On a brief break from bursting ear drums and shredding synthesizers and destroying clubs in Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway spent a brief period living in Nepal with his wife. While she studied, Dilloway wandered the streets, where he encountered the Nath family, Titu, Kala, Sukha and Ram Chendra, three generations, all street performers, hustlers, and SNAKE CHARMERS. Well, Dilloway quickly befriended the family, hung out, drank, smoked and most importantly recorded their amazing talents. Haunting and dizzying Eastern melodies, performed on traditional bamboo reed instruments called pungis and accompanied by a stringed percussion instrument called a premtal. So lovely, swaying and swooning, droney and buzzy, all hovering above a fluctuating framework of tribal pecussion and shuffling, rattling rhythms. At times playful and bouncy (supposedly that's some Bollywood music) but more often mesmerizing and hypnotic, a wavering warbling drone. You can't really hear the swaying cobras, but if you listen really close you can hear folks walking past, talking, cars, all adding to the feeling that you are right there, in an alley in Nepal, seated before huge hooded snakes, being lulled into a trance by the endlessly droning Eastern buzz. Comes in a super snazzy three color silkscreened sleeve. Vinyl only, and limited!!
We got a lot of unwarranted flak for our recent review of the Nirvana box. I think it was when we said that -everybody- liked Nirvana, and those who claimed they didn't were just trying to stay cooler than everyone else. Well, we still sort of believe that's true, but in the interest of keeping folks less riled up, let's just say ALMOST everyone loves Nirvana, and why the hell not? (Rhetorical question there, so no emails please.) They were scruffy little fuckers who hit the jackpot, and then fell apart with the whol world watching. The death of Kurt Kobain was our generations Lennon, or Morrison. And like Lennon, and Morrison and pretty much every superstar, the minute they hit the dirt, the maggots came out of the woodwork looking to cash in. Sad to think it's now happening to Kobain and Nirvana, there was a time, where the thought of pointless best of's and perfect Xmas gift box sets would have been laughable. But here we are, with a "best of the box" collection. If you are a fan of Nirvana, enough to want a bunch of weird demos and boom box recordings, would you really hesitate to spend $50? We thought not. So who the hell is this marketed to? Dicks in big trucks who want to blast "Smells Like Teen Spirit" don't want to hear a demo version of a b-side recorded on a boom box. But hell, it's almost Xmas and Courtney Love needs to support whatever habit she's got going on, and the guys in Nirvana could use a few bucks (well Dave Grohl is probably doing okay with the Foo Fighters) so there are bound to be some folks who are slightly curious about the early days, and rougher rawer side of Nirvana but aren't willing to part with that $50, so this then is for you. The rest of us, who LOVE Nirvana, and were blown away by the box set, get a nice little 'fuck you' in the form of this little collection. Three 'unreleased' tracks, which they assume means we'll all rush out and buy this, even after picking up the boxset, cuz (be sure to realize this next bit is being written -facetiously-) we bet those three tracks just couldn't fit on those three discs in the box, or they were probably 'discovered' just after the box was released (okay, end sarcasm here). Well, unless you're loaded and have money to burn or are truly a completist, best to probably pass, or just wait for the inevitable BOX SET II. But if you do dig Nirvana, but your thriftiness manages to outweigh your love of the band, well then this disc just might be what you've been waiting for!
Yet another freaky transmission from whatever otherworldly outpost these mysterious NY free jazz / drone rock / outsider avant hippy tribalists call home, and lordy, is it a gloriously moody creep! A series of slithering, warbling, shimmering, stumbling psychedelic jams deftly constructed from grinding electric guitars, pounding krautrock rhythms, haunting quavering organs, alien little pizzicato melodies, all swirling and swaying in a dense murky haze. However, unlike the delicate ambience and unstructured abstraction of past NNCK efforts, Qvaris is downright rocking, with at least half the tracks held together by shuffling, stomping, swinging drum beats. Those tracks are especially reminiscent of krautrock legends German Oak, with their strangely claustrophobic vibe and dense unfunky funk. The less structured bits scattered throughout are sparkly kaleidoscopic flares, free floating stretches of smeary ambience and glistening radiance. The combination of the two, surprisingly lush and lustrous. All of Qvaris sounds much more composed and less improvised than most NNCK material, which makes the whole record sound less 'New Weird America' and more like some weird psych rock / post rock band whose propulsive rocking manages to get sort of twisted and tangled, into a deliriously druggy moonlit tumble through the looking glass.
Judging from the cryptic liner notes, the album artwork, and the video on the NNCK website (http://www.theserth.com), the new record seems to somehow concern a certain sacred object, that appears (at least to our untrained eyes) to be a sequined eggplant, which in some strange way makes perfect sense when you're dealing with the cracked vision of the No Neck Blues Band. But don't let the addition of sparkling vegetables to the mix throw you off, this is some of the most gorgeously dreamy and drone-y and drugged out psychedelic free folk noise rock you'll ever hear!
If this split 7" had come out a few years ago, it would've probably seemed like a bit of an odd pairing, but these days SF's (formerly much more no-wave influenced) Numbers and Detroit's (formerly very singularly electro-botic) Adult. are soundin' pretty chummy. Where they've found their common ground is in the raw, retro punky pit. Both songs in this split 7" equation feature snarky female vocals and underlying herky-jerk rhythms. Adult. percolates a dark, itchy "Monologue" and Numbers proclaim at a slower tempo "Me Me" punctuated by choppy guitars. Sure to please fans of both bands.
It's nearly impossible to get a hold of the back catalogue of Nurse With Wound records in this day and age; yet albums such as Homotopy To Marie, A Missing Sense, Spiral Insana, and Thunder Perfect Mind remain classics that really deserve to be heard by those who are willing to listen. While it remains to be seen if the NWW back catalogue will ever get properly reissued, at least Sanctuary has offered this double disc anthology collecting some of that back catalogue.
Nurse With Wound is the work of Steven Stapleton, the British sonic alchemist who's work has radically repurposed the signifiers of rock esoterica, musique concrete, and Surrealism into an aesthetic that is unlike anything that has come before him. Truly, Stapleton and his ongoing Nurse With Wound are the epitome of what it means to be avant-garde; but for all of the weighty elements that go into NWW, his body of work is touched by humor, empathy, and humanity rarely witnessed in fellow experimental musicians. Livin' Fear Of James Last culls the many, many fine releases from Nurse With Wound to arrive at this double disc set, taking tracks from Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella, Second Pirate Sessions, Alas The Madonna Does Not Function, Automating Vol. 1 & 2, Who Can I Turn To Stereo, and many others. Like the previous NWW anthology The Swinging Reflective, Livin' Fear Of James Last makes for a fantastic listen, even if you do have all of the records as the rearrangement of Stapleton's original context puts all of these hybrid drones and mutant pop constructs in a new light. You really can't go wrong with this!
This band from Portland, Maine is the latest to lumber into the realm of the uber-heavy. Now, don't confuse 'em with the band called THE Ocean, from Germany, whose uber-heavy Fluxion album we listed not too long ago. Although you certainly could confuse them, as uber-heaviness has its hallmarks. Indeed, this line from our review of The Ocean's cd actually describes this Ocean quite well, as well: "The basic sound will be familiar for sure, massive guitars, pounding drums, propulsive, relentless riffing, blissed out, post rock parts that build and build and build into huge squalls of gargantuan guitarnoise, throbbing and pulsing, minor key and epic." Yep, another one of those bands, here we go again. Just how much single-riff repetition and down-tuned sludge trudge can we take? Quite a lot, really! Ocean's Here Where Nothing Grows debut consists of three long songs, each one an ultra-slow doomful dirge ridden with gutturally growled vocal angst. Yet, there's a sorta melodic post rock thread running through this, for a sound somewhere betwixt Corrupted and Isis. You could file this alongside the likes of Buried At Sea, Mare, Indian, Pelican, Tides, Yob and Conifer, too. If you're a fan of all that sort of stuff you'll like this. It's nothing you haven't heard before but it's exactly what you like. Extreme sludge, but droning and artful enough to catch the ears of a non-metal label like Important... and on the more soothing side of the sludge spectrum, not so nasty and harrowing as something like Khanate, Bunkur or Graves At Sea. We'll admit that this took a little while to seep in, but as the waves of this Ocean wash over you, you'll happily sink beneath its depths (sorry, it's hard to avoid such aquatic metaphors with these guys, as you'll see the cover sticker blurb writer also found).
Those Old 97s have always kicked butt live -- ever on the verge of losing control of their musical pickup truck careening down those rural roads, narrowly missin' a chicken, clippin' a roadside mailbox, topplin' some jugs o' moonshine along the way (not that they nor we are condoning drinkin'n'drivin'!). And here's a great document of the band in all their unbound Texan glory! A whopping thirty songs! A rambunctious country rock delight! For fans of Uncle Tupelo, Bottle Rockets, the country moments of Mekons, and maybe even ol' Lynyrd Skynyrd too.
For some reason it feels like this is the first Orb record in forever, when in fact they have been plugging along pretty steadily for the last 15 years, a record every year or two or three. Maybe it's because this is the best Orb record in years. And maybe that's because of some strange alchemy resulting from the magical combination of the Orb and Kompakt. Either way, this is a gorgeous slab of minimal techno and lush crystalline pop ambient, the perfect blend of the Orb's pioneering ambient house, or chillout or whatever you want to call it, and Kompakt's clinical Cologne dub infused techno. The opening track is like the best Gas track that never was, a murky mumbly throbbing pulse, wrapped in a thick cowl of glistening, crackly ambience. So lush and thick you sort of just sink into it, lovely and luxurious. We would have been pleased as punch if the whole record was more of the same, but instead, things get gloriously mixed up. From the bizarre Foetus like industrial cabaret of "Lunik TM" to the shuffling bouncy techno-hop of "Cool Harbour" to the blissed out epic M83-like fuzz of "Beatitude", but all of it wrapped in the Orb's gauzy gritty production, and knack for subtly catchy melodies. The last third of the record slowly slips back into that perfect warm and swirly, lush and gritty, abstract shimmer we got but a glimpse of in the opening track. The perfect airy, fluffy-clouded send off, letting us drift off and float away.
Keep your ears peeled and you might detect a brief little bit of AQ faves Longmont Potion Castle amidst all the drift and flutter!
Orchid has to be the best of all the emo / screamo / math metal / hardcore bands around. Or -were- the best, they seem to have hung it up recently (some of the guys went on to form the brilliantly monickered Bucket Full Of Teeth). Furiously heavy, super dense sound, HUGE guitars, killer riffs, impossibly complex songs, and somehow with all that going on they manage to be one of the catchiest heavy bands EVER. Not poppy or hooky exactly, but every convoluted riff, every unlikely memory sticks in your head like crazy. When people salivate over bands like the Locust and the Daughters, as much as we like those bands, the Orchid totally crush them, heavier and catchier and weirder (without being gimmicky). Hard to explain exactly why this stuff is so good, it just sounds so fucking huge and heavy, all the best parts of punk rock and metal wrapped up in a big spiky fiery ball of pent up aggression and musical brutality. Often referred to as chaotic emo grind, and we're not sure we could come up with anything better or more accurate. Totality collects all the long out of print seven inches, splits and compilation tracks, all on cd for the first time. Packaged in a cool silkscreened red jewel case.
We were thinkin' about Ms Dolly the other day, and how much we love her The Grass Is Green album and admire her spirit. Much like Charo, she's often described (or dismissed) as cartoonish and ahem, larger than life, but also much like Charo she's got indisputable chops. Hmmm, we will give the edge to Ms Dolly though 'cause she's got Dollywood! She just keeps kickin' butt year after year and keeps ya guessin'. Here she sings the oldies -- so many dear songs that we recall from our childhood! And she's invited the original singers to join her. A sweet, moving concept, lovingly realized.
Okay folks, this new Liz Phair album is even more fuckin' weird than her last one was (in which she was all tarted up like Avril Lavigne's big sister). First things first dammit, please please please stop the overuse and abuse in recording studios of that 'autotune' vocal processor! From Cher to Bob Mould to Phair, the situation's gotten downright desparing. WTF! Her voice and songs are indistinguishable from those of Lindsayashleekelly Clarksonsimpsonlohan. We guess she's still vying to be the next scientifically formulated and slickly programmed pop starlet... which probably also explains the '70s soft focus style design (feminine hygiene? Judy Blume? soft core?) of the front cover. Ewww. Are you there God? It's just not Phair.
A week without a new Robert Pollard and/or Guided By Voices release is like a week without sunshine... errr, well, almost. Fortunately it seems we've got nothing to worry about 'cause the well sure isn't showing any signs of drying up. This week we not only received GBV's Suitcase 2 (a gigantinormous 4cd boxset to be reviewed soon), but also this new solo Pollard release. It's a six song collection of music he did for Steven Soderbergh's murder mystery 'Bubble'. Ah, one great musicmaker and one great moviemaker. What's not to love about that? Absolutely nuttin'! Pollard released both the boxset and this ep on his Fading Captain Series label (volumes #37 and 36 respectively).
Gorgeous and long overdue reissue of this out of print death metal classic from Australia. But don't let the words death metal throw you. We're not huge fans of straight up death metal either. But this is anything but straight up. In fact this is most definitely one of the weirdest, most damaged death metal records we have ever heard. From the same label that brought us the truly bizarre WOLD record from a few lists back, this is sort of along the same lines as the no-wave death metal of Gorguts' classic Obscura record, Portal takes traditional death metal and douses it in chaotic noise, twisting the arrangements into serpentine blurs, so fast and furious that it almost becomes a buzzy blurry drone, any faster and it would be a full on noise record, like Total or Skullflower playing death metal maybe. But then on top of that, replace all the standard downtuned DM riffs with impossibly manic squiggly Black Flag like riffing, sounding quite a bit like little metal spiders running up and down the neck of the guitars. Riffs and squeals of feedback shooting out like bolts of lightning, the drumming impossibly complex and blasting away beneath the churning ocean of writhing riffs, the vocals just another squirming barely discernible presence amidst the super distorted tangle of metallic riffing and blasting drums. Sometimes all the disparate sounds lock into weird metallic stuttering loops, buzzing and repeating hypnotically. And every once in a while the metal dissipates into gorgeous, gauzy, ambient drones, whirring and shimmering, like old machinery and black and white films, backwards loops, strange pitch shifts and gritty industrial percussion, a dizzying swirl of abstract sound, very reminiscent of Jeck or Basinski, but those respites are brief and are soon swallowed up by further waves of Portal's confounding crush.
Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold mini lp sleeve, with striking glossy filigree on the front cover, a printed inner sleeve and booklet with lyrics / liner notes.
When we first heard this record, we were so blown away, and before we had a chance to dig WAY in, we took to describing it to other folks as the 'free jazz Endtroducing'. Like DJ Shadow's legendary hip hop classic, but here constructed from jazz records instead of funk and soul and psych. But closer listening and a glance at the liner notes revealed that Fuga is so much more, as the process of creating it is almost as interesting as the music itself. The basic framework was constructed by sampling bits and pieces from records, just how you would imagine, but then that framework was presented to musicians who then played the main chords and melodies, improvising and adding and interpreting. Live drums were added, the whole thing tweaked with and arranged, then those sounds were pressed onto vinyl, and the resulting vinyl records are what was finally used to arrange, sequence, scratch and put together the final product (similar to the way Portishead would record themselves, and press vinyl so they could 'scratch' their songs live). The result is a warm, abstract, fuzzy avant garde free jazz record. Or something. While the presence of vinyl and scratching and referencing DJ Shadow would lead you to think this was some sort of hip hop record, it's really not. Maybe in the way it was constructed, but Fuga tends to flip back and forth between scrabbbly, drone-y, dense assemblages of jazzy sound and chaotic plunderphonic free-jazz. The first two tracks pretty much lay the framework for the whole record. The opening track is an abstract ambient soundscape, warm swells of sound underpin clattery percussion, rumbling drones, buzzing synths, all very muted and minimal, an expansive stretch of darkness, peppered with tribal percussion, way-in-the-background fretless bass, eventually the whole thing morphs into a funky jazzy workout, but only briefly, before it fades into a manic percussive shuffle, which perfectly slips into the second track "Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft", the first half a seamless collage of drums and nothing but drums. It definitely sounds like a live drummer tearing it up, hard to detect how it was assembled via various slabs of vinyl, eventually it warps into a strangely funky, fuzzy synth workout which again finally slips back into just drums. The rest of the record is a bit like a freaked out version of Don Cherry's Orient, but all chopped up and layered and twisted and smeared into drones, stretched into strange shapes, funky horns, shuffling tribal percussion, chant like vocals, warm washes of organ, groovy vibes, scrabbly guitar, mournful strings and fluttery flutes, all woven deftly into a gorgeously dense and abstract sort of jazz. Wow.
A 2-cd re-issue of Ulrich Schnauss's debut album, Far Away Trains Passing By, plus some lovely unreleased material. Shimmery, earnest electronic shoegaze cloaked in wonder with a touch of sadness. Sweetly pretty without tumbling into saccharine excess. Actually, as much as we love Mr. Schnauss, this also really made us yearn for our old Slowdive albums! No surprise that he was a contributer to Morr Music's compilation of Slowdive covers, "Blue Skied an' Clear."
Schnauss' work here can also be considered the opposite side of the coin from a band like M83. If M83 were a horror movie soundtrack, this could be for a fantasy film by the same director illustrating a tale of a boy riding dragons in outer space, a whimsical video game, or a rainy day dream. Recommended for fans of the above as well as of Boards of Canada and B. Fleischmann.
The first thing that caught our eye when we saw the cover photo on this new Silver Jews album was the big ol' Canadian Club whiskey plaque on the barroom wall. And whad'ya know the first words we hear comin' out of singer David Berman's mouth in the lead-off song "Punks In The Beerlight" are, "Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor? Just in case I feel the need to puke." As Mischa aptly commented, "I think they have been drinking!" Ah, Tanglewood Numbers is filled with the stench of cigarette butts soakin' in ten day old beer. Miserable tales of hard livin' performed by a cast of indie rock superstars including Steve Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, Bobby Bare Jr., Duane Denison, and Will Oldham.
Here's another six songs of glistening folk-psych wonderment from what's probably the indie-rock poppiest of Jewelled Antler aligned combos currently going, The Skygreen Leopards. The 'Leps core duo of JA bigwig Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Ivytree, Blithe Sons, Franciscan Hobbies, Buried Civilizations, etc. etc.) and Donovan Quinn (Verdure) here turn in perhaps the most electric Skygreen set yet, with much jangling, buzzing guitar, sweet sweet vocals from both boys, solidly rickety drums and just plain fine, sorta '60s psych sounding songwriting, dosed with hazy, lazy melodies and mythic imagery.
Nature has its fresh breezes and warm sunshine, the Jewelled Antler collective has the Skygreen Leopards. Lovely, so lovely.
Sound Asleep (aka Conor Vincent Ghilarducci) has crafted some really really cool electronic instrumental tracks for his debut release Black Top Wash. A broad range of kick-ass, very tactile sounds. Tight rhythm programming. This baker's dozen tracks are in turn ominous, witty and pretty. Ghilarducci skillfully plays with texture in novel ways just as he plays with words in his song titles such as "Abdominal Snowman". His chimey and raindroplet-y melodic cycles step lightly amid the deeep slippery almost digeridoo-ish basslines. For a visual equivalent imagine a big furry monster settling for supper with his wee pals Mouse and Electric Eel while an army of robotic mosquitoes buzz about overhead. Did we mention? Really really cool!
By now, avid AQ list readers should know just how much we love the drone, and how much we love dark swirling stretched out ambient music. And just how much of our favorite drone music comes from the always impeccable VHF record label: Sunroof!, Total, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flying Saucer Attack, Pelt and many more. And now you can add Spiral Joy Band to the list. A long running Pelt offshoot, this is the first official release from the SJB after having formed almost 5 years ago. The Spiral Joy Band focuses on just one element of Pelt's sound, bowed and struck metal, and makes that their sonic focal point, stretching the sound of reverberating metal into massive trance like drones. Singing bowls, gonga, sruti box, bells, flute, esraj, tanpuram, shenai, tongue drum, dumbek, shakers and electronics all contribute to the drone, or add subtle melodies and simple rhythms, each subtle layer and woven into a slow burning, dreamily hypnotic thrum. The final track adds some unlikely piano, that gives it a very laid back seventies hippy space psych prog vibe, with tinkling chimes, huge washes of gong and strange atonal melodies, all hovering above a distant rumbling Tony Conrad-like drone. Nice.
Spoon completist alert... To keep Spoon on your mind and in your ears and in your eyes, Merge Records have just released this cdep following up their great Gimme Fiction album that came out back in May. There's three Spoon treats to listen to and one to watch -- the album track and video for "Sister Jack", a remix of "I Turn My Camera On" by John McEntire and an additional song "Sunday Morning Wednesday Night". Hurrah!
Always nice to see the sun come through, and it's nice to hear Kelley Stoltz's shining tunes too! This is terrific! Mr. Stoltz is certainly one of San Francisco's cherished musical treasures, and Sub Pop's kindly taken it upon themselves to help spread the word beyond the California border. This is a 5-song ep in preparation for his third full length (his first on the Seattle label). Such a skillful songcraftsman, he encorporates the very strong influences of the Beatles (check out "You're Out Of This World") and David Bowie ("Away With The Swans and "Let's Go Out Tonight") into his music without making them distractions. This ep already makes for an excellent follow-up to his fine Antique Glow album, can't wait for the full length!!
Such a remarkable songwriter who clearly appreciates other remarkable songwriters, Mark Kozelek seems to really loves covering other folks' music! You might recall his awesome cavalcade of AC/DC songs (found on three of his solo cds -- Rock & Roll Singer, What's Next To The Moon and the out-of-print White Christmas), not to mention a handful of John Denver, Kiss and Simon & Garfunkel tunes too. Well, in his post-Red House Painters band Sun Kil Moon he's strangely chosen to follow-up their acclaimed 2003 debut album Ghosts Of The Highway with a sophomore effort which is comprised completely of Modest Mouse covers. S'pose it was a pretty fun album to record considering the caliber of Isaac Brock's songs (not to mention a pretty shrewd business move on his part considering the current popularity of Brock & Co). Very odd, but it works! Kozelek fully inhabits Tiny Cities, making the songs warmly his own.
Pretty sure that most of the times we've listed a disc by our favorite Finnish post/prog/space rock band Circle we've made reference to rhythmic krautrock masters Can somewhere in our review. Circle and Can both cast similar spells of hypnosis upon the listener, and Can certainly are one of Circle's ancestral inspirations. So it was perhaps destined that members of Circle would someday, somehow collaborate with someone from Can. And it happened. In 2003, at the Jyrock Festival in Finland, former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki (the singer on such classic Can LPs as Ege Bamyasi, Tago Mago and Future Days), who has been travelling the globe for many years now, playing with various impromptu units of young, Can-lovin' musicians under the rubric of Damo Suzuki's Network, shared the stage with three from Circle: Jyrki Laiho (Circle, Hot Guitars, Stalwart, etc.) on guitar, Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Ektroverde, etc.) on bass, and Mika Ratto (Circle, Ektroverde, Ratto Ja Lethisalo, etc.) on drums. Guitarist Jorge Ledezma from the Chicago based band Defender was also on hand, presumably 'cause he was touring with Damo. In a fifty one minute, continuous improvised performance these guys provide a churning, freaked out, darkly cosmic backing for Damo's echoed and energetic yet spaced-out vocal exhortations. Of course, there was no way that Circle mainman Jussi wouldn't want to document this event for posterity, so now here we have the cd on Jussi's Ektro label entitled 3 Dead People After The Performance. Hope that's not really true, though I'm sure that there are indeed people in this world that would at least die happy after seeing their heroes perfoming together!
Yippeeeeeeee! Reissues of albums by those beloved New Zealand popsters, Tall Dwarfs (nope, that's not a spelling mistake where they're concerned)! This is Fork Songs their fourth album from 1991. Not quite as solid and immediately engaging as its predecessor Weeville, but pretty darn good nonetheless.
Their minimal, lo-fi tunes stitched together a loose patchwork of psychedelia, country and folk but the fillin' was all pop charms. Their music was characterized by deliriously catchy off-kilter song structures, boyishly emotive (but not 'emo') vocals and crunchy janglin' guitar duties. From their formation in 1979 through to their split in 1988, the duo of Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate made quite a captivating and inspiring songwriting team. You can hear their immense influence on bands such as Pavement to Yo La Tengo to any one of the numerous Elephant 6 Collective bands. Yup, we love 'em!
Yippeeeeeeee! Reissues of albums by those beloved New Zealand popsters, Tall Dwarfs (nope, that's not a spelling mistake where they're concerned)! This is one of the absolute standout albums of their career, 1990's Weeville. It's their third album and the one on which they really found their stride. It starts off with one of their best tunes (and a particular Andee fave) "Log". If you're gonna start somewhere with Tall Dwarfs, this is it!
Their minimal, lo-fi tunes stitched together a loose patchwork of psychedelia, country and folk but the fillin' was all pop charms. Their music was characterized by deliriously catchy off-kilter song structures, boyishly emotive (but not 'emo') vocals and crunchy janglin' guitar duties. From their formation in 1979 through to their split in 1988, the duo of Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate made quite a captivating and inspiring songwriting team. You can hear their immense influence on bands such as Pavement to Yo La Tengo to any one of the numerous Elephant 6 Collective bands. So great! Yup, we love 'em!
Move over DJ Shadow! Outta the way Cut Chemist! Same goes for all of the rest of you vinyl collagists! Twink (aka AQ pal Mike Langlie) has returned with his thoroughly engaging follow-up to last year's delightful triple 3" cd set of pling-plong music, The Toy Box. Always lovingly and artfully packaged and always with some sort of initial seemingly children's theme, each Langlie release has been very different from the next. You might also recall the cute bunny book with cd combo from a few years back. This new cd is no exception! Now, when you think of a broken record, don't ya think of a needle stuck maddeningly in a repeating groove just waiting to be swatted off the turntable? Well, this Broken Record is far from repetitive. In fact, it'll probably keep you glued to your stereo speaker in anticipation of the next playfully entertaining morsel of which there are a generous twenty one! Meticulously pieced together from vintage novelty and children's records, it's already drawn plenty of tingling attention when it's been played in the store. The Broken Record should definitely cause fans of John Oswald / Plunderphonics, Negativland, and DJ mash-uppers alike to sit up and take notice. For kids of all ages... really. It's a super trip! Released on Negativland's label. Recommended!
The dark shadows cast by this underground Tokyo psych trio have been getting longer of late. We've had two cds from them, both of 'em well-received by the AQ community (the excellent US release Five Psychedelic Pieces on Static Records, and then the maybe even better Lucrezia on Japan's Alchemy label), and some of us here were also just lucky enough to get to witness the power and intensity of Up-Tight's live show when they played in San Francisco quite recently, bringing their melanchoic vox, mantric drum beating, rigid bass pulsations, and guitar-heavy sadness and squall to the tight confines of the Hemlock. As displayed there, Up-Tight's sunglasses-at-night music is aligned with the likes of current Tokyo scene brethren LSD-March in worship of '70s Japanese distorto-psych legends Les Rallizes Denudes, and that's nothin' but a good thing. So another new Up-Tight document is cause for excitement. That this one also features the guitar and drones of Acid Mothers Temple beardlord Kawabata Makoto, is only the icing on a rather heavy cake. Jamming together on such co-compositions as "The Scat Singer At The Gate Of Midnight" (?) and "Rainy Day Girl #12 & 35", the Up-Tight/Kawabata alliance turns in a particularily anguished, feedback-filled set. Demons being exorcised here for sure. It's noisy and droney and dark, and the presence of guest guru Kawabata only further stimulates the spirits of Les Rallizes that swirl about Up-Tight's amps. Sure Up-Tight have their softer side, but with Kawabata on board, it's the destructive jet engine guitar sound that gets emphasized! AMT fans who haven't heard Up-Tight (but like the harsher, "Electric Heavyland" side of Kawabata's output) will happily "Mellow Out" to this! Produced and mixed by Kawabata as well, for maximum void-dwelling clangor. It's a limited edition disc, too, we're told...
Here it is. The most recent installment in Buda Musique's totally amazing Ethiopiques series, each volume so far focusing on a particular artist, or time or sound, but each volume as completley mindblowing as the next. Sure we had our favorites.
The all instrumental Volume 4 obviously, maybe one of the best selling records at AQ ever, a sexy, funky soulful late night groove. Volumes 6 and 7 featuring Mahmoud Ahmed, and we could probably go one and on listing every single volume. But we have to admit we were a little confused when we got this newest volume, especially when we thought it was to be the last (a quick glance in the booklet reveals that there is a 21st volume on the way!). A double cd, perfect way to finish off the series, but what is this, Either / Orchestra, wait a minute, they're American aren't they? From Boston if we're not mistaken. WTF?! Was their really such a dearth of lost classic Ethiopian music that the final volume needed to be a jazz band from Boston covering Ethiopian songs. We had already written it off before we even played it. But you never know, so we threw it on, and you know what? It was pretty darn good. And sounded pretty darn genuine. A look through the liner notes revealed that these tracks were recorded in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, for the Ethiopian Music Festival in 2004, and features guest musicians from Ethiopia including several recognizable names including Bahta Gebre-Heywet, Getatchew Mekurya, Mulatu Astatqe, Tsedenia Gebre-Marqos, and Michael Belayneh. Performing lots of Ethiopian orignals and traditionals, many that you'll no doubt recognize from otheer volumes in the series. The songs are as always fantastic , festive and jubilant, with a moody minor key undercurrent, warm rich horns, intricate hand percussion, jazzy guitar and piano, gorgeous melodies. The sound is just so lush and exotic and dark and mysterious and totally exciting, even when played by a bunch of dudes from New England. We still think it's a little weird to include a double disc live set of Ethiopian jazz / funk via Americans in Ethiopia when there is no doubt oodles and oodles of rare and unreleased Ethiopian music from the sixties and seventies and even the eighties that we all would kill to hear, we're just happy to have another batch of awesome Ethiopian grooves, and we're so relieved that this is not the end of the Ethiopiques series!
Or rather, should the title should be "Here's To Old Edward!"? 'Cause this compilation celebrates the many musical faces of one Mr. Edward Ball which first surfaced back in the '70s and have frequently popped up through the past couple decades. Perhaps, you're familiar with his music on his own as a solo artist or in Teenage Filmstars (one of Andee's favorite bands of all time, rivalling My Bloody Valentine for sheer warped glorious guitar overload, there's even a quote on the front of the disc where MBV's Kevin Shields refers to Ball as "a modernist musical alcheemist"!), The Times, O Level, Boo Radleys and Television Personalities -- this comp draws from the first four. Lots of distinctly Brit references such as re-enactments of the intro dialogue to the wonderfully cryptic television series The Prisoner in the song "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape" or a rendition of New Order's "Blue Monday" sung in French ("Lundi Bleu") or nods to different cities such as "Manchester", "Cloud Over Liverpool" and "This Is London". Groovy and trippy and jangly, very Beatles-esque bright and sunny power pop with occasional hazy clouds of shoegazer-ness and trippy psychedelia. But it's the Teenage Filmstars tracks that will kick your ass. Unfortunately we've been unable to get any of ther albums for a while. So for now, this sampler will have to do. It's within the TF tracks that the strummy psychedelic Beatles-esque pop of Ball's other outfits gets cranked up a notch, doused in liquid LSD and set aflame. Backwards drums, funhouse mirror guitars, distorted vocals, all twisted and tangled into massive MBV meets Jesus And Mary Chain mayhemic pileup. Just give a listen to the sound sample for "Physical Graffiti". Woah. And while the rest of the tracks don't pack quite the same wallop, it's all really cool hazy Brit-psych-pop of the highest order.
BTW: Really funny quote on the sticker: Noel Gallagher from Oasis: "Edward Ball is the second best songwriter in Britain today." Ha ha.
Everyone loves Guitar Wolf!
Lightning Bolt loves Guitar Wolf!
J Mascis + The Fog loves Guitar Wolf!
Jim O'Rourke loves Guitar Wolf!
Puffy Amiyumi loves Guitar Wolf!
Snuff loves Guitar Wolf!
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion loves Guitar Wolf!
Cato Salsa Experience loves Guitar Wolf!
Fast Fourier loves Guitar Wolf!
The Hellsquad loves Guitar Wolf!
The Wildhearts loves Guitar Wolf!
Porch Ghouls loves Guitar Wolf!
Autoramas loves Guitar Wolf!
Total Dork loves Guitar Wolf!
Yes, very much! And they show it in spades on this tribute to the beloved Japanese band! If you've yet to experience the wild wonder that is Guitar Wolf, there's Golden Black which is a rad new best of and rarities collection that Narnack also just released. It completely encapsulates their greatness!
For a mere $14.98, what could be better than a cd (in hand-assembled, colorful felt-tip art adorned sleeves) featuring fifteen tracks from such Finnish underground free-freak-folk luminaries as Kiila, Lau Nau, Kemialliset Ystavat, Paivansade, Avarus, Kuupuu, Pekko K”ppi, Islaja, and a host of others whom we've mostly never heard before (Hertta Lussu Assa, Sala-Arhimo,Taikuri Tali, Lauhkeat Lampaat, Keijo & Jussi Karsikas, Tomutonttu, and SewerPyysalos) but prove to be equally as wonderful as the ones already mentioned?? Well, how 'bout such a cd, with all those folks on it, and... a twig? Yep, Maan Matoset is referred to 'round these parts as "the Finnish twig comp" because it comes with an authentic twig, borrowed from some Finnish tree or bush, and built right into the packaging. We're already sold a lot of these in the store -- maybe the twig caught people's attention -- and listing it now we hardly need to give it a recommendation, 'cause we know AQ customers love all things Finnish, and twigs too. But it is indeed recommended, if you like haunting gentle sounds from the forest, including nature noises, female voices, electronics, bells, flutes, and myriad creaking things... The tracks range from abstract dronology to melodic, structured song singing, always hazy and mysterious in that imaginative, experimental, Finnish folk-psych fashion. A must have for fans of this scene and great introduction for those just tuning in!
By the way, should we start a section in the store for discs that come with twigs? Ok, so far there's only a few we can think of, mainly out of print cd-rs on the Jewelled Antler label, but then there was Romanian avant-black metal act Negura Bunget's deluxe digibook cd that came with a twig. Of course that's out of print too. So, I guess if you want a twig with a cd you've gotta get this. You won't be disappointed.
A compilation of music and dialogue from over forty years of fairy-tale movies produced in the former GDR??!! Sounds like a total AQ cream dream! And it is... especially if you're part of our lucky German-speaking demographic! While the music magically ranges from wide-eyed, sparkly "why, hello bluebird!"-type crescendos to tense "no, Hans, don't go in there!" moments, we should mention that a hefty portion of the CD is dialogue highlights that are most likely dramatic conversations about golden geese and, um, prinzes und konigs und such, but since our German is limited, we're not entirely sure. Still, it sounds great and seems to transform everyone's mood into something sunny and full of possibility. Plus, the CD booklet contains saturated color photos of busty, blonde women in braids and bearded forestmen. Wunderbar!
Here's a disc we'd definitely recommend to those of you who love exploring the realms of hitherto unknown (we'd assume, pretty much) '60s and early '70s garage/psych bands from overseas. In this case, from Spain, which seems to be the land of hot reissue action lately. 23 tracks in total taken from rare 45s, ranging from poppy psych to heavy-duty hard rockers. There's lots of wild, fuzzed-out groovers here! Including the stompin', super-distorted but also totally bubblegum rockin' of Cafe Con Leche, whose "Land of Light" sounds like the Jackson Five run through a giant fuzz pedal. Other faves include the off-the-rails Deep Purplish bludgeon of Storm, Los Roller's Creamier-than-thou Spanish-language "Camino Cortado", and the raucous psychedelic R&B belted out by Clock, among others. Si senor, plenty to dig on this comp for sure. The booklet includes band photos, sleeve shots, and liner notes in both English and Spanish.
Compilations of long-lost '60s and '70s psych/pop/rock gems dug up from the far corners of the world by dedicated crate-digging record collectors are always considered a good thing here at AQ. We can just point to the Hava Narghile, Cambodian Rocks, Love Peace & Poetry and Thai Beat comps for some easy examples. But while we've been stoked on all sorts of stuff from Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere, there's always room for more, and for new unexplored territories to freak out about. For instance, what about Welsh psych/prog/folk??? Aha, that's what Welsh Rare Beat is devoted to, as you've already surmised. The 25 tracks here, all of 'em pretty fantastic, were selected from the vaults of the home-grown Welsh indie record label Sain, which could easily be (as this comp argues) the coolest record label you've never heard of before. As the liner notes put it: "You like prog-rock with blueprint trip-hop beats? So did Sain. You like ethereal girl groups with mystical acid folk overtones? So did Sain. You like psychedelic rock operas based on druidism and witchcraft? So did Sain..." And they're not kidding. Psyche-Celtic hoe-downs, dreamy folk singing, Cymru pride protest rock, and incredible grooves abound. These songs are all sung in Welsh (a pleasing tongue we trust you'll find), and due to the language barrier (and doubtless related cultural/political issues) these artists are pretty much unknown outside their own land, despite being just as good as a lot of better known folks from elsewhere in the UK. Really, looking at the names here, we'd only ever heard of Meic Stevens before. Never Bran, Heather Jones, Endaf Emlyn, Y Tebot Piws, or Yr Atgyfodiad, let alone Y Dyniadon Ynfyd Hirfelyn Tesog! But that's what's so great about discs like this, getting turned on to the denizens of a whole new realm of record-collector fantasy. The cd booklet helps mightily in that department, featuring a great deal of text -- there's very detailed track-by-track info plus a lengthy essay that treats this music scene in a political/historical context. VERY thorough indeed. And it even includes an annotated map of Wales. This really well put-together labor of love was compiled by Andy Votel (so recently responsible for the fab Vertigo Mixed comp), Dom Thomas, and Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals who of course hail from Wales, and is released on the same label, Finders Keepers, that also brought us those equally obscure and awesome Jean Claude Vannier and Yamasuki discs.
Apparently Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Ben Gibbard really really dig the music of this lady, and in-store play here has also drawn quite a warm response. Here's your chance to find out if you're gonna join in this Seattleite's love-fest too! Veirs' intelligent, sweet songcraft makes for a fitting female counterpart to that of fine boy-led pop bands such as AQ faves Pinback and the abovementioned Death Cab. Need proof? Simply check out one of the album's highlights, the second to last tune "Where Gravity Is Dead". Doesn't it snuggle in perfectly between those two bands? She's polished each song to a glistening glow. Her voice is somewhat reminiscent of Cat Power's Chan Marshall and maybe a bit like Mary Timony too, but the music also brings to mind the lushly composed likes of Rilo Kiley or the Cardigans. Leaps and bounds from where her last album 2004's Carbon Glacier left off. Lovely!
Any one who loves rock music, and kick ass guitar playing, absolutely must dig seventies guitART rock band Television, and in particular the amazing guitar playing of Tom Verlaine. If not, there's something very very wrong. But don't expect any of that driving, propulsive NY art rock here, nope, Warm And Cool finds Verlaine in a completely different sonic space. This is slow building, smoldering slithering moody minimalism, the riffs are bluesy, but they are so langorous and drenched in reverb, they sound like they could almost be a more citified Calexico or Scenic, all rainy and cloudy and deserted city sounding, streetlights refelcted in oily puddles, the rumble of passing cars, the warm glow of all night diners, the vibe at times is similar to old Tom Waits, sort of desolate and mournful, wandering the empty streets at night, but Warm And Cold is instrumental, so it's all about Verlaine's guitar, shimmering and drifting through dark alleys and boarded up buildings, supported by subtle shuffling brushwork and warm swells of reverberating low end. It does get a little bit jaunty at moments, even slipping in to some chaotic almost free jazz here and there, but the majority of the record is a wonderfully dark and dreary wander through a mysterious twilit city. A lonely latenight soundscape. Think the aforementioned Calexico or Scenic, a slowed way down instrumental Chris Isaac, Giant Sand, Califone, Friends Of Dean Martinez, the warm swoon of Chet Baker, the Texas twang of ZZ Top (although all blissed out and dreamy) and you'll have an idea of the sort of journey you're in for.
Boy do we love Grime!! But we're getting a bit frustrated at the relative dearth of grime stateside. We can only listen to our Dizzee Rascal and Wiley records so many times. Plus to be honest, as much as we dig those, we're sort of hankering for something a little more, well, you know, grime-y! Overseas, you got Kano, Lethal Bizzle, Lady Sovereign, More Fire Crew and loads more but it's taken forever for any of their records to make it over here. But in the meantime, we've got the debut from the Virus Syndicate, courtesy of Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label. And it's a corker. The thing with grime is, well, it's sort of like drum and bass, you just gotta love the sound. We can't get enough of the super distorted classic ragga drum and bass. So much so that we could listen to that shit forever. And we're beginning to feel the same way about grime. It's sort of like hip hop sure, but the rhythm is this super repetitive, slurry, stuttering beat, a very clumsy funk, over and over, every song has the same general head nodding shuffle, with grimy fuzz synth bass lines, and then maddening, tongue twisting flow over the whole thing. Virus Syndicate take that formula and give it their own twist. Big fat beats, throbbing and hiccuping, haunting stabs of operatic vocals, fuzzed out synths, burbling booming system bass, all rocking that instantly recognizable grime rhythm, while the Syndicate spit bizarre marble mouthed rhymes, talking trash, a wildly confusional flow, catchy and soulful, occasionally slipping into some almost Jamaican style toasting. So fucking awesome.
Also boasts some truly and brilliantly atrocious cover art (continued inside the cd booklet with a Virus Syndicate comic!).
A few months ago, Andee received a cd-r in the mail. In a spray painted DVD case, with a photo of Patrick Swayze inside. Hmmm. The band was called Warhammer 48K (the name of a sci-fi miniatures wargame as Allan would later inform us) and the record was KILLER. So killer in fact that Andee had already begun trying to figure out a way to put it out, and Jason (having heard it from Andee) was even considering starting his own label to put it out. Well, before either of those things could happen, the band already had gotten a friend's label to press them up and suddenly showed up in our store with a box of cds. Well, for a record to have that much of an effect on Andee and Jason, you can just imagine what a serious slab of kick ass rock this must be. Falling somewhere between the indie mathy metallic crush of bands like Unwound, Lync, the Narrows, and Karp and the post rock sludge metal of bands like Conifer, Baroness, and Tides, but with their own unique sense of dynamics and some strange and strangely original riffs. From loping minor key slowcore, to super dense complex dual guitar riffing, to pounding full on metal, to lurching sludge rock, to noisy indie mathrock, to massive squalls of downtuned riffing and squealing feedback, this is heavy and epic, catchy and weird, noisy and freaked out, super dynamic and totally original.
Not to be missed! Cup was absolutely devastated (in the best possible way!) and seriously moved to tears by this release! Heck, she's been at such a loss for words that it's taken her months to complete this review! This fabulous double dvd set's documentary and live performance present Wilson as the true musical genius he is, situating him alongside other great composers such as George Gershwin, Burt Bacharach and Cole Porter... although he truly belongs in a category all his own. If you have even an inkling of the journey this album and its creator have taken to get to this point (far too lengthy and involved to go into here -- you'll have to do your own Smile studying), it's nearly unfathomable that it should exist at all. To hear and see it all come to life is nothing short of a joyous experience. The live show was performed, recorded, filmed and edited beautifully. It looks and sounds fantastic! In fact, we'd definitely recommend experiencing the work known as Smile via the live performance on this dvd over listening to the studio album which was recorded in some very controlled, self-aware circumstances -- obviously a process of facing long-stored demons and finding closure to a work long unrealized -- and thus it comes across as somewhat stiff when held in comparison to the original Beach Boys' versions which were also much more wild and untethered... all understandably so. That said, Wilson has repeatedly stressed that this incarnation of Smile wasn't intended to be the same album he set out to do back then, that although it has pieces from his past, it's something very different to be taken on its own. The documentary is suitably reverential with remarkably well selected interview subjects (musicians, producers, peers and friends, themselves real artists, not simply celebrity talking heads) including Van Dyke Parks, Elvis Costello, Rob Reiner, Roger Daltrey, Jeff Bridges and George Martin. No folks, it's by no means an overstatement to say that this is a phenomenal triumph. Enjoy! ----* ----* 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. ANGELS OF LIGHT & AKRON/FAMILY "s/t" (Young God) cd 14.98 ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "You Are My Sister" (Secretly Canadian) cd ep 5.98 ARFORD, SCOTT "Radio Station" (Antifrost) cd 11.98 ARPANET "Quantum Transposition" (Rephlex) cd 15.98 BADGERLORE "Stories For Owls" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98 BASTRO "Antlers" (Drag City) cd 14.98 BIG MEAT COMBO, THE "Half Of The Last And Some Of The Rest" (self-released) cd 14.98 BLACK DICE "Smiling Off" (Astralwerks) cd single/2x12" 8.98/11.98 BLACK TAJ "s/t" (Amish) cd 14.98 BONGZILLA "Amerijuanican" (Relapse) cd 13.98 BORBETOMAGUS "Barbed Wire Maggots" (Agaric) cd 15.98 BRINCOS "World Devil Body [Mundo Demonio Carne]" (Zafiro) cd 16.98 BRINKMANN, THOMAS "Lucky Hands" (max.E) cd 15.98 CATHEDRAL "The Garden Of Unearthly Delights" (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98 CAVE-IN "Perfect Pitch Black" (Hydra Head) cd 11.98 CHEVREUIL "Sport" (Sickroom) cd 13.98 CHILDREN OF BODOM "Are You Dead Yet?" (Spinefarm) cd 14.98 CIRCULUS "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 CODE "Nouveau Gloaming" (Spikefarm) cd 16.98 COFFIN LIDS "Round Midnight" (Bomp) cd 13.98 CONFESSOR "Unraveled" (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98 CRYPTOPSY "Once Was Not" (Century Media) cd 16.98 DARK FOG "Cosmic Tone" (Original Sound Recordings) cd 10.98 DAVKA "Live" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DRIVER, TOBY "In the L..L..Library Loft" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DRONES, THE "Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By" (All Tomorrow's Parties) cd 15.98 FURSAXA "Amulet" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 GRIMFIST "10 Steps To Hell" (Candlelight) cd 15.98 GRIS GRIS "For The Season" (Birdman) cd 14.98 GUIDED BY VOICES "Suitcase 2" (Fading Captain Series) 4cd boxset 45.00 HORSE THE BAND "The Mechanical Hand" (Combat Records) cd 13.98 JELINEK, JAN "Kosmitcher Pitch" (scape) cd 16.98 LANDING "Brocade" (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98 LANGENUS, COLIN "Living With The Rock" (Corleone) cd 13.98 LAPPETITES, THE "Before The Libretto" (Quecksilber) cd 15.98 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "Tribulations" (DFA) 12" 6.98 LOGH "A Sunset Panorama" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & SCOTT ARFORD "Solid State Flesh / Solid State Sex" (Low Impedence) 2cd 16.98 MAGNETOPHONE "The Man Who Ate The Man" (4AD) cd 13.98 MAXIMUM JOY "Unlimited (1979-1983)" (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) cd 16.98 MCBRIDE, BRIAN "When The Detail Lost Its Freedom" (Kranky) cd 14.98 MI AND L'AU "s/t" (Young God) cd 14.98 MIMINOKOTO "Orange Garage" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 MINDFLAYER "Expedition To The Hairier Peaks" (Corleone) cd 11.98 MINSK "Out Of A Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive" (At A Loss Recordings) cd 14.98 MOUNTAINS "s/t" (Staartje) cd 14.98 MOUSE ON MARS "Live 04" (Sonig) cd/12" 14.98/14.98 MR.76IX "Hits of 76ix Par2" (Skam) cd 15.98 MT. EERIE "Singers" (P.W. Elverum & Sun) lp + cd 16.98 MUGISON "Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 MUNLY, JAY "Jimmy Carter Syndrome" (Smooch) cd 11.98 MV / EE & THE BUMMER ROAD "We Offer You Guru" (Child Of Microtones) cd 15.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "The Cosmological Eye Trilogy" (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / CHRISTINA CARTER & ANDREW MACGREGOR (Very Friendly) cd 14.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Radio Life" (Staalplaat) cd 19.98 NI HAO! "Gorgeous" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 OZZBORN, ONRY "In Between" (Camobear) cd 13.98 SCUM "Gospels of the Sick" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 SEISHOKKI "1975-1977" (Siwa) lp 16.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "s/t" (Collector's Choice) cd 14.98 SOLEFALD "Red For Fire" (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98 STRAWBERRY PATH "When The Raven Has Come To The Earth" (Radioactive) cd 17.98 STRIBORG "Black Desolate Winter / Depressive Hibernation" (Asgard) cd 13.98 SUSUMU YOKOTA & ROTHKO "Distant Sounds Of Summer" (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Action Direct" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 33.00 TAPE "Rideau" (Hapna) cd 15.98 THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS "They Got Lost" (Zoe) cd 19.98 TRALALA "Falala-la-la With Tralala" (Audika) cd ep 5.98 TRIBES OF NEUROT "Meridian" (Neurot) cd 14.98 V/A "Camping 2" (Bpitch Control) cd 15.98 V/A "The In-Kraut" (Marina) cd 15.98 V/A "Pop Ambient 2006" (Kompakt) lp 13.98 V/A "Stubbs The Zombie Soundtrack" (Shout! Factory) cd V/A "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland" (Vagrant) cd 14.98 WHIP "Atheist Lovesongs To God" (Resonant) cd 17.98 ZOMBI "The Zombi Anthology" (VCO) cd 14.98 ZU "Way of the Animal Powers" (Xeng) cd 15.98 ZU / MATS GUSTAFSSON "How To Raise An Ox" (Atavistic) cd 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
If you're already a fan of blissed-out space-droners Windy & Carl and or the Kranky record label, this release will probably need no introduction nor description, and will surely please many ears and calm many frazzled nerves. If you're not already familiar, well, this Dream House makes quite a wonderful introduction. There are no sharp edges in this duo's enveloping music, their washes of drones slowly and gently undulate like wisps of seaweed deep on the ocean's floor. Soooo sooothing.
Now, the following bonus disc news might be considered good (if you missed it the first time around) or a not so good (if you already have the disc and don't like redundancy). Accompanying Dream House is their tribute to their dearly departed doggie, Flea. It was originally released as a limited edition cd on Brainwashed earlier this year, and features two lengthy tracks of their trademark glistening guitar and keyboard drone compositions embellished with some scuttling sounds from recordings of their pup. Just over 37 minutes long.
Now available as a SUPER LIMITED picture disc!!
PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER. Can't put it any plainer. This is sooo authentically old sounding, and sooo good. Sweden's Witchcraft have delved into the past through seemingly mystical means and come up with a masterpiece that sounds like it was recorded by some genius yet unknown downer-rock contemporary of Black Sabbath or Pentagram back in 1972. In a blindfold test, anyone into '70s heavy rock would be fooled for sure. Doomy retro-proto-metal full of heart-wrenching atmosphere, killer riffs, and melodic hooks galore. The mastermind behind Witchcraft, guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pellander, is obviously HUGELY into heavy '70s psych/prog rock. Doubtless he's got an extensive record collection with well-worn albums by Sabbath and a host of more obscure bands like Dust, Captain Beyond, November, Toad, Jerusalem, etc... But unlike so many other record collectors, instead of spending his time making want lists and grading LPs, Magnus *listened* to 'em, then went into the studio and wrote songs as good or BETTER than pretty much anything on those collector's platters. Literally, inspired stuff. As modern-day but '70s sounding records go, maybe only that Elope record we reviewed recently could compare in convincing us it was recorded thirty years ago -- imagine that album with heavier, fuzzier guitars and more melancholic vibrations. (Another one would be The Want album Southern Lord released a few years ago).
So we were super thrilled to hear that this band was putting out a full-length. And apparently other folks were too, 'cuz we've already sold a bunch of these in the store before even reviewing it! Kinda weird, since their only previous release, a 7" single paying tribute to two of Witchcraft main man Magnus Pelander's big heroes, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Pentagram's Bobby Liebling, was a hard to find, import-only release (both tracks from which are included here, along with an obscure Pentagram cover making Witchcraft's love of Liebling even more obvious). On the strength of that single, though (and the few singles and compilation tracks recorded by Magnus's previous band, Norrsken), our anticipation for Witchcraft's debut album ran high. Well, as you've already gathered, we're even more thrilled to say that it more than lives up to our expectations!
My oh my, after a couple of weeks without the arrival of a new Wooden Wand release, did we think we were gonna get a break from the seemingly endless stream of WW releases (not that we'd want one, mind you!)? Nosireebob! We knew better than that! Here's their latest album, and it's perhaps their most unstructured and meandering to date. Quite druggily hypnotic and randomly pieced together.
A side note: Uhh, we're pretty sure it isn't as it sounds, but we'd like to point out that the seventh song contains some splats and splurts that resemble, errr, musical flatulence. Ahh, was there a fartiste in the house?
