News & Events

FORCED EXPOSURE MAILORDER UPDATE
NEW RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 05/26/2025

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.

 

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: AA 679LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2025 restock. A reissue of Triston Palma's Joker Smoker, originally released in 1981. Angus Taylor of the BBC on Joker Smoker in 2008: "Triston Palma's (or Palmer as he was also known) Joker Smoker was notable not just for his praise of herb smoking (nothing new in reggae) but for its sardonic appraisal of the moochers and chancers that those who live such a lifestyle are fated to encounter. Its continuing resonance was proven in 2006 when the Italian singjay and producer, Alborosie, released his own anthem, 'Herbalist', on the 'Joker Smoker' rhythm. . . . Joker Smoker was released in 1981, when reggae had become fascinated with its own fundamentals: sparse reworkings of familiar rhythms, with pounding kick drums, simple plodding basslines, and effects laden, highly evocative guitar and keyboard lines. These tended to be played by the Roots Radics band who created all the backings for this disc, produced by the deejay Jah Thomas at the famous Channel One Studio. The received mainstream critical wisdom on this era is that it was a musical blind alley that necessitated the iconoclasm of hard dancehall later in the decade. But the captivating ambience and musical intricacies of a record like Joker Smoker show this up for the reductive nonsense that it is. Bingy Bunny's chopping rhythm guitar work, Sowell Bailey and Dwight Pinckney's plaintive, chorus laden, lead guitar phrasing, and the primordial, relentless drum and bass foundations laid down by Errol Holt and Style Scott are typical of a time when modern production techniques, live instrumentation, dancehall rhythms and rootical lyrics came together as one. But it is the small touches that really impress. These include Dean Fraser, Nambo Robinson and Deadly Headley Bennett's mocking horns (parodying Palma's dried honey vocals) on the title track, Gladstone Anderson's precisely considered, minimal piano, and percussionist Sky Juice's use of a cuica friction drum on 'Give Me Give Me Your Love'. 'Joker Smoker' may be the album's centre, but every one's a winner here. A perfect example of what was, in reality, a high point in reggae's golden age."

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: BEWITH 001HEART

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2025 repress, limited! Be With presents the first-time reissue of the first ever heart-shaped red vinyl 45. Extremely limited! The smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over. Here are two timeless masterpieces of sophisticated jazzy soul brilliance that are strictly canonical. The originals of these red heart-shaped vinyl records go for stupid money -- if you can find one in good condition. Here's your chance to snag a real collectors item for fans of Bobby and, well, LOVE, the world over. The eternal "What You Won't Do for Love" became a national anthem. It perfectly captured Bobby's ability to infuse a contagious groove with introspective and relatable lyrics. With its instantly recognizable horn riff and Caldwell's soulful delivery, this timeless, chiller anthem continues to captivate audiences and define his musical legacy. A perennial favorite, it has been heavily sampled, such is its unique allure; Aaliyah sang over snatches of it on "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number" and you can hear Caldwell's vocal sample used for the hook on Tupac's posthumously released "Do For Love." Bobby's dynamite "Open Your Eyes" was immortalized by the eternal J Dilla in the hip-hop canon with his production of Common's epochal "The Light," which heavily samples the magical "Open Your Eyes." On a post paying tribute to Bobby in March 2023, Questlove claimed that he "got word Brother Bobby loved it." Bobby's original has seen new life even more recently from the likes of Dwele and Kendrick Lamar and deservingly so, as its insistent drums and staccato piano created a modern-soul classic.

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: BEWITH 175LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

Perfect to chill to, Headnodic and Jazz Mafia's astounding self-titled record blends hip-hop and jazz effortlessly, bringing the two genres together with their intrinsic beauty intact. Just 500 pressed for the world. Jazzy hip-hop on that mellow-melodic tip, Headnodic + Jazz Mafia is an unforgettable album with nothing but dope beats and dope bars. By way of introduction, Headnodic is a part of the fabric of underground hip-hop. From his contributions to the groundbreaking group Crown City Rockers, to his production work with Lateef & the Gift of Gab as The Mighty Underdogs, Headnodic embodies the spirit of hip-hop in a way that is both unique, rare and universal. In the year 2000, trombonist, bassist, composer, arranger, and producer Adam Theis co-founded Jazz Mafia -- an eclectic artist collective of forward-thinking and accomplished players in electro, hip-hop, world, classical, and jazz. 25 years in the making, Jazz Mafia is a prolific staple of the quintessential San Francisco sound, uniting creative and accomplished Bay Area instrumentalists, vocalists, MCs, composers, and arrangers. The collective quickly garnered a reputation for its collaborative and risk-taking spirit, and over the years has worked with Roy Ayers, Lyrics Born, Zion-I, Latyrx and Blackalicious, to name a few. Headnodic has been making beats since he was a teenager and, around the same time, he played electric and upright bass in jazz ensembles. This album is a true collaboration between Headnodic and Adam Theis, along with The Jazz Mafia collective of musicians. In essence, Headnodic made the beats, Adam reacted with the horn arrangements but, with the extended family of musicians they pulled in, it made it feel like they were painting with infinite colors. Indeed, some musicians -- like vibraphonist Dan Neville -- would replay and improvise over sampled loops, blurring the line between live performance and production. Other times, they'd strip out the sample entirely and build from the ground up with live players, leaving a recognizable loop to become a faint but welcoming echo of the original idea. They enlisted some amazing vocalists and emcees: Genra, Do D.A.T., Ozay Moore (Lightheaded), Eligh (Living Legends) and Breathless brought raw lyricism. It's been mastered for vinyl by Be With stalwart Simon Francis, cut by favorite engineer Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios and pressed at the legendary Record Industry in Holland. Quality to the end.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: CT 085CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2025 repress, digipak edition of King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, the historic 1976 collaboration between producer and instrumentalist Augustus Pablo and dub engineer King Tubby. "If you had to pick one album that best represents the pinnacle of the art of dub, you'd cull the candidates down pretty quickly to ten or 12, and it would get very difficult after that. Few would fault you for ending up with this one, though, which stands as perhaps the finest collaboration between two of instrumental reggae's leading lights: producer and melodica player Augustus Pablo and legendary dub pioneer King Tubby. Among other gems, this album offers its title track -- a dub version of Jacob Miller's 'Baby I Love You So' -- which is widely regarded as the finest example of dub ever recorded. But the rest of the album is hardly less impressive. 'Each One Dub,' another cut on a Jacob Miller rhythm, possesses the same dark and mystical ambience, if not quite the same emotional energy, as 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown,' and the version of the epochal 'Satta Massaganna' that closes the album is another solid winner. Pablo's trademark 'Far East' sound (characterized by minor keys and prominent melodica lines) is predominant throughout, and is treated with care and grace by King Tubby, who has rarely sounded more inspired in his studio manipulations than he does here. Absolutely essential." --Rick Anderson, AllMusic

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: DC 860LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Repressed. "Years past the space time of Automaginary, Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society have reported back at last from beyond. If the new title doesn't clue you, Totality brings good news. Since their first collaboration, the path ways that lead from Natural Information Society's ecstatic all-world jazz to Bitchin Bajas' microtonal soundscapes have grown ever finer in their articulation. Across the spectrum, the septet balance a deeply searching mood with wonderfully in-pocket production feel. This makes for collective aural transport of the highest order to all those listening in. In the time since their 2015 first convergence, the Natural Information Society have released four albums (one in collaboration with Evan Parker, one with Ari Brown) and Bitchin Bajas five (one a soundtrack, one with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, one featuring the songs of Sun Ra). Given the multivarious paths both groups have traveled, it makes sense that their second convergence seems to emanate from centuries, eons beyond or below -- some undefinable elsewhere -- from their first. Totality is that. These days, Natural Information Society is populated differently. From the sextet NIS that co-created Automaginary, Joshua Abrams, Lisa Alvarado and Mikel Patrick Avery remain. In the stead of the departed former players is Jason Stein on bass clarinet. This might account for some mere impression of aspects of time, space and evolution to be found here -- but then again, Bitchin Bajas flow on in their long-standing trio configuration (Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan, Rob Frye), so the 'people in the room' theory of how Totality ever got this way will only take us so far. Recorded in a single day with Greg Norman at Chicago's Electrical Audio, then slowly considered into the finished record we hear here, Totality is a sweet-tempered second child. It experiences time in ways the first kid didn't. If you're in it for slow-shifting trance formations, it's gonna be cool. There's lots here for you, lots of simmering time and synth atmospheres dappled with radiant woodwinds -- but there's some head-snapping hypno-rhythms that stand apart from the groove energies of the first one. It's just natural facts: two different days in time separated by years, with the experience of several live encounters between the two groups in between. Beyond that, only the music can say anything else. That said, here are a few thoughts from this listener's log... The low-key revolutionary thump of 'Nothing Does Not Show' and 'Clock no Clock' notwithstanding, Totality charts impressive new launch angles from NIS & BB's improvisatory heart, with their careful listening and response time continually redefining the space in a relaxed manner that rewards deep zoners. Additionally, their blended corps assimilate marvelously on Abrams' composition, 'Always 9 Seconds Away.' Here, and with the aforementioned groovers, the collective resonates beyond familiar kraut/spiritual/minimal power lines, bringing new time conceptions to bear in the always-expansive space of this album event. It's about time we got back to the singularly-divined space of Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas with Totality. That's the best way to way to define this new music -- it's about time."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: DC 915CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"With the quickness, time's still slipping into the future. Take it from Ty Segall. He's been on a few trips around the sun himself, making records in orbit as he charts his path forward. Modern life is here to stay, but also (to quote an old civil war scribe), everything rocks and nothing dies -- so for Possession, Ty's 16th album, he strikes up the orchestra in his head with an abiding view of some quintessentially American stories, a quest channeled into ten non-stop bangers. A year and a half removed from the trenchant identity opus of his 'Three Bells' song cycle, Ty's beamed himself out from deep within psychic interiors. Here, compulsive rhythm arrangements are joined in battle by sweeping movements of strings and horns that further the charge righteously. Be it de Toqueville, duBois, George H. Nash, Howard Zinn, Bob Dylan or Smile-era Beach Boys, it doesn't matter where you get your history: whether you wanna party like it's 1999 or 1699, the stories you like to tell yourself tend to reinforce what you already believe. Here, coursing through the irresistibly high music spirits, Ty foists social concepts that you won't read about in school. In the process, he manages to slip discreetly in and out of the ranks of silver-tongued bums, fly-by-nights and way-outs like Cheap Trick and Steely Dan, never tarrying long enough to retain their distinctive ordure. One of the keys to this new music involved tapping an old friend and collaborator, filmmaker Matt Yoka, to write with him. As a non-musician, Matt's language sense is different from the one Ty's amassed as a player of music. With the trust they've developed over the years -- brainstorming the visual worlds of Goodbye Bread, Manipulator, Emotional Mugger, and plenty more -- they throw the conceptual ball back and forth to translate general vibes and feels into wicked lyric imagery, each acting as writer and editor in the process. Rife with singing guitar leads and Wizzardian brass n' reeds lustily riffin' on the banks of Ty's harmony vocal choir, Possession features some of Ty's most inspired songs to date. Taking back alleys through complicated cityscapes, ripping riffs jaggedly out of past hits for a new purpose, Ty scans the wreckage scattered all around, singing about the end of the rope while resisting defeat -- suggesting an ecstatic new empire to build as he cruises the countryside in his glittering craft."

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: DC 915CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Casette version. "With the quickness, time's still slipping into the future. Take it from Ty Segall. He's been on a few trips around the sun himself, making records in orbit as he charts his path forward. Modern life is here to stay, but also (to quote an old civil war scribe), everything rocks and nothing dies -- so for Possession, Ty's 16th album, he strikes up the orchestra in his head with an abiding view of some quintessentially American stories, a quest channeled into ten non-stop bangers. A year and a half removed from the trenchant identity opus of his 'Three Bells' song cycle, Ty's beamed himself out from deep within psychic interiors. Here, compulsive rhythm arrangements are joined in battle by sweeping movements of strings and horns that further the charge righteously. Be it de Toqueville, duBois, George H. Nash, Howard Zinn, Bob Dylan or Smile-era Beach Boys, it doesn't matter where you get your history: whether you wanna party like it's 1999 or 1699, the stories you like to tell yourself tend to reinforce what you already believe. Here, coursing through the irresistibly high music spirits, Ty foists social concepts that you won't read about in school. In the process, he manages to slip discreetly in and out of the ranks of silver-tongued bums, fly-by-nights and way-outs like Cheap Trick and Steely Dan, never tarrying long enough to retain their distinctive ordure. One of the keys to this new music involved tapping an old friend and collaborator, filmmaker Matt Yoka, to write with him. As a non-musician, Matt's language sense is different from the one Ty's amassed as a player of music. With the trust they've developed over the years -- brainstorming the visual worlds of Goodbye Bread, Manipulator, Emotional Mugger, and plenty more -- they throw the conceptual ball back and forth to translate general vibes and feels into wicked lyric imagery, each acting as writer and editor in the process. Rife with singing guitar leads and Wizzardian brass n' reeds lustily riffin' on the banks of Ty's harmony vocal choir, Possession features some of Ty's most inspired songs to date. Taking back alleys through complicated cityscapes, ripping riffs jaggedly out of past hits for a new purpose, Ty scans the wreckage scattered all around, singing about the end of the rope while resisting defeat -- suggesting an ecstatic new empire to build as he cruises the countryside in his glittering craft."

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: DC 915LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "With the quickness, time's still slipping into the future. Take it from Ty Segall. He's been on a few trips around the sun himself, making records in orbit as he charts his path forward. Modern life is here to stay, but also (to quote an old civil war scribe), everything rocks and nothing dies -- so for Possession, Ty's 16th album, he strikes up the orchestra in his head with an abiding view of some quintessentially American stories, a quest channeled into ten non-stop bangers. A year and a half removed from the trenchant identity opus of his 'Three Bells' song cycle, Ty's beamed himself out from deep within psychic interiors. Here, compulsive rhythm arrangements are joined in battle by sweeping movements of strings and horns that further the charge righteously. Be it de Toqueville, duBois, George H. Nash, Howard Zinn, Bob Dylan or Smile-era Beach Boys, it doesn't matter where you get your history: whether you wanna party like it's 1999 or 1699, the stories you like to tell yourself tend to reinforce what you already believe. Here, coursing through the irresistibly high music spirits, Ty foists social concepts that you won't read about in school. In the process, he manages to slip discreetly in and out of the ranks of silver-tongued bums, fly-by-nights and way-outs like Cheap Trick and Steely Dan, never tarrying long enough to retain their distinctive ordure. One of the keys to this new music involved tapping an old friend and collaborator, filmmaker Matt Yoka, to write with him. As a non-musician, Matt's language sense is different from the one Ty's amassed as a player of music. With the trust they've developed over the years -- brainstorming the visual worlds of Goodbye Bread, Manipulator, Emotional Mugger, and plenty more -- they throw the conceptual ball back and forth to translate general vibes and feels into wicked lyric imagery, each acting as writer and editor in the process. Rife with singing guitar leads and Wizzardian brass n' reeds lustily riffin' on the banks of Ty's harmony vocal choir, Possession features some of Ty's most inspired songs to date. Taking back alleys through complicated cityscapes, ripping riffs jaggedly out of past hits for a new purpose, Ty scans the wreckage scattered all around, singing about the end of the rope while resisting defeat -- suggesting an ecstatic new empire to build as he cruises the countryside in his glittering craft."

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: DC 945LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Faun Fables, the long-running collaboration between Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl, have returned with Counterclockwise, the follow-up to 2016's Born of the Sun. With the longest space between albums in the band's twenty-seven-year history, the nature of time and experience spent raising a family and negotiating life's changes have much to do with the incredible listening companion Faun Fables have gifted us here. Counterclockwise's songs and production are the most encompassing, richly lived-in sonic world of their seven full-length albums. From start to finish, it is an exquisitely etched portrait of their aesthetic and worldview: colorfully studded with fine-hewed jewels of song, tinged with the traditional sounds of past and future nations. Their timeless 'songtelling' practice is entwined with a holistic view of a life in music -- embracing and celebrating the mundane details of home, partnering and family, elevated by a mystical and fantastical perspective. The new discovery here is their creative relationship with time. Counterclockwise began to take form in 2020, its songs brought together from over a span of fifteen years. Some came from commissioned projects about werewolves, Mother Goose, and other fairy tales. Others were rooted in familial traditions. Similarly, several cover songs salute crucial companions from different points in their individual and collective lives, making deep cuts from Yes and the Bee Gees -- as well as the theme song to '70s television program Grizzly Adams -- into further chapters of shaped time, well lived and loved, to indelibly light this collection. Counterclockwise is the first Faun Fables album engineered and produced by Dawn and Nils from start to finish. Taking the wheel in the tradition of the engineers that taught them, they have created a living atmosphere of songs and family. Dawn and Nils' wide-ranging vocal harmony tradition is enriched by the voices of their daughters Edda, Ura, and Gudrin, who contribute on keyboards and percussion, as well. Norwegian guitarist Arild Hammer? lends his singular guitar craft on the songs 'Ember Bell,' 'Hiawatha,' 'Wonderous Stories' (on which he also sings) and 'Maybe,' as well as the final, essential sounds that close the album. Dedicated with love to Dawn's late father, Edward 'Will' McCarthy, Counterclockwise is an evocation of the essential truth and joy of Faun Fables' relationship with time, the greatest value they can imagine to give to anyone who listens to their music."

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DC 947LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Drag City and Yoga Records return to the music of Matthew Young. Following Recurring Dreams (1981, reissued 2014) and Traveler's Advisory (1986, reissued 2010), Undercurrents (2025) collects eight oddly dissimilar pieces that somehow fit together perfectly. Although unique enough to be called outsider, Young's new album occupies a musical world accessible to fans of many genres. Matthew Young, born in 1950, grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. When he showed early musical interest, his parents bought an upright piano, and Matthew began taking lessons. In his teens, he attended concerts by Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and Count Basie, and grew up to discover iconoclasts such as Eric Satie, Charles Ives, John Cage, Harry Partch, Brian Eno, and experimental rock groups such as Can and Harmonia. He also regularly attended and played at folk music gatherings in the nearby New Jersey Pine Barrens. His music began to appear in local theater productions, leading to the 1981 release of Recurring Dreams, through New York distributor NMDS. Later, Young became obsessed with the hammered dulcimer, and in 1986 he released a new album, Traveler's Advisory, which featured the instrument prominently, along with electronics, tape effects, and his first foray into vocals. Composed and recorded over the span of several decades, Undercurrents displays the wide range of Young's various sonic pallets. On the opener 'Reflexion,' a quartet of marimbas twist and turn over each other, while in 'One and All,' a harp melody is overtaken by various electronic effects. The 12-minute title track is an abstract weaving of piano and synthesis, with the six sections named after oceanic currents. 'A Game of Chess, a Game of Chance' consists of sparse electronic tones created on the Princeton University IBM mainframe during his studies in 1976. This all makes way for the second half of Undercurrents, where settings of Marion Lineaweaver's poems, 'The Summer Girls' and 'Her Key is Minor,' showcase Young's honest, fragile vocal approach, conveying a deep sense of soulful longing, and the latter even sweetly approaching something akin to synthpop. The piano on 'Inflexion' calls back to the end of 'Reflexion,' and in the album closer, 'Into the Woods,' Young plays the hammered dulcimer with the disciplined reverence of an alchemist. Simply put, Undercurrents is a triumph across many musical realms."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: EFFICIENT 013LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2025 repress. Wilson Tanner come to shore with II, a new album of floating melodies, lightly salted. Throwing electroacoustic conventions overboard, Andrew Wilson (Andras) and John Tanner (Eleventeen Eston) recorded this new work aboard a 1950s riverboat with a resourceful array of weatherproof electronic instruments and a long extension lead. These eight compositions pull in a by-catch of maritime folklore; of siren and selkie, seagull and engine oil slick. A change of course from their debut album 69, the ambient temperature drops as II casts out to sea in uncertain weather and returns to the safe harbors of Port Phillip Bay. The seafarers head out to "My Gull"'s poised optimism -- the birds watch but do they listen? By the arrival of "Loch and Key," the shoreline has dissolved completely, the boat floating in serene infinity as the rest of the world spins. Conditions soon take a treacherous turn on "Killcord Pts I-III" -- a 12 minute odyssey that battens down the hatches as these sailors eye merciless waves and blinding ocean spray, jointly channeling Berlin-school electronics and sea legs. In the aftermath, the waterlogged bleeps of "Idle" survey the damage as our parched crew sound the distress signal and ultimately descend into delirium. Known for navigating individual courses as solo musicians, Wilson and Tanner's collective storytelling is saturated in detail, buoying between tension and harmony. II modestly stands as some of both artists' most accomplished material. Includes download.

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: ESPDISK 5084CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Joe Morris's recording career began in 1983 and has made him one of the most revered avant-garde jazz guitarists. Down Beat magazine dubbed him "the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation," while The Wire magazine called him "one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S." His revelatory 2012 book Perpetual Frontier/The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing) is a detailed and rewarding accounting of his approach to improvisation. He has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory of Music since 2000. This is his fifth album as guitarist on ESP-Disk': two as leader, two in Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK, and now this unique duo. Elliott Sharp began recording in 1979 and has continued prolifically adding to his discography ever since, working fluently in genres ranging from blues and jazz to free improvisation and modern classical composition. A cornerstone of the downtown NYC music scene and collaborator with musicians from around the world, he has extended the vocabulary of the guitar in ways that led Guitar Player magazine to include him in its 30th anniversary issue's list of "The Dirty Thirty: Pioneers and Trailblazers." (He also plays saxophone.) His 2019 book IrRational Music (TerraNova Press) is a crucial document of his work that goes beyond biography into musical philosophy. Realism is his first album released on ESP. Recorded and mastered by Jim Clouse, Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY on July 17, 2023. Mixed by Elliott Sharp and Jim Clouse at Park West Studios on August 1, 2023. Produced by Steve Holtje for ESP-Disk'.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 781LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Liz Durette returns with a gorgeous fourth LP (her third for Feeding Tube) and not a moment too soon! With Well Up, Liz delivers a bright and sparkling sonic gem to illuminate our days and nights. Liz is an artist, keyboardist, improviser, and deep thinker based in Massachusetts, after many years in Baltimore. She has created an uncanny body of musical work of keyboard improvisations. Her style strikes me as utterly unique, and this latest album offers an entirely new example of her vision. While her earlier records were often shifting, madcap melodic constructions, Well Up offers another side, in a rich and distilled scope. Here, Liz generates a lush and enchanting sound world of morphing, cycling melodic phrases which gently swirl and pool into three great lakes of beauty. Liz improvised this music on a MIDI Polyphonic Expressive keyboard, but the album can't be characterized as a 'synth,' 'ambient' or 'minimal' release. Her employment of multiple voicings of pre-modern sounds like flutes and reeds create a singular headspace that defies easy description. 'Heart' begins the album with serene, mysterious melody that unfolds in elastic and expressive motivic gestures. All of the three songs are built on phrases of simple melodic variation that spiral out of simplicity, slowly and steadily, with subtle layers of increasing ornamentation. The touch sensitivity of Liz's instrument with its parameters of ultra bendy notes spill phrases across the soundstage in delightful patterns. It's a beguiling stew. The second piece, 'Lake' was born from Liz's complete mis-remembering of a Lebanese folk song which transformed itself into this special and hypnotic reverie. I can picture a court of dazzling beings promenading in a splendid choreography as I listen to this track with my eyes closed. You may capture something equally grand in your mind's eye while listening, it's ultra visual music. Side two offers us the side-long opus of 'Naga.' It gradually unfurls and billows into a vast and deep pool of sound that I don't light heartedly describe as cosmic. I can imagine this piece playing on for eternity like some gyroscopic, perpetual motion machine that generates the world's dreamiest tones. The album is another rare example of music that generates a strange emotional response (at least for me), operating in a special region that exists somewhere at the border of joy and sorrow. I can't conjure a word or phrase in English that captures it accurately but I'm sure you'll know it when you hear it. The sounds surely live up to Liz's brilliant and peculiar cover art featuring an exquisitely manicured hand threatening to insert a deep blue push pin into a blazing pink balloon. While Liz has openly expressed having derived inspiration from improvisation and ornamentation across a variety of eastern and western traditions, this work seems to me to be pure Durette. Calm, soothing, novel, exotic, luminous and expansive -- much more could be said or written about this album but the wonderful sounds do a fabulous job of speaking for themselves. Please let them speak to you." --Rob Thomas, 2025

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: 9781887123877

FILE UNDER: Misc

Paperback. 232 pages. "A revolutionary anthology of visual poetry contextualizing works within their original small-press publications, from authors such as Wallace Berman and Marian Zazeela to titles such as Ginger Snaps and Futura. By the 1960s, visual and experimental poetry was widely acknowledged as the first truly international poetry movement, occurring on several continents. The simultaneous 'mimeograph revolution' -- an emerging name for the proliferation of small, poet-and artist-operated presses and little magazines that emerged in the postwar era -- meant that an extraordinary variety of experimental work appeared in ephemeral outlets, often reflecting an array of geographic influence and communities. After Words is a thematic journey through the history of these experimental poetics, including cut-up, collage, sound poetry scores, performance scripts, practices of 'writing through,' erasure, glyph systems, calligraphy, experimental typography, non-Western alphabets, assemblages and beyond. Most importantly, it presents these works within their original contexts through scans of page spreads from storied publications and presses. Contributors include: Mary Beach, Wallace Berman, bill bissett, William S. Burroughs, Henri Chopin, Judith Copithorne, Johanna Drucker, d.a. levy, bpNichol, Seiichi Niikuni, Tom Phillips, Miroljub Todorovic, Cecilia Vicu?a, Marian Zazeela. Publications include: Futura, Ginger Snaps, Rhinozeros, Journeyman, Kontexts, Revue OU, Stereo Headphones, Soft Need, kroklok, Pages, ASA. Presses include: Xexoxial Editions, Beau Geste Press, Wild Hawthorn Press, Something Else Press, The Hermetic Press, Siglio Press, Granary Books."

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: INT 33852CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Renowned composer, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp returns with Secret Life, the latest album from his groundbreaking ensemble Terraplane. Known for its unique fusion of blues, jazz, rock, and avant-garde experimentation, Terraplane continues to push the boundaries of contemporary music while staying deeply rooted in the raw energy and storytelling of the blues tradition. Since its inception in the early 1990s, Terraplane has served as a sonic laboratory for Sharp's ever-evolving musical vision, bridging Delta blues with the textures of free jazz, electronic music, and urban funk. Featuring an exceptional lineup of musicians, Secret Life delivers a powerful mix of deep rhythms, electrifying solos, and immersive soundscapes that transport listeners to a world where tradition and innovation coexist seamlessly. Sharp's signature guitar sound -- gritty, expressive, and utterly distinctive -- remains at the core of the album, while pulsating basslines, haunting saxophone passages, and unpredictable rhythmic shifts create an electrifying listening experience. Sharp has written a new chapter for Terraplane with this new album. The album sounds more traditional than the band's previous CDs. Sharp has paid more attention to song structure. But the line-up is also different. Following the death from cancer of long-time saxophonist Sam Furnace, Alex Harding plays baritone saxophone, and Sharp himself takes over the tenor sax. Rounding off the horn arrangements is Curtis Fowlkes (Lounge Lizards) on trombone. Lance Carter, who knows Sharp from Raw Meat, is on drums. Bass is played by the avant-garde legend, Dave Hofstra, known from such bands as The President and the Microscopic Septet. Behind the microphone is Charlie Mingus' heavyweight son, Eric Mingus, one of the greatest blues singers of the day, and poet Tracie Morris from the Black Rock Coalition. Terraplane is more than just a vehicle for Elliott Sharp. It is a New York all-star band."

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: MGART 615LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Repressed; pearl color vinyl version. Highly-anticipated 50th Anniversary Edition re-issue of Ash Ra Tempel's legendary fifth studio album Starring Rosi. Originally released in 1973, this seminal work remains a cornerstone of the Krautrock and "Kosmische" movement, blending psychedelic rock, ambient soundscapes, and early electronics into a transcendent auditory experience. The album has been recorded by Manuel G?ttsching in its entirety, with additional help from producer Dieter Diercks, Harald Grosskopf, and of course Rosemarie "Rosi" M?ller. Starring Rosi is an essential piece of their continuation of blending cosmic psychedelia, ambient textures, and avant-garde electronic experimentation. Starring Rosi stands out in Ash Ra Tempel's discography for its lighter, more accessible sound, balancing the band's signature cosmic explorations with melodic structures and poetic lyrics. The album is a sonic journey that takes listeners through seven distinct tracks, each showcasing Manuel G?ttschings pioneering approach to music. This reissue of Starring Rosi has been introduced and overseen by Manuel G?ttsching, and finalized by his family exactly to his standards, in which the meticulous approach to his work lives on. An updated 2024 recut carefully commissioned by Schnittselle in Berlin ensures the warm depth sound while bringing out the rich textures and nuances, all of the original recordings. Comes with a replica of the original vinyl artwork including its original backside. Also includes a poster of the alternate backside, used later on the CD editions showing Rosi and Manuel improvising during studio sessions. Also included are prints of previously unreleased original "The Fairy Dance" and "Schizo" composition sheets, handwritten by Manuel.

 

PRICE: $62.00

CAT #: M15 DVD

FILE UNDER: Misc

NTSC/All-Region. 8 discs. Includes 128-page booklet. Color/B&W. Stereo/Mono. Works collected from 1975-2022. "For five decades, Michael Smith's performance art has inhabited bland domestic spaces; mass media and its promise to keep viewers company; and failing business ventures that misread the moment. Through art installations, theater, video, television and live performances, Smith's comedic work lives inside the identity models that both constitute and disassociate our shared experience. His two performance personae, Mike and Baby Ikki, plumb the depths of American culture to perform the discrepancies between what is promulgated by controlling interest and what actually exists in reality of day-to-day worlds. Like culture itself, Smith's is forever in and out of time. Mike's Box is an immersive eight-disc DVD collection of his work up until now. In the 1970s, the idea of the American everyman was rarely questioned. The '50s postwar aspiration for blessed conformity had been a primary objective of the powers that be, continually hammered into everyone's home via that ubiquitous box, the TV set. Although developments in the late '60s offered a new appraisal of everyday life, it was apparent that this approach was not easily processed by the general population, and the status quo remained intact. It felt increasingly urgent to reevaluate old world values with those surfacing in an alienated youth culture. As this alienation continued to grow, it appeared that this was the primary issue that everyone could agree upon. Enter Mike, who, along with his contemporaries on the NYC art scene of the 1970s and '80s (a sprawling group spread across disciplines, including but not limited to Laurie Anderson, Eric Bogosian, Andy Kaufman, Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, and the many freaks feeding the nascent Saturday Night Live franchise), was inclined to disengage the frame of reference from the traditional rarified 'white cube' context, and instead insert his practice in relation to everyday life and the institutions exerting control over it. Mike's Box covers Smith's career from the '70s to the present, collecting his infamous and prescient performances, installations and videos (many only previously seen at galleries and museums within the fine art context), as well as forms more accessible to a general audience: comedy shows, cable access programs and musical theater. Mike's Box also contains the complete collaborative video work of Smith with both Joshua White and Doug Skinner, as well as his team-ups with William Wegman, Seth Price, Mike Kelley and many others. It is accompanied by a richly illustrated book that includes an essay by Tim Griffin, and features documentation from shows exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museo Jumex, along with filmed conversations between the artist, curators and collaborators."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: M 1219LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

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

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BT 5059LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The Excursion released Night Train in 1968. The jazz group was led by organist Jerry Allen. The album blends elements of jazz, mod, and beat music. Includes a version of 'Green Onions.' The album has become a rare collector's item, with original vinyl pressings being highly sought after."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: MBT 059CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"The Excursion released Night Train in 1968. The jazz group was led by organist Jerry Allen. The album blends elements of jazz, mod, and beat music. Includes a version of 'Green Onions.' The album has become a rare collector's item, with original vinyl pressings being highly sought after."

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: NP 049LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Another selection of eight songs following the first compilation released in late 2020 covering the same period but also venturing in the 1990s. Drissi is one of Rai's softest voices. This is more Wah-Wah driven, mid-tempo guitar-based Rai from the city where Rai's "harder' form was conceived. Sad romantic songs about lost loves and other sorrowful tales.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: NP 052LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Private mid-1990s tape/noise experimentations by Stuart Dennison, the venerable common denominator between Ramleh and Skullflower. Why: An endeavor to make something without the compromise inherent in collaboration: Autonomous Rex. How: Handmade tape loops, guitar, Copicat tape delay, whispering, time.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: NP 053LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Bren't Lewiis Ensemble -- Northern California's gift to the world -- offer five dense and haunted tape/electronics cuts recorded a few years ago for a world that was not yet ready and therefore were carefully stored. A soundtrack that justifies all purpose and passion for modern emerging hype trends."I realized [that the significance of work put together specifically to annoy listeners lies in its capacity to illuminate some of the key problems in sound culture today] in an epiphanic flash while reading a quote cited by Walter Benjamin: 'Truth lies in the extreme.' He meant that no genre of art can be defined by its lowest common denominators, only by its most aberrant exemplars -- thus at a stroke explaining the value to criticism of Rudoph Grey, The Stooges, Charlie Feathers, and Elder Otis Jones. To understand why this kind of lo-fi noise, willful absurdism, deliberate chaos and the rejection of meaning have become such ubiquitous touchstones of contemporary culture, we have to examine the Petri dishes of this tendency -- the underground cassette culture of the early 1980s -- and for this, BUFMS is locus classicus." --Dr. Bruce Russel

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: RER F2CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2025 restock. Re-released, now in digipak packaging. 3rd album masterwork of '71-73 leftover genius. Considered by most as the group's finest hour, and one of the most obvious cornerstones of the whole early 70s German explosion.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: RR 123184LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"In the competent liner notes edited by Mark Gilbert, the deputy editor of the English Jazz Journal International, the emphasis is placed among other things on the flawless integration of the components of the Open Form Trio 'greater than the sum of their individual talents.' The maturity achieved by the three, individually and especially collectively, allows Watson to deploy all his saxophone artistry, which is indebted (and how could it be otherwise?) to the immortal lesson of Parker, but which through Jackie McLean and Cannonball, and generally the post-Coltranian, reinvents a language that is somewhat archetypal. Hand numbered limited edition, 180 grams, black vinyl cut and pressed at Pallas."

 

PRICE: $17.00

CAT #: ROG 143CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

"How else to begin than by diving in, letting yourself be submerged, drifting as if weightless. And where does it start? With thirty seconds of breath, suspended between apnea and respiration, with Crini?re; I'm reminded at once that the bow's manes come -- I'm told -- from the best horses in Mongolia. We recognize you, Kassap, for your rhythm, for the way you suck in the sky right from the start, it's as if you turn on the ignition, then your engine revs up - and us with it -- and the road opens up today to Marseille as it once did to Kishinev. And then it tapers off, almost expires, sets off again, with your passengers who are more than just passing through, and comes to an end all the same, because at some point you have to stop, and set off again. A trombone and drums join the double bass and clarinet. Steve Swell, Chad Taylor, Benjamin Duboc, Sylvain Kassap, you compose a quartet. Edges, in the plural, the edges, the margins, I don't mind, but extended to the whole territory, you explore them without missing a beat, they give the title and it's our good fortune to be able to follow you, for eleven pieces. The album closes with a composition by Steve Swell', 'Periscope (for Perry Robinson),' clarinetist and traveler extraordinaire. I really like this underside, which goes slowly, or not, because it sometimes goes roughly, these fragments of sonic fabric, this geological petticoat, these Texture #3 and Texture #7, these two sovereign improvisations (919 and 991), this kind of basso continuo, this more or less unpredictable aside that is the very essence of life. This record is anything but providence, and yet it still bears something resembling it, not what it cannot foresee or prepare for, but what it does provide and makes us less helpless. With great surges and shatters, is it the beginning of a brighter tomorrow, and if so, how? The question and the answer can only be suggested, and I always remember that everything is moving at an unbelievable speed." --Rogueart

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: 9781788160711

FILE UNDER: Misc

Originally released in 2018. 432 pages. Paperback. "As essential now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Life celebrates jazz with passion and conviction. Covering the dynamic period 1960-1976, Valerie Wilmer powerfully evokes a remarkable revolutionary musical era that continues to inspire generations of musicians. Valerie Wilmer evaluates the musical careers of both the famous names of the time -- Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor -- and those of less well-known artists. It is her unique approach -- placing the 'new jazz' in its political and social context -- that makes As Serious As Your Life a classic of jazz criticism. Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American culture."

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: ECH 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Quiet Pieces initiates Abul Mogard's personal imprint Soft Echoes with a definitive self-portrait of calm, contemplative, and discreet inner landscapes made audible. It is the first solo album on vinyl in four years. While sifting through archived material left idle from earlier projects, a chance encounter with a late uncle's trove of beloved 78rpm classical and opera records prompted the reworking and completion of what would eventually become the album. Spinning dusty records at 33 and 45rpm, Abul Mogard recombined their enduring specters with unfinished sketches from his archive. The resulting soundscape blurs distinctions between his memories and those of another, exquisitely short-circuiting the senses with its waking, dream-like lucidity. The resulting pieces hover over a threshold, a liminal space that harmonizes the old and older material. Voluminous waves of quiet and loud undulate between consonance and dissonance, conjuring imagery of a decaying grandeur that humanity's decadence has surrendered to the elements. Abul Mogard's seemingly abandoned yet vast landscapes are nevertheless intimate with timbral frissons of red-lined distortion. Elusive, yet as tangible as sea spray or smog, they affect the olfactory senses with a rarified, synesthetic quality that modestly engages one's emotional register -- a hypnotic, distinguishing feature long hailed as one of the hallmarks of his work. Looking back, Mogard notes an unexpected influence: "I realize being inspired by Phill Niblock, whose work I had barely known at the time but explored after his passing in 2024. His album Boston Tenor Index changed the way I approached dissonance. It encouraged me to push my sound further, to the edge of a space where I began to feel uncomfortable." The album artwork, created by longtime collaborator Marja de Sanctis, features a photograph taken at the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, an archaeological site overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Captured with an iPhone, the image traces the residual presence of construction techniques and architectural forms of the Romans, where material history is transcribed through contemporary tools. The convergence of ancient and modern technology aims to reverberate the site's lasting spiritual presence -- an echo persisting in what is now perceived as a quiet, emptied space. The spiral gestures towards infinity and light. Past and present dissolve into one another, reflecting Quiet Pieces meditation on sound, memory, and time. RIYL: Alessandro Cortini, William Basinski, The Caretaker.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: STAUB 056LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited restock, last copies (from original 2004 pressing, stock is aged and not 100% perfect, but w/ 2004 pricing!). R.I.P. Dean Roberts. "The Autistic Daughters is the trio of New Zealander Dean Roberts and the Viennese Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Trapist) and Werner Dafeldecker (Polwechsel). Jealousy and Diamond is the group's first statement. The CD version of this album is released by the American Kranky label. Dean Roberts plays guitar, vocals, harmonica, harmonium and percussion, Martin Brandlmayr plays drums, vibraphone and electronics and Werner Dafeldecker plays electric bass and contra bass. Guest musicians were Valerio Tricoli (Loops, Handclaps, Campanelli, B-Vocals) and Anthony Guerra (Guitar, Palermo Hand-Clappers Union). Beginning with the post punk rock trio Thela and moving through White Winged Moth and into his solo recordings, Dean Roberts has marked himself as a guitarist of unique talents. His latest album, Be Mine Tonight, has been released on Kranky in 2003. Austrian drummer Martin Brandlmayr is well known as a member of free rock trios Radian and Trapist who currently release for the Thrill Jockey label. Werner Dafeldecker is a freelance musician, composer and producer, concentrating on improvisation, electronic music and cross-over projects. A longtime sound research, pure acoustic research and the creation of a personal sound archive are the basis for his work."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SR 464LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. Unreleased material composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1992. Lac Noir - La Serpente is part of Emmanuel Raquin-Lorenzi's Lac Noir, a composite work inspired by a serpentine female creature or "snake-woman" that he saw in Transylvania in 1976, with a total of 33 pieces using various media, 24 by himself and 9 by other artists. All the materials used in Lac Noir were gathered on the land of the snake-woman between 1990 and 1992. The first coordinated broadcast ran from June to October 2019, like a theatrical display of media."At the end of May 1992, in Provence, in his Summer studio not far from the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, Bernard Parmegiani played the first musical moments he had worked on from the sounds he and Christian Zan?si had collected in Negreni in October 1990. A few days after this listening session, on 4th June, I wrote him a letter. I didn't mean to take control of what was to become the ninth movement of his composition, but to share with him some of the resonances I had heard in what he had composed, which mingled with my dreams and memories of the Transylvanian snake-woman, and outlined possible concordances with the other pieces underway for Lac Noir. In the midst of the garish chaos of the fair and its spectacular stunts, there could spread out -- still, silent eye of the cyclone -- the long waters of a lake. Calm waters. Patches cool but sensitive as skin. Between the waters there flows and ripples, there shows up and dives again a snake-woman born of the still waters. A sweet, good serpent whose song -- strange and melodious, sensual, yet already tinged, as if bitten by the black depths, with bitterness; that of prescience, shading it with melancholy -- is her very undulation, the rings of which appear, together or in turn, the way translucent veins overlap, slither over one another in a moving braid of metamorphoses." (Extracts from notes by E. Raquin-Lorenzi)

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SR 557LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"The term 'Miao' is a very ancient Chinese misleading pseudo-ethnic categorization, the Hmong in western languages, a term recognized by colonial French Indochina. Miao became a generic term which does not reveal the diversity of 38 subgroups or 9 million people, mostly in Southern China Guizhou Province. China, since having moved towards the market economy, now includes a large number of minority regions that are marketed a commodity available only to them: their ethnicity itself. Ethnic tourism has developed in a big way in China since the 1990s, for both Chinese and foreign tourists, and it is often promoted as the way to generate income in those areas for development. I usually stay away from Ethnotouristic shows and try to get music that is not a commodity! I was based in Dali, Yunnan, China between 2006 and 2013." --Laurent JeanneauRecorded by Laurent Jeanneau and Shi Tanding. Notes By Laurent Jeanneau. "Miao Three Mouthorgans In Guizhou China" features three men each using a different size lushen or gu? and four women each blowing in a different mantong. Recorded in Paisha village. "Hua Miao Wedding Dance In Sichuan China" features an instrument called the lushen, the predominant kind of mouth organ being used for entertainment. "Hmoob Dongliang In Guizhou China" was recorded in Biasha village, composed of two reeds instruments and male and female singers, intended as love songs. "Hua Miao Hulushen In Sichuan China" was performed by one man. The main music instrument is the small mouth organ, hulushen, the predominant mouth organ used for entertainment, where the long tubes lushen is mounted on a wooden resonance box. "Hmoob Mouthorgans In Guizhou China" was recorded in Biasha village, and features a Miao (they call themselves Hmoob). This is part of musical demonstration for tourists. Armed with heavy cameras, six men using six lushen of various sizes. "Gelao Gupiaoqin In Guizhou China" was recorded in Songlong village, where people identify themselves not as Miao but as Gelao, using a very rare string instrument called the Gupiaoqin. "Gelao Canon Singing In Guizhou China" features two old ladies performing canon singing in Songlong village. "Shui Miao Travelling Song Guizhou China" features the Shui Miao (water Miao), a sub group of the Miaos of Guizhou, based in the Shidong area outside of Kali in Guizhou.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: SR 561LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

Double LP version. Founding work of minimalism, Music with Changing Parts is a piece with free instrumentation. The musicians choose which part to play among the eight staves of the score. At each indicated cue, the musicians can change part, which produces an abrupt change of instrumentation. While the music is based on a melodic material limited to a few notes that are repeated in patterns that expand or contract, the changes in orchestration refresh the listening experience by producing sonic contrasts. These techniques at work in Music with Changing Parts, written in 1970, will lead Philip Glass to renew his language and move from the monochromatic works that precede it to more dramatic works such as music in 12 parts and especially the opera Einstein on the Beach. When Philip Glass began rehearsing the piece, he was surprised to hear long notes when everything was written in eighth notes. After making sure that none of the musicians were playing held notes, he realized that the fact that the same notes were played by all the instruments in the ensemble produced, through a psycho-acoustic effect, a harmonic substrate of resonant frequencies. He then decided to add to the score the possibility of playing long notes to reinforce this effect. "For this recording, we chose to record first the eighth notes, then the long notes in re-recording. This utopian version, with each musician playing short and long notes at the same time (!), illustrates the minimalist aesthetic that plays with our perception and allows us to reconcile opposites and cultivate the apparent paradox of a music that moves forward without Moving and changes constantly while remaining the same." --Dedalus Ensemble

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: SR 563LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Double LP version. A unique artistic partnership. This project represents a distinct and carefully considered artistic endeavor. Developed by Mark Springer (Rip, Rig and Panic) and Neil Tennant (The Pet Shop Boys), it combines a suite for piano, quartet, and quintet with vocals, accompanied by lyrics offering thoughtful introspection. The collaboration explores the intersection of divergent creative approaches-one characterized by radical expression, the other by meticulous craftsmanship. The result is a work that invites reflection and demonstrates the potential of disciplined artistic dialogue. Neil Tennant: "I bought a book of Goya's print series Los Caprichos which had inspired Mark's music and saw that the artworks were a satirical, cruel, nightmarish portrayal of the politics, corruption and culture of his era, exploring his dreams -- or nightmares -- while exposing the double standards of the ruling establishment. The lyrics I wrote for Sleep of Reason, in response to Los Caprichos, are intended to be sardonic and dreamlike, looking back to Goya's nightmares but then reflecting on my experiences in 21st Century popular culture and media in which I have located the 'monsters' Goya saw in his dreams. It often feels like we're living in an era dominated by monsters with their grotesque egos hollering through social media, unfiltered and untruthful, leaving a trail of wreckage behind them. Maybe it's always felt like that."

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: SF 126LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Tsapiky music from Southwest Madagascar features wild ecstatic vocals, distorted electric guitars, rocket bass, and the amphetamine beat! Unlike anything else, this is THE high life music you've always wanted -- ceremonial music played with abandon and extreme intent, honoring the living and dead alike. In Toliara and its surrounding region, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and other rites of passage have been celebrated for decades in ceremonies called mandriampototse. During these celebrations -- which last between three and seven days -- cigarettes, beer and toaky gasy (artisanal rum) are passed around while electric orchestras play on the same dirt floor as the dancing crowds and zebus. The music, tsapiky, defies any classification. This compilation showcases the diversity of contemporary tsapiky music. Locally and even nationally renowned bands played their own songs on makeshift instruments, blaring through patched-up amps and horn speakers hung in tamarind trees, projecting the music kilometers away. Lead guitarists and female lead singers are the central figures of tsapiky. Driven as much by their creative impulses as by the need to stand out in a competitive market, the artists distinguish themselves stylistically through their lyrics, rhythms or guitar riffs. They must also master a wide repertoire of current tsapiky hits, which the families that attend inevitably request before parading in front of the orchestra with their offerings. This work, a constant push and pull between distinction and imitation, is nourished by fertile exchanges between various groups: acoustic and electric, rural and urban, coastal or inland. What results during these ceremonies is a music of astonishing intensity and creativity, played by artists carving out their own path, indifferent to the standards of any other music industry: Malagasy, African or global. Recorded live on location by Maxime Bobo, this vinyl LP includes a four-page full-color insert with detailed liner notes plus photos of the musicians and surroundings.Featuring Mamehy, Drick, Befila, Behaja, Mahafaly Mihisa, Meny & Ando, Rebona, and Mirasoa & Mahapoteke.

 

PRICE: $25.50

CAT #: SF 127LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Egypt's "official" popular music throughout much of the 20th Century was a complex form of art song steeped in tradition, well-loved by the middle and upper classes, and even accommodating to certain non-Arabic influences. It was highly structured by professional musicians working an established industry centered in the capitol, Cairo. However, far from the bustling cosmopolitan center of Cairo, north and northwest, in towns like Tanta and Alexandria and extending across the Saharan Desert to the Libyan border, dozens of fully marginalized artists were developing a raw, hybrid shaabi/al-musiqa al-shabiya style of music, supported by smaller upstart, independent labels, including the short-lived but deeply resonant Bourini Records. Launched in the late 1960s in Benghazi, Libya, Astuanat al-Bourini ???????? ???????? (Bourini Records) published some 40 to 50 titles from 1968 to 1975. Bourini released 7-inch 45 RPM singles by 15 artists, all but one of them Egyptian, igniting brief careers for Alexandrian singer Sheikh Amin Abdel Qader and the blind Bedouin legend Abu Bakr Abdel Aziz (aka Abu Abab). The tracks compiled here comprise a full range of styles covered by the label, while highlighting some of its most gobsmacking moments, from Basis Rahouma's beastly transformation into a growling and barking man-lion by the end of "Yana Alla Nafsa Masouda," to Reem Kamal's hopeful-if-bitter handclapping party pivot "Baed Al Yas Yjini," which descends into an almost Velvet Underground outro-groove of nihilistic dissonance. All the tracks on this compilation were laid down in stark divergence from the mainstream Egyptian popular music topography of heightened emotions buoyed by lush arrangements. The contrast is most evident in Mahmoud al-Sandidi's "Ana Mish Hafwatak," wherein his voice weaves heavily but deftly through a constant accordion drone, and Abu Abab's "Al Bint al Libya," a sparse, slow-burning lament with minimal percussion, violin, and Abab's nephew Hamed Abdel Muna'im Mursi on lyre. Whereas the Egyptian mainstream was aspirational, attempting to reflect Egyptian culture at its most refined, the performances captured by Bourini were manifestations of everyday life lived by the mostly otherwise ignored masses. More than half century old, this music has lost none of its urgency, presence, or relevance. We hear these artists as if they'd just joined us in our living room, and not on a stage decades ago surrounded by tens of thousands of long-forgotten acolytes.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SV 163LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2025 restock. "Hopeton Brown, better known as Scientist, has been a pioneering figure in the world of dub for 40 years. His early love of electronics proved fruitful when (still a teenager) he was hired at King Tubby's studio in Kingston. Brown quickly ascended the ranks and became heir to Tubby's throne, producing imaginative and technically impressive mixes that solidified his forward-looking nickname. Originally released in 1981, In The Kingdom Of Dub remains one of the best early LPs in Scientist's long career. Produced by Roy Cousins at Channel One and featuring Sly and Robbie along with members of The Revolutionaries, The Aggrovators and The Soul Syndicate, the album offers a wide range of arresting rhythms, bold effect drops and exquisitely melodic bass. From '18 Drumalie Avenue Dub' (a reference to King Tubby's address) to 'Burning Sun Dub', Scientist lays down a veritable roadmap of dub -- filled with disintegrating echoes of satiny organ and textural guitar -- firmly cementing his place as one of the true innovators in Jamaican popular music."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: THRILL 610LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2025 restock; LP version. "sentiment is a meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex. The album's narrative arc is guided by delicate musical gestures and artistic vulnerability, audaciously synthesizing disparate and unexpected influences. Claire Rousay is a singular artist, known for challenging conventions in experimental and ambient music forms. Rousay masterfully incorporates textural found sounds, sumptuous drones and candid field recordings into music that celebrates the beauty in life's banalities. Her music is curatorial and granular in detail, deftly shaped into emotionally affecting pieces. Rousay's vocals and guitar take center stage on sentiment. Her intimate, diaristic lyrics contrast with her mechanical-inflected vocal effects, emphasizing a powerful desire for connection, a deep yearning and a lingering sense of separation. The spare guitar playing and laconic tempo both drive the songs and exude a sense of resignation. Her delicate mastery of nuance draws on her explorative musical past that she, with sincerity and admiration, seamlessly interweaves into her adventurous textures and distinctive compositions. 'I want to belong to the worlds and communities I look up to. Same as someone using a Fender guitar or dressing like Kurt Cobain. Emulate your heroes,' says Rousay. The album balances the poetic soul of her influences with a documentarian heart, Rousay capturing moments of her life while living alone in houses across the country, learning to play guitar, and reconnecting with pop music. Her innate ability to conjure pure feeling from sound derives from her delightful embrace of pop forms, the vulnerability found in field recordings, minimalistic arrangements and innovative sound choices. sentiment is blissfully, achingly melancholic, and an undeniably sensual listening experience."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: TOYT 178EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Repressed. Here comes a first EP by Josh Ludlow for Toy Tonics. Mastermind of Make a Dance aka M.A.D. records. London's best kept secret (or not so secret anymore) of new underground dance weapons that are played by everybody who counts in the scene. Josh delivers a hot four -tracker that will move people on dance-floors worldwide. Combining 1990s filterhouse influences, 2000s indie dance and some of the edgy contemporary funk moods that are lighting up clubs these days. The post-techno generation likes it funky and Josh delivers. Fitting perfectly with the vibe of Toy Tonics, this EP will find a lot of friends. In fact, Josh knows how things work. Josh Ludlow has been steadily honing his craft over the past 15 years. Starting out releasing Drum & Bass under the Squash! moniker in the late 2000s whilst also playing drums in bands. The former gave way to live touring and it was only in 2020 when Josh resurfaced with some new electronic music. The impetus for releasing this new material was when Josh Ludlow and Ben Lewis formed their beloved project Make A Dance (which then went on to establish the imprint) M.A.D. Records during the pandemic. Since then, M.A.D have made a big impact on the underground scene, become regulars at places such as Fabric, Heidegluhen, Gottwood and gained DJ support of propel such as Laurent Garnier, Optimo, Palms Trax, and Peggy Gou and across BBC Radio1 and regularly cover show's on NTS for Long Running Host's Moxie and Apiento. This is just the beginning.

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: YORE 057EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Yore returns with an unusual one. This first EP by Ross Alexander is more-techy than what you would expect on Yore. However, it's still somewhere between the slim lines of house and techno -- more techno in a Detroit way. All four tracks are ready for your dancefloor -- so grab yours, as these very limited copies, will be gone in no time.