Aquarius Records closed in 2016. This site is an archive — a place to rediscover their extraordinary music recommendations. Nothing here is for sale.
Showing results 51 through 67 of 67.
TINDERSTICKSCan Our Love...(Beggars Banquet)cd$ 15.98
The Tindersticks never cease to amaze me. Their unique and heartwrenching sound evolves with each release. "Can Our Love..." is their 5th full length album and the most soulful record to date, taking inspiration from such artists as Curtis Mayfield, Bobby
TINDERSTICKSCurtains(Polygram)cd$ 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. Beautiful, lush pop of the most grand & dramatic kind. Tindersticks' deep, slow ballads and velvety songs draw you in. Plus a guest vocal appearance by Ann Magnuson of Bongwater. 'Nuf said. Recommended!
TINDERSTICKSTindersticks(This Way Up / London / Polygram)cd$ 14.98
This is the sophomore album by this oh so elegant band from Nottingham, England.
TINDERSTICKSTrouble Every Day Original Soundtrack(Beggars Banquet)cd$ 22.00
Tindersticks' soundtrack to Claire Denis' eagerly awaited and rather infamous new film 'Trouble Every Day' (starring Vincent Gallo and Beatrice Dalle). The film has been out in France and other parts of Europe since mid-July 2001, following its controversial
UNWOUNDLeaves Turn Inside You(Kill Rock Stars)2cd$ 14.98
It's been quite some time since Unwound bestowed an album upon us. Finally, the wait is over. And our reward? A double cd! And the good news is, it seems some definite musical growth has taken place in the interim enough to merit the often unnecessary two cd Disc two starts off with perhaps the biggest surprise, a dark and smoldering mope rock masterpiece that sounds amazingly like American Music Club (or even Red House Painters); swelling strings and muted minor key guitars, dark droning melancholic progressions with strange whale-like sounds in the background. Absolutely lovely. At this point, much like on disc one, things veer back toward the old Unwound days, but with a definite Godspeed influence. Still pounding and rocking, but much more introspective and dramatic. They really made good use of the double cd format, using the extra "room" to explore new territory while not neglecting their signature sound. A really great record, and quite a nice surprise.
V/AChains And Black Exhaust(Jones)cd$ 14.98
BACK IN STOCK! We thought these were gone for good a month ago, but we've just managed to get a few more! Here's the soundtrack to your wildest blaxploitation-fueled fantasies, baadasssss R&B with an acid rock edge. You'll never need to ask, "Mommy, what's a funkadelic?" after this. "Chains & Black Exhaust" is a compilation of late sixties/early seventies raw, fuzzed-out funk put together by some young, devotedly-crate-diggin' Memphis DJs, who apparently don't think we need to know what exactly we're listening too, 'cause there's no artist info, no track listing, nothing -- heck, the title of the comp appears nowhere on it, even! They give us a tantalizing but unhelpful glimpse of some original 45 labels in a photo in the cd booklet, which is otherwise illustrated with snapshots of black motorcycle club insignia. We can't imagine this lack of info is for copyright reasons, perhaps they just don't want their finds being identified & scooped by other DJs...? And unfortunately, none of us here, despite our enthusiasm for this stuff and general musical expertise, can tell you what's on here, nor did we locate a tracklist on the internet. Oh well, whoever these mystery artists are, what's important is that they kick out the jams big time here: hard, heavy stuff full of wailing acid-psych wah wah leads, driving organ, killer grooves, and soulful vocals. It's funk verging on rock, with Black Power meets garagey rock n' roll attitude. Of course, these old singles tracks are served up with lots of lovely ol' vinyl crackle, just scratchy enough to lend that extra level of authenticity and atmosphere to the party. Highly recommended -- if you're into *early* Parliament-Funkadelic you'll dig these 16 cuts. This is one of those albums that just sells itself the second we put it on over the stereo -- even our pal DJ Z-Trip bought one instantly. Enjoyed that Peanut Butter Wolf-produced collection of unearthed funk singles? Then you'll love this one too. Right on. We're told that *perhaps* someday this will get reissued with proper liner notes (the kind that actually tell you who is on the record at least) but that's at least a year or a year and a half off, if ever. So, we'd recommend grabbing these copies now, while you can, before they're gone, again...
V/ADo The Pop!(Shock)2cd$ 18.98
50 songs of Australian garage rock 1976-1987, almost all of it fucking great! Most of us are familiar with the The Saints and Radio Birdman, but included on this compilation are a bunch of amazing lesser knowns running the gamut from dirty rock to jangly pop to crusty garage to Detroit influenced punk. Bands like The Hoodoo Gurus (one of Andee's favorite bands ever), Died Pretty, The Lipstick Killers, The Sunnyboys, The Scientists, The Lime Spiders, The Screaming Tribesmen, The Hard-Ons, The Celibate Rifles, The New Christs, The Eastern Dark, The Exploding White Mice, The Stems and more. 2 1/2 hours!! It's like Christmas or something, I (Sadie) already loved The Saints and Radio Birdman but hadn't heard any of these other bands and I'm freaked out at how much awesome garage rock I've been missing out on. Andee told me that the Celibate Rifles are rad, and they are! Other kick ass bands are the Scientists (who also have a collection on Sub Pop), the Lime Spiders, the Victims, oh I could go on and on! Just buy this. One of the best compilations we've heard in a long time! (Particularily great if you got that excellent recent Sub Pop Radio Birdman collection reviewed on list #118, and want to hear more from their scene, or the scene that they inspired.)
V/AIn the Beginning There Was Rhythm(Soul Jazz)cd$ 17.98
Wow. The London based Soul Jazz label does it again. They've already documented the global history of funk and soul in several astonishingly well-executed collections including the universally loved "100-500% Dynamite" series of Jamaican soul, rocksteady, and reggae; the Philadelphia Roots collection; the Nu Yorica albums; that ESG reissue, and even an Art Ensemble of Chicago album. Yet none of these albums has been as highly anticipated or so spot-on timely as this new one from Soul Jazz, "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm." This compilation succeeds in encapsulating that heady time between the years 1978 and 1982, when the "second wave" of British punk bands found inspiration in both the musical and political power of reggae. As the situationist propaganda of Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols spawned a global theater of anarchist shock tactics, even such right-wing idiots as the skinhead, white power, and neo-Nazi parties dared to embrace punk's celebration of chaos. Thus, those (mostly white) musicians within the punk movement who were *opposed* to such unsavory politics stood in solidarity both politically and aesthetically with their black brothers in Jamaica. Incited by the offbeat attack of The Clash and the huge dub bass production from Public Image Limited, the late '70s punk movement began a vast exploration into possibilities of bridging dance music with the revolutionary anthems of punk. While neither The Clash nor PIL are included in this compilation, "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" does collect some of the best tracks from the huge vaults of post-punk, many of which might have gone forgotten had it not been for this album! Even 20 years after their initial releases, the bands here -- including Gang of Four, Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo, The Pop Group, A Certain Ratio, The Slits, This Heat, Human League and Throbbing Gristle -- still sound fresh, often melding choppy rhythms with angular slash-and-burn guitar, spit out vocals, rubbery bass, and nascent forms of electronica. We'll say it again -- the music here is simply perfect -- the punk holds back dance music's tendency to get too mechanical 'n boring, while the dance elements impart melody and groove to the punk. Highlighting the compilation are A Certain Ratio's urgent amphetamine funk on "Shack Up" and "Knife Slits Water", melding the unlikely combination of Joy Division's grim urgency with a George Clinton funk arrrangement. Gang Of Four's "To Hell With Poverty" marks their transition from the agitated punk grooves found on their classic (but impossible to find) debut "Entertainment" into a smooth dancefloor-friendly attack punctuated by Marxist rhetoric. The Human League -- who are unfortunately best known for their chart topping new wave singles -- had incredibly adventurous beginnings on the often forgotten punk label Fast (also early home for The Mekons and Gang of Four). Their early offering "Being Boiled" is a primitive piece of spartan electronics loaded with theatrical tension and dark arpeggiations more expected from people like Coil and Throbbing Gristle (who contribute their perverse fascination with ABBA in the subversive aesthetics of "20 Jazz Funk Greats"). But, why is this compilation so short? Judging from how few people today remember or even have heard Section 25, Tunnelvision, DAF, or Fad Gadget, there's plenty more work for Soul Jazz to do in compiling more compilations of this sort! Not just recommended, this is *required* listening. Strongly recommended to any and all!
V/AKosmos: Soundtracks of Eastern Germany's Adventures in Spaace(All Score Media)cd$ 16.98
Similar to the spirit of those 'Ein Wigwam...' compilations of film music from East German westerns (Vol. 2 we listed just a few weeks back), 'Kosmos' collects the music from East German science fiction films and television programs, which while maybe not
V/AKosmos: Soundtracks of Eastern Germany's Adventures in Space(All Score Media)lp$ 16.98
Similar to the spirit of those 'Ein Wigwam...' compilations of film music from East German westerns (Vol. 2 we listed just a few weeks back), 'Kosmos' collects the music from East German science fiction films and television programs, which while maybe not
V/AO Sister!(Rounder)cd$ 16.98
A wonderful compilation of the -- until recently -- under-exposed world of female bluegrass music featuring the lovely, familiar voices of such artists as Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard and Alison Krauss. Nineteen rich, rootsy numbers in all (18 taken from the
VANISHING, THEIn The Bat Haus(Cochon Records)10"$ 5.98
San Francisco's The Vanishing proves that a Goth band with a female lead vocalist doesn't have to sound like Siouxsie & The Banshees (but it's not necessarily a bad thing if they do since several other AQ goth novices think this does indeed sound quite a bit like Siouxsie!). Not that I don't find Siouxsie's records quite good (especially "Juju" and "Kaleidoscope"), but the small Gothic resurgence that's paralleling the New Wave revival has mostly been mimicking the aloof theatrics of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sisters Of Mercy, or Siouxsie, without really saying anything beyond their heroes. Fortunately, the trio of Jessie Trashed (formerly of the Subtonix), Brian Hock, and AQ's own Sadie Shaw (also of The Lies, The Husbands and the co-director of the 8mm indie-gore film "Charm") have developed a pretty unique (or referentially obscure) signature sound. The Vanishing builds an intense, dissonant gloom through monotonous, distorted basslines and Carnival of Souls' organs twisted into sinister melodies, all without any guitars. Jessie's haunted vocals have been treated with an eerie tremolo warble as a well-executed complement to The Vanishing's throbbing music. As Sadie has admitted to having never heard X-Mal Deutschland before, I can safely say that The Vanishing has unintentionally arrived at a Goth sound previously carved out by that oft-forgotten 4AD band. And that's fine by me!
WALKER BROTHERSSingles(BR Music)2cd$ 15.98
In the mid-1960s the Walker Brothers scored a string of hits in the UK. An American trio (who weren't really brothers), their brooding, epic recordings appealed to the same crowd entranced by the Righteous Brothers. Scott Walker went on to become even more famous than the Walker Bros, with three solo albums that went to the Top 3. We try to always carry his solo albums, as they are classics that will never ever sound dated, and you should definitely give them a try. But if you are already in possession of those you might want to pick up this double cd collection. It's filled with all their hit singles, including the sublime "Make It Easy on Yourself". The second disc is a collector's delight, with selected solo tracks from all three Walker Bros' separate solo projects.
WEEKS, GREGAwake Like Sleep(Ba Da Bing!)cd$ 14.98
This is record number three for Greg Weeks, and the one that's really finally gotten our attention. His previous disc on Ba Da Bing! was a stripped down, boy-and-his-guitar folky singer-songwriter kinda record, and while he is still essentially playing folk
WIREChairs Missing(Pink Flag)cd$ 14.98
In 1978, being qualified as "the Pink Floyd of the New Wave" might have come across as something of an insult; and by today's artistic strategies of rampant revivalism such a pithy remark may ring true to many a listener. That statement was, in fact, the critique prescribed to Chairs Missing, Wire's second album, as the album decelerated the pogo punk minimalism found on their first album with an increasing use of experimental production. In hindsight, Chairs Missing is the perfect transition between the high-strung velocity of Pink Flag and the staggering gloominess of 154; yet most transition records have a clunkiness about them, like a lanky teenager not quite able to fit into his sunday best. But Chairs Missing is miles above the average transition album. To many a listener, Chairs Missing stands as the ultimate Wire album, with near perfect pop songs alternating between anthemic punk and eccentric production techniques (i.e. atonal synth drone, staccato guitar chops, overdubbed guitar distortion, etc.). Where Pink Flag kept many of the songs under a minute and half, Chairs Missing is downright baroque in its presentation of 3 minute tunes. The genius of Chairs Missing is how Colin Newman, Robert Gotobed, Bruce Gilbert, and Graham Lewis manage to steer through the diverse songwriting landscape, in how the album's opening track "Practice Makes Perfect" transitions from a delicate prance for jangled guitar into a precise expression of menace, in how "Outdoor Miner" creates the catchiest, Beatlesque chorus you'll never be able to sing back to yourself given the complexity of its rejoining, nonsensical syllables, in how jaggedly clean the guitars of Newman and Gilbert attack each other, in how Lewis' bass is fluid and effortless, in how this run-on sentence seems to have lost its way trying to fathom the complexity of Wire. If you believe that the length of Aquarius' reviews directly correlate to how good the record actually is, then we have failed as we would need to write a fucking a book about how stunning this album is. Yeah, Chairs Missing is incredible; and if you don't have it, you really should. Okay, one thing to bitch about the reissue of Chairs Missing is that the cover is curiously bleached out of its color; the reissue also doesn't come with the (really great!) bonus tracks found on the EMI cd version of the album. Come on Wire, you released this album on your own label. At least you could give us all the bells and whistles found on other versions of this album! This is our only complaint, and a minor quibble for sure.
XIU XIUKnife Play(5rc)cd$ 14.98
This band is great! Bravo to Xiu Xiu for being original in an indie rock world where originality just doesn't seem very important anymore -- groups like Adult and the Faint are copying '80s electro, every other band has got a member who made a (boring) And then there's the local group Xiu Xiu who've put out a record on Kill Rock Stars' sister imprint 5RC. The two girls and two guys in Xiu Xiu are so familiar with indie rock's cliches that they anticipate them... and then mess with the formula, thereby coming up with a far artier and more interesting sound (kinda like how Bjork and Radiohead do). Example: the lead singer's voice is this super intense, desperate, achingly sad, warbly moan (a la The Cure / Talk Talk / Ultravox), and we're used to hearing that kind of voice accompanied with Brit-style synthpop stuff (i.e. "Melt With You"). Yet with Xiu Xiu the backup to that incredible voice is trumpets and saxophones and clattery percussion (bells, gongs, perhaps even pots 'n pans), with a solid yet obviously lo-fi Casio beat keeping time, and velvety basslines which are where the melody often resides. The band are also admirably unpredictable in leaving guitar pretty much in the background (if it's present at all) and instead letting this crazy synth action function *just like a guitar solo* -- distorted, climactic, wailing. So cool! Xiu Xiu is arty and chaotic, but with new wave '80s poppiness. This is a very weird record that is also accessible and really good.
YONKERS, MICHAEL BANDMicrominiature Love(Destijl)lp$ 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. An obscure late-sixties ahead-of-his-time visionary gets his due with this LP reissue. A while back, the Get Hip label released two songs by Michael Yonkers on a 7" and a compilation and that started the buzz. Yonker's stuff was like nothing anyone had heard back then (or even now, really): fucked up garage psych with dementedly genius lyrics and crazy acid-fried guitar. Now Destijl has released the whole LP, that was originally recorded in 1968 but then quickly shelved almost before it had a chance to be heard. Yonkers, a legendary Minneapolis-area figure, built his own effects pedals, cut his Fender Telecaster down to a plank, and played like no one else ever. I'm at a loss of words on how to describe this. It's sort of like a fusion of stripped down Black Sabbath, The Troggs, Pere Ubu, and The Cramps?? Or something like that. Definitely something to check out. Vinyl only.