Aquarius Records closed in 2016. This site is an archive — a place to rediscover their extraordinary music recommendations. Nothing here is for sale.
[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 168 ]
Showing results 51 through 53 of 53.
V/AMy Malady(Mental Monkey)cd$ 12.98
Compilations are all about the concept. Come up with a good concept, and a good compilation is sure to follow. So how can you go wrong with a bunch of noisy bands, rock and otherwise, penning odes to their favorite sicknesses?! You can't. And if you make sure the list of contributors includes lots of AQ favorites, like Bomb 20, the Bran Flakes, the Evolution Control Committee, V/VM, and Deerhoof and maybe throw in some tUMULt bands like Burmese, Iran, 7000 Dying Rats and Berkowitz Lake And Dahmer and you've got it made. Songs about Gonorrhea, Gingivitis, Tinnitus, Priapism, Arthritis, Rickets, Gangrene, Alzheimers and more with sounds ranging from full on noise attacks, to silly cut up collages, to crushing ultrathick drones, to digital glitch-crunch, to dreamy lullabies. Sickness has never sounded so good.
This is a nice surprise from the Schematic label who are more well known for their electronica and abstract hip hop. Completely mesmerising and hypnotic instrumentals performed on all sorts of Spanish, African, Egyptian, and Arabic traditional hand drums: doira, frame drum, bendir, bodhran, tamborine and more. Rhythmic and dreamy, throbbing and pulsing, so simple but so nice. Manages to avoid sounding new age-y or hippyish, and instead just sounds completely and simply gorgeous. Rattle and buzz, warm throaty, deep reverberent rhythms, with occasional faux-throat singing adding to the overall drone-y, mesmeric ambience. Percussion-obsessives will absolutely need this, but it will totally hit the spot for all you hippy-folksters into the stumbling, tribal rhythms of the No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand Of The Man.
It's a shame that this is merely a cd-r, as Black Book is the best Xeno Volcano album that has come through these doors, although his website indicates that a proper pressing might be in the works. While his origins lie in the San Francisco Bay Area, Xeno Volcano currently lives in Zurich, Switzerland where he has worked with Black Sun Productions (who in turn offer their sexual magick for Coil's stage show) and makes soundtracks for automobile accident prevention videos. Needless to say, Xeno Volcano's tastes find comfort in the transgressive behavior of post-industrial culture. Black Book is buried in dark overtones, as eerie drones flicker across the barren expanses of Xeno Volcano's electronic landscape, sounding not all that far off from Lustmord's classic dark ambient recording The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.
