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WAGSTAFF Wagstaff Would Not Go to the Opera (Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers; England) CDR $16 BWCD catalog: "Thirty-minute conceptual noise/folk release from this English institution/constitution. A three part meditation on love, racial awareness, and the 'high art' question." Joincey (A Warm Palindrome, Green Monkey, etc.) breakin' it down like a less, um, precise Anglo version of Jandek . . . and shakin' it up like Sun Ra leading a kindergarten prog band. Good lyrics too. Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers is sadly defunct, so get this while you still can! NEW, SEALED COPY

THE WALKING RUINS Fall of the House of Ruin (Ruined Records) $14 Original 1996 release; original mix (Gulcher CD was remixed); liner notes not included with the Gulcher reissue. The band features John Barge and Ian Brewer, formerly of 80s teen punks the Panics. These dudes' vision in '96 was pretty much the same as '81: they blast through nineteen short'n'fast manifestos, including "Lost Cause," "Withered Hand," "Won't Take My Medicine," "Cult Leader," "Stalin's Crayon," "Alien Autopsy," "Frat Row," and a cover of Vom's classic "Punkmobile." NEW, SEALED COPY

A WARM PALINDROME / FEVERDREAMS / BADGERLORE Three Owls Six Ears (Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers; UK) $20 Out of print; Phil Todd's BWCD label is now defunct. Three-way split CD featuring 20 minutes by each artist. A Warm Palindrome was a folk-improv-noise band that included Phil Todd of Ashtray Navigations. Feverdreams is a solo electronic/guitar project from California. Badgerlore is a duo featuring an ex-Deerhoof and Ben Chasny a.k.a. Six Organs of Admittance.

SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH Murrinh Kulerrkkurrk (Rhizome; Australia) 2CDR $20 Recorded on an Australian tour in 2000, this is quite a thang from the man once known as S!!! It's gotta be the loudest, most processed music I've heard from this guy. No pretty minimal music or organic kitchen-sink collage here. In fact, the first disc takes off like a really great DJ record--super groovin' with nicely dense stuff thrown on top. But this gives way to a sampled bit of opera, which itself opens into a drone-and-loop spacescape that can become very cinematic inside the right head. Tuh-rippin'! right into into into a lush field of guh-guh-ggglitchhhh 'n rattle (the percussion mostly sounds live). We're not even out of the first piece yet, and there are five long songs to not sing here. Coz you also got yer passages o' scifi gogo, Cale-like organ blasts, glassy drone, backward-not-rock, etc. This fella's been doing his post-minimal thing for quite awhile now, and it's sure inspiring to hear him keep on re-freshing the waters. [internal code: GH]

SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH Two4Dancin' (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon; New Zealand) $20 Out of print from the label. Campbell Kneale: "Surely no introductions are necessary. Mr Wickham-Smith is a truly unique voice and TWO4DANCIN' sees him at his most profoundly grand . . . a double album released simultaneously on a single CD. Damn near exploding at the seams with wonderfully resonant contradictions, its exquisite textures are capable of blissfully enveloping daily life AND driving your neighbours completely batty. Reminiscent of fleeting limelight-hogs like 50Cent AND the enduring greatness of '60s minimalism. A slave to an infinite, block-rockin' beat which melts into deep transparency revealing a subterranean omniverse of casiotone-mantras, silicon-chip psalms, and the mystical babblings of angels and derelict gutter-drunks. And yes . . . it's a 'dance' album. Free your ass and your mind will follow." NEW, UNPLAYED COPY

SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH Rapt (Disposable Thumb Recordings) $14 Out of print from the now-defunct Disposable Thumb label. Released 2004. Here it comes again: the ever-extending exploratory super compositions of Mr. Wickham-Smith. As if to prove the chip on his shoulder will fall with beautiful ease, S!!! begins with "Heaven's Gate Sankitran," nearly 36 minutes of monotonous (say the squares) delirious hilarious voice-manipulation minimalism. Steve Reich meets Jerry Lewis?! before gittin' down to total ecstatic dizziness. Next track ("Meiji13") offers up a big roarin' fuzzdrone--feedback hover and a zillion-notes-per-second explosions-into-static that feel like the middle of a great Velvet Underground guitar breakdown. Jjjuuuhhhh. Track tres ("Perihelion"): slowwwwwdown "oriental" mindmelt oooooo so flex-eye-ble. Nice. The final three short tracks ("At Backwater Pond," "The Snowshoe Hare," "Sleeping in the Forest") are collectively titled "Three Versions of Appreciative": "a setting of three poems by Mary Oliver . . . composed at the behest of the Highgate and Muswell Hill United Nations Association." Sounds to me like some otherworldly voice decoding--from the planet Muswell--static 'n whine, is it a violin somewhere, a music box in another? The End. Whew. Yes, music fans, it's another real good one. And now some stats from the D. Thumb catalog: "Simon Wickham-Smith is a composer of acoustic and digital music. His compositions reflect his ardent interest in minimalism, electro-acoustic and experimental, harmonically shattering sounds. His collaborations with Richard Youngs are familiar to many, and his equally visible solo efforts are filled no less with intrigue, mystery, intellect and passion. At ease with the apparent contradictions of melody and noise, Simon draws inspiration for his compositions from musics around the world, whether they prevail upon his natural inclinations or as the source material for his treatments. On his latest release, with beautiful hand-printed foldover jackets of his own design,  Simon continues to explore his obsessions and fascinations with reverence, wry wit and a skillful ear. Aesthetically similar to 2002's dyrø (PseudoArcana), the CD is an exercise in wonderment and rapture via the friendly conduits of electronic drone, cut and paste minimalism and mischievous white noise. Oftentimes a confluence of contrasting disciplines and perspectives, the document is a rich work of intricate spells merging tension and release. Says Simon of Meiji13: 'It's a very uncharacteristic foray into program music: the fuzz over the top is like a patina of age, like hearing Caruso singing I Pagliacci.' Oh yeah--ecstasy and corrosion." NEW, UNPLAYED COPY

WONWONS Original Punk Super Stars (Public Eyesore) CDR $7 Japanese group doing neo-retro surf instrumentals with an avant-garde vibe.

YELLOW SWANS Doubled Yellow Swans: Global Clone (PACrec) $10

YELLOW SWANS Drift Yellow Swans (Acuarela; Spain) $10