[ aquarius records of the week ]

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Showing results 251 through 300 of 1358.

"Opto Files" is the surprising combination of the Pole-esque neo-dub work of Denmark's Opiate and the clinically clicked rhythms of Noto (here calling himself Alva Noto, although there hasn't been any discernable difference between the Noto and Alva Noto projects). While Noto has supplied his trademarked glitchs, it is Opiate who offers a wide spectrum of color to Noto's typically

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This limited edition cd ep was released by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition "010101: Art in Technological Times". Carsten Nicolai (Noto) and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) did a three-hour set as part of the opening of the Both the digipak design and the sounds on the cd lean towards the Raster-Noton aesthetic -- minimal clicks and cuts style, starting with a pleasant insectoid buzz and gradually adding layers of crackle and drone (and what sounds like crickets chirping or frogs croaking!). As the piece progresses, these "synthetic late summer night" sounds are augmented by high, wavering electronic tones. Really a gorgeous listen! This disc is apparently only available at the SFMOMA store, as well as locations in Berlin, London and Tokyo -- and here at Aquarius, which was nice of the SFMOMA people. Get it while you can...

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Here's the much anticipated cd reissue of this way-too limited Alvarius B album which came and went on vinyl in a matter of days early in 2011. Alvarius B is the solo project of Alan Bishop, better known as one of the Sun City Girls - a project which dissolved after over twenty years following the death of drummer and fellow provocateur Charles Goucher. The Girls (a trio rounded out by Bishop's brother Richard) were specialists in frustratingly brilliant psychedelic-punk, damaged with free jazz, Southeast Asian pop, and fucked-up beat poetry. They were notorious for their designed lack of editorial constraints in situating brilliantly over-charged weirdo-pop melodic crescendos often hybridizing the likes of Ennio Morricone and Vietnamese songwriter Trinh Cong Son next to an uncomfortably misogynistic rant from Alan Bishop's slimy Bukowski parody as Uncle Jim. Even the most die-hard Sun City Girls fans who could stomach and perhaps grow to love their confrontational affronts will undeniably say that it's Torch Of The Mystics or 303,003 Crossdressers From The Rig Veda that are the masterpieces of borderless songwriting. So with the Girls no more, where would Alan Bishop take his own work? The Sir Richard Bishop records have been uniformly brilliant in their fiery elliptical fingerpicking, exploding the Takoma handbook; and Alan has often given off the appearance of being a trickster figure, presenting himself as a minstrel with an immense emotional range only to pull back the mask to reveal a devilish, blackened heart intent on causing misery upon all who hear. With all of this as a preamble, we can say that Alan has followed where the Sun City Girls ended their career on Funeral Mariachi, with this gorgeous record in the form of Baroque Primitiva. The album is rich with covers, although an Alan Bishop cover would certainly amount to a delirious transfiguration. The man has long been obsessed by Ennio Morricone, and this expertise has been applied to some of the best compendiums of Morricone's best work during the '60s and '70s. And 6 of the albums 12 songs are attributed to Morricone, or "Maestro Padre Supremo" as Bishop describes him in the liner notes. These songs enjoy the lilting yet complex melodies that Morricone had been so known for, with Bishop crooning all of the wordless oohs and ahhs that Morricone had originally penned for a female vocalist. Bishop has long been known for his ability to hit sharp falsettos in the Girls. Even though he does bend many of the notes towards atonality, he is quite reverential towards the Morricone text. In fact, the contrast between Morricone's ecstatic songs and the many cracks in Bishop's deliberately lo-fi production (think Sebadoh's four-track recordings with just multi-tracked voice, guitar and chord organ) serves to heighten the drama of these recordings. There are a couple of Bishop originals, "Humor Police" is very much a manic carnavalesque number and "Well Known Stranger" is a classic downer jam of strum and vocal mope that sounds like it could be a lost Neil Young tune, but done way better. The two other covers on the album are also quite noteworthy: the only song to emerge from his aborted album of John Barry covers in the form of "You Only Live Twice" and one hell of jubilant romp through the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." This is very nicely packaged in the form of a 30 page hardback book, featuring various close-ups of the nude mandala artwork photographed by Kristen Anderson, to sweeten the deal. Already proving to be one of the best albums of 2011. So don't let the cd pass you by, if you didn't have the good fortune of getting hold of the vinyl already.

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A spectacular release from Tzadik's Composer series! Maryanne Amacher is a reclusive sound sculptor who constructs the aural equivalent of rust to be heard in the reverberant spaces of cathedrals. The sonorities constructed out of mutilated recordings of bells, tape noise, and lots of highly amplified alien noises that would normally be on the quiet side of inaudible. A beautifully cromulant release.

Canadian zine printed in an edition of 1000 numbered copies. Interviews with Jim O'Rourke, Fly Pan Am, Loren Mazzacane Connors, '60s furntiture designer Verner Panton. Comes with a 7" featuring Loren Mazzacane Connors and Ci Dy.

More than ten years old now, this cool collaboration finally gets released on vinyl!! When this was originally recorded, the Powerbook improv ensemble was a relatively new music performance hybridization that was having trouble finding any sort of tangible success in attempting to bring the fluidity of free-jazz improvisation to the digital clickery of live hard disc editing. Recorded results we'd heard had been mostly boring, self-important collages of inconsequential noodling from musicians who seemed more interested in being loud or noisy or simply upstaging their companions rather than in pure creative collaboration. While the cavalier Christian Fennesz and the studious Peter Rehberg have been involved in a few of the more egregious failures of this genre, this, their collaboration with Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, and Paul "Pimmon" Gough perhaps still ranks as one of the best powerbook ensemble recordings. The keys to the success for "Afternoon Tea" are the high degree of restraint from each individual collaborator and the indecipherability betwixt the guitars of Ambarchi & Rowe and the computer trickery of the rest. Slow rhythmic creaks, subtle drones, and hacked musique concrete elements form and dissolve various structures, with a lot of room for each of the sounds to breathe. While this clocks in at almost 50 minutes, you really want it to go on for much longer. Nice.

Recorded for the Dutch radio station VPRO and released as part of Staalplaat's acclaimed "Mort Aux Vaches" series, Oren Ambarchi's "Song of Separation" is a continuation of the ideas previously investigated on his "Suspension" album for Touch. Employing a

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One of two new archival reissues from Australian avant guitarist and sometime member of SUNNO))), Oren Ambarchi. Persona was originally released as an ultra limited lp (only 300 copies) in 2000, which sold out quite quickly, but is finally available again, on cd. Ambarchi's sound is quite varied and fluid, capable of coaxing the sweetest sounds from his axe, as well as using it like some blood flecked weapon, hurling jagged shards of distorted crunch and spitting out thick swaths of viscous buzz. On Persona, the sound is minimal and delicate, droney in places, but also glitchy and spare. The opening track here, and the shortest of the three, is a warm looped low end drone, the guitar transformed into a pulse generator, the sound soothing and softly buzzy. The second track sounds like it could be on Raster-Noton, plenty of low end, but with processed clicks and whirs, clipped percussive thumps and machinelike murmurs, eventually becoming almost silent, leaving just bits of crackle and surface noise, so austere and abstract. The final track, and the longest at almost 19 minutes, is the prettiest of the bunch, a softly skittering soundscape of Oval like underwater shimmer, lightly laced with glitches and little electronic squelches, but all warm and washed out, and allowed to swirl and drift dreamily, super gorgeous stuff.

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While Christian Fennesz has been very active in working with a diverse group of musicians, few of his collaborators have exhibited the likemindedness found in Sydney's tinkering guitarist Oren Ambarchi. For both Ambarchi and Fennesz, the guitar is the

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Feedback is as much about the context of recording as it is about musicians who set their guitars up against their amps while they step out for a bite to eat. Australia's Oren Ambarchi and Martin Ng have taken great care to find the right space to manufacture the lustrous feedback on Reconnaissance. The feedback here resists the urge to violently screech; rather it floats like the gentle

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Reissue of the debut cd from this atmospheric local group, that uses classical chamber music instrumentation to create dark, beautiful sounds akin to a black metal Rachel's. Black metal? Well, this was originally released this by Elfenblut, an imprint of now defunct British label Misanthropy, famous as the home of Burzum! And, for further "heavy" credentials, we should mention that band leader Kris Force has played with both Neurosis and the Swans. This was previously only an import, and now boasts three bonus tracks exclusive to this new version!

Ignore the new age blurbs on the back of this cd, this is a beautiful piece of Morricone-style dark cinematic bliss from San Francisco violinist/vocalist Kris Force, featuring a revolving cast of guests, including John from A Minor Forest.

2nd album (and domestic full-length debut) of atmospheric chamber music from this acclaimed San Francisco band, sort of the goth-metal answer to Rachel's. Not that this sounds metal at all, it just seems to be the eerie classical music thing that appeals equally to Satanic Black Metallers, "dark ambient" aficianados, and so forth - and the group's association with Neurosis adds to their metal cred.

Fourth album from this popular local chamber-rock outfit. Somewhere between Dead Can Dance, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and In Extremo (the more RenFaire parts). Gothic atmospheres created with cello, violin, drums, and wispy female vocals. Mournful instrumental acoustic string-drone embellished with electronic effects: a beautiful, depressive sound. The album concludes with their surprisingly straightforward cello-metal version of "Black Sabbath" (complete with rain and thunder intro). That cover, which seemed so suitable, is a bit disappointing, but the rest of the disc is quite nice and mood-inducing.

Awesome reissue of this seminal crust classic. Heavy and noisy and brilliant. Includes 2 bonus tracks!

When we first got this in, we were convinced it was some reissued lost psychedelic gem from the sixties or seventies. From the blurry red and black cover, the dearth of information, and heck it's on Locust, a label well known for killer reissues. So we threw it on, and we were still convinced, although we were blown away by its raw feral blown out psychedelic poppiness. Were there really bands making this sort of inspired and drug fueled racket 30 or 40 years ago? Perhaps, but Amen Dunes wasn't one of them. No, Amen Dunes is apparently the work of one man, a guy called Damon McMahon, who spent an extended stretch holed up in his house in the Catskills (although apparently now, he's holed up in his new house, in CHINA!) channeling some serious demons, and creating a brain melting, warped and distorted, fucked up and freaked out psychedelic classic. There are definitely hints of the new wave of noise rock, all that shit gaze stuff, and lo-fi garage, Eat Skull, Psychedelic Horseshit, Wavves, Oh Sees, etc, but Amen Dunes' sound is much more old school, going all the way back to drugged out sonic visionaries like Roky Erickson and George Brigman and the like. Super distorted, everything doused in reverb and delay and distortion, the recording super lo-fi, tape hiss all over the place, murky and muddy, and gloriously fuggy, the vocals slipping from feral shriek, to swoonsome moan, to almost Beach Boys like croon, but even at their most melodic, they remain a bit off kilter, slightly ominous, the rantings of some inspired lunatic right on the edge. The music is rough and raw, but catchy as hell, guitars buzz and jangle, detuned into bizarre Eastern sounding modalities or whipped up into a frenzied squall of Hendrixian freakout. The bass is a huge part of the sound too, rubbery and warm, thick and undulating, sometimes just offering up a layer of deep rumble, other times creating some truly haunting melodic counterpoint. The drums are simple and sporadic, a shuffling pound, a minimal skitter, a loose rickety framework for the Dunes' constantly-on-the-verge-of-collapse echo drenched drone pop, a sort of chilled out Dead C vibe permeates the proceedings as well, a way more damaged and even more druggy Velvets vibe too, all of this shit through with some old timey folkiness, it's a bit of a hodge podge, but it works. The fractured looped psych drone weirdness of "Fleshless Esta Mira Wife Of Spades" is followed by the almost countryish "Patagonian Domes", before the woozy atonal Supreme Dicks worship of "By The Bridal", with some serious shades of Neutral Milk Hotel (we kid you not). The rest of the record is equally as tripped out and all over the place, while managing to sound like an actual record, not just a collection of songs. "White Lace" is a gorgeous chunk of softly strummed murk, with super catchy vocals, layers of hiss and buzz, and a smattering of strange electronics, "Castles" is total Laurel Canyon country folk, but infused with just a little more pathos, the vocals a super gorgeous, on the verge of cracking wail, the hand claps, shakers and simple strumming underpinned by a warm wheezing organ. A handful of the songs sound almost Beatles-esque, super classic jangly pop, just barely psychedelic, with the guitars subtly warped, but the killer hooks totally intact, and then the record closes with "Breaker", maybe one of the most moving and intense tracks on the record, the musical accompaniment, minimal, simple softly strummed guitar, and some soft organ shimmer, but the vocals, so impassioned and emotional, raw and way up front, melodic and intense, howling and wailing, with multiple voices multitracked into a gorgeous wavery, fractured two part harmony, that ends up sounding like some sort of outsider gospel music. Totally inspirational, mind blowing, rocking, catchy, darkly mysterious... Easily one of our favorite records of the year so far!!

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Not your laptop processing from Mille Plateaux or 12K, Amenti Suncrown prefer the increasingly antiquated arsenal of multiple keyboards, samplers, and color flashing gadgets to achieve their dark ambient / electronic soundscapes. Aptly released by World Serpent, Amenti Suncrown reflects a number of the same ideas held by World Serpent staples Coil and Nurse With Wound, with an

Following last year's wonderful compilation of this Austin, TX gentle pop combo's miscellaneous singles and unreleased tracks 'Through The '90s' and their warm'n'breezy album from '99 'The Golden Band' is 'Know By Heart' their fourth full length. Another batch of the lovely, hushed tunes for which the A.A.S. are well known and loved. Plentiful chiming organ tones, lightly strummed

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Dark and slow post rock; warm, laid back and a little bit fuzzy. Fans of The Sea and Cake: this is right up your alley. Breezy.

Finally! After three, years, France's Amesoeurs release their debut full length. And it's pretty shocking when you think about all the fuss these guys (and gal) have stirred up, with only FOUR songs to their name. FOUR songs in THREE YEARS. And yet, people were obsessed with those four songs, ourselves included, but hell, those four songs were fantastic, magical, barely black metal to the point where we had trouble understanding why metalheads liked it at all, but that's the thing, it managed to transcend, the songwriting is amazing, the arrangements, the production, the riffs, and mood, the ambience, Amesoeurs really are something special. And it's not like they were doing nothing for the last three years, mainman Neige, managed to release records by his other bands, Peste Noire, Alcest, Forgotten Woods, Lantlos, in fact 3 of the four members of Amesoeurs also play in Peste Noire, but don't be expecting any of that gnarled raw black weirdness, no, Amesoeurs as most folks already know is all about melody, songcraft, it's more post rocky and shoegazey than buzzy and black, at least most of the time, and never more than on this new one. Vocalist and bassist Audrey Sylvain takes center stage here, singing most of the songs, helping Amesoeurs create a gorgeous lush sound that is so far removed from black metal, even blasts of buzz or furious riffing can't take away from its pure poppiness. Some of these songs sound like a band who should be on Slumberland not on Profound Lore. Anyway, Amesoeurs starts off with a blast, some Joy Division-y bass, some mathy angular post rocky guitar, simple stripped down drumming, very moody and tense, almost new wave sounding, distant strings swell, until the guitars explode and the whole track is infused with buzz, creating an impossible hybrid, gorgeously achingly melodic and epic, but so buzz drenched and blackened, if the whole record had played out like this nonstop, people would have been flipping their lids (even more than they already are), but then that would take away from what makes Amesoeurs baffling and brilliant. The second track, "Les Ruches Malades", shows no signs of blackness at all, the guitar has some bite, some crunch, but the main riff is more jangle than buzz, the bass throbs, the drums are super tight, and Audrey's vocals are front and center, this is one of those tracks that make it hard to believe metalheads get into this band at all. Then it's back to more epic emotional blackness, buzzing, thrashing, soaring, but still jam packed with melody and moodiness, suddenly shifting to some hard rocking shoegazey jangle pop, peppered with bursts of Katatonia-like groove, before slipping into more loping rainy day bliss pop. Musically, the follow up "Recueillement" is more of the same, but here Neige adds his own shrieked black metal vox, which sound really odd draped over the minor key jangle beneath, but it also sounds kind of cool, a bit jarring for sure, but in a good way. Blackened and emotional and intense. And so it goes, most of the record loping and jangling and shoegazing, occasionally offering up a bit of black buzz, and at least one track, "Trouble (Eveils Infames)" is pure blackness, all thrashing buzzing frenzied fury, no pop to be found, but that's the only real moment of grimninty to be found, the record is much more about melody and mood, the heaviest it gets is when Neige shrieks over some woozy melancholy jangle, and then there's the title track, that is SO new wave, straight up Cure worship, right down to the bass line and the chiming guitar parts, although Amesoeurs give it a cool twist at the end adding an awesomely jagged chugging riffy outro. The record closes with another Katatonia style chunk of melancholy doom pop, although again, Neige roughs it up a bit with his blackened vokills, and after a brief stretch of silence, the record closes with a secret track of distorted drum machined and blurred buried melody. Of course WE love it. C'mon! It's like if Black Tambourine were actually Black METAL Tambourine, plenty of Katatonia, Lifelover, all that off kilter blackened pop too, but it's obvious Neige and company are black metal masters (Alcest, Peste Noire, Forgotten Woods, Mortifera, right?) so even the poppiest moments are infused with a bit of blackness, no matter how subtle, and when the band do kick out the jams, like on the record opener, it's heavy and emotional in a way few other bands, black metal or otherwise, are capable of. It might take a few listens, for some folks here it still hasn't clicked, then again it might take just one, we were smitten halfway through the first song, but then that first ep is still probably one of our most listened to records of the last several years, and if you're really in need of some blasting blackness, obviously this might not be the place to look, thankfully you don't have to look far, Neige has at least one or two other bands that'll have you covered, but if you're looking for something, gorgeous and twisted and black and dreamy and poppy and heavy and mysterious, well then, this friends, is it.

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I had begun to wonder if Richard and Karine would do anything worth while again, as their debut Sirenes clearly stands above everything they have done... until Stenorette. Working with producer Robert Hampson (Main, Loop), Amp has traded in their four track fuzziness for the crystal clear digital purity of Hampson's studio. In doing so, they have written a beautiful album of gossamer electronica / pop songs that nonetheless maintains their ghostly sadness.

The debut release from this SF pop combo. Eight highly hummable songs of pretty jangle and boy/girl vocals. Fans of the Swirlies, Marine Research, Go Sailor or Wedding Present, take note!

The newest release from this mostly one man folk/noise project. Barnes, the man responsible for the 'noise' in Man is The Bastard and Bastard Noise, returns with a surprisingly beautiful record of soothing songs his mum used to sing him played on a variety of homemade instruments that sound a bit like saws, harpsichords, and bagpipes, and sung by lovely voiced Tara. Like a impossible cross between His Name Is Alive, the Sun City Girls, and (at points) even the Ruins! Really a genius band.

More bizarre ethno-renaissance punk folk skree (performed mostly on homemade and invented instruments) from ex-Man Is The Bastard noisemaker Barnes. Sounds like an odd collection of electronically malfunctioing zithers and bagpipes and kazoos, all playing turn of the century traditionals from some other world. Beautiful and baffling.

One of our favorite bands offers up another disc of their unique, unclassifiable sounds. This one really embraces a '60s hippie vibe, with occasional outbursts from their "power violence" past (AFC leader Barnes was the "noise guy" in California's seminal

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Solo noise (and folk guitar!) project from an ex-member of California political "power-violence" heroes Man Is The Bastard, in which various new forms of electronic amplification are built and abused. Diagrams included.

A fine medley of acoustic & electric strings, tabla, piano. Barnes (ex-Man Is The Bastard) seems to be the mastermind here, with his own homemade instruments taking a lead role, but this disc develops a much more entrancing, subtle folk-noise than MITB's harsh "power violence". Recommended.

The Pitchfork blurb on the sticker proclaims this record to be "the trippiest record in the history of the world". While that might be a wee bit of an exaggeration, this most certainly is one of the weirdest wildest psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records EVER (C'mon, Pitchfork, at least when we spew some ridiculous hyperbole, it's absolutely true!! Haha)!! Not that there have been a whole lot of psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records, but there's a reason for that. This shit is NUTS. So freaked out and dense and complex and hard to pull of. Anyone can crank their keyboards and channel an inferior version of the Locust, but An Albatross seem to have some real link to classic prog, although it's filtered through some impossibly skewed, cracked and demented postpunk, grindcore sensibility. 18 songs, 26 minutes. One's even a three part epic clocking in at a whopping 4 minutes. Keyboards wiggle and slither, whipping wildly like a garden hose turned on full blast and let loose to swing like a mad cobra dosed with angel dust, striking at everyone within reach, drums are spastic, and hyperkinetic, like BB's fired from a cannon, a dizzying splatter, guitars grind and churn, melodic one second, harsh and screeching the next. ALl of these elements tangled up into hyper complex, ultra obtuse knots of super complicated, multi part mini grindprog epics, stop / starts, blazing bursts of hyper blast, brief stretches of serene acoustic dreaminess, warm washes of thick synth whir, blissed out drones and crunchy bouncy blasts of new wave, even some horns find their way into the chaos. Above it all, the vocalist screeches and growls, diving and twisting and turning, dodging and ducking, offering shrieked unintelligible platitudes tucked between jagged shards of post punk stutter and epic convoluted prog. This is like a spazzy, grindy, confusional 21st century Magma, mixed up with bits of Locusts and Lightning Bolts maybe, but with a truly unique sound, due perhaps to their prog rock heart of gold. One of our favorite new records. Furious and freaked out, fast and fucked up but still so goddamn catchy and listenable. And so so so great!!!

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Thank god (or Satan) that this record is as good as it is, because of all the trouble we had to go through to get it! We became aware of British black metal act Anaal Nathrakh from first seeing ads for this album in Terrorizer magazine (the UK's metal version of The Wire), then Terrorizer named it record of the month, and then one of the top 40 records of 2001! Yet no metal distributors in the United States had ever even heard of Anaal Nathrakh. Not even the band themselves could help us out, and the one distributor that did offer the album only had TEN COPIES. Our tiny little store wanted at least twice that many. But, many frustrating conversations and unproductive emails later, we finally have The Codex Necro in stock and are happy to report that it is as heavy, as weird and as completely cool as we had hoped. The formula is still blasting black metal mayhem, but A.N. up the intensity a notch as well as mixing in all sorts of fucked weirdness: bizarre ambient electronic soundscapes, creepy cloying melodies buried in the mix, strangely hypnotic vocal chants, light speed fuzzed out blast beats, found sound interludes, and totally processed and INSANE vocals, from growling guttural bowel-shaking grunts to maniacal high pitched, electronically fucked-with shrieks. Plus the riffs are ultra catchy, and the guitars are so distorted and recorded so hot, it feels like demonic claws are being scraped across your ear drums. Take the raw, "necro" sounds of Nordic black metal pioneers Darkthrone and give them the bombastic force of the best-produced, over-the-top Cradle of Filth stuff, and you're thinking Anaal Nathrakh. When they say necro, they mean it. And they say it a lot. Like in the liner notes: "Anaal Nathrak plays Fucking Necro Exclusively!...Fuck Everything".

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Anaksimandros features members of Finland's wonderful Kemialliset Ystavat. Although the sound here is a bit removed from the gorgeous folk of KY. The title had us expecting some sort of noisy cross between Merzbow and Skullflower...and it's not all that far from being spot on. Although add in a little No Neck Blues Band hippie jam and some Dead C ambient roar and you'll be even Anyone into the No Neck Blues Band, the Dead C, Birchville Cat Motel, Skullflower and anyone who bought those recent Sunroof! / Vibracathedral Orchestra cd-rs will lose their shit over this. Vinyl only and extremely limited.

More grinding noise and bad taste from the best worst band in the land. Furiously blurry grind bordering on Merzbow-style noise and the most ridiculous/offensive (read:really offensive) song titles ever (odd, since in the early days, they didn't even bother with song titles): 'Your Kid Killed Himself 'Cause You Suck' originally titled (pre-lawsuit) 'Connor Clapton Killed Himself 'Cause His Dad Sucks', 'Rancid Sucks (and the Clash Sucked Too)', 'Being Ignorant Is Awesome', 'I Gave NAMBLA Pictures of Your Kid', and a bunch of others we can't even print.

Notorious grindcore jokers A.C. change tack entirely and record an album of sensitive acoustic love songs--really they do. They've pulled a Ween on us.

Previously released as two seperate, hard to find cds ("Old Stuff Part 1" and "Old Stuff Part II") on two different labels. Now some crazy person at NG Records has gone and released this new version, compiling (as it says) the early works (i.e. demos, singles, and compilation appearances) of this notorious blurr-core, noise-metal, very un-pc band from Boston. Over 7000 "songs" to be found here, spread over two cds. That's mainly thanks to the presence here of the tracks from the infamous "5,643 Song EP"... Now for most reviews of A.C. discs, we'd simply pick the best song titles and leave it at that, 'cause offensive & funny song titles are what A.C. does best. But the material on here dates from back when A.C. didn't supply titles (or lyrics for that matter) for their "compositions". So that leaves us to make a case for the musical rather than humorous value (or musically humorous value) of these tracks. Oh boy...well for all you experimental jokers out there, the aforementioned "5,643 Song EP" features the songs playing at the same time! There's actually three hours of material compressed onto the original 7", and it took twenty hours for them to record it! Compares favorably to the Francisco Lopez disc we made record of the week last list... Then there's the "Unplugged EP" tracks, where A.C. takes their screaming metal chaos into the acoustic realm for some unique results. And, any fan of John Zorn or Masonna should really check out A.C. as well, on general principles... truly a classic band, American outsider improv "genius". If not musical genius, then comedy genius. Sure, you or I could have recorded more or less the same stuff on your parents' stereo much like these guys did for their first demo (disc one, track one), but you have to admit that you'd never record so much of it, for so many years, or play such crazy shows. We (Allan and Andee anyway--in fact, A.C. was the first interview Allan ever did for his old 'zine) love this band. For you collectors, note that there's material on these cds not found on the original singles and such. And for novices, we also recommend A.C.'s "Morbid Florist" ep and "Everyone Must Be Killed" album to start with... The cd booklet includes detailed liner notes about each track/release written by A.C. mastermind Seth Putnam. All hail!

Brand new hip-hop project featuring Kool Keith and Ice T. The joke is really wearing thin now, guys. We've listened to it, and we don't wanna be nasty, but that prevents us from saying anything about this record.

Stellar compilation of South Indian film music. A great, complex hybrid of western pop and Asian classical & pop. A barrage of genres meet in beautiful and confounding ways. Sweet, perfect voices singing love songs - translations provided.

Described as Morbid Angel meets At The Gates, Sweden's Anata play relentless and pummelling melodic death metal. While their last record -was- really great, it was definitely plagued by their blatant Morbid Angel worship. On 'Dreams...' they make a huge progression, still heavy and intricate and almost catchy, but much more uniquely Anata.

Following their absolutely dismal major label debut EP is this full length. We poke at it gingerly. Perhaps the EP was just a minor misguided faltering? Trying to appeal to a wider audience with tentative trials in emo-melodicism? I'd hoped they'd regained

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Pretty insanely catchy cock rock, super anthemic and dumb, as only the Bulb label (and now, we're told, Rick Rubin's American label!) can provide. Skull art on cover, tight pants, greasy hair, songtitles like "We Want Fun" and "Music or Die". Somewhere

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Ah, Andrew W.K... Hard rockin' heartthrob. Vice Magazine mascot. Crushworthy object of Windy's adoration and Andee's guilty 'rock' pleasure. Bloody-faced and beeyootiful. Though we don't have a date on the domestic issue of this, his debut full length, we've got a precious few copies of the import version. Andrew plays pretty insanely catchy cock rock: super anthemic, major key, kickass and dumb (in a good way). He lies somewhere between the Ramones, Rocket from the Crypt, and Van Halen. And yeah, all the sounds are variations on a theme -- he basically writes the same song over and over with the same three chords, but what a song! This will have you air guitaring all over the place and bouncing in your seat.

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Swedish melodic death/prog metal, featuring the sort of over-the-top guitar and keyboard wizardry that makes people either love or hate the similarily-inclined Children of Bodom. The former (first) vocalist of Darkane does a bit more actual singing on here than he did in his previous band.

Pandemonium, home of AQ faves Hint, Double Nelson, and Guapo come through again with the curiously named Andy's Car Crash. Seriously fucked mix of musique concrete, jazz, noise and post rock. Lots of hypnotic rocking, lots of click and pop and buzz, lots of super intense weirdness. Recommended.

Six extended dancehall mixes of Horace Andy from 1982. This is an excellent collection of recordings and is highly recommendable to those who picked up -- and enjoyed -- the "Nice Up The Dance" comp we listed a little while back. Though the cuts aren't quite as lengthy as those on "Nice Up The Dance", most clocking in around 7 minutes, each has a good long dub bridge in the middle with

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Another excellent, albeit quite possibly not entirely authentic, collection of dubs from Jamaican Recordings (please see description of King Tubby's "Lost Treasures" also reviewed on this list for more on this.) Featuring Bunny Lee's house band the Aggrovators (in this case Sly & Robbie on drums and bass, Earl Smith on guitar, Winston Wright on organ, Augustus Pablo on keyboards, Tommy McCook on saxophone and Bobby Ellis on trumpet) the backing tracks on this album were recorded at Randy's, Channel 1, King Tubby's, and Harry J's between 197 and 1976. There are some excellent dubs of some great Horace Andy tracks including Skylarking, My Guiding Star (a Heptones original), Just Say Who, Love of A Woman, Money Money and more. Like all Jamaican Recordings releases the CD version includes bonus tracks not available on the vinyl.

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Plain white sleeve 10" from Jamaican Recordings' forthcoming full length collection of Horace Andy dubs. Dub Larking obviously is a dub of Skylarking, Dub Ah Fulfil is a rare dub of "Serious Thing" (and will only be available on the CD version of the full length when it's released in the near future.)

After Massive Attack revived Horace Andy's career with his beautiful cameos on "Mezzanine," Horace Andy presents his first solo recordings in quite a long time (a decade or two?). Recorded with Clive Hunt at Tuff Gong in Kingston, Jamaica, "Living In The Flood" has a rather dry modern reggae sound, probably to emphasize Horace Andy's warbly, delicate voice which is a beautiful thing, but the music (often with sappy 80s anglo-jazz overtones) tends to detract from his overall ability.

Low priced double disc anthology of vocalist Horace Andy, apparently a part of a series of anthologies of Jamaican artists being released by Recall. Each collection comes with a fair amount of biographical notes on the artist and generally make good starting

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Not to be confused with the 1997 release of the same name on Massive Attack's Melankolic label (basically a best of that included some Massive Attack tracks.) Skylarking was Andy's first album, produced by Coxsone Dodd and released in 1972. Along with the

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Four song debut 12" from Oakland's DJ Aneurysm. Side one features dark, aggressive digital destruction that would be right at home beside your DHR and Ambush records. Side two is more dance-y and melodic, with distorto beats and (unfortunately outdated and cheesy) spoken voice samples.