Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 6/17/2024

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: N 092LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Enid Valu normally relies on lenses and light to express herself. Known to create stunning visuals, to capture sonic worlds with her preferred instrument (the camera), the US-born, Munich-based photographer and video artist has been working with various bands, shooting concerts, creating music videos, visualizing what she hears. However, now that she's become an indispensable part of the local scene, she for once ditches the cam and steps up to the mic instead -- appearing as featured vocalist on two of the four brand-new covers Hochzeitskapelle recorded for the EP We Dance. Pavement's "We Dance" has been beautifully rearranged and reworked some three decades later. Musing about "Stockholm Syndrome," just like Yo La Tengo's bass player James McNews did back then, this new Hochzeitskapelle interpretation is obviously less reminiscent of Neil Young, if compared to the original take. Instead, their Yo La Tengo cover feels almost like a song recorded by The Notwist -- which, interestingly enough, is not because two of The Notwist's core members also play in Hochzeitskapelle. Nope, it's the vibe of Enid Valu's guest vocals that somehow points in that direction. As for the two remaining cover choices, it's all-instrumental business as usual. For Low's classic "Silver Rider," it's the banjo that does Alan Sparhawk's vocal part, whereas the trombone soon joins in, contributing Mimi Parker's second vocal layer as the tune unfolds. Eventually adding a German song to the mix -- Wir Sind Helden's "Elefant" -- it's an EP that comprises four beautiful half-forgotten indie classics that Hochzeitskapelle reworks, adding the group's unique, charmingly handmade/oddball "Rumpeljazz" trademark. One can immediately tell how much they love the original tracks: these are recordings, done by fans and admirers who aren't even trying to sound much like the musicians who wrote them. However, the new versions are so compelling in their own right, they make you want to revisit the original tracks as well.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: ARBITRARY 020CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Just because Denseland take inspiration from the past, doesn't mean they're stuck in it. On their first album since 2017, their second for Arbitrary, the Berlin-based trio instead ventures slowly but steadily into unknown territory. Hanno Leichtmann and Hannes Strobl's dub-infused, bass-heavy rhythmic minimalism in combination with lyricist David Moss's sonorous yet deadpan delivery opens up a space that feels both claustrophobic and infinitely wide. Like previous Denseland albums, Code & Melody picks up on the sparse side of dub-enamoured post-punk, no wave, post-rock, adventurous electronic and improvised acoustic music and blends this with a vocal performance marked by a Lou Reedian cool, a confrontationalism ? la Lydia Lunch and, occasionally, an experimentalism akin to Scott Walker. The result is as unique and ambiguous as the record's title: Musical formal rigor enters into a dialogue with poetic reflections on the beautiful mess that is the human experience. The record's starting point were multiple improvisational sessions between Leichtmann and Strobl. Strobl used his electric bass and electric double bass, whose characteristic sounds "were expanded through the use of special playing techniques in combination with live electronics," as he explains. After adding overdubs to some of the recordings as well as guest contributions on three pieces by Katharina B?vand on modular synthesizer, the resulting tracks served as the perfect backdrop for Moss's performance. The sounds that accompany them on Codes & Melody complement that seamlessly: This is both physical and cerebral music, rigid and flexible, obsessed with the dialectic of repetition and difference -- with moving forward.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: BTR 095EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Sababa 5, the relentless explorers of Middle Eastern psychedelic groove, present their latest tracks "Bezani" and "Ashkamoni" on their sixth 45 for Batov Records. With two albums, an EP featuring vocalist Shiran Tzfira, and five highly collectable 45s under their belt, Sababa 5 have established themselves as trailblazers in the global grooves scene alongside the likes of Alt?n G?n, Yin Yin, and Misha Panfilov. Garnering support from esteemed DJs and institutions such as BBC Radio 6, Radio Nova, Songlines, and Star Wax, the band's innovative fusion of diverse musical influences continues to captivate audiences worldwide. "Bezani" transports listeners on a sonic journey with its electric synths and percussion-fueled 6/8 rhythm. Drawing inspiration from early electronic sounds and Persian folk, the track creates a mesmerizing atmosphere that pushes the boundaries of genre blending. On "Ashkamoni," Sababa 5 showcase their versatility with a rockier feel infused with a rocksteady swing. The track's captivating melody builds dynamically, while the lead guitar and synth engage in enthralling solos, demonstrating the band's exceptional musical prowess. Sababa 5's collective experience backing a wide variety of international artists has no doubt driven their tight sound and ability to seamlessly fuse genres. With influences ranging from the world-renowned Funk Brothers, Wrecking Crew, and Daptones, to Middle Eastern psych, the band effortlessly blends diverse musical elements into their distinctive sound. "Bezani" and "Ashkamoni" mark another milestone in Sababa 5's musical journey, further solidifying their reputation as innovators in the world of psychedelic groove. Fans and music enthusiasts alike can expect to be enthralled by these latest additions to the band's impressive repertoire.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: BKE 018GR-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Green color vinyl version. Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri's partnership unfolded serendipitously at the sold-out opening of the SoundSet Series at Madrid's Condeduque cultural center in 2023 -- a program that featured performances by legends such as Autechre and younger artists like Caterina Barbieri and KMRU. The duo's encore that evening, recorded for Spain's Radio 3, resonated deeply with the audience, igniting a creative spark that propelled them to work remotely in their respective studios. At the heart of their effort lies a delicate balance of restraint and innovation, evident in the live concert track "Waking Up Dizzy on a Bastion." This piece, inspired by their musical sensibilities, serves as a testament to their shared vision and mutual respect. Utilizing a familiar parallel chord progression, the track builds from a simple melodic motif played live on synths that transforms into a call-and-response interplay between Mogard's synth lines and Irisarri's bowed guitar loops, creating a dialogue-like interaction between the musicians. Building upon the energy of that live performance, Mogard and Irisarri crafted "Place of Forever," a companion piece that combines Mogard's Farfisa organ and modular synthesizers with Irisarri's signature guitar tones and looping techniques at his Black Knoll studio in New York. Starting with a somber and minimal tone, the track gradually evolves, unfurling layers of deep bass tonalities draped in blissful gauze as it progresses during its 17-plus minute duration. The resulting album exudes a profound sense of alchemy, effortlessly weaving intricate soundscapes that feel simultaneously faraway and intimate. The cover artwork, by Marja de Sanctis, depicts a vase sculpture made of unfired clay. Created and photographed by herself, it reflects lights and shadows of fragility. Daniel Castrej?n's design responds to the image transforming the shape of the vase into lines and empty spaces. Through these joint pieces, Mogard and Irisarri have created a work that encapsulates the dichotomy inherent in its title: Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BKE 018LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri's partnership unfolded serendipitously at the sold-out opening of the SoundSet Series at Madrid's Condeduque cultural center in 2023 -- a program that featured performances by legends such as Autechre and younger artists like Caterina Barbieri and KMRU. The duo's encore that evening, recorded for Spain's Radio 3, resonated deeply with the audience, igniting a creative spark that propelled them to work remotely in their respective studios. At the heart of their effort lies a delicate balance of restraint and innovation, evident in the live concert track "Waking Up Dizzy on a Bastion." This piece, inspired by their musical sensibilities, serves as a testament to their shared vision and mutual respect. Utilizing a familiar parallel chord progression, the track builds from a simple melodic motif played live on synths that transforms into a call-and-response interplay between Mogard's synth lines and Irisarri's bowed guitar loops, creating a dialogue-like interaction between the musicians. Building upon the energy of that live performance, Mogard and Irisarri crafted "Place of Forever," a companion piece that combines Mogard's Farfisa organ and modular synthesizers with Irisarri's signature guitar tones and looping techniques at his Black Knoll studio in New York. Starting with a somber and minimal tone, the track gradually evolves, unfurling layers of deep bass tonalities draped in blissful gauze as it progresses during its 17-plus minute duration. The resulting album exudes a profound sense of alchemy, effortlessly weaving intricate soundscapes that feel simultaneously faraway and intimate. The cover artwork, by Marja de Sanctis, depicts a vase sculpture made of unfired clay. Created and photographed by herself, it reflects lights and shadows of fragility. Daniel Castrej?n's design responds to the image transforming the shape of the vase into lines and empty spaces. Through these joint pieces, Mogard and Irisarri have created a work that encapsulates the dichotomy inherent in its title: Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: BKE 018YE-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Yellow color vinyl version. Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri's partnership unfolded serendipitously at the sold-out opening of the SoundSet Series at Madrid's Condeduque cultural center in 2023 -- a program that featured performances by legends such as Autechre and younger artists like Caterina Barbieri and KMRU. The duo's encore that evening, recorded for Spain's Radio 3, resonated deeply with the audience, igniting a creative spark that propelled them to work remotely in their respective studios. At the heart of their effort lies a delicate balance of restraint and innovation, evident in the live concert track "Waking Up Dizzy on a Bastion." This piece, inspired by their musical sensibilities, serves as a testament to their shared vision and mutual respect. Utilizing a familiar parallel chord progression, the track builds from a simple melodic motif played live on synths that transforms into a call-and-response interplay between Mogard's synth lines and Irisarri's bowed guitar loops, creating a dialogue-like interaction between the musicians. Building upon the energy of that live performance, Mogard and Irisarri crafted "Place of Forever," a companion piece that combines Mogard's Farfisa organ and modular synthesizers with Irisarri's signature guitar tones and looping techniques at his Black Knoll studio in New York. Starting with a somber and minimal tone, the track gradually evolves, unfurling layers of deep bass tonalities draped in blissful gauze as it progresses during its 17-plus minute duration. The resulting album exudes a profound sense of alchemy, effortlessly weaving intricate soundscapes that feel simultaneously faraway and intimate. The cover artwork, by Marja de Sanctis, depicts a vase sculpture made of unfired clay. Created and photographed by herself, it reflects lights and shadows of fragility. Daniel Castrej?n's design responds to the image transforming the shape of the vase into lines and empty spaces. Through these joint pieces, Mogard and Irisarri have created a work that encapsulates the dichotomy inherent in its title: Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 102CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Forest Law's debut album, Zero, is a vibrant journey blending Balearic funk with urban Tropicalia, showcasing his adept guitar playing, old-school sampling, and UK-styled beats alongside his mellow yet sombre vocals. Recorded across eclectic locations from Icelandic fish net factories to a garden shed in Romford, this innovative release marks a new chapter for the multi-instrumentalist producer. Released in collaboration with the UK home for jazz and electronic sounds, Total Refreshment Centre, Zero is Forest Law's first release since his debut EP on Brownswood Recordings in 2020, marking a new and exciting chapter for the up-and-coming talent. Crafted over seven years, Zero is deeply influenced by Law's experiences, from immersive stays in Porto where he delved into Portuguese music to an artist residency in a remote Icelandic fishing village. The album was finished, and recorded in his garden shed in Romford, East London. It's a beautiful juxtaposition about a boy from Essex, who fell in love with international music, discovered the world, and then produced a musical treatise about his adventures from his shed.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 103CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Introducing Azerbaijani Gitara Vol. 2 by R?hman M?mm?dli, the eagerly awaited sequel to Bongo Joe's acclaimed debut featuring R?st?m Quliyev. Born from the vibrant streets of Baku, Azerbaijani gitara culture has evolved into a mesmerizing fusion of indigenous traditions and global influences. From the oil boom era to Soviet rule, musicians have embraced the electric guitar as a symbol of cultural expression. R?hman M?mm?dli, a legend in his own right, revolutionized the sound with his innovative techniques and impassioned performances. Drawing inspiration from mugham music, M?mm?dli's compositions resonate with soul-stirring melodies and electrifying solos. Azerbaijani Gitara Vol. 2 promises to captivate listeners with its depth, diversity, and unbridled passion, inviting you on a journey through the heart and soul of Azerbaijan's musical heritage.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: BJR 45032EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Introducing the much anticipated 7'' vinyl featuring two standout tracks from Sami Galbi. Face A is "Dakchi Hani," a poignant post-breakup anthem blending ra? influences with contemporary rhythms, offering a humorous take on navigating emotions. Face B showcases "Rruina," a powerful follow-up track that delves deeper into darker, club-oriented sounds, pushing the boundaries of Swiss-Moroccan ra?-chaabi fusion. Seamlessly transitioning from the raw synths and bouncing rhythms of "Dakchi Hani" to the tension-filled atmosphere of "Rruina," this vinyl promises a captivating journey through Sami Galbi's musical evolution. With each track tailored for the dancefloors, this vinyl release is poised to explode with energy wherever it goes.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 445CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dumbo Tracks returns with a second album Move With Intention -- the anticipated follow up to 2022's eponymous debut. Philipp Janzen and collaborators deliver a varied collection of nine zoned-out grooves direct from Dumbo Studio in Cologne, with vocal contributions from Portable, Ada, Marker Starling, Rubee Fegan, and nothhingspecial. Looking back to his musical upbringing, Philipp Janzen switched up the recording process from the first record to incorporate more of a live band element. The result is a more eclectic sound which allowed more freedom to experiment, while keeping the collaborative spirit that is a vital Dumbo Tracks trademark. The genesis of the record began in Italy, where Philipp and co-producer Julian Stetter traveled to jam out ideas on modular synths over the course of a few days. These ideas served as the basis for more instrumental tracks back at Dumbo Studio, where Philipp invited friends to develop the tracks further within a live dynamic. For the final phase of the record, Philipp enlisted the artistry of five vocalists: spoken word frontwoman Rubee Fegan, Canadian singer songwriter Marker Starling, house romantic Portable, Bonn-based haunted pop artist nothhingspecial and Hamburg's techno visionary Ada. The title track sees Philipp and crew slow the tempo down to a molasses dreamscape, a beatdown groove that's joined by Paris-residing artist Portable. It all makes for a gloriously eclectic album, an anarchic pop record that follows its own rules. Move With Intention is both electronic yet alive, motorik and pastoral, filled with dancefloor grooves and a krautrock swagger. In this sense the intention is clear: to respectfully rip up the rule book and keep moving forward.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BYR 047LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Acclaimed UK electronic music producer, DMX Krew has announced a brand-new album, Unlikely Seeming, on the Byrd Out label. The eight-track album showcases his blend of joyous, melodic synth hooks, textured pads and analogue drum machine rhythms. Leaving to one side pummeling sounds, the focus of this album is on sonic fun, mining the '80s pop vibe DMX Krew does so well. BBC 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft describes the trailing single "Wednesday Memory" as "the funkiest thing ever; it's almost too joyous." From the first "A New Story," through to "Uncertain Calculation," DMX Krew delivers densely layered and satisfying tracks, demonstrating the more imaginative side of his output. The slight outlier is "Continuation" which offers the most forceful 303 workout, best suited to a sweaty dance floor in the early hours. Overall, the feel is playful, intelligent, melodic and wonderfully fun -- best exemplified by multi-synth masterpiece "Data Cruncha" and Megadrive-esque title track "Unlikely Seeming." To finish the album, "Unlikely Seeming" is given a rework by Portland-based artist Break Mode, managing to achieve a remix that is at once ethereal and uplifting -- it has 4am written all over it. DMX Krew, aka Edward Upton, has been crafting innovative electronic music for nearly 30 years, releasing on the likes of Rephlex, Central Processing Unit, and Gudu. With a sound rooted in synth-pop, electro, and Italo disco, DMX Krew's music evokes nostalgia for pop melodies and the early days of rave culture.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BYT 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Having worked silently in her sonic philosophy for almost a decade, vocalist, music producer and DJ Telva has launched her music label byt', starting with the publication of her debut album. The album, Revelation, opens with an unusual and experimental offering, which sets the tone for the label's subsequent eclectic and unexpected releases. The compilation of ten tracks has been documented for five years through an experimental vocal, instrumental sonic journey, that is composed of Telva's life experiences during this period. Telva is a vocalist, producer and only vinyl DJ based in Berlin. Defining her path through art in every sense of it by turning passion into a way of life, she has been playing and collecting records as main craft since 2016. Followed by uninterrupted hours in the studio, her creations and sonic philosophy, aka record label byt', have been materialized by the wide range of influences she's been absorbing along her way as an artist, where different cultures, scenes, and places have shaped and influenced her understanding and projection of her musical vision. Her love for the underground movement and the deep work in silence have made her music shows special and respected. For listeners and dancers, her well-chosen exposure is an unexpected experience. Her purpose is to offer quality music based on eclectic diversity, that surprises the audience with the love it spreads through sound, aiming to touch their hearts. The label will be composed of solo releases, sonic cinematic experiences, collaborations and other archives, spanning an unlimited wide range of genres, yet rooted mainly in electronic music.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CF 149CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Castle Face presents Dan Rincon's (OSEES, Wild Thing, Apache, Personal and the Pizzas) premier solo release Spotlight City. Artificial landscapes and melodies comprised of Moog Grandmother, Mellotron and a kinky Modular system span from beautiful and lilting to haunting and ethereal. The album was a years-long learning experience of getting all components and ingredients to link arms and blend comfortably. Wrangling was part of the process. Strings soaring and sines weaving. Sometimes in the atmosphere, sometimes in the Earth's core, sometimes flanked by neon blur as it hums and weave patterns through a world imagined in vintage sci-fi pulp. 'I was listening to a lot of solo Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler records while writing this record and I'd say that both have been hugely inspirational on what I want to do as a solo recording artist. The way both of those artists pushed the early, chaotic electronic music into something more melodic is really inspiring to me, it's not that dissimilar than trying to get melodies out of a modular synthesizer.' An absolute necessary slab for anyone a fan of CF, OSEES, Popol Vuh soundtracks, eight-bit video game accompaniment, and '80s Tangerine Dream. Burn one and burn out."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: CF 149LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. "Castle Face presents Dan Rincon's (OSEES, Wild Thing, Apache, Personal and the Pizzas) premier solo release Spotlight City. Artificial landscapes and melodies comprised of Moog Grandmother, Mellotron and a kinky Modular system span from beautiful and lilting to haunting and ethereal. The album was a years-long learning experience of getting all components and ingredients to link arms and blend comfortably. Wrangling was part of the process. Strings soaring and sines weaving. Sometimes in the atmosphere, sometimes in the Earth's core, sometimes flanked by neon blur as it hums and weave patterns through a world imagined in vintage sci-fi pulp. 'I was listening to a lot of solo Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler records while writing this record and I'd say that both have been hugely inspirational on what I want to do as a solo recording artist. The way both of those artists pushed the early, chaotic electronic music into something more melodic is really inspiring to me, it's not that dissimilar than trying to get melodies out of a modular synthesizer.' An absolute necessary slab for anyone a fan of CF, OSEES, Popol Vuh soundtracks, eight-bit video game accompaniment, and '80s Tangerine Dream. Burn one and burn out."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CVSD 108CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Kyosaku is a trio. Guitarist Finn Loxbo. Electric bassist Else Bergman. Drummer Ryan Packard. They are based in Stockholm. Together, they explore intensive plateaus. States of constant ecstasy. Kyosaku's music has been described as relentless. But it's really a combination of mesmerizing and prodding, the name a reference to Zen Buddhist "encouragement stick," used to rouse dozy meditators. Packard says: "Relentless as a conceptual place to live within. To be wide awake, relentlessly. To use a full peripheral vision and accept the full spectrum of color. To saturate. To stay within and grow deeper into the details of density, of a shared cohesive spirit. Endless variations under a common cause of stasis." With full-on heavy-hitting sound, this might seem to forecast a brutal listen, but on their second outing, Kyosaku, the band drills deep into detail, the buoyant music gradually shifting while maintaining its ferocity, in a way inviting comparison with Kommun, another group with Loxbo and Packard (also Lisa Ull?n and Vilhelm Bromander) in which they explore the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum, also with an intensity and constancy. On the CD's two longform tracks, the music comes with influences hidden and explicit, from Mahavishnu Orchestra to Melt Banana, but it's entirely original, featuring the sum creative energies of its three potent parts, sustained groove serving the purpose of raising the intensity bar. Packard again: "We have collectively agreed upon the idea that under no circumstances should you let up. We propose this question to ourselves before we play: If you start with max intensity, is there more room to go? How does one collectively sustain at such a high intensity, volume? Where is your focus?" For the listener, focal point is also the point. Are you listening? How closely? How does your attention shift? What do you notice in the sound, in the manner of articulation, in the variations and the repetitions? And what are the joys of listening so closely to something so powerful? Like putting your hand on the ribcage of a sleeping tiger. Recorded by Christopher Roth at Studio Dubious, November 23-24, 2022. Mixed and mastered by Lasse Marhaug. Photo by Daniel Piaggio Strandlund.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: DE 317EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Coti K. brings five tracks of Balearic-ambient sweetness to Dark Entries. Italian-Greek musician Costantino Luca Rolando Kiriakos has been a pioneering force in the Athens electronic music scene since the mid-'80s, wearing hats as diverse as composer, sound engineer, and installation artist. His countless projects and collaborators include Tuxedomoon, Stereo Nova, In Trance 95, and RAW (previously reissued by Dark Entries). 1994's Theros, Kiriakos's first release as Coti K., was comprised of three tracks of breezy downtempo beats, brimming with smooth breaks, boomy 808s, and cosmically chill pads and pianos. In tune with the global vibes of the emerging ambient electronica movement, Coti K. brings a dose of his Hellenic heritage with tracks titles like 'Argonauts' and 'Theros.' The title track includes spoken word contributions from Konstantinos Bhta of Stereo Nova and is built off of a drum loop from Greek goth outfit Flowers of Romance. The sauntering 'Blue' features vocals by Christina Moraki which were captured on a portable tape recorder, while the instrumental 'Argonauts' is bolstered by cello from Nikos Veliotis. This reissue also includes two tracks from Coti's 1997 debut LP ? 'Shoal' and 'Notte Estiva' -- which have never before appeared on vinyl, and show Coti experimenting with ambient and IDM styles. The cover art for Theros is a photo of the ocean by Giannis Papaioannou of RAW featuring early digital processing done on a Macintosh LC. Coti's Theros is a timely slice of '90s nostalgia with a uniquely Mediterranean twist."

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: FANT 002LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Limited 2024 restock. Juan N?jera was a multifaceted musician by profession, and he did not always have the privilege of being able to dedicate his life to music. For almost ten years he ran a family hardware store in Hu?nuco and then a mechanic shop on La Marina Avenue in Lima. He was also a truck driver. A decade of military dictatorships in Latin America made the artist's path very hard in the region, and Peru was no exception. N?jera was only nineteen when his first son was born. He had to make a living and the possibilities for entrepreneurship were slim. But if we go back in history, Juan N?jera was, first and foremost, a boy who dreamed of becoming a musician. Later, he was a boy who made it. Los Darlings de Hu?nuco managed to cross borders, not only in the capital of Peru, but also abroad. There are many collectors and music lovers around the world who seek and appreciate their songs, musical gems that have toured different latitudes and have managed to position this band from the Peruvian countryside in the most remote places on the planet. In a country characterized by its centralism, where opportunities in the countryside are much scarcer than in the capital, where the foreigner is greeted with more warmth than the local, and where getting ahead, especially in the musical field, implies an extraordinary effort, Los Darlings de Hu?nuco managed to take their sound to where they never thought it would be possible. From the Andes to the skyscrapers, from the heart of Hu?nuco to the immensity of other continents.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOL 933H-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

180 gram vinyl. "King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 by Columbia Records. It is considered one of the most influential blues releases. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 374 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: DC 892LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Drag City presents the first ever vinyl pressing of guitarist Lee Underwood's under-sung 1988 acoustic guitar opus, California Sigh. Lee Underwood had been Tim Buckley's stalwart, inspiring, accompanying and being inspired by Buckley as they both navigated a heady set of changes in the late '60s and early '70s. Then, he abruptly stopped working as a professional musician, leaving behind a body of work, that, as noted by Eugene Chadbourne, was the work of 'a loner, who didn't quite march under any one flag, whose improvisations involved the level of sophisticated harmonic development one finds in jazz, floating as freely as Ornette Coleman.' 35 years later, yet still in time, train your ears on the meditations of California Sigh! As Byron Coley's liner notes observe: 'The music is guitar-based acoustic instrumental melodicism with a lovely tone and alternately ruminative and jazzy structuring. The playing is generally in the vein of William Ackerman and Alex de Grassi rather than progenitors like Basho and Fahey, although 'Lady of the Streams' does display a bit of a Fahey lilt at times. Throughout these pieces there are also flashes of single string runs straight out of the Django Reinhardt playbook. But the overall mood is tranquil -- reflecting the musical joys Underwood found when surrounded by nature.' The tenor of the production is transcendent to be sure. The playing of Chas Smith and Kevin Braheny Fortune, on pedal steel and soprano sax respectively, lend additional colors to Lee's music on several songs, but it is largely the soulful depth of Lee's guitar figures, limned by Steve Roach's synthesizers and the Roach/Underwood co-production, that give dynamic shape and elevation to Lee's lovely cycle of songs. And now, with this remastered vinyl edition, the air around the instruments -- both real and implied -- and the full sonic impact of California Sigh -- alternately gentle and mighty, like the natural world that inspired it -- is magnified incomparably. In the years following the release of California Sigh, Lee wrote and recorded two solo piano CDs, Phantom Light and Gathering Light. He continues to live in Northern California. California Sigh is 'dedicated with love and respect' by Lee to his late wife, Sonia Crespi, for the friendship and inspiration she brought."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: DC 902LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Drummer Chris Corsano is a tireless collaborator. Among the 150 or so albums that he's contributed to over the past 25 years, only six have been credited to Chris alone, which makes the existence of The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]) a rare instance of Chris going deep on his own vision. Indeed, this album finds him involved in every aspect of the process, from making the string-drums that the music is based upon, to playing all parts of the music, mixing them, and doing the cover art, too! This is a special album, bringing his encompassing focus on free improvisation and noise into a granular fusion with acoustic experiments and ideations of hard rock riffing and the post-punk sound. In Chris Corsano's collaborations over time with Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee, Dredd Foole, Michael Flower, Paul Dunmall, Bill Orcutt, Nate Wooley, Mette Rasmussen, C. Spencer Yeh, Ben Chasny, and Sir Richard Bishop (as individuals, and together as Rangda), Bill Nace, Wally Shoup, Evan Parker, and dozens of other players, it's clear the vibe may get intense/heavy/OUT. Accessing this place, in itself, is an incredible calling -- but on The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]), the intensity radiates entirely from inside Chris's process, in conversation with himself. And that's something that hit a bit different once he was done making it. The pieces here were largely built out of Chris's string drum playing, utilizing a setup he's created involving a silicone string, stretched across a snare drum with a bridge. When the string is hit, it resonates the drum -- a conception similar to that of the banjo, but with more of a bass tone. Several songs focus on Chris playing a bass string drum with a full kit, while the basic parts of two other pieces ('I Don't Have Missions,' 'The Full-Measure Wash Down') implied possibilities for full band arrangements which Chris was compelled to respond to himself. All the results on the tape, when listened back, found a higher order, transcending sequences of experimentation and technique, becoming much more than the sum of an internal conversation, standing together as a set of insistently compelling pieces of a whole. And so they became The Key (Became the Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]). They unlocked something in Chris Corsano."

 

PRICE: $14.00

CAT #: DC 918CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon fragile timecraft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are a) back, b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares, and c) not wasting another minute -- as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade -- yep, it's been since 2012's Toward the Low Sun -- they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music's their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything. The Dirty Three -- Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White -- formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they'd broken out -- out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot -- and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they've gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. These lot were born to be as weathered as they are today. Time doesn't matter. They make their gathered wisdom of the ages sing like something new every time. It renews. And Love Changes Everything."

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: DC 918CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Cassette version. "Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon fragile timecraft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are a) back, b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares, and c) not wasting another minute -- as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade -- yep, it's been since 2012's Toward the Low Sun -- they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music's their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything. The Dirty Three -- Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White -- formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they'd broken out -- out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot -- and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they've gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. These lot were born to be as weathered as they are today. Time doesn't matter. They make their gathered wisdom of the ages sing like something new every time. It renews. And Love Changes Everything."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: DC 918LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon fragile timecraft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are a) back, b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares, and c) not wasting another minute -- as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade -- yep, it's been since 2012's Toward the Low Sun -- they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music's their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything. The Dirty Three -- Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White -- formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they'd broken out -- out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot -- and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they've gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. These lot were born to be as weathered as they are today. Time doesn't matter. They make their gathered wisdom of the ages sing like something new every time. It renews. And Love Changes Everything."

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DC 934LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

"Evil Does Not Exist is an expansive new soundtrack undertaking from Eiko Ishibashi, a stellar further display of her ability to explicate the depths of the unspoken in her music. That it is also the soundtrack to the new Ryusuke Hamaguchi feature is marvelous news for all who loved her score for his Oscar-winning 2021 film, Drive My Car. That her music harmonizes effortlessly with the state of nature as depicted in his film, a nuanced tale of humans' uneasy efforts to maintain co-existence with the delicate state of the planet, is a further profound achievement. At play here, though, is much more than fantastic new music from a powerful new film -- it is evidence of a vital recomposition of the relationship of sound to narrative, and composer to filmmaker. The impetus for this came when Eiko was asked by overseas promoters for a program of live performances backed by visuals. After some thought, she asked Hamaguchi if he would make something for her to use for this purpose. This led Hamaguchi to develop the script further, with sequences of dialogue. In the end, he made two works: Gift, a silent film to act as a visual score for a live performance by Ishibashi, and Evil Does Not Exist, his new narrative feature film, which provided the visual material for the silent film Gift and features Eiko's music as its soundtrack. This is a fittingly synergistic exchange within their two disciplines, in which the moods and intentions of the music and the film acted in practical conversation: each one a sovereign statement, made possible by its relationship with the other. Eiko's compositions are scored for violin, cello, guitar, drums and keyboards. Her longtime partner Jim O'Rourke played the guitar and mixed and mastered the recordings when they were done, eliciting further the necessary nuances of atmosphere and mood that one would expect in one film, much less two!"

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: EMEGO 310LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Directions Out Of Town is the latest and teased as (possibly) the last LP by DIY electronic abstract pop wizard Finlay Shakespeare. Directions Out Of Town is a fierce mix of headstrong pop bangers. There is simply no one else traversing the field that Shakespeare is exploring. It can be lonely in the desert. Lyrically, Directions Out Of Town is dealing with loss; personally, geographically, politically, culturally -- a general decay of everything. This new record is heavily inspired by structural film where the results unravel a method where metaphor is removed from the act of sound synthesis, production and mix of the tracks. Fiercely independent and brimming with integrity this is a deeply effective journey through machines of the human experience. The track titles are telling: "Away," "Get," "Direction," "I go for a walk," etc. This is sentiment via complex synthesis wrung through patterns of pop. One also finds ways out that only turn out to be false/untrue. What is ostensibly an electro pop record reveals a multitude of layers and depth as one man and his machines wrestle with the reality of this tangled matrix. If the charts had brains this would be album of the year. Finlay Shakespeare is an electronic musician working in the UK. His fascination for synthesized sound was born out of his parents' record collection, leading him to explore the electronic music of decades past throughout his teenage years. While starting to write and record his own tracks, he also began learning analogue electronics, which led him to design and build his own equipment. To date, he has released work on Editions Mego, Superpang, and his own GOTO Records.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: EMK 008LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. A blend of Emika's neoclassical descending melodies, signature breathy, female vocals, icey pianos, heavy sub-bass vibrations and layered hazy beats. Sat between her life in moving-boxes, wedged between them surrounding her upright piano in an unfurnished empty-sounding room in her in-laws house. Haze was made with voice-memo recordings of her piano and voice on her phone, edited and mixed on her laptop in headphones. Little loops in Ableton, lyrics, sadness and melodies, just like Emika's real-life in boxes. Sounds like a mix of Thom Yorke, Burial, Nils Frahm, all swirled together in a colorful yet creamy mix.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: FAITICHE 036LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Jan Jelinek's Social Engineering brings together thirteen text fragments from so-called phishing emails. Using speech synthesis, they are spoken, sung, and/or transformed into abstract textures. The result is a 36-minute language and sound collage devoted to the dark forces of phishing.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: FARO 244CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Having spent their formative years in S?o Paulo Brazil, as a teenager, Lau Ro found themself uprooted from their home. Moving with their family to Europe in search of a better quality of life, their story was like that of many immigrants in the same position. Lau Ro's parents found work in factories and cleaning jobs, for the first few years in the North of Italy and then in Brighton on England's Southern coast. "We never managed to visit back home, so my connection to Brazil became largely made up of childhood memories and my fascination with all the '60s and '70s music I could find from there." In Brighton, the young non-binary singer and composer would immerse themself amongst the city's vanguard of free-thinking artists and musicians. Lau Ro formed Wax Machine whose prefigurative, psychedelic community provided a glimmer of countercultural hope amid a backdrop of national political decline. From 2020 to 2023, Wax Machine birthed three cult-favorite albums in as many years; indebted in part to their British psychedelic forebears from progressive folk, rock and jazz yore. But the kernel of Lau's Brazilian sound was already beginning to blossom across Wax Machine's releases. Now, taking root deeper still, Lau Ro steps forward with their debut album: Cabana. Named after the small wood cabin at the bottom of their garden where the album was recorded, Cabana is a deeply personal record of memory, self-discovery and imagination. Melancholy and hope combine across ten tracks of dreamy bossa, ambient folk, fuzzy tropicalia and majestic MPB. The music is swathed in masterful string arrangements and trippy electronics in equal part, while Lau Ro's delicate, yet quietly confident voice takes acerbic aim (in both English and Portuguese) at polluted city life, while dreaming of a utopia, rich with nature and wildlife. Like the musical equivalent of semantic drift, Lau Ro's displacement led to the creation of another Brazil. A mythic place in Lau's soul, as they put it, "where the sunshine and joy of my childhood remained untapped." Lau continues: "It's music that might sound as if it came out of a parallel universe Brazil, rather than its modern-day landscape. I am nowadays rediscovering Brazil, going back as often as I can and trying to stay connected to these different parts of the world and myself."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: FARO 244LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Having spent their formative years in S?o Paulo Brazil, as a teenager, Lau Ro found themself uprooted from their home. Moving with their family to Europe in search of a better quality of life, their story was like that of many immigrants in the same position. Lau Ro's parents found work in factories and cleaning jobs, for the first few years in the North of Italy and then in Brighton on England's Southern coast. "We never managed to visit back home, so my connection to Brazil became largely made up of childhood memories and my fascination with all the '60s and '70s music I could find from there." In Brighton, the young non-binary singer and composer would immerse themself amongst the city's vanguard of free-thinking artists and musicians. Lau Ro formed Wax Machine whose prefigurative, psychedelic community provided a glimmer of countercultural hope amid a backdrop of national political decline. From 2020 to 2023, Wax Machine birthed three cult-favorite albums in as many years; indebted in part to their British psychedelic forebears from progressive folk, rock and jazz yore. But the kernel of Lau's Brazilian sound was already beginning to blossom across Wax Machine's releases. Now, taking root deeper still, Lau Ro steps forward with their debut album: Cabana. Named after the small wood cabin at the bottom of their garden where the album was recorded, Cabana is a deeply personal record of memory, self-discovery and imagination. Melancholy and hope combine across ten tracks of dreamy bossa, ambient folk, fuzzy tropicalia and majestic MPB. The music is swathed in masterful string arrangements and trippy electronics in equal part, while Lau Ro's delicate, yet quietly confident voice takes acerbic aim (in both English and Portuguese) at polluted city life, while dreaming of a utopia, rich with nature and wildlife. Like the musical equivalent of semantic drift, Lau Ro's displacement led to the creation of another Brazil. A mythic place in Lau's soul, as they put it, "where the sunshine and joy of my childhood remained untapped." Lau continues: "It's music that might sound as if it came out of a parallel universe Brazil, rather than its modern-day landscape. I am nowadays rediscovering Brazil, going back as often as I can and trying to stay connected to these different parts of the world and myself."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: FKR 001X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 restock. To mark its 2015 ten-year anniversary, the Finders Keepers label presents an improved, remastered repress, with updated liner notes in a gatefold sleeve, of its first release, a reissue of Jean-Claude Vannier's 1972 album L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches. At the time of the 2005 reissue the resurgence of '60s Gallic pop, once known as y?-y? music, had escalated beyond an interstellar height. Without a shadow of doubt, the flagship LP with the best odds on becoming a discerning household object was Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971) by one Serge Gainsbourg, an inimitable 45-minute concept LP handcrafted by a bass-driven psychedelic rock group and a heaven-sent 1001-piece orchestral and choral symphony. The album left hip hop producers and progressive rock aficionados crying out for more and more for years to come. This LP was in a league of its very own... or was it? The seldom-sung musical arranger for Melody Nelson, Jean-Claude Vannier, is the lesser-spotted tell-tale seal of sample-friendly quality when it comes to crate-digging "en Fran?ais." Suitably, rumors among French record dealers claiming "the band who played Melody Nelson recorded a follow-up LP" became a legend of psychedelic folklore. Another unconfirmed rumor about JCV taking the remaining outtakes of the beloved Melody Nelson to create a promo-only experimental rock LP left sample-hungry producers and DJs in turmoil... The answers to these mysteries lay between the gatefold sleeve of an undiscovered conceptual album bizarrely titled L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches by a custom-built avant-rock entourage called Insolitudes. So here we have it. For record-collectors looking for that special something, this LP contains the extra-special everything. Peruse the following genres: psychedelic, classical, soundtrack, jazz, hip hop, samples, avant-garde, funk. Then place a copy of L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches in each section. History notes that when M. Gainsbourg first heard the initial bones of this LP he took his poetic pencil to paper and composed bizarre liner notes, thus consummating the most extraordinary concept album of all time. The story "The Child Assassin of the Flies" was to be included as the only information to grace the LP's highly collectible concertina-gatefold sleeve. The story in full is reproduced in its native tongue on this very special re-release package. DJs and producers such as Jim O'Rourke, Stereolab's Tim Gane, and David Holmes have spent sleepless nights in perusal of original copies of this perfect release and now regard it as "One of the Best."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: FKR 062X-LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2024 restock. During the maiden voyage into an expansive vat of unreleased music by Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski, Finders Keepers Records originally presented his previously unreleased electro/ orchestral/experimental score for Andrzej Zulawski's surrealist '80s horror classic Possession in 2012. These 25 cues were written and recorded exclusively for the 1981 award-winning film starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neil, but due to the progressive, stark and modernist nature of the finished film less than half of them made it on to the actual director's cut -- leaving many of the tracks on this spackage totally unheard outside of Korzynski's studio. The intended Possession score in its entirety marks an important axis in Korzynski's career where his various musical disciplines overlap. In one respect it marks his first forays into to synth driven electronics and disco drum machines, while other tracks epitomize the well-honed techniques used in previous Zulawski scores, such as Third Part Of The Night and The Devil, which rely on his inimitable orchestral arrangements and combination of clavinet, Rhodes, piano and electric guitar. Available once again on black 12" vinyl for the first time since its original release some 11 years ago, Finders Keepers' ongoing commitment to the important restoration of Korzynski's music aims to shed new light on the seldom manufactured productions of the composer whose vast cinematic catalogue warrants overdue global status alongside other golden era Eastern European composers such as Kryzstof Komeda, Jan Hammer, and Zdenek Liska -- not to mention the best of the French and Italian soundtrackers, such as Roubaix, Vannier, and Nicolai. Duplicated and carefully remastered directly from Korzynski's original master tapes this album boasts the uninhibited studio experiments and retains the pre-cut ambience.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GET 51457LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress, purple vinyl. "Well before Shuggie Otis cut his debut album, musicianship and performance had long been a part of his life. The son of rhythm and blues legend Johnny Otis, Shuggie learned to play guitar as early as the age of two, and performed professionally with his father's band at eleven. Throughout his long and illustrious career he'd performed on records for the likes of Frank Zappa, Al Kooper, Etta James, and George Duke, to name a few. In spite of all this, widespread mainstream success eluded Shuggie for much of his career. His most famous release to date is his 1974 album Inspiration/Information, which would experience new resurgent life in the 2000s. Those willing to dig a little deeper however, would discover hidden gold in his earlier releases, especially in the album directly before Inspiration/Information, his sophomore 1971 release Freedom Flight. As with his debut, Freedom Flight was produced by Shuggie's father Johnny Otis, and built upon the distinct sounds of his debut album: lush, baroque, string section arrangements, paired with hard funk rhythms, and funky blues melodies, with the majority of the instruments once again performed by Shuggie himself. The album also features backing from premium session greats like George Duke and Aynsley Dunbar, and the track 'Strawberry Letter 23' which became a monster hit for The Brothers Johnson three years later. Freedom Flight is a treasure of deft, technical skill, and virtuosic composition."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: GODUNK 106CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Dez Dare ventures further into the void than ever before on his fourth album and the first to be released via God Unknown Records, A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin. On past records Dare has fought beasts and beats alike, waging a fuzz war and tackling the biggest topics the world has to face; doom scrolling, capitalist demagogues, a passionate dislike of the beach in summer. On this record he leaves the sardonic frustration behind for sarcastic existentialism, zeroing in on the big philosophical questions, and the pedantic shards of nonsense that make up our existence. Piling up the synths, noise boxes and guitar pedals, Dez set about building a soundscape of noise and ideas around the nature of reality, time, and how people interact with them. From the music you would play in your last moments, to the reverse Darwinism of modern society, to arguing with time itself, and very boring people talking at you, all is covered here for the aspiring existentialist. The self-produced Australian has spent over three decades producing music, releasing and touring bands, and doing live sound for z-grade metal bands. Growing up in the coastal town of Geelong (Djilang) in Australia, he was introduced to the DIY punk and rock scene at 15 and this community and the ideas rooted in the underground music scene have guided his output and ethics throughout his career. Across the drone of noise and washed-out guitars of the final track, "A Billion Voices Screaming, Hello Void!" the chant repeats "We all return to where we begun," which encapsulates the message that Dare delivers.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: GODUNK 106LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Dez Dare ventures further into the void than ever before on his fourth album and the first to be released via God Unknown Records, A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin. On past records Dare has fought beasts and beats alike, waging a fuzz war and tackling the biggest topics the world has to face; doom scrolling, capitalist demagogues, a passionate dislike of the beach in summer. On this record he leaves the sardonic frustration behind for sarcastic existentialism, zeroing in on the big philosophical questions, and the pedantic shards of nonsense that make up our existence. Piling up the synths, noise boxes and guitar pedals, Dez set about building a soundscape of noise and ideas around the nature of reality, time, and how people interact with them. From the music you would play in your last moments, to the reverse Darwinism of modern society, to arguing with time itself, and very boring people talking at you, all is covered here for the aspiring existentialist. The self-produced Australian has spent over three decades producing music, releasing and touring bands, and doing live sound for z-grade metal bands. Growing up in the coastal town of Geelong (Djilang) in Australia, he was introduced to the DIY punk and rock scene at 15 and this community and the ideas rooted in the underground music scene have guided his output and ethics throughout his career. Across the drone of noise and washed-out guitars of the final track, "A Billion Voices Screaming, Hello Void!" the chant repeats "We all return to where we begun," which encapsulates the message that Dare delivers.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: GOO 008LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Sonic Youth's eponymous debut EP, reissued in a deluxe double-LP edition on the band's own Goofin' imprint, was recorded in late 1981 at Radio City Music Hall in NYC and originally released on composer Glenn Branca's Neutral label. The album is loosely based on compositions the newly formed group had performed at that year's week-long Noisefest event (and remains the only recorded document of an early line-up featuring actor Richard Edson on drums). The newly remastered vinyl also features extra live material from a 1981 gig, and a track from a previously unheard studio session."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: GOO 020LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress; LP version. "One of Sonic Youth's most beloved albums, 1987's Sister incorporated the dissonance of their earlier releases into more traditional song structures. It's an innovative and thrilling work assuredly delivered by a band at the peak of their powers. Reissued on the band's Goofin' imprint, this 2016 pressing includes a digital download card with the vinyl edition."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: HARBGIS 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

last copies... RSD UK release from 2021 With the release of their debut album at the end of 2020, Girls In Synthesis proved that the hype was very much justified when it came to the bands tag as one of the most exciting in the UK. A concise and rabid blast of harsh post-punk, and released during the COVID crisis, the album eerily managed to capture the mood of the moment, despite being written and recorded in 2019. Rightly so, it was released to stunned reviews and featured in many "Best of 2020" end-of-year lists. Always a band with a militant work ethic, the first fruits of their fevered writing and recording period throughout 2020 are borne here with Shift In State. Featuring five brand new tracks, the mini-album sees the trio return to the experimental edge of their early, and highly sought-after, EP releases. The lead track "Containment", an abstract, bleak and circular slice of obtuse-punk gives way to an explosive and skewed dub remix featuring languorous horns and industrial sounding percussion. Following on, "... But Still You Wanted More" retains the dub minimalism and adds trudging, nihilistic lyrical content alongside churning, saw-sharp organ. "Calm Waters", the groups' first foray into a harsher, electronic landscape, brings to the forefront a crushing, relentless drum machine backbeat and woozy, warped bass hooks. Finishing on "Don't Try", this song sees the band return to their more familiar white-heat blast of post-punk. Shards of harsh, splintered guitar and pounding drums help push the theme of gross governmental incompetence well and truly into the listener's brain. Their incendiary live shows being hugely missed by fans, UK and EU dates are currently being signed off for late 2021 with further key releases also being lined up for release later in the year. Never a band to sit still, Shift In State sees GIS, once again, surmount all obstacles and proves them to be one of the most forward-thinking and tireless acts in the UK. White-in-black vinyl.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: HOL 133LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Limited 2024 repress! Reissue, originally released in 1974. Blending Native American references into a body of sonority that draws on free improvisation, experimental electronic music, and spiritual jazz, Pygmy Unit's Signals From Earth -- originally self-released by the band in 1974 -- forges a singular and almost entirely unknown path, and stands almost entirely on its own in the history of west coast American jazz. First appearing on the San Francisco scene sometime during the early 1970s, almost nothing is known about the Pygmy Unit, a seven-piece band steered by Darrel De Vore, who contributed flute, bass, percussion, piano, and vocals to the band's lone LP, first appeared with percussionist Terry Wilson within the psychedelic folk rock band, The Charlatans, who belonged to the legendary Family Dog scene. Jim Pepper, a Native American tenor saxophonist known for being a member of the Mal Waldron Quartet, played with Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, and numerous others, and produced the cult favorite, Pepper's Pow Wow, for Embryo Records in 1971. John Celona, who contributes parts on sax, synthesizer, and percussion, would later go on to be regarded as an electronic composer of some note. Of the remaining members, saxophonist Frank Albright, bassoonist Ron Grunn, and percussionist Marvin Kirkland, very little else is known. It seems this LP is more or less all they recorded. While undeniably jazz -- riding a remarkable line between avant-garde electronic music, spiritual jazz, and free improvisation -- the band was very much a product of the diverse creative ferment that developed in their hometown of San Francisco during the 1960s. Embodying the raw spirit of DIY (many of the instruments used in the recordings were made by DeVore himself, self-described as an "itinerant flute-maker") the ensemble channels references -- via passages of chanting and percussion, as well as conceptual underpinnings -- from Jim Pepper's Native American roots, intuiting them with the soulfulness of spiritual jazz, wild moments of avant-gardism centered around synths and electronic effects, and explosions of wild free improvisation. "Development of new music is a continuous path that grows directionally according to psychoacoustical phenomena available for unification. This record is evidence of that development, containing 12 performance pieces, at 12 separate times in different acoustical spaces with various combinations of musicians and instrumentation. The music is shaped by signals, received and sent by life forms on this planet. It is unwritten, unrehearsed, utilizing new and traditional approaches to energy, motion, and form. Eventually, music develops as a natural extension of the environment in which it exists. It is the aim of the traditions... to signal the universe from the Earth." Includes two booklets/replicas of original DeVore's publications; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: HOL 141LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Edition of 500 copies, screen printed cover. Includes two inserts: a replica of the original insert and the English translation. Henry Krutzen is a relatively shadowy figure in the history of experimental sound. Between the early '80s and the 2010s, there are only a handful of albums that bear his name, and very little information about them. A multi-instrumentalist and composer who studied percussion, saxophone, and harmony in various schools and jazz clinics across Belgium, over the years he played in a diverse range of musical projects across the idioms of jazz, new wave, heavy metal, experimental, chanson fran?aise, world music and progressive rock, before relocating to Brazil during the early 2000s. Silances, originally released by Igloo Records -- the Belgian imprint founded in 1978 by Daniel Sotiaux -- sitting alongside astounding and remarkably unique albums by Leo K?pper, Jacques Bekaert, Henri Chopin, Arthur P?tronio, Andr? Stordeur, and numerous others, is an entirely singular gesture at the borders of sound poetry, musique concr?te, and radical electroacoustic practice that draws upon disparate elements of drone, jazz, minimalism, ecstatic tribalism, and various traditions of music from across the globe. Decades on from its original release it remains as striking, unique, and compelling as it did upon its release. In a note that Krutzen penned in 2022 when he was contacted for the reissue of Silances, Krutzen recalls: "Since I was 16, I had been experimenting with concrete music with a technician friend and we used all a teenager's room could offer to make sounds into music: faucets, glasses of water, metal springs on ladders, objects of any kind? I had hours of recordings I pitched to Daniel [Sotiaux], to see if he was interested in making an album. I also had other ideas I wanted to be able to develop. What a joy when he accepted to work on the project! So I got to work. First, I set up a vocal improvisation quartet, and we spent long afternoons rehearsing using input I provided? We went into the studio and recorded almost two hours of improvisation, from which I then chose the best moments for the final product."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: ITR 389CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"'It's a new lineup,' landlord of the avant-garage Kid Congo Powers exclaims of the Pink Monkey Birds edition responsible for the fifth studio full-length of their nineteen-year recording career, That Delicious Vice. 'We've gone from a four piece to a three piece,' continues Kid, whose unique guitar style has been at the center of some of the most forward-thinking bands in punk and garage: The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Knoxville Girls, to name a handful. 'I'm not sure if living in the desert is making me want more space in music or not,' laughs Kid, a Tucson resident for a few years now. 'Maybe I'm turning into a desert stoner rocker. But I'm not a stoner, so that's not happening.' No, the former Brian Tristan is most decidedly not unleashing a Kyuss tribute album. But one hears the desert all over That Delicious Vice. But the album's major hallmark has to be its extended collaboration with Alice Bag, the face of and voice of early LA punk titans The Bags. How and why these two took this long to unite creatively is a dense mystery, considering both graduated with honors from early Hollywood punk palace The Masque. That Delicious Vice was produced by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, recorded and mixed by Jim Waters (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth) at his Waterworks Studios facility in Tucson. It features nine new original tracks that are the band's strongest to date."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ITR 389LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "'It's a new lineup,' landlord of the avant-garage Kid Congo Powers exclaims of the Pink Monkey Birds edition responsible for the fifth studio full-length of their nineteen-year recording career, That Delicious Vice. 'We've gone from a four piece to a three piece,' continues Kid, whose unique guitar style has been at the center of some of the most forward-thinking bands in punk and garage: The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Knoxville Girls, to name a handful. 'I'm not sure if living in the desert is making me want more space in music or not,' laughs Kid, a Tucson resident for a few years now. 'Maybe I'm turning into a desert stoner rocker. But I'm not a stoner, so that's not happening.' No, the former Brian Tristan is most decidedly not unleashing a Kyuss tribute album. But one hears the desert all over That Delicious Vice. But the album's major hallmark has to be its extended collaboration with Alice Bag, the face of and voice of early LA punk titans The Bags. How and why these two took this long to unite creatively is a dense mystery, considering both graduated with honors from early Hollywood punk palace The Masque. That Delicious Vice was produced by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, recorded and mixed by Jim Waters (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth) at his Waterworks Studios facility in Tucson. It features nine new original tracks that are the band's strongest to date."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: JMANSP 003EP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Marlena Shaw had made several LPs for respected labels such as Cadet and Blue Note, and she'd performed regularly throughout the '60s and '70s. But she hardly had what you might call diva status. Falling into the unfortunate category that slips uneasily between soul and jazz, she was accepted -- but not especially admired -- by aficionados of either genre. Then came the '90s, and an open-minded enthusiasm for soul and jazz -- and more importantly -- everything in between -- soon changed that. Marlena Shaw became an icon, and the diva status soon blossomed amongst her new-found soul-jazz fans. Marlena Shaw has endured decades of singing in the shadows, and she has only recently finally found her niche. On disc one is "California Soul," probably the most enduring and well-known of her many songs, but just a few seconds listening will tell you that it is much more than that. It's already a classic amongst those who have already seen the light and have danced and swayed to its timeless swing. Upon hearing it all lovers of soul, jazz -- or any other kind of good music -- will feel an aural glow as warm as the Californian sun. The song "Liberation Conversation" on the flip was only ever available on her highly revered 1969 LP The Spice of Life. This is where the "Blues ain't nothing but a good woman gone bad" launches into an irresistible, relentless up-tempo funk groove. Disc Two showcases "Wade in the Water," an ancient song rumored to have been developed and popularized by slaves in the American south. The message is to pass on the notion that by fleeing in a bid for freedom through streams and rivers, the scent that bloodhounds use to follow their victims will be obscured. Marlena's version has long been a favorite dancefloor filler since its 45-only release back in 1966. "Woman of the Ghetto" is one of her best-known songs and ends the set on the other side. The opening number from "The Spice of Life," it's since been recognized for the classic it is, and as such has been afforded anthemic status. We release the original 45 version here, as used to promote the LP back in the day. This 2x7" special product from Jazzman is dedicated to the memory of Marlena Shaw.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: K7 444EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

London outfit Kassian continue their broadly evolving yet highly detailed journey through and beyond sound towards something ever more expansive. Their second release for !K7 Records comes in the wake of creating a dedicated hardware-forward studio in a Northeast London container complex, where they have the freedom to interlink their machines. This renewed focus brought them to Supercontinent EP, named for the ancient geological era when Africa and South America were joined as Pangea. A reformulation of rhythmic ideas inspired by South African Amapiano and South American Baile Funk governs the two hemispheres of the record. The pair examine and deconstruct dancefloor material, eschewing 4/4 for interlocking shaker patterns, searing acid lines, cracking breakbeats, and vocal samples in Zulu and Brazil Portuguese. The immediacy of the restless rhythm and bass-led funk of "Yena" (the word Yena translates to "he/him /man") forms a sweet spot where double-time and half-time can coexist. "Yami" ("mine" in Zulu) is a slinkier proposition which sheds prominent percussion in favor of a weighty, fluid, acid-informed bassline undulating from below. An ascending percussive riff marks the arrival of "Pulgueiro," followed closely by break beats and the nostalgia of distinctly British acid electro; it is an intentionally future-forward retelling of a vintage sound, replete with a mind-melt breakdown of rave pads. A dubbed-out groove dominates the bottom-heavy "Sistema" -- a groovy, steady roller that chugs and propels and chugs with head-nod hypnotism through an intricately minimalistic approach.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: KITTO 005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Rising London R&B/neo soul artist Summer Pearl releases debut mixtape after the breakout success of singles "Green Eyes" and "Waste Your Time," backed by Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova, Jamie Cullum, Alexander Nut, Touching Bass and many more. Marking her first full release in three years, the mixtape is her most ambitious and accomplished project to date, complete with guest appearances from UK music royalty, including an enchanting feature from soul and reggae luminary Liam Bailey and heavyweight productions from brokenbeat virtuoso Kaidi Tatham. Described as "absolutely amazing" by the King of UK Soul, Omar, outmysystem showcases the full range of Summer's striking talent -- soulful and gritty, nostalgic and forward looking, melancholic and uplifting. Throughout, Summer blends a deep appreciation for soul, dub, reggae, hip-hop, and jazz to create her own distinct and refreshing sound. Warm, free flowing lyricism defines a deeply personal and heartfelt mixtape. RIYL: Noname, Little Simz, Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, Bel Cobain.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 240LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress; LP version. "South Carolina singer and producer Niecy Blues describes her songwriting process like an undertow: 'I feel a strange pull, and let it carry me, following swirling leaves... whole days roll by, forgetting about the body.' Their full-length debut, Exit Simulation, captures this sense of deep-rooted divination, cycling between simmering ballads, ghosted R&B, downtempo gospel, and looped vocal improvisations -- often within the same track. The title is taken from a science fiction novel she read during the purgatory of the pandemic, alluding to a dimensional ideation of departure -- 'the permission to imagine leaving.' Recorded in her current home of Charleston, she characterizes the album's mood in terms both reflective and raw: an exploration of things suppressed, foundations beginning to crack, 'talking myself off a ledge.' The music of Niecy Blues transposes reverie and reckoning into emotive devotionals of keys, guitar, bass, synth, and bewitched voice, steeped in sacred atmospheres gleaned from a youth spent in a religious Oklahoma household: 'My first experience with ambient music was church -- slow songs of worship, with delay on the guitar... even if you don't believe, you feel something.'"

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: KRANK 241CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The latest suite by composer (and Stars Of The Lid co-founder) Adam Wiltzie took shape following a move north from Brussels into the Flemish countryside, although it was initially inspired by a recurring dream wherein 'if someone listened to the music I created, then they would die.' The album uniquely evokes and evades the allure of oblivion, keening between beauty and ruin, forever unresolved. Wiltzie cites the barbiturate of the title as both muse and sacred escape: 'When you are sitting face forward on the daily emotional meat grinder of life, I always wished I could have some, so I could just fall asleep automatically and the feeling would not be there anymore.' Recorded at Wilzie's home studio, with strings added in Budapest at the old Hungarian National radio facility (Magyar Radio), the tracks feel simultaneously intimate and infinite, unfolding vistas glimpsed in an inner space. Robert Hampson of English drone rock icons Loop mixed the album, further lending the music a sense of cinematic expanse and oblique hypnosis. These are fugue states as much as fugues in a literal classical music sense -- smeared epiphanies of uncertain memory and spatial dislocation, coaxed from the unconscious and set aloft."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 241LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "The latest suite by composer (and Stars Of The Lid co-founder) Adam Wiltzie took shape following a move north from Brussels into the Flemish countryside, although it was initially inspired by a recurring dream wherein 'if someone listened to the music I created, then they would die.' The album uniquely evokes and evades the allure of oblivion, keening between beauty and ruin, forever unresolved. Wiltzie cites the barbiturate of the title as both muse and sacred escape: 'When you are sitting face forward on the daily emotional meat grinder of life, I always wished I could have some, so I could just fall asleep automatically and the feeling would not be there anymore.' Recorded at Wilzie's home studio, with strings added in Budapest at the old Hungarian National radio facility (Magyar Radio), the tracks feel simultaneously intimate and infinite, unfolding vistas glimpsed in an inner space. Robert Hampson of English drone rock icons Loop mixed the album, further lending the music a sense of cinematic expanse and oblique hypnosis. These are fugue states as much as fugues in a literal classical music sense -- smeared epiphanies of uncertain memory and spatial dislocation, coaxed from the unconscious and set aloft."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: LG 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Before Circus Lupus landed on DC's venerable Dischord Records, the group's original Midwest lineup recorded a full album's worth of songs less than a year after forming. With the demise of DC's Ignition in the late '80s, bass player Chris Thomson headed to Madison, WI for college. Before leaving DC, he dove headfirst into being a vocalist fronting the short-lived throwback punk/hardcore project Fury. Thomson served up pointed and profound Tony Cadena-inspired screeds about betrayal, disappointment and poseurs all set to a soundtrack of furiously primitive and chaotic music supplied by members of the DC punk band Swiz. Brief yet influential, this band marked Thomson's switch to vocals, putting him on course to front Circus Lupus and claim a notable spot in the DC punk timeline of the late 20th century. Soon after arriving in Madison, Thomson was invited to join a new project started by friends Chris Hamley, Arika Casebolt, and Reg Shrader. Circus Lupus marked a change in direction from the familiar sounds of DC punk that Thomson had been associated with for years. The newly formed group looked to noisier Touch & Go and Homestead bands for inspiration, aligning themselves with bands from Chicago, Louisville and Milwaukee. One early supporter of the band described the new group as 'profoundly familiar yet uncategorizable. Like if the Germs had gone to college and never got pulled into hard drugs and suicidal behaviors.' The original Circus Lupus lineup played a dozen shows and recorded these songs with Eli Janney at Inner Ear studios in August of 1990 while on a brief tour. Within a year, the band would decide to permanently relocate to Washington DC, where they felt they had more opportunities. Shrader opted to move to Chicago and would ultimately join the Touch and Go band Seam. Old friend Seth Lorinczi (Vile Cherubs) would become their new bass player, forming the version of the band that most listeners are familiar with. While a few of these ended up on their first single, the rest were shelved, some later to be rerecorded with Lorinczi and released on Dischord. L.G. Records is proud to have helped this notable recording see the light of day. The original tapes were recovered by Ian MacKaye and transferred by Darren Edwards. Tim Green remixed and remastered the original recordings at Louder Studios in California."

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: LPS PS016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

When Can is a journey through the realms of musical serendipity, an ode to the unexpected twists of collaborative intuition. Conceived in the spring of 2012, this masterpiece is the culmination of a decade-long friendship between Reimer Eising aka Kettel, and Lennard van der Last aka Secede, two of the most talented electronic music producers from The Netherlands. When Can is not just a collection of songs; it's a seamless continuum where each track breathes life into the next. As the listener delves into the sonic story, the music leads to uncharted territories, incorporating ambient and cinematic sounds and blending them with reminiscences from Renaissance to Baroque music. Far from a preconceived plan, the album organically unfolded, capturing the essence of the musical exploration from these two brilliant minds. More than a decade after its birth, Lapsus is proud to release When Can for the first time on vinyl. For this meticulously curated deluxe edition all the tracks have been remastered, and the artwork has been updated by Basora studio. And there's much more inside: two lithographic prints featuring original paintings by Jeroen Advocaat plus an extra 10" including the unreleased tracks "Zipvanes" -- a ten-minute alternative cut of "Ringvanes" -- and "Spoonful."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: LDM 007LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

Sid Spada unveils his first project, Stellagony, a unique musical adventure. After several collaborative projects, the Geneva rapper withdrew to craft nine tracks. Nine unique pieces in the sonic puzzle that contemporary rap has become. Stellagony is a chronicle of adolescence, its wanderings, its parties, its excesses, and a certain form of self-destruction. Entering a new phase of his life, Sid Spada scrutinizes his last ten years to narrate his mental and artistic evolution. This project is like a window to the past that allows its author to step back and embrace the future possibilities serenely. This artistic maturity forged during long months in the studio opens a new era. Each track, shaped by RougeHotel's production, who co-signs all the instrumentals of the project, serves as a sonic exploration rather than following fleeting trends. The album's atmosphere dances between melancholy and the fantasy permitted by hyperpop, drawing from Latin and club sounds. A skillful balance between dark emotions and avant-garde energy is established. Stellagony, produced by Sid Spada's label iuven, is presented by Les Disques Magn?tiques, a Geneva-based label affiliated with Bongo Joe Records.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: MONIKA 099EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Monika Enterprise welcomes a new act to her roster with Berlin based experimental pop duo Post Neo releasing their new EP. Individually known as Nicole Luj?n and Pauline Weh, both musicians pursued their own solo projects before forming the duo Post Neo. On Alles Immer Wieder they combine as more than the sum of their parts to produce five songs of dark and powerful experimental avant- pop which is released as an exclusive 10" vinyl. The EP's opening and title track "Alles Immer Wieder" (trans. Everything again and again) is a reflection on repetition and monotony as transcendence in the form of sleep, dreams, work and other daily cycles. The rhythmic juxtapositions and tempo shifts make for a captivating opening track. "Ganz Sch?n Was Los" (trans. A lot happening) has a proper synthwave electro pop vibe while the vocals lend a little light hearted humanity to the otherwise calculated computer music aesthetic. With its fusion of synthesizers and drum machines track B1 "Die Verwirrung" (trans. The confusion) brings a sense of melancholic doom. The flow of B2 "Wenn Wir W?ssten" (trans. If we knew what would happen) is a future-focused reflection on the unidirectional movement of time's arrow. Sampled harmonies and instrumental breakdowns make it possibly the most emotive track on the EP. And the record comes to a close with "Dreh dich" (trans. Turn around) which lures us in with delicate vocals before menacing synthesizer sounds blast listeners into oblivion. It is an invitation to turn the record over and start listening from the beginning again.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: NSD 817B-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Repressed. "In the late 1960s, vibraphonist Roy Ayers was among the top young talents in jazz, thriving during a remarkable era for the genre. While Ayers would later become a jazz-funk pioneer and delve heavily into R&B fusions, his third album Stoned Soul Picnic is a masterful showcase of soul-jazz grooves. Produced by Herbie Mann, Stoned Soul Picnic features a memorable Laura Nyro-penned title track, along with an exceptional lineup of musicians, including Gary Bartz, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Grady Tate. Originally released in 1968, this early Roy Ayers classic is now receiving an official reissue via Nature Sounds."

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: NR 129CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Ufomammut formed in the late '90s by Poia (guitars, FXs) and Urlo (bass, vocals, FXs, synths), rising from the ashes of past band Judy Corda, together with Vita (drums). With Levre taking over on drums in 2021, the band has undergone a rebirth, culminating in the release of the album Fenice and the Crookhead EP. Over the course of twenty-five years, the band has developed a unique sound that combines heavy, dynamic riff worship with a deep understanding of the psychedelic tradition in music. This has resulted in a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound that fully immerses listeners. The band has produced ten records along with various other releases, such as compilations, EPs, and live albums. Now, as they celebrate their quarter-century milestone, the band presents their latest album, Hidden. This album marks a shift in the band's musical composition, aiming for a more intense and heavy sound, and it's the third release featuring Levre as the band's new drummer. The title reflects the concept of the presence of everything in existence and the ability to bring to light what lies within. With Hidden, Ufomammut delves into a sonic journey that traverses vast expanses of space and time. From the crushing heaviness to the haunting melodies, from the textured compositions to the otherworldly atmospheres, it testifies to the never-ending evolution of the band and their mastery of creating immersive sonic experiences: a fitting celebration of their twenty-five years of sonic exploration and experimentation."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: NR 129LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Ufomammut formed in the late '90s by Poia (guitars, FXs) and Urlo (bass, vocals, FXs, synths), rising from the ashes of past band Judy Corda, together with Vita (drums). With Levre taking over on drums in 2021, the band has undergone a rebirth, culminating in the release of the album Fenice and the Crookhead EP. Over the course of twenty-five years, the band has developed a unique sound that combines heavy, dynamic riff worship with a deep understanding of the psychedelic tradition in music. This has resulted in a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound that fully immerses listeners. The band has produced ten records along with various other releases, such as compilations, EPs, and live albums. Now, as they celebrate their quarter-century milestone, the band presents their latest album, Hidden. This album marks a shift in the band's musical composition, aiming for a more intense and heavy sound, and it's the third release featuring Levre as the band's new drummer. The title reflects the concept of the presence of everything in existence and the ability to bring to light what lies within. With Hidden, Ufomammut delves into a sonic journey that traverses vast expanses of space and time. From the crushing heaviness to the haunting melodies, from the textured compositions to the otherworldly atmospheres, it testifies to the never-ending evolution of the band and their mastery of creating immersive sonic experiences: a fitting celebration of their twenty-five years of sonic exploration and experimentation."

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: NR 130CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"At its heart, music has always been a questioning of inheritance -- a dialogue with predecessors and forebears, the forging of one's own perspective in relation to what has come before, and for some, a plunge into the boundless realms between. For Steve Von Till, that process has always taken on an added dimension to become the most sacred of tasks. Whether through the apocalyptic uprising of Neurosis, the sonic deconstructions of their sister project, Tribes Of Neurot, the invocatory intimacy of his eponymous solo albums or his instrumental psychedelic reveries in the guise of Harvestman, that dialogue has never just been with musical influences, but with what underpins them: the primordial, elemental forces now banished to the peripheries of our contemporary consciousness, yet still broadcasting a signal for all who will listen. The first of a three-album cycle, Triptych: Part One, is Harvestman's most ambitious undertaking yet. Drawn to the megaliths, ruins and ancient sites mapped out along the British and European mainland's geographical and psychic landscapes, the folklore and apocrypha forever resurfacing as portals from a rational world, Triptych is a meditation forged from traces and residues, and a hallucinatory recollection of artists who have tapped into that enduring otherworldliness embedded within us all. It's a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are playing Steeleye Span covers, all prised out of time yet bound to its singularity."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NR 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "At its heart, music has always been a questioning of inheritance -- a dialogue with predecessors and forebears, the forging of one's own perspective in relation to what has come before, and for some, a plunge into the boundless realms between. For Steve Von Till, that process has always taken on an added dimension to become the most sacred of tasks. Whether through the apocalyptic uprising of Neurosis, the sonic deconstructions of their sister project, Tribes Of Neurot, the invocatory intimacy of his eponymous solo albums or his instrumental psychedelic reveries in the guise of Harvestman, that dialogue has never just been with musical influences, but with what underpins them: the primordial, elemental forces now banished to the peripheries of our contemporary consciousness, yet still broadcasting a signal for all who will listen. The first of a three-album cycle, Triptych: Part One, is Harvestman's most ambitious undertaking yet. Drawn to the megaliths, ruins and ancient sites mapped out along the British and European mainland's geographical and psychic landscapes, the folklore and apocrypha forever resurfacing as portals from a rational world, Triptych is a meditation forged from traces and residues, and a hallucinatory recollection of artists who have tapped into that enduring otherworldliness embedded within us all. It's a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are playing Steeleye Span covers, all prised out of time yet bound to its singularity."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ODA 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Church Andrews and Matt Davies weave intricate patterns from Fibonacci sequences on new mini-album, Yucca. Producer and composer Church Andrews (aka Kirk Barley) and drummer Matt Davies return to explore the outer limits of rhythm on a six-track suite that is at once angular and fluid, natural and systematic. Drawn to the restrictions of working solely with one synth and live drums, the pair found creativity in limitation, developing a compositional dialogue between the sonic timbres of Kirk's productions and Matt's percussive practice. Evoking the primitive yet complex form of the plant from which it takes its name, Yucca features tracks that are built around rhythmic ratios of the Fibonacci sequence. Mirroring spiral patterns exhibited in nature, each track evolves like a cellular structure of its own, from the livewire syntax of "Chirp" and the deconstructed ebb and flow of "Ferns," to the mini-album's title track, where crisp grooves flit between modulated electronics like fireflies. "I've always been inspired by music that is complex without sounding complex," Matt explains. He maintains a sense of bounce amid the intricate phrasing and cites drummers Roy Haynes and his grandson Marcus Gilmore as inspirations, alongside sabar drummers from Senegal and Mridangam drumming of South India. With a shared background in hip-hop and the swung beats of J Dilla and Flying Lotus, Kirk Barley and Matt Davies were also inspired by the minimalism of Terry Riley and the sparse palette of dub techno. Written and recorded in Lewisham in the spring and summer of 2023, Yucca follows the release of Axis in 2022, with the duo having also performed at festivals such as Rewire and Waking Life, and recorded live sessions for FACT magazine and Worldwide FM. The third release on Yorkshire-based Odda Recordings, following Kirk Barley's Marionette and Flaer's Preludes, Yucca confirms the label's reputation for championing music on the unstable ground between the organic and the synthetic.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: OTCR 021CA-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Clear color vinyl. A trio of innovative troubadours, Tryp Tych Tryo is the expression of three legends trading blows, in the singular, in the bilateral movement throughout this sonic stew and as tripartite working, pivoting, layering through modes and counterpoint to create Warsaw Conjunction. An album where each member lays their cornerstone into the foundations, abstractly sketching their complementary, supportive voices with each able to freewheel their own weather front across the record's terrain. Warsaw Conjunction is the project's first album. The release in collaboration between friends and labels, On the Corner and Lanquidity Records, presents listeners with Natcyet Wakili on drums, Wojtek Mazolewski on electric and acoustic double bass, and Tamar Osborn on flute, baritone saxophone and delay effects. Mazolewski led the production, with support from the other musicians.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: OTCR 021CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A trio of innovative troubadours, Tryp Tych Tryo is the expression of three legends trading blows, in the singular, in the bilateral movement throughout this sonic stew and as tripartite working, pivoting, layering through modes and counterpoint to create Warsaw Conjunction. An album where each member lays their cornerstone into the foundations, abstractly sketching their complementary, supportive voices with each able to freewheel their own weather front across the record's terrain. Warsaw Conjunction is the project's first album. The release in collaboration between friends and labels, On the Corner and Lanquidity Records, presents listeners with Natcyet Wakili on drums, Wojtek Mazolewski on electric and acoustic double bass, and Tamar Osborn on flute, baritone saxophone and delay effects. Mazolewski led the production, with support from the other musicians.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: OTCR 021LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. A trio of innovative troubadours, Tryp Tych Tryo is the expression of three legends trading blows, in the singular, in the bilateral movement throughout this sonic stew and as tripartite working, pivoting, layering through modes and counterpoint to create Warsaw Conjunction. An album where each member lays their cornerstone into the foundations, abstractly sketching their complementary, supportive voices with each able to freewheel their own weather front across the record's terrain. Warsaw Conjunction is the project's first album. The release in collaboration between friends and labels, On the Corner and Lanquidity Records, presents listeners with Natcyet Wakili on drums, Wojtek Mazolewski on electric and acoustic double bass, and Tamar Osborn on flute, baritone saxophone and delay effects. Mazolewski led the production, with support from the other musicians.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: PRTL 7086EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Vocals courtesy of the late great Jamaican singer Creation Stepper aka Willy Stepper, whose voice graced many a '70s roots reggae classic such as "Kill Nebuchadnezzar" and "Homeward Bound." "Rockfort Rock" was originally released on Youth and Alex Patterson's WAU! Mr Modo label in 1989 and was mixed and produced by Teamworks and Sound Iration (Nick Manasseh and Scruff).

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: PJ 017LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2024 repress. "When Ruff Draft saw its initial release in 2003, J Dilla possessed production skills on par with anyone in hip-hop -- technically and creatively. 'At the top of his game,' says longtime friend and collaborator, Karriem Riggins. After years of building while modestly deferring to others of both greater and lesser notoriety, Dilla finally completed the first solo endeavor on his own label, entirely on his own terms. The significance of such an autonomous success often gets overlooked, and partly accounts for why Ruff Draft is one of the lesser-referenced entries in Dilla's oeuvre. 'It's a mysterious little project,' says his mother, Maureen Yancey. 'But out of his entire career, that was the happiest time.' Prior to recording the EP, Dilla found himself at a crossroads. Estranged from his label, MCA, and separated from the mother of his youngest daughter, frustration abounded both personally and professionally. Dilla spent parts of 2002 and 2003 working on an album for MCA that featured his rapping over contributions from other producers with whom he had connected and whose music he respected. At the time, he was known primarily for his beats, yet reviled for his MCing by most anyone not from his hometown of Detroit. The project was to be an intentional freak of the industry. The project would go on to spur his collaborative album with Madlib, Jaylib, and would first showcase the template that he would take to his greatest heights with 2006's Donuts. The Stones Throw reissue of Ruff Draft from 2008 featured remixes of the songs from the album, done without Dilla's involvement. This version of the album takes Dilla's mixes of the album and restores his vision for the project. 'Straight from the mothafuckin' cassette,' as he phrased the sound he was going for on the EP's intro."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: PINCHE 005LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 repress. A collection of rare and wild '60s Chilean rock n' roll. Time to celebrate! Here's a new installment of the Wild series, focused on wild, untamed Latin American rock n' roll from the '60s. This time Pinche Discos takes you to the beautiful land of Chile for a rollercoaster of wild sounds and smashing and obscure hits. In Wild Chile! you'll find, of course, wild rock n' roll but also crazed out twist, soul stompers, and a few fiery Instrumentals to boot. If you know the previous two volumes of this series you know what to expect: a record perfectly designed to make your next party explode, pure dynamite! Features Willy Monti & Los Tiburones, Los Atomos, Pepe Pato & Los Stereos, Los Primos, The Blue Splendor, Alan Y Sus Bates, Los Harmonic's, Los Caporales, Los Stereos, Flash Galindez, Los Beat 4, The Ramblers, Los Minimas, and Los Diablos Azules.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: PE 037CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Hardly anything is known about the person behind the pseudonym Anom Vitruv. The artist who has previously released music on UK techno label Tabernacle Records and Los Angeles-based experimental powerhouse Total Stasis, among other outlets, chooses to remain anonymous and lets his music speak for itself. Over more than a decade, the Switzerland-based musician has carefully constructed a body of work that is closely interlinked with his public perception: Always vague, elusive, and thus open. Anom Vitruv took his time with 6.4311 -- his first release in more than six years. The artist's latest project is full of philosophical references around being, time, space, death, and the worthwhile life that not only are visible in the album title and through the artist's use of samples but are directly manifested in the structure and atmosphere of the music itself. The album is deeply contemplative in its approach. The constant oscillation between the abstract and the concrete, the elaborate build-ups, the subtle emergence and disappearance of elements, and his careful take on layering sounds are all factors that make 6.4311 an engaging album from start to finish. With his latest full length, the enigmatic artist sets an example on how to incorporate references and concepts into music -- all without it being a shallow gesture.

 

PRICE: $14.00

CAT #: RS 515LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double vinyl, gatefold sleeve. "The Pretty Things, iconic first wave R&B cult heroes, created some of the most exciting and innovative records of the sixties and early seventies. Winners of the Hero award at the 2009 Mojo Honours, the band have been a massive success and a huge influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie, Aerosmith, The Ramones, Bob Dylan, The Sex Pistols, The White Stripes, Kasabian and many, many more. Following the now legendary and critically acclaimed S. F. Sorrow, the psychedelic '68 classic, the band returned to Abbey Road Studios and started work on Parachute. Released in 1970 the album was named Rolling Stone's album of the year ahead of Let It Be by The Beatles, Morrison Hotel by The Doors, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, Moondance by Van Morrison, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother and Led Zeppelin III."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: RT 001

FILE UNDER: Misc

"Record Time is a new print-only music magazine that focuses on obscure, unusual, forgotten and neglected records, not collectibles or rarities, but great records that can be had without shelling out max cash. The debut arrives right when interest in records is at a 30-year high and is growing across generations. Record Time is about the wonderful world of records, specifically unusual, obscure, forgotten and neglected slabs of plastic. Rather than focus on holy grails of the most expensive kind or $$$ reissues, Record Time scours bargain bins, garage sales, and those corners of record stores that only the most diehard music freaks dig through -- and what readers find are wonderful records that are too often passed by even though they are usual cheap. In that spirit, Record Time #1 does a deep dive into the crazy history of Plastic Bertrand's 'Ca Plane Pour Moi,' the biggest international hit single in punk history, its roots in novelty music, Elton Motello's contribution to the song, and the dozens of cover versions, answer songs, rip-offs and exploitations the song inspired. Also in issue one: A cruise through the music and career of Hansadutta Swami, the Hari Krishna 'machine gun guru' and failed rock star; a dip into controversial politico/musician Harvey Matusow and his Jew's Harp Band; the Surfsiders, a fake surf band that included a young Lou Reed; Alquin and the Dutch prog rock scene of the 1970s; the obscure and delightful DIY psych pop of The People's Victory Orchestra And Chorus; and records on alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. There's more: Columns on 1960s garage instrumental 45s and forgotten 7"s from the 1990s punk scene, a feature on The Wuzz Band, a run-through of the records and crimes of novelty rapper/drug kingpin Hurt Em Bad, a ton of record reviews (of albums lurking in used bins), an interview with Dick Vivian of San Francisco's Rooky Ricardo's Records (and Dick's picks of great budget R&B and girl group singles), and more. Record Time is published and edited by Scott Soriano, a long-time music writer, record label runner, zine publisher, and political journalist. It features a rich group of contributors such as Brian Turner, Owen Maercks, Laurent Bigot, Fred de Vries, Johnny Sunshine, D. Worden, and others, from the US, France, South Africa, and abroad. 11"x8.5", perfect-bound with color cover."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RS 064EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Gallegos, first name Oliver, deals in feelings rather than genres. The productions on his debut effort for RS INTL channel a '90s rave euphoria. Luscious pads swirl amidst pitched down jungle drums, celestial strings and philosophical vocal snippets that evoke ecstatic joy. It's no mean feat to induce a feeling of elation without the means of a synthetic intervention -- but Ollie seems to have cracked the code -- taking listeners there with harmony, texture and rhythm alone -- nothing synthetic here: this is alchemy at play. The EP -- which in all honesty feels more like a mini album -- is a real journey across five songs and 29 minutes. It's about equally split between driving rhythmic compositions created with movement in mind, and pensive ambient detours that are more sonic meditations than anything else. The album reaches its most dizzying heights when these two elements come together in unison for the title track, "Memories You've Memorised" -- a widely road-tested future classic which blends scattered Juno chords, arpeggiated church organ and 80s vocal samples to a tear-jerking crescendo. "Memories You've Memorised" elevates Oliver Gallegos to the top tier of modern electronic composition. There's comparisons to be made to Primal Scream, Underworld, and even Aphex Twin, - but after all is said and done, this is the coming of age of a future pioneer.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: RS 066X-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Berlin's pre-eminent vocal ensemble A Song For You pioneers a new wave of choral music with their debut album Home. A Song For You are a groundbreaking vocal ensemble, uniting over 50 artists from all over the world, led by the visionary collaboration of Noah Slee and Dhanesh Jayaselan. The collective defies any form of categorization, sitting in a sonic realm somewhere between neo soul, R&B, and gospel. A Song For You celebrates the rich tapestry of Berlin's musical landscape while providing a critical platform for underrepresented voices. Working alongside the renowned Berlin-based producer S. Fidelity, the album features captivating collaborations with artists such as Theo Croker, Annahstasia, Moses Yoofee, Madison McFerrin, duendita, Brother Portrait, Jumoke Adeyanju, and more; as well as a vast array of artists that exist within the group such as Aka Kelzz, Johnny Kulo, MERON, zoud?, Nando The Native, Monica Mussungo, D.$ahin, and Lyriya. Berlin and now the world eagerly anticipates what A Song For You will bring next. This next step in their journey is surely set to take the world by storm. Home represents togetherness, vulnerability and collective joy.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: EZRDR 183CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"If one survived trips one through seventeen with one tiny speck of psychedelic sunshine intact, Brown Acid: The Eighteenth Trip will be the coming of age nightmare. Vintage underground '70s hard rock, coming at one from bizarre angles, local scene wasteland America when everybody was out for themselves and the drugs went bleak. The guitars kill, the attitude is twisted, even the sex is headed down the wrong road. Real people, no compromise, pure and potent. Get stoked, take The Eighteenth Trip and know that the artists will get paid for this soul pulverizing! Here's just some of the tracks included: Back Jack out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 launch the trip with 'Bridge Waters Dynamite.' It's an invocation to rock flashing on Mark Farner whooping up a Grand Funk crowd, then getting to the point quickly with berserk guitar assaults. Heavy riff with power chord stalks beneath as one takes their advice; get loose and blow up the past. Smokin' Buku Band dropped Riding Easy's jaw with the audacious track 'Hot Love,' coming on like some fractured fever dream burlesque of Led Zep, moves out of Hollywood in 1980. Swooping elongated vocals above, a total Zep chord move at the end of each verse. Writer/producer Steve Shauger aka Shag Stevens gets a brilliantly messed up sound quality here, the ideal polar opposite of slick. The extended guitar break is an epitome of serendipitously crude virtuosity, simply outrageous! Nothing better than an angry two chord guitar attack with cowbell to set the stage for this rant about getting 'Ripped Off' by love. Taken from their rare 1977 LP on Dynamite Records, Chicago Triangle was Marvey Esparza, Dave Guereca, Jose 'Tarr' Perez, and Robert Aguilera. They unleash such strong brain-scrubbing wah wah frenzy in the guitar break here that it seems to perversely mock its own intensity! Brown Acid: The Eighteenth Trip comes at one from all kinds of uncanny angles."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 183LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "If one survived trips one through seventeen with one tiny speck of psychedelic sunshine intact, Brown Acid: The Eighteenth Trip will be the coming of age nightmare. Vintage underground '70s hard rock, coming at one from bizarre angles, local scene wasteland America when everybody was out for themselves and the drugs went bleak. The guitars kill, the attitude is twisted, even the sex is headed down the wrong road. Real people, no compromise, pure and potent. Get stoked, take The Eighteenth Trip and know that the artists will get paid for this soul pulverizing! Here's just some of the tracks included: Back Jack out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 launch the trip with 'Bridge Waters Dynamite.' It's an invocation to rock flashing on Mark Farner whooping up a Grand Funk crowd, then getting to the point quickly with berserk guitar assaults. Heavy riff with power chord stalks beneath as one takes their advice; get loose and blow up the past. Smokin' Buku Band dropped Riding Easy's jaw with the audacious track 'Hot Love,' coming on like some fractured fever dream burlesque of Led Zep, moves out of Hollywood in 1980. Swooping elongated vocals above, a total Zep chord move at the end of each verse. Writer/producer Steve Shauger aka Shag Stevens gets a brilliantly messed up sound quality here, the ideal polar opposite of slick. The extended guitar break is an epitome of serendipitously crude virtuosity, simply outrageous! Nothing better than an angry two chord guitar attack with cowbell to set the stage for this rant about getting 'Ripped Off' by love. Taken from their rare 1977 LP on Dynamite Records, Chicago Triangle was Marvey Esparza, Dave Guereca, Jose 'Tarr' Perez, and Robert Aguilera. They unleash such strong brain-scrubbing wah wah frenzy in the guitar break here that it seems to perversely mock its own intensity! Brown Acid: The Eighteenth Trip comes at one from all kinds of uncanny angles."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SODA 015LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Trash Can Lamb is a new solo album from Akron, OH-based multi-instrumentalist Keith Freund. For the better part of twenty years, Freund has been producing intimate, shape-shifting music on his own and as part of collaborative projects such as Trouble Books, Lemon Quartet, and Aqueduct Ensemble. Here, he concocts a heady, homespun broth of analog synthesis, bit-reduced sampling, piano, standup bass, saxophone, and location recordings, arriving at a loose and evocative set of songs. Throughout the album, listeners hear eight-bit experimental delays mangling airy acoustic materials, denaturalizing them into primitive loop structures while retaining their golden-hued, melodic cores. The sputters, hisses, and croaks of handmade electronics nuzzle up to wistful piano and saxophone ruminations; the pure pandemonium of chaotic triangle wave patching and filtered noise settles into the serenity of a backyard dusk full of spring peepers. It's in the space between the ragtag and rough-hewn and the romantic and yearning that Freund situates these compositions; it's a peek inside a workshop that sits atop the trees, branches scraping on the windows, bluejays who just won't knock it off, a table fan spinning slower and slower, its cheap blades covered in dust. All music by Keith Freund, with contributions by Linda Lejsovka, G.S. Schray, Steve Clements, and Corey Farrow. Mastered by Kassian Troyer at D&M. Art/design by Alex McCullough and Felix Luke.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SAB 110LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Steven R. Smith is a wildly consistent and self-sufficient auteur making epic music far beyond his monk-like solo recording practices. On Olive, one gets more of Steven R. Smith's singular vision and musicianship, this time filtered through ensemble arrangement largely performed by others -- an approach he's explored in recent years. A micro-orchestra of horn and woodwind players was enlisted, as well as other collaborators including Kate Wright (Movietone, 1000 Dawns) and Yvonne Sone. The stunning results call to mind Mark Hollis' eponymous solo LP and Gerald Busby's masterful 3 Women score, not only in terms of sonics or tone, but also in the use of space. Smith has explored many angles to soundtrack-like mood music, but there is a satisfying dark rock element to even his more refined chamber pieces. Smith's dusky post-punk signature, borrowed from Australian artists such as Rowland S. Howard and Crime & the City Solution, synthesizes with the mannered arrangements to push his familiar, evocative sound into new spaces."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 143C-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"To understand the significance of the word 'featuring' on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used. The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution's continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of 1964, the Arkestra performance presented Pharoah Sanders as well as a flautist (who was and remained obscure thereafter) named Harold Murray, nicknamed Black Harold. It wasn't until long after Sanders had achieved worldwide acclaim with John Coltrane that Ra and manager Alton Abraham decided to issue the music they'd recorded at Judson Hall. After its first release in plain or hand-decorated covers in 1976, Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold remained an exceptionally rare item in the El Saturn discography, known to a few lucky collectors. Now on limited green vinyl."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 151LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Spacemen 3 began assembling their third album, 1988's Playing With Fire, at perhaps the freest, most confident point in their career. Recording began with the band road-tested and rugged, even amidst the functional volatility that famously motivated their course. The sessions' first offering came in the form of 'Revolution,' a single of heroic Stooges-devotion and the most commercially successful release the group had to date. High expectations for the album were soon exceeded, as Playing With Fire would become Spacemen 3's crowning studio achievement and cement their rightful place on the vanguard of otherworldly rock 'n' roll. An exquisite mix of stuttering tremolo guitars and wistful melodies, Playing With Fire sheds any trappings of revisionism and furnishes a nuanced grade of psychedelia. Epic entries like 'Suicide' (named after the notorious NYC band) and the mesmeric 'How Does It Feel?' catch Spacemen 3 at their celestial apex, the very point where their collective writing, performance and production would crest and wondrously splinter. Includes download card and new insert with liner notes by Marc Masters."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SV 177EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "These songs were recorded a few months after the Los Angeles punk scene began. These five statements of intent transcend Punk and project forward into the future: to the analog synth wave of the late '70s and beyond, to the present day, four decades later, when they finally receive an official release. Sourced from the original reel-to-reels, they are a revelation compared to the countless copies that have been circulating by multiple generations of tape-traders. Here, for the first time, is the Screamers' initial and legendary manifesto. The Screamers concept was simple, yet audacious: take the spirit and the look of punk -- the pseudo-psychotic aggression, the spiky hair, vacant stares and barely concealed sadomasochism -- and match it to a different configuration than the typical '60s rock template. As launched, the Screamers featured two keyboard players (Tommy Gear and David Brown), a drummer (KK Barrett) and an intensely charismatic singer (Tomata du Plenty). The idea was to be confrontational -- to evoke (as Tomata described in an early interview) a state of anxiety. Forty years later, this release builds on the groundswell of interest in the Screamers that has been occurring in the early 21st century. There are web sites with detailed histories of the group and several bootlegs of demos and live material from 1977-79. The video of '122 Hours of Fear' -- perhaps their peak moment, recorded at Target Video in August 1978 -- has now passed over 650,000 views online. This is the Screamers' time, and the time is now." --Jon Savage (excerpt from the liner notes). Cover featuring artwork by Gary Panter.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 179LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "If your brain has a shortlist of bands that instantly evoke New Wave, Suburban Lawns deserve a slot right next to the likes of Devo, Talking Heads and the B-52's. After putting out two singles on their own Suburban Industrial imprint, the Lawns signed to I.R.S. Records and released their debut LP in 1981. While the band gained cult status thanks in part to a Jonathan Demme-produced music video which aired on Saturday Night Live, their self-titled album would sadly be the five-piece's only full-length statement. Suburban Lawns' asymmetrical aesthetic is personified by co-vocalist Su Tissue, whose mesmerizing stage persona was at once childlike and terrifying. Her unique style embodies the awkward/arty female singer of the Reagan era, while the group's male vocals -- courtesy of Frankie Ennui, Vex Billingsgate and John McBurney -- maintain the satirical themes of Southern California's postwar mirage of limitless sprawl. Suburban Lawns' catchiness can be attributed to their drum-tight performance and taut songwriting. Listen to the vocal trade-offs on 'Anything,' which could have easily come out on any purely punk label from LA at the time, while Tissue's deadpan delivery on 'Janitor' glides into the best art-warble this side of Lene Lovich, broaching the possibility of nuclear annihilation with a murmured 'Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.' From a West Coast scene dominated by 7-inch singles and EPs, the Suburban Lawns' lone LP remains in a class with precious few. It's not surprising that they found acceptance in the Hollywood punk scene, despite their Long Beach roots, and would influence other bands such as Minutemen. This is not a disc that will get parked in your collection hoping to get pulled once in a while; this is a record you will play."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: SV 192LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex -- a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall -- have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. Blueprints For A Blackout, The Ex's fifth album and first double LP, combines caustic studio experimentations and loose songs from their gripping live-set at the time. The band consisted of singer G.W. Sok, guitarist Terrie Ex, two new recruits on bass, Luc and Yoke, and drummer Sabien Witteman, along with a plethora of guests including Mekons' Jon Langford and long-serving sound engineer Dolf Planteijdt, among others. Originally released in 1984 on the band's own Pig Brother Productions, Blueprints veers from jagged punk explosions to sharply focused improvisations featuring field recordings that would become a hallmark of their subsequent forays into free jazz and experimental music. The overall effect is not unlike the menace of a slowly building winter storm. Tracks like 'Rabble With A Cause,' 'U.S. Hole' and 'Scrub That Scum' stand out as exemplars of this phase of The Ex. Comparisons can be made to contemporaries Einst?rzende Neubauten, NoMeansNo, and Sv?tsox as well as later Crass label bands. This first-time vinyl reissue comes with 24-page booklet."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 193LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex -- a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall -- have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. On 1985's Pokkeherrie (Dutch for 'terrible noise'), The Ex return to the more stripped-down instrumentation on their early LPs. A key lineup change would also see the arrival of drummer Kat Bornefeld (whose supple rhythms propel the group to this day). Recorded at the new location of Koeienverhuur Studio in the basement of storied squat/venue Emma, Pokkeherrie is a testament to the angular momentum of a group in full creative flux. Right from the opening track, bassist Luc Klaasen generates a relentless pulse. Terrie Ex's sparse/acidic guitar and G.W. Sok's impassioned vocals combine in a vein similar to The Minutemen, Flipper, or Rudimentary Peni, except The Ex have the patience and wherewithal to sustain their approach beyond just brief explosions. Perhaps only The Fall from this period can match The Ex's ability to hold a melody together while utilizing otherwise harsh sonic elements over an extended piece, most effectively on 'Soviet Threat,' '1,000,000 Ashtrays,' and 'White Liberals.' This first-time vinyl reissue comes with 17" x 24" poster and 20-page booklet."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 196LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. "By the early '70s, Milford Graves had more or less stopped gigging. Having learned his lesson the hard way in multiple-night runs like a legendary Slugs' residency with Albert Ayler, he knew that the level of energy that he put out during a performance would be difficult to sustain over the long haul. A concert was a kind of absolute ritual for him, after which he would be totally spent, emotionally and physically. Graves rarely left anything on the table. Any musical performance was an opportunity to present an amalgamated version of all the things he had learned. He was an innovator and a teacher at his core, and the concert venue was one of his first classroom settings. In March 1976, Verna Gillis invited Graves to perform on WBAI's Free Music Store radio show. For the date, he chose to present a trio lineup which he had been occasionally playing -- featuring two saxophonists who were dedicated to the drummer's vision. Hugh Glover is almost exclusively known for his work with Graves, while Arthur Doyle would gain exposure later for an obscure record that he made two years later, Alabama Feeling, which would become a highly collectable item among free jazz enthusiasts. Originally released in 1977, Babi remains one of Graves' most seminal recordings. The music played by the trio was ecstatic. Extreme energy music, buoyant and joyful. It relied on Graves' new way of approaching the drum kit, in which he had opened up the bottoms of his skin-slackened toms and eliminated the snare. Graves' art was always unblemished by commercial interests, and this album is its finest mission statement."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SYR 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "While 1995's Washing Machine LP moniker was a thinly-veiled jab at the corporate aesthetic, their major label relationship was indeed a curious buzzpoint of talk on the street after their intake to DGC in 1990. The Anagrama EP became the first in a series of the SYR label's Perspective Musicales releases seemingly cementing Sonic Youth's connectivity to an increasing public awareness in experimental composers of the 20th century (French or otherwise). It was clear that both Sonic Youth's stature in progressive music, aided by now unlimited taperoll time thanks to a home base studio downtown established after their Lollapalooza stint, gave the band plenty of trailblazing time for their self-examination of untraveled avenues. Anagrama unfolds into nine minutes of delicate textures, starting with thick drone segueing into moments reminiscent of the post-crescendo flutter/comedown of 'Marquee Moon's' trail-out; Thurston, Lee and Kim's guitars all circling round each other taking delicate pokes and stabs before drifting into some post-rock rhythmic moves tapered with complementary percussive guidance from Steve Shelley. The finale track 'Mieux: De Corrosion' is a real pedal-palatte showcase. Here, Plutonian guitar wash flanges upwards to buoy a myriad of colorful eruptions of amp-spuzz, chopped up tone blasts and general confusion. Out of the blue, some metallic one-note choogle kicks in and threatens to explode into some Judas Priestly motion, before it all sputters into aural glass showers, clang, and finally a ferocious wave of more flange hiss that crashes down on a dime. This initial foray into SY's Perspectives Musicales series continued onward with releases featuring other co-conspirators, peaking with the ambitious 2CD Goodbye 20th Century that finally connects the band into full-on interpretations of other composers' pieces (as well as displaying their own new ones). The whole series is not so much an outlet for another 'side' of the band, but a run that went hand in hand building new approaches of songcraft onto their own, more overground direction which included Jim O'Rourke, adding additional density to A Thousand Leaves and other LPs of his era. Fans of the '86 Spinhead Sessions as well as the recently-exhumed later jams of In/Out/In will take in the sounds of SYR1 with glee."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: TAL 031LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Garth Erasmus is an artist and musician based in Cape Town, South Africa. Threnody for the KhoiSan is his first album under his own name. Since 1985 his artistic interests have broadened to include music-making, designing and making his own instruments based on indigenous KhoiSan knowledge. From 1999 to 2012 he was a member of the South African First Nation activist group Khoi Khonnexion. In the past couple of years Garth Erasmus has also been a pivotal part of various international performance pieces and exhibition projects which brought him regularly to Europe. Most of these activities were developed and performed in collaboration with the Hamburg based band Kante and his band Khoi Khonnexion. His works in music are predominantly characterized by a restless quest for alternative forms of expression and materials including self-build instruments, field recordings or various electronic music devices. In this context the music on Threnody for the KhoiSan takes on a primal and metaphorical meaning. Rather than a formal, physical initiation, this process is more spiritually inclined, yet it is a spirituality which is consistently put into action. All instruments which appear on Threnody for the KhoiSan are products of a process of discovery starting from square one. All this is based and founded on the beauty of simplicity and minimalism as symbolized by the single string Khoisan musical bow and arrow as trance musical instrument. In this sense it soon became manifest for Garth Erasmus to combine the bow instruments with various electronic instruments. Besides developing his own unique language in music, he also shared an expressed interested in experimental sound aesthetics, avantgarde composition and free jazz. However, his non-academic approach towards sound and music was always fueled by the desire for a reconnection to the land and to the indigenous knowledge of the KhoiSan, whose struggle for First Nation status continues.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: TWCD 1053CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Rhythms recorded in Jamaica at Channel One Studio by Prince Far I. Reissue of this dub album recorded at Channel One in the early '80s and engineered by Scientist. This CD issue which will also include four tracks not on the original vinyl version.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: TARTALB 022LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The trailblazing German producer Max Graef is back, this time applying his sparkling flair and infectious appeal to the widescreen spectrum of psychedelic, starry-eyed jams of his third album, comfortably nestled into a bean bag in the backroom. Natural Element coincides with the tenth anniversary of his revered debut LP Rivers of the Red Planet (TARTALB 003LP), which remains a cherished high watermark for label and artist alike. It also serves to highlight how much time has passed, and how much has changed. 2018's follow-up Lo Siento Mucho Pero No Hablo Tu Idioma (TARTALB 009LP) was a step into many other musical approaches and made clear Graef didn't want to rest on the broad appeal of his earlier funked-up, jazz-sampling house sound. Natural Element is the sound of an artist more at ease with the parts of his legacy which hold true, and those he wants to let go of. But there absolutely is funk to be found on Natural Element. It's in the low-slung chill-out of "Sports (Is Good For You)" and the nagging synth-slap-bass underpinning "Around The Globe." But the glue which holds the album together across all kinds of tempos and energies is a shimmering, organic psychedelia -- dreamy chords and artful sonic brushstrokes which gleam out of the mix. It's a quality universal across the aqueous beauty of tropical breakbeat roller "We are the World (Test Drive)" and the cascading slo-mo ecosystem of album-opening double-act "Sound Bytes" and "Zitar." Casting one ear back to that landmark debut LP feels like listening to an entirely different epoch, not just for Graef but for music as a whole. What's heartening is that the magic which made Graef stand out back then is still absolutely present and correct in his new guise.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: TARTALB 023LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In a flurry of madcap sampling pitched towards the heat of the night, Pedro Zopelar builds on the premise of his 2022 electrofunk love letter Charme (TARTALB 018LP), shifting his approach towards a particular '90s flair and a method with a specific end result. Ritmo Freak took root in studio experiments for a momentous -- and rare -- live set at S?o Paulo festival N?o Existe in 2023, where Zopelar was caught up in one of those right-place, right-time moments. As he explains himself: "This album is dedicated to freaky club culture. While I was playing at the festival there was a crazy tropical storm outside and the room was packed with the freakiest crowd. I've tried hard to immortalize that feeling on this record." With the intended energy in mind, Zopelar focused on a particular mode of production centered around 12-bit sampling from his ample record collection. Considering his background as a trained pianist, here his musical instincts are forced to work within the limitations of short, snappy cuts from dusty 12"s. The lo-fi sound sources and the resourceful ways Zopelar works them gives the record an unmistakable old-skool flavor which he applies to forthright house, techno and electro funk rhythms, always taking care to draw out the soul of the music. The stylistic touchstones flow past thick and fast on Ritmo Freak. From the amped up fierceness of the title track with its gaudy, cut-and- paste, vintage techno flavor to the effervescent electro funk of "Gabriellinha's Boogie" on to the surreal Balearic inversion of "Distraction," this is a high-velocity, endlessly charming record bursting with the musicality Zopelar has made his name on. As the driving force behind many warehouse parties in S?o Paulo, Zopelar has been immersed in club culture for a long time, and his distinctive catalogue of jazz, funk, acid and techno has graced highly respected labels like Apron, Selva Discos and Mother Tongue. Throughout, he's displayed an affinity for the tangled roots of the groove with an open-eared, big-hearted sound. That's what comes through on Ritmo Freak -- a record as infectious as it is well-informed. Also featuring Gabto and Manuel Darquart.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: WIRE 485

FILE UNDER: Misc

"On the cover: Tomeka Reid: The cellist, composer, improvisor and band leader goes from strength to strength across several creative projects. By Stewart Smith. Plus: KMRU: The Kenyan sound artist finds a new mode of listening on his collaboration with Kevin Martin. By Ilia Rogatchevski; Bodies In Motion: Dance and music collide in the creative worlds of Malik Nashad Sharpe, NWAKKE and Bianca Scout. By Emily Bick and Misha Farrant; Gordan: Folk songs of the Balkans plug into noise and industrial currents in this cross-continental trio. By Abi Bliss; Tongue In The Mind: DJ and conceptualist Juliana Huxtable joins forces with Jealous Orgasm and Via App to rock the club. By Claire Biddles; Invisible Jukebox: Karl Bartos: Will the ex-Kraftwerk man have had more fun computing The Wire's mystery record collection? Tested by Leah Kardos. Also inside this issue: Global Ear Belgrade; Unlimited Editions Notice Recordings; Unofficial Channels A Moon Age Daydream; The Inner Sleeve by Alison Cotton; Nick Dunston; Nika Son; Henry Birdsey; Sisso & Maiko; Epiphanies by Jim Staley; pages of reviews and much more."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: THRILL 606LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Aseethe, the trio of guitarist Brian Barr, drummer Eric Diercks, and bassist Noah Koester, carve their own path in the world of heavy music. A singular blend of seismic weight, mesmeric drone, and gripping tension is the Midwestern band's musical signature. Driven by an exploratory ethos, Aseethe warp sounds into emotionally potent songs that are as detailed as they are immense. The Cost is an album shadowed by devastating losses, a visceral study in aftermaths, centered around how life moves forward after personal and universal traumas. Recorded by acclaimed producer/engineer Sanford Parker (Pelican, Eyehategod, Yob, Voivod) at Electrical Audio in Chicago, The Cost is more focused and elaborate than anything the band have crafted before, expanding Aseethe's dynamic palette with more nuance and transforming their battering sound into cathartic arcs. A deft balance of abrasive textures surrounding a meditative core is a hallmark of Aseethe's sound, and on The Cost these qualities are amplified to the extreme. Says Barr, 'It's still down-tuned and heavy, but we were deliberately trying to make a record that uses our own musical language to make something that was representative of the musicians we are.' On The Cost, Aseethe's detailed textural movements and punishing guitar passages each carry considerable emotional resonance. The album is abounding in both the skillful arrangements and the poignance the songs deliver. It is a moving, singular and adventurous record by an iconic midwestern band who has always chosen the road less traveled."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: THRILL 606X-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Color vinyl version. "Aseethe, the trio of guitarist Brian Barr, drummer Eric Diercks, and bassist Noah Koester, carve their own path in the world of heavy music. A singular blend of seismic weight, mesmeric drone, and gripping tension is the Midwestern band's musical signature. Driven by an exploratory ethos, Aseethe warp sounds into emotionally potent songs that are as detailed as they are immense. The Cost is an album shadowed by devastating losses, a visceral study in aftermaths, centered around how life moves forward after personal and universal traumas. Recorded by acclaimed producer/engineer Sanford Parker (Pelican, Eyehategod, Yob, Voivod) at Electrical Audio in Chicago, The Cost is more focused and elaborate than anything the band have crafted before, expanding Aseethe's dynamic palette with more nuance and transforming their battering sound into cathartic arcs. A deft balance of abrasive textures surrounding a meditative core is a hallmark of Aseethe's sound, and on The Cost these qualities are amplified to the extreme. Says Barr, 'It's still down-tuned and heavy, but we were deliberately trying to make a record that uses our own musical language to make something that was representative of the musicians we are.' On The Cost, Aseethe's detailed textural movements and punishing guitar passages each carry considerable emotional resonance. The album is abounding in both the skillful arrangements and the poignance the songs deliver. It is a moving, singular and adventurous record by an iconic midwestern band who has always chosen the road less traveled."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: THRILL 609CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"On The Healer, the new full length from the Northwest-based trio of guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of four tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC present a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record -- narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors the ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which people may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: THRILL 609LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. "On The Healer, the new full length from the Northwest-based trio of guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of four tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC present a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record -- narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors the ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which people may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: THRILL 609X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Clear color vinyl. "On The Healer, the new full length from the Northwest-based trio of guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of four tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC present a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record -- narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors the ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which people may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: TO 069CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 restock. This is Phill Niblock's third release on the Touch label. Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V. Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. Touch Three is minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones, and the result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti's choral works, but a little more phased. He says: "What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly." These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using a Powerbook G4, Pro Tools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Pro Tools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space. The recordings were generally done quite closely miked. One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones...the microtones are doing the work.

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: TEG 78504LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2024 repress. "There are very few albums across any genre that stand the test of time better than 93 'Til Infinity, the classic debut record from the Hieroglyphics crew's very own Souls of Mischief. In an era where gangsta rap and G-Funk dominated the West Coast rap scene, Souls broke ground on a completely unique and thoroughly west coast sound. While the Dr. Dre's and the Snoop Doggs were garnering much of the mainstream attention, Souls were quietly forging a charismatic, critically acclaimed, and cohesively shaped record that when categorized, sounded much closer to A Tribe Called Quest than N.W.A. The sound of their debut is characteristic of the distinct style explored by the collective, including a rhyme scheme based on internal rhyme and beats centered around a live bass and obscure jazz and funk samples."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: UR 151LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sonic Behavior by Driftmachine & Ammer is an album exploring the origins of sound, noise, and various music genres. Alongside lyrical declarations of love for noise, the album delves into sonic reflections on how beauty and emotion emerge from mundane vibrations in the air. For the first time, the analog sound researchers of Driftmachine (Andreas Gerth, Florian Zimmer) incorporate spoken language and noise into their sound research. They have collaborated with word and sound artist Andreas Ammer, renowned for his radio plays with Acid Pauli, aka Console, or FM Einheit. In "The Siren Is A Simple Device," the words are spoken by 81-year-old musician and poet legend Ted Milton (Blurt, Loopspool). Despite its simplicity and obvious ability to produce high volumes, the siren has led a marginal existence as a musical instrument. Yet, it is capable of evoking the most intense emotional states in the listener in the shortest possible time, like almost no other sound-producing mechanism. Sonic Behavior capitalizes on this fact. The familiar hypnotic sounds of Driftmachine are accompanied by a siren organ inspired by the revolutionary Russian futurist Arsenij Avranov and built by Andreas Ammer, while the lyrics talk about the simple physical reasons behind the sound chaos that has just been unleashed. The core of the album is "Song To Noise," an electro-acoustic mini-symphony about the beauties of noise and all its producers, which is based on a poem by the British poet Deryn Rees-Jones and spoken by the poet herself and Alexander Hacke (Einst?rzende Neubauten, Hackedepicciotto). Driftmachine and Ammer develop a soundtrack that is as powerful as it is loud and danceable (which is why the LP also includes a textless version of the composition). "Sonic Sculpture" is the zenith of the work: a text/music track spoken by Ted Milton, which creates the possibility of a sound sculpture that encompasses the universe.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: UIHR 023LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Available on limited-edition transparent purple vinyl. Up In Her Room present Alber Jupiter's incredible second album Puis vient la nuit. Founded in Rennes in 2017, instrumental bass-drums two-piece Alber Jupiter draw inspiration from Berlin's '70s krautrock scene and Godspeed You! Black Emperor's hallucinatory post-rock to craft a unique soundscape. Their motorik rhythm wanders between plaintive delays and intergalactic reverbs. Magic happens immediately! Following the release of their stunning debut album We Are All Floating In Space, the band took advantage of the forced COVID break to compose and record a second album which sees them pursuing their psychedelic exploration. A looper, a few pedals and the journey becomes limitless! The bass morphs into guitars, trippy violins, screams, ethereal or distorted layers. The synths are also part of the adventure, completing the already rich sonic spectrum and propelling the band into new territories.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: UIHR 024LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Up In Her Room welcome the incredible Masal to the family! Masal is a collaboration between Al Johnson and Ozlem Simsek. Ozlem is a Turkish multi-instrumentalist whose middle eastern background is entwined with her western studies in classical music. Al performs psychedelic electronic music as Alien. As Masal they weave harp, Theremin and electronics into beautiful aural journeys. Having worked with legends such as Andy Bell and Mark Gardener of RIDE, and Sonic Cathedral, plus enjoyed radio play from the wonderful Simone Butler of Primal Scream on Soho Radio, and Mark Riley and Stuart Maconie on BBC 6 Music, UIHR are very excited for you to see what the pair have been cooking up. The Galloping Cat finds this unlikely pair of "neurodiverse nature lovers" collaborating on six meandering tracks of psychedelic grooves, electronic weirdness and motorik basslines mostly wordlessly exploring themes of self-discovery -- and it's stunning. Available on limited-edition pink vinyl, with only 250 copies pressed.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: UTR 164LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Truly psychedelic and damaged, Wolf Eyes favourite new group. "I was [working at a call center] a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal, John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time... Fast forward to today. 2024... John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my IPads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar... [W]hen Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums. You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell -- the lyrics are improvised too... Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music... Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too. The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled It's Yours and I hope I'm one of them. But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy." --Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024. Limited 180g clear vinyl (500 copies worldwide). Matt finish sleeve with spot gloss detail, printed-inner sleeve, hand-painted art insert (by the band).

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: VHF 160LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Volume 3 of a set of collaborations between the prolific Argentine polymaths Reynols and the inescapable Acid Mothers Temple. Recorded in Buenos Aries on AMT's 2017 South American Tour, the music has identifiable sonic elements from both groups but ends up sounding like neither, with a surprising weightlessness that keeps things jammy and psychedelic until the final track's blustering rock. Taking up most of side one, 'Kicking Air Bricks' has a loose Gong/'70s Euro-classic vibe, with Satoshima Nani getting to swing on the drums in a way that isn't always part of AMT's steamroller, while the rest of the gang layers in abstract piano, percussion, glissando guitar, etc. 'Multiverse Turtle Reflex' closes the side with a thick drone coda. Side two starts with Miguel Tomasin's gentle vocal and organ accompaniment on 'Smelling Oneiric Asado' before the group gradually gathers momentum with Wolf's thick bass anchoring layers of clean and loose guitar interplay. 'Lemurian Tsunami Inside A Hat' is a 13-minute heavy rock epic, with the Reynols' guitars going head to head with Makota Kawabata's easily recognized interjections, ramping up into a riffy crescendo."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: WG 041EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 repress. It's been quite a while since Kerri Chandler released on Watergate Records. It was 2014 when he dropped his Watergate 15 mix (WG 015CD) and The Watergate Files EP (WG 016EP). "Checkmate" is the epitome of a Kerri Chandler classic and has all the makings of a timeless future classic. With bold, soulful keys and massive analog drums, "Checkmate" elevates any dancefloor's intensity to meteoric levels. Steve Rachmad remixes the original and delivers an incredibly soulful techno revision while Watergate mainstay Cinthie hands over an expertly crafted modern twist with classic appeal.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: WSP 001CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

British post-rock legends Billy Mahonie return with their first new material in 24 years. Formed in the first wave of British post-rock alongside the likes of Mogwai in the late '90s, John Peel favorites Billy Mahonie return with the first new music from their original line-up. Whilst their debut album The Big Dig, released in 1999 on Too Pure Records, is considered a classic of the post rock genre, Billy Mahonie always crafted their intricate music with memorable hooks and melodies and performed it with energy and gusto. Field Of Heads sees the band returning with their classic original line-up of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar), and Kevin Penney (bass and guitar). Whilst this line-up has been semi active for a few years, no new material came to fruition. Recorded over two long weekends on either side of the Covid 19 lockdowns, the band tracked at The Church studios, owned by their former collaborator and front of house engineer Paul Epworth, with senior engineer Luke Pickering at the controls, allowing Field Of Heads to quickly take shape. New single "Kaiju" gives the music world the first taste of Field Of Heads and right from the off, it's classic Billy Mahonie. Immediately bursting into life with the energy and melody that is so unique to their sound, Howard's driving drums thrust the music ahead as the guitars and synths weave their way around them. Intricate and shifting, but never at the expense of a tune that sticks in your head. Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects. Also available on black vinyl (WSP 001LP) and blue color vinyl (WSP 001X-LP).

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WSP 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. British post-rock legends Billy Mahonie return with their first new material in 24 years. Formed in the first wave of British post-rock alongside the likes of Mogwai in the late '90s, John Peel favorites Billy Mahonie return with the first new music from their original line-up. Whilst their debut album The Big Dig, released in 1999 on Too Pure Records, is considered a classic of the post rock genre, Billy Mahonie always crafted their intricate music with memorable hooks and melodies and performed it with energy and gusto. Field Of Heads sees the band returning with their classic original line-up of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar), and Kevin Penney (bass and guitar). Whilst this line-up has been semi active for a few years, no new material came to fruition. Recorded over two long weekends on either side of the Covid 19 lockdowns, the band tracked at The Church studios, owned by their former collaborator and front of house engineer Paul Epworth, with senior engineer Luke Pickering at the controls, allowing Field Of Heads to quickly take shape. New single "Kaiju" gives the music world the first taste of Field Of Heads and right from the off, it's classic Billy Mahonie. Immediately bursting into life with the energy and melody that is so unique to their sound, Howard's driving drums thrust the music ahead as the guitars and synths weave their way around them. Intricate and shifting, but never at the expense of a tune that sticks in your head. Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WSP 001X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Blue color vinyl. British post-rock legends Billy Mahonie return with their first new material in 24 years. Formed in the first wave of British post-rock alongside the likes of Mogwai in the late '90s, John Peel favorites Billy Mahonie return with the first new music from their original line-up. Whilst their debut album The Big Dig, released in 1999 on Too Pure Records, is considered a classic of the post rock genre, Billy Mahonie always crafted their intricate music with memorable hooks and melodies and performed it with energy and gusto. Field Of Heads sees the band returning with their classic original line-up of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar), and Kevin Penney (bass and guitar). Whilst this line-up has been semi active for a few years, no new material came to fruition. Recorded over two long weekends on either side of the Covid 19 lockdowns, the band tracked at The Church studios, owned by their former collaborator and front of house engineer Paul Epworth, with senior engineer Luke Pickering at the controls, allowing Field Of Heads to quickly take shape. New single "Kaiju" gives the music world the first taste of Field Of Heads and right from the off, it's classic Billy Mahonie. Immediately bursting into life with the energy and melody that is so unique to their sound, Howard's driving drums thrust the music ahead as the guitars and synths weave their way around them. Intricate and shifting, but never at the expense of a tune that sticks in your head. Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WS 017LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Old Saw, the enigmatic New England collective led by Henry Birdsey (Tongue Depressor), return with their third long-playing record, Dissection Maps."It is not enough to trace the fields. The choreocartographic demands the casting of stone, a grassfire, a carnival; something with which to rupture the horizontality of existence and imagine the vertical. Earth is the eighth morning, folded against the week's work. The field is a line drawing of oblivion. The house is a forest in the shape of a womb. America is a quarry in the image of god." --Aidan Patrick Welby, 2024

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: YAI 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Repressed; USA tour forthcoming! The fifth album put out by Mohama Saz is a balance of primitive sound both organic and tribal with a flare of timeless psychedelic vanguard. Dystopian synths, chorus, percussion sustained by strong rhythms surround the sound of the electric Baglama Saz melodies. M?quina De Guerra is an instruction manual to escape the innocuous and the complacent and to keep fighting against the establishment. The record is oriented towards the south of Spain, as well as Eastern Europe, Anatolia, kaleidoscopic Kraut, Flamenco as well as music from the Andes and from North Africa. M?quina de Guerra forces the listener to fight against the international reactionary that wants to devour everything. Because each song contained in this record is its own world, and the new world is a M?quina de Guerra. The music of Mohama Saz is an enormous explosion of sound. For fans of Erkin Koray, Orkestra of Spheres, Triana, Sun Ra, Goat, Tinariwen, Las Grecas, or Neu. M?quina de Guerra has been produced by Carlos D?az and Mohama Saz. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Carlos D?az at the El Cortijo de Santa Mar?a de la Vega (Granada, Spain). And with the original works of Oscar Rey Atellier on cover and back cover art, a Spanish painter based in Berlin. This album is published by YaiYai Records, limited to 300 copies.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: ZEDD 058CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Z Records are back with another instalment of badass funk from the disco era with Supafunkanova Vol. 3 which has been selected by prolific DJ, producer, remixer, and record collector, Woody Bianchi. Woody digs deep into his collection, compiling a high-quality album filled with lesser-known disco, funk, and boogie. As the title suggests, Supafunkanova focuses on the funkier end of the '70s and '80s, showcasing some of the bumpier grooves recorded in the disco era when even James Brown had to take notice of the Saturday Night Fever-inspired disco explosion. It will come as no surprise to hear some particularly hard to find gems have been unearthed here, and ones that aren't just rare and expensive (if you can even find a copy!) but genuinely merit being re-issued. With expansive sleeve notes by Woody himself to give you an in-depth insight to the music, artists, and personal discovery of each record. Z Records have been working on Vol. 3 for some time now as the first and second instalments were released way back in 2007 and 2015 respectively. It takes a while to put these albums together, tracking down the owners of these musical gems, finding the right image for the sleeve but it's finally come together. Double-CD version features Chosen Few, Nzimande All Stars, Together Band, The Firebolts, Night Force & The Tom Cats, Wylie, The Freex Machine, Joe & Lee, Pressure Point, Fuzz, Joe Pugliese, World, Aggression, Montreal, Satori, The Family Tree, The Headquarters, Raw Silk, The Movers, Cania, and John Blair. Double-LP version features Chosen Few, The Freex Machine, Nzimande All Stars, The Firebolts, Aggression, The Movers, World, Joe & Lee, Joe Pugliese, The Family Tree, Pressure Point, John Blair, The Headquarters, Wylie, Cania, and Montreal; gatefold.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: ZEDD 058LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Gatefold. Z Records are back with another instalment of badass funk from the disco era with Supafunkanova Vol. 3 which has been selected by prolific DJ, producer, remixer, and record collector, Woody Bianchi. Woody digs deep into his collection, compiling a high-quality album filled with lesser-known disco, funk, and boogie. As the title suggests, Supafunkanova focuses on the funkier end of the '70s and '80s, showcasing some of the bumpier grooves recorded in the disco era when even James Brown had to take notice of the Saturday Night Fever-inspired disco explosion. It will come as no surprise to hear some particularly hard to find gems have been unearthed here, and ones that aren't just rare and expensive (if you can even find a copy!) but genuinely merit being re-issued. With expansive sleeve notes by Woody himself to give you an in-depth insight to the music, artists, and personal discovery of each record. Z Records have been working on Vol. 3 for some time now as the first and second instalments were released way back in 2007 and 2015 respectively. It takes a while to put these albums together, tracking down the owners of these musical gems, finding the right image for the sleeve but it's finally come together.Double-LP version features Chosen Few, The Freex Machine, Nzimande All Stars, The Firebolts, Aggression, The Movers, World, Joe & Lee, Joe Pugliese, The Family Tree, Pressure Point, John Blair, The Headquarters, Wylie, Cania, and Montreal.