Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 12/4/2023

 

PRICE: $18.50

CAT #: AA 885LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Vintage Roots Radics dubs mostly produced by Jah Thomas. Featuring King Tubby and Scientist. Produced and arranged by Nkrumah Jah Thomas. All rhythm tracks laid at Channel One Studios. Mixed at King Tubby's by Scientist. Roots Radics Band: Errol "Flabba" Halt - bass; Carlton "Santa" Davis - drums; Gladstone "Gladdie" Anderson - keyboards; Ansell Collins - keyboards; Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont - rhythm guitar; Earl "Chinna" Smith - lead guitar; Christopher "Sky Juice" Blake - percussion; Headley Bennett - saxophone; Val Bennett - trombone; Bobby Ellis - trumpet.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: BONF 004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reduced price, last copies. Bonfire Records present a reissue of Quatrain's self-titled album, originally released in 1969. Sardonic psych-folk from this late sixties US band. Their self-titled album was released on the small imprint Tetragrammaton Records a subsidiary of The Campbell Silver Cosby Corporation founded in 1967 by comedian Bill Cosby. The four piece was based in Los Angeles and their sole album has been produced by David Briggs, long-time associate of Canadian star Neil Young. Electro-acoustic souvenirs, ghostly apparition on the sunset strip, the LSD culture was here to stay and the four piece never let you down with a bunch of dark ballads and rough mid-tempo that sounds like an off-kilter version of The Doors. Bad trip on a lost island, depicted by the freshness of the sixties beat, the pure essence of the early garage sound and a more poetic and affordable songwriting: almost a ten-year fast-forward into the psychedelic culture. Licensed by Good Time Inc./Sweet Peach.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: BONF 005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reduced price, last copies. Bonfire Records present a reissue of Extradition's Hush, originally released in 1971. Little is known about this long-lost gem coming from the outskirts of the Commonwealth. But beauty lies inside. That is the case of the sole album of mysterious Australian band Extradition. Released in a small run on local independent label Sweet Peach in 1971, the album stands as one of the most accurate acid folk renditions outside the UK realm. Formerly a three-piece, Extradition struggle on their personal behavior forging a rural set up that pursue the "think green" revolution. It could be the English folk revival or the West Coast flower power, but the album introduces a different state of mind, far away from the chaotic suburbs of the counter culture. Lost on the isle, the acoustic set up of the band brings joy and happiness, a new age that reflects the multiple essence of the four elements. While the opener "A Water Song" brings to mind the course of a small river, "A Love Song" sets the mood for a long lost medieval folk tale. Acoustic guitar, small percussion, natural found sound and the celestial voice of Shayna Carlin (also member of cult band Tully, a weirdo surf-psychedelic affair) all of the elements above literally conjure for an ambient album before the definition was fully embraced by a massive audience. Licensed by Good Time Inc./Sweet Peach.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: BONF 006LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reduced price, last copies. Exclusive liner notes by Dr. John. Published in 1970 on the small imprint Tiffany Records, the self-titled debut album by Brethren still deliver the goods half a century upon its original release. Way long before the genre Americana was certified, even before the "blue eyed soul mania" arose, this talented combo pave the way for an intense songwriting. Girl group The Blossoms was on board for several tracks on backing vocals, while the almighty Dr. John played keyboards as a guest and wrote some intense liner notes. Folk rock mixed with some country and a dash of gospel, that was the original essence of the album, a serious runner up in the Little Feat/Allman Bros category. But if you look further this band could have been easily described as the US answer to Steve Winwood's Traffic. "Midnight Train" has a southern rock feel while the vocals and composition on "Don't Talk Now" could pass as a tune from The Band. "I've Been Provided For" would fit in at a church revival while bluesy numbers such as "Outside Love" and "Success Brand Oil" have an uncanny jazz rocking instrumental feel. Fully remastered and licensed. 180 gram vinyl; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BB 037LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In 1983, Dieter Moebius (Cluster) and legendary producer Conny Plank teamed up for the third time, resulting in the Zero Set project. On this occasion, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Moebius had got to know and admire him as the live drummer for Harmonia (Moebius, Roedelius, Rother) and during the recording sessions for their second album (De Luxe). Conny Plank, usually more of a background figure as producer, takes an equal share of the limelight alongside the musicians. His supermodern studio is brought into play like an instrument in its own right; Plank explores the full range of audio editing, pushing recording techniques to the limit to achieve maximum brilliance and plasticity. Neumeier uses all of his many years of experience as a drummer, demonstrating the precision and stamina of a drum machine, just infinitely livelier and more inventive. And finally, to Moebius. Always one of the patriarchs of German electronic music, a creator of the most bizarre sound happenings, yet never sounding forced or arbitrary. On the contrary, he consistently worked within the context of the tracks themselves and their relationship to each other. The music on Zero Set flows both smoothly and energetically. No single idea is overplayed, none of the tracks hits the ten-minute mark. Aural and musical structures are concentrated to the point of askesis, yet there is no mistaking just how much the musicians are relishing playing together -- these are the two very different, yet defining characteristics of the album. Moebius, Neumeier and Plank are unsentimental in their use of technology, exploiting it as an effective tool in pursuit of their musical vision. Three musicians at the top of their game and far too smart to allow their efforts to drift into psychedelic meanderings. Limited Anniversary Edition: hand numbered, limited edition white vinyl, 500 copies available.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BB 040LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, whilst Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes of Brian Eno and Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru. Somehow, it took Moebius until 1983 to release his own solo debut album, Tonspuren. Tonspuren is an album of minimalisms, miniatures and stringent form, ten consistently concise and precise pieces. Moebius develops tonal variations out of minimalistic, rhythmic, harmonic basic tracks, sometimes coming close to tangible melodies. Yet this is exactly the point at which he purposely steers clear of electronic pop criteria. Nevertheless, Tonspuren is a pop album, its radically stripped-down contents replenished with harmonious elements of prevalent popular music. Echoes of Cluster notwithstanding, the music of Tonspuren is a separate entity altogether. Moebius seems to be avoiding improvisation as the devil keeps his distance from holy water. Each piece is thoughtfully composed, as Moebius crafts his miniatures layer by layer. Spontaneous inaccuracies have no place here, noise escapades are nipped in the bud. Baroque, folklore and frivolity are not admitted into the studio when the red light is on. Thanks to Tonspuren, the keen listener now has the opportunity of direct comparison in his appraisal of the solo albums of Dieter Moebius, Hans Joachim Roedelius and Michael Rother. What role did each of the Harmonia triumvirate play in creating the style of the supergroup? Tonspuren thus represents a vital piece of the Harmonia puzzle. Limited Anniversary Edition: hand numbered, limited edition white vinyl, 500 copies available.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 438CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The avant-garde Kraut ensemble Supersempfft laid the foundation for their techno-tropical pop music in 1979 with their debut album Roboterwerke. In 1981, they followed up with the album Metaluna, which is now being honored through a re-release on Bureau B. The group, consisting of Dieter Kolb, Franz Kn?ttel, and Franz Aum?ller, fused global influences, experimental sonic landscapes, and surreal lyrics into a unique sonic cosmos. Metaluna stands out with its meandering sequences, unconventional rhythms, and psychedelic songwriting that remains groundbreaking even decades later. After their first album, Kolb and Aum?ller's love of reggae and dub took them on a transatlantic trip to Trinidad and Tobago under the false assumption that all the islands stepped to the Jamaican style. Any momentary disappointment was soon dispelled by the liveliness and optimism of calypso and soca, and a life affirming experience at carnival left them awestruck and inspired. Back home, they began work on Metaluna, a wild combination of roving sequences, tropical rhythms, squashed brass and yearning vocals which sprints, skanks and soars through ten triumphant tracks. Amid the metallic beats and interplanetary idents lurk sublime melodies and soulful motifs, psychedelic songwriting reminiscent of Barrett, Beefheart, or Brian Wilson at their best. In their dubbier moments, Supersempfft sound like Lee Perry jamming on an alien console, with wild panning and delirious FX suggesting a sound clash on a distant planet. Meanwhile the arcade exuberance, vocoder gospel and space age ballads predate the sweltering synth-pop of The Knife, Hot Chip, and Ariel Pink by a full two decades, setting a bar that their successors still fail to meet. Innovative, experimental yet still heavy on the hooks, Metaluna is both a jubilant expression of its creators' tastes and a masterclass in mercurial pop -- a success of self-expression which proves once again that the best bands play for themselves.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 438LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. The avant-garde Kraut ensemble Supersempfft laid the foundation for their techno-tropical pop music in 1979 with their debut album Roboterwerke. In 1981, they followed up with the album Metaluna, which is now being honored through a re-release on Bureau B. The group, consisting of Dieter Kolb, Franz Kn?ttel, and Franz Aum?ller, fused global influences, experimental sonic landscapes, and surreal lyrics into a unique sonic cosmos. Metaluna stands out with its meandering sequences, unconventional rhythms, and psychedelic songwriting that remains groundbreaking even decades later. After their first album, Kolb and Aum?ller's love of reggae and dub took them on a transatlantic trip to Trinidad and Tobago under the false assumption that all the islands stepped to the Jamaican style. Any momentary disappointment was soon dispelled by the liveliness and optimism of calypso and soca, and a life affirming experience at carnival left them awestruck and inspired. Back home, they began work on Metaluna, a wild combination of roving sequences, tropical rhythms, squashed brass and yearning vocals which sprints, skanks and soars through ten triumphant tracks. Amid the metallic beats and interplanetary idents lurk sublime melodies and soulful motifs, psychedelic songwriting reminiscent of Barrett, Beefheart, or Brian Wilson at their best. In their dubbier moments, Supersempfft sound like Lee Perry jamming on an alien console, with wild panning and delirious FX suggesting a sound clash on a distant planet. Meanwhile the arcade exuberance, vocoder gospel and space age ballads predate the sweltering synth-pop of The Knife, Hot Chip, and Ariel Pink by a full two decades, setting a bar that their successors still fail to meet. Innovative, experimental yet still heavy on the hooks, Metaluna is both a jubilant expression of its creators' tastes and a masterclass in mercurial pop -- a success of self-expression which proves once again that the best bands play for themselves.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 439CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 439LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BB 439LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Red color vinyl. "[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 441CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

With Ein B?ndel F?ulnis in der Grube, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the D?sseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. Bureau B is now making the work accessible again on its 40th anniversary."In 1983, during the completion of this album, some ideas and views of the future changed for me. While everyone's mind was still haunted by the admonishingly gloomy vision of George Orwell's 1984, the release of the motion picture Blade Runner had a lasting effect. It depicted a world that can no longer be saved: Acid rain is pouring down derelict buildings and humanity has to confront fugitive cyborgs as a result of artificial intelligence gone wrong. The future however was not quite so clear-cut as those pictures: dystopian imaginings were also being layered with mosaic pieces of a pop history that saw itself as a source of hope, a supposed counterculture. Could this promise be fulfilled or was it simply a 'productive misunderstanding?' With the onset of digitalization, the new musical tools -- first and foremost the techniques of 'sampling' and computerized sequencing -- were enthusiastically met by me and many others, a generation of William Burroughs readers whose sensibility had been nurtured by 'cut-up' and 'automatic writing.' And so everything flowed together on this album: the esoteric heritage of various hippie and alternative movements and their expressions in 'pop,' the underlying currents of 'Modernism' and the influences of European 'neue musik.' The resulting musical pieces on the album celebrate this moment in its simultaneity, its confusion and its new confidence." --Holger Hiller

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 441LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. With Ein B?ndel F?ulnis in der Grube, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the D?sseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. Bureau B is now making the work accessible again on its 40th anniversary."In 1983, during the completion of this album, some ideas and views of the future changed for me. While everyone's mind was still haunted by the admonishingly gloomy vision of George Orwell's 1984, the release of the motion picture Blade Runner had a lasting effect. It depicted a world that can no longer be saved: Acid rain is pouring down derelict buildings and humanity has to confront fugitive cyborgs as a result of artificial intelligence gone wrong. The future however was not quite so clear-cut as those pictures: dystopian imaginings were also being layered with mosaic pieces of a pop history that saw itself as a source of hope, a supposed counterculture. Could this promise be fulfilled or was it simply a 'productive misunderstanding?' With the onset of digitalization, the new musical tools -- first and foremost the techniques of 'sampling' and computerized sequencing -- were enthusiastically met by me and many others, a generation of William Burroughs readers whose sensibility had been nurtured by 'cut-up' and 'automatic writing.' And so everything flowed together on this album: the esoteric heritage of various hippie and alternative movements and their expressions in 'pop,' the underlying currents of 'Modernism' and the influences of European 'neue musik.' The resulting musical pieces on the album celebrate this moment in its simultaneity, its confusion and its new confidence." --Holger Hiller

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DAMGOOD 602LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Reissue of classic album originally released by Sub Pop records in 1990! Now with new artwork and extra two tracks ('Girl From '62' was originally released as the A-side of a single on Regal Select Records, while 'Troubled Times' was the B-side of a single on Dog Meat Records).'What's the story behind the album title? 'Heavens to Murgatroyd, even!' is a term of surprise by Snagglepuss, a bright pink lion, who starred in his very own Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The term was famously employed by The Downliners Sect on the intro to their top tune 'Leader of The Sect.' This album originally came out on Sub Pop Records in 1990. The label was known for US grunge at the time, how come they ended up working with a Medway garage and racket group? We prefer the term 'Maximum Drums and Racket.' It all came about because a young Steve Turner, of Mudhoney fame, when a young lad visiting England with his father, happened across Thee Mighty Caesars playing at The Cricketers Public House at the Oval. Fast forward five years and he is telling the Seattle grunge mob all about how great we are. We were then invited to play with Mudhoney on their first Sub Pop jaunt in the UK. Bruce Pavitt, the Sub Pop visionary, saw our mass appeal and asked if we'd knock out an LP for Sub Pop. He also asked me to sign a contract. I replied -- 'What's a contract, can you eat it?' By this good chance we still owned the LP.' --Q&A with Billy Childish (September, 2023)"

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RR 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Co-released with Root Records. Following his debut EP En clair-obscur and a series of singles earlier this year cementing his place as a rising name in the world of cinematic soul and funk, Hamburg's finest cinematic soul artist The Offline announces his debut album La couleur de la mer. Reminiscent of film scores from the '60s and '70s, The Offline worked with co-producer Tim Liztenberger to channel the influence of film composers such as Francois de Roubaix and Brian Bennet, creating his own soundtrack on La couleur de la mer. Inducing images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the sea's edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of an imaginary hero, the record is a masterfully composed sonic journey. Experimenting with themes and atypical song structures, the music moves from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism. It incorporates psychedelic spaciness, retro soul and hip-hop sensibilities informed by The Offline's extensive record collection and crate-digger status. The Offline came to life when composer and photographer Felix Mu?ller travelled the Atlantic coastline in the south of France with his analogue camera, capturing beach life on film. After coming back to Hamburg, he started writing songs as the sonic counterpart to the analogue visuals. His Debut EP En Clair-Obscur includes five tracks that capture the essence of his journey and the feeling of a cool summer soundtrack.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DPROM 113CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Re-press of the long sold-out deluxe re-issue of this 80's classic from Nurse With Wound. Expertly re-mastered by Denis Blackham. Now packaged in six-panel matt laminated digipac, with special matt 12-page booklet with artwork by Babs Santini. Includes a bonus disc of outtakes, unreleased material and remixes.

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: DIS 195EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In January 1983, Minor Threat went into Inner Ear Studio for the first time as a five-piece (Brian Baker had moved from bass to second guitar and Steve Hansgen was now playing bass). They had six new songs that would end up being the center piece of what became the Out of Step 12" EP. The band had also decided to re-record the song 'Out of Step' with some extra language to try to clarify the lyrics, as well as 'Cashing In,' a tongue-in-cheek song about the DC punk scene which they had only played live once. After much debate, 'Cashing In' was added as a hidden track on the original vinyl release though not listed on the cover or label. There was still blank tape on the reel, so they decided to record an instrumental with the working title 'Addams Family' and then recorded new versions of 'In My Eyes' and 'Filler' to hear what they sounded like with two guitars. 'Addams Family' ended up being used as a coda to 'Cashing In,' but the other two songs were never mixed and largely forgotten for over 35 years until the multitrack tapes were taken into the studio to be digitized in 2021. Surprised by the discovery, Ian and Don Zientara mixed the two songs along with the complete take of 'Addams Family.' These outtakes are now being released on a 7" to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Out of Step."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: DC 360LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; LP version, gatefold sleeve. We know you would rather consider the Spring Breakers shaped-disc megamixxx, but WTF? "Jason Spaceman and Sun City Girls employ an instrumental approach for the sounds here, with one or two chanted exceptions. Their music conspires in an exquisite corpse-like fashion -- without knowing what the other was doing, they've each brought half a body to the film, supplying the apparitional and austere sounds of a world in which everyone is something they're not, i.e. the people they dream of being."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: DC 592LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "...and at the heart of Bitchin Bajas, there is pure peace. Bitchin Bajas have been around the world in five years; chasing sonics through space and time and coming up with a lot of conclusions along their discographical path. Always, they push forward, recklessly consuming processes in order to realize their own works -- but the sound and the music regularly emerges with tranquil essence, bringing them and their listeners into a shared experience. Bitchin Bajas' output has been remarkably diverse in search of this singular goal, which makes for great listening across multiple albums etc. -- and with the release of this new double-LP, they have mapped and traversed their own ecosystem as they journey in search of the aural epiphany, the true unknowing. With plenty of room stretched over four sides, Bitchin Bajas use their many methods to attain perfect flow throughout the 76 minutes of this self-titled record. Self-titled because this is who they are at their core; these are the flares and oscillations of their soul. They will be other things again, horizons will continue to rise and fade away in their path as they continue forward and upward -- but this self-titled record is a pure vision at the heart of Bitchin Bajas. Acoustic is the beginning. Eastern tonalities relocate Bitchin Bajas farther inside the source, finding the timeless time from long ago and slowly sliding via fader until then is now, until acoustic goes analog. Something pure and natural is happening -- within the sound, within the songs; in the album and in you. The shifts that come makes changes in your moods and your body temperature. Something delicate yet definite, gradually washing over your consciousness. Electricity just comes, it doesn't even begin. Bitchin Bajas is climate-controlled comprehension -- on one hand, an ultimate album, and on the other, barely even an album at all. What began in randomness, pitch-shifting and tape manipulation emerged in the cutting as a single direction, a journey in scales, divided by the format perfectly into four stages, eight discreet parts. Bitchin Bajas reach high and low in their consciousness as expressed through equalization to see (hear) what affect it will have on them -- and what it does to them, reaches through to you. The space found on Bitchin Bajas was located with organ, synthesizer, winds, xylophone and autoharp, employing a 1" 8-track tape machine to the fullest extent. Additional contributions from strings, keys, guitar and field recordings helped make Bitchin Bajas everything that it is."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: DC 597LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Released in 2014. "Dan'l Boone is Charles Ballas (Formant), Neil Hagerty (ex-Royal Trux, Howling Hex, etc.), Nate Young (Wolf Eyes, Regression, etc.) and Alex Moskos (Drainolith). The crew convened in Denver, CO to work on the forthcoming Drainolith record and decided to make another record at the same time. Neil and Nate really ran things at the sessions at Uneven Studios. There were lots of electronics that Young would set up and Hagerty would give some direction. Hagerty had various lyric sheets and scores that the group worked with but once the record started to take shape Young became very involved in plotting out the flow of the record. 'I'd come downstairs into Charles' basement and Nate and Neil would be making competing diagrams that represented the record. I was so lost,' says Moskos. The new planet recently discovered, in the Goldilocks Zone -- the habitable range that is neither too hot nor too cold and thus can support liquid water -- by NASA's Kepler telescope is earth-sized and earth like. It is in fixed orbit?called a tidal lock -- meaning that on one side it's always night and one side it's always day. It's about 5000 light years away from earth. It is said humans can't reach this planet without first discovering a new physics. So like the original city dwellers who wanted to reach Planet Rock, like those who wished to originally attain the Trip Metal Moons or those who created the mothership with which to raise the funky planet... you have to create a NEW music to really leave the depressed and turgid and lifeless zones behind and truly get somewhere."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DC 648LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Released in 2016. "Bitchin Bajas and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy be in righteous and true collaboration on this one, flowing ideas through the air between them, which seems a rare thing in this age where records course forth without wires. The air's meant to be shared, and that's how Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties came to pass -- a morning, afternoon and evening of frisson in blissed acceptance of the eternal recurrence. And it always came. These guys get each other. They share a passion for arresting the moment in the process of now, and both of them get music from this action in their way. Bajas have a fan in Bonny; their ability to stretch time and get in between the grains scratches his itch to live in those instances. And this makes him a worthy co-jammer, a fourth plane to the BB triangle that quantifies and dimensionalizes the sound. Their first blend was for the Shirley Collins tribute comp, a rendition of 'Pretty Saro' that built from the starkness and tonal monophony of the auld ballads and opened the hatch to timeless stasis. But if more was desired (which it was), more would be needed -- the full trio of Bajas in the room together, in audience with the 'Prince.' Following one of their many mini-jaunts around the country, Bitchin Bajas stopped by Bonnie's aerie one day after tour to make it so. It was an epic and fortunate day. Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties contains moments of tranquility and trance, with the players integrating their separate ways, vibing off each other, making songs together. Bonny is at his spirit-melting celestial best wandering through a lifetime of fortunes that amount, when incanted, to a prayer to the god of many names. The Bajas' access to the universal aural paintbox is unparalleled; their reach is deep. And it all went down onto a two-track reel-to-reel in primitive left-right seps that helped to define their ability to finish it in mixing. Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties is simple and stark and empyrean and inspirational... and pretty modal, too -- probably never more than three chords! -- as Bonny and the Bajas pursue the life of the spirit down ever-fading vapor trails, in a bottomless space."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DC 670LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Released in 2017. "Ed Askew recorded the sublimely gorgeous LP Ask the Unicorn in 1968 for the legendary proto-DIY label ESP records, which has now been recognized as a god-damn underground classic. Armed only with a tiple (sort of a South American mandolin) and his lilting neigh of a voice (and bearing superficial resemblances to labelmates Pearls Before Swine, and heady UK acoustic folkers Incredible String Band), Askew spun tales of doomed sisters, crashing universes, budding gay love, and a serious fondness for roses on his rare, precious and beautiful album. After this lone release, Ed Askew seemingly vanished in the romantic mists of time, until a second, previously unreleased album, surfaced in 2003, Little Eyes -- recorded but a few years after Ask the Unicorn, and every bit as honey-dipped by the musical gods. Since then, Askew has undergone a rightful resurgence, and surely everyone that ever dug a Donovan or Devendra tune has taken notice, so Ed's obscure 1984 cassette Imperfiction was also reissued by Galactic Zoo Disk/Drag City in 2011. Ed has since resumed making music, and has released several albums over the last decade -- but meanwhile, it appears the Askew historical goldmine had not been fully tapped! To wit, Ed unearthed four reels of radio sessions taped in 1969?70, performing songs from his first two albums (and the totally previously unreleased track, 'Green Song')! The tapes were meticulously studied by Galactic Zoo Disk honcho Plastic Crimewave (of Galactic Zoo Dossier, er, fame), and the best versions were extracted for this release -- absolutely stunning renditions of Askew standards like 'Fancy That' (with a sense of propulsive urgency not on the LP version, we'd say!) or 'Red Woman' and 'Mr. Dream' -- which are perhaps even more gooily gorgeous than the originals. In short folks, this new archival Ed Askew release A Child in the Sun, which features never-before-seen vintage photos, is astro folk gold."

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: DC 718CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Released in 2018. "The CD box set called Rebajas is a seven-disc, six-hour and 42-minute second time around through the Bitchin Bajas catalog to date, including all 11 of their solo releases: eight albums and the Bajas sides of three split records! None of these records have previously been released on CD. The music on the Rebajas box represents the dawn and early pleastoric period of Bitchin Bajas. In the time of their conception, none of these releases were issued on anything other than vinyl. Now, there's finally enough material to make a really deep listening experience, all put together! The limitless vast that Bitchin Bajas music implies even in its smallest sampling is well-served by a multi-disc set. From the beginning, Bitchin Bajas have made music to enhance the moment they and you are sharing, and details above and beyond that have been relatively unimportant. In the time since then, they've gone from a one-person band to a duo, then a trio. That information, plus the recording and original release details, the additional personnel and the original jacket, label and insert artwork for all the releases is included here, along with a few schematic details, to provide a true overview into the parameters of their world. What's more, additional information can be heard in the material in its transferred-for-CD form, which has corrected inadequacies in several of the original pressings. Plus, all the Bitchin Bajas material can now be heard without any surface noise! So too ends the first Bajaian epoch -- when the band returns with new music, it will be moving away from even the most recent material on Rebajas, released earlier this year. Moving, always flowing -- but with Rebajas, the whole Bitchin Bajas thing to date is captured in the unending amber of digital sound."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DC 835LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Released in 2014. "With Valdez, Birds of Maya are back in flight. And like the first song title explicitly states, this latest is a soaring blast of riffers, rife with punk rock abandon, sludge, treble, distortion, neck-throttling rock n roll solos, pummeling drums and bass and half-shouted/half-gargled vocals, all of it half on and half off the mic. Somewhere in Philadelphia, Jason Killinger, Ben Leaphart, and Mike Polizze played on. Still making it happen as always: taping everything they play -- with bass, drums, guitar and vocals fighting for space in the condensing mics of cheap recorders -- then tossing the tapes aside, for consideration at a later moment. Time is a test that Birds of Maya recordings need to pass before they see the light of day. Valdez is a good example, although it's also an exception to their regular M.O. It was recorded in 2014 at Black Dirt Studios in other-state New York. After a Purling Hiss session there, Mike and Ben talked with Jason about how it would be a great time for Birds of Maya too, so they got a bunch of tunes they liked into shape -- that is, different shapes on different days. But nice shapes. Once they got to the studio, they loaded in and set up, curious to see how they felt playing in a different room. Pretty good as it turned out -- running through the songs that first night, they accidentally recorded the whole album! At the time this was recorded, Birds of Maya were standing on the other side of ten years kicking around town, suddenly far away from the primordial ooze they'd flopped forth from. The streets where all this had happened on were changing, with new money rolling in, but they were the same old Birds, content with their libations and ear-splitting variations on old favorite Stooges chords. The cover art of Valdez is a couple images from those days, glimpses at the old grass roots before they were ripped up by developers to build condos. But nothing ever really goes away. Valdez is a totem of the wildness that refuses be tamed."

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: DC 851LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2023 repress. "A year after the cassette-only release of Switched On Ra, another format has fallen from whatever kind of rare ether Bitchin Bajas occupy when they're at home. The LP edition of Switched On Ra bears all the same riches (only richer of course) in its grooves, adding a lovely screen-printed rendering of the graphics to its larger-than-cassette-cosmos dimensions. Switched On Ra is the outcome of a typical Bajas exercise: pouring some out for the pioneers that came before (as they've done with Bitchitronics and their participation in the annual Chicago performance of 'In C' over the years) . . . Before long, they're playing with the inspirations twined, as they can only come from within. For Switched On Ra, this meant a deep delve into the song-book of one of their soul-predecessors, Sun Ra, whose music is literally written in the Bajas DNA. Digging into this music sounded wild on paper: the drone synth group taking on the Arkestra harmonies and Ra's loose grooves? The trick was to get that sense of rhythm to translate across the spectrum from Ra to Bajas, in a way that worked for them both. Their rearrangements of the tunes went good -- up and down the EQ band, they were finding the round sounds and jagged edges that brought Ra's music into their own thing. Then at the last minute, there was another twist -- why not pay tribute to the Queen herself, and think of the arrangements with a Wendy Carlos vibe? A little side homage? After all, Switched on Bach was visionary, bringing analog synths from the outside all the way into the mainstream in the late '60s -- and this take on Ra is meant to take him to new ears everywhere . . . Bitchin Bajas have been content to dominate in a microtonal world, usually without a single chord to be found anywhere. But here, they step up righteously, their vibe triangulated as they bring Ra's music forward with some Wendy C style, making an unexpected space for all to thrive. There's a real feeling of joy as these collected signals bounce off the platter and through the speakers into your space. To get this unique colloid exactly right, Bitchin Bajas used nineteen different keyboards. They abstained from deploying their arsenal of reed and woodwind instruments: everything had to be on the keys. This meant Yamahas, Rolands, Korgs, Casios, a MicroMoog and of course their trusty Ace Tone organ. They even broke out the Crumar DS-2, to have some of Ra's chosen tone in the mix. Then Jayve Montgomery added an EWI as a solo voice on a few tunes, just to get some air-blown signal (and a natural shout out to EWI master Marshall Allen) in there, after all..."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: EG 009LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Recorded Live in Italy in October 1985 and mastered directly from the old dusty cassette, here's a previously unheard Steve Lacy recording from a rare duo appearance with pianist Martin Joseph, a little known yet fascinating British musician who had worked with Harry Beckett, John Surman, Ian Carr, and Tubby Hayes, among others, and who later became a regular presence on the Rome mid '70s creative Jazz scene. This recording presents an opportunity to listen to the soprano sax giant in a repertoire not frequently found on his other duo recordings with pianists. The set list includes some of Lacy's finest compositions like "Prospectus," "Flakes," and "Coastline," plus Thelonious Monk's classic "Bemsha Swing," a tribute to Monk's visionary mastery where Joseph's contrapuntal response to Lacy's angular lines leads the music towards a multidimensional space, a quality to be found throughout the whole album. This is a wonderful discovery, and a significant addition to Lacy's discography and legacy. Contains printed inner sleeve with archival photos and extensive liner notes by two Italian soprano saxophone specialists Roberto Ottaviano and Eugenio Colombo, and pianist Martin Joseph himself.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: EPR 057LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. With their 2018 debut album, Windborne (EPR 050CD/LP, 2018), Oslo based trio Kanaan quickly established themselves as one of the most important groups in the youngest generation of psychedelic impro-rockers. As accomplished players -- all three educated in jazz -- they marry fiery energy with musical intricacy, and possess a rare ability to balance power and delicateness. They devote as much energy to exploring airiness and atmosphere as they do to intensity. On this set, the trio join forces with Causa Sui guitar player and producer Jonas Munk, for a series of semi-improvised sonic excursions. Recorded in Jonas Munk's Odense studio, where most of the El Paraiso magic happens, the band explores a looser side of their sound. Jonas Munk joins on guitar on every track, and occasionally synths as well, unlocking new modal possibilities and a Grateful Dead-esque, dual-guitar flow that suits the band well. These four tracks unfold in a panoramic slow burn, only occasionally exploding in blazing leads. They know just when to hold back and when to let loose. On the final track, "Urgent Excursions To The Tundrasphere", the four eventually let it all rip, creating a complete sonic meltdown. For fans of freeform psychedelic rock, this is as essential as it gets. Includes download card; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: EPR 075CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Dens concludes a trilogy of albums, aptly spelling out the last third of the group's name. And true to form, the band turns inwards rather than outwards, drawing on deep shades of ambient, slowcore, and the ghost of Mark Hollis. While maintaining their psychedelic edge, the trio weaves the lines between genres in a way that's becoming a signature of its own. Never in a hurry, but always moving somewhere. Causa Sui drummer Jakob Sk?tt and Martin Rude's bass and baritone guitar lay out a robust yet fleeting foundation. Papir's Nicklas S?rensen's glistening guitar lines never felt more-free and explorative. While The Durutti Column tribute "Vini's Lament" is drenched in nostalgia, a cut like "Morgensol" (Morning Sun in Danish) explodes in Popol Vuh-esque gloomy euphoria. Engineered by Jonas Munk and produced by Jakob Sk?tt, the album culls hours of free improvisation into a coherent size. Seamless edits and studio wizardry enhance the feeling of an almost narrative nature as the album progresses. Invoking anything from a crackling campfire, rattling bones, and the singing of sand dunes. The culmination lies in the 14-minute track "Sienita." A fully formed blistering improvisation, abandoning any studio trickery, besides a singly dubbed organ, rising and falling like the tide.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: EPR 075LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Dens concludes a trilogy of albums, aptly spelling out the last third of the group's name. And true to form, the band turns inwards rather than outwards, drawing on deep shades of ambient, slowcore, and the ghost of Mark Hollis. While maintaining their psychedelic edge, the trio weaves the lines between genres in a way that's becoming a signature of its own. Never in a hurry, but always moving somewhere. Causa Sui drummer Jakob Sk?tt and Martin Rude's bass and baritone guitar lay out a robust yet fleeting foundation. Papir's Nicklas S?rensen's glistening guitar lines never felt more-free and explorative. While The Durutti Column tribute "Vini's Lament" is drenched in nostalgia, a cut like "Morgensol" (Morning Sun in Danish) explodes in Popol Vuh-esque gloomy euphoria. Engineered by Jonas Munk and produced by Jakob Sk?tt, the album culls hours of free improvisation into a coherent size. Seamless edits and studio wizardry enhance the feeling of an almost narrative nature as the album progresses. Invoking anything from a crackling campfire, rattling bones, and the singing of sand dunes. The culmination lies in the 14-minute track "Sienita." A fully formed blistering improvisation, abandoning any studio trickery, besides a singly dubbed organ, rising and falling like the tide.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: F 4005LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Phonox Nights is the last album completed by Andrew Weatherall with Nina Walsh at her Facility 4 studio before the much-missed DJ producer passed away in February 2020. Introducing the set's exquisitely crafted electronic diamonds with a bubbling starburst of 21st century acid house, the title track's deep sweeping majesty is graced by ethereal synth lines from Weatherall himself, joining the percolating squelch of Walsh's Roland TB-303 in a heady blend of melancholic reflection and pulsing dancefloor wallop. Like a raft of other recordings the duo made through this time, Phonox Nights carries a spiritual and musical connection with Nina's late partner Erick Legrand, whose fathomless hard-drive archive she plundered with Andrew to the extent he can qualify as W.R.F.'s invisible third member. Legrand's presence shines brightest underpinning the translucent weightless flight of "Church Of Burnt Offerings", his rolling drums from the archive originally earmarked for a Barbican event that sadly never happened.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: HG 2301LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Tropic of Capricorn is the second album by Lawrence English and Werner Dafeldecker. Based on field recordings made by the prolific Room40 owner that were subtly but decisively altered with electroacoustic techniques through the German improv legend, these two long-form pieces blur the lines between acoustic ecology and aesthetic interventions, concrete local sound worlds and boundary-defying art. They put a focus on our relationship with nature as listeners as much as they call into question where nature ends and human perception begins. They are deeply confusing, disorienting perhaps, in the most beautiful ways. English recorded the material that form the basis of the duo's Hallow Ground debut on two different field trips. One led him from the Western coast to the Pilbara region in the North of the country called Australia, the other to the central desert into the lands of the Arrernte people. When recording the soundscapes, the artist put a focus on the residues of failed colonial aspirations. "The buildings and objects that remain from the failed cattle pastures and other endeavors create uneasy sound worlds of their own," English says of the regions that are also places of extraction, especially the heavily mined Pilbara. "There is a distant drone of industry in even the most remote of places; an unsettled sense of heavy breath on the land." He brought home a document of natural reclamation in time. The rich source material was then given to Dafeldecker. Spatializing the recordings with transducers applied to different surfaces such as wood, stretched animal skin, glass, or metal surfaces and also re-recording parts of the recordings, he created discrete events that were inserted into, or rather enmeshed with English's recordings. What Tropic of Capricorn invites its listeners to listen beyond the preconceived notions of how nature is supposed to be represented in sound and to instead embrace the immediacy of the sensation.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: HOS 871LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. RSE surprise album just in time before the migration to cooler waters. Grown in the shade of the glacier. Killer Whale Atmospheres is a future-memory affair of sub bass propulsive drones, rhythms, chords and dorsal scars building to a forbidding sense of cold echolocations yet to come through the violent procession of darkening rains. Black vinyl double LP in wide spine sleeve. Digital download code included.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: KRXN 030LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Yearly compilation album Radar by Keroxen returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands. With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol. 4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions -- in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana -- a true connection of likeminded minds whom demonstrate once again that you do not need to be in a western hipster mecca to make interesting work. The presentation format sticks to its breakable rules, with each artist offering one track per side and the full thing of course wrapped up in Pura Marquez dizzying post-tropical art. The album opens with the Julee Cruise inspired project Akane by Tenerife's Carolina Machado where synth arpeggios intertwine organically with her soothing voice, setting the tone for Reunion Island's Jako Maron and his unique take on local Maloya music by way of electrifying it into a trance like looping beat. Enter French Guyana's Daryanna Jean unique sound artistry with sampling, cutting and pasting local(?) sounds into a disorientating needle jump glitch fest. Side A eventually closes with a very Azorean take on the very English hauntological sound by borrowing those pastoral melodies and synth riffs of yesterday and transposing it to the remote Sub-Tropical fields of S?o Miguel Island, in the Azores, courtesy of Flipping Candy. Side B emphatically reinforces the compilation's original concept that no matter where you are, in this post internet, post everything world, outsider music thrives and keeps raising the invisible bar.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MUS 273LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

La Vida Es Un Mus first fell in love with Antwerp's Brorlab with an urgently abrasive EP which from 2020. Fast forward to 2023 and they are back with a totally out of control 12" of modern fuckwave. The A side is seven new songs of their trademark dadaist electronic punk, full of fuzz guitars and sharp nasty beats, with a vocalist that fits perfectly the Honey Bane-Chitose vocal range and smart attitude. The B side brings bang back to life the eight tracks from their criminally obscure debut EP, which will make any lover of ear-damaging noise smile with pleasure. All-in-all an aberrant slice of psychedelic gabber infused punk for the end of time.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LANR 036LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

A more than welcomed re-issue for the iconic post-punk band Sad Lovers And Giants, coming all the way from Watford. The album showcases a collection of unreleased recordings -- mostly conceived between 1981 and 1983 -- and it is a right companion to their two-studio masterpiece: "Epic Garden Music" and "Feeding The Flames."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: LY 004LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

If there's one specific component that grounds Sky Flesh, it's focus. Italian musician and sound designer Marta De Pascalis flexed her technical muscle on 2020's Sonus Ruinae, layering various sounds and processes in an attempt to touch the sublime. In contrast, Sky Flesh is a single thought, composed using just one instrument: the Yamaha CS-60. A slimmed-down sibling to the gargantuan CS-80 -- the analog synthesizer used by Vangelis to create his iconic Blade Runner score -- the CS-60 was released in 1977, a few years before the MIDI protocol was introduced to help standardize production methods. MIDI would change the electronic music landscape completely, offering a level of control that De Pascalis consciously relinquishes, preferring to highlight expressiveness and timbre, elements more readily associated with acoustic instruments. The album arrives as much of the wider experimental scene busies itself with algorithmic composition and AI-assisted modeling; De Pascalis chooses to work instead like an organologist, harnessing the CS-60's mercurial magic to suggest deeper truths about our evolving relationship with machines. Using timbres that recall a time when electronic music still waved towards the future, De Pascalis' melodic content is rooted in early and Renaissance music, almost cleaving it from history entirely. Fittingly, Sky Flesh is released on acclaimed Italian composer Caterina Barbieri's burgeoning Light-Years label, the ideal platform for her labyrinthine, cosmic vignettes.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: LR 135C-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Lilith present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (A Little More Blue), originally issued in 1971. Often referred to as "Brazil's unofficial poet laureate" and the "Bob Dylan of Brazil", this heavyweight of Brazilian music was also a young revolutionary who used his music to protest against Brazil's oppressive military regime. This protest music, which became known as tropicalia, first earned Veloso a stint in jail, but by the time this dour album was released in 1971, it had placed him in exile in the UK. Veloso's extreme bitterness and melancholy can be heard on every groove of this album, but don't let the album's gloomy atmosphere stop you from buying it; it is dripping with some of the best moments of saudade in the history of Brazilian music. Color vinyl.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: LR 142C-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Lilith Records present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (Ara?? Azul), originally issued in 1972. Apparently when this album was originally released in 1972, confused and bewildered fans, expecting more of the same found on Transa, released earlier that year, returned the album to the shop, demanding a refund. Meanwhile, critics raved, and many now consider Ara?? Azul to be one of his great creative moments. To be fair to his many fans, it was a stark departure from his previous releases, which were decidedly more pop, but Veloso had been through a lot recently, having just returned from political exile in the UK, so it is no wonder that the artist was feeling a bit like he needed to fly in the face of conformity. In Veloso's own words, "I made this album without thinking, without taking the time to stop to think." He refers to the album's "insolent experimentalism" and calls it a kind of "last stand." Clear vinyl.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: LR 144C-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Lilith Records present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (Irene), originally issued in 1969. Although Veloso had already been thrown in jail once for his criticism of Brazil's military regime, he continued to speak out against it on Caetano Veloso (Irene), with tracks like "Irene", (about a machine gun-toting outlaw celebrated by the left). No wonder he would soon find himself in political exile in the UK. The general tone of the album is in keeping with its dire message and actually, Veloso felt it was important for his voice of protest to be heard around the world. If he was a high profile public figure, he felt that he would be safer. Despite all of this (or perhaps because of all this) and the man still managed to make excellent records! Clear vinyl.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: LIVITY 061EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Peverelist swiftly follows up the Pulse EP with another four tracks of sprightly club gear that continue to shape out his current areas of exploration in the studio. As ever, there are no fixed concepts or approaches -- just an instinct for energizing, inventive tracks taking in a range of tempos and rhythms. The first half of Pulse Modulation EP is marked out by linear rhythms which showcase the most techno aspects of Pev's sound. "Pulse V" is charged with the kind of alien synth lines which could only come from his studio, but also draw a line to the hi-tech soul of foundational Detroit techno. "Pulse VI" has a starker, bleep-led sound pitched towards tougher dancefloors. "Pulse VII" strips things back in comparison, leaning in on a blanket of bass and keeping the drums sparse and to the point -- a study in sound system pressure. Widening the spectrum of the record, "Pulse VIII" sees Pev make a rare push up into 160+ territory -- something normally reserved for his DJ sets. Swerving obvious break edits, his take on jungle is lean and crisp, delivering a fresh slant on the sound while maintaining the sharp focus of his current output. Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground electronic music.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: LMS 5521921

FILE UNDER: ROCK

In the mid '80s, in the midst and direct aftermath of the era defining Miner's Strike, The Redskins, as political activists, delivered their electrifying and radical Socialist Workers Party missives and broadsides through the ministry of their music -- a unique post-punk rock/soul hybrid that gained their lead singer, Chris Dean, the sobriquet "Tamla Motormouth." The Redskins were taking a stand for the working man and by standing up, they stood out -- and never so forcefully as in the live arena! With their stellar musicianship and crack brass section honed through a never-ending whorl of "fighting fund" benefit gigs, they were the furious flames that kept the anti-Thatcher fires of dissent burning throughout those challenging years marked by her seeming unassailability. These Furious Flames! is a 25-track documentation of the energy, commitment and drive of the Redskins as that campaigning live act. Issued in 2CD capacity wallet, double vinyl and digital editions, each format couples together a recording of the full set of the finale concert of their 1985 "Kick Over Apartheid!" tour -- including guest appearances from Jerry Dammers and Billy Bragg - with the BBC broadcast tracks from their 1986 concert at the Town And Country Club. The double CD edition comes with a 40-page booklet that compiles new and period quotes by band members Martin Hewes, Chris Dean, Paul Hookham, and Kevin Robertson as well as thoughts by an array of associates and celebrity fans including poet Atilla The Stockbroker, Billy Bragg, Colin Revolting, their studio album producers Pat Foley & Chris Silagyi and DJ Gary Crowley. The booklet also contains gig reviews, photographs and a condensed digest of media quotes about the band. The double vinyl LP format has printed inner bags replete with evocative archive photographs and a written introduction by Redskins founding member Martin Hewes, with whose co-operation and input this celebratory release has been curated.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: LMS 5521922

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. In the mid '80s, in the midst and direct aftermath of the era defining Miner's Strike, The Redskins, as political activists, delivered their electrifying and radical Socialist Workers Party missives and broadsides through the ministry of their music -- a unique post-punk rock/soul hybrid that gained their lead singer, Chris Dean, the sobriquet "Tamla Motormouth." The Redskins were taking a stand for the working man and by standing up, they stood out -- and never so forcefully as in the live arena! With their stellar musicianship and crack brass section honed through a never-ending whorl of "fighting fund" benefit gigs, they were the furious flames that kept the anti-Thatcher fires of dissent burning throughout those challenging years marked by her seeming unassailability. These Furious Flames! is a 25-track documentation of the energy, commitment and drive of the Redskins as that campaigning live act. Issued in 2CD capacity wallet, double vinyl and digital editions, each format couples together a recording of the full set of the finale concert of their 1985 "Kick Over Apartheid!" tour -- including guest appearances from Jerry Dammers and Billy Bragg - with the BBC broadcast tracks from their 1986 concert at the Town And Country Club. The double CD edition comes with a 40-page booklet that compiles new and period quotes by band members Martin Hewes, Chris Dean, Paul Hookham, and Kevin Robertson as well as thoughts by an array of associates and celebrity fans including poet Atilla The Stockbroker, Billy Bragg, Colin Revolting, their studio album producers Pat Foley & Chris Silagyi and DJ Gary Crowley. The booklet also contains gig reviews, photographs and a condensed digest of media quotes about the band. The double vinyl LP format has printed inner bags replete with evocative archive photographs and a written introduction by Redskins founding member Martin Hewes, with whose co-operation and input this celebratory release has been curated.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: LOW 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

For the final release on Low Company Records, this is Static Cleaner Lost Reward's gonzo dub-pop melter Breathing Under Honey: an aquatic ruin zone of echo-distressed, loop-me-crazy song-forms, zonked exotica, slacker-techno and crudely soldered, seasick cyberpunk. This album is just the latest expression of Australian artist Tarquin Manek's powerful and inimitable gift/curse, arriving ten years deep into his career as major player, and enabler, in a now rightly revered seam of the Melbourne/Naarm underground. The nine tracks here showcase both a keen taste for timeless pop umami and a super-evolved grasp of mind-pranging dubwise psychoacoustics; an intermeshing of DIY concr?te chaos and supple, locked-on rhythm mechanics that feels not so much futuristic as extraterrestrial.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: MENT 019LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock, last copies. LP version. Includes insert with liners notes; Includes download card. Continuing with their reissue campaign of the Toby Robinson's Pyramid label catalog, Mental Experience now present Temple's self-titled release. Probably the most "rock" sounding of all the Pyramid titles, Temple were an ad-hoc outfit born out of several late-night sessions at Dierks Studios (where Toby was working at that time), involving local friends of Toby and other musicians from adjoining studios, among them Zeus B. Held (Birth Control). Temple played a kind of heavy, dark psychedelic krautrock with ahead of its time proto-Goth vibe. Loud guitars, Hammond, Mini-Moog, Mellotron, distorted and echoing vocals, effects... RIYL: Amon D??l II, Hawkwind, Birth Control, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Emtidi... 24-bit remaster from the original tapes; Insert with liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack In The Cosmic Egg); Includes download coupon.

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 3586COL-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Eastern Rebellion 2 was the follow-up to the first Eastern Rebellion album which came out in 1976. This 1977 release is another classic set by Cedar Walton on piano, Bob Berg on tenor-sax, Sam Jones on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. All four compositions are written by Cedar Walton and range from straight to hard bop jazz. Eastern Rebellion 2 is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on white colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: OM 080LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Before hitting the road together in 2022, Bill Nace and Emily Robb recorded a tour split -- a cassette, limited run of 50 -- only to be found at their merch table. Now on vinyl, the split captures a moment bursting with verdant, crisp anticipation. Both artists were then on the heels of significant artistic leaps. Robb was wrapping up the promotional cycle of her first full-length solo record, 2021's How To Moonwalk, and Nace had recently shifted his focus from prepared guitar to the taishogoto, a Japanese instrument rarely heard in the west. When Nace plays his taisho live, listeners generally respond in a couple of different ways. Some become slightly hypnotized by the constant motion required to maintain the instrument's frantic, electric flicker. Others, on the edge of their seats, whoop loudly, almost involuntarily, to release the mounting tension. As a performer, Nace says the experience is a bit like being watched while jogging in place. Where the guitar easily allows space, this particular model of taishogoto has no sustain. 'I have to keep playing it to keep making sound,' Nace says. 'I have to get whipped up into this state.' This presents new limitations, and Nace expands to the edges. Here it shudders and sparks, spiking and scribbling like an EKG. It emanates white light, white heat. Robb luminates in a balmier way, like sunshine through leaves. Her guitar arcs and billows. Fripp-y tones and textures establish a structure inside which it feels good to get lost. Robb describes her improvisational playing here as somewhat meditative. 'There's a constant running through it,' she says. It's like 'hearing a story of a person's mind and emotions as they let music flow through.' Nace notes that coincidentally, the two sides -- both recorded by Robb at her Suddenly Studio in Philadelphia -- mirror one another in structure: 'There's a stripped-down element that both things have. It's almost more about cutting things away than adding.' Having frequently worked together in the studio over the last few years, Robb says they've each developed an understanding of the other's processes. 'We often discuss quite a lot but conversely, sometimes we don't have to say anything.'" --Margaret Welsh, Queens, NY 2023

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: ACU 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Nairobi-born Berlin-based sound artist Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU, shares his new work Stupor on the new Helsinki-based label Other Power. Commissioned by the Helsinki curatorial and commissioning agency PUBLICS, Stupor is comprised of three original long form tracks; "CRP-12," "Even a Tear," and the title track "Stupor." The tracks on the album are speculative notes to social architectures and environments the artist has traversed. His signature emerges through electro-acoustic forms as he configures spatial and temporal imaginaries still tethered to the experiences of the places his ear encountered. The tracks on this album are speculative notes to social architectures and environments the artist has traversed. His orchestrated compositions and arrangements levitate us and turn our ears towards places and times beyond our reach, propelling us into a future anticipated but ungraspable. It is exactly the physical and psychological space that KMRU forges from his recordings and digital processes that stretch and transform them into prolific sound "events." For Joseph Kamaru, sound is a sensorial medium through which social, material and conceptual interpretations are manifested in his works. KMRU carries with him a repository of listening experiences from Nairobi and beyond expanding his sonic practices, bringing an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions, installations and performances. KMRU has carved out a serious and definitive space on the list of essential authors in ambient experimental music -- one of the most prolific and innovative artists in his field.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RBL 091LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The new album from Ketvector, brainchild of drummer and producer Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Banhtier, Askew) is a bold exploration into a speculative multiverse filled with psychedelic electronica, acid jazz, ambient soundtracks, theoretical cosmology and much more. Emergent Properties is a collection of voyages woven together by an otherworldly and meditative concept that will transport you into abstract aural paradises and rich musical tapestries evolved from analog synths, instruments, samples, and entangled rhythmic constructions. Accompanying Justin on this journey across eternity are his long-time musical partners Stefano Rossello and Filippo Corradin (Bahntier, Motion Kapture). Another seminal release from Rustblade Records, absolutely not to be missed!"

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: RBL 092LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

"Over the years, Claudio Simonetti and his group Goblin have managed to become a reference point in the Dario Argento movies. This compilation covers 50 years of this talented musician's work. With pieces from the beginning of his career like 'Profondo Rosso (Deep Red),' 'Suspiria,' 'Inferno,' and the dance-prog '80s period with 'Tenebrae, up to orchestra compositions like 'The Third Mother' (featuring Dani Filth, Cradle of Filth), and 'Opera.' A complete compilation that will make listeners remember terrifying atmospheres from cult movies of Dario Argento. Absolutely unmissable. Limited red marble transparent vinyl plus insert."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SCTR 007LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2023 repress. "Classic 1971 Peter Fonda film soundtrack from Dylan side-man & folk scene impresario. Beautifully melancholy score performed with guitars, tonal effects, fiddle, banjo, sitar, and more that evokes high plains drifting, lonesome cowpokes. 'It's The West seen as Purgatory, its characters endlessly moving on, but Langhorne conjures beauty from the pain." -- The Wire.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SCR 260EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

EP version. The eponymous debut EP by London-based dreampop duo deary. The six-track release is available on frosted clear 12" vinyl, plus a CD with five additional bonus tracks and remixes. Their debut single "Fairground" was an instant classic. A mix of shoegaze beauty and trip-hop beats, it was amazing to see people falling in love with it in real time as it gained airplay around the world, a remix by Saint Etienne and hit number one on the official charts' vinyl singles chart. The EP includes the follow-up, the deliciously dark "Beauty In All Blue Satin," and new single "Sleepsong," plus three other tracks.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: SUBEX 096LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Working with Nigel Meredith, a space weather research scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who he had previously worked with on the bonus track "Confused By The Simple" from An G?rradh, Anderson used recordings of "space weather" from a geomagnetic storm in 2012. These sounds were captured using the Halley research station's very low frequency receiver in the Antarctic, alongside Anderson's own modular synth structures. Meredith has been working with musicians and artists since 2018 to incorporate recordings from Halley into compositions as part of a data-as-art outreach project called Sounds Of Space. For his collaboration with Letters From Mouse, he found a previously unused sequence of space weather recordings from a geomagnetic storm centered on St. Swithin's Day in 2012. Anderson takes us on a journey through the phases of the storm's progression -- initial, main and recovery -- using the distinctive space weather sounds that the Halley receiver yields: spherics, which appear as crackles and pops; whistlers, descending tones caused by lightning strikes; chorus, which evoke birdsong. In Anderson's hands, the spherics form the basis of rhythms, and the chorus becomes mysterious and rapturous melodies. Over these raw or manipulated sounds, Meredith delivers an educational explanation of space weather and how it can impact life on Earth. Printed on solid blue color vinyl.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 159LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In the swirl of underground music emerging from Dunedin, New Zealand in the 1980s, Peter Gutteridge stands as one of the era's most intense and shadowy figures. Despite being a founding member of The Clean and The Chills, Gutteridge would eschew indie-rock fame for the hypnotic and driving sounds of his later bands such as Snapper. Fittingly, it is Pure -- Gutteridge's lone solo album of intimate home recordings -- that serves as the most revealing and celebrated release of his career. As Peter Jefferies writes in the liner notes, 'That's what's so good about Pure. Not only the songs, but the name, the name for the recording. It is as pure as you can get. That's the real deal, when it goes from nothing to something and he catches it on his machine.' Originally released on cassette in 1989 on Xpressway, Pure documents Gutteridge's stunning use of four-track as instrument. Featuring lo-fi pop gems and interstitial sketches, the LP combines densely layered keyboards and guitars, distorted drum machines and possessed-sounding vocals to create a truly singular work of undistilled artistic vision. While Gutteridge denied that he was the architect of the 'Dunedin Sound,' Pure sits comfortably next to the most revered Flying Nun releases of its time. Shifting exquisitely from churning rattle to an airy ease without losing momentum, these twenty-one songs hold a lasting place in the canon of DIY music. Recommended for fans of Syd Barrett, Jim Shepard, and early Fad Gadget. Includes drawing chosen by Peter's family."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: TR 517CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

VG+, Mint Mind's third album, has become a great, cross-generational indie rock album. Mint Mind are sitting in the Upper Room Studio, a separate area of Rick McPhail's small industrial loft in Hamburg-Altona. This is where VG+ was created. The album is about anger, optimism, a politician with little fingers or influencers who secretly lead a normal life. Some lyrics are funny, others serious: "Glow" is about love and appreciating good moments in difficult times. "Youth And I" deals with the question of why different generations with the same ideas on topics such as the environment, women's and LGBTQIA+ rights or even the economy do not manage to form a unity, but instead allow themselves to be disturbed by something as silly as age differences. The sound of Mint Mind combines sweet and sour, fuzzy riffs with the freedom and sentiment of '80s post-punk/indie. Synthesizers have become a more central instrument this time. From playful and strange sounds to the eerie and dark, the album is littered with textures and ear candy to discover. The album title is well chosen. VG+ is taken from the Goldmine Grading Standard for the evaluation of used vinyl records and means "Very Good +" -- background noise can occur occasionally, but not always. Older folks might certainly feel reminded of Dinosaur Jr. or The Cure, the younger ones of Diiv, Wavves, or Gurr. And for a moment, the world is Very Good + (with background noise) for everyone.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: TR 517LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. VG+, Mint Mind's third album, has become a great, cross-generational indie rock album. Mint Mind are sitting in the Upper Room Studio, a separate area of Rick McPhail's small industrial loft in Hamburg-Altona. This is where VG+ was created. The album is about anger, optimism, a politician with little fingers or influencers who secretly lead a normal life. Some lyrics are funny, others serious: "Glow" is about love and appreciating good moments in difficult times. "Youth And I" deals with the question of why different generations with the same ideas on topics such as the environment, women's and LGBTQIA+ rights or even the economy do not manage to form a unity, but instead allow themselves to be disturbed by something as silly as age differences. The sound of Mint Mind combines sweet and sour, fuzzy riffs with the freedom and sentiment of '80s post-punk/indie. Synthesizers have become a more central instrument this time. From playful and strange sounds to the eerie and dark, the album is littered with textures and ear candy to discover. The album title is well chosen. VG+ is taken from the Goldmine Grading Standard for the evaluation of used vinyl records and means "Very Good +" -- background noise can occur occasionally, but not always. Older folks might certainly feel reminded of Dinosaur Jr. or The Cure, the younger ones of Diiv, Wavves, or Gurr. And for a moment, the world is Very Good + (with background noise) for everyone.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: TR 550CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Naked but for a soft blanket of reverb, Christian Kjellvander's tender voice invites us into his latest creation, the swooning Hold Your Love Still. His first solo album since 2020's About Love And Loving Again (TR 468CD/LP) finds the Swedish troubadour in a reflective mood, exploring the difficulties of an honest life amid the entanglement of capitalism, and imploring us to nurture that faltering hope for a better tomorrow. Though he's grappling with existential and environmental tensions, Kjellvander strides from stoicism to optimism, augmenting his trademark minor melancholy with soaring major compositions, each concise, precise and considered -- a conscious turn towards song from the freeform expressions of recent collaborations. Rich in natural imagery, understated poetry and an infectious empathy, with meaning imbued in every line, this is the work of an accomplished songwriter at his most vital.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: TR 550LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Naked but for a soft blanket of reverb, Christian Kjellvander's tender voice invites us into his latest creation, the swooning Hold Your Love Still. His first solo album since 2020's About Love And Loving Again (TR 468CD/LP) finds the Swedish troubadour in a reflective mood, exploring the difficulties of an honest life amid the entanglement of capitalism, and imploring us to nurture that faltering hope for a better tomorrow. Though he's grappling with existential and environmental tensions, Kjellvander strides from stoicism to optimism, augmenting his trademark minor melancholy with soaring major compositions, each concise, precise and considered -- a conscious turn towards song from the freeform expressions of recent collaborations. Rich in natural imagery, understated poetry and an infectious empathy, with meaning imbued in every line, this is the work of an accomplished songwriter at his most vital.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: TTR 022LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The central theme of Steady is perseverance. Each track is based on a personal story or a fleeting encounter with people these past few years, from close friends to total strangers, either at home or on night shift commutes. People navigating their own hardships, almost giving up but always struggling through. More broadly, it's about multiplicity, and contradiction. These central figures displaying hope and determination within a city of development and neglect, uniformity and chaos -- an unfiltered representation of a city with all its jagged edges, darkness, and shards of light. It's broken and disheveled, but never not beautiful, just like the people in it. Musically, Steady continues where Bleach (Hyperdawn's debut album) (THEMTHERE 013LP, 2019) left off -- a sonic language of glitch, decaying tape and analogue distortion through which hints of RnB and soulful ballads bleed through. With a greater emphasis on beats, albeit lopsided on pitch-shifted tape loops, Steady feels more self-assured, more confident, more recognizable. At the same time, it's never stable or predictable -- choruses break down early, harmonies bend into beating microtones, tracks emerge before others have finished. The symphonic scope of Bleach is still retained in Steady though. This is music of motivic development, of micro and macro form, of meticulous refining. The work of two classically trained composers, the album's chaos is heavily considered and carefully shaped. Hours of improvisation sessions have since been painstakingly refined into ten distilled tracks, owing to Steady's three-year gestation.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TW J LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress! 75 Dollar Bill, a project by Che Chen and Rick Brown present Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock. "Che's interest in the Arabic modes of Mauritanian music has marked our sound quite a bit but I have brought some things, too. The plywood crate I play is a big factor, defining, by its positive qualities (a nice warm 'boom' sound) as well as by its simplicity, what we're likely to do in the percussion realm. Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rok, this new record, differs quite a bit from the previous one, notably in the rhythmic 'tone.' Wooden Bag (2015) was all forward momentum, stomping and shaking, but the new record explores a long-standing interest of mine: odd and 'compound' meters. In most of my previous musical activities, I've convinced my partners to delve into this, but in 75 Dollar Bill it has just felt natural and I believe Che's modal investigations and melodic/harmonic tendencies enhance (and are enhanced by) this combination. The current record differs from the last in another big way: reinforcements! Over our few years together, Che and I have frequently had friends play with us at some of our gigs. There have been all sorts of permutations of instruments and some great friends/players who don't all appear on this record but here we are lucky to have a bunch of them: Cheryl Kingan (of The Scene Is Now) on baritone and alto saxes, Andrew Lafkas (of Todd Capp's Mystery Train) on contrabass, Karen Waltuch

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: TW Q-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. #1 2019 Album of the year in The Wire magazine! 75 Dollar Bill is one of the essential groups at the heart of NYC's underground. Driven by the telepathic union of Che Chen's microtonal electric guitar and Rick Brown's odd metered percussion their long-form sound is unmistakable and compelling. On their third album I Was Real, the group expands in bold new directions, embracing brilliant fuller orchestrations, joyous rockers and entrancing new textures. Having emerged as a vibrant musical force with their previous effort -- with Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock (GB 047CD, TW J CS/LP, 2016) -- 75 Dollar Bill have spent the last few years bringing their music to new places and people, delivering what NYC locals have known for years, with their dedication to performance in venues of all shapes and sizes. The fruits of this work can be heard here on their expansive new double-LP I Was Real. The album, its title's origin a jumbled misremembering of the lesser-known Motown song "He Was Really Saying Something", is 75 Dollar Bill's third, featuring new directions accompanying the band's previously established interest in sprawling, unusual grooves and microtonal melodies. The record is enhanced by the presence of eight additional players in various combinations over its nine tracks -- but also shows off the duo's strength when stripped down to the core. Requiring a variety of approaches, the album was recorded over a four-year period, in four different studios, with the band's closest associates and collaborators in a range of different ensemble configurations. The album also features several "studio as instrument" constructions that harken back to the collage-experiments of the band's early cassette tapes, while at the same time pointing to territories altogether new. The players involved highlight the "social" aspect of the band and the eight guests that appear on the record are some of the band's closest friends and collaborators. Some pieces were conceived in the band's very early days and others are much newer, but the music is unmistakably 75 Dollar Bill. As Steve Gunn said about the previous record: "Strings come in underneath Che Chen's supreme guitar tone. Rick Brown's trance percussion offers a guiding support with bass, strings, and horns supporting the melody. They have gathered all the moving parts perfectly." Double-LP version presented in a heavy tip-on gatefold jacket with textured clothe wrap and matte foil stamping.Personnel: Rick Brown - plywood crate, hand and foot percussion, crude horns; Che Chen - 6 and 12-string and quarter-tone guitars, percussion; with: Sue Garner - guitar and bass guitar; Cheryl Kingan - alto and baritone saxophones; Andrew Lafkas - contrabass; Karen Waltuch - viola; Jim Pugliese - percussion; Barry Weisblat - signal processing, Casio SK-1; Steven Maing - quarter-tone guitar; Carey Balch - hi-hat.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: PICI 054LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After releasing his seventh album The Odd Shower, The Bitter Springs' singer/songwriter Simon Rivers reinvented himself as Poor Performer, whose own debut, Like Yer Wounds Too, followed the same winning formula, widened somewhat by the inclusion of songs with a greater fragile beauty and introspection. Decades of self-releasing compact disc-only albums from the far southwestern suburbs of London, with scant regard for promotion or the normal machinations of showbiz did little to spread the word about Rivers' unique and prestigious talents. A conversational singer with a delightfully warm and convivial stone, Rivers' sense of the absurd and willingness to portray aspects of life generally unrecognised by pop music, one supposes it's not entirely unfair to have expect Top of The Pops to come calling. So what does this new guise -- Oldfield Youth Club -- have to offer? It's partially a revival of Rivers' first "real' band, Last Party, and it displays hallmarks of that band's youthful energy. Including members Kim Rivers and Neil Palmer (both from Last Party), as well as trumpeter/vocalist Alison Targett, Oldfield Youth Club is a band with an obvious musical kinship. There's a connection to the literal style of Vic Godard's Subway Sect (and members have been shared between both acts) or early Go-Betweens. There's an alchemical sensibility shared by all three acts wherein their words and tunes inform each other in a deceptively casual but arresting manner. It's hard not to love, a rare work that earns immediate affection and just grows better from there.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: UR 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After selling 1000 copies in the first couple of months after its release, and after a slew of critical acclaim, Deathcrash's debut album Return is back. The re-press comes the same year as their second record Less (UR 012LP) received broad support from Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, Line of Best Fit and Loud & Quiet. First and foremost, Deathcrash approached the task of putting together their debut album as music lovers. To all four members, a good album seemed to stamp out periods of their life, capturing a time, a feeling, a mood. This was their approach when trying to make whole two-years-worth of fragmented songwriting. Their songs may differ from each other in certain ways, but they manage to conjure similar feelings. Return captures many of the difficult moments of the last couple years in the band members' personal lives and yet, as a whole its complexity emerges as a beautiful and hopeful message. Amongst other things, writing the album was a cathartic process for the band, and so it can be for the listener too. The first parts of Return came from quite a dark and jaded place. To get better can be a path marred by self-sabotage and a desire to hide. It can be easier to have no faith in something new, and rely on the comfort of an old feeling, even if it hurts. There is a reassurance in pain, a familiarity in its narrative. Return asks when things heal, where does the wound go? Deathcrash recorded Return with their close friend and producer Ric James, who they've worked with since their early recordings. The album was recorded live, with an emphasis on dynamics, bringing together tense intimacy with atmospheric vastness.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: UTR 158LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Melbourne/Naarm synth-punk five-piece Screensaver return with Decent Shapes, their second album. Decent Shapes is loaded with bubbling tension, a low grade but growing fever, a rising rage. The frustration is so tangible you can taste it. Detachment and dissociation become survivalist coping mechanisms. Thematically, screensaver's latest offering finds them exploring existence on an ever-growing trash heap where we're desperate for the new, the nice and the shiny. A world where materialism reigns supreme and corporate niceties litter the public dialogue but behind closed doors the sentiment is warlike, total domination is the only answer to the bottom line. All of which is underpinned by the band's sonic sense of urgency and a commitment to creating a sound that taps into the mood and spirit of post-punk whilst also allowing space for new wave elements and electronic experiments to shine through. Decent Shapes was recorded and mixed by Julian Cue, who was also the recording engineer for Expressions of Interest. Defined by a kinetic energy, dynamic range and brooding atmosphere, the ten-track release comprises some tracks that were mainstays within the band's live shows -- featuring in their US tour set-list -- alongside others which were written later in the recording process. During the creation of Decent Shapes, the band also experimented with swapping instruments, allowing for different playing styles and song-writing approaches. Screensaver was formed in 2016 as a trans-Pacific project between Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/ex Polo) and Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek). Their debut album Expressions of Interest received support from the likes of Brooklyn Vegan, Beats Per Minute, DIY and Post-Trash.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: VIO 078LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Forged in a warehouse in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, Beatowls emerge in 2023 as a genre-defying trio. Darcie Chazen, Tom Roberts, and Carl Cook, possess distinct talents, fusing elements of electro, folk, and psychedelia into captivating, dark atmospheric grooves. The city's urban-industrial mood inspires their sound, weaving evocative and cinematic tones into their upcoming debut album Marma. For fans of : Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, The XX, Portishead, Nancy & Lee Badalamenti/Lynch, Broadcast, Warp Records. Above all, Beatowls embody a journey. Their story starts from a shared passion, extends into this collection of songs and sounds, and hints at a future filled with creative exploration. From a dream in a Liverpool warehouse to a national platform, Beatowls stand on the cusp of an era promising audio adventures steeped in originality, emotive tales, and sonic diversity.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: VP 4247CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"The latest in VP's acclaimed Reggae Anthology series focuses on producer Hugh 'Redman' James. A reggae revolution powered by Steely & Clevie and Roots Radics at Channel One and Tuff Gong. 12" in-demand '80s classic from Gregory Isaacs, Conroy Smith, Carl Meeks, and Admiral Tibet. Includes inner sleeve with extensive liner notes and rare photos."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: VP 4247LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. "The latest in VP's acclaimed Reggae Anthology series focuses on producer Hugh 'Redman' James. A reggae revolution powered by Steely & Clevie and Roots Radics at Channel One and Tuff Gong. 12" in-demand '80s classic from Gregory Isaacs, Conroy Smith, Carl Meeks, and Admiral Tibet. Includes inner sleeve with extensive liner notes and rare photos."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: WJCD 057CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Finnish drummer/producer Teppo "Teddy Rok" M?kynen returns with his alias The Stance Brothers. Lauded by the likes of Kenny Dope and Gilles Peterson, M?kynen's studio creation has been visible on the 7" format during the recent years. Now, M?kynen is back with a full LP, the project's first in more than 10 years. Duktus is a treasure-trove for everyone into crunchy jazz funk ? la Bob James and CTI, but this is no retro exercise. Teddy Rok moves forward in all directions, constantly bringing new elements into his sound, which is more layered and deep than ever before. At the same time, the crunch and the breaks are there when you need them. The basic core of The Stance Brothers is to be solo studio vehicle for Teppo M?kynen to experiment across a varied instrumentation and musical ideas. After the project's celebrated first album, The Stance Brothers took to the stage as well, creating one of the most beloved live outfits of recent history in the Helsinki scene. Now, after more than 10+ years of time spent in releasing one hard-hitting 7" after the other, The Stance Brothers are back, both on the record and live on stage. Whereas the Stance 7" sides are often dominated by crunchy drums and crystal-clear vibraphone melodies, the new album sounds broadens up into a more synth-heavy, "postmodern" realm, taking its space in a form resembling a mixtape. The funk is there, but M?kynen is sensitive to the fact that an LP is not a 7", and the ideas take their shape accordingly. Guest voices float in and out of the mix, blending in anonymously, true to the low-key spirit of the studio operation. RIYL: Roy Ayers, Mizell Brothers, Bobby Hutcherson, Cesar Mariano, Patrice Rushen, George Duke, Madlib's Mind Fusion Mixtapes.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: WJLP 050LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries. Post Koma is a culmination of Eldh's sonic study, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner. Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsj?, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara, and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet. That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning. RIYL: Art Ensemble Of Chicago, J Dilla, Don Cherry, Madlib.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: WJLP 050X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Gold vinyl. Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries. Post Koma is a culmination of Eldh's sonic study, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner. Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsj?, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara, and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet. That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning. RIYL: Art Ensemble Of Chicago, J Dilla, Don Cherry, Madlib.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: WSR 040LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Thomas House has been making music for a long while now. First as the driving force behind Charlottefield and then as a team player with acts as diverse as Picore, Sloath, Joeyfat and Haress. When Charlottefield disbanded, House changed things up. No more would his personal musical endeavors be dependent on the complex politics of the "band." Like Palace Brothers or Smog, Sweet Williams may have a band name but to all intents and purposes this is solo music, albeit with a stellar supporting cast of musicians when time and serendipity allows (or doesn't). House has always worked with a purposefully limited palette of sounds and stuck to the idea that the human voice and electric guitar is enough to communicate with. But for those paying close attention the change over the years has been revelatory. Sweet Williams is economical and direct. Its languid pace at first appears hard to penetrate. The immediate flavor is one of loneliness and of absence. There are no immediate "bangers," no radio hits. However, as with all of House's work, tiny moments of light welcome the listener in. The sudden warmth and beauty of "Settlement," the wild guitar solo (courtesy of Cristian of Picore) on "Old Smoke," the occasional jarring lyric to recalibrate the listening experience, Sweet Williams proves House's most melodically adventurous record to date, scattered with surprises that delight and reward.