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*0 is the mathematically inclined pseudonym for Japanese puretone artist Nosei Sakata. The name of his project refers to the multiplication of anything times zero equating zero, thus giving you an idea of what is sonically in store on his fourth recording.
Sakata�s first few recordings had been attempts by this Japanese artist to out-muscle Ryoji Ikeda�s sine-wave and bleep constructions, with a great deal of success. Here, his minimalism achieves its purest form... With the exception of the two 1000hz sinewave test tones which bookend this recording, the tones which Sakata uses are so extreme as to be not only outside of our speaker�s frequency range, but also outside the range of human (or at least my) perception. While the only two tones used are the ultrasound frequency of 20200hz and the infrasound frequency of 14hz, he does break from his harsh minimalism on one track to layer these two frequencies together. The prinicple is that when two frequencies such as these are layered together a secondary tone (somewhere smack inbetween the two at around 10000hz) should be audible. The problem is that if the speakers can�t produce the frequencies, the secondary frequencies can't be heard. A noble concept, even if it doesn't really work for us puny mortals / puny stereos.
Very nice! The lovely, minimal vellum packaging offers very little in the way of liner notes and gives nary a hint of the sounds contained inside, but one thing we do know for sure is that this is the debut from +/- aka James Balayut and Patrick Ramos. And if
French avant-rock trio (one member each on "electriques", "acoustiques", and "electroniques") whose instrumental explorations seem to stem from the tradition of bands like the late great '70s experimentalists This Heat. Indeed, Zero Zero Zero feature former members of the legendary but obscure Magmoid prog-rock weirdo outfit Shub-Niggurath, a favorite of ours. It's nice to know that these folks are just as adventurous and talented as they were in the '80s, without sounding remotely dated in any way.
Aidan Girt, drummer from Godspeed You Black Emperor and the man behind Exhaust, has a new side project. Gritty, atmospheric tunes laid out with hip-hop and down-tempo electronica beats give "Droopy Butt Begone!" (I know, a regretful album title, there seem to be a lot of those lately) a feel akin to Village of Savoonga's "Score" but with a bit more kick, ie: beats. Works pretty well, although the voice samples of pointless crazy guy rambling (a la Godspeed) are a bit unnecessary.
1/3 Octave Band's sound is a slowly unfolding haze of purposeful minor key guitar strum that dissolves into rumbling guitar shimmer and warm chordal washes of hum and fuzz and occasional electronic buzz. Buried in the gossamer layers of sound are
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What with the Heavenly Vs Satan re-issue, the five Messthetics 70s/80s UK compilations and this 14 Iced Bears collection, it seems to be high time for a UK bubblegum punk/pop resurgence. So how 'bout hopping aboard this bouncy Brit buggy. "In The Beginning"
Split cd between L.A.s legendary sludgesters 16 and the completely maniacal Today Is The Day. 16 (who you can check out at the Sight Sounds Liberties festival Jan 31 if you live in SF) have been around forever, and their sound hasn't changed a whole lot,
More southern fried, revivalist, back woods countrified gothic stomp from probably the only band trafficking in such sounds (outside of MAYBE Nick Cave). This one's live, and sounds fierce as fuck, but still moody and dark and really, really creepy. Like
We've long been champions of Mr. David Eugene Edwards, in both of his swampy apocalyptic folk ensembles, first the late great 16 Horsepower, and then later, his more personal, and seemingly more spiritual Woven Hand. As long time readers of the aQ list know, Edwards is like a modern day revivalist, conjuring up demons and darkness, death and pestilence, but simultaneously light and hope and sometimes even redemption. With a sound that shifts from stripped down and intimate, to dense and heavy and ominously rocking, the music of Edwards is easily some of the most powerful and passionate we've heard. Woven Hand played the aQuarius SXSW showcase, and our first impression was holy shit, these guys are HEAVY. And loud. And so intense. In fact, considering how many actual metal bands and super heavy rock bands played that showcase, it's pretty remarkable that WH might still have been the heaviest band in the lineup.
Secret South is one of our favorite 16HP records, originally released way back in 2000, and out of print for AGES, this was their first record after leaving their major label, and thus seems to be infused with an extraordinary amount of anger and darkness. This record is FIERCE, the classic 16HP lineup is on fire, the vocals incredible and impassioned, the guitars raw and rough, the drumming powerful, the bass thick and enveloping, strings moaning and singing, but the magic of 16HP is how all those elements are woven together, it's difficult to imagine a mere band could evoke this sort of ominous atmosphere, this sort of dread and darkness, this is so much more than music, it's energy in sound, it's sweat and blood rendered in notes and melodies. A swampy mysterious gothic folk, but infused with elements of classic bluegrass, dramatic cabaret, plenty of doom and gloom... You can check the aQ site for other reviews where we rave on and on and on about both 16HP and Woven Hand, needless to say, both bands are all time favorites around here, and Secret South ranks right up there as one of the best by either.
Both the cd version and the lp comes with a bonus dvd featuring the whole record in 5.1 surround sound DVD audio.
WARNING: You -should- play this loud. But still, be careful! Make sure any of your easily-aggravated housemates aren't asleep. Move breakable objects out of the way. Take your heart medication. All reasonable precautions before subjecting yourself to the might of 16-17's newly reissued Gyatso.
The music of Switzerland's 16-17 has been called industrial free jazz. And it's certainly got the swarming, squealing saxophones of the most freaked out free jazz we've heard. But with its industrial/metallic elements, the BRUTAL trance-inducing grind of martial drumming and guitar chuggery, maybe "free" jazz isn't the word. How 'bout "totalitarian jazz"? When we previously highlighted the two-cd Early Recordings collection of 16-17's '80s output, we described the band as the "Gods of ultra extreme hardcore free jazz post punk whatthefuck". Ok, that's about right.
Well, Gyatso, originally released in 1994 on Kevin Martin's long gone Pathological imprint (home to Martin's projects like Techno Animal, God, and Ice, as well as crucial discs by Oxbow, Peter & Caspar Brotzmann, Terminal Cheesecake, Zeni Geva, etc.) was even more insane than the stuff on Early Recordings, being to us the pinnacle of 16-17's recorded existence. The thing is, this album takes their earlier excesses into a whole new realm, finally getting their music the heavy duty production treatment it deserved. It's about the heaviest "jazz" ever! Basically, imagine Godflesh teamed up with Peter Brotzmann and this is about what you'd get. The aggressive, constantly-escalating tension of machine-gunning opener "Attack-Impulse" pretty much wipes the floor with all other contenders, going beyond the likes of Zorn's Painkiller or fellow Swiss maniacs Alboth! It simply kills. Having done so, for the rest of the disc 16-17 make sure you stay good and dead with an expansive onslaught of repetitive, rigid rhythms and psychedelic skree-scapes, with brassy bass drone and high-end sax skronk swimming in an ominous electronic miasma. A couple extra-noisy remixes are included at the end to wrap things up in the most extreme manner possible. (These appeared on the original version too.)
The trio responsible for making this masterwork consisted of Alex Buess (screaming saxophones and bass clarinet), Markus Kneubuhler (guitar, electronics and tapes), and the relentless Knut Remond on drums. Also, this disc features a couple very special guests: on utterly sick, thuddering bass, there's Ben "G.C." Green of (indeed) Godflesh fame. And providing electronic samples, Pathological head honcho Kevin Martin.
This essential reissue has been digitally remastered by Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers), and comes with a thick booklet of extensive new liner notes based on interviews with Buess and Martin, discussing the history of the band. We were fascinated to learn that Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine was such a big fan of 16-17 that back in 1995, he actually invited Alex Buess to work with him on the (still unrealized) follow up to Loveless! Who would have guessed? Apparently Alex spent a month in the studio with MBV, without much to show for it unfortunately... though we'd be still interested to hear what they were up to..
But, it surely couldn't be anything like this, there's nothing better as far as "ultra extreme hardcore free jazz industrial" or whatever is concerned!!
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Swiss jazzcore group lead by saxophonist Alex Buess, with production assistance from Techno-Animal's Kevin Martin, contribute four tracks to the Digital Hardcore label. Strangely, not as brutal as some of their past work (like the amazing Gyatso cd) but still brilliant, similiar in some ways to DHR's Shizuo. Recommended.
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A couple of copies of this 1989 lp found their way out of the hidden corners of one of our distributors' warehouses... 16-17, who recently released an ep on Digital Hardcore, are a Swiss outfit led by horn player Alex Buess, who unleash a seemingly never-ending avalanche of sax squeals and skronks on top of bleating electronics and high-octane drum machine arrhythmia. Intense! (and, you're not likely to see this again!)
Judah Bauer takes a break from his role as axe slinger with Jon Spencer to once again indulge his 20 Miles desire to channel the gaunt ghosts of the Stones. Not a great departure from his work in the Blues Explosion, this is just kinda average blues rock that can't decide whether to fire things up or bring it dooown, and as a result falls flat at both. The songs on Keep It Coming just sound like those of a lackluster bar band coming up short in distinct personality, genuine grit, and hard-livin' attitude... some of the key ingredients for prime rockin' blues tunes.
The second release from this San Francisco pop group unveils a looser, much more confident presence with an added dash of pop bombast. Brings to mind a hybrid of REM and - as with their previous release - the Throwing Muses with its well-executed, slightly twisted melodies, slinky guitars, and varied tempos... not to mention the very Stipe-esque male and Hersh-ish female vocals.
The seminal experimental funk outfit 23 Skidoo has finally re-released their mid-'80s single "Coup." Not long ago the Chemical Brothers sampled the funky rhythm on "Coup", but avoided giving 23 Skidoo any money by re-programming the rhythm digitally, which
23 Skidoo's music lies somewhere between the sonic experimentation found in the primitive electronics of early Industrial Culture (especially Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, and early Current 93) and the spartan New York funk of Liquid Liquid and ESG. 23 Skidoo themselves said it best when they defined their sound as "Urban Gamelan" (using this term to title one of their albums).
On this 12", the a-side "Coup" actually falls a little flat in relation to their preceding work, as the angular slap bass lines and punchy rhythmic stabs are far too obvious for 23 Skidoo's bizarre production. However, "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea" finds the group at their finest with a simple dark bass line driving through complex percussion and a haunted trumpet floating in the distance. This puts contemporary postrock/electronica darlings like Fridge and Four Tet to shame! DJs, please pick this up.
You may be familiar with hyperbole like "this is one of my favorite records" popping up throughout the our reviews and you may wonder if that declaration really means anything. Obviously, there are many of us who write this list with lots of opinions as to
While electronica darlings like Andrew Weatherall, The Chemical Brothers, and Gilles Peterson all proclaim "Coup" as the pinnacle of 23 Skidoo's catalogue, I boldly mutter "Hogwash! 'Seven Songs' is easily 23 Skidoo's best work!" 23 Skidoo recorded this album during a three day period in 1981 with production by "Tony, Terry, and David" (aka Genesis P-Orridge, Peter Christopherson, and Ken Thomas). With those three behind the mixing board, 23 Skidoo obviously enjoys a similiar spirit of sonic experimentation as invoked by the founders of Industrial Culture. Yet, 23 Skidoo also employs the death-disco of PiL, A Certain Ratio, and Gang of Four, often played on homemade junkyard instruments built to replicate Indonesian gamelan. This bizarre hybridization of styles has few if any parallels, but 23 Skidoo's eclecticism and experimentation are never so alien as to not also be funky, melodic, and infectiously catchy.
Just as Windy places Os Mutantes near the top of her musical pantheon, Andee proudly proclaims his infatuation with Hanoi Rocks, and Allan drools over all things Magma, I say that if you're at all like me, you won't be disappointed by 23 Skidoo's "Seven Songs"!
Originally released on LP back in 1984 on Illuminated Records, and only seeing a few seconds of shelf life as a cd re-issue in the early '90s, "Urban Gamelan" is the aptly named third album from 23 Skidoo, back again on cd! This British trio developed one of
"Urban Gamelan" finds 23 Skidoo addressing two distinct aesthetics, the first being their post-apocalyptic funk (which had been previously mapped out on their first album "Seven Songs") and the second emphatically pronouncing their faux-gamelan sound. The album in fact begins with a remix / reworking of their hit single "Coup," which has had the infamy of getting ripped off by the Chemical Brothers. Driven by counterpoints of bass and distant bursts of haunted trumpets, the first half of the album recalls some of Pop Group's dub fuckery, with an inclination for a more natural funk. 23 Skidoo then drops all of the electric instruments for an exhibition of their complete gamelan repetoire. If you ever thought that Einsturzende Neubauten or Test Dept. needed to get their groove on, then you definitely need to check out 23 Skidoo. The 23 Skidoo reissues may be some of the most important to come out this year. It will be well worth your while to check these out!!!
Delicate post-rockisms falling much closer to the Louisville sound (especially For Carnation) than the Chicago fusion sound. Comes in a gorgeous letter-pressed sleeve.
2nd Gen is the work of Manchester's Wajid Yaseen, whose blistering shards of electro-shock hip-hop have graced a good number of Mille Plateaux's "Electric Ladyland" compilations alongside Alec Empire, Techno Animal, and Fever. "Irony Is" finds itself
Latest from these San Francisco psychedelic space rockers, and yet another record that has us wondering what it is exactly that keeps these guys from being huge. Sure here at aQ, we sell TONS of 3 Leafs records, but they've yet to start getting the sort of broader attention bestowed on many of their spacey / psychedelic brethren. Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, White Hills, Burnt Hills, etc. If you're into ANY of those bands, or just into space rock and psych rock and have somehow managed to miss out on these guys, now's the time to remedy that. And Canal Smarts is as good a place to start as any. With the band expanded to a sextet, including Anthony from Ezeetiger, Tim Cohen of the Fresh & Onlys, and Chris Cones, Canal Smarts starts things off with a sidelong slowburn sprawl, that might be the best thing we've heard from these guys yet. A thick crunchy bassline is looped and sent drifting into the ether, the drums are super minimal, a skittery shuffle, the guitars aren't riffing or chugging, instead they're emitting clouds of vaporous drift, of crystalline shimmer, and blurred chordal whir, the whole thing laced with intercepted cell phone calls, of what sounds like whirring organs, the mix heavily panned so sounds seems to be drifting from speaker to speaker, there are vocals too, some ethereal and angelic, others reverbed and croony, and throughout, there seems to be a miasma of random sounds, voices, percussion, strange production, random FX, a heady blurred swirl of droned out psychedelia, that seems to us like one of those long form Miles Davis space-jazz mega jams reimagined via modern psychedelic drug rock. There also seems to be a bit of Necks going on, that same sort of super minimal looped jazziness, mesmerizing and hypnotic, repetitive and circular, the sidelong epic unfurling as a slowly building sonic smoldering, that spends its second half winding down, becoming more spare and sparse, the rhythms fragmenting, much of the effects heavy atmospheres dissipating, leaving something almost poppy, with some proper vocals, a sort of slow motion psych pop drift, that disappears into a cloud of tangled melody and gradually fading shimmer. And that's just the A side!
The flipside starts off with the oddly titled "Guacamole Window" (the band seem to have a thing for goofy titles), a surprisingly propulsive jam, urgent busy bassline over a skittery rhythmic shuffle forming the framework, while the rest of the band fill the rest of the space, with wildly looped samples, dense swirls of FX, clipped vox, plenty of industrial whir, more vocals, which give the song an almost old school post punk vibe, there are tangles of psyche guitar in there too, but so doused in effects they barely sound like guitars, spidery melodies underpin the proceedings, and near the song's end, the guitars grow more distorted and angular, the bass even buzzier and busier, the vocals sent careening back and forth, distorted and dubbed out, the song finishing off in a blaze of wild sonic chaos. And then finally, the comparatively low key title track finishes things off, with a slithery funky bassline, plenty of heavily effected percussion, and more vocals, another chunk of abstract psych pop, that seems to slowly coming apart, a dubbed out bit of psychedelic minimalism, that mixes classic melodies with fluttery dubbed out effects, guitars drift in and out, the whole thing delightfully druggy and dreamy, and the perfect spacey wind-down.
Yet another kick ass record from 3 Leafs, with apparently another one on the way any day now! We can't recommend these guys, or this record, highly enough, especially for all of you into spacey psych (and we know that's a LOT of you), and who knows, maybe this will be the record that finally pushes them to the next level. But heck, if not this one, maybe the next one, or the next one, or the next one...
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, each one hand numbered!
Oooh. Breathtaking stuff here for those who like their music to have a hazy, vague, mysterious aura, and to combine delicate indie-rock "pop" elements (moody vocals, slow-motion melody) with more experimental, fragmented structures and textures... It's the work of a four-piece outfit from Italy, who immerse their murky, mostly instrumental post-rock electro-acoustic playing in droney field recordings, blurring the boundaries, with tree frogs or crickets, and what sounds like hissing, escaping gasses, and other noises that require some imagination to describe playing an important role alongside more obvious instruments like guitars and drums and turntables. There's a definite Jewelled Antler feel, that sort of organic, wandering-in-the-woods, letting-our-ears-find-the-way songmaking process, but with more palpable tension, bringing in a bit of the percussive skitteriness of fellow Italians and Hapna labelmates Sinistri/Starfuckers. We can compare this with lots of other things we love: Radian meets Richard Youngs? Kemialliset Ysatvat teamed up with Tape? Blithe Sons, Larsen, Sigur Ros, Village Of Savoogna, Dean Roberts... we're reminded in ways of all of 'em.
A truly gorgeous album that has the potential to appeal to a lot of different tastes, finding the wonderfully, naturally imperfect intersection of song and improv and field recording drone. This being their second release (first for Hapna, who've released this in the Swedish label's usual nice slim-sleeve packaging), we're going to have to track down their previous one... just as soon as A Year Of The Aural Gauge Operation's sheer dreaminess lets go its hold on our thoughts.
With Kruder & Dorfmeister and Thievery Corporation striving for the lowest common denominator, trip hop hasn't been an arena of adventurous music for many years now. It could be due to hip hop's increasing appetite for eccentric production (see the latest Missy Elliot record, Anticon, Chocolate Industries, etc), which has diminished the interest in instrumental hip hop (a slightly
Simply subtitled "Short Stories by 310," "Nothing To See Here" lives up to its name as a series of short tracks culled from processed field recordings of waves crashing, creaking floors, crickets, Southern gospel call-and-response choirs, distant church
This is post rock. Nothing more, nothing less. Instrumental? Of course. Sure it's lovely, but we've heard it all before. And just because you play quiet music, doesn't mean it can't be imbued with some sort of intensity and fire, some sort of desperate need to share the sounds you're creating. The problem here is a lack of passion. The lack of any sort of joy to be playing music.
It's sexless and emotionless and hollow sounding. Sure it's well played and technically proficient and compositionally interesting, but I think the title sums it up nicely, they're just playing music.
Been hearing about this band for a while now. And I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. But this record pretty much erases all doubt from my mind. Crushing, pummelling low-fi math metal with lots of super complex arrangements, some serious riffage and some almost-catchy songs! Another band with the pointless guitar/drums/vocals/NO BASS lineup, but they manage to overcome the handicap of being a BASS-less heavy-rock band and whip up a minimal, spastic, sludgy and brutally lowend masterpiece.
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One of the cd-r releases from Phthalo with an edition of 250, 4mod3 is the work of SF electronica genius Kit Clayton. Recorded in early 1999, "A Translation of Simpilicity" is a precursor to the neo-dub mastered on Clayton's albums for Scape. Setting up what could be an aquatic virtual sound arena, Clayton's highly processed glitches float to the surface with all of the erratic behaviour of air bubbles around reverberant sonar-dub tones and hypnotic downtempo rhythms. Brilliant as always.
We've never been much for musicals. Sure Jesus Christ Superstar had its moments. So did Godspell. And Hair. Hell, some of us even saw Annie and Evita when we were kids. But musicals definitely just seem to rub us the wrong way. Overly dramatic and hammy, the songs cloying and annoyingly earwormy. But then there's this. A live action motion picture musical, conceived of, and written by, none other than Dr. Seuss! A twisted Technicolor fantasy, the story of a young boy who hated practicing the piano, and the evil piano teacher who kidnaps him, and 499 other children, to play his insidious tune on a custom built 5000 key piano, and who also kidnaps and brainwashes the boy's mother, only to be rescued (spoiler alert) by a friendly sympathetic plumber! The movie was a only a middling success when it was first released in 1953, as it turned out to be a bit too scary for children (it's practically psychedelic as well), and thus ended up a cult classic, with viewings playing out like Rocky Horror screenings, the crowd singing along and reciting the dialogue along with the characters. The interesting thing is, that much of the music composed for the film was cut from the final edit, and when we originally carried the single disc version of this soundtrack way back when, it was woefully incomplete. But this right here is as about as complete as it gets, delivering not only the soundtrack as it's heard in the film, but also alternate versions, composer sketches, preproduction material, instrumental orchestral tracks, and most excitingly of all, the soundtrack as it was originally conceived and composed, with all the original cues, songs, ballets, and more. It's fantastical and over the top: sumptuous '50s orchestral arrangements meet soaring swoonsome strings meet marching band numbers and of course there are the various numbers sung in loopy Dr. Seussian rhymes, it's pretty far out, a twisted Seussian musical, that even removed from the incredible visuals, still sounds so fantastic.
Originally, the movie was planned to be a vehicle for Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby (as the evil Dr. T and the plumber, respectively... how crazy would that have been?!), but they ended up casting relative unknowns, and the story itself was both an anti-Hitler allegory and an all encompassing anti authoritarian manifesto (focused specifically on the looming threat of the atomic bomb), but all of that stuff was very subtle, hidden underneath clever wordplay, a fantastical plot, and incredible costumes and sets. If you haven't seen it, you should, it's fun and funny and freaky, often compared to The Wizard Of Oz too, for its whole "It was all just a dream... Or was it???" premise, but all told, it's definitely the music that seals the deal, composed by Frederick Hollander, it's creative and inventive and playful and occasionally over the top, occasionally sweeping and dramatic, but always totally mesmerizing and catchy, whether goofy and fun and frolicky, or ominous and sinister.
First check out "Ten Happy Fingers", that's the song Dr. T plans on having his kidnapped children play on the giant piano, it's super catchy, and that melody resurfaces throughout, but quickly, the soundtrack shifts, and the orchestra begins to weave gorgeous soundscapes of shimmery strings, and moaning horns, classic soundtrack stuff for sure, epic and majestic and darkly moody, sweeping and soaring, lovely and dreamy and mysterious, there are ballads, "Many Questions" is all torch songy, "Hypnotic Chant" sounds like a classic movie musical duet, but just a little bit twisted, it is the part where Dr. T is hypnotizing the mother after all! Then there's Dr. T's "Do Re Mi" where he sings about his favorite note, which is of course ME. Probably the most famous song is "Dungeon Shlim Shlam" also known as "The Dungeon Ballet", which is one of the best parts of the movie, where all the NON piano players are sent to a dungeon to play, well "What other instruments are there??", so they end up playing all sorts of fantastical made up instruments. "The Dressing Song" is one of the wackier tracks, and the one with the most obviously Seussian lyrics, "Get Together Weather" is another track with Seuss heavy wordplay, and so it goes.
We could go track by track by track, but it's all just so good. Old timey for sure, but a lot of this stuff definitely sounds timeless. And the extras, WOW. The alternate versions are definitely worthwhile, and the liner notes go into extraordinary detail about just how they differ, and why there are multiple versions. And then there are the orchestral tracks, which are gorgeous, so lush and lovely and beautifully orchestrated, but it's the composer sketches and pre production material that we find ourselves listening to more than we expected, low fidelity recordings, very scratchy, but so lovely, just solo piano versions of the various tracks, which speaks to their timelessness, even sans orchestra and vocalists, these songs are incredible, and those skeletal versions definitely offer a unique glimpse into the process. And then of course, for folks who just want to listen to the songs EXACTLY the way they are in the movie, there is a soundtrack cut, with all the extras and cut songs and alternate versions removed, so it plays just like the film.
So incredible, and incredibly curated. A true labor of love. The liner notes are extensive and super interesting, the story of the composer, of the film, and most impressively, track by track notes about each song's placement, and inspiration, and what scene it accompanies in the film. Tons of photos and anecdotes and pretty much anything and everything you could ever want to know about what is quite possibly one of the most enchantingly dreamy AND disturbingly nightmarish kids' films ever. And most definitely one of our all time faves!
Detroit's 500 Ft. Of Pipe are another new band of hard-rockin' hopefuls in the crowded stoner rock arena, and they are better than most. What with their Motor City pedigree, they align more with Stooges-fans Monster Magnet than with Kyuss (Kyuss being the most
Not to be confused with the identically named "ladband" we discovered while trying to look up info on this one on the internet -- no, this 5ive are no boyband, they're a Boston psychedelic-doom-core duo making their cd debut after releasing one amazingly heavy
Not to be confused with the identically named "ladband" we discovered while trying to look up info on this one on the internet -- no, this 5ive are no boyband, they're a Boston psychedelic-doom-core duo making their cd debut after releasing one amazingly heavy
It takes a lot of...well guts maybe, to be a fucking ultra-tight, super brutal grind metal powerhouse and to purposefully alienate/annoy a huge legion of possible fans by not taking your metal seriosly enough: by telling jokes, talking about cocks,
This is record number two from the Rats (following 'Fanning the Flames of Fire', a joint release between Caroline and Chicago's Up Jumps the Devil) and it's a doozy. Imagine the spazz inflicted genre hopping of Mr. Bungle, only more black metal and Venom, more Thin Lizzy, more comedy and more like your older hesh brother that's been working at the 7-11 since he dropped out of high school. The jokes are funny (kind of) and the music is punishing and furiously brutal (when it's not silly and moronic). With song titles like "Gary Drug Abusey", "Uncle Tom's of Finland", "Paper Thin Lizzy", "Straight Up Comedy Grind" and an 80's metal cover of the theme song to Beverly Hills 90210 (with a 90210 sample poking fun at fellow midwestern grinder Weasel Walter -- he of the Flying Luttenbachers, Lake of Dracula and Hatewave, among others), you might be inclined to pass off 7KDR as a novelty item -- but take out the comedic element, and you'd have a hellish, brutal metal record, better than most of their more serious minded contemporaries. I mean, if they dropped their comedy schtick and just played straight up grind/metal, they would be huge. Probably on Relapse, and selling hundreds of thousands of records. But thanks to those guts, they're on tUMULt, and Toyo and they're liable to sell more than a thousand records!!! Fans of Anal Cunt, Pig Destroyer, Drop Dead, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Dying Fetus, Bathtub Shitter, Fuck...I'm Dead, Mr. Bungle, Faxed Head and Neil Hamburger will love this.
On tour with Modest Mouse, fellow Pacific Northwest pop heroes.
86 is a local quartet who play a down home concoction of sweetly sincere male harmonies over a rollicking twangy rock backdrop, made with chiming strummed guitars and fingerpicked banjo. Eschewing pretentiousness, their lyrics instead celebrate the mundane
After a couple singles and a stellar EP, Chicago art-punks The 90 Day Men finally release their debut album. And it's chock full of jerky rhythms, lo-fi guitar screech and fake British accents. Judging from the cover art, it seems like they're going for the cute boy band aesthetic, but the recording is nothing short of awful and the dynamics of the songs suffer because of it. The songs are so good, but the recording is so distracting. See them live first.
Debut solo album from The Cardigans' Nina Persson produced / recorded by AQ fave Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse. Not as catchy and poppy as the Cardigans and not as delicate and hyper-produced as Sparklehorse, but still really really good. We loved the
Essentially this limited double 10" set collects all of the tracks that didn't make it on the ACR "Early" vinyl but were featured on the cd.
A Certain Ratio, who took their name from a lyric off Brian Eno's flawless pop album Taking Tiger Mountain, began their career alongside fellow Mancunians Joy Division back in the late '70s, crafting a sound that evolved through the bleak references of punk
In addition to the first disc which collects many of their best songs (although hardcore ACR fans might take issue with some of the selections), what's extra nice about this reissue are the b-sides and rarities that comprise the second disc. Those of us who missed out the first time around and are perhaps only familiar with the ACR tracks on the wonderful In the Beginning There Was Rhythm compilation will be surprised to hear that the driving dance-iness of those tracks were balanced out by the decidedly more gloomy sound typical of Joy Division's dark and angular choppiness. Far more punk than dance. Another fine case of a band's demos and rarities being a valuable good listen, instead of being collected for collectors' sake. Highly recommended!
A straight mixed CD of '70s funk classics from the techno-boffin turned drum 'n' bass innovator A Guy Called Gerald, featuring Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Cymande, Slave, War, Phoebe Snow, Barry White, Mtume, Kool & The Gang, and many more. One of the discs is Gerald's mix, the other is an un-mixed selection of some of Gerald's favorite tracks.
A drum & bass styled outing for this famed electronica producer-guy (David Bowie!).
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As featured in the latest Bananafish magazine, this Australian artist created this cd using only the sounds made by a Volkswagen.
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We asked beloved AQ-reader Douglas Mosurak to say a few words about Andee's band's new record:
"October 22, 1996: Bay Area rock trio A Minor Forest stop indie rock dead. Their new double LP on Thrill Jockey is so incredible, and subsequently so complete, that no other records of its kind need to be produced anymore. Lesser bands of their stripe are currently being petitioned to break up immediately to save embarrassment. And while some people will miss, like, June of 44 or the Archers of Loaf for a little while, with the proper exposure to Flemish Altruism, they'll forget all about it. AMF manage to piece together everything good about every post-Big Black and every post-Heroin outfit into a seamless, epic sound; fairly dense, deeply emotional and thoroughly human. They have the sense of humor required to lift it off, too. Some of their songs prefer to hide in the corner; some lunge for your throat. Their style is such that their original ideas fill in with ones borrowed from their rich lineage in such a manner that pays tribute without disrespect. It's a thoroughly engaging sound that I'd rank up there with the Bitch Magnet discography, with the Bastro LPs, with the Gore records, with the cream of the Gravity crop, even with the Shellac album. Best rock record of 1996, and currently outweighing all proposed rock concepts until the close of the millenium. Buy two. Wow."
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Simply put, this may be the last bastion of rock on Thrill Jockey, before they devolve into a purely electronic/jazz label. Sure we may be boasting a little, because A Minor Forest is our very own Andee Connors' band. But this truly is a great record of delicate math rock instrumentations executed with violent precision. AMF again spared no expense with the exquisite packaging!
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A year or so after the demise of A Minor Forest, comes this, a fairly comprhensive collection of impossible-to-find tracks from 7s, 10s, and compilations, as well as unreleased tracks from way back (2 or 3 from the 1991 demo). Also includes remixes from Loren Chasse (Id Battery), Dave Cerf (sound artist/voice mail terrorist) and Lesser, a bunch of sound experiments, some practice space recordings, a rejected(!) score for a straight-to-video zombie nun movie, a kick ass version of the Little River Band's 'Lady', and more!
