News & Events

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: 3000GRAD 023CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The music of Amir Telem wanders through the human consciousness like a mighty endorphin storm with torrential downpours of happiness-inducing neurotransmitters. The analog thunder of the bassline rolls through your nervous system until it finds its grounding in the stomping of your feet, the stroboscopic flashes of digital lightning bath you in the dazzling light of pure euphoria. It leaves you with a feeling of freshness and peaceful calm similar to what lingers in the air after a summer rain. In hearing distance to progressive house, melodic techno, and neo trance, Amir Telem opened up his very own groove universe, and his album Art Of Compassion reflects the stunning elegance of his unique sound. From the sunlit melodies of "Sage Tear" and the house-y updraught of "Krishna" to the kaleidoscopic escalations of "One More Prayer", from the broken beats and electroid '80s vibes in "Do You Believe In Magics" to the vocal tracks "Fight It" and "Mode Of Service", the stylistic bandwidth is a truly enlightening trip, especially when enjoyed as the coherent story this album tells.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ZORN 049LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Folk unit originated in the Swedish underground Enhet för Fri Musik - featuring members of Sewer Election, Ättestupa, Neutral, Makthaverskan, and Blod - continually re-invent what music is about through free improvisation and lengthy folk meanderings. Embedded in the ever exciting Swedish underground scene, Enhet För Fri Musik continue the quest for innovation numerous legendary Swedish bands started during the '70s - such as, Pärson Sound, Trad Gras Och Stenar, and Arbete Och Fritid. Taking the ideas of communal music craft and experimentation, on Inom Dig, Inom Mig, the group comes to a unique combination of Jandek-like atonal guitar, organ, tape effects, field recordings, and saxophone, with Sofie Herner's amazing loner voice running over it. Adding another inspiring document to the world of open-minded music. Inom Dig, Inom Mig was originally release on cassette in 2015 on Forever United. Silkscreened sleeves by Marijke Loozen; Music by Dan Johansson, Gustaf Dicksson, Hugo Randulv, Sofie Herner; Mastered by Kris Delacourt; Artwork by Dan Johansson.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: ZORN 054LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. Aguirre Records present a reissue of In Paris, Aries 1973 by the Black Artists Group. "This outstanding free jazz session was recorded in 1973 in Paris by Chicago outfit. It was Lester Bowie, trumpeter with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who suggested that the Black Artists Group should head for Paris. In 1972, several members took his advice and flew to France for an extended stay. The following year, a concert featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, drummer Charles Bobo Shaw and trombonist Joseph Bowie (Lester's younger brother) was recorded and subsequently issued as In Paris, Aries 1973, a limited LP on the group's own label. Since their formation in 1968, the home of the collective had been St Louis, the city where the Bowies had grown up. It was there that Lester started to play, before moving, to Chicago in 1966, where he joined the recently-established Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). His close friend Lake visited, attended AACM concerts and meetings and was inspired by their artistic vision, integrity, and organization. In June 1969, the Art Ensemble had taken their music to France, with its reputation for audiences that were open-minded and receptive to the music of innovators such as Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and others. In Paris, Aries 1973 offers a fascinating glimpse into that phase of BAG's existence. The album is dedicated to the memory of Kada Kayan, a bassist who had hoped to make the trip from St Louis but had grown ill and died. His absence adds special poignancy to the sound of the bass when it appears on this recording, played by Carroll. In Paris, Aries 1973 reveals BAG's musical affinities with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Both groups preserved an independently-minded approach to the notion of free jazz and a carefully filtered awareness of pan-African musical practices, while their creative interest in space, mobile structure, chance occurrences and simultaneity also suggests parallels with the concerns of leading experimental composers working at that time. These performances in Paris of Shaw's "Something to Play On" and Lake's "Re-Cre-A-Tion," plus two collective compositions/improvisations, display the dedication to structural fluency and sensitivity to coloration that accompanied BAG's unorthodox group dynamics and their unconventional instrumental combinations. This is not a showcase for solos, but a shape-shifting and multi-centered statement of togetherness and discovery."--Julian Cowley.

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: BING 178CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Eliza Bagg leads a complex musical life: working as a classical opera singer, she has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, performed in Meredith Monk's opera at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and toured Europe with the legendary John Zorn. While making her own music under the guise of art-pop solo act Lisel, she's also collaborated as a vocalist with some of the most renowned experimental artists, including Ben Frost, Julianna Barwick, Daniel Wohl, and many others, all while playing indie rock venues and lovably dingy basements. One day, it's Lincoln Center or The Kitchen, the next it's an outdoor LA ambient series. She was always torn between her two worlds, and it wasn't until she began work on Patterns For Auto-Tuned Voices And Delay that she discovered a way to merge them together. Patterns comes out of Bagg's experience as a vocalist singing Renaissance and Baroque music along with the work of modern-day minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 'I developed a vocal processing system that allowed me to change the idea of what my instrument is,' Bagg says of the album's genesis, a system that combines her virtuosic singing with autotune and delay effects to create a melding of human and machine. Sure, she'll admit it. 'I'm a sci-fi nerd,' she says, with a laugh. 'I'm a Blade Runner and Battlestar person. I love things that explore how society interacts with machines.' While making Patterns, she dove first into Renaissance polyphony and chant. The music of Hildegard von Bingen, Thomas Tallis, and Carlo Gesualdo is a familiar world to her. Starting with Renaissance and Medieval singing styles and idioms, she added processing and electronic world-building to bring out new, expressive qualities of those styles. From there, she improvised in these styles, fed the performances into Ableton, and incorporated modern day hyperpop (like SOPHIE) and ambient electric sounds and aesthetics. From Philip Glass to Charli XCX, Carl Stone to Grimes, Patterns makes radical connections. Yet, it was important for Bagg to maintain the spiritual origins of these vocal techniques. Patterns For Auto-Tuned Voices And Delay stands within those traditions, using voices to transcend the cerebral and overwhelm the listener, all while evoking a unique set of references that span five hundred years."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BING 178LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Eliza Bagg leads a complex musical life: working as a classical opera singer, she has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, performed in Meredith Monk's opera at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and toured Europe with the legendary John Zorn. While making her own music under the guise of art-pop solo act Lisel, she's also collaborated as a vocalist with some of the most renowned experimental artists, including Ben Frost, Julianna Barwick, Daniel Wohl, and many others, all while playing indie rock venues and lovably dingy basements. One day, it's Lincoln Center or The Kitchen, the next it's an outdoor LA ambient series. She was always torn between her two worlds, and it wasn't until she began work on Patterns For Auto-Tuned Voices And Delay that she discovered a way to merge them together. Patterns comes out of Bagg's experience as a vocalist singing Renaissance and Baroque music along with the work of modern-day minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 'I developed a vocal processing system that allowed me to change the idea of what my instrument is,' Bagg says of the album's genesis, a system that combines her virtuosic singing with autotune and delay effects to create a melding of human and machine. Sure, she'll admit it. 'I'm a sci-fi nerd,' she says, with a laugh. 'I'm a Blade Runner and Battlestar person. I love things that explore how society interacts with machines.' While making Patterns, she dove first into Renaissance polyphony and chant. The music of Hildegard von Bingen, Thomas Tallis, and Carlo Gesualdo is a familiar world to her. Starting with Renaissance and Medieval singing styles and idioms, she added processing and electronic world-building to bring out new, expressive qualities of those styles. From there, she improvised in these styles, fed the performances into Ableton, and incorporated modern day hyperpop (like SOPHIE) and ambient electric sounds and aesthetics. From Philip Glass to Charli XCX, Carl Stone to Grimes, Patterns makes radical connections. Yet, it was important for Bagg to maintain the spiritual origins of these vocal techniques. Patterns For Auto-Tuned Voices And Delay stands within those traditions, using voices to transcend the cerebral and overwhelm the listener, all while evoking a unique set of references that span five hundred years."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BING 185LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Push open the door of the old Norwegian school house in the rural hinterland Juni Habel shares with her close-knit family and climb the stairs and one will find oneself in a former classroom -- the home of her new album Carvings. Crafted seventeen years after guitar tuition would try to iron out the creases of her bohemian upbringing, it is a songbook of life's lessons offering an expansive perspective as it navigates personal shadows between darkness and light. Just as her more featherweight debut album All Ears would attest, the timelessness of Habel's music has evolved from her lived experiences. Growing up with six younger siblings alongside horses, hens, sheep and pigs on the family farm, she was a Forest School child. Today, little -- and a lot -- has changed since eschewing the city in favor of koselig-cohabiting with husband Emil, friend Isis, cat Lisa, dog Sajo. Living alongside them is Grandmother Inger, who gave Habel her first guitar aged ten and has always been a big influence on her life. This unyielding spirit of family and nature is etched into Carvings' unschooled approach. With beauty in mock-simplicity and radiating humanity like the music of Tia Blake, Julie Byrne or Myriam Gendron, Habel's songwriting unfolds on her own terms, and is the sound of facing whatever mother nature decides will find its way to the top of the list. Recorded between the classroom ('big hall'), the hallway on the second floor, and her bedroom with simple gear and vocals laid down in a single take, Habel extended an invitation to her musical family; husband Emil Nøjgaard Petersen (electric guitar), Sofie Mortvedt, Ellen-Martine Gismervik and Håkon Brunborg (strings) Thea Hernæs (drums) and uncle Sverre Thorstensen (double bass). Co-producer, musician and singer Stian Skaaden, became her melodic confidant and experimental co-conspirator, halving the burden by building the album's layers through blowing a pipe, playing bow on the banjo, bottles or glockenspiel. As Habel traces family, loss and grief, nature, love and music, be sure to remove one's shoes at the door; within each of Carvings' deepest cuts the warmest welcome awaits." "Meet Norway's new pastoral folk voice -- guitar lines ripple like Nick Drake strumming for Karen Dalton -- think Sibylle Baier or Julie Byrne." --Uncut

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BT 100LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Jim O'Rourke. Across a two-night program organized by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O'Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt's ensemble and the second the trio heard here. As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad's pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O'Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O'Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad's music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad's precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O'Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music). The flyer for the concert promised "massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones", and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that you are in "Tony's sonic universe", as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones. For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad's Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance's final quarter, allowing for the listener's first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia. Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire "to move away from composing to listening", to "working 'on' the sound from 'inside' the sound". Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life. Presented with an inner sleeve with illuminating liner notes from Arnold Dreyblatt, an archival live photo and flyers from the concert series.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 407CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

For eight years now, songwriter, and producer Sebastian Lee Philipp has been steering his project Die Wilde Jagd through the field of tension between contemporary electronic music and avant-pop. Between 2015 and 2020, three studio albums were produced as documents of Philipp's rigorous musical creativity. "Atem", a composition for Roadburn Festival, was released in 2022 (BB 402LP), documenting yet another, more experimental side of the project. On the fourth album, all these multi-faceted worlds are brought together in an impressive way. "'Ophio, Ophio' you say. Lies in the end of you Still the best ahead of me?" With these lines from the title track, Sebastian Lee Philipp poses the question that spans over the entire album like a parenthesis. The work entitled "Ophio" tells of constant transformation, the blurring of beginning, end, and the various dimensions in between. "It's about the constant unfolding of the self, about the seductive forces of life, an ode to existence and the transformation to happiness." Says Philipp himself about his conceptual direction of the album. The meandering between leaving behind and starting anew is not only found in the lyrics, but also in the music itself. The production seems more consistent than ever before, stripping away all frills and trinkets, like a skin that has become too tight. The compositions form a concentrate in which every single sound finds its space. In a certain sense, it's like listening to an introspection in which the bundled voices become a single, demanding murmur that is both drone and whisper in equal measure. As on the previous album Haut (BB 343CD/LP, 2020), the drums were played by long-time stage partner Ran Levari. The new album also features cellist and singer Lih Qun Wong (Lihla), who first joined Die Wilde Jagd for the live performance of "Atem". This collaboration sounds particularly impressive on "The Hearth", the band's first English-language song. A beguiling track as if of shiny, heavy tar, carried by Philipp's dense composition, Levari's pulsating beats and lyricist Wong's voice. Other production partners were Philipp Otterbach ("Kelch") and Vactrol Park ("In Wonnenhieben"). Nina Siegler, who could already be heard as a duet partner in the song "Himmelfahrten", also lends her voice again to the tracks "Ouroboros" and "In Wonnenhieben".

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 407LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. For eight years now, songwriter, and producer Sebastian Lee Philipp has been steering his project Die Wilde Jagd through the field of tension between contemporary electronic music and avant-pop. Between 2015 and 2020, three studio albums were produced as documents of Philipp's rigorous musical creativity. "Atem", a composition for Roadburn Festival, was released in 2022 (BB 402LP), documenting yet another, more experimental side of the project. On the fourth album, all these multi-faceted worlds are brought together in an impressive way. "'Ophio, Ophio' you say. Lies in the end of you Still the best ahead of me?" With these lines from the title track, Sebastian Lee Philipp poses the question that spans over the entire album like a parenthesis. The work entitled "Ophio" tells of constant transformation, the blurring of beginning, end, and the various dimensions in between. "It's about the constant unfolding of the self, about the seductive forces of life, an ode to existence and the transformation to happiness." Says Philipp himself about his conceptual direction of the album. The meandering between leaving behind and starting anew is not only found in the lyrics, but also in the music itself. The production seems more consistent than ever before, stripping away all frills and trinkets, like a skin that has become too tight. The compositions form a concentrate in which every single sound finds its space. In a certain sense, it's like listening to an introspection in which the bundled voices become a single, demanding murmur that is both drone and whisper in equal measure. As on the previous album Haut (BB 343CD/LP, 2020), the drums were played by long-time stage partner Ran Levari. The new album also features cellist and singer Lih Qun Wong (Lihla), who first joined Die Wilde Jagd for the live performance of "Atem". This collaboration sounds particularly impressive on "The Hearth", the band's first English-language song. A beguiling track as if of shiny, heavy tar, carried by Philipp's dense composition, Levari's pulsating beats and lyricist Wong's voice. Other production partners were Philipp Otterbach ("Kelch") and Vactrol Park ("In Wonnenhieben"). Nina Siegler, who could already be heard as a duet partner in the song "Himmelfahrten", also lends her voice again to the tracks "Ouroboros" and "In Wonnenhieben".

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: CF 133X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Clear vinyl. "I've had the pleasure of being a [The] Fall fan since I was a teen. I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords. They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life. The word prolific gets tossed around a lot. It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn't have to do their self-imposed job of judging releases for the rabble. The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often. Yet I can honestly say that I am so thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain. Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry. So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you. Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history. They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force. We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings and help piecing it all together. Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint, which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too. Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it. This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall. All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve. And it wouldn't be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason." --John Dwyer

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: JACK 011CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Yellow vinyl. Released in September 1969, Fleetwood Mac's third studio album, Then Play On, was their first to feature new recruit, 19-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan, and was their last with Peter Green. Some months following the record release, Green was subjected to drinks spiked with LSD at a party in Germany, leading to his severe mental decline; after a final performance on May 20, 1970, Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac. The marvelous Mr. Green was, however, on hand and truly on form for the band's January 30, 1970 appearance at The Warehouse in New Orleans, where Messrs, Green, Kirwan, Fleetwood, Spencer, and McVie played a stunning set as support to the Grateful Dead. Mac's complete performance was recorded for local broadcast too, and from this source comes this LP featuring one of Fleetwood Mac's finest available live recordings from this period, an era sadly destined to come to a close soon after this quite extraordinary gig.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: JACK 011LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Black vinyl. Released in September 1969, Fleetwood Mac's third studio album, Then Play On, was their first to feature new recruit, 19-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan, and was their last with Peter Green. Some months following the record release, Green was subjected to drinks spiked with LSD at a party in Germany, leading to his severe mental decline; after a final performance on May 20, 1970, Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac. The marvelous Mr. Green was, however, on hand and truly on form for the band's January 30, 1970 appearance at The Warehouse in New Orleans, where Messrs, Green, Kirwan, Fleetwood, Spencer, and McVie played a stunning set as support to the Grateful Dead. Mac's complete performance was recorded for local broadcast too, and from this source comes this LP featuring one of Fleetwood Mac's finest available live recordings from this period, an era sadly destined to come to a close soon after this quite extraordinary gig.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: DEGU 037EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

This is the second chapter of the E Dee series, here what it is about in Fango's own words: "Around three years ago I became a father and that changed my life. This series is about my son's world seen through my eyes: the innersleeve artwork was made by him and the mouth on the label is his. All the titles of this second chapter are also taken from Carlo's own dictionary: 'E Dee' is the first sound he used to make trying to communicate, it could mean many things. 'Babu' is the evolution of 'Babuke' (in the first volume) Dad, 'Didda Dae' is a kind of song that he invented, 'Allullu Azzo' is the name used by Camilla to call Carlo."

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: DIAL 046LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

La Collectionneuse is the third studio album by Carsten Jost.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DC 691LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. 2017 release. "Reaching For Indigo is the fifth album from Circuit des Yeux. It references a moment that fell down in the life of Haley Fohr on Jan. 22, 2016. Reaching For Indigo adds to the definition of Circuit des Yeux, as she realizes her goal of becoming one of the most distinctive voices of this time."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: DC 744LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. 2019 release. "Almost two years on from 2017's Plum, Californian scrap polymorphs Wand is prepared to launch their fifth, and newest long-playing record, Laughing Matter. By now, Wand is the shifting but unmistakable collaboration between Sofia Arreguin (keys, vocals), Cory Hanson (guitar, vocals), Robert Cody (guitar), Lee Landey (bass) and Evan Burrows (drums). Laughing Matter is marked by the confidence and exuberance of a band that has lived, feuded, thrived and grown together through years of dedicated jamming, touring and recording, across western and eastern states, continents and mind-sets. In this world that insists we must increasingly rely upon ourselves, Wand listens to each other, and this is the sound. Largely recorded on the infamous southern border of broken, decadent America, Laughing Matter belongs to the after-life. After the dull flood. As rock n roll lurched sideways and fell away, drunkenly lost in a funhouse mirror of . . . recycled Funhouses. With no major label funding, no management or lawyers, no corporate distribution, near zero social media presence and no commercial dealings whatsoever (with only poor, pitiful Drag City to help them carry the flag!), Wand have toured the world a bajillion times in five years and made four varied and compelling records while accumulating a devoted following . . . Swerving between out-of-focus parable, travel diary, pep talk, polemic, love song, and lullaby, Laughing Matter is a tough and tender album, its eyes on a lot of prizes. Where Plum held the tension of its five band members getting on their feet, the songs on Laughing Matter are concentrated and relaxed, even as they search for the right accusations to hurl at cynics and megalomaniacs. The music is distilled and sculpted from an ash heap of collected improvisations, riven with audio-verité; the methods and instrumentation are traditional handmade rock n' roll . . . This music is not revivalism or throwback; Wand is a precision instrument, a band that probes and teases style, genre, trope and anachronism into material, according to a law of motion that is aimed directly toward an uncertain future. Laughing Matter is a record about love in a time of terror, and how to make the best use of the surveillance technology available today . . . The 15 songs on this record face their energy outward, to take with you through a common world that can't suffer its human abusers much longer..."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: DC 859LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. "'And we're coming out of dreams / And we're coming back to dreams" is the first thing you hear Bill say as you remake your acquaintance on YTI?A??. Right out the gate, he's standing in two places at once: meeting up with old friends behind the scenes and encountering them on the record, finding himself coming round the bend and then again as someone else on down the line. Like the character actor he played on Gold Record, writing stories about other people, telling jokes about everyone, and in singing them, becoming the songs. Bill's got a full band sound going on this one, with him and Matt Kinsey on guitars, Emmett Kelly on bass and backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on B3, piano and backing vocals and Jim White on drums. Jim and Matt sing on one song, too, and some other singers come in, too. Bill plays some synth here and there, and Carl Smith drifts in and out of the picture with his contra alto clarinet, as do Mike St. Clair and Derek Phelps on brass. Somehow in between them all, you might think you hear the distant sound of a steel guitar. And you might -- but you might not, too. In this company, Bill continues his journey, tunneling underneath the weathered exterior of what seems to be and into the more nuanced life everything takes on in the dark. With Bill's voice making the extraordinary leaps and bounds that measure the lives of the songs, the band follow him through passages that seem to invent themselves; other times playing with deeply soulful grooves and/or desperate intensity, as these moments come and go. Time passes, triangulating the encounters that went into any one record with two out of any three others, all of it made flesh, new constitution, in our stereo speakers. If every album is its own life, it stands to reason that they're invariably passing in the night. Cascading images flowing from the stream of consciousness. Turning like pages from the journal, unspeakably personal, then suddenly become tall tales, like a book pulled off the shelf, completely unbound. Bill's lyrics strain at the lines on the page, not content to separate the printing of the fact from the myth or be confined to ink on paper. On YTI?A??'s inner sleeve, alongside his lyrics, Bill celebrates the 'exhilaration and dread' of cover artist Paul Ryan's paintings."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: MIR 100740LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress; LP version. With this 1982 album, Scientist delivers one of his most progressive mixes, deconstructing the originals down to their skeletal base and adding just the right amount of mixing board-generated Echoplex and reverb with his patented minimal sound. A landscape resplendent with steely piano, depth-charge drums, and futuristic dub effects; a mind-warping yet eminently enjoyable way to check into dub central.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DUST 110CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Music for Real Airports is a series of exciting live art events and installations in art galleries/spaces that are artistic response to the reality of occupying the semi-public space of an airport, and a contemporary reply to Brian Eno's work from the '70s. Produced by musicians and artists with an international reputation -- the Black Dog and Human -- the project will portray airports as they really are, rather than idealized utopian vision of what they should be. Combining performances of electronic music and live-mixed animation and digital video projected on multiple screens, Music for Real Airports will be a unique, immersive experience that will draw in new audiences to art galleries.

 

PRICE: $46.50

CAT #: DUST 110LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

3x12" version. Music for Real Airports is a series of exciting live art events and installations in art galleries/spaces that are artistic response to the reality of occupying the semi-public space of an airport, and a contemporary reply to Brian Eno's work from the '70s. Produced by musicians and artists with an international reputation -- the Black Dog and Human -- the project will portray airports as they really are, rather than idealized utopian vision of what they should be. Combining performances of electronic music and live-mixed animation and digital video projected on multiple screens, Music for Real Airports will be a unique, immersive experience that will draw in new audiences to art galleries.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 1002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. LP version. 180 gram virgin vinyl, with original artwork restored. Spiritual Unity, recorded on July 10, 1964, is the album that made Albert Ayler and ESP-Disk' famous (or, in some people's eyes/ears, infamous). Mr. Ayler had already recorded in Europe and, in February '64, in New York, but this was the first album on which neither he nor his collaborators held back. It was also ESP's first jazz recording. Spiritual Unity presented a new improvisation paradigm: looser structure, less regard for standard pitch, and no obligation to present a regular beat. Ayler's sound was unprecedented, much rawer than any other jazz of the time. Sometimes it was expressed in squalls of untempered sound, sometimes in outbursts of poignant spontaneous melody. Meanwhile, under and around the leader's unfettered self-expressions, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray reinvented the roles of their instruments.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: FAITBACK 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. Faitiche presents a long-lost vinyl album. Since 2003, Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, originally released in 2001 on ~scape, existed only as a download. Now the album is available again on vinyl, as a double LP with two bonus tracks, "Moiré (Guitar & Horns)" and "Poren", B-sides from Tendency EP (2000)."Don't be misled by the title, though for there isn't a finger-snapping rhythm bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm." --Alternative Press"The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people's arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas." --ATM"Jelinek's sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards." --RPM"Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub techno framework. . . . Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player's hissing intake of breath - it would have been 'jazz' enough for his purposes." --The Wire"It's a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm." --Pitchfork"All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs . . . are warm, paradisiacal creations." --NME"Listen carefully and you'll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you've not fallen asleep of course." --iDJ"At times, it's all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness" --DJ"Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along." --Boomkat

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: FTR 640LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Manual of the Bayonet is hopefully just the first volume of archival recordings by this most excellent destructo-unit from the Pacific Northwest. The material here was recorded in Portland OR, between the years of 1999 and 2001, with some combination of ten members participating in the sessions. We always viewed JOMF as the West Coast version of free-rock collectives like NYC's No Neck Blues Band and Boston's Sunburned Hand of the Man. JOMF emerged from the Smegma-damaged wing of the Northwest sub-underground, and when you'd go see them about all you could figure was that the line-up would include Tom Greenwood. Although, now that I think about it, I recall a tour they did with Godspeed! where Tom was absent, and Samara Lubelski kinda led the shows. So there ya go. It was a collective effort. And a real damn good one. The period represented by these recordings is around the time of the Magick Fire Music (2000) and Liberation (2001) albums, which was when (in my opinion) JOMF really took off. Their original, somewhat goofy weirdness was now supplanted by a fully-freaked free-rock pulse and energetic explorations of various improvisational nooks. Like No Neck and Sunburned, JOMF just let it rip, and created flowing jagged sheets of sound that routed straight from their heads. Elements of jazz, new music, and rock of all sorts were mushed together into a great pile of strings, keys, horns, thuds, and grooves, then rolled right off a cliff. The splat this made when it landed could be magnificent, as you will surely confirm when you spin this disk. In the words of the critic Kevin Whitehead (albeit in a different context), this is 'nuts music, as free as the squirrels.' Load up." --Byron Coley, 2022

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: FIELD 031LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Time bends for Imaginary Softwoods, the solo guise of producer, songwriter, and synthesist John Elliott. Though he's working on new recordings daily, Elliott's process for the construction of his albums moves at a much different interval, stretching out over months of considerate listening, revision, and waiting patiently for the right combinations and clashes of elemental forces to materialize on their own. The Notional Pastures of Imaginary Softwoods continues Elliott's practice of zeroing in on what he wants to say with an album over the course of countless sessions that span multiple years, this time paying even more attention to locating the emotional through-line that connects the various pieces. The eleven-piece album vibrates at a low, unbroken cycle through all of its articulations. The bubbling neon dots of "North of Roswell," double vision stumble of "Mr. Big Volume," underwater music box trickle of "Portable Void," and clear-headed Arctic daybreak drones of "Diagram of the Universe" are all linked by a gentle, fluid hum. The brief moments of anxiety and long stretches of calm both feedback into the same center of gravity, becoming conjoined reflections of one another as they cycle through. After bending to find this specific universal frequency, time evaporates altogether, and longer zones like the glimmering "Almond Branch" become indistinguishable from Elliott's signature miniatures, some of which stick around for less than a minute. The Notional Pastures of Imaginary Softwoods is a document of the universe as people comprehend it, designed to vanish as soon as it is felt.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 250CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Revelations Of The Sacred Skull was recorded and mixed by Jordan Barillaro at Tone Bender Studio in Montreal QC, in 2021-2022. It's an urban spaghetti western journey soaked in occult heavy metal, punk, witchcraft, and debauchery. For fans of Motörhead, Venom, Tank, Pentagram, The Stooges .

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 252LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Reissue. Arch Stanton is the sixth studio album released by the instrumental stoner rock band Karma to Burn, released in 2014. Unlike their previous release V, this album returns to their exclusively instrumental roots, although the final track features dialogue snippets from the classic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 252LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Pink vinyl. Reissue. Arch Stanton is the sixth studio album released by the instrumental stoner rock band Karma to Burn, released in 2014. Unlike their previous release V, this album returns to their exclusively instrumental roots, although the final track features dialogue snippets from the classic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 253LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Live in Brussels is a Karma To Burn's live album, recorded in Brussels in 2012. After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds is now reissuing this epic live performance.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 253LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Blue vinyl. Live in Brussels is a Karma To Burn's live album, recorded in Brussels in 2012. After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds is now reissuing this epic live performance.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 253ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Quad white/red vinyl. Live in Brussels is a Karma To Burn's live album, recorded in Brussels in 2012. After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds is now reissuing this epic live performance.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 256LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Reissue, originally released in 2012. Also known as Karma To Burn: Slight Reprise, the release has nine tracks. Stoner legend John Garcia sings on the song "Two Times". After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds reissue this stoner gem.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 256LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Gold vinyl. Reissue, originally released in 2012. Also known as Karma To Burn: Slight Reprise, the release has nine tracks. Stoner legend John Garcia sings on the song "Two Times". After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds reissue this stoner gem.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 256ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Transparent splatter red/green vinyl. Reissue, originally released in 2012. Also known as Karma To Burn: Slight Reprise, the release has nine tracks. Stoner legend John Garcia sings on the song "Two Times". After ten years, Heavy Psych Sounds reissue this stoner gem.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: HONEY 070LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1963. Pianist and arranger João Donato was a major figure in the bossa nova movement. During his long career he recorded with many of the great names from both Brazilian and American Latin-jazz scene (Tom Jobim, Ron Carter, Airto Moreira, E. Deodato, Randy Brecker, Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, and several others). First released in 1963, this is a marvelous example of bossa jazz album featuring the highly syncopated drums grooves of Milton Banana and Amaury Rodriguez's Afro-Cuban flavored bongos.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: IMPREC 503LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

After Black Clouds Above The Bows (IMPREC 507CD), Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ, fatally wounded in a climate related event. All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk due to the effects caused by receding coastlines around the globe. Wailing odes tell the story of the catastrophic activity of eroding waves and winds shaping the land that are enhanced by the climate crisis. Firsthand experiences and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject of these receding coastlines inspired Wanderwelle to compose these albums. During their travels, the artists stumbled upon a small church in a town on the east coast of Scotland. The building was quite damaged, the roof was being stabilized and the ancient walls showed great tears running vertically down the structure. The damage had been caused by a nearby cliff that collapsed in the sea, an event increasingly common in the region. The church organ was ruined in such a way that it was deemed unplayable, as most of the pipes were gravely damaged and in dire need of restoration. Despite the damage, the artists were allowed to record a few tones of the instrument with their equipment, which was actually meant to be used for field recordings later that day. In Black Clouds Above The Bows, antique cavalry trumpets were recorded and manipulated. Similar processing was used on the recordings of the dying organ, resulting in spectral, deconstructed tones beyond recognition. In addition to the damaged organ, the artists recorded piano, cello, and synthesizers in later stages of the composition process, manipulating these sounds to mimic the sea shaping the land. Furthermore, a great deal of inspiration was found in maritime superstition, lore, and mythology. As told in the legend of Aspidochelone, a legendary sea creature of enormous size, was once mistaken for an island. After sailors docked and lit a fire, the beast submerged resembling a land mass sliding into the sea. The album's title is derived from the saying "All Hands Bury The Dead", a maritime burial phrase, as the duo likes to think "All Hands" refers to all of mankind since we are all responsible for these impending catastrophes.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: ITR 372LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Cheater Slicks, the take-no-prisoners Columbus, Ohio-based trio, return to Los Angeles' In The Red Records with the thrilling, musically diverse Ill-Fated Cusses, their first album in eight years and their first package for the label in twenty years. The ten-track collection follows Piano Tunnels, a freewheeling, improvisation-based benefit collaboration with vocalist Bill Gage, whom the band has known since the then newly-formed trio and the singer's group BILL were working in the Boston area in 1987. Other players joined this record other than core members Tom and Dave Shannon and Dana Hatch. Will Foster, who recorded the record, is heard playing various keyboards and MIDI instrument emulations on the finished record. Most interestingly, James Arthur, of Fireworks and the Necessary Evils, was drafted to play bass, and he appears on every song on the album. Cheater Slicks had not deviated from the two-guitars-and-drums formula since its early days in Boston, when bassists Dina Pearlman, Allen 'Alpo' Paulino of the Real Kids, and Merle Allin, brother of the notorious GG Allin, all rotated through the group. After thirty-five years in business, it makes about as much sense to pigeonhole Cheater Slicks as simply a 'garage-rock band' as it would to call the Rolling Stones a 'blues band.' Ill-Fated Cusses, more than any other album in the group's discography, explores a broad musical palette on its nine original songs and one cover, Memphis rockabilly icon Charlie Feathers' stark barroom murder ballad 'Cold Dark Night.' This latest chapter in the Cheater Slicks saga moves into bracing new territory without sacrificing the uncompromising blood 'n' guts tactics that have long made them a formidable force in American rock 'n' roll."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: KOM 455LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. The 23rd edition of the Pop Ambient compilation, compiled as always by Wolfgang Voigt. With the first tracks of Leandro Fresco/Thore Pfeiffer, Gen Pop (Burger, Pfeiffer, Würden), Morgen Wurde featuring Tetsuroh Konishi, and Max Würden up to Triola's gloomy and melancholic "Kupferblüte", the feeling of a slowness and calmness not experienced before, of an exceedingly lively standstill, creeps over us. A mental state that resembles dreams, in which you follow strange events as if paralyzed, yet awake and sensory. The Cologne-based Sono Kollektiv, an association of experimental artists Annie Bloch, Stefanie Grawe, Joel Jaffe, Alex Linster, Luis Weiß, Moritz Riesenbeck, Lukas Schäfer, Emily Wittbrodt, and Max Würden, is represented for the first time with two contributions on Pop Ambient. The two works, the fragile "Bolzano Sessions IV" and the rather light-flooded "Bolzano Sessions V" nestle perfectly into the musical whole of this year's compilation, not only in terms of their majestic leisureliness. In Jens-Uwe Beyer's "Nero", melancholic guitar chords reduced to the bare minimum are carried away by the wind like leaves, the reverberation holding the last note so long that it almost comes to a stop in the ear. If you like it synesthetic, look at the once again ravishing cover artwork by Veronika Unland right at this moment. Colors and shapes in which there is both everything and nothing to discover. Both feel equally right. The final third of Pop Ambient 2023 begins with Reich & Würden's herbaceous "Receiver," a track so dignified and carried by pads reminiscent of the sound of bagpipes. The slowness is joined by togetherness at the end: Pop Ambient veteran Joachim Spieth cooperates with American sound artist zakè on his literally weightless "Air", Thore Pfeiffer co-produced the wonderful "Instinct" with Scottish brother duo Andy and Mike Truscott aka Kinbrae. California duo Patrick Hills and Morgan Fox aka Blank Gloss close out with the yearning "Down At The Heel."LP features Gen Pop, Morgen Wurde, Tetsuroh Konishi, Max Würden, Triola, Sono Kollektiv, Jens-Uwe Beyer, Reich & Würden, Joachim Spieth / zakè, Thore Pfeiffer / Kinbrae, and Blank Gloss.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: KOM EX123EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

There's no 123 without 4 in Kompakt's beloved Speicher series. Robag Wruhme is back with two intense, low-slung monster tunes in his unique masterful fashion. "Glut" is destined to set your peak time dancefloor on fire with its killer bassline and trippy sequences. "Un-spok-en" is equally relentless and unfathomable, garnished with a haunting vocal snippet.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: KOM EX124EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Egypt-born Barcelona resident Ahmed Raxon has proven himself to be one of the most consistent DJ producers of his generation. His ability to make big room techno funky and highly entertaining has landed him releases on some of techno's finest powerhouses like Cocoon, Drumcode, or Ellum. His new double header for Speicher again ticks all the right boxes. "Slip Mode" is a robotic workout with that trademark irresistible Raxon drive. "Nu Waze" is more of a cheeky affair, combining an Arab quarter tone hook with an ultra-funky back beat that would make "Phunk Phenomena"-era Armand Van Helden proud.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: LUL 021LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In a time where electronic music gets harder and faster each day, Berlin-based duo Brigade's debut album Hard Times, Soft Music reclaims easy listening as a badge of honor. The record is a meticulously calibrated work of room temperature, a home cooked meal between friends or a warm sonic blanket that tugs you in after a rainy day. Pushing their club roots to the side, Brigade's debut album sits between ambient, house, and hip-hop. "We took the pandemic as a cue to take a break from dance floor productions and play around with different genres and production styles." The first single "International CommunicationTM" showcases that breadth and introduces an album pretty much anyone in the post-Shrek cultural landscape could agree on. Basically, if you appreciate a good hug, chances are you'll enjoy this album. Also, there's a pretty cute dog on the cover.

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: LR 144C-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LR 337LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Originally released in 1968, Caetano Veloso's debut album did for Brazilian music what the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers did for rock & roll, giving birth to the soon-to-be Tropicalia movement, which fused Brazilian music with pop, psychedelia and social awareness (and Veloso's leftist politics actually earned him a stint in jail in 1968 for 'anti-government activity'). Veloso, nonetheless went on to become one of the most popular and influential Brazilian musicians of all time. Includes the genre-defining classics "Clarice" and "Soy Loco Por Tì, América", "Superbacana", "Tropicalia" and "Alegria, Alegria". Now with bonus CD of the album and OBI "bookmark" Japanese style.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: PLAYRJC 081EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The increasingly vital Jorkes makes a big step up to the acclaimed Live at Robert Johnson label with her standout Sweet Dreams EP. Jorkes is the co-founder of the unique Freeride Millenium label which is a hotbed for queer dance music. German-born but Austria based, she has an influential residency at Radio 80000 alongside ParisBöhm and is a resident at Stuttgart's Romantica where she plays a thrilling mix of disco, house, techno, and everything in between. She is someone who always serves to highlight the importance of the dance floor as a place of sexual and cultural liberation and this new EP is another innovative statement that comes as she rides a wave of high-profile radio, DJ and media support for recent outings on her own label. Opener "You Will Be Mine" is a song about obsessing after an unattainable stranger on the dance floor who disappears into the night. It's a silky disco house sound with chords that sing and a floating bassline that lifts you off your feet. The melodic motifs bring charm and cosmic energy and the whole track has a lush, musical feel. The equally excellent "Robot Lover" muses on human detachment in this technological era of internet porn, dating apps and screen obsessions and how a robotic lover might be a better fit than a real life partner. It is another elastic and disco-tinged rhythm, with elegant chords and dancing keys over a suspensory bassline. Intimate vocal whispers bring tenderness to this timeless track. On the flip side, "Sweet Dreams" layers up infectious claps and tinny percussion over an irresistible deep house groove. It's a widescreen, symphonic sound that brings very real but subtle joy and closer "CDEvaLo" is the name of a crossdressing male-to-female and sex-worker friend of Jorkes. It is a comment on the number of young people who arrived in Athens over the years to do cross-dressing sex work after being kicked out by their Orthodox Christian homes. The track flips the script with a more playful disco sound, characterful vocoder vocals and glossy synths over a jacked house beat.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: PLAYRJC 086EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Brussel's beat smith DC Salas is back on the block -- the Robert Johnson block that is! His third release for Live at Robert Johnson is also his 20th official release so far -- so there are two things to celebrate spread over Diego Cortez Salas's powerful four-tracks EP called Voces. Let's start with the title track: "Voces" is a call to alarm right from the beginning with its stabbing synth bass line and sirens. Add a couple of drumbreaks and a heavy beat -- et voilà: You have the first of four tunes to jump up and down to. Et oui, Salas surely knows how to build tension in a track -- even in a voiceless track named "Voces". Next up is "The Lights" -- and oh boy does Salas turn them on! These are quite trippy lights with a sound that could easily come from a twisted didgeridoo -- the beat of "The Lights" is (of course) groovy as f*** -- excuse the French. So, turn on "The Lights"! B-side opener "Metallic Glow" does just that: The track glows in bright metallic from the first second and features plenty of crazy sounds to do a crazy dance. Just listen to the groove. For "Safe Pace" Diego pulls out beautiful percussive elements and the 303 thus surfing on a not-so-safe pace to be honest: The last track of Voces is as fast and demanding as all the others. DC Salas again managed to build four really solid stompers here to set any dancefloor on fire -- without using any voice or vocal -- these are really serious sounds you all should listen and dance to. Now.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: SPA 14761LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock. 2004 reissue on Spalax Music, distributed through MG.ART. Belle Alliance (1980) is the second studio album by Manuel Göttsching's Ashra trio, following the band's 1979 debut, Correlations (SPA 14760), which expanded Ashra from the solo project of 1977's New Age of Earth and 1978's Blackouts (SPA 14759LP). Manuel Göttsching (guitar, synthesizer, sequencer), Lutz Ulbrich (guitar, synthesizer, piano, mellotron), Harald Großkopf (drums, percussion, synthesizer).

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: MIA 041LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. Silver vinyl; metallic color artwork; edition of 300. LP version. For this from that will be filled is the debut album by Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). The album explores the variable differences between acoustic and electronic sound as well as depiction of the simulated and the unconscious. It was originally conceived as a collaboration between Jensen and the artist Jonathan Turner as an audio-visual work, but is here presented in it's pure audible form. Building on a long and romantic tradition of solo cello repertoire, Jensen expands and confuses the familiar sound of the cello through the use of effects pedals, multi-tracking, and tape loops recorded at variable speeds, presented in works she has written for herself as well as a piece she conceived together with Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Also featured is Michael Harrison's "Cello Constellations" for multi-tracked cello and sine tones, written for Jensen, which meditates on long, sustaining tones. With For This From That Will Be Filled, Jensen has made an incredibly strong first album that feels like a surreal and futuristic journey through an alternate timeline.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: MP 049CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reissue, originally released in 2002. "The Earth is burning, covering all environments in ashes. Smoke comes to us from computers -- from social networks accelerating the spread of burnt affects, damaging our ability to feel and respond to what the planet strives to express. We need to cool down. Thomas Köner's music can help change the pace of our perceptions: 1) In Daikan (2002) -- a Japanese term meaning 'the coldest' or 'the coldest part of the year' -- the ear stretches until touching the depth of time that persists in the ice; a sonic drama offers the slowness thanks to which the skin of perceptions can reconstitute themselves; icequakes awaken listeners to the frozen life without scaring them. 2) 'Banlieue du Vide', considered by many to be Thomas Köner's most iconic audiovisual work and best kept secret, has not been released previously. It is in the collection of a couple of art museums, e.g. the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and has been awarded the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in 2004, in the category Digital Musics. Banlieue du Vide is the result of months of time-lapse observations of empty streets in the Finnish Arctic Circle, shown in glacially slow slow-motion. Phase cancellation, on which all noise cancelling technology is based, here affects the perception of time, the sense of the flow of time extinguishing itself. At this stage the void is not yet empty, traces of past noise fill the listeners mind with their haunting presence. A remastered stereo version of the soundtrack is released as a special premiere as a bonus track of the Daikan album. Listening to this album, an excess of heat turns into an empowering coldness -- like the transient feeling of our terrestrial embodiment in the midst of entropy." --Fréderic Neyrat, October 2022

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: MINIMOOD 012EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Four times A C I D by David Hausdorf pressed on special luminous yellow wax. Vinyl only.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: MOABIT 022LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock. January 1981 found Gudrun Gut and Bettina Koster in Christopher Franke's Berlin-Spandau Studio recording their first Malaria! EP (Zensor Records). Christine Hahn of The Static with Glenn Branca and Barbara Ess, joined in from New York, and Manon P. Duursma fresh from Nina Hagen's O.U.T. project, and Susanne Kuhnke completed the line-up. Malaria! started touring intensively soon after the release of their 12", commencing with a concert with New Order at Brussel's Ancienne Belgique, and going on from there to concerts with Siouxsie and the Banshees, Birthday Party, The Slits, The AuPairs, Raincoats, Nina Hagen, John Cale, and Einstürzende Neubauten. They played venues as diverse as the Mudd Club, Peppermint Lounge and Studio 54 in New York, the Documenta in Kassel, the Bat Cave in London, Les Bains Douche in Paris, Milky Way and Paradiso in Amsterdam, ICA in London, the Piazza Santa Maria Novella in Florence, and Markthalle in Hamburg and naturally, again and again, at the SO36 in Berlin. While touring, Malaria! used their time off to record in Studios in New York, London, Brussels, New Orleans, and in Berlin -- How Do You Like My New Dog? 7" (1981), Weisses Wasser 12" (1982), New York Passage 12" (1982), Revisited cassette (1983), and the Emotion album (1982). At the BBC studios in London, Maida Vale, Malaria! recorded a John Peel Session. Malaria! took a break in 1984 -- Bettina and Christine re-located to New York, and Gudrun and Manon stayed in Berlin to form Matador with Beate Bartel, but not before they recorded their mini-album, Beat The Distance (1985). In 1992 Gudrun, Bettina, Christine, and Manon met up in New Orleans with Jim Thirlwell (Foetus) to record Elation 12". Elation was followed by Cheerio (1993), which again was recorded in Berlin. Chicks on Speed did their own version of Malaria!'s song, "Kaltes Klares Wasser" in 2001, and the remix went into the German Top 10. Malaria! has been an instrumental part of Berlin music history, as recently presented at the "Zurück zum Beton" at Düsseldorf's Kunstakademie, Kunsthalle Wien "Punk!", "Geniale Dilletanten" Goethe Institut, and in B-Movie.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: MUSIQ 281EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

New artist on Mule Musiq. Tel Aviv born producer Nadav Siegel aka Autarkic has been releasing nice indie dance tracks from Disco Halal, Life And Death, Turbo, and Optimo Music, to name a few. This is his first release on Mule Musiq. 12" kicks off with a killer psychedelic techno house track "Cymbals Powder Rush", floating deep house which is reminiscent of Lawrence's stuff, "A Petition For Grace", slow mo-electric German progressive new age tune, "New Age Swag", Detroit manner machine funk, "Breeder".

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: MR 400LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Algo Salvaje ("Something Wild"), now reaching its third volume, celebrates the darkest, neglected and rebellious side of Spanish beat. Internationally labelled as nuggets (after the original compilation of the same name concocted by Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye in 1972 for the Elektra label), the more common garage rock label has been used to place and describe one of the most fertile chapters of rock n' roll history during its most creative years. An underground story which has luckily become known, with participants from all around the globe which included anonymous musicians, independent record labels with impossible names and ridiculously limited pressings, often not more than a few hundred copies. The tracks chosen for the occasion, a selection filtered strictly by their musical value, adhere to the rules of the classic nugget genre while demonstrating the permeability of garage sound and its inevitable evolution at the turn of the decade (1967-1974) through mixes that embraced psychedelia, soul and even prog rock. Epic and pretty wild. Just the kind of material that this record label usually handles. Many of the 28 tracks are reissued for the first time, including extremely hard-to-find records. This double-LP, gatefold sleeve package includes extensive notes by genre-expert Vicente Fabuel featuring all the original record sleeves and artist photos. Features Los Gatos, Los Joviales, Los Geminis, Los Gatos Negros, Los Tiburones, Los Bohemios, Els 4 Gats, Los Pirombodas, Los Watts, Los Flecos, Locomocion, Es Amics, Els Xocs, Los Pasos, Los Diana, Los Pajaros Locos, Los Nivram, Los Brujos, Los Shakers, Los Yunios's, Los Zooms, Atardecer, Los Protones, Los Yetis, Los No, Bertas, Los Faros, and Los Watusi.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: OM 024LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Pleasure Pool are Finn O'Hare, Andrew Robertson, and a rolling cast of Glasgow-based musicians, performers and artists. They sound like nothing else to have come out of Glasgow recently, exploring the territory between live performance and club culture through their collaborative ethos and party-starting attitude. Their debut EP, Night Scars, arrived in early March 2020 and now comes Love Without Illusion, Pleasure Pool's debut album, released on Optimo Music. Love Without Illusion adds layers of complexity and introspection to Night Scars' squarely dance floor-focused brew, though the record still oozes danceable energy. "Open Hours" is like opening a door and finding a party already in full swing, an assortment of recurring Pleasure Pool motifs -- echoing, dubbed-out vocals, gorgeous, impossibly airy synth melodies, louche percussion, cowbells, rising and falling flecks of trumpet -- all introduced in short order. "Lick The Bag", which prominently features vocalists Chloe Charlton and Raissa Pardini, has a controlled chaos befitting its morning-after-the-night-before name. The rest of the album rides this glimmering, night-magic mood at varying frequencies, with the title track a gentle storm of grandiose walls of synth and pulsing vocal fragments. The slow and low flickering funk of album closer "Zero Hours" pulls all that has come before it together to end things in the woozy bliss of a walk back home in warm, gentle sunlight. Love Without Illusion is a dazzlingly complete expression of Pleasure Pool's intoxicating sound and vision. Dive on in and explore.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: PERL 134LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A matter of pace, an analog memory... Feel safe: like newborn, take your first careful steps on a clean slate while Maayan is your supervisor. Naïve and happy, you leave carbon footprints on your way into the "Positives". Then a faster pace: some tribal folk music from a tiny world, where people dance around an LED fire, commands a gallop to the "One And Ollam". Latinfection guaranteed. Your "Nonplus" motion interferes with environmental geometry. A memory from an analog past flashes like a daydream. Upward and rising, your smile workout succeeds while scintillating waves say "hello!" Having grown up to a motorik being, the determined goal however never appears. The journey into a "Perfect Storm" is the reward. Maayan sends you some motivating words. Then have a break and jump on the "Light Train" of thoughts to enjoy blurred reflections: on the water and in your mind. Sing your body beautiful and free. Words come in bubbles, a heart-throb away from a "Light Tower". Feel like stumbling into new adventures on a pathless terrain. Slowly and cautious, the "Novemberme", which is the one that approaches dawn, celebrates tristesse with a funny accent. Kick the blues with a beat. "Somewhere" lost but regenerated, find Sisyphos 'generator of vitality. A nascent religious mood at the Autobahn service station fades into the fog. Finally, the circle of pace is almost closed. "After Laughter" of amazement, Maayan leaves you with a soothing mantra of confidence: an everyday ritual fun you should indulge yourself in. It comes in waves.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 020CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue. Released in 1983 on London's Legendary Mortarhate label, Conflict's debut broke all rules in punk rock, setting new standards and storming independent charts, reaching and retaining a #1 position for several weeks. Formed in 1981 and led by vocalist Colin Jerwood, who would remain one of the group's few constants throughout its 30 years of existence, and fueled by hatred for the media, the military, and the general status quo of late century Thatcher's England, Conflict has been a stainless model for three generation of peace punkers, activists, and anarchists from all over the world. Gatefold; color vinyl.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: RADK 7022CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"OK, so this one required a fair old loosening of the ego to put out there. But sometimes you've just gotta make yourself as small as an ant and let go... These are recordings which were never supposed to see the light of day. But here they are: loose as; sloppy as. Hopefully endearing. In truth, an insane amount of effort and love went into these songs and I feel buoyed by sharing them. I've shed my skin, I'm a butterfly, I'm on fire. Stu xoxox"

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: RADK 7023CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's Demos Vol. 2 have been surfed out in an attempt to reconcile exquisite demo recording and vaporized lo-fi electronica. Music To Eat Bananas To is a venture in oceanic rock or space rock. Peruse and support this online styling between a kilometers-underground ambient-glitch producer, and Melbourne's cultural icons of kaleidoscopic creation and willpower.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: RRS 085LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1989. A seminal record in Oi/punk circles, it starts strong and finishes strong, a tour de force of well-played anthemic catchy sing-a-long UK punk with nods to the seminal punk bands of both '77 and '82. Since being released in 1989 album has been considered an essential cornerstone of late '80s UK Oi! Contains the classic and often covered "Don't Just Sit There," probably one of the best anthemic street punk songs ever written.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: RRS 101CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1977. Formed in early stages of the British punk explosion by four high school mates in Finchley, north London, Eater quickly established themselves as one of the youngest and rawest bands on the scene. Lead singer Ashruf Radwan had an Egyptian heritage, hidden by his alias, Andy Blade, and guitarist Brian Haddock became Brian Chevette once in the fold; Ashruf's brother Lutfi was the group's first drummer, joining under the name Social Demise, but was soon replaced by Roger Bullen, playing under the moniker Dee Generate, while future Vibrator Ian Woodcock was the resident bassist from their second gig. Inspired by a line in the T Rex song, "Suneye", Eater was influenced by the classier side of glam rock but was very much a rapid-fire power-punk concern with their own output. Headlining spots at the Roxy club alongside The Damned, The Lurkers, and Sham 69 solidified their reputation, especially once their material made it onto the live compilation album issued by Harvest in 1977, and after footage of their appearances at the club were included in Don Letts's Punk Rock Movie. Signing to Dave Goodman's fledgling punk imprint, The Label, Eater issued three singles before their greatly anticipated debut album (which surfaced after future Slaughter and the Dogs member Phil Rowland joined on drums), which has since been hailed as an all-time classic; pointing their fingers at upper-class twits on songs like "Lock It Up" and taking the piss out of themselves and their fans on "No Brains", the album also features two Velvet Underground covers and an unusual David Bowie adaptation, all delivered in no-holds-barred triple time. Includes poster.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 200LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1982. Pioneering LA punk band Legal Weapon was formed in 1980 from the ashes of the Silencers, which Steve Reiner formed with guitarist Brian Hansen, and vocalist Kat Arthur. By the time of this riveting 1982 debut LP, the band had Arthur, Hansen, future Adolescents/Agent Orange bassist Steve Soto, and drummer Charlie Vartanian. Just as Exene Cervenka was a primary draw in X and Penelope Houston in the Avengers, Kat Arthur is the major lure that kept this band outstanding, as Hansen and Soto vary the musical action, keeping their hardcore on the melodic side throughout. Essential listening for west coast punk fans. Translucent yellow vinyl.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 369LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Reissue, originally released in 1976. Former Customs clerk Roy Reid thrilled the Jamaican music scene as a toaster, his effortless rhymes establishing a reputation on the Supreme Ruler of Sound in his native Spanish Town and later on various Kingston sets, including King Tubby's. Following a successful phase in London, he returned to Jamaica to record for various producers, having a special connection with chief hit-maker, Bunny Lee; Dread Bald Head is a rare set from 1976 with Roy toasting at Tubby's studio over some of Bunny's hardest Aggrovators rhythms as laid by Tommy McCook and team, originally for Johnny Clarke and Derrick Morgan. Essential listening.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 373LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Reissue, originally released in 1984. Founded in 1981 in Britain's second city Birmingham, the band Sceptre were part of a thriving local music scene, a scene that for the most part revolved around live shows in the region's community centers, university campuses, pubs, and nightclubs. Neglected by major labels, many bands went unrecorded and of those that did get documented most managed to release just one or two singles. Fortunately, Sceptre recorded and released an entire album, 1984's Essence of Redemption Ina Dif'rent Styley.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 374LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Reissue. A heavy old school sound reverberates from the Midlands reggae scene, one which remains unrivalled across the UK and is perfectly summed up by Capital Letters, whose mixing from 1985 is of an impeccable quality, here rereleased for reggae fans everywhere. Reality by Capital Letters should be a collectors' favorite and a new generations introduction, it is a brilliant revival of classic authentic material and overall vibrant piece of work.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: R-M 200CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Frank Vigroux's latest release Magnetoscope refers to the eighties, a "terrifying time" as he calls it. A time that influenced him and raster; Blade Runner dystopia, Polaroid colors, and VHS video recorder aesthetics (in French "Magnétoscope") form the conceptual foundation of the sound aesthetics used here. The compositions, between progressive pop ("VHS"), Vangelis romanticism ("L.A."), and dark, abstract layers of sound ("Stream"), are worked out in detail, driving forward, and can also be harmonically complex. Nevertheless, as usual from Vigroux, they somehow always remain timeless and classic. New on Magnetoscope is a kind of melodic euphoria paired with machine-funk elements, like on "Cassette". Magnetoscope is part of a series of releases -- including Vigroux's predecessor Ballades sur lac gelé from 2020 (R-M 192CD/LP) -- that interrelate strict and cool analog sounds, drum machines and noise landscapes in an epic, almost cinematic way. Let's leave it open whether this artistic attitude is also a child of the '80s.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: R-M 204EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Atom TM's new four tracker Nacht contains some highlights as well as some unreleased titles from the Neuer Mensch album (R-M 201CD). Both "Nacht" and "Geometrische Einheit" are previously unreleased compositions, while "Sprechender Raum" and "Selbst" appear on the previously mentioned album, yet are presented as alternative versions here. The EP's track selection was made having the emerging meta-techno dancefloor in mind.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: EZRDR 143LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Featuring long-lost gems from ultra-rare 45s and private press singles -- plus one previously unreleased banger -- Scrap Metal Vol. 2 maintains a steady NWOBHM course. Packed with infectious outliers and supremely talented one-and-done metal warriors from the crucial British movement of the late '70s and early '80s (and some killer American obscurities inspired by them), this collection delivers all the fist-pumping, riff-mongering and flashy solos of heavy metal's golden age. As always, every track has been officially licensed and every artist gets paid. Some examples include: As a late entry into the NWOBHM sweepstakes, JJ's Powerhouse was formed in Merseyside, England, by guitarist Jon 'J.J.' Cox with members of his previous band, Quad. Much like the opener to the original Scrap Metal comp, one can hear early Metallica coursing through this legendary ripper. Coincidentally, this ultra-rare 45 was released in '83, the same year as Kill 'Em All. Taking their name from a 1978 sci-fi novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Welsh super troopers Storm Queen reveled in animal-print clothing and flying Vs. The Motörhead-meets-Priest anthem 'Raising the Roof' is the flipside to their only single, which the band self-released in 1982. Led by guitarist Dave Morse, Storm Queen's earliest lineup included bassist Bryn Merrick (RIP), who would go on to join The Damned. Roaring out of Birmingham, England, in 1975, Jameson Raid palled around with fellow Brummies Black Sabbath and named themselves after a failed 19th century attack that helped kick off South Africa's Second Boer War. Their three-song 1979 debut featured the infectious 'It's a Crime,' which comes across like a deadly hard-glam version of Budgie. Still fronted by vocalist Terry Dark, they're going strong as of 2022. Both sides of Metropolis' sole single bear the legend, 'Unauthorized duplication shall result in getting your ass beat.' This San Jose metal squad released their only single in 1986 and dedicated it to Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, who had recently been killed in a bus accident. 'The Raven' is the serpentine NWOBHM- and Edgar Allan Poe-influenced flipside to 'Time Heals Everything.'"

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: RIP 106LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Posh Swat, an all-percussion improvisation album with John Dwyer (OSEES, Damaged Bug, OCS, etc), Ryan Sawyer and Andres Renteria." "Sand in your hair and bugs in your teeth. Hand on your knife, knife in your sheath. Grimy bass burps thru a fried stack. And the crack of the snare is a mighty pink smack. Bells, whistles conga and vibes. This is a drug record. One thousand times. For fans of Niagra, Black Pus, Container, Bruce Ditmas and all things beat driven and drum craven." --John Dwyer

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SCAT 084LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Even back in 1987, Guided By Voices was not content to release just one album in a year -- Sandbox was released in the summer of that year following Devil Between My Toes' appearance that February. Likewise, in similar GBV style, the sound and approach of the two albums could not be more different. Where Devil mostly mines a darker, lo-fi psychedia, along with several instrumental explorations, Sandbox is sunny, direct, has a bigger, crunchier sound, and zero instrumentals. Where Devil has a murky and impressionistic black and white photo of a rooster for a cover, Sandbox sports a full color photo of the band relaxing on a lawn on a sunny day. Let's also recall that unlike today, in 1987 a full-color album jacket wasn't just a little more expensive than a black and white one, it was way more expensive. Right up front, the band was communicating that this was a more commercially ambitious endeavor, while behind the scenes they rented better gear for a bigger sound, and tackled more sophisticated arrangements and honed in on the hooks and harmonies of the songs. Of all the band's early self-released albums, Sandbox differs the most from the sound fans would later associate with the group, which is in itself a recommendation. Nowhere else will you hear the perfectly rendered three-part harmonies of 'Long Distance Man,' direct Beatles quotes, or Robert Pollard reveling in his southern Ohio drawl. It's also true that one of the more enjoyable aspects of the record is finding all the places where the band's future is indeed foreshadowed. Simply put, Guided By Voices just can't help but be a little weird, even when attempting something like a power pop album. At the close of the opening track, Pollard announces, 'Ladies and gentlemen! Back by popular demand for your entertainment and spiritual enlightenment...Electric Jam Soul Aquarium!' a truly 'wtf is happening here' moment. Or the stripped-down gloom of 'Trap Soul Door' -- a track that could be right at home on nearly any later GBV album wherein Pollard intones, 'Just one spark can start a hell of a fire.' Little did he know how true that statement would become."

 

PRICE: $54.00

CAT #: SEELAND 037LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Triple-LP version. "What does a Negativland album sound like when it's missing all of those voice samples? It sounds like Speech Free. A release of library music for advertising, this new album by Negativland has had every last trace of language carefully removed from the mix. But what does that really mean? Having become a rock music adjective for their work in mass media collage, where voices are seized from the airwaves and woven into musical conversations more true than anything that normally makes it on the air, Speech Free is a complete re-imagining of the music that was hiding in plain sight beneath the branded 'cultural jamming' on their last two record albums. Entirely composed and performed by the band with an all-star group of guest musicians (including Prairie Prince, Ava Mendoza, Matmos and others), these productions explode out of even the tiniest speakers as some of Negativland's most listenable barrages of pure ear candy yet -- all they had to do was remove all of that speech! As marketing research suggests, these catchy tunes will work well as new jingles and musical beds, perfectly suited for voiceovers discussing anything from commercial products to political campaigns. Everyone knows that most target audiences regularly indicate a preference for moderately subversive content -- and this release provides that audience with precisely the right amount, now that all of this 'usable music' has been personally guaranteed by Negativland as Speech Free."

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SSLP 006LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock. LP version; includes download code. Soulsheriff Records presents a milestone in electronic music, Liaisons Dangereuses' legendary 1981 self-titled debut album, newly remastered and reissued for the first time since 2002. Liaisons Dangereuses still fascinates today, through its innovative sound and the mystery encompassing it. The 10 electrifying songs, produced by Chrislo Haas (DAF) and Beate Bartel (Mania D, Matador) and reinforced by Krishna Goineau's French and Spanish speech-attack lyrics, created a unique style. The album, anything other than a typical Berlin or Düsseldorf thing, became an international favorite. Songs like "Peut Être... Pas" and "Los Niños del Parque" played a decisive role in the development of house in Detroit and Chicago, as well as various forms of European techno.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SPITTLE 147LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1981. Photographs As Memories was the British cult band Eyeless In Gaza's debut album. A truly kaleidoscopic picture dominated by Martyn Bates's highly expressive vocals and Pete Becker's peculiar analog synth lines in a jungle of electric guitars, plastic organs, soprano saxophones, percussion, violin, stylophone, and tapes. An album which comes as a vivid snapshot from the very dawn of the '80s.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 043LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A pure journey inward into the headspace of an artist, that reveals his gaze at the Earthly zones he walks in: Song for Joni, the new album by Japanese musician Shunji Mori, offers pure natural music full of artificial nuances, creating a conversation with analog tones. A new kind of musical nature, loaded with vibrant seasons, unknown to the unwise humans. The album is a fine continuation of Japan's rich ambient leaning music traditions, carrying them into Lorren Connor's like pending guitar galaxies. In the 1990s, Tokyo based Mori was part of the trip-hop, nu-jazz, deep house, and down-tempo duo Natural Calamity, releasing a string of albums and EPs on labels like legendary London based imprint Nuphonic, Japanese Idyllic Records, or Down 2 Earth Recordings. In 2003, he launched the instrumental guitar duo Gabby & Lopez with his buddy Masayuki Ishii. Together they created three albums and performed live. Additionally, Mori plays improvisational concerts with Japanese musician, multi-instrumentalist, and stage director Daiho Soga and finds time to invent his very own, charismatic guitar music. His solo work now finally gets introduced with a full-length album for Studio Mule, consisting of recent compositions and ones that a decade old, all merely recorded with the electric guitar, pedals, and field recordings. In the center of Song for Joni is the guitar, spreading longing, drifting melodies. Free floating, yet deeply felt compositions, performed in an accurate journey music style. Around the strings, ambient landscapes soar and vanish. In some moments, the guitar works like a slow-mo yacht rock lead, flying speed less over and under imaginative sonic clouds. Then, Mori's music distributes psychedelic effects in the tradition of krautrock legends like Günter Schickert, just without the echo fuzz. Additionally, in warm vibrating seconds, his creations are reminiscent of the calm flashes in the musical work of English photographer, musician, and artist designer Steve Hiett, while Mori's ambient spheres come close to the magic vibe of records like Pier & Loft by his fellow countryman, Hiroshi Yoshimura. A mixture that transports considerate listeners into a meditative world, a calm island of bliss, made for all those that follow the heedful path of life.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SVVRCH 042LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1962. The gifted Puerto Rican-American drummer and percussionist Willie Bobo was one of the architects of Latin jazz. Following mentorship from Machito and Mongo Santamaria, Bobo played with Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, and Herbie Mann, before going solo. Bobo's Beat is a sure-fire winner from 1962 with excellent support from trumpeter Clark Terry, saxophonist Joe Farrell, and keyboardist Frank Anderson, a fully three-dimensional set with fine jazz nuances. It shows that Bobo never accepted less than the best from his counterparts, and there are some bossa nova covers mixed in with the driving Latin originals too. An essential work! Includes two bonus tracks.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: TPTDD 001CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Cure, live in Sydney on August 17, 1981. FM broadcast. The Cure in their early days broadcasted on the Australian FM radio while at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney for their legendary "World Picture" tour. A breath-taking set, with remastered audio, "Charlotte Sometimes" played live for the second time in their career, along with a plethora of hits from their early days.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: TPTDD 002CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Completely remastered and restored, the full original El Dorado 100.3FM broadcast from November 14th, 1994. Early '90s Ramones caught live in Montevideo, Uruguay, promoting the Acid Eaters LP and performing with co-headliners and lifelong Ramones fans, Sepultura. The South American leg of that Ramones tour remained legendary and this show makes no exception seeing the fast four performing in front of thousands of die-hard supporters. A must for all Ramones fans.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: TPTDD 003CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Cramps, live at Le Flipper, Marseille, June 3, 1981.

 

PRICE: $48.00

CAT #: HC 005CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Music for a tragedy/play, Penthesilea (tragedy in 24 scenes), by director Carlo Quartucci, playwright: Heinrich von Kleist. First performance at Teatro Olimpico, Rome, Italy, on November 8, 1986. This four-and-a-half-hour audio work heavily expands on the foundation laid out for Rosenfest in 1984 as featured on the double-LP release (HC 004LP). This lavish five-CD set presents the full backing tape prepared for the performances at Teatro Olímpico, Rome in 1986 as directed by Carlo Quartucci (the live recordings of the performances remain elusive to this day). The most ambitious project Henning undertook, the Penthesilea project is also one of the most successful as it explores the numerous experiments and techniques he had developed throughout his creative life culminating in this ambitious and significant work. Unheard until now and required listening now. The full narrative of Kleist's text unfolds as an audio excursion for the mind to wander. An audiobook presented as sound. The field recordings featured in Rosenfest recordings are featured alongside a wealth of new sonic environments. Horses trot, a boxing match is treated with electronics creating an otherworldly atmosphere. In the piece "XIII XIV" you encounter moments of Henning's early classical works only to subside in a valley of gentle machines clacking amongst a whispering ghost melody. Elsewhere a thumping proto-techno beat tramples on the once trampled snow we heard in the Rosenfest recordings, a rustic squeak acts as a horn solo, onwards, the wind gets fiercer, the narrative intensifies... Op. 176 Penthesilea is presented as a deluxe five-CD box set with 32-page, full color booklet featuring writings by Villy Sørensen, Mark Harwood, Werner Durand, and Henning Christiansen. The set is all housed in a sturdy slip case with original artwork (by Henning Christiansen, scores and performance photos. All material copyright The Henning Christiansen Archive with the exception of the watercolour paintings in HC5 copyright Edition Block.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: TFAD 009EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Hey world, what happened? Well anyway, Touch From A Distance is still here. Scratching their heads in awe of the ever-changing standstill of the past three years, the label managed to get the ball rolling again with the help of Melbourne brothers extraordinaire Donald's House who have honed their skills during lockdown downunder to achieve the impossible. They got even better while pivoting towards a slightly different sound; determined and muscular, yet trippy and playful. Juggling classic acid and progressive house tropes coupled with their prowess for perfectly balanced arrangements and catchy melodies, both "Bassian Plain" and "The Isthmus Of Kra" epitomize Pete and Jim's peak time powers to fullest. The same goes for Alex Kassian's remix of "Bassian Plain". Like Donald's House, Alex has been a core member of the Touch From A Distance family as one half of Opal Sunn from the start. He used the reset brought on by the pandemic to establish himself as one of the fastest rising stars of today's nightlife striking home with a slew of hit remixes and inspiring DJ sets all over the world.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: WHP 1455LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Recorded live in Austria in 1972 this outstanding document marks an important event such as the meeting between Don Cherry and Dollar Brand. Here, the modern jazz trumpet master and the great South-African pianist along with percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and bassist Johnny Dyani are caught in the middle of a sound ritual where jazz elements and world music echoes appear as fully integrated in some sort of visionary, organic music form. A deep sensorial experience based on human and artistic values and freedom principles. Personnel: Don Cherry (trumpet, vocals); Dollar Brand (piano, flute, vocals); Johnny Dyani (double bass, percussion, vocals); Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau, percussion, vocals).

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: WOODSIST 104LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Bobbie Lovesong is the alias of American recording artist Madelyn Strutz. On The Wind is the debut full length from Bobbie, who produced, performed, recorded, and mixed the album herself in Taos, New Mexico. The album is a collection of psych-pop oddities and fizzy space age interpretations of jazz standards that are informed in equal parts by Larry Heard's breezy dream sceneries, LSD blotted Americana and kaleidoscopic 60's pop. Bobbie went to Taos, New Mexico in 2020 to live communally with a small group of musicians as the lockdown stretched on for months. Retreating into an unfinished Earthship, Bobbie passed the days writing and recording music, with nothing more than a laptop microphone and a few instruments. At once surreal, timeless and extraterrestrial, On The Wind can be heard as a hallucinatory sonic love letter to Taos."