First off, go see these guys if you get the chance. It's a crazed rock spectacle, kinda like Japan's DMBQ but more dangerous, or at least shirtless. They live up to the hype you may have heard about their live performances, that's for sure. This guitar/drums/vocals trio from Israel are very, very rock n' roll, and they know how to put on a show. Probably everyone who's ever seen them has a good story, likely to include the drummer soloing whilst simultaneously crowd surfing, and the band's wiry, longhaired, mustachioed frontman (who looks like a cross between Iggy Pop and Doug Henning) energetically scampering about, spilling many, many audience members' beers (grabbing 'em with his teeth and tossing them back over his head, usually, at least if they're served in plastic cups). Allan's Monotonix show story even involves a goat!
But, the question remains, does any of that translate on record? Well this six song, 24 minute Drag City debut should answer that question. It reveals some depth to the riffy, hard and heavy, good times rock they dish out at their shows, with more melody and intricacy certainly (surprisingly). The title track, ferinstance, is almost prog pop! Yet, they don't stint on the fuzzy guitar and pounding drums we were expecting either, so if you play it loud, you might manage to spill a beer or two on yourself at home. If you just see 'em live, what you'll remember is how they played, not what they played. But spin this a few times, and some of these riffs may get stuck in your bangin' head. However, Monotonix live is a tough act to follow, which is their own damn fault, and so this still seems a bit secondary, like, they've gotta make records, if only to have something to sell on tour. But it is nice to see that they've put some effort into this aspect of the Monotonix experience too, instead of totally coasting on their live insanity.
Hugo Montenegro was one of many light composers of the space-age bachelor pad era that included Dick Hyman, Esquivel, Frank Comstock, Ferrante & Teicher and Ray Coniff. What set him apart from his contemporaries was a flair for restless frenetic rhythms, scatting vocalese, and groovy surfy spy themes like the soundtrack for such b-movie potboilers as The Lady In Cement and TV shows, The Wrecking Crew and The Ambushers. But his most literally electrifying moment came from his adoption of the Moog synthesizer for 1969's Moog Power, one of the best Moog records out there next to Gershon and Kingsley's In Sounds From Way Out.
Now, in typical anthologizing fashion, the generous folks at The Omni Recording Corporation who have brought us many a left-field pop eccentric such as Porter Wagoner, Biff Rose (also reviewed this list), Bruce Haack, Hoyt Axton, and Jim Blanchard & Misty Morgan set their targets on Montenegro's enormously varied output. Sometimes Omni's exhaustive anthologies can be, well, exhausting, offering almost too much work from a single person. The first half of Mr. Groovy is largely well-worn covers ("Classical Gas", "Happy Together", "Love is Blue" etc.), that are not quite as rewarding as the second half's awesome Moog pieces and spy themes. But the quantity versus quality complaint is a minor one when it comes to Omni's releases who most of the time deliver both in large numbers. Just don't dismiss this disc because you don't like the theme from "Hair". Grooovy!
Mute Socialite are a new aural maelstrom featuring Bay Area avant music vets Moe! Staiano, Ava Mendoza, Alec Karim and Shayna Dunkleman. Don't even attempt to define this new group's sound by the words in their moniker. They are anything but mute, and we wouldn't consider theirs to be the most social of musics. It's like a sonic blow to the solar plexus that then proceeds to march on odd time signatures upon your fallen form. The dozen pieces deliver plenty of mighty post-punk churn, no wave spasm and math rock count-that-shit! At once fiercely precise and wildly chaotic. Blistering.
Last year we reviewed a cd-r by the duo Nest, guitarist Andrew Scott and NZ noisemaker Nigel Wright, where they teamed up with fellow kiwi MHFS, but for this latest outing, the duo has teamed up with yet another New Zealander, Tim Coster, and the results are again sublime. But in a much different way than the last collaboration. Where that one was distorted and heavy and buzzy, this new one is much darker and more introspective, guitars and laptops blurred into warm whirring blurs, soft distorted pulses smoother out into soft swells, a dreamy dark tranquil drift, that continues that way for much of the track's 25 minutes, but right around the 17 minute mark, the guitars grow a bit restless, the sound a bit more corrosive, over the continuous low end flow, soars streaks of coruscating high end, shards of feedback, eventually shedding the low end completely, leaving the sharper guitar to riff weightlessly and slowly transform into a fuzzed out chunk of slow swirling murk, that unfurls until the track's end. Good stuff. Fans of the usual abstract free drone stuff will dig this heavily!
Seminal krautrockers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger have at long last (after an uncomfortable decade-plus of legal wrangling) patched up whatever their differences were in order to allow their three classic '70s albums to be offical released on cd for the
For those of you not already Neu!-savvy, these are the guys responsible (along with Kraftwerk, with whom guitarist Rother and drummer Dinger once played -- that's how they met, before splitting to form Neu!) for the "motorik" beat, the propulsive, autobahn-friendly, proto-punk electronics hybrid that has influenced countless bands. From big fans Bowie and Eno back in the seventies to the hundreds of postrock/electronica acts that namecheck them now, Neu! are gods. Negativland not only got their name from a Neu! song off the first album, but even the name of their label, Seeland, comes from a track off of 75. Indeed, some bands have built their entire careers on, uh, paying homage to Neu! (Michael Rother, quoted in the most recent issue of MOJO: "I went to a Stereolab concert once. Suddenly I had the impression I was listening to myself -- very strange!")
Astralwerks has done a nice job with these reissues. No, there's no bonus tracks or extensive liner notes or anything "extra", but all the original artwork is included (not that we have an original Neu! lp handy to compare with, but anyway they look nice). We could have done without the stickers on the front with blurbs from famous fans, but that's discarded once you unwrap the cd so no big deal. We'd guess that Neu!'s first album will sell the most copies, as it's graced with the endorsement of Thom Yorke, whereas we hope that Neu! 75 won't suffer from the moronic blurb from John Frusciante.
In keeping with the generally fucked up saga of these records/reissues, we're already having trouble getting enough of these in stock (our suppliers getting one title, but not the others; very small quanities, that sort of bs), so act fast. Sorry for the high price, it *might* come down as the supply situation changes, but for right now it reflects what we have to pay for these. Argh. And the vinyl versions (YES! they're doing LP reissues) have been inexplicably delayed until the end of July! Double argh.
Neu! 1 (1971) is a stunning work of art, drifting back and forth between the stripped down minimal kraut-pop that they're most commonly associated with, to long, spacey and psychedelic forays with lapses into musique concrete like moments with lapping water, children and jackhammers. Their sound could be most closely compared to early Kraftwerk or Cluster. In fact, the track "Im Gluck" sounds an awful lot like both Kraftwerk's "Radioland" and, believe it or don't, the beginning preamble to Rush's "Xanadu." Whether these two had Neu! in mind when they worked these songs out remains to be proven, but it's nice to think of such dissimilar groups drawing from the same well.
Neu! 2 could possibly be considered the world's first "remix" album, as a good portion of it features "varispeed" versions of previously released Neu! material. They ran out of studio time/money, so the story goes, and after recording two songs for a
The critical status quo qualifies Neu! 75 as the best of three albums, simply because it is the most musically adept and holds the most studio polish. While we here at Aquarius are not going to deny that Neu! 75 isn't a great and possibly required album, we
The two previous albums were infused with a bold spirit of experimentations that led to the mutable pace of the motorik grooves on "Negativland" (from Neu! 1), and the idiosyncratic "remixes" from Neu! 2. While Klaus Dinger's percussion remains unchanged from the first two releases, Michael Rother moves away from the risk-taking agendas from the first two albums, to a more commonplace rock schtick. Rother's guitars hold a greater range of dynamics with beautifully soaring Pink Floyd-esque harmonics to gritty aggro / glam rock power chords, but his insistance on singing much more isn't a great idea. As previously mentioned, Neu! was a profound influence for David Bowie; thus, it is not a coincidence that Neu!'s "Hero" (from Neu! 75) predates Bowie's "Heroes" by a good two years.
We first heard Cian Nugent on the recent volume of Tompkin Square's Imaginational Anthem series. For such a young newcomer (he's still a teenager!) to the ever crowded solo acoustic scene, his track was a highlight among the more seasoned performers like Steffen Basho-Jungens and R. Keenan Lawler. Childhood, Christian Lies & Slaughter documents a live performance (his fourth ever!) in Nugent's home town of Dublin, Ireland. Released on Jozef Van Wissem's Incunabulum imprint, the performance showcases the talent that has folks turning heads. Sweetly beautiful melodies that swing and swirl into complex and melancholic knots. Of course the Takoma influences are ever-present but they lean toward Leo Kottke rather than John Fahey in using early American song-form structures. Yet Nugent's playing also draws from Davy Graham's folk-blues raga style as well as Balkan gypsy rhythms that offer something slightly different than we've heard before. Something wonderously ineffable that we can't quite put our fingers on, but makes us ever curious to hear more.
We never thought the day would come, but the return of Old Forest is nigh!!! The first release from these UK black metal anti-legends in 7 years! Their first record, Into The Old Forest is an all time aQ weirdo black metal fave. And their second unreleased record, None More Black, was meant to finally see the light of day via tUMULt, but instead, will be released by the original label later this year. And when the world hears that one, well, Old Forest just may rightfully reclaim their crown as masters of genius fucked up grimness for sure.
The real surprise though is the band surfacing from whatever dark hellish abyss they retreated to nearly a decade ago. With a new full length in the works, but also this three part ep collection, focusing on the myths and legends of the Sussex countryside from which these guys hail.
Sonically very little has changed. The sound is still murky and buzzy, the guitars thick and blurred, plenty of keyboards, pummeling drums. Lots of atmosphere, and haunting ambience, the vocals a demonic croak, the songs ranging from blasting and black, to creepy midtempo dirge. Haunting baritone monklike chants drift in and out, field recordings of crickets and birds, wind and rustling branches, the songs are packed with super memorable riffs, sing songy "woooo, ooooh" sort of call and response vocals, double kick blasting away, even during some of the more mellow bits, the songs lurch and pound woozily, peppered with incredibly catchy and unlikely little keyboard figures, the band occasionally launching into some furious blasting, but just as often slipping back into a fuzzy dirge or midtempo pound.
And everything, no matter how true or grim, is infused with the cracked black sensibilities of Old Forest, much like countrymen Meads Of Asphodel (who may have one times shared members with Old Forest), not taking it too seriously, but at the same time taking it all deathly seriously. Dark and buzzy, spaced out and psychedelic, heavy and black, but also slightly cracked and definitely warped. And this is only part one�
LIMITED TO ONLY 222 COPIES. Each packaged in a mini 3" jewel case, with super striking red and black artwork, and liner notes and lyrics.
Omit is the longstanding project of New Zealand's finest electron technician Clinton Williams, who dropped out of high school close to two decades ago and holed himself up in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere New Zealand to wrangle with analogue synthesizers, 8-track tape decks, unruly drum machines, and a small army of effects pedals. There was a time in the '90s when Williams' output was ridiculously prolific, through countless cassettes in tiny editions and a handful of lathe-cut singles. His work caught the attention of the Dead C's Bruce Russell, who was so taken by Williams' work that he collaborated with the man as Dust/Omit and released a handful of discs through Russell's seminal Corpus Hermeticum imprint. Upon the release of the 1997 3cd boxset Quad, Williams' Omit project began to slow down tremendously. The quality of work had certainly continued, but the wealth of releases was considerably diminished. In 1999, there was Interior Desolation, brilliant with its squealing pigs adding to electronic claustrophobia. Then Anomalous released Rejector in 2002; and Helen Scarsdale had the honor of releasing the epochal darkness of Tracer (2005), and now the skeletal rhythmicist drones on Interceptor.
Working in isolation has lead Williams to develop a language which is entirely his own, yet exhibits a curious convergent evolution with many of the other greats in DIY electronics - most notably Chris Carter from his days in Throbbing Gristle, Mika Vainio and his early hyper-minimal phaseshifting experiments in post-techno, and the gaping proto-industrial paranoia of Klaus Schulze. His work is simultaneously ponderously huge and effortlessly simple, as his sounds hover along intertwining sweeps of synthetic ambience grafted to simple rhythmic structures. The saddest melodies in the world poke through Omit's cold and barren surfaces, accenting the isolationist tendencies already inherent in these sounds. Interceptor is a slight detour in the Omit aesthetic, and the detour was by design as Williams had ventured outside of his hometown of Blenheim in search of a job. But he also brought two suitcases of gear with him to continue his recording. The frustrations he felt in his failure to secure employment are matched in the bleak gestures found on Interceptor. Williams had stripped away much of the grandiose sweeps of ambience and shadow, leaving behind a life-support system grid of overlapping, phase-shifted blip and click. An undertow of hypnotic tonalities pulls those rhythms towards a crepuscular gloom, which as with all of Omit's work are effortless in their compositional appearance. Anybody, and we mean ANYBODY, who has a passing interest in electronic music - contemporary, historic, surreal, arcane, Warp-ish, Kompakt-ish, or otherwise - has got to do themselves a favor and investing the time into Omit. The rewards are infinite from this under recognized, autodidactic genius.
We won't get into too much detail with this one, as we only got about 20 copies of this vinyl-only release direct from the band, and as far as we know this puppy is crazy limited and we most likely won't be able to get more.
Two different sides of longtime aQ faves Oxbow, recorded live at the Supersonic festival in 2007.
The A side features a handful of Oxbow tracks, all stripped down and acoustic - just acoustic guitar, and the wild feral mewling of frontman Eugene Robinson. And you would think that playing stripped down and acoustic would make it sound more mellow, less frenzied and intense, but it doesn't. In plenty of places, it's like the guitar isn't even there, it's definitely Eugene's show. A wild caterwaul that even somehow gets the crowd shouting along. Intense and emotional, darkly intimate, but still strangely sinister and explosive. Essential for sure for all Oxbow fanatics.
But it's the flipside that will probably make this disappear in no time. A side long jam, that begins much like the A side tracks, simple urgently strummed acoustic guitar, and those primal vocals, until the guests make their presence known, Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))), and Justin Broadrick from Jesu / Godflesh, the bass player from God, and even a string quartet. When those folks join the fray, it sounds almost like you might imagine, the acoustic guitar and vocals, buried under moaning strings and sheets of soaring blissed out high end, streaks of glistening feedback, crumbling rumbling swells of downtuned amp melting grind, thick sheets of buzz and shimmer, all draped over the haunting acoustic Oxbow musical drama unfolding beneath. Pretty amazing. Here's hoping these guys stopped by a studio to capture more of this stuff. But until that happens, this will most likely be your only chance to hear Oxbow's twisted, frenzied, so called "Love's Holiday Orchestra".
Beautifully packaged in super thick black matte sleeves, with silver metallic printing, with an insert featuring photos of the evening's festivities, as well as Oxbow guitarist Niko Wenner's recollection of the evening's festivities... which according to Eugene, leaves out the critical part where they left him for dead, knocked out and unconscious on the stage!
Haunting and lovely avant-folk recording from French multi-instrumentalist Emmanuelle Parrenin. Recorded in 1977, Parrenin's fascination and adeptness with ancient traditional stringed instruments such as the harp, hurdy-gurdy, spinet, and dulcimer, gives a unique spin on her more forward thinking compositions. Often compared to Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs due to her sweet multi-tracked vocals which accompany about half of the songs, we think the later recording date puts her more in line with Kay Hoffman's Floret Silva (another progressive folk masterpiece recorded the same year) or the kosmiche pastoral vibe of Popol Vuh due to the layered Celtic-inflected droning harmonies she evokes from her instruments. Beautiful and so recommended!
Feels like it's been forever since Pram came out with a record, and while The Moving Frontier has been floating around Europe for the last year, it's finally getting its domestic release here in the States. Luckily they made the wait well worth it, as this is Pram at their most lush, vivid and cinematic. Sitting somewhere right between the melodic and bubbly elements of Broadcast and Stereolab and the moody elegance of Portishead, Pram have crafted a record that is much more concerned with creating an overall mood and sensation than it is being a vehicle for pop singles. In many ways Rosie Cuckston's breathtaking vocals serve as another layer to the rich instrumentation that shapes the record. And in fact a big portion of this record is instrumental. We can't help but think of what kind of dreamy and darkly whimsical film this could be the perfect score for. At times it would be the perfect soundtrack for some incredible underground version of a James Bond film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, other times its shimmering beauty and soft swirling psychedelia could be the perfect score for some lost Czech New Wave film of the '60s. As suspenseful and hypnotic as it is sophisticated and gorgeous, this is one of Pram's finest moments!
Q: Do you love '60s psych/beat/garage stuff?
Q: Do you have any Q65 records?
If your answer to Q1 is Yes, and your answer to Q2 is No, then YOU MUST BUY THIS, NOW! It's that simple.
Q65 were Holland's version of the Rolling Stones, seriously just as good. They had the hair, they had the hooks, they had the attitude. Even though they somehow never got huge outside of their own small country. Other good comparisons would be to the Yardbirds, and especially the Pretty Things. If you like the Pretties, make sure you get hip to Q65, and here's just the ticket. This brand new compilation brings together 24 crucial cuts from the Q65, spanning their career from early 1966 singles and their magnificent debut album of killer R&B freakbeat entitled Revolution, to the even more mindblowingly psychedelic stuff they cut afterwards, up through '68. It's a true labor of love from Q65's fans at Rev-Ola, as you can tell from the fancy full-color, 22 page cd booklet, and you'll know why when you hear their songs. There's 24 good reasons here that the back cover blurb so accurately states: "You need this cd more than you need food"! From crunching garage fuzz stompers like "Cry In The Night", "Summer Thoughts In A Field Of Weed", and the Who-ish "I Got Nightmares" with its Bo Diddley beat to the much moodier, more melancholic vibes of the likes of "World Of Birds" and "Sour Wine"... wow, man. Feast on this.
They could easily compete with any of the British bluesrock acts of the era (witness their fine covers of "Spoonful", "I'm A Man", etc.), and also any of the most savage Nuggets action out there. When they tripped out in post-Sgt. Peppers agonized ecstasy, they were just as effective. With the tough but melodic vocals of Wim Bieler leading the charge, backed by the wailing axe of guitarist Frank Nuyens (responsible for the post-Q65 solo album Rainman, the reissue of which we highlighted here not long ago), Q65 were a raw, energetic, psychedelic force to be reckoned with. We recommend you reckon with them now if you haven't already.
What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it.
Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE.
Hootenany is sort of the oddball of the Replacements' first few discs, and begins with the various band members swapping instruments for a falling apart blues jam, that does eventually do just that. The rest of the disc is split between frantic punk rockers, tripped out ballads, garage-y blues jams, and the usual pop flecked punk rock that defined their sound on Sorry, Ma. Standouts include the surfy "Buck Hill", the weird "Lovelines" with the lyrics being read from the personal ads of a Minneapolis paper, and the dreamy Westerberg solo jam "Within Your Reach", with it's effected guitar, primitive programmed drums, and plaintive vocals. Definitely not THE record to grab if you were looking for just one Replacements disc, but once you've immersed yourself in the rest of their records, you'll undoubtedly find this one essential too.
What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it.
Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE.
Let It Be is THE ONE. If you had to pick a perfect, classic, all time essential indie rock record, or college rock record, or whatever you want to call it, it would be practically impossible to not pick Let It Be. The first record where the band finally merged their nascent pop genius with their chaotic rock chops. As Replacements fans, it's easy to declare every track a classic, and every record perfect, but Let It Be transcends any of that, even plenty of non fans find Let It Be irresistible, the songs here are amazing, simultaneously well crafted, tight as fuck, but still loose and wild. Opener "I Will Dare" sets the scene with its shuffley rhythm, wandering bassline, and killer main riff. Follow up "Favorite Thing" is just as good, another hook most bands would kill for, but these guys spit em out effortlessly. But Let It Be isn't all the 'new', 'more mature' Replacements, which the band prove with the next two tracks, the furious rocker "We're Coming Out" and the goofy "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out", which while sort of a joke song, is still fucking AWESOME. The record is filled out with more gems, a Kiss cover, but a couple of the tracks would go on to remain what some folks might consider their finest moments: the gorgeous acoustic lament "Unsatisfied", and the mindblowing "Answering Machine", a gorgeous heartbreaker, just vocals and guitar, the guitar part pretty intense and moving all on its own, but the vocals are so bittersweet. What a way to end a record, and a perennial mixtape essential.
What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it.
Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE.
Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash was their first proper full length, and is a corker. Definitely punk rock, but still infused with incredible hooks, catchy beyond belief, but super raw and frenetic, some of their best songs EVER: the kick ass rocker "Takin' A Ride", the furious punk rock jam of "Customer", the woozy "I Bought A Headache", the all time classic "Shiftless When Idle", The Husker Du worship of "Something To Du", the pop in punk's clothing of "Raised In The City", not a miss to be found, listen to the samples and you'll be hooked!
What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it.
Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE.
Stink came out right after Sorry Ma, and is just as punk rock, just as catchy, but a bit tighter. It begins with a recording of a house party being busted up by a cop before a quick count off and the band launches into "Kids Don't Follow", which is another all time Replacements classic. In fact, this is only an ep, but all 8 tracks totally rule. "Stuck In The Middle" has an incredible stop start chorus, and a hook to die for, "Dope Smokin' Moron" is almost a full on hardcore track, "Go" is practically a ballad, moody and melancholy, the first hint of what these guys might be capable of songwise, and the disc finishes off with yet another classic, "Gimme Noise", another killer chorus, and hooks galore. How many 'classics' is one band allowed to have? Get used to, it'll take a few more records before they stop kicking out stone cold classics like it ain't no thing...
As you all should know by now, Eugene Robinson is the lead singer of Oxbow, a swamp-rock punk explosion of pure id in a musical context. Eugene's primal engery, which gets exorcised on stage most definitely and to a lesser extent on record, has also manifested itself in Robinson's parallel career as a mixed martial artist. That's right, as more than a few foolish hecklers at Oxbow shows have learned the hard way, Eugene is not a dude you want to mess with! Being both a brawler and an intellectual, Eugene has thought quite a bit about his pastime. A few years back, Eugene penned a column for the fight magazine Grappler about the art of getting his ass kicked by fighters much better than he; and he began working on a book about the oft misunderstood bloodsport-cum-artform known as mixed martial arts. The book in question is FIGHT: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Ass-Kicking But Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking, and it's something of a coffee table book with ample bloodsplattered photographs from the brief history of MMA as it has broached the mainstream of Western Culture (thanks to UFC in America and Pride in Japan).
This Fight 2cd finds Eugene reading various bits from that book. Eugene's words come across as a mixture of Harry Crews, Lydia Lunch and Quintin 'Rampage' Jackson, poetic in language, vitriolic with emotional drama, and arrogant with the boastfulness of first hand knowledge in ass-kicking. This spoken word set is a pretty entertaining listen, providing insight into Oxbow's music, the history of the UFC, Eugene's enthusiam for devil-in-the-ring / nice-guy-at-home fighters Kevin Randleman and Maurice Smith, and the fact or fiction world of prison fighting called "jail-house rock." Hey, did you know that Oxbow were up for a Grammy? Look it up! We love Oxbow. And we love Eugene. And for the record, he could totally kick all our asses, combined.
Those of us who were huge RFTC fans (and there's quite of few of us at aQ) know that the band's output can be divided into two categories. There was the totally catchy, horn filled, hand clappers that should have really been all over the radio and MTV if there were any justice in the rock 'n' roll world. And then there was the way more raw, dirty, sleazy scorching garage punk side to the band that they usually reserved for their non-major label releases like Hot Charity and The State Of Art Is On Fire. It's this side of the band that always cuts right to our guts! No one could mix melody with blazing, sweat inducing soul inspired garage punk better then RFTC. This collection is that raw and undeniably charming side of RFTC. Pulled from demos they recorded on 8-track in their San Diego practice space from 1997-2000. Most of these songs have never been released before, and the few that were took a totally different more slick shape on the Interscope releases they appeared on, so it's so rad to get to hear those songs in a much more dirty and rocking form. And so many of these songs that were never released before blow away just about everything else rock bands of the time were putting out. A few years after these songs were recorded, bands like The Strokes and White Stripes would be hailed as "the return of rock" by the mainstream press and get all sorts of fame and fortune, but we always thought it was Rocket From The Crypt that really deserved to be the biggest rock band on the planet!
Pop quiz! Quick: who's the "street poet" singer with no first name*, son of Mexican immigrants, born and raised in Detroit Michigan, whose debut album from 1970 sounded like a fuzz-soul-psych version of Bob Dylan and/or Donovan, and was an underground hit in South Africa of all places?? Duh, Rodriguez of course. It's about time his inexplicably obscure Cold Fact got the deluxe reissue treatment it deserves. Seriously, after listening to this for the first time, you'll feel like you just heard a bona fide '60s classic, and be amazed you had never heard these songs before. They ought to be all over "oldies" rock radio. It's ridiculous like that. Songs like "Sugar Man" and "I Wonder" seem like they should be fixtures of the baby boomer memory lane hit parade. It's so very of its era, "This Is Not A Song, It's An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues" is certainly a sixties song title, isn't it? Likewise "Rich Folks Hoax", "Hate Street Dialogue", and "Crucify Your Mind"... But, maybe he was just a little too freaky and right on, and (crucially) never got the right sort of record label support to become well known to the Woodstock Nation, though this album had some rather random, surprising success so far off in the Southern Hemisphere, in South Africa and Australia and New Zealand, which Rodriguez himself was unaware of for many years!
If left to his own devices, perhaps Rodriguez would have come off sounding a bit too much like Dylan. But Cold Fact was a "Theo-Coff" production, from the badass Motor City team of Mike Theodore and funk guitarist Dennis Coffey, and they helped accentuate the more underground and urban aspects of Rodriguez's sound. With his hip, Dylanesque poetry set amidst lush orchestration and gritty grooves, Rodriguez's Cold Fact is a super catchy, tripped out slice of street-level, soulful psychedelia, full of drug references and radical political critique. We alluded to "fuzz" above, but on the track "Only Good For Conversation" we mean FUZZ. That track's a stone(d) cold classic when it comes to heavy duty fuzz guitar crunch.
This reish comes in a nice digipack, with cover embossing and a big ol' cd booklet stuffed with text (liner notes, lyrics) and photos. One of the several cd booklet essays explains in part Rodriguez's unexpected appeal in South Africa - apparently, in that repressive society, it was due to the edgy, uncensored nature of his lyrics. "I Wonder", for instance, with its lines about "I wonder how many times you had sex / And I wonder do you know who'll be next" was considered so risque that if you were a teenager and wanted to be cool, you HAD to have this record. Apparently, many folks in South Africa thought of Rodriguez as being a star up there with the Beatles, and when they didn't hear more from him, all sorts of wild rumors spread that he'd died, been accidentally electrocuted, OD'd, or even committed suicide on stage! When, in fact, he simply had no idea how "big" he was in South Africa, and his recording career had stalled out elsewhere after his sophomore album, 1971's Coming From Reality (also soon to be reissued). Turns out he's still alive and well, today, and has actually gone to South African to pay arena (?!) shows in recent years.
In fact, when we've had album in the store before, it was only available on cd as an expensive import - from South Africa! So we're, again, super stoked that Light In The Attic put the effort in to do this long overdue, definitive domestic reissue.
*actually, his first name was Sixto, but he usually just went by Rodriguez.
While some of us here really love early Biff Rose records, we realize he's a very acquired taste. His jokey piano-bar delivery, quirky early musical theater-style arrangements, and Kermit the Frog-like voice (he also kind of sounds like Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips) usually don't warm up to most people's ears right away. He definitely comes out of the same school of pop eccentrics as Mose Allison, Loudon Wainwright III, Randy Newman, The Neon Philharmonic, and Van Dyke Parks. But the thing is, when you have him on shuffle on your iPod, he'll always be that burst of warm surprise that makes you scramble for your iPod to figure out what the heck is playing. The ever-reliable The Omni Recording Corporation label has reissued this 1970 eponymous release. Not psych-folk as the label implies (or as we tend to think of it it), but the mood is much darker and somber than on any of Rose's previous records. Full of lush Van Dyke Parks-style orchestral arrangements and songs about heartbreak (he recorded this during a messy divorce), it contains our most favorite Biff Rose song, "The Captain", a haunting ode to epic loss with swirling strings and far off sleigh bells. This could easily be a touchstone for Joanna Newsom's Ys, as the mood and arrangements are similar, evoking an antique and quaint musical soundworld to touch on larger human themes of sadness and self-renewal.
If you're curious about Biff Rose, or like any of the aforementioned people above, this or Children of Light are the best ones to start with. So bittersweet!
It's been a while since these two have gotten together for some noisemaking. Not since the very popular around here Vintermusik (now sold out, sorry). But since then, both have been plenty busy, releasing a clutch of limited cd-r's as well as at least a proper full length or two. Most recently, the beautifully dark Black Sleep from Dag Rosenqvist, aka Jasper TX.
So how much has changed since these two last teamed up? Thankfully not too much. The two work well together, which makes perfect sense considering they travel similar sonic paths on their own, so here the two sort of blend their sonic palletes, and the result, as has been the case in the past is not the sum of the parts, but more a minimal distillation of their two sounds. Not as lush as one might imagine, but also not as spare and academic.
A gorgeous hushed minimalism, that is just spike enough to remain interesting and to keep just on this side of pure ambience, adding grit and texture and a sense of subtly ominous foreboding.
Beginning with a soft, fuzzy drone, all smeared with tape hiss, the track gradually gathers low end, deep swells rising ever so gently from the abyss, while some sort of high end sine waves separate themselves from the sound, becoming prickly layers hovering far above the warm drift. The two halves, the low and the high, continue to transform independently, both gathering static and crackle as well, eventually, the low end sprawls into a glacial chordal whir, slowly spreading in slow motion, while the high end has become a sort of skittery sonar, offering up strange pulses and keening high end tones, those tones slowing down gradually, becoming less sharp, lower in fact, while the main melody also begins to fade, both eventually fading to nothing almost simultaneously. Quite nice. Fans of either will definitely dig. As will folks into abstract minimalism and all manner of drones and microsounds.
Gorgeously packaged in a super complex folded origami sleeve, black spirographs and white text on green metallic paper. Super striking. And of course, super limited...
We've been stocking this magazine for a little while now & thought we'd put it on our list this time so mailorder customers (or locals who didn't spot it already on the magazine rack here) could get a chance at it, if they're interested in the sixties-centric stuff that Shindig! specializes in. Published in the UK, this full-color bimonthly is kinda like Ugly Things done glossy like Mojo, covering "psych, garage, beat, powerpop, soul, folk...". They definitely dig into some obscurities of the era, but just not 30 pages deep they way they'd do in UT. This issue has Marc Bolan's folky, freaky Tyrannosaurus Rex on the cover. Inside, stuff about the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Move, The Youngbloods, Slade, and (yes!) AQ fave Aussie proto-metallers Buffalo, amongst others. Plus lots and lots of reviews and the other usual magazine things. And they reserve a smidgen of space for modern-day acts of the appropriately retro persuasion, too. 80+ A4 sized pages.
Now On Vinyl!
Now that Iran seem to be dead. And the Church Steps are gone. And the Coach Whips are no more. Well, it's up to Sic Alps to keep the SF noise pop freak flag flying!
It always seemed that sonically, these guys belonged on Siltbreeze, and lo and behold, it has come to pass. For those who are new to Sic Alps, imagine a fractured noise drenched lo-fi garage pop, rife with blown out drums, simple detuned guitars, lazy drawled vocals, tons of reverb and distortion, all tangled up into some seriously catchy pop. Guided By Voices, Strapping Fieldhands, Pavement, but with plenty of hazy sixties psych, a killer lo-fi Phil Spector-ish wall of sound production, and a bit of corrosive noise and fractured amp buzz a la the Dead C.�
U.S. EZ leans way more toward the pop than the noise, many of the songs, eschewing any sort of noise or distortion completely, offering up instead, a sort of shimmery sixties soft pop, all jangly guitars, and reverbed background vocals, but elsewhere the band rocks pretty hard, channeling classic nineties slacker indie rock, through modern noise rock, via some fuzzy retro garage, the result as we mentioned before, often ends up sounding like a Beach Boys or Hollies record on Siltbreeze. Which should be recommendation enough. Dwyer from the Oh Sees says it's worth it just for the track "Gelly Roll Gum Drop"!!
Physicalities Of The Sensibilities Of Ingrediential Strairways [sic] is the brand spankin' new release from modern psych high priests the Skaters. Long�awaited and VERY limited, this lysergic dose of hazy psychosis left us dazed and wanting more. Recorded by the band in Universal City, Mexico, this summons an unearthly brand of rhythmic psychedelia, the perfect soundtrack for your next out-of-body experience. Quite possibly the Skaters' most dim and eerie release, this one time, vinyl-only pressing is already sold out on the label's end, so pick it up while you still can!!
Local folks may have seen these guys tearing up stages around town. Although maybe tearing up isn't precisely what these guys do. They're much more of a brooding behemoth. But they're much more than that. Almost confusingly so (but in a good way!) Anyway, Skin Horse are a trio who traffic in long stretches of plodding doom, mathy jangle, and epic post rock, laced with haunting atmospherics and deep black ambience.
This 3 song cd-r is their debut, and each of the three tracks is totally different, and in some cases almost sound like different bands, but somehow, the tracks do manage to fit together, a little disjointedly, but still strangely cohesive.
The opener begins with a sheet of guitar noise under static and strange voices, soaring harmonics, and rumbling drones, when the band do finally kick in, it's a sort of slowcore, dronedoom hybrid. Plodding and downtuned and heavy, but weirdly melodic, the guitars heavy and abstract, the drums a caveman pound, vocals a harsh shriek, Khanate fans will be all over this, as will all ultradoomlords.
But only maybe until the second track, which begins with dark minor key guitar jangle, which erupts into some awesomely nineties sounding mathrock, all clean guitars, and convoluted arrangements, before locking into a spiraling freakout, all tribal rhythms, and squealing feedback, a stuttering riff and swirls of FX, launching immediately into the final track, another blast of angular clean guitar mathrock, but structure like doom, so the chords ring out, the drums crash, but there's tons of space, some super abstract arrangements, killer dynamics, all wrapped around a super intense main minor key melody, the kind of stuff we could listen to forever, before again, locking into an extended outro, a cool woozy chugging groove, that eventually gives way to a brief stretch of moody Slintish drift to finish off.
We've been inundated with post rock metal bands, or post metal or whatever, but Skin Horse are as far as we can remember the first band to fuse math rock with serious doom metal, and we're definitely up for hearing more.
Packaged in hand sewn, hand screened red or black pouches, LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
As we mentioned before, Man Is The Bastard, one of our favorite bands ever, are not very well represented on the aQ website, mostly due to the fact that their records, and in fact almost their whole career predates the list, which we will address one of these days, maybe as their back catalog slowly gets reissued. But their musical legacy lives on, most notably in recent Record Of The Week honorees Geronimo, as well as a whole mess of other post MITB combos: Bastard Noise, Unicorn, and this here, maybe our favorite of the bunch, Sleestak.
We recently listed a triple cd set called No Skull Left Unturned, which collected a bunch of rare and unreleased tracks from various Man Is The Bastard related groups, and if you remember, we raved about Sleestak there too, and now we finally managed to track down a source for the Sleestak full lengths (the band themselves in fact!) so here you go, the last Sleestak record before the various members went on to play in Drunk On Blood, Monte Carlo 76, Slowrider, Bastard Noise, Spastic Colon, Trogotronic, Unicorn and of course Geronimo.
And listening to this Sleestak stuff, it's easy to hear the roots of what would become Geronimo, in some places the sound is uncanny, it's like a more raw, lo-fi Geronimo, which means this stuff is fucking awesome. Might as well just quote a bit from the No Skull review, since it sums up Sleestak pretty well:
What a more mellow MITB might have sounded like, an ominous low slung brutality, bass heavy dirges, moody malevolence, more a sort of beautiful brutal post rock. A loping bass line wanders through a field of hiss and hum and buzz, spacious and spare, almost like a meaner more malevolent Low or Bohren. Slowcore peppered with bursts of twisted noise freakouts, and distant bits of shortwave squiggle, a very Slint-like vibe, with the guitar locking into super hypnotic loops, over lurching downtuned bass, drifting detuned melodic fragments, if someone didn't know better, they could definitely mistake this stuff for some super obscure Touch And Go or AmRep noiserock band, indeed!
"Atomic Clock" is a slow brooder, a low slung drums and bass drift, with distorted vocals, garbled and buried in the mix, streaked with fractured electronics, interrupted by brief bursts of chaotic crunch. "Faster Than A Sleeping Bullet" is total Geronimo, a grinding metallic riff, and a super minimal bit of percussion looped and locked for nearly 5 minutes. "When In Rome..." is bass heavy riffy noise rock, howled vocals over slithery post rockisms and angular riffage. "Dumb Luck" is another track that sounds like it was lifted and re-done as Geronimo, a simple drum line, beneath a hypnotic chunk of twisted electronics. "Dumb Luck Part Two" stretches it out into something much more post rocky, with plonked and plinked piano, the drums a bit more up in the mix, still flecked with insectoid buzz. Every track here is amazing. And at least half of 'em will have you thinking Geronimo, EVERYONE who bought that Geronimo record, or who dug that No Skull comp NEEDS this. But even those of you new to the whole MITB world, and who missed out on Geronimo, Sleestak stand up pretty well on their own, a dark and fucked up mysteriously brooding, ultra heavy and sludgey, rhythmic dronerock, and while we described Geronimo as Man Is The Bastard meets This Heat, that would also pretty much apply to Sleestak, but take that equation and mix in more MITB and a whole mess of noise rock.
WAY WAY WAY recommended.
Beautifully packaged in silkscreened matchbook style packaging, with a printed insert, all housed in a thick plastic sleeve.
Though it may not always seem like it, these are blessed times in which to live. That is, in regard to the cd reissue of various record collector "holy grails". Sooner or later, it seems like every highly coveted, whispered-about psych/folk/prog masterpiece gets a reissue - recently, for instance, records by Joakim Skogberg, Bobb Trimble, Moolah, and Cold Sun. Of course, these reissues often as not go right back out of print all too soon, but that's the way of the world. The point is, at least we get a chance at 'em. We mention this on the occasion of this cd reissue of the privately-pressed Stone Harbour LP from 1974, not to imply that it's of uniformly mindblowing, out of this world quality, no not quite, but still it's pretty good. And when it's bad, it's maybe even better, 'cause this basement hippie multi-instrumental duo from Youngstown, Ohio had the shambolic, stoned DIY thing down, this album achieving a primitive, fucked up brilliance despite (or because of) the hissy lo-fi homebrewed production and the musicians' lack of technical chops. Imagine Bobb Trimble jamming with George Brigman, perhaps after listening to records by Syd Barrett and Uriah Heep, and getting super wasted and emotional, that's what a bunch of this sorta sounds like... well we mention Uriah Heep 'cause they do, this album's typewritten thanks list specifically highlighting Heep's keyboardist Ken Hensley, definitely an inspiration for all the ornate spacey synth sounds zapping in and out of the songs here.
We'll admit, though while the holy grail hype is mostly right, Emerges IS a bit hit or miss. Not every Stone Harbour song is a brilliant gem. But when they hit, they hit! You could happily buy this for the haunting likes of "Grains Of Sand" and "Summer Magic Is Gone", alone. But there's plenty more besides. With lots of lovely lalalas, acoustic strum, and lysergic electronic effects, this is a weird, magical mix of melancholic murk (drifting soundscapes like "Thanitos") and more grunged-out, garagey rock n' rolling (on the likes of "Rock & Roll Puzzle"). Heck, they fully boogie it up on "Still Like That Rock & Roll" (one of the aforementioned misses, but not without its charms).
As usual, Lion provides a jam-packed cd booklet, with lyrics and pics and as much background info as they could dig up (Stone Harbour's Rick Ballas blessed this reissue, but declined to be interviewed for the liner notes). This disc also includes four additional bonus tracks, recorded in 1975, that fit in quite nicely with the album tracks, the highlight among 'em being "Witch To You", a song that sounds sooo much like a lo-fi, real-deal version of the doom-prog vibe AQ faves Witchcraft are conjuring today. Most likely, it's 'cause on that track, Stone Harbour were heavily influenced by both Black Sabbath and Roky Erickson, much like Witchcraft are too, albeit from the further remove of a couple extra decades.
What more to say? Psych fans, we've done our duty, please check out the long lost Stone Harbour and be amazed.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another lost recording from aQ faves Taiga Remains, one of two unearthed releases that have been lurking on the shelves but have somehow made it unreviewed until now.
This one came out on Barl Fire a while back, and since then the label has called it quits, so these are absolutely the very last copies, so act fast. It's too bad cd-r releases like this are so limited, when you think about the time and care and love that went into beautiful sounds like these, it seems almost criminal that they might only be heard by 50 or 100 people. And these are beautiful sounds, Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, is as comfortable weaving haunting noisescapes as he is unfurling sweet minimal Appalachia, this one is begins as the latter, a spacious reverb drenched chunk of Fahey-esque soft strum, notes and chords drifting in a wide open expanse of reverby shimmer. So delicate and soft focus and lovely.
This is quickly followed up by a bout of extended buzz. A prickly electronic hum, the excited vibrations of steel strings rendered in a subtly undulating layer of insectoid whir, cloaking a deep rumbling drone and mysterious barely audible melodies. The closer is a 3 minute reprise of the opener, more delicate harmonics and fluttery strum, quivering like a dew dappled spider web spun across a sun dappled sonic glade. So so so nice.
Hopefully this will get reissued one of these days, but for now, a handful of you can feast on these lovely sounds.
It's been a little while since we've heard from Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, seems he's busy running the kick ass Students Of Decay label, but we've been doing some digging around and discovered a few Taiga titles lurking in the shadows. The first is this 3"cd-r, now long out of print, these are absolutely the last copies, released on Onomato, in a cool mini 3" jewel case, a single 17 minute song, a symphony of hiss, a wash of soft white noise draped over a swirl of dark drones, the reverberate and pulse beneath the staticky surface, eventually, as your ears become accustomed to the hiss, it sort of melts away and becomes another layer of drone, a warm billowy sonic halo, while the buried tones, spell out a slooooow drawn out melody, pretty intense when you realize this was recorded using just an acoustic guitar and some delay. Eventually much of the hiss does in fact melt away, leaving the buried tones revealed, as they begin to blossom into extended tones, muted high end, gently throbbing and pulsing hypnotically, eventually fading out completely.
As always super nice stuff. And again, LIMITED like crazy, OUT OF PRINT, these are the last copies ever...
AT LAST! The UK's Terrorizer is our favorite "mainstream" magazine devoted to all things metal (and otherwise "extreme"). We've been reading it religiously for years - Andee even has his own subscription - but had rarely been able to stock it at Aquarius, until now. Terrorizer's spotty US distribution had eluded us, and there were only a few book and magazine stores in town that ever had it. But, now we're hooked up and will be carrying it here regularly. Basically, it's The Wire magazine for all the cool, heavy stuff we like that The Wire (usually) ignores. It's big and glossy, 96 colorful pages, plus bonus sampler cd!
This issue, we get the reunited Carcass on the cover (can't wait to see 'em, they're playing in two weeks, several of us here already have our tickets!). Also this ish: Harvey Milk, Capricorns, Keep Of Kalessin, Cult Of Luna, Ascend, The Heads, Grave, Made Out Of Babies, Aborted, Brown Jenkins, Annihilation Time, The Endless Blockade, Amon Amarth, and tons more. You can see, it's a fairly eclectic array of extremity, certainly lots of things of AQ interest in there. Among the other features, there's an article on the burgeoning Greek power metal scene, and an "Invisible Jukebox" (oops, "Hard Of Hearing" is what they call it) session with Behemoth, and of course there's also a gazillion reviews too!
On the cd sampler ("Fear Candy #57), you'll find tracks to check out from Capricorns, Ogre, Blood Farmers, Aborted, Whitechapel, Waylander, Kalmah, Klimt 1918, Brown Jenkins, Daylight Dies, Repugnant Inebriation, Algazanth, Withered, Sotajumala, Deception, Arkangel, Insidious, and Soulfly.
Tussle is an appropriate name for a group that has had as many line-up changes as it has records. With the addition of Tomo Yasuda (The Boy Explodes, Hey Willpower, Coconut) on bass stepping in for the departing Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp, The Alps), who in turned filled in on bass duties for the previously departing Andy Cabic (Vetiver), it looks like we're finally seeing a group beginning to gel. While their overall sound philosophy remains intact from album to album (highly percussive bass-driven disco rock), Cream Cuts shows the keyboard and synth tracks taking more of a lead role than on previous albums where before they mainly served as atmosphere. While still very bass and rhythm heavy, it has less of the post-punk disco references of Liquid Liquid and ESG and more of a trippier cosmic vibe of cinematic flourishes, spacier textures and idiosyncratic nuances that are a welcome development to this much loved local outfit. One small beef we must call out though is the tedious inclusion of what sounds like the band setting up in the middle of the record. Save it for the live shows, guys!
There seems to be a pattern these days with new bands, specifically the bands who exist in the cd-r underground. The scene is so small and the various labels and groups so closely linked, that it doesn't take much for a new group to blow up, a single well received cd-r on one label, often results in short order in releases on some or all of the various other cd-r labels of note. Sometimes it's frustrating, discovering a band, and then a month or two later discovering that they now have 5, or 10 or even 20 releases. But on the other hand, if it's a band you dig, why the hell not, we would never be ones to balk at more records by a band we love.
Anyway, such was the case with a band called Natural Snow Buildings, who released an insanely limited cd-r, in ridiculously fancy packaging. Practically no one got one, but those who did, raved like crazy, and thus, there are a whole mess of NSB releases about to drop (one elsewhere on this list actually). Not long after that release, half of that duo released his first record under the name Twinsistermoon, and pretty much the same thing happened. Insanely limited, only a few people got it, and word spread, and now TSM are also poised to release a handful of new records. Thankfully, Digitalis stepped in and snapped up that Twinsistermoon recording, and decided to reissue it, so more than a handful of people could hear it, and voila, here it is! Still probably too limited (only 500 copies), but at least briefly, we all have a chance to hear the gorgeous sounds of Twinsistermoon.
Mehdi Amaziane is one half of Natural Snow Buildings, and records on his own as Twinsistermoon. This disc was originally released as a limited run of 36 copies, which says something that it could still create such a stir. But it all makes sense when you finally hear it. This will be like manna from heaven for the dream-drone free noise cd-r set, the perfect mix of abstract folky songsmithery, and abstract raga like buzz, intense minimal tribalism, and shimmering soft focus strum. Even from the first track, imagine the cosmic Ur-drone of a group like Sunroof! intertwined with the fluttery forest folk of a group like Avarus, but then introduce soaring impossible high male vocals, often mistaken for a female, all woven into a buzzing brilliant sprawl. Peppered with bits of percussion, tinkling chimes, backwards guitars, almost Renn Faire like folk, those soaring vocals, hand drums, huge washes of vocal harmonies. Totally epic and expansive, cinematic and grand. And that's just the first track!
The record drifts dreamily from soft folky shimmer, to thick raga rituals. The vocal based songs are uncanny, Amaziane's voice is so high and clear, like Vashti Bunyan crossed with Cat power, the vocals rich and lustrous, emotional and intense, draped over fragments of strummed guitar, and muted percussion. Breathless and intimate, one moment, lush and epic the next, Amaziane could easily have made a record with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, instead, he chose to incorporate a much wider palette, creating gorgeous sweeping soundscapes, washed out drones, thick walls of crumbling distorted sound, steel string buzz would into long stretches of reverberation and shimmer, often erupting into dense tangles of buzz and pound, some tracks sound like a more lo-fi Loop, a sort of rambling forest-ified space rock, others are near static, channeling Sunroof! again as well as folks like Phill Niblock, but as much as we love dronemusic, and abstract buzzing ambience, it's Amaziane's voice that makes this disc so compelling. Anyone can whip up a good drone-y skree, although Twinsistermoon do it much better than most, keeping it musical rather than drone for drone's sake, but very few have a voice like that, and if they do, even fewer know how to use it. In Twinsistermoon, Amaziane transcends the idea of singer/songwriter, creating a gorgeously expansive and organic soundworld, equal parts free folk, abstract noise, minimal drone and hushed intimate songsmithery.
Packaged in a full color, matte finished 6 panel cardstock jacket, with super striking Aztec influence artwork by Amaziane. And again, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
We're finding it tough to keep up with the output of Psychic Circle, all their awesome '60s/'70s psych/pop/beat compilation action is a bit overwhelming, from Phantom Guitars to Instro-Hipsters to Fairytales Can Come True, and it's all been pretty great. In large part 'cause most of these comps have been put together by record collector extraordinaire, Nick Salomon, previously known to us as the Bevis Frond guy. So, we've missed listing a few, but here's one of the very latest, one we had to review, 'cause it's the follow up to the fantastic Blow Your Cool. Remember that one? "20 Prog/Psych Assaults From The UK & Europe". Itself sorta the sequel to A Visit To the Spaceship Factory, which in turn was kinda the UK version of Psychic Circle's White Lace & Strange comp of American garage-psych heaviness. So, what has Salomon dug up to blow our cool with this time? A "cosmarama" of obscure sounds, from twenty bands we haven't heard of AT ALL (well, with just two or three exceptions). Fortunately they're all pretty rockin', and Mr. Saloman provides liner notes about each.
The bands: Distant Jim, Carriage Company, Kingdom, The Tower, Back Street Band, Big Wheel, Bismarck, CWT, Silence, Ginger Ale, Pussy (ex-Jersusalem), Tenderfoot Kids, Electric Food, Mr. Albert Show, The Petards, Castle Farm, The Pebbles, Corporal Gander's Fire Dog Parade (!), Chips, and Richard St. Clair & Forum.
There's some folky-proggy dreamy stuff here, and melodic popsike moments, but mostly these cuts are on the harder rockin', and totally groovy side of things, approaching proto-metal, even, when it comes to the efforts several of these acts... with plenty of jamming organs, acidic fuzz wah guitars, cowbell, and the occasional horn section (this is from back when having one was hip). Maybe it'll mean something to you that there's more than one song here with the word "Woman" in the title! Definitely we're reminded of the likes of Steppenwolf, Dust, Bloodrock, and Grand Funk at times. Black Sabbath no, not so much except on Pussy's "Feline Woman" which could almost be a re-write of the song "Evil Woman" originally by Crow, that Sabbath covered on the UK version of their debut album...
Another Psychic Circle winner. All we know is, if Nick Saloman were DJing at a bar anywhere near here, we'd be drinking there all night!
It's impossible not to have a soft spot for the breezy, sassy and sensual sounds of '60s French Pop. We can never get enough, so it was an exciting day when the second volume of Swinging Mademoiselles came our way, as the first volume has become one of those records we've played in the store countless times over the years. With its focus on the lovely ladies who delivered infectious gems of Gallic pop in the '60s, volume deux brings the goods once again with songs that treat our ears to such saucy and sophisticated delights. We love how this collection has a nice selection of the more seductive side to sixties French Pop. Of course there are some total hip-shakers and party tracks on here but this collection is really so perfect for a long ride with the windows down, or lounging by the pool with refreshing libations or just laying in bed on a lazy Sunday morning with that someone special by your side. Filled with so many of the era's greats: Jacquelin Taieb, Cosette, Zouzou, Pussy Cat. Brigitte Bardot, Clea, etc. These were the people and sounds that would inspire some of the best pop music that would come decades later from folks like Stereolab, Belle & Sebastian, Broadcast, Saint Etienne and El Perro Del Mar. OoooLaaaLaaaa what a perfect end of summer treat!
We've been seeing a bunch or reviews, harshing on this, the latest in Kompakt's ongoing Total series, number 9, complaining that it's more of the same old, but hell, we love the same old Kompakt, it's the one modern techno label that has managed to sway the techno naysayers around here, and to our ears, this Total sounds just as good as any of the others. The Kompakt sound is so immediately recognizable yet on Total 9, the sounds are all over the place, it's the usual suspects, sure: Justus Kohncke, DJ Koze, Superpitcher, Thomas Fehlman, Jurgen Paape, Gui Boratto, Kaito, and a bunch more, but a few new names tossed in here and there. And the sound is glorious, less minimal than some past installments, and much more effusive, sun dappled, feel good... this could sound so good to us cuz some of the pop ambient vibe of Kompakt's other long running series might be seeping into these Total comps, but whatever, this stuff is fantastic, muted minimal beats, warm synths everywhere, bubbly loops, all woven and blurred and smeared into woozy beatscapes. Kaito's "Everlasting Dub" is one of our new favorite tracks, a gorgeous blend of Pop Ambience, modern dub, and minimal techno, SCSI-9's track is like dubstep gone Kompakt, the Gui Boratto is some awesome eighties style soundtrack techno, Superpitcher chops up some lady vocals and makes a loop that sounds like a calliope, over a soft skittery beat, Burger / Voigt do a sort of Kompakt post rock, all strummed acoustic guitars and swirling ambience, over a loping simple beat, DJ Koze employs some serious stereo panning to send your headphones spinning, we could go through track by track, but you probably already know you need this. Kompakt fans, Pop Ambient heads not averse to some beats, you'll want this for sure, and for folks thinking about getting into techno, or at least curious about modern minimal techno, this would most definitely be a great place to start.
This comp is sort of an advertisement, a promotional item, which would normally turn us right off, but this disc killer, and it just so happens to be promoting a line of hand crafted 'caveman' effects, created by none other than Nelson from Man Is The Bastard, Sleestak and Geronimo. Wondering where those fucked up sounds were coming from? The damaged electronics on the Geronimo record? Well, most likely it was a Trogotronic device helping to create that racket. They look beautiful and sound even better. Check it out:
http://www.thumbprintpress.com/trogotronic.htm
So this here comp features a who's who of noise artists who apparently endorse Trogotronic. But you know what? Even if you had no clue what the hell Trogotronic was, this comp would still stomp your ass. Check out the lineup:
Geronimo, Unicorn, Sickness, Drunk On Blood, Mike Shiflet, Torso, Bastard Noise and more and more. The sleeve even lets you know which Trogotronic device was used in each specific track. We can't tell you how close we've come to blowing our paychecks on some of these noisemakers. But for now, we're happy to make do with this disc. First off, an unreleased Geronimo track, worth it right there. An awesomely creepy electronic krautrocky crawl, all crumbling and distorted, low end crunch beneath, squealing high end siren like skree. Sounds like an outtake from their full length, which it probably is, and which of course means it's awesome! Drunk On Blood, another Man Is The Bastard side project, offers up a symphony of electronic jackhammering, pounding and pulsing, almost musically, percussive and relentless, and weirdly listenable. The Sickness track is a heaving wall of analog fury, crumbling and crunchy, the Bastard Noise track is downright pretty, a sea of squelches and a distant beastlike howling, Torso unfurl some seriously creeped out hissy dronemusic, Unicorn offer up a weird symphony of shrieks and stumbling percussive clatter, Astrogenic Hallucinating spits out some fucked up, horror movie analog video game music, we could go on and on and on.
All the tracks here are pretty amazing, some textural and drone-y, others blown out and white hot, still others, rhythmic and abstract, at the very least, you'll probably listen to this like crazy and do some serious damage to your speakers, worst case though, you'll end up like us, freaking out and NEEDING some of these noisemakers for yourself, then you can do some REAL damage!
Beautifully packaged in a fold over, silkscreened sleeve.
We have become increasingly enamored with the recordings of Dutch renaissance and baroque lute player Jozef Van Wissem, whether it be through his solo output or through his many collaborations with guitarists Gary Lucas, Tetuzi Akiyama and most recently James Blackshaw (Brethren Of The Free Spirit). You wouldn't think that there would be such wide-ranging approaches to such an antique instrument, yet with each release, we're let into a new realm of sonic possibility. Sometimes it's classical deconstructions; using palindromes, mirroring, backwards compositions and cut-up techniques. Sometimes it's more Takoma-style fingerpicking and bottleneck playing. Or more avant, flinging sparse and reductive fragments of loosely connected tones into large voids of silence. Or augmented by subtle electronics and field recordings of airports and other public spaces. On his latest release A Priori, arguably his prettiest and most engaging to date, Van Wissem pushes forward the beauty of the melodic form but frames it in a stark restraint. Using a glacial pendulum-like progression and D minor tuning (the most melancholic of all tunings), Wissem establishes an up-down-up riff taking a pause between each turn before repeating, letting the tones ring out over the empty spaces. Occasionally he lets subtle nuances like an octave change or a bottleneck run appear, yet he takes great pains to avoid filling the space unnecessarily. With each song on A Priori, he explores this limitation to its outermost boundaries that connects each piece to the whole, forcing our headspace to slow down to this intensely meditative pace in order to experience its lovely tonal revelations. If Earth 2 was transcribed for renaissance lute, it might sound something like this. Liner notes by David Tibet of Current 93. Highly recommended!
First things first, we know some folks have strong feelings both positive and negative for all things 'Star Trek'. So if you fall into either camp you might wanna disregard this band's name and the album's title completely! We found the music to reveal very little connection to Star Trek and/or Vulcans. In fact, we sensed very little overt sci-fi action here at all. Well aside from the song titles... and the galactic analog synth action that accompanies the reggae riddims. While the name choices did successfully grab out attention, we were subsequently a bit disappointed by this discovery, however, the music quickly won us over anew in surprisingly different ways! This album is sooo awesome and sooo perfect for baking in the (late) summer sun! Imagine this... what if Os Mutantes lived in Jamaica? And had a rendezvous with Perry & Kingsley, Joe Meek and an Arp 2600 synthesizer? Or how 'bout some kick-ass psychedelic prog dudes getting their reggae on while sipping fresh fruit cocktails? Got you hooked yet? Well, here's the skinny... The Vulcans were actually not a band in the traditional sense, although after hearing this cd we sure wish they were! As legend tells it, back in the early '70s some session musicians including Ken Elliot of UK prog-psych band Second Hand got together and recorded these songs. They group were dubbed The Vulcans by Trojan Records when the smart decision was made to release an album. We have to stress once again that despite what the title and band name suggest this is far from a novelty album. You can drift off, trip out or sink right into this generous serving of Vulcans tunes - there's two albums on one cd, 1972's Star Trek and perhaps slightly heavier and edgier Interstellar Reggae Drive (the latter originally released under the wacky moniker Colonel Elliot & The Lunatics). Recommended!
While we were sad to see our coworker Matt leave us a while back, if it meant helping unleash the true force of the wild beast that is Wildildlife upon the world, then we're happy to have done our part.
As kick ass as their most recent full length was, playing live is where Wildildlife truly destroy, three mild mannered hairy dudes transformed into a fierce six legged, six armed, long haired, face melting, tripped out drug addled behemoth. And while their most recent tour was rife with drama, broken bones, stolen equipment and extortionist cabbies, the shows that did take place were the sort to not be soon forgotten. And while they were on the East Coast, they got to play live on the radio, on Brian Turner's show on WFMU, and this is the proof that it did indeed take place. Hard to imagine a band can kick up such a shitstorm with no crowd to react to, holed up in a little glass room, but Wilildlife bring it, hard.
They open with "Metal", from their full length, and manage to make it sound even more freaked out, the effected little girl vox have them channeling the Butthole Surfers even more than usual, the extended free-jam outro goes on for minutes, letting the band explore the outer reaches, before launching into another downtuned tribal workout. The sound is surprisingly clean, a few folks here like it even better than the record proper. Some of the songs are oldies, revamped and supercharged, some are altered versions of tracks from 6, those creepy high pitched vocals return throughout, and the band is on fire, the songs complex and convoluted but hooky and catchy as fuck, folks who bought the full length will for sure dig this. And if you've yet to discover the mysteries of Wildildlife, this is as good a place to start as any�
Plus there's a pretty funny interview with the trio at the end...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, in a cool full color, three panel oversized cover, featuring some pictures of the band on tour, including an awesome shot of Matt perusing porn in the van, as well as a band member's button that says it all: "Let's face it... I'm cute!"
Latest release from the crazy prolific E.E.E. Recordings label, home to all things unblack, as in Christian black metal. We've gone into the whole unblack thing at great length in the past. While it may seem antithetical to most, a music that was founded and is defined by its very anti-Christian bent, being subverted and appropriated to glorify the Lord, but we'll leave all that stuff to the chatrooms and message boards, all we know is this unblack stuff sounds amazing! In the past we've raved about Glaciial, Light Shall Prevail, Agathothodion, Elgibbor, Flaskavsae, Offerblod and Njiqahdda, check any of those reviews for more on the whole unblack phenomenon, in the meantime, we'll investigate the grim buzzing soundworld of Wrathful Plague.
With a name like Wrathful Plague, and the fact that these guys are on E.E.E., you might assume that this is more unblack metal, but in fact, according to the label, the band is non-religious, not the first E.E.E. band to keep their convictions on the DL (Drommer is another), thankfully, they SOUND unblack, which by now has a definite sonic connotation. Unblack artists are definitely on the fucked and freaked out end of the BM spectrum, the sounds as much a part of their music as the songs, sure there's plenty of grim buzz, and furious blast beats and harsh hellish vocals, but all performed and recorded in such a way, that they end up smeared and blurred, murky and damaged, tape hiss offering up as much buzz as the guitars, the tone changing from muddy and muffled, to tinny and brittle, but it a way that only adds to the mood and atmosphere of the music.
Wrathful Plague, for all its claims of eschewing religion, at least in the context of their music, DOES in fact feature folks from all of the above mentioned bands, Light Shall Prevail, Glaciial, etc. so we imagine there is some pro-God action going on somewhere in there, but the more important thing is, that it -sounds- as awesomely fucked up as records by those other bands.
WP are not as mathy or complex and convoluted as a lot of E.E.E. bands, instead, they traffic in raw blasting fury, and in this case, the lo-fi recording enhances the bands washed out buzz in a big way. The guitars grind and swirl, but sound looped, often blurring into near static streaks of minor key sound, the drums, programmed it sounds like, are a chaotic framework, buried miles down in the mix, offering up another crackling layer of hiss, the vocals a distorted croak, the distortion alien sounding, and blown out, so at it's most furious, various overtones begin to surface and beat wildly against each other, creating strange subtle rhythmic variations and subtle distortions and causing the sound to become even more hazy and indistinct. A blurry blast that manages to be fierce and black and grim but also warm and dizzyingly droning and intensely hypnotic. Minus the few acoustic interludes, it's a mesmerizing chunk of relentless black drone hypno-metal. And if you can read the words "black drone hypno-metal" and not buy this record, that you are made of stronger stuff than us...
There are so many tiny cd-r labels, and so many releases, it's basically impossible to keep up. We do what we can, sort of pick and choose the best we can find, and one of our favorites is NZ guitarist Nigel Wright. Unlike the legions of overproducers out there, we've only managed three Wright releases in 3 years. This one makes it four, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Gauzy and hazy, woozy and washed out, dense and dreamlike. Fennesz, Jeck, Tim Hecker, Wright travels a similar sonic path, creating gorgeous sun dappled soundscapes of softly blurred melodies, of buried notes, his guitar not so much expelling notes and chords, as much as unfurling lush sonic tapestries, soft focus, bleary eyed beauty, peppered with clouds of crumbling distortion, shards of delay, streaks of muted whir, but all deftly incorporated into Wright's constantly shifting soundworld.
Somehow the world at large needs to discover what Wright is capable of. C'mon Touch, swoop in and snatch this man up and give him some resources to make the record we know he's capable of. If he can make records this pretty with a guitar and a 4-track, the mind boggles...
