: Press Release
: Listen to the track Space Heater
: Watch video for Space Heater
: Lyrics page
Track Listing: Solar Riser, Celestial, Space Heater, Extra Celestial, User System, Gtr Godz, Burnt Cookies, Rescue Toy, Star Driver, Loveydove, Fallen Down, Savings Time, Respecter, Death Gets in the Way

It’s 3am - no hang on scrub that - its 3.27am and I can’t sleep, I’m resigned to plugging into cyberspace looking for interesting sounds to hear but given my space buggered up what was a perfectly good tool for bands and labels to get their music out from the confines of their bedroom and in to the headsets of an ever growing disaffected populace tiresomely loathing the here now gone tomorrow carbon copy plastic pop preening of the Simon Cowell brigade, I’m left grumpily checking out people’s blogs and wondering to my self do I really breathe the same air as some of these people and if so what lasting effect might it have on me. Bored of this I start to check the emails. Up pops an update from the Silber imprint informing all who’ll read and listen that new sounds and comics the size of matchboxes are afoot. Alas no down loads of the comics - they look quite cute and promise tales of rebellious robots, warring stick figures, cowboys, cops and robbers and Kafka / Lovecraft oddities. As to the sounds Electric Bird Noise (‘The Silber Sessions‘), from Oceans to Autumn (‘the flood / the fall’ EP) and Azalia Snail (‘celestial respect’). Azalia Snail has occasionally appeared in these missives I’m fairly certain of that though not often enough by our liking - if not then the reason for this has quite simply been because we’ve loved her songs so bloody much we’ve probably forgotten the purpose for which they were sent in the first place (I.e. to review). Anyhow enough waffling - Azalia Snail has been orbiting the outer edges of planet pop for over twenty years now refusing to kowtow to fashion / taste and public consensus she’s instead followed her muse traversing to flights of fancy. There’s a new album just out on Silber entitled ‘celestial respect’ which Brian has kindly sent download links for - though which due to our PC - alas in the middle of its death throes - is proving something of a challenge to save to disc for listening enjoyment. From what we’ve heard so far we reckon its her best to date - ’space heater’ primed as a single is the case in point. Gorgeously woozy and ethereal, slightly out of focus and traced with a dreamlike comatose fluffiness that pitches it somewhere around the mid career era work of Lennon - and here I’m thinking ’number 9 dream’ as though on a chilled out bliss kissed setting and wrapped in a sepia lined majestic enchantment that quite frankly had it bared the name Kate Bush upon its hide would have had coach loads of muso journalists going ga-ga, add in some finitely executed noir tinged torch trims then close your eyes and float away to better places no doubt kookily surreal and demonstrably wonky.
~ Mark Barton, Losing Today

I guess I heard abut this Los Angeles based recording artist a first time some 15 years ago, thanks to an article I read (must've been in Belgian magazine Gonzo Circus, I think). My interest was aroused, but as with so many bands I got acquainted with in those days (and before, and since), I was unable to find any material by her in the second-hand stores. But the name stuck, and I'm very happy to finally be able to get into the music of this rather appreciated Avant-Garde Underground singer-songwriter and musician.
Azalia Snail (real name) was born in Maryland to hippie parents, who persuaded her to take music lessons at an early age. At six, the piano was the first instrument, and although she followed suit, she was “frustrated by the whole disciplinary process”. She switched to guitar, but found herself into even more lessons and musical discipline. At 15 she bought her first electric guitar, but forced to return the instrument because her parents wanted her to play acoustic instruments. Azalia left home after high school and went to live in New York City where she worked as a writer. She started jamming with other musicians in bars in 1987, and then went off on her own to record her own music (meant in part to be soundtracks for her own experimental films) with the aid of a 4-track cassette recorder. She sent some of her material to New Jersey based radio show Lo-Fi, and the DJ there played her songs quite regularly. Azalia became known as the “Queen Of Lo-Fi”, a labeling she later would distance herself from, as she was eventually recording her material more professionally. The exposure she got would eventually also force her to start performing, and during the '90s she had the luck to be invited as support act to such successful bands as Low, Trumans Water and The Grifters, touring both North America ànd Europe. According to the artist's page on Wikipedia (which is where I found the info entailed in this article), Azalia's music shunned conventional melody and often included elements of noise, an approach which was in part influenced by her experiences from experimenting with hallucinogenics in the early '90s (something she did at the time to enhance her perceptions, influenced by the likes of Timomthy Leary and Aldous Huxley, both philosophers she admired, and whom also took drugs to expand their perceptions at one time).
During the '90s Azalia released 9 full-length albums through several labels [Albertine released 1990's debut Snailbait; Funky Mushroom issued 1992's Burnt Sienna,  1993's Fumarole Rising, and 1994's How To Live With A Tiger (the latter a collaboration with Suzanne Lewis of Indie/ Punk band Hail; the album was credited as Hail/Snail...rhymes too!); Normal released Blue Danube in 1995; 1996's Escape Maker was issued through Garden Of Delights; In 1996 she released 2 albums, one a collaboration album with Truman Waters Stampone under the Volume monicker, released through Choke...the other her own Deep Motiv released through Candy Floss; Dark Beloved Cloud would issue the next two albums, 1997's Breaker Mortar and 1999's Soft Bloom] writing all music herself. She also played most music herself, although there were some occasional guest players, and her active release schedule continued until the early 2000's (with that year's Staff Party, issued through Detector; 2001's Brazen Arrow, again on Dark Beloved Cloud), but then she took time off from making “her own” music somewhat. She'd moved from NYC to Los Angeles in 1999 to work on film, and has since scored soundtracks to several Indie features and short films, including the soundtrack to MTV's Ain't Nuthin' But A She Thing. In 2000 the Los Angeles LA Weekly Music Awards had her share a prize with Brad Laner in the category “Best New-Genre/Uncategorizable Artist”. Over the years, she's collaborated with other artists, including the ones already mentioned above, and also Low's Alan Sparhawk, Mercury Rev's Grasshopper, Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins, and Supreme Dicks' Daniel Oxenberg to name but a few. She returned to recording her own music in the latter part of the decade with the 2006 album Avec Amour (issued through True Classical), and New Zealand based label Powertoolreleased the 2-CD Petal Metal retrospective of her work in 2008. Success of the album would find her tour New Zealand in January 2010.
So, in essence, Celestial Respect is Azalia's first album of new material in 5 years, and maybe that's why the promo download of the album contains 6 unnamed bonus tracks (good for an extra ..minutes' worth of music), but more about that later. For now let's concentrate on the physical album's contents, which see Azalia play a total of 14 tracks, 5 of which are short (otherworldly, soundscapish, and Ambient-like) instrumentals. As instruments, she used sparse drum machines (well, perhaps that is live percussion anyway?) and electric guitar, (a lot of) piano organ, (atmospheric, occasionally strings-like) keyboards, and has trumpet added to 5 tracks as well. All of these in a variety of modes and combinations. Also, 4 songs get an additional male singer with whom she shares vocals. Although Azalia stopped using hallucinogenics after the early '90s experiences, her music will still be somewhat awkward to the conventional ear of run-of-the-mill music fans (but that says more about those people, than anything else, really). The vocals aren't your usual verse-chorus-verse either, and occasionally go repetitive and in layers (terms which also apply to the music, by the way). Generally speaking, one might classify (somewhat loosely) Azalia's music as standing with one foot in Psych Folk, and with the other in Indie Rock, but that classification is quite incomplete, as there's also those wacky instrumentals, eh? You'll find a track (the very nice “Space Heater”, also available as video) off the new album at the artist page on the label's website, and you can listen to samples of all songs off the (normal) album (and some older ones) at Azalia's Last.fm page.
As mentioned above, the promo download had 6 bonus instrumentals (with lengths varying from 126 seconds to 13:11), adding a total of a little more than 34 to the download (and making for a 75-minutes listening session as a whole). However, in hindsight I found out this was a small fuck-up from the editor-in-chief, whom quite erroneously put together the 6 tracks of the new Goddakk album (see special 3) with the  download files of the new Azalia Snail album. So then, one has to look at reality as it is, doesn't one, and the “regular” album also containing non-instrumental tracks means we have to take those in consideration for our final judgment as well.
~ Concrete Web

L.A. based artist Azalia Snail has been actively putting out her own records, collaborating with other artists (Beck, Black Heart Procession, Mercury Rev), doing music for film and touring since the late '80s.
With her latest CD, Celestial Respect, Snail presents the listener with 14 miniature whimsical art pop songs. Brian Eno's rock records are clearly an influence here and the production gives off a heavy '60s psychedelic vibe. Slow and lush child-like female vocals drenched in reverb and delay move at a snail's pace (pun intended) over DIY style song arrangements. The song arrangements are dense with instrumentation. And when listening to this CD by the once dubbed "queen of lo-fi," one can't help but think of an adolescent girl in her room with a four track and a handful of pawnshop instruments in front of her exploring her place in this world through music.
~ Monte Cimino, Maelstrom

Fifteen albums, eleven labels, one Terrastock festival and twenty-plus years into her career, Azalia joins the Silber family (co-released with New Zealand’s Powertool imprint, who released her last album, 2008’s retrospective,  PeTaL MeTaL) with this pseudo-concept album dedicated to the solar system in general and the stars and sun in particular. Quirky, pop is the order of the day, as Azalia recites her fractured fairy tales over a bed of synths, drones, and extraterrestrial electronics. The odd trumpet bursts through the haze, like light from a long-ago burnt out star finally reaching the Earth (‘Space Heater’, the dreamy, jazzy ballad, ‘User System’) and the album is punctuated by the occasional short ambient instrumental – sort of a celestial sorbet to cleanse the musical palate and prepare us for the highly original avant pop to follow.
Like a lo-fi Marianne Nowottny or a spaced-out PJ Harvey, Snail more than lives up to the ”Best Uncategorizable Artist” award she won a decade ago from LA Weekly. From the more accessible ‘Space Heater’ and ‘Savings Time’ to more challenging efforts like ‘Loveydove’, ‘Death Gets In The Way’ (which sounds like something left over from the Candy soundtrack or transmitted from the other end of the universe), and the pseudo rap duet with Kevin Litrow of ‘Burnt Cookies’, there’s surely something here to please the most discerning listener. 
~ Jeff Penczak, Terrascope

Azalia Snail has been making music for nearly thirty years. Originally creating music for her own movies, Azalia Snail quickly settled into the DIY culture of self-recording and releasing songs. Often introspective and influenced by the likes of Syd Barrett and Brian Eno, Azalia Snail's songs are often awash with atmospherics and a haunting sense of place. Having made a dozen records over her career, Azalia Snail has pretty much perfected her craft and her ability to write songs. Her latest album Celestial Respect is no different and further contributes to the lasting legacy that is Azalia Snail.
Celestial Respect is a musical journey that deals with the complex and disheartening world we all live in. A record for our times without a doubt, Celestial Respect is as scary at times as our world would dictate. At times sounding like a disembodied spirit, at others the voice of an angel, Azalia Snail creates a fascinating sound collage of guitar sounds, ethereal vocals, and airy atmospherics. Reminding me at times of old arty 4ad records by This Mortal Coil and His Name Is Alive, Azalia Snail find melodies in the haze and etherealness and harness them. It's truly something that has to be heard to understand.
Awkward for sure and eerie at its worst, Celestial Respect is still a fascinating listen. This heavenly but askew record will linger in your soul long after it wafts by. That being said, it's really no wonder then, that Azalia Snail named the record Celestial Respect because it's sounds are truly unearthly.
~ The Pop! Stereo

Azalia Snail has been active as a music producer and underground film maker since the 1980s and in this time her fans & collaborators have included Alan Sparhawk and Beck to name but a few.
With ‘Celestial Respect’, Snail creates a hopeful space pop melodrama, that seeks to reignite human kindness through music that feels and sounds electronic and mechanical, creating an intriguing dichotomy to muse over while listening.
‘Solar Riser’ and ‘Space Heater’ are the first two examples of this juxtaposition, with warm and good natured lyrics performed over a backdrop of retro sounding keyboard loops. ‘Space Heater’ especially invokes a kitsch and laid back sound that cosmonauts would feel comfortable laying back to after a hard day aboard a space shuttle.
‘Burnt Cookies’ follows the relaxed lo-fi trend with Snail performing part of a duet with minimal keyboard loops and guitar riffs working in tandem with a subtle slice of smooth trumpet sounds, while ‘Loveydove’ does little more than add a cheap clap sound effect into the equation. Adding to the effect that, for better or worse, ‘Celestial Respect’ blends into one deliberately cheap lo-fi dreamscape, albeit a well meaning one.
If Azalia Snail’s record is guilty of anything it is of seemingly being a prototype recording, slightly stale in its development and offering little in terms of variation. That said the influence of Azalia Snail on acts such as Beck, who have made that lo-fi space pop sound a multi-platinum investment is enough to warrant a listen.
~ Michael Byrne, Left Hip

Love these way-outta-trendy-step nights at 321, the best place for music and vibes that are not about commerce, strange as that may sound. The surrealist folk rock proggy psychedelia-ist Azalia Snail is a veteran nonaligner who's been putting out records indie-wise for these 20-plus years, the latest being the sublimely quirky, dreamy, lovely and deep Celestial Respect on ace imprimatur Silber Records. Ms. Snail'll be playing multiple odd instruments and crooning from that warmly entrancing record, possibly with the accompaniment of supreme multitalent Dan West. Now is 60 Watt Kid Kevin Litrow's one-man band in which hypnotic and strange dreamscapes can and do clash rudely with topical realities; Psychic Friend is represented tonight by Will, the ex-Imperial Teen man who'll be whipping out some solo piano of the good-humored and heartbreaking variety.
~ John Payne, LA Weekly

For those of you who’ve read Go Ask Alice, you’ll understand when I say I wish the protagonist had been able to move past her LSD experiences in the way Azalia Snail has. Prolific Snail, named after the flowers in her parents’ yard, presents us with some somber psyche numbers featuring her multi-instrumental talents and moody vox. There are some horns on here from Taylor Wheedlin and Alex Lewis. Hear for yourself why she’s called the Space Folk Psych Queen.
~ KFJC

Raw and ethereal at the same time, two qualities long thought to be mutually exclusive. “Solar Riser” opens with multiple layers of vocal and keyboard drones. “Burnt Cookies” starts with a satisfyingly simple drum beat and builds into a sort of a gothic Rolling Stones full-band groove, disappearing behind a wall of echo. The songs are interspersed with keyboard and vocal passages which are themselves cloaked in slapback echo. “Fallen Down” is a straight, quiet passage near the end. The overall tone reminds me of the first couple of Jarboe solo albums I heard, and, like those, “Celestial Respect” is its own thing.
~ Ian C Stewart, AUTOreverse

The name Azalia Snail sounded familiar, but I don't know where I saw or heard it before. Apparently she started out in the late 80s with a four track recorder, collaborated with Alan Sparhawk, Beck, Grasshopper, Pall Jenkins and Daniel Oxenberg. According to Silber this we should say as 'her special version of lo-fi space pop', and me thinks she listened to the latter day Kate Bush. Now, I actually do like Kate Bush a lot, in all stages of her career, which made it easier for me to also like Azalia Snail, even when her music seems less complex and more simple, direct, to the point. Harmonium plays a role, and string(-synthesized) and bass, guitar and such like in a more supportive role. Sparse music, vocal heavy, with no doubt songs about love and death (not always easily to be understood). Not really the cup of Vital tea, but surely nice enough for a slow tuesday afternoon.
~ Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

With a keyboard buzz, echoed vocals, soft horn, and Azalia Snail's sweetly reverbed singing from what could be a distant cave, "Solar Riser" kicks off what could almost be a statement of purpose from Snail. Except of course that Snail's full-bodied approach to psychedelic pop inventiveness and mysteriousness has been part and parcel for her from the start; she's iconic at over two decades in of recording without being widely recognized for it still -- a real shame, since her Silber Records debut is another strong release from her. Generally following a pattern of full songs and short instrumental transitions and featuring a small group of backing players, Celestial Respect maintains a certain lost-in-space focus throughout. Some songs refer to stars, suns, planets, but the whole is suitable for the woozy, slow-burn atmosphere of the album, like a lazy cascade down a Milky Way of the imagination. "Space Heater" clicks with its drum machine and piles on the further layers of wooziness and "Savings Time" explores a weightless territory without beats (though definitely rhythm, careful and swaying). But "User System" upends the assumptions of the album beautifully, the music keeping the same general feeling but Snail's voice suddenly standing to the fore, a full-bodied anthem as much as a romantic ballad, and as lyrically spry and sharp as her best work in general. The occasional backing vocals from Kevin Litrow add further variety, as on "Burnt Cookies," where he takes a full section over the shuffling drums before an elegant and frazzled break.
~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Never one to follow any kind of trends or fads, Azalia Snail (a New Yorker now based in Lose Angeles) has been chasing her dreams, following the sun and recording her own music for over two decades. She has released countless records and toured the world numerous times and yet still sounds fresh and unique. Celestial Respect, her first release on the Silber Records label, is her first record in five years and while hers is a sound that takes some getting used to, a few deep listens will elicit rewards for the listener.
On this record Azalia is still mining the otherworldly aspects of psychedelic folks music, and although she has a few musical collaborators, it is mostly Azalia creating the sounds all by herself (or as it says on the CD, "played and displayed by Azalia Snail"). The first few tunes, esoteric and beyond, are for hardcore fans only (as are a few others), but by the time song number three, "Space Heater," wafts in, she seems to have settled into a comfortable groove with its layered guitars and drum machine while the ethereal "User System" adds some breezy trumpet to the proceedings. Later on, "Burnt Cookies" unfolds as a woozy pop song built on clattering drums, chiming guitar sand neighborly keyboards to create a mini module for community warmth but then a song like "Gtr Godz" short circuits and fizzles out before it even gets started as do a few others.  While not everyone's cup of tea, Azalia is a true freedom fighter in an age of generic, cookie cutter crap.
If the ghost of Syd Barrett is telling you to go west, you could do a lot worse than check out the music of Azalia Snail.
~ Tim Hinely, Blurt

Azalia Snail has been making music for nearly thirty years.  Originally creating music for her own movies, Azalia Snail quickly settled into the DIY culture of self-recording and releasing songs.  Often introspective and influenced by the likes of Syd Barrett and Brian Eno, Azalia Snail's songs are often awash with atmospherics and a haunting sense of place.  Having made a dozen records over her career, Azalia Snail has pretty much perfected her craft and her ability to write songs.  Her latest album Celestial Respect is no different and contributes to the lasting legacy that is Azalia Snail.
Celestial Respect is a musical journey that deals with the complex and disheartening world we all live in.  A record for our times without a doubt, Celestial Respect is as scary at times as the world we live in.  At times sounding like a disembodied spirit at others the voice of an angel, Azalia Snail create a fascinating sound collage of guitar sounds, ethereal vocals, and airy atmospherics.  Reminding me at times of old arty 4ad records by This Mortal Coil and His Name Is Alive, Azalia Snail find melodies in the haze and etherealness and harnass them.  It's truly something that has to be heard to understand.
Awkward for sure and eerie at it's worst, Celestial Respect is still a fascinating listen.  This heavenly but askew record will linger in your soul long after it wafts by.  It's really no wonder then, that Azalia Snail named the record Celestial Respect because it's sounds are truly unearthly.
~ Paul Zimmerman, The POP! Stereo

Veteran avant-garde singer Azalia Snail returns with Celestial Respect, her first set of singular outsider space rock on North Carolina imprint Silber Records. Nine standard pop songs populate the disc beside five brief interludes, producing a disjointing listen that scatters themes in random or unexpected places throughout the disc. For the majority of the disc, the sonic textures are deceptively simple, populated with sparse synthetic or keyed backing parts and vocal parts that are extremely high in the mix. However, diverse instrumentation sneaks into the mix during interludes or bridges that are sometimes explosive and surprising. These developments make Celestial Respect anything but a comfortable listen or easily categorized album.
“User System,” “Savings Time,” and “Rescue Toy” exemplify the format of the disc, frequently featuring infinitely echoed vocals over slight synthetic keys that are washed away in sudden seas of noise as the songs close. Snail’s fragile voice stars on these tracks, coloring the bulk of the disc with wailing, cosmic or distant themes placed in the foreground. “Loveydove” and “Death Gets in the Way” expand on the synthetic backing/vocal structure by adding extra vocals, keys, or electronic rhythms surrounding broken vocal lines that seem sorrowful and ready crash at any moment, only to resurface in triumphant crescendos marked by trumpets or wailing synth strings and ebullient scatting.
Snail’s cosmic themes combine with her fragile and disjointed deliveries to symbolize a world that is lost or stumbling, yearning for a calm resolution to turmoil. When the disc seems most disorganized and troubling, a calming wave is likely to sweep into place, and at several points the whole thing seems destined to fall apart. Then again, another interlude sweeps into place, and the whole thing seems strong enough to last forever. Between those two extremes, the album is almost unclassifiable and difficult to pin down, but never fear, those earnest, fragile vocals rescue the whole operation.
~ Nicholas Zettel, Foxy Digitalis

Active since the late 80s Azalia Snail originally was inspired by some of her musical heroes like Brian Eno and Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd). Having released an impressive number of records Azalia Snail still moves on, holding on a so-called ‘lo-fi space pop’ style.
One of the main characteristics of Azalia Snail is the vocals. She sings in a very unique style, a bit like a priestress in front of her disciples. The “Solar Riser”-song opening the album brings us directly in the mood. The title also reflects to the ‘concept’ behind the album dealing with a tribute to the power of the sun and the hope it can bring to us all in the strife of the convenient yet often disheartening modern world.
Musically “Celestial Respect” moves into very different directions. A bit more guitar play and some country touch are emerging from “Celestial” while we’re moving into the soundtrack style on the evasive “User System” (one of the most noticeable cuts) to an intermezzo entitled “GTR Godz” to more experimental parts like “Burtn Cookies” and “Death Gets In The Way”.
Azalia Snail isn’t exactly the most common-like artist for the Side-Line readers, but it leads us towards another experimental format. I can’t really say to have fully enjoyed the “Celestial Respect” experience, but it’s just a new experience in sound.
~ Side-Line

I've known of Ms. Snail since she first appeared on the music scene and sent her work for review to my broadsheet Camera Obscura just after I told David Ciafardini and his Sound Choice rag to go fuck themselves in the 80s (Snail claims 1990 as her commencement point, but I seem to recall earlier output; on the other hand, I was certain Columbus discovered America in 1967, so maybe I'm off on such things). At first, I thought she was one of the strange sisterhood like Lisa Suckdog, who inhabited the fringe of the fringe, but once I'd heard The Space Lady (Susan Dietrich), I understood the true connection in what Irwin Chusid would later write of: outsider music. As he put it: "Genius? Forget it. Talent? Beside the point", and that's what you must contend with in Azalia Snail, Celestial Respect being the latest in a rather prolific publishing history (14 CDs total, as far as I can determine).
No, I really can't take Snail's work, far too dodgy for me, but it has strong appeal to aficionados of the realms of Daniel Johnston, Jandek, The Space Lady, Wing, and God only knows how many faltering quasi-musicians. Granted, here, the chanteuse first presents a numbed-out quartet of tracks of lo-fi synched-in dreary vocals barely cutting the grade as wannabe but then surprises with User System, a clear well-recorded track of quite decent singing, a Kate Bush / Robert Wyatt-esque love paean in drear atmospherics (with a mellotron!). That, we must howl, is nonetheless just a one-off and then we're back into the mucky swamp. Thus, if outsider music is your gig, this is what you want; if, however, you like music, then avoid Celestial Respect at all costs.
~ Mark S. Tucker, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

Azalia Snail is an American avant-garde singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist active in psych folk and indie rock, and played a prominent role in the 1990s lo-fi music scene. She was later dubbed the “Queen of lo-fi”. Snail has also written film scores for several indie features and short films.
Azalia has been making her uniquely sweet, viscous, noise-inflected, tempo-bending psychedelia for almost two decades, recording eleven albums between 1990 and 2006 on labels including Funky Mushroom and Dark Beloved Cloud. Now after a five-year break, she’s back with CD Celestial Respect on Silver Lake’s experimental True Classical Records, a dense haze of swooning vocals and seething synths cut by abrasive swaths of indie guitar mayhem. The music has its share of discordant moments and harsh textures, but somehow these are enveloped in a softening sheen.
~ Exystence

4-Track cassette styled “space pop”, heavily echo’ed off-key female vocs, simple synths, samples and tones. Trumpet and male vocs appear here and there adding contrast. Trippy stuff from woman who’s been around for 20+ years producing this kind of cool strangeness and has collaborated with the likes of Beck and Alan Sparhawk to name a few. For fans of all things 4AD, Tamaryn, Pocohaunted maybe.
~ KZSU Zookeeper

This stuff is woozy. Like 3 beers, two .25 xanies, and a toke woozy. It is psychedelic in the truest sense of the word, because the music seems to be recorded at a different speed, shifting and wobbly from slower to faster, so slightly that you can't tell if it is just in one’s head. It is out of tune with the harsh reality of the impending doom that squawks out of the fear-mongering cable boxes. It is a much better place where this music exists. This music is not lo-fi, but home-made; it is better than store-bought sounds.
Azalia’s vocals are an acquired taste, but like a fine dark draught the longer you spend with it and the slower you partake of it, the better you like it. Her vocals are not faltering but precise. She often double or triple tracks them all slightly out of time. This is not just psychedelic, but surreal; the clocks are melting off the trees.
“Solar Riser” starts off the album. It features horns and a timpani and Azalia's otherworldly vocals. Her vocals seem to be escaping from a worm hole from a different dimension. There is also a sad organ that rides under the plaintive trumpet tones and slow drumming. “Celestial” is a short track of what has to be an intentionally cheap-sounding synth. It ends abruptly before the space cowboys ride in on “Space Heater,” a wonderfully weird mix of spaghetti western country and cheesy 80s synth, with a trumpet to boot. Layers of vocals are piled upon the soundscape.
“User System” shows that Azalia is not hiding a bad voice behind layers of delay. Her vocals are quite fetching when stripped bare. This is probably my favorite track of the album. It rides so close to the edge of being cheesy and overwrought that it makes it all the more beautiful and pure. “GTR GODZ” has an amazing fried amp playing low slow Crazy Horse chords. Unlike Crazy Horse, the track is only fleeting.
She must have been cracking up during playback. For example “Lovely Dove,” where she sings very earnestly, “You are my lovely dove.” That phrase is piled on top of itself until it forms a billowing pink fog that spills out of your speakers and across the carpets. This music is really funny, when it is not being devastatingly sad. “Saving Time,” which is almost so dramatically sorrow-filled it takes on a comical nature. “Respecter” has a darker and abrasive tone. “Death Gets in the Way” starts out as a mournful tune, but then militaristic drums join the fray. But still a little sparkling keyboard hovers above it all, and the tone shifts to something very hopeful. It sits there magically hovering between light and dark. Squeals of guitar feedback starts up. The tone shifts again. Horns, Horns??? come out of nowhere and the mood is now triumphant. This album is a journey, strikes and gutter-balls, ups and downs, much like life itself.
~ Dan Cohoon, Amplitude Equals One Over Frequency Squared

Azalia Snail suona da oltre vent'anni un pop atipico e sgangherato che, nel 2000, le è valso il premio di "best uncategorizable artist" di LA Weekly. In effetti, non è semplice inserire in un preciso filone musicale questo "Celestial Respect", sorta di concept sul sistema solare: intervallati da brevi intermezzi ambient, si susseguono synth minimali che fluttuano sospesi rendendo le canzoni stranamente prive di strutture ("Solar Riser", "Rescue Toy", "Savings Time"), ballate space-pop trascinate da fiati ("User System") e chitarre acide su ritmi sostenuti di drum machine ("Space Heater"). Su queste filigrane musicali, che si riallacciano in egual misura e per motivi diversi a Gong, Primal Scream, e Beck, la Snail canta da shoegazer, violentando la propria voce con delay e riverberi, incrementando l'effetto di inquietudine provocato da questa musica.
La formula alla lunga potrebbe risultare stancante, ma il disco dura abbastanza poco da non mostrare il fianco a questa critica.
~Andrea Vascellari

A ješt? jedna psychedelie, tentokrát v jemn?jším ženském vydání. Ameri?anka Azalia Snail se pohybuje na hudební scén? dv? desetiletí a za tu dobu spolupracovala nap?íklad s Alanem Sparhawkem (Low), Beckem, Grasshopperem (Mercury Rev) nebo Pallem Jenkinsem (Black Heart Procession). Na nové desce Celestial Respect vzdává hold st?edobodu naší vesmírné soustavy – slunci. Dívá se p?itom na oblohu skrze d?tské sklí?kové kukátko, které jí v?noval Sid Barrett, a na ve?e?i si navzájem ?te beletrii s Carlou Bozulich.
~ Pavel Zelinka, Radio Wave

Emozioni della psiche e della pelle, Azalia Snail centrifuga la sua arte in microcosmi musicali. "Celestial Respect" è totalmente radicale nella sua sperticata razionalità. Azalia ottiene il connubio esageratamente perfetto tra un sound lo fi ed una precisa sperimentazione sonica. Voce che sfugge e combatte con gli strumenti una guerra aperta. Guerra che porta pace e buoni sentimenti, la Snail si esercita nel conseguire un suono circolare e brutale. E' un vortice incontenibile il caos che si sente all'interno di questo speciale prodotto. Composizioni di nicchia e distanti dalla massa, ma esageratamente belle e deliziose. Tutto si specchia nella grandezza di un sound verticale, "Celestial Respect" si espande grazie a brani come "Space Heater" vero summa e compendio trasversale della musica di questa artista. Poliedrico caleidoscopio evanescente, che conclude la sua corsa in un rivolo di pianto liberatorio. Sono gradevoli ed unici i suoni di Azalia, mai troppo sopra le righe e mai pomposi. Opera che agevola una costruzione onirica di una banale giornata grigia e stanca.
~ Claudio Baroni, Musica