THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finally, Andee's tUMULt label releases some new shit! Yes, it's been *months* since tUMULt's last releases (Guapo, 7000 Dying Rats). But don't be fooled. All that time has been well spent preparing stuff by Japan's Solar Anus, the soon-to-be-huge OCS [the prolific John Dwyer of Dig That Body Up It's Alive (also coming soon on tUMULt), Coachwhips, and Pink And Brown], Finland's Worms, Norway's Brainbombs, SF black metal one man band Leviathan, a new Circle -and- a new Iran, for imminent release!
But for now, we can revel in this, the latest installment of psychedelic majesty from Japanese avant-hippy heroes Acid Mothers Temple. This is the debut entry in a series of 12" picture discs (future volumes to include Skullflower, Troum, Circle, Reynols, Loren Chasse and more) to be released over the course of the next 12 months and quite an auspicious start it is too. Recorded well over a year ago, this is AMT at their absolute prime, featuring special guest star Tatsuya Yoshida of the Ruins! Two extended tracks (35 + minutes) of transcendental psych-drone. Side one has to be the most beautiful track they've ever recorded. Uncharacteristically tranquil and captivatingly beautiful. Droning, shimmering chimes coalesce into some sort of cosmic Ur-drone, punctuated by simple caveman thuds and epic swooshes, resulting in a grand and gorgeous ambience! Side two is a single track separated into two apparent movements. The first sees AMT back on more familiar ground, with swooping synths and freak out guitar. A stumbling kosmic krautrock, with motorik rhythms and free guitar, amidst a swampy wash of rumbling low end and squealing synths. The track erupts into bubbling atonal out-rock exploration splattered with mad scientist synthesisers as the whole thing slowly mutates into 'cosmic slop' of the nth degree, becoming gradually free-er and free-er. The second 'movement' is all slithery free jazz with bubbling cauldrons of synth sputter, wild keyboards and Can-like rhythms until the whole thing gets all dreamy, eventually blissing out completely. When Andee asked AMT to do a 12", they weren't yet Wire cover stars with so many dozens of releases out -- but this is still one of their absolute best recordings!
As you might have guessed, this is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Hand stamped sleeves. A gorgeous picture disc, with a striking flowers/UFO image on one side, and a scintillatingly saucy photo on the other (you'll just have to buy it to see it!) Frustratingly (for Allan at least) only available as a picture disc lp, although there will be a cd version in the near future, but (even more frustratingly for Allan) the tracks on the cd will be completely different!
So now I (Windy) am feeling really stupid for not paying enough attention to Aesop Rock's last full length Labor Days, because this new followup cdep is so great! The title track "Daylight" is seriously geting multiple repeat plays here in the AQ-back
"Yo...put one up shackle me, not clean logic procreation
I did not invent the wheel I was the crooked spoke adjacent
While the triple sixers lassos keep angels roped in the basement
I walk the block with a halo and a stick poking your patience"
The remaining 6 tracks are similarly good. Blockhead provides most of the instrumental backup and man, I can't wait for a solo LP from this producer, he seems to have impeccable taste. One of the tracks is ever so timely -- "Nickel Plated Pockets" references "anthrax in the mailboxes and xanax in my tummy." Yeah, Aesop's got his finger on the zeitgeist. And there's a hidden track wherein he gives his full, real name, and proceeds to sincerely, poignantly thank four people who literally saved his life once. Another worthwhile title from the practically flawless Def Jux label.
Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout have assembled an album's worth of material that just as well could (should? would?) be GBV. This is the second full length from this recently reunited pair of extremely prolific songsmiths. As with other
Plain white sleeve 10" from Jamaican Recordings' forthcoming full length collection of Horace Andy dubs. Dub Larking obviously is a dub of Skylarking, Dub Ah Fulfil is a rare dub of "Serious Thing" (and will only be available on the CD version of the full length when it's released in the near future.)
What the hell happened here? The Anniversary has poised themselves as the heir apparents to the emo / power pop throne now occupied by labelmates the Get Up Kids, yet with their second album "Your Majesty," these kids from Lawrence, Kansas suddenly think they're Noel and Liam, constructing a bombastic album of baroque pop with lots of harmonizing choruses, extended guitar solos, dramatic piano chords, and distant nods to The Pixies and Supertramp. This record was a real slow burner. In the beginning we all hated it, wondering what happened to our emo pop anniversaries, but the more we listen, the more we began to understand. I began catching Jim or Cup listening to it when they thought no one was the wiser. And Windy is pretty much playing it nonstop in her car: http://aquariusrecords.org/windyscar.html. So now, we give it a thumbs up. The only bummer is the one guy singer who whispers in a earnest croon and ends up sounding lame. Outside of that, they're probably the best Brit pop band America has. A few painfully public inter-band squabbles and loads of coke and the sky's the limit!
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and I would have imagined that the release of "Low Level Owl" volumes one and two would
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be me, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So if you wish to start with a more "pop" oriented record, choose volume one and if you want more of a drifting and pensive record, choose volume two. Chances are that you'll wanna pick up both eventually anyhow. Everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or two.
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and I would have imagined that the release of "Low Level Owl" volumes one and two would
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be me, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So if you wish to start with a more "pop" oriented record, choose volume one and if you want more of a drifting and pensive record, choose volume two. Chances are that you'll wanna pick up both eventually anyhow. Everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or two.
Careful students of the works of European avant-progressive rock giants Magma and Univers Zero might be excited, or at least curious, about this new Cuneiform release. Arkham was a very early '70s Belgium-based prog band featuring drummer Daniel Denis
Finally after a lengthy hiatus Ativin present the follow-up to their 1999 "Summing The Approach" ep. The post-rock angularities have been smoothed down and honed to a more subtle sound. The guitars build gradually and lock into gentle, almost hypnotic
The title "Integracao" translates from Portuguese as "Integration," which is the title of a series of microsound performances by Michael Behrens, in various locations around Europe during the past couple of years. In each successive performance, he would add
Never much cared for Blood Duster. Sort of a bad joke turned into a band. And not a whole lot has changed. Fairly generic grind, with occasional groovy '70s metal bits thrown in with lots of stupid between song samples. A look at the song titles should tell
For those of you who've been itchin' for some more from SF's mellow, pretty electronicians Broker/Dealer or simply those of you in need of some electronic levity, here's a new and unusual B/D snippet. It's a Hall & Oates-tinged track called "Haulin' Oats". Actually this 12" is a bit silly all the way around as the flipside contains an equally Joe Jackson-flavored cut by Rollmottle
Oh lord, this guy is on drugs... he must be! The man in question is Mr. John Terlesky alias Brother JT who you may be familiar with from his collaborations with the psych-rock combo Vibrolux. Actually he's been deep in the psychedelic scene since the '80s
This isn't really a new cd, just an old favorite that we thought we'd list for the first time 'cause the name sometimes comes up in our reviews of present day heavy psych/stoner rock bands: LA's legendary Captain Beyond. This cd reissues their classic 1972
Kim Cascone, Richard Chartier, and Taylor Deupree are the self-appointed American ambassadors of the 'post-digital' agenda: a semiotically convoluted set of theories that draws aesthetically and methodologically from the characteristics of the digitized
After this 20 minute document, each artist presents his remix / reinterpretation of the performance. Cascone's track is nothing but a condensed extraction that showcases his software. The most interesting of the bunch, Chartier has expanded upon the low hums and sinewaves as the basis for his remix, with tenative clickery echoing far in the distance. Deupree has extruded various samples forced into elliptical patterns, buzzing with static and rhythmic afterthoughts. All in all cold and sterile, and far from evocative.
We became huge fans of this heavy garage group from Christchurch, New Zealand after we got the reissue of their only proper album a little while back. Think a heavy, fuzzy, more primitive Monks, with more groove and less edge. This is a live recording from
Ultra-minimalist composer Richard Chartier has claimed that this album "suggests an incremental process of reduction with the compositional focus placed in the space between sound and silence." It takes about 17 minutes of practical nothingness before the
Berlin-based art school pop darlings Chicks On Speed team up with Dusseldorf post-Kraftwerk electro craftsmen Kreidler for four arty synthpop anthems. As expected, the collaboration quickly becomes a throwaway novelty as the Chicks' ridiculous post-ironic,
While this is technically not new, we still figured we ought to list it since it somehow managed to fall through the cracks when it initially came out. Released in 2000 on Germany's Plate Lunch label, Chine Nual is beloved AQ customer Rick Kitch, composing,
Coastal comes from the slowcore / sadcore school of US bands who loved Creation Records (i.e. Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive), but didn't want to delve too much into the production aspects of sculpting sound through the processed guitar. Almost taking the opposite approach to their heroes, Coastal applies a very dry production to their already very spartan songs, leaving
Originally released in 1961, this is the first domestic cd issue of Ornette Coleman's This is Our Music! As many fans of experimental jazz already know, alto saxophonist Coleman pioneered a particular brand of improvisation, giving equal weight to
Although Alice Coltrane released few recordings back when she was performing regularly in the '60s and '70s, several welcome reissues have come to light in recent years. This is the first time on cd for Transfigurations, a live performance from 1976 at
Formed in early 1977, The Consumers were Phoenix Arizona's answer to the Germs. Punk fucking rock. After recording their debut album (20 minutes of adrenaline fueled, hateful, spazzy and totally catchy punk) shortly after their inception, the Consumers
Depressed, sensitive Irish singer songwriter making records in the bedroom a la Smog (only not as dysfunctional), Songs:Ohia, Appendix Out, Halifax Pier, etc. Just prettily clanging guitar, mournful cello, and ominous drums (a nice touch). A warm blanket
With a lengthy resume including performances and / or recordings including Terry Riley's "In C" and Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise," not to mention his participation with Pauline Oliveros in The Deep Listening Band, it's a little surprising that Stuart Dempster
Long overdue collection from these punk rock pioneers. This is a collection spanning 1977-1981 and includes their three singles (that's all they ever released) as well as some demos! I (Sadie) didn't pay too much attention to the Dils in the past. I knew
Now available domestically with new artwork via Los Angeles based Emperor Norton: the long awaited debut long player from Chicago DJ / remixer extraordinaire Felix Stallings aka Felix Da Housecat. "Kittenz And Thee Glitz" shuffles through a hearty mix of
A tautology is a statement which is necessarily true because it cannot be used to make a false assertion by virtue of its logical form. Often tautologies involve the needless repetition of a self-evident statement in order to prove that the idea is true; it
His work on "Cycle Des Souvenirs" is something of an extension of the psychosexual narrative found within his "Presque Rien." Here field recordings were taken of European streets, the sea, a train station, wind through a valley, etc. with various fragments of speech whispered just beneath the surface of those judiciously edited recordings. The quiet of these passages are disrupted by clipped drum crashes which explode throughout the sonic landscape, further fragmenting the continuous spoken narrative. The end result is quite evocative, recalling Robert Ashley's masterful "Automatic Writing."
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Another amazing release from Greek black metal label ISO666. Frostmoon Eclipse play bleak, blazing fast, epic black metal ala Mayhem and Emperor, but before you can yawn and emit that same-old-thing sigh, FE break it down into some serious indie rock
Garage rock label Get Hip brings us this hot, hot, HOTT all-girl three-piece rock and roll band. The Gore Gore Girls, named after the Herschell Gordon Lewis movie of the same name, kick ass and sing tough girl songs like "I'm Going to Hunt You Down and Get You
Oh my, I can't tell you how good this record is! I really can't believe how inventive that David Grubbs guy is! Have you seen those little computers that are the size of a notebook? Did you know they call those computers "laptops!" Did you know that you
Sarcasm aside, Chunklet said it best: "The Bruce Hornsby of the avant-garde."
A pretty dire film, unfortunately, with footage of the band both live and on someone's front porch. The sound quality is terrible and there's just no insight into the group. Save your money and instead rent our copy of Banks Tarver's *wonderful* GBV
Neil Hagerty (Royal Trux) must think that the pinnacle of "Good Old Rock And Roll" is the explosion of major label alternative rock bands from the early to mid '90s, like Blind Melon or the Spin Doctors. Is this supposed to be ironic? Either way, this is a
AQ customer Rick Kitch, Jeph Jerman and Randy Grief collaborate in His Master's Voice, in a similar fashion as on Chine Nual's amazing plate lunch release, with Grief and Jerman doing most of the recording.This time wire fencing is the main source (as well
This is a cdr (not an LP!) jam-packed (19 tracks!) with recordings of HNIA live radio performances from 1992 to 1998. Leading into their radical shift into torchy soul jazz territory of the late '90s, the songs here are mostly of the raw, folky pop kind.
"Barely Legal," the debut album from Swedish garage rockers The Hives, gets its domestic release on none other than Gearhead Records, whose catalog includes numerous full-throttle punk rock bands including The Pattern and Red Planet. This cd was
Sweden's The Hives finally fire up a second full length after a three year wait. And quite an awesome, rockin' one it is! Since their debut, they've clearly honed their rock style, stance and power. This album was released in 2000 in Europe on the Burning
When experimental composer John Hudak began working on his minimalist piece "Don't Worry About Anything; I'll Talk To You Tomorrow," he originally thought it would be released on vinyl, and so constructed two distinct movements (for the record's two
Hudak's work maintains a tenuous relationship with language, in particular the parallel between minimalism and haiku's communication of complex imagery through self-imposed restrictions. "Don't Worry About Anything" is one of Hudak's most evocative pieces, as he has stretched out the syllabic utterances of his mother's reassuring message into a delicate latticework of slow moving crystalline frequencies that exude a restrained sadness. That said, the unreleased movement doesn't really offer much more than the previously available version (which is ok if you don't have that), and neither do the remixes / reinterpretations on disc one by Jason Lescalleet, M. Behrens, Sukora, and Peter Duimelinks. However, disc two is far more interesting, with remixes / reinterpretations by Francisco Lopez, Eric Lanzillotta, Frans De Waard, and Leif Elggren. These four have all pulverized the original source material into granular rumblings and dense textural drones that offer uneasy responses to the delicacy of the original.
This, the 9th-or-so cd from guitarist Gentry Densley's Salt Lake City based musical collective Iceburn, comes packaged in a 6x8 manilla envelope containing the cd and also an eight-part essay discussing the band's evolution from their Victory-label
The recording itself documents a two-guitar + saxophone and percussion incarnation of the ever-shifting Iceburn lineup, recorded live to minidisc with "bass ghosts" overdubbed later by guest Adam Lane.
Ambient drone and itchy improv clatter collide with some really intense out-guitar demolition on this disc. As the liner notes suggest, fans of Rudolph Grey's Blue Humans (and other like minded heavy guitar skronk) will be pleased. Avant-hardcore-free improv done with passion, sincerity, dedication, and most importantly, inspiration.
This album number two from Ilitch (a.k.a. Thierry Muller), originally released in 1980 and finally reissued in its entirety with a bonus disc of unreleased/live material. '10 Suicides' is record of dark and claustrophobic, primitive and noisy, electronic
Back in the early '90s, a 19 year old kid made his first mark upon music as "the guitarist from Illusion Of Safety." That kid then went on to produce a couple of interesting records amongst his huge catalogue of sonic eccentricities, always seeming to be in the
Anyway, Dan Burke founded Illusion of Safety in the mid '80s as a schizophrenic continuation of Industrial Culture as a theatrical means of exposing the cracks within culture and human nature. It is true that a good number of the early Illusion Of Safety albums haven't aged all that well (including a number that O'Rourke worked on!); but Burke and his rotating core of collaborators certainly learned what worked (manipulated field recordings and disturbed ambience) and what didn't (grim media sound bites and hamfisted electro-shock rhythms). "In Opposition To Our Acceleration" finds a matured Illusion Of Safety deftly constructing psycholological tense atmospheres from amplified electrical currents, found sounds, microtonal guitar pluckery, and unnerving drones. The pinnacle of the album occurs during a collage from the chinese water torture of a very slow leak dripping into a bucket, alongside a distant choral chant and some nervous sustained tones. A few of the tracks do vector off into the MAX / MSP territory of timestretching samples and glitch fragmentation, but fits nicely into the textural potency of the album as a whole. Along with "Cancer" and "Probe", "In Opposition To Our Acceleration" is one of the best Illusion Of Safety albums.
Here's the seventh cd (!) from Berlin's foremost acoustic 12-string manipulator. We liked last year's "Inside" disc from Junghans (his first domestic release), and this one follows suit with more of his explorations in "minimalist solo steelstring guitar".
Kawabata Makoto (better known in his adult incarnation as the Father Yod like ringleader of Acid Mother's Temple) was a precocious Japanese kid at the age of 13 when he made these recordings. Like his Dark Revolution Collective album that was recorded about the same time in 1978, the only instrument that Kawabata had access to was a borrowed synthesizer, which he tweedled and modulated to
One guy and his acoustic guitar, conjuring up the spirits of Kottke, Basho, and Fahey. Gentle, mellow, folk-classical guitar explorations, pretty and somewhat melancholy. Kunin's playing, while adept and intricate, is not as out there as what fellow
Although dark and languorous and dreamy and romantic, Lamb's third full length is still a little bit of a disappointment, at least when stacked up against their past efforts. The sound is definitely more polished and more commercial, and definitely a little
Mr. Lewis is my hero. He was the first to popularize perversion with his low budget B movies and bring it to the the drive in. And to the people. Without his original low-fi nasty gore, who knows where some of us would be. And who knows which of your favorite
We stocked up on this one, but it'll probably still go real fast 'cause, well, the word for fans of either band is "rabid". You know what I'm talking about if you're one of 'em. And it's on colored vinyl, a nice marbled orange color. The music? Extreme
After a dozen obscure tapes and cds, this is the "final onslaught" of raw, hellish black metal from this Czech (or Slovak? Yikes, I don't want to piss them off! ...ok, they're Czech. Whew!) trio. Fast, frosty, corpse-painted, old-school style ("No keyboards!!
"Lifesblood" is the debut from Atlanta's Mastodon, and we have to say that this 5-song ep has us eagerly awaiting their upcoming full-length! Crushing riffs and rhythms, punishing drums, and razorsharp lead guitar...they play math-rock metalcore worthy of a
