"Variations For a Door and a Sigh" may in fact be Pierre Henry's most well known piece, simply because it has become the unwitting self-parody / archetype of musique concrete as a solipsistic study by academic farts recording creaking doors and passing the
"La Reina Verte" is a 30 minute electronic / orchestral work also from 1963; it's an incomplete edit of the original 46 minute composition, but significantly longer than its previous inclusion on "Messe Pour Le Temps." His intent in combining the artificial sonorities of musique concrete with the timbres of orchestral instruments, was "not only in search of unwonted conceits, [but also] a lyrical or even a poetic counterpoint to the different forms of this spectacle."
Before there was irony-metal (C-Average, Godheadsilo, etc...), well not really before, but definitely pre-short-pants-white-belt-devil-sign-in-the-air-in-mock-love-of-satan-and-heavy-metal, there was Karp. Three fucked-up,
The entirely too prolific Kawabata Makoto (who fronts Acid Mothers Temple) joins AQ fave Richard Youngs for a surprisingly tranquil, and beautifuly melancholic record of swirling haze and delicate melodies, employing acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ,
Medium length blue bar: distorted autoharp over a fuzzy drone of muted melodies, with beautiful plaintive vocals soaring over the rich sonic miasma.
Longer orange bar: gentle finger picked guitar over far away wind chimes and dreamy soundscapes.
Green bar shorter than the blue one: manipulated vocals time stretched and twisted into alien melodies over a warm buzzing hum and acoustic guitar.
Short red bar and really short purple bar: two tracks of gorgeous melodies on acoustic guitar with simple droning organ chords and fluttering high end organ noodling.
Really beautiful and totally mesmerising. Some of the best work by both Makoto and Youngs, who have curbed their penchant for all out noise and given us a glimpse into their sensitive sides.
The third album from Los Angeles-based duo Languis sees them pursuing a new direction of sorts. It seems they've shifted their focus to incorporate much more defined, conventional song structures into their electronic realm. Much less fragmented than their
Ted Leo, former leader of the criminally overlooked D.C. mod-pop outfit Chisel, with his pick-up band the Pharmacists, continues on his unique pop trajectory, somewhere between the jumpy caffeinated pop of his old outfit Chisel, the mod emotion of the Jam,
Leo is joined on this record by his brother Chris (who fronts the Lapse) on drums and percussion. Brendan Canty (of Fugazi) plays some drums as does his brother James. And Amy Dominguez (who plays on every indie rock record that needs a cellist it seems like) plays cello.
This record is so good. Really.
These east coast art-rocking boys are back with their third release. Word has it that this band is pretty right-on live. This record is totally dancy and catchy, and much more emo and peppy than previous releases. Their post-punk guitar assault swings from
Most of you have yet to hear the mighty Solar Anus, Japan's masters of stumbling psychedelic doom (although thanks to tUMULt's forthcoming double cd collection of the first three SA albums, you soon will -- beware!), but in the mean time, Solar Anus mainman
Scott Morgan has spent his fair share of time in a number of notable Vancouver pop outfits. For instance, most recently he's played in Destroyer (with former New Pornographer Dan Bejar) and with retro-popsters The Battles, but neither revealed even a hint
Madlib, the beat conductor of the title, has produced records for Lootpack, Quasimoto etc and here he issues four sides of funky breakbeats, heavy dub beats, and hip hop tracks. Instrumental. Useful for DJs, surely! On Stones Throw, Peanut Butter Wolf's label.
Awfully hard to find any information about this unique afro-funk pioneer. The first track on the album "Bananaticoco" we had heard before when we got the popular "Club Africa 2" compilation in a year ago, but a search on google under Max B's (Max Boulois) name
A UK black metal troupe unlikely to become the next Cradle of Filth, if only because people are always scratching their heads and asking "What the heck are meads?"
Regardless of their prospects for wide success, *we've* been eagerly anticipating this release, ever since reading about The Meads in a Terrorizer article on unsigned British metal bands. A mysterious band with esoteric interests, inspired by the shamanic use of psychedelic drugs, and always clad in medieval armor, The Meads of Asphodel immediately intrigued us... and others too, as they've caused quite a buzz with their several demo releases. Now here's their compact disc debut, brought to us by the same label responsible for the ungodly Benighted Leams (THEE most ridiculous and fucked one-man black metal band EVER, remember?) as well as the most recent and also quite fucked Fleurety disc. That ratcheted up our anticipation another few notches. And we have to say that while as it turns out The Meads *aren't* quite as utterly strange as we were expecting, not as insane as Sigh or as ridiculous as fellow Brits Bal-Sagoth, they're still pretty strange, lacing their super-heavy doom-riffed black metal with "medieval" keyboard melodies that seem inspired by King Arthur by way of Return To Forever's "Romantic Warrior"... Silly and tongue-in-cheek they may be (one of the booklet photos depicts the band in full armor, lined up along a wall, apparently urinating), but they seem oddly serious too in the occult details of their lyrics and their elaborate presentation, thereby keeping us guessing. The list of guests who contributed to this disc also is indicative of their unusual approach to black metal: they get help from A.C. Wild of '80s Italian Venom-clones Bulldozer, ex-Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton, vocalist Kobold of fellow UK black metallers Old Forest, and an electro-goth act called History of Guns...weird! The Meads of Asphodel come across as certainly smarter and more eccentric than your average black metal band. Heavy, catchy, and possibly crazed -- recommended!
Possibly the first deconstruction (re: remix) effort from Akita-san (unless you count that disc supposedly based on free jazz drumming?). Yes, that fragment of guitar you'll hear looped and processed on "Hard Lovin' Man" is that of Ritchie Blackmore, from
An excellent breakbeat LP for DJs needing good material to scratch, all compiled by one of our fave turntablists and Mission resident DJ Quest (Live Human) and DJ Too Fresh. Funny quotes about people 'scratching', awesome human beatbox stuff (some over the theme to the Pink Panther!), interesting and nonpredictable breakbeats. Recommended for DJs. Vinyl only, naturally.
So the sticker on the front of this new Mogwai e.p. says that this is a companion to their 'Rock Action' record. Not sure what that means. Maybe it means all the loud parts that were missing from 'Rock Action' can be found here. Maybe not. The sticker also
Or more precisely, "The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and The Holy Grail". This classic "soundtrack" is of course a hilarious comedy record in its own right, so even if you've seen "The Holy Grail" 300 times (and also,
New York pianist / composer / instrument builder John Morton has composed 5 pieces based around electronic and physical augmentation of traditional music boxes. Thus, the whirring plinks and tiny melodies of his arsenal of music boxes are central to Morton's work, but have occasionally been modulated by computer synthesis into odd timbres or altered like a prepared piano with
Another Italian reissue of the great BYG/Actuel back catalogue. Sunny Murray, legendary drummer for free jazz giants Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, is joined here by most of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Recorded in Paris in 1969 (like much of the output on this label), "Sunshine" is a propulsive, adrenaline-fueled monster that'll leave you breathless. Features top-notch performances
Second LP from the mysterious Chicago duo (I think), who create destructive lo-fi electronics music. Not "electronic music", but modified Casios and Speak & Spells and cryptic tape manipulations assembled in a fucked up, nonlinear pastiche of ataxia. Such volatile eccentricities and an arhythmic approach unfortunately make not for a record that sounds great, but a record that has
DICK VAUGHN IS DEAD! But that's old news by now. Moribund Music of the '70s is volume four in Negativland's Over The Edge series of live radio broadcasts. In this installment, Richard Lyons' (a.k.a Dick Vaughn) vainly attempts to be the first to cash in on
'60s Dutch rockers The Outsiders (not the reportedly inferior American band of the same name) produced an album -- "CQ" -- that's beloved by collectors and critics, but never really got the recognition that it deserved outside of that very narrow market.
Another Osmose-label double cd reissue. Pan-Thy-Monium was Swedish metalmaster Dan Swano's avant-death-metal project, which culminated in the totally Zornified AQ-fave "III: Khaooos & Kon-Fus-Ion" disc some years back. Utterly off the wall experimental metal. More recently, Dan spawned the similarly-inspired Karaboudjan ep which received high marks on AQ-List #115. This double cd
This is seriously one of the most amazing packages we've ever seen. And lucky for us the music easily lives up to the breathtaking packaging. This is the ultimate Charley Patton collection, finally giving props to the man who was tearing it up when Robert
There are these little things that Lee Perry will do sometimes that continue to make me giddy: capitalizing on the sound of a dying organ in its swan song, using the mixing console's test tone generator or a momentary feedback loop to create a blast of
Whereas Pilote's debut release "Antenna" leaned very heavily in the direction of Boards Of Canada-ness, the second full length from this gent (aka Stuart Cullen) launches with rhythms and sounds seemingly plucked from early 90's techno. Streamlined beats,
Much anticipated new full length from Rob Crow (Heavy Vegetable / Thingy / Optiganally Yours) and Zack (Three Mile Pilot). My co-worker Jeff first thought this was the new Modest Mouse until it started sounding like the Sea & Cake. Oddly enough the last
New disc from this local (track 7: "Lost On Valencia") instrumental surf rock combo. Solid stuff for the genre, groovy, catchy and reverby just like it should be, with a bit of a '60s psych vibe, and also some underlying menace -- you can understand why the
Mac McCaughan must never have a moments rest! The blazing batons in his successful juggling act? To name just a few: running the fab indie label Merge Records, leading the supremo-pop outfit Superchunk as well as assorted side projects, and composing film
Powers Court is a metal marvel from the USA, Illinois to be exact. They're a three piece, but while bassist Steve Murray and drummer Mike Evams handle their parts well, the beating metal heart of the band resides in the person of Danie Powers, guitarist
It's beginning to look as though the most popularly recorded composition of the new millennium is going to be Terry Riley's "In C". Why is this? At first I thought that maybe it was because just about anyone can play it. But then I asked myself, "why
Local darlings who had the balls to play their idiosyncratic brand of jump blues punk twang outside Leeds shoe store on Mission Street. Reissue of their first album with 6 extra tracks (two are previously unreleased!)
So much better than the EP from late last year which seemed somewhat lacking, this full length is a far more satisfying listen although truthfully it still falls short of the heights of her former group Mazzy Star. As would be expected, her rich, languid
Limited edition 10" from the second volume of Select Cuts From Blood & Fire. Features extended dub versions of both Black Star Liner and Dan Donovan of Dub Cartel's mixes for the compilation.
Another Silva reissue from his ESP days, this one recorded in 1970 with Dave Burrell, Becky Friend, Karl Berger, Mike Ephron, Lawrence Cook and Barry Altschul.
Changing their name from A Silver Mt. Zion to The Silver Mt. Zion may not amount to much, but it certainly irks our propensity for neat-freak orderliness. While certain schools of thought disregard all articles in terms of alphabetization, Aquarius has always
Anyway, "Born Into Trouble As Sparks" is yet another outing of exactly what you would expect to come from the Godspeed! camps: soaring orchestrations for glide guitars and melodramatically inclined strings, tainted by the continued use of knee-jerkingly leftist spoken word snippets. While my initial reaction to this album was just plain bitchy, the accurate analysis was given by our beloved garrulous regular customer Forrest Norvell, who likened Silver Mt. Zion to the films of John Sayers, as earnest-to-a-fault anarcho-syndicalists rebelling with every single ounce of strength against the evils of capitalism, politics, money, greed, the system, the man, and anything else that makes for an easy target. Not every tale of hope in the face of despair makes for good art.
Up from the ashes of the beloved and astounding spectacle known as Idiot Flesh comes Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. At times, thunderously heavy carnivalesque metal like Mr. Bungle wrestling with SlipKnot. At others, minimal piano plinketry, disjointed
Pretty genuine sounding country twang from these Denver boys. Former punk rockers (we think, but aren't they all) kicking out gorgeous twangy classic sounding country rock complete with yodelling, spoken word breakdowns mid song, awesome pedal steel and
It happens to me every time. I can't wait to get the new Sloan record. I excitedly throw it on when it finally arrives and... I hate it. Seriously, every time. Myabe hate is too strong a word. But I am definitely disappointed and seriously bummed. So I
It's hard to believe this is real. In fact, it took a lot to convince Andee, who was sure this was some Gregg Turkington prank.
But the thing that really puts CUT on the map for us is their way of conducting their religious services, and the fact that someone managed to tape it. The tapes of this service have been floating around for years already. Those of you familiar with Negativland's 1989 album "Escape From Noise" will already be familiar with an excerpt of one of the tracks on this album, as they used it for the track "Michael Jackson", and Steve Fisk has been using these tapes for years as well. This record features live recordings of Clare Prophet 'speaking' out against the evils of rock music. She sounds perfectly normal as she introduces her 'psalms' or 'songs' or 'speeches' or whatever they are. But when she gets going, it's amazing. And so goddamn funny. Her rapid fire high pitched testifying sounds a bit like an insane mix of an auctioneer, a yodeller, the guy who sings the directions at a square dance, Neil Hamburger huffing helium, variations of baseball's 'hey batter batter' chant only faster. It's like that sound you make when you sort of hum/breathe out and move your finger up and down between your lips making a sort of 'bebubebubebubebubebubebubebubebu' sound. It's one of the most amazing things we've ever heard! A must for all cult fanatics, new age withdrawal victims, seekers of the truly strange, and fans of extended vocal techniques. Ever so highly recommended!
Sort of a best of cd of the Stanley Brothers on this U.K. import. Has some of their early Rich-R-Tone recordings from the late '40s and some later recordings from 1950. Includes their version of Bill Monroe's "Molly And Tenbrooks", plus a lot of Stanley
The latter of two new all gospel albums from Ralph Stanley that have just been reissued. Recorded in 1977, Clinch Mountain Gospel features an older and more seasoned Keith Whitley stepping up to take charge of lead vocals. It's an odd combo, Whitley's
Though most bluegrass artists might only throw in one or two token religious numbers when they put together a record, or devote one album to such material, there can be no doubt that religion informs bluegrass music. Like the Monroe, Louvin or Osborne
Epic double cd masterpiece from Austin, Texas' kings of the lullaby drone. Stars of the Lid's sound, while similar to past efforts, has undergone some pretty dramatic changes. Their multi-layered 4-tracked guitars are still present in all their serene
Another Euro-pop swingin' shimmy-shake affair from the very cosmopolitan Stereo Total. Once again, a lyrical cocktail shaker of French, German, English and... Turkish! Many moments that would make obscure, eccentric '60s lounge-y/ad jingle composer Charles
We've been waiting for this for a loooong time, the new, third (duh) album from one of our favorite bands, the amazing Philadelphian power trio Stinking Lizaveta. The first thing to say is that we like how the front cover shows band members seated
For those who need to know more, let's give you the basics: This is ROCK. Goddamn. An instrumental trio of godly Les Paul guitar, hard-hitting mathrock drums, and virtuoso upright electric bass. It's not exactly metal, it's not jazz, but it's heavy and tight and blows away most other rock outfits on the planet, live especially. And "III", with somewhat fuller production than past efforts, reminds us that Stinking Liz kick ass in the studio too. Imagine Black Flag/Gone mixed with King Crimson, or AC/DC playing Mahavishnu instrumentals, or The Champs falling in love with each other, moving to the country, and practicing yoga. Those are woefully inadequate comparisons, of course, but that's cause this band is its own incredible thing. With "III", they've added some synth and violin to the mix -- and even some half-buried vocals on the very first song -- but primarily what you're going to hear is the basic guitar/bass/drums trio, simply cookin'. With gas. Fuckin' huge propane tanks of it, exploding left and right. Whoops, but then let's not forget the moments of delicate, Eastern-tinged post-rock bliss to be found here as well. Lizaveta's multi-genre rock synthesis results in a unique and varied album, from the tension-buildup of a slowburning track like "Tenuous" to the Frippian ambience of "Diana" to the psychedelic soulshiver of "Naked And Alone" with its doomy Black Sabbath bassline and Yanni's lengthy Fushitsusha style blues-psych guitar blowout. The brothers Papadopoulos (Yanni, guitar and Alexi, bass) and drummer Cheshire Agusta do all this and more, with sincerity, passion and might.
Joe Lally (Fugazi) released this on his label Tolotta, best known as the home of stoner rock heroes Spirit Caravan. I'd really like to see both SC and SL go on tour together, that would be something...
First came the drooling adulatory reviews from music writers, then the inevitable backlash from the few freethinking music critics who were all "what's the big deal?" I'm not quite sure where we are right now in the chronology of The Strokes hype timeline. But
The Strokes play decent, even pretty likable, indie-sounding rock with scratchy-radio-style vocals put thru a distortion pedal (a la Jon Spencer), jangly guitar similar to old REM or the Soft Boys, and a general tone that ranges from the bouncy desperation of "Lust for Life"-era Iggy Pop and the Pixies, to the perfectly-crafted pop of, say, Spoon or the Pastels. Rock critics with something to prove are falling all over themselves claiming that the Strokes sound like the Velvet Underground, but for me that only comes thru in the drummer's defiantly simple rhythms and the singer's nasal delivery, which would be commendably like Lou Reed's except for this annoying end-of-lyric breath-y thing he does far too often, like Christina Aguilera (speaking of which! see Aguilera Strokes remix here: http://www.morewebspace.fsnet.co.uk/remix.mp3, [thanks, Mark]).
So, the AQ verdict on the Strokes is *eh*, it's pretty okay, a lot of folks will find it pleasantly accessible and fun. Hey, we'd still recommend the last Spoon record over the Strokes, but you could do a lot worse. Note: we are currently stocking the import version of this album, thinking that for a couple bucks more than the domestic price you might prefer having the original cover and the song "NYC Cops" which was removed from the US version.
"In conversation 1966, Slug's Saloon NYC". That's right, not a Sun Ra jazz album, but a 25-minute long disc of spoken word -- the great jazz visionary Ra interviewed (and going waaay beyond the subject of jazz, of course). The discussion is accompanied by
Q. What's the problem with the black man?
A. He doesn't see me.
In my book, Matthew Bower can do no wrong. In fact, Bower and his whole noisy orbit are untouchable: Total, Skullflower, Ax, Ascension, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Derv, Jazzfinger, and of course Sunroof! Sunroof! (exclamation point mandatory) continue
Meditative electronica made by one Xian Hawkins who's released a couple records as Sybarite and was also the part of the reformed Silver Apples a few years ago. Groovy and jazzy while at the same time displaying most of the qualities that makes people love the stunning Scottish duo Boards of Canada, like off-kilter breakbeats, lots of melancholy atmospherics, a sense of angst and sadness.
New from Zorn's Tzadik label, a 1988 live recording from this Japanese "avant" pop girl duo. They sing, one plays violin, the other a Harry Partch style 43 tone organ. Thus, the obi says: "Microtonal pop for the 21st century!" By "microtonal" do they mean shitty '80s jazz fusiony crap? Well, some of this is quite pretty, and a few parts are wheezy and weird, but cute and fluffy and
The only two proper albums released by The Teardrop Explodes have finally been reissued on one handy cd. Kilimanjaro (1980) and Wilder (1981) were the products of pop eccentric Julian Cope and band. While Kilimanjaro features upbeat, but also very strange, pop tunes borne of Cope's love of Krautrock, they were written by the full band and are thus a lot more straightforward and
