Have those blisters on your eardrums finally healed from listening to The Locust's 2003 full length Plague Soundscapes? Good... 'cuz the boys have returned to do some more damage. Their Safety Second, Body Last EP threatens to tear right through your eardrums and get to gnawing on those cochleas. Mmmm. Each of the two tracks is remarkably lengthy (well, at least for this band whose songs usually clock in at under a minute long!). The first is just over six minutes long, while the second is just under four. Mind you, there are quiet moments in each track that sorta breaks things up into more familiar Locust-y shorter spurts. Plus to make things even more puzzling, printed on the back of the cd are not two but four (!) song titles complete with subtitles (happy to see that their song titles are still in top form, if a little uncharacteristically short-winded). Overall, this is a bit slower, more sludge-y and more grinding than usual, but it still offers up their trademark acid-spit screamo vocals, blurble-fart synths and rapidfire drumming. That said, this is by no means�simply a no-brain, messy pile of noise. No! In case, you're not familiar with�this band,�there's definitely a degree of precision and order to The Locust's music. There's rhythmic switch-ups and twisted synth melodies that�make their presence more than felt�throughout the ten minutes.
FYI: This time they come via Mike Patton's label Ipecac Recordings, home to many likeminded auditory system abusing artists.
Cow bell knockin', kick-ass hard rockin' seventies proto-metal here folks! Michigan power trio Mad Dog's lone album, cryptically entitled 617, was a private press LP originally released in 1977, though recording began back in '74. It features a raw production, heavy guitars, rough and ready vocal wailin', and songs that blend urgent, punkish energy with more languid psych stylings. Sounds like these guys didn't live too far from Detroit. And it's got a whiff of Blue Cheer and even the Pink Fairies, at least enough that we expect this tuff lil' low-budget obscurity might well charm those of you into that sort of thing.
Since their early beginnings, the German guitar-drone ensemble Maeror Tri had a love affair with the 7" single that extended into their formation of the now seminal Drone Records series of 7" only releases. From 1993 to 1998, the trio released five singles on a handful of labels, condensing their ground zero ambience, post-industrial shadows, and subharmonic detonations into eight minute chunks. Cleverly packaged in a seven inch cover, this compilation from EE Tapes features four of those five singles, including the Physis 7" for Fool's Paradise, the Mystagogus 7" for Noise Museum, and their two releases on Ant-Zen, Exorbitant and Pleroma. Saltatrix, which was the first single that Maeror Tri produced for Drone Records, is the one missing single from the compilation; and that's only because Drone is planning on re-pressing that single sometime in the future.
The Physis single opens the album with a post-Neubauten bashing of tribal rhythms upon heaps of scrap metal which gets an accompaniment of looping feedback, static, hiss, and ominous throbbings. While better known for their bleak ambience, both Maeror Tri and their later incarnation Troum explored primitive rhythms within the guitar excursions from time to time. Mystagogus and Exorbitant delve into subterranean murk with deep, all-consuming heavy drones steeped in a gravel throated menace, often heard in recent days from naysayers SUNNO))) and Corrupted. The album ends with some of the best pieces that Maeror Tri or Troum have ever done from the Pleroma 10" which happened to be released after MT had already disbanded in 1996. It's a cauldron of low-end misery that brims forth with an ominous riff whose melody sheers through the isolationist pall of secrecy. Absolutely stunning! Considering that only 524 of these things exist, they (like the rest of the Maeror Tri catalogue) won't last long.
Plenty has been written about, and a handful of recordings exist of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, due in no small part to the attention lavished on them by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones who along with other musical wisdom seekers travelled to Marrakesh to record, play with and learn from the Master Musicians. And it's easy to see why from their intricate tribal drumming, soaring chanting vocals, trilling woodwinds, all very primal and inspiring. The three tracks from the Master Musicians are gorgeous, free and totally moving. But it's the Gnoua Brotherhood Of Marrakesh who knocked our socks off when we first threw this disc on. The Gnoua have an amazing sound, stringed instruments that sound like downtuned guitars, strangely heavy, warm and rich, buzzing and droning, lots of low overtones, riffing repetitively and hypnotically, with simple hand drums and rhythmic clapping, and then eventually joined by the raspy tribal chants of a main vocalist, and echoed by a chorus of complimentary voices. Sounds like some ultra pure, unadulterated early form of the blues. Which it basically is. Hard to describe (listen to the first sound sample) but that low droning strum is just so totally mesmerizing. As hypnotic and heavy as Earth or SUNN0))) or any of those modern guitar drone outfits, but accomplished without the aid of thousand watt amps and pick ups, just fingers and strings. Amazing.
Featuring two members of AQ-faves Guapo, this instrumental band from the UK plays a kind of dark, baroque chamber-prog that's seemingly trying to evoke the magick of Aleister Crowley and the drawings of Edward Gorey, and also sorta sounds like eerie Eastern European circus music or a sinister silent movie orchestra or something. Theirs is a refined sort of precise prog bombast that would be ok to play as background music at the right sort of dinner party (in a candlelit English manor house, perhaps, with some murders occuring before the night is through). The song titles ("The Mage", "Whitening: Foxes Templar", "Reddening: The Blood Of The Pelican", "Asmodius Arise", etc.) suggest that some sort of occult narrative is being played out. Fans of the likes of Univers Zero and Devil Doll should definitely investigate.
So here's a new record from longtime AQ fave Antony Milton, who runs the kick ass cd-r label PseudoArcana. Not a new record entirely, actually originally released on cassette, then on cd-r and now on cd (our sincerest apologies to anyone who will be buying this for the THIRD time), this time re-re-released by Last Visible Dog who now seem to be the go to guys to have your already released cd-r's released once again! But hell, most of you probably missed out the first two times around (we sure did), so here's a chance to catch up and make it right! This isn't at all like the Antony Milton we've come to adore, which in no way is a bad thing. Milton has bestowed upon us record after record of sublime drones and experimental ambience, all of it pretty darn amazing. But this is a whole 'nother side of Mr. Milton, a more lo-fi, home recorded, bedroom folk side. And quite a nice side it is. Originally Recorded in 1997 and 1998 the two records that comprise this disc are intimate folk pop songs, lots of strummed guitar, simple percussion, and Milton's quavering almost-falsetto sadboy vocals. Drifting and delicate, simple and insistent, sweetly innocent but with haunting otherworldly filigree. Certainly in the tradition of New Zealand bedroom songsmiths Alastair Galbraith, Peter Jeffries, Roy Mongomery, but with definite shades of the US four-track underground (Sentridoh, Iran, Supreme Dicks, etc.). Towards the second half of the record, the freakout factor definitely picks up, with stretches of wild guitar and slabs of almost-noise, but at it's core this is still a ultra personal, super lovely slab of folky pop lovliness!
We recently listed the newest release from midwestern black metallers Nachtmystium on Southern Lord a few weeks back, but we also managed to get just a few copies of the previous Nachtmystium cd, a wrist-slitting slab of ultra suicidal depressive, lo-fi black metal, suffocatingly bleak and buzzy, thrashy and chaotic. Mostly midtempo, with occasional stretches of blasting black metal, this is melancholic and miserable, grim and sorrowful, the riffs blurring into near-drones while distant melodies drift in the background and the drums sort of plod along contributing to the mesmerizing feel. A brutal mix of classic old school norwegian black metal (Immortal, Emperor, etc...) and more modern suicidal-drone black metal (Xasthur, Leviathan, etc...).
Are you tired of mundane, regurgitated, redundant music that seems to be the only thing available these days? Well, Need New Body is the radioactive answer to your woes of uninspirational musical blahdom.
They combine frenetic percussion using drums, handclapping and any type of instrument they can make or find with organ, keyboards, bass, banjo, sax and retarded lyricism that fluctuates from power-alto to a crunchy Carol Channing to off-key group harmonizing all throughout oft-changing time signatures. Ugh. I know it sounds like it wouldn't be good. BUT IT IS. This band is not like any other, and you gotta love them for it. The only other ensemble I could link them to would be Sun Ra's Arkestra, with whom they've played with recently. Their sound is a broken free-jazz that comes together to form different ideas here and there (i.e. the electronic-arcade house-party energy of "Who's This Dude? / Tet No Eyes / Do You Want To Party With Me / Medley", or the arty noisy kraut jam of "Badoosh + Seagull War = Die", or the Dead Milkman sillyness of "SO ST RX") Yes, this record is all over the place but in an engaging way, even if it makes you feel a little embarrassed at tiny moments. An album from NNB couldn't be anything else. These guys rule a strange and infinite gap between Styx, funk, free-jazz, Nintendo 64 music and psychotic banjo art-rock.
Where's Black Ben is the first new record from this band of Philadelphian phreaks in two years! And well, if you've seen this album in the store, you'll notice that the artwork is, um... not all that enticing garish and dayglo, but it sure catches the eye! Problematic artwork aside, these guys totally rule. For fans of Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Hella, Deerhoof and Dada-ism.
You're probably getting as tired of hearing this as we are saying it, but it has to be done. THIS IS SUPER LIMITED!! IN FACT, IT'S ALREADY OUT OF PRINT!! (Arghhh. Why lablels just don't press more when they know they can sell them still makes no sense to us...) SO, ONCE THESE ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD!! SO ACT FAST!
Here's what we had to say about the cd version a while back:
We barely even have to review this. Just the names of the two artists should be enough. Nortt, whose "Pure Depressive Black Funeral Doom Metal" was a massive favorite around here, and of course Xasthur, who rivals Leviathan as perhaps the most brilliant and important of the modern USBM hordes. Nortt offer up four tracks of miserable drone dirge, with mournful piano over a swirling abyss of black riffs and simple drumming, each chord slowly dissipating into nothingness before the next chord hits. Depressingly gorgeous and wrist slittingly sorrowful. Reminiscent of Corrupted's Llenandose, albeit way more grim and dismal!
Xasthur gives us three tracks, equally depressive, but here, instead of tarpit tempos and drone-like dirges, the depression and misery is communicated through creepy minor key riffing, mournful melodies and what sounds like clean chant-like singing, almost choral, but buried so low in the mix it almost sounds like just another instrument. Xasthur has totally perfected the swaying seasickly black metal waltz, with relentless double kicks, anguished vocals struggling to communicate from beyond, and warm and woozy, arpeggiated guitars. So good.
Nurse With Wound constructed Echo Poeme: Sequence No. 2 as an homage to the iconoclastic film Last Year At Marienbad by Alain Resnais from 1961. Taking cues from that film's coldly formalist but oddly dreamy cinematography, NWW's Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter present a 50 minute composition entirely based upon the French vocalizations from Amantine Dahan Steiner and Isabelle Gaborit. Their disembodied whispers, half-sung / half-spoken lullabies, melodic exhortations, excited gasps of air, seductive coos, and bewildered hums had been recorded in some intimate space, and then tangled together through a variety of simple cut-up techniques and variable delay patterns. It has to be said that the use of the delay pedal, when used in the hand of a novice and outside of the context of '70s dub, always runs the risk of sounding rinky-dink. But like :zoviet*france: who mastered the decontextualization of voice through multiple delay pedals and time lag accumulators on Look Into Me, Stapleton and Potter deftly steer these linguistic utterances into an eeriely calm web of echoing patterns, occasionally coupled by vibrational drones.
It should be noted that the first construction in the Echo Poem series was a cd-r only release to be sold at the2005 Salt Marie Celeste performance in Vienna by Stapleton, Potter, Diana Rogerson, and Matt Waldron. It was pretty much out of print even before anybody ever laid their eyes upon it. As a result, we haven't any in stock; but it appears that the second Echo Poeme has hearty distribution and should remain in print for some time.
"The record is fucking amazing," or so says Nurse With Wound protagonist Steven Stapleton. So fucking amazing in fact that he's issued "Soliloquy For Lilith" in a handful of different editions. Originally released as a triple vinyl set in 1988 (though references have been made to a mysterious additional 12" released in 1989), "Soliloquy For Lilith" got the CD reissue back in 1993, standing as one of the pinnacles within the Nurse With Wound pantheon of surreal records. Now 10 years after the first CD pressing (which was a double CD), Stapleton has issued this masterpiece as a triple disc to mirror of the triple vinyl edition, and he's produced two extra tracks of contemporary material that perfectly complement the original tracks.
The iconography of Lilith is a rich and often divergent set of references, beginning with an ancient story (possibly of ancient Babylonian origin, but merged into Jewish mysticism) of Lilith being the first woman (predating Eve's birth from Adam's rib) who chose not to live in the Garden of Eden. While contemporary feminists have taken Lilith as a role model of independence from masculine authorship (i.e. Lilith Fair), Lilith has often been associated with supernatural tendencies with Qabalist scholars qualifying her as a demoness instead of human, manifesting herself as the 'hidden' second moon that circles the Earth. For his "Soliloquy For Lilith," Stapleton opts for the archaic readings of Lilith, or perhaps a far more personal one as Lilith is the name of his daughter. This is Nurse With Wound's mellowest album as a brooding contemplation of Lilith as an archetypal source for unknown magicks. Here, extended mantras flutter through an ambience created by the closed loop of various effects pedals and flangers, cycling through the built-in harmonics from those electronic elements as tidal rhythms and hums. The resulting album rivals any of the ambient records of Brian Eno and Klaus Schultz, adding a decidedly menacing feel to the ambient blueprint.
Yes, we certainly agree that this record is fucking amazing.
Orthrelm spells...? Not relief from headache, that's for sure! Notorious guitarist Mick Barr (ex-Crom Tech, and of Octis and Flying Luttenbachers infamy also) and drummer Josh Blair continue their assault on musical sanity with Ov, newly released by Mike Patton's envelope-pushing Ipecac label. Ov leaves the envelope pretty much pushed beyond what most people can take -- it will be quite the endurance test for some, but pure bliss for a select few. By the end of this review you should know who you are if you don't already (owning other records involving Barr is one clue).
Way back when we reviewed Orthrelm's debut ep Iorxhscimtor, we admitted that we'd been under the mistaken impression that Orthrelm was supposed to be "some sort of droney, doomy thing with super-long songs". It wasn't... but now it is. Sort of. Unlike previous Orthrelm releases (and Barr's other project Octis), Ov isn't about a million trebly tracks of stop-start skronk. No, here the duo's frenetic drumming and insidious ADD guitar squiggle are harnessed into a single, 45 minute long track of intense, almost metallic, repetitive minimalism. A high-pitched, note-dense, trance-inducing (maybe seizures too?), insectoid symphony that slowly shifts gears and builds tension but offers little respite or resolution until its 45 minutes are up or your ears/speakers/the disc iself shatters from the stress. Yet, if you can take it, Ov's continuous rumble of drums and precision frenzies of tinny guitar shred also create a thing of static, maddening beauty. I think...or maybe I've lost it. Am I crazy when I think that some of the feedbackier parts remind me of moments of the Boredoms' Super Ae? Or that this is not entirely unlike something that Boris or SUNNO))) would do... but with a million times more emphasis on the high end, and the notion of motion on the micro if not macro level??
- MPEG stream: "Ov
- MPEG stream: "Ov
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
222... Two mints in one? Nope. Codeine? Nope. Nope. Nope. This double disc is BETTER -- packed with two and a half hours of comedian Patton Oswalt recorded live at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA. What more could you possibly want or need in your life? The man is fuckin' hiiiiilllaaarrriiiioouuss! Aaah, you might know him from the TV show King Of Queens, or you might've spotted him in the movie Taxi (or the soon to be released Blade 3... what the f'?!), or you might've heard his voice on Crank Yankers, or you might know him from one of his stand-up performances (he just finished a brief tour with Maria Bamford and Mr. Show alumni Brian Posehn). Now we know this isn't a competition, but dare we say, he frequently kicks his pal David Cross' ass? Yes, as a matter of fact we do dare. Much like Cross, he draws much inspiration from the late great Bill Hicks who pushed the renegade stand-up envelope hard and far in a very short period of time (if you dig current comedians such as Oswalt, Cross and Dave Attell, do yourself a favor and seek out any/all videos and cds of Hicks... seriously!). Fueled by a steady fountain of red wine, Oswalt holds court unleashing his often jaw-dropping, astute observations about the telling signs of the apocalypse and other stuff -- more specifically Dubya, zombies, celebrities, midgets, liquor ads, babies, hair metal videos, open mic nites, hippies, comic books and steakhouses. We won't attempt to re-enact any of his jokes here. There's no way we could accurately replicate his comedic 'nuances'. Hell, what are you waiting for? Just give those audioclips a spin. As he gets more inebriated instead of getting sloppier in his delivery, he somehow gets even more blistering. It's not until the last twenty minutes that things start to get noticeably, uhh, affected by the copious amount of vino consumed. He goes off on a bizarre rant beginning with a comment about shaving a back with a rusty tuna fish can. Hoo boy. If laughing appeals to you, buy this immediately. You won't know what hit you. Squibilleee flabilleee dooo!!! Brought to you by the kind folks at Chunklet Magazine / Records.
Warning #1: This is definitely not for the dainty eared nor for the faint of heart nor for the humorless.
Warning #2: Remember folks, this is a completely unedited recording, so the laffs aren't as rapid fire as on other comedy albums that have been nipped and tucked for maximum hilarity. This is two and a half hours of real-time stand-up with many drinking pauses, muffled banter with the audience and even a break when Oswalt takes a photo of his photographer who himself is drunk too.
And most importantly, Warning #3: This is a very very very limited tour only release that we've been fortunate enough to snag a few copies of, so please don't dilly-dally.
As much as we dig UK musical experimentalists Volcano The Bear and their disjointed sonic surrealism, VtB member Daniel Padden has always managed to take that sound of theirs even further, somewhere else entirely, to a place where his juxtapositions coalesce into a dark and highly personal, mostly instrumental melancholia. Meandering and thoughtful, like a twilight walk through a musical forest, just wandering, laying down on the ground when the mood strikes you, gazing at patches of sky through the dense canopy of leaves, feeling the wet earth soak through your clothes, shivering as small insects crawl all over you tickling your skin, squinting as you're blinded by a brilliant shaft of sunlight that breaks through the trees, then melts into the forest floor beneath while you're sprinkled with a fine mist as the wind looses the condensation from the branches. This not-so-precise effect is achieved with reverby pianos in vast expanses of space, slippery slide guitar, plinkety plonk keyboards, soaring minor key strings, Appalachian guitar picking over squirming beds of bombinating drones. Padden's dense buzzing ragas are all dreamy and melancholy and super intimate and personal sounding, but somehow at the same time are grandiose and epic, with occasional waltz-like marches, like chamber music for some outer space / otherworldly king and his court. Occasionally delicate and haunting, occasionally rambunctious and a little chaotic. But always totally beautiful and mesmerising and truly mysterious. Think somewhere between Eyvind Kang, the Sun City Girls, Kronos Quartet, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Jack Rose. All that and more is filtered through Padden's slightly skewed musical mind's eye.
Ok turtablist fans, you all know that DJ Q-Bert is the bomb. Seeing him master his custom-made QFO (a battery-powered turntable with built-in mixer) is totally amazing. It would be great if a dvd about him actually showed his skratch-wizzardry predominately throughout. However, Live: Australia-Asia shows a little too much of all the most boring parts of being on tour: the airports, the non-partying hotel rooms, sitting in cabs, etc. Q-bert seems to be having good time though, what with the crowds, the ladies, the female DJ he crushes out on... Die-hard fans of Q-bert will want to see this regardless of the poor editing, just simply to see footage of him skratching up a storm and to get a feel for the man behind the QFO. We just wish there was more skratching footage throughout this region-free dvd.
1972... Le Bataclan, Paris... Reed, Cale & Nico... Together one more time to give a very stoney, distant and dark performance. Until now, this was only available on crappy bootlegs. Now, finally fully released for you VU enthusiasts and completists out there. This is a no-brainer must-have.
Say what you will about Sub Pop, but as a label, they have never been afraid to take chances. They've gotten way to much grief for launching grunge, and while the socical and retail affects of grunge left a bad taste in everyone's mouths, you gotta admit, we all loved and still love Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Tad, Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Green River, all that stuff. Today, it's hard to think of a more diverse label, from bluegrass to new wave to sixties style psych to garage rock to punk to electronic noise. They're pretty tough to pin down, which makes them one of the cooler labels around. Back in the day, they were still pretty weird in their choice of acts, you just had to dig a little deeper. Sure Nirvana and Soundgarden were paying the bills, but lots of us were digging the stranger sounds of the Hardship Post, Pond, Earth, Codeine, Come, the Dwarves and of course Florida's Rein Sanction. While the competition would be pretty stiff (Nirvana's Bleach, Codeine's Frigid Stars, Pond's The Practice Of Joy Before Death, Earth 2) we would definitely have to nominate Rein Sanction's first album, Broc's Cabin (originally released in 1991) as one of the all time best Sub Pop records EVER. In fact we had a massive (and massively enjoyable) debate when Andee suggested that this was in fact THE all time best Sub Pop record. Strong words for sure, but Broc's Cabin is just such a gorgeous and strange record. And it seems to have been unfairly and almost completely overlooked.
It's hard to describe a record that's always been with me, for almost 15 years now, cassette in the car, tracks on mix tapes. It never occurred to me to question the fact that this was just one of THOSE records. Essential and totally totally amazing. This is first and foremost a guitar record. Easily one of the best guitar sounds EVER. Simultaneously sun baked and rain soaked, thick and rich, swirling and slithering, like Hendrix and Crazy Horse and J. Mascis and the Meat Puppets and Husker Du, all dumped into a pot and brought to a boil.
The riffs are lazy and lugubrious, glacier thick and flowing like lava. All druggy and fuzzy, a dense cloud of sound that gets so thick you can amost climb into it or wrap it around you. So rich and evocative. The sound is foresty, swampy, backwoodsy. A rock band that most definitely rocks, but at the same time somehow blends into the trees, and the streams and the sky. Like a way more druggy Dinosaur Jr., complete with drawled Neil Young like vocals, that perfectly intertwine with the serpentine guitar riffs. With the sound of Broc's Cabin in your ears, close your eyes and the pictures in you head become a constantly shifting tableau of skies hung with dark clouds, branches waving in the wind and plains and fields rushing by through the streaked glass of your windshield. Definitely heavy, but not in the metal sense, more of a dense and dark, druggy and dreary moodiness, heavy with the weight of the world, an abstract hopelessness, a lonley emptiness. Sad for sure, minor key and gorgeously miserable. As if Rein Sanction were a band at the end of the world, set up on a rickety porch, playing long into the night, from across miles of parched fields and dank swamps, the sound of their guitars, like thick plumes of smoke, drifting lazily across a blackening sky, while loves are lost, friends fade away, memories become indistinct blurs and the whole world slips into darkness.
Seht are a modern New Zealand outfit carrying on the tradition of what was once referred to as NZ noise. A good simplified scene summary perhaps, but not all that accurate. In the eighties and nineties, there was an explosion of small labels and loads of bands in New Zealand, all exploring sound in similarly unique ways, but all inhabiting their own unique sonic space. From the clattery free noise of the Dead C and Gate, to the jangle pop of almost every Flying Nun band, to the avant minimalism of groups like Omit and A Handful Of Dust. And the cool thing about the scene, was that the pop bands incorporated occasional swaths of noise and bursts of chaos, and the 'noise' bands were not above introducing a bit of poppiness here and there. Seht fall somewhere in the middle of all those groups, not really crafting songs as much as 'pieces' or maybe more accurately assemblages of sounds, but in doing so, using traditional instruments often guitars, In fact the steel string acoustic guitar is sort of a them running throughout the whole record, picking out simple melodies, while beneath, drones rumble and whir, snippets of conversations surface, as do occasional bursts of static and noise. Collages of found sounds become hypnotic drones, running water becomes a tranquil stretch of dreamy ambience, samples of laughter become a dada-ist sound poem, some strange percussive melody played on a buzzing stringed instrument becomes a lost snippet of unlikely 'world' music, and creaking industrial clatter becomes a strangely tribal exploration of sound and space. NZ noise indeed!
Silberbart's one-off LP from 1971, with its non sequitur of a bleeding silver gnome on the cover, is one of those heavy krautrock rarities spoken of in hushed tones, in record-collector tomes like Cosmic Dreams At Play ("...legendary...extreme...") and the equally authoritative Crack In The Cosmic Egg ("...excellent...schizophrenic..."). It's desirable in part 'cause it's so darn obscure, yes. But also 'cause it IS heavy. In a loose and demented, frayed and jangled, utterly freakish way. The four tracks here (long ones, with great titles demonstrating Silberbart's psychedelic illogic: "Chub Chub Cherry", "Brain Brain", "God", "Head Tear Of The Drunken Sun") are crazy quilt of distorted guitar riffing, acid-fried songwriting, and unusually frantic, strangled vocals. The band's hippie power trio psych is played with an escaped lunatic's "what's next?" abandon, making for progged-out, crooked-grinning, drug-induced weirdness that deservedly garners comparisons to early Guru Guru.
Compact disc reissues of this have always been hard to come by. But we found a small supply and thought that there had to be some AQ customers who've always been curious about 4 Times Sound Razing...it's not exactly a work of genius but it's odd enough to please a few of you we wager!
Yeah yeah yeah, everybody LOVES Wilco. Critics, Fans, everybody. So experimental. So creative. Such heartbreaking magical music. Hey, we love Wilco too. But there was a time, not all that long ago, when Jeff Tweedy, the man behind Wilco, was at least to most of us, the weaker half of the only alt country band that ever mattered. The band whose first album's title (No Depression) became the new name for alt country. Tweedy was merely the whiney vocal foil to Jay Farrar's world weary, whiskey soaked drawl. Sure Tweedy sang some great songs, but Farrar was the voice that MADE Uncle Tupelo, the band he shared with Tweedy. After Uncle Tupelo split, Tweedy went on to front Wilco, and Farrar went on to form his own group, Son Volt. The first Son Volt record was amazing, sort of an extension of Uncle Tupelo, Farrar's voice still so perfect and stirring, framed by kick ass country rock, sometimes soulful and stirring, acoustic and laid back, sometimes rambunctious and rocking. Tweedy's Wilco headed in decidedly more experimental directions, and it suited them, they got weirder and way more interesting, with the band and the songs and the sounds providing the focus, while Tweedy's vocals became just a part of the big picture. But as Son Volt progressed, something started to go wrong, the slow songs sounded too syrupy, the rocking songs began to sound cheesy, the attempts at sounding experimental sounded forced. But the thing was, every record contained at least two or three perfect jems. Gorgeous modern takes on classic bluegrass, full on Crazy Horse style rockers, all with Farrar's amazing vocals, emotive and laconic, soulful intense. Serious classics! So this comp is practically perfect. If it wasn't a compilation, it might just be the ultimate Son Volt record. In fact it sort of still is! Included are the four best tracks from Trace (the first Son Volt album), the best tracks from all the rest, as well as compilation tracks and a handful of unreleased tracks and demos. Loads of photos and liner notes. Both Cup and Andee have been playing this constantly in the store! So good!
Jason Zumpano (of the great but sadly defunct Canadian band... Zumpano) offers up his second Sparrow full length. Sure folks can't help but draw comparisons to his old bandmates' current mighty pop bands (New Pornographers and A.C. Newman), and yeah, there's the tell-tale Vancouver pianos, strings, horns and bright vocal harmonies, but Sparrow has a retro pop charm all its own. Sleepy-eyed, boyish and sweet.
Debut recording from Seattle, Washington's Stares. While a quartet at their core, the group is handsomely lined out into an eleven-piece with French horn, viola & violin, English horn, oboe, celeste, vibes, flute, bass clarinet and cello all playing a part in their lush sound. The "orchesral" arrangements were scored by none other than tha Pacific Northwest's bow wielding wunderkind and Sun City Girls collaborator Eyvind Kang (who plays both the violin and viola on the tracks here). The wonderfully lugubrious tempos of their songs will no doubt remind listeners of the Radar Brothers. Like the Radar Brothers, but maybe also equally similar to Radiohead's OK Computer, the Stares lyrics (the singing duties are split equally between the male and female members) have a similar bleakness of outlook that's just thinly veiled by a warm blanket of opiate-like music. A further note must be made to Kang's orchestral arrangements, which are perhaps the most tasteful we've heard used with a rock band yet -- not burdensomely pretentious like many indie-chamber-rock attempts have been. The songs on Spine To Sea are often breathtakingly beautiful and eerily reminiscent of another era. This is another similarity the group shares with the Radar Brothers, albeit in a different way. For example, there's more than one instance on Spine To Sea when we're certain that the Stares are referencing (or channeling?) Eric Carmen's 70's superhit tear jerker "All By Myself". Creepy, beautiful, and recommended.
First things first, The Pop Group was a fucking incredible band. In their brief existance from 1979 to 1981, The Pop Group represented one of the most successful and most radical reinventions of punk through dub tricknology. After they dissolved, the politically acerbic sloganeer for the band, Mark Stewart, attempted to capture the immediacy, fury, and energy of his band through a number of collaborations... all of which were far more impressive in theory than in practice. With the rhythm section of the Sugarhill Gang, the resident On U Sound producer Adrian Sherwood and more recent production assistance from The Bug, surely anything, anyone would do with those folks would turn out great, right? Not exactly. Mark Stewart's solo tracks and cuts with The Maffia always exhibit a bit too much flash and not enough good songwriting and rhythms to warrant all of the cool production tricks and big names thrown into the mix. So, Kiss The Future -- a compilation spanning Mark Stewart's entire career -- features some absolutely kick-ass tracks (e.g. the three songs from The Pop Group) amidst a bunch of decent-to-pretty-good, electro-funk-dub tracks that try too hard (everything else). Obviously, Soul Jazz is trying to continue to cash in on the whole post-punk revival thing spawned by The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, !!!, etc. Where Soul Jazz hit the mark on the A Certain Ratio reissues and the In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilation, Kiss The Future falls just a bit short. This can mostly be recommended to those who were completely enthralled by The Pop Group's Y album and need to hear what else Mark Stewart has done. Everybody else should just jump straight to that aforementioned Pop Group album and revel in one thoroughly impressive piece of work.
This homespun offering from SF singer/songwriter Ryan Stively has varied levels of lo-fi recording quality (the first track is much quieter than the second), but the quality of his songwriting shines through. Each song is mainly centered around voice and acoustic guitar which he embellished with an occasional higher backing vocals, violin, and percussion. For the most part, these nine songs linger in the hushed intimate folk realm. The one exception is the eighth song (which we've dubbed "It Takes A Worried Man To Sing A Worried Song" because no song titles are provided) dissolves into unexpected almost Ween-ish fucked-up and distorted mischief. Nonetheless, if you dug the recent Iron & The Albatross album, you might wanna check this out too!
Housed in a nice pink cover-sleeve, this album's floating guitar psych is the work of another relatively new Japanese underground psych outfit that we first got turned on to via the PSF label's recent, excellent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation! In our review of that comp, we described them/their track thusly: "bleak folk duo, very lovely, eventually overcome by space-out distortion". And that same assessment applies likewise to this self-titled debut disc of theirs, except that here they're a trio, with the core pairing of Pirako and Kageo (both guitar/vocals) joined by drummer Tail. 69 minutes, five tracks, delicate, dreamy and drifting. With gentle vocals and electric guitars mostly engaged in ethereal exploration (but capable, at times, of generating speaker-rattling stormclouds, when the trio get into their more slow-burning Rallizes-ish moments) this should be right up the alley of any of you into such bands as Nagisa Ni Te, Doodles, Shizuka, Overhang Party, and Up-Tight.
Tartufi's second cd is simply burstin' with energy and confidence. We still stand by our previous comparison of this Bay Area band (which we made with regards to their six-song EP Westward Onward) to what you might imagine a collaboration between Jody Bleyle (Team Dresch, Hazel) and Rob Crow (Heavy Vegetable, Pinback) sounding like. Sounds pretty darn good to you, don't it? As well, some of their new songs are very much along similar lines as the recent Electrelane album Axes. Hope that doesn't sound like we're oversimplifying things. Really, we're just tryin' to say that Tartufi's music is packed with all the good stuff: a solid emotive pop core, infectious hooks, smartly crafted, challenging twists and strong female vocals. And they just keep gettin' better. Recommended!
Doesn't necessarily sound like the best idea, does it? A trio of Swedish free jazzers (among them saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, sometime Sonic Youth sideman) playing loosely-interpreted covers of "garage rock" tunes, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the White Stripes and (proving they realize garage rock wasn't invented in 2003) the Sonics from the '60s. Hence the title, Garage. Well it could have been a terrible, cash-in on the what the kids are digging these days concept... But actually it's pretty cool when you listen to it. Super powerful and aggressive but definitely remaining more jazz than rock, though doubtless they'd blow a lot of garage rock bands off the stage with their energy. The seven tracks here also include two originals by The Thing (heavy duty rampant improvs both) and versions of tracks by jazz vets Norman Howard and Peter Brotzmann (he's been in a garage, doubtless). So this turns out to be more than just a gimmick. Garage ranges from R&B infused rave ups to seriously dirgey dissonance, making for a record *this* jazz/garage/freakout fan enjoyed. Crossover potential between folks only into one of the above? Dunno. I actually hadn't heard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song before, but I know I like The Thing's version...
We loved Urdog before we even heard them. Hell, they're called Urdog for chrisssakes!! But thankfully their sound lived up to the monicker, a ramshackle concoction of tribal rhythmic workouts, free folk weirdness, pulsing progressive lo-fi krautrock, and freaked out noisy space rock -- like a weird combination of No Neck Blues Band, Acid Mothers Temple and Popul Vuh maybe? This new, third Urdog record however takes the band in a new, but not entirely unexpected direction. Five tracks, a little over half an hour of motorik rhythms, angular guitars, and warm pulsing synths, as well as haunting chanted vocals, sound familiar? Well to us at least, it sounds like someone gave Urdog a serious dose of This Heat. And it shows. And we love it! Repetitive and hypnotic, Eyelid Of Moon is a relentlessly propulsive head nodding, freaked out druggy dirgey drone rock trip! The pagan folk is still there too though. Recommended.
Hip hop, called Bongo Flava in Tanzania, has had an odd inverted development in relation to its US mentor. Unlike the US where the genre started in the streets, only to be picked up by the middle class as its popularity spread, it was the children of the wealthy and elite in Tanzania who would bring back western hip hop initially that eventually would trickle down to the poor in Dar es Salaam. But it was the poor who put the creativity and effort into making a full-fledged Bongo Flava scene -- though the production resources are still in the hands of the few, which results in an industry not disimilar to Jamaica's burgeoning music industry in the early seventies. What's more, while the faces of American rap stars grace the walls of clubs (there are some nice photos of such included with the accompanying booklet) and music stalls are pasted with their promotional posters, it's the local Bongo Flava stars that top the charts in Dar es Salaam, not the Americans. This is partially out of a sense of national pride, but also to the fact that the Tanzanian listeners can understand the Swahili lyrics of the local singers, which makes them a great deal more compelling to listen to than someone they can't understand. Part of this sense of national spirit can be attributed to former president Julius K. Nyerere, the first president after the country acheived independence, who sought to unify the country, which included making the official language of Tanzania Swahili. Now, despite the derision of elder Tanzanians who see the music as hooligan's music, the Swahili spoken Bongo Flava can be heard almost everywhere in Dar es Salaam. The production on these tracks shows just how far the digital age and software based home recording studios have made it possible for those of minimum means to approach the production standards set by the well heeled studios of the west. CD comes with a thick booklet detailing the history of Bongo Flava and short bios on the included artists.
Man, this is some gritty '70s funk. Or should I say gritt-ay? Really, the grit to the tracks is from the remastering transfer of these old songs but in spite of it, they're all totally listenable cause they are so so SO good. I mean, THESE ARE PURE FUNK SONGS: no cheese, no glamour, just amazing songwriting, awesome musicianship, great ideas, tons of soul, and just full-on soul n' funk jammin'. F'ing awesome! Contains rare and never-before-heard tracks by many artists including Carleen and The Groovers, Kashmere Stage Band, Soul Seven and Ebony Rhythm Band (their track "Drugs Ain't Cool" from their Soul Heart Transplant disc recently reissued by Now-Again), all of which were remastered from old 45's and aging master tapes. Packaged with a pretty extensive 28 page archival booklet, and the cd features a handful of bonus tracks. Now, we have to say that the first time we heard this it didn't make such a huge impression, but after a few listens we realized that this was a seriously amazing compilation of PURE funk and funky soul songs. We can't stress enough how awesome these tracks are. Give it a few listens and you'll see what we mean.
It's beginning to appear as though Subliminal Sounds' well of amazing undiscovered Thai Beat music might be bottomless! We were a bit surprised when they managed to pull off a second excellent collection of Thai bubblegum psych tunes from yesteryear, but now a *third*?? "Is it just as good", you ask? Well, heck yeah, it is! It doesn't seem as though they culled the best for the first, or even the second, collection. This third volume may in fact be the best -- though it's hard to choose. This one has about the same ratio of purely weird and inimitably Thai "pop" to off-kilter covers of your favorites from the golden era of rock (including "Hang On Sloopy" and another Elvis number "Heartbreak Hotel"), but add into that mix a great deal of seventies funk & disco and even some Santana-esque rock, all with a Thai twist and lots of fun. But the real gems on this collection are two tracks -- "Thai Boxing" and "Siamese Boxing" -- by Jiraphand Ong-Ard which nearly bookend the anthology and completely fill their own void of strange rock. Both tracks pay homage to Muay Thai boxing and raam muay -- the traditional music that accompanies boxing events. The music of raam muay features a Thai reed instrument that sounds like a kazoo run through a Marshall amp. Both the tracks use this music as an odd bridge mixed in to them -- almost arbitrarily -- in such a way that they sound bi-polar. In addition to all the cool music on this collection is album's cover, which looks as though it were taken from a 70's Thai B-grade horror film. A "scary" looking dude in blue slacks, red sweater, and dracula fangs is lightly held back (or is he dancing with?) two sexy Thai girls wearing matching green skirts and white knee high boots. WOW! is our reaction to that, and the whole disc as well!
Japanese underground psych fans rejoice... The Night Gallery, which is kinda the Osaka-based Alchemy label's answer to PSF's Tokyo Flashback series, is already up to volume three! This installment brings us ten tracks from six new bands (new to us anyway!). One of 'em, DNJ, is actually female psych duo The Doodles augmented by a bass player and ubiquitous Alchemy boss/Hijokaidan guitarist Jojo Hiroshige (and their track "Moon Child" is a loud Doodles-like dirge of blurred beauty). But the others we have no prior clues about at all. There's two tracks from all-girl trio Sarumatake Mitsuku (woozy meandering space-psych that heavies up nicely a la Shizuka), two tracks of stoned folk from guitarist/vocalist Suzuki Junzo, a single cut of twang-and-drone from improv folkster Kei, one very mellow and melodic track by the trio Inisie, and then three Shaggsy songs from the two girls of Yoze. Simple blissful pleasures abound here. Those only into the darker side of the Japanese psych scene might not find everything here to be the best soundtrack for wearing sunglasses and all-black clothing (though there IS a fair amount of the dark, spacey stuff on here), but if you sometimes like an element of innocence and gentle pop in your psych (a la Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Nagisa Ni Te, and the like) then you'll be happy to make the acquaintance of several of these artists. Very very nice.
This long in the works compilation from the always reliable PseudoArcana label, is one of those comps that we barely need to describe. A list of the bands involved will have most of you frothing at the mouth: Blithe Sons, Peter Wright, CJA, Anla Courtis, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Antony Milton, Uton, Moglass, Neil Campbell, Birchville Cat Motel, The Skaters, Of, 1/3 Octave Band, My Cat Is An Alien and more!!! Holy crap! Two whole discs. And with a lineup like that, it would be a bit hard to describe all the tracks anyway. The sounds within though are all conceptually linked, but sonically all over the map. In a good way. The concept being the receent discovery of a galaxy cluster light years away that has been resonating in a steady B flat drone (although something like 57 octaves below the threshold of human hearing), so all these tracks are theoretically 'cover versions' of that mysterious galaxy's song!
Over the past decade countless bands and fans both privately and publicly have bestowed much love and respect on the deeply inspiring and influential band Low. Here's just a dozen who've put they admiration on record by recreating the band's 1994 debut full length, I Could Live In Hope. The less familiar faces definitely outnumber the familiar ones -- Daniel G. Harmann, Pale Horse And Rider, The Strugglers, A Northern Chorus, Kid Dakota, Misc/Ill Lit, The Winter Blanket, and Migala. The folks you might recognize here are Low's contemporaries Mark Kozelek, Jessica Bailiff, Idaho and His Name Is Alive (featuring Nanang Tatang aka former Low tourmates Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Littleton of Ida). All of the renditions stick remarkably close to the hushed, slow and gentle originals with the contributions from Bailiff and His Name Is Alive standing out as a definite highlights. Not unlike a warm group hug.
Best drummer in the world? Well that can be argued, and we don't want to get into that right now (good thing Elliott's not here anymore, I bet he and Andee could go on for hours discussing their favorite drummers...). But the point is that Magma mastermind Christian Vander definitely deserves to be included in the pantheon of percussionists who might be considered for the title of world's best. He'd certainly get the vote of quite a few fans of wigged-out prog rock, as exemplified by the band that he's led since the late '60s, the science fictional, spiritual French prog institution known as Magma. Such fans will probably be very interested in this release, a dvd version of what's essentially Vander's "drum instructional video", originally issued on video cassette in 1988. No, it's not a regular drum clinic thing like you might get from Carmine Appice or Dale Bozzio...
It's basically an interview (in French, with English subtitles) with Vander, the burly Magma mastermind smoking cigarettes while sitting (naturally enough) at his drum kit, ready to physically illustrate his answers to any drumming-related questions, which is pretty much what this film's all about. The Q&A is both philosophical and practical, touching upon specific Magma compositions, Vander's drumming theory and technique, and his influences (various American jazz drummers that his rather hip parents happened to know, and of course the music of John Coltrane). You'll learn about how he used to practice with his wrists underwater, with hammers, and with weights on his feet (which he doesn't recommend!). The disc is indexed into 33 sections, with titles like "How It All Started", "The Single Stroke Roll", "The Wrists", "The Respiration", "MDK", "The Memory Of Things...", "The Obsessive Music", "Before The Stroke", and "Striving For Ascension". Intercut with the interview segments, Vander provides many drumming demonstrations, shot from various camera angles, and sometimes repeated in slow-motion for clarity. Of course, he does some pretty amazing stuff. If you love drum solos, this is for you! (And connoisseurs of "drummer faces" will certainly find much to amuse them here -- Vander definitely gets into a "possessed" mode when he's doing his thing on the kit.) Probably essential for any Magma fans who are also drummers. Heck, for drummers who've never heard of Magma too. But non-drummer Magma fans should also find this interesting and enlightening, as it reveals a lot about one of the major elements of Magma that makes them such an incredible band. Approx. 1 hr, NTSC, all regions. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org. A CERTAIN RATIO "Live America 1985" (Melodic) cd 14.98 ACID KING "III" (Small Stone) cd 15.98 AFRIRAMPO "Kore Ga Mayaku Da" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 AKIYAMA, MITCHELL / GUNTER MULLER "Points and Slashes" (Erstwhile) cd 14.98 ALIAS "All Things Fixable" (Goodwithmoney) cd 14.98 ALLIEN, ELLEN "Thrills" (BPitch Control) cd 15.98 ANNIE "Anniemal" (679 Recordings) cd 14.98 ARCHETTI, LUIGI / BO WIGET "Low Tide Digitals II" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 BACKDOOR MEN, THE "Sodra Esplanaden #4" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 BLUT AUS NORD "The Work Which Transforms God / Thematic Emanation Of Archetypal Multiplicity" (Candlelight) 2cd 13.98 BRIGMAN, GEORGE AND SPLIT "I Can Hear The Ants Dancin'" (Solid) cd 16.98 C-RAYZ WALZ "Year Of The Beast" (Definitive Jux) cd/lp 16.98/17.98 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART "Prime Quality Beef" (Oz-It Morpheus) cd 15.98 CARTER, CHRISTINA & BLACK FOREST / BLACK SEA "s/t" (Time Lag) cd 13.98 CARTER, TOM & MARCIA BASSETT "Zaika I-IV" (Eclipse) lp 14.98 CHRYSTAL BELLE SCRODD "Belle de Jour" (Klang Galerie) cd 17.98 CHRYSTAL BELLE SCRODD "The Inevitable Chrystal Belle Scrodd Record" (Klang Galerie) cd 17.98 CLEANING WOMEN "Aelita - The Queen Of Mars" (BV2 Productions) cd 17.98 CLEANING WOMEN "Pulsator" (BV2) cd 15.98 COMUS "Song To Comus: The Complete Collection" (Castle Music) 2cd 27.00 DAISY CHAIN, THE "Straight Or Lame" (Sundazed) cd 14.98 DECAYES, THE "horNetZ" (Mind's Ear Records) cd 22.00 DECEASED "As The Weird Travel On" (Thrash Corner) cd 14.98 DEERHOOF / SICBAY "split" (Modern Radio Record Label) 7" 4.98 DOCTOR WHO AT THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP "Volume 1: The Early Years, 1963-1969" (Mute) cd 21.00 DOCTOR WHO AT THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP "Volume 2: New Beginnings, 1970-1980" (Mute) cd 21.00 ENO, BRIAN "Another Day On Earth" (Opal / Hannibal) cd 16.98 EVERGREEN TERRACE "Sincerity Is An Easy Disguise In This Business" (Eulogy) cd 13.98 EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH "Worn To A Shadow" (Lumberton Trading Company) cd 14.98 FANNYPACK "See You Next Tuesday" (Tommy Boy) cd 17.98 FIFTHS OF SEVEN "Spry From Bitter Anise Folds" (Les Disques du Soleil) cd 15.98 FIRE "Could You Understand Me" (Skyf Zol) cd 17.98 FOO FIGHTERS "In Your Honor" (Sony) 2cd 17.98 FOREST "As A Song In The Harvest Of Grief" (ISO666) cd 14.98 FORREST, JASON / DONNA SUMMER "Mastadon Razor / 100% Goodiepal" (LJUD) 7" 9.98 FREEFORM "Outside In" (Skam) cd 17.98 FUNERAL MIST "Devilry" (Ajna Offensive) cd 14.98 FUNKADELIC "America Eats Its Young" (Westbound) cd 17.98 FUNKADELIC "Free Your Mind..." (Westbound) cd 17.98 FUNKADELIC "Let's Take To The Stage" (Westbound) cd 17.98 FUNKADELIC "Maggot Brain" (Westbound) cd 17.98 FUNKADELIC "s/t" (Westbound) cd/cd 17.98/17.98 FUNKADELIC "Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On" (Westbound) cd 17.98 GENE LOVES JEZEBEL "Discover" (Beggars Banquet) 2cd 13.98 GENE LOVES JEZEBEL "Immigrant" (Beggars Banquet) 2cd 13.98 GENE LOVES JEZEBEL "Promise" (Beggars Banquet) 2cd 13.98 GET UP KIDS "Live At Granada" cd GONZALEZ, WALLY "On The Road" (Vicor) cd 15.98 GONZALEZ, WALLY "Tunog Pinoy" (Vicor) cd 15.98 GRIFFIN, VICTOR "Late For An Early Grave" (Outlaw) cd 14.98 H.P. LOVECRAFT "Dreams In The Witch House: The Complete Philips Recordings" (Rev-Ola) cd 14.98 JENNINGS, WAYLON "When Sin Stops" (Masked Bandit) cd 14.98 JORGE, SEU "Carolina" (Mr Bongo) cd 16.98 KALEIDOSCOPE "Faintly Blowing" (Repertoire) cd 19.98 KIRCHIN, BASIL "Abstractions of the Industrial North" (Trunk) cd 17.98 KORAY, ERKIN "s/t" (MIZ) lp 28.00 LARSEN "MUSM" (Enterruption) 2lp 17.98 LIPPOK, ROBERT & BARBARA MORGENSTERN "Tesri" (Monika) cd 15.98 LONG LIVE DEATH "Bound To the Wheel" (Secret Eye) cd 13.98 MASADA "Sanhedrin" (Tzadik) 2cd 34.00 MESHUGGAH "Catch Thirtythree" (Nuclear Blast) cd 16.98 MONOLAKE "Polygon Cities" (Monolake) cd 16.98 MONOSOV, ILYA & PRESTON SWIRNOFF "Seven Recorded Works" (Eclipse) lp 13.98 MONOSOV, ILYA & PRESTON SWIRNOFF "The Shining Path" (Eclipse) lp 13.98 MOOG "A Documentary Film By Hans Fjellestad" (Plexifilm) dvd 19.98 MOPING SWANS, THE "Lightninghead To Coffeepot" (Fading Captain) cd 10.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "When The Windmill's Whirl Dies" (Eclipse) 2lp 15.98 NDEGEOCELLO, MESHELLE "The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance Of The Infidel" (Shanachie) cd 16.98 NEGURA BUNGET "Inarborat Kosmos" (Code 666) cd 13.98 NELSON, WILLIE "The Ghost" (Masked Bandit) cd 14.98 NILE "Annihilation Of The Wicked" (Relapse) cd 14.98 NORDENSTAM, STINA "The World Is Saved" (V2) cd 14.98 OCEAN, THE "Fluxion" (Throne) cd 13.98 ODD NOSDAM "Burner" (Anticon) cd 14.98 OFERMOD "Mysterion Tes Anomias" (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) cd ep 13.98 OL' DIRTY BASTARD "The Definitive Story" (Atlantic) cd 17.98 OWENS, BUCK "After the Dance" (Masked Weasel) cd 11.98 PAUL NEWMAN "This Is How It Is Lost" (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98 PEPPERMINTS "Jesus Chryst" (Paw Tracks) cd 15.98 PERNICE BROTHERS "Discover A Lovelier You" (Ashmont) cd 14.98 RUBY, JACK "Hi Fi" (Auralux) cd 17.98 RUINS OF BEVERAST, THE "Unlock The Shrine" (Van) cd 13.98 SCHMIDT, CHARLIE "Xanthe Terra" (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98 SHOCKED, MICHELLE "Threesome (Limited Edition)" 3cd 33.00 SKULLFLOWER "Orange Canyon Mind" (Crucial Blast) cd 15.98 SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS "s/t" (Weird Forest) picture disc 11.98 SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE "Four Winds the Walker" (Secret Eye) cd 13.98 SPOOKY, DJ & DAVE LOMBARDO "Drums Of Death" (Thirsty Ear) cd 15.98 SUGIMOTO, TAKU "Live In Australia" (Improvised Music of Japan) cd 27.00 TAR PET "The Artist Revealed Is Taralie Dawn" (Eclipse) lp 14.98 TARENTEL "Ghost Weight" (Acuarela) cd 11.98 TARWATER "The Needle Was Travelling" (Morr Music) cd 16.98 TRAFFIC SOUND "Yellow Sea Years" (Vampisoul) cd 21.00 TRAVELING BELL "Scatter Ways" (Secret Eye) cd 13.98 UFO OR DIE "Shock Stoppers" (Skin Graft) comic + 7" 5.50 V/A "Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word" (Delay 68) cd 14.98 V/A "Ikon Records Story" (Frantic) 2cd 26.00 V/A "Inside Deep Note Vol. 2: Music Of 1970s Adult Cinema" (Grammofonpladen) cd + dvd 16.98 V/A "Made In Sheffield" (Plexifilm) dvd 19.98 V/A "Passion Of Laja Aijala" (BV2 Productions) cd 16.98 V/A "Soul Sisters: The Sights And Sounds Of The African-American Underground" (Black Beauty) cd 14.98 VOLCANO THE BEAR "Catonapotato" (Digitalis) cd 14.98 WHITE ROCK "Tarpit" (Troubleman Limited) cd 13.98 WHY? "Sanddollars, The EP" (Anticon) cd ep 9.98 WOODEN WAND AND THE VANISHING VOICE "Xiao" (Troubleman Unlimited) cd 13.98 XENAKIS, IANNIS "Electronic Music 1: La Legende d'Eer" (Mode) dvd 26.00 ZION I "True & Livin" (LiveUp) cd 15.98 ZS "Karate Bump" (Planaria) cd 8.98 ZZZZ / UZ JSME DOMA "split" (PolyVinyl) 7" 4.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Okay fellow Finnish obsessives! It's that time again. The arrival of another super cool, and of course super limted (only 300 copies worldwide!) sonic missive from the bizarre musical world that is the Finnish Underground. The is the second release we've carried from Verde, AKA Mika Rintala, who sometimes plays with Circle and Ektroverde, but more often is holed up in his home studio concocting all sorts of far out sounds. And far out they are, from bleeping alien melodies, to shuffling electronic jazz to minimal music concrete to droney hypno-rock and everything in between. Utilizing homemade instruments as well as traditional ones, Rintala constructs his own vison of the future (and at the same time, the past), a world of sonic mystery, assembled from unlikely parts into bizarre and beautifu arrangements, resulting in a truly curious, and truly wonderful collection of songs and sounds.
For those of you who loved Vetiver's self-titled debut and/or for those of you who've yet to experience their wistful dream-folk, here's a shorter serving of five new ultra hushed and intimate live and home recordings. Between features a few new originals from the pen of Vetiver main songwriter Andy Cabic plus a casual, off the cuff cover of Fleetwood Mac's song "Save Me A Place"! New full-length upcoming too...
Hello Martha! Here's another member of the Canadian musical family Wainwright (her brother Rufus and their folks Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle). However, she's sure not riding on anyone's coattails, she's garnered quite a bit of attention for herself. Did ya hear/see her on tour recently opening for Stephen Malkmus? There's plenty of fine traits running in this family, she definitely shares a flair for the dramatic with her brother and a grounded earthiness with her mother. That said, her voice fits somewhere between Tegan & Sara, Joni Mitchell and Mazzy Star. While we're not so sure about her song "Bloody Motherfucking Asshole", we're sure about the fantastic duet with her brother "The Maker". Splendid!
The posthumous debut from (and, thus, swansong of) San Francisco's most cult black metal act, Weakling. Despite their local, non-forested, non-wintry origins, Weakling was a band capable of destroying the best Scandinavia has to offer (as we witnessed upon two occasions, when Weakling had the honor of opening the San Francisco shows by Norwegians Mayhem and Enslaved, and proceeded to make both bands look like punk rockers in comparison! Weakling were so much more epic and intense). All this without any of the ignorant posturing or hackneyed corpsepaint of their peers.
Ghastly, anguished vocals and bloodchilling keyboards combine with dual trebly buzzsaw guitars and inhuman trance inducing drumming to create an atmosphere of utter grinding grimness. Weakling draws upon '90s black metal in the Norwegian tradition (especially the raw and primitive likes of Darkthrone, Burzum and Immortal) and then creates uniquely fucked song structures of epic length (20 minutes per, in some cases).
And, like the best music, Weakling also transcends genre. In some ways, "Dead as Dreams" possesses elements that can be considered akin to the avant garde, experimental creations of the Swans, Skullflower, Steve Reich, or even Yoko Ono. Imagine an extensive, utterly mesmerizing Hermann Nitsch piece, composed for black metal band.
It's a suffocating soundscape of riffing and drone. Subterranean satanic art rock that equals metal. Nihilistic, depressive and never ending.
Featuring Josh from The (Fucking) Champs as well as drummer Lil' Sunshine from local death metallers Sangre Amado. And of course, John Gossard of...well, John Gossard. (And The Gault / Asunder / Iron Vegan.) Local black metal maniac/death rocker extraordinaire. Weakling is largely the result of his devotion to black metal dementia.
We are not engaging in baseless hyperbole when we say: this should be crowned black metal album of the year. Seriously. Essential.
Wow, this is fantastic! All on its own (i.e, even without the film for which it was made) Jim White's soundtrack to Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus is one helluva stunning, evocative collection. The odd thing is, the film itself (by British filmmaker Andrew Douglas) was inspired by one of Jim White's previous albums. Funny how things come full circle, innit? Anyways, this will surely appeal to fans of Calexico and Giant Sand. The artists certainly weave similar musical tapestries, but whereas those Arizonans' music is drenched with Southwestern desert sunsets, Jim White's is conjured from the humid Deeep South. In addition to his own material, this cd includes songs by many AQ faves such as David Eugene Edwards of Sixteen Horsepower, Cat Power, Johnny Dowd, Maggie Brown, Handsome Family, Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, Lee Sexton, Trailer Bride's Melissa Swingle, David Johansen, Larry Saltzman, and spoken word from Harry Crews (one of Andee's favortie authors EVER!). Steeped in rich imagery with plenty of soul searching and haunting gothic chills, each individual artist's contribution converges magically with the rest, making for a deeply moving and cohesive aural journey. Really, if this soundtrack's impact is even a fraction of that of the film, we're gonna totally love it. Recommended!
Everytime we've played this delicious reissue in the store, people have eagerly inquired, "Oooh, what's this?!" If you dig music that gleefully jumps boundaries and melts together genres with whimsical abandon (but NOT in the current irony-sodden, just-fuckin'-around fashion) -- in this case, a cross-cultural funneling in on the sounds of French Ye Ye Girl pop, far-out Japanese psych and prog influences, some almost-Carpenters level sing-song-y glorious pop, and assorted other vintage Euro-funkiness -- well then, Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki is for YOU!
Lovingly mastered from the original tapes by one of the original producers Monsieur Jean Kluger, this is the first time these recordings have been released on cd. Apparently there was originally one album and two singles released under the name The Yamsuki Singers on the French label Biram back in 1971. Needless to say, they've been next to impossible to find for years. If you're eager to get the skinny on Yamasuki, the project's lively history is printed in English in the liner notes, but there's also an added bonus on the back page of the booklet. If your French comprehension is any good, you can find out how to do the dance moves -- le salut, la joie, la peur, la grace, le combat, attaque (translation of this move's description: one assumes karate positions while shouting "caa ooh") and hara kiri!
By today's standards, you might find some of the 'oriental' (ahem, Asian) elements downright corny (the first song begins with a gong, and songs are introduced by a black-belt judo master!), but the sheer exuberance of the performances sweeps away any possibility of scowling criticisms. The sticker on the front proclaims "A fuzzed-out-educational-multi-cultural psych-rock-opera from 1971. Proto-psychedelic hip-hop with overweight drum beats and basslines!" Who's gonna argue with that?! Not us, we particularly appreciate the record label's use of the word "overweight". Yeah, we can hear what they're gettin' at -- the rhythm section is pretty thumpin' and hefty -- but it still made us giggle. Anyways, not to be super nit-picky but although this is indeed a conceptual album, after reading the liner notes we deduced that it's not so much a 'rock opera' per se, but more like a dance performance with lots of choral accompaniments. So who was behind all of this wonderful madness? Two French producer/composers, the aforementioned Kluger and Daniel Vangarde... and various children's choirs singing in Japanese. Ultra bizarre, campy, freaky and outrageous (again, even by today's standards!), we've got a sneaking suspicion that Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks probably saw/heard Yamasuki 'cause there sure are some striking resemblances with their own deliriously fantastic Kimono My House album that came out a few years later in 1974. You might find it sorta Zappa-ish too. Heck, it even spawned a dance move, "The Yamasuki"! Oh yeah, and if the fifth song "AIEAOA" sounds oddly familiar, you might recognize it as a song covered by Bananarama. Apparently the gals heard a version recorded by a band from Zaire (!), and loved it so much that they covered the cover "Aie A Mwana" and made it their first single!
Cup sez "Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Who's gonna argue with that, either?! Recommended, along with the other amazing reissue on the Finders Keepers label we reviewed last week, Jean-Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches.
Shifting gears is right. We've been big fans of DJ Z-Trip for a while now. His hip hop classic rock mashups were pretty wild and fun. Perfect party music for sure. So anticipation was high for his major label debut and well, it's a lot different. Rumor has it that he wasn't able to clear all the samples so he had to go back and actually write and record a new record, not using samples, but actually playing the parts and coming up with the melodies and the riffs. Not sure if that's true but it certainly sounds like that could be the case. No other way to explain such a huge change in sound and feel. Not really sure how this will go over with the old school Z-Trip fans, who will no doubt be wanting more of that mashup madness. Instead you get a sort of DJ Shadow thing (but not quite as dark or intricate) crossed with a guest packed hip hop record (Jurassic 5, Lyrics Born, Murs, Chuck D, Aceyalone, Mystic...). And with a little bit of a modern super slick MTV commercial hip hop / nu-metal twist, due in no small part to the presence of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park, who emotes wildly on one track, and I bet that one's already an MTV hit. Definitely not the record fans were waiting for, but it will probably push him to that other level reserved for the likes of Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Jay-Z and all the rest. Just be prepared for that Z-Trip Cribs you know is coming!
