Aquarius Records closed in 2016. This site is an archive — a place to rediscover their extraordinary music recommendations. Nothing here is for sale.
Showing results 51 through 100 of 112.
LANGUISIf We Ever Make It Back(Zeal Records)7"$ 5.98
Limited edition Belgian import! Ambient electronic sounds of the delicate, soothing kind. The one drawback to this lovely milky-vinyl 7" that I found is the same as with Languis' last single... it's far too short a medium to fully immerse yourself in the music. Nonetheless if you're in need of a brief moment of calm, this might be for you.
LIBYTHTHAlmost A Trillion Dollars(Phthalo)cd$ 11.98
In the interview / temper-tantrum given by Kid 606 to The Wire, the Kid complained that with each album he sold, he inevitably gets a demo in return, and thus offered proof of the growing aesthetic culture of juvenile cyberpunks. The sound of Libythth is more than likely what the majority of those demotapes must sound like, with drum machines and MIDI patches triggering modulated
LIGHTNING BOLTs/t(Load)cd$ 12.98
Finally, the debut LP from Providence, RI's Lightning Bolt gets reissued! Now on cd for the first time, with over forty minutes of bonus live material! When this record first hit the streets a couple of years ago, people either instantly fell in love with or
LOCUST, THELimited Edition Fan Club Single(I Don't Feel A Thing)7"$ 3.98
A mysterious release from the Seattle-based fanclub of San Diego sonic assault team The Locust. This lathe-cut 7" is one side sight (a screen-print of The Locust's one-winged logo), and one side sound (six uncharacteristically spartan, yet suitably
LOVAGEMusic To Make Love To Your Old Lady By(75 Ark)cd$ 15.98
Love duets -- strange, twisted, and surreal -- sung by Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Fantomas) and Jennifer Charles (Elysian Fields), and presided over by Nathaniel Merriweather a.k.a. DAN THE AUTOMATOR (Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030, Gorillaz), the
MASAKATSU, TAKAGIPia(Carpark)2cd$ 17.98
Takagi Masakatsu's electronic ambience has been glitchified as another laptop excursion, yet he maintains a whimsical sense of melody rarely heard since Oval's "Diskont 94" and a sly use of the field recordings, allowing for the laughter of children and various sounds of domesticty to intervene in the subtly shifting glitch collages. Only disc one has audio, with disc two being a
MERCHANT, NATALIEMotherland(Elektra)cd$ 16.98
As advertised on National Public Radio. Really.
MONOUnder The Pipal Tree(Tzadik)cd$ 16.98
Mono are an instrumental rock quartet from Tokyo making their debut on John Zorn's Tzadik label. Let us quote from the obi: "[Mono combine] elements of minimalism, psychedelia and trance rock to create a distinctive and powerful new sound via John Fahey, Sonic
MONOLAKECinemascope(Monolake)cd$ 15.98
Former Chain Reaction mainstays (Chain Reaction is the label that is home to the murky dubbed out minimalist 'heroin house', the only house music anyone here at AQ can stand) Monolake left their former label behind, but you'd never know it, that Chain
MUSEOrigin Of Symmetry(Mushroom UK)cd$ 24.00
We're still not sure if/when there will be a domestic release of this new Muse opus, so in the meantime, here's the pricey import version. Muse? That's the British band that anyone who wishes Radiohead had made "OK Computer Parts II & III" instead of "Kid A"
MYSTERY BRINKMANN / PLEASUREHORSEsplit(Load)lp$ 10.98
Pleasurehorse is one Shawn Greenlee, rhythmic power electronics maestro with one previous disc on Vermiform as well as the excellent "Dropdead: Reconstructed" 12" on Load, currently on bass duties in the newly reformed Six Finger Satellite. Think Merzbow with beats. Mystery Brinkman aka Mr. Brinkman (duh) used to be in Providence duo Forcefield (remember their split 7" with
NO NECK BLUES BANDSticks And Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will Never Hurt Me(Revenant)cd$ 15.98
It came as a bit of a surprise to realise that we've never listed the No Neck Blues Band before, especially considering how often we reference them in reviews, whenever we're trying to describe some sort of stumbling and stoned, improvised hippie tribal
NOONDAY UNDERGROUNDSelf - Assembly(M21)cd$ 15.98
New project from Simon Dine of Adventures in Stereo. With swingin', throaty female vocals and a nonstop rollicking tone to it, this is like sixties psychedelic rock with a very millenial "shagadelic" flavor to it. Breakbeats accompanied with farfisa organ, twangy Duane Eddy guitar with shimmering cymbals, Association-style vocals with unison handclaps... Not very thrilling, but the
O'ROURKE, JIM / EDDIE PREVOST / MICHAEL PRIMEAlpha Lemur Echo Two()cd$ 16.98
Working with AMM's percusionist Eddie Prevost and eccentic improviser Michael Prime (Morphogenesis, Organum), the ubiquitous and chameleon-like Jim O'Rourke plays the part of AMM's Keith Rowe quite adequately offering various electro-acoustic scrapes,
PAPA MWhatever, Mortal(Drag City)cd$ 14.98
Dave Pajo (ex-Slint, ex-Tortoise, permanent Lousiville resident) here returns with a somber Papa M recording. While this record is not as incandescently melodic and pretty as his Live From a Shark Cage album (which is definitely where you should start if you've Drawing away from the sweetness found in the repetitive loopy pop sounds of Shark Cage, here Pajo turns serious with a twang now and then. It's very nice, sad and atmospheric, with more vocals than previous Papa M Releases. A few songs sound like Leonard Cohen or the better laid-back moments of Lou Barlow. Altogether quite pleasant. The all star cast includes Tara Jane O'Neil from Rodan & Retsin, Will Oldham (Palace etc.), and Brit Walford from Slint.
PEACHESSet It Off(Kitty-Yo)cd ep$ 8.98
Raunchy freeze-dried lo-fi disco queen Peaches gets the teaches in house and accelerated funk, respectively, from Chick On Speed Tobi Neumann and Detroit's DJ Assault, reworking the title track from her Teaches of Peaches full length. Kid 606 Fucks The Pain
PIANO MAGICSeasonally Affective 1996-2000(Rocket Girl)2cd$ 21.00
Falling somewhere between a best of and a rarities collection, "Seasonally Affective" is a diverse sampling of the Piano Magic back catalogue, capturing both the gems (i.e. their magnifciently Victorian "Low Birth Weight" album) and duds (i.e. their
POTRATZ, JASONTransfer(Phthalo)cd$ 12.98
For the first Acid record on the obtuse electronica label Phthalo, Jason Potratz admits that this record was made by a trainspotter for a trainspotter. This is a seemless mix of 29 very short tracks of Acid loops - with hammering four-on-the-floor
RACZYNSKI, BOGDANmyloveilove(Rephlex)cd$ 16.98
Fans of Fourtet, head up. The mellowest album to date from Polish electronicist Bogdan Raczynski, who has been known to make drill 'n bass and other manic electronica a la Squarepusher, this is extremely serene, full of short pieces that carry on the wistful
RADIOHEADI Might Be Wrong(EMI)cd$ 14.98
First ever live record from Radiohead, and for a person who typically hates live records, I ended up liking this quite a bit. Radiohead tend to mix it up live quite a bit, re-arranging songs, playing them all slow and stretched out, rocking out a bit more, unfortunately, there's not too much of that on this disc. A lot of the songs -do- rock harder, but I think that's just a function
RHYTHM & SOUNDs/t(Rhythm & Sound)cd$ 15.98
Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald (aka Maurizio) are the shadowy figures whose anonymous productions through the Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, and Rhythm & Sound monikers / labels remain the foundation for German electronica as we know it. While the two As Basic Channel morphed into Chain Reaction, Ernestus and von Oswald began Rhythm & Sound to explore and exaggerate dub techniques within their techno constructions. There isn't much to the Rhythm & Sound approach, but that's the point, with an uncluttered yet seductive drum machine pulse, an incredibly deep bass line, and a metallic organ riff as the offbeat rhythm. But, the cavernous dub which softens all of the sounds into amorphous currents and dissolves time into a languid stupor is what makes Rhythm & Sound so effective.
ROBOTOBIBOKJogging(Vytvornia)cd$ 15.98
An odd, odd blend of jazz with drum'n'bass and a bit of post rock... from Poland! Shifting percussion, heavy doses of saxophone, spaced-out textures.
RUBE WADDELLBound for the Gates of Hell(Vaccination)cd$ 12.98
New album from beloved local trio finds them making great use of the usual rock instruments plus sousa horn, jaw harp, mahogany and koa wood ukuleles, accordion, glass harmonica, marimba, autoharp, and much more. Rube Waddell's sound is a little bit
RUPTURE, DJGold Teeth Thief(Soot)cd-r$ 9.98
This is one of the best mix cds we've ever heard. And it's not about insane turntable skills, or about that 'isn't-it-weird-and-crazy-how-I've-juxtaposed-hip-hop-and-classic-rock' gimmicky stuff or about how famous or cool the DJ is (in Definitely an obscure, self-released item (before we got 'em direct from DJ /Rupture, Jeff actually bought one off the internet for a lot more than $9.98) but we've got a few now and a bunch more on the way from Spain next week.
SILVER JEWSTennessee(Drag City)cd$ 10.98
David Berman's Silver Jews here releases a new 4-song EP (the title track will appear on upcoming full length Bright Flight, the other 3 won't). I've loved his previous releases, a combination of indie rock, a slight twang, downer songwriting, and a loping, So why is this new EP so bad? Well, with completely out of tune male and female voices crooning dumb lyrics like "Punk rock died when the first kid said / 'Punk's not dead! Punk's not dead!'" and "We're off to the land of hot middle aged women / Off to the land whose blood runneth orange," there's your first clue. The music is also embarassingly dated, which is even sadder in today's overglutted climate when indie rock needs to be a *lot* better than mediocre rehashing of a tired formula from 1992 in order to warrant your attention. Sigh. Another one bites the dust.
SINGLE UNITFamily Of Forces(Jester)cd$ 14.98
Song title of the week: 'antlers! antlers! antlers!' Single Unit is a Norwegian visual artist that also makes some truly freaked out electronic music. 'Family of Forces' is his exploration of hardcore, electronica, and metal! Well, sort of metal, at least moreso than most of the more recent Jester offerings (Garm from Ulver. Imagine a black metal record, a Mr. Bungle record, or even a Zappa record, chopped to pieces and reassembled into some sort of insane electronic video game music with sampled chugging metal guitars, industrial roars, and all manner of bleeping and blipping, that form hypnotically hiccupping plunderphonic metal or maniacal droned out washes of bells and hums and whirring feedback! Partially composed, partially improvised, Single Unit mixes buzzing chiming childlike lullabies with technical and impossibly unplayable experimental metal ala Melt Banana, Meshuggah or Strapping Young Lad. Weird and GREAT.
SOLEFALDPills Against The Ageless Ills(Century Media)cd$ 14.98
The first Solefald record 'The Linear Scaffold', knocked our fucking socks off. Furiously heavy and relentlessly crushing (with amazing cover art courtesy of Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum). So we were so excited for the arrival of their second album 'Neonism' "We all know how difficult it is to cultivate good taste in music. If you do have good taste in music, of course you know about SOLEFALD! We are the only band in Metal music with good taste. But what about the music? Do we laugh at our music? Of course not. We are Metal's sensitive guys. You know us. We can safely affirm that NOTHING is more serious than our music. Yes, correct! We can even affirm that nothing is more IMPORTANT than our music! Our music is perfect. What does it mean that it is perfect? It means that you will die when you listen to it. Death will sweep you under Solefald's wings like seven winds sweep seven oak leaves swiftly away into the winter sky! But we can assure you: You will not die if you listen to our advice. Solefald believe it helps talking about the things that hurt. How can we help you? It is nothing Solefald want more than to be able to help you. Sit down and relax. Have something to drink, and try to forget about death. If you still feel bad, let us talk about it. We are good boys. Our music, though, is so perfect it is lethal. It is not our fault that we are just TOO good. Solefald dream about a happy life for everybody. That is why we make an effort to warn you. We warn you because we care about you. Because we want to live with you and everybody else in the best of all possible worlds! Be reasonable, burn our album before it burns you. We called it Red Music with Black Edges. We called it Radical Designer Rock'n'Roll. IT DID NOT HELP. THEY DIED ANYWAY." If only all records were this unpredictable and exciting and kick ass. Andee's metal record of the year for sure!!
SOUTHERN, TERRYGive Me Your Hump!: The Unspeakable Terry Southern Record(Koch)cd$ 16.98
Few literary geniuses have warped fiction, cinema and reportage as much as Terry Southern. This twisted mind was responsible for film classics "Doctor Strangelove" and the screenplay adaptation for Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One." His stories were adapted into
TENOR, JIMIUtopian Dream(Puu / Sahko)cd$ 16.98
More trippy dippy lounge-a-tronic from Finland. Yes, Mr. Oddball Jimi Tenor is back as we knew he'd be. In his "Utopian Dream" he draws from the past... his own. He borrows bits from both of his earlier albums "Intervision" (1997) and "Out Of Nowhere" (2000).
THERIOSII(Hollenden)cd-r$ 11.98
More one-man metal band madness. This time from Cleveland Ohio, and man is this stuff crazy. Instead of just playing all the instruments himself like a 'normal' one man band, he records the drums, the bass, the guitars, -and- the vocals, loads them into
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS... In Holidayland(Restless)cd$ 9.98
If there's one thing you can count on around any special season, it's They Might Be Giants leading the festivities parade. Hoisting their eggnogs, ringing the bells and handing out plenty of pop goodies from their big sack with plenty of mirth and glee.
TIMEBLINDRugged Redemption(Orthlorng Musork)cd$ 14.98
Timeblind's "Rugged Redemption" is one of those recombinant albums that has received a handful of praise for rendering a multitude of styles within a singular but multi-faceted vision. Blunted French hip-hop, Chain Reactive techno grit, mirages of DSP
TINSELThe Lead Shoes(Alice In Wonder)cd$ 16.98
Wisconsinite Michael Hopkins (with help from a few friends) presents his debut album under the name Tinsel. He's responsible for the music -- lovely drone-folk, with a moody, late-night atmosphere. That's fantastic, but he also is responsible for the vocals
TO ROCOCO ROTKolner Brett(Staubgold)cd$ 16.98
To Rococo Rot composed this album to cohabitate with the architectural forms found within the "Kolner Brett" building designed by the Cologne architectural firm b&k+. As the building held the grander notions of blending living and working in each of its single
TO ROCOCO ROTKölner Brett(Staubgold)lp$ 13.98
To Rococo Rot composed this album to cohabitate with the architectural forms found within the "Kolner Brett" building designed by the Cologne architectural firm b&k+. As the building held the grander notions of blending living and working in each of its single units (or so we've been told, but the pictures of the building indicate that it's as advanced as anything in Wallpaper), To Rococo
TOMAHAWKs/t(Ipecac)cd$ 15.98
A kind of "supergroup" release on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, featuring Patton himself (we don't have to tell you he's the voice of Mr. Bungle, Faith No More and Fantomas, do we?) as well as the always amazing guitar of the Jesus Lizard's Duane Denison,
TOWER RECORDINGSFolk Scene(Communion)cd$ 13.98
Previously available only as a limited-to-300-copies one-sided piece of vinyl, Tower Recordings' "Folk Scene" now sees an expanded (14 more tracks!) compact disc reissue. Avantgarde cosmic bedroom psychedelia as these New Yorkers do best. Longtime TR members Comparisons are being made to British psych-folk of decades past, a la the Incredible String Band and the pagan folk of the Wicker Man soundtrack, comparisons that work well for that wonderful P.G. Six album from earlier this year, but TR on "Folk Scene" is so much more wasted and kosmische, blurred and drugged, more like krautrockers Amon Duul than Fairport Convention!! So good! But of course, if you've got their previous cd on Siltbreeze, the wonderful "Furniture Music For Evening Shuttles", you already know that and are on your way down here to buy this...
TREMBLING BLUE STARSAlive to Every Smile(Sub Pop)cd$ 15.98
Simply lovely! Warm and strummy. Positively dreamy. Trembling Blue Stars make splendid Brit-space-pop. At times, reminded me of Ride or mid-to-late period Cure. Very laid-back boy lead vocals, sparklingly sweet female backing vocals, swirling chorus-y
TWILIGHT CIRCUS DUB SOUND SYSTEMDub Plate Selection(M Records)cd$ 14.98
Originally released in 1998 on cd only, Dub Plate Selection is now available on both cd and lp. This is the first volume in Ryan Moore's series of self-reworked material from his earlier releases: "In Dub Vol. 1", "Other Worlds In Dub" and "Binshaker Dub".
ULVERSilencing The Singing EP(Jester)cd ep$ 13.98
Here's another limited edition ep from the impossible to classify Norwegian band Ulver, following up their similarly titled (and similar looking) "Silence Teaches You How To Sing EP" from earlier this year. Again, about a half hour of music, this time broken Ulver of course originally made their name in the black metal scene, with such classic the-forest-is-my-throne-style albums as "Nattens Madrigal" and "Kveldsanger", full of church-burning riffs and wolverine vocals (and acoustic folk music in the case of "Kveldsanger"). And we won't deny that that's some of their best stuff, it is. But since those days they've abandoned black metal and morphed into some sort of odd electronic/experimental band -- and as well, Ulver leader Krystoffer "Garm" Rygg started up the Jester label to release music by all sorts of likeminded (i.e. fucked) Norwegian artists (including When, Bogus Blimp, Esperanza, and of course Ulver). And while their black metal past isn't overtly evident on this recording, we could suppose that Ulver's earlier appreciation of the grim, lo-fi, trance-like ambience created by their (former) heroes Darkthrone and Mayhem is still a part of Ulver's sound, explaining their music's current immersion in a grimy (if not grim) background of constant crackle and buzzing drones. Well, that and the fact that such sounds are now as hip in experimental/electronica circles as they are cult in metal. Speaking of cult, the cryptic as always liner notes claim "Ulver do their best to show you the wall in every door". Not sure what that means, exactly, but that statement still seems to sum up their history of willful genre-shifting and puzzling abstraction, of which "Silencing The Singing" is only the most recent, and one of the most enjoyable, examples. Get it while you can. And look forward to Ulver's next project, which is promised to be an Apocalyptica-like orchestral remake of their dirtiest sounding, most mean and metal disc, "Nattens Madrigal"!
UNGU, OBENG & JALAN BUNTU WITH GROUP UANG WAYANG OF PALEMBANG1951: Sumatran Ladies Wearing Hats As Outlawed By Government(Hot Air)3"cd$ 8.98
According to the *well documented* liner notes, this album was originally released on cassette in South East Asia in 1982. The The music on the disc is classic Hot Air material though: quirky and humorous electronica, squeaks, farts and irreverence (thumbs in the face to the pretensions of high brow electronica abound.) The disc starts off with a field recording of insects buzzing on a lonesome highway and then goes into some ping pong ball bouncy electronica with ersatz-Asian melodies that almost sounds like an attempt to imitate Burmese Pat Wiang (a melodic circular set of drums that sound like rototoms). Included also are a lot of really cheesy gamelan-esque samples and synth sounds in to boot. The end result is audio tourism where the tourist never even leaves home, but just comes up with a fictional vacation. Our mysterious tour guides Obeng & Jalan (most certainly Matt Wand -- we're making an "ass" of "u" and "me" here that it's Mr. Wand behind this) have produced some wickedly funny /possibly offensive electronic fuckery. Hot Air has released this mini cd as part of their "Hot Air Global Education Series" in cooperation with "The Hotairian Institute".
V/ABetter Than The Beatles: A Tribute To The Shaggs(Animal World Recordings)cd$ 13.98
A tribute to the Shaggs, what a weird idea. When I heard about this release I wondered if the bands on it were going to attempt to emulate the musical ineptness that was what made the Shaggs who they were, and if so, then why bother. Or would they turn the
V/ACCMIX: New Electroacoustic Music from Paris(Mode)2cd$ 30.00
This collection documents a unique method of computer synthesis called UPIC that was developed by Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis in the late '70s. This system did not use the traditional method of having a keyboard hooked up to a computer. The majority of the composers closely follow Xenakis' approach -- a novel method that was also quicker means for Xenakis to compose electronic music along the lines of his legendary works "Bohor," "pH," and "Persepolis", full of sweeping drones of tense crackling electronic tones. Occasionally, these composers augment their electronic manipulations with traditional instruments with varied success: Jean-Claude Risset's duet for UPIC and saxophone is simply gimmicky, but Julio Estrada's full orchestra with UPIC works is as effective as any Luigi Nono composition.
V/AElectric Ladyland: Clickhop Version 1.0(Mille Plateaux)2cd$ 17.98
This is another Reader's Digest compendium from Mille Plateaux that inevitably features Kid 606 and brings together the diaspora of the contemporary electronica spectrum under a singular heading. Here it's "ClickHop" (ugh), a term to describe the Hip Hop
V/AFarewell Fondle 'Em(Fruitmeat/Def Jux)cd$ 15.98
NYC underground hip hop label Fondle 'Em says goodbye with this collection of singles, featuring Kool Keith, El-P of Company Flow, M.F. Doom, The Arsonists, and more...Great!
V/AGive The People What We Want: Songs Of The Kinks(Sub Pop)cd$ 14.98
It's always tough to put together a tribute record. The work is made even tougher when the band is as amazing as the Kinks. Further complicated by the fact, in the case of this particular compilation, that at least half of these bands are just okay, a
V/ANigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos(Afrostrut)3cd$ 23.00
An ambitiously titled new collection from Afrostrut, the premiere label of Afro-Funk reissues. It's a lot to call a cd set the "definitive" story of funk from Lagos, but Strut really went above and beyond the call of duty on this one. Sure you've got all
V/AOasis: Music From Mills 2001(Mills Music Department)cd$ 14.98
With its self-explanatory subtitle, "Oasis" compiles some of the recent work from the Mills College faculty, including Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, and Alvin Curran. What, no Willie Winant? As a whole, the Mills
V/AOriginators Of The Northern Darkness: A Tribute To Mayhem(Avantgarde)cd$ 15.98
Considering that the Darkthrone tribute from a few years back was one of the best black metal records ever (compilation or otherwise) we had high hopes for this Mayhem tribute. It features all the big boys: Immortal, Dark Funeral, Absu, Gorgoroth, Also the first few (for those of you quick on the mailorder draw) are the special limited version that comes with a fold out poster in an ultra-cheesy black vinyl pouch, intended, we suppose, to look 'leather' and 'tough' and 'scary' but instead only manages to look like the sort of fanny pack you'd find on some fat European metalhead passed out in a puddle of beer and piss at Castle Donnington.
V/ARiver Songs Of Bangladesh(Arc)cd$ 14.98
Field recordings by ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya, freshly recorded in February 2001. Traditional Bangladeshi music can be divided into two forms, the more traditional Indian-influenced Raga-Tala system, and the more simple form known as Deshi ('of the