Aquarius Records closed in 2016. This site is an archive — a place to rediscover their extraordinary music recommendations. Nothing here is for sale.
[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 273 ]
Showing results 101 through 106 of 106.
WILLIS, NICOLE AND THE SOUL INVESTIGATORSKeep Reachin' Up(Light In The Attic)cd$ 13.98
With a seemingly endless supply of amazing soul and funk reissues surfacing seemingly every day, we kept hoping that some current music makers would take some notes and cues from that golden age of soul and funk and start making some seriously raw and tasty soul of their own. Besides the great Sharon Jones & The Dapkings there had been a huge lack of killer modern old school soul. Luckily we think there might be a bit of a renaissance on the horizon. With The Dapkings backing Amy Winehouse and reaching mainstream audiences we think the time is ripe for a whole lot more great soul to replace the overproduced schlock that has dominated the r&b world for way too long now. With a band of great players from Finland of all places, Nicole Willis has made one of the best soul records of the year! After years as a backup and guest vocalist for everyone from Curtis Mayfield, Leftfield and Dee-Lite, Willis is finally the main attraction. After a few impossible to find outings Keep Reachin' Up seems like it will be the one that makes people stand up and take notice. It's a good thing too cuz damn does this record smoke!
Much like the Sharon Jones record, if you close your eyes and listen to Willis you feel like you're in another time entirely. She perfectly recalls that amazing uptempo 70's soul sound that would influence so many folks and pave the way for disco. Her voice is strong and assured, sexy and dripping with a sensuality that can NOT be denied. You can imagine how much Larry Levan would have loved her voice, as you can hear echoes of Gwen Guthrie, Betty Wright and even The Supremes in her songs. What makes Keep Reachin' Up so irresistible is the impeccable music and arrangements played by The Soul Investigators who include her husband Warp Alumnus Jimi Tenor whose take on classic sound is scary perfect (and we have to say we might prefer him in a behind the scenes capacity way more that as a front man) and the amazing playing by The Pekka Kuusisto String Orchestra. Every element is perfect. PERFECT! This has fast become a unanimous favorite around AQ (even with Andee who is typically a bit soul-shy) and we're pretty sure you will fall hard for this as well. So damn good!
A really nice debut from Izaak Schlossman, a young man from here in the bay area who makes music perfect for long roadtrips on the open road or an afternoon in your bedroom with the windows cracked while hot water boils in the kitchen for your morning tea. It starts of sounding like some lost Neutral Milk Hotel demo hidden in Jeff Mangum's attic for years and years. And then a more electro-acoustic sound comes into play making for a great meeting of worlds between indie-folk song writing and more expansive instrumental and atmospheric passages that hint at what it might sound like if Iron & Wine was way more lo-fi and joined forces with Fennesz. Or something. Its pastoral beauty and earnest delivery also reminds us a bit of folks like Mountains, Rickard Javerling, Grizzly Bear and Horseback. A very DIY affair, the cd-r is packaged in a beautiful hand sewn cover.
And we can definitely see this being one of those cd-r's that a few years from now you'll be bragging to your friends about, how you were digging this stuff well before he became a big name...
WOODEN SHJIPSSummer Of Love (aka Sol '07)(A Sick Thirst / Holy Mountain)7"$ 5.98
A single song teaser to these local boys' long awaited full length, coming soon on Holy Mountain. And if you've been digging their past releases (a 7" and a 10") then this brand new single will definitely hit the spot. More of what we love, a relentless, neverending blown out fuzzy groove, all warm whirring organ, fuzz guitar, and throbbing bass, the drums a super solid motorik framework, the vocals sort of sung / spoken, reverb and delay EVERYWHERE, the strangest addition is the haunting horns on the A side, that drift and moan ghost like over the fuzz jam below. One song spread out over two sides, by side 2, the band have locked it in and sound like they are never gonna stop. A looped cyclical minimal fuzzrock jam that sounds almost like some crazy crossbreeding of the Doors and Spacemen 3, which should appeal to Circle, Salvatore and Magyar Posse fans as much as all the druggy psychrock dronesters out there.
Red vinyl, in plain plastic sleeves (like past releases) and all proceeds go to Food Not Bombs...
WYRD VISIONSHalf-Eaten Guitar(Blue Fog)cd$ 14.98
Wyrd Visions as the name for a psychedelic new weird wherever folk act? Hmm, a bit overt, perhaps, like naming your metal band Brutal Riffage or something. Too much on the telling side of the showing/telling divide taught in all beginning creative writing classes. How 'bout having a wyrd vision, putting it into words, and then using THAT for the name of your band? But, then again, it did pique our interest, and we wanted to know more... Wyrd Visions appear to be Swedish (perhaps now based in Toronto, Canada?) and have some affinity to the Nordic black metal scene despite sounding (almost) nothing like a black metal band. Instead, this is simple, sparse, funeral-paced, ominous doom-folk... the genre inhabited by such singular entities as Wolfmanger, Silvester Anfang, and Greg Weeks. Songs, especially the opening track "Sigill", are loooong, repetitive, hypnotic and haunting. Voices (both male and female) are gentle and hushed, cloaked in droning atmosphere on such cuts as "Bog Lord" and "Ceremony". The instrumentation is for the most part simple, wooden, acoustic. We mentioned black metal, in part due to the presence of "Freezing Moon", originally by seminal Norwegian black metallers Mayhem (another "overt" name we suppose). Wyrd Visions' version is soooo slow and spare and cruel and, actually, lovely. Maybe more affecting than the original which appeared on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album back in 1994. The rest of WV's album falls into the same mode for sure. And with the final track "Air-Conditioning" they break out the fuzzed electric guitar, bringing things more and more into an abstracted, molasses-drowned black metal riffing realm for reals.
A while back we had a cd entitled The Zombi Anthology, that compiled the pre-Relapse debut demo releases from this rad instrumental post-rock duo from the zombie filmmaker George Romero's hometown of Pittsburgh. They're into horror film soundtracks, that's for sure -- director/composer John Carpenter being a big influence, especially so on their demos.
The Anthology cd is now sold out, out of print, but Wabana has stepped in with these vinyl reissues of Zombi's two demos, which are unfortunately on the pricey side 'cause Wabana stuff is made in England and the pound is clobbering the dollar right now. But they're limited and all (we've just got a dozen of each) and we figure Zombi fans will be fighting over them regardless.
This 21+ minute LP features the four songs from their Twilight Sentinel EP (originally released in 2003 in an edition of 200 copies for a tour with Daughters). It developed their sound further towards actual loud "rock" music by adding live drums and bass guitar. They continue to channel Carpenter and other scary soundtrack masters but get proggier and mathier and more rockin', coming closer to the space-metal, post-rock version of Goblin later heard on their debut album Cosmos. There is a hint of '80s cheesiness but that's the idea. Kitschy yet creepy. We love it.
A while back we had a cd entitled The Zombi Anthology, that compiled the pre-Relapse debut demo releases from this rad instrumental post-rock duo from the zombie filmmaker George Romero's hometown of Pittsburgh. They're into horror film soundtracks, that's for sure -- director/composer John Carpenter being a big influence, especially so on their demos.
The Anthology cd is now sold out, out of print, but Wabana has stepped in with these vinyl reissues of Zombi's two demos, which are unfortunately on the pricey side 'cause Wabana stuff is made in England and the pound is clobbering the dollar right now. But they're limited and all (we've just got a dozen of each) and we figure Zombi fans will be fighting over them regardless.
This 33+ minute, self-titled record features the nine tracks (one more than appeared on the Anthology cd) from their demo recorded in 2001, originally released by the band in a 150-copy cd-r edition. It's mostly all electronic, with drum machine instead of live drums. Zombi admit the major Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi soundtrack influence on this one, and it's so obvious from the stark, quietly menacing droning synthwork and ticking drum machine percussion, oozing with horror film atmosFEAR.
