Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 4/15/2024

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: VP 2479LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"This is a first-time compilation of early productions from one of Jamaica's most successful producers of the 1990s. Gussie Clarke and his Music Works productions label was home to breakthrough artists Shabba Ranks, JC Lodge, and Cocoa Tea among others. This collection features productions from the late 1970s through 1987 and boasts an all-star cast of musicians. Recorded at Channel One Recording Studio and King Tubby's Studio. Mixed at King Tubby's Studio. Engineers: Augustus Clarke, King Tubby. Horns: Bobby Ellis, Tommy McCook. Mastered by Kevin Metcalfe. Percussion: Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson. Producer: Augustus 'Gussie' Clarke. Featuring Tommy McCook, Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy, Leroy Sibbles, Jacob Miller, Simplicity People, Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, Augustus Pablo, and Leroy Smart."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: AR 163LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Rich in ancestral flows, between Ghana and Europe, powered by deep, conga led rhythms and seductive warm horn riffs come Jembaa Groove, whose new album and newly rendered sound, shows that jazz, in its contemporary, soulful form is not just a London "ting." "Highlife" is Ghana's colorful national tradition and is at the heart of Berlin based Jembaa Groove's groove. And this newly crafted follow up to their debut album Susuma (AR 155CD) from 2022, goes even further in provoking new perceptions of jazz and soul music helped by young and senior blood from Ghana and its diaspora. Vocal masterclasses come via Sheffield (UK) based K.O.G and original veteran of the '70s and '80s highlife scene Gyedu Blay Ambolley with Ghanian multi-instrumentalist and producer Kwame Yeboah (Kwashibu Area Band) also providing inspiration. Yet this is not a breakout moment. For the last two years, Jembaa Groove have been entertaining discerning dancefloors worldwide. They continue to ratchet up a solid and loyal fanbase buoyed by breakout performances at SXSW (USA), ESNS and Supersonic Jazz Festival (Netherlands).

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: AVM 077LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

HJirok is a mythical figure, conceived as a fictional character by Iranian-born Kurdish singer and artist Hani Mojahedy. Together with versatile music producer Andi Toma of Mouse On Mars, she combined a variety of sounds collected during their joint travels to Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere with heavily processed recordings of Sufi drum rhythms and setar melodies. The result is a driving, dubbed-out, and deeply intricate soundscape that perfectly sets the stage for Mojahedy's extended, unconventional vocal techniques and polyglot lyrics. Both informed by tradition and rigorously forward-looking, Hjirok (with a lowercase J) is at once a profoundly personal album and a universal utopian promise. As a ghost from the past, HJirok draws on Mojtahedy's memories to mould a new future out of them. The foundation for Hjirok was laid in the city of Erbil in the Kurdish part of Iraq. During one of their stays in the region, Mojahedy and Toma recorded the three percussionists Hadi Alizadeh, Jawad Salkhordeh, and Serdar Saydan as well as setar player Ali Choolaei from Motahedy's backing band while they were playing the rhythms and notes that she had grown up with in the house of her grandfather in the Iranian city of Sanandaj. Her memories of that place revolve around hypnotic Sufi music, dervishes in deep trance, and ecstatic singing. Much like this music seemed to open a portal to other dimensions, the inhabitants of the house lived in a sort of alternative reality: It provided them with a hideaway from political circumstances. What the album conjures up from Mojahedy's memory is not only a very specific place during a unique time in history as experienced by a single person. It is also a metaphorical home open to anyone who wishes to enter -- promise of a better, more egalitarian future for everyone. Hence, HJirok will bring it on tour, presenting the material as an audio-visual live show that makes use of the photo and video material that Mojahedy and Toma have collected during their travels through Kurdistan.

 

PRICE: $45.00

CAT #: 9781944860608

FILE UNDER: Misc

"The definitive visual biography on the life of Arthur Russell. The music of Arthur Russell defies classification. From his pioneering compositions as part of New York's vibrant avant-garde scene (alongside artists including Phillip Glass, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg) to his genre-expanding disco productions, from his new wave and art pop to his posthumously released folk songs, Russell crafted timeless and foundationally influential work until his premature death in 1992 from AIDS-related illnesses. Now, in a landmark publication curated by critically-acclaimed writer Richard King, Travels Over Feeling collects the extensive ephemera found in Russell's New York Public Library archive, along with pieces from the personal collections of those who were closest to him. Combining unseen visual material -- handwritten scores, lyrics, photos, letters, and drawings -- with new texts by King and extensive original interviews with Arthur's collaborators, contemporaries, family, and friends, Travels Over Feeling paints a portrait of Arthur Russell unlike any which has come before, revealing a true picture of one of the most distinctive artists of the last fifty years. Hardcover, 304 pages."

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: AX 110LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The Tomorrow Comes The Harvest project started with late Tony Allen, one of the originators of Afrobeat, and Jeff Mills, who got together to create an improvisational type of performance. The idea was to not pre-prepare or to preplan anything, but just to play in the moment spontaneously and to reach for the same understanding musically. Jean-Phi Dary had been working with Tony Allen for a long time, naturally joined the unit. After an untimely passing of Tony in 2020, they thought that maybe a good idea to continue with the project and to consider it in a much more broader respect other than just three main musicians that may be, it's interesting to make it open, to be able to invite other musicians in for certain concerts. They decided to invite Prabhu Edouard, who already had an experience of working with Jeff for classical concerts in France. The album was recorded live at Bozar in Brussels, Belgium in 2022.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: AX 115EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. Vernacular creations that fall off from the "other side" of the electronic music tree, this project is designed for the experienced techno music listener, and its goal is to reflect upon the pure artistry of the craft of storytelling. A realization between music and life. Whereas "dancing" is the goal of dance music, the goal of this music is about "reflecting on the complexity and simplification of life." Soundtracks for people in their evolutionary process.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: AX 116EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The next chapter in Axis Expressionist Series, a collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. "X-Ray Zulu refers all the things that could be defined as correct, as right and as perfect in an imperfect world and context. It serves as a barometric meter of all harmonious things. And with this balance, there is a certain amount of clarity and certainty about what is connected to this subject. A strong mind or opinion, passion, dedication and devotion. Essentially, this release is about undeniably and incontestable truth." --Millsart, 2023

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: AX 118EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The next chapter in Axis' Expressionist Series, a collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. "Tear Drop Nebula" is a different version "Tear Drop Nebula (The Octagon Mix)," and was released in Every Dog Has Its Day vol. 7 in 2020. "Rationalizing our place amongst the Stars" is a referendum. As Millsart says: "Neo Tantric Parts is about high premium thought processes about simplicity and oneness. Diagnostic in the way it blends time, rhythm and harmony together as a proposal to consider placement in this moment of time."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: BAL 032CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Following 2023's acclaimed, chart-topping mixes from Henry Saiz, and Tim Green, Balance have enlisted the services of two masters of their craft in Dave Seaman and Quivver to curate their next mix compilation release. Style and substance joined at the hip. With Balance Presents Dave Seaman & Quivver, both artists have reached out far and wide to their producer friends to pull off a real coup. Every track is exclusive to this release -- not one track has previously been released. If that's not enough, the pair have added five exclusive collaborative productions, making this release is a perfect snapshot of where Dave Seaman and Quivver are musically right now. The lead single from the album, "Make This Disappear" features experienced vocalist Quivver on lead vocals -- and even has Dave Seaman making his debut behind the mic contributing backing vocals. A first after more than three decades of making music. There is also particular excitement about Dave Seaman's highly sought after, previously unreleased remix of Underworld's "Low Burn," which gets its long overdue release here. Exclusive tracks come from some of the hottest electronic music producers, from the fabulous Einmusik, through to Robert Babicz, Gai Barone, Dee Montero, Timo Maas, and the wonderful Just Her, amongst many other quality artists. Also featuring Charles Webster & Ursula Rucker, DJ Counselling, Murat Uncuoglu, Enamour, Carlos Barbero & Dom Fricot, Four Candles, Kamilo Sanclemente, Anthony Pappa, Jamie Stevens, Alice Rose, Aikon, Stas Drive, Ben Archbold, Paul (AR) & Capri, p?laroit, Jepe, Stas Drive, Axel Giova & Larrosa, Floormagnet, Chicola, and Ron Flatter.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: BAL 032LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Double LP version. Following 2023's acclaimed, chart-topping mixes from Henry Saiz, and Tim Green, Balance have enlisted the services of two masters of their craft in Dave Seaman and Quivver to curate their next mix compilation release. Style and substance joined at the hip. With Balance Presents Dave Seaman & Quivver, both artists have reached out far and wide to their producer friends to pull off a real coup. Every track is exclusive to this release -- not one track has previously been released. If that's not enough, the pair have added five exclusive collaborative productions, making this release is a perfect snapshot of where Dave Seaman and Quivver are musically right now. The lead single from the album, "Make This Disappear" features experienced vocalist Quivver on lead vocals -- and even has Dave Seaman making his debut behind the mic contributing backing vocals. A first after more than three decades of making music. There is also particular excitement about Dave Seaman's highly sought after, previously unreleased remix of Underworld's "Low Burn," which gets its long overdue release here. Exclusive tracks come from some of the hottest electronic music producers, from the fabulous Einmusik, through to Robert Babicz, Gai Barone, Dee Montero, Timo Maas, and the wonderful Just Her, amongst many other quality artists. Also featuring Charles Webster & Ursula Rucker, DJ Counselling, Murat Uncuoglu, Enamour, Carlos Barbero & Dom Fricot, Four Candles, Kamilo Sanclemente, Anthony Pappa, Jamie Stevens, Alice Rose, Aikon, Stas Drive, Ben Archbold, Paul (AR) & Capri, p?laroit, Jepe, Stas Drive, Axel Giova & Larrosa, Floormagnet, Chicola, and Ron Flatter.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BALMAT 009LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Coral Morphologic and Nick Le?n's Projections of a Coral City marks a series of collisions between distant worlds: the organic and the artificial, the Eocene and the Anthropocene, sea and cement -- and even, perhaps, ambient music and activism. Coral Morphologic are the Miami duo of marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay; since 2007, they have used a variety of multimedia projects to generate environmental awareness of marine biodiversity -- most notably Coral City Camera, an underwater webcam streaming live from an urban reef ecosystem in Port Miami. Their city-mate Nick Le?n is a linchpin of South Florida's contemporary leftfield electronic scene, with releases for Tra Tra Trax, Future Times, and NAAFI, and credits on records by Rosal?a, GAIKA, and Iceboy Violet, among others. This collaborative project dates back to 2022, when Coral Morphologic mounted a monumental projection mapping installation on Biscayne Boulevard. For five nights in late November and early December, macroscopic films of corals played out across the exterior of Knight Concert Hall. The installation was, on the one hand, a glimpse into a possible future, imagining how the city's skyline might appear if unchecked global warming and rising seas led coral reefs to colonize the built environment. But it also represented a look back into the deep past, a reminder that Miami is literally built from marine limestone mined from the Everglades. As an album, Projections of a Coral City is a suite of interconnected movements spread across two sides of vinyl. The tones are watery, the mood elegiac, the colors a washed-out pastel. Forms that appear static on the surface gradually open up to reveal hidden depths teeming with microscopic movement. You might detect resonances with other aquatically minded works -- J?rgen M?ller's Science of the Sea, Harold Budd's liquid piano compositions, even the slow-moving melancholy of Dr. Roger Payne's Songs of the Humpback Whale. But ultimately Projections of a Coral City creates the impression of a world unto itself -- a hauntingly beautiful space at the meeting point between sorrow and hope.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BTR 089LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Popular brass-led ensemble, Kolonel Djafaar, unveil their second album Getaway, their first for Batov Records, seamlessly blending Afrobeat, Ethio jazz, and psych rock, whilst showcasing the band's evolution over the past couple of years. Having built a loyal local Antwerp following off of the success of their 2019 debut self-released album, Forgotten Kingdom, and growing reputation for electrifying stage performances, Kolonel Djafaar achieved worldwide recognition in 2021 for the Cold Heat EP on Batov Records. The group overcame busy schedules and frequent quarantine periods to hit the studio in February 2022 to lay down four tracks. However, the creative itch persisted, leading to an intense writing session in August, deep in the heart of a tranquil forest. From noon until midnight, the band immersed themselves in the creative process, embracing the freedom to make noise without restraint. Fueled by hearty breakfasts, unwavering focus, and the ambient clucking of chickens roaming the studio, Kolonel Djafaar crafted the majority of Getaway. This period marked a pivotal shift as a number of new band members joined just in time for the August sessions. Membership changes, including Emiel Lauryssen joining on trumpet, alongside guitarist Philip Matthhijnssens, the band's palette has broadened and new sounds are able to break through. From psychedelic rock and soul influence of the Daptone Records' affiliated Budos Band, surf rock ("Urban Dweller"), Morricone Spaghetti Western guitar, and Afro Cuban ("Kelmendi"), alongside the brassy Afrobeat and Ethio jazz vibes the group have been known for. Each track on Getaway holds a unique connection to at least one band member, and all benefit from a collaborative approach to songwriting. "Sparking Clover," an Ethio-inspired psych and soul groover penned by tenor saxophonist Doyin Smith, carries a poignant undertone inspired by personal loss, while psych rock leaning tracks like "Apologies in Advance" showcase the band's evolution and increasing professionalism in crafting a distinct sonic experience. The curious cover art depicts a lone individual heading down an empty city street towards a large mysterious glowing object, evoking the common emptiness and struggle of urban life, and the search for meaning or just something better. The band envision the object to represent this album, offering a beacon to like-minded listeners. Kolonel Djafaar invite music enthusiasts on an immersive journey, to Getaway, from the daily grind of life, on an album reflecting diverse influences and marking a new chapter in their musical exploration.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: BEWITH 018EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Maurice Fulton's outrageous remix of "The Fall" by Rhye has been cherished as a stone-cold masterpiece for the past decade. Out of print almost immediately, its legend has only grown and for too long it's been impossible to find a copy without parting with considerable cash. The word "genius" is bandied about liberally but it's fair to anoint Maurice Fulton with such lofty praise. Sheffield's king of oddball disco, Fulton is an outerspace-minded producer with roots in Baltimore club music who has no problem injecting dank interplanetary funk into the smoothest of acts. And so it goes with his remix of "The Fall." Rich and typically off-kilter, this is spellbinding disco par excellence. Fulton arms the track with a juddering electro-funk synth-bassline before shifting to a twanging disco reverb and conga-led, crash-cymbal-elevated groove. The gorgeous original, situated here on the flip, is a sublime serenade, all twinkling strings and sweet, sumptuous vocals over smooth, jazzy piano styles. It earned comparisons to Sade, Air, and the xx upon initial release and it's still easy to understand why; it's warm and buoyant yet deeply melancholy. Simon Francis remastered the original audio for both tracks and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" well and truly slaps. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after masterpiece finds a home in many more DJ boxes this and every year.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: BEWITH 150LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Cedar Walton's Mobius is as brilliant as the stunning jacket design, featuring the legendary jazz pianist morphing into a mobius strip, set against a beautiful sky filled with cumulus clouds. A proper jazz-funk fusion slapfest, Mobius is a stellar electric set from -- essentially -- one hell of a superband. Mobius is elevated by Ryo Kawasaki's stinging electric guitar, pristinely clear vocals by Adrienne Albert and Lani Groves, rootsy percussion by Ray Mantilla and Omar Clay, alto and baritone from Charles Davis, trumpet from Roy Burrowes, Gordon Edwards on bass and Frank Foster's tenor sax, and Steve Gadd on drums. Gem after gem of looping, bliss-inducing gold, it's an incredibly revelatory album. It presents a thrilling synthesis of R&B, funk, blues and hard bop (with a hint of rock), all driven by an idiosyncratic electronic keyboard. Mobius was Walton's debut for RCA in 1975. The versatile artist confirmed his abilities as a player, composer, interpreter and arranger with this stunning record, and his own bright compositions offered a springboard for the improvisations of the different soloists. Mobius is really gorgeous mid-'70s fusion, ranging from the funky to the ecstatic. The audio has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue reissue.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: BT 074LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Limited 2024 repress. The trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi return to Black Truffle with their tenth release, recorded live in Tokyo in February, 2017. While many of the trio's recent works have seen them focusing primarily on their core guitar/bass/drums power trio format, on Each side has a depth of 5 seconds A polka dot pattern in horizontal array A flickering that moves vertically these three multi-instrumentalists strike into new territory, utilizing an almost entirely electronic set-up, with Haino on electronics, drum machine and suona (a Chinese double-reed horn), O'Rourke on synth, and Ambarchi on pedal steel and electronics. Dedicated to the memory of legendary Tokyo underground figure Hideo Ikeezumi, founder of PSF Records and the Modern Music shop and a long-term collaborator with Haino, the LP, (recorded the night Ikeezumi passed away), begins in a somber, meditative space of rippling, burbling electronics and distant jets of white noise. Though much of the "Introduction" that occupies the record's first side is spacious and at times almost hushed, the performance is full of unexpected twists and turns, momentary events, and fleeting impressions. The trio conjures up a free-flowing surge of sound in which individual contributions are often difficult to distinguish, calling up echoes of vintage live-electronic sizzle like It's Viaje or the cavernous expanse of David Behrman's Wave Train. The LP's second side opens in a similarly reflective realm, before Haino's suona enters, taking the music in a more austere, hieratic direction, as the reed's piercing tones are accompanied by O'Rourke's uneasy, sliding synth figures and Ambarchi's shimmering Leslie cabinet tones. On the side's second piece, Haino's signature hand-played drum machine takes center-stage, at first sounding out massive, isolated strikes, before eventually building to a tumbling, Milford Graves-esque wall of thunder. As O'Rourke's synth squelches and stutters and Ambarchi's heavily effected pedal steel somehow begins to sound like a kind of hellish blues harmonica, this passage offers up one of the most electrifying and bizarre moments in the trio's catalogue to date. Containing some of the most abstract music the trio have waxed since their very first collaboration over a decade ago, this new missive from underground experimental music's preeminent power trio shows them restless and risk-taking, clearly enjoying their remarkable improvisational chemistry while also continuing to push themselves into new directions. Gatefold sleeve with artwork and design by Lasse Marhaug; inner sleeve with live pics by Ujin Matsuo.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 097CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After a successful tour following the release of Alors Quoi (BJR 061LP, 2022) on Bongo Joe records, accompanied by a drummer/percussionist change, the prospect of what comes next naturally arose. Elements surfaced, including a desire for more low frequencies, a fascination with the marimba/vibraphone, and a liberating indifference to the difference between recorded and live performances. To evolve, the team collaborated with outsider Kwake Bass, known for collaborations with Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Mica Levi, and others. Despite aesthetic differences from Meril Wubslin's previous albums, this divergence was seen as key -- an enriching risk that resulted in a unique blend of influences. The acoustic core of Meril Wubslin now embraces electronic elements, revealing a more powerful and urban dimension. While maintaining a commitment to French lyrics, the themes explore the concrete yet remain grounded in the intimate and the sensitive, avoiding overly clear and univocal messages.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 449CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

La Freiheit des Geistes (BB 166CD), a collaborative album by Tom Dokoupil and Walter Dahn under the moniker Die Partei, emerged in 1981 with a fusion of Kraut electronica and early NDW vibes. Fast forward 43 years, their latest release Celaviemachinery reflects a refreshed sound rooted in their artistic origins. With dreamy landscapes and nods to influential records, the album is not just a homage but a testament to compositional beauty, inviting listeners into hypnotic experiences across its twelve tracks, reaffirming Die Partei's enduring significance in contemporary electronic music."On the one hand, there are clear traces of 1970s and early 1980s Kraut electronica, echoes of Cluster or Neu! and an affinity to Manuel G?ttsching and Michael Rother... On the other hand, there is a certain edginess which is not so far removed from the hectic nature of early NDW (German New Wave) as it emerged in the Federal Republic -- and, in anticipation of future electronica, a compositional rigor associated with the likes of Thomas Fehlmann and '90s techno. Now, some 43 years later, Die Partei are back... Celaviemachinery is an apposite title for a machine of sentimentality such as this. Thoroughly refreshed in terms of sound, Die Partei are clearly speaking to the 21st century, but even more so 'Mouchette' on the cover transports us back to a world in which European art was still wild.. Time and again, old vinyl friends appear fleetingly on the horizon. Could that be Harald Grosskopf? That looks like Tyndall's 'Traumland' and, even if Walter Dahn never tires of citing 'Ralf & Florian' as the most important record in the Kraftwerk catalogue, tracks like 'Domino' or the title track itself are audibly reminiscent thereof? The elegaic luxury of 'Here come the warm jets' or 'Autoselbstfahrer,' which revolves gleefully on its own axis, the ominously fraught 'Nacht zum Tag' or the conciliatory melancholy of the final piece 'Heb mich auf.' It all amounts to a beautiful experience, inviting the listener to dive into twelve short hypnosis sessions (over and over). Anyone familiar with Dokoupil and Dahn's machineries will understand how lucky we are to have Die Partei with us again. It just so happens that they are always right." --Philipp Theisohn

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 449LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. La Freiheit des Geistes (BB 166CD), a collaborative album by Tom Dokoupil and Walter Dahn under the moniker Die Partei, emerged in 1981 with a fusion of Kraut electronica and early NDW vibes. Fast forward 43 years, their latest release Celaviemachinery reflects a refreshed sound rooted in their artistic origins. With dreamy landscapes and nods to influential records, the album is not just a homage but a testament to compositional beauty, inviting listeners into hypnotic experiences across its twelve tracks, reaffirming Die Partei's enduring significance in contemporary electronic music."On the one hand, there are clear traces of 1970s and early 1980s Kraut electronica, echoes of Cluster or Neu! and an affinity to Manuel G?ttsching and Michael Rother... On the other hand, there is a certain edginess which is not so far removed from the hectic nature of early NDW (German New Wave) as it emerged in the Federal Republic -- and, in anticipation of future electronica, a compositional rigor associated with the likes of Thomas Fehlmann and '90s techno. Now, some 43 years later, Die Partei are back... Celaviemachinery is an apposite title for a machine of sentimentality such as this. Thoroughly refreshed in terms of sound, Die Partei are clearly speaking to the 21st century, but even more so 'Mouchette' on the cover transports us back to a world in which European art was still wild.. Time and again, old vinyl friends appear fleetingly on the horizon. Could that be Harald Grosskopf? That looks like Tyndall's 'Traumland' and, even if Walter Dahn never tires of citing 'Ralf & Florian' as the most important record in the Kraftwerk catalogue, tracks like 'Domino' or the title track itself are audibly reminiscent thereof? The elegaic luxury of 'Here come the warm jets' or 'Autoselbstfahrer,' which revolves gleefully on its own axis, the ominously fraught 'Nacht zum Tag' or the conciliatory melancholy of the final piece 'Heb mich auf.' It all amounts to a beautiful experience, inviting the listener to dive into twelve short hypnosis sessions (over and over). Anyone familiar with Dokoupil and Dahn's machineries will understand how lucky we are to have Die Partei with us again. It just so happens that they are always right." --Philipp Theisohn

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 450CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Faust is a group of artists who shared intense musical experiences in the years 1971 to 1974. Supported by producer Uwe Nettelbeck and sound engineer Kurt Graupner, they produced an immense array of recordings in a studio in Wumme which had been set up just for them. Two compact album productions followed, recorded at the Manor (March 1973) and Musicland Studios (May 1974). This album presents a selection of recordings from this period, documenting their creative versatility and explosive dynamism. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. A collection of un-released snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. This volume includes recordings which have been previously released on other compilations such as 71 Minutes and BBC Sessions+. When reviewing this material for this compilation, some titles have been changed, e.g. "Ma Trompette (Alternative Version)" has been released as "Party 10" previously, "Zwolf Meter unter der Oberflache" has been "(360)" and "Geister, die wir riefen" was "The Lurcher."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 450LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Faust is a group of artists who shared intense musical experiences in the years 1971 to 1974. Supported by producer Uwe Nettelbeck and sound engineer Kurt Graupner, they produced an immense array of recordings in a studio in Wumme which had been set up just for them. Two compact album productions followed, recorded at the Manor (March 1973) and Musicland Studios (May 1974). This album presents a selection of recordings from this period, documenting their creative versatility and explosive dynamism. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. A collection of un-released snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. This volume includes recordings which have been previously released on other compilations such as 71 Minutes and BBC Sessions+. When reviewing this material for this compilation, some titles have been changed, e.g. "Ma Trompette (Alternative Version)" has been released as "Party 10" previously, "Zwolf Meter unter der Oberflache" has been "(360)" and "Geister, die wir riefen" was "The Lurcher."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 456CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Faust is a group of artists who shared intense musical experiences in the years 1971 to 1974. Supported by producer Uwe Nettelbeck and sound engineer Kurt Graupner, they produced an immense array of recordings in a studio in Wumme which had been set up just for them. Two compact album productions followed, recorded at the Manor (March 1973) and Musicland Studios (May 1974). This album presents a selection of recordings from this period, documenting their creative versatility and explosive dynamism. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. A collection of un-released snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. This volume includes recordings which have been previously released on other compilations such as 71 Minutes and BBC Sessions+. When reviewing this material for this compilation some titles have been changed, e.g. "Can't Fly Away," "Children's Toy Etude", "Begluckte Schlagbohrmaschine," and "Stay Or Leave" have been released as "Party 1," "Party 8," "Party 6," and "Party 9" previously, and "Woke Up Outside The Dust Bin" was released as "Chromatic."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 456LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Faust is a group of artists who shared intense musical experiences in the years 1971 to 1974. Supported by producer Uwe Nettelbeck and sound engineer Kurt Graupner, they produced an immense array of recordings in a studio in Wumme which had been set up just for them. Two compact album productions followed, recorded at the Manor (March 1973) and Musicland Studios (May 1974). This album presents a selection of recordings from this period, documenting their creative versatility and explosive dynamism. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. A collection of un-released snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. This volume includes recordings which have been previously released on other compilations such as 71 Minutes and BBC Sessions+. When reviewing this material for this compilation some titles have been changed, e.g. "Can't Fly Away," "Children's Toy Etude", "Begluckte Schlagbohrmaschine," and "Stay Or Leave" have been released as "Party 1," "Party 8," "Party 6," and "Party 9" previously, and "Woke Up Outside The Dust Bin" was released as "Chromatic."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: CORTIZONA 019LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Truly intrigued as a kid by the weird sounds his DIY electronica building kit could make, Mich L. (aka Mich Leemans of Paper Hats) never stopped his quest for more beauty in hidden frequencies and harmonics of modular synths and old tape recorders. His search into the deep mysterious sound spectrum unexpectedly made a surprising U-turn after a seizure of increasing tinnitus and enduring nausea. The concept of listening, as stated by Pauline Oliveros as "the involuntary nature of hearing and the voluntary, selective nature of listening" took focus in his being. These new insights, together with a studio rearrangement and the purchase of the EMS Synthi A are the keystones which shaped the contours of his debut solo album, Air Near Silence. A precious, fragile, and ultra-personal sonic exploration of the inner self translated in carefully constructed synth and tape compositions: a microscopic auditive dissection of time and soul. Slow burning stripped down shifting patterns, patched and wired straight from the heart, crawling steadily under your skin, with no plans to leave. Hushed analog splendor for patient music lovers who dare to be surprised. Recommended if you like: Eliane Radigue, Coil, Kali Malone, Lucy Railton, The Caretaker, Pauline Oliveros, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Throbbing Gristle, early electronics, Deathprod... LP includes CD; also includes insert with liner notes.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: CORTIZONA 020LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Le Motel and Bruce Wijn met at school, during a school art trip to Munich. They went separate ways for a long time. Hailing from Brussels, Le Motel's world is a vortex of sight and sound that takes in the many and varied corners of the planet. As a music producer and film composer his versatility has taken him to festivals and clubs in every direction as naturally as he has ventured out to the less accessible areas of the globe as a field recordist. It's somewhere in between these spaces that Le Motel operates, gathering unique experiences and sounds to channel through his studio. Bruce Wijn is a Brussels-based guitarist who played in several post rock kind projects such as Sound Film, 52 Commercial Road, or more shoegaze Lazy Sin. These collaborations gave him the opportunity to perform in various locations in Belgium, France, England, and the USA. As a musician, his focus has always been attracted by progressively built rhythmic melodies, which would eventually turn into long reverberated or distorted swells, or the other way round. All these experiences brought them both to the idea of scoring movies with different yet similar approaches. That's how their first collaboration happened as Le Motel was working on the soundtrack of the movie Binti, and invited Bruce Wijn for the track "Exode" in 2018. Since then, they've been working on other scoring projects, such as the feature film Aller Retour more recently. Alongside the movie scoring activities another audio-visual live project was born, in collaboration with Antoine de Schuyter and his mesmerizing images. This one is more focusing on tape textures, field recordings, and glitchy effects in order to build atmospheric tracks that they decided to bring together in a first EP, MAAR. MAAR is elaborated as a soundtrack for an imaginary journey between cold seas and volcanoes explorations. From the first echoing sounds of playing kids on the shoreside in the opening track "La Perche," Le Motel & Bruce Wijn let you slide in a technicolor dreamworld, reverbing slowly innocent childhood memories into a chilled, out of range, future. MAAR dives deep into a kaleidoscopic microcosmos watching "Nautilus" playing hide and seek with "Captain Ahab" floating on sonic breaking waves, while seagulls gently spread their wings flying through the breezy and misty clouds of "Blankenberge." Lava vulcanica slowly melts in the sad euphorica of the cold North Sea, crystallizing sounds only Le Motel and Bruce Wijn can deliver.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: CORTIZONA 025LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

On his third album, Comit? Hypnotis? let you belly flop into his eleven chambers of the Danza Del Piri-Piri: expanding the feral and contagious universe he started to build a lifetime ago. Levitating and shimmering a glistering way through deep old school '70s sitar vibes and jitterbug grooves. This boogieman aka the Millionaire-mind and part of the Evil Superstars has carved some hot smoked out bass and organ flared cuts on wax, ready to never leave you again. Whether it is with woodchopped kazou sounds stretching into hazy sunshine desire or dazzling basslines blending with interstellar and stuttering kick drums: the Danza Del Piri-Piri flip-flops and slams into a wiggly relentless sonic future. Comit? Hypnotis? is the brainchild of Tim Vanhamel, frontman of Millionaire and Evil Superstars, two of Belgium's most famous alternative rock bands. In 2013 Tim started creating solo music that only got released in 2021 on his first solo album through the Belgian eclectic Cortizona label. FFO Sven Wunder, Ennio Morricone, Khruangbin, Flying Lotus, The Meters, Parliament, Edan, The Gaslamp Killer.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: CORTIZONA 026LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Pruillip is a new Belgian band founded by Louis Evrard (Bert Dockx Band, Grid Ravage, Ottla) and Annelies Van Dinter (Echo Beatty, Takh & Naga Ghost). The duo started in 2022 after a request to play at De Nor, the open air sculpture park and venue of Dennis Tyfus. For this occasion, Annelies and Louis decided to do a position switch and play each other's instruments: Annelies beating the hell out of the drums and Louis ripping up the guitar. This record features eight songs channeling elemental emotions, kickin' deep into the internal organs of the body. Low end frequency swagger droning up from Louis Evrard's amp, ready to slip into "Place All Your Cards," slow burning sludge nugget, bolstered by the steady drum kicks of Annelies Van Dinter, where every note and strike seems to carry the weight of the world. Navigating through life, seducing you with her gloomy voice. Entering a quest into the unknown, a place you don't want to leave. A feeling increased by the abrasive and brutal "Boterham:" a punk sludge anthem for the hungry and the wild at heart, countered with the reverb-shrouded murmur "Distracted Enthusiasm." The lonely "Zonnedauw" sets the mark of an apparently more resigned B-side, stretching the Pruillip universe with primitive, but so addictive, riffs in "Mirrors," echoing vibes of '90s desert sessions while "Offload" and the lucid state of Ataraxia seems to drift on raw emotions and a sweaty claustrophobic tension, which would fit perfectly in Wim Wenders' Paris Texas movie. A whirlwind of a record, straight to the bone, leaving you flabbergasted and wanting for more.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: DADA 006CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Re-reissue of Cranes ?ber rare debut album Fuse on Dadaphonic, for the first time on vinyl and CD. The Fuse album was remastered at Abbey Road in 2023. The album includes an extra unheard track from the period called "New Liberty." Artwork is by Chris Bigg of V23. The second in a series of archive releases by Cranes, Fuse was recorded in Portsmouth, their home town by siblings Alison and Jim Shaw. It originally appeared as a cassette album in 1986 on the Bite Back! label. With an initial run of only 200 copies, over the years this album, with its distinctive purple cover has been highly sought after amongst fans, often exchanging hands for more than ?100. Fuse showcases a sparser, darker and more industrial, post punk sound. From the hypnotic allure and rhythmic intensity of the title track to the ferocious and challenging beats of "Wrench," the songs are just as mesmerizing as Cranes' later, critically acclaimed releases. Recorded in a garage on a four-track porta-studio, the band spent many months experimenting and became obsessed with the recording process. Jim Shaw used a very early sampling pedal to create the drum sounds, which were all individually triggered. The only and first "industry" person to hear anything by Cranes at this time was Martin Hannett (legendary producer of Joy Division and New Order). He was looking for unsigned bands to appear on a new music TV show in Manchester and so Ian Binnington from Biteback! sent him a compilation tape of many Portsmouth bands. Hannett picked out "Fuse - Original Version" by Cranes and told Ian that the track was "fucking great."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 102EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 repress. "Trevor Byfield's 'Burning Bush,' a classic ode to herb smoking. Originally issued on the Mistic, Percival and Fox Fire imprints respectively, these four tunes are now re-presented using the Fox Fire design originally used on 'Burning Bush,' which is one of our favorite label designs of all time!"

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 103EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 repress. "Trevor Byfield's 'Tell Me That You Love Me' is one of the most dread love songs that we've heard, and the flip is one of the most truly psychedelic, heavy and unique Tubby's dubs ever mixed. In fact, the crew liked this rhythm for this song so much that they cut three tunes on it!"

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 104EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 repress. "Starting in the late '70s and into the early '80s, the close-knit foursome of Trevor Byfield and Clive Matthews as artists, and Norman 'Fox Fire' Vassell and the late Clinton 'Percival' Williams as producers, cut some of the best and heaviest roots reggae tunes of the era. Clive Matthew's 'Live Not For Vanity' is a serious warning given thru a heavy tune."

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: DKR 199LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 restock; packaged in two sided hand silk screened jacket.. "11 song LP compiling nearly all of the remaining '70s and '80s output of Clive & Trevor not already re-released by DKR. Vocals, dubs and a deejay cut culled from various releases are all corralled here to complete the picture of the great body of work from these long time partners."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 271EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Previously unreleased and hard as nails late '80s digital tune recorded at Aquarius studio in Jamaica. Wicked to hear Errol D. on this type of rhythm!"

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 272EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Great female roots cut on the deadly Park Heights' cut of Java. This was originally released on a 12" only back in the day, now on a 45 with a previously unreleased alternate vocal mix."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: DKR 280EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"At last, the start of a long-planned reissued program of one of the finest labels of late '80s digital reggae. What better to start the series than with the label's most infamous, in demand tune. Everton Chambers' is perhaps the label's signature artist, and here's this killer digital stepper, brought to fame by play on the legendary Jah Shaka sound in the early '90s. The Parish series, the first legitimate reissues from the label, will contain many killer rare and previously unreleased tunes, all from master tapes. More coming this spring!"

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: CREP 109LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A quietly influential figure among electronic and experimental circles since the late '90s, Berlin-based sound artist Hanno Leichtmann has been developing a sprawling and idiosyncratic vision both as a creator and curator. With a keen sense for charting new territories, Leichtmann's work spawns a multitude of languages that go from delicate ambient excursions to techno explorations or abstract sceneries on numerous sound installations, releases on such esteemed labels like Entr'acte or The Tapeworm and collaborations with artists like Valerio Tricoli or Jan Jelinek. A reflection of his keen sense of discovery. Centered around the Villa Aurora Organ, an intriguing and mostly unknown instrument built in 1928/29 by the Artcraft Organ Company in Santa Monica, California, Outerlands presents a deeply personal approach to the instrument's particular properties, very much in line with Discrepant's ethos. Consisting of a pipe organ, a wall mounted marimba and a two octave tubular bells/chimes ensemble, remotely controllable by MIDI, the Villa Aurora Organ's rich palette of sounds is translated into 12 short tracks capable of conveying the mesmerizing spirits of minimalism, exotica and devotional music. Starting with the ecstatic sound of the pipe organ, "Lucero" sets up the hypnotic mood for Outerland's excursions through moments of spiraling repetition -- "Tramonto" -- blissful contemplation -- "Sunset" or "Notteargenta" -- or underlying tension -- "Coperto." "Espera" amps up the unease, with queasy organ tones lurking beneath marimba harmonic motifs that wouldn't sound out of place on some survival horror movie, while "Miramar" or "Revello" bring an uncanny sense of familiarity through its repetitive melodies. Drifting seamlessly through a variety of moods that somehow feel connected - the outerlands are within you, if you allow yourself to let go.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: EMEGO 311LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Grain is the third Innode release following on from Gridshifter (EMEGO 168LP) in 2013 and syn (EMEGO 294LP) in 2021. A new methodology to make the album is applied yet again from the trio of Bernhard Breuer, Steven Hess, and Stefan N?meth. The approach is more an anti-approach where the trio let the process of creation itself steer the development of the recording, without any prior conceptual agenda. Irregular rhythmic patterns often served as the initial springboard for each piece with Breuer creating a loop either by playing drums or with the aid of a modelling percussion synthesizer. The results often bypass existing formulaic grids. The outfit embraced these anti-precision steps building shapes around the tarnished templates. The process of building upon the core structures laid forth alters throughout. In the case of "Splitter" you can hear an example of Bernhard's core loops dominating a skeletal audio sphere. The title of the track "Impactopium" reflects the process of its construction being a conglomeration of individual titles meshed into a whole. The audio is a non-linear compendium of several fragments of individual elements. A conscious method of exploring a more decentralized architecture saw three disparate elements layered randomly on top of each other with some synths added as a sonic seasoning at the later stages. Elsewhere sonic elements are restructured in unusual ways. One member's contribution is completely stripped away, quiet sounds captured with contact mics are highly amplified, the last track introduces twisted themes of the first track. The title Grain refers to the roughness resulting from these explorations. It also takes note of the term grain as used in analogue photography or in the case of audio as a distorted signal, or "noise. All of these elements, normally eschewed, are here embraced as a thematic thread to instigate the exploratory proceedings. This is a playbox of inventiveness, a hall of mirrors and an endless search for unusual tactics and fresh results. Tackling the initial loop tracks from a wide variety of strategic approaches Innode has concocted a strangely cohesive work. From sparse source material to heavy overdubs of overdubs grain is an uplifting collection of works from this relentlessly curious and exploratory Austrian outfit. Humans make the work but the random embracing of unexpected processes means the gentleman of the outfit is not fully ruling what becomes of these works.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: ELE 024LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Remastered for vinyl at Abbey Road Studios, London. A straight-up folk record in the mold of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, one that catapults Glomboh onto national spotlight. Most Gen X-ers who grew up in the mid-1980s Indonesia must have seen Soedjarwoto Soemarsono, known by his nom de guerre "Gombloh" performing on a state-run television station, playing some of his biggest hits from that era, pop gems like "Kugadaikan Cintaku (I Pawn Off My Love)" and "Setengah Gila (Half-Crazy)." But of course, it is not fair to judge Gombloh only from these hits. Dig deeper and you will find buried treasure in his early stuff from Indra Records, and there are many of them. Live Gila is a brilliant recording which, despite being recorded live, has sound quality so pristine that many to doubt the claim of being live. One of the best things about Live Gila is its perfect sequencing, beginning with Gombloh's social commentary on the rich's debauched lifestyle of preying on young boys and girls, one of the most popular subjects allowed by the censoring machine of the New Order authoritarian government. The second song "Untuk Persada" is a soaring ode to the nation. For this song, Gombloh could be heard drawing his inspiration from The Police, which was undoubtedly popular in the early 1980s, even in a faraway port city like Surabaya. Not a single composition in this record sound indigenous (the Malay-influenced rock of Panbers or Koes Plus come to mind); they all sound modern and effortlessly catchy, and had it not been for the language, this album could be mistaken for a musical output from someone growing up in Laurel Canyon or Southern France.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: ELE 026LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Gombloh's forgotten masterpiece, Sekar Mayhang, his last record with his band Lemon Trees. No one knew that Gombloh was operating with all his cylinders running and what came out of this Indra Record session, in the waning days of 1980, were some of the best compositions ever committed to magnetic tapes. This is Gombloh at the peak of his creative genius. This record was a flop upon its release in 1981, and Indra Records reportedly only did one pressing on cassette tape. In Sekar Mayang, Gombloh harbors an obsession for a long-lost utopia, Java's distant past, where farmers have their barn full of rice and corn, where blacksmith working around the clock making tools and children singing and dancing in their seminaries. The question for him is should a modern-day Indonesia, rife with poverty, corruption and environmental degradation not be an anathema to that utopia? In the end, you don't need to be someone fluent in Javanese to enjoy this majestic record.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: ELE 034CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Long-awaited compilation of hard-rocking, psychedelic songs from Indonesia's premiere rock outfit Panbers (Pandjaitan Bersaudara) culled from their most fertile years with Mesra Dimita Records. For those uninitiated on the glory Panbers, consider this compilation an introduction to some of earliest and heaviest rock sound to come out of Indonesia.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: ELE 034LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. Long-awaited compilation of hard-rocking, psychedelic songs from Indonesia's premiere rock outfit Panbers (Pandjaitan Bersaudara) culled from their most fertile years with Mesra Dimita Records. For those uninitiated on the glory Panbers, consider this compilation an introduction to some of earliest and heaviest rock sound to come out of Indonesia.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: ENLP 141LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Branko, the Portuguese producer and Enchufada label owner, announced his fourth solo album Soma. The project pushes the maintained standard for over a decade in shaping the expression of electronic global music to greater heights. The producer started the creative process with a three-day jam session in Lisbon, with local musicians, over a framework of multiple beats, later recomposed as a repository of grooves that served as the blueprint for the album's instrumental. Branko's artistic vision for Soma is grounded in authenticity and the expression of local and global talent. He has collaborated not only with critical Lisbon-based musicians, but also with vocalists from London, Cape Verde, and Brazil, including Jay Prince, June Freedom, BIAB, and Tuyo. Lisboa never sounded so good. Soma see's Branko evolving his production process by incorporating some of the cities' most relevant musicians alongside a large array of global vocal guests. The twelve tracks feature collaborations with artists such as London-based Jay Prince and Angolan-Portuguese musician Carla Prata, Cape Verdean American artist June Freedom, Rio de Janeiro-based artist BIAB, Portuguese singer Teresa Salgueiro, Brazilian band Tuyo, Lisbon-based Dino d'Santiago, Ghanaian music producer Gafacci, London-based Ghanaian rapper and vocalist Bryte, Sintra's singers Yeri & Yeni, and Carl?o, the frontman of Almada's band Da Weasel. Branko achieved widespread recognition thanks to his continuous output of new music and his ability to turn his ideas into reality. As an artist, his three solo albums played a crucial role in showcasing his unique musical identity and vision, aided by iconic live performances. He also founded Buraka Som Sistema and Enchufada, forces that still shape the expression of electronic music today. RIYL: Pongo, Buraka Som Sistema, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Nicola Cruz, Sango, Chanca Via Circuito.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: ESK 667066

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Curses presents Next Wave Acid Punx Deux. Ahead of the full release in the fall Eskimo is excited to present this DJ sampler as a taster. This 12" includes two unreleased Curses reworks of Nuovo Testamento and J.W.B. Hits The Beat originals that have been absolute highlights in his DJ sets lately, and two tracks by Mary M??r and Cabaret Voltaire that are taken from Curses' classics selection.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: ESK 667324

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A kaleidoscopic sonic riot, Nandakke? is the hotly anticipated debut album from Japanese-Belgian duo Aili. Featuring ten tracks of surreal electro-pop, joyful electronica, house music and more, Nandakke? is a euphoric album that sees Aili Maruyama and Orson Wouters more than fulfil the promise of their acclaimed debut EP. Recorded over the course of six months in Orson's studio, packed full of vintage synths, Nandakke? captures the spontaneous spirit and creativity of those sessions. Exchanging riffs and rhythms, bouncing sounds and samples off each other, Aili and Orson would let the music take them where it wanted. The result -- an album full of wild ideas and bold, playful experimentation. One minute a pulsing electro-pop number featuring Aili's dad discussing his takoyaki (battered octopus) recipe, the next an explosive high energy workout song like "Up & Down." Whether Aili's singing about the language she invented with her father over the years to bridge the gap between them, the idiosyncratic Japanese relationship to fashion, or riffing on children's playground songs, the result is a remarkable album that defies easy categorization.

 

PRICE: $11.50

CAT #: ESPDISK 5071CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Creativity is theoretically infinite. Just as improvisors can play the same song every night and have it sound different every time, existing recordings can have their materials combined in different ways, re-mixed, re-ordered, re-everything'd. Some people prefer the comforting solidity of a single version, unchanging, but that is antithetical to the jazz spirit. The infinity of creativity is being explored in two upcoming projects by Thollem (McDonas). Worlds in a Life, Two is the second of two albums that Thollem created using samples from all of the six Thollem/Cline Trio albums as the primary sound sources (including double bass, piano, organ, electric guitar, drums, MIDI-accordion, and voice). The approach developed naturally out of the process of creating The Light Is Real with Nels and Terry Riley on Other Minds Records. In 2012 came Thollem and Nels' first trio collaboration was with William Parker. The following albums include the Radical Empathy Trio with Michael Wimberly, and with Pauline Oliveros (Roaratorio). Worlds in a Life, Two was recorded in real-time on a Wavestate, with no overdubs, in January and February 2024. This music is a celebration of the limitless palette of sounds and the infinite, known and unknown, revealing discoveries made through intensive explorations over two months. Personnel: Thollem (composer, Wavestate); Nels Cline (guitars); Pauline Oliveros (MIDI-accordion); William Parker (double bass); Terry Riley (vocals); Michael Wimberly (drums).

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FARO 210-2LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 limited restock; LP version, Volume 2. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. Since their debut in 1975 (FARO 117X-LP), Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world's greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock 'n' roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature "Samba Doido" (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid. Before they became Azymuth, Jos? Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan 'Mam?o' Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Azymuth's name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti, and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music -- from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropic?lia on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward; these previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami's home studio. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world, that sounded anything like them, so it's unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, told in effect that the music was 'wrong'. When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, "Prefacio" would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996). Only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form. On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros, and Conti were realizing at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth's earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 750LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"MB Jones and Rey Sapienz first encountered one another in 2018. Jones was living in South Korea and visited Kampala, Uganda with his partner. Before their trip he was surprised to find that the Nyege Nyege label knew of him through his ROK SPY record, which had even led certain label associates to wonder if, because of that project's presentation, he was an actual secret agent. Jones stayed for a few days at Villa Nyege, where label co-founder Arlen Dilsizian introduced him to Rey Sapienz. Prompted by a question Jones had about a man in Uganda building rockets in his backyard, Dilsizian had the notion to name the band after a Congolese rocket program, and recording ensued. Plans for Jones to return were dashed by a global pandemic, and thus the pair were forced, like so many, to work remotely. Processing of their initial sessions yielded the Grey Parrots cassette, released in an edition of 100. For this next album, they wanted something that more closely resembled songs. Jones crafted instrumental tracks and sent them to Sapienz, who handled the vocals and written word. Results were returned to Jones to be wrangled into their final versions. Along the way, a host of guest artists contributed as well. Jones was chuffed to get Otim Alpha on a track, and Northeast underground heads will be pleased as punch with the riotous appearance of Fat Worm of Error's Tim Sheldon. Among others. The music draws from disparate cultural touchstones to create its own vernacular. Enticing and unpredictable rhythms abound, punctuated by groovy loops, layers, and conglomerates of mechanical tones and atmospheres. Some songs are full of high frequencies and high energy, some swim in darker psychedelic waters. Some are spastic and crammed with information, some embrace space and breath. The vocals are uniformly excellent. The elements are mashed up, but it's a far cry from the stale concept of a 'mashup,' where familiar elements get bolted together in a clever manner that makes adults say, 'Wow, that's neat!' The music of Troposphere 7 blends sounds and styles as painters mix pigments to create something magical. To Keyi Toko Zonga a stunning experience, showcasing a highly sophisticated sense of possibility. Whether or not there will be another Troposphere 7 album remains to be seen and, to a degree, doesn't matter. What counts is that we have this marvelous LP. Given the creative restlessness of the participants, who knows if they'd want to do it all again anyway. This is art made for the moment it's in, reveling in the reality it conjures. So be here now, you won't regret it." --Matt Krefting, 2024

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: 9781739887810

FILE UNDER: Misc

"An archive of aural sensations past, teeming with rare and previously unpublished vintage hi-fi brochures. Remember roller-skating while wearing your first Walkman? Or relaxing to easy listening in your pure white Philips lounge? Or playing chess on your JVC tabletop radio? All these scenarios can be found in the geeky and rarefied world of the vintage hi-fi brochure, where graphic design and acoustic apparatus make magical music together. From austere postwar Britain to poppy pre-millennium Japan, Audio Erotica presents a nostalgic nirvana of the strangest and most significant period hi-fi brochures. The volume acts as a companion title to the delightful Jonny Trunk/FUEL publication, Auto Erotica: A Grand Tour through Classic Car Brochures of the 1960s to 1980s and is manufactured in the same format. Alphabetically listed, from Aiwa to Zenith, with Braun, JVC Nivico, Nakamichi, Sony and everything in between, this book will resonate with any music fan. Setting the tempo are the pipe-smoking, high-end separates (amplifiers, speakers, turntables) of the 1950s, followed by the swinging Dansette record players of the 1960s, the prog-brushed-metal music centers of the 1970s and the sleek capitalist cabinet stack systems of the 1980s -- not forgetting the aerobic stereo sound portability facilitated by the boombox, and that final high-fidelity, hardware hurrah: the compact disc. The evocative brochures in Audio Erotica track the technological development of audio equipment before the digital download, while simultaneously revealing the way hi-fi was marketed to the listening public. With knobs on. A striking screen-printed graphic cover on 'brushed aluminum' paper echoes the hi-fi systems shown in the brochures."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: GODUNK 110LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

A?id Bl??s R??gs Vol.2 is the latest evolution of the sound of 2022's Volume 1 (GODUNK 077LP). Volume 2 builds on the skronk blues guitar, sax and electronic drones of its predecessor, to explore cosmic free jazz, concrete exotica and dub, channeling influences of Moondog, Terry Riley, 75 Dollar Bill, and Wolf Eyes. Playing like the imagined film soundtracks to a dystopian, re-wilded, post eco crash world in the style of Tarkovsky's Stalker and Solaris, Jodorowsky's surreal desert western El Topo, or the early novels of JG Ballard. This new collection sees the addition of minimal analogue drum machine loops as well as live instrumental contributions from the new players of the ever-evolving Invocation band, plus some superstar guest contributors. Featuring five brand new tracks, including the forthcoming single, "Cosmic Fanfare." The new album was mixed by Alex McGowan (aka Captain Future) of Space Eko Studios and features Invocation band regulars Rick Jensen of Apocalypse Jazz Unit, Skronk and Oneirologist on sax and bass clarinet, Will Emms aka Tiki Eerie on melodica, horns and claviola, plus special guest appearances from Duke Garwood on clarinet and Mikey 'Moondog' Chestnut of Snapped Ankles on bass synth. Jonny Halifax is a primitivist free blues outsider, sonic shaman of the acid fuzzed lap steel guitar, demented blower of the howling harmonica of doom. His new band project now combines avant swamp blues heaviosity with kosmic free jazz experimentalism in a fluid collective of godless raag brut improvisations -- sonic visions of an hallucinatory apocalyptic near future. Inspired by Henry Flynt's avant bluegrass experiments fusing country blues with eastern acoustic musical stylings and Spacemen 3's contemporary sitar music, The Jonny Halifax Invocation build hypnotic instrumental soundscapes using lap steel and homemade slide guitars, harmonica and alto sax. Underpinned by layers of acoustic and electronic drone instruments and fed through an arsenal of pedalboard electronics that would make Kevin Shields weep, the blues are transmogrified, unhinged, reduced and re-imagined as intoxicating, trance-inducing, feedback-drenched noise paintings. The Jonny Halifax Invocation follows Jonny's junkshop skronk blues one man band Honkeyfinger, and the Julian Cope endorsed gospel fuzz psychedelia of Jonny Halifax & The Howling Truth, whilst not forgetting his ambient drone metal side project; Deathenteredinerror. His musical CV also includes studio contributions to tracks by Andrew Weatherall's Two Lone Swordsmen, UK metal behemoths Orange Goblin, Heck, and Melting Hand.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 294LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Stuck On Common Ground is the debut album of the Italian power trio Hijss. With a mixture of heavy blues influenced riffs and synthesized Krautrock parts Hijss tries to create a high dynamic range that will keep your attention at all time. On top of gritty basslines and ferocious drums lie cosmic guitars, tantalizing vocals and arpeggiated electronic drones. All three band members come from a vast musical background. Their common denominator is without a doubt a punkish attitude. The album was produced by Toni Quiroga and Hijss, drums were recorded at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives by "holy barbarian" Fabio Sforza. Engineered, mixed and mastered at accept productions by Toni Quiroga, album cover by Luca Guarino.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 294LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Magenta color vinyl. Stuck On Common Ground is the debut album of the Italian power trio Hijss. With a mixture of heavy blues influenced riffs and synthesized Krautrock parts Hijss tries to create a high dynamic range that will keep your attention at all time. On top of gritty basslines and ferocious drums lie cosmic guitars, tantalizing vocals and arpeggiated electronic drones. All three band members come from a vast musical background. Their common denominator is without a doubt a punkish attitude. The album was produced by Toni Quiroga and Hijss, drums were recorded at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives by "holy barbarian" Fabio Sforza. Engineered, mixed and mastered at accept productions by Toni Quiroga, album cover by Luca Guarino.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 294ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Blue/orange splatter vinyl. Stuck On Common Ground is the debut album of the Italian power trio Hijss. With a mixture of heavy blues influenced riffs and synthesized Krautrock parts Hijss tries to create a high dynamic range that will keep your attention at all time. On top of gritty basslines and ferocious drums lie cosmic guitars, tantalizing vocals and arpeggiated electronic drones. All three band members come from a vast musical background. Their common denominator is without a doubt a punkish attitude. The album was produced by Toni Quiroga and Hijss, drums were recorded at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives by "holy barbarian" Fabio Sforza. Engineered, mixed and mastered at accept productions by Toni Quiroga, album cover by Luca Guarino.

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: JL 004EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Jah Life Time first put this one out in the early 2010s, in an early batch of Jah Life tunes. A favorite late '80s sound clash tunes, this is on the same rhythm as the Icho Candy & Prince Junior tune out now for the first time. Now back on the Jah Life Time label, as it was originally."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: JL 058EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Previously unreleased heavy roots from the Radics/Scientist days. As played on dubplate by Volcano in Jamaica and Jah Life International in NYC."

 

PRICE: $9.00

CAT #: JL 062EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Previously unreleased late '80s digital on a familiar synthed-out killer rhythm, two of the label's favorite unique singers in combination. Lyrically about the struggle for freedom of the day, as resonant today as it was nearly 40 years ago."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: KRXN 043LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Synthesizers, tape recorders, and analog machines come together into an enchanting atmospheric album reminiscent of Eno, Jarre, or Vangelis's space-romantic compositions. Resonance is the artistic alias of Javier P?rez Rodr?guez, a Canary Islands based producer who began his musical activity in the late nineties, blending cinematic experimental music with dancefloor sounds. After releasing several club-focused releases in recent times, he now presents this new departure -- a synth-based album for a soundtrack to a non-existent film featuring dreamlike compositions, filled with long, immersive passages that effortlessly blend elements of electronic, ambient, and progressive rock music. Valediction is an ambient ode, an emotional missive departing from a personal and intimate space and expands it to the universe -- the cosmos expressed through a lens of ideas and concepts that contrast with its compositional complexity. Through this work, the author bids farewell to a stage of his life whilst presenting a new born optimistic and mature vision of parting, naturally transitioning to another phase without collision -- a romantic and optimistic escape towards the reality of a recent sensitive time, which may not have been better, but perhaps it was. Valediction is Resonance's spontaneous yet conscious escape to the most endearing realms of his own inner universe, subsequently projecting it outward, in a sharing statement to whoever is willing to listen.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: KOM 352LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 repress; Double LP version with download code. 180-gram vinyl. When Kompakt came across Amsterdam-based Harm Coolen and Merijn Scholte Albers aka Weval in 2014, the label was blown away by the duo's slow-burning, darkly emotive tracks. Following two widely acclaimed EPs for Kompakt and numerous festival appearances, the pair now present their self-titled full-length debut. This is no mere collection of tracks, but a complete listening experience with organic flow, emotional heft, and a narrative thread. While the duo's previous Kompakt releases -- their acclaimed 2014 Easier EP (KOMPAKT 318) and 2015's bold and beautiful It'll Be Just Fine/Grow Up (KOM 344EP), which saw the two soundsmiths digging deeper into the granularities of electronic funk than ever before -- were astonishingly fully-formed, the pair's music always seemed destined for more space to explore the nooks and crannies of this rapidly evolving sound cosmos. Simply put, they needed to think about an album, and their beloved living room studio wasn't cutting it anymore. An old school building, repurposed to house small creative businesses, became Weval's new home, but in the summer of 2015, it was abandoned most of the time, with everybody out in the sun while the duo turned the building's attic into a sweet spot to make some noise, have 24-hour access, and lose track of time. Weval draw their inspirations from no single genre of music, but an accumulation of music that inspires them. The results present an astonishingly coherent vision -- cuts like the dramatic "The Battle," bass growler "I Don't Need It," and the trippy epic "Madness" share the same DNA of zestful nostalgia, a knack for immersive sound-sculpting, and that certain kink in the groove. They also feed on deeply personal experiences and moods, as exemplified by the haunting electronic ballad "You're Mine," the carefully layered, polaroid-tinted "Just In Case," and the beautifully voiced closer "Years To Build." And sometimes, it's just an old, out-of-tune piano that stands in the hallway -- "Whenever I'd pass by it, I couldn't resist playing it," says Albers, "so Harm decided to start recording and it became an integral part of 'You Made It (Part I).'" No doubt about it: this is Weval's most powerful and organic material yet -- which means a lot, considering the amount of skill already on display in their small but weighty portfolio.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: KOM 427LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 repress; double LP version. Kompakt welcomes back Copenhagen's WhoMadeWho. Tomas Barfod's penchant for electronic music poetically juxtaposed with Tomas H?ffding and Jeppe Kjellberg's respective backgrounds in rock and jazz, gives their music an electrifying combination of sounds, merging a variety of influences to produce a unique sonic fingerprint that is emotive, irresistible and immensely satisfying. Though they have yet to strike a note together since the release of their 2012 full length Brighter (KOM 254LP/KOMP 097CD, 2012), WhoMadeWho have been remarkably productive. With two full-lengths, a DJ mix for Watergate's series (WG 026CD), the trio have found themselves diving more and more into the world of electronic music, tapping into their goldmine of connections within the scene to spearhead an array of collaborations. Synchronicity is all about "meaningful coincidences" -- bringing interpretation to bear on connections that have no actual causal relationship. It's a canny concept to pin onto Copenhagen trio WhoMadeWho's latest album, which sees them return to Kompakt for the first time since 2012's Brighter. On Synchronicity, WhoMadeWho call on friends old and new: Michael Mayer, Echonomist, Adana Twins, Alex Boman, Robag Wruhme, Frank Wiedemann, Sainte Vie, Mano Le Tough, Marc Pi?ol, Rebolledo, and Perel is the cast list; WhoMadeWho direct the material, shaping it into one lovingly flowing gem of dance-pop glory. There's something particularly generous about hearing an album as all-inclusive and open-hearted as Synchronicity in the midst of the profound social and cultural shifts everyone is currently experiencing. While some songs on Synchronicity were recorded together, in real time, such as the collaborations with Adana Twins and Rebolledo, most of them have taken place via long distance, thanks to the pandemic lockdown. But you don't need to know who was where to understand either the magnesium-flare melancholy of "Sooner", recorded with Pi?ol, which has you holding your breath with the gentle thrill of the song's lush melody, or the stomping strut of the following Adana Twins collaboration, "Shadow Of Doubt". Elsewhere, there's the stentorian robot voice at the heart of "Hamstring", where they're joined by Michael Mayer; the lustrous headsoak of "Twenty Tears", a tender intervention by Rebolledo; the strip-light, slow-motion disco strut of "Cecil", produced alongside Echonomist; or the glittering, arpeggio dreamwork that Perel helps sculpt into shape on "Der Abend Birgt Keine Ruh". From pop revelations to dancefloor delirium to slow-burning brooders, Synchronicity is a space for the joys of the unexpected to collide.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: LAPSUS 038LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The scenic artist and multi-instrumentalist Claraguilar moves from performing arts to cinema as a composer and live performer. Over the last few years, she has created soundscapes that blend electronics and sampled elements with orchestral arrangements, becoming one of the main names of the Spanish theater scene when it comes to soundtrack and sound design creation. After her acclaimed EP Mystery is All, Lapsus presents Figura, Claraguilar's debut album, a heartfelt tribute to her connection with the scenic world, and especially with the operatic universe. The starting point of this project was born with the concept of an "invisible orchestra," an imaginary that aesthetically becomes a reality on stage thanks to the collaboration with the Barcelona studio Oscila, as well as with the help of the stylist Joan Ros, who has been in charge of the costume design. Figura is a space in which electronica, ambient, and chamber-pop coexist; all under an operatic halo full of drama. Once again, the producer locked herself down from late 2022 to the beginning of 2023 to compose all the tracks in a very intimate and closed composition process. The album dives into the melodic landscapes, merged with orchestral samples and chopped voices containing mysterious messages inside. Each track is a pixelated lightshow and a live electronic instrumentation, presented onstage as an elegant performance with an expansive emotional range.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: LION 202LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Teeming with infectious hooks and delicate textures, Keady & Vallins stacks up favorably against now heralded titans of soft pop/yacht rock and pop disco-lite, living in the intersection between Bobby Caldwell, Steely Dan, and Saturday Night Fever-era Bee Gees. Keady & Vallins is an all-too-familiar story of potential left unfulfilled -- glorious pop music shunted by the impetuous thrums of a music industry stricken by decadence and a preference for high turnover and rigorous proprietorship. A tour with the Bee Gees by Vallins and help from Robert Stigwood resulted in a deal with Polydor. After a pair of singles produced by a young, upstart (now hugely important head of Universal Music Group) Lucien Grange achieved moderate success in France, an album was next: taped by Keady and Vallins during downtime from other sessions. They pulled world class talent from the studio, from the pub down the street from the studio, while also (temporarily) pilfering instruments from the shop below the studio (price tags still affixed) -- to create a striking blend of sepia-toned soft pop/yacht rock and pop disco-lite. Born out of a quick friendship turned decades long songwriting partnership between Gary Keady and John Vallins, the full-length record was meant to be a mark of the duo's growing promise as songwriters at Chappell -- the publishing house's self-proclaimed Australian facsimile of the American duo Hall & Oates (or maybe a two-person Bee Gees?). But that's not what happened, is it. Dormant since its completion in 1979, the Keady & Vallins album slots in perfectly amongst its contemporaries as a classic. To further cement its much-belated legacy, Keady & Vallins contains the original version of Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams' smash #1 hit 'Too Much, Too Little, Too Late' (written by Vallins), and features a coterie of preeminent musicians, including Tommy Emmanuel (guitar) and John Altman (strings)."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: LMS 1725046

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Iconic UK indie band Flowered Up, seen as London's answer to Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses, reissue their debut album A Life With Brian, remastered and enhanced via London Records. Features unreleased tracks, further new remixes and rarities. Also included is the "Everyone You Know" remix of Crackerjack. The reissue follows a BFI documentary on the video of "Weekender" and its legendary status in UK club culture of the time. The album remastering was overseen by Flowered Up keyboard player Tim Dorney.

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: LMS 1725047

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Iconic UK indie band Flowered Up, seen as London's answer to Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses, reissue their debut album A Life With Brian, remastered and enhanced via London Records. Features unreleased tracks, further new remixes and rarities. Also included is the "Everyone You Know" remix of Crackerjack. The reissue follows a BFI documentary on the video of "Weekender" and its legendary status in UK club culture of the time. The album remastering was overseen by Flowered Up keyboard player Tim Dorney.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: MPM 045CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Robert Hood's techno and Femi Kuti's Afrobeat intertwine in a new form where jazz-grooves reign supreme. For the fourth season of La Compagnie des Indes and Sourdoreille ("Variations") live series of creations for France TV, the duo were united around the singer and producer James Brown, performing a tribute to the legendary Godfather of Soul who passed away in 2006. This Variations album is the live recording of this unique collaboration and performance, capturing a very special moment in time. The evening witnessed a meeting of two icons in their own genres: one with synths and drum machines, the other on saxophone: Robert Hood and Femi Kuti embody excellence in their respective fields and the pair combined to make something truly unique, soulful, funky and spontaneous. Recorded in one 30+ minute take, Variations is embellished by Femi's exquisitely free-flowing yet restrained saxophone, whilst Hood anchors the groove with layers of pads and kicks with the long-time mastery of a true DJ. Alongside Jeff Mills and Mad Mike, Hood is one of the original members of Detroit techno group Underground Resistance. His style is characterized by minimalist and experimental tones with an assertive groove. Throughout the '90s, he helped pave the way for techno to flourish -- giving birth to minimal techno with his seminal album Minimal Nation. Since then, he has been consistently forwarding electronic music culture with ground-breaking productions, sensational performances and his M-Plant label. Alongside him, Femi Kuti takes on every musical style with his saxophone, which he plays with a virtuoso touch: pop, soul, electronic music and Afrobeat, of which he is one of the leading exponents. The son of Afrobeat singer and political activist Fela Kuti, he has inherited his father's zeal for both music and activism, where he continues to highlight the plight of most Nigerians living conditions in the oil rich state. With Variations the duo capture an explosive combination on a special night in Paris in November 2019, filmed at the ADP Group headquarters.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: MPM 045LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Robert Hood's techno and Femi Kuti's Afrobeat intertwine in a new form where jazz-grooves reign supreme. For the fourth season of La Compagnie des Indes and Sourdoreille ("Variations") live series of creations for France TV, the duo were united around the singer and producer James Brown, performing a tribute to the legendary Godfather of Soul who passed away in 2006. This Variations album is the live recording of this unique collaboration and performance, capturing a very special moment in time. The evening witnessed a meeting of two icons in their own genres: one with synths and drum machines, the other on saxophone: Robert Hood and Femi Kuti embody excellence in their respective fields and the pair combined to make something truly unique, soulful, funky and spontaneous. Recorded in one 30+ minute take, Variations is embellished by Femi's exquisitely free-flowing yet restrained saxophone, whilst Hood anchors the groove with layers of pads and kicks with the long-time mastery of a true DJ. Alongside Jeff Mills and Mad Mike, Hood is one of the original members of Detroit techno group Underground Resistance. His style is characterized by minimalist and experimental tones with an assertive groove. Throughout the '90s, he helped pave the way for techno to flourish -- giving birth to minimal techno with his seminal album Minimal Nation. Since then, he has been consistently forwarding electronic music culture with ground-breaking productions, sensational performances and his M-Plant label. Alongside him, Femi Kuti takes on every musical style with his saxophone, which he plays with a virtuoso touch: pop, soul, electronic music and Afrobeat, of which he is one of the leading exponents. The son of Afrobeat singer and political activist Fela Kuti, he has inherited his father's zeal for both music and activism, where he continues to highlight the plight of most Nigerians living conditions in the oil rich state. With Variations the duo capture an explosive combination on a special night in Paris in November 2019, filmed at the ADP Group headquarters.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: MARCEL 004LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

It all started with waiting music for the city of Ghent information telephone line. City composer Fulco Ottervanger (Cruise Lento) envisioned a music in which waiting time would serve as an invitation to stillness and presence. Long-term friend and producer Lieven Van P?e (Vectrex) turned out to be the ideal companion. However, the music was never used, yet it had not missed its magical effect. The two gentlemen were now determined to make a full ambient album in which silence would play a leading role, both intuitive as well as elaborated down to the smallest unit of time. An additional approach was to make music to lull their newborn sons to sleep, with melodies simple, sounds sweet and silences deep. Inspiration came from Haruomi Hosono's 1984 obscure classic Watering a Flower, Eric Satie's Vexations and how could it be otherwise, John Cage's 4:33. What these progressive yet universal compositions have in common is a refinement of repetition and both a soothing and stimulating character. As a listener you can't help but dive into the silence and experience a certain sweetness. The ideal record to rest to, to wake up to and enter a wider field.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: MUSIQ 267LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 repress. DJ, producer, and Dial Records co-owner Lawrence produced his fourth album for Mule Musiq. The Berlin-based artist wrote nine new arrangements specifically for Studio Mule, the new audiophile listening bar that Mule Musiq's head-honcho Toshiya Kawasaki recently opened in Shibuya, Tokyo. "Toshiya's wine and listening bar was the inspiration for the project. I followed the idea of listening to music in this (for me imaginary) place on a magic vintage sound system, slightly drunk with an always special drink in my hand! The music is therefore also very eccentric and 'tipsy', improvised on acoustic instruments, synthesizers and computer, combined with recordings I did in Berlin's Central Tiergarten Park." Lawrence acknowledges the imaginative superstructure above his new album and his mode of operating during the recordings. Birds On The Playground features deep pulsating music that unfolds its true absorbing character when the auditor listens carefully to the detailed storytelling of Lawrence. Like always, his tunes have a special, radiant pulse, that somehow is a signature sign of most of his productions. Playful cosmic grooves, light-hearted, crafted with love and yet freshly unsettling in some moments. His arpeggiated melodies remind partly on the music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius. In other seconds, they display a jazzy spiritual character and drift into meditative areas, that sound to a degree like long forgotten Japanese folk music spheres. As Birds On The Playground isn't aimed straight for the dancefloor, the overall coating of the music is a relaxed, cautious one, that goes beyond the average definition of ambient music. Each track builds up gracefully, in order to present a mesmerizing musical architecture, that offers new sound dimensions with any fresh listening turn. As the record is made for Mule Musiq's latest public space enterprise, everyone who is closely connected to the label was involved. Mule Musiq's core artist Kuniyuki was in charge for the mastering. And the labels visual artist Stefan Marx painted the cover artwork.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: MUSCUT 027LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Eye Of Delirious is a long-awaited debut of Muscut's release of Chillera's bass player Ganna Bryzhata -- an Odesa-based sound artist. This ambient LP is a smoothy-flow sub-nautical journey with the songs of Black Sea sirens glowing under the moon."Ganna Bryzhata's ethereal, shape-shifting electroacoustic experiments feel equally conducive to beatific calm and deep melancholy." --Pitchfork"Fortunately Bryozone is not singing and not going in a dream-pop direction -- this is a non-obvious, evocative, in a way visual, and narrative soundtrack to the journey to the Black Sea coast. Or elsewhere in the middle of hot summer, as this album with scraps of rhythm, melodies, and hazy vision of sunny afterimages catch with a very impressive and suggestive story." --The Quietus

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: MUSCUT 030LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The fourth episode of the Test Pressing series compilations includes tracks from such artists as Memotone, Giuseppe Ielasi, Andrew Pekler, Rome?o Poirier, Nikolaienko, Felix Kubin, Jake Muir, Felicity Mangan, Star Searchers, and Tarotplane. The first episode was released in 2012 as a debut Muscut record named so and intended to become a label trial, a test of the audience to check whether the world needs one more label with the following episodes in 2018 (Test Pressing II) and 2020 (Test Pressing III). 300 copies (hand-stamped, hand-numbered).

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: MUTEDPIANO 003

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Hear the soundtrack to British filmmaker Carol Morley's spellbinding Typist Artist Pirate King by BAFTA nominated composer Carly Paradis. Carly scores BBC's Line of Duty and since 2022 plays live keyboards for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The atmospheric score beautifully balances witty percussion and angelic voice for a road journey that Audrey Amiss, the typist, artist, pirate king herself, takes in the film, elegantly reflecting her expanded sense of reality and the uncanny delights of her abstract art. The music features the experimental vocal group Shards led by Kieran Brunt, percussion extraordinaire Joby Burgess and Anna Drysdale on other-worldly horn alongside prepared piano and a one-holed flute. Paying homage to the yellow electric car at the center of the film, it's pressed onto transparent yellow vinyl, with art design by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth (20,000 Days on Earth) and examples of Audrey's art on the label and sleeve.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: NOAJ7 004EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Although perhaps not a household name like Sergio Mendes, Marcos Valle, or Flora Purim, Boror? is considered to be one of the most important and talented Brazilian musicians of his time. Taking his moniker from the indigenous people of his country, who live in the state of Mato Grosso, Boror? steadily built his career for well over a quarter of a century, along the way performing live and in the studio with such legends as Gal Costa, Milton Nascimento, and Caetano Veloso. Born Dimerval Felipe da Silva in 1953 in the central Brazilian city of Goi?nia, the capital of Goi?s, this composer, singer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist first took an interest in his father's guitar at the tender age of twelve. This was closely followed by his second love, the drums, as Boror? found himself on the sticks with a local dance combo called The Mad. Much of his early professional life was spent deeply involved and inspired by the burgeoning music scene of Rio de Janeiro and the emerging Clubs Da Esquina movement, and his abilities on a plethora of stringed instruments, as well as his natural talent as a drummer, would later make him a popular figure among artists as diverse as superstar musician and producer Peter Gabriel and Brazilian samba queen Beth Carvalho, both of whom he worked with extensively during the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of his most significant moments came in 1979 though, when Boror? made his debut with the Orquestra Sinf?nica De Goi?nia, conducted by Maestro Braz Pompeu de Pina, and made plans to use members of the orchestra on his first four-song release that same year. The resulting EP was written by four collaborators -- Carlos Ribeiro, Gustavo, Nasr Fayad Chaul, and Lilian. Despite a lack of budget, and using Boror?'s connections with the owner of the legendary Araguaia Studio, the collective managed to record the EP on four tracks, using limited resources and a budget cobbled together from their work making commercial jingles in the very same studio. The EP's opener is the sublime and evocative title track, "A Tempo e a Gosto." Written by Fernando Perillo, it was one of the young musician's first recordings and features him dueting vocally with Bororo who also provides acoustic guitar and bass, with Gringo on drums and Napa on keys.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: ON 510EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Four-track 7" on green vinyl. Individual hand painted sleeves. Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Includes poster. Part of the Optic Sevens 5.0 Reissue Series. Originally released in 1986 on Australian label Voyeur Records. Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia, formed in the mid-1980s by founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar), who were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass), Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals). After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band's "Goes So Slow" Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records. The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top Five of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: OMARCHIV 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Repressed. "A Bad Diana is a project from Diana Rogerson, someone I first became aware of aged 12 when I read about Nurse With Wound and their United Dairies label in Smash Hits magazine. I was confused, mystified and intrigued in equal measure, and a couple of years later as a result I bought my first Nurse With Wound album. This led to an interest in all things NWW related. I guess Diana could be described as the matriarch of the Nurse With Wound world but she also had her own very distinguished pre-history with Fistfuck, an early-'80s extreme noise outfit. She then made two mid '80s cult classic albums as Chrystal Belle Scrodd, both far out there rollercoaster rides of audio wildness, highly recommended to anyone with wide open ears. She then moved to rural Ireland and raised a family. There was the odd collaboration and then in 2007 A Bad Diana's The Lights Are On But No-One's Home was released on CD. I feel this is her masterwork and it has become something of a cult favorite over the years. Now for the first time, almost two decades later it is available on vinyl on Optimo Music Archiv. Produced in association with Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter from Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.)'s Matt Waldron, this is some seriously beautiful and strange listening. Next level sound design means this is an incredible headphone record but it is also a deeply warm and engaging home listening gem. Beautiful, magical, ultra hypno, soulful reverberations with the deep emotion of Diana's voice tones and bio-vibrations." --Optimo Music Archiv, 2023

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: PRTL 024LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

50th anniversary reissue of the ground-breaking set, originally released on Charisma in 1974. A record that at the time straddled the world between "pub rock" scene and the then seemingly new sound of reggae music, at least to UK years. Released hot-on-the-heels of the Wailers' Catch a Fire and Burnin, when "reggae fever" was starting to take root in the UK. G.T. Moore had previously been part of the legendary folk group Heron, before becoming the first white musician to make any serious attempt to make authentic reggae. The eponymously titled debut set from the Reggae Guitars featured session musician John "Rabbit" (who has worked with Wailers, Free, and The Who) and was mixed by Tom Platt who engineered the Catch a Fire album. The set mostly consists of originals with the exception of covers of tracks by Bob Dylan, Heptones, and Diana Ross.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: PENN 010CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Since they shook up the scene with their Space Mambo (PENN 005CD) in 2014, The Limboos haven't stopped touring and reinventing themselves. However, it is in their fourth album, Off The Loop, where they inaugurate a new cycle that confirms the restlessness and nonconformity of the band in the search for their own sound. How to define Off the Loop? The nine songs and 35 minutes of music included here reflect this broad perspective: lysergic passages, baroque pop, and beautifully crafted psychedelia intertwine with cinematic atmospheres, fuzz guitars, galactic keyboards and unique arrangements. In short, The Limboos' sound has reached a place you never suspected. It's time for you to discover it.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: PL 063LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 restock. The Play Loud! (live) music series is based on three precepts: Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, John Peel's BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn and Pennebaker. Filming live shows means not doing things TV-style, but in a very personal, intuitive and adventurous manner - nothing is staged for the shoot. Play Loud!'s intention is it to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that includes both, the huge quantity of unreleased filmed material by the filmmakers and also material that comes from other sources. Some of the recordings - if popular demand is strong - will be offered as limited vinyl LPs.Dietmar Post and Luc?a Palacios on filming live music: "As filmmakers, it is important the performance we film will be recorded unadulterated. At the same time we do select by positioning and framing the camera, i.e. we watch subjectively. In principle we try to edit inside the camera because we would like to show the presentation in its entirety. It is crucial to know that most of the time we only work with one single camera. . . . Our work turns into an active composition during the show. It could be called a form of drawing (in German the term 'drawing' inhabits the word 'recording') with the camera. As with all spontaneous/improvised art this sometimes works out nicely, other times it fails poorly."Dirk Dresselhaus/Schneider TM on the concert: "I find it fairly difficult to say something about how the music in this concert came about, cause we didn't plan or rehearse anything and hardly were able to hear each other on stage. Wherever it came from, the energy and course of this concert is very much based on group dynamics and an almost telepathic sort of communication, like a swarm of fish. When I mixed the sound later on in the studio I discovered a lot of weird things on the separate tracks: for example Kptmichigan's guitar signal is changing level for about +/-30 dB once in a while which is a lot and was probably caused by a broken microphone cable. Luckily the fucked up parts made the sound even heavier and more distorted instead of destroying it."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: PO 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Northwest & Nebulous is Liverpool-based musician Luce Mawdsley's sixth studio release, a lush and accomplished instrumental album suffused with radiant and fluid possibilities, where expansively cinematic instrumentals conjure queer cowboy landscapes via the Northern English coastline. The album is a world-building piece of work, pulling from folk, Americana and soundtrack influences, fusing their romantic and exploratory energies to signal the beginning of a new journey for the composer, with an open invitation for listeners to come along for the ride. The album was recorded and mixed by Luce Mawdsley in the Grade II listed Scandinavian Church in Liverpool, with a core chamber trio of Luce on guitar, organ and percussion, Nicholas Branton on clarinets, and Rachel Nicholas on viola. A self-taught musician, Mawdsley has released a host of both solo and collaborative albums (M?sange, Cavalier Song), and in 2023 started Pure O records, an independent record label dedicated to the nurture of queer and curious music based in the Northwest of England.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: RRS 159B-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Black vinyl version. In the history of punk, the Sex Pistols reign supreme; the anarchic quartet changed the history of popular culture forever with their caustic rupture of rock, a mixture of shock and awe that gave two fingers to the establishment, kick-starting a musical revolution. Released a few months before their Never Mind The Bollocks debut, Spunk is a revelation, raw demos cut in late '76 and early '77 by producer Dave Goodman, with Glen Matlock's bass far more melodic than what Sid Vicious cut on Bollocks; this edition has bonus demos of "Anarchy" and "Pretty Vacant" cut at Denmark Street, as well as an unedited "No Fun."

 

PRICE: $35.50

CAT #: RRS 238CV-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color vinyl version. Either intentionally or unwittingly this is a band experimenting with extremes. Formed in 1985 when Thatcherism swooped over England and scalped the North East, Hellbastard admit to being "too metal for punk, too punk for metal," instead coining the term "crust" as a way to feel at peace within themselves whilst simultaneously starting a sonic war that shocked the nerves into spools of frayed tape. With Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty on guitar and vocals, Ian "Scotty" Scott on bass and vocals and Phil Laidlow on drums, it was all captured with their classic Ripper Demo debut release in 86'. But really, it's all encapsulated right here with this reissue, also containing the follow-up demolition from '87 -- Hate Militia. Both are perfect ways to establish the nightmarish worlds, of death camps and dark sides, that wildly writhe within his group's menacing worldview.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: RRS 238LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Either intentionally or unwittingly this is a band experimenting with extremes. Formed in 1985 when Thatcherism swooped over England and scalped the North East, Hellbastard admit to being "too metal for punk, too punk for metal," instead coining the term "crust" as a way to feel at peace within themselves whilst simultaneously starting a sonic war that shocked the nerves into spools of frayed tape. With Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty on guitar and vocals, Ian "Scotty" Scott on bass and vocals and Phil Laidlow on drums, it was all captured with their classic Ripper Demo debut release in 86'. But really, it's all encapsulated right here with this reissue, also containing the follow-up demolition from '87 -- Hate Militia. Both are perfect ways to establish the nightmarish worlds, of death camps and dark sides, that wildly writhe within his group's menacing worldview.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: REPOSE 128B-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited black vinyl repress. Osaka based psych-rock three-piece Hibushibire return after a long break, with a new line up and a stunning third album. Following the successes of their debut album Freak Out Orgasm! (2017), the follow up Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out (2019) and two very well received UK tours, the band headed home to Osaka, Japan and then, the pandemic hit. During this downtime, guitarist/vocalist Changchang decided to create a new power trio. Enter Tetsuji Toyoda (bass/vocals) and Aoi Hama (drums/vocals). Now finally, Hibushibire mark two is born properly. Entering the studio with Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata in the producer chair (and also as a guest musician) once again, the band recorded album number three, Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye. Makoto also adds some of his own trademark guitar howls throughout the album, perfectly complimenting Changchang's own growing prowess. Like the band's first two albums, Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye is very much an album of two halves. Side one again is full of killer shorter tracks, while side two is reserved for a blinding majestic 20-minute epic "Ayahuasca Witch Abduction." Perhaps the biggest musical surprise here though is probably track two, the beautifully mellow tripped out "We Won't Go Back To The Past," which sounds like it's been beamed straight out of the late '60s/early '70s. The band also tip a nod to the Beatles psychedelic classic "Tomorrow Never Ever Knows," but with their own twist of course. It's clear with the line-up changes, Changchang has decided to expand the bands musical pathway, and he's achieving stunning results. Includes full-color sleeve, double sided insert, polylined inner, hype sticker and download code.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: SDBAN 018CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Did you know that for decades, record collectors across the Dutch-speaking region have overlooked a significant portion of their own musical heritage while avidly searching for rare grooves and breaks in bins filled with more exotic music? It's a fact! And that's where Harde Smart comes in. After delving deep into dusty crates of Belgian and Dutch music, Harde Smart's inaugural compilation in 2019, dedicated to music from the 1970s, brought to light a selection of smooth, jazzy, funky, and soulful gems from Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) and Holland. In addition to exquisite grooves and hard-pounding drums, these songs shared Dutch lyrics, offering a unique compilation of lyric-driven Flemish and Dutch music from back in the days. Yet, nothing is as certain as the unexpected. This compilation marked the first time a Dutch album uncovered the authentic Afro-American funk and soul vibe, which, albeit sporadically, influenced the work of both popular and lesser-known singers and musicians in this corner of the world during the 1970s. Undoubtedly, influences also stemmed from French chanson and rock music of the era. This 21-track album shattered all musical predictability, taking listeners on a strange and nostalgic journey, offering a revised collection of "essential homegrown classics" for local listeners while also captivating non-Dutch-speaking audiences. With the second compilation, Harde Smart shifts its focus from the 1970s sound to explore the next decade, the 1980s. Vinyl aficionados No Sleep Richy and Micha Marva joined forces with Sjefke De Kok, one of Holland's premier crate diggers, to continue their musical odyssey. Digging even deeper into dusty bins filled with Dutch and Flemish records once again unearthed an exquisite selection of tracks -- too weird to play, too rare to ignore. From butt-shaking boogie to weird disco adventures on wax, this album encapsulates all the good stuff of the 1980s: smooth and seductive alongside dark and wavy. Get ready for an atypical introduction into the Dutch lyric-driven music from the 1980s. Featuring Step By Step, Monica Rypma, Bloedgroep O, Francis Verdoodt, Herrie, Noodweer, Jan Hautekiet, Peter Praet & Praeters, Joost Belinfante, de DIV, Rob Glotzbach, Cocododo, MAM, Omar & The New Sound, Kurt Van Eeghem, Nadagen, Mensen Blaffen, and Wim De Craene.

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: SDBAN 018LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Double LP version. Did you know that for decades, record collectors across the Dutch-speaking region have overlooked a significant portion of their own musical heritage while avidly searching for rare grooves and breaks in bins filled with more exotic music? It's a fact! And that's where Harde Smart comes in. After delving deep into dusty crates of Belgian and Dutch music, Harde Smart's inaugural compilation in 2019, dedicated to music from the 1970s, brought to light a selection of smooth, jazzy, funky, and soulful gems from Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) and Holland. In addition to exquisite grooves and hard-pounding drums, these songs shared Dutch lyrics, offering a unique compilation of lyric-driven Flemish and Dutch music from back in the days. Yet, nothing is as certain as the unexpected. This compilation marked the first time a Dutch album uncovered the authentic Afro-American funk and soul vibe, which, albeit sporadically, influenced the work of both popular and lesser-known singers and musicians in this corner of the world during the 1970s. Undoubtedly, influences also stemmed from French chanson and rock music of the era. This 21-track album shattered all musical predictability, taking listeners on a strange and nostalgic journey, offering a revised collection of "essential homegrown classics" for local listeners while also captivating non-Dutch-speaking audiences. With the second compilation, Harde Smart shifts its focus from the 1970s sound to explore the next decade, the 1980s. Vinyl aficionados No Sleep Richy and Micha Marva joined forces with Sjefke De Kok, one of Holland's premier crate diggers, to continue their musical odyssey. Digging even deeper into dusty bins filled with Dutch and Flemish records once again unearthed an exquisite selection of tracks -- too weird to play, too rare to ignore. From butt-shaking boogie to weird disco adventures on wax, this album encapsulates all the good stuff of the 1980s: smooth and seductive alongside dark and wavy. Get ready for an atypical introduction into the Dutch lyric-driven music from the 1980s. Featuring Step By Step, Monica Rypma, Bloedgroep O, Francis Verdoodt, Herrie, Noodweer, Jan Hautekiet, Peter Praet & Praeters, Joost Belinfante, de DIV, Rob Glotzbach, Cocododo, MAM, Omar & The New Sound, Kurt Van Eeghem, Nadagen, Mensen Blaffen, and Wim De Craene.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SDBANU 035CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

KAU (previously KAU trio.) is an instrumental trio based in Brussels. Representing various European backgrounds, the Belgian capital and melting pot proves to be a never-ending source of inspiration for the band. Taking influences from jazz, groove and dance music, their aim is simple but straightforward: to make your heads bob. The formula they use to do so has been the same since their early days: improvisation, never ending jam sessions and an open-mindedness towards various genres and styles. This gives their music an organic and vibrant feel. Furthermore, the three boys' long-lasting friendship is at the heart of it all, always relying on what brings them together: their love for music. The KAU cycle is bound to repeat itself and to birth something new -- over and over again. The Cycle Repeats is KAU's debut album, due on September 22 on SDBAN Ultra, the home of ECHT!, Black Flower, Glass Museum, STUFF, and more. It represents a milestone in the band's musical journey: it's their firm decision to present a strong and unified trio playing music that stands out through the combination of '80s synths, acoustic drums and electric bass. Moreover, the album succeeds in capturing the energy of their infectious and legendary live shows. Highlights are album opener "Kampala," which has a throbbing bassline, jazzy synths and heavily modified arpeggiators at its core. The album's first single "Little Steps" starts with a strong hip hop groove, morphing into Herbie Hancock-style chords. "Amulet" is inspired by breakbeats, fast paced grooves and pentatonic bass lines. Both "Kautokeino" and "Alaska" are an invitation to travel to the utmost remote places of this earth, using intense sequencing and suffocating subbasses into an epic finish, probably demonstrating the trio in its most sincere form. In short: with Andr? Breidlid on drums, Matteo Genovese on bass and Jan Janzen on synths, KAU are a trio of childhood friends with a pan-European identity, whose music reflects the city they grew up in: unapologetic, richly diverse and with a spontaneous groove underlining it all. With their new album The Cycle Repeats they directly aim for your dancing shoes and souls.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: SDBANU 035LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. KAU (previously KAU trio.) is an instrumental trio based in Brussels. Representing various European backgrounds, the Belgian capital and melting pot proves to be a never-ending source of inspiration for the band. Taking influences from jazz, groove and dance music, their aim is simple but straightforward: to make your heads bob. The formula they use to do so has been the same since their early days: improvisation, never ending jam sessions and an open-mindedness towards various genres and styles. This gives their music an organic and vibrant feel. Furthermore, the three boys' long-lasting friendship is at the heart of it all, always relying on what brings them together: their love for music. The KAU cycle is bound to repeat itself and to birth something new -- over and over again. The Cycle Repeats is KAU's debut album, due on September 22 on SDBAN Ultra, the home of ECHT!, Black Flower, Glass Museum, STUFF, and more. It represents a milestone in the band's musical journey: it's their firm decision to present a strong and unified trio playing music that stands out through the combination of '80s synths, acoustic drums and electric bass. Moreover, the album succeeds in capturing the energy of their infectious and legendary live shows. Highlights are album opener "Kampala," which has a throbbing bassline, jazzy synths and heavily modified arpeggiators at its core. The album's first single "Little Steps" starts with a strong hip hop groove, morphing into Herbie Hancock-style chords. "Amulet" is inspired by breakbeats, fast paced grooves and pentatonic bass lines. Both "Kautokeino" and "Alaska" are an invitation to travel to the utmost remote places of this earth, using intense sequencing and suffocating subbasses into an epic finish, probably demonstrating the trio in its most sincere form. In short: with Andr? Breidlid on drums, Matteo Genovese on bass and Jan Janzen on synths, KAU are a trio of childhood friends with a pan-European identity, whose music reflects the city they grew up in: unapologetic, richly diverse and with a spontaneous groove underlining it all. With their new album The Cycle Repeats they directly aim for your dancing shoes and souls.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SDBANU 036CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

John Ghost (Ghent, Belgium) is the sextet led by guitarist/composer Jo De Geest. As a group, they draw influences from jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music. Minimalism, electronics, and an overall cinematic quality characterize their instrumental sound. The ensemble's sound can be described as a symbiosis of Hidden Orchestra, Portico Quartet, and James Holden. After the critically acclaimed Airships Are Organisms, John Ghost is back with Thin Air . Mirror Land. For this album, they continued their fruitful collaboration with legendary producer J?rgen Tr?en, known for his work with Jaga Jazzist, Electric Eye, Kaizers Orchestra, and numerous projects on the Hubro Record Label. The result is an album with a slightly more somber tone, focusing on a broader range of instruments and an emphasis on percussive elements. Thin Air . Mirror Land unfolds as an aesthetic refuge in stormy times. It is a musical urge for introspection in a chaotic reality, and a longing to reconnect with a natural environment. During the creative process, Jo drew inspiration from the music of artists such as Hans Zimmer, Gy?rgy Ligeti, Magma, The Residents, Disasterpeace, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Do Make Say Think, William Basinski, and J?hann J?hannsson. The album title Thin Air . Mirror Land and the song titles are driven by a fascination with the artwork of Edvard Munch. Jo found inspiration in Munch's painting "The Storm" (1893) as a catalyst for the writing process, exploring a dystopian backdrop and the intriguing interplay between comfort and unrest. Heavily inspired by the music, Jaak De Digitale created the gloomy artwork for the album.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: SDBANU 036LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. John Ghost (Ghent, Belgium) is the sextet led by guitarist/composer Jo De Geest. As a group, they draw influences from jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music. Minimalism, electronics, and an overall cinematic quality characterize their instrumental sound. The ensemble's sound can be described as a symbiosis of Hidden Orchestra, Portico Quartet, and James Holden. After the critically acclaimed Airships Are Organisms, John Ghost is back with Thin Air . Mirror Land. For this album, they continued their fruitful collaboration with legendary producer J?rgen Tr?en, known for his work with Jaga Jazzist, Electric Eye, Kaizers Orchestra, and numerous projects on the Hubro Record Label. The result is an album with a slightly more somber tone, focusing on a broader range of instruments and an emphasis on percussive elements. Thin Air . Mirror Land unfolds as an aesthetic refuge in stormy times. It is a musical urge for introspection in a chaotic reality, and a longing to reconnect with a natural environment. During the creative process, Jo drew inspiration from the music of artists such as Hans Zimmer, Gy?rgy Ligeti, Magma, The Residents, Disasterpeace, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Do Make Say Think, William Basinski, and J?hann J?hannsson. The album title Thin Air . Mirror Land and the song titles are driven by a fascination with the artwork of Edvard Munch. Jo found inspiration in Munch's painting "The Storm" (1893) as a catalyst for the writing process, exploring a dystopian backdrop and the intriguing interplay between comfort and unrest. Heavily inspired by the music, Jaak De Digitale created the gloomy artwork for the album.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: SDBANU 037LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Emerging from the heart of Brussels, the captivating five-piece Azmari presents Ma?lstr?m. For Maelstr?m, the follow up to their acclaimed debut album Sam?'?, the group has delved into uncharted musical territories creating a mesmerizing "azmarian" identity and melding intricate jazz textures with intoxicating oriental influences, otherworldly ethio grooves, enigmatic dark funk, and the pulsating beats of dub music. For the creation of Ma?lstr?m, Azmari embarked on an intensive one-week recording journey. During this time, they meticulously honed the sound of their instruments, blending the nostalgic notes of old-school clavinet keyboards with cutting-edge synth sounds, resulting in a distinct and alluring atmosphere. Enriching their traditional instruments with balanced pedal effects and special amplification, the band added new flavors to their sound. Founded in the vibrant musical haven of Brussels in 2015, Azmari have been crafting a truly unique tapestry of musical exploration. Azmari defies conventional labels to weave a narrative of sonic innovation and artistic liberation. Influences range from an eclectic array of artists, including Okay Temiz, Heliocentrics, Whitefield Brothers, Surprise Chef, Antibalas, and Sons of Kemet. From the band: "For the third part of our musical journey, we dug into a deeper creative process. We literally immersed ourselves in deep waters during a unique two-week aquatic residency. The tracks on this album are thus directly imbued with distinctive underwater frequencies, the sounds of abyssal creatures, and the beauty of the seabed. Convinced by this creative experience, and guided by captain (and producer) Frederik Segers, we brought this album back to the surface and reveal a resolutely scaly, sandy, and deep soundscape."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: SDBANU 038CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Two and a half years after their acclaimed last release Less Is Endless, De Beren Gieren ("The Bear Vultures") have finished their seventh full album. What Eludes Us is an ode to what escapes listeners and what they consciously want to look away from. For this new full album, the band left aside the unimaginable beauty of the Norwegian fjords and crawled into a dusty recording studio in Bergen harbour. They did so with the celebrated and mysterious producer J?rgen Tr?en (a.o. Jaga Jazzist), who silently watched over the imperfections and interference as a guiding force behind the adept playing of the electro-acoustic jazz trio. The result turns out to be compelling music with deceptive rhythms, clear melodies and uninhibited electronics in a way that also managed to surprise them themselves. With De Beren Gieren, it is clear that there is still gold to be struck from the classic jazz piano format. Instead of changing direction, the band resolutely chooses to dig deeper.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: SDBANU 038LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Two and a half years after their acclaimed last release Less Is Endless, De Beren Gieren ("The Bear Vultures") have finished their seventh full album. What Eludes Us is an ode to what escapes listeners and what they consciously want to look away from. For this new full album, the band left aside the unimaginable beauty of the Norwegian fjords and crawled into a dusty recording studio in Bergen harbour. They did so with the celebrated and mysterious producer J?rgen Tr?en (a.o. Jaga Jazzist), who silently watched over the imperfections and interference as a guiding force behind the adept playing of the electro-acoustic jazz trio. The result turns out to be compelling music with deceptive rhythms, clear melodies and uninhibited electronics in a way that also managed to surprise them themselves. With De Beren Gieren, it is clear that there is still gold to be struck from the classic jazz piano format. Instead of changing direction, the band resolutely chooses to dig deeper.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: SHUKAI 008LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Transilvania Smile is one of the first solo works (recorded in 1994) of Svitlana Nianio. During this time, Svitlana repeatedly visited Germany, where she had the experience of playing in parks and on the streets, gathering contacts of the local art scene. Her cooperation with the international choreographic group Pentamonia, based in Cologne and consisting of several girls who performed in theaters, took part in various performances, and were engaged in music. They met in the 1990s during joint performances with "Sugar-White Death." After that, they corresponded, and the idea of doing something together arose. Svitlana attended several of their performances, which inspired her to write music for a new project, and the band members helped to realize their creative ideas. Later, they started rehearsing together. The name "Transilvania Smile" was invented by the project participants, and it symbolized the mold on the mirror and the reflection of a smiling vampire. However, shortly before the premiere, they changed it to "Firefox", as the participants actively used flashlights and the play of light and shadows in the scenography. The premiere occurred in the local Urania theater, previously a gallery. Isabel Bartensein directed the choreography, and Svitlana played, sang, and improvised. She said it was an excellent experience for her and the band. Besides Cologne, they also performed in Aachen. Later, Michael Springer offered Svitlana to record this material in his "Phantom" studio. They had already worked together and recorded music for their project (Svitlana Okhrimenko / Phanton). Michael was also interested in the Ukrainian independent scene and participated in the creation of several compilations that featured bands from Kyiv and Kharkiv. Svetlana played the piano and harmonium in the studio and also sang. After the recording, the material was never released in its entirety. Two compositions appeared on the cassette compilation Shovaisia (Hide) in 1995, some episodes were re-recorded for the Kytytsi album in 1999, but for a long time, the full version of this recording remained practically unknown to listeners and was kept in Svitlana's and Michael's archives.

 

PRICE: $55.50

CAT #: SHUKAI 019LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The founders of Cukor Bila Smert' (Ukrainian: ????? ???? ??????, English: Sugar - White Death) band were Svitlana Okhrimenko (a.k.a. Svitlana Nianio), Oleksandr Kohanovs'kyi, and Tamila Mazur, who studied at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music in 1984-1988. In the summer of 1988, they got acquainted with Eugene Taran, a young guitarist and artist. He joined the band and also became the ideologist of Sugar - White Death. The musicians gathered at Kohanovs'kyi's house, where they spent their free time not only playing music but also listening to and discussing new records and thinking about the conception of their new project. For two years, the band recorded a few home-made albums, such as Rhododendrons Coral Aspides in 1988 (which is considered lost), where Kostyantyn Dovzhenko took part as a guitarist and sound engineer. The band also recorded another album -- Lilies and Amaralises, in 1989, which is also considered lost. In February 1990, a quartet came to the Scientists House Studio in Kyiv, where they had one studio session only, recorded by Valerii Papchenko. Later, this tape got to Vlodek Nakonechnyj, the founder of Koka Records, a young Polish label. In November 1990, Sugar - White Death played their last gig as a quartet in Kharkiv. They were invited by Sergii Myasoyedov, who curated the art association Nova Scena (The New Scene). The band played selected tracks from the albums The New Sissies and The Shellfishes in Gold Wrappers (the last one is also considered lost). In 1992, they were also invited by Sergii Myasoyedov for a studio session in Kharkiv, where due to the efforts of Oleksandr Vakulenko, Sugar recorded the new album called All Secrets Of A Poem. In the autumn of 1992, the musicians went to Poland, where Vlodek Nakonechnyj, who wanted Sugar to come to a "real" studio, organized their last recording session. Although the journey's beginning was unsuccessful (Eugene's guitar was taken away by a customs officer when crossing the border), the musicians worked fast during the session at the Arek Was studio at Marki on an eight-track reel-to-reel machine. Boleslav Blazhchyk took part as a cellist, playing the parts created by Svitlana. The album was completed in three days -- the musicians spent two days recording and one-day mixing, mostly done by Eugene Taran. In 1993, this work was released as Selo ("The Village") album on cassette tapes by Koka Records. Later, Sugar - White Death was disbanded.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: SVVRCH 063LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 repress; reissue, originally released in 1973. An icon of Brazilian popular music, Tim Maia was a musical polymath and prolific recording artist best known for introducing American soul to the Brazilian music scene, pioneering the sambalan?o style by blending elements of soul, funk, rock, and samba. Maia recorded four self-titled albums for Polydor Brazil, this fourth release from 1973 is arguably the best, with its outstanding hits "R?u Confesso" and "Gostava Tanto de Voc?"; "Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself" shows how the soul form fitted him perfectly and "O Balan?o" full to bursting with Brazilian flavor. A superb set from start to finish, it's a must for all Tim Maia fans.

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: WIRE 483

FILE UNDER: Misc

"The Wire issue #483, May 2024. On the cover: Still House Plants. Inside: Cheer-Accident, Lolina, NikNak, FUJI|||||||||||TA, Ana Lua Caiano, BBBBBBB, Fatboi Sharif, Angelica Sanchez. Invisible Jukebox: Kristin Hersh. Unlimited Editions: Tripalium Corp. The Inner Sleeve: Lee Gamble on Chain Reaction. Epiphanies: Jlin on Philip Glass. Global Ear: Tashkent, plus 40 pages of reviews including Kavain Wayne Space and XT, Natalia Cappa, Bianca Scout, NOUT, Ustad Noor Bakhsh, punk rock in Northern Ireland, Indonesia and Kosovo, female Latin American electronic music composers, Sakamoto on film, and much more."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: THRILL 607CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"A Chaos Of Flowers is an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album Nature Morte. BIG|BRAVE's music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music's frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio's work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential. For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. 'I discovered that most poems from folk traditions or in the public domain seem to be by men -- to which I could not quite relate. In my search, I rediscovered some of my favorite works and poets,' says Wattie. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable. BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie's voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion. BIG|BRAVE have collaborated with metal monsters The Body on a previous Thrill Jockey release, Leaving None But Small Birds, and have toured internationally with bands like SUMAC, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, SUNN O))), and Lingua Ignota. As they continue to ascend in their journey as pioneers in the contemporary metal scene, it's safe to say that BIG|BRAVE are here to stay."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: THRILL 607LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. "A Chaos Of Flowers is an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album Nature Morte. BIG|BRAVE's music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music's frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio's work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential. For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. 'I discovered that most poems from folk traditions or in the public domain seem to be by men -- to which I could not quite relate. In my search, I rediscovered some of my favorite works and poets,' says Wattie. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable. BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie's voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion. BIG|BRAVE have collaborated with metal monsters The Body on a previous Thrill Jockey release, Leaving None But Small Birds, and have toured internationally with bands like SUMAC, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, SUNN O))), and Lingua Ignota. As they continue to ascend in their journey as pioneers in the contemporary metal scene, it's safe to say that BIG|BRAVE are here to stay."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: THRILL 607X-LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Pink color vinyl. "A Chaos Of Flowers is an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album Nature Morte. BIG|BRAVE's music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music's frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio's work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential. For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. 'I discovered that most poems from folk traditions or in the public domain seem to be by men -- to which I could not quite relate. In my search, I rediscovered some of my favorite works and poets,' says Wattie. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable. BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie's voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion. BIG|BRAVE have collaborated with metal monsters The Body on a previous Thrill Jockey release, Leaving None But Small Birds, and have toured internationally with bands like SUMAC, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, SUNN O))), and Lingua Ignota. As they continue to ascend in their journey as pioneers in the contemporary metal scene, it's safe to say that BIG|BRAVE are here to stay."

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: THRILL 610CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"sentiment is a meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex. The album's narrative arc is guided by delicate musical gestures and artistic vulnerability, audaciously synthesizing disparate and unexpected influences. Claire Rousay is a singular artist, known for challenging conventions in experimental and ambient music forms. Rousay masterfully incorporates textural found sounds, sumptuous drones and candid field recordings into music that celebrates the beauty in life's banalities. Her music is curatorial and granular in detail, deftly shaped into emotionally affecting pieces. Rousay's vocals and guitar take center stage on sentiment. Her intimate, diaristic lyrics contrast with her mechanical-inflected vocal effects, emphasizing a powerful desire for connection, a deep yearning and a lingering sense of separation. The spare guitar playing and laconic tempo both drive the songs and exude a sense of resignation. Her delicate mastery of nuance draws on her explorative musical past that she, with sincerity and admiration, seamlessly interweaves into her adventurous textures and distinctive compositions. 'I want to belong to the worlds and communities I look up to. Same as someone using a Fender guitar or dressing like Kurt Cobain. Emulate your heroes,' says Rousay. The album balances the poetic soul of her influences with a documentarian heart, Rousay capturing moments of her life while living alone in houses across the country, learning to play guitar, and reconnecting with pop music. Her innate ability to conjure pure feeling from sound derives from her delightful embrace of pop forms, the vulnerability found in field recordings, minimalistic arrangements and innovative sound choices. sentiment is blissfully, achingly melancholic, and an undeniably sensual listening experience."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: THRILL 610LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "sentiment is a meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex. The album's narrative arc is guided by delicate musical gestures and artistic vulnerability, audaciously synthesizing disparate and unexpected influences. Claire Rousay is a singular artist, known for challenging conventions in experimental and ambient music forms. Rousay masterfully incorporates textural found sounds, sumptuous drones and candid field recordings into music that celebrates the beauty in life's banalities. Her music is curatorial and granular in detail, deftly shaped into emotionally affecting pieces. Rousay's vocals and guitar take center stage on sentiment. Her intimate, diaristic lyrics contrast with her mechanical-inflected vocal effects, emphasizing a powerful desire for connection, a deep yearning and a lingering sense of separation. The spare guitar playing and laconic tempo both drive the songs and exude a sense of resignation. Her delicate mastery of nuance draws on her explorative musical past that she, with sincerity and admiration, seamlessly interweaves into her adventurous textures and distinctive compositions. 'I want to belong to the worlds and communities I look up to. Same as someone using a Fender guitar or dressing like Kurt Cobain. Emulate your heroes,' says Rousay. The album balances the poetic soul of her influences with a documentarian heart, Rousay capturing moments of her life while living alone in houses across the country, learning to play guitar, and reconnecting with pop music. Her innate ability to conjure pure feeling from sound derives from her delightful embrace of pop forms, the vulnerability found in field recordings, minimalistic arrangements and innovative sound choices. sentiment is blissfully, achingly melancholic, and an undeniably sensual listening experience."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: THRILL 610X-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Yellow color vinyl. "sentiment is a meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex. The album's narrative arc is guided by delicate musical gestures and artistic vulnerability, audaciously synthesizing disparate and unexpected influences. Claire Rousay is a singular artist, known for challenging conventions in experimental and ambient music forms. Rousay masterfully incorporates textural found sounds, sumptuous drones and candid field recordings into music that celebrates the beauty in life's banalities. Her music is curatorial and granular in detail, deftly shaped into emotionally affecting pieces. Rousay's vocals and guitar take center stage on sentiment. Her intimate, diaristic lyrics contrast with her mechanical-inflected vocal effects, emphasizing a powerful desire for connection, a deep yearning and a lingering sense of separation. The spare guitar playing and laconic tempo both drive the songs and exude a sense of resignation. Her delicate mastery of nuance draws on her explorative musical past that she, with sincerity and admiration, seamlessly interweaves into her adventurous textures and distinctive compositions. 'I want to belong to the worlds and communities I look up to. Same as someone using a Fender guitar or dressing like Kurt Cobain. Emulate your heroes,' says Rousay. The album balances the poetic soul of her influences with a documentarian heart, Rousay capturing moments of her life while living alone in houses across the country, learning to play guitar, and reconnecting with pop music. Her innate ability to conjure pure feeling from sound derives from her delightful embrace of pop forms, the vulnerability found in field recordings, minimalistic arrangements and innovative sound choices. sentiment is blissfully, achingly melancholic, and an undeniably sensual listening experience."

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: JBH 098LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Incredible jazz/prog/folk score to groundbreaking film Tattoo by maverick filmmaker John Samson, unreleased until now. John Samson (1946 - 2004) was a documentary filmmaker. He was educated first at Glasgow School Of Art (circa 1963) and in the art of film making at The National Film And Television School in Beaconsfield. It was at the NFTS that Samson met Mike Wallington, who was to become his right-hand man and eventual producer; together they made a handful of inspiring, entertaining and hugely prescient films about important, overlooked, unseen and marginal fringes in society. Tattoo (1975) explored the rather clandestine world of tattooing in the UK. Samson managed to navigate his way with compassion, interest and subtlety, immersing himself in the chosen scene and producing moving, fascinating and sometimes darkly amusing situations. His documentaries did not rely on traditional voiceovers, with stories, facts and narrative threads being dictated by the subjects. This score was written by Steve Jolliffe, who met Samson at the NFTS. Joliffe was the resident composer and had a room at the college complex where he could work on scores for the fledgling film makers. Jolliffe was and still is a multi-instrumentalist and prolific composer who had met Edgar Froese at the Berlin Konservatorium in the late 1960s and played in an early incarnation of Tangerine Dream. He toured with blues rock outfit Steamhammer, before hanging out at the NFTS, making this recording (and many others) and eventually rejoining Tangerine Dream in the late 1970s. Musically, this score is charming, slightly folky, and a touch baroque, with a whiff of prog. The images for this vinyl release were all found in Mike Wallington's Tattoo documentary research folder from 1974, and were photos sent in to Mike and John by people who wanted to feature in the film.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: JBH 105LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Two sublime unreleased scores from Basil Kirchin. The next Trunk/Kirchin assignment. Basically some more unreleased music from the unpredictable and slightly chaotic Kirchin Tape Archive. These tapes were labelled up as follows: Assignment K (with lots of pencil scribbles everywhere); The Strange Affair (with lots of pen scribbles everywhere). As usual with Basil tapes/things there is little else to go on, no tracklist, no list of musicians, no singer names, no dates or anything. Assignment K dates from 1968, and was a film about a toy maker who has a double life as an international spy. It was directed by Val Guest, who'd just finished trying to rescue the cinematic hotchpotch that was Casino Royale -- he had been brought in by the Bond producers after Peter Sellers had walked off the movie. As for the Kirchin score here, there is very little information, apart from the fact that the bass player was Ron Prentice (an ex blacksmith turned musician and craftsman) who worked on several Bond scores. The Strange Affair is also from 1968, and was not only controversial but also a reasonably unsuccessful movie. Directed by David Greene who also directed, amongst other films, I Start Counting and the brilliant Sebastian. In this rather grubby flick a policeman called Peter Strange (played by Michael York) falls for an underage girl (played by Susan George), finds himself compromised by a pair of pornographers and gets lured into an errand for a smack gang. This music has all the classic Kirchin mid-period sonic hallmarks that have always set him apart.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: TURBO 229CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The creative partnership between Tiga & Hudson Mohawke expresses a mutual love of "hardcore romance," a liminal state where the bounds between euphoria, melancholy and the raw power of friendship disintegrate completely. Recorded in Los Angeles from 2019-2023, these commonalities ebbed and flowed through various recording sessions, culminating in their debut album -- L'Ecstasy. Originally conceived as a hardcore rave project focusing on bleary-eyed 6am catharsis, the breadth of the project expanded to encompass their shared love of the music surrounding the '90s ravebiome, with chill-out quasi-IDM ambient creating space for the album's tentpole anthems to breathe. Featuring guest appearances by luminaries like Abra, Channel Tres, Elisabeth Troy, and Jesse Boykins III, as well as album artwork by Turner Prizewinning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, the result is delivered with two friends churning out the kind of music they want to hear, want each other to hear, and hope to hear you wanting to hear too.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 295LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2024 restock. The Bronx in the 1970s, marked by the presence of notorious gangs, presented a complex and challenging urban landscape. Amidst the crumbling infrastructure and economic decline, neighborhoods bore the scars of disinvestment, reflected in abandoned buildings and neglected public spaces. The prevalence of street gangs, such as the Ghetto Brothers, contributed to an atmosphere of heightened tension and occasional violence. Graffiti adorned subway cars and buildings, expressing both social unrest and the vibrant creativity of the community. Despite the challenges, there was a resilient spirit among residents, evidenced by grassroots efforts to address social issues. The Bronx during this era was a dynamic yet tumultuous mix of cultural expression, social struggle, and the determined spirit of a community facing adversity. The Ghetto Brothers, originating from the Melendez family who moved from Puerto Rico to the South Bronx in the 1950s, faced challenges involving violence and crime. Despite this, Benjy, a key figure, directed the group towards community improvement. The Ghetto Brothers embraced music, crafting a potent, NYC-flavored musical fusion that caught the attention of record mogul Ismael Maisonave (Salsa Records). Their collaboration resulted in the recording of eight tracks in a single electrifying day at Manhattan's Fine Tone Studios, skillfully produced by Latin studio maestro Bobby Marin (Harvey Averne, La Lupe, Brooklyn Sounds). This musical odyssey showcases the band's ability to seamlessly blend genres, creating a NYC-flavored stew that captivates listeners with its authenticity. The hypnotic rhythms, infectious guitar riffs, and impassioned vocals reflect the Ghetto Brothers' commitment to expressing their unique experiences and uplifting their community through the universal language of music. Power-Fuerza is not just an album; it's a sonic testament to the Ghetto Brothers' fusion of resilience, cultural richness, and musical innovation. Each track is a vibrant tapestry, weaving together the raw energy of the South Bronx streets and the soulful melodies born from the trio's Puerto Rican heritage. Embrace the timeless resonance of the Ghetto Brothers' Power-Fuerza, one of the best Latin funk albums ever recorded.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: VAMPIC 45077-2

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Splatter color vinyl version. Few melodies have been played so many times on radio, movies, or TV commercials as these two compositions from the golden age of mainstream disco music. Top international hits and iconic milestones of an era, both songs are immediately recognizable after just a few chords by almost anyone on this planet. These two compelling tropical versions retain all the party spirit of the originals, guaranteeing some dancefloor heat each time the needle hits the surface of the vinyl. A perfect follow-up to the acclaimed previous singles in Vampisoul's Tropical 45s Series that so far has included recordings by the likes of Jimmy Salcedo and Sebastiao Tapajos/Pedro Dos Santos. In the rendition of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" there is a playful mix of the old and the modern made by Pedro "Ramay?" Beltr?n, signed under his project La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad; a group from Barranquilla, Colombia that recorded a set of songs that exudes both tradition and innovation. Machuca Cumbia, a Colombian studio band under the direction of "Cachaco" Brando, add some unexpected cumbia arrangements to the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," resulting a dancefloor winner full of hypnotic percussions and guitars that, at times, even recall other genres such as surf.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: VIERNULV 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Viernulvier Records presents its new LP release Quadric Surfaces by iconic electronic producer Hieroglyphic Being aka Jamal R Moss. It collects the soundtracks Moss wrote for Parellel Spheres and Figures in Mynd, two parts of an abstract animation film by visual artist Gabriela Gonz?lez Rondon. The film premiered in October 2023 during Videodroom/Film Festival Ghent. In her surreal and trippy gem of analog filmmaking Gonzales draws up whole universes of movement and color that seem to share a spiritual space with likeminded sci-fi writers such as Ursula K Le Guin or filmmaker John Whitney. The soundtrack for this dreamy experiment was provided by kindred soul and psychonaut Hieroglyphic Being. Through off-world frequencies and raw primal sounds, Quadric Surfaces presents a collection of exploratory left-field dance music. For over 20 years Moss has been an one-off musical explorer that takes inspiration from house, industrial, Kraut, avant-jazz and noise to make his spectacularly unique take on radical and psychedelic (dance) music. Artwork by Gabriela Gonz?lez.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: VIERNULV 004LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Drummer-producer Nah returns with new album Totally Recalled. Totally Recalled is a ceremonial sonic rumination on the beautiful absurdity of modern life and its primitive impulses. Across ten tracks of relentlessly pulsing yet highly reflective works, Totally Recalled continues Nah's never-ending exploration of the balance between acoustic and synthetic percussion and the noisy overlapping genre intersections they pass through. It pulls upon years of Nah's experiences in dark clubs and grimy basements across the globe to present the listener with an audio snapshot of the genre-less alternate reality that Nah continues to traverse. Totally Recalled is a listening experience that serves well at home, submerged in headphones, but ultimately meant to be witnessed live in all its decibel meter breaking glory. To enhance Totally Recalled on a visual level, Nah has developed a new live AV show of the same title.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: WJLP 063LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Berlin-based Swedish tenor saxophonist Otis Sandsj? returns with his third album Y-Otis Tre on We Jazz Records. Y-Otis Tre finds Sandsj? in close collaboration with his long-time working partner and friend, bassist/producer Petter Eldh, and Dan Nicholls, the keyboardist of the Y-OTIS live band and a solo artist on his own right. Composed by the three and produced by Eldh and Sandsj?, Y-Otis Tre lives up to its name ("tre" means three in Swedish) and stands strong in the continuum of layer-caked liquid jazz, a staple of the Eldh/Sandsj? production duo lauded for their string of releases as Y-OTIS and Koma Saxo. While recognizable in form, Y-Otis Tre adds new dimensions to what has come before. Borne out of hours of tripped-out studio jams by Sandsj? and Eldh, Y-Otis Tre feels natural, neon, 3D, at times laser sharp, at times gooey like jelly, and at all times ripe with ideas that would make albums on their own. Golden riffs are taken, twisted, thrown away, then recycled, and always evolving. Perhaps evolution is key here, as the album reuses and cross-refers its own ideas but never exactly repeats. The music has a mixtape-like DNA, and it seems to be breeding and multiplying at each beat. In color terms, it is more RGB than CMYK -- that is, it might appear unrealistically bright and full of tones not found in the natural world. But when you listen to the music closely, you'll likely find it acoustic to the bone. There's no illusion: hearing the band live tells you what Y-OTIS is all about. It's a live band turned studio tool, morphed back into a live band. Or something like that anyway. Putting a tag onto this music feels a bit like trying to hold a very colorful, somewhat thick liquid substance on the palm of your hand. You can see it, feel it, but never fully pinpoint just what's it made of. But it works, so best just to enjoy the ride. RIYL: Koma Saxo, Y-OTIS 1 & 2, J Dilla, Madlib, contemporary R&B, hiphop, and electronic music-influenced jazz.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: WJLP 063X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Orange color vinyl. Berlin-based Swedish tenor saxophonist Otis Sandsj? returns with his third album Y-Otis Tre on We Jazz Records. Y-Otis Tre finds Sandsj? in close collaboration with his long-time working partner and friend, bassist/producer Petter Eldh, and Dan Nicholls, the keyboardist of the Y-OTIS live band and a solo artist on his own right. Composed by the three and produced by Eldh and Sandsj?, Y-Otis Tre lives up to its name ("tre" means three in Swedish) and stands strong in the continuum of layer-caked liquid jazz, a staple of the Eldh/Sandsj? production duo lauded for their string of releases as Y-OTIS and Koma Saxo. While recognizable in form, Y-Otis Tre adds new dimensions to what has come before. Borne out of hours of tripped-out studio jams by Sandsj? and Eldh, Y-Otis Tre feels natural, neon, 3D, at times laser sharp, at times gooey like jelly, and at all times ripe with ideas that would make albums on their own. Golden riffs are taken, twisted, thrown away, then recycled, and always evolving. Perhaps evolution is key here, as the album reuses and cross-refers its own ideas but never exactly repeats. The music has a mixtape-like DNA, and it seems to be breeding and multiplying at each beat. In color terms, it is more RGB than CMYK -- that is, it might appear unrealistically bright and full of tones not found in the natural world. But when you listen to the music closely, you'll likely find it acoustic to the bone. There's no illusion: hearing the band live tells you what Y-OTIS is all about. It's a live band turned studio tool, morphed back into a live band. Or something like that anyway. Putting a tag onto this music feels a bit like trying to hold a very colorful, somewhat thick liquid substance on the palm of your hand. You can see it, feel it, but never fully pinpoint just what's it made of. But it works, so best just to enjoy the ride. RIYL: Koma Saxo, Y-OTIS 1 & 2, J Dilla, Madlib, contemporary R&B, hiphop, and electronic music-influenced jazz.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: WJLP 065LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Amirtha Kidambi has long affirmed that the role of music in the act of protest is pivotal. For an artist and activist who once cultivated community at defunct Brooklyn spaces such as Death By Audio and the Silent Barn, the 2020 protests became a place to publicly amplify the underground. That subversive spirit of collective dismantlement and reassemblage serves as the catalyst for the longform cuts that comprise New Monuments, Kidambi's third full-length recording with her band Elder Ones. As their leader writes in its accompanying liner notes, the title summons the "tearing down of old colonial and racist monuments and vestiges of power, in order to build new ones to the martyrs of struggle." Tracked at Figure 8 Studios above Prospect Park, the album is the work of an artist concerned with numerous interconnected sites of global conflict: among them, the farmers' protests over agricultural reforms in India, the evolution of the Iranian women's rights movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, and the continuous crescendoing call for Palestinian liberation. This time, the Elder Ones collective consists of saxophonist Matt Nelson, cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Eva Lawitts, and drummer Jason Nazary -- all four of whom contribute their share of electronic textures and electroacoustic treatments. As a document of dissent, these four compositions give proof that improvisation is instrumental in the realm of resistance. Kidambi's voice hovers over a scorched sonic landscape equally informed by Black American liberation music, the devotional fervor of Indian Carnatic, and the unleashing of an inner scream listeners might associate with hardcore punk and harsh noise. The quintet then locks into a polyrhythmic pulse that conjures up the ghosts of free jazz past and present; throughout its runtime, there are flashes of Albert Ayler's love cry, Don Cherry's eternal rhythms, Alice Coltrane's ecstatic spirituality, and the fortissimo fearlessness of Kidambi's late friend and collaborator Jaimie Branch, to whom the album is partly dedicated. Above all, New Monuments is a call to action with nothing left unsaid: it demands that the drive towards change should not only be seen, but heard.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: WJLP 065X-LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Red color vinyl. Amirtha Kidambi has long affirmed that the role of music in the act of protest is pivotal. For an artist and activist who once cultivated community at defunct Brooklyn spaces such as Death By Audio and the Silent Barn, the 2020 protests became a place to publicly amplify the underground. That subversive spirit of collective dismantlement and reassemblage serves as the catalyst for the longform cuts that comprise New Monuments, Kidambi's third full-length recording with her band Elder Ones. As their leader writes in its accompanying liner notes, the title summons the "tearing down of old colonial and racist monuments and vestiges of power, in order to build new ones to the martyrs of struggle." Tracked at Figure 8 Studios above Prospect Park, the album is the work of an artist concerned with numerous interconnected sites of global conflict: among them, the farmers' protests over agricultural reforms in India, the evolution of the Iranian women's rights movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, and the continuous crescendoing call for Palestinian liberation. This time, the Elder Ones collective consists of saxophonist Matt Nelson, cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Eva Lawitts, and drummer Jason Nazary -- all four of whom contribute their share of electronic textures and electroacoustic treatments. As a document of dissent, these four compositions give proof that improvisation is instrumental in the realm of resistance. Kidambi's voice hovers over a scorched sonic landscape equally informed by Black American liberation music, the devotional fervor of Indian Carnatic, and the unleashing of an inner scream listeners might associate with hardcore punk and harsh noise. The quintet then locks into a polyrhythmic pulse that conjures up the ghosts of free jazz past and present; throughout its runtime, there are flashes of Albert Ayler's love cry, Don Cherry's eternal rhythms, Alice Coltrane's ecstatic spirituality, and the fortissimo fearlessness of Kidambi's late friend and collaborator Jaimie Branch, to whom the album is partly dedicated. Above all, New Monuments is a call to action with nothing left unsaid: it demands that the drive towards change should not only be seen, but heard.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: WRJ 001CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltrane among others. From "It Could Happen To You" and its serene and calm intro which magically flows into a jubilant and upbeat piece, to the out-of-this-world piano solo of "Early Summer", or the incredible teamwork of "Autumn Leaves" where Fukui leads Satoshi Denpo (bass) and Yoshinori Fukui (drums) into groove heaven, every single note on the album oozes precision, confidence, and flair and every single section slides seamlessly into one another, creating a supreme and elegant blend of jazz. Often compared to McCoy Tyner or Bill Evans, Ryo Fukui was a genius in his own right, a true master of his craft whose perfectionism gave birth to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Scenery is his magnum opus and an absolute must-have. The Hokkaido wizard-pianist followed Scenery with the soulful gem Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LTD-LP) in 1977. He then focused on improving his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui) and releasing two live albums. Ryo Fukui sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come. Sourced from the original masters. CD comes in digipack.

 

PRICE: $51.00

CAT #: WE 005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Restocked. Guitar Solos is the debut solo album of British guitarist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith. It was recorded while Frith was still a member of the English experimental rock group Henry Cow and was released originally in October 1974. Voted one of the best albums of 1974 by NME critics it also attracted the attention of Brian Eno, resulting in Frith playing guitar on two of Eno's albums. Frith's never tiring spirit in creating and performing music has made him one of the most notable and creative guitar players and musicians in the scene of improvised and composed music. For the anniversary of this release, Week-End Records have encouraged Frith to arrange a set up similar to what he used 50 years ago to record an album of new compositions which will accompany the original record.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: WRWTFWW 011LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

2024 restock; now on black 140 gram vinyl in a 350 gram jacket. WRWTFWW Records unleash the complete uncut soundtrack for Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei's 1988 cult zombie-ploitation gem Zombi 3 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, aka Sanguelia 2) for the first time ever on vinyl, available on two different collector's edition vinyl, the "Classic Version" and the "Special Version". This future deluxe edition OOP classic is packed with menacing synths, ghoulish melodies, and contaminated anthems, remastered directly from the rare original reels of maestro Stefano Mainetti. Zombi 3 is the (unrelated) sequel to Zombi 2 (1979), itself an unofficial sequel to George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead (1978). This marvel of the VHS-era finds a group of super scientists working on a very secret biological weapon called Death One which mutates and kills living humans... and re-animates the dead. Feared by critics and beloved by vintage exploitation fanatics, Zombi 3 has all the charms of the glory days of Italian B-horror, including a fantastic soundtrack. Underrated composer and conductor Stefano Mainetti has done soundtracks for Italian sleaze masters Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, but also for Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and First Blood (1982) director Ted Kotcheff, and Russell Mulcahy of Razorback (1984) and Highlander (1986) fame. His resume includes 1988's badass actioner Strike Commando 2 (aka Trappola Diabolica), exploitation horror flick from 1988 Ratman (aka Quella Villa In Fondo Al Parco), and 1995's The Shooter (aka Hidden Assassin) with the manly superstar Dolph Lundgren. Much like his Italian peers Fabio Frizzi, Claudio Simonetti, or Stelvio Cipriani, Stefano Mainetti can do it all: haunting synths ? la John Carpenter, jazzy atmospheres, classical orchestrations, erotic funk, decadent FM rock, and the list goes on. His eclectic abilities and flair for '80s cinematic moods are well represented in Zombi 3: The Soundtrack.