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Showing results 1 through 50 of 67.

Somewhere between Gary Numan and Jean-Jacques Perrey. The aesthetics of Kraftwerk fused with punk brought the industrial sounds of SPK, Esplendor Geometrico, and Nocturnal Emissions...this continuum continues under the guise of "post-rock" with Trans Am, Six Finger Satellite, and now Add N To X...a bloody assault of analogue synths, propulsive bass lines and hyper catchy tunes...recommended by those kids at the Wire!

Dax Riggs and Mike Sanchez of the criminally overlooked Acid Bath (RIP) continue to rock with the metal of their former (and much loved) outfit tempered with Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie and slithery Iggy production. Plus the emotional intensity and murky melodicism of Jeff Buckley. Excellent! A runner-up for album of the week, actually. This proves that "classic rock" wasn't only made in the '70s. Music to drive your Camaro to.

RealAudio clip: Endsmouth
RealAudio clip: Dead Girl

Switzerland has more to offer the unruly noiseniks than just the Young Gods. Alboth, while having the same sort of pompous air as the Gods, approach their music with a little less bombast. This outing finds them sounding less like a piano fronted Naked City, and more like a computer generated post rock soundtrack, infused with a drug induced paranoia, and an exagerrated sense of otherworldliness. Allan and Andee both recommend this record highly.

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

Japanese experimental music wunderkind Koji Asano has already produced a slew of fine albums that range in focus from guitar noise-rock to meditative piano improvisation to electronic soundscapes... Now, with this release, he ventures into the realm of modern classical, with three long tracks of melancholy and unsettling yet not-unmelodic music for strings, performed by the Koji Asano Ensemble (piano, cello, viola, violin, and contrabass). Koji Asano is perhaps Japan's answer to the United States' own prolific and multitalented new music prodigy Jim O'Rourke (and Asano has yet to release any dubious "pop" music). Recommended.

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SORRY. A Dutch import limited to 500 copies, this piece is constructed from recordings made of the 18 foot long corridor of the Chio-In Temple in Kyoto that squeeks when walked upon. The squeeking is supposed to prevent unexpected intrusions.

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SORRY. Multiple turntables and trumpet, very interesting. Bastien takes portable turntables and attaches pieces of metal below, and directly to, the tone arm, causing the record to skip and forming simple and hypnotic loops. He then plays trumpet melodies over the looped records turning these disparate ingredients into sleepy, hiccuping lullabyes.

San Francisco band maybe comparable to Jesus Lizard -with saxophones- i.e. twisted rock in free jazz mode. Pretty good.

Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde (he of the trademark pick squeals) rocks with a brand of hard, dirgy rock. Southern-tinged (a la CoC) stoner metal? 'Cause it's Zakk the stoner metal contigent might not pick up on this, but it actually blows away most other efforts in the genre: it's super heavy, full of (of course) great guitar playing and some excellent songwriting. Zakk handles the vocals too, with a voice again reminescent of CoC's Pepper Keenan. For fans of Acid Bath, Alice in Chains, Down, etc.

The domestic version of this kick ass Boredoms album finally sees the light of day! Far less manic than their previous spazzcore albums you loved in the past, the Boredoms' new focus on studio manipulations is intense and artistically successful. Layers of bombastic guitar noises swell and give way to insane bursts of tape manipulation along with the wax and wane of desperate screams and urgent percussion. Super AE is a rancid psychedelic experience that could be a chance meeting on the dissecting table between Amon Duul and Nurse With Wound. f you've seen the Boredoms live and don't think you could sit through a disc of it, know that this album builds on the studio experiments of their recent SuperRoots series; it's not Yamantaka Eye jumping around anymore -- he's sitting in the cock-pit, entering your earholes with intents to purple-shag-carpet-bomb your sense of reality. Mad Jack became mad scientist. Although Japanese import version came packaged in an elaborate day-glo oversized plastic box, don't worry: the artwork on this domestic cd is pretty damn cool complete with nifty Eye Yamantaka magic marker art!

By now, unless you've been living underneath a VERY big rock, you know all about Count Grishnackh aka Burzum, Euronymous, Bard Faust, Mayhem, Emperor and all the killing and church burnings and suicides. If for some reason you don't know about all this stuff, go buy yourself a copy of The Lords Of Chaos, a book that covers all that stuff in great detail. The problem with all this drama, murder, satanism, whatever, you forget that the whole reason these guys knew each other, and the only reason any of us cared, was the music they made. And that music they made was black metal. A black metal that thanks to the decidedly non-musical drama, would soon make black metal a household name. So when folks ask us to recommend some classic black metal, we always recommend Satyricon's Nemesis Divina, Immortal's Battles In The North, Emperor's Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk, and of course Burzum's Filosefem. Filosefem, originally released in 1996 holds a special place in our outsider music hearts, as the first black metal record to turn the whole black metal formula completely upside down. Count Grishnackh was the only member and played all the instruments, even the drums, which gives the whole thing a weirdly damaged droning swing. A rhythm that would define the rhythmic sound of later black metal legends like Graveland and Woodtemple. The guitars are a thick suffocating buzz, razor sharp and totally blown out. And the vocals are an anguished wail, some sort of primeval demonic incantation. But where Burzum stands out most is the addition of a creepy synthesizers that hover in the background of several of the tracks, a haunting melody buried beneath the swirl of fuzz and ultradistortion. Unlike other BM bands, the keyboard isn't a huge wash of strings to add some sort of epic quality, these tracks are already epic enough, here the keyboards are much more spare, a simple minor key melody is picked out, almost childlike, hovering briefly, before the next note follows. Except for one blazing blast of a track, Filosefem is mostly midtempo, lurching and heaving, stumbling down dirt road into a smeared grey landscape. But as the record nears the last few tracks, the record changes, beginning with the nearly half hour long "Rundgang um die Transzendentale Saule der Singularitat", a track that eschews any hint of metal, stripping away the guitars, the drums, everything, and leaving just the synthesizer, as it unfurls a seemingly endless Aphex Twin like four note melody. Forlorn and strangely compelling. And in the context of the whole record, as emotionally devastating as anything we've heard. The final track "Gebrechlichkeit II", brings back the guitars, but makes them nearly static, an endlessly blurry vacuum cleaner like riff, slowly shifting, as another haunting melody drifts wraith like in the background. Definitely one of the most essential and unique metal records of all time. BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

Late Byrds album (1968) with Gram Parsons with many more classic songs than required to make an album essential. This inexpensive but nicely appointed reissue features eight never-before-available tracks/outtakes, including a GP vocal.

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 [http://aquariusrecordsSF.com/windyscar.html], 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?

One of the more recent Circle records finally released on vinyl by our pals at Static Caravan. Good thing too since the cd is out of print. Double lp, colored vinyl in a nice gatefold sleeve with some of the most tripped out artwork we've seen in a while, different from the cd version. Here's what we had to say about the cd when it first came out. Is there such a thing as Circle overload? We don't think so. In their case, you can't have too much of a good thing. A brand new disc of their hypnotic avant-rock compositions. Newer than their recent "Andexelt" album, and just as good. Not as sparse and dubby as that disc, "Prospekt" is rather heavier and denser, mesmerizingly repetitive as always, and kinda startling, with some incredible vocal acrobatics / operatics in the opening track "Dedofiktion". Really great!

RealAudio clip: Stimulance

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SORRY. Gorgeous guitar improv jazz meets Sonic Youthian noise from Nels' talented trio. Vinyl boasts an extra track.

What has to be our favorite British pagan folk psychedelic prog rock album ever (in other words, quite possibly our favorite album ever, period!) is finally available again on cd, and in a gorgeous Japanese mini-lp gatefold sleeve to boot, with the disc itself all state-of-the-art remastered, sounding great. THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty. And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers. Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus. Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip" (on First Utterance). And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later. And never would I have thought that a record as old as me, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like I said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! We were hoping that this new cd edition would include the two bonus tracks from from an early single that the Italian vinyl reissue included as a bonus 12", but such is not the case. Oh well. Still ranks as one of our all time favorites.

RealAudio clip: Diana
RealAudio clip: Drip Drip
RealAudio clip: The Herald
RealAudio clip: Song To Comus

Now reissued on vinyl, Gal Costa's self-titled debut fits nicely into the canon of essential Tropicalia records. Beautiful production by Rogerio Duprat, and of course songwriting and vocal assistance from both Caetano Veloso, and Giberto Gil. While this only hints at the unhinged fuzz psych of her follow-up, Gal, there are some amazing moments that all fans of this crucial era of Brazilian music will love, especially her versions of "Nao Identificado", "Baby", and "Lost In The Paradise."

A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

Super ass kicking angular new wave. Heavy like you would expect from ex-members of Dead and Gone, but with generous helpings of The Fall, Pere Ubu, Television, Voidoids. Fans of the following should check out Creeps on Candy: VSS, Calculators, Slaves, Jesus Lizard, Neurosis, and East Bay crust-core as well as Chicago no-wave.

Great San Francisco musician and composer Beth Custer (Club Foot Orchestra, Eighty Mile Beach) assembled these players and instrument builders for the Yerba Buena performance recorded on this disc.

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SORRY. Long a treasured 'bootleg' amongst Drake fans, these are 18 rare home recordings that sit comfortably beside his 4 other essential albums. So lovely!

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SORRY. Using samples from Arnold Sch�nberg and Charles Ives, among others, Ekkehard Ehler cyclically forms and dissolves structures creating swiveling metallic soundscapes and surging orchestral mayhem. Really beautiful.

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

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

SORRY. I'm embarrassed to say it took a few months for me to realize the brilliance of this album, but better late blah blah blah... This is stark and understated pop, nothing sweet about it, quiet and intense. Unpredictable in the best ways, like a song will be building up up up to a soft climax, only to have the bass stop at crucial moment -- it's that kind of beauty. Definitely for fans of Palace and early Pavement, I cannot recommend them, one of SF's best local bands, more highly. Packaged in a (pre-June of 44) matchbook cover with nice Fuck sticker.

Funkstorung's percolating IDM rhythms and terse melodic episodes tend to result in constant comparisons to Autechre, as they sound VERY similar. Nothing wrong with that, it's made for some great tracks, and something that we can always recommend to Autechre fans! However, "Post Art" has progressed to form a sound which may be the sound which Funkstorung can claim as their own, separate from Autechre (although still recommended to fans of those guys). Rich washes of reverb drench the digitized post-electro breakbeats for sad, almost Joy Division-like, atmospheres.

WONDERUL! Japanese-only reissue of the third Gil album (also known as the self titled Gilberto Gil album), originally issued by Brazilian Polydor in 1969. Mutantes fans hungering for more should not skip this gem, and who knows how long it will be available to us so buy now or cry later. "Every bit as in the zone as Gal's epochal '69 testament; musta been something in the Bahian water that year! The Brazilian military dictatorship of the time didn't know what the fuck to make of these records, but they knew they were plenty subversive & placed Gilberto & Caetano Veloso (don't sleep on his '69 White Album either, even though it's never been as hard to find as these two) under house arrest before exiling them for several years. Lanny, again, provides some of the most psychedelic guitarwork the world has ever known & studio wiz Rogerio Duprat outdoes himself on the almost-Dockstadteresque 'Objeto Semi-Identificado'. There's even a Mutantes cover ('2001' or 'Dois Mil e Uno') which out-freaks the original! ... This was Gil's third album, and second in the Tropicálist style. I've yet to hear a bad one from him..." -- Tropicalia expert Jason Witherspoon in the (Forced Exposure catalog [http://www.forcedexposure.com/])

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SORRY. An amazing melange of noise, improv, electronics, prog, opera, samples, and turntables. A series of off kilter plunderphonic style noise operettas. Much less 'rock' and more weirdness than their other releases.

The droning dirgelike beauty that is Harvey Milk's legendary Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men record, finally get's a deluxe digital reissue on our very own Andee's tUMULt label! Crushing and pummeling majestic beauty, interspersed with delicate moments of hushed whispery strum. Lumbering down-tuned hyper-rhythmic skull crack dropped delicately into suffocating expanses of near silence. Delicate pointillist piano mutates into a dirgey exercise in tension that sounds like a lost Dario Argento soundtrack performed by the Melvins. Lilting and melancholy near-ballads are disrupted by incessant and brutally heavy riffs. Amidst the pummel and beneath the negative space swirls a barely audible maelstrom of whispered vocals, warbling turntables and whirring vacuum cleaners, all adding to the confusional brilliance that was Harvey Milk. And their heart wrenching cover of Leonard Cohen's "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" features what has to be the most tortured and anguished vocal performance ever recorded. Too heavy to be post rock. Too weird to be metal. Too everything to be anything, Harvey Milk were unconventional and wholly unique, both structurally and sonically, touching on territory mined by the likes of Gastr Del Sol, Codeine, Queen, Husker Du, Man Is The Bastard, the Melvins, and ZZ Top, but slowing it down, making it HEAVY, and fucking it up. Making it more beautiful, while making it difficult to listen to at all. Hypnotic, repetitive and jarring. Unpredictable, exhausting and perplexing. Comes in a beautiful gatefold, letterpressed, silkscreened cover, replicating (in miniature) the LPs original cover. 2005 postscript: Harvey Milk freaks rejoice!! With the sudden surge in interest in all things sludge-y and doomy and drone-y, as well as loads of HM-specific attention, Harvey Milk have decided to reform, tour and record a brand new album!! FUCK YEAH!

MPEG stream: The Boy With The Bosoms
MPEG stream: Pinnochio's Example

This is one of the most amazing new bands we have heard in a while, and they're from France! This is Hint's second album and it's a bit more varied than last year's ultra pummeling and quite brilliant Dys. On Wu Wei, the punishing brute rock is stretched and twisted, advancing from huge thunderous dirges to sampler/turntable-heavy 'musique concrete' (hey, that's a french word) to soaring cinematic soundscapes. This band destroys so many other bands with their amazing versatility, musicianship and sheer breadth of scope.

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SORRY. Seattle avant-violin etcetera wunderkind's second solo record, following his 7 NADES on Zorn's Tzadik label...If you've heard that, or enjoyed his collaborations with the Sun City Girls, now there's this to absorb.

Metallic drones ala Muslimgauze and distorted beats degenerate into roaring static pulses ala Xenakis, Bohor I and ...rain... very beautiful and highly recommended.

The sixth studio album from Low is not so much a shift in song writing but rather in production as they've employed the technical prowess of Steve Albini. By wholly avoiding the reverb drenched production that has carried over since Low's early albums recording with Kramer, Albini chooses a very sparse dry sound that exposes Mimi's and Alan's voices cracking against the beautifully languid orchestration of slow motion rock minimalism. Its end result is delicate, fragile, and gorgeous. This may very well be their best album to date!

Jazz power trio, Mat Maneri (electric violin), Matthew Shipp (piano) and Randy Peterson (drums) convey a dynamism, agility and spontaneity that defines improv. A lovely collection of pieces including originals and Miles Davis compositions.

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SORRY. Deep pulsing bass drones with creepy slow metallic percussion, and lots of interesting noise-making, featuring voice and cello and appearences by noise-greats Masonna and Merzbow, being not so balls-out noisey, but contributing effectively to the album as a whole.

With every release, you wonder how Melt Banana is going to make their records just as fierce and brutal as the last without indulging in banal formulas. Yet their sound has evolved into complex shards of Dadaist hardcore played with hyperkinetic precision. One of the highlights on this album is their insane collaboration with Mr. Bungle! Highly recommended!

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SORRY.

Finally, another full length from The Monkeywrench, Mark and Steve from Mudhoney, Tom from Gas Huffer, the infamous Tim Kerr and some guy named Martin. And it's on Estrus, where they belonged all along. Drunken and garagey and surprisingly not all that unlike Mudhoney. A definite fix for those of us who miss Mudhoney (who aren't breaking up like they were intending to). Awesome.

One of the early filmworks from Mario Bava (best known for his horror flicks), Danger: Diabolik is a spectacular, unusual and campy romp of a movie. From 1967, it's an Italian comic book come to life complete with wonderfully mad leaps of logic, a bevy of

RealAudio clip: Driving Decoys
RealAudio clip: Criminal / Justice Solution
RealAudio clip: Charading Chauffeurs In Wait
RealAudio clip: Deep Down
RealAudio clip: Valmont (Underworld Don) Philosophies
RealAudio clip: Money Orgy

This Swedish progrock supergroup got together to interpret great horror film soundtracks, like Komeda's theme to "Rosemary's Baby" and Frizzi's music from "City Of The Living Dead" and "The Beyond". This should definitely appeal to fans of Goblin (who get covered here too, of course). Includes an amazing, epic 20-minute piece that will even satisfy Godspeed You Black Emperor fans looking for their filmic music fix.

Described by some as a "Sunday morning Mogwai", this group is closer in style to some of the quieter Kranky releases. Soon-to-be-impossible-to-find import.

Three cheers for Jeff Mangum and the rest of the Elephant6 music & art collective that participated on this, Neutral Milk Hotel's second glorious album. That's right, Mangum's pulled it off TWICE. There's still the rough buzz and sweetly chiming chords of his first album, but this record features more interesting instrumentation (musical saw, flugelhorn, accordion, organ, trumpet) along with stretched out parts where said instrumentation can really have a go at it. It's an absolutely perfect, instantly likeable, deeply affecting album from the man who arguably brought singing back to indie rock.

If Indiana Jones was a metalhead, this would be his favorite band! State-of-the-art death metal brutality/technicality with a Great Pyramid-sized fixation on Ancient Egypt. Here are some song titles: "Invocation of the Gate of Aat-Ankh-Es-En-Amenti", "Nas Akhu Khan She En Absiu", "Masturbating The War God", "Libation Unto The Shades Who Lurk In The Shadows Of The Temple of Anhur"! The liner notes even include detailed essays giving the historical background for each song's lyrics. Our resident Egyptologist, Elisabeth, is currently studying these for accuracy (she thinks that they are relatively well-researched, if not based on the most up-to-date sources...)! The archeological aggression of Nile combines the fast and furious, yet subtly melodic approach of Morbid Angel (who also share an interest in things occult and middle-eastern) with ethnic musical trappings (not always Egyptian either: there's even some Tibetan monks chanting on here). Live, these non-metal elements are brought in via PowerBook sampling, unusual for the genre. On record, such departures are even more effective and atmospheric. This, Nile's 2nd full-length for Relapse, is a dark, sinewy, complex, demonic masterpiece!

Nile, the death metal band obsessed with the grandeur, mystery and mythology of Ancient Egypt, are one of the biggest things in the underground metal world right now (underground meaning NOT Ozzfest or MTV friendly, but with Nile you could also use "underground" in an archeological sense!). This, their third Relapse album, has been hotly anticipated by thousands and thousands of fans worldwide. And not 'cause of the popularity of Hollywood's The Mummy or The Scorpion King. No, Nile owe their following quite deservedly to their own amazing and intense musicianship and atmospheric songwriting. If you were going to buy just one 'extreme' metal album this year, you could do much worse than getting "In Their Darkened Shrines". It's an album of brutal, unrelenting heaviness, utterly insane drumming, shredding solos, and headspinning dynamics -- you'll feel like you've been through a desert sandstorm when they're done -- that's impressively technical, AND majestic, with 'exotic' middle-eastern influenced melodies and textures galore (utilizing their usual guitars, and ethnic instruments, and samples). They're one of those bands -- and this is one of those albums -- that not only belong in every self-respecting metalhead's collection, but would be a good thing for ANY adventurous music lover with an interest in the loud and difficult and imaginative to investigate. While they're not as intentionally avant-garde and 'out there' as Sigh or Enslaved or Weakling or Arcturus, they are as incredible as musicians, and certainly 'out there' when compared to most other death or black metal acts, coming up with violent ten-minute neck-breaking epics worthy of Hollywood, but not the other way around. Nile are now totally the kings -- er, pharoahs -- of speed/death metal, occupying the throne previously occupied by giants like Morbid Angel and Slayer (both of whom have dabbled in Egyptian imagery before). Very recommended.

RealAudio clip: The Blessed Dead
RealAudio clip: Execration Text
RealAudio clip: Unas Slayer Of The Gods
RealAudio clip: Wind Of Horus

Noisegate were a two man ambient wrecking crew, taking the crusty crush of Neurosis, and smearing it into desloate and apocalyptic stretches of pure droning malevolence. This, their first record, is easily one of the bleakest and harshest and gorgeously heavy records we have ever heard. Brutal and aggressive and furious, sometimes impossibly tranquil and serene, but even at it's most ambient, Noisegate still managed to imbue every minute of every track with some ineffable otherworldly forboding. Four huge ominous dronescapes over the course of sixty minutes, interrupted by violent squalls of slow-motion pummel and 16 rpm grindcore. uneasy ambience and corrosive electronics nestled in a sea of suffocating drones and rib cage rattling hum. Sparse brooding nightmarish ambience punctuated by bursts of skull crushing walls of bass, guitars, tapes, samples and vocals. A monstrous and truly threatening din.

MPEG stream: There Were Flies
MPEG stream: Alamogordo

Some of the most beautifully pure and emotional electronica we have ever heard, kind of like a more digitally-"clean" Labradford, if you need a comparison, and also like Carl Stone and Cluster, but composed entirely on the computer. WAY BETTER THAN THEIR PREVIOUS ALBUMS. This is the one. And if you already have the German import, know that both the cd and lp of this domestic version have 2 extra (very good) songs, plus the lp has an extra 12" with remixes by Jim O'Rourke, Scanner, Mouse on Mars, and Christian Vogel. As close to new age as we will ever come. Highly, highly recommended.

Back in stock! We've now got the French version of this classic Oxbow album. No, it's not IN French, we mean now that the original SST cd is out of print, we've imported copies of the cd edition released in France on the Ruminance label (home also of Cheval De Frise and Chevreuil). Here's our review from when it was an Aquarius Record Of The Week back in 1999: A masterpiece of dark, cathartic, emotional rock cabaret from this great San Francisco band. Heavy slide guitar, baby-like wailings (from Oxbow's large, scary, nearly-naked body builder frontman Eugene), Nick Cave-ambience & math-rock technicality. Kind of like the Jesus Lizard meets Marianne Faithfull, except that Ms. Faithfull actually does appear on this record! (and the Lizard do not; Oxbow slaughters them...) I might also mention the cover pic by Richard Kern and the production by Steve Albini, but Oxbow are their own special thing, original and amazing, and those celebs are mere hangers-on.

MPEG stream: The Last Good Time
MPEG stream: Insane Asylum

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

SORRY. Music inspired by the early Russian Orthodox Church. Graceful and minimal as his music always is. Thick book of liner notes.

Back in November of '99, Radar Brothers' album The Singing Hatchet was our Record of the Week. Didn't think it was possible, but the band has actually gotten even better (to the point of -gasp- converting an AQ staffer or two who didn't like' em before), thus we hereby bestow the same honor on the new record And the Surrounding Mountains. For those of you who're unfamiliar with the LA-based trio of Jim, Senon, and Steve, their sound can be most easily described (and I'm sure they're tired of hearing it) as very similar to Pink Floyd. And not just any ole Pink Floyd, mind you!, but specifically the sad, epic two songs that conclude The Dark Side of the Moon: "Brain Damage" (y'know, "the lunatic is on the grass...") and, god, especially "Eclipse" ("And all that is now/And all that is gone/And all that's to come/And everything under the sun is in tune/But the sun is eclipsed by the moon...") You know how you never want that song to end, it's such a pretty, bittersweet way to close an album? Radar Brothers have made FOUR ALBUMS of that sound all stretched out and atmospheric and personal and warm. The guitars are ever so plaintively strummed so that you hear the chords but also the individual strings, the vocals are hushed and sung usually as a duo, the melodies achingly gorgeous, majestic swells of emotion. They're so great that I find it hard to do anything else while listening to Radar Brothers; like Low and Red House Painters' work, Radar Brothers' songs *demand* stillness and respect -- all your attention. Highly recommended.

RealAudio clip: You and the Father
RealAudio clip: Camplight
RealAudio clip: This Xmas Eve
RealAudio clip: Sisters

Wow, out of nowhere (okay, there was a 10" a coupla years ago but we missed out) comes this FANTASTIC trio from Los Angeles whose quiet, mournful sound and plaintive vocals remind us of Neil Young & the delicate side of Pink Floyd. For fans of Low, Scud Mountain Boys, Radiohead, and Rex. Definitely a winner; we highly recommend you hear them.

Wow! Do NOT (as I did for years) write off this English band as bad alterna-rockers. This is a KILLER album, conceptual in scope, consistent in quality and yet each song has an element that sets it apart from the others. Like JEFF BUCKLEY FRONTING QUEEN (all you who lament not hearing another of Jeff's albums, try this one) with elements of Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, and U2, we kid you not. Highly highly recommended.