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PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: ALGA 040-2LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2022 repress. Alga Marghen very proudly presents a remastered version of the complete documentation of Eliane Radigue sound installations from 1969-1970, including the broad tectonic vibrations of "Omnht," the celestial voices of "Usral," the massive chant of "Stress Osaka," and more -- the works of this artist's feedback period finally revealed. It is amazing that Radigue could build such formidably organic sonic edifices in her home studio with the primitive machines given to her by Pierre Henry: three tape recorders, a mixing board, an amplifier, two loudspeakers and a microphone. Eliane previously worked for Henry at the Studio d'Essai of the R.T.F. from 1955 to 1957, after having met Pierre Schaeffer almost by chance, who invited her to learn the techniques of musique concrète. Created 10 years after her Studio d'Essai experience, the feedback works of Eliane Radigue immediately take a new direction from the explorations of musique concrète. Her adventure intuitively goes towards flux, towards contemplative stasis -- a music of continuous sounds, of apparently simple structures, which permits the revelations and expansion of rich acoustic phenomena. It is as if her musical work was in some way a martial art -- as if she meditated for 10 years before striking the first blow, with impressive precision. This is the context in which Eliane composed "Omnht" in 1970 for the architectonic spaces of the visual artist Tania Mouraud titled "One More Night," presented at the Gallery of the Rive Gauche in Paris; "Usral" (the title comes from a phonetic compression of ultrasounds slowed-down, in French "ultra-sons ralentis") is one of the first works by Eliane Radigue to be given in public as a sound environment for a sculpture by Marc Halpern in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs at the Grand Palais of Paris in 1969; "Stress-Osaka" was conceived when the artist was invited to create a sonic environment for the International Fair in Osaka in 1970. There is no doubt that Eliane Radigue's vocabulary is based on observing and entering into dialog with the fundamental behavior of sounds: pulsing, beating, sustained, very light -- a subtle and delicate evolution. When she moved from feedback sounds to the ARP synthesizer, she naturally continued the same music, a continuity where the original use of feedback sounds stands out for its cruder and more savage inner character. One could say that somehow it's the very texture of the sounds, which leads the form of her compositions. Includes a 16-page LP-size booklet with original photos, scores and liner notes.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ALGA 041LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2022 repress. Alga Marghen very proudly presents a remastered version of Vice-Versa, Etc..., an LP originally included in the first 400 copies of Eliane Radigue's Feedback Works 2LP. Vice-Versa, Etc... was originally a small handmade box, signed and numbered and released on the occasion of a show at Lara Vincy's gallery in 1970. The box contained a reel of magnetic tape and the instructions for use. It indicates that all playback speeds are possible, forward or backward, as well as any combination of two channels, on several recorders, ad libitum. This LP presents two versions done by Emmanuel Hoelterbach following the indications of Eliane Radigue to the letter, respecting her composition methods. There is no doubt that Eliane Radigue's vocabulary is based on observing and entering into dialog with the fundamental behavior of sounds: pulsing, beating, sustained, very light, a subtle and delicate evolution. When she moved from feedback sounds to the ARP synthesizer, she naturally continued the same music -- a continuity where the original use of feedback sounds stands out for its cruder and more savage inner character. One could say that somehow it's the very texture of the sounds, which leads the form of her compositions. At the same time, this approach favors an intense sensuality in the listening.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: TES 159LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Limited 2022 repress. One afternoon in 1975, friend and fellow music traveler, Harold Schroeder, showed up at Poo-Bah Record Shop where Tom Recchion worked selling records and experimental music to people, forcing them to buy albums that he swore would change their lives. Harold asked if Tom wanted to share in a studio space close to the shop. After seeing it Tom immediately said "YES!". They moved in and divided the space in half. On Tom's half he made drawings, paintings, performances, video, sculptures, installations, and music. Harold had his all set up for music with his newly acquired Steiner-Parker synth and guitars and things. At the beginning they played under the name The Two Who Do Duets. Soon the late-night jam sessions that took place in the back of Poo-Bah moved over to the fourth floor of 35 South Raymond. It was pretty beat up and derelict, the way one imagines an artist's studio to look. They could make all the noise they wanted. No one else was on their floor. The music heard on this LP has remained unheard since it was recorded and was created just before and right after the inaugural concert by the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) groups Le Forte Four, Doo-Dooettes, and Ace & Duce. That concert took place in late January 1976. The sessions on this release feature members of the newly formed and expanded Doo-Dooettes, which now included Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Harold Schroeder, and Tom Recchion, as well as Ju Suk Reet Meate from Smegma and Ace, of Ace & Duce. 35 S. Raymond eventually became a sort of LAFMS headquarters, with Chip Chapman of Le Forte Four, artist and future Extended Organ vocalist/guitarist Paul McCarthy, and soon to become singer for Nervous Gender, punk/folk artist Phranc, who along with many other artists and musicians, moved into the building. 35 S. Raymond allowed for free expression and explorations of all sorts. Some wild parties ensued, not to mention the luxury of endless hours of experimentation. Parking was free and so was the art and music. Ace found the tapes for side one ("Tom's Studio") in his archive and Ju Suk Reet Meate found the tapes for side two ("50 Of Every American Are Machines") and edited them both for this release. No overdubs or remixing was employed. Luxury gatefold sleeve; Edition of 200.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ARMA 469CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

not received, no longer available? Especially in a world as volatile as ours, it's important to have something to fall back on, a guiding light that drives away the dark. That's what trance music is to millions of people. It elevates, it excites and it brings people together to the point where differences don't matter. It's what Armin van Buuren reflects upon with another highly anticipated A State Of Trance mix album: A State Of Trance 2021. Once again taking listeners from the beach to the club with 39 awe-inspiring cuts, A State Of Trance 2021 radiates that feeling of togetherness so many fans have come to cherish. Including collaborations between Armin van Buuren and Maor Levi, Tom Staar, and Giuseppe Ottaviani, a fresh "Rising Star Remix" and exclusive new tracks from creators such as Alexander Popov, Aly & Fila, AVIRA, Craig Connelly, and Giuseppe Ottaviani, the track list of the mix album shows that the artists are able to transcend stylistic limitations in the same way trance music helps fans transcend the things that make them different. The key word here is unison: between the two parts of the mix album, between the tunes on the track list and between fans. Also features Sam Bagira, Ocata, Ahmed Helmy, DRYM & Evan Henzi, Shapov & Nerak, Sarah Reeves, ReOrder & Jordan Tobias present Crowd+Ctrl, York, PROFF, ReOrder presents RRDR, Franky Wah, AETHO Sian Evans, Tinlicker, Sunlounger, Chris Howard, Dan Soleil, Kitone, Third Party, JES, Orjan Nilsen, Maywave, Rub!k, DIM3NSION & DJ Nano, Adam Taylor, Jorn van Deynhoven, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Andrea Ribeca, Andy Moor, Somna & Linney, Ciaran McAuley, Bogdan Vix & Claudiu Adam, Cari, Avalan, Thomas Bronzwaer, Luke Bond presents BOND, ilan Bluestone, Ellen Smith, Doppenberg, David Forbes.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BEWITH 018LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of Willie Hutch's Soul Portrait, originally released in 1969. Soul Portrait is a slice of Southern-fried soul, a blend of beat ballads and dancers. Increasingly rare, this reissue is most welcome and showcases the early work of a soul legend. Officially licensed and remastered by Simon Francis, it's pressed on 180 gram vinyl for the first time and features the original artwork and liner notes. A monumental force firmly rooted in the soul canon, Willie Hutch is most notable for recording two of the best Blaxploitation soundtracks, The Mack (1973) and Foxy Brown (1984). Yet his legacy is much greater. Outside of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson, Hutch was arguably Motown's top male solo artist of the '70s. Prior to his association with Gordy et al, Hutch crafted his opening statements for RCA, two vital LPs. His debut, Soul Portrait (1969), is an incredible slice of gritty, Southern-fried soul. Think Stax with a touch of Detroit sparkle. As a whole, the album demonstrates the self-contained act Hutch was; he wrote every tune on the album while also arranging and conducting for it. The album's centerpiece is undoubtedly the iconic, brooding minor-key masterpiece "A Love That's Worth Having". The album's most recognizable track, it's a towering ballad drenched in stylish, sliding horns, and elevated by its stunning backing vocalists. It was famously sampled by Madlib to augment his soundtrack for Stones Throw's Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (2013) as well as 9th Wonder for the Murs classic "Dreamchaser". Horn-heavy opener "Ain't Gonna Stop" is a funk-fueled monster, Hutch's fatback vocal aided by a vicious drum 'n' conga rhythm whilst the bumping uptown soul of "You Can't Miss Something That You Never Had" anticipates the Motown-vibe that Hutch went on to create. Supple guitar licks propel the loping, head-nod breaks of "Good To The Last Drop" whilst "That's What I Call Lovin' You" features gospel piano and plaintive, tender vocal turn. The blazing horns of "You Gotta Try" hints at the Blaxploitation that was to come. The thundering proto-70s-Motown rhythm of "Let Me Give You The Love You Need" segues neatly into the bouncing Northern soul favorite "Lucky To Be Loved By You" whilst Hutch's gutbucket guitar stylings are all over the smoldering "Keep On Doin' What You Do". "Your Love Keeps Liftin' Me Higher" is not a rendition of the Jackie Wilson classic; rather, it's a powerhouse original that indicates where Hutch would take his sound on The Mack. Closing the album, the anthemic "Do What You Wanna Do" name-checks contemporary dance fads before instructing the listener to just get up and dance. Brilliantly supported by a heavy roster of studio cats who combined to create a winning combination of horns, strings, and gorgeous female background vocalists, Soul Portrait is as complete a soul album as the decade's very best.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BEWITH 019LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of Willie Hutch's Season For Love, originally released in 1970. A monumental force firmly rooted in the soul canon, Willie Hutch is most notable for recording two of the best Blaxploitation soundtracks, The Mack and Foxy Brown. Yet his legacy is much greater. Outside of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, Hutch was arguably Motown's top male solo artist of the '70s. Prior to his association with Gordy et al, Hutch crafted his opening statements for RCA, two vital LPs. Often-overlooked, his second album Season For Love is a must for all deep soul fans and has been sought-after by collectors of different stripes for decades. Whereas his debut featured thundering, gritty numbers, Hutch treats you to a mellower soul here -- sumptuous, warm and string-led. He compared his approach to that of Otis Redding and there are definite parallels; from the raspy, rough-hewn vocals that tend to roam between sweet and deeply impassioned to the horn-heavy, emphatic sonic backdrops. With flawless originals presented alongside a few well-chosen classics (his stunning cover of "Wichita Lineman" arguably bests the original's splendor), it's easy to see why sample-based musicians have been falling over themselves to plunder from this album. Witness the sweeping strings that grace "The Magic Of Love" and the heartbreaking "Walking On My Love"; the mellifluous guitar work on the contemplative instrumental "The Shortest Distance" and gorgeous single "When A Boy Falls In Love". Whilst the arrangements and playing are subtly jaw-dropping throughout, Hutch's uncontrived voice has a certain warmth to match a Nat "King" Cole and a purity of tone that even recalls the great Sam Cooke. Indeed, a few numbers are almost in a jazz vocal territory reminiscent of artists Lou Rawls. That's not to say that others lack the righteous energy and undeniable groove of Willie's later sound. Remarkably consistent throughout -- a rare commodity for many '70s soul albums -- the lack of one signature song likely hindered its progress. Mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis. Original artwork. 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BNSD 072LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

As Beacon Sound enters its tenth year as a label, the label's first release of 2023, by Cincinnati-based composer Tristan Eckerson, represents a change of palette for both label and artist, and a blissfully meditative one at that. Journey Test is Eckerson's first album under the moniker Purple Decades and his first foray into immersive ambient music. While Tristan's past work has focused largely on solo piano, his Purple Decades project is an exploration into soundscapes, electronic textures, and immersive musical environments. While many tracks on the album still feature piano or keyboards in some form, the compositional approach is accompanied by extensive work with reverb, foley, and orchestral electronic arrangements, and some tracks have eschewed the piano completely, opting instead for immersive and texturally rich auditory journeys. Each of the eight songs on Journey Test convey a sense of serene movement and cinematic scale, conjuring the horizon line of landscapes both distant and internal, a wordless dialectic between contentment and nostalgia. Tracks like the piano-driven "Kagami" and the slow-building title track (whose crescendo brings to mind Sigur Ros) emphasize beguiling and cyclical melodies while "Pathway" leavens the mood with a glacial sweep, all the while drinking from the same sense of wonder and openness that pervades the entire album. By the time "A Strange Dream" comes along to pull the curtain closed, the listener may be nagged by the sensation that something has been lost as well as gained along the way, that perhaps you've been leaning into the dying of the light all along -- a strange dream indeed, one that never turns dour as it weaves its tale of light and shadow. In the artist's own words: "After many years of writing nothing but music for solo piano, I was ready for something new when I began the process of creating Journey Test. I wanted to take the same vibe and overall aesthetic that I had created with my solo piano work, but really strip down the compositional approach into something that focused on the sound itself. Basically, bringing the background to the forefront. And instead of traditional instruments, I wanted to use electronic sounds, but still in a way that it sounded very organic, almost to the point where you didn't know if you were listening to an orchestra or a bunch of synthesizers. I didn't use a lot of different electronic instruments for the album, but rather I focused on what each instrument could bring to the table in terms of texture, noise, organic sounds, and subtle details..." RIYL: A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Helios, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jon Hopkins, Oneohtrix Point Never.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BFMB 066LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. Booka Shade reveal their ninth studio album with the arrival of Dear Future Self on Blaufield Music. Leaders, purveyors, and pioneers within the emotive, melodic realms of house and techno, German duo Booka Shade have remained at the forefront of the scene for over 25 years. Following the long-player Cut The Strings in 2018, the iconic duo deliver their latest extended body of work as they unveil the thirteen-track Dear Future Self on home turf -- a project which welcomes an emphasis on club-ready sounds. Recorded across the globe as the band continually tour the worldwide circuit, the album takes in recorded sessions from New Zealand to their home city of Berlin, and features collaborations with artists from Iceland, South Africa, England, and Germany to deliver a collection of dancefloor-focused cuts that capture the band's current club output. Title cut and opener "Dear Future Self" alongside South African spoken word artist Lazarusman and the bubbling "Red Medina" provide early examples of this ethos, with both tracks featuring previously on the label but equally finding their place within the project with ease, a nod to their approach within their ever-evolving live sets. "Polar Lights" featuring fellow Berlin based artist Joplyn and "Perfect In A Way" with Icelandic vocalist Kaktus Einarsson combine smooth vocal melodies with darker synths to balance light and dark to offer some trademark Booka Shade soundscapes, whilst previously released tracks such as "Sacred", "I Go, I Go", and "Torch" undergo slick re-worked interpretations, with the resulting productions providing a fresh take for the new decade. "Acid Brain" and "Rigera" up the energy via sweeping leads and crisp percussion, whilst "To The Sea" featuring Eli & Fur provides yet another dynamic as slow blooming melodies and organic percussion go to work alongside further infectious vocal work. "Plexus 3AM" offers up playful tones backed by more menacing and hypnotic bass licks, whilst "NZ Modular" takes cues from its title as off-kilter analog synths go to work amongst crunchy drums and sweeping atmospherics, before closing proceedings with "Atlantic Beam". A body of work showcasing the duo's ever-evolving and forever refining palette, Dear Future Self delivers an experience that looks set to become a must-have for fans of the band, new and old, and continues their ongoing status as one of the most celebrated acts within electronic music. 180 gram vinyl; gatefold.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: BPX 019EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Nocow is back on BPitch Control with a multi-faceted EP full of rousing energy and scintillating sonics. Across four delightful cuts he explores a range of moods and styles, all equipped with the power to move the dancefloor, physically and emotionally. "Noski" has a Detroit "jit" kinda vibe to it, with its clipped hip-hop samples and repetitive claps. Though the atmosphere evokes an air of mystery, with an unnerving riff. This is followed by "Pose", a gnarly juggernaut of a track featuring a pulsating b-line and breathless vocal clips, which add a human element. Retro synths lines take us back a couple of decades, adding an energizing layer of dancefloor nourishment. Then you have "Space 1999", which, as the title suggests, evokes a very cosmic feel... slightly reminiscent of Jeff Mills. Nocow's musicianship really shines through on this cut, with expertly balanced light and dark elements creating an immersive atmosphere. Finally, the title track, "Youth", invites us to bounce around in the playground for a while. A mesmerizing riff enchants the mind, while the beats tantalize the body. With the addition of soothing pads, this one is bound to invoke a multitude of out of body experiences...

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BPX 022-4LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Ellen Allien and the We Are Not Alone collective are back with a second edition of the We Are Not Alone series. A 36-track compilation split into three parts, each consisting of 12 cuts, dedicated to the infamous We Are Not Alone event series and the best of Berlin's underground techno talent. Ellen Allien's innovative party series We Are Not Alone was launched in 2016 and remains committed to inviting an exciting crew of artists to perform at the 36-hour events, now in a new home at RSO.BERLIN, where they returned with bang over 36 hours and three floors in May. The We Are Not Alone compilation features artists that have played at the parties, as well as those who will join the line-up for future events. The fourth, fifth (BPX 022-5LP), and sixth (BPX 022-6LP) parts include music by Ellen and established names. Part 4 features Reka, SDBX, Ellen Allien, Francois X, Wallis, Thomas P Heckmann, Crystal Geometry, Matasism, Asec, Uncrat, Karl Kave, and Dollkraut & DJ Europarking.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BPX 022-5LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Ellen Allien and the We Are Not Alone collective are back with a second edition of the We Are Not Alone series. A 36-track compilation split into three parts, each consisting of 12 cuts, dedicated to the infamous We Are Not Alone event series and the best of Berlin's underground techno talent. Ellen Allien's innovative party series We Are Not Alone was launched in 2016 and remains committed to inviting an exciting crew of artists to perform at the 36-hour events, now in a new home at RSO.BERLIN, where they returned with bang over 36 hours and three floors in May. The We Are Not Alone compilation features artists that have played at the parties, as well as those who will join the line-up for future events. The fourth (BPX 022-4LP), fifth, and sixth (BPX 022-6LP) parts include music by Ellen and established names. Part 5 features Julian Muller, L.F.T., DJ Mell G, Brutalismus 3000, Phase Fatale, UR Trax, UFO95, Gotshell, False Witness, Callum Magnum, Einsiedler, and Stephanie Sykes.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BPX 022-6LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Ellen Allien and the We Are Not Alone collective are back with a second edition of the We Are Not Alone series. A 36-track compilation split into three parts, each consisting of 12 cuts, dedicated to the infamous We Are Not Alone event series and the best of Berlin's underground techno talent. Ellen Allien's innovative party series We Are Not Alone was launched in 2016 and remains committed to inviting an exciting crew of artists to perform at the 36-hour events, now in a new home at RSO.BERLIN, where they returned with bang over 36 hours and three floors in May. The We Are Not Alone compilation features artists that have played at the parties, as well as those who will join the line-up for future events. The fourth (BPX 022-4LP), fifth (BPX 022-5LP), and sixth parts include music by Ellen and established names. Part 6 features Lokier, Etapp Kyle, AnD, Imchaos, Blush Response, Shaleen, Nur Jaber, Nene H, Denise Rabe, Deepneue, Metaraph, and Rosa Anschuetz.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: BPX 023EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Frenchman Crystal Geometry arrives on BPitch with his first full EP Promised Lands. After debuting on BPitch's We Are Not Alone compilation, Frenchman Crystal Geometry arrives with his first full EP for the label. Showcasing his diversity across four distinct cuts, this is Crystal Geometry in playful and experimental mode, utilizing his modular synth skills to bring you a powerful selection of tracks. "Everlasting Ghost of an Acid Trip" is a self-explanatory cut that dives deep into themes around death and LSD. With lyrics inspired by the early Norwegian black metal scene, he goes all out with the 303 line and hardcore-inspired beats. "Alien Abduction" was made especially for BPitch, the modular synth taking center stage as '80s percussion and washed-out vocals do the work. "Drink My Blood" is one for the hardcore goths, allowing Crystal Geometry to express the depths of his dark soul. The lyrics say it all, "Drink, drink my blood! It's dark, like my soul. Feed! Feed on me, don't waste a drop of that gold." Finally, "The Promised Land?" addresses the dire situation in the Middle East, redefining the so-called Holy Land. The melancholy atmosphere is potent, reinforced by somber choir vocals and the trusty 303.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BPX 026LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Dillon's fourth LP, 6abotage, captures today's zeitgeist like few others. A work of sore desperation but also reassuring devotion. Her fourth, and perhaps boldest, album project, 6abotage, marks Dillon's first full-length since 2017's Kind. Described by Dillon herself as "a love letter, a cry for help and a consequence, all in one," 6abotage is the unapologetic manifestation of Dillon's latest artistic excursion with artist and producer Alexis Troy. Together Dillon and Troy have created a lyrically and sonically captivating and genre-bending body of work. The unmistakable soreness of Dillon's voice surrounded by and embedded within Troy's decisive and, at times, almost cinematic production defeats all genre stereotypes. Written, produced, and recorded in complete isolation, 6abotage reflects today's zeitgeist. It is sore and desperate but also reassuring and devoted. 6abotage is a successful protest. A successful protest against stereotypes and preconceptions. A protest against excessive suffering. A protest for selflove. A protest for patience and vulnerability. A protest for forgiveness and growth.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: BUBBLES 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Bestselling second album from 2009 with eleven songs recorded in Mexico, no overdubs, no effects. Rules followed the successful debut album Dreams from 2006. The song "1517" was used in the video game FIFA 10.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 026LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; LP version. Formed in Germany in 1971 when Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius left Conrad Schnitzler's group Kluster, Cluster can be counted among the most important protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, while to others they are firmly embedded in the Krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Although Cluster and "rock music" are seldom mentioned in the same breath, their early works in particular are marked by a lack of structure and futuristic, cold soundscapes typical of the Krautrock variation known as "kosmische." Recorded and released in 1979, Grosses Wasser was Cluster's fifth album as a duo. The cover art is the first indication of minimalist tendencies, reflecting the concentration, transparency and maturity of the content, almost like chamber music. While nothing is left to chance, each of the six Cluster pieces effervesces with a certain joie de vivre, providing ample scope for artistic spontaneity. Grosses Wasser was recorded at Paragon Studio, which had been set up by Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream) not long before. Baumann had set aside plenty of time for the recording sessions, enabling Cluster to experiment with sequencers for the first time and explore some of the most up-to-date (for that period) studio gadgets on offer. Moebius and Roedelius made intelligent, measured use of the latest paraphernalia without being overwhelmed by it. New technology was deployed with an exactness designed to refine their sophisticated and fully-developed musical ideas. More than ever before in Cluster's history, acoustic elements can be heard, with the dulcet tones of Paragon's Steinway grand piano taking center stage. Electric bass, guitar, percussion and voice are all embraced. Consequently, Grosses Wasser is anything but a solely electronic album. It is, however, one of those rare LPs whose musical substance transcends its age, never sounding outdated. Grosses Wasser is the first in a series of 23 albums to be reissued by Bureau B, comprehensively documenting the superb electronic/ambient/Krautrock history of the Hamburg label, Sky Records, from whom the material has been licensed. Cluster (in their various guises) will feature heavily in the series (solo albums as well as collaborations with Brian Eno, Conny Plank, Gerd Beerbohm, Mani Neumeier, etc.). Printed inner sleeve includes liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 398CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

With Leave Me Alone, Detlef Weinrich presents his fifth album under the moniker Tolouse Low Trax. Weinrich, who has meanwhile turned his back on Düsseldorf and lives in Paris, has long since ceased to be an insider tip and is a guest in renowned clubs and festivals all over Europe. With his new album, he succeeds in an exciting, unforeseen new direction. The velvety heaviness and rawness of earlier records seems to have given way to a new playfulness. A playfulness perhaps in the sense of an electronica reminiscent of the late 1990s, which in its idea of deconstruction and reduction is currently enjoying a new appreciation in the clubs. But also, in the sense of an urban vibe of hip-hop and dub references, which are woven into a very unique mix in Weinrich's tracks."Nervous mechanical murmurs, drifting comic-like through razor-sharp rhythm cliffs: welcome to Leave Me Alone, a loop meta-level dreamland of styles and mental meteorology. A repetitive notion on the overwhelming speechlessness towards the world, its clocking, and all the despairs that come along with it. Wholly veiled in a sharp sonorous language, that brings a complete agreement of the expression with the idea, a sense of harmony, of a secret beauty, that often escapes the judgment of the crowd. It marks the latest long player by Tolouse Low Trax. After his stunning collaboration with French singer and hurdy gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrenin and myriad remixes for artists like Aksak Maboul, Ex Ponto, or Sebastian Tellier, he sharpened his artistic skills for a fresh musical treasure hunt. Leave Me Alone is a renunciation from the industrial slow drone zones, waving into spectacular deconstructed style collages. 13 veiled drum machine experiments, featuring dubby jazz districts, hip-hop flair, haunting little melodies, and the TLT signature funk . . . For a wonder, this time almost no pocketed vocal samples in the TLT creations. Instead, freshly recorded spoken words and singing by Brooklyn based producer Chris Hontos aka Beat Detectives, poet and multidisciplinary artist Fran from Paris, and Italian synthesist and singer Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist, chanting introspective verses and Pier Paolo Pasolini poems over rugged grooves and suggestive sounds, opening his creative universe into a crisp manic eroticism. A cluster of genres, dancing in a rebellious, blistering swing, whirling styles upside down with an overall atmosphere that is flourishing on a positive spirit..." --Michael Leuffen

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 398LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. With Leave Me Alone, Detlef Weinrich presents his fifth album under the moniker Tolouse Low Trax. Weinrich, who has meanwhile turned his back on Düsseldorf and lives in Paris, has long since ceased to be an insider tip and is a guest in renowned clubs and festivals all over Europe. With his new album, he succeeds in an exciting, unforeseen new direction. The velvety heaviness and rawness of earlier records seems to have given way to a new playfulness. A playfulness perhaps in the sense of an electronica reminiscent of the late 1990s, which in its idea of deconstruction and reduction is currently enjoying a new appreciation in the clubs. But also, in the sense of an urban vibe of hip-hop and dub references, which are woven into a very unique mix in Weinrich's tracks."Nervous mechanical murmurs, drifting comic-like through razor-sharp rhythm cliffs: welcome to Leave Me Alone, a loop meta-level dreamland of styles and mental meteorology. A repetitive notion on the overwhelming speechlessness towards the world, its clocking, and all the despairs that come along with it. Wholly veiled in a sharp sonorous language, that brings a complete agreement of the expression with the idea, a sense of harmony, of a secret beauty, that often escapes the judgment of the crowd. It marks the latest long player by Tolouse Low Trax. After his stunning collaboration with French singer and hurdy gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrenin and myriad remixes for artists like Aksak Maboul, Ex Ponto, or Sebastian Tellier, he sharpened his artistic skills for a fresh musical treasure hunt. Leave Me Alone is a renunciation from the industrial slow drone zones, waving into spectacular deconstructed style collages. 13 veiled drum machine experiments, featuring dubby jazz districts, hip-hop flair, haunting little melodies, and the TLT signature funk . . . For a wonder, this time almost no pocketed vocal samples in the TLT creations. Instead, freshly recorded spoken words and singing by Brooklyn based producer Chris Hontos aka Beat Detectives, poet and multidisciplinary artist Fran from Paris, and Italian synthesist and singer Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist, chanting introspective verses and Pier Paolo Pasolini poems over rugged grooves and suggestive sounds, opening his creative universe into a crisp manic eroticism. A cluster of genres, dancing in a rebellious, blistering swing, whirling styles upside down with an overall atmosphere that is flourishing on a positive spirit..." --Michael Leuffen

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 869LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"1980 reggae album reissued on vinyl. Produced by Phil Pratt at Channel One and featuring Sly and Robbie, Tommy McCook, Ansell Collins, and more."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: CPT 588LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Born and raised under the sun of Provence, Arno E. Mathieu spent most of his time riding his grandfather's old motorcycle in the hills, listening to the most psychedelic Doors songs, and eating his grandmother's traditional eggplant and tomato Mediterranean dishes. He starts a new project called Contemplation, totally dedicated to his lifestyle and to the landscapes and environment that make it possible. A tribute to the "sublime" of nature and the moments that creates. Surrounded by his parent's jazz records, young Arno watch classic sci-fi movies like Blade Runner or Star Wars, and the Italian western, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, getting lot of influences from Vangelis or Morricone soundtracks, and developing a special taste for epic music and stories, and romantic characters. Around 17 years old, Arno gets a real interest for electronic music through his elder brother's mixtapes of Laurent Garnier, Saint-Germain's house music, then Nuyorican Soul album and Masters At Work club tunes. He buys two turntables and vinyl, and quickly organizes his first parties and club events with his brother. In 2000, straight out from his daily MPC sessions, Arno E. Mathieu releases his track "Call It Jungle Jazz" as Matt'Samo, for a Yellow Production project called Africanism. He then moved to the French capital where he spent lot of time exploring club scene and witnessing studio sessions of his new friend DJ Gregory, who introduces him to Parisian house music leaders like, Julien Jabre, Next Evidence, and DJ Deep. In 2005, Arno E. Mathieu creates his own Clima Records label. Since his first release on Clima, Arno's music finds supports from many leaders of the underground scene such as François K, DJ Harvey, Jeff Mills, Dixon, or Laurent Garnier, and are getting a special attention from Joe Claussell. Arno E. Mathieu has also produced tracks and remixes for labels such as Deeply Rooted, Real Tone, Yoruba, Tribe, Compost, and has released a first album in 2018 called Circumstances Of Chaos, also appreciated by the underground scene. After many years going back and forth between Paris and his beloved Provence, Arno has finally got back home in the south, and made a last move for a real Mediterranean lifestyle, cooking fig jam, growing tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplants, and finds the right balance for his creative process.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: CPT 602EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Kenny Dixon Jr. acuminates it deep and groovy, well, it's his holy trademark sound. Potatohead People from Vancouver have releases on Jellyfish Recordings and NY label Bastard Jazz. On top Moodorama's remixes are trippy dubby jams. Inkswel & Colonel Red started out writing together more than decade ago and over the time have developed quite a unique sound when recording together... a chemistry that blends music melody and lyric into every verse chorus and hook. So, when Inkswel approached Colonel Red to create the Holders of the Sun album (CPT 601LP), Redz response was to move his hectic schedule around and start immediately. Inkswel dropped the beats Colonel Red dropped the vocals and some fine musical tuning and Holders of the Sun Vol. 1 was born... while they promise a Vol. 2. Colonel Red is a groundbreaking soul singer, musician, producer and performer, often referred to as one of the most powerful voices in the UK soul music community, a champion in equal parts of the original broken beat scene, as well as the UK soul scene. Working with and writing for the likes of Teddy Pendergrass, Amp Fiddler, Maurice White, Bugz In The Attic, Tony Allen, and countless others. His track "Belive In Me" was awarded the "worldwide" award from Gilles Peterson in 2014. Colonel Red's foray into the music industry began when Epic Record company giant Sylvia Rhone signed the then lead singer, Nikki Romillie, of Pride n' Politix, to Atlantic Records. An accompanying publishing deal with Warner Bros. established the artiste, now known as Colonel Red, as one of the UK's top cutting-edge singer/songwriters. Inkswel has been heralded as one of the busiest and most prolific beat-based producers from Australia, a true master of his craft he has worked with the likes of Talib Kweli, Lee Scratch Perry, Andrew Ashong, Dwight Trible, Amp Fiddler, and countless others as well as putting out timeless musical projects on labels such as BBE, Sonar Kollekiv, Rush Hour, Warner Music, Boogie Angst and others. He hovers evenly between hip-hop and club sensibilities, blending new age approaches with nostalgic leans. Holders of The Sun is the audio melting pot of two musical aliens, future directive soul music drenched in the nostalgia of what once was. Remixes by Moodymann, Potatohead People, and Moodorama.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: CPT 604LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Ströme's long-player debut Ströme Nr. 2 is a characterful, wonderfully warm and sensitive yet powerful body of work. It's loaded with the ultra-rare and cult Moog IIIp modular synthesizer sound and features other analog synths almost equipoised live-, or session-like with the modular system A100 by Doepfer. The A100 is Ströme's main live equipment. An album that fulfills all your dance needs, lets you relax to ambient spacey tracks, as well as serves pop and a booster dose of '60s/70s injected krauty songs. For the latter, Ströme (Mario Schönhofer and Tobias Weber) have hit pure gold here, as they team up with Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand for "Right Now", "Das Modul", and the beautiful "Stadlberg". Nick was born in Lancashire, England in 1974, but moved to Bad Aibling, Germany in 1977 because of the "sad and bad economic situation in England," says Nick. Then he studied upright bass, piano and composition at the Richard Strauss Conservatoire in Munich, joined the krautrock band Embryo during his studies, and he played bass for the art school band Kamerakino. Then he moved to Glasgow in 2001 and was a founding member of Franz Ferdinand, which had a worldwide hit with "Take Me Out" (written by Nick and Alex Kapranos), from their Mercury prize winning and Grammy nominated debut album, they toured several times around the globe and recorded four albums. He is also a member of Box Codax, Manuela, The Nix. Nick accidentally met Mario and Tobias at his London studio: Sausage Studio... with the machines. Nowadays, Nick is back in Munich working in a studio complex with Ströme. Before Mario Schönhofer (bass player) and Tobias Weber (drummer/percussionist) founded Ströme in 2015, they were members of the very popular brass band LaBrassBanda. Ströme are a unique act, performing live with analog modular synthesizer systems, as well as the Cirklon sequencer, Emulator 2, and Mini Moog. Their music is in the vein of raw analog techno, electro, synth-pop, while the sound identity is reminiscent and has ingredients of the early krautrock and synthesizer music scene from the late '60s like Popul Vuh, Amon Düül, Tangerine Dream, Embryo, Guru Guru, Cluster, Eberhard Schoener, Kraftwerk, and onwards to the more experimental analog techno live outfits of the '90s (Sähkö, Panasonic, Air Liquide, etc.)

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: CPT 605LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Gatefold. Includes download. Felix Laband's The Soft White Hand is the masterwork of an artist who expresses himself through musical and artistic collage acting together to reinterpret his sources and to express significant elements of his own personal story. Released by Munich-based Compost Records, the 14-track album is Laband's first full-length offering since the critically acclaimed Deaf Safari in 2015 (COMP 470CD/LP). In The Soft White Hand, Laband works with source materials that will be familiar to those who know his previous four records. However, the disengagement he felt from his homeland during his latest album's creation -- an abiding sense of untethered-ness to place and space, exquisitely rendered in tracks like "Death of a Migrant" -- is perceptible in Laband's desire to illuminate instead aspects of his own life. Few artists have managed to air these intimate aspects of their life so luminously as Laband does in tracks like "5 Seconds Ago", "They Call Me Shorty", and in the strange and meditative "Dreams Of Loneliness". Yet, as in all of Laband's recorded output, the delineations between emotions are never starkly drawn and The Soft White Hand is also shot through with beauty. Nature appears in recordings made in his garden in the intimate early morning hours, whether as in the calls of the Hadada Ibis and other birdsong in "Prelude" or of the vertical-tail-cocking bird in "Derek And Me". The last is a wonderful track with Derek Gripper, the South African experimental classical guitarist of international renown, whose 2020 song "Fanta And Felix" imagines a meeting between Fanta Sacko and Laband. Laband's eloquence in reinterpreting classical composers such as Beethoven in "We Know Major Tom's A Junkie" is another thrilling aspect of the new record. A fresh quality comes to his work through this sonic adventuring: the tender manipulation of the mundaneness of the computer's AI voice to reimagine and reinvent iconic lyrics and melodies in strange and unexpected configurations. The Soft White Hand is Laband's most cohesive body of work to date. Yet it remains, in its sheer artistic scope, impossible to describe fully. Darkness abuts the gossamer light. His music reflects a primal artistic impulse that is also visible in Laband's considerable visual art output as seen in several solo exhibitions. With The Soft White Hand, Laband is confirming his singular ability to achieve this in both art and music, melting the divisions between the two creative disciplines until they become one.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: CPT 610EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Beanfield's mega classic re-release in a double 12" pack with old and new remixes by Toto Chiavetta and Art Department and a new Beanfield track. "Tides" was originally released in 2004 and evolved into an all-time club anthem by means of Carl Craig's huge remix (C's Movement #1), followed-up by the stunning Ripperton remix.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: DECCA 4769494LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2016 release. "The Hateful Eight is the soundtrack album to Quentin Tarantino's motion picture The Hateful Eight. The soundtrack includes the first complete original score for a Tarantino film and is composed, orchestrated and conducted by Ennio Morricone. Morricone composed 50 minutes of original music for The Hateful Eight. The Hateful Eight was the composer's first score for a Western film since Buddy Goes West (1981) and the first for a Hollywood production since Ripley's Game (2002). The score features notable horror references including Morricone's repurposed score from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and 'Regan's Theme' from The Exorcist II, which serve the sinister mood."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: FTR 654LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Spiral Joy Band are one of the descendants of Richmond VA's legendary musical juggernaut, Pelt. Active and mutating for nearly 20 years, the iteration of the Spiral Joy Band who recorded this session in Madison Wisconsin in 2011 was a trio. Troy Schafer, Patrick Best and Mikel Dimmick play an array of instruments -- violin, viola, harmonium -- to produce lush tapestries of the multiphonic drones for which they are known. I remember Pelt getting called 'The Hillbilly Theatre of Eternal Music' at the '98 Terrastock Festival in San Francisco. And indeed, that was a definite part of Pelt's sound at that point in their evolution. But since 2004, Spiral Joy Band have focused on and explored that particular niche with firm resolve. All versions of the group have reveled in the use of acoustic instruments to create tones to saturate the air with colors, while avoiding the technical shortcuts offered by electronics. The two sidelong pieces on In the River, reportedly inspired by Ka Baird (from Spires That in the Sunset Rise) and the Minneapolis string genius, Paul Metzger, are open-ended musical discussions about the existence of infinity, and how portions of infinite space might be corralled in ways that suggest continuously expanding horizons. Both the pieces are exquisite and function equally well as Furniture Music (as defined by Eric Satie) or active meditation fields, unveiling endless spools of drone in which a listener can wallow deeply. The closer you listen, the more you'll be able to hear. But even as a 'mere' soundtrack to the day, In the River offers the kind of textural beauty that makes everything feel better. Spiral Joy Band are sonic explorers dedicated to very specific corner of the universe, but it's one that contains the sort of magical powers we all need more than ever. If I were a doctor. I'd prescribe a daily dose of their music as an antidote to the rigors of reality as we know it. As Pink Floyd once suggested, 'Take Up Thy Stethscope and Walk.' Words to live by, eh?" --Byron Coley, 2022 Edition of 450.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 700LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Human Hand live combo comprises Joe Hollick (Wolf People, Jagjaguwar Records, solo), Karl Eden (John Peel favorites tRANSELEMENt), and Jonathan Dickin (MUMS, Honey Spider, Bleak). Joe and Karl met at an Acid Mothers Temple show in 2012 before realizing they both lived minutes away from each other in neighboring sleepy Lancashire Pennine villages. They performed a number of shows together as a wig-out loose improv duo channeling heavy motorik grooves, Anatolian suffused lead lines, a general layer of Northern skuzz tied together with Joe's signature guitar work. Early HH recordings were juxtaposed by being captured at extremely low volume due to necessity as the only available opportunity was to work on material late at night to avoid waking their young children. Human Hand were augmented and given a live makeover by the addition of Jonny on drums, a former student of Karl's and all round music and literary geek. The trio recorded their debut LP Tremor in a hasty eight-hour session. Tremor is the debut album from Human Hand: a core-trio and broader collective based in the shadow of Pendle Hill, Lancashire, UK. Recorded during two days of post-lockdown cathartic noise. Tremor was created using instant composition, 4 track tape manipulation and immediate overdubs. Personnel: Karl Eden - guitars, monosynth, drums; Joe Hollick - guitars, tape effects, percussion; Johnathan Dickin - drums; Andrew Hargreaves - drums.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 706LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Twelve years after this French trio's last LP (the mind-ripping Manifesto Zero), guitarist Gregory (GR) Raimo, bassist Matthieu Canaguier and drummer Antoine Hadjioannou have released an album of material recorded back in 2012 (from the sessions as the Massacre-Rock Deviant Inquisitors EP). And it is another wild brew of destructo rock madness played with a timeless ferocity that lends it the sort of proto-punk MASS that defies its actual date of creation. GR has released other nutsloid records in the interim -- The GR Record Head (Cardinal Fuzz) and the mysterious Electric Rockin' Chair LP by Hôpital De La Conception -- but there's a special, uniquely strange grit to the way the Gunslingers put together their material. Parts of Supreme Asphalt Doser have a tightly wound dynamism that makes me imagine what the Groundhogs might've sounded like if they'd been founded by three speed freaks in Detroit in 1974. It's like the most insane power choogling you've ever heard. One spin of the first side would have sent Lester Bangs straight to hog heaven. The flip is equally messed-up, but with more experimental detailing. The component pieces are still, thick raw slabs of blood-rock, but they're assembled in a way that is pure freakery. 'Be-Bop-A-Lula-Louie-Loua' is like something Rudolph Grey and Von LMO might have come up with if they'd had a sense of humor back in the Red Transistor days. And the collage piece, 'Rebop From Arthur Lipsett's Fluxes,' is a great collision between avant-garde techniques and the band's Brutalist tendencies. I doubt here will ever be another combo quite like the Gunslingers, so everyone should thank their lucky goddamn stars this archival treasure was pulled out of the darkness. It is indeed the Supreme Asphalt Doser. I don't think any other Asphalt Doser even gets close." --Byron Coley, 2022

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: GET 51471LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

New lower pricing. "The return!!! After a nine-year hiatus from recording studio albums, Miles Davis returned in 1981 with a bang. Continuing the abstract improvisational funk pioneered by the Miles Davis live electric band, Miles came back with a fresh cast. While there are plenty of new players on this recording it captures the moody long-song format from the mid-70s live electric band. The album features R&B legend Marcus Miller on bass, Mike Stern on guitar, electric band alumni Al Foster on drums, and many more. Produced and edited by long term Miles Davis collaborator Teo Macero. Pressed on crystal clear vinyl with Japanese stylized insert and deluxe obi strip. Remastered from the original analog tapes."

 

PRICE: $106.50

CAT #: GODREC 050X-LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

Limited restock; 6LP box with black cover. Excerpt from liner notes by Sebastian Claren: "When Morton Feldman wrote his second string quartet -- or String Quartet II, as he titled it in the score -- in 1983, he found himself at the height of his career: prior to this, his long form compositions, of which the majority lasted around one and a half hours, had not isolated him or let him disappear from concert and festival programming, as he had expected, but were on the contrary celebrated as a major 'breakthrough' and a big 'step forward' . . . Like the long pieces that preceded it, Feldman's String Quartet II consists of repeated patterns, which usually surface at a certain point in the composition without preparation, are maintained over a given period, and then abruptly abort to possibly return later. In this context, Feldman has always emphasized the interplay of 'reiteration' and 'change' in his music -- two aspects that in his mind had been decisive criteria of the music of the twentieth century as 'repetition' and 'variation' (Stravinsky and Schoenberg). He even claimed Schoenberg's concept of 'developing variation' for his composition technique..." Live Recording! 317 minutes over six LPs. Personnel: Morton Feldman - composition; Pellegrini Quartet: Antonio Pellegrini - violin; Thomas Hofer - violin; Fabio Marano - viola; Helmut Menzler - violoncello.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: GODREC 060CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. 2021 release. We Forge The Future is a document of a Laibach show, held in Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, on November 26th, 2017. For this museum occasion, Laibach re-enacted the historic performance that was initially staged on April 23rd, 1983, as part of the XII Music Biennale Zagreb in Croatia -- then still a part of Yugoslavian federation. The performance caused furious public/media campaign against the group, whose result was a formal ban on Laibach in Slovenia and Yugoslavia, that lasted until 1987. Musically, the record documents Laibach revisiting their noise/industrial roots, including their famous pieces of that period, such as "Smrt za Smrt", "Boji", and the title song...

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: GODREC 070CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

This new Laibach album, through a new/fresh interpretation, examines the conflict-ridden genesis of the band's formation in the industrial town of Trbovlje in 1980 and questions the band's aesthetic, sonic, and ideological roots from the distance of time. Includes 16-page booklet.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: GBVI 117CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SUBURBIA 028LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue. Originally issued on Thirteen Records from Sao Paulo in 1997, Back To Basics is the second album by Rio De Janeiro punk legends Carbona. Widely considered the peak of the whole Ramones-core made in Brazil movement, this groundbreaking album is released on vinyl for the first time ever. Features one bonus track and includes double-sided lyrics insert. White vinyl.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: ITR 368CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: ITR 369CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Hard-hitting new collection succeeds the trio's rampaging 2019 In The Red Debut EP Death Buy! Proving once again that 'power trio' isn't just a descriptive handle from the distant past but a louder-than-God 21st-Century reality, the devastating New York band Skull Practitioners bow Negative Stars, their first full-length album for In The Red Records. The eight-track collection is the second release for Los Angeles-based trio -- guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Kenneth Levine, and drummer Alex Baker -- who collectively produced the record, with Ted Young engineering (and Baker handling engineering on vocal sessions). Brooklyn Vegan said, 'If you dig early '80s L.A. dusty punk like Gun Club, X and Flesh Eaters, or the many works of Jon Spencer, you will want to check out these four ripping, ripped-up tracks.' Rock And Roll Globe described the music as 'Gun Club fugues played by anxious Amphetamine Reptile Records ghosts deciding they'd prefer to continue to walk the earth.' Negative Stars is the culmination of years of work in New York's clubs and studios. 'I don't like to say the date we started working together,' says Levine, 'but the second Bush was still president.' At the time, Victor had already established himself as the dazzling co-lead guitarist for Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three; when Wynn revived his '80s L.A. Paisley Underground consortium the Dream Syndicate in 2017, Victor took the guitar chair previously occupied by Karl Precoda and Paul Cutler. Baker had only recently arrived from Cincinnati. With their album finally complete and the pandemic lifting, Skull Practitioners have begun to take to the stage more regularly: in 2022 they have played shows with Lydia Lunch, Live Skull, the Art Gray Noizz Quintet, and In the Red label-mates the Wolfmanhattan Project (Kid Congo Powers, Mick Collins, and Bob Bert). They plan to get on the road in the near future."

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: ITR 369LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Hard-hitting new collection succeeds the trio's rampaging 2019 In The Red Debut EP Death Buy! Proving once again that 'power trio' isn't just a descriptive handle from the distant past but a louder-than-God 21st-Century reality, the devastating New York band Skull Practitioners bow Negative Stars, their first full-length album for In The Red Records. The eight-track collection is the second release for Los Angeles-based trio -- guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Kenneth Levine, and drummer Alex Baker -- who collectively produced the record, with Ted Young engineering (and Baker handling engineering on vocal sessions). Brooklyn Vegan said, 'If you dig early '80s L.A. dusty punk like Gun Club, X and Flesh Eaters, or the many works of Jon Spencer, you will want to check out these four ripping, ripped-up tracks.' Rock And Roll Globe described the music as 'Gun Club fugues played by anxious Amphetamine Reptile Records ghosts deciding they'd prefer to continue to walk the earth.' Negative Stars is the culmination of years of work in New York's clubs and studios. 'I don't like to say the date we started working together,' says Levine, 'but the second Bush was still president.' At the time, Victor had already established himself as the dazzling co-lead guitarist for Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three; when Wynn revived his '80s L.A. Paisley Underground consortium the Dream Syndicate in 2017, Victor took the guitar chair previously occupied by Karl Precoda and Paul Cutler. Baker had only recently arrived from Cincinnati. With their album finally complete and the pandemic lifting, Skull Practitioners have begun to take to the stage more regularly: in 2022 they have played shows with Lydia Lunch, Live Skull, the Art Gray Noizz Quintet, and In the Red label-mates the Wolfmanhattan Project (Kid Congo Powers, Mick Collins, and Bob Bert). They plan to get on the road in the near future."

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: 9781941753378

FILE UNDER: Misc

"Milford Graves has been a revelatory force in music since the mid-1960s, liberating the drummer from the role of 'timekeeper' to instrumental improviser and giving rise to the Free Jazz movement, with groundbreaking performances alongside Lou Reed, Min Tanaka, and John Zorn. But musical practice cannot contain the energies of his creativity and intellect. Milford Graves' kaleidoscopic genius led him to develop an unprecedented body of interests -- from medicine to botany, stem cell regeneration to martial arts. A Mind-Body Deal is an attempt to open the doors of his habitat and spark curiosity in our own minds, so we too may learn to weave our mind-bodies with the rhythms of the world around us. A Mind-Body Deal gathers the intricate, multifaceted work of Milford Graves, exploring the practices and predilections of this extraordinary 'jazz mind.' Fully illustrated, this catalogue includes documentation from the eponymous show at ICA Philadelphia, exhibiting a collection of Graves' hand-painted album covers and posters, idiosyncratic drum sets, recording ephemera, multimedia sculptures, photographs, and costumes, with elements from his home and scientific studies." 256 pages. Paperback. 0.7" H x 10.4" L x 7.6" W (1.85 lbs)

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ITA 119LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dumbo Tracks is the project of Cologne-based producer Jan Philipp Janzen (Von Spar, Die Sterne, Urlaub in Polen). His self-titled debut album features contributions from Markus Acher (The Notwist), Portable, Roosevelt, Marker Starling, Wir Sind Die Sonne, Julian Knoth (Die Nerven), Indra Dunis (Peaking Lights), Eiko Ishibashi, Julene, and DJ Koze. Together they explore the different facets of dub and its musical horizons. Sometimes it sounds like it comes directly from the Black Ark Studios, but much more often it is Transatlantically transmitted via The Specials and DJs like Don Letts, Andrew Weatherall, or Adrian Sherwood.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: LION 191LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"The first time I saw the SilverBeats... the band took the cramped stage at the window near the front door. Fronted by James Tessier, who appeared to be the missing link from The Standells, the band's sound was simple, fuzzy and perfect. These cats were no strangers to reverb. Tess' original compositions came to life with electrical transmissions from Dan Mullen's lead guitar. The primal garage rock sound of 'Over and Over' was balanced by Tess' soft-spoken vocals. 'You Did Here Wrong' could have been plucked from any top shelf album of lost nuggets. 'In the Sound Room' points to endless possibilities of mind expansion. This is the good stuff. LSD before it was cut with strychnine." --Blaine Schultz "First reissue of rare cassette-only underground neo-psychedelic punk steeped in Pebbles-era rock, from this Milwaukee band which featured Dan Mullen (Plasticland) on guitar and the talents -- songwriting and otherwise -- of iconic underground maven Tess (James Tessier). 'I Want Speed' shows The SilverBeats' affinity to West Coast psychedelia. And it's no coincidence that they cover the Human Expression's 'Calm Me Down,' rich with harmony vocal, and The Pretty Things' 'Midnight to Six (Man),' replacing the original's rough R 'n' B-edge with a slight psychedelic tinge -- a real showpiece for drummer Mike Hughes. Another killer is 'Over And Over,' penned by Tess (like all the other originals on this album). It layers beautiful, trippy guitar, a catchy vocal melody, lots of echo, strange effects, and weird sounds before it closes, and we move on to the jolly, jumping 'Love Comes Knockin.' Comes with an 8-page booklet featuring a description by journalist David Luhrssen of the Milwaukee underground music scene which produced Plasticland, Daszu, the band Ör, and the Violent Femmes, among others."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: LION 197LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color vinyl. "Quintessential underground anarcho-hippie, anti-establishment private press blast by a band (and commune) from Chicago c. 1970, with poetic, sometimes vicious lyrics (Dylan-esque, or Arthur Lee and Love... you decide), and funky, hard-edged bones. Yama & the Karma Dusters, a.k.a. the Euphoria Blimpworks Band, were inter-racial, anti-war, 'Stop the Bomb', free love hippies, the wildest of the wild kids. They really cook on the up-tempo tracks, sounding like a cross between The Blues Project and Dylan's early electric period band circa 1966, augmented by a violin player. On the hard rockers, founding member Howard Berkman, formerly of morose garage punksters the Knaves, spits out sharp-tongued protest without becoming precious, while the band simmers and sizzles in sympathy. There are melodic folky ballads too, culminating in the gorgeous 'Hello Big City.' The band's ability to mix these elements into a coherent statement -- recorded in surprising fidelity -- solidify this an overlooked gem of the period. An underground counterculture classic, if ever there was one. Need to know more? Check out the massive 16-page gonzo memoir of their hippie commune -- you can find out what happened when Crazy Steve spiked the Gallo jug with acid! First legitimate reissue of this anti-establishment private press gem. Comes with an 16-page booklet gonzo memoir of their hippie commune, w/ tons of photos."

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: MAGGOT 011

FILE UNDER: Misc

"On the cover: This issue is dedicated to the memory of astral traveling saxophone colossus Pharoah Sanders, with a tremendous evaluation of his most important work by the great music writer Andy Beta as the cover feature, rare images by Leni Sinclair, and a brief remembrance by film director Jeff Feuerzeig. Columns: Lucy Sante - New column is about her collage practice, which was unknown until recently. Unsurprisingly it's great work; Mimi Lipson - Returns with another advice column filled with warmth, humor, and even advice; Jazz Roundtable - with Ben Jaffe, Sam Cohen, Bekah Flynn, and Makaya McCraven: New Orleans' entire history as refracted through the work of Charlie Gabriel of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, an absolutely deep and important piece; Thinking Fellers - An overview related to new reissues, written by none other than your favorite writer from Bananafish; Some Churches - Amazing images of small churches, rural and urban, from the collection of the Library of Congress. Also featuring: Mick Collins - Tremendous career-spanning feature on the Gories/Dirtbombs frontman by the great RJ Smith; Lambchop - A great new album for Merge and an expansive theater piece Kathy Lindenmayer goes deep with leader Kurt Wagner; XV - Detroit's new no wave supergroup deconstructs an interview, with musician Adam Taub; Ghost Riders - '60s/70s North American downer psych-pop/ garage 'Coming of Age Garage Ballads,' Glen Morren turns in a lengthy overview; Ernest Hood - A feature on the heralded Pac NW ambient composer, amazing ephemera to choose from courtesy the RVNG peeps; The HI Rhythm Section - Tennie, Charles, and Leroy! An often hilarious feature by Jason Gross from Perfect Sound Forever; Edel Rodriguez - Contemporary Cuban-American graphic artist interviewed by Britt Daniel from Spoon --they've collaborated together; Wednesday Knudsen - An overview of the work of this genius rural Massachusetts-based contemporary zone folk goddess, by Michelle Dove; Alpaca Brothers - In depth feature by Matt Goody (whose new book on Flying Nun's history is a must); Matthew Dickman - The great skater poet and poet/skater, introduced by Alex Behr;¬ Charles Gillam Sr. - Gabe from Desert Island interviews the New Orleans-based music obsessive and folk artist; King Kong - Former Homestead Records honcho Ken Katkin is here with ten trenchant observations on a reunion show by Louisville's finest."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: MOTOWN 28723LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1972. 2018 release. "Imamu Amiri Baraka's Pan-African manifesto It's Nation Time -- African Visionary Music, out of print since 1972, repressed in 2018 via Motown/UMe. The spoken-word jazz album, originally released on Motown Records' Black Forum subsidiary, has been repressed on 150g black vinyl with tip-on jacket in a faithful reproduction of the original packaging." "In the liner notes for Amiri Baraka's 1972 album It's Nation Time (Motown-Black Forum), Baraka asserts, 'This recording is an institution.' Recording on the heels of the 1970 Congress of African People, Baraka felt that the establishment of a pan-African nation was paramount, but where ought such a nation to be established? Could a recording be an institution? What does a nation sound like? The album, which received a limited release under Motown's progressive Black Forum label, mixes poetry with free jazz, African drumming, and R&B -- melding together the popular with avant-garde and traditional forms of black music. In doing so, It's Nation Time attempts to re-inflect black life with a proud African ancestry and spirituality... It was a call to action for black people to imagine new futures for themselves -- an album that put into action his ideas about black music and Black Nationalism by creating new black sonic space within the dimensions of the stereo LP." --Jessica E. Teague, from Sound Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2015)

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: PC 1990LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Cure, Disintegration In Leipzig, live in Germany on August 4th,1990. FM broadcast.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: PGM 164CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The music from his teenage years rekindled Eagle-Eye Cherry's energy when he sat down to write his sixth studio album, Back on Track. In these past couple of years during which the entire world has felt lost, Eagle-Eye Cherry started to question his profession. He saw health care workers struggle with something that really mattered and wondered what his own role was. At the same time, however, he missed getting to share the live experience of music with other people and came to the conclusion that what he does is indeed important. Hence the title of his sixth studio album: Back on Track. Many of the songs were recorded right before the pandemic escalated, but when the process was delayed, more songs came to life. When Eagle-Eye spent most of his time at home and had time to elevate his cooking skills, he once again started listening to the music he used to love when he was a teenager and got into buying records of his own: Talking Heads (his family's neighbors on Long Island during the 1980s), Blondie, The Clash, Modern Lovers. The influences might not be obvious, but there was something about the energy that Eagle-Eye found incredibly inspiring. Most of the album tracks were recorded at the Atlantis studio, a few of them in Peter Kvint's studio and one at Strawberry Studios in Töreboda. Eagle-Eye collaborated in the songwriting with Peter Kvint, Anders Pettersson, David Lindgren Zacharias, and Joel Sjöö, and a song Eagle-Eye wrote back in 2007 with Cameron McVey came back to life thanks to British singer/songwriter Will Varley. CD version includes one additional track.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: PGM 164LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. The music from his teenage years rekindled Eagle-Eye Cherry's energy when he sat down to write his sixth studio album, Back on Track. In these past couple of years during which the entire world has felt lost, Eagle-Eye Cherry started to question his profession. He saw health care workers struggle with something that really mattered and wondered what his own role was. At the same time, however, he missed getting to share the live experience of music with other people and came to the conclusion that what he does is indeed important. Hence the title of his sixth studio album: Back on Track. Many of the songs were recorded right before the pandemic escalated, but when the process was delayed, more songs came to life. When Eagle-Eye spent most of his time at home and had time to elevate his cooking skills, he once again started listening to the music he used to love when he was a teenager and got into buying records of his own: Talking Heads (his family's neighbors on Long Island during the 1980s), Blondie, The Clash, Modern Lovers. The influences might not be obvious, but there was something about the energy that Eagle-Eye found incredibly inspiring. Most of the album tracks were recorded at the Atlantis studio, a few of them in Peter Kvint's studio and one at Strawberry Studios in Töreboda. Eagle-Eye collaborated in the songwriting with Peter Kvint, Anders Pettersson, David Lindgren Zacharias, and Joel Sjöö, and a song Eagle-Eye wrote back in 2007 with Cameron McVey came back to life thanks to British singer/songwriter Will Varley.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: POTOMAK 919821

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 restock; LP version. Einstürzende Neubauten's Potomak label reissues their classic 1996 release, Ende Neu -- originally released on the Mute label, now reissued for the first time on vinyl. On this release, the quintessential scientists of the post-avant-garde abstain from focusing on listener disintegration tactics as they did on prior albums, but opt instead to hone their craftsmanship in new compositional areas. Some followers of their earlier material might object to the obvious and comparatively conventional song structure and style that is displayed on Ende Neu -- picking up a power tool to highlight a piece rather than centering the entire work around it, or leaving a stage before setting it ablaze -- but the destruction has already been performed, and here they erect a brave new anti-building of musical art. Exploring intricate processions of time and toying with melodious harmonies, this album reveals Blixa Bargeld and company maturing gracefully. The opening cut, "Was Ist Ist," is a furious, fast-paced slander of the greediness of mankind while simultaneously serving as a tongue-in-cheek remark on how absolute, scientific power overrules impossibility. From there, Ende Neu continues to musically rewrite the band's style, using familiar topics such as ethereal chaos ("Die Explosion Im Festspielhaus"), cosmic complacency ("The Garden"), revolt ("Installation Nº.1"), and even a Kafka-esque piece, "Der Schacht Von Babel." This was the band's first release after the departure of founding band member Mark Chung, and it is obvious that the remaining members took the time to contribute to the void left by his departure. Ende Neu delivers a precision-fed matrix of audio-encrypted knowledge in a manner not like the chaotic Neubauten of the early '80s, but more strategic, and more mature. Dark, focused explosions, with theatrical strings and tightly-wound vocal structures. This reissue includes reworked artwork.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: RADCD 013CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Trail-blazing female punk band Tozibabe was the first girl group in Slovenian to play their own instruments and write their own material, and one of the few female hardcore acts of Eastern Europe. Their furious, uncompromising songs had scathing, shouted vocals, and its members tackled different instruments, making them the stuff of legend. This wide-ranging compilation gathers material from the Hard-Core Ljubljana compilation (1985), their groundbreaking mini-LP, Dezuje, live tracks from their appearance at Novi Rock in 1985, plus previously unreleased work from their 2015 reunion show. Raw hardcore, Tozibabe style! CD version comes in digipack with obi strip.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RRS 053CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1983. Probably the first experiment in mixing hardcore attitude with OI! songwriting ever made within the UK punk movement, Attak were born as a four piece in New Mills in 1981, but immediately reversed to a trio when their singer left for school commitments and released two incredible singles on the No Future label in this form, right before recruiting a new guitarist and record Zombies, that came out in 1983 on the same label. Known for featuring Mackie from Blitz's sister on drums, (and sounding a lot like his band), Attak definitely split up in late 1983. This criminally underrated classic gets reissued on vinyl with his original artwork and fully remastered. Includes 40x60 folded poster.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4138CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Long Drove, the title of Simon Scott's first edition for Room40, is a location in the Fens close to the home of British composer, multi-instrumentalist, and mastering engineer. It is the connective pathway between two nature reserves, called Holme Fen and New Decoy, and both sites are part of a habit restoration project called The Great Fen Project and is close to where Scott grew up as a child. This area first became a location of compositional inspiration over a decade ago, when Scott created Below Sea Level on 12k (later reissued on Touch). His return to the Fens has produced a number of new works, presented here on Long Drove, that are intimate sonic narratives of place and rural trauma. Long Drove is a site-specific sound study which shifts the Anthropocene discourse from spectatorship to musical participation, accountability, and creative engagement. The near future of the Fens, with concerns of further subsidence and threat of flooding, remains a palpable concern. One can almost hear Scott's thought processes within these five compositions, of what the Fens would sound like if submerged and flooded by water again, returning to its original marshland state as a result of climate change, as the field recordings dissipate and unfurl with melancholic washes of decaying tape loops and digitally processed textures of Fenland sonorities. "Holme Fen Posts" traces out looped recordings taken from one of two of the famous steel Holme Fen nature reserve posts, which are located at the lowest cartographical location in England (six feet below mean sea level). The posts were driven into the ground in 1851 to take ground readings of subsidence by local landowner William Wells. Metal placards were attached to the posts to depict the subsequent dates of the level of the ground and Scott wedged two contact microphones in between the horizontal posts to capture its sonorities. The recordings reveal not only the slow and deep vibratory sounds of the steel sculptures but also the rhythmic dynamics created by natural phenomena, such as the downpour occurring as Scott recorded, and the resonances within the surrounding area. The natural phenomena of wind became aeolian sound characteristics, as heard in "The Whistling Wire", and the soft rhythm of the bridge being struck became the long-pitched drones and reverberant textures that these vibrations produced reveals the complex sonic topography of the Fens. From capturing the symphonic glory of the wind which, without any human intervention, ignites the holes in the wires. This triggers shifting planes of transmissible climate change induced musicality. "The Black Fen" traces sound fields through cassette tape loops of aeolian field recordings which are manipulated when fed into Scott's modular synth system to gradually tease out submerged hidden melodies.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RM 4198CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

From Cat Hope: "This is the second Room40 release of collaborations between Australian chamber ensemble Decibel, and French music concrète composer Lionel Marchetti, after The Last Days of Reality in 2018. This release consists of two pieces: 'Inland Lake (le lac intérieur' (2019), and 'La Patience' (2020). Working with Lionel is magical. 'Inland Lake' was devised with the ensemble when Lionel visited Australia in 2019. As he sometimes does, he came with a 'partition concrète' that was part score, part ensemble member, part fixed media. The music is coaxed from the ensemble, without score, but with discussions, listening and experiments. In the live performances, Marchetti efficiently and imaginatively positions speakers in strange directions, heights and places and somehow, the sounds melt together, intertwining and indiscernible -- as on this recording. Marchetti adapts the partition concrète after first rehearsals and performances, integrating recordings of the acoustic instruments with synthesizers, tape, and electronic manipulations in his home studio. The recording of 'Inland Lake' occurred in two places at once: at the Digital Hub, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University, Melbourne and Soundfield Studio in Perth, Western Australia. Marchetti joined from France. Determined to make this recording despite the ongoing border closures within Australia and the world, the group came together telematically -- using software to reduce the perception of latency and improve the sound quality 'down the line' for the performers. The ensemble was split in half between the east and west coasts of Australia, listening together over the Internet, recording locally. Marchetti later mixed and mastered the track in his own studio. Listening to the piece once the recording and mixing process was complete was like hearing it for the first time, again..."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: RUMP 002-1LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. Blurring the lines between folk, funk, and wonky slo-mo disco, and shares as much in common with Tom Waits as it does Luke Solomon. Sacha Winkler aka Kalabrese is a curious tastemaker and bold musical force that dares to tread the murky waters between indie and electronica, playfully emphasizing vocals on song-based productions and presenting an album that pushes the limits and portrays dance music in a peculiar and natural way. Inspired by blues, funk, and all those beautiful dancers and tragic heroes of the night, Independent Dancer is laced with curiosity and fever-inducing productions. Following his 2007 debut album Rumpelzirkus (STATT 002CD), a critically-acclaimed project that was followed by performances at infamous festivals like Sónar, Mutek in Montreal, and Transmediale in Berlin, as well as playing nearly every club basement in Europe with his live-project Rumpelorchester, Kalabrese returns with a masterpiece. Sounding like a soundtrack from James Murphy (in fact Kalabrese played back-to-back with the LCD Soundsystem lead man in 2012) and Nicolas Jaar, who featured his epic blues solo "Desperate Man" on his own Resident Advisor podcast, Independent Dancer commences with an almost euphoric and certainly unpretentious spirit. "Purple Rose" steps out downbeat with Sarah Palin, the newest Rumpel discovery, singing an astonishing duet with Kala, an almost country-like creation with ringing bells from the Alps and a hypnotic house beat crashing behind. Kalabrese recruits friend and mentor, A.C. Kupper (who also designed the cover) to sing "Let the Good Times Roll," taking his falsetto voice and overlaying chunky beats and a captivating synth-line, inspiring the urge to dance in only the most sincere way. Independent Dancer varies in tempo and rhythm throughout, from the wonderful airy ballad of "Stone On Your Back" with its cello parts played by Dominik Löhrer and light bossanova rhythm, juxtaposed with "Wanzka," an active, swinging Afro-groove gem with mind-blowing, lyrical brass parts courtesy of Michael Flury and Benjamin Danech. Guest singer Khan from Berlin can be heard on the hypnotic, Arabic-inspired bonus track "Feeling Me" and also on "Desperate Man," on which Rumpel-member Marton di Katz rocks a crazy groove with bass line sensations. Towards the conclusion, Kalabrese extols the Sihl Valley with "Sihltal," a punchy disco tune spiked with melancholy and expressing a soft wish of togetherness. At all times, Independent Dancer orbits the moment, encapsulating where the dancer unites with the music and forgets the rest of the world. "An album bursting with personality, soul and delicious grooves" --MixMag.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: SNDST 103EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

BEC returns to Second State Audio with another earth-shattering release containing four raw and atmospheric cuts. The Berlin by way of Brighton producer BEC has been a member of the Second State family since her first release with the label in 2016. Since then, BEC has dropped four EPs with the Berlin imprint, and regularly appears at the likes of Awakenings, Amnesia, Warehouse Project, Fabrik, Watergate, and Burning Man, to name a few.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: SNDST 111EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Berlin's Michael Klein drops heavy duty five-tracker EP on Second State Audio. A mainstay of the Second State label, Michael Klein's back catalog has now expanded to include 11 releases with the Berlin imprint. Opener and title track "Golden Hour" kicks off with strong synergy between the kick, bass and percussion. Moving and rising at controlled pace, Klein brings in off kilter keys and a smooth arpeggio. Next up is "Voice Interrupt" which uses twisted melodies and pitch distortions to create a tense but energetic energy. Minimal shakers and a solitary hi-hat add texture to the track, whilst keeping the arrangements tight and bouncy. "In My Own Eyes" starts off minimal and subdued, with a rotary synth that eventually breaks through and takes command. Subtle industrial elements are used but hidden under shakers, coming to the forefront during a brief interlude of the main synth-line. Following is "Howlip" with a uniform kick, hi-hat and a jagged synth combo that dance menacingly throughout. A sample of the cut's name chimes in at varied volumes, at times battling against the main groove and recurring electro twinged synth. A driving and peak-time dancefloor weapon. The finale of the EP "One Eyed Master" is dominated by piping, high-frequency keys that bubble under the main kick and sharp single hi-hat. Varying in intensity as the track drives on, the keys create a dystopian yet uneasy atmosphere. Klein again plays with the balance of percussion and pitch to manipulate the mood created in the track, an obvious theme and technique applied throughout the EP.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SNS 021LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Full title: One Day I Was So Sad That The Corners Of My Mouth Met & Everybody Thought I Was Whistling. Bladder Flask's debut (in fact only) LP, originally issued by Orgel Fesper Music in 1981, is one of the most eclectic albums of the post-industrial era. It is both challenging and perplexing... So, put down your puny instruments of normality and breathe in the frenzied fungal spores of Bladder Flask. The fact that Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound is a big fan of this album is testament to its greatness: "I love Bladder Flask's One Day I Was So Sad That The Corners Of My Mouth Met & Everybody Thought I Was Whistling and what a great title, perhaps my favorite ever. I must have listened to the album so much in the '80s. I listened to it again recently and it was like welcoming an old friend." Personnel: Richard Rupenus, Philip Rupenus + Sean Breadin, John Mylotte, Nigel Jacklin. Recorded at Wrongrong Studio and Spectro Arts Workshop 1980-1981. Audio restoration and mastering: Colin Potter @ IC Studio.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SNS 022LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1984. P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling, and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW. Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design. The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete."This music is staggeringly original and innovative, and while it's possible to locate it in a chain of circumstance that links it to 'industrial' music, P16.D4 indulged in none of the empty cliches associated with the genre, worked incredibly hard, and seem to have been aiming at a form of sound art that was much more profound, varied, subversive, and potentially dangerous. Kühe In 1/2 Trauer's accompanying credits indicate their radical approach to making music: lots of improvisation, lots of live electronics, extensive use of tape-loops, some conventional instrumentation, and much that isn't -- like the milk churn on 'Paris, Morgue' or the use of baking tray and washing machine elsewhere. Even when guitars, drums or keyboards are used, they're played very weirdly. It's not even made clear who was doing what; the main credit is 'Concept,' which I assume means that one of the three devised the framework in which the noise would operate itself, and while RLW gets the lion's share of these credits, a lot of the cuts are evenly divided among the team and I have no doubt that the group operated in a very democratic or libertarian manner. None of this prepares you for the insane and troubling sounds that reach your ears, composed with scant regard for conventional logic and following an exciting, absurdist path, especially in the matter of tape edits and juxtapositions of recordings." --Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SNS 023LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1984. P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling, and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW. Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design. The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete."On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began -- an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others -- work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4's own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, 'Aufmarsch, Heimlich,' consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4's best albums." --Rolf Semprebon/AllMusic

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ZEHRA 007CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Zehra present the debut album Istehlal by the Mohamad Zatari Trio, consisting of musicians from Syria, Iran, and India. The trio merges traditional Middle Eastern sounds with contemporary vibes including interpretations of Hossein Alizadeh and Riad Al-Sunbati classics. In a contemporary globalized world where music has lost its borders and is fighting a constant --yet particular -- stream of Western commodification, the Mohamad Zatari Trio stands out as an original cultural artifact, aiming at transcending the boundaries between different music worlds. Founded in 2019, the ensemble had its first public appearance in 2020 at the Outernational Virtual Festival. Comprising the performers Sara Eslami (Iran) on tar, Avadhut Kasinadhuni (India/Romania) on tabla, and Mohamad Zatari (Syria) on oud. Their debut Istehlal plunges into its own aesthetics, politics, and sound intricacies and represents the combined efforts of three musicians hailing from different, yet deeply rooted cultures. Over the course of eleven songs, the album transcends stylistic, ideologic, and geographic boundaries and reflects on the human condition in an interconnected and interrelated technological world. The repertoire includes not only original compositions in different stylistics but also rearranged traditional pieces by influential composers Riad Al Sunbati (Egypt) and Hossein Alizadeh (Iran). The Mohamad Zatari Trio introduces itself as a strong new voice within a new generation of young musicians that carry the musical heritage of great masters like Ravi Shankar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, or Zakir Hussain with a fresh and contemporary approach.Mohamad Zatari is a composer and oud player from Aleppo, Syria, currently based in Bucharest, Romania. His artistic effort is devoted to deconstructing stereotypes and blending various musical genres. He has been taught traditional and regional music by Tarek Al-Sayed, and has a Bachelor's in classical composition at the National University of Music Bucharest (2021). His compositions were used for short films as well as educational courses. He performed in various ensembles and groups, in countries such as Syria, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Austria.Sara Eslami is an Iranian composer, tar and setar instrumentalist, and improviser. She has a Bachelor's in musical Performing at the Tehran University of Arts (2011). Romanian/Indian Avadhut Kasinadhuni has a Master in Musical Performing / Violin at the National University of Music Bucharest (2022) and started studying tabla intermittently in India with Prof. Kamal Kant (2008) and Prof. Durjay Bhaumik (2017).

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: ZEHRA 007LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Includes download card. Zehra present the debut album Istehlal by the Mohamad Zatari Trio, consisting of musicians from Syria, Iran, and India. The trio merges traditional Middle Eastern sounds with contemporary vibes including interpretations of Hossein Alizadeh and Riad Al-Sunbati classics. In a contemporary globalized world where music has lost its borders and is fighting a constant --yet particular -- stream of Western commodification, the Mohamad Zatari Trio stands out as an original cultural artifact, aiming at transcending the boundaries between different music worlds. Founded in 2019, the ensemble had its first public appearance in 2020 at the Outernational Virtual Festival. Comprising the performers Sara Eslami (Iran) on tar, Avadhut Kasinadhuni (India/Romania) on tabla, and Mohamad Zatari (Syria) on oud. Their debut Istehlal plunges into its own aesthetics, politics, and sound intricacies and represents the combined efforts of three musicians hailing from different, yet deeply rooted cultures. Over the course of eleven songs, the album transcends stylistic, ideologic, and geographic boundaries and reflects on the human condition in an interconnected and interrelated technological world. The repertoire includes not only original compositions in different stylistics but also rearranged traditional pieces by influential composers Riad Al Sunbati (Egypt) and Hossein Alizadeh (Iran). The Mohamad Zatari Trio introduces itself as a strong new voice within a new generation of young musicians that carry the musical heritage of great masters like Ravi Shankar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, or Zakir Hussain with a fresh and contemporary approach.Mohamad Zatari is a composer and oud player from Aleppo, Syria, currently based in Bucharest, Romania. His artistic effort is devoted to deconstructing stereotypes and blending various musical genres. He has been taught traditional and regional music by Tarek Al-Sayed, and has a Bachelor's in classical composition at the National University of Music Bucharest (2021). His compositions were used for short films as well as educational courses. He performed in various ensembles and groups, in countries such as Syria, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Austria.Sara Eslami is an Iranian composer, tar and setar instrumentalist, and improviser. She has a Bachelor's in musical Performing at the Tehran University of Arts (2011). Romanian/Indian Avadhut Kasinadhuni has a Master in Musical Performing / Violin at the National University of Music Bucharest (2022) and started studying tabla intermittently in India with Prof. Kamal Kant (2008) and Prof. Durjay Bhaumik (2017).

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: 1972 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: 1972 011LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: ALGA 029LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: ALGA 045LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: AUS 1346EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $10.00

CAT #: BING 177CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: BING 177LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BWZ 778LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BEWITH 119LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BEC 5156505

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: BEC 5543698

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: BEC 5543703

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: BE 019LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BS 008LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BS 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $55.50

CAT #: BS 018LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: BS 026LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BS 058LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 051LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 064LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 039LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 423CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 423LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 867LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 870LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 924R-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BSR 966LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: CCS 124LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: MOVCL 007LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

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

 

PRICE: $61.00

CAT #: NRT 002T-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: DV 9095LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $129.50

CAT #: CDDM 316CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: EB 081LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: EB 165CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: GET 51295YC-LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GET 51304LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: GET 51320LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: GODREC 066LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GODREC 069LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GR 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: GR 016LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: GREL 039LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 070CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: GUESS 072CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: GBVI 117LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: HOS 743LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: HOS 744LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: ANGELICA 051CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: ANGELICA 052CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ICTUSRE 002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ICTUSRE 004LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: ITR 368LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: IF 1076LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: KR 097LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: KK 2258002CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 180126LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 580116LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KM 580136LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: LEWIS 1140EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MIG 2451LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MIG 621LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

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

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: MMS 041RC-LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MMS 043LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: METAPHON 006CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: METAPHON 008CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: METAPHON 009CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: MET 1302LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: MIND 750LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MR 329LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 2071COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: MOV 3169COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: MOV 3226COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MOV 3266COL-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: NA 5236LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: NA 5237LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: OM 070LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: PAL 056LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: PHS 048LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: PILZ 290642CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: PILZ 290646LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: PC 1983LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: ROG 122LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SCAT 083LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: SCAT 083X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: SCAT 085LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: SCAT 085X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: SCAT 086EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: SCAT 086X-EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SCTR 059LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SELE 8510LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: STAGO 186CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: GB 132CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GB 132LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

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

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: TR 512CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: TR 512LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: TRU 1015CD

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: TRU 1015LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

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

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MRSSS 539LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: VOID 064LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: VPRL 4237LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

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

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 070LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

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

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: AG 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Straight forward in your face hardcore punk from this fresh band from Bern, Switzerland. Pig Sweat will bring you back to 1981 Washington DC or Boston with their direct blend of hardcore. They sharpened their knives after their amazing debut self-titled LP released in 2020 and are gonna rip you with these ten tracks of absolute relentless aggressiveness. Edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: NMN 170LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Alga Marghen presents the last chapter from the Feedback Works documentation series, a brand-new LP including "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Danse des Dakinis", two previous unreleased tracks by Eliane Radigue. Among the works of fixed duration from the feedback period, "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is the link between "Jouet Electronique" (ALGA 029LP) and "Opus 17" (ALGA 045LP), and allows you to understand the evolution of her approach. "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is a game of mirroring symbols which glide into a non-measured, bent and elastic, temporality. Eliane Radigue's working method and her aesthetic direction are evident in this work from 1969: her very own unique temporal space of sonic experiences. Even though it bears the same name as the third part of "Adnos III", "Danse des Dakinis" is a peculiar work in Eliane's oeuvre. Conceived in a short time, with all kind of tapes from the composer's past work, it fluently shows a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound. In 1998 she put together a curious self-portrait in sound. There is a feedback ostinato conceived around 1969 and which refers to "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Opus 17". All through "Danse des Dakinis" you plunge into the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus that brings you back to the field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Such elements construct "Elemental1" (ALGA 029LP) as well. There are also some discreet interventions on the ARP 2500 synthesizer. It is indeed a peculiar work, which doesn't have the same features of her other compositions, especially at that time of her compositional path. There is an explanation for the composer producing this kind of sound material in 1998, and not limited to the sound waves of the ARP synthesizer. Invited to a workshop at Mills College in 1998, Eliane Radigue could not load herself down with her bulky instrument on such a trip. So, she left with just a few tapes taken from her own collection, drawn from different periods, and composed "Danse des Dakinis" with those old elements. There is tension in this composition, a certain wildness, an unpredictability of elements, those which are recognized as fundamental elements, which give structure to the universe. "Dance des Dakinis" is an intimate and wild symphony, alive and unpredictable, which is to be the next-to-last gesture of the composer before completely stopping her work with electronics.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: TES 169LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Alga Marghen's third installment of Smegma's original "Suburban Primitive Avant-folk music" period (1973-1975) based in Pasadena, featuring three previously unreleased tracks from the deep vault of their home recordings. In the beginning, the band Smegma had only one rule. No musicians. Starting from scratch, they took the road much less traveled. They were inspired by outsider musical artists of the time such as John Cage, Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fisher, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, etc. and they recorded every experiment with youthful enthusiasm. Mostly they only succeeded in tormenting their own friends and neighbors (except for the few who joined the band) but somehow, they never chose imitation, but stumbles on a path that allowed past (shamanistic) and future (space) sounds to lead the way. The titled track gently pulls you in and carries you off with a way-out inner-mind group jamming/not-jamming trip, featuring prepared piano, modular synthesizer, human mouth sounds, pan pipes, tabla, and electric bass guitar. "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow" (defiantly not the 1960s pop hit) rips you straight into a high energy New Years Eve Party jam, in a romping free jazz style with stream of consciousness vocals and exuberant alto sax solos. Side B starts with Beatnik finger popping and wild dogs barking from a record player, while breathless flute playing leads you down the rabbit hole of mysterious group vocalizing, including imitating the cry of the wild tropical parrots that lived in the palm trees in the front yard of the house in Pasadena that they had lived in. Always out of sync with their own time, 49 years later these tracks still throb and pulsate Beautifully with their own inner logic. Edition of 230.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BV 278174LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock. The king of alternative pop sings: "Disco 2000", "Let It Be", "Mojo", "The Kiss Of Love", "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "I'm Your Man", "Cosmic Dancer", "Money & Run", "Farewell Song", "Ramblin' Mind", "The Breaking Hands", and "Shine On Me".

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BANG 165LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Bang! Records present Crazy Dreams, the unreleased album by Jerry Teel and The Big Stompers. Recorded more than 20 years ago at Funhouse Studio in NYC. The Big City Stompers, led by Jerry Teel and Pauline Teel knew how to mix the hillbilly and country sounds of rural America with the dirty sound of NYC of Jerry Teel's historical membership in bands such as The Chrome Cranks, The Honeymoon Killers, Knoxville Girls... And check this: this record, features The Sadies as a backing band in some tracks. Edition of 600.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BANG 166LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Finally reissued on vinyl, this is The Solution's first album, Communicate!, originally released in 2004. Communicate! is the first collaboration between Detroit rock legend Scott Morgan (Rationals, Sonic's Rendezvous Band) and Nicke Royale (The Hellacopters). This album has been long out-of-print and has reached insane prices in the second-hand market. Now it is finally repressed from the original masters and artwork.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: BS 073CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Art Of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, Walter Maioli between 1986 and 1991 investigates the soundscape of different geographical, climatic, and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the world. Rubbing of fossils, animal artifacts, plant elements of all sorts, everything becomes sound and each object opens up forms of imaginary communication, psychic effect and unexplored languages. Whistles, flutes, leaf, and shell rattles, rhombuses, horns, bone pipes, slate slabs, bamboo arches, stones, vertebrae, seeds, stalagtites etc. How great can be the natural orchestra inherent in the spirit of forests, rivers, caves, seas, swamps or Amazon jungles? Thanks to an interdisciplinary partnership (Anthropology, Archaeology, Botany, Ethnomusicology) of collaborating friends, Maioli directs an opera of universal character inspired by the archaic essence of sound and infrasonic dimension.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BS 073LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

LP version. Art Of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, Walter Maioli between 1986 and 1991 investigates the soundscape of different geographical, climatic, and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the world. Rubbing of fossils, animal artifacts, plant elements of all sorts, everything becomes sound and each object opens up forms of imaginary communication, psychic effect and unexplored languages. Whistles, flutes, leaf, and shell rattles, rhombuses, horns, bone pipes, slate slabs, bamboo arches, stones, vertebrae, seeds, stalagtites etc. How great can be the natural orchestra inherent in the spirit of forests, rivers, caves, seas, swamps or Amazon jungles? Thanks to an interdisciplinary partnership (Anthropology, Archaeology, Botany, Ethnomusicology) of collaborating friends, Maioli directs an opera of universal character inspired by the archaic essence of sound and infrasonic dimension.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BS 074LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Everest Magma rediscovers the folk roots of his dreamy alter ego Woodcutter. Once again, he appears as a minstrel crossing moonstruck woods inhabited by gnomes, butterflies, and crawling creatures. Nature is sublimated into a personal alien vision in which a lysergic approach triumphs in the arrangement of sound material and immersive musique concrète. Pure acid-folk fingerpicking communicates directly with the forest's humus, steeped in wild and ethereal moods. Between schizoid or more lyrical moments, a persistent taste for subtle subterranean noises, electric flashes, radio and UFOlogical interferences, deviant scents, and psychological drifts permeates the flow. The abstracting structure of voices and singing expresses the cyclical beingness of living, a decontextualizing dimension of space and time. It's the pantheistic feeling of a parallel naturalistic universe, which also takes cues from the psychedelic eccentricity of Claudio Rocchi's Suoni di Frontiera, the Incredible String Band or Holy Modal Rounders. Co-produced with Maple Death Records.

 

PRICE: $66.00

CAT #: BLUME 019-20LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Blume Editions announce the long-awaited first-time vinyl pressing of the New York based composer Phill Niblock's seminal Four Full Flutes, restoring the album to the format for which it was originally conceived. Created in collaboration with the flutists Petr Kotik, Susan Stenger, and Eberhard Blum toward the end of the 1970s, the album's four compositions belong to Niblock's radical rethinking of the possibilities and terms of tape music and microtonalism, the effects of which continue to ripple across the field of experimental to this day. Created in full collaboration with the composer with newly commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey, David First, few artifacts of minimalism's second wave have proven to have had such an enduring effect. Niblock's third full-length dates from the same era of compositions as its predecessors, but found Niblock's attitude toward the potential activated by home playback moderately changed. Four Full Flutes comprises four works, roughly 20 minutes each, composed for flute by Niblock toward the end of the '70s and early '80s. Each deploys the compositional system within which he has worked for the better part of his career; combining sustained tones of specific durations, rigorously produced at microtonal intervals by the respective musicians, before arriving at their final form through meticulous work with magnetic tape on the part of the composer. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Deluxe wooden box with velvet lining; red vinyl, audiophile pressing, housed in Nagaoka anti-static record sleeves; includes an original LP-sized extensive booklet and a 60x90cm iconic poster designed by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $26.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 039LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress; Double LP version. Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey is truly one of a kind. He entered the music scene with his African compositions for classical guitar. He gave recitals while pursuing a career in journalism and then as an international civil servant. The same creative impulse also led him to write pop songs, some of which (based on novels he had written) became big hits in Africa and in the French-speaking world. But few people know that in the '70s, Francis Bebey delved into electronic music. The first electronic keyboards, organs and drum machines offered him new possibilities of totally controlling his compositions. He embraced the technique of "sound on sound" recording (recording several tracks, sequentially juxtaposed on the same tape). This new stage in his musical career included the production of several records (Savannah Georgia, New Track, Haiti), rarities both for their creative explorations as well as their manifestations on vinyl. This was a particularly rich period for him, as he tested the limitless possibilities of the medium, and made use of surprising and novel instruments. Incredible sounds -- in the literal sense of the word -- would soon appear on the planet Bebey. Full-color printed innersleeves with notes in English and French.

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: BORNBAD 086LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. French pop connoisseurs La Femme present Mystère. La Femme have made a huge mark on modern Paris's cultural landscape, with the two sides of the city - the glamour and the grit - ingrained in their music. Since the release of their debut album, Psycho Tropical Berlin (BORNBAD 051LP, 2013), their rise has only gained momentum with fans including directors Jacques Audiard and Romain Gavras to legends Jean Michel Jarre and Hedi Slimane. Returning with a more psychedelic sound and guest vocalists that slice through the starkest of electro beats, Mystère sees La Femme celebrating their wonderful city. From the chattering tête-à-tête heard on "Conversations Nocturnes" to the throbbing disco beat of "SSD", a direct reference to the pulsing nightlife hotspot and multi-cultural district Strasbourg Saint Denis where the band is based. Mystère's true intrigue however, lies in La Femme's enigmatic questioning of falling in and out of love. A compendium of short stories describing loves and losses, each song breaks down language barriers through an inventive and astute knack for melody. The elation of a passionate encounter is captured on the ricocheting electronics of "Tatiana", the melancholic acoustic guitar echoes in "Le Vide Est Ton Nouveau Prenom" and the sorrow of a war-torn couple in "Psyzook". Whether delicate or drenched in dirty disco, the impact of Clémence, Marlon and Sacha's gothic mantras mixed with the guest vocal talent of Clara Luciani, Jane Peynot, Naomi Greene, Mathilde Marlière, Angela Hureau, Battista Acquaviva and Sarah Ben Abdallah is perhaps where La Femme's true meaning can be found. Sacha on his band's all-inclusive philosophy: "We don't like the idea of having a leader or a chief: everyone brings to the band what they can and want." Recorded between a castle in Brittany and a Paris basement before being finished up with Sonny Diperri (Animal Collective) in LA, Mystère once again sees backgrounds blurred and worlds collide. The band's chic retro-futurist surf-pop sound possesses the same dose of glamorous punk stomp as before, but this time around it's layered with an elegant fusion of influences from Ennio Morricone, Marie Et Les Garcons's disco-rock touch and the lysergic romanticism of The Velvet Underground. Through increased use of strings and further exploration of sound, Mystère also incorporates the band's new love of oriental sounds, Turkish disco, Tuareg blues, medieval psychedelia to mainstays Brian Eno and Pink Floyd.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 394LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Without a doubt, To Rococo Rot are an exception within the German music landscape. From 1995 until they broke up in 2014, the group around Robert Lippok, Ronald Lippok, and Stefan Schneider researched a unique sound between electronic music, ambient, post-melancholy, and the further development of a new, free music like krautrock. The trio was invited three times by John Peel to record radio sessions in the BBC studios. Bureau B make the recordings from these three sessions from the years 1997 and 1999 available on record for the first time, which, in addition to the live versions of selected album tracks, also contains exclusive, unreleased songs."... Kreidler originated in the west, Ornament & Verbrechen in the east. Robert Lippok describes the moment when things did a 180: 'When we first started releasing records it was almost a shock to hear our own music on the radio.' You walk through an invisible wall. You cause a membrane to pulsate. And finally in 1995, To Rococo Rot was the band whose music, in a kind of aesthetic feedback loop, also made a certain John Peel at the BBC and Daniel Miller at Mute Records sit up and take notice: 'It was something new, something that sounded like it could only be done in Germany; and, as I discovered later, could only be done by guys who were born in the east of Germany in the days before the wall came down.' And so, the three To Rococo Rot sessions united here with their to some extent exclusive Peel tracks ('Glück', 'Esther', 'Glass'), some recorded under intense time pressure, are testimonies to the intimate connection of three German musicians with the whole world, with pop, with the happiness that one possesses and that one shares. Pop without its means of production is inconceivable. And even in times when digital is king, we should consider ourselves lucky that this analog reality of sound, like radio waves, continues to pulsate through us." --Karl Bruckmaier

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: JACK 004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Named by AllMusic as "one of the most influential British singers of the rock era", Siouxsie Sue needs no introduction in the world of alternative music. Caught live backed by the Banshees during their first US tour in 1980, at the California Hall while promoting their second album Kaleidoscope (1980) this is the essence of goth-rock before it was even invented. Features such hits as "Israel", "Hong Kong Garden", and "Happy House". Black vinyl; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: ZEITC 020LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Riding the razor's edge between bristling electroacoustic wizardry and the constrained structures and harmonic interplay of musical minimalism, Die Schachtel announce Immanent in Nervous Activity, a brand-new release from the creative partnership of Jim O'Rourke and Giovanni Di Domenico. Comprising a single long-form work, divided into two movements that culminate as a second chapter to the duo's 2015 LP, Arco (ZEITC 016LP) -- an album which endeavored, on visionary terms, after the potential of waiting and patience as means toward musical form. Delivering the long overdue follow-up to their brilliant 2015 outing, Arco, the duo of Giovanni Di Domenico and Jim O'Rourke return to Die Schachtel with Immanent in Nervous Activity. Their latest adventure -- recorded in Japan with further contributions by Eiko Ishibashi on flute and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on snare -- rolls at a glacial pace, deftly weaving tension into restrained sheets of tonality, texture, and harmonic dissonance that ripple with microscopic detail and a stunning sense of structure. A bristling intervention the terms and possibilities of electronic music by one of the most exciting partnerships in the contemporary landscape of adventurous sound. Another defining statement by one of the most exciting partnerships in the contemporary landscape of adventurous sound. Printed in deep black and metallic silver on extra matte white heavy cardboard; includes black/silver limited "Zepelin" poster cm 30x90; original design by Bruno Stucchi/dinamomilano; edition of 400.

 

PRICE: $44.00

CAT #: ECLEC 42821CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"An expanded four-disc edition of the 1990 album The Apprentice by late John Martyn. With a career that had begun in the late 1960s and had produced a succession of excellent albums throughout the '70s and '80s, Martyn recorded The Apprentice at the end of 1989 at a studio in Glasgow working with musicians including Foster Patterson (keyboards), Dave Taif-Ball (bass) and Aran Ahmun (drums) and guest saxophonist Andy Shepherd."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 1016LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2022 restock; 2017 repress; originally released in 1966. Featured artists: Albert Ayler (tenor sax), Ed Blackwell (trumpet), Don Cherry (trumpet, cornet), Sunny Murray (drums), Gary Peacock (bass), Roswell Rudd (trombone), John Tchicai (saxophone, alto sax). Michael Snow is a Canadian national treasure, a true Renaissance man. He assembled a stellar group to improvise a sound track for his art film, titled Walking Woman, featuring a silhouette that is rumored to have been inspired by Carla Bley. Digitally remastered. Manufactured in the USA by the original label. New digipak format. "This is a very interesting set, music that was freely improvised and used as the soundtrack for the 34-minute short film New York Eye and Ear Control. Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler leads the all-star sextet (which also includes trumpeter Don Cherry, altoist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray) on two lengthy jams. The music is fiery but with enough colorful moments to hold one's interest throughout." --Scott Yanow, AllMusic

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: EXIL 5555LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Milestone of ethno-beat. Decades of worldwide concerts, 30 albums and millions and millions of streams have given the Dissidents a wonderful audience all over the planet. The New York Times saw them back in the eighties as pioneers of what would later become the term "world music." Almost 40 years after its initial release, their legendary album Sahara Elektrik remastered on vinyl is experiencing an unexpected rebirth and conveys the musical awakening of those years very closely.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: FD 005LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 restock. Fatiado Discos present a reissue of Di Melo's self-titled album, originally released in 1975. One may say that in the '70s, in the Brazilian northeastern music scene, specifically in Recife/Pernambuco it was a magical time. The fusion of local original Brazilian genres such as samba and baião with North American soul music, funk and British psychedelia resulted in one of the richest cultural scenes worldwide. And it is exactly in such context that Di Melo was in when he wrote his acclaimed debut album. Roberto de Melo was known as Bob Di Melo amongst freaks and weirdos in the art and music scene when Jorge Ben introduced him to important executives of the music business in São Paulo, where most record labels were. His strong personality is best seen in his music and also helps launch his 1975 first album through a major company with amazing musicians such as Hermeto Pascoal. "Kilariô", the opening song of the album, became a big hit all over the country. Other songs such as "A Vida Em Seus Métodos Diz Calma" and "Pernalonga" were also a hit on the radio and clubs. Di Melo, the album, became then a success by the critic and public mainly for going through several music genres not letting go of the deep Brazilian roots. The young man of 25 coming from the outskirts of Pernambuco was at the peak of his success. Psychedelic drugs and cinema references were blowing his mind away when he realized that he was being conned by music industry rats. His songs were at the hit parade on the radio and his music had been recorded by some of the biggest names in Brazil, but what he was being paid for made no justice to that. People say that after watching the movie Blow Up by Antonioni, Di Melo himself beat the shit out of the publisher who paid him less than 10 dollars for his rights for the past three months. Such events, ran by the same strong personality that initially opened doors, made Di Melo ostracized by the ungrateful Brazilian music industry. Perhaps that's what it took to make such a mythical album. Includes original 1975 insert with lyrics plus photos from personal family archives and for the first time the full credits with all the name of every single musician who took part, among them, Hermeto Pascoal.

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: FTR 721CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Gorgeous quintet improv space explored at Chicago's ProMusica studios. Long-time partners Przemyslaw Drazek (trumpet, strings, percussion) and Brent Fuscaldo (voice, guitar, percussion, harmonica) join up again with Hamid's percussion, Tatsu's bass and shamisen, and Thymme's piano and various, just as they did on last year's amazing Ourania (FTR 592LP). The sounds now are spacious, comfortable explorations of unknown sonic turf. There may be a bit less of the aggressive edge that marked their earlier work, but the music generates an equal amount of head-shaking wonder. Thymme's piano and the hails of percussive energy now sometimes set the stage in the way the band's trumpet and guitar once did. There's a magnificent moodiness to the way this music is put together. And trying to squeeze it into a genre definition is harder than ever. Rock, jazz and experimental textures are all allowed to roam freely throughout the session, with the result being a splendid sort of audio anarchy head birthing chunks of sound that are sculpted into boulders of cosmic beauty. There's almost no telling which way things are going to turn in the course of Formless, but the results are always warm blurs you can almost feel massaging your tympanic membranes. Amazing stuff. As usual! Also worth noting, the band will be dropping Mako Sica as a working name after this LP, and will henceforth be using Drazek/Fuscaldo, along with whatever special riders choose to come along. You have been warned." --Byron Coley, 2022

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GB 137LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Wildly acclaimed Istanbul-based artist Gaye Su Akyol delivers an unforgettable fourth album, Anadolu Ejderi. Building upon her mélange of Turkish psychedelia, empowered commentary and retro-futurist sonics, her vision is more personal and uncompromising than ever before. Lauded for her startling, innovative mix of Turkish psychedelia and folk song, surf music and ?90s Western rock, a global sweet spot where Anatolian music heroine Selda Ba?can rubbed shoulders with Kurt Cobain, Akyol was ready to expand her vision after a relentless period on the road. Everything on Anadolu Ejderi -- the title translates as "Anatolian Dragon" -- breathes fire. It takes chances, the lyrics offer an exploration of politics in today's Turkey. The personal is very much part of that. While it can hark back to the beauty of Istanbul before the coups that changed the place, when the country shifted, Anadolu Ejderi is a record that's filled with possibilities and dives into the unexpected. It's there in the dancing joy of slipping a disco section into the title track or the stark beauty of the acoustic openings to "Yaram Derin Derin Kanar" and "Biz Ne Zaman Dü?man Olduk," which arrive as shocks to the system. If you thought you knew what to expect in Gaye Su Akyol's music, things have changed. Akyol's lyrics lure, puzzle, and often take by surprise, as with the album's final track, "Içinde Uyan?yoruz Hakikatin" (We Are Waking Up In Reality). Musically it can seem like the closest to a straightforward Western song she's come, but, Akyol notes, "you also hear non-existent Turkish folk". Akyol is an astute observer of what's happened to her country. The tales history tells are important to her. That first upheaval of 1980 was followed by another in 1997, and her cries for what's lost stand in her words. The political allusions are often carefully oblique, but they're there. The instrumentation forges closer connections between Turkey's past and its present. The rock guitar, bass and drum trio are now accompanied by traditional instruments such as violin, oud, electro baglama, cümbü?, sazbü?. With Anadolu Ejderi, Akyol says, "I'm telling stories for the future." To do that takes courage. It takes bravery and daring. Listen, and you'll hear the roar of the Anatolian dragon as it roars. "Her voice is a mesmerizing thing, deep and plummy enough to shake trees and stir hearts." --Pitchfork

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: GBR 043EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The Person is back on the dancefloor and she brought the delicious Australian version of a good old Italian recipe -- Italoz Disco. Mouthwatering rhythms spiced with everyday hustle, cosmic boogie and the extra dose of synthesizer. Changing the meatballs for oddballs to worship the Magic $ properly. Sull' alto lato (aka on the B-Side) they change the oddballs for the mothballs as the one and only Hysteric warms up the magic ragout in his unique steam-powered kitchen. Now go to work! You still need to be convinced? Take these great lines by Patrick: "Magic $" beams into the discotheque direct from deep space; a shimmering body of squelching bass, nebulous pads, and snapping percussion which hosts Minna's bewitching vocals. The arch delivery and vintage sequences flirt with kitsch, but that playful genius particular to The Person pushes this into wonderfully wonkier territories. Basslines climb, keys collapse and the whole thing chugs and bubbles through a flawless arrangement. Stepping in on remix duty, renowned (moth)baller hysteric turns out a treatment that's worth a million bucks, boosting the bottom end with an acidic sequence, supercharging the percussion and punching in some strange sampler fun to guarantee utter club chaos. Every superhero needs a theme song, and "The Person" sees Minna step away from the dancefloor to deliver a synthetic ballad for lucid dreamers everywhere. Jamming on top of a malfunctioning Jomox, Minna channels chimes, piano, and a gentle chug into the classiest chord progression this side of Mike Francis. Closing cut "Go To Work" gives us neon lights and nighthawks as The Person indulges in a little Antipodean electro, proving once and for all that Australians Do It Better.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: GUESS 180LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited available stock. LP version. Reissue. Originally released as private pressing in 1971, the Farm album is highly sought-after and revered by collectors. Recorded by this Southern Illinois band in 1971 at the legendary Golden Voice studios, it's chock full of jammy, bluesy guitar psych with heavy dual guitars, organ, congas, harp... Recommended if you like Quicksilver, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Ten Years After... Remastered sound; original artwork; includes booklet with photos and extensive liner notes by Kevin Rathert (It's Psychedelic Baby) LP version includes download card. "A vital album for fans of vintage guitar action." --Patrick Lundborg (Acid Archives).

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: GUESS 205LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: GUESS 210LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Top notch hard-rock/proto metal by post-Atomic Rooster and pre-Hard Stuff band Bullet, featuring the explosive guitar and vocals of John Du Cann (The Attack, Andromeda, Atomic Rooster) plus bass player John Gustafson (Quatermass, Roxy Music, Ian Gillan Band), and Paul Hammond (Atomic Rooster) on drums. Their legendary studio recordings from 1970-71, now for the first time on vinyl. Gatefold sleeve with detailed liner notes and photos. RIYL: Hard Stuff, Captain Beyond, Uriah Heep, Dust. "... gritty sounding, blues based power trio built around John Du Cann's unlimited arsenal of crunchy guitar riffs and scorching solos..." --Ryan Sparks (Sea Of Tranquility).

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: GUESS 216LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: HEIST 065EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The embodiment of modern-day electronic funk and a true wizard on the keys: Atlanta raised cool guy Byron the Aquarius. Now, after a solid string of releases on labels like Shall Not Fade and Purveyor Underground, Byron is making his solo appearance on Heist. His Akira EP goes from dark basement grooves to dreamy broken beats and features a remix by New York dance music wizard Kush Jones. The Akira EP kicks off with "I love yo", a track that juxtaposes dreamy samples with rough percussion and vocal chops with a clear nod to the work of Mr. G. The melody is mellow, but don't be deceived; clever drum programming and plenty of sub take this track into the club vibe just the way Byron likes it: warm, hazy and sexy AF. Enter "Get up". There's everything you love about house music: smart vocal chops, driving percussion, classic house keys, and a booming sub to get you bumping to this beat. Byron up the tempo and takes a deep dive into bass territory with "Love". In this track, there's lush pads running over a percussive broken beat and chopped R n' B vocals to add some serious sex appeal. Going back to classic house mode, you get "Success": a spoken word house track that fits right in with the classics. Byron sets the mood with some bumpy key-and synth work while brainstorming about originality and blackness throughout the track.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SUBURBIA 022LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Long before any Ramones' style resurgence, the torch of pop punk worldwide was held by three bands on the SST sublabel, Cruz Records: All, Big Drill Car, and Chemical People. This compilation collects Chemical People's early singles, issued between 1988 and 1989 on their own 2" Pecker Records, along with some bonus cuts recorded live at CBGB's in 1989. Featuring double-sided insert and a 60x40 cm folded poster with an exclusive band photo by Robert John. Green vinyl.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SUBURBIA 035LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1992. Long overdue reissue for the debut album by the French melodic hardcore punkers Burning Heads. With a three-decade career, tons of full-length albums on labels like Epitaph and Victory, Burning Heads are an institution in the punk rock scene worldwide. Includes double-sided insert. Orange vinyl.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: HYG 020EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

On DJ Balaton's second release, Space For Afternoon, the title says it all: this 10" features two laidback house tracks that belong in every set of a dignified afterhour. "Honey Future" impresses with driving bass and distorted Korg sound, while the focus is on repetitive delays and melodies. The single is completed by "Bedroom Floor" in a classic B-side style: the spherical sound carries you through space and time and makes you blur and forget them.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: HOL 131LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

For more than a decade, Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto have been coming together in various combinations -- duos, trios, and larger ensembles -- slowly becoming one of the most noteworthy, understated collaborations in the landscape of experimental sound. In 2015, the trio recorded a brilliant LP entitled Delivery Health ?for Silent Water, laying the groundwork for an enduring project that adopted that album's title as its name, debuting properly in 2017 with the stunner Hard Off (SW 014LP, 2017). Over the years since, Di Domenico, O'Rourke, and Yamamoto have played together in Bonjintan, their project with Akira Sakata, and in further collaborations with Eiko Ishibashi and Joe Talia, not to mention O'Rourke and Di Domenico's prolific work as a duo. A bit more than five years on from Hard Off, Delivery Health finally return with SuperDeluxe!, a stunning new double-LP on Holidays Records. Comprising roughly four years of early activity from the trio that rests at a fascinating juncture of electroacoustic composition, free improvisation, and noise, it's easily among the most engaging and intoxicating efforts yet from one of the most dynamic bands working today. Like its predecessors, SuperDeluxe! rides a beautiful line between striking singular creative ambition and accomplishment, and simply feeling like a free-wheeling conversation between friends who have relinquished their egos and presumptions out of a deep sense of mutual respect. Ironically, as forward thinking as it feels, the album is a kind of retrospective rewind, comprising five live documents recorded, of course, at the legendary SuperDeluxe! in Tokyo between 2012 and 2014 across its four sides. Taking you deep into the very beginnings and previously unheard activities (at least for those who were there on these nights) of Di Domenico, O'Rourke, and Yamamoto, the trio weaves a knotted tapestry unfurling as sheets of sound, that sidesteps signifiers and the expectations that one might have of each of these artists on their own. Ranging from brisling ambient passages drawing on latent melodic flirtations, heavy jams on guitar, drums, electronics, and keyboards, and outright, full throttle noise, each moment represents a visionary excursion into the depths of experimental, improvised sound, revealing a shocking sense of real-time dexterity from each player, as much as the collective whole experiments in improvised sound. SuperDeluxe! is an immersion into the joys of music making, collaboration, and ultimately listening. Contemporary improvised music at its absolute best. Insert with Japanese text on colored paper; obi; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: KI 044LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Hiraeth, a soulfully atmospheric, melodic electronic deep house tune by Fejká is an exhibition of warmth and calm, which embraces the listener and inspires feelings of longing. The sense of tranquility is heightened by the distinctive vocals of Kim van Loo, who collaborated on the track. Working from his studio in Stuttgart, Fejká used processed synths, pads, and piano with a tape machine to create a heightened nostalgic ambiance and establish a genuine and meaningful relationship with the listener. Above all, the song is deeply personal and emotionally authentic -- a remarkable demonstration of a desire to delve into a vaster range of emotions by the young producer. Also features Henry Green and Tomasz Mrénca.

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: KK 2258003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Poly-lined inner sleeves; gatefold. 180 gram, black double vinyl. The original analog master tapes were transferred with higher resolution and remastered with great care. Remastered by Dieter Dierks and Dennis Flüchter. Walter Wegmüller (1937-2020) was a Swiss-Jenish artist who grew up in difficult circumstances in Bern. After training in Basel, Bern, Paris, and London, he began his artistic career. In addition to painting and sculptural works, Walter Wegmüller occupied himself with the entire spectrum of art. He gained widespread international attention, especially from 1974 onwards, with the publication of his Zigeuner Tarot. He was successful at countless exhibitions in Europe and overseas and was repeatedly awarded prizes and distinctions. However, he never forgot his origins as a Verding child and "Rome child from the Kalderasch tribe." In 1973, he released the album Tarot with an all-star band. Successful musicians such as Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Harald Grosskopf, Dieter Dierks, Hartmut Enke, Jürgen Dollase, and Walter Westrupp played in the band. It remained Walter Wegmüller's only foray into the world of music. The album was last released on vinyl in 1976, the CD in 2000. This version here is the first remaster ever.

 

PRICE: $125.00

CAT #: KK 2258004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Boxset; poly-lined inner sleeves. 180 gram, black double vinyl. The original analog master tapes were transferred with higher resolution and remastered with great care. Based on the original vinyl packaging in 1973. Contains various cards by the artists, as well as explanatory texts on the Tarot reference and reprints of the Tarot cards. Remastered by Dieter Dierks and Dennis Flüchter. Walter Wegmüller (1937-2020) was a Swiss-Jenish artist who grew up in difficult circumstances in Bern. After training in Basel, Bern, Paris, and London, he began his artistic career. In addition to painting and sculptural works, Walter Wegmüller occupied himself with the entire spectrum of art. He gained widespread international attention, especially from 1974 onwards, with the publication of his Zigeuner Tarot. He was successful at countless exhibitions in Europe and overseas and was repeatedly awarded prizes and distinctions. However, he never forgot his origins as a Verding child and "Rome child from the Kalderasch tribe." In 1973, he released the album Tarot with an all-star band. Successful musicians such as Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Harald Grosskopf, Dieter Dierks, Hartmut Enke, Jürgen Dollase, and Walter Westrupp played in the band. It remained Walter Wegmüller's only foray into the world of music. The album was last released on vinyl in 1976, the CD in 2000. This version here is the first remaster ever.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: LMS 5521591

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

To honor twenty years since the release of Sugababes' iconic debut album One Touch, the band released a series of brand-new remixes. Available on blue vinyl for the first time. The reworks from Majestic, Metronomy vs Tatyana, Blood Orange, and MNEK offer a fresh take on classic singles "Overload", "Same Old Story", and "Run For Cover". New artwork featuring archive photographs.

 

PRICE: $46.50

CAT #: LMS 5521756

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. One red and one white vinyl. Gatefold sleeve; includes printed inner sleeve. The Communards' sophomore album Red consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, the Communards straddled pop and the political, the album's themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late '80s Britain. A global smash upon its release in 1987, this is the remastered and expanded 35th Anniversary Edition with new sleeve notes. Features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary '80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of "Never Can Say Goodbye" by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip's Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Includes Stephen Lipson extended version.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: MPM 040LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 restock. You might think that Robert Hood is an artist who is content with the successes he's achieved via his solo work and those alongside daughter, Lyric (as Floorplan) but this is not a man who easily rests on his laurels so after a long-time in the planning he is set to regenerate his much-loved Monobox alias. Originally launched in 1996, his Monobox sound spanned a trio of EPs on his own M-Plant label, culminating in more releases including the Molecule album (2003) for French label Logistic, which later spawned a series of remixes including those of Ricardo Villalobos and Matthew Dear. A brief return came in 2014 as part of M-Plant's 20th anniversary celebrations, which saw the release of a new Monobox 12", Film/Rectangle (MPM 022EP). Speaking to Red Bull Music Academy that year for one of their Fireside Chat interviews, Robert said: "Monobox was an alien project. I read this book when I was probably around 13 or 14. It was this ominous black box that came from some other universe, and it was just sort of hovering over the planet, over a cornfield somewhere." In Robert's mind the idea for the new EP and album is that this vessel has been lying dormant for 40 or 50 years and is now beginning to rise up again, or regenerate. Robert's approach to Monobox was to create techno minimalism, but from an alien futuristic perspective. Returning to the moniker, his forthcoming EP and album encapsulates this raw, bristling and sci-fi tinged techno sound. The Forwardbase Kodai EP (MPM 039EP) features two new tracks (which won't appear on Regerate) alongside a remix by Ø [Phase] and a special Robert Hood Re-Plant edit. Regenerate is a fully immersive experience over seven exclusive tracks.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: MAR 064LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1983. Mad About Records present the official reissue of the legendary LP by Sam Sanders & Visions for the first time worldwide, The Gift of Love. Highly recommended '80s Detroit spiritual jazz masterpiece. Classic Detroit jazz in the Tribe Records, Strata East jazz vein. Although most of the sessions with Sanders from the '60s or '70s are either nowhere to be found or still unreleased, The Gift of Love -- perhaps the only release of Sanders as a leader during his lifetime and privately pressed by what is likely his own label, That African Lady -- offers a document of this Detroit great's music with his band Visions. Fellow Strata musician Kenny Cox, even sits in on keys on a few tracks. Sam Sanders, a unique saxophonist whose approach to music made him a legend in Detroit jazz. While sometimes likened to John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, or Joe Henderson, Sanders had an unmistakably unique style. His group, Sam Sanders & Visions -- for many years with bassist Ed Pickens and drummer Jimmy Allen, was known for extremely aggressive post-bebop jazz bordering on the avant-garde. Sanders was also active as an educator and concert producer. He was an instructor at the Detroit Metro Arts complex and at Oakland University. He was instrumental in creating the Detroit Jazz Center -- an open jazz school and concert venue presenting artists such as Jackie MacLean, Donald Byrd, and Woody Shaw, with local artists Kenny Cox, Marcus Belgrave, Roy Brooks, Charles Boles, and Danny Spencer, among many others. Sanders began playing while attending Northeastern High School in the '50s with fellow classmates Alice Coltrane, Kenny Cox, and Bennie Maupin. He later attended the Teal Music School and studied privately with Detroit jazz Legend, Yusef Lateef. During his career, Sanders performed with various artists, including: Milt Jackson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, James Blood Ulmer, Sonny Stitt, Pharoah Sanders. Before forming Visions, Sanders and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave fronted a band with pianist Harold McKinney called the Creative Profile. Belgrave and Sanders would continue to perform together, often with Sander's big band, the Pioneer Orchestra. During the last decades of his life, Sanders traveled often to Senegal and eventually settled there with his wife, Viola Vaughn. Official reissue under exclusive license by Viola Vaughn. 180 gram vinyl; hard-cardboard cover with obi.

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: MAR 065LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1978. Australian soul jazz masterpiece. The first album was recorded in Sydney in 1978 by Joyce Hurley, who learned piano basics in the United States and is currently a European singer, pianist, and composer. Although it has been featured in many record guides and reviews as one of the coveted DJs for a long time, it was, for a long time, a rare LP much sought after by collectors. In addition to the standard number, it is composed of instrumental songs by David Martin Group, who serves as a backing, and Afro-Cuban numbers such as "Sambolé" and "Here And Now" are the highlights and killer version of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage". Joyce Hurley's first full-length release. Joyce was a Detroit-born singer who came to Sydney to study at the NSW Conservatorium and recorded this album with the David Martin Group while she was here. The album was recorded at Earth Media Studios in late 1977 and 1978. 180 gram vinyl; hard cardboard sleeve + obi.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: METAPHON 013CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Even though only being fully terminated 50 years after its conception, Azabu can be regarded as the starting point of Michael Ranta's creative self-discovery. The recordings that form the base of Azabu were mostly made in the Tokyo district with the same name (Azabu-Juban). Next to abstracted field recordings, Azabu is also pervaded by a rich variety of percussion, string, and wind instruments, all played by Ranta himself. Subsequently Ranta edited, layered, and processed the recordings at the NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo. Both pieces display a vast array of acoustic, electronic, and concrete sound events meticulously sequenced to a complex fusion symbolizing the entire spectrum of earthly and heavenly sounds. Dynamic extremes evoke a restless flight through space, or through the depths of human subconsciousness, between dream and reality. Ultimately the music disappears, like a dot in the sky gradually fading into nothingness -- an "ascension" that closes the loop in a ritual of life that can begin anew again at any time. Michael Ranta: composition, performance, mixing (1971). Stefan Deistler: final mixing and mastering (2021). Painting: Wayne Jacob. Production: Timo van Luijk. Design: Meeuw. Gatefold cardboard sleeve; eight-page booklet.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: METAPHON 015LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez. "A Late Lunch" is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura's eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects, and juxtaposition of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom, and Blue Gene Tyranny. "A Summer Day at Stony Point" was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota, and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. "A Summer Day at Stony Point" is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur's APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969. The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura's Mon Petit Album was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi, and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavor. Edition of 500."... Gentle threads of instrumental and electronic sounds are mixed with outdoor rural field recordings and occasional voices of his friends speaking, whistling or singing. Bekaert creates a warm environment within which we can hear subtle individual voices of good musicians who are relating to his loosely-notated scores and verbal instructions..." --David Behrman

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: MIND 774LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First time on vinyl. Legendary TV broadcast from the "Big Beat From Badsville" tour. Live at the Vidia Club Cesena, May 5th 1998.

 

PRICE: $8.00

CAT #: OI 015LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reduced pricing, last copies. Modern Silence present a reissue of Metamorphoses, originally released in 1980. A Russian album of electronic interpretations of "classical" pieces by Claude Debussy, Claudio Monteverdi along with John Bull, Vladimir Martynov, Sergei Prokofiev, J. S. Bach, Edward Artemiev and Yuri Bogdanov. Yuri Bogdanov is featured on every track, on some tracks together with Edward Artemiev, composer for Andrei Tarkovsky, and others. Other tracks feature Vladimir Martynov. From the original liner notes: "The record is made on the basis of a kaleidoscope: it is interspersed with pieces of various styles, genres and eras. For example, with these pieces, the authors wanted to show a variety of ways to use a synthesizer, starting with the direct simulation of now or once existing instruments, to the establishment of new not yet known sound systems. Thus, the record is like a small musical walk through time (...)"

 

PRICE: $8.00

CAT #: OI 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reduced prices, last copies. Modern Silence present a reissue of Musical Offering, originally released in 1990. Features works by Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edward Artemiev, Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke. From the original liner notes: "(...) Please, try to imagine a score sounding by itself without a conductor, an orchestra even without musical instruments. This magic is possible by using the musical synthesizer, ANS. ANS is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but even draw his music without notes and orchestra. A Soviet scientist Evgeny Murzin spent about 20 years creating this apparatus which can join together three processes: music creation, recording and performing. All these processes are rather complicated. You can see the twinkling of different lamps, the rotation of grooved discs made of glass - notes are cut on a glass disc covered with a special layer; The drawings on the glass are 'sounding notes'. To listen to the drawn picture you should press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin. Murzin dedicated his apparatus to Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, that's why he called it ANS. Scriabin, the creator of the 'Poem of Ecstasy', used in his works a highly chromatic, new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views and wishes. Soviet music lovers already know some recordings made on ANS from the films Into Space, Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Siberiade (1979) and others. Works of well-known Soviet composers E. Artemiev, O. Buloshkin, E. Denisov, S. Gubaidulina, A. Schnittke featured on this LP were recorded at the Electronic Music Studio (...)"

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: MOV 3271COL-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Blackbird contains the live recordings of the same-titled album by bass player Jaco Pastorius and drummer Rashied Ali. This live recording was broadcast on French Radio, December 19th, 1984 and features their duet performances of John Coltrane 'Naima', Jimi Hendrix 'Purple Haze', Ornette Coleman 'Broadway Blues', amongst others. Student bassists Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Reno Steba, Alan Brennan, and Angel Vicens joined the duo at various times during the performance. Blackbird is available on vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow colour vinyl."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: NECH 021EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The record label NECHTO created by Nastia unveils EP by R.M.K -- a new alias of London's electronic music producer, DJ, and Fossil Archive label head Rob Kirkaldy, also known as Roberto. The record demonstrates a faster and more intense take on the artist's original sound. With a focus on the very core auditory aesthetics of raves, the tracks also incorporate a hypnotic groove element of groove. The EP comprises a thundering bass at higher tempos, whilst preserving a soul within the music itself. "The intention was to make a well-balanced EP aimed at the dancefloor, whilst showcasing a range of sounds that provide enough versatility to keep the listener interested throughout", says the artist on his debut release under the R.M.K alias. Apart from launching his own techno label Fossil Archive, Rob Kirkaldy has established himself as a notable figure both as a techno producer and a masterful DJ. His long-lasting dedication to electronic music has brought him to the world's most renowned club culture establishments, including London's fabric, Berlin's Tresor and Berghain, and many others. R.M.K strives to only deliver the highest quality of music and never settles for anything mediocre, as is proven with this new outstanding EP. "This will be my first full release as R.M.K and I am excited for everyone to hear it. Having the stamp of approval and backing from NECHTO is a great honor and I am excited about the future of this project." --R.M.K

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: OS 046LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Sought-after Belgian minimal synth finally reissued and compiled. Against a backdrop of cold war and economic crises, the DIY attitude of the earlier punk movement had spawned near countless new genres where artists and bands broke the three-chord guitar mold and experimented with new content matter, singular song structures and -- in many cases -- new instruments. Synthesizers became affordable and were no longer the sole privilege of rock millionaires. All around the globe, musical creativity boomed as never before, and Belgium was no exception. Ludo Camberlin and Karel "Bam" Saelemaekers already had a certain track record in Leuven's burgeoning music microcosm. But what they shared would become the cornerstone of A Blaze Colour (Against The Dark Trees Beyond): a fascination for new forms and instruments, a penchant for sonic adventure and a profound love for gripping songs. After appearing on the first No Big Business LP (1981) with the instrumental "Fisk", A Blaze Colour's first proper release, as was so often the case in those days, was a self-produced cassette. The music -- which would later be dubbed "minimal" -- was characterized by the use of basic rhythm machines (Boss Dr. 55, mainly) and analog synthesizers (Korg Delta and MS20, Roland SH-2 and Jupiter IV, and Casio VL-1). Camberlin's vocals, meanwhile, displayed an aloofness totally in sync with the zeitgeist. Equally important, though: all five tracks on this cassette were bona fide songs with a clear sense of structure, aided by a sonic mastery that demonstrated a high level of experience. A few months later, the band released a seven-inch single on its own ABLACO label. "Dark Trees Beyond", a quirky pop song, was coupled with "Addict Of Time", a dark and brooding spoken word piece. The Minny Pops' Wally van Middendorp, who had founded the Plurex label in 1978, invited A Blaze Colour to his studio in the Netherlands, to record an EP. It would prove to be a massive step forward: recording in a semi-professional studio offered great possibilities, the recently acquired TR-808 drum machine allowed for a broader rhythm palette, and the three new tracks (next to the re-recording of "Through With Life") showed a band on the top of their game. Meanwhile, Camberlin had already carved out a bit of a reputation for himself as a producer, while Saelemaekers was a respected graphic designer. It remains uncertain if this played a big part in the end of A Blaze Colour. Short, sweet, visionary, pioneering, and highly influential. First ever compilation of one of the most colorful electronic acts of its time.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: PAL 068CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"In a trajectory full of about-faces, Music for Four Guitars splices the formal innovations of Bill Orcutt's software-based music into the lobe-frying, blown-out Fender hyperdrive of his most frenetic workouts with Corsano or Hoyos. And while the guitar tone here is resolutely treble-kicked -- or, as Orcutt puts it, 'a bridge pickup rather than a neck pickup record' -- it still wades the same melodic streams as his previous LPs (yet, as Heraclitus taught us, that stream is utterly different the second time around). Although it's a true left-field listen, Music for Four Guitars is bizarrely meditative, a Bill Orcutt Buddha Machine, a glimpse of the world of icy beauty haunting the latitudes high above the Delta (down where the climate suits your clothes). I've written before of the immediate misapprehension that greeted Harry Pussy on their first tour with my band Charalambides -- that this was a trio of crazed freaks spontaneously spewing sound from wherever their fingers or drumsticks happened to land -- but I'll grant the casual listener a certain amount of confusion based on the early recorded evidence (and the fact that the band COULD be a trio of crazed freaks letting fly, as we learned from later tours). But to my ears, the precision and composition of their tracks were immediately apparent, as if the band was some sort of 5-D music box with its handle cranked into oblivion by a calculating organ grinder, running through musical maps as pre-ordained as the road to a Calvinist's grave. That organ grinder, it turns out, was Bill Orcutt, whose solo guitar output until 2022 has tilted decidedly towards improvisation, while his fetish for relentless, gridlike composition has animated his electronic music (c.f. Live in LA, A Mechanical Joey). Music for Four Guitars, apparently percolating since 2015 as a loosely-conceived score for an actual meatspace guitar quartet, is the culmination of years ruminating on classical music, Magic Band miniatures, and (perhaps) The League of Crafty Guitarists, although when the Reich-isms got tossed in the brew is anyone's guess. And Reichian (Steve, not Wilhelm) it is. The album's form is startlingly minimalist -- four guitars, each consigned to a chattering melody in counterpoint, repeated in cells throughout the course of the track, selectively pulled in and out of the mix to build fugue-like drama over the course of 14 brief tracks. It's tempting to compare them to chamber music, but these pieces reflect little of the delicacy of Satie's Gymnopedies or Bach's Cantatas. Instead, they bulldoze their way through melodic content with a touch of the motorik romanticism of New Order or Bailter Space ('At a Distance'), but more often ('A Different View,' 'On the Horizon') with the gonad-crushing drive of Discipline-era Crimson, full of squared corners, coldly angled like Beefheart-via-Beat-Detective. Just to nail down the classical fetishism, the album features a download of an 80-page PDF score transcribed by guitarist Shane Parish. And while it'd be just as reproducible as a bit of code or a player piano roll, I can easily close my eyes and imagine folks with brows higher than mine squeezing into their difficult-listening hour folding chairs at Issue Project Room to soak up these sounds being played by real people reading a printed score 50 years from now. And as much as I want to bomb anyone's academy, that feels like a warm fuzzy future to sink into." --Tom Carter Recorded Winter/Spring 2021 at the Living Room, San Francisco. Mastered by James Plotkin.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: PRLX 010LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

First Episode is the ultimate work of duo Re-Arbeiten, Ziv Matushka and Natalie Bar. Previously displaying their vast array of complexities, this one facade a more introvert and delicate peak into their glitchy IDM-infused language. As often is the case with Matushka's productions, they manage to speak the most lyrical poetry using the harshest most elaborate grammar, and vice versa at times, a skill that's reserved only to the true greats. This is the duo's first album, and is one of three which will be released in the coming years. Ziv and Natalie sadly passed away in 2020 and this release is very much in their dear memory.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: PILZ 6580066LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue of the third album by the German band Wallenstein, originally released in 1973. Recorded at the Dierks Studios by Dieter Dierks, the group consisted of bandleader Jürgen Dollase, Harald Grosskopf (drums), Dieter Meier (bass), Bill Barone (guitar), and Joachim Reiser (violin). In 2022 the original analog masters were newly remastered. An elaborate work, which has led to a very good result.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: PINCHE 004LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2022 repress. Second installment of this amazing quest for '60s Mexican gold, Wild Mexico Vol. 2 comes filled to the rafters with the same untamed spirit that made Volume 1 such a special record. This is fun, frantic and obscure rock n' roll at its best, 14 tracks of pure Mexican awesomeness sure to set your ass on fire and leave you asking for more. Get those margaritas ready, set this Pinche Discos record on your hi-fi system and get ready for your jaw to drop, órale! Features Los Hitters, Los Versalites, Beto Diaz Y Su Orquesta, Nanina Y Orquesta De Arturo Castro, Los Puntos Suspensivos, Los Correcaminos, Los Sellers, César Costa, Diego De Cossio Y Sus Barrocks, Los 4 Crickets, Los Beatteens, Dyno, Los Black Birds, and Angélica María.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: PCR 011EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Hamburg's Polycarp Records delivers the Never Ever EP by Bonn, backed with remixes from Johannes Albert and The Cruiser. The Polycarp Records imprint was launched in 2016 by Simon Ferdinand and across its past ten releases has unveiled an array of material from the likes of Pleasant Systems boss Tilman, Frank Music founder Johannes Albert and Simon Ferdinand and Basch, both under their own artist names and of course their collaborative project, Bonn. In 2019, Ferdinand and Basch inaugurated their Bonn guise with a debut album entitled Forget Forgot Forgotten, 2021 saw the release of a follow-up EP entitled Ravenous and here the story continues with the pair's latest collaborative works. The original mix of title-track "Never Ever" opens the EP and lays down crunchy, off-kilter drums alongside mystical atmospherics, an unfurling acid bass lead and loopy, fluttering stab sequences. Johannes Albert's twist on "Never Ever" follows next, the fellow German producer takes things down his signature cosmic, nu-disco path via bubbling arpeggio lines and '80s-tinged resonant leads melded together with fragments from the original composition. "Phero" then opens the flipside and sees Bonn deliver a twitchy house workout fueled by fidgety synth bleeps, dubbed-out chords, and bumpy, saturated drums. Last up to round things out, The Cruiser turns in a high-octane interpretation of "Phero", upping the tempo and reshaping the original's raw elements into a murky, dynamically unfolding thumper.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: RRS 182CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Silver vinyl. Reissue, originally released in 1982. Moody Oxford post-punk quintet Exit 13 became Aerial FX at the dawning of the 1980s, the promise of their minimal sound, with its prominent synthesizers, yielding a publishing deal with Island Records and an early single released by the label. Debut album Watching The Dance has shades of dark synth pop and goth, with future Radiohead manager/producer Chris Hufford firmly in the spotlight throughout. The influence of acts like Van Der Graaf Generator, Modern Eon and others lurk beneath this hidden cold wave gem.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: RRS 182LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1982. Moody Oxford post-punk quintet Exit 13 became Aerial FX at the dawning of the 1980s, the promise of their minimal sound, with its prominent synthesizers, yielding a publishing deal with Island Records and an early single released by the label. Debut album Watching The Dance has shades of dark synth pop and goth, with future Radiohead manager/producer Chris Hufford firmly in the spotlight throughout. The influence of acts like Van Der Graaf Generator, Modern Eon and others lurk beneath this hidden cold wave gem.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: RN 1025LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"RZA returns with the second installment of his three record Bobby Digital Trilogy, coming on the heels of his critically acclaimed first installment Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theatre Rza vs Bobby Digital, produced by DJ Scratch."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RBDC 010EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Running Back's Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London, and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler. Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.'s Undaground Therapy outlet, "Destination Heaven" by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt's Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, unfortunately the duo has never been heard from again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy "Jack" Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. "Intervoles" is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dancefloors can hope for. The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US role models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York's JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente, and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the "Edit Mix" of "I Have Been Wanting You" to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house. Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. There isn't enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK's house scene wouldn't be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, "In My Mind" is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and -- if you will -- a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore deep house.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: STRTLP 014LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Since its inception, the various artist compilation series Saturated! has proven to be the epitome of curation in this small niche scene called bass music or whatever. Each volume is carefully hand-picked and is a picture in sound of the music at that point in time but overall has proven to be timeless. The arrangement works in such ways that each tune flows perfectly into the next one and actually (given that you have two vinyl records like a real DJ), you could mix seamlessly from the first through the last track. Saturate! has become a hotspot for those seeking fresh sounds from well-known and emerging artists within the scene. Channeling the quintessential stylings of low-end driven beats from across the globe, they have been leading the way in all things bass heavy, broken-beat, experimental, glitch, hip-hop, psychedelic, and trap for years now. Having featured releases from names like heRobust and G Jones early on in their careers, Saturate! continues to help push the new school, hip-hop influenced sound forward with their fingers firmly on the pulse of future freshness. A weird, wonky, and wonderful journey through the raw attitude of the blistering beat driven electronic music scene. Features OOTW, Bukez Finezt, Lewcid, RATIONAL SOUL, Starkey, Aprilfoolchild, Jalaya & Dark Velvet, Dayzero, Finnoh & Jack, Maysev, STATX & Long Tongue, DGTL-SGNL, PRESTUS, Dead End, not yes, and Hawkword & Bakaman.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: S4R 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"It doesn't always hurt to hurt? Soul 4 Real's first venture into the albums market is as compellingly essential as the label's impressive singles catalog. Its 11 tracks explore every lonely street and losers avenue that soul music has walked down since the early '60s, tempering essays of heartbreak and love lost with the occasional glimpse of positivity and happiness. It Hurts So Good is very much in the tradition of those great '60s soul compilations where diverse strands of black American music sat side-by-side with each other, and still formed a satisfying listening experience despite their apparent disparity because, in the final analysis, the music mattered most. Just as it does here, in fact. This album showcases just under a dozen goodies by some very big names in soul. It may well be that one or two of the tracks might be less than familiar to you, but you will know the artists -- and you will know, too, that they will never let you down. Originally unissued tracks by James & Bobby Purify and Walter Jackson blend seamlessly with early essentials from Aretha Franklin, Willie Hutch, and the Main Ingredient (as the Insiders). Soul 4 Real has delved into the deeper parts of discographies of legendary artists like Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and Esther Phillips to bring you songs and performances that are every bit as unforgettable as those that forged their reputations. And if you remain unmoved after experiencing the stellar offerings from the Soul Children and Lou Courtney, it may well be that you didn't have a soul to begin with. In the song that gives this collection its title, the great Prince Phillip Mitchell wrote 'it ain't no good unless it hurts a little bit'. It's true, and the 'Hurt' here really IS 'So Good'... and then some..." --Tony Rounce

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: STAGO 185LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

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

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: STAGO 196LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Stag-O-Lee is proud to continue the DJ-Set series with compilation by cult DJ Mr. Rudy. DJ Rudy blew the label away with his selection of tunes at the Goezot festival in Belgium in September 2021. And when he sent the label the list of festivals and weekenders he played at, they were even more impressed. So, Stag-O-Lee invited him to compile what is Volume 7 in the DJ Series on Stag-O-Lee. Features Red (Hot) Russell, Jay Headley, Lenny Capello and The Dots, Bernhard Byers, Freddy Cannon, Donnie Brookes, The Jumpers, Parker Cunningham, Harold Shutters and His Rocats, Frankie Lee Sims, Cousin Leroy, Lance Roberts, Ray Smith, Dale Wright, Tommy Roe, The Phantoms, The Cousins, Jimmy Reed, Larry Trider, Bruce Channel, Farris Wilder and His Band, Bob and The Rockabillies, Gene Kennedy, Ivor Fisher, Joe Melson, Chancellors, Tommy Danton and The Echoes, The Stompers, Bobby Peterson Quintet, and Dean and Jean."When I first heard DJ Rudy play, I could instantly feel the buzz on the dancefloor and see the excitement amongst the dancers. As the night progressed, being a DJ myself, I kept a keen eye on the clearly popular and friendly guy delivering the tunes --many of which (to my delight) I had never even heard before and the dance floor fillers kept coming, well put together and smoothly delivered. At last, I thought, a DJ who knows what the dancers want, isn't afraid to play a really wide mix of rockin' genres, (from rockabilly and r n' b to early sixties garage bands from Belgium!) and was not someone trying to impress with a small box of ultra-rare 45s -- he wasn't in the DJ booth to please himself, he was there to please the crowd and give them what they wanted. Since then, Rudy has played many sets for me at the Rockabilly Rave and is a regular DJ on the international rockin' scene. And the best part of my running into him all those years ago is that he is one of the nicest, warmest, passionate guys the scene has. Always willing to help, always with a huge smile and a kind word and always something positive to contribute. This album is a great taste of what Rudy has brought to the scene. It proves that rockin' tunes can be different and diverse, but if you pick the right ones it's always a rockin' party!" Jerry Chatabox (Oct 2021)

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: STAGO 199CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Buzzsaw Joint was born of a club offering Londoners the chance to revel in the sounds of good ol' trashy rock n' roll in all its vintage vinyl forms. Club top-cat, Fritz, then took the primitive Buzzsaw sounds online with a series of savage Mixcloud mixes created by record fiends from all over the globe. Now, the high-octane energy of Buzzsaw Joint has manifested into the physical form with a run of compilations on Stag-O-Lee. Get your ears around the wild n' weird sounds of the extraordinary and inimitable Buzzsaw Joint! As usual with Stag-O-Lee compile two vinyl volumes on one CD into an 80 minute/32 track monster. Cut 7 comes from the crates of the Canadian couple James and Misty who currently resides in Osaka, Japan. Cut 8 introduces Johnny Alpha and Carl Combover, purveyors of all things sleazy, greasy and raw. Comes with an eight-page booklet with some info and detailed track-by-track notes.Features The Opals, The Dells, Billz Martyn And His Corvairs, The Sevilles, The Cymbals, The Penguins, The Clovers, The Royal Dukes, Googie Rene, Curtis Byrd And The Jo Rag Singers, Cal Valentine & The Texas Rockers, Les Cooper & His Soul Rockers, Dee Clark, Johnny Winter, Lee Castle, Ernie Fields, The Champs, Dynamics, Tarheel Slim, Bobbie Smith, Swan Silvertones, Goodie Rene, Lee The Big Masher Lilly, Plas Johnson, Nite Caps, The Rollers, Secrets, Majestics, Richard Anthony, and Johnny Fisher.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: STAGO 200CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Stag-O-Lee is proud to continue the DJ-Set series with compilation by cult DJ Mr. Rudy. DJ Rudy blew the label away with his selection of tunes at the Goezot festival in Belgium in September 2021. And when he sent the label the list of festivals and weekenders he played at, they were even more impressed. So, Stag-O-Lee invited him to compile what is Volume 7 in the DJ Series on Stag-O-Lee. Features Red (Hot) Russell, Jay Headley, Lenny Capello and The Dots, Bernhard Byers, Freddy Cannon, Donnie Brookes, The Jumpers, Parker Cunningham, Harold Shutters and His Rocats, Frankie Lee Sims, Cousin Leroy, Lance Roberts, Ray Smith, Dale Wright, Tommy Roe, The Phantoms, The Cousins, Jimmy Reed, Larry Trider, Bruce Channel, Farris Wilder and His Band, Bob and The Rockabillies, Gene Kennedy, Ivor Fisher, Joe Melson, Chancellors, Tommy Danton and The Echoes, The Stompers, Bobby Peterson Quintet, and Dean and Jean."When I first heard DJ Rudy play, I could instantly feel the buzz on the dancefloor and see the excitement amongst the dancers. As the night progressed, being a DJ myself, I kept a keen eye on the clearly popular and friendly guy delivering the tunes --many of which (to my delight) I had never even heard before and the dance floor fillers kept coming, well put together and smoothly delivered. At last, I thought, a DJ who knows what the dancers want, isn't afraid to play a really wide mix of rockin' genres, (from rockabilly and r n' b to early sixties garage bands from Belgium!) and was not someone trying to impress with a small box of ultra-rare 45s -- he wasn't in the DJ booth to please himself, he was there to please the crowd and give them what they wanted. Since then, Rudy has played many sets for me at the Rockabilly Rave and is a regular DJ on the international rockin' scene. And the best part of my running into him all those years ago is that he is one of the nicest, warmest, passionate guys the scene has. Always willing to help, always with a huge smile and a kind word and always something positive to contribute. This album is a great taste of what Rudy has brought to the scene. It proves that rockin' tunes can be different and diverse, but if you pick the right ones it's always a rockin' party!" Jerry Chatabox (Oct 2021)

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: GB 133LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Etceteral are a Slovenian experimental trio (saxophone and electronics, drums, visuals) who create a propulsive, polyrhythmic futurist jazz. It is a sound marked by abstract modular explorations, hypnotic drumming, ricocheted horn textures and crystalline production. Interzones between dub, krautrock, Afro-rhythms, free improvisation and quantized electronic music are brightly lit on this thrilling second album. The idea of musical elasticity is central to Rhizome, the sophomore album of the Slovenian audio-visual electronic jazz trio Etceteral who debuted in 2020 with the album Ama Gi for Kapa Records. Following a series of domestic and international gigs, the band consisting of Bostjan Simon (saxophone, synth, electronics), Marek Faku? (drums), and Lina Rica (visuals) returned to the studio, taking their ambition to meld audio and visuals to a whole new level on their debut for the tak:til imprint. On Rhizome, the band explores the interzone between groove-driven contemporary jazz, quantized electronic music, abstract modular explorations and free improvisation. Like rubber that is able to stretch and be returned to its original shape, Etceteral expands its arrangements to the point of no return, pushing its sonic architecture to the maximum without ever letting it collapse onto itself. Given carte blanche to self-produce their second album, they centered it around the concept of rhizome -- a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals. The sophisticated songs of Rhizome are interconnected in their structures, growing from the inside out. With its interlocking synth sequence, saxophone ornaments and hip-shaking syncopations, the opening earworm "Meadow Sage" sets the pace of the record, boasting an ambitious and adventurous sonic character. New songs took shape organically through jams, the only exceptions being the intermezzo "Ton 618," a nod to exploratory modular techno, and the IDM-inspired coda "Idler Idol," both arranged as links between adjacent songs. The interplay between synth sequences, the kick drum, and saxophone represents the foundation of Etceteral's sonic realm. Their sound palette consists of the iconic synth Dave Smith Evolver, a saxophone with a MIDI controller, sound effects, and drums. In Pygmy traditions, one of the band's reference points, every singer or musician follows a single theme or rhythm which is then unified into polyphony or polyrhythmic patterns. Etceteral build their sonic architecture from inside out, never fully defining the outlines of their songs. Even though their sequences are quantized, Faku? only rarely uses click tracks, rather opting for a more instinctive approach to electroacoustic fusionism, which results in a spontaneous flow and jazzy vibe.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: TELE 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Christoph Dahlberg draws fine lines in the music with organic sounds and crackling beats. After his highly acclaimed debut album TIME (2020, Sonderling Records), his second work Blackforms follows at the end of 2022, merging cinematic, experimental electronica, and ambient textures with astonishing compositional consistency. He knows how to peel out details through intelligent sampling, encountering the idea, capturing it and thus freeing himself -- subtlety. Blackforms holds an engaging gloominess that will fascinate you, too. Gatefold cover; includes download.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: TAC 013EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The official reworks of Hans Hass's proto-AOR/cloud rock hymn "Welche Farbe hat der Wind" ("What color is the wind"). The main producer for this release was Marian Tone (of Key Elements), who reworked the track almost from scratch. He re-recorded the drums, the bassline, and some chords while keeping Hass's original vocal layer. The distinctive guitar playing by co-composer Gabor Kristof sparkles throughout. The result is exactly what we had hoped and asked for: a DJ-friendly version of this überclassic track. The idea for this rework project came to mind when label owner DJ Scientist got word from Tobias Kirmayer of Tramp Records that "Welche Farbe hat der Wind" would be officially re-released for the first time on his compilation series Praise Poems as well as on a single reissue. Scientist immediately asked if he could make an edit with louder drums to make the track more playable in a DJ set. However, as the masters of the Tramp reissues had already been submitted to the pressing plant, he was granted permission to re-license the track and rework it for his own label instead. Hence, the reworks feature Scientist's "vintage drums" mix, which has the drums mixed louder, plus drums added at the quite psychedelic and experimental last third, with a few other sound adjustments made. But it was up to Berlin-based DJ and music producer Marian Tone to put the icing on the cake and rework and enhance the song further with his own version. With fellow Key Elements bandmember Steffen Kieslich, he completely re-recorded the drums. Then it was up to Doron Segal to replay the bass and the keys. What we get is the classic sound of "Welche Farbe hat der Wind" -- just updated and fresher. For the first time ever, the track is also available as an instrumental version.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: TZA 022CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Building on the success of this third album, and a major sold-out tour with over 60 dates, the deluxe edition of Imany's Voodoo Cello will contain seven bonus tracks: five unreleased tracks from Bob Marley to Jazmine Sullivan via Tones and I and Donna Summer, and two remixes including the single "Bust Your Windows" (Mexxbeat Remix). For her third studio album, Voodoo Cello released in 2021, Imany chose to gather eight cellos around her for an album of covers that become, without forgetting their roots, her own songs in the service of her convictions. No tricks, only eight cellos with a multitude of possibilities between the lows and the highs: "Sometimes it feels like they could be brass instruments or electric guitars... as if they were haunted." For ten years, Imany's deep voice has seduced the French public with compositions nourished by her soul, folk, and blues inspirations. With the triumph of her first two albums, the soundtrack of the film Sous Les Jupes des Filles and the two singles "Don't Be So Shy" and "You Will Never Know," Imany is enjoying success all over the world. Reworks and remixes also feature Stream Jockey and TIM PLVNK & Ayosha.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: PICI 042CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

These days, Bingo Harry is more often a solo vehicle for songwriter Benny Jones than a band. Benny spent the past few years recording dozens of songs before winnowing them down to fit on second album, Where Do We Go?, not to mention constructing the collage of the album cover. The cosmic inheritor of a certain Marc Bolan-esque knack for simple yet spiritual and thrilling tunes, Benny's songs span seemingly glam-induced groovers to a handful of gentle-but-trippy epics which would be overwrought in lesser hands, but here manage to capture a beautiful bit of the cosmos alongside their relevance to the wearying state of the world today. "Shine If You Can", the album's final track, works as well for an anthem of the times as anything you'll hear in the next few years.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: PICI 047CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The follow-up to 2021's first volume (PICI 028CD/LP), English Primitive II continues the themes introduced previously in a harder, more electric and psychedelic style. The songs were mostly recorded during the same sessions but, if EPI showcased the "songs of innocence", this new set comprises "songs of experience". David Lance Callahan's lyrical themes here are frequently the sleaze and corruption of our "betters", the intentional and unintentional brutality meted out on those weaker and the sometimes perverse ways in which this happens. There are moments of reflection among the broken mirrors, but they allow scant solace or reassurance. Dressed in another of Scottish artist Pinkie McClure's witty and detailed stained glass creations and recorded at home and under a railway arch, EPII rises above its origins and invades the wider world, in all its color, grit, and glory. Each song serves as a monument to its internal tale -- in fact, the whole album is as much a collection of musical short stories as it is an album of songs. Opening with "Invisible Man," the impression of a regular person with hidden grievances, biding his time and waiting to lash out is given. Waves of distant samples ebb and fall as the warped guitars swell and crash behind the main themes.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: UMA 144CS

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released on CD in 1990 by Alchemy Records as part of the Good Alchemy Series, Rainbow Electronics marks the pinnacle of Merzbow's late '80s noise phase. Selected and transformed from about 21 hours tape of primitive raw material recorded during three years (1987-1990) in 14 fragments lasting about 74 minutes, this monumental work is an aural trip through a cold plotted universe of intergalactic space ships and golden celestial bodies. Remastered in December 2019 and split into two parts directly by the artist for the cassette version it opens up with a slow, kind of creepy tempo, reaching from dirty harsh noise flows coupled with eerie reverbed screeches and scrapes of iron objects. Noise and blasts come from every angle, and all you can do is sit and take it. Then continues with solid drumbeats briefly emerging from the static and disappearing just as quickly, again long stretches of subdued electronic drones buzzing along sleepily and the occasional sudden shift of noise into something more violent, though it all happens kind of slowly and gradually. A truly mesmerizing and immersive body of sound and its intense finish is something of pure artform. "I don't need a lot of words about Merzbow. All you have to do is immerse yourself in the sound." translated from Japanese liner notes of Alchemy Records CD by Toshiji Mikawa. Edition of 199; O-card 300g wrapping clear box with j-card and laser print orange shell; includes download code.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: UMA 149CS

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Green Wheels is Merzbow in its most straightforward, most genuine, most uncontrolled and refined form. Originally released by the legendary US label Self Abuse Records in 1995 on CD and 5-inch vinyl record, both housed in a foil-lined cardboard box with the abstract and impressive art work created by the artist himself, which has become another of the fetishist objects of Merzbow and now incredibly hard to find. Like all of his work since the early '90s, Green Wheels is an uncompromising cascade of brutal noise. In this album you find nothing of the minimalism of his early '80s, completely overwhelmed by synthesizers and handmade objects that become his unconventional weapons to create bursts of noise. The three tracks of the original CD, radiate the listener from the rackets of a rain of nails on metal plates, the synthetic crashing bombing, industrial percussion and the metal (green) wheels that roll and scrape. The two very short 5-inch tracks hurt you with thousands of jabs in just a matter of minutes. Then closes with two unreleased tracks from the same fantastic mid-1990s period which can undoubtedly be considered two wonderful discoveries for their intensity and beauty; musical pieces that blend perfectly and complete the reissue on this cassette. When you get to the end of the tape, you will feel purified, once the granite landslide subsides. It is like mental liposuction, eradicating all anguishes and hesitations. Everything was perfectly recorded and mixed in March-May 1995 at ZSF Produkt Studio, Masami Akita's home studio from the late '80s to late '90s; the outcome it's warm and bright as the bare steel of Shinjuko skyscrapers under the (rising) sun of hot Japanese summers. Tape reproduces the original art work; edition of 199; O-card 300g wrapping clear box with j-card and laser print green shell; includes download code.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: UMA 154LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Limited repress. Urashima present a reissue of The New Blockaders' Changez Les Blockeurs, originally released in 1982. Within the history of noise music, there are few artifacts, as seminal as The New Blockaders' Changez Les Blockeurs. Anyone who has even a casual interest in noise music should need no introduction to The New Blockaders. Hailed by Ron Lessard (of legendary US noise label RRR) as, "the first truly devoted noise artists," TNB self-released their debut LP in 1982. That original LP is now one of the most sought-after (and expensive) noise records ever. The fact that Changez Les Blockeurs is held in such high esteem by the likes of Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), who was the first person to hear the LP back in 1982 and reworked the album as NWW Plays Changez Les Blockeurs (DPROM 138CD,2018), David Jackman (Organum), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Masami Akita (Merzbow), Toshiji Mikawa (Incapacitants) and countless others is testament to its greatness and well-deserved legendary status. Lying in wait for almost 40 years, the LP emerged again in 2004 as a limited edition on the German Vinyl-On-Demand label, and since then has remained rare, elusive, and coveted -- until now. 2022 will mark the 40th anniversary (or, more accurately, anti-versary) of Changez Les Blockeurs and in celebration of this, Urashima present a limited reissue which has been expertly remastered at Audiplex Studio in Hamburg by Asmus Tietchens, himself a well-known German avant-garde composer. Black virgin vinyl; includes 12x12" insert; edition of 199."Changez Les Blockeurscaused a lot of fuss back in the early '80s, with its two 'tracks' of disorientating junk noise, squeaks, scrapes and the pitter-patter of rain on a tin roof. Lumps of metal get thrown around in a bid to resurrect the ghost of Tristan Tzara, two invalids in wheelchairs fencing with broken car aerials, two elephants fencing on bicycles, two squeaky wheelchairs fighting over a slack spring, it could or an army of tin men dismantling a Jean Tinguely sculpture while bouncing around on pogo sticks in need of three-in-one. We'll never know, and that's half of the appeal Changez Les Blockeurs sounds like nothing else before or since. It's magnificent in its absurdity. Its construct is simple but yet devastatingly effective. Today you'd be hard pressed to find anyone involved in Noise who doesn't cite TNB as an influence." --Mark Wharton

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: UMA 163LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reissue, originally released in 1991. Incapacitants are the best noise band to ever come out of Japan; the group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, as the solo project of Toshiji Mikawa, a member of the amazing noise group Hijokaidan. Mikawa later moved to Tokyo, where he joined with Fumio Kosakai (also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C.) to make Incapacitants a duo and they released its first album Feedback of N.M.S. on Alchemy Records CD in 1991. Sometimes it's the result of luck. In others it's due to years of rigorous work or through unlikely combinations of individual creative practices. In the case of Feedback of N.M.S., the first release to feature the collaborative duo of Mikawa and Kosakai, all three are in play. Comprising three tracks of visionary expression -- incorporating elements of junk metal, modular synthesis, hand-made noisy objects, and real-time instrumental and vocal improvisation -- it encounters each artist entering a new stage of their career, harnessing the challenges posed by the other as a means to drive toward new creative unknowns. Central to this is the pair's unique approach to structure and form, in addition to their chosen instruments and electronics. The first track "Curse Of Ceau?escu", played on two sides of the first vinyl is something incredible. A truly stunning, visionary expanse of texture and tonality -- pushing noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms. The others two tracks that fill the sides of the second vinyl complete this masterpiece increasingly pushing into more constrained of electronics phenomena, site specific resonance, and complex harmonic interplay, that consistently rethink the terms of noise, infusing it with tension, dissonance, and a deeply emotive, human touch. An absolutely masterful piece of work, threaded with risk, ambition, raw immediacy, and precision. While astounding artists in their own right, deserving every bit of the accolades they've thus far received, Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai seem capable of something profound together that has yet to have heard. Feedback of N.M.S. is everything you would hope to hear from an experimental endeavor and so much more. Includes six cards reproducing Takuya Sakaguchi's original drawings and adding an unreleased drawing and extensive notes in Japanese and English; edition of 299.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: UMA 164LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1982. Zouroku No Kibyo is the first album by Hijokaidan, released in April 1982. It is a compilation of live recordings from 1981, when the extreme performances of Hijokaidan first attracted attention, and is a record of the chaotic inner energy of young people in their early 20s, influenced by rock, jazz, contemporary music, and avant-garde art, erupting outside. It was first released on the independent Osaka label Unbalance Records and came to be regarded as a historical masterpiece of independent recordings in Japan. It was later released on CD several times by Alchemy Records, and was also released by the major Japanese label Teichiku Entertainment. An analog reissue of the album was released in 2006 by the German label Vinyl On Demand in the form of a double LP set. This will be the first time that the album will be reissued in its original form as a single analog disc, this time on Urashima in 2022. Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise band with a turning lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki "JOJO" Hiroshige, its one constant member, who is owner of the legendary Osaka-based Alchemy Records. The ensemble began at the very end of the '70s as a performance art-based unit whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group's lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of white noise created by each member both for live performances and for studio recordings. Zouroku no Kibyo resting at a fascinating juncture between space-harsh progressive, improv and noise, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared becoming one of the great holy grails of Japan noise. Creatively thrilling -- filled with emotive highs and lows -- it's a crucial piece in the puzzle of Japan's wild and wonderful history of noise music. The album pushes noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms, improvising with a ferocity different from that of hard rock or punk, and a chaos unlike that of free jazz. Released with original cover art with draw by Hideshi Hino, plus all the inserts that were on the original 1982 LP: live photo book (two A3 double face foldable), one Japanese sheet, and a lucky triangle card with, exclusively for this edition, extensive liner notes by JOJO in Japanese and English. Edition of 299.

 

PRICE: $85.50

CAT #: UMA 166LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"From around 1998, Yamazaki Maso started to incorporate trippy, spacey electronic elements into Masonna performances. In order to better pursue these elements alone, in 2000 he started Space Machine, his self-labeled 'analog electronic cosmic sound project'. For as long as he had been performing under the Masonna moniker, Yamazaki had been ardent fan of early electronic music from the '50s and '60s, and in order to research the impact that electronic sounds had upon the spiritual lineage audible in sixties US and British psychedelic music and seventies krautrock, Yamazaki began collecting analog synthesizers and vintage electronic equipment. He continuously experimented with these instruments in his home studio, and while groping towards an understanding he discovered a new direction for his own music, a direction different from his work as Masonna. The violent extremity of Masonna live performances made no allowances for avoiding inevitable and direct physical damage to the body. In 2000 Yamazaki was forced to temporarily cease Masonna activities due to ill health, and this allowed him to concentrate more fully on Space Machine. Space Machine -- the end result of Yamazaki's daily inner trip explorations of music at his Space Machine Systems Studio -- and Masonna are like two sides of the same coin. Space Machine's concept exists at the opposite pole to Masonna's screaming noise action and extreme one-man rock band style. In Space Machine, all vocals, physical action and rock elements have been comprehensively excluded in favor of a non-rhythmic, pure electronic sound that cannot even be considered as part of the noise genre. The sounds are created using only analog echo machines and analog synthesizers (including the EMS VSC3, Roland System 100 & 100M, PAIA 4700 Modular, Doepfer Modular, etc.) There is no use whatsoever of the fuzz and distortion effects so characteristic of noise and rock's musical palette and which were heavily featured in Masonna. While the sound does have points in common with what is generally known as electronica or onkyo, what sets it firmly apart is the music's tenaciously psychedelic viewpoint. The absence of a beat signals its difference to the hedonistic physicality of trance dance music. And of course, there is no connection to old synthesizer music with its whiff of religion and its leanings towards new age naturalism. However, in the fervent and endless cosmic spaces of Space Machine, in the infinite floating weave of its future retro electronic tapestry, in its mixture of the organic and inorganic we can perceive an uncanny vibration..." --Satoru Higashiseto (from box set liner notes)This incredible box, released in a deluxe wooden edition with digital printing on the lid, contains the first album Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter released on CD on Alchemy Records and the four mini CDs released on P-Tapes, California based label run by Damion Romero, reissued for the first time on vinyl on three records. The box is accompanied by a series of photos of the impressive equipment used by Maso Yamazaki taken by Masahiko Ohno and extensive notes in Japanese by Satoru Higashiseto, translated into English by Alan Cummings. Edition of 199.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: VAMPI 168LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. "This whole project grew out of a song called 'Cycles Of You', which I had written around 2000-2001 with the guitarist and bassist of my band at the time, Easy. The chord progression and vocal melody really reminded me of Joe Bataan, and it occurred to me that it wouldn't be impossible to get him into the studio to do a guest vocal if we ever recorded it. I had met Bataan a few years before at Nuyorican Poets Cafe in my neighborhood. Around this time Bataan was playing out again, so I went to the show to see him and find out if he'd be interested in doing some vocals with us. He was agreeable, so we decided to turn it into a Joe Bataan session and do 'Cycles Of You'. When I got the opportunity from Vampisoul to do a full album, I was hoping Bataan and I could write some songs together, but our schedules proved tough to coordinate. I figured the best way to go about it was to do most of the work and just have him come sing on it. The rhythm section was a band called TransLove Airways that I formed in 2002. To this core group I added pieces from a few other local bands: The Middle Initials, who are a great Temptations/Main Ingredient-style vocal group, and members of an incredible Latin band called Grupo Latin Vibe, who were responsible for almost all the percussion and the vibraphone solo on 'I'm The Fool Pt. 2'. There was also some fine trombone playing by Aaron Johnson of Antibalas and great flute work by Neal Sugarman and my cousin Sonny. Preparing for Call My Name, I listened to a lot of different records from the mid to late '70s. It has now been over ten years since the completion of this record, and so much has changed. The Call My Name sessions took place when Daptone had just moved to Bushwick, its now-famous current location. Gabe Roth was my first call whenever I had any recording to do. He was yet to become the legendary figure at the center of the Daptone/Truth & Soul universe. He was just a humble guy with an incredible talent and an impeccable ear who made authentic sounding records with inexpensive analog gear." -- Daniel Collás, producer of Call My Name

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: WG 096EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A vital collective member and resident, JAMIIE steps up for her long-awaited debut EP on Watergate Records. The artist has been a regular at the club stretching back to 2016, when she joined RISE, the Afro house collective that runs monthly residencies at Watergate. Despite this, JAMIIE has always gone her own way sonically, exploring deeper house and melodic tones, alongside the Afro influences. Beginning life during a summer-time sketch session in bed (her favorite spot to start new creative ideas), "Voices" is an emotive weapon, driven by a captivating synth lead, and chunky Afro-infused bottom end. "'Voices' is mysterious and is inspired by our thoughts, our inner voice," JAMIIE shares. "There's something truly mysterious and remarkable about our inner voice, the means by which we make ourselves aware of who we are and what we think and even feel. Our inner voice is very powerful. It can lift us up and weigh us down. It also makes decisions for us, even when sometimes we don't want to listen to it." "Unfold Me" is a glorious end-of-night future classic, as grandiose synths rub shoulders with beautiful bass melodies, before a delicate key interlude gives JAMIIE the opportunity to build the energy right back up again. "This has a personal meaning and again, has to do with the journey inwards to discovered ourselves. Like many other people I am an extroverted introvert. I think we can be quite confusing and peculiar to others. On the one hand, social and outgoing; on the other, very guarded, selective and hard to get to know. So, it needs time to unfold the layers to understand an extrovert introvert person, if they should let you in," she explains. The originals are complemented by a trio of tight remixes chosen by JAMIIE, from three artists close to her heart: Portuguese Afro tech producer DJEFF delivers a blissfully silky re-work of "Voices"; Italian artist Malandra Jr., whose most notably released on Diynamic, crafts a chugging and cosmic reinterpretation of the title track, while Stil Vor Talent's Annett Gapstream sends "Unfold Me" on a dreamy orbit skywards.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 067CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

WRWTFWW Records announce the 18-track ZENTSUU: Collected Works 2001-2019, the first ever best-of compilation of Soichi Terada's amazing project OMODAKA. Initiated in 2001 while trying to create a "boat racing song", the OMODAKA project features sublime music by veteran electronic/house/jungle/video game music producer/DJ Soichi Terada and the vocals of Japanese folk min'yo and enka singer Akiko Kanazawa for a never-heard-before colorful blend of retro game 8-bit/chiptune sounds and traditional Japanese music with wet electro rhythms, joyful '90s house grooves, and slick downtempo vibes. Feel-good, sexy, and fun, Terada's project brings forth one of the most unique sounds in recent memory. The smile-inducing sonic adventure is packed with irresistible hits and a good dose of dancefloor-ready gems: a well-deserved delivery of good times for 2022 and beyond.Tokyo born genius, Soichi Terada has built an impressive career in different music genres. He co-founded respected label Far East Recording with Shinchiro Yokata, composed the soundtrack for cult video game series Ape Escape, released tons of amazing house music records (some included in the beautiful compilation Sounds from the Far East released by Rush Hour in 2015), and has been a celebrated world-touring DJ.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: ABERRANT 007LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

An amazing showcase of disco, electro, funk, and more from the USSR 1979-1990. A mind-blowing introduction to the obscure world of soviet dance music. 12 tracks of pure soviet disco fever. Alright, put on your dancing shoes and get ready for a weird trip to the dancefloor, to a time when the Soviet Union -- still alive and under the flag of the hammer and sickle -- managed to produce some wonderfully odd and hypnotic disco hits, mutant funk smashers and electro hip breakers. Coming from all over the huge landscape that the USSR was, the artists on this killer compilation showcase a variety of visions on the subject of shaking the ass that will surprise even the most cynical connoisseur of the genre. Features Mirdza Zivere, ????????, Anzhelina Petrosova / ???????? ?????????, Pervouralsk / ????????????, Güljan Hümmedowa / ???????? ?????????, Roza Rymbaeva / ???? ????????, ???????? ??????????? & ???????, Janina Mis?iukait?, Verasy, Formula Dreyka / ??????? ??????, Eolika, and Raduga / ??????.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BANG 163LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Bang! Records present an expanded and remastered reissue of the Fuzztones' Preaching to the Perverted, originally released in 2011. Preaching to the Perverted was the seventh studio album by the legendary NYC garage rock band The Fuzztones. The album was produced by the leader and sole survivor of the original Fuzztones line-up Rudi Protrudi and Berlin keyboardist Lana Loveland. Includes two bonus tracks previously unreleased from the recording sessions. On this album, The Fuzztones keep their fuzz spreading. Remastered; edition of 600.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: BBI 030LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Field School began as an experiment. As the pandemic pushed us into social isolation, Charles Bert realized that writing and recording with bandmates was off the table. But instead of burrowing away to wait it out, he seized the moment: writing, arranging, and recording songs on which he played every instrument, learning on the fly. His ingenuity was contagious, inspiring his friend, artist Jimmy Ulvenes, to start Small Craft Advisory to introduce the world (50 cassettes at a time) to Field School. When Summer Comes is a collection of these pocket-sized recordings, released as a debut album on Bobo Integral. K Records style indie pop but also the nearly mystical natural world of the Pacific Northwest is featured, with apple orchards, rippling rain, and aquatic phosphorescence drifting through the imagery. And with astonishing deftness, Charles also channels the questions and affinities of his older self through this effervescent style, allowing "twee" to grow up and flourish and renew. When Summer Comes is a panoramic album, traveling through wistful recollections and insecurity with humor and beaming hope. It's a reminder that after the separations of the pandemic, after hardship, after loss, you create your own now and you can keep learning and growing and living into the answers. Charles Bert made his mark in Seattle indie pop combo Math and Physics Club. RIYL: Math and Physics Club, Beat Happening, The Softies, The Reds, Pinks & Purples.

 

PRICE: $19.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 055LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress; LP version. Best of the best of French punk tracks. Only French KBD killer tracks. Released for the forthcoming exhibition "Europunk" at Cite de la Musique (Paris - October 2013/January 2014). The first French incarnations of "Le Punk" (pronounced "paink" in numerous locales) were not carbon copies of their foreign exemplars. Babbling, swarming, morphing, genuinely disorganized anarchy, bad intentions transformed into good ones: that's how punk rock (or at least a close approximation) was initially adapted to fit our peculiar French perspective. There was not the slightest network to distribute records or organize concert tours. Older generations were hostile (or worse, compassionate or even paternalistic). There was nothing and no one to forge a connection between the handful of small, isolated groups, fundamentally motivated by a passion for what they deemed true rock 'n' roll (the desire to terrorize the neighborhood arrived soon afterward), each in their own little world, trying to provoke their backwater village or their lame metropolis, and meeting, of course, with total indifference. Artists include: Les Nouveaux Riches, Strychnine, Electrochoc, Gasoline, Sexe A Pile, Soggy, Marie France, Ruth Elyeri, Les Olivensteins, Coronados, Dogs, Warm Gun, Gloires Locales, and Guilty Razors.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BR 158LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

This compilation brings together 22 sound poems, including both pioneering and current pieces, and constitutes itself as the first great overview of sound poetry from Peru. It continues a cycle that began in 2009 with the appearance of a CD called Inventar La Voz: Nuevas Tradiciones Orales [To Invent the Voice: New Oral Traditions] and was followed up in 2011 with another one called Irse De Lengua [To Let It Slip], both of which contributed to articulate diverse manifestations of poetry that used technological means, also in the context of intense activity in the local scenes of experimental music and sound art that opened spaces for interdisciplinary dialogues. What we know as sound poetry is the product of a technological revolution associated with the appearance of various means of recording, transmission and amplification of the voice. A long process that took shape in the 20th century, until it became a discipline, articulated as an international movement which, based on phonetic research, expanded into a universe of oral/vocal artistic practices as part of a new technological context. The recordings gathered here comprise a time frame that goes from 1972 to 2021. You find poems that work with montage techniques, either because they explore simultaneity or juxtaposition, such as those by Mario Montalbetti, Frido Martín, Florentino Díaz, Carlos Estela, Luisa Fernanda Lindo, Macri Cáceres, Rodrigo Vera Cubas, Tilsa Otta, Giancarlo Huapaya/Omar Córdova, Virginia Benavides, Lisa Carrasco, and Luis Alvarado. Others emphasize vocal/oral performance: you find the phonetic poems of Carlos Germán Belli and Eduardo Chirinos, as well as the concrete conceptual poems of Michael Prado, Sandra Suazo, Peru Saizprez, and the oral/guttural poem of Omar Aramayo. Finally, you find another group of pieces where the poem starts with the creation of a computational parameter or algorithm, as is the case with the pieces by Jorge Eduardo Eielson and Enrique Verástegui, eventually reaching the use of Artificial Intelligence as in the poems by Francisco Mariotti and Paola Torres Núñez del Prado. The Verbal Matter: An Anthology of Peruvian Sound Poetry is part of a series produced by Buh Records for Centro del Sonido, a website set up as a digital archive of Peruvian experimental music and sound art. Includes extensive notes and visual documentation. Mastered by Alberto Cendra. Art by René Sánchez. Edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SPDM 019CD

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Digitmovies presents on CD the original soundtrack from the film Nati Morti performed by Basement's Glare. Directed by Alex Visani and starring Lorenzo Lepori, Ingrid Monacelli, and Ester Andriani. Luna is a young embalmer with a strange passion for everything concerning death. One day, during a trip in the woods, she finds two bodies. The first one is a dead woman, the other one is a man who is still barely breathing. From this moment, Luna's life will change forever and a horrifying spiral of violence will take place around her existence. Basement's Glare began shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic exploded. Following the restrictions caused by the imposed isolation, Basement's Glare have recorded and released their first single, "Red Zone", which deals directly with the issue of social distancing and its consequences. Subsequently, the duo decided to complete the recordings of the eponymous EP as previously scheduled, working mostly remotely. Basement's Glare are composed by Riccardo Adamo and Daniele Marinelli as stable members, and by various session musicians. The collaboration turned out to be so fruitful and satisfying that the duo decided to cement it, opening musical horizons and making Basement's Glare an all-round musical project, with no limits of musical genre or intended use. Edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: JD 054EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Originally written by João Bosco and Aldir Blanc and released on Bosco's 1976 album Galos De Briga, "O Ronco da Cuica" is a samba/MPB masterpiece. In the song, the cuíca roars: roars in anger, roars from hunger and is told to stop, but it cannot -- "it's a man thing" explains Bosco in the lyrics. Personifying the instrument in this way, "O Ronco da Cuica" points to something quite profound about the nature of human suffering and our primitive need for expression. On this brilliant reimagining, renowned bassist Dudu Lima teamed up with Joao Bosco himself, as well as Azymuth drummer Ivan "Mamão" Conti, pianist Dudu Viana, and percussionist Marcos Suzano. Ironically, this version contains no cuíca, instead it takes a more stripped back instrumentation, exploring the deep jazz potential of this roaring samba classic, to stunning effect. On the B-side is a beautiful duet between Dudu Lima and João Bosco: acoustic guitar and vocals, and fretless bass -- together they take on "Imcompatibilidade De Gênios", also from Bosco's 1976 Galos De Briga album.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 701LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Pioneer of the New York no wave with the bands Mars and Don King, Mark Cunningham has been part of the Barcelona music underground for almost 30 years, performing solo, with his own groups Raeo, Convolution, Aleatory Grammar, and Bèstia Ferida, as a member of Pascal Comelade's Bel Canto Orchestra and Superelvis, and in countless local and international collaborations. Blood Quartet was formed in early 2015 in Barcelona from a fortuitous collaboration between Cunningham and Catalan underground rock trio Murnau B. An outstanding musical treat that starts from the instrumental base of the modern jazz quartet and takes it to the territory of experimentation and electronics. Blood Quartet sound more luminous and rhythmic than ever, diving into uncharted terrain. This results in an exceptional range of genres that play with the form between the classic and the contemporary, and that extend the creative spectrum of the band towards new styles, such as krautrock and North African music. The result of this process has given rise to nine themes, each one baptized with the title of a literary work by some reference writers of the members of the quartet, in order to add more roots of meaning, more shadows of influence. Produced by Mark Cunningham. Composed by Blood Quartet. Recorded by Pablo Miranda at Fabra i Coats, Barcelona. Mixed by Pablo Miranda at La Isla Estudio, Barcelona. Mastered by Chris Hardman, UK. Personnel: Mark Cunningham - trumpet, guitar; Lluis Rueda - Guitar; Kike Bela - bass, Korg MS-10; Marc Eugeni - drums.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: GR 2156LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reissue, originally released in 2002. Esplendor Geométrico, the influential industrial pioneers of the pulsating, hypnotic and mechanical rhythms, present the extended version of their album Compuesto de Hierro to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release. Recorded in Beijing in 2002 and out of print for over 15 years, Compuesto de Hierro was originally released only on CD and now for the first time on double vinyl including on side D four new and unreleased tracks recorded in 2022, inspired by the music on the album. Now remastered for vinyl, the sleeve design is based on the original cover. Compuesto de Hierro is a perfect example of the industrial-tribal sound of Esplendor Geométrico, developed over more than two decades, reminiscent at times of their most "ethnic" album, Mekano-Turbo. The hypnotic and elaborate rhythms are masterfully combined with vocals, electronic analog sounds, and sonorities from the Far East, especially from China. Compuesto de Hierro represents a unique viewpoint in the fusion of traditional or ethnic music with classical industrial music. Esplendor Geométrico: Arturo Lanz and Saverio Evangelista. Composed by Arturo Lanz. Design: Alonso Urbanos and Andrés Noarbe (original cover). Remastered by Luca Spagnoletti, 2022. Edition of 600 (numbered).

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: JMAN 107X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Limited 2022 repress. Due to overwhelming demand for Jazzman Records' five-LP boxset, here are the first ever official individual reissues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet. The five albums; 1965's Shades Of Blues, 1966's Dusk Fire (JMAN 108X-LP), 1968's Phase III (JMAN 109X-LP), 1969's Change Is (JMAN 111X-LP), and 1969's Live (JMAN 110X-LP), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artifacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second-hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000. Jazzman Records located and acquired the original analog master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180 gram pressings replete with replica artwork -- shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labor of love to the highest possible standard. Inside is a link to a printable online pdf which contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter, and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton. The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest and is a treasure not to be missed. Original replica flipback color sleeves; 180 gram vinyl, mastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, London; poly-lined and printed individual inner sleeves; contains link to online PDF with printable liner notes.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: JMAN 108X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Limited 2022 repress. Due to overwhelming demand for Jazzman Records' five-LP boxset, here are the first ever official individual reissues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet. The five albums; 1965's Shades Of Blues (JMAN 107X-LP), 1966's Dusk Fire, 1968's Phase III (JMAN 109X-LP), 1969's Change Is (JMAN 111X-LP), and 1969's Live (JMAN 110X-LP), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artifacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second-hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000. Jazzman Records located and acquired the original analog master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180 gram pressings replete with replica artwork -- shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labor of love to the highest possible standard. Inside is a link to a printable online pdf which contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter, and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton. The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest and is a treasure not to be missed. Original replica flipback color sleeves; 180 gram vinyl, mastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, London; poly-lined and printed individual inner sleeves; contains link to online PDF with printable liner notes.

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: LR 135C-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2022 repress. Lilith present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (A Little More Blue), originally issued in 1971. Often referred to as "Brazil's unofficial poet laureate" and the "Bob Dylan of Brazil", this heavyweight of Brazilian music was also a young revolutionary who used his music to protest against Brazil's oppressive military regime. This protest music, which became known as tropicalia, first earned Veloso a stint in jail, but by the time this dour album was released in 1971, it had placed him in exile in the UK. Veloso's extreme bitterness and melancholy can be heard on every groove of this album, but don't let the album's gloomy atmosphere stop you from buying it; it is dripping with some of the best moments of saudade in the history of Brazilian music. Color vinyl.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: MD 006LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Vintage Violence: Barbaric, Crude & Primitive 1975-1979 is a selection of material Greg Prevost recorded with his past bands before forming the Chesterfield Kings. If you are a fan, you probably know that Greg Prevost played in different bands before forming the Chesterfield Kings. Only one of them, the Distorted Levels, released a 7" at the time, in 1978. But there were many more. You may have heard or read about mystery bands such as Mr Electro & The Void, The Cutdowns, Mr Electro & the Psychedelic Burnouts, etc. They all recorded profusely, but most master tapes eventually disappeared, in no less mysterious circumstances. Still, some recordings survived... and here you have a selection of this material: all demos, all previously unreleased, plus the Distorted Levels 7", as well as four tracks recorded by early Chesterfield Kings line-ups from 1978-79. Also features Mr. Electro & The Psychedelic Lampshade. Includes detailed track-by-track notes by Greg, including over 30 photos/press-clippings from his personal archive, and liner notes from Mike Stax (Ugly Things magazine), whose final verdict of this whole artifact could not be more exact: "Barbaric. Crude. Primitive. Beautiful."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: MD 007CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Vintage Violence: Barbaric, Crude & Primitive 1975-1979 is a selection of material Greg Prevost recorded with his past bands before forming the Chesterfield Kings. If you are a fan, you probably know that Greg Prevost played in different bands before forming the Chesterfield Kings. Only one of them, the Distorted Levels, released a 7" at the time, in 1978. But there were many more. You may have heard or read about mystery bands such as Mr Electro & The Void, The Cutdowns, Mr Electro & the Psychedelic Burnouts, etc. They all recorded profusely, but most master tapes eventually disappeared, in no less mysterious circumstances. Still, some recordings survived... and here you have a selection of this material: all demos, all previously unreleased, plus the Distorted Levels 7", as well as four tracks recorded by early Chesterfield Kings line-ups from 1978-79. Also features Mr. Electro & The Psychedelic Lampshade. Includes detailed track-by-track notes by Greg, including over 30 photos/press-clippings from his personal archive, and liner notes from Mike Stax (Ugly Things magazine), whose final verdict of this whole artifact could not be more exact: "Barbaric. Crude. Primitive. Beautiful." CD version includes an additional track.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: MP 012LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Grains is the debut album by Numinos on Mille Plateaux. The Cologne-based producer, DJ, author, and lecturer has been writing the tech-reviews in Groove for many years, tests equipment for various specialist magazines and teaches at the Institute for Pop Music (IFPOM) and Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) of the Folkwang University. In his current creative phase, he conceptually deals with the topic of "granular synthesis". A "grain" is thus, to a certain extent, a tiny spectral snapshot from a larger musical context -- an infinitely expandable, flowing intermediate state. This is also where the connection to the cover motif is found that shows the negative of a photograph of a wild field and has been taken Bernd Adamek-Schyma: The negative as an eternal intermediate state between the motif and the developed image. And despite the fact that Numinos has a fully equipped studio with a wide range of instruments, the 20 Euro iPad app "Borderlands Granular" turned out to be the creative catalyst that enabled the trained pianist to implement his sound ideas with direct haptic influence. The app gives the Cologne-based sound artist the opportunity to extract tiny fragments from the sample based on their specific tonality, to recontextualize them and thus work out structures that are not audible at the original tempo. The results are polyrhythmic sound scenes that appear harsh, artificial and strange in a moment, only to transform into contemplative, warm and familiar frequency stratification minutes later. Numinos deceives the listener in many ways. Above all with the supposed rhythm that does not exist. Because in fact almost all granular clusters within the pieces run in completely asynchronous loops. The addition of a simple kick drum then forces the brain to suddenly hear apparent triplets, quintoles, or dotted eighths in these mathematically completely chaotic structures, which are purely fallacy.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: MR 433LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reissue, originally released in 1986. In the mid-80s Granada, a small city in the south of Spain, was a redoubt of avant-garde resistance. While Madrid bragged about being the capital of the new wave scene -- the much-trumpeted Movida madrileña --, away from any media interest the Andalusian city was part of a European wide network where the free circulation of ideas and knowledge could be linked to the current copyleft movement. They exchanged music following that do-it-yourself philosophy in which the cassette had an ideal role as the vehicle of music diffusion. Ani Zinc would become an expert amateur of such activities. As a child, radio was her only contact with music. She received her first shock listening to "Remember Love", the repetitive song by Yoko Ono. She later found out about Llorenç Barber. Only when she arrived in Granada to study psychology did she discover that she wasn't the only one that liked a kind of music that didn't resemble anything. Granada's proximity to Africa made it possible to tune into Arabic, flamenco, and pop radio stations. Unable to get that Yoko Ono song off her mind, she started discovering the possibilities of her voice. Diseño Corbusier was born out of that obsession. Also, out of the electronic explorations of Javier G Marín, then a first-year law student. They had met in 1981 after an ad in the music magazine Vibraciones. If their first record ("Pérfido encanto", 1985) was a vibrant experiment where the rhythms weren't yet muscled up, with El alma de la estrella (1986) the duo took a step ahead. They renovated some electronic equipment and signed a distribution deal between their own label, Auxilio de Cientos, and one of the most prosperous Spanish independents of the '80s, Nuevos Medios, who were working with labels such as Factory at the time. "Golpe de Amistad" came up as the most international track of a brilliant, expressionist and charmingly domestic repertoire. More confident than ever, Ani Zinc manipulated reality as if it were plasticine. El alma de la estrella gathered all her obsessions. On "Chiquillo" she imitated the angry women's voices which filled the streets of the poor neighborhood where she had grown up. "Ritmo 21" can't hide her admiration for Yoko Ono's vocal register and the records by French female singers that her sister used to bring her from Paris. "El club del ruido" came about as a fragmented document of an interview they did on the radio show of the same name. Rather than electronic or even industrial music, Diseño Corbusier's second album was a vibrant piece of domestic craftwork.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: MR 434LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First time official reissue. Originally released in 1967. Los York's became the epitome of Peruvian garage sound, and the kings of the multi-group concerts which teenagers flocked to on Saturday and Sunday mornings in Lima's main movie theaters. The group was in tune with the youth from popular districts who were gradually turning morning concerts into dynamic gigs as the fashion for solo rock-ballads waned and garage sounds by bands like Los Shain's, Los Derbys, Los Juniors, Los Flyers, and, of course, Los York's took over. Their supportive fans would follow them to every gig. After releasing their three first singles on MAG, featuring covers of popular hits, it took them a year to turn their ideas into songs for their first LP that was successfully released at Christmas in 1967. The band was backed by Melcohita on vibraphone and Mario Allison on percussion. It features a beat-influenced go-go twang guitar garage psych tone throughout, including a bunch of covers like Alan Y Sus Bates' "Pronto Un Doctor" or The Box Tops' "The Letter", and amazing originals like "No Puedo Amar" with an intense garage beat.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: MR 7357EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First time reissue. When the Alessi twins saw their heyday in 1976, their moderate hit "Seabird" resonated strongly in the head of Javier Guerrero, son of the Peruvian label Discos MAG's founder Manuel A. Guerrero. The luminous melody of the song fits perfectly into the daily scenes of Lima surfers, establishing a curious parallelism with the idyllic Californian landscape and its traditional surfer way of life. It was not long before Guerrero entered into the recording studio accompanied by Ernesto Samamé, bassist in We All Together, the band led by Javier's brother, Carlos Guerrero, as well as a member of Laghonia, Fe 59, and a few other musical projects. In his hands, "Seabird" became an even brighter song than its original version, a potential perfect soundtrack for a scene taken from The Endless Summer, musical gold for any yacht-rock fan despite its less sophisticated and rawer production. The single was completed with another version, "Put A Little Away", a late hit by Frankie Valli's The Four Seasons, and was released in 1997 on MAG Records, with a tiny distribution most likely limited to Peru.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: MR 7358EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First time fully licensed 7" reissue. By the mid-60s, Kenny Johnson and several of his Bakersfield (California) acolytes had relocated to Los Angeles and were playing gigs all over. "See If I Care" is a killer 1966 organ-led snotty garage punker that was credited to the pseudonymous Ken & The Forth Dimension. At the time, this song was considered a relative throwaway compared to its pop A-side, "Rovin' Heart". However, an error with the original pressing that reversed the 45 labels meant that anyone that might have played the record expecting the schlocky sentiments of the main track, got an earful of garage band insolence instead. Many years on and "See If I Care" reached a cult status after being included in the Back From the Grave series becoming a popular spin in the garage scene.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: NAP 001EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Punchy, UK inspired house EP.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: REGRM 009LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress. De Natura Sonorum (1975): Premiered at the Salle Wagram in Paris on June 3rd 1975. A suite of 12 movements, divided into two series of six. "The first series comprises six related movements, usually organized in pairs, electronic sounds with instrumental and more rarely, concrete sounds: Incidences/resonances bring into play controlled resonances akin to sounds of concrete origin in a process that helps to expand the variable electronic sound sources. Here, 'incidents' are opposed to one-off 'accidents' in the second movement: 'Accidents/Harmoniques' ('Accidents/Harmonics'). In the second movement, very short events of instrumental origin change the harmonic tone of the continuum they interrupt or overlap. Moreover, the high notes are underplayed, which stimulates the attention given to other phenomena generally hidden by the melodic form applied to the instrumental play. 'Géologie sonore' ('Sound Geology') is similar to a flight over an area where different 'sound' layers come to the surface one after the other. When seen from high above, instrumental and electronic sounds seem to fuse. 'Dynamique de la resonance' ('Dynamics of Resonance') is a microphonic exploration of a single sound resonating through different forms of percussion. 'L'Etude élastique' ('Elastic Study') places together various sounds produced by 'touching' elastic or instrumental skins (balloons, doumbeks) or vibrating strings and a number of instrumental gestures close to this 'touch,' using electronic processes to generate white noise. 'Conjugaison du timbre' ('Conjugated Tone'), the last movement in the series, uses the same substance to apply rhythmic forms onto a perpetually varying tone continuum. The second series of movements draws its inspiration from concrete and electronic sources rather than instrumental ones. 'Incidences/battements' ('Incidences/ Beatings') is a reminder of the first movement in the first series, which then quickly moves into 'Natures éphémères' ('Ephemeral Natures'): an ephemeral play on instrumental and electronic sounds, singled out by their internal trajectory rather than by the material itself. 'Matières induites' ('Induced Matters'): just as molecular effervescence triggers changes of state, it seems that the different states of these sound materials can be generated by each other or through induction processes. In 'Ondes croisées' ('Crossed Waves'), the pizz vibrations interfere with somehow 'visible' water drops on the surface of a similar material. 'Pleins et déliés' ('Downstrokes and Upstrokes') can be listened to as the energies absorbed in the motion of bouncing bodies, while hollow 'bubbles' and points bring together some people's gravity and others' downwards movements. The work finishes with 'Points contre champs' ('Reverse Angle Points'). Here, the notion of perspective of the different sound threads weaving a kind of network, or field, traps the occasional iterative elements in the foreground and progressively absorbs them, giving more space for the angle -- and the chanted sound -- to grow." --Bernard Parmigiani; De Natura Sonorum whose title echoes Lucretius' De rerum natura, similarly explores the multiplicity of sound possibilities. This profuse work, with countless discoveries and dazzling intuitions, has influenced several generations of composers and remains a truly seminal piece in the experimental music soundscape. De Natura Sonorum, one of Parmegiani's masterpieces, has left an indelible mark on the classical period of electroacoustic music. At last, it is being reissued on vinyl and for the first time this includes the whole of its 12 movements." --Christian Zanési & François Bonnet. Housed in a gatefold sleeve.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: REGRM 024LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2022 repress. "Fractals" (1981): Composed at the GMVL from December 1979 to September 1981, this work was commissioned by Fnac. Fractals are mathematical oddities that, when crossing our path, turn the smallest island into an immensity to be explored. "Fractals" is a series of short studies, all based on the same sound source. Seeking in the sound and its very logic a proposal upon which a construction is elaborated, each Fractal remains open and is a mere fragment of itself. "Fractals", music pieces sculpted in four dimensions, are vast microcosms that can only be inhabited by the mind. Each "Fractal" can be approached from several angles, far, near, etc. Some can be listened to at different speeds, forwards or backwards. "Fractals": amorphous and endless music pieces whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."Brain Fever" (2017): Wherever you may be in the forest of South India, the Brain Fever bird, together with the Seven Sisters, literally gets into your head. Whether it be early morning, daytime, or nighttime, amidst the stridulations of insects, its song utterly reflects Indian life: sonorous, noisy, insistent, dense, overcrowded, mobile, swarming, frantic, overheated, deprived of rest and sleep. "Brain Fever" echoes sonic images caught in the Aurovillian forest, near Pondicherry, and rich fragments of improvisations made in Lyon on analog sound synthesis or feedback devices, the kind Fort used to do in the first GMVL studios. "Brain Fever" is dedicated to Sofia Jannok, a musician and sàmi singer.Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 2019. Translations: Valérie Vivancos. Layout: Stephen O'Malley. Photos: Daniel Lepoutre, Francesco Giorni, Christian Ganet. Mécanisme d'un paysage urbain, by Paul Klee. Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier. Executive Production: Peter Rehberg.

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: REGRM 026LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2022 repress. "I wonder if my fascination for clouds (without being an obsession) may have risen at the end of the '80s as, whilst composing 'Micro-climat', I would regularly wander between the Vercors mountains and the high plateaus of the Monts du Forez discovering, through my eyes, body, breath, active observation and walk, that natural forms when constantly changing and yet swollen with a unity of matter (in this instance, water) open one up to a deep, fundamental breath and a clear field for the mind. The sky and its forces: our ally. A model for a natural music which, although fixed, as in musique concrète (a rule of the genre), moreover on a recording tape, will remain charged with such a poetic quality that (isn't it its role or rather its reality?) it will ensure a perpetual renewal for our senses, so as to reach another idea of the world, far more open and richer than what we could have imagined." --Lionel Marchetti, 2011."Lionel Marchetti is a major figure of the 'third generation' of concrète musicians, a term he values. Listening to these works, imbued with poetry and traversed by micro-narratives, one can indeed retrieve the original concrète spirit, the one that draws from the sonic world, with ears wide open, so as to extract a fertile, rich and multiple substance then shaped and conveyed towards a formal and musical abstraction. Lionel Marchetti has mastered this process, but his real distinctive feature is a truly unique talent for setting climates (as one sets traps) and keeping us on constant alert. The two pieces in this record perfectly illustrate the entrancing dimension of Lionel Marchetti's music, whose charm leads us, through each successive listening, to become voluntary captives so as to better liberate ourselves." --François Bonnet, Paris, 2020."La grande vallée": Musical composition, design and sound production carried out at the INA grm Studios (Paris) in 1993/95; Original audio recordings in the Drôme and the Mont Ventoux areas "Micro-climat" is the first movement of the Sirrus cycle (Micro-climat, Passerelle, Sirrus) composed in 1989/90; Musical composition, sound design and production, audio recordings in 1989/90 at the CFMI studios in Lyon (Lumière University, Lyon 2). Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi; Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, November 2020; Translations: Valérie Vivancos; Layout: Stephen O'Malley.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FFL 077CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Reissue, originally released in 1971. Before Mahjun -- with the two albums released by Saravah, reissued by Souffle Continu in 2016 (FFL 022LP, FFL 023LP) -- there was... Maajun. Five musicians (Jean-Pierre Arnoux, Cyril and Jean-Louis Lefebvre, Alain Roux, and Roger Scaglia) and three times as many instruments at the service of an electric-poetic guerrilla group molded from folk and blues. The group's unique album, Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde evokes an (imaginary) association of Frank Zappa and Jacques Higelin, of Sonny Sharrock and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Under these conditions, Long Live Death! "The most French of all the French groups, determined to take Maurice Chevalier's place in American hearts." This was how Rock&Folk presented Mahjun in 1977. So be it. But when Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde, was issued, it was 1971, and the name, though the same group, was still spelled Maajun. At the end of the sixties, five blues fans decided to form a French group ready to break down the barriers: Jean-Pierre Arnoux (drums, vibraphone, saxophone), Cyril Lefebvre (guitar, organ), Jean-Louis Lefebvre (bass, violin, guitar, vocals), Alain Roux (saxophone, flute, harmonica, vocals) and Roger Scaglia (guitar, vocals). This was Maajun, and Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde would be their only album, but which would (nevertheless) be followed by those of Mahjun created later by Lefebvre (Jean-Louis) and Arnoux. Recorded for the Vogue label, Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde would disturb a number of people. This is mostly due to the lyrics, many of which were written by Gérald Escot-Bocanegra, who, while summoning the spirit of Lautréamont and Rimbaud, turned the Maajun musicians on to rock and free jazz. Add a bit of politics into the mix, and the release of the album was delayed for several months. But then, wasn't it worth waiting for? Because Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde, a real concept-album, is an important and iconoclastic statement made directly in the face of (francophone) dreamers of all countries. Over heavy guitar riffs, psychedelic interludes or fantasy-fueled digressions, Maajun built mazes on the advice of alchemists known only to themselves before heading off on a long march on the "cracking walls". Licensed from Maajun. Carefully remastered and restored by Gilles Laujol. Graphic design by Stefan Thanneur. Includes liner notes by Ian Thompson and rare photos.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SPITTLE 138LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue. Originally released on Kina's Blu Bus label in 1996, Città Invisibili comes as the band's most mature work. A strong final statement from one of the seminal hardcore punk bands ever. Includes CD and printed inner sleeve.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SPITTLE 139LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue. Originally released on cassette by Blue Bus in 1990 and issued here for the first time on vinyl. This was Kina's first live album. An in-your-face snapshot of the band caught live during their 1900 European tour. Includes CD and printed inner sleeve.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BUS 009LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Syntoma is a DIY synth band formed in Mexico City in the early '80s. No Me Puedo Controlar, the only Syntoma LP, released in 1983 by the independent labels Corporación Sintética and Trópico Digital, combined the benefits and atrocities of speculative science fiction with dystopian opera that opened the doors to new formulas for understanding the progress of human degradation. Where some used technology to destroy and conquer, others to create and unify. Personnel: Alex Ice & Drinks - synths - Korg (MS20, Monopoly), Yamaha (PS20), drum machine (KR55), guitars, vocals; Synthia Napalm - Synths - Korg (MS20, Monopoly), vocals; Bernardo Dix-Fraz - synths - Korg (MS10), Yamaha (PS20), vocals. Remastered from the original tapes. Include extra A2 poster with photos, lyrics, and liner notes.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BUS 011LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1982. Formed in 1981 in Tokyo, Saboten was an all-girl-Erik Satie-obsessed-post-punk band. This album was recorded in 1982 at the legendary Studio Dig and is the first time the LP has been reissued in its original format. Remastered from the original master tapes with two bonus tracks from the same session. This reissue has the original artwork, extended with a gatefold cover and an extra A2 poster with lyrics, liner notes, photos, and amazing artwork by the singer and guitarist Satomi Matsumot. Saboten is featured on the cult compilations Huddle No Trouble (1984) and Welcome To Dreamland (1985). "Absolute masterpiece of minimal, Satie-influenced post-punk. No other group sounds like Saboten." "Saboten means 'cactus' and, like their namesake, they are spiky and yet oddly beautiful.""Of the many things one could say of Saboten it is their impeccable sense of lyricism and melody that make them truly great. They were a female band unlike any other in the world. Part contemporary music, part rock, theirs is a high form of pop music. When all is said and done, they are a wonderful band, and one of only a handful that will forever remain in the collective musical consciousness." --Shunji Tsutaki

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 220-2LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

One of the "holy grails" of 1960s Cuban music was not recorded, produced or released in Havana or New York; in fact it was made in Lima, Peru under interesting if somewhat unexpected circumstances. Pianist Alfredo "Alfredito" Valdés Jr. (1941-2016), one of the most important figures in Latin music, came from an illustrious musical family in Cuba. In 1956, he emigrated to New York with his family, making him one of the forerunners of Cuban-based salsa music in the US. Three years later at age 18 Alfredito joined Arsenio Rodríguez and his conjunto; then in 1961 Ray Barretto recruited him for his Charanga La Moderna. Alfredito then become substitute pianist for Machito and His Afro-Cubans for a tour that would take him to Colombia and Peru for a number of engagements in the winter of 1964 and into the new year. While in Lima, several problems arose with the Argentine businessman and tour promoter Mauricio Támara who took the Machito gang to the Peruvian capital but forfeited their pay and left them stranded and penniless to fend for themselves in December of 1964. Machito's brother-in-law and musical director Mario Bauzá had to travel to New York to get money for the return of the entire company; meantime the rest of the musicians had not even enough to eat. They ended up being stranded for a total of three months. It is from this embarrassing and depressing turn of events that the enterprising Alfredito Valdés Jr. was able to spin musical gold in his newfound Peruvian home. Thankfully, sound engineer and proprietor of Discos MAG Miguel Ángel Guerrero made him a deal for some recording sessions, which eventually produced two albums, the first of which was Gozando! Alfredito played multiple roles on the date: arranger, pianist, percussionist, singer, and director. Gozando! has more than simply Cuban and Nuyorican genres like pachanga, mambo, descarga, guaracha, and bolero; there is also a fantastic cover of the Colombian cumbia classic "Tabaquera". Overall, the swinging MAG sessions sound like a long-lost record by Cachao and Tito Puente if they led an orchestra with Charlie Palmieri on piano and Tito Rodríguez on vocals (and played pachangas like Machito's Afro-Cubans "with flute to boot"). Ultimately, the Afro-Cubans were able to pay their bills and return to the United States in February, 1965. Though the Al Valdez y su Conjunto sessions for MAG may have been enjoyed by a few South American and Mexican aficionados at the time, the scarcity and obscurity of the releases insured that they would become "legendary lost records" rarely heard until recently, when the MAG vaults were opened and the reissues started to flow.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 271LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue. From a young age, La Perla, Callao-born guitarist Oswaldo "Mita" Barreto was a fan of Cuban artists like Celina y Reutilio and Los Compadres, whose records were a staple in the port city homes. He soon learned to distinguish the sound of the Cuban tres on these records (the chordophone from rural areas of Cuba). At the age of 18, he had already mastered the instrument, although he had never seen a Cuban musician play one live until that point. At the beginning of 1969 (according to the record company's archives), his fame led him to record his first 45 RPM singles for the MAG label, which were compiled in an LP by the end of the year entitled Arecibo, after a song dedicated to the Puerto Rican city of the same name. For these recordings he was accompanied by a group of musician friends, all linked to the tropical music scene in Callao, Peru. The album opens with two Cuban guarachas from the 1950s: "Mango Mangüé" by El Gran Fellove, whose compositions were popularized across the Americas thanks to the voice of Celia Cruz and the Sonora Matancera; and "El Yoyo" by Antonio Sánchez Reyes, another international hit performed by Cortijo y su Combo. Both songs were recorded by Mita in May 1969. The album also includes four songs from the repertoire of Puerto Rican musician Joe Cuba: "Arecibo", "No Coman Cuento", "Oriza Oco", and "Con Mi Mambo", where Mita replaced the sound of the vibraphone with the Cuban tres, an innovation that gave the group its distinctive sound. Three songs by Oswaldo Barreto "Mita" were also included on the album: the memorable "Mita Descarga", the incredibly fast "Descarga En Botella Y Güiro" ("del Perú a Puerto Rico cantamos") and the intimate "No Aguanto Más", all with inspired plucking by the tres player from La Perla. The release of the LP at the end of 1969, established Mita's career, and he continued to record on MAG and other labels in the following years, although he never released another album.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 272LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue. Originally released in 1966. First solo LP by the talented Peruvian artist Betico Salas, lead trumpet player of the great Sonora de Lucho Macedo, one of the best ensembles playing Cuban repertoires in the early '60s. Alfredo Linares on piano and sonero vocals by Benny del Solar stand out on this album. Benny del Solar sings lead vocals on the cumbia of Argentine origin "Nos Vamos A Casar"; the Colombian "Lo Que Pasa Es Que La Banda Está Borracha", a continental hit since the early sixties; the guaracha "A Los Muchachos De Belén", by Puerto Rican musician Tito Rodríguez; the guaracha "Ritmo Del Amor"; the elegant Cuban guaguancó "Así Namá", also well known for Tito Rodríguez's rendition; and the cumbia "Qué Le Digo A Mi Mujer". Singer, César Gonzales, who would have an extensive career in Peruvian tropical music, sang lead vocals in the guaguancó by the Sonora Matancera "Lindo Omelenko" and the bolero "El Árbol", a hit for the singer Roberto Ledesma, also recorded that same year by Peruvians Carmita Jiménez, Anamelba, Raul del Mar, and Lucho Macedo himself, who decided to sing for his new record label. The mythical singer Johnny Arce, years later known as Mr. Macondo, also appears on the album on the two guarachas: "La Renga", a composition by Esther Forero, known as "La novia de Barranquilla"; and "Yo Soy Candela", a composition by the Colombian Ray Rodríguez. Finally, "La Chola" is a cumbia by Peruvian composer Tomás Benítez; and "Mambo Jazz" is a version of the descarga "Yayi's Instant Mambo", an innovative instrumental track performed by Puerto Rican Willie Rosario, who recorded it in the United States at the start of 1966 with his own orchestra. Betico Salas would later release two more albums and become a legendary trumpet player in Peruvian musical history.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 274LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue. Originally release in 1982. This Chico Lessa album is one of the milestones of independent production in Brazil and one of the greatest achievements of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) ever that deserves wider recognition, and shines with a depth that makes it an instant classic. The arrangements on the beautiful "Choveu" and "Me Pega, Me Larga" can easily bring names like Arthur Verocai to your mind. No wonder the album features some of Brazil's leading musicians, arrangers, and composers of all time: Wagner Tiso, Mauricio Maestro, Robertinho Silva, Pascoal Meirelles... The songs on this album sound so fresh they could have been recorded today while also retaining the feel of the best post-Tropicalia work of '70s Brazil. It has become a much sought-after album in recent times after being rediscovered by top collectors worldwide. For those into Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Arthur Verocai... 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 275LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue. Originally released in 1971. One of pianist Ray Pérez's rarest releases and his first on his own label Pyraphon, They Do It was also his final collaboration with Perucho Torcat, a talented sonero who died tragically young in NYC the following year. The record sports an impressively diverse array of rhythms and genres, including the popular Cuban, Puerto Rican, and New York sounds that the young Venezuelan salsa groups excelled in at the time (guaguancó, bolero son, son montuno, and Latin soul/boogaloo). Other Caribbean modes like calypso (the coast of Venezuela is very near Trinidad and Tobago), pambiche (a slow form of Dominican merengue developed for tourists), and even traditional Venezuelan merengue (a completely different rhythm from the Dominican genre of the same name) appear on the album. Full of classic dancefloor burners, the album has been lovingly restored, mastered from the original tapes, fully licensed, with its original artwork intact, preserving the legacy of this great Venezuelan music for today's generation of salsa dura lovers everywhere. Recommended by DJ Bongohead of Peace & Rhythm.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: VAMPI 45092EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Back in 2004, Vampisoul played a role in the return to recording of the legendary Joe Bataan, which fully materialized in the acclaimed album Call My Name, written and produced by Daniel Collás (The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Incarnations). Now, the song that marked the return of Joe Bataan finally makes it into a 7" single for the first time. "This whole project grew out of a song called 'Cycles of You', which I had written around 2000-2001 with the guitarist and bassist of my band at the time, Easy. The chord progression and vocal melody really reminded me of Bataan, and it occurred to me that it wouldn't be impossible to get him into the studio to do a guest vocal if we ever recorded it. I had met Bataan a few years before at a small, family-reunion style show at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in my neighborhood, where he not only still sounded great, but was also gracious and easy to talk to. By the time we got around to recording with Easy, the band was about to break up but we still had the studio booked. We all agreed that we didn't want to continue as a band, but at the same time, it would be a shame to never record what we had been working on. Around this time Bataan was playing out again, so I went to the show to see him and find out if he'd be interested in doing some vocals with us. He was agreeable, so we decided to turn it into a Joe Bataan session and do 'Cycles of You' . . . The rhythm section was a band called TransLove Airways that I formed in 2002. We got really tight and developed a great sound that was, to me, equal parts Heart, Shocking Blue, Brian Auger, and Rare Earth. To this core group I added pieces from a few other local bands: The Middle Initials, who are a great Temptations/Main Ingredient-style vocal group, and members of an incredible Latin band called Grupo Latin Vibe, who were responsible for almost all the percussion. There was also some fine trombone playing by Aaron Johnson of Antibalas and great flute work by Neal Sugarman and my cousin Sonny . . . The 'Call My Name' sessions took place when Daptone had just moved to Bushwick, its classic location..." --Daniel Collás, producer of "Call My Name".

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: WWSLP 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2022 repress; LP version. Includes download card and original four-page insert with lyrics and line-up. Wewantsounds continues their Akiko Yano reissue program with the release of Japanese Girl, her landmark debut album from 1976. Backed by Little Feat with Lowell George and by top Japanese musicians (including Haruomi Hosono), Japanese Girl is one of the most important Japanese albums of the '70s, mixing pop, rock, and Japanese folk together with Little Feat's superb classic sound. After a marriage with musician/producer Makoto Yano and the birth of her son (Fuuta), Yano and her team resumed the recording of the album and decided to pitch Little Feat for a collaboration as she loved the group. Against all odds they said yes and Yano left Tokyo for Los Angeles in March 1976 to record a full side with them. The legend has it they found it so difficult to keep up with Yano's compositions they returned some of their fee. The session was nevertheless stunning and Lowell George even compared Yano to Stevie Wonder. The Little Feat blend of New Orleans groove matched Yano's melodies perfectly, as witnessed on "Funamachi-Uta Part ". Originally a traditional song from The Nebuta Festival in her hometown of Aomori, the Little Feat version is a formidable slow-funk workout not dissimilar to their classic, "Spanish Moon", serving Yano's beautiful vocals and sense of groove to perfection. The whole side is a match made in heaven, showcasing the classic Little Feat line up at their funkiest with Yano's unique Japanese twist. The Japanese side on the album gives a great snapshot of the Tokyo music scene of the '70s with many musicians gravitating around Haruomi Hosono and also several musicians from Japanese band, The Moonriders. Recorded at the legendary Onkyo Haus studio in Tokyo, the sessions mix singer-songwriter sensitivity and pop with traditional Japanese sounds and instruments like the shinobue transverse flute, the koto string instrument, or the Tsuzumi hand drum as played on "Hekoriputaa" by the legendary percussionist Kisaku Katada who was appointed Living National Treasure by the Japanese state in 1999; together they create a beautiful east-meets-west mix masterfully driven by Yano's creativity and unique talent. First international release. Remastered sound.