This Swedish duo had all the cool kiddies' panties in a delirious knot at their recent totally sold-out show here in SF. Hot stuff! So needless to say, it's a more than perfect time for this reissue!
Last time we carried this cd, we had this brief summation: If you dig Miss Kittin or Adult., well here's The Knife! Electro-punky tunes with punchy female vocals seemingly very inspired by Debbie Harry / Blondie.
That having been said, we'll elaborate a bit: If you happened to start your love affair with The Knife with their Silent Shout album, it'll surely continue to burn hotter than the sun with Deep Cuts. This brother and sister team combine the detached chill of electro and techno with the engaging catchiness of pop with a childlike musicbox wonder. Ultra tweaked and strange. Includes a dvd!
Ever since the very first time we heard New Zealand's Lamp Of The Universe, on some long gone, super limited cd-r, we were immediately hooked. Super blissed out space rock ragas, that occasionally coalesced into some strange post rock / krautrock hybrid, bur more often than not just droned and drifted heavenward. This latest disc, From The Mystic Rays Of Astrological Light perfectly divides the difference between the two.
The opening track is a glorious slow burning raga, a thick reverberating low end, that shimmers and stretches out over seventeen minutes. A dense snarled expanse of hypnotic buzz, that sounds like it could go on forever. The surrounding sonic haze is gauzy and dreamlike, with little sprinkles of reverbed percussion, drifting vocals, and some murky, underwater sounding FX. Definitely another one of those tracks that carries us right off, and if we had our way would in fact go on forever. Track two starts out in a similar vein, but quickly transforms into blissed out laid back space jam, lazy simple drumming, dense clouds of buzz and fuzz, some low slung bass rumble, and all around it, flares of Hendrixian psych guitar, disembodied vocals, thick swells of warm guitar distortion, very dreamy and druggy.
The third track is another abstract Eastern style raga, albeit with a bit of a modern sensibility (a la Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, etc.). A slow rhythmic pulse underlies drifting clouds of buzzing steel strings, and sporadic percussive clatter. Bells and chimes float drowsily on a slow flowing river of glacial buzz. A close listen reveals all sorts of melodic fragments, bits of vocals, weird sonic filigree, but step back, and it becomes a huge sonic whirl, that pulls you under, wraps you up in warm sheets of thick thrum and carries you closer and closer to the sun. The final track is the shortest of the four (at 8+ minutes) and sounds like an extension of the second. A lengthy, lugubrious outer space jam, all sun baked and druggy, drenched in delay and reverb, a loping slow motion dirge. Like Finnish drone rockers Circle if they grew up in the sixties and did lots of (lots more?) drugs, or Hawkwind at 16rpm, with an extra dollop of spacepsych FX courtesy of Acid Mothers Temple.
Another super mesmerizing druggy drift through time and space (rock). Awesome.
Recorded during the same sessions that yielded Landing's Sphere album from 2004, Gravitational IV is a much more tripped out and experimental beast. OK, maybe not -much- more, as Landing are generally pretty trippy and far out, but this disc still manages to take it to a whole 'nother level. And we love it!
Dubby grooves, reverb drenched ethereal female vocals, slippery underwater bass lines, blissed out deconstructed krautrocky jams, thick coruscating sheets of psychedelic guitar flare, full on space rock blow outs, gentle lilting otherworldly dreamfolk, the parts are all over the sonic map, but somehow they all sound so totally perfect together. It's almost like someone took all the leftover bits from the Sphere sessions, dumped them in a huge pot, added tons of reverb and delay, and then set it on the stove to shimmer, but forgot all about it until hours, maybe days later, only to realize the concoction had become something else entirely, a mind bending druggy swirl of abstract psychedelia and experimental free fuzz ambience. The kitchen filled with thick clouds of fuzzy gauzy guitars, the floor sticky with gooey puddles of acid drenched trippiness. Equal parts Mazzy Star, M83, My Bloody Valentine, but all stripped down and then built back up with layer after layer of guitars and effects and strange studio fuckery. A gloriously blissed out psych rock head trip! Quite possibly our favorite Landing record yet!
Super limited, LP only. LIMITED TO 450 COPIES. Packaged in an ultra thick gatefold sleeve with super striking psychedelic artwork. Pressed on massively thick 180 gram vinyl, each copy stickered and numbered.
Dunno what the most blown-out, amped-up, destroyed distorted damaged demented acid rock psychedelic craziness you've ever heard is... but whomever they are, we bet Les Rallizes Denudes could hang with 'em no problem at all. Might even teach 'em a thing or two. For those in the know, the fact that we've got another rare documentation (live, they're always live) of this legendary Japanese underground band is reason enough to buy one. If you haven't yet turned on to them, well, have you head any of the current crop of world-weary Japanese psych bands, in their black leather and dark glasses? Like LSD-march and Up-Tight and Keiji Haino's mighty Fushitsusha? Well they're all basically trying to be THIS band. Whom you'll hear here storming and stomping back in, yeah, 1972, as blackened and bleak and badass as as any of 'em today. This is definitely the Rallizes we like, mesmerizing and mind-numbing, with howling guitar and bleating vocals... The endlessly repetitive, trudging drones of some of the tracks here are relatively mild and "pop", but wait, others are throbbing Excedrin headaches in the guise of rock music. All right!! Live 1972 is lo-fi as hell, and glitches, drop outs, and abrupt edits are all part of the experience. Wouldn't have this any other way. We're just happy somebody recorded this way back when, even if it was on a hand held cassette tape deck! Six tracks, 43 and a half minutes of 34-year-old void-treading, feedback-blurting bliss!!!
We talk about black metal all the time. Cuz, we love it. A lot. The blacker and more evil the better. Harsh and hateful, nihilistic and brutal, true evil rendered in sound!
But why exactly are the black metal hordes so angry? What exactly are they fighting against? God? The Christians? The powers of Good? Themselves? Well if we've learned anything, it's that good can not exist without evil. Dark can not exist without light, and black metal can not exist without white metal.
What?
That's right, it's time for the darkness to be pushed back a bit. It's time for that age old battle to be fought with buzzing riffs and thrashing blast beats, howled anguished vocals and rumbling low end. And at the front lines are Light Shall Prevail, masters of their own bizarre black metal buzz. That's right, it's still black metal, in fact, this white metal is more black and fucked up and awesomely weird than most of the more 'true' and 'grim' stuff we hear all the time.
Strange off kilter riffing, insanely fast blasts (either a drum machine, or an unbelievable drummer), super damaged start stop arrangements, weirdly catchy melodies, all prickly and tangled up in the fuzzy black ambience. A super heavy, but still lo-fi production. And the vocals. SO nuts, From monstrous growls, to Urfaust like croon, to shrieked howl. Such an awesome combination. Lots of midtempo chug mixed in with the buzzing blasts too. In fact just listen to the title track, probably the weirdest, catchiest black metal song EVER, with it's convoluted stop start gallop. So fucking cool.
Absolutely essential black metal listening. Even for the grim and evil amongst you. Once you hear this buzzing brilliance you won't be able to resist the power of the light. Just don't get too close, lest your black soul be cleansed and redeemed!
Beardo Disco? That's a term we have heard bandied about lately when referring to the new wave of mutated house/electroclash/indie dance-rock sounds of acts like Ratatat, Justice, and Norwegian duo Lindstrom and Prins Thomas. Whatever it means, we've been digging it a lot lately. Here Hans-Peter Lindstrom has parted ways with his former collaborator and given us a compilation of solo 12" singles from the Feedelity label released between 2003 and 2006. Arranging with maximal effect without overdoing it, Lindstrom takes cues from Italo Disco, Morodor electro, and Loft-era party mixes to give us a set that will keep us bopping through the holidays. Recommended!
Ms Aimee bestows her warm holiday wishes a little earlier than the rest of the crowd with this, her Christmas album! In her unmistakable dulcet voice, she sweetly sings eight traditional numbers such as "I'll Be Home For Christmas", White Christmas", "Winter Wonderland", "The Christmas Song" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", but also adds one of her own titled "Calling On Mary" as well as "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch"!
There's a novel concept behind this 3"cd-r series released by Taalem: they make 'em to order and they keep 'em in print as long as people want 'em. Wow! Not limited?!? Who woulda thunk?! This French label has produced a couple dozen of these releases, with the first to come across our plate being by Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB). This Italian industrial pioneer had been in hibernation for well over a decade, after his initial infamy was solidified in the early '80s by his ghastly recordings of frozen power electronics augmented by nightmarish allegorical references to genocide, cancer, and Armageddon. Since 2003 or 2004, he's returned to this style of noise sculpting with extraordinary results and an equally impressive work ethic, releasing countless numbers of collaborations, MP3 only albums, and albums of all lengths and sizes. For Bacterie, he's crammed this 3" CD with an impressive blast of noxious vibrations blackened through densely layering and unwell intentions. He's returned to the form last heard on the Endometrio / Carcinosi diptych. Brilliant.
Boy, did we get lucky. We heard about this and at first wrongly assumed it was Mike Patton with the Melvins. And as much as we love Mike Patton, we were pretty tickled to discover that in was in fact, Patton Oswalt, one of our favorite comedians, sharing this split with the Melvins.
The thing is, this was never technically available to stores or distros. But we did manage to track a handful down for our AQ faithful. Unfortunately, because of the scarcity and the fact that technically they weren't available wholesale, the price ended up being a bit steep. But hey, $16 from us is is a whole heckuva lot better than $75 on eBay!
So act fast, these will disappear in a blink of an eye.
As with all Chunklet stuff, gorgeously packaged with killer (and hilarious) Jay Ryan cover art, screen printed onto thick cardstock sleeves.
And like with all ultra limited stuff, only one per customer please...
Remix albums are always a big risk. Especially with Non electronic artists. Often the results can be more of a mess than anything else. We were kind of curious, cautiously so, to see how the gentle yet powerful voice and music of Mirah would fare in remixed form. Luckily the results are actually really nice. Joyride Mixes features delicate handlings of Mirah's well crafted songs by folks like Tender Forever, Microphones, Yacht, Anna Oxygen, Guy Sigsworth as well as a bunch of less familiar names. Which is actually one of the reasons this comp is so cool, instead of calling on the usual big name remixers things were kept a little intimate with friends who would more likely be familiar with the essence of her music. If you ever imagined what it might sound like if Mirah did a one-off on Morr Music with Lali Puna at her side this comes pretty close. For folks who have never encountered Mirah in the past, but hold records like Bjork's Vespertine and Feist's Let It Die in high regard, it might be wise to jump on this joyride, and longtime Mirah fans will also be aboard, windows down, heads out the window, soaking up more of Mirah's adventurous adventure sounds!
Rudy Ray Moore was best known for his seventies XXX party records. Raw, dirty and totally exhilarating. Moore gained most of his fame and notoriety from his starring role in Dolemite, one of the baddest, most revered and often imitated films to come out of the blaxploitation era. Just as thrilling, raw and compelling is Moore's soundtrack. Deep funk with vocals here and there but mostly scorching short instrumentals that sound exactly how you want your 70's funk/soul to sound. The score had to be made on as tight a budget as the film, so a group of musicians called the Soul Rebellion Orchestra were hired for a minimal hourly rate and in those recording sessions came up with the raw sounds that would serve as the perfect backdrop, helping create the mystique of Dolemite, which was all about an attitude, an aesthetic, and a sound. Moore and Dolemite have had a huge impact on folks like Snoop Dog, Quentin Tarantino, Ice-T, and Spike Lee. This soundtrack has been impossible to track down for years but has finally been gussied up and reissued properly by an unexpected source, Relapse. Who knew that under all that metal they loved them some funk. We're sure happy they do!
Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren.
On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz.
Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in.
Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift.
A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need!
Includes a DVD, that has amazing stop motion animation menus, with an old frayed rope, that squirms and slithers depending on your selection. Two videos, the first is a series of gorgeous landscapes, forests and slow moving clouds, intercut with some impssobily mind bending shots of forests and waterfalls, super processed and affected so it almost looks like animation, a sort of dizzying water colored 3-D effect. Or something. So beautiful, but so confusing to your brain it's almost impossible to not look away. The other is quite similar, but a bit more lo-fi, with various shots of the band members in a moonlit forest, back lit trees and thick storm clouds as well as some arty shots of faces superimposed on flowing magma, hands in water, lots of washed out abstract images, all on different film stocks, from super high definition to super grainy 16mm. Three live clips, each super arty, one all smeary and indistinct, washed out colors and artful blurs, the other two are all super distressed black and white, with the film shimmying and shifting along with the music, like some old nickeloddian. Pretty cool.
Extras include an interview with the band, a short promo video with more breathtaking images of the Romanian countryside, a slideshow set to music, as well as another live clip and some appropriately arty credits.
Packaged in a super deluxe 8 panel digipak, with super cool, pagan Wickerman / Jan Svankmyer style artwork.
One of the most anticipated releases this year, Joanna Newsom's second full length Ys (fyi: apparently pronounced 'ease', not 'wise') probably needs no introduction. Before we all drown in the river of salivation, perhaps we should just ring the supper bell and holler, "Come 'n' get it!"
Have you been hearing the rather loud murmurs about how Joanna Newsom is telling all that -- contrary to all of the press portraits of her resembling an Appalachian woodland waif -- she is not simply a folk songstress? Us too, and well, on an initial couple of listens to Ys, it does seem to be true. Yes, she has reinvented herself, somewhat aggressively distancing herself from the young indie folk scene that she helped spawn. It appears all that lingers from The Milk-Eyed Mender is her trusty harp, though even it claims less of the spotlight. Ys most definitely shows much artistic growth and aspiration with a far broader creative scope and production sense. Really, if there's any question that Newsom (and her label Drag City) are goin' for the serious artiste cred, you need look no further than the big gun support and chaperoning courtesy of top shelf luminaries Van Dyke Parks, Steve Albini and Jim O'Rourke. Not unexpectedly, THEY do amazing work on this album. It's stunningly beautiful. With a supporting cast like that, Newsom was clearly afforded full freedom to focus on realizing her vision. But what is that vision? We're not being completely facetious when we suggest two words -- Kate Bush. Heck, she's certainly already captivated the imagination of a similarly obsessive adoring fanbase as Ms Bush's, and maybe just as many naysayers. The mere mention of either artist's name triggers immediate passionate love/hate reactions. Her overall presentation seems so directly inspired by the venerable artist's own eccentric dramatics that you'd almost expect her to break out into "Babooshka" at any moment! Speaking of which with regards to the vocal department, the Kate and Joanna fans around here have likened her pixie-esque singing on this album to Kate Bush as a child minstrel (mind you, the non-Kate and Joanna fans might rephrase that less kindly as Kate Bush as a squeeze toy). Regardless, this is quite the ambitious work. In each of the five lengthy tracks (the longest is 16 minutes!), she unveils her lyrics in theatrical, highly literary fashion. It's still the storybook stuff of romantic fairy tales and whimsical fables, but it's set far less in nature than the rural hued Milk Eyed Mender. It evokes fantastic jewel-toned interiors, stages, salons, tea rooms. At once, dainty and sumptuous. The album defies expectations in wonderful, enchanting ways.
Finally a new issue of the mighty Oaken Throne magazine, and they continue to gradually expand their scope, moving slowly and slightly further away from their position as thee ultra grim and ultra true "Elite Black Metal Skripture" and toward a much more varied and AQ like tome. We're certainly not complaining obviously, but there must be a whole lot of troubled true black metallers, as most of the two intros by editors Ben West and John Mincemoyer are spent apologizing for / explaining the lack of grim corpsepainted hordes and explaining the new shift.
But as far as we're concerned, Oaken Throne just keeps getting better, focusing on black metal, but expanding enough to allow for other blackened musicks. This time around, the line-up reads almost like an AQ list: Black Boned Angel, Celestiial, Thralldom, Graves At Sea, Wolves In The Throne Room, Nachtmystium, Villains, L'Acephale, Temple Of Baal, Withered and Vorkreist. All the articles are super in depth are gorgeously laid out (as is the whole magazine), well written and interesting (one of the pieces, the Black Boned Angel one was written by our very own Andee) most with killer photos and/or amazing illustrations (including the most bad ass drawing of Wolves In The Throne Room by AQ customer Justin Bartlett).
Also includes tons of reviews (also super varied and all over the map, from Solar Anus to Bone Awl to Dead Raven Choir to Mrtyu to Moss To Nadja!) and the cover is that immediately recognizable and super striking, silver ink on matte black paper, and once again, the Ben West designed tUMULt ad on the back cover (he also designed the I Hate Your Band poster!) looks so cool, it's almost nicer than the actual magazine cover!
One of our favorite magazines and of course HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
The return of the only true, cult, black metal magazine out there. Immediately recognizable beacuse of it's unweildy format (17" by 5" or thereabouts) and it's gorgeous silkscreened silver on black cover. This time around there's articles on / interviews with SF black metallers Ludicra, the mighty Watain, Crebain (who had a recent split with Leviathan on Andee's tUMULt label), Unearthly Trance, Atomizer, Gospel Of The Horns, Hell Militia, and of course Leviathan. As well as some record and demo reviews. Well written, and nicely laid out. With some serious financial backing these guys could easily topple the Terrorizer / Metal Maniacs / SOD / PIT / BWBK metal mag monopoly in one fell swoop. Be sure to peep the gorgeous tUMULt ad on the back cover, designed by Oaken Throne designer Ben West. Wow! Maybe even nicer than the actual cover!
And remember, that due to the magazine's size, unless you want it folded up, you're gonna have to spring for a little extra postage for it to be shipped separately. But well worth it!
Part II of the mighty Mithring cycle from screeching skronk and skree mongers Octis. Impossibly convoluted and gloriously obtuse. Utterly and completely fucking RULING!!!
The bad news is, of course, that this spiffy 5" lathe cut is ultra limited to only 50 copies, of which we were allotted about 5!! So fastest 5 get 'em, the rest of you will just have to struggle along through the rest of your miserable lives with that gaping Octis shaped hole in your heart...
Part III of the mighty Mithring cycle from screeching skronk and skree mongers Octis. Impossibly convoluted and gloriously obtuse. Utterly and completely fucking RULING!!!
The bad news is, of course, that this spiffy 5" lathe cut is ultra limited to only 50 copies, of which we were allotted about 5!! So fastest 5 get 'em, the rest of you will just have to struggle along through the rest of your miserable lives with that gaping Octis shaped hole in your heart...
For those of you unfamiliar with OX, a quick look at the cover should tell you all you need to know. The image on the front it a towering Orange amplifier, the back cover, a close up of some amplifier vacuum tubes. Two songs to a side, with titles like "Seismic", "Mass", "The Horror" and "Abyss". And hell, the record's called Aftermath. Plus, it's on Finnish label Kult Of Nihilow, who in the past have brought us records from Boris, , Dot [.], Church Of Misery, Fleshpress and Stumm. So if you guessed massive, pummeling, sloooooow, doooooom, dirge heaviness, you've definitely come to the right place.
We listed a 10" from OX years ago, and sadly we were only ever able to get about a dozen. We got a whole lot more this time, but these will probably still be gone before you know it. OX is the one man guitar doom project of Ken Baluke, who spends most of his time wielding his axe in Canadian doom groove outfit Sons Of Otis, but in OX, it's just him, and his guitar, and what sounds like lots and lots of really big amps. OX is definitely a practitioner of that sort of slow motion sludge guitar ambience, but definitely has his own unique angle. The core of OX's sound is a thick slithery Earth 2 style glacial riffing, a black liquid doom that sort of seeps out of your speakers, but above this dense low end is a gloriously fuzzed out effulgence, all glistening fuzz and radiant sparkle. Those two extremes all tangled up and constantly bleeding into one another. Haunting and heavy and so beautiful. Not sure whether it's supposed to play at 33 or 45, but sounds great either way. On 33 it's a sloooooooooooow crawl, at 45, it's still slow, but a little less murky and more luminous. Sort of like having two different, but equally heavy and kick ass records in one!
LIMITED TO 255 COPIES!! We got about 40 of those, and once they are gone we most likely won't be able to get more.
After a handful of amazing, and of course super limited cd-r's comes the debut real cd full length from Adam Pacione, a modern day practitioner of ambient alchemy, realized in the form of luxuriously understated dreamdrone music. Still limited (329 copies) of course, and still amazing, Pacione channels the spirit of Brian Eno, William Basinksi and other like minded explorers of musical inner space through lengthy drifts of super soft focus abstract sound. Each track is an impossibly spacious underwater world of murk and murmur, muted rumbles, smoothed out expanses of shimmering fuzz, gentle lilting smears of sound, all subtly looped into incredibly hypnotic barely shifting soundscapes.
Ultra minimal for sure, but so dense and layered that the songs and sounds seem to change shape and color with every listen. Smooth and darkly glistening, Pacione crafts a deep lush sound, while somehow managing to retain bits of lo-fi sonic grit that help add all sorts of unlikely texture and timbre to Pacione's otherwise ultra serene drift. A perfect dreamlike blend of dark glacial glide and warm glistening glimmer. Another absolutely essential disc of gorgeous late night drift.
Packaged in lovely screen printed, recycled paper jackets, with printed inner sleeves. And again LIMITED TO 329 COPIES!!! So not sure how long these will last.
As much as we all dig Volcano The Bear, we've actually been loving VtB member Daniel Padden's One Ensemble project even more. While Volcano are more of a surreal dada-ist experimental sound outfit, for the One Ensemble, Padden takes those same Dadaist tendencies but tempers them a bit, wrapping them around pretty pop or lilting folk and creating some truly alien sounding prettiness.
But on this ultra limited lp, Padden takes his One Ensemble and wanders back into some serious Volcano The Bear territory. Demented music box melodies drift amidst soaring strings, clinking clanking percussion, deep moaning cellos, bursts of staticky field recordings and manipulated field recordings, while over the top float haunting mysterious melodies. Sounds a bit like a more druggy demented Tom Waits.
Elsewhere, thick washes of fuzzed out ambient whir wrap themselves around damaged pitch shifted guitar warble, junk yard percussion marches through thick clouds of ominous drones, detuned acoustic guitars shimmer beneath heavily reverbed scrapes and squeaks and wheezing harmonica melodies. A totally mesmerizing, dizzying and damaged trawl through some surreal junk yard filled with broken musical instruments and ghost musicians, jamming in the middle of the night to an audience of beat up stuffed animals and rusted out appliances. So cool!
Packaged in a super spiffy crayon colored owl, coloring book collage cover.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!! We got a bunch, but it's already sold out and out of print at the label so once these sell out we won't be able to get more.
If you love the pop sounds of The Posies, the New Pornographers, Sloan and The Shins as we here at aQ surely do, well, we might all be needing to add a new band to our list o' tunesome faves. The band is Peter Bjorn And John, and yes, the three Swedish lads' names are indeed Peter (Moren), Bjorn (Yttling) and John (Eriksson). This is their second full length and it's pretty right on! Their vocals have that 'aw shucks' boyish kind of quality. Y'know, slightly bashful, slightly drowsy, slightly slouchy and totally endearing. In fact, they sorta reminded us of Crowded House and Badly Drawn Boy too. Check 'em out!
Have you experienced The Psychic Paramount yet? If you get the chance, see 'em live, they're pretty much the ultimate in ultra-heavy, This Heat/krautrock inspired, interestingly rhythmic instrumental post-rock... An intense, very controlled freakout is how we'd paradoxically put it. They just played two nights at The Hemlock here in San Francisco, and boy were they good! On record, too, they're great. Last year's Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural was a HUGE fave 'round here, proving TPP to be worthy of the same high regard we had for their progenitors, the late great Laddio Bolocko. So of course we're excited about a new Psychic Paramount album! Well, to be precise, this is only sort of a "new" Psychic Paramount album, not exactly a follow up to Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural. That's 'cause this double disc set consists of material recorded solo by TPP founding member Drew St. Ivany. Disc one features his solo electric guitar live to stereo cassette recorded in France during 2001-2002, plus two tracks recorded in Brooklyn, 1996, on a four-track, Drew performing guitar, drums, tapes and organ like a one-man band. Disc two consists entirely of more solo guitar pieces Drew playing an electric-acoustic with loop pedal and effects, recorded in France, 2002. Guitars and loops -- shades of Robert Fripp or Ash Ra Tempel's Manuel Gottsching! Swooping, melancholic guitar lines, sometimes droning and churning, though a lot of this (especially the second disc) is rather more quiet and mellow and melodic compared to the full TPP band set we witnessed the other night! But still fantastic, of course. And there's plenty of jumbled sounds and scrambled chaos to disturb your placid listening, like we'd expect from these guys (or guy, in the case of this album).
Another krautrocker that this brings to mind, besides Gottsching, is Achim Reichel, whose reissued albums we've so recently raved about. The four-track pieces on disc one could be a post-rock A.R. & Machines!! High praise indeed, from us!
At last reissued (again), this live performance of minimal pioneer Terry Riley's signature piece, "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" from 1968. Using organ, saxaphone, and a "Time-Lag Accumulator" to create an echo effect (hence The Phantom Band), Riley's original performance was six hours long and lasted all night. Versions of this piece have appeared before on the B-side of A Rainbow in Curved Air and on the second disc of the Cortical Foundation's release of You're No Good (which we're hoping Elision Fields will also reissue!). This is a 40 minute edit of the original performance first released on Cortical Foundation in 1999. and we would gladly hear five hours more of this organic, lilting, and mesmerizing loveliness. Highly Recommended!
All you need to know is that the record is called Stormbringer, it's one single thirty minute track, and the instrumentation listed is: drone, sub-sonics, drone & invocation, and temporal distortion. Okay, maybe some of you need to know a little bit more, how about... DOOM. Or DRONE. Or SLUDGE. Or maybe... SUNNO))), Khanate, Whitehorse, Marzuraan, Monarch, Moss, Boris, Corrupted... uh huh, you see where we're headed. Portland's Roanoke are the latest outfit to dive headlong into that same black doom tarpit, And their glorious din, while having much in common with their slow motion brethren, definitely has a hellish charm all it's own. The guitars are huge, of course, riffs are so slow and low they sound less like riffs and more like molten flows of distorted rumble, the drums are a simple pummeling thud, the vocals are like death metal growls at 16rpm, an impossibly low gurgle, but Roanoke have a crazy dynamic thing going on too, wherein their endlessly droning downtuned sludge is occasionally punctuated by strange stop start stretches where the guitars tighten up and cling to the drums and lock into a sort of stuttering chug. Pretty cool. And definitely way more dynamic than most of the droning sludge doom outfits around. But never fear, this is first and foremost, slooooooooooow, drooooooooooooning dooooooooom, ultra mega sludgy and haevy as fuck. Listening to it right now and even at super low volume it makes the speakers on this computer sound like they are crumbling to bits!
LIMITED TO 100 cd-r copies.
This is issue 6 of this relatively new UK music magazine, and we always sort of balked at carrying it, mostly because of the price. What with shipping overseas and everything, it ends up costing twelve bucks. But you know what? It's pretty much worth it. So we decided to order a bunch, and if everyone digs it, we'll continue to carry it. And we can't imagine why people wouldn't be more than willing to shell out twelve bucks for this killer mag. Boris and SUNNO))) on the cover, robed and in the corn field, inside: Isis, Comets On Fire, Converge, Shit And Shine, the Melvins, James Plotkin, the Dub Trio, Bloody Panda, the Paper Chase, plus RaR's top 30 records of 2006, a classic label profile of John Zorn's Tzadik label with micro reviews of some of Tzadik's best releases, a Sonic Youth primer, with reviews of all of their records, of course loads of record reviews, DVD reviews, live reviews and lots of underground rock news. Pretty dang great.
Second full-length album by this dark and difficult avant-rock band, originally from Poland though now based in Chicago. This album consists of quietly creepy, whispery post-rock, abstract jazz-flecked soundscapes riven by anguished, loud outbursts of emotive vocals and guitar skree. Imagine Smolken of Dead Raven Choir (another Polish expat) fronting Oxbow... Or a moodier, malevolent US Maple with Keiji Haino sitting in. And on four of the tracks here, this sounds even more akin to Oxbow, because Oxbow's vocalist Eugene Robinson takes a guest turn at the mic. Intense!
It's been a few years since The Shins transformed from indie rock's little secret to international superstars thanks in big part to Zach Braff and the exposure that Garden State gave them. But every now and then a really good band gets the grand attention they deserve and it looks as if The Shins will continue to make solid and undeniably smart pop records seemingly unfazed by their recent burst in popularity. This is a 3 song teaser that will hold us over till their follow up to Chutes Too Narrow comes out soon after new years. It's got stocking stuffer written all over it!
The return of The Shitty Listener! Maybe one of our all time favorite band names EVER. And it's about time. We all completely dug the Girls All Say EP we listed a while back, but it just wasn't enough. It was only 9 minutes long after all. Well, Fruitless Accomplishment clocks in at a whopping 26 minutes, and thus manages to take all the elements we liked on the EP, and spreads them out, expands and explores, which just means there's so much more to like.
Actually released as a book, that just so happens to also contain a cd, for our purposes, we'll just go ahead and consider Fruitless Accomplishment a cd, that just so happens to come with a book! For those new to the Shitty Listener, it's not really a band, instead it is one man, Jason Honea, from from the Jewelled Antler outfits The Child Readers and the Franciscan Hobbies, as well as the Chord Fort, the Knit Separates and Teenage Panzercorps. The Shitty Listener is his Honea's mostly solo, lo-fi, bedroom folk project. And is deeply connected to his poetry/lyrics and artwork. As is evidence by this deluxe book/cd combo.
The sound is incredibly intimate and low fidelity. Mostly recorded on micro cassettes or handheld tape recorders, Honea incorporates tape hiss and whatever ambient sound happens to occur in the background, whether it's a plane flying by, a dog barking, the sound of crickets, it all just becomes part of the sound. And just like old Sebadoh tapes, the ch-chunk sound of the record or stop buttons being pushed, as well as weird warbles in the tape, become as much a part of the song as the song itself. Lilting melancholy piano, gentle acoustic guitar strum, and not much else support Honea's warbly falsetto, plaintive and emotive, always way down in the mix, a sort of drifty fuzzy dreamy melody within each song. But that's more than enough. Each song ends up sounding surprisingly lush. Our favorites though have to be the ones that sound like they were recorded from a distance, or through the wall or window. Those tracks almost sound like Honea was singing and strumming indoors, while the mic was outside, capturing most of the music, but more than anything all of the ambient action happening around it. Other highlights include the a capella "Bad Wonder", "I Call You Up" which sounds a bit like Morrisey fronting Sentridoh, the minute long "Across My Dreams", a sort of processed dreamy guitarscape, and the 7 minute medley "Sweet To My Mind w/ Someone Flame-Like & Up Too Much", the first half of which sounds a bit like a Basinski composition, but made manually, by playing a figure on the piano, pushing stop on the tape player, pressing record and playing the figure again, over and over and over. So weird and wonderful.
Fruitless Accomplishment is a strangely compelling collision between abstract experimentation and lo-fi pop loveliness, and the results are truly divine!
The packaging is pretty dang divine as well. And just to frustrate and confuse, there are TWO different versions. Both are exactly the same on the inside, just different on the outside. Packaged in either a newsprint covered hard cardboard box, or in a sewn green felt sleeve, inside is the cd-r, an insert with the liner notes, four full color and two black and white inserts featuring various drawings and collages by Honea, and Real Flowers, a small book of poetry, gorgeously printed on nice paper and with a full color paste on cover!
Most rare groove fiends fell in love with The Sisters Love after hearing the 80's extended remix of their song "Give Me Your Love" which had disco aficionados like Larry Levan and Nicky Siano in seventh heaven. What's amazing is that the track was actually recorded in 1973, predating disco and demonstrating that if one dug a little deeper, one might discover that not only were The Sisters Love way ahead of their time but were also not merely a one hit wonder. Thankfully, as they have so many times in the past, Soul Jazz have come to the rescue putting together a totally stunning collection of the SL's deep hitting soul/funk recorded between 1969-1973. A vocal delivery with that perfect gospel influence that cuts right to the heart of the matter, and the sort of perfect production and orchestration that keeps the songs moving and practically begs to be sampled by the entire Stones Throw roster. Always such a pleasure to get a full helping of a group we only had heard in dribs and drabs before. After listening to this over and over we can safely say The Sisters Love have won a special place in our soul collection, alongside the likes of early Betty Wright, Ike & Tina and Candi Staton. Highly recommended!
Here's a four song follow-up to the Sixteens' album Casio which was release a few years ago on Bay Area label Cochon Records. This release has found its way across the country (and maybe across a border too) to the Montreal, Quebec / New York City label Hungry Eye (who've also released recent stuff by Saros, Black Ice and Bellmer Dolls).
This Oakland trio continue to churn up their dark wave post punk torment. Sort of the musical equivalent of conjunctivitis... uh, in an inflamed, good way. We'd venture a guess that the Sixteens wouldn't shy away from (or maybe even take particular glee in) popping a few pus-bloated boils and brewing the residue up into a cauldron full of song. Such is the feeling we get from their particular musical disfigurement. With cover art by Genesis P'Orridge.
It's weird that this is Skyscraper issue #23, and we've only ever listed two other issues of this kick ass music magazine. Well, we'll try to fix that right up, beginning with the latest and largest issue of Skyscraper, a magazine that began its life covering mostly indie rock, but is now as omnivorous as we are. This time around: The Rapture, The Blood Brothers, Ratatat, Chin Up Chin Up, Erase Errata, Daniel Johnston, The Howling Hex, NoMeansNo, Red Sparowes, Six Organs Of Admittance, Fucked Up, Wires On Fire, Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers, To Live And Shave In L.A., The Lovely Feathers, Captain Ahab, Raccoo-Oo-Oon, Endpoint as well as articles on DIY performance spaces, Lost records, and tons more. Plus all the usual music magazine stuff including LOTS AND LOTS of reviews!!
In case you couldn't deduce from the album's lengthy title An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein And Other Whereabouts - Two Compositions For Large Orchestras, this is quite possibly Moe! Staiano's stormiest and most expansive release to date. The album commences with the three part Piece No. 7 (2001-2003), a gradual unfolding of delicate cymbal washes peppered by fleeting squeals and peals. By the third stage the skies have darkened. One by one, tumultuous deep crescendos overtake the pianissimo passages. At that track's eleventh minute a frail bell sounds almost as an emergency alarm's last gasp that's soon to be drowned out by a swell of all instruments pushing forth at once. Horns and strings fall in shrieks, as the sonic bulldozer levels all that remains. Quite cleansing. Staiano then picks right up with the second piece which is also a triptych. No. 5 (1998) is infused with a bit of carnivalesque levity, but is no less turbulently dynamic.
The prince of theme albums delivers the goods in time for the holidays. Mr. Stevens follows up his Illinois and Michigan albums with this jaw-dropping five cd set of Christmas tunes. Clearly he not only knows his State facts, but also his Christmas tidings too. The five discs are titled Noel (2001), Hark! (2002), Ding! Dong! (2003), Joy (2005), and Peace (2006), and they add up to a bountiful mix of forty two traditional songs and Sufjan originals.
But he didn't stop at music! Along with the cds in this boxset, you get a heap of Sufjan penned stories and liner notes, lyric sheets, score charts, a music video and comic strip by Tom Eaton, an essay written by Rick Moody, a family portrait, and stickers too.
Even total Scrooges may find the spirit of this one difficult to resist!
We may shooting ourselves in the foot by listing this record, as we only have a handful of the records and are not too sure about the possibility of restocking it. But what the hell, it's another great Stilluppsteypa album... so we'll list it, but if you want one act fast!
While certainly not by design, the Icelandic duo of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson have kept a relatively low profile as Stilluppsteypa during the past couple of years. Sigmarsson kept himself busy with his own solo projects of likeminded isolationist spectroscopy and grandiose electronic absurdities, but Stilluppsteypa have only managed two albums since 2002 including The Immediate Past Is Of No Interest To Us and this eponymous album from 2004 on the obscure Japanese label Atak. The simple fact that Thorsson has been living in Amsterdam and Sigmarsson has been continuing his studies in Hannover helps explain the slow working process of the two these days. Nevertheless, when they do manage to get together to fire off another raygun blast of high-voltage rhythms crossed with clinical dronescaping, it's always amazing.
On this album, Stilluppsteypa pick up where they left off with The Immediate Past and their 2001 masterpiece Stories Part Five. Mechanical whirlings and abrasively tense drones steadily build into giddy episodes for electo-bossanova beats and carnivalesque melodies. Where most of Stilluppsteypa's contemporaries would treat such source materials with fart jokes and a purile disregard for quality, Stilluppsteypa take a considerable amount of pride in scripting inventive electronica juxtapositions with remarkable technique and theatrical panache. In many ways, Sigmarsson and Thorsson are emerging as the equals of B.C. Gilbert and Graham Lewis in all of their extra-cirricular activities outside of Wire. Great stuff.
On their second album, Subtle (aka Jel and DoseOne also of cLOUDEAD, 13&God and Anticon) appear to have sat themselves right down in the vacant seats between TV On The Radio, Gnarls Barkley, Peeping Tom, heck, maybe even Black Eyed Peas and Outkast too! And they've done so with a rather comfortable ease. For Hero For Fool is a quirkful, good time blender magic of hip hop, pop, funk, soul and film score music. Groovy highlights include "The Mercury Craze" and "The Ends".
Svarte Greiner is doom. Well, sort of. Maybe acoustic doom is more like it. And this very well may be the first time we've heard a record, or an artist that perfectly captures the sound and mood of the hitherto unexplored world of acoustic doom. Svarte Greiner is the solo guise of Norwegian soundmaker Erik Skodvin, who, when he is NOT Svarte Greiner, channels his less doomy musical emotions into an outfit called Deaf Center. But the dark and doomy loveliness of Svarte Greiner is what we're most concerned with here.
And the reason for that is that the music of SG is practically perfect. It's like that sound in our heads we've been imagining for ages but had never actually heard. Until now. The sticker on the cd namedrops Earth, Angelo Badalamenti and Volcano The Bear, which sounds interesting for sure, but doesn't nearly capture how beautiful and wonderfully creepy this stuff is. Imagine the music of past AQ faves like Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Xela, Part Timer, that crumbling, hiss drenched loveliness, but then filter it through some dreary drowsy slowcore, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore or Low, but then loop it and process it and pull it apart until it becomes even more fuzzy and hypnotic, a Basinski or Tim Hecker produced bedroom dark ambient doomfolk record from Bohren perhaps? Sounds impossible, but Knive is all that and still somehow more.
From the first track, we were totally hooked. It's like the soundtrack to some ultra abstract black and white film, unearthed and projected in all its decayed and degraded glory. Everything is shrouded in shadow, shades of black and grey, back lit and rendered soft and indistinct. The mood is minor key and ominous. Very epic and cinematic, but somehow still understated and subtle. But definitely scary. And evil. But not overtly so. The record is bathed in tape hiss and record crackle and all sorts of gorgeously textured recording inconsistencies. It's some impossible tangle of mournful slowcore, twentieth century minimalism, and creeping doomy dirge, all deconstructed into abstract and skeletal, Basinski like soundscapes. Strings scrape and squeak, in the distance drift muted percussive thumps. Each track is a droning smear of sound, peppered with bits of random sonic clatter, everything wreathed in smokey cello swells, and soft swoonsome strings. Guitars drenched in reverb offer up the slightest of melodies, riffs are unfurled and left suspended in in clouds of dreamy fuzz, allowed to slowly fade to nothingness. There are melodies, but they develop at a snail's pace, notes stretched to their breaking point, becoming miniature drones of their own, but when viewed from afar, are actually gorgeously rendered, and evoke dark feelings of despair and further define Svarte Greiner's sonic world of wonder.
Elsewhere, gristled guitar distortion is dripped onto spare expanses of late night percussion, bells and chimes reverberate over a dense sea of swirling tape hiss, ambient backdrops sometimes surface briefly, rising up through the murk, wind, footsteps, the call of crows soaring far overhead, and amidst it all, haunting female vocals that drift amidst the decayed ruins, small glimmers of light in a world of utter black, giving Knive even more of an emotional intensity. So goddamn good.
As we've mentioned many times in the past, we're practically obsessed with the music of Mr. Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk. From the blackened drone of his old church burning corpsepainted ambient horde MZ 412, to the industrial noisefolk of Folkstorm, the full on noise assault of his collaboration with Goat, the rhythmic noise experiments of his collaboration with Merzbow, the bleak drone drenched dark ambience of his projects with former partner in MZ412 Drakh (including an upcoming release on tUMULt!), he also plays in a couple black metal bands, has a noise group, and of course there's the haunting militaristic ambient drone folk of Toroidh. When does this man find time to sleep?!
As much as we love everything he's donee, we have a particular soft spot for the music of Toroidh. It's just so evocative, so dark and creepy, beautiful, but incredibly ominous, haunting and downright frightening at times.
We had never been able to get any Toroidh records for the store, so we were super ecstatic to discover that the first three Toroidh records were being remastered and re-released as a box set!!
It's hard to put into words just how massive and breathtaking these records are, how huge in scope. Epic explorations of history through sound. The three records are definitely distinct and unique, but they work together perfectly as a trilogy, their sound, themes and structures perfectly compliment each other. A long strange dark and soulful journey through sound.
Haunting looped military marches, snippets of speeches and rallies, lilting waltzes with moaning horns give way to militaristic drums, over slow soft swells of murky gloomy shimmer, peppered with more snippets of speeches. Thick church organ drones wrap themselves around deep densely reverbed operatic vocals, throughout muted percussive thumps and throbs pulse rhythmically, everything swirled into woozy Skepticism like dirges.
Warm swells of brass moan in the distance, beneath mesmerizing male chanting. Huge expanses of abstract drone, slowed down mournful murmurs wash over forlorn minor key melodies, spread out into murky whorls of sonic sorrow, dizzying swirls of 16rpm warble and deep droning drift. Crunchy industrial marches wrapped in smoky blackness underpin simple propulsive rhythms. Minor key acoustic guitar strum floats on thick beds of soaring strings. Each record manages a seemingly impossible balancing act, situating itself somewhere between cold martial pound, and super emotional melodicism.
European Trilogy is a completely mesmerizing, and ever shifting sonic expanse, the listener is sent into battle to wander cold and alone, lonely and afraid, allowed to wander along the streets of some unnamed village, observing some unnamed war, watching the people, the buildings, the destruction, the devastation, but most specifically the sounds. From hypnotic propulsive militaristic marches to strange processed field recordings and bits of historical sound to deep dark cavernous drones. An absolutely astonishing piece of sonic beauty!
Gorgeous, super deluxe, over the top packaging. A black matte rubberized box with the title debossed, a super striking black on black, inside each disc is in its own thick textured paper sleeve, embossed with the band name and disc number (in Roman numerals of course), and a booklet on super thick glossy paper, with track listings and credits, everything appropriately spare and striking, very simple and streamlined and Teutonic. WOW!
Along with the Algarnas Tradgard and International Harvester cds we re-listed last time, we're also super happy to have a couple other Silence label reissues back in stock, after a lengthy absence. This one is another entry in the discography of one of our absolute favorite Swedish psychrock band "families" that began with the group Parson Sound. The post-Harvester quartet Trad, Gras Och Stenar (Trees, Grass and Stones) was the most "rockist" outgrowth of the Parson Sound/International Harvester collective which you'll find celebrated elsewhere on our site. Indeed, this album starts with two covers of well-known rock tunes, one of the Dylan/Hendrix classic "All Along The Watchtower", followed by a version of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" that is so depressed and wasted-sounding that it *really* sounds like they can't and won't get no satisfaction, ever! Pretty soon, though, they've given up on any Top of the Pops pretentions and are delving into twisted, waltzing, freak-psych compositions that draw more from traditional Swedish folk music than British/American rock n' roll (although the fuzz guitars remain). Some of the material here also recalls the minimalist throb of their earlier work in Parson Sound and International Harvester.
What Hrvatski said of the Harvester album applies to this as well: "Another piece to the incestuous little jigsaw that was the 1967-1972 Swedish druggist music school dropout sector." A jigsaw well worth spending some of your time with! And we'll add that if you ever get a chance to see these guys play -- they're still in action -- don't miss it. They've been to SF a couple times in recent years and blew us away. Still amazing, and really nice guys as well. If only we could be as cool as they are, when we're their age...
Do you believe in reincarnation? Well if you do at least musically and fictionally speaking, Tralala are today's Rizzo and the Pink Ladies. Come on, you know who we're talking about don't you? Go on, just give a listen to their latest album and tell us we're wrong. No? You mean you've never seen the movie Grease?! Anyways, these Brooklyn kids really know how to have a peppy, perky, pop party! We don't think it'd be bad at all to be kept after school with them in detention hall 'cause all the good time, bad girl mischief (y'know, smokin' in the girls' room, hangin' out in the parking lot, crackin' your gum in class) would be well worth it.
Not to be confused with Doug Martsch's amazing nineties outfit, the Treepeople, -these- Tree People are equally amazing, but are a whole different proposition.
This disc was originally released as a super limited lp way back in 1979 and managed to quietly disappear. Now, here we are nearly three decades later, and whattaya know? There's a whole movement of modern free folk, 'freak' folk and the like, and if you didn't know better, pretty sure we could pass this off as some strange super limited cd-r by some modern folk revivalists. But keen ears would certainly be able to tell. This is so entirely original (especially for the time) and genuine sounding. Mostly acoustic guitars, flute and vocals, the Tree People had two distinct sounds, the first, a lilting melancholy moonlit folk, like Cat Stevens or Van Morrison, a gorgeous lazy drawl, rich and lustrous, over simple folk and fluttering flutes, dreamy and gorgeous, sounding like some lost folk classic one minute, a strange "Girl From Ipanema" style shuffle the next. But even at it's sweetest and softest, the record seems to always have a hint of melancholy, sometimes even a trace of ominous foreboding. Which definitely gives the songs a subtly dark undercurrent. The majority of the record however is spent in full on hippy jam mode. Very Comus-like at times (especially on track two, "Sliding"), wild steel string excursions, dense tangles of fingerpicked melodies and aggressive strummed riffs, with a definite raga like vibe, all over a smattering of hand drums and tablas, a glorious drifting buzzing steel string dronefolk, that just sounds so incredibly timeless. Elsewhere, the same jams evolve into more tranquil acoustic dreaminess, with the flutes floating over sweet lilting melodies, but even then, the songs will be peppered with sudden bursts of buzzing slide guitar, or brief squalls of atonal fingerpicking. SO cool. And considering the current love of all things freaky and folky, it's sort of amazing that stuff like this was already being made 27 years ago!
Obviously, fans of the current crop of modern folk troubadours will find this absolutely essential, Devandra, Vetiver, Espers, Newsom, whatever your particular poison, the Tree People will fit in frighteningly well. Hard to say whether it speaks to the prescience of the Tree People, or just to how much these modern bands have actually been 'borrowing'. Either way, this is absolutely essential.
Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese!
Coil as a musical entity had such a profound affect on modern music, and on the majority of bands and artists we love and listen to every day. So when Jhonn Balance of Coil died after an accidental fall, underground musicians worldwide were stunned and heartbroken. And what better way to channel rage, and disappointment and sadness than through music. So thus we have In Memoriam, a sonic tribute and memorial to the memory and the musical legacy of Jhonn Balance.
The lineup is chock full of unknowns, but sonically most of them are definitely channeling the sprit of Coil and are pretty fantastic. Enough that it had a few of us wanting more from some of the groups. Some of the names are recognizable, and a few are definite AQ faves: Coh, Alec Empire, Alva Noto, Scanner, KK Null, Thighpaulsandra, Chris Connelly and Pomassl. But the rest, wow! Usually a comp with mostly unknowns bodes poorly for the quality of the collection, but somehow, most of these groups end up being really cool, and perfect in their own way, demonstrating their love and affection for Balance and Coil in their quite varied musical homages. And they hail from ALL over. Pretty amazing actually. The list had us pretty excited before we even got the discs in: The Threshold Houseboy's Choir (Thailand), Theodor Bastard (Russia), Kotra (Ukraine), Spies Boys (Russia), 2/5 BZ (Turkey), Biblioteka Prospero (Ukraine), Phillip Klingler (USA), EU (Russia), Darling Kandie (USA), Alexei Borisov (Russia), Schlammpeitziger (Germany), Goodiny & PCP (Russia), Brompton's Cocktail (Russia), Mystified (Sweden), hhtp (Belarus), Noises Of Russia & Olga Komok / Nikolay Rubanov (Russia), Kryptogen Rundfunk (Russia), A. Vorodeyev (Ukraine), Serge Tereshkine (Russia), Volga (Russia), I.L.I. (Russia) and M.R.F. / Elena Voynarovskaya (Ukraine)! Wow, heavy on the Eastern Europe for sure, which might have to do with the fact that this was released on a Russian label.
Regardless, eyes closed, this almost plays like an actual Coil album. Heavy on the electronics, lots of processed rhythms, strange voices, creepy soundscapes. Some are sort-of-covers, others are loose interpretations, while still others are original pieces of music, more in the spirit of Coil than emulating the actual sound. But for such a massive comp, the sound is surprisingly cohesive and flows wonderfully. Some of our favorite tracks: Alec Empire's stripped down fuzzed out beatscape. The dreamy otherworldly abstract folk of 2/5 BZ. The faux gamelan of Thailand's Threshold Houseboy's Choir. The murky new wave industrial of Biblioteka Prospero. The dreamy minimal glitchscape of EU. We could go on and on. Needless to say, it's all pretty dang great. Even the folks who don't actually dig Coil all that much have been liking a whole lot of this comp and playing it all the time!
Quite possibly essential listening for Coil freaks, but definitely a kick ass experimental electronic compilation worth checking out for folks into that sort of stuff!!
Eeurgh! This compilation's subject matter might fill you with terror, but the music is mighty easy on the ears. You get ten songs from the 4AD label's odd bedfellows Stephin Merritt, Laurie Anderson, Rufus Wainwright, Brian Eno with Robert Wyatt, Imogen Heap, The Tiger Lilies, King Creosote, Cody Chesnutt, Klashnekoff, and Scott Walker, all addressing plague-related unpleasantries such as boils, lice, locusts, flies, frogs, blood, death of livestock, hail, death of firstborn and darkness. Thematically perhaps not for those with delicate constitutions, but musically there's a little (predominantly adult contemporary leaning) something for almost everyone.
While labels like the Numero Group and Soul Jazz have been doing a great job of digging up amazing old soul sounds from the past, this collection of soul and funk from Spain from 1966-1976 popped up out of nowhere and has ended up being maybe one of the best soul collections we've ever heard! It's everything you want soul and funk from that era to be. It's infectious, playful, gritty, groovy and totally addictive. While none of us had too much experience with the soul scene in Spain, this comp proves that it was pretty damn healthy and vibrant. These songs are damn near impossible not to be swept away by. Even Andee who is maybe the least funk-obsessed AQ-er was caught totally digging on these sounds. And then for those of you who are already attracted to great funk sounds of the era, this is like hitting the funkrock jackpot! After getting this the first day it arrived at AQ, I (Irwin) managed to play cuts from it during no less than three different DJ sets in the next 48 hours. And every single time I played a song from it I was immediately met with someone running to the DJ booth (and the phone lighting up when it was during my radio show) with the same excited question...What the heck is this and where can I buy one!!?? What makes this collection so outstanding are the strange splashes of eccentric spirit that keep it from sounding too same-y and keep the disc from ever losing steam, like lots of soul collections tend to do. This is one of those amazing records you can't help but fall in love with! If you have a pulse or a heartbeat or are at all alive, you won't be able to resist!
Those of you who have had a bar/bat mitzvah or have ever whipped up some matzah brie for breakfast will have a special fondess for this compilation. A collection of Jewish music from all over the world with a hip-modern twist. Musicians from Israel, Greece, Germany, Holland, France and elsewhere playing traditional songs in very modern styles but without losing the Jewish undertones and themes. Musically its pretty diverse from hip-hop to surf rock, klezmer to electro-pop. With the advent of Heeb Magazine and other hip Jewish websites, labels and magazines, it seems like there is finally some cool folks out there committed to showing and exposing the wide array of Jewish art and music being made. Fans of another compilation on the same label, our recent record of the week Beyond Istanbul, might find this to be an equally entertaining cultural snapshot.
Sur-Terre.Net is an interactive project by the Parisian multi-disciplinarian Gregory Chatonsky, involving film, sound, and a generative web interface. With only a cursory glance at the website (go figure, it's www.sur-terre.net), it appears that the work deals with layers of observation and being observed within social spaces, all with a vaguely psycho-sexual overtone. The project also happens to incorporate a very impressive soundtrack from a who's who in the world of abstract electronica and fractured sound-art: Fennesz, Scanner, Francisco Lopez, Steve Roden, Tim Hecker, Hazard, Pita, General Magic, and many others! We'll leave discussion of the sociological insights of the entire Sur-Terre.net project to the experts (or if you want to tell us what you think about it, be our guest!); but we most definitely can say that the soundtrack is exemplary almost from start to finish. The one minor hiccup is the clumsy rhythms of the Vladislav Delay track, but beyond that, richly textured electronic ambience and static vibrations dominate the compilation, laced with historical allegories, memory, disillusionment, and dislocation. Standouts include Fennesz' impeccable blurring of pixel-points, Atau Tanaka's eerie field recording manipulations, Francisco Lopez' grinding swells of gritty hiss, and even the sometimes lackluster Scanner contributes a brilliant piece of crepuscular electronics more in keeping with Biosphere's work. Unlike a lot of compilations which merely collect interesting tracks to be unceremoniously dumped onto the iPod, the soundtrack to Sur-Terre.net is totally engaging from start to finish. Recommended.
The second edition of DFA remixes improves upon the first by delving into less obvious rhythm and dance territories. Increasing the atmospheres rather than cowbell-driven propulsion, DFA's reworking of Goldfrapp, UNKLE, Tiga, N.E.R.D. and Nine Inch Nails, among others are often more expansive and symphonic, at times extending passages and compositions to almost 14 minutes in length. This is an excellent dose of dance tunes for the mind as well as the body. Awesome!
Vert's new album Some Beans & An Octopus offers something new and a bit different for the Sonig label. Vert runs the stylistic gamut much in the same way that Sparks and Momus do. So chameleon-like, they easily slip from the cabaret to the carnival to the piano parlor to the seaside to the mountaintop. In the wink of an eye the music may go from the clatterous to velvety and back again. Lots of lively variety and rambunctious fun. We were particularly charmed by the clucky chicken sound in the kooky second tune "Velocity". It gave some of us the giggles. Conversely we found songs like the shimmering "October" to be dreamily perfect for porchswing stargazing. Pretty darn great!
Wow, what a superb treat for fans of Tom Waits! Orphans is a fantastic three cd set that's sort of akin to those fine Merle Haggard (Cheatin', Drinkin', Hurtin', Prison) and Johnny Cash (God, Love, Murder) cd series that came out a few years ago. But unlike those which were released separately, these similarly themed cds make their entrance together in one beauty of a hardcover book-style package. If we're talkin' numbers, get this: along with the gorgeous 94-page tome, there are 56 tracks (30 of them previously unreleased!), and they capture Waits in all of his battered and bruised, weathered and well-worn gritty glory. A veritable treasure trove! Hmmm, it's getting to be official gift-giving time o' year, isn't it? Hint hint. Recommended.
Ever since Mira Billotte hit the scene with her sister Christina in the band Quix*O*Tic several years ago she has been a force to be reckoned with. Blessed with an amazing voice that cuts right through into your soul and gives you goosebumps all over.
Her debut as White Magic, an e.p. titled Through The Sun Door, from a few years back took the more fantastical and ethereal side of Quix*O*Tic to exciting new heights. When White Magic toured for that record on the west coast they opened for Ghost and put on one of the most jaw-dropping performances we had ever seen. To this day, people who were there continue to talk about the fact that they got to witness something so special. Admirers like Joanna Newsom, Vetiver and Brightblack were all in attendance dancing their hearts out to White Magic's rich, commanding sounds. Fast forward a few years and we still only had that great show and that same handful of songs from the e.p. No full length, as well as rumors that there might never be one, and just two new songs on a Tylenol promotional cd (yes the pain medicine), a split with American Analog Set to tide us over. As our patience began to fade, we finally heard the news we had been waiting for, a new full length was on the way. Dat Rosa Mel Apibus is our reward for waiting so long and so patiently. And it was well worth it. With members of The Dirty Three and Gang Gang Dance, Mira was able to craft a record that resonates with a deep strength and an intense presence. The kind of record that is of course fun to listen to, but it's when you really allow yourself to enter its world when the real magic happens. Songs that suck you right into their raging emotional storm. Melodies that wrap themselves around your brain and tie your stomach up in knots. Like Bjork and Joanna Newsom, White Magic possess that same kind of singular voice and vision that makes their songs resonate with a long lasting power and a deep emotional resonance. So good.
From right here in San Francisco, via Boston, comes this debut recording from Wildlife. And in the interest of being totally up front, we should tell you that we do actually have a vested interest in Wildlife, not only can SF always use another killer band to call its own, but we also got another amazing AQ employee out of the deal, Matt in mailorder, but all of that aside, this shit is seriously cool.
Opening with a hushed soundscape of record crackle (we're sold already!), a swirl of hiss and static and pops, underpinning thick bass thrums that shimmer like black clouds, while above this low end miasma hover simple muted guitars and huge drums way up in the mix (where they belong). Suddenly the sound is some sort of abstract slowcore indie doom, with beautiful drifting melodies, lugubrious tempos, all beneath a simple caveman plod and clouds of little effected guitar squiggles. The song eventually erupts into a massive downtuned crunch, thick waves of detuned riffage pile up beneath howled Stooges-y vocals wrapped in thick swaths of reverb, swaggering over the slippery tarpit dirge underneath. The song ends in a flurry of gorgeous harmonics, with shimmery distant angelic vocals, and strange dynamic shifts all tangled up with shards of angular jagged high end scrape and skree. Phew, and that's just the first song.
After a brief interlude, a strange cloud of ambient clatter, made up of blurred bits of fuzz and hiss, clockwork like rhythms as well as distant booming percussion, the band launch back into the rock, with a muted angular groove, not unlike Sonic Youth or Blonde Redhead with dense reverby guitars and simple tribal rhythms that build into a lurching sea sick stumble, with distorted shrieked vocals, swirls of feedback and moaning guitar wail before winding back down into a swirling dense coda of wild drumming and tangled squalls of blown out psych guitar.
The final track is a spare slab of creepy disembodied folk, thick stabs of tangled steel string dissonance wrapped in a bleak doomy ambience. A slow creeping monotone strum, with simple percussion and snarly vocals. The whole thing very sun baked with lots of reverb, a wild and clattery, Jandekian dirge folk work out that manages to be strangely epic and majestic.
We only have about twenty of these so we may run out quick. A repress is in the works, but it might be a while, so if you don't want to wait (and you definitely don't) then don't dawdle...
