Posts Tagged ‘Aquarius Records’

Album of the day: Glitter Wizard – Hunting Gatherers (Vinyl)

Posted on Monday, April 1st, 2013

Praise for Glitter Wizard‘s Hunting Gatherers from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We thumbed up the spacey synthy glitter-glam garage retro not-really-metal of this SF band’s Siltbreeze 7″ a while back, but then somehow skipped over reviewing their subsequent full-length, and are even a little behind the times in getting to this new LP of theirs too, but that’s ok ’cause the Glitter Wizard guys are also behind the times.

Or maybe way out futuristically in front, way out anyway, again using ’60s and ’70s rock inspirations like Deep Purple, Hawkwind, The Doors, Bloodrock, Black Widow, and Iron Butterfly to help formulate their super groovy, more wizardly-than-thou sound, one that’s got lotsa synth, jamming electric organ, some flute and sax. Along with catchy riffs and amusing lyrics, often gleefully unserious (“I don’t worship the Devil, the Devil worships me”). Our kind of entertainment!

There’s one little hushed-folky-trippy-acoustic number, ‘Sunlit Wolves’, but otherwise most of the trax are swaggering rockers, such as ‘Wizard Wagon’ (about the singer’s van, it would seem) which definitely has hit potential, in our world anyway.

‘Motorider’ reminds us of both The Stooges and Steppenwolf, and when they get heavier on the 7+ minute ‘Space’ it sorta sounds like an agitated Om with keyboards. Album-closer ‘Big Sur’ also has that Om / Sleep vibe, due to the chant-like vox and slomo swinging plod. It’s another long one, the longest here at close to 9 minutes, and so about half way through stops plodding and starts ripping and rollicking, reminding us more of early early Sabbath, like back when Sabbath covered Crow’s ‘Evil Woman’ on their first single.

That said, though, mostly Glitter Wizard doesn’t even seem all that heavy or metal or even proto-metal. They’re retro-proto-proto-metal maybe? Definitely G. Wiz love their ’60s sounds but do their own cool new thing with that, rather than going for some kind of Nuggets redux. For fans of Blood Ceremony (minus the female vox and much of the metal) and Danava and Mammatus when they do get heavy-ish.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Captcha Records, Gltter Wizard, heavy 70's, Hunting Gatherers
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Album of the day: Trees – Sickness In

Posted on Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Praise for Trees‘ Sickness In from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Another missive from these Northwestern musical miscreants, and another sprawling black-doom ultra-sludge, grim-dirge epic, two tracks, nearly 30 minutes, opening with a haunting expanse of creepy droned out ambience, like the score that might play over the credits to some ...read more

Album of the day: Monuments Collapse – Monuments Collapse

Posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

Praise for Monuments Collapse‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: This is the debut release from this young local outfit, and it’s a doozy. Obviously influenced by the post-metal heavies like Neurosis and Isis, they also infuse their sound with some seriously atmospheric twang flecked dreaminess a la Earth or ...read more

Album of the day: Bolder Damn – Mourning

Posted on Monday, March 18th, 2013

Praise for Bolder Damn‘s Mourning from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Bolder Damn‘s only album, Mourning, came out originally on vinyl in 1972 in a scant pressing of only 200 copies. We actually reviewed a previous reissue of it (the band’s own self-released ’25th anniversary’ CD from 1996) way back when, ...read more

Album of the day: Ensemble Pearl – Ensemble Pearl

Posted on Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Praise for Ensemble Pearl‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Ensemble Pearl is a new psychedelic supergroup of sorts, featuring SUNNO))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley, Boris basher Atsuo, legendary Japanese psychedelic axeman Michio Kurihara, and William Herzog (guitarist for Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter) along with a handful of guests ...read more

Album of the day: Magic Circle – Magic Circle

Posted on Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

Praise for Magic Circle’s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: These guys have been getting a ton of hype lately, not to mention some controversy, and not necessarily because of their music, although that has something to do with it. These modern doomlords have a classic sound not that far ...read more

Album of the day: Guapo – History Of The Visitation

Posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2013

Praise for Guapo‘s History Of The Visitation from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: If you asked us (do it!) to recommend you a good modern day “prog rock” band, Guapo would be at the top of the list, which would be obvious if you’ve seen our many, many reviews of the ...read more

Album of the day: Space Bong – The Death Of Utopia

Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Praise for Space Bong‘s The Death Of Utopia from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: In our quest for the heaviest, trippiest, sludgiest, most psychedelic doom ever, we thought we had finally found the holy grail, in the form of UK outfit Bong. No beating around the psychedelic stoner doom bush, no ...read more

Album of the day: Raketkanon – RKTKN #1

Posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2013

Praise for Raketkanon‘s RKTKN #1 from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We definitely weren’t expecting this from the Zeal label, who in the past have brought us the dark country of Timesbold, the folky pop of Isbells, and of course multiple records from apocalyptic folk one man band Kiss The Anus ...read more

Album of the day: The Holydrug Couple – Noctuary

Posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2013

Praise for The Holydrug Couple‘s Noctuary from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Once again, these two Chilean psych bands, Föllakzoid and The Holydrug Couple, each sharing a member with the other, release their records at the same time, giving us a glimpse of two sides of a similar sonic personality. Elsewhere on the ...read more