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FORCED EXPOSURE MAILORDER UPDATE
NEW RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 08/05/2024

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PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: 202020 007LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 restock. "When Galaxie 500's Today was released in 1988, it set off a chain reaction of quiet explosions still being felt. Never before had a record so emphasized the calming elements of rock music, transforming what at first seems like a collection of bridges into fully realized songs. And one can draw a straight line from here to the many groups they influenced, like Low, Belle & Sebastian, and Bon Iver. More than 20 years after its initial release, its title is still no misnomer. The music, recorded with what many thought at the time was too much reverb, sounds present, alive, and indeed a product of today. Songs like 'Flowers,' 'Temperature's Rising,' and of course 'Tugboat' (the band's debut single) stand the test of time and exist in an eternal now. For the first time since its original pressing, Today is available again on vinyl. Cut by vinyl ace Kevin Gray from a remaster by Kramer and Alan Douches, the album sounds more vibrant than ever, and Galaxie 500 exists again as one of the most enrapturing and glorious bands to emerge from the underground in the past 25 years."

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: BING 204CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Having carved out a niche performing groundbreaking chamber opera around the world, Australian singer Jane Sheldon's first solo album finds a path through the combination of Rainer Maria Rilke (a German poet dead for almost a century), her voice, and seven gongs. On I Am A Tree, I Am A Mouth, working with one gong for each song, Sheldon launches herself into experiments with layered voices, electronic processing, and super-slowed-down fragments of sonic resonance, where she skirts the edge of avant rock to find her true singular voice. It's an album that's viscerally human, earnestly sensual and passionately transcending, drawing inspiration from Sarah Davachi, Hildegard von Bingen, Maryanne Amacher, and Lhasa de Sela. Long a critical darling of modern music (called 'riveting' by The New York Times, 'stunning' by The Washington Post, and 'a voice of penetrating beauty, precision and variegated colors' by the Sydney Morning Herald), she's premiered new operas at Holland Festival with ASKO|Sch?nberg and Sydney Chamber Opera and toured the world with John Zorn. But Sheldon goes minimal on I Am A Tree, I Am A Mouth. She started recording gongs, slowing them down, singing along, seeing how the interaction sounded, and soon realized it embodied all she was looking to achieve. Not one breath hides, and as one listens one is made aware of one's own breathing, one's heartbeat, the flow of one's blood. Sheldon completed the album at the tail end of the pandemic, and she released the album to streaming with almost zero promotion. She was surprised when The New Yorker and Bandcamp praised its unique vision, as well as when New York's MATA Festival programmed the first live performance of the work. Sheldon's discipline involves utter focus and emotional engagement and I Am A Tree, I Am A Mouth is an enrapturing work by a newcomer to mainstream audiences who has been kicking at the edges for years."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BACIL 9860919LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

180gram, red color vinyl. Limited to 500. Originally released in 1974, Nine Days Wonder with their third album took the opportunity to do a recording session at London's Chipping Norton Studios in September 1974. With guest musicians Dave Jackson on flute and saxes (of Van der Graaf Generator-fame) and keyboarder Steve Robinson (2066 and then-and-early-AERA) the album shows the band on its musical peak. The album is richly texted and features a mellow progressive rock with slightly glam-rock touches and reminds to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. Without the jazz elements of the first album, Only The Dancers is another step forward into the upcoming glam-rock sound but with that special German Krautrock feel.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: BACIL 9861312LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

180gram, blue color vinyl. Limited to 500 copies. German band Frame recorded only one album, but one that's still amazingly fresh even today. Frame Of Mind is a highly enjoyable art rock/heavy prog album which was produced in 1972. The band played a very British style of early prog a la Cressida, Still Life, Beggar's Opera, Quatermass, Rare Bird, Spring, or Aardvark but with slightly heavier arrangements due to more aggressive guitar presence. With great variation it steers away from the mainstream of early '70s rock, featuring many classic moves and excellent vocals. However just like their British fellows, the Hammond organ is a main attraction on Frame Of Mind. The album carries the unmistakable stamp of Dieter Dierks at the mixing desk. For fans of Birth Control, Frumpy, 2066 & Then, Virus, Amos Key, and Tyburn Tall.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BTR 099LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Bolbec, brand new project of childhood friends and multi-instrumentalists Axel Concato and Barth Corbelet, present their debut record, Victime De L'aube, on Batov Records. Drawing on their wide blend of musical tastes, from spiritual jazz and folk to classical and electronic sounds, Bolbec create an imaginary soundtrack that could easily sit beside the best of Piero Piccioni or Michel Legrand. The album features the duo playing over a dozen different instruments between them, with some heavyweight support from the Nostalgia 77 rhythm section. Whilst their names might not be household names, the pair have quietly built up a discography and reputation writing for, producing and recording for other artists. Axel's eclectic career includes producing some of the most exciting artists to break out of the underground Parisien scene, such as Steeple Remove and the sci-fi pop of Halo Maud, on Heavenly Recordings, and met success with his own Pi Ja Ma project, while Barth's ventures ranged from recording albums in his bedroom and raiding the annals of rock history with Hastings-based Del Vargas as Bosco Rogers, to writing songs for renowned artists like Hollie Cook. Victime De L'aube, embodies Bolbec's unique blend of musical tastes and eclectic instrumentation, and the album's title, which translates to "Victim of the Dawn," reflects the duo's exploration of the poignant emotions evoked by the breaking of dawn. Victime De L'aube showcases Bolbec's ambitious creative vision, transforming an array of instrumentation into poetic musical pieces that conjure moods and places. You can hear traces of Mal Waldron's "Warm Canto," and the Shoplifter soundtrack by Haruomi Hosono. Album standout "Vengeance Tropicale" is a spirited jazz number with an almost joropo swing, Piero Piccioni meets Aldemaro Romero perhaps. Whilst "Feuille D'orage," is a beautiful bossa jazz number, again showcasing the Bolbec's singular sound and musicality. Elsewhere, "? L'instar Du Flair," transports the listener on a modal jazz journey, recalling Yusef Lateef, and the evocative title track, "Victime De L'aube," promises to captivate listeners with its walking bass and suspenseful atmospherics. Bolbec's sound is an eclectic mix of deep jazz with the art of esoteric soundtracks, through lenses of electronica, folk, classical, and more, that is sure to captivate listeners on initial and subsequent hearings.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: BEWITH 158LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. Known principally as a smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over. His double platinum self-titled album from 1978 is a timeless masterpiece of sophisticated jazzy soul brilliance and is strictly canonical. Whilst Ned Doheny is known in Japan as "Mr California", native New Yorker Bobby Caldwell has always been "Mr AOR" to his Far-Eastern friends. His distinct charm is an irresistible blend of soul, jazz, and pop influences. He possessed phenomenal songwriting prowess, smooth vocal performances, was both a great soul guitarist and dextrous keyboard player and known for genius chord progressions. It all added up to a multi-layered brilliance entering the studio, and the singular sound he landed on was laced with soulful, sweeping strings and funky horns, touching lightly on disco, while allowing his supple voice to carry the stunning tracks he'd crafted. Bobby sadly passed away on 23rd March 2023, after a long struggle with mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress, due to an adverse effect from a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The reissue of his eponymous album will be available on vinyl across the globe, ensuring that fans -- and soul music enthusiasts worldwide -- can radiate in the deep beauty of this seminal album. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest quality at Record Industry in Holland.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BM 004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The Funeral Pudding originally came out as a CD-only release on the Dutch label Brinkman to promote Thinking Fellers Union Local 282's 1994 European tour. For the domestic release, the band chose Chicago's Ajax Records -- which had already released two TFUL282 singles in 1990 -- to press a 12-inch mini-LP. Comprising a selection of songs masterfully recorded and produced by Greg Freeman right after the sessions that yielded 1993's Admonishing The Bishops EP, The Funeral Pudding could be thought of as a sister release to that EP; indeed, the band originally considered combining tracks from both sessions into a single album. Had it been released, that record would've followed the pattern of the previous album in which the band's pop and avant-garde leanings are yoked together cheek by jowl. Instead, Admonishing showcases the band at its most accessible while The Funeral Pudding flaunts their more expansive, abrasive and absurdist side without forfeiting the earlier EP's miraculously high standards for songwriting and sonic clarity. What makes The Funeral Pudding a unique feather in the Fellers' cap is that most of the tracks are sung by bassist Anne Eickelberg and guitarist Hugh Swarts -- a notable departure from the Davies/Hageman vocal dominance on most of the other albums. With Eickelberg's soaring vocals leading the proceedings, tracks like 'Waited Too Long' and 'Heavy Head' are some of the most beloved in the band's discography. And '23 Kings Crossing' is a whiplash-inducing psych/prog stunner that adds another metric ton to the burden of proof demonstrating that TFUL282 was creating some of the most thrilling, enduring and sonically autonomous music of its era."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: CF 055LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. Here we have a new batch from Thee Oh Sees for your absorption -- nine muscular tunes primed to pummel. Last year's Drop was more schizophrenic, ranging from heavy to whimsical and back; Mutilator Defeated at Last has more in common with the monolithic hugeness of Floating Coffin. With only two brief reprieves from its onslaught, this record is made to be played loudly and demands bodily sacrifice. Despite the plutonium heavy feel, Thee Oh Sees continue to be omnivorous. Synths and acoustic guitars wind throughout the album like veins of gold through granite. Any and all that stands in its way will be devoured and assimilated. This is the sound of a band doing what they do best."

 

PRICE: $39.00

CAT #: CF 116LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Hey there, human kids, lift your face out of the feed trough and pluck that feculence from your ears. Hark! A sonar blip from beneath the pile of bodies -- the latest Oh Sees, Face Stabber! Boop, blip, ughhh.... people churning like a boiling swamp. Man, this din is nauseating. The screen flickers for the first time this year with a transmission from two months in the future: 'the internet has deemed guitar music dead and you are free to do whatever the fuck you like ....long live the new flesh!' This album is Soundcloud hip-hop reversed, a far flung nemesis of contemporary country and flaccid algorithmic pop-barf. No songs about money or love are floating in the ether. Just memories, echoes, foggy blurs, blip-blop goes the scope, heavy funk, dystopia-punk canons, long jams, bloated solos dribbling down your cavedin chest. Human cattle like a beef avalanche, right on your burned out face hole. Spider-legs fuzz crawling in your brain. Lots of curse words for your mom. You've gotten the over-population blues, so let's have some art for art's sake. What else are you gonna do? Stare at the sky? Please... fifty carbon copies of you look back at you as you walk the streets. Take a breath, you're going to need it. Take drugs, you're going to need those just to stand in line at the air and water reclamation center soon enough. There's no fruit, buddy. You're at the bleak-peak. They will squeeze you till you're all squeezed out. For fans of fried prog burn-out, squished old-school drool, double drums, lead weight bass, wizard keys (now with poison), old-ass guitar and horrible words with daft meanings. If you don't like it then don't listen, bub. Back to the comments section with you! Easy -- over and out."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CF 151CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This album (SORCS 80) was a self-imposed ambitious project for us (OSEES). Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard-centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo'd everything at home on cassette four track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of 'songs.' Tom Dolas and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of three octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have four people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. As we were recording, I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote and Brad Caulkins on tenor and baritone saxophones. Sort of a Dexy's Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk. Poppy and hooky, heavy at times. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on eight track 1/4-inch tape. So pretty hot and raw. Lots to write about today. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine and give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self-aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. It's not all bad news and there's always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another. Anyhow, hope you enjoy and good luck out there." --John Dwyer

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: CF 151LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "This album (SORCS 80) was a self-imposed ambitious project for us (OSEES). Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard-centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo'd everything at home on cassette four track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of 'songs.' Tom Dolas and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of three octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have four people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. As we were recording, I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote and Brad Caulkins on tenor and baritone saxophones. Sort of a Dexy's Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk. Poppy and hooky, heavy at times. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on eight track 1/4-inch tape. So pretty hot and raw. Lots to write about today. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine and give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self-aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. It's not all bad news and there's always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another. Anyhow, hope you enjoy and good luck out there." --John Dwyer

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: CF 151X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Green and magenta splatter color vinyl. "This album (SORCS 80) was a self-imposed ambitious project for us (OSEES). Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard-centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo'd everything at home on cassette four track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of 'songs.' Tom Dolas and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of three octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have four people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. As we were recording, I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote and Brad Caulkins on tenor and baritone saxophones. Sort of a Dexy's Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk. Poppy and hooky, heavy at times. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on eight track 1/4-inch tape. So pretty hot and raw. Lots to write about today. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine and give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self-aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. It's not all bad news and there's always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another. Anyhow, hope you enjoy and good luck out there." --John Dwyer

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: COSMJA 002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Here's the reissue of Annette Peacock and Paul Bley's Dual Unity album, originally released in 1972 on Freedom Records. Hailed as a pioneer and artistic genius by many, this album captures Peacock in her element alongside husband, Canadian jazz genius Paul Bley. Dual Unity is a landscape of aural vision captured on tape in 1970, during their first European tour. For 33 minutes and 21 seconds, the listener is absorbed by other spirits. Using Robert Moog's earliest synthesizers, Bley and Peacock apply the strategic use of silence to indicate its reflective nature with captivating results. A statement of immensity through synthetic minimalism and a milestone in the avant-garde, free jazz movement. Guest musicians include Han Bennink (drums) on "M.J." and "Gargantuan Encounter," Mario Pavone (bass) and Laurence Cook (drums) on "Richter Scale" and "Dual Unity."

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: COSMR 028LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Sensational reissue of the first volume of iconic compilation Simla Beat '70. A psych garage manifesto, the record consisted of groups who appeared at the All-India Simla Beat "battle of the bands" contest held in 1970 and 1971 in Bombay. The annual event and the records were sponsored by The Imperial Tobacco Company. Bands from all around India would compete for first prize. The album was not recorded live on the stage but in a primitive makeshift studio using very little overdubbing or sound reinforcement. The sound is generally influenced by the proto-garage western movement of the mid-sixties and later became a massive cult for all the '70s rock fans. Featuring Confusions, Dinosaurs, X Lent's, Innerlite, Genuine Spares, and Great Bear.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: ELE 035LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

In the early 1960s, two of the best talents in the Indonesian music scene, songwriter and band leader Adi Karso, known for his hits "Papaya Cha-Cha-Cha" and "Balonku" and Gambus musician Munif Bahasuan teamed up to form Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) Kelana Ria. Between 1961 and 1964, Kelana Ria recorded 48 songs that were spread over four records, Kafilah, Yam El Shamah, Ya Mahmud, and Ya Hamidah, which become the primary sources for this compilation. These four recordings changed the trajectory of Indonesian popular music. The songs and the soulful vocal performance belong to Muhamad Mashabi, who despite the popularity of the songs he created is now largely forgotten, whose history was kept alive only in the neighborhood where he grew up in central Jakarta. With only a short musical career and only nine recorded songs from almost 40 compositions, Mashabi fell by the wayside in the early 1970s, especially with the rise of pop and rock from bands like Koes Plus, Panbers, and God Bless. Yet his songs, inspired by Malay traditional songs but performed in the modern studio setting, lay the foundations for what would become the biggest musical genre in the country, dangdut, especially the kind that was popularized by the self-styled king of the genre, Rhoma Irama.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: VPGS 7097LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Collectible original artwork re-issue for acclaimed roots reggae harmony group classic from 1977. Crucial rhythms supplied by The Aggravators and the High Time Band. Recorded at Channel One, Joe Gibbs, Harry J's and King Tubby's, expertly produced by Prince Jammy. Includes the three rare and sought after singles 'Jah Give Us This World,' 'Keep On Trying,' and 'Black Black Minds.'"

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 300CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

There's not much to add, two of the greatest Heavy Psych bands of the scene join the forces to give birth to an incredible split album. Packed with 32 minutes of the highest quality heavy rock you can find out there; a joint venture which can happen only once every 100 years. Heavy Psych king-pioneers Nebula bring to life three brand new songs, recorded expressly for this incredible project. Three new gems which follow their latest Holy Shit and Transmission. Black Rainbows add in three songs of their own, handpicked from the recording session of their latest success Superskull, released back in 2023. Delivering two stoner in-your-face heavy fuzz pieces and one heavy space tune to celebrate this awesome collaboration. The cover art pairs perfectly with the vision and vibe of the album and is credited to the mighty Simon Berndt.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 300ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Splatter color vinyl. There's not much to add, two of the greatest Heavy Psych bands of the scene join the forces to give birth to an incredible split album. Packed with 32 minutes of the highest quality heavy rock you can find out there; a joint venture which can happen only once every 100 years. Heavy Psych king-pioneers Nebula bring to life three brand new songs, recorded expressly for this incredible project. Three new gems which follow their latest Holy Shit and Transmission. Black Rainbows add in three songs of their own, handpicked from the recording session of their latest success Superskull, released back in 2023. Delivering two stoner in-your-face heavy fuzz pieces and one heavy space tune to celebrate this awesome collaboration. The cover art pairs perfectly with the vision and vibe of the album and is credited to the mighty Simon Berndt. Also available on CD (HPS 300CD), Black Vinyl (HPS 300LP), and Yellow Vinyl (HPS 300LTD-LP).

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 305CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Phantom is the fifth album by The Sonic Dawn, unfolding as a journey through ten acid rock tracks that absorb the impressions of a world gone mad. Reflecting on the album's themes, singer and guitarist Emil Bureau notes, "When we sing about killing machines in the sky and the 21st-century blues, I think many will be able to relate. We're here to say that mankind has a future on this planet if we want one." Diverging from the band's earlier work, The Sonic Dawn embraces a more raw and heavy sound on several tracks, complementing the dark themes. Simultaneously, the band's signature melodic psychedelia weaves moments of sonic grace into the tapestry. Phantom, true to its name, oscillates between horror and reassuring beauty, akin to a fever dream where reality is clung to by a single thread. "Every song, line, and solo is delivered with intention and intensity. I hope people will receive it as we intend it. That is, as real acid rock from a band with a message," states Emil Bureau.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 305ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Black/white/magenta color vinyl. Phantom is the fifth album by The Sonic Dawn, unfolding as a journey through ten acid rock tracks that absorb the impressions of a world gone mad. Reflecting on the album's themes, singer and guitarist Emil Bureau notes, "When we sing about killing machines in the sky and the 21st-century blues, I think many will be able to relate. We're here to say that mankind has a future on this planet if we want one." Diverging from the band's earlier work, The Sonic Dawn embraces a more raw and heavy sound on several tracks, complementing the dark themes. Simultaneously, the band's signature melodic psychedelia weaves moments of sonic grace into the tapestry. Phantom, true to its name, oscillates between horror and reassuring beauty, akin to a fever dream where reality is clung to by a single thread. "Every song, line, and solo is delivered with intention and intensity. I hope people will receive it as we intend it. That is, as real acid rock from a band with a message," states Emil Bureau. Also available on CD (HPS 305CD), Black Vinyl (HPS 305LP), and Purple Vinyl (HPS 305LTD-LP).

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 306CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Geezer: "As the 'Interstellar Cosmic Blues' half of this EP, we consider these songs to be some of the best that we've produced. Songs that could all be 'singles' all on their own. And they better be because 'The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes' brought some savage riffage of their own! Put it all together with amazing artwork by Mirkow Gastow and release it on Heavy Psych Sounds, the BEST record label on the planet, and you've got all the makings of a great record! A modern classic right out of the box. Dig it!"Isaak: "Art comes from change and experimentation. These three songs are exactly that. Three songs, three different souls. This recording session is born from the collaboration of some friends invited by the band, and these are: Fabio Cuomo from Gotho & Liquido di Morte, Fabio Palombi from Nerve & Burn the Ocean, and last but not the least, Levre from Ufomammut."

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 306ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Splatter color vinyl. Geezer: "As the 'Interstellar Cosmic Blues' half of this EP, we consider these songs to be some of the best that we've produced. Songs that could all be 'singles' all on their own. And they better be because 'The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes' brought some savage riffage of their own! Put it all together with amazing artwork by Mirkow Gastow and release it on Heavy Psych Sounds, the BEST record label on the planet, and you've got all the makings of a great record! A modern classic right out of the box. Dig it!"Isaak: "Art comes from change and experimentation. These three songs are exactly that. Three songs, three different souls. This recording session is born from the collaboration of some friends invited by the band, and these are: Fabio Cuomo from Gotho & Liquido di Morte, Fabio Palombi from Nerve & Burn the Ocean, and last but not the least, Levre from Ufomammut."Also available on CD (HPS 306CD), Black Vinyl (HPS 306LP), and Blue Vinyl (HPS 306LTD-LP).

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 307CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

With Saltpig's debut album, Mitch Davis takes a dark journey into occult themes and horrific storylines dancing around melodic yet dissonant layers of noisy guitars, overdriven bass and floating drums. The album forgoes the expected fuzz sounds for a palette of tones that largely disregards genre in order for Saltpig to build songs that are simply evil and completely human. It's fully embracing a love of distortion and feedback in all forms while pushing tape to its breaking point. The band plays with different tempos and tunings as a way mostly to keep things interesting for themselves, creating what feels akin to a greatest hits album where the songs take on different personalities but feel completely like Saltpig songs at the same time. They find influences from early Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, and Black Sabbath at a time when metal was still finding its way. Rewind to an era before metal began its evolution towards greater precision, bigger drums and more robust production, then imagine that evolution taking a different turn. Mitch tries to put himself in that place where metal might be today if things had gone that different direction. It's neither nostalgic for the way music used to be, nor is it trying follow any trends of today. It's really more of a "make the music we want to hear" than a purposeful innovation. While familiar, it doesn't quite fit neatly into an existing metal sub-genre. The idea was always "don't try to be like other bands, but don't be different just for the sake of being different." The result is an album that means a lot of different things to different people. But to Saltpig, they are just making music.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 307ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Splatter color vinyl. With Saltpig's debut album, Mitch Davis takes a dark journey into occult themes and horrific storylines dancing around melodic yet dissonant layers of noisy guitars, overdriven bass and floating drums. The album forgoes the expected fuzz sounds for a palette of tones that largely disregards genre in order for Saltpig to build songs that are simply evil and completely human. It's fully embracing a love of distortion and feedback in all forms while pushing tape to its breaking point. The band plays with different tempos and tunings as a way mostly to keep things interesting for themselves, creating what feels akin to a greatest hits album where the songs take on different personalities but feel completely like Saltpig songs at the same time. They find influences from early Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, and Black Sabbath at a time when metal was still finding its way. Rewind to an era before metal began its evolution towards greater precision, bigger drums and more robust production, then imagine that evolution taking a different turn. Mitch tries to put himself in that place where metal might be today if things had gone that different direction. It's neither nostalgic for the way music used to be, nor is it trying follow any trends of today. It's really more of a "make the music we want to hear" than a purposeful innovation. While familiar, it doesn't quite fit neatly into an existing metal sub-genre. The idea was always "don't try to be like other bands, but don't be different just for the sake of being different." The result is an album that means a lot of different things to different people. But to Saltpig, they are just making music. Also available on CD (HPS 307CD), Black Vinyl (HPS 307LP), and Blue Vinyl (HPS 307LTD-LP).

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 311CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Look who got up on the wrong side of the bed! Breakfast With Death is the fifth studio album by Austin Texas stoner metal riff dealers Duel. Nine angry, blistering tracks flexing the faster and heavier side of Duel. Every song is a beer-soaked banger capturing the ferocity of the band's legendary live performances.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 311ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Splatter color vinyl. Look who got up on the wrong side of the bed! Breakfast With Death is the fifth studio album by Austin Texas stoner metal riff dealers Duel. Nine angry, blistering tracks flexing the faster and heavier side of Duel. Every song is a beer-soaked banger capturing the ferocity of the band's legendary live performances. Also available on CD (HPS 311CD), Black Vinyl (HPS 311LP), and Purple Vinyl (HPS 311LTD-LP).

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: KRANK 242CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Realistic IX, the third full-length by the duo of Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich aka Belong, is both an expansion and excavation of their signature acid-washed songcraft. Bleached guitars, metronomic drums, and buried voices rev, swirl, and seethe across shifting gradients of haze and hypnosis, alternately driving and diffuse. Melodies surge closer to the surface, flexing their form before resubmerging into quickening currents of feedback. Elsewhere the elements dissipate into a dusk of murk and microtonalities, electricity liberated back into infinite night. Although it's been thirteen years since Belong's prior Kranky offering, Common Era, none of the duo's rare synergy has decayed in the interim. Jones and Dietrich's commitment to oblique states of motorik drone and liminal emotion continues to evolve and unfold, increasingly tactile and unreal, an alluring glow glimpsed through fogged windows at witching hours."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 242LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Realistic IX, the third full-length by the duo of Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich aka Belong, is both an expansion and excavation of their signature acid-washed songcraft. Bleached guitars, metronomic drums, and buried voices rev, swirl, and seethe across shifting gradients of haze and hypnosis, alternately driving and diffuse. Melodies surge closer to the surface, flexing their form before resubmerging into quickening currents of feedback. Elsewhere the elements dissipate into a dusk of murk and microtonalities, electricity liberated back into infinite night. Although it's been thirteen years since Belong's prior Kranky offering, Common Era, none of the duo's rare synergy has decayed in the interim. Jones and Dietrich's commitment to oblique states of motorik drone and liminal emotion continues to evolve and unfold, increasingly tactile and unreal, an alluring glow glimpsed through fogged windows at witching hours."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: LR 710719LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

140gram vinyl with MP3 download included. Masterpiece from one of Austria's most famous jazz musicians! After the break-up of the Hans Koller/Oscar Pettiford group in 1959, Koller played with very few exceptions as a freelance musician with more or less good rhythm sections. During this time, he thought about new ideas of presenting his music, being very much under the influence of his second career as a painter. The result was a music very much of his own, very modern in style and without any parallel to anything that was happening in jazz then. Even today, this music sounds surprisingly up-to-date and unique. However, that these recordings sound more unique than any other collective improvisations with other musicians demonstrates a total identification of Hans Koller, the soloist, with Hans Koller, the composer.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: LR 710818LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

140gram vinyl with MP3 download included, plus printed inner-sleeves. "These days, where a young generation worldwide discovers good swinging jazz again, where Dexter Gordon returned after so many years in exile like a triumphator to New York and 'young swinging Scott Hamilton' becomes something like a 'super-star,' it is hard to believe that this album was recorded 13 years ago -- hard to believe by both artistic and technical standard. At this time, in the year of 1966, Beatlemania reached its peak and the beat and/ or rock wave ruled the world of music. Nevertheless, Emil Mangelsdorff and his friends went into the studio to produce good swinging music with the idea that any good solid jazz playing is still superior to the best rock albums available then. To dream up an idea, that young listeners would hear the album occasionally, we even went up as far to give it a name similar to that of rock groups, a fantasy name: Swinging Oil Drops. The masquerade didn't help much but the music was and is superb." --Horst Lippmann, 1979

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: LG 009LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Hear the brutal anguish and aural suffering! LG Records has gathered out-of-print and unreleased recordings by two of San Diego's more infamous and obscure punk bands from the very early 1990s onto one blistering split LP. Often remembered merely as side-projects of Heroin and End of the Line, Sloog (aka Slug) and Brain Tourniquet were standalone outfits that were beloved locally but barely made any impact outside of the local San Diego scene. Sloog were heavy, tortuous, and disturbing. Fronted by mysterious and odiferous local character Justinman, Sloog sounded like they could have been the lovechild of Savage Republic and United Mutation. Brain Tourniquet were a younger thrash band who were noticeably inspired by contemporaries like Born Against and Crossed Out. Primitive and sublime, members went on to bigger things, but this was the not-so-humble beginning. The first release for each band was the 1991 Slug/Brain Tourniquet split cassette, released as Gravity Records #0. Copies of this tape were sold at local shows and during Brain Tourniquet's west coast tour with Heroin. Sloog would record multiple demos in 1990 and 1991, and in the end they recorded what became their only vinyl release, 1992's Pigs 7". The material on this LP was pulled together from all of these recordings. Punish yourself with the Slug/Brain Tourniquet/Sloog vinyl LP out now on LG Records. Caution: this record may emit visible stink-lines into the air of your household. 180-gram black vinyl only, 500 pressed."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: LANR 009LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

For the first time on vinyl! Fully remastered and licensed, limited to 500 copies. The Monochrome Set's complete independent singles collection including B-sides and rare tracks. Collected from their time at Rough Trade, Dindisc and Cherry Red, a superb collection of genre defying "new wave" pop. Suave; debonair; sophisticated. Haughty, perhaps, for those who favor the pejorative. Aristocratic in more than one sense, classy in at least as many. The Monochrome Set were effortlessly inventive, literate, poised and immaculate of tuneage, possessed of an internal dialogue as a band that allowed them to surf their own narrative. They were just unlike anything else, in layman's terms. Their sound harked back to a golden era of British pop songwriters. But there was nothing retrogressive about their endeavors. Instead, they wrote songs that recreated the drama and promise of a Pearl & Dean interval theme, veering from lullaby to mambo to harmonic pop, accompanied by lush melodies and irresistibly playful lyrics that embraced morbidity at one extreme, and pitch-perfect satire at another.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: LANR 022LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Fully licensed and limited to 1000 copies. Reissued on vinyl for the first time, Maximum Joy's White & Green Place (Extra-Terrestrial Mix) 12" single -- with three bonus tracks -- originally released in 1982 on Y Records. Maximum Joy tunes to make you move! With new artwork and previously unpublished pictures of the band by David Corio.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SPAP 4749LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The third release in the highly acclaimed St. Albert's Dream series once again brings you some of the rarest and most obscure underground psychedelic cuts from 1968-1972. This time round, the Alchemist has mixed a 'phormula' to take you on a deep underground trip of fuzzed-out psychedelic intensity, by creating elixirs of chemical-based sounds to remedy your psychedelic needs. You'll hear a morbid swirling organ and guitar-driven tale of love lost from Mississippi's Flower Power, heavy powerful drumming and guitar intensity from Missouri's Sound Company -- and an insane twelve-minute fuzz and effect-laden acid freak out by The Olivers from Indiana. The remaining six cuts are just as heavy, with as much fuzz, effects, psychedelic sounds and 'acidity' as you can handle. The nine cuts here have been remastered from micro-pressed 45's, original unreleased master tapes, and one never-produced acetate. Created from the depths of the '60s and '70s underground by and for lovers of the mega-heavy and ultra-obscure sounds of that magical era."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: NW 80842CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"In 1968, Steve Reich coined the term 'Process Music' to describe compositional designs that resemble 'pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest,' explaining that 'once the musical process is set up and loaded it runs by itself.' In the mid-1970s, Brian Eno began using the expression 'Ambient Music' to refer to atmospheric compositions that 'must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular,' music that 'must be as ignorable as it is interesting.' A half century later, the music of James Peter Alfonse Falzone (b. 1986) might initially be viewed through a process/ambient stereoscopic lens, but the five works collected here certainly do not run by themselves, and they are anything but ignorable. Composed between 2017 and 2023, these compositions -- each possessing its own bespoke generative system -- provide a listener with immersive sonic environments that are beautiful and engaging upon first hearing, but also offer significant intellectual reward to those who choose to listen closer and dig deeper. Attentive engagement with these works reveals complex worlds filled with beautiful contradictions: the music is discernably mechanized, but never obvious or predictable; the overall aesthetic is highly experimental, but the resulting sounds feel organic and natural; these pieces are distinctly cerebral, but often feel instinctual. One hears little if any of the jazzy diatonic bounce common to many compositions of Reich, and there is only occasional and far-removed resemblance to Eno's characteristic pandiatonic harmonic clouds. A listener is in fact far more likely to be reminded of the highly-patterned rhythmic and harmonic designs of Olivier Messiaen, or -- going back a few centuries -- the intricate clockwork constructions of Johannes Ockeghem. It is perhaps not insignificant that both Messiaen and Ockeghem frequently performed in churches, where stone surfaces and cavernous spaces allow sounds to ring and intermingle in a warm glow. Falzone, whose instrumental training includes pipe organ, often favors similarly reverberant sonic environments, where atmospheres of echo and reflection are created through the use of bell-like percussion instruments, resonant timbres, and long note-values."

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: NW 80844CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Sarah Hennies (b. 1979) is a composer and percussionist whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer and trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. The booklet for this, her second New World recording, features an extensive and wide-ranging conversation with the composer, wherein Hennies discusses her compositional practice and how these three pieces -- all in some way related to brain activity, specifically mood disorders and circadian rhythm -- represent an important step in the evolution of her work. '[T]hese works do signal a transformation. Up until Clock Dies, for instance, every piece I had written involved a stopwatch. But Talea Ensemble wanted a work with a conductor, and so Clock Dies was the first piece I made where I thought, 'Let's see if I can make chamber music.' So Clock Dies is through-composed; of course there's lots of repetition, there's a form with sections and climaxes -- things happen. There's a more traditional kind of contrast in Clock Dies and really in all three of these pieces. But Clock Dies specifically was the first piece where I challenged myself in a practical way to see if I could make 'normal' music. Motor Tapes is, well, it came about in a similarly practical way, where because of when the commission [from Ensemble Dedalus] came and where it was being played, I had a long time to make it. And I really, really wanted to challenge myself to make something with a lot of detail, to work harder on something than I had in the past. There's a Word-doc outline of Motor Tapes that's pages long because it got so complicated. And finishing the last 20% was so challenging; it had become so unwieldy that I had to make a to-do list of tasks because I couldn't view it as a totality anymore. And now that it's done and I can see it as a whole, there's a very clear order of events, a script, it follows a very birth-to-death trajectory.'"

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: NW 80845CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This collection of songs represents one hundred years of music produced by American composers and poets of color -- the best of us. Some identify(ied) as Negro, some African-American, some Black, some men, some women, and some insisted they were beyond classification, adamant that their work speak for itself. Unfortunately, too many of these voices have been stifled from inclusion in our American story thus far. But the time is right, and the fruit is ripe for the picking. The harvest has come in, and the first fruits of the fields yield a bounty of beauty so remarkable that silence is no longer an option. In fact, it is annihilated. Where once the famed halls of old lived on solely in black and white, they are now alive and brimming in technicolor, vividly representative of truth and creative vision -- Heaven. The songs collected here are a mere sampling of the finest of those neglected voices. Most are from our published archives. Some have been recorded from transcriptions of sound recordings. Are they 'art' songs? Are they popular songs? Is it jazz, Bebop, or blues? Is it 'classical' music? It is music, in all cases. Music to be enjoyed and reflected upon. Performed with integrity and informed enthusiasm by all who would approach it. Resist the urge to classify and segregate. Enjoy the creativity and savor the sounds of words and music dancing together as one in each singular work of art." --James Martin

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: NNF 413LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"The second LP by Tokyo ambient conceptualists Unknown Me began as a commission for historic Japanese cosmetic conglomerate Shiseido, conjuring audio approximations of seasons and scents, but soon flowered into its own refracted and rarefied environment: Bitokagaku. Translated as 'beauty and science,' the album is the foursome's first composed solely with software, reflecting the collection's utopian, laboratorial muse. From levitational electronica ('A Rainbow in Meditative Air') and vaporous downtempo ('Dancing Leaves') to planetarium reverie ('Kitsune No Yomeiri') and AI IDM ('Retreat Beats'), the music moves like weather patterns in a bio-dome: dazzling, microcosmic, and delicately calibrated. Percolating synths crossfade with field recordings from Shiseido's research division; the sound of streams and distant birds blur into a processed haze; clinical voices read lists of precious stones. It's a vision of new age as soft robotics, of serenity streamlined by sentient systems. UM's team of engineers (Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai) cite an eclectic swath of inspirations behind Bitokagaku -- molecules, stars, Kenji Miyazawa, Akira Kurosawa, even 'the sparkle of rainbows' -- but their guiding artistic principle is as ancient as it is eternal: 'beauty.'"

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: PEACE 45013EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

El Encuentro - Vol. 2, the recent "scary good" 45-RPM single from Texas-based dynamic duo El Bigtoe Y El Gu?mbito, is a 7" DJ-friendly double-sider great for Halloween and El D?a de Los Muertos. "Sabroso Y Espooky (Cumbia Espooky)" is a dark "sonidero cumbia rebajada" (a slowed-down cumbia done in the Mexican sound system style), full of menace and spooky subterranean sounds, while the flip, "Mantequilla Y Mermelada," is a much brighter up-tempo psychedelic tropical number that feels like a galloping horse ride clear across the Texas desert into Mexico and beyond. El Bigtoe y El Gu?mbito is a partnership between Beto "El Bigtoe" Mart?nez (Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, Money Chicha, The Los Sundowns) and Victor-Andr?s "El Gu?mbito" Cruz (Nemegata, Bulla En El Barrio, MAKU Soundsystem). A long time in the making, the project is fresh as today, forward-looking to tomorrow, but rooted in yesterday. Mart?nez and Cruz bring a unique, collaborative blend of analog and traditional instrumentation with electronic implements from guitars to synths to samplers. What they've created here is an experimental exploration of psychedelic tropical music from Colombia and Peru, engaging with but also moving into deeper palates than the ubiquitous cumbia. The four-song suite of music that emerged from the two's encounter at El Bigtoe's Lechehouse Studio after the pandemic lockdown incubation period chronicles an evolution of both musicians' sonic histories, the result being a quartet of tunes made with freedom and abandon, combining and reinterpreting solid traditional influences and flighty whims alike. This 45 is the second volume, the first being released by Chicago's Sonorama Discos. If you're a fan of Afrosound, Chicha Libre, Money Chicha and XIXA, you'll dig El Bigtoe y El Gu?mbito!

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: PF 011CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 reprint. "Wire's first three albums need no introduction. They are the three classic albums on which Wire's reputation is based. Moreover, they are the recordings that minted the post-punk form. This was adopted by other bands, but Wire were there first. It has been a number of years since these albums were readily available. The aim with these new vinyl and CD releases is to approximate the original statements as closely as possible, but with remastered audio. The vinyl releases have the same covers and inners as the originals (minus the Harvest logo). The digipack CDs have identical track listings to their vinyl counterparts. These versions should be considered Wire's classic 1970s albums, pure and undiluted. Usually contextualized against a backdrop of two years of the growing cultural importance of punk rock--Wire's debut Pink Flag, released in December 1977 on EMI's progressive label Harvest was in fact was something 'other.' To the keen cultural commentator, the timing and label of its release will register two essential facts about it. Firstly, too late (a year after the Pistol's debut release) to be part of UK punk's first flush and secondly that the band were signaling something beyond punk by their choice of label. Further investigation would reveal twenty-one tracks, some of them clocking in at well under a minute and covering a range of tempi well beyond the buzzsaw rockabilly that had become, even by the second half of 1977, punk's staple."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: EZRDR 177LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Over the course of a couple of years in the mid-1970s, several musicians from the St. Louis, Missouri area gave notice to club and festival crowds that they were there to rock the house down. Their cover and original songs were accentuated by a bedrock rhythm section, heavy guitar riffs and tasty solos, topped off with powerful vocals. Rockers that witnessed them agree -- Back Jack created solid songs and high-energy performances. Beginning in 1971 as Trellis, the band members changed their name to Back Jack when they saw the bumper sticker that Kim McKinney's dad, Jack McKinney, distributed during his election bid for the Mayor of Pacific, Missouri, home of the core three-piece band: Kim McKinney, Mike Collier, and Hans Myers (RIP). The 1974 version of Back Jack was active from very early 1974 to late-fall of 1974. The core three-piece band, Collier, McKinney, and Myers, recorded several tracks during their tenure and four of those tracks are included on this release. Temporary band members not on the recordings were Gary Reed (piano, RIP), Greg Witt (guitar, keyboards), Paul Cockrum (guitar), and Bill Niehoff (drums). The four-piece, 1975 version of Back Jack was a merging of members of Back Jack 1974 (Mike Collier and Kim McKinney) and another local band, Osage Lute (Jeff Ballew and Mike Lusher). They were active from late-fall of 1974 to late-summer of 1975. Four of the tracks on the Back Jack LP were recorded by these four musicians."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 191LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The origin of this record is a weird one. In 2019, we had just returned from two long European tours when we decided to take a 'little break' from the road. You all know what happened next. That 'little break' turned into a couple of years and during that time Dane, our drummer, decided to quit the band and music in general (no hard feelings). Sean [Hoffman] and I had a discussion and thought about ending the band as a whole, but I knew I had to go out on my own terms. I had an ace in the hole, though. Jeff Murray, drummer from LA rippers The Shrine. I had been friends with Jeff and The Shrine's founder, Josh Landau since our Scavenger 7-inch came out, around 2012. We had run into them in Berlin a few months back and I knew they weren't playing anymore. I called Josh first, 'cause asking a dude if you can take his drummer, is like asking your girlfriend's dad if you can marry her. And Josh said 'go for it.' And Jeff was in. Honestly if he had said no, that would have been the end. I had written a ton of stuff since our last album but I had shelved most of it. I was trying too hard -- basically. Eventually Sean, Jeff and I said, 'Fuck it, let's make a 'Fake Live' record -- like Kiss or Slayer did. John Dwyer from Osees was opening his new studio, Discount Mirrors, and it seemed like the perfect place to record it. We settled on re-recording a bunch of old stuff while simultaneously demoing our new material, as the three of us were now starting to really get in the groove. The result is Strange Masters Vol. 1. These are not new songs. These are Zig Zags classics re-recorded with a ripping-ass band that's old and angry and just wants to get on with it. We are already on to recording the next album of new songs. That one is coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this one while you still can!" --Jed Maheu (guitars/vocals for Zig Zags)

 

PRICE: $18.50

CAT #: SMC 043LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After a wait of over three years since their last LP, Inspector 34's hotly anticipated follow-up to 2020's Love My Life (SMC 010LP) does not disappoint. Recorded by the band themselves, at a makeshift studio in a cabin in the woods, Squint Your Ears represents perhaps the group's most fully-realized artistic effort to date. Songs, riffs, and sounds ooze in and out of each other with wild abandon as Inspector 34, despite being ostensibly a fairly straightforward rock group, somehow defies classification -- only their own self-styled "junk rock" appellation seems vaguely appropriate. It's a sound full of contradictions -- simple and complex, loose and tightly angular, noisy yet somehow catchy. Songs flirt with a variety of diverse genres without ever falling solidly into one camp or another, shifting (or lurching dizzily) from knuckle-draggingly heavy to whimsically playful in the blink of an eye -- or an ear, as it were. Each one leaves the listener gasping for breath and anxious for more. RIYL: Pixies, Captain Beefheart, Pile, Sonic Youth, Polvo, Animal Collective, Pavement, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Ween, Pink Floyd, Elephant 6, Drag City.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: SDBAN 008LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. Part one of two double LP versions. Gatefold sleeve; 180 gram vinyl. The first half of the seventies in Belgium should be regarded as a Golden Age, when a generation of great musicians experimented with funk, jazz, Latin, and other groovy genres. Unearthing these treasures takes time since most of them are hidden on single B-sides or obscure editions of library music. In 2014, Sdban Records collected a selection of lost gems with Funky Chicken (SDBAN 001CD/001LP/002LP). Funky Chimes combines lesser-known tracks of well-known artists with newly discovered names, and bona fide diggers gold. The music's quality matches that of its predecessor, but the treasure hunt was even more adventurous, and the stories behind some of the nuggets even more gripping. Take Experience (performer unknown), for instance: this one was found on a five-inch flexi disc people in Belgium could obtain by saving points from cookies and pasta packages. And The Sumos, a band brought into existence to cash in on Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974), released an entire album filled with oriental bubblegum. But Funky Chimes is not a freak show, but a two-hour collection of excellent and unique grooves. The Free Pop Electronic Concept is a rare blend of soul and budding electronic music. Skleroptak is a one-off collaboration between the Polish saxophonist Jan Wr?blewski and the jazz orchestra of the Belgian national broadcast corporation. There are also some lesser-known top tracks from grandmasters here. The late lamented Marc Moulin is featured in three different performances: as a pianist on Philip Catherine's debut, as a master arranger on the Belgian chansonnier Lieven's only album, and with the hitherto unknown radio tune "Mona Call" he produced as Kiosk. Features: The Soul Scratchers, Francis Coppieters, S.S.O., The Flying Guitar, The Sumos, Bud Hunga And His Diplomatic Music, Experience, The Peter Laine Orchestra, Kandahar, Kiosk, Guido Carnagy, Andr? Brasseur, and Electronic System III.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: SDBAN 009LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. Part two of two double LP versions. Gatefold sleeve; 180 gram vinyl. The first half of the seventies in Belgium should be regarded as a Golden Age, when a generation of great musicians experimented with funk, jazz, Latin, and other groovy genres. Unearthing these treasures takes time since most of them are hidden on single B-sides or obscure editions of library music. In 2014, Sdban Records collected a selection of lost gems with Funky Chicken (SDBAN 001CD/001LP/002LP). Funky Chimes combines lesser-known tracks of well-known artists with newly discovered names, and bona fide diggers gold. The music's quality matches that of its predecessor, but the treasure hunt was even more adventurous, and the stories behind some of the nuggets even more gripping. Take Experience (performer unknown), for instance: this one was found on a five-inch flexi disc people in Belgium could obtain by saving points from cookies and pasta packages. And The Sumos, a band brought into existence to cash in on Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974), released an entire album filled with oriental bubblegum. But Funky Chimes is not a freak show, but a two-hour collection of excellent and unique grooves. The Free Pop Electronic Concept is a rare blend of soul and budding electronic music. Skleroptak is a one-off collaboration between the Polish saxophonist Jan Wr?blewski and the jazz orchestra of the Belgian national broadcast corporation. There are also some lesser-known top tracks from grandmasters here. The late lamented Marc Moulin is featured in three different performances: as a pianist on Philip Catherine's debut, as a master arranger on the Belgian chansonnier Lieven's only album, and with the hitherto unknown radio tune "Mona Call" he produced as Kiosk. Features: The Indian Sound Of... Black Foot, Hearts Of Soul & Shampoo, Roland Thyssen, R. Dero, Philip Catherine, Skleroptak, Etta Cameron, Selectasound '88 & The Bob Boon Singers, Hugo Raspoet, Leslie Kent, Patricia Burns, Georges Hayes And His Philharpopic Orchestra, The Free Pop Electronic Concept, and Lieven.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SOW 050LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Brazilian singer, poet, guitarist Joao Gilberto made his 1959 debut with the now legendary LP, Chega de Saudade, a new sound and acknowledge as the first bossa nova album, a genre that swept the world in popularity and taken up by such artists as Stan Getz, Charly Byrd, Astrud Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, and countless others. Presented here is essentially a themed compilation of some of his best songs, including tracks from his acclaimed debut LP, Chega de Saudade.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SOW 051LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Blind musician Hrant Kenkulian (1901-1978), generally known as Oudi Hrant was a master of the oud (fretless lute) who was probably best known for his taksims. He was an Armenian born in Adapazar, a city close to Istanbul which had a large Armenian population before the Genocide of 1915. After WWI, Hrant's family settled in Istanbul. Hrant started out singing in the church choir, but soon moved on to the oud. He made his career in Istanbul, but he toured the US in 1950, and did a world tour in 1963 to Paris, Beirut, Greece, America, and Yerevan, Soviet Armenia. He was a teacher of many Armenian-American oudists including Richard Hagopian. He was the pride of the Armenian people, and many consider him to be the most soulful oudist ever to emerge from Turkey. Released in 1964 on jazz label Prestige, this record shows the stunning classical inspiration of the musician.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SUBSOUND 142LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Ainu is a Genoese cinematic sludge/post-doom trio established in 2021. Ainu is a concept record that moves between powerful and stirring soundscapes, building up at a slow but steady pace between psychedelia and post-metal, stemming from the Genoa trio's passion for cinema and their close relationship with the sea, its stories and creatures. Featuring special appearances from Lili Refrain as well as Francesco Bucci (Ottone Pesante) and Giorgio Nattero (Carcharodon), this album is an intense, emotionally dense experience that uses the descriptive foundations of seamen and the calls of huge animals to recall the connection between the sound and the environment. An electrifying cinematic journey for the heart and soul of heavy music lovers.

 

PRICE: $57.00

CAT #: SV 076LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt is the first solo record by John Frusciante. Between 1990 and 1992 the guitarist made a series of 4-track recordings, which at the time were not intended for commercial release. After leaving the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Frusciante was encouraged by friends to release the material that he wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions. Originally released on Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1994, Niandra LaDes is a mystifying work of tortured beauty. Frusciante plays various acoustic and electric guitars, experimenting with layers of vocals, piano and reverse tape effects. Channeling the ghosts of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, his lyrics are at once utterly personal and willfully opaque. Frusciante's rapidfire, angular playing shows how key he was in the Chili Peppers' evolution away from their funk-rock roots. His cover of 'Big Takeover' perfectly deconstructs the Bad Brains original with laid-back tempo, twelve-string guitar and a fierce handle on melody. The album's second part -- thirteen untitled tracks that Frusciante defines as one complete piece, 'Usually Just A T-Shirt' -- contains several instrumentals featuring his signature guitar style. Sparse phrasing, delicate counterpoint and ethereal textures recall Neu/Harmonia's Michael Rother or The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly. On the front cover, Frusciante appears in 1920s drag -- a nod to Marcel Duchamp's alter-ego Rrose S?lavy -- which comes from Toni Oswald's film Desert in the Shape. This first-time vinyl release has been carefully remastered and approved by the artist. The double LP set is packaged with old style tip-on gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 164LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. "'It's been nearly five decades since Joe McPhee assembled a group of musicians to perform the weekend concerts that would become Nation Time, his second LP. It was December 1970, thirty-one-year-old McPhee was inspired by Amiri Baraka's poem 'It's Nation Time,' and the students at Vassar College didn't know what hit them. 'What time is it?' shouted the bandleader. 'C'mon, you can do better than that. What time is it?!' The music on Nation Time came out of the fertile, but little-known creative jazz scene in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee's home base. Two bands were deployed, one with a funky free foundation featuring guitar and organ, the other consisting of a more standard jazz formation with two drummers and the brilliant Mike Kull at the piano. Across the concert and the next afternoon's audience-less recording session, the band was ignited by McPhee's passion and his gorgeous post-Coltrane / post-Pharoah tenor. On 'Shakey Jake,' they hit a James Brown groove filtered through Archie Shepp, while the sidelong title track is as searching and poignant today as it was during its heyday. Originally released in 1971 on CjR, an imprint started expressly to document McPhee's music, Nation Time has a sense of urgency and inspiration. Additional material from those December days would later appear on Black Magic Man, Hat Hut's first release. In fact, the first four records on this seminal Swiss label all featured McPhee. Nation Time was largely unknown a quarter century or so later, when it was first issued on CD through Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. On Corbett vs. Dempsey, we reissued the album along with all known tapes leading up to and around it as a deluxe box set, but the standalone LP has long remained incredibly rare. Now is the time for a new generation of freaks to lose their shit when settling into the cushy beat of 'Shakey Jake' and answer McPhee's call with the only appropriate response: It's NATION TIME.' --John Corbett."

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: TW X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Over the last ten years, Michael Morley has embraced the acoustic guitar as the means of channeling the darkest threads that have run through his work since the early 1980s. While he largely made a name for himself as a maverick of primitive electric guitar and electronics in The Dead C and Gate, Morley's love of song form has never been far from the surface. In recent years, chance discoveries of Spanish and classical guitar records languishing in the discount and free bins at junk shops in South Dunedin proved to be a revelation. These records, largely recorded in the 1950s and 60s, began to shift Morley's work and lead him to piece together a new musical language from elements completely removed from the rock and avant-garde underground from which he first emerged. Spanish, Mexican and South American composers such as De Fossa, Ponce, Lauro, Barrios, Pujol, Alb?niz, Falla, and Villa-Lobos as well as more traditional classical guitar composers like Schubert, Haydn, and Scarlatti all began to etch themselves into his consciousness. Rather than emulate them, Morley "channeled the experience of listening to these strange guitar sounds" as he began to play the acoustic guitar for hours at a time every day as an almost meditative exercise and a way of discovering a new way to play. This new musical language is realized on Pushed Streets, a suite of 12 songs Morley recorded at home in K?p?tai/Port Chalmers, New Zealand. The music is quiet, almost ephemeral. Chords and melodies are traced in a dark atmosphere with Morley's unmistakable voice almost imperceptibly double tracked, words softly sung and stretched, sometimes at a near whisper. There are no amplifiers, no effects, nothing to distract from Morley's words and the tone of his guitar. Recorded with two 1970s guild guitars, an orchestral six string and dreadnaught twelve string, the guitar sound is rich and dynamic, chords and melodic figures are struck with what sometimes seems the gentlest possible gesture, resonating and floating away into the night. The music and voice, the lyrics are all of that dark thread, distilled with frightening clarity. The music is intimate and fragile, unadorned and heartbreaking in a way that recalls the spirit of lonely and world-weary albums by Skip Spence, Bill Fay, and Loren Connors; yet against the backdrop of the absolute finality of today's culture, the album's alchemy of Spanish and classical influences with Morley's formative work avant garde work, Pushed Streets exists in its own hauntingly desolate realm.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: VHF 161LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Fourth volume of Library Music miniatures by Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, ?thenor, This is Not This Heat, etc) for VHF, this time commissioned by the legendary German Music Library, Sonoton. Another sampling of O'Sullivan's versatility and brilliance as a composer, performer, and sound designer, the focus on The Pastoral Machine is more 'electronic' compared to the three previous albums O'Sullivan recorded for KPM (also issued on LP by VHF), with simpler arrangements and a focus on gentle and emotive synthesized soundworlds. Even without as many full ensemble arrangements, there's still a wealth of diversity -- 'Empathogen' opens the record with latticed arpeggiating sequences recalling Japanese 'environmental music' or Persian Surgery-era Terry Riley, 'Fruit Of Stream Entry' burbles with gentle ripples evoking the album's title, while 'The Silversmith Of Space' mines a simple chord sequence evoking Eno's '70s classic short instrumentals. "Superstrings" is a series of hypnotic overlapping guitar patterns, like a lost Ash Ra or Achim Reichel track. The brief 'Star Lore' is a heavy highlight with deep bass washes and grainy, tape-laminated melodies, followed immediately by Rose Keeler Schaffeler's vocal feature on 'The Oscillating Love' recalling futurist new-age pop in the vein of Enya or Virginia Astley. Housed in a jacket and heavy euro-style inner featuring collages by O'Sullivan, soon to be the subject of an art book published by Timeless Editions in mid-2024."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: W25 017LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Like an unsent love letter to a psychedelic London where everyone is trying to find their way to a secret Television Personalities gig, Cuneiform Tabs emerge with an astounding debut of lo-fi pop and DIY experimentation. A hazy collage of joyful heartaches, twisted children's TV themes and sing-song melodies, the album echoes the sounds of '60s AM radio from a dozen narrow alleyways to the North. Over 18 months, the Tabs' Matt Bieyle and Sterling Mackinnon traded four-track tapes between the Bay Area and the UK. While they previously played together in indie band Violent Change, the duo's physical distance and their songwriting process of building, blurring and distorting across the Atlantic would create something no one saw coming. Grabbing any instruments at their disposal and splitting vocal duties, Bieyle and Mackinnon pushed their Tascam to its limit to make glittering, odd-shaped gems. There is an insular feel to Cuneiform Tabs, suited for late nights after the entire city has stumbled into dreamtime or lazy afternoons when you can't quite recall where you need to be, but you know you won't make it there on time. It's like a pirate radio show where Bob Pollard alternates Swell Maps and Cleaners From Venus records while randomly unplugging various bits of gear and reading passages from a book on R.D. Laing. Originally released in a hyper-limited artist edition, W.25TH/Superior Viaduct is thrilled to bring this kaleidoscopic LP to a wider audience."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: WISE 004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

One of the furthest experiments in library music, first official vinyl reissue under Sonor Music Production license. Chitarre Folk was conceived in July 1974 and produced by the small publishing company Nike. The album is brilliantly propelled by the two six-string players Bruno Battisti D'Amario and Silvano Chimenti (long-time collaborator of I Gres, Pulsar, and Piero Umiliani E La Sua Orchestra), touching avant-folk themes surrounded by Maestro Sandro Brugnolini's lush arrangements and Edda Dell'Orso's ghostly vocals. Ethereal psych-folk melodies akin to the imaginary landscapes of John Fahey and Robbie Basho.