sometimes) silly figures team up yet again for the duo project Akaten. That's bass-playing trickster Atsushi Tsuyama (Omoide Hatoba, Acid Mothers Temple, etc.) and drummer

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This is the second album from NYC-based female rock trio Angelblood (featuring ultrachic artist Rita Ackermann and fashion designer Jess Holzworth). Musical styles on "Masses Of The Daggers" vary from riff-laden rockers (topped off with falsetto vocals

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BACK IN STOCK! We thought these the cds in Charly's fantastic reissue series of stuff from the French free jazz label BYG/Actuel were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. This classic AEC disc features Lester

When the Ohio-based Ass Ponys' first album Mr Superlove came out 11 years ago, I was really into it; their plainspoken vocals along with the epic indie rock melodies just broke my heart in a good way. It's eleven years later now and their sound hasn't changed much, but there's more stuff out there that sounds like this, so much so that their take on the homefried sound isn't

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The four-color sci-fi fantasy evoked by bombastic British metal band Bal-Sagoth is perhaps best explained by their long-winded, esoteric song titles: "The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath The Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire (Part III)", "Star

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Second album from this popular dance/club act. We like the ape on the cover.

NYC art-punk noise terrorists return with two new tracks on San Diego's Three.One.G. Comes with a deluxe forty page booklet of collage art and photos by drummer Hisham.

As you may know, Boris are perhaps Japan's number one Melvins worshippers! But that's not to say they're unoriginal, rather the opposite, since the Melvins themselves are so unpredictable and eccentric. But in terms of heaviness, Boris measure up. If you

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Built to Spill, the Idaho-based rock outfit beloved by the AQ-staff, here release another perfect album of the guitar-driven heartbreaking melodies that're unmistakably Built-to-Spillian. I like this album more than their previous records (except for the

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Number two in the $ series of Tigerbeat6 singles, this one's got Baltimore's Cex and Los Angeles' Electric Company. Don't know how limited, but I wouldn't wait on these hotcakes...

BACK IN STOCK! We thought these Charly BYG/Actuel reissue cds were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. This disc features the duo of Don Cherry (pocket trumpet, piano, indian flute, bamboo flute, voice, bells,

Back in stock, another God Mountain release that many feared was out of print. Chipfarm was a weird East-West collaboration that combined the talents of downtown NYC musicians Zeena Parkins (electric harp) and Elliot Sharp (electric guitar) with Japanese avant-rock acts Optical*8 and Melt-Banana! They appear in various combinations throughout the disc, never all at once though. We

Israeli psychedelic rock band from the late '60s/early '70s who started off playing covers of Beatles and Led Zeppelin songs and then slowly worked original after original into their set. They became famous. The Churchill's peak was with their absolutely

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A long-lost avant-Afro-jazz LP reissued on cd. Our curiousity piqued by the description provided by the label via distributor Forced Exposure (quoted below), we ordered this in, and found it to be quite excellent, reminding us of stuff in mode of the Art "First released in 1967 on Zulu records, Cohran's own label, On The Beach has been effectively unavailable. This is a shame, because it is a work of disarming revelation, finding unity in material as diverse as the singing of Yma Sumac, the writings of 'Bucky' Fuller, and the thoughts and practices of ancient African cultures. Effortlessly melting novel instrumentation (such as the Frankiphone, an electric kalimba invented by Cohran, and the Chinese musette) into a mix using modality, alternate tunings, and rhythmic cycling, the pieces project the feel of a processional -- a spiritual viscous sound field of undeniable substance. Drawing from Sun Ra, a former employer, Cohran's musical ideas and structures foreshadow Earth, Wind & Fire, the AACM, electric Miles, and, arguably any group that has attempted to find a larger sonic palette to explore cultural self-awareness. This is a landmark attempt to actualize cultural identity and heritage through music, a seed of what later germinated into the black arts period of 20th Century American history. Amiri Baraka cites Cohran in one of his works, as did the late Gwendolyn Brooks. Musically advanced, yet accessible, On The Beach is required listening for anyone interested in the history of postmodern music and its relation to who we are."

First off, DIRTY LUST? Wow, what an amazing name! They must be a metal band -- and indeed they are, but a weird one. We discovered this very heavy, very cool, very strange Spanish band on the internet (thanks to the www.customheavy.com site -- hi Chris!) and

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Bay Area supergroup comprised of Mike Patton (Mr Bungle, Faith No More), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), and Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, various avant jazz outfits). On this, their second album, they pay tribute to the film scores they've long While the band manages to leave some of the flavor of each original piece intact, their objective seems to have been to sort of Bungle-ize each track (you know, lots of Patton screaming, overwhelming drama and sinister atmospheres), although a nod should definitely go to Lombardo, who uses lots of flavorful percussison -- woodblocks, chimes, bells, clicks, clocks and clacks -- that enhances the "period" tone of several of the pieces. It's a fine record (heck, it's the only worthy Morricone cover I've ever heard), just be aware that in order to get *into* this record, it's more important that you're into the signature Patton/Bungle manic sound than being familiar with the films or the soundtracks themselves.

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Possibly also subtitled "We'll Put It Out If The Boss Insists", which makes sense since the Fifth Column was the pre-Hijokaidan band of Alchemy chief Jojo Hiroshige (he wasn't the main member, just a participant). The Fifth Column (or Dai-Go-Retsu in

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Perhaps also titled: "The Oscillating 'Will' And The Flickering 'Self'", this is the first live album from the duo of Japanese turntable experimentalist Otomo Yoshihide and sampler technician Sachiko M. Filament was formed, we're told, "as a persistent "People listening to this CD for the first time may have trouble accepting the fact that this was a live performance before a large audience, so powerfully stoic is Filament's music. To the constant sound of subtly strengthening and weakening sine waves are added the intermittent miniscule sound of circuitry, and a dull mechanical hum (too soft for us to recognize its origin). From beginning to end hardly anything happens here, but at the same time an amazing number of events occur. If one were to give a name to this 'onkyo' of just under 30 minutes, the words composition, improvisation, and performance would probably all be too extreme. But all of these are included in this quiet phenomenon. When producing sound, even if one reduces as much as possible what is called 'self-consciousness', one can never completely eliminate it. This is because the 'I' that produces, decides to produce, and thinks about producing sound the 'I' that listens to, decides to listen to, and thinks about listening to sounds are always there. The minimal 'I' performing minimal 'listening' and 'sound production,' possessing a minimal 'will'...." Ok, lost me there. Still, I think you'll know if you want this!

A Finnish black metal band, all of whose music is about trolls. Hence the name! This is their sophomore release, their first disc was a concept album apparently about the war between the trolls and the Christians (!) and it was a big favorite of both of AQ's

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Double cd anthology of rocksteady and reggae tracks from producer Joe Gibbs. Gibbs started his career with a bang, recording Lyn Taitt & the Jets "Hold Them" in 1967 -- a song that would later be hailed as the first rocksteady release. Gibbs had the good

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The Unheard Music series brings us another '70s free improv rarity. Dutch pianist Kees Hazevoet might not be a well-known name, but he was an early, integral player on the Amersterdam jazz scene back in the day, and on this 1976 album he is joined by what

As huge Philip Jeck fans, we were super excited to see the release of this follow-up to his wonderful "Vinyl Codas I-III" double cd. And it doesn't disappoint. Jeck, with his multiple turntables and scratchy old records, is the ultimate master of blissfully

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Nobody here except for Andee (who was already a fan!) had ever heard of this band before Circle mainman Jussi Lehtisalo told us he was reissuing their 1986 debut LP on his label Ektro. He also said, "Jesters will blow up the whole world!!!" Those familiar with Duff: "Diggin' back through my life circa 15 years ago has been an emotionally unnerving experience. The music, the jams, the changing line-ups, the convoluted recording contracts, the hallucinations, the revelations, the girls, the divorce, poverty, doom, despair, joy, the extremely loud amplifiers�But that's my business. I will tell you it all began when my friend Ray Violet invited my roommate (drummer and multi-instrumentalist Doktor Stixx) and me (the bass player) to be the rhythm section on a songwriting demo he was organizing along with his buddy Bill Irwin. Ray offered to 'pay' us by allowing us each one song of our choosing produced to our individual satisfaction. I picked a metallic, psychedelic, existentialist war yelp I'd bashed out called 'End of Time.' During the sessions, which culminated on Halloween, 1984 (talk about Doom!), Ray played me the unforgettable riff to a song about a mosh pit dance in which the participants beheaded each other with shovels -- 'Diggin' That Grave.' Together, we finished the tune, and when all of the songs were completed, it was clear that 'Grave' and 'Time' stood alone and apart from the rest. We decided to form a band." Duff goes on to recount the whole sordid saga of the band and its successes and failures, ins and outs (of the band members -- who included past present and future members of such acts as 45 Grave, The Mentors, and Poison!). Highlights for them included signing to Metal Blade imprint Dimension, after "End of Time" appeared on "Metal Massacre V", and playing shows with the likes of Janes Addiction, Flaming Lips, and the Dickies. Lowlights include, well, uh, signing to Metal Blade imprint Dimension, plus all the stuff you'd expect to befall an '80s LA metal band that didn't "make it". What's really funny (and not discussed) is how their saga ends with this reissue 15 years later on a strange Finnish art-rock label! From Metal Blade to Ektro! This disc contains their entire "Fun at the Funeral" debut (seeing release on cd for the first time), plus eight bonus tracks consisting of punkier material recorded for their never-released third album (including "Diggin' That Grave '87", a more Talking Heads-ish take on their impossibly catchy signature tune), a home demo, and a live version of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" (can't get away from graves and funerals with these guys!). Their studio cover of that song appeared on their second, all-covers album "In A Nostalgic Mood", the material from which both Duff and Jussi decided was unfit for reissue -- too bad, we want to hear it! Anyway, their live "EF", Duff says, "shows the kind of heavy metal Ornette Coleman spazz attack the band was capable of live." Dunno about that, but it's a fine way to end the disc nonetheless, summing up the fucked up "gleeful gloom" rock that Jesters of Destiny created. To wind up, thanks Jussi for reissuing this masterpiece of heavy psychedelic pop metal weirdness! Now it's not just Andee here who's a fan. For my part (Allan speaking) I could listen to "Diggin' That Grave" on auto repeat a hundred times and not get tired of it, it's that great a song. To get that and the rest of the album too, plus all the bonus tracks -- well it's a happy day here at Aquarius!

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Very late one night in the summer of 2000, Kentuckian sound artist Keenan Lawler, metallurgist Eric Clark, and three members of the psychedelic-drone ensemble Pelt (Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose) ventured into a stone silo at a Franciscan monastery just north of Louisville. Bringing within them an arsenal of cymbals, gongs, bells, Tibetan singing bowls, bronze

"Flowing with infectious rhythm, hypnotic percussion, mesmerizing repetition and spine-tingling vocal improvisation, Qawwali music has thrilled listeners since the 10th Century. One family -- the Khans of Pakistan --has dominated this vibrant musical form with an unbroken line of truly great male vocalists. As Qawwali music rides an unprecedented wave of worldwide popularity, the star

The first in a series of proposed split 7" singles on the über-hip Tigerbeat6 label. Oakland based Kid 606 on the A, Japanese artist Com.a takes the B. High price to pay for a 7", but you're gonna have to pay a shitload more on eBay when these babies are gone...

Album number two from this hot Japanese trio! After an amazing overdriven garage monster debut on Bulb and years of touring for these Osaka mod rockers, "In the Red" is a long awaited and highly anticipated follow up. Released on Toshiba EMI in their

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We've been waiting for this for a while (since 1996!) -- at long last, the third album from Japan's Koenjihyakkei (in English, Hundred Sights of Koenji), the massively Magma-minded side project of the almost-as-Magmoid bass and drums duo Ruins. Ruins leader

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Three new compositions from composer Alvin Lucier. Each piece, composed for a solo stringed instrument accompanied by an oscillator, focuses on the beating phenomenon that occurs when two pitches vary only slightly in frequency. In two of the compositions the pitch of the oscillator varies and the performer -- piano for both pieces -- plays notes which cause the beating

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Eccentric Italian composer Walter Marchetti (whose albums "Nei Mari Del Sud" and "Antibarbarus" are two excellent and highly evocative pieces of electro-acoustic composition) here accompanies his "De Musicorum Infelicitate" with a fragmented manifesto

Ok, so American death metallers Nile might have the market for Egyptian-themed metal all to themselves. And they're damn good at it. But what about the rest of the Middle East? Well, the guys in Melechesh play "Mesopotamian Metal"! And, they actually hail

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We listed this amazing black metal disc way back in July '99 (AQ-list #77) but somehow it never made it on to our website database! Also, it's been out of print for about a year now -- but just this week we got newly-repressed copies from the label. "Yes, that's plural Apocalpyses, how evil is that?! And only one key to those gates...anyway, this disc is perhaps Allan and Andee's favorite new black metal find. A one-man side project of Russian (!) Emperor-clones Nokturnal Mortum. While that band was merely ok, this project absolutely rules. One track only, an over-seventy minute long 'song' that begins with dark ambient rumblings, encounters growling wolves, delves into Burzum-like fuzz-trance, all that before erupting into truly epic black metal riffing...an hour later you'll be hiding under your bed trembling with fear (or perhaps slaking your thirst with blood and howling at the moon) but the song still isn't over! A very impressive piece of work. Triumphant evil!" Since I wrote that, pagan folk metallers Nokturnal Mortum (who are actually Ukrainian, really, not Russian -- a distinction important to them, I'm sure!) have released some newer albums that we really liked, notably their latest, "NeChrist", which many of you bought and presumably enjoyed. Anyone that applies to MUST get this disc too if you don't already have it. Likewise for fans of other avantgarde black metal like Caacrinolas or the aforementioned Burzum and Potentiam... Let me (Allan) quote myself again, this time from the pages of, uh, Cool Beans magazine: "...this disc is amazing! Not just for the novelty of a seventy-minute 'song' that incorporates both ambient forest-rumble (I swear, you'll smell the breath of the wolf) and straight-up black metal riffarama, but for the sheer quality of the music alone! ... Perfect for staring out of a train window into a darkened, rainy and unknown landscape of a foreign land." Obviously, recommended!

Solo project of Mick Barr, formerly of DC superheroes CROM TECH! Octis is the polar opposite of Mick's other current band, Orthrelm, which wields lengthy pummeling epics. Octis is seventy two tracks of lightning fast lo-fi speed metal guitar solos

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Three early electronic compositions by Pauline Oliveros from 1966 and 1967. "No Mo" and "Something Else" were created at the University of Toronto's Classical Electronic Music Studio using "Layfette tone generators, noise source and tape delay." "No Mo"

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We just did an order directly with Japanese avant-garde rock/jazz label God Mountain (sorry, those first two Hundred Sights of Koenji cds are still out of print, for now) and picked up some old favorites, this being one of 'em. Optical*8 is (was?) the

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Nice vinyl only reissue of Lee Perry's 1973 Blackboard Jungle Dub. 12 cuts of stripped down dub, with some fine screams and other "non-musical" noises thrown in to boot. Quite similar to "Kung Fu Meets The Dragon." Recorded at the Black Ark by Scratch and mixed by King Tubby at King Tubby's. Features Aston & Carlton Barrett, Winston Wright, Gladstone Anderson, Skully and more.

I slipped this cd into the player thinking it would be more quality turntablist scratching and stylin' from Disk, founding member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, but... my bad. I should've remembered that Disk is so creative he's got his skilled fingers in a

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Prince Far I's first album (1976) finally available again on lp (we also restocked the cd if vinyl is no good for you.) It's basically, as the title implies, the Voice Of Thunder himself toasting the Psalms (using some poetic license of course) in his unique, gruff fashion. Definitely a crucial work.

Psychophysicist is a one off collaboration recorded back in 1994 between Andrew McKenzie (better known as the Hafler Trio) and Adi Newton (Clock DVA, The Anti Group Conspiracy). The two claim to be working under a Gurdjieffian approach to science and sound as a method towards metaphysical knowledge and gnostic understanding of the universe. That said, McKenzie has been known to exaggerate Sonically speaking, both McKenzie and Newton are no slouches, although some of Clock DVA recordings are painfully dated within Industrial culture. The Psychophysicist collaboration brings together their mutual interests in psychoacoustics - the ability of sound to affect the mind and body in profound ways. Within the record, complex hypnotic sweeps of radio static are processed to resemble the tonal patterns of interlocking sinewaves, sounding much more like Hafler Trio than The Anti Group and much more than Clock DVA. Furthermore, close observers of the Hafler Trio's work will recognize elements from "Masturbatorium" and "Mastery of Money," as the recycling of sound elements within different contexts had become an increasingly important agenda for McKenzie throughout the mid-90s. As the Hafler Trio albums - once overflowing experimental bins across the globe - are now becoming scarce, this would make an excellent introduction into McKenzie's work.

Wow. Pretty advanced reissue job on this Scientist -- the engineer for King Tubby who later went on to out Tubby Tubby -- lp from 1982 . If you look at the back cover of this you'll see in the lower left hand corner that now ubiquitous "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo. But wait, this is an lp. Yep, "Greensleeves" (if they really are the ones behind reissuing their own catalog on

Three newly arranged/performed pieces by sampling/turntable artist David Shea. Each focuses on the relationship between orchestrated live performance and the sampler as an instrument in its own right. "Sita's Walk of Fire" is based on the Ramayana cycle; "Satyricon 2000" is based on the Latin novel of the same name (a great read, by the way!; and "One Ride Pony" was composed

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BACK IN STOCK! We thought these Charly reissue cds were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. So, here's another in that BYG/Actuel reissue series, documenting American avant-garde jazz giants in exile (in

This newest act on Tigerbeat6 isn't quite what I expected from the supercool, yet quirky and generally fucked tastes of Kid 606 and friends. Add the fact that just about any band from Providence is most likely to be an art-damaged in your face blast of aural terrorism. So imagine my surprise when I slapped this puppy on: the duo of Stars as Eyes create thick, lush, beautiful landscapes

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BACK IN STOCK! We thought these Charly BYG/Actuel reissue cds were gone forever, but lo! here they are again. Dunno what's up, but get 'em while you can. So here's another legendary item in the welcome BYG/Actuel reissue program, the one and only Sun Ra and his

More grim-faced black metal from a crew of modern-day Vikings. We'd never heard of them before, but I don't think this disc is their debut. They rock harder than most, and boast a great cold sound (very 'Frosty', one could say...). Energetic AND majestic, good stuff for fans of the genre!

The Tindersticks never cease to amaze me. Their unique and heartwrenching sound evolves with each release. "Can Our Love..." is their 5th full length album and the most soulful record to date, taking inspiration from such artists as Curtis Mayfield, Bobby

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[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 117 ]