Long overdue reissue of the impossible to find early releases from Swiss extremist free jazz / outrock outfit 16-17! Because of using saxophone, 16-17 were always tagged as some kind of 'jazz' group, but if this was jazz, it was a kind of jazz no one had EVER imagined at the time, extreme and difficult listening for sure, like Borbetomagus filtered through the Swans or like a snake charmer high on PCP jamming with Prong's rhythm section. Or even a free jazz Whitehouse! 16-17 were a shrieking banshee, a pummeling behemoth, massive, ear shredding, primitive horn blasting freakout predating Zorn's extreme jazz (Painkiller et. al.) by at least seven years. This trio (saxophonist Alex Buess, drummer Knut Remond and guitarist Markus Kneubuhler) wove tight, tense grooves of pounding drums, pulsing thick ropy low end guitar throb, and atop it ,all Buess' wildly squealing, squirming, snarling sax. 16-17 sound was so intense and far out, and so much modern music can be heard in these tracks, Flying Luttenbachers, Laddio Bolocko, Aufgehoben No Process, Painkiller, a few years later and maybe Buess would be celebrating HIS 50th birthday with star studded NYC performances and multiple cd releases, but as it is, these guys remained a footnote, lurking on the periphery, making common cause with Kevin Martin's God and Alboth and the even the Digital Hardcore label, their legacy indisputable, modern music's debt unrepayable, so thanks to Savage Land we can all now genuflect before the Gods of ultra extreme hardcore free jazz post punk whatthefuck, hear where it all started, feel the same thrill folks must have felt stumbling into some dingy New York dive when 16-17 came over and toured with the Swans, and being fucking flattened by these guys.
Includes the first two albums, Self Titled (1986) and When All Else Fails (1989) as well as the ULTRA rare Hardkore & Buffbunker cassette (1984). Two discs wrapped in a cardboard slipcover. Transferred from the best available sources, digitally remastered by Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers) and this is the very first time ANY of this music has been available on cd!
A long look through a dark tunnel into the cloudy past of drone explorationists 5/5/2000, a duo made up of aQ pal Nathan Berliguette, formerly of tech grind outift Creation Is Crucifixion as well as the man responsible for bringing the glorious sounds of the Arboga Teenage Riot to these shores and our ears (and for that we he will never be forgiven, er... I mean forgotten) and Travis Ryan, frontman of gore soaked death metallers Cattle Decapitation and nominee for Sexiest Vegetarian In The World. But none of that really prepares you for the sound of 5/5/2000, named for a rare planetary alignment that was supposed to signal the coming of the Antichrist. Their sounds is not technical, not grind, not metal, instead, these three extended tracks explore different facets of the drone, from soft billowy tranquil ambience to soaring space like shimmer to creaking, corrosive machinelike whir to a thick whirl like the washed out fuzz of a million vacuum cleaners to the out of focus sepia toned drift of soft edged rumble and melancholy instrumental mumble. All three tracks are gorgeous, dense drones thick with swirling reverb, fuzzy tape hiss, and all manner of fragmented melodies and layer after layer of rich warm sound. While supplies last, you'll get the special limited edition version, limited to 100, hand numbered, packaged in an oversized sparkly silver, velcro sealed cardboard sleeve, with three pins affixed to the front. After those are gone it's back to the normal jewel case version...
It's actually been quite a while since Richard D. James has produced a a proper full length album, with the Aphex Twin double disc Drukqs being released five years ago, way back in 2001. In recent years, he's returned to his infatuation with acid techno and breakcore by releasing a series of Analord singles under the AFX moniker. Chosen Lords collects the best material from those 11 Analord singles and gives those tracks a slight trim to fit as much material on the CD as possible. No one is going to confuse anything on Chosen Lords with the repulsive electronica brutality of Aphex' "Come To Daddy" or the grotesque hip-hop bastardization of "Windowlicker", instead the tracks here harken to his earliest experiments with 303 melodic squiggliness and fidgety drum-machines struggling to keep together a constant rhythm amidst the rollicking breakbeats. James has long been an exceptional programmer; and even if there's nothing super innovative here, Chosen Lords is an absolute joy to listen to. Certainly on par with his Polygon Window and Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 releases!
"All records should be six minutes long!! I just listened to this whole record, and it was awesome!"
- Me (Andee) ranting when I threw this on the first time.
By now, it takes a whole lot for us to give a shit about a 'remix' record. Pretty strange that one of the first remix records in ages to totally kick our asses would come from grindlords Agoraphobic Nosebleed and avant post metal label Hydra Head. But remixes aside for the moment, metalheads and grindfreaks should be thanking their lucky stars that AnB's legendary PCP Torpedo 6" has finally been released on cd. All SIX minutes of it. One of the most perfect slabs of mechanized grind metal EVER. Dense, convoluted, heavy, ridiculous, scary, blazing fast, buzzing and snarling, short and sweet. PERFECT GRIND! So it would almost be worth it for PCP on cd alone (okay, maybe $15 for 6 minutes is a bit steep, but it's soooo good!). Thankfully, PCP's 6 minutes gets rounded out by an hour long bonus disc of remixes from folks like Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.), James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher), DJ Speedranch, Merzbow, Jansky Noise, Vinda Obmana, and a bunch more. From Plotkin's timestretched, ultradistorted industrial freakout mix, to the Godfleshy sludge and pummel of Broadrick's mix, to the skittery acid fried IDM Dev/Null mix, to Vinda Obmana's bleak wasted industrial soundscape mix, it's all totally weird and wonderful, most of it very very noisy. But what would you expect when the source material is the violent and vitriolic hate fueled fury of Agoraphobic Nosebleed?!
And then there's the packaging! HOLY SHIT. Totally deluxe double disc digipak, all in vivid yellows and reds and oranges, the front some sort of factory, with multicolored flames licking the sky as pills rain from the heavens. The inside is a dizzying blur of pills and capsules, each disc covered in tiny little flames, the six minute PCP disc a little black 3" cd embedded in a 5" plastic disc, all flickering little blue flames, the remix a 5" black disc with red flames, so completely and overwhelmingly gorgeous. Includes a black and white insert with all the liner notes and lyrics confusingly tucked amidst and within a litany of pharmecutical jargon, suggestions for dosages, various health warnings and lists of side effects. Awesome!
SF's The Alps (featuring our very own Scott Hewicker) returns with their second full length of haunting folky foresty freeform loveliness. Featuring members of Tarentel and Tussle, the Alps traffic in dark dreamy wonder, disembodied strains of some lost Appalachia float weightless in a dusky forest of murky mumbly ambience, while muted guitars and stumbling tribal drumming swirl and sway amidst delicate tendrils of creepy ghostly falsetto croon and swoon. Elsewhere, deep pools of shimmering cymbal wash sparkle and glimmer, the sky above a moonlit smear of ethereal electronic effevescence, all run through with streaks of subtle melody. Think The Wickerman meets Jewelled Antler or Neu! played at 16rpm broadcast through a moss covered speaker on the bottom of the sea, or the sound of the Northern Lights, recorded onto a wax cylinder and played back through a shortwave radio, while a boy on a nearby rooftop hurls broken cymbals into the drained swimming pool next door, the entire thing subtly underpinned by the relentless throb and pulse of rain dripping on upended plastic garbage cans. The final track however veers into much stranger territory, but somehow still sounds very Alps. An ultra lo-fi, pagan freakout, creepy and muddy and druggy, blown out drumming, bizarre animalistic vocalisations, all seemingly captured on a hand held microcassette recorder. Weird. But very cool.
LIMITED TO ONLY 150 COPIES!!!!!
The marketing blurb on the top-obi of The Appleseed Cast's Peregrine reads "America's closest answer to Radiohead." Well, that's an apt description if one emphasizes the fact that the Appleseed Cast are undeniably American. Unlike many of the anorexic boys with black eyeliner who populate the United States of Emo, The Appleseed Cast genuinely approach emo simply as a starting point, the template upon which they can heap spacious washes of post-Mogwai guitar crescendos and assorted other sonic embellishments. But Appleseed Cast's thick atmospheres have much more of a bittersweet nostalgia than Mogwai's dejected brooding, as The Appleseed Cast still retains emo's charming optimism in spite of being brokenhearted. Where The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl twin set of releases sprawled over the American heartland, Peregrine is a bit more driven by pop-hooks a la Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, although there's plenty of dramatic release-then-silence guitar episodes, and of course impassioned melodic bellows that would make Jeremy Enigk proud. If The Appleseed Cast ever got heavy, they'd make for a good touring partner with Jesu as there's more than a passing similarity between Peregrine and Jesu's recent slab of indie industrial pummel Silver.
A massive dose of drug drenched weirdness from Lightning Bolt / Load Records. This installment of Barkley's Barnyard Critters, a tale of an animal rock band, alchemy gone wrong, grave digging, and other bizarre mind bending ridiculousness, is the third, you may have glimpsed volume two on the Load Pick A Winner DVD from a few years back (the first was a super limited VHS tape, included here as a bonus feature!) and holy crap is this some gloriously demented stuff. AMAZING animation by Lightning Bolt's Brian Gibson, an incredible mix of computer animation, stop motion, and live action, totally amazing to look at, although the story is probably better understood high, but boy is it fun, crazy voices from a who's who or Rhode Island underground rockers, killer design, and again the animation! Wow. It goes from primitve and handmade, to totally high tech, often in the same scene. Gonna take a few viewings to totally understand what the heck is going on, but what a trip!
Bonus features include Wizardzz live (we made their most recent record a highlight a few weeks back), totally costumed up (how the hell do they play in those costumes?) the filmstock treated and colored to make it even more psychedelic, something called "Totem Tour", a four minute blast of brightly colored, spastic, psychedelic costume rock freakout, and the much more primitve first volume of Barkley's Barnyard Critters.
Highly recommended!
What a totally beautiful and moving record! Muni Bashir founded the Iraqi Traditional Music Ensemble in 1981 as an aim to help preserve Arab & Iraqi musical heritage. His ensemble included around 40 musicians who would be sectioned off into groups of five, all playing the same instrument with Bashir leading the oud section. To call Bashir a master of the oud is not hyperbole...he is! This is one of those amazing examples of virtuosity, not for virtuosities sake, this amazing talent is mixed with so much soul and passion it takes the album out of the realms of just amazingly skillful performance into a space of transcendent beauty and bliss from start to finish. It should come as no surprise that there is a strong Persian influence on these traditional Iraqi sounds, and it's those sweeping melodies and intense rhythms that keep us mesmerized and listening with undivided attention. Highly recommended!
We were able to get Bobby Beausoleil's legendary Lucifer Rising soundtrack on cd for a brief time, but it seems to be unavailable again, so for now, this super limited picture disc may be your only chance to hear this awesomely freaked out music. Side A was recorded live in San Francisco in 1967, and features a killer live version of "The Magick Powerhouse of Oz". The B side is a different version recorded a decade later, in Tracy State Prison where Bobby and and least one other Manson family member was doing time. Here's a truncated version of our review for the now out of print cd version to give you more background on Beausoleil and the Lucifer Rising soundtrack:
The rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoliel, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the Aquarius Records' musical context it's quite appropriate: Cult!
It would be all too easy and short-sighted to draw up a musing comparison such as "if The Arcade Fire were a band of Balkan gypsy minstrels, they would be Beirut", but it might be a pretty accurate place to start. Now let's take into consideration that Beirut is one nineteen year old Albuquerque lad, Mr. Zach Condron. Quite a boy wonder, indeed he's been making music for a quarter of his life, and it's not been the usual crashing 'n' bashing about in the garage expected of restless youths nor is it just the regurgitative sounds of musical heroes. Condron finely crafts a remarkably broad spectrum of timeless music well beyond his years. His singing voice is reminiscent of Adrian Belew and David Byrne, and his lilting, often calypso-y melodies also bring to mind the offbeat, worldly elements that those two venerable artists have embraced in their music over the years. You can easily envision the brass instruments glowing in the light of oil lanterns as they emerge from the shadows bringing in tow a carnivalesque procession of accordion, mandolin, clarinet, piano, ukelele, cello and bustling percussion. It's not at all surprising that he's become comrades with Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trosk of the very like-minded A Hawk And A Hacksaw (both of whom assisted Condron in the studio). An utterly captivating listen. Recommended.
Following up their bright punchy 3-song self-titled ep debut, Birdmonster deliver a full baker's dozen. With No Midnight, they do their best to keep the college rock fires burning -- meaning lots of crunchy, buzzing guitars and emotive male vocals churned out at a driving pace. Occasionally though they get into a bit more somber, sullen territory ("Balcony" and the title track for instance) than on their last release, but they also bring back a little rootsy rock into numbers such as "The Bar At The Back Of The Basement". Both are used to good effect. Note: one song from the debut ep makes a reappearance here ("All The Holes In The Walls").
The return of the Body! We've been chomping at the bit, waiting for these sludgelords to come up with record number two, might still be a while, but in the meantime we've got this super limited 20 minute cd-r ep to tide us over. Four tracks of abstract sludge doom. Think a more skeletal Khanate, with dubbed out drums, and replace Alan Dubin's vocals, with a hysterical shriek bordering on Bathtub Shitter territory. Weird but so fucking cool and creepy. Massive sheets of blacktar guitars, sometimes a grinding trudge through a viscous cloud of noxious grime, at others, a slow motion stumble through stark post rock territory, one track features a doom dub breakdown, where the snare sort of carreens lazily in a wide open spce before eventually being stomped flat by a wall of anvil guitars, another track is peppered with creepy soundbites, adding to the paranoid creepiness. The final track, a Judas Priest cover (!) is a blown out white noise drenched dirge, crumbling and crushing. Fuck yeah.
Packaged in a cool hand stamped cardboard sleeve. SUPER LIMITED so act fast!
Cat Power completists! Here's two lil' ditties from Ms Chan Marshall released by the UK wind of Matador Records (hence the slightly more hefty price tag). One is the languid "Could We" taken straight from her latest album The Greatest, and the other is a dreamy cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (mysteriously titled "Dreams" here). Sigh-inducing. but all too short! That's right Matador, just keep us wanting more...
Even though one band is from France, and the other is from Finland, you couldn't ask for a more perfect pairing. This split was originally released in 2001, and only recently was repressed so we could get enough to list, unfortunately it seems to already be out of print again so the 30 or so we got will most likely be the last for a while.
Finland's Clandestine Blaze specialize in ultra primitive black metal, paying homage to Bathory, Beherit, Darkthrone and the like, with buzzy sludgy riffs, thrashing and blasting mostly, but occasionally slowing down to a near doomy crawl. Their sound a buzzing murky blur, so much so that when they're not plodding along like Celtic Frost at 16rpm their black metal bombast smears into a gloriously hypnotic blur.
Clandestine Blaze are paired up here with Deathspell Omega in (appropriately) their earlier, more raw incarantion. DSO spew forth their buzzing blackened thrash, very much like the other DSO reissues, raw and grim on the surface, but with plenty of subtle compositional and sonic irregularites right below the surface, adding a definite depth not found in lots of similar musics and a hauntingingly unlikely catchiness very rarely (if at all) found in any black metal.
So good!!
A few lists back we went apeshit over some mysterious band of musical miscreants called the Violent Students, who made an unholy din like we hadn't heard since the glory days of the Butthole Surfers. Damaged and filthy and freaked out, a druggy chaotic punk sludge mess that just totally blew our minds. We recently discovered that some of those very same Students were doing time in the band Clockcleaner so we figured we oughta check them out as well, and so glad we did! For CC, the all out chaos has been reeled in a bit and while the result is less fractured and less completely unhinged, it's still pretty demented and manic, but way more song oriented with some KILLER riffs. When we first threw this one, the first thing we thought was the Cars meet Flipper. Which pretty much describes our dream band. But the more we listened the more we felt like we were slipping back in time, to that special moment, that only lasted a few years, where the Amphetamine Reptile label could do no wrong. Clockcleaner could easily have existed right there between the God Bullies, Halo Of Flies, Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost and all the rest. The record starts off with some weirdly eighties metal riffing, like the intro to some Ratt song, before the whiney Jello like vocals kick in, and the whole thing lurches into action with plenty of Buttholes tribal pound, Jesus Lizard groove and a decade's (the nineties) worth of Amphetamine fueled fury. Plus some amazing song titles ("Missing Dick", "Gentle Swastika", "Interview With A Black Man", "Blood Driver") and some problematic poop smeared cover art, but they had us at the Cars meet Flipper!
In the two years since we last heard from Coelacanth, other drone based groups have unleashed hundreds of cd-rs of extended vibrations, treated field recordings, and fucked-up droning noise; and Coelacanth could have easily fallen into that camp, releasing any number of perfectly adequate live recordings. But they didn't. Instead, Loren Chasse (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Of, Child Readers, and many things Jewelled Antler) and aQ's own Jim Haynes chose to labor on the details of their recordings so that every timbre, every drone, and every tactile grain of sound was perfectly aligned with the sounds of their elemental objects and particular environments. In the world of Coelacanth, there are rocks, rust, sand, leaves, strobe lights, weird electrical devices, shortwave, and plenty of oceanic field recordings (in honor of the fish they're named after); and from those sounds, Coelacanth creates multiple layers and deep textures, all together in a mesmerising tapestry of sub-aquatic abstractions and chiming reverberations. Perfecting their tactile dronework was just the beginning in preparing for their fourth album Wrack Light In Copper Ruin, as they also began collaborations with the film/sound artist Keith Evans in finding a visual corrolary for their sonic abstractions, utilizing breathtakingly hypnotic film and video installations to compliment Coelacanth's music and vice versa. Evans is also a member of Silt, a multimedia collective that specializes in elaborate multi-projection / kinetic-sculpture installations -- one of which was featured at the Whitney Biennial back in 2002. Given that Evans has previously worked with Chasse for a Thuja performance in Scotland a couple years back, a Coelacanth / Keith Evans pairing seemed logical.
So, Wrack Light In Copper Ruin is both a CD and DVD, with the audio portion finding Coelacanth not only collaborating with Evans on some of the recordings, but also Matmos who had asked Chasse and Haynes to join them for part of their 96 hours of performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Underwater bell tones, raked stringed instruments, ringing glass harmonics, and gaping drones saturated in a density of texture so complex that it almost sounds like an acoustic version of a Fennesz album! The DVD features Evans' jaw-dropping video work: abstract undulating landscapes of refracted light, all scored to a subtle Chasse / Evans remix of the sounds on the CD. The rippled linear patterns seem innocuous at first; but like the hypnotic primal power of fire, it totally sucks you in. So gorgeous!
This compilation of unreleased recordings and demos from 1966-1979 was released as an addition to the Fledg'ling label four cd Shirley Collins box set Within Sound. This 22 song set of traditional fare accompanied by sister Dolly on organ is sweet but a bit lackluster, perhaps for completists only. While this is meant to be a tribute to Dolly who passed away in 1995 (as well as a final career rounder for Shirley herself), for anyone new to the Collins sisters stunning musical power, we recommend 1970's apocalyptic folk epic and Current 93 fave, Love, Death and the Lady as a more proper introduction.
The two most recent Deathspell Omega records, Kenose and Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice, immediately became all time AQ favorites, due in no small part to their strange hybrid of classic thrashy black metal, and strange serpentine post rock. Grim enough to satisfy all the true black metal warriors out there, but weird and avant enough to please fans of strange music, metalhead or not. But as with most groups with a strange progressive sonic bent, that sound didn't just happen overnight, they had to grow into it, feeling their way as they went and DSO is no exception. While now they are this ultra mysterious avant garde black metal outift, they started out as an ultra grim, thrashy black metal band, as is evidenced on Infernal Battles, a disc that collects two of DSO's demos (2000 / 2003). This was released a while ago but quickly went out of print and has only been repressed recently so we've finally gotten enough to list!
So while this isn't as far out or weirdly progressive as the more recent releases, in no way does that mean this isn't essential stuff. And even that far back, there were hints as to what the future held for DSO sonically. Overall, this is simple and true and grim thrashy buzzing black metal, furious blast beats and droning riffs, howled vocals, but even in this more traditional classic BM framework, DSO manage to imbue each song with subtly strange melodies and unlikely riffing, surprisingly complex and catchy arrangements, all fitted snugly in that classic BM structure, subverting subtly from within. This one is definitely not for the dabblers who dug later DSO records but for whom the BM angle was more of a novelty -- this is harsh, heavy, grim, brutal stuff, fans of Darkthrone, old Immortal, Mayhem and the like will be in utter hell (which they like), and will gladly wallow in the bleak blackness of Infernal Battles for sure.
Inquisitors Of Satan was the second album from Deathspell Omega, originally released in 2002 and intended to be vinyl only until a slew of spotty bootleg cds convinced the band to release a cd version. Much like Infernal Battles, IoS finds Deathspell still firmly ensconced in a more traditional grim and true black metal sound, channelling the spirit of Darkthrone and Immortal and Mayhem, but twisting that classic BM sound into their own subtly strange shapes.
A cursory listen reveals all the sonic hallmarks you might expect from any classic black metal record: buzzing blurry riffs, furious blast beats, haunting minor key melodies, gutteral growled demonic vocals, but as on Infernal Battles, DSO seem to be growing tired of just blasting away, and inject all sorts of subtleties that slowly reveal themselves upon repeated listens, riffs are twisted and convoluted, melodies are totally unlikely but in being so, manage to also be completely and extraordinarily catchy. Granted this is still at it's core, pure and evil and furiously brutal black metal, but this definitely hinted even more at the mysterious blackened beast DSO would one day become.
This drizzly afternoon we were listening to Cat Power's latest single with her cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream", then immediately after that we put on the first side of this new Dntel record (Jimmy Tamborello's first 'solo' release in five years -- his time's been occupied with other matters, namely a little duo known as Postal Service). The song "Rock My Boat" sung by guest vocalist Mia Doi Todd segued sooo wonderfully. It's an absolute heartmelter that you wish would linger a bit longer than its fleeting few minutes. Oh, 'tis a pleasure to hear two such amazing voices back to back. We'd highly recommend that you do the same! It totally brought back the warm fuzzy feeling you get while playing your favorite 7" records in your bedroom. The flipside is an instrumental of Tamborello's familiar gentle glitchy fare. Sweet.
Massive double cassette from Drunjus, a mystical magical offshoot of free noise folk outfit Davenport. Monstrous, thick, reverberating tones, like dragging a horsehair bow across the roof of the Astrodome, a dark deeply felt vibration, a subterranean string section, playing a single low low note, balanced by sections of full on chaotic skree, grinding warped guitars, blown out acid drenched psychedelic squalls, crunchy abstract clatter, a buzzy, blurry, speaker shredding sheet of corrosive trancelike urdrone. Double cassette wrapped in a hand screeened Japanese style obi.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!!
They're back, those glammy poppy trashy rock n' rollers misleadingly named the Eagles Of Death Metal. This is the band in which Queens Of The Stone Age leader Josh Homme kicks out the jams with tongue jammed firmly in cheek, a glittering disco ball spinning in his head. It's total T-Rex worship, complete with silly stupid lyrics and the metallic crunch of as few chords as necessary. Needless to say, irony-wary Andee really hates this band. He didn't like their first record and he doesn't like this one either. Maybe it's because he was disappointed that they absolutely don't sound at all like the Eagles OR like death metal, or like any combination thereof (which is what he was hoping for, apparently). Or maybe he's just too sexy for 'em. Either way, he's an Eagles Of Death Metal hater, and not the only one here. Right now Andee's singing "I'm so ironicc" in a ridiculous falsetto in an attempt to mock this band, while Christine argues that if they sound like T-Rex, it's 'cause they used the "T-Rex" setting in GarageBand. Ouch. HOWEVER, Allan says screw 'em -- rock n' roll is supposed to be FUN and dumb sometimes, and Eagles Of Death Metal do it up right in that regard. Good times, a la the equally glammy Boyjazz, and also Electronicat, who are also in their own ways wanna-be (and why not?) T-Rex, The Sweet, Cheap Tricksters too. Sure can't argue that this album is a serious, intellectually stimulating piece of art, no. But as far as catchy, bubblegum hard rock goes, Death By Sexy definitely offers up a sugary dose. C'mon, don't be a sourpuss, go ahead and party on with these bubblicious dudes.
BACK IN STOCK AGAIN!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week continues to be super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's again, so don't miss out!! And there's a new Earl Shilton expected in the next little while so be prepared! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was Record of the Week a long time back:
We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week!
Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed!
Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget -- Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!
We are living in a post-Postal Service world. In the last several years we've been flooded with groups turning down their guitars and turning up their electronics, syrupy melodies, sensitive sentiments and catchy choruses. Unfortunately very few of these groups reach the bar set by the folks they are looking up to like the aftermentioned Postal Service, The Notwist and many of their Morr label-mates or on the non-electronic side of things, Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie. Unfortunately Electric President don't bring a whole lot new to the table and while they would sound fine in the background of a new episode of The O.C. we can't say this is going to win any awards for originality or songwriting talent. It's not bad it's just sorta pleasant. Definitely for those who like their electronic pop to be ultra feather-soft, pretty and with male vocals that bring to mind Stuart Little or the little frog Robin on Sesame Street... which come to think of it probably includes quite a few folks.
It never fails to amaze just how incredibly strong Chicago, Illinois' musical roots are, and that they feed a sturdy community trunk from which have flourished countless awesome branches that themselves have become deeply interwoven. This band is a perfect example. Metaphors aside, throughout the '80s and '90s, Eleventh Dream Day was a consistently amazing outfit, and this new album proves that they still are. A little history lesson for ya... commencing in 1983 their original lineup included Janet Beveridge Bean (also of Freakwater), Doug McCombs (also of Tortoise, Brokeback, The For Carnation and Pullman). Baird Figi and Rick Rizzo. Over the years, a fella named John McEntire (also of Tortoise, duh!) stepped in from time to time to help produce and play stuff. Their current roster is graced by the talented former Coctail multi-instrumentalist Mark Greenberg. The sound of these pop rockers has always been comfortably nestled right in with the likes of fellow college pop veterans the Go-Betweens and Throwing Muses. They've surely shared a lot of fans. And with this, their return after six years of silence, they've picked right up where they left off. Perhaps with even more vigor and urgency than before. Catchy, smart, solid and executed with ease. Welcome back old friends!
Note: not to be mistaken with the album Ones and Zeroes by Canadian youngsters Immaculate Machine. Hmmm, does everyone have binary code on the brain?
On Back To The Web, Elf Power's frontman Andrew Rieger's voice struck us as really familiar, and then we realized that it reminded us of Al "Year Of The Cat" Stewart. Is that a good or bad thing in your books? For us, we don't have a problem sayin' it's not bad at all. The album's pretty darn good from beginning to end, but stand-out songs are "The Spider And The Fly" and "Peel Back The Moon, Beware!" Both are entrancingly psychedelic and a bit folky at times, but also check out "All The World Is Waiting" which combines late night slinky electric guitar with the more characteristically Elf Power plucky folk guitar. It's a very groovy, very glammy tune. The album as a whole is infused with a '70s rock vibe, especially the final third which definitely reveals the potent influence of bands from that decade such as T-Rex and Led Zeppelin. While we do on occasion yearn for the toothsome dreamy psych pop of the Elf Power days gone by, we do quite dig the new direction the band's been taking on their last couple albums.
Mixing elements of world, funk, dub, and electronic music has for the most part turned out to be a recipe for disaster. All too many have attempted this mix with a glossy shine and a clumsy hand and without fail have produced pretty tepid attempts at cross cultural imagination. From 1979-1980 Brian Eno and David Byrne recorded -their- take on this fusion years before it became chic and of course with just the right kind of careful and talented hands, and were actually able to make those elements come together and create a brand new language. What's so nice about hearing this reissue is how it's both ahead of its time but also so OF it's time as well. With moments that bring you back to the bits on early Talking Heads records that you could listen to over and over, and with a recording quality so refreshingly raw and primitive. This record was recorded by a large ensemble cast including Bill Laswell who was just then starting his band Material with lots of the same ideas and elements. While not totally related in exact sound we can totally see how many of today's cross cultural sonic explorers were influenced by this record. There's no doubt these were sounds soaked up by the best hip-hop & electronic producers of the '80s and '90s as well as folks like Animal Collective, Excepter and even Glissandro 70, whose record we review elsewhere on this list. This reissue adds a handful of bonus tracks not on the original version and unlike most extras these are in fact all essential.
Envelopes are a Swedish band who take a stab at quirky indie-pop. Much like fellowindie popsters Architecture In Helsinki, they mix and match styles and incorporate all sorts of different influences. We hear some Young Marble Giants, Mates of State, The Pastels, etc. Sometimes they seem to have trouble rising above their influences but there are moments where their own endearing spirit really seems to shine. It will be interesting to see how this group evolves. And for those with a sweet tooth for quirky sugary pop you might wanna give this a listen.
These Everlasting Arms embrace (sorry for the pun, we couldn't resist) the moody angularities of post punk. Some of the more shadowy, dramatic, tumultuous moments brings to mind the awesome but dearly departed SF band Pleasure Forever, while others project a more straightforward rock-ness. Propulsive, occasionally explosive and mathy with angstful male vocals that you would guess comes from SoCal (think: ThreeOneG or Gold Standard Labs). Pressed on vinyl the color of popcorn Jelly Bellys (pale swirly yellow) with sleeves hand-silkscreened by the band themselves.
Yeah, that hits the spot! The Fiery Furnaces' tea may be bitter but it sounds mighty good to these ears. While their last, occasionally laborious release (Rehearsing The Choir, a collaborative effort with their grandmother) tossed a few folks off their wagon of devotees, this album will surely win them back and then some! Oddly enough it was originally meant to be a companion to its predecessor, but it has an altogether different tone and energy. It's more like a contrasting counterpart.
The brother and sister duo's strange stagey cabaret flair is in full bloom with lots of rambunctious mischief and intriguing instrumentation. Actually quite a few of the songs could easily be mistaken for something on the new Sparks album. Check out the second tune "I'm In No Mood". Is it just us or is Eleanor Friedlander's high delivery not a deadringer for Russell Mael's falsetto?
They've spent some time at play in the studio, running the recordings of the vocals and instruments backwards, noodling with synthesizers and such. Mind you the former does get a little tedious after a while -- they use that trippy application quite generously -- particularly on the lengthy seventh track "The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry" which ends up seeming much longer than its 5:44 minutes. Nevertheless for those who love the pair's devil-may-care attitude and pilfering of styles from all time periods and places, this album will definitely not disappoint!
The Bloody Hand was the 2002 debut album from this amazing Canadian band, but having been released on a tiny Canadian indie label, it might've been missed by many of us south of the 49th parallel. Now we have no excuse because it's just been released domestically by our Bay Area pals Absolutely Kosher Records. Not only is it a bit cheaper than the import was, but it comes with SEVEN previously unreleased songs (psst, they're actually songs from Seagull Is On The Rise, the never-issued second album of Mercer and bandmate Michael Rak's former band The Blue Pine).
Much like the likeminded eccentric art rockers Xiu Xiu, this band from Victoria, BC does draw rather emphatic love and hate responses. For some the over the top melodramatic hystrionics of frontman Carey Mercer can be a bit wearing and off-putting, but for others it's just the cathartic ticket needed! Allan and Cup here give it the thumbs up, and say that 'specially if you liked any of their other albums, you need this.
Hailing from the same city that popped out Hot Hot Heat, Frog Eyes bring forth an altogether different sound from their Victoria, BC brethren. Imagine a baroque hybrid of the Brit-inflected melodrama of Interpol or Pulp and the more dissonant, hand-wringing instabilities of Xiu Xiu. Very high on moody affectation with the focus squarely on the vocals. In addition to the deeply emotional croon and warble of those mentioned above, singer Carey Mercer may also draw comparisons to Tom Waits' hoarsely heart-baring delivery or the slightly smoother sandpaper swoon of Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. Lyrics and song titles are somewhat cryptic, obtuse and strangely poetic. The backdrop: electric guitar string churns and howls, shimmery cymbal washes, all anchored by some velvety piano melodies. FYI: More evidence of the Vancouver/Victoria music scene being quite a mighty tight knit family? Neko Case's Corn Sister co-hort Carolyn Mark lent her lovely voice to three songs (check out the luminous fifth song "A Latex Ice Age"), and Ms Mark's bandmate Tolan McNeil engineered the proceedings. Recommended.
Only recently did we finally get enough of these to list, and we've been trying since we listed Funeral Mist's more recent album, Salvation, WAY back on list #203. Even so, we only managed to get a handful so if when we run out be prepared to wait for us to get more.
For those of you whose black metal addled brains can barely remember all the way back to list #203 of last year, Funeral Mist's Salvation was quite possibly THE best black metal release of 2004, and one of our favorite BM records ever! Let's have a quick look at a bit of that review:
"It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding. This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y."
And thus we went on and on about how unlike most black metal bands, where heaviness is sacrificed for speed and buzz, Funeral Mist manage to be fast and at the same time ultra heavy. Dense and completely pummeling. And beyond that, the songs are linked by and laced with bizarre suffocatingly intense ambient interludes, rife with unrecognizable samples, screams of terror, strange snippets of fifties orchestra music, thunder, lightning, droning rumble and smears of blacknoise, like the sound of hell, and Devilry is quite similar. In fact it might be even more intense, if that's possible. Devilry is from way back in 1998, and the sound is a little bit more raw, the production is a little bit more blown out, but the sound is very much the same, a frighteningly intense blast of Norwegian style black metal, with plenty of doomy melodic breakdowns, but the majority of Devilry is spent in full on blast mode, buzzed out guitars, impossibly heavy AND fast drumming, and super complex catchy songs. Hard to really put into words why this band kicks our asses so hard, their sound is just so visceral, and again SO HEAVY, the buzz is definitely still in full effect at all times, but the drums are hit so hard (there's even a sort of black metal drum solo!!) and the whole thing is just so LOUD and not at all lo-fi like so much of the black metal we love. A blackened upside down cross to the face, and we love it!
Also included is the Havoc Demo from 1996, which is a lot more lo-fi than Devilry, like a foetal version of what they would soon become, but even in their demo form, these songs leave practically all other BM in the dust, fuzzy and buzzy, tons of super bizarre affected vocals, strange production fuckery, killer riffs all tucked beneath Funeral Mist's warm black wings. SO FUCKING GREAT!!
This is volume two of one of our favorite records EVER, Long Wires In Dark Museums, a sound installation from a few years back where New Zealand underground legend Alastair Galbraith teamed up with American musician Matt De Gennaro and strung long metal wires, some as long as 100 feet, between the walls of the performance space, and thus proceeded to scrape and bow and coax huge reverberant drones and groans from the wires, creating huge metallic dronescapes, informed by the works of Harry Bertoia and the long string experiments of Ellen Fullman. the cool thing about these Long Wires In Dark Museums, is that when the wires are excited they don't actually produce the sound, it's the points at which the wires are affixed to the space, the vibrations run up the wall, or through the windows, turning the whole space into a natural resonator, where the architecture of the space, the shape of the rooms, the makeup of the walls determine the tone and timbre of the sound. These performances occur in utter darkness as well, so the ears become the only sense that matters.
The sounds these two, and their building of choice create is magnificent, massive, the sort of sound that not only resonates within the space, but also in our ears, in your bones. It's like the idea of bowed metal, the glorious warm sound that makes, expanded and stretched out into a sound at once so natural, but so alien, that it's impossible to not be drawn in and completely mesmerized. It almost sounds like huge violins, or a cello the size of a barn, being tuned and tinkered with. Long notes stretched out for minutes, letting the microtones and sonic subtleties gradually reveal themselves. These metallic drones shift and shimmer, each long strecth of sound full of subtle colors and layer after layer of strange texture. This is seriously deep listening. Very very recommended, as is the first volume.
Dreamdrone side project of Panther Skull folks. A haunting drift of fluttering synths, soft and wispy. Slow moving, washes of bleak ambience, creaking splintered abstract sound, dotted with bursts of acid fried corrosive synth meltdown, all heated up and poured tar like into your ears, a gurgling, burbling cauldren of warm murk and drooling grime. Filthy, fuzzy, freaked out innerspace ambience.
2ND EDITION, LIMITED TO 25 COPIES!!!
When you think of the Constellation label, warm bouncy and sunny aren't usually words that come to mind. Home to the whole Godspeed You Black Emperor family the label is most usually associated with monumental post rock with some dark flair. Glissandro 70 is a much welcome blast of washed out sunshine for the label. Incorporating blissed out melodies, tasteful lo-fi nods to world rhythms, and an overall cohesive laid back approach that quietly sucks you in. There is something about this record that sounds so totally refreshing. We listed the reissue of Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts elsewhere on this list as well and this can be added as a great example of a future generation getting so right the seeds planted by that influential recording. There's also an avant pop sensibility that will totally hit the spot for fans of Animal Collective's recent outings as well as Broken Social Scene at their most abstract. The sun has finally reappeared here in SF and this has been the perfect record to hang out with while we soak in the rays.
If the cruddy weather we've seen recently in San Francisco decides to come back, we have the perfect rainy day indie-folk record to make us feel ok with it. Minimal arrangements of pensive Spanish-inflected guitar accompany Gonzalez' sedate yet strong voice that falls somewhere between Nick Drake and a male version of Juan Molina, without the electronic accompaniments. Before we heard this, we wrongly assumed this was a folk-tronica record in the vein of Molina or Beck but thankfully Veneer avoids such trappings (Swedish electronic duo The Knife do provide the only beats -- barely audible heart-beats). With an economy and restraint, unheard of in many contemporary singer-songwriters, Gonzalez wisely lets his sophisticated finger-picking express the melancholic heft of the songs. Beautiful.
We're not sure what message is sent by naming your band Gregor Samsa, but judging from this, the first proper full length from these Virginia post-math-mope rockers, it could be as simple and obvious as 'metamorphosis'. Each track here is a lush, lugubrious crawl, slithery and subtle, dark reverbed chords drift in wide open spaces, a blurry druggy soundscape, the drums sort of creep along WAY back in the background, a distant thud, a simple pulse, ethereal female vocals drift soft and angelic, sometimes hovering sweetly beside the whispery croon of her male foil, but most of the tracks shift at some point, build into a darkly brooding wave of thick guitars and keening melodies. But this isn't your typical post rock, quiet soft / loud heavy thing, as GS never really get heavy, insead they deftly ratchet up the emotion, choosing to not stomp on the fuzz box, but instead to quietly maneuver the music into a much more intense space. It's this intensity that manages to convey more pathos than a distorted guitar ever could in this context. This is dreamy and dreary, lovely and secretly dark and foreboding, with occasional swells of thick guitar, keening melody and a brooding malevolence, like Low with Mogwai tendencies, or drifting on a black, musical moonlit sea, slow and serene and absolutely breathtaking.Ô
Packaged in a gorgeous letterpressed thick cardstock sleeve, with a silver inked Japanese style obi. Wow!
Cool, non-music related footnote: this full length. 55:12, is exactly twice the length of their prior ep, 27:36!
It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do we describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.
On Color Wheel, the drift and rumble and shimmer of the past few releases is still present, but stretched out even further, in even stranger directions, some, on first listen sound almost 'wrong', like the almost cheesy panpipe sounds of "Cumulusless", but within seconds some internal logic reveals those sounds to be sort of kind of perfect, in their own skewed way, and then they begin to blur and become a gorgeously murky melodic drift. Other songs are stretched even more dramatically, songs and parts are peppered with strange production techniques and unusually distorted glitches, jagged edits and completely unlikely sequencing. The opening track "Fancy Period" begins as a cool ambient whir, high end melodies swirling and drfiting ever skyward, before the drone sort of buckles, and those high end meldoies become distinct peals, each fluttering weightless above a shuffling fuzzy stuttering rhythm, almost like a skipping Sunroof! cd. Track two, "Friendly Confines", is actually the most 'unfriendly' of the bunch, the core of the track a huge swath of downtuned distorted sludge guitar, tinkling melodies buried in the murk and mire, a shifting wall of rooooaaaarrr, like a slow motion mudslide, before the melodies are freed, the dirge drifts off and all that is left is a series of very Fripp / Eno guitar figures, repetetive and sweetly hypnotic. The record's closing track "Green Pasture" mines similar territory, a blissy barely there drone, peppered with stacatto bursts of blown out vacuum cleaner metal guitar, a super dynamic seesaw, between burbling dreaminess and massive SUNNO)))-like dirge. Quite possibley the coolest Growing track yet...
Boy do we have a soft spot for Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant. Otherwise known as the Happy Flowers. Most of you in your thirties (like most of us) grew up on classic college radio, loving everything on Merge, Homestead, Matador, Amphetamine Reptile, Touch And Go, Ajax, bands like Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Frogs, Bastro, Squirrel Bait, Killdozer and of course the HAPPY FLOWERS! for those of you who are either too young, or somehow missed out, the Happy Flowers were two guys who recorded totally improvised noise drenched records that explored the subtle nuances of being a kid, and all the pain that that entailed. The music was an ear blasting, exercise in chaotic noise, no riffs or melodies, just thick slabs of guitarnoise, feedback, and scabbling, scraping, squealing, while over the top, the duo screamed and shouted heartbreaking tales of toddler and teenage terror, "They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush", "Mom And Dad Like The Baby More Than Me", "Charlie Got A Haircut", "More Mittens", "If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You And Sleep In The Big Bed With Mommy)" and the legendary "Mom, I Gave The Cat Some Acid." Warped wailing brutality, an acquired taste for sure, but how could you not loved these guys. Totally giving the middle finger to the more 'typical' bands of the day, finding strange fans (James McNew of Yo La Tengo was a member at once point) and creating a truly infamous body of work. So, imagine how totally geeked we were to discover Mr Horribly Charred Infant was a mailorder customer of ours!!! We had a massive music nerd meltdown.
Anyway, back in 2004, Mr. Anus and Mr. HCI reunited for a 20th anniversary reuinion show, at the Tokyo Rose in Charlottesville, Virginia and before a small but appropriately worshipful crowd, they proceeded to totally and utterly destroy. Joined on stage by drummer Mike Malinin (from the Goo Goo Dolls, we kid you not!) the 2004 version of the Happy Flowers was a totally different beast (reflecting the later more refined hardcore side of the Flowers), songs that were just ear splitting smears of nasty noise, became pumelling hardcore jams, free noise freakouts got pinned down by the pounding drums and sheets of guitarnoise became actual riffs, and the band ripped through revamped versions of all their classics. They even revisit their unlikely version of Big Star's "Thirteen"! Who would of thought the Happy Flowers would ever try anything like that. But it works and totally kills. Well shot, the sound is great, the between song banter is a blast, makes me kick myself for missing it. Thankfully we managed to get a handful of these DVD-r's, released on Japanese label Lost Frog, and limited to only 100 copies, so act fast, or prepare to be very very disappointed. Insert and cover art by Mr. Anus.
Shhhhh... but rumour has it that our own Andee has been talking with Mr. Horribly Charred Infant about the possibility of some sort of Happy Flowers boxset, but that's all we're at liberty to say right now... ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just do a search on the item you want, and when the result comes up just click on the BUY button! 7 YEAR RABBIT CYCLE "Ache Horns" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98 A SCANNER DARKLY "s/t" (Gilead Media) cd 10.98 A-TRAK "Oh No You Didn't" (Disque Primeur) cd 15.98 ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH, THE "s/t" (Goodfellow) cd 15.98 ACID MOTHERS GONG "Live In Nagoya" (Vivo) cd 15.98 ADAMS, JOHN LUTHER "The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies" (Cantaloupe) cd 21.00 AGENTS DEL FUTURO "Mydrone" (Dielectric) cd-r 11.98 ALOG "Catch That Totem" (Melektronik) cd 16.98 ANIMALS & MEN "Revel In The Static" (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98 AREA C "Traffics + Discoveries" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 ASTERIADI, POPI WITH LAKIS PAPPAS "Another Sunday Gone" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98 ATAVIST "s/t" (Invada) cd 15.98 JON AUER "Songs From The Year Of Our... " (Pattern 25) cd 13.98 BARR "Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case" (5 Rue Christine) cd 14.98 BATTIATO, FRANCO "Fetus" (Water) cd 15.98 BATTISTI, LUCIO "Amore E Non Amore" (Water) cd 14.98 BENGA "Newstop" (Beng) cd 16.98 BIRD SHOW "Lightning Show" (Kranky) cd 14.98 BLACK COBRA "Bestial" (At A Loss) cd 13.98 BLACKOUT "s/t" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98 BLACK OX ORKESTAR "Nisht Azoy" (Constellation) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 BOXCUTTER "Oneiric" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 BRAZOES, OS "s/t" cd 21.00 BULLWACKIES ALL STARS "Dub Unlimited" (Wackies) cd 15.98 COLOSSAL YES "Acapulco Roughs" (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98 CONGOS, THE & FRIENDS "Fisherman Style" (Blood And Fire) 2cd 17.98 COUNTRY TEASERS "The Empire Strikes Back" (In The Red) cd 13.98 COUP, THE "Pick A Bigger Weapon" (Epitaph) cd 13.98 COURT AND SPARK, THE "Hearts" (Absolutely Kosher) cd DAEDELUS "Denies The Day's Demise" (Mush) cd 13.98 DANIELSON "Ships" (Secretly Canadian) cd/lp 14.98 DATURAH "s/t" (Graveface) cd 10.98 DIM MAK "Knives Of Ice" (Willowtip) cd 14.98 EDISON WOODS "Nest Of Machines" (Habit Of Creation) cd 13.98 EHLERS, EKKEHARD "A Life Without Fear" (Staubgold) cd 15.98 EMBRUJO "s/t" (Amort) cd 17.98 EMERGENCY "Homage To Peace" (America) cd 17.98 ERSEN "Dunden Bugune" (Underground Masters) cd 21.00 EXCEPTER / LEB-LAZE "split" (Hoss) 12" 11.98 FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Contraction" (Swordfish) cd 17.98 FLAT EARTH SOCIETY / THE LOST "Waleeco / Space Kids" (Arf! Arf!) cd 16.98 GAMELAN SON OF LION "Metal Notes" (Locust) cd 14.98 GIBSON, JON "Two Solo Pieces" (New Tone) cd 24.00 GIBSON, JON "Visitations I & II + Thirties" (New Tone) cd 24.00 GULTSKRA ARTIKLER "Pofigistka" (Lampse) cd 15.98 HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET "Happy As Pitch" (C.i.p.) cd 11.98 HEADS, THE "Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive" (Invada) cd 15.98 INSTANT AUTOMATONS "Another Wasted Sunday Afternoon" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98 ISLANDS "Return To The Sea" (Equator) cd 14.98 JANDEK "What Else Does The Time Mean" (Corwood) cd 8.98 KAITO "Hundred Million Light Years" (Kompakt) cd 15.98 KALAS "s/t" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98 KALEVALA "People No Names/Boogie Jungle" (Walhalla) cd 21.00 KANE, JONATHAN "I Looked At The Sun" (Radium/Table Of Elements) cd 12.98 KAWABATA, MAKOTO "Inui 1" (VHF) cd 13.98 KUUPUU "Kulta Sulka" (self released) cd-r 8.98 LAZY FARMER "s/t" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 LOPEZ, FRANCISCO "Absolute Noise Ensemble" (Blossoming Noise) 2cd 16.98 LYE, LEN "Composing Motion" (Atoll) cd 17.98 MAGIK MARKERS "Inverted Belgium" (Hospital) lp 16.98 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Live 1984-85" (P.S.F.) cd 21.00 MAJOR STARS "Synoptikon" (Important) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 MATADORS, THE "s/t" (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98 MGR "Nova Lux" (Neurot) cd 14.98 MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, THE "s/t" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98 MONSTER MAGNET "25 Tab" (SPV) cd 14.98 MONSTER MAGNET "Spine Of God" (SPV) cd 13.98 MOONKYTE "Count Me Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 MORD "Christendom Perished" (Southern Lord) cd 14.98 MOULTON, TOM "A Tom Moulton Mix" (Soul Jazz) cd 23.00 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Cosmic Light of the Third Millennium" (Important) cd 14.98 OBSESSED, THE "Lunar Womb" (Meteor City) cd 14.98 ORIENTAL SUNSHINE "Dedicated To The Bird We Love" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 OS BRAZOES "s/t" (RGE) cd 17.98 OS MUTANTES "Jardim Eletrico (#4)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98 OS MUTANTES "Mutantes E Seus Cometas No Pais Do Baurets (#5)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98 OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / BILL LASWELL / YOSHIDA TATSUYA "Episome" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 OVO "Miastenia" (Load) cd/lp 14.98/11.98 PALMER, CLIVE "Banjoland" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 PEEESSEYE (PSI) "Oo-Ee-Oo (Burnt Offering)" (Evolving Ear) cd-r 8.98 PEKLER, ANDREW "Four B-Movies - Aim Jukebox Series" (Aim) 7" 4.50 PELT "Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum" (VHF) cd 13.98 PENTAGRAM "Be Forewarned" (Peaceville) cd 14.98 PINK MOUNTAINTOPS "Axis Of Evol" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98 PLACE OF SKULLS "Black Is Never Far Away" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98 PRINCE "3121" (Universal) cd 15.98 PUMICE "Yeahnahvienna" (Soft Abuse) cd 13.98 REIGNS "We Lowered A Microphone Into The Ground" (Jonson Family Records) cd 14.98 ROWE, KEITH / TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA "Between" (Erstwhile) 2cd 27.00 RUBINHO E MAURO ASSUMPCAO "Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei" (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98 SAKHI, HOMAYUN "Music Of Central Asia Vol. 3: The Art Of The Afghan Rubab" (Smithsonian Folkways) cd+dvd 21.00 SALA "Arhimo" (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98 SATA, KOKANKO "s/t" (Honest Jon's Records) cd 16.98 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Blau" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Gelb" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Grun" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Rot" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Schwarz" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Zug" (Qbico) lp 25.00 SEIKAZOKU "Live In Japan" (Vivo) cd 15.98 SERENA-MANEESH "s/t" (Honeymilk) cd 13.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Life In Music" (Times Square) 2cd 16.98 SICKOAKES "Seawards" (Type Records) cd 15.98 SMITH, CHES "Congs For Brums" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98 SMITH, TERRY "Fall Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 SNOWBLOOD "The Human Tragedy" (SuperFi / Lawgiver) cd 13.98 SONIC YOUTH "Helen Lundeburg / Eyeliner" ( SYR) 7" 4.50 SPECTRE FOLK "s/t" (3 Lobed) cd 14.98 STAX, MIKE, ANDY NEILL & JOHN BAKER "Ugly Things Magazine Presents: Don't Bring Me Down... Under - The Pretty Things In New Zealand, 1965" (UT Publishing) book 18.95 STORM, THE "s/t" (Wah Wah) cd 21.00 STORY, THE "Tale Spin" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 SUBTLE "Wishingbone" (Lex) 2cd 11.98 SUISHOU NO FUNE "Where The Spirits Are" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 SUN DIAL "Other Way Out / Other Way In" (Relapse) 2cd 14.98 SUN DIAL "Return Journey" (Relapse) cd 12.98 SWAGGER JACK "The Feral Blood Of..." (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98 TELESCOPES, THE "Taste" (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98 TERRESTRIAL TONES "Dead Drunk" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98 THRALLDOM "A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98 TOYOZUMI, SABU & EXIAS-J "Son's Scapegoat" (Siwa) cd 14.98 TUSK "Get Ready" (He Who Corrupts Inc.) cd 14.98 V/A "Hijos Del Agobio Y Del Dolor" (Dro Atlantic) 2cd 37.00 V/A "Human Element - The World's First Human Beatbox Compilation" (108) cd 14.98 V/A "Lagos All Routes: Juju & Highlife, Apala & Fuji" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98 V/A "Lagos Chop Up: Fuji & Afrobeat, Highlife & Juju" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98 V/A "Never The Same: Leave-Taking From The British Folk Revival 1970-1977" (Honest Jons) cd 16.98 V/A "Panama!" (Sound Way) cd/2lp 16.98/21.00 VAN BOVEN "I.E.D." (Edgetone) cd 9.98 VOLCANO THE BEAR "Classic Erasmus Fusion" (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 15.98 WARA "El Inca" (Revista) cd 17.98 WERREN, PHILLIP "Electronic Music" (Cast Exotic) 2cd 21.00 WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON "Recorded In Lisbon" (Kranky) cd 10.98 WITCHERY "Don't Fear The Reaper" (Century Media) cd 12.98 WORLD OF OZ, THE "s/t" (Repertoire) cd 24.00 WORMS OF SABNOCK "Dark Harmonies" (Firestorm) cd 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
The latest Finders-Keepers release is no doubt a curiosity. While we loved all the previous releases, from the symphonic-psych of Jean-Claude Vannier to Stanley Myers' Sitting Target soundtrack, this reissue of vocalist Chris Harwood's sole album from 1970 (including 4 unreleased tracks) is not as easy to love. She -is- backed by an awesome band, which includes members of Yes, King Crimson, The Strawbs, Spencer Davis Group and Rainbow, but working through Prog-y jazz breaks, pomp rock and early fusion, it's clear the band is the selling point, as Harwood's vocal ability is not as strong a match. She sounds like Julie Driscoll when it works, and Christine McVie or Linda McCartney when it doesn't. Meet Miss Christine does have some strong songs, which we could definitely see included on some Andy Votel mix or something, but as a full record it doesn't entirely satisfy. On the other hand, we know that lots of folks, collectors and DJs and so forth, are sure to be thrilled that this got a nice Finders Keepers reissue, and maybe more of this album will start clicking with us eventually too.
This is the 2nd series of 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlets' by the Spoonbender Sleep Research Team (the printed-word annex of I Am Spoonbender). Enclosed in each metallic anthracite-hued paper, die-cut envelope are ten 2" by 3" cards (unique to each series), imprinted with an array of provocative IAS word/image concepts, thoughts and musings. Think a sort of 'Oblique Strategies' for the memetic-engineering mindset, although this set has some sociomagico narrative-generating possibilities... mix 'em up! Tres sublime! As with the 1st (and forthcoming 3rd edition), these are limited to 333 hand-numbered copies. Hypnotico! Arouseo! Awakeup!
Ok, vinyl nerds! Isis freaks! Slowpoke cd-r collectors, gather round, set your credit cards on stun, make a little space on that record shelf of yours, you've got yourself a lucky break, one more chance to pick up this super rare, long out of print live Isis tour cd-r, not at some ridiculous eBay price and no longer on cd-r even! Woo hoo! The kind folks at Troubleman have reissued that cd-r as a special limited edition double gatefold lp, with a cool red on red print, so beautiful, limited to 1000 copies worldwide and probably out of print by the time you read this. We got a whole bunch, but odds are once these are gone we won't be able to get more. So don't blow it again. 03.19.03 was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 19, 2003, and sounds fantastic. This set just so happened to be recorded by aQ customer / Swedish radio sound engineer Helena too! Small world... Heavy, droney, dreamy avant math metal of the highest degree. Very recommended as with all things Isis, and again VERY VERY LIMITED!
Finland's Itavayla (sorry, we left out what are most certainly crucial umlauts over each "a" in their name because otherwise our database software will convert 'em into gibberish on our website) are a Circle-related project, featuring Circle's lead guitarist Janne Westerlund, and definitely have that Circle vibe to 'em... but imagine the repetitive, hypno-rock jams of Circle as played by ZZ Top in their '80s and '90s synthed-out, techno-blues rock style! Not to make this sound more high concept than it is, but Itavayla could be said to be an "Electro-Boogie-rock" version of Circle. Yessir. Their first, self-titled, album (which we'll have in stock soon too, and review when we do) -really- fits that description. This one, though, is a bit more varied. Going track by track: you've got a spacey, synthy soundscape called "Kristalliyo" to start things off, kinda in the mold of Zombi. Then, getting much more raucous, the second track, "Hyperborea", is a droney driving Hawkwind w/ talk box boogie + horn section Funhouse freakout. Track three "..." is a chaotic, electronic interlude that sets you up for track four's distorted sci-fi blues and ambient noise/drone mix ("Future Representation") which features some of the album's only vocals (highly treated ones at that), followed by the irresistable laid back groove of "Children Of Tomorrow", track five, replete with synthetic buzz-fuzz, harp blowing, and robotic handclaps. That one Kerry and Andee thought sounded like something from the soundtrack to a hypothetical combination porno/heist movie! And finally, "Good Men Going Down", the sixth track, is a lumbering stomper that brings the album to a dark and sudden end.
Imagine, if you will, something that blends together such things as the Magnum P.I. and Miami Vice themes, Neil Young's Trans, Trans Am, Circle (of course), Kitaro, Salvatore, Ram Jam, ZZ Top, Jonathan Kane, Groundhogs, Neu!, '80s synth soundtracks, and more. Weird and cool and recommended.
By the way...amazing band illustration on the cd itself!
It's funny that after years of everybody striving for better sound quality, better recording equipment, higher fidelity, a sound closer and closer to pristine perfection, wax cylinder to 78 to lp to cassette to compact disc.... that we here at AQ tend to lean in the exact opposite direction. Sure that record's great, we'll think, but imagine if it was swathed in murky distortion, or drenched in a dense swirl of tape hiss! Record crackle? Yes, please. This constant quest for sonic perfection seems like a reflection of exactly what is wrong with society in general, a constant striving for some unattainable ideal, the march of progress, sacrificing character and feeling and emotion for faceless smooth 'perfection' in the process. But those imperfections are exactly what make things interesting and unique and totally unlike anything else. But as much as we love lesser than pristine sound quality, it's worth pointing out that when, for example, we hear a compilation of old blues 78's often cleaned up, obviously the scratches and pops and hiss were not at all intended, and thus realistically have no place in the music, at least from the musician's point of view, but as a byproduct of degradation and the passing of time and the fragility of primitive recordings, the sound of that decay becomes representative of the time passed, and the history within the music. So when we hear old 78's or long lost wax cylinder recordings, we don't want them cleaned up and digitally restored, the sound of the music wrapped in warm scratchiness and murky lo fidelity, gives the music a special kind of character, like the lines on our faces, or metal oxidizing into cool greens and blues. And I guess that's what appeals to us about the music of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker and William Basinski and the like. Musicians who create modern music, but who take that music and affect it in a way that makes it sound antique or otherworldly, damaged and decayed, sometimes by utilizing modern techniques, but just as often by employing old turntables and antiquated recording techniques, the music on its own is of course beautiful, but even more so with a rough patina of age and weariness, of whir and hiss, the musical equivalent of an old sepia tone photograph, edges all creased and folded, the images blurry and indistinct. It's more romantic, and way more mysterious.
But it takes more than just slapping on some fuzz, or recording on a broken old reel to reel machine. There was a glut recently of electronica pop hybrids, where a band would sprinkle some bloops and bleeps over some generic strummy pop, and suddenly what was once a crappy pop band became some sort of experimental avant post pop group. Bullshit. Just like anything, it's more than the process, more than the technique, it's some ineffable combination that creates magic. Magic like Jasper TX.
The work of one man, Dag Rosenqvist, and recorded at home in Sweden, Jasper TX sounds like so much more. A fuzzy travelogue, soft smeared images from lost lives and faded memories. A gentle lilting post rock, transmitted through time, picking up all sort of sonic detritus on the way, a message from another world, faded like an old postcard. A futuristic version of the unearthed 78. Imagine music nerds in 2066, discovering a mysterious compact disc, "rarely see those anymore...", unearthed in a trunk in some old abandoned house, marveling and the murky mystery of this record, and the beautifully fuzzy and foggy melodies, the droney timeless beauty. Jasper TX manages to evoke all sorts of feeling and emotions, some of the sounds, the methods, are clearly modern, but the whole record, every sound, every melody, is steeped in warm warbly mystery, even the title, I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, hints at the emotional disconnect, that faded photo, undelivered postcard, translated into music. Each track is a snapshot, a sonic glimpse into the past, or a future that was never meant to be, a melancholy soundtrack full of shadows and whispers, a slow shuffling shimmer, a loping lazy rhythm, drifting beneath a warm swirly wash of thick guitar fuzz and what sounds distinctly like the sound of surf crashing on the shore, a thick wash of My Bloody Valentine guitar and M83 buzzy shimmer over a lilting minor key guitar and delicate piano, long stretches of lustrous, sun dappled drones, over slow shifting chordal washes, and a creeping morose melodic crawl, soaring strings and gentle fingerpicked guitars, all muted and mumbled, as if heard from underwater, the light bending and wavering hypnotically, tinkling music box melodies drenched in reverb and broadcast from tin speakers hung from trees, the fog thick and the moonlight dull and grey, soft strummy guitars smeared into whisps of dreamlike whir, each track thick with sorrow, or regret, or hopelessness, not overt, but conveyed through the subtle soft light each track is cast in, warm overcast evening glow, the pale spill of the crescent moon, the diffuse flush of predawn light, glimmering and glistening soft and bittersweet. The heart of the record is the appropriately titled "My Heart Is Broken, I've Lost My Way", a nine minute slow build, warm wheezing layers of organ, over ambient clatter, mic sounds, footsteps, a weary, woozy wanderingly soft soundscape, gentle swells, each hovering and gliding dreamlike, an angelic theremin-like skree way in the background, while an alien melody is played out on top, crafted from glitched out crackling instrument buzz, an abrasive squelch, cutting in and out, easily the 'hardest' sounds on the record, like someone trying to get a message through from another dimension, a groaning distorted guitar, broadcast intermittently through the ether, creepy and strangely haunting. The record closes with the just as eerie "All Those Broken Birds Singing Winter Into Spring", a final look back, before fading into nothing, soft lilting guitar, over a whisper soft drift of minor key shimmer and minimally morose melody. So totally and absolutely perfect.
The minute we threw this one, we were totally captivated. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble are a gloriously creepy crawly mutant jazz combo, equal parts DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, seventies horror movie soundtracks, late night jazz and super sluggish blown out trip hop. The KDJE originally formed to create live soundtracks for films by FM Murnau, Fritz Lang and the like, taking their inspiration from such unlikely sources as animators the Quay Brothers and artists Bosch, Picasso and Goya and boy does it show. A full on group, not one dude and his laptop, the KDJE unfurl haunting imaginary soundtracks, dark and dense, smoky and noir, everything in rich lustrous shades of black and grey, shuffling jazzy skitter underpins melancholy moaning horns bathed in reverb, pizzicato strings and minor key guitars hover and dart furtively, a drizzly rainy day jazz dirge, so creepy and mysterious and lovely, and that's just the first song. The rest of the record wanders similarly rainslicked streets, hat pulled down low, collar pulled way up, face obscured by shadows, the wet streets reflecting the orange grey glow of the streetlights, the buildings like totem poles of shadowy ghosts, the sky a blackish grey, turning the vibrant city into a lonely monochrome. This record is just so ominous and foreboding, so emotionally charged, so haunting and murky, imagine DJ Shadow collaborating with Tricky, mix in plenty of Raymond Chandler some dingy bars, some laid back jazz, some doomy dark ambience, some muted Boards Of Canada shuffle and thump, the whole thing drenched in late night ambience and warm warped M83 style whir and you'll have a rough idea. The ultimate soundtrack for late night lonely walks through the city.
There are two facets to the Kompakt sound. The thump thump thump house music side, and the shimmery blissed out 'pop ambient' side. We definitely much favor the the sleepy glistening swoonscapes that define that warm welcoming pop ambient sound (although there are a few Kompakt records where the house beats are just murky and muted enough that the resulting Heroin House sound pushes all those same buttons) and no one does it better than Klimek. Responsible for maybe the defining pop ambient track "Milk And Honey", the perfect blend of electronic drones and subtle simple indie melodies, Music To Fall Asleep continues in a similar direction, exploring post-Eno ambience, and offering up a huge sleepy swirl of sound, that is, duh, perfect to fall asleep to. Warm thick whirls of dense droning synths ebb and flow like a midnight tide, guitars are chopped up and stuttered into smooth sleepy smears, like some sweet slab of indie rock left out in the sun so long it melts into a big puddle, rich chords shimmer into vast expanses of reverb and delay, each melody slowly developing over minutes instead of seconds. What else can we say? This is gorgeous and gentle, delicate and dreamlike, sun dappled and absolutely perfect. Essential for fans of all things pop ambient, and something to hold you over until the next Gas record. And like we even need to say it again, the perfect drifting off to sleep record!
For those of us who thought Wilco reached new heights on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, there is no doubt that the addition of Glenn Kotche on drums made a significant impact and influence on those recordings. Joining the band on YHF, he has been a key ingredient in helping Jeff Tweedy/Wilco take their sound further and further. On this, his second solo outing, Kotche shows he isn't just someone's backing man. Kotche has an amazing musical mind and puts it to such great use on this record. What's best about this record is that it isn't what you would expect it to be. Yes it's a drummers solo record and yes it is a mostly percussive affair but the songs have so much depth, variety and interesting twists and turns. You can see how everything from afro-beat to Steve Reich to experimental electronic sounds have helped shape the cannon of Kotche's playing. A very nice outing!
Having earned an MFA under the tutelage of Fred Frith at Mills College, Gregg Kowalsky landed his debut album on Kranky, a perfect home for his polite and pleasant swatches of ambient music. Kowalsky blurs all of his diverse source material (i.e bowed acoustic guitar, sounds he composed for the Mills Ensemble, and even samples from Isis!) into a twinkling mass of harmonically aligned tones. Furniture Music for the 21st Century.
Ladytron enter a bid to keep the kids on the dancefloor just a little bit longer with this remixes 'n' b-sides collection. The former are previously unreleased tracks in which the fluffy electronic pop foursome's music gets even more techno-fied, and the latter are drawn from their Witching Hour album's UK singles. One of the best cuts on the cd is the third. It's James Iha mix of "Weekend". He wisely keeps one of the best things about Ladytron in the foreground, that is, the gals' breathy kittenish vocals. It has a raved-up ending that would've been great on the Run Lola Run soundtrack. Another tasty track is what the group has dubbed the "Catholic Version" of their last album's single "Destroy Everything You Touch". They deliver the song's simple central synth line through a church organ sound and apply a heavy dose of echoe-y cathedral-esque reverb. Quite nice. An aside, we'd swear that in the second track ("Nothing To Hide" which is one of the b-sides, but actually seems more like a remix in its unstructuredness) they're singing "I huff and I puff". It could be our rain-addled minds, 'cause we kinda doubt that they'd be making any Three Little Pigs references.
Also included in the deal is a bonus dvd so that in between boogie sessions you can kick back for a half an hour or so and watch some vids and a short documentary.
