FINALLY REISSUED!!! While it's always a pleasure to listen the classic recordings of Organum, I've resigned myself to the possibility that David Jackman has quietly ceased all of his current musical operations and has been merely reissuing much of the huge back catalogue of his solo work and Organum from the '80s (what no Monoplane?). "Volume One" was one of the first documents of the Jackman / Organum reissues, collecting material from "Rasa" (originally produced as a split with Nurse With Wound on United Dairies) and the L.A.Y.L.AH. anti-records "Tower of Silence" and "In Extemis." Like everything else Jackman released, "Volume One" quickly went out of print and began fetching hefty sums on eBay. Fortunately, this has come back into print (but probably not for long); so those without a disposable income can afford to hear the wonderful paradox that is Organum.
The timeless, acoustic drones that make up the music of Organum could have been made for the beginning of the world or for its final breath; yet Jackman has always avoided assigning any specific metaphors to his work. Instead, this is music that attempts to exist purely within its own context, unconcerned with anything beyond its self-defined borders. Grinding motorcycle engines, steel strung instruments, bowed metal, and Japanese flutes are the instruments that continuously re-appear throughout Organum's recordings. However grim, Industrial, grating, dissonant, or punishing Organum could be with such instrumentations, Jackman always manages to arrange his work to emphasize the dynamic and often beautiful tonalities of those sounds. For those fans of Mirror, Andrew Chalk, Birchville Cat Motel, Oren Ambarchi, and other drone obssessed composers, Organum's recordings are required listening.
Newst release from the super prolific, ultra complex, totally hyphenated (you know...avant-thrash-free-jazz-math-rock) grinding, sort-of metallic, sort-of free jazz, totally inspiring, absolutely irritating, noodle-riffic instrumental duo from New Jersey. Featuring Mick Barr from AQ faves Crom Tech, Orthrelm, continue on in the same direction, making mind bogglingly complicated progmetalfreejazz with high end guitar and splattery drumming in concise, one minute-ish bursts. Think the Ruins and Pig Destroyer and Albert Ayler all playing different versions of the same songs at THE SAME TIME. This certainly falls under the heading: DIFFICULT. And Orthrelm is definitely the kind of band that separates the men from the boys, or the geeks from the SUPER geeks, or the people who love music that annoys the fuck out of most people on earth and those that don't. You've been warned!
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Multi-instrumentalist John Parish weaves together a mostly instrumental record with the help of some highly qualified friends such as Howe Gelb, Eric Drew Feldman, PJ Harvey and more. A good deal of the tracks laid down here sound as if they would make the perfect soundtrack to a Hal Hartley film. Some of the other instrumentals just sound like they're unfinished rock songs from the sketch book. For the most part this album is just "okay". Maybe, aside from the lack of any songs that stand out, there's just an absense of coherency that would hold the album together. Not that rock albums need to be concept albums, but one that consists primarily of very "filmic" instrumental material sort of begs for, if not leit motifs, then something to bind it together. But what really makes us cringe is the absolutely un-called for "Airplane Blues" at the end of the album, in which PJ Harvey sings some of the worst blues vocals on the whitest blues jam since Jon Spencer. Sure it's a joke, but the type of joke that's best left for the band and the engineer to enjoy in private.
Woo-hoo! At last, cd reissues of the three classic studio albums by seminal British freak-rock act the Pink Fairies are again available, and not only that, they're inexpensively priced, remastered editions complete with bonus tracks and nice, colorful illustrated booklets! Previously they were only to be found on cd as high-priced Japanese imports (although this one did get a reissue in 1998, now superceded by this new Polydor pressing), and have been out of print and truly impossible to find even then for almost a decade now. So, a happy day it was when we learned we'd be getting these! While it's true that the scarcity of Pink Fairies product (not counting the many discs compiling live stuff and out-takes and reunions that until now were all you'd find in the Pink Fairies bins) has perhaps made 'em out to be more fantastic than they really were (such are the pitfalls of legendary status) these discs really do hold up as psychedelic, proto-punk early '70s rock sets. A British Stooges they're not, but a sillier, even more anarchistic, hippified MC5 isn't too far off.
Kings Of Oblivion is their aptly-titled third (and last proper) album, featuring future founding Motorhead member, guitarist Larry Wallis, replacing original Fairies guitarist Paul Rudolph (who left to take Lemmy's spot in Hawkwind). And of course, founding Fairy Twink was long gone by the time this LP came out in '73. But the Fairies new Wallis/Hunter/Sanderson line-up was a strong one. Here you can hear the last gasp of the hippy psychedelic sixties meeting the wasted hard rock seventies, making for some pre-punk, post-psych rawk that, at its best, sounds sorta like a cross between that other Pink band (Floyd) and, well, Motorhead. Wallis steps up to the plate with a bunch of energetic compositions (one of 'em co-written with former Fairy Mick Farren), including ripping instrumental "Raceway" and the epic and Alice Cooper-ish number "I Wish I Was A Girl".
Remastered and blessed with bonus tracks: the single and alternate versions of a song called "Well, Well, Well", the single track "Hold On" and an alternate take of album lead-off track "City Kids".
Kings Of Oblivion wraps up the Pink Fairies trilogy, certainly all albums of interest to those into the rock/protest counter-culture of the early '70s.
Woo-hoo! At last, cd reissues of the three classic studio albums by seminal British freak-rock act the Pink Fairies are again available, and not only that, they're inexpensively priced, remastered editions complete with bonus tracks and nice, colorful illustrated booklets! Previously they were only to be found on cd as high-priced Japanese imports (although Kings of Oblivion did get a reissue in 1998, now superceded by its new Polydor pressing), and have been out of print and truly impossible to find even then for almost a decade now. So, a happy day it was when we learned we'd be getting these! While it's true that the scarcity of Pink Fairies product (not counting the many discs compiling live stuff and out-takes and reunions that until now were all you'd find in the Pink Fairies bins) has perhaps made 'em out to be more fantastic than they really were (such are the pitfalls of legendary status) these discs really do hold up as psychedelic, proto-punk early '70s rock sets. A British Stooges they're not, but a sillier, even more anarchistic, hippified MC5 isn't too far off.
The Fairies got started as the spawn of Mick Farren's Deviants, and Steve Peregrine Took's Shagrat, and Twink's, uh, Twink. Brothers in arms with fellow "people's band" Hawkwind, the Fairies (with a constantly shuffling line-up -- Mick Farren left early on) were an underground festival fixture in the UK, with an anti-commercial, anti-establishment attitude that certainly did anticipate the '77 punk explosion, while sonically they were all over the place, from punkish rockers to tripped-out jams to poppier stuff.
Neverneverland was their recorded debut, from 1971, and contains their best known song, "Do It", an anthem for yippies everywhere, later to be covered by the Rollins Band (and we hear the Cherry Valence do it, ahem, live). When, as above, the Pink Fairies are referred to as a "proto-punk" band, this song is one of the reasons. Elsewhere on the record, they get into mellower psych zones (like "Heavenly Man" and the title track), biker rock ("Teenage Rebel") and of course hippy jam-rock (the ten-minute-plus "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout"). Bonus tracks include heavy-duty rocker "The Snake" (a-side of the Fairies first single, which had "Do It" on the flip!), a twelve and a half minute alternate take of "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", and alternate mixes/edits of two other album tracks.
The Fairies line-up for this album included guitarist Paul Rudolph and drummer John "Twink" Alder, and they were the major players/composers here, just as they were on Twink's fantastic 1970 solo album Think Pink, which in some ways was the real debut of the Pink Fairies.
Woo-hoo! At last, cd reissues of the three classic studio albums by seminal British freak-rock act the Pink Fairies are again available, and not only that, they're inexpensively priced, remastered editions complete with bonus tracks and nice, colorful illustrated booklets! Previously they were only to be found on cd as high-priced Japanese imports (although Kings of Oblivion did get a reissue in 1998, now superceded by its new Polydor pressing), and have been out of print and truly impossible to find even then for almost a decade now. So, a happy day it was when we learned we'd be getting these! While it's true that the scarcity of Pink Fairies product (not counting the many discs compiling live stuff and out-takes and reunions that until now were all you'd find in the Pink Fairies bins) has perhaps made 'em out to be more fantastic than they really were (such are the pitfalls of legendary status) these discs really do hold up as psychedelic, proto-punk early '70s rock sets. A British Stooges they're not, but a sillier, even more anarchistic, hippified MC5 isn't too far off.
What A Bunch Of Sweeties was the Fairies second album, still featuring guitarist Paul Rudolph but without original Fairy Twink, who split to Morocco after the first album. Fortunately, although Twink played drums, they already had a second drummer, Russell Hunter, in the band, so slimming down to a trio wasn't too difficult. They certainly kept their "deviant" sense of humor, even getting the guy who did the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comix to pen lyrics to one song, "Pigs Of Uranus". Amidst the silliness, though, the Fairies might actually have managed more straight-up acid rock on this album than their debut, with one of its highlights being their nine-minute long, heavily distorted cover of surf classic "Walk Don't Run" (an even longer, alternate take of which appears as one of the two bonus tracks). Like the MC5, the Pink Fairies obviously felt that the Revolution was Rock n' Roll and Rock n' Roll was Revolution, evident from the album's lead off good times rocker with the countercultural, political message of "Right On, Fight On" to the last track, their cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There". With their whiskey-soaked vocals, psychedelic excursions, pop hooks, and freak-flag attitude, the Fairies were too eclectic and scattered and messed up to have much of a "career" (you could never really imagine 'em ending up as a metal or punk or even Hawkwind style spacerock band). But at least What A Bunch Of Sweeties and their other two albums remain as fun artifacts of their existence, and it's nice have 'em available again for us to sample that long-gone vibe today.
Bonus tracks: the gruff, bluesy "Going Down" and the aforementioned even-more epic "Walk Don't Run (first version)".
A new issue -- the second ever -- of one of our favorite local magazines, the eclectic and unusual Proof, published and edited by dapper AQ-customer Neil Martinson. Proof #1 came out a few years ago, and we've been waiting patiently since then, never faltering in our belief that one day we'd be seeing more proof of Proof's unique perspective in the world of 'zinedom.
Proof is a journal of arts and culture -- sometimes quite obscure, but always interesting. I'd pretty much guarantee you'll learn something from reading an issue. You get your $5.95 worth, this sure isn't a throw-away zine. Yes, there's "pop-culture" content, stuff about movies and music. But even that's got quite an obscure slant -- a Caroliner interview, a piece on Plastikville Records, an autobiographical piece by editor Martinson deaing with Disney movies made by Patrick "The Prisoner" MacGoohan in the masked avenger role of Dr. Syn, the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh -- but also some deep philosophical discussions with the likes of Goethean scholar Dennis Klocek, deep thoughts about sheep and goats, an essay about the dadists' girlfriends, and much much more (including additional info about scarecrows as a sidebar to the Disney movie piece). Plus cartoons by Archer Prewitt and Bradley Johnson. It's a lot to take in, requiring a bit of an intellectual curiosity or at least a poetic spirit -- certainly qualities present in most, if not all Aquarius customers!
Now, WITHOUT the limited bonus dvd disc! Here's what we said about this last time for those that somehow overlooked it... This one scarcely needs a review. By now you've been hearing this record on the radio and MTV and in malls. Odds are you already own this if you like the Queens Of The Stone Age previous albums, or you bought it for the single. Or you loved Kyuss and think the Queens suck. But setting all that aside, and taking this record just on its musical merits, 'Songs For The Deaf' is a kick ass hard rock/pop rock record. Great sound, great songs! What's not to like? This is easily their best record since their super heavy debut. 'Songs For The Deaf' has it's heavy moments, and the warm fuzzy Kyuss guitars are still in effect, but it's way more of a pop record. And while they do stretch out occasionally, with headbanging stoned desert jams, things always return to the hook. Which is not a bad thing. Just the opposite. And the addition of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees and solo) have added a lot in terms of sonic breadth and songwriting complexity. Way more dynamic and WAY MORE CATCHY. Listen to the sound samples and you'll be sold. The last "hidden" track is a piano driven, string laden psychedelic pop epic. It -sounds- great, but just wish it was a better song (although our friend Drew is convinced it is a 'masterpiece'). But so what? This record is full of great songs!! Plus lots of weird guests: Dean Ween, Twiggy Ramirez, Casey Chaos, Blag Dahlia! The only downside, which has been an annoying QOTSA quirk from the beginning, is their relentless in-joking. This record is rife with said in-jokes, a bunch of stupid fake radio DJ's, occasional joke songs and the like. Easy to skip by but they tend to kill the flow of an otherwise solid record.
This is a project of Greg Cartwright of the Oblivians, whom I (Sadie) am a big fan of. His past recordings are sooo good, my favorite being Bad Man, which one of my other favorite bands, the Detroit Cobras, have covered brilliantly (both those releases are available on Sympathy for the Record Industry). Although I found this new project not to be quite charming or bittersweet as Greg's previous endeavors (his progress technically and the hi fi recording kinda bummed me out -- no more toy pianos and fucked up acoustic guitar, boo hoo), this is still a great and rockin' record, just different from what I liked about this other stuff, which was its sweet awkwardness and sad lyrics. What he's up to here sounds more like self confident laid back '70s-esque rock, a la The Rolling Stones or The Boss which ain't such a bad thing, to some. Indeed, some of Reigning Sound's songs (especially the title track) have the organ and vocal quality of old Bruce Springsteen records, big time.
Local DJ Romanowski and Greg "P-Nut" Galinsky put together an art show featuring sixteen pairs of plain white Adidas shell toes. each decorated to within an inch of its life by sixteen artists. Some of them look pretty cool, like Romanowski's which he bronzed and be-winged. The show opened in SF and will travel to LA, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, and finally NYC. Romanoski mixed this cd as a special soundtrack to accompany the show, and in addition to several of his own previously-unreleased tracks, there are contributions from Latyrx, Poets of Rhythm, Rad, Exotic Pets, Viva Brazil, etc. Fine mood music for an ultra hip event such as this. Made specially for the art show and limited to only a few stores. Nice photos of the shoes too.
Local laidback rockers Sappington sure take their own sweet time. Their first cdep came out in late 2000 and we've not heard a recorded peep from them since. They do play out occasionally though which reassured us that they were still making music. To refresh your memory, this trio makes lovely, drowsy, starry sky tunes. In the time since that first release, it appears they've grown quite a bit. Their sound is much more confident, developed and detailed. The male and female vocals are much more robust and front and center than I recall. The latter are very reminiscent of Carly Simon or Rebecca Gates, and they're warmly effective in contrast to the fuzzy washes of electronics in their "Airtight" remix which closes the second side of the 10". So dreamy and mellow, this entry fits well in the Dreams By Degrees seasonal series which also includes fellow mellows Colophon (Jef from Tarentel), Loquat, and Coastal.
It's a tough call, but I think I can safely say that Satyricon is definitely our #1 favorite black metal band. Burzum's Filosefem or Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse or Dissection's Storm Of The Light's Bane are certainly contenders for best black metal records ever, and there are hundreds of other mindblowing bands/records, but as far as consistancy and brutality and originality and forward thinkingness and sheer kick ass-ness, Satyricon leads the pack. After ten years and nary a false step, Satyricon continue to reign supreme. This commemorative box celebrates Satyricon's first decade in grand fashion compiling a greatest hits, with a song from their upcoming full length album Volcano to whet our appetites. Greatest hits are always a risk, and aren't always the way to go in terms of an introduction to a band, and Ten Horns is no different. If you were to buy only one Satyricon record, we would have to insist on the unsurpassed Nemesis Divina, a record that even non-metalheads here at AQ are proud to have in their collections. An frosty epic of grandiose, ultra complex and ultra brutal black metal. Melodies are pummelled with furious blast beats and walls of furious guitars. Two of that album's best tracks are included here including the classic "Mother North"! As are two tracks from their last record, the brilliantly titled Rebel Extravaganza, which is good enough to almost be Nemesis Divina pt. 2. Also included are some older tracks from their debut Dark Medieval Times and their less well known second record The Shadowthrone, more primitive and buzzing, but definitely hinting at the greatness to come. The big selling points though are the two exclusive tracks, "Serpent's Rise" exclusively for this compilation, and "Repined Bastard Nation" from their forthcoming Volcano record. The new direction is exciting, hinting at a slower doomier direction. We can't wait. Packaged in a fancy box, with an equally fancy digipak inside and a booklet of lyrics and exclusive photos past and present. As well as super cheesy centerfold of a dirty girl in a bikini, laying amidst all the Satyricon collectibles. Dumb! So if you're only ever gonna buy one Satyricon record, make it Nemesis Divina, but if you want a great overview of their recorded output, or you are a completist and need the exclusive track, or you can't wait and need a sneak peak of the new record, then you can't go wrong with this collection. SUPER LIMITED. So if you want one, ACT FAST!
Another "Archive FMP Edition" from Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. This 1969 recording features a veritable who's who of '60s/'70s Euro improv folks: Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Fred Van Hove, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Irene Schweizer, Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, trumpter/bandleader Schoof himself of course, and quite a few others. The usual suspects, in other words -- assembled into a big band with three pianists, three sax players, three trumpeters, three bassists, and two drummers, plus guitar and trombone (maybe this tripling of most instruments is where the "echoes" in the title comes from, although echoes are rarely this intense). Yes, as you might expect from such a large grouping, this is loud, powerful stuff, with solos from everyone and much massed music-making -- a blast of freedom sounds that heralded the birth of the Free Music Productions label and the new jazz scene FMP would promote. Two tracks (two LP sides) of about 15 minutes duration each, historically significant and still sonically fearsome. Crank it up!
This Schultz classic has been redone, rerecorded (!) and repackaged for those of you that missed out the first time. Here's what we had to say about it:
You may have seen Steven Schultz reading and eating donuts in the front row of the Mayhem show. Or you may remember him in pigtails and pajamas eating prunes in the pit at the Hammers Of Misfortune show. Or you may remember his hilarious and amazing lo-fi Naked City-ish 'History Of Vats' cd from a few years back. Or you may not know him at all. This cd marks SS's first recorded foray into the world of rap music, and boy, it's something. Musically notable for the fact that the instruments are all real (all played by the multitalented Steve), and dramatically notable for the fact that the skits are all acted out by Steven's friends. And then there's the rapping. White and whiney as you may have expected, but lyrically, well, no one could have expected anyone to take on the persona of a rapping pirate ('Call Me Pinkbeard'), a rapping whale ('Fuck A Harpoon'), a rapping goth ('I Got Bigger Hair Than Robert Smith'), or a rapping eskimo ('Maniac With An Igloo'). Then there's Steve's attack on rap-metal ('Rap-Metal Is Funny')... Yes, it's incredibly dumb, but undeniably fucked and funny. Self-produced cd-r with color cover (art by Steve) and oh-so-essential lyric sheet. Maybe not the next Eminem, but perhaps the next MC Paul Barman?
Paradise was released in 1975, well after Sharrocks' first two, more experimental solo album excursions showcasing his avant jazz guitar, and it was the last record to be heard from him before his Laswell-nursed resurrection in the late '80s (Last Exit etc). Sharrock and wife Linda (yes, that's her lookin' beauteous on the cover) wanted this album to sound very R&B / funk, and thus it's a lot more accessible than Black Woman and Monkey Pockie Boo. There are these breathtakingly lovely pastoral passages where Linda vocalizes like an angel -- rarely pronouncing words, just *emitting* -- as Sharrock lays down a lush field to sink into as he gently plies pretty phrases from his guitar in the background. These parts are my favorite, and there's a good deal of it here. Other instrumental workouts feature Sharrock's trademark delightfully pling plong, bouncy, thrown-around guitar sounds, and then sometimes he tames it all down into honest to gosh R&B licks, with the rest of the band right there gettin' down boogie woogie with 'im. The combination is a little headscratchy at first but ultimately you may, as I did, fall in love with it. Well written liner notes by Byron Coley. Windy gives this the thumbs up.
It's nice to know that while doing very well with the likes of Boards of Canada and Vincent Gallo, Warp Records still looks to the nether regions of underground electronica for new artists. Sote is a new signing for Warp and supposedly hails from "relatively remote wilds of Northern California" (but as we discovered, he's a super nice guy that goes to recording school with AQ pal Drew) The first single for Warp is happy-go-lucky run through distorto-crunched electronics filtering a complex array of Amen drum 'n' bass breaks, sort of sounding like Venetian Snares reliving the glories of British hardcore rave circa 1991 (i.e. Altern8, The Hypnotist, Prodigy, Messiah).
From Faithways, the label what brought us that extreme example of American religious fuckery The Church Universal And Triumphant, comes two songs from the leader of the Japanese Cult Aum Shinri Kyo. The cult made history in 1995 when they set off sarin nerve-gas in a crowded Tokyo subway, killing 11 people and injuring 5000 (they were later charged for the murder of another 14 people -- some quite gruesomely, as described within the accompanying booklet.) The nearly blind leader Shoko Ashara fancied himself a bit of a singer / songwriter, much like fellow cult leaders Charles Manson, David Koresh (whose rock band is featured on the label's first release) and even the lovable Anton LaVey. Musically, Shoko's songs most resemble the latter cultist's works, but with an even greater whimsy that he could be jokingly referred to as Casiotone For The Pathologically Deranged. Better yet, take Nagisa Ni Te, drop the vocals a couple-three octaves, change the instrumental accompaniment to casio keyboards, throw in melodic hints to "It's A Small World After All" and you can almost hear the weird world of Shoko Ashara. Unfortunately it's just not quite as interesting a listen as Elizabeth Clare Prophet and her cronies at the Church Universal & Triumphant, but maybe that's what happens when you put all your psychotic religious beliefs into plotting mass murder instead of wacky and innovative sermons. Comes with a 6 page booklet detailing the cult's history.
A darkly simmering second album (their first for Touch & Go). These five Pacific Northwest lads bring together quite an array of styles and sounds: lushly orchestrated rock (a la Radiohead, Coldplay, Doves), slow to mid tempo post-rock (like the loud/quiet bass, tumbling chimes, piano and gentle guitars of Tristeza or Sonna), occasional electronics, processed rhythm tracks and slightly new wave-ish / post-punk synths (but please don't be mistaken, this is definitely not another retro-80s dance record... no way! the synths add textural elements rather than melody). Over top it all is a wearily angstful male voice that swoops from a frail whisper to a hollered yelp (the latter really reminded me of that Canadian band Tragically Hip) - high on both dramatics and dynamics. This album can be somewhat dreary and creeping at times, somberly intriguing and nicely detailed at others... depending on your mood, I s'pose.
Japanese guitar improviser Taku Sugimoto (whose gentle, sparse style has made him an AQ-fave) teams up with German electro-acoustic guitarist Annette Krebs (who must live in Japan, as she constantly collaborates in that scene), to make a duo record of popping, scraping, droning, hissing, chiming, buzzing, crackling sounds for Sugimoto's Slub label. Sugimoto's measured, quiet playing, with his isolated melodic moments, is almost too fragile to successfully blend with the random percussive sound-events being conjured by Krebs (we assume, though of course it's hard to tell who is making what sound). This Eine Gitarre Ist... disc certainly IS worthy of investigation by Sugimoto and/or Krebs fans (and Keith Rowe or Kevin Drumm fans too for that matter), but to be honest we'd rather have seen this live, and just listen to a solo Sugimoto disc at home. There IS plenty of the silence and near-silence that characterizes Sugimoto's style, it's just that it too often comes as a relief from the parts that sound like someone (Krebs most likely) is slowly breaking her guitar into little bits. We like to listen to stuff like that too, just not when Sugimoto is playing. But others may disagree, so check it out.
A Temporary Residence tour de force. Four songs that I think originated as Sonna tracks, which were then lovingly messed with by the fine folks in Sybarite and Lilienthal. Not simply a remix ep, mind you but a real back and forth collaboration of sorts. Anyway, the results are lovely, as any fan of the three bands already knows. Sonna's interweaving dual guitars are subsumed under a light cloud of electronic effects, with all efforts turned towards making the results pretty with a capital P. Quiet burbly electronica with enough organic sounds (those guitars) to keep it grounded. If you're new to the Temporary Residence label's sound, this is a good a place as any to sample the talents of three of its strongest acts.
Excellent album! Tarwater come out of a very fertile German electronica meets rock scene, one which has also sprouted To Rococo Rot and Kreidler, both big AQ faves. You want details? OK -- Tarwater is the duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram. Ronald and brother Robert are in To Rococo Rot along with Stefan Schneider who is in Kreidler and who also lends his keyboard sound to Tarwater on a track here. Jestram has engineered a couple of To Rococo Rot's recordings.
This close proximity has resulted in a some amazingly beautiful records from all three of these groups, and as a whole they just keep bettering themselves for our delight. Dwellers On The Threshold is one of the very best of the bunch. Just gorgeous! About half instrumental, the album's vocal tracks feature Lippok's vocals which are a morose sort of talk / sing murmur that reminds me of Tindersticks. Several of the tracks feature bittersweet strings and the exact same lush plucked harp-sounding thing that made the last Kreidler record Eve Future so stunning. There's lots and lots of serenely picked guitar amongst the programmed beats that don't call too much attention to themselves; rather it's the melody and songwriting that stand out. And the whole thing runs on a consistently stately pace. Really well done. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of the Notwist, Fridge, Tindersticks, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler, etc. A big fave of Windy and Allan.
Wayne Magruder's avant-rock resume includes current membership in Calla and previous work with Main as the touring drummer in 1996 and as the drummer for Bowery Electric's exceptional "Beat" album. His Tenecke solo project is considerably more angular than any of those aforementioned projects, but does share the over-arching methods of bridging midi-synchronized electronics to rock structures. With a swaggering drum machine crunch guiding the way for swampy guitar stabs and oblong basslines, Magruder crafts a stiff electro-funk somewhere in between '80s Tackhead and the beloved recombination found on Milk Cult's "Project M-13."
Hearing this re-issue of both the second and third album from The Three O'Clock combined on one disc sure took me back. A flood of high school memories. It seemed to have the same effect on a couple of customers too. One exclaimed, "Jet Fighter!" And while yes, that was an insanely infectious song by The Three O'Clock, it's not on this cd. Pssst, it can be found on their delectably sweet debut album Sixteen Tambourines. Nevertheless, these two albums really captured the buoyant, innocent sound of the paisley pop scene of the mid-'80s with its high male vocals and jingle jangle guitars.
Remixes by Dan The Automator, Prefuse 73, John Herndon (Tortoise), Dabrye, and Jonathan K (Trans Am's sound guy). Three songs off of Trans Am's last studio album, TA, get the treatment ("Cold War", "Infinite Wavelength", and "Different Kind of Love") from these five remixers. That means, in the case of Herdon and Jonathan K's "Cold War" and Dan the Automator and Prefuse 73's "Different Kind of Love", you can compare and contrast the different styles of remix, from dark electro to party-hardy hiphop.
When a friend made the mistake of loaning me the original lp version of this record, I fell immediately in love with it and refused to give it back. Luckily for him, and all of us, its turn has come in the line of ESP reissues.
This was the first recording as group leader from Tyler, who spent time playing baritone with Cecil Taylor and appears on Albert Ayler's "Bells" and the monumental "Spirits Rejoice." Bassist Henry Grimes and cellist Joel Friedman also played with Ayler, while drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and Charles Moffet, who contributes orchestra vibes, both spent time drumming with Ornette Coleman.
Beginning with almost delicate interspersings of dual bass/ cello arco, prominent vibes, and Tyler's vibrato-heavy alto skittering, by the second track the quintet is in full frenzy mode (at times very reminiscent, understandably, of Ayler's detourned marches). All the players are awesome, from the hyper speed-bop to gentle and textural playing of Jackson, to the welcome brightness of Moffet's vibes -- but the real key to my love of this album is Joel Friedman's fantastic cello playing. Working frantically, Friedman stretches the full range of his instrument's notes and multiple textures in full throated, layered harmonic, truly intense fashion, and provides an extremely interesting focal point while never overwhelming Tyler's soloing. While not attaining the pummeling highs of the canon of free jazz classics, this is still a great session of some very talented and under-appreciated musicians. Compelling listening.
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.
The presence of Edward Ka-Spel and Silverman will undoubtably cause the tiny pressing of this compilation to sell-out to the legions of Legendary Pink Dots fans. But even without them, "Electrically Induced Vibrations" makes for a pretty good listen, populated with an LPD-like aesthetic of dark grandeur, conceptually minded artfulness, idiosyncratic production, and arcane mythologies. Along with Ka-Spel and Silverman, there's Cylobe (featuring ex-Coil members Stephen Thrower and Steve Norris offering an abstraction of glitched electronics with downwardly spirally clarinet bleetings), Colin Potter (Ora and Nurse With Wound collaborator doing quiet dronework), Omit (AQ's favorite NZ misanthrope producing a restrained version of wooden loops and synthetic washes), and Mistress of Strands (mixing vibrato electronics with lifting female vocalizations that sounds very Projekt records), as well as Steve Thomsen, Arkkon, and Fibrillation. Anomalous pressed up a mere 428 copies of this album, so be quick. Housed in a nicely silkscreened Siwa cover.
This is not *really* a new item here at Aquarius, but we realised that even though we sell tons of these on a regular basis, we have never listed it. So we thought we'd mention its existence to those of you who might not have the oppurtunity to stumble across it in our bins. Mountain Music of Kentucky is a collection originally compiled by photographer John Cohen and released as a single LP in 1960. The CD reissue comes expanded to two discs, expanding the project a full 60 minutes. The recordings, all made in 1959, document the music of rural Kentucky -- specifically, the Appalachian mountains. Whether it's solo voice accompanied by guitar or a banjo or a full blown church choir, the tracks collected here are all fucking great and guaranteed to raise the hairs on your arms to rigid spikes. And if you don't have hair on your arms, you'll think you did. Among the most well represented (track wise) of the 14 artists on these two discs is AQ fave and kick ass banjo picker Roscoe Holcomb, who gets a healthy 22 cuts. But probably the most eerie and heart stopping tracks on this disc are the two tracks (a mere 12 minutes) of the Old Baptist Church which are powerful enough to put the fear of god into the most straight laced athiest. Includes a fat 36 page booklet with notes and gorgeous photos by John Cohen. This one comes very highly recommended.
Where many of the 'Readers Digest' collections of electronica are generic codifications of style (as is the case with so many of the Mille Plateaux compilations), "Open Source Code" works in concentrating less on the 'who's hot' model of curation and more on collecting tracks that are well grounded in the fundamentals of techno. Good, well crafted techno always gives the appearance of effortlessness, and the majority of the tracks here display that effortlessness by emphasizing the minimalist bent for techno with only a few hic-cups of the overwrought conceptualization that has plagued the current 'click-hop' strain of electronica. "Open Source Code" is a presentation from Source Records and Ableton Software (whose Live program was used to construct the recent Scion mix of the Basic Channel back catalogue); and features some very polite cuts of minimal club techno from Akufen, Jan Jelinek, S.E. Berlin (aka Sun Electric), Robert Lippok (from Tarwater and To Rococo Rot), Bton, Sutekh, Thomas Brinkmann, Smyglyssna, Move D, Alex Cortex, Monolake, and Studio Pankow.
Another ear shredding, lung collapsing, skull crushing, hair raising, gut wrenching, ass kicking, soul soothing, spiritually devastating missive from out pals at Fflint (supplying us with some of the best experimental electronica in the world!) to tide you over until the results due from the even more unholy alliance between Berkowitz, Lake and Dahmer and our own Andee's tUMULt label.
This here 'Unholy Trinity' collects tracks from Fflint regulars Berkowitz, Lake and Dahmer and Cousin Silas as well as newcomer The Gideon Leeches. The 'Leeches start things off with some shimmery ambience, underpinned by a shuffling jazzy snare and lots of crystalline burbling and what sounds like the theme from the Partfridge Family, slowed down and transmitted from the bottom of a swamp. Track two finds the Leeches in more of a noisy mood, weaving together synth pulses, timestretched buzz and clattery mahinery into a drizzly doomy soundscape. Cool stuff. Look forward to more in the future. Tracks 3 and 4 come courtesy of Cousin Silas, who has one Fflint full length under his belt. Track three is a gently dreamy ambient wash of soothing tones and warm thrum. Track four is SCARY. Creepy castle ambience, with drones, and distant clanks and skittering insects in your headphones, threatening to find their way into your dark warm brain. Berkowitz, Lake and Dahmer close things out with two tracks of ominous doom and gloom. Like the soundtrack to an Argento or Fulci film, this stuff is SINISTER to the nth degree. Gloomy ambient drones and ghoulish wails swirl through the abyss while people chant what sounds like 'Do it!' in the distance. Huge throbbing bass notes punctuate the grim atmosphere and the anguished (and heavily reverbed) voices of disembodied spirits reach from beyond the grave. By the final track, a thick granular drone is introduced adding tension to the already frightening proceedings, while Keith Emerson keyboards are dismantled and slowed down and spread in a thick paste over the whole damn thing until the whole thing finishes in a cacaphonous burst of desiccated samples and dismantled melodies. Another awesome release from the mighty Fflint central!
Having greatly enjoyed the Rapid Transit compilation and the full length releases from While, Sluta Leta and Push Button Objects, I rejoiced at the sight of a new Chocolate Industries label compilation. Alas, while I know there are folks out there who'll like this, I have to admit it's not doing much for me. There are standout pieces from adventurous hip hoppers such as El-P and RJD2, Aesop Rock, Mos Def & Diverse, Aesop Rock, Souls of Mischief, and especially the mysterious, excellent Themselves, who cackle their verses in a way that must be heard to be believed. But the pieces in between these tracks are basically electronica filler, especially Prefuse-73's bland, jazzy groove that sounds like the trendy sort of mood music your local Urban Outfitters likes to play. Other disappointments include a Tortoise throwaway and stuff from Miho Hatori (Gorillaz, Cibo Matto), DJ Food, etc. Sigh. Get this for the smart hip hop (there's certainly enough here to make it worth it) and program out the stuff in between.
Modern psychedelic shamanistic troubadour and lord of fiery feedback howl Keiji Haino, along with legendary political folk radical Kan Mikami and veteran percussionist Toshiaki Ishitsuka (frequent Kazuki Tomokawa collaborator) comprise the so-called supergroup known as Vajra. Through several albums over the years, the improvisational trio has proven to continually evolve and remain as unclassifiable as any and all of their combined solo efforts. From the lyrically charged folk psychedelia of their early discs to the driven rhythmic force of their Ring album to the explosive sonic maelstrom and dynamism of Sichisiki: The Seventh Consciousness (an album not to be missed, Hainophiles!); a new album from Vajra carries with it a sense of newness and excitement. It demands you come without predilection and prejudice. Formed in the early nineties, the trio has grown to complement each others' unique languages. With Mandala Cat Last, they have inadvertantly metamorphosed themselves into a taut unit, rich in melody and musically cohesive. Their improvisations seem so natural and intentional, the fact that they are improvised doesn't even register as a technical aside. A short but sweet forty minutes, these six pieces are, like much of Mikami's oeuvre, tenebrous and graphic with that touch of mysticism only Haino can deliver. The opening cut, "The Sky Looks Green To Me", slowly builds a feral vocal interaction between Mikami and Haino. The disquieting and chilling vocal cries of the moving "Monkeys Don't Pray" are paired with haunting waves of distorted atmospherics and sparse percussive fits. An acapella break in the center of the album (from a revisited passage off of Mikami & Haino's Heisei recordings) is reciprocated by a warm instrumental closing hymn. Really beautiful, and though the lyrics are in Japanese, there are translations in the accompanying lyric sheets (and it turns out one of the songs has lyrics about Japanese cola!) -- which aren't totally necessary as the music, including Mikami's impassioned wails, transcends language and is quite engaging in its own right!
Solo guitar work from Keith Fullerton Whitman, using the laptop glitch parameters of his laptop as more of an effects box than the instrument itself. Artful and restrained solitary notes that sound much more like Loren Mazzacane Connors and very very far from his Hrvatski persona of fractured drum 'n' bass electronica.
A brief but sweet 5 song ep from this often misunderstood, experimental, heartbreakingly sad, depressing, eclectic indierock band. As we previously opined: The lead singer's voice is this super intense, desperate, achingly sad, warbly moan (a la The Cure / Talk Talk / Ultravox), and we're used to hearing that kind of voice accompanied with Brit-style synthpop stuff (i.e. "Melt With You"). Yet with Xiu Xiu the backup to that incredible voice is trumpets and saxophones and clattery percussion (bells, gongs, perhaps even pots 'n pans), with a solid yet obviously lo-fi Casio beat keeping time, and a far away echoey tone placed sporadically throughout. Totally accessable pop with an arty creative craziness to it. Xiu Xiu also plays with song structure and tense silences. What a breath of fresh air to find an "indie rock" band who pretty much throw all the predictable stuff out the window, leaving only originality. If you can get past the singer's voice (I can, easily, but Allan and Byram are making fun of it), then you oughta give this a try. Sadie and Windy give this the thumbs up.
This volume of the filmworks series collects Zorn's scores from three documentaries. Tzadik says: "A touch of minimalism laces the score to a film on the East Village dance scene. Haunting and childlike, the music for a documentary on outsider artist Morton Bartlett is tenderly scored for voice and cello. Finally, guitarist Marc Ribot goes head to head with chinese pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen for a film on the lives of Shaolin Monks now living and teaching in America." ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
