[ aquarius records new arrivals

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 151 through 200 of 312.

A new issue of John Porcellino's comic always brightens our day! What's not to love? Wistful musings and gently witty ponderings and simple thin-line drawings of people, places and things. Hurrah for King-Cat!

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind. So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7": On volume three, "Lords Of Light", Kinski definitely get their Hawkwind on, covering "Master Of The Universe", and like Mugstar on the first volume, not so much making it their own, as transforming themselves into a vessel through which the spirit of Hawkwind can flow, and flow it does. That main riff is such a killer, all the band have to do is ride it out, adding plenty of freaked out effects and psychedelic leads, the vocals buried in the mix, not getting in the way of the endless spacepsych jamming. And finally, the series is closed out by another group of modern psychedelic masters, Bardo Pond, who add female vocals to their take on "Lord Of Light", the vocals drifting ethereally, over a roiling black cloud of FX drenched guitars and some seriously pounding drums, even a bit of flute (we think), and maybe more than any of the others managing to meld the sound of the original with their own, plenty of wah wah guitar, loads of effects, most of the track spent drifting through space, cloaked in blown out super distorted psych guitar and shimmering outer space ambience. Surprisingly heavy and totally blissed out. The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!

We're not sure how the Students Of Decay label remained beneath our radar for so long, but we're definitely scrambling to make up for lost time. This latest blast of underground weirdness, comes from the very unassumingly named David Kirby, but don't let the lack of cool creepy moniker fool you, Inside, It Is Ringing is a serious slab of abstract industrial drones. Not pretty or drifting or dreamlike or tranquil. Well, actually it sort of is all of those things, but not in the soft super blissed out ambient way. Well, okay, the second track here sort of is. The first track though, is dense and thick and caustic and abrasive. Not to say it's not listenable because it most certainly is, in fact that's the magic of it. The parts are hard and sharp and harsh, but they are combined in such a way, that those disparate noise elements become a rich slowly shifting, organic whole. Imagine bits of Organum, Vibracathedral Orchestra, and bands like that, sort of melted down and poured into a giant cauldron, where they are slowly swirled until they take on the consistency of molasses, or tar. Dark and menacing. Bowed metals reverberate, buzzing steel strings are smeared into glistening streaks of metallic shimmer, thick layers of sun baked fuzz are spread out over glacial grooves. The first track is metallic and cold. The sound is all ice and barren landscapes. The second is much more warm and organic, the perfect balance to the frosty drift of the first track. It's an epic 24 minute subterranean stream turned into music. Like any of the cd-r bands you know and love, given a seriously heavy duty M83 makeover. NICE! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. You know the drill...

MPEG stream: Part One

Julian Koster is best known for his stint in legendary Elephant Six outfit Neutral Milk Hotel as well as his membership in The Music Tapes. But this holiday season he's going to be known as the man who played Christmas songs on his lovely singing saw, turning old classics into something much more breezy and haunting. It's kind of reminding us of that awesome reissue EM Records put out of the early '20s musical saw stylings of Sam Moore, only if he were to play all of the holiday season's greatest hits. Even for those of us who don't usually get into the spirit of Christmas music can't deny how fun this is!

MPEG stream: The First Noel
MPEG stream: Silver Bells
MPEG stream: O' Holy Night

Also now reissued by Water, Individuellos is the third and final outing for Klaus Dinger's post-Neu! kraut glammers, La Dusseldorf. Originally released in 1980, it has a slightly more pronounced eighties treatment then Viva or their self-titled debut, but the big keyboard driven rhythms on opening number "Menschen" are unmistakably classic La Dusseldorf. Not every song on here is classic, but the ambient "Sentimental" with its layered tones and backwards recordings showcase a sublime side not as present on their earlier records. Probably not as essential as the reissues of those first two records (which, by the way, we now have on vinyl), but much much better than we had expected!

MPEG stream: Menschen
MPEG stream: Sentimental
MPEG stream: Das Yvonnchen

We're very excited about these two remaster/reissues from Germany's La Dusseldorf! La Dusseldorf were THE masters of anthemic open and clean-sounding happy funky krautrock, inspiring the likes of Eno and Bowie (Heroes-era). They crafted repetitive hypnotic percussion with layers of super clean life-affirming melodies that were driven by minimal lyrics. Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe (who joined Neu! for their 3rd album 75) formed La Dusseldorf following the breakup of Neu! They were joined by Klaus' brother, Thomas, on percussion and vocals, Harald Konietzko on bass, and Nicolas van Rhein on keyboards. Any fan of Neu! will immediately recognize that Neu! sound, which is still evident here, but where Neu! was icy and detached, La Dusseldorf is positive and practically bubbling with warmth. Like Harmonia (a product of fellow ex-Kraftwerker, Michael Rother), La Dusseldorf albums have an incredible, ahead-of-their-time production level and truly sound like they could be a current release (we've already witnessed a couple customers' disbelief at the year it was originally released!) Viva, their second record, is filled with Krautrock anthems, culminating in the 20 minute long Cha Cha 2000 - an epic of krauty proportions. If you've been reading some of our more recent lists, we should distinguish that La Dusseldorf do not fall in the krautrock sub-genre of WWII-effected dark & broodish-type stuff, a la German Oak. La D. better fit into the uber-clean & hypnotic song-kraft family of Neu!, Harmonia, Cluster, Can, Kraftwerk, etc. Both the self-titled and Viva releases are highly recommended as an integral part of any Krautrock kollection!

MPEG stream: Viva
MPEG stream: Cha Cha 2000

We're very excited about these two remaster/reissues from Germany's La Dusseldorf! La Dusseldorf were THE masters of anthemic open and clean-sounding happy funky krautrock, inspiring the likes of Eno and Bowie (Heroes-era). They crafted repetitive hypnotic percussion with layers of super clean life-affirming melodies that were driven by minimal lyrics. Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe (who joined Neu! for their 3rd album 75) formed La Dusseldorf following the breakup of Neu! They were joined by Klaus' brother, Thomas, on percussion and vocals, Harald Konietzko on bass, and Nicolas van Rhein on keyboards. Any fan of Neu! will immediately recognize that Neu! sound, which is still evident here, but where Neu! was icy and detached, La Dusseldorf is positive and practically bubbling with warmth. Like Harmonia (a product of fellow ex-Kraftwerker, Michael Rother), La Dusseldorf albums have an incredible, ahead-of-their-time production level and truly sound like they could be a current release (we've already witnessed a couple customers' disbelief at the year it was originally released!) This self-titled 4-song cd is absolutely classic Krautrock! "Silver Cloud", with its huge drums and layers of simple, syrupy melody create one of our favorite krautrock songs ever! At the time of this album's release, it was played on German radio a bunch and even became a "funk" hit! "La Dusseldorf" opens with the chanting of a football [soccer] audience and leads into a pulsating anthemic rhythm also joined by the valliant one-word chant of "Dusseldorf". If you've been reading some of our more recent lists, we should distinguish that La Dusseldorf do not fall in the krautrock sub-genre of WWII-effected dark & broodish-type stuff, a la German Oak. La D. better fit into the uber-clean & hypnotic song-kraft family of Neu!, Harmonia, Cluster, Can, Kraftwerk, etc. Both the self-titled and Viva releases are highly recommended as an integral part of any Krautrock kollection!

MPEG stream: La Dusseldorf
MPEG stream: Silver Cloud

More amazing sonic weirdness from Israel, from the always amazing Heart & Crossbone label, who in the past have given us releases from Barbara, Lietterschpich, Cadaver Eyes, Grave In The Sky and Mildew. Lagan Tapes is the work of a duo who between the two of them are members of most of the above mentioned bands as well as Panda Porn whose disc is reviewed elsewhere on this list. One half of the duo bangs on on stuff, the other half captures it on tape, and the result is really fantastic. Not as noisy and clattery as you might expect, instead, it's rhythmic and hypnotic, a sort of junkyard Gamelan, recorded in Belfast Ireland, while walking across the Lagan River... metallic clank and rapid fire skitter, thumping on fences and garbage cans and anything else within reach, bare hands on metal, a constantly shifting set of rhythms, all captured on a broken cassette recorder, wrapping the rhythms in all sorts of lo-fi hiss and distorted buzz. Some tracks are hissy and high end, a relentless blast of clank and clatter, others are much more subdued, mellow and meandering, some tracks sound like straight up field recordings, chiming bells, the crash of metal fences, others sound like full on blown out lo-fi krautrock jams. Behind the percussive patter, you can hear all sorts of ambient sounds, voices, birds, running water, it's almost like some strange blend of avant percussion and nature recording. The label compares the sound to MCMS, Crash Worship, Pain Teens, early 80's Sonic Youth, 23 Skidoo, Gamelan Son of Lion, but for us, the most obvious and accurate references are probably Gamelan Son Of Lion and Crash Worship, as this is all about the rhythms, the pound and pulse, the shuffle and skitter, the clang and the clatter. Hyper rhythmic and abstract, intense and mesmerizing, an incredible chunk of experimental percussion, that should of course appeal to the rhythm obsessed, but also manages to sound surprisingly musical. Packaged in an oversized envelope with the imprint of a cassette tape pressed into the paper, inside, three oversized printed cards with photos and liner notes...

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MPEG stream: Three
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Another beautifully deeeeeep, somber lament of an album from one of Nashville's finest... Lambchop! Actually on a number of songs on OH (ohio), main man Kurt Wagner's smooth low voice reminded us quite a bit of a cross between Stuart Staples of Tindersticks and Jim Croce. In fact, if you found yourself pleasantly enveloped by the former's most recent album Hungry Saw, you might find yourself likewise captivated by OH (ohio). Steeped in melancholia and a haunting nostalgia, this is a fantastic progression from Lambchop's last full length, 2006's Damaged!

MPEG stream: Slipped, Dissolved And Loosed
MPEG stream: A Hold Of You

So far we've only reviewed a single 12" from Mr. Neil Landstrumm, which is weird cuz we've been pretty nuts for his fractured electronica, especially his last record Restaurant Of Assassins, which melded drill and bass, old school jungle, electro skitter, and video game sounds into something totally tweaked and fucking kickass. This new one follows the same template for the most part, but with a bit more focus on dubstep this time around, which is fine with us, as Landstrumm's take on dubstep us pretty demented to say the least. The opener is a dubbed out low slung jam, complete with deep reverberating bass, eighties Goblin-y Knight Rider synths, cinematic strings, and chopped up and processed vocals. A sound falling somewhere between Richard D. James and Venetian Snares, but a bit more dubbed out. The second track has 'Krunk' in the title, but if anything it's even more dubby and stripped down than the opener, the main melody a whirring grinding bass synth, and some playful bleeps and bloops, the rhythm stuttery and skittery. Dubstep really is the cornerstone for the whole disc, that wavery bass buzz anchoring most of the songs, but it's what Landstrumm adds to the mix that makes things so cracked, whether it's a barrage of malfunctioning video game glitchery, haunting orchestral 8-bit swells, Miami bass handclaps and slithery fuzzy keyboard stabs, super blown out rumbling low end rumbles, whatever it is, it all gets tangled up with whatever dubbed out bass heavy groove Landstrumm has assembled mad scientist style, from stuttery loops, old drum machines, analogue synths, bass guitars, and lots and lots of video games. Might be our favorite dubstep record of the year, if it wasn't so unlike most other dubstep records...

MPEG stream: Transmission
MPEG stream: Easter Krunk Power
MPEG stream: Shit Daddy Bass

Another cryptically groovy release from the mysterious Clutchy Hopkins. This time a long distance tape exchange collaboration between Hopkins and multi-instrumentalist and troubadour Shawn Lee. We're not sure what Lee's input is here, because this sounds just like the other Clutchy releases, with funky cinematic organ and drum breaks augmented by jazz guitars and flutes. Reminds us of Money Marks early releases as well as his work with the Beastie Boys, who funny enough are among the latest folks rumored to be the actual Clutchy Hopkins. Hmmmmmm......

MPEG stream: Dollar Short
MPEG stream: Across The Pond
MPEG stream: Indian Burn

It's been over a quarter of a century now that the Legendary Pink Dots have been unleashing their dark and brooding psychedelic spaced out sounds and they've somehow managed to maintain a seriously strong cult following despite being ignored by much of the underground music establishment (they've pretty much always been ignored by Wire magazine ferinstance). While we can't say we've stayed up to date with all of their recent output, Plutonium Blonde grabbed our attention in a BIG way from our very first listen and we've since been spending lots of time with its languid and melancholic sounds. Such a perfect blissed out Sunday night record to put on when you have nowhere to go and all you want to do is melt into the couch and daydream. Edward Ka-Spel sounds as iconic as ever and this really does sound like the Dots at their best, creating moody and dramatic songs that remind us of later period Coil covering mid-'70s Pink Floyd. Really nice!

MPEG stream: Faded Photograph
MPEG stream: Torchsong
MPEG stream: Oceans Blue

"Six days in 1976". That's what this disc represents. The entire lifespan, and output, of an extremely short-lived but also extremely awesome krautrock 'supergroup' of sorts. Organized by Dieter Moebius (one half of Cluster, one third of Harmonia), the Liliental project also featured the talents of Helmut Hattler and Johannes Pappert of psychedelic jazz-rock outfit Kraan, famed producer Conny Plank, soundtrack composer Otto Bekker and his protege, budding electronic experimentalist Asmus Tietchens (who contributes liner notes to this reissue). They never played live, and indeed spent only six days recording these six tracks. About 35 minutes of exquisite, oft glorious, softly moody and melodic instrumentals here on this one-off treasure... well, mostly instrumental, with some wordless "aahhs" here and there, and also some singing on the particularly quirky, catchy final track (which sounds more like a Brian Eno/Steely Dan collab than a Moebius thing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Since the tracks are sequenced on this disc in the same order in which they were recorded, it would seem that by day six they were ready to get a bit silly. On days 1-5, though, there was more restraint to their playfulness, their music sometimes joyous but as often wistful or otherwise serious-sounding. It's hard to describe, easier to imagine if you're already acquainted with Moebius's music solo and in Cluster and Harmonia. While this group had their own special chemistry, the overall vibe is one that will definitely seem familiar to fans of Cluster et.al., wonderfully so. Track three, "Wattwurm", could be from one of the Cluster & Eno albums, easily. And that's high praise! On that track and elsewhere you'll find Liliental to be rhythmic, poppy, breezy, beautiful, all these things... with shimmering washes of mellow synths (lots of Arp and Moog), percolating electronic embellishments, almost-ambient saxophone, and even some blissful bird twitter on one track. So nice. This reissue actually came out last year, and we've been wanting to list it for a while, but had some trouble getting enough copies. Now we have a few in stock, so get it, it's definitely one to add to the top of the pile of essential krautrock reissues we've raved about recently, like those Michael Rothers, La Dusseldorfs, Eroc, etc. In addition to Tietchens' notes, in both English and German, this digipack's cd booklet also includes color photos of Liliental in the studio (they existed nowhere else!), among them the group shot from which the cover painting was done - interestingly, amongst other small details altered, the cover artist decided to put long pants on Conny Plank (the smiling fellow on the far left) instead of letting him continue to wear the short shorts he had on in the original photograph.

MPEG stream: Stresemannstrasse
MPEG stream: Wattwurm

Finally back in print! This collection brings together nearly everything New York's influential no wave funk group Liquid Liquid managed to put out. If you haven't heard them before, then this is your chance. Still, if you really think you haven't heard them, let us remind you. Grandmaster Flash's tremendously successful single "White Lines (Don't Do It)" featured the Sugar Hill house band re-playing the main bassline from these guy's single "Cavern," and we're pretty sure just about everyone has heard that song! Anyway, given that the band and label never consented to Flash's sampling, legal battles followed and the band's label, 99 Records, went under. Back to the record at hand. Liquid Liquid stands among the best of the early '80s no wave scene. Of course, with the differences between people like Lydia Lunch -- with her goth-punk affront, and the Latin influenced whatever-wave vibes of Konk, you could easily argue that it wasn't a scene in any strict sense. These guys reinforce that sentiment. In fact, the only band from that era and place that comes close at all is probably Konk - or maybe Pigbag, those post-punk bands where higher emphasis is put on propulsive rhythmic devices than pretty much everything else. There are similarities, but these guys still stand out on their own. Where Konk had an overstated Latin influence, Liquid Liquid tempered that sensibility with a healthy dose of disco percussion, dub, and art school croon. If you wanted to step outside of New York, something along the lines of a more rhythmic take on England's This Heat or 23 Skidoo might be the general direction. Or like if someone grabbed Gang of Four's equipment and left them with just bass, drums, and some other shit to beat on. C'mon! If for nothing else you need this to get a copy of not just the aforementioned "Cavern," but also "Optimo" and "Bellhead." Classics! Catchy, fun, driving, and with an influence that can be heard from hip-hop to essentially every angular art-punk band ever, Liquid Liquid is essential listening. Recommended for any minimalist dance party, or careful personal use. Yay!

MPEG stream: Optimo
MPEG stream: Scraper
MPEG stream: Rubbermiro

When people think of spaced out, drone-y drug rock, Spacemen 3 seem to get all the love, which is of course fair, Spacemen 3 totally rule, their music is magical, especially for some of us who will probably only ever experience drug use by strapping on a pair of headphones and blasting Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To. But c'mon, let's share the love, with another group, who existed during the same time, in basically the same place, and who were sonically quite similar, yet crafted their own distinctive and incredibly iconic body of work, one that has been criminally unavailable for years now. These two reissues are the first in what will hopefully be a comprehensive reissue campaign for London space rockers Loop. For years, Loop have been a favorite of in-the-know music nerds, whose Spacemen 3 collection is most likely rivaled by their Loop collection, and basically, to love one, is indeed to love the other. You like thick looped guitars, blown out distorted buzz, krautrocky rhythms, song structures that are simple, cyclical, repetitive, hypnotic, guitars dripping with effects, vocals drawled lazily and buried in the mix, everything hazy and washed out and bleary eyed and druggy. Wait, were we talking about Loop or Spacemen 3? Exactly. The main difference to our ears, was that Loop always seemed to rock way harder. The Spacemen would often flutter off in tripped out ambient flights of fancy, dropping the drums completely, letting the guitar pulse and throb, the vocals drifting ethereally over the top. And sure, Loop were capable of that too, but seemed to hew closer to a more driving sound, the drums much more integral to their overall vibe. The sound of Loop was equal parts krautrock and space rock, and their name was definitely referenced their sound. Loop mainman Hampson would even go on to form Main, a more tranquil guitar loop based outfit, whose obsession with texture and loops absolutely informed all of the Loop recordings. The guitars were thick, wreathed in distortion, delay, reverb, doused in effects, that not only altered their timbre, and their tone, nut also often made the guitars sound backwards, creating woozy of kilter jams that seemed to slowly and subtly shift and change shapes before our very ears. The vocals weary and washed out, the drums skeletal and simple, but all fused into totally tripped out, drugged out, kraut-infused space rock bliss. Fade Out was record number two for Loop, and found the band making a definite move forward in terms of production and sound, and an obvious shift away fro a sound they shared with countrymen Spacemen 3. The sound on Fade Out is much heavier, and way louder, the guitars sharper and more jagged, the bass more present, the vocals way more prominent, the sound immediately less druggy and washed out and more rocking. "Black Sun" is a propulsive slab of spaced out garage-y krautrock, the guitars ringing out, the second guitar a buzzing over the top, the drums busy and powerful, the whole thing still wreathed in effects, but now the murk had been replaced with something much more effulgent, a strange burnished glow, suffusing the sound, less like laying in darkness and watching colors swirl and shimmer, and more like staring directly into the sun. "This Is Where You End" continues on in the same vein, with gruff almost growled vocals, over that distinctive looped guitar figure, with multiple guitars offering up extra melody and texture. "Fever Knife" stands out as it slows things way down, and the guitars are muted, not quite as sharp, with plenty of squiggly fun house mirror guitar melodies intertwined with that main riff, the tempo, a head nodding soporific groove, definitely reaching back a bit to the sound of Heaven's End. But then comes "Torched" with a incendiary guitar sound so loud and in the red, it threatens to blow your speakers, dwarfing the drums and bass in the background, churning and soaring, white hot and blown out big time. The title track is another slowed down druggy dirge, the main riff lumbering woozily along side a steady simple beat, haunting processed vocals, and chunks of extra guitar buzz, the whole thing downright doomy. The last three tracks are gorgeous squalls of druggy throb and crumbling guitar buzz, the record finishing up with a short stretch of shimmering ambient drift. SO GREAT!! The deluxe reissue of Fade Out not only comes in a super spiffy full color mini lp style gatefold sleeve, with printed inner sleeves, it also comes with a whole bonus disc, featuring a whole mess of extra stuff, alternate mixes of three tracks on the record, an awesome demo version of "This Is Where You End", the Peel Sessions from the Fade Out era, and most exciting of all a series of Fade Out Guitar Loops, from shimmering high end buzz, to whirring smears of low end rumble, definitely hinting at Hampson's post-Loop outfit Main. SO TOTALLY AND UTTERLY RECOMMENDED. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! And for recent converts to the world of druggy space rock, anyone who has been digging local droney drug rockers Wooden Shjips (and we know there are LOTS of you out there), will definitely fall in love with Loop!!

MPEG stream: Black Sun
MPEG stream: This Is Where You End
MPEG stream: Fade Out

When people think of spaced out, drone-y drug rock, Spacemen 3 seem to get all the love, which is of course fair, Spacemen 3 totally rule, their music is magical, especially for some of us who will probably only ever experience drug use by strapping on a pair of headphones and blasting Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To. But c'mon, let's share the love, with another group, who existed during the same time, in basically the same place, and who were sonically quite similar, yet crafted their own distinctive and incredibly iconic body of work, one that has been criminally unavailable for years now. These two reissues are the first in what will hopefully be a comprehensive reissue campaign for London space rockers Loop. For years, Loop have been a favorite of in-the-know music nerds, whose Spacemen 3 collection is most likely rivaled by their Loop collection, and basically, to love one, is indeed to love the other. You like thick looped guitars, blown out distorted buzz, krautrocky rhythms, song structures that are simple, cyclical, repetitive, hypnotic, guitars dripping with effects, vocals drawled lazily and buried in the mix, everything hazy and washed out and bleary eyed and druggy. Wait, were we talking about Loop or Spacemen 3? Exactly. The main difference to our ears, was that Loop always seemed to rock way harder. The Spacemen would often flutter off in tripped out ambient flights of fancy, dropping the drums completely, letting the guitar pulse and throb, the vocals drifting ethereally over the top. And sure, Loop were capable of that too, but seemed to hew closer to a more driving sound, the drums much more integral to their overall vibe. The sound of Loop was equal parts Krautrock and space rock, and their name was definitely referenced their sound. Loop mainman Hampson would even go on to form Main, a more guitar loop based outfit, whose obsession with texture and loops absolutely informed all of the Loop recordings. The guitars were thick, wreathed in distortion, delay, reverb, doused in effects, that not only altered their timbre, and their tone, nut also often made the guitars sound backwards, creating woozy of kilter jams that seemed to slowly and subtly shift and change shapes before our very ears. The vocals weary and washed out, the drums skeletal and simple, but all fused into totally tripped out, drugged out, kraut infused space rock bliss. Heaven's End was Loop's debut, released in 1987, just a year after Spacemen 3's first record (and apparently Spacemen 3 were always quite annoyed by constantly being compared to Loop), and inadvertent or not, it's the Loop record that is the most Spacemen sounding. Lo-fi, raw and gritty. The opener "Soundhead" is surprisingly rocking, with lots of wah guitar, propulsive drumming, ethereal vocals, the song that would define the sound of Loop, but it's the second track where the record really gets going, slipping into a slow motion Stooges groove, a lurching looped riff, the vocals buried in the mix, the drums a simple pound, a main refrain that's catchy as fuck, the whole thing constantly repeated over and over and over and over, totally blissed out and trancelike. The following track slips even further out, the guitars super sharp and buzz drenched, the tempo a lugubrious crawl, the drums total barebones, swirling spaced out effects, the guitar billowing out into soft focus buzzscapes over which the rest of the instrumentation seems to hover weightless. The title track is a simple garage-y pound, with the cymbals and the guitars looped backwards (hinting at some Teenage Filmstars to come maybe?), the guitar stuttering creating incidental rhythms, very druggy and mesmeric. And so it goes, each song, a simple motif, locked in and set on repeat, the core remaining near static, looped into infinity, while all around that groove various guitars and effects and voices swirl and whirl and spin and stretch and shimmer divinely. Easily one of our all time favorite records for sure. This deluxe reissue not only comes in a super spiffy full color mini lp style gatefold sleeve, with printed inner sleeves, it also comes with a whole bonus disc, featuring alternate mixes of two of the album tracks, as well as a killer cover of Suicide's "Rocket USA", with a cool programmed drum beat, tripped out psychedelic guitars, and hushed almost crooned vocals, and the three tracks from the Peel Sessions, included a seriously stretched out version of "Straight To Your Heart". SO AWESOME!!! SO TOTALLY AND UTTERLY RECOMMENDED. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! And for recent converts to the world of druggy space rock, anyone who has been digging local droney drug rockers Wooden Shjips (and we know there are LOTS of you out there), will definitely fall in love with Loop!!

MPEG stream: Soundhead
MPEG stream: Straight To Your Heart
MPEG stream: Forever

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. All right! Two of our favorite things, weird limited cassette tapes, and amazing psychedelic and garage music from all over the world. Plustapes is a new cassette only label, specializing, in... well, limited tapes and obscure international psych and garage music!!! Their first release is a doozy, and it's darn near criminal that it's limited to only 100 copies. The debut from Peru's Los Holy's, who just happen to count as a member a fella who would go on to play in another aQ fave Peruvian psych act, Tarkus. But unlike the heaviness of Tarkus, Los Holy's trafficked more in a fuzzy surfy garage music, thick with effects, a mix of the Ventures and Joe Meek. A few tracks are dead ringers for Meek jams, and still others sound like Ventures outtakes, but Los Holy's definitely add their own spin. There's plenty of fuzz, these all instrumental jams slip from groovy kitchy garage rock, to super psyched out and fuzzed out under water sounding surf music, often a mix of the two, all slathered in Farfisa organs, moaning Theremins, swirling bloops and bleeps, primitive delays and echo effects, tons of reverb, all packed into kick ass super catchy psychedelic sixties surf garage jams, surprisingly heavy and tripped out for the time (mid '60s), really awesome. Essential for anyone into super obscure, super far out sixties psych, especially, from South America, a la groups like Tarkus, Traffic Sound, and Los Nuevos Shain's. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, Each one hand numbered, clear red cassettes in full color sleeves. ONE PER CUSTOMER!!!

No stranger to crafting holiday tunes, Low's Christmas epfrom several years ago is still a big time favorite around here come wintertime. This new 7" finds Low singing about Santa Coming Over on the 'a' side while the flipside finds them getting as close to reggae as they probably ever will with "The Coming Of Jah." Beautifully and subtly packaged with white on white embossed lettering, and it comes with a coupon for free digital downloads of the tracks. A no-brainer as a stocking stuffer.

The return of Wuvable Oaf!!! If you remember a few months back when we listed the first issue of the Oaf (#0 for those keeping track), we gushed over the goofy funny story, the incredibly detailed art, the many many kitties, and did we mention the hair? ALL that hair!! The first issue, if you don't remember, contained plenty of goofy dancing, man love, saucy almost sex, penis shaped birthday cakes, high fashion, reality TV, feline birthing, and an art punk band called Ejaculoid. The life and times of a big bearlike creature called Wuvable Oaf, and his friends, and his cats, and his dolls stuffed with his own body hair. Now seems like a good time to revisit the hair. The art is so intricate and detailed, all the characters so hirsute that it really must take as much time to draw the hair as it does the rest of the comic. But it's worth it, so over the top, and so completely and awesomely ridiculous. So this issue gives us a glimpse into the creation of Oaf's stuffed little creatures as well as his ability to regenerate body hair just by 'forcing it', various 'worst' dates throughout the years, 1986, 1992, the origin of the Oaf, from his birth (his actual birth, euuw) to his misfit early years and eventual adoption, a visit to the gym, another feline misadventure, as well as a run in with punk rock band Ejaculoid, culminating in a visit to AQUARium records!! Hmmm. And that guy behind the counter, looks suspiciously like, OK, heck, it is! It's our own ANDEE, in all his Oaf drawn glory, surly and standoffish (not at all like the real Andee btw), giving Ejaculoid the cold shoulder, spouting his timeless catchphrase "I hate your band". Beside the thrill of being drawn into the Oaf universe, the record store is another example of artist Ed Luce's incredible eye for detail, the various records behind the counter, the posters on the wall, the band t-shirts, it's pretty amazing. We're dying to see what happens as Oaf pursues his Ejaculoid lead singer crush, and of course we can never get enough kitties, drawn or otherwise, there are big plans in the works for Oaf, including more kick ass merch (check it out: http://www.wuvableoaf.com/) as well as an actual single from the imaginary(?) Ejaculoid. Punk rock, kitties, lots and lots of hair, and of course big muscly dudes, what's not to love???

From the vaults of the legendary krautrock label Brain comes another cool digipacked reissue on Revisited. We've been fans of this particular album for a long time, previously stocking a Repertoire reissue when we could get it. In fact, looking into our archives, we see that we reviewed it on two separate occasions, giving it quite similar but different reviews. Well, here's a third, based on those. This self-titled 1970 debut album is one of the two early Lucifer's Friend albums we recommend, the other being its 1972 sequel, Where The Groupies Killed The Blues, which perhaps will be reissued again as well. After that, the records we've heard aren't as good. But THIS, this is a great piece of '70s proto-metal very much akin to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Budgie, and (especially) Uriah Heep! Some psychedelic weirdness, lots of heavy riffing (on guitars and organ) and total wailin' rock god vocals (courtesy of British singer John Lawton, who later DID join the Heep). As krautrock goes, they're more like early Scorpions than the more out there stuff you might be thinking of (Faust, Can, Kraftwerk, Cluster...) but this -was- recorded by Conny Plank. The first track, the triumphal rocker "Ride The Sky" (recently covered by doomsters Trouble on their abortive comeback Simple Mind Condition) begins with a trumpeting French horn motif that will definitely make you think of Led Zep, sounding uncannily like the "ah ahhhhhh ahh" intro to "The Immigrant Song", though this came first. There's a cool live video of this track on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5DpOdf-_yM&feature=related. If you dig that, you'll dig this album... !!! (FYI, Revisited has included 2 bonus tracks this time 'round.)

MPEG stream: Ride The Sky
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You are more likely to find Lucky Dragons performing in a small gallery or someone's living room or on an enchanted island then you are a conventional rock club or bar. Convention doesn't seem to be something Luke Fischbeck or Sarah Rara care much for and their music and vivid imagination is all the better for it. While this is a record that brings together so many ideas and influences it's strength is in how seamless and succinctly they do so. Opening with a dreamy snippet that recalls a daydream Boards Of Canada moment, the record then finds it's way into captivating and repetitive percussion that sounds like a Konono No.1 record interpreted by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. They have a very special ability to travel through both intense and wandering states with equal power and grace. It's amazing that they've made a record that can sound like the most relentless snake charmer recording one moment, a hip-hop inspired pulsating beat next, an ambient interlude that could be part of a Grouper record somewhere else but also a germinal techno jam you never want to end. While bringing in a wide range of styles and influences is not something so new, making a totally cohesive, pleasurable and transcendent album with all those influences is much more rare and with Dream Island Laughing Language, Lucky Dragons have done just that! Highly recommended.

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This is one of two new entries in the ongoing series of Suicide related 10" singles, celebrating Alan Vega's 70th birthday (despite the fact that he was born in 1948, a mere 60 years ago). Both sides feature versions of the horrific electro-thud masterpiece "Frankie Teardrop" from the classic eponymous record released back in 1977. The A-side is a new cover from like-minded misanthrope Lydia Lunch, screeching out the vocals on top of a monophunk electronic arpeggiation. It's certainly the best we've heard from Lydia Lunch in many, many, many years. The B-side is a demo version of "Frankie Teardrop," which finds Martin Rev's musical accompaniment for ominous, analog synths pretty much worked out, even in demo form, but Alan Vega's story about Frankie Teardrop himself hadn't quite evolved into a tragedy about an everyman whose life just sucks. Instead, Frankie is cast as a Vietnam vet / detective given a particularly unfortunate assignment. It's not as clinically articulated as on the proper album, but has more of a Philip K. Dick vibe going on. Limited to 1500 copies.

We probably reference M83 in reviews more often than No Neck Blues Band or SUNNO))) (okay, maybe not SUNN), which makes sense since they, almost more than any other group we can think of, totally typify that gorgeously washed out synth heavy warm shimmery bliss that infuses so much of the music we love. Their sound is seeped in gauzy smears of new age-y blur and hushed layered soft focus ambience, and even on their last record, the super eighties shimmer pop of Saturdays=Youth, that shimmer was always right below the surface, adding a distinctly otherworldly vibe to the songs. Digital Shades (Vol. 1) in not a proper album per se, more of a project, undertaken by Anthony Gonzalez, aka M83, between recording sessions, exploring a more stripped down, ambient and new age sound. Originally released as a digital download (hence the title), Digital Shades is finally available as an actual release, the first in a series. Playing more like fragments, or rough sketches, the songs on Digital Shades are simple and space-y, often only one or two notes, a simple melody, a breathy buried vocal, stretched out into long mesmerizing streaks of sun dappled drift. You can almost imagine these as backing tracks for soon to be M83 tracks. Remember when Pet Sounds mania was happening, and that record was released in all sorts of different permutations? Well, one version contained a whole bunch of gorgeous harmony vocal backing tracks, that once removed from their songs, sounded so strange and angelic and haunting, and such is the case here. Loosed from any sort of structure, these pieces are allowed to float and hover and swirl and slowly unfurl into sprawling expanses of billowy dreamy dronemusic. Sweeping and cinematic, yet somehow still minimal and intimate. Bird song surfaces here and there, as well as some brief snippets of more traditional M83 vocalizing, but those moments are brief, leaving just long streaks of soft sound, to unfold slowly, to blossom into delicate shapes, and to glisten in the light of a thousand suns. Admittedly, Gonzalez is paying homage to Brian Eno, and that's not difficult to hear at all, even in more traditional sounding M83 recordings, and lots of these pieces also sound quite a bit like some lost Twin Peaks Angelo Badalamenti mood music. Absolutely gorgeous. Maybe too minimal and blissed out for some, but for those of you (us!) with a soft spot for delicate drone-y new ageish ambience, and soft shimmery drones, a la Eno, Harold Budd, Popol Vuh, IASOS, Ariel Kalma, and the like, this is absolute heaven.

MPEG stream: Waves, Waves, Waves
MPEG stream: Coloring The Void
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First reviewed almost 10 years ago and a constant aQ favorite and big seller ever since, Magnetic Fields' Get Lost finally gets a super sweet vinyl release. Our way too brief review from way back in the very early days of the list, long before we wrote epic tomes as reviews, went a little like this: "Everyone has a favorite record that acts as a faithful crutch throughout their life and this is ours. Every song has a different heartbreaking theme. Each devastating in their own way. You will never tire of this, Stephin Merritt's masterpiece." And indeed, this is a gorgeous, sad, beautiful, wryly humorous, and utterly heartbreaking and heart rending slab of morose sweetly sour pop. That is of course utterly and emphatically recommended.

Our hands down favorite reissue label for far-flung exotica, Japan's EM Records, not only has a new amazing release, but has also finally made the big leap to vinyl!! (Actually, they'd done a few lps before, but this release is vinyl ONLY). And what better choice for a vinyl reissue than this rare mid-'70s slab of Afro-Cuban percussive funk madness by Cuban master "bongosero", Lazaro Pla, or as he was better known to the world, Manteca! Eight relentlessly heavy bass-driven grooves featuring Manteca's organic percussive excursions that range from almost modernist compositions of repetitively shifting layers of driving rhythms to deep salsa jams and afro-cuban FUNK. Imagine Tussle with a Cuban rhythm section or Konono No. 1 with a limber funky bass player, or even one of the best Beastie Boys instrumentals from back in the day. Having performed with many legendary Cuban combos including Ernesto Lecuona's Cuban Boys, Manteca's recorded output as leader and featured soloist have been quite rare. Beautiful and dazzling with a no-frills production that acknowledges the traditional roots of Cuban music but with a forward thinking progressive edge. So Awesome! And DJs, get on it, you've got your new secret weapon right here.

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It's not everyday you hear samples of Hitler speeches and Nazi Marches over a pulsating glammy space groove next to an even wackier freaked out French version of Napoleon XIV's "They're Coming To Take Me Away". Throw in some warped 60's beat pop, zany space prog and the weirdest but most sublimely cosmic disco tracks you have never heard, and you are somewhat closer to wrapping your head around the skewed production genius of Jean-Pierre Massiera. Starting his career in the south of France and relocating to Montreal in the seventies, Massiera, best known for Les Maledictus Sound, a holy-grail record for collectors of sixties psyche-exotica freakiness has continued to explore for the past 40 years all manner of spacey and unhinged pop and dance grooves through a myriad of single-based projects, the best of collected on these two volumes. Like a surrealist Serge Gainsbourg mixed with Gong, Cerrone and Zolar X, Massiera never concerned himself with record industry pressures or making fame or fortune off his production efforts but instead used the studio to explore his love of surrealism, off-beat humor and some coke-addled (we presume) cosmic fantasy. Each record comes with a code to download mp3's and a bonus track. The Discoid volume begins with Sex Conventions' "Toi Qui Reve de Baisers", a funky groover that owes much of its success to Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio" as they share similar riffs and breaks. Native American, and Brazilian rhythms come through on tracks by Herman's Rocket (who were also on the first volume) and Brasa Brasil & Helena. While Human Egg gives us "Onomatopaiea", a hypnotic vocal-only rhythm chant and the cosmic disco epic "Love Like This" that any DJ with a penchant for Italo or electro-funk should get this volume for that track alone! Of course The Starlights "Mao Mao" along with tracks by Mickey and Joyce and Venus Gang also make this essential for crate diggers and beatheads and freaky music collectors of all types. Psychoses Indeed!

MPEG stream: Love Like This
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It's not everyday you hear samples of Hitler speeches and Nazi Marches over a pulsating glammy space groove next to an even wackier freaked out French version of Napoleon XIV's "They're Coming To Take Me Away". Throw in some warped 60's beat pop, zany space prog and the weirdest but most sublimely cosmic disco tracks you have never heard, and you are somewhat closer to wrapping your head around the skewed production genius of Jean-Pierre Massiera. Starting his career in the south of France and relocating to Montreal in the seventies, Massiera, best known for Les Maledictus Sound, a holy-grail record for collectors of sixties psyche-exotica freakiness has continued to explore for the past 40 years all manner of spacey and unhinged pop and dance grooves through a myriad of single-based projects, the best of collected on these two volumes. Like a surrealist Serge Gainsbourg mixed with Gong, Cerrone and Zolar X, Massiera never concerned himself with record industry pressures or making fame or fortune off his production efforts but instead used the studio to explore his love of surrealism, off-beat humor and some coke-addled (we presume) cosmic fantasy. Each record comes with a code to download mp3's and a bonus track. The Freakoid volume begins with Basile, a novelty singer who was popular in the South of France for playing a rural imbecile who has two tracks, one being the skewed Napoleon XIV cover mentioned above. That there is no mention that this song is a cover ( both were released the same year) and instead claims to be inspired by an early thirties French recording just adds to Massiera's strange self-made mythos masking some pretty blatant appropriations. Other tracks by groups Les Monegasques and Piranhas venture into psyche beat and garage rock while tracks by Le Chats and J.P.M & Co. explore proggified Salvador Dali, with wigs and body paint, hermaphrodites, and tape collages over pulsing synths and rhythms. More cosmic space funk rounds out side two with alien fantasias from Visitors and more glitter wigs and body paint from Herman's Rocket and Venus Gang providing some late-era Mutantes / Nina Hagen zaniness. Add the traditional African and Indonesian folk groove of The Starlights and you're in for a druggy Euro-mind-trip that you might not be able to return from. Psychoses indeed!

MPEG stream: Engins Bizarres et Gens Estranges
MPEG stream: Plus Jamais Ca
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At long last, possibly our favorite Matmos record ever is back in print! The West is by far the most sprawling and highway ready record in their illustrious back catalog. With all the well deserved attention they've received over the years for their innovative methods and countless collaborations one thing that's often overlooked is how well their records tend to predict and predate what's about to come floating up from the musical underground. Recorded and released a few years before the big new weird America/freak folk movement took off and before everyone was using laptops to create folktronica, Matmos made this amazing album that perfectly melds their leftfield electronic roots with spacious and trance inducing guitar to create the kind of record you would imagine might have been made if Henry Flynt and Jim O'Rourke were to collaborate or if Christian Fennesz got to twist knobs while John Fahey was playing in one of his most exploratory moments. With a long list of guests including J. Lesser and David Pajo (Slint, Papa M) on board for the record, Drew & Martin once again demonstrate how great they are at letting others into their world and being open to where the sounds will take them while still maintaining a distinct vision. The West is for sure one of our favorite roadtrip records of all time. "Sun on 5 at 152" really does sound exactly how it feels when the sun is blasting through your dirty windshield and you can't really see what's ahead but you keep your foot on the pedal and just follow the road to wherever it may lead you. While no two Matmos records are alike The West probably finds its most kindred spirit in The Civil War, another Matmos record that proves there is much more to these great music makers then simply synths and samples. No matter what they create, soul seeps richly through their fractured sounds and in our opinion The West may be their most soulful, satisfying and resonating release EVER. Highly recommended!

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During the summer of 1990, while enjoying a three month holiday in Oslo, Norway, I (Elliott) came across a magazine that would be of untold influence to my thirteen-year old ears -- the 1990 Metal Hammer "Thrash Spectacular". This would serve to be my introduction to an obsession with extreme bands that would consume an unhealthy amount of my time and interest throughout middle and high school -- bands such as Exodus, Sepultura, Pungent Stench, Testament, Sacred Reich, and on and on. But the centerpiece of the issue was four articles on what Metal Hammer referred to as the "Big Four" of thrash, namely: Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth. And now we have a re-mastered re-issue of Megadeth's Rust in Peace, originally released coincidentally enough, within weeks of my return from the land of fjords. Why is this significant? Well, because with the very notable exception of Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss, Rust in the Peace was arguably the last great album of the great '80s thrash bands. Sure most, if not all, of these bands continued to release albums up to the present, but really -- which of them would you seriously consider to be on par with their '80s predecessors? Exodus, Testament, Slayer, Anthraxit's like 1990 was an impenetrable divide that dictated, "No decent thrash may pass". And let's not even discuss the Black album. Anyway, the release of Rust in Peace heralded the end of an era, and did so with august aplomb, the group topping even their own previously great achievements. It was as if all bands of the ilk recognized that nothing more could be done within the confines of what was considered thrash. Thrash had, as they say, "jumped the shark". But most importantly, Rust in Peace is simply a magnificent album, harkening back to a time when metal records were still collections of great songs. Every song on here is unique and there's not a bit of filler to be found. Take a look at the tracks: you get the MTV-friendly alien conspiracy hit single "Hangar 18"; the sheer aggression of "Take No Prisoners," one of their heaviest songs ever; the eerie occultism of "Five Magics"; the upbeat, almost poppy quality of "Poison Was The Cure"; the coke-sweating solipsism of "Lucretia"; the forlorn desolation of "Tornado Of Souls"; the austere drum and bass death march creepiness of "Dawn Patrol," (where you get to hear Dave's hilarious affected British accent) all book-ended by two of the finest thrash epics ever recorded -- the relentless juggernaut of an opener, "Holy WarsThe Punishment Due," and the apocalyptic groove of the closing title track. Rust in Peace also showcases the finest musicianship of their career, featuring the relentless guitar dueling between Mustaine and newly recruited Shrapnel recording artist Marty Friedman. Very rarely has such guitar-shop wankery been harnessed into such tastefully well-crafted songs -- the intro to "Holy Wars" alone is a must-hear. As for the vocals -- some have been at worst annoyed and at best amused by Dave's whining snarl but when you hear him scream "Paid by the alliance, to slay all the giants" I think you'll agree his delivery is perfectly fitting. Like Black Sabbath's Volume 4 or Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales or Iron Maiden's Killers, Rust in Peace is a milestone of metallic perfection and one which you are doing your metal collection a grave disservice to be without. If you have any genuine interest in metal, any whatsoever -- a single Century Media sampler in your collection, even -- you MUST own this record. Do yourself a favor, hear one of the absolute pinnacles of thrash. It was the last of its era, setting a standard that the genre as a whole would be unable to match again. And don't just take my word for it...Allan's backing me up on this one too: Rust In Peace is a metal essential. This reissue is remixed and remastered, with four bonus tracks (3 demos of album tracks featuring original 'Deth guitarist Chris Poland and the unfinished, unreleased "My Creation").

MPEG stream: Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
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Whenever we listen to this, we're somehow reminded of a line from The Simpsons where Marge Simpson's sister Selma in reference to a cheap slutty dress says: "This started out as a Halloween costume but soon worked its way into my regular rotation". Seems what began as a jokey one-off side-project between Devendra Banhart and Greg Rogove from Priestbird (formerly Tarantula A.D.) has taken up more time and attention than is probably warranted. From the weird "bro" energy of the cover to the childish references to penises, anal sex, and group masturbation peppered throughout, this is probably a project that perhaps should have stayed a joke. It sounds like their having a lot of fun and all, and it's not that there aren't good songs on here (Devendra's distinct pop sensibilities remain intact), but it seems like as a separate project, it doesn't know what it wants to be. It doesn't take enough risks musically for all of its crazy "fuck-all" posturing, and some of its attempts at humorous irreverence fall embarassingly flat (especially the song "A Gun On His Hip And A Rose On His Chest", where they cop the music from The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy", but replace the lyrics with "Fuck the Police, in the asshole. Fuck the Pope, in the asshole." ad nauseum). If you wanted a full album of all the sillier songs from Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, this might be for you. For the rest of us, we'll wait for Devendra's next record.

MPEG stream: Crop Circle Jerk '94
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tUMULt seems to have been unfairly pegged as a purely black metal label lately. Easy mistake to make really. For sure BM is a big part of the tUMULt universe. Weakling, Leviathan, Crebain, Draugar, Diamatregon... But at the risk of committing heresy in the eyes of the black hordes, there's more to musical life than black metal alone. And by that we mean specifically, POP MUSIC. Before there was black metal, heck before there was even metal for us, our musical world was defined by pop music. And that pop side never went away, a list of all time favorite bands would still be packed with groups like Sloan, Redd Kross, the Posies, the Swirlies and a little group from Canada called Eric's Trip. Anyway, the black metal hordes are just gonna have to move to the back of the bus and let the pop kids sit up front, as we're in for a little flurry of genius pure pop, branded with the tUMULt logo, the debut full length (actually THREE full lengths crammed onto one cd!) from SF's very own Ovens, coming soon, and this, record number two from The Memories Attack, which just so happens to feature Chris Thompson of the mighty Eric's Trip as well as long time aQ customer and indie rock luminary in his own right Ron Bates. The Memories Attack are a duo, augmented by an occasional drummer, who sound like they were transported to 2008 directly from the early nineties, bringing with them all the jangle pop, lo-fi bedroom folk, crunchy distorted guitar, gorgeous vocal harmonies, busted effects pedals, old synths, incredible hooks, and catchy songs they could stuff into an old beat up suitcase. Bates plays in a band called Orange Glass, Thompson performs solo as Moon Socket, but it would be silly to not look back to Eric's Trip, one of THE Halifax pop bands who ruled the nineties indie rock world along with Sloan, Jale, Hardship Post, Superfriends, Thrush Hermit, and a bunch more, as the sound of Eric's Trip as well as other bands of the era (especially Sebadoh) totally inform the music of The Memories Attack. And the thing is, they just don't make bands like TMA that much anymore, a couple guys, with a four track, a guitar, a beat up old drum set, and a head full of hooks. With Pro-Tools and laptops, home recording is a totally different process, and now pretty much everybody has some sort of drone record, or an abstract black ambient band, or a solo project of buzzing synthscapes, and don't get us wrong we love that stuff, but there's something to be said for songs, for POP songs, the kind that get stuck in your head, find their ways onto mix tapes, are forever stuck in the car stereo, the soundtrack to every roadtrip, whether it's across country or just to the 7-11. Take "Peaks & Valleys". It is THE jam of the summer, if it was in fact summer, and if it was actually 1995. Fuck it. This is the 2008 winter jam of the year, so there. All fuzzed out guitars, chiming melodies, blown out drums, gorgeous drawled vocals, and a chorus that KILLS. We literally have listend to this song about 100 times since we first got our hands on these recordings. Or take "The Raft", beginning with a laid back lope, all spidery minor key guitars, falsetto vocals, distant shimmery drones, underwater bass, until the chorus kicks in, a massive churning chunk of heavy as fuck crunch, a killer riff, all wreathed in crumbling distortion and wrapped around an angular almost looped sounding countermelody, and tempered with gorgeous high high vocals, the sort of jam that you never ever ever want to end. "Collapso" is a minute long blast of scrabbly high end guitars, dueling vocals, splattery drums, all treble, a swirling glorious high end blowout. "Beautiful Sound" begins with a chugging metallic groove, pounding drums, very hypnotic and heavy, before slipping into a soft glimmering droney drift, vocals hovering above cymbal shimmer, and little flurries of clean guitar, before the heaviness kicks back in again. Record closer, "Exploding House II" is all folky and fluttery, a gorgeous steel string guitar workout, twangy pick and strum supporting dreamy world weary vocals, long streaks of fuzzy chordal whir drifting in like thick clouds in a bright blue sky, so so lovely. Every track here is some glorious strain of perfect pop, whether it's a chunk of old school college rock jangle, a burst of synth infused almost metal crunch, wild wooly lo-fi garage-y stomp, or hushed intimate bedroom pop, it's all so catchy and rocking and irresistible. And it's all held together by some sort of mysterious pop music magic that few have mastered and even fewer understand, but which never fails to totally and utterly entrance us every time. Needless to say WAY recommended. Most definitely another contender for pop record of the year!

MPEG stream: Peaks & Valleys
MPEG stream: Beautiful Sound
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Robert Millis is a man of many talents: a Climax Golden Twin, a collector '78s resulting in the impeccable Victrola Favorites book & compilation, purveyor of searing avant-scum-noise-rock in AFCGT, a world traveller in search of esoterica for Sublime Frequencies, a field recordist of frogs, birds, blue jeans salesmen, etc. etc. etc. Despite his many activities, Millis' recorded output has almost entirely been by way of collaboration, making this self-released gem of a solo album all the more special. This is closer related to the collage work that Millis has contributed to the Climax Golden Twins, bridging all of those aforementioned interests in a polyglot of psychedelic drone smear pocked with snippets of conversation, poetic extracts from his collection of '78s, and a judicious amount of vinyl crackling. An album such as this would easily be confused for the hermetic revelations that Philip Jeck extracts from his rough shod vinyl and turntables; but Millis seems to counterpoint the crackle and the clean with more drama than Jeck, almost positing the crackle like a punchline in a joke that breaks through one of Millis' blissed out shimmers constructed from loops and drones from guitar, bells, and glass harmonica, where haunted melodies from times long gone whisper through the mix. But at another instance, Millis leaps geographically from a field recording of loosely played Thai temple music into a shortwave burst of noise seamlessly mixed through a cloud of insects and back into one of his sleepy drones. The logic of the album may seem absurd from afar; but the internal logic is peculiarly sensible, as if Millis were tapping into some stream of consciousness that subcutaneously connects all of these intermingling sounds. Limited to something like 50 copies, but maybe we'll be able to get more... maybe not. Very highly recommended no matter how you slice it.

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MPEG stream: Track 2
MPEG stream: Track 3

IIt must be pretty frustrating being in Mogwai, 'cause no matter what you do, no matter how far you push and stretch your sound, people just want to hear Young Team. Not that we can blame them - see the Young Team review elsewhere on the aQ site, and observe us gushing appropriately over the record that probably is single handedly responsible for about half of the indie rock made today. But you know, that probably happens to every successful band. Can you imagine if you had gone to see My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour and they didn't play -anything- off of Loveless, just new songs? We went to see Dio once a while back, and all we wanted to hear was old stuff (of course) but instead he played his newly released concept record all the way through. More power to him but geeze. Still, we do understand, no matter how awesome a song is, no one wants to be playing it forever. Think about the Stones playing "Satisfaction". How long have they been playing that song? 40 years? Sheesh! Anyway, in most fans' eyes, Mogwai can do no wrong, and even if they continue to NOT make Young Team part 2, they do continue to make awesome records. Their grasp of dynamics, and their ability to make an extended instrumental not only interesting but rocking and catchy as well, far surpasses most of the bands who want to be them, and very little has changed on The Hawk Is Howling. While the record starts off with the stately and serene (and awesomely titled "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"), the follow up "Batcat" finds the band unleashing some serious riffage, and some cool and strange guitar filigree. It's a one part song (maybe two) but boy is it a good part, and it gets looped and twisted, the band building and building, much like the more metal Godspeed they always seemed to be. Epic and crunchy and heavy and so good we probably wouldn't mind if the song was twice (or three times, or four times...) as along. The next few tracks find the band mellowing back out a bit, letting their songs sprawl and spread out organically, a dreamy, laid back post rock, with no particular place to go, and with Mogwai it's all about the journey, not the destination anyway. "The Sun Smells Too Loud" is a definite twist on the Mogwai formula, lots of synths and keyboards, and a slow build, slow burn, that gets bigger and louder, without necessarily getting heavier. The main hook, the guitar figure repeated again and again will stick in your head like crazy, the perfect substitute for vocals, if you were even missing them. "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" is classic Mogwai, again harkening back toy Young Team, all loping strum and shuffling rhythms, glistening melodies, lots of texture and ambience, until about the last minute when the band erupts into a super intense psychedelic freakout, still grounded by the melancholy melody that runs through the whole song. There's plenty more drifting and meandering dreamily before closer "The Precipice", which begins soft and breathless, before morphing into something a bit more ominous, the guitars a tad more crunchy, and finally a killer two minute outro, that features gorgeous spidery guitar lines, pounding drums, and gorgeous tangled minor key melodies. You want Young Team? Probably best to just get over it. Go listen to Young Team. Heck we might just go listen to Young Team again. But really, at this point we're way more interested in seeing where the sounds of Mogwai take us. There are two versions of the cd, one is the regular edition, the other, WHILE THEY LAST, is slightly more expensive and comes with a dvd, which features the creepy and haunting video for "Batcat", a cool animated fan made video for the same song, and a short, very arty, and quite beautiful documentary about the band.

MPEG stream: I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
MPEG stream: Batcat
MPEG stream: I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School

We had never really heard Morker before. Our first experience with them was on a split lp with Draugsang which was too limited and too expensive for us to get enough to list (we actually do have a couple copies in stock, just ask), but we liked what we heard so we decided to get a handful of the new full length, number two from these Swedes it's pretty excellent. We spend a lot of time focusing our energies on things that are damaged and demented and fucked up and bizarre and not always entirely musical, but once in a while it hits the spot, especially metalwise to get a blast of something heavy and brutal and black but still melodic and catchy, and thus we have Hostmakter, a gorgeous collection of melodic black metal, which reminds us alternately of old Dimmu Borgir, Dissection and Dark Tranquility, all bands we most definitely love, and who traffic in a style of black metal that seems to have fallen out of favor, or maybe we've just been too preoccupied with the seedy filthy underbelly of black metal to notice. Whatever the reason, this disc is hitting the spot for sure, each track is epic and hooky and melodic, the vocals still raw and raspy, the guitars still buzzing and frenzied, but those black elements are wrapped around something much more musical, melodies soar, guitars tangle up in Maiden-ish harmonies, there's definitely a power metal element too, the songs are peppered with interludes and breakdowns, arpeggiated clean guitars, doleful piano, all providing brief respite from Morker's epic majestic black bombast. Definitely recommended.

MPEG stream: I Flodens Forsande Brus
MPEG stream: Segertag
MPEG stream: Mitt Arv

This 4 track ep is unfortunately out of print, just a few weeks after getting released into the world. While this will undoubtedly cause consternation for many, the few who will be fortunate enough to grab this record will have a treasure in their hands. Mountains are the NYC duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, both of whom have a couple of solo recordings with Holtkamp's Field Studies album on Type being the most recent. The A side tracks most clearly reflect where Holtkamp took his solo work, with shimmering acoustic guitars spiralling in tricked out electronics that buzz, sing, chime, and fizzle into a minimalist patter of hallowed drone set against their elliptical finger picking. Very nice. But the B side pieces are where Mountains really shine. These two tracks had originally appeared on some micro-edition 3" cd-r thing that probably even disappeared even faster than this 12" will. Here, their guitars slowburn with the constant roar of post-shoegazing luminescence, set languid with a melachonic air. Belong would be a close reference, but there's a lot more sun-flecked shimmer than you get from Belong's narcotic wash. It's beautiful stuff, no matter how you look at it. Limited to 500, but these are the last copies we'll ever get...

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind. So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7": The first of the three, subtitled "Motorheads", features two aQ favorites (as do they all), Mudhoney and Mugstar. Mudhoney tackle "Urban Guerilla" and totally make it their own, so much so, that minus a little chunk of extended droney space rocking in the middle, those not well versed in Hawkwind would certainly be forgiven for thinking it was a Mudhoney original. Mugstar on the other hand are a DEAD ringer for Hawkwind, their sound murky and muddy, squalls of psych guitar, clouds of swirling spaced out FX, droned out jams, all tangled up and slowly unwinding into a long sprawling space rock jamscape. Hawkwind would be proud. The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, with naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!

Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!!

MPEG stream: Bug / Golem
MPEG stream: Breakpoint

Another killer match-up between two different UN-black warriors, and yep, that means Christian black metal, a genre we've become pretty dang obsessed with. This one slipped through the cracks, we've had it for a while, bit for some reason never got around listing it until now. Flaskavsae is one of our favorite of the UN-black hordes (another Flaskavsae split is reviewed elsewhere on this list, teamed with our other favorite, Light Shall Prevail), and these three tracks definite demonstrate why once again. Three murky blasts furious black buzz, the guitars blurred into heaving droney slabs, the programmed drums relentless and machinelike, with awesome off kilter fills, and the vocals a buried monstrous growl, the melodies are epic, the sound sweeping and majestic, there must be keyboards cuz guitars just don't swell like that, or maybe they do, the EEE folks can do fucked up things with sound, the production always as much a part of the sound as the sound itself. This is the first we've heard from Nahum though, but their sound is a perfect compliment to Flaskavsae's, a furious relentless droned out buzz, the drums chaotic and frenzied, the cymbals awesomely loud in the mix, but it's the vocals that turn this into something fucked up and amazing, a howled falsetto screech, doused in reverb and delay, which results in the vocals careening all over the place, overlapping and getting all tangled up, very dubbed out, which makes the whole track sound sort of psychedelic. Nahum also offer up some gorgeous washed out keyboard-heavy breakdowns, all woozy and dreamy, and some super squiggly leads, all draped over the super distorted murky UN-blackened chaos below. Awesome stuff.

MPEG stream: Mighty God
MPEG stream: Playing The Harlot

This one is definitely for the true fans only. The grim, the troo, the obsessive. A double dvd collection designed to give the listener / viewer a glimpse into the soul and spirit of Kanwulf, the man who IS Nargaroth. Through the music of Nargaroth obviously, but also, plenty of more personal stuff, some introspective writing, and lots of Vietnam, but more on that in a second. The first disc, is the live stuff, all shot pretty lo-fi, handheld camcorders, either from the crowd or the side of the stage, the sound super blown out and buzzy, the vocals so high in the mix they nearly swallow up the rest of the music. But the band are tight, the crowds wild, head banging, thrashing, horns held high, recorded live in Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Italy. Having listened to Nargaroth for so long, not only is it weird to see them/him performing live, but also weird to see them playing in what appears to be a school gymnasium, or a small rock club. The music of Nargaroth is so epic and sweeping and majestic, we always envisioned flaming chariots, and dark snowy forests, storm clouds and black skies, so it takes a minute to adjust to the idea that they are in fact an actual band. And even the shit sound quality doesn't detract from the fierce performances. The second disc is where it gets weird and personal, but in doing so, makes this so much more interesting than your run of the mill music dvd. The first section is called "Dead Shoots", one subsection is marked "Private" and is a slide show of band photos, live shots, images of hills, and seas and trees and skies, plenty of candid "dudes at rock clubs" shots, LOADS of photos of Kanwulf, hanging out with other metalheads, lurking in the forest, or sitting on a station wagon in front of his parent's house, intercut with images of Kanwulf when he was in the army, or sporting Vietnam style camo, all set to some neo-classical soundtrack. But then, Kanwulf is obsessed with the Vietnam War, the last record was called Semper Fi after all, and the next section of the dvd, called "'Nam" is nothing but images from the Vietnam War set to the music of Jefferson Airplane and classical music. Weird! But pretty interesting. The next section is called "Live Shoots" and is all clips from the various live shows on he first disc, a slideshow set to Nargaroth songs, not sure what these are for, since the other disc has all the same images LIVE, but still some cool shots. Next up is a section called "Digital Thoughts", personal writings and thoughts from Kanwulf, on making the dvd, and on his development as a person and an artist, very cool and personal, and not at all hung up on the usual grimmer than though stuff. The there's LOTS more Vietnam. First a section called "Swamp Thing", A sort of homemade Vietnam documentary featuring some amazing shots of the war, images of helicopters and soldiers, jungles smothered in smoke, this time set to the Doors' "The End", Hendrix and other sixties rock, with voiceover from Kanwulf (we presume) telling the story of Vietnam, and its affect on him. In the same section, another menu leads us to another section, this one called "Vietnam", where Kanwulf writes extensively on Vietnam, his feelings on the war, and how the war influenced his thinking, feeling and music making, as well as his plans to visit Vietnam to try and understand and experience what went on. There's also a documentary called "No Mexican Tequila Massacre", which is a short film about an aborted Mexican tour, lots of rehearsing, hanging out and drinking, smoking, some jamming, but lots of nothing going on, the guys in the practice space, changing strings, waiting for the show(s) to be confirmed, which they never are. Plus you get to see Kanwulf in Birkenstocks� The final section is called "A Way" and is a surprisingly personal missive about Kanwulf's development as a person from when he started Nargaroth, moving away from hate and emptiness to become more of a real person with real feeling and emotions, scene politics be damned, not at all what you might expect from a black metal legend, but pretty refreshing and heartfelt. The first disc will definitely appeal to true black metalheads, some awesome rare live footage, appropriately lo-fi and grim, thrashing and black, but the second disc turns this into something way weirder, and way more intimate, as Kanwulf constantly states on the dvd, this is not the sort of thing that endears him to 'the scene', sharing and feeling and honesty are not typically selling points for black metal, but then, this is far from a typical black metal dvd. Packaged in a full color cover, with a complete discography (including shirts even!) on the flip side visible through the clear dvd case, full color booklet, with notes, and photos, and strangely the second disc seems to be a dvd-r, while the first disc is a proper factory produced dvd. All region.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Originally released in two editions, one limited to 32 copies, another 19 copies, France's Natural Snow Buildings had arguably created their masterwork, a sprawling two and a half hour epic, that seemed destined to only be heard by those 51 people. But making more at that point was an impossibility, as each one was hand painted, painstakingly assembled, and the magic and mystery of The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun seemed to be lost forever. That is until now. Students Of Decay, spent months putting together this deluxe reissue, which again, was way too limited, with only 500 copies pressed, and is already sold out and out of print from the label. We have 25 copies, and that's all we'll ever have. Some of you might remember the three way split The Snowbringer Cult, which featured the duo of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte, aka Natural Snow Buildings filling two discs with their folky drones and drone drenched folk, one disc a proper NSB release, the other split between each member's solo project, Isengrind and Twinsistermoon. The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun, while ostensibly credited to NSB, plays a bit like The Snowbringer Cult, as it covers all sorts of ground, from fluttery strum and croon, to deep buzzing drone, to drifty druggy spaciness, to motorik kraut jams, to sun dappled forest folk, and every possible stop in between. Makes sense really, as 150 minutes is a lot of sonic space to fill, and the two fill it to overflowing with a luxurious array of gorgeous sounds, from light and airy to dark and brooding, it really seems foolish to go into too much detail, as these will probably disappear in a matter of minutes, but for the uninitiated, it can't hurt to dig a little deeper. The duo dip their toes in reverb drenched sixties female folk, quickly switching gears and unfurling a fifteen minute krautjam constructed from simple metallic percussion, and ominous buzzing drones, before immediately switching back for some ramshackle lo-fi bedroom strum and croon, and then slipping smoothly into a gorgeously blissed out slow motion space drone drift, all glimmering long tones and soft blurred shimmers. And the thing is, no matter what the sound, or what sort of sonic otherworld the duo are exploring, they manage to imbue the sound with innocence and wonder, while seeming to master it completely, and making it their very own. The dronemusic here is epic and understated and utterly divine, the folk and pop parts are gorgeous, catchy, intimate and emotional, and when the two collide, they create something else entirely, and the band are able to take it in any direction, a brief fragment, burning bright and then gone, or a stretched out sprawling epic, simple figures, subtle melodies, allowed to drift and blossom, the pop elements, and the folk elements, transformed into perfect parts of an even more perfect whole. Packaged in a gorgeous fold over black white and yellow cardstock sleeve, adorned with the band's eye popping artwork, inside, a 6 panel black and white insert on thick paper, with liner notes, more wild images and liner notes from Time-Lag's head honcho Nemo. Again, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. ALREADY SOLD OUT AND OUT OF PRINT. THESE ARE THE LAST COPIES EVER!

MPEG stream: Cut Joint Sinews & Divided Reincarnation
MPEG stream: Wisconsin
MPEG stream: Dance Of The Moon & The Sun

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. This is the insanely limited, and pretty pricey, super deluxe version of Natural Snow Buildings' The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun. It was limited to 120 copies. It is out of print. Sold out. We only got a very few of these (as in 5), and will not be able to get more. The deluxe version features normal double disc version, PLUS, 2 more full length cd-r's, and 2 three inch cd-r's for a total of SIX DISCS. The extra discs are housed in a cardstock fold over sleeve, each one hand painted by the band, hand numbered, inside are 4 full color inserts, all of the discs held together by a printed full color obi. WE ONLY HAVE 5 COPIES OF THIS. IT WILL UNDOUBTEDLY SELL OUT IMMEDIATELY. AS IN MERE MINUTES! ONCE THESE ARE SOLD OUT, YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE THE STANDARD, CHEAPER, TWO DISC VERSION. IF YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT THE STANDARD VERSION, AND ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN THE DELUXE $45 VERSION, THEN PLEASE PUT A NOTE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THE ORDER FORM TO THAT EFFECT. Originally released in two editions, one limited to 32 copies, another 19 copies, France's Natural Snow Buildings had arguably created their masterwork, a sprawling two and a half hour epic, that seemed destined to only be heard by those 51 people. But making more at that point was an impossibility, as each one was hand painted, painstakingly assembled, and the magic and mystery of The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun seemed to be lost forever. That is until now. Students Of Decay, spent months putting together this deluxe reissue, which again, was way too limited, with only 500 copies pressed, and is already sold out and out of print from the label. We have 25 copies, and that's all we'll ever have. Some of you might remember the three way split The Snowbringer Cult, which featured the duo of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte, aka Natural Snow Buildings filling two discs with their folky drones and drone drenched folk, one disc a proper NSB release, the other split between each member's solo project, Isengrind and Twinsistermoon. The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun, while ostensibly credited to NSB, plays a bit like The Snowbringer Cult, as it covers all sorts of ground, from fluttery strum and croon, to deep buzzing drone, to drifty druggy spaciness, to motorik kraut jams, to sun dappled forest folk, and every possible stop in between. Makes sense really, as 150 minutes is a lot of sonic space to fill, and the two fill it to overflowing with a luxurious array of gorgeous sounds, from light and airy to dark and brooding, it really seems foolish to go into too much detail, as these will probably disappear in a matter of minutes, but for the uninitiated, it can't hurt to dig a little deeper. The duo dip their toes in reverb drenched sixties female folk, quickly switching gears and unfurling a fifteen minute krautjam constructed from simple metallic percussion, and ominous buzzing drones, before immediately switching back for some ramshackle lo-fi bedroom strum and croon, and then slipping smoothly into a gorgeously blissed out slow motion space drone drift, all glimmering long tones and soft blurred shimmers. And the thing is, no matter what the sound, or what sort of sonic otherworld the duo are exploring, they manage to imbue the sound with innocence and wonder, while seeming to master it completely, and making it their very own. The dronemusic here is epic and understated and utterly divine, the folk and pop parts are gorgeous, catchy, intimate and emotional, and when the two collide, they create something else entirely, and the band are able to take it in any direction, a brief fragment, burning bright and then gone, or a stretched out sprawling epic, simple figures, subtle melodies, allowed to drift and blossom, the pop elements, and the folk elements, transformed into perfect parts of an even more perfect whole. Packaged in a gorgeous fold over black white and yellow cardstock sleeve, adorned with the band's eye popping artwork, inside, a 6 panel black and white insert on thick paper, with liner notes, more wild images and liner notes from Time-Lag's head honcho Nemo.

MPEG stream: Cut Joint Sinews & Divided Reincarnation
MPEG stream: Wisconsin
MPEG stream: Dance Of The Moon & The Sun

For those of you who missed out on the ultra limited Melvins A Senile Animal box set (which is probably most everybody), we managed to get a handful of these super limited comics, by aQ customer Tom Neely, which came in the box along with a belt buckle and a bunch of other stuff. The comic is amazing, inspired by the album, which means it's bizarre and twisted and fucked up and garish and beautiful. For those of you who have yet to see Neely's art (you very well might have and just not known it as he does a lot of commercial stuff too), you're in for a treat, classic and old fashioned, but just a bit tweaked and damaged. This Melvins comic is the tale of a horse, who loses his head, some sort of spectre, plenty of gore and blood and vomiting, a bandaged worm man with a very powerful tongue, being chased by little legged dots, a bar full of vampires and historical figures, a wolf in grandma's clothing, a long journey across a black sea in a rickety rowboat, a strange mountaintop female cyborg, a giant eagle, a city wrapped in living tendrils, more removable heads and a horde of horses. Sure it sounds insane, it's a comic based on a Melvins record!!! The back cover has a funny Melvins parody ad, and the inside back cover has bios of both Neely and the Melvins. If you love the Melvins, you'll probably want one of these, and odds are we won't be able to get more once we sell out.

Nether Dawn is the alter ego of Mr. Antony Milton, who really needs no more alter egos, but what the heck, with each alter ego comes another chunk of gorgeous sound, so we're not complaining. This is not really new, it's just been sitting here waiting to get reviewed, and we've finally gotten around to it, and as is often the case, from the second we threw this on, we were wondering why the heck we waited so long. Whisky Mute-Down begins as a gorgeous crumbling wall of rumbles and drones, of buried melodies and streaks of high end feedback. Noisy, but soft noise, it totally had us wishing it was the only track here and would continue on in the same vein for another hour. But thankfully, the rest of the record has other sonic treasures to offer. A spare guitar drifts above buzz and crackle, of amp buzz and the sound of bad connections and old cords, warm soft whirs spread out in thick waves, sounding a bit like field recordings, far beneath the call of some alien creature rings out, a clattery clanging guitarscape rings out over an almost techno pulse, the beat and the pulsing guitar swaying woozily back and forth, while a second guitar unfurls delicate little high end melodies, a long slow burning distant grinding guitar shimmers beneath glimmering high end, and above bellowing low end, the various layers blurring together like oil and water, offering up various colors and tones, and finally, another minimal dronescape, a doomy riff, wreathed in crackle and stripped to the bone, occasionally rearing up to chug and crunch, but otherwise laying prone, and the buzz and hiss pile up, the whole thing a smoldering sea of distorted drones, decaying before our ears. Worth it for the first track alone, but even more worth it for the rest...

MPEG stream: Evensong Pt. One
MPEG stream: Routes Through Grey Lands

One of our favorite free rock outfits returns, with a sort of homage to another one of our favorites. This live set from 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival finds the No Neck Blues Band offering a sonic hail to brethren in noise, Jazzfinger, or maybe not, who knows what goes on in those guys' heads, maybe they just they just thought writing "For Jazzfinger" on the cover looked cool. And if we try, maybe this NNCK set -does- sound a bit like Jazzfinger, but it also sort of sounds like NNCK. Either way, we're not complaining, since we weren't there, so we're feeling lucky just getting to hear this stuff. Originally released as a super limited, and now out of print cd-r, the set has been all gussied up, resequenced and re-mastered and is a monster. The A side seems to be one loooooong track, creaking and groaning and abstract, grinding slabs of low end growl, speaking-in-tongues vocals, random clatter and clank percussion, a foresty folky tribal primal free for all, but eventually the drums kick in, and the band lock into a murky stoned groove, a simple Can-like beat, and a rumbling bass throb, while the abstract skree above continues to swirl and stumble. Guitars moan and wail, detuned angular melodies unfurl drunkenly, vocals whisper and hiss, like it's some sort of disembodied hellish krautrock, which eventually coalesces into a gorgeous high end dronescape, sounding like a more lo-fi hippie Sunroof!, all that creaking and groaning and wailing woven into brilliant bolts of fiery psychedelia. The flipside begins on more familiar NNCK territory, dense flurries of hypnotic percussion, chanted vocals, shakers and bells, tribal percussion, pizzicato strings, super intense and propulsive. That jam simmers down into a Grateful Dead meets Can groove, super abstract laid back blues, with the band finally living up to their name. Eventually NNCK explode into a druggy expanse of FX drenched psychedelia space rock, that splinters into some aggro free jazz, and finally finishes off in a blaze of effulgent ur-drone glory.

The label goes on and on about how this latest No Neck Blues Band record is a watershed moment, a defining release in their oeuvre, a new sound, a clarity of vision never heard before on past releases, but we have to say we simply don't agree. At this point NNCK are in a privileged position, one they most assuredly earned, a position of power for sure. They just do what they do, theirs a sound that borrows from many sources, but that is distilled into something utterly unique, so yeah, they do what they do, but they do it better than ANYONE else. Period. Maybe that's what the label was actually trying to say before they got bogged down in artspeak. Regardless, this is another fantastic NNCK missive, one that sprawls across lots of genres and sounds, but manages to stay together by force of will and the innate talent of the players who have been honing their craft in this setting, with these players for nearly 15 years. And it shows. The record begins like the rock band equivalent of an orchestra tuning up, guitars twang and detune, percussion clanks and thumps, everything drifts aimlessly, but as the track progresses, the various pieces seem to slowly flow together, a female voices surfaces, and croons over the settling chaos beneath, eventually leaving the chaos to sort itself out, a bit like a more serene forest folk combo, accordions wheeze (or is that a harmonica), guitars shimmer and squiggle, the drummer offers up washes of cymbals and eventually a slow simple stripped down groove, and without even realizing it, the whole mood and sound has shifted, and we're in some twangy meandering moody krautrock slowjam, that builds gradually to a seriously psychedelic crescendo, before the next track explodes with a flurry of skronky horns and maniacal vocalizing (a la Yoko), and woozy slide guitar, that track eventually builds to a strange sort of jazz metal blowout, pounding drums, growled demonic vocals, the slide still slithering all over and those Yoko like vocals still going crazy, definitely the toughest track on the disc. But maybe the most interesting. The rest of the disc slips seamlessly from slow burning outrock sprawl, to propulsive space rock groove, to super minimal scrape and thunk, to wah wah guitar drenched soft pop balladry, to glimmering abstract free jazz freakout, to super tripped out psych rock weirdness, to gorgeous swirling soft focus dronemusic, but the thing is, within those various sounds, NNCK, twist everything all up, adding all kinds of sonic detritus, haunting noises, mysterious rumbles, ghostly voices, droning buzz, swirling ambience, adding extra layers, uncomfortable harmonies, taking perfectly pretty melodies and pulling them apart, in lesser hands, the whole structure would crumble, but NNCK possess only greater hands, perfect to hold it all together, and shape and stretch and form those sounds into something distinctly and utterly No Neck.

MPEG stream: Silurist
MPEG stream: The Coach House
MPEG stream: Ministry Of Voices

You would be right to be skeptical of Nocturnal Emissions, as the long standing project has released a handful of duds amidst a catalogue of mediocre records. HOWEVER, the one exception is Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss, which is not only the best Nocturnal Emissions record, but also one of the most brutal, abrasive pieces of industrial electronics ever, alongside the best that SPK and TG produced back in the day and certainly providing a template for the caustic electro-shock treatments of Wolf Eyes, Prurient, UW Owl, and the like. Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss originally came out on lp in 1983 through Nocturnal Emissions' own Sterile Records and was later reissued by Touch, first on cassette and then on cd in the early '90s. At the time, Nocturnal Emissions was the British duo of Nigel Ayers and Caroline K, the former of whom has helmed the project since the late '80s on his own veering into soft-focus ambient and questionable electronica. Nocturnal Emissions was always much better when Ayers had his foil in Caroline K, although the division of labor was always a bit murky. This album had been envisioned as a vinyl release. with two distinct sides - one being a series of audio collages of overblown noise, distorted media cut-ups, tape loops, and primitive electronics, and the second girded to a series of minimal-wave rhythms with plenty of noise bursts and dead-eyed tonalities. For better or for worse, the two cd reissues of the album have not broken up the album into individual tracks (which are listed in the liner notes), but instead present each side of the lp as a single continuous track. We had hoped that Klanggalerie would remedy this, but alas, the problem remains. That said, this minor quibble doesn't detract from the brutal power of this album, with the first half being what Cabaret Voltaire should have done with all of their Burroughs' inspired cut-ups. Here, maniacal loops of analog distortion and piercing screams corrode into sharply rendered bursts of noise and plenty of deconstructed samples from military commercials and news clippings. The second half is no less blackened, but is far more clinical with the primitive electronic rhythms actually getting sort of groovy from time to time, even as shards of searing noise burst forth. Think early Coil or Fad Gadget. Fucking incredible is what this is. If there's one Nocturnal Emissions record you should get, this is the one.

MPEG stream: Norepinepherine
MPEG stream: Total State
MPEG stream: Education For Consumption

Non Toxique Lost began in the early '80s as a German industrial band that had stuck true to the avant-garde / difficult listening propositions to also come through Throbbing Gristle and Dome. While plenty of other industrialists such as Psychic TV and Einsturzende Neubauten honed their craft for occluded electronics with sinister motives into downright catchy tunes, Non Toxique Lost chose a murky collage strategy for metal bashing, undulating electronic arppegiations, and megaphone vocal barking. Wanton was the first album for Non Toxique Lost, recorded between 1982 and 1984 and released a year later on vinyl. There's an aggressive deconstruction of sound within the primitive synth-punk arrangements which get splattered into amassed distortion from guitar freakouts blowing out of way too small amplifiers on top of lumbering electronic loops, all of which get cut up and mangled on tape. One of the early members of Non Toxique Lost was Achim Wollscheid, who had also begun his solo project of DIY musique concrete called S.B.O.T.H.I. before developing his highly conceptual sound art projects throughout the late '90s. It seems that Non Toxique Lost is still around, although Wollscheid left many years ago. Either way, Wanton is a fascinating document of art-damaged noise from this little known German industrial project. Limited to 300 copies.

MPEG stream: Inschallah
MPEG stream: Condor

An archival slab of blackened buzzing textural dronemusic from Digitalis main man Brad Rose, his incarnation as The North Sea definitely in transition from dark shimmery folk, to intense crumbling glacial heaviness. Maybe this darkness was always lurking just below the surface, but we never saw it coming. the 'new' North Sea is all about sprawling dirgescapes, more dronedirgedrone than freakfolk, it might be guitars, synths, oscillators, who knows for sure, all we know is it's a glorious din, long tones held forever, wreathed in caustic buzz, and machinelike whir, blurred and buzzy and thick, a sort of lo-fi noise drenched Niblock to a certain degree, slathered with fractured effects, swirls of glimmering metallic shimmer. The B-side is a little bit more sedate, but only a little. The crunch is dialed back a bit, but there's still some seriously roiling low end going on, tones tangling and overlapping, overtones, beating the throbbing, a glorious stretch of mesmerizing minimal buzz. Needless to say, more essential listening for the drone-doom-dirge set, but equally appealing wethinks to folks into the latest wave of kraut-drone, Expo '70, Rahdunes, etc. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. We have 20. That's it. Gorgeous packaging too, red ink on silver paper, simple bold design, super thick multi panel fold out sleeve...

Of Montreal sure have come a long way in the decade since their birth. While they began life as the next generation torch carriers for the Elephant 6 scene, their sound has evolved into their own very distinct, eclectic and ambitious colorful pop music that's not afraid to shake asses and lay on lots of dramatic sass in the process. Skeletal Lamping finds them continuing their Sparks like take on grandiose and multipart pop suites with all songs bleeding into each other as Kevin Barnes sings boldly about his sexual desires and curiosities. Barnes for sure sounds like someone who needs to be at the center of attention at all times and his lyrics can often sound like they should be coming from someone half his age but as long as he keeps creating such entertaining and creative pop then we can live with that. And the packaging on both the cd and vinyl is as colorful, elaborate and compelling as the sounds contained inside.

MPEG stream: For Our Elegant Caste
MPEG stream: Plastis Wafers
RealAudio clip: Nonpareil Of Favor

We'll not get too in depth in this review because this puppy is super limited, and they'll most likely be gone before you know it, but this ep from the ever prolific Thee Oh Sees is another solid release on Chris Johanson's Awesome Vistas label (see also the Linda Hagood LP reviewed elsewhere on this list.). While we love their full lengths, Thee Oh Sees really kick out the jams on their shorter format releases. Four songs, all really killer (and they sound really awesome at both speeds!, as we accidentally found out), full of that sixties big beat cavernous murky wall of feedback pop that we love. "Kingsmeat" is all melancholy Farfisa over upbeat rhythms and ringing feedback tones before turning up the Bo Diddley pace for "The Freak Was Clean". "Quadrospazzed" speaks for itself as the real hard-hitting burner here before the almost shoe-gazy "Kids In Cars" winds us down quite nicely. Remember, these are super limited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ aquarius records new arrivals — issue 305 ]