News & Events

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: ATLP 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Repressed. Two visionary explorers of the acid and dub intersection team up for a seven-track LP, In The Afterworld, on Acid Test. Om Unit and TM404 have both been researching production and compositional elements in the crosshairs of dub and acid for the last few years -- Om Unit most notably with his Acid Dub Studies 1 & 2, and TM404 with his Acidub album in particular. Om Unit has been a longtime fan of TM404's use of the TB-303 and the deconstructed space he brings to the house and techno template. Meanwhile, Om Unit's own leaning towards breaks and reggae instrumentation has offered a different approach to the acid sound they both love so much. So, an LP with Acid Test seemed the perfect opportunity to combine those approaches and see what kind of mutations could be discovered. The result is a primordial soup that is in parts acid, dub, breaks and ambient, full of spaced-out synths and psychedelic bass, where the pair enjoyed building tracks with a feel for where the music wanted to go, irrespective of stylistic constraints. Rolling opener "Motorway Acid" sets the pace high and strong, conjuring both wide open spaces and fast-paced travel at the same time, with weightless pads, stroboscopic breaks and a mighty 303 riff that can teleport you to the middle of a foggy dancefloor. "Microdose Mondays" on the other hand, slows the tempo down and veers into cosmic territory, with perfectly dubbed drum rolls and burbling squelch. But it's "London Stock" that kicks the album into hyperspace, finding its futuristic steppers groove somewhere in the answer to the hypothetical question "what if Shaka had produced Stingray?" Speaking of underwater electronics, "Meanwhile In The Smoking Area" delves deep into submarine territory, delivering the kind of bass weight and sonar acid signals you'd need a diver's suit for. It's a vibe that's continued on the tracks "Thursday" and "Refracted", and speaks to the record's title -- otherworldly, dreamy bass meditations that aren't of this realm. The album closes out with "Praha", a pacey yet ambient vista of warm wide synths, layers of 303, and dub echoes that sound like the machines are slowly coming to life. It's in this altered state that the album resides, somewhere between worlds and styles, emerging out of the space around the TB-303 that Om Unit and TM404 have created, with their open-minded approach to the music and to this collaboration.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ZORN 095LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

As an important agent of Gothenburg's underground scene, Dan Johansson has been a member of several experimental harsh noise projects such as Sewer Election, and lo-fi indie folk bands like Enhet F?r Fri Musik and Amateur Hour. Ordeal is his latest solo output, and might as well be ashes stuck in the blast furnace's edges of his last longing career. Not by means of summing up genres or as a culmination of his musical development, but as a profound music piece weaved in his own household. With not much more than a synthesizer, V?tterns P?rla is built by trembling, dissonant drones stained in feedback and reverberation, thickly textured by the no-fi quality of the recording, depicting a menacing atmosphere congested with heavy fumes. In Johansson's words, Ordeal "takes inspiration from the early '80s albums of Maurizio Bianchi, filtered through a Gothenburgian no-fi bleakness. It's an album for inner voyage, childhood memories, and places that now lost purpose and meaning." There's certainly intimacy and nostalgia, yet a claustrophobic, hypnotic ambiance wraps it all up in a contained and narrow space. Emphasis is put on texture rather than on detail, on color rather than on progression, on suspense rather than on conclusion. Tension varies stiffly, sometimes a drone layer dismantles and the mood seems to filter, but ragged edges are never polished. We can feel the walls and the air, which although tarnished, can be breathed in somehow. It's as if waking up in a dark room and having to recognize it with our ears and tact, testing its dimensions and its surface. The stillness in the chamber is like the stillness between gasps of storms. Without visible stars, an enclosed share of night sky hides a heavy load of industrial debris underwater. These remnants are maybe the pearl regarding the album's title. It all can seem like a dream, a grim mechanical soundscape deafened by hefty, yet sporadic winds. Soil strives to make something grow, but sprouting is kept suspended, held by a dismal presentiment. Long shadows on the ground prove that darkness is about to befall. And as these shadows stretch, almost about to break up in a loud strike, the noise turns white.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ZORN 101LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Recorded in Brussels in 2019, Feral Lands and Forbidden Cities is Timelash's second delivery of a four-album projected series. In their debut, A Morphology of Wonders (Aguirre Records, 2021), the duet formed by Embassador Dulgoon (Nonlocal Society, Archimboldos) and Corum (Psychic Sounds, Million Brazilians) revealed a unique musical journey that unfolds and expands like a cluster of organic matters and mechanical dialogues lit by iridescent fluorescences. Timelash's musical proposal is firmly rooted in retrofuturism, reminding us of exotic and library music artists such as Martin Denny, Egisto Macchi, Bernard F?vre, and Eric Vann, reaching up to Mark Dwane's cinematic soundscapes, or Constance Demby's Novus Magnificat. Feral Lands and Forbidden Cities digs precisely into what the title indicates: civilizations not yet explored, untraceable ruins, and the unknown. Digital synthesizers, samplers, flutes, percussion pads, and effects are assembled as stirring sprouts of life and evolutionary dream cycles. Spacecraft bustles, strange body noises, tolling bells, plasticine murmurs, and boiling potions ring under harmonic synth soulful crescendos, building up a sense of both machinery and wonder; the emotional significance that the mechanical contains. The tactile quality of detail and the flourishing motifs join and bloom in poignant, even epic manners, as in "Outside Grottos of Time." A mood more dizzying and suspenseful speeds up "Sandrunner's Pass" until the puzzling closing track "Shadows of the Skyfish" wraps it all up. Chromatic glares, mechanical abstractions, and multicolored visions emerge like fumes radiating from electric dreams; melodic layers drift, rise, and finally lay down subtly. There's a feeling of mystery and motion in several directions, sometimes even simultaneous, although limited, all of them equally full of meaning, since this is a coherent musical tale. The Great Nebula of Andromeda swims like a phosphorescent amoeba. Far away yonder in forbidden cities, foreboding creatures are planning to abduct us while we sleep. In the dark, we cook our macaroni and eat by lantern light. Stars cluster all over our table like fireflies. We watch the turning moon through our little telescope. The unknown stumbles around the dying campfire. As breaths gather firm, an auroral stain illuminates the sky once again. Great geometrical winter constellations lift up over sinuous litmus gleams. We walk under the stars, our feet on the unknown round earth. Our eyes follow the lights of a deep glowing spaceship. Engine tones rise, shrill, faint, finally inaudible, and its lights go out in the southeast haze beneath the feet of Orion.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ZORN 102LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

In addition to the unique musical proposals and the large body of work that they have developed separately, Amelia Cuni and Werner Durand have been performing together as a duo as well as in collaborations (Tonaliens, Born of Six) for more than 20 years. Fusing her Indian Raga singing in the Dhrupad style with his minimalist and experimental approach, they have expanded the reach of their soundworlds as well as proposed new paths for contemporary music. In this occasion, Uli Hohmann joins them in a range of hand drums from the Middle East and North Africa, plus a dulcimer-sounding hammered guitar. Durand's various self-made wind instruments, soprano sax, and blown kalimba shine along with Cuni's astounding vocals, which are sometimes sung through a mirliton (a medieval type of kazoo). Clearing is the trio's first published recording. With a condensing sound going from Buddhist morning chants down to Indian festive traditional music, the title track, which closes the album, is the most vibrant of all, permeating a bit of commotion through buzzing drones and galloping percussion. Without disorder, yet without measure. Clearing is therefore this shuttle into the distance, this space that weaves, unites, and tenses the different cords that we are made up of. When the clouds advance silently, gray, until they become dark in a few minutes, it means that the monsoon is coming. It reaches us without apparent noise, but then resounds in its images, leaving behind lightness, freshness, clarity, and a tremendous luminosity that comes from so far away: from the Himalayas, from so ancient, from Sanskrit, from a sound where the darkness and the divine, where the concrete and the landscape, where the rock and the humidity leave a mark that brings together and ties a sky loaded with new clouds.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ZORN 104LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Apolline and Thomas have been performing since 2022 under the KOU guise with 24 electronic harmoniums. Producing dense layers of tones and overtones. On their debut album, KOU steers in another direction. The harmonium appears occasionally, but more prominent are delicate guitar pluckings, distant vocal effects, synths, flutes, piano strokes, a touch of musical magic and Apolline's jazz-not-jazz vocals. Recommended for fans of: Nina Harker, Le Diable Degoutant, Fiesta En El Vacio. Played, written, recorded and glued at home and on the road by Apolline Sch?ser and Thomas Coquelet.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: ANS 6000LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. Anthony Naples's fifth full-length LP, orbs, is a moody portal of shoegazed and slo-mo songs suspended in thin air. The album doesn't reassemble the AN sound from the ground up, so much as enhance and expand its scope in all directions. Samples and instruments meld together into new languorous and liquid forms that with or without the beat of drums, shift with the gentle movements of time.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: ASH 311LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. "Released in 1976, Eternity was Alice Coltrane's first album for Warner Bros. after eight wondrous records on Impulse! Combining the drones and textures of India, the gospel and R&B of her Detroit youth and the dissonance of modern classical composition, Coltrane's music in the '70s would become increasingly difficult to categorize. Having moved a few years earlier to California (where she founded the Vedantic Center, an Ashram for spiritual studies), Coltrane stretches out on Eternity -- incorporating various musical styles, including a stirring adaptation of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring -- and the results are dazzling, both in sonic scope and emotional range. Opener 'Spiritual Eternal' sways between Alice's exploratory organ and the dramatic swell of lush strings. A meditative solo piece for harp, 'Wisdom Eye,' precedes the rollicking rhythms of 'Los Caballos,' which showcases some of her finest soloing. 'Om Supreme' is the album's first track to be built around bhajans (Hindu devotional songs). Featuring graceful keyboards backed by an angelic choir, this piece hints at the ecstatic devotional music that she would later make with members of her Ashram. While Coltrane would delve deeper into her spiritual journeys and continue to expand her musical interests on subsequent LPs, Eternity remains a vivid and compelling display of her unique vision, myriad talents and passions."

 

PRICE: $84.00

CAT #: AE 51019251CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Limited restock; 2001 release. Odyssey is the definitive compendium of solo trumpet music by Bill Dixon, as compiled by the artist. Dixon (1925-2010) was known primarily for his small and large ensemble masterpieces of the decades between Intents and Purposes (1967) and Tapestries (2009). While he appeared infrequently in solo performances, he was continually evolving in studio through these years a remarkably nuanced and powerful solo music -- especially during the mid-1970s, as a counterpart to daily work with student orchestras on large ensemble pieces. Small offerings of these solo gems were published relatively obscurely in the early 1980s in Italy, and a larger batch were hand selected by the composer for a two-LP collection in 1985. In 2000, Dixon gathered into Odyssey the entirety of his oeuvre for solo trumpet, adding more than two hours of further solo pieces, and a small number of additional duet recordings. The tracks were selected and sequenced by Mr. Dixon, who curated the entire project for release on his own label, Archive Edition. Veteran engineer Kevin Reeves (Capitol, Universal; Grammy-nominated for Revenant (2015) work) mastered from original tapes exclusively, deriving unprecedented clarity on these exquisite recordings. The set spans five CDs of trumpet solos and one full disc of Dixon's enigmatic spoken commentary for the project. Two printed folios are also in the box: In one are further emphatic annotations by Dixon ensemble veterans Stephen Horenstein and Jason Zappa, and historian Ben Young; and the Dixon interview with journalist Graham Taylor-Lock. A second full-color folio Works on Paper reproduces 13 of Dixon's stunning ink and acrylic visual creations, mostly from the late 1990s, and unpublished prior to this set. Recordings span 1970-92, made primarily in Dixon's studio In Bennington, Vermont, with earlier examples from New York, and a later solo performance from Israel. Also included are Dixon's only released works for solo piano, the full set of "Relay" duets for his own piano and trumpet, an excerpt of the 1971 magnum opus "Summerdance", featuring drummers Laurence Cook and David Moss, and one preferred example of the duets with keyboardist Leslie Winston. Odyssey was released in 2001 -- assembled on the highest artistic level, according to Bill Dixon's production standards. It also has been subject to DIY distribution since that time, so in many ways this 2018 re-launch will be a first hearing for many.

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: BEWITH 028LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. Be With Records present the first ever official reissue of Kimiko Kasai with Herbie Hancock's Butterfly, originally released in 1979. The positively sublime and very rare Butterfly LP, recorded in Tokyo in 1979 by Japanese songstress Kimiko Kasai and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie, and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin, and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie/Headhunters jazz-funk. Unsurprisingly, it has been heavily in demand for many years. The LP opens with Kimiko's highly desirable version of "I Thought It Was You", an elegant take on Herbie's own anthem. Other superb re-workings include the delicately soulful "Butterfly", jazzy groover "Sunlight", the smooth and sexy "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", and the beautiful ballads "Maiden Voyage" and "Harvest Time". A wonderful example of perfectly understated and masterful jazz-funk soul fusion that shouldn't be missed, the set closes with a jaw-dropping version of Stevie Wonder's "As". This lovingly curated reissue enables a long overdue reappraisal of this hitherto unavailable masterpiece. The stunning artwork which adorned the original jacket -- complete with obi strip and sumptuous four-page folded insert -- has been faithfully restored. Mastered by Simon Francis, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: BONF 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reduced price, last copies. Bonfire Records present a reissue of Siren's self-titled album, originally released on John Peel's Dandelion label in 1969. Siren was the debut album by Kevin Coyne with Siren, the band he founded with former Bonzo Dog Band bassist Dave Clague and pianist/guitarist Nick Cudworth. An artist who would later inspire John Lydon, Sting, Ben Watt, and Will Oldham and would collaborate with Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Dagmar Krause, Brendan Croker, Gary Lucas, and The Mekons' Jon Langford, Kevin Coyne deserves a royal place between the likes of Syd Barrett, Peter Hammill, and Daevid Allen. Standing on the verge of British blues, folk and rawk n' roll, Siren could have been easily labeled as the British answer to Canned Heat, but there's even more. "And I Wonder" is clearly an anticipation of what would happen next, with the solo career of Coyne, more focused on acid folk songwriting. Licensed by Cherry Red. 180 gram vinyl. "Most of the album is good time rock-on-out-music a la the Flamin' Groovies... one of those (albums) you keep coming back to when the night gets cold and the wine is almost out. I play it a lot, and that's the nicest thing I can say about an album." --Ed Ward, Rolling Stone. "Siren just came as a breath of fresh air really, in the same way that like a generation later The Ramones did. When you just thought 'Thank God for that!' You hadn't realized how bored you'd become..." --John Peel.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BONF 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reduced price, last copies. Long before there was a "Highway To Hell" late AC/DC singer Bon Scott was the front-man of Australian own Fraternity, a Sydney rock band formed in 1970. For the first time on this gatefold double LP, you'll find the complete recordings of this unbelievable act. Formerly four members of the Levi Smith's Clefs, John Bisset on keyboards, Tony Buettel on drums, Bruce Howe on bass guitar and vocals, and Mick Jurd on lead guitar. Due to conflict at the time with their singer, Barry McAskill, the group abandoned him and relocated to Adelaide in 1971 to restart their career as Fraternity on the Sweet Peach label. Fraternity's debut release was a cover of The Moody Blues track "Question" backed with an Ashdown/Stewart song "Why Did It Have To Be Me?". While the band had competent recording vocals, they were lacking a definitive front-man. Bon Scott at the time was performing with a group called The Valentines. The band liked his raw energy and felt that he would be a good addition to the band. After some persuasion, Bon agreed to relocate and joined them as lead singer. The band's biggest local hit was a cover of Blackfeather's "Seasons of Change" which peaked at No.1 in Adelaide. In 1971, Fraternity went on to win the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds. Bon Scott's previous band, The Valentines, had been a finalist in this competition two years earlier. Fraternity were now being touted as "The Next Big Band" and the competition prize was a free trip to London. However, this trip would go on to be the end of Fraternity as we know it. Licensed by Good Time Inc./Sweet Peach. Gatefold; 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 185A-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP edition, split into two volumes sold separately. To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label launches a new compilation series entitled Kollektion. Each release in this series will be curated by a musician perfectly suited to the task. The first kick-off release will be: Kollektion 01: Sky Records, compiled by Tim Gane. The erstwhile Stereolab mastermind delves through the archives of the legendary German Krautrock label. About Sky Records: The record company was founded in the year 1975 and went on to become one of the few German labels to reap international acclaim. It was run by Gunter K?rber, who quit his job at Metronome where he and Bruno Wendel had spent four years developing and managing the legendary Brain label. About Tim Gane: No less a figure than Tim Gane, the man behind Stereolab, has delved into the Sky Records archives for the Kollektion series. Gane has never hidden his love of Krautrock; many a Stereolab song has its foundations in the typical "motorik" beat, while his latest band, Cavern Of Anti-Matter wallows in Klaus Dinger rhythms. Experimental sounds hold no fear for him, as early noise cassette releases under his Un-Kommuniti alias testify. This first vinyl volume contains seven tracks; artists: Asmus Tietchens, Moebius & Beerbohm, Roedelius, Michael Rother, Cluster and Moebius & Plank.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 185B-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP edition, split into two volumes sold separately. This is Volume B. Contains final 10 tracks from the CD version. Artists: Asmus Tietchens, Roedelius, Eno Moebius Roedelius, Moebius & Beerbohm, Riechmann, Moebius, Gunter Schickert and Cluster.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 840LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"This is Lee 'Scratch' Perry's final studio album recorded shortly before his passing in October 2021. Lee was one of 'the major cultural figures' of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. His contribution to the furtherance of Jamaican music as producer, arranger, writer and artist is beyond compare. He played a pivotal role in, and was the inspiration behind, many of the key movements in the development of reggae throughout the '60s and '70s. Released on 180m gram vinyl, including a booklet with extensive sleeve notes by Noel Hawks, plus photos."

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 5047CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Guillermo Gregorio has been exploring space and form and gesture in music for a very long time. In 1969, with composers Norberto Chavarri and Roque de Pedro, he cofounded the collective Movimiento M?sica M?s, which for a while staged public interventions, performances, and happenings even as the political skies were darkening again. He finally left Argentina in 1985, living in Vienna, L.A., and Cologne through the end of that decade, before settling in Chicago for the next 25 years. Already in Vienna, he began his fertile relationship with the Hat Art label, which eventually put out half a dozen records under his name, plus other sessions playing the music of Anthony Braxton and Cornelius Cardew, as guest soloist with Ran Blake, and a piece he wrote commissioned by the Makrokosmos Quartet. The present record reflects a sort of pivot to his new home, New York, where Gregorio moved in 2015. For the trio that performed at Edgefest -- the festival's 22nd edition in 2018 focused on the Chicago connection -- he reached out to close associates from two decades earlier, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Carrie Biolo, neither of whom live there anymore either. That trio was the most productive and enduring group he ever played with, and their nuanced rapport, the fine weave of their sound, the mutual instincts, seem but a continuation without pause of their past work together. Chicago also proved highly receptive to the fruitful convergence of free jazz and twentieth-century European music that allowed him to flourish and become a recognized figure there in the nineties. Concurrently, by the time of the festival, Gregorio had been performing with Nicholas Jozwiak in different settings around Manhattan and Brooklyn, as they did at Downtown Music Gallery in 2020 just before the world locked down. DMG, Bruce Gallanter's friendly institution packed into a tiny space, has for decades seen fit not just to sell records but to host weekly concerts of improvised music and Gregorio has played there on many occasions since well before he left Chicago. On this late date, the trio was completed by one of his newest collaborators, Iv?n Barenboim, like Jozwiak a couple generations younger and like Gregorio a porte?o (native of Buenos Aires).

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GONE 189LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Goner Records presents Harahan Fats, an extraordinary posthumous album by King Louie Bankston (December 18, 1972 - February 12, 2022). The collection showcases an American artist at the pinnacle of his musical and personal identity. An aural roadmap to South Louisiana that's imbued with personal mythologies and blurry, beer-soaked and drug-skewed memories, Harahan Fats was recorded over a four-year period that culminated in mid-October 2021. As co-founder and drummer of the Royal Pendletons, Bankston recorded with power-pop legend Alex Chilton. He picked up a Gibson Flying V for his work in Bad Times, a garage rock supergroup that Bankston helmed alongside Eric Oblivian and Jay Reatard. In the 1990s, Bankston channeled his energy into bands like the Persuaders, Intelligenitals, the Clickems, Harahan Crack Combo, and Gerry And The Bastard Makers. At the dawn of the new century, he founded the legendary King Louie One Man Band. In 2000, Louie pulled up stakes in New Orleans and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he joined the power-pop punk band The Exploding Hearts. Bankston wrote many of the songs and played keyboards on their only album, the highly acclaimed Guitar Romantic, released mere weeks before three members of the band were killed in a van wreck, and recently reissued by Third Man Records. Bankston then landed in Memphis, where he formed the Loose Diamonds, a ramshackle bar band, with Jack Oblivian, Harlan T. Bobo, and Gary Wrong. With guitarist Julian Fried, he formed Missing Monuments and Black Rose Band, founded a New Orleans biker-rock band called Kondor with Mr. Quintron, and reconnected with Exploding Hearts guitarist Terry Six for Terry And Louie."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: HEADVOICE 001

FILE UNDER: Misc

"The debut issue of Head Voice, created by James Toth, Donovan Quinn, and Ben Chasny. Featuring Matt Valentine, Peter Laughner, Naomi Yang, Cheval Sombre, Kristen Gallerneaux, and Jason Quever. Head Voice is an audio recording zine focused on creative musical pursuits and unorthodox sound production. Our work strives to be of interest to those intrigued by the imaginative ingenuity behind audio recordings, regardless of whether you record music yourself. This zine is tailored from the threads of a thousand conversations between recording musicians. Many of these conversations share a common theme: the creative, non-technical side of sound recording. While the world seems to be overflowing with tips and tricks about how-to-do-this and how-to-do-that, Head Voice is more interested in the joy of recording while keeping in mind the primacy of the music. Dogmatic opinions about the 'right' and 'wrong' ways to create and record music -- in both the analog and digital realm -- tend to obscure and even dismiss the intuitive approaches that have been utilized to create art since the dawn of recorded time. Such strategies are often as unique, idiosyncratic, and individual as the artists who implement them, and these are the corners Head Voice wishes to explore. It is dedicated to the spirit of inquiry and transparency; to asking, not telling, and dispelling many discouraging myths about the recording process. It seeks to answer questions about the creation of music and art, as well as questions about the artists who make it. Head Voice hopes that this shared knowledge provides both resources and inspiration. Its motto: You are doing nothing wrong."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: HOS 871CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: ICTUSRE 005LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 restock. Reissue, originally released in 1978. The Italian Ictus imprint was founded in 1976 by percussionist and composer, Andrea Centazzo, and his wife, Carla Lugli. Running for just under a decade, until relaunching during the mid-2000s, the label produced a couple of dozen highly celebrated releases, the majority of which loosely fall under the banner of free jazz. Ictus's second batch of releases from the label's historic archives logically begins with Andrea Centazzo's U.S.A. Concerts, out of print on vinyl for the majority of the time since. U.S.A. Concerts draws on the same rough period when Centazzo was working in the United States for Environment for Sextet, which was reissued in the previous batch (ICTUSRE 004LP), and features many of the same players -- Polly Bradfield on violin, Eugene Chadbourne on guitar, Tom Cora on cello, Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, and John Zorn on saxophone -- in different configurations. In fact, the first, second, and seventh tracks -- "Sextet Improvisation", "Duet Improvisation N. 1", "Duet Improvisation N. 4" -- were all recorded on the same day at the same location as the aforementioned album: WKCR Radio in New York on November 7, 1978. Beginning with the brilliant textural and tonal explorations of the full ensemble encountered in "Sextet Improvisation", the album quickly moves toward quieter and more restrained investigations of roughly similar ground, moving through a series of duo improvisations between the percussionist and Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, and the under-celebrated saxophonist, Jack Wright, whose howling horn is transformed to otherworldly effect by the reverberance of the space within which he works. From here, Centazzo embraces the trio form with an improvisation with two more under-celebrated figures from the American scene -- Davey Williams playing guitar and banjo, and LaDonna Smith on violin, viola, and voice -- capturing a performance in Jackson, Mississippi on November 19, 1978, during which the three fire responsive statements that hang like barbs in the spacious air, before conceding the LP with a brilliant suite of duos with Toshinori Kondo, Williams, and Smith. Offering incredible insight into Centazzo's unique sensibility, as well as into the work of a new generation of stunning improvisers as they emerged at the tail end of the '70s, before going on to help define the '80s free jazz sound, U.S.A. Concerts is a crucial artifact of free music at the juncture; fire on the boundaries of outright noise.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: JMAN 138CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Many artists achieve greatness but very few produce work that is so moving it's considered sacred. Whether you choose to call them hymns, psalms or spirituals, their songs are a healing force for troubled times. Jazzman's Spiritual Jazz series would not exist without the inspiration and leadership of the spiritual messiah that is John Coltrane. It can therefore only be right and proper that a whole album is dedicated to his legacy and lasting influence. Spiritual Jazz 15: A Tribute to 'Trane shines a spotlight on the reverence in which the saxophonist is held in so many ways. On one hand this selection displays cover versions of his songs performed by the musicians he inspired; disciples to Coltrane the messiah, who chose to give praise to the one who laid a foundation for them. The listener will also encounter original music written in honour of Coltrane that underlines the endless presence he has had among artists from different backgrounds and eras. The preacher may have ascended to a higher plane, but his congregation is still right down here on the ground. Ten songs to lift the spirits of everyone, everywhere. Gatefold LP with pics, liner notes and download code. Also includes 16-page booklet. Featuring Norman Connors, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Fortune, The Darwin Strickland Trio, Gilles Torrent Jazztet, Carsten Meinert, Malachi Thompson and Africa Brass, Hampton Hawes Trio, Carmelo Garcia, Brother Jack McDuff.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: JMAN 138LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Many artists achieve greatness but very few produce work that is so moving it's considered sacred. Whether you choose to call them hymns, psalms or spirituals, their songs are a healing force for troubled times. Jazzman's Spiritual Jazz series would not exist without the inspiration and leadership of the spiritual messiah that is John Coltrane. It can therefore only be right and proper that a whole album is dedicated to his legacy and lasting influence. Spiritual Jazz 15: A Tribute to 'Trane shines a spotlight on the reverence in which the saxophonist is held in so many ways. On one hand this selection displays cover versions of his songs performed by the musicians he inspired; disciples to Coltrane the messiah, who chose to give praise to the one who laid a foundation for them. The listener will also encounter original music written in honour of Coltrane that underlines the endless presence he has had among artists from different backgrounds and eras. The preacher may have ascended to a higher plane, but his congregation is still right down here on the ground. Ten songs to lift the spirits of everyone, everywhere. Gatefold LP with pics, liner notes and download code. Also includes 16-page booklet. Featuring Norman Connors, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Fortune, The Darwin Strickland Trio, Gilles Torrent Jazztet, Carsten Meinert, Malachi Thompson and Africa Brass, Hampton Hawes Trio, Carmelo Garcia, Brother Jack McDuff.

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: KS 004EP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Warehouse find, last copies. "Originally to be released on Planet E's Community Projects sub-label, this late 80's recorded vocal Brazilian Jazz gem was picked up by the Kindred Spirits camp and it was decided to co-release it with the Community Projects label. It was recorded with the New World Jazz band, which features Marcus Belgrave on trumpet, Kenny Cox on piano and Rodney Whitaker on bass a.o. Beautiful as the original is, Carl Craig decided to edit the intro, mid and outro break and add some effects to ensure that this will be a cross-over dancefloor hit on any dancefloor begging for percussive rhythms."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: KRANK 014LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "The second album from New York City's Bowery Electric was released in late 1996, less than 15 months after their self-titled debut, but it found them having traveled light years musically in the interim, the group having seemingly decided to see how far they could take the guitar/bass/drums/vocal setup into the atmosphere. Every aspect of their approach had been refined and focused: squalling, distorted guitars had been transformed into hazy, sensual sheets; the live drums transmuted to sampled rhythms more in debt to the blossoming down-tempo sound of the day; bass lines reduced to their most basic diagrams; vocals submerged to become one with the narcotized fog of the instruments; even the lyrics were reduced to a few minimal lines used sparingly so as not to overshadow the dynamic. Beat is a lush and dense mantra of shadowy percussion, barely-there vocals and immersive drones that envelops the listener in an opiated blanket of sound. The second in a trio of albums released by the core duo of Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener, Beat is without doubt their definitive artistic statement. Coming 20 years to the day of its original release, this is the first time this album has been available on vinyl in almost two decades, and the first ever U.S. vinyl release."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: KRANK 239LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Repressed; double LP version. "The latest by Canadian composer Tim Hecker serves as a beacon of unease against the deluge of false positive corporate ambient currently in vogue. Whether taken as warning or promise, No Highs delivers -- this is music of austerity and ambiguity, purgatorial and seasick. A jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age, rough-hewn and undefined. Morse code pulse programming flickers like distress signals while a gathering storm of strings, noise, and low-end looms in the distance. Processed electronics shiver and shudder against pitch-shifting assemblages of crackling voltage, mantric horns (including exquisite modal sax by Colin Stetson), and cathedral keys. Throughout, the pieces both accrue and avoid drama, more attuned to undertow than crescendo. Hecker mentions 'negation' as a muse of sorts -- the sense of tumult without bombast, tethered ecstasies, an escape from escapism. His is an antagonism both brusque and beguiling, devoid of resolution, beckoning the listener ever deeper into its greyscale alchemies of magisterial disquiet."

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SCIE 3123CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue of Home Comfort by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. With this album, Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marl?ne Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: SCIE 3123LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Reissue of Home Comfort by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. With this album, Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marl?ne Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: LUV 044LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The sonic movement once known as downbeat continues to cast a long and intimidating shadow over the Austrian electronic music scene, with influential figures like Kruder & Dorfmeister reigning atop a metaphorical mountain of venerable dubplates, resembling ancient gods. Now, emerging from the depths of this mountain, comes Triangle, poised to rejuvenate the genre with Amor Fati, brimming with the purest liquid downbeat gold. Featuring an abundance of dusty breaks, reggae vocals, atmospheric keys and strings, dub stabs, wonky acid sequences, and deep basslines, these tunes check all the right boxes without ever feeling like mere imitations. The overall vibe remains warm, mellow, and hazy, while each track seamlessly weaves in an array of peculiar soundbites. Dive into the depths of Amor Fati, an album that bridges eras of timeless electronic soundscapes.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: MAR 093EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Recorded in 1980, only 500 copies of this 7" were pressed, making the original extremely rare -- finally, Mad About Records presents this reissue.

 

PRICE: $64.00

CAT #: METAPHON 012LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

First ever release of female French composer, musicologist and writer Nicole Lachartre (1934-1991). This ten-track triple LP set comprises most of her electronic and musique concr?te compositions recorded in the 1960's and 1970's, all previously unreleased. It includes her first tape composition from 1968, recorded in Pierre Henry's Apsome studio, electronic and electro-acoustic compositions realized at the IPEM in Ghent, The Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and the Radio Belgrade Electronic Music Studio, and a premi?re concert recording from 1978 with the legendary Jeanne Loriod playing the Ondes Martenot. Lachartre studied with Darius Milhaud, Iannis Xenakis and Michel Philippot. Her broad formation and interest as well as her profound commitment and singular vision created a solitary voice, even within the field of electronic and concrete music, strangely enough unheard till this day.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: METAPHON 016LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Arthur Petronio's one and only LP, now reissued by Metaphon, was originally published by the Belgian Igloo label in 1979. An extravagant DIY montage of musique concr?te and sound poetry. In addition to Petronio's voice several female readers/performers contribute to this theatre of voices as guest vocalists. An album as unusual as his lifecycle. Born Switzerland 1897, Petronio was a French-Italian musician, poet and painter. He was a young violin virtuoso studying with Belgian master violinist Eug?ne Ysa?e, and played solo violin for Belgian King Leopold II at the age of 9. He was attracted to the avant-garde and visionary ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk and developed and presented his "Verbophonie" in 1919, integrating sound poetry into regular music scores. He was a friend to Kandinsky, Mondrian, Cocteau and Picasso, and published several avant-garde journals and poetry books with participation of like-minded artists. He wrote many scores for solo instruments, small ensembles, orchestral works, and operas and extended his musical ideas with new possibilities of tape composition.

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: MGART 611TV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Transparent vinyl version. First-ever official reissue on vinyl since 1975. Ash Ra Tempel is the eponymous debut studio album by the Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. It features guitarist Manuel G?ttsching with drummer Klaus Schulze and bassist Hartmut Enke. Engineered by Conny Plank, it was recorded in March and June 1971 on Ohr Records. This 50th Anniversary Album will be released in memoriam of all the musical contributors to this release and on Manuel G?ttsching?s MG.ART label."On our album, the track 'Amboss' represents the first layer. Conventional instruments communicate familiar music which is in part expanded through electronic means. In the second track of the album -- 'Traummaschine' -- the actual basic sound approach is dissolved into an electronic Nirvana which no longer allows the concrete identification of actual instruments. Innocent, virgin listening, free from any and every association, can finally begin -- and the music can be absorbed and processed free from the limitations of categorization. That is the purpose of our music: To convey freedom without any predetermined criteria or traditions. Thank you for your attention." --Manuel G?ttsching (Taken from the original A-R-T Bio 1970)140gram Limited Transparent Vinyl. Sticker, 50th Anniversary RE-Edition, Re-Cut carefully overseen by Manuel G?ttsching. 350 gram Quadro Fold Out Sleeve that exactly replicates complex/original OHR die-cut jacket, A2 Poster, 2x (German and English) A4 Inlay with Original Bio Sheet written by Manuel G?ttsching (1970). Pressed at Optimal, Germany.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: LOVE 128LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Lucy Railton trusts in the nuance of her own creative instincts on an intensely modern, quietly radical new album, her second for Modern Love. Following her 2018 solo debut Paradise 94 (LOVE 108LP), and countless collaborations in the time since, Railton's diverse musical circles here bleed into each other, creating an insoluble testament to a lifelong pursuit of sound. The multi-instrumentalist further articulates her own tonal register, embracing her solo strengths and trusting the process to reveal vulnerable and compelling emotional facets through a fluid mix of composition, and pure expression. On the simplest level, Corner Dancer is a record that revels in the momentum of creation. Through a range of approaches, Railton gradually loosens her grip and allows her identities to expose themselves; cut to the bone, sinew and spirit of music making. Reaching outside tried and tested zones, she lands at a charged space characterized by unmetered pacing and an embrace of imperfection, using cello, viella (a medieval cello), Buchla, 808, a fan, synths, horse hair whips, a handheld harp and her own voice, across eight tracks that arc from an opening sequence of ruptured asymmetries, to something bordering the sublime on "Blush Study," the album's masterful closing flourish. In between, Railton invokes psychoacoustic, heady spins and repetitions, while also allowing space for live performance, a mode to which she feels most attuned, and here captured best on "Held in Paradise" (her violin debut) and "Rib Cage." Collapsing boundaries, Railton harnesses a lifetime of formal training in order to patiently trace more ambiguous, intimate and sometimes deviant shapes, operating to a fuzzed logic that loops back to themes with an ingenious underlying dramaturgy of energies, dismantling the form from the inside out, in a way that bends through feeling, rather than design.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: CREST 119LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This album is an overview of the work of Jackson C. Frank, friend and peer of the likes of Paul Simon, Bert Jansch, and (his girlfriend for a while), Sandy Denny. His most well-known song 'Blues Run The Game' (included here in the rare single version, along with the non-album B-side) has been covered by Simon and Garfunkel, Counting Crows, Bert Jansch and Eddi Reader, and Nick Drake recorded four of his songs. In recent years, Jackson's work has come to be recognized much more widely, and his music (particularly 'Blues Run The Game') has been included in many TV programs and films, with 'My Name Is Carnival' featuring in 2019's huge hit Joker. Sessions include 'My Kind Of Folk' Nov 13, 1968 'Shotwell Sessions,' recorded June 5, 1972 'Rude Sessions,' recorded May 9, 1974 Extensive sleeve notes detailing the tragic life of this folk artist."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: TM 2022LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Tim Mari?n's music settles in a liminal world, between borders. In A Basement Suite, musical self-evidences are called into question. At first, Mari?n 'uproots' our listening experience through his use of unconventional musical tunings, which he distills from tones that are naturally present in the harmonic overtone series. In this liberating approach, turnings do not get bogged down in a fixed basic principle. They spread out and become a range of possibilities for the composer. Marien's flexible method is strongly tied to his practice of rebuilding and retuning instruments to play his microtonal scales, including antique, worn pianos, a discarded harpsichord, and a traveled mandolin. Sometimes the fragile state of these instruments prevents them from being tuned to perfection. But it is precisely this unruly materiality of sound, which runs counter to the theoretical perfection of tuning systems. Furthermore, Mari?n often allows the instruments, with their unique timbres and microtonal scales, to simultaneously develop varying transformational processes in his compositions. Instruments are in constant interaction, taking over intervals, gestures and even playing techniques from each other. A Basement Suite takes us to the heart of Mari?n's liminal sound world. This suite for string ensemble, written for Tiptoe Company, unites three pieces Mari?n composed and reworked between 2012 and 2020: "Basement of Strings," "Unresolved Streets" and "Tomorrow Started the Game I." The liminal approach of A Basement Suite goes even further: the boundaries of the pieces themselves are also porous. Mari?n conceived the suite as a modular composition, in which the three pieces can be rearranged and attached to each other in all sorts of ways. In the version for this album, Unresolved Streets (2015) was given a chorus role. With alternating plucked and bowed textures, the instruments seem to be searching for a solution that simply fails to materialize. (Text by Anna Vermeulen. Translation by Thomas R. Moore.)

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NA 6104LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 restock. "Pressed on opaque green vinyl. 'Electrified by a diet of James Brown, the Stones and Deep Purple, Witch were the stadium-filling kings of 70s Zamrock.' --MOJO This landmark recording from Now-Again's comprehensive overview of Zambia's premier garage-, psych-, prog-, funk-, Afro-rock ensemble Witch, We Intend To Cause Havoc! is now available in a never before seen color variant. The audio is nigh-perfect -- restored and remastered from the original master tapes. Witch's musical arc is contained to a five-year span and, in retrospect, is a logical one. The band's first two, self-produced albums -- released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry -- are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are James Brown. In The Past, their second album, is the perfect follow-up for anyone exposed to the Witch band through their landmark Introduction."

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: OS 005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Third edition of 500 copies on splatter black-and-white vinyl in a gatefold sleeve. De Brassers were one of the most notorious bands in the Belgian new wave/punk history. With their no-nonsense attitude they scared the shit out of the local catholic community of Hamont. De Brassers were a local mixture of the Sex Pistols (in the lowest gear) and Joy Division (they always performed a cover version of Joy Division's "Shadowplay"), combining a criticism of bureaucracy and politics with experiences of psychological and existential tensions. The doomed sound they produced tells a lot about the dark atmosphere of the late seventies and early eighties: the fear of atomic bombs, cold war pessimism, police violence against squatters, the first cases of AIDS, and the grim years of Reagan and Thatcher. This compilation takes you back to that time. All tracks from their first 7? En Toen Was Er Niets Meer and their self-titled 12?, plus rare and unreleased tracks taken from various live performances and the cassette Levend. If you're in for a raw slice of Belgian history let de Brassers immerse you in a cold wave of punk.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: PAL 072LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"I was hanging out with Bill Orcutt at the 930 Club nearly 30 years ago, watching a famous post-rock band (who shall remain nameless, but whose moniker contained two-and-a-half times more articles and conjunctions than nouns) when he said: 'This band is like my band in college -- all major 7th and 9th chords.' I relate this to emphasize that in the case of Bill Orcutt and Harry Pussy, the seemingly untutored ooze of 'Please Don't Come Back From the Moon' and 'Girl With Frog' had its genesis in something far more Apollonian than is usually understood. It's debatable whether or not Watt, the duo of Orcutt and drummer Tim Koffley featured on Recorded in Miami, is the above referenced grad-school band. Watt is not resplendent with jazz chords, but it's certainly more tutored, offering a mannered link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt's Trash Monkeys and Harry Pussy's mayhem. The continuity with Harry Pussy is more than temporal -- Recorded in Miami is Orcutt's first use of the four-string guitar, and Harry Pussy claimed the same amp and drum kit. The resemblance more or less ends there. To further put Recorded in Miami -- made on Orcutt's Walkman, Rat Bastard's North Miami studio, and South Miami's Natural Sound (total bill $289) -- into context, consider the fecundity of the underground music world as the '80s rolled into the '90s. It's hard to relate to those who missed it, but it was a time when post-hardcore hadn't quite given way to the bloat of grunge, when the Minutemen held sway (for the moment) over Led Zeppelin. The indie world was ruled by an ever-propagating compost heap of jagged guitar bands like TFUL282, Truman's Water, and (to crank it back a couple years) Phantom Tollbooth. And in some ways (although Orcutt swears Watt's prime influences were James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith's Massacre), this record seems very much cut from that decade-ending cloth, seemingly only one vocal overdub away from a Homestead catalog number. Track after track (mostly titled after episodes of Art Clokey's slyly Buddhist TV masterwork, Gumby), Recorded in Miami's tracks spill over with right angles, rockist tropes, and verse/ chorus structures, from the Minutemen-oid funk of 'Band Contest' to the stroked Moore-Ranaldo-isms of 'The Young and the Decoding.' Yet Orcutt's fretboard-spanning angular melodic runs are right up front in the latter, and the final two tracks introduce a bit of the explosive chaos that would follow when Adris finally claimed the drum kit. Consider 'Wattstock,' where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. Or 'God Are You There, It's Me, Watt,' where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt's early solo records. Watt began to crumble when Koffley, as drummers will do, yearned for rhythmic grids of increasing complexity, while Orcutt instead wanted to 'smoke more pot and improvise.' For a few records with Harry Pussy, Orcutt would get his wish (though some of the structuralism of Watt would creep into later records). But we shouldn't regard Recorded in Miami as mere transitional scraps of juvenalia, or stunt-rock delivered for the mere thrill of pulling it off. Rather, it's an early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt's music. A foundation. And without the earth beneath our feet, how can we ever reach the sky?" --Tom Carter

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: PEACE 020LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Peace & Rhythm announce the release of Richmond, Virginia-based salsa orchestra Bio Ritmo's self-titled 2002 album, first time on vinyl (double LP), remastered from the original tapes, with three bonus unreleased live tracks and download card. The so-called "Green Album" has received a facelift for its vinyl debut, with a remix of the artwork and an interior gatefold spread chock-full of band memorabilia from the era. What's more, the original album tracks have been properly mastered from the reel-to-reel tapes for the first time, and the added live recordings give fans a taste of what it was like to hear tunes from the album performed on stage back in the day. Bio Ritmo are known as pioneers of the indie-salsa music revival, and this visionary album is the one that kicked the band into high gear in the second chapter of their career. Though inspired by classic salsa dura artists of the seventies, Bio Ritmo have created their own unique sound, some say "experimental" for their mixing of influences not commonly found in salsa music.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 383LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Classic Wailers recordings done with Lee Perry early '70s. Tuff roots rhythms with early stripped-down versions to later well-known tracks such as "Sun Is Shining," "African Herbsman," "Keep On Moving" and many more.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 388LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Barry Brown was one of the handful of upcoming artists that came to define the emerging dancehall style as a singer with a distinctive high tenor that was instantly recognizable, and one which inevitably made a lasting impression on the listener. His lyrics were witty, gritty, and full of gusto, typically addressing the trials and tribulations facing the underprivileged, but also celebrating the positive aspects of ghetto life, including the irresistible lure of the local sound systems, the need to enjoy a loving relationship with a woman, and the various other joys one may encounter along the way. Most of the work on Love And Protection, an intriguing compilation that surfaced in the mid-1990s, brings us back to Barry Brown's peak period as heard on the Cool Pon Your Corner and Far East LPs, along with the original unembellished mixes of two EPs released by Black Roots, as well as some harder to trace material, such as the vibrant digital title track. Running the gauntlet from "reality" tunes to dance numbers to songs of loving romance and everything in between, it ultimately emphasizes Barry Brown's impressive versatility, highlighting the important role he played in the shift from roots to dancehall.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 389LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

One of the most popular and high profile of Jamaican reggae vocalists, Gregory Isaacs was a rough diamond who clawed his way out of the harsh western Kingston ghetto with an instantly recognizable voice that was wonderfully emotive, expressing both his toughness and determination for betterment, as well as the bleeding heart of a vulnerable lover. New Dance is one of the excellent mid-1990s dancehall albums expertly produced by Anthony Dehaney, alias Bunny Gemini, working as usual with the Firehouse Crew, this time with Fatman Thompson of King Tubby's studio at the mixing desk and guitarist Lascelles Beckford of the Gifted Roots band as special guest. As usual, Gregory rides the rhythms with considerable aplomb, feeling completely natural atop the hard-edged rhythms and tackling a range of topics along the way. Much of the album deals with love lost, love gained, and love deferred; "Say A Special Prayer" revamps the evergreen "Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On" and "New Dance" salutes the allure of dancehall music in the open air. This is one of Mr. Isaacs' better offerings from the mid-1990s, worth getting to know if you're not already familiar with it, and a must-have if you've worn out your original copy.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: RE 020LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A Great Miracle: Jeremiah Lockwood's Guitar Soli Chanukah Record, a solo guitar tribute to the holiday, is now available on Reboot Records. With heartfelt appreciation of the 1968 classic The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Record, Jeremiah Lockwood has sweetly crafted eight songs, one for each night of Chanukah, to celebrate the dancing candlelight with his new, blues-inspired takes on the most beloved melodies of the holiday's canon. Lockwood's career has followed a unique path, with deep musical inspiration coming from two mentors. His grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg (1921-2007) infused in him the melodies of the Jewish liturgy, with Lockwood performing in his choir. Lockwood credits his career as a guitarist to a decade-long apprenticeship with the legendary blues musician Carolina Slim, a.k.a. Elijah Staley (1926-2014), who passed down to Lockwood the Piedmont blues tradition of Brownie McGhee and Buddy Moss. Lockwood also leads the band Sway Machinery, which features Jordan McLean of Antibalis and at one point Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Great Miracle is the ultimate realization of both sides of Lockwood's learning, as he translates the major Chanukkah melodies into a blues language, through his fingers and the strings of his Gibson guitar."

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: RANDB 012CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This is a delicious double CD production with a 28-page booklet choked with information, pictures (the Earl Palmer one is terrific) and a discography that indicates the rhythm pattern associated with the song. The appendix gives instruction on how to speak aloud the rhythm of the beats and tap out the accented beats with your hands (difficult or what?). Let me assure you on the majority of tracks my foot jumps and I want to dance. The tracks do not appear to be common to the vast amount of PD releases -- CD 2 is very interesting with a different feel to your normal run of the mill PD -- due to their late '50s/early '60s recording dates -- It's the more obscure tracks that grab you. The number one and most essential is the quality of the recordings. They are first class and on a personal note, I now have the best copy in my collection of 'The Freeze' by Albert Collins. There is a lot to discover and long-established collectors will have the opportunity to refresh their musical diet by checking this compilation out. Highly recommended to all." --Keith Scoffham, Blues & Rhythm. Featuring Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, Dale Hawkins, Wynona Carr, Guitar Junior, Big "T" Tyler, Andr? Williams, Art Neville, Bobby Freeman, B.B. King, Tommy Ridgley, Fats Domino, Paul Gayten, Eddie Cochran, Richard Berry, Charles Sheffield, Bill Doggett, Smokey Hogg, Otis Rush, Champion Jack Dupree, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Larry Williams, Leonard Carbo, Eddie Lang, Screamin' Joe Neal, The Champs, Lavern Baker, Albert Collins, Memphis Slim, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles, Texas Ray, Arthur Alexander, Junior Wells, Willie Jones, Little Willie John, Link Wray, James Brown, Davey Cortez, Ruth Brown, The Coasters, Teddy Randazzo, Curtis Knight, Tal Miller, Renaldo Jackson, The Orioles, Barrett Strong, Charles Brown, The Isley Brothers, Cozy Cole, Bobby Hebb, Andre Williams, Phil Upchurch, Buddy Guy, Louis Brooks, The Olympics, Ford Eaglin, Chuck Berry, Gary U.S. Bonds, and Huey Piano Smith.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4208CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

A note From Fabio Perletta: "This release borrows its title Nessun Legame con la Polvere (No Attachment To Dust) from a Zen story as well as from a small wooden box, namely one of ten sculptures of my project I Fiori Non Vedono Mai I Propri Semi (Flowers Don't Ever See Their Own Seeds). This artwork was exhibited in 2020 at Pollinaria's forest, Italy as part of Aequusol Autumnus MMXX. The exhibition had no sound. It is now clear that life, the matter we are made of, and the objects we use every day cannot be considered entities in their own right but rather as relationships between these things, the way they affect each other. Even their own tangibility and particular properties are nothing but the way they influence and act on other things. It is a perspective that quantum physics has adopted for many years, but also the basis of our biology, of our feelings. When we perceive the world we establish a strictly localized perspective which in turn can generate a more extended and widespread resonance within and around us. Nessun Legame con la Polvere is a web of mutual influences; encounters that come and go forever; sounds that intersect with others in unpredictable ways, fragments sedimented over time and resurfaced, personal happenings that unwittingly steered the rudder towards one course rather than another. Nessun Legame con la Polvere is a meditation on lost friends, death and its counterpart, the extraordinary force of life. Although the title of this work seems to betray what I have stated so far, it is in its paradoxical, bizarre riddle that I learnt to really appreciate the value of things. I embraced a perspective that contemplates life's complexity in a broader sense, without looking for a purpose, an alleged answer to our existence, a meaning or God. Having no attachment to dust opens up to possibilities, it welcomes likelihoods. I hope that this work can generate some light while listening, and create new relationships between you and the shadows of the world, their ripples and little openings, between the infinitely small and the unknowable vastness of the universe."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4214CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

A Note from Lawrence English: "The work of Amby Downs, aka Murri/European artist Tahlia Palmer, occupies an intensely personal and unique space in the Australian music landscape. It is a project that speaks as much to trauma, as it does to aspiration or hope. It is work that recognizes the complexities of intergenerational exchange; emotionally, socially, politically and culturally. For the past half decade, Tahlia has been seeking to trace unspoken, and in some cases deeply fragmented histories, and thread a linage that is heavily worn by the weight of colonial aggression and obfuscation. She is a collector, a researcher and a surgeon, stitching together these pieces of connective tissue, and through doing so she creates the opportunity to imagine, perhaps even re-imagine, the stories that have forged her very being. 'Ngunmal' and 'I Am Holding My Breath' are two long form works that exist both as sound pieces and as audio visual installations. They are pieces that operate in the realm of the physical. They are loaded with a low frequency energy that breathes, sighs and yearns. There's a sense of simultaneous constriction and expansion in her compositions, a quality that draws you in deeper and deeper. This depth is sensed as pressure. In some respects, her sound works mimic the research that feeds into them; even the smallest crack, the tiniest murmuring, can be split open to reveal an entire cavern of sound. Amby Downs, and Palmer's practice more broadly, asks us to make ourselves available. It asks us to be vulnerable to places and situations of not knowing, to be uncertain, to being unsettled. It prompts us to recognize within ourselves the way we operate in the day to day, and through doing so opens us up to experience these wildly intense, provocative and ultimately beautiful works."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4218CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

A note from Kate Carr: "All the birds I never recorded, and some I did. Re-imagined. Stretched and stuttering, glitching and morphing, swirling and sputtering. Artifact and performance, digital bits all. I imagine them swooping and calling in these scaffolds of sound I have made for them. Gleaming amid technicolor jungles. Alive, unassailable; in a world we haven't ruined. In a field recording I never made."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4221CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

A note from Yuko Araki: "This might sound a little antithetical, but I am interested in making noise music that is free from unnecessary noise. I do realize how this sounds, but it is absolutely at the core of my new recording. I want to create maximum impact and dynamics in the music through using only the essential elements and materials. I am a huge fan of noise music, and in many cases I enjoy the excessive nature of that music. For my own work though I am interested in reducing this, boiling it down, to the very critical parts that can allow the music to profoundly affect those who choose to listen to it. I want to use what I have at my disposal with intent and with force. I also wanted to deepen my connection to, and place in, this music. To this end I have started to explore how it is I fit into the work. I explored how is my body part of this project beyond being a gestural interface between the various machines I use to make it. I've started to think about voice a lot and this has come into the process of the recording. I'm not so much interested in the way voice can speak to stories or singing for that matter. I'm more interested in how voice might haunt the music. I invited another artist, Taichi Nagura from the band Endon, to contribute some voice to this album too. He is featured on 'Sloshing' and his voice absolutely captures this quality I am interested in exploring. It's as if he is trapped in that piece, fight for and against the other materials in the sound. This tension captures, for me at least, the relationships I think are so powerful about making, and also listening to music."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4227CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A Note from JW Paton: "Anyone who knows me, knows my obsession with the 1981 film Thief. The opening scenes show a cold, methodical, neon lit diamond heist soundtracked by Tangerine Dream. Contrasted with, the thief sharing a danish with a stranger fishing on an endless ocean at dawn. The heist is technical and calculated. The fishing is grounded and ancient. I'm sure that I'm projecting some of my personal experiences onto the film unfairly. As over time I've come to see the line between these two scenes more and more blurred. The contrast between night and day, city and ocean, drill and rod, I see these less as a dichotomy and more as a merging of worlds that slowly collapse in on each other. Choosing tracks for this release highlighted ideas that I've returned to for years. Technology and its place in the natural world. The way labor and skill shape identity. How my ancestors were in many ways more advanced than the society I live in today. A kind of ancient futurism."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: SED 072CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Sedimental brings to light this long overdue release of material from 2007 of the distinctive and esteemed improvising trio Mawja (Mike Bullock, Mazen Kerbaj, and Vic Rawlings) during their residency at STEIM in Amsterdam (NL). Already established as highly respected improvisors, both Bullock and Rawlings being key figures in the fertile improvising scene of Boston codified as "lowercase" and Kerbaj instigating and synergizing the free music scene in Lebanon simultaneously, the trio came together in 2004 while Kerbaj was in the U.S. for the first time. Material was generated during Kerbaj's residency at STEIM in Amsterdam (with Bullock and Rawlings guests), yet these recordings never came to light as a formal release until now. These recordings sound as exciting and vital as ever, and complete the full audio record of this important project, providing an opportunity to re-assess the material on its own terms but also in the context of each of these respected and still active artists' careers, before and since. Musically the four tracks (one live long piece and three shorter studio excerpts), reveal the vigor and confidence of these players. This is pure improvised work, restrained but determined, that asks the listener to be the active fourth participant. The acoustic instruments of trumpet, contrabass and cello weave and hover and share equal weight with the electronic elements, often not clearly distinguished but fused, and then not. At the casual macro level, seemingly two dimensional, but at the microgranular level, quite active and multi-dimensional, encouraging increased listening volume. Kerbaj, also known for his art and illustrations, provides the artwork and drawings, playful and humorous, clearly a nod to the participants themselves and the trio as well.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: SCR 250LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Following the news that all three Lush albums are going to be reissued, Emma Anderson, the band's co-founder, has announced her debut solo album, Pearlies, which will be released by Sonic Cathedral on October 20, 2023. One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life. It arrives fully formed with a burnished beauty (aided by the mastering skills of Heba Kadry) that belies its somewhat protracted creation, which began with Emma feeling disillusioned after Lush's 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. Left with songs and bits of music originally intended for the band, she began working with cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley and Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, both of whom encouraged her to sing her own songs. Covid put a temporary halt on proceedings, but the decision had been made. When Sonic Cathedral introduced her to James Chapman at the start of 2022, Pearlies quickly took shape and blossomed into a masterpiece, the perfect mix of Emma's incredible, idiosyncratic songwriting and James' electronic production nous. Plus, a little extra guitar magic on four tracks courtesy of Richard Oakes from Suede. The finished album has somehow written its own narrative. By her own admission, Emma tends to write words and "see what comes out", but Pearlies seems to tell the story of her decision to go it alone, with opener "I Was Miles Away" posing the question: "See if I make it on my own." The rest of the album provides the answer as it takes in everything from the unexpectedly funky first single "Bend The Round," to folky finger-picking and film theme references, via psych leaning electronic pop reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Melody's Echo Chamber. It concludes with "Clusters," a stunning, Stereolab-style groove which begins with the line "and now the party's over, the music's at the end". Thankfully, that is not the case. This incredible album is just the start of Emma's long-awaited solo journey.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: TRESOR 339CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Vare?se, Gyo?rgy Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light and ethereal and dark and dissonant. As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus's influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald's repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms. The compositions were written in von Oswald's Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihima?ki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in O?lberg church in the city's Kreuzberg district, only few meters down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them. The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter's Dream Sequence in 1991 -- which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland (TRESOR 262CD, 2013).

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: TRESOR 339LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double-LP version. What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Vare?se, Gyo?rgy Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light and ethereal and dark and dissonant. As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus's influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald's repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms. The compositions were written in von Oswald's Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihima?ki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in O?lberg church in the city's Kreuzberg district, only few meters down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them. The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter's Dream Sequence in 1991 -- which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland (TRESOR 262CD, 2013).

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: CDWEIN 025CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

This solo could have been titled "16 Caprices for cello." As in Paganini's Caprices, all the techniques and virtuosity of the classical tradition are used here, expanded and enriched by the sounds and research of the contemporary one. However, the approach to the instrument is physical and bodily characteristic of European free improvisation and jazz. But as in Tristan Honsinger, Leroy Jenkins, or in Cage's Freeman Etudes for violin the focus is always the music, whose often hidden corners are uncovered. References to the many traditions encountered, to animals, ethnic sounds, the sound of other instruments, noises and the human voice, are many and are always addressed with a smile on the lips.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: CDWEIN 026CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Berlin-based Banquet of Consequences is the new sextet led by double bassist Antonio Borghini. In addition to the valuable lesson of Charles Mingus, clear references to Dutch, Italian and South African jazz traditions are mixed in the group. The group's eponymous debut album oscillates between completely improvised works -- a series of numbered "Dialogues" -- and compositions that swing wildly between chaos and tenderness.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: WRJ 001LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress; New "regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltrane among others. From "It Could Happen To You" and its serene and calm intro which magically flows into a jubilant and upbeat piece, to the out-of-this-world piano solo of "Early Summer", or the incredible teamwork of "Autumn Leaves" where Fukui leads Satoshi Denpo (bass) and Yoshinori Fukui (drums) into groove heaven, every single note on the album oozes precision, confidence, and flair and every single section slides seamlessly into one another, creating a supreme and elegant blend of jazz. Often compared to McCoy Tyner or Bill Evans, Ryo Fukui was a genius in his own right, a true master of his craft whose perfectionism gave birth to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Scenery is his magnum opus and an absolute must-have. The Hokkaido wizard-pianist followed Scenery with the soulful gem Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP/LTD-LP) in 1977. He then focused on improving his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui) and releasing two live albums. Ryo Fukui sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come. Sourced from the original masters. LP version is mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl with sticker.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 025LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP version. 140 gram vinyl; 350 gram sleeve, with sticker. WRWTFWW Records announces the highly anticipated official reissue of holy grail album MKWAJU by acclaimed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's MKWAJU Ensemble, sourced from the original masters and available in two versions: a vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of Deutsche Grammophon) and a digipack CD. Originally recorded in February and March 1981 and released by fabled Japanese avant-garde label Better Days (home of Ryuichi Sakamato's debut album, Yasuaki Shimizu's Kakashi (1982), Colored Music's self-titled LP (WRWTFWW 024CD/LP, 2018) and many more) MKWAJU is the fruit of the collaboration between Takada's crew and world-famous composer/musical director Joe Hisaishi, the man behind most of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli anime soundtracks and over 100 other films scores, including Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine (1993), Hana-Bi (1997), and Kikujiro (1999). The ensemble's transcendental wonder is, in fact, the first-ever Midori Takada album and the first-ever Joe Hisaishi-produced album: historic. Led by Midori Takada on marimba, gong, vibraphone, and tom tom, MKWAJU is an inventive and riveting take on Eastern and Western minimalist traditions, African rhythms, and early electronica. Drawing from its jazz-rooted polyrhythmic improvisations in the most inventive ways, the album covers a wide spectrum of sounds, from colorful dance floor-ready percussion pieces that stand somewhere between proto-techno and experimental synth-pop, to cinematic ambient landscapes and ethereal drone delicacies. The feverishly sought-after full-length is a stepping-stone in Midori Takada's career and an all-around pioneering album. Alongside Takada and Hisaishi (who not only produced the album but also played synthesizers), personnel on MKWAJU includes famed Japanese musicians Yoji Sadanari and Hideki Matsutake of KI-Motion (WRWTFWW 026CD/LP, 2018) fame, Junko Arase (heard on Satoshi Ashikawa's legendary Still Way - Wave Notation 2(1982)), and Pecker (whose stacked resume boasts collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jun Fukamachi).

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: XRP 2205CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

After having reissued five of his albums last year, the unstoppable beatmaker Degiheugi today completes the great retrospective on his past discography by announcing the release of his first two albums, in fully remixed and remastered version, available on vinyl for the first time. It is in a new light that purists will be able to (re)discover his first album Aquilon, released in 2005, which oscillates between instrumental hip-hop, breakbeat and electronic spleen. The album cover has also been redesigned down to the smallest detail for this deluxe version, to which is added a remix as a bonus. Also featuring Virus.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: ALT 077CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Psywarfare on this recording was Dwid Hellion (Integrity) and Mauritz Mets. Recorded live in Paris on July 11th, 2003 at La Boule Noire. Cassette comes with an eight panel fold out J-card and Psywarfare sticker.

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: BING 194CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Delia Meshlir presents her new album, Bring Back The Light, which is her second release on Ba Da Bing Records. On the Swiss artist's new record, Meshlir expands her sound to skillful new levels, with woodwinds and synthesizer adding to her guitar playing. It was recorded in Switzerland's Alps, as well as at the illustrious Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Grief can open a window to the past. Nostalgia whelms, and childhood memories surface. While making Bring Back The Light, Meshlir struggled with the loss of her grandmother and the severed ties she felt with her family. The phrase 'bring back the light' served as a mantra, manifesting with a return to authenticity and a celebration of healing. For Light, Meshlir reunited with the piano, an instrument she's played since she was eight. She explains, 'It was on the piano that I learned to compose and create worlds that transcribed my emotions. I felt the need to return to what I did as a child, alone in my room.' Dissolving judgment and embracing desires, Meshlir sparked a needed light within her to create the record. Basic tracks done, Meslir expanded instrumentation; the final masters exploring a range of sounds, from '70s psychedelic rock to '80s inspired tracks heavy with sax and synth. 'I wanted different textures of the instruments and effects I used to immerse you into each and every song,' she says. 'I love when music is already saying what the lyrics are going to tell, when it brings you images, smells, memories, and feelings. I tried to do the same with my songs. Each one of them tells a story, in which you can make your own too. It's an open scene where everything can happen.' The album reflects a new maturity and confidence from Meshlir. When the arrangements were combined with a bassist, drummer, and guitarist, Meshlir says 'Everything was simple and obvious, nothing more, nothing less; it was telling the story I wanted.'"

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BING 194LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Delia Meshlir presents her new album, Bring Back The Light, which is her second release on Ba Da Bing Records. On the Swiss artist's new record, Meshlir expands her sound to skillful new levels, with woodwinds and synthesizer adding to her guitar playing. It was recorded in Switzerland's Alps, as well as at the illustrious Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Grief can open a window to the past. Nostalgia whelms, and childhood memories surface. While making Bring Back The Light, Meshlir struggled with the loss of her grandmother and the severed ties she felt with her family. The phrase 'bring back the light' served as a mantra, manifesting with a return to authenticity and a celebration of healing. For Light, Meshlir reunited with the piano, an instrument she's played since she was eight. She explains, 'It was on the piano that I learned to compose and create worlds that transcribed my emotions. I felt the need to return to what I did as a child, alone in my room.' Dissolving judgment and embracing desires, Meshlir sparked a needed light within her to create the record. Basic tracks done, Meslir expanded instrumentation; the final masters exploring a range of sounds, from '70s psychedelic rock to '80s inspired tracks heavy with sax and synth. 'I wanted different textures of the instruments and effects I used to immerse you into each and every song,' she says. 'I love when music is already saying what the lyrics are going to tell, when it brings you images, smells, memories, and feelings. I tried to do the same with my songs. Each one of them tells a story, in which you can make your own too. It's an open scene where everything can happen.' The album reflects a new maturity and confidence from Meshlir. When the arrangements were combined with a bassist, drummer, and guitarist, Meshlir says 'Everything was simple and obvious, nothing more, nothing less; it was telling the story I wanted.'"

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 151LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Vecchio's Afro-Rock is one big horn-heavy, bass-blasting, Latin groove funk-rock party. This beautifully presented reissue, part of Be With's fresh campaign with Music De Wolfe, is well overdue. A magnificent and somewhat obscure library set that's just a total, cohesive joy from start to finish, this here is the soundtrack to all your smokin' summer BBQs and communal cookouts. Afro-Rock is the debut album by Argentine keyboardist Luis Vecchio. Recorded for the sound library label De Wolfe, the album is frequently mentioned in hushed reverence among the beat digger DJ collecting crowd. It features fiery brass charts, funky bass lines, fluttering flute, choppy organ and additional hand tribal percussion. The band let loose too and jam hard; yet there's a certain thread of solidity that runs throughout, the tracks just belong together, not disparate sound and rhythm experiments like some library records; this is just straight up, no messin', consistent funk-rock fire. Hips will sway, heads will nod to the steady vibes. It's insanely good. The audio for Afro Rock has been meticulously remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 152LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The Roger Webb Sound's Moonshade is one of the coolest records ever. Originally appearing via the legendary De Wolfe library in 1971, it's a sumptuous jazz-soul-funk instrumental set. Full of melodic, melancholic yet sun-drenched songs, rich with color and contrast, it was composed by self-taught jazz pianist Roger Webb and features vocal performances by Barbara Moore. It makes Moonshade the perfect precursor and accompaniment to Barbara Moore's eternal classic Vocal Shades And Tones. Moonshade is a phenomenal showcase of Brit maestro Webb's own roots in jazz. Those roots are served up here with a plethora of fast-stepping rhythms that truly give flight to the vocals of Barbara Moore, as they soar in wonderful ways. Moore sings wordlessly throughout, allowing her voice to act like another instrument in concert with the horns and keyboards elevating the fine arrangements. This is a deeply beautiful record. The audio for Moonshade has been brilliantly remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 153LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Vocal Shades And Tones is a miraculous leftfield library classic from the genius mind of celebrated UK composer/singer/vocal arranger Barbara Moore. It's a heavenly groove-based blend of jazz, Latin, soft-psych, folk-funk and gospel soul. Recorded for the legendary Music De Wolfe in 1972, it's an audacious start-to-finish listen, as dizzying as it is dazzling. It's a perfect snapshot of a musical era, supported by Moore's glorious vocal arrangements. Widely regarded among collectors, DJs, and lounge/easy-listening acolytes as an absolute essential it is viewed as the holy grail by many production music heads, rarely appearing for sale and disappearing in a flash when it does. Just one of the reasons why this fresh Be With reissue, part of a wider De Wolfe reissue campaign, is so utterly crucial. In the 1960s, Barbara Moore was a member of Top of the Pops' resident vocal-harmony group, The Ladybirds and sang backing vocals for Dusty Springfield's TV show. Her own outfit, the Barbara Moore Singers, were regulars on TOTP, singing with Jimi Hendrix when he performed "Hey Joe" live in Lime Grove Studios. By 1970, she was working as a session singer for De Wolfe and, by 1972, was composing her own tracks for De Wolfe and working within their tight creative strictures. Each short track had to evoke an obvious mood and theme, with no significant key or tempo changes. Her response, this very album, managed to stay between the lines while cohering as an overarching artistic masterpiece. The audio for Vocal Shades And Tones has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: 9781953691163

FILE UNDER: Misc

Restocked. "A thrilling account of life with Sun Ra's Arkestra and New York's avant-garde jazz scenes of the 1970s-90s. In this memoir, Harlem-born trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah recounts decades of national and international touring with the Sun Ra Arkestra and charts the rise of the New York loft jazz scene, offering a fascinating portrait of advanced music in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan from the 1970s through the 1990s, including thrilling stories about the politically important Bed-Stuy venue The East and the author's tutelage under composer and long-time Archie Shepp collaborator Cal Massey. Along the way, Abdullah covers his spiritual development as a Buddhist, battles with addiction, tribulations as a father, lessons from Sun Ra and working life as an educator and cab driver. Trumpeter and educator Ahmed Abdullah was born in Harlem in 1947. An important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, in 1972 he formed a group called Abdullah, two years before joining the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom he played for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the bands Melodic Art-Tet, The Group and NAM, and of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. Abdullah is the music director at Sistas' Place in Brooklyn, and teaches music at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn." 512 pages. 6.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d). Paperback

 

PRICE: $41.00

CAT #: BM 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Bulbous Monocle focuses its lens further into the legacy and archives of the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. These Things Remain Unassigned -- a phrase coined by Brian Hageman, one of the band's musical snake appendages emanating from its Medusa crown -- is presented as a double LP (gatefold jacket with a twelve page libretto). It gathers together the band's singles, compilation tracks, outtakes and never before released gems encompassing the arc of TFUL's musical corpus. Every track has been surgically remastered by Mark Gergis (Porest / Sublime Frequencies / Mono Pause) with his signature craftsman approach. This collection is an auditory and visual feast. The extensive booklet included features band ephemera, concert flyers, photographs, and commentary about each track from Mark Davies. Beyond the rare singles and unreleased tracks from the TFUL archives, are cover versions from such disparate artists and composers as Ennio Morricone, Krzysztof Komeda, The Residents, The Shaggs, Caroliner Rainbow and P?rez Prado." "... In addition to these compilation one-offs, there were also a few studio recordings that were never quite completed or released. Throw in an alternate mix or two and the handful of singles that came out on various labels over the years, and you end up with what I feel works well as its own body of work, a bunch of adopted oddballs that somehow fit together as a family. I hope you?ll agree with me that these things are now no longer unassigned, but part of a somewhat cohesive whole, stitched together into something mysterious and glistening." --Mark Davies (2023)

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: CH 43333LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock. A singer-songwriter who wrote for the Turtles, Judee Sill -- in her early 1970s heyday -- was compared to Asylum label contemporaries like Joni Mitchell, though her music had stronger spiritual overtones. This nearly forgotten performance reveals a true talent that deserved so much more during her short lifetime. Judee Sill grew up in a very troubled home and came through it with some truly great music to tell so many stories that many of the more sentient listeners will appreciate.

 

PRICE: $119.00

CAT #: COR 055LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Long-awaited, finally Cocoon Recordings is back with its renowned Cocoon Compilation. The iconic series continues with the 21st edition Compilation U and brings top-notch artists together as usual, providing zeitgeist and versatile sound. From deep and hypnotic techno beats to uplifting and euphoric melodies, there is something for everyone. Whether you're a seasoned clubber or a casual listener, this album is guaranteed to get your heart racing and your feet moving. Compilation U is a seamless blend of cutting-edge production and timeless musicality. Featuring New Jackson, Ian Pooley, Jakob Reiter, DJ Tennis, Drumcomplex & Frank Sonic, Michael Klein, Benjamin Damage, Levon Vincent, Space Dimension Controller, Orlando Voorn, Marco Faraone & The Florentian Cabaret, and Fango.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DELI 028EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Gar?on Voyage is the first single in French from Courrier Sud's upcoming EP on D?licieuse Records. The song paints a fresco of that special and unsettling moment at the beginning of a relationship when one of the two falls in love, but isn't sure if they'll be loved in return. Its rhythm is heady like a beating heart, set to a mix of minimalist synths, somewhere between Metronomy and Flavien Berger.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DELI 029EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Fhin's new EP, Nostalgic For The Future, was inspired by an experience he had during a lucid dream that evoked a paradoxical and enigmatic feeling. Also influenced by the artists of his childhood such as Daft Punk, Alan Braxe, and Jestofunk, this new project is imbued with house sounds. By using artificial intelligence in the conception of Nostalgic for The Future, Fhin proposes an innovative vision to tackle eternal and inexhaustible themes of music: love, the meaning of our existence or the intensity of our emotions.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: DRUNKEN 165LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Please welcome the grand, timely and thoroughly welcome return of Chain Whip. Straight out of the gate, their second full-length Call Of The Knife is absolutely raging. The opening title track might have you squinting at the turntable for a couple of seconds to check that someone hasn't reanimated the young Circle Jerks, but as soon as frontman Josh Nickel's voice kicks in, hardcore cognoscenti will be under no illusions that they could possibly be listening to anyone else. His voice is a righteous, gravelly roar that cuts straight through the noise with the very loose subtext "I'm having a bad day and it's imperative that you know about it." There's a vitality to it that helps make these Vancouver boys one of the best bands in punk today, and it helps that he's backed up by a rattling, rolling collective who remind us all that good old-fashioned hardcore (like the '80s used to make) remains one of the best ideas anyone's ever had. You know what you're getting with song titles like "Class Decay" and "Hatewave," but there's something about the band's garage-slanted take on the genre that makes them a cut above. On this sort of delicious form, no one can touch Chain Whip right now. Form a cult and get obsessed immediately.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: EFFICIENT 032CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney) whose eponymous monthly NTS Radio shows, tinctured fusions of fugitive sounds and reverie-inducing archival speech, have won them an ardent following. It follows from the London-based duo's Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022. Searchlight Moonbeam is an autumnal dreamscape, intimate and vespertine, pensive and irresolute. An imagined community where differences drop off and resonances emerge -- between Maher Shalal Hash Baz affiliates Kasumi Trio, Taiwanese score composer Chen Ming Chang whose "Rainwater" (written for Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1986 film Dust In The Wind) is exquisitely heartbroken, and the plangent improvisations of self-taught French pianist Delphine Dora. Revelations are frequent: the bedsit isolationism of Bo Harwood and John Cassavetes' "No One Around to Hear It" (from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie); the narked minimalism of Klang (an early 2000s band formed by ex-Elastica guitarist and featuring prize-winning experimental novelist Isabel Waidner on bass); the etude-grooves and echoic wobble of below-the-radar French avant-gardists Omert?; the beautiful, plaintively dubby "Is It You?" by Slapp Happy; a psych-tinged reimagining of PiL's "Poptones" by Simon Fisher Turner (one half of Deux Filles, and here, recording for ?l as The King of Luxembourg) that's as perverse as the cover of Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats." Searchlight Moonbeam is the musical analog of an Italo Calvino novel or a medieval fable. Associative, intuitive, borderless. Emotional and mysterious. Endowed with the tactility of Braille. A private language that is both unknowable and understood. It is a record of the seasons, for the seasons. Featuring an evocative essay by writer Jeremy Atherton Lin and disarming cover art by Penny Davenport, Searchlight Moonbeam showcases Rollo and Tierney's still-unrivalled talent for gloaming melodies, disques du cr?puscule, ensorcelled storytelling. Also featuring Bhairavi Raman, Nanthesh Sivarajah, O.G. Jigg, Scala, Soft Location, Gyeongsu, CROCHE, Un, and Harry Plunket-Greene.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: EPR 074CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First new sounds from Futuropaco in five years. Futuropaco, a.k.a. Justin Pinkerton from Oakland, California creates colorful psychedelic music -- a pan-cultural cratedigger's delight that welcomes in a wide range of elements -- from Afro-beat and post rock to Italian library music and heavy psych. The title translates to "The Glass Fortress" and is a reference to the fragility of the superpowers of the world, such as the US: "As we witnessed in the height of the pandemic and it's after effects, it doesn't take much to take down one of these entities that hide behind the facade of power and indestructibility. One tiny crack can trigger an unstoppable catastrophe," says Pinkerton of the album concept. But despite (or perhaps because of) it's underlying dark inception, Justin's new album is a terrific ride, from the first notes of earth-shaking opener "Muro Vuoto" to the mysterious and dreamy closer "Omicidio Per Soldi." Not a second is wasted on this record, every vinyl groove is packed with ideas and sounds that demand attention, whether they originate from Justin's vintage Moog synthesizers, his Turkish Saz, fuzz guitars or flute layered on top of Pinkerton's meticulously crafted, yet bone shaking drum fills. You could spend hours analyzing what's going on musically, but that's beside the point -- the nine tracks offered here are simply an invitation to surrender yourself to the head-spinning grooves and mesmerizing timbres. A truly unique psychedelic experience, and this is just volume 1!

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: EPR 074LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. First new sounds from Futuropaco in five years. Futuropaco, a.k.a. Justin Pinkerton from Oakland, California creates colorful psychedelic music -- a pan-cultural cratedigger's delight that welcomes in a wide range of elements -- from Afro-beat and post rock to Italian library music and heavy psych. The title translates to "The Glass Fortress" and is a reference to the fragility of the superpowers of the world, such as the US: "As we witnessed in the height of the pandemic and it's after effects, it doesn't take much to take down one of these entities that hide behind the facade of power and indestructibility. One tiny crack can trigger an unstoppable catastrophe," says Pinkerton of the album concept. But despite (or perhaps because of) it's underlying dark inception, Justin's new album is a terrific ride, from the first notes of earth-shaking opener "Muro Vuoto" to the mysterious and dreamy closer "Omicidio Per Soldi." Not a second is wasted on this record, every vinyl groove is packed with ideas and sounds that demand attention, whether they originate from Justin's vintage Moog synthesizers, his Turkish Saz, fuzz guitars or flute layered on top of Pinkerton's meticulously crafted, yet bone shaking drum fills. You could spend hours analyzing what's going on musically, but that's beside the point -- the nine tracks offered here are simply an invitation to surrender yourself to the head-spinning grooves and mesmerizing timbres. A truly unique psychedelic experience, and this is just volume 1!

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: XBITR 001EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Rico Puestel steps up his dub game and delicately reinterprets two songs from his forthcoming 2024 singer-songwriter double-album Anthems For A Lost Generation as Rico Friebe, delivering ten deep and immersive minutes of electronic music on each side. While the original songs have never been designed for the dancefloor, both perfectly blend into the dry and groovy environment of Puestel's remakes and won't lose anything from their original message: Struggle, hope, and friendship.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: XBITXS 002EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Stop Violence Against Women" has been the life-long credo from Rico Puestel and Make A Way (For Women) is a stomping protest of 11 minutes and 11 seconds that proclaims the fortitude of women! What Rico himself has to say about it: "With my 2022 Friebe-projects Jenni and Jenni II, I started to make a public appearance on this topic of violence against women musically. Back in childhood days, I already felt an intensely unjust manner and imbalance regarding women in society and an almost predetermined non-equality. The violence always seemed so ever-present, even in the smallest details of behavior and the associated self-understanding of men within their deeper planted attitude towards. I always felt an honorable glory and profound importance in women that seems impeccable and unreachable for men. It's clear that men would just be memories and ghosts without women... Musically speaking, while growing up with Gabba and Trance in the 1990s, I simply feel no charm to nowadays reflection on these times with productions and releases that somehow just sound insincere and scheming. I'm missing the real attitude, feel and groove that doesn't even care if it's techno, house or whatever and I'm also missing some of the stylistic approaches as well as the spirit from the Minimal-era. Based on all those thoughts, Make A Way (For Women) became this clenched fist - raised for good!"

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: FTR 617LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2023 repress, red vinyl. "Tom Recchion is a legendary character. He is a world-famous art director, a founding member of the L.A.F.M.S., and was even the drummer for Sonic Youth for a brief period. Since the '70s, Tom has been creating screwed-up music in a dizzying array of formats, from large fully-clothed ensembles to buck naked solo explorations. The Japanese Cassette album falls into the latter category, and it is a head spinning doozy. The music here was originally created in 1986, to be featured on a multi cassette collection being assembled by the Japanese noise musician Hitomi Arimoto. Other musicians involved in the Journey into Pain set (1987) included a host of heavies from the experimental/noise underground. And although the collages here are similar to work Tom did that same year for a Slowscan compilation, that eventually became Chaotica, Mr. Arimoto was apparently hoping for something a little more harsh. So only a smattering of the material was used. We had been talking to Tom about doing a project together for a long time, and when he eventually suggested issuing the full '86 session, we were on it. The music mixes tape loops, keyboards, records and effects to create constantly shifting anti-patterns of sound, largely based on the use of previously extant commercial recordings. But even knowing much of this stuff began its life as something quite ordinary, the aesthetic reconfiguration involved in Tom's process turns each bit into something absolutely new. We think you'll agree the music on Japanese Cassette is both beautifully twisted and virtually impossible to trace back to its natural state. Featuring liner notes by the inimitable David Toop and expertly mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Like John Zorn and Eugene Chadbourne on the East Coast, Tom was then captivated by the music of Carl Stalling, whose work for Warner Bros. cartoons would be collected and made more widely known in the '90s. Like Stalling's work, the quick cuts and radical mood shifts Tom employs have both disorientational and familiar qualities. But potentially recognizable shards of sound move with such antic patterning you'd need to be a real fucking idiot to even care where they're from. Just close your eyes, tip you head back and let your brain soak in the maniacal musical miasma Mr. Recchion has put together for you. There is just nothing like it. Except for some of Tom's other albums. Which you would do well to check out. Toot sweet!" --Byron Coley, 2022

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: FTR 730LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Co-released with Repetidor. With five albums released, several tours around Spain, Europe, Uruguay and the United States in which he has paired among others with Geoff Farina (Karate) or Glenn Jones and even performed at the legendary John Fahey tribute festival in Takoma Park, Maryland (The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose), the passing of time has consolidated Isasa's musical career to the point of winning the praise of such exquisite critics as Byron Coley or Wire magazine, the blessing of masters of the new guitar such as Max Ochs or Richard Osborn, as well as the unanimous admiration and recognition of his contemporaries. Now, after a decade of solo career and the recently released debut of his current side project, Burro (featuring Trice), Conrado Isasa presents this fifth studio album, entitled Canciones de amor (Love songs). Sublime artefact with which the guitarist from Madrid (of Uruguayan origin) celebrates love in capital letters, through one of the purest poetic articulations that exist: the form without words. In this case, song without words. Recorded with Carasue?o in Lar de maravillas, Zaragoza, although the album incorporates new timbres as far as instrumentation is concerned; such as the autoharp of Lorena ?lvarez, the voice of Trice, the synthesizers and the piano of Carasue?o himself and even suggestive voices stolen in the intimacy; all of this works at the service of the melody. A narrative melody that responds, concatenates and harmonises, displaying a polyphonic palette of chromatic relations that is so expressive that it moves. Isasa masters the tempos of melodic language like almost no one else nowadays (much less in the genre). What's more, in these compositions his skill is such that the maestro gradually, partially and carefully -- in chiaroscuro -- unveils the refractory legacy of his life experience to place it, bravely, before us. In doing so, he achieves the most difficult thing: to turn his life into music, to touch the universal.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: 9788396474018

FILE UNDER: Misc

Mark Perry is a familiar name from the early punk scene in London due to his having published Sniffin' Glue fanzine between July 1976 and August 1977. As he became increasingly disillusioned with punk, however, he at least still remained driven by its impetus and started his group, Alternative TV. Sharp yet wrought with frustration, Mark Perry took the group through a more personal space that pre-empted what a short while later became known as post-punk. Whilst sometimes charged with the same energy and anger, the music was more opened out and embraced all manner of different and often disparate areas, from reggae to industrial, improvisation and even brazen pop. Offset by subject matter that likewise often smashed down those borders of expectation, Mark always took his music wherever he felt it should go. Lost in Room focusses on the first four years of his musical path, beginning with Love Lies Limp and ending as the first version of the group collapsed soon after 1981's Strange Kicks album and Mark's joining The Reflections. Along the way are tours with Chelsea, Here & Now, and The Pop Group, a huge love of Frank Zappa, a meeting of minds with the late Genesis P-Orridge, the running of Step-Forward Records and working for Miles Copeland's Faulty Products network of labels, plenty of anecdotes about the world he was embroiled in, and the story behind the records themselves. Broken into two main parts, one concerning the historical development of Alternative TV and Mark's occasional releases outside the group, and the other dedicated to the ideas that informed many of the songs themselves, this book is centered around a conversational approach to a series of weekly interviews conducted via Zoom with Mark between late 2021 and summer 2022. Deliberately retaining the organic nature of the conversations, replete with tangents that sometimes refer to later work or creep elsewhere completely, Lost in Room is the first book to explore the early years of Mark Perry's having become one of the most interesting and honest voices to have arrived from the cultural shift of the late 1970s. Including a foreword by Graham Duff, discography, selected lyrics and many previously unseen or hard-to-find photos and images, this book is an absolute must for all of those interested in this period of music and, indeed, those seeking some snapshots of its importance on one of the best groups to have emerged from it that are still active.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: FD 146LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

On Direct Action, Alternative TV's first studio album since Opposing Forces in 2015, the listener is presented with six instrumental tracks which steadily rip apart all expectations as they shed all allusions to rock music in favor of the sonic mutilations that once helped 1979's classic Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One) (SPITTLE 110LP, 2021) stumble into weird and wonderful shapes. Direct Action marries guttural electronics to sounds most artists would consign to the bin and through Perry's long perfected mastery of pulling together disparate strands to create something entirely alchemical and invigorating delivers a unique stamp to the ATV story. With the help of longtime collaborator Dave Morgan alongside the input of Gareth Matthews, Ruth Tidmarsh, and Cos Chapman, abstract patterns of disheveled sound rub alongside occasional percussion, disembodied plasma guitar strums and even what seems like an oboe groaning in a murky corner. Similar to its distant cousin of Vibing?, everything adds up to a whole that's demanding yet completely rewarding as every listen pries open the dark scab of contemporary malaise to reveal something fresh. The front cover's homage to an incredible album by a pioneering electronic group. If you are savvy enough to get that reference, then you're on the right path to understanding where Direct Action resides.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: FM 12046EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Create-A-Dance: the eternal mantra for each and everyone making dance music. In this case it's Johannes Albert delivering a fresh house EP on his very own Frank Music imprint. Piano, phunky basslines, synth melodies and vocal statements on top. Being known for constantly trying to find the perfect sweetspot in between house, disco and Italo, Johannes delivers one of his most catchy EPs to date. As a bonus on the flip you shall find "Voices Traces Noises Spaces" plus Johannes' remix for Jean Cr?mant's initial super heat "Hyperspace." As Bryan used to say: "Don't Stop, Don't Stop The Dance."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: GODUNK 099CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Brighton based multi-instrumentalist John J. Presley returns with a new album Chaos and Calypso. This album features the first new music from Presley since his debut album As The Night Draws In in 2019 and the vinyl only lockdown release Albany Sessions, which were both released to great acclaim. Presley's music is hard to categorize but that is its strength -- from folk blues noir moments to tasteful post rock walls of sound -- classic songwriting to improvised, experimental moments, Presley is constantly creating a tapestry that will engage, challenge and inspire. Presley plays guitar, bass and pedal steel on the new record and is an in-demand player too -- Nadine Shah, Duke Garwood, Laura-Mary Carter, Juanita Stein, and Smoke Fairies have all had him join their line ups. A diary piece that echoes a period of ill health, of spiraling vertigo and misdiagnoses, Chaos and Calypso shows Presley's trademark guitar tone in full effect with enough space in the mix to weave in a new palette of textures from drum machines and synths throughout. It's an earth-shattering end to an album that successfully takes the listener on a thrilling trip of feelings and sounds on the Chaos and Calypso.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GODUNK 099LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Brighton based multi-instrumentalist John J. Presley returns with a new album Chaos and Calypso. This album features the first new music from Presley since his debut album As The Night Draws In in 2019 and the vinyl only lockdown release Albany Sessions, which were both released to great acclaim. Presley's music is hard to categorize but that is its strength -- from folk blues noir moments to tasteful post rock walls of sound -- classic songwriting to improvised, experimental moments, Presley is constantly creating a tapestry that will engage, challenge and inspire. Presley plays guitar, bass and pedal steel on the new record and is an in-demand player too -- Nadine Shah, Duke Garwood, Laura-Mary Carter, Juanita Stein, and Smoke Fairies have all had him join their line ups. A diary piece that echoes a period of ill health, of spiraling vertigo and misdiagnoses, Chaos and Calypso shows Presley's trademark guitar tone in full effect with enough space in the mix to weave in a new palette of textures from drum machines and synths throughout. It's an earth-shattering end to an album that successfully takes the listener on a thrilling trip of feelings and sounds on the Chaos and Calypso.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GONE 193LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"From his first self-released album in 2001, through sixteen more, over thirty singles, and collaborations with the likes of King Khan, Mark Sultan, Jon Spencer, Deke Dickerson, and the 5.6.7.8's, Bloodshot Bill has parlayed his unique blend of rockabilly, R&B, and garage rock into feverishly prolific productions that tap into the very roots of mutant rock and roll. As his reputation has grown, Bloodshot Bill has been deemed a rockabilly wildman, a primitive, a seminal punk, a throwback to the wild '50s, and the deranged spirit of psychobilly madness. His latest album, Psyche-o-Billy, on Goner Records, exudes raw energy and authenticity via a frenzied, stripped-down soundscape that defies all rules and descriptions. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic and recorded at Bloodshot Bill's home studio in Montr?al, Qu?bec, Psyche-o-Billy is equal parts joyous, moody, plaintive, searching, and deeply steeped in that old weird America documented via the otherworldly tunes captured on Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: EAT 019BK

FILE UNDER: Misc

"Eat Volume 19: 240 page full color journal of Robert Pollard's gorgeous collage art. Robert Pollard, who is best known for his sustained, prolific songwriting and recording, was creating collages even before he was writing songs. As a child, Pollard would spend hours alone in his room assembling collages that served as album covers for bands that existed only in his head. Later, when he had spear-headed his band Guided By Voices, each release whether an LP or a 45, would showcase Pollard's thoughtful imagery. Often satirical, political, dark and sarcastic, his collages can also be whimsical, innocent and uplifting."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: GBVI 120CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This record is massive and amazing. Nowhere To Go But Up is Guided By Voices' third album of 2023 (and thirty-ninth overall) and is a sprawling, wild adventure. With virtually no choruses and just two repeated lyrics in forty minutes, GBV is audacious and unafraid. One of the most fully realized works that Guided By Voices has created, Nowhere To Go But Up showcases an expert rock band at the top of their game. The band is on a roll and unstoppable. Following their monumental 40th Anniversary Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, GBV begins their fifth decade with a bang!"

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: GBVI 120LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "This record is massive and amazing. Nowhere To Go But Up is Guided By Voices' third album of 2023 (and thirty-ninth overall) and is a sprawling, wild adventure. With virtually no choruses and just two repeated lyrics in forty minutes, GBV is audacious and unafraid. One of the most fully realized works that Guided By Voices has created, Nowhere To Go But Up showcases an expert rock band at the top of their game. The band is on a roll and unstoppable. Following their monumental 40th Anniversary Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, GBV begins their fifth decade with a bang!"

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: HEIST 077EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Iconic duo Dam Swindle deliver once again with their Minor Fools EP. Last year, Dam Swindle celebrated their 10-year anniversary with the Keep on Swindling series. The hard-hitters "All I Want," "Good Woman," and "You" showed various sides of that much loved Swindle sound as well as some steps into a more leftfield electronic area. Now, they're back on Heist with a three-track club EP full of that recognizable upbeat energy. "That's Right" has Dam Swindle in full live mode, not unlike their timeless classic "Call of the Wild feat. Jungle by Night." Live keys, bass, percussion, and horns (the latter by the Jungle by Night's trumpet guru Bo Floor) give you the feeling like you're on stage with a full band, hearing them give their all to record this heartwarming piece of music. Over the course of its seven minutes, the duo takes you on an electrifying feel-good trip through the Swindle sonic universe. On The EP title track "Minor Fools," Dam Swindle go into classic US house mode. Shuffling hats, a bouncy bass and male vocal chops lay the foundation for some crunchy jazz chords (think Underground Resistance with a Swindle touch). The track builds tension with haunting organs, looped vocals and smart modulation in the keys. Add to that the bouncy synth section at the heart of the track and you've got a jam that slaps hard in the best way imaginable. The EP ends with the dreamy and contemplative "Soul's Lament"; A slow burner that builds and builds on a relentless rhythm of bells and skipping hi-hats. Slowly, a massive string section takes control of the track, after which, an acid line takes over that gives the track its driving electronic touch. It's a welcome deep note to an EP that shows you exactly why Dam Swindle are such well respected and versatile producers. Grab this record while you can and dance, dance, dance!

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: IF 1086LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Since his first album, Labelle has been dovetailing the techno that so captivated his imagination as a teenager, with traditional Maloya music -- native to the French overseas department where he grew up and still lives. His new album submerges itself in the darker recesses of the psyche. Noir Anima is a reflective portrait of a soul enshrouded by the darkness of night, inching towards a euphoric morning. Over the last decade, the R?union Island-based composer has made a name for himself exploring syncretic religion and philosophy throughout his work and, for his fifth studio album, his search for truth has turned inwards. On Noir Anima, we are offered a glimpse into the emotional state of the artist making this extraordinary and dynamic music.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FALLLP 062LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Action Pact were a punk rock band from Stanwell, a small village under the flight-path of London Heathrow Airport, inspiring the song this album takes for its title. Formed in 1981 with guitarist Wild Planet, bassist Dr. Phibes, and then 15-year-olds drummer Joe Fungus and singer George Cheex, who got the job because of 'her courage to scream along with the band's songs.' Both George and Joe were still attending school when the Heathrow Touchdown EP was released in October, 1981. The band got the attention of BBC DJ John Peel. He played the single many times and booked them to record their first session. The EP and Peel session tape caught the attention of the fledgling label Fall Out Records, a subsidiary of Jungle, who signed the band as the first act on their roster. Action Pact's label debut, the Suicide Bag EP was released in July 1982 and rocketed to the top of the British punk chart. Drummer Grimly Fiendish and bassist Thistles later joined the band, and their producer Phil Langham (of The Dark) provided bass for a short while under the name Elvin Pelvin. Dr. Phibes continued to contribute his insightful lyrics to the band. A series of five more singles entered the indie charts including 'Yet Another Dole Queue Song', and a reworked 'London Bouncers', along with two albums, Mercury Theatre - On The Air and Survival of the Fattest. A second Peel session, and a David Jensen BBC session were also recorded. They gigged around the UK and in Europe, including with bands like the Newtown Neurotics, whose Steve Drewett featured on one of their singles. They called it a day after four years, around 1985/6."

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: FREUD 135LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Magenta vinyl. The Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Billy Rath, and Jerry Nolan) with four studio demo sessions for 1976 and 1977, compiled onto one album for the first time. Two sessions were recorded in 1976 in New York, including four tracks in their early incarnation with Richard Hell, and later six tracks after Billy Rath had joined on bass. In London in 1977, they recorded one session just prior to signing with Track Records, and another after L.A.M.F. had been released, with The Clash's Terry Chimes on drums replacing the newly departed Jerry Nolan. Pressed on transparent magenta vinyl, it comes with a 12" poster of the Roberta Bayley cover photo, an outtake from the L.A.M.F. cover session, and an inner bag with Walter Lure interviewed by Johnny Thunders' biographer Nina Antonia in 2005. The album shows the development of the band building towards their classic 1977 L.A.M.F. album (recently reissued with a newly found original master), and further points to the direction they would have gone had they not split up."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: KALITA 12011EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 limited restock. Kalita Records present the first ever official reissue of the holy grail of disco 12" singles, Vance and Suzzanne's I Can't Get Along Without You, originally privately released in 1980 on Vanton Records. The product of two members of Crown Heights Affair (Richard Vance Turner and Eleton Johns), Vanton Records was established as a way to protect their musical freedom. Vance and Suzzanne consisted of Richard and his childhood friend and fellow band member Suzzanne Slaughter, who was a background singer for many bands in New York including Sister Sledge. Includes a never-before-seen press photo and interview-based liner notes.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MUS 287LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Ragdoll Dance is the fourth album by New York-via Texas punks Institute. Most underground punk bands don't make four albums, but it makes sense for Institute. Even on their earliest releases, Institute's sound teemed with possibility, drawing from a long history of anarcho-punk, post-punk, and hardcore, and fusing those aesthetics with great, classic-sounding songwriting. Ragdoll Dance finds Institute back with their original lineup (including Albert from Nosferatu and Altar of Eden on drums) and returning to a DIY approach to recording, working both at home (using the same setup as singer Moses Brown's solo project, Peace de R?sistance) and with Joe and Owen of D4MT Labs, whose gritty yet vital recordings have documented some of DIY punk's best contemporary bands. Institute also chose to work within the hardcore community to release the record. While Ragdoll Dance is culturally embedded in the world of DIY hardcore punk, musically it tends to move back toward the more eclectic sound of Salt and Catharsis. The album's title is a nod to Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Brown also cites arty post-punks Magazine as an influence on the record, which shows on tracks like "City" and "Where's It Go," energetic, left-of-center pop songs that challenge but also gratify. If you're looking for the savage young Institute, though, "Uncle Sam's Hate" and "Plateau of Self" crackle with raw rock and roll energy that few groups can summon, particularly groups with Institute's inimitable style, musical chops, and lyrical weight. While so many punk bands peak early, Institute has continued to refine these qualities, and Ragdoll Dance's assured tone makes it as vital as anything they've recorded so far.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: MUS 288LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Crashing dirty carnage somewhere between Neuroot, Ripcord, and Sacrilege comes Stingray's debut LP. Tin Savage barks his brutish textural east London drawl on top of unrefined metal-tinged hardcore punk veering between scandi wallop, jacked up amphetamine hardcore, and jaw snapping mosh lusciously and confidently. Recorded by Jonah Falco at Fuzzbrain Studios and mixed and mastered by Chris Corry in the Paincave, Fortress Britain is a ruthless and unrelenting blunt instrument.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: LIB 5130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Phil Ochs is known primarily as a songwriter but his talents extend far beyond that, to short stories, poetry and satire. More than a torrent, less than a flood, the songs poured out of Phil so quickly that not all were able to find their place on his albums with some of those songs only emerging decades later. The Warner/Chappell demos, which make up the main portion of this, represent a time period spanning Ochs' last two albums for Elektra when Phil was finding his full strength as a songwriter and moving to include the lyrical in his repertoire, alongside the topical and satirical. Released on CD in April 2020 this 20-song set makes its vinyl debut on 2 LPs."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: LR 111B-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Hailing from late-'60s Detroit, Black Merda (pronounced "Murder") were both aesthetically and musically way ahead of their time. When most black groups (including Parliament/ Funkadelic) were still sporting suits, singing about love and using a horn section, Black Merda had already become a tight guitar-heavy freak-funk four-piece. By weaving guitar rock and psychedelia into soul and R&B they were the gods of the underground "black rock" movement which fell somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and Parliament and MC5. But it wasn't just about the music, the message was just as important. Clear beer vinyl.

 

PRICE: $39.00

CAT #: MIG 261LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Agitation Free was one of the leading representatives of German experimental rock music in the early 1970s. The Berlin band developed long, for that time unusual, free instrumental improvisations from the end of 1967. They achieved cult status as early as 1972 with an independent mixture of improvised rock paired with electro, ethno, jazz and trance elements. Extensive live activities gave the band a steadily increasing level of recognition throughout Europe. For example, the group performed in the cultural program of the Olympic Games in Munich in the summer of 1972, toured France for two months in early 1973, performed at the 'German Rock Super Concert' in Frankfurt in May, produced the second album 2nd and then went on tour through France and major German cities. In 1974, the band began to show signs of fatigue, which led to their temporary breakup at the end of the year after a farewell concert. In retrospect, it became clear that the experimental circle Agitation Free was one of the important bands of the 'Berlin School' and furthermore a career springboard for several German musicians. Christopher Franke, for example, helped the band Tangerine Dream achieve worldwide recognition. Michael Hoenig worked with Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream before he became known as a film composer in Hollywood after a solo album (among other things, the film music for the blockbuster 9 1/2 Weeks with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke). Axel Genrich moved to Guru Guru, Burghard Rausch became a founding member of Bel Ami. Gustl L?tjens, toured with Shirley Bassey and Nena and later found a large audience with his new age band Living Mirrors, especially in the USA. Lutz 'L??l' Ulbrich joined Ashra, worked with ex-Velvet Underground singer Nico, produced solo records in addition to theater music, and has enjoyed success with the 17 Hippies since the late 1990s."

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: MIG 263LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color vinyl version. "Agitation Free was one of the leading representatives of German experimental rock music in the early 1970s. The Berlin band developed long, for that time unusual, free instrumental improvisations from the end of 1967. They achieved cult status as early as 1972 with an independent mixture of improvised rock paired with electro, ethno, jazz and trance elements. Extensive live activities gave the band a steadily increasing level of recognition throughout Europe. For example, the group performed in the cultural program of the Olympic Games in Munich in the summer of 1972, toured France for two months in early 1973, performed at the 'German Rock Super Concert' in Frankfurt in May, produced the second album 2nd and then went on tour through France and major German cities. In 1974, the band began to show signs of fatigue, which led to their temporary breakup at the end of the year after a farewell concert. In retrospect, it became clear that the experimental circle Agitation Free was one of the important bands of the 'Berlin School' and furthermore a career springboard for several German musicians. Christopher Franke, for example, helped the band Tangerine Dream achieve worldwide recognition. Michael Hoenig worked with Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream before he became known as a film composer in Hollywood after a solo album (among other things, the film music for the blockbuster 9 1/2 Weeks with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke). Axel Genrich moved to Guru Guru, Burghard Rausch became a founding member of Bel Ami. Gustl L?tjens, toured with Shirley Bassey and Nena and later found a large audience with his new age band Living Mirrors, especially in the USA. Lutz 'L??l' Ulbrich joined Ashra, worked with ex-Velvet Underground singer Nico, produced solo records in addition to theater music, and has enjoyed success with the 17 Hippies since the late 1990s."

 

PRICE: $69.50

CAT #: MTY AIR

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Anetha presents her third tempestuous compilation on her label Mama Told Ya, titled Mille attaques, les vents contr?rent, just one year after Contre tout, toutes et tous, la terre demeure and two years after L'eau repousse les feux agressifs. Through air element, the compilation comes up with the collaboration of 22 artists with 20 tracks, divided into four vinyls. Once again, Anetha carried away with her a generation of electronic artists from around the world. Mille attaques, les vents contr?rent, is the third of a series around the four elements. Capricious yet vigorous, air sweeps out everything on its way. Nothing can save you when you're in the eye of the cyclone: prepare to fly hard. Alongside windbreaker artists, skydive into the celestial vastness of sound: gusts of disturbed techno, squalls of groove, mental tornado, minimal bass hurricane, cloudburst of psytrance. Time to get some fresh air. Piercing pampero, mad mistral, forceful cierzo are blowing, blazing khamsin, steady sirocco, sharp shamal, dank nor'wester are entwining. Techno winds from all around the world are joining the fight against humanity. The artwork has been once again entrusted to visual artist Karin Kimel. She delivers an aerial scenery where supernal wafts are swirling, embalming our air. Diplomatie Studio took care of the design, while mastering was entrusted to Sixbitdeep. Featuring Hasvat Informant, VOST, Uncrat, Ra?l, DJ Bazootka & Ryacet, Cerrot, Werfol, Lacchesi, Gaston Fiore, David L?hlein, Shaven, Benjamin Damage, Tangerine, Pernox, Zo? Mc Pherson, Disjoli, BXTR, Vel & LDS, Boys Noize, and A Strange Wedding.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: MTB 009EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Four dubby, raw and fast-paced techno cuts from Ecilo. Mastering and lacquer cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates and Mastering Berlin.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: M3H 007LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2023 limited restock. In South Africa, June 16, 1976 is unanimously recognized as the definitive turning point in the tenor and intensity of the fight against apartheid. It comes as the internal capacity of the major liberation movements such as the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress is nearly depleted; with many of its leaders in jail or in exile. Black Consciousness (BC) arises from these ashes and the apartheid regime scrambles to contain it in the form of assassinations, banning orders and trials. High school youths in Soweto, having already imbibed BC from their teachers (a group of newly-recruited university radicals), begin planning protests that would attain an incredible kinetic thrust. These demonstrations were supposedly to rally against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, but as student leader Tsietsi Mashinini says in the documentary film UPRIZE!, the situation in South Africa had been explosive for a long time and any issue could have delivered the shift in momentum that June 16th would symbolize. This new SPAZA release is the original motion picture soundtrack of the film UPRIZE!, but it serves a parallel function. Recorded in Yeoville, Johannesburg, during a three-day improvised scoring workshop in 2016, the recording is almost the underside of the film, which strikes a defiant pose both in the selection of speakers and in the tone of much of the archival footage. The June 16th protests stretched over several weeks in a countrywide blaze that turned out to be a sustained show of solidarity among students and an unbridled display of brutality by the state. The recording process mirrors that protraction, working out a new language with which to commemorate the death, darkness and defiance of those days.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NSD 170LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. "J Dilla's Motor City LP."

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: OST 015LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to organize resistance. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role -- as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized. A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound. In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighborhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of the new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice. Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music. This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa. The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices. This is the voice of a new South Africa."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: OST 015VAR-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Orange color vinyl version. "In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to organize resistance. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role -- as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized. A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound. In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighborhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of the new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice. Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music. This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa. The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices. This is the voice of a new South Africa."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: TAPEITMRL 015LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Assegai is an instrumental rock outfit consisting of saxophone, bass, guitar, and drums. Each member of the group brings a variety of musical influences to the eclectic entanglement that is Assegai's distinct sound. No matter where you place yourself musically you will always find something to grab your attention in their odd type of instrumental rock. The album Water Worlds and Dry Spells is the product of a mutual pile of ideas; written sketches, memorized conversations, and cell phone recordings which were all collected in a joint cloud folder, and eventually laid the foundation of the compositions. Continuing from their 2020 album Kraal and their 2022 album 53, this release is a further development of the unity that the band have found themselves in, where jazz phrases fuse with krautrock repetition, traditional folk themes, and polyrhythmic structures.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: PL 135LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2023 repress. On May 28, 1969, four American musicians -- reed/wind players Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, bassist Malachi Favors, and (accompanied by his wife, singer Fontella Bass) trumpeter Lester Bowie -- boarded the ocean liner S.S. United States, bound for Le Havre, France. After landing five days later, they moved on to Paris, where they got to work. On August 22, 1970, in the waning days of their stay overseas, the group, with Bass on vocals, would record their second release for EMI's Path? Marconi: the movie soundtrack Les Stances ? Sophie. The record, an exciting, eminently listenable combination of soul, classical, and jazz strains that survives as the Art Ensemble of Chicago's most stylistically diverse album, has long been admired by a devoted cult. Its durability is largely due to the popularity of its "hit": Over the years, "Theme de Yoyo" has been covered repeatedly, essayed by acts as varied as German funk band the Boogoos (and the offshoot Deep Jazz, both featuring singer Julia Fehenbeger), British nu-jazz combo the Cinematic Orchestra, Polish jazz man Wojtek Mazolewski, Norwegian rockers Motorpsycho, French dance music artist ?tienne Jaumet, and London-based remixer, Shall I Bruk It. More than half a century later, "Theme de Yoyo" and Les Stances ? Sophie still bring it. Limited-edition LP reissue from play loud! Productions, supplemented with new notes by U.S. music journalist Chris Morris.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: PI 280LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Water Tiger is the debut album from oqbqbo & Scandinavian Star, compiling their previously released singles with three new songs. In 2020 the couple released their first collaborative work, the double single Airdrops/Coercion just as the first wave of Covid lockdowns set in action across Europe and the rest of the world. The music offered a kind and compassionate stance to the turmoil that swept across the world in those months. Later that year the single "Wakening" was released on Rift One, a compilation by Year0001. In 2022 they returned with another double single "Dandelions/Sleep Lines". Water Tiger compiles all those with three new songs; "Free Fall," "Colibri," and "Water Tiger." oqbqbo is the moniker of Russian born artist Nastya Sipulina. Scandinavian Star is Malthe Fischer, producer and part of pop outfit Lust For Youth. They live together in Copenhagen, Amager with their daughter Freja Rei. Together they make uplifting and bubbly dance music that inhabits its own world whilst playfully referencing both Euro dance and contemporary club music. The LP version comes on white vinyl, housed in a white, stickered disco sleeve, with hand-stamped and numbered white labels, a fold around two-sided color cover and an obistrip.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: PPLP 004LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"I can say that the album It's not too late has been created by chance. Few years ago together with Lisa Gerrard we visited synagogue in a small town hundred kilometers from Cracow, Bobowa. When we entered the synagogue Lisa started to sing. It appeared that the place had spine-tingling acoustics. I said then to Lisa: 'Let's try to record something here.' The rule was simple: I prepared themes and we recorded live performance. Lisa heard what I was playing for the first time during the recording and she improvised. We recorded nine compositions in 45 minutes. It supposed to be a holiday joy. Six years later I returned to the material we recorded and decided to finish it. What is left from the original recording is the voice of Lisa. I composed and recorded everything else in my studio. Dominik Wania played piano, Magdalena Pluta -- cello, and Jerzy G?owczewski -- saxophone. That's the way the album It's not too late came in to being. We live in the most dangerous time since the Second World War. Lisa Gerrard and I want to tell you about the world we share. Our weapon is music. It doesn't kill, it resurrects, and it brings hope to life. It's not too late." --Zbigniew Preisner

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: PP 098LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Public Possession welcoming ddwy to the label, after a first appearance on this year's Chill Pill compilation with the Balearic dance beauty "Orchard." The duo now delivers their first mini-LP titled Sprig Songs. ddwy -- that is DJs Inner Totality and Nangi --introduce their special style of tripped out dubby dance tunes, slow paced, dreamy and proggy, all flavored with Nangis chants. They are sure to cast a spell on you!

 

PRICE: $47.00

CAT #: RTRLP 009LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank is an official never before released concert recording from one of the greatest female jazz organists of all-time, Shirley Scott, featuring a powerhouse trio with George Coleman on tenor saxophone and Bobby Durham on drums, plus special guest vocalist Ernie Andrews on three tracks. This hand-numbered, limited edition to 3,000, double LP set was transferred from the original tape reels and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl, features 100 minutes of music and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an extensive booklet with liner notes by acclaimed music writer A. Scott Galloway; rare photos by Don Schlitten and Raymond Ross, and memorabilia from the Left Bank archives; plus interviews with jazz organ icon Joey DeFrancesco, former Shirley Scott bandmate, saxophonist Tim Warfield, and pianist Monty Alexander reminiscing about drummer Bobby Durham. The set is co-produced by label owner musician Cory Weeds and renowned archival recording producer Zev Feldman. The show was recorded at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore Maryland on August 20, 1972 and hasn't ever been previously available. Philadelphia born Scott rose to fame in the late 1950s playing the Hammond B-3 organ influenced by blues and gospel evolving into '60s soul jazz. She recorded numerous albums for Prestige, Impulse!, Atlantic, Cadet, and Candid performing with countless jazz legends including Stanley Turrentine, Oliver Nelson, Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, Clark Terry, and Kenny Burrell. The ten-track set cooks on songs of the day like 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix,' 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim,' and 'Never Can Say Goodbye,' along with standards such as 'Smile,' 'Witchcraft' and John Coltrane's 'Impressions.'"

 

PRICE: $47.00

CAT #: RTRLP 010LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore is an official previously unissued set of recordings by one of the unsung heroes of bebop jazz piano, Walter Bishop Jr., featuring a swinging trio with Harold Vick on saxophone, Lou McIntosh on bass and Dick Berk on drums. This hand-numbered (to 3,000), double LP set was transferred from the original tape reels and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl, boasts 100 minutes of music and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an extensive booklet with essays by esteemed jazz journalist Ted Panken and jazz video journalist and friend of Bishop's, Bret Primack; rare photos by Don Schlitten, Raymod Ross, and Jan Persson; plus, poetry pieces written by Bishop. The set is produced by label owner musician Cory Weeds and 'Jazz Detective' producer Zev Feldman. The double LP set consists of two shows recorded in Baltimore, Maryland, disc one recorded at The Madison Club on August 28, 1966 and The Famous Ballroom on February 26, 1967. Harlem-born Bishop began his performing and recording career as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers on his debut Blue Note album in 1948. His bebop style continued on with gigs and recordings with Kenny Dorham, Jimmy Heath, Milt Jackson, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Oscar Pettiford, Wynton Kelly, and many others. In the 1960s he fronted a trio with Jimmy Garrison and G.T. Hogan. He recorded for various independent labels including Jazztime, Black Jazz and Muse Records. The eight-track set cooks with two Miles Davis compositions along with standards such as 'Willow Weep for Me,' Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Quiet Nights,' and Henry Mancini's 'The Days of Wine and Roses.'"

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: REP 071LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Since its depraved and characteristically ugly Australian birthing in 1986, Stu Spasm's Lubricated Goat has remained a cock in the ass of decency. Stu has worn the devil's red cloak proudly through a revolving door of musical confederates, trans-Pacific moves, bizarre and unrepentant television nudity, a celebrated underground rock marriage and divorce, six albums, countless tours, even a stabbing. His vision remains unchanged. Reptilian Records proudly serves up The Great Old Ones as a lustful orgy of aural hedonism. It's celebrating the first ten years of mayhem cut to tape. This long-awaited disc collects newly recorded stabs at songs from previous Lubricated Goat albums (all painfully out of print), some singles, and a track from Stu's band Crunt (feat. Members of Babes in Toyland and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion). Insanity, free will, intellectual hedonism, the devil's hand in fine dining. The Great Old Ones considerably ups all the antes, the band playing with the deft confidence and sure-handedness of a well-oiled touring rock machine. It's not even funny how much better these versions are than their predecessors. Good, confident rock always trumps even the best and worst intentions of art."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 172LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "For the better part of the last fifteen years, the duo of Max Dameron (guitar/vox) and Sam Ford (drums/vox) have been too weird and too wild for this lame-ass planet. After enjoying vagabond stints living in Portland, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn, they now call Detroit home. Here they rebuild, out of the scraps and wreckage of the 21st century, something which casts aside any rules or adherence to banal tropes: Psychic Trash. Specializing in the unexpected, Dameron and Ford have wrought an individual sound that's as much post-Melvins sludge punk as it is futurist prog-metal. Their forthcoming self-titled debut, recorded in 2022 at High-Bias in Detroit, puts on display the fruits of their metamorphosis. From the soaring triumphal fuzz of 'Uncanny Valley' or the sweep and thrust of 'House Of Butterflies,' their craft is precise -- they're just making up their own shapes to sculpt. Times change and artists mature: under the name Psychic Trash, Ford and Dameron come to Riding Easy Records as veterans turning a fresh page, reinvigorated at the prospect of forging a new path and the beneficiaries of about a decade and a half's slog through the underground. Psychic Trash's self-titled debut is unmistakably uncompromising, a little theatrical, intermittently manic, and deceptively broad in style for just how much punk rests beneath."

 

PRICE: $47.00

CAT #: ROC 3460LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"This set gathers together 18 selections from one of jazz's greatest saxophonists, Charlie Parker. All the recordings were captured in the late 1940s and early 1950s at such storied venues as Carnegie Hall and Birdland in New York, The Jubilee in Los Angeles, and the Portland Civic Auditorium. Focused on experiments in Afro-Cuban fusion, Parker is joined by a dazzling array of jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Red Rodney, and others. The package includes essays by rock keyboardist Keith Emerson and contemporary jazz saxophonist Cory Weeds. While these tracks have previously appeared on other albums, this is the first time they have been gathered in this deluxe package. Available on a limited-edition 180-gram vinyl version for Record Store Day available exclusively at independent retailers. Also available on CD and digital."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: RIYH 012LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"My parents were living in Bolinas when i was born. this was the early '70s. there was alot of weaving, ceramics, banjo playing and this kind of thing back then. My mom said the other day she had developed a course, to be taught at the Bolinas community center, Self-Awareness Through Macrame. i said 'oh, thats interesting, do you keep in touch with any of the students?' she said 'no, no one signed up'. that made me laugh. This record was mostly made during the pandemic, in a few masked sessions. The songs came about organically with Josiah Flores, Ava Lynch, just playing around in the pandemic with no agenda. Tahlia Harbour and Rusty Miller appeared later on most tracks and then a few other friends sprinkled around towards the end. Waiting came about watching my teen age son during the pandemic, waiting in his room for something to change. He was sewing a lot, making garments. I began to imagine he was sewing an outfit he would wear when he would leave this weird dystopian planet, when a UFO came down and helped all the teenagers escape the dumpster planet we've made. Shadows was also about the pandemic, and imagining our shadows to be our friends from another realm, always sticking by our side, up until death. City Life came out of moving to the country during the record. When I would visit the city it took on a new feeling, it felt more like a sci-fi landscape, and I could see a lot more of the city innards then when I lived inside it. All the wires, and dirt and crazy human energy, everything was more vibrant and daunting. 'How to Make a Ceramic Dog,' came about as I started making ceramic dogs for people during the pandemic, and I thought I might write a how-to song about it, and how facsism is all around these days and how to just put it aside sometimes just to make something pure. People love their dogs, and dogs during the pandemic took on a certain heroic feature. People really leaned on their pets during the pandemic, so when I began making their dogs in clay the orders went crazy and suddenly I was making hundreds of dogs. Somehow the ceramics and moving to the country near Bolinas all felt a little tied to the way my parents were living when I was born, banjos, sewing, ceramics, dogs, things being built by hand, and escaping the city and such."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: RUMI 012LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Cherry Bandora is an oriental Jewish princess singing in poetic Greek, rhythmical Turkish and Hebrew slang. The fresh combination of the Greek blues guitar, the bouzouki, with the psychedelic Hammond organ, accompanied by lively middle eastern grooves on drums creates an exciting clash of tradition and rebellious attitude. Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: RB 085-6EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Numbers hold the key to unlock the universe. So, a six-pack can either consist of six bottles of beer, very well-developed stomach muscles or in our case: a string of smash hits. To take it even further, it's exactly six tracks for the sixth part of the VA-series that is One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer. Hit men include friends new and old: Llewellyn, Stereocalypse, Zillas On Acid, Storken & Hammer, Ede, Se?or Chugger and Count Van Delicious. The pace is cool and hot at the same time. Rave signals by Ede foil the nouveau disco by Stereocalypse or Storken & Hammer, Llewellyn does a classic house piano hop, Zilles On Acid deliver, well. mid-tempo acid, and last, but not least, Se?or Chugger & Count Van Delicious strike a delicious pose. One for almost everyone! And if not, let your body go with the flow!

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: RBINC 010LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Following up 2022's Acrobatic Thoughts album (RBINC 008LP), Panoram delves even deeper into his own musical universe with Keep Looking Where The Light Comes From. We find the producer in confident form, exploring the fuzzy fringes of beauty and chaos. The result is an album that sounds even more like himself and yet surprising at each turn. Opening track "Feathers" sounds like only Panoram can, buzzy arpeggiated distortion takes flight somewhere in the direction of a distant multiverse where Animal Collective and Boards of Canada soundtracked Koyaanisqatsi. But the psychedelic drift is all Panoram's own, conjuring a stark sense of the uncanny with the repeated phrases. The digital guitar and vocal loops of "I Can Only Repeat Your Love" are practically on the brink of collapsing in on themselves, to the point where the structure begins to shift like a collapsing monument. "Flat Stones" nods towards ASMR, as flute and woodwind tones caress the ears and a whispered voice teases out an altered state. It's this dreamlike mood that pervades the whole album, a maximal effect that's wrung from minimalist compositions. "The Wide House" picks up the baton from Laurie Anderson to trip gently through different states of awareness, while the piano patterns of "Blank Sheep" float through the synth ambience like ideas entering an empty dream. "There Is A Hole Here" is another mutant loop that unravels as it proceeds -- the rhythms turn into a pulse, and despite what the lyrics say, it does indeed mess around with your brain. Panoram balances dance tropes, classical composition, ambient drones and a washed out, fuzzy twist on avant garde pop, and manages to transform it all into a uniform whole that fits all those puzzle pieces together. Yet such is the assuredness of Panoram's production that it sounds effortless. At this point, the music is more like a midwife, manifesting your future self's enlightened consciousness with surreal effect.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SCTR 064LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Beginnings: Collected Pedal Steel Guitar Works, is the first full length album by UK-based pedal steel guitarist and improviser Gary Peters. As there seems to be a slew of pedal steel guitar albums coming out in the last five years, this one is unlike any one has heard. There's no use of reverb pedals or ambient swells, yet it still has so much atmosphere and emotion. The majority of the compositions and improvisations are solo pedal steel guitar, but there are a couple tracks with accompaniment by upright bassist Christopher Williams and pianist Veryan Weston. Gary Peters has been quietly and prolifically releasing recordings over the years. This grouping of songs Scissor Tail Editions spent about a year working towards narrowing down and mixing and are very honored to present this album of collected pedal steel guitar works."

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: 7VA 010LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Seven Villas presents their latest well-crafted long-playing techno release. Pablo Bolivar & Nacho Sanchez reunite and team up for this excursion into classic inspired rhythmic sound on Distances. Over the past 20 years, these two friends have shared their love of the history of Detroit techno, dub techno and more recently, electro. Since they last crossed paths in 2014, their love for collecting and playing records has now fully grown into creating their own music. And what more meaningful way to honor that musical friendship than with making music based on that early mutual passion for that Detroit-Berlin techno connection. Distances is just that simply. A 16-track deep foray into all the things they love and respect about the foundations and traditions of techno music. Each essence and theme of the genre is represented with this track list collaboration. Also featuring Ercos Blanka and Vidall.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: SWORD 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Demos/sketches/interludes from the hinterland between records. Drum machines and single take vocal sketches tied together with downtime synth experiments and recordings of local disappearing areas. True as it is, Jabu's strap-line is a somewhat understated take on what also proved to be a transformative experience for them. The follow-up record to their 2020 sophomore LP Sweet Company (and the ensuing Versions), Boiling Wells weaves a smudged, group -mind spell. Originally released without fanfare as a digital-only release, it now receives the proper release attention it deserves, issued in a neatly packaged vinyl edition of 300 copies. Dreamlike, woozy, raw and in dub, the album documents a blossoming process, and encapsulates a fragment in time -- holed up in the country, soaking up the atmosphere in collective isolation, creatively embracing the limitations of a small recording set-up, and finding a new way to work as a band. Boiling Wells (Demos '19-'22) is released by UK newcomer Six of Swords in a limited vinyl edition of 300 copies, pressed on black vinyl housed in full-color 270gsm matt varnish sleeve and black paper inner, with full download coupon.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SCR 196LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Cornish improv noise/post-rock/shoegaze band's cult classic debut, remastered and re-edited by Slowdive's Simon Scott and available on vinyl for the first time since its release back in 2017, with original copies (released via The Weird Beard) now changing hands for triple figures. The three tracks that make up the album were recorded live, in one take. They are presented as captured snippets of the one song the band used to play, the continually existing and evolving "CPA" (Cosmic Pink Alignment). It formed the blueprint for their unique mix of Sonic Youth squall and Slowdive-style beauty, which was later heard on 2021's acclaimed debut for Sonic Cathedral, Sleepover. Simon's magic touch has really elevated this stunning record, making it sound bigger, bolder and better than ever.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: SCR 260CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: SRP 003EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Manuel Tur and Adrian Hoffmann return to their alter ego Class Compliance for the second time, having introduced it on last year's Future Sound of Jazz compilation on Compost. The Plug & Play EP features three quirky and slightly offbeat tracks that won't be everyone's cup of tea, but will find fans among those interested in unquantized synths and polymetric rhythm layers. Early support from Kornel Kovacz, ?me and Ben Ufo.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SPIRIT 030LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Record producer and electric bassist Dan Horne returns to his Lone Palm a.k.a. Liberty Hair Farm studio in Echo Park, Los Angeles for the vinyl release of his debut full-length studio album, Count The Clouds. Recorded in 2020-2021 before his touring schedule kicked back into high gear with Circles Around the Sun and Grateful Shred, Horne unveils Count The Clouds, featuring eight songs with the multi-instrumentalist vibin' out on all the guitars, drums, pedal steel, and keys. A flashback to mid-1960s psychedelic folk, Count The Clouds includes special guests Ny Oh from Harry Styles' band, Raze Regal, and Frank LoCrasto. Horne is gaining recognition on the Echo Park scene as a producer at Lone Palm a.k.a. Liberty Hair Farm working with artists Mapache, Chapin Sisters, Pacific Range, Allah-Las, and others. On the national live music circuit, he's a founding member of Circles Around The Sun, the Dead tribute band Grateful Shred (who's selling out venues all across the country), and a key player with bandleaders Jonathan Wilson, Ben Kweller and Conor Oberst."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SPITTLE 059LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. In the Italian panorama of the '70s, Chrisma (Christina Moser and Maurizio Arcieri) skirted the common rules of Italian pop (the aura of progressive rock or the first wave of prolific folk singers); in fact, they created Italian new wave from scratch. After the release of their 1977 debut album Chinese Restaurant (SPITTLE 051LP) -- so far from the punk revolution and so deep into the algid dynamics of the Mittel-European sound -- came Hibernation, their creative peak on which they embrace the revelation of the man-machine and venture into the realms of incomparable robots Kraftwerk. Again the album was produced by Niko Papathanassiou (brother of the Greek legend Vangelis), and it features very sophisticated cover artwork created by famous photographer Mario Convertino. Chrisma, so far ahead of their time, crafted an opus that should be considered at the same emotional level as the most famous synth-pop bands from the UK and Germany. Highlights include "Vetra Platz," a long digital ride worthy of the most famous Kraftwerk singles; "Calling" and "Gott Gott Electron," a primeval couplet of furious post-punk numbers; and the lush "Lover," with Miss Moser still in top form. This reissue includes the original artwork with a silver background. RIYL: T. Rex, Nico, Kraftwerk.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SPITTLE 114LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Spittle Records present a reissue of Sad Lovers And Giants' Feeding The Flame, originally released in 1983. Sad Lovers And Giants second album, a brilliant atmospheric post punk record with several elements akin to Joy Division and The Chameleons. You can definitely apply the term "ethereal" to these compositions, certainly the sound is very oceanic and otherworldly melancholic, typical trademarks of the new wave renaissance. Recorded in 1983 -- and released on their own label Midnight Music -- Feeding The Flame showcases the original line up at its very best.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SQM 022LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Roots run deep on Candid, the first LP by Munich-based producer Polygonia and drummer Simon Popp. The record is a perfect blend of their distinct voices, with Popp's drumset and his signature percussion sounds buzzing around Polygonia's bold and blooming productions. Comprised of live material recorded at Munich's ZIRKA in late 2022 and over several studio sessions in-between touring duties, Candid is a meadow of herbal electronic, mystic at times, but joyful nonetheless.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SR 462LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

The anthology Spectra Ex Machina brings together rare documents pertaining to so-called occult phenomena, most of them taken from little-known archives. In the course of three volumes, this series traces an audio history of parapsychology through the exploration of spiritualism and haunted houses (Vol. 1); musician mediums (Vol. 2); experiences of extrasensory perceptions (clairvoyance, psychokinesis, etc.) and electronic voice phenomena (Vol. 3). The link between music, sound and the paranormal is manifested in many different ways. Gerard van der Leeuw, the Dutch historian and philosopher, wrote "Music represents the great struggle of reaching the wholly other, which it can never express." Furthermore, "The effect of music on the emotions is so mysterious as to seem magical. There is no logical explanation why a particular combination of musical notes, whether in the form of a tune or of a simple chord, can affect the heart. Nothing in nature has perhaps so persistently resisted explanation," as said Derek Parker, the British journalist. Since music is arguably the most intangible of the arts and since the paranormal, in all its manifestations, continues to intrigue people, the placing of these two subjects together seems obvious. This second volume of musical and audio anomalies continues and expands upon the works initially reproduced in the latter. Rosemary Brown makes a welcome re-appearance, especially with a performance of Gr?belei via Liszt, as well as the Caruso-inspired tenor Leo May making a repeat performance. Few people realize that both Anton LaVey and Aleister Crowley were quite fine musicians and Alex Sanders was also interested in music. The background music of Wagner's Tannh?user used by the latter combines both pagan and Christian elements. So close your eyes and let the magic of sound take over! Also featuring David Behr, Jack Webber, Robert, Rita Goold, Leslie Flint, Leo, Carmen Rogers, Uri Geller, Jean-Louis Victor, Joe Meek, Howard Menger, Barbara The Gray Witch, and Rev. Patrick J. Berkery, Ph. D.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SR 543CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

This second project released on Sub Rosa by the Japanese artist Kaoru Tashiro, manages to create a subtle dialogue between four composers, and four musical pieces, mixing a delicate blend of Japanese and European sensibilities. Those different approaches convergence thanks to the highly recognizable sensibility of Kaoru Tashiro's way to play. After "drifting" through unpublished pieces from Toshi Ichiyanagi (Fluxus) and Claude Ledoux on the album Cloud Atlas, Kaoru Tashiro is now highlighting the works of: Kenji Sakai, Claude Ledoux, Jean-Pierre Deleuze, and Julia Purgina. Sakai dilates space through a virtuoso piece, "Reflecting Space I - Bell, Cloud and Disincarnations," based on the idea of the metamorphosis of classical repertoires. Claude Ledoux, already present on the first disc, is wandering through mysterious, disquieting landscapes, that gives pride of place to the hushed sounds coming from the piano strings, hammered and muffled by the imprint of the pianist's fingers. Jean-Pierre Deleuze whom creates through this piano composition a dreamlike space that unfolds. Julia Purgina, a young Austrian composer, whose piece that was composed in full confinement, turned out to be "dark," as she attempted to create an atmosphere of an almost surreal expressivity between exaltation and pessimism. This work has been premiered in Vienna in 2021 and this is a first recording.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SR 552LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Musik f?r animierte Tonspurfilm, the twelfth album by Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (or DAAU, as they are commonly known), is the soundtrack to a series of short, abstract animation films by Rudy Trouv?, who also acted as a creative director during the recording process. The music originates from acoustic improvisation sessions by accordionist Roel Van Camp, clarinetist Han Stubbe, double bass player Hannes D'Hoine and percussionist Jeroen Stevens. These took place according to conceptual guidelines set by Trouv?. Sometimes the starting point was a play on words or a random chord sequence, sometimes a specific atmosphere, but the playing field was always kept deliberately limited. Hence, the musicians were forced to build a musical structure with minimal means. The result was cut on cassette, after which the Antwerp enfant terrible Rudy Trouv?, known from his work with dEUS, Kiss My Jazz, Gore Slut, and I H8 Camera among others, happily hit the tracks with a virtual sledge hammer. DAAU's pieces were cut up, sampled, drastically restructured and pasted together again, a method that had been applies earlier on the retrospective album Hineininterpretierung (2017). On top of that audio collage, the musicians added new electronic layers, using a digital accordion, synths, digital bass and marimba.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SR 555CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Univers Zero's new album follows the lineage of Phosphorescent Dreams, originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. Lueur is the fruit of two years' work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dech?ne (guitars), Kurt Bud? (clarinet / bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three present on Phosphorescent Dreams. With this reduced line-up, Lueur offers a dense journey, rooted in the balance between power and calm, raging and serene sound. A balance, too, between complex arrangements and more contemplative moments. While this album continues the avant-rock tradition of Univers Zero, it also features some very short pieces, more electronic, tribal and haunting sounds, and voice work that is new to the U.Z. universe. Between tradition and subtle evolution, Lueur is a major new contribution to the discography of this band, which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2024. Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music -- most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SR 555LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Univers Zero's new album follows the lineage of Phosphorescent Dreams, originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. Lueur is the fruit of two years' work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dech?ne (guitars), Kurt Bud? (clarinet / bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three present on Phosphorescent Dreams. With this reduced line-up, Lueur offers a dense journey, rooted in the balance between power and calm, raging and serene sound. A balance, too, between complex arrangements and more contemplative moments. While this album continues the avant-rock tradition of Univers Zero, it also features some very short pieces, more electronic, tribal and haunting sounds, and voice work that is new to the U.Z. universe. Between tradition and subtle evolution, Lueur is a major new contribution to the discography of this band, which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2024. Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music -- most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 194LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock, and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era -- he is, simply put, free jazz royalty. In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, 'This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with NYAQ (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet, and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven.' Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, 'Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion.'"

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 195LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock, and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era -- he is, simply put, free jazz royalty. In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, 'This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with NYAQ (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet, and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven.' Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, 'Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion.'"

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 196LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SYR 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "The third SYR release documents Sonic Youth's first collaboration with Jim O'Rourke. This sharp Esparanto-addled 'Muzikaj Perspektivoj'-series edition contains 3 new songs, and 50+ minutes of music."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SYST 136EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Following the successful release of their inaugural collaboration, Die Zeit, esteemed artists Timo Maas and Marc Romboy now present their second installment in their Creative series. This latest offering delves into the realm of Der Rhythmus, exploring the intricate nature of rhythm, as expounded upon by the introspective musings of vocalist Fadila. The original composition emerges as a contemporary electro opus, meticulously crafted to infuse an exhilarating energy into moments calling for broken beats. With its innovative sonic palette, Der Rhythmus serves as a dynamic auditory experience, promising to captivate listeners seeking an electrifying sonic journey. In addition to the original, the release features a transformative reimagining by none other than Dense & Pika. Their remix propels the track into a futuristic soundscape that seems to beckon from the year 2030. Immerse yourself in a riveting odyssey that transports you to a science-fiction world, where visionary sounds harmoniously merge with avant-garde techno rhythms. Dense & Pika's rendition embodies forward-thinking musical craftsmanship, inviting enthusiasts to explore new dimensions of electronic music. Der Rhythmus emerges as a testament to the boundless creativity and collaborative prowess of Timo Maas, Marc Romboy, and Fadila, as well as the innovative remix artistry of Dense & Pika. This release is poised to leave an indelible mark on the ever-evolving landscape of electronic music.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FLENSER 150LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Ragana is a duo whose members alternate duties on drums, guitar, and vocals to produce some of the most unique and affecting dark music in metal today. The two-piece came together in 2011 in the DIY punk scene of Olympia, WA and are now based in Olympia and Oakland, CA. In their time together so far, Ragana have self-released five albums and teamed up with genre-favorite Thou for a split release in 2018. The following year, Ragana released their heralded We Know That The Heavens Are Empty EP and have quietly been working on new music ever since. The band signed with The Flenser in late 2022 and now present their forthcoming debut album for the label, Desolation's Flower. On Desolation's Flower, Ragana draws upon a number of influences from the flora and fauna of their Pacific Northwest origins to the darkly nostalgic folk of Mt. Eerie and, yes, their Olympian forebears Wolves In The Throne Room, synthesizing them into an experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal. Held together by an intense focus on raw emotion and haunting atmospherics, Ragana shifts seamlessly from tender, mesmerizing vocal harmonies to piercing, heart-ripping screams and back again, yielding music that is heavy, beautiful and punishing all at once. Written over the past few tumultuous years, Desolation's Flower is the band's most devastating effort to date, containing seven incantations of loss, rage, pain and hope. Expertly engineered by the masterful Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington (Planning For Burial, drowse, Divide and Dissolve, Have a Nice Life), the album serves as the culmination of the past decade plus of the band's ethos and execution."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: FLENSER 150X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Color vinyl. "Ragana is a duo whose members alternate duties on drums, guitar, and vocals to produce some of the most unique and affecting dark music in metal today. The two-piece came together in 2011 in the DIY punk scene of Olympia, WA and are now based in Olympia and Oakland, CA. In their time together so far, Ragana have self-released five albums and teamed up with genre-favorite Thou for a split release in 2018. The following year, Ragana released their heralded We Know That The Heavens Are Empty EP and have quietly been working on new music ever since. The band signed with The Flenser in late 2022 and now present their forthcoming debut album for the label, Desolation's Flower. On Desolation's Flower, Ragana draws upon a number of influences from the flora and fauna of their Pacific Northwest origins to the darkly nostalgic folk of Mt. Eerie and, yes, their Olympian forebears Wolves In The Throne Room, synthesizing them into an experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal. Held together by an intense focus on raw emotion and haunting atmospherics, Ragana shifts seamlessly from tender, mesmerizing vocal harmonies to piercing, heart-ripping screams and back again, yielding music that is heavy, beautiful and punishing all at once. Written over the past few tumultuous years, Desolation's Flower is the band's most devastating effort to date, containing seven incantations of loss, rage, pain and hope. Expertly engineered by the masterful Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington (Planning For Burial, drowse, Divide and Dissolve, Have a Nice Life), the album serves as the culmination of the past decade plus of the band's ethos and execution."

 

PRICE: $19.50

CAT #: TDP 54027LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited 2023 restock. Trading Places present a reissue of Bridget St. John's Songs For The Gentle Man, originally released in 1971. The English singer and guitarist Bridget St. John was introduced to the bourgeoning London folk scene by guitarist John Martyn, her rich and unusually deep voice being highly distinctive. BBC Radio disc jockey John Peel became one of her greatest champions, and when Peel formed the Dandelion label in 1969 with former Elektra record plugger Clive Selwood, the original intention was to issue St John's music. Following debut album from 1969, Ask Me No Questions (TDP 54013LP), which featured Martyn on a few tracks, the 1971 follow-up Songs For The Gentle Man was produced by Ron Geesin, who supplied a more orchestrated arrangement with woodwinds; the album also features a cover of Donovan's "The Pebble And The Man". Licensed from Cherry Red. 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: TPR 311LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Archie Shepp's world has always been filled with fire music, and eventually Fire Music. Before that landmark LP, Shepp made Four for Trane -- his August 1964 beachhead with Impulse. And even before that, as it turns out, came this one blip -- the earliest Shepp leader project yet on record. Under supervision of the artist, this previously unissued demo recording is now available from Triple Point Records. As the cover of Derailleur suggests, Shepp tries out some surprising combinations for the session. The playlist includes two of Archie's earliest documented compositions -- the jagged 5/4 statement "Viva Jomo" and a shuffling blues named for his Florida homeland. And an homage to Maestro Ellington of course. Archie had already defined his voice while a sideman and co-leader; now he was looking for his team. Shepp momentarily adopted the quartet that Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd led in the Village. This assemblage delivered a spontaneous demo, and engineer Art Crist captured it in a mono studio session. Buried in Archie's tape archive was this batch of music that was all but forgotten; now Triple Point has polished it into crisp perfection. Pressed on 150g vinyl at Independent Record Pressings, this release features an insert that contains photos and a new historical essay by Ben Young.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: UR 013LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Martha and Jessica Kilpatrick (aka Waterbaby) had a creative upbringing in South London -- spending their days singing in Southwark Cathedral Choir or experimenting with recording ideas onto cassette tapes, such as trying to make their out-of-tune family piano and a flute sound like an electric guitar. Eventually settling together in an attic flat in Peckham, the sisters became quiet, mystical forces in the underground London scene, emerging in and out of the sanctuary of their studio to perform their hypnotic live show with artists as varied as Kedr Livansky, James K, TAAHLIAH, and Dorian Electra. The sisters' insular and feminine sonic world showcases inventive song structures backed by dizzying layers of production -- all crafted on their stash of lost and found analogue gear in their South East London studio, squashed between Hyperdub's headquarters and a mechanic's garage. In a world where the analogue and the digital seem to be in constant headlock, Waterbaby effortlessly solve the equation -- operating in a space where Cocteau Twins-esque anachronism meets the sharper edge of contemporary experimental electronica.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: WSDMLP 006LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Seoul duo Salamanda arrive on Wisdom Teeth with their latest and most focused LP yet: In Parallel -- a vividly textural and immersive record that brings a new level of clarity to their typically psychedelic, expansive approach. Since arriving in 2019, the pair -- comprised of friends Uman Therma (aka Sala) and Yetsuby (aka Manda) -- have been fast at work mapping out their elaborate, dream-state sonic world -- prolifically honing their sound across four albums and over a dozen singles to date. Across their already-extensive discography the pair have established a few key calling cards. Mallet instruments and tuned drums play out playful music-box melodies. Thick washes of gaseous ambience invoke otherworldly or ancient soundscapes. And buried fragments of found sound and manipulated vocal give their otherwise synthetic compositions a warm sense of first-person narrative. In Parallel's lead single "Homemade Jam" is the closest the duo have come to writing an all-out pop track: its buoyant beat and autotuned vocals sounding like something SOPHIE and Charli XCX could have written after a particularly potent batch of mushroom tea. It's a razor-sharp slice of alt-pop that offers a mouthwatering first look at what happens when Salamanda's sprawling, unbridled creative energy is distilled right down into something concentrated and polished. At other points their sonic explorations lead them to embrace a more upfront approach to rhythm, skirting closer than ever before to the dancefloor in the process. The meandering drums and vocal chops on "Paper Labyrinth" are underpinned by a firm 4x4 pulse, while the dembow groove of "Tonal, Fluid" would feel right at home in a Nick Le?n or DJ Plead set. In Parallel is a record about connection, and the warmth and nostalgic simplicity of friendship is felt vividly throughout. Its title refers to the harmony the duo have found between them as friends and collaborators -- and sonic parallels are traced throughout the record as testament to this. Motifs come and go before reappearing at later points: take, for example, the melody underpinning "Sun Tickles," which returns in a different key and tempo on album closer "Mysterious Wedding." Parallel lines are traced between each artist and through their music, linking back to their past and pointing ahead to the future. Only Salamanda know where these will take us next.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 086LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

WRWTFWW Records announces Shower, the brand-new album by New York born, Los Angeles based ambient/jazz/downtempo musician Danny Scott Lane, following the recently released and very well-received cozy soundscape, Home Decor (WRWTFWW 077LP, 2023). The limited-edition LP is available on biovinyl housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve featuring an illustration by Gabrielle Rul and design by Jazlyn Fung. The album is also available digitally. Continuing to gently push the boundaries of chill out music, smooth jazz, and comfy electronica, Shower draws inspiration from "the feeling of a steamy shower shared with a stranger after a night on the dance floor," a warm immersive affair for the mind and the body. This latest funky auditory experience once again invites Matt Elliot Gooden's soothing saxophone, and this time also welcomes the vibrant beats of drummer David Ruiz. Organic, discreet in the most relaxing and elegant ways, and just the right amount of sexy -- Lane's new creation offers the finest in audio cocooning. Shower is the first new release by WRWTFWW Records made with biovinyl, a sustainable alternative to traditional vinyl. Biovinyl replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gases, resulting in 100% CO savings in bio-based S-PVC production. Furthermore, it is 100% recyclable and reusable, embracing the circular economy ideology.

 

PRICE: $41.00

CAT #: XRP 2305LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Soom T aka "The Raggamuffin Queen" presents her sixth studio album The Louder The Better. A combination of live band studio recordings and digital compositions, it took only three years to fully realize from the very first live band recordings in Brazil during the 2020 pandemic to its release this year. Entirely self-produced with her own music label Renegade Masters with Kunta as executive producer, Soom T called on her most trusted collaborators to produce this new reggae/dub gem, and it's sunnier than ever. Additional synths were added by Kunta and studio partner Green Teddy of Highly Seen. Many of the instruments on these songs were performed by Mr Cowlin himself among other seasoned musicians and recorded at his studio in the UK. With this new reggae album, Soom T sticks to what is closest to her heart covering a multitude of topics from the corrupt state of the world, to the emptiness of politics and the urgent need to awaken to the reality of the condition of society. Behind the need to inform and urge society moving forward, The Louder The Better delivers a positive and inspiring message, led by melodies and vocals at the crossroads of genres, that fans will love to listen to at any time. Also featuring Tom Fire and Sonny Green.

 

PRICE: $41.00

CAT #: XRP 2306LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

True leader of a Raggamuffin new wave of in Europe, Jamaican artist Skarra Mucci's album Return Of The Raggamuffin was awarded Best Dancehall album of the year in 2012 and never repressed since then. Here are all the tracks which made his success such as "Movie Star", "Raggamuffin" or "Feel Alright" in remastered version. According to the press and his fans, this is his milestone album. Featuring U-Jean, Delroy Wilson, and Kiprich.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: XRP 2307CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Released in 2014, Greater Than Great is the fifth album by Jamaican singer Skarra Mucci, the first for Undisputed Records, bringing together the cream of Reggae Digital productions from Bizzarri Records, DreadSquad, Irie Ites Records, Weedy G Soundforce, Deebuzz Musik, Hard2Def, Soulove / Delamix, D&H Records, Kskamp and Rawkaz Clan which the toaster comes to ride brilliantly. Greater than great, it's just legend! The album Greater Than Great offers eclectic versions navigating between dancehall, digital, reggae and raggamuffin. Skarra Mucci proves once again that he is one of the rare singers capable of putting his voice on all styles of reggae with a capital "R" and transforming them into instant classics. Featuring Alex, Teacha Dee, and Teacha Dee.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: XRP 2307LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Released in 2014, Greater Than Great is the fifth album by Jamaican singer Skarra Mucci, the first for Undisputed Records, bringing together the cream of Reggae Digital productions from Bizzarri Records, DreadSquad, Irie Ites Records, Weedy G Soundforce, Deebuzz Musik, Hard2Def, Soulove / Delamix, D&H Records, Kskamp and Rawkaz Clan which the toaster comes to ride brilliantly. Greater than great, it's just legend! The album Greater Than Great offers eclectic versions navigating between dancehall, digital, reggae and raggamuffin. Skarra Mucci proves once again that he is one of the rare singers capable of putting his voice on all styles of reggae with a capital "R" and transforming them into instant classics. Featuring Alex, Teacha Dee, and Teacha Dee.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: XRP 2308LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. On the occasion of the new 2023 edition of his album Dancehall President, released in 2016 on Undisputed Records, Skarra Mucci unveils an alternative cover for the vinyl version. Nicknamed "King Skarra" or "The Dancehall President", Skarra Mucci is undoubtedly one of the most versatile and interesting singers on the current reggae scene. With an inexhaustible flow and judicious crossovers between reggae/dancehall, hip-hop and soul, Skarra Mucci transcends riddims and eras with mad class. Between Shaggy and Damian Marley, he reconciles tradition and modernity, old-fashioned raggamuffin and current productions. Dancehall President is no exception in this area with reggae, dancehall, hip hop, dubstep influences and featurings such as Beenie Man, Willy William, Yaniss Odua, Horace Andy, and Mandinka.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: XRP 2309LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Originally released in 2018 on Undisputed Records, The One Love Family is Skarra Mucci's seventh studio album. For this featuring album where one or more guests appear on each track, the artist invited a cast of choice with guests from various backgrounds such as the heavyweights of French reggae from Dub Inc or the Jamaican stars of yesterday and today such as Ken Boothe, King Kong, and Chezidek. This album is a hymn to sharing in which we find the many facets of the Dancehall President. Also featuring Teacha Dee, Phantom IMC, MC Navigator, Echo Minott, Keith & Tex, Yaniss Odua, Hawkeye, Little Pepe, Horace Andy, Moana & The Tribe, and Treesha.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: XRP 2310LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Skarra Mucci is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall artist born in Kingston. Known as the "Dancehall President", his career counts seven solo albums, including the essential Return of the Raggamuffin (2012) and countless classics and cult collaborations, such as the hit "My Sound" from the album Greater Than Great (2014) which exceeds 15 million cumulative streams and the critically acclaimed album Dancehall President (2016) with its tour of more than 100 dates around the world, from Mexico to China. Five years after the release of The One Love Family (2018), this essential figure of Jamaican music, with his versatile flow and recognizable voice, announces a new studio album with multiple influences Perfect Timing. Perfect Timing is an ode to reggae of all eras, full of nods to the Sound System culture, from its origins to the present day. From the choice of the featurings to that of the beats, nothing is left to chance to offer us a journey through the highlights of this rich culture which has never ceased to evolve, without any period being left behind. Accustomed to albums teeming with successful collaborations, Perfect Timing is obviously no exception. In particular, on the title "Street Dance," are the essential French producers of L'Entourloop, with whom he released the very successful EP Golden Nuggets. Jamaican legend Johnny Osbourne also takes part in the celebration offering a version of his '80s classic "What A La La," here performed by French riddim maker specialized in digital reggae, Manudigital. Skarra Mucci continues his exploration of various styles and influences with the very groovy "Dancehall," produced by the Dub Akom band. There is also the massive "Who Fool Them," a UK stepper track produced by Evidence Music, as long as the future dancehall classic "Rappa Pam Pam," and the mystic "Misty Babylon" in a much more roots reggae register.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: 99CHANTS 012CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A lavish four-chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, V?S (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year's acclaimed Imaginary Landscapes compilation. V?S then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album's 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato's Cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation. August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it's shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. V?S is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind's journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we're returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it's a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: AGIT 066LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Brand new album from young Allentown, PA three-piece Catatonic Suns. Their first for Agitated Records. Catatonic Suns comprises eight songs (seven originals, and an Original Sins cover) and has blown Agitated's collective minds. Their previous album was an incredible melding of big-sounding US/UK underground sounds, but this album has taken that fire further. The band have developed more of a hi-fidelity psychedelic rock with a shoegazery shimmer akin to the late '80s / early '90s Pacific Northwest sound in cahoots with the UK sound of early '90s Creation/4AD. For fans of Screaming Trees, Nirvana, The Verve (early), Slowdive, Ride, Alice In Chains. Songs that soar, these new recordings verge on the epic."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: AGIT 068CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers -- 'psychlists,' if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose. For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo'ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former. But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group's metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. The cover art of Turn To Earth evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent and the tone heavier on the doom: several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal. As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised -- not so much composed as birthed."

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: AGIT 068LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. "Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers -- 'psychlists,' if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose. For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo'ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former. But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group's metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. The cover art of Turn To Earth evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent and the tone heavier on the doom: several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal. As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised -- not so much composed as birthed."

 

PRICE: $39.00

CAT #: AGIT 068X-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Color vinyl. "Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers -- 'psychlists,' if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose. For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo'ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former. But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group's metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. The cover art of Turn To Earth evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent and the tone heavier on the doom: several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal. As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised -- not so much composed as birthed."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BTR 086LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Sababa 5 continues their musical journey following the success of their acclaimed self-titled debut album, which fused deep funk and Middle Eastern grooves. Their latest offering, still under the Batov Records label, ventures into more explorative and experimental instrumental compositions. While evolving their musical direction, Aspan delves into the realm of psychedelic rock while retaining the essence of the band's signature Middle Eastern groove.

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: DDJ 017DLX-LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Beat Records, in collaboration with Cabum presents the original motion picture soundtrack of L'allenatore nel pallone, for the first time ever on a colored 180 heavy weight vinyl (green, marmorized). It's the story of Oronzo Can? (Lino Banfi), an unemployed football coach that is hired by Longobarda's president, Mr. Borlotti (Camillo Milli), whose team just arrived in the top Italian football league. On the lookout for new talent, our hero is sent to Brazil to recruit some top players. Negotiations for hiring Junior and Socrates quickly fail, and events bring Longobarda's trainer to watch a football game on a pitch close to Maracan? stadium. There, aided by Giginho and Bergonzoni -- two unlikely talent scouts (Gigi e Andrea) -- he finds young Aristoteles (Urs Althaus), Brazilian talent of the ginga. Thus, the incredible Longobarda adventure begins in the highest Italian league, the A series, with his "B zone" scheme. After an uncertain start, the team begins to score points, carried by Aristoteles' talent, but soon problems arise that undermine Can? ambitions. By the end of the championship, before the final match against Atlanta, Oronzo Can? will have to make a difficult decision on which the destiny of him and his team will depend. A soundtrack lies firmly in the pop key, with carioca influences (Aristoteles' saudade theme), easygoing cues that color the comedic aspect of the movie (such as the main titles), the wonderful "Mundialito" (already featured in some other scores but made famous by this movie) and many other sonorities.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: CDCR 150CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

A long-awaited release for a wonderful soundtrack composed by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis for the first Italian cop-movie. A great proof of ability by the director Enzo G. Castellari with this superb movie interpreted by a great Franco Nero. A mile stone in the Italian cinema and '70s Italian music available again in this deluxe edition on CD to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie, now featuring all the original tracklist plus a new cool easter egg, right at the start of the CD. Jewel case edition with transparent tray, liner notes by Enzo G. Castellari and Alessandro Di Giovanni, artwork by Daniele De Gemini, mastering by Enrico De Gemini. Also available in a heavy weight colored vinyl (black and red).

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: LPF 095LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

LP version. Red and black color vinyl. A long-awaited release for a wonderful soundtrack composed by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis for the first Italian cop-movie. A great proof of ability by the director Enzo G. Castellari with this superb movie interpreted by a great Franco Nero. A mile stone in the Italian cinema and '70s Italian music available again in this deluxe edition on CD to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie, now featuring all the original tracklist plus a new cool easter egg, right at the start of the CD. Jewel case edition with transparent tray, liner notes by Enzo G. Castellari and Alessandro Di Giovanni, artwork by Daniele De Gemini, mastering by Enrico De Gemini. Also available in a heavy weight colored vinyl (black and red).

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BJR 100LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Almighty duo Hyperculte strikes back with a tremendous third album La Pang?e. More than a band, Hyperculte is a superband reuniting two figures of the Geneva subculture scene: Vincent Bertholet (Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp) and Simone Aubert (Tout Bleu, Massicot). If you're not familiar with the band expect some angry krautrock, high-energy post-punk and etheric voices. Facing the collapse of our modern world, its failures, and the dead end we're all rushing in, the band creates a political statement: "this world is dead, glory to the new one." It's about change, fight, hope and rebuilding or communities.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: BKEDITDS 037LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dreams are made and displaced on Mark Fell & Rian Treanor's oneiric electro-acoustic inception Last Exit, borne from long days in the family garden, and assembled into a mesmerizing masterpiece of minimalist modal rhythm and atmospheric exploration, into rapt smallsound detailing in breathtaking form. It's a bit like listening to Virginia Astley's From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, with washes of Autechre seeping into the mix from outside. Last Exit originally appeared in a different form as a cassette release for Boomkat's Documenting Sound series in 2021, and was edited this year by Mark and Rian for this new expanded and altered edition, mastered by Rashad Becker. Across four parts, they kern, juxtapose and diffract synthesized percussion and field recordings into polymetric arrangements riddled with timbral nuance of a highly unpredictable nature. While patently inflected with nods to Indonesian gamelan, Ugandan folk, Indian Carnatic classical, Morton Feldman-esque minimalism, free jazz improvisation and a sort of rhythmic cubism that speaks to their mutual, voracious listening habits and tastes, the results are arguably without direct compare. Attentive listeners will recognize, however, that Last Exit effortlessly transcends their respective styles, achieving a new high watermark of imaginary future-hyperfolk expressed in a sort of personalized but highly relatable meta-musical language. The 80 minutes in between feel like returning to a dream, with flashes of FM strings dabbed to sloshing rhythms and domestic detritus, tilting into a nervously tentative tension ruptured with abstract dance dynamism and angular free jazz ballistics. A longform isolationist fantasy, consider it crucial listening if you are into Robert Ashley's Automatic Writing, Graham Lambkin, Autechre or Nuno Canavarro.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: CNPY 007EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"CNPY007 marks a strong return to Canopy for Sam Redmore, on the second edition in the Alafia series where he impresses with two powerful and inspired re-imaginings of these tropical synth future-classics. Afro-centric broken beats meet dirty fuzz basslines. Chic-esque guitars and icy synths swirl among horn crescendos and steel drums. Sam assembled a troupe of tight players who deliver slick performances which sincerely compliment the original arrangements, while he turns the electronic tropical funk factor to full -- Inspired music reinvented for inspired dancefloors."

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: CSKNOE 074LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Gary Davis is the polymath behind Chocolate Star Records, the label he started in Camden, New Jersey. He is one of the first people to record rap music, with NYC maverick Peter Brown and on his own. Before that, he made disco. But he's also steeped in the jazz tradition. Gary made 200 copies of this record for Chocolate Star. It is a funky jazz set he recorded live on October 31, 1976 at New Jersey's Glassboro State College (today's Rowan University). Gary's an inspiration, for still believing in music that comes from and finds its way back to the fringes. 'I want people who are out there struggling to know: Do not depend on other people having control over your destiny. If you wanna do it, do it!' he says, Gary told the Palm Beach New Times many years ago. 'The best part is doing it, so why worry about all this other nonsense? I've always felt that way, but now I have the evidence to back up what I've been telling people all along. It gives me the credibility I deserve.'"

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: CSR 324CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Arise, Cold Spring's first label sampler since Earthen, is finally unveiled! A massive double CD featuring 33 tracks from the label's current and forthcoming releases. An unrivalled collection of industrial, esoteric, dark ambient, noise, ritual, drone, doom metal, experimental, electronica, and dark soundtracks. Immerse yourself in the world of Cold Spring! Limited 4000 copies, packed in an ecopak. Featuring Kollaps, Llyn Y Cwn, Khost, Jagath, Trepaneringsritualen, Coil, Merzbow, She Spread Sorrow, Frank Hall, Dead Voices On Air, Cevin Key, Lull, Maschinenzimmer 412, The Circular Ruins, Mystified, Common Eider, King Eider, Colossloth, We Be Echo, George Fenton, Kristian Eidnes Andersen, Lars Von Trier, Himukalt, Sonologyst, Sat?ri, 400 Lonely Things, Tunnels Of ?h, Sleep Research Facility, Burial Hex, Tenhornedbeast, Fm Einheit, Lee Ranaldo, Spk, Oleg Karpachov, Drew Daniel, John Wiese, La Breiche, Neil Chaney, Genesis P-Orridge, and Dave Ball.

 

PRICE: $50.00

CAT #: CSR 327CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The Outland album series was a collaborative endeavor by the visionary US bassist-producer Bill Laswell and the late German musician Pete Namlook that pushed the boundaries of dark ambient and electronic music. Spanning five albums released over a thirteen-year period from 1994, this new boxset serves as a testament to the creative synergy between the two masterminds. At the time the duo joined forces, the New York-based Bill Laswell was already a famous producer with a massive client list that included cutting-edge rock, pop, funk, jazz and electronic artists, but he had also founded the Axiom label in 1989 and been responsible for groundbreaking work in genres that included ambient, dub and world music. Pete Namlook was recognized as a pioneering figure in the ambient techno scene, having founded the label FAX +49-69/450464 in his native Frankfurt in 1992. Outland became a fusion of their individual musical sensibilities that resulted in a unique set of releases. At the heart of the series is an exploration of sound as a vehicle for emotion and contemplation, with Laswell's signature basslines and experimental soundscapes interweaving seamlessly with Namlook's ethereal textures and intricate sonic layering. Each album is characterized by a sense of expansiveness, taking listeners on a voyage through rarely charted sonic dimensions. All have the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions and have their own distinctive sonic palette, ranging from ambient tranquility to cosmic intensity. Outland has endured as an influential touchstone, its impact felt not only in its captivating soundscapes but also in its invitation to engage in deep introspection and cosmic contemplation. With each album, the duo beckoned listeners to transcend the mundane and embark on a sonic voyage into the extraordinary, where sound becomes a conduit for spiritual and artistic expression. The lavish matte-finish boxset opens to the five Outland albums in separate matte sleeves, with all-new designs, and all audio completely remastered. This box also contains a new addition to the Outland series -- an album of dense, bass space drone by Bill Laswell, entitled Blackland. The boxset also contains an exclusive card with an essay about the project written by Bill in July 2023.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: CVSD 099CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents the third release in an ongoing series that will reconstruct the legacy known and the legacy damned of the most overlooked and under-documented American free rock unit, Dredd Foole and the Din. After his miraculous two-year collaboration with Mission of Burma came to an end, Dredd Foole found a full-time band -- built with Peter Prescott's Volcano Suns. This new Dredd Foole and the Din would set the Boston scene on fire from 1984-1987, playing more shows in a given month than the Burma-Din had played during their entire run. The band is the longest running and most fully realized group that Dredd Foole has ever been part of, and the music bears it out. For the first time, their full story will be told. This 2CD set features the complete Suns-Din era and almost doubles the group's historical output: both of their never-before-reissued albums -- 1985's Eat My Dust, Cleanse My Soul, and 1988's Take Off Your Skin -- plus unreleased studio tracks from multiple sessions and a bevy of never before heard live material from the height of the band's powers, including a complete show -- all remastered from the original tapes, all seen through rare and ecstatic photos by Boston scene documentarian Pat Ireton, all framed by extensive liner notes by the project's archivist. The effort includes a painstakingly remixed Take Off Your Skin, the Din's second album, recorded in '86 but not released until '88. This new mix reveals the under-distributed album as the band's magnum opus. After an exhaustive approach in which hundreds of live, studio, home, and private performances have been located and reviewed over several years, this monster third archival release is a both-barrels blast of peak radical expression music, proudly presented with the full cooperation of Dredd Foole, Volcano Suns, and guitarist Kenny Chambers.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: DE 295CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Nervous Gender's legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band's name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band's orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs' Don Bolles, and an 8-year-old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band's notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed 'Martyr Complex,' presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as 'Beelzebub Youth,' is a live performance the band labeled 'an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence.' Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we're treated to a full disc of the band's demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36-page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising -- even shocking -- over 40 years after the album's release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: DE 295LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. "Nervous Gender's legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band's name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band's orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs' Don Bolles, and an 8-year-old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band's notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed 'Martyr Complex,' presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as 'Beelzebub Youth,' is a live performance the band labeled 'an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence.' Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we're treated to a full disc of the band's demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36-page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising -- even shocking -- over 40 years after the album's release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism."

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: JACK 036LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Incredible '82 live show from Clutch Cargo's Detroit, featuring Terry Graham of The Gun Club on drums. The Cramps are on top of their game with psychotic interplanetary performance of infamous garage punk-a-billy underground hits as "New Kind Of Kick," "Goo Goo Muck," "Potentate Of Love," and more.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: JACK 037LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Part of the Italian leg of The Sisters of Mercy's Armageddon Tour in 1985. On May 2nd 1985 the band was again in great form for a three-piece as they adjusted to life after Marx, and the performances were all amazing. A great live for Sisters of Mercy fans.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: DMOO 035LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

In the early 1960s, the high school students who made up the legendary surf rock outfit The Surfaris scored an incredible hit with their debut instrumental, "Wipeout," and its sung B-side "Surfer Joe" would be belatedly hailed as a classic, but the circumstances of the hit's reissue by Dot led to a faux debut album that only featured the band on those two songs. Play was the bonafide 1963 debut LP that solidified their reputation, with "Surfing Drums" reportedly inspiring Keith Moon; a one-off take of the Batman theme is enjoyable, but the originals really delight. Calling all surf rock fans: this genre-defining LP is an absolute must have!

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: DMOO 040LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

After a time with Duke Ellington, expressive tenor saxophonist Ben Webster went solo, recording an early LP for Norman Granz's Norgran label leading him to his most successful phase with Verve, following a merger. Soulville is easily the best of the bunch, with Webster's breathy tones given a fitting accompaniment by Oscar Peterson and his group, then including bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Herb Ellis, and understated drummer Stan Levy; versions of "Lover Come Back To Me" and "Makin' Whoopee" sound excellent, but bluesy originals such as "Last Date" and the title track are truly outstanding. A quality set from start to finish. Clear vinyl LP.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: DMOO 046LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Widely feted as one of the most influential soul artists of all time and known as the King of Soul for his many contributions to the form, Sam Cooke scored 29 top-40 singles in his seven-year solo career. The Wonderful World Of Sam Cooke, released by Keen in 1960 just after Cooke signed to RCA, was the first long player to garner serious interest in the man because of its sublime track listing, including distinctive readings of show tunes "Blue Moon," "Stealing Kisses," "For Sentimental Reasons," "Summertime," and of course the standout title track, which remains a greatly loved classic that has never gone out of fashion.

 

PRICE: $52.50

CAT #: CDDM 329CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Digitmovies presents, for the first time in a complete edition in a 3CD box, six OSTs by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, composed for television between 1972 and 1975 and taken from the archive of the historic RCA. The beloved brothers, who had already been active for some years for cinema with such famous soundtracks as "Per grazia ricevuta," "Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinit?," "...e poi lo chiamarono il magnifico," "Pi? forte ragazzi," "Trastevere," and preceding by a year the worldwide success of "Sandokan" (1976), composed beautiful OSTs whose main theme was released in the '70s by RCA only on singles, but which we present here in their entirety, thanks to the masters of the original mono and stereo sessions archived at Universal Music Publishing Ricordi. Through sixty-nine tracks, the listener will travel through fascinating sound dimensions: beat, rock, progressive, folk, and experimental, alternating romantic themes with dramatic and mysterious ones that demonstrate the enormous talent of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, then young composers, had gained a lot of experience in soundtracks, thanks to work done for years with other colleagues. This box also contains featured versions released at the time, such as the famous "Verde" from Quaranta giorni di libert?, "London Town" from Dedicato ad una coppia, "Majorana Theme" from Ipotesi sulla scomparsa di un fisico atomico, "Carolis Theme" from Sul filo della memoria, "Don Minzoni Theme" from Delitto di regime (Il caso Don Minzoni), and "Naples oggi" from Il Marsigliese. This box, produced with love, fills a hole in the huge discography of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis and Digitmovies dedicates it to their immeasurable Musical Art.

 

PRICE: $13.00

CAT #: DIS 194CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Scream formed in 1979. Drummer Kent Stacks, bassist Skeeter Enoch Thompson, and the brothers Pete and Franz Stahl attended school together in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, when they began to discover the punk and new wave scene in DC and the provocative power of making music. Like most of the punk bands in DC, they were influenced by the Bad Brains, but their rock and roll sensibilities set them apart. In 1982, they went into Inner Ear Studio with Ian MacKaye and Eddie Janney to record Dischord's first full-length album, Still Screaming. For their newest album, DC Special, Scream invited their extensive music community to help create a unique project that weaves the history of music in Washington DC into the story of the band. Recorded by Don Zientara just weeks before his studio was evicted from its longtime location, the record is rich with both the sounds of Inner Ear and those of friends and musicians who influenced Scream and who shaped DC music over the past six decades. DC Special embodies the same sense of community and politics that inspired Scream from the start and is a truly special collection of new music that speaks to the present and also tells the story of DC music, Scream, and the influences that shaped them. Special guests on the record include: Mark Cisneros, Joe Lally, Derrick Decker, Bob Berberich, Clint Walsh, Dave Grohl, Onam Emmett, John Goetchius, Jerry Busher, Amy Pickering, Ian MacKaye, Amanda MacKaye, Brian Baker, Randy Austin, Martha Hull, Michael Reidy, Nate Bergman, and Bobby Madden."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: DIS 194LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Scream formed in 1979. Drummer Kent Stacks, bassist Skeeter Enoch Thompson, and the brothers Pete and Franz Stahl attended school together in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, when they began to discover the punk and new wave scene in DC and the provocative power of making music. Like most of the punk bands in DC, they were influenced by the Bad Brains, but their rock and roll sensibilities set them apart. In 1982, they went into Inner Ear Studio with Ian MacKaye and Eddie Janney to record Dischord's first full-length album, Still Screaming. For their newest album, DC Special, Scream invited their extensive music community to help create a unique project that weaves the history of music in Washington DC into the story of the band. Recorded by Don Zientara just weeks before his studio was evicted from its longtime location, the record is rich with both the sounds of Inner Ear and those of friends and musicians who influenced Scream and who shaped DC music over the past six decades. DC Special embodies the same sense of community and politics that inspired Scream from the start and is a truly special collection of new music that speaks to the present and also tells the story of DC music, Scream, and the influences that shaped them. Special guests on the record include: Mark Cisneros, Joe Lally, Derrick Decker, Bob Berberich, Clint Walsh, Dave Grohl, Onam Emmett, John Goetchius, Jerry Busher, Amy Pickering, Ian MacKaye, Amanda MacKaye, Brian Baker, Randy Austin, Martha Hull, Michael Reidy, Nate Bergman, and Bobby Madden."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DOG 083CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A resurgent Dog Meat Records is thrilled and proud to release a new album by a resurgent rock'n'roller and an old friend, Pat Todd and his band The Rankoutsiders. The seventh album by LA's finest rock'n'roll band comes some 36 years after the label's first dalliances with Pat, back when he fronted the legendary Lazy Cowgirls. The new album shows that Pat has lost none of his spark, that his voice and songwriting have only gotten stronger, and that he's got another killer band behind him, one that mixes classic '70s punk rock roots with country, blues and rock'n'roll in a manner that sits somewhere between Exile on Main Street and LAMF. The new album is highlighted as usual by Pat Todd's fantastic songs. New originals like 'All We Have To Show,' the horn-riffing rocker 'Living In A World of Hurt,' and the raucous country-folk punker 'Goodbye to the World' are up there with anything he has ever written, and the Rankoutsiders play them even better than ever. Indeed, a couple of choice covers -- a version of 'Hi Ho Silver Lining,' sung by guitarist Nick Alexander and cut before Jeff Beck's unfortunate passing, and a version of David Johansen's old heartbreaker 'Donna' cut before word of Martin Scorsese's Johansen documentary got out -- shows by comparison to the original versions just how well these guys can crank it out. Prior to the new album Sons of the City Ditch, the Rankoutsiders have released six full-length albums and over a dozen singles and EPs and have more releases queued up. Each and every one of them is a testament to Pat's personal vision of raw, high energy rock'n'roll infused with elements of country and rhythm and blues, and documentary proof that the Rankoutsiders are one of the hottest rock'n'roll bands on the planet. Indeed, it must be said the Rankoutsiders truly are a band: energetically flanking Pat stage left is long-time guitarist and vocalist Kevin Keller; to the right is guitarist and founding member, Nick Alexander- -- the cool, calm and collected eye of the storm; bassist Steven Vigh holds the lower frequencies in check with steadfast authority, pushing the chorus to the next harmonic level, while drummer Walt Phelan drives the engine hard while keeping the band on the rails."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOG 083LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "A resurgent Dog Meat Records is thrilled and proud to release a new album by a resurgent rock'n'roller and an old friend, Pat Todd and his band The Rankoutsiders. The seventh album by LA's finest rock'n'roll band comes some 36 years after the label's first dalliances with Pat, back when he fronted the legendary Lazy Cowgirls. The new album shows that Pat has lost none of his spark, that his voice and songwriting have only gotten stronger, and that he's got another killer band behind him, one that mixes classic '70s punk rock roots with country, blues and rock'n'roll in a manner that sits somewhere between Exile on Main Street and LAMF. The new album is highlighted as usual by Pat Todd's fantastic songs. New originals like 'All We Have To Show,' the horn-riffing rocker 'Living In A World of Hurt,' and the raucous country-folk punker 'Goodbye to the World' are up there with anything he has ever written, and the Rankoutsiders play them even better than ever. Indeed, a couple of choice covers -- a version of 'Hi Ho Silver Lining,' sung by guitarist Nick Alexander and cut before Jeff Beck's unfortunate passing, and a version of David Johansen's old heartbreaker 'Donna' cut before word of Martin Scorsese's Johansen documentary got out -- shows by comparison to the original versions just how well these guys can crank it out. Prior to the new album Sons of the City Ditch, the Rankoutsiders have released six full-length albums and over a dozen singles and EPs and have more releases queued up. Each and every one of them is a testament to Pat's personal vision of raw, high energy rock'n'roll infused with elements of country and rhythm and blues, and documentary proof that the Rankoutsiders are one of the hottest rock'n'roll bands on the planet. Indeed, it must be said the Rankoutsiders truly are a band: energetically flanking Pat stage left is long-time guitarist and vocalist Kevin Keller; to the right is guitarist and founding member, Nick Alexander- -- the cool, calm and collected eye of the storm; bassist Steven Vigh holds the lower frequencies in check with steadfast authority, pushing the chorus to the next harmonic level, while drummer Walt Phelan drives the engine hard while keeping the band on the rails."

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: DOG 083X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Color vinyl. "A resurgent Dog Meat Records is thrilled and proud to release a new album by a resurgent rock'n'roller and an old friend, Pat Todd and his band The Rankoutsiders. The seventh album by LA's finest rock'n'roll band comes some 36 years after the label's first dalliances with Pat, back when he fronted the legendary Lazy Cowgirls. The new album shows that Pat has lost none of his spark, that his voice and songwriting have only gotten stronger, and that he's got another killer band behind him, one that mixes classic '70s punk rock roots with country, blues and rock'n'roll in a manner that sits somewhere between Exile on Main Street and LAMF. The new album is highlighted as usual by Pat Todd's fantastic songs. New originals like 'All We Have To Show,' the horn-riffing rocker 'Living In A World of Hurt,' and the raucous country-folk punker 'Goodbye to the World' are up there with anything he has ever written, and the Rankoutsiders play them even better than ever. Indeed, a couple of choice covers -- a version of 'Hi Ho Silver Lining,' sung by guitarist Nick Alexander and cut before Jeff Beck's unfortunate passing, and a version of David Johansen's old heartbreaker 'Donna' cut before word of Martin Scorsese's Johansen documentary got out -- shows by comparison to the original versions just how well these guys can crank it out. Prior to the new album Sons of the City Ditch, the Rankoutsiders have released six full-length albums and over a dozen singles and EPs and have more releases queued up. Each and every one of them is a testament to Pat's personal vision of raw, high energy rock'n'roll infused with elements of country and rhythm and blues, and documentary proof that the Rankoutsiders are one of the hottest rock'n'roll bands on the planet. Indeed, it must be said the Rankoutsiders truly are a band: energetically flanking Pat stage left is long-time guitarist and vocalist Kevin Keller; to the right is guitarist and founding member, Nick Alexander- -- the cool, calm and collected eye of the storm; bassist Steven Vigh holds the lower frequencies in check with steadfast authority, pushing the chorus to the next harmonic level, while drummer Walt Phelan drives the engine hard while keeping the band on the rails."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOK 206LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. "Originally released in 1961 as Joao Gilberto, this historic album is one of the great cornerstones of bossa nova. Accompanied by Tom Jobim (who wrote such standards as 'Garota de Ipanema' and 'Desafinado') and organist Walter Wanderley (best known for his smooth Hammond playing and the 1966 hit 'Summer Samba'), Gilberto plays songs like 'Samba da minha terra' and 'O amor em paz,' both of which (along with most of the songs on this album) would soon become standards of the genre." On 180 gram vinyl with a CD of the entire album.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: DC 894CD

FILE UNDER: COMEDY

"Drag City presents its first-ever Christmas/Holiday album -- Neil Hamburger Presents Seasonal Depression Suite. This song-cycle is filtered through the lens of various guests stuck in a perfectly average chain-hotel during the holiday season, wallowing in self-pity and paranoia, re-living personal catastrophes both real and imagined, or simply trying to use the hotel vending machine. Influenced by everything from Thom Bell to Tommy to the troll-ish misery of Trip Advisor reviews, Seasonal Depression Suite provides another entry in the sprawling satirical critique of America that Greg Turkington has been engaged in with his multifarious enterprises and collaborations since the early '90s. The musical tapestry woven by Turkington and Erik Paparozzi draws from the stage musicals, pop vocal albums, film scores, rock concept albums, new wave mini-masterpieces, and singer-songwriter epics that have captured their imaginations since childhood, in pitch-perfect support of their fictitious hotel guests and their tormented concerns. To sing these parts, a once-in-a-lifetime all-star cast was assembled -- including Neil Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House, Fleetwood Mac), Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow), Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, acclaimed singer/performance artist Puddles Pity Party, voice actress Natalie Peyser, J.P. Hasson (Pleaseeasaur), enigmatic vocalist (and Frank Sinatra's granddaughter) A.J. Lambert, Paparozzi himself and, of course, Neil Hamburger. Among the many musicians accompanying the cast were Scarlet Rivera, Danny Heifetz (Mr. Bungle), B?r McKinnon (Mr. Bungle), Prairie Prince (The Tubes), Atom Ellis (Dieselhed), Jason Schimmel (Secret Chiefs 3), and Alex Jules (The Monkees band) -- an international assemblage whose talents give Seasonal Depression Suite its epic sweep. With all hands-on board, Turkington and Paparozzi created their own kind of masterpiece, like Sinatra's late-period concept album Watertown fused with the misfit comedy of Neil Hamburger -- a work that looks at a cast of characters both ordinary and bizarre, as they make their way from one grievance to another, traveling from place to place, hoping to live, while waiting to die. There won't be another album like Seasonal Depression Suite anytime soon -- if ever."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: DC 894LP

FILE UNDER: COMEDY

LP version. "Drag City presents its first-ever Christmas/Holiday album -- Neil Hamburger Presents Seasonal Depression Suite. This song-cycle is filtered through the lens of various guests stuck in a perfectly average chain-hotel during the holiday season, wallowing in self-pity and paranoia, re-living personal catastrophes both real and imagined, or simply trying to use the hotel vending machine. Influenced by everything from Thom Bell to Tommy to the troll-ish misery of Trip Advisor reviews, Seasonal Depression Suite provides another entry in the sprawling satirical critique of America that Greg Turkington has been engaged in with his multifarious enterprises and collaborations since the early '90s. The musical tapestry woven by Turkington and Erik Paparozzi draws from the stage musicals, pop vocal albums, film scores, rock concept albums, new wave mini-masterpieces, and singer-songwriter epics that have captured their imaginations since childhood, in pitch-perfect support of their fictitious hotel guests and their tormented concerns. To sing these parts, a once-in-a-lifetime all-star cast was assembled -- including Neil Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House, Fleetwood Mac), Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow), Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, acclaimed singer/performance artist Puddles Pity Party, voice actress Natalie Peyser, J.P. Hasson (Pleaseeasaur), enigmatic vocalist (and Frank Sinatra's granddaughter) A.J. Lambert, Paparozzi himself and, of course, Neil Hamburger. Among the many musicians accompanying the cast were Scarlet Rivera, Danny Heifetz (Mr. Bungle), B?r McKinnon (Mr. Bungle), Prairie Prince (The Tubes), Atom Ellis (Dieselhed), Jason Schimmel (Secret Chiefs 3), and Alex Jules (The Monkees band) -- an international assemblage whose talents give Seasonal Depression Suite its epic sweep. With all hands-on board, Turkington and Paparozzi created their own kind of masterpiece, like Sinatra's late-period concept album Watertown fused with the misfit comedy of Neil Hamburger -- a work that looks at a cast of characters both ordinary and bizarre, as they make their way from one grievance to another, traveling from place to place, hoping to live, while waiting to die. There won't be another album like Seasonal Depression Suite anytime soon -- if ever."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: DC 906EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In the time since the 2009 release of ...For the Whole World to See, happenings in the world of Death have occurred at warp speed. The raw rock and roll that the Hackney brothers made in the 1970s became a belated punk rock sensation, leading to shows and tours round the world, as well as two further compilations of old material. Since a series of US dates in 2019, things have been relatively quiet externally, but evolution has continued, with this Death/Rough Francis split single representing the inauguration of a new phase in the Death history. Keeping it in the family and pointing toward the future has been a way of life for Death since the beginning. For this new recording, Bobby Hackney's sons have joined Bobby and Dannis in the band they formed with their late brother David nearly 50 years ago. Urian, Julian, and Bobby Jr. have made music under the name of Rough Francis since 2010, and will continue that journey while also making Death music old and new happen with their father and uncle. 'World In Disguise' and 'Haunted' are produced by Urian, who is gaining recognition as a drummer, artist and producer, playing with Converge and The Armed. 'World In Disguise' was developed from a demo in the Death 70s archive -- and more songs from that archive will be coming in the future, as part of the full-circle Hackney experience going forward. 'Haunted' presents the Rough Francis sound, driven just as powerfully as the parent band and inclined to the same depth of introspection that is a part of Death's signature. Bobby Jr.'s vocals and lyrics are in turn, rawly aggro and ethereally philosophical, as the Rough Francis production sound encompasses the wide spectrum of their shared vision."

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: ET 944CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Les Chakachas Disco Sudamericana was released by CBS Sugar in 1974, and when it originally came out did not receive the attention it deserved. Disco Sudamericana is a rich album in terms of catchy tracks and killer grooves. "Super Cat," "Liza& Brooks," and "Selling Mango" are just some of the peaks here. This is yet another major release on the legendary Easy Tempo label, offering this time two extra tracks not featured on the original release!

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: HE 68005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Nico immediately embarked on a solo recording career after splitting with the Velvet Underground and had an unfulfilling experience making her first album. For The Marble Index, she seized control of the recording process, determined that her vision be more fully realized on her second LP. Writing all of the songs and enlisting John Cale's playing and production assistance, Nico created a dark, stripped-down atmosphere that was a million miles from Top 40. Centered around her signature harmonium playing, the songs have a stark, Gothic quality that profoundly affected listeners.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: HE 69010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

It's hard to understand why Warne Marsch was so neglected during his lifetime. It's harder still to substantiate the charges with which his music was branded -- cerebral, cold, unemotional, uninvolving. This album alone, one of his best, should have been enough to put such absurd slurs to rest. The music on Ne Plus Ultra is intimate, warm, passionate, risky. There is much beauty to be shared.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: HE 70002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

A superb and under-recognized recording, Crisis is one-third of a trilogy of extraordinary albums -- the others being Broken Shadows and Science Fiction -- by Ornette Coleman's small groups of the late '60s and early '70s. A rendition of the piece "Broken Shadows" itself, a dirge of astonishing beauty second only to his "Lonely Woman," opens the live performance and offers solos of deep and poignant probity from Coleman and tenorist Dewey Redman, whose earthy growled tones counterbalanced the leader's so well for so long. Crisis somehow lacks the reputation of the revolutionary Coleman albums from early in his career, but on purely musical grounds it ranks among his most satisfying works. LP 180 gram gatefold.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: HE 70004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Desertshore is Nico's third solo album, recorded and released in 1970. It was co-produced by John Cale and Joe Boyd. Like its predecessor The Marble Index (HE 68005LP, 2023), it is an avant-garde album with chamber music elements. The back and front covers feature stills from the film La cicatrice interieure by Philippe Garrel, which starred Nico, Garrel and her son Ari Boulogne. A few of the songs from the album were included on the soundtrack of the film.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: EJR 002CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

They have been working together again and again for more than 20 years and have constantly explored the boundaries of their instructions and not infrequently even expanded them: singer Jutta Glaser and guitarist Claus Boesser-Ferrari. Their current project Return & Crossing is a tribute to the Lebanese-American painter, film artist and poet Etel Adnan. Jutta Glaser and Claus Boesser-Ferrari have opened their music wide to Adnan's poems. In doing so, they have not simply deconstructed their compositions, but, on the contrary, restructured them in a way that floats in the flow of the language, that is, in a peculiarly fluid way. They have deliberately worked in a more sound-painting manner in order to take up the aspect of multiple talents or Etel Adnan's interdisciplinary approach and mirror it in a corresponding art form. Just as Adnan's poetry is always read in a new and different way, so is this music, which is so changeable in itself. Jutta Glaser's singing is a sometimes tender and fragile, sometimes highly expressive, but always respectfully bow to Adnan's texts. Glaser transfers them as virtuously as sensitively into congenial improvisations and alienations, without overstretching the natural richness of the texts' relationships. Claus Boesser-Ferrari, supported by cleverly used electronics, functions here not as an accompanist, but as a second voice in a dialogue of different artistic means and formal languages. The guitarist moves in his usual stylistically confident manner between lyrical sound surfaces, percussive pointing and expressive outbursts. Return & Crossing is a multi-layered dramaturgical production, which not only elaborates the high musicality of Adnan's language, organized in diffuse-open spaces, with love and meticulousness, but also makes it sound as multi-layered as it is rousing.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: FTR 697LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Like last year's brilliant Wings Dipped in Fire (FTR 398CS, 2023), this new album was recorded by Taylor Hales at Chicago's Electrical Audio. But this time, the duo (once known at Mako Sica) is joined not just by keyboard/trumpet master Thymme Jones, but also percussionist Hamid Drake, bassist Tatsu Aoki (on shamisen) and bassist Joshua Abrams. A total post-form all-star line-up, with more combined chops than a breakfast table crammed with lumberjacks. The mood on june 22 is weird and simmering. Blasts of heat alternate with spaced-out jam abstractions with Brent Fuscaldo's vocals and Przemyslaw Krys Drazek's guitar and trumpet dodging in and out of available crevices. As with all of this combo's recent music, exactly what genre they occupy is not easy to say. This is something they share with this generation of Chicago improvisers, who often seem to begin in jazz, but evolve into something much more intangible, mysterious and beautiful. Just as Abrams' Natural Information Society is making sounds requiring multi-hyphonic descriptives, so Drazek Fuscaldo have dissolved categorical confines, although their journey to this point began in a rock (or post-rock) formulation. By now the music contains multitudes -- jazz, folk, world music, avant-garde experimentalism and beyond. It defies being called anything other than MUSIC. Great music. And to quote the Captain once again, 'If you got ears, you gotta listen.' Don't know what else to say, except june 22 is a killer." --Byron Coley, 2023

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: FKR 062X-LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

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

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: FR 024LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Frozen Reeds presents the only recorded duo playing of two legendary musical figures. Derek Bailey and Paul Motian -- two longstanding pioneers of distinct strains of improvised music -- came together for a brief period of collaboration in the early 1990s. Tapes of their two known live performances (one at Groningen's JazzMarathon festival in the Netherlands, the other a year later at New Music Cafe, NYC) were recently unearthed in the Incus archives, and their contents will surprise and delight fans of both supremely idiosyncratic musicians. The Groningen concert (1990) is released on vinyl, while the New York date (1991) is included with the digital download, which is included free of charge for all purchasers. A conversation between Bill Frisell and Henry Kaiser on Bailey, Motian, their intertwined backgrounds, and the significance of these recordings is included as sleeve-note insert. Each player bringing decades of crucial experience to their encounters -- with histories taking in vast swathes of the development of jazz and free improvisation -- these fleeting shared moments provide some of the most riveting playing in the career of either. There is precious little recorded evidence of Motian as a free improviser, but his mastery is beyond any doubt in these recordings. From knife-edge precision to textural haze, Motian's palette is astounding, but perhaps even more impressive is his confidence in the non-idiomatic conversation itself. Pushing far beyond the established vocabulary of free percussion, his playing allows a measured degree of repetition to take form, giving rise to almost song-like structures. In turn, Bailey allows some of his most unashamedly melodic passages to unfold without a mote of his trademark contrariness or antagonism. Patterns that would be acerbically disrupted elsewhere are allowed to settle, with variations of note and timbre introduced more gradually than is typical of his playing. When forceful changes in dynamics or tone do arrive, they do so in such close tandem with Motian's rhythmic and textural transitions as to beggar belief. The guitarist's duos with percussionists (Jamie Muir, Han Bennink, John Stevens) arguably provide some of the highlights of his discography. Duo in Concert represents a strong addition to the list. An elegant sense of construction pervades the sets, as the duo ably fulfil the promise of free improvisation: carving out hugely compelling, expertly balanced, and thrillingly paced music as if from thin air.

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: GET 51297LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2023 repress. "In 1994, hip-hop was going through a painful growth spurt. Since N.W.A. and Ice-T's ascent in the late '80s, the rap game was no longer owned by the east coast. After the worldwide popularity of Dr. Dre's The Chronic in 1992, things were looking even worse for hip-hop's hometown. The east coast/west coast feud that would indirectly claim the lives of Biggie and Pac was still in its infancy, but New York needed a shot in the arm. And as soon as the first lines of 'N.Y. State of Mind' kick in, bolstered by perhaps DJ Premier's darkest beat of all time, the entire east coast breathed a collective sigh of relief. God's son had arrived. Backed by an absolute all-star cast of New York's top-shelf producers -- Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip, and a youngster named L.E.S. -- the album never lets up. Serious to a fault, and lyrically dense to an extent that has possibly never been matched, the 20-year old Nas stood on the shoulders of his predecessors and proudly proclaimed, 'Don't f*** with the east? we are back.' It was a dark, hard record, made for heads in New York, not teeny-boppers in Des Moines. There were no dance beats, no crossover love songs. Just boom-bap and rhymes, skills, and heart."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: GET 51509G-LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Thirty years ago on May 4, 1993, Run-DMC made one of the greatest comebacks in hip-hop history with the release of their sixth studio album Down With The King. In 1991, a 12" remix came out for the single 'Back From Hell' featuring Chuck D and Ice Cube and fans took notice. It would be two more years before anyone would hear from Run-DMC again. In March of 1993, a new single and video 'Down With The King' debuted on Yo! MTV Raps featuring the new Hip-Hop Gods Pete Rock and CL Smooth paying homage to The Kings calling back verses from Sucker MCs over a dope signature Pete Rock beat. Fans watched it over and over to catch all the cameos, everyone from Eazy-E to the Native Tongues Family of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. The anticipation was building, but would the album live up to the lead single that knocked it out of the park? On May 4, 1993, the album dropped on CD, cassette, and vinyl. Run-DMC enlisted The Bomb Squad from Public Enemy, Q-Tip, EPMD, Jermaine Dupri, Kay Gee of Naughty By Nature, and Pete Rock to produce the album with a special appearance by Tom Morello rocking out his guitar emulating DJ scratches he made famous with Rage Against The Machine. Their rhyming was as enthusiastic and powerful as they were on their debut album ten years prior. Run-DMC, the self-proclaimed Kings of Rock and original Kings of Hip Hop were indeed back. Get On Down is presents for the first time on vinyl since its original release, a 30 Year Anniversary pressing on double-colored vinyl with numbered OBI in a gatefold jacket."

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: GET 731EP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2023 repress. "'Shook Ones Part II' might be one of the biggest records to come out of New York in the mid 90's. From the moment you hear the bare hi-hat and the infamous line 'to all the killers and the hundred dollar billas' it is an immediate adrenaline rush. The beat alone is a work of art, Havoc constructed what would go on for years as 'how did he actually come up with that beat?!' amongst DJ's and Producers alike. The infectious piano, cinematic sirens, it was no doubt that it was one of (famed New York nightclub) The Tunnel's most signature records. As Cipha Sounds put it - 'How could it not rip in The Tunnel? Just classic. "Shook Ones Part I" was actually pretty big in the Tunnel, but "Part II" ripped everything.' When 'Shook Ones Part II' came you couldn't help but nod your head and get lost in Havoc and Prodigy trading verses breaking down the meaning of a crook... making you shook son."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: GET 786EP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"One of the greatest hip-hop singles to be released in 1993 -- reissued as a limited edition 7" vinyl single. 'Down With The King' featuring Pete Rock and CL Smooth is pressed on red and clear colored vinyl in a picture sleeve with 'Come On Everybody' feat Q-Tip on the B-Side."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 071CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Seattle's first "alternative" band from the '60s, the Daily Flash were caught in the psychedelic explosion of the West Coast with their electrifying blend of folk-rock, pop, blues and jazz. This compilation (the most comprehensive to date) includes their essential 45s ("Jack Of Diamonds" of Nuggets fame, "Queen Jane Approximately," "The French Girl") plus unreleased studio/live recordings and rare demos/acetates. Featuring Doug Hastings (Buffalo Springfield/Rhinoceros) on guitar/vocals.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: GUESS 213LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Seattle's first "alternative" band from the '60s, the Daily Flash were caught in the psychedelic explosion of the West Coast with their electrifying blend of folk-rock, pop, blues and jazz. This compilation (the most comprehensive to date) includes their essential 45s ("Jack Of Diamonds" of Nuggets fame, "Queen Jane Approximately," "The French Girl") plus unreleased studio/live recordings and rare demos/acetates. Featuring Doug Hastings (Buffalo Springfield/Rhinoceros) on guitar/vocals.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 275CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Kadabra formed during the dark days of 2020 and were quickly signed by Heavy Psych Sounds, releasing Ultra in the fall of 2021 and establishing their penchant for delivering crushing doom riffs and haunting vocals accentuated by bursts of psychedelic flair and swampy Americana swagger. And while the chemistry of long-time friends Garrett Zanol (guitar/vocals), Ian Nelson (bass) and Chase Howard (drums) was apparent upon listening to their debut, their bond was further strengthened by relentlessly touring the western United States and completing a month-long tour of Europe. The trio almost immediately began looking forward, road-testing and crystalizing the songs that would comprise their follow-up, which found the band reuniting with Ultra producer Dawson Scholz. The result is Umbra: a singular statement that is more focused and cohesive than its predecessor, while managing to capture the immersive, free-flowing experience of their live show. For fans of: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Dead Meadow.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SUBURBIA 031AU

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released in 2020 and widely acclaimed as "the record of the year" in the punk rock community worldwide, Bobby Ramone's legendary self-titled debut gets the Hey Suburbia reissue treatment. Repress in Australian Ramones-style sleeve! Two bonus tracks included!

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: HBR 019LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Holy Basil continues the reissue series of Shigeo Sekito's iconic Special Sound series with its third instalment, Path?tique, a mesmerizing musical journey crafted by the visionary Japanese musician Shigeo Sekito. Released in the 1970s, this album stands as a testament to Sekito's innovative genius and his ability to seamlessly blend genres, resulting in a captivating and groundbreaking sonic experience. Path?tique showcases Sekito's masterful fusion of jazz, funk, and electronic elements, creating a unique and otherworldly soundscape that transports listeners to a realm of musical exploration. The album features a series of compositions that are not only technically impressive but also emotionally resonant, evoking a range of feelings from nostalgia to euphoria. The album's title, Path?tique, is a nod to Tchaikovsky's renowned Path?tique Symphony, and it hints at the emotional depth and complexity found within the music. Sekito's virtuosity on various instruments, including keyboards, synthesizers, and guitar, is on full display throughout the album, as he weaves intricate melodies and harmonies that take listeners on a sonic adventure."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: HONEY 086LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Released in 1961, this was Elis Regina's debut album. A first and already distinctive statement from an extremely talented teen from Porto Alegre who later became a star and who's now remembered as one of the greatest Brazilian vocalists of all times. Regina's vocal range and singing versatility shine in the wake of a varied track list based on different ingredients and flavors, from pop songs through vibrant Afro-Cuban grooves and jazzy sambas. The whole album is a treat!

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: HONEY 087LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released on Sue Records in 1963, this was Ike & Tina Turner's fourth album, the one that earned them a first grammy nomination and a further step in the consolidation of their international success. Most of the tunes here are highly energetic up-tempo numbers while the whole album comes as the fruit of a unique combination of raw R&B and highly energetic rock and roll.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: HONEY 088LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Originally released on Ray Charles' Tangerine label, and for too long considered a collector's item, Falling in Love is Wonderful can be easily considered as one of Jimmy Scott's essential albums. Perfectly backed by Marty Paich and Gerald Wilson sophisticated arrangements Jimmy Scott lays some of the best vocal performances in his entire career. Classic standards such as "There Is No Greater Love" and "How Deep Is The Ocean" reach new heights and flourish through his unique voice.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: HONEY 089LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

This is the incomparable Tony Scott, one of the greatest American jazz clarinetists of all times caught while touring South Africa in 1957. The album sees Scott joining a local Marabi dance band called Alexandra Dead End Kids and playing live with his jazz quartet in front of hyper-enthusiastic crowds. It's great to hear his masterful clarinet splitting between the penny whistle sound of South African folk tunes and the virtuosity of a real jazz performance. This disc reveals Scott's great versatility, high spirit and deep love for music and people.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: IMPREC 460LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock.Born Again In The Voltage is an astonishing collection of electro-acoustic pieces for Buchla 200 system, cello, and voice composed and produced by Caterina Barbieri at Elektronmusikstudion (SE) between 2014 and 2015. Cello by Antonello Manzo. Images by Giovanni Brunetto; Photography by Angelo Jaroszuk Bogasz; Layout by Important Records. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: JPR 089LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Formed in 1966, The Electric Prunes had a novel approach to being a band: deciding to be a recording unit rather than a live performance band. They discovered their signature sound -- reverb-drenched, beautifully chaotic garage pop -- and released one of the most fantastic, fuzzed-out singles of all time, 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night.' Guitar effects drip and splatter throughout (the band had landed an endorsement deal with Vox, who were the leaders in wild effects pedals at that time), and they laid into the material with brute force (and the occasional gentle touch)."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: JPR 090LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Due to their successful debut, the band's producer was in demand, leaving little time to devote to the Prunes. The band took full advantage of the adults not being in the room and created an incredible follow-up of original material on 1968's Underground. Here is where the band really leaned heavily into their knack for challenging pop. This album came to define what later gravediggers of the garage genre came to devour: Iggy Pop, The Ramones, and Patti Smith all took a riff here; an attitude there."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: JPR 091LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In 1968, The Electric Prunes collaborated with classically-trained musician David Axelrod to create Mass in F Minor, a religious-based rock opera. Even though the album is a head-scratcher side by side with their previous records, this has become one of the era's most bizarre and hypnotic releases. Sung in Latin with the band hanging onto Axelrod's ambitious arrangements; you've never heard anything like it. It created enough of a cultural mark that the lead track 'Kyrie Eleison' was even used in the movie that defined the late '60s generation, Easy Rider."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: JPR 106LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"When the '80s U.S. garage/psych explosion started, one record in that genre towered above all others -- The Miracle Workers' 1985 debut LP Inside Out. Initially formed in 1982, the classic line-up on this debut was a five-headed, five-star beast and one of the most ferocious live bands of the era. With four songwriters, they rarely had to rely on the crutch of cover versions that many of their paisley contemporaries had to lean on. No lazy Pebbles compilation wanna-bees or drippy long-form psych yawns here; just 13 songs that are up there in the pantheon of garage rock (and really any other rock genre)."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: JPR 113LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Highly sought-after second album from the most influential modern surf band. Originally released in 1995 on Estrus! Records, this instrumental classic sold out immediately. Satan's Pilgrims are known for their '60s stylized surf soul sound with diverse, imaginative, and melodic compositions."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: JM 085LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"Kool Keith is an educated man, boasting a pair of doctorates -- one in Dooomology and another in Octagon Mathematics. With this immense medical and scientific background at his disposal, Keith has come to operate. Production on Keith's albums is eerily evil; his music is an LSD experience gone horribly wrong. Bizarre, ethereal sound effects and tight, piercing drum loops prepare the listener for a down and dirty lyrical delivery that's been cultivated since Keith first arrived on the rap scene with the Ultramagnetic MC's. Verses contain unique rhyme structures and original metaphors, and range from classic emcee braggadocio to tales of robbery and street sex. Keith's latest LP Mr. Controller entirely produced by Junkaz Lou is yet another work of art. No MC on the planet is so grimy and yet so polished -- after years in the rap game, Kool Keith's as unique as ever."

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: KRANK 240CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 240LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LANR 037LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Reissued for the first time on vinyl, an amazing showcase of roots and reggae lovers, originally released on Trojan in 1977. Although his place as a reggae pioneer cannot be questioned, Owen Gray has felt for many years that he never got his due from Jamaica, his homeland. On August 6, 2023, the government finally recognized his contribution awarding him with the honor of Order Of Distinction, Jamaica's sixth-highest honor. Gray, now 87, is ecstatic about what he considers an overdue and deserved reward. In the rocksteady era, he recorded for producer Sir Clancy Collins AKA Sir Collins. His popularity continued throughout the 1960s, working with producers such as Clement Dodd, Prince Buster, Sydney Crooks, Arthur "Duke" Reid, Leslie Kong, and Clancy Eccles, including work as a duo with Millie Small, with songs ranging from ska to ballads. He continued to record regularly, having a big hit in 1968 with "Cupid." His 1970 track "Apollo 12" found favor with the early skinheads, and in 1972 he returned to Island Records, recording reggae versions of The Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" and John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," although they met with little success. During this period, he regularly had releases on Pama and Pioneer Internacional label, Camel Records, and one single on Hot Lead Records. He had greater success in Jamaica, however, with "Hail the Man," a tribute to Emperor Haile Selassie, which was popular with the increasing Rastafari following. Fully licensed, 140g vinyl.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: LPS PS014LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Triple LP version. Back in the 1990s, video games were still largely seen as nerdy: fun, sure, but basically a guilty pleasure that you'd soon grow out of. The release in 1995 of wipE'out'', a lightning-fast, razor-sharp, futuristic racing game that helped to launch the PlayStation in Europe and North America, changed all that. This was a game that looked and sounded both adult and cool, the kind of game you would put on display in your living room, rather than hide away under your bed. Key to this was the fact that wipE'out'' borrowed unashamedly from the clubbing experience and electronic music, in a way that put it at the heart of progressive mid '90s culture. wipE?out?? also sounded like a new rave dream. The European version of the game included music from The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, and Orbital, the kind of fashionable game syncs that were almost unheard of at the time. Equally striking was the game's original music, which came from Welsh musician Tim Wright, aka CoLD SToRAGE, by this point already a veteran in the video games world, having worked on the music for Amiga titles such as Lemmings and Shadow of the Beast 2. His music for wipE?out?? was, if anything, even more extreme than the big-name syncs, mixing the accelerated beats of drum and bass with the pure synth rush of trance to make music that sounded as breathlessly exciting as playing the game felt. These tracks were burned into the brains of millions of gamers; the soundtrack to a generation of late-night anti-gravity racing, as the sun gingerly rose beyond the curtains. But they haven't, perhaps, quite got the respect they deserve, something that this release will address. Featuring remixes by ?-Ziq, Wordcolour, Brainwaltzera, James Shinra, Kode9, Simo Cell, Surgeons Girl, Datassette.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LR 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. The undisputed leaders of the early gothic scene, and a seminal band that contributed to the rise of British post-punk, The Cure recorded their debut album Three Imaginary Boys at London's Morgan Studios and released it in May 1979. After touring for almost all of 1977, the band changed their name to The Cure and rearranged their line-up with the sacking of Porl Thompson, giving birth to an unusual power trio. This line-up lasted only for their first album, making it unique in its essentially minimal sound. The year was now 1978, and the three (imaginary?) boys soon signed to Chris Parry's Fiction Label.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: LIR 009EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A command across genres has distinguished Yasushi Ide's work as a DJ and producer since emerging from the multiscene spawning big bang that was Tokyo's highly influential club milieu of the 1980s. His productions draw variously from hip-hop, dub, house, punk, jazz dance, exotica and electronic music -- and at their most expressive, synthesize sensibilities within a single track. The respect Ide's earned is well evident in the impressive roll call of collaborators he's accrued over the years -- Masters At Work, Tom Verlaine, Don Letts, James Chance, DJ Krush, Pharaoh Sanders, U-ROY, and Bongo Herman, just to name a legendary few. Now available for worldwide distribution from Love Injection Records in both digital and 7" 45 vinyl formats, the Yasushi Ide "A Place In the Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix)" is paired with the equally gorgeous "A Place In the Sun (Dub)." On the former, Inoue's treatment largely strips away the track's beats, anchoring it to a subtle percussion pulse that emphasizes the composition's irresistible melodic qualities. The latter finds Yoko Ota at the controls restoring and pushing reverb-soaked drums to the forefront of the mix, accentuating Ide's affection for the sound system aesthetic while exercising just the right amount of spatial arrangement flourishes to inject some brawn amidst the beauty. These serendipitously rediscovered renditions of a back catalog deep cut are just the latest examples of Yasushi Ide's artistic reach. In addition to recording such acclaimed albums as 2020's Cosmic Suite and its 2022 sequel (for which Love Injection has remixed a track), his work has spanned music supervision of some 200+ compilations for major labels, artist management, his Grand Gallery shop/gallery proprietorship, and books showcasing the depth of his archival sensibilities, including vintage t-shirt and ephemera curation. Perhaps most inspiring, however, is that Ide is still winning new appreciators and collaborators in unexpected ways four decades into a revered career that continues to evolve and expand.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: MACROM 074CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Acustica: For this acoustic sources-only mix, Stefan Goldmann cut up a vast library of recorded interpretations of 20th century avant-garde compositions. Layered segments of individual instrumental and chamber performances form emergent orchestral opulence -- just to spill over into actual orchestral segments. Goldmann has tackled acoustic archives before with his edit of multiple recordings of Igor Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps." However, this mix traverses the disparities and convergences of seven decades of score-based music with impressively results. A metalevel polystylistic work that explores vast potentials of integration, interaction and interference. An antidote to the prevailing practice of sounding compositions in scattered, sterile isolation. Here, opposing concepts of music are channeled into one continuous flow, with a coherent DJ performance as the vehicle.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MILS 005LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series entry #5: Dan Hastie and Terin Ector (Orgone) pick up where Piero Umiliani left off with Exotic Grooves and Lush Funk. This is the next up in a series of music library releases, with future volumes produced by DJ Muggs, Karriem Riggins and more. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs -- listen, ponder, repeat."

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: MIND 703P-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Full radio broadcast from the legendary Amsterdam show at Paradiso in 1986, one of the few with Ritchie on drums!

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: LOVE 126LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Flora Yin Wong's ravishing interiority finds lucid expression on an absorbing second album for Modern Love, manifesting her instrumental storytelling in a syncretic bind of supernatural themes with hyperrealist, concr?te sound design. Through ten parts, Flora crystallizes the ennui that followed an uncanny, disorienting trip to East and Southeast Asia. She spent solitude in a haunted house during the quiet snowfall of Kyoto, where she might have offended some spirit, and nights in mountain temples with South Korean monks, and an equally strange feeling return to the Island of the Gods. Heavy with a sense of nightmarish dissociation and grief, Flora read about Giuseppe Tartini's Violin Sonata in G Minor, aka the "Devil's Trill Sonata," a notoriously tricky c.18th composition which attempted to transcribe music heard in a dream, which the composer felt he could never fully bring into reality. It's this soporific motif that binds and underpins Cold Reading, finding Flora chasing the dragon of fleeting fantasy through passages of etched melancholy, pinched with hypnagogic jerks that linger in the memory. From her use of the "Devil's Trill' Sonata" in "All My Dreams are Nightmares" through evocations of subtropical humidity in the Bryn Jones-esque, resonant hand-played percussion of "Konna" and "Banjar", to a breathtaking dreampop denouement "Nectar Dripping" and the Enya-like lush of "Beautiful Crisis", Flora blooms her ideas with an open-ended ambiguity so often missing from so called ambient music, ushering the listener into a sound world that disturbs and displaces, just as much as it calms. Clear vinyl.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MUSIQ 248LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. Mule Musiq announces the vinyl release of Kuniyuki's masterpiece, All These Things. Originally, it was only released in 2007 on CD. It was Kuniyuki second album, but it's essentially his first album because the first album was a collection of early productions. The first track "The Guitar Song" is a good mixture of jazz, fusion, world music, and electronic music. The second track, featuring African vocalist and percussionist Omar Guaindefall, is a gem. "You Get Me" features the singer Josee Hurlock, who released her fantastic album Residue on Hefner in 2000. She is also featured on the fourth track, "All These Things", too. The fifth track "Flying Music" features poetry by Alex From Tokyo and popular Tokyo trumpeter Shuichiro Sakaguchi. "The Session" is a collaboration of song with Henrik Schwarz. They have met at Mule Musiq's party in Tokyo and clicked immediately. The seventh track "Touch" sounds very nostalgic, recalling the type of African jazz or Spanish fusion popular currently as Balearic music. The last track, "Rain Of Ocean", is primitive, African minimal deep house. A collection of eight timeless and genre-less tracks.

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 2525COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Battle Of Armagideon is one of the essential albums by Lee 'Scratch' Perry & The Upsetters. Perry's technique as a mixer and producer will get to you in many ways. 'I'm A Madman' is the best-known album track, wherein Perry acknowledged his lunatic persona. The Spin Alternative Record Guide deemed the album Perry's best of the 1980s. Lee 'Scratch' Perry was a pioneer in dub music and worked together with artists such as Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Clash, and The Beastie Boys. Battle Of Armagideon is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on red colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 3320COL-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Grotesque (After The Gramme) is the third studio album by the Fall. The album reached number one on the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total. The Fall's music at the time was described as 'Mancabilly,' and by Smith himself as 'Country and Northern.' In 2020, Rolling Stone included Grotesque (After The Gramme) in its '80 Greatest albums of 1980' list, praising the band for its 'ability to craft impossibly catchy songs that simultaneously sound like they're shaking apart at the seams.' Grotesque (After The Gramme) is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow colored vinyl and includes an insert."

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 3610COL-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Woody Shaw With Tone Jansa Quartet is the 1985 album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, and band leader Woody Shaw. During his life, he was regarded as one of the most influential and innovative jazz musicians of his time. The Tone Jansa Quartet consisted of Renato Chico on piano, Peter Herbert on bass, Dragan Gajic on drums, Tone Jansa on tenor saxophone and Woody Shaw on trumpet and flugelhorn. All compositions are by Tone Jansa and the hard bop jazz album was recorded at Studio 44, Monster, the Netherlands, in April 1985. Woody Shaw With Tone Jansa Quartet is being reissued for the first time since its original release and is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on white colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $39.00

CAT #: MOVATM 110CL-LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

"Ennio Morricone composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions, making him one of the most influential and best-selling film composers since the late '50s. The Legend of 1900 (Italian: La Leggenda Del Pianista Sull'Oceano) is a 1998 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starring Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Melanie Thierry. The film is inspired by Novecento, a monologue by Alessandro Baricco. The Legend Of 1900 was nominated for a variety of international awards, winning several for its soundtrack, including a Golden Globe for Best Original Score -- Motion Picture. This release includes the song 'Lost Boys Calling,' on which Roger Waters and Eddie van Halen are featured. Throughout his career, Morricone received an unprecedented number of awards, including Grammys, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. Ennio Morricone has influenced many artists including Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, and many more. The Legend of 1900 is available as a 25th anniversary edition of 10.000 individually numbered copies on gold and black marbled vinyl and contains an insert."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: R 134CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Skalpel is a nu-jazz classic. On their debut and sophomore albums Skalpel and Konfusion (Ninja Tune) they were able to resurrect the dusty spirit of the '60s and '70s jazz and reimagine it for the 21st century audiophiles. They created emotionally charged music, sophisticated in its structure. After ten years Skalpel returned in 2014 with Transit, an album that segued from sample-based music into compositions created on virtual instruments. Their last studio album Origins (R 132LP, 2022) was an inspiring contemporary vision adapting various currents of electronica and dance music of the millennium era. The latest release earned them a Polish Grammy -- Fryderyk Award. The journey continues as Marcin Cichy and Igor Pud?o present Skalpel Big Band. Patryk Pilasiewicz, composer and musician from Pozna?, who is the originator of the idea, dissected and revised Skalpel's music for a seventeen-person big band. The idea was to weave new, acoustic interpretation of Skalpel's compositions with their original electronic sound.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NA 6103LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Opaque red vinyl version. "Our comprehensive overview of Zambia's premier garage-, psych-, prog-, funk-,Afro-rock ensemble Witch, We Intend To Cause Havoc!, is now sold out in its 6LP box set form. So we are making the first four Witch albums available in archival reissue form. As with our box set, the audio is nigh-perfect -- restored and remastered from the original master tapes. The entirety of Witch's first album, restored and remastered from master tapes, and presented as an archival reissue. Witch's musical arc is contained to a five year span and, in retrospect, is a logical one. The band's first two, self-produced albums - released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry -- are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are James Brown. Thus Introduction, their first, is the perfect starting point for anyone interested in delving into the Witch band, or Zamrock in general."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: ORGM 2120S-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Tutankhamun, the 1969 album by avant-garde jazz pioneers Art Ensemble of Chicago, features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, and Malachi Favors Maghostut. As the AllMusic review states, 'This landmark album is one of the most influential free jazz recordings in the '60s avant-garde canon.' Previously out of print for over three decades, Tutankhamun has been remastered for vinyl at Infrasonic Mastering and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas in Germany. As a bonus, the reissue features 'Tthinitthedalen' Part 1 and 2, closing out sides A and B, respectively. This limited edition pressing comes on metallic silver color vinyl."

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: PARODIA 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

French producer and DJ Nathan Melja returns with his debut album With Dan!, out via his own imprint Parodia, the follow-up to a series of breakthrough releases on cult labels Mister Saturday Night, Technicolour, Antinote, Kalahari Oyster Cult and more. Produced and recorded over the past two years hand-in-hand with his father Dan, a seasoned guitarist and sound engineer, this album is his most personal project to date and holds a true feeling of spontaneity, juggling between genres and driven by Nathan's characteristic unrestrained creative approach. Over the course of its ten tracks, Nathan gently steps away from his previous dance offerings in favor of exploring new paces and rhythms, while consistently delivering a refreshed take on his trademark hybrid sound palette and textures. On With Dan!, he embarks an array of local and international friends on vocals, which bring yet another dimension to his rich, at times lush, at others challenging music. Also featuring Jon Beige, Edward Reilly, and AnNie .Adaa.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: PRTL 7066EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

A classic UK roots reggae outing, originally appearing on the Goldmaster label in 1998 and fast becoming a collector's item. Originally reissued by Partial in 2019, this swiftly sold out. Includes two previously unreleased mixes, vocal and dub. Featuring Southend On Sea-based Goldmaster All Stars, with the cream of the crop of hot-shot reggae musicians featuring female singer Christel, on her one and only release, who was only 14-years-old at the time of this recording.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: PING 083LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Two visionary maestros, Pierre Bastien and Michel Banabila, unite in their first collaborative album, Baba Soir?e. The veterans of electronic music bring their unique expertise to the table, resulting in a captivating fusion of experimental styles. Bastien's mechanical loops and experimental instrumental setups merge seamlessly with Banabila's sound design and impeccable skills of sampling collages. Pierre Bastien is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a background in French literature. He has spent decades crafting an idiosyncratic world of experimental sound with his self-built mechanical orchestra Mecanium. It was most notably showcased in audiovisual releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. Bastien's creations are a mesmerizing combination of traditional instruments (he has a vast collection) and mechanical automatons. The violin in the track "Rotomotor," for example, is physically played by one of his machines. In Baba Soir?e, Bastien also plays a prepared cornet, infusing the recordings with a breathy, dreamy dimension. Michel Banabila, a sound artist, composer and producer, possesses an eclectic musical repertoire that defies genres. His seamless blend of minimal electronica, tribal ambient, and neo- classical influences has earned him a prominent place in the world of experimental music, and an impressive discography. Banabila serves as the creative sampling editor for Baba Soir?e, expertly weaving together the recordings to craft an evocative sonic tapestry. The two share a curiosity for traditional instruments from various cultures. The instruments used in the recordings are shown in the cover artwork. A mutual admiration for each other's work paved the way for this fruitful artistic partnership of the Rotterdam-based artists: collaborating on a single as a fundraiser for Yemen in 2022 set the stage for the creation of Baba Soir?e. The title Baba Soir?e is an homage to Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg's Kleine Dada Soir?e collaboration which took place exactly a century ago.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: PF 011LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "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 #: PF 012LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "1978's Chairs Missing represented perhaps the biggest conceptual leap made during this period of Wire and was widely misunderstood at the time yet it remains, to the band and production crew Wire's favorite '70s album. If Pink Flag proposed an almost cut and paste approach to deconstructing rock history, Chairs Missing proposed something more radical, a definite futurism with much less influence from its antecedents. Chairs Missing was at once more stark and more lush than its predecessor and has exerted its own influence on the course of cultural history, having laid down one of the earliest (if not the earliest) blueprints for the genuinely post-punk aesthetic."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 091CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The debut LP by Oi! legends The Business, originally released in 1983. Formed in South London in 1979 the group started playing Oi! concerts in 1981, opening for the 4-Skins. After that they quickly became one of the bigger groups on the UK Oi! scene. This absolute stone-cold Oi! classic includes the indie chart hit single "Harry May" plus "Real Enemy" and "Guttersnipe" among the others. Produced by the Cockney Rejects' Micky Geggus, this is another essential UK punk/Oi! classic.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 141CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

By the time Toy Doys issued Bare Faced Cheek as the inaugural LP of their own Nit Records label, bassist Flip had been replaced by Dean Robson and drummer Happy Bob by Martin Yule, with Olga still the vocal focal point. "Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead" is the best of the bunch, "Neville Is A Nerd" and "Quick To Quit The Quentin" are typical Toy Dolls punkpiss-takes, and there are digs at a hotel and a local launderette too. Everything is delivered in lightning-fast bursts of energy, poking fun at all and sundry, the Toy Dolls punk way.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: RRS 191LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

When Fat Bob's Feet was released by Receiver Records in 1991, it found Sunderland's cheeky punk act Toy Dolls welcoming bassist John Casey into the fold, the latest in a long line joining founding frontman Olga and drummer Martin Yule, who'd been present since Bare Faced Cheek; the favorites here include "The Sphinx Stinks," "Bitten By A Bed Bug," and the immortal "Kids In Tyne & Wear," a northeast England punk recasting of Kim Wilde's "Kids In America," plus there's a guest appearance by Ashbrooke, Olga's dog, and, unusually for the band, no sign of any symphonic interludes. A much-loved Toy Dolls classic!

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 385LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

One of the greatest reggae singers of all time, Dennis Brown made an incredible impact during a career that spanned four decades, his reign cut short by his tragically early death from a collapsed lung in 1999, aged just 42. First released in 1995 under the title Take A Stand and also known as Temperature Is Rising, the album Love Is So True was expertly produced by Anthony Dehaney, alias Bunny Gemini, at the Record Factory studios in Kingston, then home to some of the better dancehall being cut in Jamaica. Along with saxophonist/arranger Dean Fraser and the Fire House Crew and "Rhythm Twins" Sly and Robbie, the featured musicians include the stalwart keyboardist Ansel Collins of "Double Barrel" and "Stalag" fame, guitarist Lascelles Beckford and bassist Danny "Axe Man" Thompson of the Gifted Roots band, trumpeter David Madden of Zap Pow, and keyboardist Dennis "Jah D" Fearon. The keen musicianship brought forth by these players helped coax the best out of Brown on songs such as "Never Let Your Heart Be Troubled," which rides a tough re-cut of the "Full Up" rhythm, and "Temperature Is Rising," on a durable re-cut of the "Far East"/"Jah Shakey" rhythm; "A Little Respect" makes use of a bouncing update of "Pressure And Slide," the meditative "Sea Shore" is on a great dancehall cut of "Real Rock" and the anti-rude boy "Gangster" is voiced on a beautiful dancehall interpretation of "Freedom Blues." There's even a dancehall take of the Beatles' "You Won't See Me," delivered as only Dennis Brown can, as well as a likeable re-make of Dennis' own "Have You Ever."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 398LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Deejay Jah Thomas was one of the creative figures making a dramatic impact on the Kingston sound system scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the rhythms he laid at Channel One studio with the Roots Radics helping to steer reggae towards the emerging dancehall style. Voicing and mixing his work at King Tubby's studio, typically with the young upstart engineer known as Scientist, Thomas got his start as a quick-witted deejay in the vibrant sound system scene of western Kingston, making his recording debut in 1976 with Midnight Rock, a hit that became the name of his record label, once he shifted to producing his own work. Dance Hall Connection, which first surfaced in 1983, is easily one of his best LPs, Thomas ably riding the rough Radics rhythms with style. The title track is a variant of the "Boneman Connection" theme that references dancehall's grounding in sound system culture, "Friday Night Jamboree" salutes the music's potent allure on a top cut of the "Entertainment" rhythm, and "Let Him In" implores the gateman to allow an impoverished dreadlocks into the dance; "Ni**er Skank" warns against wrongdoers, "Joker Smoker" pokes fun at those who can't handle their herb, and "Living In Jamaica" describes various aspects of lifestyle on the island. Elsewhere, Thomas enters boasting territory on "Cool Profile," disses combative women on "Jealous," recounts his girlfriend's dubious antics on "Gal A Laugh" and implores another not to forget him once she emigrates. Flash it, Jah Thomas! This is musical murder!

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: EZRDR 156CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Lucky number seventeen? Believe it. Those at Brown Acid have been scouring the highways and byways of America for even more hidden stashes of psych/garage/proto-punk madness from the so-called Aquarian Age. There's no flower power here, though -- just acid casualties, rock stompers and major freakouts. As always, the songs have been officially licensed, and all the artists get paid. Some samples of this trip include: Stone Hedge were a seven-piece rock band out of Michigan with a penchant for Creedence and anthropomorphism. 'Smokey Bear' is their 1972 tribute to the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Services -- not to mention the A side of their sole single -- and it recalls the kind of organ-drenched swamp jam that soundtracked many a Burt Reynolds flick back in the day. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may not be known as a cultural mecca, but they did produce Truth & Janey. This deadly hard rock trio delivered their holy grail full-length, No Rest For The Wicked, back in 1976. 'Around and Around' is a Chuck Berry cover that originally appeared on a 1973 single the band released under the earlier name Truth. Originally released in 1973, 'High School Letter' is the debut single from San Diego rock squad Glory. This infectious bonehead cruncher features future Beat Farmer Jerry Raney and the original rhythm section of Iron Butterfly in bassist Greg Willis and drummer Jack Pinney. Glory is what they got up to after their former bandmates left for L.A.'s garden of Eden. 'Jack the Ripper' is a mercilessly bootlegged Cleveland classic from 1978 with a serrated punk edge and vocals that recall Mick Blood of Aussie savages the Lime Spiders. Or maybe it's the other way around -- the Lime Spiders formed the year after Strychnine carved off this lethal paean to the infamous Whitechapel slasher of olde."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ROG 130CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Truly an all-star ensemble, all are leaders of their own projects. Myra Melford (piano, compositions) with Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone), Tomeka Reid (cello), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Lesley Mok (drums). Hailed by The New Yorker as 'a stalwart of the new-jazz movement' and by Disaster Amnesiac as 'one of the great post-Taylor players,' pianist and composer Myra Melford (Guggenheim Fellow, Alpert Award and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award recipient) is proud to present her newest release Hear the Light Singing. According to journalist and critic Natalie Wiener, Hear the Light Singing is 'a sequel of sorts to [Melford's] 2022 release, For The Love Of Fire And Water, featuring a nearly identical all-star cast and the same set of Cy Twombly drawings from which the first album drew its name as inspiration. This album is named specifically for Melford's interpretation of the sunlight on the Mediterranean in Gaeta, Italy, where Twombly made those drawings, and the synesthetic sensation it creates.' Joined by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, drummer Lesley Mok and MacArthur Fellows Tomeka Reid (cello) and Mary Halvorson (guitar), Melford bounces off the Fire & Water repertoire to create 'another set of extraordinary compositions,' or 'insertions,' writes Wiener, 'that Melford designed to entwine with the original suite, but still stand alone.'"

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: SMC 040CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Benjamin Lee Farley has been writing and recording music for around 20 years and he swears that he's finally gotten good at it -- though we know he always has been. Diagnosed bipolar and schizophrenic and recently medicated, he is finally willing to use his mental illness to his advantage if it gets people to perk up their ears. In other words, he hears things and sometimes it translates to music and lyrics. After more than a decade of performing with different acts and under various aliases in the Boston area, he has relocated to the hills of North Carolina and become a hermit. Self-taught and frighteningly prolific, he has recorded and released over 50 albums in the past 5 years alone, in styles ranging from singer-songwriter-folky-americana to grimy electronics to dub to thrash metal to straight up rock n fuckin' roll. With yelling. His latest album The Stalker is in many ways a synthesis of the different musical strains he has explored over his long career, a frenetic burst of energy showcasing his raw talent and well-honed DIY production instincts. His music has been compared to a wide breadth of legendary musicians, but is really its own unique monster. Highfives and backpats all around. RIYL: Vic Chesnutt, Fiona Apple, Queens of the Stone Age, The Coasters, Neil Young, Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SB 183LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "Daylight Moon is Yuzo Iwata's first outing since his debut, Drowning In The Sky, got the green light in 1999 on the legendary Org label. While Yuzo's been living stateside for a couple of decades, his roots, style and fluidity harken back to the Kichijoji Minor days of the late seventies Tokyo underground scene. He also put in some time as a member of Tori Kudo's Maher Shalal Hash Baz early on and there's no one else in Philadelphia who can make that claim. His pedigree is legit. As is his playing. For fans of Kousokuya and Hallelujahs especially and PSF and Org label output overall. Limited re-pressing of 300."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: SKALD 038CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

SDEM's debut album for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records. Vortices' nine tracks continue SDEM's current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own MEDS label and other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang, etc.) Informed by hip-hop and computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass mutations, Vortices operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hip-hop, dub, and bass-weighted electronica. Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and color, repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the album expands and finesses SDEM's dynamic and forward-facing approach. Features S1.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: SKALD 038LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. SDEM's debut album for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records. Vortices' nine tracks continue SDEM's current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own MEDS label and other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang, etc.) Informed by hip-hop and computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass mutations, Vortices operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hip-hop, dub, and bass-weighted electronica. Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and color, repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the album expands and finesses SDEM's dynamic and forward-facing approach. Features S1.

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: SKASSETTE 038CS

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Cassette version. SDEM's debut album for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records. Vortices' nine tracks continue SDEM's current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own MEDS label and other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang, etc.) Informed by hip-hop and computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass mutations, Vortices operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hip-hop, dub, and bass-weighted electronica. Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and color, repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the album expands and finesses SDEM's dynamic and forward-facing approach. Features S1.

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: SV 025LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "Volume 2 digs further into the band's cranial bunker with the caveman hit 'Be Stiff,' the space age surf-blues of 'Clockout' and even a demented take on bubblegum pop, 'Goo Goo Itch.' This 2xLP set includes four previously unreleased tracks: 'Man from the Past,' 'Doghouse Doghouse,' 'Hubert House' and 'Shimmy Shake.'"

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SV 127LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "The Fall returned to Rough Trade in 1983 to release a pair of singles ('The Man Whose Head Expanded' and 'Kicker Conspiracy') and Perverted By Language, their sixth proper studio album. Perverted By Language hints at the band's shift towards a distinctly pop approach, one that they would perfect via their Beggars Banquet output that immediately followed. Yet again, the force and panic of their initial Rough Trade recordings remains the foundation for much of the album. A transitional recording in the absolute best sense, Perverted By Language is The Fall both as they were and as they would become. The emergence of Brix Smith is often cited as the impetus for The Fall's move toward outward pop, and she first makes her first appearance with the band on Perverted By Language. Nowhere is her presence felt more than on 'Hotel Bl?edel,' where she handles lead vocal duties alongside Mark E. Smith whose mangled violin accompaniment roots the song's cold romanticism in his unmistakable brand of strange. 'Garden' provides a new take on The Fall's stretched-out tendencies -- using ringing, clean guitars to build a nearly 10-minute epic more subtly than ever before. The opener, 'Eat Y'self Fitter,' is wholly classic Fall: a playfully circular bass line drives the album's strongest vocal spout, complete with emphatic breaks where Mark E. Smith issues the song's spiteful decree with equal parts glee and scorn. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Perverted By Language has been available on vinyl domestically."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 128LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "'On Suicide's First Rehearsal Tapes, recorded in 1975, Alan Vega and Martin Rev create minimalist aural structures, traces of which would surface on their eponymous debut album, released on the Red Star label in late 1977. These songs are not a sketchpad of semi-formed ideas. The First Rehearsal Tapes comprise an audio diary of two men out in the ether, measuring themselves as evolving individual artists and as a unit who would rely on inseparability to realize their unique and often confrontational mass in the decades to come. What the tapes also reveal is that Vega and Rev were compositionally ambitious, capable of melody and form, while resisting definition as they headed further into uncharted territory. The First Rehearsal Tapes afford the listener a glimpse into the creative process of two groundbreaking, true art warriors with their swords and shields leaning against the practice room wall. To understand the absolute brilliance of Suicide's first album as well as their sonic adventures that followed, you have to start here with their earliest recordings.' --Henry Rollins (excerpt from the liner notes)"

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 170LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "Flaming Tunes' sole release is perhaps the finest elegy to the '80s home recording ethos that you've never heard. Originally released in 1985 on cassette (with individually hand-colored covers), this self-titled album grew out of the collaboration between childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie. Williams is best known as a member of English art-rock band This Heat. After leaving the group in the early '80s, he travelled to India where he studied classical Kathakali dance -- an experience that would profoundly shape the music of Flaming Tunes. In an old Victorian house in South London, the duo recorded during the day while Currie's young son attended school and Williams conducted tape treatments at night. They were joined by various guests including This Heat guitarist Charles Bullen as well as long-term collaborators Martin Harrison and Rick Wilson. Using whatever instruments they had on hand (clarinet, piano, bells, etc.), Flaming Tunes create lo-fi melodies around simple arrangements, oblique rhythms and densely layered natural sounds. The results are a mesmeric collage of instrumental daydreams and sideways pop songs, floating into one another in a hazy confluence of late '60s Canterbury psych-folk and early Residents experimentation. All of these beguiling elements converge in a personal manner, quietly insistent in listeners' ears like the blood pulsing in one's veins on a warm summer day."

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SVVRCH 081LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Pioneering Latino punk band The Plugz formed in Los Angeles in 1977 with frontman Tito Larriva, drummer Chalo Quintana and bassist Barry McBride. After debut album Electrify Me, sophomore set Better Luck saw McBride replaced by John Curry of The Flyboys; now with better mastery of their instruments, Larriva and Chalo steered the sound into new wave stylings, aided and abetted by guest horns, harmonica, and keyboards. Yet, the band was still a critical force pushing against societal inequalities, as heard on the caustic "American," and "El Clavo Y La Cruz" reminded that the core of the group was 100% Latino. A great LP!

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SVVRCH 082LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Formed in 1978 in Derry, a Republican city in Northern Ireland, power-pop-punk trio the Moondogs mixed the energy of the Clash with the melodic bent of the Beatles. Gigs with the Undertones led to a 45 for Good Vibrations, plus a few more for Real Records, and by the time they cut debut LP That's What Friends Are For in New York with Todd Rundgren for Sire, they were at their most accomplished; somehow, the band split mid-way through its creation, rendering the album a frozen moment in time, rather than a leg-up to world domination. A great listen and another missing piece of Northern Ireland's punk puzzle.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: WIRE 478

FILE UNDER: Misc

"On the cover: Khanate: The reconvened avant sludge quartet bring their fifth document of doom in the form of To Be Cruel. By Rob Turner. Plus: BEAM SPLITTER: Audrey Chen and Henrik Munkeby N?rsteb? explore intimacy via electroacoustics. By Julian Cowley; Invisible Jukebox: Dali De Saint Paul: The Bristol based vocalist and improvisor faces The Wire's mystery record selection. Tested by Phil England; Agitation Free: The German rock experimentalists return with a new album. By Daniel Spicer. Also inside this issue: Violent Magic Orchestra; Mpho Molikeng; Galya Bisengalieva; Eve Stainton; Unlimited Editions bi? Records; Unofficial Channels The Roulette Tapes; Global Ear in Berlin; The Inner Sleeve by Alan Courtis; Epiphanies by Nkisi; many pages of reviews and much more."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54120LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Obscure British prog-rock band Mighty Baby evolved from a mod group called The Action, but moved heavily into experimental psychedelia in 1969, when they cut an incredible debut for the Head label. Glastonbury Fayre Festival 1971 captures the legendary group in live action, "A Blanket In My Muesli" being a free-form jam that remains their best-loved effort; "India" is a similarly hefty instrumental mega-jam with lilting flute amidst the bluesy guitar work, and there are awesome renditions of "Virgin Spring," "Devil's Whisper," and "Lazy Days." If you like your prog thoughtful, complex, and multi-layered, this one's for you! Licensed from Cherry Red.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54121LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Esteemed pianist Masabumi Kikuchi enjoyed a long and illustrious career in jazz that encompassed many forms. After playing in Lionel Hampton's Japanese touring band, he played on five Sadao Watanabe albums in mid-1960s and backed Sonny Rollins before studying at the Berklee College of Music. Matrix was the first of five albums recorded with his Sextet and is rightly rated one of the greatest of his entire career, the album mixing well-executed covers of songs by Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Watanabe, and the Black Orpheus theme with the enthralling originals "Little Aby" and "In Fourth Way." An excellent listen! Licensed from Good Time Inc.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54122LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Inspired by Muddy Waters and other blues greats, the South London blues-rock band Killing Floor was formed in 1968 with lead singer and harmonica player Bill Thorndycraft, guitarist Mike Clarke, bassist Stuart McDonald, pianist Lou Martin, and percussionist Bas Smith. This self-titled debut set, issued by the independent Spark label (and licensed to Sire for US pressings), was produced with care by former DJ John Edward, based on Chicago blues material, as heard on the cover of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love." This is the band at their rawest beginnings, a grittier traditional blues set that contrasts with later work for Larry Page. Licensed from Cherry Red.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54124LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Of Filipino descent, the expressive keyboardist, vocalist, and composer Flip Nu?ez enjoyed a varied career in jazz. After backing Bev Kelly, Jon Hendricks, and others in the 1960s, Nu?ez impacted in the Latin jazz-rock act Azteca. The marvelous My Own Time And Space, his only solo album, showcases his versatility; the Latin cadences of Willie Colon and former Santana bassist Tom Rutley and the keen jazz phrasings of guitarist Michael Howell and drummer Vince Lateano make superb backing for Nu?ez's piano and synthesizer flourishes, bolstered by his emotive voice. A lost classic, and one that sounds better with every spin.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54128LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The pianist and bandleader Frank Strazzeri enjoyed a distinguished jazz career. After backing Billie Holliday and Woody Herman, Strazzeri became a mainstay of the west coast jazz scene. His excellent album After The Rain, released by Catalyst in 1976, straddled different styles and moods, Strazzeri's piano and synth melodies abetted by top accompaniment from Herman's horn alumni Sam Most and Bobby Shew, playing alongside Cal Tjader's bassist Harvey Newmark and percussionist Don Alias of Blood Sweat and Tears, with Strazzeri's son Steve behind the drumkit. Another fine fusion LP from Strazzeri that's ripe for rediscovery.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54131LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Established by members of the British brass-rock outfit IF with the former Osibisa percussionist Loughty Amao, Zzebra was a forward-thinking hybrid mixing jazz, rock, and world music. Chief songwriter/saxophonist Dave Quincy keeps the arrangements complex and Loughty injects the African element, with former Elastic Band keyboardist Gus Yeadon and guitarist John Terry adding layers of melodic inventiveness. Yielding a progressive jazz style that roped in funk, blues, and west African rhythms, this enthralling LP speaks to Zzebra's forceful reputation as a powerhouse live act of the British jazz fusion scene.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54132LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

For the coveted sophomore album by British fusion band Zzebra, the group underwent some lineup changes, the arrival of the former Joe Cocker keyboardist Tommy Eyre and guitarist Steve Byrd enabling further excursions into unknow territory, morphing the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" into a space-rock synth epic and "Panic" somewhere between metal, be-bop and Latin rock; "Tree" is driven by the vocals of former One frontman Alan Marshall and "Liamo" heightens the African element from former Osibisa percussionist Loughty Amao. A total killer from start to finish -- arguably Zzebra's best!

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: TRESOR 358EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Argentinian producers Oscean return to Tresor with Chronium Radiance, their longest release so far, in which the duo continue the evolution of their sound, coalescing the elemental ideas explored in their first two releases and yielding sublime results. This landmark release will no doubt be seen as the point at which Oscean crystalized a trademark sound, balancing complex percussive rhythms with pulsing and cadenced music in which a universe of often oxymoronic ideas can be found, melded together with a deft touch to create a blissful sonic whole. There is a sense of space and airiness to side A of the record as synth parts drift across the more solid-feeling landscape of the basslines and percussion. Opening track "ChronoRebel" is a propulsive trance induction that brings forth cinematic images of billowing clouds. This nebulous quality is continued on "Neon Harmonies" where the highly syncopated drum track weaves through a haze of colorful synths that while lower tempo than the previous track somehow has an energy of a faster piece. The flip side has a denser, darker quality to it beginning with "Blaster Imploder," a deep and funky track that continues the convention-defying theme by being powerful and frenetic whilst also having a soft and exultant sheen. This is followed by "Echoes of Chaos" which closes out the 12" with a dynamic beat and spacious, sweeping synths that feel as though we are passing through the atmosphere heading towards some distant nebula. Alongside the tracks on the vinyl release, three digital tracks expand on the universe Oscean have built with a truly ecstatic love theme, a retelling of "Neon Harmonies" that unveils a river of dub, and a low tempo, drifting yet no-less affecting piece acting as the closing titles to our voyage to this Osceanic world. 180g 12" vinyl, full pantone printed sleeve. Includes download code featuring three tracks: "Random Destiny," "Neon Harmonies (The Other Version)," "Who Holds the Key?"

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: UTR 159LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Brontez Purnell has been making music since the '90s. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based American musician and writer has centered his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train!!! and Younger Lovers as well as in his award-winning books 100 Boyfriends and Since I Laid My Burden Down. He is also a dancer, film maker and choreographer. Hot on the heels of recent 7" singles for Sub Pop, PPM, and his first solo electronic record No Jack Swing (Dark Entries/Papi Juice), Brontez returns in DIY-punk band formation for a new album entitled Confirmed Bachelor on Upset The Rhythm. These twelve songs presented are of the no-time-wasted variety. Fuzzed-out pop songs, hotly delivered from the heart, often sassy, sometimes sappy, always snappy! Brontez's band includes the multifaceted talents of Vice Cooler (who also produced and mixed the album), Sean Teves (of Younger Lovers) on drums, Kevin Preston (Prima Donna, Green Day) on guitar, Aaron Minton (Prima Donna) on piano and saxophone, and Laena Myers-Ionita on violin. The album was recorded in Los Angeles at The VCR earlier this year. Crystal clear vinyl.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WS 013LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. "North Carolina based singer/songwriter Rosali Middleman has spent the last decade using her voice and guitar to construct tunes built upon the spectrum between joy and pain -- deeply personal lyrics, profound vocals, and striking, heady guitar synchronizing as a perfect pair to deliver a very welcome and fresh perspective on folk rock and roll music. On this newest collection of tunes, Variable Happiness, under the moniker Edsel Axle, her voice takes a winter hibernation to showcase the prodigious slow burn thump of her solo electric guitar playing. While this musical pivot may be a risk to some, the worlds of wilderness created within the music are easily navigated with clarity. Recorded directly to a four-track cassette rig in the comfort of her own home -- each chord struck exhales from the gear and onto magnetic tape, finding its true north, and throwing sand on the bonfire before it burns the foundation. First thought/best thought improvisations naturally trickling down and turning puddles into expansive streams of sound. The opener, 'Some Answer' seems to not have any question before it. As if it has always just been. A mode of intrinsic acceptance. Middleman confidently reigns in atonal midrange melodies and lets them rest in the bottom of the ocean. Every new movement coming up for air. Reviving consciousness, and letting go once more. The small combo amp on the recordings sounds like it's being overloaded and exploding into a peace sign, before fading into the next tune. The title track, "Variable Happiness" suggests that serenity is found within acceptance. It begins with a warm, simple, and circular groove. Bridging the giant landmasses of Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatross' and Loren Connors. The light boogie has surgical tremolo dirge doing major brain work and re-wiring . . . 'Come Down From That Tree Now' isn't so much a command as it is a peaceful suggestion. A neon glazed layer of arpeggios sits in the background, while Middleman wails fully in the foreground. An amalgamation that sounds like Windy and Carl records being blown apart by firecrackers in a bucket. Through these six honey-soaked, deeply psychedelic, overdriven ohm-style meditations, Variable Happiness showcases the prodigious left-hand melodies, and ball peen hammer attack of Middleman's right hand. Striking with great patience and humility. A true-blue guitar denizen of a heady state. A new benchmark in solo guitar recordings..." --Ryley Walker"Another beautiful solo-guitar excursion from Rosali Middleman, filled with meditative songs that circle and eddy like leaves on the wind or a mountain stream in springtime. Her guitar playing has a raw, elemental power that is simultaneously soothing and invigorating, hypnotic and transportive." --Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo/Rose City Band)

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RANDB 126LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

This thirteen-track LP brings together rare recordings from the original Fleetwood Mac's peak period of productivity. Three tracks are a collaboration with Duster Bennett, Alexis Korner, and Christine Perfect, recorded for the BBC. Elsewhere the triple guitar line-up is in blazing form on live recordings of "Oh Well," "Rattlesnake Shake," and "The Green Manalishi." There are showcases for Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer plus a thoughtful live "Albatross." Comes with full credits and sleeve notes.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: REP 052EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

This EP comprises four of the best performances from an exhilarating open-air gig performed in front of 400,000 enthusiastic Parisians. It combines classic tracks ("I Can't Explain," "Summertime Blues") with two new songs ? "Baba O'Riley" and "Relay," the latter unreleased at this point. The recording was made by RTL and transmitted on AM radio, so sound quality is reasonable but not exceptional.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: ASM 006LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

This is the third and final instalment of Jeremiah M. Carter's album triptych, Vessels. Following Rejoice (ASM 001LP, 2020) and Speak You Also (ASM 004LP, 2022), all three albums were conceived within a six-month period during ferociously exalting creative sessions. The emotional turmoil of the early pandemic is as present on Vessels as it is in the other two albums, yet the final instalment showcases as more distinctive sense of focus, where the earlier albums saw Jeremiah expel a state of uncertainty and trepidation into an intense, almost spiritual form of musical cleansing. Vessels still bears those same hallmarks, yet comes across with an air of refinement and finality. Spanning six pieces, each work feels like an integral part of the albums overarching narrative, fervently nestled amid divinity and humility. By its final piece, which also clocks in as the longest in the entire triptych, we are treated to one of Jeremiah's finest moments, and for a few seconds, it all comes together for one last swansong, forming a sonic distillation of elation and grief, desire and passion.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: ASM 007LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In November 2020, KMRU self-released Drawing Water. The release contained three supple works of porous resonance and intimate motion, giving way to a very heartfelt body of work that peers directly into the fabric of the everyday; gestures, movement, conversation, rendered graciously into waveform. Now, Vaagner is proud to present a special edition vinyl of Drawing Water via its A Sunken Mall imprint, with the original material spanning the first side of the record in remastered from. For the second half of the record, the label has taped none other than Abul Mogard, who prepared a new piece by reworking various layers from KMRU's original compositions. This new 17-minute-long piece, tilted "Drawing Water On Matching Teal Surfaces" is defined by a continuously cascading and deeply resounding solemnness, which, towards the work's concluding moments, gradually disperses through a subtle downpour of warm pads, delicately rippling through the fabric of the work, before gently dissolving into thin air.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: N 088LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Alien Transistor announces a reissue of Such December, the fourth album by Japanese indie folk-pop artist, Gratin Carnival. Listeners might already know Gratin Carnival from their appearance on the Alien Parade Japan compilation of indie pop groups working with brass and woodwind. Gratin Carnival's "Just Watching" was one of the many highlights of that compilation, and its gentle bossa-folk glide reappears on Such December. Originally released in 2020, Such December captures beautifully the happy-sad charm of Gratin Carnival. The project of Koreyuki Mitsunaga, Gratin Carnival started in 2011; Mitsunaga had been home recording for some time and decided on the name as an umbrella for his music-making. Mitsunaga's main instruments are guitar, which he uses to great effect throughout, his gorgeous acoustic playing reminiscent of players like Ueno Takashi of Tenniscoats or Jo?o Gilberto, and alto saxophone and clarinet. Those three instruments make up the core of Gratin Carnival's sound, along with Mitsunaga's charmingly doleful singing. Recording at his parents' home, with a four-track cassette recorder and a MacBook, Mitsunaga created Such December during 2020, though the songs on it stretch back to 2016. As with plenty of musicians from the Japanese underground, Mitsunaga is involved in other music, too -- he's been working with The Otoasobi Project, which performs music in collaboration with individuals with learning disabilities, and their families; and he's also involved in improvised music. With Such December, though, you get to hear Mitsunaga's music at its most personal and individual, ten songs of still, gorgeously poised indie folk-pop, where the swooning clang of six strings meets the breathy bliss of woodwind and brass.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: AVM 075LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Teichmann & S?hne's Flows is not so much the result of a collaborative process as it is a process in itself. Over the course of nine pieces, Gebr?der Teichmann -- Andi and Hannes -- and their father Uli repeatedly find common ground between the very different musical styles, sound aesthetics, and subcultural codes they have internalized throughout their lives. The source material out of which the album evolved was culled from several recordings of rehearsal sessions in preparation for the trio's concerts that took place between the years 2012 and 2022. The three added only a few overdubs to those recordings but edited them rigorously to both preserve and transform the spirit of their unlikely collaboration. The combination of Uli's background as a versatile jazz artist and multi-instrumentalist with his sons' penchant for dub techniques, modular synthesis, and live sampling as well as their interest in electronic dance music take on ever-different shapes. Flows, released on the occasion of Uli's 80th birthday, is as joyful, lively and free-spirited as its makers. The cover artwork is a piece created by Lu, Andi and Hannes' mother, who died in 2016 and to whom the album is dedicated.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: AVM 076LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Cloud Management is a project concerned with processes and progress. Featuring Love-Songs members Thomas Korf and Sebastian Kokus and the prolific Ulf Schu?tte, the Hamburg-based trio has tirelessly expanded upon its sound and extended its musical style. After 2022's S/T documented the results of their first jam sessions as a newly-founded group, V.A. started even more modestly and became an even bigger undertaking. Originally conceived as a small one-off release, it grew into a full record which sees the group embracing dub music, collaborating with Peaking Lights' Aaron Coyes and inviting other artists (No UFO's, Seekers International, Coco Em) who reworked select tracks in true dub style. V.A. is marked by inconsistency, openness, and heterogeneity in the best sense of those words: ever-changing, constantly surprising and consistently in motion. In calling it V.A., they paid tribute to their somewhat loose, but conceptually consistent concept of giving various artists full creative license over their own work. Neither a true album in the strict sense of the world nor just a compilation, V.A. is actually the essential Cloud Management record: ever-changing, constantly surprising, consistently in motion.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: AMI 052LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. "Amish Records is pleased to finally announce an expanded and remastered edition of P.G. Six's 2001 debut album, Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, to be released as a gatefold double LP and digitally on Feb 24, 2023. Fully remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artist Meredyth Sparks reimagines the beautiful Chris Krol cover art in an evocative gatefold design. An eight-song bonus LP entitled Live Cuts and Radio Favorites will be included. Documenting performances from the calendar year just before and after the release of Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, the bonus album gathers radio and live shows. P.G. Six plays both songs off the debut and the music of others: Pearls Before Swine's 'I Saw the World' (1968) becomes minimalist, approaching modern classical in his repetitive and percussive piano work; X's 'Drunk in My Past' (1983) feels refracted beyond the horizons of Los Angeles punk; Gubler even looks back to his more recent past with 'Cover Art,' from the debut album of Tower Recordings; looking forward, the bonus LP also includes versions of songs that would later appear on the album The Well of Memory (2004), which Amish will release in an forthcoming expanded edition."

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: ARBITRARY 018LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Chromacolor is one of those records that immediately feels like home even though it is hard to locate stylistically. Written and recorded by Hanno Leichtmann in Berlin and Madeira between 2020 and 2022, it draws on rhythmic minimalism as a guiding principle and might call to mind organic, instrument-based ambient music, but also incorporates jazzy moments as well as Annie Garlid's multi-layered vocals that permeate through these nine pieces. The foundation for Leichtmann's Chromacolor project was laid when the prolific Berlin-based producer, musician, and drummer borrowed a vibraphone and a Fender Rhodes from two friends. Combining their unique sonic affordances with those of a Guitaret, an electric lamellophone, he further expanded his sound palette by inviting other musicians -- Anthea Caddy, Sabine Vogel, Tobias Delius, Els Vandeweyer, Sabine Ercklentz, Mike Majkowski, Andrei Ladeishchikov, Oona Farchy, Gon?alo Caboz, as well as Rafael and Hugo Andrade -- to play small but vital parts in the production of the album. The opener "Kisses and Wine" masterfully sets the tone for an album that is as inviting as it is challenging. Working with relaxed repetitive rhythms, Garlid's anthemic vocals and a sprinkle of saxophone and flute tones courtesy of Delius and Vogel, respectively, as well as tender piano notes played by Leichtmann, it evokes a lot with only few means: a certain melancholy, but also an elevated atmosphere that feels both exuberant and restrained. Leichtmann's elegant study of the power of repetition, minute rhythmic shifts and subtle use of melodic and harmonic elements creates ambiguities and polyvalences like these throughout the entire record, up until its understated finale, aptly titled "A Beautiful Day" -- a drone-jazz piece, if you will, both longing and joyful. As an album, Chromacolor is hard to pigeonhole, but rich and rewarding. All it takes is immersing yourself in it. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin Artwork: Hanno Leichtmann and Mads Emil Nielsen. Includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: AD 001EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 2010 on Aurora Borealis. This is the new 12" version on Archaic Devices. Archaic Devices is a new label founded by Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak. It will serve as the home for his future releases as The Haxan Cloak alongside reissues of his past work under the moniker. Krlic admits that starting a record label wasn't something that had occurred to him until he finished building his own home studio in LA and he regained the master tapes to his records from various underground labels. All of his archival releases have been remastered, with aspects of their design and presentation tightened up by Krlic to present his music exactly as he initially intended. Working with revered visual artist Christopher Leckie, Krlic has built a stark, unique identity for his newly minted label Archaic Devices that extends to a new line of merchandise, as well as new visual directions for the label's first and forthcoming releases.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: AD 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 2011 on Aurora Borealis. This is the new double LP version on Archaic Devices. Archaic Devices is a new label founded by Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak. It will serve as the home for his future releases as The Haxan Cloak alongside reissues of his past work under the moniker. Krlic admits that starting a record label wasn't something that had occurred to him until he finished building his own home studio in LA and he regained the master tapes to his records from various underground labels. All of his archival releases have been remastered, with aspects of their design and presentation tightened up by Krlic to present his music exactly as he initially intended. Working with revered visual artist Christopher Leckie, Krlic has built a stark, unique identity for his newly minted label Archaic Devices that extends to a new line of merchandise, as well as new visual directions for the label's first and forthcoming releases.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: AD 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 2013 on Tri Angle Records. This is the new double LP version on Archaic Devices. Archaic Devices is a new label founded by Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak. It will serve as the home for his future releases as The Haxan Cloak alongside reissues of his past work under the moniker. Krlic admits that starting a record label wasn't something that had occurred to him until he finished building his own home studio in LA and he regained the master tapes to his records from various underground labels. All of his archival releases have been remastered, with aspects of their design and presentation tightened up by Krlic to present his music exactly as he initially intended. Working with revered visual artist Christopher Leckie, Krlic has built a stark, unique identity for his newly minted label Archaic Devices that extends to a new line of merchandise, as well as new visual directions for the label's first and forthcoming releases.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BAADM 015LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Eponymous first album by Continuity, the new project of Swedish artist Martin Herterich, whose sonic explorations of memory and imagination have come to full bloom in this atmospheric and elusive narrative of seven intense cityscapes. Martin Herterich previously released music (as Sand Circles, etc) on labels like Posh Isolation, Not Not Fun Records, iDEAL and Irrlicht."Have you ever felt like all you want is to go back? Continuity is a sonic narrative, a story arc set in a fictional East Asian metropolis. It is not a city you have been to. When you have fallen in love with a place, you long to go back; but it's a memory; fiction if you like. You want to catch the fleeting moment of leaves rustling in the wind, the sun reflecting from the glass panels of the roof above. These memory cycles create emotional patterns. But unlike reality, these spaces are limited. They carry elements of reality in them, narrative components that evoke feelings and signify meaning. Traveling there becomes impossible. Through streetview surfing and 4K walking videos on Youtube, these spaces that are very much real become fictionalized, much like the virtual spaces of video games. Movement is narration. Fiction is something that is, but at the same time isn't, real. In order to understand an imaginary place, one needs to travel there." --Martin Herterich, 2023

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BAADM 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The music heard on this album was originally the result of a commission to score the second half of the film Nico/Nico Crying made by Andy Warhol in 1966. The commission was made by Art Cinema OFFoff in collaboration with B.A.A.D.M for a screening of the film together with a live presentation of the score in September 2021 at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The recording presented here was made in the last week of that year and mixed soon after in January 2022. These recordings are essentially live-recordings performed by the composers together in the same room and recorded in a manner reminiscent of the record making process as it was in the late 1960s. The instrumentation used to make the sounds on this album consists of modular synthesis, zither, voice, contaminated field recordings and metal percussion. Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician part of the vibrantly re-emerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, and is associated with practices characterized by the extensive use of sustained sound. Erlandsson presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman and Maria W Horn. Recent releases include Gyttjans Topografi on XKatedral, Minnesm?rke on Hallow Ground and the collaboration Emanate made with Yair Elazar Glotman on the label 13070. In addition to his own artistic practice Erlandsson holds a position as studio technician and was temporarily, from October 2022 to September 2023, the acting studio director at Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm. The compositions of Maria W Horn implement synthetic sound, electroacoustic and acoustic instruments and audiovisual components, often devising generative and algorithmic processes to control timbre, tuning and texture. She employs a varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ and various chamber music formats. Acoustic instruments are often paired with digital synthesis techniques, in order to extend the instruments timbral capacities. Often based on minimalist structures, her music explores the inherent spectral properties of sound and their ability to transcend time and space, reality and dream.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BT 107LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

Black Truffle announces its first release from celebrated London-based Canadian composer Cassandra Miller. Though her body of mature work stretches back almost twenty years, many listeners were introduced to Miller through the success of her astonishing 2015 Duet for Cello and Orchestra, which sets an imperturbable two-note cello part against a series of increasingly dense orchestrations of an Italian folk melody. Traveller Song/Thanksong, the first release of her music on vinyl, presents a pair of compositions for voice and ensemble that exemplify Miller's gently absurd, strikingly beautiful, and utterly unique work. Like many of Miller's compositions, these pieces originate in existing music. "Traveller Song" (2016/2018) begins from a 1950s song of an anonymous Sicilian cart driver recorded by Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella, which Miller recorded herself singing along to, going on to then record herself singing to her own layered voices. Heard sometimes alone, sometimes layered, her pre-recorded voice is accompanied by a chamber sextet drawn from London's Plus-Minus Ensemble. "Thanksong" begins from recordings of Miller singing along to the third movement of Beethoven's late quartet in A minor (Op. 132), the "holy song of thanks" the composer wrote to express his gratitude for (temporarily) recovering from illness. Recording herself singing along repeatedly to each of the individual parts of the quartet, Miller created an aural score where each member of the string quartet listens to their own part on headphones, playing by ear. Performed on this recording by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini, with whom Miller has a decades-long relationship, they are joined by the British soprano Juliet Fraser, who sings material from the Beethoven quartet "as slowly and quietly as possible." Presented in a stylish sleeve adorned with photography by Lasse Marhaug and liner notes by Cassandra Miller, this is a key release from a major contemporary composer whose work challenges and dazzles in equal measure.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BT 108LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Black Truffle announces Tender Membranes, the label's first release from Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electro-acoustic composer Marja Ahti. Active for a decade in the Finnish underground music scene, in recent years Ahti has developed a distinctive approach to patiently unfolding electro-acoustic constructions, documented on a string of solo releases and collaborative projects with Judith Hamann and her husband Niko-Matti Ahti. Working with concrete and instrumental sounds, field recordings, and electronics, Ahti favours neither disjunctive collage nor monolithic consistency; rather, her work is composed of organically unfolding sequences of details and textures. Tender Membranes consists of four lengthy pieces, partly inspired by the image of the senses and mind as membranes allowing for the passage between inner and outer spaces, sensation and its causes, creating a world. Ahti's unhurried pacing encourages this sense of listening as an opening or surrender to sound, which can often create the impression that the listener is moving through a space zooming in on details. Like those of the masters of the French musique concr?te tradition, Ahti's sounds are not often recognizable, though they might suggest proximity or distance, open environments or closed spaces, the urban or rural, day or night. What Ahti calls her "poetic way of experiencing and organizing the familiar and the unfamiliar" is sustained throughout Tender Membranes, but each piece has its own character. Arriving in a sleeve reproducing contemporary Finnish photographer Sini Pelkki's fragmented visions of the everyday, Tender Membranes is a balm to reawaken tired ears.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BT 109LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II continues Black Truffle's documentation of the late work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. Like the first volume of the series, the two works recorded here were written for The Ever Present Orchestra, an ensemble founded in Z?rich in 2016 to perform Lucier's work exclusively. At the core of the music Lucier wrote for the ensemble is the electric guitar, an instrument he began to explore in 2013. Played with e-bows, in these works electric lap steel guitars take on roles akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier's works since the early 1980s. This strikingly elegant pair of compositions would serve as an ideal introduction to Lucier's late music for a listener as yet unfamiliar with its graceful exploration of beating patterns and other acoustic phenomenon. The two pieces have quite different characters, exemplifying Lucier's ability to harvest a remarkable range of musical results from closely related compositional procedures and concerns. Showcasing Lucier's ability to uncover near-infinite complexity within seemingly simple materials, Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II is a fitting tribute to one of the major figures of the experimental music tradition and a testament to the continuing power of his work.

 

PRICE: $43.50

CAT #: BT 110LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Black Truffle presents a previously unheard performance by rudra veena master Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, recorded in the North Indian city of Vrindavan at the Druhpad Samaroh festival in 1982. The great exponents of the tradition from whom Z.M. Dagar descended were all singers, and dhrupad is essentially vocal music. However, as Z.M. Dagar explained, the veena family of instruments plays an important role in the education and practice of dhrupad singers, especially as an aid to mastering the fine microtonal nuances of pitch essential to the genre. In the great Dagar family tradition, his approach to the various ragas that make up the dhrupad repertoire was stately, slow, and considered, with a great emphasis on the alap, the heavily improvised exposition section. True to form, in this recording of Dagar performing the night raga Yaman Kalyan, the alap section stretches out to more than forty minutes of slow-motion bliss, a frozen tanpura drone hovering above Dagar's gracefully bent notes and elegantly twisting phrases. In the alap's first half, Dagar's figures are so intently focused on the lower reaches of the rudra veena's range that they register more as shudders and moans than melodic patterns. As the performance continues, he slowly climbs in pitch, though continuing with the same intent focus on the articulation of single notes and subtle microtonal variations. This leads to the jod section of the performance, which, though still accompanied only by the tanpura, gradually takes on a more rhythmic character. Developing almost imperceptibly over the course of nearly thirty minutes, the jod moves from the stillness of the opening alap to a rapid pulse that announces the closing section of the piece, where Dagar is joined by Shrikant Mishra on the pakhawaj (a double headed hand drum). Where many performers use the final section of the raga as an exercise in unrestrained virtuosity, Dagar and Mishra subtly weave a web of finely shifting accents and hypnotic melodic variations, bringing the recording to a fitting conclusion while remaining within the meditative space occupied by the performance as a whole. Adorned with beautiful archival photographs of Dagar taken by Swedish percussion legend Bengt Berger and accompanied by detailed notes from Bradford Bailey, Vrindavan 1982 is a stunning document of music unmatched in its patient focus and mysterious emotional depth.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BJR 089LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Ndox Electrique results from the collaboration between Fran?ois R. Cambuzat, Gianna Greco (also known for their work with Ifriqiyya Electrique), and the n'do?p community in Senegal. The project originated from the duo's quest to trace the origins of North African rituals, which led them to the Lebu community in Cap-Vert, an isolated region at Africa's westernmost point. The album seamlessly blends the duo's electronically-infused avant-rock with the intense, ritualistic vocal chants and rhythmic percussion of the n'do?p community. It serves as a captivating bridge between these two musical worlds, capturing the essence of this cross-cultural collaboration. The text also highlights the challenges of merging Western rock and experimental influences with the sensibilities of their Senegalese collaborators, ultimately resulting in a unique and powerful musical experience. Ndox Electrique transcends cultural boundaries, immersing listeners in the enchanting sounds and mystical narratives of Western Africa.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: BUDA 860388CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Bats?kh Dorj was born in 1990 in Tsengel, the last village in western Mongolia. This remarkable musician is a master of the various overtone styles typical of the Tuvas. Rare and complete artist, because, luthier, he brings a major contribution to the tradition. He sings to us about his nomadic culture through mountains and travels, notably imitating the rhythms of horses and the flow of water."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: CYFUSOUL

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Introducing Eulo Cramps, Call Super's fourth album that sits at the epicenter of a multifaceted project titled Tell Me I Didn't Choose This that draws on poetry, auto-biographical writing, painting and music. Melting improv, free jazz and the distinctive sound Call Super has perfected over the years with the helping hand of the invention of their "eharp," Eulo Cramps is a channel where the producer-artist exorcised trauma and epiphanies around their own coming-of-age story. The paintings series (which will be exhibited at a later date) tied to Tell Me I Didn't Choose This express these ideas more deeply, the canvas acting as a physical space for self-interrogation. One to usually remain in solitude whilst producing, on this new album Seaton breaks this rule and invites the distinctive voices of Julia Holter and Eden Samara to add their ethereal elemental resonance on tracks "Sapling" and "Illumina" -- the latter already noted as a Pitchfork favorite. Using their voices as a portal into Seaton's own personal sphere, they found respite in the falsetto of Holter and Samara. Whilst on "Goldwood" Elke Wardlaw lends her dulcet tones with a passage of spoken word that ebbs over Seaton's trickling melodies. The saxophone, played by Seaton's father, finds itself at home once again on this record too. A riveting and personal exploration, this album is Seaton's most powerful and distinctive to date.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CVSD 102CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

On this maiden recording, Chicago-based bassist Jason Roebke leads a new quartet, featuring his original compositions and a stellar lineup. The music, which was brilliantly recorded at Steve Albini's legendary Electrical Audio and expertly mixed and mastered by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, is performed by veteran reed player Edward Wilkerson Jr., whose own bands Eight Bold Souls and Shadow Vignettes were among the great ensembles of eighties/nineties Chicago, extending the AACM tradition and spotlighting Wilkerson's sensitive improvising. Here, wielding tenor saxophone and alto clarinet, Wilkerson is a commanding -- but also supremely collaborative -- voice, joining the younger pianist Mabel Kwan and drummer Marcus Evans. Roebke's scores are rich and flexible, but they concentrate on exploring multifarious ways of stopping, something that's been a feature of the bassist's own improvisation for decades. Investigating the interrelationships between flow and cessation, the quartet is at once organic and halting, Roebke and Evans playing together with great assurance, but occasional interruptions of metronomes or Roebke's lo-fi cassette recordings pushing against the fluidity and expressiveness in revelatory ways. Roebke's own bass playing has been a feature of scads of ensembles, both working and ad hoc, including Jason Stein Trio, Jeb Bishop Trio, James Falzone's KLANG, Jorrit Dijkstra's Flatlands Collective, Pillow Circles, The Whammies, Keefe Jackson, and Mike Reed's People, Places, and Things. The CD package for Four Spheres comes adorned with a beautiful painting by Rebecca Shore.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DAMGOOD 602CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: JACK 036CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Green color vinyl version. Incredible '82 live show from Clutch Cargo's Detroit, featuring Terry Graham of The Gun Club on drums. The Cramps are on top of their game with psychotic interplanetary performance of infamous garage punk-a-billy underground hits as "New Kind Of Kick," "Goo Goo Muck," "Potentate Of Love," and more.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: JACK 037CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Red color vinyl version. Part of the Italian leg of The Sisters of Mercy's Armageddon Tour in 1985. On May 2nd 1985 the band was again in great form for a three-piece as they adjusted to life after Marx, and the performances were all amazing. A great live for Sisters of Mercy fans.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: DMOO 043LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Saxophonist Ornette Coleman was more than just a major force in the free jazz movement. In fact, the term was coined by the album of the same name released by his quartet in 1961, his guiding ethos the erasure of fixed structures via improvisation. Released in 1960, Change Of The Century is one of the ground-breaking albums Coleman cut for Atlantic with bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Billy Higgins, and trumpeter Don Cherry, which made a significant impact on the future direction of jazz. Relying on intuition, their musical chemistry and overriding openness, Coleman & Co. here conjure some of the greatest work of his career.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: DMOO 044LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The tragic tale of Billie Holiday involves a fractured childhood, a seemingly endless series of abusive men, and addictions to heroin and alcohol, all played out in the public eye after targeting by the FBI. Nevertheless, her huskily expressive voice is timeless and the way she brought blues phrasing into jazz was hugely influential. The 1956 release Lady Sings The Blues took its name from her shocking autobiography and the disc finds her on fine form throughout, the landmarks including the immortal "Strange Fruit," the defiant "God Bless The Child," the mournful "No Good Man" and the great title track. Classic Lady Day all the way!

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: DIS 012LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress on silver vinyl. Recut from the Silver Sonyare masters in November 2008 at Chicago Mastering Service. Recorded: April & August 1981. First released on 12": June 1984.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: DIS 193LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "Hammered Hulls' debut LP, Careening, may very well be the last record to be recorded and mixed at the famed Washington, D.C. area recording studio, Inner Ear. Engineered by studio owner Don Zientara and produced by Ian MacKaye, Careening was started right before the pandemic lockdown and completed in summer/fall of 2021. A new band of long-time players, Hammered Hulls' music hews close to some of their early influences. Alec MacKaye is the voice, Mark Cisneros is the guitarist, Mary Timony takes a nimble and rarely-heard turn as bassist, and Chris Wilson commands the drums. Each of them bring their individual imprint to the total sound. This concussion of strength upon strength, unified by vulnerable songs, only barely contained, is the signature sound of Hammered Hulls."

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: DC 880LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between Fran?ois J. Bonnet & Stephen O'Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions The epic opening track 'Four Rays (Anti Divide)' welcomes, for the first time, other musicians?--?in this case a wind quintet?--?expanding the duo's sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O'Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music's relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A s?ance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DRONE 025EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Heart-wrenching ambient to cerebral techno: Inverno is Carlo Maria's debut on Drone."Winter in the northern hemisphere is often seen as the season of death, a state of life so often negatively connoted. I see winter as an incubator of change, where life takes the time to free its potential again. This record is a memory of past winters and a reminder that new ones will come. It celebrates the state of stillness as a necessary element of movement. It is an invitation to acceptance. The music itself might not necessarily express these ideas, but it acts as a trigger of memories and feelings of the times when these recordings were conceived. I like to see music recordings as pages of a diary. This music was recorded in a time and space span of various years and locations. 'Exhumed' was recorded at the end of October 2016 in Berlin; the other three tracks were recorded in Milan and performed live in various locations across Italy between in winter/spring 2021/2022." --Carlo Maria

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: DRUNKEN 167EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Since forming in early 2021, The Prize have established themselves as one of Melbourne's premier rock and roll outfits, funnelling vocal soaked hooks and harmonies through a three guitar onslaught and a pulsating rhythm section. Their unique blend of power pop and rock and roll has earned new fans and followers from all sides of the globe. The Prize's debut EP Wrong Side of Town sold out on the first day of its release and received high praise from the likes of punk legend, Henry Rollins. The band quickly found itself securing plum support slots for bands like the Sunnyboys, Pavement, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. This culminated in a national tour supporting The Chats in late 2022 that has helped to establish them as a premium live act with the tunes to back it up. First Sight, the much anticipated second release from The Prize will be out just in time for the EU/UK tour via Anti Fade Records and Drunken Sailor.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DUST 118CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"My Brutal Life delves into the profound aspects of our artistic endeavors encompassing brutalism, the environment, and humanity. Throughout our ongoing creative journey, we consistently gravitate towards these themes, documenting and exploring the human experience within these environments. Our unwavering fixation on symmetry, synchronization, and repetition are the driving force in our artistic expression. Moreover, we strive to peel away superficial layers to expose the underlying emotional strata of the human aspect, unearthing the often-overlooked beauty within the ordinary. Although frequently disregarded, the human aspect resonates with echoes from the past, enlightening and guiding our artistic process. Even the failures encountered serve as poignant reminders of the delicate structures we construct. My Brutal Life constitutes a pivotal component within an enduring exhibition, meticulously crafted to delve into the aesthetic and human facets of brutalism." --The Black Dog

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: DUST 118LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. "My Brutal Life delves into the profound aspects of our artistic endeavors encompassing brutalism, the environment, and humanity. Throughout our ongoing creative journey, we consistently gravitate towards these themes, documenting and exploring the human experience within these environments. Our unwavering fixation on symmetry, synchronization, and repetition are the driving force in our artistic expression. Moreover, we strive to peel away superficial layers to expose the underlying emotional strata of the human aspect, unearthing the often-overlooked beauty within the ordinary. Although frequently disregarded, the human aspect resonates with echoes from the past, enlightening and guiding our artistic process. Even the failures encountered serve as poignant reminders of the delicate structures we construct. My Brutal Life constitutes a pivotal component within an enduring exhibition, meticulously crafted to delve into the aesthetic and human facets of brutalism." --The Black Dog

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: EFFICIENT 032LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney) whose eponymous monthly NTS Radio shows, tinctured fusions of fugitive sounds and reverie-inducing archival speech, have won them an ardent following. It follows from the London-based duo's Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022. Searchlight Moonbeam is an autumnal dreamscape, intimate and vespertine, pensive and irresolute. An imagined community where differences drop off and resonances emerge -- between Maher Shalal Hash Baz affiliates Kasumi Trio, Taiwanese score composer Chen Ming Chang whose "Rainwater" (written for Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1986 film Dust In The Wind) is exquisitely heartbroken, and the plangent improvisations of self-taught French pianist Delphine Dora. Revelations are frequent: the bedsit isolationism of Bo Harwood and John Cassavetes' "No One Around to Hear It" (from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie); the narked minimalism of Klang (an early 2000s band formed by ex-Elastica guitarist and featuring prize-winning experimental novelist Isabel Waidner on bass); the etude-grooves and echoic wobble of below-the-radar French avant-gardists Omert?; the beautiful, plaintively dubby "Is It You?" by Slapp Happy; a psych-tinged reimagining of PiL's "Poptones" by Simon Fisher Turner (one half of Deux Filles, and here, recording for ?l as The King of Luxembourg) that's as perverse as the cover of Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats." Searchlight Moonbeam is the musical analog of an Italo Calvino novel or a medieval fable. Associative, intuitive, borderless. Emotional and mysterious. Endowed with the tactility of Braille. A private language that is both unknowable and understood. It is a record of the seasons, for the seasons. Featuring an evocative essay by writer Jeremy Atherton Lin and disarming cover art by Penny Davenport, Searchlight Moonbeam showcases Rollo and Tierney's still-unrivalled talent for gloaming melodies, disques du cr?puscule, ensorcelled storytelling. Also featuring Bhairavi Raman, Nanthesh Sivarajah, O.G. Jigg, Scala, Soft Location, Gyeongsu, CROCHE, Un, and Harry Plunket-Greene.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: EPR 073LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP set capturing some of Causa Sui's heaviest, most psychedelic tunes recorded live at Loppen -- a legendary Copenhagen venue, located in the famous (and infamous) Freetown Christiania commune. This is the sound of Causa Sui at their home turf, stretching out and exploring eight epic fan-favorites from their entire catalogue in front of a small crowd of 400 people in a packed sold-out venue. The show was recorded the first week that Covid restrictions were lifted on venues in Denmark, which called for an especially buzzing night, even for a band that has exclusively played no more than a handful of shows each year since their 2005 debut. Each Causa Sui show is unique. Here is a different perspective of the band's music -- it's looser, more free-flowing, and some tracks are warped into something far from their original versions, bouncing off the wooden beams on the low ceiling of Loppen with renewed energy. At one point you can hear the band calling to take a breather and let some air inside the sauna-like temperature of the show, which just weeks before seemed impossible. Loppen 2021 offers a complete set from start to finish, so since chances that you'll catch the band live in person are slim, this is the next best thing. Mixed and mastered by Jonas Munk. Edition of 1000 copies on colored ecomix vinyl. Includes download card.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: FAITBACK 032LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Faitiche welcomes Andrew Black aka blackbody_radiation. His debut album Ultra-Materials gathers six ghostly drones, created with the help of sound masking. Andrew Black, who hails from one of the UK's post-industrial North West Milltowns has a sensitive feeling for space and its acoustics. Having trained as a designer and operated within the realms of architecture and public space, it was only natural to extend his interest to manipulating field recordings. The six pieces collected on Ultra-Materials provide an insight into Black's highly sensitive minimalism: they stand for a subtly meandering mediation on room acoustics and place, which are manipulated with the help of sound masking, among other things -- that is, the addition and superimposition of artificially generated frequencies to mask unwanted sounds. Sometimes the pieces are reminiscent of warm engine noise, sometimes one thinks of carefully captured natural phenomena. Their strength lies in their elusiveness: free of concrete attributions or musical location, they can unfold their hypnotic pull without revealing anything about their origins. Harmonics at times shimmer, at times warble and at times coexist. It is an attempt to get in touch with our listening abilities.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: FAITICHE 033LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

SG is none other than Andrew Pekler returning to Faitiche with an album of sentimental guitar escapism. For Lovers Only/Rain Suite features ten tracks made using only an electric guitar and a handful of effects pedals (plus some additional recordings of rain) and finds Pekler once again attempting to reconcile his tendencies towards kitsch, experimentation and minimalism. Faitiche asked notorious Chicago romantic Sam Prekop for his take on the album -- his reply: "It's a wonder where the rivers go and far, how fast or slow. Just seconds to remember, who can forget, when you are lost. I think to recount every step, in both hands, eyes open, the clouds unfold, one two three. Every other step, just as well. Where the moss is soft, you know strong. How many hours, days? I could have been careful, did I forget? Never mind. Waking up, in these arms, where the rivers go, slow. One two three, one two three."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FARO 138X-CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Recorded in Paris, in 1976, Visions of Dawn is the stunning "lost" Brazilian acid-folk masterpiece. First uncovered and released in 2009, the record transfixed Brazilian music lovers and fans of otherworldly psych-folk alike. Led by the sharp lyrics and gorgeous, voice of a young Joyce Moreno, the trio is completed by the late great Brazilian percussion legend Nana Vasconcelos, and master arranger, producer and bassist Mauricio Maestro. These beautiful recordings offer a unique opportunity to sit in on the original sessions of tracks that would later become Brazilian cult-classics, like swinging samba-jazz opener "Banana" and "Clareana", a lullaby named after Joyce's daughters Clara and Ana. The trippiest moments come from "Jardim Dos Deuces" (one of Frank Ocean's favorite tracks of all time) and the orgasmic album closer "Chegeda."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FARO 238CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Far Out Recordings presents laid back Brazilian groove maestro Joao Donato's synth-heavy collaboration with his son Donatinho. Sintetizamor sees the father-son duo jovially hurtle through space and time across ten tracks of sparkling pop, Brazilian boogie and club friendly disco-funk. Joao Donato has been a hugely influential figure in the development of Brazilian music since the mid-1950s. He's played and recorded with virtually every one of his fellow Brazilian masters. Many of his own albums (of which he's recorded over three-dozen) are regarded with such adulation that "cult-favorites" doesn't quite cut it. Aged 82 at the time, Donato's collaboration with his prodigious, synth obsessed son Donatinho -- whose keyboard talents have been called on by the likes of the late Gal Costa, Djavan, and Donatinho's contemporaries such as Diogo Strausz -- was originally released back in 2017, as a limited Brazil-only release.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: FTR 739LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Vinylization of the splendid 2021 cassette, issued by Garden Portal. The music was recorded partially out west in San Francisco and Point Reyes (hence the title), as well as in Jeffrey Alexander's current locale of Philadelphia. An instrumental addition to Alexander's canon, the music was mostly generated on guitar, but other sonic elements include -- bass, pebbles, fake mellotron, waves, moog, shells, fife, magnetic tape, and talking book phonograph. The results are a sweet, rural stroll through the kind of mind gardens the various off-shoots of the Youngbloods explored back in the Raccoon Records era, when they were based in Point Reyes as well. Reyes's other main counter-culture avatar was Philip K. Dick, who lived there for a few years in the late '50s and early '60s. But Jeffrey's music displays none of the red-hot paranoia that flashed through PKD's work of that time. If anything, the mood is paranoia's antidote -- a rolling, casual float through cheeb-scented air with lots going on around the edges, but none of it in the least bit threatening. Given the loud sluice of Alexander's recent work with the Heavy Lidders, Reyes feels laid back and reflective, but there's nothing wrong with that. Indeed, there's everything right with it. In times like this, when the cultural shit storm shows no sign of abating, we can all use a record that allows us to lay back and center ourselves. Reyes is just that kind of record, and man is it ever perfectly timed for just such a moment as this." --Byron Coley, 2023

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: GPM 733EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Two accomplished house mainstays come together on Get Physical Music as James Curd joins forces with the legendary Osunlade for superb new single Chocolate Puddin' while FNX Omar and Kai Alc? step up with their own remixes. Curd came up as a DJ in Chicago and has gone on to become a mainstay of the scene. He is also credited with inventing GSwing, a house sound infused with swing. He has run various labels over the years while releasing on some of the world's finest imprints and serving up his magical sets everywhere from fabric in London to The Avalon in Los Angeles and The Arches in Glasgow. American Osunlade meanwhile has deep spiritual roots in Yoruba traditions that are also reflected in the name of his record label. He makes music with a rare spirituality as proven once again here. The superb Chocolate Puddin' is silky smooth deep and Afro-tinged house with gorgeous percussive melodies and soft shakers. It's full of soul and warmth with meaningful leads that bring plenty of uplifting emotions next to a bluesy vocal. Atlanta's house mainstay and a long-time underground favorite Kai Alc? then remixes. His version is more pacey but no less deep -- the jazzy chords are seductively draped over the cuddly deep drums and the vocal has a more soulful edge. Osunlade also offers his own Yoruba soul mix which is a hi-tech sound with futuristic synth chords and uplifting house drums. Last to remix is Moroccan mainstay and label regular FNX Omar. He flips the track into something that is richly layered with percussion and nimble bass, organic hand claps and hypnotic drum lines that all sink you in deep. This package is as delicious as its name suggests.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: GODUNK 101LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Formed by Monster Magnet's John McBain and Soundgarden's Matt Cameron & Ben Shepherd in 1993 during some downtime from their day jobs and side project Hater (who released a self-titled album in 1993), Wellwater Conspiracy set about immersing themselves in the dayglo world of sixties psychedelia, channeling the vibrations of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and the 13th Floor Elevators to produce the garage lo-fi-lysergic assault on the senses that is their debut album Declaration of Conformity. Originally issued on Mudhoney's Steve Turners Super Electro label in 1997, the album was met with critical acclaim upon its release, and Rolling Stone magazine said, "Declaration's tinny, fuzzed-out sonics decidedly evoke the Summer of Love." God Unknown Records welcomes the album back into print and on all digital platforms, and it will see the release of a remastered vinyl pressing with extra tracks and new artwork taking influence from Blue Note Records' fabled artwork. From start to finish, Declaration Of Conformity is a loving homage to the true beginnings of psychedelic rock, long before the music got harder and heavier. Songs like "Green Undertow" and "Sleeveless" hark back to the time when The Beatles were spinning the world on its axis with "Tomorrow Never Knows," Syd Barrett was the piper at the gates of dawn and Roky Erickson was introducing the world to his Texan psychedelic sounds. Wellwater Conspiracy's music exists at that moment when pop music started to fracture and go far further out. It was still pop music, but the edges were starting to blur and the sounds were starting to fracture. This is where Declaration of Conformity sits; at the dawn of one of the biggest cultural shifts in musical history. The Bandcamp link also features two bonus download-only tracks, a cover of "Akka Ragga" by Shocking Blue and "Late Night" by Syd Barrett. Both tracks feature Josh Homme on guitar and bass.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: GF 2838CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Django is a French-Italian miniseries produced by Sky and Canal+, an English-language reinterpretation with an international cast of the 1966 Italian film of the same name directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero. The series designed for an international audience boasts a leading cast including Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, Nicholas Pinnock, Lisa Vicari, and Tom Austen. The Django series was created by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, adored by international critics and successfully aired in Italy, France, the UK and Australia. The double CD edition will contain the full tracklist with the OST created by Mokadelic for the TV series, while on vinyl there will be a selection of tracks approved by the band and the production of Django.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GF 2838LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Double LP version. Django is a French-Italian miniseries produced by Sky and Canal+, an English-language reinterpretation with an international cast of the 1966 Italian film of the same name directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero. The series designed for an international audience boasts a leading cast including Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, Nicholas Pinnock, Lisa Vicari, and Tom Austen. The Django series was created by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, adored by international critics and successfully aired in Italy, France, the UK and Australia. The double CD edition will contain the full tracklist with the OST created by Mokadelic for the TV series, while on vinyl there will be a selection of tracks approved by the band and the production of Django.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: VPRL 4246LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

[cancelled release\ ] "Presented with a carefully selected set of digital multi-track master recordings from the archives of the iconic Jamaican reggae producer Bunny Striker Lee, next generation UK producer and dub engineer Prince Fatty (Mike Pelanconi) fed the audio into the analog realm for mixing through a carefully built audio analog system similar to that used by Osbourne Ruddock (King Tubby) producing ten new dub mixes for the modern age. The source material for the project includes Linval Thompson's 'Jah Jah The Conqueror,' Jackie Edwards 'The Invasion,' Cornel Campbell's 'Press Along,' Horace Andy's 'Don't Try To Use Me,' Ronnie Davis' 'Sun Is Shining,' Barry Brown's 'Give Thanks & Praise,' Rod Taylor's 'Garden Of Eden,' Neville Brown's 'Prophesy,' Leroy Smart's 'No Love,' and Don Carlos' 'Ababajonol.'"

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: GUESS 211LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. 50th anniversary official reissue of this holy grail kraut album from 1972. Real underground heavy-prog/psychedelic hard-rock with raw, in-your-face production, German lyrics, insane acid-fuzz guitar, garage organ and dark, proto-doom atmosphere -- the real deal! Named after the famous Lovecraft book, Necronomicon formed in the German town of Aachen in 1970, first influenced by bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Hendrix... In 1972 they entered a small studio in the Dutch border and recorded in just five days a concept album named Tips zum Selbstmord. The title roughly translates as "Tips on how to commit suicide" but the message the band wanted to give had nothing to do with taking your own life but instead with how mankind was facing self-destruction, destroying its own planet by pollution, wars, exploitation and overpopulation. 500 copies of the album were privately pressed by the band, housed in a lavish, cross shaped multi fold-out cover. It was a graphical translation of what they wanted to express musically. Original copies are impossible to find, making it one of the most desirable and sought-after kraut/German albums ever. Here's a long overdue new vinyl reissue. RIYL: Black Sabbath, Amon D??l, Gila, Paternoster, Hawkwind, G?a, German Oak, Pink Floyd, Hendrix. Faithful reproduction of the original multi-fold-out cross shaped cover; sourced from the original master tapes; insert with detailed liner notes and photos. "... one of the best and most unique German records of the early seventies." --Cosmic Dreams At Play "... Necronomicon has created a dark and powerful vision that blends psychedelic and progressive music with a proto-punk garage band sensibility" --Rolf Semprebon (AllMusic)

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: HG 2305LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Martina Berther and Philipp Schlotter are prolific in their respective ways, having been active in pop and jazz music, respectively, as well as playing in bands and exploring the outer fringes of sound art or composing music for film. Their first joint album Matt was recorded over the course of four days in a church in the Swiss village after which the album was named. Berther and Schlotter worked with the building's organ as well as synthesizers and electric bass to follow an experimental approach that oscillated between composition and free improvisation. The five pieces, recorded directly to tape by Flo G?tte without any additional overdubs, are characterized by an intimacy and rawness that calls to mind the introspective atmosphere of Lawrence English's latest album for the Swiss label. Matt is the result of two versatile composers and musicians executing minimalist ideas by giving them plenty of space to unfold. The album opens with "Unruhe," a composition that is based on the twelve-tone technique. Using a stopwatch to ensure the adherence to the pre-determined temporal intervals between the individual notes, Berther and Schlotter used the church organ and synthesizers for an ominous piece that traverses different moods and levels of intensity throughout its 14-minute run time. "LFO1" and "LFO2" are different variations of the same concept: based on a synthesizer preset and structured by an organ drone, two tone generators slowly fall silent, resulting in elegiac pieces that call to mind the work of ?liane Radigue. "Frachter" and "Gallia" put more emphasis on percussive elements. Again working with organ as well as Berther's prepared electric bass, this improvisation comprises interlocking textures that sound almost menacing on "Frachter," while they create a very different atmosphere on "Gallia." These notable discrepancies in sound and mood are even more astonishing if you consider that the two pieces are based on the exact same recording, played at different speeds. As two variations on the same idea with very different results, these two pieces perfectly represent how the duo effectively creates emotionally affective sound worlds with very few means. Berther and Schlotter's conceptual minimalism yields rewarding, multi-faceted aesthetic results. Matt is an intimate album, marked by a sense of vividness and spontaneity, but also the product of compositional conciseness.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SUBURBIA 044LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Learned on a whim and played, in its entirety, as an encore on the band's 1999 tour, Boris The Sprinkler's take on the Circle Jerks classic Group Sex album manages to shave almost two minutes off the fifteen-minute running time of the original. Originally released in 2000 as a CD-only on singer Rev. N?rb's own Bulge Records, this is the first vinyl appearance of this spirited tribute to the World's Most Efficient Album. Revel in the brief cyclone of whimsical discontent that is the special "We Lost All The Original Photos Over the Course of the Interceding Two Dozen Years So We Had To Make New Cover Art" edition!

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: HOS 035LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Live set from Aretha Franklin never before heard on a commercial release. And it is with pride that History of Soul can say that the recordings, made in a TV studio in Cologne during her first European tour in 1968, are smack in the middle of soul's Golden Age. The musical quality -- the great artist at her peak -- is so high that this issue can only enhance her reputation. This is prime Aretha Franklin -- and soul music doesn't get much better than this.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: RANDB 098CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Live set from Aretha Franklin never before heard on a commercial release. And it is with pride that History of Soul can say that the recordings, made in a TV studio in Cologne during her first European tour in 1968, are smack in the middle of soul's Golden Age. The musical quality -- the great artist at her peak -- is so high that this issue can only enhance her reputation. This is prime Aretha Franklin -- and soul music doesn't get much better than this.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HOP 017LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Essential repress of this great LP of experimental Belgian folk music. Original pressing sold out within weeks and was listed at number 10 in the Quietus' best albums of the year so far. A remarkable body of experimental compositions that taps the deep well of raw, emotive expression rumbling below numerous traditions of European folk music. As a member of Ghent's experimental music scene, over the past two decades Annelies Monser? has slowly refined a singular approach to musicality, moving from the sparse, instrumental piano works from that defined her early career, toward increasingly complex arrangements of instrumentation that offer a central place to her own voice, issued by noteworthy imprints such as Morc Tapes, Stroom, and three:four. Monser?'s solo efforts establish a strikingly beautiful and remarkably unique territory that elegantly balances between rigorous experimentalism, minimalism, drone, and folk. Recorded between 2016 and 2022, Mares' is a deep body of sonority that draws upon the fundamental human need to express and commune through sound, projecting this ancient need into forward-thinking forms without sacrificing its roots. Profoundly beautiful, elegant, and poetic, these eight tracks offer immersion into a singular creative voice.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: HOS 891CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Vatican Shadow's Church Of All Hallows' Eve. Full-length soundtrack of terror on Manhattan's bloody streets. Now available on compact disc. The tracks are intended as soundtrack for private or group gatherings during the Halloween season and autumnal nights. File under: environmental, soundtrack, holiday, thematic, spooky, true crime, horror, sound effects, fall, nostalgia, autumnal, Halloween, field recording, the sounds of October 31st.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: HOS 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Debut album from Fantastic Twins on blue color vinyl. Fantastic Twins, the ongoing project of Julienne Dessagne, is a sonic exploration of dual characters born from one distinct perspective. A producer, songwriter and acclaimed live performer, Dessagne has spent the last decade sculpting a unique world, releasing on influential labels such as Optimo Music, supporting Bicep on tour and earning the stewardship of electronic music icons including the late, great Andrew Weatherall, and 2023 sees the release of Fantastic Twins long-anticipated album, Two Is Not a Number. Prioritising a natural predisposition to experimentation alongside decades spent on the most open-minded dancefloors, Fantastic Twins' focus on a hybrid approach, featuring synthesizers, samplers, sequencers and modular effects has enraptured audiences at some of the world's finest nightclubs. Here, Dessagne's own vocals act as an organic anchor amid a truly live set that acts as a continuation of the cultures of Kosmische, pure techno and contemporary psychedelia. Following a decade of releases on labels such as Optimo Music, Hippie Dance and Kompakt, 2023 also saw the launch of House of Slessor, an imprint and label founded by Dessagne with the specific intent of releasing her own material. The label is the home of Two Is Not a Number. Limited edition of 300 copies.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: HDYARE 009CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Welcome back, friends, to the Yacht Soul cruise that never ends! This theme, explored at length in the previous installment of this series, is a fertile one that just keeps on giving, and give it certainly does on the tracks we have dug up for your perusal, enlightenment, edification and enjoyment on Yacht Soul 2. For those just joining us, the concept here concerns R&B and soul artists mining the songbooks of their white contemporaries for cover versions that serve the dual purposes of potentially garnering some crossover radio airplay as well as introducing great songs to segments of the listening public who might otherwise miss them. Some of these versions might have come about because they were personal favorites of the artist in question, others might have been strongly suggested by their labels or by the publishing company, but all of them provide an entirely new perspective on what were already fantastic songs to begin with. So there you have it -- a further dig into this nebulous concept that reveals more unexpected connections and crossed paths. Understanding the hows and whys of the way these particular covers and collaborations came to be is as fascinating as just enjoying the music itself, and there really is a lot of great music to dig into this time around! We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did putting it together. Featuring Mel & Tim, Impact, Billy Paul, Esther Phillips, John Edwards, Roy Ayers, Arnold Mcculler, Richie Havens, Brenda Russell, Patti Labelle, The Main Ingredient, The Isley Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Chaka Khan, and Keni Burke.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: HDYARE 009LTDLP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Double LP version. Welcome back, friends, to the Yacht Soul cruise that never ends! This theme, explored at length in the previous installment of this series, is a fertile one that just keeps on giving, and give it certainly does on the tracks we have dug up for your perusal, enlightenment, edification and enjoyment on Yacht Soul 2. For those just joining us, the concept here concerns R&B and soul artists mining the songbooks of their white contemporaries for cover versions that serve the dual purposes of potentially garnering some crossover radio airplay as well as introducing great songs to segments of the listening public who might otherwise miss them. Some of these versions might have come about because they were personal favorites of the artist in question, others might have been strongly suggested by their labels or by the publishing company, but all of them provide an entirely new perspective on what were already fantastic songs to begin with. So there you have it -- a further dig into this nebulous concept that reveals more unexpected connections and crossed paths. Understanding the hows and whys of the way these particular covers and collaborations came to be is as fascinating as just enjoying the music itself, and there really is a lot of great music to dig into this time around! We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did putting it together. Featuring Mel & Tim, Impact, Billy Paul, Esther Phillips, John Edwards, Roy Ayers, Arnold Mcculler, Richie Havens, Brenda Russell, Patti Labelle, The Main Ingredient, The Isley Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Chaka Khan, and Keni Burke.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: IMARA 005LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Michael Mayer's IMARA imprint announces a reissue of German electronica maestro Schlammpeitziger's second album, Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut. Originally released in 1996 by K?ln's A-Musik label, it was the first Schlammpeitziger release to signal to a much wider audience that there was something very special going on in the music of Jo Zimmermann, the mastermind behind Schlammpeitziger. And while he's subsequently gone on to release a further eight albums for labels like Sonig, Pingipung, and Bureau B, Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut is where it really all started for this most singular musician, illustrator and performance artist. Like all Schlammpeitziger's music, Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut is overflowing with melody. Using the simplest of set-ups -- much of his early music was made with Casio keyboards -- Zimmermann magics entire worlds of joy and melancholy. The nine songs here are both rich tributes to the joys of the everyday, and surreal fantasias. Zimmermann's unique signature is everywhere on Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut -- simply put, no one else makes music quite as lovely and incandescent as this. The album's initial release coincided with an explosion of interest in the music coming out of K?ln. This was a unique moment -- one where pop, techno, house, ambience, avant-gardism, musique concrete, heavy DSP, and all kinds of other creative phenomena got muddied up in the "general jelly" of K?ln's fast-moving, spirited musical communities. Zimmermann was closely aligned with the music coming out of the A-Musik and Sonig labels -- a tightly-knit collection of artists centered around the A-Musik record store, making all kinds of weird and wonderful music, from the electronica of Mouse On Mars to the compositions of Marcus Schmickler, from the electro-acoustics of C-Schulz and Hajsch to the digitalia of FX Randomiz. Zimmermann himself would collaborate with the latter on an album under the name Holosud; friends such as Mouse On Mars and Kompakt's Reinhard Voigt turned up on Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut's remix EP. Here, then, is one of the loveliest albums of its era, a pop-electronics album of serious play, one as moistly melancholy as it is melodically riveting. Freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut is rare beauty indeed.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: IMP 110LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released in 1997. Remastered and for the first time on vinyl, this incredible 12" EP where country legend Steve Earle teams up with the Supersuckers. The Supersuckers tackle an Earle song ("Angel Is the Devil") and Earle covers one of their tunes ("Creepy Jackalope Eye"), then after a joint cover (the Rolling Stones' "Before They Make Me Run," the definitive Keith Richards anthem), the originals are offered up.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: IMP 111LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Remastered in 2023. For the first time on vinyl since its release in 1997, a classic of the classics where the Supersuckers lead the way and go cowpunk releasing an Americana classic. Featuring guest appearances from none other than Willie Nelson and Kelley Deal. Bouncing back from the setback of Sacrilecious, the Supersuckers recorded their most ambitious album with Must've Been High. Using their garagey, post-hardcore punk as a launching pad, they delve deeply into country, even recording with Willie Nelson on one cut.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: IMP 140LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Garage cult legend Leighton Koizumi brings out his best on this essential LP. Reissued on vinyl for the first time since 2006 in partnership with Go Down Records and Improved Sequence. Easy Listening For The Underachiever, recorded in LA in 2006 and released in 2008, is by far the most popular Morlocks LP. With cross-over hits "Dirty Red," "Till The Wheels Fall Off" (featured on various TV, movie, video games) plus fan favorites like "My Friend the Bird" and "Teenage Head."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: IMP 141LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Improved Sequence is proud to reissue The Morlocks' 2010 record paying homage to the roots of the Chicago Sound, namely the legendary Chess Records. That very music inspired the whole garage scene and The Morlocks are among its most famous and important exponents. Here is a playlist of iconic tracks that the band relives as part of their DNA!

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ITR 276LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 release. "Back in print on white vinyl. Following up their debut full-length on Ty Segall's God? label, Wand presents their second album, Golem, on In The Red. Recording with Chris Woodhouse at his Hanger studio in Sacramento, Wand summons the dark and heavy power of the riff. Back in September 2013, Wand was quietly dismembered and ritually eaten in the hills near Dodger Stadium. Wand was reborn as 'Wand' -- an obese organ falsely organized as four overjoyous nerds. Four flesh balloons betting on a few aging amplifiers. Rumor has it they listen to Here Come the Warm Jets on loop all day and plot mail fraud. What's more, they allegedly stole Dale Crover's car and sacrificed it to the weather near the Los Angeles County Line. A few things, at least, are certain: Wand hears ghosts. Wand prefers serpents. The Sun is the mother of every fiction. All phenomena will be consumed in alphabetical order, but desire will recirculate ad infinitum. If all else fails, Wand will just devour more hands. Wand is coming your way soon."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: ITR 381CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The renaissance of Divine Horsemen -- which began in 2021 with In The Red's release of Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix, the legendary Los Angeles punk band's first release in 33 years -- continues with a thrilling and unexpected new album, Bitter End Of A Sweet Night. The new sixteen-track collection again features the band's co-founding members, singers-songwriters Chris Desjardins (better known as Chris D.) and Julie Christensen, and the core members of the ferocious Hot Rise band -- guitarist / co-writer Peter Andrus (a member of the group's late '80s lineup), bassist Bobby Permanent and X's nonpareil drummer DJ Bonebrake. The sound is filled out by Green On Red and Dream Syndicate keyboardist Chris Cacavas (who appeared on the 1984 Chris D./Divine Horsemen album Time Stands Still) and classically trained violinist Elizabeth Wilson. Desjardins produced the album. Divine Horsemen's dramatic In The Red bow and a 2020 archival set of club performances from 1985 and 1987, issued by Feeding Tube Records, reacquainted listeners with their stormy power and eclectic roots-punk musicianship, which diversified the searing approach taken by Desjardins' previous band, foundational L.A. punk unit the Flesh Eaters. (Christiansen had previously regrouped with her former husband and musical partner Desjardins on I Used to Be Pretty, the 2018 album that reunited the 1980 'all-star' Flesh Eaters lineup.) Reaction to the group's rebirth was rapturous. Jaime Pina of Punk Globe called Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix 'brilliant,' adding, 'The music is lush with both acoustic and electric guitars and the songs pull influences from all over, including country, rock, traditional ethnic folk music and blues.' Michael Toland wrote in The Big Takeover, 'Reclaiming its classic sound of sweat- and grime-stained Americana, Divine Horsemen is reborn like the mythical creature in the title.' John Apice of Americana Highways raved, 'Like the Rolling Stones, [Divine Horsemen] continue to thrill. They have grit, muscle and potency?. Divine indeed.'"

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ITR 381LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. "The renaissance of Divine Horsemen -- which began in 2021 with In The Red's release of Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix, the legendary Los Angeles punk band's first release in 33 years -- continues with a thrilling and unexpected new album, Bitter End Of A Sweet Night. The new sixteen-track collection again features the band's co-founding members, singers-songwriters Chris Desjardins (better known as Chris D.) and Julie Christensen, and the core members of the ferocious Hot Rise band -- guitarist / co-writer Peter Andrus (a member of the group's late '80s lineup), bassist Bobby Permanent and X's nonpareil drummer DJ Bonebrake. The sound is filled out by Green On Red and Dream Syndicate keyboardist Chris Cacavas (who appeared on the 1984 Chris D./Divine Horsemen album Time Stands Still) and classically trained violinist Elizabeth Wilson. Desjardins produced the album. Divine Horsemen's dramatic In The Red bow and a 2020 archival set of club performances from 1985 and 1987, issued by Feeding Tube Records, reacquainted listeners with their stormy power and eclectic roots-punk musicianship, which diversified the searing approach taken by Desjardins' previous band, foundational L.A. punk unit the Flesh Eaters. (Christiansen had previously regrouped with her former husband and musical partner Desjardins on I Used to Be Pretty, the 2018 album that reunited the 1980 'all-star' Flesh Eaters lineup.) Reaction to the group's rebirth was rapturous. Jaime Pina of Punk Globe called Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix 'brilliant,' adding, 'The music is lush with both acoustic and electric guitars and the songs pull influences from all over, including country, rock, traditional ethnic folk music and blues.' Michael Toland wrote in The Big Takeover, 'Reclaiming its classic sound of sweat- and grime-stained Americana, Divine Horsemen is reborn like the mythical creature in the title.' John Apice of Americana Highways raved, 'Like the Rolling Stones, [Divine Horsemen] continue to thrill. They have grit, muscle and potency?. Divine indeed.'"

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7025EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Cornell calls all the dreads to the dance in Greenwich Farm... all will be there. Backed up with its "Version" B-side.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7026EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Leroy Smart's "Mr Rich Man"... truth and rights. "Mr Rich Man, you're living too rich..." Alongside its dubbed B-side "Version."

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7027EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Johnny Clarke tells it like it is -- the story of Marcus Garvey. "Dem never loved Poor Marcus..." Backed up on the B-side in fine dub style.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: K7 431EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Toronto-based producer and DJ Ciel is renowned for a style of dancefloor material that's as heady as it is visceral. The Xi'an-born artist's ascendant profile has seen her cutting-edge and club-ready EPs released on UK labels Peach Discs and Coastal Haze, as well as Stateside imprints Spectral Sound and Mister Saturday Night. As a member of the renowned collective Discwoman and the creator of femme-forward party Work in Progress, Ciel's thoughtful narratives are clear, running in parallel to the perception-altering sounds that are consistently woven deeply into her wide-ranging sets, beloved mixes and inventive collaborations. Now the Parallel Minds label cofounder is crystallizing her imaginative and omnivorous sound with her !K7 Records debut, Orlando. Written during her emergence from an uncharacteristic bout of writers' block, the three original tracks of Orlando chart a return to the musical self, spurred along by a cinephile's embrace of film, a love of classic literature, and a curiosity for the oddest corners of popular culture. "Scenes From A Marriage" might share a name with the episodic series, but is rather a nuanced critique of the modern rite of union, moving through structured chapters, and mirroring the un-static nature of longtime love. Inspired by Virginia Woolf's radical novel, and its superphysical protagonist, "Orlando" considers the cult literary figure who lived from the renaissance to the modern age, and embodies both sides of the sex binary. The thrown sounds and aural illusions of "El Califa" create the effect of a beckoning, beguiling psychedelic experience. To complete the EP, Ali Berger, Ciel's recent collaborator on the Jacktone Records' release Damn Skippy! repurposes the mind-bending flourishes of "El Califa" into a noodly and spacious deep house production, replete with pillowy, gauzy pads.

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: KK 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

This River Only Brings Poison was released in 2002 as the sixth full-length album of Chris Hooson's Dakota Suite project. This first-ever vinyl edition of the record includes four bonus pieces and makes it possible for fans to re-evaluate one of the most crucial Dakota Suite albums in the project's vast discography while also providing new listeners with an entry point into its intricate musical cosmos. With contributions by artists as diverse as steel guitarist Bruce Kaphan and drummer Tim Mooney from American Music Club, Derald Daugherty, and Laura and Chris Donohue as well as long-time collaborators such as David Buxton, Colin Dunkley, and Ed Collins, This River Only Brings Poison turned out as a sonically rich and stylistically versatile as it is emotionally multi-layered.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: KEPLARREV 001X

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Multila was the third album by Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti under the moniker Vladislav Delay. It compiles the Huone and Ranta 12" EPs Ripatti released on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction label in 1999 and 2000. The album features six hauntingly murky dub ambient tracks and the impressive 22-minute techno odyssey "Huone." More than 20 years after its original release as a full-length CD album (Chain Reaction), these iconic recordings of modern electronic music are now available again as a double vinyl edition, featuring a revised artwork by Marc Hohmann that matches the new design of the Whisteblower and Entain reissues.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: KEPLARREV 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The Keplar label presents the next instalment in a series of reissues from the catalogue of Sasu Ripatti's seminal Vladislav Delay project. Originally released on Mille Plateaux, the vinyl edition of Entain from 2000 omitted two shorter tracks and included all others in an abridged form. With this reissue, the full album as it was pressed on CD is finally made available on vinyl. Besides a new remaster by Kassian Troyer, it was also given new cover artwork by Marc Hohmann that picks up on that of the Whistleblower reissue, released in early 2023 by Keplar. This serial visual approach highlights the conceptual continuity between those masterful explorations of the interplay between dub techniques, noise, and repetition. Ripatti himself had reworked material from 1999's Ele album for the release of Entain, which means that it can be considered the debut album proper of his Vladislav Delay project. It saw the Finnish artist aim more vigorously for abstraction than in his earlier releases as Vladislav Delay for labels such as Chain Reaction, which were collected on the iconic Multila compilation in 2000. To mark this special occasion, Multila will be repressed by Keplar with a new artwork that matches the new design of Whisteblower and Entain. Multila and Entain correspond with each other conceptually as much as they seem to differ on a musical level. From the very first moments of the 22-minute-long opener "Kohde," it becomes clear that Entain takes things further away from the dancefloor, aiming less for physical impact than for intellectual stimulation. A sort of electronic minimal music, it was primarily interested in letting discrete elements freely come into play with one another. Much like Multila, however, Entain highlighted the subtle differences embedded in what only feels like repetitive music. Entain took the dub techno formula further than any other record before it -- onwards into the realms of pure abstraction.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KOM 472EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

It's been a few years since Captain Mustache took a ride with Kompakt -- 2021, to be exact, when he released the Everything single, and subsequently made an appearance on that year's entry in the Total series. But this visionary French producer has been busy, indeed fiercely productive, ever since, appearing on Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder and John Digweed's Bedrock, collaborating with Dave Clarke, Popof, The Advent, Paris The Black Fu, Keith Tucker from AUX88, and two beautifully eloquent albums, Tourbillon Nocturne and Indigo Memories. But with The Super Album, Captain Mustache returns to Kompakt with his most sublime collection yet. On The Super Album, the Captain soundtracks an imagined "whole day for party people." It's a day in the life, but all in service to the pleasures of nightlife; the dancefloor is The Super Album's beacon, your body the pliable material molded into evocative new shapes by this dense, hypnotic, brilliantly pop album. Featuring guest appearance from Speakwave (aka dynArec), Arnaud Rebotini of Black Strobe, Amanda Lear, Play Paul, and Foremost Poets.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: KOM 473LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP+7" version. Kompakt unveils the third volume of J?rg Burger's Velvet Desert Music compilation series, dedicated to music that hits the sweet spot between the cinematic, the (pop) ambient, and the psychedelic. With Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3, Burger and his friends wander afar, taking trips away from, or adjacent to, the dancefloor that's acted so long as the crucible for the Kompakt aesthetic. Because it's such a broad church, Velvet Desert Music admits all kinds of new experiences as well, with Burger looking for music that "leads out of the desert into the velvet universe." The roster has changed, with new contributors Flug 8 and Seb Martel, both with his trio Las Ondas Marteles and with Chocolate Genius and Zsela as La Finca, joining regulars The Novotones, Mount Obsidian, The Golden Bug, Paulor, and Sascha Funke. Burger himself reappears, too, alongside Fritz Ackermann (of The Novotones), Max W?rden, and Thore Pfeiffer, in The Velvet Circle. A Mount Obsidian remix of "Sacrosanct" by Burger's The Black Frame -project is a swirling treat for the ears. Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3 is a triumph of a compilation that takes the psychedelic visions of its predecessors and looks for the desert within, a dusty kiss, a road-movie hallucination flickering on the listener's eyelids, a cinematic projection from deep inside the mind.

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: KOM 477LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. I Talk To Water, the fifth album for Kompakt by Danish producer K?lsch, is the artist's most personal statement yet. While all the trademarks that make his music so popular and powerful are still present -- lush, melodic techno; swooping, trance-like figures; sensuous, shivery texturology -- I Talk To Water is also a deep and intimate rapprochement with family and history, a beautiful, finely detailed document of loss and memory, and a tracing of the long, unbroken thread of grief that runs through our lives once we've lost those we loved. The emotional core of I Talk To Water, then, is a cache of recordings by K?lsch's father, Patrick Reilly, who passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. With time rendered elastic by the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, its sudden, alienating shifts in everyday living, K?lsch found himself reflecting on his father's passing and ongoing spiritual presence, thinking about how best to memorialize such a significant figure in his own life. Those recordings opened a gateway, of sorts, for K?lsch to move through -- a way to bring past and present together and entwine them in a sensitive, poetic manner. Recordings of Reilly appear on three songs across I Talk To Water. Also featuring Perry Farrell.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: KOMP 178CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Kompakt unveils the third volume of J?rg Burger's Velvet Desert Music compilation series, dedicated to music that hits the sweet spot between the cinematic, the (pop) ambient, and the psychedelic. With Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3, Burger and his friends wander afar, taking trips away from, or adjacent to, the dancefloor that's acted so long as the crucible for the Kompakt aesthetic. Because it's such a broad church, Velvet Desert Music admits all kinds of new experiences as well, with Burger looking for music that "leads out of the desert into the velvet universe." The roster has changed, with new contributors Flug 8 and Seb Martel, both with his trio Las Ondas Marteles and with Chocolate Genius and Zsela as La Finca, joining regulars The Novotones, Mount Obsidian, The Golden Bug, Paulor, and Sascha Funke. Burger himself reappears, too, alongside Fritz Ackermann (of The Novotones), Max W?rden, and Thore Pfeiffer, in The Velvet Circle. A Mount Obsidian remix of "Sacrosanct" by Burger's The Black Frame -project is a swirling treat for the ears. Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3 is a triumph of a compilation that takes the psychedelic visions of its predecessors and looks for the desert within, a dusty kiss, a road-movie hallucination flickering on the listener's eyelids, a cinematic projection from deep inside the mind.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: KOMP 179CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

I Talk To Water, the fifth album for Kompakt by Danish producer K?lsch, is the artist's most personal statement yet. While all the trademarks that make his music so popular and powerful are still present -- lush, melodic techno; swooping, trance-like figures; sensuous, shivery texturology -- I Talk To Water is also a deep and intimate rapprochement with family and history, a beautiful, finely detailed document of loss and memory, and a tracing of the long, unbroken thread of grief that runs through our lives once we've lost those we loved. The emotional core of I Talk To Water, then, is a cache of recordings by K?lsch's father, Patrick Reilly, who passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. With time rendered elastic by the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, its sudden, alienating shifts in everyday living, K?lsch found himself reflecting on his father's passing and ongoing spiritual presence, thinking about how best to memorialize such a significant figure in his own life. Those recordings opened a gateway, of sorts, for K?lsch to move through -- a way to bring past and present together and entwine them in a sensitive, poetic manner. Recordings of Reilly appear on three songs across I Talk To Water. Also featuring Perry Farrell.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: MUS 279LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Tube Alloys have made a type of record that is in short supply these days. A record that is untethered to prevailing musical trends, punk or otherwise, in either their native Los Angeles or further afield. It's in keeping with a tradition, sure, one pioneered by bands like Wire, Swell Maps, and This Heat, who sought to combine the vitality of punk music with an omnivorous ear for the avant-garde. But Tube Alloys honor this tradition with their disinterest in nostalgia and their ability to cast an irreverent eye towards our present and -- crucially -- our future, rather than endlessly rehashing our past. In short, Tube Alloys are adventurous where many of their contemporaries are content to play it safe. In doing so they tick a lot of boxes for those with open minds and open ears, while simultaneously making sense of the innate contradictions found in any great work of art. Their songs are muscular without being boneheaded, clever without being nerdy. A dry Australian humor is barked with an American sense of self-assuredness. Songs end before you've had a chance to digest their brilliance, or they explode right when you think they've already peaked. And just when you think you're comfortably along for the ride, the songs disappear altogether, and the record's centerpiece abruptly takes shape as an oblique spoken riff on "Time." And time it is, for something a little different.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: LULLP 007LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

AFAR is a Berlin based music duo consisting of Elena on vocals and guitar, and Joseph on synthesizers and live hardware. Their forthcoming album stems from the misty heights of the Pyrenees, hidden and sheltered within thick, old walls. The whole album was written and recorded in four winter weeks. An intense and demanding period, yet liberating and empowering. The Refuge is the collection of stories, the process of it is a story on its own. All tracks are touching, drifting, driving. Soft and raw voices meet between rough synthesizer lines. The result ranges from powerful breakouts to fragile moments. Honest and vulnerable, bold and brave; a true journey, a real refuge.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LR 336LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Lilith present a reissue of Os Mutantes' self-titled debut, originally released in 1968. With the release of their debut LP in 1968, Os Mutantes cracked the already red hot Tropicalia scene wide open. Fusing traditional Brazilian music, psychedelia, rock, and a good dose of pure experimentation, they quickly became giants both in Brazil and in the outer fringes of pop music, where they have managed to reign supreme for the past four decades. Not an easy task in such a crowded arena. Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Tom Z?, and Os Mutantes? What do these people put in their drinking water? The band went on to release several more albums, but this one was their magnum opus. Obi "bookmark" Japanese style; 180 gram vinyl; Includes CD.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: LOKDLP 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Toying with the familiar but not afraid to break with expectations, AVEM presents a versatile range of works that make up his debut album. Dream State was largely written and produced in times of the pandemic, specifically during lockdown periods -- a context that grants the album an air of melancholic isolation. Offering seven songs on a double LP, it marks the collective imprint LOKD's vinyl premiere. Merging sounds of electronica, house and techno, Dream State finds its place neatly outside of common categories. In the past years, the Swiss DJ, producer and live act has made a name for himself with a steadily growing catalogue: not only through a handful of EPs, but also by releasing countless singles, remix- es and live recordings. Instrumentation ranges from studio percussion recordings, synthesizer and drum machine classics, all the way to ethereal piano and vocal performances; all performed and recorded by the artist himself. Familiar structures of house and techno are introduced, only to be broken again by gleaming twists and turns. A focus on percussion is apparent throughout the album, be it in the dynamic texture of drum recordings or in the evolving break-beat rhythms of a guiding bass drum. Dream State tells an ephemeral tale of the uncertain, treading through an unique territory of opposites -- from rapid progression to outright hypnosis, from weightless yearning all the way to euphoric catharsis.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: MAGAZINE 021CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Friday Dunard pulls the sawtooth from trance. Now he whistles elegiac prayers to mystical rivers on it. He lets it bubble out of battered cans of Monster Energy. He sings a protestant canon with it. And in the end, it's trance again. Dunard shares the river with Karlsruhe, the harbor with the Cologne label Magazine. There, not far from a SPA, the Gerade EP docked a few years ago. In the summer of 2023, it's "Cast off!" for Rhenus Aeternus -- the first Dunard album on Magazine.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: MIA 058LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The Pitch is a quartet made up of Boris Baltschun, Koen Nutters, Michael Thieke, and Morten Joh. Founded in Berlin in 2009, they play a hypnotic form of structured improvisation full of acoustic exploration and electronic intervention. On Neutral Star, The Pitch are joined by Australian guitarist/composer extraordinaire Julia Reidy for a record of star gazing electro-acoustic jazz. Reidy's playing and compositional technique between Takoma-style fingerpicking and Glenn Branca-esque microtonality, perfectly complements the loose improvisational framework The Pitch is providing. Accompanied by constant eruptions of vibraphone, clarinet, electronics and double bass punctuation -- while permanently questioned by Reidy's drippingly pearly steel guitar work. The fact that Neutral Star was recorded in one take (by Rabih Beaini in his Morphine Raum studio/venue) in front of a live audience and without overdubs is hard to believe, even for the trained ear. The recording appears to be too multilayered for a single snapshot, with its compositional structures constantly shifting and moving against themselves, counterintuitively and anti-cyclically. Clear LP. Edition of 240 copies. Includes download code.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: MIND 722P-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

FM broadcast live, Volkhaus, Zurich, April 21st, 1986. The godfathers of psychobilly/garage punk.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: MIND 728P-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Ramones, live at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, Australia on July 8th, 1980. Their first visit to Australia in mid-1980, during their tour in support of the Phil Spector-produced End Of The Century album (1979).

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: MINIMOOD 024EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Zakmina presents a commanding dark disco release for Minimood with two spellbinding originals filled with unique and captivating sounds. The EP is complemented by compelling remixes from Curses and Rude 66. "Makam" comprises of an alluring array of instruments that create a mesmerizing atmosphere with an oriental mood to it. Curses retains this atmosphere in his remix, albeit with a deeper and darker tone. Unfolding a massive EBM vibe, "Mental Syndicate" forms a dancefloor destroyer that is driven by a vigorous kick and snare. The reimagining from Rude 66 features intergalactic vocals, raw electro sounds, as well as a truly addictive hookline.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: MOM 043CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Set for release via Modern Obscure Music, Ra?l Refree and Pedro Vian unveil their highly anticipated collaborative debut album Font de la Vera Pau. Two creative minds from the Barcelona avant-garde music scene, the pair combine on a boundary-pushing release that oozes with artistic vision and creative genius. The album, simmered slowly and in complete complicity, showcases a strong musical connection interwoven in each of its nine compositions. A grand piano, a synthesizer, and a positive organ engage in a dialogue that breathes life into a hypnotic universe with psychedelic and minimalist nuances. Effortlessly merging a diverse array of influences, Font de la Vera Pau invites us on a transcendental and reflective journey. The pair allow space for the spirituality of cosmic jazz figures like Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, the enveloping ambient soundscapes of Japan's Haruomi Hosono and Hiroshi Yoshimura, and the meditative minimalism of Steve Reich or Terry Riley.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: MOM 043LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Set for release via Modern Obscure Music, Ra?l Refree and Pedro Vian unveil their highly anticipated collaborative debut album Font de la Vera Pau. Two creative minds from the Barcelona avant-garde music scene, the pair combine on a boundary-pushing release that oozes with artistic vision and creative genius. The album, simmered slowly and in complete complicity, showcases a strong musical connection interwoven in each of its nine compositions. A grand piano, a synthesizer, and a positive organ engage in a dialogue that breathes life into a hypnotic universe with psychedelic and minimalist nuances. Effortlessly merging a diverse array of influences, Font de la Vera Pau invites us on a transcendental and reflective journey. The pair allow space for the spirituality of cosmic jazz figures like Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, the enveloping ambient soundscapes of Japan's Haruomi Hosono and Hiroshi Yoshimura, and the meditative minimalism of Steve Reich or Terry Riley.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: MORR 200CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

For their fourth album, Bear In Town, indie avant-pop supergroup Spirit Fest made a virtue of distance, with group members split across Europe, and recording sessions taking place after a brief 2021 tour of Europe. The six songs on this album illuminate different aspects of the transnational quintet's character -- lovely, heart-rending pop songs; melancholy chants; the joys of simple repetition -- with the group's guitar pop tended by gentle flourishes of piano and electronics. Some of those flourishes were spirited onto Bear In Town across the waves, with Mat Fowler (Bons, Jam Money) contributing from Britain, while the body of the music was recorded in a small apartment studio in Munich by the other members of Spirit Fest: Saya and Ueno (Tenniscoats), Markus Acher (The Notwist) and Cico Beck (Joasinho, Aloa Input). Bear In Town is concise and powerful, the infectious joy of the spirit communicated, beautifully, by melodies that balance the heartfelt with the melancholy. It's all the more impressive given this material was put down live in the studio, with a few vocal overdubs. The depth of feeling at the core of Spirit Fest's music is evident from the opening notes of Bear In Town. "Kou-Kou Land," the first song on the album, recalls several earlier Tenniscoats songs in the way the musicians weave gentle complexity around a simple, repeated chant. "Lost & Found" revolves around a delightful descending chord change that breaks up the swaying, folksy verses, gorgeous electronic whirrs and purring winds floating through the song. The following "In Our House" possesses such sweet sadness, it's one of Spirit Fest's most moving songs yet. "Like A Plane" repurposes a song that Markus Acher originally wrote and recorded for his solo EP of the same title, released on a 2022 10" on Morr Music. The original was a gentle, introverted lament, but the version on Bear In Town has a widescreen tenderness, its melancholy framed by raindrop piano. The album concludes with two moments of playful splendor, the bossa-inflected "Hill Blo," and the driving title track, both led by Saya, who is in stunning voice on this album; on "Bear In Town," her awestruck wonder perfectly captures the sense of possibility in the song's capacious chords. Like the rest of the album, it's full of kindness, rich with psych-pop splendor -- a balm for troubled times.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: MORR 200LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. For their fourth album, Bear In Town, indie avant-pop supergroup Spirit Fest made a virtue of distance, with group members split across Europe, and recording sessions taking place after a brief 2021 tour of Europe. The six songs on this album illuminate different aspects of the transnational quintet's character -- lovely, heart-rending pop songs; melancholy chants; the joys of simple repetition -- with the group's guitar pop tended by gentle flourishes of piano and electronics. Some of those flourishes were spirited onto Bear In Town across the waves, with Mat Fowler (Bons, Jam Money) contributing from Britain, while the body of the music was recorded in a small apartment studio in Munich by the other members of Spirit Fest: Saya and Ueno (Tenniscoats), Markus Acher (The Notwist) and Cico Beck (Joasinho, Aloa Input). Bear In Town is concise and powerful, the infectious joy of the spirit communicated, beautifully, by melodies that balance the heartfelt with the melancholy. It's all the more impressive given this material was put down live in the studio, with a few vocal overdubs. The depth of feeling at the core of Spirit Fest's music is evident from the opening notes of Bear In Town. "Kou-Kou Land," the first song on the album, recalls several earlier Tenniscoats songs in the way the musicians weave gentle complexity around a simple, repeated chant. "Lost & Found" revolves around a delightful descending chord change that breaks up the swaying, folksy verses, gorgeous electronic whirrs and purring winds floating through the song. The following "In Our House" possesses such sweet sadness, it's one of Spirit Fest's most moving songs yet. "Like A Plane" repurposes a song that Markus Acher originally wrote and recorded for his solo EP of the same title, released on a 2022 10" on Morr Music. The original was a gentle, introverted lament, but the version on Bear In Town has a widescreen tenderness, its melancholy framed by raindrop piano. The album concludes with two moments of playful splendor, the bossa-inflected "Hill Blo," and the driving title track, both led by Saya, who is in stunning voice on this album; on "Bear In Town," her awestruck wonder perfectly captures the sense of possibility in the song's capacious chords. Like the rest of the album, it's full of kindness, rich with psych-pop splendor -- a balm for troubled times.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MUSIQ 255LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Mule Musiq present the first vinyl release of Kuniyuki's Walking In The Naked City, originally released in 2009 on CD. It's a first-class mixture of jazz, African, soul, and modern electronic music. It could be considered a masterpiece of its scene.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: MUSIQ 259LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A vacation through an imaginary pleasure-dome by means of ambient house, airy dub and at-times schizophrenic breakbeat. Fantastic Man teams up with Tokyo's Mule Musiq to deliver his debut LP. Comprising of nine tracks, Utopioid advances further into the realm of sci-fi influenced club and esoteric electronica -- a vacation through an imaginary pleasure-dome by means of ambient house, airy dub and at-times schizophrenic breakbeat. Written in 2019 and 2020 across Berlin, the Carioca Spheres of Rio, and his hometown of Melbourne, Utopioid expands and adapts Fantastic Man's much loved musical tropes for long format. It's a well-balanced and deeply crafted album and features a cameo by fellow Melbourne rising-star Memphis on "Mazes," resurrects the spirit of the nineties Rompler on "Forbidden Fiction," and glides you through peak-acid euphoria with "D'Oxygen" and "Diaspora." Utopioid follows a series of recent 12"s, which include DJ Mentality on his own Superconscious Records and Solar Surfing on Stuttgart's Kitjen along with his 2016 LP titled Altitude Attitudes under the alias Mind Lotion on Parisian label Antinote.

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 2953LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"To this day, jazz pianists are influenced by Bill Evans by his use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and his trademark rhythmically independent, 'singing' melodic lines. Evans gained his first spotlight when joining Miles Davis' sextet during the time Kind of Blue was recorded. After leaving the sextet, Evans began his career as bandleader, which he finished in his last trio with Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. This trio recorded Brilliant in 1980, just before Evans' passing. Brilliant is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent green colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $47.00

CAT #: MOV 2954BLUE-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Archie Shepp's Black Ballads was released in 1992. This double LP features eleven great jazz ballads including classics such as 'Embraceable You' and 'Georgia On My Mind' by the tenor saxophonist. Shepp is supported by pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Wayne Dockery and drummer Steve McRaven. Black Ballads is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent blue colored vinyl."

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: R 134LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Double LP version. Skalpel is a nu-jazz classic. On their debut and sophomore albums Skalpel and Konfusion (Ninja Tune) they were able to resurrect the dusty spirit of the '60s and '70s jazz and reimagine it for the 21st century audiophiles. They created emotionally charged music, sophisticated in its structure. After ten years Skalpel returned in 2014 with Transit, an album that segued from sample-based music into compositions created on virtual instruments. Their last studio album Origins (R 132LP, 2022) was an inspiring contemporary vision adapting various currents of electronica and dance music of the millennium era. The latest release earned them a Polish Grammy -- Fryderyk Award. The journey continues as Marcin Cichy and Igor Pud?o present Skalpel Big Band. Patryk Pilasiewicz, composer and musician from Pozna?, who is the originator of the idea, dissected and revised Skalpel's music for a seventeen-person big band. The idea was to weave new, acoustic interpretation of Skalpel's compositions with their original electronic sound.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ODA 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The organic minimalism of composer and producer Kirk Barley is collected on his new studio album Marionette, released via Odda Recordings. Whether drawing from field recordings, found sound, instrumental improvisations or synthetic processes, Barley's compositions evoke unfolding sound worlds, as simple ideas or motifs are layered and developed into complex set-pieces that reveal themselves over time. Marionette showcases the breadth and variety of the Yorkshire-born artist's sound, weaving together familiar and uncanny moods of rural England and its Victorian architecture, as suggested by the gated garden print of the album's cover. Unfurling between physical textures -- the patina of vinyl crackle or gentle rain -- and the hyper-real spaces that his music inhabits, Barley describes the compositions as "landscape or static scene paintings," with many of the album's tracks taking nature's rhythms as their compositional cue. Drawing from jazz, minimalism and techno, Barley focuses on the detailed qualities of sound, experimenting with time signatures, temporals and tuning systems. His esoteric alter-ego Bambooman (2013-2018) found a home on Matthew Herbert's Accidental imprint, releasing the album Whispers in 2017. In contrast, under the pseudonym Church Andrews (most notably in collaboration with drummer Matt Davies), he produces synthetic, often beat-focused music, using digital synthesis and algorithmic composition techniques, with the live drum performances triggering and modulating Barley's synths. The duo has recently performed at festivals such as Rewire and Waking Life, filmed sessions for Fact Magazine and Slate & Ash, and recently had their music played out by Aphex Twin. Under his own name, Barley released his debut album Landscapes (TTTT 010LP) in 2019 on 33-33 Records and received support from the likes of NTS Radio and BBC 6 Music. Barley has performed at events across the UK and Europe alongside the likes of Andy Stott, Beatrice Dillon, Jan Jelinek, MF DOOM, and Madlib. He has also completed commissioned work for the British Art Show, Camden Arts Centre, MSCTY and the Open Music Archive.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: RU 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The inaugural release on KMRU's own fledgling OFNOT imprint, Dissolution Grip is an ambitious project that emerged from his studies at Berlin's prestigious UDK. Guided by Jasmine Guffond at Berlin's Universit?t der K?nste (better known as UDK), KMRU looked at waveforms -- the visual representation of sound itself -- and embarked on a process where he would write scores from the shapes, gradually turning the scores into raw synth sounds. Each sound is birthed from one of KMRU's field recordings, but none of those recordings are audible in their original form. The album's opening side "Till Hurricane Bisect" is a 15-minute epic that evolves at its own glacial pace, carefully transforming blustering wind sounds into gasping drones, glassy oscillations and choked distortion. Cosmic and meditative, it's a testament to KMRU's skill as a sound engineer and patience as a composer, combining the gentle world building of his acclaimed Editions Mego album Peel (EMEGO 289CD/LP, 2020) with the rumbling energy of Limen, last year's collaboration with Aho Ssan. On the title track, KMRU takes the opportunity to flex his orchestral muscle, conducting a cast of warbling synth tones into a durational symphony. Starting as quietly as a whisper, Dissolution Grip expands at its own pace until it's a dense wall of harmony, powerful but never completely overwhelming. It is music embedded with a rich sense of place that informs us of KMRU's past and present, and signals where his musical philosophy might take us in the future.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: PL 138LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Play Loud! will release the entire recordings of the Manchester post-punk band Gods Gift (1979-1985), some for the first time ever. In heavy rotation at the BBC in the early 80s. Mark E. Smith was a fan too. Gods Gift guitar player Steve Murphy compiled 11 songs for what will be their first LP ever. Includes DVD (NTSC, region-free) with a live show in Rotterdam and extensive liner notes plus a postcard."Gods Gift were around when lots of Manchester groups were gaining fame and fortune. Manchester spawned a bleak soundtrack for the music loving youth of the time. The Gothic catacombs were the breeding place of much anger and consternation. Some groups wanted to be amusing, some wanted to be arty, some wanted to be doom-laden, but most wanted to be famous. Gods Gift wanted to shout their rage and hatred at a world that wasn't listening to anything as irrelevant as people...The songs on this new album were a long time in the making. They are angry songs and anti- everything. The entire back catalog of Gods Gift songs and a video will be available as digital downloads very soon through the German outlet play loud! They are priceless jewels from a group that cared and mattered. Buy them, listen to them as loud as you can and go out and demand to be heard!" --Steve Murphy, June 2023

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: PL 142LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

White vinyl. Play Loud! Productions present the first reissue of Roky Erickson's All That May Do My Rhyme, originally released in 1994. Roky Erickson is a legend. Former member of the 13th Floor Elevators, he was considered the white James Brown. Drug problems and diagnosed schizophrenia made him an outsider. By the '90s, he was struggling to survive on a $200 monthly social security check. In 1990, artists like R.E.M., ZZ Top, and the Jesus and Mary Chain recorded his songs for a tribute album. Erickson performed publicly for the first time in many years at the Austin Music Awards. In 1994, he returned to the studio with guitarists Charlie Sexton and the Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary to record All That May Do My Rhyme. This record was released on CD, cassette, and vinyl in 1994 on Paul Leary's Trance Syndicate Records. Notes from the original press release: "Trance Syndicate is pleased to present the first studio recording in almost a decade by one of the most gifted, most influential, most inspired singer/songwriters from the Republic of Texas since Buddy Holly. Roky Erickson is back! performing new songs and a few classics in one of the best studios in Texas, backed by some of Texas' finest musicians." This is no cheap live tape, crummy reissue, nor a slimy bootleg. This is the real thing.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: MALONE 003CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Mal-One's new album starts with running through the radio dial, looking for some suitable music to listen to. These snippets are actually samples of songs from his previous album It's All Punk Rock, this time declaring the news Punk Rock Is Back! Maybe some young guns might in some small way be inspired and find in Mal-One's current efforts that "anything is possible" and the true meaning of punk was in fact "Do It Yourself." The vinyl version of this release includes a poster that is part of Mal-Ones continuing Street Art project that involves putting up posters around London. Included in the album packaging also is a signed and blind stamped limited print of one of Mal-One's works What Is It About Punk That's So Different So Appealing. A punk collage that just carries one word in among its multiple punk images and that word is PUNK.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: MALONE 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Mal-One's new album starts with running through the radio dial, looking for some suitable music to listen to. These snippets are actually samples of songs from his previous album It's All Punk Rock, this time declaring the news Punk Rock Is Back! Maybe some young guns might in some small way be inspired and find in Mal-One's current efforts that "anything is possible" and the true meaning of punk was in fact "Do It Yourself." The vinyl version of this release includes a poster that is part of Mal-Ones continuing Street Art project that involves putting up posters around London. Included in the album packaging also is a signed and blind stamped limited print of one of Mal-One's works What Is It About Punk That's So Different So Appealing. A punk collage that just carries one word in among its multiple punk images and that word is PUNK.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 140CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Hailing from Sunderland in England's industrial northeast, the Toy Dolls infused their take on punk with ample doses of working-class humor, the three-chord format a launching pad for witty originals and clever cover tunes. 1983 debut Dig That Groove Baby captures the group at their finest, their twisted rendition of kiddies tune "Nellie The Elephant" topping the indie charts; the title track is an infectious singalong, while "Spiders In The Dressing Room" and "Glenda And The Test Tube Baby" are more irreverent tongue in cheek, all delivered in the peculiar androgynous accent of frontman Michael "Olga" Algar. Essential!

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RRS 191CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Blue color vinyl version. When Fat Bob's Feet was released by Receiver Records in 1991, it found Sunderland's cheeky punk act Toy Dolls welcoming bassist John Casey into the fold, the latest in a long line joining founding frontman Olga and drummer Martin Yule, who'd been present since Bare Faced Cheek; the favorites here include "The Sphinx Stinks," "Bitten By A Bed Bug," and the immortal "Kids In Tyne & Wear," a northeast England punk recasting of Kim Wilde's "Kids In America," plus there's a guest appearance by Ashbrooke, Olga's dog, and, unusually for the band, no sign of any symphonic interludes. A much-loved Toy Dolls classic!

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 197LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Non-standard Californian punkband United Experiments of America was formed in San Francisco in 1978, centering on frontwoman Denise Semiroux, alias De De Troit, and guitarist Michael Kowalsky, who tragically died of a heroin overdose that same year. Debut album Illusions of Grandeur, released by Posh Boy in 1980, captured the tense atmospheres and in-between nature of the group's sound, part hardcore and part dirge-rock. With original pressings trading at sky-high prices, this reissue comes with rarities "Social Circle" and the angst-ridden theme song "U.X.A.," from the esteemed Tooth And Nail compilation. Intense!

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: RAJATON 002D-EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sasu Ripatti presents the fourth volume in his Dancefloor Classics series with five 10" releases coming throughout 2023. Music for imaginary dancefloors, released on Ripatti's own label Rajaton.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: RAJATON 003D-EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Vladislav Delay presents the fourth EP in his Hide Behind The Silence series with five 10" releases coming throughout 2023. Intuitive and raw music, momentary and reflective, released on Ripatti's own label Rajaton.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: R-M 209CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

ASA (Arturo Lanz, Saverio Evangelista, AtomTM) are the last three futurists on earth. Radial is the result of a vivid creative merge between Esplendor Geome?trico and AtomTM. A transparent diamond formed by a heavy implosion. Its underlying massive mechanics are covered by a crystal surface made to cut reality in half. Just one letter short of "radical", this album is no less than exactly that -- an orgy of powerful, blunt repetition and hyperbolic simplicity, a profound evocation of nothingness and its surroundings. The 13 tracks (which comprise the digital full-length version) of Radial are the exact expansion of sonic ideas those three artists have explored during the last couple of decades. Unexpectedly so, this makes this production an outstandingly atemporal one -- some would even classify it as meta-contemporary. A selection of ten tracks of the digital full-length album on CD.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: R-M 210CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Immerse yourself in an ethereal sonic voyage with Dasha Rush's latest electronic music masterpiece, Contemplating. This ambient album takes listeners on a transcendental journey through ethereal landscapes and immersive textures. The album's title perfectly encapsulates its essence. From the very first note, Contemplating captivates with its intricate layers of atmospheric harmonies, meticulously weaving together a tapestry of minimalistic sonic elements. As the ethereal soundscape unfolds, listeners are invited to embrace the moment of stillness in a realm where emotions and thoughts intertwine, creating a sonic experience that is both introspective and otherworldly.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: R-M 210LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Immerse yourself in an ethereal sonic voyage with Dasha Rush's latest electronic music masterpiece, Contemplating. This ambient album takes listeners on a transcendental journey through ethereal landscapes and immersive textures. The album's title perfectly encapsulates its essence. From the very first note, Contemplating captivates with its intricate layers of atmospheric harmonies, meticulously weaving together a tapestry of minimalistic sonic elements. As the ethereal soundscape unfolds, listeners are invited to embrace the moment of stillness in a realm where emotions and thoughts intertwine, creating a sonic experience that is both introspective and otherworldly.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: RANDB 092CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Issued here for the first time, this previously unreleased recording is taken from a tape reel found among the personal effects of Bix Curtis, resulting in a record -- quite literally -- of a Tubby Hayes band that existed for one night only. Recorded live at Soho's legendary Flamingo club, this session captures Hayes and his men in devastating form, playing repertoire the very height of hip. Includes 16-page booklet written by Simon Spillett.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: RANDB 093CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Most of our people have never had it so good." When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan uttered his famous era-defining phrase in the summer of 1957 he wasn't thinking of the UK's modern jazz community. Yet his words were an equally apt summary of their fortunes that year. After the bitter defeats of 1956, when America delivered reminder upon reminder of its musical superiority, London's modernists were finally fighting back. They had a new enclave, the Flamingo Club, with membership in its thousands, and a new cause celebre in the Jazz Couriers, a quintet of genuine kick-ass quality. Add to that, exciting new bands led by Don Rendell, Tony Kinsey, and Johnny Dankworth and it was clear that the first generation of the capital's "mods" were on the way up. Sleeve notes by Simon Spillett. Featuring Ronnie Scott Sextet, Dave Lee Trio, Johnny Keating All Stars, Tubby Hayes/Victor Feldman Sextet, Kenny Baker's Half Dozen, Derek Smith, Don Rendell Jazz Six, Vic Ash Plus Four, Dizzy Reece Quintet, Tony Kinsey Quintet, Jimmy Deuchar Sextet, The Jazz Couriers, Dick Heckstall-Smith Quintet, Johnny Dankworth, Kenny Graham's Afro Cubists, Melody Maker's All-Stars, Wes Montgomery, Milt Jackson, Carl Perkins Trio, Miles Davis, Horace Silver Quintet, Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble, Mose Allison, Ray Charles & Milt Jackson, Jimmy Smith Trio, Lorez Alexandria, Charles Mingus, Art Pepper, Barney Kessel, Thad Jones, Jimmy Giuffre 3, and the John Coltrane Sextet.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RS 060LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Perth-born, Naarm-based duo Special Feelings, aka Naomi Robinson and Poli-Pearl, are stepping up on Bradley Zero's Rhythm Section label with their first LP. Across its nine tracks, Special Feelings combines the electrically improvisational feel of live performances, with snappy broken beat-esque percussions and house-inspired looping synth hooks. Tapping into the infectious collaborative spirit of Naarm's jazz community, Special Feelings are joined by a crew of the city's rising artists. Early iterations of Special Feelings' music drew on psychedelic sun-dappled rock, with Naomi playing guitar and singing alongside Poli-Pearl on the drums. Over the years, this has shapeshifted into Naomi on bass and rhythms, with Poli-Pearl helming synths and keys -- rooted in the sounds of Perth's and London's jazz of the moment, intertwined with Brainfeeder-nodding electronica. Today, Special Feelings' influences span from the deep grooves of Moodymann to the freewheeling horns of Emma Jean Thackray to the stepping drums of Kaidi Thatham, and beyond. Both Naomi and Poli-Pearl are self-taught multiinstrumentalists and producers; Naomi got her start playing in high school dream pop bands, before moving to Naarm to immerse herself in its musical communities, and study classical guitar at the University of Melbourne.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: EZRDR 159CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"'This is definitely the most honest and mature record Deathchant has ever made.' That's Deathchant vocalist and guitarist T.J. Lemieux talking about the band's third and latest album, Thrones. Think of it as not just the follow-up to 2021's Waste, but the other side of the coin. Thrones just might be their heaviest record thus far. The band's seamless swirl of classic rock guitar harmonies, syrupy sludge, blues boogie and psych bombast has reached a thrilling new apex as Lemieux spins high-powered tales of reckoning from beyond the wall of sanity. Thematically, Lemieux and his bandmates -- bassist George Camacho, guitarist Doug Stuckey, and drummer Joe Herzog -- peel back the veneer of self-delusion to expose the fork in the road. Thrones was recorded live in a cabin in the remote mountain community of Frazier Park, CA, with trusty engineer Steve Schroeder (a.k.a. Schroeds). Overdubs were done at the cabin, Schroeder's Studio 3, and Lemieux's place. The album was produced by Lemieux and Schroeder."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: RCD 2233CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The combination of Espen Eriksen Trio and UK saxophone giant Andy Sheppard is truly a match made in jazz heaven, and in the words of Andy: "I knew from the first time I heard the trio play that I would fit right in. I loved the melodic sense and vibe and was thrilled when I was invited to guest with the trio in London in 2016." The common conclusion drawn in reviews of their first album Perfectly Unhappy was simply "more, please," and now Rune Grammofon is delighted to introduce As Good As It Gets, the quite brilliant follow-up. The two album titles aptly indicate a subtle change in mood, and it?s fair to say that the new album finds the trio slightly more-lively and sunny in parts, still highly melodic and lyrical, often with a typically Nordic melancholic signature (check the Grieg nod in album closer "Drifting Clouds"). Eriksen is a master of catchy tunes and when Sheppard adds his inimitable playing to the trio?s minimalistic approach, magic is created. Espen Eriksen Trio was formed in 2007 and released their debut album in 2010. As Good As It Gets is their seventh album, all on Rune Grammofon. Andreas Bye is one of Norway?s most requested drummers in jazz and pop and has played with Bugge Wesseltoft, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Dhafer Yousef, Nils Petter Molv?r, and many others. With a career spanning over four decades, working together with the likes of George Russell, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and numerous others, Andy Sheppard is truly one of Europe's leading saxophonists. As a leader he has recorded for labels like Antilles, Verve, Blue Note and lately four albums for ECM.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: RLP 3227LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

First time on vinyl features extra tracks than the CD. After five successful studio albums in 12 years, here is their first live album, by popular demand. A popular concert attraction in Norway through Europe, Russia and South East Asia, the trio have constantly been asked when they will release a concert recording. Five of the seven tracks were recorded live in concert at Oslo?s Nasjonal Jazzscene in 2018 and 2020, one at a special one-off intimate concert at Propeller Music Division in Oslo in 2020 and one in Poznan, Poland, in 2021.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: RLP 3233LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. The combination of Espen Eriksen Trio and UK saxophone giant Andy Sheppard is truly a match made in jazz heaven, and in the words of Andy: "I knew from the first time I heard the trio play that I would fit right in. I loved the melodic sense and vibe and was thrilled when I was invited to guest with the trio in London in 2016." The common conclusion drawn in reviews of their first album Perfectly Unhappy was simply "more, please," and now Rune Grammofon is delighted to introduce As Good As It Gets, the quite brilliant follow-up. The two album titles aptly indicate a subtle change in mood, and it?s fair to say that the new album finds the trio slightly more-lively and sunny in parts, still highly melodic and lyrical, often with a typically Nordic melancholic signature (check the Grieg nod in album closer "Drifting Clouds"). Eriksen is a master of catchy tunes and when Sheppard adds his inimitable playing to the trio?s minimalistic approach, magic is created. Espen Eriksen Trio was formed in 2007 and released their debut album in 2010. As Good As It Gets is their seventh album, all on Rune Grammofon. Andreas Bye is one of Norway?s most requested drummers in jazz and pop and has played with Bugge Wesseltoft, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Dhafer Yousef, Nils Petter Molv?r, and many others. With a career spanning over four decades, working together with the likes of George Russell, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and numerous others, Andy Sheppard is truly one of Europe's leading saxophonists. As a leader he has recorded for labels like Antilles, Verve, Blue Note and lately four albums for ECM.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: SHA 44003LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"The incomparable Yellowman is one of reggae's most popular artist, a dee jay/rapper with an uncanny knack for memorable lines and catchy melodies. His ability to entertain reigns supreme even when he's presenting a social commentary. During his early '80s breakthrough, when his prolific record sales made him the hottest new reggae artist on the scene, he frequently used his background as an albino who has experienced deprivation and prejudice as subject matter for his lyrics; he even boasted about it! In fact, the title of 'one in a million' is a direct reference to his albino condition. This LP is one of the high points of Yellowman's career , among the best of his break-through LPs . It includes such Yellowman hits as 'Operation Eradication,' (a serious commentary on the feared eradication square in Jamaica), 'Even Tide Fire,' and his signature rap 'Them A Mad Over Me,' making it a must for all yellow fans."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: SCR 250CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Following the news that all three Lush albums are going to be reissued, Emma Anderson, the band's co-founder, has announced her debut solo album, Pearlies, which will be released by Sonic Cathedral. One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life. It arrives fully formed with a burnished beauty (aided by the mastering skills of Heba Kadry) that belies its somewhat protracted creation, which began with Emma feeling disillusioned after Lush's 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. Left with songs and bits of music originally intended for the band, she began working with cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley and Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, both of whom encouraged her to sing her own songs. Covid put a temporary halt on proceedings, but the decision had been made. When Sonic Cathedral introduced her to James Chapman at the start of 2022, Pearlies quickly took shape and blossomed into a masterpiece, the perfect mix of Emma's incredible, idiosyncratic songwriting and James' electronic production nous. Plus, a little extra guitar magic on four tracks courtesy of Richard Oakes from Suede. The finished album has somehow written its own narrative. By her own admission, Emma tends to write words and "see what comes out", but Pearlies seems to tell the story of her decision to go it alone, with opener "I Was Miles Away" posing the question: "See if I make it on my own." The rest of the album provides the answer as it takes in everything from the unexpectedly funky first single "Bend The Round," to folky finger-picking and film theme references, via psych leaning electronic pop reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Melody's Echo Chamber. It concludes with "Clusters," a stunning, Stereolab-style groove which begins with the line "and now the party's over, the music's at the end". Thankfully, that is not the case. This incredible album is just the start of Emma's long-awaited solo journey.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: SP 034LTD-CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Nothing left but silence is Erik K. Skodvin's third solo album for Sonic Pieces and his most quiet to date. Subtitled as "Musical improvisations and quiet collages from the subconscious," Skodvin reduces his instruments to guitar, reverb and amp -- and creates a skeleton of eight hypnotic ragas that meanders in an eternal loop between ephemeral and singular. Only on the horizon it's possible to sense that Skodvin has also touched the neoclassical terrain in earlier productions -- on Nothing left but silence, however, he acts as a twilight player who is not afraid of the coldness of endless space and who knows how to subjugate the shadowiness of the visible world. Carried by the noise of the amp and the occasional click of the effects pedals, a monolithic, reduced blues emerges, whose mediumistic quality nevertheless reveals that Skodvin's music always comes from the body -- and as such is always searching for space. A space that -- in this case -- blends the vastness of the Norwegian steppe with the brittleness of American wasteland (as if Deathprod and Loren Connors were one and the same person), creating a persistent state between deceleration and absence of presence -- that leads Skodvin ever closer to the inner essence of sound. Initially recorded at Saal 3, Funkhaus, Berlin by Nils Frahm in 2015, the album has itself been subjected to silence as a forgotten relic, re-found and now released in a time where it might connect more with the contemporary state of mind. Welcome to the entrance to the periphery. CD version comes in edition of 150 copies, handmade textile artwork.

 

PRICE: $45.50

CAT #: SP 034LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. LP version comes in edition of 300 copies, handmade textile artwork, printed inner sleeve; includes download code. Nothing left but silence is Erik K. Skodvin's third solo album for Sonic Pieces and his most quiet to date. Subtitled as "Musical improvisations and quiet collages from the subconscious," Skodvin reduces his instruments to guitar, reverb and amp -- and creates a skeleton of eight hypnotic ragas that meanders in an eternal loop between ephemeral and singular. Only on the horizon it's possible to sense that Skodvin has also touched the neoclassical terrain in earlier productions -- on Nothing left but silence, however, he acts as a twilight player who is not afraid of the coldness of endless space and who knows how to subjugate the shadowiness of the visible world. Carried by the noise of the amp and the occasional click of the effects pedals, a monolithic, reduced blues emerges, whose mediumistic quality nevertheless reveals that Skodvin's music always comes from the body -- and as such is always searching for space. A space that -- in this case -- blends the vastness of the Norwegian steppe with the brittleness of American wasteland (as if Deathprod and Loren Connors were one and the same person), creating a persistent state between deceleration and absence of presence -- that leads Skodvin ever closer to the inner essence of sound. Initially recorded at Saal 3, Funkhaus, Berlin by Nils Frahm in 2015, the album has itself been subjected to silence as a forgotten relic, re-found and now released in a time where it might connect more with the contemporary state of mind. Welcome to the entrance to the periphery. CD version comes in edition of 150 copies, handmade textile artwork.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SONIG 093LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In spring 1994, Mouse on Mars contributed an exclusive piece to S?hk? Recordings' ambient radio project, a one-week public radio program that was aired citywide in Helsinki, Finland. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner recorded sounds in and around their studio in D?sseldorf Bilk to construct one continuous composition that spanned the course of one neighborhood walk. Midi-controlled synths, samplers, analogue effects, tape delays, effect pedals, guitars and a jew's harp were juxtaposed with recordings captured during the walk. An additional microphone that pointed out of the studio window was occasionally dubbed into the mix. The resulting collage was broadcast just a few months before the group's debut album Vulvaland came out and never aired again. 30 years into the band's existence Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner revise the duo's history by producing three LPs that would place the band's discography under a slightly different light. Bilk marks the beginning of that investigation: a free-flowing assemblage of everything that vibrates and can be caught on tape. A 30-year-old recording with subtle new edits and additions. Recorded at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields by Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: ORBIT 030LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Prepare to delve into the transcendental realm of experimental soundscapes with the re-release of Experimental Audio Research's The K?ner Experiment. Featuring Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3), Thomas K?ner, Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) and others. Iconic album pressed on 180g heavyweight white vinyl. The artwork stays true to the original. Thomas K?ner's visionary work invites you to embark on an introspective journey where boundaries dissolve, and music becomes a profound experience. Each track is a portal to a world where sound is sculpted into something ethereal and thought-provoking. The echoes and glacial reveries of The Koner Experiment have been meticulously revitalized, with each track remastered for vinyl by the legendary John Rivers at Woodbine Street Studios. This release stands the test of time within the world of experimental music. Whether you're a seasoned enthusiast or a curious newcomer, this release is a captivating entry point into a universe of sound that defies convention.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SSR 106LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The debut LP from New York and Montreal's Stigmatism (featuring current and past members of Omegas, Lethal, S.H.I.T, Justice, and Mati) is finally upon us. Stigmatism plays a style of music that pays tribute to the Rat Cage Records era of New York City punk and hardcore without sounding like an old and stale tribute band. With their debut Ignorance In Power, Stigmatism gives fans of the genre exactly what they want, 13 intense blasts filled with hooks, heavy breakdowns, and lyrics that call attention to the consistent unending rise of antisemitism, fascism, and police corruption currently plaguing New York City. 350 copies on black vinyl with a fold out A2 poster with amazing artwork from Tavi Gibson.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SVVRCH 083LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After a debut single in 1977, forward-thinking Edinburgh punk band The Rezillos signed to Sire, leading the band to record their acclaimed debut Can't Stand the Rezillos in New York, where co-produced Bob Clearmountain drew out the best of their abilities. The anthemic "Top of the Pops" reached the UK top-20 and spirited punk covers of The Dave Clark Five's "Glad All Over," Gerry & The Pacemakers' "I Like It," and Fleetwood Mac's "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" added to the appeal. The band would soon split and reform as The Revillos, but nothing beats the power of this unmatched debut LP. Four bonus tracks included, great stuff!

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: TAIGA 021LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Warehouse find, last copies... May 30th, 2012 marked the 80th birthday of American visionary musician Pauline Oliveros. Needle Drop Jungle is a continuation of the celebration. Together with bandmates Stuart Dempster and David Gamper, Oliveros and company churned up a vigorous storm at their January 2011 residency in Seattle, captured on this double vinyl release. With the help of staff at DXArts, the Deep Listening Band recorded impromptu downpours unhindered by technical issues, a peak in their collective creative output. Suddenly and unexpectedly, David Gamper died on September 27th, 2011. Needle Drop Jungle thus includes the brightest moments from what have sadly become the last recordings of this exceptional trio. Along with the simultaneously released Pauline Oliveros Primordial/Lift 2LP, this title completes a tetralogy of Oliveros releases on Taiga that started with the Deep Listening Band Then & Now and Timeless Pulse Trio 2LPs. Needle Drop Jungle was mastered by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200 gram virgin vinyl in an edition of 500. It comes packaged in a double-wide raw brown cardstock jacket with essays by the band and a flooded pocket. The jacket is encased in a custom slipcase, with gorgeous photographs by Michael S. Carlson from deep within the expansive Taiga forest's southern edge.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: LSD 69020LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Rare 1975 live and studio recordings by the Japanese psychedelic noise legends Les Rallizes D?nud?s.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: TO 033-22CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Written and performed by Youmna Saba. Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut. Produced by Youmna Saba and Fadi Tabbal. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Wishah ("Veil" in Arabic) is a composition in five stages, written by Youmna Saba between 2021 and 2022, for voice, oud and electronics. Following her previous solo works Njoum (2014) and Arb'een (40) (2017), this album marks a significant turning point in Saba's journey. Created after leaving Beirut and settling in Paris, Wishah reveals a profound shift in her musical expression, informed by rigorous research in the sonic properties of sung Arabic phonemes and their role in shaping synthesized electronic sounds. The album employs a digital extension for the oud, a concept developed by Saba in her research project Ta?ma'. This device enhances the oud's sonic range, seamlessly integrating synthesized electronics. It also amplifies subtle, often overlooked sounds generated during playing, such as resonances and fingerboard friction. The composition is organized into five distinct stages, each contributing to a process of gradual revelation. As the tracks unfold, they strip away layers of constructed emotions and perceptions that have been intricately woven over time, to expose a space that no longer exists. Wishah is a farewell to home. The oud digital extension used on this record was developed by Nicolas Canot, and produced by C?sar? -- Centre National de Cr?ation Musicale. Youmna Saba is a Lebanese musician, composer and musicologist. Her current research focuses on instrument and space resonances in different sonic and musical contexts. With four albums to this date, she has collaborated with musicians of different musical expressions such as Kamilya Jubran, Floy Krouchi, Mike Cooper and the Neue Vocalsolisten Ensemble, and has taken part in numerous artist residencies.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: TO 121CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Claire M. Singer presents the first release in a triptych of albums. Saor (pronounced Sieur: meaning "free" in Scottish Gaelic) perfectly encapsulates Claire's experimental approach to the pipe organ, exploring rich harmonic textures and complex overtones which create ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns, conjuring visions of the Scottish dramatic landscapes which inspire her. Much of the album was written or recorded in Claire's home county, at Forgue Kirk in Aberdeenshire. A church she hadn't discovered before, in a remote spot, up a slight hill near a small cluster of houses. A friend recommended the organ to her and she later found out from her mother that many of her ancestors were buried there. Across the album, tracks flutter, pulse and build into and imposing mass. Some suggest texture and weather, using electronic processing and distortion. Others rely on the organ itself for heady atmospheres, while Saor's title track goes even further; recorded at Orgelpark, Amsterdam, an international concert hall for organists, it uses five instruments in layers that span four centuries. Claire also plays cello, mellotron and harmonium on the album, and there are contributions from strings (Patsy Reid), trumpet (Brian Shook), clarinets (Yann Ghiro), and French horn (Andy Saunders). Saor is an adventure bringing the same sense of elation as the journeys Claire made on foot to the summit. Saor is generously supported by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation's Composers' Fund in partnership with Jerwood Arts, the Friends of Forgue Kirk, the Richard Thomas Foundation and Orgelpark, Amsterdam.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: UR 048LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Eight years after its original release in 2015, and sold out upon release, Umor Rex finally presents a vinyl repress of Sirens, by Kara-Lis Coverdale and LXV. This new edition is limited to 500 copies and comes with revised artwork. Inspired by the link between seduction and violence, Sirens comprises a series of timbrally vast anamorphic pieces that poise the voice as a newly imagined tool of multiplicity. Processes of sample manipulation, signal processing, routing, and source design inform instrumental writing and performance in feedback until intertwined, flickering between states of conflict and consonance. Apparitions of the schizophrenic voice are at one moment fractured and cold and at the next full of warmth and vivaciousness, embodying velvet rituals of romanticism in the digital age. Ultimately, Sirens is music for ambitious dreamers: surreal sound portraits sound like the warmth of the world laid over an ice-cold virtual altar. LXV's vocal truncations and fleshy sound palettes depict the archivation of the breath and aural fantasies of the flesh which Coverdale sets amongst a vast and unconfined landscape of deeper and unknown force. Harmonically active and dynamic orchestrations underpin post-sacred tonalities while brooding pipe organs, sphinx flutes, and hailstorms of metallic percussion characterize uniquely disjointed discussions between disparate compositional ontologies. At times violent and at others serenely peaceful and seductive, these pieces, at their most powerful moments illuminate a felt space between cybernetic energy and the body. Composed and recorded by Kara-Lis Coverdale and David Sutton. Mastered by John Tejada. Cover photograph by Cody Cobb. Layout by Daniel Castrej?n.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: UR 148LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

On this album, his third work published on Umor Rex, the French producer Alexandre Bazin takes what he started in Four Steps (Umor Rex 2022) to the maximum point. However, on Innervision, there is no longer that discreet flirtation towards the dance floor. Instead, the ten cuts that make up the album are influenced by musical research and the UK and Berlin electronic scene. Bazin's new proposal revolves around sound textures, saturations, feedback, autosampling, and cut and tuned sounds, allowing new melodic elements to emerge in the process, akin to a live act. While maintaining his minimalist exploration and obsession with melody and structure, Innervision undoubtedly marks a turning point in Bazin's discography. It is epic, compelling, euphoric, utterly enjoyable, and at times violently beautiful. The album was composed and mixed by Alexandre Bazin at Ch?teau Rouge, Paris, and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll, New York. Fran?ois Desmoulins played the acoustic drums on "Four Steps (Remix)". The artwork for the album was created by Daniel Castrej?n in Mexico City.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: VL 900793LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. Hereby the eclectic British jazz-rock band Nucleus -- led by trumpet player and Miles Davis biographer, Ian Carr -- at the absolute peak of its powers in a series of European live performances. They capture the group in arguably its finest incarnation right at the start of its long career, exhibiting a staggeringly high level of musical discipline matched by an equally impressive ability to improvise and solo. Nucleus began its long jazz-rock journey in 1969, they attracted a following after a successful performance at the Montreux International Festival in 1970, which led to the offer of a recording contract with Vertigo, and the release of several acclaimed albums. Ultimately, Elastic Rock (1970) had elements more in common with Brit avant-garde rockers like the Soft Machine and the Pink Floyd than it did with jazz, even if rock remained the less dominant force in the band's overall approach.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: WJLP 050CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: WE 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Black vinyl. Suzanne Ciani's Improvisation On Four Sequences somehow represents the complete history of electronic music, as the enthusiastic audience at Week-End Fest 2021 were lucky enough to experience. From the awakening of American avant-garde music at the end of the 1960s, right through to the development of the electronic sound of the club scene in L.A. and New York. But above all it is the dialogue between artist and machine, which simply ends when the concert is over, that comes across. Laconicism, precision, sound sensitivity and the weight of a tradition that Ciani was instrumental in founding all come together. It is spectacular precisely because it is so unexciting.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: ZEDD 059CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with Metamorphosis -- his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career. With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK's most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms -- AC Soul Symphony -- to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible. Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, Metamorphosis is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that -- it is a labor of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers. Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favorite childhood shows, Metamorphosis was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB, and Salsoul Orchestra to life. Taking disco back to a physical place, Metamorphosis was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it's this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with Metamorphosis.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: ZEDD 059LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Part 1. Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with Metamorphosis -- his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career. With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK's most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms -- AC Soul Symphony -- to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible. Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, Metamorphosis is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that -- it is a labor of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers. Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favorite childhood shows, Metamorphosis was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB, and Salsoul Orchestra to life. Taking disco back to a physical place, Metamorphosis was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it's this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with Metamorphosis.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: ZEDD 059X-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Part 2. Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with Metamorphosis -- his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career. With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK's most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms -- AC Soul Symphony -- to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible. Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, Metamorphosis is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that -- it is a labor of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers. Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favorite childhood shows, Metamorphosis was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB, and Salsoul Orchestra to life. Taking disco back to a physical place, Metamorphosis was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it's this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with Metamorphosis.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: ZKR 1101CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

An astonishing meeting of two instrumentalists: Kasper T. Toeplitz (electric bass) and Reinhold Friedl (piano), but even more undoubtedly a musical union between two composers: the music is clearly built on a double thought of the architecture of time, of the creation, disappearance and mutation of textures much more than on classical virtuosity, an adequacy to the organological principles of the instruments. Piano and electric bass. Both musicians have left the familiar paths of their instruments to make them the tools of their compositional principles. This opens up new possibilities -- which here extend to the finest level of sound textures. As Laurent Nerzic turned it in the renowned French music journal Revue&corrig?e #136: "This piano/electric bass duo offers us two hours of menacing music. I invite you to listen carefully to the roundness of Kasper's bass, particularly at the end of the first piece, which suddenly takes a less abstract and unexpected turn, while Reinhold's piano regularly strikes up a sustained funeral march. Two hours of organic music that never ceases to grow and diminish in perpetual motion. In any case, this disc is overflowing with finesse, richness and subtlety."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ABERRANT 006LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. Following the incredible (and successful) compilation Taiwan Disco, the master minds behind Aberrant Records present this delicious record. Subtitled Disco Divas, Funky Queens and Psych Ladies from Asia from the 70s to the Early 90s you don't have to take a wild guess to figure out what you'll find here, a treasure trove filled with exotic jewels from Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Korea, from Asian funk to psych-tinged awesomeness, disco madness and much more. Features Chailai & Sawanee, Chantana Kittiyapan, Lei Si Si, Ding Dai, Yasmin, Wong Foong Foong, XYZ, Fatimah Razak, Chen Qiong Mei, Sum Sum & Pan Pan, Grace Simon, and Hit Girls.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: AMEL 728LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Producer Tom Thiel has worked in the medium of electronic music since the 1980s and has been active in the musical epicenter of Berlin since 1987. With the Sun Electric Duo, he was already at the forefront of live/"real-time." Though not everyone becomes exceptional on the basis of "veteran" status alone, Thiel's latest work shows that he has made good on one of the main promises held out by electronic music and sound synthesis: namely, that it would also provide unexpected, novel, highly individualized syntheses of different attitudes, atmospheres, and affects. This is happily the case with Thiel's new Arjunamusic release, his first full solo outing since his eponymous 2011 album (STRIKE 125CD, 2011): it's a series of colorful, self-contained vignettes that are perceptibly drawn from an eclectic pool of personal experiences and insights. Like similarly successful musical projects, Thiel's Album utilizes all of the above strengths to craft a rewarding listen in its own right, but also to spark curiosity about what other as-of-yet unrealized fusions may be waiting ahead.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: AWK 005EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

It's been a hot moment, so Awkwardly can't wait to finally announce the next EP, A Hack Is A Foul by Dadan Karambolo. Safe to say he's been on our radar for a while, so we're mighty excited to welcome the Wroclaw-based producer. After a strong debut release on his co-owned SPLOT imprint, an equally solid LP on Regime Brigade as well as contributions to various compilations, Dadan is back with his signature moody, bass-bin shaking sound. Hitting the sweet spot somewhere between dubstep, grime, breaks and ambient techno, these four tracks provide a somber yet seductive quality that invite the listener to get lost in a hazy amalgamation of stylistic elements. Rest assured, this combination of low end and rhythm heavy explorations contains the right formula to cause some damage on the dance floor.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BALMAT 008LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Together, JD Walsh and Jeff Crompton are Anagrams, and their debut album Blue Voices might initially seem like a departure from Balmat's habitually electronic terrain. It's not ambient music, but it's also not not ambient music, at least to listeners in the right frame of mind. On Blue Voices, Crompton plays alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, electric piano, and organ; Walsh lets his experimental tendencies take the lead. Playing acoustic and electric guitars, electric lap steel, bass, Moog Matriarch, modular synth, and programmed drums, he concentrates his energies on richly textural layers and abstract assemblages of tone color. Across the album's 11 tracks, there are faint echoes of familiar touchstones: the atmospheric twang of Daniel Lanois' pedal steel; the mercurial modal runs of Ethio-jazz; the late-summer calm of Fuubutsushi; the versatility of players and composers like Patrick Shiroishi and Sam Gendel, who are asking similar questions about where jazz ends and some other, nameless territory begins. Mostly, though, what Blue Voices captures is the quixotic sound of two restless musical imaginations making it up as they go along, two voices discovering a shared language in a hitherto unexplored shade of blue.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BTR 085LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

The cosmic force that is Brighton's Wax Machine return with The Sky Unfurls, The Dance Goes On, a new album of lush, ambient and psych-toned folk that expands and unfurls across nine blissed out tracks, with Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro continuing their personal journey with psychedelics and recently found obsession with water that has been heightened by a long overdue trip to Brazil. Teaming up once more with the London based, globally-looking imprint Batov Records, Wax Machine journey beyond the psych-folk universe, tapping into more ambient, classical, and world-folk sounds. Led by songwriter and singer Lau Ro, the recording sessions for The Sky Unfurls, The Dance Goes On gave space to the musicians involved to express themselves, in part searching for the sense of freedom and organic looseness found on the records of Alabaster Deplume and Don Cherry. Recorded in their own studio, Lau Ro was joined by Ozzy Moysey, Adam Campbell, Isobel Jones, and Toma Sapir, with Marwyn Grace and Ella Russell involved for the choir parts. However Wax Machine very much remains a personal journey for Lau Ro, a vehicle for them, as their music always has been, to explore and connect with themselves and the outside world, as they continue to do so on The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 055LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Be With Records presents a reissue of Logg's self-titled LP, originally issued on Salsoul Records in 1981. The undisputed Godfather of boogie, Leroy Burgess' Logg project is his masterpiece. Logg is one of the greatest albums of the post-disco era; it's one of Be With's favorite-ever LPs and so it's a complete honor to be reissuing it. With all the touchstones of Burgess's finest work -- breezy grooves, undulating synths, funk-drenched bass, and life-affirming lyrics -- delivered with gospel-derived vocals and harmonies, it's a record to uplift both body and spirit. Already a cult soul figure as lead singer of Black Ivory, Burgess cut his teeth as arranger, vocalist, and songwriter with producer Patrick Adams on essential late-'70s projects like Phreek and Dazzle. He went on to define the essence of "boogie": the vibrant underground dance sound that stood in contrast to commercial disco. With its reduced speed the cool boogie of Burgess has the disco bounce, just more laid back. All six tracks here could have been stand-alone hits; indeed, some of them were. But together they are also an incredibly cohesive album. In short, it's a thrilling showcase for Burgess' finest arranging and production work - with his vocals at their euphoric peak alongside the inventive rhythm section of Aaron (Sonny) T. Davenport on drums and James Calloway on bass. Opener "(You've Got) That Something" is a balmy sunshine groover with an insistent chorus whilst the timeless vocal of "Dancing Into The Stars" -- married to percolating synth and airtight drums -- showcases the chemistry between Burgess and the rhythm section. The fusion of funk and gospel-influenced harmonies which propels "Something Else" is remarkable: deep, joyous, and bouncy. Infamously mixed by Larry Levan, "I Know You Will" is an easy glide, all rollicking electric piano underpinned by a precise and relentlessly upbeat groove. "Lay It On The Line" radiates smooth, understated brilliance, elevated by interstellar keys and finally album-closer "Sweet To Me" is a chilled-out gem of profound soulful elegance. Logg has long been a hit with the likes of Kenny Dope and Dam-Funk whilst, MCDE and Harvey Sutherland have also cited it as an influence. This reissue ensures this legendary record now sounds, looks and feels as sensational as it deserves. Mastered by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman with reproduced artwork, this is a reissue that does justice to this classic LP. 180 gram pressing.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: BEWITH 092LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. They say: "Contemporary scores for visual effect." Be With Records say: "Synth-heavy, low-slung space-funk masterpiece." The creator of the romping tunes that became the iconic themes to the BBC's Grandstand program and their televised Wimbledon Tennis Championship coverage, Keith Mansfield was perhaps KPM's most prolific artist from the mid-1960s right the way through the 1980s. As well as the sort of pop orchestral sound that is all over these classic library records, he could also turn his hand to raw, edgy rock and funk. Quentin Tarantino has included some of Keith's work on the soundtracks to Kill Bill and Grindhouse (2007). Mansfield's Vivid Underscores from 1977 is a sample freak's wet dream. "High Velocity" sets the tone with its aggressive horns, wah-wah guitars, funky baseline and wobbly synth refrain. "Crash Course" -- Stetsasonic horn refrain? Beautiful -- jazzy chase-funk, amazing warm keys, percussion, and funky horns -- all action. The more restrained "Matter Of Urgency" is an utterly amazing, brass-heavy underscore. The grandiose, uplifting "Dawn Of Aquarius" still sounds like the future with its tense, thundering drums, killer bassline and swirling synths. Version II loses the drums and percussion but is no less startling. "Staying Power" closes the first side with a relentless, pounding groove. "Trucking Company" is a pacey, synth-and-string masterpiece and its accompanying parts mess with the formula to great effect. "Hot Cargo" and "Espionage" are both tense spy-funk themes par excellence. "Interplay" is a quiet killer, with flutes over a glistening piano refrain just waiting to be looped. "Omen" is a mini-drama masterpiece, one only Mansfield could create. Even though it is a mix of short themes in-and-amongst longer, full-length tracks, Vivid Underscores is still thoroughly listenable from start to finish. Original analog tapes remastered for vinyl by Simon Francis. 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 135LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Slow (Motion And Movement), originally released on Sonoton in 1980, is super-sought-after and full of crazy dubby, super slow and super heavy library breaks. It's also home to blinding new age/synthy tracks that are equally great. It's varied throughout, but all absolutely fantastic. Slow features KPM/Bruton/Sonoton-legend John Fiddy, the mighty Sonoton founder and composer, arranger and conductor Gerhard Narholz in two of his best-loved guises -- Sammy Burdson and Norman Candler -- as well as a couple of fine offerings from Antonio Campo. The audio for Slow (Motion And Movement) has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BEWITH 136LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sven Torstenson's notorious Drugs is a loopdigga's fever dream, bursting with breaks for days and featuring possibly the most iconic cover of all library music's cult classics. First released in 1980, it's now a hyper-rare and seriously sought-after electronic album full of experimental soundscapes and samples just waiting to be flipped. It's both terrifying and terrifyingly good. So much so, it's been brilliantly sampled by Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper. The audio for Drugs has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: BEC 5612754

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Boom Boom is the follow up of 2015's Traité de guitarres triolectiques à l'usage des portugaises ensablées. Pascal Comelade and Lionel & Marie Liminana aka The Liminanas wrote and performed another album together. 12 new songs, written by Pascal Comelade & Lionel Liminana. Featuring solo guitarists long-time friends of Pascal Comelade: Ivan Telefunken (from Bel Canto Orquestra, also playing live with The Liminanas), Xarim Aresté, and Lalo Lopez.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: BEC 5612755

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Boom Boom is the follow up of 2015's Traité de guitarres triolectiques à l'usage des portugaises ensablées. Pascal Comelade and Lionel & Marie Liminana aka The Liminanas wrote and performed another album together. 12 new songs, written by Pascal Comelade & Lionel Liminana. Featuring solo guitarists long-time friends of Pascal Comelade: Ivan Telefunken (from Bel Canto Orquestra, also playing live with The Liminanas), Xarim Aresté, and Lalo Lopez.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: BEC 5612896

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Patrice Bart Williams, also known as Patrice, is a singer, composer, producer and director from Germany and Sierra Leone. In 20 years, he has released a dozen albums. His music is a blend of reggae, soul, punk, folk and hip-hop. He settled in Jamaica in 2020 and decided to build a studio in the middle of the forest. This atypical location became a meeting place for artists and inspired Patrice to explore new territory. Patrice returns in 2023 with a new album entitled 9, marked by rebirth and the symbolism of the color blue. This album is the result of seven years' work, a veritable introspection into the depths of his emotions. "I was born on the 9th, the day my grandfather passed away. The notion of rebirth has always been present in my life, from my very first day. For my ninth studio album, I took the time to withdraw, to rebuild myself. The last seven years have been devoted to self-discovery, and it's this inner journey that has given life to this album." --Patrice

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: BEC 5612897

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Patrice Bart Williams, also known as Patrice, is a singer, composer, producer and director from Germany and Sierra Leone. In 20 years, he has released a dozen albums. His music is a blend of reggae, soul, punk, folk and hip-hop. He settled in Jamaica in 2020 and decided to build a studio in the middle of the forest. This atypical location became a meeting place for artists and inspired Patrice to explore new territory. Patrice returns in 2023 with a new album entitled 9, marked by rebirth and the symbolism of the color blue. This album is the result of seven years' work, a veritable introspection into the depths of his emotions. "I was born on the 9th, the day my grandfather passed away. The notion of rebirth has always been present in my life, from my very first day. For my ninth studio album, I took the time to withdraw, to rebuild myself. The last seven years have been devoted to self-discovery, and it's this inner journey that has given life to this album." --Patrice

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: BONF 022LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Remastered and fully licensed. An underrated acid folk masterpiece brought to you by the classic couple Terry (guitar, mandolin, banjo) and Gay Woods (vocals), who formed the band after departing from the very influential British combo Steeleye Span. They recorded their debut album in 1971 on the small indie label Greenwich Gramophone Company. Think about the holy magic of the Irish folk scene alongside some essential progressive rock scores.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 089CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Ndox Electrique results from the collaboration between François R. Cambuzat, Gianna Greco (also known for their work with Ifriqiyya Electrique), and the n'doëp community in Senegal. The project originated from the duo's quest to trace the origins of North African rituals, which led them to the Lebu community in Cap-Vert, an isolated region at Africa's westernmost point. The album seamlessly blends the duo's electronically-infused avant-rock with the intense, ritualistic vocal chants and rhythmic percussion of the n'doëp community. It serves as a captivating bridge between these two musical worlds, capturing the essence of this cross-cultural collaboration. The text also highlights the challenges of merging Western rock and experimental influences with the sensibilities of their Senegalese collaborators, ultimately resulting in a unique and powerful musical experience. Ndox Electrique transcends cultural boundaries, immersing listeners in the enchanting sounds and mystical narratives of Western Africa.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: CRR 1139LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "An essential time capsule of Townes Van Zandt acoustic performances. A re-imagined collection available on vinyl for the first time in the USA. Includes classic Townes Van Zandt songs, 'If I Needed You', 'Pancho & Lefty', 'Waiting Round To Die', and 'I'll Be Here in The Morning', (duet with Barb Donovan). Include digital download containing bonus interview tracks with KUT's Larry Monroe. From the liner notes by Harold Eggers Jr.: 'These recordings are as close to the bone of Townes as you can get. They give the listener a very unique and detailed insight into and overview of his songwriting, music, and life as no other. Townes often made light of the dark, living in the shadows more than not. This album and Townes spoken words (bonus tracks) are significant because Townes personally chose each track, and in his own words revealed the private person and singer/songwriter/artist he was. These recordings and spoken words were very important to Townes for the world to hear his music and life story as he lived it, as told from the man himself.'"

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: DKR 213LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. "Ivan 'Lloydie Slim' Smith is one of the unsung movers and shakers of 1970s reggae. Slim worked for a time as both in-studio producer & record promoter for Bunny Lee and Channel 1, the two biggest and most significant producers of the 1970s. At the same time, he quietly built his own catalog and released a relatively small but very high quality-barrage of his own productions. These were released across many different labels, both his own and some belonging to his friends and collaborators. Slim moved to New York at the end of the '70s, and continued producing into the 1990s. We have issued some of his work before, but now we present the first ever compilation of Slim's work, featuring his most classic tunes, all taken from master tapes for proper sound, and in a lovely two-sided hand silkscreened jacket. Watch this site, because there's much more to come, released & unreleased, from the Record Smith himself!"

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: DKR 216LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Restocked. "24 track double LP in gatefold jacket. LP1 is vocals, LP2 is dubs/versions. LP1 features one previously unreleased track. Jacket features extensive liner notes and many never-before-seen photos and flyers of both groups. Some tracks are reissued from the master tapes for the first time." "... we put together this 2LP collecting the vocals & dubs of nearly all of Creole's output and likewise nearly all of the music of the first iteration of Chinafrica (see our 12" single releases from both groups for the rest). For the record, Chinafrica went on to make some more great music in the 1990's, which is not included here. Also, we went deep into the band members' archives to dig out as many photos and flyers as we could for the jacket, accompanied by a detailed rundown of their histories and musical output. Creole and Chinafrica each created a small but fantastic body of music that does a rare thing. Much of the music on this album successfully blends elements of different genres of music in an interesting way. It's firmly planted in reggae, but straddles the borders of soul, funk and rock in brilliant, complimentary moves. I dare say in Jamaican music, you will be hard pressed to find an easy comparison to the music of these two groups. Please enjoy this collection of Wayne Chin and the guys' unique and uncompromising vision of reggae music, much as we have enjoyed realizing it and shining a long overdue spotlight on their history and creativity. A sincere thanks to Wayne Chin and all the members of Creole and Chinafrica who indulged me and enthusiastically took part in one of my dream projects, it's a honor to finally present this release." --RB/DKR

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: DKR 268LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. "You know we had to do it, so here's the near companion dub album to our recent Roots from the Record Smith compilation. This LP features the B-side dub versions from the original 45's of almost all the tracks from the vocal comp, nearly all taken from master tapes. For the curious and studious, here's a breakdown of the deviations from the vocal LP. Track A3, the dub version to 'Heading For the Mountain', is a previously unreleased mix, in that it does not contain the explosion sound fx heard on the original 45 -- these fx were added during the master cutting for the original 45 and are not on the master tape! Likewise, the original dub to Black Oney's 'Jah Jah Send the Parson', titled 'Version Stormy Weather' with storm sound FX was done the same way, and that version has been added here in place of a version to I Roy's 'Look a Boom.' Our previous reissue of the Black Oney single contained a raw rhythm cut and not this dub version with FX. Lastly, in place of a version for the Heptones 'Tripe Girl' (sadly no version of the Heptones or I Roy was ever released!), we've added the version to Black Oney's 'Festival '75', as found only on the impossibly rare original blank 45 release. Our previous issue of that one was backed with the Prince Far I cut on the same rhythm. A final note, the last track on this album is the dub to Ronnie Davis' 'Power of Love', titled 'King Tubby's In Fine Stile', and widely recognized as one of the King's all-time best mixes. If you don't know, get to know. This one alone is worth the price of admission." Comes in green or orange print.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: DIS 110LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Fugazi's fifth studio album from 1998. This is the 2009 reissue, remastered from the original source tapes. Includes a full-color printed inner sleeve and MP3 download coupon.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: DIS 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "The Argument is the sixth studio album from Fugazi released on October 16, 2001 through Dischord Records. It was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and the Dischord House between January and April 2001. Upon release it was met with critical and commercial success. It was the band's last release (simultaneously with Furniture) before going on indefinite hiatus in 2003, until the release of First Demo over thirteen years later."

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: DIS 174LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This 2023 repress is on Metallic Silver vinyl. These ten songs were recorded and mixed by Craig Bowen at Baltimore's A.C.R. Studios but never released. After the session the band decided to continue writing new songs. Six of these songs were re-recorded at Inner Eat Studios and released on Necrophones, while four others remained unreleased, until now. Originally released in 2012. Featuring Daniel Higgs (vocals), Asa Osborne (guitar), Nathan Bell (bass), and Mitchell Feldstein (drums)."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DC 886LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"These two early cassette-only titles from the renowned guitar improviser Tashi Dorji were released a decade ago -- this reissue marks their debut on vinyl." "Guitar Improvisation and Tashi Dorji are the first physical releases of my guitar improvisations. They were put out by a small local, now defunct, label called Headway Recording in 2012 and 2013. The friends who ran the label had heard some of my guitar music and reached out to me about doing a cassette release. Guitar Improvisations was really my first recording of improvisation -- in a semi-studio setting at my friend's basement space. It really was a formative time for me because it felt like everything opened, as far as the possibilities of what music-making meant. Like improvisation walked in and then there was a volcanic eruption . . . The self-titled session was recorded at a nice studio at the local university here in Asheville. I had some friends that were studying music there and had access to studio time. This session focused more on extended/prepared guitar ideas. My interest in percussive elements of sounds, timbre, harmonics, and dynamics plays a lot in this recording." --Tashi Dorji, 2023

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DC 887LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"These two early cassette-only titles from the renowned guitar improviser Tashi Dorji were released a decade ago -- this reissue marks their debut on vinyl." "Guitar Improvisation and Tashi Dorji are the first physical releases of my guitar improvisations. They were put out by a small local, now defunct, label called Headway Recording in 2012 and 2013. The friends who ran the label had heard some of my guitar music and reached out to me about doing a cassette release. Guitar Improvisations was really my first recording of improvisation -- in a semi-studio setting at my friend's basement space. It really was a formative time for me because it felt like everything opened, as far as the possibilities of what music-making meant. Like improvisation walked in and then there was a volcanic eruption . . . The self-titled session was recorded at a nice studio at the local university here in Asheville. I had some friends that were studying music there and had access to studio time. This session focused more on extended/prepared guitar ideas. My interest in percussive elements of sounds, timbre, harmonics, and dynamics plays a lot in this recording." --Tashi Dorji, 2023

 

PRICE: $44.00

CAT #: MTE 076-77LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress!! "Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet, is at last here. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA's Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depthful & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest side-length cuts from 10+ hours of vivid two-track recordings made between 2019 & 2021 by Bryce Gonzales, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy is a darkly glowing séance of an album, brimming over with the hypnotic, the melodic, & patience & grace in its own beautiful strangeness. Room-tone, electric fields, environment, ceiling echo, live recording, Mondays, Los Angeles. Jeff Parker's first double album & first live album, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy belongs in the lineage of such canonical live double albums recorded on the West Coast as Lee Morgan's Live at the Lighthouse, Miles Davis' In Person Friday & Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco & Black Beauty, & John Coltrane's Live in Seattle. While the IVtet sometimes plays standards &, including on this recording, original compositions, it is as previously stated largely a free improv group -- just not in the genre meaning of the term. The music is more free composition than free improvisation, more blending than discordant. It's tensile, yet spacious & relaxed. Clearly all four musicians have spent significant time in the planetary system known as jazz, but relationships to other musics, across many scenes & eras -- dub & Dilla, primary source psychedelia, ambient & drone -- suffuse the proceedings. Listening to playbacks Parker remarked, humorously & not, 'we sound like the Byrds' (to certain ears, the Clarence White-era Byrds, who really stretched it). A fundamental of all great ensembles, whether basketball teams or bands, is the ability of each member to move fluidly & fluently in & out of lead & supportive roles. Building on the communicative pathways they've established in Parker's -- The New Breed -- project, Parker & Johnson maintain a constant dialogue of lead & support. Their sampled & looped phrases move continuously thru the music, layered & alive, adding depth & texture & pattern, evoking birds in formation, sea creatures drifting below the photic zone. Or, the two musicians simulate those processes by entwining their terse, clear-lined playing in real-time. The stop/start flow of Bellerose, too, simulates the sampler, recalling drum parts in Parker's beat-driven projects. Mostly Bellerose's animated phraseologies deliver the inimitable instantaneous feel of live creative drumming. The range of tonal colors he conjures from his extremely vintage battery of drums & shakers -- as distinctive a sonic signature as we have in contemporary acoustic drumming -- bring almost folkloric qualities to the aesthetic currency of the IVtet's language. A wonderful revelation in this band is the playing of Anna Butterss. The strength, judiciousness & humility with which she navigates the bass position both ground & lift upward the egalitarian group sound. As the IVtet's grooves flow & clip, loop & repeat, the ensemble elements reconfigure, a terrarium of musical cultivation growing under controlled variables, a tight experiment of harmony & intuition, deep focus & freedom. For all its varied sonic personality, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy scans immediately & unmistakably as music coming from Jeff Parker's unique sound world. Generous in spirit, trenchant & disciplined in execution, Parker's music has an earned respect for itself & for its place in history that transmutes through the musical event into the listener. Many moods & shapes of heart & mind will find utility & hope in a music that combines the autonomy & the community we collectively long to see take hold in our world, in substance & in staying power. On the personal tip, this was always my favorite gig to hit, a lifeline of the eremite records Santa Barbara years. Mondays southbound on the 101, driving away from tasks & screens & illness, an hour later ordering a double tequila neat at the bar with the band three feet away, knowing i was in good hands, knowing it would be back around on another Monday. To encounter life at scales beyond the human body is the collective dance of music & the beholding of its beauty, together." --Michael Ehlers & Zac Brenner Pressed on premium audiophile-quality 120 gram vinyl at RTI from Kevin Gray/Cohearent Audio lacquers. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Triple Point Records, Queens, NY. First eremite edition of 1799 copies.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 4084CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Look at those players Alon Nechushtan brought together for this gig! The late, great Roy Campbell; reed masters Daniel Carter and Sabir Mateen; mayor of the NYC avant-jazz scene William Parker; versatile drummer Federico Ughi. Then listen: they all live up to their reputations. And then there's Nechushtan himself, born in Tel Aviv and long a thriving presence in New York as both composer and improviser. This concert happened at a time of considerable ferment on the NYC scene, with established virtuosi meeting the next generation -- often, as was the case this night, in Brooklyn and specifically Williamsburg venues, of which Zebulon was one of the greatest supporters of the improvisation scene documented so well in Cisco Bradley's recent book The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: FP 80365LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Fat Possum presents R.L. Burnside's First Recordings on vinyl. Originally released in 2003. These astounding recordings started R.L. Burnside's career. The intensity of these songs foretells well the power of his great records to come. The songs on First Recordings capture Burnside at his home in 1968, when he was farming for a living and only playing for family and friends. R.L. Burnside is one of the most important figures in modern blues. Whether it's playing live, stripped down acoustic, electronica, electronica remixes or raw electric, R.L. music is the definition of Hill Country Blues."

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: FTR 738LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"One of the first things you notice about Dennis Tyfus is that his lips are too small for his mouth. This becomes especially obvious if you go out to eat with him late at night in Antwerp. He has to really grease up whatever sausage he chooses with a lot of mayonnaise in order to slide it through the taut sphincter that guards his mouthly cavern. This physical fact has made Dennis's speaking voice a thing of horror for many years, but we have only just realized he is able to sing pretty well through this tiny aperture. Indeed, if you are not watching closely, you might think he was actually able to open his mouth as wide a typical human. Which he is not. So it is all the more remarkable that the vocals he creates inside Jeugdbrand (a Flemish slang term for 'lips as of a pony') have a faux full-throated magnificence to them. But this is only one of the great surprises of this new record. Those who have not heard Jeugdbrand's brilliant debut, Siamese Dream (Team) will be shocked... to discover how utterly musical Dennis's new duo with drummer/etc-ist Jeroen Stevens actually sounds. Tyfus is one of his generation's most aggressively polymathic tricksters. The vast majority of his projects are... 'a slap in the face of public taste.' But there is something genuine and generous about the music on Smile. It's not not-weird, but the twisted pairings of vocals with percussion, piano, organ and recorder are not off-putting in the least. The vocals show touches of various Folkways Ethnic Library titles, but manage to create a wily and mysterious cloud of sound art, with which the skeletal musical arrangements play beautifully. Jeroen's instrumental inventions are as blasted as Dennis's in their own way. Stevens is probably best known for the insane De Stoeltjes project, on which he covers the entirety of the first Stooges album playing three chairs! But he has done jillions of things, including a quartet with Eric Thielemans, and Chris Corsano whose set is still being drooled over in the Low Countries. But in the context of Jeugdbrand, he is the man who sets the scene in which his partner's canary is allowed to warble." --Byron Coley, 2023

 

PRICE: $11.50

CAT #: FTR 751CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"First off, there will be an LP of this coming along, but as with Wednesday Knudsen's solo material, the analog manufacturing process is slower than the digital one. In the meantime, here's a CD for play in cars and kitchens everywhere. Having listened to this disk 20 or so times over the past week, I have been struck time and again by the gently naif quality of Dan Beckman-Moon's songwriting. I keep thinking of Neil Young's earliest solo tunes, particularly 'Sugar Mountain,' as a sort of spiritual touchstone, although truthfully the music doesn't really sound anything like that. Still, the emotional core of the material has a similar sweetness and simplicity, while managing to steer clear of mawkishness with a nimble delicacy that parallel's Neil's early work. I have come to think of Valley of Spaces as a collaborative effort between Dan and his partner, Amy Moon, but this album often feels much more like Dan's solo effort. Amy definitely shows up in spots, but I miss the weird edge she brings to everything she does. I mean, there's a reason she was one of the first people Chris Corsano picked when he was putting together the original Ecstatic Yod crew back in the '90s -- her off-kilter perspective adds depth and subtle strangeness to her entire oeuvre. The same is often true of Dan as well (he was in Impractical Cockpit, after all), but That's Understanding has a purist hippie quality that owes karmic debts to the waves and hills of Santa Cruz, where Villages was based for the Plague Years (the years during which this music was written and recorded.) Most of Villages's avant proclivities are put on-hold this time. And whether or not that was the plan, this decision provides a folky balm for the last few lost years. Amy, Caleb Mulkerin (Big Blood), Don Godwin (Impractical Cockpit), and others -- especially violinist Kaethe Hostetter -- add to the gentle vibes that abound on this album. It's a set of music that bears up to many repeated spins. A very charming slice, for sure." --Byron Coley, 2023

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KWEST 1967LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock. "Interstellar Overdrive" is an instrumental composition written in 1966 and is on Pink Floyd's 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, clocking in at almost ten minutes in length. "Interstellar Overdrive" was one of the first psychedelic instrumental improvisations ever recorded by a rock band. It was seen as Pink Floyd's first foray into space rock. It has also been described as an experimental and psychedelic as well as an example of proto-prog. Waters once called the song "an abstract piece". Not connected to pop music, a long improvisatory quality. The stereo version of the song has an organ moving from speaker to speaker, the effect is not on the mono version of the song, where it gains extra organ and guitar sounds, in fact the organ is very prominent during the first minute of the mono version-along with some special effects-but inaudible in the stereo mix. You will find both mono and stereo versions off the LP plus a rare edit (French only released at the time) and a long freak out version that clocks in at 16:49.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 074CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

One the Holy Grails of South American heavy progressive rock, originally released in 1973 by this Bolivian band. Influenced by hard-rock giants like Uriah Heep or Deep Purple, Wara (whose name translates to "Light of the Star" in the Aymara language) also added touches of their own Bolivian heritage to the mix, resulting in a pioneering work of fusion between prog/psych rock and Andean folklore. Raw fuzz-wah guitar, organ, occasional violin and flute, heavy drumming, passionate Spanish vocals a la Ian Gilan -- El Inca was originally pressed on black vinyl with very few copies on transparent green vinyl. Both editions are virtually impossible to find now. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this legendary album, Guerssen's reissue comes with remastered sound. Original artwork in gatefold sleeve, plus insert with liner notes, photos, and download card.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: GUESS 222LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. One the Holy Grails of South American heavy progressive rock, originally released in 1973 by this Bolivian band. Influenced by hard-rock giants like Uriah Heep or Deep Purple, Wara (whose name translates to "Light of the Star" in the Aymara language) also added touches of their own Bolivian heritage to the mix, resulting in a pioneering work of fusion between prog/psych rock and Andean folklore. Raw fuzz-wah guitar, organ, occasional violin and flute, heavy drumming, passionate Spanish vocals a la Ian Gilan -- El Inca was originally pressed on black vinyl with very few copies on transparent green vinyl. Both editions are virtually impossible to find now. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this legendary album, Guerssen's reissue comes with remastered sound. Original artwork in gatefold sleeve, plus insert with liner notes, photos, and download card.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: GUESS 228LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

UK psych-folk private press mega-rarity, originally released in 1975. Jack With A Feather was the first vinyl album (after the private cassette only release of Rowdy Dowdy Day) by Spriguns Of Tolgus, just before they shortened their name to Spriguns and signed to Decca, recording two classic progressive folk-rock albums. Recorded in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, the album offers mostly traditional songs with charming homemade atmosphere, psychedelic touches, male/female vocals (by Mandy Morton), acoustic/electric guitars, mandolin, dulcimer, and fiddle. One of the tracks, "Seamus The Showman", originally written by Tim Hart of Steeleye Span (future Spriguns producer), landed the band a deal with Decca Records. First ever official vinyl reissue. Original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve plus OBI. Sourced from the original master tapes. Includes insert with liner notes by Mandy Morton and photos.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: GUESS 229LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released as a private cassette only release in 1974, this is the debut album of progressive folk-rock band Spriguns. Homemade, charming folk-rock with the lovely voice of Mandy Morton, 12-string guitars, dulcimer, mandolin, and fiddle. Fabulous covers of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme", "Matty Groves" and more. Formed in the early '70s, Spriguns of Tolgus evolved from the folk duo of Mandy & Mike Morton and the scene centered around their Anchor Folk Club in Cambridge. In 1974, the band (Mike and Mandy plus Rick Thomas and Chris Russon) decided to produce a recording to raise funds for new equipment. Using a small tape recorder and mixing desk, Rowdy Dowdy Day was recorded live in the dining room at the band's rented house. A small number of cassettes were produced and subsequently sold at the Anchor Folk Club. With the original cassette impossible to find now, Guerssen is glad to present a new vinyl edition. First ever vinyl release with original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve. Remastered from the original master tapes. Includes insert with liner notes by Mandy Morton and photos.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: GUESS 234LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Beyond rare private press album from 1974, a fantastic mix of progressive rock with acid-folk, spaced-out psychedelia and cool conceptual / soundtrack vibe. Pete Fine is a virtuoso acoustic and electric guitarist and also a self-taught composer and orchestrator. After playing with psychedelic hard-rock trio FLOW in the early '70s in New York, Pete, influenced by classical composers like Anton Bruckner, started to focus on his 12-string guitar, composing music in a symphonic style. On A Day Of Crystalline Thought was his first solo album, self-released in 1974 as a private, home-made edition of 100 copies, now impossible to find. It was recorded using classical/rock musicians plus a chamber orchestra from Harlem. It features 12-string guitars, electric guitars, timpani, string sections, French horns, flute, piano, organ, drums with early digital delays, female vocal harmonies. Includes digital download card.

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: R 002CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The accompanying 24-page booklet includes many rare photos and an exhaustive session discography by Claus Röhnisch. A collection for Coasters and early rock and roll aficionados! The Coasters had the benefit of recording in the best studios, backed by the best musicians and produced by the top producers of their generation, Leiber and Stoller. Naturally, they were required to run through as many takes of each song as was necessary to satisfy the exacting demands of their mentors. Luckily for us, many of these alternate takes have survived. Mono was the standard recording format until the late 1960s, but many of the big selling artists also recorded alternate versions specifically for the stereo market, which was targeted to the discerning adult listener. Disc one features all the alternate stereo versions of Coasters songs that were issued at the time on album and subsequently on CD. Disc two takes you deep into the heart of Coasters sessions with composite tracks which combine studio chatter together with the finest moments from various different takes. This disc contains several outtakes which have until now been unavailable anywhere and gives an invaluable insight into the genesis of many well-loved tracks and also into the character and working practice of the Coasters and of their producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: R 015CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

No artist works in a vacuum. Young men of their time, passionate music lovers who in their formative years had access to an unprecedented range of pop music thanks to Brian Epstein's NEMS record shop, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison listened, borrowed and reshaped quite an array of tracks, processing these borrowings into their own unmistakable sound. Named after their first publishing company, this CD, with accompanying booklet, sheds light on the Beatles' creative process. Listen to these tracks and see how some of the best loved songs in pop music were formed. Featuring The Memphis Group, Marvin Gaye, Fats Waller, Bob Dylan, Nat King Cole, The Greek Three, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, The Two Leslies, Noble Sissle, Jimmie Grier, Rosie And The Originals, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnnie Ray, The Miracles, Charlie Byrd, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Barrett Strong, Ketty Lester, The Greenbriar Boys, The Chiffons, Fernando Corena, Rob Steinberg, Johann Sebastian, Ludwig van B, Glenn Gould, and William Walton.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: IOT 087CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Azu Tiwaline presents her second full length LP The Fifth Dream. Released again through her beloved partnership with I.O.T Records, The Fifth Dream finds Azu painting an expansive vision towards unified multitudes, mercurial realities, and abundant inner sanctums. Where her first album Draw Me a Silence was a loving ode to her family and upbringing in the form of an elegant diptych, The Fifth Dream is the enactment of actualizing her roots into new routes, taking her multifaceted identity into new means of communication towards herself, the world, and the cosmic unknowns that surround her. This is music that gives back as much as the listener wants to give themselves unto it -- detailed and layered, orbiting a steady core as ethereal swirls and intonations of the natural world embrace us warmly within a spellbinding journey. Eight of the album's nine tracks feature a deep level of collaboration from innovative Franco-Iranian percussionist Cinna Peyghamy. Cinna's use of Tombak, the principal drum of Iranian music throughout time, is beautifully sonorous -- channeling the passion of centuries of Southwest Asian rhythm and expression into his own personalized flourishes, with Azu adding her own electrifying frequencies and undiluted artistic freedom to their shared interplay. This profoundly communicative diasporic essence is transmuted between Azu and Cinna, their expression, and the listener. Both are music lovers, intimately connected to their respected Iranian and Tunisian cultures -- concurrently acknowledging the wisdom of their resonant pasts, while proudly bringing the sounds of their heritage into the present and future. The Fifth Dream embodies a cosmic anodyne for those feeling caught in between life's abyssal in-betweens, whilst aiming for a consonant awareness of where our home truly lies in the swells of life's spiritual maelstrom. This dream belongs at once to none and to many, that of a common language unified in concentric depth -- finding beauty in all aspects of our world, and ultimately, within oneself.

 

PRICE: $43.50

CAT #: IOT 087LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Azu Tiwaline presents her second full length LP The Fifth Dream. Released again through her beloved partnership with I.O.T Records, The Fifth Dream finds Azu painting an expansive vision towards unified multitudes, mercurial realities, and abundant inner sanctums. Where her first album Draw Me a Silence was a loving ode to her family and upbringing in the form of an elegant diptych, The Fifth Dream is the enactment of actualizing her roots into new routes, taking her multifaceted identity into new means of communication towards herself, the world, and the cosmic unknowns that surround her. This is music that gives back as much as the listener wants to give themselves unto it -- detailed and layered, orbiting a steady core as ethereal swirls and intonations of the natural world embrace us warmly within a spellbinding journey. Eight of the album's nine tracks feature a deep level of collaboration from innovative Franco-Iranian percussionist Cinna Peyghamy. Cinna's use of Tombak, the principal drum of Iranian music throughout time, is beautifully sonorous -- channeling the passion of centuries of Southwest Asian rhythm and expression into his own personalized flourishes, with Azu adding her own electrifying frequencies and undiluted artistic freedom to their shared interplay. This profoundly communicative diasporic essence is transmuted between Azu and Cinna, their expression, and the listener. Both are music lovers, intimately connected to their respected Iranian and Tunisian cultures -- concurrently acknowledging the wisdom of their resonant pasts, while proudly bringing the sounds of their heritage into the present and future. The Fifth Dream embodies a cosmic anodyne for those feeling caught in between life's abyssal in-betweens, whilst aiming for a consonant awareness of where our home truly lies in the swells of life's spiritual maelstrom. This dream belongs at once to none and to many, that of a common language unified in concentric depth -- finding beauty in all aspects of our world, and ultimately, within oneself.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KALITA 011LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Kalita presents the first ever reissue of Papa Yankson's highly sought-after 1989 disco-infused highlife masterpiece Party Time. Showcasing the late Ghanaian superstar at his very best, Party Time encapsulates the blending of deep, rhythmic West African highlife with synthesizers and electronic styles that had exploded during the decade. Now, thirty-five years after initial release, and with original copies having reached grail status on the second-hand collector's scene, Kalita brings this phenomenal record back to life, with extensive liner notes detailing Papa Yankson's musical career. A recipient of the Grand Medal of Ghana for his contribution to Ghanaian music, Papa Yankson was a key member of C.K. Mann's Carousel Seven outfit during the 1970s, releasing joint albums together on the infamous Essiebons label to great success. However, it was at the end of the following decade that Papa released Party Time, highlighting his forward-thinking musical style with its numerous hypnotic and driving up-tempo disco-soaked highlife cuts. Originally released in a small run on the short-lived Marriot Promotion label, the album features the standouts "Wonma Yenko Po" and "Mumumde," each showcasing deep highlife melodies, heavy drum patterns and phenomenal horn performances from the ingenious Sammy Lartey Jr on saxophone and Nana Asare on trumpet to boot. With original copies selling for eye-watering amounts on the rare occasion that they come up for sale, the time is ripe for Kalita to celebrate this true Ghanaian '80s grail, accompanied by liner notes and never-before-seen contemporary photos of Papa Yankson.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: KINDER 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

New York-based label Kindergarten Records presents Ayesha's debut album, Rhythm is Memory -- ten boundary-pushing tracks, a shape-shifting percussive journey with electric moments. While intended for maximum dancefloor impact, Ayesha's first LP is also conceptually thought-provoking and playful, exploring how bodies store and channel creative knowledge. This debut LP represents a significant step-up for both the artist and the imprint, as they strive harmoniously towards a shared goal: delivering a sonic experience full of colorful, otherworldly bass-fueled expansion. Rhythm is Memory captures Ayesha's signature love for driving techno and organic percussion, while at moments veering into newer electro territory while keeping it psychedelic, spacious, dubby, and always playful. This feels intuitively right for a producer at a crossroads in her career. All tracks intricately weave together pulsing drum grooves, slinky synths, nuanced melodies, and delightfully unexpected twists. No single genre can do justice to describing this project as Ayesha delicately nods to many, reveling in the spaces between. Undoubtedly, across A and B sides, Rhythm is Memory imparts the joy of sonic experimentation to listeners and dancers. Ayesha invites us into her creative process and its steady evolution -- rooted in many days and nights of exploration, reflection, and repetition. To mark this impressive milestone in their catalog, Kindergarten Records is proud to return to pressing vinyl after a hiatus since 2020, recognizing the significance of putting out a physical release to behold such a moment in both the label's and the artist's trajectory.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GG 449CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The Residents are an American art collective best known for their over 60 studio albums that were recorded over a period of over forty years. They also created some outstanding multimedia works, mainly three CD ROM projects and ten DVDs. Working as an anonymous collective, their identities were kept secret until in 2017 Hardy Fox revealed himself as their primary composer. Hardy died in October 2018, but the group continue to record and perform. Sam's Enchanted Evening is a theatrical performance by Randy Rose, lead singer of The Residents. It was performed between October 2011 and March 2012 in Berkeley, California and New York City. Rose's only companion on stage was long-time Residents collaborator Joshua Raoul Brody on piano. A one-man cabaret performance consisting largely of re-interpreted renditions of popular songs from the mid-to-late 20th century, interpreted by Rose in the guise of 'Sam the Stranger,' it was the first Residents-related performance piece to be credited to an individual member of the group."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 450CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Impetus Group is Dirk Serries' big band formation. The band name naturally refers to the Latin meaning: urgency, driving force, but even more spiritually to the moving language and strength of each musician in the ensemble to realize this free improvisational music. Impetus group is also a tribute to the improvisation scene of the sixties and seventies, more specifically the London scene led by guitarist Derek Bailey with his Company group. The album title describes exactly what the music brings to the listener. Intense pointillism in sound -- moving rapidly or introspectively from one theme to another, musicians challenging themselves and each other. London based saxophonist Colin Webster is known for working from extreme sonic palettes -- from minimal to maximal, constantly pushing boundaries. Equipped with a razor-sharp, punk spirit, and ferocious technique, Webster has established himself as a unique voice on the European avant-garde scene, regularly collaborating with many of the key figures in improvised and experimental music. Dirk Serries is hardly your average improvising musician. He is a master of texture, a skill which he's been able to forge and refine for more than 30 years (as vidnaObmana, Fear Falls Burning, Microphonics). Martina Verhoeven has been working on the development of her own abstract photographic style for more than 15 years now. Now she's fully dedicated to the piano, establishing herself as a unique and fierceful performer on the keys. Teun Verbruggen first picked up the drums by the age of eight. His search for a personal touch and wanting to explore all possibilities of playing drums, his lack of boundaries and trying to find fresh sounds in collective improvisation made him work with countless bands and musicians. Tom Jackson is a proficient clarinetist active in modern classical music and free improvisation."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 454CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A surprise solo album by Renaldo M. Called They Blessed The Body Breadcrumbed it is a 13-track collection of original songs, most of which were started during the period Renaldo & The Loaf were not together. It features guest musicians Nolan Cook, Mike Howlett, and Frank Pahl. With some very extended gaps in between, it has taken over 30 years to complete but is finally done! Renaldo M. aka Brian Poole is half of British eccentric avant-garde group Renaldo & The Loaf. They are an English musical duo active since the late 1970s, consisting of a pathologist (David Janssen or Ted the Loaf) and an architect (Brian Poole or Renaldo Malpractice). By their own assertion, they achieved their unique sound in part by striving to get unnatural synthesizer-like sounds using only what instruments they had available (acoustic ones). To that end they routinely used muffled and de-tuned instruments, and, often to striking effect, tape loops and manipulation. In 2018 they played their first ever live show at Klang 25 in Vienna, documented on the album Long Time Coming. In 2016 the group recorded a brand-new album entitled Gurdy Hurding. David Janssen aka Ted the Loaf has released some solo albums under the name The Darkening Scale and as a duo called The Tapeworm Vessel. Renaldo M. has so far contributed vocals to many songs by other artists, but this is his first album as a solo artist. It was recorded over a period of 30 years and is now finally available in finished form."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 455CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Philip Sanderson first started releasing music as part of Storm Bugs in the late 1970s as captured on the A Safe Substitute CD. He also set up his own Snatch Tapes cassette label releasing music by David Jackman and Alien Brains amongst others. Reviews in The Wire magazine of the instrumental tracks described them as being akin to 'a boiling vat of electronic music that occasionally sounds like the work of a mad scientist,' whilst the songs have a 'flavor of what Kevin Ayers might cook up if he were alive and forced to work with the Residents.' Philip has also released music under the names of Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey, Ice Yacht, Maids Of The Marsh, and Vote Police. In summer 2023, Philip played one of his very rare concerts at the Klang 30 festival in Vienna, Austria. This album presents the music played at the gig, plus music that was influenced by or created in Vienna while his stay."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KRANK 176LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "The third full-length release for Portland, Oregon-based Liz Harris. Harris might have achieved a significant fan base thanks to the whispering, near-ambient vocal crusades of her debut album Way Their Crept and its follow-up Wide, but those with a careful ear would have heard slightly more trapped beneath her fuzzy chain of effects. Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill marks a departure of sorts for Liz, which sees her turn down the fuzz boxes which caged (and to some degree defined) her sound and allows her voice to ring out above everything else. It is an album steeped in the world of dream-pop and far from shying away from the reference, Liz has instead grabbed on with both hands, creating an album's worth of perfect, left-field pop songs. Using delicate song structures which are at once both familiar and somehow alien, her vocals cry out hauntingly over stripped-down guitar lines and looped environmental recordings. These are the future soundtracks to love, despair and ultimately, hope." "This remarkable album is actually what I personally always wanted 4AD records to sound like, only they never quite delivered the hazy pleasures their beautiful sleeve art promised." --Pitchfork (8.2)

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KRANK 177LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "When I was a teenager the wreckage of a sailboat washed up on the shore of Agate Beach. The remains of the vessel weren't removed for several days. I walked down with my father to peer inside the boat cabin. Maps, coffee cups, and clothing were strewn around inside. I remember looking only briefly, wilted by the feeling that I was violating some remnant of this man's presence by witnessing the evidence of its failure. Later I read a story about him in the paper. It was impossible to know what had happened. The boat had never crashed or capsized. He had simply slipped off somehow, and the boat, like a riderless horse, eventually came back home. The Man Who Died in His Boat is an album of unreleased songs recorded alongside the Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill album."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KRANK 189LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. LP version. "'Ruins was made in Aljezur, Portugal in 2011 on a residency set up by Galeria Ze dos Bois. I recorded everything there except the last song, which I did at mother's house in 2004. I'm still surprised by what I wound up with. It was the first time I'd sat still for a few years; processed a lot of political anger and emotional garbage. Recorded pretty simply, with a portable 4-track, Sony stereo mic and an upright piano. When I wasn't recording songs I was hiking several miles to the beach. The path wound through the ruins of several old estates and a small village. The album is a document. A nod to that daily walk. Failed structures. Living in the remains of love. I left the songs the way they came (microwave beep from when power went out after a storm); I hope that the album bears some resemblance to the place that I was in.' -- Liz Harris"

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KRANK 233LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. "The 12th full-length by Pacific Northwest artist Liz Harris aka Grouper is a collection of songs spanning fifteen years. She characterizes Shade as an album about respite, and the coast, poetically and literally. How one frames themselves in a landscape, how in turn it frames themselves; memories and experiences carried forward mapping a connection to place -- 'an ode to blue / what lives in shade.' Songs touch on loss, flaws, hiding places, love. Deep connections to the Bay Area, and the North Coast, with its unique moods of solitude, beauty, and isolation -- a place described and transformed by the chaos and power of rivermouth, wild maritime storms, columns of mist that rise up unexpectedly on the road at night. Portions were recorded on Mount Tamalpais during a self-made residency years back, other pieces made longer ago in Portland, while the rest were tracked during more recent sessions in Astoria. Throughout, Harris threads a hidden radiant language of voice, disquiet, and guitar, framed by open space and the sense of being far away -- 'Echoing a lighthouse, burying the faults of being human / Into things that we project upon the sky at night.'"

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: LANR 033LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Fully licensed, 140g vinyl. A wonderful collection of early seventies recordings produced by Alton Ellis himself. High-impact reggae tunes with a great horn section. Alton Nehemiah Ellis (1 September 1938 - 10 October 2008) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter. One of the innovators of rocksteady, he was given the informal title "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: LANR 038LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Fully licensed, 140g vinyl. Re-issued for the very first time on vinyl -- in more than 40 years -- here's the third album by the cultish Jamaican band Morwells. Backed by such reggae luminaries as Sly & Robbie, Errol "Flabba" Holt, Tommy McCook, Ansel Collins, Earl "Chinna" Smith, and others, this is a true gem meant to last! The group was formed by Maurice Wellington and his Trenchtown's childhood friend Eric Lamont, joined around 1975 by Lousi Davis and by Errol "Flabba" Holt. The group split up in 1980.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: MAR 073LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

300 MPH is the debut album by Namaz. It was originally released in 1981 by the German group led by guitarist Werner Goos. Jazz fusion at its best with a Latin-Brazilian touch. 180 gram vinyl. Includes OBI and digital download card.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: MAR 082LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Stunning private press album from 1981 by Minas Gerais singer-songwriter. Fernando Oly is a musician who was part of Lô Borges' band and took part in the recording of the album Via Láctea in 1979. He placed one of his compositions among the album's tracks: "Chuva na Montanha," whose original version was also included on Tempo Prá Tudo. 180 gram vinyl. Includes OBI as well as replica of the original insert and download card.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: MAR 092LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Space Trip is a cult record released in 1973 on the legendary Amigo catalog, the longest-running independent label in Sweden. This amazing spiritual jazz-funk/fusion LP was very hard to find. Finally available again, fully licensed and remastered, with original artwork. This album is a killer one in its entirety, with no fillers. Some of the best spiritual jazz on record! 180g vinyl with hard cardboard cover and OBI.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: MJC 129006CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Love Should Never End is the second album in trio by legendary Italian jazz pianist Mario Rusca for Mono Jazz. In comparison with Monochrome Blues, we find Maxx Furian on drums and -- on bass -- the long time associated Riccardo Fioravanti. In the liner notes penned by Corrado Beldì, patron of Novara Jazz, Mario Rusca says: "Everything has come out naturally -- we have included some compositions I deeply love, one by Kenny Drew, one by Benny Golson, and 'Strollin'' by Horace Silver, then some originals I have written for this album like 'Mr. Rik,' 'Love Should Never End,' and 'Wait For Me In The Sky,' two standard like 'I Fall In Love Too Easily' and 'There Is No Greater Love.' We have recorded the whole album in one day and everything went simply perfect." Love Should Never End is an album in which this extraordinary trio delivers extremely expressive jazz music, with Rusca extraordinary pianism supported by a pulsating rhythm section. This is a sublime work destined to please the long-standing jazz passionate appreciating the blues origins of this music and at the same time it can be a perfect tool for those newcomers approaching jazz.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MR 256LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; 2003 release. Jeffrey Lee Pierce -- reggae enthusiast, heroin addict, and former president of the Blondie fan club -- suffered a lonely, depressing death on March 31st, 1996 of a brain hemorrhage, after untold years of drug use and alcoholism. Why this event mattered much to anyone lay in a fantastic record his band, The Gun Club, recorded 16 years earlier: the masterful Fire Of Love. A visionary and fierce moment in time when The Gun Club took the raw, dripping meat of shopworn delta blues and infused it with the energy and fire of the LA punk rock scene. Inspired by bands like X, Television and the Cramps, he met Kid Congo Powers (who later played with Nick Cave and Cramps) and they formed the Creeping Ritual in 1979, soon to be renamed The Gun Club. Pierce was already a notorious drunk, exhibitionist, poet and fanboy. The Gun Club were quickly a dangerous new spoke on the spinning wheel of dynamic LA alt-culture. By 1980, Jeffrey Lee had moved into a deep reverence for Mississippi delta blues. The Gun Club paid more than passing homage: they wholeheartedly swiped complete riffs, words and attitude from the masters. Pierce participated in the great blues singer tradition by cobbling together distinct lines from other people's songs to create new ones. Snatches of Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson can be heard throughout this debut LP -- released in 1981 on Slash's Ruby Records. What makes Fire Of Love such a brilliant listen long after its time is that this blatant homage to the blues was amplified, energized and kicked into overdrive -- in a new style that combined the ghostliness of the original model with a FAST, unwound and supremely energetic beat. The engineering feats of Pat Burnette contributed to that sound: he wielded his Quad-Teck studios like a weapon, and mastered some of the greatest sides in LA music history (such as Germs' GI). Pure fullness of sound and the raw hot throb of records that were made to stand the test of time. From the immensely dark and aggressive sexuality of "Sex Beat," Gun Club's most recognizable number, to the fetishistic salute to fellow traveler Poison Ivy of The Cramps in "For The Love Of Ivy," including the hellfire classic "She's Like Heroin To Me," a 2:33 masterpiece in which everything comes together; Fire Of Love is pure perfection. It stands among the greatest classics of rock history, and shows the genius of the great Jeffrey, whose haunted singing has never been replaced. It proved out to be one of the most influential records of the '80s, with countless musicians declaring their love for the Club.

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 1907COL-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Death Walks Behind You is the second studio album by British rock band Atomic Rooster. It is commonly thought of as the archetypal Atomic Rooster album, recorded by the 'classic' line-up of Vincent Crane, John Du Cann and Paul Hammond. It is, critically and commercially, their most successful album and often hailed as a classic of the progressive rock genre. It also produced the hit single 'Tomorrow Night,' which became one of the band's best-known songs. The album's cover features the William Blake monotype Nebuchadnezzar. The title track was covered in 1992 by Paradise Lost, in 2000 by Bigelf (on their album Money Machine) and in 2012 by Swedish death metal band NonExist. Death Walks Behind You is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on crystal clear and black marbled vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve."

 

PRICE: $57.00

CAT #: SR 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Sides A and B at La Cave, Cleveland, April 30, 1968. Side C: Cover states this comes from 4rth Fret, Philly Jan. 1970 (2nd Fret, Philadelphia, January 1970) but actually Boston Tea Party, December 12, 1968. Side D at Boston Tea Party, March 15, 1969." Gatefold sleeve.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: ORGM 2285LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Flesh and Bones is the latest release from drummer, composer, and poet William Hooker. The album marks his third full length effort for Org Music, following Big Moon (2021) and Symphonie of Flowers (2019). Hooker has also referred to the new work as his 'Black Lives Suite,' a multi-disciplinary event which uses music and poetry to address the social issues of the times. Recorded at NYU Steinhart Studios, the recording features fellow New York based players Ras Moshe, Charles Burnham, On Davis, Hilliard Greene, and Luke Stewart. After more than 70 releases as a leader and nearly five decades into his career, William Hooker has solidified his reputation as one of the most unique composers and drummers of his generation, and he continues to explore new territory. Flesh and Bones was mastered by Dave Gardner, and features liner notes from Hooker himself."

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: OSR 101LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Previously unreleased heavy acid-rock/proto-prog album from 1972. Asgard (initially known as Osgoode, named after the street where Blue Cheer had their headquarters) was a San Francisco band featuring ace guitar player Bob Hardy (a veteran of many Bay Area bands since the early '60s) and Jake "Gelon" Lau (Gideon & Power, Mary McCreary, Tribe) on electric violin and vocals. This is their lost album, registered at Roy Chen Recorders in 1972, now released for the first time. For Asgard features nine original tracks, perfectly recorded and played, dominated by Bob Hardy's outstanding fuzzy lead guitar and the cool touch of Gelon's Lau electrified violin that recalls UK prog-psych bands like the similar named Asgærd or High Tide at times. Hard to believe that such a pro-recorded, top-quality album like this was never released at the time. After playing a celebrated free concert at the Provo Park in Berkeley alongside bands like Mother Cat and Summerhill, the band slowly disintegrated. Download card includes one studio track from the same album sessions plus three raw rehearsal tracks.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: OUTS 007LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Everybody with a deep knowledge in R&B is confident with the essence of live P-Funk: the costumes, the stagecraft, the dozen-plus musicians. Alongside Sun Ra Arkestra this was pure Afro-futurism, longtime before it was current language. The so called coming of the Mothership took place in this 1977 live, during the life changing P.Funk Earth Tour. Anyone who's seen footage of the band at their prime can't overstate the greatness of their spectacle.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: PAL 076CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Since exploding on the improvised music scene a couple of years ago Tennessee native Zoh Amba has found herself engaging with an ever-widening group of collaborators as she tours across the US and Europe. She's forged some enduring partnerships, working regularly with drummer Chris Corsano, bassist Thomas Morgan, and pianist Micah Thomas, among others, but one of the deep pleasures of improvised music is when a first-time meeting produces sparks. Indeed, that's certainly the case with The Flower School, which bottles some serious lightning. In March of 2023, Amba and Corsano had finished up a duo tour of the west coast with an explosive performance in San Francisco. The next day the duo entered the studio with guitarist Bill Orcutt -- a trusted collaborator of the drummer stretching back a decade. It was the first time Orcutt and Amba had ever played together, but it sure doesn't seem that way. Although Amba has often recorded a bunch of tune-oriented albums for Tzadik, she's a free improviser at heart, and this trio arguably provides the most effective, elastic context for her playing yet. Yet what's most astonishing about The Flower School is how it elevates and transforms the playing of all three participants. It appears that there was more than enough trust in the room to allow each player to push-and-pull. Anyone who pays attention already knows that Orcutt and Corsano are mercurial figures, perpetually adapting, adjusting, and challenging one another. Inviting a third person to the party could threaten a slowly cultivated balance, but in this case the addition only heightened various dichotomies: soft vs. loud, bruising vs. tender, furious vs. lyric. Much has been made of Amba's debt to the free jazz of 1960s, particularly the way her vibrato-drenched tone dips into valley of sacred music, but here she carves out a space that's entirely hers. On tracks like "The Morning Light Has Flooded My Eyes" and "What Emptiness Do You Gaze Upon!" she reveals a meticulously sharpened gift for motific improvisation, taking a single phrase and chiseling away it until she's discovered every possible permutation, all the while driven by the feverish energy and empathy of her cohorts. This group also displays Orcutt's masterful support skills, as he often takes a single chord or two, letting them float in mutate in the background or splintering them into patient, reserved arpeggios that ripple alongside Corsano's circular sculptures and the saxophonist's edgy blowing. Two of the album's five tracks are duets between Orcutt and Amba. The collection is bisected by "Sweet One," a delicate lattice formed by Orcutt's tremulous electric guitar arpeggios and Amba's spike acoustic pointillism that basks in its own leisurely beauty for a couple of restorative minutes, while the album closer "Moon Showed But No You" is a searingly beautiful ballad where the guitarist unspools clusters of notes somewhere between vintage Loren Mazzacane Connor and a distorted kalimba, while Amba puts an upwardly arcing melodic line through its paces, finding new wrinkles at every turn.

 

PRICE: $44.50

CAT #: PERL 135LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Ricardo Villalobos first album Alcachofa from 2003. Originally released by Playhouse as a 3x12" record set, the re-release adds a fourth 12", the "Alcachofa Tools."

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: PHS 042LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; LP version. Pharaway Sounds present a reissue of El Turronero's New Hondo, originally released on Belter in 1980. There were two labels in Spain during the '70s which were essential to understand the birth of the rumba-flamenco-pop genre: Belter and Discophon. Thanks to the work of adventurous in-house producers and sound engineers like Josep Llobell, Joan Barcons and Lauren Postigo, funk, rock, disco and jazz arrangements were incorporated to recordings of folkloric flamenco singers and rumba bands. The result was explosive and the Spanish market was flooded with "gipsy-rock" or "rumba pop" 45s and LPs, some of them highly sought-after today by international DJs looking for exotic beats. New Hondo is an otherworldly mix of cosmic disco, funk, boogie, and traditional flamenco styles by Spanish "cantaor" El Turronero. New Hondo features the legendary Josep Llobell (Oliver's Planet, Enterprise) at the controls. Including "Las Penas" and more. Remastered sound from the master tapes; Includes insert with photos and liner notes by Txarly Brown (Achilifunk). "A flamenco singer with pedigree like El Turronero lost in Studio 54 on a hangover day" --Txarly Brown.

 

PRICE: $67.50

CAT #: POUMPET 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LB aka LABAT reflects on the back catalogue of his Poumpet Records imprint with a special gatefold triple LP release. Since the launch of Poumpet Records back in February of 2022, French producer, DJ and live-act LB aka LABAT has steadily unveiled a series of singles from himself and remixes from the likes of KiNK, X Club, Partiboi69, Sally C, and KETTAMA, all of which feature on this special vinyl issue spread out across three records in a gatefold package. The vinyl release also coincides with LB aka LABAT's All Night Long tour which sees him travelling across Europe with dates in France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK and Scotland.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: PP 093EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

John Heaven of Mainline Magic Orchestra fame delivers hot, 48-degrees-Celsius, sweat dripping shit, all in one minimal house record.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: PP 094LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Nice Girl presents the highly anticipated follow up to Ipsum. Two years have passed since Ipsum was released, back then the wild 15-track-long ride has been paraphrased as "mind boggling, tongue in cheek, spiritual and danceable" by RA. Ruby's second album titled UPP is more lighthearted compared to its predecessor as she moves away from the somewhat darker, earthy tones of Ipsum to create a fun, quirky, bleepy and fast universe where pitched vocals meet breakbeats and cosmic melodies. The album includes features by Eden Burns as well as Michael Kime, who as it happens is Ruby's father.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: PP 095EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Wolfram and Josh Ludlow take you to the disco on Yo Yo Disco.

 

PRICE: $24.50

CAT #: RM 4210LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"I'm not really sure when I first heard Beatriz Ferreyra's music. My best guess would be in the early to mid-2000s when I was working alongside the curatorial team at Liquid Architecture. Given the focus of the festival at that time, GRM and musique concrète more generally was very much a point of focus. That said, it wasn't until this decade that her work was sharply in focus for me (and I am guessing a great many others). In 2017, I had the great pleasure to meet Beatriz in Braga, where we both were performing as part of the excellent Semibreve Festival. Subsequent to that I invited her to perform in Australia and we also had the pleasure to send time together in Rio during the Novas Frequencies Festival. Across these meetings, I have come to realize the incredible focus, generosity and vision that Beatriz has maintained across her life in sound. Beatriz Ferreyra is one of only a handful of female concrète composers who were active across the second half of the 20th century through to today. Her work, which is still very much an active investigation, is simultaneously complex and elegantly simple. Often drawing upon singular object of focus, Ferreyra's use of tape and other forms of manipulation radically reconfigure her chosen sound materials, opening them outward. UFO Forest + collects together works from both her practices in tape-based music and also computer-based works. The pieces featured here epitomize her prowess in create dynamically rich sound works that are effortless in their sense of otherworldliness. Beatriz Ferreyra has created a sonic terrain all her own, and here lies the proof." --Lawrence English

 

PRICE: $24.50

CAT #: RM 4217LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Occasionally ideas present themselves in ways that no one can expect. This recording from Australia's Eugene Carchesio and the UK's Adam Betts is one such unexpected presentation. A couple of years ago, Eugene passed me a collection of recordings that he explained were in the orbit of his now legendary Circle Music series. The recordings, in Eugene's particular manner, maintained an intensely rhythmic quality rooted in a deep and unwavering sense of minimalism. Eugene has a way of making a tiny cosmos from just the barest of materials. He wondered though, about mixing it up and adding something unexpected to the pieces, and asked about some drums being added. At almost exactly the same moment, I had been reminded of the amazing work of Adam Betts, who I have been fortunate to be in the orbit of for more than a decade now. We'd first met at Bad Bonne, sharing a bill, and then crossed paths most recently in Tbilisi where he was performing with Squarepusher. The reason Adam was on my radar though was entirely unrelated to music and it was down to the fact that he had just participated in a welsh toss competition and done quite brilliantly. Somehow, watching Adam lug those weights made me think he'd be the perfect candidate to work with Eugene on this project. To my delight, he agreed. What results here is a melding of two incredible musical spirits, each of whom have an unerring sense of restrained energy and rhythmic ferocity. It is a parallel reading of how minimal motion can create giant affective waves of energy. It's also a record of careful listening and generous exploration. It's not everyday music can emerge from such curious orbits of thought, but when it does it is a cause for celebration. With that in heart I am so pleased to share this incredible edition with you." -- Lawrence English

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: RB 124EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Swapping BPM for GPM (Goosebumps per minute), Dusky's Life Signs Vol.3 is made from the heart to nourish the soul. to a long-overdue journey to the uncharted territories of Planet Dusky. Completing their triptych for Running Back with four tracks, one of the UK's most dependable duos shows once again how to connect fun with functionality and funk with efficiency. From the jacking rhythms of early Chicago to the emotive qualities of Detroit and the fever pitch aesthetics of the UK sounds of the '90s or the studies of the contemporary scene, it includes the right choice for each taste and need. Dusky, but not rusty.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: SAT 060EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sean La'Brooy is an Australian producer and composer currently based in New York, who's work traverses ambient, jazz and house music. He is the co-founder of Australian ambient label Analogue Attic Recordings. With this release, La'Brooy has hooked up with the Scissor and Thread label to put out Merchant -- five dreamy and versatile tracks featuring his distinct style of harmonically complex pads mixed with jazz-influenced instrumental melodies and solos. "Snow Storm" starts the journey, coupling field recordings with snippets of gentle jazz lines and wandering percussion. "Cargo" is the most dancefloor-oriented of the release, and locks into a driving groove early on, featuring various synth and piano fragments to add and flow through the track. "Pilot" is a track that also finds an off-kilter groove, embellished with dubbed-out percussion by fellow Australian Joseph Batrouney and samples. "Storage" too features a guest -- New York based drummer Leo Yucht -- who delivers a rolling breakbeat which is intertwined with live percussion, airy pads and snippets of piano to build a rich atmosphere. The closing piece is "Helipad," a dubby bassline providing the anchor for an intricate rhythm of bongos and synth to support a light-as-a-feather melody.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: NWT 2009EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sonor Music Editions is presenting under our New Tape label Mark Saddlemire's debut release Sound-In-The-Round, that draws a deep inspiration from the golden era of Italian library and soundtrack music. Something akin to the legendary prog-rock ensemble Goblin and the avant-garde composer Giuliano Sorgini, but with plenty of grooveness. Mark Saddlemire is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer from Philadelphia, passionate about creating instrumental compositions from a blend of acoustical and electronic sounds using analog techniques. An electrical engineer by trade, he's customized and repaired much of the vintage gear used for his recordings -- his studio is a collection of unique and rare analog instruments from the 1960s to the 1980s.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: FFL 070LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 restock. Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Ted Curson's Pop Wine, originally released in 1971. Originally from Philadelphia, invited to New York by Miles Davis, playing at Antibes in 1960 with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, here is trumpeter Ted Curson in 1971... in Paris. With him, a legendary trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums). A new transatlantic alliance in the service of jazz of all kinds: classic, modal, fusion and even free... Pop Wine is -- between Coltrane and Miles with a nod to roots in the club the Caveau de la Huchette -- an explosive cocktail but which leaves no stains! In 1960, trumpeter Ted Curson played with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy on stage at the Antibes jazz festival. Eleven years later he was in Paris to record one of the gems of his discography, with a hard-hitting French trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums). Arvanitas was also someone who had travelled widely. Originally from Marseille, he had accompanied visiting American musicians in Paris before moving to the States. It was when he came back that the charismatic trio was created with Samson and Saudrais and who recorded, in 1970 on Futura, the unforgettable In Concert and then, the following year, Pop Wine with Ted Curson. Pop Wine: don't be fooled into thinking you are going to hear jazz musicians trying to play pop after uncorking too many bottles. For, although the album occasionally tends toward fusion, it is first and foremost a wonderful jazz recording; and a recording with enough fizz to make your head spin. There are five tracks in total: "Quartier Latin" is reminiscent a little of Olé Coltrane (Curson, like the saxophonist, is originally from Philadelphia), "Flip Top" where the trumpet and piano play out a chase scene through the streets of Paris, Pop Wine where funk and cool jazz meet on the barricades of black and white, "L.S.D. Takes A Holiday" which breaks out in a style close to free jazz, and finally "Lonely One", with the impression that ends this unclassifiable album. Unclassifiable, unless we decide to elevate Pop Wine to the rank of a great vintage. Carefully remastered from the master tapes. Licensed from Futura / Marge. 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SOW 046LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Another legendary Lateef session cut in 1960 for the New Jazz imprint. The co-leader -- bassist Doug Watkins -- died tragically in a car accident in 1962 at the age of 27. However, prior to his early demise, he recorded dozens of wonderful sessions with some of the greatest jazzmen of his time, among them Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and the Horace Silver Quintet. Imagination! marked his second and final album as a leader, and features Watkins on cello instead of bass. The use of cello -- and oboe on some numbers -- makes the date stand out a bit from the usual hard bop sessions of the period and straight-ahead jazz fans will want to get this.

 

PRICE: $45.50

CAT #: SVT 334LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

With Trip to Sanity, Berlin-based producer, DJ, live performer, and Stil vor Talent label head Oliver Koletzki presents a milestone in his 36-year long musical career and his 18-year tenure at the top of global electronic nightlife -- his tenth studio album. The album's title, Trip to Sanity -- a reference to the classic German children's story of the little dragon "Tabaluga" -- reflects Oliver's own path as a DJ within the world of club culture. In South Africa, Oliver wrote most of Trip to Sanity in the winter, then flashed out and finalized the tracks in his studio at Kreuzberg's Holzmarkt. Within the last 18 months a collection of complex and varied songs formed, which, typical for Oliver's collaborative approach, were often created in cooperation with musicians like techno-pop legend Fritz Kalkbrenner, Burning Man chance encounter Talmirage, scene friends Andhim, Hidden Empire, Oliver Klostermann, and Niko Schwind, or the exceptional voices Natascha Polké, Malou, LOLY, and Marlena Dae. The result is a rollercoaster ride through a diverse spectrum of dance music, effortlessly held together by Koletzki's unmistakable sound signature and his intrinsic sense for the exact tension between hedonistic dancefloor focus and poppy earworm impact.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: BARN 089EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A very special autumnal presentation from FaltyDL and Studio Barnhus, in the form of a perfect little slab of 12" vinyl, exhibiting the love for the classic house sound that burns within the hearts of the prolific New York producer as well as the Swedish dance music powerhouse. In particular, "Our House Is Barnhus" honors and updates the deeper side of the French touch -- think Pépé Bradock and early St. Germain -- fully displaying the state-of-the-art production skills and emotional depth always present in Drew Lustman's music. Known for his shapeshifting sound, FaltyDL has been releasing explorative electronic music for over a decade, switching his sound up intuitively across six albums, remixes for The xx and Mount Kimbie, executive production credits for Mykki Blanco, and a multitude of singles and EPs, including two previous Studio Barnhus editions in 2021 and 2019.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BARN 092LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

DreamySpaceyBlue is a new Bella Boo album, written and produced early 2023 when dark times demanded love, healing, and forgiveness. Cozed-up, self-therapeutic winter-spring studio sessions resulted in Bella's most virtuoso work yet -- a collection of dazzling, emotive recordings full of bright notes, deep vibrations and that signature "Boo mood." The album marks a distinctive step forward in Bella's sound: An amalgamation of the etheric sounds on her 2019 debut album Once Upon A Passion (BARN 067LP, 2023) and the ruff and rugged dance tracks on her recent Looney Talks EP (BARN 086EP, 2023). DreamySpaceyBlue features appearances by a number of Bella's closest confidants in life and music. The album artwork, designed by good friend Lowe Steiner, portrays her daughter Bozi, who in her turn shot Bella's last album cover -- a fitting full-circle arrangement for an album rooted in collaboration, intimacy and love.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: PICI 017LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; LP version. In the wake of Young Marble Giants' breakup, two camps were created, with Stuart Moxham taking the band's minimalist, geometric play to extremes and Alison Statton adding more warmth and feeling to the same basic template and creating something stunning but based in popular forms. Those two opposing -- almost knee-jerk -- means of forging new paths away from one of music's most astonishingly unique debuts both happened to include Stuart's brother -- Alison's former boyfriend -- Phil Moxham. Without a real template to guide him, Stuart's new form of music -- as The Gist -- was widely regarded as wildly uneven. Stuart admits that he didn't know which way to go, so in perverse style, he decided to take all directions at once. The Gist's original discography stood at a scant 18 songs, but only seven featured Stuart's own voice, often in heavily processed and oddly mixed form. So, while The Gist's label, Rough Trade, had the widest array of unique voices in popular music, Stuart buried his own voice. Sales disappointed. The Gist were dropped. A decade later, starting with a critical reevaluation of The Gist's sole album, Embrace The Herd (1982), in an issue of Mojo, the tide begin to turn. Ambience in pop music had enjoyed a cult following from Eno on, but the non-linear structure of many of The Gist's songs had certain parallels with the rise of artists such as Aphex Twin and Seefeel. One song from the era was covered by Etienne Daho in France. The Gist's story could have been different. Recent discovery of a trove of unreleased songs, versions, and demos showed that Stuart had ample material on a par with his YMG work, sometimes in rough demo form, but often in five or six complete, entirely different arrangements. With the 2017 album of unreleased material by The Gist, Holding Pattern (PICI 009CD/LP, 2017), a new audience discovered the band and the release sold out quickly. Interior Windows adds 13 new performances or alternate versions to the band's catalog, and does the service of finally making both sides of The Gist's first 7" 45 (recorded at the same session as the final YMG single) available again, along with their contribution to the Rough Trade/NME classic compilation C81, and in keeping with The Gist's tradition, at least one song on which Stuart does not appear.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: TON 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Opening Soon is a culinary buddy movie with a background of gourmet grooves where body tricks at the turntables have been replaced by acrobatic pizza tricks. This album from Jean Tonique and Mi Man is a real tomato concentrate and ingredients cleverly dosed which abound in suave and feel-good tracks. 11 tracks that act as the perfect soundtrack to accompany the dolce vita 2.0 of this great musical duo (between Mario Bros and Cheech & Chong). A tasty and pop cuisine that gives pride of place to a nostalgia that gathers behind the tiled counter or on the dancefloor. Tonique continues to demonstrate a knowledge all in funk and finesse. He is accompanied by Man, who brings his sweetness and harmony. They combine their strength on this project initiated with the title "Day & Night" and its languorous disco tinged with rhodes and percussions with Salsoul accents. Lightness and nonchalance for a songwriting full of coolness and analogical charisma boosted by a Moog which invokes the best of the '70/'80s.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: TPR 128LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Quickly gaining ground on Jake Robertson as Australia's most prolific artist, Ishka Edmeades (Satanic Togas, Set-Top Box, RRC, Gee Tee, Remote Control, Mainframe) is back with the debut LP as Tee Vee Repairmann. Sharp edged, hook heavy punk with a generous helping of glammy power pop. This is a sure fire hit parade. Co-released by our friends Computer Human Records in Australia."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 174LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. "A La Memoria Del Muerto is Fruko Y Sus Tesos's second album, released in 1972, and features exclusively the soaring and soulful vocals of Cali native Edulfamid Molina Díaz, aka 'Píper Pimienta', Fruko's previous vocalist Humberto 'Huango' González having left after the first album Tesura (1970). The record is a mix of spirited cover versions and authentically Nuyorican-sounding originals with a Colombian twist. . . . Produced and engineered by Fruko's uncle Mario "Pachanga" Rincón, the album has an uncompromisingly stark, hard sound that is appealing to today's collectors of 'salsa brava' just as it was impactful on the Colombian scene when it was made at the beginning of the 1970s. Unlike the first Tesos album, with a two trumpet line-up and fairly simple arrangements, this more mature recording added another trumpet and two trombones for a more robust brass attack. Additionally, instead of basic salsa, there are many different rhythms - guaguancó, bomba, plena, oriza, bolero, cha-cha-chá, descarga and Latin soul. Though Fruko's sound at this stage wore its New York, Havana and San Juan sources on its sleeve - Willie Colón, Javier Vázquez, Richie Ray -, at the same time the album has a uniquely Colombian approach to these influences with the bounciness of coastal music like cumbia being felt throughout. The title song is a 'guaguan-plena' version of Dominica Y Su Conjunto's original 'Acuyuye' hit of the same name from a decade earlier. Following that is Fruko's take on Cuban pianist Javier Vazquez's driving salsa dura anthem 'Mi Verdadero Son'. . . . The side finishes out with more cover versions: the double-entendre 'La Fruta Bomba' by Cuban trovador Maximiliano "Bimbi" Sánchez Y Su Trío Oriental and the fiery rumba gitana 'Achilipu'. . . . Side B kicks off with one of Fruko's favorite Afro-Cuban artists, the conguero and Santería singer Silvestre Méndez, with 'A Bailar Oriza'. After a wild descarga (jam session) track, we are treated to a fun pair of cover tunes: Johnny Zamot's 'Bomba Africana' and the old Afro-centric chestnut by folkloric Cuban rumbero Alberto Zayas, 'Baho Kende'. . . . The record finishes off with another Fruko original written with his Discos Fuentes colleague Isaac Villanueva. . . . This reissue features as a bonus the Latin soul track 'Tihuanaco' (a cover of Peruvian pianist Alfredito Linares), which appeared on the US edition of the LP." --Pablo Yglesias, aka DJ Bongohead

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MRSSS 523LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited 2023 restock. By the early summer of 1979 the Bad Brains were already tearing up Washington D.C. They were armed with a tape they made at rehearsal, a real rugged thing, and were looking for people to play it to. The Slickee Boys heard it and suggested the band go out to record these songs at the fledgling Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA. What you are holding in your hands is the band's first full-length session of any kind in a recording studio. At that time, Inner Ear was Don Zientara's basement. Don had a four-track Teac 1/4" tape deck and a small drum booth to one side of the basement. Doc and Darryl set up in the main space while Earl somehow got himself into the "closet" with his drum kit. HR was in the backyard with the vocal mic (you can hear Don's son speaking to HR between tracks along with some crickets, too) and Don was set up in the kitchen upstairs. This day everything was just right and the band played straight through their live set of that time including "Black Dots" and "Pay to Cum," songs that were just too fast to ever be performed live to the band's satisfaction. The set on this record represents all of the band's songs, their first month's output, starting with the first song the band ever wrote, "Don't Need It." As is true with all four-track recordings, some decisions were made "going to tape," most notable is the eerie reverb on the drums, and these choices are forever a part of the mix. Formed as Mind Power a year earlier, it wasn't until their early vocalist Sid McCray showed up at Darryl's apartment in SE D.C. with his records and safety pins that the band transformed itself into the progressive punk outfit now known as Bad Brains. They were one dose Dead Boys topped off with a couple of shots of The Damned mixed with the Sex Pistols and The Clash. All the material on this record was written while the band lived together in a house on Bayway in Maryland. Doc had acquired the house from the manager of the Rustler Steak House where he had been working. HR and Darryl got jobs there as well, though they didn't last and ended up washing cars at the dealership down the street. Earl was washing clothes at the community hospital. Doc then got a job for himself and HR at Atlantic Research and Development, a bomb factory that manufactured Stinger and MX missiles. Darryl, without a driver's license, would pick them up from there at midnight and take them to rehearsal at the Bayway house. They lived at that house for about six months from late 1978 to mid-1979. They left after playing a series of basement shows at parties they threw. Sid would get on stage and start the set singing "Regulator." His girlfriend Tally would run on stage, tackle him and knock him off the stage and HR would then take the mic for the rest of the show. It wasn't long before Sid left the singing completely to HR and all of his sonorous vocalizations and lyricism. Needless to say, the house got a bit trashed and when they vacated Darryl moved in with Sid and everyone else moved back in with their parents. The next step was their first club shows; at the Atlantis (later named the 9:30 Club) and Madam's Organ (in Adams Morgan, MO with the Yippies and Youth Against Racism), conquering the D.C. punk/new wave scene with their sonic onslaught and clever musical curves. It was at this point that this record was made. Darryl got thrown out into the street by the bouncers after the band opened for The Damned at the Bayou, resulting in the band being banned from the club. With the Atlantis in reconstruction and the Bayou now off-limits, the possibilities in D.C. were shrinking for the band. New York had CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, Tier 3, 2 + 2, A7, Hurrahs, The Eighties, The Pep lounge and squats. The scene was jumping so the band headed off to NYC for the first time. They never looked back. On 180 gram vinyl with a full-color innersleeve.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: VL 990212LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Vinyl Lovers present a reissue of Os Mutantes' Mutantes, originally released in 1969. One album into their career in 1969, Mutantes showed few signs of musical burnout after turning in one of the oddest LPs released in the '60s. Similar to its predecessor, Mutantes relies on an atmosphere of experimentation and continual musical collisions, walking a fine line between innovation and pointless genre exercises. The lead track ("Dom Quixote") has the same focus on stylistic cut-and-paste as their debut LP's first track ("Panis et Circenses"). Among the band's musical contemporaries, Mutantes sounds similar only to songs like the Who's miniature suite "A Quick One While He's Away" -- though done in three minutes instead of nine, and much more confusing given the language barrier. The album highlights ("Nao Va Se Perder Por Ai") and ("Dois Mil E Um") come with what sounds like a typically twisted take on roots music (both Brazilian and American), complete with banjo, accordion, and twangy vocals. Though there are several other enjoyable tracks, including "Magica" and a slap-happy stomp called "Rita Lee," there's a palpable sense that the experimentation here isn't serving much more than its own ends. If the first album's relentless eclecticism did in fact occasionally result in dry passages, it's especially true here. Bottle green vinyl.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: VL 990380LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Originally released in 1970 this was the third album from Os Mutantes, the geniuses of wacked out Brazilian psychedelic rock. They may have been trying to pay homage to their better-known icons back in the States, but in doing so they created something that went beyond all that until, 30 years later, they became the ones that everyone was trying to imitate. This album, A Divina Comedia Ou Ando Meio Desligado, further testimony to their limitless creativity and considered by many to be their best, was recorded during the height of the Brazilian military regimes crack down on artists, and fellow members of the Tropicalia movement, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil had already been sent into exile in the UK. White vinyl.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: ZEL 009LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Zel Zele announces the first-time vinyl issue of Turkish improv band ZeN's iconic album Bak?rköy Ak?l Hastanesi'nde. Performed live in Istanbul's Bak?rköy Psychiatric Hospital for an audience of patients, doctors and visitors, this exceptional recording offers an entrancing blend of krautrock, psychedelic and free anatolian sounds. Perhaps one of the most unusual albums of Turkey's underground music history, Bak?rköy Ak?l Hastanesi'nde is a testament to improvisation in its purest form. Originally released in 1999 in cassette and CD, this co-release with Ada Müzik brings the album back into the spotlight.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: 1972 012LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey might be better known as members of legendary post-punk group The Sound, but the two were childhood friends and had been playing together even earlier in The Outsiders, and continued their deep musical rapport as a duo, creating these intense and engaging songs as Second Layer at the same time as their higher profile band output. Following the release of Courts Or Wars, combining their early material, 1972 is proud to reissue their only full length album, World Of Rubber. Fueled by experimentation in both song construction and recording techniques, the duo leave you enveloped in what The Quietus described as 'a monochrome worldview morbidly obsessed with the dehumanizing effect of war, nuclear weapon annihilation, and the fracturing and negation of the self within an increasingly distorted and technologically mediated society.' Indeed, the goal had been to make each album a concept album, with this to be titled: Second Layer's World Of Rubber. Alas, this was to be the first and last of those efforts. New detailed liner notes from Graham Bailey shed considerable light on the creation of this cold classic and its immediate aftermath. Bailey's inventive construction and deconstruction of various electronics, effects boxes and tape loops form the propulsive base for these songs. Borland's guitar playing is jagged and unleashed. Above it all is an undeniable sense of melody and Borland's distinctive vocals. Soon, they would wonder where Second Layer ended and The Sound began, but World Of Rubber would stand as a document of this fertile period. It would also be a lasting testament to their desire to push the boundaries of their creativity. Dark and brooding the result is what Bandcamp described as 'brutally bleak, blank-eyed post-punk that remains chillingly compelling.'"

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: ACOLOUR 042LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Percussionist extraordinaire Valentina Magaletti recorded live at Colourful Storm's showcase at Cafe Oto in 2021. Intricate, textural longform percussion pieces comprised of traditional drums, found objects, voice and electroacoustics conjured to hypnotic effect. A rare solo recording, following collaborations with Laila Sakini, Yves Chaudouët, Marlene Ribeiro, and outings for Blume and Takuroku. Extremely curious listening for fans of African Head Charge, The Necks, and followers of Magaletti's collaborative groups, including Moin, Vanishing Twin, and Holy Tongue. First-time vinyl pressing following a short run of cassettes. Full-color reverse-card sleeve with postcard and new artwork by Dennis Tyfus.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ACT 9056CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"When I started working on Geyser in the fall of 2021, I made a conscious decision to move away from composing music that reflected the pain of the pandemic. Instead, I aimed to create a celebration, capturing the essence of music's triumphant return and the unique atmosphere when musicians come together to perform. The piece was intended to evoke predominantly joyful and optimistic emotions, with the title serving as a metaphor for the music's rhythmic energy, intermittently unleashed in ecstatic bursts, much like water and steam erupting from a pressurized geothermal spring. However, in February 2022, Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, leaving me in a state of shock akin to the early days of the pandemic. I had already written a significant portion of the composition, but I found myself unable to complete it. As someone who channels deep emotion into his work, such events invariably impact the music I create. Consequently, I revisited and deconstructed many of the previously written elements, loosening their structure and tonality. This was a symbolic representation of how quickly beauty, pleasantness, and safety can be lost. The darkness and despair triggered by the Russian invasion added a new layer of meaning to the title and its original associations. It also influenced the overall structure of Geyser, which undergoes a transformative journey from darkness to light across its eight movements. Despite the dramatic changes that occurred during the compositional process, the fundamental motivation behind all my music remains constant, whether I am composing a symphony, a saxophone concerto, or engaging in improvisation: I strive to tell a story -- it is the essence of my artistry. My hope is that this story resonates with the listeners." --Marius Neset

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: AMI 056LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Since 2016, Chicago's Luggage has operated according to a less-is-more philosophy, tastefully shuffling spare lyrics in a song space primarily occupied by guitar, bass and drums. This sense of openness and order define Hand Is Bad, their forthcoming album to be released by New York's Amish Records on September 29, 2023. Hand Is Bad arrives in succession of their pandemic-toiled 2021 Happiness EP (Husky Pants) and much like that release, the Chicago band picks their vocabulary carefully both with music and words. Michael Vallera presents guitar rotating around MJ Grant's airy bass rumble, and minimal, metronomic drum thud held down by Luca Cimarusti. Vallera's more abstract and understated musical and artistic past with projects like Cleared (Immune, Utech, Touch, Digitalis), COIN (Opal Tapes) and Maar (Umor Rex and Entr'acte) find their way into the production, arrangement and recording of Hand Is Bad. Grant and Cimarusti's musical output as Basic Cable (Permanent Records) adds a spindly post-punk edge. And it's a definite plus to get Luggage back in at Chicago's Electrical Audio, a place that enhances the crispness with a very distinct, unfettered mix theology. Jeremy Lemos returns as well-dialed-in engineer, recording and mixing in three days with minimal overdubs. Hand Is Bad is a tonal dream full of surprises, including the band members surprising themselves with some clear new pathways blazed since Happiness. For years there was a lot of challenging gravity going on, and for this outing it seems Hand Is Bad enhanced their own atmosphere to escape the Earth's."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BING 202LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"While possibly not the first ambient record to be inspired by J Dilla's Donuts, Secret Pyramid's A Vanishing Touch is in rarified company. The two seem antithetical -- with Donuts a now classic collection of short beats compiled together and A Vanishing Touch being a forty-minute suite consisting of fourteen pieces. However, like any genre, ambient music has a lot more going on beneath the surface than might be initially gleaned. From the start, Amir Abbey dropped his usual songwriting process of long contemplation and careful sculpting. 'I let the pieces live and breathe, and I spent a lot less time tweaking and editing. This allowed the record to come together quickly, with Abbey working on it nightly after his work day had ended. Working at home, as he always has, Abbey embeds synths, tape loops and processing, horns, ondes martenot, guitar, bass, and organ within the multi-tiered composition of A Vanishing Touch. Sounds morph, bleed, fade, and permeate with moments where a listener is able to make out what is being played at that moment. Each measure feels deep, singular, mysterious, and unconfined. It's a new approach to ambience?the magic of the moment as a moment, not stretched beyond its point in time."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BALMAT 001LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress! Balmat's first release comes from Luke Sanger, a Norwich, UK-based artist whose two decades of electronic music-making have encompassed a range of tools and techniques, from MaxMSP to modular synthesis. Along the way he has built an extensive catalog encompassing ambient atmospheres, abstract soundscaping, and more. With Languid Gongue, he puts multiple approaches into play. Experiments in microtonal composition balance out pieces in standard tunings, while esoteric electronic machines merge with familiar acoustic treatments and microphone techniques. The result is a constellation of his signature sounds: freeform new-age fantasia; spring-loaded toytronic arpeggios; quartz-driven braindance clockworks. Drifting between consonant, almost lyrical compositions and shape-shifting textural sketches, the album drifts with the nonchalance of a sky-high cirrus cloud, and it glows as if illuminated from within. When the label heard the material, they knew that it was the perfect choice to launch the label. To Balmat, it sounds like a roadmap for points unknown.Balmat is a new label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show on Spain's Radio 3. Balmat's mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world. "Balmat" means "empty" or "void" in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, the label prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 093CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Following on from 2020's debut album Vodou Alé and two EPs last year, the collaboration between Haitian seven-piece Chouk Bwa and Belgian production duo The Ångströmers return with their second album Somanti. Full of Afro-Caribbean voodoo polyrhythms and bass-weight dub electronics, the group count the likes of Gilles Peterson, Gideon Coe, Trevor Jackson, and Worldwide FM as fans. Brutally separated by the COVID crisis, the band went back on stage in 2022 and performed about thirty concerts in Europe. Between two concert series, they took the opportunity to record their live set. The connection between the well-preserved vodou tradition on one hand, and analog electronics on the other hand, gets deeper and deeper, with also a kind of rage due to the incredible difficulty of the world. The musical result is wild and full of twists and blasts. It's in-your-face.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: BPX 025EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

BPitch present a new EP of unfiltered techno and impeccable sound design by Turin-based duo Boston 168. Following on from three releases on the label and a 2019 appearance on its hotly tipped sub label UFO Inc, the duo head for cavernous industrial spaces and vivid psychedelic trips with Gigantia. Having produced music together since 2014, Sergio Pace and Vincenzo Ferramosca have built a name for themselves from a particularly spatial strain of techno that has afforded them an illustrious career to date. Gigantia sees the duo drawing upon the industrial roots of their hometown, merging a range of influences with a distinctly melodic take on acid techno.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BR 012-025LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

R.Y.F. (Francesca Morello) announces the original soundtrack of Tutto Brucia, the new theatrical show by Motus, via Bronson Recordings; Tutto Brucia (Music From The Motus Show) is the original soundtrack composed by R.Y.F. for the homonymous new theatrical show by the acclaimed Motus theater company by Daniela Nicolò and Enrico Casagrande (MDLSX, Panorama, NELLA TEMPESTA), that sees her as protagonist on stage -- on songs and live music -- together with Silvia Calderoni and Stefania Tansini. Morello says she created the music, based on the union between the electric guitar and a more and more free and powerful voice, starting from improvisation, that means following her usual instinct. This is why it was decided to record live Tutto Brucia (Music From The Motus Show), during a show at the Triennale, in Milan, in November 2021, in order to represent the fundamental interaction between music and text. Recording, editing and mixing were completed by Andrea Cola, who carried out a remarkable production work, masterfully depicting the depth of the theatrical spaces. Finally, the master was entrusted to Giovanni Versari. Music and lyrics by R.Y.F. (Francesca Morello).

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: BECD 231001CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Live from the Northwest, 1959 is the newest release from Brubeck Editions, the family-run label that only puts out music of the highest musical and technical quality. These exciting performances were recorded by the trailblazing and iconic audio engineer, Wally Heider, who pioneered the art of remote recording from his 'studio on wheels.' The sound he achieved is stellar, and this is perhaps the best live recording you can hear of one the most popular jazz groups of all time. The tapes were recorded in April, 1959 at the Multnomah Jazz Club and Clark College, both in the Portland, Oregon area. On this recording you can hear the Quartet's mastery of spontaneous counterpoint improvisation. Four months later, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's focus shifted to polytonal and polyrhythmic approaches when the group recorded the legendary Time Out, and changed the course of jazz forever."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 431CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Oui Bitte is the eleventh studio album by Station 17 and was recorded in Forellenhof, Nordhastedt, North Germany. In 2001, the legendary label Mute Records released the album Mikroprofessor with remixes by DJ Koze, Thomas Fehlmann, Justus Kohncke, and To Rococo Rot. In 2011, the Goldstein Variations Remixes followed, including versions by Erobique, Tobias Thomas, but also by Ada and Mense Reents. Timidly, the band began to ask their favorite producers most of whom agreed without hesitation. Soon, a top-class remix of Oui Bitte came together, with a who's who of the local electronic music landscape, and even if only the bases of the original pieces are recognizable, a completely new listening experience has been created here. It's grown into an independent work through the versatility of the participants and their expertise and can be enjoyed detached from the original material. As if by magic, a simultaneously stringent and diverse vibe has emerged that makes Oui Mixe more than just an addition to Oui Bitte. Also featuring Efdemin, Paul Frick ist mude, Pantha du Prince Sharing Lunch with Apes, and Toto Belmont Sophisti.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CF 148CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"The band is John Dwyer (synths, vocals), Heather Lockie (viola), Thomas Dolas (synths), Andres Renteria (hand percussion), Brad Caulkins (tenor saxophone), Kyp Malone (synths) and Archie Carey (bassoon). The singers are YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO), Albert Wolski (EXEK), Gracie Jackson (GracieHorse), Ciriza (Artist Extraordinaire), Kyp Malone (Bent Arcana, TV On The Radio, Rain Machine), Brigid Dawson (Thee Oh Sees, The Mothers Network), AZITA (Scissor Girls, Bride of NONO, AZITA). For fans of Steve Roach, Eno, Syrinx, Howard Shore, Current 93, Terry Riley, Tangerine Dream, and a proper sage scrub."

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: CNERS 2302LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Second album by Cinedelic Records to complete the discography of Moana Pozzi. Includes three previously unreleased tracks. Moana Pozzi in the late 1980s, following in the footsteps of her illustrious colleague Ilona Staller/Cicciolina, made her official singing debut by recording several songs arranged and produced by Jayhorus, a pseudonym of Carlo Rustichelli's esteemed son: Paolo Rustichelli. The music ended up in several of her films as well as being performed in her hot live shows. Discographically at the time only a few tracks were released on 7" and 12" singles that are now cult collector's items for fetishists and weird DJs. At last, Cinedelic has gotten their hands on the original masters, unearthing some unreleased ones as well, producing a luxurious gatefold LP. Unmissable!

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: DDCT 006LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Catalogue number 6 from Dedicate highlights a reissue from a timeless beat mixtape dropped in a prestreaming era in 2012. The original 2rbostatic was released as a handmade USB flash drive/cassette tape hybrid in combination with a free download. For the first time, the remastered version will be on vinyl. On 50 minutes playtime Kollege Schnürschuh expresses his affection for hip-hop with 27 (almost) exclusively instrumental tracks representing the full spectrum of musical influences in all shapes and forms. A short entertaining journey through MPC sampling and synth sounds with an extraordinary love for details. Also featuring King Solomon.

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 124RE-EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"New pressings of Digikiller's very first two Wackie's releases from over a decade ago, first released in February, 2013. Back then, these Joe Axumite and Wayne Jarrett 45's were remastered from original vinyl copies, as the tapes were MIA. In the years since Digikiller has been hard at work sourcing master tapes all over the place, including ones long thought lost or left behind. Fortunately, the tape was found for these singles a couple years ago, and since they've been out of press for a while, it seemed only right to remaster them now straight off the original tapes for optimum quality. The Joe Axumite 45 is probably my all-time favorite Wackie's single, a defiant polemic against mere reform in a corrupt system, with a brilliant echo overdosed mix that perfectly encapsulates Wackie's late '70s sound. Likewise, the Wayne Jarrett is equally canonical Wackie's, a killer vocal on one of the best original rhythms from the studio, back with a killer Jerry Johnson horns dub."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 125RE-EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"New pressings of Digikiller's very first two Wackie's releases from over a decade ago, first released in February, 2013. Back then, these Joe Axumite and Wayne Jarrett 45's were remastered from original vinyl copies, as the tapes were MIA. In the years since Digikiller has been hard at work sourcing master tapes all over the place, including ones long thought lost or left behind. Fortunately, the tape was found for these singles a couple years ago, and since they've been out of press for a while, it seemed only right to remaster them now straight off the original tapes for optimum quality. The Joe Axumite 45 is probably my all-time favorite Wackie's single, a defiant polemic against mere reform in a corrupt system, with a brilliant echo overdosed mix that perfectly encapsulates Wackie's late '70s sound. Likewise, the Wayne Jarrett is equally canonical Wackie's, a killer vocal on one of the best original rhythms from the studio, back with a killer Jerry Johnson horns dub."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 210EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Moja Nya's Freedom For Trots EP. Killer Wackie's from 1978, originally released on the Jumbo Caribbean Disco label run by Brooklyn's African Record Center shop. Deep roots discomixes on both sides. Essential and finally back out."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 220EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Double sided killer Wackie's from 1978. Originally released on the Jumbo Caribbean Disco label from Brooklyn. "Big Leg Mary" is on the same rhythm as Wayne Jarrett's killer "Come Let's Go." "Wasn't It You" is a different cut from the earlier one on the Senrab label, but equally as killer. Both sides fully smoked out dubwise trademark Wackie's style. Essential."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 225EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"A couple of excellent Wackie's 12" sides from the '80s now paired together for maximum pressure. Each originally appeared on separate 12"s in approximately '85 and '80 respectively. The A-side is another killer Sugar Minott shot, one of his many for Wackie's. That is paired with a more obscure one in the Wackie's catalog, "Zion Land," a great shimmering and chanting roots tune which is tough to find on original pressing."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 244EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Message from the Congo finds Bob Soul & The United Stars chanting a message of rastafari over the propulsive uptempo rhythm driven by the late Carly Barrett's masterful drumming. The harmonizers in the 'United Stars' as they are dubbed on this record, were actually members of both the Righteous Flames and Rocking Horses vocal groups. In hindsight Digikiller finds in this track King Tubby prefiguring not only the remix and the 'edit,' but also the frantic yet orchestrated chaos of a lot of the complex electronic dance music that would begin to come into its own a full decade later. To try and describe the magic herein would be pointless, you must simply listen to Tubby deconstruct and reconstruct the rhythm using a melange of his now famous tools and techniques to devastating effect. Indeed, it is tracks like this one which made the man himself and those very techniques now so famous. These two tracks were originally released in Jamaica on both the Gemini and Danger Zone labels (in identical mixes). On the flip side of this first 12" is Billy Hutch's little known vocal on the rhythm, entitled 'Ten Long Years.' The soulful vocal finds Bill in top form, and this track was originally released on Bill's very first album Reggae Showcase, released only in NYC and extremely tough to track down. Rounding out the 12" is a real treat, a previously unreleased different take of 'Message from the Congo,' with different harmonies, and a background voice telling you 'this is a message...,' bringing the title of the song sharply into focus."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 249EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Finally realized, here's one that was long on the DKR wish list. Among the very finest moments from both artists, these brilliant interpolations of Curtis' classics have been unavailable too long. A mesmerizing rhythm adorned with the lovely sounds of hand drums, melodica and flute, mixed and dubbed to perfection by King Tubby himself. This 12" is a six-track EP, with all four cuts as originally released on two separate 45s, plus two unreleased mixes straight off the original tapes. Digikiller likes to think Tubbs favored these cuts, as so many mixes were done! The dub titled "Super Cool" is one of Tubby's top ten extant mixes. All tracks except "Super Cool Pt. 2" come from the original Jamaican mastertapes."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 259EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Digikiller returns to its long running Tasha reissue program with a unique pair of 12" releases, each with something old meeting something new. The first one features the roots veteran Prince Alla, school mate of producer George Nicholson. 'Can't Fool I' has Alla voicing over a killer rhythm cut at Channel 1 with the Revolutionaries back in 1978, at Tasha's first ever recording session. Finally voiced and mixed again over 40 years later, to great effect. The flip side 'Easy Skanking' has Alla in fine style over a great new rhythm licked by Danny Bassie of Firehouse Crew and long-time Channel 1/Tasha associate, the one and only Barnabas"

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: DKR 260EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Digikiller returns to its long-running Tasha reissue program with a unique pair of 12" releases, each with something old meeting something new. The second of the pair features one of Digikiller's personal favorite artists, Icho Candy. The A-side 'Get Up Natty' was cut at Channel 1 in the mid '80s with the Gifted Roots Band, like much of Tasha's best material. It is released here for the first time. The B-side features a new tune, recently recorded, with Icho still in fine voice, over a tuff new rhythm licked by Danny Bassie of Firehouse Crew and long-time Channel 1/Tasha associate, the one and only Barnabas.'

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 262EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"One of a pair of absolute killer late '80s singjay reality tunes, originally released back to back on one notoriously rare 12". Despite being from '87 these tunes have a wicked mid 80s style 'live digital' sound with a band on the rhythm. These tunes were produced in Jamaica by Delroy Francis for his Claypot imprint. Delroy is better known as the producer behind the Park Heights label and record shop, one of Brooklyn's foundational players in the record biz. This batch of releases kicks off a long-planned program of Park Heights productions, featuring as always rarities and previously unreleased tunes. These Nuthead tracks are recut from the mixdown master tape, the original '87 mixes for maximum pressure; a previous reissue of these tunes from a decade ago featured new mixes done at that time."

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: DC 863EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Limited pressing reissue of the 2008 Sub Pop single, the first OM recording featuring Emil Amos on drums. B-side features the band's first dub version."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: EFR 004LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

As one of the three inaugural 1976 releases to ignite the mythical Mustevic Music catalogue, David Wertman's elusive Kara Suite LP was the first record to turn jazz drummer Steve Reid's vanity imprint into an bona fide cooperative record label with a multi-artist repertoire. Entrusting his own bass player with the limelight, Reid's unlikely A&R decision would typify his oblique strategies and challenge the common perception of a soloist within jazz's shifting landscape. Drawing few comparisons amongst independent label releases of the time, Wertman's only solo album combined frenetic bow work, intricate spiritual exchanges and raucous rock solid cyclic riffage to underpin his own compositional complexities. Providing a platform for first-time players like Richard Schatzberg (French horn) and future avant jazz punk participant Ken Simon (tenor/soprano sax) Kara Suite provides an early indication of Wertman's multilayered and non-conformist blueprint from which the hallowed New Life Trio would eventually illuminate. The album's off-kilter commitment is further cemented by the inclusion of worldly free jazz luminary Charles Tyler (alto sax) and the naturalistic back-beat of Steve Reid himself to complete the dream team -- albeit a sleepless one, on account of this one-off quintet's wide-eyed innovation. Presented in four parts, Kara Suite documents Wertman's very first musical directorial commitment to vinyl, preceded only by guest appearances, months earlier, on Steve Reid's classic Rhythmatism and the ultra-rare The Universal Jazz Symphonette LP which chronicles Wertman's deep-end New York baptism alongside Billy Bang and Earl Freeman before his relocation to Northampton forged this unique and oblique chapter in America's independent jazz narrative. As one of the final pages to be turned in the Mustevic reappraisal legacy this album perhaps remains the best kept secret for aficionados who actively choose to blur the lines between spiritual jazz and free jazz with no discrimination against art rock and the genre that might soon be christened punk (but not as we know it). Finally resurrected via the Finders Keepers/Early Future unison, complete with full cooperation and sleeve note narration by David's partner Lynne Meryl, it might come as little surprise that amongst these pillars of alternative, privately pressed jazz is a story that also intertwines names such as Alice Cooper, Archie Shepp, KISS, and DJ Shadow and many mutating musical genres that have made this music so hard to pin down over the subsequent five decades.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: ET 944LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Double LP version. Les Chakachas Disco Sudamericana was released by CBS Sugar in 1974, and when it originally came out did not receive the attention it deserved. Disco Sudamericana is a rich album in terms of catchy tracks and killer grooves. "Super Cat," "Liza& Brooks," and "Selling Mango" are just some of the peaks here. This is yet another major release on the legendary Easy Tempo label, offering this time two extra tracks not featured on the original release!

 

PRICE: $11.50

CAT #: ESPDISK 5083CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

ESP-Disk presents They Tried To Kill Me Yesterday. Frequently lyrical, sometimes hard-hitting, nostalgic for jazz and R&B, proud of African-American heroes, Paul r. Harding has been around, has seen and heard things he reflects on and refracts to us with vivid words. Based in upstate New York, he's joined by bassist Michael Bisio (Matthew Shipp Trio) and, on half the tracks, by percussionist Juma Sultan (who played with Jimi Hendrix).

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: FC 061LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Channeling the speed of youth and the heaviness of a fleshy, lived life in equal proportion, Upchuck's second LP, Bite the Hand That Feeds, is a Trojan Horse par excellence, craftily smuggling in waves of sentimental emotion and clever pop songwriting under a veil of pulsing rhythms and scorching riffs. What binds Upchuck together is a purity of intention, an organic loyalty to a thick knot of uncalculated friendships, struggles, and desires. These are songs about the joy of continuing to live, songs that find each other in the rush of a crushing reality, propelling the listener onward towards a collective release, however brief it may last. Themes of surviving through the night, youth-blinded love, cheap champagne soaked back-alley parties, and chaotic street protests are subsumed under a single unifying thread: the needs we have for one another, our shared hunger for connection. In a world saturated with arbitrary rules and paper-thin moralism, Upchuck offer freedom through sensation, a type of unserious transcendence found through the swirl of bodies melting into one another in the passion of dance. With Bite the Hand That Feeds, Upchuck isn't trying to tell anyone how to live. Rather, they are simply trying to find a way to make life more worth living for both themselves and their friends -- if the music compels you to move, you might as well consider yourself their friend too. The razor tight focus of Bite the Hand That Feeds was forged in the fire of these live shows, speaking directly to the power of their in-person presence -- these are songs meant to be heard pressed up against a barricade, blasted through dimed guitar amps placed so close to your ears that you can practically reach out and touch them. In its totality, Bite the Hand That Feeds offers a sonic portrait of what it feels like to be young and caught up in the thrill of it all, coursing between ripping dance grooves and thundering dirges, anti-self-serious crowd anthems and charming pop hooks."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: FARO 022X-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 restock; LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Up until Nova Bossa Nova, Marcos Valle's first release for Far Out Recordings originally released in 1997, Marcos Valle hadn't released an album for well over a decade. After 1983, he resented the way the music industry had changed with commercialization and new demands curtailing his creative freedom. This was until 1994 when Marcos met Far Out Recordings boss Joe Davis and they recorded a track for Far Out's first Friends From Rio album. This new collaborative partnership resulted in a new solo album, which commenced recording in 1996. Nova Bossa Nova brought Marcos bouncing back into the '90s, slotting nicely in place alongside the acid jazz movement as well as a voracious new demand for Brazilian music on dancefloors from London to Tokyo. It was witnessing the London club scene's growing appetite for Brazilian music, as well as a lack of new sounds coming out of Brazil at the time, that a young Joe Davis put in a proposal to record a new album with one of his musical idols. Joe wanted to facilitate an album which would combine the latest technologies and production techniques, with live to analog tape recording: a Marcos Valle album tailor-made for London's clubs. Always open to modern influences and possibilities, Marcos agreed to the project, and Joe and his production partner Roc Hunter flew to Rio in '96. The record wasn't released until '98, as the original ½ inch tapes were stolen from Far Out's London studio, meaning parts of the album had to be re-recorded. Nova Bossa Nova was unveiled at the peak of the of the Brazilian movement, the record would also prove to be something of a revolution, inspiring a new generation of artists like Bebel Gilberto, Sabrina Malheiros, Da Lata, and Bossacucanova, who continued to fuse Brazilian influences with modern electronic sounds. The album takes a panoramic view of Valle's career, which was so fundamental in defining the standard of bossa back in the sixties and continues to do so to this day. "Nova Bossa Nova", the album's title track is an update on Marcos's trademark style, developing a more modern, funkier sound. Other gems include the dancefloor ready re-work of his 1970 hit "Freio Aerodynamico", and the smooth instrumentals "Bar Ingles", a jazz fusion looper, and the sun-soaked samba "Nordeste".

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FEELIT 104LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The artist works in a museum and that museum is rock and roll. In a world of meme punk rockabilly grandads, it's the classicists that really have something to say. Straight lines, hooks, and a clear path to your heart. They might not be dbeat heart throbs, but no one else can give you that feeling that you can hold on to a moment like you are driving too fast down Route 60 and it's never going to end. In 20 years when you skulk the dark alleyways of wherever punk's red fern grows, they won't be talking about Dwight Twilley, the Looks, or the Nerves, they will be looking for a little CLASS." --Tobi Vail and Hayes Waring

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FEELIT 115LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Oh boy, now we're cooking. Now we're in the court of Sugar Tradition. Only a city like their hometown of Detroit could foster such a refined appreciation of rock'n'roll, R&B, and garage punk -- and Sugar Tradition clearly have it. The trio, consisting of Antonio Keka (guitar/vocals), Kevin Irwin (drums), and Arlo Betley (bass) are a complete force of nature live -- contemporaries of the Stools, Toeheads, and 208. They're also fresh off a tour supporting none other than the Detroit Cobras. Sugar Tradition have managed to capture that raw, driving Motor City sound in damn near perfect form on More Sugar, their vinyl debut on Feel It Records. 'Rockin' Baby' kicks things into gear, anchored by a driving piano line that plays off a pounding rhythm section, allowing Keka's guitar and vocals to rule the high end of the mix. There's some tasteful harmonica and tambourine peppered throughout, but it's the raw, fuzzed-out sonics heard best on 'Don't Leave Me' that may just steal the show. Oh yeah, did we mention the roaring rendition of Chuck Berry's 'Come On?' It's all recorded live, too. A stupendous fourteen minutes at 45 RPM. Sugar Tradition are one of the brightest sets of young heads on the face of planet rock'n'roll right now, and More Sugar proves that to a tee."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FAB 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Meat Joy formed in late 1982 amidst the vibrant Austin, TX post-punk music scene. Its core members were Mellissa (Cobb) DeMille, Tim Mateer, John (Perkins) Hawkes, Gretchen Phillips, and Teresa Taylor (aka Teresa Nervosa). In April, 1983, Meat Joy played the Houston leg of the 'Rock Against Reagan' tour headlined by the Crucifucks. That autumn, Taylor left to join the Butthole Surfers. Jamie Spidle joined the band in November, cementing its permanent lineup. In the coming months Meat Joy played shows with The Meat Puppets, Husker Du, The Dicks, The Mydolls, and The Big Boys. Meat Joy recorded and released an album in 1984. The LP featured eight different front covers, designed and silkscreened by the band. The back covers were each individually hand decorated by the band and friends. The record was distributed by Rough Trade and Dutch East India, and received critical praise internationally. The first run quickly sold out, as did the second. Today they're collector's items and command exorbitant prices. The band was also featured on two compilation LPs, Metal Moo Cow and Bands On The Block alongside Scratch Acid and a host of Texas bands. Touring the Midwest in the summer of 1984, playing shows with CH3, Sun City Girls, Jodie Foster's Army, Tales Of Terror, and many others, the group was voted 'Best Avant-Garde/Experimental Band' in the 1984-85 Austin Chronicle Music Poll. The Chronicle Poll and the award show that followed laid the groundwork for what would become the SXSW Music Festival. Meat Joy was difficult to categorize. They were a leaderless collective. Often improvisational, they moved fluidly among many genres seeking joy and truth. Their sound was alternately queer and straight, dark and funny, heartfelt and biting. Loud soft fast slow beautiful ugly music, sometimes all in the same song. The band played their last show at Austin's Continental Club in April, 1985."

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: FD 136LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Representing Ahad's Flux Worlds 2, this album arrives as the companion to the Flux Worlds 1 2CD, Nemo Point Soundmap..., co-released by Fourth Dimension Records and Hinge Thunder in January 2023. Recorded live, this once again takes the listener through an immersive setting where real time electronics converge with improvised viola, percussion, cello, trumpet, synths, gadgets and so on to create vast washes of avant-garde turbulence that assumes a stance rarely seen outside very early electroacoustic-flavored kosmische music or abstract droneworks. This LP is published with the support of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GONE 192LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In a just world, Song Machine, the fifth full-length album from The Exbats, which arrives via Goner Records, would become one of the most-loved and most-listened to albums of the 2020s. With the thirteen-track album, the Bisbee, Arizona-based band further their analog back-to-the-future combination of the Shangri-Las and pre-Velvet Underground doo-wop wannabe Lou Reed, churning out catchy tunes laden with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best A-sides recorded in the shadow of the Brill Building or with the Wrecking Crew in tow. The Exbats are effortless time travelers -- this time, they've set the dial for the early 1970s, incorporating the sonic magic of The Partridge Family, Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks, and Brian Wilson into the crux of their musical ethos, evident on tracks like the propulsive 'Riding With Paul' and 'The Happy Castaway,' which bookend the album. Inez McLain, namesake of the Monkees' wool-capped guitarist Mike Nesmith, has played drums and sung for The Exbats since she was just ten years old. Surveying the band's back catalog in relation to Song Machine, she adds, 'I always felt like our progression is similar to that of the Kinks -- starting off garage and punk and then becoming more deliberate about everything.' On this latest release, time stops altogether when Inez masterfully -- and wholly unselfconsciously -- evokes the remarkable harmonizing of Cher or Karen Carpenter at the height of their careers on two songs that unveil the raison d'être for The Exbats, and, thus, music lovers in general: 'Singalong Tonight' and 'What Can A Song Do,' which, together, anchor Song Machine while poignantly and audaciously celebrating the very act of singing itself with a sentimentality worthy of Muppets Movie-era Paul Williams. In a different world, either might inspire a viral revolution."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GONE 194LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Less than twelve months on from the triumphant rock 'n' roll record that was Stained Glass, Australia's most tasteful sonic culinary artiste Jake Robertson serves up The Derivative Sounds Of, another platter in his never-ending, ever-extending Alien Nosejob banquet. Since initially firing out similar flavors on his first offering, Alien Nosejob has conquered the challenges of disco, hardcore, new wave, rock and roll (all drowned in his characteristically sweet sense of humor) before finally returning back to his musical roots: the jangly, adolescent feel of 1960s garage. After one of Robertson's first bands, The Frowning Clouds, reunited for a few shows in September 2022, he found himself digging up old songs and riffs from the period, some spanning back to as early as 2006 and up until around 2012. This record features many of those song ideas -- some reworked, some rewritten, some exactly the same. All together now as one hot package. Leaning into his musical tastes from the Clouds' period of existence, Robertson digs up inspiration in some teenage staples: The Troggs, Mike Furber, the under-appreciated bands that make up the Shutdown '66/Back From The Grave compilations, without overdoing the sugar, salt, MSG, whatever one wants to call it. This record was recorded by Robertson all by his lonesome over a weekend in his garage. There's no paisley shirts, no skinny-ties, no winkle-pickers, no slim-fit suits and no haircuts -- just Robertson and his 1964 MacBook Pro. Garage rock revival is a sound that's often overdone, drenched in nostalgia and small-minded attitudes, but this album is not just a throwback to the sounds of yesterday. It doesn't belong with the golden oldies or the usual garage resuscitations. Goner Records is proud to present, The Derivative Sounds Of, the sixth piece of Alien Nosejob's eternal buffet and the 'all you can eat' of record titles."

 

PRICE: $48.00

CAT #: GREL 2175LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Special Halloween color vinyl edition: Format: 2 color vinyl (mix 11 copper nugget/mix 14 America). Includes: 24"x24" poster. "Produced and arranged by Henry Junjo Lawes. Rhythm tracks laid at channel one mixed at King Tubby's by Scientist at Midnight Friday 13th. June 1981. Roots Radics as themselves; Flabba on bass; Style and Santa on drums; Sowell and Bingy Bunny on rhythm guitar; Gladdie, Ansel, and Winston on rhythm guitar; Bo Pee and Alan on lead guitar; Scully, Sticky, and Sky Juice on percussion; Deadly Headley, Dean, and Nambo on horns."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: GBVI 119CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Formed in 2001, the psychedelic rock trio Circus Devils features vocalist Robert Pollard, backed by brothers Todd Tobias and Tim Tobias. In their first album in six years, and their fifteenth overall, Circus Devils is back with Squeeze The Needle, a funhouse romp full of rock and roll swagger and childlike glee. The pounding psychedelia of the single 'The Owl Presents?' harkens back to The Doors. Mixed into the twenty-track song collage are heavy rock thumpers ('Street Toughs,' 'Mama's Got A Brand New Snake'), cryptic interludes ('Age Of Transfusion'), and pretty acoustic pieces ('Difficult Dreamer,' 'The Joke is Over')."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: GBVI 119LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Formed in 2001, the psychedelic rock trio Circus Devils features vocalist Robert Pollard, backed by brothers Todd Tobias and Tim Tobias. In their first album in six years, and their fifteenth overall, Circus Devils is back with Squeeze The Needle, a funhouse romp full of rock and roll swagger and childlike glee. The pounding psychedelia of the single 'The Owl Presents?' harkens back to The Doors. Mixed into the twenty-track song collage are heavy rock thumpers ('Street Toughs,' 'Mama's Got A Brand New Snake'), cryptic interludes ('Age Of Transfusion'), and pretty acoustic pieces ('Difficult Dreamer,' 'The Joke is Over')."

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 273LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Black Rainbows are back with 12 fresh, brand new tunes. Superskull sounds huge, with of a great deal of attention paid to the guitars in the recording, and it seems that the band has finally found the perfect balance and tone for their heavy super stoner sound. This album gives you not only incredible heavy rock-stoner gems, but also: one space acoustic song, one super psychedelic suite and one melodic trippy ballad that adds a perfect mixture of what is sure to be the best album released by the band so far. Recorded by Fabio Sforza in May 2022. Artwork by Brazilian artist Pedro Correa.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 275LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Kadabra formed during the dark days of 2020 and were quickly signed by Heavy Psych Sounds, releasing Ultra in the fall of 2021 and establishing their penchant for delivering crushing doom riffs and haunting vocals accentuated by bursts of psychedelic flair and swampy Americana swagger. And while the chemistry of long-time friends Garrett Zanol (guitar/vocals), Ian Nelson (bass) and Chase Howard (drums) was apparent upon listening to their debut, their bond was further strengthened by relentlessly touring the western United States and completing a month-long tour of Europe. The trio almost immediately began looking forward, road-testing and crystalizing the songs that would comprise their follow-up, which found the band reuniting with Ultra producer Dawson Scholz. The result is Umbra: a singular statement that is more focused and cohesive than its predecessor, while managing to capture the immersive, free-flowing experience of their live show. For fans of: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Dead Meadow.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 275LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color LP version (red vinyl). Kadabra formed during the dark days of 2020 and were quickly signed by Heavy Psych Sounds, releasing Ultra in the fall of 2021 and establishing their penchant for delivering crushing doom riffs and haunting vocals accentuated by bursts of psychedelic flair and swampy Americana swagger. And while the chemistry of long-time friends Garrett Zanol (guitar/vocals), Ian Nelson (bass) and Chase Howard (drums) was apparent upon listening to their debut, their bond was further strengthened by relentlessly touring the western United States and completing a month-long tour of Europe. The trio almost immediately began looking forward, road-testing and crystalizing the songs that would comprise their follow-up, which found the band reuniting with Ultra producer Dawson Scholz. The result is Umbra: a singular statement that is more focused and cohesive than its predecessor, while managing to capture the immersive, free-flowing experience of their live show. For fans of: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Dead Meadow.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 275ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Color LP version (white/pink/purple vinyl). Kadabra formed during the dark days of 2020 and were quickly signed by Heavy Psych Sounds, releasing Ultra in the fall of 2021 and establishing their penchant for delivering crushing doom riffs and haunting vocals accentuated by bursts of psychedelic flair and swampy Americana swagger. And while the chemistry of long-time friends Garrett Zanol (guitar/vocals), Ian Nelson (bass) and Chase Howard (drums) was apparent upon listening to their debut, their bond was further strengthened by relentlessly touring the western United States and completing a month-long tour of Europe. The trio almost immediately began looking forward, road-testing and crystalizing the songs that would comprise their follow-up, which found the band reuniting with Ultra producer Dawson Scholz. The result is Umbra: a singular statement that is more focused and cohesive than its predecessor, while managing to capture the immersive, free-flowing experience of their live show. For fans of: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Dead Meadow.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 284CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Spirit is the second album by Danish-French Emile, otherwise known from the acid rock band The Sonic Dawn. On this new solo effort, Emile unfolds a new and exciting side of his songwriting. Each song ebbs and flows effortlessly with a great sense of purpose, always centered around Emile's voice and masterful, mainly acoustic guitar playing. He is backed by a small ensemble of selected musicians and blackbirds singing the sun down. The lyrics reflect an unpretentious cosmic consciousness, simply marveling at existence as it is. Spirit about connection with our surroundings, with nature and the universe. There is beauty in transformation too, Emile reminds us. Spirit is a different album from a different singer-songwriter. It is both surrealistic and easy to understand, accomplished and untamed, light and heavy -- like the passing of time.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 284LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Spirit is the second album by Danish-French Emile, otherwise known from the acid rock band The Sonic Dawn. On this new solo effort, Emile unfolds a new and exciting side of his songwriting. Each song ebbs and flows effortlessly with a great sense of purpose, always centered around Emile's voice and masterful, mainly acoustic guitar playing. He is backed by a small ensemble of selected musicians and blackbirds singing the sun down. The lyrics reflect an unpretentious cosmic consciousness, simply marveling at existence as it is. Spirit about connection with our surroundings, with nature and the universe. There is beauty in transformation too, Emile reminds us. Spirit is a different album from a different singer-songwriter. It is both surrealistic and easy to understand, accomplished and untamed, light and heavy -- like the passing of time.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 284LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Colored LP version (red vinyl). Spirit is the second album by Danish-French Emile, otherwise known from the acid rock band The Sonic Dawn. On this new solo effort, Emile unfolds a new and exciting side of his songwriting. Each song ebbs and flows effortlessly with a great sense of purpose, always centered around Emile's voice and masterful, mainly acoustic guitar playing. He is backed by a small ensemble of selected musicians and blackbirds singing the sun down. The lyrics reflect an unpretentious cosmic consciousness, simply marveling at existence as it is. Spirit about connection with our surroundings, with nature and the universe. There is beauty in transformation too, Emile reminds us. Spirit is a different album from a different singer-songwriter. It is both surrealistic and easy to understand, accomplished and untamed, light and heavy -- like the passing of time.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 284ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Colored LP version (blue/black splatter vinyl). Spirit is the second album by Danish-French Emile, otherwise known from the acid rock band The Sonic Dawn. On this new solo effort, Emile unfolds a new and exciting side of his songwriting. Each song ebbs and flows effortlessly with a great sense of purpose, always centered around Emile's voice and masterful, mainly acoustic guitar playing. He is backed by a small ensemble of selected musicians and blackbirds singing the sun down. The lyrics reflect an unpretentious cosmic consciousness, simply marveling at existence as it is. Spirit about connection with our surroundings, with nature and the universe. There is beauty in transformation too, Emile reminds us. Spirit is a different album from a different singer-songwriter. It is both surrealistic and easy to understand, accomplished and untamed, light and heavy -- like the passing of time.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 285CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Our upcoming album, titled Helichrysum, delves deep into the human experience, exploring the wounds we carry and the transformative power that lies within us. It serves as a culmination of the countless creative and personal choices we have made, leading us to a place of greater harmony within ourselves, with each other, and with our collective intentions. Musically speaking, the new album is a testament to our commitment to delivering a sonic experience that is unapologetically raw, adventurous, heavy, groovy and psychedelic. The choice to name the album after the Helichrysum plant, holds a significance as the plant symbolizes endurance, healing, immortality, and the power to overcome adversity, which mirror many of the themes throughout the record." --Hippie Death Cult

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 285LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Our upcoming album, titled Helichrysum, delves deep into the human experience, exploring the wounds we carry and the transformative power that lies within us. It serves as a culmination of the countless creative and personal choices we have made, leading us to a place of greater harmony within ourselves, with each other, and with our collective intentions. Musically speaking, the new album is a testament to our commitment to delivering a sonic experience that is unapologetically raw, adventurous, heavy, groovy and psychedelic. The choice to name the album after the Helichrysum plant, holds a significance as the plant symbolizes endurance, healing, immortality, and the power to overcome adversity, which mirror many of the themes throughout the record." --Hippie Death Cult

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 285LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version, green colored vinyl. "Our upcoming album, titled Helichrysum, delves deep into the human experience, exploring the wounds we carry and the transformative power that lies within us. It serves as a culmination of the countless creative and personal choices we have made, leading us to a place of greater harmony within ourselves, with each other, and with our collective intentions. Musically speaking, the new album is a testament to our commitment to delivering a sonic experience that is unapologetically raw, adventurous, heavy, groovy and psychedelic. The choice to name the album after the Helichrysum plant, holds a significance as the plant symbolizes endurance, healing, immortality, and the power to overcome adversity, which mirror many of the themes throughout the record." --Hippie Death Cult

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 285ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version, magenta/yellow vinyl. "Our upcoming album, titled Helichrysum, delves deep into the human experience, exploring the wounds we carry and the transformative power that lies within us. It serves as a culmination of the countless creative and personal choices we have made, leading us to a place of greater harmony within ourselves, with each other, and with our collective intentions. Musically speaking, the new album is a testament to our commitment to delivering a sonic experience that is unapologetically raw, adventurous, heavy, groovy and psychedelic. The choice to name the album after the Helichrysum plant, holds a significance as the plant symbolizes endurance, healing, immortality, and the power to overcome adversity, which mirror many of the themes throughout the record." --Hippie Death Cult

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HP 000LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The highly acclaimed and most influential album in the mallsoft subgenre of vaporwave. Released almost 10 years ago by the mysterious artist Disconscious, it continues to captivate listeners with its haunting and relaxing soundscapes, creating a vivid atmosphere of abandoned malls, combining elements of nostalgia, emptiness, and a touch of sinister undertones. Tracks like "Enter Through the Lobby" and "Lunar Food Court" stand out as fan favorites, transporting listeners to a bygone era of ultra consumerism, offering a unique and immersive experience that has stood the test of time. Official vinyl edition of the classic album. Remastered including three bonus tracks. Split cristal and curacao vinyl. For fans of vaporwave, mallsoft, electronic, ambient, chillwave, dream, elevator music, experimental electronics, hypnagogic pop, mallsoft, muzak, newbreed, plunderphonics, post-internet, psychedelic, surreal & vaporwave.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: HOS 753LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Two of the most legendary industrial noise artists, Final and Richard Ramirez, break down and grind into dust with mortar and pestle each other's sounds, thoughts, and silence into a textural collapse that could very well be the discovery of new kinds of static, new kinds of fuzz and new kinds of words that might never be spoken but fall into the Ravine Of Spears. Presented in grim recycled board with spot gloss jacket and inner print on clear vinyl. Digital download code included.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: HOS 820LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

First time on vinyl of what some may say is the hallmark of the recent Lussuria era, this double LP includes the bonus tape from the special edition Migrate Exquisite Corpse. Presented in decadent gatefold on black vinyl. For your autumnal listening pleasure and pain.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: IMPREC 512LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Mirage is a cosmic collaboration between the Silver Apples and Makoto Kawabata of Japan's Acid Mothers Temple. Packaged in a deluxe jacket printed with metallic silver ink. This album is dedicated to the memory of Simeone Coxe who died September 8, 2020 while this project was being assembled. "Dragonfly's First Flight," taking up the full side A, features Simeon Coxe and Makoto jamming over familiar Silver Apples hypnotic rhythms. Fans of both groups will delight in the interplay between Simeon's keyboard and Makoto's drone guitar feedback soloing. Side B ranges from free-form freakouts to ambient poetry readings by Simeon with Japanese translation spoken by Makoto. "Future Reminiscence," which closes side B, sounds like a long-lost Silver Apples track.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: IMPREC 527CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Earthwave is Zak Riles' (Grails/Watter) follow-up to his eponymous debut CD (IMPREC 213CD) released on Important Records in 2008, a cinematic ascent through dark space, volatile illumination, reflection and refraction. Recorded during the pandemic -- when Riles took refuge in his rural Kentucky studio, providing remote engineering work for groups like Sleep, Om, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Mono, and Joan Shelley -- it's a monumental exploration of his enduring interest in late '70s/early '80s instrumental electronic and new-age music. The humid atmosphere and ominous moods of Earthwave were accomplished using an Arp 2600 and multiple Yamaha and Farfisa keyboards. The recordings were then run through analog equipment -- MCI JH110 tape machine, Lexicon Prime Time, Roland Space Echo -- adding to the sense of a time out of time. Echoes of past Riles compositions float through Earthwave's chambers, the saz, oud and twelve-string acoustic recalling his memorable contributions to early Grails recordings. The only guest is the legendary Britt Walford (Slint), whose drumming appears on two tracks. Earthwave is a project of sonic world-building by a master of his craft. Let yourself be overcome by its tectonic movement.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: ITR 377LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In the Red Records will proudly present the U.S. edition of Rantings from the Book of Swamp, the freewheeling eighth studio release by Australia's magnificent and unpredictable Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, as a two-LP. The Surrealists were formed by the Scientists' singer-songwriter-guitarist Kim Salmon in 1987, betwixt the last two tours by the original incarnation of that pathfinding Perth-bred band. The Surrealists had been dormant in recent years, as the bandleader focused his energy on recording and touring with a reunited lineup of the Scientists featuring guitarist Tony Thewlis, bassist Boris Sujdovic, and drummer Leanne Cowie, who had recorded the career-summarizing 1986 LP Weird Love. (In 2021, In the Red issued Negativity, a new album by that unit, to wide acclaim.) In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown settled around the globe, Salmon reconvened with bassist/baritone guitarist Stu Thomas and drummer Phil Collings, who had appeared on the Surrealists' 2010 release Grand Unifying Theory, the group's most recent record. As with that work, the new material was created live on the studio floor, and emphasized improvisation in both its structure and content. 'The premise for this recording,' Salmon explains, 'was that at its commencement the band members would come prepared with no other material than whatever ideas they might be able to individually bring. The lyrical content was all derived from my notebooks (Book of Swamp) from sketches I'd been jotting down over the last couple of years. There was to be no consultation about musical forms until the event began. Once the event began, the band had carte blanche to do whatever necessary to salvage compelling performances over the two live events @ 7PM AEST 6/13/20 + 6/14/20 respectively??.i.e., we had to make it up from scratch!' Captured at Rolling Stock Recording Rooms in Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, by Myles Mumford, the music heard on Rantings from the Book of Swamp was originally presented as a pair of live streams directed by Andrew Watson at Semiconductor Media. The resultant album comprises 13 brain-bending tracks characterized by Salmon's percolating lyrical imagination and the raw, unfettered interplay of the three seasoned musical collaborators..."

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: JL 055EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Two more killer 12" disco mix sides from the Jah Life archives. On the A side is one of Barrington's best, 'Black Heart Man,' in its original disco mix from 1983, with killer Scientist dub wise. On the flip is one of the all-time sleepers from the Jah Life catalog, way under the radar since its original release in the early '80s. Terrie from the Nairobi Sisters voices the immortal 'Left With a Broken Heart' on the killer original cut of the rhythm, which follows into a dub wise melodica piece, which sounds like the maestro Augustus Pablo. Both sides are pressed using new stampers made from the original mothers, so what you get is identical to the original pressings."

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: VP 4107COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Joe Gibbs (real name Joel Gibson) was the producer, owner of the studio, business manager, paymaster and the one who collected the profits by virtue of being the publisher for originals. He was also the man who called the shots when it came to arrangements even though he did not actually perform. The moniker Joe Gibbs and The Professionals could mislead the casual listener. His studio engineer Errol Thompson was a complementary genius when it came to recording and mixing and they awarded themselves the epithet The Mighty Two. This pair were responsible for such greats as Culture's Two Sevens Clash, Prince Far I's Under Heavy Manners, and of course, everyone's favorite summer reggae tunes, Uptown Top Ranking. As for The Professionals, the house band who formed up to perform these songs reads like a who's who of reggae greats. They also recorded as The Revolutionaries and The Aggravators for other studios. With such talent and experience on hand, for their dub albums The Mighty Two could dip into the back catalogue of not only Joe Gibbs releases but Channel One and Treasure Isle hits as well. Consequently, many of the rhythms will be recognizable to anyone with a passing knowledge of reggae and rock steady.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: FREUD 020CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The classic Johnny & Patti album Copy Cats from 1988, reissued on its 35th anniversary. An acclaimed, affectionate collection of tunes that the expatriate New York pair grew up with, it features songs by The Shangri-La's, Dion, Elvis, The Seeds, The Shirelles, Roy Head, and Screaming Jay Hawkins amongst others. Johnny is of course the late New York Doll and Heartbreaker notorious rock legend; his pal Patti is half of punk girl duo Snatch as well as being an Eno and Flying Lizards collaborator. The positive reaction on its release was unanimous; DJs John Peel and Charlie Gillett both declared it to be 'better than the originals!' With Patti in the producer's chair, the extended 1987 sessions enlisted well over 20 musicians including real brass and strings players to create a meticulously crafted homage to the originals. Whilst stamping the duos own personalities on the songs, this thorough and conscientious project is also in high contrast to Johnny's often-wayward live persona. The singles 'Crawfish,' 'I Was Born To Cry,' and 'She Wants To Mambo' were issued as highlights. The assembled players included guitarist John Perry (Only Ones), bassist Robbie A. Gordon (Gil Scott Heron band), keyboardist Bob Andrews (The Rumour, Brinsley Schwartz), guest backing vocals by Chrissie Hynde and Jayne County, violinist Alex Balanescu, brass section Jim Dvorak, Nick Evans, and John 'Irish' Earle, percussionist Pedro Ortiz, drummer Steve Washington, Heartbreakers Billy Rath and Jerry Nolan, plus numerous others."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 442CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Blurt was founded in Stroud, UK, in 1979 as part of the post-punk movement by poet, saxophonist und puppeteer Ted Milton along with Milton's brother Jake, formerly of psychedelic group Quintessence, on drums and Peter Creese on guitar. After three albums Creese left the band to be replaced by Herman Martin on synthesizers who, after a year of constant touring left the band, and was replaced by Steve Eagles, former member of Satan's Rats, The Photos, and Bang Bang Machine. Shortly thereafter Jake Milton left to be replaced by Nic Murcott, who was subsequently replaced by Paul Wigens. Most of Blurt's compositions feature simple, repetitive, minimalistic guitar and/or saxophone phrases, but they can also explore more abstract musical territories, often serving as an atmospheric backdrop for Ted Milton's existentialist poetry. The music has been described as dada-avantgarde-jazz or paranoid jazz-mutant funk. Practically impossible to pigeonhole. In the early 1990s, Ted Milton released a small run of self-made lyrics books, amongst them Pagan Strings. The first two volumes contained the lyrics to the Blurt album of the same name. The first edition of this came as an art edition with card backing and plastic sleeve, the standard edition was released on the band's own Toeblock label in 1992. The year after, Blurt took the album on the road. At Tilos brings you a formerly unavailable recording of a fantastic show in Budapest in 1993. It shows the band in full form."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 445CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"MX-80 Sound is an eclectic American art-rock band founded in 1974 in Bloomington, USA, by guitarist Bruce Anderson. Considered one of the most out-of-step but prescient bands of its time, MX-80's signature sound consists of breakneck metallic guitar combined with atonal chord structure, cross-rhythmic percussion and dispassionate vocals. Notoriously difficult to categorize -- the band has been labeled noise rock, post-punk, acid punk, and heavy-metal -- MX-80's sonic mélange set the stage for bands such as Swans, Sonic Youth, Codeine, and Shellac. After a musical journey spanning five decades, MX-80 Sound announces the release of their final opus, Better Than Life, featuring MX-80's dense, extra-beefy sound, emotional guitar work, and free-associative vocals. For the album Bruce Anderson merged his rock trio, Rattletrap, with the talents of MX-80 Sound resulting in big bang sonics including two drummers (Nico Sophiea and John Morman), two bassists (Dale Sophiea and Chris Xefos), and two guitars (Bruce Anderson and Jim Hrabetin), along with vocals and horn by Rich Stim. In a remarkable feat, Better Than Life was recorded amidst the COVID-19 lockdown at 25th Street Recording in Oakland with Matt Boudreau engineering. The album was mixed by Steve Albini, in collaboration with MX-80 Sound, at Electrical Studios in Chicago. Sadly, Bruce Anderson, MX-80 Sound's founder, died in 2022."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GG 448CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Olaf Rupp plays improvised music on the acoustic and electric guitar. The organic flow of his music is guided neither by chance nor by dominant, willful decisions. To him the same level of focus and attentive energy should be present in loud and fast music as well as in softer, more subdued kind of playing. In all his music he explores how motion-clusters can be perceived as one agglomerated sound in motion by using spectralistic fields of tones. Meinrad Kneer is a double bass player, composer, improviser, band-leader and label owner. His music moves along the musical boundaries of jazz, improvised, contemporary-composed and ethnic music. He studied double bass and music in the Netherlands (conservatories of Hilversum and Amsterdam), where he quickly entered the Dutch jazz- and subsequently the international scene of free improvisation. Rudi Fischerlehner plays drums in various different musical projects that fall between improvised and experimental music, jazz and post-rock. He also composes and produces music for bands, film and performances. Born in 1977 in Austria he was introduced to the drums in his childhood and started playing in bands as a teenager around Linz. Following a brief period studying classical percussion he moved to Vienna, travelled to Africa and China, spent a few months in New York and now resides in Berlin. Puna is the trio's first album as a group."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: KRANK 210LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2017 release. "Michigan trumpeter Justin Walter's solo work centers on evocative, intuitive explorations of the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), a rare wind-controlled analog synthesizer from the 1970s. Its unique, smeared tonality allows for an expressive range of glassy, jazz-like textures, which Walter loops and layers with hushed electronics and twilit trumpet, painting opaque landscapes of resonant beauty. Walter's 2013 debut, Lullabies & Nightmares, included a handful of collaborations with percussionist Quin Kirchner, but Unseen Forces finds him fully solo, refining the project to its essence: shape-shifting watercolors of pastel haze, lit by the soft synthetic glow of electric breath. It's a sound both modern and timeless, fusing emotion and technology, gauze and melody, force and fragility."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 237LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"The music of Justin Walter veers between nebulous and numinous, coaxed from the translucent tonalities of his signature instrument, the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). Destroyer, his latest, and third for Kranky, marks his most multifaceted work yet. Inspired by minimalistic urges (evading grandiosity, condensing scope, embracing spatial restraint) tempered with the drama of triptychs (becoming, destruction, aftermath), the album's eleven tracks thread a keening suite of aching, opaque beauty, traced in absence and breath. First begun in the the no man's land summer of 2020, Walter gradually amassed nearly two hours of demos, drafts, and ideas, then steadily whittled them to their essence. Destroyer enlists the sounds of a recently restored pump organ, adding pulses and quaking texture, but otherwise the album is a shimmering showcase of the EVI: miasmic, melodic, intuitive, infinite. It's music of fraught devotion and uneasy peace, questing yet languorous, forever rapt and untethered."

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: LANR 035LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

A mandatory selection from the Jamaican singer's large catalog, recorded at Channel One Studio with the likes of Sly & Robbie, The Tamlins, Don Drummond Jr., Dean Fraser, Ansel Collins, and Winston Wright. The songs have been engineered by Soldjie, Barnabas, and Scientist! A legendary cast for a series of unbelievable numbers. Roland Burrell was born in Pennants, Clarendon in Jamaica and was destined to become a star from his early days at John Austin School which set the stage for a career in the music field. Growing up in Trench Town, he met Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert who gave him inspiration and counseling as he would often "jam" with them. During his growing artistic years, he sang with a group called The Shades, where he encountered Lee "Scratch" Perry. Along with Conrad Brown, they produced Lonely Man. Thereafter, Roland quickly rose to popular fame when he recorded the chartbuster "Johnny Dollar," a song that topped the Jamaican charts in Europe, USA and Japan. He recorded his first album, Johnny Dollar for Tanka Records which included the hit songs "Hey Mama" and "Stormy Night."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: M 1219CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was an initially underrated hero of the jazz avant-garde. It was only after he moved from Atlanta to New York and joined John Coltrane that audiences and critics took notice. Dedicated to discovering the far-reaching possibilities of improvisational expression, Brown possessed a truly lyrical voice. In the early seventies, he played with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, Jeanne Lee, and Chick Corea, among others. On this recording, he was accompanied by the German jazz musician Gunter Hampel (composer, vibraphonist, saxophonist, flutist, pianist, and bass clarinetist). His son Djinji remembers his father by saying, 'The way he played sounded like his speaking voice, the way he held his horn reminded me of the way he held my hand, the way he walked was in the same rhythm as his songs, and then everything made sense. His music was first and foremost who he was. It was the purest expression of his soul, and everything he did had the same gentle power as his music. He was truly one with his art; there was no separation between the two.'"

 

PRICE: $10.50

CAT #: MO 001EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Here's a new release direct from Wackie's studio legend Jerry Harris, pressed by the man himself on his own Motive Records label. Jerry went into his archives and dug out this great previously unreleased gem from 1982, backed with a nice dub version. Jerry was one of the core singers and guitarists in the heyday of Wackie's studio, also a member of the Stepping Stones and Itopia groups. Since then he has toured the world many times over, both as a successful solo artist as well as a core backing musician for some of reggae's all-time greats."

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: MPI 012LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

La Settima Donna (1978), also known as The Last House On The Beach, is a disturbing thriller directed by Franco Prosperi and set in a secluded cottage overlooking the Tyrrhenian sea, starring Florinda Bolkan, in the role of Sister Cristina, governess of five female students on a short vacation, rehearsing their Shakesperean end-of-year play. Roberto Pregadio's brilliant music is not surprisingly, functional and almost disconnected from the bloody images: there is no overwhelming sense of disturbance for the listener. The soundtrack of La Settima Donna was published only once, in CD format, attached to the rare DVD of the film, gaining new life on vinyl thanks to Musica Per Immagini. Some of the eleven tracks of the score are characterized by an easy listening mood and united by a psychedelic feel, in harmony with the progressive atmospheres found in albums such as A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968) and Meddle (1971) by Pink Floyd. However, the English band is not the only reference for the jazz pianist, who quotes a piece by Bryan Ferry, entrusting it to the voice of Ray Lovelock, one of the three kidnappers. After that, the Sicilian composer remodels an international hit by Donna Summer, background of the sequence in which the nun is forced to strip naked in front of her tormentors.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SW 113LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock. Beautiful, fan-made album of acapella versions of The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds classics on one disc. Be able to hear and appreciate their intricate harmonies like never before. Sit back, close your eyes and have a listen to the isolated vocal tracks of one of the greatest albums ever made. "God Only Knows", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "That's Not Me", "You Still Believe In Me" and so on and on... It also contains some rare audio clips Carl Wilson and the Boys at their finest.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: OUTISOPER 004EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Italian sound Dino Sabatini is back on his own Outis Music. Opera Quattro EP on the Outis Opera Series is a mesmerizing collection of playful electronica, heavily influenced by trip-hop and dub music, perfectly capturing Sabatini's current state of mind. Balancing in between half-tempo drum and bass and organic techno grooves, it's an essential pack of Italian deep techno trips.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: PAL 076LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2023 repress. Since exploding on the improvised music scene a couple of years ago Tennessee native Zoh Amba has found herself engaging with an ever-widening group of collaborators as she tours across the US and Europe. She's forged some enduring partnerships, working regularly with drummer Chris Corsano, bassist Thomas Morgan, and pianist Micah Thomas, among others, but one of the deep pleasures of improvised music is when a first-time meeting produces sparks. Indeed, that's certainly the case with The Flower School, which bottles some serious lightning. In March of 2023, Amba and Corsano had finished up a duo tour of the west coast with an explosive performance in San Francisco. The next day the duo entered the studio with guitarist Bill Orcutt -- a trusted collaborator of the drummer stretching back a decade. It was the first time Orcutt and Amba had ever played together, but it sure doesn't seem that way. Although Amba has often recorded a bunch of tune-oriented albums for Tzadik, she's a free improviser at heart, and this trio arguably provides the most effective, elastic context for her playing yet. Yet what's most astonishing about The Flower School is how it elevates and transforms the playing of all three participants. It appears that there was more than enough trust in the room to allow each player to push-and-pull. Anyone who pays attention already knows that Orcutt and Corsano are mercurial figures, perpetually adapting, adjusting, and challenging one another. Inviting a third person to the party could threaten a slowly cultivated balance, but in this case the addition only heightened various dichotomies: soft vs. loud, bruising vs. tender, furious vs. lyric. Much has been made of Amba's debt to the free jazz of 1960s, particularly the way her vibrato-drenched tone dips into valley of sacred music, but here she carves out a space that's entirely hers. On tracks like "The Morning Light Has Flooded My Eyes" and "What Emptiness Do You Gaze Upon!" she reveals a meticulously sharpened gift for motific improvisation, taking a single phrase and chiseling away it until she's discovered every possible permutation, all the while driven by the feverish energy and empathy of her cohorts. This group also displays Orcutt's masterful support skills, as he often takes a single chord or two, letting them float in mutate in the background or splintering them into patient, reserved arpeggios that ripple alongside Corsano's circular sculptures and the saxophonist's edgy blowing. Two of the album's five tracks are duets between Orcutt and Amba. The collection is bisected by "Sweet One," a delicate lattice formed by Orcutt's tremulous electric guitar arpeggios and Amba's spike acoustic pointillism that basks in its own leisurely beauty for a couple of restorative minutes, while the album closer "Moon Showed But No You" is a searingly beautiful ballad where the guitarist unspools clusters of notes somewhere between vintage Loren Mazzacane Connor and a distorted kalimba, while Amba puts an upwardly arcing melodic line through its paces, finding new wrinkles at every turn.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: SPGRM 004CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2023 repress. Following her critically acclaimed album The Sacrificial Code (IDEAL 192CD/LP), Swedish-American composer Kali Malone returns with Living Torch on Portraits GRM. Living Torch, through its unique structural form and harmonic material, is a bold continuation of Kali Malone's demanding and exciting body of work, while opening new perspectives and increasing the emotional potential of the music tenfold. As such, Living Torch is a major new piece by the composer and adds a significant milestone to an already fascinating repertoire. Departing from the pipe organ that Malone's music is most notable for, Living Torch features a complex electroacoustic ensemble. Leafing through recordings from conventional instruments like the trombone and bass clarinet to more experimental machines like the boîte à bourdon, passing through sinewave generators and Éliane Radigue's ARP 2500 synthesizer. Living Torch weaves its own history, its own genealogy, and that of its author. It extends her robust structural approach to a liberated palette of timbre. Living Torch was initially commissioned by GRM for its legendary loudspeaker orchestra, the Acousmonium, and premiered in its complete multichannel form at the Grand Auditorium of Radio France in a concert entirely dedicated to the artist. Composed at GRM studios in Paris between 2020-2021, Living Torch is a work of great intensity, an oeuvre-monde that is singularly placed at the crossroads of instrumental writing and electroacoustic composition. Living Torch proceeds from multiple lineages, including early modern music, American minimalism, and musique concrète. It's a work as much turned towards exploring justly tuned harmony and canonic structures as towards the polyphony of unique timbres, the scaling of dynamic range, and the revelation of sound qualities. GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales), the pioneering institution of electroacoustic, acousmatic, and musique concrète, has been a unique laboratory for sonorous research since 1958. Witnessing the extreme vitality of the music championed by GRM, the Portraits GRM record series extends and expands this momentum with Kali Malone's Living Torch. The French label-partner Shelter Press is proud to continue the collaboration with GRM, which Peter Rehberg of Editions MEGO set the foundation for in 2012. Composed and produced by Kali Malone at INA GRM 2020-2021. Trombone and bass clarinet recorded at EMS Elektronmusikstudion 2020. Pre-mastered by Emmanuel Richier at INA GRM. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin. Personnel: Mats Äleklint - trombone; Isak Hedtjärn - bass clarinet; Kali Malone - ARP 2500, Modular Synthesis, Pura Data, Boîte à Bourdons.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: PRO 044CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A classic mid-90s release in the shoegazer genre. A beautiful wrestling of ethereal noise, Lovesliescrushing emerged in the early '90s as America's answer to Britain's My Bloody Valentine and the nascent shoegazer scene. LLC's first two Projekt releases of captivating low-fi sonic atmospheres invoked a tangled palette of noisy guitar textures, frenzied distortion and longing ethereal vocals. From milky softness to a blasting metallic roar, instrumentalist Scott Cortez took the shoegaze genre to its furthest regions, far removed from song-structured pop. On these two albums, Lovesliescrushing originated a sound still reckoned with today. A beautiful labyrinth of noise... a combination of Melissa's ethereal vocals and Scott's saturated, overloaded distortion wrestled from his 12-string guitar. The resulting 'ethereal noise' is chaotic and innovative... gritty, choppy, stunning and beautiful. A sound that captures the sensation of falling, floating on a wave of sounds bleeding into one another like staining watercolors. CD in 4-panel digipak."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: QUI 009LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

At once a spiritually-charged journey and a shit-kicking party record, American Cream Band comes to Quindi covering all the bases. American Cream Band was formed by Twin-Cities musician Nathan Nelson, taking the form of improvised live shows and albums Frankensteined from these sessions into exultant, fully-formed records. The band's previous records have manifested on labels like Moon Glyph and Medium Sound, and now Presents arrives in a freewheeling flash of snappy new wave, skronky sax, call and response sass and some krautrock-minded sonic cosmology. The album came together in December 2021, when Nelson took ten musicians to legendary studio Pachyderm in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Living together, they laid down some drum-heavy sessions that became the building blocks of the record. "Taste What We Taste" is the perfect example of an exuberant groove pounded on skins as a vessel for a joyous get-down, with the singers and players free to freak out on top. Nelson remains at the center of the melee, throwing half-sardonic, half-heartfelt calls out for connection. "Banana" celebrates nonsense and holds down the most serious of beats -- a disco-not-disco deadeye dripping in late night sleaze and lysergic potential. On "Royal Tears," the jagged guitar chops call back to Gang Of Four, while the hot n' heavy sax from Cole Pulice baits James Chance and all the other angular New York un-jazz misfits. Amongst his other implied intentions for the recordings, Nelson wanted to channel opposites, not least the distinct male-female energies in his vocal sparring with the girls on assistance duties. It wouldn't be right to call them backing singers as they shoot back at his punchy mantras, bringing a certain fierce femininity that tips its hat to The B-52s' Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, not to mention iconic post-punk bands like Au Pairs, Delta 5 and Bush Tetras. There's space for the dreamier kosmische which has crept into the American Cream oeuvre in the past, as "Sirens" opens the album up in a swirling pond of rag tag percussion and molten synths. "Words Would Handcuff Us" cools the whole riotous assembly down in unmoored perfection, a strung-out Bossa nova seance dusted with celestial drips from analogue spaceships. Equally treading the line between light and dark, conscious and unconscious, the sacred and profane, Presents is a life-affirming, creep-under-the-skin listening experience -- a joyously transient chapter in the evolution of American Cream Band.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 379LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

The compilation you hold in your hands features the best of U Brown's 1983 release Jam It Tonight, cut at Channel One with the Roots Radics, coupled with enthralling earlier singles laid at Channel with the Revolutionaries. The high points are many in this thoroughly agreeable set that showcases the best of peak-period U Brown; beginning with the devotional "Jah Is My Father Still" and "Walk With Jah Love" from Jam It Tonight, the title track speaks of reggae music's unstoppable nature and "Reggae Gone International" is a celebratory take of the "Pick A Dub" rhythm, here totally reconfigured. "Rub A Dub All The Time" (aka "Tu Sheng Peng") is a killer take of the Dennis Brown song of the same name, while "Blow Mr Hornsman Blow" is an awesome reworking of the "Take Five" rhythm, and "Come Along" a beautiful deejay counterpart to Sugar Minott's "Steal Away Girl." U Brown has since gone on to enjoy all kinds of musical adventures in the UK, USA, and Europe, where he settled in the 1990s; listen to the artistry on No Stoppin' This Music and marvel at his enduring talents.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 156LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Lucky number seventeen? Believe it. Those at Brown Acid have been scouring the highways and byways of America for even more hidden stashes of psych/garage/proto-punk madness from the so-called Aquarian Age. There's no flower power here, though -- just acid casualties, rock stompers and major freakouts. As always, the songs have been officially licensed, and all the artists get paid. Some samples of this trip include: Stone Hedge were a seven-piece rock band out of Michigan with a penchant for Creedence and anthropomorphism. 'Smokey Bear' is their 1972 tribute to the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Services -- not to mention the A side of their sole single -- and it recalls the kind of organ-drenched swamp jam that soundtracked many a Burt Reynolds flick back in the day. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may not be known as a cultural mecca, but they did produce Truth & Janey. This deadly hard rock trio delivered their holy grail full-length, No Rest For The Wicked, back in 1976. 'Around and Around' is a Chuck Berry cover that originally appeared on a 1973 single the band released under the earlier name Truth. Originally released in 1973, 'High School Letter' is the debut single from San Diego rock squad Glory. This infectious bonehead cruncher features future Beat Farmer Jerry Raney and the original rhythm section of Iron Butterfly in bassist Greg Willis and drummer Jack Pinney. Glory is what they got up to after their former bandmates left for L.A.'s garden of Eden. 'Jack the Ripper' is a mercilessly bootlegged Cleveland classic from 1978 with a serrated punk edge and vocals that recall Mick Blood of Aussie savages the Lime Spiders. Or maybe it's the other way around -- the Lime Spiders formed the year after Strychnine carved off this lethal paean to the infamous Whitechapel slasher of olde."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 159LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "'This is definitely the most honest and mature record Deathchant has ever made.' That's Deathchant vocalist and guitarist T.J. Lemieux talking about the band's third and latest album, Thrones. Think of it as not just the follow-up to 2021's Waste, but the other side of the coin. Thrones just might be their heaviest record thus far. The band's seamless swirl of classic rock guitar harmonies, syrupy sludge, blues boogie and psych bombast has reached a thrilling new apex as Lemieux spins high-powered tales of reckoning from beyond the wall of sanity. Thematically, Lemieux and his bandmates -- bassist George Camacho, guitarist Doug Stuckey, and drummer Joe Herzog -- peel back the veneer of self-delusion to expose the fork in the road. Thrones was recorded live in a cabin in the remote mountain community of Frazier Park, CA, with trusty engineer Steve Schroeder (a.k.a. Schroeds). Overdubs were done at the cabin, Schroeder's Studio 3, and Lemieux's place. The album was produced by Lemieux and Schroeder."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: RUMP 010EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Kalabrese & KAYYAK strike back! A 24-minute trip full of wonderful, powerful and hypnotic music. With the A-side "Dancing In The Dark", Kalabrese rocks a steady beat and focuses on a powerful Juno synth motive. Kala plays with these waves and finds a subtle way to tell his intimate story full of sorrow, tears and hope. Everything sits together perfectly. Kala lets us look deep into his heart and unleashes his musical genius. In 10 minutes the synth waves wash the honest pain on and off shore and as with all Kalabrese songs, you don't really want it to ever end. On the B-Side, KAYYAK takes us into a poetic and lyrical land. A trip through Oceania, soft, clear and full of faith. With this song, KAYYAK creates his first masterpiece. A killer synthesizer hook, a strong bassline and an irresistible groove create the foundation of "Dreaming Place." After just a few moments it becomes clear, that this is a hidden dancefloor burner. The perfect 12" for the sunrise, the sunset and every moment in between.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: SEC 301CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Re-issue of 1978 album on CD with two bonus tracks and 16-page booklet containing artwork, photos and extensive sleeve notes."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SB 196LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Oamaru, located about 80 miles north of Dunedin on New Zealand's south island, might seem like the last place you expect to find a prodigious racket like Cuticles, but ain't that a kick? You just never know. Formed around the nucleus of Austen McMillian, Matthew Plunkett (ex-Trendees) and Lisa Preston (Nux Vomica, The Portage) a couple years back, they've been stacking up the hits and on Major Works, it's time to cash in. There's 18 tracks here and Cuticles chew through 'em with abandon. Someone just yelled out from the attic next door, 'Sounds like the Pastels, with guns!' One could make a case for the South Island Sound coursing through their veins (they do live there after all), but the sheer abandon-pop that gushes off the grooves, it's hard not to be reminded of those two, great, David Mitchell helmed Auckland outfits, The Exploding Budgies & Goblin Mix. They might all drink the same water, who knows? But it sure feels good to get brain-stung again by the salty rimes off the Otago Coast. Long may they howl."

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: SCR 233EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The EP features two brand new tracks alongside two remixes of songs from last year's acclaimed album Red Sunset Dreams. The Dot Allison-featuring "Sundowning" gets an almost Balearic makeover by Richard Norris which flows perfectly from "Silver River," featuring B.J. Cole, which has been turned into awe-inspiring ambient Americana by the Indianapolis collective Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea. The two new tracks, despite sharing a common theme with the album in terms of their sunset-themed titles, signal a change in musical mood. Both are much more propulsive and driving, inspired by Mark Peters' recent live shows which he has played as a trio with bassist Dean Roby and drummer Chris Smith. "Alpenglow" came about more recently after Mark bought a Boss RC-300 Loop Station. It has a dark, post-punk feel, like a souped-up "Shadowplay," but as it cranks into krautrock gear it could almost be Neu! with the late, great Tom Verlaine replacing Michael Rother on guitar.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FFL 087CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Compilation curated by Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound) of creative-experimental-unlikely music, originally released in 1984. Released on his United Dairies label that he had created with John Fothergill, he naturally called on Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé, who were then playing with Bernard Vitet in Un drame musical instantané. The compilation would be named In Fractured Silence. Alongside Nurse With Wound and Un drame musical instantané, could be heard Hélène Sage (whom Birgé introduced to Stapleton) and Sema, a project from the experimental British musician Robert Haigh who had participated in key records in the Nurse With Wound discography, such as Homotopy to Marie and Spiral Insana.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SPEAKEASY 007LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Tired Girls is the third full-length studio album by Bay Area singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Hillburg. Co-produced and recorded with Jason Quever of the Papercuts, the pair created an album for lovers of finely crafted and supremely catchy chamber pop. As always, Hillburg's voice takes center stage, but for Tired Girls she made a conscious choice to dig deeper into her trumpet skills and make more elaborate horn arrangements than her previous records. Lyrically, Hillburg dives into what it is to be a contemporary woman, and how one perseveres, finds inspiration, creates, loves, and lives. Recorded throughout 2022 at Quever's studio, the two built dreamy soundscapes with long-time collaborators Logan Kroeber on drums (The Dodos), Josh Miller on bass (Chime School, Extra Classic), and Yea Ming Chen on keys. The entire record has a real 'Ladies, trust your gut' feeling, unsurprisingly, as Hillburg says she tends to write songs about 'the reality of womanhood and feminism but ya know, why not make that a little 'dancey'?' As a collection, Tired Girls marks her arrival as an artist who has hit their stride. Each track shows her talent and progression as a songwriter and performer. As a multi-instrumentalist and classically trained trumpet player, Hillburg is a sought-after session and live musician in the vibrant Bay Area music scene, performing regularly with Shannon And The Clams, The Dodos, The Moore Brothers, The Once And Future Band, Will Sprott, Dream Date, Greg Ashley, Shannon Shaw and her All-Star Buddy Band, and more."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SR 544CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

At the border of genres, Ogives is an ambitious musical project, initiated and led by composer and musician Pavel Tchikov. This large ensemble leads us onto a path to a sacred universe, to a cathedral of sounds, whose foundations are rock and classical music. Born in Liège (Belgium), Ogives offers a resolutely intense personal and poetic work, dominated by layers of melodious, polyphonic, shouted or lyrical voices. This first album from Ogives, La Mémoire Des Orages ("The Memory of Storms"), is build and orchestrated around poems written by two members of the group. These texts revolve around the themes of the perception of time and the perspective of death. We find here all the group's influences, ranging from post-rock, prog, to contemporary music, baroque and medieval music, through electronic music and noise, all exploited to forge a homogeneous and singular material. From the first choral notes to the last sharp riff, it is a dense and melancholic epic, carried by inhabited and versatile musicians. The album was mixed by Steve Albini.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: SUBEX 094LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Giants Of Discovery is the alias of Kevin Downey. The origins of And It's Goodnight From The Human Race can be traced to a session that Downey recorded for The Magic Window, Steven Anderson's radio show. Titled Next Stop, The Stars, his set was conceived as a family vacation where the sightseeing included the rings of Saturn and the vastness of Jupiter, all seen from the cockpit of a small recreational spaceship. The tracks captured that sense cosmic wonderment that had characterized the 1950s Space Race and the imaginations of a whole generation. The tracks from Downey's Magic Window session form the first four tracks on And It's Goodnight From The Human Race. Between Next Stop, The Stars and this album, Downey's outlook changed. Twin themes allow And It's Goodnight From The Human Race to oscillate between the hopeful and funereal. A piece like "First Night Under A New Moon" outwardly seems full of optimism and energy. A rapid arpeggio presages a sense of excitement, which is increasingly held in check by minor chords that leave you feeling uncertain and full of trepidation by the track's conclusion. "Elsewhere, We Can Never Go Home" is utterly heart-wrenching. There is a profound sense of melancholy here, as if we are collectively longing for something that was once held dear, but which is now lost forever. Despite oscillating between those two poles, Downey was keen for the album to take the listener on mankind's journey to a new home, the conclusion of which he wanted to be upbeat and positive. Presented on translucent red color vinyl.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: SUBSOUND 124CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Doom Jazz II: Deception continues the epic story of the Doom Jazz saga, with Jamie Saft and Bobby Previte trading the slow, sensual lines of Doom Jazz I for a more active, muscular sound. Side One, "The New Friend" and "Everyone is Aware," uses a vintage Yamaha organ to create an atmosphere of mystery and space. Side Two, "Deception," moves into different territory, with Saft's distorted Hammond Organ sailing over Previte's active, commanding tom toms in a blues-based jam of wild ferocity and intense foreboding. The plot thickens.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: SUBSOUND 124LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Doom Jazz II: Deception continues the epic story of the Doom Jazz saga, with Jamie Saft and Bobby Previte trading the slow, sensual lines of Doom Jazz I for a more active, muscular sound. Side One, "The New Friend" and "Everyone is Aware," uses a vintage Yamaha organ to create an atmosphere of mystery and space. Side Two, "Deception," moves into different territory, with Saft's distorted Hammond Organ sailing over Previte's active, commanding tom toms in a blues-based jam of wild ferocity and intense foreboding. The plot thickens.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: SUBSOUND 124LTD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Violet/clear blue vinyl. Doom Jazz II: Deception continues the epic story of the Doom Jazz saga, with Jamie Saft and Bobby Previte trading the slow, sensual lines of Doom Jazz I for a more active, muscular sound. Side One, "The New Friend" and "Everyone is Aware," uses a vintage Yamaha organ to create an atmosphere of mystery and space. Side Two, "Deception," moves into different territory, with Saft's distorted Hammond Organ sailing over Previte's active, commanding tom toms in a blues-based jam of wild ferocity and intense foreboding. The plot thickens.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: ST 25807CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Sulatron Records is happy and proud to release the tenth album by UK's kultband Sun Dial! Sun Dial is the vehicle of guitarist and singer Gary Ramon, who started recording in the eighties as The Modern Art. He changed the name to Sun Dial when forming his live band in 1990. The new album Messages From The Mothership takes its inspiration from Gary Ramon catching sight of a UFO in desolate marshland at the age of fourteen. This gives way to a theme throughout which is especially prevalent on side two. There are elements of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Hawkwind but the album has all the elements of Sun Dial's Other Way Out and those in the know are calling it their best work since then. After Sulatron released some Krautrock influenced albums by Sun Dial (and the spaced-out Quad album, Gary's old sideproject) it's back to guitar-psych and the tracks have Gary's unmistakable vocal and guitar work interspersed with 'Hammond,' 'Mellotron,' and various rare keyboards. His astonishingly intricate soloing sounds like a man possessed by an otherworldly force. Messages From The Mothership is a focused but 'out there' album which will please Sun Dial fans and surely win them a generation of new followers. CD in four-page digifile. CD includes a, aural easter egg."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: SYST 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

After the success of the first volume here comes the second edition of this new compilation concept called Music From Space. Marc Romboy started his new podcast and radio show series with tracks which are spacy and for this compilation he could collect eight exclusive tracks from the likes of Tal Fussman, Invõker, Nicolas Masseyeff, and himself together with Oniris again. Also featuring Thodoris Triantafillou, Kiberu, Captain Mustache, and Satoshi Fumi.

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: RELS 003CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Shortly after his recent single release Don't Hurt Me Now and its accompanying B-sides, Rico Friebe presents his follow-up "So... Hi!" --a heartfelt dedication to the good moments in life, somehow deeply inspired by '80s and '90s pop music. Alongside, he presents his meditational songs "Me&You" and the Zen-like instrumental "Tiger Tundra" from a same-titled album that has never been released (yet)...

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: TOYT 141LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Toy Tonics presents Gomma Dancefloor Gems Vol. 1. It's all about Y2K, punkfunk and indie disco. Gomma was one of the key labels of the Y2K indie dance wave along with labels like James Murphy's DFA and Trevor Jackson's OUTPUT Records. And as the '90s revival that dominated the last years in fashion and electronic music reached its peak, the Toy Tonics gang thought it's a good moment to re-mind some of these early 2000s tracks that connected a more raw, indie disco and punky funk vibe. Not just music people like James Murphy, who did music with Gomma before starting his own LCD Soundsystem or bands like Chromeo, New Young Pony Club, or Soulwax who started later with a similar vibe, but also art, graphic and fashion people took inspiration from the Gomma world. When new labels popped up copying the Gomma attitude and styles (till these days), Gomma's head honcho and main inventor Mathias Modica stopped the whole thing, changed the name and started something new: Toy Tonics records. Mathias Modica aka Munk aka Kapote himself now is busy with Toy Tonics, which basically is bigger than Gomma ever was: Spreading a very own sound of organic house and disco funk. With party happenings all over Europe every weekend and a very young audience. Featuring: Moullinex & Peaches, Munk, Whomadewho, Golden Bug, Headman, Baldelli, Trans Mania, Leroy Hanghofer, Severino Horse Meat Disco, and Rodion.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: VAMPI 189LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. In 1968 Enrique Delgado, leader of Los Destellos, launched an original musical proposition that combined tropical music, rock and touches from other genres, which he arranged by drawing on his extensive experience accompanying stars of Andean and coastal music from Peru. He was determined to find his own style and created an earthy vibe that people still love dancing to today. Delgado was a precocious musician from Lima, passionate about waltzes, polkas and marineras from Creole music from an early age, founding Los Destellos in 1966 for purely commercial reasons, aiming to liven up exclusive social gatherings with a wide repertoire of danceable music. In mid-1967 he revamped the band to embark on the task of creating a new style that would be a hit with dance fans and guarantee economic success, influenced by the visit of Hugo Blanco to different cities across Peru, playing cumbias and other tropical rhythms using the harp as a solo instrument. Rock was another ingredient that this Beatles fan added to the mix; his goal was to find a formula through which he could integrate the different musical genres from Peru, ranging from Creole music from the Pacific coast to the exotic dances from the Amazon, thereby acknowledging Peruvian cultural diversity. He put all the ingredients together and mixed them well before going into the recording studio. Halfway through 1968, Fernando Quiroz joined the line-up. Delgado was looking for a guitarist who played rock and was recommended Fernando, who had played Los Zany's. This line-up also included Carlos Ramírez, Eduardo Rivera, and Rodolfo Casaretto. Sicodelicos selects the Los Destellos tracks closest to the genres of psychedelia, beat and boogaloo, released between 1968 and 1978, with Enrique playing lead guitar on the bulk of them. In the 21st century, several compilations such as Vampisoul's own Cumbia Beat (VAMPI 116CD/LP, VAMPI 143CD/LP) series have helped globalize Peruvian cumbia, winning fans from all over the world. Led by Delgado, Los Destellos truly defined the sound of Peruvian cumbia with the incorporation of diverse influences and the use of electric guitars. These 20 irresistible songs are essential elements of Peruvian cumbia, the rhythm that changed the face of Lima, shook the Andes and spread like a forest fire across the Amazon basin. For fans of Los Mirlos, Link Wray, Davie Allan, and surf instrumentals.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: VEYL 038CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Veyl welcomes Blind Delon to the label for their third album, La Métamorphose. Founded in 2016 by Mathis Kolkoz, the project released several EPs leading up to their first full length, Discipline (Khemia / Unknown Pleasure Records, 2019) and their subsequent follow up, Chimères (Manic Depression, 2020). Originally a three piece before the departure of guitarist Theo Fantuz after their second album, the project then focused on refining their sound and energy through alternative projects and more EPs before adding a new member ahead of their latest opus. The band currently consists of Mathis Kolkoz (Vocals, Guitars), Coco Thiburs (Bass) and Thom Mayor (Synths, Guitars). Fueled by cold bass lines and synthesizers of yesteryear, French post-punk and black romanticism, Blind Delon shatters genres and styles to create an evolved strain of synthpunk that wears its influences proudly while mutating into something totally new. La Métamorphose represents a fresh direction -- a heavy, post-metal sound that's full of emotion and raw intensity. "Le Crépuscule" opens the album with a hard-hitting piece that commences the experience perfectly. Next up, the group kicks things into high gear with the speedy, heavy-synth play of "La Violence" featuring vocals by Fivequestionmarks, followed by "La Mort," a blackened post-punk cut featuring the one and only Curses. Label head Maenad Veyl makes a guest appearance on the fourth track, "L'Homme," which drifts into deep experimental melancholy with a cinematic feel. Keeping with this mood is the powerful "L'Affront" featuring The KVB, which descends further into darkness before resurrecting with the immense feelings of "Le Sarcasme." Track seven, "La Noyade," drills into the skull with growling vocals and menacing synths which bleed nicely into "La Foule," slowing things back down with a subtle yet lingering sense of dread. French project Poison Point arrive on "L'Envie" which moves guitars back to the forefront for a raucous ballad that sets up the final piece and title track, "La Métamorphose," the glorious grand finale of an album teeming with emotion and begging to be played again and again. Feature remix by Contre Soirée.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: WJCD 056CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

In January, 2022, Mike Reed brought together some of the most creative figures in Chicago's experimental and improvised music community -- cornetist Ben LaMar Gay and poet and spoken word artist Marvin Tate -- both of whom worked on his 2017 project Flesh and Bone, and who sporadically joined him in an improvising trio -- along with the members of Bitchin Bajas (multi-instrumentalists Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, and Dan Quinlivan). He called the new group the Separatist Party, a name he had occasionally used for ad hoc live performances, as well as a title for an old Flesh and Bone tune. The six musicians coalesced into an exciting new ensemble commingling a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude. The music draws upon a raft of influences, weaving together varied traditions and practices within a groove-oriented attack to forge something entirely new. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry's Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within the Separatist Party's music, but no single element arrives wholesale. While defining the sound of Chicago has always been a fool's errand, The Separatist Party couldn't have come from anywhere else. The Separatist Party is the first installment of a three-album cycle involving a varied cast of musicians, dealing with themes of inner and outer human isolation.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: WJLP 056LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. In January, 2022, Mike Reed brought together some of the most creative figures in Chicago's experimental and improvised music community -- cornetist Ben LaMar Gay and poet and spoken word artist Marvin Tate -- both of whom worked on his 2017 project Flesh and Bone, and who sporadically joined him in an improvising trio -- along with the members of Bitchin Bajas (multi-instrumentalists Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, and Dan Quinlivan). He called the new group the Separatist Party, a name he had occasionally used for ad hoc live performances, as well as a title for an old Flesh and Bone tune. The six musicians coalesced into an exciting new ensemble commingling a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude. The music draws upon a raft of influences, weaving together varied traditions and practices within a groove-oriented attack to forge something entirely new. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry's Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within the Separatist Party's music, but no single element arrives wholesale. While defining the sound of Chicago has always been a fool's errand, The Separatist Party couldn't have come from anywhere else. The Separatist Party is the first installment of a three-album cycle involving a varied cast of musicians, dealing with themes of inner and outer human isolation.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: WJLP 056X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Green color vinyl. In January, 2022, Mike Reed brought together some of the most creative figures in Chicago's experimental and improvised music community -- cornetist Ben LaMar Gay and poet and spoken word artist Marvin Tate -- both of whom worked on his 2017 project Flesh and Bone, and who sporadically joined him in an improvising trio -- along with the members of Bitchin Bajas (multi-instrumentalists Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, and Dan Quinlivan). He called the new group the Separatist Party, a name he had occasionally used for ad hoc live performances, as well as a title for an old Flesh and Bone tune. The six musicians coalesced into an exciting new ensemble commingling a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude. The music draws upon a raft of influences, weaving together varied traditions and practices within a groove-oriented attack to forge something entirely new. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry's Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within the Separatist Party's music, but no single element arrives wholesale. While defining the sound of Chicago has always been a fool's errand, The Separatist Party couldn't have come from anywhere else. The Separatist Party is the first installment of a three-album cycle involving a varied cast of musicians, dealing with themes of inner and outer human isolation.

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: WE 001X-LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

Limited 2023 repress. In 1973, Stay On It turned the coordinates of avant-garde music on its head. It is minimal, but un-ashamedly groovy; it is open to improvisation, grants performers all the freedom they could need, but it isn't jazz and never slips into the non-committal. It is open to theatrical and performative elements, but also to poetic-lyrical ones. Cut to 1981. Julius Eastman releases The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc. Where has the lightness gone? The relationship to pop music? The love for the musicians who have to develop the piece during its performance? It sounds like heavy metal: forceful, dark, urgent, sawing -- and then plaintive, heartbreaking.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: WWSCD 080CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Wewantsounds presents the release of Touch, a selection of sought-after tracks produced by Yuji Ohno, one of the most revered producers and arrangers on the Nippon music scene. His blend of jazz, space funk and disco have long been sought-after by DJs around the world and Wewanstounds has been given unique access to the Nippon Columbia vaults and to Mr. Ohno himself to come with a versatile selection from his '70s body of work, all bearing his uniquely recognizable sound. The set includes works with singers Nanako Sato, Hatsumi Shibata, and Ken Tanaka alongside tracks from his cult anime soundtracks for Lupin III and Captain Future. Approved by Yuji Ohno himself, Touch was remastered in Tokyo by Nippon Columbia and features liner notes by Nick Luscombe in conversation with the maestro and artwork by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda. Also featuring Ann Young, Mieko Hirota, and Electric Keyboard Orchestra.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: WWSLP 080LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Wewantsounds presents the release of Touch, a selection of sought-after tracks produced by Yuji Ohno, one of the most revered producers and arrangers on the Nippon music scene. His blend of jazz, space funk and disco have long been sought-after by DJs around the world and Wewanstounds has been given unique access to the Nippon Columbia vaults and to Mr. Ohno himself to come with a versatile selection from his '70s body of work, all bearing his uniquely recognizable sound. The set includes works with singers Nanako Sato, Hatsumi Shibata, and Ken Tanaka alongside tracks from his cult anime soundtracks for Lupin III and Captain Future. Approved by Yuji Ohno himself, Touch was remastered in Tokyo by Nippon Columbia and features liner notes by Nick Luscombe in conversation with the maestro and artwork by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda. Also featuring Ann Young, Mieko Hirota, and Electric Keyboard Orchestra.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 071LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

WRWTFWW Records announces the official reissue of Daisaku Kume's original soundtrack for the highly acclaimed 1989 Japanese crime/drama movie Violent Cop. Available for the first time outside of Japan, the album comes in a limited edition of 500 copies worldwide with a 45rpm cut providing full audio pleasure and an iconic record sleeve featuring the movie director and star: the one and only "Beat" Takeshi Kitano! Violent Cop marks Kitano's directorial debut -- a gritty neo-noir in which he stars as a rogue detective fighting a sadistic crime syndicate, only to discover widespread internal corruption in the police force. Poetic, minimalistic, with a superb balance between small soothing moments of beauty and vertiginous sudden violence, the film spearheaded a superb international career for the multi-talented filmmaker, actor, and comedian, which includes works such as Sonatine, Hana-Bi, and Battle Royale. The release of the soundtrack on vinyl presents an excellent opportunity for fans to explore the musical underpinnings of one of Kitano's earliest creations. Daisaku Kume, known for his work as the keyboardist for late '70s fusion bands T-Square and Prism, showcases versatile musical prowess on the soundtrack, taking listeners on a sonic journey through a blend of genres including magnificent Erik Satie re-interpretations, melancholic smooth jazz sometimes reminiscent of Taxi Driver, ambient-classical, and modern Western atmospherics. It's the perfect setting for Kitano's stoic but tormented lonesome urban cowboy character. Raw power mixed with timeless elegance. Violent Cop (Original Soundtrack) by Daisaku Kume follows the recent release of the soundtrack from another groundbreaking Japanese movie, Shin'ya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist (1995), with music by industrial visionaries Chu Ishikawa and Der Eisenrost, also currently available on WRWTFWW Records.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: 12XU 154LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Dutch four-piece Lewsberg present their fourth studio album, Out And About. Since forming in 2016, Lewsberg have gone from strength to strength. On Out And About, rudimentary pop and rock songs are deliberately kept bare, only occasionally embellished with a violin or organ part. In the lyrics, the tendency towards existentialism and black humor is nuanced with an almost naive openness and engagement. Recorded in Amsterdam in Spring 2023 with producer Yulya Divakova, Out And About sees founding members Shalita Dietrich (vocals, bass guitar), Michiel Klein (guitar) and Arie van Vliet (vocals, guitar, violin) joined for the first time on record by drummer and vocalist Marrit Meinema, who joined the band in the Autumn of 2021. Out And About embraces a collaborative spirit, allowing each member to contribute their unique songwriting talents. The result is a collection of tracks that capture the band's collective creative energy and their individual perspectives. Compared to their first three albums, Out And About feels lighter, calling to mind the The Feelies, Marine Girls, and Young Marble Giants, whilst remaining distinctly Lewsberg."

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: 99CHANTS 012LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Heavyweight, gatefold sleeve with silver metallic print and screenprinted PE sleeve. A lavish four-chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, V?S (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year's acclaimed Imaginary Landscapes compilation. V?S then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album's 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato's Cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation. August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it's shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. V?S is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind's journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we're returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it's a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: AUK 007LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; available on 180-gram vinyl (no longer comes with download code). This the first time that this title has been available on vinyl. At the risk of belaboring a rather obvious point, with Thank God for Mental Illness, their third collection of absolutely stunning music to be released in 1996, The Brian Jonestown Massacre parallels the prolific and effortless brilliance of The Rolling Stones at their fevered late-1960s peak; the sheer scope of their achievements is stunning -- rarely are bands quite so productive, or quite so consistently amazing. Thank God is The BJM's down-and-dirty country-blues outing, all 12-odd tracks supposedly recorded on a single July day at a cost of just $17.36. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist and singer Anton Newcombe. Since 1995, The Brian Jonestown Massacre has released numerous albums, first for Bomp!, the label that gave them their start, and later for TVT and Tee Pee. The BJM has been essential in the development of the modern U.S. garage scene, and many LA and SF musicians got their start playing with Newcombe, including Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Originally, Newcombe was heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones' psychedelic phase -- the band's name combines the name of Stones founder Brian Jones with a reference to cult leader Jim Jones -- but his work in the 2000s has expanded into aesthetic dimensions approximating the UK shoegaze genre of the 1990s and incorporating influences from world music, especially Middle Eastern and Brazilian music.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: AUK 051EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

To coincide with the Brian Jonestown Massacre's North American 2023 tour is the release of two new exclusive tracks by the band. Recorded in Berlin and remotely, the opening track "Abandon Ship (Martian Meltdown Mix)" runs at over 11 minutes long and plays at 33rpm. "Maybe Make It Right," the B-side, is nearly four minutes and plays at 45rpm. Featuring Anton Newcombe (vocals/guitars), Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar), and Uri Rennert (drums). Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh/BJM) and Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt (Asteroid #4/BJM) on engineering duties. The release comes in a heavy-weight PVC bag with J-card artwork.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: AR 159CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Mo' Horizons enter their seventh album chapter and celebrate 25 years of their exultant and globally enriched, forward-thinking, electronic sound. Featuring a cast of guest singers, including Ghanaian legend Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Mango is a fiery and sample-heavy blend of future-funk, balearic, highlife, Brazilian drum 'n bass and lo-fi hip hop, set to be released on their long-standing label Agogo Records. Familiar and warming sounds pervade Mango; the call of the Brazilian cuica, the snapping snares, rolling breakbeats, swooning sax licks, and dreamy beach vibrations. Yet there are brand new tricks; on "Havanna B-Boys" Arthur Lee's gravelly voice is sampled whilst a frenetic funk-ridden groove pulses, and the mesmeric vocal samples from Anglo-Portuguese singer Guida de Palma feature on opener "Anotha Bossa." Both shine as the album's singles. Outside Ambolley's contribution, further collabs sees Mo' Horizons reconnect with Venezuelan percussionist Nené Vásquez, Colombian singer Ivan Camelo, Hannover based, Israeli singer Noam Bar Azulay, and Spanish singer Laura Insausti. Spanning over three decades, German DJ and production duo Mo' Horizons, led by Ralf Droesemeyer and Mark Wetzler have been a relentless force on the global groove scene. For 25 years, the pair have continued to grow their international audiences, testament to remaining on-point, ignoring the fashion and tribalism of scenes like big beat and broken beat, that thrived but then morphed and went off radar. Also featuring The Maasai Tribe Of Tanzania.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: AR 159LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Mo' Horizons enter their seventh album chapter and celebrate 25 years of their exultant and globally enriched, forward-thinking, electronic sound. Featuring a cast of guest singers, including Ghanaian legend Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Mango is a fiery and sample-heavy blend of future-funk, balearic, highlife, Brazilian drum 'n bass and lo-fi hip hop, set to be released on their long-standing label Agogo Records. Familiar and warming sounds pervade Mango; the call of the Brazilian cuica, the snapping snares, rolling breakbeats, swooning sax licks, and dreamy beach vibrations. Yet there are brand new tricks; on "Havanna B-Boys" Arthur Lee's gravelly voice is sampled whilst a frenetic funk-ridden groove pulses, and the mesmeric vocal samples from Anglo-Portuguese singer Guida de Palma feature on opener "Anotha Bossa." Both shine as the album's singles. Outside Ambolley's contribution, further collabs sees Mo' Horizons reconnect with Venezuelan percussionist Nené Vásquez, Colombian singer Ivan Camelo, Hannover based, Israeli singer Noam Bar Azulay, and Spanish singer Laura Insausti. Spanning over three decades, German DJ and production duo Mo' Horizons, led by Ralf Droesemeyer and Mark Wetzler have been a relentless force on the global groove scene. For 25 years, the pair have continued to grow their international audiences, testament to remaining on-point, ignoring the fashion and tribalism of scenes like big beat and broken beat, that thrived but then morphed and went off radar. Also featuring The Maasai Tribe Of Tanzania.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: AW 124LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Since forming in 2004, Ohio rock band Smug Brothers have enjoyed a relaxed, almost nonchalant, approach to writing and recording, with most albums being minor Big Bangs -- instant and electric. New LP In the Book of Bad Ideas, on the other hand, was a struggle against entropy -- the disorder caused by plagues and departing personnel. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton wrote the majority of the tunes in 'bunker fashion' during the miserable pandemic summer of 2020, then slowly started recording them with bassist Kyle Sowash, lead guitarist Scott Tribble, and drummer/Smug Brothers co-pilot Don Thrasher in 2021. That November, his contributions partially completed, Tribble decamped the band due to a new job and new demands. The exit was amicable, yet left the group in a lead guitar lurch. Melton had little choice but to enter the ring and play solos on some songs. Finally, belatedly, both In the Book of Bad Ideas and its sister EP Emerald Lemonade were finished in the spring of 2022. And against the odds, the two-year slog produced pleasantly surprising results. On In the Book of Bad Ideas, the band's typical, semi-'60s sound -- boasting biting leads and breakneck jangles -- is now fully integrated with synthesizers and crafted with a cool gloss, anachronistically creating the first Smug Brothers album of the early '80s."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: AMEL 722LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock. The Ricardo Villalobos/Samuel Rohrer partnership has yielded increasingly interesting results over the past few years, with the former's remixes of the latter's trio Ambiq being supplemented by further reinterpretations of Rohrer's solo work and live meetings at select events like Berlin's Funkhaus and Radialsystem V. As should be the case with any strong collaboration, this partnership has been based on mutual challenge rather than compromise, seeing each participant shuttle key technical and emotive aspects of the other's work to previously unexpected places. Those who have been closely following this relationship will notice a definite sense of continuity between previous outings and the new collaborative release entitled MICROGESTURES. As with those earlier Villalobos/Rohrer pairings, these four new pieces are defined by a special quality of being many things that once: that is to say, depending on the listener's own level of focus, these can feel very tightly constructed and disciplined, or playful and freely wandering. That the tracks are equally engaging regardless of one's chosen listening "mode" is a testament to the level of thought put into them; you could almost imagine the creators pouring over some elaborate sketched set of architectural blueprints rather than coolly monitoring the usual multi-track editing software. Altogether the music here is firmly amelodic and percussive, but within these deliberate limitations there is still a greater variety of individual sounds than most would bother with. Each track is its own observatory of micro gestures, clustering together into a dense communicative fog or a sort of robotic sound swarm. Yet, while all these tracks are variations on that theme, each one has its own character and, consequently, its own rewards. Take for example "Cochlea" and its twin "Helix", on which the magnetizing, busy layers of percussion are tempered with mischievously disruptive blossoms of digital noise, as well as sampled radio communications. Club-oriented elements are also not absent from this suite, particularly on "Incus" with its traditional sequenced baseline, crisp synthetic trap and hats, and dizzily sliding set of bell-like tones laid on top. Yet this track, too, is powered as much by its restless desire to deviate as by its rhythmic consistency: throughout the eleven-minute running time, a mass of ambiguous and restless machine sounds build a parallel narrative, and will maybe prompt the occasional glance over the shoulder as they seem to be taking on their own life. "Lobule" rounds out the program with the most rhythmically eventful sound set off the five.

 

PRICE: $13.00

CAT #: AUM 117CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Echolocation is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels, an electric and formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza (guitar, compositions) and Devin Hoff (bass, compositions) and featuring James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax) and Ches Smith (drums). A super-group of our time, all profound creative artists in their own right, rocking mightily together, in their prime. 21st Century progressive rock played by punk rockers with serious improv skills and jazz feel. And vitally -- non-stop wicked catchy tunes, riffs and grooves. Strong sonic references are The Stooges' Funhouse, rendered by an entire band readily adept at rapidly swinging rhythmic and harmonic shifts. Vital influences on Ava and Devin toward this work's creation were mid-'80s Black Flag (w/ Roessler and Stevenson) and Ornette Coleman's Prime Time ands, both of which revolutionized the way they heard music."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: AUM 117LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Echolocation is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels, an electric and formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza (guitar, compositions) and Devin Hoff (bass, compositions) and featuring James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax) and Ches Smith (drums). A super-group of our time, all profound creative artists in their own right, rocking mightily together, in their prime. 21st Century progressive rock played by punk rockers with serious improv skills and jazz feel. And vitally -- non-stop wicked catchy tunes, riffs and grooves. Strong sonic references are The Stooges' Funhouse, rendered by an entire band readily adept at rapidly swinging rhythmic and harmonic shifts. Vital influences on Ava and Devin toward this work's creation were mid-'80s Black Flag (w/ Roessler and Stevenson) and Ornette Coleman's Prime Time ands, both of which revolutionized the way they heard music."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: BPBL 007EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Banoffee Pies Records Black Label Series continues with a very special solo EP from Ukraine-born producer and DJ, Adelina. Now Berlin-based, the Oracool party founder, and multi medium artist, whose roots in Kyiv's underground sound, and passion for music culture, shines through their already distinct sonic signature. Following the mesmerizing dusty cut single Soft Moving, the full EP extends to combine this haunted five track collection via the seventh release on the BPR sub label. Adelina's introspective approach strikes a magnetism on their surrounding environment using a precise and mature combination of broken structures, dreamy dub basslines and high bliss electronica. Recently immersed into sound creation while exploring the most cryptic aspects in the connections between sonic spheres, Black Label Series 07 offers a fluid introduction to the imprint while representing the new Ukrainian sound wave. Their choice selections and alluring charisma as an artist reflect their infinite certainty in the power of music as a universal key.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: BPWL 002EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Banoffee Pies White Label Series is back with a debut EP on the mother imprint from Bristol based artist, DJ and talent, No Nation. A deeply attuned junglist delivers a love sick transmission with four gripping, jazzy and skeletal rave compositions following their recent single "Gad Damn". Rooted in the sounds of jazz, progressive rock and fusion, No Nation quickly cemented themselves within soul, RnB and old-school hip hop scenes early on before finding space to express these inspirations through their passion for high tempo hybrids. Now an established Bristol artist and label main stay with international bookings worldwide. As a producer their music is something to be savored. Drawing inspiration from music from output on Inperspective and Scientific Wax labels while combining a dynamic and diverse fusion of soulful sounds. Chopped breaks and samples sure to leave a lasting impression. No Nation has featured on labels Club Paint edit series, Bristol-based outfit Slippery Sounds, London leftfield label Diffrent Music and most recently Sherelle's new imprint BEAUTIFUL music. For fans of: Tommy the Cat, Sherelle, Tim Repeaer, Response, Dwarde, Denham Audio, Fixate, Coco Bryce, Peter Tosh, and Fracture.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: BTR 080EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Sababa 5 have demonstrated their special blend of Middle Eastern psych, funk and disco over a course of eights 45s for Batov Records, a collaborative EP with singer Shiran Tzfira, and an acclaimed self-titled album. Hot off the back of extended instrumental faze, covering their self-titled debut album, that drew comparisons to the Menahan Street Band, and a pair of essential 45s overflowing with funk, Sababa 5 hit the studio to cut a pair of killer songs with Turkish synth, electro and alternative pop sensation Canay Do?an. Currently a member of the jazz department at Istanbul University, Canay has been releasing her own songs since 2021. Known for her versatility not only as a singer but across keyboards, drums and percussion, she can be seen accompanying many artists on vocals and keyboards. The collaboration came about after Canay heard Sababa 5's "Nasmusa", delving deeper and noting the similarities with Turkish music she reached out to suggest they work together. Compounded by Sababa 5 already having a presence in Turkey, it was meant to be. Dreamy and melancholic synths meet gritty funk rhythms on "Bigâne". According to Canay, the song addresses issues around depressions about the relative meaninglessness of life, the emptiness of so many questions and answers, and the "variability of the truth". The urgent music of "Namdar" backs a paean to the fakeness of most friendships, and empty daily questions such as "how are you?", and how many so-called friends are in truth jealous and bitter. The deep and searching questions of Canay's lyrics give weight to the beautiful vocals that almost float over Sababa 5's compelling grooves. "Bigâne" and "Namdar" add another deadly string to Sababa 5's bow and are essential grooves.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BEATNIK 048LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"Originally released in 1993, on CD only except very few promo vinyls, Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales is a collaboration between famous -- and infamous! -- beat writer William S. Burroughs and politico-rappers Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, whose Television, Drug of the Nation picked up the baton from the Last Poets and Gil Scot Heron. With Hal Willner in the producer's chair, the album sits at the unusual intersection of literature, spoken word and music, as Burroughs is reading excerpts from seven of his books set to fabulous music by the Heroes, mostly a slow, lazy funk that sounds like it was lifted from a '70s blaxploitation soundtrack, plus fat hip-hop beats and soul-jazz overtones."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BEC 5613161

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

The unbelievable story of a child who has been scared by life and finds salvation through the love of his dogs. This is the story of Dogman, Luc Besson's new movie, shown at the Venice Film Festival and the Deauville American Film Festival, and starring Caleb Landry Jones. Besson returns to the dark tones of his first feature films, centered on a character on the fringes of society. He once again enlists the services of his favorite composer, Eric Serra (Le Grand Bleu, Nikita, Le Cinquième Element, etc.), who is responsible for the music of almost all his films. Serra's worked with a philharmonic orchestra, the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, for this soundtrack. On top of Eric Serra's new music, it also includes "Non, Je ne Regrette Rien" and its English version "No Regrets" performed by Edith Piaf and "Autumn Star" by Sateen. Collector digipack CD.