Reviews Search

Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 6/6/2022

New music is due from Clarice Jensen, Pinkcourtesyphone, and Hüma Utku, while old music is due from Wire, Ut, and Farben (Jan Jelinek).

 

FORCED EXPOSURE MAILORDER UPDATE
NEW RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 06/06/2022
we also accept orders via FAX at 781 321 0321

and via mail:
FORCED EXPOSURE / 60 Lowell Street / Arlington, MA 02476 / USA

for more information about shipping or ordering
please refer to our FAQ

direct any questions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
1972
1972 008LP
 
PRICE: $29.00
CAT #: 1972 008LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
GORDONS, THE The Gordons + Future Shock LP/7"
2022 repress. "The Gordons crashed upon the do-it-yourself scene of early 1980s Christchurch with torrential force, self-releasing two foundational planks of the vibrant New Zealand underground. Future Shock, a three-song 7-inch released in 1980, is a wild-eyed rampage, as staggering as any feedback-addled punk then being recorded at Southern Studios. The Gordons LP, which followed in 1981, matches the abandon with motorik churn and livewire dissonance, evoking New Zealand antecedents as divergent as This Kind Of Punishment and the Dead C. Brought together on this release, they're a noise-rock landmark anticipating fans such as Sonic Youth. Flying Nun Records, the storied Christchurch label and symbol of the island nation's rich independent music scene, re-released The Gordons and Future Shock together in 1988 following the formation of Gordons outgrowth Bailter Space, which frontman Alister Parker founded with Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour. Bailter Space, which would also come to include founding Gordons members Brent McLachlan and John Halvorsen, settled on a droning shoegaze sound, drawing comparisons to Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies. The Gordons and Future Shock, however, represent the trio's unreformed id, as startling today as upon release."
A COLOURFUL STORM (AUSTRALIA)
ACOLOUR 036LP
 
PRICE: $28.00
CAT #: ACOLOUR 036LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
KUDO, REIKO & TORI Tangerine LP
Repressed. A Colourful Storm presents Tangerine, a collection of songs by Reiko and Tori Kudo. Recorded at Village Hototoguiss, Japan, in 2011 and 2012 and Cafe Oto, London, in 2009, Tangerine is the result of over thirty years of improvisation and intimacy between Reiko Kudo and Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Fushitsusha, Noise, Ché-SHIZU). Their live performances would welcome local musicians, neighborhood children, friends and passersby on stage while in the studio, they have been joined by Ikuro Takahashi (LSD March) and Takashi Ueno (Tenniscoats), releasing on indie labels such as Geographic and K. A touchstone of contemporary Japanese folk minimalism and significantly the last recorded appearance of the duo. Originally released on CD by Hyotan in 2013 and presented for the first time on vinyl by A Colourful Storm. Full-color sleeve with insert, postcard and lyrics in Japanese and English.
A RECORDINGS (UK)
AUK 026LP
 
PRICE: $25.50
CAT #: AUK 026LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, THE Tepid Peppermint Wonderland Volume 1 2LP
2022 repress. Pressed on 180 gram black vinyl and housed in a gatefold sleeve. Remastered for a vinyl release. This 15-track compilation spans the years 1995-2004, featuring key tracks from all their albums as well as live recordings and many unreleased tracks. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist/singer Anton Newcombe. Since 1995 The Brian Jonestown Massacre has released numerous albums, first for Bomp! Records, the label which gave them their start, and later for TVT and Tee Pee. BJM has been essential in the development of the modern U.S. garage scene, and many L.A. and SF musicians got their start playing with Newcombe, including Peter Hayes of The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Originally Newcombe was heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones' psychedelic phase -- the name comes from Stones guitarist Brian Jones combined with a reference to cult leader Jim Jones, but his work in the 2000s has expanded into aesthetic dimensions approximating the UK shoegazing genre of the 1990s, and incorporates influences from world music, especially Middle Eastern and Brazilian music.
ABRAHAM (CANADA)
AA 050LP
 
PRICE: $15.00
CAT #: AA 050LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
LIVINGSTON, CARLTON The Best Of Carlton Livingston LP
2022 repress. Abraham present The Best Of Carlton Livingston, released in 1984. Personnel: Robbie Shakspeare - bass; Sly Dunbar - drums; Professor - engineer; Scientist - engineer; Lloy Parks - guitar; Ansell Collins - organ; Ozzie Herbert - piano; Lord Koos - producer. Artwork by J. M. Pete.
AGITATED RECORDS (UK)
AGIT 061LP
 
PRICE: $31.00
CAT #: AGIT 061LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
STOLTZ, KELLEY The Stylist LP
LP version. "The Stylist, Kelley Stoltz's seventeenth album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 Antique Glow with a collection of ten new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since -- luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might've appeared on the fringes of the late '60s or mid-80s. Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records Below The Branches, Double Exposure and Ah! (etc), Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, 'I chose the title The Stylist because musically I guess that's what I am... because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It's all in the pop-rock vein, but there's usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That's always been the case with my albums.' Thankfully, after twenty-three years the beat goes on... and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, The Stylist is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalog of one of the great songwriters of the time."
ALIEN TRANSISTOR (GERMANY)
N 077LP
 
PRICE: $28.00
CAT #: N 077LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
PLASTIK BEATNIKS, THE All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For LP
Sounds like supergroup. Rarely have outstanding figures of such a variety of musical styles collaborated on one album to pay homage to a nearly forgotten artist, one of the few black Beatnik poets, Bob Kaufman. All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For by The Plastik Beatniks is an attempt to acoustically reanimate Bob Kaufman, to return the beat to him in a transatlantic collaboration. It is a shimmering psychedelic, at times jazzy concept album, sometimes reminiscent of krautrock or hip-hop, about a beat-era poet who was as great as he was forgotten. It takes spoken word to a new level, as a transatlantic showcase of musical avant-gardes and a joyful "sound archaeology" of modernity, in which the tracks of the "Plastik Beatniks" meet the best voices of America. The 12 wildly different songs and audio collages, on the transatlantically-produced album, All the Streets I Must Find Cities For, is based on lyrics by beat author Bob Kaufman. They were originally part of the radio play Thank God for Beatniks, for which author Andreas Ammer (Ammer & Einheit), Notwist's Markus Acher and Micha Acher and loop maker Leo Hopfinger (LeRoy) formed The Plastik Beatniks. On the eastern side of the Atlantic they composed music and crafted soundscapes. On the west side of the ocean, they asked three of the most renowned singers, activists and producers in the US to recite or sing Bob Kaufman's poetry. Punk-pop icon Patti Smith immediately signed on to read Kaufman's poem "Ginsberg (For Allen)". Free jazz vocalist Moor Mother passionately performed Bob Kaufman's "War Memoir". American jazz clarinetist, composer, singer and "International Anthem" labelmate Angel Bat Dawid, a legitimate successor to Sun Ra, polyphonically read and sang such poems as "The Sun is a Negroe" and "West Coast Sound 1956" and included some clarinet solos on top. Also on the album, Bob Kaufman himself recites his previously unknown poems "Hollywood Beat", "Would You Wear My Eyes", and the "Jail Poem," "All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For". Beat chronicler Raymond Foye, who still lives at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, contributed an interview he conducted with late beatnik Allen Ginsberg about Bob Kaufman. Completing the circle was hip-hop artist Adam "DoseOne" (13&God), who once gave Markus Acher a well-thumbed volume of Bob Kaufman, whom he admired. He contributed some raps. Thus 12 tracks emerged, as diverse as the artists, poets and musicians who contributed to it. More than an album. An epitaph. A work for the eternity of beat. Silk-screen artwork; includes download code.
ALTIN VILLAGE & MINE (GERMANY)
AVM 073LP
 
PRICE: $28.00
CAT #: AVM 073LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
KALME Neue Sprache LP
The artistic oeuvre of Berlin-based Sonja Deffner is as extensive and diverse as its contexts are high-profile: If the classically trained musician could in recent years be heard as a member of the groups Jason & Theodor, Die Heiterkeit, Globus, and PTTRNS, as part of Christiane Rösinger's touring band, or as a recording musician on Andreas Spechtl's (Ja, Panik) albums, she has at the same time produced an acclaimed graphic work, video works and made her theater debut. Under the name Kalme, Deffner now presents her solo debut Neue Sprache, which feels like a culmination: Deffner doesn't need much space to present an artistic position of spectacular incisiveness and maturity. The formal language of Kalme's debut evolves with reference to experimental pop and R&B, but equally informed by ambient electronics or dub techno. Analog and digital sound synthesis meet Deffner's characteristic use of field recordings, acoustic instrumentation (clarinet, percussion) meets musical post-production, sampling meets expressive synthesizer playing. At the center of the album, however, are Deffner's remarkable lyrics, written in German for the first time. Deffner creates a language of stark, emotional poignancy that is as conspiratorial as it is precise. The themes of the tracks develop between the poles of movement and stagnation, understood as motifs of biographical as well as musical ways of being or relating. In this forcefield, personal and political considerations coincide again and again, for example when Deffner reflects on her experiences with the social conditioning of femininity and motherhood. The album title Neue Sprache (New Language), then, describes a search for forms of articulation of solidarization: language as a tool of a new relationship to the world that allows testimony to individual experience without reproducing categories of repression. In this way, Kalme's debut simultaneously achieves a radical intimacy, just as, on the other hand, the confrontation of language and sound repeatedly opens up fissures that deny any semblance of comfort. Neue Sprache does not stop at this modernist gesture, however, but unquestionably takes a stand. That's what Kalme's Neue Sprache ultimately is: the taking of a position. A statement.
ANALOGUE FOUNDATION (GERMANY)
AF 001LP
 
PRICE: $44.50
CAT #: AF 001LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE WITH CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG LOVOTIC 2LP
Written and conceived by Stephan Crasneanscki, LOVOTIC is a concept album by Soundwalk Collective, composed in collaboration with lauded actress and singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg. Featuring veteran techno stalwart AtomTM, rising singer/composer/performance artist Lyra Pramuk, celebrated actor Willem Dafoe, and writer/philosopher Paul B. Preciado, the album is released by the new Berlin-based Analogue Foundation. Inspired by a relatively new field of research that seeks to explore and develop the possibilities of sexual and emotional relationships -- and even love -- between humans and robots, LOVOTIC interrogates the impulses, ideas, and needs underlying this phenomenon. The project ventures into a future where sex, intimacy, and desire are reformulated through the connection of humans, robotics, and artificial intelligence. At present, however, such technologies are primarily used to produce programs of limited sexual iterations that do not question the preformatted categories of gender and sexual orientation. In contrast, on LOVOTIC, Soundwalk Collective ask whether the future of sex and sexuality could instead be an exponentially expanding kaleidoscope. Sonically LOVOTIC is unidentifiable, artificial, and genuinely futuristic, occupying an amorphous androgynous netherworld at the borderlands between biotic and android. The production tangibly evokes the odd, rubbery textures of faux flesh, the slick virtual glide or glitchy mishaps of software, and the sleek shine of hardware. Gleaming sound design creates shard-like surfaces redolent of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's Glass, the slippery stretched sonics Gabor Lazar, and the unsettling dark ambience of TOWERS and Hallmark '87. At turns intimate and inviting, with whispering-in-your-ears ASMR vocals evoking blissful, heightened sexual states, within LOVOTIC there's optimism, but also unease; As well as the positive, it implies the negative ramifications of technology. Charlotte Gainsbourg invokes a being of unknown identity -- an artificial eve, the oracle and the portal --speaking from an unspecified time in the future. The voices of AtomTM, Lyra Pramuk and Willem Dafoe weave in and out of Charlotte's, often overlapping, merging into one another, expressing the entity of a being that's ephemeral and in constant flux, oscillating between the natural and artificial. The record's other bonafide singer, Lyra Pramuk's delivery alternates between spoken word, operatics and partially- unintelligible language. A multi-media project, LOVOTIC also features the work of writer, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado -- a leading thinker in the study of gender and body politics. Paul contributes a post-apocalyptic, quasi scientific and fictional text, which adds further fantasy, artistic and intellectual depth, augmenting the listener's experience. 180 gram clear vinyl; gold foil print; includes 16pp booklet.
ARBITRARY (DENMARK)
ARBITRARY 012EP
 
PRICE: $15.50
CAT #: ARBITRARY 012EP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
NIELSEN + CHROMACOLOR, MADS EMIL Constellation 10"
Arbitrary presents the first in a series of remix collaborations and releases by Mads Emil Nielsen and Chromacolor, a project from the German sound artist and producer Hanno Leichtmann. Mads Emil Nielsen's "Constellation" (side A) was created by combining several granulations and textures based on a single short recording, extracted from improvisations made with the Buchla synthesizer at EMS, Stockholm -- combined with randomly looping orchestral samples, edited, and produced in his studio in Copenhagen. After having heard Nielsen's live performance in Berlin in 2017, Hanno Leichtmann suggested remixing various of his tracks including "Constellation" (Remix -- side B). For this rework, Leichtmann provides an ambient feel by working with various sources, all of which generate sound using vibrating metal plates in different sizes --including a Premier Vibraphone, a Fender Rhodes, and a Hohner Guitaret. Constellation written and produced by Mads Emil Nielsen at EMS Elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm and in Copenhagen. "Constellation Chromacolor Remix" written and produced by Hanno Leichtmann at Static Music, Berlin. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Karel Martens. 10"; CYK + Pantone print; includes download code; edition of 500.
BANG! RECORDS (SPAIN)
BANG 152LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: BANG 152LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
ART GRAY NOIZZ QUINTET, THE The Art Gray Noizz Quintet LP
Spearheaded by twisted Australian guitar legend Stu Spasm of Lubricated Goat, Crunt, and The Beasts Of Bourbon, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet were originally formed for an afterparty celebrating the New York City premiere of Amphetamine Reptile documentary The Color Of Noise. "It was obvious I must assemble a supergroup of the finest noise rockers New York City had to offer," says Stu Spasm. First choice was basher extraordinaire "Bloody" Rich Hutchins, veteran of such explosive musical exports as Live Skull, Of Cabbages And Kings, and Ruin. Next, Skeleton Boy of Woman was recruited. "Who, just as Leadbelly was the king of the twelve-string guitar, is himself the king of the two-string bass." Then came the twang, with the addition of suave slinger Andrea Sicco of Twin Guns. "When our guitars merge, it forms a most piquant aural mélange." In a nod to the latter half of his birth name, Stu Spasm now became Art Gray, and an entirely new mess was born. The Art Gray Noizz Quintet have recently been witnessed onstage opening for kindred spirits such as The Scientists and Mudhoney, and 2019 saw them survive a successful tour of the West Coast. Catching the eye of no wave queen Lydia Lunch led to teaming up for a collaborative musical effort, and sharing a few stages including bookending the pandemic, with one of the last shows of 2020 NYC before lockdown hit, and a triumphant return to the boards in July 2021.
BANG 153LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: BANG 153LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
HONEYMOON KILLERS The Loved, The Lost And The Last LP
It exists! The Loved, The Lost And The Last is the unreleased until now, sixth and final studio album by New York noise rock band the Honeymoon Killers, originally recorded in 1991. The Honeymoon Killers recorded this album picking up all three members of the nascent Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and it meant a sonic evolution to the band in the way to get the original Honeymoon Killers sound adding slicks of Pussy Galore and The Blues Explosion, and it includes covers of Ramones and The Scientists. Artwork by Pauline Teel (Big City Stompers).
BANG 158LP
 
PRICE: $38.50
CAT #: BANG 158LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
SUDDEN, NIKKI Red Brocade 2LP
For the first time on vinyl, the one considered by many as Nikki Sudden's best album ever Red Brocade, originally released in 1999. Featuring members of Jacobites, The Chamber Strings, Wilco, etc. In 1997, British musician Nikki Sudden traveled to Chicago to work with The Chamber Strings. While there, the two parties realized that they were creatively simpatico, and soon began work on an album, a baker's dozen of thoughtful, occasionally introspective, and superbly written songs, which would appear in 1999 as Red Brocade. It's mellow singer-songwriter fare, some might call it "alt country", and that Wilco's Jeff Tweedy pops up here should give you a sense of what you're getting, as sonically, all the songs here could have been Wilco tracks. Released under license from Easy Action Records, UK. The original album released on gatefold cover double LP with inner sleeves, remastered and with liner notes by Kevin Junior (The Chamber Strings).
BUH RECORDS (PERU)
BR 148LP
 
PRICE: $31.50
CAT #: BR 148LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
VA Territorio Del Eco: Experimentalismos & Visiones de lo Ancestral en el Peru (1975-1989) LP
First compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1988, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music, sought to integrate the sounds of Andean, Afro-Peruvian, and Amazonian cultures in search of a new musical universe. Native instruments and folk melodies were used in compositions that demanded modern recording techniques and electronic sounds. This generation was articulated in Lima and was made up of musicians such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Julio Algendones "Chocolate", and Corina Bartra. But more than a movement, it was a set of individuals from dissimilar origins, who came from rock, jazz, contemporary classical, and popular music, but also from the visual arts and poetry, and who had in common the cultural climate of the late seventies and early eighties in a country marked by a series of social and economic transformations, as well as the emergence of new visions and insertions of Andean culture and folklore in the city. The appearance of a mythical substrate connected the work of these musicians and defined an aesthetic, based on the deconstruction of folklore and the exploration of the possibilities that indigenous instruments offered. From there, these musicians immersed themselves in abstract, but also symbolic and conceptual forms. In many cases, they were strongly influenced by jazz and were keen to explore the possibilities of the recording studio. Territorio Del Eco: Experimentalismos & Visiones de lo Ancestral en el Perú (1975-1989) -- The Land of Echo: Experimentalisms and Visions of the Ancestral in Peru (1975-1989), in English -- is a compilation that offers an overview of what was one of the moments of greatest creative intensity for experimental music in Peru in its encounter with indigenous sounds. A collection of unpublished and loss pieces, rescued from private archives and limited editions on cassette, these pieces are reissued for the first time in vinyl LP format. Includes eight-page booklet with extensive notes written by Luis Alvarado, author of the compilation, as well as much visual documentation. Cover art by Paloma Pizarro. Beneficiary project of the Economic Stimuli for Culture of the Ministry of Culture of Peru. Edition of 300.
BR 157LP
 
PRICE: $30.50
CAT #: BR 157LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
GURUN GURUN Uzu Oto LP
Gurun Gurun is made up of Tarnovski, Tomás Knoflí?ek, Federsel, and Ond?ej Jezek who took their name from the fictional planet in the old school Slovak children's TV show She Came Out of the Blue Sky. Since the beginning, it has been clear that apprehending their working and reflecting it would be a tough nut to crack. Is this even a band? Do they play compositions or is it all improvised? On the stage, you see four men hunched over tables overflowing with strange objects, hard-to-identify electronic devices, musical and non-musical instruments, and a chaotic tangle of cables, producing slow, constantly developing melodies and a hypnotic atmosphere that works a little like falling through a strange wormhole full of sounds, noises, and soft female vocals, mercilessly sucking you in, forcing you to collapse into yourself and enter a parallel universe. This new album, Uzu Oto, featured the Kyoto-based singer Cuushe and Asuna, a sound artist from Kanazawa, was also created in concert -- each track at a different show. Despite this fact, GG do not consider it a traditional live album. And as this group generally exists independently of the common conception of time, the history of the new recording reaches back to before their previous record, Kon B (HOMEN 074CD, 2015). Attending a Gurun Gurun concert is like taking part in an expedition by a pack of monkeys to explore the wreckage of a spaceship that was shipwrecked a long time ago. Their improvised live sets are a mix of post-club-music deconstruction, metamorphosed acoustic and electronic sounds, generative music, and musique concrète. This is also the spirit of Uzu Oto. No, this is not music to play while you wash the dishes. Or perhaps it is, but you have to factor in the fact that the dishes will become a tangle of roots, threads, ropes, lianas, and spider webs. And that your entire kitchen may well catch on fire. Mixed by Tarnovski. Mastered by Jezek. Artwork by Petr Válek. Edition of 300.
BUREAU B (GERMANY)
BB 386CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 386CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
ZOBEL, DIETER MEZ 31,00 (Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1989) CD
Serendipitously coinciding with the publication of a second book, Magnetizdat DDR, Bureau B now revisit the experimental electronic underground of the German Democratic Republic with two releases: Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde (BB 387CD/LP), a collection of Jörg Thomasius productions spanning the years 1980 to 1990, and MEZ 31,00 by Dieter Zobel aka Didier Leboz, recorded in 1988 and released as a solo Kröten cassette in the watershed year of 1989. Das Freie Orchester emerged from the off-center environs of Prenzlauer Berg in 1985 as a wild and outstanding descendent of the so-called Komplexbrigade. Ever open to progressive tendencies, with a strong predilection for all things kraut (including Can, of course) and emboldened by the GDR free jazz which was sweeping the international scene as well as the Treptow Cultural Centre, upstairs and downstairs, the orchestra wholly identified with the concept of free expression: everything was improvised. As seriously as they took their sonic explorations, their love of unserious paronomasia was just as pronounced. Dieter Zobel, first and foremost DFO guitarist, dreamed up the Leboz brand name for the instruments he had built himself, then took DFO-speak a step further by christening his devices sadophone and masophone or Metallic Noise Masturbator, names which only served as rough approximations of the bizarre sounds they generated. MEZ 31,00 was actually a rather more conventional production, based on a Yamaha CX5M purchased with Western currency left to him by his grandmother. The Yamaha would also spawn a further and possibly superior Zobel Kröten tape by the name of "Moschus". Zobel, it should be said, was not so thrilled with the instrument. Zobel, fascinated then and now by minimal music in the style of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, nevertheless got to grips with the "infernal machine" and emulated the compositional techniques of the aforementioned masters he so revered. He layered numerous loops of the same sequence but of different length to create concentrated polyrhythmic forms. Those in the know were reminded of contemporary Japanese ambient works, including Hiroshi Yoshimura's early albums or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials. In spite of his toils with tricky equipment, Zobel took his initial steps in algorhythmic composition, largely using his own devices. For around 20 years he has been crafting sequencers, samplers, synths, or effects with Native Instruments Reaktor. From hardware to software: it's a tough habit to break. Freestyle remains the modus operandi for Das Freie Orchester, who recently came together for a final album, but Zobel has also discovered his love for dub.
BB 386LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 386LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
ZOBEL, DIETER MEZ 31,00 (Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1989) LP
LP version. Serendipitously coinciding with the publication of a second book, Magnetizdat DDR, Bureau B now revisit the experimental electronic underground of the German Democratic Republic with two releases: Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde (BB 387CD/LP), a collection of Jörg Thomasius productions spanning the years 1980 to 1990, and MEZ 31,00 by Dieter Zobel aka Didier Leboz, recorded in 1988 and released as a solo Kröten cassette in the watershed year of 1989. Das Freie Orchester emerged from the off-center environs of Prenzlauer Berg in 1985 as a wild and outstanding descendent of the so-called Komplexbrigade. Ever open to progressive tendencies, with a strong predilection for all things kraut (including Can, of course) and emboldened by the GDR free jazz which was sweeping the international scene as well as the Treptow Cultural Centre, upstairs and downstairs, the orchestra wholly identified with the concept of free expression: everything was improvised. As seriously as they took their sonic explorations, their love of unserious paronomasia was just as pronounced. Dieter Zobel, first and foremost DFO guitarist, dreamed up the Leboz brand name for the instruments he had built himself, then took DFO-speak a step further by christening his devices sadophone and masophone or Metallic Noise Masturbator, names which only served as rough approximations of the bizarre sounds they generated. MEZ 31,00 was actually a rather more conventional production, based on a Yamaha CX5M purchased with Western currency left to him by his grandmother. The Yamaha would also spawn a further and possibly superior Zobel Kröten tape by the name of "Moschus". Zobel, it should be said, was not so thrilled with the instrument. Zobel, fascinated then and now by minimal music in the style of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, nevertheless got to grips with the "infernal machine" and emulated the compositional techniques of the aforementioned masters he so revered. He layered numerous loops of the same sequence but of different length to create concentrated polyrhythmic forms. Those in the know were reminded of contemporary Japanese ambient works, including Hiroshi Yoshimura's early albums or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials. In spite of his toils with tricky equipment, Zobel took his initial steps in algorhythmic composition, largely using his own devices. For around 20 years he has been crafting sequencers, samplers, synths, or effects with Native Instruments Reaktor. From hardware to software: it's a tough habit to break. Freestyle remains the modus operandi for Das Freie Orchester, who recently came together for a final album, but Zobel has also discovered his love for dub.
BB 387CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 387CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
THOMASIUS, JORG Acht Gesange der schwarzen Hunde (Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1980-1990) CD
Jörg Thomasius, otherwise known as Tomato, born in East Berlin in 1955, discovered progressive sounds in the early 1970s. He was increasingly drawn towards the electronic signals emanating from West Berlin, so close and yet so far away, carried on radio waves through the Iron Curtain and surfacing sporadically in eager record collector circles on the eastern side of the wall. A Venn diagram of interests brought Tomato into the same space as Andreas Grosser, renowned today for his legendary microphone repair skills. Grosser's Dutch father had lost no time establishing contact with the West Berlin scene, sourcing equipment for congenial zeitgeist trips in his Berlin-Biesdorf garden arbor. On seeing this wired-up chamber of wonders in late 1977, Thomasius was catapulted into the world of electronics. It was here that he would meet Terry Riley, handing out LSD on his eastern expedition. Grosser became a kind of mentor to Thomasius, who had started to explore the tape format. Thomasius also struck up a rapport with Conrad Schnitzler and the pair spoke regularly on the telephone until they were finally able to meet in person in 1985. Thomasius had been working on a GDR radio show called Trend since 1981, albeit outside of any legal structures, and in 1982 he began writing "Innovation under adverse conditions" copy for the English Eurock fanzine Neumusik alongside the GDR mainstream producer Wolfgang Fuchs from Pond. He was also a member of Das Freie Orchester (until 1989). Kröten Kassetten was founded to cater to DFO and any solo or duo jaunts. Thomasius worked as a boilerman and exhibition technician for the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR. Ken Montgomery, who ran the American label Generations Unlimited, organized an illegal Schnitzler performance in East Berlin's Church of the Redeemer in 1986 which was also made available via Kröten channels, whilst the Thomasius LP Tomato was released on Generations Unlimited in 1989. The material collected on Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde comes from three places: the Schwarze Hände cassette with productions from 1980-1985, released on Werner Piepner's Transmitter label, the 1989 Kröten cassette Gesänge der Komparsen and After Eight from the year 1990, issued on the Tomato label after Thomasius had left the DFO. Spanning a full decade, the selection presents Thomasius as the multifaceted artist he is, even if he sees himself as more of an experimental DIY sonic creator: spherical, elegiac sounds float around whimsical jewels of extreme playfulness, weaving obscure vocal fragments into strange minimal constructs.
BB 387LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 387LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
THOMASIUS, JORG Acht Gesange der schwarzen Hunde (Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1980-1990) LP
LP version. Jörg Thomasius, otherwise known as Tomato, born in East Berlin in 1955, discovered progressive sounds in the early 1970s. He was increasingly drawn towards the electronic signals emanating from West Berlin, so close and yet so far away, carried on radio waves through the Iron Curtain and surfacing sporadically in eager record collector circles on the eastern side of the wall. A Venn diagram of interests brought Tomato into the same space as Andreas Grosser, renowned today for his legendary microphone repair skills. Grosser's Dutch father had lost no time establishing contact with the West Berlin scene, sourcing equipment for congenial zeitgeist trips in his Berlin-Biesdorf garden arbor. On seeing this wired-up chamber of wonders in late 1977, Thomasius was catapulted into the world of electronics. It was here that he would meet Terry Riley, handing out LSD on his eastern expedition. Grosser became a kind of mentor to Thomasius, who had started to explore the tape format. Thomasius also struck up a rapport with Conrad Schnitzler and the pair spoke regularly on the telephone until they were finally able to meet in person in 1985. Thomasius had been working on a GDR radio show called Trend since 1981, albeit outside of any legal structures, and in 1982 he began writing "Innovation under adverse conditions" copy for the English Eurock fanzine Neumusik alongside the GDR mainstream producer Wolfgang Fuchs from Pond. He was also a member of Das Freie Orchester (until 1989). Kröten Kassetten was founded to cater to DFO and any solo or duo jaunts. Thomasius worked as a boilerman and exhibition technician for the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR. Ken Montgomery, who ran the American label Generations Unlimited, organized an illegal Schnitzler performance in East Berlin's Church of the Redeemer in 1986 which was also made available via Kröten channels, whilst the Thomasius LP Tomato was released on Generations Unlimited in 1989. The material collected on Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde comes from three places: the Schwarze Hände cassette with productions from 1980-1985, released on Werner Piepner's Transmitter label, the 1989 Kröten cassette Gesänge der Komparsen and After Eight from the year 1990, issued on the Tomato label after Thomasius had left the DFO. Spanning a full decade, the selection presents Thomasius as the multifaceted artist he is, even if he sees himself as more of an experimental DIY sonic creator: spherical, elegiac sounds float around whimsical jewels of extreme playfulness, weaving obscure vocal fragments into strange minimal constructs.
BB 392CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 392CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
FAUST Punkt CD
After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release."The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder
BB 392LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 392LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
FAUST Punkt LP
LP version. After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release."The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder
BB 397CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 397CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
VON DER SCHULENBURG (RVDS), RICHARD Cosmic Diversity CD
"Hamburg synthesist Richard von der Schulenburg returns to Bureau B with the follow-up to last year's Moods & Dances 2021 (BB 365CD/LP, 2021), harnessing hardware crunch, cryptic found sounds, and field recordings on a mission for Cosmic Diversity. Taking inspiration from the haunting electronica of Boards of Canada and Plaid, refracted here through the half-life of a Zeiss lens, RVDS navigates the musical multiverse, simultaneously straddling electro, IDM, kosmische, and dub across eight exploratory compositions. Created during lockdown as an escape from the insular, this LP looks outward but reaches inwards with emotive melodies at every turn. Opening in adagio, 'Schoolyard Sweets' sets the scene in mournful monochrome, its dislocated vocal samples cascading over a snaking bassline while a gloomy waveform detunes through to the final resolution. 'Darkest Planet' latches on to a faltering radio broadcast before falling foul of a Möbius loop, the repeated vocal mutating endlessly within a maze of brittle percussion. A needling sequence suggests we're destined for the event horizon, where the synth wavers between a sigh and a scream. There's a brief glimpse of daylight via 'Daily Circles', though its birdsong slowly melts into bat calls as somber organ and back masked vocals soundtrack a black mass. Schulenburg takes us to the midpoint with stately synthscape 'Future Night', a tone poem which perfectly paves the way for the titular Cosmic Diversity. Blasting the pastoral vision of MHTRTC into orbit, this celestial bossa looks back on Planet Earth with some necessary perspective, its crystalline lead capturing the beauty and fragility of our planet perfectly. 'Reset My Brain' sees RVDS push the pace, pairing a snapping electro breakbeat with the low end rumble of a Sheffield bassline, tunnelling into the heart of the dancefloor before those golden tones begin to bloom. Shades of industrial dancehall and Detroit's originators color 'Dance Of The Plutos', an intergalactic raga-cum-ragga snarler which shows just enough restraint not to melt the wax. Schulenburg signs off with the pastoral beauty of 'Rain In Romance', a transcendental blend of wordless chanting, detuned bells, gentle rainfall and Berlin school electronics which brings Cosmic Diversity's stylistic journey full circle." --Patrick Ryder
BB 397LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 397LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
VON DER SCHULENBURG (RVDS), RICHARD Cosmic Diversity LP
LP version. "Hamburg synthesist Richard von der Schulenburg returns to Bureau B with the follow-up to last year's Moods & Dances 2021 (BB 365CD/LP, 2021), harnessing hardware crunch, cryptic found sounds, and field recordings on a mission for Cosmic Diversity. Taking inspiration from the haunting electronica of Boards of Canada and Plaid, refracted here through the half-life of a Zeiss lens, RVDS navigates the musical multiverse, simultaneously straddling electro, IDM, kosmische, and dub across eight exploratory compositions. Created during lockdown as an escape from the insular, this LP looks outward but reaches inwards with emotive melodies at every turn. Opening in adagio, 'Schoolyard Sweets' sets the scene in mournful monochrome, its dislocated vocal samples cascading over a snaking bassline while a gloomy waveform detunes through to the final resolution. 'Darkest Planet' latches on to a faltering radio broadcast before falling foul of a Möbius loop, the repeated vocal mutating endlessly within a maze of brittle percussion. A needling sequence suggests we're destined for the event horizon, where the synth wavers between a sigh and a scream. There's a brief glimpse of daylight via 'Daily Circles', though its birdsong slowly melts into bat calls as somber organ and back masked vocals soundtrack a black mass. Schulenburg takes us to the midpoint with stately synthscape 'Future Night', a tone poem which perfectly paves the way for the titular Cosmic Diversity. Blasting the pastoral vision of MHTRTC into orbit, this celestial bossa looks back on Planet Earth with some necessary perspective, its crystalline lead capturing the beauty and fragility of our planet perfectly. 'Reset My Brain' sees RVDS push the pace, pairing a snapping electro breakbeat with the low end rumble of a Sheffield bassline, tunnelling into the heart of the dancefloor before those golden tones begin to bloom. Shades of industrial dancehall and Detroit's originators color 'Dance Of The Plutos', an intergalactic raga-cum-ragga snarler which shows just enough restraint not to melt the wax. Schulenburg signs off with the pastoral beauty of 'Rain In Romance', a transcendental blend of wordless chanting, detuned bells, gentle rainfall and Berlin school electronics which brings Cosmic Diversity's stylistic journey full circle." --Patrick Ryder
BB 401CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 401CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
TENOR, JIMI Multiversum CD
"Jimi Tenor has always been something of a Renaissance man. On leaving his Finnish homeland for New York in the early 1990s, and later as he travelled through Europe, he quickly discovered what he calls his ikigai, his great joy in life: to record and produce music in DIY mode at home with the most rudimentary of means, spontaneously and intuitively. In more than 30 years of making music, Tenor has remained true to his ideal, whether as a solo artist on his early electronic albums or in the widely diverse collaborations and constellations which followed (with the likes of Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu, Abdissa Assefa). Multiversum is now his third album for Hamburg-based label Bureau B. Jimi Tenor and Bureau B first teamed up in 2020 on the former's NY, Hel, Barca retrospective (BB 333CD/LP) and continued their association with the release of Deep Sound Learning (BB 366CD/LP), a collection of rarities, in spring 2021. Whilst Tenor has predominantly released jazz and Afrobeat records over the past two decades, his live performances have often seen him return to his minimalist roots. Enthralled by how Jimi Tenor the solo artist conjured up his space music with just a synthesizer, flute and saxophone, Bureau B ultimately invited him to record an album with this basic and yet astoundingly effective set-up. Within just a few months, Tenor delivered an impressive selection of new pieces to Bureau B; all recorded in his Helsinki home studio. These tracks are now presented on Multiversum, a record which provides further proof of Jimi Tenor's versatility. Based on drum machine beats and synthesizer loops, Tenor's music invites the listener to drift into open, limitless expanses -- he is a master of the unforeseeable, audibly infusing all twelve new tunes with a sense of joie de vivre and intuition, with no recourse to standards. Multiversum is a declaration of love to the DIY spirit, somewhere between bedroom jazz and deviant techno. As a counterpoint to the album release, Omniverse is one of the first books to be published in Bureau B/Tapete Records joint venture with the Mainz-based publisher Ventil. It is an impressive portrait of the artist, packed with photos and stories documenting Jimi Tenor's life and career in music." --Daniel Jahn
BB 401LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 401LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
TENOR, JIMI Multiversum LP
LP version. "Jimi Tenor has always been something of a Renaissance man. On leaving his Finnish homeland for New York in the early 1990s, and later as he travelled through Europe, he quickly discovered what he calls his ikigai, his great joy in life: to record and produce music in DIY mode at home with the most rudimentary of means, spontaneously and intuitively. In more than 30 years of making music, Tenor has remained true to his ideal, whether as a solo artist on his early electronic albums or in the widely diverse collaborations and constellations which followed (with the likes of Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu, Abdissa Assefa). Multiversum is now his third album for Hamburg-based label Bureau B. Jimi Tenor and Bureau B first teamed up in 2020 on the former's NY, Hel, Barca retrospective (BB 333CD/LP) and continued their association with the release of Deep Sound Learning (BB 366CD/LP), a collection of rarities, in spring 2021. Whilst Tenor has predominantly released jazz and Afrobeat records over the past two decades, his live performances have often seen him return to his minimalist roots. Enthralled by how Jimi Tenor the solo artist conjured up his space music with just a synthesizer, flute and saxophone, Bureau B ultimately invited him to record an album with this basic and yet astoundingly effective set-up. Within just a few months, Tenor delivered an impressive selection of new pieces to Bureau B; all recorded in his Helsinki home studio. These tracks are now presented on Multiversum, a record which provides further proof of Jimi Tenor's versatility. Based on drum machine beats and synthesizer loops, Tenor's music invites the listener to drift into open, limitless expanses -- he is a master of the unforeseeable, audibly infusing all twelve new tunes with a sense of joie de vivre and intuition, with no recourse to standards. Multiversum is a declaration of love to the DIY spirit, somewhere between bedroom jazz and deviant techno. As a counterpoint to the album release, Omniverse is one of the first books to be published in Bureau B/Tapete Records joint venture with the Mainz-based publisher Ventil. It is an impressive portrait of the artist, packed with photos and stories documenting Jimi Tenor's life and career in music." --Daniel Jahn
BB 403CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 403CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
SCHNITZLER & WOLF SEQUENZA, CONRAD Consequenz II CD
Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to numerous solo releases Schnitzler was also involved in various band formations not least Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Representing another of his musical landmarks are the Consequenz releases. Consequenz II emerged from a collaboration with Wolfgang Seidel alias Wolf Sequenza, and is the follow-up project to Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP) which was a low-budget production that had an overriding aim of liberating music from its elitist circles in a "Beuys-ian" sense. Consequenz II returned to the theme with electronic apparatus that professionalized the sound but by no means reduced the fun he found in experimentation."... Schnitzler had studied sculpture under Joseph Beuys and the statement echoed his teacher's philosophy: 'Everyone is an artist.' The flyer continued in similar vein: 'ERUPTION are freeing the prisoners from their ivory towers.' Schnitzler viewed art as social practice, not the realm of specialists. Anyone could get involved. You didn't even need to be able to play an instrument. The flyer also announced: 'Members of the audience who bring transistor radios will get reduced admission if they play music on their radios inside the venue.' That was back in 1971, ten years before we produced and recorded the Consequenz LP. We included instructions inside the sleeve for setting up just such a project with the minimum of technical fuss, inviting submissions which used the record as a playback tool . . . We had almost resigned ourselves to life in the ivory tower when a letter from a Spanish label (Esplendor Geometrico) reached us, asking for a sequel -- Consequenz II. It didn't take long for us to decide to accept the offer, encouraged by the fact that we would not have to finance the release out of our own pockets -- as had been the case with the first Consquenz. Certain 'secret devices' had materialized in our ivory tower in the meantime. Conrad Schnitzler had purchased an 8-track recorder with money he had earned from 'proper' art. I borrowed various bits of equipment from my band -- Populäre Mechanik -- including a drum computer, so we could really let rip. The little songs we made sounded much more 'professional' than the cheerfully low budget music of the first Consequenz . . . All we needed now was music for the B-side, but our enthusiasm for the borrowed drum computer had waned somewhat. It was always the first track we recorded, which meant that everything else had to follow its lead. The beat itself was singularly unimpressed by what came next. This was an unsatisfactory state of affairs for two players (musicians?) who had begun with free improvisation, with either of the participants able to change the direction of the whole thing..." --Wolfgang Seidel, November 2021
BB 403LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 403LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
SCHNITZLER & WOLF SEQUENZA, CONRAD Consequenz II LP
LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to numerous solo releases Schnitzler was also involved in various band formations not least Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Representing another of his musical landmarks are the Consequenz releases. Consequenz II emerged from a collaboration with Wolfgang Seidel alias Wolf Sequenza, and is the follow-up project to Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP) which was a low-budget production that had an overriding aim of liberating music from its elitist circles in a "Beuys-ian" sense. Consequenz II returned to the theme with electronic apparatus that professionalized the sound but by no means reduced the fun he found in experimentation."... Schnitzler had studied sculpture under Joseph Beuys and the statement echoed his teacher's philosophy: 'Everyone is an artist.' The flyer continued in similar vein: 'ERUPTION are freeing the prisoners from their ivory towers.' Schnitzler viewed art as social practice, not the realm of specialists. Anyone could get involved. You didn't even need to be able to play an instrument. The flyer also announced: 'Members of the audience who bring transistor radios will get reduced admission if they play music on their radios inside the venue.' That was back in 1971, ten years before we produced and recorded the Consequenz LP. We included instructions inside the sleeve for setting up just such a project with the minimum of technical fuss, inviting submissions which used the record as a playback tool . . . We had almost resigned ourselves to life in the ivory tower when a letter from a Spanish label (Esplendor Geometrico) reached us, asking for a sequel -- Consequenz II. It didn't take long for us to decide to accept the offer, encouraged by the fact that we would not have to finance the release out of our own pockets -- as had been the case with the first Consquenz. Certain 'secret devices' had materialized in our ivory tower in the meantime. Conrad Schnitzler had purchased an 8-track recorder with money he had earned from 'proper' art. I borrowed various bits of equipment from my band -- Populäre Mechanik -- including a drum computer, so we could really let rip. The little songs we made sounded much more 'professional' than the cheerfully low budget music of the first Consequenz . . . All we needed now was music for the B-side, but our enthusiasm for the borrowed drum computer had waned somewhat. It was always the first track we recorded, which meant that everything else had to follow its lead. The beat itself was singularly unimpressed by what came next. This was an unsatisfactory state of affairs for two players (musicians?) who had begun with free improvisation, with either of the participants able to change the direction of the whole thing..." --Wolfgang Seidel, November 2021
BB 409CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 409CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
JAUMET & FABRIZIO RAT, ETIENNE Etienne Jaumet & Fabrizio Rat CD
On their self-titled debut album Etienne Jaumet and Fabrizio Rat, both trained pianists, re-invent their favorite instrument to make you hear it in a totally new way. While the former creates unusual sounds thanks to the rhythmic machines that accompany his piano, the latter uses this classical and romantic instrument par excellence to explore the techno sphere. "The basic idea of our duo is to confront the harmonic richness of the piano and the synthesizer through rhythm. To explore our interactions through live music. To develop new atmospheres thanks to the evocative power of unusual sounds. Somewhere between ambient and sound experimentation..." Simple musical ideas are repeated and transformed in an extremely gradual process, investigating the possibilities of these two very different sound sources. Fabrizio's playing technique on the piano is anything but conventional. He choses to employ only a few notes from the 88 keys available, and uses his left hand to transform the piano sound by manipulating the strings on different points with his fingers. His goal is to produce acoustic filtering and harmonic effects normally associated with electronic music. Etienne is a sonic sculptor who uses his modular synthesizer to create modulations and sonic mantras that evolve over time. His sounds are warm and alive. They hypnotize the listener in a mental vortex. The real focus of the duo is sonic transformation, departing from basic melodic and rhythmical elements. The harmonic richness of the acoustic piano mixes with the modulating lines of the modular filters creating unheard textures. The listeners are captured in a trip between trance and hypnosis, punctuated by the sparse hits of a drum machine. "Rive Opposte" opens with a repeated note modulated throughout the track in ever different ways while the piano unfolds a pattern played in harmonics, on the lower piano strings. In "Sentiero" the same melodic idea is played by both instruments in unison, repeated over and over while the modular timbre evolves very gradually -- the piano displaces the melody through the octaves and harmonizes it in ever changing ways. "Visione Pop" has a playful character. Permutations of a three-note pattern at the piano respond to a captivating melody on the modular. The two elements evolve independently, exploring various sonic possibilities and playing techniques. The resulting album from this collaboration is a deeply hypnotic trip, exploring novel sonic mixtures between the acoustic and electronic world.
BB 409LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 409LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
JAUMET & FABRIZIO RAT, ETIENNE Etienne Jaumet & Fabrizio Rat LP
LP version. On their self-titled debut album Etienne Jaumet and Fabrizio Rat, both trained pianists, re-invent their favorite instrument to make you hear it in a totally new way. While the former creates unusual sounds thanks to the rhythmic machines that accompany his piano, the latter uses this classical and romantic instrument par excellence to explore the techno sphere. "The basic idea of our duo is to confront the harmonic richness of the piano and the synthesizer through rhythm. To explore our interactions through live music. To develop new atmospheres thanks to the evocative power of unusual sounds. Somewhere between ambient and sound experimentation..." Simple musical ideas are repeated and transformed in an extremely gradual process, investigating the possibilities of these two very different sound sources. Fabrizio's playing technique on the piano is anything but conventional. He choses to employ only a few notes from the 88 keys available, and uses his left hand to transform the piano sound by manipulating the strings on different points with his fingers. His goal is to produce acoustic filtering and harmonic effects normally associated with electronic music. Etienne is a sonic sculptor who uses his modular synthesizer to create modulations and sonic mantras that evolve over time. His sounds are warm and alive. They hypnotize the listener in a mental vortex. The real focus of the duo is sonic transformation, departing from basic melodic and rhythmical elements. The harmonic richness of the acoustic piano mixes with the modulating lines of the modular filters creating unheard textures. The listeners are captured in a trip between trance and hypnosis, punctuated by the sparse hits of a drum machine. "Rive Opposte" opens with a repeated note modulated throughout the track in ever different ways while the piano unfolds a pattern played in harmonics, on the lower piano strings. In "Sentiero" the same melodic idea is played by both instruments in unison, repeated over and over while the modular timbre evolves very gradually -- the piano displaces the melody through the octaves and harmonizes it in ever changing ways. "Visione Pop" has a playful character. Permutations of a three-note pattern at the piano respond to a captivating melody on the modular. The two elements evolve independently, exploring various sonic possibilities and playing techniques. The resulting album from this collaboration is a deeply hypnotic trip, exploring novel sonic mixtures between the acoustic and electronic world.
BB 411CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: BB 411CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD Con 84 CD
Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the kraut-electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is Con 84, probably his most composed work, on which he challenges the traditions of so-called Ernste Musik. The result is a complex electronic sound structure that marks a break with Schnitzler's previous work in a subversive flirtation with traditionalism."... Con 84 is evidently the product of a computer-supported sound generator -- a sampler. The original LP came completer with sheet music inserts, so a music printer must also have been part of the package. It is hard to say which instruments Schnitzler had at his disposal in the early 1980s. And more to the point, where did he record these pieces? Was he still at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio? Leaving such questions aside, what really matters here is the opportunity to gain an insight into Schnitzler's complex musical imagination and powers. It appears as if he wanted to show the listener that he can still compose in the classical sense, creating a series of miniatures which are not so far away from the infinite glittering patterns of the existing Schnitzler cosmos. Con 84 lines up polyphonic compositions from start to finish. John Cage, Fluxus, randomness -- nowhere to be seen. Schnitzler the traditionalist? A highbrow composer? On the contrary. Just as he so marvelously subverted common conceptions of art, Schnitzler crafted Con 84 to sound like Ernste Musik -- serious (classical) music. He was a master of camouflage (with a wink of the eye) and repeated the trick nine years later on the French release CD Con Brio. Following Schnitzler has always meant being ready to expect the unexpected. When he could, and had the financial means to do so, Schnitzler liked to use the latest technology. Con 84 was technologically advanced for its time, yet the music was paradoxically conventional..." --Asmus Tietchens, 2022
BB 411LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: BB 411LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD Con 84 LP
LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the kraut-electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is Con 84, probably his most composed work, on which he challenges the traditions of so-called Ernste Musik. The result is a complex electronic sound structure that marks a break with Schnitzler's previous work in a subversive flirtation with traditionalism."... Con 84 is evidently the product of a computer-supported sound generator -- a sampler. The original LP came completer with sheet music inserts, so a music printer must also have been part of the package. It is hard to say which instruments Schnitzler had at his disposal in the early 1980s. And more to the point, where did he record these pieces? Was he still at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio? Leaving such questions aside, what really matters here is the opportunity to gain an insight into Schnitzler's complex musical imagination and powers. It appears as if he wanted to show the listener that he can still compose in the classical sense, creating a series of miniatures which are not so far away from the infinite glittering patterns of the existing Schnitzler cosmos. Con 84 lines up polyphonic compositions from start to finish. John Cage, Fluxus, randomness -- nowhere to be seen. Schnitzler the traditionalist? A highbrow composer? On the contrary. Just as he so marvelously subverted common conceptions of art, Schnitzler crafted Con 84 to sound like Ernste Musik -- serious (classical) music. He was a master of camouflage (with a wink of the eye) and repeated the trick nine years later on the French release CD Con Brio. Following Schnitzler has always meant being ready to expect the unexpected. When he could, and had the financial means to do so, Schnitzler liked to use the latest technology. Con 84 was technologically advanced for its time, yet the music was paradoxically conventional..." --Asmus Tietchens, 2022
BB 413LP
 
PRICE: $35.00
CAT #: BB 413LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
VA Silberland - Vol. 1: The Psychedelic Side Of Kosmische Musik 2LP
LP version. Bureau B invite you on an expedition to Silberland, a singular span of spacetime created by Germany's sonic futurists of the seventies and eighties. Embracing the early electronics and tape experiments of the sixties' avant-garde, these artists aimed to boldly go, eschewing small steps for giant leaps into a nebulous and novel sound. The kosmische generation emerged from the revolutionary student movement of '67 and '68, opposing any lingering political ties to Nazism and occupying the cultural vacuum which endured long after the post-war era. Encompassing both better known and more obscure artists, this collection is a trip into the psychedelic and cerebral strain of this amorphous genre, pairing the pulsating and propulsive with moments of cosmic calm.Opener "Strahlsund" by Die Partei serves as the national anthem for this no-place, its utopian melodies and stately rhythm evoking an optimism which is swiftly skewed by the chrome tones and snapping percussion of Ralf Trostel's "Two Face". The delirious drive of Michael Bundt's "Full Steam Ahead" embraces the uncanny as jarring bursts of laughter drown out a serpentine topline before the fever breaks into the cold sweat of Moebius' "Etwas", a sweet synth sonata decorated with detuned keys. "Scharfer Schnitt (No1)" is the first suggestion of Silberland's full scope, the Populäre Mechanik A-side fusing postpunk and dubby funk and perfectly paving the way for the ritualistic stomp of Roedelius' trance-dancing "Regenmacher". Splitting the difference between Berlin and Düsseldorf schools, Tyndall offers the typically glittering "Großstadtgefühl", which smoothly segues into the synth scree of Conrad Schnitzler's beatless and balletic "Bis Die Blaue Blume Blüht". The zero-gravity drift continues with a contribution from Cologne's Phantom Band, who achieve an effortless groove while Bernd Kistenmacher takes you to the midpoint with the deep space repetition and Teutonic tessellations of "Quitting Time". The return journey begins with the beauty and sadness of Heiko Maile's "Nachtspaziergang" then sidesteps into a punkish pair from Moebius & Plank and Faust. If this bristling brace toyed with the terrestrial, Riechmann takes an aerial view of Earth via "Weltweit" and Asmus Tietchens strays way too close to the sun with a playful take on Venusian exotica. Things take a turn for the psychedelic via the Arabesque piano of Cluster's transformative "Avanti" and Günter Schickert's strung-out and smoldering "Wanderer", before the roving sequences of You's "Live Line" fire up the hyperdrive for a foray into warp speed. Cutting the thrusters almost entirely, the synthesist himself Harald Grosskopf takes the controls for re-entry, gliding through the upper atmosphere on the heartfelt waveforms of "Emphasis", cushioning the craft into Eno, Moebius and Roedelius' hypnagogic "Base & Apex".
CLOCKTOWER (CANADA)
CT 119-10
 
PRICE: $32.50
CAT #: CT 119-10
FILE UNDER: WORLD
SCIENTIST Scientific Dub 3x10" BOX
2022 restock. Deluxe 3x10" boxset version with 2 bonus tracks not on the regular LP version: "Queen of the Icotion" and "Party Time on Enterprise." On colored vinyl. "A virtual wizard of the mixing desk, Overton H Brown has been one of the key figures in dub since the late 1970s. Getting his start as a teenager at King Tubby's legendary studio in Waterhouse, Brown was known as 'The Scientist' because his imaginative approach to the mixing desk and electronic gadgetry seemed to derive from magical powers that linked him to some intangible, futuristic realm."
COLOPHON RECORDS
COLP 001LP
 
PRICE: $21.00
CAT #: COLP 001LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
GRAY/SMITH Gray/Smith LP
"In the Fall of 1971 ABC-TV debuted a new western called Alias Smith and Jones, about two outlaw cousins in Wyoming Territory in the years after the Civil War. At the 1994 WFMU Fall Record Fair, John Allen had a box of LPs categorized as 'Beard Rock.' On Thursday February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester NY, the Grateful Dead debuted a new Garcia/Hunter tune called 'Wharf Rat.' On Friday May 6, 2022 the NYC duo, Gray/Smith released their eponymous debut LP. Draw a line between these dates on an Angus Maclise Universal Solar Calendar and you'll start to wonder why you hadn't noticed the connection between these events earlier. L Gray, sometimes known as Llilw Gray, started showing up on the fringes of NYC event hustles in the Mid-Teens. There were DJ gigs and live sessions with tapes, electronics and whatnot done in concord with humans like Tom Thayer and Chie Mukai. Odd pulsing events here and there, sometimes whistling like a rotten-toothed record collector being used as the devil's own nose flute. But it was usually dark (very dark) when things were 'going down,' so you couldn't really be sure what was happening. It seemed like a beard was involved, and a big one at that. Whisper campaigns linked Gray's name to Keith NNCK, but no one could ever confirm. Still, there was a whisp of Hint House Memories in the air. Rob Smith's name is easier to pronounce. And unlike Gray, he can be found playing with actual bands like Rhyton and Pigeons and various ensembles associated with the steel guitar of Barry Walker. These things can be known. And they also carry a whiff of Hint, but by knowing them, we can come close to understanding them. And we can infer then perhaps, at least this time, that where there is a beard, there is Beard Rock. And with the release of the Gray/Smith album we can begin to get some answers to our questions about where and what the music on this album actually is. When I asked Gray to describe it, he said it was, 'country.' And while I can accept that as true, it does not tell you very much. Because the music here, produced by the duo of L. Gray and R. Smith, is only about as country as it is psychedelic. And it's only about as psychedelic as it is lazy. And it's only about as lazy as it is instrumental. And it's only about as instrumental as it is utopian. And it's only about as utopian as it is urban. And so on. There are a couple vocal tracks, but they don't tell us much. They seem based on the presumption that a certain type of country music ceased to exist with the death of Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan. But through light fingered application of drums and guitar and sheer weirdness they also offer the notion that this non-existence need not continue. The music offers a hand up from the form-hole in which we find ourselves today, nearly four decades after Ron left the planet. And I don't mean to assure you that Gray/Smith have found THEE fucking answer or anything. But I'll be damned if their questions don't seem like the exact right ones for the pickle in which we find ourselves. And if it's time to saddle up a beard and ride it straight into the exploding helix of a sunset penned in blobs of acid-time by the late Rick Griffin, then let us fucking do it. And while we do it, let this magnificently humble Gray/Smith album be our soundtrack. So say we all." --Byron Coley. Cover silkscreened by SIWA.
COMPUTER STUDENTS
CS 005LP
 
PRICE: $31.50
CAT #: CS 005LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
BIG'N Discipline Through Sound 25 2LP
The 25th anniversary edition of the noise-rock band's undisputed masterpiece recorded by Steve Albini. Remastered edition including a big booklet and a bonus disc of demos, outtakes, and unreleased tracks. Discipline Through Sound 25 is the new album by Big'n, a noise-rock band from Chicago that formed in 1990. At the time, the band consisted of vocalist William Akins, guitarist Todd Johnson, bassist Mike Chartrand, and drummer Brian Wnukowski. This outstanding expanded reissue was intended to come out in 2021 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Discipline Through Sound, Big'n's indisputable masterpiece originally released on Gasoline Boost in 1996, but was delayed due to a PVC shortage and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. DTS 25 is a massive album. It contains two pieces of superb-quality vinyl with a reissue and remaster of Discipline Through Sound on the first disc. Side C contains unreleased demos from the album. As for Side D, it contains three previously CD-only tracks from a split with OXES (1999) -- plus two never-before-heard outtakes. Don't miss your chance to own a brilliant, undersung artifact of '90s noise-rock in Chicago -- refreshed, expanded, and more venomous than ever before. The release is supplemented by a 12-page booklet featuring never-before-seen photos of the band, a foreword by Steve Albini, and writings from Big'n's associates. 6mm spine gatefold cover with matte finish. Housed in a sleek, tactile, Type-2 aluminum packaging newly developed and designed by Computer Students.
CTHULHU FHTAGN RECORDS (POLAND)
RLYEH 003LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: RLYEH 003LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
CRAMPS, THE Halloween In Heels LP
Halloween 1996 gig. With rare tracks such as "Dinner With Drac", etc. Limited pressing, includes poster.
DAMAGED GOODS (UK)
DAMGOOD 560LP
 
PRICE: $21.00
CAT #: DAMGOOD 560LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
COURETTES, THE Back In Mono LP
"Brand new studio album from your favorite Brazilian/Danish garage rock duo! The Courettes are back... Back In Mono!!! The Courettes proudly present their third album, Back In Mono. It's a milestone in their career so far. You can look forward to some 'spit 'n'snarl garage rumble-meets-Phil Spector pop' showcasing the band in top form -- great songwriting skills, Spector-esque arrangements, with broader nuances, influences and production qualities added to their garage rock recipe. Fourteen Wagnerian teen-trash-tragedy masterpieces -- it's as if The Ronettes and The Ramones were invited to a wild party in Gold Star Studios' echo chamber. Fuzz guitars, loud drums, trashy pianos, jingle bells, tambourines and three-minute dance floor garage killers where a Wall of Sound blasts the songs out of the speakers! Produced and recorded by Søren Christensen at Starr Sound Recording Studios in Denmark and mixed by top producer/wall of sound aficionado Seiki Sato in Japan."
DE LA CATESSEN RECORDS (AUSTRALIA)
DLC 003LP
 
PRICE: $27.50
CAT #: DLC 003LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
WHITTINGTON, STEPHEN Final Fragments - Piano Music of David Kotlowy LP
2021 release. Final Fragments is the first album dedicated to the music of quiet revolutionary David Kotlowy, and surveys his piano music from the early '90s to the '00s. Kotlowy's music is often extremely delicate, sometimes straddles the threshold of audibility, and creates pregnant silences, producing a maximum effect from a limited amount of material. Among the selections on this record are examples of his gorgeous and original "breath pieces", in which the duration of musical notes and gestures are determined exclusively by the performer's unhurried breathing. Stephen Whittington's performances of new piano music have long been celebrated worldwide, but until now he has been extremely elusive on disc. De la Catessen Records presents his first commercial album as solo pianist. Since the 1970s, he has shaped the development of new music by giving the first performances in Australia of works by Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, James Tenney, and many others."Radically beautiful, and perhaps, most of all, radically human (...) Throughout, I am struck by the music's poetics, its capacity to still the moment, and its ability to balance rigor of praxis with gentleness of touch" --Jon Dale.
DLC 005LP
 
PRICE: $23.00
CAT #: DLC 005LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
CARPENTER, ALEX Excavation Patterns LP
De la Catessen Records presents a reissue of Alex Carpenter's Excavation Patterns, originally released by the Vanished Records imprint in a tiny CDr edition in 2005. This epic four movement work for electric guitar and delay is available on vinyl for the first time. Excavation Patterns is a uniquely pervasive touchstone of Adelaide's music culture, and has since put down roots around the world among devoted aficionados of minimalism, ambient music, and improvisation. At 52 sprawling minutes in length, Excavation Patterns follows De la Catessen's 2021 release of "Chord From The Second Delphic Hymn"/"Emerging Like An Infant From The House Of Truth" by Alex Carpenter's minimalist orchestra Music of Transparent Means (DLC 004LP). In contrast to that white-hot furnace of molten drones, Excavation Patterns reveals an achingly fragile and delicate side of Carpenter's work. Direct metal mastered and pressed by RAND in Leipzig; edition of 300 (hand-numbered).Alex Carpenter is an Australian-born artist and researcher living in New York City. His large-scale minimalist orchestra Music of Transparent Means won notoriety in the early 2000s, and he has since continued to expand his practice in recording and public performance."Notes fall ... like careful snowflakes ... on a slow drift into the night" --Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly.
DUB MIR (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
MIR 100741LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: MIR 100741LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
SCIENTIST Wins the World Cup LP
2022 repress; LP version. Scientist's name can be found all over any dub record collection; he was a protégé of King Tubby, and many would say that when dub fell on quieter times it was Scientist who breathed new life into it. His pared-down mixing style suited the dancehall reggae sound that arrived as the '70s rolled into the '80s. This 1982 album includes the priceless dub of Johnny Osbourne's classic "Give a Little Love," as well as further cuts of the likes of Hugh Mundell and Wayne Jarrett. Scientist is always in control. This reissue includes the complete original album (which listed its tracks only as "Five Dangerous Matches" on each side), plus six bonus tracks.
EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)
EMEGO 016LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: EMEGO 016LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
FENNESZ Hotel Paral.lel 2LP
Hotel Paral.lel, originally released by MEGO in 1997, marks the full-length debut release from Austrian Christian Fennesz. The album followed the twitching drone as found on the 1995 EP Instrument, also included in this deluxe double-LP reissue. Once launched, Hotel Paral.lel was to instigate a sublime exploration of a wide variety of forms, from formal abstraction to shimmering drone around to ground zero glitch pop. Recorded just before mobile computing devices became omnipresent it was an investigation into the sonic possibilities residing in guitar based digital music. "Sz" launches the career with a constantly buzzing sound that resembles a fax machine encountering a G3 laptop for the first time, realizing the game is up. "Nebenraum" is the first foray into the style for which one would attribute to Fennesz. A glacial drone unexpectedly morphs into a gorgeous melody and microscopic groove. Adding pulse and melody was hearsay in the radical end of experimental music up until this point and with this single gesture, everything changed, for everyone. "Blok M" nails this trajectory home with a straight up 4/4 beat. Such rhythm also features on "Fa" with a euphoric mix of a thudding beat, sharp splinters of noise and a devastating exploding melody. Repetition plays heavily through this album as the hyper metronomic beat on traxdata lays a bed for all manner of buzzing electronics. On the closing "Aus" we see a glimpse of what was to come in the future works of Fennesz, an experiment in popping, bubbling pulse pop. A far more darker and experimental work than Fennesz's subsequent work. This is an exquisite radical field of freeform noise, sliced techno beats and subtle ambient texture all coming together to create a timeless work. There's little out there in the world of music, still to this day, that sounds remotely like Hotel Paral.lel. With a radical reinvention of music Hotel Paral.lel is an essential addition to collectors of pioneering music in the late 20th century and sounds as enthralling today as it did to the shocked ears occupying 1997. Remastered by Stephan Mathieu. Vinyl cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle. Artwork by Tina Frank. First time on vinyl. Gatefold sleeve; includes download code.
EMEGO 302CD
 
PRICE: $17.50
CAT #: EMEGO 302CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
UTKU, HUMA The Psychologist CD
Editions Mego presents The Psychologist, the sophomore album by the Istanbul born and raised, Berlin based electronic music composer and sound artist Hüma Utku. As the title suggests, The Psychologist, is a series of sonic essays based around themes of psychological phenomena and can be read as a musical enquiry into the human condition. With Utku's background as a graduate of Psychology and her current practice as a conceptual music composer we see the two main threads in her professional career intertwine on this unique and ambitious release. Including recordings of Buchla 200 from Utku's Elektronmusikstudion residency in October 2020, The Psychologist is a genre aversive work that embodies elements of synthesizer music, electroacoustic, experimental techno, industrial, modern composition, and spoken word. Piano, string compositions, and vocals hold weight throughout a number of pieces providing a dramatic acoustic edge to the psychological explorations contained within. The foreboding mood of much of this release is the product of investigation that lends the unsettling theme of anticipatory grief to the mood of the tracks "Light of All Lights" and "Continuing Bonds". "Islands of Consciousness" refers to Jungian metaphor for consciousness whilst the unnerving Rüya twists around dream analysis in Gestalt psychology. "Fuel For The Flames" proceeds as a buzzing and swirling representation of alchemy and psychological symbolism. "Dissolution of I" is haunted by a strange sensation of dissociation whilst defense mechanisms support the sublime Sublimation. The bright shapes of "Chironian Wound" represent archetypes and analytical psychology whilst the fried soundscapes and rhythms of "Ataxia" encapture neurological states. The results unravel with both the clockwork rhythms of the human body and the unpredictable nature of the psyche, the pieces follow arrhythmic patterns in a harmonious way. It tells the raw and intimate story of the human experience with a new work whereby the predictable operates in parallel with the unexpected and like human experience itself, is dark and complex. The Psychologist follows Utku's debut on Karlrecords in 2019.
EFFICIENT SPACE (AUSTRALIA)
EFFICIENT 002LP
 
PRICE: $30.50
CAT #: EFFICIENT 002LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
VA Sky Girl 2LP
2022 repress. Sky Girl is a mysteriously unshakeable companion, a deeply melancholic and sentimental journey through folk-pop, new wave and art music micro presses that span 1961-1991. It's a DIY collection of different genres, from different countries across different decades, that are all bound by the same longing sentiment. A concept compilation! A seemingly disparate suite of selections of forgotten fables by more or less never-knowns, Sky Girl forms a beautifully coherent and utterly sublime whole deftly compiled by French collectors DJ Sundae and Julien Dechery. From Scott Seskind's adolescent musical road movie to Karen Marks' icy Oz-wave, the charming DIY storytelling of Italian-American go-getter Joe Tossini and the ethereal slow dance themes of Parisian artists Nini Raviolette and Hugo Weris, Sky Girl resonates on a wide spectrum historically, geographically and stylistically. It unites in a singular, longing, almost intangible ambience. If the names sound wholly unfamiliar that doesn't matter, the nature of the compositions swiftly nurtures an intimacy with these lonely, poignant, openhearted wanderers. Most were available in a very limited capacity at the time of their release, some were never really released at all - Gary Davenport declined to release "Sarra" after he split with the girl for whom the track is named - years later a friend convinced Davenport to allow him to put 100 copies online to sell and DJ Sundae was quick enough to snare one. Beyond their scarcity, these tracks are bound together by a certain raw beauty that's achievable when music is made and no one is listening. Sky Girl comprises of fifteen officially licensed songs, a two year international scavenger hunt through long-folded home label operations, the depths of internet forums and traceless acetates. Both compilers are well trained record sleuths - DJ Sundae's labels Hollie and Idle Press have reissued Arthur Russell affiliate Nirosta Steel and DIY relic Pitch, while Julien Dechery previously compiled Fire Star, a retrospective on Tamil film composer Ilaiyaraaja, for Bombay Connection. Released by popular NTS show "Noise In My Head" offshoot Efficient Space, Sky Girl is enriched with artwork from Perks and Mini mutant Misha Hollenbach and appropriately elegant sleeve notes courtesy of Ivan Smagghe. Includes digital download. Also features: Linda Smith, Bruce Langhorne, The Seraphims, Some of My Best Friends Are Canadians, The Rising Storm, Warfield Spillers, Joyce Heath, Angel, Nora Guthrie and Once.
EL PARAISO RECORDS (DENMARK)
EPR 047LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: EPR 047LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
FUTUROPACO Futuropaco LP
2022 repress. LP version. Futuropaco's debut album is the shape of things to come: it's a wet, enigmatic cocktail of part 1970s Italian library music, part kraut-alicious, beat-galore, and part riff-driven heavy psych. Justin Pinkerton, from Oakland, California, is the one-man army behind the opaque merge of seemingly different forces: from mad fuzz guitar breakdowns à la Morricone at his most intense, to the syncopated drum learnings of Jaki Liebezeit, Justin weaves a blanket of sound that's simply loaded with deep vibes: From heavily modulate Moog synths, gentle glockenspiel through amplified echo-perplexion. You almost forget that Justin's main instrument is actually the drums -- if it wasn't for the superb loaded-yet-understated grooves tying everything together in an intricate tangle. With a background as drummer and composer in famed psych-rockers Golden Void, Justin also works as a full-time film composer for library and commercial music. Futuropaco is the meeting between his two passions: it's a vivid sonic dream where abstraction melts with the strict, focused approach of cinematic cues. It almost makes you forget the murky future of America these days, which was the catalyst for this album and its title. Imminent dystopia never felt this grounded, bright and uplifting. Freedom fuzz!
EMBASSY ONE (GERMANY)
BMV 770325CD
 
PRICE: $20.50
CAT #: BMV 770325CD
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
WHOMADEWHO UUUU CD
In the years since their formation, WhoMadeWho have established themselves as one of the most important underground bands of their generation. The Danish group, consisting of Tomas Høffding, Tomas Barfod, and Jeppe Kjellberg, has an exceptional sense of emotional depth, heartbreaking melodies, and brilliant songwriting, boasting an expansive discography currently spanning a total of six albums and a plethora of EPs, singles and remixes released on labels such as Kompakt, Innervisions, and Life & Death. On the road, they are internationally renowned for their professionalism and outstanding live performances and have become regular fixtures at some of the world's most notable musical festivals, including Roskilde, Sonar, Melt!, and Burning Man to name just a few. The in-demand Scandinavian outfit now confirm details of their upcoming long player, UUUU. Set for release via long-standing German record label Embassy One, UUUU is the seventh full-length studio album from WhoMadeWho. A beautifully crafted record featuring thirteen original productions. Features Rampa, Kat Frankie, and AVA4K.
ESP-DISK
ESPDISK 1026LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: ESPDISK 1026LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
GRIMES TRIO, HENRY The Call LP
2022 repress. ESP-Disk present a vinyl reissue of Henry Grimes Trio's The Call, originally released in 1966. It has occasionally been assumed that Henry Grimes got this December 28, 1965 recording date as a reward for his long service in the avant-garde of jazz. Having already honed his musical conception with a varied range of players, from Benny Goodman and Arnett Cobb to Lee Morgan, Gerry Mulligan, and Sonny Rollins to McCoy Tyner, Steve Lacy, Albert Ayler -- including Spirits Rejoice (ESPDISK 1020CD/LP)--, Don Cherry, and Cecil Taylor (to name just a few), the service was certainly there, but he got this gig fully on his merits. For The Call, Grimes teamed with highly original clarinetist Perry Robinson (as label owner Bernard Stollman has noted, "a virtuoso who merits far wider recognition...and this recording reflects both of their contributions, in equal measure") and stalwart drummer/ESP-Disk' regular Tom Price. As a bassist, Grimes's melodic style is well up to the task of being co-equal voice with a horn, resulting in a thoughtful and texturally rewarding LP with a level of quality far above the rote sideman session cliché, and far away from equally clichéd ideas of unrelentingly full-bore free jazz. It offers the sound of three excellent musicians listening to each other and responding superbly. The Juilliard-trained Grimes appeared on six other ESP LPs besides those already mentioned. He retired at some point after the last of them, 1967's Marzette Watts LP, and went so far off the scene that it was rumored that he had died. Happily, that was not the case, and he reemerged in 2003, moved back to New York, and returned to his prolific ways until illness slowed him down and then took him from us earlier this year (2020). Standard weight vinyl featuring original artwork.
ESPDISK 3026LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: ESPDISK 3026LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
BOYKINS, RONNIE The Will Come, Is Now LP
2022 repress. Legendary Sun Ra bassist (Ronnie Boykins 1935-1980) stepped out on his own for his first and only release as a leader on The Will Come, Is Now. He was invited by ESP in 1964 to record his own album, and in February 1974, he told ESP that he was finally ready, and the session took place later that month. This recording not only features Boykins's solid abilities as a bassist, including his marvelous arco work, but also his talents as a composer and arranger. In addition, one is treated to an all-natural bass sound, a rare sound during this particular era of jazz history. In septet format, Boykins's six originals create a variety of moods and textures that not only evoke the music of Sun Ra but also reflect Boykins's own sensibilities as an artist. Original pressings, made just before ESP-Disk' went on hiatus for forty years and thus less common that other ESP LPs, often go for upwards of $150. 180 gram vinyl features original artwork.
FAITICHE (GERMANY)
FAITBACK 012LP
 
PRICE: $34.00
CAT #: FAITBACK 012LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
FARBEN textstar+ 2LP
On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colors and paints). On double-LP vinyl for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period. Another new element is the Polaroid, showing the origins of a world: Jelinek's home studio in Berlin at the time. The farben project has its roots in Jelinek's love of house as a reductionist vision of soul. Of four to the floor as a proposition that can be accessed anywhere. Of electronic dance music as a realm of possibility that can be continually expanded. farben was written as contemporary house music. As a text about excitement and euphoria. The arrangements were made directly while recording to DAT, on a twelve-channel mixing desk. Several track titles suggest a link to live concerts, coupled with the context of machine music and bedroom recording. Others affirm pop music's most extravagant stock phrases about various states of love. farben is the opposite of genre: a music spawning new terms (clicks & cuts, micro-house) that never manage to fully capture it. The four CMYK EPs are designed as a network of references that cannot be missed but that can also never be precisely deciphered. The vectors of sound, word and image point to Isaac Hayes and Ornette Coleman, to Detroit and the first generation of the Red Army Faction, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. So multifarious that they are distorted to the point of recognition. Overall, you hear sonic docufictions whose appealing vagueness derives precisely from this oscillation between clarity and ambiguity, which is also the source of their poetry: the lyricism of the pure circulation of signs. The sampler Jelinek used for these tracks had to be fed with floppy disks, imposing a memory limit of 1.44 megabytes per audio quotation from soul or jazz records. As a necessary consequence of this, the individual references, like the dots of color, are dissolved into details and abstractions. Even two decades after its original release, textstar+ does not come across as an epitaph to the modern era. Instead, it appears as a euphoric affirmation of the utopias of the twentieth century, translated into new sound texts via the aesthetic strategies of abstraction, collage, networking, and speculation. Gatefold sleeve; includes download code.
FEEDING TUBE RECORDS
FTR 586LP
 
PRICE: $32.50
CAT #: FTR 586LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
ROLIN, MATTHEW J. The Dreaming Bridge 2LP
2022 repress. Clear vinyl. "... The Ohio-based guitarist's artistic leaps in recent years are rivaled only by those of Daniel Bachman, another once-precocious player formerly in the John Fahey / Jack Rose mold who has over the years transcended the idiom to create his own singular, deeply personal music. Rolin's latest LP, the double album The Dreaming Bridge, makes similar strides. For many practitioners of this style, the first and perhaps most challenging feat is to escape the gargantuan shadow of Fahey. Some do this by adding other instruments or field recordings to their DADGAD ruminations; some opt to play electric. Of course, Fahey did all of those things, too. Better still to have not been directly influenced by Fahey in the first place: Rolin's initial embrace of the acoustic guitar was inspired not by Fahey himself, but rather by Fahey-influenced guitarists like polymath Jim O'Rourke and trickster prodigy Ryley Walker. This vicarious influence is exemplified by Rolin's distinctive, at times irreverent approach to guitar soli. While the influence of Walker's nimble 12-string probing is evident on tunes like Rolin's impressionistic '10:30 AM,' and while the guitarist's patiently unfolding, contemplative 'Weeping Willow' indeed recalls O'Rourke's masterpiece Happy Days, Rolin remains very much his own man, with his own idiosyncratic approach. This is clear from the first notes of The Dreaming Bridge's opening track 'Pinhole,' which introduces Rolin's affinity for shimmering, almost choral, reverb, the effect doubling as a compositional element. Similarly, on the overtone-rich 'Drown,' Rolin's virtuosic playing is practically a duet with its own echo, an effect deployed not to obscure, but to buoy. This deep attention to atmosphere serves a crucial function on The Dreaming Bridge, which sparkles throughout with a strident, Zen-like focus Then there are the tunes themselves. Terrific tunes! Like William Tyler -- another possible influence -- Rolin, despite largely working from the necessarily limited palette of instrumental solo guitar music, thinks like a songwriter. This more traditional approach can be heard on tracks like 'Moonlight' and 'Backyard Blues' which follow a compositional logic complete with verses and choruses. Rolin performs these compositions beautifully; as a player he is dexterous and dynamic, with a light and agile touch reminiscent of early Will Ackerman or Alex De Grassi. Album highlight 'Hallucinations' features saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi's keening, double tracked reed work, which at times simulates the sound of two violins playing cat and mouse between the stereo channels..." --James Toth Also features Entourage, Shadowfax, and Jen Powers.
FTR 608LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: FTR 608LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
PG SIX/LOUISE BOCK All Summer Long is Gone LP
"Finally, a vinyl edition of this amazing instrumental pandemic album recorded by a somewhat unlikely duo. There was a cassette version released a while back as a stop gap, but here now is the REAL THING! PG Six (aka Pat Gubler) is based in the New England and is known for his mastery of many stringed objects. He has appeared on six earlier Feeding Tube LPs, the most recent of which is the great PG Six Live at the Tavern (FTR 556LP). Louise Bock (aka Taralie Peterson) is a multi-instrumentalist long associated with both the Midwest and Spires That in the Sunset Rise, but she has other axes in the fire as well, and has been on three earlier FTR slabs. So the two have a collective history with the label, but this is their first duo release, and it's a corker. PG plays Celtic harp and keyboard, Louise plays alto sax and uses her voice as well. Together these threads wind together as though discovered in the grooves of some imaginary ECM album from the very early '70s. Bock's alto loops itself into spinning hoops of sax logic that carry the cold thrill of Northern Europe in winter. PG's strings and keys create an entire alternate history of what the Irish avant underground might have been doing around the same time if they hadn't been ass-deep in the Troubles. Some of my favorite parts are those where great washes of keyboard foam are intercut with sax that sounds like altered whale song. But there's no denying the superb quality of PG's harp pluckery either. Its sharp sonic edge (and the lingering peat smoke of sad Irish sealing songs) lends it an emotional depth that balances nicely with the exceptionally brainy quality of Louise's horn lines. All Summer Long is Gone is an album no one probably expected, but now that it's here, you should be among the first to sing its praises. Do yourself a favor and get ahead of the pack. You'll be damn glad you did." --Byron Coley, 2022
GEOMETRIK (SPAIN)
GR 2154LP
 
PRICE: $28.50
CAT #: GR 2154LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO El Acero Del Partido / Heroe Del Trabajo LP
Vinyl reissue celebrating the 40th anniversary of Esplendor Geométrico´s first LP: El Acero Del Partido / Héroe Del Trabajo, originally released in 1982. Considered a masterpiece of industrial music from the eighties, it's the record where they started to define their unique style. Already devoid of aggressive lyrics and even titles for their tracks, the sound begins to acquire a personality of its own, with an astounding austerity. Repetitive litanies infected by impossible machine sounds, noisy buzzes, organized metallurgy, and newscasts from the East Europe, that glare by moments. Seven instrumental tracks of repetitive mechanical rhythms than paint a landscape of abandoned factories and rusty machinery. Remastered in 2022 and unavailable on vinyl for more than ten years. The original cover is preserved and includes an exclusive collage-insert with rare photos and texts. Edition of 600 (numbered).
GR 2155LP
 
PRICE: $28.50
CAT #: GR 2155LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO Mekano-Turbo LP
Mekano-Turbo is the fourth album and a classic inside the discography of legendary and influential Spanish industrial cult band Esplendor Geométrico, originally released in 1988. Now available again in its original format, remastered in 2022, and unavailable on vinyl for more than 11 years. Finally, the fury is unleashed in all its splendor. The superb three initial tracks are pure rhythmic adrenaline on which is supported the totally runaway voice of Arturo Lanz. "Rotor" would be even considered as a not intentioned approximation to the electronic body music. In the same wave are also located "Belew" and "Mekano-Turbo". On the other hand, it seems to be that the residence of Gabriel in Melilla (North Africa) and the consequent proximity of the Arabic culture it influences on some tracks ("Sheikh", "Transmisión"). Considered by the media and many fans as a masterpiece of the group. The wonderful cover continues the customary line of showing strange machines or decadent industrial buildings. Considered by many fans as a masterpiece of the group and an industrial classic of the eighties. Edition of 600 (numbered).
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS (ITALY)
HPS 205CD
 
PRICE: $16.00
CAT #: HPS 205CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
BLACK LUNG Dark Waves CD
The year 2019 marked significant changes for Baltimore psychedelic-doom trio, Black Lung. Following the release of their third album, Ancients, guitarist and founding member Adam Bufano amiably departed the band and in November 2019, was replaced by guitarist Dave Fullerton. Just four months later, the reconfigured trio's plans for touring in support of Ancients were canceled as the world entered COVID-19 lockdown. In the existential dread, loss and uncertainty of the global pandemic, with the backdrop of malignant fascism and cultural enmity in the USA, Black Lung began writing the songs that would comprise their next record. There is no question that Dark Waves was conceived in hostile times. Dave Cavalier's lyrics reflect this hostility. Songs like "The Cog" and "Mad King" lament the weaponized ignorance of the propagandized American citizen, while "Awaken" and "The Path" muse on escapism and the false protection of dreams. Despite the apparent darkness, Dark Waves is not a cold or desolate sounding record. The band leaps forward from their previous releases with warmer, brighter sound crafting and more audacious songwriting. There are passages with a tangible sense of jubilation and excitement, as the band members revel in the recording process after more than a year of uncertainty and frustration. While in some ways Dark Waves offers a departure from prior Black Lung records, the band stays true to their roots in doom and psychedelic music, delivering eight songs packed with the frenzied, fuzzed-out guitar breakdowns, booming drums, and soulful vocals that longtime fans will appreciate. The decision to bring bass guitar prominently into the mix on Dark Waves adds new levels of depth and heaviness to Black Lung's songs. For fans of: All Them Witches, Queens of the Stone Age, The Flying Eyes.
IN THE RED
ITR 363CD
 
PRICE: $15.00
CAT #: ITR 363CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
KINMAN, CHIP The Great Confrontation CD
"Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with the quote 'The only constant in life is change' and nothing sums up Chip Kinman's latest creation -- or his entire career -- quite as well. Like each of Chip's musical incarnations, The Great Confrontation seemingly has no connection whatsoever to the work that preceded it...unless the listener is savvy enough to spot the deeply buried but always present through lines. The tracks on this album are wildly alien in every applicable sense of the word. The opener, 'Let's Go, Dark Shark' sets the scene with drippy, space age chirping that slowly degenerates into slo-mo sludge like an astronaut running out of oxygen. 'Ciao Raggazzi' -- not to be confused with Jay And The Americans' 'Good Bye Boys, Good Bye (Ciao Raggazzi, Ciao)' is a derailing train of a song. The vocals are spoken in Italian and presumably, snatches of conversation sampled from a Mafia crime film. Speaking of crimes, Chip murders a couple of standards in cold blood purely for his own amusement. Both are traditional and absolutely unrecognizable. 'Round About Danny' is his take on the Irish ballad 'Danny Boy', written in 1913 and recorded relentlessly through the years by everyone from Judy Garland to Conway Twitty. The other's a gospel hymn, 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken', originally performed by The Carter Family in the 1920s. Imagine both songs sans vocals, filtered through a particle accelerator beam shot by a rogue robot from a 1950's sci-fi B movie. Then pretend they got reinterpreted by a hippie in a ratty flea market cape who borrowed a Moog synthesizer so he could emulate Rick Wakeman from the prog rock band Yes. The hippie not only had no working knowledge of playing a synthesizer, he was tripping his brains out on Owsley's premium LSD. This album is all a huge departure from anything he's ever done -- but for Chip, that's normal. I'm sure of this because I've known him since 1977, witnessing all his musical mutations and in many cases, the sources that inspired him to prolifically create original, cohesive and boundary-pushing sounds. As the old saying goes, what he's done consistently is often imitated but never replicated." --Pleasant Gehman
ITR 363LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: ITR 363LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
KINMAN, CHIP The Great Confrontation 2LP
Double LP version. "Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with the quote 'The only constant in life is change' and nothing sums up Chip Kinman's latest creation -- or his entire career -- quite as well. Like each of Chip's musical incarnations, The Great Confrontation seemingly has no connection whatsoever to the work that preceded it...unless the listener is savvy enough to spot the deeply buried but always present through lines. The tracks on this album are wildly alien in every applicable sense of the word. The opener, 'Let's Go, Dark Shark' sets the scene with drippy, space age chirping that slowly degenerates into slo-mo sludge like an astronaut running out of oxygen. 'Ciao Raggazzi' -- not to be confused with Jay And The Americans' 'Good Bye Boys, Good Bye (Ciao Raggazzi, Ciao)' is a derailing train of a song. The vocals are spoken in Italian and presumably, snatches of conversation sampled from a Mafia crime film. Speaking of crimes, Chip murders a couple of standards in cold blood purely for his own amusement. Both are traditional and absolutely unrecognizable. 'Round About Danny' is his take on the Irish ballad 'Danny Boy', written in 1913 and recorded relentlessly through the years by everyone from Judy Garland to Conway Twitty. The other's a gospel hymn, 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken', originally performed by The Carter Family in the 1920s. Imagine both songs sans vocals, filtered through a particle accelerator beam shot by a rogue robot from a 1950's sci-fi B movie. Then pretend they got reinterpreted by a hippie in a ratty flea market cape who borrowed a Moog synthesizer so he could emulate Rick Wakeman from the prog rock band Yes. The hippie not only had no working knowledge of playing a synthesizer, he was tripping his brains out on Owsley's premium LSD. This album is all a huge departure from anything he's ever done -- but for Chip, that's normal. I'm sure of this because I've known him since 1977, witnessing all his musical mutations and in many cases, the sources that inspired him to prolifically create original, cohesive and boundary-pushing sounds. As the old saying goes, what he's done consistently is often imitated but never replicated." --Pleasant Gehman
KALITA RECORDS (UK)
KALITA 12015EP
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: KALITA 12015EP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
MUCHOS PLUS Nassau's Discos 12"
2022 repress; Kalita Records announce the first ever official reissue of Muchos Plus's highly sought-after 1979 12" reggae disco masterpiece Nassau's Discos. Over forty years after initial release, and long the envy of collectors, DJs, and dance music connoisseurs, the time is now right to share the music and the group's story once more. Originally privately released in a modest run-on bandleader Rudy Mills's own label U-Solo Records, the single features both the long and short versions of their devastating disco take on The Beginning of the End's smash hit "Funky Nassau", plus their own reggae funk slow jam "Love Misunderstood". With original copies selling for up to £500 on the second-hand market, Kalita Records come to the rescue, offering a loud and remastered 12" single for all. In addition, the record is accompanied by extensive liner notes based on interviews with Rudy, and never before seen contemporary photos.
KEPLAR (GERMANY)
KEPLARREV 010LP
 
PRICE: $23.50
CAT #: KEPLARREV 010LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
AROVANE Tides LP
Tides marked a radical change in direction for Arovane. After Uwe Zahn had made a name for himself with cutting-edge IDM rhythms and slick ambient textures on a slew of releases, his sophomore album saw the prolific producer opt for a sample-based approach that resulted in a more organic sound and laid-back downbeat grooves. Having reissued Arovane's seminal Atol-Scrap as a double-LP in 2021, the Berlin-based Keplar label now makes Tides available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 2000 through the legendary City Centre Offices. It shines a new light on a release for which Zahn quite literally ventured into previously unknown territory -- Tides is an album that emits a timeless, quiet calm and nonetheless stays constantly in motion. Inspired by the landscape of France, especially the coastline and the sea, he made field recordings throughout his trip that were also used on the record, giving it its sensual feel. The foundation of the album however, the loose yet gripping grooves at the heart of every track, result from Zahn working extensively with samples. "I wanted to make use of drum sounds and small excerpts from old jazz vinyl records", he explains. He maintained the unique sound signatures and rhythmic flutter of the source material while building intricate beats with them. Most of the material was culled from the record collection of Christian Kleine, whose spontaneous guitar improvisations over the first musical sketches were recorded and edited by Zahn and can be heard on four tracks. Also employing the occasional cembalo or spinet sound, he worked with a hardware sequencer and a delay to integrate the different, discrete elements into nine tracks that feel both dense and light at once. Silence was also an important stylistic element on Tides and adds greatly to the overall atmosphere of an album that with the appropriately named "Theme" immediately sets the mood with intricate spinet melodies. As a whole, the album mirrors Zahn's trip that took him along the steep cliffs on a foggy day ("Seaside"), to an abandoned house in which he found old maps ("A Secret"), along the coastline during a long car ride ("Deauville"), to a sleepy village and the slowly moving sea ("Tides") and finally back home to his native Germany where he started reflecting upon his experiences, ultimately deciding to translate them into music ("Epilogue"). Originally released on CCO in 2000. 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.
KLANGGALERIE (AUSTRIA)
GG 389CD
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: GG 389CD
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
SKELETON CREW Free Dirt (Live) 2CD
"Skeleton Crew was founded in the early 1980s by Fred Frith and Tom Cora. The original idea was to create a new group out of the ashes of Massacre, but medical issues of several potential members saw Frith and Cora end up as a duo. They started experimenting with what they could achieve by themselves, recorded the fantastic debut album Learn to Talk and finally decided to take the new project out on the road. Dave Newhouse of The Muffins joined them for these live shows which proved very successful. Back in the studio, Frith and Cora recorded their second and last album, The Country of Blinds, and afterwards went on tour again. This time, they were joined by multi-instrumentalist Zeena Parkins who had already played on the recent album. Fred Frith remembers the days of touring as very low-key affairs with incredibly exciting results, saying the songs they played sounded very different every single night, such was the energy that was created by the band on stage. Everybody who has seen them perform will agree that Skeleton Crew on stage was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. After several years of searching for recordings, mixing and mastering, and held up by the global pandemic, we are proud to finally offer you this double-CD of live recordings, including songs that never ended up on any of their albums."
LES ALBUMS CLAUS (BELGIUM)
LAC 025LP
 
PRICE: $22.50
CAT #: LAC 025LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
COPELAND, ERIC Spiral Stairs LP
Eric Copeland is a Brooklyn- based experimental musician and a core member of Black Dice. Eric is also one-half Terrestrial Tones duo, finding Animal Collective's Avey Tare on the other end of that project. Copeland continues on his path of deconstruction forming tracks of scrapped samples, damaged loops, and controlled chaos. On the new album Spiral Stairs, Eric Copeland offers seven avant-pop tracks packed with playful sequences, groovy bass lines, and catchy voiceovers. The compositions are full of multiple layers of sample collages, frequently shifting from one variation to another but far from being messy, rather suggesting the tidy logic of DJ and dancer-friendly songs. Somehow Copeland manages to pull through with his demented pop sensibilities crawling up from the muck and sprawling out on the beach to catch a tan. Spiral Stairs is as addictive as it is confusing with its screwed vocal hooks and demented twang heard throughout. A brilliant mix of riotous and cheerful makes it effortless to stick with it and dance to it. Following several releases on DFA, L.I.E.S., and Paw Tracks.
LITTLE BUTTERFLY RECORDS (URUGUAY)
LBR 064LP
 
PRICE: $35.50
CAT #: LBR 064LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
GALEMIRE, JORGE Segundos Afuera LP
Little Butterfly Records present the first time reissue of Jorge Galemire's second album Segundos Afuera, recorded and released in 1983. Considered a landmark of '80s Uruguayan music. Candombe, rock, and jazz shake hands with singer-songwriter vibes, creating a sophisticated pop with South American roots and equal doses of groove and psychedelia. Segundos Afuera was recorded at La Batuta, the first recording studio in Uruguay to have 16 channels. The sound engineer (and partly music co-producer) was again Dario Ribeiro. Ribeiro was instrumental in the album's sonic experimentations, encouraging Galemire's ideas. The textures achieved with backward tapes in "Sin Saber Porqué" and "Un Son", the overlapping female voices (performed by the trio Travesía) in that song, the three drums added in "Kublai Kan" and its male choral canon are a sample of these searches, unusual until that moment in Uruguayan music. Segundos Afuera had a generous studio budget for the time. It was recorded in about 300 hours, when it was usual for the Orfeo label to assign a maximum of 100 hours for these projects. Despite that fact, it's surprising how Galemire and Ribeiro achieved a work so stylized taking the best of Uruguayan studios technical limitations. The rhythm section of Segundos Afuera was the same as the previous record: Andrés Recagno on bass (who also played synthesizers, backing vocals and some arrangements) and Gustavo Etchenique on drums, plus Carlos "Boca" Ferreira on percussion. More than thirty musicians are featured in the album. Among them are some of Galemire's artistic heroes such as Osvaldo Fattoruso, Eduardo Mateo, and Dino. Segundos Afuera went almost unnoticed by the general audience. However, it became an instant classic in the Uruguayan music scene from the very moment of its release. The sophistication of its sound; the unique way of combining pop, rock, jazz, candombe, milonga, and murga; the search for moods and textures; the lyrics that mixed common themes and existential reflection dazzled and influenced different generations of artists. Galemire released only three studio albums after Segundos Afuera. None of them were as ambitious as this one. Its cult status was reinforced when it became inaccessible. After a first release of a few hundred vinyl and cassette copies, the album was never reissued in any format. The few copies available became a prized collector's item in Uruguay and abroad.
MENTAL EXPERIENCE (SPAIN)
MENT 010LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MENT 010LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
AGUILAR, ILDEFONSO Erosion 2LP
2022 restock. Mental Experience present an expanded reissue of Ildefonso Aguilar's Erosión, originally released in 1985. Spooky, meditative soundscapes inspired by the desolate volcanic environment of Lanzarote (Canary Islands), created using Minimoog, Polymoog, vocal loops, and field recordings. Originally recorded in Germany in 1978 by Spanish painter/sound artist Ildefonso Aguilar, only a selection of the original recordings were released a few years later on a very rare limited edition cassette and LP. Erosión is a masterpiece of proto-ambient, isolationism, and minimal synth music. For the first time ever, Erosión is reissued here on double LP, featuring the complete recordings, as Ildefonso conceived it at the time. Master tape sound; Liner notes in English/Spanish by Frankie Pizá (TIU Mag); Includes download code. RIYL: Edgar Froese, Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Michael Stearns, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, Cozmic Corridors, Pina."Canary Islander Ildefonso Aguilar is best known for his paintings and surreal photography of the desolate volcanic wastelands of his homeland. He was also organizer of concerts at the Jameos del Agua in Lanzarote, a regular event which has featured the likes of Michael Brook, Roedelius, Steve Roach, and numerous other luminaries of ambient and atmospheric music. But, for his own music Ildefonso has never gained the mass recognition he really deserves. Erosión, recorded in 1978, is certainly one of the most fascinating of synth albums I've heard. And, it's remarkable really, if you consider all the technological advances that have happened since, what with digital synthesizers and samplers, that this music created entirely on analogue synthesizers still sounds so fresh and original... Beautiful yet strange, unnerving yet calming. Even more so, at 1¼ hours, Erosión reveals itself as a grand conceived suite, as themes recur in an almost ghostly fashion, as tension builds upon tension, and threatens to explode, which it never quite does! Extraordinary all the way through." --Alan Freeman (Audion Magazine)
METAL FACE RECORDS
MF 094LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MF 094LP
FILE UNDER: HIPHOP
MF DOOM Operation: Doomsday (Metal Face Cover) (Black Vinyl) 2LP
2022 repress. "Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF DOOM's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art! Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)'s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving front-man Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, 'Rhymes Like Dimes,' Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' 'Who You Think I Am?' features DOOM's crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on '?' he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on 'Tick, Tick...' where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial rap universe, Operation: Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy."
MONO-TONE RECORDS (FRANCE)
MT 054LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: MT 054LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
STYRENES It Came Out Of Cleveland 1973-1979 Vol.1: Styrenes LP
Full-length album of legendary '70s pre-punk band from Cleveland. "Post-punk before punk ever happened," that's what Rolling Stone called the Styrenes. For once, they were right. But that only scratches the surface of their unique and uncompromising vision as the Styrenes -- whose members have also been in the equally legendary Electric Eels and Mirrors -- play music that ranges from punk to jazz, pop and avant-garde, all on evidence in this full-length vinyl compilation of their early material. Full story, complete discography, original interview, liner notes, and pictures included inside.
MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)
MORR 184CD
 
PRICE: $16.00
CAT #: MORR 184CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
TENNISCOATS Papa's Ear CD
In 2012, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded Papa's Ear (2012) and Tan-Tan Therapy (2007), two albums made with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape. Originally released on Häpna, they are beautiful documents of the exploratory music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, fully at ease with each other, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and generous ways. Released during a particularly productive time for Tenniscoats; during the late '00s and early '10s, they would also collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai, and Pastacas. The second album from this expanded line-up of Tenniscoats, you can hear the musicians are immediately comfortable in each other's presence. Saya and Ueno of Tenniscoats bring their magical, gentle folk-pop sensibility, and their winning way with straightforward, yet lush melodies. Johan Berthling, along with fellow Tape member Tomas Hallonsten, plus guests Fredrik Ljungkvist, Lars Skoglund, Andreas Söderstrom, and Andreas Werlin, all generous and creative presences in the Swedish jazz underground, shades in the songs with endlessly inventive arrangements, highlighting the warmth and curiosity at the core of the Tenniscoats' aesthetic. Papa's Ear includes some of Tenniscoats' most memorable songs. "Papaya" is a lustrous dreamland of a song, with the Swedish musicians singing "pa-pa-ya" as an enchanted tattoo, while Saya's piano and melodica clank and huff out, further expanding the song's horizon. It's followed by the spindly and mysterious "Sappolondon", where drums and double-bass shuffle and pulse under weeping accordion and bittersweet clarinet. It reminds a little of the wild kindness of Movietone, or the regal charm of Carla Bley's compositions. Elsewhere, you can hear Tape and their friends embracing the freedom offered by the songs of Tenniscoats: see, for example, the glistening electronics in "På floden", like a keyboard conducting a music box on a distant planet; or the descending phrase for winds on "Sabaku", dovetailing beautifully into a creek of moon-lit texturology. Includes two extra tracks, drawn from the 2008 Tenniscoats/Tape split single, also released by Häpna., "Lutie Lutie" is a sweet delight, driven by a clacking drum machine, the Tenniscoats duo joined by Hallonsten on glockenspiel and synthesizer, and special guest, Japanese indie-pop legend Kazumi Nikaido, as choir. "Come Maddalena" rounds off the set, a brooding cover of an Ennio Morricone tune, the music by Tape, the vocals by Tenniscoats and Nikaido. Open-hearted and full of puckish spirit, Papa's Ear is an album of great tenderness and warm friendship.
MORR 184LP
 
PRICE: $34.00
CAT #: MORR 184LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
TENNISCOATS Papa's Ear 2LP
Double LP version. First time on vinyl. Includes printed inner sleeves, obi, and download code. In 2012, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded Papa's Ear (2012) and Tan-Tan Therapy (2007), two albums made with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape. Originally released on Häpna, they are beautiful documents of the exploratory music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, fully at ease with each other, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and generous ways. Released during a particularly productive time for Tenniscoats; during the late '00s and early '10s, they would also collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai, and Pastacas. The second album from this expanded line-up of Tenniscoats, you can hear the musicians are immediately comfortable in each other's presence. Saya and Ueno of Tenniscoats bring their magical, gentle folk-pop sensibility, and their winning way with straightforward, yet lush melodies. Johan Berthling, along with fellow Tape member Tomas Hallonsten, plus guests Fredrik Ljungkvist, Lars Skoglund, Andreas Söderstrom, and Andreas Werlin, all generous and creative presences in the Swedish jazz underground, shades in the songs with endlessly inventive arrangements, highlighting the warmth and curiosity at the core of the Tenniscoats' aesthetic. Papa's Ear includes some of Tenniscoats' most memorable songs. "Papaya" is a lustrous dreamland of a song, with the Swedish musicians singing "pa-pa-ya" as an enchanted tattoo, while Saya's piano and melodica clank and huff out, further expanding the song's horizon. It's followed by the spindly and mysterious "Sappolondon", where drums and double-bass shuffle and pulse under weeping accordion and bittersweet clarinet. It reminds a little of the wild kindness of Movietone, or the regal charm of Carla Bley's compositions. Elsewhere, you can hear Tape and their friends embracing the freedom offered by the songs of Tenniscoats: see, for example, the glistening electronics in "På floden", like a keyboard conducting a music box on a distant planet; or the descending phrase for winds on "Sabaku", dovetailing beautifully into a creek of moon-lit texturology. Includes two extra tracks, drawn from the 2008 Tenniscoats/Tape split single, also released by Häpna., "Lutie Lutie" is a sweet delight, driven by a clacking drum machine, the Tenniscoats duo joined by Hallonsten on glockenspiel and synthesizer, and special guest, Japanese indie-pop legend Kazumi Nikaido, as choir. "Come Maddalena" rounds off the set, a brooding cover of an Ennio Morricone tune, the music by Tape, the vocals by Tenniscoats and Nikaido. Open-hearted and full of puckish spirit, Papa's Ear is an album of great tenderness and warm friendship.
MUNSTER RECORDS (SPAIN)
MR 428LP
 
PRICE: $28.50
CAT #: MR 428LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
TELEGRAPH AVENUE Vol. 2 LP
Munster Records present a first-time vinyl reissue of Telegraph Avenue's Vol. 2, originally released in 1975. The story of Telegraph Avenue, the Peruvian band whose name takes you back to the countercultural San Francisco of the sixties, began with guitarist, vocalist, and composer Bo Ichikawa's journey of initiation to the United States in 1969. After attending many live shows of rock stars, including the emerging Latin artist Carlos Santana, Bo returned to Peru at the end of 1969 to form Telegraph Avenue with friends. They performed a repertoire that mixed the main branches of psychedelia with the novel Latin sounds of Santana. Thanks to their performances in discotheques, parties, school celebrations, festivals and across different regions of the country, they quickly gained a devoted audience and their 1971 debut LP: Volumen 1 (MAG) sold out in days. Despite the success of the album the group disbanded soon after. They reunited again in 1974, adding another guitarist to the band who also contributed his own songs to the repertoire. In their second LP, on the MAG label too, they returned to the sophisticated vocal interplay and polished compositions of the first album. It was released in 1975. Bad timing. Political instability prevented it from being distributed properly. Volumen 2 is considered the last album of the golden age of Peruvian rock spanning the decade 1965 to 1975, starting with Los Saicos' early recordings and ending with Volumen 2 by Telegraph Avenue. It's the swan song of a young generation, which like all youth was misunderstood and found redemption and transcendence in music. First time vinyl reissue, including a bonus track and liner notes.
MR 429LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: MR 429LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
VAUGHN COMBO, BEN The Many Moods Of Ben Vaughn Combo LP
Munster Records present a reissue of The Many Moods Of Ben Vaughn Combo, originally released in 1986. The Ben Vaughn Combo blazed the trail for American music that was way off-kilter compared to the competition. Their tri-state type Tex-Mex sound really shook things up. Their reputation as a live act grew exponentially with every show they played. Theirs was a twist on the roots rock scare with a reach something like The Fleshtones, outside of the standard '80s ranch stash. The sort of thing that has a tendency to get written out of history despite being timeless, it doesn't easily fit into any premeditated narrative. When The Many Moods Of Ben Vaughn Combo appeared in 1986, the Combo literally had the world at its feet. Many of the hits you hear when you see him (and the quintet) today are on this platter. Long out of print and somewhat sought after, this was the first time that Ben's Rambler car was heard on a record. And not the last. The Andy (then Adny) Shernoff inspired "I Dig Your Wig" is like The Cramps with a Doug Sahm infusion. The accordion is the secret weapon here. Little used in rock n' roll and often scoffed at, it allows these songs a setting that your conventional instrumentation would just flatten. Reading the sleeve info you'll see the legend "DEDICATED TO THE GEATOR", a nod to the legendary Philly DJ that inspired Ben to come up with his sound. It sounds just as fresh now as it did back then. Perhaps you're too young to have been around when this record album was first available? Maybe you wore your three copies out? Whatever your story is, these Many Moods... will lift yours in these perilous times. Don't end up sorry (like Brenda Lee).
MR 7349EP
 
PRICE: $18.00
CAT #: MR 7349EP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
MONIK Maybe I Know EP 7"
Discos MAG was one of the most important Peruvian labels of the '60s. It was owned and directed by Manuel Antonio Guerrero who would also put together bands and get involved in the recording sessions. His son Carlos Guerrero also followed the music path and so did his daughter Mónica "Monik" Guerrero. Members of the bands We All Together and Traffic Sound would take part in the recording sessions at MAG studios in 1972, when Monik managed to record a few songs that would eventually release as a 7" single on his father's label. She would return into the studio one year later and record two more songs: "Maybe I Know" -- first brought to fame by Lesley Gore in 1964 -- and "Forgiveness" an original song composed by Ernesto and Félix of We All Together. This EP comprises Monik's complete discography and get s a vinyl reissue for the first time.
MR 7350EP
 
PRICE: $13.50
CAT #: MR 7350EP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
LOS STREAKS Reaccion Sicotica 7"
In the mid-sixties, Colombian label Codiscos placed its bet on some of the emerging figures of Colombian pop and two exciting wild bands: Los Flippers and Los Streaks. After the fleeting brilliance of the so-called "new wave", the four-song EPs released by the label -- mainly for promotional use -- lay forgotten on the shelves of radio stations or stored in the musty trunks of the fans who managed to buy the few copies that were distributed by the record label. Today it's incredibly difficult to find any of these EPs released by Codiscos between 1965 and 1967 in mint condition, with the original sleeve. Los Streaks didn't just come out of nowhere, it was the brainchild of the radio DJ, manager and promoter Édgar Restrepo Caro. Towards the end of 1966, while working as the manager of Los Flippers, Caro became fascinated with the idea of creating a group made up of some of the most talented musicians on the Bogota rock circuit. On January 20, 1967, Los Streaks made their debut at the discotheque El Diábolo as a warm-up act. They then appeared on national television, starred at matinee sessions at two major venues in Bogota, and headlined at the concert organized by the music magazine Juventud a Go 67. During this short period, they established a powerful stage presence, combining exquisite musicianship and a sharp sense of humor. Their repertoire was also bold, encompassing Giuseppe Verdi, The Beatles, Pérez Prado, The Ventures, or Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. The band's solid sound was perfectly aligned to Codiscos' interests. They signed a contract to release two LPs. In mid-1967 they traveled to Medellín and recorded eleven tracks that would shape the first of these albums. One of these songs was kept back for "El Disco De Oro A Go-Go", while the rest were included in OPERAción A Go-Go. It included four songs that the label had released on an EP, which decades later has become the holy grail of Colombian garage music. The stunning Reacción Sicótica EP includes the stellar "Cosmos 901" composed by Manuel Jiménez, the sparkling "Escápate Mi Amor" (cover of "Get Away" by Georgie Fame, probably heard by the band in the version by Spanish band Los Ángeles) and two wonderful covers of the Californian garage band Count Five: "Psychotic Reaction" and "They're Gonna Get You".
MR 7351EP
 
PRICE: $20.00
CAT #: MR 7351EP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
LIMEY AND THE YANKS Love Can't Be A One Way Deal/Guaranteed Love 7"
In California in the mid-sixties, with the British Invasion raging, having an authentic Englishman as the lead singer of your band was an ace in the hole that gave you an edge over the competition. Such was the case with Limey & the Yanks a quintet from Buena Park in Southern California's Orange County. Limey was young Steve Cook, and his Yanks by 1965 were guitarists Gregg DeLorto and Tim Gunne, bass player Bob Batman and drummer Wes Hunsinger. With his blonde Keith Relf-style hair, Steve was a striking front man who fortunately also possessed a decent voice, and with his father managing the group they were soon making waves throughout the area. A victory at a Battle of the Bands at the Hollywood Palladium put them on the map in Los Angeles, attracting the attention of producer Gary Paxton. By this time Wally Downing had joined on lead guitar, replacing Gregg DeLorto who had defected to the Spats. Paxton produced their debut single in late 1965, and it was released in January of the following year on his Starburst label. Paxton's business partner in Starburst was Lloyd Johnson, and the single's A-side was written by Lloyd's son Ken, who also recorded for Starburst with his group Ken & the Forth [sic] Dimension. Paxton had already produced a version of "Love Can't Be A One Way Deal", a couple of years earlier with the Rev-Lons, a girl group from Bakersfield, but the version by Limey & the Yanks took a completely different approach, turning it into a lovelorn garage number with a sound pitched somewhere between the Beau Brummels and the Beach Boys, with bright harmonies, mournful harmonica and a melodic twangy guitar solo. Swinging on a guitar hook based on Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step", "Guaranteed Love", took a bluesier approach with a confident Limey vocal, stinging fuzz guitar, a concise harp solo and a rousing Bo Diddley-fied groove. The single was not a hit, but it added heft to the group's growing reputation. A second single, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind", was released in October, but it would be the group's last, although they did continue, through several lineup changes, into 1967. Limey's legacy lives on...
MUSIC ON VINYL (NETHERLANDS)
MOV 1977LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MOV 1977LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
ASHBY, DOROTHY Dorothy's Harp LP
"Dorothy Ashby was an American jazz harpist, one of the very few who used her instrument to play credible jazz and bebop. First studying as a pianist at Wayne State University and later, in 1952, switching to harp. She recorded eleven albums for different jazz labels, like Savoy and Prestige. Dorothy also guested as a studio player on albums with Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder and many more. In 1969 the studio album Dorothy's Harp was released on Cadet Records. On the album she covered songs from Jimmy Webb ('By The Time I Get To Phoenix'), Burt Bacharach and Hal David ('This Girl's In Love With You'), John Lennon and Paul McCartney ('Fool On The Hill'), and others. The record also includes the two Brazilian styled compositions 'Reza' and 'Canto de Ossanha' and two songs written by Dorothy Ashby herself, displaying her craft on the harp with some great bongo work. In the '90s and beyond, the album started to be sought after by hip-hop artists. Pete Rock (from Pete Rock and CL Smooth), Rahzel (from The Roots) and Ugly Duckling were notable for sampling music from Dorothy's Harp. 180 gram vinyl."
MOV 2949LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MOV 2949LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
SANDERS, PHAROAH Moon Child LP
"To celebrate the 45th anniversary of iconic Dutch jazz label Timeless Records, Music On Vinyl is releasing a series that features albums that are part of the Timeless Records legacy and will be released mainly throughout 2022. Part of this series is Pharoah Sanders' Moon Child from 1990, which bookended a decade of musical soul searching for Sanders. The acclaimed free jazz player is known to have a raw and abrasive sound, but reinvented himself on this album as a more traditional improviser capable of thoughtful deliberations. Moon Child is a grand old time throughout, and Sanders has never been more eminently sing-along-able as he is on its title track. The record was co-written with Horace Silver, George Gershwin and Abdullah Ibrahim and recorded with William Henderson, Stafford James, Eddie Moore and Cheikh Tidiane Fall. Moon Child is available on black vinyl."
MOV 2953COL-LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MOV 2953COL-LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
EVANS, BILL The Brilliant LP
"To celebrate the 45th anniversary of iconic Dutch jazz label Timeless Records, Music On Vinyl is releasing a series that features albums that are part of the Timeless Records legacy and will be released mainly throughout 2022. To this day, jazz pianists are influenced by Bill Evans by his use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and his trademark rhythmically independent, 'singing' melodic lines. Evans gained his first spotlight when joining Miles Davis' sextet during the time Kind of Blue was recorded. After leaving the sextet, Evans began his career as bandleader. As trio with Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums, they recorded The Brilliant in 1980, just before Evans' passing. The Brilliant is pressed on colored vinyl for the first time and available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on gold colored vinyl. The package includes an insert with other titles from the Timeless Records 45th Anniversary Jazz Series."
MOV 3029COL-LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: MOV 3029COL-LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
DREAD, MIKEY World War III LP
"Mikey Dread is known as one of the most multi-faceted artists, comfortably taking in both the positions of producer and artist. By the late Seventies he had started his own label, working with artists such as Edi Fitzroy, Sugar Minott and Earl Sixteen, as well as producing his own work. On his own label he released World War III in 1980. The album includes the tracks 'The Jumping Master', 'Money Dread' and 'Break Down The Walls'. World War III is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow vinyl."
MUSIC ON VINYL: AT THE MOVIES
MOVATM 110B-LP
 
PRICE: $36.00
CAT #: MOVATM 110B-LP
FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK
MORRICONE, ENNIO Legend Of 1900 (Black Vinyl) LP
"Ennio Morricone composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions, making him one of the most influential and best-selling film composers since the late Fifties. Throughout his career, Morricone received an unprecedented amount of awards, including Grammys, Golden Globes and BAFTAs. Ennio Morricone has influenced many artists including Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, and many more. Legend of 1900 (Italian: La Leggenda Del Pianista Sull'oceano) is a 1998 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starring Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Melanie Thierry. The film is inspired by Novecento, a monologue by Alessandro Baricco. Legend Of 1900 was nominated for a variety of international awards, winning several for its soundtrack, including a Golden Globe for Best Original Score - Motion Picture. This release includes the song "Lost Boys Calling" featuring Roger Waters & Eddie van Halen. Legend of 1900 is available on black vinyl and contains an insert."
NEUROT
NR 050LP
 
PRICE: $34.00
CAT #: NR 050LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
NEUROSIS Given To The Rising 2LP
2022 repress. "Now in its third decade of innovative noisy psychedelic-metallic thunder, Neurosis is more than a just a powerful band -- it's a religious experience. As such, personal epiphanies are repeatedly told both by those who've been converted by Neurosis' sensory overloading live show and by those who've felt transformed while listening to the legendary quintet's recordings. Given To The Rising is both reflective of the aggressive pummeling for which Neurosis is known, as well as an exploration into psychoactive prog-rock and eviscerating symphonic heft that moves well beyond what we've all come to recognize as the 'Neurosis note.' Given To The Rising is like being submerged in an isolation tank -- it envelops, subverting the senses with surreal visions we'd swear were our own, cleverly jarring and disorienting consciousness beyond any footing in reality. Just as any diehard Neurosis fan will tell you, there's a moment with every new record and live show at which the band stops as if the world has frozen in position, then suddenly kicks into a behemoth wail that forces one's head and shoulders to lurch and sway uncontrollably. Given To The Rising is a sound borne of that captivating and transcendent moment."
NR 122LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: NR 122LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
UFOMAMMUT Fenice LP
LP version. "For over twenty years, Ufomammut has combined the heaviness and majesty of dynamic riff worship with a nuanced understanding of psychedelic tradition and history in music, creating a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound destined for absolute immersion. Fenice (meaning 'phoenix' in Italian) symbolically represents endless rebirth and the ability to start again after everything seems doomed. The album is the first recording with new drummer Levre, and truly marks a new chapter in Ufomammut history. While the band are well-known for their psychedelic travels into the far reaches of the cosmos, Fenice is a much more introspective listening experience. It was conceived as a single concept track, divided in six facets of this inward-facing focus. Sonic experimentations abound in the exploration of this central theme: synths and experimental vocal effects are featured more prominently than ever before, as the band push themselves ever further into the uncharted territory of their very identity. The towering synths on the opening track 'Duat' evoke an almighty machine rising from the depths of primordial ooze. There's a shift to a frenetic garage-psych pace before mellowing out into a more familiar doomy stomp. 'Kepherer' is a respite, albeit a slight one, returning to the pulsing rhythms of the album's intro before plunging the listener into the menacing build and release of 'Psychostasia' next. Each oscillation of this extraordinary album feels inevitable -- Ufomammut are after all, masters of their craft, and when it comes to creating enveloping sonic journeys into the unknown, it's their uninhibited sense of exploration that breaches new sonic ground. Fenice is the sound of a band whose very essence has been rejuvenated, and are welcoming the chance to create music in the way they know best: by unfolding carefully and attentively, by melding those extreme dynamics which render Fenice as a living and breathing creature -- and by writing gargantuan riffs that herald their very rebirth."
ONLY ROOTS (FRANCE)
ORLP 025LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: ORLP 025LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
ROCKERS ALL STARS Chanting Dub With The Help Of The Father LP
A rare original Rockers release featuring the Rockers All Stars. Mixed at King Tubby's Studio and Harry J's Recording Studio. Backing band: Rockers All Stars. Produced by Augustus Pablo and Everton Da Silva. Original Jamaican release was from 1978.
OUT RECORDS
OUT 006CD
 
PRICE: $20.00
CAT #: OUT 006CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
UT Griller CD
"The latest installment in the UT reissue series. Originally recorded and released in 1989. Steve Albini recorded this album, and captured UT at the peak of their creative powers. Long out of print, the album has been remastered for this release." "For Ut's last record, Steve Albini was a smart choice for engineer, both being an Ut fan and having a way with dissonant, anti-rock kinds of groups. The guitars are beefier on Griller, and again, the songs sound more polished and rehearsed, but none of this detracts from the gleeful mania contained within these grooves. Not the first Ut purchase you should make but if you're already humming along to these skewed tunes, you owe it to yourself to seek this long-lost record out." --All Music.
OUT 006X-LP
 
PRICE: $39.00
CAT #: OUT 006X-LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
UT Griller LP/7"
LP version. Includes a bonus 7" with the tracks "Fuel" and " Griller X." "The latest installment in the UT reissue series. Originally recorded and released in 1989. Steve Albini recorded this album, and captured UT at the peak of their creative powers. Long out of print, the album has been remastered for this release." "For Ut's last record, Steve Albini was a smart choice for engineer, both being an Ut fan and having a way with dissonant, anti-rock kinds of groups. The guitars are beefier on Griller, and again, the songs sound more polished and rehearsed, but none of this detracts from the gleeful mania contained within these grooves. Not the first Ut purchase you should make but if you're already humming along to these skewed tunes, you owe it to yourself to seek this long-lost record out." --All Music.
PEACE & RHYTHM
PEACE 017LP
 
PRICE: $22.00
CAT #: PEACE 017LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
PAGAN Y SU ORQUESTA, JESUS Salsa De La Mata: "From The Roots" LP
Heavy salsa dura with old-school flavor. All originals with an all-star band. First time on vinyl for this 2008 salsa masterpiece. If you like the Fania classics, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Tito Puente, and Quintero's Salsa Project, you'll love Jesús Pagán Y Su Orquesta. It has been more than a dozen years since singer Jesús Pagán and his orchestra cut these eight "From The Roots" gems to reel-to-reel tape. When Jesús Pagán came to Peace & Rhythm with the idea of reissuing this album on vinyl, the label heads jumped at the chance since the original recording and art concept were both inspired by the old-school records of the youth. Contemporary salsa on vinyl is enjoying a rebirth these days so it's only logical that Salsa De La Mata would come out on wax, and what better partnership than between friends who have worked together on projects for many years? Here it is in all its glory: honest, authentic, original songs that still sound fresh after more than a decade. For those familiar with this release from its incarnation as a CD, you already know what we're talking about; for those who don't know, here you go, killer salsa, desde las raíces (from the roots)! Download card included.
PEACE 018LP
 
PRICE: $22.00
CAT #: PEACE 018LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
CUMBIAMUFFIN Cumbiamuffin LP
Infectious, hypnotic tropical grooves with a ragga kick from Australia's premier cumbia orchestra. If you like Ondatrópica, Frente Cumbiero, Ska Cubano, and Lucho Bermúdez, you'll love Cumbiamuffin. It was only a matter of time before cumbia hit Australia. After humbly coming to life on Colombia's Caribbean coast, this rhythm snaked its way up the mountains to reach Colombia's urban capitals, Bogotá and Medellín, who transmitted the signal to Mexico and South America. Cumbia travelled, and wherever it landed it took hold; Charles Mingus got his fill in the '70s, Mexicans brought it across the US border in the '80s, Joe Strummer couldn't get enough of it in the '90s; and wherever it landed, it has shown its flexibility, its ability to adapt to new environments. Cumbiamuffin are the perfect example of what happens when cumbia arrives in a completely different continent. Since forming in 2010, they have become Australia's premier large format cumbia orchestra, offering a twist on the genre that no one saw coming. They take their inspiration from cumbia's brass band traditions, when the genre was adopted by orchestras in the 1940s, the start of its golden age, but they do not stop there. They also look further afield, to the big bands of Mexico and Peru, and even to the Caribbean, which is how their name came about. Cumbiamuffin represents the contraction of two musical styles that the group seamlessly bring together in one big, vibrant, joyous experience: cumbia and raggamuffin reggae. Armed with the collective energy of two authentic Colombian vocalists, a seriously massive brass section, heavy bass, funky guitar, salsa piano and equally authentic percussion, the 15-piece band combines elements of reggae, dancehall and roots from the Colombian Caribbean in a deft mix that is both retro and futuristic, authentically traditional and yet also experimental. Put together by a collective of Colombian and Australian musicians, the project has the common vision of introducing the purest sounds of the golden era of orchestrated cumbia to Australian audiences, but with a little something more added to the formula to keep things fresh. Having triumphantly conquered their home country's competitive music scene with sold out shows at numerous festivals and well-known venues all over Down Under, Cumbiamuffin are poised to break out to a global audience with their debut self-titled LP. Features mixes and remixes by Prince of Queens Deconstruction, OYOBI, Rizomagic, and SLP Turbo Sonidero. Download card included.
PHARAWAY SOUNDS (SPAIN)
PHS 058LP
 
PRICE: $25.50
CAT #: PHS 058LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
CUASARES Afro-Progresivo LP
2022 restock; LP version. Includes download card. Pharaway Sounds present the first ever reissue of Cuasares' Afro-Progresivo, originally released in 1973. A wild, esoteric mix of psychedelic funk, Afro-Latin grooves, jazz, and Italian/French-styled library sounds courtesy of Cuasares, an enigmatic studio project created by pianist/arranger/visionary Waldo Belloso. Acid fuzz guitar, cosmic synth splashes, distorted organ, flute, vibraphone, and trippy studio effects. Originally released in Argentine in 1973 as a micro-edition. Includes insert with photos and detailed liner notes by Eduardo A. Elizalde Pietruczyk (aka Bubbling Minds) and Mike Wallace.
PINK FLAG (UK)
PF 011LP
 
PRICE: $29.00
CAT #: PF 011LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
WIRE Pink Flag LP
2022 repress; LP version. "Wire's first three albums need no introduction. They are the three classic albums on which Wire's reputation is based. Moreover, they are the recordings that minted the post-punk form. This was adopted by other bands, but Wire were there first. It has been a number of years since these albums were readily available. The aim with these new vinyl and CD releases is to approximate the original statements as closely as possible, but with remastered audio. The vinyl releases have the same covers and inners as the originals (minus the Harvest logo). The digipack CDs have identical track listings to their vinyl counterparts. These versions should be considered Wire's classic 1970s albums, pure and undiluted. Usually contextualized against a backdrop of two years of the growing cultural importance of punk rock--Wire's debut Pink Flag, released in December 1977 on EMI's progressive label Harvest was in fact was something 'other.' To the keen cultural commentator, the timing and label of its release will register two essential facts about it. Firstly, too late (a year after the Pistol's debut release) to be part of UK punk's first flush and secondly that the band were signaling something beyond punk by their choice of label. Further investigation would reveal twenty-one tracks, some of them clocking in at well under a minute and covering a range of tempi well beyond the buzzsaw rockabilly that had become, even by the second half of 1977, punk's staple."
PF 027LP
 
PRICE: $39.00
CAT #: PF 027LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
WIRE Not About To Die: Studio Demos 1977-1978 LP
LP version. "Released as an illegal bootleg back in the early 1980s, Not About To Die were recordings made for EMI as demos for the 1978 and 1979 albums Chairs Missing and 154. Now Wire have decided to redress the balance and give the album its first official release on their own Pinkflag imprint."
ROOM40 (AUSTRALIA)
RM 4181CD
 
PRICE: $17.50
CAT #: RM 4181CD
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
NIBLOCK, PHILL Ghosts And Others CD
Lawrence English on Phill Niblock's Ghosts And Others: "Ghosts And Others is a singular work in the Phill Niblock canon. It's singular not just in its material content, but also in its methodology and approach. It represents a highly focused exercise in editing, location recording and acoustic observation. In many ways, this work reflects a kind of acoustic mirroring of his practices as a film maker. It makes itself available to the world and in doing so reveals a particular perspective that says as much about its creator as it does about its subjects. Like all of Niblock's works this is a piece of patience. It is a work that dwells in the places it finds itself in, allowing certain moments to dominate in some sections, and seemingly vanish away in others. It suggests a movement within boundaries, in that it bounces from one locale to another counterpointing their gradual evolutions across time. There's a sense of collision throughout Ghost And Others. Explosions of Chinese percussion punctuate the piece, dynamic strikes to ward off ghosts during a funeral procession in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. They clang between bursts of car horn, the bellows of cows from collective Soviet-era farm in Hungary and various other sonic ephemera. Elsewhere a reeded instrument tries to carve a space for itself, but the world does not allow it to hold. It is a work that celebrates proximity as much as an aural vista. Transit is also a theme here. What is a fascinating about Ghost And Others is the sense of movement in the work. Trains divide up this piece, marking points of transition, of distraction and of discovery. They act as gate-keepers almost, allowing us through into new spaces and suggesting new relations between the sounds as they combine or detach. As a work of field recording, Ghosts And Others is generous, invitational and most of all effortlessly deep. It is a resonant sensing of place, people and things."
RM 4188CD
 
PRICE: $17.50
CAT #: RM 4188CD
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
PINKCOURTESYPHONE All Intensive Purposes CD
Richard Chartier's Pinkcourtesyphone operates at nexus of recollecting 20th century anxiety and opulence. Over the course of this project, he has created a lush and overtly queer sound world of drifting rouge atmospheres, smudged lipstick electronics, and cavernous architectures that dwarf the sense of human interaction in favor of omnipotent acoustic voyeurism. All Intensive Purposes aches with a deep sense of longing, held aloft with tangible suspension. Voices and sounds float, haunting a murky, aged and diminished mansion. The music hums a tune of a song forgotten, amidst the satin-like sheen of perfume that has sat too long, thick in the air.From Pinkcourtesyphone: "A decade has passed since Pinkcourtesyphone's unexpected debut album Foley Folly Folio (LINE)... time does fly in face of expectations, since expectations are just future resentments. All Intensive Purposes is a lush compliment to Pinkcourtesyphone's previous outing for Room40 Leaving Everything To Be Desired. Immured within the deep deep pink velvet lining of their sonic smudge satchel ooze forth the obsessions and peculiar delicacies that have captivated both Pinkcourtesyphone and audiences alike. Moody glowering, ghostly utterances re-situated, hissy, distant and sad, all the while light and tender. It is that sound that is at the fluffy heart of a long string of successful though surprisingly varied albums. A new sparkling jewel that already gathers cloudiness in its facets. This album can be best characterized by one word -- charm, well, maybe two words -- questionable charm. 'I could listen to it for hours' -- a possible proclamation for these inconsistent consistencies. Theoretical A and B sides makes one long for the warmth of antiquated plastic possibilities, if only for a moment to distill the gnawing hungry need for consumption within. Seven 'songs' lilt and wallow, indefinable, intangible, yet always... there. This is 'catastrophe muzak', the sound of sympathy, romanticized and ruined. Here is a collection of moods which we anticipate and enjoy with no misgivings. A long trail of evening debris awaits your ears' pleasure. Let it procure that pleasure for you, let it devour you. I can't imagine... you will."
SHELTER PRESS (FRANCE)
SHELTER 115LP
 
PRICE: $23.00
CAT #: SHELTER 115LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
LEE, OKKYUNG Yeo-Neun LP
2022 restock. Springing from body of work spanning decades, defined by a rigorously singular and adventurous approach to sound, cellist, composer, and improvisor, Okkyung Lee, returns with Yeo-Neun. Her first outing with Shelter Press, and arguably her most ground-breaking and unexpected album to date. A vital force in the contemporary global landscape of experimental music, Okkyung Lee is widely regarded for her solo and collaborative improvisations and compositions, weaving a continuously evolving network of sonority and event, notable for its profound depth of instrumental sensitivity, exacting intellect, and visceral emotiveness. Yeo-Neun, recorded by Yeo-Neun Quartet -- an experimental chamber music ensemble founded in 2106 and led by Lee on cello, featuring harpist Maeve Gilchrist, pianist Jacob Sacks, and bassist Eivynd Opsvik -- represents the culmination of one of longest and most intimate arcs in her remarkable career. A radical departure from much of the experimental language for which she has become widely known, it is equally a fearless return. Yeo-Neun loosely translates to the gesture of an opening in Korean, presenting a window into the poetic multiplicity that rests at the album's core. Balanced at the outer reaches of Lee's radically forward-thinking creative process, its ten discrete works are born of the ambient displacement of musician's life; intimate melodic constructions and deconstructions that traces their roots across the last 30 years, from her early days spent away from home studying the cello in Seoul and Boston, to her subsequent move to New York and the nomadism of a near endless routine of tours. At its foundation, lay glimpses of a once melancholic teen, traces of the sentimentality and sensitivity (?? / Gahmsung) that underpins the Korean popular music of Lee's youth, and an artist for whom the notions of time, place, and home have become increasingly complex. Elegantly binding modern classical composition and freely improvised music with the emotive drama of Korean traditional music and popular ballads, the expanse of Yeo-Neun pushes toward the palpably unknown, as radical for what it is and does, as it for its approachability. Meandering melodies, from the deceptively simple to the tonally and structurally complex, slowly evolve and fall from view, the harp, piano, and bass forming an airy, liminal non-place, through which Lee's cello and unplaceable memories freely drift. Printed inner and outer sleeve with artwork by American photographer Ron Jude. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker.
STUDENTS OF DECAY
SOD 128LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: SOD 128LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
FLANGER MAGAZINE After the Bend LP
After the Bend is the second album from Louisville based Flanger Magazine, and the follow up to FM's 2018 debut, Breslin. Whereas Breslin was the solo creation of Christopher Bush, After the Bend is an ensemble affair. An ecosystem, a perfect mutualism bodies forth -- of strings, outdoor recordings, electronics, reeds, and percussion -- featuring new FM players Anna Krippenstapel (Frekons (Freakwater + Mekons), The Other Years), Jim Marlowe (Equipment Pointed Ankh, Tropical Trash, Sapat), Eric Lanham and Benjamin Zoeller (both from Caboladies). The various combos perform with both a distinguished efficacy and unhurried Sunday drift -- charged and beautiful, pulsating and pleasing. The production is subtle and tasteful. Mutating past the old saws of bounded individualism, a strange form of tentacular life accrues, cyborgian-fungral-tangles of the more-than-human variety. Robert Beatty's cover art of otherworldly and interconnected river-scape gradients, coupled with song titles like "Reservoir", "Falls Fountain Removed", and "Sympathies for the River", cue and clue the listener toward a river as a singular multitude analog for the album. Interstitial gaps, clearings and openings give rise and merge into an accumulated flow from the tributaries of spirited improvisational performance, palimpsestic song cycles, and high-fidelity studio production. The composite sound-image of After the Bend refuses to put both oars down into any one of the eddies of the folk, sound, chamber, electronic, or jazz idioms, and instead glides along the currents found within the slipstreams between. Gathering samples, a River Doctor Limnologist inspecting the properties of After the Bend might note the specter of Leroy Jenkin's free-violin heat-light deep in the water's thermal stratification. Or mortgage the late-maestro's time with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to pay down the growing river heat budget. Or take one's dirty buckets to the banks of the 19th laundromat where Walt Dickerson plays his vibraphone parts from Divine Gemini with dowsing rods. Or excavate the bedrock in the drainage basin, noting skeletal remains of a Shostakovich string quartet attempting to tune up a Kentucky Fiddle's subsequent influence on the chemical composition of the water. Or consult the historical revisionist reenactment troupe's episode of Fishing with John (Fahey) in which Codona, The Sea Ensemble, and Nuno Canavarro guest host as their fleet of paddle boats churn river water into a regal lager, and all the fish get drunk in their quest for the leaner enamel Hosianna Mantra GPS coordinates of the Fattened Herb. Includes download code; edition of 300.
SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
SR 403LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: SR 403LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
UNIVERS ZERO Ceux Du Dehors LP
2022 repress. Black vinyl. Ceux Du Dehors is the third album by Belgian band Univers Zero, originally released in 1981. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band, Ceux Du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich. It finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the more general and varied chamber music sound of their first release, 1977's 1313 (SR 399LP), except with more precision and skill. The tricky charts of percussionist Daniel Denis and new keyboardist Andy Kirk are executed with great panache. The labyrinthine compositions are typically filled with unexpected twists and turns, and angular repetitions of jagged riffs that accelerate, decelerate and mutate in passages of acute tension or quiet but ominous dread.
SR 509CD
 
PRICE: $23.50
CAT #: SR 509CD
FILE UNDER: WORLD
VA Exploring Gong Culture of Southeast Asia: Massif And Archipelago 2CD
This project, Massif And Archipelago, is a field recording project initiated by Japanese sound artist Yasuhiro Morinaga, documenting traditional gong music by different Southeast Asian ethnic groups. The project aimed to examine the impact of the natural and social environment on the gong music culture of Southeast Asia. During the project, he visited over 50 different ethnic groups and made hundreds of recordings. This album presents a selection of the unique gong music from different ethnic minorities. The selected music has been divided into two broad sections: one focusing on the music from the Massif, ie. mainland Southeast Asia (Central Highland of Vietnam and Northeast Cambodia), the other on music from the Archipelago, maritime Southeast Asia (the Luzon Islands of the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Flores Islands of Indonesia). Double-CD version includes 52-page booklet with photos and liner notes by David Toop."Gongs have played an integral role in the mytho-geography of Asia. This is not music that aligns with national borders or ideas of homogenous populations, let alone racial stereotypes and exotic clichés. What connects all of these tracks is a simultaneous feeling of entrancement and social cohesion. Communal and collaborative, its form is hypnotically repetitious, melodies and rhythms spread out among the players using the technique of hocketing in which a flowing line is distributed among all the musicians. The effect is mesmerizing, immediately intoxicating to anybody who loves Chicago footwork, free improvisation, Sun Ra, or young hip-hop producer, Jetsonmade. The music is simple yet mysterious and enveloping, a sound world in which to disappear. A theory exists but this is not explained." --David Toop (extracts from the liner notes).
SR 509LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: SR 509LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
VA Exploring Gong Culture of Southeast Asia: Massif And Archipelago LP
LP version. Includes insert. This project, Massif And Archipelago, is a field recording project initiated by Japanese sound artist Yasuhiro Morinaga, documenting traditional gong music by different Southeast Asian ethnic groups. The project aimed to examine the impact of the natural and social environment on the gong music culture of Southeast Asia. During the project, he visited over 50 different ethnic groups and made hundreds of recordings. This album presents a selection of the unique gong music from different ethnic minorities. The selected music has been divided into two broad sections: one focusing on the music from the Massif, ie. mainland Southeast Asia (Central Highland of Vietnam and Northeast Cambodia), the other on music from the Archipelago, maritime Southeast Asia (the Luzon Islands of the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Flores Islands of Indonesia). Liners notes by David Toop."Gongs have played an integral role in the mytho-geography of Asia. This is not music that aligns with national borders or ideas of homogenous populations, let alone racial stereotypes and exotic clichés. What connects all of these tracks is a simultaneous feeling of entrancement and social cohesion. Communal and collaborative, its form is hypnotically repetitious, melodies and rhythms spread out among the players using the technique of hocketing in which a flowing line is distributed among all the musicians. The effect is mesmerizing, immediately intoxicating to anybody who loves Chicago footwork, free improvisation, Sun Ra, or young hip-hop producer, Jetsonmade. The music is simple yet mysterious and enveloping, a sound world in which to disappear. A theory exists but this is not explained." --David Toop (extracts from the liner notes).
SR 510LP
 
PRICE: $33.00
CAT #: SR 510LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
HARRIS/MARTYN BATES, MICK Murder Ballads [Passages] 2LP
Following Murder Ballads [Drift] (SR 506LP), here is, for the first time on vinyl, Murder Ballads [Passages]. Post-isolationist, deep ambiance, and folksong re-emerge in this first vinyl outing of the classic Murder Ballads [Drift] by Mick Harris and Martyn Bates. Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out -- let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads [Drift] by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, and solo) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads [Drift] evolves Martyn Bates vocalizations/storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads [Drift] created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporizing into a truly original dazzlingly unique form. Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza. The unlikely pair -- one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings -- finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all. The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed "post-isolationist" dreaming. Passages (originally released in 1997) plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes (the god who watches). The effect is chilling yet engrossing. Where most ambient music has barely enough courage to ring the doorbell and run, Murder Ballads slips through the cracks of the unconscious and does its work with remarkable ease. All the more reason to listen thoughtfully. In 2022 -- re-emerging 25 years after its initial inception -- somewhat surprisingly, Murder Ballads [Passages] still remains/exists in an area overlooked by other artists. Textured sleeve; marbled vinyl.
TAPETE RECORDS (GERMANY)
TR 504CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: TR 504CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
DAVENPORT, BART Episodes CD
Bart Davenport might be a multitude of things, depending on whom you ask. He's been a mod, a blues singer, and a soft rock troubadour. He's an eclectic singer songwriter with the timeless voice of a real crooner. He lives and creates music in Los Angeles. Smooth and yet curiously pointed, his work transports you to an imagined past or present filled with romantic odes and enigmatic characters. Davenport's stories are often a reflection of now, taking place in a fantasy world but conveying personal and universal truths. Returning to acoustic guitars and '60s baroque pop tones, Davenport recently tracked twelve new songs in his home studio in Los Angeles. He takes us on an exclusive tour of colorful stories, both comic and tragic. The resulting Episodes marks his eighth proper album and is scheduled for release on Tapete Records. Davenport's evocative, new material provides both an escape from and an unusual commentary on turbulent times. From digital antagonists in "Holograms" to waltzing oligarchs in "Billionaires" to an enigmatic nudist in "Naked Man", many offbeat characters populate the funny little world within Davenport's verses. His vocals are distinctively smooth at times, while at others, a slightly cheeky, more dramatic baritone takes over. His patented happy/sad sensibility remains along with the occasional jazz chord. While Episodes features Davenport on multiple instruments, he did not go it alone. Several guest musicians were crucial to the production. Drummer Graeme Gibson's casual feel graces several tracks, notably the Kinksy "It's You". The samba-tinged "Easy Listeners" has that tropical flavor Davenport's been known to dabble in, this time aided by impeccable percussionist Andres Renteria (Jose Gonzales, Rodrigo Amarante). Meanwhile, the Turkish psych-inspired "Strange Animal" showcases futuristic organ riffing by Aaron M. Olson (L.A. Takedown), who produced Davenport's previous album (Blue Motel by Bart & The Bedazzled). Other longtime bandmates, Jessica Espeleta (bass) and Wayne Faler (lead guitar), both make appearances. Perhaps the standout track of the album is its quietest; the Brit-folk-styled "Alice Arrives". Davenport's autumnal vocal and guitar are adeptly accompanied by Dina Maccabee's original string arrangement, which morphs from earnest baroque to playful modern and back again. This along with the heavier, orchestral sound of "Billionaires" adds a touch of hi-fi to an otherwise homemade album.
TR 504LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: TR 504LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
DAVENPORT, BART Episodes LP
LP version. Bart Davenport might be a multitude of things, depending on whom you ask. He's been a mod, a blues singer, and a soft rock troubadour. He's an eclectic singer songwriter with the timeless voice of a real crooner. He lives and creates music in Los Angeles. Smooth and yet curiously pointed, his work transports you to an imagined past or present filled with romantic odes and enigmatic characters. Davenport's stories are often a reflection of now, taking place in a fantasy world but conveying personal and universal truths. Returning to acoustic guitars and '60s baroque pop tones, Davenport recently tracked twelve new songs in his home studio in Los Angeles. He takes us on an exclusive tour of colorful stories, both comic and tragic. The resulting Episodes marks his eighth proper album and is scheduled for release on Tapete Records. Davenport's evocative, new material provides both an escape from and an unusual commentary on turbulent times. From digital antagonists in "Holograms" to waltzing oligarchs in "Billionaires" to an enigmatic nudist in "Naked Man", many offbeat characters populate the funny little world within Davenport's verses. His vocals are distinctively smooth at times, while at others, a slightly cheeky, more dramatic baritone takes over. His patented happy/sad sensibility remains along with the occasional jazz chord. While Episodes features Davenport on multiple instruments, he did not go it alone. Several guest musicians were crucial to the production. Drummer Graeme Gibson's casual feel graces several tracks, notably the Kinksy "It's You". The samba-tinged "Easy Listeners" has that tropical flavor Davenport's been known to dabble in, this time aided by impeccable percussionist Andres Renteria (Jose Gonzales, Rodrigo Amarante). Meanwhile, the Turkish psych-inspired "Strange Animal" showcases futuristic organ riffing by Aaron M. Olson (L.A. Takedown), who produced Davenport's previous album (Blue Motel by Bart & The Bedazzled). Other longtime bandmates, Jessica Espeleta (bass) and Wayne Faler (lead guitar), both make appearances. Perhaps the standout track of the album is its quietest; the Brit-folk-styled "Alice Arrives". Davenport's autumnal vocal and guitar are adeptly accompanied by Dina Maccabee's original string arrangement, which morphs from earnest baroque to playful modern and back again. This along with the heavier, orchestral sound of "Billionaires" adds a touch of hi-fi to an otherwise homemade album.
TR 506CD
 
PRICE: $16.50
CAT #: TR 506CD
FILE UNDER: ROCK
LOVE, SIMON Love, Sex and Death etc CD
Following on from his 2018 album Sincerely, S. Love x (TR 406CD/LP), Tapete Records present Simon Love's new record Love, Sex And Death Etc. The 12 songs, written between 2017 and 2019 mostly, were recorded in two batches in July and November 2020 after being rehearsed for six months with the initial plan of recording them as live as possible all together in one room. Simon says, "Apart from COVID-19 and all the death and hand-washing, it was surprisingly the easiest album I think I've ever made! We were laser focused when it came to do these songs and it shows." Swinging from love songs ("Me And You" and "I Will Always Love You Anyway") to hate songs ("The Fuck-Up" and "I Love Everybody In The Whole Wide World (Except You)") through all points in-between, the centerpiece of the album is the nigh on seven-minute long pop epic "L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O". "That song started early one morning when a photo popped up on Facebook. I couldn't sleep and seeing it reminded me that it was taken the evening I almost had a one-night stand. I then wrote out a series of tweets about what happened (a lot happened) and originally, I thought it could be a poem to put on an album sleeve Bob Dylan style, but somebody replied saying, 'It sounds like a Leonard Cohen song' so instead it became a tune. I played it solo for the first time when we toured Europe in the autumn of 2018. It gave the band a much-needed toilet/drink/fag break in the set." The non-musical influences for this record include his wife, his son ("Au Revoir My Dude" written as a guide to life of sorts), the venal Conservative government ("I Will Dance" and "You're On Your Own"), ex-girlfriends ("North Road") and his inability to pick up on signals ("Yvonne") whereas musically Simon was aiming for (but not always hitting directly) Nick Lowe, Kevin Ayers, Silver Jews, Ween, and all the Kinks between 1971 and 1975. The title Love, Sex And Death Etc comes from the fact that every song mentions or references love, sex and/or death in the lyrics. That fact makes this a concept album but even though it's a concept album, there's no through line no direct narrative, so you can listen to it however you want.
TR 506LP
 
PRICE: $26.00
CAT #: TR 506LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
LOVE, SIMON Love, Sex and Death etc LP
LP version. Following on from his 2018 album Sincerely, S. Love x (TR 406CD/LP), Tapete Records present Simon Love's new record Love, Sex And Death Etc. The 12 songs, written between 2017 and 2019 mostly, were recorded in two batches in July and November 2020 after being rehearsed for six months with the initial plan of recording them as live as possible all together in one room. Simon says, "Apart from COVID-19 and all the death and hand-washing, it was surprisingly the easiest album I think I've ever made! We were laser focused when it came to do these songs and it shows." Swinging from love songs ("Me And You" and "I Will Always Love You Anyway") to hate songs ("The Fuck-Up" and "I Love Everybody In The Whole Wide World (Except You)") through all points in-between, the centerpiece of the album is the nigh on seven-minute long pop epic "L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O". "That song started early one morning when a photo popped up on Facebook. I couldn't sleep and seeing it reminded me that it was taken the evening I almost had a one-night stand. I then wrote out a series of tweets about what happened (a lot happened) and originally, I thought it could be a poem to put on an album sleeve Bob Dylan style, but somebody replied saying, 'It sounds like a Leonard Cohen song' so instead it became a tune. I played it solo for the first time when we toured Europe in the autumn of 2018. It gave the band a much-needed toilet/drink/fag break in the set." The non-musical influences for this record include his wife, his son ("Au Revoir My Dude" written as a guide to life of sorts), the venal Conservative government ("I Will Dance" and "You're On Your Own"), ex-girlfriends ("North Road") and his inability to pick up on signals ("Yvonne") whereas musically Simon was aiming for (but not always hitting directly) Nick Lowe, Kevin Ayers, Silver Jews, Ween, and all the Kinks between 1971 and 1975. The title Love, Sex And Death Etc comes from the fact that every song mentions or references love, sex and/or death in the lyrics. That fact makes this a concept album but even though it's a concept album, there's no through line no direct narrative, so you can listen to it however you want.
THIRD MAN RECORDS
TMR 372LP
 
PRICE: $21.00
CAT #: TMR 372LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
DETROIT COBRAS, THE Life, Love And Leaving LP
2016 reissue, originally released in 2001. "Originally released in 2001, the Detroit Cobras Life, Love and Leaving is the group's best-known effort, coming at a time when bands like the White Stripes and Dirtbombs were also releasing seminal albums that started picking up recognition outside of their collective hometown of Detroit. Hitting hard with songs by soul heavyweights like Solomon Burke ('Stupidity'), Mary Wells ('Bye Bye Baby'), Otis Redding ('Shout Bamalama'), the inimitable vocals of Rachel Nagy would no-doubt be a template from which folks like Amy Winehouse would work from years later. A landmark collection of covers."
UMOR REX (MEXICO)
UR 135CS
 
PRICE: $13.50
CAT #: UR 135CS
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
MORSE, ALEJANDRO Stonewalling Cassette
Stonewalling offers a collection of electroacoustic pieces taking as input the Mexican vernacular music from the golden age of Mexican cinema of the first part of the 20th century. In those films, music was used as communication due their poor verbal communication-skills. This is an album about communication, about the impossibility to do so to resolve conflicts. In the technical side, some of the sources used as layering in the tracks come from radio frequencies taken from explorations into the software-defined radio universe, mixed with microphone feedbacks, oscillators, and random textures with field-recordings. In the melodic/harmonic structures of the tracks, the main instrument used is a classical guitar with hyper-processed chords using DSP tools. Stonewalling, in some way, follows to 444 (Umor Rex, 2019), serving as a Morse's follow-up into the Mexican vernacular music expeditions. Produced by Alejandro Morse aka Edgar Medina in León, México. Mastered by Edgar Medina. Photos and design by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
UR 136CS
 
PRICE: $13.50
CAT #: UR 136CS
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
STEENKISTE & U. SCHUTTE, G. G. Steenkiste & U. Schutte Cassette
These two pieces, recorded in sessions in Ghent, Belgium and Hamburg, Germany, represent the first musical collaboration between long-time friends U. Schütte (half of the German duo Phantom Horse, with several releases on Umor Rex) and G. Steenkiste (aka Hellvete). In this work, two specific traditions of the avant-garde of modern electronic music of the meet elegantly: the systematic, evolutionary and minimal construction of harmonic and solemn forms, with the patience and aesthetics of long durations -- where small changes take time but are always punctual and precise. U. Schütte & G. Steenkiste built a beautiful meeting between electric and acoustic music, basically carried out with a harmonium, a shruti box and modular synthesizers. Beauty is in the details and what Schütte and Steenkiste do here is to cover two long landscapes with well-consolidated details that invite contemplation and moments of extreme sensory relaxation. You have to give yourself a space to listen and see-through sound, and these two long pieces are a rare and perfect opportunity to do so. Recorded by G. Steenkiste and U. Schütte in December 2020 in Sint-Denijs and Hamburg. Mastered by Edgar Medina. Photos and design by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
UNSEEN MUSIC (GERMANY)
UNSEENRE 004LP
 
PRICE: $22.50
CAT #: UNSEENRE 004LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
GOLDMUND The Malady Of Elegance LP
Originally released in 2008 on CD and in a very limited vinyl edition, The Malady Of Elegance by Goldmund aka Keith Kenniff finally gets its long-deserved vinyl re-release, featuring a new artwork and remastered audio by Taylor Deupree. Taking cues from Corduroy Road (2005) Keith Kenniff (aka Helios) again restricts himself to the piano in conjuring up his humble soundscapes and again you are pulled into a deep, meditative and filmic world as the notes glide to a slow, pensive meter. Keith's precedent release was the challenging Two Point Discrimination EP, released on the Western Vinyl label as part of their portrait series, but where that record was a collection of haunting experiments in form and sound, The Malady Of Elegance sees us back into the warming, homespun territory of Corduroy Road. That's not to say these compositions are upbeat, far from it in fact, but there are lines to be drawn to folk music, and while Keith no longer draws on the American Civil War as a primary influence there is still the sense that the ghosts of old America haunt the keys. On top of these references, you see Keith tripping somewhat fittingly into a flickering filmic world somewhat in line with his taste in European film. There is a delicate narrative on show throughout the record from the opening hopefulness of "Image-Autumn-Womb" through the melancholy of "Now" to the sensitive romance of the closing of the album. Listening to the record almost creates its own cinematic accompaniment in the mind's eye, and this is simply a testament to Keith's incredible talents as a composer. Fans of Erik Satie, Sylvain Chauveau, and Hauschka need look no further, The Malady Of Elegance is a deeply personal meditation which you cannot help but get lost inside. Includes download code; edition of 500.
UNSEENRE 005LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: UNSEENRE 005LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
HELIOS Caesura LP
Originally released in 2008 on Type Recordings, Caesura by Helios aka Keith Kenniff returns in a new 2022 edition vinyl re-release, remastered by Taylor Deupree. Keith Kenniff had been with Type from the very beginning, and in the fifth year of the label he offered his fifth gorgeous release. In those five years Keith's style had evolved constantly, with his drifting piano compositions taking the Goldmund label and the Helios sound moving out from underneath the clipped beat-heavy electronics of Unomia (UNSEENRE 001LP) and into a more unique place, even incorporating vocals on the Ayres mini album. Caesura however was his "proper" follow-up to the acclaimed Eingya, and has seen Keith return to the instrumental sound he knows so well. In fact, in many ways Caesura is a more electronic work than its predecessors, blending layer upon layer of synthesizer and adding his assured drumming to come up with the perfect meeting of indie-pop and ambient music. The haunting cinematic element is still present of course, but these songs are more rounded and confident than any in Keith's career to that point. From the delicate bliss of "Hope Valley Hill" which opens up the album with gauzy nostalgia and, as the title promised, hope, through the chunky pop of "Come With Nothings" it is clear that Keith's music is as arresting as it ever was. Taking cues from the lilting indie-electronics of Ulrich Schnauss and the unfussy ambience of Brian Eno, Keith manages to inject this with his knowledge as a composer. The epic harmonies of "Backlight" for instance reveal a lightness of touch rarely heard in the genre with sweeping synthesized chords buzzing alongside Keith's signature guitar. Accompanied by more gorgeous artwork from Matthew Woodson, Caesura still is a glowing record for the winter months, and a glimmer of hope to keep the seasons at bay. First time on vinyl since its original release in 2008. Includes download code; edition of 500.
UNSEENRE 006LP
 
PRICE: $24.00
CAT #: UNSEENRE 006LP
FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC
HELIOS Moiety LP
Originally released in 2012 on the artist's own Unseen label only in digital formats, Moiety by Helios aka Keith Kenniff gets a well-deserved physical release in a new 2022 vinyl edition, remastered by Taylor Deupree. In 2012, Kenniff shared this free, digital-only collection called Moiety, which marked a notable shift in pace, both in output and style. Slower, more meditative than past work, Moiety honed in on Kenniff's proclivity as an ambient producer. Moiety is a stunning piece of work, largely instrumental with vocals as an instrument rather than a voice. It's a visceral listen with cinematic scope. No surprise that the opener "Nothing It Can" is one of Helios' most streamed tracks in his whole catalog. First time vinyl edition of this previously digital only release. Includes download code; edition of 500. 45 rpm.
VAAGNER (GERMANY)
VAA 006LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: VAA 006LP
FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL
JENSEN, CLARICE Drone Studies LP
In the past few years, Clarice Jensen has forged her own path. Recently, her focus has shifted to film scoring, successfully recording work for three feature films between 2020 and 2021. At the same time, Clarice continues to serve as artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, while continually collaborating with an impressive array of musicians, such as Max Richter, Björk, and Stars of the Lid, to name a few. That being said, it was her 2019 tape release on Geographic North, Drone Studies, that initially caught the attention of a wider audience, with the work showcasing a compelling assembly of deeply immersive drones, and elegantly orchestrated compositions, in which neoclassical elements collide with electric density. Three years later, the work has lost none of its innovative character and appeal. It also documents a turning point in Clarice's career, one where her classically trained background started to converged and overlap with her interests in improvisational electronics and drone music. As a result, the aptly titled Drone Studies shows Clarice at her most exploratory, introspective, and daring, channeling her areas of interest into a collage of richly textured timbers and cello movements of sublime tension. Now for the first time, the original album can be experienced through an expanded vinyl reissue, mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, and carefully adjusted for vinyl by Ian Hawgood. The new reissue also features an additional track by Clarice called "Platonic Solids 2", which was originally conceived around the same time as Drone Studies, and which has now been made available exclusively for the vinyl edition. Edition of 300.
VAMPISOUL (SPAIN)
VAMPI 244LP
 
PRICE: $25.00
CAT #: VAMPI 244LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
MONTEZ Y SUS GUANTANAMEROS, SILVESTRE Las Guitarras Tropicales LP
2022 repress; First time reissue, originally released in 1968. Cuban and Colombian rhythms form Tropical Guitars (MAG, 1968), the first LP of the Silvestre Montez y sus Guantanameros orchestra, a group whose conductor and members, despite their name, have no direct relationship with any Caribbean country, and whose conception illustrates the particular way in which the Peruvian record company MAG was managed. Manuel Antonio Guerrero (founder and owner of MAG) made significant profits with the first albums published, mostly focused on música criolla. He soon encouraged his friend Lucho Macedo, director of Lima's favorite sonora, to record the main hits of Sonora Matancera, reinterpretations with innovative arrangements that exceeded market demands. Thus, they continued to repeat the formula of releasing songs "in the style of", and soon they published hits of tango, cuplé, pasodobles, Ecuadorian, Argentine and Paraguayan music, reinterpreted by local musicians. Tropical music records were always the label's favorites, especially because Guerrero knew Cuban music well due to his visits to the island when he was young. In addition, the record company had an in-house orchestra, called MAG All Stars, always ready to experiment and improvise on new recordings. Stars such as Joe di Roma, Coco Lagos, Mario Allison, and Pablo Villanueva "Melcochita", among others, were at some point part of this orchestra, which had different line-ups, who accompanied, with the same skills, singers of new wave, huayno, rock, boleros or international music, covering songs that, on many occasions, Mr. Guerrero himself suggested, arranged, composed or directly participated joining the choirs or playing the maracas. This album was released, without crediting the participant musicians, consisting mostly of songs that had already known fame with other groups such as Los Destellos, Pedro Miguel y Sus Maracaibos or Melcochita y Su Conjunto. The Guantanameros were truly an ephemeral formation off the MAG All Stars, and nobody knows who Silvestre Montez was. There is only one clue: he shared the same name as that of Manuel Antonio Guerrero Silvestre. This LP by Silvestre Montez y sus Guantanameros comprises seven guarachas and five cumbias, whose recording sessions took place between June and October 1968. Although the identity of all its musicians remains unconfirmed, the tapes indicate that the multiskilled artist Pablo Villanueva "Melcochita" performs as vocalist, Coco Lagos on percussion and Rafael Ríos, from the Los Guajiros group, on guitar.
VAMPI 252LP
 
PRICE: $27.00
CAT #: VAMPI 252LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
BEN, JORGE Dadiva LP
Vampisoul present a reissue of Jorge Ben's Dádiva, originally released in 1983. Jorge Ben is someone who needs no introduction. Since his first hits in the '60s, this artist has become one of the greatest icons of Brazilian pop music. His anthems "Mais Que Nada" or "Pais Tropical" are probably two of the most ever-listened Brazilian songs of all time. After being involved in the Tropicalia movement and incorporating the influences of Afro-American funk into his repertoire, with the support of his backing band -- Trio Mocotó --, his very personal samba sound also opened up to the new musical trends coming from the States at the edge of the '70s. Boogie and disco music were making headway and soon became popular in the Brazilian market. Jorge Ben's albums recorded at the beginning of the '80s reflect this trend and deliver a good number of outstanding tunes. This masterpiece includes the great boogie joint "Rio Babilonia" as well as the all-time classics "Taj Mahal/Pais Tropical", the soulful opener "Eu Quero Ver A Rainha" featuring Tim Maia, and many other samba funk jams arranged by Lincoln Olivetti. An essential addition to any Brazilian music collection.
VAMPI 256LP
 
PRICE: $28.50
CAT #: VAMPI 256LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
SA, WANDA Vagamente LP
Vampisoul present a reissue of Wanda Sá's Vagamente, originally released in 1964. Beautiful vocal bossa jazz album that includes songs written by Edu Lobo, Vinicius De Moraes, Roberto Menescal, and Marcos Valle, among others. The backing band was formed by Brazil top musicians led by Luis Carlos Vinhas, Tenorio Jr., and Menescal himself. This is the first solo album recorded by Wanda Sá who shortly after would join Sergio Mendes' Brasil 65 (with Rosinha de Valença and Jorge Ben). After touring the States (and recording), she returned to Brazil and did many shows with Baden Powell, Vinicius de Moraes, Luis Carlos Vinhas, and Bossa 3. Despite having a very short discography, Wanda Sá is one of Brazil's best-kept musical secrets. She started to play the guitar at a very young age under guidance by Roberto Menescal, and although her fantastic voice and playing have remained under the radar for the mainstream audience, her outstanding talent is well known and appreciated by those in the know... Highly in demand, this fantastic album, one of the earliest arranging assignments by Eumir Deodato, is now reissued on vinyl again after over a decade unavailable.
VAMPI 259LP
 
PRICE: $28.50
CAT #: VAMPI 259LP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
ORQUESTA REVE De Habana A Lima Con La Orquesta Reve LP
Vampisoul present a first-time reissue of Orquesta Revé's De Habana A Lima Con La Orquesta Revé. In 1956, the percussionist and composer from Guantanamo, Elio Revé, founded the orchestra popularly known as La Revé, which in the space of a few years became the Cuban music group par excellence for foreign audiences. Elio, dubbed the father of changüí for his seminal work on this genre, is also considered one of the forerunners of salsa music and his orchestra included musicians of the stature of vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer; pianists Chucho Valdés, César Pedroso and Juan Carlos Alfonso; and bass guitarist Juan Formell, who left the group in 1969 to form Los Van Van. Acting as an artistic ambassador for Cuba, the Orquesta Revé made several tours abroad in the seventies, traveling to countries such as Spain, Belgium, and the People's Republic of Angola, and these journeys are well documented on the internet. However, little is known about their trip to Peru in 1971... The local record label MAG quickly signed the Cuban groups that arrived in the Peruvian capital and that the head of the label, Manuel Guerrero, agreed to record. The La Revé LP was followed by a Los Compadres album the following year. De Habana a Lima... comprises a dozen songs labeled changüis, mostly written by Cuban composers, the exception being the closing track: "Dominga", an original song by Brazilian artist Jorge Ben. In contrast, the album opens with the distinctly Cuban song "Guajira Guantanamera". Quite an invisible record even for hardcore collectors, and almost impossible to find in any condition, De Habana a Lima... is now reissued for the first time.
VAMPI 45088EP
 
PRICE: $18.00
CAT #: VAMPI 45088EP
FILE UNDER: WORLD
MINI-TRIO Hare Krishna 7"
Although the appeal of the post-Hair/Beatlesque hippie hook of "Hare Krishna" on the A side of this rare single, the real gold lies on the flipside. "É O Que Ela Quer" is a groovy Brazilian version of The Zombies' classic "She's Not There" recorded by the obscure Mini-Trio in 1970 and released as a 7" only. The band was most likely a studio group recording international hits for the local Brazilian market and their take on the 1964 classic adds a terrific dancefloor potential to the Zombies song. Very hard to find, especially in good condition, this record now gets a proper reissue for the first time.
VINYL LOVERS (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
VL 900908LP
 
PRICE: $28.00
CAT #: VL 900908LP
FILE UNDER: ROCK
PIXIES Pixies LP
2022 repress. Before the indie rock scene was blown wide open by Nirvana in the early '90s, the Pixies loomed large on college radio. By taking standard pop formats and turning them inside out -- the band spelled out the new commandments of alternarock to a new generation of would-be grunge rockers. In March 1987, as the Pixies were just beginning to gain a reputation around the Boston area, they recorded their first demo, known by Pixies fans as The Purple Tape. This demo landed the Pixies their first record deal with 4AD, and the eight songs that appear on their first album Come On Pilgrim (1987) were culled from this same demo. However, there were nine more songs that didn't make the cut, and these are the songs that are found here. That original raw 1987 demo comes early versions of "Here Comes Your Man", "Down The Well", and "Build High", as well as the hidden gem "Rock A My Soul". Color vinyl.
WE RELEASE JAZZ (SWITZERLAND)
WRJ 001LP
 
PRICE: $25.00
CAT #: WRJ 001LP
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
FUKUI, RYO Scenery LP
2022 repress; New "regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltrane among others. From "It Could Happen To You" and its serene and calm intro which magically flows into a jubilant and upbeat piece, to the out-of-this-world piano solo of "Early Summer", or the incredible teamwork of "Autumn Leaves" where Fukui leads Satoshi Denpo (bass) and Yoshinori Fukui (drums) into groove heaven, every single note on the album oozes precision, confidence, and flair and every single section slides seamlessly into one another, creating a supreme and elegant blend of jazz. Often compared to McCoy Tyner or Bill Evans, Ryo Fukui was a genius in his own right, a true master of his craft whose perfectionism gave birth to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Scenery is his magnum opus and an absolute must-have. The Hokkaido wizard-pianist followed Scenery with the soulful gem Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP/LTD-LP) in 1977. He then focused on improving his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui) and releasing two live albums. Ryo Fukui sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come. Sourced from the original masters. LP version is mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl with sticker.
 
new releases are also viewable at https://www.forcedexposure.com/new/newindx.html
 
Forced Exposure, 60 Lowell St, Arlington, MA, 02476, United States, www.forcedexposure.com