Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 5/15/2023

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: VP 4245LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Reissue, originally released in 1974. "Max Romeo is perhaps best known for his work in the mid to late 70s with the innovative producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry, 'War In A Babylon,' 'One Step Forward' and The Prodigy sampling 'Chase The Devil' among his most notable works. Yet, the music that preceded that fruitful era is equally as important to the development of the reggae genre. His work with 'The Gorgon' aka Bunny 'Striker' Lee began with the controversial track 'Wet Dream,' a track which had phenomenal success in the U.K. and became a top ten Pop chart hit. 'Every Man Ought To Know' is the continuation of the working relationship between Romeo and Lee and includes a varied mix of songs, 'slackness' from 'Pussy Watch Man,' soulful covers, 'Sometimes' (originally sung by Gene Thomas) and 'Stick By Me' (by Shep & The Limelites -- made famous by the late, great John Holt) plus early 'message' music promoting the teachings of the Rastafarian faith with the title track 'Every Man Ought To Know.' This LP is a super obscure rarity that highlights a very interesting time in the evolution of Reggae music. Now remastered and reissued for all to enjoy plus the album cover features a scarcely seen photograph from Peter Simon."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: VPRL 4119LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Originally released in 1980, reissued in 2008. "Released the same year the reggae singer's life was cut short by a car accident, the 1980 set Jacob Miller Lives On is one of those hastily thrown-together compilations that can't help but succeed thanks to the rich source material. At least that's the way the reggae faithful will see it, since almost everything here is pulled from the 12" releases Miller recorded for producer and label owner Joe Gibbs. The '& Friends' the 17 North Parade label wisely added to their 2008 reissue refers to the DJs, toasters, and dub players who appear on these extended cuts. Big names like I-Roy, Welton Irie, and Augustus Pablo take over after Miller's sweet and powerful voice sings the tunes, and classics like 'I Am a Natty,' 'I'm Just a Dread,' and 'Keep on Knocking' get to stretch their legs and extend their winning grooves. Since it's not the most artist-centered compilation, it's not the best introduction, either, but collectors will appreciate obtaining these hard to find mixes, especially since the 2000 collection I'm Just a Dread -- the same album with bonus tracks, a different running order, and duller sound -- has fallen out of print. Even if North Parade's reissue sounds brighter and fuller, the surface noise of the original 12" discs is still very noticeable and, in the case of damaged cuts like 'Fly Away,' very distracting." --AllMusic

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: ASM 005LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

From the viscerally punishing and nerve wrecking, to the wistfully sublime, Kevin Drumm's work often yield a ferocious intensity through the timbres of minute details. Now, throughout this series of archival works dating from 2000 to 2022, his mastery is once again on full display. On Battering Rams sinister forces interlope with sanguine glimmers of respite and contemplation, while recurring drones ceaselessly crescendo to near paralyzing effect, only for the albums final moments to offer a lofty reprise of boundless oscillation, dispelling all the pent-up tension into a sanguine state of bliss. Once again underpinning Drumm's genius of turning apparently trivial hums into elongated microtonal worlds that stay etched deeply in your conscious, often long after the works final resonances have already subsided. Edition of 400.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: N 082LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Alien Transistor present Alien Parade Japan, a joyous double-album compilation of groups from Japan's indie-pop and avant-garde undergrounds, all of which feature brass or woodwind instruments as part of their line-up. Compiled by Markus Acher (Alien Transistor, The Notwist, Hochzeitskapelle) with plenty of support and help from his Spirit Fest bandmate, Saya (also of Tenniscoats), it features some familiar names -- Tenniscoats, naturally, but also Zayaendo, Tori Kudo's Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- alongside lesser-known groups like Biobiopatata, Mitamurakandadan?, Kourakuen, Sekifu, and Noah Lewis Mahlon's Taits, amongst many others. The collection of songs here rests upon a simple question, and an interesting parallel: Why do so many groups from Japan include brass and woodwind, and how closely does this echo the scene that Acher is involved with in Munich? The idea was formulated in Acher's mind after one of his groups, Hochzeitskapelle, had been invited by Saya to Japan in 2019, to take part in the Alien Parade Japan tour. A wide variety is reflected in the twenty-two songs on Alien Parade Japan, which flits from the pastoral melody of Maher Shalal Hash Baz's "Crossin The Tama River", through the tenderness of Various Sighhorns's "people have called them flowers", to the folksy lament of Gratin Carnival's "Just Watching". Alien Parade Japan reaches further afield, too, drawing in some groups, like Hose, Fuigo, and popo, that feature musicians like Toshihiro Koike, Masafumi Ezaki, and Taku Unami, who may be better known for their experimental and improvised releases on labels like ftarri and Erstwhile. It also looks back to material recorded in the 1990s -- the swinging slide guitars and sax/tuba duet of Strada's "Swamp", from 1998, and Compostela's energetic, rousing "ghhgh", from 1990. Both pieces were written by, and feature, saxophonist Kanji Nakao; Compostela's membership also included late saxophonist Masami Shinoda, who was also part of such storied Japanese groups as Pungo, A-Musik, Orquestra Del Viento, Ché-SHIZU, and the fiery free jazz outfit, Seikatsu K?jy? Iinkai. Groups like Compostela help to draw some through-lines to the aesthetics of chindon'ya, a type of Japanese marching band made up of costumed street performers who advertise businesses. Alien Parade Japan weaves all of this together -- chindon'ya; jazz; indie-pop; psych-folk; big band -- into one beautiful, big tapestry of gorgeous melody, sweetness, and melancholy, with plenty of creative fraying at its edges. A wonderfully coherent collection of some of the most playful and elated music you're likely to hear this year. Also features Pascals, Tail, Noahlewis' Mahlon Taits, K`DLOKK, Petit Daon, NRQ, and Satomi Endo. Silk-screen artwork; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $9.50

CAT #: ARBITRARY 015EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

arbitrary presents Dissolvè/Scillions by Antoine Hubineau. Derived from the same series of compositions, "Dissolvè" and "Scillions" are drawn from modular synthesizer recordings which have been reworked, treated and composed in the computer. "Dissolvè" is a mosaic which is in constant motion. The inner details are guided by an outer structure which act as a kind of rhythmic subtraction. It is destabilized to the point where it fractures, from the macro to the micro level; abstracting a filigree from the original rhythm. "Scillions" breaks an initial path into several directions which create new paths. Directional blur in harmonic motion makes it difficult to predict the outcomes. Contrary movements, synchronization, and desynchronization build and break the relations between these new paths. Finally, altered versions of these new directions give some familiarity, while adding to the ambient disorder. Based in Latillé (France), Antoine Hubineau works in the electronic music field, as a composer, musician, teacher and co-founder of the Sillages residency. His practice is focused on sound synthesis, which become alternately pseudo-acoustic instruments, abstract matter, and surreal spaces. In his compositions, he makes the most of the cracks between free pulsation and collateral rhythms, between harmonic stability and sound spectrum tearings. Written and produced by Antoine Hubineau, Saint-Etienne (France), 2020. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Cover artwork by Morgan Cuinet. Layout by Mads Emil Nielsen. White vinyl; 45rpm; includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: BEWITH 019EP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Manchester's Avant-jazzy-funk outfit Swamp Children were enviably eclectic and Taste What's Rhythm is their mini masterpiece. Flitting gracefully through a feast of genres with consummate ease, the band were almost indefinable and, accordingly, nigh-on impossible to market. So whilst this cult EP, originally out in 1982 on Factory Benelux, remains in demand for those in the know, it has also glided under the radar of many otherwise clued-up heads for over 40 years. The Taste What's Rhythm EP was originally released in 1982 on Factory Benelux (an informal partnership between the legendary Manchester-based Factory Records and Belgium-based Les Disques du Crépuscule). With its kaleidoscopic brightness, silky panache and superb execution, it remains one of the most startling documents of a remarkable time and place.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: BEWITH 089LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1976. The Rhythm Makers' Soul On Your Side is flawless proto-disco funk. The Bronx-based band -- that later went on to form heavyweight disco outfit GQ -- originally released this treasure in 1976 and it's long been a hard-to-find record. It's also rare to find a record this hard. Captivating funk at its rawest, no doubt. Storming out the gate with the rollicking Loft/Garage staple "Can You Feel It (Part 1)", the listener is immediately put on notice that this LP is just a little bit special. The title track, "Soul On Your Side", is a classic dancer and the basis of GQ's future hit "Disco Nights". But it's perhaps "Zone", a huge Baldelli track, that the record is best known for. Hypnotic psyched-out cosmic-disco/cosmic funk, it's an unrelenting groove that really thrusts the party into hyperdrive. With doses of scintillating Latin and pulsating African rhythms driving the pumping tune, atop an unstoppable bassline and imaginative, soul-slathered keyboard figures, it's basically a full-on funk assault. You might need a lie-down after this. But there's no let-up on the B-side, immediately grooving thanks to "Funk-N-You", a laidback glider that just rolls in the sleek style. Gorgeous harmony skills are displayed on "Street Dreamin'". Beautiful and gritty funk, by turns. "You're My Last Girl" is an airy ballad with two leads before the legendary "Monterey" enters the fray. A much-sampled instrumental and heavy disco-funk nugget, it contains an amazing B-Boy drum break making the whole LP worth the price of admission. "Can You Feel It (Part 2)" closes out this spectacular set. The Rhythm Makers had been gigging around New York City since the late '60s, having initially come together as Sabu and the Survivors, named after bassist Keith "Sabu" Crier. They eventually -- for this album at least! -- settled on The Rhythm Makers and cut one record for the small De-Lite subsidiary Vigor. The core lineup featured Crier, keyboardist Herb Lane, drummer Kenny Banks, and rhythm guitarist Rahiem Leblanc. Mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston for Alchemy at AIR Studios with artwork restored at Be With Records.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: BEC 5161908

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. Because Music reissues on LP (with bonus CD format added) the 1977 album Supernature by French disco legend Marc Cerrone. Big hits can be the result of a combination of circumstances. Massively popular at the time, crowned with the success of Love in C Minor and Cerrone's Paradise that made him a disco hero of the '70s, the musician started working on his new album differently. This time, the inspiration came from a synthesizer, an instrument he never used before. ARP, an American manufacturer, provided him with it. "I was given this machine and didn't know how to use it," he remembers. "I twiddled a few knobs, trying to get some sounds out of it. Then, as I was playing on the keyboard, a bass line came to me that I immediately recorded on my Revox. It was 'Supernature!'" Lene Lovich, future queen of the punk and new wave English scene, wrote the lyrics. It was a science fiction story, similar in spirit to The Planet of the Apes. Once the track and album were finished, Cerrone asked the record company to focus on "Supernature," rather than the rest of the record, in the vein of his previous work. History would prove him right. This track, the more iconic of his catalog, would turn out to be his biggest hit. This third album (also called Supernature) would also sell eight million copies. Always a funny guy, Cerrone can be seen on the cover of the record, but without naked women. Creatures with animal-heads in a surgery room replaced them. It meant a mutant and more synthetic kind of disco was born. Pressed on pale green vinyl + CD. Includes a 4-page booklet with a 30cm x 30cm poster-booklet with photos and biographic notes.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: BIO 042EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Abstraxion once again delivers another twist to his exotic musical tale with Trance Body Music. A four-track collection of '90s-infused club rockets. Hi-NRG sounds that traverse the trance-techno-rave intersection. Lead single "Wholes" is a distorted and relentless number that hammers along with skewed vocal chops and lashings of bounce. "Gold" however, is a more pushy heads-down affair. It's ramped BPM and vocals muster dewy-eyed Bonsai memories, whilst harnessing the free spirit of the resurging Euro-dance movement. Next out of the rave cannon comes "Force", with its fierce tempo, jittering synth stabs and playful melody working together to create a tidy dancefloor moment. The show is brought to a close with the bubbling title track "Trance Body Music". A perfect, almost soothing, finale to a wonderfully energetic adventure.

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: BEA 002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Black Editions Archive is ecstatic to announce the newest release in the Milford Graves Archival series, the double LP, Children of the Forest, featuring previously unreleased 1976 sessions with Hugh Glover and Arthur Doyle that re-write the book on Milford Graves's ensemble music of the 1970s. Graves recorded these sessions himself in his legendary Queens basement laboratory and workshop in the weeks immediately leading up to the March 1976 session that, with the same unit, produced what many consider his most iconic album, Bäbi, recorded at WBAI-FM Free Music Store. Following the death of Albert Ayler in 1970 and up until his storied trip to FESTAC 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria, Graves gigged fairly often as a band leader in the New York Loft scene and traveled twice to Europe (1973, 1974) with duos, trios and quartets comprised of fellow New York City based musicians -- almost always with Hugh Glover, and variously including Arthur Williams, Joe Rigby, Frank Lowe, and Arthur Doyle. The three sessions that comprise Children of the Forest date from near the end of this intensive period of grassroots activity by Graves during a peak era of musical & cultural ferment in jazz & Black American Music. The earliest recordings feature the duo of Graves (drums & percussion) and Glover (tenor saxophone) from January 24th, and Graves solo (drums & percussion) from February 2. In an interview commissioned for this release and conducted by Jake Meginsky, Glover discusses the mastery of form and execution in Graves's playing and approach: 'It has always been a mystery to me how Cuban drummers in Bata were able to modulate the rhythm and the meter. Well, it takes more than one player to do it Cuban style. Prof (Graves) shows you can do it as one player. The reason he's able to do it is because he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the rhythms of the Caribbean, rhythms of Africa, plus rhythms of jazz. He can move around without losing the feel.' The centerpiece of this set is the March 11 session featuring Graves, Doyle on tenor saxophone and fife, and Glover on a rather unusual pair of instruments that would not appear on the Bäbi recording just one week later -- klaxon and the vaccine, a Haitian one-note trumpet. Glover: 'The klaxon -- it's important to keep that tribal possession-state feel... because it's not a Hollywood gallop. It's very much about the energy, this gallop. Prof (Graves) talks about that, talking about the low, the galloping as in the Divine Horsemen of Haiti.' Doyle's visceral and unrestrained tenor playing on the March 11 session is further evidence as to why his work, especially during this period, has attained mythic status among aficionados of free jazz and even noise music. Graves would later discuss Doyle in Conversations (William Parker, 2011 Rogue Art Books): 'There was another horn player I know that really got into it from the gut and he had a certain kind of intellectualism when we performed? that was Arthur Doyle. (laughs) Arthur Doyle would just go into it. I mean really just go into it... something happened there that was beyond the immediate intellectual control of the people who was doing it. It was about just doing it and don't worry about all these people putting you down. The most important thing was what was coming out of your instrument and how it was effecting people.' Listening to these recordings, that spirit is unmistakable. The original 1/4 inch reel, labeled 'Pygmy' by Graves, including 15 minutes of audio from an unknown documentary on the Mbuti People of the Congo Basin, are among the few tapes we've so far encountered from Graves' private archive that seem clearly intended in his conception & sequencing to be an album. For this reason, these recordings are now presented exactly as assembled by Graves, for soonest possible release." --Peter Kolovos & Michael EhlersDeluxe double-LP tip-on gatefold with pigment ink foil stamping featuring photographs by acclaimed photographer and free jazz historian Val Wilmer. Includes insert with new interview of Hugh Glover by Jake Meginsky.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BT 101LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The endlessly prolific and unpredictable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with Modern Sorrow. As any Youngs fan knows, one of the great pleasures of following his career comes from not being able to predict what the next entry in his inexhaustible string of releases will bring: Unaccompanied voice? Country songs? Shakuhachi? Guitar pieces played with his feet? Shredding fuzz bass over the top of hyper-speed distorted drum machine beats? Continuing in the grand Youngs tradition of exploring new techniques, instrumentation, and approaches while bringing to all of them his idiosyncratic touch, Modern Sorrow serves up two sides of twistedly elegiac, radically stark takes on contemporary pop production. The side-long title track is built from a piano sample, synthetic bass notes and organ swells, and an iterative blurt that seems to have wandered out of a '90s jungle track. Eventually joined by a shuffling drum machine, the track moves very slowly through a series of chords, each delayed long enough that its arrival comes as a major event. Over the top, Youngs' heavily pitch-corrected voice is heard. The processing paints his signature wandering melodic improvisations with shades of contemporary R&B; at the same time, it cuts the natural swoops and glides of Youngs' melodies into rapid microtonal trills, giving his voice a quavering, middle eastern feel. Unfolding languorously over more than 17 minutes, the piece's final minutes make room for an extended drum-less coda, returning to the stark palette of its opening moments. On the second side, the two parts of "Benevolence" push this minimalism ever further, its first half consisting of nothing more than a remarkably slow drum machine hit, bass-heavy chords and pitch-corrected voice, here so heavily processed that it starts to resemble a shawm solo. In its second part, the harmonic foundation drops out from under the piece while two more voices join; at some moments the voices pause, leaving nothing more than isolated, metronomic drum hits. Though Youngs has explored the sound worlds associated with dance music and contemporary pop in previous work, here these elements are radically reduced, foregrounding a meditative bed of silence with a boldness equal to any more academically inclined contemporary composer. Embracing the accessible digital tools of contemporary music production just as at another moment he would pick up a kazoo, like much of Youngs' work Modern Sorrow uses simple DIY tools to generous ends, producing formally radical music that remains both free from pretension and deeply moving.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BT 102LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Black Truffle announce Down On Darkened Meetings, the first solo release on the label from the quietly prolific Giuseppe Ielasi. Recorded at Ielasi's studio in Monza outside of Milan over two days in February 2022, the seven pieces presented here continue the renewed exploration of the guitar that marks much of his solo work over the last few years. Emerging in the late 1990s as an improviser working primarily with prepared acoustic and electric guitars, the instrument became less prominent in his work over the next decade, ceding to loop-based constructs that would eventually split into abstracted takes on club music and hip-hop (including his work as Inventing Masks), on the one hand, and spectral electroacoustic explorations (such as the stunning triple disc 3 pauses), on the other. Returning to the guitar in recent years, he has approached the instrument as a source of shimmering metallic glissandi (Five Wooden Frames) or as the vehicle of elegiac double-tracked lines that feel almost like Frisell playing Feldman (The Prospect). Here, the focus is on electric guitar filtered, looped, and splayed out into fields of irregular echoes through a bank of pedals. Like many of Ielasi's releases, Down On Darkened Meetings is structured as a set of short untitled pieces (here ranging between two and six minutes in length) that single-mindedly explore a single instrument or source throughout. The opening track immediately introduced the distinctive timbral world of fizzing, heavily filtered tones, chiming harmonics, and woozy looping bass figures inhabited throughout. At points it becomes near impossible to trace these sounds to the strings of an electric guitar; at others, as on the final two pieces, the instrument is unmistakable, as Ielasi builds up his shifting loops from snatches of almost unintentional sounding half-playing that give these closing tracks a hushed, private atmosphere reminiscent of Tolerance's Anonym. While the repeating chords and hanging melodic figures present on many tracks call to mind earlier Ielasi classics like Gesine and Untitled, here the music feels less meticulously constructed than played: Ielasi's lyrical guitar lines obscured by a battery of effects at times come across like a dilated take on the outer-fringe fretwork of improvisers like Henry Kaiser and Raymond Boni, and the muddy, asynchronous fields of pops and hiss at times wander into areas reminiscent of the hand-played dub techno of Vladislav Delay's Multila. Like much of Ielasi's work in recent years, these seven pieces perform a delicate balancing act: between abstraction and immediacy, austerity and abundance. Imbued with Ielasi's distinctive lightness of touch, considered approach to pacing, and subtly psychedelic approach to the stereo field, Down On Darkened Meetings is a major new work from a quiet master of contemporary experimental music.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 280LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock; LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's debut album Electronique Guerilla, originally released on Disjuncta in 1974. In 1973, 22-year old Richard Pinhas was well on his way to becoming a full-time philosopher. He had almost finished his PhD and begun teaching at the University of Paris. But he also had a hobby: writing music and recording it himself. When he submitted a few tracks to British label E.G. (home of King Crimson and Roxy Music), the imprint was interested, but Pinhas was frustrated to find out he'd have to wait a year for them to release anything. So Pinhas put out his first album on his own label, Disjuncta. He called the project Heldon (from a location in Norman Spinrad's 1972 sci-fi novel The Iron Dream). It might have been the first self-released rock record in France. "Or at least the first one that worked," says Pinhas. "It was like a musical and political event in France. Musical because there were few artists using synthesizers here, or even in the world. And political because we tried to say that the big companies make everything bad and their records are too expensive." Most of Electronique Guerilla was made by Pinhas alone, but "Ouais, Marchais, Mieux Qu'en 68" featured five collaborators, including one of his mentors, Gilles Deleuze. Over winding guitars and pointed percussion, the French philosopher reads lyrics taken from Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Voyager and His Shadow" (1880). Despite being self-released -- with Pinhas himself delivering some stock directly to record stores -- Electronique Guerilla quickly sold over 19,000 copies. That convinced Pinhas he should make and release more music by himself -- but he would have little time for philosophy. "I had to make a decision, because at that point in France, you couldn't do two jobs," he remembers. "So I made this very bad choice to be a rock 'n' roll musician." It's a choice he's stuck to for four decades, and the fiery Electronique Guerilla provided a potent spark. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: BB 430CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"... Oui Bitte shows Station 17 as a band of experts in a kind of acoustic transcendence. Their music tenderly forces you to engage in all of this at the same time. Already in the field recordings of the Elbe shore with which '20.000 Meilen unter dem Mond' begins you are being offered a pact: Hand over all control to the music, swim out to the open sea and be thrown back to yourself -- just so you can indulge in the sonic waves. That prelude seems programmatic: In the following 40 minutes you are being carried along, you are being amused, catapulted, earthed, moved. Oui Bitte manages to douse the resonance body, to drift away, to wash ashore, to take off. The landing: always soft! The biggest continuity is the positive vibe, a reliable air host, pleasant, more shell than irritation. Station 17 do not produce cracks in the dam, they are smoothing out riverbeds. 'Bewegung' then appears as the highlight of the album, a manifestation of the idea Station 17. Move your mind and move your body, as Birgit Hohnen says here, a deceased companion of the group who is being projected into the present of the song through a sample. With your eyes closed this track allows you to take off meditatively. And then there's the latent melancholy which finds its way in. This futuristic music of the past stays warm, stays cordial, stays inviting: to the sonic utopia of a more beautiful world which has already been established by this album at this point and by this band in any case. In the end the record takes its time, a wide room is designed, meters are being covered. In the calmness of the last song a contradiction pops up: 'Das Rasen' ('The rushing'). But the contradiction dissolves: If you listen closely, you are gliding through the high grass ('Rasen') on which to lie down and listen to Oui Bitte invites. Yes, please: Repeat!" --Hendrik Otembra

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 430LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "... Oui Bitte shows Station 17 as a band of experts in a kind of acoustic transcendence. Their music tenderly forces you to engage in all of this at the same time. Already in the field recordings of the Elbe shore with which '20.000 Meilen unter dem Mond' begins you are being offered a pact: Hand over all control to the music, swim out to the open sea and be thrown back to yourself -- just so you can indulge in the sonic waves. That prelude seems programmatic: In the following 40 minutes you are being carried along, you are being amused, catapulted, earthed, moved. Oui Bitte manages to douse the resonance body, to drift away, to wash ashore, to take off. The landing: always soft! The biggest continuity is the positive vibe, a reliable air host, pleasant, more shell than irritation. Station 17 do not produce cracks in the dam, they are smoothing out riverbeds. 'Bewegung' then appears as the highlight of the album, a manifestation of the idea Station 17. Move your mind and move your body, as Birgit Hohnen says here, a deceased companion of the group who is being projected into the present of the song through a sample. With your eyes closed this track allows you to take off meditatively. And then there's the latent melancholy which finds its way in. This futuristic music of the past stays warm, stays cordial, stays inviting: to the sonic utopia of a more beautiful world which has already been established by this album at this point and by this band in any case. In the end the record takes its time, a wide room is designed, meters are being covered. In the calmness of the last song a contradiction pops up: 'Das Rasen' ('The rushing'). But the contradiction dissolves: If you listen closely, you are gliding through the high grass ('Rasen') on which to lie down and listen to Oui Bitte invites. Yes, please: Repeat!" --Hendrik Otembra

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: BRED 882LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "Pere Ubu unveil their new album, Trouble On Big Beat Street, nearly four years after their previous record for Cherry Red, The Long Goodbye. The Modern Dance (1978) marked the end of rock 'n' roll. Trouble On Big Beat Street marks the end of the song. Pere Ubu ended with The Long Goodbye (their last album, also on Cherry Red, from 2019). Pere Ubu begins again with Trouble On Big Beat Street. If you missed the last 48 years then imagine a bad attitude. Imagine Electric Light Orchestra -- the version with Roy Wood -- then add Muddy Waters playing guitar and Nina Simone singing. Trouble On Big Beat Street, the 19th Pere Ubu studio album. David Thomas produced, mixed, and engineered it. The vinyl release is ten tracks. The CD release includes all 17 tracks recorded during the sessions. Those extra seven tracks were too good to lose but took up too much time to fit on a vinyl release. Pere Ubu is David Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin, Alex Ward, Andy Diagram, Michele Temple and Jack Jones. Keith Moliné and Andy Diagram are the two pale boys. They have played with David more than 28 years. Electronica artist Gagarin was soundman for the two pale boys. Michele Temple has been in Pere Ubu 30 years. Improviser and life-long fan Alex Ward submitted a cover version of a David Thomas song to the band's live-streaming show. David invited him to join the band. David met Jack Jones in the pub."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: CDBRED 882CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Pere Ubu unveil their new album, Trouble On Big Beat Street, nearly four years after their previous record for Cherry Red, The Long Goodbye. The Modern Dance (1978) marked the end of rock 'n' roll. Trouble On Big Beat Street marks the end of the song. Pere Ubu ended with The Long Goodbye (their last album, also on Cherry Red, from 2019). Pere Ubu begins again with Trouble On Big Beat Street. If you missed the last 48 years then imagine a bad attitude. Imagine Electric Light Orchestra -- the version with Roy Wood -- then add Muddy Waters playing guitar and Nina Simone singing. Trouble On Big Beat Street, the 19th Pere Ubu studio album. David Thomas produced, mixed, and engineered it. The vinyl release is ten tracks. The CD release includes all 17 tracks recorded during the sessions. Those extra seven tracks were too good to lose but took up too much time to fit on a vinyl release. Pere Ubu is David Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin, Alex Ward, Andy Diagram, Michele Temple and Jack Jones. Keith Moliné and Andy Diagram are the two pale boys. They have played with David more than 28 years. Electronica artist Gagarin was soundman for the two pale boys. Michele Temple has been in Pere Ubu 30 years. Improviser and life-long fan Alex Ward submitted a cover version of a David Thomas song to the band's live-streaming show. David invited him to join the band. David met Jack Jones in the pub."

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: CCS 055-2LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; regular LP version. Second edition with amended tracklisting (the track "I Got A Woman" has been deleted). Four years after his debut EP on Wolf + Lamb, Nicolas Jaar, the New Yorker by way of Chile returns to Circus Company with Space Is Only Noise, an uncompromising manifesto on traces of the past, love lost, and spectres of the future. Jaar has made it quite apparent over the course of his nascent catalog and increasingly sought-after live sets that challenge is an intrinsic part of his creative discourse. Few are the producers of any age with the guts to ride a sub-100-bpm tempo at peak-time in the techno Mecca of Berlin, and fewer still are those who receive an ecstatic hands-in-the-air response for their precocious efforts. It is precisely this sense of risk which elevates Space Is Only Noise beyond the realm of valiant first effort or crossover dance music oddity. Those looking to wade through the sea of Jaar's potential influences will quickly find themselves in the deep waters of golden age Factory records, the home-spun digitalism of Mille Plateaux, Endtroducing-era DJ Shadow and Eric Satie. Jaar gently coaxes his listener into the experience from the opening sounds of rolling waves on "être," but quickly transitions into the sophisticated percussion and meandering melodies that characterize his sound. Jaar seeks, and often finds, beauty in melancholy on the first few tracks of the album. As the album begins to accelerate with "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust," Jaar confronts us with the often forgotten reality that our sadness is not mutually exclusive on the dancefloor. Suddenly, on "Keep Me There," Jaar's voice appears over the delicious, rumbling melody. Though your hips stir to the relentless bass line and the sexiness of the voices, your heart is jolted out of its luxurious malaise when horns erupt seconds later. "How can you talk about a landscape without showing the sky and the earth?" a voice asks, translating from the French on "être." So Jaar concludes, revisiting the same track to end the album. Complete landscapes such as these are only realized in contrast -- the indulgent against the reserved, the sky against the earth; lightness and darkness. Space Is Only Noise is a tour de force with few modern equals, and a great sign of things to come from one of electronic music's most exciting producers.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: DAMGOOD 594CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Three CD box set by original '77 punk band The Lukers. Features two albums never before on CD (Chemical Landslide / The Future's Calling) plus a previously unreleased live recording from 1977."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: LPSPI 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

First release on the new French label Disques de la Spirale, featuring an experimental motorik-kraut-dub infused, semi-improvised live act built by Tamara Goukassova, Axel Larsen, and Théo Delaunay (Panoptique, Succhiamo, Violent Quand on Aime, Radiante Pourpre) from Simple Music Experience; featuring Maoupa Mazzocchetti, Fiesta en el Vacío, Ventre de Biche, Kyle Knapp (Deliluh). French non-jazz trio overflowed by Simple Music Experience's funders Tamara Goukassova, Théo Delaunay and Alexandre Larcier, offering a 40 minutes of non-simple music madness, and navigating between a dozen of etiquettes from undecided space rock to motorik-infused-dub, medieval folk, cartoon trance; everything under the seal of psychedelia and half-improvisation. Built from drums, violin, springs, samples, reiterations, overdubs, trumpets, synths, distortions; and the appearances of Luna Cedrón, Luca Retraite, Kyle Knapp (Deliluh), F. Mazzocchetti (Maoupa Mazzocchetti). Chimera embraced by three members of the Simple Music Experience label, also (co-) liable at one point for the acts of Axel Larsen, (The) Simplists, Violent Quand On Aime, Constance Chlore, T. Goukassova, Radiante Pourpre, Succhiamo, or Panoptique; Parasite Jazz emerged in 2016 in the smoke of a suspicious performance on Simple Music TV. An improvised and protean artifact at birth, the project settled down at the end of 2020 as a trio (Axel Larsen, Constance Chlore, Tamara Goukassova) in Marseille, then as a sextet during the Illusio festival in the summer of 2021. A series of concerts with a shifting line-up followed -- Kyle Knapp, Luca Retraite and Luna Cedrón sometimes appeared and with them, spontaneous incandescences. This first series of collective hallucinations took the form of an album during a perilous recording at Grrrnd Zero (Lyon) in October 2021, and is completed by live recordings gleaned over the course of the summer episodes. For fans of Faust, Tomaga, Tony Conrad.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DC 868LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Matt Espy is an American drummer and percussionist. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he spent his youth playing every genre of music he could find, playing out in clubs starting at age 14 and launching his touring career at 18. He moved to Chicago in 1996 and continued his journey playing rock, avant-garde, jazz, and performance art pieces. He's played drums for a number of groups and charismatic individuals, including Atombombpocketknife, Duke Special and The Mountain Goats. Over the past decade, he's found his home with Dead Rider, also on Drag City. Hawksworth is Matt's first solo adventure. In the field of solo drumming albums, it's an avian psychedelic percussion trip all of its own. A dialogue between birds, electronics, and drums, Hawksworth operates along precise degrees in the vastness that exists between the diverse poles of Terry Riley and Martin Denny. It captures one particularly memorable morning walk from long ago, a time immemorial in Matt's life. In this new musical rendering, that fateful morning is ridden with wormholes throughout the piece, like hyperspace links that travel to motifs from his 30-plus years music career with every step along the way. The inspiration for the album came to Matt all at once a couple years back. It was early pandemic times, and the world outside his home felt drained of people, which brought the sounds of the world without people to his attention. It took awhile for the impact of that to settle in. One day -- while, naturally, listening to music, he heard a pop song employing the barking of a dog as percussion, and sat up with a start. Was it real, or... Like a bolt from the blue, the sonic and the visual design for Hawksworth came whole cloth, completely evident to him in that moment. It was done, and all it needed now was to be executed. Birdsong as a transformative element had first affected Matt during this almost-mythic teenage perambulation of his. It was an early a.m., post hallucinogenic, walk of shame; a night of wonder, followed by the cold light of dawning. As he made his way back home, the wonder began to kick and flicker again, and the sounds of the birds in the trees above caused the possibilities of the world to open up wide. Now, all these years later, he thought about recharting that path through lostness and inspiration, to once again find the places where nature and HIS nature -- the drums -- became one..."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: DRONE 024EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally from Manchester now based in Lewes, Kalli co-runs the GODDEZZ parties and record label. Sonically, Kalli can't hold back when interconnecting the dots of hoover synths, electro, gritty rave and off-kilter weirdness. "Soft Play" is a primal techno beast with punk undertones and monstrous Hoover rave drop. "Gems Per Capita" shows Kalli in full club mode, unleashing a bass heavy electro-tinged track with a killer Acid break; a peak-time weapon. The memory of trying to naively connect to an identity, along with searching for daily eccentric enjoyment in a rural, rainy post-industrial town Kalli.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DUST 113CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"... For months, we'd been working away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere. We'd been talking about the old days; making music with friends and dodgy kit, renting small practice rooms and using makeshift recording studios. It was such a common thing back then, you could pick a dusty space in a half-derelict building for as little as £25 a month. In those days, the Cabs and Human League had studios with posh-sounding names, but in reality, they were the same old workspaces long abandoned by the industries they were built for. Nevertheless, the grand names made them sound magical. Sheffield had thousands of these spaces, and some still exist today, but their abundance and low-cost made Sheffield a very active place. Someone was always doing something. They'd exploded onto the scene in a flurry of excitement before disappearing just as quickly. There's something about these little mesters (workshops) that we believe lives in the very consciousness of Sheffield. It's one of the reasons we never really had big scenes like Manchester or Leeds. The Hacienda would've never been built here. We don't really do big gangs or have that kind of mentality. We tend to exist in little pockets, often leaving each other alone. It would be 30 years before any member of The Black Dog talked to Cabaret Voltaire. Sure, we'd stood outside their practice room as kids, trying to listen in, but never felt any reason to approach. Sheffield is like that. Once we had the first two tracks of the Black EP, we set off to see Jon at Do It Theesen, where he manually cut the tracks to an extremely limited set of 7" singles using a vinyl lathe. It just felt right to go back to the old ways; a small gang creating something special in workshops and sheds . . . We pushed further by adopting old practices, working with one synth per person and limiting the use of our computers. We only stopped short of putting everything on beer crates. It seems like madness these days, but there is raw creativity within these confines. Pretty much every band started this way. Depeche Mode travelled to the studio on the London Underground for their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, all lugging a synth each. That's how we approached the creation of this album; stripped back, raw and minimal -- it just felt so right. And then there's the competitive element that was influenced when the original Human League split and became Human League MK II and Heaven 17. Both continued to use the same studio to write what became the albums Dare and Penthouse and Pavement. There is something about that drive that is very Sheffield, just making stuff and hoping everything falls into place..."

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: PT 3001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. A collection of spiritual and gospel songs performed in informal non-church settings between 1965 and 1973. Most are guitar-accompanied and performed by active or former blues artists. "Most records of black religious music contain some form of gospel singing or congregational singing recorded at a church service. This album, though, tries to present a broader range of performance styles and contexts with the hope of showing the important role that religious music plays in the Southern black communities and in the daily lives of individuals." --David Evans, from the liner notes. LP, 16-page 11"x11" booklet, tip-on sleeve, 16 photographs. David Evans is an ethnomusicologist and director of the Ethnomusicology/Regional Studies program at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in the University of Memphis, where he's worked since 1978.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: ECHO 091EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

El Choop makes a welcome return to Echocord with the Closing Motif EP, Deadbeat and Luke Hess step in on remix duties. Harvey Jones, better known to most as El Choop, is a London based producer and DJ most notably known his dub-leaning house and techno output for the likes of Greyscale, Ornate Music, Ranges, Etui Records, and of course Echocord where he returns here following the 2021 Insane Sends EP. Leading the way on this new project is the original mix of "Faith", a six-minute journey through cascading dub stabs, fluttering low-end pulsations, dynamically evolving percussion and intricate nuance throughout. Deadbeat's "In The Chapel Dub" mix of "Faith" follows next, stripping things back to a swaying, heavily dubbed out feel via heavy sub bass swells, a bouncy rhythmic drive and echoing elements of the original composition. Title-cut "Closing Motif" is up next on the B-side, employing a murky, plucked bass melody which ebbs and flows around hazy atmospherics, rattling hi-hats and muted drums. Luke Hess then steps in on remix duties for "Closing Motif" to round things out, the Detroit native delivers a typically classy interpretation, taking the core of the original and twisting it into an IDM tinged cut via crunchy broken drums and shimmering synth textures.

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: EDN 001EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Four Flies new imprint Edizioni della Notte with a 12-inch maxi single of infectious remixes of Francesco Fisotti's boogie funk track 'La Tartana' by eclectic Neapolitan DJ/producer Whodamanny. The original track, which comes from the 2021 album Lido Sirena (named after a beach resort in the Salento area of Apulia, where Fisotti used to spend his summers as a child), blends funky disco, synths, drum-machine beats and improvisation into an exciting new sound that Fisotti calls 'Adriatic funk.' Inspired by slow-tempo but irresistible Italo and cosmic disco tunes, in particular Tonino Balsamo's 1983 Sta Guagliona Mo Dda' (one of the rarest Neapolitan grooves ever, recently reissued by Periodica Records), Whodamanny's two remixes amplify the original's dancefloor potential by adding a nocturnal vibe and elements such as synths and electronic drums, as well as a short vocal line ('Don't stop till the music stops') to create a catchy call-and-response effect. Whodamanny himself explains that he produced not one, but two remixes due to his love of extended dub versions. 'It's sort of a professional quirk,' -- he says --'but you know, it's inevitable. You're sitting at the mixer, listening over and over to a track...Of course you'll find bits you can stretch out to create a fantastic flow! And my approach is always the approach of a DJ. I want whatever I produce to work well in my DJ sets, so these remixes too were bound to be club-oriented.'"

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 1016CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 reprint. It isn't strictly an Albert Ayler album but a very interesting collaborative freely improvised soundtrack project for Michael Snow's film of the same name. Recorded in July 1964 by Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray. Liner notes, photos and more -- digitally remastered from the original tapes. Michael Snow, the Toronto based film maker and pianist and catalyst for free improvisational performers everywhere; painter, sculptor and record producer, and the pride of Canada, used the image of pianist-composer Carla Bley as the inspiration for ah art film, Ny Eye & Ear Control. For his sound track, he assembled a group of ESP artists in his loft, and recorded them on July 17, 1964.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: EUDEMONIA 014EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

First various artists EP on eudemonia with four electro tracks by Sound Synthesis, Hermeth, Caramel Chameleon, and Larionov each exploring the acid side of the universe.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: XBITXS 001EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

There's something in the air! Can you feel the sun and the gentle breeze from the sea? Summer is near and Rico Puestel delivers the tune for those wishful days! The Air, The Sun, The Sea is a highly uplifting and timeless homage to peak summer and festival moments -- an anthem, you might not have known you would need in your life...

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: FAITICHE 031LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

One of the most notorious hatemongers in movie history is Captain Ahab from John Huston's 1956 classic Moby Dick. His manic monologues cast a spell on generations of viewers. Berlin based musician and sound artist Jan Jelinek has now turned the voice of Ahab into a musical instrument. Faitiche presents Jan Jelinek's soundtrack for SEASCAPE - polyptych, an audio-visual software developed in collaboration with Canadian new media artist Clive Holden in 2022. SEASCAPE - polyptych is based on image and acoustic source material from Moby Dick. While Holden works on manipulating film sequences, the voice of Ahab plays a central role in Jan Jelinek's soundtrack. The dynamic volume and tone of the captain's speech control a synthesizer system that turns Ahab's voice into ten abstract soundscapes. In this production the voice gives the impulse and controls things but is not the sound of spoken word itself that you hear. Only occasionally can snippets of speech be heard so that syllables or sounds are recognizable. Instead, you hear compositions made of hissing, soundscapes, and eruptive sounds. The atmosphere is dark and sinister. Still every piece has a clear sonic structure and follows an understandable dramatic composition. This music is abstract but not overwhelming. Quite the opposite, SEASCAPE - polyptych is an invitation to listeners to let themselves be carried by the stream of sonic events. Although part of a media art work, the soundtrack can be enjoyed without any of this connecting superstructure. It works with no previous knowledge. But what happens when one does know that it's the sonic waves of a human voice that is controlling a network of synthesizers? If you want to hear Ahab, you will hear a choir of Ahabs in every piece of sound. The subliminal threatening as well as the conjuring Ahab. Finally, the Ahab who whips up his crew and tears them with him into their downfall. The majestic "on the quay now, waiting and watching", the oppressive "drawn towards the whirlpools center" -- they are all music as well as sonic discourse. Includes download code.

 

PRICE: $37.00

CAT #: FP 1752LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress, black vinyl. "The Spaceman Reissue Program edition of Pure Phase promises to give those recordings the fullest spectrum audio and physical treatment they've deserved since 1992. It will be the second in this series, following Lazer Guided Melodies, with 180g double albums with lacquer cut from original sources by Alchemy Mastering, presented in a gatefold jacket adorned by reworked art by Mark Farrow."

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: FP 1759LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"For the first time ever, Townes Van Zandt's Grammy-nominated posthumous 1999 release A Far Cry From Dead will see a vinyl release. Van Zandt recorded the vocal and guitar takes for the album from the late '80s through the early '90s at Texhoma Music Group Studio, the late singer's next door neighbor's home studio in Nashville, and Jack Clement's Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa. Townes left the tapes to his widow, Jeanene Van Zandt, who worked with producer Eric Paul to bring the songs to life with a full band including guitarist Richard Bennet (Mark Knopfler, Billy Joel, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell), percussionist Kenny Malone (Ray Charles, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, etc.), and Charlie McCoy (Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings) among others."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: FPH 1145LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"By the time of 1974's Al Green Explores Your Mind, this version of the Memphis sound was the production style for only a handful of artists. Producer Willie Mitchell used a lighter touch for his most famous artist, and it's all but crafted into the Al Green sound. Despite his skills, Green never falls into mannerism here and gives heartfelt and cogent vocals rooted in intelligence and technique. 'Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy),' although lyrically slight, has the artist's charisma and Mitchell's pop chops. 'Take Me to the River,' with perfect backing from Hi Rhythm and a horn and string arrangement, finds Green at his most persuasive. The last track, 'School Days,' has Green longing for a school girlfriend and despite the potentially sappy sentiment, it works like a charm. The greatness of Al Green Explores Your Mind comes from a collective effort, including James Mitchell's dreamlike string arrangements and the always skilled backing vocals of Rhodes, Chalmers & Rhodes. But the biggest draw here is Green's phrasing and intimate vocals, making the record an extremely strong effort." --AllMusic

 

PRICE: $41.50

CAT #: FTR 704LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released via Steve Krakow's Galactic Zoo Dosier Label on CDr. Volcanic Tongue (UK): "Flattening new release from one of the greatest live psych groups in the world. Anyone who witnessed their monolithically powerful set at Instal 2005 needs this incredible disc, one of the most epic and dynamically damaged post-Velvets acid rock re-thinks in recent memory. The addition of Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Makoto Kawabata brings an even darker/more elegantly fucked sensibility, with the result that every track feels like it could explode into narcotic chaos at any moment. Aoki's vocals strike the perfect post-Reed/Verlaine/Hell level of decadent damage and the songs are just beautifully rendered, with the group stretching mantric rock forms into whole new zones of affirmative electric beauty. Fuck. Highest recommendation..." Apex On Line: "... incredible garage-psych from Japan with the addition of Makoto Kawabata -- at their most structured Up-tight sound like the Velvet Underground unanchored from Lou Reed's pop sensibilities, at their wildest they rip the dark heart of garage rock to shreds."

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 705LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Finally out -- Sweet Sister -- this mighty masterpiece of dark and wild psychedelia from the Japanese three-piece legends! Fuzz and reverb drenched jamming sounds from the basements of Hamamatsu evoking the always welcomed ghosts of Amon Düül and Les Rallizes Denudes. "Tokyo psych monsters Up-Tight come out of the classically wasted/drug-damaged school of excessive fuzz and reverb, giving the nod to the endless jam style of Les Rallizes Denudes while spiking their sound with dark downer ballads that owe as much to The Jacks as they do to The Velvet Underground. If you can picture Spacemen 3 circa 'The Perfect Prescription' produced by Ghost circa 'Temple Stone' then you're close to the outrageous levels of psychedelic excess captured here. Tomoyuki's guitar tone has to be heard to be believed, with tactile garage punk crunch put to the service of endlessly euphoric orbits of three droning chords. Up-Tight have been responsible for a buncha the most memorable releases to come out of the post-PSF underground but this has to be their recorded pinnacle, the perfect balance of two chord Velvet downers and strung-out post-Rallizes string violence. One of our records of the year so far -- You need to hear this, Highly recommended!" --Volcanic Tongue

 

PRICE: $21.00

CAT #: FLIES 4527EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"'Notte Inchiesta' on Side A, could be the title music to an imaginary '80s investigative/ true-crime program broadcast on late-night television. Clearly reminiscent in mood and texture of the soundtracks of late-70s/early-80s Italian detective-action films, it brings back the jazz-funk, post-prog and fusion overtones that characterized the music of those films. In short: a contemporary-retro sound nestled somewhere between Goblin's funk-oriented recordings, Azymuth's 'Jazz Carnival,' and electronic disco with a sprinkle of new wave. Side B opens with 'Equilibrio,' which could serve as additional, more dynamic music for the same TV program mentioned above. The style is once again electronic jazz-funk, but here we have a break built upon a trail of notes chasing each other. In contrast, 'Sambuca,' the single's closer, is deliberately nostalgic and melancholy. Perfectly suitable for visual narratives of an Italy that no longer exists, it sounds like one of those great Italian soundtrack themes that are able to convey tension and calm at the same time. The track is titled after the anise-flavored liqueur that Italians often drink after their espresso, because 'making references in my music to things that are part of our national popular culture is really important to me,' as the artist has explained."

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: VP 9809EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Produced by Bunny Lee.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: GREL 070LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Originally released in 1984, reissued in 2015. "Muggers in the Street was released in 1984, and features Junior Murvin in a proto-dancehall mode. The backing band Roots Radics provide bouncy rhythms and Murvin's buoyant vocals are in fine form. Junior Murvin's falsetto became the voice of late '70s social unrest in Jamaica and England, influencing not only reggae artists, but also punk rockers like the Clash."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: GREL 2031LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Two albums that shook the world! Dub From The Roots and The Roots of Dub. The release of these two ground-breaking dubs sets in 1975 altered the course of modern music forever. Dub From The Roots and Roots Of Dub make up a crucial selection of King Tubby's mind-altering dub versions. Produced by Bunny "Striker" Lee -- both albums are essential."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: GREL 2032LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Two albums that shook the world! Dub From The Roots and The Roots of Dub. The release of these two ground-breaking dubs sets in 1975 altered the course of modern music forever. Dub From The Roots and Roots Of Dub make up a crucial selection of King Tubby's mind-altering dub versions. Produced by Bunny "Striker" Lee -- both albums are essential."

 

PRICE: $14.00

CAT #: ONREC 40725HLP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; 180 gram exact repro reissue of D.R. Hooker's follow-up to The Truth. Recorded in 1974, but not released until 1979 on Connecticut-based Here Music/On Records. A "demo tapes & rough mixes" album featuring a different line-up then featured on Hooker's legendary debut: Carroll Yanni (lead guitar), Bert McDevitt (drums, Bob Reardon (keyboards) and Steve Malkan (bass). "The recordings you will hear are the result of the efforts of a group of talented and creative musicians. They are the finest of a two-hour live concert of completely original music.... This recording was not originally intended for public release." Some of the songs on here -- "Hello," "This Moment," "Free," "Winter," "A Tormented Heart" and "Kamala" -- appeared as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of The Truth).

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: HHLT 001LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2023 restock. Valentina Goncharova's double-LP fundamental conceptual musical work released in full uncut form as part of Hidden Harmony Lost Tapes series. Restored and mastered from the original 6.3mm analog tapes. A large-scale work comprising eleven parts of varied, brooding, mystical reflection in which the author alters the instrumentation to fit both programmatic and musical character of each section.Ultra deluxe archival release from Hidden Harmony Recordings, based in Tallinn, Estonia. 2x12" 200-gram vinyl records in poly lined inner sleeves, 33RPM, black vinyl. Thick old style tip-on gatefold outer sleeve. Includes a 12-page booklet, which detailly explain the album conceptual basis, background and creation context, and provides insights into unique sound recording and technical solutions adapted during album recording in 1988. Created and written with direct involvement of V. Goncharova and I. Zubkov.Liner notes: "My task is to allow the listener to penetrate deeper into the music. The music is wholly improvisational. It has no concept in the rational sense of the word. Its concept is purely intuitive. It presumes The Law of Analogies: 'As above so below. Man is the same as the Universe. The Universe is the same as Man.' ('Emerald Tablet' by Hermes Trismegistus). This intuition is a kind of rephrased logic which uses many more symbols which contain not only philosophical but also imaginative meanings/visionary interpretations. This music is a stream of consciousness in its purest form: not an imitation of a stream, as in the 'suggestive poetry' of the 20th century, but a stream where one flow is superimposed on another (a multilateral passage of recording). And, if we think this flow of music will be better understood under the influence of a verbal flow, then the verbal flow should also be more intuitive and associative, as objective for this short write-up you are currently reading. Ocean did not appear within the coordinate system of logical scientific thinking of the last four centuries. It can be said that it is based on an intuitive concept of representations of the world which are captured in music figuratively. Similar to how myths were created in time immemorial with only partial support from verbal associations. Ocean is an experience of passing the human, soul, and mind through the different states of the material world: birth, development, and achievement of perfection, transformation at the points of 'The Way' and 'Silence', the manifestation of the harmony of the world (Om), which until then had remained in a latent state. It is averse to both mainstream contemporary physics and fringe scientific research. It exists outside their explanatory power. Ocean is the source of all forms that can receive their life within time and space. Here it is. It has everything: beautiful and terrible, good and evil, self-sacrifice, and betrayal. Boundless love and inspired creativity. But contact does not happen immediately. The memory of a bygone civilization is still fresh, and of the dearest things left with it."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BEC 5543357

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. Reissue of Shaolin Soul Episode 2, originally released in 2001. One of three LP reissues celebrating the 20th anniversary of 1998's Shaolin Soul Episode 1 (BEC 5543356). Legendary deep soul French compilations featuring many soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest hip-hop acts. Available for the first time on vinyl + CD. Original packaging strictly reproduced. Cut from original masters. Double-LP comes in a gatefold sleeve; Includes CD.Episode 2 features Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, Baby Huey & The Baby Sitters, The Emotions, Black Ivory, Jackson 5, Al Green, Eddie Holman, Montana, Detroit Emeralds, Labi Siffre, Southside Movement, The Sweet Inspirations, Mad Lads, George Jackson, and Teddy Pendergrass.

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: 9781941753378

FILE UNDER: Misc

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

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: KLR 058LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The Berlin musician, visual artist, and label owner Lasse Winkler, aka ACUD, has attracted attention with titles such as Matjesfilet or Verbrennungsmotor. He shows that electronic dance music can also have a sense of humor without ending in slapstick. Creaking basses and swinging rhythms meet warm synth chords and complement his bright voice. The microphone, always ready, replaces the notepad. Succinct, spontaneous keywords and sentences are created, snapping up everyday life. On the ten-track album Verdammt Nochmal, the musicians are accompanied over a creative period of three years. "Verdammt" features Kalipo.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: KEPLARREV 014LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Arovane's third album on vinyl for the first time in almost two decades. Arovane's acclaimed 2004 album Lilies has been out-of-print on vinyl for nearly two decades. Lilies was a follow-up to Tides (KEPLARREV 010LP) in every sense, exploring a trip to Japan and drawing on shimmering textures and the sort of melodies that you might need some time to recover from. There's a hugely evocative sense to these tracks, emotionally driven, free of complexity or conceit, piano melodies providing the central focus for a twilight cascade of light that seems perfect for the Tokyo skyline -- just as the sun sets. It's an album that radiates warmth and vulnerability, fusing the technological might at the heart of each track (and at the heart of the city) with an age-old understanding that certain echoes of sound, small melodic changes and cushioned lullabies can imprint sounds on your mind like childhood memories -- remembered forever. Like a dreamlike score, or maybe even an alternate soundtrack to Lost in Translation (2003) -- the sort of music that intertwines with images and stays in your mind indefinitely. After coming back from Tokyo and completing the production of Lilies, Uwe Zahn disassembled his studio in the big flat in an old building in Berlin's Prenzlauerberg district and stored it away in boxes. He needed a break from making music. Lilies was the last album prior to a nine-year hiatus for Arovane, ending in 2013 with the release of Ve Palor. All tracks composed and recorded by Uwe Zahn. Vocals on "Pink Lilies" by kazumi. Originally released on City Centre Offices in 2004. Remaster and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering. Cover art by Jim Kühnel based on a photograph by Uwe Zahn. Die-cut sleeve; poly-lined inners; includes download code; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: KEPLARREV 015LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Arovane's Icol Diston compilation on vinyl for the first time. Icol Diston, released in 2002 on DIN, comprised the three first EPs released by Uwe Zahn under his Arovane moniker. This expansive reissue sheds a new light on Zahn's first two outings as a producer on the I.O. and Icol Diston EPs on Torsten "T++" Pröfrock's legendary label as well as highlighting his radical inventiveness as a remixer with the two renditions of Pröfrock-produced material offered on AMX. Taken together, these musically complex and emotionally rich electronic compositions form the prologue to an artistic story like none other while also documenting a very specific era in cultural history. The energy running through Berlin and its boundaryless electronic music scene at the end of the 1990s is reflected by and refined through these eleven tracks. The Yamaha QY700 would become his sketchbook that allowed him to experiment with different patterns, creating polymetric figures out of discrete musical elements. Zahn's sessions, recorded live in stereo and straight to DAT, resulted in two very different EPs of original material. His debut I.O. showcases a playful and gentle, albeit dubby and at times moody aesthetic. The four tracks are exercises in sonic worldbuilding, creating vast spaces and filling them with a plethora of intertwining melodies and rhythms. Its successor Icol Diston drew on similar parameters, but painted a very different picture in terms of atmosphere and mood. The AMX EP features two remixes of tracks originally produced by Pröfrock under two different guises. "Außen vor" had been released under his Dynamo moniker and was reworked by Zahn after having been introduced to his label owner's Studio 440 sampler, sequencer and drum machine. With his remix of "No. 8," released under Pröfrock's tongue-in-cheek pseudonym Various Artists, Zahn followed a more radical approach which led him even deeper into dub territory. Widely different from the original version, it perfectly translated the spirit of this singular masterpiece into another stylistic idiom. The Icol Diston compilation is imbued with a forward-thinking spirit that remains exhilarating until today. It captures the sound of one unique artist, but also electronic music during that time more broadly. This is the sound of opening a new chapter, the willingness to venture into the unknown. Remaster and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering. Cover art by Jim Kühnel based on a photograph by Uwe Zahn. Die-cut sleeve; poly-lined inners; includes download code.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: KLON 002EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Have you ever had the feeling that you're feeling a feeling that you will forever feel even when the feeling is long gone? That despite the odds, that morsel of Madeleine will be forever yours to savor? So knows the Klon and you do too. Always remember, euphoria is a dish best served bitter!

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: KOM 459EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Kompakt are still harvesting the fruits of those past days in seclusion, the cabin fever induced creative outbursts, ideas that would probably have never surfaced without these enforced trips to our inner minds. Lockdown transcendence. "Don't Cry" by Italo-Brazilian DJ producer Stephan Barnem and Futuristant is another impressive testament of those days. Secluded in Stephan's studio in Northern Italy, the duo subconsciously conjured the spirits of one of their mutual favorite bands, Depeche Mode and created a fierce, boombappy neo new wave smasher contrived to send rays of hope into the darkest corners of this mad world. Kompakt had to add a gratuitous beatless version to the EP that amplifies the cinematic depth and healing potency of this song. If "Don't Cry" echoes the dark brooding euphoria of Depeche Mode's Music For The Masses era, the flipside cut "Elysium" harks back to the synthwave happy days of their debut Speak & Spell. It's a wonderfully careless track that's bringing a dearly needed breeze of fresh air to today's discerning dancefloors. Boys don't cry. Save your tears for another day.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: KOM EX125EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Barnt and Michael Mayer set their sights firmly on the peak time dancefloor -- the result is two stunning cuts of techno euphoria. Weirding the groove and updating the emotions, Speicher 125 is a monster. Speicher 125 is a most auspicious collaboration between two great, inimitable voices in techno: Kompakt co-founder Michael Mayer, and Magazine's own Barnt. They've both been productive of late, Mayer with his Brainwave Technology EP in 2021, Barnt with his first release on Kompakt, ProMetal Fan Decor Only Product in 2022. Of course, they're also busy with their respective record labels, and international DJing schedules. You may already have heard their first track, which appeared on Michael's & album from 2014, the psychedelic "Und Da Stehen Fremde Menschen". For Speicher, though, they set their sights firmly on the peak time dancefloor -- the result is two stunning cuts of techno euphoria. On "Teller," Barnt and Mayer unleash a synth storm, tense and thrilling. Percussion piles up against the incessant buzz, but before too long we're submerged in waves of dense texturology, making the track an object lesson in tension and release. "Duration" is a bittersweet anthem about "life long love". A moving voice tells us about "faith in life" while gleaming, synths, choral swarms and snares shower down from above to form an epic tale about duration and devotion. Weirding the groove and updating the emotions, Speicher 125 is a monster.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: EULLE 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

From home to studio: Takeshi's Cashew's second album Enter J's Chamber is an evolvement on every level. Complex arrangements with light hearted melodies, the essence of a jam in a structured manner, the dynamic of a live gig on a clear recording. Pairing up with Jasper Geluk and his cozy, tape-driven recording studio puts this album on another level. Takeshi's Cashew truly know their craft and finally have the opportunity to present themselves with a new livery, but true to their roots. "El Topo" features Niklas Wandt.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: LAD 064LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Veteran artist Sebra Cruz releases his debut album Don't Worry Psy Happy on DJ Tennis's revered Life & Death imprint. The daring eleven track LP is as experimental as it is definitive and encapsulates the Italian spirit in perfect style. The LP follows two previously teased singles; "Margaret", an ode to Cruz's girlfriend which is a deeply passionate and expressive melodic house offering and album title Don't Worry Psy Happy a hedonistic, tripped out soundscape. The lead track "Sunfish" is a mélange of powerful synths overlaid with sporadic vocals and a swinging breakbeat which make the record the perfect soundtrack for early morning dancefloor euphoria. The album continues its genre-less motif and is hard to pin down. It broaches a variety of styles including cinematic and ambient leaning sonics such as "Optimist" and "Poliziesco", the latter which includes Gabriele Fabbri's atmospheric guitar riff throughout. "The Siebel Road To Mars" is a similarly powerful yet emotive record which samples current Italian President Sergio Mattarella between the piano and the extraterrestrial sound palette. Continuing with the more abstract tracks "Flying Junior", which was named after Cruz's own sailboat, emulates the peacefulness and tranquility of the sea. It's yet another reflection of Sebra Cruz's artistic personality. Juxtaposing the calm and serene records from the album, "Altre Cose", inspired by the energy of the Neapolitan people during Sebra's DJing residency in the '90s, is a more high-energy, disco-infused record. Similarly, "When Life Was Slow", released on Life & Death back in 2020, is another upbeat dance interpretation and a tribute to Cruz's passion for Italian composers from the '60s and '70s. Speaking about the album Sebra says: "What emerges is in my opinion an album with predominantly Italian spirit, disco, house with both edgy and gentle influences. I never decide what to do first, I simply follow my spur of the moment instinct. Releasing an album for Life & Death is cool because I've always had huge respect for Manfredi." Sebra Cruz and DJ Tennis have a long lasting and trusting collaborative relationship exhibited by the former's numerous releases on Tennis's Life and Death label. DJ Tennis's encyclopedic musical brain and shared passion for Italian composers perfectly complements Sebra's stylings. Striking an impeccable balance between abstract and obscure sonics and more methodical and conventional melodies, Don't Worry Psy Happy is a body of work that exquisitely expresses Sebra Cruz's personality via different worlds and mediums.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: PLAYRJC 074EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Superfantastic release! Live At Robert Johnson is a natural home for Superpitcher, and this two-tracker shows his sense of belonging. "Lush Life" featuring vocals by Fantastic Twins was inspired by Corsican polyphony, an epiphany after a church concert though as ever with Superpitcher, simplicity is multi-layered: the track itself could be a trip back to the golden (rave) days of deep electronic US house à la François K, dubby yet peacefully driving the ecstasy home. No religious gospel euphoria though, the lyrics are a pagan hymn to Eventide presets. You can't take the geek out of the schatzi. "Diario" stretches its ten minutes in a misleading laidback groove: Sueno Latino languid clichés are blown away by a smoothly unforgiving acid line. This is a trip, not a journey, a trip dedicated to the young raver in all of us and to a friend too soon departed. As Pasolini said in the poem of the same name: "That's why I've never abandoned happiness, that's why in the anxiety of my sins I've never been touched by real remorse. Equal, always equal, to the inexpressible at the very source of what I am." In other words, kids, keep faith out there.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: PLAYRJC 082EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat." Well, that's what Wikipedia says about "techno" -- but can Laura BCR's music simply be called "techno"? The French DJ and On Board Music label founder who took her name from the much-loved and now closed, Berlin record store, Bass Cadet Records, started to produce her very own music in 2020. Music which could easily fit in her transportive, deep techno and dubby ambient DJ sets. Sets that have brought her to some of Europe's finest venues. After her releases on SoHaSo, Semantica, Paloma, RDV Music, Technologia Organica, or Sublunar we're happy to present to you her latest work for Live At Robert Johnson: Human Behavior. The four tracks all share a deepness which is typical for a lot of her productions so far. This is repetitive music, yes -- but also very atmospheric music. Whether it's the helicopter sound in first track "Farewell" which Laura put on top of layers of whirring synths sounds or the swelling and decaying sounds of "Long Wait". Sounds which swallow you deep into their core and make you forget about the here and now. Yes, Laura's music is hypnotizing -- and it has a certain psychedelic quality attached to it as well. This aspect of her music can be heard quite good in "Post Dynamic" with its electronic blowing wind sounds galore. Or in "Human Behavior", the title track of Laura BCR's LARJ debut. Yet Laura never forgets the importance (and the power) of the bass drum and its four on the floor beat. A beat that is the heartbeat of techno. And a beat that defines Laura BCR as well. Now all hail the bass drum and all hail Laura BCR! Launea features on "Human Behavior".

 

PRICE: $40.00

CAT #: PLAYRJC 087LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Any moment can crash your emotional state of mind. You are looking for help. You can't find it with-inside of you. A Diamond shines twice a day. The night can be day and vice versa. Everyone loves you, no doubt. Your friends love you too. Do you love yourself? A zebra is not a unicorn but is still unique. Who are you to tell us we can't do it? Euphoric Spirits. Women are strong and full of love and positive energy. This life is a gift and you should genuinely use it. Read a book. Internet TV connects your brain to something not valid; remember that. Everyone still loves you. You are beautiful. Come to hidden spheres and find your inner voice. Shock, projection, ideals, sorrow, disaster, fundamental, weak, strong, more, less. Everyone loves you. Follow to the planet of our inner fears, and you'll do magic. It will become another planet. Together forever. Everyone loves you. Includes stunning Pépé Bradock remix.

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: MMS 011LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

"In 2010, Madlib launched an ambitious series of releases known as the Madlib Medicine Show, which allowed the prolific producer to release new material on a monthly basis. The series touched on all the genres Madlib digs, and that's just about any genre you can consider -- from jazz to rock, soul to disco, myriad African musics, Brazilian and reggae. On the 11th installment in series Madlib returned to his hip hop roots with Low Budget High-Fi Music. Featuring a run-down of regular Madlib collaborators who provide the Beat Konducta's foil, it also included a hint of what was meant to come on the never-realized second Jaylib album, with a previously unreleased J Dilla collaboration."

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: MENT 007LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 restock. Considered the first electro-acoustic/electronic album made in Brazil, Mental Experience presents the first vinyl reissue of Jorge Antunes's Música Eletrônica, originally released in 1975. During the early '60s, Antunes built his own components for making electronic music: theremin, sawtooth oscillator, a spring-reverb device, a frequency filter. The works on Música Eletrônica were recorded at Antunes's home studio and at the Electronic Music Laboratory of the Institute Torcuato Di Tella, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On "Valsa Sideral" (1962), Antunes uses artificial echo and reverberation by feedback between the recording heads, creating the first Brazilian work consisting only of electronic tones. "Auto-Retrato Sobre Paisaje Porteño" (1969/1970) is an amazing piece of early turntablism on which Antunes "samples" an old tango vinyl record, using it as a loop and for sound effects/manipulation, and mixes it with electronic sound effects and cut voice manipulation/sound poetry. The version included here features the audio collage which Antunes created to criticize the military regimes from Brazil and Argentine. This version wasn't used on the original LP to avoid any problems with censorship. "Cinta Cita" (1969) was the first piece recorded by Antunes at a professional studio. Pure electronic sounds and pulsating rhythms use filtered noise and synthetic sounds created by additive synthesis. "Contrapunctus Contra Contrapunctus" (1962) was created using tape splicing, micro-assemblies and tape manipulation. "Historia de un Pueblo por Nacer ou Carta Abierta a Vassili Vassilikos y a todos los Pesimistas" (1970) with its sinusoidal sounds and low frequencies, was inspired by the plot of the novel and film Z (1969) by Vassili Vassilikos. In the original audio of this work, Antunes used a quotation from the International Communist anthem. To avoid censorship problems, he cut that passage for inclusion on the original LP. The uncensored, original version is presented here. In 1970, Antunes did research at the Institute of Sonology at the University of Utrecht with a specialization in Computer Music (working with the Electrologia X-8 computer). During the '70s he worked under the guidance of Pierre Schaeffer and Iannis Xenakis amongst others. Antunes is presently the Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the University of Brasilia and President of the Brazilian Society for Electroacoustic Music. Included in this LP is an insert with liner notes and photos. Master tape sound. Mandatory for anyone into Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer, Louis & Bebe Baron, Ihlan Mimaroglu, Morton Subotnick, Stockhausen.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: MIA 055LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Erik K Skodvin's alter persona Svarte Greiner re-appears with another chapter in his "zen music for disturbed souls" series, channeling both spiritual distress and meditation in a live recording from the bunkers of a bombed-out brewery. The first piece, entitled "Devolving Trust" was recorded live in the bunkers of Schneider Brewery in Berlin, 2018. Erik explains: "I was invited to use the vast old cellars located underneath the site for a performance/installation. Wet and hollow with a dark past and long reverb, it was a perfect location to channel a cello and electro-acoustic improvisation in the spirit of my two long-form, meditative albums Black Tie and Moss Garden. As a 30-minute piece, it was left looping in the room for hours after it ended as an echo of the performance, allowing people to walk around and soak up the sounds and empty hallways alone. I am usually not into the idea of releasing a live recording, as there are so many factors that are lost in the translation from being present and listening to it in another space. The eyes, ears and body can often see beyond small mistakes once a live performance unfolds in front of you. The details are usually lost in translating it to a pure recording. I made an exception for this as I feel it translates the live feeling in a way I like. Very personal and full of small mistakes it creates its own life. Also, as an improvisation, I am very happy with it, and have been listening to it on and off since a few years. With this in mind I decided I want it to be another document in my ongoing series of longform, atmospheric pieces following the aforementioned two albums. The second track simply called 'Devolve' is mostly constructed out of fragments from the performance as a sort of minimal, reversed echo, further tunneling into the unknown. These pieces have given me calmness, reflection, and escape from the madness escalating outside of our doors. I hope it can do the same for you." Silver spot color artwork; includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: MIA 057LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Deprived of sanity, Paul Régimbeau aka Mondkopf found new territories of expression with Spring Stories, a collection of post-rapture moods full of glorious chaos, ready to absorb and re-ignite all that is worn. As a phoenix raising from the ashes, Spring Stories captures the earth in full bloom. Darkness and insanity loosen its grips as the roots and fresh leaves creates a slow dance towards the sun. Similarly, sine-wave drones move around exploding electric guitar improvisations as new light beams on shadow cast corners. The album feels like a '60s jam set in the post-world psychedelic underground. Heavy, absurd, beautiful, and ready to sooth burnt out, depleted minds. Paul has citied that he's affected as much by folk improvisors such as Master Wilburn Burchette and Robbie Basho as well as the doom drone of giants Earth and Sunn O))). Spring Stories invokes on these, while feeling like a personal blow-out, coming right from the core. Touching and grand, like spring itself. The album also features Frederic D. Oberland on two tracks playing variously duduk and alto saxophone. Lastly, The Necks drummer Tony Buck shakes and rattles all over the final -- and seriously epic -- piece "Continuation", as the world aligns while the sun rises over its near-dead shape. Turquoise vinyl; includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $43.50

CAT #: MOM 040LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Modern Obscure Music brings together, on this album, musicians with whom they feel a very special connection, namely Felicia Atkinson, Bü?ra Kay?kç?, Carmen Villain, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Pavel Milyakov, KMRU, Ana Quiroga, Abul Mogard, and Pedro Vian. All of them have been very generous in their willingness to participate in an artistic experiment: to build bridges between architecture and music. Each of these artists chose a space and translated it into a piece of music, and the result is a sonic kaleidoscope through which specific territories can be gazed upon from unexplored points of view. The compositions that make up this compilation are synaesthetic windows through which we can observe with our ears. To look through them, all we have to do is listen and we'll be able to contemplate, in a unique way, spaces located in such different places as Vilches (Chile), Istanbul (Turkey), Oslo (Norway), Sapporo (Japan), Nairobi (Kenya), London (England), Rome (Italy), Berlin (Germany), or even in imaginary universes.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: MUSIQ 284LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"My name is King So So. I am, because you are. I created the Disco In The Sky solely for you, and it is now, finally ready for your glorious arrival. Here, I will welcome you, to dance in the light with me, where you will have fellowship with me, and with one another, and gone will be the days of darkness. Listen, I now stand at your door, Hippie Dance. I am knocking. If you have an ear, hear my voice and let me in. Grant me the pleasure and honor to sit with all of you, and I will allow you to sit with me on my throne in the Sky. Hear what the Spirit of So So says to you: Come dance in the Disco in the Sky, and swim in the Lake of Sweet Dreams with me and there I will manifest myself to you. If you love me, I will give you my Word that I will teach you all things sound and bring you memories of the light for you to return to the Sky. Peace I leave with you. Summon your friends, Hippie Dance. Tell them that I am waiting for all of you. I am ready for you. Tell them to arise! Tell them to go forth to the Disco in the Sky where we will be together until the Kingdom goes. Yours, like I am, sincerely, King So So."

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 2461COL-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Rock 'n' Roll With The Modern Lovers is the second album released by The Modern Lovers. The band was formed in 1970 by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman, augmented with Jerry Harrison (keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass), and David Robinson (drums). Richman's friend John Felice joined them occasionally. Their sound almost totally focusses on the sound from the fifties. The lo-fi record breathes folky roots music and rock 'n roll as it would sound ages ago. The album features the popular tracks 'Ice Cream Man', 'Roller Coaster By The Sea', and 'Egyptian Reggae'. The latter was a cover version of Earl Zero 'None Shall Escape The Judgement' and became a UK Top 5 hit. Rock 'n Roll With The Modern Lovers is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on orange colour vinyl."

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 3428COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Letta Mbulu is a South African jazz singer who has been active since the 1960s. While still a teenager, she toured with the musical King Kong, but left for the United States in 1964 due to Apartheid. Mbulu also provided the Swahili chant in Michael Jackson's single 'Liberian Girl'. Producer Quincy Jones about her: 'Mbulu is the roots lady, projecting a sophistication and warmth which stirs hope for attaining pure love, beauty, and unity in the world.' On In The Music The Village Never Ends, her voice soars over a strident musical force that veers between disco, soul and pop music. The gleaming guitars recall disco's finest hours while the thump of the beats anticipate '80s British soul. The album was originally released in South Africa in 1983, is produced by Mbulu's husband Caiphus Semenya and has become one of those must-have African records over the years. It features her biggest hit 'Nomalizo'. In The Music The Village Never Ends is available as a 40th anniversary edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on yellow and translucent green marbled vinyl and includes an insert."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: NAP 002EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Sub-heavy, UK inspired House EP. Second EP from NAP.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: NSD 819LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"Long before becoming an icon of funk, acid jazz, and R&B, Roy Ayers was a promising young jazz vibraphonist. Originally released in 1967, Virgo Vibes was Ayers' second album, and his debut for Atlantic. With five cool, funky jazz tracks, the LP features talented musicians like Joe Henderson, Charles Tolliver, Bruno Carr, Jack Wilson and the mysterious pianist Ronnie Clark (Herbie Hancock playing under a pseudonym). A rare treasure infused with the relaxed, sunny vibe that defined Ayers' stellar career, Virgo Vibes is now available again on vinyl."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: OM 025LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

De Ambassade's 2019 Duistre Kamers album was a huge favorite at Optimo Music so the label jumped at the chance to release the follow up: The Fool. Following hot in the heels of the acclaimed Young Birds/Palette 12" on Optimo Music (OM 052EP), The Fool is destined to be another cold wave, synth, new industrial, experimental -- whatever you want to call it --classic. Ambassade on the album: "Born from several years of research and contemplation on the human mind The Fool can be understood as a reflection to the dark energies -- natural, political, human and otherwise -- that are released when it comes to religion, greed and power. Historically, some rulers have used religion to legitimize their power. We were also inspired by wanting to examine what negative impact religion can have from the fact that it's always dominated by men. This was pursued by exploring a wide range of diverse and unusual types of instruments that took on a new approach of tonal expression, with the use of detuned choral and voice samples, droned tape loops, and DIY metal and found percussion. It's from these diverse sources that the process of creativity keeps persistently mutating. This process was focused through the enigmatic electronic and percussion composition from the band which alternates between foreground and background for the haunting vocal performances. "Later Met Je Beste Zelf" features Eelco Couvreur.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: OMANARCHO 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Anarcho punk was the one sub-genre of punk that emerged in isolation from the rock n' roll establishment. During its pioneering days of the early 1980s it thrived in opposition to the music industry, existing as a fiercely underground alternative to the bands, labels and venues of the commercialized mainstream punk scene. It continues to do so. Anarcho punk represented one of the last truly underground and autonomous music movements ever witnessed and remains a movement that has never sold out and has never gone away. The major differentiation between the anarcho punk acts and the more traditional punk outfits was that for the former, albeit often more due to musical limitation than intent, the message was more important than the music. Standard song structures were often dispersed with in favor of a relentless lyrical polemic accompanied by a similarly uncompromising aural assault. As the scene grew, so did the diversity of records that emerged under the anarcho punk umbrella: from D&V (drums & vocals) to the proto-EBM synth-pop of Belfast's one-man Hit Parade and the Dadaist Beefheart hybrid of The Cravats. In later days the two biggest acts of the scene, Flux of Pink Indians and Crass themselves, both released LPs which had more in common with improv Jazz than hardcore punk. The resounding victory of anarcho punk is that it is now the unifying soundtrack to a culture of resistance that spans Scotland to Indonesia and remains without compromise. It is still as removed from mainstream music and oppositional to conventional culture as it was over forty years ago and shows no sign of changing. Quite the opposite: the more popular anarcho punk becomes the less it has to engage with the music establishment and the more control it can enjoy. In 2023, that message remains as uncompromising as ever. This is a double vinyl retrospective compilation of some of the most radical music ever made, a musical force that changed lives. Covering the years 1979-86 and including classic tracks from Crass, Poison Girls, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Mob, Zounds, Annie Anxiety, The Ex, Alternative TV, plus ten more, all newly remastered by iconic punk mastering engineer Daniel Husayn. It has been lovingly compiled by JD Twitch and anarcho legend Chris Low and was ten years in the making. There are also a couple of previously unreleased mixes included. It comes as a high-quality double vinyl pressing, and has a full color sleeve with back and front images designed by the legendary Gee Vaucher. Also features Honey Band, Andy T, Alternative, The Apostles, Lack of Knowledge, Hagar the Womb, and Chumbawamba. Includes six-page fold out poster on one side with detailed sleeve notes, recollections and essays on the other side.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: OSR 039LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock; '60s garage-psych moody monster! Out of The Bachs was originally released in 1968 as a private pressing of 150 copies; it's one of the rarest USA '60s garage/teenbeat albums ever. The band consisted of five young kids from Chicago, regulars at local teen dances, who decided to release an album for their fans before splitting up. Recorded and mixed in just ten hours at a makeshift studio, Out of The Bachs offers 12 amazing self-penned songs with a sound ahead of its time. Pure teenage-angst vocals, crashing Rickenbackers, fuzz outbursts, killer moody tracks... Sadly, all previous reissues of the album failed to capture the true sound of the original, until the Time-Lag label reissued it in 2011 with remastered sound from a pristine original vinyl copy. This reissue uses the same audio master as the out-of-print Time-Lag edition. File next to The Rising Storm, The Fantastic Dee-Jays, The Savages. Includes insert with detailed liner notes and rare photos.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: PHS 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. Turkish band Bunalim (Turkish for "Depression") is a true legend: They were the absolute wildest and crudest band from the Anatolian rock scene. Under the wing of Cem Karaça, who was their manager and producer, they released a few singles which are all collected here. Fierce Turkish folk-flavored psychedelic fuzz-rock circa 1970-1972. Remastered sound, including an insert with liner notes and pictures.

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: PING 079LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

MD Pallavi & Andi Otto first crossed paths on a theatre stage in India ten years ago. They started collaborating instantly and in 2016 MD Pallavi's mesmerizing vocals for the downtempo raga "Bangalore Whispers" warmed hearts and ears. Their musical relationship flourished with artistic residencies in Bangalore and Hamburg, their respective hometowns, and a concert tour in Japan. The collaborative track "Six" made ears turn again on Andi's album Bow Wave (Multi Culti 2019). And now, years later, the fruits of this artistic endeavor are fully formed here on Songs For Broken Ships -- the debut album of the duo. The album presents an interwoven pop-aesthetic vision of the two artists with their contrasting musical backgrounds. It ranges from organically woven folktronica to cut-up disco tracks and acoustic ballads. Reminiscent of, but not akin to Nicola Cruz, Beach House, or Four Tet's early productions the music is experimental but focused on the listener and their experience. MD Pallavi is a singer, actress, filmmaker, and performer from Bangalore, South-India, where she trained in Hindustani music and poetry since childhood. On Songs For Broken Ships, poems in her native tongue Kannada, one of India's many languages, are performed over Andi's alluring production, translating the stories into musical narratives. The poems address topics that are as timeless as the music itself. Social equality is touched upon in Bayalu (written by Bontadevi in the 12th century). Artistic struggles -- communicated on "An Unwritten Word" (Gangadhar Chittala, 1865) -- are almost prophetic and the surreal, dreamlike scenario of "Clockshop" (KS Narasimhaswamy, 1958) brings you further inside the sonic journey. Andi Otto is a composer, cellist and DJ based in Hamburg, Germany, He is known for his idiosyncratic and unconventional dance music productions on labels such as Multi Culti, Shika Shika, and Pingipung (which he co-runs and curates). For this collaborative experience his dubbed-out basslines gently interlock with the 7/4 and 5/4 beats to create a backbone for the instrumentation and expressive vocal timbres of MD Pallavi. His sound design combines graceful acoustic recordings, juxtaposed against modern drum machines, computer-generated noise, and vintage synthesizers. LP comes with a text sheet containing all Kannada lyrics -- which have their own vocabulary and script -- together with the phonetic transcription and English translation.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: QUI 008LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Heralding 2023 from way out west, Monde UFO land on Quindi with a distinctive album of dream pop vignettes and outer rim punk exotica. Hailing from the same Californian heat haze as recent Quindi signings Bondo, Monde UFO have manifested in the past four years through a series of DIY releases including their 2021 album 7171 and last year's set of Fugazi covers, 4 Songs. The loose fit project centers around the singing, playing and songwriting of Ray Monde and Kris Chau and features Kern Haug on drums. The resulting sound arrives as a resourceful analog of plush '60s pop captured through the modest means of a truly independent musical endeavor. The sound rendered on Vandalized Statue touches on dubby atmospherics, the lilting breeze of bossa nova and the introverted muse of US indie rock, but the end result is a natural, cohesive whole centered around the songwriting. Imagine the girl from Ipanema sat toking in a comfortable spot in the corner of the dive bar while someone weaves her a tall tale or two, and you might be somewhere in the right direction. The stories in the lyrics unfurl as meandering narratives taking you through everyday exchanges and far-fetched, cosmic scenarios alike. At every turn the cozy musicality gives everything a relatable, homespun charm, even as the mixing desk becomes a mess and the lo-fi FX crash into each other. The album will be fronted by three singles which reflect the wide reach of Monde UFO's sound. "Visions of Fatima" is one of the more melancholic pieces on the album, fronted by laconic organ and centering on cracked vocals with an off-key charm that indirectly evokes Jeffrey Lee Pierce. "Government Employee" is a sun-kissed trip of low-key lounge surrealism, bizarro storytelling and shuffling exotica splendor which broadly defines the woozy mood of Vandalized Statue. "Garden Of Agony" is a more delicate but no less dreamy piece matching electric tremolo with acoustic fingerpicking balladry which hides its considerable depths behind a seemingly simple arrangement. At once intimate and projected into the cosmos, Monde UFO add to the particular path Quindi is taking through hidden corners of independent music with a romantic, restless spirit.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: RESORT 002LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

isolée's fourth album, Resort Island, is a record as that's in turns hazy and thumping, euphoric and melancholy, always delivered in brilliant splashes of color. "coco's visa" sets the tone, its soft chords lapping against the drums like waves against a dock. Gentle moments like this and the exquisitely bittersweet "let's dence" offset dreamlike club tracks of the kind only German artist Rajko Müller could make. "rumour", the album's first single, is all ghostly strings and loping synths, a mellow joy-ride in magic hour light. isolée need not apologize for this flirtation with the sound of French touch on "pardon my French" (second single). It has the key elements that give the best disco and disco-flavored house records their magic: impossibly smooth bass tones connect perfectly plump kick drums, a strutting rhythm, glittering synths, all joining forces to give you the feeling of having a supremely, impossibly good time. On Resort Island, it's a vacation within a vacation, an artist so skilled at subtle, ambiguous moods going for straight up bliss, just this one time. "canada balsam", the third single from Resort Island is "Canada Balsam," a dreamlike club track of the kind only isolée could make. The beat is taut and punchy, a welcome echo of the minimalist flair of his early records. The rest draws from the lush sonic palette he's perfected since then: vaporous chords, swirling hand percussion, a subtly dramatic earworm melody that almost sounds plucked from a harp. It's the kind of tune that brings a wash of technicolor onto the dancefloor, a cool breeze riding on a perfectly tight groove.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: RUMI 008LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Berlin based cellist, composer, and improviser An?l Eraslan brings together 11 musicians from Istanbul. The dreams of these musicians are composed and improvised for this album. Dream Works offer an extended musical experience that is surrounded by traditional and experimental approaches. Experimental-noise-free recordings of Istanbul improviser cellist artist. Edition of 250.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: RUMI 009LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Turkish underground rock misfit Erbatur Çavu?o?lu's first solo album is finally here: an intimate collection of previously unreleased songs and new versions, with fresh arrangements by Big Daddy Mugglestone. The result is like Iron & Wine being fronted by a Taksim Square street poet, or a Turkish Crazy Horse. Erbatur's wavering falsetto delivers heartfelt and tender songwriting, accentuated by an eclectic band of old and new Berlin friends. A must for fans of indie Americana and Turkish psychedelic folk, this is a warm and haunting departure from his previous work with Zardanadam, deeply personal but with open arms.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: RB 116X-EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dial D for Digitalism. The return of Hamburg's most prolific and bewitching production duo is a two-sided one. Back To Haus is their second outing for Running Back after Reality 2 in 2020. And on top of that, it does what it says on the tin. Based on the roots of house, which was the sound that Ismail Tuefekci and Jens Moelle started their DJ careers with, their modern-day interpretation of it is far from nostalgic, boring or conservative. Take the title track for instance. Now a track-id favorite, it was meant to be a sound test. Its recipe is as simple as it is infectious. Mix some Roland drum machines with a few piano chords and expertly arrange the rest with a marathon intro and a corresponding break down. Voilá! Patience might be bitter, but its fruits are sweet. "Chicagostrasse" is not only an existing street in the warehouse district of Hamburg's harbor, but also a nod to all-time heroes Johnny D and Nicky P of Henry Street fame and their samplers-and-beats approach. Heavy hypno house. "4th Floor" sees the duo sampling themselves (again) for a fast paced and open-airy party jam the references one of their favorite New York labels, when they met at Hamburg's late house music record store institution Underground Solution beginning of this millennium. Happiness is just a state of mind. Closing it all off, but not winding it down is Warehaus and its convoying beat tool "Empty Warehaus". Like Todd Terry visiting a Summer of Love rave in the UK. Descriptive and positively destructive. All in all, a worthy double, a DJ's delight and a dancer's delight.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: RBDC 011EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Liner notes by Gerd Janson: "In its main mix, 'Surprise' is a classic early nineties house track that heavily nods towards the Big Apple, house music's disco roots and the power of swinging drum programming, albeit with meticulous production work and engineering. In short, it sounded and sounds as un-German as Germans can. The 'Holy Bassline Mix' on the other hand is already in the shape of things to come. Carried by a Roland TB-303, sprinkled with trance bits and elegiac pads, it's in perfect balance. Others thought so as well. Heavily supported by David Holmes and Andrew Weatherall, it was the manager of the latter who licensed it to Eye-Q Records UK with the addition of the 'Fake Jazz Mix' and ordered remixes by freshmen Isoleé and Losoul who became pillars of Playhouse. The first known for his idiosyncratic and sculptural ways of creating dance music meets the irresistible funk of his peer and both add spice to the already great menu. Here you have the chance to listen and digest Surprise in all its glory and entirety for the first time. Carefully remastered and processed by Lopazz and packaged by Running Back. Remember the good times and get some more."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: SOAVE 031LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 1976. Soave dusts off in limited edition the psych/synth album by Doctor Steven T. Birchall recorded in 1973 in Indiana, U.S.A. with the following equipment: VCS-3 (The Putney) by EMS, Ampex MM-1000 16 trk, dbx noise reduction, SpectrasSonics Console, Studer A80 Recorder, Eventide Clockworks, Instant Phaser, Cooper Time Cube, EMT Reverb. The absolutely penetrating high tones of the opening track "Music Of The Spheres" announces that you are on board. Perhaps its best to say in the mind of Birchall who aims to go beyond those "normal" boundaries that can be called reality. It is a new world of music that still amazes after half a century. A higher stage of truth projected into the cosmos. Cover art by Earl. E. Hokens. Edition of 400.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: SOW 002LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 repress. Sowing Records present a reissue of Hip Harp by Dorothy Ashby with Frank Wess, originally released in 1958. Born in Detroit in 1932, Dorothy Ashby can be easily recognized as the woman who gave the harp a jazz voice. In her hands, the harp, an originally classical instrument which seemed to just scare people, became a highly versatile swinging voice able to drive a whole jazz rhythm section. Recorded in 1958 by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on the Prestige label, Hip Harp is a perfect example of Ashby's artistry. At the head of a fine quartet featuring the great Frank Wess on flute, Herman Wright on bass, and master Art Taylor on drums, Ashby creates a unique combination of deeply jazz elements expressed through a totally new sound. Clear vinyl.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: SPITTLE 146LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Back in print on white vinyl! Italia Synthetica 1981-1985 represents the musical mutation that occurred after the post-punk hangover gave way to more frigid emotional shores, in-line with the synth-wave moment that was sweeping Europe and the white cliffs of Albion. This scene flourished in Italy between 1981-1985, and the musicians that came out of it are still revered today (particularly in the US). Robotic rhythms and intuitions that, besides sharing common ground with the electronic movements that had come before, also knew how to fill up the dancefloor. Featuring four previously unreleased tracks by Der Blaue Reiter, along with tracks by Modo, Actor's Studio, and La Maison, as well as the still fresh sounding contributions by true pioneers of the genre Neon and Naif Orchestra. Also features Ein-st-ein, Scortilla, Eurotunes, Oh Oh Art, and 2+2=5 featuring Paolo Mauri.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: STRICT 008EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

With the programmatic title Strictly Hits, Strictly Strictly pushes forward with their first Various Artists EP, a six-tracker of characteristic electro breaks. Karawai is whipping you into Side A with his sweaty trance sunriser "Cyberythm" while High Fidelity's viciously banging "Catchin' a Case" already leaves nothing but steam when DJ Purpur catches up with his mystical but no less driving "Spooky" rounds out the experience in perfect style. Flip to Side B and space out with not even noticed's intoxicated belter "Loko", followed by Strictly's very own Klex calling for hands up with "Blue Figurine" before Generali Minerali takes you on a mind-bending journey with "Reverse Time" to finish off the trip. Brace yourself before Strictly Hits.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SOD 132LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Students of Decay presents Kaivajaiset by Finnish composer Niko-Matti Ahti. Best known for his work alongside his partner Marja as Ahti & Ahti, as well as his participation in Kemialliset Ystävät, Niko-Matti has been an active participant in the Finnish underground since the late 1990s. Kaivajaiset is his first solo recording and was originally conceived of as an installation. Part hörspiel, part musique concrète, it is a piece of music that draws comparisons to the work of pioneering avant-garde composers such as Henning Christiansen, Annea Lockwood, Luc Ferrari, and Pierre Mariétan. Ahti weaves vivid foley and domestic recordings together with oration and classical instrumentation (violin, clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute) to arrive at an expansive, narrative, and at times thrilling composition. Kaivajaiset was exhibited in two Finnish galleries: B-Galleria in Turku (2019) and 3H+K in Pori (2020). The installation drew inspiration from The Diggers' 1649 pamphlet and Michel Foucault's extension of Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of genealogy, and consisted of sounds, opinion pieces, a print copy of the pamphlet, and four cardboard collages. This record is a summary of the sounds of the installation. Includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: BARN 086EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Bella Boo is back on Studio Barnhus with her most direct and club-focused material yet. A veteran of the Stockholm underground, named "one of the most promising new artists not only on Studio Barnhus, but in house music in general" by Resident Advisor, Bella has channeled the energy of her recent DJ dates at Berlin's Panorama Bar and London's Phonox into this Looney Talks EP, a collection of four intoxicating dance trax full of intense rhythmic themes and inventive new takes on classic rave sounds.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 044EP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The remix release of Japanese jazz fusion masterpiece of Eiki Nonaka which was released in 2022. UK Balearic master Faze Action chose one of the best tracks, "flanged vortex", from the album (this track is licensed for the great Heisei No To compilation on Music From Memory). The result is timeless summer feel Balearic slow house. Studio Mule's new favorite artist in Milano, Simone Du Kunovich, chose a very emotional tune which is reminiscent of Pat Metheny. His remix is stripped-down, no beats, emotional house music.

 

PRICE: $20.50

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 045EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Moogroove is a self-unit of Japanese house music producer Kenji Eto. This release was originally released in 1994 on Mo Rhythm Records. It's a first class '90s deep house and it's quite hard to find out the original copy.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: SR 536CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

From his early days with Henry Cow, Fred Frith was seen as a brilliant instrumentalist and improviser, but what has been overlooked is what a first-rate composer he is. This recording offers both aspects. His most complex orchestral composition and two selected improvisations with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. Fred Frith, as an infusion of energy and inspiration."Something about this Landscape was commissioned by Ars Musica in 2018. I composed the piece during a residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, California. It's an inspiring place for a number of reasons -- the silence, the light, the life, the history. The extraordinary diversity of birds during the migration season. Both other pieces are improvisations. The first one is the one we did during the concert (in public), the other one, very different, is the one we did during the dress rehearsal (on the day of the concert)." --Fred FrithMusiques Nouvelles is one of the two most successful and diversified contemporary music ensemble in this country with Ictus. With, under the influence of Jean-Paul Dessy, a deeply spiritual and mutual listening aspect. This meeting with the legendary Fred Frith will remain as an important step.Personnel: Fred Frith - guitar, composition + Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles: Berten D'Hollander - flute; Charles Michiels - clarinet; Adrien Lambinet - trombone; Hughes Kolp - guitar; Pierre Quiriny - percussion; Claire Bourdet et Laurent Houque - violins; Karel Coninx - viola; Jean-Paul Zanutel - cello; Jean-Paul Dessy - conductor.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: SR 539CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

All in all, there are more than 50 pieces, new and old, live and studio, finished pieces and scores to be performed, acoustic and classical, solos and pieces for ensemble, using classical and special instruments. This Fluxus edition features (in alphabetical order): Eric Andersen, Ay-O, George Brecht, John Cage, Giancarlo Cardini, Giuseppe Chiari, Henning Christiansen, Philip Corner, Öyvind Fahlström, Ken Friedman, Sten Hanson, Geoffrey Hendricks, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Joe Jones, Bengt af Klintberg, Milan Knízák, Alison Knowles, Larry Miller, George Maciunas, Sara Miyamoto, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Opening Performance Orchestra, Benjamin Patterson, Josef Anton Riedl, Terry Riley, Takako Saito, Tomas Schmit, Dieter Schnebel, Mieko Shiomi, Yasunao Tone, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, and La Monte Young. The musicians and performers Anna Clementi, Agnese Toniutti, Deborah Walker, Werner Durand, Luciano Chessa, Miroslav Beinhauer, Petr Bakla, Nicolas Horvath, Petr Ferenc, and Premysl Ondra have played, performed and declaimed the Fluxus pieces, Arditti Quartet and S.E.M. Ensemble provided one piece from their archives. Milan Knízák, Petr Rezek, Petr Kotík, Olaf Hanel, Eric Andersen, Per Brunskog, Peter van der Meijden, Pavlína Morganová, Natasha Lushetich, Joseph Nechvatal, Natilee Harren, Martin Patrick, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christopher M. Reeves, and Hubertus von Amelunxen have written Fluxus-themed texts. Archivio Conz in Berlin provided access to their extensive Fluxus archives and Edizioni Conz provided coproduction. Ursula and René Block made possible the realization of John Cage's historical composition "Rozart Mix" from the Edition Block archive. The photographic material comes from Marie Knízáková and Milan Knízák's private archive, the German photographer Wolfgang Träger, Archivio Conz's Fluxus archive and Opening Performance Orchestra's digital archive. The cover themes are paintings by Milan Knízák, while the graphic design is the work of Jaroslav Buzek. Double-CD version comes in digipack; includes 72- page booklet; edition of 500.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: TAL 026S-EP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

This unique and unconventional set combines a 7" single with two yet unreleased songs by Non Band and a photo magazine, both of which provide essential evidence of the tsunami-like tidal wave of the Japanese post punk movement. The two featured songs "Vibration Army" and "Silence-High-Speed" perfectly capture the charismatic formative years of Non Band, with their sound emerging as an entirely unique mix of driving punk veering from no wave and folk into raw post punk mutations. Both songs were committed to tape in 1981 at the legendary facilities of Mod Studio, Tokyo, by engineer Yasushi Konichi when the band recorded their eponymous debut album which was issued via Tokyo's Telegraph Records back in 1982. Although both songs were miraculously omitted from the final album. Like all of Non Band recordings they have withstood the test of time thanks to their mix of direct, experimental yet disciplined rawness and studio magick. The magazine features a text and a careful selection of photos from the vast archives of photographer Yuichi Jibiki, who was also the man behind the label Telegraph Records. Since 1978 Yuichi Jibiki was intimately involved with the early Japanese punk scene as a photographer, manager, and organizer. He could be found very much in the midst of all Non Band live shows between '79-82 as well as pulling the strings behind the scenes. After the reissue edition of Non Band's debut album via Stefan Schneider' TAL imprint in 2017 the label is excited to be able to offer another key release showcasing the creative peak of Japanese post punk. Music by Non Band. Recorded by Yasushi Konishi in 1981 at Mod Studio, Tokyo. Mastering by Detlef Funder at Paraschall, Düsseldorf 2022. Photographs by Yuchi Jibiki, 1979-82. 7" with magazine; 48pp photo magazine; includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: TAL 029LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

With this release TAL delves deep into the very beginnings of Düsseldorf's post punk scene of the early 1980s. STUMM was the duo of Detlef Funder and Bernd Sevens who both would become pivotal figures in the tape underground movement of West-Germany, when they launched the SDV label in 1986. Individually they went on to produce boundary defying works as Konrad Kraft and Seventh Day respectively. The material on this album was recorded by Funder and Sevens quite casually in 1980 in a rehearsal studio in the center of Düsseldorf. Right from the beginning the two young musicians incorporated the atmosphere of the space in order to document the process of their sound experiments on a 4-track tape machine. For those recording sessions, which are now released for the first time ever on vinyl, Funder and Sevens managed to get their hands on a very rudimentary set of equipment consisting of merely a Korg MS 20 synth, a Roland CR 78 drum machine, a few electronic effects and a drum kit. The urgent and rough sound of the recordings imbues their production with a characteristic and era-specific edge that's hard to imitate today. Spontaneity and understatement were key elements in the brief creative period of STUMM. The recordings still have a uniquely dizzying quality and are somewhat of a basic blueprint for a lot of industrial/techno and post punk which was about to loom in all corners of the world. These tracks are also a testament to the vivid spark of a period in time that would soon be radically changed through the rise of digital technology. Bernd Sevens: "Around 1980 there was a great musical awakening. Punk, new wave, industrial and of course dub reggae -- the electronic music blew us away. Everything we heard influenced us. Back then, cassette tapes were cheap and easily available. We could record our ideas on the spot and then copy and distribute the tapes. That's how it started. Giving it a go, experimenting, trial and error. The music you hear on the record was spontaneous and had no concept. Our collaboration was also not intended to be a permanent project. You could say we were dilettantes setting out on our journey, making it up as we went along. It felt like a beginning." Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $16.50

CAT #: TR 531CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern that began in 1987, the only constant being sole composer/instigator, Northumbrian born Stephen Lawrie. The band's line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between one and 20 members on a recording. The Telescopes were initially signed to Cheree Records then moved on to What Goes On Records where they became regulars at the top of the indie charts before gaining more mainstream success on signing to Creation Records. The Telescopes are now with Tapete Records. The previous album for the label -- Songs Of Love And Revolution (TR 480CD/LP) saw a return to the indie charts in 2021, including a Dinked edition with remixes by Anton Newcombe, Lloyd Cole, and Third Eye Foundation. The Telescopes music has constantly pushed at its own boundaries, it overlaps many genres following its own course, inspiration led. Time has shown The Telescopes music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new with each listen, it has been described by the British music press as "more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk"; a thread consistent throughout a highly influential body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have been cited as an influence on many artists across genres, around the world. The first five albums have all been re-issued by renowned labels such as Cherry Red, Bomp!, Rev-Ola, Space Age Records, Weisskalt, Glass Modern, Fuzz Club, and many more. Of Tomorrow is the 15th album from The Telescopes, and their fifth for Tapete. The album was created entirely by Lawrie at his studio in Shropshire, it is a departure from what the press often refers to as a "wall of throb" when describing the dense merge of noise and sound synonymous with most of The Telescopes output. Of Tomorrow marks a complete change in dynamics. Here we have the poetry of motion, solid grooves to the fore, leaving crystallized trails across a fluttering undercurrent of uplifting rhythm and hooks. Lawrie's voice, usually treated as an instrument equal to the rest of the sound now takes the reins, engaging the listener in a melodic swirl of radiant harmony that speaks, sometimes in a whisper, of love as revolution. Every song on the album stands its ground, each one unique. Everything from the composition to the performance, arrangements and production are leaps beyond previous offerings. This is an album to get lost in on the dancefloor or headphones in equal measures.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: TR 531LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern that began in 1987, the only constant being sole composer/instigator, Northumbrian born Stephen Lawrie. The band's line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between one and 20 members on a recording. The Telescopes were initially signed to Cheree Records then moved on to What Goes On Records where they became regulars at the top of the indie charts before gaining more mainstream success on signing to Creation Records. The Telescopes are now with Tapete Records. The previous album for the label -- Songs Of Love And Revolution (TR 480CD/LP) saw a return to the indie charts in 2021, including a Dinked edition with remixes by Anton Newcombe, Lloyd Cole, and Third Eye Foundation. The Telescopes music has constantly pushed at its own boundaries, it overlaps many genres following its own course, inspiration led. Time has shown The Telescopes music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new with each listen, it has been described by the British music press as "more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk"; a thread consistent throughout a highly influential body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have been cited as an influence on many artists across genres, around the world. The first five albums have all been re-issued by renowned labels such as Cherry Red, Bomp!, Rev-Ola, Space Age Records, Weisskalt, Glass Modern, Fuzz Club, and many more. Of Tomorrow is the 15th album from The Telescopes, and their fifth for Tapete. The album was created entirely by Lawrie at his studio in Shropshire, it is a departure from what the press often refers to as a "wall of throb" when describing the dense merge of noise and sound synonymous with most of The Telescopes output. Of Tomorrow marks a complete change in dynamics. Here we have the poetry of motion, solid grooves to the fore, leaving crystallized trails across a fluttering undercurrent of uplifting rhythm and hooks. Lawrie's voice, usually treated as an instrument equal to the rest of the sound now takes the reins, engaging the listener in a melodic swirl of radiant harmony that speaks, sometimes in a whisper, of love as revolution. Every song on the album stands its ground, each one unique. Everything from the composition to the performance, arrangements and production are leaps beyond previous offerings. This is an album to get lost in on the dancefloor or headphones in equal measures.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: TDP 54040LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; Trading Places present a reissue of Ben's self-titled album, originally released in 1971. Canterbury-based progressive jazz-rock act Ben only released one obscure album, issued on Philips' prog subsidiary Vertigo in 1971, but it's a lovely collective of extended instrumental jams, worthy of discovery for those that missed it the first time around. Peter Davey's saxophone and clarinet melodies push the material to high peaks, against an understated backing from future Nashville Teens bassist, Len Surtees, and former Graham Bond drummer, David Sheen, keyboardist Alex Macleery, and guitarist Gerry Reid adding flourishes at key moments. The songs "The Wooing Of The Child" and "The Wooing Of The Man" credit a certain K Jarrett as songwriter, making this rare beast all the more intriguing. Licensed from Cherry Red. Gatefold sleeve.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: TDP 54069LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; Trading Places present a reissue of The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, originally released in 1971. Tutored on guitar by Charley Patton and harmonica by Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf impacted the Southern Club circuit in the late 1930s, and after a spell in the Army, cut impressive work at Sun but really came into his own in Chicago, bridging the Delta and modern blues styles. In May 1970, The London Sessions teamed him with Rolling Stones alumni Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and Ian Stewart, as well as Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, revisiting immortal numbers like "Little Red Rooster", "Wang Dang Doodle", and "Rockin Daddy" with a new flair; this edition also has their enticing rendition of the classic "Killing Floor". 180 gram vinyl; includes insert. Licensed by Prestige.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: TRAUM 278LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In 2021, The MFA returned to the fore once more, when Traum released their Oranges and Lemons EP. Their new album, Lights Out, which could be described as a long time coming, is definitely The MFA's most ambitious work to date. The album sums up what The MFA stands for; their love of electronic music intertwined their love of songs and melody, sometimes banging, sometimes pensive, sometimes longing, occasionally up-beat and happy. Melodic techno-pop-rave then. The album opener "My Desire" pins down the essence of the album, showing some pop sensibility and a healthy dose of that early '90s spirit with longing vocals by Rhys Evans. The track shows from many angles of the intensity of what club culture was about. The track has, for sure, that pop quality which sets it apart -- it is a very complete and rounded and in the true sense, a hit. "Identify This" kicks off with blissed-out sci-fi sounds but commences with 90s rave chords that gets under your skin and creates a fantastic kaleidoscopic picture of moody UK rave with these spurts of emotional uplifting moments which are worth every penny. "Bear Likes To Rave" takes you back to the warehouse days and reminds you of the acid warehouse parties with fanned stroboscope beams and dry ice cannons. It's like looking down on a rave party happening from above, from a bird's eye view, which is in full swing where the euphoria spills over into the audience. "Girl Ahead" is a vocal track exclusively on the digital version of the album, again with Rhys Evans on vocal duties. Here they ponder all the possibilities of the future and the mistakes of the past. Features space toms and grand piano rave chords to evoke a housy feel within. With "Freedom24" a Hi-NRG melody meets nightcrawler sounds ala "Klang De Familie". "Lammas Day" has the chilling exotic quality of 808 State "Pacific State", paired with some phantastic Dr Who sensibilities. "Warehouse" is a wild mash up of impressions which nicely go together due to the melodic string composition and the 303 sequences. "The Snapping Branch" starts with a mash up of sounds and then dives into an episodic snapshot of "happiness" when the serotonin shoots in (just before it drops). "You Make Me Smile" is the third vocal track on the album featuring Rhys Evans on vocals. It has fantastic radical stark mood changes and blatant shifts, therefore throws the listener from one corner to the other. Just like the contrast of day and night. Bits here and there might conjure a Radiohead spirit, but really this is all MFA.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: TRAUM 280LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 2007 on CD and now re-released on double vinyl. Heimische Gefilde was the second full-length release on Traum at that time from Westerwald based DJ, producer, and park ranger, Dominik Eulberg. Dominik has since then expended his activities enormously now appearing as a book author with best-selling books in the German official bestseller list. He is the ambassador of the most popular Conservation Union in Germany NABU, he has created a bird quartet and a handmade insect hotel and appears on national German TV regularly next playing in clubs worldwide and producing stunning music. Heimische Gefilde includes spoken words by the man himself and the release won the price of the German critic awards for music. It is the only compilation that comprises a selection of Dominik Eulberg's best early works and it is for the first time available on vinyl now. As Dominik Eulberg says in his own words: "After more than 16 years, Heimische Gefilde is finally released on vinyl. At that time it was still a daring experiment to combine music with lustful science communication. Quickly one was thrown into the pot of the 'weird eco-techno sound owl'. Today, we are increasingly finding that we cannot stop the impending ecocide in a cognitive way. For more than 60 years we have known about the concrete threats to humanity from global warming and species extinction; yet nothing changes. Many alarmist efforts fail miserably, red lists grow longer and longer each year, and global temperatures continue to rise unchecked. It is becoming clearer and clearer that we have to reach out to our fellow human beings in a positive emotional way in order to make a difference, because we only protect what we love. Then sentimental minorities become majorities that change something. Art and culture are low-threshold vectors to make things majority-friendly. They are a fertile and valuable breeding ground to sensitize people outside the eco-bubble and to let their environment become a co-environment again. Today my transdisciplinary work is inseparable . . . Heimische Gefilde was a valuable cornerstone for my creative work, a very intrinsic work to go my very own way." Tracks like "Die Rotbauchunken vom Tegernsee" and "Björn Borkenkäfer" are included here in unreleased edits that are even stronger than the originals, and as a bonus, previously vinyl-only.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: UR 147LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Marcos Díaz has been part of Buenos Aires underground for many years, being in projects like Bosques and making solo music under the pseudonym Entidad Animada (animated entity). Under this project, Marcos has explored sounds that involve a mix of feedback/distortion through synthesizers, guitars and drum machines that hint at the influence of Stereolab, Spacemen 3, and mid-nineties shoegaze. However, there are also ambient soundscapes with a slight rubbed of the ritualistic psychedelia of the Popol Vuh. The display of colors in his music comes together in the midst of a playful, relaxed and optimistic environment that is simultaneously melancholic. Because of the nature of those pieces, but also because in Entidad Animada there is also space for collage sounds that blend randomly with textures of a primitive analog sound, which inevitably causes a paradox between what is alive and what is inert. And it is because Entidad Animada is precisely that, a spectrum or a vision, a ghost. And these sounds are proof of his existence. Pruebas de existencia (proofs of existence) is a collection of recordings that Marcos has made in recent years and that Umor Rex have selected for this album, his first work on the label. A couple of these pieces were only released digitally, while the others have been on ltd cassette editions through Fuego Amigo Discos in Argentina. Pruebas de existencia is an Umor Rex compilation and remastered edition. Guitar, sampler, synthesizer, organ, bass, drums, and electronic beats, vocals, recording and mixing by Entidad Animada in Buenos Aires. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Cover photography Natch Tablescape (1979) by Langdon Clay. Layout by Daniel Castrejón, Mexico City. Includes download code; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: VL 900174LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2022 repress. Vinyl Lovers present a reissue of John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers' A Hard Road, originally released in 1967. More than a compilation, this album is a complete document of the Bluesbreakers' recordings with Peter Green, of which "A Hard Road" was just the most prominent part. The 16 bonus tracks include several non-LP singles (among them the 1967 B-side "Rubber Duck", which has never before appeared on LP).

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: VPGS 7105EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Long out of print 1979. This is a roots, reggae, classic! Limited 7" repress/in demand roots anthem. Backed by Prince Jammy's black belt dub cut. Recorded at Channel One and Mixed at King Tubby's."

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: VPGS 7107EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Long out of print 1979. This is a roots, reggae, classic! Limited 7" repress/in demand roots anthem. backed by Prince Jammy's Black Belt dub cut. Recorded at Channel One and Mixed at King Tubby's."

 

PRICE: $43.00

CAT #: VPGSRL 7039LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Originally released in 1979. "For this re-issue we have expanded the Original Rockers album with a second disc of further cuts of its classic rhythms. The original 1979 Greensleeves compilation was instrumental in bringing the music of Augustus Pablo to an international audience and with this official deluxe edition, made with full approval of the original compilers, we pay tribute to that landmark release and ensure the music and memory of Augustus Pablo continue to live on." Gatefold sleeve.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: VPRL 1497LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Originally released in 1998. "A typically excellent reissue by Heartbeat, Rounder Records' reggae-and-Caribbean imprint, 1998's Skatalites & Friends At Randy's is a fascinating collection of rare tracks recorded at the legendary Randy's Studio in Kingston, Jamaica in the mid '60s. Although the Skatalites only get their names on a quarter of the 20 tracks here -- all of them killer ska instrumentals -- they were the backing band on all of them, and although the Maytals or Alton Ellis might get top billing on the other 15 tracks, they're indubitably Skatalites tracks. Even more than Booker T and the MGs did for Stax/Volt or the Funk Brothers did for Motown, the Skatalites defined -- some say invented -- the musical landscape of Kingston from 1963 to 1966. Highlights include 'Machine Shop' a solo showcase by Skatalites trombonist Don Drummond, and a skanking version of Henry Mancini's 'Baby Elephant Walk' that works much better than anyone might expect."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: VPRL 2608LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Compilation originally released in 2018. "None A Jah Jah Children collects tracks from two classic albums Rastafari and Kibir-Am-Lak that Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus made for producer Tommy Cowan in the 1970s, re-mastered by Kevin Metcalfe. These are 'nyah man chants' made sound system ready by Tommy Cowan's Talent Corporation with the heavyweight musical back-up of Peter Tosh, Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Robbie Shakespeare, Robbie Lyn, Tommy McCook, Carlton 'Santa' Davis and the Sons Of Negus with the all the various drums like the 1st, 2nd and 3rd funde, akete bass drum, repeater, bass funde and trap drums."

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: WG 098EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Woo York -- supreme electronic music duo makes their debut on Watergate Records. The Ukrainian duo have a watertight reputation for crafting stunning dancefloor compositions, having released music on Life And Death, Soma, Dystopian, Drumcode, and Afterlife, the latter home to their critically acclaimed 2018 album Chasing the Dream. Their appearances at Watergate have been numerous over the years, making them an obvious choice to join the label family. Their Watergate Records debut maiden offering is sparkling. The title track begins as a chugging key-laden cut before a stirring folky melody rises to the fore with beautiful intent. With its unique sonic signature, "Samum" will stand out in any set. Woo York shows a new side of their outstanding musical talent: "For this release we wanted to push boundaries of the melodic techno sound. For 'Samum' we have worked with a bag pipe, one of the oldest instruments to give the track an almost 'housy' note." The accompanier is "Prophet", an emotional slice of dance music, hopeful and melancholic in equal doses, this is custom made for big dancefloor moments. Accompanying the package are remixes of "Samum" by fellow Ukrainian producer and live act 8Kays, who turns in a dark and shimmering re-rub, not losing any of the original's power. Meanwhile Greek artist Echonomist crafts a rich and multi-faceted reinterpretation that fits for the club and home listening alike. Includes download.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: WRJ 010CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2023 reprint. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki's Cat, a glorious jazz-fusion-funk holy grail originally released in 1976. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two-day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, Cat, is a smooth masterpiece, a deep and soulful affair where stunning trombone solos by Hiroshi Suzuki flirt with Takeru Muraoka's heavenly saxophone and the sensual rhythm section of Hiromasa Suzuki (keyboards), Kunimitsu Inaba (bass), and Akira Ishikawa (drums). Celebrated in jazz collectors circles, in the lo-fi beat scene, and among music diggers around the world, Cat has become one of the most sought-after Japanese jazz albums of all time and, much like Ryo Fukui's Scenery, has fascinated old and young generations alike. Sourced from the original masters. Liner notes by Teruo Isono.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: WDSCS 015LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Bristol's new wave dancefloor instrumentalists announce their new album Ruins Everything on Worm Discs. Snazzback's electrifying chemistry has wowed audiences at Ronnie Scott's, festivals such as Glastonbury, Boomtown, and Shambala, and gained support from BBC Radio heavyweights including Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova, and Jamie Cullum. Snazzback's music is a collage, collectively constructed, torn up and glued back together in unexpected ways, bringing a renewed, daring energy to UK dance music. The seven-piece embrace their experimental beginnings to create a sound fusing abstract beats with spiraling improvisation. Their music is soaked in influences including interlocking West African rhythms, rootsy Brazilian flavors, sprawling soundscapes, deep dubstep basslines and flickering arpeggiators. A collaborative instinct runs through the group, and an eclectic choice of vocalists keeps their compositions shimmering with new possibilities. Featuring guest vocals from up-and-coming artists Grove, TLK, Soss, and Adam Kammerling.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: WS 012CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Bob Martin began what would become his final studio album in a beach front condominium in Seabrook, New Hampshire in May 2008. The recordings sat dormant for the next 13 years. This album began when James Endeacott of 1965 Records sent Jerry David DeCicca to Charlottesville, Virginia to meet Martin, hoping to reissue Martin's 1972 debut on RCA Records, Midwest Farm Disaster. DeCicca, who had co-produced the final recordings of folk-funk, Heartworn Highways' songwriter, Larry Jon Wilson, for 1965 Records (and later reissued by Drag City Records) had played the LP for Endeacott several months earlier. Midwest Farm Disaster is that rare album that feels joyful and yet full of sorrow; Martin's Lowell, Massachusetts voice yearning with a backbeat from Nashville session musicians, Norman Putnam and Kenny Buttrey, the later fresh from his "Heart of Gold" session. The reissue never happened, as Martin was already in the process of rescuing his forgotten masterpiece for his own self-release. But Bob and Jerry's breakfast led to Martin's daughter, Tami, hiring DeCicca and engineer, Jake Housh, who also worked on the Wilson album, to capture her father in a similar manner. After Midwest Farm Disaster, a second album for RCA was under contract, but when a record executive there wanted Martin to put his girlfriend's poetry to music, Bob bailed on the deal. Martin continued to tour around with a pickup band until advice from his father resonated, and he left the road to raise a family. Bob worked as an educator, teaching math and computers, and even founded a school in West Virginia that taught traditional art forms in Appalachia like fiddle playing and weaving. Bob returned to the studio in 1982 to record Last Chance Rider for June Appal, a label that focused on music from Appalachia. In the late-90s, Bob returned with two self-released CDs, The River Turns The Wheel and Next to Nothin', that continued capturing stories of people and places. He wrote novels, cared for his family, and taught, and played only the occasional gig. But it's this album, Seabrook, that finds Bob at his most wise and wistful; the histories of Lowell and his own life hanging longest in his voice. New songs about the West Virginia coal mines and living in an extended stay motel sit beside new and more urgent interpretations of late period classics, like "My Father Painted Houses," and, for the first time, one of his oldest songs he didn't record for Midwest Farm Disaster called "Give Me Light", along with "Stay Awhile Sunshine," which he had been singing to his family for decades and features Gary Mallaber on vibraphone. After DeCicca and Housh returned from the beach with Bob, they all agreed to flesh out the songs with other instrumentation to present as a draft for what the new record could be with a little more money and time.

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: YAZ 1049HLP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 restock. 180 gram exact repro reissue of this Yazoo's collection of these two blues guitarists, originally released in 1975. "Kokomo Arnold and Casey Bill Weldon were two of the most popular and original-sounding bottleneck guitarists of the Thirties, a generally dismal period for blues recording. In terms of contemporary appeal (the only yardstick that mattered to blues men themselves) they far outstripped Robert Johnson, Bukka White, and other bottleneck artists of the era.... Arnold, a left-handed guitarist, confronts the listener as one of the zaniest, most manic guitarists ever recorded; Weldon's work is an outright rejection of traditional blues harmony, and invites comparison to Western swing."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: YNFND 026LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Kundan Lal is a highly understated artist. Little is known about his background, though some refer to him as Kunsaf Halil, his personal life remains largely a mystery. Gathering a cult following amongst people like Den Sorte Skole or DJ Marcelle with his previous releases, he is now set to sail new shores. There is a sense of wanderlust as he opens his box of field recordings, collected on his many travels. From the buzzing streets of Alexandria, early Sunday markets in Tafraoute or a crackling bonfire down by the banks of the river Ganges. Each track takes you places. Kundan's second album is a captivating blend of dubby beats, collages, and exotic instrumentation. Drawing from classic tools like the Roland 808, SC7 and the famous Space Echo, Kundan has created a unique and minimalistic sound that is sure to captivate listeners. At once nostalgic and experimental, Power of Ra is a must-listen for both electronic music purists and fans of adventurous soundscapes. Compelled to work from home on his computer during lockdown, Kundan dusted his pawnshop e-piano, downloaded some orchestral soundkits and started to digitize almost forgotten field recordings. The Power of Ra came to him. "Illgrimage" is a good example of his approach. Combining atmospheric soundscapes with swirling strings, trombones and pianos. Echoes of birds and children playing in the streets. A small town filled with life and a theremin leading the way while you hear the faint yet powerful words of Greta Thunberg saying: "Imagine..." "Raqaqa," a powerful orchestral journey with a hip-hop edge. Tinkling chimes add a groovy vibe, while lush layers of wind instruments weave a masterful soundscape. It's the slow-burning intensity of this track that pulls you in. "Nasi Chip" is a signature song that exemplifies Kundan Lal's musical prowess. An engaging beat coupled with chopped up vocals, 8-bit synth melodies and an arpeggiated piano provide an energetic atmosphere that is both cunning and unique. "Cen" lures you into the Egyptian realm. A harmonium slithers serpent like around a pounding beat. Horns gently swaying to the rhythm of the desert. It is hard to put your finger on his style or genre. You can feel Kundan Lal's DIY spirit in his production, carving his own ethnic genre. For enthusiasts of Roberto Musci or Muslimgauze, this avant-garde album is one for your collection. Keep your senses open and let the Power of Ra pass you to another world.