Not sure how many of you remember the Reverend Fred Lane. He was (is) a maniacal, big band jazz, Las Vegas-style showman, vocalising, testifying and spewing a litany of totally random craziness over a splattery, skronky, surreal big band blast of trainwreck horns, trap-kit down the stairs percussion, and wild octopus piano. Think a musical version of Neil Hamburger, only less pathetic and more disturbed. Or disturbing. Shimmy disc compiled two of his long out of print lps on cd years back, and that cd still ranks as one of my all time favorite records. So fucked, but so catchy and funny and noisy and just utterly damaged. There was a rumour of another Fred Lane record existing and slated for release on Shimmy Disc, but supposedly Lane broke into the Shimmy Disc office, stole the master tapes, and then ran nude through downtown New York unfurling the tape as he ran. How cool is that? So I was super excited when I got wind of this archival release of a 1975 performance, featuring Ron 'Pate's Debonairs, Lane's occasional back up band, and Lane as the MC and featuring loads of local luminaries from the vibrant Tuscaloosa, Alabama art scene. This document is less of a wild jazz free for all like the Lane records, and more like a demented variety show, equal parts wild free improvisation, 'serious' academic minimalism, wacky community theater, skronky jazz, drony tribal ambience, and good old straight up goofiness. Lane makes for an excellent emcee, channelling Wayne Newton through Neil Hamburger, trying to whip what sounds like a TINY audience into some sort of frenzy (with the help of lots of canned, pre-recorded applause) and even belts out a few sort-of-standards: 'My Kind Of Town', 'Volare', etc. But this isn't the Fred Lane show, unfortunately, as Lane mostly conducts raffles and performs random monologues. However, lack of Lane aside, things do get pretty interesting. Random ensembles perform pieces that range in sound from No Neck Blues Band style stumbly tribal folk, to drony medieval chamber music to ambient proto-industrial clang. There's even a performance of Concerto For Active Frogs, that should MOST DEFINITELY appeal to AQ customers, a piece composed for taped frogs, featuring a frog soloist, a frog chorus and various complimetary instruments. Pretty cool stuff. While there are some cringeworthy moments, some of the stand-up is BRUTAL and there's definitely a you-had-to-be-there-and-maybe-it-would-also-help-if-these-were-your-friends vibe, this is still pretty amazing and weird and well worth your time. And definitely try and track down the Fred Lane release on Shimmy Disc for a blast of the weirdest, skronkiest, big band creepiness you will ever hear.
The early nineties saw the big Krautrock revival, while more recently we've seen waves of interest in Swedish psychedelic folk reissues and Latin American garage rock of the sixties. But maybe now the next big old thing is '60s-'70s Middle Eastern psychedelic pop music. Really, soon we're gonna have to dedicate a bin here in the store for all the great (and popular) reissues that have been coming out lately, from the "Turkish Delights" and "Hava Narghile" compilations to albums by The Devil's Anvil and John Berberian's Rock East Ensemble, and most recently Erkin Koray's "Elektronik Turkuler".
Now, here's another one for that bin! It's apparently the second album from the three Hur-el brothers (Feridun, Onur, and Haldun), recorded between 1970 and 1975. A rare LP indeed, the original Diskotur pressing worth $1000+ today we're told. Dunno about that, but it's definitely worth eighteen bucks if you're into the undeniably kick-ass combination of traditional Turkish folk styles with the rock n' roll licks of the West. Middle Easternized rollicking pop rock with acid fuzz guitar and electric piano, plus Eastern ethnic percussion and stringed instruments, and emotive vocals in Turkish. Yup, 3 Hur-el play music that's been called "ethno-psychedelic" and "the heavy hashish sound"...real nice. One of the tracks here also appeared on the "Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelia" compilation. They also have a track on that "Hava Narghile" comp, but that was from an early single, not this album.
Nice little instrumental gem from Anticon soundsmith Alias, who's finally taking his lo-fi hip-hopscapes up a notch and giving DJ Shadow a run for his money. The sound here is moody, dark, gritty and cinematic, with loping downtempo beats, hazy sepia-toned ambience, and a dreamy, muted funkiness. Alias still keeps some of that Anticon under-produced weirdness intact, but manages to weave a thick sonic web that should appeal to Shadow fans as well as folks that dig Boards Of Canada and all sorts of dreamy/dreary electronica.
San Diego's Beehive And The Barracudas are back at it again, but this time they're taking a rather more subdued, smouldering and angular approach than on their previous two heart-pounding, ass-kicking albums. Still it's no less raw, and certainly no less immediate -- featuring a mix of live drums and old drum machines, dingy guitars and squidgy analog synths. And it's all topped off with some rad lanky boy / saucy girl vocals. The third song "Stuck On The Bus" echoes with a certain bluesy Television-ness, and the rest of the album definitely has that early '80s New York art rock grittiness. Think of this as the soundtrack to the after-party that just might follow a whiskey 'n' jet-fueled Beehive live frenzy.
This is the stuff!!! Pure, grim, cult, frosty, necro, dirge-y, buzzing, midtempo, Burzumic and Mayhemic black metal from Russia! No keyboards, or corpse paint, or even long hair for that matter! Just simple, brutal, stripped down TRUE black metal. Swarming guitars, pounding drums, and anguished, tortured vocals (ala SF black metal legends Weakling) make up this nihilistic hellbrew of cacophonous brutality. Blackdeath are the brilliantly monickered duo of Para Bellum and Abysslooker, and Fucking Fullmoon Foundation will surely sate your unquenchable thirst for primitive grimness.
I only ever knew Glenn Branca as "the guitar orchestra guy" responsible for assembling huge groups of guitarists (often well known rock guitarists), to perform huge, throbbing, hypnotic and repetitive compositions -- some for ten guitarists, fifty guitarists, even one hundred guitarists. The recent Rhys Chatham box, reviewed a few lists back, suggested that perhaps Branca's guitar orchestra concept was 'borrowed' from Chatham, as Branca had performed in many of Chatham's multiple guitar ensembles. But in much the same way that we were surprised by the rock-ness of the early Chatham material, this early recording from Branca and his four guitar/bass/drums outfit has much more in common with noisy post punk/post rock: Bastro, Bitch Magnet, Slint and the like, than Ligeti, Penderecki, Messiaen or any of the other names dropped in Lee Ranaldo's liner notes. Extended drony, atonal rhythmic explorations stretch on and on, building horror-movie-minor-key tension, building and building and building, before bursting into unrelenting rock rhythm/riffs. Lots of the more rock parts sound like an instrumental version of North Western punk rockers The Wipers, but with lots of odd dynamics ala Bastro or Slint and with the extended riff repetition of modern minimalism stretching the songs into droning, hypnotic master works. Throbbing and relentless, pounding and intricate, weaving back and forth between ferocious, unrelenting rock-action, and epic, complex geometric stop/start, hypno-minimalism.
The Bright Grey Wing make music just like in the good ol' early '90s days in Olympia, WA when lo-fi twee pop and K Records were king. That is, heart-on-your-sleeve, cardigan sweater tunes with earnest sing-song gal vocals that do the hokey-pokey with the tuning fork every now and again. Seventeen (!) intimate, bare bones, bedroom-y songs ranging in length from a mere 21 seconds to three and half minutes. Ever so marshmallow soft 'n' sweet, I closes with a 32-second rendition of Jim Morrison's "The End".
In 2001 East Bay's Catfive released a good record filled with unlikely samples -- Fela-style afrofunk, Brazilian batucada, lounge, moments of dub, scratching that sounds like a twisted harmonica -- that worked so well atop a mix of beats and groove. The new 7" is somewhat timely -- a pro-peace, anti-war message -- but as such is maybe a little too predictable, featuring samples of Bush I and II, other politicians, journalists, Elvis, etc. Negativland is funnier, but Catfive's hearts are certainly in the right place. The B-side is a cool gimmick, though. It plays backward -- i.e. the needle starts in the middle and works its way outwards. It's a bunch of cartoon / old movie / tv samples with a similar political bent as side A, but without added music. On transparent red vinyl.
And now the third installment in our series of reviews of the recent Cocteau Twins' re-issues...
From the first two songs of Cocteau Twins' second album you get the feeling that this was perhaps the most haunting, mysterious and yes, goth album of their just shy of two decade long career - showcasing much dynamic and emotional depth. It's not until the third song that they suddenly release their firm shadowy hold on the dour, echoing catacomb depths, bursting forth with the glorious shimmer-pop number "Sugar Hiccup" and continuing the momentum on from there with much more aggressive guitars of "In Our Angelhood". With the departure of their fellow founding member bassist Will Heggie, the group was pared down to just the duo of Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser. Guthrie's guitarwork slinks, lurks sears and blisters through each of these ten songs. It's a perfect contrast to Fraser's unmistakable breathtaking fairy-speak vocal performance, and one that would only blossom and deepen immensely on following releases. Simply beautiful.
The time has come. That very special time, that only comes once in a long, long while. Open the gates! Unfurl the red carpet! Prepare thyselves! It's time to induct yet another record, into the eliteand exclusive pantheon of Andee's favorite flute records. The Pantheon currently looks about like this: Phill Niblock's Four Full Flutes, Eberhard Blum's Berlin To Buffalo, Comus' First Utterance, Koukiji Kougezan's The Live [11th] Final Hyakusenmansyuuraku, Byard Lancaster's It's Not Up To Us, the first four Osanna records, Za Frumi, Alan Silva, Jethro Tull and pretty much all Roland Kirk and Eric Dolphy. Well, you can now add French flautist/double bassist Jean Cohen-Solal to that list. Flute Libres & Captain Tarthopom collects Cohen-Solal's first two ridiculously rare albums originally released in 1971 and 1973, on one cd. Long considered progressive rock masterpieces, these two records feature Cohen-Solal's ultra personal take on classical, jazz and avant garde, even mixing in some psychedelic rock and ambient minimalism to the mix. The disc starts off with a jazzy psych rock workout, sort of funky, with a boppy rhythm and wailing flutes, very catchy and cool. But from that point on, the record travels down a much darker path, as the jazz and funk and rock dissipate into spacy, shimmery soundscapes, reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd or even Taj Mahal Travellers, with warm melodic swells, shimmery washes of cymbals and gongs, and lonely notes, flute and double bass, swathed in reverb or wah, and sent to drift through the ether. Things rev up later on, adding shuffling jazz rhythms, dizzying flute melodies and faraway freakout guitars, channelling Magma and Focus, weaving meandering, propulsive and progressive, spacerock and jazzrock mantras. So good.
Attention Coil fans... The fourth and final volume in this series of live documents has finally arrived, and it's a double cd set. A characteristically ever-evolving, dramatic montage with heaving drones, wheezing strings and sputtering electronics punctuated by John Balance's guttural shouts and moans and other ghostly effected voices. Visceral, beautiful and deeply moving. Yet another version of "Amethyst Deceivers" (one of Cup's favorites) is included on the second disc - a slower, quieter and much more minimal rendering. Furthermore, with the recent dissolution of John Balance and Peter Christopherson's personal and artistic relationships, perhaps this will mark one of the very final releases from this astoundingly groundbreaking and deeply influential British duo. Well... then again, they've probably got a secret vault filled with as yet unreleased Coil recordings.
CD A, titled "The Industrial Use Of Semen Will Revolutionise The Human Race" features three tracks from their April 2000 performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London (please note: this UK live recording was originally released as the Time Machines limited edition cd).
CD B contains six tracks from their Barcelona concert two months later. Coil's perfoming line-up for these dates was Balance, Christopherson, Ossian Brown, and Thighpaulsandra, plus viola player William Breeze joined on in Spain.
Another gorgeous release, both visually and sonically, from Idea records, this time from one of our favorite composers, Jonathan Coleclough. Coleclough has been responsible for some of the most beautiful drone records we have ever heard, and along with occasional partner Andrew Chalk produced one of Aquarius' all time favorite recordings, the breathtaking Sumac. Casino is the second entry in Idea Records series of unaltered field recordings and features two sidelong recordings, presented in their raw, unedited, and unprocessed form. Side one is a recording of a casino in Las Vegas and is a woozy, hypnotic wash of overlapping melodies swirled into a dense polyphony, the clicking and clattering of coins, the whir of slot machines and the rumble of muted conversations. While not necessarily soothing by themselves, all of those disparate elements blend into a dreamy, shimmery soporific whole. Side two is a recording of tree frogs in Antigua and displays a similar, albeit much simpler pattern as the Casino recordings, with a litany of high end squeaks over warbly lower pitched chirps all over a dense bed of shimmery distant scree. The accompanying cd further demonstrates the sonic similarities between the two recordings, by gradually mixing and crossfading the pleasing din of the casino into the latenight clamour of chirping and croaking frogs, and then eventually into the sound of crashing surf. The lp is on audiophile 220 gram vinyl, and the lp and cd are housed in a nice, thick gorgeously designed sleeve!
Of all of the drone artists that Aquarius has championed, Jonathan Coleclough is one of our (and our customers') favorites. "Beech for John and Miho," another collaboration for Coleclough with saxophonist Tim Hill, does nothing to change our high opinion of this composer, and we highly recommend everybody who has been interested in Coleclough to pick this one up!
Coleclough was originally commissioned to construct a short piece for a private wedding CD compilation alongside Joe Weismann, If Thousands, Jliat, and Space Machine. From what I can gather, there were a few copies of that compilation circulating around eBay at extremely high prices; thus, the release of "Beech" at this normal price should be a welcome relief for die-hard collectors. Furthermore, Coleclough has unravelled the original 15 minutes of sound into an epic 74 minutes, a time frame much better suited to the material at hand. Despite the lack of information about this composition, the sounds that Coleclough and Hill have been able to muster resemble those found on their previous collaborative album with Nurse With Wound's engineer Colin Potter entitled "Low Ground," opening up the possibility that the sources for "Beech" are saxophone and cello. Regardless of origin, Coleclough has stretched out the source material's intrinsic tonalities into a Phill Niblock-meets-Organum piece of maximalism. Coleclough presents a steady flux of sustained drones that may have been doubled, tripled, and quadrupled from a bow rippling across the strings of a cello. It's a beautiful hum that waxes and wanes on top of a constant background field of rapidly streaming glistens, shimmers, and miniature ruptures. This undercurrent of sound clangs like a distant school bell that rattles indefinitely, but situates itself as a transcendent, environmental complement rather than a toxic abrasion. "Beech" ultimately is an exceptional piece of dronemusic that is as good as Coleclough's universally acclaimed collaboration "Sumac" with Andrew Chalk.
Continental's music evokes precisely that state right between sleeping and waking. As gentle as can be, this is the SF quartet's follow-up to their well-received 2001 self-titled cd. In that time they seem to have shed some of their more post-rock and jazz leanings in favorite of straightforward blissfulness. Nine songs that slowly drift and envelope like an early morning mist. For fans of the ultra soothing Landing and Windy & Carl.
Hot on the heels of the new Pinback ep comes a full length solo album from the uber-prolific Rob Crow. As we've come to expect, nothing but the best here. This one, while much like the material he's been doing with his partner Zac in Pinback, has a little bit of everything that makes up the strange musical personality of Mr. Crow. It's such a complete jumble of styles, but even when it seems he's just messing around in his bedroom (which is actually how these records are recorded!) spouting off about Star Wars or other things relevant to Crow's universe, the outcome is leagues better than many of his contemporaries. Along with all the immaculately composed pop hook counterpoint we've grown to love, Rob hits us with an uppercut of left handed grind metal and some faux-Prince soul, with Rob overdubbing ridiculously amazing harmonizing with himself. But it's the pop composition wizardry that makes us envious until we just quiver at the knees and give in.
A short six-song introduction to this new SF band. This half dozen has a definite Chicago jazzy post-rock feel with some great horn accents, interesting textural details and arrangements. There's a nice vocal contrast from song to song too: breathy yet strong female leads on one, yearning, slouchy male voice takes over on another, a very Exene/John Doe-ish interplay on yet another. Me thinks, The Ebb And Flow would fit perfectly on a bill with Mates Of State and/or Call & Response (if they haven't already!). Very nice.
This 21st Century Toy is comin' at ya fully loaded with electro-punk Electronicat's barrel full of guitar samples, distorto-effects and analog synths. The lead-off track gets the party rolling with some super fuzzed-out guitar riffin' and glammy vocals not unlike that of Doctor & The Medics' "Spirit In The Sky" or Gary Glitter. But never fear, a more familiar thick synthesizer buzz soon enters the fray and threatens to obliterate all in its path. Lots of raw trashy dancefloor fun and glammy frivolity ensue as hinted at by song titles such as "Hoo Woo Woo" and "Birds Just Want To Have Fun" (actually one of the slower numbers on this album does indeed feature a bunch of birdies chirpin'). Play loud. Note: the cd version includes three more tracks than the vinyl.
Latest (though last year's) release from this band, in stock for the first time. Escapade are an almost-all-instrumental American band that falls into the amorphous space/prog/trance/post/psych/synth rock category. Some of that stort of stuff done by modern day bands can get kinda cheesy and wanky, but these guys thankfully stay on the more acceptable side of the genre, so if you're heavily into, say, Circle and Subarachnoid Space you'll probably like Escapade. (Sporting a ponytail might not hurt either...just kidding.) The opening track "A Symphony Of Sirens", a nearly twenty minute epic of slow moving menace, pretty much tells you all you need to know. Thudding bass, cavernous drums, meandering electric guitar leads, dubby effects...sleepy and droney and repetitive. It's a bit like Pharaoh Overlord's latest I suppose. And if that doesn't tell you enough about 'em, they follow that up with a largely-improvised take on the Pink Floyd classic "Interstellar Overdrive"! This comes to us via the label that just brought us the new F/i (see elsewhere this list), and prior to that the "Flourescent Tunnelvision" spacerock compilation we gave the thumbs up to a while back -- you'll find an Escapade track on there too.
F/i have been somewhat of a buried treasure since the early eighties, spewing a rich brew of buzzy psychedelia, sludgy stoner doom, and extended space jams over the course of numerous lps and cassettes, but never really reaching out beyond the space rock underground. That's a shame as there has been a recent plenitude of reissues, making available again some of F/i's most seminal recordings, on cd for the first time, reminding us what a psych/space rock powerhouse these guys were. And still are! These guys never really stopped kicking out the jams. A Question For The Somnambulist finds the band back to its original lineup with the return of founding member Richard Franecki, and while one might hope this would mean a fiery, triumphant comeback of amp melting, spine crushing intensity, you also have to consider that it's been 20+ years since the launch of F/i, and these guys are getting older, and wiser, and mellower. So while there are moments where the whole thing threatens to combust and leave your stereo a charred husk, most of AQFTS is more on the dreamy, hypnotic, Krautrock side, reminding us quite a bit of Finnish drone rockers Circle or local psych rock tribe Subarachnoid Space, with warm fuzzy riffs, swirls of squiggly Moogs, propulsive infinitive rhythms, and the occasional squall of freakout guitar.
Live record from everybody's favorite laptopping guitarist (or guitar playing laptopper) Christian Fennesz, released on the new (to us at least) Japanese label Headz, in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Touch's Jon Wozencroft. A little over 40 minutes of gorgeous, squelching, hazy shimmer. The disc starts off with a burst of scratchy barbed wire static, before the submerged melodies and summery warmth slowly rise to the surface. As the disc progresses Fennesz's guitar surfaces more and more, as lazily strummed acoustic guitars dodge digital crunch, and fingerpicked notes are captured and sent careening wildly through the thick wash of digital whir, crackly sputter, and gritty fuzz. Moments of melodic tranquility bob weightlessly on a sea of crackling glitches and resonant flickers of crumbling distortion, as the melodies struggle to stay afloat. So completely lovely and at the same time so ferocious and harsh, a dichotomy of sound that seems to define the glorious sonic explorations of Fennesz.
Flower Travellin' Band mania has gripped Byram and Allan and others of us here at AQ. After the success of our review of the reissues of their masterpiece Satori and their debut Anywhere, we feel we ought to keep going through the catalog of this stellar '70s Japanese heavy psych rock outfit. Those who couldn't get enough of FTB's Satori will be pleased to know that their follow-up, third release Made In Japan is nearly every bit as good. Singer Joe's voice still rings in the creepy falsetto style like Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls singing balls out heavy metal vocals. As with their previous album, "Made In Japan" continued to fuse the heavy rock of early (contemporary, to them) Sabbath with Eastern melodies. I guess they decided after their perfect rendition of "Black Sabbath" on their first record, that such was their calling. Then again, "Heaven And Hell", the penultimate track here, is as pure a channeling of Jimi Hendrix as anything. The mellow closing track "That's All", with its koto glissandi, parallels "Part V" on Satori and like that track, it's perhaps the most overtly Eastern in tone. But it's Joe's vocal line that really kicks ass. At the end of the chorus he adds a little cadenza to his howl, extending the vocal line just beyond where one's intuitively expecting a cadence. It works so fucking well, makes me stop whatever I'm doing to listen, that I wonder why more song writers don't pull that shit more often.
Some of you may have already experienced the live fury of Friends Forever without even realising it. Touring in their beat up old van, and with no actual shows booked, Friends Forever would pull up in front of venues, where other shows were happening, and perform IN THEIR VAN, with smoke and strobe lights and fireworks spillling out into the street, while the band members thrashed away inside, usually driving away as the cops pulled up to find out what the hell was going on. There was even a documentary made about them! So how does a band whose whole schtick is their unconventional live shows hold up on record? Not all that bad actually. Their sound definitely fits comfortably in with the current crop of retro, electro, new wavers, although their sound is way more lo-fi, and much more spazzy. Think a less manic Lightning Bolt, or Liquorball trying to sound electro. And while that is the core of their sound, Friends Forever veer all over the place, from retarded and noisy synth pop with painfully (and purposefully, I'm sure) inane lyrics, to pounding rumbling mid-tempo Lightning Bolt style spazz rock, to relentlessly propulsive fuzzed out jams, to weird almost-metal with xylophones, to Wolf Eyes-ish industrial freenoise freakouts to Tusk style marching band dirges, with warbly horns and stumbling militaristic rhythms. Freaked out and fucked up and almost as good as sitting on the curb outside a club and being barraged by smoke and lights and chaotic rock mayhem. Almost.
I don't know about you, but I was so into the grunge rock of the late eighties. Not the bandwagon jumping, flannel shirt wearing bullshit that came a little later (that's the crap that deservedly caused the grunge backlash), I'm talking the first wave, the small group of bands that melded snotty punk rock and huge Sabbathy riffs, head banging and slam dancing, sloppy drunken free-for-alls and actual songwriting chops: Soundgarden (before they became an MTV cartoon), Tad, the Fluid, Blood Circus, Afghan Whigs, Nirvana, Skin Yard, Love Battery, Coffin Break, Codeine, Seaweed, Green Magnet School, Swallow and all of that stuff. But for me, no one (not even Nirvana) could touch Green River. Soundgarden had the metal side of the equation all sewn up, with their monster riffs and Chris Cornell's air raid siren wail, but Green River just seemed way more dangerous: sloppy and snotty, grungy and sludgy, soulful and bluesy, but bluesy the way Pussy Galore were bluesy, all ramshackle and dangerously close to just degenerating into a full-on musical brawl, and they just seemed really, really SCARY. Plus they had vocalist Mark Arm, who had the wickedest, raspiest, whiniest growl I'd ever heard (and to this day has one of the best/most unique rock voices ever), slipping and slithering from creepy, guttural growl, to banshee like howl, spitting bile and vitriol like he had a chip on his shoulder the size of a manhole cover. Plus all the awesome Charles Peterson blurry photos made them seem so mysterious. But it's always comes down to the songs, and these songs KILL. Grungy, bluesy, heavy, and super catchy, but not obviously so. Think New York Dolls mixed with a little Black Sabbath and a little Pussy Galore with just a dash of the Beatles or the Stones. Mix in a whole lot of alcohol and probably a handful of downers, and you begin to approximate Green River's druggy sludgy din. Hard to believe Pearl Jam was born of this beast, but Mudhoney was too, and seemed a more logical progression. This disc compiles the Dry As A Bone ep, the Rehab Doll lp, as well as three extra tracks, including a Dead Boys cover and a Bowie cover. This isn't really new or anything, but this record informs so much of the music I love and have loved for years that I really wanted to get copies for the store. It's been sixteen years, and this record still kicks ass and sounds totally fresh (in a dank, sludgy, crusty, scummy way!) and even after all that time, there's hardly any bands that even come close......
The label that brought us that amazing, massive (and now out of print) Improvised Music From Japan 10-cd wooden boxed set, as well as the zine of the same name, isn't resting there. This solo effort from veteran free jazz drummer Shoji Hano is but one of their latest releases. Shoji Hano has played with the likes of Abe Kaoru, Peter Brotzmann, Toshinori Kondo, Keiji Haino, Derek Bailey, High Rise, Gary Smith, Hugh Hopper, and others -- a resume touching on the extremes of jazz and psychedelic rock. Here he gets pretty extreme all by himself, doing every drummer's dream, a 56 minute drum solo! Actually it's broken into two tracks, of 22 and 34 minutes apiece. He shakes, he rattles, he rolls. It's not exactly Moby Dick, but it's closer than you might think. The sheer scope, the length, of these tracks allow you to almost forget it's just drums you're hearing, it just becomes a sound pattern, constantly varied, energetic yet very controlled. It's like Hano is performing some personal percussive ritual. Cool...but you gotta like drums!!
No great departures from Mr. 606 here, so if you know him and love him particularly his more disjointed, hyper side... what are you waiting for? The Illness contains a heap of his trademark digital spasms and frantic noise spurts. Just might leave you feeling all caffeinated and a little bit itchy. The cd version includes: The 12" mix of the title track, the pleasantly named "Ecstacy Motherfucker" as well as the 'bonus' tracks "Maybe", "Evasion" and "Circumvent". The 12" version includes: The Illness 12" Mix (duh!), an extended dance mix of the same, along with the pleasantly titled track "Ecstacy Motherfucker".
We're pretty sure that anybody who owns any of Koenji Hyakkei's three studio albums is already sitting up and salivating at the prospect of acquiring this live DVD. They've never played outside of Japan as far as we know, so short of a trip to Tokyo this is about the only way you're likely to witness the masterful madness of this band live on stage. Lead by incredible drummer/composer Tatsuya Yoshida of cult Japanese spazz-prog-duo Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei are quite a bit like Ruins, but with an expanded line up -- not just bass and drums, but also (in this instance) including guitar, not one but two keyboardists, and three vocalists (female soprano, female alto, male tenor)! In this band, Yoshida and co. indulge their wildest '70s prog-rock fantasies, performing with over-the-top abandon and precision -- like an ultra-caffeinated amalgam of Magma, Area, ELP, Osanna, etc. at their most excessive. Koenji Hyakkei are insanely hyper, insanely tight, somehow combining superhuman technique with utterly catchy, complex arrangements -- and doing it live without a net. That's the thing with them, this music is simply EXCITING.
This DVD is shot with one camera, mostly framing the entire stage but with occasional close-ups. It might have been nice to have additional angles, but at least it's not MTV-style dizzy cuts, that would have been just a bit too much with this music being dizzying enough as it is. And the sound is great. The songs performed are drawn mainly from their most recent, third album, "Nivraym" and their second album, "II". The set closes with one song from their debut, too. Packaged, by the way, in a regular cd jewelcase, not a DVD box.
Annie Lennox sure takes her own sweet time. It's been over a decade since the fabulous Eurythmics disbanded and eight years since the release of her second solo album Medusa. And for this, her long-awaited studio follow-up titled Bare, she delivers what we'd like to think of as her counterpart to Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds For Baby series. Simply stated, it might be more appropriately named "Soothing Sounds for Grown-ups". Smartie-pants-ness aside, this is really, absolutely 'Adult Contemporary' -- a sleek, lushly produced, deeply personal album just as you'd expect from this fine chanteuse -- much like that of Peter Gabriel or Sting. Although she's definitely not assuming the countless guises that she once did in her Eurythmics days -- sharply suited androgynous redhead, vinyl-clad dominatrix, ultra-blonde '60s lounge singer --ïher vocal performances and personas are as potent as ever in whichever genre she chooses.
Wrest and his one-man-black-metal-band Leviathan return, with the corpses of Christians and poseurs littering the bleak landscape evoked by his sonic barrage of inhuman vokills, majestic riffing, and punishing drums. Pure misanthropic musical mayhem. Surely you remember Leviathan -- Andee put out the debut double cd Verrater on tUMULt only nine months ago, and that's been a very successful release. But Verrater was only the tip of the blackened iceberg that is Wrest/Leviathan's ability and need to make intelligent and emotional extreme rock music. Hence, this suicidal statement spawned so soon. At AQ, we fancy ourselves connoisseurs of this kind of stuff, and believe us -- this guy is good (and evil)!! What we mean is, as raw as it gets, there's some intense talent on display here. Lots of San Francisco bands have gotten hyped recently, but here's one that really deserves worship. Chaotically complex, pitilessly crafted tracks like the nine-minute long "Sardoniscorn" somehow maintain this music's one-foot-in-the-grave old school spikes n' corpsepaint directive while simultaneously getting totally arty and out there with epic, prog, avant-garde elements. Doomy drone, weird downtempo percussive interludes, atonal piano, ambient psychedelia, extreme vocal unpleasantness, lots of distortion and feedback. Yes! So it's no surprise that tUMULt and Aquarius (and our customers) weren't the only entities to appreciate the grim genius of Leviathan, as Wrest's project has now been signed to multi-album deals with two black metal specialists, Moribund in the States and Drakkar over in Europe, this album being the first fruit of that deal. We even recently discovered that none other than pagan pop star and psych/krautrock maniac Julian Cope is a big Leviathan fan, recommending Verrater on his website! So, this is another one for both black metal freaks (who will find this worthy of keeping company with your Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, etc. records) as well as any other adventurous music-lovers unafraid of dabbling in the weird and wretched...
This new record from ex-Captain Beefheart's Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas is a gorgeous and heartfelt musical love letter to the Chinese pop that changed his life. The liner notes detail his years spent in Taipei, in the midst of a torrid love affair where he first discovered this languid, lush pop, that would influence his playing and songwriting for years and plant the seed that would become a full blown obsession with Chinese vocalist Chow Hsuan (who you may have heard on the soundtrack to Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love). This record is totally gorgeous. No Beefheart skronk or Magic Band mayhem here, just dreamy and ethereal, wistful and delicate, perfect pop. So lovely. Gently fingerpicked guitars, and soaring, songbird vocals, with lilting melancholy melodies and spare, spacious arrangements. Also, amidst these gorgeous pop songs are scattered solo guitar pieces, also traditional Chinese although they don't always sound it, that are really beautiful and sound quite a bit like John Fahey or Jim O'Rourke, ranging from faux Appalachian abstract blues folk to shimmery, heavily reverbed minor key soundscapes, albeit with slightly Eastern tinged melodies. But it's the gorgeous vocals that are the centerpiece here, from two amazing vocalists, effortlessly channelling the spirit and sound of Chow Hsuan and the Chinese pop of the mid twentieth century. So nice.
With a name that's quite a mouthful, this new SF band bursts forth with more than an earful of complex pop smarts. Imagine a right-on blend of Archer Prewitt, Thingy and Built To Spill (recently though, they were witnessed in kick-ass live mode adding a considerable dose of angstful energy much like BTS' Doug Martsch's old band Tree People)! Piqued your interest? Indeed! Making smooth and swift shifts from incredibly pretty lilting melodies to intricate mathy rhythm terrain and back again, the four individuals craftily flesh out the Maogojiata sound. Buoyant acoustic and crunchy electric guitars weave around the tight rhythm section's twists and turns while vocals swoop from high emotive wail like that of New Pornographers' Carl Newman to a soft, boyishness reminiscent of Sea & Cake's Sam Prekop. A very refreshing debut!
The title is "1979", but this is actually brand new, a 2003 release from one of Japan's unique musical treasures, the avant-folk electric guitar troubadour Kan Mikami. Maybe you already know him from his many other PSF-label releases (this one makes it a dozen, we think) or from the Tokyo psych-improv trio Vajra where he plays and sings alongside Keiji Haino. What with the relative popularity of the last Vajra disc 'round these parts, we figured at least a few of you out there would be interested in Mikami's latest solo effort. As with his previous albums, this is full of strenuous electric guitar strum, dextrous string manipulation, and his trademark impassioned, eccentric, fully beauteous vocals. So many voices in one man. Mikami creates music with lots of space, lots of emotion. He's got a keen intelligence that transcends language -- though you should definitely check out the English translations of his lyrics included in the cd booklet, they're weird and wonderful. But even without the words, his languid, then violent guitar playing is interesting enough by itself. Making outsider, non-Western references to jazz and blues, his tangled guitar lines and swampy licks are the perfect accompaniment to his edge-of-the-void vocals.
Like we said in the 3 Hur-el review, above, the Middle Eastern '60s/'70s psychedelic rock scene is quite a happenin' phenomenon here at Aquarius -- bands from Istanbul blending the "heavy" beat sounds of London, L.A. and San Francisco with their own ethnic musical traditions. So, along with that great 3 Hur-el disc, we're *really* pleased to have just gotten cd copies in stock of a 1971 album by the fantastic Mogollar (or Les Mogol as they were known in France, where this LP was first released). This band has been a super favorite of ours ever since we first heard 'em on the "Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelia", "Turkish Delights", and "Hava Narghile" compilations. Yep, they appeared on all three of those fab comps, deservedly so as they were not only one of Turkey's biggest pop bands of the time but also one of the best, near as we can tell. They formed in 1967, playing a style of experimental psychedelic rock based on the folk music of the Anatolian region of Turkey. Their unique Anatolian (or Anadolu) "pop" sound is simply a delight, as amply demonstrated by this particular album. It features 13 tracks (none of 'em to be found on the aforementioned comps) that are based on traditional songs -- but for sure the original versions didn't sound like this, so groovy and hip. They employ some standard sixties rock instrumention -- plenty of electric organ getting almost "In-a-gadda-da-vida"-ish at times -- but also really bring the traditional Turkish instruments to the fore, playing ikligs and baglamas and darbukas and kasiks...all kinds of stringed and percussion instruments, often used traditionally but more often just fiercely strummed to great rock 'n' roll heights. Compared to 3 Hur-el's "Hurel Arsivi" this almost-all-instrumental album is folkier *and* jazzier, the electric organ giving some tracks a kind of Martin Denny exotica vibe. Both discs, though, would make great party records. Highly recommended!!
(Windy's new favorite record -- thus proving once again that in her personal canon of favorite all time records, about 90% of them are from 1971-74. And she's delighted to find that the track "Wildflower" was liberally sampled by none other than AQ-fave Amon Tobin for his stellar "Verbal" song... thus proving once again what great taste Tobin has, we says.)
This newest release from the curiously monickered Italian duo My Cat Is An Alien comes courtesy of local label Starlight Furniture and continues their skewed trajectory of deconstructed outer space blues and scraping drone-y minimalism utilising a wild array of poper and toy instruments. Il Segno is a two part epic, with the first part the more subdued, with the buzzing of long wires, like a slowed down sitar, under mumbled Italian spoken word, creating a dreamy, drawly, syrupy soundscape. Near the end of part one, things pick up a little with the introduction of crackling, scraping, feedback and what sounds like distant peeling sirens. Part Two is like outerspace Jandek, a minimal, deconstructed blues jam (if something this lugubrious and hazy can be called a 'jam'), just heavily reverbed, plucked guitars notes, hanging effortlessly in the ether, while scattered percussion drift by like shooting stars, with the occasional supernova of cascading cymbal wash, all partially obscured by distant Skullflowery skree, tinkling chimes and warm moaning drones.
On their debut album -- a fully fleshed out rock production -- SF band Nervebox reveal many facets of their musical personality including a flair for the somber and the dramatic. Oddly enough on initial in-store play, Drawn swiftly drew comparisons to such diverse artists such as Arcadia (remember that project by Duran Duran's Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes? check out "Out Of Line" which also hinted at shades of Portishead's pace and mood), early REM (on "All For The Best") or David Sylvian back in Japan days. And Nervebox certainly do traverse the vast rock terrain freely and confidently although they do tend to keep returning to the deep emotiveness of Japan/David Sylvian. Synths swoop and howl like menacing ravens on one song, decisively-picked guitar drives another, then suddenly you're immersed in a eerie carnivalesque rock number ("Monkey"). Nervebox keeps you on your toes.
Now this is high concept. Or low concept. Not sure which. This record is composed -entirely- of the sounds of Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares) and his lady friend Rachael Kozak (Hecate) having sex while on their most recent tour! Not sure if they are a proper couple or if they just came up with this project as a way to fend off boredom on the road, but either way, you can now hold the results in your hot and sweaty little hands! Outside of the occasional moan, or bit of heavy breathing, this doesn't sound all that different that what you would expect from a Venetian Snares and Hecate...um...coupling. Chaotic, splattery break beats, hyper complex drill and bass, buzzing and clattering, pounding and skittering. Pretty amazing actually, that all this violent, noisy electronic pummel was born from the gentle act of lovemaking. Or was it? Gentle, that is.
From the get-go, John O'Brien's debut album Real Life sounds very much in the same sun-kissed, country-tinged vein as fellow Sfers Fojimoto. So it's not surprising that they've found each other - this album was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Marwan Kanafani of Fojimoto. Mr. O'Brien's boyish vocals also brought to mind those of Evan Dando of the Lemonheads. These are mostly warm and infectious pop songs with plenty of gentle strummy guitars, but there's also "Bottle On The Table" a rootsy raise-a-pint rollicker embellished with a little harmonica for good measure and the more solemn piano number "September 13" which also appeared on the "The Canvas Remembers September 11" compilation.
Man, why hasn't anybody made this record until now?! Boomin' MTV style big beat hip hop with Bollywood samples and vocal breaks! This is so good. A few artists have dabbled with Indian samples in the past, but none have pulled off this not-so-unlikely hybrid as perectly as Panjabi MC. Take the crazy, exotic over-the-top-ness of Indian movie soundtracks, tablas and sitars, wild vocalising, awesome male and female vocal interplay, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aproach of the Bollywood soundtrack (funk and jazz and heavy metal and lounge and country and soul...) with a huge, speaker rattling production, some rough and funky hip hop, and maybe even get Jay-Z to rap on a track... and you've got a definite winner. The record is split evenly between bumping, barnstorming dance tracks and brooding, hypnotic, slow-burners. Really cool.
The psychedelic folk fans here at Aquarius are overjoyed that this brilliant obscurity is at last back in print -- and in an expanded, vastly improved cd edition no less. Originally released in 1970, Linda Perhac's "Parallelograms" is a lost gem of lovely, delicate folk-psych songs in line with Joni Mitchell or Heart's folkier moments, gone waaay underground and mystic. For a long long time, although collectors held the record in great esteem, no-one knew anything about Ms. Perhacs at all. When the Wild Places label first reissued the album on cd some years ago they had to do it from a mint vinyl copy of the record. Since then, they've miraculously managed to track down Linda and got their hands on reel to reels dubbed from the original masters, along with a passel of bonus tracks -- half a dozen of 'em. Whoo-hoo! Along with that good stuff, some mysteries were answered. It turns out that, for instance, the popularly held belief that Perhacs was from Hawaii was incorrect. But she lived in the Pacific Northwest and California, so that's not too far off, really... They also confirmed that this was indeed her only recording. But if you're only going to make one record, having it be as good as "Parallelograms" is a neat trick. Her gossamer vocals encounter tripped-out electronic effects and gentle folk-rock backing, transporting the listener to a place not usually or easily reached in this day and age. There's a track or two that gets strangely coffee-house beatnik on us, and sound a bit dated, but most of this is truely ethereal hippie folk-psych beauty unparallelled. Really nice, and recommended.
Arguably the second best song on Jimmy Tamborello and Benjamin Gibbard's Postal Service Give Up album, "The District Sleeps Tonight" is featured on this new cdep along with an alternate, much more percolated'n'squidgy mix by DJ Downfall, as well as a much more languid yet still thumpin' John Tejada remix of the aforementioned album's *best* track "Such Great Heights" (at least according to Cup!), plus... this cd version includes a very mellow cover of the Flaming Lips' "Suddenly Everything Has Changed"!
We've always been a huge fan of the band Lungfish. Practitioners of an uncompromising, and unrelenting sort of melodic and rhythmic minimalism. Each song a single groove, a riff, loping and repetitive, winding and swerving under vocalist Dan Higgs' distinctive wail. So it comes as no surprise that the Pupils are completely amazing as well, once you realise that the two Pupils are actually Higgs and Lungfish guitarist Asa Osborne. And the sound of this duo is appropriately intimate, like a stripped down, skeletal version of Lungfish, with Osborne's bulldozing riffs turned into delicate spidery, latticeworks of chiming notes and melodies, while simple drum machine rhythms plot out a steady course. Occasionally squalls of guitar feedback and squealing theremin whip things into a frenzy, but order is quickly restored as the relentless riffing and persistent rhythms march on resolutely. Higgs' vocals are keening and rich, sometimes dry as a bone, sometimes wrapped in layers of reverb or distortion, sometimes soaring, sometimes whispery and urgent, but always intense and super emotional, perfectly complemeting the insistent, unrelenting musical backdrop. Not a new release, but something we've been meaning to list for a while!
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.
Play this cd loud! Yeah I know, you hear that all the time, but I really mean it! Monster Truck Driver is a mighty good time. It's the electronic equivalent of Big Foot and Quadzilla thundering into your living room or car or headphones... well, maybe not quite! But really isn't T. Raumschmiere's name even rally announcer-ready?! Just a scant four tracks: a "Monster Truck Driver" edit and a Dabrye's Big Truck Remix of the same, as well as a vocal version edit (with spitty, snarky effected vocals courtesy of Miss Kittin) and an uncut instrumental version of "The Game Is Not Over". The latter really reminded me of "Doctorin' The Tardis" by The Timelords. Fun! Each one is a wonderfully heaving, churning and belching thick-necked thumper. But you also get a video of the title track to boot! And - as far as we know - not a single vehicle was harmed.
True metal fans! Bend an ear... and perhaps prepare to bend a knee? Ritual Steel (not to be confused, though it's not easy, with fellow Germans Sacred Steel) record for Rich Walker of Solstice's cult metal label Miskatonic and are the sort of band whose cd booklet proudly includes a reproduction of a show flyer with their logo beneath those of The Lord Weird Slough Feg and Twisted Tower Dire. Actually, we heard about these guys from Slough Feg -- those San Franciscan metal masters remarked upon playing with Ritual Steel in Germany last summer, giving 'em the thumbs up. And this record is indeed a lot of old school fun, starting with the fantasy cover art of skeletal knights and the punning album title (who said Germans don't have a sense of humor?), right through to the heavy-(and-hoary)-as-hell, head-banging '80s style metal music and frontman Sascha Mauer's leather-lunged screeching. He does a deliberate, indecipherable Udo Dirkschneider impression in one song that will just kill you. His band's brand of DIY Maidenesque gallop is in the same arena as Metalucifer, for instance. Pure metal mania, by fans, for fans.
You might've caught sight of this new SF quartet opening for AQ faves Spoon at the Fillmore recently. One dozen delightful tunes that take turns lulling you sweetly and perking you back up again. A couple of songs particularly bring to mind the intelligent pop of bands like Thingy, American Analog Set, Death Cab For Cutie or Pinback. And well, if you have any inclination of how we feel about those bands, then you know this bodes very very well for our appreciation of these new popsters.
Fantastic lilting vocal harmonies, crafty hooks, and little embellishments like delicate chimes or birdy chirps to pretty things up even more. But heck, don't just take our word for it, see for yourself! Check out the album's third song, the gentle pop confection "Be Kind + Remind". Aaah, so lovely, and such a great debut!
Another one for the Ruins fans out there. Along with the amazing Koenji Hyakkei DVD that Magaibutsu also just put out, here's another live DVD, this time featuring Ruins themselves along with three other combos from the underground Tokyo prog rock scene. This certainly lives up to the "Let's Dance With Irregular Rhythms" title! All these bands were recorded one night last July at a club called FAB, shot with relatively static but pro camerawork and fine sound.
Ruins do nine songs, some old, some new, in their inimitable frenzied, just-bass-and-drums way. They're kind of an anomaly here, in a way, 'cause their brand of prog is so uniquely stripped-down and heavy. Nothing else on here quite approaches their mania, but prog-fiends will still want to check out the others. There's the exotic-sounding Pochakaite Malko, a quartet featuring electric violin, bass, drums and keys. Quite melodic and flashy. Rather more fierce is the hard-hitting, spazzed out Aburadako. Their singer's got a slicked-back Mike Patton hairstyle and a deadpan delivery, standing motionless in front of his mic with a thousand-yard stare when not singing. Weird, and probably our favorite here next to Ruins. The fourth band on here is a large ensemble called Cicala-Mvta, that's a bit more of a circusy-sounding chamber rock thing, not unlike gypsy wedding music actually, with strings and horns as well as the usual rock instrumentation. Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins sits in as a second drummer!
So, we were playing this in the store, when a homeless guy, after bugging us incessantly for 'water' music, you know, like gamelan or Indian music (huh?), to combat the current water shortage and counteract the rampant petroleum consumption, asked if this Schaeffer record was broken:
"Why does this sound like broken 78s? Is this on purpose?"
"Is this to make money? The Beatles used music to make money, but I don't think this will make money."
"Does this make people happy?"
I'm sure it will make some AQ customers happy, as this is the sort of weird, high concept experimental stuff we dig so much. The first disc of this set is a one-sided lp entitled 'Skate' and refers to the skating of the needle across a record, not rollerskates. And appropriately enough, the record is cut wildly with brief bursts of static and grit, that will send your needle skating to middle of the record. Schaefer suggests this lp as a soundmaking tool, utilising your hands, or a 7" placed on top of the lp, to build clicking popping loops. It is accompanied by a 99 track, 20 minute three inch cd entitled 'Rink', designed for random play (of course), that incorporates a composition using sounds taken from the 'Skate' lp and live recordings from a skating rink installation in Ireland, extending the metaphor/pun even further. Glitchy and clicky and scratchy and staticky, perfectly pushing all those Jeck/Oval/Yoshihide buttons, that at least around here, can't be pushed often enough!
Uwe Schmidt returns with another Senor Coconut record to tickle our ears. If you're not familiar with the chameleonlike Schmidt, these are just a few of the other aliases he's recorded as: Los Samplers (Perez Prado drill n' bass), XXX (Atom with Chilean rapper Tea Time), Midisport (Brazilian samba gets the midi hatchet), Bund Deutscher Programmierer (refried laptops a la Mille Plateaux), The Roger Tubesound Ensemble ("digital jazz" in Atom's own words). Wow!
Senor Coconut is where Schmidt works out his love for samba, the cha cha cha, merengue, etc, and to make it more fun for him, he likes to cover the most unlikely tracks. Here we've got tracks by Sade, the Doors, Elton John, even Jean Michel Jarre. Unfortunately there's also a Michael Jackson cover ("Beat It") which, of course, instantly calls to mind Weird Al and now I can't seem to listen to this record anymore without picturing the videos for 'Eat It', "Fat' or 'Another One Rides The Bus'. Very fun, but you might want to start with the Senor's Kraftwerk tribute, El Baile Aleman. That one we can recommend start to finish.
These laidback SF popsters make light, sweet-tart songs, and here's a six-song ep for your listening delight! A little backyard ramshackleness, a little swirly 'n' spacy psych-folkish, a little '60s beach blanket worthy with warm vocals, jangly guitars, some horns and hey, was that a recorder we just heard tooting away too? Actually they wouldn't be at all out of place in the warm, creative company of the Elephant 6 collective. Nice.
So this is where it all started. Those Woven Hand records we've raved about, the Sixteen Horsepower records that totally blew us away. All started right here. Olden collects Sixteen Horsepower's first two demos, as well as an early live show and some brief interview snippets with 16HP/Woven Hand front man David Eugene Edwards. Much more raw and immediate, and a little more lo-fi and less sonically adventurous, but lacking NONE of the biblical fury or musical brimstone that made later 16HP records so powerful. The two demo sessions on Olden are stripped down, loping waltzes, drunken slide guitars and wheezing bandeneons, shuffling drums and palpitating double bass, with banjos, jaw harps, and Edwards' Screamin' Jay Hawkins-meets-Michael Gira caffeinated preacher wail. Minor key and melodically tragic, dirgy and hypnotic, wild and calamatous, and occsionally slow, sad and creepy. This is gorgeous, timeless, American music. Equal parts country, folk, and rock, but delivered with such fervor, so intimate and personal, and with such brutal musical intensity, that the songs take on the gravity and urgency of sonic directives from some higher power.
At this point, we know we can count on a large sub-set of Aquarius customers to be as into droney doom metal as we are. Bands like Corrupted, Boris, Khanate, Eyehategod, Cavity, Esoteric, Electric Wizard, etc. always elicit an enthusiastic response when we list 'em. Foremost amongst the doom hordes we must acknowledge Finland's Skepticism. They've been favorites ever since their "Stormcrowfleet" debut back in 1995. Sheer majestic downer atmospherics, religious music for a suicide cult. Appropriately, their distorted guitars, gruff vocals and echoing drums are accompanied by massive amounts of church-organ synth.
According to their own inscrutable tradition, Skepticism always precede each new album with an ep, so we knew that it wouldn't be too long after the "Process of Farmakon" ep (reviewed back on list #142, last year) that we could expect a full-length. Well, it did actually take a while, but at last here it is. Wreathed in smoke and darkness, "Farmakon" features different versions of the two tracks first heard on that ep, and four previously unheard epics. Plodding and miasmic as ever, this album is perhaps less soothing than some past recordings, more harsh and jagged. There's a weird urgency to some of the songs, and plenty of the "what the fuck?" moments we've come to expect from 'em, such as the synthesized "horns" and pretty, post-rockish elements encountered in the unnamed, 13-minute track 4. Lyrically, the band seem to have left the forest for an equally dark sea, judging by their cryptic texts referencing shores, waves, and water. And just what is "Farmakon" or the "Farmakon Process"?? You could try going to the band's website at www.farmakon.com for information on Skepticism and their esoteric ideas, though unfortunately their "Dictionary" page seems to be broken at the moment...
