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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 651 through 700 of 2189.

If Adult. scored "Hedwig And The Angry Inch" or... if I Am Spoonbender went Broadway. If the cast from Fame played electro. Glammy and slick with many cool parts and sounds but unfortunately weak arrangements undermine Fischerspooner's drive for #1. And well, I really could do without the diva singer too. The second track on the album is a cover of Wire's "The 15th", and quite a great

RealAudio clip: The 15th
RealAudio clip: Fucker
RealAudio clip: Horizon

This is Roberta Flack's debut from 1969 and it's not only one of the best soul debuts of all time but one of our all-time favorite records. Many of us didn't even know there had been a cd version of this, but were excited to discover there was considering we've worn out our cherished lp versions, which we've cherished and always kept close to our turntable, even amongst the piles of our ever growing record collections. But since there is indeed a cd version (not new or nothin') we had to take a moment to rave about it. First Take is an album brewing with such strong emotional weight, when Roberta sings it she means it, and while the word 'soul' has been reduced to a meaningless tag-name of a genre this reminds us what true soul is really all about. Elegant and moody string and horn arrangements by William Fischer, impeccable playing from a band that included the amazing Ron Carter on bass, and the stunning and often covered album opener "Compared To What" penned for Roberta by the enigmatic Gene (Eugene) McDaniels. First Take shares a special place next to records like Sam Cooke's Night Beat, Nina Simone's High Priestess Of Soul and Roy Orbison's In Dreams, another record that you can turn to time after time when you really need to check in with sounds that are filled with honesty and core conviction. There is no doubt that it's this record that has influenced everyone from Cat Power to Erykah Badu. First Take is as sexy as it is spiritual. Raw and unpolished yet so sensual and the closest thing you can get to trying to find any real peace of mind in this world. Absolutely recommended, a record that will always be close to our hearts!

MPEG stream: Compared To What
MPEG stream: Tryin' Time
MPEG stream: Angelitos Negros

We've been doing this long enough to know that there's certain types of AQ customers we can rely upon. One catagory being those into the weird, obscure '70s prog-psych stuff. Folks who know what the Nurse With Wound list is (heck maybe even have it memorized), and can't help but be more excited about lost treasures from 30 years ago being reissued on cd than they are about the latest indie-rock or electronica gem (though chances are you might dig those too). Well if you're one of those folks, or maybe just feel especially sonically adventurous today, we've got another reissue for ya: Flamen Dialis. Which is, we're told, the ancient Roman name for the high priest of Jupiter, and is a suitably archaic name for an quite arcane sounding band. Like Magma (and some of our favorite previous MIO reissues, Jean-Cohen Solal and Birge-Gorge-Shirac) this group hailed from France, and indeed this has a bit of that cosmic Magma vibe to it. They released this now very rare record, their sole album, in 1979, and there's also a 7" Flamen Dialis single from 1978 included on this cd reissue too. The music they made was progressive and psychedelic, but not exactly rock. It's weird and atmospheric, soundtracky stuff, very ritualistic and repetitive in nature. With chants and whispers, martial drums and zinging synths, vibraphone and Mellotron, flutes and even some brief blues guitar licks and what sounds like a rhythm machine, this is quite otherwordly and dreamlike -- not exactly dreamy (or nightmarish either) just strange. Both eerie and a little goofy too... Like a soundtrack (or a dream), themes are revisted, and the album drifts smoothly from Medieval European to Eastern sounding exoticism. We're reminded a bit of that Musique de la Grece Antique album of pseudo-ancient Greek music by the Atrium Musicae de Madrid (an AQ perennial) and Igor Wakhevitch and Franco Battiato and Magical Power Mako and, well, if you're with us this far you *are* one of the AQ customers mentioned above and maybe should just trust us when we say you ought to check this out!

MPEG stream: Dernier Croisade
MPEG stream: Decouverte

We managed to get, like, 5 copies of this mysterious cd reissue someplace. So act fast if you want one, as we won't be getting any more. Wish we could though, 'cause this is thee best doomy DIY black metal album recorded in 1987 in the basement of a YMCA building in Iceland we've EVER heard!! So lo-fi and raw and fucked up it's amazing, with tons of cult '80s atmosphere (a la Hellhammer) and truly bizarre vocal stylings, as on the chugging, erupting "Evil". What strange wretched howlings and absurd rasping shrieks! Like, Tim Baker of Cirith Ungol with more than one frog in his throat. Musically this both shreds and sludges, in both cases clogged with lo-fi production (not helped by this reissue's dodgy mastering from what sounds like a crackly vinyl original) and off kilter outsider aesthetics. But that's all part of the charm. It has to be heard to be believed. If you liked, say, some of the other eccentric '80s metal artifacts like Black Hole or Dark Quarterer that we've reviewed, and want to hear the "Venom" version of a band like that, this is for you.

MPEG stream: Evil
MPEG stream: Flames Of Hell

Freaky early '70s psych rock from Japan here folks, as you may know already on account of how we highlighted the reissue of this band's second album on our last list. This one, with a truly hard-to-beat title, was Flied [sic] Egg's debut, released originally in 1972, on Vertigo -- with Flied Egg one of the few, if not only, Japanese acts to appear on the roster of that legendary UK-based label known for proto-metal, jazz-prog and other "hairy funk" delights. This album dishes such delights all over the place, ranging from the Blue Cheer meets Uriah Heep heaviness of "Rolling Down The Broadway" to the weird choral interlude of "15 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath" to the classical prog flourishes of "Oke-Kus" (sounding like a warped version of ELP) to the sheer hippie psych-pop lunacy of the title track. And more! All in all, this is quite as crazy as its Dali-esque cover painting indicates. Definitely an essential for our Japanese '70s psych section, and anyone who loves them some acid rock guitar!

MPEG stream: Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine
MPEG stream: Burning Fever

This Japanese psychrock reish, now available on vinyl! Yes that's right, it's Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans who may have missed it before. Good Bye was Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). The first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, is as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. Good Bye, however, is the heavier of the two, and we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans. Basically, this album is distinctly split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk, Cactus, and Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), BB King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony", wow!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, namely the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and finale "Goodbye My Friends". FYI, not a favorite of Julian "Japrocksampler" Cope, but WE like it. Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path, Brush!?, and Food Brain... if you dig those, or the likes of Flower Travellin' Band, Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.

MPEG stream: Rolling Down The Broadway (live)
MPEG stream: Five More Pennies (live)

Yes that's right, Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans, it's something that we got in along with the Flower Travellin' Band reissues we listed last time. Goodbye is Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). We also intend to review their first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, which as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. We decided to list Goodbye first, though, just 'cause we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans. Basically, this album is distinctly (even on cd) split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk/Cactus/Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), Josea/King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony"!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and "Goodbye My Friends". Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path and Brush!?... if you dig those, or the likes of FTB, Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.

MPEG stream: Rolling Down The Broadway (live)
MPEG stream: Five More Pennies (live)

Before we launch into what's gonna be relatively long-winded review, let's just state up front that this has the best album cover EVER: the band themselves cruising down a rural highway on choppers wearing nothing but their birthday suits!! And this version sees the orginal gatefold recreated for the cd-era, mini-LP sleeve style. But if that's not enough to get you to buy this, read on... Not long ago we gave a big thumbs up to the album "Satori", the masterpiece from Japanese '70s psych rockers the Flower Travellin' Band (note: we're still waiting to get more of those in stock, they're backordered at our distributor!). Now, however, we've got a brand new reissue of the Flower Travellin' Band's debut album, "Anywhere". It certainly doesn't scale the heights of "Satori" but it'll help you to understand how they got there. Along with a great take on "House Of The Rising Sun" (a nod to Frijid Pink?), this album also explicitly demonstrates, via covers, these Japanese freaks' radical recognition of the genius of two of their Western contemporaries, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Like many other great artists, with humble beginnings Japan's Flower Travellin' Band cut their teeth on the material of their mentors. Though "Anywhere" -- released in 1970 -- is primarily a covers album, it's also quite a testament to both the band's veracity in their reproductions and their creativity in realigning the building blocks of rock & roll. Their cover of Black Sabbath's self-titled track was actually recorded in the same year as the original and their version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" only a year after its release. And they aren't merely content to play only the "Schizoid Man" opening riff, like so many other bands that have attempted to cover it, but take on the entire piece in all its schizophrenic freaked out glory, getting waaay into the improv element of the mid-section. The same is true for "Black Sabbath" and you have to appreciate singer Joe's take on the unique Ozzy voice. The most interesting track on the record though has to be their attempt at straight-up blues rock -- while their "Louisiana Blues" starts and finishes almost pedestrianly enough on the "Minglewood Blues" riff by Gus Cannon (of Cannon's Jug Stompers) that was popularized in the rock scene by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart, the interior of the song is a complete departure of sorts. Not only devoid of the original progression, it's not even "bluesy" at all. Here in the extended jam that makes up the meat of this musical sandwich, the Flower Travellin' Band's Eastern roots surface a bit. It's a precursor to the sound of their later albums "Satori" and "Made In Japan" (another great one which we'll be reviewing in the future if we can ever get any stock of it in quantity).

MPEG stream: Louisiana Blues
MPEG stream: Black Sabbath

This is one of those albums that's neither new, nor even a recent reissue, but that we here at Aquarius decided, heck, let's list, it deserves it! (While this disc already appears on our website, it was never actually *listed* in any of our newsletters.) So while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it has most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. Being a Japan-only import can't help. Allan wisely reordered some copies recently (when a customer special ordered it for themselves on-line) and Byram, unwittingly playing it in the store, found himself getting progressively more obsessed with the album (and the band)! It wasn't long before Jim and Marcy were also finding themselves hooked. Now almost any day you come into the store, you'll hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring. This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album (all but the first album Anywhere have now been reissued by Warner Japan). From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... but this (and the other two that are also available, look for reviews in future) will have to suffice for now. Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!! MPEG Download: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.m3u]

MPEG stream: Satori Part II
MPEG stream: Satori Part III

As the Luttenbachers fly on and on into the void, they just get more and more metal, don't they? Now a Bay Area based trio (including one of the Mikes from Burmese on bass), they offer up their thirteenth album! This latest episode of Flying Luttenbacher insanity features nine tracks of feedback-filled, drum-blasting, chaotically complexified, metallic skree that can't be topped by almost anyone in the known universe -- heck parts of this even remind us a bit of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha, which is a comparison we don't make too often. The Void is an all-instrumental tour-de-force that believe it or not could be the missing link between black metal and no-wave, surely band leader Weasel Walter's life's work. Track after track, each cut here builds and builds without much in the way of release, racheting tension to head-bursting levels. Judging from comments in the liner notes, perhaps this is Weasel's howling response to the Republican take-over of the United States. In any event, it's a serious dose of heavy, frenzied, jazz-damaged, post-rock, post-metal, mathy mayhem!

MPEG stream: The Void Part Five
MPEG stream: Sword Of Atheism

Folks hankering for their seventies psychedelic biker doom fix need look no further than these Texas downer rock scuzzlords, who it seems took all the time and effort they DIDN'T put in to the cover art of this lp, and instead devoted it to maximizing the amount of FUZZ found on here. Fogg traffic in the same sort of drug fueled, garage-bound heaviness as outfits like Satan's Satyrs and Uncle Acid. The guitars appropriately fuzzy, the wailing Ozzyish vocals a perfect compliment, but unlike the punked out heaviness of the Satyrs, or the bell bottomed doominess of Uncle Acid, Fogg somehow sound more wasted and washed out, the sound less heavy, a bit brittle and tinny, extremely lo-fi, but it suits their mesmerizing heavy hippy psych punk swagger. Opener "Time Ride" sets the scene, right down to the lurching stop start bridge, and some scuzzy guitar shred would around the murky main riff, that's as Sabbathy as can be, but decontextualized into something a bit more ramshackle and loose. And while seventies biker rock might be the core of their sound, they also get pretty sixties, "Rainbow" finds the guitar and bass playing strange harmonies, over a wildly groovy shuffle, laced with still more shred, lysergic and laid back, but on the verge of exploding into full on headbanging at any moment. And yet for all that, when need be, these guys can conjure up the ghost of doom past, just check out the massive lumbering "Fried Cheer", which does actually sound like some especially acid fried take on Blue Cheer, the song lurching from swagger lumber to furious punky pound and back again. The more we listen to these guys, the more we hear outfits like Earthless and Hot Lunch, that sort of skate shred, woven into Fogg's Sabbathy swing. They also stretch out (way out) on a handful of tracks, locking into almost krautrock-like stretches of hypnomesmer, as well as meandering space rock/jam rock, the song unfurling into waves of heady/heavy mesmer, tripped out and sinister, and downright sludgy, like on the appropriately titled "Sludgemother", that sounds like a downer Uncle Acid, a glorious slab of wasted skater doom, or witchy downtuned zoner psych, whatever you call it, it's heavy and tranced out and freaky as fuck (oh and there's a DRUM SOLO). Oh yeah, and of course stick around for the closer, another awesomely titled jam, "Womb To The Tomb", that sounds like a more poppy, way more brain damaged Electric Wizard, dirgey and droney and totally messed up and mesmeric, and just about the best thing we've heard in ages. This is a record that no doubt will be right at home right wedged between that played to death lp of Blood Lust, and that scratched up vinyl version of Die Screaming, or next to your copy of the Darkscorch Canticles compilation. Vinyl-only, and sorry, no download.

MPEG stream: Fried Cheer
MPEG stream: Tongue Melts
MPEG stream: Sludgemother

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

SORRY. An awesome, quirky slice of French hippy avant-pop with lots of ethno-electronic action. Allan's favorite of Fontaine's ouvre.

Another reissue of heavy psychedelic weirdness from early '70s Japan, in the same series as the Flied Egg and Flower Travellin' Band discs we've listed lately. Food Brain features the Hammond organ excess of Hiro Yanagida and the acid fried guitar of Shinki Chen (names you might know from other outfits like Speed, Glue and Shinki, Love Live Life +1, April Fool, and solo too). As well, Hiro Tsunoda (the Jacks, Strawberry Path, Flied Egg) is on drums, and Luis Kabe (Golden Cups) on bass. Together on this, their only album (1970), they cook up a progressive, confusionally avant-garde feast of bluesy riffage, freeform improv, drug-addled humor, and hippie rawk heaviosity. There's plenty of raw jamming, the sort of stuff these guys would probably have loved to bring to the ballrooms of San Francisco... but amidst and among, there's lots of weirder moments too, more at home in the krautrock realm perhaps. For instance, the brief track five, "The Conflict Of The Hippo And The Pig", what sounds like a guy maniacally playing a straw. Or the entirety of the epic quarter-hour 8th track, "The Hole In A Sausage", which features a horn-grunting free jazz freakout in collision with a near-metallic distorted bass riff on a famous classical symphonic theme.

MPEG stream: That Will Do
MPEG stream: Liver Juice Vending Machine
MPEG stream: The Hole In A Sausage

A release we've had before, but not for a while, 'cause it's been hard to get -- but recently Allan & several of his friends really really got into Forest, so he managed to track down and order a bunch (though, probably not enough...). This double cd contains Forest's entire output -- two albums, one from 1969 and one from 1970 -- and should definitely be of interest to anyone into that whole '60s British folk-psych vibe. Y'know, if you liked the Tony, Caro & John or Fairport Convention reissues we've recently listed, or dig that excellent current interpreter of the genre, P.G. Six. Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make these albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound. This double cd reissue includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens.

RealAudio clip: A Glade Somewhere
RealAudio clip: Fading Light
RealAudio clip: Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway
RealAudio clip: Graveyard

Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading! Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! (Actually, there IS an upcoming black metal-inspired release from Jewelled Antler, a 3" cd-r by a group they call Tomes, but Tomes takes an even more subtle approach than "Winter Howl"...look for that here at AQ soon!) Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.

RealAudio clip: Enburnst The Christians
RealAudio clip: Winter Howl

Never thought we'd be able to list this. Everytime we got it in, it would go too quickly, just flying out the door by word of mouth we guess. Clearly this '90s Norwegian black metal band has a cult following! Then we thought that this triple cd box had gone out of print. But thankfully No Colours just pressed up some more, and we think we scored enough copies to dare list it, even though the label may be out of it already. So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything, despite song titles like "Grip Of Frost" and "Dimension Of The Blackest Dark". As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." That by itself would be enough to explain this band's appeal. But our sensibilities here at AQ are further stoked by the fact that the more you delve into these discs, the more you find yourself wondering just what the hell you're listening to...as Forgotten Woods mysteriously morphs by the third cd into something that sounds like jazz-inflected, naive indie-rock mopery, with clean jangly guitars that starts to sound like Felt or The Church or even Maher Shalal Hash Baz! Other tracks seem to echo The Cure, all slow and post-punkish... what a weird band! We can only wonder at what they thought they were doing, and wonder even more so at why they're so accepted by the grim black metal underground. So, even though this is a $25 import triple-disc set, it's the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness. And in case you're wondering, this does collect the entirety of Forgotten Woods' output (three albums, plus one recorded under the name Joyless) from the years indicated in the title...

MPEG stream: Eclipsed
MPEG stream: With Swans I'll Share My Thirst

Oh man. If you are a faithful Aquarius list reader and lover of musical oddities, just stop right here, and push the buy button because you need this record. Judson Fountain was born in 1952 and was obsessed with radio dramas since he was old enough to talk. In fact as soon as he was able to talk he began doing impressions of cackling hags, wicked witches and all sorts of animals. All of which would come to play a big part in these radio dramas right here. Recorded between the ages of 17 and 22, these eight dramas are only a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of radio plays Judson wrote and performed. All of them primitive and simple, but amazingly creative and entertaining, and all featuring Judson's unique vocalisations along with his partner/foil Sandor Weisberger. But there's no way to describe them, you just have to hear them. Judson has a crazy East Coast accent, and he talks like a hyper school boy who thinks faster than he can get the words out, which you can hear in a handful of interviews preceding some of the radio dramas. Using crude sound effects and sometimes painfully deliberate plot exposition, these dramas all rely on Judson and Sandor's crazy array of voices, from Irish Brogue, to old Thai man, to teenage gangster to tuneless singing grandma, to British detective to various witches and demonic women, all with distinctly hysterical and completely bizarre cackles. The plots are all very simple, good vs. Evil, haunted houses and witches and stuff. But they are all done so sort-of-professionally and so earnestly that they're just completely irresistable. Listen to "Garbage Can From Thailand" and you'll immediately know what we mean. Judson is just so cute. And so is Sandor who introduces each drama (which he pronounces drahmmer) and also reads the credits afterwards. I've had a Judson Fountain cassette for years now thanks to AQ pal Jay Lesser so you can imagine how excited we were that some of this stuff was actually finally getting released. Our only complaint is why did Innova make it a cd-r??! It's got a professionally printed booklet and everything, so how hard would it have been to press up real cds?! It costs as much as a real cd after all. Cd-r or not, this is so good, and so funny, and so cute, and so weirdly brilliant, that it definitely needs to be in your collection!

MPEG stream: The Garbage Can From Thailand
MPEG stream: Two Boys In A Haunted House

Hard to believe we've never listed this before, it's been reissued a bunch of times already, being a bit of a classic of underground USA '60s private press psych. Now it's out on cd again, with we're told a vinyl reissue upcoming on the Mexican Summer label too. So about time we gave it a write up, 'cause if you haven't heard it before and are at all into the 'early heavy' this is indeed one to check out! From LA, Fraction played druggy, Doorsy, psychedelic proto-proto-metal, loaded with loping, lumbering fuzz riffs. It's very sixties, hippy/biker garage heaviness, yet almost no longer dated, if Fraction were part of today's psych scene, they'd fit right in with Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, Dead Meadow, and suchlike. Well, except we'd be a bit surprised by the deep growling Jim Morrison style vocal intonations, a gruff voice that sways and screams with utmost sincerity and conviction, and truly elevates Fraction into ultra cult classic status. The singer's cryptic lyrics are vaguely Christian-Apocalyptic, and Fraction manages to make heavy (in the "that's heavy, maaaan" pass-the-joint sense) music to match. Recommended If You Like: Blue Cheer, High Tide, Sam Gopal, Iron Butterfly, Negative Space, B.F. Trike...

MPEG stream: Come Out Of Her
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Don't really know too much about this "Francisco". Looks to be a musical hippie guru something along the lines of a Father Yod / Ya Ho Wha 13 with some Santana thrown in? I suppose I could do some research on the ol' internet and find out more, doubtless there's many a record collector blabbing online about how rare and valuable the original vinyl of this is, and maybe one of 'em provides some the backstory. But y'know, I'd rather keep it a mystery. A "Cosmic Beam Experience" probably is best unexplained, just experienced. It's enough to marvel at the galactic magic of the cover artwork and know that this was recorded in Santa Monica, California in 1976 (in a cathedral!) and has a bunch of hippies involved. Tuning in, the first track "Heal Yourself" is a really groovy, soulful, entrancing jam that's a real spiritual, uplifting thang. Nice, but would you want to listen to a whole record like that you might ask yourself? But then, as if on cue, track two "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 1)" takes a drastically different approach, being a lengthy soundscape of field recordings, ocean sounds... an ambient and eerie trip that takes up the entire remainder of the original LP's first side! Side two (beginning with track 3 here) starts off, like side one, with a trancey spiritual song, "Love Sweet Love", another groovy number. But the positive vibes chanted forth therein are again followed by the ever-more ominous dronescapes and tribal percussion of "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 2)" and "Hey Mister Sun". A lot of darkness here to balance the hippy-dippy light. I mean, some of these tracks would fit in nicely in a John Carpenter film. So this ends up being a strange, mysterious, very evocative experience indeed! We ended up really digging it.

MPEG stream: Cosmic Beam Experience (Part Two)
MPEG stream: Heal Yourself

In light of recent events, we figured that this reissue of "Hard Rock From the Middle East" would make a great choice for record of the week...no, we don't mean 'cause of the current war, we mean because of the popularity of the "Turkish Delights" and "Hava The cover art shows the band hangin' in the desert in front of the pyramids of Egypt -- but don't be fooled, they were actually mostly Arab-Americans, based in New York City. Still, their rock n' roll was as authentically "Middle Eastern" as their Turkish contemporaries. They could have held their own with the likes of Erkin Koray and Mogollar. Ok, now we'd better explain about this particular cd (pay attention, it gets kinda confusing): Sony's Collectables has reissued two long-out-of-print 1967 albums by two totally different bands on *one* disc. The bands are tenuously connected through the friendship of The Freak Scene's Rusty Evans and Felix Pappalardi of The Devil's Anvil, as the two had played together four years previous. Okay, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch putting these two albums together on one disc. Whatever. The real treasure here is The Devil's Anvil album. The Devil's Anvil got together in the happenin' mid sixties Greenwich Village scene, playing their Middle Eastern influenced music at folk cafes and rock clubs. Eventually they hooked up with classical musician-turned-rocker Felix Pappalardi (producer of Cream's "Disraeli Gears", later to play alongside Leslie West in Mountain). He began playing bass with the band and eventually scored the group a record deal. The resulting album was truly one-of-a-kind and would certainly made greater impact had it not been released on the very eve of the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. Thus, no New York radio stations would play it and unfortunately the album has remained an expensive collector's find until now. The rock contained herein is absolutely kick ass, with bluesy and impassioned Arabic vocals, electric (or at least amplified) oud, bouzouki, tamboura, durbeki as well as the usual rock suspects of (fuzz!) guitar, bass and drums. The majority of the tracks here are either rock arrangements of traditional Middle Eastern and Greek numbers or original compositions, but a couple are actually straight traditional numbers with no western instruments at all. Plus there's an excellent Middle Eastern-esque rock arangement of "Misirlou" that's perhaps the best version ever recorded, IMHO. And the record ends with a Devil's Anvil original that kinda reminds us of one of the Beatles' more Eastern-influenced tunes. This is about as good as it gets. Even if the Freak Scene album doesn't interest you at all, this cd is still worth buying for The Devil's Anvil alone. Very, very highly recommended! Nay, ESSENTIAL. (As for The Freak Scene -- you might guess from that band's name and album title, The Freak Scene were a bit of a psychedelic-era novelty, a studio project put together by producer/songwriter Evans for CBS Records. The record exploits all of the trippy tropes of the times, from Eastern-raga modes to LSD-inspired lyrics. It's no classic, but does include at least one truly great psych-pop track, the Nuggets-worthy "A Million Grains of Sand". The Freak Scene also indulges in dated but amusing free-form sound-collage experiments like "...When In The Course of Human Events (Draft Beer, Not Students)" which tries to make a statement about the whole sixties counterculture vibe. It's a mix of Pete Seeger, Laugh-In, an LSD party -- Vietnam-era pop culture hippie kitsch -- consider it a free bonus that comes with The Devil's Anvil album.)

RealAudio clip: Wala Dai
RealAudio clip: Shisheler
RealAudio clip: Hala Laya
RealAudio clip: Basaha
RealAudio clip: Draft Beer, Not Students
RealAudio clip: A Million Grains of Sand
RealAudio clip: My Rainbow Life

All right! Just in time for summer, some hot rockin' action outta Sweden! This is an aptly titled debut of catchy, classic hard rock / metal in the grand tradition of AC/DC, with a dash of Van Halen - updated with a bit of a heavier sound. Free Fall was formed by the ex-guitarist from popular garage psych act The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, in cahoots with a few other hotshot musicians (in Sweden, there's lots), including the drummer from International Noise Conspiracy, and, crucially, a previously unknown vocalist named Kim Fransson whose sandpapered pipes convincingly conjure positive comparisons to the likes of AC/DC's Bon Scott and Humble Pie's Steve Marriott - when Fransson sings "I'm the king of rock and roll" on the album's title track, his voice sells it, despite the fact that we've never heard him or them before. There's a wild abandon to this, the guitar solos in particular, and in addition we dig how Free Fall have a formula and do it well - but also stick to that formula only as much as they wanna, allowing for some originality and surprises. The track "Attila" ferinstance, slows things down and establishes an interestingly moody vibe, still appropriately within the context of this band's '70s inspired hard rock concept, being a heartfelt semi-ballad with lashings of sinister riffery. They cite The Who as a big influence and that's heard here, on eponymous track "Free Fall" for sure, along with the aforementioned AC/DC, VH, UFO, Montrose, Nazareth, etc. Unlike some other bands trying to capture the same sort of retro rock magic, Free Fall really do deliver - possibly the secret to their success is that these are garage/punk dudes, not metallers, so they're kinda coming at these sounds on the same trajectory as musicians back in the day. In a just, rockin' world, these guys would be huge. Heck maybe they will be, and Fransson's line will be proved no idle boast. Recommended if you're ready to rock.

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Heavy psychedelic vibes from these '70s South African proggers, getting all, um, astral and spacey and downright spooky at times on this, their second album dating from 1971 (or maybe 1970?). A lost classic, this is, if you're a fan of Pink Floyd and/or cosmic Krautrock stuff of similar vintage. It's super trippy, with echoey vox singing weird conceptual lyrix over majestic acid rock meets church organ jams. This was reissued on cd before, in '97, but what we've got here is a 2005 reish that adds a bunch of bonus tracks, yay. Recommended.

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We listed a different reissue of this great rare acid-folk album about a year ago... well guess what, now it's been retitled "Hatched" and reissued -again-, this time with seven bonus tracks instead of just two. And it looks better too. The bonus tracks include two non-album cuts from the band's lone single (which were on the previous edition) and five more live tracks from a newly-unearthed 1971 radio session! So, if you already have this on cd you can determine if you need this new version or not, but if you don't already have it, this is the one to get, obviously! Here's what we had to say about it before: For those of you into acid folk from the early '70, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two [no, make that seven, now!] bonus tracks.

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MPEG stream: Spring

For those of you into acid folk from the early 70's, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two bonus tracks.

MPEG stream: Dole Song
MPEG stream: Spring

Yes! The cd debut of this fantastic Finnish four-track project... We actually meant to list this, like, a month ago, but unfortunately the original review we wrote of it was lost in one of our several recent arggh-inducing komputoor crashes, but actually that's a good thing, 'cause it gave everybody here at AQ more time to listen to this, over and over, at home and in the store, and have us all decide that this HAD to be a Record Of The Week. So we ordered more copies from Finland, and re-wrote the review (which, in our memory, was actually probably better written the first time, so trust us on this) and here we go! Ah, Finland. We've said it before, we'll say it again. So many of our favorite bands hail from Finland, from the hypnotic NWOFHM space rock of Circle to the the funereral doom of Skepticism, with all the freaky forest folk of Kemialliset Ystavat, et. al. in between. And now Fricara Pacchu, solo project from a member of such underground Finnish acts as Avarus, Anaksimandros, Maniacs Dream, and yes Kemialliset Ystavat. Hopefully you remember our review of the Fricara Pacchu 7" and accompanying art/collage booklet that the Fonal label put out not too long ago (we may still have a few of those babies in stock, if you act fast). Both Allan and Andee accidentally wrote separate gushing reviews of it, that's how much we all liked it! That 7" left us eager to hear a full-length, and now here it is, courtesy of Lal Lal Lal. 12 wigged out instrumental tracks of Fricara Pacchu's undefinable, eccentric, psychedelic weirdness. We had compared the 7" to everything from the Boredoms to Oliva Tremor Control, and that goes too for the all-instrumental music on this cd, to which we can add such other disparate references as Neu! and When and Fuck Buttons. Fricara Pacchu's music is part techno, part noise, part pop... all awesome. Recording at home on a four-track, Pacchu creates a woozy, rhythmic soundworld filled with distortion and delight. A world of magical gnomes with chugging machines spewing colorful clouds... clouds of mysterious, maybe illegal substances that coalesce in pretty patterns you can hear, as well as kaleidoscopically see. There's dense, druggy layers of guitar feedback with electro beats; lo-fi fuzzy loops, gurgly computer bleeps and sci-fi sound FX swooshes; throbbing pound and gentle ambience. Fricara Pacchu produces fragile music box melodies that exist amidst exploding minefields of noise, like the detonations of distortion that rhythmically obliterate parts of "Four Seasons Of Violins". Noise that is taken to an extreme with the utter, surging distorto-destruction of "Sky Helicopter"... Whew! Wow. Maybe if the glorious synthscapes of fellow Finns Shogun Kunitoki were way grittier and guitar-ier, done more D.I.Y., and wrapped in steel wool and played backwards on a cheap cassette, that would sound something like the quirky and compelling music of Fricara Pacchu. By which we mean, this is great!

Dude! It's about time we had some Frijid Pink here at the store! Just do a keyword search on our website for "Frijid Pink" and you'll find a small handful of references we've make to this somewhat unsung late '60s Detroit R&B infused hard rock combo, in the context of talking about some other psychedelic, "proto-metal" and stoner rock discs, among them AQ faves Flower Travellin' Band ('cause both bands did covers of "House Of The Rising Sun" -- in Frijid Pink's case it was their biggest, and pretty much only, hit.) At last a nice new reish has come along, of FP's self-titled 1970 debut, where you'll find "House Of The Rising Sun" along with a bunch of other great, boogying bluesy garage psych tunes, played by a band partial to the fuzz and possessed of a lead singer with powerful rawk pipes, Kelly Green The "Sunshine Of Your Love" styled fuzz monster "Crying Shame" is one standout (heard also on the Cherrystones Rocks comp a while back). "Tell Me Why" is another extreme fuzz attack. Frijid Pink has a gentle side too, there's some (charmingly dated?) hippy mellowness on here for sure. And when they're heavy, be aware it's more of the '60s variety than the '70s (more Vanilla Fudge than Black Sabbath!) but the aforementioned fuzz levels are up there with Sir Lord Baltimore and we'd certainly say that Frijid Pink deserve to be mentioned alongside them and also likes of the James Gang, Cactus, Iron Butterfly, and other proto-proto-metal contenders! And for sure they shouldn't be forgotten when considering the legacy of '60s Michigan rockers like the SRC, Amboy Dukes, and the MC5. This Akarma reissue comes in an extremely pink digipack, and includes two bonus tracks. Frijid Pink, yeah!

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MPEG stream: End Of The Line

What more could be said about these two Fripp & Eno records than we've already written in countless Expo '70, Growing and Aidan Baker reviews? That's because these records are pretty much ground zero for all of the dark dreamy drifty processed guitar / tape / synth drone that we can't ever seem to get enough of. Perhaps there are other earlier influential touchstones such as Tony Conrad and La Monte Young, perhaps Stockhausen and Terry Riley as well, but none seemed to have come so totally out of nowhere from two relatively mainstream players as these two records. Manuel Gottsching, Taj Mahal Travellers, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music all came a little later. After every other Eno solo album and collaboration (from Cluster to David Byrne) has been reissued, we are lucky enough to finally see both of these classic releases newly 24-bit remastered by Fripp himself reissued on his DGM imprint. These have never sounded better! No Pussyfooting even contains an extra disc featuring both tracks in reverse and a 40 minute bonus track of "The Heavenly Music Corporation" recorded at half speed that we know all our customers into glacial doomy drone will want, nay, need to own! Even if you own this record already, you may just need to buy it again for the stellar extra material! It's easy to take for granted nowadays the influence of Brian Eno as the "godfather of ambient music", but in 1973 before he had even released his first solo record, Here Come The Warm Jets, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno were mainly known for their previous roles in King Crimson and Roxy Music respectively. Then this mysterious record parenthetically titled (No Pussyfooting) appears with its cryptic cover, a sort of ultra-modernized take on a hermetic alchemical engraving depicting the two artists (Eno at his most androgynous) looking in opposite directions, sitting in a small mirrored room with no doors reading tarot cards on a mirrored table with what sort of looks like a line of coke (?), next to a mirrored guitar in a mirrored case in the corner, a translucent mannequin and an antique silver radiator behind them under glass shelves filled with old books. The back cover showing the same scene with both artists and tarot cards missing. With its two side-long awesomely titled tracks "The Heavenly Music Corporation" and "Swastika Girls", what kind of music would this be? Rock? Prog? Glam? No one probably would realize until they purchased it and brought it home, that it would be this organically cerebral deep listening experience of the highest order. It's kind of a downer that we have such easy access to information nowadays, because when this came out, it was a true mystery object, which added to its esoteric appeal. But it still is to an extent, as numerous listens over the years still never fail to captivate, or confound how exactly the sounds are being made. Apparently,utilizing a system later dubbed, Frippertronics, two reel to reel tape decks were used to allow audio elements to be added onto a continuing tape loop building up dense layers of sound that would slowly decay as it turned around the decks' playback head. On "The Heavenly Music Corporation" layers of deep synth drones are layered in phased washes with Fripp's unique bowed guitar sound ringing ascending solo lines on top that sometimes loop and sometimes don't. Eno wrings out what sounds like synth lines in counterpoint to Fripp's part in similar tones so that at times it gets harder to tell who is making what sound as the piece intensifies. "Swastika Girls" starts with high pitched cascades of processed piano like tones with scraping synth squelches looping in counterpoint, before low rising bass notes and Riley-ish piano repetitions appear. Then Fripp's searing guitar crash-lands into the mix almost disrupting the whole process, but somehow it all works. Much more distorted and dissonant than "The Heavenly Music Corporation", it doesn't take the process for granted that everything will sound harmonious but remains still somehow cohesive, though far from easy listening. While the backward tracks are equally amazing, they highlight a different kind of listening experience altogether. The seams show a bit more, the entrance and exit of new sounds more abrupt, but still strangely alien. Their inclusion here came from out of the listening experience of their first (and probably only) complete UK radio broadcast in 1973 courtesy of the late John Peel. Because the tapes were stored "tail out" but played as though they were stored "front out", the broadcast played the music in reverse. When Eno called in to say the music was being played backwards, he was met with a "that's what they all say" response. But the real bonus of this deluxe package is the 40 minute "half-speed version" of "The Heavenly Music Corporation". When there were 16 2/3 rpm options on early record players, a lot of young guitarists would use the speed to slow down 33 1/3 rpm records to learn and practice their favorite guitar lines. Here it makes the drones so deep and heavy, Fripp's guitar lines more crushing, the layers creep and slither sounding like it could be one of the weird drone cd-r's we sell tons of. If it was in a black sleeve with skulls on it, and was called Skulled Space Outrosphere or Radiant Black Blood, and sealed with wax or wrapped in twine,�and was limited to 100 copies,�we'd sell a million of em (well, okay... 100!!). Sooooooooooooo Recommended and Essential!

MPEG stream: The Heavenly Music Corporation
MPEG stream: Swastika Girls (reversed)
MPEG stream: The Heavenly Music Corporation (half-speed)

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MPEG stream: An Index of Metals

Rev. Dwight Frizzell has been a very prolific yet wholly overlooked multi-media artist based in Kansas City. His previously reissued art-damaged album with Anal Magic explored alot of the hallucinatory realms later mined by the likes of The Sun City Girls. "Natural Selection" is an anthology of seven of Frizzell's filmscores documenting expansive film events, performative actions, and dense experimental audio collages for Tesla coils, field recordings, shortwave radio, sax, guitar, and anything else that could possibly be coaxed into making noise. The standout track is the telephone & oscillator piece "First Painting" in which Frizzell calls people up on the phone and asks them to pick a number between 20 and 15,000 then shifts the oscillator frequencies accordingly. Funny and creepy.

What follows is a much appreciated guest review by the discerning Loren Chasse, a long time Frog Eyes fan, who herein explains why this band is so compelling, to certain special ears anyway. (Allan, who would have written a review expressing similar sentiments, gives the thumbs up as well, Paul's Tomb is indeed a triumph!) Amidst all the bands these days which are busy resuscitating bygone genres (psych-folk, soft rock, new wave, krautrock, disco, '80s metal... and so on), there is Frog Eyes. Sure, everything derives from other things, shares a sound, borrows a riff... but there is a difference between trying to sound like vs. just sounding like. What does Frog Eyes try to sound like? Beats me. So what does Frog Eyes just happen to sound like? My first reaction to their music was confusion and maybe slight embarrassment. With things truly alternative or experimental there can be an experience of not quite feeling safe, not being sure of what to listen for. Frog Eyes delivers songs with complicated lyrical and musical structures. Their music is over the top, mostly - packed with monstrosity but also with subtlety and dynamic prowess. Blistering jags of guitar and fractured drumming often clear away on this record to blissful jams with sparse grooves (perhaps what some might identify more conventionally as 'psychedelic rock' even though the truly psychedelic parts are the ones in which my ears seemed turned on end and ripped a new hole, so to speak!) There are ingenious pop hooks on this record, but often there are long and arduous paths leading to them. This music is challenging. It requires its audience's full attention, like reading. This is a band much about the vocals and it's likely that folks will have a strong love/hate reaction (think of other artists such as Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Bjork, Jamie Stewart, Robbie Basho). Carey Mercer's vocals are overflowing with affectation... trills, croons and gasps moving ecstatically across the vocal spectrum. All the tropes of the rock n' roll singer are in his bag. His lyrics are surreal narratives... poetic, syntactically complex, confounding in their humor and darkness. His last solo effort, Skin of Evil, recorded under the name Blackout Beach, presented a suite of songs based on a character named Donna. Well, Donna's back for this latest Frog Eyes record (along with "Cassandra" and "Paul"). Does this mean anything to my listening or enjoyment of the record? Well, I must say, that it intrigues and captures my imagination the way my favorite prog rock albums from the '70s did - somewhere at the heart of this there's a 'concept'. In Mercer's case, it's literary and it's clear he does care about the words as they are always published with the notes to his records. Paul's Tomb certainly evokes something, but the 'what' is unclear and maybe best that way. The album art features photographic tableaux evocative of a specific point in history - maybe turn of the century exploration and the amassing of museum collections? (I admit a little disappointment in not finding one of Mercer's strange paintings adorning the cover of this record as they have in the past.) The sounds on this record are raw and powerful. The guitar playing and the singing are clearly emanating from the same source... spasmodic and ecstatic phrasings (often gusty and menacing, at times sounding like Neil Young circa "Like a Hurricane" or Arc), delivered with plenty of rock conviction. Back to the prog rock analogy for a moment, there does seem to be a good deal of 'math' in these compositions, but the layers of noise and clouds of tone on top of the songs obscure the structures. I don't get the feeling the band is counting as much as they are feeling. A good thing! Think of it this way... when I want to listen to Arthur Russell, I may mix things up a little and put on Caribou or Hot Chip. When craving Joy Division there are always bands like Interpol, Blank Dogs or Blessure Grave. Heard my favorite Incredible String Band too many times this month? Well then, maybe one of the many "freak folks" will deliver. Popul Vuh has stopped releasing records but somehow their catalogue seems to be growing thanks to a host of talented emulators. And when seeking a deep dark drone at bedtime, the choices are endless. However, the point is, when I want to hear Frog Eyes, there is only ONE place to go... And among Frog Eyes albums, this one is one of the best yet.

MPEG stream: A Flower In A Glove (excerpt 1)
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The Bloody Hand was the 2002 debut album from this amazing Canadian band, but having been released on a tiny Canadian indie label, it might've been missed by many of us south of the 49th parallel. Now we have no excuse because it's just been released domestically by our Bay Area pals Absolutely Kosher Records. Not only is it a bit cheaper than the import was, but it comes with SEVEN previously unreleased songs (psst, they're actually songs from Seagull Is On The Rise, the never-issued second album of Mercer and bandmate Michael Rak's former band The Blue Pine). Much like the likeminded eccentric art rockers Xiu Xiu, this band from Victoria, BC does draw rather emphatic love and hate responses. For some the over the top melodramatic hystrionics of frontman Carey Mercer can be a bit wearing and off-putting, but for others it's just the cathartic ticket needed! Allan and Cup here give it the thumbs up, and say that 'specially if you liked any of their other albums, you need this.

MPEG stream: Sound Travels From The Snow To The Dark
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Hailing from the same city that popped out Hot Hot Heat, Frog Eyes bring forth an altogether different sound from their Victoria, BC brethren. Imagine a baroque hybrid of the Brit-inflected melodrama of Interpol or Pulp and the more dissonant, hand-wringing instabilities of Xiu Xiu. Very high on moody affectation with the focus squarely on the vocals. In addition to the deeply emotional croon and warble of those mentioned above, singer Carey Mercer may also draw comparisons to Tom Waits' hoarsely heart-baring delivery or the slightly smoother sandpaper swoon of Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. Lyrics and song titles are somewhat cryptic, obtuse and strangely poetic. The backdrop: electric guitar string churns and howls, shimmery cymbal washes, all anchored by some velvety piano melodies. FYI: More evidence of the Vancouver/Victoria music scene being quite a mighty tight knit family? Neko Case's Corn Sister co-hort Carolyn Mark lent her lovely voice to three songs (check out the luminous fifth song "A Latex Ice Age"), and Ms Mark's bandmate Tolan McNeil engineered the proceedings. Recommended.

MPEG stream: A Latex Ice Age
MPEG stream: Time Destroys Its Plan At The Reactionary Table

There's been lots of talk about heartbreak around these parts, and the best break up records, and that sort of thing. Windy thinks the new Built To Spill record is the perfect break up record, all bittersweet and caustic, but light and hopeful at the same time.

RealAudio clip: Mercury Rising
RealAudio clip: The Royal Crown vs Blue Duchess
RealAudio clip: Short Stories With Tragic Endings

Fuck Buttons? Please just ignore the name for a moment. We're glad WE did, and actually gave this band a listen... 'cause, fuck if they don't push our buttons. The pleasure ones, big fat buttons labeled massive super distorted heavy electronic drone fuzz pop damage. Really we were surprised, though maybe the colorful cover artwork that kinda makes this look like a Black Dice record should have been an indication that this Bristol UK duo was gonna be cool, despite their name. They're energetically exotic and hypnotically repetitive and just chock full of sheer noise fuzz bliss, bulldozering over buried melodies, tribal weirdness, and equally distorted screaming vocals, though this is mostly an instrumental, rhythmic throb. These six fairly lengthy songs wrap the listener's ears in a multihued steel wool blanket of abrasive warmth, made from such shimmering sonic elements as ambient piano, motorik machine beats, and thick spaced out synth. And just when you think it's already pretty darn fuzzed out, they flip a switch or step on a pedal or something and then the REAL fuzz kicks in. Definitely for fans of Growing at their most SUNNO)))-y. Also we might say this sounds like Vulture Club doing the vacuuming over at Gang Gang Dance's house, playing Jesu and M83 albums real loud while they do so. A beautiful blend of noise and drone and bright shining eternal pop loveliness... The very first track, "Sweet Love For Planet Earth" might be our favorite though we're crushed out on the whole album. But this song really sums it up, it IS the album the way the first song on the Mammal's Lonesome Drifter WAS that Mammal album too. This track has got the pretty, ringing piano part to start with, gloriously building up into the choppy fuzzed out throb we soon learn is Fuck Button's modus operandi. Damn this is good -- and there's even vocals amidst this heavenly buzz that sound like they could come off some cvlt black metal album. So yeah Fuck Buttons, cool band, dunno about the name. Seems like Fuck is the new Super or Jesus or Black, as bandnaming trends go. There's been The Fucking Champs, Fuck I'm Dead, and of course, Fuck. But more recently, bands named Fucked Up, Holy Fuck, and now Fuck Buttons have made the scene... always hilarious when they get popular enough to be played on the radio or mentioned in the mainstream press. Not so hilarious when spam filters prevent AQ list subscribers from getting emails with our reviews. But whatever, we swear a lot ourselves anyway, sorry about that. Anyway, fucking recommended.

MPEG stream: Sweet Love For Planet Earth
MPEG stream: Bright Tomorrow

The one, the only, the...fucking...Champs! After three years, finally we get their second album (called "IV" on account of the couple of cassette releases that preceded "III"). Ok. Here's the run down, for those who do and who don't know the Champs (and to know them is to love them): they're a trio, they have two guitarists very interested in harmonies, but no bassist, they have song titles like "These Glyphs Are Dusty" and "Thor Is Like Immortal", they play metal but pass it off as indie rock in order to be popular (hey, they're on Fucking Drag City), and they are primarily an instrumental band. Oh, and they have lots of self-imposed problems with their name, always worried about being confused with those "Tequila" oldsters. This time, they're the FUCKING Champs (I prefer: The C'fuckin'hamps myself), but you've probably run across that amazing "III" record by C4AMP5, it's the same band of course. So, how's the new album? Well, it rules. It's a lot shorter than "III" (which was a double LP for goshsakes) at 38 minutes, and pretty much each and every one of those minutes is packed with Thin Lizzy/Maiden/Metallica/Van Halen lovin' genius. There's a lot less of the techno keyboard interludes that they did on "III", this has its gentle moments but none of that Trans Am-ish stuff. (Although it is on current heavy rotation in Windy's 1980 Firebird Trans Am, hey! ) It's also a bit poppier, on the whole. And in another brilliant move the Champs make you wait until the very last song ("Extra Man") to hear vocals. Drummer Tim Soete's vocals and the catchiness of the tune are certainly manifestations of their Thin Lizzy worship, but, being the Champs, even this vocal cut has a lot of instrumental sections, including a lengthy bit in the middle that seems dropped in from a hypothetical black metal math rock record. You'll be playing it over and over again, along with the rest of the disc. The Champs are probably the best (=least boring) post-rock band in the world, 'cause they're in fact a METAL band. (And let's face it guys, if you're not metal, then you're a novelty act...but if one indie rock kid gets into Thin Lizzy or Carcass 'cause of The Champs, then more power to 'em!) Recommended, if you hadn't guessed! The perfect back-to-school rock soundtrack.

RealAudio clip: Extra Man
RealAudio clip: So What's a Little Reign?

Fuckin' fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuckin' A. These guys rule. Yeah, the name change was stupid, but this, their second album for Drag City as The "Fucking" Champs *does* make you think such basic, expletive-laden, fists in the air, devil-horn sign waving thoughts. Fuck yeah! The Fucking Champs. Indeed. And even if Drag City (as a part of the "joke" presumably) won't let it be known that The Champs play METAL (or maybe it's the band's idea to keep that a 'secret' on their press material, preferring the term "total music"), they are a -for real- metal band. A weird one, and a great one. Now, I do worry for The Champs' sake that their instrumental math-metal virtuosity is enjoyed mainly as a novelty by their legions of ironic indie-rock fans...and if so, how many of these fans are going to be interested in "VI", "VII" and "VIII" when they come out? 'Cause "V", their latest, sees these lads go from strength to strength without significantly altering or diluting their vision. If you already love the Champs, you'll love "V" for sure, it's a lot like "IV" but without the one song with vocals found on that album (c'mon Tim Soete, sing!!). Also there's more fusion and classical moves on here -- one song is listed as copyright 1723 J.S. Bach ("Air On A G-String", which IS Johan's original title, although we were suspicious). Indeed, within their distinctive sound, variety abounds on "V", from "I Am The Album Cover" which channels the techno-blues rockisms of late-period ZZ Top, to the Frippertronics-ish-isms elsewhere. There's also a bit of electronic tunesmithery that's so much better than anything they did in their collaboration with Trans Am. But that's no big stretch for this band, and for the most part "V" is heavy, rockin' Champs-at-their-best stuff, the trio dealing out rapid, tense riffing, no-denying-it's-metal-lic sheets of sound, and hard hitting drum filigree left right and center. Familiar faves previously only heard live and on old demo cassettes also appear. Melody and math and metal intertwine wonderfully over the fifteen tracks found here, and it's so good it's no joke. No more of a joke than, say, Hammers of Misfortune is (think about it). That's the deal with the Champs. There's nothing inherently funny about their music (in fact, without vocals/lyrics, they're LESS funny than many of their influences, like Carcass and Metallica). Maybe that's why they like that "total music" tag. 'Cause at the end of the day, they make this music, and you listen to it, for the sake of the music alone, not for some post-hip, ironic, spoof-on-metal hilarity. I mean, a few of the song titles are amusing, but you also know they kind of mean stuff like "Hats Off To Music". No joking here, really. (But we do have to ask Josh Smith about The Guitar That Was Made Of Water that he has listed in his vast equipment array, among other things...) Anyway, in sum: another winner from one of our all-time favorite bands!!

RealAudio clip: Never Enough Neck (Pt 1)
RealAudio clip: I Am The Album Cover
RealAudio clip: Nebula Ball Rests In A Fantasy Claw
RealAudio clip: Chorale Motherfucker

You can always rely on The Fucking Champs. Even after a several-year recording/touring hiatus, during which time drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green had to face a major lineup change -- replacing founding member guitarist Josh Smith (now in mod garage trio The Makes Nice) with Trans Am's Phil Manley -- they've come back to follow up 2002's V with the boldly titled VI and it's like they've never been gone. True they kept their hand in with 2004's Fucking Am album. But still, it's nice to have them back and doing what they do best, which is making Fucking Champs music. Phil fills Josh's shoes with aplomb, fitting in with the two Tims like the old friend and excellent musician that he is. So no problem there. With renewed fire, VI demonstrates that the Champs really have created a sound unique unto themselves. Say what you will about ironic hipster metal irony gimmickry (no vocals, no bass, nerdy humor), the truth is that you know the Champs when you hear 'em. Sure it's easy to spot the influence of their childhood metal heroes (Metallica, Maiden, Lizzy, Carcass...) but what they really sound like is The Fucking Champs. And not too many bands can claim that they sound most like themselves. And that it's such a damn good sound!! Their majestic harmonies ascend to heaven borne on shafts of light, their chunky "dahdahdah" riffs require immediate and incessant headbanging, their sleek melodies always catch the ear, and their mathy arrangements dizzy and dazzle. Whether in the long run they were smart or not to market themselves mainly to the indie-rock crowd rather than the metal underground remains to be seen. Some might argue that they've painted themselves into a corner, but it's a corner we love to visit!! Leading of with indeed very Champsy "The Loge" (already heard on Kemado's Invaders compilation btw), VI runs the gamut of Champsy treats and tricks. There's uptempo party rockers that are actually gorgeous prog epics in disguise ("A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"), a few gently spacey keyboardy interludes ("Insomnia", "The Crystal Behind You"), even some lovely, lush quasi-Zep folkiness ("Dolores Park"). And of course plenty more powerful, Champsy compositions showcasing fretboard acrobatics, precision drum battery and stop on a dime tightness. About the only thing long-time Champs fans (like us) are going to find disappointing about this record is that, well, we were hoping Tim Soete would step out from behind his drum kit and SING at least one song here, we love his voice. But he doesn't. Oh well maybe next time he'll go for it and give us another "Extra Man" or "Summer Knights". Instead, Neil Hamburger's voice appears somewhere on here... By the way, stay tuned at the end of the cd for the "hidden" track of chopped up studio chatter / repetitive riff collage. Brought a smile to our faces, might have been even funnier if they whould have started the record off with it!!

MPEG stream: Earthen Sculptor
MPEG stream: A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas

The funk equivalent to the Stooges' "Funhouse"! Very very LSD etc. damaged funk-rock, weirder even than it is funky. The second album from the Funkadelic.

What's that? A whole disc of unreleased vintage Funkadelic jams?? You don't gotta say that twice, we're on it like Michael Phelps on any passing bong. Yep, we were pretty excited when this showed up here, as Funkadelic are one of our favoritest bands ever. Early '70s psychedelic funk rock genius, y'know. If you're not already hip to the whole Parliament-Funkadelic "thang" (which we don't have room to properly enthuse over here), this wouldn't be the first disc of theirs to get, though it would certainly whet your appetite to hear more. If you want our advice, noobs should pick up Maggot Brain and Up For the Down Stroke and a few other "actual" P-Funk albums first, before getting Toys. For folks who are already fans, though, we heartily recommend this disc to y'all!! Toys features four songs with vocals and five live-in-the-studio instrumentals, the best of which really let Funkadelic axemaster Eddie Hazel show off his Jimi Hendrix inspired wah-wah wailin'. There's alternate (slower, heavier, harder) versions of "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" (herein called "Heart Trouble") and "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" (sans vocals) which appeared on later Funkadelic and Parliament records, respectively. Other tracks, like the nearly 11 minute long "Slide On In", are total (and totally badass) improvs. Though not all are so extended, to wit the brief laidback goof "2 Dollars & 2 Dimes". Meanwhile, poppier, songi-er fare includes "Talk About Jesus" (a gospel-ly tune, duh) and "Stink Finger", a bright and sunny number, which you might not guess from its title. Now, we'll admit this buried treasure ain't all gold, one of the lesser tracks here to our ears would be the just a bit too straight jazzy "Magnifunk", though this keyboard-led jam does get wilder as it goes on. But Funkadelic's throwaways are still way better than most other bands' best stuff, of course. Also this includes an alternate "karaoke" version of the throbbing freakfunk classic from Maggot Brain, "Wars Of Armageddon", the original of which probably inspired half of that Wicked Witch album we highlighted recently. And another reason to buy Toys is for the bonus mpeg video clip, a 16mm promo film shot for "Cosmic Slop" featuring the band in outlandish outfits frolicking in the streets of New York City circa 1971. Wow. It's about the coolest thing ever. What a bunch of groovy freaks!! Can't imagine true Funkadelic fans not wanting this. We only wish could dig up even more from the Westbound vaults! And it's nicely packaged with colorful graphics, and lengthy, enlightening liner notes by P-Funk expert Peter Bowman.

MPEG stream: Heart Trouble aka You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure
MPEG stream: Vampy Funky Bernie (3rd Tune Olympic)
MPEG stream: Slide On In (2nd Tune Olympic)

1971 debut from Detroit's psychedelic freak-funk-rock army, led by chief funkateer George Clinton. Amazing, essential shit. Swampy, soulful, good ol' FUNK. If you need to find out more, well, track one is for you: "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?"

MPEG stream: Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?
MPEG stream: I'll Bet You
MPEG stream: I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing

Once again, hot on the heels of reissues by Edzayawa and Rob, international groove digging label Soundway come up with a winner! And since this Nigerian band is named The Funkees, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect already, right? Of course, if a band from around here, now, called themselves The Funkees, they would probably be terrible if they played funk - and probably still terrible if the name were ironic and they played, like, acoustic indie rock or floorcore dronemusic. But a band from Africa, back in the '70s, called The Funkees, reissued by Soundway? Yep, they're good. Good and funky. Good enough to become East Nigeria's number one band, and their region's closest competitors to Lagos-based big city contemporaries like BLO. And good enough to move to London, and score a record deal. This "best of" anthology includes the tracks from all of The Funkees' early Nigerian singles, plus crucial selections from the two albums that they recorded in while England. 18 tracks total, packed with irresistibly groovy rhythms, energetic arrangements, jamming organ, and fuzz guitar excess. Heck there's actually even a song here titled "Acid Rock"! They also do an Afrofunk cover version of "Slipping Into Darkness" by War. Hell yeah, it's "Dancing Time" all right... Packaged with full liner notes that include an interview with original member Sonny Akpan.

MPEG stream: Abraka
MPEG stream: Point Of No Return
MPEG stream: Dancing In The Nude

Furisubi is the experimental guitar drone/psych/noise project of Kris Lapke, on this release a one-man band playing guitar and (sometimes) drums. The two tracks found on this hour-long cd-r basically sound like Japanese distorto-psych rockers High Rise or Mainliner covering Black Sabbath. Actually, track two actually *is* a Black Sabbath cover -- maybe we should say 'interpretation' -- a nearly half-hour version of Vol. 4's "Snowblind"! Well, actually, perhaps inspired by Sabbath's own in-concert jams/medleys, he works "Snowblind" over for about 15 minutes, and then deviates into some other symptoms of the Sabs' universe, like "Paranoid" and what sounds like a super-sped up version of "Smoke On The Water" which isn't even a Sabbath song (though Sabbath HAS performed it) before returning to finish-up the world's most stretched-out version of "Snowblind". That's all after the preceeding 30 minutes of the disc's first track, which borrows no Black Sabbath riffs but certainly could have! So, whether covering Sabbath or not, Lapke's modus operandi here is pretty much utter distorto guitar drone demolition, motorpsycho guitar in the Makoto Kawabata zone, but heavier, darker, dronier... yes!! Our kind of guitar hero. But he's obviously not a drummer, though, as his timekeeping skills are, shall we say, poor...but the fucked-up drumming gives this a bit more of a damaged charm anyway...and he bothers to drum only about half the time as well (so it's better than a live Electric Wizard show, who's drummer is notoriously drunk and incompetent). Lapke also allows the occasional ragged vocal to (barely) surface amid the howl of guitar and feedback, helping to place one in the flow of Sabbath tuneage. This is what "stoner rock" *should* sound like... There are other, more 'experimental' Furisubi releases, but we liked this 'rockier' one the best and so decided to feature it. Plus, who can argue with extended Sabbath-inspired jamming? We're glad of whatever possessed him to record this, in all its wonderfully blown-out and messed-up glory.

RealAudio clip: Snowblind

We've been trying to track down music from this mysterious Norweigian black metal one man band for ages now and finally managed to get enough to list. We're constantly extolling the virtues of retarded / damaged / fucked / outsider black metal (see the Benighted Leams review elsewhere on this list) and we're always on the lookout for more. And Furze definitely fits the bill. In fact, we've been touting Benighted Leams as "perhaps the most retarded black metal band ever" for years now, but it seems like Furze might be just sneak in and steal that 'honor' for themselves. Let's talk about the packaging first. The cover is all black except for some weeds laid out next to each other. The back is all white (!) with a photo of what appears to be two young trick or treaters, one dressed like a witch, the other like a ghost. The Furze logo on the back is printed over three witches brooms. the back of the booklet has a very South Park-like painting of a white sign under a blood dripping sky, The sign reads: "Come, come sit listen to our cogent black metal necrosis". Inside the booklet, Mr Furze is carrying a lantern through a snowy forest. While Necromanzee Cogent is black metal, sonically it sounds way more like a doom record, slow doomy riffs, one track even sounds exactly Black Sabbath, but played by a grade school music class. The whole record starts off with haunting Jandekian mumbling before erupting into clumsy, mid tempo doooooom. Totally random drumming, fuzzed out atonal organ melodies and anguished heavily reverbed moaning, not really metal so much as some strange Scott Walker / Jandek / Nick Cave caterwaul occasionally whispering ominously but more often gurgling and squealing and yelping. There are occasional blasts of -actual- black metal, but it's almost as if he can't manage to play that fast for that long and is forced to slow down and often abandon song structure all together, resulting in lots of creepy ambient bits, with scraping reverbed guitar strings and all sort of weird sounds. Most of the record is a sludgy doomy, plodding thud rock, almost like some long lost Amrep band, but filtered through the frosty blackened mind of some Norwegian black metal troll. Also, somewhat surprisingly there are some really gorgeous blissed out post-rocky guitar ambience, keening guitar melodies suspended in a massive blackened emptiness. Everything up until this point has only served to get you ready for the massive 20+ minute final track "Sathanas' Megalomania". From high end chiming shimmer, to slow building droning creepiness, to church-like organ and plodding drum with deep chanting and scary demonic screeches, to full on epic black metal with REALLY loud monster vocals, to haunting funereal doom until the end of the song where levels and song structure and vocals all seem to go haywire. As the metal maelstrom dissipates, the song becomes a chaotic swirl of weird sped up disembodied voices, snippets of crappy AM radio, snatches of distorted orchestra, squealing feedback and groaning downtuned guitars. Phew. Yikes. After listening to this record we feel like we've been dragged naked over rocks and thistles, through a snowy forest, into a fiery pit where we were quickly eaten by a huge demon, and promptly shat out. You know what we're talking about: tired, filthy, demoralized, violated, bruised and battered. But surprisingly really really good.

MPEG stream: Seance
MPEG stream: Necrosaint Black Metal
MPEG stream: Silver Starlight

We've long loved Norwegian weirdo one man black metal horde Furze, aka Woe J. Reaper. In fact, in our love of and obsession with the most twisted, warped, fractured and fucked up black metal, we would rank Furze pretty damn close to the top. Three records in (Trident Autocrat, Necromanzee Cogent, and UTD) and few can reach the heights (depths?) of Furze's sonic dementia. Just have a look at past Furze reviews on the aQ site, to see just what sort of confusional brilliance this guy is capable of. So when we discovered that the new, fourth Furze was meant to be an homage to seventies era Black Sabbath, a sonic tribute to the band that is, according to Woe J. Reaper himself, the reason Furze exists at all. The question really was, would the new record simply sound like a Furze record, and be dedicated to the spirit of Sabbath, or would it sound like Sabbath, with Reaper doing his best to evoke the same mood and might and majesty? Howabout a little of both? Right off the bat, Reaper Subconscious Guide finds Furze doing his best Sabbath, but unlike the legions of Sabbath worshipping wannabes, Reaper is capable of capturing that seventies sound, the vibe, and the first track, while not sounding like Sabbath per se, it definitely sounds like it could be some demented lost seventies private press metal artifact. The riffing old school and Sabbathy, but everything else pure Furze, the drumming is super strange, mathy and stuttery and busy, the vocals, even weirder, a crooned mewl, no screeching or voKILLS, but proper (sort of proper) singing. The track is all over the map too, gongs, clean guitar strum, and finally, some black metal, but only sort of, instead, it sounds more like galloping classic metal, pounding and relentless, before the track shifts back to that Sabbath styled chug and croon, but this time lacing the sound with glockenspiel. Yep, glockenspiel. We can't think of a Furze record that would appeal to classic metal purists, and while this one might not either, it's about as close as Reaper will ever get. The rest of the record follows a similar path, old school seventies hard rock guitar parts, wild chaotic drumming, the strange doomy croon vocals, some seriously killer riffs, twisted squiggly leads here and there, and it's Furze, so there's lots of random weird shit going on, not the least of which is the chiming bell like glockenspiel which surfaces at the oddest times. The thing is, without the black metal baggage, if this was some recently unearthed lost doom artifact, people might be freaking out, the perfect balance of classic metal, damaged naivety, and freaked out psychedelic weirdness, makes this a twisted classic. Definitely the least black metal of all the Furze records, but just as awesomely weird and brilliantly baffling! Lots of strange liner notes, and super swank sparkly reflective cover art/logo that ought to appeal to little girls everywhere.

MPEG stream: Earlier Than The Third Might Of The Cosmos
MPEG stream: It Leads...
MPEG stream: Immortal Lecture

We haven't had these in ages, but since Furze is some of our favorite far out black metal EVER, we figured we oughta relist it since we just now managed to get some more copies (and we might not be able to get any more after this as the label is pretty much sold out!). Here's how much we love this stuff (from when we listed it the first time a few years back): Everybody went so nuts for the newest Furze record we listed recently we figured we oughta track down the first one as well. And it's just as freaked out and damaged and totally brilliant. Unlike the weird droning doom of Necromanzee Cogent, Trident Autocrat is all black metal. But that doesn't mean it's not as bizarre, because it most definitely is. The song titles again are totally perplexing: "Zaredoo Knives Endows Thy Sight", "Devacamo Possessed Black", "Witchboundator", "Scolopendraarise" and the lyrics and imagery are quite ridiculous as well. The logo, which features three witches brooms and the slogan: "Trident Black Metal Feast", the back of the record that features a long exposure swirl of light in a spooky hallway, and lines like "The overall vibration of the preacher, The way of sneaking teeth and hypocrisy, It's the destruction ritual of the holy trinity" all combine to form the perfect framework for one of the coolest weirdest black metal records ever. All the BM hallmarks are present, buzzing riffs, growled vocals, chaotic lightning speed bast beats, but the black metal of Furze turns these seemingly typical elements into completely insane musical madness. The growling vocals squirm and morph from demonic growl, to howled distant anguish, heavily reverbed as if they were being recorded at the bottom of a well, to maniacal gremlin like chatter, and creepy cartoony chanting. The riffs, are super affected and sometimes sound totally heavy, sometimes completely brittle, lo-fi and tinny one minute, buzzing and snarling the next. The most surprising thing is how damn catchy some of these riffs are. The first song has been stuck in my head like crazy, and unlike most black metal, you'll no doubt find yourself humming along. Only a half hour long, but so much wonderful weirdness is crammed into those 30 minutes you definitely won't be left wanting.

MPEG stream: Zaredoo Knives Endows Thy Sight
MPEG stream: Devacamo Possessed Black

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

SORRY. Hail, the return of Japanese psych shaman Keiji Haino's legendary psychedelic free rock unit, Fushitsusha! We'll dispense with doing a lengthy background essay, as pretty much anyone who would purchase a $29 import cd by Fushitsusha already knows all about the band; in fact we probably know exactly who you are. Not that we don't want to spread the gospel of Fushitsusha far and wide, it's just that there's some more affordable introductions that could be made. But, even our fellow fanclub members probably want to know if this gets the thumbs up from us. Well, of course it does! But some further attempt at description might help. For a couple reasons, we were quite surprised (and pleased!) when this appeared. We had thought that Haino was done forever with Fushitsusha, actually. There hadn't been a new Fushitsusha release for over ten years (and on the last one, he didn't even play guitar), and it seemed that his 'blues band' Seijaku, and also his trio recordings with Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, were what was gonna have to fill the void. Those were great, but nothing knows the 'void' like the true Fushitsusha... Also never thought we'd see a Fushitsusha release with a cover that wasn't mostly black, or at least, purple - but this handsome digipack is a rather lovely blueish green, with metallic silver details, and silver inside and on the obi. Does this shocking new color scheme herald other big changes in the Fushitsusha 'formula' too? Well, let's see... First off, we noted that this cd consists of seven tracks, in just 35 minutes. Good grief, on a lot of other Fushitsusha albums, a single song could last 35 minutes or more, and maybe even continue over onto a second disc! But here, the longest track is a relatively brief 7:04, with most of 'em clocking in at closer to 3 or 4 minutes. But, radio-friendly singles they ain't! Instead, they're intense, concentrated doses of Haino & Co.'s unique reinventions of rock n' roll's most primal urges, rock that's been deconstructed/destructed... The first track, features very prominent bass, played by Mitsuru Nasuno (also of Seijaku, Korekyojinn, Altered States, Ground Zero, Sanhedolin/Sanhedrin, etc.). This repeating, slightly mutating bass riff loops as endlessly as possible for the song's 3:35 duration, accompanied by the stumbling, staggering drummage of longtime Fushitsusha percussionist Ikuro Takahashi (also of LSD March, Kousokuya, and many other projects). Haino isn't playing guitar at all, just singing, in his trademark throat-torn shriek. What? No guitar? Again? But don't worry, it's just a fakeout, he doesn't keep us waiting long, starting with track two, his sweet stabbing sheets of sound come crashing down, Haino's guitar & amp in full effect. Nasuno's bass burble continues, very upfront, but Haino's gorgeously noisy guitar wrangling takes crucial center stage. And the Fushitsusha (blackest of black) magic happens. About halfway into this track, this listener's pulse rate went way up... And so it goes, some songs taking sharp turns you'll need your sealegs for, the disc's relatively short running time crammed with stormy spazzed out improvs, bloodshivering blowouts, and some almost no wavey numbers, again not destined for the hit parade, except on another plane where the likes of the Dead C and Starfuckers and Last Exit are regular Grammy winners. 'Nuff said? No doubt.

MPEG stream: track 1
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Happy days for fans of Fushitsusha! Japanese guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino's legendary "out-rock" unit is back in action, after a long hiatus. First, a few months back, in the spring, there was the unexpected appearance of a new Fushitsusha cd, Hikari To Nazukeyo, with Mitsuru Nasuno on bass and Ikuro Takahashi on drums. And now, already, before the fall, a follow up, from the same lineup, on the same label! (And that's not to mention the several other excellent Fushitsusha-like improv trio releases that Haino's done recently with drummer Oren Ambarchi and either Jim O'Rourke or Stephen O'Malley on bass.) Yep, happy days indeed. This new disc from Fushitsusha, Mabushii Itazura Na Inori, pretty much takes up where the previous one left off. It even looks quite similar, the digipack cover's color scheme a darker, bluer blue mottled with metallic silver. Beautiful. And again, it consists of several relatively short tracks, by Fushitsusha standards, six of them in 55 minutes. The five minute plus opening cut is a moody, bass-heavy intro to the darkness of this disc, featuring haunting vocals from Haino that are far more gentle than his usual yelps can be� it reminds us a bit of the final track on the Nazoranai disc he did with Ambarchi and O'Malley. This one gets into a fantastic, deep, droning, monk-like moan-zone (with perhaps overdubs involved??) that makes what comes next seem even more striking and extreme - the second track on the disc being an eleven minute session of stark skronk. The rhythm section traffics in tumbling, disjointed skitter, underpinned by thumping thudding bass. Haino hovers close to the mic, unburdening his soul in sudden brief outbursts, accompanied by his scrabbling, stab-in-the-heart electric guitar-shards� it builds and builds with subtlety; initially the jarring blurts and blasts of distortion slice into and out of near silence, but eventually the elements come closer and closer together in a dense web of claustrophobic, controlled chaos. 'Tis tangled, tweaked, terror-inducing. Whew! And that's just track two, there's plenty more in store on the rest of the disc, following the same sort of hallucinatory, counter-intuitive "free rock" (that's more free, than rock) style, one that's seemingly all about attack and decay. Some of this is Fushitsusha at their most Starfuckers-ish, so abstract and intense and precise, all encompassing, indescribable, and a little bit insane. And it's emotionally effecting via the sheer sonics alone, without any Japanese-to-English translation of Haino's whisper-to-a-scream lyrics. Once again, we won't overdo it with the exposition, 'cause you probably know if you want this (like, if you already own Hikari To Nazkeyo). The uninitiated, we won't expect to get into the unique avantgarde wonders of Haino & Fushitsusha via a $29 import disc - not when there's some other, more affordable entry points, just ask us. But fans, we've got what you want...

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'Tis a big day for everybody into the legendary free-rock unit Fushitsusha, lead by Tokyo's dark lord of psych and improv, Keiji Haino. Not one, but TWO new discs have just been released! They're on the same Japanese label, Heartfast, that put out the trio's two previous albums, back in 2012. When those discs came out, several months apart, they were welcomed by fans as the first new Fushitsusha's in over ten years. And, they were brilliant. Fortunately, it hasn't been as long of a wait for these two new discs, this time released simultaneously, and also excellent, staggeringly so. Fans are already hitting the "add to cart" button, but we'll go on with some details... First off, these two, Namaewo Tsukenaide Hosii Namaewo Tsuketeshimauto Subetede Nakunattesimaukara (unofficial translation of title from the unofficial Keiji Haino webpage: "Please don't name it. If you name it, it will cease to become all"), which we'll refer to as the silver one, and Madaatatakaiuchino Konoimani Subetenonazowo Sosogikondeshimaou (unofficial translation: "In the now, while it's still warm, let's pour in every mystery"), which we'll call the gold one, both feature a NEW lineup, different from the previous discs on Heartfast. Now on bass, is Chiyo Kamekawa, a Tokyo psych scene veteran (Yura Yura Teikoku, The Stars, Cosmic Invention). The newcomer on drums, is Ryosuke Kiyasu, from the prolific underground Japanese noise/grindcore band Sete Star Sept. Interesting. Kamekawa is not as 'busy' as previous bassist Nasuno Mitsuru, while Kiyasu brings a LOT of youthful energy to his percussive attack when required. Indeed, with Kiyasu on board, it's no surprise that some of this gets FIERCE. Wouldn't be much of a surprise anyway. But there's also lots of contemplative passages as well on these discs, which are both varied, exhibiting a similar range of 'typical' Fushitsusha sounds... there's moody pieces, with percolating bass and drum skitter and guitar skree and sudden silences, converging and diverging in impossible patterns, Haino tearing his heart out with his lungs over top... some tracks even moodier, quieter and more restrained, like the absolutely lovely penultimate 15+ minute track on the silver album, wherein Haino alternates his chiming guitar strum with gentle (really) vocals, singing what sound like isolated syllables of his lyrics in mesmerically haunting fashion, or the second song on the gold album, all muted rhythmic thump and hushed vocals in the shadows. The finale of the gold disc is another, so stark and gorgeous and intense and emotional. Speaking of emotion, then there are the tracks that blast with beyond-hardcore punk intensity, utter over the top freakery, sounding more like something a grind band like Sete Star Sept would do! You'll find a couple totally Napalm Death-ing it in under a minute, with insane inhuman vokills from Haino that make Khanate's Alan Dubin sound like a contestant on The Voice. And, then there's the ones that find a middle way, like the first track on the silver disc, which erupts with staggering "big rock" chords, in a manner that's both chaotic and precise, with an almost melodic progression. We're reminded of US Maple's confusional no-wave here and elsewhere. We're not gonna lie, we think if you're a Fushitsusha fan, you should of course buy BOTH discs. (If you're not a fan, why are you still reading? 'Cause you're curious? Well check out a sound sample and see what you think!). However we realize that two $28 import discs at the same time might be tough on the wallet. So if you decide to get just one (presumably, planning to get the other later on), then which to get? Well, we can't tell ya. Both are great, and we have equal quantities of both, so the best thing to do is just flip a coin. Or, like we said, get 'em both. Of course, with the 7 tracks on the silver one clocking in at 32:48, and the 8 tracks on the gold one running to 42:42, we can't help but notice that music here coulda fit all on one (long) disc, which would have saved everyone some money. But we're sure there's cryptic artistic reasons why that wouldn't have worked. And they certainly look nice, side by side, in their metallic-colored miniature lp style jackets.

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Keiji Haino and his psychedelic power trio Fushitsusha have long made some of Japan's heaviest, darkest, most fucked up sounds. They're a legendary "free rock" outfit, up there with the Dead C, Skullflower and few others. They're a unique band that with this At their last San Francisco show a few years back, Haino and Fushitsusha's drummer had an "epsiode" that resulted in, upon his return to Japan, the drummer's retirement from music! Rather than drafting in a new drummer, Haino and bassist Ozawa decided to remain a duo, with Haino taking over the drumming duties. This is the first recording by this new, unusual, reduced Fushitsusha line-up. Unusual because Haino's monstrous wall-of-feedback guitar was probably the reason most people listen to the band in the first place. Well too bad, meet the new, stripped-down, guitarless Fushitsusha! Origin's Hesitation starts off with Haino in a maniacal percussion frenzy, as if he'd always wanted to be the drummer in Fushitsusha and is now just so excited to be behind the kit he can't help but try to play all the drums at once. But after the first track, he calms down a bit with the drumming, putting more of his energy into what must rank as some of his most dramatic, tortured vocals ever. And that's saying a lot. These cries and utterances are accompanied by sparse but deliberate drum and bass hits, using space and silence. Both Haino and Ozawa use live electronics to loop their instruments, but this is a lot more primitive sounding than most "sampler" utilizing music! You might have to already be a fan of Haino/Fushitsusha to get into this -- at least, it's probably not the place for novices to start. Very anguished, very abstract. The heavy guitar sounds that linked Fushitsusha's past work to the rock music of Blue Cheer or Crazy Horse are of course gone, but this is still "heavy" in an emotional sense. And certainly "fucked up." So, after reading all the above, you probably still want to know "is it any good?" Well, Andee of course hates it, as he does pretty much any release where Haino opens his mouth. Allan on the other hand thinks this is kinda cool, even though he does prefer Fushitsusha with guitar. But he likes contrary, counter-intuitive rock bands like US Maple and Starfuckers, which in some ways this echoes. Handsomely packaged, as always with PSF Fushitsusha releases, with cd and booklet in a black paper mini-gatefold sleeve. Smells good!

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