TO ROCOCO ROT Kšlner Brett (Staubgold) lp 13.98
To Rococo Rot composed this album to cohabitate with the architectural forms found within the "Kolner Brett" building designed by the Cologne architectural firm b&k;+. As the building held the grander notions of blending living and working in each of its single units (or so we've been told, but the pictures of the building indicate that it's as advanced as anything in Wallpaper), To Rococo Rot has configured each of the twelve tracks in this album to fit within an architectural grid (each track is exactly three minutes long) and a distinctly architectural discourse of merging form and function within a sleek but utilitarian style. With such a condensed timeframe, To Rococo Rot offers uniform techno pulses behind pleasant electronic percolations, occasional glitch whimsy, and Fridge-like guitar strum, sounding like "Future Days" era Can playing the MicroHouse of Andreas Tilliander.

TO ROCOCO ROT The Amateur View (Mute) cd 15.98
Lovely, unassuming, appealing electronica along the lines of a quieter Mouse On Mars. Fans of Tortoise, Fridge, and Boards of Canada will like it too. You may recall that Schneider TM of To Rococo Rot was responsible for one of the prettiest, most artistically successful remixes on the recent High Llamas remix album.

TO ROCOCO ROT + D TRRD (Soul Static Sound) cd
The UK's "D" (Darryl Moore, Soul Static Sound producer) collaborates on this ep with German dub/electronica/modern krautrocking band To Rococo Rot, resulting in a mix of their "electronics, samples, and live instrumentation" with his minimalist techno "grit".

TO ROCOCO ROT + D TRRD (Soul Static Sound) lp 14.98
The UK's "D" (Darryl Moore, Soul Static Sound producer) collaborates on this ep with German dub/electronica/modern krautrocking band To Rococo Rot, resulting in a mix of their "electronics, samples, and live instrumentation" with his minimalist techno "grit".

TO ROCOCO ROT + D TRRD (Soul Static Sound) 12" 10.98
The UK's "D" (Darryl Moore, Soul Static Sound producer) collaborates on this ep with German dub/electronica/modern krautrocking band To Rococo Rot, resulting in a mix of their "electronics, samples, and live instrumentation" with his minimalist techno "grit".

TO ROCOCO ROT & I-SOUND Music Is A Hungry Ghost (Mute) cd 16.98
More wonderful burbling electronica from the lauded German quartet To Rococo Rot, of whom solo artist Robert Lippok is a member. Undercurrents of throbbing yet very gentle bass rhythms augmented with chattery percussion and serene melodies. Fans of Boards of Canada and Mouse on Mars really need to hear this group. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "For a Moment"
RealAudio clip: "How We Never Went to Bed"

TO ROCOCO ROT & I-SOUND Music Is A Hungry Ghost (City Slang) lp 14.98
More wonderful burbling electronica from the lauded German quartet To Rococo Rot, of whom solo artist Robert Lippok is a member. Undercurrents of throbbing yet very gentle bass rhythms augmented with chattery percussion and serene melodies. Fans of Boards of Canada and Mouse on Mars really need to hear this group. Recommended.

TO ROCOCO ROT & I-SOUND Pantone ep (City Slang) cd ep 10.98
More entrancing downtempo mellow electronica from Dusseldorf's wonderful To Rococo Rot, who boast solo artists Robert Lippok and Schneider TM as members. There are 5 tracks, here -- 2 previously unreleased, and 3 that are reworked, very different versions from their previously-released versions. Undercurrents of throbbing yet very gentle bass rhythms augmented with chattery percussion and serene melodies. For fans of Boards of Canada, ambient Aphex Twin, etc. Not the most exciting music in the world but very forward thinking and perfect as music to soothe you while doing other activities.
RealAudio clip: "I Wanted to Meet Him"

TOAD s/t (Second Battle) cd 16.98
Why does anyone bother with the current crop of "stoner rock" when there's so much better stuff made back in the original stoner age (the '70s) now being reissued?? If you're into the Man's Ruin roster, and prone to buying albums by the latest Swedish Kyuss clone, yet don't have, say, Lucifer's Friend, Flower Travellin' Band, Leafhound, Captain Beyond, or Buffalo reissues in your collection, it's time to get with the program! Not that that's easy, since much of the good old shit is definitely obscure and unheralded. For instance, we hadn't ever heard of this Swiss band Toad until a kindly customer sold back a bootleg cd with an intriguing cover a couple years ago. Now, here's a legit reissue of the same album thanks to the freaks at Second Battle. This self-titled disc is the first and best of Toad's three LPs, serving up hard-rockin' stoner psych in the best blues-based tradition of early Blue Cheer and Led Zep. The first track "Cotton Wood Hill" will offer a clue about the lineage of this band, as Toad's rhythm section played on the classic LP of that same title by acid-fried Krautrockers Brainticket! Toad boasts an excellent vocalist put to good use on the more melodic parts of their sometimes quite long songs, but a large part of the LP is occupied by heavy (HEAVY) jamming instrumental excursions featuring the killer guitar of one Vic Vergeat. This is genuine heaviness, circa 1971. This reissue features four bonus tracks, including their spacey cover of Hendrix' "Purple Haze", a suitable choice indeed. Toad, dude.
RealAudio clip: "Cotton Wood Hill"
RealAudio clip: "Life Goes On"

TOBARI, DAISUKI Till The End Of The Dream (Poon Village) cd 13.98

TOBIN, AMON 4 Ton Mantis (Ninja Tune) cdep 9.99
This is an ep with but one new non-album track and a couple remix versions each of '4 Ton Mantis' and 'Saboteur' from his "Supermodified" album. Hip hoppier than the full length. Coolness. Still one of the best sampler technicians in electronica (and by far the most interesting for drum & bass), Amon Tobin brings a few more big beat breaks to the rich collages of filmic orchestral tension, Brazilian jazz grooviness, and monstrous drum & bass rhythmic diversity. Never, ever boringly repetitive or predictable, Tobin weaves in his source material with a masterful sophistication that heavy-handed Moby only wishes he could do so smoothly.

RealAudio clip: "Saboteur"

TOBIN, AMON Bricolage (Ninja Tune) cd 16.98
First album by Amon Tobin after shedding the Cujo moniker. Excellent drum & bass with hand-lifted beats from jazz to old bachelor pad lps to soundtracks. All impeccably reworked, recomposed and produced by Mr Tobin. Everything this guy has released is crucial. Very highly recommended!

TOBIN, AMON Permutation (Ninja Tunes) cd 16.98
Mr. Tobin continues to develop his sounds beyond his previous releases into this great album. Really sophisticated and a joy to listen to. Here he fuses lounge with his usual jazz infested drum'n'bass. Highly recommended. Everytime we play this album in the store, someone buys it.

TOBIN, AMON Permutations (Ninja Tunes) 2lp 16.98
Finally in on vinyl. Yay! We still have it on cd for 16.98.

TOBIN, AMON Piranha Breaks (NinjaTune) 12" 8.98
Slowly building through some strong batacuda beats fixed with the archetypic amen break, Amon Tobin hits the monstrous intensity found on his epic "Bricolage" album and "Mission" 12". The disc has one more track than the vinyl.

TOBIN, AMON Piranha Breaks (NinjaTune) cdsingle 8.98
Slowly building through some strong batacuda beats fixed with the archetypic amen break, Amon Tobin hits the monstrous intensity found on his epic "Bricolage" album and "Mission" 12". The disc has one more track than the vinyl.

TOBIN, AMON Supermodified (Ninja Tune) cd 14.98
"Supermodified" is the fourth album from Amon Tobin (including the one album recorded as Cujo). Still one of the best sampler technicians in electronica (and by far the most interesting for drum & bass), Amon Tobin brings a few more big beat breaks to the rich collages of filmic orchestral tension, Brazilian jazz grooviness, and monstrous drum & bass rhythmic diversity. Never, ever boringly repetitive or predictable, Tobin weaves in his source material with a masterful sophistication that heavy-handed Moby only wishes he could do so smoothly. Fans of Tobin already know the high musical standards he sets himself, and won't be disappointed, but may we also recommend this album to people who haven't yet found anything appealing in electronica. You can't do much better than starting with what so far seems like Electronica Record of the Year.

TODAY IS THE DAY In The Eyes of God (Relapse) cd 15.98
I bet somebody could write a pretty solid dissertation on the self-proclamation of the pop ego as being trapped within a metaphoric insanitarium. While the wimp/non-threatening boy pop of the Backstreet Boys have appropriated this imagery, the majority of this discourse would be within metal. Iron Maiden's Eddie, Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper, and Scorpions being the first to come to mind within the visual use of straightjackets and padded cells. Similarly, Steve Austin's deranged lyricism (which shares time with his heavily distorted bark) seems to harken from the creepy mental hospitals which lurk in the backwoods around Nashville (a place Today Is The Day used to call home). These off-kilter banshee wails add a 'pretty' if sublime quality to the otherwise incendiary pummel of Today Is The Day's muscular heavy riffs and complex blast beats. This, their second album for Relapse (fifth overall, they did three for AmRep dontcha know), hones their weird noise-aggression into it's most effective and metallic form yet, due in part to a new and perhaps better lineup.

TODAY IS THE DAY LIVE Till You DIE (Relapse) cd 14.98
A live album from an amazing live band. Guitarist / vocalist / producer / mastermind Steve Austin's fucked up super heavy and twisted "metal" band is at its most intense on stage, and this is the (paradoxically?) recorded proof. Math-metal, hardcore, sampling, keyboards, anti-social anger and frustration: all these elements and more collide in Today Is The Day's energetic, ugly, complex, like-none-other sound. Some humor too, as there's unlikely cover versions of "Wicked Game", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", and "Feel Like Makin' Love" on here alongside a slew of their own psycho-negative metallic toons (mostly drawn from Today Is The Day's more recent, more Satanic albums rather than from their earlier, pre-Relapse AmRep days).

TODAY IS THE DAY Temple Of The Morning Star (Relapse) cd 13.98
AmRep refugees resurface on Relapse with a new rhythm section but the same pulverizing, distorted, sample-and-keyboard laden, throat-ripping, math-grind, ugly-beauty sound.

TODAY IS THE DAY / METATRON The Descent (This Dark Reign) cd 11.98
In spite of sporting a designwork very much like the recent output from Kozik, this split between stalwart prognosticators of the apocalypse Today Is The Day and Kentucky's bass heavy grind core group Metatron is not on Man's Ruin (who did in fact go out of business a few weeks ago). Today Is The Day delivers two exceptional tracks of negative vibes in the form of their signature pseudo-grind / complex math-rock. They also bridge between Metatron with a weird digital collage that ends up sounding like a lackluster Tribes of Neurot track, but Metatron's explosion of Coalesce-esque grind quickly changes things back over to the darkside. 7 tracks in all for a bit over 30 minutes.
RealAudio clip: METATRON "End Of Light"
RealAudio clip: TODAY IS THE DAY "The Descent"

TOE 2000 s/t (Atavistic) cd 13.98
With both Doug McCombs of Tortoise and guitarist Jeff Parker of Isotope 217 in this Chicago band, you can guess as to what Toe 2000 (terrible name!) sound like--from jazzy, Tortoise-y instrumentals to subtle almost new age-y grooves...

TOMAHAWK s/t (Ipecac) cd 15.98
A kind of "supergroup" release on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, featuring Patton himself (we don't have to tell you he's the voice of Mr. Bungle, Faith No More and Fantomas, do we?) as well as the always amazing guitar of the Jesus Lizard's Duane Denison, former Cows/current Melvins bass player Kevin Rutmanis, and drummer John Stainer of Helmet. The results are no surprise, but maybe kind of a disappointment: this indeed sounds like a cross between FNM and the Jesus Lizard! That's not bad, but not inspired either. Patton/Lizard fans should of course check it out, though.
RealAudio clip: "101 North"

TOMASIN, MIGUEL Wallmiyefterr (Freedom From) cd-r 7.98
Allan has long claimed that Miguel from Reynols sounds a lot like Brak from Space Ghost Coast To Coast (also the star of the cd "Brak Presents: The Brak Album Starring Brak"). Of course, Allan does not in any way mean for this to be an insult as he loves Reynols -and- Brak. Yet, never has such a comparison been more justified, as here Tomasin sounds more like Brak than on any of the Reynols albums. With just Tomasin rhythmically reciting his lyrics (all in Spanish, or I think they're all in Spanish) and his most confident percussion, there isn't all that much to this album, and leaves the same odd impression as the recent Jandek a capella records: they're certainly interesting artifacts of outsider art, but may not neccesarily command extended listens.
RealAudio clip: "Track 2"

TOMITA, YANN An Adventure Of Inevitable Chance (Audio Science Laboratory) cd 29.00
Now, if you read our list regularly, or look at the tags on the cds in the store, you know that we at AQ tend to use the word "ridiculous" (in a good way) quite a lot. And we're also partial to the, again positively-meant, term "fucked". We use these words a lot. So when something as totally ridiculous and fucked as this Yann Tomita "double cd" comes our way, we realize that maybe we were using those words altogether too lightly before. Really. This disc is expensive, and we don't have very many of them, but those of you like us who are into the RIDICULOUSLY FUCKED may find they have to have this. Get cracking. Or, you may want to know more...
Yann Tomita's "An Adventure Of Inevitable Chance" is either a genius work of audio pastiche or a complete put on (or both). To begin with, the album opens with an academic-sounding lecture telling us that Tomita's music is a completely synthetic re-creation of a number of established genres. Yet the musical examples illustrating these genres do not match up. For example, their idea of "Acid Rock" is a banal karaoke lounge tune, and "Country" is represented by what seems to be an excerpt from Sun Ra's "Space Is The Place"! Also, this is supposed to be a live concert from 1993 (with no overdubs, we're told), but...is it? Certainly it would be an amazing, disorienting one, as this disc moves track-by-track through propulsive early-Kraftwerk electronics, simple violin plucking augmented by analog delays, Carl Stalling / Martin Denny exotica, Cornelius-esque whimsy-rock, Barney Miller / Night Court TV show theme style jazzfunk, radio tunings and sputterings, and late '80s cheesy electric dub! Oh, two of the tracks are John Cage pieces, including a not-quite silent version of 4'33"... It's all so unexpected and unfathomable, while often being amazingly quirky and catchy. Tomita claims that his work has influenced countless musicians, DJs, journalists, and fans alike. Some of you may recognize his name from his remix on the Boredoms' Super Roots 8! For those of us who have just encounted his work for the first time here, he claims that he has "influenced you subliminally as well." In the booklets (there's two) you'll find much more to puzzle over (like the catalog of other Tomita releases, including a 7" record with a doughnut on top of it, and a 12" with an ashtray in the shape of a miniature steel drum...there are photos). Oh, in possibly the most brilliantly ridiculously fucked move EVER, this disc is actually packaged as a double cd -- but one of the discs (entitled "Heart Beat") is made of cardboard! (Thus making it unplayable for those of us with *normal* cd players). Odd is an understatement. We're thinking now that if we've judged our customers right, odds are we'll have to try and order more of these pronto...
RealAudio clip: "Information From Audio Science Laboratory"
RealAudio clip: "Synthesis For Arp 2600 & EMS Synthi A (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Music For Marcell Duchamp - Violin For Live Electronics"
RealAudio clip: "Live Cut Up - Radio Music For Inevitable Chance "
RealAudio clip: "When Cherry Blossoms Are Blown In The Wind"
RealAudio clip: "Synthesis For Arp 2600 & EMS Synthi A (excerpt 2)"

TOMORROWLAND Sequence of the Negative Space Changes (Kranky) cd 13.98
Your parents like Windham Hill, you like Kranky.

TOMORROWLAND Sequence of the Negative Space Changes (Kranky) lp 7.98
Your parents like Windham Hill, you like Kranky.

TOMORROWLAND Stereoscopic Soundwaves (Ba Da Bing!/Darla) cd 12.98
Volume six in the Darla "Bliss Out" ambient pop series. This band is now signed to Kranky, and that should tell you something; if that doesn't, maybe these song titles will: "Sea Of Serenity" and "Kepler Planet Harmonies." For fans of Labradford and Magnog.

TOMORROWLAND Stereoscopic Soundwaves (Ba Da Bing!/Darla) lp 8.98
Volume six in the Darla "Bliss Out" ambient pop series. This band is now signed to Kranky, and that should tell you something; if that doesn't, maybe these song titles will: "Sea Of Serenity" and "Kepler Planet Harmonies." For fans of Labradford and Magnog.

TONE LANGUAGE Patience Is The Key (Korm Plastics / Staalplaat) cd 15.98
Tone Language is the collaboration between Lee Norris, Ichiro Taniguchi, and Kenji Taniguchi. Norris has made a number of electronica genre-jumping albums as Metamatics and as Nacht Plank, while the Taniguchis have recorded as the drum & bass duo Reflection. With a trio of laptops streaming a blurred clatter of warm glitchpopmuzik, Tone Language exactly replicates the sound of Oval from the seductive ambient salves to the nebula bass pulses. Pretty shocking how much this sounds like "Szenariodisc."

TONE REC Demo Pack (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
Tone Rec (a band that's been called "electronica's This Heat") now present a remix album, mostly abstracted rhythmic patterns which often have their origins in tense live percussions. Tone Rec remixes four of their own tracks, with To Rococo Rot, DAT Politics (Tone Rec alter-ego), and Fennesz contributing to the fun.

TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO Epigenesi (Self Released) lp 14.98

TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO / ANDREW CHALK Tahta Tarla (Self Released) lp 14.98
The specialization of language offers the ability for those acquainted with certain phrases, words, and even verbal inflections to communicate with a greater efficency. Here at Aquarius, we've coined such neologisms as "dronology" and "fuckery," simply because we hope that such words offer enough connotation even without a lot of context. Sure, we make references to obscure movies, books nobody read, and composers that never really got heard outside of some tiny state-funded electronic music institution, but hopefully we explain things in a language that can be understood (I -- Jim -- do confess to making the majority of those oddball references... ah, the follies of cross cultural free association).
On the other hand, Italian composer / musicologist Giancarlo Toniutti communicates in nothing even close to a common vernacular; instead, his writings are a confounding display of specialized academic language and are composed within extended run-on sentences that make Aquarius look like the saints of brevity in comparsion. There may have been a time when I had the patience to read Derrida, but not anymore.
Given that ridiculous prologue, I have to say that the collaboration between Toniutti and Andrew Chalk (who in contrast to Toniuitti has always been painfully quiet about his work) is truly fantastic. As the language in the massive liner notes is too convoluted to decipher with any certainty, I'm guessing that the two artists collaborated upon long thin wires which they set up in natural settings. They then took these recordings of windswept scrapes, amplified creeks, and bowed metals to ICR Studios where Colin Potter helped them mix their recordings into that eerily angelic drone which emanates from all Andrew Chalk recordings. As Chalk doesn't entirely dominate the proceedings, Toniutti's penchant for gritty textural striations does add an important aural characteristic to the recordings. In spite of the difficult-to-impossible liner notes, the music which it attempts to describe is transcendentally beautiful.

TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO / CONRAD SCHNITZLER Camma (Self Released) lp 14.98

TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO WITH SIEGMAR FRICKE *KO/USK- (Self Published) book & cd 25.00

TONY, CARO & JOHN All On The First Day (Normal / Shadoks Music) cd 14.98
The amazing, beautiful, anarchic, DIY psych-folk-pop of Tony, Caro & John's terribly rare "All On The First Day" LP (originally privately released in an edition of just 100 copies) has now been revived on CD for, hopefully, a larger audience! This comes to us from the label that's been responsible for bringing us those fab "Love, Peace & Poetry" psychedelic rock compilations (y'know, the Latin American one, the Asian one, the Japanese one, etc.). Among the most recent installments in that series was a disc devoted to British psychedelic obscurities. One of that comp's highlights, we all agreed, was a cut by this trio. That track, the amazingly Neutral Milk Hotel-ish "There Are No Greater Heroes" appears here as well, on Shadoks' reissue of Tony, Caro & John's entire sole album, from 1972. Now, we know that a lot of the time it's true that a great track selected for a compilation doesn't a great album make from whence it came...after all, the compilers are likely to pick the BEST song off an album for their comp. So we were wary -- but curious -- when we heard this whole album was being reissued. Happily, there's actually a lot of other great songs on here besides "There Are No Greater Heroes", although that one still reminds us the most of Jeff Mangum's stuff. Taken together, Tony, Caro & John's songs manage to strike a balance between creepy melancholy and kaleidoscopic pysch silliness. Not only that, but they have more than just a nostaglic vibe going for them -- they are good songwriters/performers with some delightful, weird ideas. Fans of the Incredible String Band and other British hippie folk psych of the period definitely need to hear this. Kudos to Shadoks for digging this up, and doing such a nice job of it too. The booklet has some charming color photos of Tony, Caro and John in their garden, modeling the latest in hippy fashions circa '72. There's also complete lyrics and liner notes from the band, who are still active making music together! AND, five bonus tracks appended to the album make this an even nicer find, consisting of stuff from the period that didn't make it on to the original LP, but *should have* (unlike the general run of bonus tracks!).
RealAudio clip: "Eclipse Of The Moon"
RealAudio clip: "There Are No Greater Heroes"
RealAudio clip: "The Snowdon Song"

TOOG 6633 (Le Grand Magistery) cd 14.98
Who or what is TOOG? The answer is simply the alter ego of Gilles Weinzaepflen. A gent from Paris. Warm vocals swoon over a keyboard-y electronic pop backdrop. Is it any surprise that this release finds its home on a label that also boasts Momus? Quirky sound effects, strange lyrical twists, a frail bare chest, not to mention song titles such as "Cyclope Haine" (Cyclopean-Hate), and "L'Amour Dentaire" (Dental Love)... you can tell they are frequent Momus musical co-conspirators.

TOOK, STEVEN PEREGRINE'S SHAGRAT Lone Star (Captain Trip) cd 18.98
Shagrat was a British psychedelic "mystic-rock" group formed by Steve Peregrine Took after he parted ways with Marc Bolan and Tyrannosaurus Rex. This is apparently Shagrat's complete output, compiled from scratchy acetates and so forth dating from 1970 and '71. Features Larry Wallis (Pink Fairies, early Motorhead) on guitar and bass. Charming stuff, ranging from acoustic numbers for the first half of the disc to freaky acid rock for the second. The crackly limitations in fidelity heard here only add to this music's lost, "mystic" aura.
RealAudio clip: "Still Yawning, Still-Born"
RealAudio clip: "Steel Abortion"

TOOL Lateralus (Tool Dissectional / Volcano) cd 17.98
Unfortunately, we can't really discuss how fucking unbelievable this record is (and it is!) without first addressing the skeptics and the naysayers. I have long been a champion of Tool and urged people to check them out, regardless of their preconceived notions of them and the scene that for some reason (which we'll address in a second) embraces them and in doing so, does them a huge disservice (I mean a disservice as far as them being taken seriously by people other than nu-metal fans, 'cause let's be honest, that scene did make them rich and famous and free to make music as fucked up as this). But much like the Deftones, even more so, Tool have used their popularity to exist in relative freedom, with each record getting weirder and weirder, but somehow selling more and more copies. C'mon! This shit is far out! It seems inconceivable to me that this is one of the most popular bands in the U.S. and popular with a lot of people, who if they really did like this record, should also be digging Joy Division and Neurosis and Ash Ra Tempel and Voi Vod and death metal but they're not. YOU are though. And therefore YOU should check this out.
Lateralus is dark and brooding, rhythmic and atonal. Beautifully complex, with insane time signatures, bizarre tunings and huge riffs. A doom rock epic, skillfully forced into some completely alien prog/metal/ambient shape. Tense and droning tribal workouts, pummelling double bass, chugging power chords, whispered feathery stretches of ambience, and great fucking songs. Misanthropic lyrics and amazing (sometimes shrieked, but more often sung) vocals. Ultra dynamic and staggeringly technical. Great parts are stretched to their breaking point, where they cease to be just great parts, and instead become torturously tense. And so satisfying.
Obviously, you already know whether you -think- you like or dislike Tool. But if you think you dislike Tool, maybe it's time to think again.
RealAudio clip: "The Grudge"
RealAudio clip: "Eon Blue Apocalypse / The Patient"

TOOL Salival (Tool Dissectional) DVD 29.00
Tool is easily the best of all the so called "nu-metal" bands and like the Deftones seem to have been unfairly lumped in with the Korns and the Limp Bizkits. Tool have always had a pretty well developed aesthetic, in their music, their (lack of) image, and especially their videos. This DVD (or vhs tape if you're so inclined) collects all of their videos, and they are amazing. Futuristic surreal vignettes played out by tiny depressed sexless figures, traversing a dangerous and lonely world of living flesh and rotting appendages. Owing much to Svankmeyer and the Quay brothers, these videos are absolutely mesmerising, and Tool's weird syncopated depressia-rock underpins the dour goings on perfectly. There's also a whole disc of rarities, which is really great as well, but it's all about the videos.

TOOMEY, JENNY Antidote (Misra) 2cd 15.98
After a long absence from the indie scene this former Tsunami and Simple Machines Records gal returns with a double cd. And seems like she's leaving the indie pop realm behind in favor of a decidedly more mature, accessible sound. Her low voice affects a world weary tone a la Rickie Lee Jones or Carly Simon which along with some easy-listenin' horns and strings add up to warm, lush production. She's joined by Edith Frost, a fella from Ida, and some Lambchop folks. One disc recorded in Chicago, one in Nashville.
RealAudio clip: "Word Traffic"

TOOP, DAVID 37th Floor At Sunset (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
Subtitled "Music for Mondophrenetic". Writer/musician Toop (you know him from The Wire and the various books and cd compilations he's done, as well as his own music) presents his latest piece of obtuse ambient / electronica. It begins with a series of inquisitive little sounds that could easily appear as the sonic punctuations in a drug commercial in the '80s -- Heartburn? (ping) Gastro-intestinal failure? (pling) Sweaty-palms? (plong) Try Xylatol! Not the most exciting way to start an album; but after this brief introduction, Toop's "37th Floor at Sunset" really gets interesting with long passages of sterile drones, topped with various communication tones (fax machine protocol announcements, data streaming, and assorted digital clicks) that ends up sounding like a more benevolent John Duncan or Hazard.

TORAL, RAFAEL Cyclorama Lift 3 (Tomlab) cd 11.98
"Cyclorama Lift 3" is a 21 minute out-take from the same sessions that warranted the "Aeriola Frequency" album for Perdition Plastics. These recordings marked Toral's first exploration beyond the guitar based approach to the Phil Niblock drone minimalism. Here, he has used an open circuit on an empty circuit on a mixing board with two 8 second delay pedals and a 4-band parametric equalizer patched into the feedback loop. The aesthetics for aerated tonalities which Toral brought to the guitar are also found within this incredibly simple, yet effective means of creating a resonance.

TORAL, RAFAEL Sound Mind Sound Body (Moikai) cd 13.98
Rafael Toral is a Portuguese experimental guitarist given much critical acclaim by the likes of Lee Ranaldo and Jim O'Rourke (who ended up reissuing this early 90s album). Lush ambient guitar drones with gossamer avant-pluckings cross the likes of My Bloody Valentine's glide guitar sound, Eno's embryonic ambient, and John Fahey's more sedate meanderings.

TORAL, RAFAEL Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance (Touch) cd 15.98
This acclaimed Lisbon-based experimental musician-producer-academic continues to create lush ambient soundscapes using electric guitar and effects (as well as some "silence" recorded from a space shuttle mission). Very beautiful. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Measurement of Noise"

TORAL, RAFAEL Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance (Touch) lp 13.98
Now on vinyl. This acclaimed Lisbon-based experimental musician-producer-academic continues to create lush ambient soundscapes using electric guitar and effects (as well as some "silence" recorded from a space shuttle mission). Very beautiful. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Measurement of Noise"

TORREZ Wild Horse (Beauty Shop ) cd 12.98
Dark and langorous, sweet and shimmering country. Super sparse arrangements, delicate lap steel, gorgeous vocals and an amazing super spacious recording make this a sweet surprise. Think Mazzy Star, Souled American, Giant Sand, Low, but recorded late at night, in the desert, when no one's listening. So nice.
RealAudio clip: "Wild Horse"
RealAudio clip: "Tonight"

TORRINI, EMILIANA E5 (Fat Cat) 7" 6.98

TORRINI, EMILIANA E6 (Fat Cat) 7" 6.98

TORRINI, EMILIANA E7 (Fat Cat) 7" 6.98