Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 1/16/2023

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: 1972 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Cutting their teeth as teens in a West Bromwich bedroom, The Sea Urchins were nothing like the heavy metal that seemed to fill every bar in the UK Black Country. Fringe haircuts, perfect trousers, suede jackets and infectious tambourines gave plenty of hints as to their youthful ambition, but nothing could fully prepare you for just how utterly spellbinding these songs would be. Compiling their fanzine-only flexi material with the full complement of singles for Sarah Records, Stardust runs chronologically from late 1986 to the middle of 1989, beginning with the singles split for Clare Wadd's Kvatch and Matt Haynes' Sha La La, before hitting the first of what would be an even hundred releases from the new label Wadd and Haynes would form -- Sarah. The song that launched a legendary label and defined a sound, a scene, a place and time; 'Pristine Christine' still rings out as immediate and magical today as it did on first listen. What a glorious jangly rush racing around the corners of pop's history! The band would reach such heights time and again over the course of this three-year burst. The melancholy swinging folk of 'Everglade' and it's wonderfully yearning vocal; the organ-fueled British invasion garage rock sing-a-long of 'Solace'; the playful psych pop of 'A Morning Odyssey'; the acoustic sweep of 'Wild Grass Pictures'; the perfectly named 'Summershine' leaving you with a ramshackle smile out on the dancefloor. All of it is just so filled with delicate humanity, yet somehow absolutely perfect. As Bob Stanley said about the shimmering ballad 'Please Rain Fall' while bestowing it with NME Single Of The Week (an honor also bestowed upon 'Pristine Christine'), 'think of some variations on the word marvelous and you're most of the way there.' In their time, they might have seemed wildly out of step, but it's not crazy to say that things could have been very different for the likes of Radiohead, The La's, and Oasis without The Sea Urchins."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: 1972 011LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey might be better known as members of legendary post-punk group The Sound, but the two were childhood friends and had been playing together even earlier in The Outsiders, and continued their deep musical rapport as a duo, creating these intense and engaging songs as Second Layer at the same time as their higher profile band output. Combining their early recordings, including the 1979 Flesh As Property EP and 1980 State Of Emergency EP, Courts Or Wars takes its title from the first song that served as the pair's introduction to listeners. Right from the beginning you are enveloped in what The Quietus described as, 'a monochrome worldview morbidly obsessed with the dehumanizing effect of war, nuclear weapon annihilation, and the fracturing and negation of the self within an increasingly distorted and technologically mediated society.' Where The Sound fit snugly next to Echo And The Bunnymen, Second Layer had far more in common with the pulsing menace of Suicide. Borland's familiar vocals and sense of melody hold a connection to his other songwriting, but within these songs he takes far more risks in his guitar work to suit the subject matter. What really drives everything is Bailey's propulsive bedrock, formed by his homemade pre-drum machine rhythm generators, creating an innovative mechanical approach that somehow inserts a jittery neurotic touch that merges perfectly with his electronic layers driven by the wasp synth, various unique effects boxes or tape loops. Adding in Bailey's own distinctive bass playing, the results feel personal and experimental, pointed and harsh, while also bracingly accessible and covered in dark manic energy. Over forty years later, these recordings feel shockingly appropriate. In painting a bleak reality and frightening future, there is real desperate beauty here."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ALGA 029LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. Alga Marghen presents the new edition of Eliane Radigue's "Jouet Electronique" (1967) for feedback on magnetic tape and "Elemental I" (1968) for feedback of natural sounds on magnetic tape. This LP was first issued in 2010, and it's now presented for the first time with its own specific artwork and layout. Both works were recorded at Pierre Henry's Studio Apsome in Paris. Between 1967 and 1968, Radigue was Henry's assistant, mainly for the editing of L'Apocalypse de Jean (1969). Henry also put her in charge of organizing his sound archive; Radigue enjoyed doing this work, even if it took a long time. She decided to set the machines of the studio to do some work of her own. "Jouet Electronique" and "Elemental I" were born this way during her time as an assistant; working with feedback is something that Radigue learned through Henry. Do you remember Henry's Voyage (1969)? There's that fluid part which is made of feedback constructed with a microphone. Everything had to be set at a precise distance from the loudspeakers because that is the specific problem with feedback; one has to be at the right distance. Afterwards, these high tone recordings were slowed down in order to discover the deeper character of their color. This work with feedback was in the end quite limited and the composer preferred working with two reel tape machines to produce sounds. The first was set on the recording mode while the other was playing and it was the accidents happening in this phase that made the feedback richer. Fine-tuning could yield beautiful results: low pulsations, high-pitched sounds (sometimes both at the same time), or long sounds. All of these could be slowed down or accelerated, which gave beautiful source material. With "Jouet Electronique", Radigue had a lot of fun, hence the title. As far as "Elemental I" is concerned, it was the first attempt at something which was important to her based on the theme of the basic elements: water, fire, air and earth. Eliane had the chance to record in open air thanks to a small Stella Vox that Arman gave her in the beginning of the 1960s. Using it, Radigue built a minimal sound library, consisting of not more than ten reel tapes. This was the starting point; in 1968 she used these recordings for her work with two reel tape machines. With liners by Radigue and portrait photos by Arman.

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: ALGA 045LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2022 repress; remastered -- includes standard jacket and new 4 page insert with texts and photos which were not present in the previous edition. Alga Marghen very proudly presents Opus 17, a major turning-point in the sonic oeuvre of Eliane Radigue. Finished in 1970, it was the last work composed with feedback materials. From that experimental period, Opus 17 preserves a plastic character: a music made of rough sonic phenomena, at once harsh and granular, possessing a quality of materiality and tactility. Its vibrations structure the air surrounding the listener with densities, thicknesses, indeed with palpable movement. Her compositions are frames which let us hear these phenomena, open frameworks from the sonic installations of her Endless Musics and here reinserted in the five scenes making up Opus 17. In 1970, in her studio of very rudimentary means, she developed a completely unique body of work centered on sounds produced by feedback. Opus 17 has the quality of showing off the sum of the achieved techniques and methods. Eliane Radigue's music has never been rooted in ideas but in practice, the intimate experience of things in the wild which she has known how to tame. This dialog both intense and poetic which she keeps up with the solid matter of sound finds a remarkable concretization in Opus 17. It is to be underlined that with Opus 17 Eliane Radigue inaugurates a technique of composition which will be her footprint, her trademark: imperceptible transformations. For that she has developed a technique of meticulous mixings, based on the slow passage from one section to the next. Imperceptible all during the piece, we pass, ceaselessly and without noticing the changes, from one frequency flux to another. Time is suspended, smoothed out, stretched. It is this technique which Eliane Radigue will be essentially using for all the electronic works to come and which she will never cease to refine and render always more subtle. Opus 17 is the great panoramic voyage through material sound, its electronic phenomena detailed as if in a microscope. As Rhys Chatham recalls: "Eliane Radigue (...) had just moved to New York and had the idea of acquiring an analog modular synthesizer, which is why she worked at NYU in order to try out the possibilities of the Buchla 100 series which we had there. One day, while gossiping, she invited me to her loft, which was just on the corner. She had me listen to a piece composed in France; the piece called 'Opus 17'. (...) What I heard changed to course of my life as a composer. (...) That piece, impressive source of inspiration, gave the impression of being in a grand cathedral, both for the sensation of immensity of being in such a large cathedral, as for the effect of being so close to God." Opus 17 was created at the artistic center of Verderonne on May 23, 1970, for the Fête en blanc (i.e. White Festival) organized by the visual artists Antoni Miralda, Joan Rabascall, Dorothée Selz and Jaume Xifra. Previously unreleased,

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: AUS 1346EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. The London-based duo of Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar aka Bicep have played in more than a dozen countries, including major gigs across the U.S., China and, more recently, Australia, scooping the award for DJ Mag's "Best Breakthrough DJ." Across this EP they take things a little deeper, delving into a different area of their own personal taste. What's presented is an overall more lo-fi style and broader approach, drawing from a wide range of influences including King Street Sounds, HBO's The Wire, and Aphex Twin.

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: BING 177CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Eva Louise Goodman's Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into '60s rock. Her upstate New York environs don't stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern. Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production. Like most paths of self-discovery, the journey started with displacement. In October 2019, Goodman set out to record the album on her own, while cat-sitting at a friend's empty Brooklyn apartment. Rather than recording, she was drawn to the overgrown garden, where she spent her days listening to music and reading old journals. Charlie Megira, The Incredible String Band and Roy Montgomery invoked the spirit of the album, as she realized that a new, more collaborative approach would be necessary to bring the songs to life. In March 2021, after a pandemic year immersed in sound experimentation and writing, she entered the upstate New York studio of recording engineer Rick Spataro (Florist). Together, Spataro and Goodman dove into creating the album, recording one song a day, letting the spark and excitement of spontaneity be their guide. 'I've always been fascinated with 'automatic' arts,' Goodman says, 'where things are created intuitively and without premeditation, from the subconscious.' In this light, they worked with abandon -- pushing through the heaviness of songs written years earlier with the same energy as songs which were not yet fully developed. Taking chances, improvising, they sought to strip away pretense, and elude perfectionism at all cost."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: BING 177LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Eva Louise Goodman's Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into '60s rock. Her upstate New York environs don't stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern. Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production. Like most paths of self-discovery, the journey started with displacement. In October 2019, Goodman set out to record the album on her own, while cat-sitting at a friend's empty Brooklyn apartment. Rather than recording, she was drawn to the overgrown garden, where she spent her days listening to music and reading old journals. Charlie Megira, The Incredible String Band and Roy Montgomery invoked the spirit of the album, as she realized that a new, more collaborative approach would be necessary to bring the songs to life. In March 2021, after a pandemic year immersed in sound experimentation and writing, she entered the upstate New York studio of recording engineer Rick Spataro (Florist). Together, Spataro and Goodman dove into creating the album, recording one song a day, letting the spark and excitement of spontaneity be their guide. 'I've always been fascinated with 'automatic' arts,' Goodman says, 'where things are created intuitively and without premeditation, from the subconscious.' In this light, they worked with abandon -- pushing through the heaviness of songs written years earlier with the same energy as songs which were not yet fully developed. Taking chances, improvising, they sought to strip away pretense, and elude perfectionism at all cost."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BWZ 778LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"I Told Bessie is the third solo album from New York City rapper/producer Chaz Hall aka ELUCID. The title is a reference to his paternal grandmother, Bessie Hall, a powerful presence in his life until she passed away in 2017. From childhood afternoons running around her apartment in the Red Hook projects, to living under the same roof in Crown Heights when he was a young man, Bessie was an axis on which Hall's family turned. 'I remember her silver afro like a halo atop her head. I remember the Westerns that were always on television in the living room. I remember. I remember her pouring early ideals of Black consciousness into me. I remember the stories and lore,' ELUCID says. While best known as one-half of critically acclaimed duo Armand Hammer, ELUCID has also built an impressive resume of other collaborations and side projects over the past decade: Small Bills with multi-instrumentalist producer The Lasso (Mello Music), Nostrum Grocers with R.A.P. Ferreira (Ruby Yacht), Dirtee Deacon with Von Pea (Blonde Medicine), and self-produced experimental work like Valley of Grace, Bernadette, and Seership. His debut LP Save Yourself dropped in 2016 on Backwoodz Studioz and still holds up as one of the best releases in I Told Bessie like a culmination. 'I was staying with Bessie in Crown Heights, still early in my music journey -- probably leading through the Progress mixtape and up to the Smash & Grab days -- and she'd hear me scream rap into a closet at all hours of the day and night. We would read the newspaper and talk shit about Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD. It was a pivotal time in my life and she was an important part of that, even just by letting me live there.' I Told Bessie features guests Pink Siifu, Quelle Chris, and billy woods. The album's production is handled by Child Actor, The Alchemist, P.U.D.G.E., Sebb Bash, The Lasso, Kenny Segal, August Fanon, and Messiah Musik. It's an impressive roster of producers, all of whom add something to the hard-hitting funk of this record's ever-warping sonics. Add to that the talents of engineer Willie Green, who helped build this from the ground up. Every song was recorded, mixed, and mastered at The Greenhouse, a process that helped shape a cohesive sound from disparate sources. Executive produced by billy woods and ELUCID, I Told Bessie is dedicated to its eponymous matriarch. 'Since she left this plane, I have felt her presence and voice in my life more than ever,' says ELUCID. With this album I want to pay tribute to her and acknowledge her continuing impact on my life path."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BEWITH 119LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1973. Tonio Rubio's Rhythms is a stone-cold killer, a heavyweight library breaks LP and the inaugural release in Be With's new partnership with legendary French library label Tele Music. For this extremely special 50 year anniversary reissue, Be With Records reproduced the classic Tele Music sleeve with a full color insert featuring rare photographs, fresh liner notes, and personal memories of Tonio from the likes of Jean-Claude Vannier, Jean-Claude Petit, and Janko Nilovic. Sumptuous opener "Latin Leitmotiv" is all funky phasing effects and a killer montuno, with what sounds like piano and bass in tandem, stoking straight up Latin fire. The gritty hard funk of blaxploitation groove "Red Medium" is dripping in wah-wah attitude and head-nod oddness. The atmospheric, exotica-tinged "Dead Slow" emulates the languid, sensual Afro groove of Quincy Jones's wild masterpiece "Gula Matari" whilst the proggy, electric jazz fusion epic "Rock 73" is 9+ minutes of moody, rolling menace. But the real highlight of this cult classic -- and why it has long been so desirable -- is the devastating, deep, hypnotic minimalist groove of "Bass In Action N°1". Very much in conversation with Quincy's rendition of "Hummin'", the loping, rumbling bassline and sweet electric piano over clean, crisp drums making it one of those tracks that sounds like a hip-hop beat 20 years ahead of time. "Bass In Action N°2" features Tonio's own vocal scat performance. Antonio "Tonio" Rubio Garcia got his start playing the double bass in jazz clubs. In 1962, Tonio joined the Golden Stars, the first backing band of France's teenage idol Johnny Hallyday. A genius musician with a unique guitar sound, he played on standards of French chanson including Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's "Bonnie and Clyde", Françoise Hardy's "Tous les Garçons et les Filles", Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's "Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus", and Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg's infamous "Lemon Incest". Jean-Claude Vannier remembers Tonio as "a secretive, mysterious man, with an endearing personality, albeit difficult to reach out to. His virtuosity as a bass player allowed me to write very innovative basslines, because he was able to play any of my eccentricities!" Remastered by Simon Francis.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BEC 5156505

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. Originally released in 1999. Double 12" vinyl edition in gatefold sleeve. Includes CD. The CD included in the LP features the 16 tracks in the same order. 1999: after the global supremacy of Oasis and Blur, the world is looking for some musical freshness. Some artists such as Daft Punk and Air have already contributed to globally popularize what the English called the "French Touch", a new term that refers to a large musical French movement. 1999, the first album by Cassius, is one of the key pieces of this growing genre, and demonstrates once again the variety of the trend. Indeed, after have cooperated for a long time with MC Solaar, one of France's '90s best rappers, the hip-hop influence of both Cassius members had to have an impact on their personal concept, and it seduced a lot of listeners hungry for new musical flavors: more than 250,000 units sold worldwide and numerous unconditional fans.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: BEC 5543698

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 restock, reduced price. Because Music presents a reissue of The Beta Band's 1999 self-titled debut. Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. The Beta Band followed 1998's critically acclaimed compilation The Three E.P.'s (BEC 5543615, 5543616, 5543617, 2018). With high anticipation for The Beta Band, the band originally planned to record the album in four separate continents, but financial constraints slimmed the recording locations down. However, the album was still recorded in a variety of locations and pulling inspiration from sources as diverse as Jamaican reggae, Disney's The Black Hole (1979) and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Gatefold jacket with printed sleeves; CD included.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: BEC 5543703

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 restock, reduced price. Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. Heroes To Zeros is the third and final studio album by The Beta Band released in 2004. It was mixed by famed producer Nigel Godrich and rose to number 18 in the UK charts. LP version; printed inner sleeve, includes CD.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: BE 019LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1993. White Heaven's second album, Strange Bedfellow, is one of the great unsung albums of the '90s Japanese underground. Released two years after their striking debut, Out (BE 005LP), the album reveals the group shifting to a more dynamic and finely honed sound. You Ishihara's songwriting and arrangements take center stage, leading the group to transmute classic west coast psychedelia and garage into a thrillingly direct collection of songs that span from fuzz drenched, driving rockers to smoldering numbers that fade into the night... Only ever available in an edition of 700 LPs released in 1993 by PSF Japan, Black Editions present Strange Bedfellow, newly remastered in this deluxe edition. Heavy tip-on jacket with ink pigment foil stamping, metallic spot colors, contrasting gloss film laminate and matte satin finishes. Includes new full color folding insert. Pressed to high quality vinyl at RTI. Recorded at Inter Music Studio, Tokyo October 1992. Remastered at Peace Music Studio, 2020 by Soichiro Nakamura.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BS 008LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. Released on tape by the Polish label Sangoplasmo, Edena is the amazing record by Poland's Piotr Kurek. As a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for vintage sound equipment, as well as the practical sense to know where their limitations are, his musical compositions -- part melodic narrative, part sound collage -- distill a sense of nostalgia into a romance for the present. Using a Moebius comic he had never seen (Le Monde d'Edena) and an instrument he would never have (a Mellotron) as a conceptual starting point, the Warsaw-based, Polish artist presents Edena. A hypnotic, circular motion pervades all of Edena; a cyclic life-force that gives the impression of forward motion, while really folding back on itself, reflected by the infinity symbol of the cassette cover. The record is full of warm analog synth sounds and strange voices, like Roberto Cacciapaglia's "6 Note in Logica," and shares connections with the minimalistic music and '60s experimentalism of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and the hyper-energetic electronic nirvana of Terry Riley's 1967 masterpiece A Rainbow in Curved Air.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BS 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. Italian maestro Piero Umiliani, during his period of fascination with psychedelic and electronic atmospheres, composed a good number of musical portraits dedicated, as this title reveals, to the problems of his time. In the early '70s, Italians were worried about the mafia, terrorism, and social conflicts; and one can sense that the music represents these anxieties in its experimental nature. Dark, disturbing, and unique in the long and extremely productive career of Piero Umiliani. And if, in 2015, titles like "Mondo in Crisi," "Problemi Sociali," "Azione Sindacale," and "Mafia Oggi" sound sadly relevant, it's even more surprising to find that the music of Problemi d'Oggi (Problems of Today) still sounds alien and unique. The record, released under Umiliani's M. Zalla alias in 1973, presents various styles, from Pink Floyd atmospheres (or The Braen's Machine, if you prefer...) to compositions characterized by a great use of drum machines and Moog synthesizers. One listen to the beginning of the opening track "Produzione" justifies the words of Sean Canty (Demdike Stare), citing the music as the first techno/trance track in history. But between the grooves of this record, reissued here for the first time, it's easy to find moments that many other artist and musicians -- from The Residents to Aphex Twin and Four Tet -- may have caught during their careers.

 

PRICE: $55.50

CAT #: BS 018LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. The rediscovery of J D Emmanuel by critics and audience in the early 2010s and Emmanuel's comeback to underground scene were crucial in reweaving the development of electronic music in the early '80s. This deluxe three-LP set casts new light on Emmanuel's first activity of composing and performing electronic music in 1979-'83, collecting experiments never before released on vinyl, some of which are previously unreleased in any form. Certainly seminal minimal works such as Four Organs (1970) and Violin Phase (1967) by Steve Reich and A Rainbow in Curved Air by Terry Riley (1969) -- as well as Cluster, Harmonia, and Peter Michael Hamel's early-'70s work -- had a decisive impact on Emmanuel's debut. However, since his beginnings he has reshaped and reformulated his sources of inspiration with unparalleled maturity and accuracy of vision. His poetry is closely tied to the will to expand consciousness and explore altered states, but more than a cosmic traveler, he appears as a courier of soul and heart -- a self-described "student of the metaphysical nature of the Universe." Magician of an incredible variety of analog keyboards, Emmanuel conceives sound as dynamic translation of forces and organic, expanding flows of energy. The cyclicity of patterns and phrases refers to minimalist traditions, but his music has little in common with something purely mathematical; using an approach to improvisation colored by his interests in jazz and the temporal expansion of rock jams, he charges harmonic sections with an intimate spontaneity and freedom without boundaries. These 14 "vaporous drawings," presented with photos and writings, evoke a primordial state of grace in the listener, in parallel to Emmanuel's contemporary ancestral work Wizards from 1982 (IMPREC 305CD). (This set contains two tracks that were initially included on the original Wizards release, but replaced by other tracks just before the final master.)

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: BS 026LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress; double LP version. Black Sweat Records present a reissue of Amazonia 6891: Sounds From Jungle, Natural Objects, Echo And Electronic Waves, originally released on cassette in 1986. The idea to evoke a deep journey in the Amazon rainforest has affected various musicians in the history of popular and experimental music, but compared to other works, this rare Amazonia 6891, released only on cassette in 1986, appears as totally original and extreme in his conception. Here, the interest in ethnomusicology of the expert Walter Maioli (part of Aktuala and Futuro Antico) is linked to a precise and comprehensive ecological, botanical, ethological and ethnographic perspective. In fact, starting from the sound recording of the ethnographer Pit Piccinelli's collection of natural objects, the collected material for this work is re-elaborate in different times by the anthropologist and electronic pioneer Fred Gales and by Maioli himself. The result of this multi-disciplinary approach is a long, concrete poem of plant organisms, field recordings of verses and calls of tropical animals, futuristically mixed with electronic sounds, similar to the great experimental trials of Futuro Antico and Ariel Kalma's 1978 album, Osmose (BS 007LP). Listening to this imaginative collage is like looking into a precious cabinet of antiquities and curiosity, whose wonders of multi-colored cellular fragments are shaped in the synthesis of a single universal sound matter. The merger between the wild jungle, the mysterious voices of the aboriginals and the oscillation of the electronic waves, creates a spasmodic tension between amazing and heavenly moments, leaking obscure paths and alien sequences. Amazonia 6891 is a magic trip into the unknown wild, into abyss of creation of kaleidoscopic floras and faunas, simply a proposal for a synesthetic experience and multi-sensory.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BS 058LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2022 restock; LP version. An amazing document of the life experiment that was the Organic Music Society. This super quality audio, recorded by RAI (the Italian public broadcasting company) in 1976 for television, documents a quartet concert focused on vocals compositions and improvisations. Here, Don Cherry and his family-community's musical belief emerges in its simplicity, with the desire to merge the knowledge and stimuli gained during numerous travels across the World in a single sound experience. Don's pocket-trumpet is melted with the beats of the great Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, the Italian guitar of Gian Piero Pramaggiore, and the tanpura drone of Moki. A pure hippie aesthetic, like in an intimate ceremony, filters a magical encounter between Eastern and Western civilizations, offering different suggestions of sound mysticism: natural acoustics in which individual instruments and voices are part of a wider pan-tribal consciousness. A desert Western landscape marries Asian and Latin atmospheres. Indigenous contributions with berimbau explorations find fossil sounds of rattles and clap-hands invocations. Influences of Indian mantra singing are combined with eternal African voices or with folkish-Latin guitar rhythms, while flute and drums evoke distant dances. In the Organic Music everything becomes an act of devotion and love, an ecstatic dwell in the dimension of a sacred free-rejoice.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 051LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. French indie-rock band La Femme is a conundrum -- an episodic band with various faces. La Femme was born during the X years in Biarritz, France, when Sasha and Marlon started composing music on their guitars and recording it onto Garage Band. Together they ride surfboards, pianos and synthesizers as they explore various styles from '60s yé-yé French pop to California surf music. Marlon moved to Paris, and there he met Sam, who played bass. Together, they formed SOS Mademoiselle along with Olivier Peynot, and played vintage French rock, as Sasha was practicing his scales in reverb surf band Les Redoutables. Sasha then joined his friends in Paris, where they discovered French cold wave and synth pop, Marie et les Garçons being one of their favorites. They polished a style that could be described as one of the following: surf-wave, bizarre-wave, strange-wave, weird-witch-wave, silly mental-wave or psycho-tropical Berlin. Joined in 2010 by drummer Noé and female singer Clémence. La Femme formed its first live roster in a few days and took shape that same year with its first anthem, "Sur la planche," a song that was made to be hummed and whistled while riding a surfboard. Later on, La Femme released their second EP, Paris 2012. Soon joined by fancy rhythm drummer Nunez Ritter von Merguez aka La Sauterelle and singer Clara Luciani, as well as a whole roster of female singers, they now present their debut album Psycho Tropical Berlin where rock, pop, rococo Bauhaus, as well as influences from Kraftwerk and Elli & Jacno conjoin just to please you. Printed innersleeves.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 064LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. Double LP version with printed inner sleeve. Born Bad Records presents the music of Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey, circa 1982-1984. "The first time I saw a sanza (a type of African 'thumb piano'), it was just sitting there on a piece of furniture in my family's living room/dining room -- a space that our father also transformed into a recording studio every day. It seemed more like a box than a musical instrument: a mysterious instrument, which arrived at our house, like many things, in a somewhat miraculous way. The sounds it produced seemed particularly bizarre; to my young musician's ears, trained in Western classical music, it sounded out of tune. That's because, like my brothers and sisters, I had been trained on the piano. I had trouble understanding how anyone could endure these tones and, honestly, our father's passion for 'unusual sounds' did not interest me. I was in secondary school at the time (the very late 1970s) and was not at all oriented toward musical projects. I planned to graduate, and then become a chef. In the early 1980s, my interest in music picked up. I was still undecided about my career. I was content to pursue my 'serious' English studies while hanging out at jazz clubs at les Halles in Paris, where I sometimes joined jam sessions. Next, I put together my first band with professional musicians; I had hidden my age and lack of experience from them. France was just beginning to accept 'world music.' Musicians of every nationality were performing in Paris. It was a wonderful period. My father asked my brother Toups and me to accompany him for a few concerts. In particular, we toured Tunisia together at the time of the 1983 Carthage International Festival. Back then, my father was renowned across the French-speaking world. Everyone looked forward to hearing his humorous songs, like 'Agatha' and 'La condition masculine.' But, behind the scenes, he continued his research concerning electronic music, the sansa, pygmy polyphony, etc. One day he put a sansa in my hands, without saying a word. He was sending me a message: 'Let's see what you can do with it!' That's when I really discovered something. Exploring the instrument and playing, I transcended the 'imperfect' aspect of its sound and began to discover its fascinating potential. Playing the sansa, you enter a world that enraptures you in a very serene and mesmerizing way. I think its sounds evoke a rainbow, with rain falling while the sun shines. A very peaceful feeling. It allows you to make music that truly sounds like life. The sansa is also the instrument that my father and I shared the most because I am a pianist and he was a guitarist. I also share this eminently African instrument with my musician brother, Toups. Our father loved to tell us one of the legends of the sansa: how it even managed to dispel the boredom felt by... the Creator himself! This instrument gives life to the world, to beings and things. I did not participate in the production of the various records that my father devoted to the sansa. He did it himself, you might say, in his 'laboratory.' Yet today, I cannot imagine playing a concert without using a sansa. The piano remains present so that listeners don't become disoriented and wonder about the weird sounds invading their ears! However, I find the eccentric and disturbing side of sansa interesting. And the sansa always affects the audience: in reality, it excites them. The secrets of this instrument are surely its beneficial powers and... its magic!" --Patrick Bebey

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 039LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; LP version. The fourth full-length album by legendary German electronic music duo Cluster, originally released on Sky Records in 1976. Sowiesoso follows on from their most highly-acclaimed album, Zuckerzeit (1974). Michael Rother's influence was clearly audible on the latter, Cluster already having recorded two albums with him under the name of Harmonia. 1976 saw the duo looking for new musical forms. More than any other Cluster album, Sowiesoso represents the utopian vision of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Mobius, its mellow transparency evoking the landscape of the Weser Uplands where the two musicians lived at the time. Sowiesoso is not the work of fanatic dreamers who have fled the metropolis, but the reward for their tenacious search for a new musical language. The LP's seven cuts were recorded in their own studio with modest equipment -- a four-track tape machine, two Revox A77 stereo tape-decks and a simple 8-channel mixer. Cluster were thus completely independent, able to work where and when they wanted, at their own pace. With no guest musicians, sound engineers or producers to accommodate, Cluster thrived on their new-found autonomous freedom. Sowiesoso captures them at the peak of their creative development, with the limited range of recording equipment enhancing the clarity of their vision, allowing them to concentrate on the music without drifting into narcissistic muso territory. Minimalist, yet neither formulaic nor automated, the album is a rhythmic tapestry of otherworldly electronic and acoustic elements -- relaxed, organic and gentle ambience. This could only be Cluster music; its harmonies reaffirm the quality of song, in spite of eluding song structure as such.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 423CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A pivotal figure in Düsseldorf's Salon Des Amateurs, Stefan Schwander has already amassed a remarkably rich musical repertoire. Through his Harmonious Thelonious project, he has spent the past dozen years exploring the worlds of Pan-African, South American, and Middle Eastern rhythms in combination with a minimalistic electronic sound, distilling his very own groove from the point at which they converge. His new album -- challengingly entitled Cheapo Sounds -- sees Schwander move away from tried and trusted recipes."This musical reorientation starts with the fundamental approach to production: the entire record was created using a single instrument -- the Monomachine -- which lends a very physical sound to the ten tracks featured here. The polyrhythms of earlier works are no longer in the foreground, replaced by melodies and chords interwoven on a base frame of brittle, simplified beat constructs and rugged bass pulses. On closer inspection, this is, at times, a new vision of an old technique. There are still the old amps in Schwander's rehearsal room, along with a primitive rhythm box, a programmable drum machine and various synthesizers, including an MS-20. None of these made it onto Cheapo Sounds and yet the idea with which these instruments are associated is written into the DNA of the album. When new wave superseded punk and the last throes of rockism, a new and particular spirit emerged, one which Stefan Schwander sought to capture on his new works. A new wave record informed by techno. His success in this venture brings us back to the elemental idea of the Harmonious Thelonious project: a form of dance music which, like a good club night, does not succumb to formulaic rigidity or generic expectations, but challenges the crowd, trading with jazz, krautrock, industrial, punk, dub, and disco. Stefan Schwander has never shown any interest in trends, but Cheapo Sounds and the ten pithy pieces contained therein, few of them exceeding the four-minute mark, can arguably be considered an exceedingly modern record -- in the best sense of the word. And even when the closing track 'Afterhour' has played out, Schwander's mesmeric variations on minimalism still hang in the air, like quiet clouds of smoke." --Daniel Jahn

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 423LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. A pivotal figure in Düsseldorf's Salon Des Amateurs, Stefan Schwander has already amassed a remarkably rich musical repertoire. Through his Harmonious Thelonious project, he has spent the past dozen years exploring the worlds of Pan-African, South American, and Middle Eastern rhythms in combination with a minimalistic electronic sound, distilling his very own groove from the point at which they converge. His new album -- challengingly entitled Cheapo Sounds -- sees Schwander move away from tried and trusted recipes."This musical reorientation starts with the fundamental approach to production: the entire record was created using a single instrument -- the Monomachine -- which lends a very physical sound to the ten tracks featured here. The polyrhythms of earlier works are no longer in the foreground, replaced by melodies and chords interwoven on a base frame of brittle, simplified beat constructs and rugged bass pulses. On closer inspection, this is, at times, a new vision of an old technique. There are still the old amps in Schwander's rehearsal room, along with a primitive rhythm box, a programmable drum machine and various synthesizers, including an MS-20. None of these made it onto Cheapo Sounds and yet the idea with which these instruments are associated is written into the DNA of the album. When new wave superseded punk and the last throes of rockism, a new and particular spirit emerged, one which Stefan Schwander sought to capture on his new works. A new wave record informed by techno. His success in this venture brings us back to the elemental idea of the Harmonious Thelonious project: a form of dance music which, like a good club night, does not succumb to formulaic rigidity or generic expectations, but challenges the crowd, trading with jazz, krautrock, industrial, punk, dub, and disco. Stefan Schwander has never shown any interest in trends, but Cheapo Sounds and the ten pithy pieces contained therein, few of them exceeding the four-minute mark, can arguably be considered an exceedingly modern record -- in the best sense of the word. And even when the closing track 'Afterhour' has played out, Schwander's mesmeric variations on minimalism still hang in the air, like quiet clouds of smoke." --Daniel Jahn

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 867LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"All tracks produced by A. Ranglin, except 'Hard Times' and 'Only Your Picture' produced by V. Buckley. Recorded and mixed at: Channel One Recording Studio, 29 Maxfield Avenue, Kingston 13, Jamaica. The Maytones are: Gladstone Grant and Vernon Buckley. Original cover by C More Tone. First released 1983."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 870LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Born John McMorris in Kingston, Jamaica in 1970 his nickname originally described this young man to a tee but, as time passed, his stature in the reggae music business continued to grow, Little John became more akin to his Sherwood Forest namesake. Little John first burst on to the Jamaican music scene in 1979 as a precocious nine-year-old on an uncredited combination with Captain Sinbad on '51 Storm' for Sugar Minott's Black Roots label. His Unite album is a reminder of the continuing relevance of the dancehall style. Rough, raw and rugged they represent the real authentic sound of young Jamaica from nearly forty years ago when the youths 'forgot their troubles and danced'. Recorded At Channel One, Kingston, Jamaica Produced by Anthony Dehaney. Mixed by Scientist. Backing band: The Roots Radics. Recorded 1984."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 924R-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Reissue of 1997 album on 180 gram red vinyl by Toots & Maytals."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 966LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"180 gram vinyl LP of Freddie's 1979 album with extensive sleeve notes. Produced by: Winston 'Niney The Observer' Holness. Recorded, voiced and mixed at: Channel One Recording Studio, 29 Maxfield Avenue, Kingston 13. Engineers: Anthony 'Crucial Bunny'/'Bunny Tom Tom' Graham and Lancelot 'Maxie' McKenzie/ Musicians: drums - Max 'Feelgood' Edwards amd Leroy 'Horse Mouth' Wallace; bass guitar - George 'Fully' Fullwood; lead guitar - Earl 'Chinna' Smith; lead guitar and rhythm guitar: Albert Valentine 'Tony' Chin and Eric 'Bingy Bunny' Lamont; keyboards - Jamaba Johnson and Keith Sterling; tenor saxophone - Enroy 'Hot Train' Grant; trumpet - Arnold 'Willie' Brackenridge and Donald Vidan-Greaves; percussion - Herman 'Bongo Herman' Davis and 'Brooksy'."

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: CCS 124LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

One of Circus Company's all-time favorite artists and extended label member The Mole returns a proper presentation of his album The River Widens. Originally a limited, cassette-only release via fellow Canadian Eddie C's Red Motorbike. Never one to shy away from synth deep dives, or raw sample flip collaging, this collection of 21 works checks all the boxes. Ambient trippers to straight up neck-snapping instrumental beats. Not forgetting tastes of the more uptempo, highly-assured and hypnotic dancefloor feels, the reason the world has come to love The Mole. Moments of casual chillin' are interspersed with effortless, emotive angles, some evoking the charm of his Little Sunshine release for the label in 2017 (CCS 107EP). "X-pert Profat" opens the set with sly statements that give way to relaxed and subtle keys over gentle, midtempo rhythms. Things switch up nicely into easy, Northwest Coast boogie-meets-beatdown feels in "Break For Ma", followed by a solid array of almost Jaylib-schooled boom bap twists, like the aptly-titled "Drums 2002" and "Jo Barker". Ambient cuts like "AR Day" and "New Family" offer a refreshing tap of the brakes, setting the scene for the gorgeous, Jarre-esque "Weak Stranger". You also get treated to "Repepepater"'s nod to Detroit house, urban-mode Balearic feels on "They Work For Mr. O", and sneak attack lo-fi future funk in the form of "UFOs Over Egypt", with Montreal co-pilot Cristobal on a wild shisha-lit vox narrative, earlier versions of which have blessed many of Circus Company's comrades' DJ sets, from Dave Aju to Vincent Lemieux. The River Widens expands beautifully on the breadth of unique musical directions. Also features Joli B and Ted Pilsner. Double LP version includes download code.

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: MOVCL 007LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

"With Solo Piano, Glass presents himself 'unplugged' -- no electronic keyboards or synthesizers, and no overdubs, either -- just solo piano. 'Metamorphosis' was written in 1988 and takes its name from a play based on Kafka's short story. Its second track, 'Metamorphosis Two', formed the basis of one of the main musical themes in the film The Hours. It is also the song that the American rock band Pearl Jam uses as their introduction music to concerts. 'Mad Rush' was written for the occasion of the Dalai Lama's first visit in New York City. 'Wichita Vortex Sutra' is the result of a chance meeting between two long-time friends, Glass and poet Allen Ginsberg, in a bookstore in the East Village. 'We decided on the spot to do something together, reached for one of Allen's books, and chose the poem 'Wichita Vortex Sutra'.'"

 

PRICE: $61.00

CAT #: NRT 002T-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Formed in the early 1970s, The Residents have now been charting a unique path through the musical landscape for half a century. To commemorate their 50th Anniversary, the group revisit their 'classic' early period, presenting here the first in a series of expanded vinyl reissues featuring previously unreleased and newly rediscovered 1970s material from their ever-expanding archive. Produced with The Cryptic Corporation, and with full access to the band's extensive tape archive, this package explores and expands the classic debut album, including both mono and stereo mixes of Meet The Residents, alongside alternate versions, outtakes, recently re-discovered unreleased material and a fascinating audio tour of their studios and other business premises by Hardy Fox. Remastered, expanded, and pREServed for future generations -- this is the latest in a series of archival Residents reissues that will continue throughout 2023 and beyond."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: DV 9095LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Delicious Vinyl presents this key material from Jay Dee's output in a never before issued and not to be repeated random colored vinyl assortment. Shortly after Jay Dee's younger brother Illa J's solo debut was issued on Delicious Vinyl, the label and the artist knew the next step in honoring Jay Dee's legacy was to issue the complete instrumentals from Yancey Boys as a stand-alone release. This mother lode of previously untouched (at the time) beats dates as far back as Jay Dee's time working on the Pharcyde's sophomore album, 1995's Labcabincalifornia. As Delicious Vinyl owner Michael Ross explains, 'From '95 through '98 Jay Dee was my go-to guy for hot beats and remixes. He was always making beats, always. So, there was a select amount of tracks that he composed for me during that time, tracks as good as anything he'd done, only they never got used.' Once these beats were used for Illa J's Yancey Boys they were presented to the public on Yancey Boys Instrumentals."

 

PRICE: $129.50

CAT #: CDDM 316CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Digitmovies presents a limited edition set including Bruno Nicolai's The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (aka La coda dello scorpione), The Case of the Bloody Iris (aka Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?), All The Colors of the Dark (aka Tutti i colori del buio), and Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (aka Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave). Four-CD box version includes book.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: EB 081LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. 180 gram LP version. Features eight of the twelve tracks from the CD version. The Swiss space-cowboys, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill bring their fourth album of superlative dub inna sci-fi control. Last time they chose a strange combination of cheap '80s songs and monumental rock standards for student parties. This time, The Clashification Of Dub is wrapped by the most influential band of revolution, pop, rock, punk, politics and dancing over the last 30 years: The Clash. Meet The Clash hits (almost all of them?) like "Guns Of Brixton," "London Calling," etc. -- the compact crossover of sweet and lovely reggae vibes matched with sci-fi tech power, partly orchestrated with innovative production and mixing skills. An album of incredible beauty and power featuring smart and contemporary dubness. Dub Spencer & Trance Hill's vision of cult is unique -- it is alchemy, prophecy and acoustic ecology encased in a magical, timeless atmosphere.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: EB 165CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dubmatix has taken his time working on his new album. Sly & Robbie meet Dubmatix Overdubbed was released in 2018 (EB 125CD/LP). It scooped the Juno Award for "Reggae Recording Of The Year 2019", marking the second time the Canadian producer and multi-instrumentalist from Toronto had received this coveted award. ReWired is his first studio album in years and it's already abundantly clear that the wait has been more than worth it. The album offers a dazzling, masterful kaleidoscope of modern sounds of dub-oriented bass music that is enormous fun. The Canadian could be in with a great chance of winning another Juno Award. Features Lone Ranger, Sr Wilson, Exile Di Brave and Kazam Davis, Joe Publik, The Hempolics, Lasai, Ras Kayleb, Jman, Duane Stephenson, Rootwords, and Barry Ashworth.

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: GET 51295YC-LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

Yellow and clear split color vinyl. "The cultural phenomenon that is the Wu-Tang cannot accurately be described without referencing one of the pillars in the Clan's discography; Chef Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, one of the defining triumphs in their artistic legacy. The oft referred 'Purple Tape', has been cited and debated by many as the greatest Wu-Tang solo project to date and a remains a bullet point in any discussion involving the greatest 'Cocaine Rap' or 'Street Hop' albums of all time. Raekwon's narrative, plays out like a movie script from the violent, drug fueled, underbelly of New York City's criminal landscape, intricately woven over instrumental from the legendary Wu mastermind, The RZA. While Only Built 4 Cuban Linx did produce a string of successful singles, such as 'Ice Cream', 'Incarcerated Scarfaces' and 'Criminology', like all classic cinema, the album was intentionally engineered to be appreciated in one sitting, played from beginning to end. This reissue features the formerly CD only bonus track, 'North Star (Jewels)' as well as completely enhanced and painstakingly remastered audio."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GET 51304LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2023 repress; white vinyl. "In the 4 years after The Clipse dropped their sophomore classic Lord Willin' the duo was able to build a legacy that had fans hungry for new material. After the smoke cleared and they hit the studio the Virginia brothers recorded the confidently mature sophomore effort, Hell Hath No Fury. Best known for their unconventional radio smash 'Grindin',' Clipse are no strangers to taking risks with the boundary-pushing Neptunes, who return as trusted co-pilots for Hell Hath No Fury. As always the duo is right at home over The Neptunes crafted beats which perfectly embrace Pusha's inventive drug-game metaphors and Malice's soul-baring confessionals. Get On Down now proudly issues this Neptunes produced favorite on LP for the first timel."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: GET 51320LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2023 repress; translucent blue vinyl. "Too many people sleep on Tougher Than Leather, Run-DMC's fourth album. But hear us out as we plead the case for this amazing LP. By 1988 there was a lot more competition in the rap game -- Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice-T and many more had given Hollis, Queens' prodigal sons lots of competition. But Joe, Darryl and Jay were still at the top of their game, and hip-hop fans should never let this classic -- chiefly produced by their Queens neighbor, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Davy D[MX] -- get lost in their crates. For starters, the album's first single, 'Run's House' b/w 'Beats To The Rhyme' is arguably the most powerful one-two punch of the trio's career, showing contenders to the rap throne that they could still destroy a beat, tag-teaming with power at any speed. Not to be lost in the shuffle, fans were also reminded on both sides that Jam-Master Jay remained one of the world's best DJs, flexing the pinnacle of what would be called 'turntablism' a decade later. Both songs show a musical telepathy between all three that has rarely been equaled. The second single, 'Mary, Mary,' driven by an infectious Monkees sample, took a different approach, shrewdly ensuring that pop fans who jumped on the Raising Hell bandwagon had something to chew on. But, like 'Walk This Way,' the song wasn't just bubblegum -- there was an edge to it, and the lyrical gymnastics were very real. It wasn't selling out, it was allowing fans to buy in. 'Papa Crazy,' driven in concept and by a sample from the Temptations' 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone,' followed a similar pop-leaning path. Overall, the lyrical content on the album was a step up from the group's first three LPs. It's easy to infer, looking back, that they were feeling the heat from their younger competitors in the rap game. The genre was changing fast, and they were up to the challenge. On cuts like 'Radio Station' they bring substance to the grooves, by attacking Black Radio for its continual denigration of rap. 'Tougher Than Leather' reminds the world that they were still the Kings of Rock, with hard guitars to drive the point home. And 'They Call Us Run-DMC' and 'Soul To Rock And Roll' both bring things back to their early days, with sure-fire park jam rhymes and killer cuts. Tougher Than Leather, which went platinum up against a lot of competition, perfectly bookends the '80s output of one of the decade's most important groups. It encompasses the full range of the trio's capabilities, and reminds us that Run-DMC should never be forgotten as both pioneers and party-rockers. And so, we say, long live Joe, Darryl and Jay!"

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: GODREC 066LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"This is the third and concluding part of the trilogy In Another Land. It is not the dialectic synthesis of its antagonistic predecessors, it is just one of three equivalent antipodes that could have been released in any order. Mostly percussive and constantly transforming structures are weaving their net through both sides of this album. Processes of convergence follow moments of decay, high event density alternates with moments of quiet, aimless meandering. A further commentary on the not so obvious subject of the whole trilogy: absence and/or inevitability of repetition." --Kauders

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GODREC 069LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After the magnificent Negative Infinity (GODREC 062LP), which is easily one of their best and most furious works they have ever done, The Flying Luttenbachers return with completely different musical approach. Something that can be described as kind of open-form, the record contains two one-sided pieces, almost in tradition of old prog-rock records. Hustle and bustle heavy and complex riffing from previous records, turned into high intensity droning fields...

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GR 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Out of print for two decades this classic punk LP returns with a bonus track! Includes: 'Better Be Women', 'Over You', 'How It's Done', 'There She Goes Again'."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GR 016LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A-side has 'Dwarves Live on European Radio' includes 'Dominator', 'Looking Out For Number One', 'Salt Lake City'. B-side has alternate 7" tracks like: 'Sluts of the USA', 'Down and Dirty' and 'The Giver'. Repacked with nine more bonus tracks."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: GREL 039LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Reissue, originally released in 1982. "R&B has long been a major influence on reggae (just as it influenced ska and, before that, mento). In the early 1980s, different reggae artists were being influenced by different types of R&B -- some were getting into slick, keyboard-driven urban contemporary sounds, while others maintained their devotion to 1960s and 1970s soul. On 1982's Big Ship, Freddie McGregor's love of African-American soul music comes through loud and clear -- even though many of the more Rastafarian-oriented lyrics are very much a product of the Jamaican experience. True to form, the singer provides a variety of political and apolitical songs. While gems like 'Holy Mount Zion' and 'Get United' underscore his political/spiritual beliefs as a Rastafarian, McGregor favors more of a lovers rock approach on 'Let Me Be the One,' 'Stop Loving You,' and 'Sweet Lady.' In reggae circles, the term lovers rock refers to reggae that chooses romantic themes over social or political topics -- essentially, it is the reggae equivalent of romantic R&B. And any soul lover who has spent a lot of time savoring the romantic sweet soul of the Delfonics or Brenton Wood should have no problem getting into the lovers rock on this album. For that matter, McGregor's more sociopolitical songs have just as much classic soul appeal..." --AllMusic

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 070CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First reissued by Guerssen Records in 2012 and out of print for many years, here's a new, improved repress of this UK psych holy grail. Axe (known also as Axe Music and finally Crystalline by the time they recorded their rare acetate) were an obscure British psych band led by acid-rock guitar player extraordinaire Tony Barford and graced by Vivienne Jones ethereal vocals. The band hailed from Northampton (home also of their mates Dark of Dark Round The Edges fame). In 1970, they recorded a demo album of which only 12 copies were pressed as a demo acetate. Here's a straight reissue of this legendary artifact, as the previous "reissue" on the Kissing Spell label from 1993 and credited to Axe was altered without the band consent and included newly edited tracks, artificial echo/phasing effects, altered song titles... Here you'll find the acetate recording on its pure form: 100% unadulterated heavy psych and acid-rock sounds full of raw, fuzzed-out guitars and dreamy female vocals. Four impressive original songs plus a long, psyched to the max cover of Love's "A House Is Not A Motel" which has to be heard to be believed. Carefully remastered from an original acetate copy in 24-bit. Unfortunately, no masters survived and no 100% clean copies are known to exist of the original acetates, but you'll get the best result for the possibilities. New artwork (the original acetate came in blank sleeve); insert with unseen pictures and liner notes by Paul Cross (Sweet Floral Albion). "...This is possibly the finest example of British underground psychedelia..." --Richard Falk, Galactic Ramble. "...Axe did not make a lot of music, but they made some phenomenal music. Some of the best ever to emerge from the swamp of heavy British psychedelia, certainly some of the rarest" --Paul Cross (Sweet Floral Albion). Rated with the maximum rarity in Hans Pokora's 5001 Record Collector Dreams book.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 072CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First ever official reissue, originally released in 1972. Dakila (a Filipino word meaning "greatness") emerged from the melting pot of musical fusions that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area of the late '60s. They often could be seen playing at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, SF Winterland and all the major clubs in the SF Bay Area and festivals. Singing in Tagalog, Spanish, and English, Dakila was the first Filipino-American band signed to a major label. Their sole album from 1972 combined their Filipino heritage with Latin rock, psychedelia/acid-rock, and Afro-funk. The result was an explosive, hot jamming sound full of congas/percussion, Hammond, dual fuzz guitar, fuzz-bass. Features corrected pitch (the original was speeded up by the producers against the band's will) and a color insert with detailed liner notes. 50th anniversary reissue. One of the hidden gems from the original Latin rock movement. RIYL: Santana, El Chicano, Barrabás, Chango, Malo, Mandrill.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: GBVI 117LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "La La Land doubles down on the intricate proggy-pop displayed on Guided By Voices's last album Tremblers And Goggles By Rank. On a hot streak of critical acclaim, Robert Pollard continues expanding his songwriting towards extremes of prettiness, heaviness and poeticism. As always, unforgettable hooks are everywhere. But with this latest, it seems Pollard is playing with the extremes of his abilities as a songwriter, emboldened by the power of this lineup now on their fourteenth album together since 2017. The prettiest stuff is prettier than ever ('Queen Of Spaces') and odder, more complex songs like 'Slowly On The Wheel' combine minimalism, whimsy, and cinematic inclinations. There are the exquisite power pop bangers that fans come to expect like 'Ballroom Etiquette' and 'Pockets.' Tracks like 'Instinct Dwelling' and 'Caution Song' effortlessly display a cranked-up weight and complexity most bands could never muster. Celebrating forty years in 2023 with their thirty-eighth album, GBV has lately been garnering rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Uncut, MOJO, Shindig, Paste, Popmatters, The Quietus and many more."

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: HOS 743LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Exclusive clear vinyl. Remastered reissue, originally released in 2012. A cult was built around these this truly ominous original tape with slowed down mega-apocalyptic drone drum contemplations. Despite being created over a decade ago for limited double cassette and then compiled on It Stands To Conceal (2012) this is long form esoteric cold industrial perfectly suitable for our accelerating global amnesia. Fully remastered version.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: HOS 744LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Exclusive clear vinyl. Remastered reissue, originally released in 2012. What the artist may consider the most formative years for the project and what clubbers may have heard in numerous live sets with the "Encryption Nets" classic dub track. Despite being created over a decade ago for limited double cassette and then compiled on It Stands To Conceal (2012), this is widescreen esoteric cold industrial perfectly suitable for our collapsing world. Fully remastered version. First time on standalone LP. Alternate cover variant. Digital download included.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: ANGELICA 051CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

untitled #400 is a project presented as a world premiere by Spaniard Francisco López and Dutch pianist and composer Reinier Van Houdt at the opening of the 31st edition of AngelicA, on May 15th, 2021. The two musicians already worked together on untitled #275, a performance for mechanically prepared piano, quadraphonics and electronics which received a special mention at the 2011 edition of the Ars Electronica festival in Linz. In comparison to the piano "preparation" implemented in #275, the concept behind untitled #400, developed during six years, effectively introduced a new instrument: a "stringless piano" (or "inside-out piano"), whose initial inspiration came from Lopez's installation The [Music] Room presented at the Caramoor Centre for Music and Arts in Katonah (New York), in which a Disklavier piano in full automatic performance could be seen playing, but without hearing the notes associated to the keys, since the hammers were not touching the strings. The stringless piano used in untitled #400 consists exclusively of a portion of the instrument disassembled: the part comprising the keyboard and keys, the hammers and the interconnected mechanical parts, used as an autonomous unit of execution. The housing case, the lid, the soundboard, the strings and the pedals of a regular piano are completely missing. The first movement is played by van Houdt acoustically. In the absence of the strings, what you hear are the dull thuds of the felt of the hammers (several of which would be found on the ground at the end of the concert, due to the violence of the performance), but also the creaks of the wood against the screws and the metal sheets -- in fact, all the peculiar sound and mechanical-behavioral characteristics of the new instrument are explored, thanks to the powerful miking applied by López. The second movement, on the other hand, represents an "evolutionary transformation" created in the recording studio using exclusively exploded, dissected and recombined sound materials from the first movement, which in the live dimension is spatially diffused with an immersive audio system in total darkness, as is the custom of the Spanish musician in the last few years. The concept behind untitled #400 actually seems to reference to the "Machinistic Music" which occupied the vanguards of the early twentieth century, and which finds its contemporary expression in several of Lopez's compositions developed from original recordings of production machinery, electromechanical systems, and industrial sites.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: ANGELICA 052CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Eternal Triangle was a dream come true: bringing together two of my favorite musicians in the whole world with me on the stage of AngelicA. Two musicians capable of encompassing both the most earthly and natural and the most rarefied and cosmic dimensions of sound, spontaneously and often seamlessly. Drawing from inspiration and life experience. We certainly didn't know this performance was going to be Toshinori Kondo's last one outside of Japan, and his last concert with a band. This is why in opening the files to work on the mixing we were struck by the sensation of a journey into the unknown and by the fact that it was Kondo-sans trumpet that was guiding us onto this path. Once or twice every few thousand concerts one gets the impression of having touched 'that thing', the inexpressible, which gives meaning to the rest of time, to the rest of the journey. Like the efforts of the mythological alchemists' lab. This, which remained the first and only concert of Eternal Triangle, was indeed one of those rare moments of coronation." --Massimo Pupillo (May 23rd, 2022)The 2019 edition of AngelicA presented, only a few days apart, two exceptional trios assembled around two legends of the improvised music scene: Peter Brötzmann and Toshinori Kondo. Travel companions since the '80s throughout countless experiences (including Die Like a Dog quartet, dedicated to Albert Ayler), the two found themselves in Bologna, this time as part of two different line-ups: Brötzmann was presenting the Italian premiere of his music trio with drummer Hamid Drake and the Gnawa musician Maâlem Moukhtar Gania (ANGELICA 041CD); Kondo was instead with Eternal Triangle -- a trio founded with bass player Massimo Pupillo and drummer Tony Buck which represented something completely new, even though the participants' paths had crossed on a few other occasions, since both Kondo and Bucks had already played with bassist Pupillo: more precisely as part of Hairy Bones (Brötzmann/Kondo/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love), and as part of the Buck/Pupillo duo. Musicians belonging to different generations and paths of life, all of which took them outside of the prearranged boundaries of their genre and instrument. In this concert in Bologna, which fatefully remained the trio's only one, the connection among the musicians appears perfect, creating a dialogue through which each one drew equally from their own experiences to add nuances to the sound palette, but it was undeniably -- as Pupillo recounts in the notes -- the Japanese master that acted as a real reference point to build the rich and feverish soundscapes that were being explored.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ICTUSRE 002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2022 limited repress. Reissue, originally released in 1977. In the history of free improvised music, there has been arguably no greater advocate for the idiom's power and potential than the English guitarist Derek Bailey. Fiercely principled, between his emergence during the 1960s and his death in 2005, he cut a wide path, positioning this music at the height of creativity, transpiring in real time, and a means through which people from diverse backgrounds could come together, express, and commune. For Bailey, "playing is about playing with other people... Improvisation is a process that gets relationships sorted out." Among many great examples of this within Bailey's sprawling discography, a stand out is his 1977 duo LP Drops -- originally issued as the third album on Ictus -- recorded with the Italian percussionist/drummer Andrea Centazzo. Capturing the guitarist during one of his most prolific and creatively visionary periods -- overflowing with explosive clarity, dialogic energy, and imagination -- he clearly found a perfect foil in Centazzo, who recalls of the sessions: "The kaleidoscopic quality of Drops was created by this restraint of performing limits, i.e. the choice of instrumental timbres, dynamics and metronome speeds to suit each piece. We explored some aspects of our improvisational art, gleaned the best elements from our baggage of music memories and exposed them clearly and confidently." Comprising nine individual improvisations, Drops encounters each of its players at their best, finding a strange middle ground between the intuitive logics of their instruments; Bailey's tones taking on decidedly percussive approaches, while Centazzo's fractured polyrhythms and beats often veer toward the presence of a notable tonality. Remarkably expressive and diverse in the approach of each piece, Drops presents creative interplay at its most striking and challenging, rethinking the terms of musicality and collaboration every step of the way. Flurries of rattle back and forth, sculpting barbed and pointillistic landscapes of texture, stripped of reference and precedent, and abstract as real time organized sound comes. Edition of 250.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ICTUSRE 004LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2022 limited repress. Reissue, originally released in 1979. Recorded live at WKCR Radio in New York City in 1978 and issued by Ictus the following year, Environment for Sextet encounters John Zorn at the earliest stages of his career, resting within a sextet of a new generation of stunning improvisers emerging at the tail end of the '70s who would go on to define a vast swath of the '80s sound -- Polly Bradfield on violin, Andrea Centazzo on percussion, Eugene Chadbourne on guitar, Tom Corra on cello, and Toshinori Kondo on trumpet -- it roughly builds on the series of collaborations that had featured on Centazzo's 1978 Ictus LP U.S.A. Concerts. Launching from a total wall of sound -- full throttle fire on the boundaries of outright noise -- Environment for Sextet takes the listening on an endlessly surprising journey through its players' inner world, shifting between airy open passages that feature endless combinations of one or more players, to furious moments of sonorous lashings where the group falls in together in brilliant dialogical periods of conversant texture and tonal intervention. An engrossing and relentless listen from the first moment to the last -- featuring two works built from two of Andrea Centazzo's earliest graphic scores -- Environment for Sextet is an absolutely stunning body of improvised work by what were then among the most important rising stars on the free music scene. Edition of 250.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: ITR 368LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Step into a sick rhythm. And I mean sickly. Surgery Channel is a constructed world where everything is piercing and pinpointed. Every single word brings confrontation. With an intro as intimate and uncomfortable as this, The C.I.A. make you question what could be happening here...or what they're after. Denée Segall (vocals, lyrics) is both haunting and seducing us at once with her voice. Something unhinged might be about to happen and they're calmly dangling it over your head. Is it the possibility of dismemberment? Revenge? There is something about Surgery Channel that is sterile and covered in dirt at the same time. Maybe it's the feeling of simultaneous anger and defeat. Maybe it's what comes after. Or maybe it's about the ever-so-brief silent spaces between notes and words. Rhythm would be nothing without empty space. Words are rhythm at The C.I.A. There's nothing wishy washy about The C.I.A. or the way they sound. It's all about precision and aim. But really, it's a warning... amplified by the suspense of tick-tocking drum machine beats that resemble a hospital room. Ty Segall (bass, percussion, back-up vocals) and Emmett Kelly (bass, synth, back-up vocals) have painted a jarring and dissonant landscape behind Denée's story. Their basses could easily be swapped for bone drills and you might not be able to tell the difference. Emmett's modular synth envisions an environment reminiscent of the instrument itself, a mess of wires and pulsing red lights. Ty's subtle use of electronic and analog percussion fluctuates between the sound of a metal tray hitting the floor ('The Wait'), and the swish of an ultrasound scan ('Bubble'). Both Surgery Channel and The C.I.A's first self-titled record are ripe with straightforward conviction. However, this most recent installment reveals a new side of their personality. Now The C.I.A. is communicating from an electrified, pulsating, metallic playpen that wants you to strut. Surgery Channel shows punks a new way to move while remaining loyal to the traditions of catharsis and social commentary. This record is an astute observation and blunt critique. Both inward and outward. It is an exploration into how harshly intimate that process can be. It was written in 2021 by Denée Segall, Ty Segall, and Emmett Kelly. It was recorded at Harmonizer Studios and mixed at Golden Beat by Mike Kriebel." --Sofia Arreguin

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: IF 1076LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

After spending his debut album exploring techno and mechanical sounds in the depths of the Pas-de-Calais mines, Toh Imago looks up to the sky, with an open breeze on his face, as tree branches and canopy filter out the sun's rays on Refuge. All the machines used during the album recording are tuned at 432hz, carrying the mystical benefits of Earth's resonance. Spending just seconds with the opening track, the listener is drawn into the safety that Refuge was intended to provide, and each subsequent piece pulls you deeper and deeper into the album's forest. Refuge was recorded on the edge of the Mormal Forest, in the North of France. With nature as a setting and studio accomplice, the album features synthesizers, field-recordings, as well as the acoustic qualities of reverbs from the nearby forest. As the artist's inner world and nature converge in moments of self-reflection, so the album's 11 recordings harmoniously unfold in a cavalcade of machines and organic sonorities. While the first LP Nord Noir (IF 1055LP, 2019) explored his family's mining past, Refuge is about being present and the desire to re-contextualize the relationship between nature and humans. It is a record of uplifting tones that is filled with optimism, imbued with the lightness of those who finally reconnect with nature, their roots, and the feeling of groundedness. Like the steps taken on a walk in the woods, the 11 tracks sonically tell the story of an inner journey divided in three chapters. "Asile Sauvage", "Sylve Barbare", and "Avril Mormal" take the listener into a fast-paced progression of rhythms. When the heart of the forest is reached, the journey becomes intimate, revealing a sacred space where breathing becomes the leading tempo ("Locus Neminis") and the traveler becomes a spirit lost in space ("Cosmos Intra"). The journey's climax is reached with "Monde intérieur". The album closes with "Chiff Chaff" which accompanies the listener back to a reality, hopefully a more reassuring one. Across the album, Toh Imago finds inventive ways of opening a dialogue between nature and machine, both literally and metaphorically, creating a soundscape that both feels like and was created by the natural world that surrounds him. The album offers a shelter from a predetermined world. It's a story told through ambience, racy and subtle electronics, and the memories of lichens clinging to shoes.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KR 097LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Cello player and electronic artist Martina Bertoni returns with her second album for KarlRecords. Hypnagogia delivers six new, masterfully crafted tracks between experimental ambient, drone, and modern composition. Cellist and composer Martina Bertoni started playing the cello at a very young age. Classically trained, her career further developed around experimental and film music, for which her cello has been featured in numerous records, works, and soundtracks for films and series. After two EPs and her debut full-length All The Ghosts Are Gone (2020), Bertoni joined the Karl roster where she released Music For Empty Flats in January 2021 (KR 083LP) to critical acclaim (listed as one of the "Top Ten drone albums of 2021" by A Closer Listen). On her new album Hypnagogia she continues to explore the sonic possibilities of her cello which she uses as primary source for composition and sound processing through reverbs, feedbacks and sub-bass frequencies, thus crafting sonic sculptures, rich of atmospheres and frictions, fed by ambient as much as drone and modern composition. In the words of Martina Bertoni: "The six tracks that constitute Hypnagogia have been written during 2021 and partially inspired by the reading of Stanislaw Lem's book Solaris. The title refers to a transitional state of consciousness from wakefulness to sleep, during which one might experience sensorial hallucinations and lucid dreaming, and can tap into the pristine structures of the subconscious. Hypnagogia portrays an imaginary cosmic journey of the Self that crash ends into a blinding sun." 180 gram vinyl; includes download postcard.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: KK 2258002CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Remastered by Dieter Dierks and Dennis Flüchter. Walter Wegmüller (1937-2020) was a Swiss-Jenish artist who grew up in difficult circumstances in Bern. After training in Basel, Bern, Paris, and London, he began his artistic career. In addition to painting and sculptural works, Walter Wegmüller occupied himself with the entire spectrum of art. He gained widespread international attention, especially from 1974 onwards, with the publication of his Zigeuner Tarot. He was successful at countless exhibitions in Europe and overseas and was repeatedly awarded prizes and distinctions. However, he never forgot his origins as a Verding child and "Rome child from the Kalderasch tribe." In 1973, he released the album Tarot with an all-star band. Successful musicians such as Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Harald Grosskopf, Dieter Dierks, Hartmut Enke, Jürgen Dollase, and Walter Westrupp played in the band. It remained Walter Wegmüller's only foray into the world of music. The album was last released on vinyl in 1976, the CD in 2000. This version here is the first remaster ever. Double-CD version (KK 2258002CD) comes in digifile cover.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 180126LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Reissue of the original 1974 album by Gille Lettmann aka Sternenmädchen/Star Maiden. Live in the Quadro Studio: Gille and Klaus Schulze. Music inserts from the LPs Seven Up (Ash Ra Temple and Timothy Leary), Lord Krishna von Goloka (Sergius Golowin), Tarot (Walter Wegmüller). Statements by Sergius Golowin, Timothy Leary, Brian Barritt, Walter Wegmüller, Liz Elliot, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. Recorded at the Zeitschiff Studio Dierks. Carefully transferred and remastered from the original analog master tapes by HaGü Schmitz at Dierks Studios in Pulheim-Stommeln in 2022.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 580116LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. The compilations Planeten Sit-In and Sci Fi Party, both originally released in 1974, are a contemporary document of the legendary jam sessions of the Cosmic Jokers. Under a conceptual mantle, the recordings were brought to a young audience. Among the musicians the elite of the krautrockers of that time, like Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Jürgen Dollase, and Harald Grosskopf. Plus, Dieter Dierks, who was responsible for the recordings, arrangement, and mixing, but also participated as a musician. Newly transferred from the original analog tapes and carefully remastered for the first time.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 580136LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. The compilations Planeten Sit-In and Sci Fi Party, both originally released in 1974, are a contemporary document of the legendary jam sessions of the Cosmic Jokers. Under a conceptual mantle, the recordings were brought to a young audience. Among the musicians the elite of the krautrockers of that time, like Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Jürgen Dollase, and Harald Grosskopf. Plus, Dieter Dierks, who was responsible for the recordings, arrangement, and mixing, but also participated as a musician. Newly transferred from the original analog tapes and carefully remastered for the first time.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: LEWIS 1140EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Taken from Skinshape's Nostalgia album. For fans of Khruangbin, El Michels Affair, Tame Impala and Bonobo. ''Turn Away' is a song in two parts' explains Skinshape aka Will Dorey. 'The front section is intended to be classic songwriter style, with a focus on the chord progression and lyrics. The second half perhaps represents a curious epiphany, a realization of something profound'. As the plot develops, Dorey's clandestine charisma creates an alchemic, and most gentlemanly, cleansing of the soul. From his director's chair, Dorey expands that 'following the theme of film music, 'Dreams of Panama' could be an exotic scene in the movie, featuring a slight Latin twist and an epic introduction with full choir'. The track also makes the most of an opportunity to use a solo female vocal as the main melody."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MIG 2451LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Megatone is the third studio album by Klaus Schulze's side project, Richard Wahnfried, released in 1984. On this album, Schulze collaborates with Michael Garvens, Axel-Glenn Müller, Ulli Schober, Michael Shrieve and Harald Katzsch. During the eighties, the German synth legend Klaus Schulze pursued his solo adventure, working at the same time for his Wahnfried project. This Megatone brings something new to his usual 'kosmische musik'. A new element appears once again after the classic Time Actor; the presence of a singer (Michael Garvens). The voice appears in the modern and 'mechanical' electronic piece called 'Angry Young Boys'. Schulze synth explorations are also sustained by guitar parts and sequencers, drum-machines. This vast and epic cosmic 'trip' mixes pure atmospheric realms (the synth strings) with perpetual, repetitive drum rhythms. Megatone is a deep electronic album but not as abstract or as meditative as before. The electronic pulsations and the pop arrangements put Schulze's music into a more 'mainstream' level."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MIG 621LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"The album Tonwelle is the result of Klaus Schulze's collaboration with some well-known musicians. Therefore, the album was released in 1981 as a vinyl under the artist's name Richard Wahnfried, featuring among others, Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra Tempel) and Michael Shrieve (Santana). This original vinyl release was intended to be played at 45 RPM, but Klaus has already mixed the album so that it can also be played at 33 RPM. The now released vinyl edition contains the 45 RPM version -- newly mastered from an original mint vinyl that has never been played."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MMS 041RC-LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

Pressed on sky blue and black vinyl. Single-LP edit of 'Piñata' lacquered at half speed master by Metropolis Mastering in London for the highest fidelity. Featuring Danny Brown, Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Scarface, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul, Polyester the Saint, BJ The Chicago Kid, Big Time Watts, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko & Freddie Kane. 'Piñata is a gangster Blaxploitation ¬lm on wax,' says Gibbs. As a producer, Madlib, quite simply, is music."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MMS 043LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "Quatermass Seven, the meeting of minds between guitarist Barrie Cadogan, bassist Lewis Wharton and drummer Malcolm Catto represents a re-birth of sorts for Little Barrie, with these their first recordings since 2017's Death Express and the untimely passing of their gifted drummer and friend Virgil Howe. As Lewis explains, the sessions played a part in the healing process, a way to re-connect through music without any intentions to necessarily come away with a finished record. 'It was good to get in the studio again after such a long break especially as we didn't go in with any agenda or expectations,' he explains. 'There was no preconceptions that we would make a new Little Barrie record, it was just an opportunity to work on some things Barrie had written for fun with zero pressure.' With most tracks recorded live with minimal overdubs, and produced by Malcolm at his Quatermass studios, The Heliocentrics' main man brings new flavor to the band's rhythm section by blending his power behind the drum kit and his expansive skills behind the mixing desk to take Little Barrie's music forward into new territories. Recorded on Catto's treasure trove of analogue gear, and mastered onto ¼" tape, the overall effect is guitar, bass and drums finding a sweet spot where genres collide, delivering a record that takes the influences of the past and pushes them towards somewhere more contemporary. 'I definitely hear in Barrie's songs a lot of common musical ground' explains Malcolm. 'It felt like a great thing to do, work with Malcolm while we're figuring out what we wanna do,' Barrie concludes, 'let's just go in and do some playing and see what happens, and we came out with more than we ever intended.' Quatermass Seven delivers a dark, deep and expansive set of grooves, layered with frazzled and flawless guitar and flowing melodies, as well as pointing toward a future of exciting new musical opportunities. 'Still here, so fine, just a little darker state of mind' sings Cadogan on 'Steel Drum', words which sum up hope in times of uncertainty, whilst unintentionally offering a perfect description of Quartermass Seven."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: METAPHON 006CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2015 release. 16 track composition for pre-recorded sounds and live percussion performed by Michael Ranta. Entirely different work from the Yüen Shan CD released in 2005 on Ms Classic. All material previously unreleased. Yuen Shan ("Round Mountain" in Chinese) was conceived in 1972 and finalized in 2014. A musical cosmogony in four movements expressing different stages and cycles in life, The Ritual of Life. A major work in Ranta's oeuvre. Includes 12-page booklet in gatefold cardboard sleeve.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: METAPHON 008CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2019 release. 11 track album of previously unreleased music for a ballet choreographed by Philippe Talard. Composed, performed, and recorded by Michael Ranta in 1988-1989. Mixed by Michael Ranta and Stefan Deistler. Mastered by Earlabs. Program notes for the ballet by Karla Nieraad. Translation by Christoph Heemann. Production and artwork by Timo van Luijk. Design by Meeuw. Triple gatefold card sleeve.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: METAPHON 009CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2021 release. More than any other of Michael Ranta's releases, this album shows his multiple roots and ideas as a composer, percussionist, and concrete/electronic musician, building a seamless bridge between Eastern and Western avant-garde. Ranta is one of those rare composers able to organically melt his wide artistic span into a singular but yet diverse universe morphing his rich vocabulary as a percussionist with the Oriental esoteric tradition, the psychedelic underground, and the realm of electronic minimalism. Michael Ranta: performance and mixing; Recording engineers: Shigeru Sato, Tsutomu Kojima; Mastered by EARLabs; Painting: Wayne Jacob Production: Timo van Luijk; Design: Meeuw. 12-page booklet in gatefold cardboard sleeve.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: MET 1302LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"KMFDM has forged its own singular path over the course of 38+ years, refining and redefining the parameters of modern music, never missing the opportunity to address the social and political zeitgeist in brazen, belligerent, and boisterous fashion. Hyëna marks the 22nd studio album from the Ultra Heavy Beat, and what title could be more appropriate as the band laughs mockingly at the frayed and frantic state of world affairs. Driven by the vicious and virulent vocal onslaught of founder Sascha 'Käpt'n K' Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli, the aural and angular guitar wizardry of Andee Blacksugar, and the forceful percussive thrust of Andy Selway, Hyëna blasts through the speakers with the force of a napalm airstrike. From the hip-thrusting rock and roll swagger of 'Black Hole,' the in-your-face industrial/rock of 'Liquor Fish And Cigarettes,' and the funky hip-hop overtones of 'Rock'n'roll Monster,' to the punky thrash metal fury of 'Blindface,' the sardonic blackgrass whimsy of 'Deluded Desperate Dangerous and Dumb,' and the irresistibly danceable electro of 'Hyëna' -- KMFDM remains as vital as ever, never afraid to assimilate any musical style, all the while keeping the lyrical talons sharpened and poised to strike against any and all injustice. Several members of the KMFDM family return to leave their indelible marks on Hyëna, like guitarist Jules Hodgson, rapper Andrew 'Ocelot' Lindsley, and Bruce Breckenfeld on the Hammond B3. On top of that, Sissy Misfit appears to add a decidedly venomous digital hardcore flavor to 'All Wrong - But Alright,' leaving Kumar Bent to close us out with the familiar yet fresh dub take on a KMFDM classic on 'In Dub We Trust.' Hyëna is a maniacal laugh in the face of maniacs who assume control, desperately trying to convince you that what you see, what you hear, what you read is not real -- don't you believe it! Nearly four decades on, KMFDM continues to keep it real for you as Hyëna proves to be among the group's leanest and meanest efforts, feeding fuel to the fury!"

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: MIND 750LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 limited repress. The Boston Tea Party set from July 1969 on double vinyl. Excellent quality recording for all Velvets fans.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MR 329LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. LP version with a 12-page full-color booklet with extensive notes and unseen photos. "With only six singles released between 1965 and 1966, and from an apparently remote place such as Lima, Peru, Los Saicos created a raw, wild and visceral sound, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the garage rock that was coming out of the U.S. Northwest at the same time. Theirs is the same DNA shared by The Sonics, The Cramps and Black Lips. This release compiles all their recordings and tells their amazing story. This snarling maelstrom of nihilism was cut in Lima when the rest of the world was wetting itself over The Beatles, direct links to both The Stooges and The Cramps here and several more equally-enthralling combos. The latter spawned several generations of individuals who would dig deep to previously (mostly) unheard seams of music and other forms of culture that have since become part of the mainstream fabric. Another strong case of the same kind of happenstance to my mind is that which preceded the much-vaunted 'punk' explosion of the '70s." --Lindsay Hutton

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 2071COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Gold vinyl. "The Ethiopians were one of Jamaica's most popular bands in the late ska, rocksteady and early reggae period. They were founded by Leonard Dillon, Stephen Taylor and Aston Morrison, and recorded several hit singles, including 'Train To Skaville' and 'Owe Me No Pay Me'. When their third album was released, reggae music was shifting from rough and fast towards a smoother and slower level. With the smooth vocals of The Ethiopians in front of the mix and the organ sound in the background, they recorded Woman Capture Man. The album is produced by J.J. Johnson, who was a major influence on Jamaican ska and rocksteady music during the 1960s revolution. Woman Capture Man is available as a limited individually numbered edition of 1000 copies on gold colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: MOV 3169COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Culture is the Jamaican roots reggae group who founded in 1976. The trio was led by Joseph Hill and also featured Kenneth Dayes and Albert Walker. Not long after releasing their classic debut album Two Sevens Clash, a dub version followed. This version having the tunes produced by Jamaica's first female producers Sonia Pottinger and reworked by no less than Errol Brown. This dub-version, titled Culture Dub, was originally released on HighNote Records and consisted of cool, chilled tunes. Culture Dub is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange color vinyl."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MOV 3226COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Orange vinyl. "Rhythm Shower is the 1973 studio album by The Upsetters, but also features tracks by Dillinger and Sir Lord Comic. Many of the rhythms on the album are known as those done by Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Originally released in a very limited Jamaican pressing with no sleeve, it became better known after its reissue by Trojan Records as part of The Upsetter Collection. Rhythm Shower is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on orange colored vinyl. Since the original release contained no sleeve, this edition is housed in a custom made sleeve by Music On Vinyl in collaboration with Trojan Records."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 3266COL-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Carter Jefferson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who first made name for himself as member of Woody Shaw's first working quintet. As a sideman, Carter played amongst many jazz icons, including Art Blakey, Walter Davis, Jr. and Jack Walrath. In 1978, he released his first and only solo studio album, The Rise Of Atlantis, which was produced by Woody Shaw. For the recordings, Jefferson is backed by Terumasa Hino, Harry Whitaker, Clint Houston, Victor Lewis, Steve Thornton, Lani Groves, Shunzo Ono and John Hicks. The Rise Of Atlantis is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent green colored vinyl and includes liner notes by Michael Cuscuna on the back sleeve."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NA 5236LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Fabiano Do Nascimento's Brazilian guitar meets a full orchestra arranged by Vittor Santos and with special participation by Arthur Verocai and his string quartet. Lush yet lively, standing alongside Jorge Ben's work with Verocai, and Tom Jobim and Baden Powell's work with Vinicius de Moraes. Lendas is the Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento's fifth album for Now-Again Records. Like his previous albums Prelúdio and Ykytu, Lendas features do Nascimento's compositions, this time with orchestral arrangements by Vittor Santos and also special participation by Arthur Verocai. Vittor Santos is a composer, arranger, trombonist and music producer from Rio de Janeiro, who has worked in Brazilian music for over thirty years. Do Nascimento and Santos met in Rio in 2017 during the recording of Do Nascimento's hero, and '70s and '80s Brazilian guitar catalyst Carioca Freitas album Aquarelas. The two bonded over a mutual appreciation for Do Nascimento's uncle Lúcio and the bossa nova star Leny Andrade, both of whom largely influenced Do Nascimento's musical foundation. In Santos, Do Nascimento found an arranger who was sensitive enough in his orchestrations that he could create an orchestral dialogue between stacks of strings and Do Nascimento's plaintive plucking. It was only natural to invite the highest regarded, now legendary, 1970s Brazilian arranger, Arthur Verocai, to contribute. Verocai, who had worked with Do Nascimento on his forays in Los Angeles, was pleased to participate. In this way, the circle of old and new, so crucial in Do Nascimento's work, comes together and flows outwards. 'Lendas' translates from Portuguese as 'legends,' but the literal translation itself doesn't describe this album. With Lendas, Do Nascimento recalls memories from places that no longer exist; from fever dreams in the Amazon; from parts of the world we might never see or engage, but can imagine through music."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: NA 5237LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Definitive reissue. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in an all-analog transfer directly from the master tapes. Contains an extensive, oversized booklet with rare photos, liner notes and annotation. The story of The Stark Reality's Discovers The Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop begins in Boston the late 1960s, with a wild jazz -- as psychedelic as they were modal, as funky as they were swinging -- band based in Boston landing a deal with Ahmad Jamal's nascent AJP imprint after the legendary jazz pianist heard their demo recordings. They had been tasked by the great American songsmith Hoagy Carmichael's son, Hoagy Bix Carmichael, to create interpretations of the elder Carmichael's children songs for a Mr. Rogers-themed show that the younger Carmichael was producing for local PBS affiliate WGBH. The quartet -- Monty Stark on vibes, Phil Morrison on bass, Vinnie Johnson on drums and a very young John Abercrombie on fuzz guitar -- recorded an album that flopped upon its initial release and went on to become one of -- as Mojo Magazine noted -- 'the most prized 'funk' artifacts of all time... a project that allies Hendrix-stoned guitars, heavily-fuzzed vibraphone and Bitches Brew rhythms...' Now-Again Records, who has kept the Stark Reality's music in print since 2002, presents the definitive reissue of The Stark Reality's Discovers The Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in an all-analog transfer directly from the master tapes maintained by the Stark Reality's photographer Jim Bourne, it's presented in a replica gatefold sleeve, and contains an extensive, oversized page booklet with rare photos, liner notes and annotation."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: OM 070LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The first time I heard Wheatie's music was at a basement show in Philadelphia, and I was entranced. I've felt similarly when watching videos of the French singer Barbara as she concentrates on a corner of the room, her eyes big warm coins, singing 'La solitude' about a loneliness that 'rolls around the hips' and demands that the door is opened . . . Both make music that is as gorgeous as it's eerie and says a good deal about the workings of their own minds -- and by that, I don't mean that they reveal their psychology -- but they take us deep into their peculiarities as musicians. After Wheatie's set, I asked where I could get a record, and assumed there must be one -- surely, I'm late here -- because I wasn't alone. Everyone at that show was visibly mesmerized. It's been a few years since then, but I haven't forgotten it, couldn't, and have waited for Wheatie's debut, Old Glow, which captures and renews the hypnotic mystery of her set that night. For Old Glow, Wheatie has collaborated with Stephen Santillan, who plays keyboard and guitar, while she's on the keyboard and dulcimer, and of course, her distinct vocals. Wheatie and Santillan's album includes 'Blue,' which feels like a lyrical invocation that I can imagine under a canticle's heightened rubric, requiring the congregation to stand as it's being sung . . . Old Glow contains a private, condensed language that can only be built by solitude and a willingness to forego readymade forms. The problem with language is that, in order to speak, write lyrics, write about them, you must translate the peculiarity of the self into material script. When the heart is inarticulate. When literary language is often too precise. We're too trained up in it. There is a version of this kind of music that goes the route of slick pop, or becomes lazy because it's beautiful, but Wheatie's music is distinguished by an elemental weirdness, a plaintive and wonky carnival way off in the distance -- this is what it sounds like to submit the self to itself. On the track 'Low,' she ululates, 'It's OK to be low. It's OK to be low.' And because Wheatie has an uncanny ability to make something strange out of the familiar, it feels like a singular utterance. I have not heard it before. As if an old well could talk. There are also several moments of spontaneity in Old Glow. 'Canyon' brings more rock, and the harmonium gets country in 'Rose.' These turns make the album feel complex, like an epic about connection, loss, the inevitability of our being alone. Nico's nightmarish Desertshore also moves along a similar queasy spiral -- its emotional locus is precise, even though the music is impenetrable. Death and despair in Desertshore, like solitude in Old Glow, is palpable. They can't help but continuously return to it..." --Chelsea Hogue Ohlman, IL, 2022

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: PAL 056LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. LP version. "After two LPs and over half a decade spent toiling in the margins of the American Songbook, Bill Orcutt returns to original composition and the blues with his latest LP, Odds Against Tomorrow. Taking its title from Robert Wise's 1959 film noir, Odds Against Tomorrow retrofits familiar folk/blues forms to the unique sound of Orcutt's guitar and the result crackles with a freshness and authority that nostalgic retreads cannot deliver. Odds Against Tomorrow is more than an expansion of the territory charted by Bill Orcutt, his eponymous 2017 studio electric debut, although it's certainly that. With its nods to existing musics, half-step fluctuations, and near-songwriter-ly manipulations of tension/release, Odds Against Tomorrow is a rock record -- almost. Clearly and simply recorded through a clattering Fender Twin in Orcutt's living room and lovingly mixed by Bay Area neighbor and pedal-steel savant Chuck Johnson, no one would mistake it for any era's radio fodder, yet the precision of its technique and the swaying Child-ballad logic of its gentler improvisations comfortably seats it between John Mayall and Richard Thompson in your Ikea Kallax. Three songs ('Odds Against Tomorrow,' 'The Writhing Jar,' 'Already Old') are multi-tracked, an innovation that, for guitar buffs familiar with Orcutt's stripped-down vernacular, jumps out of the grooves like a Les Paul sound-on-sound excursion in 1948, or a Jandek blues rave-up in 1987. Specifically evoking John Lee Hooker's double-track experiments on 1952's 'Walking the Boogie,' the steady chord vamps of 'Odds Against Tomorrow' and 'Already Old' form a harmonic turf on which Orcutt solos with lyrical abandon . . . For the more 'contemporary-minded,' 'The Writhing Jar''s crashing overdubs recall the brassy six-string voicings of This Heat or Illitch. With the exception of the unreconstructed Elmore James-isms of 'Stray Dog' and the 'Layla'-finale-like haze of 'All Your Buried Corpses Begin To Speak,' the remaining non-overdubbed tracks dovetail snugly with Orcutt's previous solo output, reeling gently in a Mazzacane-oid mode or vibing up the standards ('Moon River'). On their own, these tracks would still be an important contribution to Orcutt's canon. As part of Odds Against Tomorrow's greater whole, they provide a through line, connecting the idiosyncrasies of Orcutt's past explorations with the scrambled tropes of his present work. Odds Against Tomorrow challenges contemporary solo guitar practice in a way that simultaneously nullifies hazy dreams of folk purity and establishes a new high-water mark for blues-rock reconstruction." --Tom Carter

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: PHS 048LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2022 restock; LP version. From the archives of the legendary Belter and Discophon labels, essential to understand the birth of the Catalan rumba and flamenco-pop genre in Spain, Pharaway Sounds have selected 14 dance-friendly tracks taken from overlooked LPs and 45s. This is the real gipsy-funk sound, full of screaming flamenco vocals, funk drums, electric guitars, wah-wah, organ, electric bass, exotic percussions, soulish horns, Latin and even oriental touches... Featuring folkloric ye-yé singers, gipsy princes, teen rumba stars, and groovy rumba-pop bands: Dolores Vargas "La Terremoto", Chango, Rosa Morena, Rumba Tres, El Príncipe Gitano, El Noi... Also features Lola Flores, Los Candelos, Lola Flores Y Antonio González, Teresiya, Los Candelos, La Marelu, and Dolores Abril. Master tape sound. Includes insert with photos and liner notes by Txarly Brown (Achilifunk).

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: PILZ 290642CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

In 1971, under the direction of Jürgen Dollase, who also composed all the tracks, this album was recorded and finally released in 1972. It was recorded at Dierks Studios by Dieter Dierks himself. Dollase and drummer Harald Grosskopf were later also members of the legendary Cosmic Jokers. Loyal krautrock fans labelled this album as progressive rock -- but that doesn't really do justice. Opulent, lengthy works like "Lunetic" with a playing time of 12 minutes are today among the highlights of what is summarized as krautrock. Transferred from the original analog tapes and carefully remastered without destroying the character of the recordings.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: PILZ 290646LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. In 1971, under the direction of Jürgen Dollase, who also composed all the tracks, this album was recorded and finally released in 1972. It was recorded at Dierks Studios by Dieter Dierks himself. Dollase and drummer Harald Grosskopf were later also members of the legendary Cosmic Jokers. Loyal krautrock fans labelled this album as progressive rock -- but that doesn't really do justice. Opulent, lengthy works like "Lunetic" with a playing time of 12 minutes are today among the highlights of what is summarized as krautrock. Transferred from the original analog tapes and carefully remastered without destroying the character of the recordings.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: PC 1983LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited repress. Pink vinyl. Bauhaus live at Tiffany's, Glasgow, Scotland on June 27th, 1983. FM Broadcast recording.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: ROG 122LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, expanding to a chamber orchestra, marks its sixth decade as a vital force on the world music stage with an ear-opening live recording on two LPs. Recorded in France in 2020 at the Son D'Hiver Festival, this recording celebrates the legendary group's historic ties to Paris, where it was formed in 1968. When trumpet great Lester Bowie died in 1999, followers of the Art Ensemble of Chicago couldn't help but wonder whether the legendary quintet, which owed so much to his special and outlandish gifts, would -- or should -- go on. That it did, in his memory, with no loss of spirit. But the subsequent passing of two other founding members Malachi Favors Maghostut in 2004 and Joseph Jarman in 2019, made it even more difficult to envision a future for the band. Leave it to the AEC's proud surviving members, saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell and drummer/percussionist Famoudou Don Moye to keep its flame glowing. In typical bold fashion, they not only extended the life of this beloved band, they redefined it in glorious and unexpected ways. With the addition of brilliant young players including poet and spoken word artist Moor Mother, cellist Tomeka Reid and violinist Jean Cook, and esteemed elders including trumpeter Hugh Ragin, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and bassist Jaribu Shahid, AEC became a full-fledged chamber orchestra. 'Come rejoice in a higher place!' urges the magnetic Moor Mother. In both honoring the band's illustrious history and soaring to new creative heights as a 17-member aggregation, Mitchell and Moye and company do just that. Would AEC have become the creative force it is had it not gotten the opportunity to find itself in Paris all those years ago? Will AEC return to celebrate their seventh? 'We can't control the clock, everything takes place in its own time,' says Mitchell. Don't be surprised if the time continues to be right for the AEC for years to come."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SCAT 083LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Ready for some more racket from the titans of the tritone? The deans of decay? The earls of entropy? Until recently it was unknown how prolific Cleveland's Spike In Vain were in their three year run, roughly Fall 1982 through Fall 1985. Had all the group's songs been recorded, they would've filled five LPs handily. While only the debut album Disease Is Relative, compilation appearances, and a virtually unknown cassette were issued during their run, 2021 saw the band's unreleased second album Death Drives A Cadillac pulled out from its secret lair, and 2023 will see the release of the Jesus Was Born In A Mobile Home cassette via this much expanded double vinyl edition. Upping the original's twelve track program with an additional fifteen unreleased or rare tracks, this compilation provides a panoramic view of this mercurial, many-headed beast of absurdity, discord, and death. This release is loaded with surprises for even die-hard fans. Among other highlights, there's a nine-minute version of 'Opus.' While the recording on Disease Is Relative is essentially three short songs smushed together, this later live version doubles that, with all new material seamlessly tacked onto the original. 'Winter's Black Hand' is a shocking outtake from the second album with the same insane, harrowing quality as 'Children In The Subway.' There's a 1982 rehearsal recording of 'Tenement Housing,' the closest the band ever came to a straight up punk song. Or the rambling, shambling, and devastating 'Drunk And Ugly Soul Food (As I Understand It)' from an early 1985 radio session. Along with other live recordings of songs that never saw the inside of a studio and a few more outtakes, Jesus also gathers stray songs from compilation albums with much improved sound. The majority of the tracks here were mastered from the original reels, while others had to be rescued from cassettes. Veteran engineer John Golden has done a knockout job dealing with the wide variety of source materials, lending it cohesion without sacrificing the skull-splitting rawness of some tracks."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: SCAT 083X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Color vinyl. "Ready for some more racket from the titans of the tritone? The deans of decay? The earls of entropy? Until recently it was unknown how prolific Cleveland's Spike In Vain were in their three year run, roughly Fall 1982 through Fall 1985. Had all the group's songs been recorded, they would've filled five LPs handily. While only the debut album Disease Is Relative, compilation appearances, and a virtually unknown cassette were issued during their run, 2021 saw the band's unreleased second album Death Drives A Cadillac pulled out from its secret lair, and 2023 will see the release of the Jesus Was Born In A Mobile Home cassette via this much expanded double vinyl edition. Upping the original's twelve track program with an additional fifteen unreleased or rare tracks, this compilation provides a panoramic view of this mercurial, many-headed beast of absurdity, discord, and death. This release is loaded with surprises for even die-hard fans. Among other highlights, there's a nine-minute version of 'Opus.' While the recording on Disease Is Relative is essentially three short songs smushed together, this later live version doubles that, with all new material seamlessly tacked onto the original. 'Winter's Black Hand' is a shocking outtake from the second album with the same insane, harrowing quality as 'Children In The Subway.' There's a 1982 rehearsal recording of 'Tenement Housing,' the closest the band ever came to a straight up punk song. Or the rambling, shambling, and devastating 'Drunk And Ugly Soul Food (As I Understand It)' from an early 1985 radio session. Along with other live recordings of songs that never saw the inside of a studio and a few more outtakes, Jesus also gathers stray songs from compilation albums with much improved sound. The majority of the tracks here were mastered from the original reels, while others had to be rescued from cassettes. Veteran engineer John Golden has done a knockout job dealing with the wide variety of source materials, lending it cohesion without sacrificing the skull-splitting rawness of some tracks."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: SCAT 085LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Peace, Love & Murder was the second album by Cleveland's My Dad Is Dead, originally released in 1987 by Boston's Birth Records. Like the debut, ...And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore, Mark Edwards wrote and performed all the music on his own. While not a significant departure from that album, Peace, Love & Murder does differ from its predecessor and has some qualities that make it unique in the voluminous MDID discography. While combining live drums with drum machine is a hallmark of the MDID style, on this album Edwards introduced the Roland TR-505 into the mix, and in a bold move recorded the live drums first, which had the effect of making the rhythm tracks feel a bit more organic despite the presence, and occasionally the prominence, of the TR-505. Modal guitar tunings remain de rigeur here, but Edwards' abilities as a guitarist display a marked increase in proficiency and imagination. While the debut album sprawls a bit, PLM is a tight and focused ten-song set, buoyed by a more impactful production job by Chris Burgess. Just as the debut album had a few lighter (or at least slightly less grim) songs, so does this album, but here they shine with a bit more pop sparkle. 'Babe In The Woods' and 'Hill O' Beans' would go on to be fan favorites for many years, as would the utterly harrowing unstoppable bulldozer that is 'Like A Vise.' All these years on, the album's closer 'Fireball' has become oddly relevant and chilling. Sung from the POV of a mass shooter to a droning riff that evokes Middle Eastern modes, the narrator intones, 'I'm gonna go out in a blaze of glory / today's the day I'm gonna make it to the headlines.' The whole album has remarkable cohesion and pacing, as well as variety, and, not to mention, what a god-tier track 'Breakdown' is. So grab a black overcoat and 'Open Wide.'"

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SCAT 085X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Color vinyl. "Peace, Love & Murder was the second album by Cleveland's My Dad Is Dead, originally released in 1987 by Boston's Birth Records. Like the debut, ...And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore, Mark Edwards wrote and performed all the music on his own. While not a significant departure from that album, Peace, Love & Murder does differ from its predecessor and has some qualities that make it unique in the voluminous MDID discography. While combining live drums with drum machine is a hallmark of the MDID style, on this album Edwards introduced the Roland TR-505 into the mix, and in a bold move recorded the live drums first, which had the effect of making the rhythm tracks feel a bit more organic despite the presence, and occasionally the prominence, of the TR-505. Modal guitar tunings remain de rigeur here, but Edwards' abilities as a guitarist display a marked increase in proficiency and imagination. While the debut album sprawls a bit, PLM is a tight and focused ten-song set, buoyed by a more impactful production job by Chris Burgess. Just as the debut album had a few lighter (or at least slightly less grim) songs, so does this album, but here they shine with a bit more pop sparkle. 'Babe In The Woods' and 'Hill O' Beans' would go on to be fan favorites for many years, as would the utterly harrowing unstoppable bulldozer that is 'Like A Vise.' All these years on, the album's closer 'Fireball' has become oddly relevant and chilling. Sung from the POV of a mass shooter to a droning riff that evokes Middle Eastern modes, the narrator intones, 'I'm gonna go out in a blaze of glory / today's the day I'm gonna make it to the headlines.' The whole album has remarkable cohesion and pacing, as well as variety, and, not to mention, what a god-tier track 'Breakdown' is. So grab a black overcoat and 'Open Wide.'"

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: SCAT 086EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Here one has a reissue of a My Dad Is Dead record that never was. Recorded shortly after Peace, Love & Murder, the Pow! EP was intended to be released in the summer of 1987 on Cleveland's St. Valetine Records, but that never quite happened. Newly signed to NYC's Homestead Records, it was resolved that the tracks could find a home there, and they were later issued on The Best Defense outtakes compilation on that label. Now, thirty-seven years on, the EP as originally intended is being released. Like its predecessors, Pow! is an isolationist post-punk affair with Mark Edwards performing all musical duties. Pow! features three strong tracks in stunning 45RPM sound, or maybe one should just say it's really freaking loud and sounds better than the last time around. First is a reprise of 'Anti-Socialist,' a highlight from the 1985 debut album. But this is not a mere re-recording, but a new arrangement of the song with additional sections and lyrics, and a more aggressive feel with unmistakable undertones of violence ('I wanna fix 'em with my bare hands'). On the flip is the haunting 'In the Morning,' in some ways a foreshadowing of the murderess later meet on 'Nothing Special.' Wrapping things up is the instrumental 'The Best Defense,' which is about as spritely and engaging as Mr Edwards gets during this era."

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: SCAT 086X-EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

12" version. Color vinyl. "Here one has a reissue of a My Dad Is Dead record that never was. Recorded shortly after Peace, Love & Murder, the Pow! EP was intended to be released in the summer of 1987 on Cleveland's St. Valetine Records, but that never quite happened. Newly signed to NYC's Homestead Records, it was resolved that the tracks could find a home there, and they were later issued on The Best Defense outtakes compilation on that label. Now, thirty-seven years on, the EP as originally intended is being released. Like its predecessors, Pow! is an isolationist post-punk affair with Mark Edwards performing all musical duties. Pow! features three strong tracks in stunning 45RPM sound, or maybe one should just say it's really freaking loud and sounds better than the last time around. First is a reprise of 'Anti-Socialist,' a highlight from the 1985 debut album. But this is not a mere re-recording, but a new arrangement of the song with additional sections and lyrics, and a more aggressive feel with unmistakable undertones of violence ('I wanna fix 'em with my bare hands'). On the flip is the haunting 'In the Morning,' in some ways a foreshadowing of the murderess later meet on 'Nothing Special.' Wrapping things up is the instrumental 'The Best Defense,' which is about as spritely and engaging as Mr Edwards gets during this era."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SCTR 059LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Barely saved from obscurity by a series of chance events, John Fizer's only recorded album Treasure Man will finally see the light of day. Forty-five years in the making, while for the last twenty-nine years Fizer has been 'living rough' couch surfing, sleeping in play structures, friend's backyards and more recently his old Volvo station wagon. Fizer is currently residing in a nursing facility in Northern California. Below is the story of how this never before heard album came to Scissor Tail's attention. I used to walk my daughter to school and passed the original Peet's coffee every day. Across the street was Berkeley's beloved John 'Treasure Man' Fizer playing chess, doing crosswords and waiting next to the treasure tree which he had filled with gemstones and various magical trinkets. To this day any child passing by is welcome to choose a treasure. Over many stops with my daughter, I got to know John, a fountain of love, intelligence and humor and as quirky and feisty as can be. We became friends. Eventually he showed me a few old cassettes of cassettes of cassettes in poor condition of him performing and asked if I could make them sound better. I agreed to take a listen. Such amazing songs! So I proceeded to remaster the cassettes while continuing to ask John at least four times over several months if he had the original master studio recordings. The answer was always no. About the time I finally had his cassette sourced recordings sounding as good as they could be and he popped up with a 15 inches per second 1/4' half track, state of the art analog master reel-to-reel recorded at the legendary Mountain Ears recording studio in 1977 with some very fine studio musicians including Ray Bonneville, Brad 'Honeyboy' Hayes, Erik 'Bobo' Johnson and Brian 'Sluggo' Brown. John had found the original reel! It had been residing for decades in the bowels of John's old 1980 Volvo station wagon, which also serves as his home, and was covered in strangely beautiful mold but that was the day I knew the world would hear John's music the way it was meant to be be... big, fat, analog. The next few years were spent cleaning and remastering the album with some of the world's finest restoration specialists." --James Johnson (producer)

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SELE 8510LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Select Records presents 2 Hype in an opaque white pressing. For a certain generation of hip-hop fans, just the mention of Kid 'n Play brings on a wave of nostalgia. The group released three full-lengths between 1988 and 1991 with a focus on positive lyrics and pop friendly production. The success of the group's music lead to countless House Party films, a Saturday morning cartoon show and even a series of comic books for Marvel (so, technically speaking, are Kid 'n Play are part of the Marvel Universe?) It all started here on the 1988 full-length 2 Hype which features 'Do The Kid 'n Play Kick Step', the musical accompaniment to their trademark dance, 'Rollin' With Kid 'n Play' which hit number 11 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and of course Kid's now classic hi-top fade haircut, which measured up to over six inches high at its peak. Producer Hurby 'Luv Bug' Azor, instrumental in the success of Salt-N-Pepa, was certainly a factor and the full length went on to chart in the Billboard Top 200 and to RIAA certified gold status."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: STAGO 186CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Subtitled: The (Second) Single Compilation 2015-2021. This record arrives exactly ten years after the first one, the highly successful Witches, Spiders, Frogs & Holes album (STAGO 068LP). At this moment, most "with it" or "aware" folks in our retro scene have common knowledge and informed opinions of that strange musical alchemist known as Mr. Marcel Bontempi. His phenomenal career arc from the 1998 debut of 1960s-beat band combo, The Montesas, to his "monster" solo hit of 2013, "Dig A Hole" (on Sleazy Records), has seen Marcel's star rise ever higher as a steady stream of his popular and clever recordings have been snatched up by an ever-widening fan base. Live stage appearances by Marcel and his gal "Friday," the effervescent Miss Ira Lee, and Marcel's own "hillbilly" gang, Dr. Bontempi's Snake Oil Company, at clubs and festivals throughout Europe (and even in Nashville and Las Vegas) have deservedly helped to spread the Bontempi infamy and infatuation far and wide. So, here is the second compilation of the wizard of rhythm -- packed full with his 7" output (all limited and sold out by now) from 2015 until 2021 and some unreleased songs and musical themes for theater plays among others. LP version includes bonus 7" of unreleased material; gatefold cover with info and photos.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: GB 132CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Acclaimed producer (Rosalia, Lina_Raul Refree) and in-demand collaborator (Lee Ranaldo, Richard Youngs) Raul Refree returns with his second solo album for tak:til/glitterbeat. A kaleidoscopic but seamless mashup of soundtrack music, post-classical meditations, Iberian traditional elements and experimental strategies. The title, El Espacio Entre (The Space Between), alludes to its spatial, temporal, and conceptual in betweenness. The concept for the album emerged from his soundtrack for the restored early Spanish cinema masterpiece The Cursed Village (Florián Rey, 1930). Refree adheres to total creative freedom. Some pieces like "Lamentos De Un Rescate" and "La Plage" represent his first attempt at re-composition. Refree took Monteverdi's madrigal "Lamento Della Ninfa" and personally directed the performance. El Espacio Entre is a unified whole without centerpieces. Each piece functions like a specific image or disposition translated into sound. The short evocative song titles provide interesting interpretative angles. They capture the introspective nature of Refree's musical expression, which is not preoccupied with epic arrangements or grand musical ideas. Refree's approach to improvisation, composition, and production resonates with the tenets of imagist poetry. The piano sequence in "Las Migraciones Nocturnas" is unedited. It's not played on a click. The short and sweet "Lamentos De Un Día Cualquiera," a modern reimagining of baroque vocals accompanied by a processed viola da gamba and lute, beautifully captures his philosophy. Certain elements simply must be included, though, like the evanescent trumpet line in "La Plage." Recomposed madrigals coexist with hectic piano explorations ("Montañas Vacías," "Montañas Vacías II"). "La Radio En La Cocina," a pensive dialogue between lute, radio static, piano, and marimba, gradually mutates into a post-rock crescendo. The immersive piece for prepared piano "Todo El Mundo Quiere Irse Ya" suddenly transitions into the The Durutti Column-inspired guitar sketch "Casc I Pluja." It is the way he approaches rhythm, timbre, dynamics, and texture that imbues his music with a sense of intimacy. His guitar meditations ("Amanece Sin Que Nadie Lo Vea," "Lo Que Esconden") bring to mind the music of Raphael Rogi?ski. In "Las Migraciones Nocturnas," a Jon Brion-style soundtrack piece that disintegrates into agitated strings wailing, one can hear the echoes of his music for films. A similarly cinematic atmosphere is conjured in the composition "No Es Tan Fácil Aquí." Yet the most surprising moment on the record arises in the epilogue "Una Nueva Religión" in which a mellow organ motif unexpectedly intertwines with Darkthrone-inspired metal blast beats. El Espacio Entre is a sonic diary that may lead you to transformational events while riding the bus, train or plane, being in transit between one destination or another, the current and next version of you.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GB 132LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Acclaimed producer (Rosalia, Lina_Raul Refree) and in-demand collaborator (Lee Ranaldo, Richard Youngs) Raul Refree returns with his second solo album for tak:til/glitterbeat. A kaleidoscopic but seamless mashup of soundtrack music, post-classical meditations, Iberian traditional elements and experimental strategies. The title, El Espacio Entre (The Space Between), alludes to its spatial, temporal, and conceptual in betweenness. The concept for the album emerged from his soundtrack for the restored early Spanish cinema masterpiece The Cursed Village (Florián Rey, 1930). Refree adheres to total creative freedom. Some pieces like "Lamentos De Un Rescate" and "La Plage" represent his first attempt at re-composition. Refree took Monteverdi's madrigal "Lamento Della Ninfa" and personally directed the performance. El Espacio Entre is a unified whole without centerpieces. Each piece functions like a specific image or disposition translated into sound. The short evocative song titles provide interesting interpretative angles. They capture the introspective nature of Refree's musical expression, which is not preoccupied with epic arrangements or grand musical ideas. Refree's approach to improvisation, composition, and production resonates with the tenets of imagist poetry. The piano sequence in "Las Migraciones Nocturnas" is unedited. It's not played on a click. The short and sweet "Lamentos De Un Día Cualquiera," a modern reimagining of baroque vocals accompanied by a processed viola da gamba and lute, beautifully captures his philosophy. Certain elements simply must be included, though, like the evanescent trumpet line in "La Plage." Recomposed madrigals coexist with hectic piano explorations ("Montañas Vacías," "Montañas Vacías II"). "La Radio En La Cocina," a pensive dialogue between lute, radio static, piano, and marimba, gradually mutates into a post-rock crescendo. The immersive piece for prepared piano "Todo El Mundo Quiere Irse Ya" suddenly transitions into the The Durutti Column-inspired guitar sketch "Casc I Pluja." It is the way he approaches rhythm, timbre, dynamics, and texture that imbues his music with a sense of intimacy. His guitar meditations ("Amanece Sin Que Nadie Lo Vea," "Lo Que Esconden") bring to mind the music of Raphael Rogi?ski. In "Las Migraciones Nocturnas," a Jon Brion-style soundtrack piece that disintegrates into agitated strings wailing, one can hear the echoes of his music for films. A similarly cinematic atmosphere is conjured in the composition "No Es Tan Fácil Aquí." Yet the most surprising moment on the record arises in the epilogue "Una Nueva Religión" in which a mellow organ motif unexpectedly intertwines with Darkthrone-inspired metal blast beats. El Espacio Entre is a sonic diary that may lead you to transformational events while riding the bus, train or plane, being in transit between one destination or another, the current and next version of you.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: TR 512CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits," Kurt Cobain allegedly said. The BMX Bandits have been around in varying formations since 1986 and come from great Scottish guitar pop lineage. With Duglas T. Stewart as the focal point, the band has been releasing great indie pop albums irregularly since 1989."... In between live images of the moon mission and reports the BBC were screening episodes of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe starring Robert Hoffmann, a 1965 serialized telling of the classic tale of a man lost so far from home, it felt an appropriate choice of program. The series was a French German production and for the BBC to broadcast it Hoffmann's dialogue had to be replaced in English. To do this they didn't have the option to just replace the voice and keep the original music and sound effects, everything had to be replaced. A new haunting soundtrack was produced by Gian Piero Reverberi and Robert Mellin . . . It was a starting point in setting an aesthetic that runs through so much that I love in music and also in a lot of what I have done. Since then, music composed/created for film and television has been a major passion and pleasure in my life and I always wanted to have an opportunity to work in this field. Mark MacNicol, Dreaded Light's writer and director approached me through a mutual friend to see if I would be interested in supplying original music for his debut film. At that point it became about both of us making a leap of faith, deciding that we trusted each other. I knew I needed a collaborator to help bring my ideas and themes to life and to bring interesting and to also bring sympathetic ideas of their own to the project. And so, I asked Andrew Pattie to work with me on the soundtrack. Andrew can play a lot of instruments well, is a great singer and has natural musicality. We loved and connected with the emotional content in the story and we found our first musical theme quite quickly. It was a reaction to imagining an opening titles sequence that would set a mood and tone for everything that would follow. This theme mutates and resurfaces at various points throughout the film. After that we found other themes that we connected to the emotions and physicality of the central characters. As well as the instrumental themes you will find two songs on this album..." --Duglas T Stewart, Summer 2022

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: TR 512LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits," Kurt Cobain allegedly said. The BMX Bandits have been around in varying formations since 1986 and come from great Scottish guitar pop lineage. With Duglas T. Stewart as the focal point, the band has been releasing great indie pop albums irregularly since 1989."... In between live images of the moon mission and reports the BBC were screening episodes of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe starring Robert Hoffmann, a 1965 serialized telling of the classic tale of a man lost so far from home, it felt an appropriate choice of program. The series was a French German production and for the BBC to broadcast it Hoffmann's dialogue had to be replaced in English. To do this they didn't have the option to just replace the voice and keep the original music and sound effects, everything had to be replaced. A new haunting soundtrack was produced by Gian Piero Reverberi and Robert Mellin . . . It was a starting point in setting an aesthetic that runs through so much that I love in music and also in a lot of what I have done. Since then, music composed/created for film and television has been a major passion and pleasure in my life and I always wanted to have an opportunity to work in this field. Mark MacNicol, Dreaded Light's writer and director approached me through a mutual friend to see if I would be interested in supplying original music for his debut film. At that point it became about both of us making a leap of faith, deciding that we trusted each other. I knew I needed a collaborator to help bring my ideas and themes to life and to bring interesting and to also bring sympathetic ideas of their own to the project. And so, I asked Andrew Pattie to work with me on the soundtrack. Andrew can play a lot of instruments well, is a great singer and has natural musicality. We loved and connected with the emotional content in the story and we found our first musical theme quite quickly. It was a reaction to imagining an opening titles sequence that would set a mood and tone for everything that would follow. This theme mutates and resurfaces at various points throughout the film. After that we found other themes that we connected to the emotions and physicality of the central characters. As well as the instrumental themes you will find two songs on this album..." --Duglas T Stewart, Summer 2022

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: TRU 1015CD

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Pete Rock is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. His name is oft included in the pantheon of the greatest, alongside DJ Premier, RZA and J Dilla. In addition, Pete has one of the world's most extensive vinyl collections, the sort of collection whose size can only be estimated, and that estimate stands in excess of 100,000 LPs. In 2019, Rock launched his own imprint, Tru Soul Records, with the release of Return Of The SP-1200. Pete Rock goes back to his roots -- the SP1200 and his vinyl -- to debut Return Of The SP-1200 Vol. 2. "

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: TRU 1015LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

Opaque red vinyl. "Pete Rock is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. His name is oft included in the pantheon of the greatest, alongside DJ Premier, RZA and J Dilla. In addition, Pete has one of the world's most extensive vinyl collections, the sort of collection whose size can only be estimated, and that estimate stands in excess of 100,000 LPs. In 2019, Rock launched his own imprint, Tru Soul Records, with the release of Return Of The SP-1200. Pete Rock goes back to his roots -- the SP1200 and his vinyl -- to debut Return Of The SP-1200 Vol. 2."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MRSSS 539LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. Vinilisssimo present the first vinyl reissue of Tim Maia's 1977 self-titled album. Tim Maia was born in 1942 in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and started his musical career at an early age, along with close friends such as Roberto Carlos or Jorge Ben. Carlos would eventually help him to get a deal for his first single at CBS. During the '70s, Maia started to incorporate soul and funk elements into his style. After a two-year period involvement in the Cultura Racional in Brazil, Maia's funky style was still at its best when he released this album in 1977. It was his first and only recording for Som Livre, the legendary label that became extremely popular due to the many soap operas soundtracks in its extensive catalog. This self-titled LP deserves to be shortlisted among Maia's top records. It features killer tunes like the anthemic "É Necessário", undoubtedly one of the best songs in his career, and also boogie gems such as "Verão Carioca" or "Venha Dormir Em Casa" that show obvious influences by some of the biggest American soul artists of the time. It also contains intimate vocal delights as in the lovely smooth tune "Música Para Betinha" or even straight funky instrumentals like "Flores Belas". The string arrangements, wah-wah guitars, horns, deep vocals make this recording a milestone in the so-called "Black Movement" in Rio, where artists like Toni Tornado, Banda Black Rio and Maia himself were bringing in the funky sounds of America and mixing them with local rhythms like samba. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: VOID 064LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Brand new issue of mid to late 60's garage pop psych band from N.Y. Comprised of six period originals, plus three period covers and two later songs, the Rayne have a west coast psych sound with female/male vox... edition of 450 on black vinyl; band insert."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: VPRL 4237LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Remastered vinyl edition of The Congos' legendary Heart Of The Congos.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 070LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

WRWTFWW Records announce the release of Chu Ishikawa and Der Eisenrost's soundtrack for experimental action-drama Tokyo Fist, released in 1995 and directed by legendary director/producer/writer Shin'ya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man and its sequels, Bullet Ballet, Hiroki The Goblin, Nightmare Detective). Previously only published on CD in Japan, the cult movie soundtrack is available on vinyl for the first time ever. The Tokyo Fist soundtrack gorgeously blends explosive industrial music, heavy percussion, martial rhythms, and noise experimentations with contemplative ambient and emotion-filled synth soundscapes, perfectly encapsulating the nihilistic pain felt by the characters of the movie and the brutally visceral rebirth they go through. Ishikawa and Der Eisenrost's compositions hit hard, sometimes truly terrorizing, sometimes heart-gripping in gloomy and bewitching ways. This is no holds barred music, a venture into the darkest yet most strangely beautiful corners of the human mind (and heart). The late great Chu Ishikawa was one of the innovators of the industrial and experimental scene in Japan and has collaborated with Shin'ya Tsukamoto on numerous movies. He also worked extensively with Takashi Miike, another visionary filmmaker from his home country. Ishikawa was the leader of groundbreaking industrial-metal-percussion unit Der Eisenrost whose live performances around Japan left an indelible mark on the genre's history. Housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve.